[7] Robert Traill Spence Lowell was graduated at Harvard College in 1833. He became an Episcopal clergyman in 1842, went shortly after as a missionary to Newfoundland, had a parish later in New Jersey, then took the headmastership of S. Mark’s School, Southborough, Mass., and finally was called to the chair of Latin language and literature in Union College. He remained in Schenectady till his death, 12 September, 1891, just a month after the death of his younger brother. He had a distinct literary gift, and published several books, which were the outcome of his life in its varied scenes. _The New Priest in Conception Bay_ has vivid pictures of Newfoundland, and contains one character, Elnathan Bangs, who is as racy a Yankee in his own way as Hosea Biglow himself. The book unfortunately was published by Philips & Sampson just as Mr. Phillips died and the firm went into bankruptcy, and lost thus the advantage of a good start. It was revived a good many years later, but never enjoyed the vogue it might have had. Mr. Lowell’s experiences at S. Mark’s lay behind a story for schoolboys, _Antony Brade_, and his life in Schenectady suggested _A Story or Two from an Old Dutch Town._ He published also _Fresh Hearts that Failed Three Thousand Years Ago, and Other Poems_, a book which his brother had the pleasure of reviewing in the _Atlantic_. His best known poem, “The Relief of Lucknow,” appeared also in the _Atlantic_, under his brother’s editorship. [8] Mary Traill Spence Lowell was born 3 December, 1810, was married to Samuel Raymond Putnam, 25 April, 1832, and died in Boston, 1 June, 1898. She was a woman of intellectual power and literary accomplishment. She chose to write anonymously, but the books she wrote, _Records of an Obscure Man_, _The Tragedy of Errors_, _Fifteen Days_, and _The Tragedy of Success_, though remote from the current of popular taste in her day, not only disclose a most thoughtful nature, and one profoundly interested in great subjects of racial and philosophical moment, but not infrequently are exceedingly felicitous in expression. [9] In a lecture on Spenser, given in 1856, Lowell said, “_The Faery Queene_ was the first poem I ever read, and I had no suspicion of any double meaning in it.” [10] “An Epistle to George William Curtis,” 1874. [11] _Conversations on Some of the Old Poets_, pp. 170, 171. [12] Said at the commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the West Church, Boston, 1887. [13] _The Power of Sound: a rhymed lecture_, pp. 22, 23. [14] “‘Tis near midnight, and I hear a bass-drum, kettle-drum and fife in the distance, playing the dear old _boongalang_ tune of my earliest days, the very one to which General Gage marched out of Boston. It is delightful. I think it is the noise Wagner is always trying to make and failing.”--J. R. L. to C. E. Norton, 16 April, 1889. [15] “Books and Libraries” in _Literary and Political Addresses, Works_, vi. 83.