Thomas Seccombe

“ Of singularly equable and genial temper, with a bent towards stoicism and the simple life, he had a gipsy-like love of 'the open road,' and watched with keen absorption the Life about him, especially in foreign towns. ”

“ The unfinished 'Veranilda' was published in 1904 (with a foreword by Mr. Frederic Harrison) . Gissing carried his classical learning easily and lightly, but his classical romance will not rank with the novels of his early manhood.
The intellectual beauty and sincere friendliness of Gissing's nature were obscured by a peculiar pride or sensitiveness. His idiosyncrasies wore down as he grew older, but he lost also his extraordinary power of intensifying the misery of the world's finer spirits who are thrown among 'the herd that feed and breed' and are stupidly contented. ”

“ That a mystic should arise from the ranks of the Birmingham manufacturers stimulated their curiosity. Though called a romance, wrote Macmillan, '"John Inglesant" is full of thought and power.' It attracted the interest of a remarkable variety of people — Gladstone, Huxley, Miss Yonge, and Cardinal Manning, and the writer was much lionised in London. He and his wife spent a week with his publisher at Tooting, where Huxley and others met him. At a reception at Gladstone's, where the Prince of Wales and many persons of distinction were assembled, Shorthouse was a centre of attraction. ”

“ The book protests through the brains of Beauchamp, the young naval officer (a reflection of Maxse) , on the one hand against lolling aristocrats who refuse to lead and against the false idols of Manchester on the other; the complex hero is hampered by apple-fever (as Meredith styles his prepossession for some of the fairest daughters of Eve) and at times by a species of megalomania. The construction keeps the interest intensely alive, and the book ends with the sting of the hero's death by drowning. ”

“ Meredith was at the moment full of schemes, 'laying traps for money.' He had hopes of conducting a review, writing rambling remarks, an autobiography. He settled down in a chastened frame of mind to complete 'Rhoda Fleming,' but in the meantime he had improved has position with Chapman & Hall. His enthusiasm for Norbiton, where his son, William Maxse, was born on 26 July 1865, cooled down as buildings began to close in his horizon, and at the end of 1867 he moved to Flint Cottage, facing Box Hill, near Burford Bridge, in Mickleham. ”

“ Incredible as it seems, in view of the ubiquitous mockery and fictitious titles, 'The Fair Haven' was accepted as seriously as Defoe's 'Shortest Way with the Dissenters' by the ultra-Protestant press. Butler's anonymity was due in part to Swift's Bickerstaff tradition of mystification, and partly to his unwillingness to provoke further controversy with his father, but he affixed his name to subsequent editions both of this book and of 'Erewhon.' The profits which he had made in New Zealand were at this time imperilled by unsound investments ”

“ The most individual of the later novels, a new study of modern femininity, 'One of our Conquerors,' ran simultaneously through the 'Fortnightly,' 'Australasian,' and 'New York Sun' (Oct.-May 1890-1) . 'When I was sixty,' Meredith wrote, 'and a small legacy had assured my pecuniary independence, I took it into my head to serve these gentlemen (the critics) a strong dose of my most indigestible production. Nothing drove them so crazy as "One of our Conquerors."' In the prologue Meredith's mania for analogy, epigram, and metaphors runs riot. ”

“ But Bird's serious interest through life lay in chess. He learned the moves by watching the games at Raymond's coffee house near the City Road Gate in 1844, moved thence to Goode's, Ludgate Hill, and so to Simpson's, in the Strand, where the professionals at first gave him the odds of queen. ”

“ A tolerant, shrewd, and on the whole impartial observer, on lines inherited from Voltaire, About, Taine, and Jules Verne, Blouet mixed a good deal of flattery with his smart and witty banter, and with the leverage thus gained was able now and again to tell an unpalatable truth, not entirely without effect.
[The Times, 26 May 1903; Illustr. Lond. News, 30 May 1903 (portrait) ; Nouveau Larousse; Men and Women of the Time; Blouet's works.] ”

