View of the Agriculture of Middlesex; with observations on the means of its improvement, and several essays on agriculture in general, drawn up for the consideration of The Board of Agriculture. by Middleton, John - 1798

First edition. Printed for B. MacMillan for G. Nicol, Pall Mall. 1798. Octavo. Half title, title, xvii, (1: errata), 597pp. 2 hand coloured folding maps, one folding table. Printed note to the contents: "The Author intended to have inserted a plan of an orchard ... but as it turned out to be inconvenient in point of size, and being of small importance, the idea was given up".

Later utilitarian quarter calf, spine in six compartments with raised bands with uneven black rules, gilt lettering, sl. rubbed to head and foot; slightly marked cloth boards. All edges speckled. Apart from a little light sporadic foxing a nice crisp clean copy, firmly bound. Priced to accommodate cost of rebacking which would greatly enhance the volume.

John Middleton (1751 – 1833), surveyor, pioneering and inventive agriculturist, commissioner for enclosures. "The best of all the [board's] surveys of English Counties'". ODNB. An all-encompassing work in the spirit of the age, including the state of property, commons and enclosures, arable land and crops grown, gardens and orchards, copses, woods, plantations, hedge-rows and oziers, livestock, rural economy, political economy, markets, commerce, trade, population, legislation, weights and measures, improvement, waste-land, manufactures, distilleries. Pre-Ricardo and Corn Laws analysis of corn and "manufacture of wheat". 108 of the 208 parishes lay within the City of London, of which there is an invaluable account from that time.

ESTC: T50760