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[ii], [viii], [205]pp. 8vo in fours. Small tear to lower corner of leading blank, occasional light spotting, contemp. ink inscription 'by Francis Grose Esq. on titlepage. Bound with additional blanks in recent half brown calf, marbled boards. 15 line ms. note on initial blank facing title, signed 'Edward Lilly, Notes & Queries, Aug. 23, 1879'. Pencil signature of C.A.L. Hawker on leading blank. A nice copy. ESTC T138152, FIRST EDITION. The manuscript note refers to another issue of the first edition with 'a different heading on the first page: 'A Burlesque Provincial and Proverbial Dictionary'. ESTC does not refer to a variant issue with this heading. A dictionary of cant, pedlar's French or St. Giles's Greek, together with burlesque phrases, quaint allusions, and nicknames for persons, things and places. From 'Abbess, or Lady Abbess, a bawd, the mistress of a brothel'; 'Cant, a double tongued pallavering fellow'; and 'Farting crackers, breeches'; to 'Rhino, money'; 'Stall whimper, a bastard'; and 'Zucke, a weathered stump of a tree'. 'The Great Approbation, with which so polite a nation as France has received the Satyrical and Burlesque Dictionary of Monsieur Le Roux, testified by the several editions it has gone through, will, it is hoped apologise for an attempt to compile an English dictionary on a similar plan. the freedom of thought and speech, arising from, and privileged by our constitution, gives a force and poignancy to the expressions of our common people, not to be found under arbitrary governments, where the ebullitions of vulgar wit are checked by the fear of the bastinado, or of a lodging during pleasure in some gaol or castle.'. Seller Inventory # 81998
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