Note 77 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
Lavengro ch. xxvi. 'It is as good as Homer,' says Mr. Augustine Birrell, quoting the whole passage in his Res Judicatæ. Mr. Birrell tells a delightful story of an old Quaker lady who was heard to say at a dinner-table, when the subject of momentary conversation was a late prize-fight: 'Oh, pity it was that ever corruption should have crept in amongst them'—she had just been reading Lavengro.