This book is titled by Nimrod titled "The Chace, The Turf, And The Road", with illustrations by Henry Alken and a portrait by D. Maclise, R. A., the book was published in London by John Murray in 1837, and it is a first edition with black and white plates, instead of colored plates. The book is an account of fox-hunting in the 1800's and other equestrian sports; it was originally published as a series in the Quarterly Review, and this is the first time it was published in book form. The book has green cloth covers, with gilt titles and gilt decorations on the spine, a horse racing scene in gilt on the front covers, embossed decorative covers on front and back, yellow endpapers, followed by two blank endpapers, a frontis portrait of Nimrod with a facsimile signature, the title page, which is dated "MDCCCXXXVII" at the bottom [1837], a one-page Preface, one page of Contents, an Alphabetical Table of Contents for the Chase, another for the Road, and another for the Turf, for a total of thirteen pages (a3 - xvii) for the Alphabetical Table, a two-page List of Plates, the text, which runs from B through page 301, then a leaf with the Printer's information - the book was printed in London by A. Spottiswoode at New-Street-Square - then two pages of Standard Works Published by Mr. Murray, four pages of Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works, a four-page List of Books Published in 1836 - 7 by Mr. Murray, eight pages of Mr. Murray's List of Books Nearly Ready for Publication (March 1837) at the rear, and it has the plain, stipple-engraved frontispiece and thirteen other plates, but the thirteen plates are black-and-white, and not hand-colored. The second edition was issued in London in 1843 and had only 258 pages of text and eleven plates, so this is clearly not a second edition, but a first. Nimrod was the pseudonym for Charles James Apperley, a sports writer in his day. A devoted fox-hunter, Apperley began to contribute a series of articles to The Sporting Magazine around 1821, under the pseudonym "Nimrod"; the articles covered horse races, hunt meets and other sporting events, and his references to the personalities of the people he knew or met at such events helped to double the circulation of the magazine within a few years. Mr. Pittman, the proprietor of The Sporting Magazine, gave Nimrod a handsome salary and defrayed all the expenses of his tours. He also gave Nimrod a stud of hunters. After Pittman's death, the new owners of the magazine sued Apperley for the money that had been advanced. To avoid imprisonment, Apperley moved to Calais in 1830, where he supported himself by writing, and Apperley is best known for his two books, The Life of a Sportsman and Memoirs of the Life of John Mytton, both of which were illustrated with colored engravings by Henry Alken. Apperley eventually returned to England and died in London in 1843. The book is 8vo. and measures 9 1/8 x 6 in. wide, the spine has faded gilt, with fraying, wear, and light lift on the spine, the racing scene on the front cover has somewhat faded gilt, with wear on the edges of the boards, the gutters in front and back have somewhat exposed joints, and the rest of the binding is tight. The pages and text are actually very clean, with just a couple of brown spots in the margins; the plates have shadows or brown spots, one tissue guard is loose and two are missing (pages 59 and 89), there's a corner tip missing on the frontispiece and a crease on the yellow endpaper at the rear, the bottom corner on the back cover has a light mark or stain, there is light wear at the tips and two tips are turned in, and still a hard book to find in the original green boards. Most copies we found were rebound or recased, and an interesting book about fox hunting and sporting life in the 1800's. #100 #1639