Welsh Journals

which was used for the second edition of the work. By 1795, the publication of parts which included the Marches was in hand and the title would therefore apply to this edition. Only one original form of title-page for Volume II has been noted, viz.: A Picturesque Guide I to the Local Beauties of Wales; interspersed with the most Interesting Subjects of Antiquity in that Principality By James Baker Swelled Rule. Vol. II. Swelled Rule. Printed for the Author: and Sold. Swelled Rule. MDCCXCIV. There are, however, two copies of Volume II in which the title-page of the 1791 and 1795 editions of Volume I have been used. In both copies 'I' has been added in manuscript to 'Vol. I' to make 'Vol. II'. There are several known copies of the work in three volumes; no title page appears to have been printed for a third volume, but the title-pages of Volume I, 1795, and of Volume II, 1794, with the necessary additions in manuscript, have been used in copies where the text is arranged in three volumes. The National Library has acquired two such copies since 1916. Sir John Ballinger refers to a copy in three volumes, and a three volume copy with the book-plate of Sir Evan Davies-Jones is noted by J. R. Abbey in Scenery of Great Britain and Ireland: a bibliographical catalogue, 1952; the copy listed in the British Museum Catalogue, also, is in three volumes. The complete text for Volume I extends to 186 pages, and that for Volume II to 272 pages; when copies of the work have been arranged in three volumes, the text of volume II ends at p. 213, and the third volume continues with two pages numbered 1 and 2, followed by pp. 215-72. An index of places was published, but in only one of the Library's copies is this found; it is on inferior paper and printed at Bath. In some of the copies examined the plates have been inserted to correspond with the text relating to them, while in other copies their inclusion bears no relation to the text. In addition to A Picturesque Guide, Baker published A Brief Narrative of the French Invasion, 1797, and The Imperial Guide (Home Beauties: an appendix), 2 pts., 1802, and his plates have been used indiscriminately in all these works. It would appear that he made up sets of his work for individual purchasers and that the plates were included according to the choice of the purchaser of each set. The title pages of A Picturesque Guide refer to Wales, but a perusal of the text indicates that the tour related almost entirely to South Wales and the Border. The running title for all pages up to p. 213 of the second volume is 'South Wales'; from the middle of p. 213 it becomes 'South Wales and North Wales', although the places described in this part of the work are mostly in Herefordshire, and there is no reference to any place north-west of the town of Montgomery. Slight descriptions of North Wales are included in the Imperial Guide, 1802; preceding the text of this volume is a 'List of Select Views' published for the contributing subscribers to the Imperial Guide, and views of North Wales are included in the list. The following list gives one hundred and forty four (144) plates which have been noted in all the copies of Baker's works in the National Library. The illustrations are in the form of aquatint engravings, and the names of the artists and engravers are shown when given; the spelling of the names is as given in the plates. The copy lent for collation purposes by Major H. J. Lloyd-Johnes contains seventy-one (71) plates, among these being two plans of roads which do not appear in any of the Library's copies. They are :-Plan of the Roads, and General View Plates I and II, Vol. I, designed, surveyed, and engraven by J. Baker; and published May 1798 for A Picturesque Guide through Wales and the Marches. The areas covered by the two plates are [New] Passage to Cowbridge, and Cowbridge to Carmarthen. The following plates which do not appear in any of the National Library's copies are listed under the entry for Home Beauties, 1802, by J. R. Abbey in his catalogue to which reference has already been made: — Voelas; Greatness; Combank; Avishays; Ash Grove; and Summer Hill. Of the one hundred and twenty-six plates listed by Sir John Ballinger the following are additional to those in the Library's copies:-Woodhall; West view of Brixham; East Cowes Castle; Kentish Town Lodge; Voelas; Adlington; Avishays; Brooks Place, Green Hill. This gives a total of thirteen views and two plans in addition to the list of one hundred and forty four plates already in the Library's copies.