The Rural Economy of the West of England. MARSHALL (William).

The Rural Economy of the West of England: Including Devonshire; and Parts of Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Cornwall. Together with Minutes in Practice.

Engraved folding frontispiece map.

First Edition. Two volumes. 8vo. [215 x 133 x 56 mm]. [1]f, xxxiv, 332 pp; xxiv, 358, [34] pp. Bound in contemporary polished tree calf, smooth spines divided into six panels by six gilt fillets, lettered in the second on a black goatskin label and numbered in the fifth on a small circular red goatskin label, the others with a gilt medallion tool, the edges of the boards hatched in gilt, plain endleaves and edges. (A little rubbed, minor chips to headcaps, offsetting from turn-ins).
London: printed for G. Nicol, G.G. and J. Robinson, and J. Debrett, 1796.

The map has off-set onto the title in vol.1.

A very good copy from the library of Joseph Radcliffe of Milnsbridge, Yorkshire, with his armorial bookplate in both volumes. He has also left a few pencil notes and marks in the text.

Joseph Radcliffe (1744-1819) was knighted in 1813, having played a key part in the suppression of the Luddites in the Colne Valley. After his death Milnsbridge was sold and his family moved to Rudding Park near Harrogate. These volumes were sold by R. D. Steedman of Newcastle in 1976.

William Marshall (1745-1818) was born in North Yorkshire, the son of a farmer. In the early 1790s he suggested the formation of a Department of Rural Affairs, and a national survey of farming, but both ideas were appropriated by Sir John Sinclair. Later critics tend to find his writings less appealing than those of his rival, Arthur Young, from a purely literary point of view, but superior in many ways with careful observation and practical advice.

Stock no. ebc7452