MITFORD, John (1782-1831). The Adventures of Johnny Newcome in The Navy, London, 1819, 8vo, 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates by Charles Williams (some spotting, staining and browning), contemporary diced calf gilt (rubbed). FIRST EDITION.

MITFORD, John (1782-1831).  The Adventures of Johnny Newcome in The Navy. A Poem in Four Cantos. With Notes. London: Published by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones (and others), 1819. 8vo (240 x 145mm). 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates by Charles Williams (variable mainly light spotting, staining and browning, plates lightly offset onto text). Contemporary diced calf gilt, marbled endpapers (rubbed and bumped, joints splitting or weak with signs of minor old repairs, ink spot on upper cover). Provenance: From the Collection of the late Seymour Stein (1942-2023); H. W. Ryland (small stamp on front free endpaper); Maggs catalogue description from 1950 tipped-in onto front free endpaper pricing the book at £9 9s). FIRST EDITION. "In 1818 the Adventures of Johnny Newcome in the Navy, by Alfred Burton, published by W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, has sixteen plates by Rowlandson. This was followed in 1819 by an open imitation by J. Mitford bearing the same title, and illustrated with twenty plates. Mitford, at one time an officer in the navy, was a constant inmate of the Fleet [Prison], and wrote his Adventures of Johnny Newcome in the gravel pits at Bayswater, where he lay in hiding, receiving from his publisher a shilling daily in return for his copy, wherewith to purchase gin and cheese. He was the editor of Scourge, which helped to make Cruikshank famous, and after a very chequered career died in St. Giles's Workhouse" (Hardie). Abbey Life 340; Hardie English Coloured Books p.173; Prideaux p.303-304; Tooley 331.