On the Geographical Distribution of British Intellect

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On the Geographical Distribution of British Intellect (The Nineteenth Century, august 1888, p. 184)

On the Geographical Distribution of British Intellect is nonfiction article by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first published in the United Kingdom in The Nineteenth Century, London, in august 1888. Conan Doyle published this article as A. Conan Doyle, M.D. Although Conan Doyle published other medical articles, this is the only known piece by him that deals with the subject of intellect.



Summary

For this article Conan Doyle compiled a list of 1,150 intellectually distinguished men from across the United Kingdom. An examination into their birthplaces showed that 824 were born in England, 157 were born in Scotland, 121 were born in Ireland, and 49 were born abroad. He compared these finding in an effort to determine which region produced the largest number of men of intellect. According to Conan Doyle, men who exceled in music, poetry, and art tended to come from the south, while men who exceled in theology, science, and engineering mostly came from the north. Conan Doyle also claimed that there was greater intellectual activity in the major cities when compared to the country. However, he also found that most of the truly great men in the United Kingdom came from rural areas rather than the manufacturing centers.


On the Geographical Distribution of British Intellect


ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH INTELLECT

Many races have helped in the making of Great Britain, some predominating in one part of the island, and some in another. Amid the conflicting strains of Euskarian, Celt, Pict, Scot, Saxon, Dane, Scandinavian, and Norman, it cannot but be of interest to observe which portions of the country are at the present day most prolific in men of intellect, and what types of mind prevail in the various subdivisions of the United Kingdom.

The first difficulty in such an examination is to draw a hard and fast line as to who shall and who shall not be admitted to be a man of distinguished intellect. Such a division must to a large extent be arbitrary and artificial. For want of a better test, however, it may be taken that the names which we are entitled to use in our calculations are such as could not be excluded from any edition of Men of the Time or a good biographical dictionary. This is, of course, but a shifting of the responsibility of selection on to other shoulders, yet it affords a rough test of merit which is exacting enough to serve our purpose.

On compiling a record of the various men who have during the latter part of the Victorian era attained eminence in literature, poetry, art, music, medicine, sculpture, engineering, law, and other intellectual walks of life, it will be found that, after eliminating from the list all who are mere local celebrities, or whose success depends upon the accident of their birth, there remain some 1,150 names which cannot be set aside. An examination into the birthplaces of these shows that 824 are English born, 157 Scottish, 121 Irish, while 49 were born abroad. It is only fair to remark, however, that an appreciable proportion of the first number are men who, though born upon English soil, were of immediate Irish or Scottish extraction.

Taking the numbers as they stand, however, and comparing them with the populations of the three kingdoms, we have as a result that one in 31,000 Englishmen, one in 22,000 Scotchmen, and one in 49,000 Irishmen rises to distinction. In this estimate Wales has been included in England; but if the Principality be eliminated, the result is rather more favourable to the larger country, which has then one distinguished name in every 30,000. The Welsh counties can only boast of seventeen celebrities to over a million of population, which give the poor ratio of one in 58,000.

Thus, taking the appearance of a man's name in Men of the Time or a dictionary of biography as a test of merit, the proportions of such men to the population in the four main divisions of the United Kingdom are:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

When we consider that of the Scottish worthies 96 are Lowlanders, born to the south of the Clyde and Forth, these figures appear to tell in favour of the Saxon as against the Celt, though of course there are many factors, such as the distribution of wealth and the facilities for education, which exert a modifying influence upon any general conclusions.

On analysing the English roll of honour, it will be found that out of the 824 names, 235 belong to men who are of London birth. Putting the population of London at one-seventh of that of England proper, it has clearly produced very much more than its numerical share of the intellect of the nation. To reduce it to figures, the proportion of celebrities amongst the born Londoners is about one in 16,000, while in the provinces it is not more than one in 34,000. This is as might be expected when one takes into account the centralisation of wealth in London, and the way in which for centuries back the brightest intellects in every walk of life have been drawn towards the metropolis.

