The British Angler's Manual

This is an antique fishing book, "The British Angler's Manual, or, The Art of Angling in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland" by Thomas Christian Hofland (renowned English landscape painter and "keen angler"). 1839 1st edition; Whitehead and Company; London. Half leather binding with marbled covers, four raised bands on the spine, and marbled end papers. The book is "embellished with numerous engravings on steel and wood from original pictures and drawings by the author." There is a General Index at the back. "With Some Account of The Principal Rivers, Lakes, and Trout Streams, in the United Kingdom; With Instructions in Fly-Fishing, Trolling, and Angling at the Bottom, and More Particularly for the Trout."

From the Author's Preface: "...I became acquainted with our principal rivers, lakes, and trout-streams, and have tried my skill in most of them, at all times and seasons, but principally in the art of angling for a trout. The kind of knowledge thus gained will, I trust, in connexion with my professional observations, render me a useful guide alike to the amateur painter and the lover of angling."

The chapters are as follows: On the Materials Used in Angling; Baits; The Salmon; The Common Trout; The Pike, Pickerrell, Jack, Luce, or Gedd; The Perch; The Barbel; The Carp and Tench; The Chub; The Bream; The Roach; The Dace or Dare; The Bleak; The Gudgeon; The Eel; The Pope, or Ruffe; Artificial Flies; Thames Fishing; The Rivers and Lakes of England.

Condition:
The top edge of the spine is worn down; small bits of the leather have chipped away at the bottom of the spine. Worn cover corners. Tight binding with no loose pages. Both covers are firmly attached. There is a stain to a few pages at the front starting at the upper-inner corner of the title page...the stain gradually disappears over the next few pages. The text pages are lightly age-toned with occasional foxing, smudges and stains, and a pencil notation in an outer margin. The engraved plates (and the tissue guards over them) have foxing. Interesting, old pencil drawings of a grasshopper on a fishing hook appear at the outer margin of pages 54 & 78, of a worm on a hook at the outer margin of page 10, and of a fly at the outer margin of page 230. The front end paper and pastedown each have an old bookplate affixed. Overall the book is in Good- condition.