Item details

Quarto (215 x 170 mm.), rebacked preserving full contemporary cloth binding, blind and gilt embossed boards. Four separately issued works in one volume comprising: [Living and Moving, or Horses, Railways and Coaches]. 8 woodcut plates; [Birds, and their Uses to Man], 8 lithographed plates; [Reuben Ramble’s Travels in the Eastern Counties], 8 lithographed plates comprising a county map set within a pictorial border; [The Alphabet], 8 lithographed plates. In all 32 early wash coloured lithographic plates, 8 of English counties.

Reuben Ramble, whose name is a pseudonym for the Reverend Samuel Clark (1810-75), left his father’s business in 1836 and went to London. He soon became a partner to William Darton. He went on to write geography books for children and later in life became the Rector of Eaton-Bishop. Here is an example of a general knowledge book for children. One of the four parts found here is 'Reuben Ramble’s Travels in the Eastern Counties of England'. This was one of five parts that make up the desirable 'Reuben Ramble’s Travels through the Counties of England'. The maps were originally published as a set of exceedingly rare card maps of the counties by Thomas Crabb. They were then issued by Robert Miller as the 'New Miniature Atlas' of 1821. Here Ramble surrounds the wide margins of the maps with a series of ornate vignettes. Provenance: private English collection. Carroll (1996) 74B; Chubb (1927) 517.