This book is titled "Instructions To Young Sportsmen In All that Relates To Guns and Shooting", by Lt. Col. P. Hawker, published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans in 1854, and it is the tenth edition, with explanatory plates and woodcuts, edited by his son, Major P. W. L. Hawker and comes in an attractive binding by Birdsall, Northampton & London. Lt. Col. Hawker (1786 - 1853) served in the 14th Royal Dragoons under the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon and was wounded during the campaign; his sporting exploits and writings were widely followed during his lifetime, and his writings are considered classics. The book has five raised bands, six compartments with gilt lettering and gilt devices on the spine, as well as "1854" near the heel, red boards, marbled endpapers, the binder's name (Birdsall …) on the first blank endpaper, an illustrated frontis titled "Return To Keyhaven, After A Day's Gunning, In The Winter Of 1838" engraved by H. Adlard, with a tissue guard and title page, a Dedication page to Prince Albert [husband of Queen Victoria], a second Dedication page to William the Fourth, a one-page Preface to the Tenth Edition (dated 1854) and a four-page Preface to the Ninth Edition, a bust of Lt. Col. P. Hawker, a three-page List of Plates And Woodcuts, ten pages of Contents (a2 - xxviii), the text runs from B to page 538, with a sixteen-page Index, for a total of 556 pages in the book, and the top edge is gilt. The book includes a List of London Gunmakers for 1854 and a List of the London Fishing Rod and Tackle Makers, and a long chapter about Game Laws in England - not your typical sporting book, but an in-depth look at guns and hunting in the 1800's by an expert on the subject. The book is 8vo. and measures 9 x 6 in. wide, and is in very good condition. The binding is tight and the pages and text are very clean, as are the plates and woodcuts. There's a tad of rubbing on the crown and heel and on a couple of raised bands, light rubbing along the top edge and along the spine of the book, and modest wear at the tips. There are brown spots here and there, but are very scattered, and overall a very attractive copy of this gun and sporting book. We found only three listed for sale online for the 1854 edition, and one was heavily worn and frayed, and this copy is in much better condition than that one. #114 #1655