(1848), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1853), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861), Our Mutual Friend (1865), and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (the publication of which was interrupted by the author's death). Dickens fails as a rule when he attempts scenes in high life, but he paints the manners and practices of the lower and middle orders of society with almost microscopic accuracy and with unrivalled skill. He is in equal degrees a humourist and a master of pathos, alternately provoking us to laughter and moving us to tears. It may safely be asserted that no modern writer has a wider circle of admirers, and that few have a juster title to fame.

DOYLE, SIR FRANCIS.—A native of Yorkshire. Born 1810; still living (1882). Professor of Poetry at Oxford, from 1867 to 1877. As a writer of War Songs he will be long remembered.

DRAYTON, MICHAEL (1563–1631).—Wrote The Baron's Wars, England's Heroical Epistles, Polyolbion, and other poems. Polyolbion (his greatest work) is a minute topographical description of England. DUFFERIN, FREDERIC TEMPLE, EARL OF.-Born 1826. GovernorGeneral of Canada from 1872 to 1878. Is at present serving as ambassador at Constantinople (1882). In 1857 Lord Dufferin published his delightful Letters from High Latitudes, a narrative of travel which ranks with the best works of its kind, the playful humour with which it sparkles and the descriptive power which it evinces making one regret that its author has been so sparing of his pen. Many of his Speeches are masterpieces of easy eloquence, and those which he delivered in Canada are as remarkable for political sagacity as for delicate and quick-witted tact.

FROUDE, JAMES ANTONY.-An illustrious living writer (1882). His History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth is one of the greatest historical works that have appeared of late years, and The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, and Cæsar, a Sketch, are worthy of his fame. His style is singularly attractive, and in his treatment of his subject he shows in many cases a rare degree of dramatic skill. His charming essays have been published in a collective form under the title of Short Studies on Great Subjects.

GASKELL, MRS. (1811-1865).—A distinguished writer of romance. Mary Barton, a Tale of Manchester Life, her first and perhaps her greatest work, appeared in 1848, and was followed by Ruth, Cranford, North and South, Silvia's Lovers, and Wives and Daughters (which was left unfinished by her death). The scenes of her stories are laid for the most part in the North of England-some of them in the manufacturing districts of her own county, Lancashire-and she paints the

various aspects of North-country life with admirable fidelity, with loving sympathy, and with great artistic skill.

GOSSE, P. H.-A distinguished naturalist, and a successful popularizer of science.

GRAY, THOMAS (1716-1771).—Born in London; died at Cambridge, where he had passed the greater part of his life. The few poems that he wrote are nearly all well known, and one, the Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, though obviously the work of a fastidious scholar, is perhaps the most popular poem in the English language. In his charming Letters, and other prose works, he wrote more simply and naturally than he ever allowed himself to do in verse.

HEMANS, MRS. (1794-1835).—A refined and accomplished poetess. Many of her shorter poems are still very popular, especially with youthful readers. They are, as a rule, distinguished by correctness of metre, elegance of diction, and grace and tenderness of feeling.

HOOD, THOMAS (1798-1846).—A celebrated poet and humourist. One of the most amusing, and also one of the most pathetic of English writers. Some of his shorter poems, such as The Song of the Shirt and The Bridge of Sighs, will never be forgotten.

HOWITT, WILLIAM (1796-1879).-Born in Derbyshire; died at Rome, after a life of great literary activity. His most successful works are those which deal with rural scenery and rural life. Among these may be mentioned The Seasons, The Rural Life of England, Visits to Remarkable Places, and the Social and Rural Life of Germany.

IRVING, WASHINGTON (1785-1859).-One of the most distinguished of American prose writers. The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus and The Conquest of Granada are his chief historical works, but the Sketch Book and Bracebridge Hall (the latter dealing exclusively and the former in large measure with English manners and scenery) are the most popular of all his writings, and contain the surest guarantee of his future fame.

JEFFERIES, RICHARD.—A living writer (1882). Author of The Gamekeeper at Home, Wild Life in a Southern County, Round about a Great Estate, Hodge and his Masters, and many other works of a kindred nature. No naturalist has ever entered with more genuine sympathy or more penetrative insight into the life of rural Nature; and though his style is easy and careless of effect, it may safely be said that no writer, even in this age of descriptive prose, has painted the different aspects of that life with a higher degree of accuracy, or with more delicate skill.

KEBLE, JOHN (1792-1866).—Poet and divine. Leader of the High Church party in England after the secession of Newman to the Church

of Rome. The work by which he is best known to fame is The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holidays throughout the Year, a volume of devotional poetry, which appeared in 1827, and after having gone through countless editions is still held in high repute. Many of the verses have a quiet beauty of their own which wins its way to the heart, and the volume considered as a whole reflects the tenderness of its author's feeling, and the blameless purity of his life. In addition to the Christian Year, Keble wrote several prose works and a second volume of poems, the Lyra Innocentium, which appeared in 1846.

