Lancashire novelist William Harrison Ainsworth – the so-called ‘King of the Historical Potboiler’ – was one of the most popular writers of his time, admired by Scott and Dickens and enjoyed for his recreation of such legendary figures as Dick Turpin and John ‘Jack’ Sheppard. Merry England is a rollicking tale of adventure set during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and is an excellent example of the Victorian ‘three-decker’ – that is, a substantial novel published in three pleasingly-proportioned volumes. The books were originally bound in cloth-covered boards; these have been replaced with a binding of marbled paper-backed boards with spines and fore-corners of navy blue leather and the original green cloth covers and spines have been artfully bound into the backs of the books. It is an extremely handsome set: decorative blue silk ribbons have been bound into the tops of the spines as pagemarkers, and the leather (together with the top page edges) have been decorated with gilt.

Each volume bears on its inside front cover the armorial bookplate of one James Allen Young. Otherwise the condition of all three volumes is clean and without mark or damage. Each volume measures 7.5 x 5 inches and contains 240 to 260 pages.