A Book of English Prose | Page 2

. . . . Sir Walter Scott 100
A Visit to Coleridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Lamb 107
Diogenes and Plato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W. S. Landor 109
An Invitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jane Austen 113
Coleridge as Preacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Hazlitt 118
A Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas de Quincey 120
The Use of Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Keats 122

The Flight to Varennes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Carlyle 124
The Trial of the Seven Bishops . . . . . . . . . . Lord Macaulay 130
The University of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. H. Newman 135
The House of the Seven Gables . . . . . . . Nathaniel Hawthorne 140
Denis Duval's first journey to London . . . . . W. M. Thackeray 144
Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Dickens 149
Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Brontë 153
A Hut in the Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H. D. Thoreau 157
A Miser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George Eliot 159
Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Ruskin 163
The Child in the House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walter Pater 168
Diving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. L. Stevenson 171
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

{1}
SIR THOMAS MALORY 15th century
DEATH OF SIR GAWAINE
And so, as Sir Mordred was at Dover with his host, there came King
Arthur with a great navy of ships, galleys, and carracks. And there was
Sir Mordred ready waiting upon his landing, to let his own father to
land upon the land that he was king of. Then was there launching of
great boats and small, and all were full of noble men of arms; and there
was much slaughter of gentle knights, and many a full bold baron was

laid full low on both parties. But King Arthur was so courageous, that
there might no manner of knight let him to land, and his knights
fiercely followed him, and so they landed maugre Sir Mordred and all
his power, and put Sir Mordred back, that he fled and all his people. So
when this battle was done, King Arthur let bury his people that were
dead. And then was the noble knight Sir Gawaine found in a great boat,
lying more than half dead. When King Arthur wist that Sir Gawaine
was laid so low, he went unto him; and there the king made sorrow out
of measure, and took Sir Gawaine in his arms, and thrice he swooned.
And when he came to himself again, he said, "Alas! my sister's son,
here now thou liest, the man in the world {2} that I loved most, and
now is my joy gone. For now, my nephew Sir Gawaine, I will discover
me unto your person. In Sir Launcelot and you I most had my joy and
mine affiance, and now have I lost my joy of you both, wherefore all
mine earthly joy is gone from me." "My uncle King Arthur," said Sir
Gawaine, "wit you well that my death's day is come, and all is through
mine own hastiness and wilfulness, for I am smitten upon the old
wound that Sir Launcelot du Lake gave me, of the which I feel that I
must die; and if Sir Launcelot had been with you as he was, this
unhappy war had never begun, and of