With a Medical Commentary, Written by Ignotus

Fifth edition, inscribed by the author “Hugh Kerr from Dr Hunter”. With frontispiece engraving of a Roman stewpan from the cabinet of Mons Boisot  This offset, not displeasingly, onto title-page and front-free endpaper.

8vo., Pp. 310 plus 22 page appendix, contemporary maroon half morocco and marbled paper boards which are rather rubbed,  spine in compartments with gilt bands, head and tail of spine chipped, a little spotting to a few leaves towards, otherwise a very good copy. 

Dr. Hunter, a Scottish physician, helped to establish the York Lunatic Asylum, and to be honest, there is something of Bedlam about this book.

It is a highly opinionated book and a marvellous read. Each recipe is followed by ‘Ignotus’s’ or rather ‘Hunter’s’ observations on it, often including the effect on the body. 

Of Mock Turtle Soup he writes “This is a most diabolical dish, and only fit for the Sunday dinner of a rustic, who is to work the six following days in a ditch bottom. It is the very essence of Pandora’s box. So, - Get thee behind me Satan!”.

The appendix gives 267 pieces of advice on Men and Manners. All pithy and often witty, one declares “Never enter an auction room, for there you will tempted to buy what you do not want”, another “Do not blame a man for hard drinking, if he belongs to a thirsty family”