The Ancient and Present State of Orkney, particularly the Capital Borough of Kirkwall. To which are added, the petty tyrants; or, grinders of the poor. The characteristic new year's gift, or Lawrie's Elections .

George Eunson

Edité par Printed for the Author, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1788

A propos de cet article

A fair copy of the scarce 1st edition. Written as a protest - the author's preface states 'the design of publishing.is rather to make more clearly known the hardships and unconstitutional government of this Burgh'. Eunson has an interesting history: some accounts state that he was a smuggler who turned 'gamekeeper' being made an Officer of Excise by an influential patron. His zeal made him enemies who then had him arrested and locked up. The book is said to be his revenge and he does not hold back - accusing the nobility of rigging elections in favour of their cronies; and that the legal profession were involved in smuggling. This copy is in a later Victorian half leather binding with marbled paper sides. The spine has small raised bands with gilt titles and date and a small gilt design in the remaining compartments. It is rubbed, particularly at the top of the spine and down the joints. Board edges and corners are rubbed with a slight fray to the top corner of the front board. Page edges are gilted. The endpapers are heavily marbled and there are some old signatures to the verso of the front free endpaper. Contents: blank; title page; dedication; general preface 4pp; and text to p127 - which includes some poetry (eg 'Petty Tyrants, or Grinders of the Poor'); finis. The contents are generally clean. There is a pale damp stain throughout which extends from the side edges to the first 1-2 cms of text. This does not affect the readability of the text. There are a couple of tiny repaired side edge tears (pp 95 and 97) and a small nick in the side edge appears at p 111 and gradually grows larger towards the final leaf but no text is affected. There is a pale ink mark on p 44 and some scattered scholarly pencil annotation. Please enquire if you would like to see additional images.

N° de réf. du vendeur 033479

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Ancient and Present State of Orkney, particularly the Capital Borough of Kirkwall. To which are added, the petty tyrants; or, grinders of the poor. The characteristic new year's gift, or Lawrie's Elections .
• Éditeur: Printed for the Author, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Date de parution: 1788
• Langue: anglais
• Reliure: Half-Leather
• Édition: 1st Edition
• État de l'article: Fair
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Orkney and Shetland
  • HISTORY