Still less did he do it by adopting the method which Spenser did consummately, but which almost everybody else has justified Ben Jonson by doing very badly:--that is to say by constructing a mosaic of his own.

But his own method was nearer to this latter.

For historical creations (the most important of his non-historic, _Guy Mannering_ and the _Antiquary_, were so near his own time that he had no difficulty) he threw back with remarkable cunning to a period somewhat earlier, and coloured this up to the required tint by actual suggestions from contemporary, or nearly contemporary, literature, where he could get it.

He has done this so consummately that perhaps the only novel of his where the language strikes us as artificial is the single one in which he actually endeavoured to be "up-to-date"-- _St.Ronan's Well_.
This question of "Lingo," on the other hand, was Miss Austen's weakest point: and we have seen and shall see that it continued to be a weak point with others.

Some admirers have defended her even here: but proud as I am to be an Austen Friar, a knight (or at least squire) of the order of St.Jane, I cannot go to this length.