Description

PUBLICATION DETAILS: Weld, Isaac (1774-1856). 1800. WITH 5 FOLDING MAPS.  8″h x 5 ¼”w.  Two volumes (427, 376 pages).  Based on 38 letters Weld sent to friends in Great Britain.  Sixteen fold-out plates (11) and maps (5) collate complete.
 
FIVE FOLDING MAPS:
1. Part of the United States of North America.  Imprint: Published 15th Nov’r. 1798, by J. Stockdale, Piccadilly. 16”h x 18 ½”w.   Outline color.  One-inch tear at binding stub.

2. Plan of the City of Washington. Imprint: Published by J. Stockdale Piccadilly 16th. Sep’r. 1798. 7”h x 8 ½”w.  Minor offsetting.  Phillips, List of Maps and Views of Washington and District of Columbia, PW 37.

3. A New Map of Upper & Lower Canada 1798. Imprint: Published Nov’r. 10th. 1798 by J. Stockdale Piccadilly.  7”h x 9”w.  Foxing.

4. A Plan of the City of Quebec. 7”h x 9 ½”w. 

5. An Eye Sketch of the Falls of Niagara.  Imprint: London Published by J. Stockdale Piccadilly 16th Nov’r. 1798″ 6 ½”h x 8 ½”w.  Foxing. 

PLATES: Fold-out engravings by James Storer, Samuel Springsguth, Paton Thomson and others after Weld’s designs: American Stage Wagon, View of the lesser Fall of Niagara, View of the Horse-Shoe Fall of Niagara, View of the Falls of Niagara, View of Bethlehem, View of Mount Vernon, View of the rock Bridge, View of the Hudson River, View of the Cohoz Fall,  Canadian Calash  Donc,  View of Cape Diamond.
 
WELD IN WASHINGTON: “Isaac Weld, a Briton, visited Washington about the same time as [Duc de] Liancourt and described the Capitol, the President’s House, Blodget’s Hotel, and the private houses. He could not take Washington’s urban pretensions seriously. ‘Were the houses that have been built situated in one place all together, they would have made a very respectable appearance, but scattered about as they are) a spectator can scarcely perceive anything like a town. Excepting the streets and avenues, and a small part of the ground adjoining the public buildings, the whole place is covered with trees. To be under the necessity of going through a deep wood for one or two miles, perhaps, in order to see a next door neighbor, and in the same city, is a curious, and I believe, a novel circumstance.’’(Burr quoting Weld’s criticism l of the new capitol.).)

ASSOCIATED PERSONS: Storer, James, 1771-1853; Springsguth, Samuel; Thomson, Paton, b. ca. 1750; Stockdale, John, 1749?-1814.

CONDITION:  20th Century leather.   Browning on pages adjacent to plates.  Lightly scuffed.  Tightly bound as evidenced by the illustrations accompanying this narrative. Very good condition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Burr, Nelson R. The Federal City Depicted.1612-1801, in Ristow, A la Carte. Page 141.

Howes, Wright.   U.S.IIana, 1650-1950.  W235.