SMITH, Hubert, and Thomas Charles BROMWICH, photographer.
A short Memoir of the late eminent Shropshire Genealogist and Antiquary, William Hardwicke, Esq … Reprinted and revised from “The Salopian Illustrated Magazine”.
Madeley (Shropshire), J. Randall, 1879.
8vo, pp. iv, [v-viii], 9-49, [3], ‘43-48’ (advertisements), with woodcut portrait of Hardwicke and 4 photographic illustrations, comprising: 3 carbon prints, approx. 3½ x 4⅝ inches (119 x 92 mm) or the reverse, mounted within printed single-fillet border, photographer's credit ‘T.C. Bromwich, Photo. Bridgnorth’ printed below, and one albumen print, 2¾ x 3 inches (69 x 75 mm), with printed title below; a couple of hinges cracked, but holding firm; bound in brown cloth with title, heavy single fillets, and flower illustration blocked in gilt to front board, heavy single fillets in blind on rear board; extremities slightly rubbed.
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A short Memoir of the late eminent Shropshire Genealogist and Antiquary, William Hardwicke, Esq … Reprinted and revised from “The Salopian Illustrated Magazine”.
First separate edition, photographically illustrated, of this short memoir of the Shropshire antiquary William Hardwicke.
Hardwicke was the author of an extensive and unpublished Shropshire genealogical manuscript ‘Pedigrees of the Heralds Visitations of Shropshire’, a three-volume work listing 1500 Shropshire pedigrees. The author here notes, ‘With the exception of his literary contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine, from time to time, none of [Hardwicke’s] large collections of MS. appeared in print, the cost and risk of publishing a Country History, and the small encouragement he received from more than one antiquarian friend as to any chance of profit, no doubt prevented the publication of his MS. pedigrees of Shropshire families’ (p. 27). The provenance of the completed manuscript, from the death of its author to its sale at the Mytton collection of Topographical and Genealogical Manuscripts (2 May 1877 by Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge on the Strand), is listed (pp. 36-7). The volumes are now held at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.
The author’s architectural descriptions, along with the photographs, detail building works and changes, such as bricked up, replaced, an added features at Allscote – the author’s birthplace and previously home of the Ouseleys. He draws comparisons to architectural features in other local buildings.
The photographs depict: ‘The Ancient Mansion of the Ouseleys, at Allscote -South Front. Birth-place of the late William Hardwicke, esq., 1772’; ‘The Ancient Mansion of the Ouseleys, Parish of Worfield, County of Salop – North Gable.’; ‘Mullioned Window on the Landing of the Ancient Mansion at Allscote, Parish of Worfield, County of Salop’; and ‘Llanaber Church, the burial place of Mr. W. Hardwicke’ (smaller format, no photographer's credit). The Appendix is Smith’s short paper on Llanaber Church, Barmouth, where Hardwicke is buried.
