Travels in Switzerland in a series of letters to William Melmoth..

Dublin: L. White, P. Byrne, et al., 1789. Dublin Edition (Second Edition). Half-title in vol 1. Water damage in spine, some light spotting and discoloration throughout. Missing map in vol 1. First Dublin edition of Coxe’s elaborate narrative detailing his second sojourn to Switzerland in a series of letters to William Melmoth, a popular English lawyer and religious writer. Coxe intended this work to be an expansion of an earlier book entitled Sketches on the natural, civil, and political state of Switzerland (London, 1779), his intention to bring to light the delightful and picturesque landscape of the country and to facilitate a greater interest in tourism.

A skilled writer, historian, clergyman, and occasional physician, Coxe (1747-1828) produced numerous travel narratives and memoirs of various members of the English nobility during his time as a traveling companion and tutor to Lord Herbert (son of the Earl of Pembroke) and Samuel Whitbread. He was also appointed rector of Bemerton, and was a member of the Imperial Oeconomical Society at St. Petersburg and of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

The two maps that are present in the London edition (first printed the same year) were apparently never inserted into this Dublin edition, according to our research and survey. The first volume here contains the original list of maps and plates (with page numbers corresponding to the London edition); a list of plates in Volume II corrects the page numbers.