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Details
Billesdon Coplow Verses. Manuscript verses describing Mr. Charles Loraine Smith of Enderby on the occasion of the Billesdon Coplow run, Feb. 24, 1800, one page, 4°; with a small attached note giving the names of those who finished or were first out of the water in the run, old card covers newly lined, modern red morocco-backed box. The verses are extracts from 'A Hunting Song' to the tune of 'Derry Down' by Bethell Cox, and 'Billesdon Coplow' by the Rev. R. Lowth (here 'South'), followed by the final couplet of the latter poem.
LOWTH, Robert. Billesdon Coplow, a Poem, Descriptive of a Remarkable Day's Sport in Leicestershire...February 24th, 1800. London: Ackermann & Co., 1845. 8° (180 x 110mm). Folding hand-coloured lithographic frontispiece with the participants identified by a contemporary hand, a few wood-engraved text vignettes. (Plate slightly rubbed and mounted on cloth.) Contemporary red straight-grained roan gilt, gilt edges (slightly rubbed). The poem met with immediate success, with the Sporting Magazine remarking on its first appearance in 1800: '"Billesdon Coplow" will only cease to interest when the grass will grow in winter in the streets of Melton Mowbray!'. The frontispiece is a copy of the painting by Loraine Smith.
TURNER, F.C., illustrator. A Set of Fox-Huntings Descriptive of the poem of Billesdon Coplow [by Lowth]. London: T. Gosden, 1883. 8° (275 x 185mm). Hand-coloured title vignette, and 12 hand-coloured plates by and after Turner, extra-illustrated with a hand-coloured engraving of 'The Bilsden Coplow Day' after Loraine Smith. (Light marginal soiling.) Original paper wrappers with duplicate title (lightly soiled), later cloth portfolio.
Provenance: C.F.G.R. Schwerdt (sales 11 March 1946, lot 2184, 10 July 1939, lot 1701) -- H.R.H. The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (bookplate; his sale, Christie's, 26-27 January 2006, lot 649). Schwerdt IV, p.126, I, p.323, II, p.272.
The Billesdon Coplow run was the swiftest run of 28 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes with the Quorn hunt. It was a feat celebrated in verse -- none more famous than that by Lowth, an eye-witness to the event -- and painting, most notably by Loraine Smith, illustrating works present here. (3)
LOWTH, Robert. Billesdon Coplow, a Poem, Descriptive of a Remarkable Day's Sport in Leicestershire...February 24th, 1800. London: Ackermann & Co., 1845. 8° (180 x 110mm). Folding hand-coloured lithographic frontispiece with the participants identified by a contemporary hand, a few wood-engraved text vignettes. (Plate slightly rubbed and mounted on cloth.) Contemporary red straight-grained roan gilt, gilt edges (slightly rubbed). The poem met with immediate success, with the Sporting Magazine remarking on its first appearance in 1800: '"Billesdon Coplow" will only cease to interest when the grass will grow in winter in the streets of Melton Mowbray!'. The frontispiece is a copy of the painting by Loraine Smith.
TURNER, F.C., illustrator. A Set of Fox-Huntings Descriptive of the poem of Billesdon Coplow [by Lowth]. London: T. Gosden, 1883. 8° (275 x 185mm). Hand-coloured title vignette, and 12 hand-coloured plates by and after Turner, extra-illustrated with a hand-coloured engraving of 'The Bilsden Coplow Day' after Loraine Smith. (Light marginal soiling.) Original paper wrappers with duplicate title (lightly soiled), later cloth portfolio.
Provenance: C.F.G.R. Schwerdt (sales 11 March 1946, lot 2184, 10 July 1939, lot 1701) -- H.R.H. The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (bookplate; his sale, Christie's, 26-27 January 2006, lot 649). Schwerdt IV, p.126, I, p.323, II, p.272.
The Billesdon Coplow run was the swiftest run of 28 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes with the Quorn hunt. It was a feat celebrated in verse -- none more famous than that by Lowth, an eye-witness to the event -- and painting, most notably by Loraine Smith, illustrating works present here. (3)