Two Centuries of Song; : or, Lyrics, Madrigals, Sonnets, and other Occasional Verses of the English Poets of the last two hundred years. With critical and biographical notes.

Edition: First printing

Book Description

London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston., Milton House, Ludgate Hill., 1867. First printing. Quarto (220 x170 mm), pp xii, 307[308]. Nineteen plates by various artists - H.Harral. Orrin Smith, W.J.Linton, and W. Thomas - are engraved on wood illustrating poems by various English poets some better known than others - Milton, Wordsworth Tennyson, The Brontes, Herrick but also Erasmus Darwin, (Charles' grandfather), Kirk White, Adelaide Procter and many others. The title page was designed by Henry Shaw and has a decorative border engraved by R.B.Utting who also engraved the borders of all the pages in a number of different patterns. All the borders are delicately printed in sepia.These border designs are mostly based on flowers and ribbons but occasional birds or butterflies, discreetly small, have inspired the artist. There are engraved head and tailpieces in black. The frontispiece title page has a heavily engraved design - a wide elaborate border round the title - "TWO CENTURIES OF SONG"- all in black. This leaf is very lightly browned. Endpapers are dark brown matt surfaced and blank white on the other side. All edges are brightly gilt Crimson grained cloth. Spine lettered and decorated in gilt, Both sides stamped with a central decorative design with a cross in the middle . A black plain ruled stamped inner frame, has decorative black bells in each corner. On the upper side all these decorations are gilt stamped. Within this frame are four gilt stamped crosses (of St John of Jerusalem?). Gatherings M and N are slightly sprung. Otherwise the book is sound and tight and bright and pleasing. The cover has 2 minor (1 cm and less ) damp spots otherwise a faint dullness to the cloth which hardly detracts from the handsome appearance of the book. An interesting copy of a beautifully designed poetry book which stayed in the family - a presentation inscription on the upper margin of the engraved frontispiece title page reads: "George Walter Thornbury Jun: from his loving Mother / Aug 26th