Barbarian Football Club. History and Complete Record of Teams 1890-1955

(London: Playfair Books, for the Barbarian Football Club, 1955). 8vo; original blue cloth, lettered in silver gilt to spine; no dustwrapper; pp. 275; plates. Joints chafed; backstrip sunned; bottom fore-corner of upper board gnawed; moderate foxing throughout; ownership inscription to half-title; penned page references to half-title; occasional annotations. Fair condition. 'Barbarians of considerable renown existed, it can be said at once, many centuries before 1890, the year in which W. P. Carpmael, of Blackheath, led such a successful invasion of the powerful Rugby territories of Yorkshire and the Midlands that immediately afterwards it was decided to form a representative touring club and give it a name dignified by the famous victory of Arminius over Varus and his legions "somewhere in Germany" about two thousand years ago. The writer does not pretend to know whether the adoption of such a compelling name was due to a sense of history or to the unfailing instinct of men who serve some valuable purpose.' .