In May 1886 she asked him to undertake the publication of her novel of 'Robert Elsmere.' This he readily agreed to do, purchasing the right to issue fifteen hundred copies. It appeared in three volumes early in 1888. The work was triumphantly received, and it proved the first of a long succession of novels from the same pen which fully maintained the tradition of the publishing house in its relations with fiction. Smith followed with great sympathy Mrs. Ward's progress in popular opinion, and the cordiality that subsisted in her case, both privately and professionally, between author and publisher recalled the most agreeable experiences of earlier periods of his long career. He paid Mrs. Ward for her later work larger sums than any other novelist received from him, and in 1892, on the issue of 'David Grieve,' which followed 'Robert Elsmere,' he made princely terms for her with publishers in America.
In the summer of 1899, when Dr. Fitchett, the Australian writer, was on a visit to this country, he persuaded Smith to give him an opportunity of recording some of his many interesting reminiscences. The notes made by Dr. Fitchett largely deal with the early life, but Smith neither completed nor revised them, and they are not in a shape that permits of publication. Fragments of them formed the basis of four articles which he contributed to the 'Cornhill Magazine' in 1900-1.[1]
Although in early days the doctors credited Smith with a dangerous weakness of the heart and he suffered occasional illness, he habitually enjoyed good health till near the end of his life. He was tall and of a well-knit figure, retaining to an advanced age the bodily vigour and activity which distinguished him in youth. He always attributed his robustness in mature years to the constancy of his devotion to his favourite exercise of riding. After 1895 he suffered from a troublesome ailment which he bore with great courage and cheerfulness, but it was not till the beginning of 1901 that serious alarm was felt. An operation became necessary and was successfully performed on 11 Jan. 1901 at his house in Park Lane. He failed, however, to recover strength; but, believing that his convalescence might be hastened by country air, he was at his own request removed in March to St. George's Hill, Byfleet, near Weybridge, a house which he had rented for a few months. After his arrival there he gradually sank, and he died on 6 April. He was buried on the 11th in the churchyard at Byfleet. The progress of the supplemental volumes of the 'Dictionary,' which were then in course of preparation, was constantly in his mind during his last weeks of life, and the wishes that he expressed concerning them have been carried out. He bequeathed by will the 'Dictionary of National Biography' to his wife, who had throughout their married life been closely identified with all his undertakings, and was intimately associated with every interest of his varied career.
Smith was survived by his wife and all his children. His elder son, George Murray Smith, married in 1885 Ellen, youngest daughter of the first Lord
- ↑ The articles were ' In the Early Forties,' November 1900; 'Charlotte Brontë,' December 1900; 'Our Birth and Parentage,' January 1901; and 'Lawful Pleasures,' February 1901. He contemplated other papers of the like kind, but did not live to undertake them.
