The Traveller's Pocket Farrier Handbook

Introduction

When you open the cover of this book, “The Traveller’s Pocket Farrier Handbook”, you find there to be one original flyleaf and a title page with the date 1751 written on it in pencil. This book was created by an English physician named Henry Bracken and was published in the 18th century. This book now resides in the University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Book Collection. This book is the sixth edition of its kind and informs the reader the ins and outs of how to pick a good horse and how to care for the horse while on a journey. In over 140 pages, this book dives into the common incidents and issues that occur while on a journey. The author shares his advice on how to pick a great horse and details what to look for in a horse.

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Traveller's Pocket Farrier Handbook

Genre and Historical Context

"A Traveller's Pocket Farrier" belongs to a genre of compact travel books created due to its convenience and practicality during long journeys. During a time where travel was laborious and the main form of transportation was by horse, having a guide like this one was virtually invaluable to people. What made it so practical was its size that allowed for travelers to carry it in their pockets, small compartments, or small satchels. The ease of carrying this book allowed travelers to have the information necessary for when they were on the move. The horse was such a valuable resource at the time because they were used in agriculture, work, mining, traveling, and hauling. During the 18th century, the English society relied heavily on horses as they were very valuable assets and also essential companions of daily life. Therefore this book was of great use and importance to the caretakers of the horses.

The author of this book is Henry Bracken, MD who was a trained physician from Lancaster, England who had a love for horses and was an expert in farriery, horse racing, and all matters relating to horses. This is the sixth edition meaning it has been revised and edited many times. It also marks the importance of Bracken’s works and the continued effort to update the information provided in his books. They assisted others while they made these long journeys. His background in medicine permitted him to have the skills to write an informed book. The advice he included in this book on how to care and maintain the hooves of horses was indispensable in this time, as the performance of horses was directly related to the performance of society.

Content Analysis and Significance

As mentioned before, this book is the sixth edition of its kind and has gone through multiple rounds of revisions, refinement, and editing of commentary. On every page of this 140 page book, there are printed annotations on the marginalia of the pages. These annotations could have been compiled by numerous readers as they went through all of the other five editions. These annotations are interpretations and simplifications of the author’s writing and opinions in favor and against of what the author has written. I imagine that readers would write about what worked for them on their journeys in order to improve the quality of the book.

The significance of this book was touched upon during the previous section which mentioned the value of horses during this century. The importance of it is that not much has changed since this time. Of course there are now other ways to travel including cars, trains, and planes. However, many places around the world residing in the countryside still showcase the invaluable resource that horses provide. Cattle ranchers across the US and other countries can attest to this.

Material Analysis

The book has a cover that could be made of a kind of pasteboard or cardboard. It also seems to have been re-binded by Penn as it has a newer tape that has been labeled. However, it seems that this is the only modification made to this book since there are no newer fly leaves or any other pages of a different substrate included in its composition. It has a marking written on the front cover which seems to be initials or some other marking showing “EmS”. Along the sides of the wooden cover there are very small artistic details engraved and gold coated. The pages themselves have chain lines going across which are very visible when held up to the light.

The format of this book is in duodecimo, which indicates each sheet was printed with 12 pages on each side. If we think about the purpose of this book, its size makes sense due to its purpose and needs to be transportable. The substrate this book is composed of is paper. This book is not organized very extensively. It consists of one long entry and is not divided by any chapters. There is an index at the very end of the book that is a handful of pages long. There are page numbers on the top corners of the pages to help with navigation. Another important detail that may help the reader with navigation could be the annotations printed on the marginalia. Since they are in the marginalia they stand out and can be easier to find than searching for specific information within the main body text. These annotations also may supply the reader with important information that was missed in the main text and essential to caring for their horses.

Lastly, there are some errors noted by the printer at the beginning of the main text. On the verso side there is an “ERRATA” and the mistakes are noted, so that the reader is aware. Within the texts itself, the majority of the errors were corrected by the readers themselves with a pen.

Readership and Provenance

The publisher of this book is unlisted and there is no information about them. However, this book was “presented by” Charles W. Burr, M.D. to Penn who is someone who has donated 2,031 books to Penn. The verso side of the cover has a sticker with the shelf location in our library, his name, and the university’s stamp. Charles W. Burr, MD was a professor of Nervous Diseases at the Perelman School of Medicine and the President of the American Neurological Society.

References

1. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Stagecoach/ 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_horse_in_Britain 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bracken 4. https://www.med.upenn.edu/psom/charles-w-burr-md.html