Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
| 250 COPIES ONLY PRINTED. | PRICE 42/- NET. |
| 1892. | |
Biography like other subjects seems to have its fashion; at one time it ismuch attended to, at another time neglected. The Historical Register from1717 to 1739, The European Magazine from 1782 to 1826, and The Gentleman’sMagazine from 1731 to 1868 furnished most useful and excellent notices ofdeceased worthies; then there appeared for one year only, The Register andMagazine of Biography, the first volume by Mr. Thompson Cooper, F.S.A., thesecond by Mr. Edward Walford, M.A. After this period there was a lull andbiography was for some time at a discount; gradually however The Times, whichhitherto had paid little attention to the subject, commenced inserting numerousobituary notices, and this fashion gradually increased, until at the presentday there are few numbers of that paper which do not contain interestingmemoirs. Other periodicals followed suit, and now the majority of the dailyand weekly journals not only give lives but many of them well engravedportraits.
In the meantime there also came out various books on biography, suchas Men of the Time, Men of Mark, Eminent Women Series, English Men ofAction, English Men of Letters, English Worthies, Great Artists, Great Writers,Memorable Men of the Nineteenth Century, Men worth Remembering, TheBiograph and others, while various improved biographical dictionaries, moreespecially the Dictionary of National Biography, still in progress, were produced.
General Biography has now become so large a subject, that no onework can comprehend it, and it will, it is imagined, in future, be necessary toattack it in small sections, if anything like justice is to be done to the matter.
Impressed with these ideas, the author of this work, who had during aperiod of twenty years made a collection of notes relating to English personsdeceased since 1850, thought it not improbable that by printing his materials, heivmight be able to make a useful contribution to biographical literature. The firstvolume of “Modern English Biography” is the result; in it will be found memoirsreferring to the period mentioned, of all privy councillors, knights, judges,recorders, queen’s counsel, serjeants, stipendiary magistrates, benchers of the innsof court, bishops, deans, archdeacons, chancellors, admirals, generals and membersof parliament; other persons too, f