KINGSLEY, CHARLES (1819-1875).-For many years Rector of Eversley in Hampshire. Wrote on a variety of subjects, but is chiefly known to fame as a poet and novelist. His songs and lyrics are far more popular than any of his longer poems, of which The Saint's Tragedy is the most important. Of his six novels, Alton Locke, Yeast, Hypatia, Two Years Ago, Hereward the Wake, and Westward Ho! the last named is generally regarded as his masterpiece. Besides being a successful author, Kingsley was a hard-working clergyman and an active philanthropist.

LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH (1807-1882).-The greatest and most popular of American poets. It may be doubted whether there is any modern poet whose works are more widely read in this country, or more genuinely appreciated. Evangeline, Hiawatha, The Spanish Student, The Golden Legend, and Miles Standish are his longest poems; but it is to his lyrics and shorter pieces that he owes his popularity, and will perhaps eventually owe his fame. Outre-Mer, or Sketches from beyond the Sea, Hyperion, and Kavanagh are his chief prose works.

MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, LORD (1800-1859).-Historian, essayist, poet, and politician. One of the most popular, and also one of the most brilliant, eloquent, and learned writers of the present century. His famous Essays, and his History of England from the Accession of James II. (to the death of William III.), are his chief prose works. As a poet he produced Naseby, The Spanish Armada, The Battle of Ivry, and The Lays of Ancient Rome.

MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876).-Born at Norwich, died at Ambleside in the English Lakes. A distinguished journalist, essayist, novelist, and historian. The History of England (from 1816 to 1846The Thirty Years' Peace') is her most important work, but some of her tales for children-such as The Crofton Boys, The Peasant and the Prince, The Settlers at Home, and Feats on the Fiord-are perhaps the most popular of all her writings.

MILLER, HUGH (1802-1856).-Born at Cromarty. Worked for

some years as a journeyman mason, but eventually made literature his profession. Author of The Old Red Sandstone, Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland, First Impressions of England and her People, Footprints of the Creator, My Schools and Schoolmasters, The Testimony of the Rocks, and other works. Most of his works deal with Geology, of which subject he was an enthusiastic student. In everything that he wrote he appealed to the heart and the imagination, and his charming style and power of vivid description are worthy of high praise.

MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL (1786-1855).-Wrote dramas, minor poems, novels, tales, and sketches. Our Village, a series of Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery, is the best and most popular of all her works. As pictures of the brighter and happier side of English country life, these sketches will always be read with interest and delight.

ROGERS, SAMUEL (1763-1855). - Born and died in London. Author of The Pleasures of Memory, Italy, and other poems.

ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA.—A living writer (1882). Author of Goblin Market, Prince's Progress, and many other poems, as well as of some stories in prose. As a writer of religious verse, Miss Rossetti has few if any living equals.

SCOTT, SIR WALTER (1771-1832).-Born at Edinburgh; died at Abbotsford, a house on the banks of the Tweed, which he had built for himself in 1811. The greater part of his life was passed in the Border country, a land rich in romantic scenery, in ruined castles and abbeys, and in historical associations. He first made himself famous by his series of ballad poems, of which The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and The Lady of the Lake are by far the greatest. When the public forsook him in their sudden enthusiasm for Byron, he turned his attention to prose, and produced that celebrated series of tales which goes by the name of The Waverley Novels. Of these, Waverley, which was the first to appear and so gave its name to the series, Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, Old Mortality, The Heart of Midlothian, and Quentin Durward are among the most famous. Scott, who was in equal degrees a poet and an antiquary, and who consequently lived in the past, was essentially a writer of romance. His verse-romances are great, but he found a freer scope for his genius in prose, and his novels are likely to outlive his poems.

SOUTHEY, ROBERT (1774-1843).-Born at Bristol; died at Keswick, where he passed the last forty years of his life. A voluminous writer in prose and verse. His longer poems, such as Thalaba, The Curse of Kehama, and Don Roderick, are now almost forgotten, but a few of his shorter pieces are still very popular. Of his prose

writings, the Life of Nelson is the best known and the most likely to live.

WARBURTON, ELIOT (1810-1852).—Traveller, biographer, and historian. Author of The Crescent and the Cross, Hochelaga or England in the New World, and other works.

WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF.-A distinguished American poet and essayist. Born in Massachusetts 1807; is still living (1882). Author of Legends of New England, Voices of Freedom, Songs of Labour, National Lyrics, and many other poems.

WILLS, ALFRED, Q.C.-A member of the English Bar (1882). Mr. Wills was one of the earliest of our Alpine explorers, and his Wanderings in the High Alps abounds in passages of great descriptive power and beauty.

WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM (1770-1850).—One of the greatest of modern poets. His life was passed in retirement in the beautiful Lake Country which he loved so well. The Excursion, The Prelude, and The White Doe of Rylstone are his longest poems; but it is not to these so much as to his shorter pieces, such as Lucy Gray, The Fountain, The Reaper, and to his Sonnets, that he owes his fame. He lives and will long live not merely in the works which he produced, but also in the great transforming influence which he has exercised upon modern sentiment and thought. His prose writings, though of far less importance than his poetry, will always be read with interest. Their style is somewhat laboured and over-stately, but many of them are 'saturated with thought,' and in one, the Treatise on the Convention of Cintra, there are passages, inspired by the author's enthusiasm or indignation, which reach a high level of eloquence.

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