WILLOUGHBY, Bertie, Earl of Abingdon. An Adieu to the Turf: A Poetical Epistle. London: M. Smith, 1778. 4° (269 x 211mm). (Half-title soiled, some soiling and creasing to final leaf.) Mottled calf by Riviere, gilt edges (neatly rebacked).
Second of three editions all published in 1778. The author mentions cricket when describing his mis-spent youth (p. 3). When scarcely fourteen, he was lured away from 'more childish cricket' to make 'am'rous play' with women. Using a cricket metaphor to palliate his sexual indiscretions, he says: 'I only strove to hit their wicket,/And put-out every maid'. Padwick 863 -3.
WILLOUGHBY, Bertie, Earl of Abingdon. An Adieu to the Turf: A Poetical Epistle. London: M. Smith, 1778. 4° (269 x 211mm). (Half-title soiled, some soiling and creasing to final leaf.) Mottled calf by Riviere, gilt edges (neatly rebacked).
Second of three editions all published in 1778. The author mentions cricket when describing his mis-spent youth (p. 3). When scarcely fourteen, he was lured away from 'more childish cricket' to make 'am'rous play' with women. Using a cricket metaphor to palliate his sexual indiscretions, he says: 'I only strove to hit their wicket,/And put-out every maid'. Padwick 863 -3.
