Inventorium Sepulchrale: An Account of Some Antiquities Dug Up At Gilton, Kingston, Sibertswold, Barfriston, Beakesbourne, Chartham, and Crundale, in the County of Kent, From A.D. 1757 to A.D. 1773. Edited, From the Original Manuscript in the Possession of Joseph Mayer, Esq. With Notes and Introduction, by CHARLES ROACH SMITH.

Printed for Subscribers Only. London. 1856. 4to.. pp. (iv), lvi, 230, (vi) Subscribers, (iv) Advertisements. Fine portrait frontispiece of Mayer by LeKeux, map of Saxon England, 20 plates [7 lithographs handcoloured, 10 engraved plates, 3 in aquatint], numerous text wood engravings including a number of fine engraved chapter head pieces. Original blue cloth, rebacked, book-plate removed from front paste-down, the remaining glue has adhered to the opposing free end-paper and caused some loss, plates foxed, damp mark in the fore-margin of the portrait, else a good copy. *Faussett began his Journal in 1757 and ended it in 1773, two years before his death. Since that time they had been in family hands and despite attempts to buy them, the collection remained in obscurity and the manuscript unpublished. A number of letters are reprinted above in the final Appendix, one from Thomas Godfrey Faussett, great-grandson, giving valuable biographical information and some from the Rev. James Douglas, outlining his attempts to buy the collection and Journal from Faussett's son. Eventually, his great grandson sold all to the Liverpool jeweller, Joseph Mayer, who employed Charles Roach Smith to work the ms. for publication. Smith also contributed some of the chapter decorations, others being drawn by Fairholt who also produced many of the plates. The coloured plates and three of the engravings were drawn by W. P. HERDMAN, possibly the son of another Liverpool artist, William G. Herdman. The book comes from the library of JOHN BRENT Jr. (1808-1882), antiquary and novelist, born in Rotherhithe and then living in Canterbury, where he died. He was passionately interested in the history and antiquities of Canterbury and Kent and published many articles on the subject. The text is rather topical today, given the exceptional find of a Saxon tomb in not-so-distant Southend, Essex.