First edition. 264pp, fourteen black and white illustration plates. Red cloth-covered boards, gilt titles on spine, top text block edge sprayed red, bottom edge untrimmed. 8vo. Sun-faded spine area, rubbed spine ends, cloth at bottom corners just starting to wear. Top text block edge colour just starting to fade, remaining edges tanning and foxing. Endpapers starting to fox and tan, pages aging. Otherwise internally neat and clean, barring some foxing to prelims.
White indulges in exploring and recording the outrageous gossip among literary circles in 18th century England and along the way illuminates the eccentricities of royalty, the wig-powdering fashions of the aristocracy and contemporary attitudes on matters such as sport, religion and literature.
