Boswell

6454 — Six engraved plates on five folding sheets. xii 122 pp. 8 pp. of Debrett ads lacking the leaf with directions to the binder. 8vo cont. calf joints a trifle cracked at head & tail flat spine gilt green morocco lettering piece on spine. London: J. Debrett 1792.<br/> <br/> “Second edition with many additionsâ€of this work specifically on the cultivation of water meadows first published in 1779. “Francis Forbes had recommended water meadows and had given some instruction how to make and manage them and several other previous writers had done the same while the actual practice had been fairly common in parts of Wiltshire and Berkshire Gloucester and Dorset for at least two centuries…The methods of construction and management were only to be found of course by seeking through a mass of general information and some one came to the conclusion that a specific treatise on the subject was necessary. A suggestion was made to George Boswell of Piddletown Dorset a local expert that he should write such a book.â€â€“Fussell II p. 121. <br/> <br/> In the present edition Boswell vigorously replies to criticisms levelled at him by the Rev. Thomas Wright in his pamphlet An Account of the Advantage and Method of Watering Meadows 1789.<br/> <br/> A very good copy lacking the leaf of directions to the binder. Stamp of the Lawes Agricultural Trust on the front paste-down. unknown