to journalism. While at Dresden he sent articles to ‘The Times’ and ‘Spectator,’ and moving to Geneva in 1874 acted as foreign correspondent both to ‘The Times’ and the ‘Daily News,’ besides editing the ‘Swiss Times,’ of which he became part proprietor. His first book, ‘Tales and Traditions of Saxony and Lusatia,’ appeared in 1877, but his earliest success in fiction, ‘The Old Factory,’ a story of Lancashire life with strong local colouring, was issued in 1881. His later novel, ‘Her Two Millions’ (1897), amusingly depicts the conditions of Anglo-continental journalism in Geneva, where Westall became acquainted with Russian revolutionaries, particularly with Prince Kropotkin and with S. Stepniak (i.e. Sergyei Mikhailowitch Kravchinsky). He persuaded the latter to settle in London, and collaborated with him in translations of contemporary Russian literature, and of Stepniak's book on the aims of reform, ‘Russia under the Czars’ (1885). Westall was long a prolific writer of novels, drawing freely on his experiences alike in Lancashire and on the continent and further afield. He extended his travels to North and South America and to the West Indies, but finally returned to England, making his residence in Worthing.
He died at Heathfield, Sussex, on 9 Sept. 1903, and was buried there. He had just completed his latest novel, ‘Dr. Wynne's Revenge.’
Westall was married twice: (1) on 13 March 1855 to Ellen Ann, second daughter of Christopher Wood of Silverdale, Lancashire, by whom he had two sons and one daughter; and (2) at Neuchâtel on 2 Aug. 1863, to her elder sister Alicia, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.
A portrait—a bad likeness—belongs to Westall's daughter, Mrs. Chadwick, Clyde House, Heaton Chapel. A large photograph hangs in the Whitefriars Club.
Westall's numerous novels, which are of old-fashioned type, mainly dependent on incident and description, comprise, besides those mentioned:
- ‘Larry Lohengrin,’ 1881 (another edition, ‘John Brown and Larry Lohengrin,’ 1889).
- ‘The Phantom City,’ 1886.
- ‘A Fair Crusader,’ 1888.
- ‘Roy of Roy's Court,’ 1892.
- ‘The Witch's Curse,’ 1893.
- ‘As a Man sows,’ 1894.
- ‘Sons of Belial,’ 1895.
- ‘With the Red Eagle,’ 1897.
- ‘Don or Devil,’ 1901.
- ‘The Old Bank,’ 1902.
[The Times, 12 Sept. 1903; T. P.'s Weekly, 18 Sept. 1903; Who's Who, 1903; Brit. Mus. Cat.; private information.]
WESTCOTT, BROOKE FOSS (1825–1901), bishop of Durham, born at Birmingham on 12 Jan. 1825, was the only surviving son of Frederick Brooke Westcott, lecturer on botany at Sydenham College Medical School, Birmingham, and hon. sec, of the Birmingham Horticultural Society, by his wife Sarah, daughter of W. Armitage, a Birmingham manufacturer. His paternal great-grandfather, whose Christian names he bore, was a member of the East India Company's Madras establishment and was employed by the company on some important missions. From 1837 to 1844, while residing at home, the future bishop attended King Edward VI's School in Birmingham under James Prince Lee [q. v.], who, while he insisted on accuracy of scholarship and the precise value of words, used the classics to stimulate broad historical and human interests and love of literature, and gave suggestive theological teaching. From boyhood Westcott showed keenness in the pursuit of knowledge, aptitude for classical studies, a religious and thoughtful disposition, interest in current social industrial movements, and a predilection for drawing and music. Music he did not cultivate to any great extent in after-years, but through life he found a resource in sketching.
In October 1844 he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. During his undergraduate career his mind and character developed on the same lines as at school. In 1846 he obtained the Battle University scholarship, and was awarded the medal for a Greek ode in that and the following year, and the members' prize for a Latin essay in 1847. At the same time he read widely. In his walks he studied botany and geology, as well as the architecture of village churches. His closest friends were scholars of Trinity of his year, all of whom, like himself, became fellows; they included C. B. Scott, afterwards headmaster of Westminster school, John Llewelyn Davies, and D. J. Vaughan [q. v. Suppl. II]; another companion was Alfred Barry [q. v. Suppl. II], afterwards bishop of Sydney. Two other friends of the same year were J. E. B. Mayor [q. v. Suppl. II] of St. John's, afterwards professor of Latin, and J. S. Howson [q. v.] of Christ's, afterwards dean of Chester. The young men discussed the most varied topics, literary, artistic, philosophical, and theological, including questions raised by the Oxford Movement, which reached a crisis in 1845 through the secession of J. H. Newman to the Church of Rome. Westcott liked Keble's poetry,
