Half-hours with the Highwaymen: Picturesque Biographies and Traditions of the "Knights of the Road" (two volumes)
Book Description
FIRST EDITION. Substantial 8vos (in 4s), pp. xiv, [398], [2]; pp. x, 396 + amply illustrated with plates and in-text illustrations. Title pages in red and black. Original brown ribbed cloth, lettered and decorated in gilt. Top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Bruising and wear to extremities. Evidence of water damage – slight warp, cockling and rubbing – to bottom corners of both vols., but primarily to the bottom sixth of the lower board of vol. 1. Ex libris to front pastedown of both vols. Some foxing to edges and text blocks, but this doesn’t detract from the dark charm of the set: an apt addition to any macabre library.
Dealer Notes
Moll Cutpurse, the ‘Roaring Girl’, features, “by right of her intimate association with the highwaymen, rather than her own exploits.” The mythic Mary Frith (c. 1584-1659) was born with clenched fists, a “sure sign of a wild and adventurous nature,” and Harper notes that “her muscles and her spirit alike were mannish”; as a girl she was a ”tom-rig” and “rump-scuttle” (p.262). n.b.
Author
HARPER, Charles G.; HARDY, Paul (illustrator)
Date
1908
Publisher
London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd
Condition
Good+
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