Though London produces a disproportionate share of the men who win their way to fame, it will be found that the very highest quality of brain-workers is drawn from the provinces. The men who overshadow their fellows hail largely from the shires. In politics Gladstone of Liverpool has no serious rival. In science the very weightiest names of the later Victorian era are Darwin of Shrewsbury, Owen of Lancaster, Hooker of Suffolk, and Tyndall of County Carlow. In art Leighton from Scarborough and Millais from Southampton are second to none. Herbert Spencer of Derby stands a head and shoulders above his brother philosophers. Tennyson of Lincolnshire leads the poets, as Carlyle of Ecclefechan did the historians. The gap which has been left by the latter is partly filled by Froude of Devonshire, Freeman of Staffordshire, and Lecky of Dublin. In fiction no one has yet arisen to dispute the pre-eminence of Dickens of Portsmouth, ‘George Eliot’ of Warwickshire, and of Thackeray, who was born at Calcutta. On the other hand, the Londoners can boast of some names which are in the very first flight. Huxley was born at Ealing, which, by the way, had not then been merged in the metropolis. Browning, Swinburne, and John Ruskin all hail from the capital. On the whole, however, a comparison shows that while the great city produces more than its numerical share of our distinguished men, the very highest intellects appear to be developed in the peaceful atmosphere of country villages and small provincial towns.

An analysis of the 235 born Londoners shows that they are divisible into 66 authors, 13 poets, 37 artists, 20 theologians, 34 men of science, 4 soldiers, 4 seamen, 8 lawyers, 12 medical men, 5 sculptors, 10 musicians, and 22 others who must be classed as miscellaneous. On comparing these proportions with those furnished by other parts of the country, they will be found to be remarkable chiefly from the large number of artists and men of science. Thus 200 celebrities from the southern counties include only 13 artists and 18 men of science, against the 37 and 34 furnished by 235 Londoners. Among 227 celebrities from the north and midlands the tally of well-known artists is only 14, though the men of science rise to 30. From these figures a general inference may be drawn that the average born Londoner has a stronger bent for art than the average provincial whether from the north or from the south, and a further examination will show that the same holds good, though in a less marked degree, for music and for poetry. Thus for the purpose of comparison we might tabulate our results thus:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

Here the uniformity of the literary figures brings the superiority of the Londoners in art into greater relief. How far this superiority may be due to the effect which the National Gallery and similar institutions have in moulding the young mind, and turning it in the direction of art, may perhaps be best left to experts to discuss.

Beyond this predominance of artists there is little to comment upon in the long roll of the famous children of the metropolis. As already remarked, the very highest places in the various arts and sciences are usually assumed by provincials. In literature, however, the Londoners can boast of high quality as well as quantity. Besides those already mentioned there are Cardinal Newman, Henry Morley, Frederic Harrison, the late J. C. Morison, Mr. W. Smith, and Leslie Stephen. In poets the metropolis has been particularly prolific. Browning and Swinburne head the list, but Eliza Cook, Christina Rossetti, G. R. Sims, Clement Scott, Sydney Dobell, Martin Tupper, William Morris, E. W. Gosse, and W. S. Gilbert combine to show that the human spirit can rise superior to leaden skies or bricks and mortar. In fiction and journalism Miss Braddon, Dutton Cook, G. A. Sala, and Edmund Yates are all of London birth.

Turner, Landseer, Hunt, and Collins in the last generation, and F. Holl, Holman Hunt, Horsley, H. S. Marks, Marcus Stone, G. A. Storey, Tenniel, Pickersgill, Briton Riviere, Burgess, Goodall, Cooper, and many more among the living uphold the reputation of London as a nursery of artists. In science the list is hardly as strong as might be expected. Crookes, Ray Lankester, Sir John Lubbock, St. George Mivart, R. A. Proctor, and J. G. Wood are perhaps the best known names. On the other hand, the metropolis is strong in music. H. D. Leslie, Macfarren, Sir George Smart, Sir H. Bishop, Sir F. Ouseley, L. E. Sloper, C. K. Salaman, and Sir Arthur Sullivan are, or were, all cockneys; while Sir Herbert Oakley, like Professor Huxley, hails from what is now the suburb of Ealing.

Passing to the southern counties, and leaving out Surrey from our list, as the neighbourhood of the capital interferes with its growth as an independent intellectual centre, we find the nine counties give results which may be tabulated in the following manner:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

These figures show a high and steady average of intellect in the southern counties, and are especially remarkable for the exceedingly high position taken by Hampshire, and the comparatively low one assumed by Cornwall. The average of highly successful men among four million of our southern population is one in 23,000.

