Dimensions
196 x 254 x 22mm
An Undiscovered Country Diary by an Edwardian Statesman
'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 Izaac 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 their 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 sons 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 February 1906.
'The Cottage Book' was privately printed in 1909 for a small group of friends as a testament to the happiness Grey found with his wife Dorothy. Only about twenty copies were produced and apart from a short appendix in G.M. Trevalyan's biography it has remained virtually unknown until today,. This is the first publication exactly, one hundred years after the original private edition was written, and it includes an introduction from Michael Waterhouse, postcards from the time and specially commissioned watercolours of the flora and fauna described in the book.
