READING RACES, OR, THE BERKSHIRE BEAUTIES. A poem.

[READING.]

Published by Reading Printed for the author and sold by Carnan and Smart in Reading; Willis Newbury; Blakeney Windsor; Russell Guildford; Cook Farnham; Wells Marlborough; and Jackson at Oxford, 1777

About this Item

4to, pp. 33; bound without the half title, else a very good, large copy bound in old marbled boards, neatly rebacked and recornered with calf (later endpapers, but in the style of the period). Booklabel of John Sparrow. First and only edition of this charming poem set in Reading, Berkshire, celebrating the beautiful young women to be seen at a ball presumably (though this is not actually stated, except in the title) held on the occasion of the races at the town. The fiction is that Zeus comes down, attended by Hermes, to choose a mortal bride from among the belles at the assembly, and that he takes the form of a handsome soldier the better to view the young ladies. Most of the girls are named, and among them are several well-known local surnames, such as Englefield (no doubt a sister of the local antiquary, Henry Englefield, who was born about 1752), Hoare, Churchill and the Loveday sisters. These last two are probably Penelope (1759-1846) and Sarah (1761-1832), daughters of the traveller and scholar John Loveday (1711-89), who lived at Caversham just over the river from Reading. This is a rare poem: ESTC records copies at three locations in Britain (BL, Bodleian and Reading UL) and five in the USA (Princeton, Berkeley, Cincinnati, Pennsylvania and Yale). Jackson, Annals, p. 57.

Seller Inventory # 16991

Bibliographic Details

• Title: READING RACES, OR, THE BERKSHIRE BEAUTIES. A poem.
• Publisher: Reading Printed for the author and sold by Carnan and Smart in Reading; Willis Newbury; Blakeney Windsor; Russell Guildford; Cook Farnham; Wells Marlborough; and Jackson at Oxford
• Publication Date: 1777
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry