putation. It has been translated into French and German and many other languages, including Finnish; while at home the author became an established favourite. Some of the chief employers of labour in the Manchester district, however, complained that they were unjustly treated, and that she spoke rashly of some ‘burning questions of social economy.’ She was accused in the ‘Manchester Guardian’ (28 Feb. and 7 March 1849) of ‘maligning’ the manufacturers. Much the same position was taken in W. R. Greg's ‘Essay on Mary Barton’ (1849), which he thought worth reprinting many years afterwards (1876) in his volume entitled ‘Mistaken Aims and Attainable Ideals of the Artisan Class.’ Without discussing the point here, it may be observed, as Professor Minto has done, that John Barton must not be taken too hastily as a type of his whole class; that the book refers to the period of distress (1842) which suggested Disraeli's ‘Sybil;’ and that it has unquestionably contributed to the growth of sentiments which have helped to make the manufacturing world and Manchester very different from what they were forty years ago. The sincerity of its pathos and insight into the very hearts of the poor are of enduring value. Its humour is marked by the rather patriarchal flavour characteristic of Lancashire humour in general; nothing is more striking in Mrs. Gaskell's literary life than the ease and rapidity with which, in this respect, her genius contrived to emancipate itself.
The new writer was eagerly welcomed by Dickens. In May 1849 she dined with him and many well-known men, including Carlyle and Thackeray, to commemorate the publication of the first number of ‘David Copperfield’ (Forster, Life of Dickens, ed. 1876, ii. 100). When early in 1850 Dickens was projecting ‘Household Words,’ he invited Mrs. Gaskell's co-operation in the most flattering terms (Letters of Charles Dickens, 1880, i. 216–17). The first number of the new journal, published 30 March 1850, contained the beginning of ‘Lizzie Leigh,’ a story by Mrs. Gaskell, which was concluded 13 April. In the following years she contributed frequently to ‘Household Words,’ wrote an occasional paper for the ‘Cornhill Magazine,’ and perhaps for other journals. These contributions and Mrs. Gaskell's minor writings in general were afterwards published in a variety of combinations with the shorter of her novels, or under the titles of the longer of the tales themselves, viz. ‘Lizzie Leigh,’ 1855; ‘The Grey Woman,’ 1865; ‘My Lady Ludlow,’ 1859, the last named being republished under the title of ‘Round the Sofa,’ 1871. Mrs. Gaskell could occasionally write with the single-minded intent of startling her readers (see ‘A Dark Night's Work,’ 1863, and ‘The Grey Woman,’ a story of the Chauffeurs, 1865), and again at times in the cheery workman's tract style, for which the benevolent purpose formed a quite sufficient excuse (‘Hand and Heart,’ in ‘Household Words,’ 1855 &c.). She was happiest in minor efforts like ‘Morton Hall’ or ‘Mr. Harrison's Confessions,’ both of which appeared in ‘Household Words,’ the first in 1853, the second in 1855. The very interesting tale of ‘The Moorland Cottage,’ written rather hurriedly, appeared as a Christmas book in 1850, with illustrations by Birket Foster. In it may be detected the first traces of the writer's more delicate vein of humour.
At the beginning of 1853, Miss Brontë having agreed to defer for a few weeks the publication of ‘Villette,’ in order to avoid comparisons (see her charming letter in the Life of Charlotte Brontë, ii. ch. xii.), Mrs. Gaskell published her second important novel, ‘Ruth.’ The story is in itself considerably more interesting than that of ‘Mary Barton,’ and the style, though still wanting in the more subtle charm of the authoress's later works, is unmistakably superior to that of her first book. No notice has hitherto been taken of the striking resemblance between certain characters in ‘Ruth’ and in Dickens's ‘Hard Times,’ published a year later than Mrs. Gaskell's novel.
Among Mrs. Gaskell's early contributions to ‘Household Words’ were those inimitable pictures of society in a little country town which were republished in June 1853 under the title of ‘Cranford.’ The original papers were printed at intervals from 13 Dec. 1851 to 21 May 1853, under headings which appear to have been in part devised by Dickens, who took a particular interest in the series (see his Letters, i. 270, 301). These delightful chapters of real life are both tinged with the most delicate sentiment, and constitute, in Lord Houghton's words, ‘the purest piece of humoristic description that has been added to British literature since Charles Lamb.’ The inhabitants of the little Cheshire town for which Mrs. Gaskell has secured literary immortality unhesitatingly acknowledged the fidelity of the portraiture. ‘Cranford is all about Knutsford; my old mistress, Miss ——, is mentioned in it, and our poor cow, she did go to the field in a large flannel waistcoat, because she had burned herself in a lime pit’ (H. Green, Knutsford, p. 114). A still more important work, ‘North and South,’ appeared in ‘Household Words’ from 2 Sept. 1854 to 27 Jan. 1855, in the course of which year it was republished with certain slight alterations. It is one of Mrs.
