LITERARY WORK IN DEVONSHIRE. 305 



at the Shore, all having supplied, from rejected or super- 

 fluous sections, matter for chapters in Laud and Sea. 

 The fact cannot be shirked that the author was becoming 

 languid, inattentive to the form of what he published, and 

 interested in matters outside the range of his professional 

 work. By a curious coincidence, A Year at the Shore and 

 Land and Sea were published in book form on the same 

 day, January 24, 1865, and this may be taken as the date 

 when Philip Gosse ceased to be a professional author. 



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