longings of the soul. Unluckily nature had endowed him with another craving entirely opposed to romance; namely a most inordinate appetite.'
Later on in this delightful book, the key to the characters in which is now for the first time made public, is introduced Grimur Thomsen of Copenhagen, under the disguise of 'Mr. Jonson.'
The great success of Burnt Njal led to the publication, in 1866, of Gisli the Outlaw, in which will be found a beautiful map of Iceland, and a second series of popular stories, entitled Tales from the Fjeld, appeared in 1874.
At the beginning of 1870, Mr. Gladstone, to whom he had been made known by Lowe, wrote to offer him the important appointment of one of Her Majesty's Civil Commissioners, and though it was a great wrench to him to sever his long connection with Delane at the Times Office, and an immediate loss of income, after some hesitation he accepted the post on the advice of his family. No longer constrained to work every night into the small hours of the morning, he was now free to go more into London society; and bringing to it, as he did, a well-stored mind, a fund of native humour,[1] great capacity for enjoyment, and rare conversational powers, he became one of its recognised favourites, and a welcome guest, like Delane himself, at its dinner-tables. One of his most
- ↑ His innate love of a joke occasionally illumined the cold print of the Times columns. On one occasion, when he was acting for Delane, a letter came to the office from a Mr. Wieass for publication. The signature was an indistinct scrawl which defied all efforts to decipher, and the name of the writer was printed 'Wiseass.' The writer of the letter
