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BARROW (JOHN) An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, 1801-4; with ALS letter from Barrow (3) image 1
BARROW (JOHN) An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, 1801-4; with ALS letter from Barrow (3) image 2
BARROW (JOHN) An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, 1801-4; with ALS letter from Barrow (3) image 3
Lot 139

BARROW (JOHN)
An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, FIRST EDITION, 1801-4; and autograph letterfrom Barrow (3)

7 – 15 July 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £384 inc. premium

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BARROW (JOHN)

An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, in the Years 1797 and 1798, 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, large folding engraved map with routes hand-coloured in red and blue (laid down), folding tinted aquatint view, 8 folding engraved maps and charts (2 hand-coloured), without called-for half-title in volume 1, new stub to dedication leaf to Henry Dundas, light spotting or off-setting, modern half calf over original marbled boards, spine gilt with red morocco lettering label [Mendelssohn 1, pp.87-88], 4to (268 x 210mm.), T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, 1801-1804; with an autograph letter signed from Barrow to Professor William Jackson Hooker (3)

Footnotes

Barrow accompanied Lord Macartney during his governorship of the Cape of Good Hope (1797–9), "collecting much of the commercial and strategic intelligence about the eastern seas and southern Africa that Macartney forwarded to Henry Dundas, president of the Board of Control and secretary of state at war... and [forming] the basis his An Account of Travels, one of several books which established new standards for travel writing" (ODNB).

Included with the lot is a 2-page autograph letter signed from Barrow at the Admiralty to "Professor [William Jackson] Hooker", dated 12 August [18]39, mentioning that "Of the Expedition you mention I literally know nothing" but acknowledging that the government has been planning to send ships to the Southern Hemisphere to erect observatories. The letter appears to be responding to a request by Hooker hoping to find a placement for this son, John Dalton Hooker, who later in the year joined H.M.S. Erebus as surgeon on James Clark Ross's Expedition.

Provenance: Cornwall Library, ink inscription inside upper covers.

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