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8vo, pp. viii, [142]; [1], 143-304; the glossary occupies the first half of the text, the balance local proverbs. First published in 1787. Includes separate sections on superstitious cures, fairies, omens portending death, magicians, witches, ghosts, etc. Vancil, p. 103; Kennedy 10635 citing the quarto edition of the same year "apparently differing in no point, except in size and by arrangement in double columns, from the octavo edition of same date." bound with: Grose, Francis. A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue. The second edition, corrected and enlarged. London: printed for S. Hooper, No. 212, High Holburn, 1788, 8vo, pp. xv, [1], [248]; better arranged and substantially enlarged over the first edition of 1785, this edition omits a number of the more indecent entries, and softens others. Partridge rightly terms this "an extraordinary book . by far the most important work which has ever appeared on street or popular language," (History of Slang, p. 76). Alston IX, 325. Together, 2 volumes in 1, mid-19th-century half tan calf over marbled boards, black morocco label on gilt-paneled spine. A very good, sound copy, enhanced by the annotations of a 19th-century reader, one "Herbert Thomas Knatchbutt-Hugessen, his book - bought at a bookstall close to Temple bar, London, on Friday Sept. 11 1857 - and a rascally wet day it was." Also, with Herbert's 13-line summary of the two works in the volume on the verso of the second flyleaf (i.e. "The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is indeed a very vulgar, obscene and indecent production. The dirtiest kennels of St. Giles and Billingsgate seem to have been raked to collect the filthiest ideas."). Furthermore, Herbert has seen fit to annotate the texts on 8 different pages.
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