ters nineteen to twenty-four, including the scene between David and the Widow Calhoun and the story of the Christmas dinner. Around these were successively grouped the other chapters. His picture of David and the Homeville banking office were run together from recollections of his early life in Homer, N. Y., one David Hannum, a locally famous horse-trader, affording the basis for the horsey side of his hero's character.

The book, so full of exuberant humor, was mainly written with great effort because of the physical weakness of the author. In January, 1896, Westcott sailed for Italy. In the following spring he returned to his unfinished task. By sheer will-power he pushed on to the finish. Not satisfied with the first draft, he rewrote it entirely. "David Harum" was submitted to one house after another, until six publishers in turn had rejected it. By this time the discouraged author had taken to his bed, weak and disheartened. Not until December, 1897, did he succeed in placing the manuscript. The fortunate firm of D. Appleton and Company imposed but one condition, namely, that he "cut it down." This he refused to do at first; but, like the apothecary in "Romeo and Juliet," his poverty and not his will consented. He died six months before "David Harum"

appeared-without intimation of the phenomenal run the book was destined to have.

He left an unfinished novel entitled "The Teller," which, with a brief memoir, was published in 1901. In this fragment is also discoverable the background of banking experiences with which the author was familiar.

A

XVI

THOMAS HODGKIN

1831

MONG the stronger literary lights of our own time that first shone from the windows of a banking-house is Thomas Hodgkin, born in 1831, educated in University College, London, and from 1859 to 1902 a partner in the banking-house of Hodgkin, Barnett and Company, Newcastle-on-Tyne, now amalgamated with Lloyd's Bank. In 1874 Mr. Hodgkin retired from active part in the banking business that he might devote more leisure time to historical research and composition, and in 1902 he retired from business altogether. His principal work is "Italy and Her Invaders," in several volumes. He has also written several standard biographies, including studies of Theodoric, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and George Fox. His latest historical work is the first volume of a twelve-volume "Political History of England," the most notable series of the kind ever issued. The editors of the series, Messrs. Hunt and Poole, selected Mr. Hodgkin for the initial volume because in their judgment he was "specially capable of dealing with the period un

dertaken," a period extending down to the Norman Conquest. This banker-historian has been honored with several fellowships and titles which indicate the high estimate put upon his scholarship and the enduring character of his contributions to history.

The clear, incisive style of this author-now well on in the seventies-finds ample illustration in the closing words of his latest work. "With the battle of Hastings," he says, "ends the story of England as ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings.

It is enough to say that a great and grievous transformation had come over the Anglo-Saxon character since the days of Oswald and ever since the days of Alfred. The splendid dawn of English and especially of Northumbrian Christianity in the seventh century had been early obscured. The nation had lost some of the virtues of heathendom and had not retained all that it had acquired of the virtues of Christianity. .. A tendency to swinish self-indulgence, and the sins of the flesh, in some of their most degrading forms, had marred the national character. There was still in it much good metal, but if the AngloSaxon was to do anything worth doing in the world, it was necessary that it should be passed through the fire and hammered on the anvil. The fire, the anvil and the hammer were about to be

supplied with unsparing hand by the Norman conquerors."

Richard Garnett in his "Universal Anthology" pronounces Thomas Hodgkin "one of the ablest historical writers of the century," and associates him with Grote, Lubbock, Bagehot, Rogers, and other bankers who have won world-wide recognition as literary men.