GREGORY, Lady. The Kiltartan History Book.

Illustrated with coloured plates by Robert Gregory. Dublin: Maunsel, 1909. First edition. Crown octavo. pp. viii, 52, 4 (publisher’s list). Quarter coarse linen on blue papered boards, title on printed label on spine. Brown printed wrappers. Occasional light spotting and darkening to spine. A very good copy. The folk-history of the Kiltartan poor, illustrated by Lady Gregory’s only son Robert, who was killed

in the First World War, for whom W.B. Yeats wrote ‘An Irish Airman foresees his Death’. Her home at Coole became a meeting-place and haven for many of the writers of the literary revival, most of whom carved their initials on the autograph tree still standing in the gardens, among them Yeats, Shaw, Synge, Hyde, Russell, and O’Casey.

“I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;

My country is Kiltartan Cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor”

[L1 8C]