Arthur Christopher Benson 
The Leaves of the Tree (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 
Studies in Biography

This 1911 collection—or, in the author’s words, ‘little gallery of portraits’—contains eleven brief biographical chapters on such notables as Bishop Westcott, Professor Newton, Henry Bradshaw, Charles Kingsley, and Matthew Arnold, among others.

About the author

A. C. Benson (1862-1925) was a prolific English author whose essays and poems won him a wide readership.  His personal diary is one of the longest ever written, running to nearly four million words.  He is best remembered today as the lyricist for the patriotic English song, ‘Land of Hope and Glory.’