A PLANTATION OWNER'S COPY
Lays of ind. Second series.
Bombay.
"Times of India" Office, 1873.
First edition.
8vo.
[6], 132pp. Original publisher's navy cloth, stamped in gilt and blind. Lightly rubbed, spine dulled. Contemporary inked ownership inscriptions of R. Beauchamp Downall to FFEP and head of title page.
The first edition of a second series of humorous Anglo-Indian poems by British Army officer Walter Yeldham (1837-1916), published under his nom de plume Aliph Cheem.
The poems, composed in exalted doggerel, frequently affectionately mock the officer class of the Victorian Raj, though do on occasion lampoon the native people, employing untrammelled racist language, notably in 'The N----s!':
'In fact, throughout our whole dominion,
No honest nigger could be got,
And never would, in his opinion,
Until we polished off the lot'.
The first series, a critical and commercial success, ran through numerous editions; the second series received far less attention and as a result is decidedly less common. OCLC records copies at just 10 locations (Berea, Brigham Young, BL, California, Carolina, Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, LoC, and St. Andrews).
Provenance: Reginald Beauchamp Downall (1843-1888), British coffee plantation owner and sometime member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon. Following financial setback, Downall's estates in Haputale, Sri Lanka, were sold to Sir Thomas Lipton and formed the basis of the Lipton tea empire.
£ 375.00
Antiquates Ref: 34229
The poems, composed in exalted doggerel, frequently affectionately mock the officer class of the Victorian Raj, though do on occasion lampoon the native people, employing untrammelled racist language, notably in 'The N----s!':
'In fact, throughout our whole dominion,
No honest nigger could be got,
And never would, in his opinion,
Until we polished off the lot'.
The first series, a critical and commercial success, ran through numerous editions; the second series received far less attention and as a result is decidedly less common. OCLC records copies at just 10 locations (Berea, Brigham Young, BL, California, Carolina, Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, LoC, and St. Andrews).
Provenance: Reginald Beauchamp Downall (1843-1888), British coffee plantation owner and sometime member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon. Following financial setback, Downall's estates in Haputale, Sri Lanka, were sold to Sir Thomas Lipton and formed the basis of the Lipton tea empire.
