The Enchanted Woods And Other Essays On The Genius Of Places Vernon Lee, Pseud., I.E. Violet Paget

Spine slightly darkened and nicked at head, covers slightly marked and corners bumped. Second edition (first edition 1905), inscribed by the author, "Peggy from Vernon"; later handsome (R.E. Tyler) bookplate of the Working Men’s College (stamped "Presented By" then, in typescript, "L.G.S. REYNOLDS") with "Library Regulations" label, and library stamps on top edge, half-title, title-page, pp. 22, 40, 62, 82, 108, 130, 150, [172], 192, [214], [234], [254], [274], [300] and [322]. "Peggy" is presumably Mrs L.G.S. Reynolds. Leonard George Stanley Reynolds (1883-1945), a distinguished civil servant with the War Office/Air Ministry (Private Secretary to the Under-Secretary of State for War, 1912, to the Quartermaster General, 1912-16, to the Secretary of State for Air, 1930-3), married in 1921 Mary Margaret Middleton (1894-1984), daughter of Bella Middleton (née Stillman, 1868-1948), stepdaughter and final companion of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Marie Stillman (née Spartali, 1844-1927) - a close friend of Vernon Lee. Many of Lee's essays are about Italy, where Stillman's husband was a correspondent for The Times and where she lived for most of the years 1878-98. Marie Stillman was famously beautiful, "so beautiful," said Swinburne, "I feel as if I could sit down and cry".