SOURCE: "Farewell to Barsetshire," in The Two Heroines of Plumplington by Anthony Trollope, Andre Deutsch, 1953, pp. 7-13.

In the essay below, Hampden recounts the genesis and initial publication of "The Two Heroines of Plumplington," and examines the story's relationship to Trollope's Barsetshire novels.

I

There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Anthony Trollope's public farewell to Barsetshire, or to think that any Vincent Crummies of a publisher could ever have tempted him to a succession of positively last appearances in his 'dear county'. The concluding paragraph of The Last Chronicle of Barset is firmly unequivocal:

'And now, if the reader will allow me to seize him affectionately by the arm, we will together take our last farewell of Barset and of the towers of Barsetshire. I may not venture to say to him that in this country, he and I together have wandered often through the...