THE ORIGINAL.
by THOMAS WALKER, M.A. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; BARRISTER AT LAW, AND ONE OF THE POLICE MAGISTRATES OF THE METROPOLIS. SECOND EDITION. LONDON. HENRY RENSHAW, 356, STRAND. 1836
220 x 120mm. 2feps. Title page. On verso; LONDON: IBOTSON AND PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. (i) - iv Contents. (1)2-444. Including all 29 periodicals. 2feps. The pages very clean. Both inside covers and facing pages marbled. 1/4 bottle green calf with same colour cloth boards. Tips bottle green calf. Spine with raised bands and gilt tooling with dark maroon label. All edges of the text block marbled. A very attractive copy.
- This is a full compilation of an irregular series of individual Victorian periodicals written entirely by Thomas Walker, the son of a Manchester manufacturer and Whig reformer. Walker was born in 1784, gained his B.A. and M.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1808 and 1811 respectively, and was called to the bar in 1812. In 1829, he became a police magistrate in Lambeth court. Six years later, he began 'The Original' for, he claimed, it would provide “a constant and interesting stimulus to my faculties of observation and reflection” – in other words, it would act as a kind of public diary. A lively, un-illustrated 3d weekly 16-page miscellany (though its first issue comprised 12 pages and its last just 4), it ran from May 20th 1835 to the 2nd December 1835 for 29 numbers, coming out every Wednesday for 3d and also monthly in a wrapper (its last number, the 4-page issue, costing only a penny). It was published by Henry Renshaw, 356 Strand, London and printed by Ibotson & Palmer, Savoy Street. The most famous and influential section of the miscellany in the nineteenth century and beyond was 'Aristology; or, The Art of Dining'. Beginning in number 13 and continuing until number 22, it received particular favour in the 'Quarterly Review'. It was eventually published separately in 1883 with the rather unlikely suggestion it become a school textbook, edited by no less than Sir Henry Cole, founder of the Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music – and the National School of Cookery. It is possible to see the influence of Brillat-Savarin’s famous 'Physiologie du Goût' - 1825, in Walker’s mixture of charming anecdote and pseudo-science. However, recipes are conspicuously lacking: unlike Brillat-Savarin, Walker concentrated on refining the delights of consumption rather than production. His work relates to the gastronomic literature associated with gentlemen’s clubs such as George Vasey’s 'Illustrations of Eating' - 1847. and J. Timb’s 'Hints for the Table' - 1859. rather than to the practical and popular cookbooks of that time.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11305