Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ewing, Juliana Horatia
EWING, JULIANA HORATIA (1841–1885), writer for the young, was born in 1841 at Ecclesfield in Yorkshire, a few miles from Sheffield. Her father was Alfred Gatty, D.D., vicar of Ecclesfield. Her mother was Mrs. Margaret Gatty [q. v.] Juliana Gatty started in life as the story-teller of the nursery. She was so much given to mimicry that her mother was constrained to write a story to check the excessive development of that faculty; but to the last she loved play-acting, and acted well. From the first her character was strongly marked by the uprightness, gentleness, and generosity which she loved to dwell on in her stories. Her first story was ‘A Bit of Green,’ published in the ‘Monthly Packet’ in July 1861; and this story, with some others, constituted her first volume, published in 1862 under the title ‘Melchior's Dream, and other Tales.’ From her youth she was very delicate, but although her sufferings were severe in later life, she never lost her cheerfulness. From 1862 to 1868 the Ecclesfield family circle kept up a manuscript magazine, but few of the contributions made to this were printed. ‘Aunt Judy's Magazine,’ started in May 1866, owes its title to the nickname given to Juliana Gatty as the nursery story-teller. Her first contribution to the magazine in which most of her stories appeared was ‘Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances.’ In 1867 she married Major Alexander Ewing, Army Pay Department, and with her husband soon sailed for New Brunswick. In 1869 she sent to ‘Aunt Judy's Magazine’ the story which shows her powers at their best, ‘The Land of Lost Toys,’ followed by many others, some written in delightful irregular verse and afterwards published in small separate volumes. In 1872 she wrote her first soldier-story ‘The Peace Egg,’ to be followed by ‘Lob-lie-by-the-fire’ (1873), the popular ‘Jackanapes,’ and the touching ‘Story of a Short Life.’ On the death of Mrs. Gatty in 1873, Mrs. Ewing helped her sister to edit the magazine, but after two years she gave the work up and confined herself to her own tales. At Aldershot, Bowdon in Cheshire, and York, her occupations and interests were the same. In 1879 she started to join her husband in Malta, but at Paris she became so ill that she had to return to England. Until 1883 she was separated from her husband. In that year she removed to Taunton, which she left for Bath, where she died on 13 May 1885.
Most of Mrs. Ewing's stories appeared in ‘Aunt Judy's Magazine,’ from 1866 to 1885, but she contributed also to a few other periodicals. Her separate works were published in small volumes by Bell & Sons and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
[Juliana Horatia Ewing and her Books, by Horatia K. T. Gatty.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.119
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 96 | i | 4 f.e. | Ewing, Juliana H.: for 1861 read 1866 |