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LIYES  OF  TWELVE  GOOD  MEIST 


BUBGON 


VOL.  I. 


o)c    (JxjoaTHpec  ev 


of  ITwel\?e  6006  /Ifcen 


i.  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE 
n.   tfTOTy  JAMES  ROSE 
in.   CHARLES  MARRIOTT 
iv.  EDWARD  HAWKINS 

v.  SAMUEL  WILBERFORCE 
vi.   RICHARD  LYNCH  COTTON   \  \ 
vii.  RICHARD  GRESWELL 
VIIL  HENRY  OCTAVIUS  COXE 
ix.   HENRY  LONGUEVILLE  HANSEL 
x.    TraZI^  JACOBSON 
xi.   CHARLES  PAGE  EDEN 
xii.   CHARLES  LONGUET  HIGGINS 


BY  JOHN   WILLIAM  BURGON,  B.D. 

DEAN   OF   CHICHESTEB 

SOMETIME   FELLOW   OF    OEIEL    COLLEGE 
AND   VICAE   OF   S.    MARY-THE-VIKGIN'S,   OXFOED 


TITO   VOLUMES 


VOL.   I 


Xonfcon 

JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE   STREET 
1888 


HORACE    HART,    PRINTER    TO    THE    UNIVERSITY 


CT 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  I. 


PAGE 

DEDICATORY  PREFACE vii 

Sketches  of  R.  Hussey  [p.  xi]  :— of  W.  W.  Shirley  [p.  xiii]  :— of 
James  Riddell  [p.  xiv]  '.—of  P.  E.  Pusey  [p.  xiv]  :—ofE.  C. 
Woollcombe  [p.  xvi]  :— of  W.  Kay  [p.  xviii]  :— of  R.  Gandell 
[p.  xxi] :— of  C.  P.  Golightly  [p.  xxiii]. 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS xxix 

(i)  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE  [1755-1854]  I 

(ii)  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE  [1795-1838] 116 

(m)  CHARLES  MARRIOTT  [1811-1858]            .         .         .         .296 
(iv)  EDJPARD  HA  WKINS  [1789-1882] 376 

APPENDIX  (A}.— Dr.  Routfrs  Library 467 

„            (.B). — Dr.  Routh's  Latin  Inscriptions        .         .         .  472 

„            (C). — The  Beginning  of  American  Episcopacy          .  480 

„            (D).— Authorship  of  the  «  Tracts  for  the  Times'          .  491 

„  (E). — Irreligious  character  of  the  Oxford  University 

Commission  of  1877-81.     The  Case  of  Mag- 
dalen College         .         .         .         .         .         .492 

„  (F). — The  Colleges  of  Oxford  essentially  Ecclesias- 

tical Foundations  .         .         .         .  '  .     493 

„  (G).—The  Colleges  of  Oxford  intended  for  the  culti- 

vation of  learning  in  the  sons  of  poor  Parents     503 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 


To  THE  REV.  ROBERT  G.  LIVINGSTONE,  M.A. 

FELLOW  AND  TUTOR  OF  PEMBROKE  COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 

MY  DEAREST  LIVINGSTONE, 

Let  me  enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  inscribing  these 
volumes  to  yourself.  I  wish  that  they  may  prove  an 
enduring  memorial  of  our  friendship,  and  especially  of  the 
happy  days  when  we  were  associated  at  S.  Mary's. 

Not  only  because  you  have  afforded  me  important  assist- 
ance in  the  production  of  these  ' Lives' — but  also  because 
most  of  the  'Good  Men'  here  commemorated  were  friends 
of  your  own;  and  because,  ever  since  you  were  elected  to 
a  Scholarship  at  Oriel  in  1856,  you  have  resided  con- 
tinuously in  the  scenes  chiefly  referred  to  in  these  pages ; — 
you  seem  to  have  acquired  a  kind  of  right  to  have  your 
name  connected  with  a  book,  which,  more  than  any  other 
I  have  written,  has  carried  me  back  at  every  instant  to 
Oxford  and  to  you. 

But  these  volumes  may  not  go  forth  to  the  world 
without  carrying  on  their  front  the  brief  explanatory 
statement  which  I  proceed  to  offer.  I  wish  it  to  be  under- 
stood that  the  names,  and  the  number,  of  the  Friends  who 
are  the  subject  of  the  ensuing  pages,  are,  to  some  extent, 
fortuitous.  It  has  not  been,  I  mean,  the  result  of 
deliberate  plan  that  the  names  amount  to  just  ' Twelve': 
nor  indeed  has  it  been  with  premeditation  that  the  book 
has  grown  up  at  all.  Let  me  be  allowed  briefly  to  relate 
what  has  happened. 


viii  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

Some  thirty  years  ago,  I  wrote  a  slight  Memoir  of 
PRESIDENT  ROUTH, — only  because  I  was  unwilling  that  so 
unique  a  personage,  when  he  quitted  the  scene,  should  be 
presently  forgotten.  But  my  MS.  gave  me  no  satisfaction  • 
and  it  was  not  until  the  Spring  of  1878,  that,  (yielding  to 
pressure,)  I  suffered  it  to  come  abroad. — In  1879,  I  was 
invited  to  recall,  and  to  put  into  shape  for  the  '  Quarterly 
Review,'  certain  reminiscences  of  BISHOP  WILBERFORCE, — 
with  which,  about  a  year  before,  I  had  sought  to  entertain 
my  neighbour  (Mr.  John  Murray)  at  dinner,  at  'Nobody's 
Club.3  And  thus  the  1st  and  the  Vth  of  these  Lives  are 
accounted  for. 

The  death  of  the  PROVOST  OF  ORIEL,  in  1882,  suggested 
the  duty  of  writing  some  account  of  one  who  had  been  my 
Chief  for  upwards  of  five-and-thirty  years.  So, — yielding 
to  the  instinct  of  (what  seemed  to  myself)  ordinary  filial 
piety, — I  fulfilled  my  self-imposed  task,  in  1883. — Straight- 
way it  became  a  source  of  trouble  to  me  to  remember 
that  no  Memoir  had  hitherto  appeared  of  DEAN  M ANSEL  ; 
— a  name  specially  dear  to  me,  as  of  one  who  in  his  day 
rendered  splendid  services  to  the  cause  of  GOD'S  Truth. 
At  the  end  of  13  years  therefore,  (viz.  in  1884,) — having 
ascertained  from  his  widow  that  such  an  effort  would  not 
be  unacceptable, — I  compiled  a  short  Memoir  of  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  of  our  generation.  And  thus  it  was 
that  the  first  draft  of  the  IVth,  and  of  the  IXth,  of  these 
Lives  came  to  be  written. 

Something  has  here  to  be  explained.  I  have  long 
cherished  the  conviction  that  it  is  to  be  wished  that  the 
world  could  be  persuaded  that  Biography  might  with  ad- 
vantage be  confined  within  much  narrower  limits  than  at 
present  is  customary.  Very  few  are  the  men  who  require 
500  pages  all  to  themselves  : — far  fewer  will  bear  expansion 
into  two  such  volumes.  Of  how  vast  a  number  of  one's 
most  distinguished  friends  would  40,  50,  60  pages, — 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  ix 

contain  all  that  really  requires  to  be  handed  down  to 
posterity ! 

The  thing-  desiderated  seems  to  be,  that,  while  yet  the 
man  lives  freshly  in  the  memory  of  his  fellows ; — (the  chief 
incidents  of  his  life  known  to  all;  his  sayings  remembered; 
his  aspect  and  demeanour  things  of  the  present  rather  than 
of  the  past ;) — that,  with  all  convenient  speed,  I  say,  after 
the  departure  of  one  whom  his  friends  are  unwilling  should 
be  forgotten ; — one  of  them  who  is  sufficiently  a  master  of 
the  craft,  should  proceed  faithfully  to  commit  to  paper  a 
living  image  of  the  man.  The  aim  should  be,  so  to  exhibit 
him,  that  future  generations  might  think  they  had  seen 
and  known  him.  .  .  O,  of  how  many  of  the  world's  bene- 
factors does  there  survive  no  personal  memorial  whatever, 
only  because  no  one  was  found,  at  the  time,  to  do  the 
thing  I  have  been  describing  ! 

It  might  reasonably  fare  with  a  man's  "life"  as  with 
his  effigies.  No  great  master,  (suppose,) — undertook  to 
give  us  his  full-length  portrait.  But  who  knows  not  how 
charmingly, — how  deliciously, — a  master's  hand  could  have 
thrown  off  a  living  sketch;  which,  even  if  it  did  not 
satisfy  the  cravings  of  posterity,  at  least  would  have  proved 
an  effectual  barrier  against  oblivion?  ...  To  proceed, 
however.  I  have  but  been  explaining  the  spirit  in  which, — 
as  a  matter  of  fact, — "  Twelve  Lives,"  (a  few  of  them  of 
very  great  men  indeed,)  are  here  found  compressed  into 
two  ordinary  octavo  volumes. 

In  the  meantime,  I  had  published  (in  ' the  Guardian3} 
very  brief  notices  of  PROVOST  COTTON,  in  1880; — of 
RICHARD  GRESWELL  and  of  HENRY  OCTAVIUS  COXE,  in 
1 88 1 ; — of  BISHOP  JACOBSON,  in  1884.  Let  me  be  forgiven 
for  adding,  that  the  commendation  which,  to  my  surprise, 
I  received  in  every  instance  for  these  sketches, — including 
one  of  CHARLES  PAGE  EDEN,  in  1885, — proved  so  helpful ; — 


x  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

(and  I  required  encouragement,  for,  to  say  the  truth, 
I  had  been  greatly  dissatisfied  with  my  own  work) ; — that 
I  began  to  ask  myself  as  follows  : — Why  should  I  not 
enlarge  .every  one  of  these  nine  Memoirs?  collect,  and 
republish  them  ?  .  .  .  The  loss  at  this  juncture,  (viz. 
the  beginning  of  1885,)  of  a  dear  brother-in-law  (and  in 
love),  CHARLES  LONGUET  HIGGINS,  was  what  decided  me. 
Already  had  I  been  constrained  to  prepare  a  hasty  notice 
of  him  for  a  local  newspaper, — which  I  ardently  longed 
for  an  opportunity  to  remodel.  Now  therefore,  (little  aware 
of  the  amount  of  labour  I  was  courting,)  I  deliberately  set 
about  a  task, — which  has  grown  into  two  considerable 
volumes,  and  has  taxed  me  severely. 

For  my  conscience  really  would  not  let  me  rest  until 
I  had  further  undertaken  to  compile  at  least  two  other 
Memoirs  : — that,  namely,  of  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE, — by  far 
the  grandest,  as  well  as  the  most  important,  life  in  the 
present  collection : — and  that  of  CHARLES  MARRIOTT, — 
the  most  singular,  as  well  as  the  most  saintly,  character 
I  have  ever  met  with.  I  will  say  nothing  here  about  the 
difficulty  I  experienced  in  trying  to  do  justice  to  men  of 
so  lofty  a  type,  who  have  been  with  CHRIST, — one,  for  50, 
the  other,  for  30  years.  I  could  not  have  achieved  my 
purpose  at  all  in  respect  of  H.  J.  R.,  but  for  Cardinal 
Newman's  kindness  in  permitting  me  to  publish  several 
letters  of  his  own:  or,  in  "respect  of  C.  M.,  but  for  the 
assistance  which  was  at  once  freely  afforded  me  by  the 
survivors  of  Marriott's  family. 

But,  in  fact,  I  desire  in  the  most  unqualified  manner 
publicly  to  acknowledge,  as  well  as  to  return  hearty 
thanks  for,  the  generous  trust  which  in  every  instance  has 
been  unreservedly  reposed  in  me.  To  be  admitted  (so  to 
speak)  to  another's  confidence  :  to  be  shown  private  letters, 
and  to  be  entrusted  with  family  papers ; — and  then,  when 
T  offered  to  submit  my  proof-sheets,  to  be  with  scarcely  an 


! 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xi 

exception  told, — '  No.  I  had  rather  leave  it  all  to  you.  I 
would  rather  not  see  what  you  write  until  it  is  published '  : — 
this,  I  confess,  has  more  than  touched  me.  Certainly, 
it  has  had  the  salutary  effect  of  making  me  exceedingly 
careful ;  and  I  venture  to  cherish  the  confident  hope  that 
none  who  have  acted  so  trustfully  by  me  will  have  occa- 
sion to  repent  of  their  confidence.  Every  one  of  the  '  Lives ' 
(except  the  sketch  of  Bishop  Wilberforce)  now  appears 
so  much  enlarged,  as  well  as  revised  throughout,  that  the 
present  is  practically  a  new  book.  The  life  of  Bishop 
Jacobson,  for  instance,  has  grown  from  4^  columns  in 
1 the  Guardian3  to  67  pages  :  while,  of  three  of  the  Lives, 
(the  Ilnd,  the  Illrd,  and  the  Xllth;  which  extend  col- 
lectively to  nearly  340  pages,) — not  even  a  first  draft  has 
appeared  in  that  journal. 

And  thus,  I  have  already  made  it  abundantly  clear  that 
the  Twelve  names  specified  on  my  title-page  claim  to  be 
regarded  as  samples  only  of  the  many  departed  ones  who, 
during  the  long  period  of  my  residence  at  Oxford,  were 
special  objects  of  my  personal  regard ;  or  at  least  seemed 
to  me  more  deserving  than  their  fellows  of  biographical 
record,  but  who  died  without,  or  with  scarcely  any,  com- 
memoration. Two  of  the  Twelve,  in  fact,  (the  Ilnd  and 
the  last),  were  not  Oxford  men  at  all,  but  members  of  the 
sister  University :  while,  of  the  remaining  ten,  no  fewer 
than  seven  belonged  to  one  or  other  of  the  two  Colleges 
with  which  I  have  the  happiness  to  be  myself  connected. 
When  I  survey,  in  thought,  the  entire  interval  referred  to, 
how  many  names  crowd  on  the  memory, — how  many 
vanished  forms  seem  to  come  back !  Among  the  clerics, 
I  bethink  myself  of  Arthur  West  Haddan  :  James  Bowling 
Mozley :  Benjamin  Harrison  :  Robert  Scott : — among 
the  laymen, — Manuel  John  Johnson :  John  Conington  : 
John  Phillips  :  John  Parsons,  the  banker.  I  have  written 
down  the  names  of  eight  who  present  themselves  among  the 


xii  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

foremost.  But  there  are  eight  other  worthies  who,  for 
personal  considerations,  prefer  still  stronger  claims  for 
biographical  record, — which  yet  they  have  never  received. 
I  will  say  a  few  words  about  each,  and  then  conclude  this 
1  Preface  Dedicatory! 

