An Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports, or Complete Account (Historical, Practical, and Descriptive) of Hunting, Shooting, Fishing, Racing, Etc by Blaine, Delabere P - 1858

London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1858. 1858 Third Edition. VERY GOOD. A clean, unmarked copy. Internally Near Fine, cover detached. Pages are fresh, bright, and supple.. All page edges brightly gilt. Deluxe binding of light brown polished calf with elaborate gilt tooling along spine and gilt decoration to boards, board edges and turns. Spine has 5 raised bands and is gilt titled on a black leather label within one panel. Marbled endpapers. Front cover is a bit dulled, lightly scuffed and edgeworn; rear board has 3 gouges to the leather and light scuffing. Both hinges have broken and the cover has sprung from the book. The front board has detached along the front hinge and the front free endpaper has also separated despite clear tape long ago applied along the endpaper gutter. The book block, 3 inches thick, remains firm and intact. Blaine covers field sports in Britain as well as around the world, including Africa and Asia. The numerous forms, practices, and equipage of horse racing, hunting, hawking, coursing, shooting, fishing - and last and least, cock fighting, are thoroughly discussed. Blaine was a noted veterinarian and he includes information on the natural history of prey animals as well as the care of animals used in sporting. The book is generously illustrated with more than 600 wood engravings, a few as full-page plates, from drawings by Leech, Alken, T. Landseer, Dickes and others. With some restoration to the binding this will be an exceptional copy of a scarce title. 5-3/4 x 8-7/8". xiii + 1246 pages, including index.. Third Edition, Revised and Corrected. Leather. Very Good+/Not Issued. Thick 8vo.