A Description of Malvern and it's Concomitants; including a Guide to the Drives, Rides, Walks and Excursions; with a Map of the Walks; A Panoramic Sketch of Objects from the Worcestershire Beacon, and other Embellishments by Southall, Mary - 1822

Stourport, Malvern & London: Prnted for the author, 1822. First edition, second issue. Illustrated with a folding panorama frontispiece, and seven other lithographic plates, small octavo, pp (4), 176, untrimmed, the title page is rather browned and soiled, the frontispiece is dull and foxed and with a stain on the inner margin which does not affect the printed surface, otherwise the contents are clean and sound, bound in a fairly modern quarter cloth and boards, slightly marked and toned, a paper title label on the spine. Though dated 1822, this is probably the second issue of 1825. The "embellishments" page (or list of plates) was unchanged from the first edition, so the plates are in a different order. In this copy, the lithographs are as follows, in the order they appear. 1) folding frontspiece of Malvern, lithographed by I.Bradley and printed by C. Hullmandel. This image did not appear in the first issue. 2) Belle Vue Hotel, I. Bradley lithographed. printed by Rowney and Forster. 3) Church Window, no imprint. 4) Library & Boarding House, no apparent imprint. 5) Baths and Pump Room, I. Bradley Lithog. Printed by Rowney & Forster. 6) Down's Hotel, printed by Rowney and Forster. 7) Worcestershire Beacon [also folding, no imprint. 8) Sketch of the Walks [folding, printed by Rowney & Forster. 9) Stoke Edith Park, lithographed by I. Bradley and printed by C. Hulmandel (sic). RARE. [A very early book to be illustrated using lithography. The process had only been invented at the end of the eighteenth century, and the first English book using the method is thougfht to be around 1813. Mary Southall's origins are at present unknown. She married John Southall, organist of Worcester, and they relocated to Malvern in 1812, eventually transferring the local circulating library to their home at no. 1, Paradise Row. In 1818, Edward T. Foley, lord of the manor (to whom this book is dedicated), purpose built a larger library with a 50-foot reading room, music room, and bazaar, in addition to the circulating library. The Southalls took proprietorship of this complex, the 'Library-House', as well as several apartments above known as St Edith's Lodging House. It was at Library-House that Southall wrote her guidebook, although she credits her publisher George Nicholson (1760-1825), 'the author of the "Cambrian Traveller's Guide" [1808], for his friendly revisal of my manuscript'. Nicholson was located at Stourport, Worcestershire, from 1807 to 1825, taking advantage of the canal system to distribute his publications, hence the naming of Longman, Hurst & Co. as London agents for Southall's book.]. Quarter cloth. Good.