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HENRY DUFF TRAILL (1842-1900)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 156 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY See also:DUFF See also:TRAILL (1842-1900)  , See also:British author and journalist, was See also:born at See also:Blackheath on the 14th of See also:August 1842 . He belonged to an old See also:Caithness See also:family, the Trains of Rattar, and his See also:father, See also:James See also:Traill, was stipendiary See also:magistrate of See also:Greenwich and See also:Woolwich . H . D . Traill was sent to the See also:Merchant Taylors' School . He See also:rose to be See also:head of the school and obtained a scholarship at St See also:John's See also:College, See also:Oxford . He was destined for the profession of See also:medicine and took his degree in natural sciences in 1865, but then read for the See also:bar, being called in 1869 . In 1871 he received an See also:appointment in the See also:education See also:office which See also:left him leisure to cultivate his See also:gift for literature . In 1873 he became a contributor to the See also:Pall Mall See also:Gazette, then under the editorship of See also:Frederick See also:Greenwood . He followed Greenwood to the St James's Gazette when in 188o the Pall Mall Gazette took for a See also:time the Liberal See also:side, and he continued to contribute to that See also:paper up to 1895 . In the meantime he had also joined the See also:staff of the Saturday See also:Review, to which he sent,' amongst other writings, weekly verses upon subjects of the See also:hour . Some of the best of these he republished in 1882 in a See also:volume called Recaptured Rhymes, and others in a later collection of Saturday Songs (189o) .

He was also a See also:

leader-writer on the Daily See also:Telegraph, and acted for a time as editor of the (See also:Sunday) Observer . In 1897 he became first editor of Literature, when that weekly paper (afterwards sold and incorporated with the See also:Academy) was established by the proprietors of The Times, and directed its fortunes until his See also:death . Traill's See also:long connexion with journalism must not obscure the fact that he was a See also:man of letters rather than a journalist . He wrote best when he wrote with least sense of the See also:burden of responsibility . His playful See also:humour and his ready wit were only given full See also:scope when he was See also:writing to please himself . One of his most brilliant jeux d'espril was a pamphlet which was published without his name soon after he had begun to write for the See also:newspapers . It was called The See also:Israeli/fah Question and the Comments of the See also:Canaan See also:Journals thereon (1876) . This told the See also:story of the See also:Exodus in articles which parodied very cleverly the See also:style of all the leading journals of the See also:day, and was at once recognized as the See also:work of a born humorist . Traill sustained this reputation with The New See also:Lucian, which appeared in 1884 (2nd ed., with 'several new dialogues, 190o); but for the See also:rest his labours were upon more serious lines . He directed the See also:production of a vast work on liam III . (1888), See also:Shaftesbury (1886), See also:Strafford (1889), and See also:Lord See also:Salisbury (1891); he compiled a See also:biography of See also:Sir John See also:Franklin, the See also:Arctic explorer (1896); and after a visit to See also:Egypt he published a volume on the See also:country, and in 1897 appeared his See also:book on Lord See also:Cromer, the man who had done so much to bring it back to prosperity . Of these the See also:literary studies are the hest, for Trail,' possessed See also:great See also:critical insight .

He published two collections of essays: Number Twenty (1892), and The New Fiction (1897) . In 1865 his See also:

Glaucus; a See also:tale of a See also:Fish, was produced at the Olympic See also:Theatre with See also:Miss' Nellie See also:Farren in the See also:part of Glaucus . In See also:conjunction with Mr See also:Robert Hichens left in MS. and presumably passed with the rest of his library into the hands of his See also:brother See also:Philip . They then became apparently the See also:possession of the Skipps of See also:Ledbury, See also:Herefordshire . When the See also:property of this family was dispersed in 1888 the value of the See also:MSS. was unrecognised, for in 1896 or 1897 they were discovered by Mr W . T . See also:Brooke on a See also:street bookstall . Dr See also:Grosart bought them, and proposed to include them in his edition of the See also:works of See also:Henry See also:Vaughan, to whom he was disposed to assign them . He left this task uncompleted, and Mr See also:Bertram See also:Dobell, who eventually secured the MSS., was able to establish the authorship of See also:Thomas See also:Traherne . The the Mercies Social See also:England in 1893–1898; he wrote, for several See also:series of They were See also:biographies, studies of See also:Coleridge (1884), See also:Sterne (1882), Wil- he wrote The Medicine Man, produced at the See also:Lyceum in 1898 . He died in See also:London on the 21st of See also:February 1900 .

End of Article: HENRY DUFF TRAILL (1842-1900)
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