Company. He held the position of British Minister in Persia for a year-1858. Ten years later he became a member of the Council of India, and in 1876, he was nominated its vice-president. Sir Henry Rawlinson has held other important public offices; he was president of the Royal Geographical Society, a trustee of the British Museum, and a director of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was created a baronet in 1891. Sir Henry is the author of several valuable works.1 After leaving Great Ealing School, his younger brother, George Rawlinson, entered at Trinity College, Oxford, where he obtained a first in classics, and subsequently became Fellow of Exeter College in 1840. He was Bampton Lecturer in 1859, and two years later was chosen Camden Professor of Ancient History. In 1872, he was made a canon of Canterbury. "His historical publications cover nearly the whole history of the ancient East," and have gained for him high distinction as an Oriental scholar, and historian." Ealing is rich in associations of men of letters. Amongst other lads at Great Ealing School, who became famous later, William Makepeace Thackeray stands out prominently. The time spent under Dr. Nicholas' care was short, and the "pretty, timid, gentle boy," must have been a mere child, as he was here before entering Charterhouse. His recollections of the school and neighbourhood are vivid, however, and in the Thackeray Papers there is more than one reference to the worthy doctor, whom he styles "Dr. Tickle-Us", of Great Ealing School. In his novel, Esmond, Thackeray introduces an eminent French. refugee, who for many years made Ealing his home. This is Peter Francis Le Courayer, a Huguenot divine, the original of Mons. Pastoreaux in the novel. Thackeray says 1 See Chambers' Encyclopædia, vol. viii, p. 591. 2 Ibid. of Le Courayer, "he had a little room, where he used to preach and sing hymns, and his wife used to tell pretty stories." Père Lecourayer died in 1776, having left £200 to Ealing Parish for educational purposes.' Thackeray was born in 1811, and the work which "placed him in his proper position before the public as a writer of the first rank was Vanity Fair, published in 1846. At the end of the eighth chapter is a passage which is perhaps the best commentary ever written on the author's method. He has explained how he wishes to describe men and women as they actually are -good, bad, and indifferent—and to claim a privilege occasionally to step down from the platform, and talk about them: If they are good and kindly, to love and shake them by the hand; if they are silly, to laugh at them confidentially in the reader's sleeve; if they are wicked and heartless, to abuse them in the strongest terms politeness admits of. Otherwise you might think it was I who laughed so good-humouredly at the railing old Silenus of a baronet, whereas the laughter came from one who has no reverence except for prosperity, and no eye for anything beyond success. Such people there are living and flourishing in the world. Faithless, hopeless, charityless. Let us have at them dear friends, with might and main." Pendennis was published in 1850, and Esmond followed in 1852. "A romance reproducing with unfailing interest and accuracy, the figures, manners, and phases of a past time, and it is full of beautiful touches of character." It is in this novel, as we have said, that the character of Père Le Courayer is sketched. The Newcomes came out in 1854. Perhaps no figure in the whole world of fiction appeals so forcibly as the "grand, chivalrous, and simple figure of Colonel Newcome." "The force and variety of Thackeray's genius and art will always hold for him a place as one of 1 See chronological list of Ealing charities. 3 Ibid. the greatest of English novelists and essayists, and as by no means the least of English critics."" In one respect William Schwenk Gilbert, another pupil at the old School, though under another and later master, Dr. Francis Nicholas, was like Charles Knight, in that he did much to break down a wall of separation, and so accomplished for the drama what Knight, years before, had done for literature, though the character of the opening out into wider fields was altogether different. The one, Knight, sought to provide good literature at a price within. the poor man's purse, the other, designedly or otherwise, did much to remove from the stage the barrier of prejudice, which drew no distinction between one piece and another, viewing one and all with disfavour. Gilbert was placed at Great Ealing School, October 3rd, 1853. Later he entered at London University, where he took the degree of B.A. He was called to the Bar in 1864. Bab Ballads first appeared in Fun, on whose staff Gilbert was for many years. Brilliantly versatile in conception, burlesques, dramas, comedies, and operas, have by turn issued from his pen. His compositions are, however, too well known to be enumerated here. The supreme master's hand is revealed in the lightest touch. A lively humour, fantastic, robust, pathetic, inimitably quaint, and prettily decked with whimsical conceits and most ludicrous fancies, all worked out with a master's hand, and, withal, agreeably wholesome in tone, distinguishes the gifted author of the delightful Bab Ballads, and places him on a pedestal, very high to reach." Two names remain to be noticed, John Henry Newman and Thomas Huxley. These are reserved for the succeeding chapter. The beautiful sketch of Newman, which enriches the following pages, is from the pen of the Rev. B. Seymour Tupholme, D.D. 1 See Encyclopædia Brittanica, vol. xxiii, p. 214. CHAPTER XIV. Two Pre-eminent Ealing Schoolboys. Cardinal Newman.'-Professor Huxley. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, once a distinguished clergyman of the Church of England, in his middle age received into the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, and for the last eleven years of his life a Cardinal of that Church, occupies an eminent place amongst eminent Englishmen of the nineteenth century, over some ninety years of which his life was prolonged. If it be true "the child is father of the man," Ealing, which formed the child, helped in part to form the man, and may be considered a factor in Newman's fame. Born in 1801, he was sent to Great Ealing School in 1808; in the early years of the century this School, as it was said, " conducted on Eton lines" by the Rev. Dr. Nicholas, had a great educational reputation, and was the literary nursery of several pupils, who afterwards became distinguished men. Here, it seems certain, Newman laid the foundation of his great literary career. One of the most famous among famous men of letters-his first lettered stage was here. One hopes that he drew other advantages from Ealing beyond his classical and mathematical grounding. Did any voice in Ealing 1 By the Rev. B. S. Tupholme, D.D., vicar of St. Stephen's, Ealing. Church on his Sundays touch his tender and impressible heart? Did the moral influence of the school help to shape the future character of this great personality? In after life his friends called him "O deiva," which is perhaps untranslateable; "The Master," "Rabboni," are not adequate. At any rate, Ealing supplied him with intellectual pabulum at a time when such nutriment tells vastly on mental growth and development. Amongst literary men Newman. must ever hold a foremost place; unmatched in logical acumen, and unrivalled in the charm of what has been called his "regal style". His school-life was a gratification to his masters and his parents; he worked well, and his conduct became a Christian lad. All through his life conscience to him was the voice of his God, and "the candle of his soul". From his early days he was a devourer of certain books. When Newman was grinding at his gerunds and supines in Ealing, Sir Walter Scott, then the Great Unknown, was charming the reading world with his inimitable novels. In the early hours of the morning, before lessons began, the boy was revelling in the stories, and drinking in the spirit of the Great Magician. He was spell-bound. The Waverley Novels and the Lay of the Last Minstrel at this period fed his imagination. But another Author, and a different literature was nourishing his soul. His wonderful knowledge of his Bible used to surprise his friends in later. life. His mother, a Huguenot by descent, had taught her gifted son to read ever, and ever revere, the Book of Books. He could never forget, in his Roman days, the singular beauty of the English version. "It lives", says he, "on the ear like a music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of Church bells, which the convert hardly knows how he can forego." At this time, as perhaps ever after, he seems to have lived much in the world unseen. Angels, spirits, and mystic influences, seemed to be his constant environ |