WILLIAM ERNEST

See also:

• HENLEY, JOHN (1692-1759)
• WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY (1849-1903)

HENLEY (1849-1903)  , British poet, critic and editor, was born on the 23rd of August 1849 at Gloucester, and was educated at the Crypt Grammar School in that city . The school was a sort of Cinderella sister to the Cathedral School, and Henley indicated its shortcomings in his article (Pall Mall Magazine, Nov . 1goo) on T . E . Brown the poet, who was headmaster there for a brief period . Brown's appointment, uncongenial to himself, was a stroke of luck for Henley, for whom, as he said, it represented a first acquaintance with a man of genius . " He was singularly kind to me at a moment when I needed kindness even more than I needed encouragement." Among other kindnesses Brown did him the essential service of lending him books . To the end Henley was no classical scholar, but his knowledge and love of literature were, vital . Afflicted with a physical infirmity, he found himself in 1874, at the age of twenty-five, an inmate of the hospital at Edinburgh . From there he sent to the Cornlzill Magazine poems in irregular rhythms, describing with poignant force his experiences in hospital . Leslie Stephen, then editor, being in Edinburgh, and Macaire at His Majesty's on the 2nd of May 1901 . Admiral Guinea also achieved stage performance .

In the meantime Henley was active in the magazines and did notable editorial

work for the publishers: the Lyra Heroica, 1891; A Book of English Prose (with Mr Charles Whibley), 1894; the centenary Burns (with Mr T.F . Henderson) in 1896—1897, in which Henley's Essay (published separately 1898) roused considerable controversy . In 1892 he undertook for Mr Nutt the general editor-ship of the Tudor Translations; and in 1897 began for Mr Heinemann an edition of Byron, which did not proceed beyond one volume of letters . In :898 he.published a collection of his Poems in one volume, with the autobiographical " advertisement " above quoted; in 1899 London Types, Quatorzains to accompany . Mr William Nicolson's designs; and in 1900 during the Boer War, a patriotic poetical brochure, For England's Sake . In 1901 he published a second volume of collected poetry with the title Hawthorn and Lavender, uniform with the volume of 1898 . In 1902 he collected his various articles on painters and artists and published them as a companion volume of Views and Reviews: Art . These with " A Song of Speed " printed in May 1903 within two months of his death make up his tale of work . At the close of his life he was engaged upon his edition of the Authorized Version of the Bible for his series of Tudor Translations . There remained uncollected some of his scattered articles in periodicals and reviews, especially the series of literary articles contributed to the Pall Mall Magazine from 1899 until his death . These contain the most outspoken utterances of a critic never mealy-mouthed, and include the splenetic attack on the memory of his dead friend R . L .

Stevenson, which aroused deep regret and resentment . In 1894 Henley lost his little sixyear-old daughter Margaret; he had borne the " bludgeonings of chance" with "the unconquerable soul" of which he boasted, not unjustifiably, in a well-known poem; but this blow broke his heart . With the knowledge of this fact, some of these out-bursts may be better understood; yet we have the evidence of a clear-eyed critic who knew Henley well, that he found him more generous, more sympathetic at the close of his life than he had been before . He died on the 11th of July 1903 . In spite of his too boisterous mannerism and prejudices, he exercised by his originality, independence and fearlessness an inspiring and inspiriting influence on the higher class of journalism . This influence he exercised by word of mouth as well as by his pen, for he was a famous talker, and figures as " Burly " in Stevenson's essay on Talk and Talkers . As critic he was a good hater and a good fighter . His virtue lay in his vital and vitalizing love of good literature, and the vivid and pictorial phrases he found to give it expression . But his fame must rest on his poetry . He excelled alike in his delicate experiments in complicated metres, and the strong impressionism of Hospital Sketches and London Voluntaries . The influence of Heine may be discerned in these " unrhymed rhythms "; but he was perhaps a truer and more successful disciple of Heine in his snatches of passionate song, the best of which should retain their place in English literature . See also references in Stevenson's Letters; Cornhill Magazine (1903) (Sidney Low) ; Fortnightly Review (August 1892) (Arthur Symons) ; and for bibliography, English Illustrated Magazine, vol. xxix. p .

548 . (W . P . J.) HENLEY-ON-

THAMES, a market town and municipal borough in the Henley parliamentary division of Oxfordshire, England, on the left bank of the Thames, the terminus of a branch of the Great Western railway, by which it is 351 M . W. of London, while it is 571 M. by river . Pop . (1901) 5984 . It occupies one of the most beautiful situations on the Thames, at the foot of the finely wooded Chiltern Hills . The river is crossed by an elegant stone bridge of five arches, constructed in 1786 . The parish church (Decorated and Perpendicular) possesses a lofty tower of intermingled flint and stone, attributed to Cardinal Wolsey, but more probably erected by Bishop Longland . The grammar school, founded in z6o5, is incorporated with a Blue Coat school . Henley is a favourite summer resort, and is celebrated for the annual Henley Royal Regatta, the principal gathering of amateur oarsmen in England, first heldin 1839 and usually taking place in July .

Henley is governed by a

mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors . _Area, 549 acres . Henley-on-Thames (Hanlegang, Henle, Handley), not mentioned in Domesday, was a manor or ancient demesne of the crown and was granted (1337) to John de Molyns, whose family held it for about 250 years . It is said that members for Henley sat in parliaments of Edward I. and Edward III., but no writs have been found . Henry VIII. having granted the use of the titles " mayor " and " burgess," the town was incorporated in 1570—1571 by the name of the warden, portreeves, burgesses and commonalty . Henley suffered from both parties in the Civil War . William III. on his march to London (1688) rested here and received a deputation from the Lords . The period of prosperity in the 17th and 18th centuries was due to manufactures of glass and malt, and to trade in corn and wool . The existing Thursday market was granted by a charter of John and the existing Corpus Christi fair by a charter of Henry VI . See J . S . Burn, History of Henley-on-Thames (London, 1861) .