A brief account of the cathedrals in England and Wales : with ancient views of them.

Canterbury?, 1792.

1 v. : ill. ; 20 cm.

English

In English.

The front end paper notes the presentation of the book to “George Berkeley, the gift of his worthy friend, Mr Todd.” Dr. Berkeley was Canon of Canterbury Cathedral (1768-1795), and bequeathed the manuscript to Mrs. Dorothy Monck his first cousin, who in 1799 presents it to John Brock, Rector of Bidborough, Kent. On his death it passed to his executor Rev. Henry Venn, prebendary of St. Pauls, and on his death in 1878, to a friend (name indistinct), then T. Pettit of Dartford, and in 1925 to Dr. William Bradbrooke.

The author is most probably Henry John Dodd, who in the following year (1793) wrote an Account of the deans of Canterbury, with a catalogue of the mss in the church Library. He was a minor Canon, and referred to as "the librarian." Cf. Nigel Ramsay, The Cathedral Archives and Library, 1995, revised 2002.

Manuscript text, unpublished, on the cathedrals of England and Wales, probably compiled by Henry John Todd, of Canterbury, in 1792. According to the preface, the work “is intended only as an help to the memory, and as a reference to those authors, who have fully described the respective churches ... let none who may chance to peruse this little volume, fastidiously despise the gleanings which it contains. These small observations may incite the reader to more extensive enquiry, when he will find his labour amply repaid, whether he consults the historians, or visits the Cathedrals.” The 32 mounted engravings are smaller versions of those that appear in Willis Browne's A survey of the cathedrals.

August 15, 2012

Engravings - 1792.