THE IRISH TOURIST : IN A SERIES OF PICTURESQUE VIEWS, TRAVELLING INCIDENTS, AND OBSERVATIONS STATISTICAL, POLITICAL AND MORAL ON THE CHARACTER AND ASPECT OF THE IRISH NATION
Dublin, Ireland: Printed for the author by Thomas Courtney, 1815. Leather-bound. Imperial octavo hardcover, measuring 9 in. x 5 3/4 in. Rebound in marbled paper over boards, brown ruled half-calf, gilt ruling and title over black cloth Four raised bands. New headbands and endpapers. Title page (originally unbound?), chipped and heavily toned. Light waviness. Single unopened page edge (at 319-320). Some smudging and dog-earing to a few pages, creasing to rear endpapers, page edge-chipping here and here, and pin-sized worming tunnel from p. 632 backwards to p. 609. Else and withal, clean but for gray pen line in margin to a single page. Now in a most handsome rebound condition. See note on pagination below, but: [vii], viii, xi-xix [1], 22-632 pp. VERY GOOD. Item #85225
An accessible, curious journey to and throughout Ireland picturesque--heavy on the interpersonal, light on the empirical. "A. Atkinson" appears to be the or a pseudonym of John Stewart, he of "Roll of a Tennis Ball Through the Moral World" fame, self-published for the author by the same publisher as above, Thomas Courtney of 6, Wood Street, Dublin, Ireland, but three years prior. Neither title appears common to the trade, both being unavailable currently except in P.O.D. format. A reproduction of the present volume in original exists in the British Library, London, in micro-fiche. A humorous inscription accompanies it, lamenting the many printer's errors.
Laid in to this copy is a note in mimeograph from the noted Dublin bookseller the late Jack Gamble of Emerald Isle Books in Belfast, Ireland, dated 13. Jan 1998, to Mrs Linda Greenwood of the Belfast Central Library, Belfast. He thanks her for loaning him her copy of this volume for his collation, which agreed with others. He notes the odd pagination of prelims involving a subscribers list and suggests that, because the author was simultaneously the publisher, "must have had a row with his Prinetr [sic!]" over misspellings, for example, of Dutchess of Dorset[t]. The collation of the list here begins at [p. vii], then to xi-xxxi pp. but includes a teasing page-and-a-half-long Preface. The list is arranged alphabetically but arranges intra-letter further by "class." (i.e., 1, 2 and 3), Earls and Lords and Ladys above Mr.s many of whom are Esq.s, etc. On p. 23 the author's thesis (first step forward) commenced in the month of November, 1810, as he departed his residence "in the centre of the island, toward Sligo, for the purpose of collecting subscriptions for the publication of a work on christian doctrine and philosophy" (presumably both Roll of a Tennis Ball . . . and Course of Essays on Chistian Doctrine & Philosophy). He (well known as "Walking Stewart" having traversed much of Asia and Europe by foot) walked seven miles that day.
Price: $1,500.00