Part 8

_Daily Telegraph._--"'The Lazy Minstrel' commends itself both by outward form and inward merit to the lover of choice and dainty literature."

_Daily News._--"Mr. Ashby-Sterry is a merry bard. He very seldom brings 'the eternal note of sadness in.'"

_Punch._--"The first edition of his 'Lays' went off with a bang that must have astonished His Laziness."

G. A. S. in the _Illustrated London News_.--"Emphatically 'nice' in the nicest--the old-fashioned sense of the word.... A delicate little tome.... Graceful and, on occasion, tender."

_The Globe._--"The bard not only of the lazy but the leisured.... Mr. Ashby-Sterry is a humourist, too, who sees the ludicrous as well as the pleasant side of life, and describes it with much gusto.... There is as much variety in his rhythms as there is ingenuity in his rhymes."

_The Queen._--"One of the most facile writers of light and pleasant rhyme."

_Vanity Fair._--"He is the Laureate of the Upper Thames, and no one has so completely seized as he has the sentiment of the lovely river."

_Observer._--"There are few cultivated tastes for which 'The Lazy Minstrel' does not provide in his characteristic way."

_The Bookbuyer_ (NEW YORK).--"Mr. Sterry has the lightness and sureness of touch, without which this kind of verse is of all verse the flattest, stalest, and most unprofitable. He has a keen eye for those significant details which make up a picture, an easy indolence which excludes all appearance of labour, and the self-possession of a man of the world who amuses himself with the making of verse."

_Court Circular._--"He is one of the foremost writers of _vers de société_ of the day, and his productions are distinguished by poetic fancy and neat workmanship."

_Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News._--"One of the most welcome of the lighter singers."

_The Theatre._--"There never was such a songster."

_Morning Advertiser._--"He is always in tune with his subject, and knows how to rhyme with facility and expression."

_Court Journal._--"Whether witty or pathetic, the lays and carols are equally well written and entertaining."

_Newcastle Chronicle._--"Few writers can impart so much grace to everything he touches, and none have so light and aerial a muse as Mr. Sterry."

_North British Daily Mail._--"For fluency of expression, ready command of the fitting epithet at all times, tender grace and gentle humour, Mr. Ashby-Sterry is indeed a marvel; and the public are under heavy obligations to the man who furnishes such a pleasant feast of mirth-provoking rhymes."

_Liverpool Daily Post._--"The humour of them is the airy, well-bred humour of the man of the world."

_Sheffield Weekly Telegraph._--"Quaint and droll, perfect in design and diction, light, bright, and musical, these poems are the most cheerful verses we can meet with in latter-day literature."

_Liverpool Mercury._--"A delightful little book, delightful to read and not less delightful to look upon."

_Brighton Herald._--"Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry is past-master in the art of manufacturing dainty verses, little bubbles of song that, like bubbles of another kind, are delightful because they are so fragile and pretty."

_Liverpool Courier._--"It is a pleasure to meet with verses so vivacious; to come in contact with a humorous fancy so fresh and individual."

_Publishers' Circular._--"It lightens and brightens one's heart to read Mr. Sterry's charming songs and carols; their good humour and delicious style, so free from anything like care or worldly taint, seems to be infectious."

_Yorkshire Post._--"Here and there 'The Lazy Minstrel' becomes sentimental, but there is always a touch of gay insouciance about his sentiment, and a consistent absence of the mawkishness too often found in the drawing-room ballad."

_Sheffield Independent._--"Quaint, melodious, finished with marvellous care, and full of unexpected oddities of form and expression."

_Liverpool Review._--"He infuses a sunshine and breeziness into his descriptions of scenes and people which make them live before us. His laziness never degenerates into languor, or his sentiment into insipidity."

_Wakefield Free Press._--"The Lazy one is master of his art--he chooses all that is fair, serene, and summer-like for his subjects, and treats them with a soft colour and a musical rhythmic flow that leaves nothing to be desired."

_New York Times._--"The metre is perfect, the music of the verse well sustained, and there is that fun and merry quip in 'The Lazy Minstrel' which becomes _vers de société_."

* * * * *

LONDON:

T. FISHER UNWIN, 26, PATERNOSTER SQUARE.

Corrections.

The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.

p. 25:

A LOVER'S LULLABY A LOVER'S LULLABY.

p. 26:

I'll wear my Tam o' Shanter, I'll wear my Tam o' Shanter!

p. 46:

Her ebony-stick with a crutch. Her ebony-stick with a crutch

p. 98:

Or oves, like dogs, to bark and bite, Or loves, like dogs, to bark and bite,

p. 134:

(_'Twill rain, I'm sure, before the night!_ (_'Twill rain, I'm sure, before the night!_)

p. 148:

The good ship she steers, like a clever young "cox.," The good ship she steers, like a clever young "cox,"

End of Project Gutenberg's The Lazy Minstrel, by Joseph Ashby-Sterry