the colonial office. He was deterred partly by a scruple of delicacy, because he had advised Stephen to retire, and partly by doubts as to his own health and reluctance to sacrificing ‘the life poetic’ to business. ‘Philip Van Artevelde’ was put on the stage by Macready in 1847, and withdrawn after six nights. Taylor took the want of success with great composure. He afterwards wrote two plays, ‘The Virgin Widow’ (1849) and ‘St. Clement's Eve’ (1862), of which the last was the most successful; but his official labours occupied most of his strength. In 1859 he had a severe attack of spasmodic asthma. He was unable to attend at the office, and offered his resignation. His services, however, were too valuable to be lost, and an arrangement was made by which he was allowed to retain his office while doing his work at home. Some increase of salary was made, and he was to be responsible to the secretary of state alone. Sir Frederic Rogers (afterwards Lord Blachford) [q. v.], the under-secretary of state, became a most intimate friend. In 1869 Taylor was made K.C.M.G., when the order was first extended to the colonial service generally. In the same year he published a letter to Mr. Gladstone entitled ‘Crime Considered.’ In consequence of his suggestions a criminal code was prepared for the crown colonies by Mr. (afterwards Mr. Justice) R. S. Wright. It was finished in 1875, but has never been passed into law. Taylor finally retired from his office in 1872.
In 1853 he had settled in a house, built from his wife's designs, at Sheen; and from 1861 he had spent the summer months at Bournemouth, and there bought a house, to which he ultimately retired. He was surrounded by an affectionate family. His father had continued to live at Witton, except during a short period in 1832, when he acted as secretary to the commission whose report led to the poor law of 1834. He died on 8 Jan. 1851. The father's wife, whom Taylor had regarded as a mother, died on 12 April 1853, aged 83; and his old friend, Miss Fenwick, in 1856. His eldest son (b. 1845), who, in spite of weak health, had shown great promise, died on 16 May 1870. His home, as Mr Aubrey de Vere says (Recollections, p. 179), was ‘pre-eminently a happy one.’ His wife, a woman of great social charm, was entirely devoted to him. At Bournemouth he was not far from Freshwater, where he occasionally stayed with his friends Charles Hay and Julia Margaret Cameron [q. v.] There, too, he frequently met his old friend Tennyson, at whose house he met Garibaldi. Younger men of letters, among others R. L. Stevenson, also made his acquaintance there; and his older friendships with Spedding, Mr. de Vere, and others never grew cold. He died on 27 March 1886. Lady Taylor died on 1 Jan. 1891. A son and three daughters survive.
‘Philip Van Artevelde’ is the work by which Taylor has obtained a permanent place in literature. Like other plays of the period, it was modelled upon the Elizabethan drama, but was not intended, and is little adapted for, the stage. It has, however, great interest as a thoughtful psychological study (see his interesting letter to Lockhart upon the character of Artevelde in Correspondence, p. 50). The style is marked by great dignity and refinement, and gives the reflections upon life of a mind possessing at once great poetical sensibility and close familiarity with the actual working of society. One lyric—‘Said tongue of neither maid nor wife’—has become famous. Taylor was a warm admirer of Wordsworth and Southey, and belonged to their school, with such differences as distinguish the dweller in Downing Street from the recluse of the Lakes. His prose essays are full of fine reflections, and their delicate style shows the refined man of the world in the good sense of the phrase. Taylor was a man of singularly impressive appearance. There is a portrait by Watts in the National Portrait Gallery, and he was frequently photographed by Mrs. Cameron.
Taylor's works are: 1. ‘Isaac Comnenus,’ 1827. 2. ‘Philip Van Artevelde,’ 1834; 6th ed. 1852; new edition, 1872. 3. ‘The Statesman,’ 1836. 4. ‘Edwin the Fair,’ 1842; 2nd ed. 1845; other editions, 1852 and 1875. 5. ‘The Eve of the Conquest, and other Poems,’ 1847. 6. ‘Notes from Life,’ 1847; 4th ed. 1854. 7. ‘Notes from Books,’ 1849. 8. ‘The Virgin Widow,’ 1850. 9. ‘St. Clement's Eve,’ 1862. A collective edition of Taylor's plays and poems appeared in 1863, and a collective edition of his ‘Works’ in 1877–8, 5 vols.
[Autobiography, 2 vols. 8vo, 1885 (privately printed in 1877); Correspondence, ed. Professor Dowden, 1880; Mr. Aubrey de Vere's Recollections, 1897, pp. 145–80, and elsewhere; information has been kindly given by the family. There are many references to Taylor in Southey's Life and Correspondence, vols. v. and vi., and Selections from Letters, vols. iii. and iv. See also Moore's Journals, &c., vii. 76, 147; Clayden's Rogers and his Contemporaries, ii. 113, 115, 142; Crabb Robinson's Diary, &c., ii. 273, iii. 1.]
