The Strand Magazine/Volume 4/Issue 19/Portraits of Celebrities
Portraits of Celebrities at Different Times of their Lives.
KYRLE BELLEW.
 From a Photo. by Mayalt. |
 From a Photograph. |
 From a Photograph. |
R. HAROLD KYRLE BELLEW, son of the late Rev. J. C. M. Bellew, was born whilst his father was chaplain of the cathedral in Calcutta, and first came to England as an infant during the great Indian Mutiny. His childhood was spent in London, when his father was appointed Rector of St. Mark's Church, St. John's Wood. He was educated for the army, but subsequently chose the sea as a profession, and was duly entered on board H.M.S. Conway. His advancement was rapid, but the prospects for the future not seeming sufficiently remunerative, Mr. Bellew left the sea and sought fortune in Australia, where, for four years, he enjoyed varying luck as gold digger, a cattle drover, a journalist, and various other vocations. Mr. Bellew's first appearance in public took place in Melbourne as the reader of a lecture on the Franco-Prussian War. At his father's death he determined to revisit England, and shipped as second officer of a large passenger liner for London, when he was paid off from the ship and joined a provincial company, with which he stayed three months, playing the light comedy and juvenile lead. A performance of his in "Led Astray" induced the author, Dion Boucicault, to telegraph to Mr. Bellew to come to London, which he did, and was at once engaged by Mr. Buckstone for the Haymarket Theatre, since which time his brilliant career is known to every playgoer. Mr. Bellew is one of a family of four children, and is unmarried.
WILLIAM GUNN.
Born 1858.
 From a Daguerrotype. |
 From a Photo. by A. W. Cox, Nottingham. |
 From a Photo. by Byron & Son, Nottingham. |
 From a Photo. by Bradshaw, Hastings. |
ILLIAM GUNN, who has now been for more than ten years one of the most conspicuous figures in the world of cricket, was born at Nottingham, and first played for his county on June 3, 1880, against Surrey, on which occasion he displayed a promise which has since been wonderfully fulfilled. Since that time he has risen to the proud position of being one of the two best professional bats in England. Last year he took the prize offered by Tit-Bits for the highest batting average. Gunn is 6 ft. 2 in. in height, and his great reach is, of course, of considerable advantage to him. His hitting, especially on the off-side, is very clean, and, when once set, he scores fast, and he is an excellent field. He has also attained International honours in Association football.
ARTHUR SHREWSBURY.
Born 1856.
RTHUR SHREWSBURY was born at New Linton, near Nottingham, where his father was then engaged in business. Some of his first cricket was played with the Nottingham Meadow Willow Club, but his progress was so rapid that he was only sixteen when selected to play for the Colts against the County, in which he came out with the top score of 35, made against some of the best bowling in England, for which feat he received a prize bat. He first played for the County at nineteen, the age at which he is represented in the second of our portraits, and the year following represented the Players v. Gentlemen, and scored his first century (118) for his county, against Yorkshire. To speak in detail of his great achievements since that date would require many pages. It must here suffice to mention his enormous score of 224, not out, against Middlesex in 1885; his 267 against the county in 1887 (when he was of the age at which he is depicted in the third of our portraits), for which he was at the wickets 10 1/4 hours without giving a chance; and his unrivalled scoring against Australian elevens on many well-remembered fields. It is almost superfluous to add that in brilliancy of style Shrewsbury has very few equals, and no superior. He is in partnership with Alfred Shaw, as a cricket outfitter, at Nottingham.
LORD HERSCHELL.
Born 1837.
 From a Photograph. |
 From a Photo. by Window & Grove. |
 From a Photo. by Lombardi, Brighton. |
 From a Photo. by Alex. Bassano. |
ORD HERSCHELL, whose great abilities gained for him the unique honour of being a Q.C. at thirty-five and Lord Chancellor at forty-eight, is the son of the late Rev. Ridley Herschell, and was educated at Bonn and at University College, London. After a most brilliant career at the bar, Lord Herschell, then Mr. Farrer Herschell, was elected for Durham, was Solicitor-General from 1880 to 1885, and in 1886 was raised to the Woolsack, and created Baron Herschell. He is an ardent supporter of Mr. Gladstone.
MRS. WALFORD.
RS. WALFORD, whose full name is Lucy Bethia Walford, the popular author of "Mr. Smith," "The Baby's Grandmother," "The Mischief of Monica," and many other novels known to every reader, is the daughter of the second son of Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, tenth Baronet of the name and author of a book well known to sportsmen, "The Moor and the Loch," who married Miss Frances Fuller-Maitland, a lady of marked literary gifts. Mrs. Walford began to write at a very early age, but simply for the joy of writing, everything she wrote before the age of twenty being burnt as soon as written, unseen by any eye except her own. It was not until four years after her marriage, in 1869, to Mr. Alfred Saunders Walford that "Mr. Smith" was written. The beauty of the book—and, indeed, "Mr. Smith" is quite unique in its own line—struck the public strongly, and its writer started on the long career of popularity which has ever since continued to increase. Her home, Cranbrooke Hall, in Essex, is one of those delightful old places which combine the rest and retirement of the country with every facility for taking part in the busy life of the metropolis.
BRITON RIVIERE, R.A.
Born 1840.
 From a Painting by his Father. |
 From a Photo. by Fradelle & Marshall. |
 From a Photo. by A. R. Mowbray, Oxford. |
 From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey. |
R. BRITON RIVIERE was born in London of French descent, his father being Mr. W. Riviere, who was for nine years head of the drawing school at Cheltenham, and afterwards a teacher of drawing at Oxford, and who gave his son a careful and able training. While living at Oxford Mr. Briton Riviere entered as an undergraduate, and took his B.A. degree in 1867. But he was only eighteen when his first picture, "Sheep on the Cotswolds," was hung in the Royal Academy; since which time his pictures, dramatic and impressive, sometimes humorous and sometimes pathetic, and especially strong in the treatment of wild animals, have become known to all the world.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS.
Born 1803; Died 1870.
 From a Painting by Eugene Girand. |
 From a Painting by Geoffroy. |
Age 65.
From a Photo. by Reutlinger.
LEXANDRE DUMAS, père, to whose works we are indebted for a striking story in our last number, and for another in the present issue, was, if we except Sir Walter Scott, the greatest writer of romance who ever lived. And his life was as romantic as his books. His grandmother was a negress, and his father, General Dumas—a dashing officer whom Napoleon left to die in prison—had the appearance of a negro. Alexandre was born at Villers-Cotterets, but at twenty came to Paris to seek his fortune, and began life as a copying-clerk; but in 1828 his play, "Henry III.," took the town by storm. He threw himself with ardour into the Revolution of July, made an expedition to Soissons, and captured, almost single-handed, a powder-magazine, a general, and several officers. In 1844 "Monte Cristo" appeared in the columns of a newspaper, and caused more universal interest than any romance since "Robinson Crusoe" or "Waverley." Then followed "The Three Mousqueteers," which, with its sequels, contained his best work, except "La Reine Margot," the finest of them all. With the help of assistants, Dumas then began to put forth novels at the rate of fifty or sixty in one year—his works are said to reach 2,000 volumes—and he made large sums of money, which he spent as fast as he earned them; so that in his old age he was reduced to the strangest devices to maintain himself, writing puffs for tradesmen, and even exhibiting himself in shop-windows. Even in the little stories which we have adapted there are manifested many of the characteristics in which Dumas never had a superior—the never-flagging spirit of the narrative, the dramatic situations, the air of nature, and the colour of romance.