8vo. xvix, [2], 207pp, [3]. Contemporary gilt-tooled calf, recently rebacked, contrasting burgundy lettering-piece. Lightly rubbed and marked, surface wear to edges and corners. Previous inked ownership inscriptions to FEP and head of title, both removed with associated loss, including small hole to title. Light spotting to endpapers, very occasional light spotting to text.

The first edition of Gilbert Wakefield's (1756-1801) collected verse of Thomas Gray (1716-1771), including his popular Pindaric Ode, The Bard, and his odes on 'Eton College' and 'A Favourite Cat'. Wakefield, English scholar and controversialist, had a long and infamous history as a dissenting minister, pamphleteer, and defender of the French Revolution, being imprisoned for two years for seditious libel shortly before his death.