Original beige cloth lettered and illustrated on front board in black and grey, lettered in gilt on spine.A little soiled, corners scuffed, undated inscription in pencil on front pastedown, good only. Clowes wrote on naval matters, but is probably best known for his future war novel, The Captain of the Mary Rose, A Tale of Tomorrow (1892). The stories in this collection are in a lighter vein: "They are stories without any purpose. They do not touch on problems of the day. They do not attack any existing institutions. They do not seek to propagate any startling doctrines. They are plain tales and nothing more".