John Guidfollow; or, the Murder of the Earl of Strathmore. A Mystical, Historical Romance of Forfarshire. Alexander Lowson. Glasgow: Thomas D. Morison. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1890. First edition.
via: Books and Art
Update: The title of this post and the book I posted don’t match. Obviously, I wasn’t paying attention during the proofreading part of this posting. The book on display is: John Guidfollow; or the Murder of the Earl of Strathmore. I’ll post the book “Little Curiosity” tomorrow. I apologize for the mix-up.
I find the depiction of the bats particularly interesting in this one. The way the hair curls near the moon it also interesting however. It almost seems to be curling where it is because of interactions with the moon, which makes me wonder what people thought of the distance between the earth and the moon and whether they thought that flying animals were significantly closer to it in any meaningful way than animals on the ground.
Crip Dyke,
I see what you mean about the curls near the moon. It does look as if they’re touching. I wonder if that nearness relates to bats and witches particularly as other-worldly symbols or if all flying creatures carried the same cachet? Hmm…something to add to my list of stuff to look into.