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2 vols, folio. Chiefly tables. Some light foxing with title-pages most affected. Contemporary half polished sheep, spine gilt-ruled with black title and volume labels, blue cloth-covered boards, edges sprinkled red. Rubbed, boards dampstained, cloth peeling in some places, corners frayed with some leather coverings lost, endpapers creased and a bit foxed. Vol. I with some chips and a little loss to headcap, split starting at head of rear joint; vol. II joints starting particularly bottom of upper joint. Still good sound copies. Armorial bookplate of William Franks, recent bookplate of Josceline Grove to each volume. Detailed bookseller's catalogue description pasted to front endpaper vol. I. Known as the 'Second Domesday Book', the Return offered the first complete picture of the distribution of landed property in Great Britain and Ireland since the Domesday Book of 1086. It was created in an effort to dispel public outrage about 'monopoly of land', which had been growing since the findings of the 1861 Census implied (though this was in fact a misreading of the figures) that the whole of the United Kingdom lay in the hands of fewer than 30,000 landowners. In 1872 a return was prepared for England and Wales, excluding the Metropolis, the result of which is found in these volumes. Separate returns were prepared for Scotland in 1874, and for Ireland in 1876. Each shows the holding (in acres), roods and poles, and estimated yearly rental, of all holdings over 1 acre in size. Upon publication, whilst the 30,000 landowners assertion was shown to be wrong, the project did rather backfire. The England and Wales (excluding the Metropolis) survey revealed that only 710 people were in possession of 5000 acres or more, and that the holdings of these 710 amounted to over 25% of the total land area of England and Wales. The return recorded 269,547 people owning over an acre of land and 703,289 owning less than an acre, out of a population at the time of 19,458,009. Seller Inventory # 54575
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