Nimrod [Apperley, Charles J.]

Nimrod's Hunting Tours; Interspersed with characteristic anecdotes, sayings, and doings of sporting men, including notices of the principal crack riders of England, to which are added Nimrod's letters on riding to hounds, with analytical contents and general index of names.

London: John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, 1926. Illustrations by Numerous Contemporary Artists. Hardcover.
The author contributed to The Sporting Magazine, his stories were then published in book form depicting themes related to fox hunting & horses.

First Edition, Thus. A New Edition with an Introduction by W. Shaw Sparrow and Twenty-Four Illustrations in Colour and Half-tone after Ben Marshall, Henry Alken, Wolstenholme, R. B. Davis. Wm. Webb, H. D. Chalon, James Ward, R.A., etc. [First Published in 1838]; 25.5cm.; 10.25 inches tall; v-xx, 294 pages with index of principle names; 1 page of publisher adverts. color frontispiece, plates (some color) folded map.

Publisher's Red cloth. Titles in stamped guilt. Top edge stained red, others deckled. Printed on Laid-paper, Illustrated with 24 color plates, additional b/w plates and drawings. Bindings tight and square. Text clean, light even toning. Moderate handling wear. Spine has moderate sun-darkening.

REF: Nevill, 23 "A Principle Sporting Book"; Higginson: 52; Smith: 400; ODNB; DWB; Biscotti: 22

Charles James Apperley, writing under the pseudonym Nimrod, is a vivid and sprawling portrait of fox-hunting in early 19th-century England. The book follows Apperley’s tours through counties like Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Warwickshire, and others, as he attends hunts, meets sporting characters, and writes letters and reflections on the chase. 

It weaves together lively anecdotes, tales of celebrated riders (crack riders), discussions of etiquette, descriptions of the countryside, and technical observations about riding to hounds. The style is ornate by modern standards, with a fondness for detail, flourish, and humor; you get sense not only of the sport itself, but of the social rituals around it: the riders, the huntsmen, the landowners, the country inns, and landscapes traversed. 

Subjects: Fox-hunting culture; Sporting men & riders; Rural English landscape; 19th-century social etiquette; Letters & riding to hounds; Local character and topography; Tradition & leisure; Field sports and hunting lore, Sporting memoir / travel; British social history; Historical non-fiction

Item #21133

Price: $195.00