{"title":"Latest Finds","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-complete-sportsman-c-1760-waltons-complete-angler-1826-two-books-from-the-gresley-collection-signed-charles-gresley-antiquarian-field-sports","title":"The Complete Sportsman c.1760 \u0026 Walton's Complete Angler 1826 — Two Books from the Gresley Collection | Signed Charles Gresley | Antiquarian Field Sports","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTwo books, one hand, one shelf.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThese arrived together and we've kept them together, because they belong together. Both carry the same signature on the front endpaper — \u003cem\u003eCharles Gresley\u003c\/em\u003e, written with the same flourish and the same looping underline beneath it, unmistakably the same man on the same afternoon with the same pen. And both are about the same thing: getting out of the house.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOne teaches you to chase things across a field. The other teaches you to stand very still in a river. Between them they cover the whole range of what an English gentleman did with his time when he wasn't obliged to do anything at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Complete Sportsman; or, Country Gentleman's Recreation\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThomas Fairfax, Esq. — London: printed for J. Cooke at Shakespear's-Head, Pater-noster-Row. Undated, c.1760s.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThis is the Georgian country gentleman's handbook to absolutely everything, and it does not know the meaning of restraint. Hare-hunting, fox-hunting, buck-hunting and otter-hunting. The rearing and backing of colts. The management of race-horses. Coursing, bowling, and angling in all its various branches. The breeding of pigeons, rabbits and canary birds. Finding the haunts of partridges and pheasants. Shooting — and shooting flying, which was still a novelty worth writing about. There is a great deal on game cocks and how to fight them, which is a window onto eighteenth-century leisure that we'd rather leave open than paint over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe engraved frontispiece is the best thing in it: an entire hunt in full cry, riders, hounds pouring across the middle distance, and one solitary angler standing in the water paying no attention to any of them. Beneath it a couplet that tells you exactly what the book thinks of itself — \u003cem\u003eA Chace is Sure superior to all Wealth; It gives us Pleasure, and it gives us Health.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOne thing we should clear up, because plenty of sellers don't. This is not Sir Thomas Fairfax the Civil War general. He died in 1671, which puts him roughly ninety years short. \"Thomas Fairfax, Esq.\" was a name the trade stuck on the title page to shift copies, and it worked — the book went through edition after edition, many of them undated and all of them cheerfully confusing to bibliographers ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eRebound in the nineteenth century in half green calf over marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt with a red morocco label. Inside the front board, still bright, is the trade ticket of \u003cstrong\u003eB. Hunt \u0026amp; Sons of High Street, Birmingham\u003c\/strong\u003e — engravers, copper plate printers and bookbinders. Somebody in the Midlands cared enough about this book to have it properly dressed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Complete Angler of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton — Volume I\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eChiswick: printed by C. and C. Whittingham, sold by Thomas Tegg of Cheapside and others. 1826.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe loveliest book ever written about doing very little. First published in 1653 and never out of print since, \u003cem\u003eThe Complete Angler\u003c\/em\u003e is only nominally about fishing. It is really about friendship, birdsong, country inns, milkmaids who sing, and the specific and irreplaceable happiness of a day spent nowhere important. Here it is in the handsome little Whittingham printing of Sir John Hawkins's text, issued for Thomas Tegg's Cabinet Library, with an engraved portrait of Walton at the front and a vignette title showing a creel and rod abandoned under the trees, which is the whole book in one picture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is Volume I of two, and Volume II is not present.\u003c\/strong\u003e We'd rather tell you that in bold than let you find it out at the bottom of the page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAnd then there's the thing pasted inside the front board, which is our favourite detail in either book. It is a \u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c\/em\u003e cartoon captioned \u003cstrong\u003e\"Walton's Complete Bungler\"\u003c\/strong\u003e — a fisherman in a flat cap, line hopelessly wrapped round the branches above him, face a picture of pure despair, over the caption \u003cem\u003e\"Confound it! — and the fish rising so nicely!\"\u003c\/em\u003e Somebody cut that out and stuck it in the front of their Walton on purpose. We choose to believe it was Mr Gresley, and that he knew exactly what he was admitting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eBound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards with marbled edges, gilt-ruled spine, red morocco label. \u003cem\u003e(A small point that catches people out: the preliminaries include an \"Advertisement to the Edition Published by Sir John Hawkins, 1760.\" That's reprinted editorial matter, not a date. The book is 1826.)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA word about the Gresleys\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe name in the front of these books belongs to one of the oldest families in England — and one of the more quietly extraordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Gresleys were Norman. Domesday recorded Nigel de Stafford holding the manor of Drakelowe in Derbyshire towards the close of the eleventh century, and his descendants held it for nine hundred years — as long as any family in England is said to have owned the same patch of ground. They took their surname from Castle Gresley, founded a priory nearby before the year 1200, and in 1611 were granted a baronetcy that was the sixth oldest in the whole of Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThey were not, however, a family much given to caution. Sir Nigel Gresley, the sixth baronet, went to sea with the Royal Navy at a tender age, made lieutenant, was invalided out with rheumatism, inherited Drakelow and Knypersley, discovered he was sitting on coal, and in 1775 got an Act of Parliament through to dig his own canal — which then held a monopoly on Newcastle-under-Lyme coal for forty-two years. His kinsman Sir Roger, the eighth baronet, went the other way entirely: Christ Church, Oxford without troubling to take a degree, a celebrated London dandy, a seat in Parliament, and a gambling habit that ate most of the family fortune and obliged him to sell nearly everything to stay solvent. He died at thirty-seven, and his library went under the hammer the following spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe family motto, chosen long before either of them, is \u003cem\u003eMeliore fide quam fortuna\u003c\/em\u003e — better in faith than in fortune. One suspects it was tested.