Front matter
Reading edition
DE LIBRIS PROSE & VERSE BY AUSTIN DOBSON Vt Mel Os, sic Cor Melos afficit, & reficit. Deuteromelia. A mixture of a Song doth ever adde Pleasure. BACON (adapted). Copyright 1908 by The Macmillan Company
PROLOGUE
LECTOR BENEVOLE!
--FOR SO
THEY USED TO CALL YOU, YEARS AGO,--
I CAN'T PRETEND TO MAKE YOU READ
THE PAGES THAT TO THIS SUCCEED;
NOR COULD I--IF I WOULD--EXCUSE
THE WAYWARD PROMPTINGS OF THE MUSE
AT WHOSE COMMAND I WROTE THEM DOWN.
I HAVE NO HOPE TO "PLEASE THE TOWN."
I DID BUT THINK SOME FRIENDLY SOUL
(NOT ILL-ADVISED, UPON THE WHOLE!)
MIGHT LIKE THEM; AND "TO INTERPOSE
A LITTLE EASE," BETWEEN THE PROSE,
SLIPPED IN THE SCRAPS OF VERSE, THAT THUS
THINGS MIGHT BE LESS MONOTONOUS.
THEN,
LECTOR
, BE
BENEVOLUS!
[The Author desires to express his thanks to Lord Northcliffe, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co., Mr. William Heinemann, and Messrs. Virtue and Co., for kind permission to reprint those pieces in this volume concerning which no specific arrangements were made on their first appearance in type.]
CONTENTS
Prologue
On Some Books And Their Associations
An Epistle To An Editor
Bramston's "Man Of Taste"
The Passionate Printer To His Love
M. Rouquet On The Arts
The Friend Of Humanity And The Rhymer
The Parent's Assistant
A Pleasant Invective Against Printing
Two Modern Book Illustrators--I. Kate Greenaway
A Song Of The Greenaway Child
Two Modern Book Illustrators--II. Mr. Hugh Thomson
Horatian Ode On The Tercentenary Of "Don Quixote"
The Books Of Samuel Rogers
Pepys' "Diary"
A French Critic On Bath
A Welcome From The "Johnson Club"
Thackeray's "Esmond"
A Miltonic Exercise
Fresh Facts About Fielding
The Happy Printer
Cross Readings--And Caleb Whitefoord
The Last Proof
ILLUSTRATIONS
*
THE OTTER HUNT IN THE "COMPLEAT ANGLER."
From an unpublished pen-drawing by Mr. Hugh Thomson
Frontispiece
*
GROUP OF CHILDREN.
From the original pen-drawing by Kate Greenaway for
The Library
, 1881
*
PENCIL-SKETCHES,
by the same (No. 1)
*
PENCIL-SKETCH,
by the same (No. 2)
*
PENCIL-SKETCHES,
by the same (No. 3)
*
PENCIL-SKETCH,
by the same (No. 4)
THE BROWN BOOK-PLATE.
From the original design by Mr. Hugh Thomson in the possession of Mr. Ernest Brown
*
SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AT THE ASSIZES.
From a first rough pencil-sketch, by the same, for
Days with Sir Roger de Coverley
, 1886
PEN-SKETCHES,
by the same, on the Half-Title of the
Ballad of Beau Brocade
, 1892. From the originals in the possession of Mr. A. T.A. Dobson
*
PEN-SKETCH (TRIPLET)
, by the same, on a Flyleaf of
Peg Woffington
, 1899
EVELINA AND THE BRANGHTONS
, by the same. From the Cranford
Evelina
, 1903
LADY CASTLEWOOD AND HER SON
, by the same. From the Cranford
Esmond
, 1905
MERCERY LANE, CANTERBURY
, by the same. From the original pencil-drawing for
Highways and Byways in Kent
, 1907
The originals of the illustrations preceded by an asterisk are in the possession of the Author.