The wanderings of the Hermit of Westminster between New York & San Francisco in the autumn of 1881. By R. P. Spice, C. E., F. R. G. S. Printed for private circulation. [London: Metchim & Son, Typ.], n.d. [1882]. 21.7x14.7 cm, pp. [1-7] 8-84 [85-88: blank] [first leaf used as front free endpaper; last two leaves used as rear free endpaper and rear paste-down], 4 illustrations, original pictorial drab boards with cloth shelf back. First edition. Pages [42]-55 comprise an account of a trip by horse-drawn stage to Yosemite Valley via Clark's and a visit to the Mariposa Big Tree Grove. When the Hermit first saw Yosemite, all of his previous notions about the valley "passed out of my mind in the presence of those stupendous rocks ..." Includes a good description of Leidig's Hotel, "the first house in the valley ... a wooden structure, of simple and perfectly unpretentious character, such as a village carpenter might be supposed to have erected without the aid of an architect; wood, wood, wood, verily all is wood in the valley, except the rocks which are granite; and, as to Leidig's Hotel, it is all wood, excepting the locks or latches and hinges on the doors, the glass in the windows and the grates in the fireplaces. But everything is clean and wholesome, and every possible attention is paid to his guests by the proprietor, who is very obliging, looks after the business attentively, and does the waiting at table; his wife is the cook of the establishment, and a very good plain cook she is" (page 50). Cowan (1933), p. 605. Currey and Kruska 323. Flake 8345. Nisbet, British Comment on the United States: A Chronological Bibliography, 1832–1899 82-2417. Boards rubbed, soiled and stained, endpapers foxed, a sound, good copy. Provenance: An author's presentation copy with "With the Author's Compliments" written along the upper margin of the title page. (#167911).
No statement of primting.