Bellamy (David, the elder, lawyer and writer, b. 1687 - c. 1775) A Nosegay for the Ladies: comprising Of a great Variety of Select Entertaining Essays, in Prose and Verse; partly Composd, and in part Compil'd, by the Old Hermit of Hedgerley, for the Innocent Amusem.t only of his Two very Affectionate Friends, Mrs. Eliza. Reading, and Miss Phebe Noy, 5 parts in 1, manuscript, titles and 153pp., general title slightly soiled, 1 sub-title small tear with loss, browned, original half sheep with Dutch floral boards, rubbed, rebacked in modern matching calf, edges uncut, sm. 4to, 1769.

⁂ Daniel Bellamy matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 4 March 1706. The following year he became a member of Lincoln's Inn. Leaving Oxford without taking a degree, he worked as a conveyor's clerk to a London lawyer. In need of a further source of income, he turned to writing. His range of publications over the next fifty years show him, in the words of the Oxford DNB, "to have been a gifted, versatile man with a strong religious presence." He wrote verse, some of it witty such as "Taffy's Triumph" (1709) and "Back-Gammon" (1734), translated from the Greek and Latin, and adapted from Fénelon. He also wrote pastoral plays for the girls at the schools run by his wife, Martha, and his sister Mrs. Hannah Wood, some of these being collected in his "Young Ladies' Miscellany (1723). In later life he collaborated with his son, Daniel Bellamy the younger, with the publication of "Miscellanies in Prose and Verse" (1739 & 1740). The Hedgerely Hermit appellation comes from his residence in Hedgerley, Buckinghamshire, where his son was appointed rector in 1759.