The Ruined Abbeys of Britain (Volumes I and II)

[1882] Complete in two volumes viii, 148; [4] 149-288pp plus 12 tissue-guarded chromolithographic colour plates (volumes numbered continuously). Numerous wood engravings in text. Deep green morocco-effect, pebbled cloth boards with gothic-style decorations and lettering, gilt, black and red device on front. Bevelled edges. All edges gilt. Small folio. Boards a little rubbed at edges, more markedly on corners, with cloth fraying at spine ends, volume two is a little more worn with cloth rubbed through on one corner. Deep green endpapers (with small bookseller’s ticket on front paste down), title pages in red and black, initial caps. Internally neat, clean, bright and tight barring the very occasional smudge. Abbeys described and illustrated are Tintern, Fountains, Melrose, Bolton, Glastonbury and Dryburgh, Kirkstall, Netley, Furness, Whitby, Jedburgh and Rievaulx. Magnificent illustrations all by Lydon, colour plates printed by Benjamin Fawcett of Driffield, one of the leading printers of the era. Handsome, impressive volumes. “When an American visits his ancestral fatherland of England, hi supreme desire is to look upon the cathedrals, the ancient castles and the mutilated remains of the old abbeys” – so says Ross in his preface. A pictorial, loving history of some of England’s ruined abbeys.

Lydon, A F

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