together day after day during one winter I passed with him at Alassio. Often did it fall to my lot in Hampstead, where he chiefly passed the last years of his life, to be his companion in the brisk walks which he regularly took on the Heath or round Golder's Hill.

Through his enduring friendship with Charles Joseph Faulkner', 'the pleasantest of companions as he was always the truest of friends,' who was the third member in the art firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (now Morris & Co.), Birkbeck Hill kept in touch with many of the men in whose company he had entered upon the new world of art and literature. Yet it was not until 1869 that Birkbeck Hill began regularly to write. In that year he became a contributor to the Saturday Review, then under the editorship of his friend Philip Harwood, in its palmy days when it numbered among the contributors E. A. Freeman, J. R. Green, Sir Henry Maine, Lord Justice Bowen, Sir James Stephen, Sir Leslie Stephen, and Professor Owen. As Matthew Arnold once said to Birkbeck Hill, it was easy to see that every subject was entrusted to a writer who was master of it. For many years he was a regular contributor, his last review, I believe, appearing in 1884, in the year after Harwood ceased to be editor. With the political part of the journal he had, of course, nothing whatever to do. 'The editor,' as he himself tells us, 'discovered in me a certain vein of humour, and for the most part sent me books to review which deserved little more than ridicule. What havoc I made among the novelists and minor poets! I amused my readers because I was first amused myself by the absurdities which I everywhere found in these writers, and by the odd fancies which rose in my mind as I read their works.' At last the minor poets overwhelmed him. Dejection took the place of amusement as he read. At his entreaty they were entrusted to a fresher hand. The time too came when the novelists ceased to amuse him, and he became aware that he could no longer raise a natural laugh. 'One result of all this novel-reading,' he tells us, 'was a total incapacity, lasting for many years, of reading any novels except those which were the favourites of my younger days. To read a novel became so inseparably connected in my mind with three pounds ten shillings, the usual payment for a Saturday Review article, that without the one I could not under

' Scholar of Pembroke and Fellow of University College, Oxford.

take the other. All in vain have friends urged me to read the works of Black, Blackmore, Hardy, Howells, Henry James, Stevenson, and Kipling. Not a single story of any one of these writers have I ever read or am I ever likely to read'.' In addition to his work as a Saturday Reviewer he contributed also to the Cornhill Magazine, the Pall Mall Gazette, and the Times.

It was not until 1878 that his first book, Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics, was published. This was the first outcome of those Johnsonian studies which were to be the main pursuit of his life.

In the Preface to his edition of Boswell, Birkbeck Hill has described the happy day in 1869 when, 'in an old book-shop, almost under the shadow of a great cathedral,' he bought a secondhand copy of an early edition of the Life. For though when he entered Pembroke College he loved to think that Johnson had been there before him, he had scarcely opened the pages of Boswell since his boyhood until that day. Yet Addison had attracted him in his undergraduate days, and with him and the other great writers of his and the succeeding age he had become familiar. 'The volumes,' he writes, 'became my inseparable companions. Before long I began to note the parallel passages and allusions.' In his reviewing it fell to his lot to criticize works that bore both on Boswell and Johnson, and his love and knowledge of the subject increased; but it was not until 1875 that he first definitely resolved to prepare a new edition of the Life. From that time he began steadily to collect materials. Unfortunately ill health came upon him, and the work of preparation had to be carried on amid many interruptions and disadvantages. More than once his health seemed almost hopelessly broken down. One hindrance to his literary work was, however, removed in 1877, for a complete and alarming breakdown, accompanied by distressing asthma, made him finally resolve to give up the school and devote himself henceforth to literature. A few months passed at Mentone, the first of many winters to be spent abroad, did much to remove the worst symptoms of his illness; but he never possessed the same physical vigour again. A removal to the country was determined on, and the autumn of 1877 saw him settled at Burghfield, near Reading, where he lived until 1886. With the rest from the ever-increasing burden which the school had come

1 Talks about Autographs, p. 79.

to be to him and his wife, Birkbeck Hill felt immediate relief, and the quiet and beauty of the country were a never-failing source of pleasure to him. Freedom from duties to other people's children allowed him to take a greater share in the companionship and education of his own. His way of life was one of great simplicity, and regular hours of work and exercise marked his day. Withal, he was never a silent scholar rooted to his study. He depended much on the love and sympathy of those around him. The society of children, and indeed of all young people, was a special delight to him; and with them, even in times of illness and depression, the natural gaiety of his nature would reassert itself, while his wise sympathy was freely given to them in their hopes and fears. Soon after settling at Burghfield he began to take an interest in the public affairs of the neighbourhood, and became a Poor Law Guardian of the Bradfield Union. For some time also he was president of the South Berkshire Liberal Association. During several years of comparative health he was able to try his strength as a critic and an editor, besides still regularly contributing to the Saturday Review. In the spring after his settlement at Burghfield appeared his first book, Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics, wherein he reviewed the judgements passed on Johnson and Boswell by Lord Macaulay and Mr. Carlyle, and described Oxford as it was known to Johnson. The next year he edited Boswell's Journal of a Tour to Corsica. Twice was he drawn away from the task which he had set before himself, a new edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson. On the death of his uncle, Sir Rowland Hill, he was called upon to edit his History of Penny Postage, and to write his Life. In 1880 also, General Gordon's brother, Sir Henry Gordon, entrusted him with the duty of editing the letters which General Gordon had written to his sister during the six years of his government of the Soudan. For this task Birkbeck Hill had one qualification apart from all others. Of Egyptian affairs he had of late heard much from his brother-in-law, Sir John Scott, at that time Vice-President of the International Court at Alexandria. It had, indeed, at first been intended that Sir John Scott, a personal friend of Colonel Gordon, as he then was, should undertake the work; and it was on his recommendation that it was entrusted to Birkbeck Hill.

