With sympathy inscribed to all who love flowers and their emblems.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett,1806-1861.
Ingelow, Jean.
Trench, Richard Chenevix,1807-1886.
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton,Baron,1803-1873.
Hill, T. Alexander,1800-1866.
McFarlane, William H.,illustrator.
Edinburgh : T. Alexander Hill. W. Printseller to the Queen,
[1875?]
Includes a half-title page.
Mostly verse with contributions by "Mrs B. Browning, J. Ingelow, Trench, and Bulwer".
"W. H. Mc.Farlane, Lithr. Edinr."-- on title page.
This is a fine example of de luxe book production in mid-Victorian Edinburgh.The text, anonymously compiled, consists of a prose meditation on each season followed by an appropriate poem by a contemporary poet:  Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Jean Ingelow, Richard Chevenix Trench and Edward Bulwer Lytton. The book was the work of two significant figures involved in the production of artistic books in mid-19th century Edinburgh: the lithographer W. H. McFarlane or M'Farlane, and T. Alexander Hill (1800-66), brother of David Octavius Hill and 'printseller to the Queen' as he describes himself on the title page.
Bound in dark green cloth with the top board decorated in a black and gilt design repeated in blind in the lower cover, and with watered silk endpapers and gilt edges. The title page is decorated in gold and colours, and each season begins on a page with lithographed illuminated heading and colour illustration, enclosed with the text in a decorative border.
Scotland Edinburgh.