Supported by this faith I will own I am not very gravely discouraged by occasionally finding myself ranked as a champion of an outworn fashion. The progress of art is the progress of the pendulum. It advances and recedes according to a law of movement that only the fullest and profoundest knowledge of all the factors that make up human life can enable us to decipher. But that art does often lie fallow after a period of rich harvest must be indisputable to all who have carefully studied its history. It need not, therefore, be wholly surprising if, in that little corner of time we inhabit to-day, there should have come a momentary lull following on a period of intense and varied vitality. My mission here is simply to recall and to record personal reminiscences of some of the great men who sowed and reaped a part of that great harvest garnered during the later half of the last century. In the history of English Literature and English Art, I believe it presents a rich yield that will not soon be equalled as the fruit of an equal measure of time, and I am prepared to accept lightly enough the criticism that probably awaits me, that the heroes whom I have worshipped are no longer the heroes of to-day. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE INTRODUCTORY 1 CHAPTER II IDLE HOURS 15 CHAPTER III ESSAYS IN JOURNALISM 26 CHAPTER IV THE BAR 48 CHAPTER V DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI 59 CHAPTER VI EDWARD BURNE-JONES 71 CHAPTER VII MILLAIS AND LEIGHTON 85 CHAPTER VIII FREDERICK WALKER 102 CHAPTER IX DESIGN AND ENGRAVING 111 CHAPTER X THE GROSVENOR GALLERY AND THE NEW GALLERY 126 CHAPTER XI WHISTLER AND CECIL LAWSON 133 CHAPTER XII ART JOURNALISM 146 CHAPTER XIII ORATORS 167 CHAPTER XIV SOME VICTORIAN POETS 193 CHAPTER XV A YOUNGER GENERATION 215 CHAPTER XVI MEN OF THE THEATRE 225 CHAPTER XVII SOCIAL HOURS 263 CHAPTER XVIII SOME FOREIGN ACTORS 273 CHAPTER XIX THE WORK OF THE THEATRE 281 ILLUSTRATIONS