ABSTRACT
Thackeray knew that the end was near, and he told his friend, Mr. Synge, when that gentleman was leaving England for some years. In 1859 Thackeray had taken a long lease of a rather dilapidated house on the west side of Kensington Palace Gardens, with the intention of repairing and improving it before he lived there. Eventually, however, he pulled down the whole building, and reared upon its site a fine mansion—he himself drew up the plans—of red brick, with stone facings in the style of Queen Anne—a style singularly appropriate for the dwelling-place of the author of Esmond and The English Humourists. Matthew Arnold was greatly shocked by Thackeray’s sudden death, but in his letter to his mother recording the sad event cannot refrain from that spirit of critical depreciation which is the prevailing tone of the entire two volumes of his recently published Letters, wherever they deal with his English contemporaries.
