English statesman and man of letters, born at Mersham Hatch, Kent, England, on the 29th of April 1829; died on the 6th of February 1893. Having completed his studies at Eton and at Magdalen college, he sat in the House of Commons as a Liberal from 1857 until 1880. During this time he held several under-secretaryships and became a privy councilor. Mr. Gladstone gave him a peerage in 1880, and in 1885 he went over bodily to the Conservatives. He is best known as the author of Tales at Tea-Time; Queer Folks; Whispers from Fairyland; River Legends, or River Thames and Father Rhine; Higgledy-Piggledy, or Stories for Everybody and Everybody’s Children; Uncle Joe’s Stories; Other Stories; Mountain Sprites’ Kingdom; Ferdinand’s Adventure, Puss-Cat Mew Stories, and other books for the young.
