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RAWNSLEY, H[ardwicke] D[rummond]: : SONNETS IN SWITZERLAND AND ITALY

LONDON.J. M. DENT AND COMPANY,1899.

ISBN No ISBN.

UK,8vo HB,1st edn.VG+.No owner inscrptn. Bright,crisp,clean,publisher's original plain navy blue cloth bds with bright, crisp,stamped gilt letters decoration to front board/cover and to spine/ backstrip, rear board/cover undecorated,top edges gilt (teg),fore+lower edges deckled (untrimmed) and plain white eps with off-set block foxing from pastedowns to verso+recto of both front+rear free endpapers respectively.Corners minimally bumped,spine/backstrip similarly bumped with reciprocal creasing but without any nicks,tears,splits or fraying.UK,8vo HB, 1st edn vi-xvipp+1-165pp [paginated] includes dedicatory sonnet to John Ruskin, a prefatory note,a Sonnet Prefatory (again to John Ruskin),contents list/table,162 sonnets,an appendix,plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,a dedication (to JR on his 80th birthday) all the latter minimally and sporadically foxed/spotted, and to the rear a single page of author's other works listing 6 titles and their assorted publishers from 'Valete and Other Poems.' to 'Ballads of Brave Deeds.' Whilst at Balliol College,Oxford his social conscious became awakened under the influence of the art critic and social campaigner John Ruskin.Leaving Oxford, Rawnsley then went to work among the urban poor in London.He was appointed as lay chaplain to the Newport Market Refuge,a hostel for the destitute,in the parish of ST. MAry's,Soho,an area of London known for prostitution and poverty.Ruskin introduced him to Octavia Hilll,the pioneer of social housing.Adding to his workload,Rawnsley became a rent-collector for Hill's colleague Emma Cons. Suffering a nervous breakdown from all his activities,he was advised by Hill to recuperate in the Lake District,staying first with relatives and then witha friend of Hill's. By 1890 Rawnsley was convinced that the surest means of protecting land for public enjoyment wasn't in lobbying or legislation,but in ownership.People who wished to give or bequeath property to the public,found there was no suitable national body that was legally capable of owning it.One of three people who later founded the National Trust,Rawnsley with Robert Hunter,a civil servant and Octavia Hill met in 1893 after several properties in the Lake District were up for sale,to discuss buying and ownership of them for the public and to revive the proposal of a national trust. In London,in July 1894 at its inaugural meeting; Hunter and Rawnsley were elected chairman and secretary respectively.The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest of Natural Beauty was duly formed in January,1895.Working as honorary secretary to the Trust until his death in 1920,he was responsible for raising funds to buy the National Trust's first purchase in the Lake District,Brandlehow Woods and Fell,a 105 acre property. By the time of his death in 1920,the Trust held 994 estates throughout England and Wales,including Waggoner's Wells, Hampshire,acquired in memory of Hunter and Hydon's Ball,Surrey,in memory of Hill.  H. D. Rawnsley [b. 29 September,1851 – d. 28 May,1920] was an Anglican priest,writer and poet,a local politician and conservationist too. Please contact seller,because of the value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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