The Splendid Spur

The Splendid Spur, by Arthur T. Quiller Couch

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Title: The Splendid Spur
Author: Arthur T. Quiller Couch
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6437] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 14, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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[Illustration: "I loved thee so, boy Jack."]
THE SPLENDID SPUR
BEING MEMOIRS OF THE ADVENTURES OF MR. JOHN MARVEL, A SERVANT OF HIS LATE MAJESTY KING CHARLES I., IN THE YEARS 1642-3: WRITTEN BY HIMSELF:
Edited in Modern English by
Q (ARTHUR T. QUILLER COUCH)
1897

TO
EDWARD GWYNNE EARDLEY-WILMOT.
MY DEAR EDDIE,
Whatever view a story-teller may take of his business, 'tis happy when he can think, "This book of mine will please such and such a friend," and may set that friend's name after the title page. For even if to please (as some are beginning to hold) should be no part of his aim, at least 'twill always be a reward: and (in unworthier moods) next to a Writer I would choose to be a Lamplighter, as the only other that gets so cordial a "God bless him!" in the long winter evenings.
To win such a welcome at such a time from a new friend or two would be the happiest fortune for my tale. But to you I could wish it to speak particularly, seeing that under the coat of JACK MARVEL beats the heart of your friend
Q.
Torquay, August 22d, 1889.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
"Q."
A year or two ago it was observed that three writers were using the curiously popular signature "Q." This was hardly less confusing than that one writer should use three signatures (Grant Allen, Arbuthnot Wilson, and Anon), but as none of the three was willing to try another letter, they had to leave it to the public (whose decision in such matters is final) to say who is Q to it. The public said, Let him wear this proud letter who can win it, and for the present at least it is in the possession of the author of "The Splendid Spur" and "The Blue Pavilions." It would seem, too, as if it were his "to keep," for "Q" is like the competition cups that are only yours for a season, unless you manage to carry them three times in succession. Mr. Quiller-Couch has been champion Q since 1890.
The interesting question is not so much, What has he done to be the only prominent Q of these years, as Is he to be the Q of all time? If so, he will do better work than he has yet done, though several of his latest sketches--and one in particular--are of very uncommon merit. Mr. Quiller-Couch is so unlike Mr. Kipling that one immediately wants to compare them. They are both young, and they have both shown such promise that it will be almost sad if neither can write a book to live--as, of course, neither has done as yet. Mr. Kipling is the more audacious, which is probably a matter of training. He was brought up in India, where one's beard grows much quicker than at Oxford, and where you not only become a man (and a cynic) in a hurry, but see and hear strange things (and print them) such as the youth of Oxford miss, or, becoming acquainted with, would not dare insert in the local magazine of the moment. So Mr. Kipling's first work betokened a knowledge of the world that is by no means to be found in "Dead Man's Rock," the first book published by Mr. Quiller-Couch. On the other hand, it cannot truly be said that Mr. Kipling's latest work is stronger than his first, while the other writer's growth is the most remarkable thing about him. It is precisely the same Mr. Kipling who is now in the magazines that was