An Account of the Mode of Draining Land, according to the System practised by Mr. Joseph Elkington...Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture..
by JOHNSTONE, John
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
New York, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Folding engraved frontis. & 18 folding engraved plates. [iii]-xvi, [one leaf of ads], 211, [1] pp. 8vo, mid-19th-cent. half-olive sheep & cloth, upper cover stamped in blind "Carolus Porcher de Clyffe" with his arms, binder's ticket "Bound by S. Mepham, Dorchester," spine gilt, red leather lettering piece on spine. London: R. Phillips, 1808. "Third edition, corrected and enlarged" (the first edition appeared in 1797, and there were a total of five editions through 1841). Johnstone (d. 1838), an Edinburgh surveyor, was promised a grant of £1000 by the recently formed Board of Agriculture to provide a detailed and accurate account of the system of land drainage developed by Joseph Elkington (d. 1806), a farmer in Warwickshire and designer of land drainage systems. Elkington was known to be in poor health, and it was feared that knowledge of his innovations might perish with him. "About 1763 Elkington inherited a farm at Princethorpe, where some years later he discovered, at Long Harold Pits along a geological fault, the method of land drainage for which he is remembered. He discovered by accident, after losing more than 800 sheep to liver rot, how some strata were porous and pervious to water while others were not, and that he could locate the former with the auger used in exploring for marl and coal."-ODNB. Many of the attractive plates depict geological strata. Elkington's methods were brought to the attention of the Board of Agriculture by the antiquary Charles Towneley and Sir Joseph Banks. Fine copy, lacking half-title. Armorial bookplate of Charles Porcher. Faint stamp of the Lawes Agricultural Trust on front paste-down. ❧ Fussell, III, pp. 25-26.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 6463
- Title
- An Account of the Mode of Draining Land, according to the System practised by Mr. Joseph Elkington...Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture..
- Author
- JOHNSTONE, John
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Keywords
- agriculture, geology, hydraulics, natural history, science
Terms of Sale
Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc.
5 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 5 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc.
Biblio member since 2009
New York, New York
About Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc.
By appointment
Glossary
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- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Paste-down
- The paste-down is the portion of the endpaper that is glued to the inner boards of a hardback book. The paste-down forms an...
- Fine
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- Poor
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- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...