“ A younger brother, Algernon, enjoys some reputation as a novelist. George, who was profoundly influenced by his father, passed from private day schools in Wakefield to Lindow Grove, a Quaker boarding-school at Alderley Edge, where his unsociability and intellectual arrogance asserted itself at times unpleasantly, but where he shone on speech-days (see Born in Exile, chap, i.) . In 1872 he came out first in the kingdom in the Oxford local examination, and obtained an exhibition at Owens College, Manchester. At the end of his first session he won Dr. Ward's English poem prize ”

“ The idea of London as the centre of the world's commerce stimulated him in a remarkable manner, and in 1852 he obtained a position in The Fore Street Warehouse Company, in the City of London. His capital then was 10l.; in ten years he had amassed 700l., and with its aid he opened a small shop with two female assistants as a fancy draper at 31 Westbourne Grove (11 March 1863) . ”

“ He was made C.S.I, when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India on 1 Jan. 1877. In 1879 he published the epic poem 'The Light of Asia,' to which he owed most of his fame. In blank verse, of Oriental luxuriance, in which colour and music were blended in the Tennysonian manner with heightened effects, Arnold here presented the picturesque and pathetic elements of the Buddhist legend and the life of Gautama. The moral doctrines were those to which Europeans had been accustomed all their lives, but the setting was new to English and American readers. ”

“ Church and state man, or advanced member of the broad church party, as he whimsically described himself, Butler, the most versatile of iconoclasts, attacked received opinion in religion, science, painting, archæology, literary criticism, and music; but his most determined onslaught was on the canting, conventional morality in which the genteel children of his age were reared. Commenced by 'Erewhon,' this work was carried to its conclusion in his posthumous novel, imperishably graven out of the flint of life. ”

“ Well known for his rapidity (R. J. Buckley says he once played three games in ten minutes at Simpson's, scoring one and a half) , dash, and eccentric openings (KBP2 is often called Bird's opening) , Bird was the most popular referee of his time and answered more questions about chess than any man living. In chivalry and enthusiasm for chess as a pastime, in pluck, and in readiness to play at a moment's notice for stakes or no stakes, Bird had no equal. ”

“ But the general level of accomplishment and beauty is high; there is daring in the young poet's rhythmical experiments without rhyme. Although Meredith often complained later of the lack of encouragement extended to his early efforts, his first volume won much praise. W. M. Rossetti, then twenty-two years old, described it as Keatsian in the 'Critic' (15 Nov.) , and Charles Kingsley in 'Fraser' (Dec. 1851) put the 'Love Poems' above Herrick's. Tennyson also wrote that he found the verse of 'Love in the Valley' very sweet upon his lips. ”

“ In 1887 and 1890 he lectured in America; in 1893 with his wife and daughter he made a round of the English colonies, his readiness as a speaker and lecturer ensuring him a welcome everywhere from people who like to see their foibles presented in a humorous light. In 1902 he settled in the Champs Elysées quarter of Paris as correspondent of the 'New York Journal' and wrote in the French 'Figaro' in support of the entente cordiale between England and France. ”

“ After a short period as second English master at King Edward's School, Birmingham, Arnold was in 1856 nominated principal of the government Deccan College at Poona. On settling there he was elected a fellow of Bombay University. He soon studied Eastern languages, and mastered not only those of India but also Turkish and Persian. A successful translation of 'The Book of Good Counsels. From the Sanskrit of the Hitopadesa,' with pleasing illustrations by Harrison Weir (1861) , dedicated to his first wife, indicates his rapid attraction to Oriental study. ”

“ Punch's Prize Novels,' and society grew alive to the peculiar flash of the Meredithian epigram. Invitations from society and societies inundated him, and Box Hill became a place of pilgrimage. Collective editions of his works were arranged and proposals were made to dramatise 'Evan Harrington' and 'The Egoist.' The belated success coincided tragically with the insidious development of a spinal complaint and with the serious and soon hopeless malady of his wife. ”

“ In 1905 Meredith had the misfortune to break his leg, but he made an excellent recovery. Keenly alert and abreast of modern movements and interested in the work of the younger men, he envied only the power to be one of the active workers. On 13 April 1909 he wrote his last letter — an expression of condolence — to Mr. Watts-Dunton, on Swinburne's death. ”

“ At his death Scott was one of the most effective and widely read novelists of his day. His success under a pseudonym had led several impostors to present themselves as authors of his most widely circulated books. More than most novelists he worked by a strenuous method, which involved rigid concentration and omission, close personal study of his backgrounds, and much rewriting of dialogue. ”

