Chapter I: Preface

The beginning of my very juvenile acquaintance with Anthony Trollope has been incidentally, but naturally, mentioned in the body of the present work. Some of my nearest relatives had been with him at Winchester, and had maintained their friendship with him till, during the sixties, there began my own mature knowledge of him and the personal connection, literary or social, that lasted till his death. In or about 1873, I was commissioned by its editor to write for a magazine--now no doubt defunct--“something full of actuality” about Trollope’s novels, how he came to write them and who sat to him for his characters. “Be sure,” were my editor’s instructions, “you put down nothing but what you get from Trollope, and he wishes to appear about himself.” Not only, to the best of my ability, did I do this; but, in the little writing-room at his Montagu Square house, he himself went through every word of the proof with me. So pleased did he seem to be with my performance that he supplemented his remarks on it with many personal and literary details about himself and those with whom, at the successive stages of his career, he had to do. The material thus given covered indeed his whole life from his infancy in Keppel Street down to the settlement in Montagu Square, I think in 1873. “May I,” I asked, “make some notes to ensure my remembering correctly?” “Certainly,” was the answer. “They will be no good for what you have now sent to the printer, but some day, perhaps, you will have more to say about me, and then your memoranda will tell you as much as I know myself.” In 1882, partly through Trollope’s good offices, I succeeded the then Mr. John Morley in _The Fortnightly Review_ editorship. During the short time then remaining to my friend, he more than once referred to the notes he had given me nearly ten years earlier, adding, “Be sure you take care of them.”

In this way I have been nearly spared all necessity of consulting for the present work Trollope’s own autobiography. Freshness therefore will, I think, be found a characteristic of this volume. At the same time, I have been greatly helped at many points by the oldest of Trollope’s, till recently, surviving intimates, the late Lord James of Hereford, and Trollope’s artistic colleague, to whom especially my obligations are infinite, Sir J. E. Millais, as well as by Mr. Henry Trollope, the novelist’s son. The account of Trollope’s earlier Post Office days owes a great deal to the good offices of the few now living who had to do with him at St. Martin’s-le-Grand: Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., Mr. Lewin Hill, C.B., Colonel J. J. Cardin, C.B., and Mr. J. C. Badcock, C.B. To these names I must add that of Sir Charles Trevelyan, who could recall Trollope’s entrance in the public service, and who, before his death in 1886, talked to me more than once about _The Three Clerks_ and the reputed portrait in it of himself. Similarly, Sir William Gregory of Coole Park, Galway, the Harrow contemporary of Trollope and of Sidney Herbert, before his death in 1892 supplied me with much material illustrating Trollope’s earlier days in Irish and London society. I have also been greatly helped as regards Trollope’s postal services at home and abroad by Mr. Albert Hyamson of the General Post Office, as well as in respect of Trollope’s closing days by Dr. Squire Sprigge, and in his Sussex retirement by the Rev. A. J. Roberts, Vicar of Harting. The sketch of Trollope in the hunting-field is, I believe, true to the life. And this because its particulars, in the most obliging manner secured for me by the son of Trollope’s oldest sporting friend, Mr. Sydney Buxton, came from those of his family who had ridden by Trollope’s side with the Essex hounds, or from Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood. Trollope’s Garrick Club contemporary, my old friend Sir Charles Rivers Wilson, has, I believe, ensured accuracy for the account of his long connection with an institution dearer to him than any other of the kind.

T. H. S. ESCOTT.

WEST BRIGHTON,

_May 1913_.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

APPRENTICESHIP TO LIFE

PAGE

A “tally-ho” story--Anthony Trollope’s ancestry, historical and apocryphal--Among the Hampshire novelists--Frances Milton’s girlhood--Acquaintance with Thomas Anthony Trollope--Marriage and settlement in Keppel Street--Bright prospects soon clouded--Deep in the mire of misfortune--The American experiment and its consequence--Sold up--Mrs. Trollope becomes a popular authoress--Anthony at school--A battle-royal and its sequel--Rough customs at Harrow--“Leg-bail”--A family flight to Bruges--The future novelist as usher and prospective soldier--Friendly influences at the Post Office--Autobiographical touches in famous novels 3

CHAPTER II

THE NOVELIST AND THE OFFICIAL IN THE MAKING

Activity at the Post Office during the thirties--The romance of letter-carrying--One of the State’s bad bargains--Trollope’s unhappy life, in the office and out of it--The novelist in the making--London at the beginning of the Victorian era--Lost opportunities--Mrs. Trollope’s influence on her son’s works--Her religious opinions as portrayed in _The Vicar of Wrexhill_--Anthony’s first leanings to authorship--Literary labours of others of his name--With his mother among famous contemporaries at home and abroad--The trials of a youthful London clerk--Trollope’s remarkable friends of school and social life 21

CHAPTER III

THE IRELAND THAT TROLLOPE KNEW

A fresh start--Off to Ireland--The dawn of better things--Ireland in the forties and after--The Whigs and Tories in turn make vain efforts to remove the nation’s chief grievances--The most deep-seated evils social rather than political--Trollope’s bond of union with the “distressful country”--Sowing the seed of authorship on Bianconi’s cars and in the hunting-field--“It’s dogged as does it”--Ireland’s hearty welcome to the Post Office official--Trollope and his contemporaries on the Irishman in his true light--The future novelist at Sir William Gregory’s home--The legislation of 1849--The history and race characteristics of the Irish and the Jews compared--Irish novelists of Trollope’s day--Marriage with Miss Heseltine in 1844--His social standing and hunting reputation in Ireland--Interesting notabilities at Coole Park--Triumphant success of Trollope’s Post Office plot--Scoring off the advocate 39