It may be interesting to examine more closely into these county statistics, and to observe the quality as well as the number of the successful men from the various shires. Beginning from the east, Kent gives us what may be described as a good mixed bag, without presenting any very striking or special features. Sir William Jenner, the two Grotes of Beckenham, Sims Reeves, Sir E. Reed, McGregor the canoeist, Arthur Locker, Newman Hall, J. B. Gough of temperance fame, Coxwell the aeronaut, Christie the astronomer, and General Sir John Adye are among the three-and-thirty distinguished exports from the hop country. The noble Gordon, too, was born at Woolwich, though his people were of Scottish origin.

Sussex produced Richard Cobden in the past, and numbers amongst its more recent worthies Sir Edwin Arnold, Florence Marryat, the late Admiral Hewitt, Harrison Weir, and Isaac Todhunter the mathematician. On the whole, however, it cannot be said that the average of merit is a high one.

There were few more surprising results elicited in the preparation of these lists than the brilliant position taken by Hampshire. In the aggregate this county possesses a greater number of famous men than any in the south; but when we come to take into account the population, we find that the proportion who win their way to fame is 1 in 13,000, a ratio which is superior even to that of the metropolis. In letters Hampshire is particularly strong. Charles Dickens, Charlotte Yonge, George Meredith, Walter Besant, W. N. Molesworth, Joseph Hatton, and Sarah Doudney are a strong body of authors for one shire to rear. Millais was born at Southampton, Vicat Cole and H. Blackburn at Portsmouth, while in the past Isambard Brunel and the ill-fated Cowper Coles hailed from the same ancient borough. Hampshire has contributed more than her share to the well-being of the Empire.

Dorsetshire has a short list of distinguished children. Of seven names, Thomas Hardy the novelist, Commander Cameron, and the late W. E. Forster, are the best known. Berkshire, which boasts one celebrity to every 19,000 of the population, has produced in the days of our fathers men of the highest intellectual position. Herschel the astronomer, Hallam the historian, and Charles Knight, all hailed from Windsor. Maria Edgeworth, Goldwin Smith, ‘Tom Brown’ Hughes, Sir Charles Russell the soldier, and Richard Blackmore, are among the other names which shed a lustre on their native shire. Wiltshire, on the other hand, presents few of note. Sir S. Canning the engineer, Abe Hayward, and Isaac Pitman the stenographer, are among the most conspicuous.

The Somersetshire roll of honour does not exceed that of Wiltshire in its proportion to the population, but is of very much heavier metal. The two Kinglakes, T. H. S. Escott, James Sully, Sir A. Hobhouse, and Henry Irving the actor, are all men whose names are familiar to English ears. Add to these Helen Mathers and Mrs. Frederick Prideaux, whose charming poems are hardly read as widely as they deserve to be.

Devonshire is a county which has always preserved a strong individuality of its own. Our figures show that the land of the Kingsleys has not fallen from its ancient renown, for her celebrities number one in 18,000, a higher ratio than any in the south with the exception of Hampshire, while in quality they yield to none. James Anthony Froude, Samuel Carter Hall, H. A. Dobson, W. H. Mallock, Sir T. Bowring, P. B. St. John, and Baring Gould, are the best known of the literary Devonians, while the late Chief Justice Cockburn, Sir Redvers Buller, Sir Joseph Fayrer of tropical disease fame, and Captain Bedford Pym, are among the men who have upheld the credit of the western county in other walks of life.

Of Cornwall there is little to be said. Dr. Bastian, Sir E. Hamley, Leonard Courtney, and Adams the astronomer, are the best known names upon her records.

The muster roll of the Welshmen is not a long one, and yet it contains some names of the greatest weight. Stanley the traveller is a Denbighshire man, Boyd Dawkins the geologist, Lewis Morris the poet, Brinley Richards the composer, and the late Bartle Frere, were all born in the Principality.

Taking the counties which border upon Wales in the same way as we have treated those in the south, we arrive at the following ratios:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

In these border counties the averages appear to be very poor save only in the case of Gloucestershire, where the presence of several good-sized towns and of a richer population insures a high standard of intelligence.

The county of Henry the Fifth is represented by A. R. Wallace the zoologist, and Lionel Brough the actor. Herefordshire can boast of Sir Henry James and Gerald Massey the poet, while the six other Shropshire worthies are overshadowed by the great reputation of the naturalist who has given his name to the Darwinian philosophy.

