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NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
21 
ENGLISH WRITERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
_ For a year or more the principal 
writers of English prose and poetry of 
the eighteenth century, the Silver age of 
English literature, have passed in review. 
With the close of the French Revo- 
lution and the Napoleonic wars came a 
new era, an era of greater humanity, of 
more generous culture, of fresher life. 
Literature felt the inspiration of the po- 
litical, social and intellectual renaisance. 
The last fifty years of the century es- 
pecially witnessed a remarkable flower- 
ing forth of literary genius. 
Some of the older writers of the Eng- 
lish language have never been surpassed © 
in their range of thought and the majes- 
tic melody of their diction. But the 
nineteenth century added to the bead- 
roll of literary magnates the names of not 
a few worthy successors. With a little 
help of the imagination the stately pro- 
cession files before us. We will name 
them as they pass. 
Wordsworth, the apostle of “‘ plain 
living and high thinking,’’ whose simple 
life among the dalesmen and whose 
poetry of the hills have made the Lake 
country a Mecca of literary pilgrims; 
and with Wordsworth we naturally asso- 
ciate Coleridge and Southey, making a 
noted triumvirate. 
Walter Scott, the Wizard of the North, 
at whose wand the ages of feudalism and 
border chivalry move before us in a 
gorgeous panorama, dukes, knights, 
ladies, jousts, battles, sieges, Covenant- 
ers and Cavaliers, Crusaders and Sara- 
cens, rich with jewels and heavy with 
armor. 
De Quincey, essayist and dreamer, 
brilliant, discursive, his mind often roam- 
ing in a land of visions and phantasma- 
goria, master of the scenic and imagina- 
Lamb, the “gentle Elia,’’ charming 
prose writer, full of the milk of human 
kindness, his misfortunes evoking our 
sympathy and his genius winning our ad- 
miration. 
Byron, cynic and misanthrope, mag- 
nificent and sensual, leaving behind a 
glow of splendor in the poetic sky, but 
living a life that shed a baleful lustre on 
the page of literary genius. 
Macaulay, essayist, historian, reviewer; 
learned, versatile, brilliant; his fabric too 
elaborately adorned at times, but always 
with jewels and not with paste; a writer 
to be read with judgment on account of 
his strong prejudices and love of high 
c-loring, but always able and interesting. 
And with Macauley, should be men- 
tioned other great historians of the Victo- 
rian age, Milman, Freeman, Froude and 
Green, and last but by no means least, 
Bryce of the Holy Roman Empire and 
the American Commonwealth; writers 
BY D. F. LAMSON, 
whose works are monuments of learning 
and critical acumen. 
Tom Hood, the poet of equal pathos 
and humor, touching the deepest springs 
of laughter and tears, showing how near 
to each other are the tragedy and comedy 
of. life. 
Robbie Burns, “‘ guiding his plough 
along the mountain side,’’ singing songs 
that went to the heart of Scotland and all 
the world beside, the poet of humanity 
and every-day life, of Highland Mary, of 
Bonnie Doon, of the Mountain Daisy, 
of the Cotter’s Saturday Night, of Auld 
Lang Syne; loving not wisely, but too 
well, a pathetic figure of genuine but ill- 
regulated genius. 
Dickens, the matchless story-teller of 
common life, the creator of Little Nell 
and Squeers, of Sam Weller and Mrs. 
Gamp, of the Circumlocution office, of 
Scrooge and Oliver Twist. 
Thackeray, the hater of snobs and 
shams, the portrait painter of the Eng- 
lish Humorists and the Four Georges, 
the eulogist of Cromwell, to be held in 
grateful memory for the ‘“‘ most lovable 
of all his characters,’’ Colonel New- 
come. 
Kingsley, the realistic limner of the 
times of the mystics and monks, of the 
Last of the English, and of the age of 
Drake and the Armada, the modern 
social reformer, favorite of the court and 
friend of the workingman. 
‘Tennyson, product of England’s best 
society and ripest university culture, the 
greatest poet since Milton, marshalling 
words and images with Virgilean grace, 
at home alike with the Northern Farmer, 
the “‘simple maiden in her charms,” 
and the Knights of the Round ‘Table, 
filling the ages of myth and romance 
with living characters, and voicing the 
heart’s In Memoriam of the departed. 
Browning, sphinx-like and oracular, 
an old Greek fallen on degenerate times, 
the fashionable idol of culture, the 
despair of superficial commentators, un- 
decipherable often as a cuneiform in- 
scription, but always noble and true. 
Carlyle, the great, rugged, gnarled 
Scot, positive, grim, sarcastic, but not. 
without touches of sympathy, and humor, 
preaching the virtues of Silence in re- 
sounding speech often rising to a falsetto ; 
his passsionate rhetoric setting at defiance 
all the canons of criticism, and yet, de- 
spite its volcanic outbursts and Titanic 
vehemence, compelling admiration by 
its downright honesty and earnestness. 
Ruskin, art-critic, teacher, prose-poet, 
ethical dictator, who ruled the realm of 
color and form with almost despotic 
power, like another Warwick the king- 
maker, leaving a long trail of light as he 
vanished out from our sky, 
The century was prolific, too, in 
gifted women who gained reputation by 
the pen, from Agnes Strickland, Felicia 
Hemans, Maria Edgeworth, in the earlier 
years, to Jean Ingelow, George Eliot 
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in the 
later; many of whom are as well known 
and esteemed in this land fas in that of 
their birth. In the literary world 
woman came at last to her own as the 
peer of man. 
There are these, and many, many 
more; the list is far from complete; any 
attempt at selection must be more or less 
a failure. Where the heavens glow 
with constellations, we can name only a 
few of the more brilliant stars. Let one 
acquaint himself, however, with these, 
and he will have at command some of 
the richest treasures of our English 
tongue; he will know wherein the grace 
and majesty, the tenderness and strength, 
of the English prose and poetry of the 
great Nineteenth century lay. 
And so ends the series of articles on 
English literature, extending over the 
past five years; their publication in book 
form has been suggested, and if found 
practicable may sometime be brought 
about. 
iL on Abduertigers | 
“© An ideal spot for a summer home’’ 
remarked a well-known,summer resident 
yesterday relative to Powder House hill, 
at Manchester. And we are pleased to 
announce that a 15-acre lot on the top of 
this hill, commanding a splendid view of 
the ocean, is being offered for sale today 
by M. E. Gorman, real estate dealer of 
Manchester. Mr. Gorman has many 
other very desirable properties suitable 
for summer estates. On the Manches- 
ter road to Essex he has a beautiful old 
farm property of some 60 acres, which 
has a hill-top that commands one of the 
finest ocean views on the North Shore. 
This would make a splendid proposition 
for one looking for a farm on the North 
Shore. 
E. T. Slattery Co., the Tremont 
street, Boston, store, is announcing in 
this issue of the BrrezE a remarkable 
semi-annual clearance sale, in which it 
will be seen that some exceptionally en- 
ticing bargains will be available. During 
the sale prices will average 40 to 60 per 
cent. less than regular. 
W. Paris of 601 Boylston street, Bos- 
ton, isa new advertiser in our columns 
this week. He has opened for the sea- 
son a ladies’ hair-dressing establishment, 
on Raymond street, Magnolia, opposite 
the American express office. 
