, 1873-05-04
EARLY DAYS OF THACKERAY.

| EARLY DAYS OF THACKERAY.
- From the Nation. r.
Admirers Of Thackeray mny be referred to the
last Edinburgh Keuiep for welcome notice OF a
writer who, for favorite, is personally not we'll
known to his readers-nnless, indeed, consider-
ing him as revealed in his own pages, wo AFRO to
call him writer whose mind and heart aro sin-
! gularly well known. But the reviewer is
nble to tell some things about the per-
sonal history OF his subject OF which
most Of us have been ignQrant, and about
which there has been less information than
misnformation. It has, for instance, been q
current and commonly accepted story that
Thackerny, becoming heir to fortune, dlssi-
pated it by e1travagant expenditure, and that
his sketches Of swindlers, shurpers, gamesters,
and other disroputable characters, We owe to
his personal knowledge OF such people, and his
experience as their victim and their enforced
| associate. It would appear, however, that there
this assumed crop Of wild oats, and that it has
very little more foundation than the fact that ho
WAS undeniably careless and desultory in his life
and studies while at tho University, which he
fortune and position in society" says the re-
viewer, "seem to permit him to indulge his
tastes and live as gentleman at large. /.
It must be confessed that, at Cambridge, Thnoke-
rny gave no signs Of distinguished ability. He
was chiefly known for his ine1haugtible dro11ery,
his love Of repartee, and for his humorous COM
mand Of the pencil" But the fortune which in
q manner justified the carelessness OF his con-
duct he lost, not because he squandered it in
riotous living, but, as We are now told, because
tracted "aleeping partnership" which placed
his property In the hands of man who turned
out to DO insolvent. Plenty of fmprudence he no
doubt showed in this transaction; but 80 far from
wasting hin substance amid the vice and folly
which his writings depict in 80 lively manner,
he lost his fortune before he had time to enjoy
it in any way. He was born in Calcutta In ISL,
his father being Richmond Thackeray, gentle
man in the civil service of the East India Com
pany. Richmond Thackeray was the son Of Will
lam Makepeace Thackeray, also at ono time civil
servant, and afterwards Member Of Council;
who sat at the board with Warren. Hastings.
Thackeray's great-grandfathor is here said to
have been at one time Master OF Harrow and
afterwards IN Archdeacon. This statement Of
the novelist's desccnt if correct, will necessitate
alterations in most of the books of reference.
Allibone, for instance, makes the grandfather to
have been Richard Thackeray, Hector of Hnd-
engaged in correcting what he styles the errone.
GUS accounts OF Thackeray's birth and ancestry,
wo may with probability regard his own
a. as correct In ISIS his + faths5
the boy was sent home to be put at school, and
the vessel aboard which were he and his GER
vant touched at Saint Helena, where Thacke-
ray saw Napoleon, whom ho looked at with
much interest, the colored gentleman having
Informed his charge that the ex-Emperor ate
three sheep every day, and as many children
as he could get. Is The joke figured years after
: wards in one Of Thackeray's sketcheH," as in
deed did countless number of other incidents
that occurred to him, his novels being at
F,1ff f<.F anH a11}1.
jcctiye. In 1928 he went to Cambridge, where
ho had for contemporaries Tennyaon, Monck-
ton. Mines, Carlyle's John Sterling, the Butler
who figures in tile "Nootes Ambrosiann, " if we
known to fame, himself perhaps destined to
the longest Immortality Of them all. Weimar
his stPumpernicke1 "-camo next, and those
visits to Raris, where his mother, second time
married and now Mrs. Carmichael Smyth, was
reeiding, which in 3 manner made him FREQ to
tlat city, and Of which ho has mado such pleas
ant records guatatory and other: At about this
time he lost his fortune, and found himself
without means and without q profession, and,
to add to his difficulties, not without leaning
from which he ras to recede Of necessity.
ing was his chossn pursuit, As, it turned out,
literature was to bo lis occupation, and
for this he had tho admirable training perhaps
not 80 admirable nowadayB-of eeyen-years'
apprenticeship to the press, and to that part Of
tie press Which mado the most oxacting require
ments in tho matter OF literary skill. But we
are giving too much Of tile article, Which should
itself be read. We may bo permitted
to express hope. that . suggestion
which It makes may bo complied with, and
that the great writer's accomplished daughter,
who has ehown by her writings that somo at
least OF bis gifts have descended to her. by in
heritance, should undertake q task no one else
can fulfil with 60 natural and delicate feeling
Of her fathers genius, !" and should write his !
biography That would indeed be a work Of q
tlplaaud.