THE WARNING VOICE OF A HERMIT ABROAD, Who Has Been Compelled to Write in His Justification, and He Hopes For the Good of Mankind, Under the Protecting Hand of Divine Providence, (For Which He Can Never be Thankful Enough,) Through a Long and Tedious Passage of the Most Imminent Perils and Dangers of Being Extinguished, and Sent to His Grave.

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original blue paper-covered boards and beige spine. Deckled edges. A good copy, the boards marked, the extremities worn and bumped, the spine chipped and cracked, the binding holding. Some small numbers have been written in ink on the rear board. The contents, with a bookplate to the front pastedown and some light foxing and toning throughout, are otherwise clean and without inscriptions or stamps. Scarce in the original binding.

A collection of writings, including an autobiography and a number letters and addresses on a wide range of topics such as agriculture, politics and world events, written by Richard Milnes (1750-1844), a collier and farmer from Flockton, a village near Wakefield, Yorkshire. Milnes was, seemingly reluctantly, obliged to run his father's colliery with his three brothers; he describes how the colliery was started with insufficient prior knowledge, leading to financial difficulties and tensions between the brothers following their father's death.