Ambulator : or, A Pocket Companion in a Tour Round London : Within the Circuit of Twenty Five Miles. [R. Lobb (Editor)] Publication Date: 1787 Condition: Very Good

Title: Ambulator : or, A Pocket Companion in a Tour...

Publisher: London: Printed for J.Bew.

Publication Date: 1787

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition: Very Good

Edition: 3rd 

xxx, 256 pages plus 5 unnumbered leaves of addenda and index at the end. Complete with folding coloured map at the front (slight offsetting). Scattered mild foxing. Engraved book-plate of Sir John Trollope on front paste-down endpaper. 11.5 x 18 cm. Full, contemporary tree calf. Original spine laid down, red morocco label and gilt rules (slightly rubbed down spine along edges and at corners). Boards displaying characteristic swirl and richness of colouration of a typical eighteenth century tree-calf binding. Overall, a pleasing copy. Provenance: Sir John Trollope, Bt. (1800-74) was the second cousin of the novelist Anthony Trollope. He was educated at Eton and later served with the 10th Hussars, achieving the rank of captain. A British Conservative politician, Trollope served as President of the Poor Law Board in the Earl of Derby's short-lived 1852 Conservative administration. Poverty rates throughout the 1700s were high. Many families struggled to pay for their daily bread, and lived below the breadline in abject conditions. Illnesses, accidents and old-age also prevented people from working, again resulting in poverty and often destitution. From the 1720s, workhouses were set up by local parishes to house the poor. Men, women and children lodged in single sex wards where the able-bodied were set to menial tasks: breaking stones, spinning thread or sewing clothes, for example. Inmates were ordered to follow strict rules of behaviour and to conform to daily routines. There was a huge wealth divide and only the better off subjects of George iii could afford a book such as this. Bookseller Inventory # 4454