THE ART OF DINING; Or, Gastronomy and Gastronomers.

First edition. Author's own copy. Annotated throughout in ink and pencil by Sir Alexander Grant to assist the author in the preparation of the second edition. Publisher's original red cloth with titles in gilt to the upper board. 1pp. manuscript preface for a new edition tipped-in to the rear endpaper. Several reviews and clippings pasted in at various points. Bookseller's ticket and small ownership label for 'Dr. Wyatt Wingrave, 4 Bloomsbury Square, London' to the front pastedown. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a little splitting to the cloth at the lower joint and a touch of wear to the spine ends. The contents with some occasional toning and a few ink spots to the front pastedown/front free endpaper are otherwise in very good order.

Signed and inscribed by Abraham Hayward to the front free endpaper "This copy was /annotated by the / late Sir Alexander / Grant, given him / to aid in preparing / the second edition / A. Hayward". Abraham Hayward (1801-1884) was a man of letters who contributed to the New Monthly, the Foreign Quarterly, the Quarterly Review and the Edinburgh Review. A member of numerous London clubs, including the Athenaeum, he had a prominent reputation as a connoisseur of fine food and fine dining, well-known for hosting recherché dinners for London's intellectual and fashionable elite. In the present work, Hayward explores a range of gastronomical subjects, including 'the gastronomic effects of the French Revolution', an 'account of the principal Restaurants of Paris, with the names of the best Dishes and Wines at each', the 'comparative merits of male and female cooks', the 'origin of the "Cordon Bleu"', a 'catalogue raisonnée of the principal cooks in Great Britain, with the names of their past and present employers', the 'importance of good vegetables', 'reflections on hams and salads', 'speculations touching pies and puddings', and much else besides, plus an appendix containing 'sundry choice recipes and bills of fare'. Sir Alexander Grant (1826-1884), who annotated the present copy at Hayward's request in preparation for a new edition, was a Scottish landowner and historian who, after working in Bombay, served as Principal of the University of Edinburgh between 1868 and 1884. An interesting copy of this wide-ranging collection of gastronomical musings.