One can imagine the Froudes of the sixteenth century manning the ships of Queen Bess and sailing with Frobisher or Drake.

For many years Mrs.Froude was the mistress of a happy home, the mother of many handsome sons and fair daughters.

The two eldest, Hurrell and Robert, were especially striking, brilliant lads, popular at Eton, their father's companions in the hunting-field or on the moors.

But in Dartington Rectory, with all its outward signs of prosperity and welfare, there were the seeds of death.

Before Anthony Froude, the youngest of eight, was three years old, his mother died of a decline, and within a few years the same illness proved fatal to five of her children.