THE COTTAGE BOOK, THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY DIARY OF AN EDWARDIAN STATESMAN, SIR EDWARD GREY

 Edited and Introduced by Michael Waterhouse, Victor Gollancz 1999.

The cottage book is a classic country diary compiled by Sir Edward Grey and his wife Dorothy at the turn of the century as a record of their visits to their cottage at Itchen Abbas in Hampshire.

Grey, a Liberal MP for over thirty years, became Great Britain’s longest-serving Foreign Secretary, holding office from 1905 to 1916.

He was a celebrated field naturalist and writer, in the same class as W.H.Hudson, Gilbert White and Izaak Walton, and was the author of ‘ The Charm of Birds and Fly Fishing, to this day perhaps the two greatest books on their subjects.

The diary describes visits to their cottage and the passing seasons. They wrote when it pleased them, as some occurrence took their fancy or engaged their attention: the emergence of the leaves on the beech trees; the reappearance of a favourite flower; long-tailed tits nest building; the song of a nightingale; or the anticipated return of a blackcap.

Their shared enthusiasm for nature shines through their prose in exquisite descriptions of the flora and fauna around their cottage, of enchanting walks and of bicycle rides in the surrounding Hampshire countryside. The birdsong, the wild flowers and other magic encounters with nature are lovingly described. The diary ends with the tragic death of Dorothy in 1906.

Edward Grey’s Cottage Book was privately printed in 1909 for a small group of friends as a testament to the happiness he found with his wife. Only about twenty copies were produced and apart from a short appendix in G.M. Trevelyan’s biography it has remained virtually unknown until today. This first publication, ninety years on, includes an introduction by Michael Waterhouse, postcards from the time, etchings by Heywood Sumner and specially commissioned watercolours of the flora and fauna described in the book.

Both the book and the dust jacket are in excellent condition. A lovely item for the country lover