24. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR (+1775-1864+), the greatest prose-writer in his own style of the nineteenth century, was born at Ipsley Court, in Warwickshire, on the 30th of January 1775-- the anniversary of the execution of Charles I. He was educated at Rugby School and at Oxford; but his fierce and insubordinate temper-- which remained with him, and injured him all his life-- procured his expulsion from both of these places. As heir to a large estate, he resolved to give himself up entirely to literature; and he accordingly declined to adopt any profession. Living an almost purely intellectual life, he wrote a great deal of prose and some poetry; and his first volume of poems appeared before the close of the eighteenth century. His life, which began in the reign of George III., stretched through the reigns of George IV. and William IV., into the twenty-seventh year of Queen Victoria; and, in the course of this long life, he had manifold experiences, many loves and hates, friendships and acquaintanceships, with persons of every sort and rank. He joined the Spanish army to fight Napoleon, and presented the Spanish Government with large sums of money. He spent about thirty years of his life in Florence, where he wrote many of his works. He died at Florence in the year 1864. His greatest prose work is the +Imaginary Conversations+; his best poem is +Count Julian+; and the character of Count Julian has been ranked by De Quincey with the Satan of Milton. Some of his smaller poetic pieces are perfect; and there is one, +Rose Aylmer+, written about a dear young friend, that Lamb was never tired of repeating:-- “Ah! what avails the sceptred race! Ah! what the form divine! What every virtue, every grace! Rose Aylmer, all were thine! “Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes Shall weep, but never see! A night of memories and sighs I consecrate to thee.” 25. JANE AUSTEN (+1775-1817+), the most delicate and faithful painter of English social life, was born at Steventon, in Hampshire, in 1775-- in the same year as Landor and Lamb. She wrote a small number of novels, most of which are almost perfect in their minute and true painting of character. Sir Walter Scott, Macaulay, and other great writers, are among her fervent admirers. Scott says of her writing: “The big bow-wow strain I can do myself, like any now going; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.” She works out her characters by making them reveal themselves in their talk, and by an infinite series of minute touches. Her two best novels are +Emma+ and +Pride and Prejudice+. The interest of them depends on the truth of the painting; and many thoughtful persons read through the whole of her novels every year.