First Published 1924
Second Impression May 1924

Printed in England at
The Westminster Press, Harrow Road
London, W.9

NOTE

Lovers of Mr. Hewlett’s work will understand that these Essays have not been subjected to the severe revision which Mr. Hewlett would undoubtedly have given them before publication in this book. In one or two minor points his Executors have felt doubtful about the deletion or insertion of a passage, but in these cases the decision has always been the same—that his readers would prefer to have the Essays in Mr. Hewlett’s original form.

Thanks are due to the editors of “The Times” and “The Evening Standard”; “The London Mercury,” “The Cornhill Magazine,” “The Nineteenth Century,” and other periodicals, for permission to reprint certain of these Essays.

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]