The attraction of the French romances of chivalry for William Morris, of Tuscan painting for D.G. Rossetti, of the spirit of English Gothic architecture for Christina Rossetti, of the combination of all these with Greek and Elizabethan elements for Mr. Swinburne, were to be traced back to startwords given by the prophetic author of the Seven Lamps of Architecture.

Bark peeled from them, brittle as cicada shell; in their branches stood tawny frogmouths, their beaks lordishly raised.

He has little to lose: at present he will go down in history, alongside George W. Bush, as a skipper who ignored the looming fiscal iceberg.

But it is in our power, if not to dissanull, at least to diminish the same, through patience[…].