The Pyramid and the Urn. The Life in Letters of a Restoration Squire: William Lawrence of Shurdington, 1636-1697. Edited and Illustrated by Iona Sinclair.

Stroud; Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1994. [xiv] + 161, (1) pp. Publisher's green cloth with pictorial dustjacket. The jacket insignificantly worn at spine ends and a little creased at rear upper corner. A fine copy. "Comic and tragic elements interweave in this unique real-life story, giving an understanding of something of the origins of the eighteenth-century novel. The letters lead from the irresponsibility of his youth, in Restoration London, through frustration and cruel turns of fate, in his middle years, to the tranquility of his old age. In the last years of his life he laid out a family memorial garden in the formal style of the period. Symbolic ornaments, such as the pyramid and the urn, are described by Lawrence, and this rare full description of a garden of the time will be appreciated particularly by those interested in garden history." (Front flap).