[BELL, ALEXANDER B. (editor); LEADER, ROBERT EADON (intro.)]. Peeps into the Past; Being Passages from the Diary of Thomas Asline Ward. London: Sir W. C. Leng & Co. Ltd., 1909.
FIRST EDITION, leather-bound, hardcover, quarto (26cm x 20cm x 3cm), pp. [10], folding table, 368. English text in double columns, with an introduction and annotations by Robert Eadon Leader, edited by Alexander B. Bell. Bound in contemporary half leather, gilt titles to smooth spine and upper cover, 19 illustrations including a frontispiece and fold-out genealogical table, rear index in triple columns. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight and secure with the hinges and joints intact. Light fading to spine and minor rubbing to extremities. Interior near immaculate. Scarce.
Notes: Thomas Asline Ward was one of Sheffield's most prominent townsmen who took an active part in the affairs of Sheffield for most of his life. He was Master Cutler in 1806 and for some years editor of the Sheffield Independent newspaper. He kept diaries and pocketbook jottings from 1800 through to 1871 and this work is based on his diaries. This work represents a very detailed account of Wards life, his family, Sheffield people and their lives, and 19th century Sheffield history, with occasional in-text illustrations and a fold-out genealogical chart of the Ward family of Park house.
