[x], viii, 732pp. Engraved frontispiece and one further tissue-guarded, engraved illustration. Bound in full brown leather with gilt decoration and motif (which may be the arms of Ilminster Grammar School), five raised bands on spine, black leather title label (leather significantly worn at spine, some scuffs on edges on spine joints). Marbled text block edges and marbled endpapers. Inner blind embossed dentelles. Endpapers cracked on gutter. Frontispiece toned, slightly affecting title page, else internally neat, clean, bright and tight. Previous owner’s inscription dated 1846, and some pencil notes on rear blind page. Binding is strong. Contains biographical essays on Andrew Marvell, Dr Richard Bentley, Thomas Lord Fairfax, James Earl of Derby, Anne Clifford, Roger Ascham, John Fisher, William Mason, William Roscoe, Sir Richard Arkwright, Captain James Cook, William Congreve and Dr John Fothergill. Hartley Coleridge, son of the famous poet, was commissioned to write these biographical essays in 1830 by the Leeds publisher F E Bingley. First published under the title Biographia Borealis in 1833, they were republished in the current volume in 1838. Coleridge had thoughts to make series of the project, covering all the counties of England, but this never came to pass.
