Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-09
WILLIAM HOWITT.

! The Works and Life of a Fair Poet
and an Industrious Prose Writer,
the Husband OF Mary Hewitt
His Testimony to the
Good Results OF
Temperance.
OF William Hewitt, the English poet, who
| died at Rome, Italy, on the third instant, the
| New York Tribune says: "Mr. Hewitt was
| born of Quaker parentage, III the village OF
Heanor, IN Derbyshire, in the year 1892. He
was the third of six sons, another of whom,
| Richard Hewitt was u writer of poetry, and
| OF valuable work on Australia. William
was educated at Ackworth school, the semi
nary of the Society of Friends. After leaving
| school, he studied chemistry, natural philoso
ply, and the foreign languages. When
| twenty-eight years old he married Mary
| Botham, a young woman of the Society of
| Friends, and a resident of Uttoxeter, in
| Statfordshire, where her fathers family had
possessed property for several generations.
Their first work, like so many which fol-
| lowed it, bore their joint names upon
the title page, and was a book of
verses entitled The Forest Minstrel. This,
printed in 1928, was succeeded by another
joint production, The DesOtdti0n Of EyGna
and other Poems, 1923. They also wrote
together The Book Of the Seasons, 1881,
Europe, 1852, and Stories Of English Life,
1858. Many of their poems were published
in the literary ANIMALS which forty years
ago were so fashionable. Mr.. Hewitt pub
lshed in 1881 The Book Of the Searens,
which was exceedingly popular, and passed
Nottingham, III 1888, he published his we'll
known HiStOryofP r'iestcrGft, a work which
was greatly admired and greatly dislked.
After leaving Nottingham, the Howitts set
tied near London, in the village of Esher,
in Surrey, where they devoted themselves to
literary pursuits; 1t was mere that Wlilam
Hewitt wrote The Rural Life Of Emgtdnd,
1887; Colonization and Christianity, 1898;
the first series of Visits to Remarkable
Places, 1899; The Buys Country Book, 1889.
He also published Student Life in Ger
many, 1941; Rural and Domestic
Life in Germany, 1912; Jack Of the
Mill, 1874. In 1916 the Howitts began the
publication of a magazine called The Peoples
Journal, by which they lost large sum of
money. HOWiH's Journal appeared in 1847,
and is said to have reached at one time cir
culation of thirty thousand copies. 1t was
subsequently amalgamated with The People
Journal. Both publications were long ago
extinct. In 1852, about the time of the dis
covery of the gold fields, Mr.. Hewitt paid
visit to Australia. One of his younger broth
ers was settled as physician at Melbourne,
and he thus possessed facilities for acquiring
information. Accompanied by several friends
he visited the diggings, where he was seri-
ously i'll and might have died but for the
kindness of a wealthy squatter who removed
him to healthy station, where he speedily
recovered. He returned to England in De-
cember, 1854, leaving his eldest son, Alfred,
in the colony, where he distinguished himself
as an explorer. The knowledge gained in
Australia, Mr.. Hewitt gave to the world in
several works, viz: Land, Labor and Gold,
1855; Boys Ad0ent"res in the WiIds Of
australia. He also wrote series of letters
to the London Times on the transfer of con-
victs to the infant colonies. So there is to be
added 4 History of the Discovery and Er- |
pIOratiOnS Of australia, Tasmania and Neto
Zealand, and Tallengetta, or he Squatter's |
Home. After his return, Mr.. Hewitt con-
tinued to reside with his family at Highgate. |
He engaged on a Popular History Of Eng |
land a work which was begun IL 1861, ex-
tended to FIVE large volumes, and passed |
through a great many editions. Sold origi- |
ginally in weekly numbers, it reached Cir |
culation of one hundred thousand copies. |
In 1868 he published The Man of the Pe0- |
pie, and in 1864 his History Of the Super |
natural. To his series of Visits to Remark |
able Places, he added third volume-The |
Northern Heights Of LOld0n-a storehouse |
of anecdote and fact. In 1871 he published |
The Mad War Planet, and other Poems. In |
1865, the queen granted him pension from |
his wIfes valuable literary services. In a |
little work addressed by him some fifteen |
years ago to the laboring classes, and called |
The -Four Famous Doctors Temperance,
Exercise, Good Air and Good Hours), Mr. |
Hewitt says: Often, in early years, | |
labored with my pen sixteen hours day. | |
never omit walking three or four miles, or
more, in all weathers. l work hard
in my garden, and could tire down
a tolerable man at that kind of thing.
During my two years travel in Australia,
when about sixty, 1 walked, often under
burning sun, my twenty miles day for days
and weeks together. And how did
l manage all this? Simply because avoided
spirituous liquors as | would avoid the poison
OF an asp In the spring OF 1870, William
and Mary Hewitt passed the summer In
Switzerland, and IN the following winter were
at Rome. In 1873 he published a transla-
ton from the Italian of work entitled The
Religion Of Rome Described by a Roman.
He was understood to be engaged upon
work concerning George Foo and HIS
Friends, history of the rise and progress
of Quakerism On a new plan. He also
strenuously exerted himself during his
Italian residence in promoting the cultivation
of the eucalyptus globules, the gum-tree of
Australia, which is supposed to destroy the
malaria in any atmosphere where it grows
He also promoted in Rome a society for the
protection Of ANIMALS"