A West Surrey Sketch-Book by William Hyde and Eric Parker

Donated by a Museum supporter.

Eric Parker was born in East Barnet, London, the eldest son of a solicitor. He was educated at Eton College, Berkshire, and Merton College, Oxford. In 1902 he began work as a journalist, writing for the 'St James Gazette' and the 'Spectator'. As time went on he came to specialise in pieces for sporting periodicals, especially the 'Gamekeeper', which he edited from 1908 to 1910, and 'The Field', of which he became the sporting and countryside editor in 1911 and editor from 1930 to 1937.

In the twentieth century Parker wrote or contributed to some 60 books on cricket, wildlife, gardening and the county of Surrey, and also memoirs of his time at Eton.

Parker moved to Weybridge in 1902 and in 1911 to 'Feathercombe' in Hambledon. He described many of the places he encountered in Surrey in several of his books, particularly 'The Highways and Byways in Surrey' published in 1908, 'A West Surrey Sketchbook' published in 1913, 'Surrey' published in 1947, 'Surrey Naturalist' published in 1952 and 'Surrey Gardens' published in 1954.

William Hyde (1859–1925) was a well known artist, printmaker and illustrator. He typically worked in oils and water colours. He was a student of the Slade Schook of Fine Art where he mastered the arts of painting, etching, engraving and the then popular mezzotint. He had several works shown at exhibitions at the Royal Academy between 1889 and 1891. He is perhaps most known for his Impressions of London (1898) and for his illustrations of the first illustrated edition of Housman's A Shropshire Lad and Hiliaire Belloc's (1904) The Old Road. Some of his paintings are at the Guildford House Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.

Publisher: Guildford : A.C. Curtis; London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 1913

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: First Edition.

The book has no dust jacket, and is a little bit scruffy around the edges with age marks to the front few pages.