Desirable book with vivid fore-edge painting: Fables: Consisting of Select Parts from Dante, Berni, Chaucer and Aristoto, Initiated in English Heroic Verse by Richard Wharton. London: Printed by T. Bensley for Payne and Mackinlay, 1804. Hardcover, 5.5 x 8.75, 199 pages. When fanned, the fully gilt pages reveal a vivid country fishing scene. Book condition: VG-, with wear spine and edges. The consignor notes that this was given to his father in the mid-1950s as a gift from a physician colleague of his who had traveled to the UK for a visit.