Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard by Gray, Thomas; Sir Hugh Walpole (intro) - 1938

London: The Limited Editions Club. Near Fine with no dust jacket. 1938. Special Edition. First Printing. Hard Cover. Limited edition (this is Copy No. 458 of 1500), signed by the artist on the limitation page. Bound in full stone-gray Winterbottom linen buckram with a relief design embossed in silver on the front cover, fore-edge deckle. In Slipcase. Beautifully illustrated with 32 full-page wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker sketched in the very same country church-yard that inspired the poem. Introduction by Hugh Walpole. It is known that Gray wrote the Elegy between 1746 and 1750. Three manuscript drafts are in existence. One manuscript, now at Eton College, is probably the original draft; and the text of this manuscript is printed in the last pages of the present edition. Although the first printing was issued anonymously in 1751, an edition issued in 1768 received the poet's final approbation. Therefore the text used in the present edition to company Miss Parker's engravings follows closely the approved edition of 1768.. The volume is in excellent condition, unmarked, tight, square, and clean; the silver on the cover is very lightly rubbed, and the spine is mildly sunned, else as new. The slipcase is in fine condition. NEAR FINE. . Wood engravings. Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall. xv, 71, (1-Limitation) pp .