Rustic Excursions to the Villages round London. [PHILLIPS (Sir Richard) ?]

RARE JUVENILE EXCURSIONS ROUND LONDON

By a Father and his Children.

First Edition. 12mo. [140 x 89 x 12 mm]. [2]ff, 168, [8] pp. Bound in contemporary quarter black roan, marbled paper sides, smooth spine divided into five panels by a gilt fillet, lettered in the second, plain endleaves and edges. (Slight cracking to upper joint, rubbed around the edges, lacking front free endleaf, traces of old adhesive on pastedowns).
London: printed for Richard Phillips, No.6 Great Bridge Street, by J. Adlard, Duke-street, West Smithfield, 1811

With a final eight page of advertisements being "An Arranged List of new and improved Elementary Books, intended For the Use of Schools, Teachers, and Young Persons; Lately published by Richard Phillips". Priced at two shillings at the foot of the title. The paper is not of great quality and there is some light browning, especially to the title-page, which has the an early ink inscription "Eliza Stephens to her sister Eleanor". The name "Mary" is written on the verso. It is still a very good copy.

Apparently the sole edition, and I can only locate two copies, at the British Library and Oxford. Both are catalogued as anonymous, but Worldcat suggests Phillips as both author and publisher.

Richard Phillips (1767-1840) moved from Leicester to London in 1796, the same year as his marriage, and had eight children, who he installed at a villa in Hampstead. He served as High Sheriff of London in 1808, and was knighted, but in 1810 he was declared bankrupt after a fire at the offices of his printer, T. Gillet. He subsequently concentrated on publishing school text-books, instructional literature and reference works, alongside the Monthly Magazine. His most famous work, A Morning's Walk from London to Kew was serialized between 1813 and 1816, and was published in book form in 1817. Rustic Excursions to the Villages round London consists of 11 Excursions to Hampstead, Highgate, Richmond, Kew, Grove-Hill, Norwood, Twickenham, Edmonton, Muswell-Hill, Amwell and Waltham Abbey. They are light on topographical or social detail, offering instead a "comprehensive survey of the works of creation". Phillips was a celebrated vegetarian and vegetables do feature frequently, but there is little other evidence of his humanitarian and radical interests and concerns.

Stock no. ebc7800