WEBSTER, William Bullock. Ireland Considered as a Field for Investment or Residence. (Signed by the Author)

Dublin: Hodges and Smith; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., [c. 1852–53]. Small octavo. pp. 125. With folding hand-coloured “Geological Map to Webster’s Ireland,” showing the principal geological formations throughout the country. Publisher’s original red cloth, boards blind-stamped with ornamental design, upper cover and spine lettered in gilt. Light wear to extremities and occasional spotting; folding map neatly preserved with some creasing at folds. A very good copy. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “Wm. Lewis Esq. / from the Author.”

An interesting mid-nineteenth-century survey of Ireland written with the express purpose of encouraging investment and settlement. Webster examines the fertility and value of Irish land, agriculture, mineral resources, communications, labour, climate, reclamation, roads, navigation and water power, presenting Ireland as a country possessing considerable unrealised economic potential. The attractive coloured geological map is particularly noteworthy, identifying granite, slate, sandstone, coal formations, trap rocks, greenstone and limestone across the island.

Published in the years immediately following the Great Famine, the work offers a revealing contemporary view of Ireland’s prospects for economic recovery and development. The author’s presentation inscription considerably enhances this copy, particularly in conjunction with the original publisher’s binding and the coloured geological map.

[L3 11B]