Chace, The Turf, and the Road, The

London: John Murray, 1837. Alken Off To The Races
With Apperley In The Saddle
First Edition

[ALKEN, Henry, illustrator]. NIMROD (pseud. of Charles J. Apperley). The Chace, The Turf, and the Road. With Illustrations by Henry Alken, and a Portrait by D. Maclise. London: John Murray, 1837.

First edition in book form, originally serially published in the Quarterly Review. Octavo (8 3/4 x 5 3/8 in; 223 x 135 mm). xx, 301, [1, printer's slug], [18, publisher's catalogs] pp. Thirteen hand-colored plates, some in aquatint, with tissue guards, and plain, stipple-engraved portrait frontispiece.

Publisher's original pictorial green cloth with gilt vignette and borders blocked in blind, expertly recased. Gilt decorated spine. Spine very slightly faded, still an excellent copy. Housed in a later green cloth clamshell case.

Charles James Apperley (1777-1843), English sportsman and sporting writer, better known as Nimrod, the pseudonym under which he published his works on the chase and on the turf. A devoted fox-hunter, around 1821 Apperley began to contribute a series of articles to The Sporting Magazine, under the pseudonym of "Nimrod," that covered horse races, hunt meets and other sporting events. His references to the personalities of the people he knew or met at such events helped to double the circulation of the magazine within a few years. Mr. Pittman, the proprietor of The Sporting Magazine, gave Nimrod a handsome salary and defrayed all the expenses of his tours. He also gave Nimrod a stud of hunters. After Pittman's death, the proprietors of the magazine sued Apperley for the money that had been advanced. To avoid imprisonment, Apperley moved to Calais in 1830, where he supported himself by writing. Apperley is best known for his two books, The Life of a Sportsman, and Memoirs of the Life of John Mytton, both of which were illustrated with colored engravings by Henry Thomas Alken. Apperley eventually returned to England and died in Upper Belgrave Place, London, on 19 May 1843.

The Plates:

1. Preparing to Start.
2. Getting Well Off.
3. The Race - Epsom.
4. The Melton Hunt.
5. Getting Away.
6. A Queerish Place.
7. A Pull Up.
8. The Lane.
9. Whissendine Brook.
10. The Death.
11. It's The Comet, &c.
12. The Regulator.
13. The Quicksilver Mail.

Podeschi 152. Siltzer. p. 73. Schwerdt I, p. 36.