A Handbook for Travellers in Spain. Fifth Edition, revised on the Spot

London: John Murray, 1878. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. London, John Murray, 1878. Small octavo, xii, 80, 568, 66 ('Handbook Advertiser, 1880-81') pages plus 11 maps and plans (9 folding), a rear endpaper map and a large folding map in a rear end-pocket. Gilt-lettered red cloth a little marked and flecked, and a little rubbed and bumped at the extremities; trifling signs of use and age; the end-pocket map has minimal siverfish nibbling along small sections of one fold; a very good copy. Provenance: 'given me from "Manoah" Library' is written in ink on the verso of the front flyleaf; a bookplate ('Words | Words | Words | F A S') is mounted on the front pastedown. 'Manoah' was the name of the Adelaide Hills estate of Sir Josiah Symon (1846-1934); 'F A S' may be a Symon family member. Sir Josiah Symon 'was born in Scotland and migrated to South Australia in 1866. He was called to the South Australian Bar in 1871 and became Attorney-General in a conservative government when he won the state seat of Sturt in 1881. Sir Josiah was the acknowledged leader of the South Australian Bar for over 30 years through his understanding of the law and skill as an advocate. His major contribution to Australian politics was in the area of Federation. He was a prominent member of the 1897-98 Australasian Federal Convention. He saw the major issues of Federation as equal representation of the states in the Senate; the solution of deadlocks between the two Houses of Parliament; the Murray River; and the establishment of an Australian Supreme Court to replace the Privy Council. The first three issues are still topical today, the fourth was resolved several years ago. Sir Josiah was a person of broad scholarship. He wrote "Shakespeare the Englishman" in 1929, and was a member of several literary associations. The library at Sir Josiah's Upper Sturt estate, "Manoah", consisted of 10,000 law and literature volumes, reflecting his interests in Shakespeare, travel, history and biography. He bequeathed his collection (excluding approximately 2,500 law books), to the State Library where it remains an excellent example of a "gentleman's library". The terms of the bequest were that the books should not be marked or rebound, which makes it a useful source of examples of original bindings, particularly in pictorial cloth' (State Library of South Australia website).