A. W. Kinglake | Page 2

clear, frank, unemotional Curzon, fuddling the Levantine
monks with rosoglio that he might fleece them of their treasured
hereditary manuscripts, even Eliot Warburton's power, colouring, play
of fancy, have yielded to the mobility of Time. Two alone out of the
gallant company maintain their vogue to-day: Stanley's "Sinai and
Palestine," as a Fifth Gospel, an inspired Scripture Gazetteer; and
"Eothen," as a literary gem of purest ray serene.
In 1898 a reprint of the first edition was given to the public, prefaced
by a brief eulogium of the book and a slight notice of the author. It
brought to the writer of the "Introduction" not only kind and indulgent
criticism, but valuable corrections, fresh facts, clues to further
knowledge. These last have been carefully followed out. The unwary
statement that Kinglake never spoke after his first failure in the House
has been atoned by a careful study of all his speeches in and out of
Parliament. His reviews in the "Quarterly" and elsewhere have been
noted; impressions of his manner and appearance at different periods of
his life have been recovered from coaeval acquaintances; his friend
Hayward's Letters, the numerous allusions in Lord Houghton's Life,
Mrs. Crosse's lively chapters in "Red Letter Days of my Life," Lady
Gregory's interesting recollections of the Athenaeum Club in
Blackwood of December, 1895, the somewhat slender notice in the
"Dictionary of National Biography," have all been carefully digested.
From these, and, as will be seen, from other sources, the present
Memoir has been compiled; an endeavour--sera tamen--to lay before
the countless readers and admirers of his books a fairly adequate
appreciation, hitherto unattempted, of their author.
I have to acknowledge the great kindness of Canon William Warburton,

who examined his brother Eliot's diaries on my behalf, obtained
information from Dean Boyle and Sir M. Grant Duff, cleared up for me
not a few obscure allusions in the "Eothen" pages. My highly valued
friend, Mrs. Hamilton Kinglake, of Taunton, his sister-in-law, last
surviving relative of his own generation, has helped me with facts
which no one else could have recalled. To Mr. Estcott, his old
acquaintance and Somersetshire neighbour, I am indebted for
recollections manifold and interesting; but above all I tender thanks to
Madame Novikoff, his intimate associate and correspondent during the
last twenty years of his life, who has supplemented her brilliant sketch
of him in "La Nouvelle Revue" of 1896 by oral and written information
lavish in quantity and of paramount biographical value. Kinglake's
external life, his literary and political career, his speeches, and the more
fugitive productions of his pen, were recoverable from public sources;
but his personal and private side, as it showed itself to the few close
intimates who still survive, must have remained to myself and others
meagre, superficial, disappointing, without Madame Novikoff's
unreserved and sympathetic confidence.
Alexander William Kinglake was descended from an old Scottish stock,
the Kinlochs, who migrated to England with King James, and whose
name was Anglicized into Kinglake. Later on we find them settled on a
considerable estate of their own at Saltmoor, near Borobridge, whence
towards the close of the eighteenth century two brothers, moving
southward, made their home in Taunton--Robert as a physician,
William as a solicitor and banker. Both were of high repute, both begat
famous sons. From Robert sprang the eminent Parliamentary lawyer,
Serjeant John Kinglake, at one time a contemporary with Cockburn and
Crowder on the Western Circuit, and William Chapman Kinglake, who
while at Trinity, Cambridge, won the Latin verse prize, "Salix
Babylonica," the English verse prizes on "Byzantium" and the "Taking
of Jerusalem," in 1830 and 1832. Of William's sons the eldest was
Alexander William, author of "Eothen," the youngest Hamilton, for
many years one of the most distinguished physicians in the West of
England. "Eothen," as he came to be called, was born at Taunton on the
5th August, 1809, at a house called "The Lawn." His father, a sturdy
Whig, died at the age of ninety through injuries received in the hustings

crowd of a contested election. His mother belonged to an old
Somersetshire family, the Woodfordes of Castle Cary. She, too, lived to
a great age; a slight, neat figure in dainty dress, full of antique charm
and grace. As a girl she had known Lady Hester Stanhope, who lived
with her grandmother, Lady Chatham, at Burton Pynsent, her own
father, Dr. Thomas Woodforde, being Lady Chatham's medical
attendant. {2} The future prophetess of the Lebanon was then a wild
girl, scouring the countryside on bare-backed horses; she showed great
kindness to Mary Woodforde, afterwards Kinglake's mother. It was as
his mother's son that she received him long afterwards at Djoun. To his
mother Kinglake was passionately attached; owed to her, as he tells us
in "Eothen," his home in the saddle and his love