Charles Harding Firth

Name: Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement
Author: Charles Harding Firth

Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

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“Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement”, published in 1912, is a work by Charles Harding Firth. It explores elements such as Gardiner, historian and volumes.

Quotes from Dictionary of National Biography… (Charles Harding Firth)

Charles Harding Firth, Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

“ Gardiner succeeded in stating fairly and sympathetically the position and the aims of both parties. He did not confine himself to relating facts, but traced the growth of the religious and constitutional ideas which underlay the conflict. No side of the national life was neglected. He won the praise of experts by his accounts of military and naval operations, elucidated continually the economic and social history of the time, and was the first to show the interaction of English and continental politics. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Harding Firth, Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

“ A narrative which fills eighteen volumes and took forty years to write is necessarily somewhat unequal as a literary composition. Many critics complained that Gardiner's style lacked the picturesqueness and vivacity of Macaulay or Froude; others that his method was too chronological. There was truth in both criticisms; but the chronological method was chosen because it enabled the historian to show the development of events far better than a more artificial arrangement would have done. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Harding Firth, Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

“ His chief recreation was cycling, and in his holidays he familiarised himself with the battle-fields of the English civil war and followed the campaigns of Montrose in Scotland and of Cromwell in Ireland. During the greater part of the period in which the history was produced Gardiner was actively engaged in teaching. From 1872 to 1877 he was a lecturer at King's College, London, and in 1877 he succeeded John Sherren Brewer [q. v.] there as professor of modern history. Between 1877 and 1894 he lectured regularly for the Society for the Extension of University Teaching in London. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Harding Firth, Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

“ The next portion of his history consisted of three volumes issued separately in 1886, 1889, and 1891, under the title of 'The Great Civil War,' followed finally by three other volumes, called 'The History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate,' in 1895, 1897, and 1901. The regular production of these sixteen volumes was made possible by Gardiner's methodical and strenuous industry. He examined systematically every source of information. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Harding Firth, Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

“ He could always find time to help other historians, and no one was more quick to recognise the merits of a beginner or so ready to give him advice and encouragement.
Recognition came slowly to Gardiner, who, in spite of his eminence as an historian, long maintained himself mainly by teaching and literary work, neither holding any post worthy of his powers nor receiving any aid from the endowments designed to promote learning. In 1878 Lord Acton unsuccessfully pressed Sir George Jessel, the master of the rolls, to appoint Gardiner deputy keeper in succession to Sir T. D. Hardy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Harding Firth, Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

“ In 1884 All Souls College, Oxford, elected Gardiner to a research fellowship of the value of 200l. a year, in order to help him to continue his investigations. In 1892, when his tenure of that fellowship ended, he was elected by Merton College to a similar position, which he retained till his death. Many honorary distinctions were also conferred upon him at home and abroad. The academies or historical societies of various foreign countries elected him a member, as a recognition of the light his researches had thrown upon parts of their national history, viz. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles Harding Firth, Dictionary of National Biography… (1912)

“ The fourth instalment, 'The Personal Government of Charles I' (2 vols. 1877) , and the fifth, 'The Fall of the Monarchy of Charles I' (2 vols. 1882) , produced some small profit. This portion of his history was reissued under the title of 'History of England, 1603-1640' (10 vols. 1883-4) . ”

Charles Harding Firth

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