In Original Gilt Decorated Cloth Bindings - Illustrated With 12 Plates.
Provenance: Ex "
Charles Hugh Lyon"
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First published in Edinburgh in 1840, John Colquhoun's The Moor and the Loch is an important early Victorian work devoted to the field sports and natural history of the Scottish Highlands. Its full title describes its considerable scope: Practical Hints on Most of the Highland Sports, and Notices of the Habits of the Different Creatures of Game and Prey in the Mountainous Districts of Scotland; with an Essay on Loch-Fishing. Written from extensive personal observation and sporting experience, Colquhoun combines practical instruction with vivid accounts of Scotland's moors, lochs, wildlife and sporting traditions at a time when the Highlands were becoming increasingly celebrated in British sporting literature.
The work encompasses grouse and black-game shooting, sporting dogs, stalking and shooting, fishing and numerous aspects of Highland fieldcraft, while also recording Colquhoun's observations of the behaviour and habitats of native animals and birds. Rather than functioning simply as a shooting or fishing manual, the book occupies an interesting position between sporting literature and nineteenth-century natural history. Colquhoun's close attention to wildlife, terrain, weather and animal behaviour gives the work enduring historical value as a record of Highland sporting and rural life during the early Victorian period.
This desirable 1840 first edition is profusely illustrated with attractive engraved representations of Highland game, sporting dogs and other animals, including the striking frontispiece of grouse and black-game. Particularly appealing is its survival in the original publisher's green cloth bindings, decorated in blind and with a gilt game bird to the front board and gilt lettering to the spine. Such original decorated sporting bindings add considerably to the character of the volume and make it an attractive example of early Victorian sporting book production.
Of additional interest is the volume's distinguished early provenance, retaining the engraved armorial bookplate of Charles Hugh Lyon, bearing the motto In Te Domine Speravi, together with an early ownership inscription dated 1840. The bookplate provides a tangible connection with its nineteenth-century ownership and enhances the historical character of this first-edition copy. Combining an important early work on Scottish Highland sport and natural history, extensive period illustration, original gilt-decorated cloth and notable armorial provenance, this is a particularly evocative example of nineteenth-century British sporting literature.
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General wear, bumping and fading etc to covers with some loss to outer spine as shown. Binding is relaxed and fragile with blank endpapers sitting loose. Bookplate present as described. Includes 12 full page plate illustrations. Pages with some age toning and light foxing present. A decent and complete copy across 128 pages. Please study photos to further understand condition.
