79
viii + 176 + 8 [ads.], 160 colour plates by archibald thorburn and others, numerous text illustrations; previous owner’s signatures to ffeps, a little spotting mainly to advertisements, corners a little bumped, plates very clean, very good.
reprint; first edition was in 1883. this very attractive guide to British birds was highly popular due to its very pretty illustrations and accessible text.
284. syKes, arthur alkin. the coronation cruise of the “Midnight sun” to russia, Whitsuntide 1896. Privately printed for the author. 1896.
£98
8vo., original buckram lettered in gilt on upper board. With 38 photographs. ink name otherwise a very good copy.
First edition. the account of a a voyage to russia to attend the coronation of tsar nicholas ii. 13 of the photographs relate to the coronation.
284
the F. hoBill cole coPY: ‘as an accurate, Well-Written anD acutelY oBserVeD account oF the earliest Years oF australia’s coloniZation it is a Most iMPortant aDDition to anY collection oF australian BooKs
285. tenCH, Watkin, lieutenant-Colonel. a complete account of the settlement at Port Jackson, in new south Wales, including an accurate Description of the situation of the colony; of the natives; and of its natural Productions. London: G. Nicol and J. Sewell, 1793.
£7,750
4to (256 x 202mm). 20th-century half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-pieces in 2, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; pp. xvi (title, verso blank, dedication, preface, contents, subscribers), 212; engraved folding map by J. Walker, letterpress tables in the text; slightly scuffed and bumped, some light spotting or marking, offsetting affecting map, title with small marginal repair and washed causing slight toning, nonetheless a very good copy, retaining the subscribers list (lacking from some copies); provenance: Frank Hobill Cole, M.D. (1863-1934, booklabel on upper pastedown) — a.h. spencer Pty. ltd., ‘the hill of content’, Melbourne (bookseller’s ticket on upper pastedown) — Fred Z. eager (marginal blindstamps ‘F.Z.e.’ and ‘library of Fred Z. eager’ on front free endpapers, flyleaves and title).
First edition. tench (c. 1758-1833) was commissioned into the marines as a second lieutenant in 1776, becoming lieutenant in 1778, captain in 1782, major in the army in 1794, and lieutenant-colonel in 1798. Following service in the american War of independence from 1777 to 1783 (during which he was captured by the French and imprisoned for three months in 1778), he appears to have lived in the West indies during the 1780s. in late 1786 tench volunteered for a three-year term of service at the planned penal colony at Botany Bay, and embarked on the transport Charlotte on 13 May 1787 as one of the two captain-lieutenants of the marine detachment under Major robert ross, and he arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788, describing himself as ‘resident’ there from the 20th of that month (p.[v]). ‘after the transfer to Port Jackson and the formal establishment of the settlement tench was occupied with his military duties and with routine tasks. in March 1788, with four other officers, he was placed under arrest by ross for refusing to alter the sentence of a court martial of which he was president, but they were soon released. apart from this, he seems to have maintained good relations with everyone in the little community, being especially intimate with lieutenant William Dawes, whose observatory provided a quiet refuge and whose interest in the aboriginals tench shared. tench was a keen explorer and much of his leisure was spent as a member or as leader of expeditions to the west and south-west of the settlement, discovering the nepean river and tracing it to the hawkesbury, and penetrating as far as the razorback. it is clear that he felt the fascination of the bush, of its strange solitude and of its informal camp-fire nights, but he had also a keen practical interest, noting the absence of water and taking samples of the soil wherever he went. apart from this his main relaxations seem to have been observing the life about him for description in his journal, for which he seems to have arranged publication before leaving england, studying the aboriginals
and watching the first struggling attempts at agriculture’ (aDB). in late December 1791, tench left for england on the Gorgon, and was promoted to brevet-major on his return, serving with distinction in the French revolutionary and the napoleonic Wars, before retiring on half-pay with the rank of major-general on 1 January 1816; however, three years later he returned to the active list as commandant of the Plymouth Division, before finally retiring as lieutenant-general in 1821.
on his return to england, tench published A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay: with an Account of New South Wales, its Productions, Inhabitants &c (london: 1789) and, four years later, the present work: as the aDB states, ‘tench’s claim to remembrance rests on the two books in which he described the voyage to and the early years of the settlement in new south Wales, at once the most perceptive and the most literary of the contemporary accounts. less detailed than David collins, less matter of fact than arthur Phillip or John White, Watkin tench was the first to mould australian experience into a work of conscious art. to a sound eighteenth- century style — he had read Voltaire and gibbon — he added an interest in the novel, the picturesque and the primitive which foreshadows romanticism. his eye ranged over the convicts and the aboriginals with a mixture of shrewd commonsense and sympathetic tolerance, and his reaction to the country itself shows the same qualities. his notes, made while the events were fresh, were no doubt polished at leisure and were then selected and arranged to bring out the main themes, and his writing combines the freshness of immediately recorded experience with more elaborate set pieces and reflections’. this second work is more extensive than the first, and both completes that account and provides a narrative of the first four years of the colony: ‘the map and text give important and full details of the early
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