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Title: By-ways in Book-land
Short Essays on Literary Subjects

Author: William Davenport Adams

Release Date: January 21, 2010 [EBook #31034]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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BY-WAYS IN BOOK-LAND.

BY-WAYS IN BOOK-LAND

Short Essays on Literary Subjects

BY
WM. DAVENPORT ADAMS
AUTHOR OF 'DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,' ETC.

'_Excursusque breves tentat._'
'GEORGICS,' iv. 194.

LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW
1888

TO MY FATHER,
W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS,
THIS LITTLE VOLUME
Is Affectionately Inscribed.

_In the following pages, the writer for the most part deals with small
subjects in an unelaborate manner. He leaves the highways of literature,
and strays into the fields and lanes, picking here a flower and there a
leaf, and not going far at any time. There is no endeavour to explore
with system, or to extend any excursion beyond a modest ramble. The
author wanders at haphazard into paths which have attracted him, and
along which, he hopes, the reader may be willing to bear him company._

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PAPER-KNIFE PLEASURES 1

RUSKIN AS POET 10

ELECTIONS IN LITERATURE 19

FAMILIAR VERSE 28

SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 36

HEREDITY IN SONG 44

STINGS FOR THE STINGY 51

DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD 59

SERMONS IN FLOWERS 66

'DON QUIXOTE' IN ENGLAND 74

BEDSIDE BOOKS 83

THEIR MUCH SPEAKING 91

PEERS AND POETRY 99

THE PRAISE OF THAMES 107

ENGLISH EPIGRAPHS 114

THE 'SEASON' IN SONG 123

THE