Baker, John Wynn To His Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Visc. Townshend Dublin 1769
Baker, John Wynn. To His Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Visc. Townshend, Lieutenant General, and General Governor or Ireland, president, His Grace, the Duke of Leinster, His Grace, the Right Reverend Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland. The Right Honourable Arthur, Earl of Arran. The Right Honourable John Ponsonby, Esq; Thomas Le Hunte, Esq; Redmond Morris, Esq; the Revd. Thoephilus Brocas, D. D. Dean of Killala. Vice-presidents. And to the rest of the lords and gentlemen, composing that highly respectable body, the Dublin Society, the following remonstrance is most humbly addressed. Dublin: printed by S. Powell, 1769. 104 pp. 8vo, recent stiff marbled wrappers. First edition. John Wynn Baker was a leading figure in the development of Irish agriculture. Under the patronage of the Dublin Society, Baker established at Laughlinstown, in the county of Kildare, an experimental farm and a factory for making all kinds of farm implements, where he provided maintenance for apprentices, and inaugurated classes offering practical instruction in agricultural science. "In his short life he probably did more for the advancement of agriculture in Ireland than any of his predecessors." -- DNB. "A man of vigorous imagination, not unstimulated by the progressive spirit of the times." -- Fussell. This extraordinary "remonstrance" reveals Baker to have been a man keenly sensitive to criticism. The text includes a detailed, if not obsessive account of his dealings with the Dublin Society; Baker also provides figures for his commercial and household accounts, which some members had apparently queried. Occasional light foxing, but a very good copy of a very scarce title; the ESTC (on-line, 07/02) lists ten locations (C, D, Di, Do, Dr, Du; KU-S, MiDW, MoU). Cf. Fussell II, pp. 51-2 (not mentioning this work); not in Perkins.
£750
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