Introduction: the infantilization of British literary culture -- Part I. History of an Analogy: 'For the Savage is to Ages What the Child is to Years': -- 1. The child is father of the man -- 2. Infancy, poetry and the origins of language -- 3. Becoming human: animal, infant and developmental literary culture in the Romantic period -- Part II. Prattle and Trifles: -- 4. Retentive ears and prattling mouths: popular antiquarianism and childhood memory -- 5. One child's trifle is another man's relic: popular antiquarianism and childhood -- 6. The layers and forms of the child's mind: Scott, Wordsworth and antiquarianism.