Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/947

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Sometime Vicar of Morwenstow. Compiled by his Son-in-Law, Author:Charles Edward Byles, from hitherto unpublished manuscripts. With numerous Illustrations, including Lithographs by Author:John Ley Pethybridge, two Sketches by the Author:George James Howard, reproductions from contemporary Prints, Portraits, Photographs, etc. Crown 8vo.

TIMES.―"A well-written life is not, as Carlyle declared it to be, almost as rare as a well-spent one; it is a much rarer thing indeed. Mr. Byles has given us a book which will earn the gratitude of those whose love of poetry urges them to a knowledge of the poet.… Hawker dedicated his works to Prince Posterity, and the dedication will be accepted by many readers of the new biography, who will find in Robert Hawker one of the knights of his own Sangraal, 'thorough men.'"

MORNING POST.―"Gratitude is distinctly due to Mr. Byles for his new life of his father-in-law.… There are many excellent illustrations.… Mr. J. Ley Pethybridge has the very spirit of the West Country."

DAILY TELEGRAPH.―"As soon as the volume is opened one finds oneself in the presence of a real original, a man of ability, genius, and eccentricity, of whom one cannot know too much.… He was every inch a man.… No one will read this fascinating and charmingly produced book without thanks to Mr. Byles and a desire to visit―or revisit―Morwenstow."

DAILY NEWS.―"Here at length is the authentic life the record, mainly in his own letters, of one of the most fascinating, wayward, independent personalities of the nineteenth century. The man here wrote out his heart's confession.… The comparison is, indeed, with Carlyle.… Each possessed a spiritual vision denied to the common crowd; each mingles passages of eloquence and lamentation with outbreaks of fury and a shaggy, boisterous humour. Hawker was a unique figure in Victorian England."

STANDARD.―"A breezy book, with plenty of salt in it of the sea and of common-sense."
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