In Gloucestershire the single town of Cheltenham has produced the Rev. F. Arnold, Professor Buckman, Admiral Inglefield, Bishop Fraser, and James Payn. Sir Samuel Baker, R. E. Francillon, General Lysons, J. A. Symonds, and T. L. Oliphant, are all of Gloucestershire extraction. The principal Cheshire celebrities appear to be Bowman the oculist, Sir Joseph Whitworth, the late R. Caldecott, and Lord Brassey.

On tabulating the counties which make up the centre of England, we arrive at the following results:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

These figures show a very surprising difference between the number of distinguished men turned out in proportion to population in the midland counties, and in those to the south of the line of the Thames. The contrast is so great and the figures so constant in the various counties that there is no room for coincidence. In the whole of the south the average of famous men is 1 in 23,000, while in the midlands it falls to 1 in 41,000. In other words, there is almost double the chance of any given southerner attaining high distinction than there is of any given midlander.

It appears to be very difficult to give any adequate reason for this extraordinary disparity. Most of the midland counties are agricultural, as are those of the south. There is as much wealth and leisure among the one population as among the other, nor are the climatic differences sufficient to account for the contrast. On the whole it is most probable that the cause is racial, and depends upon a purer and better developed stock, though it is hard to believe that the district of Shakespeare is second to any other in its capacity for the production of intellect.

Herbert Spencer in Derbyshire goes far to atone for the low percentage of celebrities in the Peak county. In Notts the names are very mediocre, Dr. Percy the metallurgist and General Booth being as well known as any. Staffordshire can boast of Professor Freeman, Francis Galton, the late Mary Howitt, Mrs. Meredith, Miss Mulock, David Christie Murray, Sir Harry Parkes, Barry Sullivan, George Mason, W. Theed the sculptor, and J. H. Shorthouse--a goodly array. Leicestershire has produced Lord Macaulay, and can still point to his biographer G. O. Trevelyan, Dr. B. W. Richardson, and Lord John Manners.

Shakespeare's county owns the late ‘George Eliot,’ Professor Flower, Joseph Arch, Norman Lockyer, and Miss Ellen Terry--a curiously varied quintette. The Worcestershire list includes Professor Beesly, the late Mrs. Henry Wood, and Hullah of musical fame. Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, and Cambridgeshire call for no remark, unless it be in the case of Dr. Alfred Carpenter, G. A. Henty, and Sir Henry Rawlinson; while the county of Bunyan has produced a very different worthy in the person of the gallant and ill-fated Burnaby. Hertfordshire has heavy metal in the shape of Bentley the botanist, Cardinal Manning, Bessemer, Dr. Augustus Jessopp, Sir H. Hawkins, and Sir Spencer Wells; while Buckinghamshire has given birth to Sir Thomas Brown, and Smedley the novelist, who died before he had time to fulfil the promise which his earlier works gave.

It is a relief to turn from the sterile midlands to the eastern counties, which are remarkably productive of successful men, as the following figures show:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

Here the average of successes is 1 in 22,000, which is higher even than among the southerners. The Suffolk figures are quite phenomenal, and in England are second only to those of Hampshire.

Lincolnshire has, of course, the honour of producing the Poet Laureate, who can count among his fellow-countrymen General Brackenbury, F. H. Hill the editor, Mrs. Kendal, Dr. Westland Marston, and Francis the sculptor. Among the north folk in the old county of Nelson, there are the two Pagets, the two Woodwards, George Cattermole and Boughton the painters, Mrs. Thornicroft the sculptress, Palgrave Simpson, and Rider Haggard.

Suffolk appears to be pre-eminently the county of famous women. There is none other which can point to such an array of female talent. Agnes Strickland in the past, and Jean Ingelow, Ouida, Mrs. Keeley, and Miss Edwards, all hail from this one district. The doctors, too, are in force. Dr. Cobbold, Dr. Meadows, Dr. H. B. Jones, and Sir Henry Thompson, are all well-known names. These, with Hooker of Halesworth, J. C. Jeaffreson, Miller the chemist, the late F. D. Maurice, and the two Bickersteths, make a remarkable list of worthies for one small county to produce. Essex, though a larger district, does not come up to the standard of her northern neighbour. Yet in Coventry Patmore, Evelyn Wood, J. B. Robinson, Charles Spurgeon, and the late Sir Charles Bright, the East Saxons have produced some brilliant men.

Turning to the northern counties, we find that they come out in this way:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

Giving an average in the northern counties of one marked intellect in every 43,000, as compared with 1 in 41,000 in the midlands, 1 in 23,000 in the south, and 1 in 22,000 in the eastern counties. It has been customary to talk of the northerners as being the most persevering, shrewd, and long-headed of the inhabitants of England, but this assumption does not appear to be borne out by the figures.

