Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

With illustrations by henry alken and a portrait by d. maclise, r.a.

Item Description

FIRST EDITION THUS. 8vo. 9 x 6 inches. [1] + xxx + 301 + [1] pp. + [2] pp. publisher's list + 8 pp. publisher's insert, December 1837. Separate half title for each part. Bound in original green cloth, gilt, boards with blind stamped decorations, enclosing gilt block of horse race on front, and spine decorated gilt. Rough cut edges. Extremities worn, including corners and head and tail of spine, which is sunned. Damp staining at top of first few pages, including frontispiece and title stage, which is also foxed like the front flyleaves. A very good copy. Early signature on verso of first free endpaper. Illustrated by 14 hand coloured engraved plates, including portrait frontispiece. The three parts cover fox hunting, coach driving and horse racing and originally appeared in the Quarterly Review of 1835 and in book form, 1837 and 43. Nimrod was the pseudonym of the Welsh fox hunter, later sporting writer, Charles James Apperley (1785-1843). Henry Thomas Alken (1785-1851) was a painter and engraver of sporting scenes, who often co-operated with Nimrod.