Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 11.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

In 1849 was issued the second of the Wormsloe Quartos, entitled, ‘History of the Province of Georgia, with Maps of Original Surveys, by John Gerar William DeBrahm, His Majesty's Surveyor General for the Southern District of North America.’ This was a most valuable publication. DeBrahm's manuscript, from which the portion relating to Georgia was thus printed, exists in the Library of Harvard University, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. DeRenne did for Georgia what Mr. Weston had accomplished for South Carolina.

The following year, in the third of the Wormsloe Quartos, were presented the interesting ‘Journal and Letters of Eliza Lucas,’ the the mother of Generals Charles Cotesworth and Thomas Pinckney.

So charmed was Mr. DeRenne with ‘A Bachelor's Reverie, in three parts. I. Smoke, signifying Doubt; II. Blaze, signifying Cheer; III. Ashes, signfying Desolation: by Ik. Marvel,’ that in 1850, by permission of and as a compliment to the gentle author, he had a beautiful edition of twelve copies privately printed.

In 1851 Mr. DeRenne published, as his fourth Wormsloe Quarto, the Diary of Colonel Winthrop Sargent, Adjutant-General of the United States Army during the Campaign of 1791. Only such portion of the diary was printed as related to St. Clair's expedition.

Of these Quartos but a very limited edition was printed, and the copies were donated to famous libraries and placed in the hands of favored friends. Of the first quarto, there are only twenty-one copies of the second, forty-nine; of the third, nineteen, and of the fourth, forty-six. They are all admirable specimens of typography and literary taste; and, in addition to the historical value they possess, are highly esteemed because of their rarity.

Soon after the inception of the late war, Mr. DeRenne transferred his residence from Wormsloe to the city of Savannah. The desolations consequent upon the failure of the Confederate Cause pressed sorely upon the coast region of our State, sadly altering the conveniences of life, changing the whole theory of our patriarchal civilization, and begetting isolation and solitude where formerly existed inviting mansions, the centres of sympathies and social life, which, in their essential characteristics, can, I fear me, never be revived.

His residence in Savannah, the abode of the choicest hospitality, within whose walls dwelt comfort, refinement, and elegance most attractive, could never, in his affections, supplant the loves he cherished for the old homestead on the Isle of Hope. During the winter and spring, one day in each week did he dedicate to the sweet influences