READ'S HISTORY OF THE ISLE OF AXHOLME. Its Manors and Parishes: with Biographical Notices of Eminent Men.

Facsimile edition of the 1858 first edition, published by Read and Company. Limited edition. Publisher's black morocco, decorated in blind, with five raised bands, with gilt titles, borders and decorated compartments to the spine, in the patterned paper slipcase. Speckled edges. Marbled endpapers. With a two-colour portrait frontispiece of author William Read, 30 black and white illustrations throughout, and with three fold-out colourised maps on linen-backed paper and four fold-out family trees pasted in. Three publisher's notices loosely laid in. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the gilt bright and fresh, with just a touch of bumping to the top-left corner of the lower board. The contents are clean throughout, and without inscriptions or stamps. Housed in the near fine, rubbed and creased slipcase, which is slightly lifting at the left side. A lovely example of a scarce volume.

Issued in an edition of 150 copies in a deluxe binding, from which this example is numbered 52. A further 50 copies were issued in a standard binding. A full list of the contemporary subscribers to the facsimile editions follows on from the foreword by librarian Stanley Houghton. Epworth Mechanics' Institute's series of historiographical texts concerning the Isle of Axholme comprises three large volumes, two quartos, and a royal octavo. Read's 'History of the Isle of Axholme' is the fourth book to be republished in this series, following the republication of John Tomlinson's 'The Level of Hatfield Chace and Parts Adjacent'. Read's historical record was strongly influenced by William R. Peck's 'Topographical Account of the Isle of Axholme', first published in 1815, and includes a biographical chapter on Peck (p. 245) as one of the 'eminent men' of the title.