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOur Charles belonged to the Lichfield branch — we know from the armorial bookplate in another book from this same library, which names him \u003cem\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/em\u003e. Richard Gresley of Stowe House, Lichfield, a descendant of the Drakelow Gresleys and a bencher of the Middle Temple, headed that line, and his eldest son William became a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral in 1840. There is a memorial to a Charles Gresley in the cathedral itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThere is one more Gresley you will certainly have heard of, even if the name means nothing to you. A younger branch had settled at Netherseal, where four successive Gresleys served as rector of St Peter's; the last of them, the Reverend Nigel Gresley, had a fourth son born in 1876. That son was Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LNER, who designed the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard — which in 1938 hit 126 miles per hour and still holds the world record for a steam locomotive. The family that turned up in Domesday with a plough ended up with the fastest thing on rails.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe last Gresley left Drakelowe Hall in 1931, after twenty-eight generations. The house was pulled down three years later and a power station built on the site. The books, evidently, got out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance.\u003c\/strong\u003e From the library of \u003cstrong\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/strong\u003e, of the Lichfield branch of the Gresleys of Drakelowe, whose signature appears on the front endpaper of both volumes and whose armorial bookplate appears in another book from the same group. Acquired by us at auction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition, told straight\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eNeither of these is a fine copy and we won't dress them up as one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Fairfax has a rubbed spine with real surface loss, a chipped label, a cracked front joint and a hinge that's started to go internally. The boards are on and it handles perfectly well, but it wants a gentle hand. Corners worn through. Pages toned with scattered foxing throughout, which is simply what paper of this age does. Frontispiece and title both present and clear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Walton is rougher. The head of the spine is chipped away with the blue headband showing through, the front joint is cracked, the corners are worn and the label is defective. The text block is sound and the leaves are clean enough. Frontispiece and vignette title both present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eSo — reading copies and shelf copies, not investment pieces. But between them they've got the better part of four hundred and fifty years on the clock, they've survived a good deal more than most objects manage, and standing side by side they look magnificent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOne last thing. Pencilled in the back of each are prices from booksellers long gone: £2.50 and £1.50. Somebody, once, got an absolute steal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSold as a pair. Part of the Gresley Collection. One of a kind — when they're gone, they're gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped by us in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Novel Relics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56008275394945,"sku":null,"price":210.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/the-complete-sportsman-c1760-waltons-complete-angler-1826-two-books-from-the-gresley-collection-signed-charles-gresley-antiquarian-field-sports-7782823.jpg?v=1785621626"},{"product_id":"noble-and-gentle-men-of-england-shirley-1859-first-edition","title":"The Noble and Gentle Men of England — Evelyn Philip Shirley | 1859 First Edition | Charles Gresley of Lichfield's Copy | Armorial Bookplate","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"_chunkWrapper_yu34g_39\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e      A gentleman of an ancient house, looking up his own family.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"_chunkWrapper_yu34g_39\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"ml-2 border-l-4 border-[hsl(var(--border-300)\/0.1)] pl-4 text-text-300\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eIn 1859 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eEvelyn Philip Shirley \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003epublished his attempt to set \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003edown, county by county, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe arms and descents \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eof every ancient \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eknightly and gentle house \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003estill surviving in England \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e— those established \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebefore the sixteenth \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecentury, traced in the male \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eline, still holding their \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eground. It was a serious \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003epiece of Victorian \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eantiquarian labour and it remains a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003estandard reference.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThis \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecopy belonged to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e. We know because his armorial \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebookplate is pasted inside the front \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eboard, encircled with the words \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eLiber Caroli Gresley Armigeri de Lichfield A.D. 1854\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e — the book of Charles \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eGresley, Esquire, of Lichfield.