Alexander Hogg (fl.1778-1809) began working for John Cooke who was a major publisher of serialised part works. In 1778 he started out on his own in competition. Adams stated ‘a favourite pastime of both Cooke and Hogg was the invention of elegant aliases for the authorship of their topographical “sixpenny numbers” which must in fact have owed their existence to the attic labours of a consortium of sweated Grub Street hacks’. These writers compiled these works by plagiarising existing publications and offering them as weekly parts of 6d. The original title page stated that this work was ‘published under the inspection of Henry Boswell, Esq. F.A.R.S. Assisted by Robert Hamilton, L.L.D.’ Cooke publicly accused Hogg of fabrication when he announced in ‘The World’ 1-2 October 1788 that there was no Henry Boswell at the F.R.A.S. (Fellows of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies). Although Hogg defended other charges he never denied this one.

‘The Antiquities of England and Wales’ is effectively an abridgement of the six volumes published by Francis Grose. Hodson cited only one example although nine are recorded in the ESTC. For this second edition the typographic title page is completely reset and the engraved frontispiece lacks the date and the name of Hamilton is removed. Hodson speculates based on the wording of the earliest known advert for the series that this edition post-dates the other undated one. That places the date of issue between 1789 and the ensuing dated edition of 1795, hence the proposed circa 1793. The text leaves throughout are identical the only difference in this example is that the cartographic section was never bound in. The Index and subscribers list is present which is not always the case. Adams (1983) p. xv; not in Chubb; ESTC T194439; Hodson 282; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).