THE ANGLING EXCURSIONS OF GREGORY GREENDRAKE, Esq. IN THE COUNTIES OF WICKLOW, MEATH, WESTMEATH, LONGFORD AND CAVAN
Dublin, Ireland / London, England: Grant and Bolton / Longman, Rees, Orman, Brown, Green and Longman, 1832. Fourth Edition. Leather-bound. Scarce in the trade, there being currently only a couple copies available on-line in this state. An attractive, sturdy copy measuring 7 3/4" x 3 1/2" in height and width, respectively, rebound in marbled paper over boards, dark brown leather over tips, borders around paper stamped with waves and boughs. Rebacked spine with four raised bands, gilt short title in one compartment, new headbands, single new endpaper front and rear. J. Kirkwood's fine duotone engraving of an angler at Lough Dan at frontis, a fly-fisherman atop a boulder, three more in a punt nearby, the engraving stained but still attractive. Some penned notes in margins, perpendicular to text, some sections with moderately extensive penciled notes in margins as to hatches and trips, but nearly illegible. Rippled paper lightly foxed, more at endpapers, remains easily readable. Note of Erratum bound in, following two-page Publisher's Advertisement. Fine single-page black-and-white engraving also, of Lough Gouna (a.k.a. Erne Head Lake), Counties of Longford and Cavan. Previous owner's bookplate laid in loosely, staple-marked. Frontis matter, vi [1], 2-313 pp. + note of erratum. Good Plus. Item #85193
"Dedicated to all honest brothers of the angle," a delightful, due homage to fishing and anglers. "This is April, changeful sister of the teeming spring. Of spring, whose magic touch arouses the drooping sensibilities of our nature, and fills the heart with indescribable sensations of waking pleasure" ([i p.]). Sigh. This "edition" (see below) extends the coverage geographically, as previous "editions" covered only Wicklow County, and continues to read as a believably successful fishing trip, sustained indefinitely. Much older penned note inside rear flap by a previous owner lists Mr. Thomas Ettingsale (Sporting Tackle Establishment, Wood Quay, Dublin, Ireland, circa 1832) and Phillips (Fishing Tackle Maker, Ellis Quay, Dublin, Ireland, circa 1832); an apparently much more recent penciled note inside front flap suggests that Henry Brereton Cody was the pseudonym of Geoffrey Greendrake, while Thomas Ettingsall (not Ettingsale) was the nom de cast de Gregory Greydrake. Cushing (in Initials and Pseudonyms, 1885) confirms regarding the latter but not the former, whom he dubs to have been Joseph Coad, as per Westwood, Satchell and Marston (in Bibliotheca Piscatoria, 1886). A.E.J. Went's brief historical account, "Angling in Ireland," says (in R. Soc. Antiquaries of Ireland, 1978, p. 106) that " . . . being J. Coad's Angling excursions (1824-1826) published under the non-de-plume of Gregory Greendrake. A so-called fourth volume of this work was produced by Geofrey Greendrake in 1832 who is believed to be Thomas Ettingsall, a tackle manufacture, who worked from 1817 in Dublin for a considerable period" (Went, citing his own work from 1948). This appears therefore perhaps to be a First Edition Thus, not really a Fourth Edition, since three other volumes were published from 1824-1826 under the same title.
Price: $450.00