“ The reviewers, who criticised them with blunted weapons, were unimpressed by Shorthouse's long and self-complacent Platonic disquisitions.
In life, as in scholarship, Shorthouse was an eclectic and a conservative. The constant foe of excess, eccentricity, over-emphasis, self-advertisement, he stood notably for cultured Anglicanism. His health began to fail in 1900, and muscular rheumatism compelled his abandonment of business; reading and devotion were his solace to the end. He died at his residence, Lansdowne, Edgbaston, on 4 March 1903, and was buried in Old Edgbaston churchyard. ”

“ An article 'Art in the Valley of Saas' followed in the 'Universal Review' (1890) . In 1886 Butler's financial position, which had become a good deal involved, was relieved by the death of his father (29 Dec.) . He now spent most of the summer abroad, but lived habitually at his chambers in Clifford's Inn, London, working steadily at the British Museum.
In 1886 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Slade professorship at Cambridge. Every evening when in London he was wont to visit his friend, Mr. H. Festing Jones, at Staple Inn, mainly for the purpose of musical study. ”

“ Tama KuroKawa of Sendai Japan, who survives him. He left issue Mr. Edwin Lester Arnold, the author, and four other children, two sons and two daughters.
Arnold was a copious and animated writer, and where he is describing actual events, often vivid and terse. Somewhat insensitive to the finer kinds of metrical effect, he is as a poet over-sensuous, and at times allows his glowing imagery to vitiate his taste. ”

“ During the second half of 1859 he contributed six poems to successive numbers of 'Once a Week,' including 'The Last Words of Juggling Jerry' (3 Sept.) , and on 11 Feb. 1860, besides submitting one or two short stories, traces of which have since disappeared, he began in the same periodical the serial publication of 'Evan Harrington, or He would be a Gentleman,' which was illustrated by Charles Keene. Keene, Sandys, Millais, and Rossetti were among the illustrators of 'Once a Week,' and with these Meredith became familiar. ”

“ H. G. Wells, and his experiences in the Calabrian portion of his tour were recorded in the graphic pages of 'By the Ionian Sea' (1901) . At Rome, too, fresh material was accumulated for 'Veranilda,' the most deliberate of his works, an historical romance of the city in the fifth century — the time of Theodoric the Goth. When in England again he contributed short stories to the weekly illustrated papers and wrote 'The Town Traveller' (1898) and 'Our Friend the Charlatan' (1901) , inferior novels, refashioning some old material. ”

“ In 1889 he made a tour in the footsteps of Boswell and Johnson in Scotland, which he described in 'Footsteps of Samuel Johnson (Scotland) , with Illustrations by Lancelot Speed.' In 1890 he published a miscellaneous volume, 'Talks about Autographs.' In 1892 Hill left his Oxford house and divided his time thenceforth between his favourite winter residences, Clarens and Alassio, his daughter's house, The Wilderness, Hampstead, and a cottage at Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire. ”

“ HILL, GEORGE BIRKBECK NORMAN (1835–1903) , editor of Boswell's 'Life of Johnson,' born at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, Middlesex, on 7 June 1835, was second son of Arthur Hill and grandson of Thomas Wright Hill [q. v.] , whose sons, Sir Rowland and Matthew Davenport, are separately noticed (for his paternal ancestry see his Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of the Penny Postage) . His mother, Ellen Tilt, daughter of Joseph Maurice, was of Welsh, and, through her mother, Theodosia Bache, of Huguenot origin. Educated at his father's school, he imbibed in youth strictly liberal principles. ”

“ While still at Weybridge, with 'duns knocking at the door,' Meredith began working at 'The Shaving of Shagpat,' much of it being read aloud to his little step-daughter, and many passages declaimed to Janet Duff Gordon, his literary Egeria of a few years later. In 1853 Peacock invited Meredith and his wife, whose struggle with poverty threatened to overwhelm them, to live in his house. There Arthur Gryffydh (1853-90) , the only child of the union, was born on 11 June 1853. Soon after Peacock installed the young family in a cottage (still standing) at Lower Halliford. ”