SOURCE: "Austin Dobson," in Mainly Victorian, Books for Libraries Press, 1925, pp. 211-21.

In the following essay, Ellis contrasts Dobson's life with the idyllic world he depicted in his poetry.

You love, my Friend, with me, I think,
 That Age of Lustre and of Link;
 Of Chelsea China and long 's'-es,
 Of Bag-wigs and of flowered Dresses;
 That Age of Folly and of Cards,
 Of Hackney Chairs and Hackney Bards.

In such wise did Austin Dobson depict, as in a vignette, his life-long love for the eighteenth century, or more particularly its picturesque accessories. His name and literary work will be associated always with that era, and yet his interest and delight in his subject must have been, in the main, sentimental or based on archaeological and artistic tastes. He could never have been in sympathy with the laxity and corruption of the eighteenth century or with its modes...