FIFTY YEARS OF MY LIFE - IN THE WORLD OF SPORT AT HOME AND ABROAD (2 VOLUMES)

The entertaining two-volume reminiscences of the soldier, politician, all-round sportsman and popular figure at Victorian horse-race meetings where he was known as 'the Mate', additionally notable for the first recorded use of the expression 'like a duck to water'. First edition. 2 vols, 8vo. 367+362pp. Cloth-covered boards. Embossed gilt armorial to covers and letters to spines. Engraved portrait frontis to both vols. plus others in Vol.II. Boards rubbed. Small tears to cloth at spine, particularly Vol.I. Endpapers lightly foxed. A good subscriber's special copy (no.236). Signed by the author to subscription page with a dedication to an 'old comrade and friend', General Sir Reginald Gipps. The two had served in the Crimean War together and seemed to be long-term friends. Gipps was the Military Secretary at the time. Original newspaper obituary of Astley from 1894 is slipped in.