The King’s Son by F. W. Bourne

The King’s Son;

or A Memoir of Billy Bray

Compiled largely from his own memoranda

by F. W. Bourne

Bible Christian Book-Room, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1895, illustrated frontispiece, lightly illustrated with black and white illustrations in text, hardcover with red cloth cover and embossed illustrations, gilded title on cover and spine

Fair Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, some wear and tear to covers in general, large rubbed mark on front cover, parts text block loose, loose frontispiece, foxing to fore edges, no inscriptions (see photographs)

From the Preface:
“When fourteen editions of this book had been sold, an enlarged and illustrated edition was issued; but in its cheaper form it continued to have a very large sale, and no less than thirteen editions have since 1877 been disposed of.  The time has come for it to be sent forth in a larger type, and in a more attractive form.  It has been reprinted with emendations from the text of the best edition, and the larger illustrations only omitted.  A few sentences from the preface to the third edition may fitly be reproduced here:-
“The rapid sale of two editions of this Memoir is sufficient evidence of the truth of the remark, that no person in Cornwall, in the humbler ranks of life at least, was better known or more respected than William, commonly called “Billy” Bray.  His witty  and eccentric sayings caused him to be thus widely know, and his deep and fervent piety to be as generally respected.
“It is Billy Bray himself who mostly speaks in the following pages, and while his gems of thought and experience might have been made – by cutting and polishing and more skilful setting – to flash with an intense light and a purer lustre, I wish to express my gratitude for the numerous testimonies I have received as to the acceptability and usefulness of this little work.”