Oak Knoll

First Glasgow Edition, with the true first edition being the English edition published in the same year. This is the variant with the '*' signatures. (Gaskell 475, Rothschild 1073, Northrup 56). For this edition the Foulis brothers had Alexander Wilson cut a special font of double pica roman type (cf. Updike, Printing Types, II: 143). Gray didn't write a great deal, but was the most popular poet of his time. This publication contains Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard, a classic of English literature, as well as his Ode on the death of a favourite cat. Rebacked with a new spine on the original leather boards. Small abrasion on front cover. Very professional front free endpaper repair. Minor toning around the edges of the preliminary pages, title page, and rear pages.

Provenance: This copy is signed on the title page by Lady Margaret Beckford (Gordon), the wife of well-known novelist William Thomas Beckford.