Narrative of the United States Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. With a map from accurate surveys. A new and condensed edition. by Lynch, W. F - 1852

Richard Bentley. London. 1852. Octavo. xvi, 25-332pp. (Complete despite pagination) Folding map frontis. Musical notation of an Arab War Cry to p229. Original embossed decorative cloth, gilt to spine, sl. faded. Edges untrimmed. Sporadic foxing/spotting, particularly to title and map. Rough sketch on scrap paper of a house loosely inserted, with a rough unfinished sketch of another house to end pastedown. Faint pencil "Widdrington" signatures to ffep. with faint pencil shelfmark "D.west". Binder's label to end pastedown.

Provenance of interest: Armorial bookplate of S. F. Widdrington. From the library at Newton Hall.

Shallcross Fitzherbert [Jacson] Widdrington 1826-1917. A traveller, antiquarian and artist. "Dara el Abead. The Coptic Monastery" 1868 is one of his works. Succeeded to the Hauxley and Newton-on-the-Moor Estates on the death of his uncle in 1856, under whose will he assumed the name Widdrington. Shallcross significantly remodelled and enlarged Newton Hall in 1864.

The Country House Sale - Newton Hall 20 January 2010. Christies. London. "The Widdringtons were a tremendously wealthy family. Newton Hall and its contents reflect a particular way of life and now it is coming to its end. The hall is a time capsule. Nothing was thrown away." The sale of the contents of the house and its library of books also included a number of watercolours and drawings by Shallcross, including topographical views of Italy, The Dardanelles, Algiers and Egypt.

His daughter Frances married Sir Edward Grey of Falloden.

His brother Widdrington Jacson (b1824) of the 41st The Welch Regiment was killed by a fall from his horse on the 10th May 1845 in Brecon where there is a memorial monument inscription in his memory.

His wife Cecilia Widdrington 1840-1936 was born Cecilia Gregg Hopwood. On all occasions she wore steel-capped workman's boots. With her husband she travelled widely, going up the Nile by streamer before the source had been discovered. Mr Widdrington studied antiquities. Her first child, born after her marriage to Shallcross, was by another man. Roger Fry adored her "She it was who undertook to educate him in the art of love…" Roger Fry - Art and Life by Frances Spalding.

Aleen Isabel Cust was born in 1868, one of six children of Sir Leopold Cust. When her father died in 1878, at the age of ten she came under the guardianship of Shallcross Fitzherbert Widdrington at Newton Hall. The Widdringtons encouraged her ambitions: Cecilia believed in careers for women, and she encouraged Aleen to do more with her life than fulfill the genteel expectations of Lady Cust. ODNB