ABSTRACT
[The spectacular success of the History of England transformed Macaulay’s way of life. Already familiar with the patronage and privileges of a Cabinet minister, he now found that his income from writing allowed him luxuries he had earned in his own right, and that his station as an independent historian was more gratifying than his reputation as a politician. He kept up his social engagements in Whig political circles, while his election as Rector of Glasgow University reaffirmed his connection with Scodand, but he could now feel that, while his earnings from writing compared favourably with those of Thackeray and Dickens, he need not be under constant pressure to write for a living. His ideal of a ‘college life in London’ now gathered considerable comforts and access to the best society. He began the practice of taking the Trevelyans each spring to stay for a few days in a historic town to see the sights. He turned down the offer (from Prince Albert himself) of the Regius Chair in Modern History at Cambridge. He made an autumn tour in Ireland, gathering impressions for the Irish part of the History, and followed it up with a visit to Paris with his friend Ellis. He could now, without any public renunciation, put politics behind him. The only bad portent was that the year began with a bout of what he called rheumatism, pains in the limbs and ‘oppression of the chest’.]
