Annie Matheson

“ Greville MacDonald, and the youngest daughter, Winifred Louisa, is wife of Sir Charles Edward Troup, K.C.B., LL.D.
MacDonald was above all else a poet. 'The Diary of an Old Soul' must rank with the best work of Crashaw and Vaughan. Both his verse and his stories for children have a dainty humour and an unobtrusive symbolism which place them in much the same category as Hans Andersen's tales. In the beautiful simplicity of his character and in his courtly charm of manner MacDonald has been likened to Count Tolstoy, but to an extent unknown to Tolstoy's later life he mingled with the world. ”

“ Like Robert Browning, who became a friend, he often heard the Welsh poet preacher, Thomas Jones [q. v.] . Ruskin was another admiring associate and visitor at MacDonald's London house, and he cited MacDonald's poem, 'Diary of an Old Soul' (1880) , with Longfellow's 'Hiawatha' and Keble's hymns as evidence 'that the generation . . . might fairly claim to be an age not destitute of religious poetry' (Pleasures of England) . ”

“ Already a poet who saw symbolic meanings in what others found commonplace, he was regarded by the students as something of a visionary. Of his university life he gave a graphic picture in his poem 'Hidden Life' (in Poems, 1857) . He graduated M.A. in March 1845, and on 28 February 1868 his university made him hon. LL.D.
Seeking a livelihood in tutorial work, MacDonald removed to London soon after graduating, and in Sept. 1848 he entered the theological college at Highbury to prepare for the congregational ministry. ”