London to Ladysmith via Pretoria

8vo; original pictorial tan cloth; pp. xiv + 498 + (ii) + 32; folding frontis. map in colours, a further 3 maps (2 of which folding), and four plans. Cloth somewhat soiled and rubbed; extremities bumped and a little frayed; hinges starting; some foxing and sporadic fingering. (Hackett, pp. 2, 136; Mendelssohn I, p. 338) \"A correspondent\'s experiences in South Africa during the first five months of war described in a series of letters addressed to the Morning Post newspaper from Oct. 1899 to March 1900. The author recounts his capture near Estcourt, his period of imprisonment at Pretoria and subsequent escape to Delagoa Bay. Thereafter the correspondence concerns the campaign in Natal and operations for the relief of Ladysmith.\" - Hackett: South African War Books, p. 2. \'The author travelled by the same ship as Sir Redvers Buller, and arrived at Cape Town, en route for the front, on November 1, 1899, and at Durban on November 4th. Here he obtained the first news of the battle of Elandslaagte, and in these early stages of the war it is noticeable that a wounded officer remarked to him, \"All these colonials tell you that the Boers only want one good thrashing to satisfy them. Don\'t you believe it. They mean going through with this to the end.\" ... The volume gives a detailed account of the Natal campaigns up to and including the relief of Ladysmith, and contains in all thirty-seven letters and four maps.\' - Mendelssohn.