Ralph richards, the miser

London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock and Joy...and N. Hailes, 1821. [2], 159pp, [1]. With an engraved frontispiece. Original publisher's gilt-ruled green roan-backed blue paper boards, printed paper lettering-piece. Extremities worn, loss to lettering-piece and head of spine. Lightly foxed. An unsophisticated copy of the first edition of children’s writer Jeffreys Taylor’s (1792-1853) conduct of life tale in which the eponymous proto-Scrooge, having happened across a concealed gold coin whilst walking one night, is driven to distraction by the possibility of yet more hidden wealth. The miser is further encouraged by the sudden appearance of a ghostly apparition who, in portentous tones, appears to confirm his suspicions that a great treasure is within reach. Richards, with some misadventure, soon locates a buried vault brimming with riches and, somewhat unusually for a children’s tale, is able to purloin each and every valuable item without consequence. The book concludes rather abruptly with the miser triumphant, though possessed of a nagging thought that his acquired wealth might better be secured underground. OCLC records copies at just four locations in the British Isles (Aberdeen, BL, Glasgow, and Oxford), and a further in North America (California, Columbia, Florida, Morgan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Toronto, and Victoria). COPAC adds no further. . 12mo.