Northumberland produces men of a practical turn. There are no poets and few authors in her records, but en revanche there is in the past the great Robert Stephenson, and in the present Lord Armstrong and Sir Daniel Gooch, engineers, with Burdon Sanderson, Sir G. B. Airy, and Birket Foster. Cumberland has a great reformer in Sir Wilfrid Lawson, and an eminent novelist in Mrs. Lynn Linton. Durham produced the late Mrs. E. B. Browning, the greatest of female poets, and can also boast of Bewick, Sir Charles Hartley the engineer, and Stanfield Clarkson the painter.

Of the ancient rivals, Lancashire and Yorkshire, the county of broad acres comes the best out of a comparison, though some may think that the smaller and more populated county makes up in quality for what it lacks in quantity. Two great Lancastrians, the late Dr. Whewell and the still living Richard Owen, are a host in themselves. Besides these the county palatine has P. G. Hamerton the art critic, John Morley of Blackburn, William Ewart Gladstone, John Bright, Mrs. Oliphant, Sir R. Rawlinson, Hatton the musician, Walter Crane, Mr. Joule the physicist, and many others. Yorkshire, on the other hand, has produced a long list of celebrities. The late Mark Pattison, the Brontë family, Sterndale Bennett, Lord Rosse, Foster of Halifax, Professor Sidgwick, Mr. Priestley, C. R. Markham, Sir Frederick Leighton, Miss Green, Mrs. Bancroft, the late Sir Francis Doyle, E. Crofts, Alfred Austin, C. W. Cope, and Hutchinson the surgeon. In both counties, however, the proportion of celebrities to the total population is low as compared with many other districts of England.

All English results for the larger divisions of the country are put in the shade by the lowlands of Scotland, where 1,800,000 people yield 97 celebrities, a proportion of 1 in 18,500. These figures put that portion of Scotland which lies between the Forth and Clyde on the north, and the English border, in the proud position of having reared a larger number of famous men in the later Victorian era than any other stretch of country of equal size. Of the 97, 29 are authors, including such men as the late Thomas Carlyle, Professor Aytoun, James Grant, and Robert Chambers, with William Black, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Buchanan, Professor Blackie, Norman McLeod, Sir Theodore Martin, and others. In art there are the two Faeds, Orchardson, McWhirter, Pettie, Hart, Thorburn, and other good men, living or dead. Science finds worthy representatives in the late Sir David Brewster, Simpson (who perhaps conferred a greater boon upon humanity than any single mortal who ever lived), Professor Geikie, ‘Glacier’ Forbes, the late Balfour Stewart, &c. Sir Archibald Alison, the late Colin Campbell, the late David Livingstone, Nasmyth the engineer, Cadell the explorer, and a considerable sprinkling of eminent doctors, lawyers, and statesmen, make up the complement of distinguished lowlanders who have brought honour upon themselves and their country within the memory of the present generation. The single town of Edinburgh has produced no less than 46 worthies, which when compared with the population gives an average of 1 in 5,500, nearly three times as high as that of London.

The midland counties of Scotland between the Forth and the Grampians have also been very prolific in great names, though hardly perhaps to the same extent as the lowlands. Among those who have passed away, Sir Charles Lyell the geologist, John Sterling, Rev. T. Chalmers the founder of the Free Church, and John Goodsir, are all in the first flight. Samuel Smiles of Haddington, Noel Paton, Principal Tulloch, Professor Craik, Charles Mackay, and the Hon. A. McKenzie, are all from this part of the island.

The north of Scotland has contributed one-and-thirty names to this muster roll of British worthies. This figure--a very high one when compared to the population--is largely due to the exceptionally favourable result in the Aberdeenshire district. From this one corner of Scotland, with a population which does not exceed 250,000, there comes a long list of famous names. John Hill Burton the historian, Bain and Davidson the philosophers, Donaldson the Grecian, Dr. Matthews Duncan, David Gill and John Phillips the artists, Father Humphrey, Legge the Chinese scholar, George Macdonald, David Masson, W. R. Pirie, Sir John Rose, Smith the Orientalist, Sir John Steel the sculptor, Joseph Robertson the antiquary, and Robertson Forbes the art critic, are all Aberdonians. This is a great record for one shire.

