Victorian

Gordon’s Staff Officer

C. Chenevix Trench describes how, assigned to the Sudan in the time of the ‘Mahdi’, Colonel Stewart led an enterprising officer’s life in Asia and Africa.

Cycling Eighty Years Ago

David Rubinstein describes a change in social habits when the new bicycle replaced the old Penny Farthing.

Commissioner Lin and Opium

Chinese Emperors banned the importation of opium, writes M. Foster Farley, but it was smuggled into the country by East Indian traders and led to the Opium War of 1840.

The Goncourt Brothers

Joanna Richardson describes how the volumes of the Goncourts Journal record the intelligent scene in late nineteenth-century France.

The British Museum and the Xanthos Marbles

At a time when the Turkish rulers of Greece were conducting a profitable trade in ancient statues, Charles Fellows, an enlightened English tourist, rescued a precious hoard from Asia Minor. By Sarah Searight.

The Death of Jane Welsh Carlyle

No marriage has been documented so assiduously as that of Thomas and Jane Carlyle. Ronald Pearsall describes how a famous Victorian historian was the first who attempted to unveil its secrets.

Lady Granville as a Letter-Writer

Prudence Hannay introduces Lady Granville, the younger daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She bridges the gulf between two very different social periods. Brought up among the most dashing personalities of ‘the Devonshire House set’, she died in the great age of mid-Victorian respectability.

Manuscripts and Men

C.V. Wedgwood assesses the impact of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1869-1969