Ernest Gambier-Parry (1853-1935) was born into the privileged Gambier-Parry family of Highnam, near Gloucester. His father Thomas Gambier-Parry was an artist and art collector of note and a friend of Lord Leighton PRA, and Sir Edward Poynter, PRA. Ernest was destined for the military, but his first love was that of literature and he wrote widely on numerous subjects. One of his first books was Suakin, 1885: Being a Sketch of the Campaign of this Year. Ernest Gambier-Parry was a major in the army sent to Egypt to avenge the death of General Gordon, and this book was his personal account. In later life Gambier-Parry took a great interest in country matters and was clearly influenced by the young Joseph Arthur Gibbs (1868-1899) whose book A Cotswold Village had been published in 1898. In 1913 he published this book under the original title of The Spirit of the Old Folk. In his style he has followed Gibbs and portrays in a beautiful and sympathetic manner, the lives of his elderly parishioners. This snapshot of rural life was published just one year before the horrors of the Western Front and captures memories from the early years of Victoria. His cameos of rustic villagers include threshing, thatching, breast ploughing and mole catching. This book is surely one of the most moving of descriptions of rural Victorian Gloucestershire life for both the Vale and the Cotswolds.