Passing  by  ISAAC  WILLIAMS, — a  man  of  whom  it  was  im- 
possible to  know  even  a  little,  without  earnestly  desiring  to 
know  much  more, — one  of  the  earliest  names  which  comes 
back  to  me  as  deserving  fuller  record  than  it  has  found,  is 
that  of  ROBERT  HUSSEY,  B.D.,1  first  Regius  Professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  at  Oxford.  Widely,  and  in  so  many 
respects,  unlike  the  admirable  and  interesting  person  whose 
name  I  mentioned  first, — how  grand  a  specimen  was  Robert 
Hussey  of  what  an  Anglican  Divine  should  be  ! — sound  in 
the  faith,  well  furnished  with  the  best  learning,  unostenta- 
tiously pious.  Delightful  it  was,  after  reading  Eusebius  or 
Socrates  under  his  guidance  all  the  week, — or  listening  to 
his  faithful  and  fearless  discourses  from  the  University 
pulpit, — to  accompany  him,  on  a  Sunday,  to  his  little  cure 
at  Binsey,  (a  short  walk  out  of  Oxford),  where  he  did  the 
best  he  could  for  the  little  handful  of  men  in  smock-frocks, 
women  and  children,  whom  we  found  assembled  in  Church. 
From  the  catalogue  of  his  writings — published  as  well  as 
unpublished — put  forth  by  his  excellent  brother-in-law, 
Jacob  Ley,2 1  select  for  notice  his  triumphant  '  Refutation ' 
of  Cureton's  '  Theory  founded  upon  the  Syriac  fragments 
of  the  Epistles  of  S.  Ignatius/ — a  theory  which  imposed 
largely  on  the  learned  as  well  at  home  as  abroad. 
Singular  to  relate,  the  most  conspicuous  of  Cureton's 
English  adherents,  Bp.  Lightfoot,  in  his  recent  elaborate 
history  of  the  Ignatian  Controversy,3  makes  no  mention4 

1  />.  Oct.  7,  1801  :  d.  Dec.  2, 1856.       Memoir  of  the  Author,' — pp.  viii- 

2  Prefixed  to  the  2nd  ed.  (1863)       xxii. 

of  Hussey' s  three  Lectures  on  '  The  3  '  Apostolic  Fathers?  p.  ii  (1885), 

Rise  of  the  Papal  poivvr'1  (pp.  xxiii-       — Preface,  pp.  v-vii. 
vii)  :    and    subjoined   to   '  a    brief  4  Ibid.,  pp.  267-73. 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xiii 

of  Hussey's  work, — which  however,  when  it  appeared  in 
i849,5  effectually  silenced  Cureton. — The  neglect  of  theo- 
logical study  in  our  Universities  was  with  Robert  Hussey, 
as  well  it  might  be,  an  abiding  source  of  anxiety  and 
distress.  I  well  remember  how  near  his  heart  lay  an 
intention  to  provide  that  remedy  for  it,  which  did  not 
take  effect  until  12  years  after  his  death;  namely,  the 
establishment  of  a  Final  School  of  Divinity.  "  Can  I  forget 
the  circumstances/'' — (I  wrote  in  1868) — "  under  which 
Robert  Hussey,  eleven  years  ago,  requested  me  not  to 
suppose,  from  his  silence,  that  he  had  abandoned  his  inten- 
tion of  pressing  this  matter  forward  ?  (  Next  Monday/ 
(said  he),  fl  am  to  bring  the  subject  before  the  Council/ 
He  was  taking  his  afternoon  walk  with  his  wife.  We  met 
just  on  this  side  of  those  quivering  poplars  which  skirt  the 
western  bank  of  the  river,  near  Binsey.  It  was  Saturday, 
29th  Nov.  1856.  When  the  Council  met  on  the  ensuing 
Monday,  Hussey  was  lying  on  the  bed  of  death.  Next 
day,  that  truly  noble  heart  had  ceased  to  beat/''6.  .  .  He 
enjoyed  to  an  almost  unexampled  extent  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  the  whole  University.  In  token  thereof,  he 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  Hebdomadal  Council  in  1 854, 
almost  by  general  suffrage. — He  bequeathed  his  library  to 
his  successors  at  Christ  Church.  I  will  but  add  that  he 
was  manly  in  everything  :  in  his  views, — in  his  public 
utterances, — in  his  table-talk, — in  his  recreations.  I  seem 
even  now  to  see  him,  on  a  sharp  wintry  afternoon,  skating 
on  the  Isis,  with  his  little  '  Bessie '  in  his  arms.  And  did 
he  not  lay  the  foundation  of  that  heart  disease  which 
carried  him  off  at  the  age  of  55,  by  his  youthful  prowess 
in  the  University  boat  ? 

Hussey's  next  successor  but  one  in  the  Professorship, 

5  It  was  prefixed  to  a  volume  of  6  ( Plea  for  a  Fifth  Final  School,' 

HuBsey's  '  Sermons,  mostly  Academi-      — p.  9. 
ca?,'— pp.  xxxix  and  380. 


xiv  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

was  another  loved  friend,  WALTER  WADDINGTON  SHIRLEY, 
D.D. :  a  truly  delightful  person,  as  well  as  a  really  enthu- 
siastic student,— a  man  of  great  power,  originality,  breadth; 
one,  whose  life  richly  deserved  that  appreciative  record  which 
nevertheless  it  seems  still  to  wait  for.7  He  occupied  the 
Chair  of  Ecclesiastical  History  only  long  enough,  (holding 
it  for  scarcely  three  years,)  to  make  the  Church  sensible  of 
the  largeness  of  her  loss  when  he  was  taken  from  her,  aged 
only  38.  .  .  .  Everything  that  proceeded  from  Shirley's  pen 
was  admirable.  His  Sermons,— (I  recall  one  in  particular 
on  '  CHRIST,  tlie  good  Shepherd,') — passed  praise.  His  Lec- 
tures were  most  precious.  One,  on  'Scholasticism,'  delivered 
in  the  year  of  his  death,  should  be  inquired  after  and  pre- 
served. In  the  same  year  he  contributed  to  the  '  Quarterly 
Review '  a  masterly  article  on  '  Simon  de  Montfort.'  His 
posthumously  published  '  Account  of  the  Church  in  the 
Ajjosio/ic  Aye'  (1867)  is  a  volume  which  no  student  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  can  afford  to  be  without.  The  volume 
also  contains  an  'Essay  on  Dogmatic  Preaching'  A  few  other 
of  his  writings  are  enumerated  at  foot.8  He  was  snatched 
away  while  affording  in  every  Term  fresh  promise  of  a  truly 
brilliant  Professorial  career  and  a  grand  Historical  reputation. 
A  widow  and  five  delightful  little  children  were  left  to  mourn 
their  irreparable  loss.  He  sleeps  in  '  the  Latin  Chapel '  at 
Christ  Church.  Around  his  gravestone  is  aptly  written, — 
'  Non  ciiim  (jnae  longaeva  est  senectus  honorata  est,  neque 
numcro  annorum  multorum :  sed  prudentia  hominibus  est 
can/lies,  ct  vita  immaculata  est  senilis  aetas.3 

1  Only  son  of  Walter  Augustus,  //'  (1861)  :  — f  Undogmatic  Chris- 

Bp.  of  Sodor  and  Man,  he  was  born  tianity*  a  sermon,  1863  : — '  Cata- 

at  Shirley,  July  24, 1828, — educated  logue  of  the  original  works  of  John 

at  Kugby,  and  at  University  and  Wyclif'  1865;  whose  'Fasciculi 

Wadham  Colleges, — married  July  Zizaniorum'  (1858)  he  edited  for 

4th,  1855, — departed  Nov.  2Oth,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls.  He  also 

1866.  (See  the  'Stemmata  Shir-  edited  ' Royal  and  other  Historical 

liana '  for  more.)  Letters,  illustrative  of  the  reign  of 

8  '  Character  and  Court  of  Henry  Henry  III,' — 2  vols.  1862-5. 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xv 

The  same  year  (1866)  witnessed  the  abrupt  close  of 
another  precious  life, — whose  memory  supremely  merited  to 
be  gracefully  embalmed  by  some  loving-  and  skilful  hand. 
I  speak  of  JAMES  RIDDELL,  Fellow  of  Balliol 9, — in  whom 
exquisite  scholarship,  fine  taste,  and  splendid  abilities  were 
united  to  singular  holiness  of  character,  purity  of  spirit, 
and  simplicity  of  life.  He  had  prepared  for  the  press  '  The 
Apology  of  Plato  with  a  revised  Text,  English  Notes,  and  a 
digest  of  Platonic  idioms'  but  did  not  live  to  publish  it. 
It  was  edited  the  year  after  his  death1  by  his  admirable 
brother-in-law,  Archdeacon  Edwin  Palmer ;  who  also  super- 
intended the  publication  of  some  of  RiddelFs  most  felicitous 
achievements  in  Greek  and  Latin  Verse.  The  volume  is 
entitled  'Reliquiae  Metricae?  I  never  recall  the  memory 
of  James  Riddell  without  affection  and  reverence,  as  well  as 
grief  for  his  loss.  He  was  in  every  way  a  model  man. 
Strange  to  relate,  whenever  I  seem  to  hear  his  voice,  he  is 
delivering  an  extempore  Address  at  S.  Mary's,  —  his 
features  overspread  with  a  heavenly  smile :  whenever  I 
picture  to  myself  his  interesting  form,  he  is,  with  consum- 
mate skill  but  in  widely  different  costume, — steering  the 
Balliol  boat. 

Another  name  which  is  exceedingly  precious  to  me,  I 
cannot  forbear  to  mention  here, — that,  namely,  of  PHILIP 
EDWARD  PUSEY  2, — Dr.  Pusey's  only  son.  Disabled  from 
taking  Holy  Orders  by  reason  of  his  grievous  bodily  infirmi- 
ties, his  prevailing  anxiety  was  to  render  GOD  service  in  any 

9  He  was  born  at  East  Haddon,  sometime    scholar    of  Balliol,    ap- 

in  Northamptonshire,  (of  which  his  peared  in  the  'Guardian^ :  another, 

Father  was    then   Curate), — June  in  the  'Leamington  Courier.' 

8th,  1823;   the  son  of  Eev.  James  *  At  the  University  Press, — 1867. 

Riddell,     M.A.     of    Balliol,     and  The  volume  had  to  be  reprinted  in 

Dorothy  his   wife.     He    departed,  1877. 

suddenly   and  unexpectedly,  Sept.  2  5.  June  I4th,    1830:    d.  Jan. 

I4th,  1866.— A  brief  notice  of  him  I5th,  1880. 
from   the   pen    of    Edw.   Walford, 


xvi  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

way  that  remained  to  him ;  and,  by  his  Father's  advice,  he 
undertook  to  edit  the  works  of  Cyril  of  Alexandria.3  In 
quest  of  MSS.,  he  visited  with  indomitable  energy  every 
principal  library,— in  France,  Spain,  Italy, — Russia,  Ger- 
many, Turkey, — Greece,  Palestine,  Syria.  At  the  Con  vent  of 
S.  Catharine  at  the  foot  of  Sinai,  the  monks  remembered  him 
well.  They  asked  me  (March  1862)  if  I  knew  him.  e  And 
how  is  Philippos  ? '  inquired  the  monks  of  Mount  Athos,  of 
their  next  Oxford  visitor.  With  equal  truth  and  tenderness 
Dean  Liddell,  (preaching  on  the  occasion  of  his  death), 
recalls  "the  pleasant  smile  with  which  he  greeted  his 
friends;  his  brave  cheerfulness  under  life-long  suffering; 
his  delight  in  children,-" — (yes,  Shirley's  were  constantly 
with  him,) — "his  awe  and  reverence  for  Almighty  GOD. 
Most  of  you  must  have  seen  that  small  emaciated  form, 
swinging  itself  through  the  quadrangle,  up  the  steps,  or 
along  the  street,  with  such  energy  and  activity  as  might 
surprise  healthy  men.  But  few  of  you  could  know  what 
gentleness  and  what  courage  dwelt  in  that  frail  tenement. 
...  In  pursuing  his  studies,  he  shrank  from  no  journey, 
however  toilsome  ;  and  everywhere  won  hearts  by  his  simple 
engaging  manner,  combined  with  his  helpfulness  and  his 
bravery.  ...  To  such  an  one  death  could  have  no  terror : 
death  could  not  find  him  unprepared/'  4 

Excluded  as  this  dear  friend  seemed  to  be  from  every 
ordinary  sphere  of  distinction,  he  furnished  a  brilliant  ex- 
ample of  the  sufficiency  of  GOD'S  grace  to  as  many  as  will 
dutifully  avail  themselves  of  the  talent  which  GOD  hath 
entrusted  to  their  keeping.  Besides  making  himself  largely 

3  Besides  his  ed.  of  the   Text  of  volumes, — p.  418-9,  note.)     Philip 

Cyril,    he     translated     the     Com-  also  wrote  '  The   Russian  Review, 

mentary  of  that  Father  on  S.  John  and   other    stories,' — published    by 

(i-viii)  [1874]  :  and  his  treatise  '  on  the  S.  P.  C.  K. 

the  Incarnation  against  Nettorius?  *  From  the '  Guardian'  Jan.  2 1st, 

[1881].     (The  reader  is  invited  to  1880.  See  also  the  <  Undergraduates 

refer  to  the  second  of  the  present  Journal;  Jan.  22nd. 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xvii 

conversant  with  Patristic  Divinity,  Philip  cultivated  the 
Syriac  idiom  with  such  signal  success  that,  before  his  death, 
he  had  well-nigh  perfected, — what  has  so  long  been  a  prime 
want  with  scholars  who  have  made  the  Greek  Text  of  the 
New  Testament  their  study, — a  Critical  edition  of  the 
venerable  Peshitto  Version.  With  that  view,  he  collated 
several  ancient  codices,  and  would  have  published  the  result 
had  he  lived  a  little  longer.  Though  too  deaf  to  hear  what 
was  being  spoken,  he  was  constant  in  his  attendance  at  the 
daily  Service  and  at  Holy  Communion :  yes,  and  was 
absorbed  in  what  was  going  on.  A  man,  he  was,  of  great 
religious  earnestness,  and  consistent  heartfelt  piety.  I  can- 
not express  what  a  help  and  comfort  dear  Philip  was  to  me, 
nor  how  much  I  felt  his  loss  :  nay,  how  much  I  feel  it  still. 

