CROSSING'S DARTMOOR WORKER.

UK,small 8vo HB+dw/dj,facsimile,1st edn thus.[William Crossing, who died 1928, wrote articles for local newspapers about Dartmoor,circa 1903.This collection was first published in book form in 1966 by Le Messurier,who also collected the contemporary photographs.This new facsimile edn is introduced by Crispin Gill,also a local West Country historian and writer.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price -clip to dw/dj - absence of publisher's printed price but an adhesive price label to rear panel.Bright, crisp, clean,glossy colour pictorial artwork illustration by Brian Ainsworth, with brown+black lettering to front panel,publisher's book advert to rear panel; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present - virtually as new,apart from ubiquitous but light fading/sunning to spine/backstrip.Top+fore-edges,bright,crisp and clean with NO dust-soiling,NO foxing/ spotting,thumbing/grubbing or blemishes of any kind - immaculate; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine.Appears unread,apart from my own collation.Publisher's original bright, clean and unblemished, sharp-cornered,red cloth bds with bright, crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white eps.UK,small 8vo HB+dw/dj,facsimile 1st edn,11-162pp [paginated] includes 20 chapters, 16pp contemporary b/w photographs interspersed throughout the text and the book,an index,plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,contents list/table,an introduction to the 1992 edn by Crispin Gill,an introduction to the 1966 edn by Brian Le Messurier,who has also added an appendix (new) to the 1966 edn, in 1992. This book is the collection of twenty articles William Crossing wrote under the title "Present Day Life on Dartmoor.",which appeared in The Western Morning News in 1903.They were published on Wednesdays beginning on 5 August,1903.The collection was then first published in book form in 1966,but has been unavailable and out of print for many years - any original and subsequent copies eagerly sought after and collected. In what must be regarded as one of his most important works, Crossing takes the reader to see the peat-cutter at work and the job is described in detail.He goes out with the warrener in the chill of a Dartmoor night to observe the professional rabbit-catcher carrying out his skilled evolutions with net or trap.The chapters on the miner,the clay labourer and the quarryman will be of absorbing interest to the industrial archaeologist.Others will find Crossing's wry comments about the antiquary,the artist and the visitor entertaining as well as instructive. There is no overlapping of subject matter between this book and 'Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor.' (also published as a facsimile edn by Peninsula Press). The original articles appear in the book as chapters, with an introduction by Brian Le Messurier, who also collected the contemporary photographs with which the book is illustrated. This new (then 1992) facsimile edition is introduced by Crispin Gill,who describes the many changes that have taken place on Dartmoor since Crossing's day: "But although it has changed . . . its peace,its austere beauty,its loneliness,its feeling of wilderness, of essential values is still there.Crossing more than most men has made it accessible,and understandable,to us." Please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!