Articles about Cochrane

I enjoyed reading David Dandria's two articles on Lord Cochrane/The Earl of Dundonald and his colourful connections with Malta (The Sunday Times, January 17, 24).

He, and perhaps some of your readers, might like to hear that my wife and I have in our library a book that would seem to have belonged to Lord Cochrane at one time. It is a copy of what is now a scarce work, John Hosier's The Mariner's Friend, or, A Treatise on the Stars, published in London in 1809.

The book includes a long list of officers, including many naval people, one of whom was Sir Isaac Heard, Garter Principal King of Arms, who subscribed for three copies. One of these he gave to Lord Cochrane as witnessed by an autograph dedication on a blank leaf preceding the title-leaf: "To Lord Cochrane, KB, a Tribute of Respect from Sir Isaac Heard Garter, 27 April 1809."

Heard was clearly congratulating Lord Cochrane on having been made a Knight of the Bath following one of his most celebrated exploits, that of his attack on the French fleet in the Aix roads early that same April. Lord Cochrane was subsequently stripped most ignominiously of that honour in 1814, but his later life was to bring him more honours as well as misfortunes.

The book, bound in red morocco with gold dentelles (but ill-treated by the passage of time) used to be in the library of my wife Cecilia's grandfather, the late Tancred Gouder. I have no knowledge of how he acquired it, but could Lord Cochrane have left it behind when decamping from Malta?