Ireland: Belfast, Lough Neagh, Enniskillen, Londonderry, Lough Erne, and the Giant’s Causway, Etc. the North: A Lecture for the Magic Lantern, and a Guide to the Tourist. The Letterpress Descriptions by S.C. Hall. London: Poulton & Son, [c1849]. Pp 52, with 36 page catalogue to rear. Publisher’s dark green diced cloth boards, upper cover lettered in gilt, within a floral & shamrock wreath, A very good copy.

Presentation copy, Inscribed by the Author (Samuel Carter Hall) on front free endpaper.

A series of descriptive lectures on the most popular tourist spots, designed to be given along with projected photographs (magic lantern) of the scenery in question. A companion guide for the South of Ireland was also published.

The magic lantern was the first visual mass medium and the most important means of instruction and entertainment across nineteenth-century Europe. The illustrated travel stories depicting foreign landscapes, tourist attractions, historical monuments, and other exotic peculiarities were the favourite subjects of lantern shows.