Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, Illustrated.

Notes

First edition of this delightful collection of views, more than half of which are given over to Lake District subjects, described as being the first album that "featured Wordsworthian sites and sights" (Saeko Yoshikawa, William Wordsworth and the Invention of Tourism, 1820-1900, 2014, p. 174). It was originally issued in 26 parts as a section of Fisher's Picturesque Illustrations of Great Britain and Ireland. Thomas Allom was responsible for 189 of the designs and the work was divided among a team of 26 engravers. Basil Hunnisett notes that Allom's drawings, like those of Thomas Bewick, "are full of little touches that redeem them from formality... These touches give his illustrations a perennial interest" (Steel-engraved Book Illustration in England, 1980, p. 109). In his "Address", the publisher Henry Fisher gives an interesting breakdown of the costs involved in production, comprising 5,000 for the painting, drawing and engraving, 2,750 for printing of the plates, the same for paper and duty on paper, and 500 for letterpress printing, making the not insubstantial total of 11,000. Aside from the obvious attractions of the picturesque scenery covered in these volumes, there was also a patriotic motive behind the depiction of the very latest constructions and buildings, such as the Scottswood Bridge over the Tyne (opened in 1831) and the Royal Arcade in Newcastle (1832, demolished 1963), the latter a beautifully executed plate by James Sands after Allom.