Shakspere's England; Or, Sketches of the Social History in the Reign of Elizabeth

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1856. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, 182 x 115 mms., pp. viii, 416; viii, 424, fine inscribed copy to Eton schoolboy, bound in full polished calf, gilt rules on borders, spines ornately gilt in compartments, green morocco titling labels, olive morocco numbering labels, marbled end-papers and edges. A fine set with the presentation inscription on the recto of the front free end-paper in volume 1, "Evelyn, Henry, Villebois, Burnaby/ with the best wishes of his/ friend and Schoolfellow/ Stewart, J, C. Ducket./ On his leaving Eton/ Election 1864." The author George Walter Thornbury (1828-1876) is best known for his two-volume biography of the great painter J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851). As William Charles Mark Kent said in the DNB, Thornbury's "most important independent publication was his 'Life of J. M. W. Turner,' from original letters and papers (2 vols. 1861). He wrote the whole of it under the watchful observation of Mr. Ruskin; and, as Thornbury himself remarked to the present writer, it was 'very much like working bareheaded under a tropical sun!' ". The present Shakespearean work was written some years prior to Thornbury's labouring under Ruskin's daunting gaze. This set of Shakspere's England (1856) is finely bound, is in fine condition, and has a playful inscription from one Victorian Etonian to another Victorian Etonian, with such a profuse use of commas that it must involve some sort of private joke. Ignoring the commas for a moment, the inscription reads, "Evelyn Henry Villebois Burnaby / with the best wishes of his / friend & Schoolfellow / Steuart J C Duckett. / On his leaving Eton / Election 1864." Born into an important land-owning Irish family, Duckett of Duckett's Grove, in county Carlow, Ireland, the presenter of the set was Steuart James Charles Duckett (1847-1915). After Eton, he became a member of the 13th Hussars. Later, he was High Sheriff of County Carlow, and the Hon. Secretary of the Carlow and Island Hounds, as well as being the founder of the Irish Counties Polo Club Union. The recipient of the set was Evelyn Henry Villebois Burnaby (1841-1924). After Eton, he became a clergyman and legal writer. He wrote the popular book Memories of Famous Trials (1907). Also a travel writer, he detailed his traversal of the nation in A Ride from Land's End to John o'Groats (1893). It is rare to find an example of what is called an "Eton leaving book" which is so early, so finely bound, and remains in such fine condition -- as well as having a fine inscription. An exemplary relic from the Victorian Age.