Books old and much older

Every few years I have a George Eliot period and I read all her books, starting with Adam Bede and trying to get through them all. I love inhabiting her world and her books are an antidote to the modern novels that I usually read.
 
This week I started with Adam Bede once again. Today I got quite annoyed with the book, as it was falling apart and the pages were loose. So I located on the shelf (in the right place!) this old hardback edition. As I opened it, I was startled to find a label inside the front cover stating that this was presented to Ernest Hoyle in 1898 ‘for making 84% attendance at Thackley School Evening Continuation Classes'. (Thackley is near Bradford) Now this was my Great Uncle, my Grandmother’s brother. I didn’t know him, as he died before I was born, so what puzzled me was how I came to have the book. I presume my grandmother gave it to me at some time.
 
The other thing that surprised me was that this book was thought to be suitable for a 13 year old boy! I suppose it might have been then, but I somehow doubt it. Unless someone was being very clever and realised that Adam Bede was a highly skilled carpenter and Ernest was to become a highly skilled cabinet maker. I know this, as I have some of his wonderfully worked pieces of furniture.
    
So, why is 'Felix Holt: The Radical' in the picture. Well, that’s another story altogether. Something to do with the fact that I am piecing together the life of my great, great, great, grandfather, who was a 17 year old living in Wigan at the time of the Reform Act in 1832. At a time of protest and change, he became involved with movements to break away from the Church of England, so much so that he eventually became an Independent Minister. This is all the setting of Felix Holt, so I am reading this instead of Adam Bede.