One of 300 copies. Four-line errata slip tipped in after the contents leaf. Tipped in following the title-page is a short autograph letter from the author to John Lane, 14 Nov. 1895. Stripped of context the letter can only tantalise, though its combination of aggressive irony and underlying insecurity is typical Davidson. “The enclosed is unimportant and uninteresting in the last degree”. At the date of writing this letter he had just finished the negotiations for the Second Series of Fleet Street Eclogues, was approaching the high water point of his literary success and already showing the strain that led to his breakdown in the following year: his handwriting here is somewhat distrait.
The copy of Thomas Hutchinson, the schoolmaster, poetaster, indefatigable collector, and pest to writers. Accordingly, it is neatly decorated with Davidson-related clippings. A near fine copy.