Poems. By Thomas Townshend, Esq. of Gray’s Inn. London, T. Bensley for E. and S. Harding, 1796.
First Illustrated Edition. 8vo (180 x 105 mm), pp. vii, [i], 112, with engraved plate and numerous engravings in text, in contemporary red morocco, black morocco label lettered in gilt horizontally, spine ruled in gilt, with marbled endpapers and gilt edges.
A good copy in contemporary red morocco of a charmingly illustrated collection of poems. Originally published in a Dublin edition of 1791, this is the first edition to include the sequence of beautiful illustrations after Stothard, engraved by D. Harding, William N. Gardiner and Birrel. The text is divided into two sections, the first entitled ‘Elfin Eclogues’, comprising three eclogues, the first two of which feature characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream; the second and longer section is entitled ‘Odes’; this begins with an ‘Ode to Music’ which is accompanied by engraved plate and followed by notes. Further Odes follow on ‘War’, ‘Morning’, ‘Evening’, ‘The Glow-Worm’, ‘Hope’, ‘Love’ and ‘Youth’. A final section includes four ‘Elegaic Odes’, with a couple of touching pictures of youths mourning in graveyards. In addition to the engraved plate accompanying the ‘Ode to Music’, each poem has an engraved head-piece and there are tail-pieces throughout.
ESTC t88554.