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Thornton, Colonel [Thomas].
A Sporting Tour Through Various Parts of France, in the Year 1802...[Two volume complete set].
Publisher: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, London;
Date of Publication: 1806
Stock Code: 5838
FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, separately paginated. Quarto, pp lxvi, 168, [6] Index & xii, 260, [8] Index & Directions to Binder, [4] catalogue. Vignettes to title pages; 24 plates, of which 5 folding, to Vol I and 30 plates including double-page musical plate, of which 6 folding, to Vol II, plus vignettes and tail pieces in text. Half scarlet morocco over matching paper-covered boards; gilt titles and ruling to spine. Marbled endpapers. Spines lightly sunned and creased; boards surface scuffed and bumped to edges with wear. A little scattered foxing and some offsetting; light staining to edge of frontis & title page Vol II. Small loss to plate facing p66 Vol I. Ownership inscription with address of Anthony Freeman to verso ffep Vol I in pencil. A Good set. Classic account of an English gentleman’s sporting journeys through France during breaks in the Napoleonic wars. Thomas Thornton (1751/2–1823) was a renowned Yorkshire sportsman, achieving fame with his several packs of hounds, with which he provided free hunting of foxes, stags, and hares for the Yorkshire gentry. From 1772 to 1781 he managed the Falconers' Club near Cambridge. Thornton made two expeditions to the Scottish highlands about 1786, which were described as one journey in his book A sporting tour through the northern parts of England and great parts of the highlands of Scotland (1804). His correspondence to the Earl of Darlington during a tour of France during which he met Napoleon was the foundation for A Sporting Tour through Various Parts of France (1806). He describes at length his passion for the French countryside, rural dress, food & drink, and manners etc, and such diverse rural sports as wolf-hunting, falconry and boar-hunting. (ODNB)
£650.00