Second  to  no  one  in  the  heart's  affections  of  many 
besides  myself,  and  as  deserving  of  portraiture  by  a 
master's  hand  as  any  who  have  ever  adorned  academic 
life,  was  the  dear  friend  to  be  next  named, — EDWARD 
COOPER  WOOLLCOMBE  : 5  who,  after  residing  as  Fellow  and 
Tutor  of  Balliol  for  upwards  of  40  years,  accepted  in 
1879  a  country  cure  (Tendring  in  Essex,)  and  died  at  the 
end  of  less  than  two  years.  With  as  much  truth  as  beauty 
was  it  said  concerning  him,  from  the  University  pulpit, 
shortly  after  his  sudden  removal, — "We  miss  the  loving 
and  gentle  scholar  who  but  now  went  from  us,  to  exercise 
for  long,  as  we  hoped,  in  another  field  the  faithful  Christian 
ministry  which  had  been  here  the  essence  of  his  life  : — the 
guileless  friend  of  all  men ;  the  unwearied  promoter  of  all 

5  E.  C.  W.,  born    at  Plymouth,  at  Plymouth  and  at  Eepton  School, 

April  22nd,  1815, — the  second  son  under  the  Rev.  J.  H.   Macaulay : 

of  William  and  Ann  Elford  Wooll-  became  a  Commoner  of  Oriel,  and 

combe, — was  deprived  of  his  father's  took  a  First  Class  at  Easter,  1837. 

counsel  and  guidance  at  the  age  of  He   departed   on  November  22nd, 

7  :  his  father,  a  physician  of  repute,  1880. 
dying  in  1822.     He  was  educated 

VOL.  I.  b 


xviii  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

good  works;  the  embodiment  of  the  charity  that  envieth 
not,  that  vaunteth  not  itself,  that  seeketh  not  her  own, 
that  is  not  easily  provoked,  that  thinketh  no  evil/''6 — A 
loftier  or  more  devout  spirit, — a  more  faithful  or  more 
fearless  maintainer  of  the  Right  than  Edward  Woollcombe, 

never  breathed.     Unwearied  too  was  he  in  all  the  offices 

of  disinterested  friendship  :  as  well  as  in  the  promotion  of 
every  scheme  of  Christian  benevolence, — notably  that 
scheme  which  Charles  Marriott  had  so  much  at  heart,7 
(Woollcombe  and  Marriott  were  kindred  spirits),  for  pro- 
viding University  education  for  Candidates  for  the  Ministry 
whose  one  hindrance  was  the  'res  angusta  domi!  Sacred 
science  was  his  prime  object  of  delight, — David's  Psalms, 
his  "songs  in  the  house  of  his  pilgrimage/'' — Scripture, 
his  very  joy  and  crown.  The  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
throughout  the  World  was,  I  am  convinced,  the  dearest 
object  of  his  earthly  regard.  I  cannot  say  how  much 
I  regret  that  Woollcombe  never  gave  to  the  world,  except 
orally  from  the  pulpit,  the  result  of  his  meditations  on 
Divine  things.  He  published  next  to  nothing.8  What 
need  to  add  that  he  was  a  delightful  companion, — com- 
bining as  he  did  a  child's  simplicity  and  purity  of  spirit, 
with  a  sage's  grave  intelligence,  and  the  thoughtfulness  of 
a  learned  Divine.  A  true  specimen,  he,  of  the  guileless 
character.  ...  In  his  case,  the  end  came  quite  suddenly, 
and  almost  without  warning  :  but  Edward  Woollcombe 

6  From  a  sermon  by  Dr.  Magrath,  funeral  sermon  preached  at  White- 
Provost  of  Queens',— Dec.  Qth,  1880.  hall,  July  22,  1855:  — '  Self -Ex- 
See  below,  p.  359  to  363.  amination,'  a  Lecture  read  in  Balliol 
Besides  the  slight  production  College  Chapel,  3rd  Sunday  in  Lent, 
mentioned  below  (at  p.  361),  I  only  1848,— printed  at  the  request  of 
know  of  these,  (for  which  I  am  the  undergraduates.  He  told  me 
indebted  to  Prebendary  Sutton  of  that  he  had  written  besides  a  Com- 
RJPe) :— '  The  Woe  and  the  Bless-  mentary  on  'Hosea,  Joel  and  Amos' 
ing  prepared  for  the  Rich,'  preached  for  the  S.  P.  C.  K.,— which  he  had 
at  Stirling,  1852  (not  published) :—  been  constrained  to  abridge  merci- 
'  T/te  late  F.  M.  Lord  Raglan,'  a  lessly. 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xix 

was  at  any  time  of  his  life  fully  prepared  to  die.  It  was 
at  his  sister's  house  in  London  that  he  departed, — while 
conducting  the  Examination  of  Candidates  for  Ordination 
by  the  Bishop  of  S.  Albans,  whose  Examining  Chaplain 
he  was.  His  loved  remains  were  deposited  in  Brompton 
Cemetery, — the  most  unobserved  of  funerals  ! 

WILLIAM  KAY  was  another  of  the  friends  of  other  days 
at  Oxford,  the  story  of  whose  studious  and  virtuous  life 
one  would  have  been  glad  to  see  faithfully,  lovingly  told. 
Never  have  I  enjoyed  the  intimacy  of  a  more  thoughtful 
and  thoroughly  well  equipped  Divine  than  he.  All  knew 
him  as  a  '  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  and  late  Principal  of 
Bishop's  College,  Calcutta/ — a  profound  Hebraist,  a  great 
student  of  the  Bible;  but  only  his  personal  friends  knew 
what  stores  of  the  best  knowledge  he  had  at  his  command, 
and  what  an  interesting  way  he  had  of  freely  communicating 
such  knowledge  to  as  many  as  cared  to  resort  to  him  for 
help.  As { Grinfield '  Lecturer  on  the  Septuagint  ( 1 869-70), 
he  was  peculiarly  delightful  and  instructive.  His  favourite 
method  was  to  track  some  remarkable  word  or  significant 
expression  through  Scripture ;  and  to  illustrate,  by  means 
of  it,  many  distinct  and  apparently  unconnected  places, 
until  they  had  been  severally  made  to  impart  and  to 
acquire  lustre, — until,  in  short,  they  all  shone  out  together 
like  one  beautiful  constellation. 

He  was  a  singularly  shy  and  reserved  person, — one,  who 
seldom  or  never  spoke  about  himself.  Only  since  his  death 
have  I  ascertained  that  he  was  born  at  Pickering,  in  the 
North  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  April  8th,  1820, — the  son  of 
Thomas  and  Ann  Kay,  of  Knaresboro', — being  the  youngest 
of  nine  children.  Not  less  than  six  of  his  ancestors  had 
been  clergymen.  He  was  educated  at  Giggles  wick  School, 
under  the  Rev.  Rowland  Ingram, — for  whom,  throughout 
life,  he  cherished  a  sentiment  of  "affectionate  reverence" 

b  3 


xx  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

(The  italics  are  his  own.)  Leaving  the  school  "  in  December 
!  835,— after  two  years  of  very  great  happiness  spent 
there/'9— he  obtained  (March  I5th,  1836)  an  open  Scholar- 
ship at  Lincoln  College,  being  then  not  quite  16  years 
of  age.  (James  Eraser,  afterwards  Fellow  of  Oriel  and 
Bp.  of  Manchester,  was  matriculated  on  the  same  day, — 
aged  17.)  Kay  graduated  in  1839,  and  in  the  ensuing 
year  (Oct.  22nd)  was  elected  to  the  Fellowship  vacated  by 
his  cousin  and  namesake,  who  had  been  Mathematical 
Lecturer  at  Lincoln.1  In  1849,  he  left  Oxford  for  India, 

where  the  next  1 5  laborious  years  of  his  life  (with  only 

one  break)  were  passed,  as  Principal  of  Bishop's  College, 
Calcutta.  At  the  '  College  Press/  he  published  several 
pieces:2  one,  an  exquisite  Sermon  on  '  The  influence  of 
Christianity  on  the  position  and  character  of  Woman' ^  which 
well  deserves  reproduction.  But  his  most  important  work 
published  at  Calcutta,  was  his  Translation  of  the  Psalms, 
'with  Notes  chiefly  Critical  and  Exegetical'  :4 — subsequently 
reprinted  in  an  enlarged  and  improved  form.5 

Returning  to  England  in  1864,  Kay  again  established 
himself  in  his  old  College  quarters,  to  the  joy  of  his  friends. 
I  recall  with  delight  the  Long  Vacation  of  that  year, — 
(which,  because  it  was  my  first  as  Yicar  of  S.  Mary's, 
I  spent  mostly  at  Oriel,) — and  the  pleasant  evening  rambles 
which  he  and  I  had  together  on  the  hills  above  Hincksey, 

9  W.  K.   to  the  Rev.  G.  Style,  (Parkers,  1855,   pp.  128),— a   very 

Head  Master,— Nov.  30,1885.  This  interesting   production.     The  next 

gentleman  refers  me  to  the  'Gig-  two,  I  have  never  seen  : — (i) 'CHRIST 

glew-ick  Chronicle' (July,  1885,  and  the  Regenerator  of  all  Nations,'— 

March,     1886),    for     several     par-  (2)'  A  Lecture  on  S.  Augustine  of 

ticulars,— derived  chiefly  from  '  The  Africa' 

Guardian.'  »  Calcutta,— 1859,   PP-  55-— The 

1  From    the    Rev.    Dr.   Merry,  'Notes'    (especially     [E]     on    the 
Rector  of  Lincoln  College.  «  Song  of  Solomon  ')   are  very  in- 

2  The  first  I   know   of  is   '  The      teresting. 
Promite*  on  Christianity,'  1854,—  *  1864,— pp.  340. 

which    was    reprinted    at    Oxford  5  Rivingtons,— 1871,  pp.  470. 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xxi 

when  we  talked  out  many  a  hard  problem, — much  to  my 
advantage.  (He  was  very  fond  of  that  walk.)  His  chief 
effort  at  this  time  was  his  {  Crisis  Hupfeldiana*  (1865), — 
a  masterly  production,  in  which  he  fairly  pulverized  the 
wretched  'Elokistic*  and  'Jehovistic*  theory,  recently  revived 
by  Colenso.  In  1866  he  accepted  the  Rectory  of  Great 
Leghs ; — from  which  period,  to  some  extent,  we  lost  sight 
of  each  other.  Meanwhile,  his  application  to  study  was  still 
as  intense  as  ever.  He  led  the  life  of  a  recluse.  In  1875 
appeared  his  Annotations  on  Isaiah, — a  contribution  to  the 
'Speakers  Commentary.3  I  learn  further,  that  in  July  1879, 
several  of  the  Clergy  living  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Chelmsford,  having  agreed  to  study  the  N.  T.  together, 
placed  themselves  under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Kay.6 
They  got  through  the  two  Epistles  of  S.  Paul  to  the 
Corinthians, — finishing  their  task  in  October  1885.  The 
spring  of  the  same  year  had  seen  the  close  of  the  labours 
of  the  Old  Testament  Revisers;  in  which,  since  the  year 
1870,  "W.  K.  had  taken  a  prominent  part.  But  he  knew 
too  much  about  the  matter  to  be  able  to  share  the  sanguine 
dreams  of  certain  of  his  colleagues.  His  own  calm  estimate 
of  the  Revision  will  probably  be  acquiesced  in  by  all 
thoughtful  Scholars  and  Divines : — "  A  work  on  which 
a  vast  amount  of  care  and  attention  was  lovingly  bestowed ; 
so  that,  although  there  are  not  a  few  changes  in  it  which 
I  disagree  with,  yet  it  must,  from  its  very  numerous  in- 
disputable corrections,  always  continue  to  be  valuable  as 
a  book  of  reference  "i  Kay's  Annotations  on  the  i  stand  2nd 
Corinthians  have  been  published  since  his  death,  and 
deserve  to  be  better  known.8  He  left  behind  him  besides, 

6  From  the   Rev.  John  Slatter.  — I  only  know  besides  of  his,  the 
See  below,  note  (2).  following : — 'Is  the  Church  of  Eng- 

7  From  the  letter  to  the  Kev.  G.  land  duly  fulfilling  her  office  as  a 
Style,  quoted  above.  Missionary  Church  ? ' — An  Address 

8  They  are  edited  by  the  Rev.  J.  delivered  at  a  Conference  of  Clergy, 
Slatter,— Macmillan,  1887,  pp.  146.  —Oxford,  1865,  pp.  27.     '  We  have 


xxii  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

in  MS.,  a  Commentary  on  Genesis, — which  he  had  written 
at  Dr.  Pusey's  request,  and  which  will  be  sure  to  prove  very 
valuable.  He  sank  under  an  exceedingly  painful  malady, 
January  i6th,  1886, — a  prodigious  student  to  the  very  end 
of  his  days.  But,  (what  is  even  better  worth  recording,) 
from  the  dawn  of  reason  there  had  hung  about  William 
Kay  a  peculiar  '  halo  of  piety/  (to  quote  the  language  of 
his  only  surviving  sister,)  which  certainly  never  forsook 
him  until  he  gave  back  his  pure  spirit  to  GOD.  He  died 
unmarried. 

