[BINDING]. NICHOLS, Beverly (1898?1983). A Book of Old Ballads. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1934. 4to. 16 full?page color plates and many head and tailpieces by H. M. Brock. Half crushed green morocco over linen, raised bands, gilt titles in compartments, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers (spine gently sunned, bookplate of Henry Frederick Curry). FIRST TRADE EDITION. "These poems are the very essence of the British spirit. They are, to literature, what the bloom of the heather is to the Scot, and the smell of the sea to the Englishman." [HBS 12925].