When allan quatermain, the colonial adventurer-explorer of h. rider haggard's novel 'king solomon's mines', is in need of either comfort or wisdom, he turns to the pages of 'the ingoldsby legends'. originally published in 'bentley's miscellany', the collected 'ingoldsby legends' of 1840 was to be found on the shelves of any respectable private library. myths, legends, and stories of ghosts are the quarry of a mind that strides effortlessly between humorous parody of medieval folklore and the goliardic satire of individuals and institutions. but, perhaps more importantly, this 'lost' classic of the middle victorian world provides a valuable insight into the imagination of a people who were to build the largest empire that the world had ever seen. this beautiful scholarly edition contains over twenty plates by some of england's best-known satirical cartoonists of the day. it is edited and introduced by g.a.r. hamilton.