Thomas Gaspey, prominent Victorian man of letters, founded his reputation during the late Romantic period as a journalist and novelist, beginning a distinguished career as reporter, reviewer, editor, and newspaper proprietor. He also proved a fine historian: there is perhaps no better compact introduction to Victorian England and its empire than the introduction to Gaspey's multivolume History of England; Continued from the Reign of George the Third (1852). Even in fiction Gaspey was an historian at heart, and critics saw him as a follower of Walter Scott. As a reviewer for the Literary Magnet (1824) wrote, "It is the brilliant example, joined to his success, of the Author of the Scotch Novels, that has inspired 'minor hands' to attempt something worthy of the age in which they are written. Among these commendable authors, that of the Witch-Finder stands very conspicuously." The presence of history in Gaspey's fiction accounts for its...