Ever since I can remember, even when I was quite a child, people have always told me that I had no perseverance, no strength of will; they have always kept on saying to me, directly and indirectly, “Unstable as water thou shalt not excel;” and they…

Chap. I— By the River.

“All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of love,
And feed his sacred flame.”— Coleridge

Long ago there was a land, never mind where or when, a fair country and…

A king in the olden time ruled over a mighty nation: a proud man he must have been, any man who was king of that nation: hundreds of lords, each a prince over many people, sat about him in the council chamber, under the dim vault, that was blue like…

I read once in lazy humour Thorpe’s Northern Mythology on a cold May night when the north wind was blowing; in lazy humour, but when I came to the tale that is here amplified there was something in it that fixed my attention and made me think of it;…

The Hollow Land. A Tale.

Chapter I. STRUGGLING IN THE WORLD.

"We find in ancient story wonders many told,
Of heroes in great glory, with spirit free and bold;
Of joyances and high-tides, of weeping and of woe,
Of noble reckon striving, mote…

GOLDEN WINGS

"Lyf lythes to nee,
Twa wordes or three,
Of one who was fair and free,
And fele in his fight."

—Sir Percival.

I suppose my birth was somewhat after the birth of Sir Percival of Galles, for I never saw my father,…