Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Banks, Mrs. George Linnæus
BANKS, Mrs. George Linnæus, born March 25, 1821, in Oldham Street, Manchester, and baptised Isabella, was the daughter of James and Amelia Varley, smallware dealers. They were well connected, the father a man of reserved manners but of cultivated tastes— chemistry, art, journalism, being his amusements. From a very early age she had free access to his library. She was a favourite with Mrs. McGibbon, the tragic actress (daughter of Woodfall, the celebrated reporter and printer of Junius), and accompanied her to the theatre, or into the fields for study, when quite a child. She was educated at the private schools of Miss Spray and the Rev. John Wheeldon. At eleven her first verses were composed. Her first recognised poem appeared in the Manchester Guardian when she was just sixteen. At eighteen she commenced a school for young ladies in Cheetham, Manchester, and for their use designed patterns in needle work, afterwards collected into a small book. During this period Miss Varley was a member of the ladies' committee of the Anti-Corn Law League. In 1844 appeared her first volume of poems, "Ivy Leaves," I. V—y having been the signature to her early contributions to papers and periodicals. On Dec. 27, 1846, she was married to George Linnæus Banks, the "poet, orator, and journalist." Her school was given up, and they removed to Harrogate, where he edited the Harrogate Advertiser, and began his labours as a founder of Mechanics' Institutes. In the first of these, the Harrogate Mechanics' Institute, Mrs. Banks delivered her only lecture on "Woman—as she was, as she is, and as she may be." Succeeding years were marked by removals, as her husband edited successively The Birmingham Mercury, The Dublin Daily Express, The Durham Chronicle, The Sussex Mercury, and Windsor Royal Standard, her literature during the time being confined to odd poems or reviews for his papers, and "Light work for Leisure Hours," a quarterly brochure still in progress. During their residence in the county of Durham Mrs. Banks had the good fortune to preserve her friend Mrs. Hodgson of Sedgefield from death by fire, though not without severe personal injury. It was not until they reached London in 1861, both in ill-health, and with three young children, that Mrs. Banks took to literature as a profession. In 1864, during the Working Men's Celebration of the Shakespere Tercentenary, of which Mr. Banks was the chief promoter and hon. sec., she baptised with water from the Avon the "Shakespere Oak," presented by Her Majesty the Queen, and planted by Mr. Phelps upon Primrose Hill amidst an immense concourse of spectators. Almost simultaneously appeared in 1865 a joint volume of poems, "Daisies in the Grass," and her first novel in three vols., "God's Providence House," which was followed by "Stung to the Quick" in 1867; by "The Manchester Man" in 1876; "Glory" in 1877; "Caleb Booth's Clerk" in 1878; "Wooers and Winners" in 1880. These novels have since been reproduced in one vol. form, and in the uniform series have been added "More than Coronets," "Through the Night," and "The Watchmaker's Daughter." Another volume of poems, "Ripples and Breakers," made its appearance in 1878. Another novel, "Forbidden to Marry," is in preparation.