A Question of Squirrels
The Little Ground Squirrel of 1790
Gill Hollinshead writes:
I have a large number of wood cuts taken from books (by someone else) and pasted into a scrapbook many many years ago. These include a quantity from Bewick’s Quadrupeds. I have an 1811 edition but have only been able to read 1790, 1791 and 1792 editions on line.
For the reasons I have set out below the cuts which are not complete appear to come from the 1790 edition.
a. There is ‘The Common Bull and Cow’ while later editions named them ‘The Holstein or Dutch Breed’
b. There is ‘The Bouti-Bok, or Pied Goat’ later named as ‘The Pied Goat’
c. There is ‘The Thick-Nosed Tapir’ later ‘Capibara’
d. There is ‘The New South-Wales Dog’ later ‘The New South-Wales Wolf’
e. What appears to be the early picture of ‘The Spotted Hyena’
It is possible to read what appears on the back and this in every case corresponds with the 1790 edition. However, I have an image of ‘The Ground Squirrel’ which is shown below.
The 1791 edition refers to the same image but on Page 356 as ‘The Ground Squirrel’ but the text on back though similar does not correspond.
…..
Please can someone clarify. Am I missing something? Does someone have a 1790 edition that is different? The idiosyncrasies of 18th century publishing are beyond me!
Many thanks for any help
Gill White
We have this reply:
Dear Gill,
The answer to your query can be explained by your bringing to light an unrecorded variant of the first edition 1790, of Thomas Bewick's A General History of Quadrupeds!
The images attached are from two first editions in my collection. From these, it can be seen the word 'little' has been dropped from the animal's title, as printing of the first edition progressed.
This seems not to have been noted in Sidney Roscoe's 'Thomas Bewick A Bibliography Raisonné', 1953.
Yours sincerely,
Graham Carlisle
Gill Hollinshead writes:
I have a large number of wood cuts taken from books (by someone else) and pasted into a scrapbook many many years ago. These include a quantity from Bewick’s Quadrupeds. I have an 1811 edition but have only been able to read 1790, 1791 and 1792 editions on line.
For the reasons I have set out below the cuts which are not complete appear to come from the 1790 edition.
a. There is ‘The Common Bull and Cow’ while later editions named them ‘The Holstein or Dutch Breed’
b. There is ‘The Bouti-Bok, or Pied Goat’ later named as ‘The Pied Goat’
c. There is ‘The Thick-Nosed Tapir’ later ‘Capibara’
d. There is ‘The New South-Wales Dog’ later ‘The New South-Wales Wolf’
e. What appears to be the early picture of ‘The Spotted Hyena’
It is possible to read what appears on the back and this in every case corresponds with the 1790 edition. However, I have an image of ‘The Ground Squirrel’ which is shown below.
Yet, in the 1790 edition this is referred to on Page 336 as ‘The Little Ground Squirrel’ although in every other respect, including the text on the back, it is correct.
The 1791 edition refers to the same image but on Page 356 as ‘The Ground Squirrel’ but the text on back though similar does not correspond.
…..
Please can someone clarify. Am I missing something? Does someone have a 1790 edition that is different? The idiosyncrasies of 18th century publishing are beyond me!
Many thanks for any help
Gill White
We have this reply:
Dear Gill,
The answer to your query can be explained by your bringing to light an unrecorded variant of the first edition 1790, of Thomas Bewick's A General History of Quadrupeds!
The images attached are from two first editions in my collection. From these, it can be seen the word 'little' has been dropped from the animal's title, as printing of the first edition progressed.
Yours sincerely,
Graham Carlisle
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