James McBryde

As we searched about the heath that night we suddenly observed a large assortment of the less responsible Trolls playing leap frog as they advanced from a neighbouring barrow . . .

In 1899, three friends went on holiday to Denmark and afterwards one of them was inspired to write an illustrated tale about three men on an expedition to capture a Danish troll. This book contains an introduction by M. R. James, who was present on the holiday, followed by a facsmile of the original drawings and show more text. The story is short, but the illustrations remind me of Dr. Seuss and there some really funny bits, such as what could have been a a fairly dull sentence, We didn't bother much about the Troll just at first, if it wasn't accompanied by a picture of the friends looking terribly sea-sick as their boat rolls from side to side while waves crash over the gunwales.

James McBryde had terrible handwriting and bad spelling, so the publishers have helpfully provided a copy of the text at the back of the book, but there are a few words that I think they have misread:

p.3 - "However there were flies" should be "Moreover there were flies"; it makes more sense, and the first letter is written identically to the upper case 'M' in the word Moonlight a couple of lines below.
p.24- "He remained so passively on the queue" - the picture shows the troll sitting by himself, and he has just disembarked from a boat, so I am fairly sure that it says "on the quay".
p.25 - ":Luckily he wound himself tightly round a camp post" - it looks like a curly 'L' to me, making it "lamp post". show less