The Farrier’s New Guide. Containing, First, the Anatomy of a horse; being an exact and compendious Description of all his Parts; with their Actions and Uses: Illustrated with Figures curiously Engrav’d on Copper-Plates

Bound in contemporary speckled calf with a double gilt line on the edge of each board. The spine in six compartments with five gilt ruled raised bands. No lettering piece was ever applied. The boards with cracks but still holding very well.

Internally fine with little to none in the way of stains or marks. Paper remains white and crisp. Contemporary endpapers in fine condition.

Of William Gibson (1680-1740)

‘On discharge from the 16th Dragoons, William Gibson, presumed to be a surgeon by training, established himself at Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, where he cared for the horses of the Horse Grenadiers and the Guards as well as those of wealthy gentlemen, becoming the first serious veterinary practitioner in the country’ (Smith I, p. 349).

Of Richard Hopton Esq. (1685 – 1764) of Canon Frome. in the County of Hereford

The bookplate, is probably of the date of 1705 or later, after he succeeded to the family property.

Richard Hopton came of an old Herefordshire family. Immediately on Queen Anne’s death he notified Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, that ‘upon the … assurances my Lord Scudamore has given me of his desisting I design to offer my service to the county.’1 Returned unopposed as a Tory, he spoke against the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts in 1719, voting against the Government except on the peerage bill, when he was absent. He did not stand again, but in 1722 took a leading part in the agitation against the attempt to compromise the Hereford borough election. He died 21 Feb. 1764.