CROSSING THE BAR : SOME PORT MORTEM BELIEFS LEGENDS AND INCIDENTS MOSTLY IRISH; With wood block illustrations engraved by John F. Hunter

Bigger, Francis Joseph

Published by W. Erskine Mayne, Belfast, Ireland, 1926

Octavo pamphlet, 8 in. x 5.25 in., pp. 32. Illustrated with four striking full-page woodblock engravings and several smaller woodcuts in text. What cardpaper wraps with black title and woodcut illustration to front. Soiling to covers with a few small stains. Touch of rust to the two staples. Light age-toning to pages. Protected in mylar sheath. The title of the essay is in reference to Lord Alfred Tennyson's 1889 poem: Crossing the Bar, which concludes: For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar. Bigger, Francis Joseph (1863 1926) was an Irish antiquary, nationalist and Celtic revival polymath . In 1884 he joined the Belfast Naturalists Field Club (BNFC), which encouraged his interests and where he learned Irish. Under Bigger's direction, as secretary and then president, the BNFC became more actively involved in archaeological and folklore study. In 1888 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI), becoming a fellow in 1896. In 1894 he had been elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). Bigger also joined the Gaelic League. Bigger saw his role as promoter of all things Irish, and was involved in the revival of numerous processions, pageants, ceilidhs and feiseanna. His projects were similar in many ways to the European to the people movement and possess some affinity with their emphasis on the betterment of the urban poor and rural peasantry by rescuing folk traditions. Bigger was a founder member of the Ulster Literary Theatre, the Irish Folk Song Society, the Irish Peasant Home Industries, the Ulster Public House Association, and schemes for improved labourers cottages, as well as serving as a committee member of the Belfast Art Society and the Irish Decorative Art Association. (from Dictionary of Irish Biography). Seller Inventory # 87858

Bibliographic Details

Title: CROSSING THE BAR : SOME PORT MORTEM BELIEFS ...
Publisher: W. Erskine Mayne, Belfast, Ireland
Publication Date: 1926
Binding: Staplebound Pamphlet
Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition.