Who, again, had penetrated the hidden secret of that corroding jealousy which led the dog to bite the prim and impeccable personage who afterwards so fatally disagreed with him? And where else had the world been shewn the authentic academic presence,--the very "form and pressure,"--of "The Great Panjandrum Himself," "with the little round button at top;" or imagined the hurly-burly of those headlong, horn-blowing, cheek-bursting and hopelessly futile "Jovial Huntsmen"? Nor were these all, or even a tithe of the sportive surprises, the undreamed disclosures, of these captivating pages. Around and about them the artist has woven the most humourous ingenuities, the most freakish and frolicsome fancies; he has set them in the most inviting framework of town and country; he has enlisted in his service the most blithe and winsome figures of women and children, the most irresistible dogs and horses and birds. The open-air life of England, with all its freshness and breeziness, its pastoral seduction and its picturesque environment, is everywhere present in his work. He has the art, too, of being elegant without being effeminate, and of being tender without being mawkish. It was said of a great English novelist that his laugh clears the air; it may be said of these light-hearted pictures that their mirth clears not only the air but the imagination. No taint clings to them of morbid affectation or sickly sentiment: they are the genuine pictorial utterances of a manly, happy nature, delighting in beauty, delighting in innocent pleasure, and dowered as few English artists have been with the gifts of refinement and grace. From Austin Dobson Preface This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. We do repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Book features: 313 pages 132 original color illustrations of 19th-century 17 short songs or stories including The House that Jack Built - The Diverting History of John Gilpin Elegy on a Mad Dog Children literature