Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, Novelist, Critic

by James Douglas

1904

SYNOPSIS

	PAGE
Introduction	[1]
CHAPTER I
The Renascence of Wonder	[11]
CHAPTER II
Cowslip Country	[26]
CHAPTER III
The Critic in the Bud	[40]
CHAPTER IV
Characters in the Microcosm	[50]
CHAPTER V
Early Glimpses of theGypsies	[61]
CHAPTER VI
Sport and Work	[65]
CHAPTERVII
East Anglia	[72]
CHAPTER VIII
London	[87]
CHAPTER IX
George Borrow	[95]
CHAPTER X
The Acted Drama	[117]
CHAPTER XI
Dante Gabriel Rossetti	[138]
CHAPTER XII
William Morris	[170]
CHAPTER XIII
The ‘Examiner’	[183]
CHAPTER XIV
The‘Athenæum’	[190]
CHAPTERXV
The Great Book of Wonder	[228]
CHAPTER XVI
A Humourist upon Humour	[242]
CHAPTER XVII
‘The LifePoetic’	[262]
CHAPTER XVIII
American Friends: Lowell, Bret Harte,and Others	[295]
CHAPTER XIX
Wales	[312]
CHAPTER XX
Imaginative and DidacticProse	[321]
CHAPTER XXI
The Methods of ProseFiction	[345]
CHAPTER XXII
A Story With Two Heroines	[363]
CHAPTERXXIII
The Renascence of Wonder inReligion	[372]
CHAPTER XXIV
The Renascence of Wonder inHumour	[382]
CHAPTER XXV
Gorgios and Romanies	[389]
CHAPTER XXVI
‘The Coming ofLove’	[393]
CHAPTER XXVIII
“Christmas at the‘Mermaid’”	[422]
CHAPTER XXVIII
Conclusion	[442]

ILLUSTRATIONS

Theodore Watts-Dunton. From a painting by Miss H. B. Norris	Frontispiece
Reverie. Crayon by D. G. Rossetti at ‘The Pines’	[1]
The Ouse at Houghton Mill, Hunts. (From a Water Colour by Fraser at ‘The Pines.’)	[28]
‘The Thicket,’ St. Ives. (From a Water Colour by Fraser at ‘The Pines.’)	[32]
Slepe Hall: Cromwell’s Supposed Residence at St. Ives. (From an Oil Painting at ‘The Pines.’)	[36]
‘Evening Dreams with the Poets.’ (From an Oil Painting at ‘The Pines.’)	[68]
A Corner in ‘The Pines,’ showing the Painted and Carved Cabinet	[92]
A Letter Box on the Broads. (From an Oil Painting at ‘The Pines.’)	[114]
Pandora. Crayon by D. G. Rossetti at ‘The Pines’	[140]
‘The Green Dining Room,’ 16 Cheyne Walk. (From a Painting by Dunn, at ‘The Pines.’)	[161]
One of the Carved Mirrors at ‘The Pines,’ decorated with Dunn’s copy of the lost Rossetti Frescoes at the Oxford Union	[162]
Kelmscott Manor. (From a Water Colour by Miss May Morris.)	[170]
‘The Pines.’ (From a Drawing by Herbert Railton.)	[262]
A Corner in ‘The Pines,’ showing the Lacquer Cabinet	[266]
Summer at ‘The Pines’—I	[268]
A Corner in ‘The Pines,’ showing the Chinese Divan described in ‘Aylwin’	[270]
Summer at ‘The Pines’—II	[274]
‘Picture for a Story.’ (Face and Instrument designed by D. G. Rossetti, background by Dunn.)	[276]
Ogwen and the Glyders from Carnedd Dafydd	[312]
Moel Siabod and the River Lledr	[314]
Snowdon and Glaslyn	[318]
Henry Aylwin and Winifred under the Cliff. (From an Oil Painting at ‘The Pines.’)	[342]
Sinfi Lovell and Pharaoh. (From a Painting at ‘The Pines.’)	[364]
‘John the Pilgrim.’ (By Arthur Hacker, A.R.A.)	[416]

NATURA BENIGNA

What power is this? what witchery wins my feet
To peaks so sheer they scorn the cloaking snow,
All silent as the emerald gulfs below,
Down whose ice-walls the wings of twilight beat?
What thrill of earth and heaven—most wild, most sweet—
What answering pulse that all the senses know,
Comes leaping from the ruddy eastern glow
Where, far away, the skies and mountains meet?
Mother, ’tis I reborn: I know thee well:
That throb I know and all it prophesies,
O Mother and Queen, beneath the olden spell
Of silence, gazing from thy hills and skies!
Dumb Mother, struggling with the years to tell
The secret at thy heart through helpless eyes.

Introduction

‘It was necessary for Thomas Hood still to do one thing ere the wide circle and profound depth of his genius were to the full acknowledged: that one thing was—to die.’—Douglas Jerrold.