THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT

First Edition. Small folio (12 x 10 ins) Contemporary calf boards with new spine lettered in gilt with five raised bands and the date at foot. Boards well rubbed with one corner restored, points of corners rounded and worn. Large engraved folding map, hand-coloured, torn in two places but with no loss. Plan of Carisbrook Castle,12 doublespread engraved plates, one genealogical table (doublespread), one parochial table (ds), 18 engraved plates and numerous vignette illustrations in the text, at chapter heads and on the titlepage. Some staining to bottom corner on some of the plates, offsetting as usual, general toning of leaves. Armorial bookplate of William Henry Surman laid down to front pastedown; later printed ownership stamp of W. Gurnell in places. A VG+ copy in contemporary boards with new spine. pp [12], 274, [8], clxii, [1] pp. Worsley was High Sheriff of Hampshire (1773-74), and MP for Newtown, Isle of Wight (1790-93). At Appuldorcombe House, he amassed the largest collection of ancient Greek sculpture in Britain before the Elgin marbles were acquired.