SIXTEENTH-CENTURY

On piece of aged, laid paper roughly six inches by eight and a quarter wide. Two inch closed tear at head, and three-quarters of an inch closed tear, with a little loss, to the right. Quarter-inch hole towards top right-hand corner, in sky above archway. Mounted on piece of grey paper. Negligible wear to bottom left-hand corner.

Offprint of pp.247-77. Small 8vo. 4 plates, 3 of them folding. Foxed, loose copy with closed tear and crease to first leaf. In original light-brown printed wraps, which have become detached.. Presentation copy, with inscription to 'Mr. Edward Lynam from the writer' on front wrap. Manuscript annotation in pencil, presumably by Lynam.

While Dowsing was a sixteenth-century Puritan iconoclast who kept a journal of his various depredations, this 'account of a similar visitation at some later date' which the editors claim 'has recently come into our hands', would appear to be a spoof, a suspicion perhaps strengthened by the dedication (p.3) to Ronald Knox's brother Wilfred Laurence Knox. In printed green wraps. With pseudo-sixteenth-century title and with the long s used throughout: both features being signal warnings against similar attempts at such whimsy. 12 pages, 8vo.