Note 97 — CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS: (continued 3)

It may be curious to present Stuart’s idea of the literary talents of Henry. Henry’s unhappy turn for humour, and a style little accordant with historical dignity, lie fairly open to the critic’s animadversion. But the research and application of the writer, for that day, were considerable, and are still appreciated. But we are told that “he neither furnishes entertainment nor instruction. Diffuse, vulgar, and ungrammatical, he strips history of all her ornaments. As an antiquary, he wants accuracy and knowledge; and, as an historian, he is destitute of fire, taste, and sentiment. His work is a gazette, in which we find actions and events, without their causes; and in which we meet with the names, without the characters of personages. He has amassed all the refuse and lumber of the times he would record.” Stuart never imagined that the time would arrive when the name of Henry would be familiar to English readers, and by many that of Stuart would not be recollected.