Eastern Tour 1843, 1844. Cruises in "The Dream", 1849, 1850, 1852. FITZROY, William Henry, sixth Duke of Grafton.

First and sole edition of the entertaining travelogue, the title page stating that "Twenty-four Copies only printed for near relatives", four copies being located in institutional libraries: British Library, Senate House, V&A, and the Harry Ransom Center. Grafton (1819-1882) had served as attaché at Naples in 1841 and was, fittingly, a member of the Travellers' Club. Much of his book, published posthumously by his wife Marie (who supplies footnotes to elucidate his notes that had been "just scratched down") comprises an account of a trip to the Eastern Mediterranean. With his companions John Fortescue and Corry Connellan, Grafton travelled through Turkey, Greater Syria (including what was known popularly as the Holy Land), Egypt, Greece, and Italy. At Istanbul they watch Sultan Abdülmecid I processing to the Blue Mosque to celebrate the festival of Bayram (Eid al-Fitr), Fitzroy describing him with patrician disdain as "a mean looking man, pitted with small-pox. [who] looked like any one you like rather than the Sultan of Turkey" (p. 26). They also visit, together with Richard Wood, consul at Damascus, the ruins of Palmyra ("very grand; but the nature of the stone, which is soft, has not been a good auxiliary to the climate", p. 47). At Bethlehem they witness a Christmas celebration: "It was a sight more curious than imposing Music (not very sacred) oozed from an organ; a wax bambino, to represent our Saviour, was brought from a subterranean chapel Mass and other services were performed throughout the greater part of the night, and we left many of the congregation slumbering on the ground" (pp. 67-8). The trip takes a tragic turn when the Duke's Cambridge friend, Robert Bateson, is taken ill with a fever in Jerusalem and dies (p. 68). There is a diversion to Petra ("shaped out of the living rose-coloured rock, of the finest workmanship, and in a beautiful state of preservation", p. 77). A number of the photographs are by Frank Good, "best known for his series of views of the Middle East taken on four separate tours of the area in the 1860s and 1870s. He first travelled to Egypt as assistant to Francis Frith in late 1857. He joined the Photographic Society in 1864, and in 1880 served as a judge of its annual exhibition" (luminous-lint website). The last 32 pages describe three trips to Norway and Iceland in the cutter-yacht The Dream, owned by fellow Conservative MP George "Big Ben" Bentinck. The last of these relates a three-weeks' fishing excursion. Not in Atabey, Blackmer or Toy. Octavo (175 x 134). With 22 original sepia-toned albumen photographs mounted on captioned leaves (all but 2 of landscapes), 3 full-page reproductions of sketches by Grafton, 3 maps (2 of which double-page), posy of pressed flowers from Nazareth. Contemporary dark green calf, sometime neatly rebacked with original spine laid down, gilt interlocking double "G" monogram to front cover, covers triple-ruled in blind with corner rosettes, gold-veined marbled endpapers, red edges. Light rubbing to boards, slight foxing, occasional dust soiling, some corrections and additions to the text in pen (presumably by Lady Grafton). A very good copy.