Roy. 8vo., Second and Best Edition, with portrait frontispiece, title in red and black, and 21 plates (one double-page); original buckram gilt, gilt back, bevelled edges, uncut, covers lightly age-marked else a very good, internally spotless copy. King's work, first published in 1879, immediately established itself as the standard popular reference on the ancient New Forest town; local interest generated the inevitable additions and corrections, but the planned second edition, incorporating the numerous addenda, was deferred by the author's death. This best edition, compiled and published by the author's son from his father's meticulous notes, benefits from much new material and many fresh illustrations. This copy was formerly in the library of Professor [Sir] J H Biles, the eminent naval architect [of 'Titanic' Enquiry fame], and bears his elegant blind-embossed art nouveau bookplate (with press-mark in manuscript) on front paste-down. John Harvard Biles (1854-1933) was apprenticed at Portsmouth Dockyard, studied at the Royal School of Naval Architecture and joined the Admiralty in 1877. His talents were quickly recognised and in 1880 (at the age of only 26) he was appointed chief designer to the major shipbuilder J&G Thomson on Clydebank where he created the revolutionary designs for the 'City of Paris' and 'City of New York'. In 1883 he left to join the foundling consultancy established by Sir Edward Reed, where he quickly became a driving force (the consultancy continues to the present day as Sir J H Biles & Co.). In 1891 he was awarded the Chair of Naval Architecture at Glasgow University (then perhaps the most prestigious such appointment in the world) where he devoted himself to teaching and consultancy on a world-wide scale. IN VIEW OF HIS EMINENCE IN THE FIELD OF SHIP DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION, PROFESSOR BILES WAS AN ASSESSOR IN THE ENQUIRY INTO THE LOSS OF RMS 'TITANIC' AND SUBSEQUENTLY HE SERVED ON THE BOARD OF TRADE ENQUIRY INTO LIFEBOATS AND LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCES WHICH AROSE AS A RESULT OF THE TITANIC LOSS. For his services to the 'Titanic' Enquiry and naval architecture in general, Biles was knighted in 1913