CHAPTER IV

THE FIRST TWO IRISH NOVELS

Trollope’s first novel, _The Macdermots of Ballycloran_--“The best Irish story that has appeared for half a century”--Clever effects of light and shade--The story’s principal characters and their allegorical significance--Typical sketches of Irish life and institutions--The working of the spy system in detection of crime--Some specimens of Trollopian humour--_The Kellys and the O’Kellys_--Trollope’s second literary venture--Links with its predecessor--Its plot and some of the more interesting figures--The squire, the doctor, and the parson 60

CHAPTER V

COSMOPOLITAN CULTURE AND ITS LITERARY FRUITS

Trollope’s _Examiner_ articles--Opposing religious experiences of boyhood and early manhood--Moulding influences of his Irish life--The cosmopolitan in the making--Interest in France and the French--_La Vendée_--Trollope’s relation to other English writers on the French Revolution--The moving spirits of the Vendean insurrection--Peasant royalist enthusiasm--Opening of the campaign--The Chouans of fact and fiction--A republican portrait-gallery--Barère--Santerre--Westerman--Robespierre--Eleanor Duplay 81

CHAPTER VI

ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE AND HIS OWN

Maternal influence in the Barchester novels--Trollope’s first literary success with _The Warden_--The Barchester cycle begun--Origin of the _Barchester Towers_ plot--The cleric in English fiction--Conservatism of Trollope’s novels--Typical scenes from _The Warden_--Hiram’s Hospital--Archdeacon Grantly’s soliloquy--Crushing the rebels--Position of the Barchester series in the national literature--Collecting the raw material of later novels--The author’s first meeting with Trollope--The novelist helped by the official--Defence of Mrs. Proudie as a realistic study--The Trollopian method of railway travelling--A daily programme of work and play 101

CHAPTER VII

ON AND OFF DUTY ROUND THE WORLD

Chafing in harness--“Agin the Government”--_The Three Clerks_--A visit to Mrs. Trollope--Florentine visitors of note in letters and art--A widened circle of famous friends--Diamond cut diamond--Trollope’s new sphere of activity--In Egypt as G.P.O. ambassador--Success of his mission--_Doctor Thorne_--Homeward bound--Post and pen work by the way--North and South--_The West Indies and the Spanish Main_--Carlyle’s praise of it--_Castle Richmond_ and some contemporary novels--An early instance of Thackeray’s influence over Trollope’s writings--Famous editors and publishers--The flowing tide of fortune 117

CHAPTER VIII

ESTABLISHMENT IN LONDON

Resettlement in England--Bright prospects for the future--Importance of _The Cornhill_ connection--_Framley Parsonage_ and other novels of clerical life--Some novelists and their illustrators--Trollope’s debt to Millais--The social services of leading lights help him in his historical pictures of the day--Election to the Garrick and Athenæum Clubs--Anthony Trollope as he appeared in 1862--Leading Garrick figures--Thackeray’s social and literary mastery over Trollope--Thackeray, Dickens, and Yates in a Garrick squabble--A divided camp--Trollope on Yates and Yates on Trollope--The origin of the politico-diplomatic Cosmopolitan Club--Informal gatherings--Trollope becomes a member--Some famous “Cosmo” characters--The end of the club--Other clubs frequented by Trollope--The Fielding--The Arundel--The Arts--The Thatched House--The Turf 134

CHAPTER IX

IN PERIODICAL HARNESS

Trollope’s one work in the Thackerayan vein--_Brown, Jones, and Robinson_--Its failure--Thackeray’s two efforts to enter official life by a side door--Trollope’s opinion of “untried elderly tyros”--And of Thackeray’s limitations--His _Life of Thackeray_--Philippics against open competition in the Civil Service--A Liberal by profession, but a Tory at heart--Anthony’s _bon mot_--_The Pall Mall Gazette_--Hunting life in Essex--Sir Evelyn Wood to the rescue--Trollope’s cosmopolitanism--_The Fortnightly Review_, an English _Revue des deux Mondes_--Its later developments 160

CHAPTER X

THE BROADENING OF THE LITERARY AND GEOGRAPHICAL HORIZON

Trollope as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Lewes among the lions of literature and science at The Priory, Regent’s Park--Charles Dickens present in the spirit, not in the flesh, thinks _Adam Bede_ is by Bradbury or Evans, and doesn’t fancy it is Bradbury--Was there any exchange of literary influence between George Eliot and Trollope?--Trollope’s new departure illustrates the progress from the idyllic to the epic--_Orley Farm_--Its plot--Trollope’s first visit to the United States, in 1860 182

CHAPTER XI

AUTHOR, ARTIST, AND THEIR FEMININE SUBJECTS

Trollope and Millais succeed in their different spheres of life by working on similar principles--The ideas which led Trollope to write _Can You Forgive Her?_--Lady Macleod’s praises induce the heroine to dismiss John Grey while Kate Vavasor’s devices draw her to her cousin George--Alice’s spiritual and social surroundings take a great part in moulding her character--Mrs. Greenow’s love affairs relieve the shadow of the main plot--Burgo Fitzgerald tries to recapture Lady Glencora--Mr. Palliser sacrifices his political position to ensure her safety--He is rewarded at last--Other novels, both social and political 203