CHAPTER XVI.

WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH.

THIS fertile and very popular novelist was born in the year 1805-the same year that gave birth to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. His father was a solicitor of good standing in Manchester, and he himself was educated for the same profession. The allurements of literature made him, however, a careless student of the law, and ere the conclusion of his twenty-first year he presented the world with his first book of fiction, entitled "Sir John Chiverton." From that time up to the present date, he has been a most industrious author. His principal works are "Rookwood," "Jack Shepherd." "Guy Fawkes," "Crichton," "James II.," "The Miser's Daughter," "Old St. Paul's," "The Tower of London," "St. James's," "Windsor Castle," "The Lancashire Witches," "The Star Chamber," "The Flitch of Bacon," and "The Spendthrift." Besides the reputation Mr. Ainsworth has earned by these works, he has a position of importance in the world of literature as the proprietor and editor of the Magazine known as "Ainsworth's," the "New Monthly Magazine," and "Bentley's Miscellany." For a brief period in the earlier part of his literary career he was a publisher as well as an author, and doubtless the experience and knowledge he then gained of "the trade," have materially contributed to his editorial

success.

W. D. ARNOLD,

(FIFTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, B.N.I.)

LIKE his brother Matthew, Mr. W. D. Arnold is a contradiction to the very often repeated, and very silly dictum, "that clever men never have clever sons." It may be questioned whether Dr. Arnold, in planning the future of his sons, would have arranged that one of them should make himself a man of mark by writing a novel; but had he lived to read "Oakfield; or Fellowship in the East," a book better liked in England than in India, we are inclined to think his heart would have experienced a thrill of paternal pride, and he would have recanted some of his severe censure on those frivolous productions called "works of fiction."

Besides "Oakfield," Mr. Arnold has published four lectures under the title of "The Palace of Westminster, and other Historical Sketches."

ANNA ELIZA BRAY.

AUTHOR of "The White Hoods," "De Foix," "The Protestant," "Fitz of Fitz-Ford," "The Talba," "Warleigh of the Fatal Oak," "Henry of Pomeroy," "Courtenay of Walreddon," "Trelawny of Trelawne," and "Trials of the Heart," &c. Of the few living writers who are so fortunate as to see their works numbered among the classic literature of the English language, this eminent lady is one. The question of her success has long been decided; with her the struggle for reputation is over, and it is her enviable lot to enjoy honours nobly won and nowhere grudged. A native of Surrey, and the daughter of Mr. John Kempe, a

gentleman of ancient descent and comfortable fortune, she married in 1818, Charles Stothard, the son of the celebrated painter of that name. With taste and enthusiasm for all relating to fine arts, scarcely less decided than her genius for literature, she accompanied her husband in the excursions abroad and at home, which he made in the service of the Antiquarian Society, to which he was historical draughtsman, and she was with him in 1820 in Devonshire, when a fatal accident prevented him from completing, "The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain," and made her a widow after a brief but happy acquaintance with married life. She did not, however, long remain in widowhood. After paying the best possible tribute to the memory of her husband, in completing "The Monumental Effigies," and writing his "Memoirs," she became the wife of the Revd. Edward Atkyns Bray, vicar of Tavistock, in the county of Devonshire. It is since her second marriage that Mrs. Bray has published the novels we have enumerated, and in addition to these "A Life of Thomas Stothard, R.A." and "A Peep at the Pixies," &c., &c.

As a truthful and delicate delineator of character, and an author who is vigorous without ever sacrificing womanly dignity and refinement, Mrs. Bray reminds one of Miss Austin, but she has greater natural endowments and larger stores of learning than the amiable author of "Pride and Prejudice." As a graphic painter of scenery, also, Mrs. Bray has few equals; and many are the young undergraduates who, while belonging to "reading parties" in the pleasant coast villages of Devonshire, have with advantageous results inserted in their money-begging letters to fathers and guardians long passages of local description from "Warleigh," and "Henry de Pomeroy."

VOL. II.

SHIRLEY BROOKS.

THIS eminent dramatic author, and contributor to nearly every newspaper and magazine in the United Kingdom, was born in 1816. The best known of his productions for the stage are "The Lowther Arcade," "Our New Governess,” and" Honour and Riches." It is only recently that he has exerted his talents as a novelist, but he has, nevertheless, an enviable position amongst our most successful writers of fiction. 66 'Aspen Court," originally published in the pages of Bentley's Miscellany, is justly admired for its spirited style, graphic descriptions of London society, and sustained humour. And the reputation of the author is fully sustained by "The Partners," and "The Gordian Knot."

SELINA BUNBURY.

MISS BUNBURY is an accomplished, pleasant, and industrious writer. For nearly fifteen years she has used her pen, and during that time she has achieved a long list of works-sketches of travel, descriptions of foreign countries, tales for children, and novels-such as no lady, previous to the present century, produced. Lucid in arrangement, thoughtful, abounding in pleasantry, and charming by the freshness and purity of her style, Miss Bunbury won, at the very outset of her career, a popularity which is not likely how to desert her. Her best and most mature novel is "Our Own Story," published in 1856.

WILLIAM CARLETON.

WILLIAM CARLETON, born at Clogher, in 1798, was the son of an Irish peasant, but both his father and mother were gifted above the herd of their class. His father had a remarkable memory for, and a felicitous manner of reciting, old legends and tales of local history; and his mother was respected in the circles she frequented for the thrilling pathos she could throw into "the keene" or death-howl. Her son says, "I have often been present when she has 'raised the keene' over the corpse of some relative or neighbour, and my readers may judge of the melancholy charm which accompanied this expression of her sympathy, when I assure them that the general clamour of violent grief was gradually diminished, from admiration, until it became ultimately hushed, and no voice was heard but her own-wailing in sorrowful but solitary beauty." This agreeable accomplishment doubtless obtained for Mrs. Carleton in her world, much the same kind of éclat as surrounds a lady in London society, who is a superior performer on the piano or harp.

Self-educated, ambitious, and with the self-dependence and energy so frequently found in the impulsive and indolent Irish, William Carleton supported himself, even in his boyhood, as a teacher in one of those humble village schools which are found in perfection nowhere out of Ireland. Relinquishing, however, his scholastic duties, when about thirty years of age, he went adventurously to Dublin with his "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry," fairly written out on paper. These excellent tales found a publisher, and appeared in 1830. Their success was complete, and they were in due order followed by the numerous other stories, on which Careleton's deservedly high reputation as a humo