LAYS OF THE DEER FOREST: WITH SKETCHES OF OLDEN AND MODERN DEER-HUNTING; TRAITS OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE FOREST; TRADITIONS OF THE CLANS; MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. By John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart.

1848 1st editions. Two volumes. Small 8vo (132 x 206mm). Ppxiv,381 + 2pp;viii,560. Tinted frontispiece to each volume. Red cloth, spine titled in gilt, coat-of-arms in gilt to blind-stamped boards.

The Allen brothers were born in Wales in the late 18th century. They were later to claim to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart, 1720-1788, and in the 1871 census claimed their birthplace as Versailles. The pseudonyms for the two brothers are "...extremely confusing, and there is conflicting information about [them] from all sources, including the venerable Dictionary of National Biography. To compound the issue, these same sources seem to repeatedly confuse the two brothers and their various names. What is agreed upon is that the brothers were enamored with the lore of Scotland, and invented an elaborate genealogical record, which changed and was added to throughout their lives." (Callahan). They are the authors of the notorious Vestiarium Scoticum, a book claiming to be based upon a 16th century manuscript on Scottish tartans that was soon revealed as a forgery.