Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (1837Ð1916) was a British diplomat, politician, collector and writer, whose most notable work is Tales of Old Japan (1871). Nicknamed “Bertie”, he was the paternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters (known as Bertie, pronounced ‘Barty’). He was made a peer in Edward VII’s Coronation honours and took up his seat in the House of Lords a week later. This book was privately published (printed by the Ballantyne Press) in 1915, five years after the King’s death.