The New London Spy; or, A Complete and Modern Twenty-four Hours Ramble through the Bills of Mortality. Containing an Universal Disclosure of the Secret, Nocturnal, and Diurnal Transactions in and about the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark. Including. . . Gaming-Houses, Bagnios, and other Nunneries, Night-Houses, Jelly-Houses, Taverns. . . comprising also, All the various Humours, and whimsical Fancies, of Bucks, Bloods, Choice spirits, Fellows of High Fun, Abbesses, Nuns, Courtezans, Demireps. . . Pimps, Parasites, Ministerialists and Antiministerialists, Mock Patriots. . . private Intrigues, and other pleasing and agreeable Articles, never noticed before in any old Books of this Kind. Written by Richard King,

KING, RICHARD,

Edité par London: Printed for Alex. Hogg, at the King s Arms, No. 16, Paternoster-Row; and Sold by all other Booksellers in Town and Country. [Price only Eighteen-pence, with an humourous Frontispiece.] [1781?].

A propos de cet article

viii, [1], 14-"224" [i.e. 124], 12pp., 12mo. Engraved frontispiece, captioned "Two married Men, well known near St. Paul s, fighting a Duel, at a certain celebrated Night-House for a Woman of the Town", jump in pagination after preliminaries as in all copies but catchword ("A Modern") correct, with a twelve-page terminal "New Catalogue of Valuable, Useful, Instructive, and Entertaining Books," and with another page of publisher s advertisements on the verso of the title-page. A fine, entirely untrimmed copy in green morocco-backed marbled boards, spine gilt, by Philip Dusel. Apparently first published as "The New London Spy" as early as 1771, an indeterminate number of further editions followed, with Hogg taking over publication at or shortly before the time the present edition was published. The ramble is narrated by a gentleman who says he came to town on the Bristol coach in November 1780. He is introduced to a worldly "Mr. Ambler" at the Green Park Coffee-House, and the two determine upon their itinerary. It is hard to tell how much effort was made to update the earlier text, but places like "The Brown Bear" (described as "a common night house") seem real enough, as does a tavern in Goodman s Fields, a "jelly-house," various taverns, and some theatres. Along the way tales are told by characters like "an orphan girl" who describes her "infamous landlady" and a few pages further along that of the well-bred Sally left with a distant relation who sold her, aged fourteen, to an Irish baronet. The bibliography of the various editions and their likely-pseudonymous author "Richard King" remains largely unexplored. This edition seems to be that described at ESTC N20326, although that entry suggests "114" instead of 124 pages. Two locations are given: London Senate House and Cal State Long Beach. OCLC confirms the locations, and the two entries there get the pagination right, as does the one additional entry in COPAC for a copy at Historic England.

N° de réf. du vendeur 14423

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The New London Spy; or, A Complete and Modern Twenty-four Hours Ramble through the Bills of Mortality. Containing an Universal Disclosure of the Secret, Nocturnal, and Diurnal Transactions in and about the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark. Including. . . Gaming-Houses, Bagnios, and other Nunneries, Night-Houses, Jelly-Houses, Taverns. . . comprising also, All the various Humours, and whimsical Fancies, of Bucks, Bloods, Choice spirits, Fellows of High Fun, Abbesses...
• Éditeur: London: Printed for Alex. Hogg, at the King s Arms, No. 16, Paternoster-Row; and Sold by all other Booksellers in Town and Country. [Price only Eighteen-pence, with an humourous Frontispiece.] [1781?].
• Reliure: Couverture rigide