Many years ago, a prominent man wrote to one of his favourite authors about his latest book. This man had been a soldier, a hunter, an athlete, an historian and a social reformer, and was now employed in a post of some significant responsibility. He had many children, and was by all accounts a bluff and hearty father. “Shove that under your feet,” he observed to the Mole as he passed it down into the boat. (From one of Arthur Rackham’s illustrations for the 1940 edition…
