Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/386

 , 1875, 1876, 1882, 8vo.

He also published ‘Lectures in Defence of the Christian Faith’ (from the French of F. Godet), Edinburgh, 1881, 8vo, 2nd edit. 1883; and ‘Egypt, Palestine, and Phœnicia, a Visit to Sacred Lands’ (from the French of F. Bovet), London, 1882, 8vo.



LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-, first (1803–1873), novelist, third and youngest son of William Earle Bulwer of Heydon Hall, Norfolk, by Elizabeth Barbara, daughter of Richard Warburton Lytton of Knebworth, Hertfordshire, was born at 31 Baker Street, London, on 25 May 1803, but not baptised till 15 March 1810. He was himself ignorant of the year of his birth, which has been often erroneously given. He had two brothers, William (1799–1877), and, afterwards Lord Dalling (1801–1872) [q. v.] His father (b. 22 March 1757) was colonel of the 106th regiment or Norfolk rangers, raised by himself, and afterwards became a general. The Bulwers, according to their own belief, had been settled in Norfolk since the Conquest, and still held lands at Wood Dalling, Norfolk, assigned by Aymer de Valence to one of the Conqueror's followers (Life of Lord Lytton, i. 9. See a genealogy, not quite confirmatory, in History of Norfolk, 1775, iv. 458). The Lyttons descended from an ancient family settled at Congleton, Cheshire, and at Lytton of the Peak, Derbyshire, in the time of the Conquest. Sir Robert de Lytton, who had fought at Bosworth, received various honours from Henry VII, and acquired Knebworth, ever afterwards the family seat. The last male heir of the Lyttons died in the reign of William III, leaving his estates to a cousin, William Robinson Lytton, descended from the Welsh family of Norreys or Robinson, who were connected with many of the great houses of the Palatinate, and claimed descent from (d. 664?) [q. v.] Richard Warburton Lytton represented this family through the female line. He was an eccentric scholar, and became while at Harrow School a friend of Dr. Parr (Life, i. 154), who pronounced him to be ‘the best Latin scholar of the day, inferior only to Porson in Greek, and to Sir William Jones in Hebrew and the oriental languages.’ He produced nothing, however, except a Hebrew drama, which he burnt because he could not find actors (he did not think of an audience) with a sufficient knowledge of the language (Life of Lord Lytton, i. 46). He is partly represented by the elder Caxton in his grandson's novel. He was a child in matters of business, and greatly encumbered the property. He was early married to a daughter of Richard Paul Joddrell, a lively girl of sixteen, who never opened a book. They separated soon after the birth of their only child, Elizabeth Barbara. She grew up with some literary accomplishments, and had several suitors, the most favoured of whom was dismissed by her father's caprice. She afterwards married Colonel Bulwer on 21 June 1798. He was an athletic, strong-willed, and ambitious soldier, with a rough temper and the gout. He quarrelled with his mother-in-law and frightened his wife. He was one of four generals entrusted in 1804 with the arrangements intended to meet the expected invasion, and was in hopes of a peerage when he died suddenly at Heydon Hall on 7 July 1807. His widow settled in London. The two elder boys were sent to school. Edward, who had been delicate in infancy, remained with his mother, and they occasionally stayed with her father, who had been obliged to leave Knebworth, and lived at St. Lawrence, near Ramsgate. The boy learnt to read very early, wrote poems at the age of seven, and was considered in the family to be a prodigy. Old Mr. Lytton died on 30 Dec. 1810. His library was sent to London, where the grandson dipped into some of the books. The books had soon to be sold, and three sides of the Knebworth quadrangle were pulled down to suit the house to Mrs. Bulwer's diminished means. Edward asked his mother one day whether she was ‘not sometimes overcome by the sense of her own identity,’ to which she replied that it was high time that he should go to school. His school career was desultory. He was so ill-treated at his first school, kept by Dr. Ruddock at Fulham, that he was taken away in a fortnight. After two more experiments he was sent to a Dr. Hooker at Rottingdean. Here he read Scott and Byron, started a weekly magazine, became the best pugilist in the school, and showed such physical and mental vigour that Hooker in 1818 recommended his removal to the wider sphere of a public school. He thought himself already too old for school, and persuaded his mother not to send him to Eton. He was placed with a Mr. Wallington at Ealing. He was there encouraged to read classics, to discuss politics, and make speeches. Wallington thought him a genius, and encouraged him to publish a collection of poems (‘Ismael’) in 1820. A copy was sent to Scott and politely