Bentley's Miscellany. Jack Sheppard's Life & other tales. Illustrated by George Cruikshank.

Pp. 658 + 13 Copper engraved plates (foxing throughout) by George Cruikshank, Describing the life of Jack Sheppard who was born in Whites Row on 4th March 1702, he lost his father and his sister in infancy. When his mother gave him to the workhouse in Bishopsgate at the age of six, but at age twenty he met Elizabeth Lyon, in a public house frequented by criminals and the infamous Jonathan Wild, known as the -Thief-taker General.- On 10th September 1724, Sheppard was arrested where he was handcuffed and fettered. He escaped a month later and enjoyed a very public fortnight of liberty In London, eluding the authorities in disguise as a dandy and carousing with Elizabeth Lyon, until arrested by Jonathan Wild. Now the most celebrated criminal in history, hundreds daily paid four shillings to visit Sheppard in his cell, where he enjoyed a drinking match with Figg the prize-fighter. -The Beggar?s Opera,The Prison-Breaker and the Harlequin Sheppard? were plays modelled upon Sheppard's life. Original half calf, split hinges with surface loss. Just holding.