=Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)= ran away to sea several times before his father, a member of Parliament of great wealth, consented to his being a sailor. He was a successful and popular naval officer before he was twenty-one. He was thirty-seven years of age when he wrote his first novel, "Frank Mildmay," the success of which led him to adopt literature as the profession of his later life. Of his many novels, of which "Mr Midshipman Easy" and "Peter Simple" are perhaps the best, several appeared in the _Metropolitan Magazine_, which Marryat edited for four years. Not only is Marryat the most delightful of writers for boys, but it is interesting to note that both Carlyle and Ruskin during long terms of illness solaced themselves with his wonderful sea-stories. A writer who gave much healthy pleasure to schoolboys was =William Henry Giles Kingston (1814-1880)=, who left behind him one hundred and twenty-five stories of the sea. Another writer for boys, =William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)=, was the son of a Manchester solicitor. The majority of his thirty novels treat of historical themes. The best of them, "Old St Paul's," "The Tower of London," and "Rookwood," have been translated into most modern languages. Scarcely less popular for a time was =G. P. R. James (1801-1860)=, who also dealt freely with history. Thackeray burlesqued James so skilfully that he has already become a tradition. He was British Consul in Virginia, and afterwards at Venice, where he died. Living English novelists of well-deserved popularity, are Mr Hardy, Mr Black, and Mr Blackmore. =Thomas Hardy (1840- )= made his earlier fame by "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874). He made his later popularity by "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" (1892). Between these books came two stories greater than either--"The Return of the Native" (1878) and "The Woodlanders" (1887). One must read those books to appreciate how very great a novelist Mr Hardy is, how full of poetry and of insight. The Dorsetshire landscape which, under the guise of "Wessex," he has made so familiar, will be classic ground for many a day to all lovers of good literature. Although =William Black (1841- )=, who was born in Glasgow, has written numerous stories about the West Highlands of Scotland, he has no affinity whatever to the new Scotch school. He made his first appearance as a novelist in 1867 with "Love or Marriage," and almost every year since he has published a story, over thirty novels now bearing his name. Black has recognised the value of the picturesque back-ground afforded by West Highland scenery, with its accompanying incidents in the outdoor life of the deer stalker and angler. He has given us some real characterization in "A Daughter of Heth" (1871), in "Madcap Violet" (1876): while "Macleod of Dare" (1878) is perhaps the best thing he has written.