Edith Davidson of Lambeth

First edition, first impression.  xii, 250pp, with 12 pages of illustrations.  Blue cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on spine.  8vo.  Cloth is worn and rippled, gently rubbed and rounded on corners and spine ends.  Text block edges dust dulled and a little spotted.  Previous owner’s name neatly inked on front free endpaper.  A little page toning, particularly on endpapers.  In a spotted and soiled dust wrapper, rubbed all round edges with minor loss at spine tail and some minor creasing and loss around head of spine.

Lady Edith Davidson was born in Fulham Palace, as her father was the Bishop of London before his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury.  Her life and works are often overshadowing by accounts of her husband, Randall Davidson, private chaplain to Queen  Victoria and later also Archbishop of Canterbury.  She spent much of her life helping so-called ‘fallen women’ and single mothers, fundraising for rescue workers and campaigning to change Victorian perceptions of sexual morality.