Matthew Arnold, 1884 _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Laleham Ferry 16 Thomas Arnold, D.D. 32 Laleham Church 48 Fox How, Ambleside 64 The House at Laleham, where Matthew Arnold first went to School 80 Rugby School 96 Balliol College, Oxford 112 Fisher's Buildings, Balliol College 128 Oriel College, Oxford 144 Matthew Arnold, 1869 160 Pains Hill Cottage, Cobham, Surrey 176 The Union Rooms, Oxford 192 Matthew Arnold, 1880, from the Painting by G.F. Watts, R.A. 208 Pains Hill Cottage, Cobham, from the Lawn 224 Matthew Arnold, 1884 240 Matthew Arnold's Grave at Laleham 256 MATTHEW ARNOLD _Eldest son of Thomas Arnold, D.D., and Mary Penrose_ Born 1822 Entered Winchester College 1836 Transferred to Rugby School 1837 Scholar of Balliol 1840 Entered Balliol College 1841 Newdigate Prizeman 1843 B.A. 1844 Fellow of Oriel 1845 Private Secretary to Lord Lansdowne 1847 Inspector of Schools 1851 Married Frances Lucy Wightman 1851 Professor of Poetry at Oxford 1857 D.C.L. 1870 Resigned Inspectorship 1886 Died 1888 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This book is intended to deal with substance rather than with form. But, in estimating the work of a teacher who taught exclusively with the pen, it would be perverse to disregard entirely the qualities of the writing which so penetrated and coloured the intellectual life of the Victorian age. Some cursory estimate of Arnold's powers in prose and verse must therefore be attempted, before we pass on to consider the practical effect which those powers enabled him to produce. And here it behoves a loyal and grateful disciple to guard himself sedulously against the peril of overstatement. For to the unerring taste, the sane and sober judgment, of the Master, unrestrained and inappropriate praise would have been peculiarly distressing. This caution applies with special force to our estimate of his rank in poetry. That he was a poet, the most exacting, the most paradoxical criticism will hardly deny; but there is urgent need for moderation and self-control when we come to consider his place among the poets. Are we to call him a great poet? The answer must be carefully pondered.