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It is hardly too much to say that, by the death of the author of John Halifax, Gentleman, our literature has sustained a heavy loss.  Mrs. Craik was one of the finest of our women-writers, and though her art had always what Keats called ‘a palpable intention upon one,’ still its imaginative qualities were of no mean order.  There is hardly one of her books that has not some distinction of style; there is certainly not one of them that does not show an ardent love of all that is beautiful and good in life.  The good she, perhaps, loved somewhat more than the beautiful, but her heart had room for both.  Her first novel appeared in 1849, the year of the publication of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Mrs. Gaskell’s Ruth, and her last work was done for the magazine which I have the honour to edit.  She was very much interested in the scheme for the foundation of the Woman’s World, suggested its title, and promised to be one of its warmest supporters.  One article from her pen is already in proof and will appear next month, and in a letter I received from her, a few days before she died, she told me that she had almost finished a second, to be called Between Schooldays and Marriage.  Few women have enjoyed a greater popularity than Mrs. Craik, or have better deserved it.  It is sometimes said that John Halifax is not a real man, but only a woman’s ideal of a man.  Well, let us be grateful for such ideals.  No one can read the story of which John Halifax is the hero without being the better for it.  Mrs. Craik will live long in the affectionate memory of all who knew her, and one of her novels, at any rate, will always have a high and honourable place in English fiction.  Indeed, for simple narrative power, some of the chapters of John Halifax, Gentleman, are almost unequalled in our prose literature.

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The news of the death of Lady Brassey has been also received by the English people with every expression of sorrow and sympathy.  Though her books were not remarkable for any perfection of literary style, they had the charm of brightness, vivacity, and unconventionality.  They revealed a fascinating personality, and their touches of domesticity made them classics in many an English household.  In all modern movements Lady Brassey took a keen interest.  She gained a first-class certificate in the South Kensington School of Cookery, scullery department and all; was one of the most energetic members of the St. John’s Ambulance Association, many branches of which she succeeded in founding; and, whether at Normanhurst or in Park Lane, always managed to devote some portion of her day to useful and practical work.  It is sad to have to chronicle in the first number of the Woman’s World the death of two of the most remarkable Englishwomen of our day.

(1) Memoirs of Wilhelmine Margravine of Baireuth.  Translated and edited by Her Royal Highness Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. (David Stott.)