The  latest  taken  away  of  those  who  made  the  happiness 
of  my  Oxford  life  was  ROBERT  GANDELL,  who  ended  his 
days  at  Wells,  of  which  Cathedral  he  was  Canon  : — but 
who  was  chiefly  known  at  Oxford,  (where  he  had  passed  all 
his  time,)  first,  as  Michel  Fellow  of  Queens';  then,  as 
Tutor  of  Magdalen  Hall  and  Fellow  of  Hertford  College ; 
but  especially  as  Hebrew  Lecturer,  and  Professor  of  Syriac 
and  Arabic.  I  have  never  known  a  man  who  with  severe 
recondite  learning  combined  in  a  more  exquisite  degree  that 
peculiar  Theological  instinct  without  which  an  English 
Hebraist  is  no  better  than, — in  fact  is  scarcely  so  good 
as, — a  learned  Jew.  GandelFs  modesty — (it  savoured  of 
self-mistrust) — was  excessive,  so  that  he  published  scarcely 
anything:  but  the  few  things  he  did  give  to  the  world 
were  first-rate,  and  truly  precious.  His  edition  of  Light- 
foot's  'Home  Ihlraicae3  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
student  of  the  Gospels.  He  also  contributed  to  the 
1  Speaker' s  Commentary,'  l  Introduction,  Commentary,  and 
Critical  Notes '  on  Amos,  Nahum,  and  Zephaniah.  I  only 
know  besides  of  two  separately  printed  Sermons  of  his,— 

enough  to  do  at  Aom<>,'-Speech  at  Coll.,  July  6th,  1866,  pp.  19.     He 

the    S.P.G.,    1867,  PP.    3-      'The  also  wrote  for  the  S.  PC.  K.  a  brief 

Church  «  Unity;— &  Sermon  at  the  Commentary  on  '  Ezekiel ' 
Conference  of  Clergy  held  in  Queens' 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xxiii 

both  very  admirable.9  His  critical  judgment  was  exquisite  : 
his  acquaintance  with  the  details  of  Hebrew  scholarship, 
thorough ;  and  he  possessed  in  a  rare  degree  the  faculty  of 
imparting  his  knowledge,  and  making  his  meaning  trans- 
parently clear.  How  delightful  too  was  he  whenever  he 
would  be  at  the  pains  to  explain  to  one  a  difficulty !  I 
recall  with  gratitude  his  indication  of  the  first  distinct 
reference  to  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity, — viz.  in  Genesis 
i.  27  : — his  explanation  of  '  Mahanaim '  (Una  castra)  in 
Gen.  xxxii.  2  : — his  translation  of  the  '  still  small  voice '  in 
i  Kings  xix.  1 2  : — the  rationale  he  proposed  for  such  ex- 
pressions as  are  found  in  Ps.  Ixxx.  10  :  xxxvi.  6;1 — and  his 
calling  my  attention  to  our  SAVIOUR'S  (probably  elsewhere 
unrecorded)  saying,  in  S.  James  i.  12.  But  it  would  be 
endless  to  particularize  one's  obligations.  Gandell's  re- 
marks on  Scripture  were  always  precious, — instinct  with 
piety  and  beauty, — the  result,  not  so  much  of  acquaintance 
with  learned  Commentaries,  as  of  prolonged  personal 
familiarity  and  frequent  meditation  over  the  sacred  page. 
His  exposition  of  the  latter  part  of  S.  Luke  xxiv.  21  was 
truly  exquisite.  His  unravelment  of  how  Enoch  '  walked 
with  GOD  '  (Gen.  v.  22)  amounted  to  a  revelation. 

Grievous  it  is  to  think  what  treasures  of  precious  lore 
have  departed  with  Robert  Gandell.  More  grievous  still  is 
it  to  call  to  remembrance  how  unmindful  one  showed  one- 
self of  the  blessing  of  having  him  at  all  times  at  hand  to 
whom  to  refer  one's  difficulties  :  ever  bright  and  cheery, — 
and  never  tired,  apparently,  of  helping  one  to  understand 
an  obscure  place  of  Scripture.  He  did  not  live  to  attain  to 
the  appointed  span  of  human  life;  having  been  born  on 
the  27th  January,  1818, — and  gathered  hence  on  the  24th 

9  'Jehovah  Goalenu:    the  Lord  of  the  Second  Temple? — preached  at 

our  Redeemer?  —  preached    before  S.Mary's,  March  1 4th,  1858, — pp.  24. 

the  University,  March  29th,  1853,  x  'The    cedars    of   GOD':     'the 

— PP-  39-     And '  The  greater  glory  mountains  of  GOD,'  &c. 


xxiv  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

October,  1887.  He  sleeps  beside  his  sweet  wife  (Louisa 
Caroline  Pearse)  in  the  beautiful  funereal  garden  of  Holy 
Cross, — hard  by  what  had  long  been  his  happy  home.  He 
is  survived  by  seven  of  his  children. 

This  imperfect  enumeration  of  Oxford  friends  departed, 
whose  lives  seemed  to  me  specially  deserving  of  a  written 
memorial,  shall  not  be  brought  to  a  close  until  affectionate 
mention  has  been  made  of  CHARLES  PORTALES  GOLIGHTLY, 
— a  man  who  enjoyed  scant  appreciation  at  the  hands  of 
his  Oxford  contemporaries ;  and  who,  in  a  recent  biography 
of  note,  has  been  even  maligned  and  ungenerously  misrepre- 
sented :  2  but  who  deserved  far  other  treatment.  Undeni- 
able it  is  that  he  was  one  who  regarded  the  Tractarian  move- 
ment with  unmingled  suspicion,  and  its  latest  developments 
with  downright  abhorrence.  Will  anyone  however  deny 
that  the  inexorable  logic  of  facts  proved  him,  by  the  result, 
to  have  been  not  very  far  from  right  ?  Wilberf orce  him- 
self, in  1873,  denounced  the  final  outcome  of  the  later 
Tractarianism  far  more  fiercely 3  than  Golightly  had  de- 
nounced its  initiatory  stages,  16  years  earlier.  And,  when 
such  an  one  as  Charles  Marriott,  in  1845,  could  complain 
of  ' '  the  now  almost  prevailing  tide  of  secession  "  to  Rome,4 
—is  Golightly  to  be  blamed  for  having  taken  alarm  at  the 
fatal  set  of  the  current  in  1841  ?  But  it  is  not  my  pur- 
pose here  to  renew  a  discussion  concerning  which  I  have 
been  constrained  to  say  so  much  elsewhere.  All  that  I  am 
bent  on  asserting  in  this  place,  is,  that  Golightly  was  one 
of  the  most  interesting  characters  in  the  University  of 

2  It    must    suffice    to    refer    the  Cuddesdon  College  Enquiry,  and  the 

reader  to  Golightly's  "  Letter  to  the  pamphlet  'Facts  and  Documents '  "  : 

Very  Rev.  the  Dean  of  Ripon  [Dr.  — Simpkin  &  Co.,  1881, — pp.  99. 

Fremantle],    containing    Strictures  3  The  reader  is  invited  to  refer 

on  the  Life  of  Bishop  Wilberforce,  (above)  to  vol.  ii.  pp.  49-59. 

vol.  ii.  [by  Mr.  Reginald  G.  Wilber-  *  See  vol.  i.  319-20. 
force,]  with  special  reference  to  the 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xxv 

Oxford  :  was  a  most  faithfully  attached  and  dutiful  son  of 
the  Church  of  England  :  was  supremely  earnest  for  her 
uncorruptness  in  doctrine, — supremely  jealous  of  any  assi- 
milation of  her  Ritual  practices  to  those  of  Rome.  No 
one  will  deny  that  in  Oxford  he  pursued  a  consistent  course 
of  unobtrusive  piety  and  disinterested  goodness, — through 
half  a  century  of  years  of  fiery  trial  and  even  fierce  an- 
tagonism. 

He  had  the  reputation  of  belonging  to  a  school  of 
religious  thought  greatly  opposed  to  that  which  I  had 
myself  early  learned  to  revere  and  admire.  But  when, 
much  later  on  in  life,  I  came  to  know  Golightly  some- 
what intimately,  I  found  that  practically  there  was  very 
little, — if  any, — difference  between  us.  He  was  of  the 
school  of  Hooker, — a  churchman  of  the  genuine  Anglican 
type.  I  had  heard  him  spoken  of  as  narrow  and  bigoted. 
I  will  but  say  that,  when  I  left  Oxford,  he  was  every  bit 
as  fond  of  the  society  of  Edward  King,  (the  present  Bishop 
of  Lincoln),  as  he  was  of  that  of  Mr.  Christopher. — He 
was  denounced  by  some  as  harsh  and  bitter.  Opportuni- 
ties enough  he  had  for  the  display  of  such  a  temperament 
in  my  society,  had  he  been  so  minded ;  but  I  never  heard 
him  speak  cruelly,  or  even  unkindly,  of  anybody.  Nor 
have  I  ever  known  a  man  who  more  ached  for  confidence, 
sympathy,  kindness ;  or  was  more  sincere  and  faithful  to 
his  friends.  Earnest  practical  piety  had  been  all  his  life 
his  prevailing  characteristic.  The  Rev.  T.  Mozley,  (who 
is  not  promiscuous  in  his  bestowal  of  praise,)  "acknow- 
ledges the  greatest  of  obligations  "  to  him.  "  Golightly  " 
(he  says,)  "was  the  first  human  being  to  talk  to  me, 
directly  and  plainly,  for  my  souPs  good ;  and  that  is  a  debt 
that  no  time,  no  distance,  no  vicissitudes,  no  differences, 
can  efface ;  no,  not  eternity  itself." 5  On  which,  Dean 
Goulburn  remarks, — "But  this  was  what  Golightly  was 

5  '  Reminiscences  of  Oriel  College  and  the  Oxford  Movement, — ii.  109. 


xxvi  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

always  doing1 ;  and,  for  the  sake  of  doing-  which,  he  culti- 
vated the  acquaintance  of  all  undergraduates  who  were 
introduced  to  him;  showed  them  no  end  of  kindness, 
walked  with  them,  talked  with  them,  took  them  with 
him  for  a  Sunday  excursion  to  his  little  parish  of  Toot 
Baldon." 6 

Blest  with  ample  means,  he  made  it  his  delight  to 
relieve  some  disabled  Clergyman  by  taking  upon  himself, 
for  a  prolonged  period,  the  other's  parochial  responsibilities. 
He  delighted  in  teaching  in  the  village  School ;  and  cer- 
tainly he  had  the  art  of  making  his  ministrations  popular 
in  the  Parish  Church.  The  children  were  required  to 
commit  to  memory  certain  pithy  proverbial  sayings  which 
had  the  merit  of  wrapping  up  Divine  wisdom  in  small  and 
attractive  parcels.  "Is  that  one  of  your  boys?"  (asked  a 
lady  with  whom  he  was  taking  a  drive  near  Oxford, — 
pointing  to  a  lad  who  passed  them.)  "  I'll  tell  you  in  a 
moment."  '  Come  here,  my  boy/  The  boy  approached 
the  carriage.  Golightly,  (leaning  earnestly  forward), — 
(  Rather  die  ?'...'  Than  tell  a  lie,'  was  the  instantaneous 
rejoinder.  "  Yes,"  (turning  to  his  companion) :  "  it  is  one 
of  my  boys."  .  .  .  The  older  sort  he  '  caught  with  guile/ 
His  plan  was  to  announce  from  the  pulpit,  on  a  Sunday 
afternoon,  what  next  Sunday  afternoon  the  sermon  would  be 
about.  Of  course  he  made  a  judicious  selection  of  subjects, 
— e.  g.  Noah  in  the  Ark, — Jonah  in  the  whale's  belly, — 
Daniel  in  the  lions'  den,  and  so  on.  The  Church  used  to  be 
thronged  to  suffocation ;  and  Golightly,  on  emerging  from 
the  vestry  in  his  <M.A/  gown,  was  devoured  by  the  eyes  of 
the  expectant  rustics ;  some  of  them,  by  a  slight  confusion 
of  ideas,  seeming  to  suppose  that  it  was  Noah  himself, — 
Daniel  or  Jonah,  as  the  case  might  be, — who  had  come 
back  in  order  to  relate  his  experiences. 

6  '  Reminiscences   of  C.  P.   Go-       36  :  a  very  interesting  and  original 
lightly,— a  Letter,  &c.,  1886,— pp.       sketch,  of  which,  see  p.  33. 


DEDICATORY  PREFACE.  xxvii 

He  was  every  way  a  character,  and  a  most  interesting1 
one  :  his  table-talk  so  fresh  and  entertaining ; — his  remarks 
so  quaint ; — his  habits  so  original.  Discovering  that  his 
house  in  Holywell  (No.  6)  occupied  the  site  of  an  ancient 
tavern  which  had  rejoiced  in  the  sign  of  the  (  Cardinal's 
Cap/ — he  introduced  that  object  unobtrusively  over  his 
street-door. — He  entertained  at  breakfast  every  morning, 
at  least  50  jackdaws  from  Magdalen  Grove.  It  was  quite 
an  institution.  (He  walked  round  his  little  lawn,  whistled, 
and  flung  down  a  plateful  of  bread  cut  into  small  cubes. 
Then  retired.  The  air  suddenly  grew  dark,  and  almost  as 
suddenly  the  meal  was  over, — every  jackdaw  having  appro- 
priated his  own  morsel.) — He  had  a  delightful  garden,  and 
cultivated  the  finest  grapes  in  Oxford,— -for  the  benefit  of  the 
sick  poor.  The  Clergy  of  the  city  had  but  to  communicate 
with  his  'gardener,  and  their  parochial  wants  were  supplied 
at  once.  He  was  a  great  reader,  and  had  always  something 
instructive  as  well  as  diverting  to  tell  you  as  the  result  of 
his  recent  studies.  Large-hearted  and  open-handed  too  he 
was,  when  a  real  case  was  brought  before  him.  Thus,  at 
Abp.  Tait's  recommendation,  he  contributed  icoo/.  to  the 
fund  for  founding  the  Southwell  bishopric. — His  remarks 
on  Scripture  were  original  and  excellent.  Sometimes  they 
were  exceedingly  striking.  We  were  talking  about  the 
character  and  sayings  of  Jacob, — so  full  of  human  pathos. 
"  Come  no w,"  (said  I,)  "tell  me  which  you  consider  the 
most  human  of  all  his  utterances/''  Instantly, — in  a  deep 
tone  of  mournful  reproach  which  quite  startled  me, — he 
exclaimed,  "Wherefore  dealt  ye  so  ill  with  me,  as  to  tell 
the  man  whether  ye  had  yet  a  brother?" 

He  read  the  Bible  devotionally, — regarding  it  as  GOD'S 
message  to  his  individual  soul.  His  piety  was  very  sincere, 
— very  fervent.  Never  can  I  forget  the  passionate  fit  of 
weeping  into  which  he  burst  on  my  telling  him  that  I  had 
accepted  the  offer  of  this  Deanery.  He  considered  my 


xxviii  DEDICATORY  PREFACE. 

continued  residence  in  Oxford  important  for  the  cause 
which  was  nearest  to  his  heart, — as  it  was  (and  is)  to  mine. 
Had  his  remonstrance  and  entreaty  come  earlier,  I  believe 
I  must  have  remained  in  Oxford.  His  earnestness  affected 
me  greatly,  and  comes  back  to  me  again  and  again. 

