Return to Jefferies’ Land

90pp. Black and white illustrations. Blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to spine (boards very slightly rounded at spine tips, else neat, clean, bright and tight throughout). In its original dust jacket (very slightly bumped in edges). Richard Jefferies neglected ‘History of Malmesbury’ first appeared in serial form in the North Wilts Herald in 1897, a similar format to Jefferies Land, subsequently published in book form in 1896. In her introduction to that book, the Victorian editor wrote of Jefferies ‘early efforts’, by which she meant Jefferies Land was bad Jefferies, but that there was interest in comparing it with good Jefferies. The same applies in general to this volume, although it was not published in book form until this 1985 edition. This is not Jefferies at his best, but it does have a charm of its own and contains much interesting local history; it accompanied with many illustrations on local interest to Malmesbury and Old Wiltshire too.