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FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 223 x 124 mms., pp [iv], 99 [100 blank], lxxxii, four hand-coloured folding engraved plates, contemporary half calf, marbled boards (slightly rubbed); tear in fold of first plate, spine and corners restored. A very good copy, with a nameless bookplate bearing at the top the motto "muneribus sapienter uti" (Horace: Ode to Lollius, IV, ix), and "indocti discant ament meminisse periti" (formerly attributed to Horace, but, as the all-purpose Wikipedia tells me, is from Jean-François Hénault (1685 - 1770), paraphrasing Alexander Pope. John Nash (1752 - 1835) and John White (c. 1747 - 1813) seem to be chiefly responsible for this account of the proposed development of the Regent's Park area; in the second edition of 1815, White's name appeared on the title-page as author. "The text describes the Regent's Park plan of John White senior (1747?-1813), and compares this with the designs of John Nash, and of Thomas Leverton and Thomas Chawner. Nash was architect to the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings, while Leverton and Chawner were the Commissioners' surveyors. Nash's plan was accepted, in a revised form, in a Treasury minute dated 18 October 1811. By 1814 work on Nash's design for the park, canal, surrounding streets and sewerage system had begun, but had run into various problems including the rising costs of material and labour and the conservative estimates originally made by Nash. Not unnaturally, White defends his father's plan with vigour, and criticises the Commissioners for having omitted the details from their report of 4 June 1812, and for 'not having sufficiently brought forward Mr. White's plan, which evidently possesses merit enough to have obtained a place for it in a publication which contains matters not entitled to half so much attention' (p.91). The appendices reprint a letter from White senior to the Surveyor General John Fordyce, outlining his plans, the official reports of Leverton, Chawner and Nash, a letter from William Treadgold commenting on Nash's faulty estimates for the sewers, a 'Resolution of the Vestry of the Parish of St. Mary-le-bone . 26th March, 1811', and a brief explanation of [the fourth] plate." (OCLC). Ann Saunders: Regent's Park (1969). Seller Inventory # 9204
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