KNOX, Alexander. A History of the County of Down, from the Most Remote Period to the Present Day; including an Account of its Early Colonization, Ecclesiastical, Civil, and Military Polity, Geography, Topography, Antiquities and Natural History.

Illustrated by woodcuts, and a coloured geographical, and geological map, based on the researches of the Ordnance and Geological Surveys. Dublin: Hodges, Foster & Co., Grafton Street, 1875. First edition. pp. viii, 724. Quarter purple morocco on purple cloth boards. Spine divided into five panels by four thick raised bands hatched in gilt, title in gilt direct in the second; marbled endpapers. Armorial bookplate of Stott on front pastedown and signature of Arthur Charles Innes on title and p.1. A fine copy.

Alexander Knox was born in 1802 at Eden Hill House, Edentrillick, Co. Down. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, and graduated in 1831. He was assistant surgeon in the Royal Navy before practising in Dromore, Co. Down. He moved down to Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, around 1840 where he built up a successful practice before illness forced him to give up medicine. He then moved to Belfast, and was advised to go on a long sea voyage, but instead he set out to visit and comment on the mineral waters of Ireland. This resulted in his writing his first book, Irish Watering Places, published in Dublin in 1845. He then returned to medical practice in Strangford, Co. Down and .for two decades he continued to practise, retiring in 1871. He then moved back to Belfast to live at Beechcroft House, Strandtown. At this point he began to gather material for his greatest work, A History of County Down, which was published in 1875. Two years later, on the 9th November 1877, Doctor Knox died at his home and was buried in the Cathedral graveyard in Dromore.
Provenance: From the library of Arthur Charles Innes (1834-1902), Irish Conservative Party Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom who represented the constituency of Newry, County Down from 1865 to 1868.

[Cat 160]