[Page 97.]—Sir Walter Scott was born at Edinburgh in 1771. His delightful art of story telling, both in prose and poetry, has been excelled by few. Among his most popular poems are The Lady of the Lake and Marmion; among his most popular novels are Kenilworth, Ivanhoe, The Talisman, and Old Mortality. He died in 1832.
[Page 106.]—Thomas Moore was born at Dublin, Ireland, in 1779; died in 1852. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, at fifteen years of age. He studied law, and in 1799 entered the Middle Temple, London. In 1803 he received a government appointment to the Bermuda Islands and traveled quite extensively in the United States. Among English Catholic poets he holds a high rank.
[Page 107.]—Andrew Lang was born in Scotland in 1844; died at London in 1912. He pursued many different lines of literary work, and was one of the most versatile writers of modern times. The number of volumes bearing his name as author is surprisingly large.
[Page 114.]—Lady Gregory is the daughter of Dudley Presse, Deputy Lieutenant of Roxborough, County Galway, Ireland. She has done very valuable service to literature in preserving and editing many of the early Celtic legends. Some of her publications are: Poets and Dreamers, Cuchullain of Muerthemme, and Gods and Fighting Men.
[Page 118.]—Helen Hunt Jackson was born in 1831 at Amherst, Massachusetts. In 1867 she wrote her first stories, and from that time until her death books from the pen of H. H. were published with frequency. She wrote verses, essays, sketches of travel, children’s stories, novels, and tracts on questions of the day.
[Page 120.]—St. Ambrose or Ambrosius, one of the fathers of the Latin Church, was born at Treves, A.D. 340; died, 397. He was the champion of the Catholics against Arians and pagans; he became Bishop of Milan in 374. He was the author of numerous hymns and other religious works.
[Page 121.]—James Sheridan Knowles was born at Dublin, Ireland, 1784. For a time he held a commission in the militia, but became attracted to the stage and entered the dramatic profession. He died in 1862.
[Page 132.]—Washington Irving was born in New York city, April 3, 1783; died, 1859. His early schooling was not very systematic. When a young man he began the study of law, but never followed the profession very steadily. He is the most popular of the American writers of the early part of the nineteenth century.
[Page 152.]—Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby, England, in 1809. He was educated at Cambridge, where he gained the Chancellor’s medal for his poem Timbuctoo in blank verse. In 1830 he published his first volume of poems. Other poems followed quickly and soon became popularly known. Tennyson’s poetry is distinguished by its rare quality and delicate choice of language. He was for many years poet laureate. He died in 1892.
[Page 158.]—Sister Mary Antonia is an occasional and highly esteemed contributor of verse to current Catholic periodicals.