According to a letter that Richard wrote to a neighbouring farmer he had 500 copies of the circular printed around September 1870:
You remember, perhaps, my once
asking you to become a subscriber to a novel I wished to publish. You agreed,
but said that you thought people would much sooner subscribe or buy a copy of
my History of Swindon, if it was made
larger and published as a book. I said nothing, but at once dropped the idea of
a novel, and went to work collecting material. I got a whole box full of papers
and old deeds, and wrote out a book in manuscript. I had it estimated, and even
had 500 circulars printed to advertise.
The Swindon book did not materialise but Richard’s series of articles about the ‘History of Swindon’ first published in the North Wilts Herald in 1867/8 were later edited by Grace Toplis and published in Jefferies Land: A History of Swindon & Its Environs (1896).
This particular flyer held an added attraction. A few lines of poetry were written on the back.
