Title: 23A Picture of Greece In 1825 As Exhibited in ...
Publisher: London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street.
Publication Date: 1826
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition
2 volumes. xii, 359; viii, 344 printed pages. With engraved frontispiece of Andréa Miaoulis to volume 1. Text blocks firm and secure. All edges speckled (slightly toned). Title page and frontispiece to vol 1 with foxing, occasional spotting to the pages otherwise clean. Original small bookplates removed leaving feint traces on front paste-down endpapers. 12.5 x 20 cm. Contemporary half calf. Spine in compartments with triple gilt fillet borders (slightly pitted and rubbed). Boards with calf corners (slightly bumped and rubbed) over marbled paper. SIR JAMES EMERSON TENNENT, FIRST BARONET (1804-1876) Originally Emerson; educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He travelled in Greece, & took up the cause and took part in the war for Greek independence from Ottoman Turkey 1821-9 (receiving a commission from Greek committee, he served as artillery lieutenant), meeting Byron there & publishing a Picture of Greece (1826), Letters from the Aegean (1829), and a History of Modern Greece (1830). 'In addition to his other distinctions, he was Knight Commander of the Greek Order of the Saviour. As well as a friend of Lord Byron, Emerson was also an acquaintance of Jeremy Bentham and Charles Dickens. In his early years his political views had a radical tinge, &, although he subsequently joined the Tories, his conservatism was of a mild type. He was MP for Belfast (1832-45), in 1845 he was knighted & appointed colonial secretary of Ceylon (1845-50) & created a baronet on his retirement from the Board of Trade in 1867. He contributed to the New Monthly Magazine and was a frequent correspondent of Notes and Queries. An English philhellene and correspondent of 1821, writing from London: "At every step, you see something to remind you that you are in Greece. The language, the customs, the character of the Greeks were the same as in the time of Demosthenes. Their disguise also gives the impression that they have not changed at all. They still have long wavy hair, just like Homer's heroes. The traditional clothes, the knife and the leggings show that the Greeks of today are themselves the Achaeans". Humphreys, who had been with Gordon at the fall of Tripolitsa in October 1821 went again to Greece seeking an antidote to boredom by being shot at. Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire set a precedent that resonates across two centuries of European history up to present day. Seller Inventory # 5126