THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME by RICHARD JEFFRIES

London, England: SMITH, ELDER, & CO, 1879. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Octavo, brown cloth, double-ruled in blind, with stamped design-in-blind to top and bottom of both boards, and a gilt vignette to front. A little shelfwear and rubbing, slight spine lean, but clean and tight. Dark-green clay-based endpapers. Small bookseller's ticket adhered to bottom of front pastedown: "James Miles Antiquarian Bookseller 34 Upperhead Row, Leeds". (In 1870 James Miles came to Leeds from Leamington and opened a bookshop on the Headrow. The business was moved to Woodhouse Lane around 1930. A fascinating and highly-detailed look at the British country poacher's craft and art, including setting snares, proper use of tools like axes and billhook, techniques of netting, using ferrets to flush out hares, snipe shooting, etc. The author was once walking on a lonely country road nearly tripped over a very intoxicated man laying across the road, and ordinarily leaving such men lying where they were, but because he… Read More