J.H. Plumb once showed me a set of Swift’s works given him by G.M. Trevelyan; it had originally belonged to Macaulay, who had drawn a line all the way down the margin of every page as he read it, no doubt committing the whole to memory.
A line in the margin doesn't fit with any mnemotechniques I'm aware of, so it's more likely a method to indicate what he had read, and up to what point. Likely not an indicator of storage to memory.
Macaulay claimed that his memory was good enough to enable him to write out the whole of Paradise Lost. But when preparing his History of England, he made extensive notes in a multitude of pocketbooks of every shape and colour.
By what method did Macaulay memorize Paradise Lost?
Imitation t o be avoided. Avoid the mannerisms andpersonal peculiarities of method or style of well-knownwriters, such as Carlyle or Macaulay.
Enough time has passed that these references are lost to me.
Were they so highly imitated at the time that they required a caution? (After almost no time lost on search, the answer is a resounding yes, particularly for Carlyle)
These are references to Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859).