Around the Orkney Peat-Fires: Being Sketchs of Notable Orcadians and Characters, Smuggling Anecdotes, Stories of the Press-Gang, and Witch and Other Tales

Kirkwall: Printed at the "Orcadian" Office. Good with no dust jacket. [1894]. First Edition. Hardcover. Cloth boards rubbed with dampstains and flecking. Joints rubbed. 3/8" tear to cloth at tail of spine. 3/8" loss of cloth at edges of corners of boards. Previous owner's rubber name stamp on front endpaper "W B Rendall". ; Scarce first edition (This edition not located on WorldCat, although it lists other editions from 1905 second edition to 1975 eighth edition.) No date [1894]. x, (11)-344 pages. Contemporary blue cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. Page dimensions: 185 x 128mm. Pale yellow coated endpapers. Scotland, history, folklore, Orkney Islands. "The following tales, anecodes, and sketches are mostly, though not wholly, of a traditional character [.] Prior to the days of cheap periodical literature, neighbours were in the habit of meeting in each other's houses, and seated round a rousing peat-fire, whiled away the long winter evenings recounting the achievements of notable Orcadians in every part of the world, telling of the eccentricities of local characters, describing all kinds of smuggling exploits, and relating many thrilling incidents connected with the press-gang. Before 'the amers were raiked' for the night, something creepy, generally in the shape of a witch story, was usually thrown in, so that the members of the company wended their way home in the dark, prepared to see a ghost in each waving thistle, or troops of fairies on every rising knoll." - from the Introduction, page ix. .