Turning to the sister island, we shall find that the proportions run as follows:

The Nineteenth Century, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., London, 1888

These figures are remarkable as showing that the Irish capital can hold its own against any English city in its output of celebrated men. They are curious also as showing that the intellectual standard in Munster is, man for man, higher than that of Ulster, which is contrary to the generally received opinion. Poor Connaught lags behind in the race, and has the lowest average of any portion of Great Britain.

Dublin has given us in the persons of Lord Wolseley and Lord Charles Beresford a distinguished soldier and sailor. Boucicault, Stopford Brooke, W. E. H. Lecky the historian, W. H. Russell, and Balfe the composer, are the pick of the five-and-forty from the banks of the Liffey; while McClure and McClintock of Arctic fame, Percy Fitzgerald, Parnell, and Tyndall, were all born in the surrounding province. Munster has a fair proportion of well-known names, Maclise, McGinn, and Sir Hugh Gough among those who have passed away. Justin McCarthy, J. Augustus, O'Shea, General Butler, Sir Bernard Burke, and Thomas Hovenden, are all from the southern province. Ulster is richest in theologians and lawyers, though it has some weighty names in Sir William Thomson the physicist, Sir William McCormac of Parisian celebrity, Mrs. Riddell, the late W. Carleton, Sir Emerson Tennent, Sir Robert Hart the Chinese diplomatist, Lord Dufferin, Sir R. Montgomery of the Punjaub, the late Lord Cairns, and W. Allingham the poet.

There are few things which strike one more in an analysis of this kind than the large number of distinguished men who have been born abroad. We have always had a name for importing our artists, so that it is not wonderful to find that a large number of the names which adorn our Academy catalogues were born far from the country which they now enrich with their works. Alma Tadema was born at Dronryp in Holland. Calderon first saw the light at Poitiers. Dobson hails from Hamburg. Herkomer is a native of Waal in Bavaria. Ouless is a Channel-Islander, as is Millais by descent. Poynter was born in Paris, Val Prinsep in India, and Yeames at Taganrog in Russia.

Of other celebrities, living and dead, Thackeray was born at Calcutta, Professor De Morgan in Java, Sir Drummond Wolff at Malta, Professor Monier Williams at Bombay, and Hermann Vezin in Philadelphia. Guernsey has produced Peter Renouf and Professor Bonamy Price. Sir Lyon Playfair comes from Meerut, Florence Nightingale from Florence, Sir Austen Layard from Paris, the late Leone Levi from Ancona, Max Muller from Dessau, Canon Farrar from Bombay, the late Mr. Chenery from Barbadoes, Cowen the composer from Jamaica, and Grant Allen from Kingston in Canada.

On reviewing our general results, one or two remarkable facts become apparent. If a line be drawn through the centre of Lincolnshire, it will be found that the poetry of the nation is to the southern side of that division. Tennyson, Swinburne, Browning, William Morris, Dobell, Locker, Matthew Arnold, Sir Edwin Arnold, Gilbert, Gosse, Kent, Moultrie, Sidney Colvin, Coventry Patmore, J. A. Symonds, Clement Scott, Sims, Bailey, Martin Tupper, Skeat, Christina Rossetti, Jean Ingelow, Mary Howitt, Mrs. Archer Clive, Atherstone, Gerald Massey, Lewis Morris, Capern, and Mrs. F. Prideaux, are all born to the south of such a line. Those elsewhere are so few that they may be readily counted. Buchanan of Glasgow, Stevenson and Isa Craig of Edinburgh, Austin of Yorkshire, Allingham in Ulster, and George Macdonald in Aberdeen, are small oases in the prosaic north. It may be generally stated that, with a few notable exceptions, music, poetry, and art reach their highest development in the south, while theology, science, and engineering predominate in higher latitudes.

Glancing over our figures, it may be briefly summed up that towns have a higher intellectual activity than the country, and that agricultural districts are usually richer in great men than manufacturing or mining parts. The lowlands of Scotland, Aberdeenshire, Dublin, Hampshire, Suffolk, London, Devonshire, Gloucestershire, and Berkshire, are, in the order named, the divisions of the kingdom which have during the last twenty or thirty years produced the most plentiful crop of distinguished citizens. The eastern and southern counties are in the aggregate superior in intelligence to the northern and midland. These in turn are superior to Cornwall and Wales, while the mental nadir is to be found in the western province of Ireland.

A. CONAN DOYLE, M.D.