Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some light tanning due to age. Year 1915. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> In the same way we take pleasure in imagining pictures of the peaceful past rich in colour and pleasant in tone. Those days in which our fore- fathers used y instead of i and almost invariably ended their words with an e seem so picturesque and delightful. How many paintings have been shown at the Royal Academy under the title of “Merrie England” or its equivalent? Only Mr. Algernon Graves knows. The poets have been not less backward than the artists in proclaiming the romance of life in those distant days and novelists have led us astray with equal regularity. For almost certainly we have been led astray. It is incon- ceivable that the days and nights in the olden times were filled with masques and continual merriment. Joviality there was of course and an absence of those assets of civilization which sometimes trouble us now: but life was a very serious thing and even when there was no war at home or abroad there were political and social movements which at times must have made the lives of the people intolerable. So history teaches us. To destroy illusions however is not the way to earn popularity so few but pessimists and the most severe historians look back with a keen eye for defects in our national romances. Most of us may take a generous view of the lives of our remote ancestors. Let them be supposed to have had the advantage of us in their environment occupations pastimes and sentiments. It is futile to institute comparisons and those who made England are entitled to the benefit of the doubt. That they did possess certain privileges is beyond question and as other blessings have been substituted for the benefit of of later generations. (SP)