An Adieu to the Turf: a poetical Epistle from The E-L of A----N To His Grace The A----P of Y--K.

(ABINGDON, Willoughby BERTIE, Earl of).

Published by Printed for M. Smith; and sold by the booksellers in the Strand, Temple-Bar, and Paternoster-Row. 1778.], London, 1778

About this Item

First edition, with two further editions following in the same year. Rare: ESTC listing copies at Bodley, Cornell, Huntington, and Fisher Library, Sydney only.A verse satire on the eccentric Earl of Abingdon's former attachment to sporting pleasures (racing, cricket and cards) and his apparent new-found interest in politics, which he expressed in his inflammatory pamphlet of 1777: Thoughts on the letter of Edmund Burke, esq. to the sheriffs of Bristol on the affairs of America. Of An Adieu to the Turf the Monthly Review noted: 'Some court wit, a knowing one too, has given, in arch numbers, the last words and dying speech of a Newmarket peer. -Very severe on the Earl of Abingdon,- for turning Patriot.' Abingdon's colourful youth is the butt of a stream of jokes: from his preference for Hoyle over Horace, to his attempts to apply the rules of cricket to courtship. 'Scarce fourteen years has pass'd away / When first I thought of am'rous play, / Of Women not afraid: / For them I left more childish Cricket; / I only strove to hit their Wicket, / And put-out every Maid' (p. 3). 4to (256 × 206 mm) in half-sheets, pp. [4], vii, [1], 24, with half-title; typographical ornaments; minor marginal browning, a light waterstain affecting upper and lower margins from p. 13, small paper repair/reinforcement to gutter of pp. 6 & 7; preserved in modern quarter morocco, spine lettered in gilt. [Jackson, p. 60.]. Seller Inventory # 3874

Bibliographic Details

Title: An Adieu to the Turf: a poetical Epistle ...

Publisher: Printed for M. Smith; and sold by the booksellers in the Strand, Temple-Bar, and Paternoster-Row. 1778.], London

Publication Date: 1778

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition