The Strand Magazine/Volume 3/Issue 17/Portraits of Celebrities
Portraits of Celebrities at Different Times of their Lives.
MADAME MARY DAVIES.
 From a Photo. by Hemans & Plumer. |
 From a Photo. by Alex. Bessano. |
 From a Photo. by Bertin, Brighton. |
 From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey. |
ADAME MARY DAVIES was born in London, her father, a Welsh sculptor, being precentor to the Welsh Chapel, Soho, where she received her first music lessons in the evening singing-class. At fourteen she
became the pupil of Mr. Brinley Richards, and two years later made her first appearance in public at one of his concerts at the Hanover-square Rooms, where she sang "My mother bids me bind my hair" with the sweetness, feeling, and simplicity which have since rendered her, on the whole, the finest English ballad singer of her time. She married in 1888 Mr. Wm. Cadwaladr Davies, Secretary and Registrar of the University College for North Wales.
WALTER BESANT.
Born 1838.
 From a Silhouette. |
 From a Drawing by John Parker, R.W.S. |
 From a Photo. by Mauli & Polybank. |
 From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry. |
James Rice.Walter Besant, age 40.
From a Photo. by the London Stereo. Co.
R. WALTER BESANT was born at Portsmouth, and educated at King's College, London, and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in high mathematical honours. He was intended for the Church, and took several theological prizes, but abandoned this career. He was then appointed Senior Professor in the Royal College of Mauritius, but was compelled by ill health to resign, and returned to England, where he gave himself up to literary work. His novels, produced at first in conjunction with Mr. James Rice (a very interesting portrait of whom we reproduce with one of Mr. Besant), and afterwards under his own name, are too
well known to require mention.
MARCUS STONE, R.A.
Born 1840.
 From a Photo. by Disderi, Paris. |
 From a Photo. by Vianelli, Venice. |
 From a Photo. by Watkins, London. |
 From a Photo. by Brown, Barnes & Bell. |
R. MARCUS STONE, the son of the late Frank Stone, A.R.A., was born in London, and was educated by his father, never being a student in any Art school. As a very young man he illustrated Dickens. His first exhibited picture, "Rest," was in the Royal Academy when he was eighteen, followed the next year by the marked success of "Silent Pleading." Until about the year 1877 (at which date he was elected an A.R.A.—his election as R.A. following ten years later) Mr. Marcus Stone's work consisted chiefly of historical subjects, but since that time he has mainly occupied himself with the charming pictures founded on the love-stories of our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers which are known so well. "Two's Company, Three's None," in the present Royal Academy, is a fine example of Mr. Stone's work.
ALPHONSE DAUDET.
Born 1840.
 From an Etching. |
 From a Photo. by Pirou, Paris. |
 From a Photo. by Mulnier, Paris. |
 From a Photo. by Nadarz, Paris. |
LPHONSE DAUDET, the finest of living French novelists, was born at Nîmes. His parents were poor, and, after studying in the Lyceum at Lyons, he became an usher in a school at Alais—a life of misery and suffering which two years afterwards he depicted in the pages of the Figaro with such vivid power that, from that time, his literary career was an assured success. Then, having taken up his residence in Paris, he began to write novels, plays, and articles for various publications, particularly the Monde Illustré and the Figaro, in which appeared his "Lettres de mon Moulin," a book which has been widely translated, and is well known in England. His greatest novel is "Fromart jeune et Risler aîné"—written at thirty-four—to which the French Academy awarded the Jouy Prize, and which was subsequently put on the stage with great success. His short stories (two of which appeared in our first number under the title of "Scenes of the Siege of Paris") are among the most finished and popular specimens of his work. In addition to his work as an author, M. Daudet is the theatrical critic of the Journal Officiel.
LIONEL BROUGH.
 From a Photograph. |
 From a Photograph. |
 From a Photograph. |
 From a Photo. by Alfred Ellis. |
R. LIONEL BROUGH was born at Pontypool, and was educated at the Manchester Grammar School. His first employment was in the humble capacity of office-boy to Mr. J. Timbs, in the office of The Illustrated London News, in Douglas Jerrold's time. But Mr. Brough was one of those rare characters whom weight of adverse circumstances cannot keep from rising to the surface as surely as a cork in water. Subsequently he published the first number of The Daily Telegraph, and for some years was connected with The Morning Star. Going to Liverpool with other members of the Savage Club to give amateur theatrical performances in aid of the Lancashire Relief Fund, he achieved so decided a success that he was offered a regular engagement by Mr. A. Henderson, and made his first professional appearance in Liverpool in 1864, and in London in 1867. Since that time he has held his place as one of the best and most popular actors of low-comedy characters at
present on the stage.
HENRY W. LUCY ("TOBY, M.P.").
Born 1845.
 From a Photo. by A. Laing, Shrewsbury. |
 From a Photo. by Walery. |
 From a Plate. |
 From a Photo. by Alex Bassano. |
R. HENRY W. LUCY was born at Crosby, near Liverpool, and was at first apprenticed to a
merchant, but at the age at which he is represented in our first portrait he obtained an engagement as reporter to The Shrewsbury Chronicle. In the little story of real life which begins on the next page the reader will discover allusions to this and other incidents of his career. Subsequently he joined the staff of The Pall Mall Gazette and The Daily News, being chief of the Gallery staff on the latter paper.
This post he held at the age of our second portrait, when he was also writing "Under the Clock" in The World. At thirty-seven he published his first novel—"Gideon Fleyce"—and a year later he made a journey round the world, an account of which appeared in the volume entitled "East by West." At the age of our third portrait he was editor of The Daily News, a post which he soon resigned. On the death of Tom Taylor in 1880, Mr. Lucy took up the writing of the "Essence of Parliament" for Punch, which, under the title of "The Diary of Toby, M.P.," is still one of the brightest and most sparkling things appearing in the weekly press.