r nearly eleven years,
his mean appearance subjected him to many dire humiliations. A
final catastrophe in the fortunes of the elder Trollope drove
the family to Belgium, where Anthony for a time acted as usher
in a school at Brussels. But at the age of nineteen a
Post-office appointment brought him back to London. The
turning point in his career came in 1841, when he accepted the
position of a cleric to one of the surveyors in the West of
England. Here he developed an extraordinary energy and
ability, and it was during this time, in 1847, that he
published his first novel, "The Macdermots of Ballycloran."
"The Warden," published in 1855, was the first and in many
ways the best of the famous six Barsetshire series that caused
Trollope to attract the notice of the reading public. Henry
James says, "'The Warden' is simply the history of an old
man's conscience, and Trollope never did anything happier than
the picture of this sweet and serious little old gentleman."
The book is regarded as Trollope's masterpiece.

_I.--Hiram's Hospital_

The Rev. Septimus Harding was a beneficed clergyman residing in the
cathedral town of Barchester.

Mr. Harding had married early in life, and was the father of two
daughters. The elder, Susan, had been married some twelve years since to
the Rev. Dr. Theophilus Grantly, son of the bishop, archdeacon of
Barchester, and rector of Plumstead Episcopi, and a few months after her
marriage her father became precentor of Barchester Cathedral. The
younger daughter, Eleanor, was twenty-four years of age.

Now there are peculiar circumstances connected with the precentorship
which must be explained. In the year 1434 there died at Barchester one
John Hiram, who had made money in the town as a wool-stapler, and in his
will he left the house in which he died and certain meadows and closes
near the town for the support of twelve superannuated wool-carders; he
also appointed that an alms-house should be built for their abode, with
a fitting residence for a warden, which warden was also to receive a
certain sum annually out of the rents of the said meadows and closes.
He, moreover, willed that the precentor of the cathedral should have the
option of being also warden of the alms-house, if the bishop approved.

From that day to this the charity had gone on and prospered--at least,
the charity had gone on, and the e