I  will  supply  only  one  omission  in  what  precedes,  and 
then  make  an  end.  Charles  Portales  was  the  second  son  of 
William  Golightly,  esq.  and  Frances  Dodd, — whose  mother, 
Adelgunda,  was  the  granddaughter  of  M.  Charles  de  Por- 
tales,—  a  distinguished  member  of  an  ancient  and  honourable 
Huguenot  family.  He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  at  Oriel : 
was  born  May  23rd,  1807,  and  departed  on  Christmas  Day 
1885.  He  sleeps — where  I  shall  soon  myself  be  sleeping 
— in  Holy  well  cemetery  ;  and  is  assuredly  "  in  peace" 

It  only  remains  to  be  stated  that  the  Memoirs  which  now 
at  last  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  placing  in  your  hands,— 
besides  occasioning  me  a  prodigious  amount  of  labour, — 
have  exacted  of  me  an  expenditure  of  time  for  which  I  was 
wholly  unprepared  when  I  undertook  them.  I  shall  re- 
gret neither  the  one  nor  the  other  if  the  object  I  have  had 
in  view  throughout  may  but  be  attained.  That  object  has 
been  not  so  much  to  preserve  the  names  of  certain  '  Good 
Men'  from  oblivion,  as  to  provoke  those  who  shall  come 
after  us  to  the  imitation  of  whatever  there  was  of  noble, 
or  of  lovely,  or  of  good  report  in  their  beautiful  '  Lives.3 

Forgive  this  long  Dedicatory  Preface, — wrhich  however  I 
could  not  make  shorter.  I  take  leave  of  you  in  thought 
in  Holy  well.  We  part  at  our  dear  Golightly 's  door. 

You  know,  my  dearest  Livingstone,  that  I  am  ever,  your 
very  affectionate  friend, 

JOHN  W.  BURGON. 

DEANERY,  CHICHESTER, 

Holy  Week,  A.D.  1888. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


(i.)  MARTIN  JOSEPH  EOUTH  : — The  Learned  Divine. 

[1755-1854.] 

PAGE 

President  Routh,  an  Academic  link  between  the  Present  and  the  Past       i 

his  Birth  and  Parentage 3 

Oxford  in  A.D.  1770  : — University  life  in  A.D.  1770       ...       6 
M.  J.  Eouth's  correspondence  with  his  father  (Rev.  Peter  Routh)       .     13 

He  is  elected  to  a  Fellowship  at  Magdalen 15 

Unsuccessful  attempt 'to  reach  Paris,' about  A.D.  1775        .         .         .17 

The  Rouths,  father  and  son,  in  correspondence 1 8 

Edition  of  Plato's  '  Euthydemus  '  and  '  Gorgias'  (1784)       .         .         .23 

Edward  Lister : — his  epitaph  (1782) 24 

Routh's  Latin  Annotations  (MS.)  on  the  N.  T 25 

The  American  Church  counselled  by  M.  J.  Routh       .         .         .         .29 
Dr.  Seabury  and  the  Danish  Succession       .         .         .         .         -32 

Dr.  Seabury's  Consecration  (1784) 34 

Dr.  Samuel  Parr. — A.D.  1775-1788,  a  memorable  epoch      .         .         .     35 

The  '  Reliquiae '  and  '  Opuscula '  undertaken 38 

Routh,  elected  President  of  Magdalen  (1791)      .  ...     44 

his  sister  Sophia  (Mrs.  Sheppard) 45 

Edition  of  the  Vulgate  Text  of  the  N.T.  (1795)  .         .         .         .46 

Samuel  Rickards  to  James  B.  Mozley  (1854) 47 

Dr.  Routh  as  Rector  of  Tylehurst 48 

Letter  to  Rev.  W.  Aldrich  (1815)  commemorating  Dr.  Eveleigh         .     50 

The  President  marries  Eliza  Agnes  Blagrave 51 

Letter  to  Tawell  (1845)  under  sentence  of  death         .         .         .         .51 

Theale  Church. — Routh's  '  Opuscula'  (1832) 53 

his  edition  of  Burnet's  'History  of  his  own  Time1  (1823)     .         .     54 

also,  of  Burnet's  'History  of  the  Reign  of  K.  James  IV  (1852)  .     55 

His  Political  opinions. — His  regard  for  Mr.  Newman          .         .         .56 

Votes  against  Dr.  Hampden. — Letter  to  Hugh  J.  Rose       .         .         -59 


xxx  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Personal  characteristics  and  anecdotes  of  Dr.  Routh .  .         .60 

the  President's  hospitality 65 

A  visit  to  the  President  described  (1846) 67 

another  visit,  (<  Verify  your  references !') 72 

another  visit  described 74 

another  visit.     The  Vulgate,  valuable  as  a  Commentary  .         .  76 

Personal  details  concerning  the  President 77 

Three  Letters  (Bp.  Hobhouse  to  his  father)  about  him  (1847-9)        •  79 

Dr.  Routh,  a  great  collector  of  books 80 

Notices  of  his  Library,  now  at  Durham  University    ...  82 
Injury  done  to  his  leg  by  '  a  worthless  volume '         .         .         .         -87 

Fifth  volume  of  his  'Reliquiae''  (1848) 88 

His  last  literary  effort,—'  Tres  breves  Tractatus '  (1853) ...  90 

Proposed  epitaph  for  himself 94 

Close  intimacy  between  the  President  and  Canon  Ogilvie           .         .  96 

Letter  to  Rev.  John  Oxlee 97 

Meditations  on  the  Holy  Eucharist 98 

An  Easter  Meditation  (A.D.  1854) 100 

The  first  '  Universities' Commission ' loi 

Personal  details  and  anecdotes           .......  103 

Closing  scene  of  the  President's  long  life  ......  105 

His  burial  in  Magdalen  College  Chapel  (Dec.  29,  1854)    •         •         •  IO7 
Remarks  on  his  Works. —His  Character, — his  Portraits    .         .         .109 

'  A  Century  of  Verses ' in 


(n.)  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE  : — The  Restorer  of  the  Old  Paths. 
[1795-1838.] 

Mankind  forgetful  of  their  chiefest  benefactors  .  .  .  .116 
This  life,  and  that  of  President  Routh,  contrasted  .  .  .  .  117 
Rose's  Ancestry, — Birth, — Education  .  .  .  .  .  .118 

Extraordinary  precocity. — Dr.  E.  D.  Clarke 118 

Rose's  boyhood. — Dr.  Sims  and  his  household 122 

The  family  at  Sheffield  Place 123-6 

Rose  goes  up  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge  (1813)  .         .         .         .124 
his  learning,— how  estimated  by  Bp.  Blomfield  .         .         .125 

first  appearance  as  an  Author .127 

Hia  Ordination  (i 8 1 8) :— his  Marriage  (1819)  ....     128 

Vicar  of  Horsham  (1821) : — writes  in  the  '  Quarterly  Revieiv  '  .130 

Is  constrained  by  bad  health  to  travel 132 

Visits  Germany  and  Italy  (1824) *33 

his  Discourses  on  'German  Protestantism*  (1825)       .         .         .     133 
Sermons  '  on  the  Commission  and  Duties  of  the  Clergy '  (1826)         .     134 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  xxxi 


PAGE 


John  Keble  to  Hugh  James  Kose. — His  learned  labours  .         .         .135 
Archbishop  Howley  on  the  Study  of  Theology  (1829)        .         .         .     137 
Mr.  Rose's  success  as  a  public  Teacher      .         .         .         .         .         .139 

His  Sermons  at  Great  S.  Mary's,  Cambridge     .         .         .         .         .140 

his  public  reading  of  Scripture 143 

He  is  transferred  from  Horsham  to  Hadleigh  (1830)  .  .  .144 
Literary  labours. — The  'British  Magazine*  undertaken  (1831)  .  145 
Timidity,  faint  heartedness  and  apathy  of  the  period  .  .  .  147 
Letter  to  Joshua  Watson  concerning  the  'British  Magazine  .  .149 
Review  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Church  and  State  (1812-29)  .  .  150 

'Reform'  mania  (1830) 152 

Precursors  of  the 'Church  Movement' of  1833  •  •  •  •  J54 
Churchmanship  evoked,  not  created,  by  '  the  Movement '  .  .  155 

The  suppression  of  half  the  Irish  Episcopate  in  1833  brings  things  to 

a  climax          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         •     J57 

Hugh  James  Rose  initiates  '  the  Movement ' 158 

William  Palmer  of  Worcester  College 1 60 

Contributors  to  the  'British  Magazine* 162 

Letters  from  John  Keble 163 

The  '  Theological  Library ' 164 

Letters  of  John  Henry  Newman  to  Hugh  James  Rose      .         .         .     1 65 

His  impressions  on  visiting  Rome 168 

J.  H.  Newman,  and  R.  H.  Froude,  at  Rome 170 

J.  H.  Newman  to  Rose,  concerning  the' Lyra  Apostolica*          .     171 

Newman's  estimate  of  Hugh  James  Rose 173 

The  Hadleigh  Conference  (July,  1833).— Letter  from  Keble  .  .174 
Mr.  Newman  commences  '  Tracts  for  the  Times  '  .  .  .  -177 

Rose's  calamitous  health  at  Hadleigh 178 

he  is  constrained  to  resign  his  Cure  (Sept.  1833)  .  .  .  180 
Bishop  Van  Mildert  importunes  him  to  repair  to  Durham  .  .  181 
Letter  to  Joshua  Watson  : — to  J.  H.  Newman  .  .  .  .  .183 
Rose,  domiciled  at  Durham  University  as  Professor  of  Divinity  .  185 

His  two  Terminal  Divinity  Lectures 185 

Leaves  Durham  University  (March  1834) *88 

Is  appointed  Domestic  Chaplain  to  Archbishop  Howley     .         .         .189 

Character  and  attainments  of  the  Archbishop 190 

His  letter  to  Hugh  James  Rose  (July  1834) 192 

Rev.  John  Miller's  account  of  Mr.  Rose  in  1835  •  •  •  •  *93 
Mr.  Newman  commences  the  '  Church  of  the  Fathers'  (Oct.  1833)  .  194 

H.  J.  Rose  to  J.  H.  Newman  (Oct.  14, 1833) J95 

'Home  Thoughts  abroad.' — Mr.  Newman  and  the  'Tracts'  .  .  197 
Rev.  Isaac  Williams. — Mr.  Newman  concerning  the  '  Tracts*  .  .  199 
Progress  and  Authorship  of  '  Tracts  for  the  Times '  .  .  .200 

Rose  (writing  to  Mr.  Newman)  anxious  for  an  Ecclesiastical  History  201 
Another  letter  to  Mr.  Newman  : — Letter  to  Dr.  Pusey  .  .  .  203 


xxxii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Mr.  Newman  in  reply 204 

Altered  character  of  the  '  Tracts  for  the  Times '  (Jan.  ist,  1836)  .  205 
'  Tract'  No.  71  characterised  by  Archdeacon  Harrison  .  .  .  206 

Kose  remonstrates  with  Pusey  (April  1836) 207 

Newman  in  reply : — Rose's  grand  rejoinder 209 

Hugh  James  Rose's  splendid  remonstrance  addressed  to  Mr.  Newman 

and  Dr.  Pusey 213 

His  letter  (July  1836)  closing  the  correspondence  .  .  .  .221 
Critical  Remarks  on  the  '  Tracts  for  the  Times '  .  .  .  .223 
The  praise  and  true  glory  of  'the  Movement'  of  1833  .  .  .225 

Rose's  calamitous  health 226 

Extract  from  Newman's  '  Apologia"1 227 

Remarks  thereon. — Rose's  life,  one  long  conflict  with  Evil         .          .228 
Dr.  Hampden. — Troubles  in  the  Church. — Letter  to  Newman  .         .230 
Rose's  deplorable  health. — ' Excitement  in  Religion"1         .         .         .     232 
He    contemplates    accepting   a    Professorship    in    the    Theological 

Seminary  of  New  York  ........     233 

The  Principalship  of  King's  College  is  offered  him     .         .         .         .     234 

Dr.  Hook's  letter  of  congratulation  (Oct.  1836) 235 

Rose  enters  on  the  duties  of  his  new  Office 236 

letter  to  Bp.  Doane  on  his  appointment  (Nov.  1836)  .  .  .  237 
'Library  of  the  Fathers. "* — Letter  to  Benjamin  Harrison  .  .  .  239 
Dr.  Manning's  recollections  of  Mr.  Rose  at  King's  College  .  .240 
Mr.  Newman  to  Mr.  Rose,  concerning  his  own  literary  occupations  .  241 
Rose  renews  his  warning  to  Dr.  Pusey  ......  242 

is  prostrated  by  '  the  Influenza  ' 243 

and  offers  to  resign  the  Principalship  of  King's  College  .  .  244 
Archbishop  Howley's  friendship  for  Mr.  Rose  .....  245 

Rose,  battling  ineffectually  with  disease 246 

Letter  to  Dr.  Pusey,  describing  his  malady  (1838)     ....     247 

The  last  two  letters  which  passed  between  Rose  and  Pusey        .         .248 

Their  '  German  War.' — Pusey 's  '  Fifth  of  November '  Sermon     .     248 

Pusey 's  account  of  his  share  in  the  controversy  with  Rose  .         .     250 

Rose's  state  of  health  grows  desperate 252 

He  is  ordered  to  go  abroad. — Despondency 254 

Picture  of  Rose  at  King's  College  at  that  moment  .  .  .  .  255 
His  friends  vie  with  one  another  in  their  solicitude  for  him  .  256 
Joshua  Watson, — S.  R.  Maitland, — the  Harrisons  .  .  -256 

Archbishop  Howley, — Bishop  Blomfield 257 

Dr.  Lonsdale  is  appointed  Rose's  deputy  at  King's  College        .         .     259 

Rose  prepares  to  leave  England 260 

His  warning  to  Mr.  Newman  two  days  before  his  departure  .  .261 
Anxiety  occasioned  him  by  the  'Tracts'  after  1836  ....  263 

and  by  the  '  Tractarian '  leaders 264 

Newman's  proposed  Dedication  of  his  IVth  volume  of  Sermons          .     266 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  xxxiii 


PAGE 


Eose'slast  letter  to  Newman  (Oct.  1 2th,  1838)          .         .         .         .267 
He  leaves  England  (Oct.  1 3th)  : — he  reaches  Florence        .         .         .     268 

The  closing  scene  '  at  an  Inn.' — Hose's  death 270 

and  burial, — his  Epitaph  : — grief  of  friends         .         .         .         .271 

His  personal  aspect : — his  manner 276 

Remarks  on  his  Character,  and  on  his  Work      .         .         .         .         .     277 
His  grand  Example  to  the  men  of  a  coming  generation      .         .         .280 

Postscript : — HENKY  JOHN  ROSE.     [1800-1873.] 