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eWhich means that when this book \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003earrived, he could turn to the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eDerbyshire pages and find his own \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efamily waiting for him.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThe Shirley connection.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e Pasted \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebeneath the bookplate, in Gresley's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ehand, is the single word \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eFrom\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e — and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebelow it a cut fragment of a letter in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eShirley's own writing, ending \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003emy dear sir, very sincerely yours\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ewith his full signature. Gresley kept \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe proof of who gave him the book and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003estuck it in the front. We should be \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eprecise: this is a pasted letter \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efragment, not an inscription written \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003einto the volume. What it strongly \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003esuggests is a gift from one antiquary \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eto another; what it certainly is, is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eShirley's autograph, preserved on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003epurpose.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eTipped in at the preface \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eis a newspaper cutting reporting \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eShirley's death — of Eatington Park, in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ehis seventy-first year, sometime Member \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efor Monaghan and afterwards for the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003esouthern division of Warwickshire, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eretired from the Commons in 1865, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eauthor of this book and of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThe Shirleys of Eatington\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e. A further \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efolded cutting about the Baronetage \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003esits loose, pencil-dated 1898. Both \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003epostdate Shirley's death in 1882, so \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eeither Gresley lived on and kept \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efeeding his book, or a later owner \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecarried on the habit. We can't tell you \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ewhich, but somebody cared about this \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003evolume for a very long time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eA word about the Gresleys\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThe \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ename on the bookplate belongs to one of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe oldest families in England — and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eone of the more quietly extraordinary.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThe Gresleys were Norman. Domesday \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003erecorded Nigel de Stafford holding the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003emanor of Drakelowe in Derbyshire \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003etowards the close of the eleventh \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecentury, and his descendants held it \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efor nine hundred years — as long as any \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efamily in England is said to have owned \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe same patch of ground. They took \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003etheir surname from Castle Gresley, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efounded a priory nearby before the year \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e1200, and in 1611 were granted a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebaronetcy that was the sixth oldest in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe whole of Britain.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThey were \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003enot, however, a family much given to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecaution. Sir Nigel Gresley, the sixth \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebaronet, went to sea with the Royal \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eNavy at a tender age, made lieutenant, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ewas invalided out with rheumatism, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003einherited Drakelow and Knypersley, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ediscovered he was sitting on coal, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ein 1775 got an Act of Parliament \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethrough to dig his own canal — which \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethen held a monopoly on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eNewcastle-under-Lyme coal for forty-two \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eyears. His kinsman Sir Roger, the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eeighth baronet, went the other way \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eentirely: Christ Church, Oxford without \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003etroubling to take a degree, a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecelebrated London dandy, a seat in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eParliament, and a gambling habit that \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eate most of the family fortune and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eobliged him to sell nearly everything \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eto stay solvent. He died at \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethirty-seven, and his library went \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eunder the hammer the following spring.