Weld, IsaacBiblio.com
WELD, Isaac (1774-1856)Biblio.com
Travels through the States of North America and in the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada During the Years 1795 1796 and 1797
1799réf. 41787London: Printed for John Stockdale 1799. Quarto. 10 7/16 x 8 1/8 inches. xxiv 464 pp. 11 engraved plates including the frontispiece 2 plans and 3 maps one of which is hand colored in outline. Complete with the rare erratum slip mounted at the foot of the plate list. Contemporary full calf. Spine gilt with black morocco lettering piece. Neat repairs to joints First edition of the travel narrative that influenced a generation of British emigrants to the Canadian provinces. Isaac Weld traveled through North America in the late 18th century and recorded his adventures in this wry series of letters. He arrived in America in 1795 at the age of 19 accompanied by a servant and traveled the continent on horseback on foot and by canoe. His distaste for American frontiersmen and the coarseness of manners in the United States would prove typical of English travelers for decades to come. Between July and November 1796 he travelled from Lake Champlain to Montréal and Québec returning through Montréal and continuing his journey to Kingston Newark Niagara-on-the-Lake Malden Amherstburg Detroit and Fort Erie. He declared the scenery from the Upper Town of Québec to surpass 'all that I have hitherto seen in America or indeed in any other part of the globe' and felt that travelling conditions between Québec and Montréal were the best in North America. Based on these observations he concluded that 'a man of moderate property could provide for his family with much more ease in Canada than in the United States' because of the abundance of affordable land. Like many other British travellers then and later Weld felt most at home in the Canadian provinces. Weld's narrative was reprinted more than that of any other European traveler to North America in the later 18th-century. The engraved plates are after sketches by the author. 'A New Map of Upper & Lower Canada' dated 1798 extends from James's Bay to the north Lake Winnipeg to the west and New Brunswick to the east with the territory of the United States below the Candian border left undefined by blank space. Cox 176; Stanton and Tremaine 708; Lowndes 2868; Gagnon I: 3701; Lande 890; JCB II: 4062; Clark II: 132; Rich 1799; Allibone 2636; Sabin 102541; ESTC T110539; Howes W-235; Story p. 103; Vlach 754; Winsor V p.284 & VIII 174 191. Printed for John Stockdale unknown
Donald Heald Rare Books · États-Unis2 000,00 $US≈ 1 790,19 €
