g illness, through which Froude nursed
him with tender affection. The elder Parker kept on the business,
and brought out the remaining volumes of Froude's History. His son
had been editor of Fraser's Magazine, and in that position Froude
succeeded him at the beginning of 1861. He thus found a regular
occupation besides his History. Fraser had a high literary
reputation, and among its regular contributors was John Skelton,
writing under the name of "Shirley," who became one of Froude's most
intimate friends. In the Table Talk of Shirley* are some interesting
extracts from Froude's letters, as well as a very vivid description
of Froude himself. On the 12th of January, when he was only just
installed, Froude began a correspondence kept up for thirty years by
a brief note about Thelatta, a political romance by Skelton, with
an odd, mixed portrait of Canning and Disraeli, very pleasant to
read, but now almost, I do not know why, neglected.

--
* Blackwood, 1895.
--

Froude is hardly just to it. "I have read Thalatta," he writes, "and
now what shall I say? for it is so charming, and it might be so much
more charming. There is no mistake about its value. The yacht scene
made me groan over the recollections of days and occupations exactly
the same. To wander round the world in a hundred tons schooner would
be my highest realisation of human felicity." Even the name of the
book must have appealed to Froude. For more than almost any other
man of letters he loved the sea. Yachting was his passion. He
pursued it in youth despite of qualms, and in later life they
disappeared. Constitutionally fearless, and an excellent sailor, a
voyage was to him the best of holidays, invigorating the body and
refreshing the brain.

Froude was already at work on the reign of Elizabeth, and in March,
1861, he went to Spain for two months. This was the occasion of his
earliest visit to Simancas, where he was allowed free access to the
diplomatic correspondence and other records there collected and
kept. The advantage to Froude of these documents, especially the
despatches from the Spanish Ambassadors in London to the Government
at Madrid, was enormous, and it is from them that the last volumes
of the History derive their peculiar value. He used his
opportunities to the utmost, and his bulky, voluminous transcripts
may be seen at the British Museum. His plan was to take rooms at
Valladolid, from which he drove to Simancas, a wretched little
vil