TWISS, Richard. A Tour in Ireland in 1775. With a map, and a View of the Salmon-Leap at Ballyshannon.

London: Printed for the author, 1776. Octavo. pp. [iv], 204. Contemporary full diced morocco, spine professionally rebacked and corners repaired. Title in gilt on contrasting black and purple morocco labels. Fine. Very scarce.
Richard Twiss (1747-1821), the professional traveller and philanderer, was a native of Rotterdam, the son of an English merchant. He undertook sixteen sea voyages and travelled altogether about twenty- seven thousand miles. He visited Ireland in 1775 and then wrote an account of his tour which caused an uproar in Dublin due to his critical views of the hygiene of Irish women. It was most unpopular and it provoked an anonymous satirical attack An Heroic Epistle from Donna Teresa Pinna y Ruiz of Murcia which mocked Twiss’ gallantry in his travels. Shortly after his visit a Dublin manufacturer of earthenware had Twiss’s portrait printed upon the bottom of his chamber-pots. The Irish had the last laugh. The Lord Chancellor’s wife, Lady Clare, is said to have composed the following ditty: “Here you may behold a liar Well deserving of hell-fire Everyone who likes may p--- Upon the learned Doctor T---”.

[Cat 157]