The Large Game (first edition, 1875)

This was indeeed a modest author. The last paragraph of his preface reads: "With these few words of acknowledgement and explanation, I place my first book in the hands of the public, upon whose verdict it now depends whether it shall also be my last."

Drummond's approach to travel and hunting differs from those of his predecessors and contemporaries in the contents of his chapters. Instead of these being, for example, a consecutive tale of his travels, he allocates them to Buffaloes, Rhinoceros, Eland, Elephant, Lions, Leopards, Hunting with Dogs, Anecdotes of Antelopes, and Game Birds. It is a successful arrangement, which he ends with appendixes that give English, native and scientific names for Mammals and Birds.

Green cloth-boards with black and blind embossed rules back and front and a gilt buffalo skull on the upper panel. Top edge gilt. Tightly bound. Colour frontispiece and colour vignette on the title-page. xxi + 428 pp of text and appendixes with 23 illustrations in the text + 12 inserted duotone plates + a 3-col sketch map at the back. The binding has been strengthened with a new matching Skivertex spine, with the original spine lettering laid down, and new textured endpapers. The original boards are lightly bumped and rubbed, especially at the foot and the corners, but this remains a collectable copy of a 140-year-old book.