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThe family motto, chosen long before \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eeither of them, is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eMeliore fide quam fortuna\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e — better in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efaith than in fortune. One suspects it \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ewas tested.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eOur Charles belonged to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe Lichfield branch. Richard Gresley \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eof Stowe House, Lichfield, a descendant \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eof the Drakelow Gresleys and a bencher \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eof the Middle Temple, headed that line, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eand his eldest son William became a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eprebendary of Lichfield Cathedral in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e1840. There is a memorial to a Charles \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eGresley in the cathedral itself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThere is one more Gresley you will \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecertainly have heard of, even if the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ename means nothing to you. A younger \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebranch had settled at Netherseal, where \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efour successive Gresleys served as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003erector of St Peter's; the last of them, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe Reverend Nigel Gresley, had a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efourth son born in 1876. That son was \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eSir Herbert Nigel Gresley, Chief \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eMechanical Engineer of the LNER, who \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003edesigned the Flying Scotsman and the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eMallard — which in 1938 hit 126 miles \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eper hour and still holds the world \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003erecord for a steam locomotive. The \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efamily that turned up in Domesday with \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ea plough ended up with the fastest \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ething on rails.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eThe last Gresley \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eleft Drakelowe Hall in 1931, after \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003etwenty-eight generations. The house was \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003epulled down three years later and a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003epower station built on the site. The \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebooks, evidently, got out.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eProvenance.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e From the library of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eCharles Gresley, Esquire, of Lichfield\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e, of the Lichfield branch of the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eGresleys of Drakelowe, whose armorial \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebookplate — \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eLiber Caroli Gresley Armigeri de Lichfield A.D. 1854\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e — identifies him beyond \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003edoubt. Acquired by us at auction as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003epart of a small group of books from \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethat library, each carrying his name.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr class=\"border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eCondition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003e Handsomely \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ebound in full maroon leather, lettered \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ein gilt direct to both spine and front \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eboard, with gilt ornaments in the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecompartments and raised bands. Rubbing \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eto the spine ends and board edges, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ecorners lightly worn, a few marks to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe covers. Internally toned with \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003escattered foxing and some tide-marking, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eheavier around the tipped-in material. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eSquare, tight and entirely sound — much \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ethe best preserved book we have handled \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003efrom this library.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003ePart of the Gresley Collection. One of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"_animating_yu34g_10\"\u003estiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Novel Relics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56008311406977,"sku":null,"price":225.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/IMG_1129.jpg?v=1785596861"},{"product_id":"palgrave-golden-treasury-1919-uppingham-school-prize-gresley","title":"The Golden Treasury — Palgrave | Oxford Edition 1919 | Uppingham School Prize Binding | Awarded to R. Gresley, 1921 | Full Morocco","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA prize, a boy, and a headmaster who became a bishop.