£200
12mo, pp. 70 + 1 double-sided plate, 141, [1] + frontispiece. Contemporary half blue cloth, blue marbled boards, spine lettered direct in gilt. A touch of spotting, stitching slightly strained in places, trimmed close, sometimes removing page-numbers. Rubbed, front joint a little worn, extremities bumped. Traces of label to pastedown, now removed.
An unrecorded book of verse by Aberdeenshire farmer James Walker. In his preface Walker refers to 'The little volume of Poems which I published in the beginning of last year'; and refers to this volume of Effusions as a 'second edition', although he later goes on to state that 'the greater number of the pieces are new' in this collection. Among them is 'Railway Steam-Engine', commemorating the coming of the Aberdeen Railway, which operated to a terminus of Limpet Mill, as mentioned in the poem, between November 1849 and April 1850 only. We have not been able to trace any copies of either issue of this work in any library catalogue.
Preceding it in this volume is James Cowie's prize essay of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, an indictment of the bothy system for housing workers on Scottish estates. Library Hub records 4 copies, at Oxford, NLS, BL and Cambridge.
