[Eton College, 'Leaving Book'] [Association Copy] [Daniel Press] [With Important ALS From H.E. Luxmoore to Hubert Brinton on the Occasion of His Leaving Eton] Now in Wintry Delights

Oxford: Daniel Press, 1903. Book. Near Fine. Morocco. 1st Edition. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Finely bound in pebble-grain black morocco with title, author and floral decoration gilt front cover, with gilt tooling top cover, edges and turn-ins and with blind tooling back cover. Two raised bands, no lettering on spine. Stamp signed in gilt at front turn-in "Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd. Binde[ry]". Original paper wrappers bound in, with Daniel Press insignia on rear wrapper. Contents Fine. With a facsimile folding leaf of manuscript in collotype. Near Fine, minor rubbing to boards, even toning at edges of end papers, as usual, caused by binding glue. (Madan 54) Inscribed in Latin by Luxmoore to Brinton on recto of front endpaper: "Huberto Brinton Adjutori optime merito Senex Etonensis Etonae non Dec. MCMXXIV H.E.L." (To a most-deserving Assistant Master, an old Etonian [gives this] at Eton, on the Nones of December [December 5th], 1924). Also includes a laid-in ALS in ink from Luxmoore to Brinton dated Dec.12, 1924. Headed "Baldwin's Bec". "My dear Brinton, I take the liberty of sending you a 'leaving book'. I value it because it was written to deal with the theories of my pupil Will Stone. You may value it perhaps because the issues of the Daniel Press - now at an end - are much sought after. & also, I hope, for the sake of an old friendship I most heartily claim to include your dear wife ever yours HE Luxmoore". Henry Elford Luxmoore (1841-1926) was an influential English author and horticulturalist. Luxmoore is known for his forty-one-year tenure at Eton in the classics department from 1867-1908. He also served as the House Master at Baldwin's Bec prior from 1872-1902. Luxmoore was a good friend of noted ghost story writer M.R. James, and is also known for his creation of the Luxmoore Garden at Eton. Hubert Brinton (1863-1941) was another prominent schoolmaster at Eton, serving as an Assistant Master from 1887-1924 and as House Master at Baldwin's Bec from 1902-1924. He was a close peer with H. E. Luxmoore during his time at Eton. Adding to his Eton legacy, in 1919, Brinton's former students hosted the first "Old Boy" dinner, which officially marked the beginning of a community group known as the Brinton Club. William Johnson Stone (1872-1901) was the author of the highly regarded yet controversial academic treatise On the Use of Classical Metres in English (1898), which caused a massive stir amongst classical scholars and poets. He fell ill and passed away at the young age of 28 in February of 1901 while working as an Asst. Master at Marlborough College. Robert Bridges (1844-1930) was trained as a medical doctor and practiced medicine several years before launching his career as a poet in his 40s. He was appointed Poet Laureate of England in 1914. Stone's tragic and sudden death particularly devastated Bridges. To honor his memory, in 1901 Bridges appended Stone's essay to his own famous work, published as Milton's Prosody & Classical Metres in English Verse by William Johnson Stone. The offered title Now in Wintry Delights is written as an epistle in quantitative hexameters using Stone's theories. The Daniel Press, founded by Charles Henry Olive Daniel (1836-1919) and his wife Emily, ran from 1874 to 1923. The press notably sparked the revival of Fell Types, an idiosyncratic collection of 17th-century type faces. It also served as a stepping stone between Victorian parlor printing and the Arts & Crafts private press movement pioneered by William Morris and his Kelmscott Press founded in 1891. One of Daniel's closest literary collaborators was Robert Bridges, as Daniel was willing to hand-set the complex typographical nature of much of Bridges's poetry. Given the fine leather binding, the diligently selected work, the dated Luxmoore letter and inscription, and the strong Eton College associations between Luxmoore, Brinton, Stone, Bridges and the Daniel Press, this is a highly desirable, one-of-a-kind offering that epitomizes the perfect 'leaving book' gift between two "Old Boys". .