Poetical Sketches of Scarborough -

London: Printed for R. Ackermann by J. Diggins, 1813. In the Original Boards, Uncut With Twenty-One Hand-Colored Aquatint Plates [ROWLANDSON, Thomas, illustrator]. Poetical Sketches of Scarborough: Illustrated by Twenty-One Engravings of Humourous Subjects, Coloured from original Designs, Made Upon the Spot by J. Green, and Etched by T. Rowlandson. London: Printed for R. Ackermann, by J. Diggens, 1813. Second edition. Octavo (9 7/8 x 6 1/4 inches; 250 x 160 mm). [viii], xv, [1, blank], 215, [1, blank] pp. Twenty-one hand-colored aquatint plates (including frontispiece) by Thomas Rowlandson after James Green. Text watermarked 1813, plates watermarked 1814. Original drab boards, expertly rebacked to style with a new printed paper spine label. Blank corner of pp. 49/50 torn away, a few short clean marginal tears and paper flaws, otherwise a fine and fresh, uncut copy. Armorial bookplate of Beauchamp Colclough Urquhart (d.1861, of Meldrum and Byth, Aberdeen, Scotland) on front paste-down. "The Dedication and Contents appear for the first time in this Second Edition." (Tooley) "[John Buonarotti Papworth (1775-1847)] wrote fourteen chapters of the Poetical Sketches of Scarborough, a light social satire illustrated with twenty-one attractive plates etched by Rowlandson after J. Green, the aquatint being added by J. Bluck and J.C. Stadler. The Advertisement states that ‘the originals of the plates introduced into this volume were sketches made as souvenirs of the place during a visit to Scarborough in the season of 1812. They were not intended for publication, but being found to interest many persons of taste, several of whom expressed a desire to possess engravings of them; and some gentlemen having offered to add metrical illustrations to each the present form of publication has been adopted. The several authors were not personally acquainted with each other:—if this circumstance, and that of every design having been made previously to the composition of a single couplet, be considered fair ground of extenuation for faults, they claim its advantages.' Then follows a pleasant account of Scarborough in very amusing doggerel to which [William] Combe was a contributor" (Prideaux, pp. 144-145). Francis Wrangham also contributed four chapters. In the second edition the initials of the contributors were added at the end of each chapter. Abbey Scenery, 298 (see note to 297); Tooley 422.