he muse of Pan presented reoccurring themes to the Edwardian Reader. In her master’s Paper. ‘Pan and the Edwardians,’ Eleanor Toland, explores the Edwardian fascination with Pan as a figure across Edwardian Literature, the author stated that ‘Pan represented a simultaneous craving in the Edwardian Era to flee the past and embrace the future, an idealism of the primitive coupled with hope for the future.’ The Wind in the Willows, first published in 1908, is still regarded as a children’s classic, featuring anthropomorphic animals, popularised in writing for children, by authors such as Beatrix Potter. Closer reading and discussion suggest the book is not a book for children. References within the text to children are scant. The concerns of the animals are not the concerns of children. The characters represent a male Edwardian Class system. Each animal serves as device: Grahame depicts toad as a likable, possibly childish rogue, though a toad may be considered by some to be repugnant. The call of the home and domesticity is illustrated through rat. Mole’s character centres around the need for adventure. Amicable relationships between the animals, or country gentlemen of ages and stages with Edwardian middle Class are further reflected through characters. Badger is seen as wise and reverent, a friend of Toad’s father and so of the establishment. The threat of ‘the other’ is documented in the form of the weasels, opportunist antagonists. Themes of greed, silliness and excesses represented by Mr. Toad are intended as salutary lessons to the reader. The symbolic attributes of the characters Suggest the author fears embracing of new trends will end badly, and we should we return to values inspired by nature. Ratty and Mole’s journey sees them experience adventure, only to return to the simplicity of hearth and home. Grahame dedicates a whole chapter to Pan, within The Wind in The Willows, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ to Pan. Here, the animals encounter Pan the God. The chapter could be seen as an incongruous departure from the tone of the novel, (Several publications omit the chapter from the book.) The language throughout this chapter differs from the affectionate camaraderie of the rest of the book, it is rich and brims with exaltation. Grahame closes the piece with ‘All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered’. On first reading, Piper at the Gates of Dawn did not seem part of an arc or co