A Week at Harrogate : A Poem, in a Series of Letters, with an Appendix

Stated fourth edition, not dated but likely c. 1820. viii, 9-64pp. Printed card covers, stitched binding. Vignettes on front cover and title page. (Card covers worn and rubbed, especially at edges, chipped along spine, slightly discoloured, with remnants of bookseller’s ticket). Internally neat, clean, bright and tight barring a hint of toning; short, flat crease on corner of title page and similar on last page, and the very occasional small mark. This series of verse epistles, from BxxJxMxN BlxxDExHxxD to his friend SxMxN (Benjamin Blunderhead to Simon), was first published by Hargrove and Sons in Harrogate in 1812. It is similar to Mrs Hofland’s ‘A Season at Harrogate’, also first published in 1812, and is attributed to Mrs Hofland in Halkett and Laing. Although Hargrove did ask Mrs Hofland for a verse guide to Harrogate, partly to puff up his shop in the town, her letters show that she was unhappy about the payment and her book was eventually published by G Wilson with a signed preface by Mrs Hofland. It is possible Hargrove commissioned the work elsewhere. The North Yorkshire County Library holds a copy of ‘A Week in Harrogate’ with a pencilled attribution to a local writer, David Lewis (See Butts, Mistress of our Tears, 9 and p. 100).