CONTENTS

PAGE
A Return to the Nest[1]
“And now, O Lord ...”[7]
The Death of the Sheep[12]
The Solitary Reaper[16]
Interiors[19]
The Plight of Their Graces[25]
The Village[30]
The Curtains[39]
Happiness in the Village[43]
Otherwhereness[48]
The Journey to Cockaigne[54]
Suicide of the Novel[59]
Immortal Works[65]
Ballad-Origins[69]
Real and Temporal Creation[77]
Peasant Poets[82]
Doggerel or Not[88]
The Iberian’s House[93]
Scandinavian England[99]
Our Blood and State in 1660[103]
“Merrie” England[109]
Endings—I[115]
“ II[124]
Beaumarchais[132]
The Cardinal de Retz[148]
“L’Abbesse Universelle”: Madame de Maintenon[166]
Pierre de L’Estoile[172]
La Bruyère[191]
Couleur de Rose[211]
Art and Heart[217]
A Novel and a Classic[223]
The Other Dorothy[229]
Realism with a Difference[247]
Mr. Pepys His Apple-cart[253]
One of Lamb’s Creditors[269]
Crocus and Primrose[278]
Daffodils[285]
Windflowers[291]
Tulips[297]
Summer[304]
The Lingering of the Light[310]