Black grained leather binding with gilt title on the spine. Gilt emblem on the front board.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available

This is a vastly underrated lovely edition: worthy of any collector.

A collection of myths and legends by Ingoldsby–the pen name for an English clergyman named Richard Harris Barham–is in actuality quite humorous, with parodies of medieval folklore and poetry wonderfully brought to life, A lovely and unique copy.

The Ingoldsby Legends (full title: The Ingoldsby Legends, or Mirth and Marvels) is a collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poems written supposedly by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, actually a pen-name of an English clergyman named Richard Harris Barham. The legends were first printed during 1837 as a regular series in the magazine Bentley’s Miscellany and later in New Monthly Magazine. They proved immensely popular and were compiled into books published by Richard Bentley in 1840, 1842 and 1847. They remained popular during the 19th century, when they ran through many editions. They were illustrated by artists including John Leech, George Cruikshank, John Tenniel, and Arthur Rackham (1898 edition).

As a priest of the Chapel Royal, with a private income, Barham was not troubled with strenuous duties, and he had ample time to read, and to compose his stories and poems. Although the “legends” are based on folklore or other pre-existing sources, chiefly Kentish, such as the “hand of glory”, they are mostly humorous parodies or pastiches.

Barham introduces the collection with the statement that “The World, according to the best geographers, is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Romney Marsh”.

The best-known poem in the collection is “The Jackdaw of Rheims”, which is about a jackdaw that steals a cardinal’s ring and is made a saint under the name Jem Crow. The village pub in Denton, Kent, was renamed The Jackdaw Inn in 1963.

The collection also contains one of the earliest transcriptions of the song “A Franklyn’s Dogge”, an early version of the song “Bingo”.

The chapters comprise:

• “The Spectre of Tappington”

• “The Nurse’s Story: the Hand of Glory”

• “Patty Morgan the Milkmaid’s Story: ‘Look at the Clock!'”

• “Grey Dolphin: a legend of Sheppey”

• “The Ghost”

• “The Cynotaph”

• “The Leech of Folkestone: Mrs Botherby’s Story”

• “The Legend of Hamilton Tighe”

• “The Witches’ Frolic”

• “A Singular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris, Doctor in Divinity”

• “The Jackdaw of Rheims”

• “A Lay of St Dunstan”

• “A Lay of St Gengulphus”

• “The Lay of St Odille”

• “A Lay of St Nicholas”

• “The Lady Rohesia”

• “The Tragedy”

• “Mr. Barney Maguire’s Account of the Coronation”

• “The ‘Monstre’ Balloon”

• “The Execution: A Sporting Anecdote”

• “Some Account of a New Play”

• “Mr Peters’s Story: the Bagman’s Dog”

• “Introduction to the Second Series”

• “The Black Mousquetaire: a legend of France”

• “Sir Rupert the Fearless: a legend of Germany”

• “The Merchant of Venice: a legend of Italy”

• “The Auto-Da-Fé: a legend of Spain”

• “The Ingoldsby Penance!: a legend of Palestine and West Kent”

• “Netley Abbey: a legend of Hampshire”

• “Fragment”

• “Nell Cook: a legend of the Dark Entry – the King’s Scholar’s story”

• “Nursery Reminiscences”

• “Aunt Fanny: a legend of a shirt”

• “Misadventures at Margate: a legend of Jarvis’s Jetty”

• “The Smuggler’s Leap: a legend of Thanet”

• “Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie: a legend of Shropshire”

• “The Babes in the Woody; or, the Norfolk Tragedy”

• “The Dead Drummer: a legend of Salisbury Plain”

• “A Row in an Omnibus Box: a legend of the Haymarket”

• “The Lay of St Cuthbert; or the Devil’s Dinner-Party: a legend of the North Countree”

• “The Lay of St Aloys: a legend of Blois”

• “The Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey: a legend of Dover”

• “Raising the Devil: a legend of Cornelius Agrippa”

• “Saint Medard: a legend of Africa”

• “Preface to the Third Series”

• “The Lord of Thoulouse: a legend of Languedoc”

• “The Wedding-Day; or, The Buccaneer’s Curse: a family legend”

• “The Blasphemer’s Warning: a lay of St Romwold”

• “The Brothers Of Birchington: a lay of St Thomas à Becket”

• “The Knight and the Lady: a domestic legend of the reign of Queen Anne”

• “The House-Warming!!: a legend of Bleeding-Heart Yard”

• “The Forlorn One”

• “Jerry Jarvis’s Wig: a legend of the Weald of Kent”

• “Unsophisticated Wishes”

• “Miscellaneous Poems”

Artists enhancing the Ingoldsby Legends are:

Arthur Rackham RWS (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was an English book illustrator. He is recognised as one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British book illustration. His work is noted for its robust pen and ink drawings, which were combined with the use of watercolor, a technique he developed due to his background as a journalistic illustrator.

Rackham’s 51 colour pieces for the early American tale Rip Van Winkle became a turning point in the production of books since – through colour-separated printing – it featured the accurate reproduction of colour artwork. His best-known works also include the illustrations for Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.

John Leech (29 August 1817 – 29 October 1864) was English caricaturist and illustrator. He was best known for his work for Punch, a humorous magazine for a broad middle-class audience, combining verbal and graphic political satire with light social comedy. Leech catered to contemporary prejudices, such as anti-Americanism and antisemitism and supported acceptable social reforms. Leech’s critical yet humorous cartoons on the Crimean War helped shape public attitudes toward heroism, warfare, and Britons’ role in the world.

Leech also enjoys fame as the first illustrator of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. He was furthermore a pioneer in comics, creating the recurring character Mr. Briggs and some sequential illustrated gags.

George Cruikshank or Cruickshank (27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the “modern Hogarth” during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.

Sir John Tenniel (28 February 1820 – 25 February 1914) was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knighted for artistic achievements in 1893, the first such honour ever bestowed on an illustrator or cartoonist.

Tenniel is remembered mainly as the principal political cartoonist for Punch magazine for over 50 years and for his illustrations to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). Tenniel’s detailed black-and-white drawings remain the definitive depiction of the Alice characters, with comic book illustrator and writer Bryan Talbot stating, “Carroll never describes the Mad Hatter: our image of him is pure Tenniel.”