CHAPTER IX 



ANTHONY TROLLOPE 



AMONG the authors who are presented in this volume, 

 jT^^ Anthony Trollope is the only one who has had the 

 distinction of being mentioned by Mr. Gosse in his 

 well-known book on English Literature. Mr. Gosse, writing 

 in 1903, in his preface to the fourth volume of his work, 

 says that * the age through which we have just passed is 

 still too close to us to enable us to decide with any confi- 

 dence which, among the many names which were prominent 

 in the second rank of its literature, will continue to interest 

 posterity.' He foreshadows some alterations and extensions 

 in future editions of this volume. One is sorry but not 

 altogether surprised that Whyte Melville is left out, but one 

 wonders whether some day Mr. Gosse will recognise the 

 author of 'Hundley Cross,'' who as the years go by seems to 

 stand out more clearly than many of his contemporaries. 



Anthony Trollope was born in 181 5 and died in 1882. 

 The Trollope family between them produced la number of 

 books, both his mother and his brother being industrious 

 writers. But it is with Anthony that we are concerned, not 

 only because he both loved and understood Fox-hunting, 

 but because he has faithfully, almost meticulously, preserved 

 for us the social life of our ancestors in the mid-Victorian 



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