The Stephens had a strong family connection with Carlyle.Carlyle had met Virginia Woolf's grandfather,Sir James Stephen(1789-1859)of the Colonial Office,during the 1840's,and comments briefly on him in his Reminiscences; initially Carlyle was not impressed with his capabilities.They became friendly thereafter,for in 1853 it was from Sir James that Carlyle heard that Prince Albert had proposed him for a pension-a suggestion later turned down by the Prime Minister.In 1873 he attended a lecture by Stephen and thought well of it.

    Virginia Woolf's father,Sir Leslie Stephen,founder of the Dictionary of National Biography,wrote the Carlyle article in that work,after much anxiety about how much of Froude's disclosures he should mention.Sir Leslie also launched the Carlyle Memorial Fund in December 1894,aiming to purchase Carlyle's Cheyne Row house for use as a Carlyle Museum.

    His daughter thought that her father's histrionic scenes of depression and remorse after his wife's death were modelled on Carlyle's behaviour.Certainly their personalities had much in common:domestically they were both gloomy, selfish and complaining.In "Moments of Being" Woolf reports him as saying in these episodes that "If he had had a burden on his conscience like that which had tortured poor Carlyle he would be tempted to commit suicide,but that,he hoped was not possible...he had not,surely he had not,been as bad as Carlyle?""I was not as bad as Carlyle,was I?he would say repeatedly to Stella,who repeatedly reassured him,although-Woolf remarks-she probably knew little of Carlyle!.

    Woolf speculates that her father believed in a Victorian convention that men of genius, like Tennyson and Carlyle,were naturally uncontrolled."I think he said unconsciously as he worked himself up into one of those violent outbursts:"This is a sign of my genius",and he called in Carlyle to confirm him, and let himself fly".
 
    Time and again there are passing references to the Carlyles in her essays and even in the novels. Cheyne Row may have been the model for the Hilberrys' house in "Night and Day".

    In Woolf's Diary Carlyle is mentioned at intervals.On the 3rd December 1918 we find her thinking that this is Carlyle's birthday-she was reviewing a book by Froude at the time.'Is anyone else thinking that?'In 1921 she is reading Carlyle's Reminiscences,and,talking to Lytton Strachey,tells him' they are the chatter of a toothless gravedigger compared with you:only then he has phrases'.In the 1930's we find her quoting him-"'Significant of much' as C used to say",and 'Patience,as Carlyle would say-in Italian'.

    One can see that she was influenced by Carlyle,and that he remained in her thoughts throughout her life.Much of this can be attributed to her seeing a strong resemblance between her father and Carlyle,both of whom were depressive personalities, hypochondriacal,self pitying,and dependent on their womenfolk. She sympathised with Jane,denied a writing career by her marriage,her husband and her housework.And how she must have identified with Jane's servant problems!