LUCKOMBE, Philip. A Tour through Ireland; wherein the Present State of the Kingdom is considered; and the most noted Cities, Towns, Seats, Buildings, Loughs, &c. described. Interspersed with Observations on the Manners, Customs, Antiquities, Curiosities, and Natural History of that Country. To which is prefixed a General Description of the Kingdom; with the distances between the ports, &c. on the coast of Great-Britain, and those on that of Ireland.

Dublin: Printed by J. and R. Byrn, Sycamore-Alley, For Messrs. Whitestone, Sleater, Sheppard, Wilson, Spotswood, Beatty, White, Wogan, Perrin, and Byrne, 1780. 12mo. pp. xxiv, 362, 17 (index). Modern half calf on marbled boards, title in gilt on red morocco label on spine. Paper repair to titlepage. Previous owners’ signatures. A very good copy. Rare.
ESTC T84458.
Philip Luckombe (1730?-1803), miscellaneous writer, was born at Exeter. After acting as a printer for twelve years, he is said to have entered ‘one of the Oxford colleges’ (Nichols), but his name does not figure in the university register. He subsequently settled in London, and did much miscellaneous literary work. Besides editing several dictionaries and cyclopædias, he wrote books on printing, and made a special study of conchology. His collection of shells was considerable, and his learning brought him the acquaintance of Bishop Percy. In writing his book on Ireland he seems to have borrowed heavily from a number of contemporary writers including Chetwood, Twiss, Bush and Campbell. Eighteenth century tours in Ireland are relatively scarce and despite the fact that Luckombe may have plagiarised the works of others this book is a considerable rarity and interesting in its own right. His tour in Ireland is arranged in four ‘journeys’: the first through the South East part of this Kingdom, the second through the ‘South, and South West Counties’, the third through the ‘South West, and part of the Western counties’ and the fourth journey is ‘From Dublin to the North-East, North and Western Part’. Anonymous. By Philip Luckombe. The last nine leaves contain the index.

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