Angler in Wales, Or Days & Nights Of Sportsmen, Medwin 1834. This two-volume set is titled "The Angler in Wales, Or Days And Nights Of Sportsmen", by Thomas Medwin, Esq., printed in London by Richard Bentley in 1834. Bentley had been appointed Publisher in Ordinary to his Majesty in 1833, and this book carries that title as well. The books are a first edition set, according to WorldCat, and they are a semi-autographical account of the author's fishing experiences in Wales, Ireland, Italy, and Switzerland, as well as his life in India, where he served in the army from about 1815 to 1819, and there are reminiscences about Byron and Shelley in the books too. Thomas Medwin (1788- 1869) was an early 19th-century English writer, poet and translator. He was born in West Sussex, a historic county in South East England, and is best known as a biographer of his cousin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as for the published recollections of his friend, Lord Byron. Medwin was second cousin to Shelley, who lived only two miles away at Field Place in Warnham, and they enjoyed a friendship that lasted from childhood until Shelley's death at only 29. In the early 1800's, he began writing poems, including a contribution to The Wandering Jew, a poem attributed to Shelley, and while he was at Cawnpore, one of the largest military stations in India, he did not participate in much fighting, but spent many hours hunting wildlife. His regiment was disbanded in 1818 and Medwin went on half-pay, attached to a regiment of the Life Guards until 1831, when he sold his commission. By this time, he was known as Captain Medwin, although there is no evidence that he was ever promoted beyond the rank of lieutenant. He also ran up gambling debts, causing a quarrel with his father, which resulted in Thomas being cut out of his father's will (1829). His literary output in the mid 1830's was extensive. He contributed a series of short stories to Bentley's Miscellany and departed from his usual classical fare in The Angler in Wales, or Days and Nights of Sportsmen, which was in the tradition of Isaac Walton's The Compleat Angler: it defends the sport of angling and provides insight into Medwin's love of the countryside and the pursuits it offered. The publisher, Richard Bentley, contributed seventeen illustrations, but decided that the submitted manuscript was not long enough for two volumes. This caused some tension between Medwin and Bentley, because Medwin's funds were sparse. As a consequence additional material was added in the form of an appendix, made up of quotations from such works as Jan Swammerdam's Ephemeri vita, a treatise on the mayfly. (See the Appendix after chapter seventeen of the first volume). The second volume was padded by a revised version of Medwin's Pidararees, now called Julian and Giselle. Medwin's legacy tends to raise more questions than answers. His writings on Byron and Shelley are often imprecise and he had a tendency to fall out with former associates, including Shelley's widow and Trelawny, one of the bishops or politicians in England. These caveats aside, he remains the main source of information on Shelley's childhood, and his "Conversations of Lord Byron" is now generally seen as realistic and an essentially true picture of Lord Byron. The two books are bound in green vellum, with gilt letters on the spines of the vellum covers; the books have paper labels on the spines, with green boards, blank endpapers, two frontispieces after Thomas Landseer, and the title pages. Volume I has a dedication page to Robert Allen, a six-page Preface, five pages of Contents, followed by a list of Illustrations, 279 pages of text, and an Appendix after chapter Seventeen, for a total of 336 pages in the first book. The second volume has five pages of Contents after the title page, 348 pages of text, with Errata for both volumes listed on the last page of text in the second volume and a penciled note on the blank endpaper at the rear which is hard to read, but mentions Parsons Bridge and the city of Venice. The owner's name is inscribed on the front paste downs, there are seventeen woodcut illustrations, including the frontispieces and the vignette title pages, and all the woodcuts are present. The first volume recounts days one through seventeen of Medwin's angling tour in Wales, and the second volume recounts days eighteen to day thirty of his angling tour. The books are 8vo. and measure 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. wide, with bright gilt lettering on the spines of the vellum covers and light wear on the edges of the vellum. "British Library" appears in bright gilt lettering above the papers labels on the spines, but there is heavy wear on the paper labels themselves, the front covers of both volumes have bubbling, wear, and discoloration, with an exposed binding on the spine of the first volume and a vertical crease up the spine of the second volume, and wear along the bottom edges of the covers and at the tips for both volumes. The bindings are actually tight, except for a couple of loose pages, but the pages are still attached. There are dampstains and light wear on the endpapers, dampstains and light soiling on the frontispieces, and the text is relatively clean in both volumes, except for occasional brown spots and light soiling, and dampstains on pages 160 to 177 in Volume II. One page is missing a corner tip, there are light creases, light chips and nicks along the edges of the pages near the end of Volume II, and the page with the pencilled note at the end of the second volume has creases and folds, but is very intact. And an interesting first edition set about angling in England and Europe in the early 1800's, with references to Shelley and Lord Byron along the way. #129 #1597