AN OXONIAN, AN [S. Reynolds Hole]. A Little Tour in Ireland. Being a Visit to Dublin, Galway, Connamara, Athlone, Limerick, Killarney, Glengariff, Cork, etc. etc. With Illustrations by John Leech.

London: Bradbury & Evans, 11, Bouverie Street, 1859. First edition. Octavo. pp. xii, 220, [2]. With a fine hand-coloured folding frontispiece and 20 other illustrations (including full-page plates) by John Leech, the celebrated Punch cartoonist. Publisher’s original green cloth, covers panelled in blind with shamrock cornerpieces, upper cover gilt-blocked with a vignette of a car driver and his two passengers, spine richly gilt, pale yellow endpapers. A very good copy, light wear to joints, occasional mild foxing, but overall bright and attractive.

First edition of this much-loved Victorian travel account, told with humour and curiosity by “An Oxonian” (the pseudonym of S. Reynolds Hole, later Dean of Rochester), who travelled with Leech through Ireland in the 1850s. Their observations take in Dublin society, Connemara landscapes, the remnants of the Great Famine, and the warmth and wit of the Irish people, accompanied by Leech’s celebrated illustrations which capture the bustle of markets, jaunting cars, and village life.

The folding frontispiece depicts The Car Drivers’ Party in lively colour, setting the tone for a work both comic and affectionate. The book remains a highly valued record of Anglo-Irish relations and popular perceptions of Ireland in the mid-Victorian period.

This copy is in the original gilt-blocked cloth binding, which survives in very fresh condition compared with many copies that appear faded or rebacked.

[L3 11B]