Houghton

Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron (1809-85), was born at Fryston Hall, Yorkshire, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was the friend of Tennyson and Arthur Hallam. After leaving Cambridge, he travelled much abroad, recording his impressions in several volumes of verse, of which Palm Leaves (1844), dealing with Eastern life and thought, is the best known. But Lord Houghton's position in literary history is due rather to the keen interest he took in contemporary poetry and the advice and encouragement he held out to struggling young authors than to any writings of his own. Perhaps his best-known work is his Life and Letters of John. Keats (1848). During his career in the House of Commons (1837-63) he was successively the follower of Peel, Lord John Russell, and Palmerston. He was ever on the side of liberty abroad and social progress at home; he supported the Italians and the Poles in their struggles for independence, and the First Juvenile Reformatories Bill was due to his efforts. His son (b. 1858), who is known as a writer of graceful verse, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1892.