Shackleton plans to use Scott’s Discovery hut With this royal seal of approval, Shackleton and his crew departed on what would be one of the most memorable Antarctic expeditions in history.

On August 5, 1907, he held a farewell dinner on his sealing ship Nimrod. Shackleton and his wife were seated near the Union Jack, which had been presented to Shackleton by Queen Alexandra with a note that read, “May this Union Jack, which I entrust to your keeping, lead you safely to the South Pole.” But the pressure was high, as he wrote in a letter to his wife Emily: “I am representing 400 million British subjects.” Inspired by Amundsen’s talk, Shackleton believed he could win the South Pole for England. He had made this voyage on a converted herring boat, an impressive feat of navigation that for the previous three centuries had been unsuccessfully attempted with great loss of life. The very same night, fellow explorer Roald Amundsen was giving a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society about his 1903 - 1906 expedition through the Northwest Passage. On the evening of February 11, 1907, Irish-born polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, already among the more famous polar explorers in the world, announced his intention to embark on a momentous Antarctic expedition. Further books and manuscripts from the Rosebery family collection, housed in Barnbougle Castle in Scotland, were sold at auction in 2009.Shackleton prepares for an historic Antarctic expedition The Rosebery family has a long association with Beckford, bibliographically, the first Lord Rosebery buying prodigiously from the auction of Beckford's library at the Hamilton Palace sales in the 1880s. This copy is from the library of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, with his bookplate and Epsom library bookstamp - many of the books from 'The Durdans' were sold at auction in 1933, including eighty-six Beckford titles, which is presumably when this book came onto the market. It was also said to have had a significant influence on various aspects of his famous, constantly evolving designs for Fonthill Abbey.

Although he found Alcobaça gloomy and 'Saxon', Batalha intrigued and enchanted him. Beckford first travelled to Portugal in 1787, mostly staying in the environs of Lisbon and Sintra he returned in 1793, taking up residence in a coastal villa overlooking the Tagus estuary, from where he planned this excursion to the nearby monasteries. Later full tan morocco gilt, by Riviere.Īn attractive association copy of Vathek author William Beckford's memoir of his travels in Portugal. Engraved mezzotint portrait frontispiece, half-title, xi, 228pp.

South by Ernest Shackleton