Thackeray | Page 2

say,
something perhaps of his condition of mind; because for some few
years he was known to me. But of the continual intercourse of himself
with the world, and of himself with his own works, I can tell little,
because no record of his life has been made public.
William Makepeace Thackeray was born at Calcutta, on July 18, 1811.
His father was Richmond Thackeray, son of W. M. Thackeray of
Hadley, near Barnet, in Middlesex. A relation of his, of the same name,
a Rev. Mr. Thackeray, I knew well as rector of Hadley, many years
afterwards. Him I believe to have been a second cousin of our
Thackeray, but I think they had never met each other. Another cousin
was Provost of Kings at Cambridge, fifty years ago, as Cambridge men
will remember. Clergymen of the family have been numerous in
England during the century, and there was one, a Rev. Elias Thackeray,
whom I also knew in my youth, a dignitary, if I remember right, in the
diocese of Meath. The Thackerays seem to have affected the Church;
but such was not at any period of his life the bias of our novelist's mind.
His father and grandfather were Indian civil servants. His mother was
Anne Becher, whose father was also in the Company's service. She
married early in India, and was only nineteen when her son was born.
She was left a widow in 1816, with only one child, and was married a
few years afterwards to Major Henry Carmichael Smyth, with whom
Thackeray lived on terms of affectionate intercourse till the major died.
All who knew William Makepeace remember his mother well, a
handsome, spare, gray-haired lady, whom Thackeray treated with a
courtly deference as well as constant affection. There was, however,
something of discrepancy between them as to matters of religion. Mrs.
Carmichael Smyth was disposed to the somewhat austere observance of
the evangelical section of the Church. Such, certainly, never became
the case with her son. There was disagreement on the subject, and
probably unhappiness at intervals, but never, I think, quarrelling.
Thackeray's house was his mother's home whenever she pleased it, and
the home also of his stepfather.

He was brought a child from India, and was sent early to the Charter
House. Of his life and doings there his friend and schoolfellow George
Venables writes to me as follows;
"My recollection of him, though fresh enough, does not furnish much
material for biography. He came to school young,--a pretty, gentle, and
rather timid boy. I think his experience there was not generally pleasant.
Though he had afterwards a scholarlike knowledge of Latin, he did not
attain distinction in the school; and I should think that the character of
the head-master, Dr. Russell, which was vigorous, unsympathetic, and
stern, though not severe, was uncongenial to his own. With the boys
who knew him, Thackeray was popular; but he had no skill in games,
and, I think, no taste for them.... He was already known by his faculty
of making verses, chiefly parodies. I only remember one line of one
parody on a poem of L. E. L.'s, about 'Violets, dark blue violets;'
Thackeray's version was 'Cabbages, bright green cabbages,' and we
thought it very witty. He took part in a scheme, which came to nothing,
for a school magazine, and he wrote verses for it, of which I only
remember that they were good of their kind. When I knew him better,
in later years, I thought I could recognise the sensitive nature which he
had as a boy.... His change of retrospective feeling about his school
days was very characteristic. In his earlier books he always spoke of the
Charter House as Slaughter House and Smithfield. As he became
famous and prosperous his memory softened, and Slaughter House was
changed into Grey Friars where Colonel Newcome ended his life."
In February, 1829, when he was not as yet eighteen, Thackeray went up
to Trinity College, Cambridge, and was, I think, removed in 1830. It
may be presumed, therefore, that his studies there were not very
serviceable to him. There are few, if any, records left of his doings at
the university,--unless it be the fact that he did there commence the
literary work of his life. The line about the cabbages, and the scheme of
the school magazine, can hardly be said to have amounted even to a
commencement. In 1829 a little periodical was brought out at
Cambridge, called The Snob, with an assurance on the title that it was
not conducted by members of the university. It is presumed that
Thackeray took a hand in editing this. He certainly wrote, and

published in the little paper, some burlesque lines on the subject which
was given for the Chancellor's prize poem of