Hugh  James  Eose's  only  brother  deserves  to  be  separately  commemorated 
(p.  284). — His  University  career : — his  learning  and  attainments 
(p.  285).' — He  accompanies  Hugh  James  to  Germany  and  Italy 
(p.  286) : — assists  him  in  his  literary  labours  (pp.  286-7)  : — marries 
(p.  287). — Houghton  Conquest,  and  its  Kectory  house,  described 
[1838-73]  (p.  288).— Henry  John  Eose  restores  his  Parish  Church 
(p.  289). — Concerning  his  Library  (p.  290) ; — and  his  literary  work 
(pp.  290-2). — He  succeeds  to  the  Archdeaconry  of  Bedford  (p.  292). — 
His  Character  (pp.  291-3) : — his  Death  (p.  294). 


(in.)  CHAKLES  MAKEIOTT: — The  Man  of  Saintly  Life. 
[1811-1858.] 

Birth  and  Parentage. — Notices  of  Eev.  John  Marriott,  his  father      .  297 
John  Marriott's  friendship  with  Sir  Walter  Scott       .         .         .298 

Early  years  of  Charles  Marriott 300 

He  loses  his  mother  (1821), — and  his  father  (1825).         .         .         .  301 
Is  educated  at  Kynnersley  under  Eev.  Andrew  Burn        .         .         .302 

Is  entered  at  Exeter  College. — Obtains  a  scholarship  at  Balliol  (1829)  303 

Is  elected  Fellow  of  Oriel  (1833) 305 

Intellectual  activity  (pp.  306  and  310). — He  visits  Eome  .         .         .  306 

Principal  of  the  Theological  College  at  Chichester  (Feb.  1839)         .  307 

his  Lectures : — Course  of  Study  in  the  College    ....  308 

Letter  to  C.  F.  Balston 309 

Eesigns  the  Principalship,  through  ill  health 310 

Would  have  accompanied  Bp.  Selwyn  to  New  Zealand      .         .         .  311 

Critical  period  at  which  C.  Marriott  returned  to  Oxford  (Oct.  1841) .  312 

his  mental  distress, — and  letter  to  J.  H.  Newman      .         .         .  313 

C.  M.  stands  bravely  in  the  breach  when  J.  H.  N.  abandons  his  post  315 

Prevailing  perplexity,  half-heartedness,  unfaithfulness  in  Oxford       .  317 

Consequences  of  Mr.  Newman's  lapse  to  Eomanism  .         .         .         •  3T9 

Disastrous  effect  on  the  moral  sense  of  the  University        .         .         -320 

VOL.    I.  C 


xxxiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PACK 


The  burthen  of  the  'Library  of  the  Fathers]  imposed  on  Marriott,      321 

is  fatal  to  his  undertaking  a  Commentary  on  '  Romans '.    .         .     323 

He  becomes  Vicar  of  S.  Mary-the- Virgin's  (1850)      ....     324 

The  Cholera  in  Oxford  (1854) 325 

Marriott,  Vicar  of  S.  Mary's  (1850-5) 328 

His  two  published  volumes  of  l Sermons '   ......     330 

His  rooms  at  Oriel  described 331 

Personal  recollections  of  Marriott 332 

Holiness  of  his  character 337 

More  personal  recollections,  and  anecdotes  .  .  .  -338 
Prebendary  Sanderson's  recollections  of  him  (1851)  ....  341 

Further  memorials  of  Charles  Marriott 344 

His  sense  of  humour. — His  child-like  piety  ....  346 
His  Printing  establishment  at  Littlemore  ......  349 

The  Books,  &c.  he  caused  to  be  printed  there 350 

He  is  drawn  into  a  Commercial  scheme  of  Benevolence  .  .  .351 
A  Breakfast-party  in  Marriott's  rooms  described  .  .  .  -352 

Personal  peculiarities 354 

Marriott  in  the  domestic  circle 357 

The  charitableness  of  his  disposition  .         .         .          .         .  358 

His  desire  to  provide  a  College  or  Hall  for  poor  Students  .         .         -359 
Oxford  has  become  an  University  for  the  Rich  ....     360 

Marriott's  scheme  for  the  training  of  Missionary  Clergy   .         .         .     362 
Becomes  the  first  Editor  of  the  'Literary  Churchman''     .         .         ,     364 
Is  struck  down  by  paralysis,  June  29th,  1-855   .....     366 

His  death  (Sep.  I5th,  1858),  after  three  years  of  suffering          .         .     367 
Survey  of  his  career,  Work,  and  Character        .  368 

Enumeration  of  his  Writings     .         .         .         .         .         .         .          -37° 

His  saintly  life,  anything  but  a  failure 372 

(iv.)  EDWARD  HAWKINS  : — The  Great  Provost. 
[1789-1882.] 

Oriel  College 374 

Family  History  : — Col.  Caesar  Hawkins  : — Dean  Francis  Ha,wkins  .  375 

Sir  Caesar  Hawkins  : — EDWAKD  HAWKINS 377 

Birth  and  early  education  „  .  „  .  «  .  .  •  37^ 
His  mother  left  a  widow. —  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Richard  Buckle  .  .  380 
Edward  Hawkins  at  S.  John's  College  .  .  -  .  .  .382 
Elected  to  a  Fellowship  at  Oriel : — Provost  Eveleigh  .  .  .383 

Oriel  College  and  Oxford,  in  1813  .  .  .  .  .384 
Rooms  inhabited  by  Fellows  of  Oriel  .  .  .  ,  -  -3^7 
Edward  Hawkins  at  Paris  in  1815 389 

Returns  to  England : — William  Wilberforce      ....     390 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  xxxv 

PAGE 

Studies  Divinity. — J.  H.  Newman  elected  Fellow  of  Oriel        .         -391 
Hawkins  on  the  Doctrine  of  '  Tradition  '    .         .         .         .         .         -393 

Other  Writings. — His  edition  of  Milton 394 

His  great  work  as  Vicar  of  S.  Mary's. — 'Rebecca'    ....     396 

Succeeds  Dr.  Copleston  as  Provost  of  Oriel 398 

Letters  of  John  Keble  : — of  Eobert  I.  Wilberforce     .         .         -399 

of  E.  B.  Pusey  : — of  Richard  H.  Froude  : — of  J.  H.  Newman    .     402 

Election  to  the  Provostship  : — Letters  of  Arnold  and  Conybeare       .     405 

Marries  Mary  Ann  Buckle 407 

Letter  of  W.  Wilberforce. — G.  A.  Denison's  Recollections         .     408 

Recollections  of  Oriel  by  William  Jacobson 410 

Purleigh  Rectory. — The  Rochester  Canonry 411 

The  Provost  of  Oriel  in  relation  to  that  Society         .         .         .         .412 

Critical  position  of  public  affairs  in  1830 415 

The  'Tracts for  the  Times'  (1833-4*1) 416 

1  Tract' •'No.  90,  and  the  sentence  of  Condemnation  (1845)         .         .418 

Mr.  Gladstone  in  correspondence  with  the  Provost     .         .         .     419 

Issue  of  that  strife. — The  Provost's  life  embittered    .         .         .     420 

Mr.  Newman  forsakes  the  Anglican  communion        .         .         .         .422 

The  recoil. — Hawkins  declines  the  Vice-Chancellorship     .         .         .423 

Becomes  the  first  '  Ireland '  Professor        ......     424 

The  '  Universities  Commission'  of  1854 425 

Its  revolutionary  character 427 

Sir  Francis  Grant's  portrait  of  the  Provost 429 

Personal  characteristics. — His  conscientiousness  and  impartiality  .  430 
Complexion  of  his  Divinity. — Painful  exactness  about  trifles  .  -433 
Charles  Neate, — Canon  Eden, — Dean  Church,  on  the  Provost  .  436 
Strong  domestic  affections : — letter  of  C.  P.  Eden  .  .  .  -437 
The  Provost  characterized  by  C.  P.  Golightly,  and  by  D.  P.  Chase  .  439 

Personal  recollections  of  the  Provost 440 

His  warmth  and  tenderness  of  heart 441 

His  love  of  his  children. — His  table-talk 442 

The  Saints'  Day  Sermons  at  S.  Mary's 443 

Playful  side  of  the  Provost's  character 445 

He  resigns  his  Office  in  1874,  (at.  85) 446 

Retires  to  Rochester. — His  Writings 447 

Secularization  of  University  Teaching  effected  by  the  '  Commission ' 

of  1876 448 

The  Colleges  effectually  de-Christianized   .....     449 
Poverty  robbed  of  its  birthright  by  the  new  Legislation      .         .     451 
The  '  Unattached '  system,  a  retrogade  movement      .         .         .     452 
The  Provost  memorializes  the  Commissioners  concerning  the  Statutes 

framed  for  Oriel  College 453 

Earl  Cairns  on  Ecclesiastical  property  held  in  trust  .         .         -454 

The  Provost's  Academic  life  one  of  prolonged  Antagonism         .         .     455 


xxx vi  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


The  last  seven  years  of  his  life  (1875-1882)  restful  and  happy           .  457 
His  domestic  circle  his  prime  solace : — his  religious  delight  in  the 

common  sights  of  Nature 458 

Reminiscences  by  the  Bishop  of  Eochester  (Dr.  Thorold)           .         .  459 

Canon  Colson's  account  of  the  Provost  at  Eochester           .          .          .  460 
Eev.  E.  G.  Livingstone's  last  visit  to  the  Provost     .         .          .         .461 

The  end, — on  Saturday,  i8th  November,  1882           ....  463 

Funeral. — Cardinal  Newman  to  the  Provost's  widow         .         .         .  464 


W  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH: 

THE   LEARNED    DIVINE. 
[A.D.  1755—1854.] 

Who  was  '  reserved  to  report  to  a  forgetful  generation  what  was 
the  Theology  of  their  fathers' 1 

FOUR-AND-THIRTY  years  have  run  their  course 
since  the  grave  closed  over  a  venerable  member  of 
the  University  of  Oxford,  who,  more  than  any  other 
person  within  academic  memory,  formed  a  connecting 
link  between  the  Present  and  the  Past.  In  a  place  of 
such  perpetual  flux  as  Oxford,  the  stationary  figures 
attract  unusual  attention.  When  a  man  has  been  seen 
to  go  in  and  out  the  same  college-portal  for  thirty  or 
forty  years  he  gets  reckoned  as  much  a  part  of  the  place 
as  the  dome  of  the  Radcliffe,  or  the  spire  of  St.  Mary's. 
But  here  was  one  who  had  presided  over  a  famous  college 
long  enough  to  admit  183  fellows,  234  demies,  162 
choristers.  The  interval  which  his  single  memory  bridged 
over  seemed  fabulous.  He  was  personally  familiar  with 
names  which  to  every  one  else  seemed  to  belong  to 
history.  William  Penn's  grandson  had  been  his  intimate 
friend.  A  contemporary  of  Addison  (Dr.  Theophilus 

1    Newman's    dedication    of  his       services  to  the  Church,  and  with  the 
'  Lectures  on  the  Prophetical  Office       prayer  that  what  he  witnesses  to 
of  the  Church,'  (1837), — "inscribed,       others  may  be  his  own  support  and 
with  a  respectful  sense  of  his  eminent       protection  in  the  day  of  account." 
VOL.  I.  B 

I* 


2  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH  :  [1755 

Leigh,  Master  of  Balliol  from  1726  to  1785,)  had  pointed 
out  to  him  the  situation  of  Addison's  rooms,  and  narrated 
his  personal  recollections  of  the  author  of  the  '  Spectator  ' 
while  a  resident  fellow  of  Magdalen.  Dr.  Routh  had 
seen  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  brown  wig,  scrambling  up  the 
steps  of  University  College.  A  lady  told  him  that  her 
mother  remembered  seeing  King  Charles  II.  walking 
with  his  dogs  round  "  the  Parks  "  2  at  Oxford  (when  the 
Parliament  was  held  there  during  the  plague  in  London) ; 
and,  at  the  approach  of  the  Heads  of  Houses,  who  tried 
to  fall  in  with  him,  "  dodging  "  by  the  cross  path  to  the 
other  side.  (His  Majesty's  dogs,  by  the  way,  were  highly 
offensive  to  the  Heads.)  It  seemed  no  exaggeration 
when,  in  the  dedication  of  his  Lectures  on  ;  The  Prophetical 
Office  of  the  Church]  published  in  1837,  Mr.  Newman 
described  '  Martin  Joseph  Routh,  D.D.,  President  of 
Magdalen  College,'  as  one  who  had  been  '  reserved  to  re- 
port to  a  forgetful  generation  what  was  the  Theology  of 
their  fathers.'  He  was  every  way  a  marvel.  Spared  to 
fulfil  a  century  of  years  of  honourable  life,  he  enjoyed 
the  use  of  his  remarkable  faculties  to  the  very  last.  His 
memory  was  unimpaired  ;  his  c  eye  was  not  dim.'  More 
than  that,  he  retained  unabated  till  his  death  his  relish 
for  those  studies  of  which  he  had  announced  the  first- 
fruits  for  publication  in  1788.  Was  there  ever  before  an 
instance  of  an  author  whose  earliest  and  whose  latest 
works  were  70  years  apart  ?  The  sentiment  of  profound 
reverence  with  which  he  was  regarded  was  not  unmixed 

2  Many    inhabitants    of    Oxford  walk,  enclosing  a  ploughed  field, 

there  must  already  be  who  will  (a  parallelogram  it  was,  of  con- 
require  to  be  informed  that,  forty  siderable  size),— afforded  a  capital 
years  ago,  <  the  Parks '  was  the  refuge  for  pedestrians  who  had  no 
familiar  designation  of  the  locality  other  object  but  to  enjoy  for  a  brief 
at  present  covered  by  the  'New  space  a  dry  healthy  walk  in  the 
Museum.'  A  broad  raised  gravel  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Colleges. 

,  ,j  •/*+.<%?•' 

*          *     f   ft        *  *  A  ,  '  ~  *  .    •"  ._ "  *•"• 


1755]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  3 

with  wonder.  He  had  become  an  historical  personage 
long  before  he  departed  from  the  scene.  When  at  last  it 
became  known  that  he  had  gone  the  way  of  all  flesh,  it 
was  felt  that  with  the  President  of  Magdalen  College 
had  vanished  such  an  amount  of  tradition  as  had  probably 
never  been  centred  in  any  single  member  of  the  Univer- 
sity before. 

