“The tales and interesting folk-lore are simply and pleasantly told. The philologist will find in these pages many fresh words and expressions; the artist and naturalist many curious and novel observations.... The book is a valuable addition to the natural history of the English peasantry and fisherfolk.”—Daily Telegraph.
“Dr. Emerson’s new book is one which no county family’s library in Suffolk should be without.... Dr. Emerson has studied the Suffolk peasantry with conscientious thoroughness and approached his subject with sincere sympathy for the hardness of their life.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
“All who have felt the peculiar attraction of East Anglian scenery are grateful to Dr. P. H. Emerson for his splendid photogravures.... This splendidly got-up folio is an important work, reflecting high credit on all concerned in its production. We hope Dr. Emerson will not allow his camera to lie idle.... Dr. Emerson has been a close observer of their character and intelligence, and has much that is curious to say.”—Westminster Review.
“We have, in short, a delightful history of the inner life of the Norfolk and Suffolk peasant, and of the things dear to him, illustrated by such a series of truthful nature-pictures as is approximated to in no other work of which we know, unless in Dr. Emerson’s earlier series.”—Photographic News.
“Mr. P. H. Emerson has produced a really valuable book. His text, descriptive of the life, superstitions, and character of Suffolk peasantry and fisherfolk, their stories of the land and stories of the sea, are all of the greatest interest, and in many cases have the merit due to original inquiry and research.... Mr. Emerson, one of the foremost, and in some respects one of the most successful, of living photographers, has illustrated his large work with thirty-two photogravures ... the full page plates are often of the highest merit. ‘The Clay Mill,’ and especially ‘The Haymaker with Rake,’ are so good in tone that they almost suggest the work of Millet. ‘Where winds the Dike,’ reminds the spectator of Corot.”—Magazine of Art.
“This book is handsomely got up, well-bound, finely printed, and copiously illustrated.... His text is thoroughly well worth reading on account of ... its sardonic sense of humour, keen zest for the grotesque provincialisms of the people of out-of-the-way districts, quick ear for laughable oddities of pronunciation, quick eyes for old-world customs and whimsicalities, and deep sympathy with the sufferings of the poor and helpless.... There are, too, many quaint anecdotes.”—Athenæum.
“Dr. Emerson gives us not only a mass of valuable and interesting letterpress, but a collection of very remarkable photo-engravings. By no one has photography been more diligently and more successfully applied to illustrate not country scenes only, but country life.... His pictures never look like compositions—indeed, he is as successful with some of his groups as with mere landscapes.... The letterpress ... proving on every page that he has not only lived among the people whom he describes, but that he is quite in touch with them.... Dr. Emerson is a keen observer of men as well as of nature.... He is for the most part thoroughly reasonable.... I am grateful to him, for I have learnt much from his book, and have been put in the way of (I hope) learning much more.”—Academy.
“Nothing could well be better selected or executed than are the photogravures, and even the small illustrations of the book. In these he has caught ‘the very form and spirit of the times’ in East Anglia.... His landscapes ... recall Constable’s pictures.”—Field.
“This is a delightful book ... indeed, no one can study the illustrations and read the accompanying text without becoming imbued with the author’s enthusiasm, and without feeling that he has gained an entirely new insight into the character and surroundings of the English peasant. So artistic are the illustrations, with their Corot-like softness of outline, that in future no book that deals with an unfamiliar country will seem complete without such aids.... There should be, and no doubt there will be, books such as this about every corner of the globe, and Mr. Emerson is to be thanked for setting the example.”—New York “Nation.”