Dispatches and Letters Relating to the Blockade of Brest 1803 -1805 (2 Volume Set)

2 Volume Set (1899 / 1902) Published by Navy Records Society. I consider these to be in VERY GOOD condition with very tight and square bindings, light soiling on the white buckram covers but it is minor. There is some sporadic marginalia - mostly checkmarks which are erasable but are unobtrusive. Deckled edges with some pages uncut. Vol One is 369 p. and Vol Two is 390 p. This is a scholarly two?volume edition of British naval documents on the Napoleonic?era blockade of the French port of Brest between 1803 and 1805, edited by John Leyland for the Navy Records Society. It prints the official dispatches, Admiralty orders, and private letters of Admiral the Hon. William Cornwallis and his captains, together with related papers from London and French sources, providing a detailed picture of day?to?day operations off Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Ferrol, and across the Bay of Biscay, framed by Leyland?s substantial historical introduction and editorial notes. It has the characteristic octavo format, with preliminaries including the Society?s list of patrons and members, Leyland?s historical introduction (running to several dozen pages), and detailed contents and indexes that make the material accessible to researchers. The set is typically bound in the Society?s two?tone buckram, with gilt spine titling identifying the work, dates, and series volume numbers, and was issued to members as part of the Society?s annual subscription publications. As such, these volumes are valued both as primary source collections for the study of British naval warfare and as representative early productions of the Navy Records Society?s documentary series on the age of sail.…