The Hunting Grounds of the Old World - First Series: Asia

1865. Third edition. xxiv, [i], 660pp., a frontispiece and 6 other plates. Henry Astbury Leveson (1828-1875) was a renowned British sportsman and big game hunter. He wrote many books using the pseudonym 'The Old Shekarry' or H.A.L 'The Old Shekarry'. He writes in his preface to this work: "The following pages are descriptive of different incidents in a hunter's career, are selections from a journal written during the leisure moments of a wandering life amidst the various scenes which they attempt to delineate.The present work is entirely confined to the hunting grounds of Asia; but, in a second series, the author propose giving some account of five expeditions to different parts of Africa." (we believe that no further series was published). The book is divided into the following parts and sections: Part I: Section I - The Deccan; Section II - Southern India; Section III - The Mountain Ranges; Section IV - The Himalayas. Part II: Circassia. Part III: Fire-arms. A previous owner has carried out a home repair to replace the missing original spine by replacing it with a strip of cloth covered by thick paper with handwritten titlling on the paper. This has served to hold the book together but is very noticeable. The original boards are present and have shelf wear with soiling and some staining. The corners are worn with damage and some loss to the cloth. The contents are tight apart from the signature (gathering) containing pages 419 to 448 which protrudes from the rest of the text block and is in danger of becoming loose. The pages are clean apart from a few small marks and stains and a light water stain around the bottom spine corner of the frontispiece and the first few pages, including the title-page. The endpapers are split down the spine gutter with some of the cloth from the hope repair showing through and there is a bookplate on the front fixed endpaper. There may be a few other minor faults that we have missed and this is probably best regarded as being a reading and reference copy. PLEASE NOTE: This is a fairly heavy book and extra postage may be required for delivery outside the UK.…