No  detailed  memoir  of  this  remarkable  man  has  been 
attempted,  and  such  a  work  is  no  longer  likely  to  appear 
— which  is  a  matter  for  regret.  Twenty  years  hence,  it 
will  be  no  longer  possible  to  produce  any  memoir  of  him 
at  all :  and  the  question  we  have  ourselves  often  com- 
plainingly  asked  concerning  other  ancient  worthies,  will 
be  repeated  concerning  Dr.  Routh  : — Why  did  no.  one 
give  us  at  least  an  outline  of  his  history,  describe  his 
person,  preserve  a  few  specimens  of  his  talk, — in  short, 
leave  us  a  sketch  ?  Antiquarian  Biography  is  at  once 
the  most  laborious  and  the  most  unreadable  kind  of 
writing.  Bristling  with  dates,  it  never  for  an  instant 
exhibits  the  man.  We  would  exchange  all  our  '  Lives '  of 
Shakspeare  for  such  an  account  of  him  as  almost  any  of 
his  friends  could  have  furnished  in  a  single  evening. 
Ben  Jonson's  incidental  notice  of  his  conversation  is  our 
one  actual  glimpse  of  the  poet  in  society?  In  like  manner, 
Dr.  John  Byrom's  description  of  a  scene  at  which  Bishop 
Butler  was  present,  is  the  only  personal  acquaintance  we 
enjoy  with  the  great  philosophic  Divine  of  the  last  cen- 
tury.4 Suggestive  and  precious  in  a  high  degree  as  these 
two  notices  are,  they  are  unsatisfactory  only  because 
they  are  so  exceedingly  brief.  And  this  shall  suffice  in 
the  way  of  apology  for  what  follows. 

In  the  district  of  Holderness,  not  far  from  Beverley,  in 

8  In  his  'Discoveries.'          *  Byrom's  'Journal,'' — vol.  ii.  P.  i.  pp.  96-9. 

B  2, 


4  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1755 

the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  is  a  village  which  early  in 
the  twelfth  century  gave  its  name  to  the  knightly  family 
of  Routhe  or  De  Ruda,  lords  of  the  manor  in  H92.5  A 
cross-legged  warrior  in  Routh  Church  is  supposed  to 
represent  Sir  John  de  Routhe,  who  joined  the  Crusades 
in  1319.  A  brass  within  the  chancel  certainly  com- 
memorates his  namesake  who  died  in  1557,  (;  stremms  vir 
Johannes  Routh  de  Routh  chevalier,  et  nolilis  conthoralis  ejus 
Dom'ma  Agnes").  The  president's  immediate  ancestors 
resided  at  Thorpefield,  a  hamlet  of  Thirsk,  where  his 
grandfather  was  born.6  Peter  Routh  [1726-1802]  a  man 
of  piety  and  learning,  —  (educated  at  Caius  College, 
Cambridge,  and  instituted  in  1753  to  the  consolidated 
rectories  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Margaret,  South  Elmham, 
Suffolk,  which  he  held  till  his  death,) — became  the  father 
of  thirteen  children  (six  sons  and  seven  daughters),  of 
whom  the  subject  of  this  memoir  was  the  eldest.  '  I  was 
born'  (he  says  of  himself)  'at  St.  Margaret's,  South 
Elmham,  in  Suffolk,  September  i8th,  I755-'7  Strange 
to  relate,  although  throughout  the  eighteenth  century  he 
kept  his  birthday  on  the  i8th,  he  ever  after  kept  it  on 
l/tc  nineteenth  day  of  September.  Like  many  others  who 
have  attained  to  longevity,  he  was  sickly  as  a  child. 
'  When  I  was  young  I  had  a  delicate  stomach,  and  my 

5  The  meaner  of  Routh  continued       Routh)  first  appear  in  1280, — with 
iu  the  Routh  family  for  400  years,       some  variety. 

viz.  till   1584,   when   there   was  a  7  The    President's    accuracy    in 

failure  of  direct  male  issue.  this  matter  having  been  questioned, 

6  "  My  father's   birthplace   was,  it  becomes  necessary  to  state  that 
as   you  suppose,  at  Thorpefield,  a  the  date  of  his  birth  (Sept.  18),  as 
hamlet  of  Thirsk.  Routh  is  a  village  well  as  of  his  baptism  (Sept.   21, 
more  in  the  neighbourhood  of  York  1755),    is   recorded   in   the   Parish 
...  As  to  the  coats-of-arms,  none  Register  of  St.  Margaret's,  South 
was  distinguished   for   place.     But  Elmham.     (From   the  Rev.  E.  A. 
Routh  of  Leicester,  3  peacocks."—  Holmes,  Rector  of  Harleston, — of 
(Peter  Routh  to  his  son,   Sept.  6,  which  South  Elmham  is  a  district.) 
1789.)— The    arma    of    Routh    (of 


1758]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  5 

mother  had  great  difficulty  in  rearing  me.'  So,  during 
his  declining  years,  he  often  told  his  nephew. 

Martin  Joseph  was  named  after  his  great-uncles  and 
godfathers,  the  Rev.  Martin  Baylie,  D.D.,  of  Wickle- 
wood,  in  Norfolk  (his  mother's  maternal  uncle),  and  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Bokenham,  M.A.,  the  learned  and  witty 
Rector  of  Stoke  Ash,  who  stood  to  him  in  the  same 
relation  on  his  father's  side.  Like  the  rest  of  his 
brothers  and  sisters,  he  was  -baptised  immediately  after 
his  birth.8  His  mother  (Mary,  daughter  of  Mr.  Robert 
Reynolds  of  Harleston)  was  the  granddaughter  of  Mr. 
Christopher  Baylie,  of  the  same  place,  descended  from 
Dr.  Richard  Baylie,  President  of  St.  John's  College, 
Oxford,  in  1660,  who  married  a  niece  of  Archbishop 
Laud.  Her  first  cousin  and  namesake  died  in  giving 
birth  to  Richard  Heber,  who  represented  the  University 
of  Oxford  in  Parliament  from  1821  to  1836. 

When  elected  to  the  headship  of  his  college  in  1791, 
it  appears  from  some  memoranda  in  his  hand  (written 
on  the  back  of  a  letter  of  congratulation),  that  the  event 
set  him  on  recalling  the  dates  of  the  chief  incidents  in 
his  thirty-six  previous  years  of  life.  The  second  entry 
is  : — '  1758.  Removed  to  Beccles.'  So  that  Peter  Routh 
transferred  his  family  thither  when  Martin  was  but 
three  years  old  ;  and  at  Beccles,  eight  out  of  the  nine 
brothers  and  sisters  born  subsequently  to  1758  were 
baptised.  The  reason  of  this  change  of  residence  is 
found  to  have  been  that  Peter  Routh  then  succeeded  to 
a  private  school  kept  at  Beccles  by  the  Rev.  John 
Lodington.  He  also  held  the  rectory  for  '  old  Bence ' 
(as  the  Rev.  Bence  Sparrow  was  familiarly  called)  from 

8  One  of  Peter  Kouth's  children  of  the  number)  on  the  third  day  ; 
was  baptised  on  the  fifth  day ;  two  one  on  the  second  day ;  three  on  the 
on  the  fourth ;  four  (Martin  being  first  day  after  birth. 


6  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH :  [1770 

3764  to  1774.  But  in  1770  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Mastership  of  the  Fauconberge  grammar-school  at 
Beccles,— which  he  continued  to  hold  till  I794-9  At 
Beccles,  in  consequence,  Martin  Joseph  spent  all  his 
studious  boyhood,  being  educated  by  his  learned  father 
until  he  was  nearly  fifteen  years  of  age  (1770),  when  he 
went  up  to  Oxford;  and  became  (3ist  of  May)  a  com- 
moner of  Queens'  College  : l  the  Provost  at  that  time 
being  Dr.  Thomas  Fothergill,  who  in  1773-4  was  Vice- 
Chancellor. 

Oxford  a  hundred  and  seventeen  years  ago  !  What  a 
very  different  place  it  must  have  been!  The  boy  of 
fifteen,  weary  of  his  long  journey  by  execrable  roads 
rendered  perilous  by  highwaymen,  at  last  to  his  delight 
catches  sight  of  Magdalen  tower,  and  is  convinced  that 
he  has  indeed  reached  Oxford.  It  is  May,  and  all  is 
beautiful.  He  comes  rolling  over  old  Magdalen  Bridge 
(a  crazy  structure  which  fell  down  in  1772);  looks  up 
with  awe  as  he  enters  the  city  by  the  ancient  gate 
which  spans  the  High  Street  ("  East-gate  "  demolished 
in  1771),  and  finally  alights  from  the  'flying  machine' 
(as  the  stage-coach  of  those  days  was  called)  'at  John 
Kemp's  over  against  Queens'  College,'  i.e.  at  the  Angel 
tavern, — where  coffee  was  first  tasted  in  Oxford  in  1650. 
.  .  .  President  Routh  could  never  effectually  disentangle 
himself  from  the  memory  of  the  days  when  he  first  made 
acquaintance  with  Oxford, — the  days  when  he  used  to 
receive  such  parental  admonitions  as  the  following  :— 
'•Only  do  not  think  of  entering  the  Yarmouth  machine 
without  moonlight, — the  dark  nights  having  produced 

•'  On  this  entire  subject,  see  Rix's  letter  of  p.  25,  see  p.  36,  note  3. 
'Fauconberge    Memorial.;— (&   pri-  l  «  1770.     Martin  Joseph  Routh, 

vately  printed  4to),   1849,  PP-  29,  Coinr.    May    31."— From    the    En- 

30,  36  8       Concerning  the  initial  trance  Book  of  Queens'  College. 


1 77°]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  7 

more  than  one  overthrow."  2     '  Sir,'  (complained  one  of 
the   tutors   in  1850,  or  thereabouts,  addressing  him) : 
'Mr.  Such-an-one  has  only  just  made  his  appearance  in 
college,' — (he  came  out  of  Suffolk,  and  a  fortnight  of  the 
October  term  had  elapsed,) — *  I  suppose  you  will  send 
him  down  ? '     '  Ah,  sir,'  said  the  old  man  thoughtfully, 
'  the  roads  in  Suffolk — the  roads,  sir — are  very  bad  at 
this  time  of  the  year.'     'But,  Mr.  President,  he  didn't 
come  by  the  road ! '     '  The  roads,  sir '  (catching  at  the 
last  word),  '  the  roads,  in  winter,  I  do  assure  you,  sir, 
are  very  bad  for  travelling.'     '  But  he  didn't  come  by  the 
road,  sir,  he  came  by  rail !  '     '  Eh,  sir  ?     The — what  did 
you  say  ?     I  don't  know  anything  about  that  !  '  waving 
his  hand  as  if  the  tutor  had  been   talking  to  him  of 
some  contrivance  for  locomotion  practised  in  the  moon.3 
To  return  to  the  Oxford  of  May   1770,  and  to  the 
Routh  of  fifteen.     When  he  sallied  forth  next  day  to 
reconnoitre    the   place  of  his  future  abode,  he  beheld 
tenements  of  a  far  more  picturesque  type  than — except 
in  a  few  rare  instances — now  meet  the  eye.     In  front  of 
those  projecting,  grotesque  and  irregular  houses   there 
was  as  yet  no  foot-pavement:  the  only  specimen  of  that 
convenience  being  before  St.  Mary's  Church.    The  streets 
were  paved   with   small   pebbles ;    a   depressed    gutter 
in  the  middle  of  each  serving  to  collect  the  rain.     At 
the  western  extremity  of  High  Street  rose  Otho  Nichol- 
son's famous   conduit  (removed  to  Nuneham  in  1787), 
surmounted   by  figures   of  David   and    Alexander  the 
great,  Godfrey  of  Boulogne  and  King  Arthur,  Charle- 
magne and  James  I,  Hector  of  Troy  and  Julius  Caesar. 
Behind  it,  a  vastly  different  Carfax  Church  from   the 
present  came  to  view,  where  curfew  rang  every  night 
at  8  o'clock,  and  two  giants  struck  the  hours  on  a  bell. 

2  Beccles, — Nov.  1 7,  1 783.  3  From  the  late  President  Bulley, 


8  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH: 

Passengers  up  Corn-market  on  reaching  the  tower  of 
St.  Michael's  Church  as  they  glided  through  the  ancient 
city  gate  called  '  Bocardo '— once  the  prison  of  Cranmer, 
Ridley,  and  Latimer,  and  till  1771  a  place  of  confine- 
ment for  debtors — were  solicited  to  deposit  a  dole  in 
the  hat  let  down  by  a  string  from  the  window  over- 
head. As  yet  neither  the  Radcliffe  Infirmary  nor  the 
Observatory  was  built.  The  way  to  Worcester  College 
lay  through  a  network  of  narrow  passages,  and  was  pro- 
nounced undiscoverable.  St.  Giles's,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  deemed  a  '  rns  in  urfie,  having  all  the  advantages  of 
town  and  country  —planted  with  a  row  of  elms  on  either 
side,  and  having  a  parterre  of  green  before  the  several 
houses.'  '  Canditch  '  was  seriously  encroached  upon  by 
a  terrace  in  front  of  Balliol  College,  shaded  by  lofty 
elms  and  resembling  that  before  St.  John's.  The  un- 
wonted breadth  acquired  for  the  street,  when  this 
excrescence  was  at  last  removed,  procured  that  its  old 
appellation  disappeared  in  favour  of  t  Broad  Street.'  A 
double  row  of  posts — where  boys  played  leap-frog — 
marked  the  northern  limit  of  St.  Mary's  churchyard. 
The  Radcliffe  Library  was  a  rotunda  without  railings. 
Hart  Hall  (which  had  come  to  be  called  '  Hertford 
College,'  and  which  recovered  its  ancient  title  yesterday 
after  its  disuse  for  fifty  years)  had  no  street  front ;  and 
where  '  Canterbury  quad '  now  stands  there  were  yet  to 
be  seen  traces  of  the  ancient  college  of  which  Wickliffe 
is  said  to  have  been  Warden,  and  Sir  Thomas  More 
a  member.  St.  Peter's  vicarage  still  occupied  the  north- 
east angle  of  St.  Peter's  churchyard,— where  its  site  is 
(or  till  lately  was)  commemorated  by  an  inscription 
from  the  President's  pen.4  It  was  but  fifteen  years 

4  It   ran  as  follows  :—'  Olim  in       hujus  Ecclesiae  DomusParochialis, 
angulo    sila    est    Vicariorum       quae,  cum  vetustate  collapsa  esset, . 


