To 



SIR WILLIAM WATSON, LL.D. 

 indisputable master of "the full resounding 

 line" and of a very splendid prose, who has 

 held aloft the ancient and glorious standard of 

 the true cult of letters in a disordered world, 

 who has never set things material above things 

 spiritual, nor the tree of knowledge above the 

 tree of life, I dedicate this little book, a 

 trifle, a jest perhaps, but one nevertheless that 

 will " bear a serious examination." 



S. C. 

 THE FORD 



CHOBHAM 



439841 



