314 mwQS Of tbe 1bunttnG«'3fielO 



a few years of his death he was on the permanent 

 staff of that journal. His father was extremely angry 

 at finding that the son whom he hoped to see a 

 prosperous attorney was dabbling in literature, and 

 he showed his vexation and annoyance by telling 

 Henry Hall to 'gang his ain gait' and expect no 

 paternal recognition. With a wife and a growing 

 family to support by his pen, ' The Druid ' found that 

 Doncaster did not offer him sufficient work, and he, 

 therefore, boldly set out for London, armed with a 

 letter of introduction from his friend ' Martingale ' to 

 Vincent Dowling, the editor of Bel/'s Life, who quickly 

 recognised his talents, and gave him a berth on the 

 paper at a salary of three pounds a week. In the 

 following passage of autobiography, he gives us a 

 glimpse at once of his literary work, and of the proud 

 independence of his character. 



* I began my career by editing a Liberal paper in 

 Doncaster for three years, and in 1850 I came up to 

 London and wrote political verses in Punch and the 

 Examiner for a time. Towards the end of 1852 the 

 late Sir James Graham, who had just been proposed for 

 Carlisle by my father, got hold of an article of mine, 

 which seems to have pleased him. He sent for me to 

 the Admiralty, and, giving me a kindly welcome, took 

 the article out of his desk, and told me he had shown 

 it both to the Duke of Newcastle and Mr Gladstone, 

 that they both agreed with him that it was the only 

 really fair account of the reasons which induced the 

 Peelites to combine with the Whigs to throw out Lord 

 Derby. Sir James told me he was empowered to offer 

 me a post under Government. This I declined, telling 

 him I was young and strong, that I had gone through 



