he lead of this powerful outlaw, held
out against William the Conqueror. The busy pen of Kingsley has produced
numerous lectures, poems, reviews, essays, and some plain and useful
sermons. He is now Professor of Modern History at Cambridge.

_Charlotte Bronte_, 1816-1855: if of an earlier period, this gifted woman
would demand a far fuller mention and a more critical notice than can be
with justice given of a contemporary. She certainly wrote from the depths
of her own consciousness. _Jane Eyre_, her first great work, was received
with intense interest, and was variously criticized. The daughter of a
poor clergyman at Haworth, and afterwards a teacher in a school at
Brussels, with little knowledge of the world, she produced a powerful book
containing much curious philosophy, and took rank at once among the first
novelists of the age. Her other works, if not equal to _Jane Eyre_, are
still of great merit, and deal profoundly with the springs of human
action. They are: _The Professor_, _Villette_, and _Shirley_. Her
characters are portraits of the men and women around her, painted from
life; and she speaks boldly of motives and customs which other novelists
have touched very delicately. She had two gifted sisters, who were also
successful novelists; but who died young. Miss Bronte died a short time
after her marriage to Mr. Nichol, her father's curate. _Mrs. Elizabeth
Gaskell_, her near friend, and the author of a successful novel called
_Mary Barton_, has written an interesting biography of Mrs. Nichol.

_George Eliot_, born 1820: under this pseudonym, Miss Evans has written
several works of great interest. Among these are: _Adam Bede_; _The Mill
on the Floss_; _Romola_, an Italian story; _Felix Holt_; and _Silas
Marner_. Simple, and yet eminently dramatic in scene, character, and
interlocution, George Eliot has painted pictures from middle and common
life, and is thus the exponent of a large humanity. She is now the wife of
the popular author, G. H. Lewes.

_Dinah Maria Muloch_ (Mrs. Craik), born 1826: a versatile writer. She is
best known by her novels entitled _John Halifax_ and _The Ogilvies_.

_Wilkie Collins_, born 1824: he is the son of a landscape-painter, and is
renowned for his curious and well-concealed plots, phantom-like
characters, and striking effects. Among his novels the best known are:
_Antonina_, _The Dead Secret_, _The Woman in White_, _No Name_,
_Armadale_, _The Moonstone_, and _Man and Wife_. Ther