Leighton Library, Dunblane

Scotland's oldest purpose-built library founded in 1687

Leighton Library has a 1697 second edition with additions of "The snake in the grass" by Jacobite propagandist Charles Leslie

Added at 07:47 on 13 April 2024

Leighton Library has a 1697 second edition with additions of "The snake in the grass" by Irish priest & leading Jacobite propagandist after the 1688 Glorious Revolution, Charles Leslie, who died #OnThisDay 13 April 1722. This was the first of his seven anti-Quaker propaganda works, claiming that Quakers were false prophets and conjurers. Leslie also defamed other religious groups. Leslie's perspectives also shaped views of the reign of King William III (William of Orange) as particularly disastrous for Scotland, including the Glencoe massacre. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II in 1689. His writings placed him "very high in the list of controversial authors". This book was the first appearance of the phrase "The snake in the grass" as the title of a book in English when it was first published in London in 1696.