Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening. Including some remarks on Grecian and Gothic ARchitecture, collected from various Manuscripts, in the possession of the different Noblemen and Gentlemen, for whose use they were originally written; the whole tending to establish fixed principles in the respective arts.

Large quarto; page size approx. 34cm x 27.2cm, pp. [1-6], 7-16; 220 (2). The contents therefore run - title page, dedication the the King, advertisement, preface, list of places referred to, followed by the text itself and a two-page index, including list of plates to verso, to the rear. Illustrations all present as follows: portrait frontispiece, 27 plates comprising 11 hand-coloured aquatint plates (9 with overlays and one folding), 14 engraved plates (mostly aquatint, some tinted, 3 with overlays, one double-page) and two engraved maps (one hand-coloured), 11 aquatint vignettes and illustrations in text, 2 with overlays, some illustrations within text. Binding: contemporary full calf, boards a little rubbed, early reback with gilt spine relaid. Elegant armorial bookplate to rear pastedown with the motto Pax et Spes (the motto of the Pease family, adopted by the first Baron Wardington). Bookplate with woodcut to front pastedown with the name Helen Elizabeth Pease, also some notes in pencil and a printed catalogue clipping with a brief description of the book. Occasional light foxing but a clean, most attractive example, with plates and overlays intact. One of the most important of all books on gardening and garden history, still influential today, and a beautiful example of the art of printing. [Abbey Scenery 390].…