"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": FIRST EDITION OF ROSS' THE RUINED ABBEYS OF BRITAIN, WITH 12 BEAUTIFUL FOLIO PLATES OF ABBEYS BY A.F. LYDON AND NUMEROUS IN-TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS
ROSS, Frederick. The Ruined Abbeys of Britain. London: William Mackenzie, [1882]. Two volumes. Folio (11 by 14-1/2 inches), original black- and gilt-stamped pictorial teal cloth.
First 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.
Plates bright and clear, faint marginal foxing to most plates, faint foxing to interiors, only light rubbing to cloth, a couple bumps to edge of Volume II, gilt bright. A near-fine copy.