Melbourne 1880 (5 results)

8vo, xxvi (advertisments) + xvi + 364pp. xlvi (advertisments). Original teal paper wrapper, significantly worn. Contains numerous b/w illustrations, including those in original advertisments, in addition to b/w pull-out map of the floor plan of the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition. A very good copy.

Melbourne, Mason, Firth & Mc.Cutcheon, 1880, in-8°, 23,5 x 15,5 cm, xv + 263 pp + folding plan, modern full cloth.catalogue of the Melbourne International Exhibition.

hardcover. Condition: very good. Melbourne, Mason Firth &c 1880. Two volumes octavo bound together in contemporary half red gilt calf (edges a bit rubbed or scuffed); xvi,308;xvi,364pp, folding plan and some illustrations in the text. An attractive copy. Second and better edition - late arrivals missed by the first edition have been included and "considerable improvements" and "extended notices" have been incorporated. So it is now "a complete record of the numerous exhibits". *This item might cost more to post than quoted by abe.

Sharp's entry in the Oxford DNB describes his extensive travels, including eight visits to Norway, and a tour, in his eighty-fifth year, 'visiting Constantinople, India, Japan, and the interior of China'; and also notes that he was an 'excellent correspondent', who 'expressed himself as readily in verse as in prose'. The present letter was written during a seven-year-tour of the southern hemisphere, 1877-1884, during which Sharp left Basutoland for Madagascar, 'where an important station had been founded by the Society of Friends. He next travelled to Sydney, Melbourne, and other Australian towns, then to Stewart Island and New Zealand, and thence to San Francisco, the United States, and Mexico.' The letter signed 'Isaac Sharp' is addressed to 'My dear Friend' and the recipient is not named, but a reference to 'Brinkburn' identifies him as Henry Fell Pease (1838-1896) of Darlington, Quaker industrialist and Liberal MP, who seems from the letter to have contributed to the financing of Sharp's tour. (Sharp had been connected with the prominent north-east family since his youth. At the age of twenty-four he went to Darlington as private secretary to Joseph Pease, 'succeeding afterwards to the management of the Pease estate near Middlesborough'.) 8pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums of thin grey paper, bearing the watermark 'L-J D L & Co'. Around 180 lines of closely-written text (at points difficult to decipher despite its neatness). In fair condition, aged and worn. He begins by reporting that the recipient's 'kind letter and its enclosure' have reached him via Sydney. 'The days pass very rapidly by, they seem ever the more to chase each other I am well cared for in having a companion & fellow labourer, who knows much of this far off Island-Continent, the distances are great and the homes of many we visit lie wide apart the grass does not grow under our feet - & yet civilized railway speed is impracticable, among the mountains we crossed a ridge last week on horseback 6100 feet above the sea level & a little on our right, was [Feathercup? Feathercap?], the highest land in Victoria, shortly after paying a visit to a member of Darlington Monthly Meeting At one Station where we halted for the night they told us that last winter they did not see a strange face for 4 months (whisht! It is summer now -)'. An extended passage follows in which he discusses his response of the call of 'the Master' to preach the gospel: 'Meanwhile my beloved friends, who gave me a certificate for belting the earth, have a right to its recall'. Sharp's is 'a joyful service but one of grave responsibility [] And so while nearing 75 this is my song in the hour of my pilgrimage, that in all the changes & chequerings of an earthly sojourn The Lord is good yea in the height & in the depth "He knows all them who trust in Him"-'. He recalls that, thirty-five years before, his 'honoured Father copied out for me the 121st Psalm & gave it me with his Autograph'. Returning to his present situation, Sharp writes: 'At 8 this evening we assemble with the people of this place, Jameson; 37° South 146° east, will serve as a finger point to the spot on the map - | A Meeting at Mansfield to morrow evening then a jolting journey to reach the Rail at Langwood for Melbourne where we hope to be on 7th day next - | There is a good deal of prospective service in & about the City prior to embarking for Tasmania where at Hobart Town the Annual Meeting commences the second week and 35 month - | Queensland will be probably taken in winter (between 4th & 8 Months) to avoid the heat & this prior to New Zealand As to Calafornia [sic] &c they may be safely left for the present for the visual ray, the distance & sea [jo[urne]y?], would be more than a match for any known Telescope '. He turns to meteorological matters: 'Dost thou still keep a rain gauge & heat record? There has been much of drought where my lot has fallen for the three years last past as to the heat I sit at an open window without coat or vest & devoid of a neck handkerchief too & freely own, it needs the spur of energy to wield the pen'. He gives six readings for the day of writing from the thermometer in his bedroom. 'We hear by Telegram of your severe winter having generally a short summary, posting us up to within a day or two of the latest London News Parliamentary, General, Atmosphere & Foreign'. He turns to one of the previous groups he has encountered on his present journey: 'Alas! alas! for the poor Basutos, more to pity than blame my sympathy is with them & largely with the French Protestant Missions & Missionaries of British [last word underlined] Basutoland As for the Transvaal ! I say nothing of the Annexation save that it is a fact & as a fact the Boors, [sic] with infatuated Paul Krugher [sic] at their head in sowing the wind will too surely reap the whirlwind, in which, England will doubtless have her suffering shame.' Turning back to Australia he writes: 'We got a peep or two at the Melbourne Exhibition wonderful in its danger & execution when we think that a trip thither on the attaining of the majority would have found thee in the midst of the [?], where stately buildings rear their heads aloft & their notes of progress are sounded on all sides we see the outcome of gold & wool enormous the former & likely to be enormous still as for the wool where is the limit The next Census of the Australian Colonies, that is to say the Sheep of Australasia, is I am told numbered at Seventy Millions!! The Wool exhibition is very attractive such fleeces & such quality I do suppose no such an assemblage & quality & variety was ever seen in one focus before! - The Victorian and other wools at the Exhibition will be, I doubt not, [while?] not as fine a memory of many days -'. He begins the final paragraph: 'Thy allusions in thy letter to passing events could not fail to interest me social, civil and [moral?] & religious I often long for.

Condition: very good. Sydney, Govt Printer 1881. Largish octavo publisher's morocco; six autotype photo plates and two folding plans. Some foxing, mostly at each end. A handsome copy with John Chapman's bookplate. An uncommon record from Melbourne's natural enemy but the NSW Commissioner is gracious, given that Sydney had held the first international exhibition the year before. Only in passing does he remark that it's a pity Melbourne is so flat they couldn't find an elevated spot to park their building. He doesn't mention that Melbourne is a follow up to Sydney more than three or four times a page.Included is the catalogue of New South Wales' exhibits and list of jury award winners. *This item might cost more to post than quoted by abe.