Supported by this faith I will own I am not very gravely discouraged by occasionally finding myself ranked as a champion of an outworn fashion. The progress of art is the progress of the pendulum. It advances and recedes according to a law of movement that only the fullest and profoundest knowledge of all the factors that make up human life can enable us to decipher.

But that art does often lie fallow after a period of rich harvest must be indisputable to all who have carefully studied its history. It need not, therefore, be wholly surprising if, in that little corner of time we inhabit to-day, there should have come a momentary lull following on a period of intense and varied vitality.

My mission here is simply to recall and to record personal reminiscences of some of the great men who sowed and reaped a part of that great harvest garnered during the later half of the last century. In the history of English Literature and English Art, I believe it presents a rich yield that will not soon be equalled as the fruit of an equal measure of time, and I am prepared to accept lightly enough the criticism that probably awaits me, that the heroes whom I have worshipped are no longer the heroes of to-day.

CONTENTS

[CHAPTER I]
PAGE
Introductory[1]
[CHAPTER II]
Idle Hours[15]
[CHAPTER III]
Essays in Journalism[26]
[CHAPTER IV]
The Bar[48]
[CHAPTER V]
Dante Gabriel Rossetti[59]
[CHAPTER VI]
Edward Burne-Jones[71]
[CHAPTER VII]
Millais and Leighton[85]
[CHAPTER VIII]
Frederick Walker[102]
[CHAPTER IX]
Design and Engraving[111]
[CHAPTER X]
The Grosvenor Gallery and the New Gallery[126]
[CHAPTER XI]
Whistler and Cecil Lawson[133]
[CHAPTER XII]
Art Journalism[146]
[CHAPTER XIII]
Orators[167]
[CHAPTER XIV]
Some Victorian Poets[193]
[CHAPTER XV]
A Younger Generation[215]
[CHAPTER XVI]
Men of the Theatre[225]
[CHAPTER XVII]
Social Hours[263]
[CHAPTER XVIII]
Some Foreign Actors[273]
[CHAPTER XIX]
The Work of the Theatre[281]

ILLUSTRATIONS

[Study for the picture of King Cophetua (Philip Comyns Carr). By Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart.][Frontispiece]
FACE PAGE
[G. Birkbeck Hill][7]
[Dante Gabriel Rossetti. By Himself][59]
[Dante Gabriel Rossetti. By G. F. Watts, R.A.][65]
[Letter. By Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart. (a)][78]
[The Homes of England. By Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart. (b)][78]
[The Homes of England. By Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart. (c)][78]
Lessons in Anatomy. By Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart.—
[Lesson 1][80]
[Lesson 2][80]
[Lesson 3][80]
[Ophelia. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A.][85]
[The Finding of Moses. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A.][87]
[The Huguenots. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A.][92]
[Lord Leighton, P.R.A. By G. F. Watts, R.A.][96]
[A Woman in the Snow. By F. Walker, A.R.A.][103]
[Lucy Gray. By Sir John Gilbert, R.A.][109]
[The Unjust Judge. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A.][111]
[The Leaven. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A.][113]
[“To seek the wanderer.” By F. Sandys][115]
[James Martineau. By G. F. Watts, R.A.][167]
[John Bright. By W. W. Ouless, R.A.][169]
[Lord Tennyson. By G. F. Watts, R.A.][193]
[Head of Charles Dickens. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A.][194]
[Robert Browning. By G. F. Watts, R.A.][201]
[William Morris. By G. F. Watts, R.A.][209]
[R. L. Stevenson. By Sir W. Richmond, K.C.B., R.A.][215]
[Sir Henry Irving.][237]
[Sir Arthur Sullivan. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A.][284]