HOWITT, WILLIAa and MARY, two English authors that may most properly be treated together. William Howitt was born in 1795 at Humor, in Derbyshire, and was educated at various schools in connection with the society of Friends, to which persua sion his family belonged. In his youth he was fond of outdoor sports, and he celebrated in verse the scenery with which he was familiar. In 1823 he married Miss Mary Botham, a lady of literary taste and acquirements, and whose family, like his own, was attached to the principles of Quakerism. The Forest Minstrel, with their joint names on the title-page, was published during the year in which they were married. For three or four years thereafter they employed themselves in contributions to annuals and maga zines, and in 1827 a selection from these fugitive pieces appeared under the title of The Desolation of Eyam. From this date till 1837 William Howitt wrote The Book of tht Seasons, Popular History of Priestcraft, and Tales of the Pantika. During the same period Mary Howitt produced The Seven Temptations and a country novel entitled Wood- Leighton. In 1837 William and Mary Howitt removed to Esher, in Surrey, and at that place William Howitt wrote Rural Life in England; Colonization and Christianity; Boy's Country Book; and Visits to Remarkable Places, first series. Mary llowitt at the
same time employed herself in writing filth's for Children, many of which are popular. In 1840 William Howitt, with his wife and family, removed to Heidelberg, when they resided two years. Mary Howitt made herself mistress of the northern languages. and translated the works of Miss Bremer and Hans C. Andersen. Meanwhile William Howitt wrote and translated novels; lie also published The Aristocracy of England and The Homes and Haunts of the British Poets. In 1852 lie went to Australia, where he remained two years. In the last years of his life, his wife and lie (both become con verts to spiritualism) lived in Italy. William died at Rome, Mar. 3, 1879. Among his later works are: Law, Labor, and Gold, or Two Years in Victoria; The Ruined _Abbeys of Great Britain; The Northern Heights of London; The Illustrated History of England, 6 vole., completed in 1861; History of the Supernatural in all Ages and Katinns (1863); Dis covery in Australia, Tasmania, and _Kew Zealand (1865); and The Mad War Planet and other Poems (1871).