Mr. Horace Stebbing Roscoe St.John —

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Jane Elizabeth Rosco, known as Mrs Horace Roscoe St John was born in London, daughter of Thomas Roscoe (1791-1871), author, and Elizabeth Edwards. No Children. Newspaper clips courtesy Pat

A Tribute to James Augustus and his son Horace

The adventures of George Augustus Sala, by Himself, Cassell’s 1895, Colonial Edition 1898

The subjects I wrote upon in the leading column of the Daily Telegraph were, comparatively speaking, innumerable, but they were nearly all either literary, artistic, social or biographical. The political department of the paper was conducted, and admirably conducted, by two members of the gifted family of St John. First we had a well-tried journalist, an accomplished gentleman, Mr James Augustus St John, the author of “Philosophy at the Foot of the Cross,” whose powerful letters, forcibly liberal in their tone, over the signature of “Greville Brooke” in the Sunday Times, almost achieved the popularity which had been gained by the letters of “Publicola” in the Weekly Dispatch.” Mr St John had, unhappily, become blind. He wrote two or three leaders a week for us: and his subjects used to be sent to him at one o’clock in the afternoon at his home at St John’s Wood. One of his sons, Horace St John, wrote political leaders every day, and was, besides, as prolific a producer of “copy” as I was. Another scion of the St John family, Bayle, well known as an Oriental traveller, was our correspondent in Paris. As for Horace, one may say that he had been born in a newspaper office, just as I was all but born on the stage of a theatre. I remember the elder Mr Levy telling me that when he first consented to accept a leading article for the Sunday Times from young Horace St John, whom he had not previously seen, the manuscript was brought to the office by a very nice boy, in a round jacket and turn-down collar - that nice boy being none other than Horace.

Our modes of working were totally different. Horace St John would sit down at a table anywhere,and with the first writing implements which came to hand, dash off a leader in an hour’s time, literally scrawling it on, I know not how many pages of foolscap. I, on the other hand, could not write anything worth reading save in the minute characters I had been taught to trace when I was an engraver.

Indignities

    
Indignation in 1855, Bankrupcy in 1863!

Newspaper clipa from source. Click on the images to see them full size.

HENRY MAYHEW AND "MY FRIEND , HORACE ST JOHN"

Read Michael Middleton's biography of biography of Horace.