[CROCKER (John Wilson)]. The Battles of Talavera. A Poem.1809

London: Printed for John Murray, Second edition, [ii], 39, [1]pp., recent marbled boards. A heroic poem about the bloody but inconclusive battle at Talavera, southwest of Madrid (July 27-28, 1809), in which a combined British-Spanish force under Sir Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) forced the French army of King Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, to withdraw from field. The author, John Wilson Croker, was a high-Tory politician and man of letters, one of the founders of the legendary Quarterly Review and for nearly thirty years its primary contributor. Wellington himself singled out this poem for praise. Surprisingly uncommon: we find no copy of the first or this second edition, Copac locates the third and later editions only.