The Life of Froude

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The Life of Froude

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Title: The Life of Froude
Author: Herbert Paul
Release Date: February 9, 2005 [EBook #14992]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE
OF FROUDE ***

Produced by Michael Madden

The Life of Froude
By Herbert Paul

London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1905.
PREFACE
Although eleven years have elapsed since Mr. Froude's death, no
biography of him has, so far as I know, appeared. This book is an
attempt to tell the public something about a man whose writings have a
permanent place in the literature of England.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge my obligation to Miss Margaret Froude
for having allowed me the use of such written material as existed. A
large number of Mr. Froude's letters were destroyed after his death, and
it was not intended by the family that any biography of him should be
written. Finding that I was engaged upon the task, Miss Froude
supplied those facts, dates, and papers which were essential to the
accuracy of the narrative. Mr. Froude's niece, Mrs. St. Leger Harrison,
known to the world as Lucas Malet, has allowed me to use some of her
uncle's letters to her mother.
Lady Margaret Cecil has, with great kindness, permitted me to make
copious extracts from Mr. Froude's letters to her mother, the late
Countess of Derby. I must also express my gratitude to Sir Thomas
Sanderson, Lord Derby's executor, to Cardinal Newman's literary
representative Mr. Edward Bellasis, and to Mr. Arthur Clough, son of
Froude's early friend the poet.
Mr. James Rye, of Balliol College, Oxford, placed at my disposal, with
singular generosity, the results of his careful examination into the
charges made against Mr. Froude by Mr. Freeman.
The Rector of Exeter was good enough to show me the entries in the
college books bearing upon Mr. Froude's resignation of his Fellowship,
and to tell me everything he knew on the subject.
My indebtedness to the late Sir John Skelton's delightful book, The
Table Talk of Shirley, will be obvious to my readers.
I have, in conclusion, to thank my old friend Mr. Birrell, for lending me

his very rare copy of the funeral sermon preached by Mr. Froude at
Torquay.
October 30, 1905.
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD
IN reading biographies I always skip the genealogical details. To be
born obscure and to die famous has been described as the acme of
human felicity. However that may be, whether fame has anything to do
with happiness or no, it is a man himself, and not his ancestors, whose
life deserves, if it does deserve, to be written. Such was Froude's own
opinion, and it is the opinion of most sensible people. Few, indeed, are
the families which contain more than one remarkable figure, and this is
the rock upon which the hereditary principle always in practice breaks.
For human lineage is not subject to the scientific tests which alone
could give it solid value as positive or negative evidence. There is
nothing to show from what source, other than the ultimate source of
every good and perfect gift, Froude derived his brilliant and splendid
powers. He was a gentleman, and he did not care to find or make for
himself a pedigree. He knew that the Froudes had been settled in
Devonshire time out of mind as yeomen with small estates, and that
one of them, to whom his own father always referred with contempt,
had bought from the Heralds' College what Gibbon calls the most
useless of all coats, a coat of arms. Froude's grandfather did a more
sensible thing by marrying an heiress, a Devonshire heiress, Miss
Hurrell, and thereby doubling his possessions. Although he died before
he was five-and-twenty, he left four children behind him, and his only
son was the historian's father.
James Anthony Froude, known as Anthony to those who called him by
his Christian name, was born at Dartington, two miles from Totnes, on
St. George's Day, Shakespeare's birthday, the 23rd of April, 1818. His
father, who had taken a pass degree at Oxford, and had then taken
orders, was by that time Rector of Dartington and Archdeacon of

Totnes. Archdeacon Froude belonged to a type of clergyman now
almost extinct in the Church of England, though with strong
idiosyncrasies of his own. Orthodox without being spiritual, he was a
landowner as