Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1898-11-30
ENGLISH LlrrERATEuRs.
Many of Them Are Graduates of the
Queens Court.

queens Court.
1t is a singular fact that in England
the ranks of the writer's are largely
recruited from the civil service of the
crown. They are of all degrees of
promise and performance, and al
though 1t may not be possible nova
days to match such giants of the past
as Charles Lamb and Hallam, Antho-
ny Trollope and Tom Taylor, the gov
eminent offices still bristle with men
who have done good work in letters.
The literary vein is especially rich in
the Board of Trade. Austin Dobson,
whose service of forty-one years has
been rewarded by principal clerkship,
is well known as the writer of many
charming verses and biographies Ei-
mund Gosse, who has followed the
same literary paths with perhaps equal
success, has been for twenty-five years
translator to the board Cosmo Monk
house, who is one year Junior to Mr..
Dobson in the service, has risen to the
higher post of assistant secretary at
a salary of Ell, loo "a year. MI Monk
house is a clever poet and biographer,
has tried his hand at romance and
writes learnedly on art. Can 1t be
that natural reaction from dry com
mercial statistics and official figures
has driven this trio of public servants
into paths of poetry? Reginald Brett,
who for three years has been secretary
to the board, is the author of two able
treatises on political subjects. He has
not yet caught the inevitable infection
of poetry. The postoElce, which pro-
duced Edmund Yates and Anthony
Trollope, still maintains its tradition
for letters, although on lower plane,
perhaps. Edwin Holder, who, after
thirty-flye years service, Is principal
clerk in the savirCs bank department,
is responsible for more than score OF
biographies and novels of more than
average merit, and a younger member
OF the same department is W. W. ia
cobs the humorous author of "Many
Cargoes" and "1he Shippers Wooing.'
In benjamin Kidd the inland revenue
possessed until recently a young writ
er of exceptional ability and promise.
His monumental work on Social Eyo-
luton" which has been translated into
most continental languages, will prob
ably take rank as one of the books of
the century. William Michael Rosset-
II. brother Of the more famous Dante
Gabriel, and distinguished biographer
and writer on art subjects, entered the
iniand revenue fifty-three years ago,
and for quarter OF century was one
of its assistant secretaries. In connec-
ton with the customs mention must be
made of f. G. Heath, who has written
many delightful books on ferns and
sylvan subjects generally A. w.
a Beckett whose life has been crowd
ed with literary work of very wide
range, and who Joined the staff of
Punch more than twenty years ago,
graduated as civil servant at the war
office in 1862. Oswald Crawford, who
has written several clever novels and
books of travel. was at one time
clerk in the foreign Office, of which
Sir Edward Hertslet, an industrious
author and composer, was librarian for
very many years. Clement Scott, the
we'll known and much-abused dramatic
critic, was a contemporary of Mr..
a. Beckett at the war office thirty-fve
years ago, but after seventeen years.
service cut himself adrift to follow
more congenial pursuits. The audit
department has been the official nurse
ry Of G. X. Shorter the editor of the
Illustrated London News, and of
"Shan" Bullock, who, perhaps, may be
described as the Barrie of Irish peasant
life. DR.. Richard Garnett, whose poems
and biographies have won for him
measure of fame, has been for forty
six years connected with the British
museum, of which he is now one Of the
keepers, and in which Stanley Lane
Poole was employed for eighteen years