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eIn 1921 a boy named R. Gresley, sitting somewhere in the Lower Fourth at Uppingham School, did something well enough to be handed this. It is Palgrave's \u003cem\u003eGolden Treasury\u003c\/em\u003e — the anthology that taught English poetry to more people than any book before or since — bound in full brown morocco with the school's seal blocked in gilt on the front board.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThat seal is worth a look. It shows an Elizabethan schoolmaster seated at his desk with boys ranged before him, encircled by the legend of the common seal of the governors of the schools and hospitals of Oakham and Uppingham in the county of Rutland. The figure is Archdeacon Robert Johnson, who founded both schools in 1584 and whose likeness has been stamped on their prize books ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eInside, the label records the gift in Latin: \u003cem\u003eHunc librum R. Gresley honoris causa D.D. Reginaldus H. Owen A.M. A.D. MCMXXI.\u003c\/em\u003e The name filled in by hand belongs to \u003cstrong\u003eReginald Herbert Owen\u003c\/strong\u003e, headmaster of Uppingham from 1916 to 1934 — an Oxford don before that, and afterwards Bishop of Wellington in New Zealand. Some schoolboy received his prize from a future bishop and, judging by the pencil form marks still in the front, promptly went back to the Lower Fourth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe book itself.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Oxford Edition of 1919, with the hundred additional poems carrying Palgrave's selection to the end of the nineteenth century, and a photogravure portrait of Tennyson after the painting by G.F. Watts. Palgrave's dedication to Tennyson opens the book and is oddly moving — he records that it was Tennyson's encouragement, given while the two of them walked the wild scenery of Treryn Dinas in Cornwall, that made him begin the work at all, and that it was finished under Tennyson's advice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOn the Gresleys.\u003c\/strong\u003e This comes from a small library we bought at auction, several volumes of which carry the Gresley name across more than a century — from Regency sporting books signed by Charles Gresley of Lichfield, through a Victorian volume of English genealogy, to this schoolboy's prize of 1921. We cannot tell you exactly how R. Gresley stood in relation to the others, and we won't guess. What we can tell you is that the books kept the name, and that somebody in that family was still collecting them well into living memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe Gresleys themselves were Norman, recorded at Drakelowe in Derbyshire in Domesday and holding the same manor for something close to nine hundred years. Their motto was \u003cem\u003eMeliore fide quam fortuna\u003c\/em\u003e — better in faith than in fortune. One of them, from the Netherseal branch, grew up to design the Mallard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition.\u003c\/strong\u003e Good and honestly worn. The morocco is rubbed overall with scuffing and pale surface marks to both boards, wear to the spine ends and corners, and some loss along the top edge of the front board. The gilt seal is bright and crisp. Internally clean and sound with light foxing, the Tennyson plate clean, the prize label intact. A handsome object that has plainly been read.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePart of the Gresley Collection. One of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Novel Relics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56024619778433,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/IMG_1136.jpg?v=1785660358"},{"product_id":"story-of-the-odyssey-church-1892-first-edition-flaxman","title":"The Story of the Odyssey — Rev. Alfred J. Church | Seeley \u0026 Co. 1892 | First Edition | 16 Colour Plates after Flaxman | Decorated Cloth","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHomer, retold for Victorian children, and illustrated like a Greek vase.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAlfred Church was a clergyman and Professor of Latin at University College London who spent the back half of his life doing something rather generous: making the classics readable for people who hadn't been beaten through them at school. This is his \u003cem\u003eOdyssey\u003c\/em\u003e, published by Seeley in 1892 and reviewed in \u003cem\u003eThe Classical Review\u003c\/em\u003e that same May — the first edition, alongside its companion volume on the Iliad.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe illustrations are what make it. They are taken after \u003cstrong\u003eJohn Flaxman\u003c\/strong\u003e, the great neoclassical draughtsman, and printed here as pale terracotta figures against solid black, in deliberate imitation of Greek red-figure vase painting. Nestor's sacrifice, Ulysses preparing to fight with Irus, the whole voyage rendered in clean outline. They look like nothing else on a shelf and they have aged far better than most Victorian book illustration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe binding is publisher's brick-red cloth, blocked in gilt with a Flaxman chariot scene on the front board and a laurel-wreathed portrait of Homer beneath it, with a small gilt lyre on the spine. Solid, handsome, unmistakably of its decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition.\u003c\/strong\u003e Honest and well-read. The spine ends are frayed with some loss at the head, the cloth is rubbed along the edges and at the corners, and there is a dark stain and some scattered marks to the rear board. Internally toned with light foxing. \u003cstrong\u003eOne plate — Ulysses preparing to fight with Irus — has come loose from the binding and sits free in the book.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is present, clean and undamaged, but it is detached, and we would rather you knew that before ordering than after opening the parcel. The remaining plates are secure and the text block is sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eA lovely reading copy of a genuinely beautiful piece of Victorian book-making, priced for its faults.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of a kind — when it's gone, it's gone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eFree UK delivery. Hand-wrapped in stiff card and packing paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Novel Relics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56025411977601,"sku":null,"price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/7887\/9617\/files\/IMG_1144.jpg?v=1785678787"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.novelrelics.co.uk\/collections\/latest-finds.oembed","provider":"Novel Relics","version":"1.0","type":"link"}