COTTAGE DOMESTIC ECONOMY. Extracts from Cobbett and other Writers.

Frome, printed by Crockers, 1829.. FIRST EDITION, 1829. Small 8vo, in sixes, approximately 180 x 110 mm, 7 x 4¼ inches, pages:1-155, including title page, foreword, introduction and index, bound in publisher's quarter tan roan, with grey boards and no lettering to spine. Small crack to top of upper hinge, pale spotting to title page and margins of next 4 leaves, otherwise contents clean, binding tight and firm, no loose pages. A very good copy of a scarce cookery book. OCLC locates 3 copies in US libraries, 1 in New Zealand and only 1 copy in UK (British Library, see Library Hub Discover). The preface of the compiler is signed "I. B. from Longleat", i.e. Isabella Byng who married the 2nd Marquess of Bath in 1794. She addresses the work to the cottagers of her neighbourhood and regrets being unable to interest herself in their welfare at that time due to ill health. In fact she died a year later in 1830. The book is intended to assist her cottagers to manage their daily lives and to produce food and drink from the small plot of land they own. There are chapters on nutritious cheap beer versus useless expensive tea, on the art of brewing, making bread, making malt, keeping cows and pigs, making bacon, keeping bees, keeping poultry, pigeons, rabbits, goats and ewes, making rush lights, and pages 133-147 contain simple recipes. Not listed in the bibliographies of Bitting, Vicaire, Cagle or A. W. Oxford, English Cookery Books to 1850. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE. FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.