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Davy( John) An account of the Interior of Ceylon.

Code: 10176

Davy( John) An account of the Interior of Ceylon, and of its inhabitants, with travels in that island, FIRST EDITION, pp.viii, 530,  2 maps, 1 folding. 13 plates including 2 coloured aquatints and 1 large folding panorama, 4to, contemporary polished calf, rebacked, full gilt panelled spine, red letter-piece(some slight foxing and staining) London, 1821

Abbey Travel 412

John Davy (1790-1868) assisted his better known brother, Sir Humphrey Davy, at the Royal Institution before studying medicine and becoming an Army surgeon in 1815. 

Arriving in Ceylon in 1816 he accompanied Sir Robert Brownrigg on his tour of the central highlands and Uva province, an experience which generated this book. Davy describes the Court of Kandy and the taking of the tooth from the temple. He was the first to provide an accurate estimate of the height of Adams peak and the "discoverer" of Nuwara Eliya. He wrote on geology and climate, snakes and leeches. He gave a detailed description of the peoples of the Kandyan region, their government, laws and cosmography. Three of the plates are after William Lyttleton, two after Charles Auber.