Helps and Hints How to Protect Life and Property, with Instructions in Rifle and Pistol Shooting, &c.

First edition. Original green cloth, backstrip and boards nearly detached, light soiling. 286, [2] pp., 10 plates (2 folding, foxed). Lacks 2 illustrations listed on contents leaf. Contains numerous illustrations by G.and R. Cruikshank and a small section on archery. A marksman and inventor with an 'inclination to self-publicity and aggrandisement' (Credland), Charles Random de Berenger (1772?1845) in 1830 established 'the Stadium' or 'British National Arena' at Chelsea, where he encouraged 'manly and defensive exercises, equestrian, chivalric and aquatic games, and skilful and amusing pastimes', as detailed (or rather advertised) in the present volume. The Baron de Berenger's memory is marred, however, by his involvement in a fraud of the stock exchange in 1814, in which he artificially raised the value of Government stocks by falsely reporting the death of Napoleon. See Riling 460.