CRAIK, DINAH MARIA MULOCK. 



213 



1886, which is the subject of a book published 

 with illustrations by her young friend, Noel 

 Paton, " An Unknown Country." 



As a poet, Mrs. Craik won a lasting though 

 somewhat humble place. Her verse is good, 

 and the sentiment is invariably noble. Her 

 words are full of cheer and comfort, and will 

 linger in the memory when many a finer lyric 

 has been forgotten. Her most pleasing lyrics 

 are " Rothesay Bay," " By the Alma River," 

 " Philip my King," " Douglas, Tender and 

 True," "Plighted," and "The Unfinished 

 Book." " Philip my King " was written for 

 her god-son, who afterward became known as 

 " the blind poet," Philip Bourke Marston. 



Like several other noted writers of the last 

 half-century, Mrs. Craik seemed to wish, as 

 she grew older, to address herself more espe- 

 cially to youth, and she carried with her into 

 old age the same child heart and its sparkling 

 freshness and grace, winning, as in earlier 

 days, the love of the children. Among the 

 most popular of her juvenile stories are " The 

 Adventures of a Brownie " and u The Little 

 Lame Prince." In the former, a sprightly, 

 good-natured family brownie in contradis- 

 tinction to a "family ghost," becomes the 

 means of teaching the most wholesome les- 

 sons of law, order, and unselfishness in a very 

 palatable and amusing way, so that even a 

 brownie may be a missionary if he belongs to 

 a good family. In " The Little Lame Prince " 

 we have a diminutive political allegory, well 

 adapted to youthful minds, and the same 

 wholesome truths with which she fills her 

 books for older people are conveyed in one of 

 the most delightful little fairy stories. 



In 1804 a pension of 60 a year was con- 

 ferred upon Miss Mulock. A personal friend 

 of hers writes : " In 1864 her literary work 

 received the appreciation of a pension from 

 the civil list, and the next year her personal 

 life was crowned by her marriage to George 

 Lillie Craik, the younger. Mr. Craik, who is 

 a member of the publishing firm of Macmillan 

 & Co., was somewhat younger than his wife, 

 but the marriage was most happy as she once 

 had occasion to say to another lady who came to 

 her in regard to a marriage under similar con- 

 ditions." The home that Mr. and Mrs. Crnik 

 built for themselves was one of the most 

 charming about London, across "the lovely 

 Kentish meadows " at Shortlands, ten miles 

 southeast of London. It stood in the pleasant 

 English country, with a delightful garden 

 stretching out from it, and outside the house 

 toward the garden was a little recess called 

 " Dorothy's Parlor," where Mrs. Craik was 

 fond of taking her work or her writing on a 

 summer's day. It was named for the little 

 daughter they had adopted years ago, having 

 no children of their own, who was the sun- 

 shine of the house up to the time of her foster- 

 mother's death. Within the recess was the 

 Latin motto " Deus hsec otia fecit " (God made 

 this rest), which Mrs. Craik once said, she se- 



lected as the motto she would wish to build 

 into a home of her own, should it ever be 

 given to her to make one. In the house there 

 was one charming room that served for library, 

 music-room, and parlor, filled with books and 

 choice pictures, but chiefly beautiful because 

 of the presence of its mistress, as she brought 

 her work-basket out for a quiet talk with her 

 friends. Over the mantel of the dining-room 

 was the motto " East or West, Hame is best," 

 which pleasantly gave the spirit in which Mrs. 

 Craik lived in her home, for she used to say 

 that home-keeping was more to her than story- 

 writing, and she often got only one hour a 

 week for her pen. She was tall and stately in 

 carriage, with a winning smile and a frank 

 and quaint manner, which gave one the best 

 kind of welcome, and her silver-gray hair 

 crowned the comfortable age of a woman who 

 had used her years, one could see and feel, 

 always to the best purpose. In the spring of 

 1887 Hubert Herkomer painted Mrs. Craik's 

 portrait. Frances Martin says of it that " he 

 depicts all that the painter can render of the 

 repose, the quiet dignity, and the beauty of 

 her advancing age. All but the few who re- 

 member the elegance of her youthful figure, 

 and the intent gaze of the youthful face, will 

 be contented with such a portrait. It is true 

 to her as she lived and as she died." Mrs. 

 Craik's death was caused by failure of the 

 heart's action. The passing away was as peace- 

 ful as any death she has described. It was 

 like that of Catherine Ogi'vie, and like the 

 falling asleep in death of John Halifax, and as 

 like a translation into the Heavenly Land as 

 that of Ursula his wife. It was the death Mrs. 

 Craik had always foreseen for herself. Her 

 only desire was to live long enough to witness 

 the marriage of her adopted daughter; when 

 this could not be, she murmured, u No matter, 

 no matter," a fitting remark from the lips of 

 one who had once penned these words " wheth- 

 er we see it or not, all is well." The Sunday 

 after her death, in the church she had attended 

 at Shortlands, Mr. Wolley, in his sermon, intro- 

 duced this stanza from one of her poems: 



" And when I lie in the green kirkyard, 

 With the mold upon my breast, 

 Say not that she did well or ill, 

 Only, l She did her best.' " 



Mrs. Craik was a conspicuous advocate of the 

 legalization in England of marriage with a de- 

 ceased wife's sister, in order that the law 

 might be uniform at home and in the colonies, 

 and not long before her death she offered, in 

 promotion of this reform, to reissue her 

 " Hannah," with a new preface dealing with 

 the question. She always considered that the 

 critics and the public were wrong in ranking 

 her most famous work as her best. " A Life 

 for a Life " she invariably maintained was her 

 highest reach in fiction, an opinion shared by 

 many of her literary friends. 



There must be. however, in "John Halifax " 

 a quality that appeals to the universal heart, a 



