The Haunts of Old Cockaigne

BANKSIDE IN 1648 ( FLAG FLYING OVER GLOBE THEATRE ).

THE HAUNTS OF OLD COCKAIGNE
BY ALEX. M. THOMPSON (DANGLE)
1898 . LONDON . THE CLARION OFFICE 72 FLEET STREET, E.C. . WALTER SCOTT LTD., PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E.C.

My dear Will Ranstead,—
When, in our too infrequent talks, I have confessed my growing fondness for life in London, your kindly countenance has assumed an expression so piteous that my Conscience has turned upon what I am pleased to call my Mind, to demand explanation of a feeling so distressing to so excellent a friend.
My Mind, at first, was disposed to apologise. It pleaded its notoriously easy-going character: it had never met man or woman that it had not more or less admired, nor remained long anywhere without coming to strike kinship with the people and to develop pride in their activities.
In its infancy it had been as Badisch as the Grossherzog of Baden, and had deemed lilac-scented Carlsruhe the grandest town in the world.
In blue-and-white Lutetia, it had grown as Parisian as an English dramatist.