Observations in Husbandry

Fine frontis. port. of the author. xvi, 450, [2] pp., one leaf of errata. Large 4to, cont. calf, double gilt fillet round sides, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: Printed by J. Hughs, 1757. First edition, and a lovely copy, of one of the 18th-century classics of English husbandry. Lisle (1666?-1722), who lived at Crux-Easton in Hampshire and had estates in Wiltshire and in the Isle of Wight, assiduously gathered information from the leading farmers of all aspects of husbandry. While not an innovator but an intelligent and careful observer, he later added comments based on his own experience. Thomas Lisle, the author's son, reworked his father's materials and, using them, published the present work. Some of the chapter headings include plowing, sowing, manuring, pastures, the garden, water and waters, etc. There is an interesting chapter on the varieties of ploughs and Lisle has provided a two-page glossary of technical terms. The handsome frontispiece portrait of Lisle, framed by wheat sheaves and autumnal fruits above a composite vignette of agricultural tools, is particularly fine. Very fine copy. There was a second edition published in two octavo volumes in the same year. Engraved armorial bookplate of Thomas Hall Esqr. ❧ Fussell, The Old English Farming Books from Fitzherbert to Tull 1523 to 1730, pp. 94-95-"It tells how farming was done by named farmers living in specified places.".