THE CONSTABLE'S TOWER or the Times of Magna Carta

THOMAS WHITTAKER, 1891-01-01. Hardcover. Good. New York, Thomas Whittaker, 1891. Hardcover, 211 pp plus 11 pages of ads for other Books for the Young" at the back. First Edition. With four etchings (including frontis-piece). In good condition. Brown cloth covered boards with two horizontal gilt stripes edged in black on the front cover and spine. and gilt lettering on spine. Bumping to edge of covers and some nicking and fraying to the cloth over the edges and corner tips. Light to moderate overall scuffing, aging and soiling to covers as well. Spine has a thin crack at title page and the tissue paper protecting frontis-piece illustration is torn near the spine. Pages are lightly aged but otherwise unmarked with occasional light spotting. NOT Ex-Library. Nice decorated end-papers in a green vine pattern. Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901) was an English novelist who wrote to the service of the church. A prolific writer, best known for her novel "The Heir of Redclyffe," her books helped to spread the influence of the Oxford Movement. The Constable's tower is a historical novel that takes place in 1215. The Constable of Dover Castle was then Hubert de Burgh, a well-known figure in the reign of King John. He was a "man of unflinching faith, courage and loyalty." It is of Sir Hubert's daughter, Mayotte, that the story is told, and her loves, sorrows and the final happy ending that makes this a charming old-fashioned historical novel. Although the artist of the four etchings is not credited, "C O Murray" is written at the bottom of each etching. Charles Oliver Murray (1842ââ¬â1923) was a Scottish engraver. Born in Roxburghshire in 1842, Murray trained at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh and moved to London by 1872. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers on 7 May 1881. He published widely in The Art Journal from the 1880s onwards and frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy.