Thomas Carlyle

Born in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Carlyle became one of the most influential critics of Victorian society. His works include Sartor Resartus, The French Revolution (1837) and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841).

In Past and Present (1843) he set the ordered life of a twelfth-century abbey under Abbot Samson against the poverty and idleness of industrial England, and called for work, duty and real leadership in place of laissez-faire.