This popular English
humorist, essayist, and novelist was born in Calcutta. He was educated at
the Charterhouse school in London, and at Cambridge, but he did not
complete a collegiate course of study. He began his literary career as a
contributor to "Fraser's Magazine," under the assumed name of Michael
Angelo Titmarsh, and afterwards contributed to the column of "Punch." The
first novel published under Thackeray's own name was "Vanity Fair," which
is regarded by many as his greatest work. He afterwards wrote a large
number of novels, tales, and poems, most of which were illustrated by
sketches drawn by himself. His course of "Lectures on the English
Humorists" was delivered in London in 1851, and the following year in
several cities in the United States. He revisited the United States in
1856, and delivered a course of lectures on "The Four Georges," which he
repeated in Great Britain soon after his return home. In 1860 he became
the editor of "The Cornhill Magazine," the most successful serial ever
published in England.

1. Mr. Esmond called his American house Castlewood, from the patrimonial
home in the old country. The whole usages of Virginia, indeed, were fondly
modeled after the English customs. It was a loyal colony. The Virginians
boasted that King Charles the Second had been king in Virginia before he
had been king in England. English king and English church were alike
faithfully honored there.

2. The resident gentry were allied to good English families. They held
their heads above the Dutch traders of New York, and the money-getting
Roundheads of Pennsylvania and New England. Never were people less
republican than those of the great province which was soon to be foremost
in the memorable revolt against the British Crown.

3. The gentry of Virginia dwelt on their great lands after a fashion
almost patriarchal. For its rough cultivation, each estate had a multitude
of hands--of purchased and assigned servants--who were subject to the
command of the master. The land yielded their food, live stock, and game.

4. The great rivers swarmed with fish for the taking. From their banks the
passage home was clear. Their ships took the tobacco off their private
wharves on the banks of the Potomac or the James River, and carried it to
London or Bristol,--bringing back English goods and articles of home
manufacture in return for the only produce which the Virginian gentry
chose to cultivate.

5. Their hospitality was