BENSON, Arthur Christopher, English man of letters (son of Edward White Benson and brother of Edward Frederic, qq.v.): b. 24 April 1862. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, was a master at Eton 1885-1903, and is now president, fellow and lecturer of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He has achieved distinction in nearly all de partments of literature, as novelist, poet, biogra pher, and essayist. His first book, 'Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton' (1886) was published under the nom-de-plume of (Christopher Carr.' His novels are lacking in movement, but are written in the fine English characteristic of the author. He published volumes of poems, marked by great refinement and sympathy, in 1893, 1895, 1896, 1900, 1905, and published his (Collected Poems' in 1909. His biographies include (Lives' of Archbishop Laud, and of his father Archbishop Benson, Tennyson,, Kos suth, Edward Fitzgerald, Walter Pater, Ruskin, and (Hugh: Memoirs of a Brother' (Robert Hugh Benson, the distinguished Catholic priest and author, q.v.). But it is as an essayist
that a discriminating public thirsts for Mr. Benson. These are the fruit of ripe scholar ship. broad and tolerant in its outlook, and are written with a gracious, winning charm, and in the reverential spirit typical of Anglican teach ing at its best. Their titles are suggestive of their contents, and include: (The House of Quest' (1903) ; (The Hill of Trouble' (1903); (The Isles of Sunset' (1904) ; (From a College Window' (1906) ; Gate of Death' (1906) ; (The Altar Fire' (1907); (The Silent Isle' (1910) ; 'The Leaves of the Tree' (1911); 'Thy Rod and Thy Staff' (1912) ; (Water springs' (1913) ; 'Where No Fear Was' (1914); and Letters of Maggie Benson' (1917). Mr. Benson collaborated with Vis count Esher in editing (Selections from the Correspondence of Queen Victoria' (1907).