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

London: Printed by Harding & Wright, for John Murray, Eight edition, with some additions, 8vo (205 x 125mm), [4], 43, [1]pp., title page with presentation inscription from the author to Sir Francis Freeling, cont. short note on the authorship of the book on front-free endpaper, some foxing and browning throughout, cont. blue full morocco, lightly rubbed but a very nice copy. 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. Provenance: Armorial bookplate of Sir Francis Freeling; small book label of Alan G. Thomas.