The book appeared under somewhat unusual conditions, for though General Gordon had given his consent to the publication

of the letters he refused to take any direct part in it. Whatever information was needed had to be obtained through Sir Henry Gordon, his brother. Birkbeck Hill's admiration for the 'rare genius, the wise and pure enthusiasm, and the exalted beneficence of that great man' was conspicuous. The strong religious utterances occurring in the letters expressed thoughts which were not Birkbeck Hill's, but he saw in Gordon-it may be with longingone who 'by manifold struggles feels his feet on the Everlasting Rock.' The labour given to these works, as regards the main purpose, was not thrown away. He would often say that he was trained by it in the duties of an editor, and strengthened in his hatred of carelessness and error.

Yet again he was forced to turn aside from his purpose, and this time by a great sorrow. The loss of a beloved son, a boy of singular sweetness and promise, who died in 1882 after a painful illness, for the time wellnigh took from him every kind of hope. A second serious illness closely followed, compelling him to spend three winters on the shores of the Mediterranean. 'During two of them my malady and my distress,' he writes, 'allowed of no rival, and my work made scarcely any advance.' It was not until the third winter spent at San Remo that his strength began to return and he could again resume his work. With all these interruptions the summer of 1885 was upon him before the printing of the book could begin. At last, in 1887, Boswell's Life was published by the Clarendon Press. Twelve years had he been engaged on it. Five years had passed since his proposal was accepted by the Delegates.

The year of the publication of Boswell found Birkbeck Hill removed from his country home and settled at Oxford. For close on six years his home was here in a small house near 'The Parks.' Though he missed the country, he enjoyed Oxford life to the full. Amid new scenes and change of life his health improved. The society of men of like tastes, who could appreciate his scholarship and take pleasure in that vein of humour and anecdotal power of which he was possessed, made the period of his residence in Oxford, on the whole, a happy one. Nor was his intercourse confined to men engaged in similar studies to his own, as is shown by the mention of Professor Morfill, Professor Burdon Sanderson, and the Rev. C. W. Boase among 1 Fellow of Exeter, and University Reader in Foreign History.

I

the friends made during this Oxford time. He availed himself of his residential qualification to become a member of Congregation, while his election in 1892 to an honorary fellowship of his old college gave him very great pleasure. With quickened life and a ready access to books, which the Bodleian afforded, his power of work increased. Though the connexion with the Saturday Review had ceased, he still sent occasional articles, chiefly on Johnsonian subjects, to the Cornhill Magazine or Macmillan's, and when the Speaker was founded as a Liberal weekly he became a fairly frequent contributor.

In 1888 he was able to put before the world a series of hitherto unpublished letters written by David Hume to Strahan, which in the summer of the preceding year he had had the opportunity of examining when in the possession of a dealer in autographs. He at once set about the work of saving the series from dispersion; but for some weeks he almost despaired of finding a purchaser. In his trouble he consulted the late Master of Balliol, to whom as 'Johnsonianissimus' the edition of Boswell had been dedicated, in grateful acknowledgement of the interest he had taken in its publication when his term of Vice-Chancellorship brought him into close connexion with the Clarendon Press. It was by his happy suggestion that application was made to the Earl of Rosebery, who at once consented to buy the whole collection. The Clarendon Press were the publishers. In the Preface he shows us the principle which guided all his editing. 'In my notes,' he writes, 'my aim has been not only to make every letter clear, but also to bring before my readers the thoughts and the feelings of Hume's contemporaries in regard to the subject which he discusses.' He quotes with approval Hume's rule: 'Every book should be as complete as possible within itself, and should never refer for anything material to other books.'

In this year also he brought out an edition of Goldsmith's Traveller, for the use of schools, in the Clarendon Press Series. Rasselas had been edited by him in the preceding year for the same series. These were followed by a selection under the title of Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson.

With his next work, The Footsteps of Dr. Johnson, published in 1890, Birkbeck Hill entered upon a new field of writing, though the great study of his life was still the subject. In this book he traces Johnson's journey through Scotland; but he does more