is own kind of verse
called _Lyra Elegantiarum_, and in 1879 he produced a miscellany of
verse and prose, original and selected, called _Patchwork_, in which
some have seen his most accomplished and characteristic production. In
form it is something like Southey's _Omniana_, partly a commonplace
book, partly full of original things; but the extracts are so choicely
made and the original part is so delightful that it is not quite like
any book in the language. If Charles Lamb had been of Mr. Locker's time
and circumstances he might have made its fellow. "My Guardian Angel," a
short prose anecdote, is, as nearly as the present writer knows, unique.
Latterly its author was chiefly known as a man of much hospitality and a
collector of choice books. He would not do anything bad, and apparently
he did not feel inclined to do anything good. And as this is a century
when almost everybody must still be doing, and taking the chance of
goodness and badness, such an exception to the rule should meet with
honour.

No poet of the period, perhaps none of the century, occupies a position
less settled by general criticism, or more difficult to settle, than
that of Edward Robert, first Earl of Lytton, for a long time known in
poetry as "Owen Meredith." The only son of the novelist, he was born on
8th November 1831, and after going to Harrow, but not to either
university, entered the diplomatic service at the age of eighteen. In
this he filled a great many different offices at a great many different
places for nearly thirty years, till, after succeeding to his father's
title, he was made First Minister at Lisbon, and then in 1876 Viceroy of
India. This post he gave up in 1880, and after the return of the Tory
party to power, was sent in 1887 as Ambassador to Paris, where he was
very popular, and where he died in 1892.

Despite the fact that his time, save for the interval of 1880-87, was
thus uninterruptedly occupied with business, Lord Lytton was an
indefatigable writer of verse; while in _The Ring of Amasis_ he tried
the prose romance. His chief poetical books were _Clytemnestra_ (1855);
_The Wanderer_ (1859), which contains some charming lyrical work;
_Lucile_ (1860), a verse story; _Songs of Servia_ (_Serbski Pesme_)
(1861); _Orval, or the Fool of Time_ and _Chronicles and Characters_
(1869); _Fables in Song_ (1874); _Glenaveril_, a very long modern epic
(1885); and _After Paradise, or Legends of Exile_ (1887). Besides these
he coll