Everyone knows Mr. AUSTIN DOBSON'S dainty verse. In _Eighteenth Century
Vignettes_ (CHATTO AND WINDUS) everyone has an opportunity, which he will
do well to seize, to enjoy his equally charming prose. Mr. DOBSON is one of
those enviable men who have time to read. He spends an appreciable portion
of his days and nights not only with ADDISON, but with STEELE, PRIOR,
JOHNSON, GOLDSMITH, and others, whom a generation that read newspapers and
subscribe to MUDIE'S, know only by name. Mr. DOBSON is so omnivorous, that
he has read right through JONAS HANWAY'S _Journal of Eight Days' Journey
from Portsmouth to Kingston-upon-Thames_, the book which drew from JOHNSON
the genial remark that HANWAY "had acquired some reputation by travelling
abroad, but lost it all by travelling at home." A man that would read that,
would read anything. Mr. DOBSON, happily, survived it, living to write a
paper in which, within the limit of a few pages, we become thoroughly
acquainted with JONAS, his travels in Persia, his discreet flirtations, his
umbrella (the first under which man ever walked in the streets of London),
his suit of rich dark brown, lined with ermine, his _chapeau bras_ with
gold button, his gold-hilted sword, and his three pairs of stockings. JONAS
always thought there was safety in numbers, whether odd or even. When he
travelled, his "Partie" consisted of Mrs. D. and Mrs. O. When he dedicated
a book (which Mr. DOBSON found, more than a hundred years later, in a
second-hand book-shop in Holborn), he inscribed it to the "Twin Sisters,
Miss ELIZABETH & Miss CAROLINE GRIGG." When he took his walks abroad, he
wore three pairs of stockings. JONAS HANWAY, under Mr. DOBSON'S care, is
unexpectedly delightful. With the same magic touch he brings upon the stage
STEELE, FIELDING, GOLDSMITH, GRAY, HOGARTH'S SIGISMUNDA, and Dr. JOHNSON,
who lives for us again in his garret in Gough Square. These _Vignettes_
should be framed in the private room of every man and woman who loves
books.
(_Signed_), "_Non obstat_,"
BARON DE B.-W.
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