Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-11-09
THE AUTHOR OF ROBERT ELS
MERE"

MERE"
There is not much doubt that until
within the last five or six months Mrs.
Humphrey Ward was unknown save TO
the few. Even so short time ago as
1885 her name found no place among the
"women of the Day." 1t is quite as
certain that during these five OF SIX
months not many English novelists have
been so much talk about and discussed.
With "Robert Elsmere" or perhaps, to be
more exact, with Mr.. Gladstone's review
of it in the Nineteenth Century. Mrs.
Ward sprang into notoriety. To those
who had no knowledge of her personally
her book made it clear that she was one
who not only knew Oxford well, but was
intimate with Oxford life and Oxford
people and Oxford traditions. 1t was,
therefore, no surprise to learn that before
she became Mrs. Ward she was Miss
Arnold and that she is the granddaughter
of DR.. Arnold, of Rugby, the niece of
Matthew Arnold and the daughter OF
Thomas Arnold, the editor of many old
books, the writer of 1.-THE Encyclopaedia
Britannica" article on English literature
and the author of well-known "Manual
of English Literature" Thomas Arnold,
it will be remembered, became Roman
Catholic, and for while he was pro-
fessor in the university Dublin and also
at the oratory school in Birmingham.
But he finally settled down to literary
life in Oxford.
Humphrey Ward an Oxford man, and at
that time a tutor of Brasenose college.
Since then Mr.. Ward has given up his
tutorship, and is now the art critic OF
the Times. His anthology of English
verses, popularity known as wards
English Poets," is perhaps the best in
existence. Mr.. and Mrs. Ward live in
one of the large old-fashioned houses in
Russell square, near the British Museum.
The Bloomsbury squares are so quiet and
pretty, and the house so comfortable and
airy, and the neighborhood so compare
lively convenient, that one wonders why
so many have deserted this part of London
for the out-of-the-way corners of Ken
sington and Bayswater. However, the
Wards can still count among their neigh
bors Miss Christina Rossetti and William
Michael Rossetti. Whoever does not
know his Bloomsbury has but to turn to
.sRobert Elsmere" where he will find the
description of Bedford square, the Lon
don home of the Elsmeres, and but two
minutes walk from Mrs. Wards own
house. Rumor now has it that Mr.. and
Mrs. Ward have found for themselves a
summer house in Surrey, surely one of
the prettiest counties in all England.
The place they have bought is near Has
lemere, where Tennyson lives several
months of the year, and where Mrs.
Gilchrist, the friend of Dante Rossetti
and Walt Whitman. wrote many of the
letters which have lately been given TO
the world.
Mrs. Ward has published two or three
other books, less famous than "Robert
Elsmere," but none appeared until after
she had been married for several years.
The first was "Milly and Oily" a story
for children, illustrated by Mrs. Alma
Tadema. How strong is her love for
certain parts of England is already
shown in this very simple little tale.
Her child hero and heroine come from
Oxfordshire, and their summer journey,
of which this story is the record, is to the
lake country where Robert Elsmere first
met Catherine. A good deal of Mrs.
Wards personality can be learned from
her books. "Milly and oily" was pub
lished in 1881. In 1884 it was followed
by her FIRST novel, "Miss Bretherton",
which made some talk at the time be.
cause the heroine, an actress, In certain
ways suggested Miss Mary Anderson
There was just enough similarity to give
people chance to gossip. Many pas
sages in "Miss Bretherton" clearly re-
veal Mrs. Wards great reverence for and
sympathy with French genius and French
ideals. 1t was this probably that led hel
to the translation of Amiel's 'Journa
Intime," published in 1885. The "Jour
nal" is of immense interest to all VIII,
care for psychological problems an,
struggles, but it is a book pre-eminentl,
for the few. Even Matthew Arnold'l