A Pilgrimage to Nejd, The Cradle of the Arab Race by Blunt, Lady Anne - 1881

London, England: John Murray, 1881. Presumed first printing of the second English edition. First edition believed to have been issued as two separate volumes. This copy is two volumes in one. 8 x 5. Deep spruce blue-green buckram binding with black-stamped decoration and lettering to the front board, gilt-stamped image of an Arab astride a camel to the front board, and with gilt-stamped lettering to the spine. Professionally relined spine and with text block recased with the original binding. Expert repair to spine head and tail using dyed linen. Unbumped spine head and tail, and with moderately bumped and scuffed corners. Text block firmly bound in. A.E.G. With xxxi and 273 and ix and 283 numbered pages. Illustrated with approximately 31 B&W plates [steel engravings?], several of which are full-page. Also with a pedigree chart of the Ibn Saouds of Nejd and with a color fold-out map of Northern Arabia, as called for. The map with light foxing but otherwise in excellent condition. The book's preliminaries with evident foxing and the book with occasional scattered light foxing throughout. Handsome bookplate of previous owner to the front pastedown. Else an impressively clean copy inside and out. A Very Good Minus copy. Lady Anne Blunt was the wife of Wilfred Scawen Blunt and the grand-daughter of Lord Byron. Although hardly Byron's equal as a writer, her prose somwhat turgid, she nevertheless enjoyed popularity on account of the travel writing she and her husband did based on their travels in the Near East. Lady Anne was one of the most level-headed of all women travelers. To find out how the Bedouin lived, she lived like one herself: she became a temporary nomad, riding the two thousand miles from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf for the most part in Arab dress, and without guides. She and her husband were trusted and accepted by the Bedouin. Indeed, the Amir himself presented them with his choicest brood mares to take home for their famous Crabbet Arabian Stud.. Second Edition. Decorative Cloth. Very Good Minus. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.