"WHEN AN AMERICAN VISITS HIS ANCESTRAL FATHERLAND OF ENGLAND, HIS SUPREME DESIRE IS TO LOOK UPON THE CATHEDRALS, THE ANCIENT CASTLES, AND THE MUTILATED REMAINS OF THE OLD ABBEYS"

ROSS, Frederick. The Ruined Abbeys of Britain. London: William Mackenzie, (1889). Folio (11 by 15 inches), original gilt-stamped pictorial russet cloth. $825.

Second edition of this survey of Britain's religious ruins", with 12 beautiful color plates of abbeys and their environs by A.F. Lydon and dozens of intricate in-text architectural illustrations.

Intended as a pictorial and textual history of the ruined abbeys of England, the lovely folio work discusses Tintern, Fountain, Melrose, Bolton, Glastonbury, Dryburgh, Kirkstall, Netley, Furness, Whitby, Jedburgh, and Rievaulx Abbeys, and offers 12 folio illustrations of them by acclaimed artist A.F. Lydon as well as detailed in-text studies of particular architectural details and interior diagrams. The first edition was published in 1882, with the same illustrations but different text.

Marginal tape repair to pages 7-8, only a few spots of foxing and soiling to interior, slightest soiling and light rubbing to cloth extremities, gilt bright. A lovely copy in near-fine condition.