(Tricks of the Town) | London lowlife and how to avoid it

(Tricks of the Town)

[Richard King]. The cheats of London exposed, or the tricks of the town laid open to both sexes … By the author of The new London spy. Adorned with six curious copper-plates. London: Printed for J. Cooke, [ca. 1774]

12mo (168 x 95 mm). 6 engraved plates (including frontispiece), publisher's 6-page advertisement at the end. Cloth-backed tan boards.

Scarce guide for "innocent country people," warning them of the base practices of highwaymen, sharpers, swindlers, money-droppers, duffers, setters, mock-auctions, quacks, bawds, jilts, etc. in eighteenth-century London. Uncommon: ESTC lists one copy only of this edition at the University of Toronto. The circa date is based on the publication date of Thomas Smethham's Practical Grammar, advertised on the final leaf as "an entire new work."

REFERENCE:

ESTC N62498 (?1780); Toole Stott 1249 (c. 1770)