The Old English Gentleman, a Poem

Book Description

London: Printed for Cadell and Davies, 1797. [iv], vii, [i], 146, [2]pp., 8vo. With the half-title and terminal leaf of advertisements. A fine fresh copy in late nineteenth-century half brown morocco. First edition, about “a character now almost extinct in this island. . . the hero of expiring chivalry.” Polwhele explains that he discovered a couple of the breed still alive in Cornwall and attempted a poetical description of their households and the details of their daily lives. The booksellers’ advertisements at the end of the volume call for a “third book” of this title to be “speedily published,” but there is no record that it ever appeared. NCBEL II, 676; uncommon, with ESTC locating eight copies in North America.

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