Here and There Over the Water

London: Geo: Hunt, 1825. A Regency Excursion to The Low Countries of Europe
with
Twenty-Four Magnificent Hand-Colored Plates

E[GERTON], M[ichael]. Here and There Over the Water: Being Cullings in a Trip to the Netherlands. By Omnium Gatherum. Drawn and Written by M.E. Esq. Engraved by Geo: Hunt. London: Geo: Hunt, 1825.

First edition. Large quarto (10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches; 267 x 215 mm.). [2, title-page], 34 pp. Twenty-four hand-colored aquatint plates and four uncolored aquatint plates of Waterloo memorials.

Bound by Zaehnsdorf ca. 1900 (stamp-signed on verso of front free endpaper) in three quarter red crushed levant morocco over red cloth boards, covers ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands elaborately stamped and lettered in gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others uncut. Lower portion of front joint slightly cracked but still sound. Plate no. 4 with two small and insignificant fox marks, some very minor offsetting from the plates to the text. A fine and large copy with superb hand-coloring, the plates and the text watermarked "Whatman Turkey Mills 1824".

A scarce work, describing and illustrating a Regency excursion to the Low Countries. Egerton begins his tour at Ostend where he was stuck for a day as it was a Sunday. He took time to describe the people, the 'Custom House', the hotel and the 'Purgatory Gate' attached to the Church (destroyed in a fire later in the nineteenth century) before traveling the next day by 'Great Coach' and barge to Ghent observing the 'Belgic Military' various 'Diligences' and peasant costumes before continuing onto Brussels. Here he examined the Market Pavilion of the Prince of Orange before traveling on the the next leg of the journey which takes the artist once more to Ghent where he describes and illustrates the Exchange. Egerton then returns to Brussels to view the Palace of Schoonenberg; and then on to the main reason for his excursion: a trip to Waterloo taking in all the main sites of the battle including graves and monuments.

Michael Egerton(also known as Omnium Gatherum flourished between 1821 and 1828 and produced a number of caricatures mainly of social comedy sporting scenes and jokes on the weather; almost all his work was engraved by George Hunt.

OCLC records just six copies in North America: Harvard; Yale; New York Public Library; Brown University; Claremont College & the Art Institute of Chicago.

The plates::

1. Frontispiece. [Flying over the Channel].
2. Quay, Custom House & Hotel-Ostend.
3. The Purgatory Gate, Ostend.
4. Post Office-Ostend.
5. [Dandy chimney sweeper & Merry making party].
6. The Great Coach.
7. Trekschuit or Barge.
8. Military-Ghent.
9. Diligences. Starting from the Messageries - Ghent.
10. Peasants in the Neighbourhood of Brussells.
11. Market-Brussells.
12. Pavilion of the Prince of Orange at Terrevueren.
13. Peasants &c. near Antwerp.
14. Exchange at Antwerp.
15. A Bird's Eye.
16. Palace of Schoonenberg near Brussells.
17. Cottage - Waterloo/Occupied by the Marquis of Anglesea.
18. [Tomb & Trees].
19. Tombs in the Burial Ground of Waterloo Church.
20. Church & Village of Waterloo.
21. [Tombstones] uncolored.
22. [Tombstones] uncolored.
23. [Tombstones] uncolored.
24. [Tombstones] uncolored.
25. Monuments-Field of Waterloo.
26. Ruins of the Chateau de Goumont.
27. La Belle Alliance.
28. [Similar to frontispiece - Returning across the Channel].

Abbey, Travel, 188; Bobins, II, 417; Martin Hardie, p. 157; Tooley, 207.