2-888-030 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Bust of Mr. MacAulay, by Park, 1850. Portrait bust of British historian and Whig politician Thomas Babington Macaulay by Patin Park. 'As a poet - however pleasing his "Lays of Ancient Rome," and some of his other ballads, may be - he could never have succeeded in retaining the affection of the public...Macaulay has fancy, but not imagination; and though his ear is good, and his command of language unsurpassed by any living writer, he lacks the earnestness and the deep philosophy of all the mighty masters of song...There was, at one time, a prospect before Air. Macaulay of being one of the men who make, instead of those who write, history; but his recent retirement from Parliament and from public life has, for awhile at least, closed up that avenue'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.