A splendid color plate book from the 20 shilling series of A & C Black, light blue/grey with swans in white on front cover and spine, very slight edgewear. Sketch map at the rear shows the path of the famed Thames River from near Iffley to its mouth. Pages xii, 248 with index and 2 pages publisher ads at the rear. Endpapers are browned, as is usual. Inside, clean and tight with occasional light foxing that does not affect the plates. The watercolors by Menpes are a delight, all with captioned tissue guards. Unusually for this series, there are also 20 small chapter headings in color, a nice experiment that was not repeated. Top edge gilt, and gilt fresh title on front and not quite so bright on the spine. By 1906 the publisher was struggling with the turgid prose of Miss Menpes, the niece of the illustrator, on other books in this series. He welcomed Miss Mitten's text as a much improved substitute. Inman 80