Treatise on the Culture of the Vine... Together with new hints on the formation of vineyards in England by SPEECHLY, William - 1790

First edition: "a practical, well-written and beautifully printed manual" (Hyams).

William Speechly (1735-1819) was a famous English horticulturalist, who had made his name perfecting the growing of pineapples (an eighteenth-century English craze) in England. At this point in his career Speechly was gardener at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire, the house of the third Duke of Portland, to whom he dedicated this book. Speechly describes some 50 varieties of grape, and discusses all manner of practical questions relating to vineyards, including a long discussion on hothouses. Although printed in York, it is interesting to note that the London distributors included Nicol (who published Cook's third voyage), as well as both Stockdale and Debrett who, at the time, were publishing the First Fleet journals.

It has been assumed that the first edition was in fact an undated edition at London, but this seems unlikely as the London edition is an expanded work, and Speechly was based in Nottinghamshire and had connections to Yorkshire (his first gardening position had been at Castle Howard).