[ADAMS, WILLIAM HENRY DAVENPORT]. Witch, Warlock, and Magician: Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland. London: Chatto & Windus, 1889.
FIRST UK EDITION. Cloth-bound; hardcover; large octavo (23 x 14 x 4 cm); pp. vii, [1, blank], 428, [32, publisher's catalogue]. English text. Bound in publisher's original blue cloth with gilt title and author to spine; gilt hexagram design on front cover; black endpapers; half-title; printed footnotes. Printed in Great Britain by Billing and Sons. Condition: VERY GOOD. Contents complete. Binding tight and secure. Trivial marks to covers, spine slightly darkened, the spine ends faintly bumped. Interior well-preserved, with a contemporary ownership inscription inked to head of title and a few marginal annotations in pencil. Scarce thus.
Notes: Written from the viewpoint of a 'sympathetic, though incredulous, observer,' by the popular nineteenth century author William Henry Davenport Adams (1828-1891). Approximately half of the book is devoted to 'The English Magicians': Bacon, Dee, Lilly, etc., and the other half to the history of Witchcraft in England and Scotland. An excellent copy (no dust jacket issued).