1770]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  9 

since,  on  St.  John  Baptist's  day,  the  last  sermon  had 
been  preached  in  the  open  air  from  the  stone  pulpit  in 
front  of  Magdalen  College  chapel :  the  Vice-Chancellor, 
proctors,  and  masters  occupying  seats  in  the  quadrangle, 
— which  "was  furnished  round  the  sides  with  a  large 
fence  of  green  boughs,  that  the  preaching  might  more 
nearly  resemble  that  of  John  the  Baptist  in  the  wilderness. 
And  a  pleasant  sight  it  was,"  adds  Jones  of  Nay  land 
who  witnessed  the  spectacle.  The  ground  on  the  same 
occasion  was  "  covered  with  green  rushes  and  grass."  5 
The  preacher  was  Dr.  Home. 

The  University  life  of  1770  presented  even  a  greater 
contrast.  The  undergraduates  rose  early,  but  spent 
their  days  in  idleness.  Practically,  the  colleges  were 
without  discipline.  Tutors  gave  no  lectures.  It  is 
difficult  to  divine  how  a  studiously-disposed  youth  was 
to  learn  anything.  '  I  should  like  to  read  some  Greek,' 
said  John  Miller  of  Worcester  to  his  tutor,  some  thirty 
years  later.  '  Well,  and  what  do  you  want  to  read  ? ' 
*  Some  Sophocles.'  '  Then  come  to-morrow  morning  at 
9  o'clock.'  He  went,  and  read  a  hundred  lines:  but 
could  never  again  effect  an  entrance.  This  state  of 
things  was  effectually  remedied  by  the  Examination 
statute  and  by  the  publication  of  the  Class-list;  but 
neither  came  into  effect  till  the  year  1801.  The  dinner- 
hour  was  2  ;  and  for  an  hour  previous,  impatient  shouts 
of  'Tonsor!  tonsor!'  were  to  be  heard  from  every 
casement.  The  study,  or  inner-room,  was  reserved  for 
the  '  powdering.'  Blue  coats  studded  with  bright 

auctoritate  Episcopali  remota  est,  to    his    'Works,'    vol.    i.    p.    117. 

A..D.  MDCCCIV  :   ut  locus,  hortulus-  Pointer's    'Oxoniensis    Academia? 

que  ei  contiguus,  Coemeterio  adde-  I749>  P«  66, — quoted  by  Peshall,  ad 

rentur?  Jin.  p.  31. 
5  Jones' '  Life  of  Home,'  prefixed 


io  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1770 

buttons,  shorts  and  buckles,  were  the  established  costume. 
A  passage  from  Scripture  was  still  read  during  dinner, 
— the  last  lingering  trace  of  the  ancient  practice,  enjoined 
till   yesterday   by   statute,    of   having   the   Bible    read 
during  meals.     At  8,  all  supped  on  broiled  bones  and 
beer.     There  was  not  to  be  seen,  till  long  after,  a  carpet 
in  a  single  Oxford  common-room.     What  need  to  add 
that    undergraduates   were   without   carpets  ?      "  Every 
academic  of  any  fashion   resorted   to   the   coffee-house 
during  the   afternoon." 6     The  '  dons '  frequented   some 
adjoining   tavern  or  coffee-house.     Mr.   James  Wyatt's 
premises  in  High  Street  (known  at  that  time  as  '  Tom's 
coffee-house '),  were  the  favourite  resort  of  seniors  and 
juniors  alike.     The  undergraduates  drank  and  smoked 
in  the  front  room  below,  as  well  as  in  the  large  room 
overhead  which  looks  down  on  the  street.     The  older 
men,  the  choice  spirits  of  the  University,  formed  them- 
selves into  a  club  which  met  in  a  small  inner  apartment 
on  the  ground  floor  (remembered  as  'the  House  of  Lords'), 
where  they  also  regaled  themselves  with  pipes,  beer  and 
wine.     The  ballot  boxes  of  the  club  are  preserved,  and 
the  ancient  Chippendale  chairs  (thanks  to  the  taste  of 
their  recent   owner)  were,  until   1882,  to  be  still  seen 
standing  against   the  walls.     It   is   related  concerning 
Queens'   and   Magdalen,    that    they  "used   to   frequent 
'  Harper's,' — the    corner   house    of  the   lane   leading  to 
Edmund  Hall."6     Drunkenness  was   unquestionably  at 
that   time    prevalent   in    Oxford.      Trreligion    reigned ; 
not  unrebuked,  indeed,  yet  not  frowned  down,  either. 
It   would   be   only   too  easy  to   produce   anecdotes    in 
illustration  of   both  statements.     Should  it  not  be  re- 
membered, when  such  discreditable  details  are  brought 

6  Bliss,  note  to  the  Life  of  Wood,       Ed.  of  the  Ath.  Oxon.,  8vo.,  1848, 
prefixed  to  the  Eccl.  Hist.  Society's       — i.  p.  48. 


1 770]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  n 

before  our  notice,  that  our  Universities  perforce  at  all 
times  reflect  the  manners  and  spirit  of  the  age  ;  and  that 
it  is  unreasonable  to  isolate  the  Oxford  of  1770  from  the 
England  of  the  same  period1?  The  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  a  coarse  time  everywhere  ;  and 
the  low  standard  which  prevailed  in  Church  matters 
outside  the  University  is  but  too  notorious.  Only 
because  her  lofty  traditions  and  rare  opportunities  set 
her  on  a  pinnacle  apart,  does  the  Oxford  of  the  period 
referred  to  occasion  astonishment  and  displeasure. 

We  are  about  to  show,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
spirit  of  Oxford  in  her  palmiest  days  was  by  no  means 
extinct  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
And  I  take  upon  myself  to  suggest,  that  he  would  be 
rendering  good  service  to  the  cause  of  truth  who  would 
be  at  the  pains  to  convince  a  conceited  and  forgetful 
generation  that  'vixere  fortes  ante  Agamemnona  multi' : 
that  classical  scholarship  and  sacred  Science  were  culti- 
vated at  our  Universities  with  distinguished  success  in 
the  worst  of  times ;  and  that  it  is  a  heartless  misstate- 
ment  to  represent  the  unfaithfulness  of  the  period 
following  the  date  of  Bp.  Butler's  memorable  '  Advertise- 
ment '  as  universal, — a  calumnious  falsehood  to  blacken 
the  English  clergy  of  more  than  a  hundred  years  with 
indiscriminate  censure. 

Such  however  as  I  have  been  describing  was  the  state 
of  things  when  young  Routh  became  a  commoner  of 
Queens'.  Jacobite  sentiments  he  found  universally  pre- 
valent, and  he  espoused  them  the  more  readily  because 
they  fell  in  with  the  traditions  of  his  family.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  when  he  became  a  demy  of  Magdalen 
only  28  years  had  elapsed  since  the  death  of  President 
Hough, — who  had  been  deprived  and  ejected  in  1687, 


12  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [177* 

and  again  restored  in  1688. 7  He  was  remarkable  even 
as  a  boy.  'I  like  that  little  fellow  in  blue  stockings,' 
said  the  second  Earl  Temple  (afterwards  Marquis  of 
Buckingham),  with  whom  Eouth  used  to  argue,  when  he 
met  him  in  a  friend's  rooms.  ('  I  suppose,'  remarked  the 
President  at  the  end  of  eighty  years,  '  they  [i.  e.  the  blue 
stockings]  weren't  very  tasty  1}  But  the  topic  of  the  hour 
was  the  Act  of  Parliament  which  had  been  just  obtained 
for  the  improvement  of  the  city, — an  Act  which  in  a 
few  years  effectually  transformed  ancient  into  modern 
Oxford.  Meanwhile  Dr.  George  Home  and  Dr.  Thomas 
Randolph  were  pointed  out  as  the  most  conspicuous 
divines  in  the  University :  Dr.  Kennicott  as  the  most 
famous  Hebraist:  Tom  Warton  as  the  most  brilliant 
wit.  In  the  very  next  year  young  Routh  migrated  from 
Queens'  to  Magdalen.  The  record  survives  in  his  own 
writing: — '1771,  July  24th.  I  was  elected  a  Demy  of 
Magdalen,  on  the  nomination  of  the  President,  Dr. 
Home.'  And  now  he  came  under  improved  influences 
—the  best,  it  may  be  suspected,  which  the  University 
had  at  that  time  to  offer.  Dr.  Benjamin  Wheeler,  Regius 
Professor  of  Divinity  in  1776,  was  a  fellow  of  the  college, 
('  my  learned  friend,  Dr.  Wheeler,'  as  Dr.  Johnson  calls 
him  ;)  and  Dr.  John  Burrough  was  his  tutor.  Especially 
is  it  to  be  considered  that  young  Routh  now  lived  under 
the  eye  of  Dr.  Home,  who  had  been  elected  to  the 
Presidentship  in  January  1768,  and  was  still  engaged  on 
his  Commentary  on  the  Psalms.  It  is  impossible  to 
avoid  suspecting  that  the  character  and  the  pursuits  of 
this  admirable  person  materially  tended  to  confirm  in 
Martin  Joseph  Routh  that  taste  for  sacred  learning 
which  was  destined  afterwards  to  bear  such  memorable 
fruits.  He  listened  to  Home's  sermons  in  the  College 

He  died  Bishop  of  Worcester  in  1743. 


i77 1]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  13 

chapel  and  at  St.  Mary's,  and  must  have  been  delighted 
with  them :  while,  at  the  President's  lodgings,  he  met 
whoever  at  that  time  was  most  distinguished  in  or  out  of 
the  University  for  learning,  ability,  or  goodness. 

The  youth  (for  we  are  speaking  of  a  boy  of  sixteen) 
had  already  established  the  practice  of  returning  to 
Beccles  once  a  year,  and  spending  some  part  of  the 
summer  vacation  under  his  parents'  roof.  This  annual  visit 
went  on  till  1793.  On  such  occasions  it  is  remembered 
that  he  sometimes  'acted  as  the  assistant  or  substitute 
of  his  father  in  the  school-room,  where  his  presence  was 
always  welcomed  by  the  pupils,  on  account  of  his  urbane 
manner  and  the  happy  ease  with  which  he  communicated 
information.' 8  To  this  period  belongs  the  following  letter 
from  the  Eev.  Peter  Routh  to  his  son  :— 

'  Dear  Martin, — As  you  are  so  desirous  of  a  letter 
immediately,  and  have  fixed  no  longer  term  than  as 
soon  as  it  is  possible  for  you  to  receive  one,  not  to 
disappoint  you  in  your  expectation,  I  write  this  evening. 
.  .  .  Your  surplice,  I  hope,  is  not  so  different  from  the 
generality  as  you  seem  to  describe  it,  it  being  cut  to  the 
best  pattern  here ;  and  others  which  are  brought  out  of 
the  country  I  should  think  must  vary  enough  not  to 
leave  you  singular. 

1  As  to  your  studies,  you  may  probably  have  better 
directions  than  I  can  give  you.  But  in  general  you  may 
remember  what  I  said  of  the  expediency  of  allotting  the 
time  from  chapel  to  lectures  not  ordinarily  to  breakfast- 
ing in  company,  but  to  the  severer  kinds  of  study,  in 
which,  if  you  are  not  otherwise  directed,  as  a  Cambridge 
scholar  I  must  recommend  Locke's  "Essay"  to  be 
seriously  and  repeatedly  read  and  epitomized,  but  not 
without  Dr.  Watts's  "Philosophical  Essays,"  to  guard 
against  some  ill  prejudices  apt  to  be  contracted  from  the 
former.  The  next  division  of  time  that  you  can  with 
most  constancy  engage  to  study  in,  I  would  have  appro- 

8  Fauconberge  Memorial  (akeady  quoted),  p.  37. 


14  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE :  [1774 

priated  to  Latin  and  Greek,  with  a  full  proportion  of  the 
latter,  because  you  are  like  to  be  but  little  furthered  in 
it  by  the  college  exercises.  English  reading  ^of  all  sorts 
but  what  I  mentioned  under  the  first  article,  I  used 
myself,  when  at  the  University,  to  reserve  for  such 
evenings  as  I  spent  alone. 

'  Of  your  moral  conduct  and  religious  principles  I 
have  no  reason  to  form  any  such  apprehensions  as  would 
make  me  uneasy,  but  persuade  myself  that,  young  as 
you  are,  they  are  too  well  guarded  for  people  exception- 
able in  either,  how  much  soever  your  seniors  or  superiors, 
to  pervert  or  unsettle  you,  even  though  you  should  meet 
with  any  such  among  your  acquaintance.  It  may  not, 
however,  be  amiss  to  repeat  the  same  caution  you  have 
often  had  from  me — that  your  constitution  and  your 
years  will  require  more  than  ordinary  precaution  in  the 
article  of  good  fellowship,  which  in  your  present  college 
you  seem  to  have  it  much  at  your  discretion  to  observe 
or  to  neglect.  Love  from  all  here. 

'  Your  affectionate  father, 
'Beccles,  Oct.  9,  1771.'  'PETER  ROUTIL' 

In  1774  (February  5th)  Martin  took  his  B.A.  degree: 
and  it  was  intended  that  he  should  at  once  'go  down.' 
The  interval  before  he  could  be  ordained  was  to  have 
been  passed  at  Beccles.  His  father  had  a  large  family  to 
provide  for :  two  children  had  been  born  to  him  since 
Martin  had  gone  up  to  Oxford  in  1770  ;  and  the  expenses 
of  an  University  education  already  pressed  somewhat 
heavily  on  the  domestic  exchequer. 

'  I  hope  by  this  time  you  have  passed  the  pig-market,' 
writes  the  anxious  parent  (Feb.  4th,  1774),  indulging  in 
an  allusion  which  will  be  intelligible  at  least  to  Oxford 
men.  Then  follow  directions  as  to  what  the  son  was  to 
do  with  his  effects  before  his  departure : — 

'This  I  mention'  (proceeds  the  writer),  'on  the  sup- 
position of  your  not  having  a  very  near  prospect  of 
returning  to  college,  which  must  be  the  case  unless 


1775]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  15 

somewhat  approaching  to  a  maintenance  could  be  con- 
trived for  you  there ;  since,  as  you  must  be  aware,  your 
education  hitherto  has  been  full  as  much  as  my  circum- 
stances will  allow  of.  The  particulars  now  occurring 
for  the  refreshment  of  your  memory  are  all  your  cloaths, 
linen,  sheets,  and  table-linen,  spoons,  and  such  books  as 
you  think  may  be  useful,  if  Wormall  should  become 
your  pupil,  in  the  use  of  the  globes  and  a  smattering  of 
astronomy.  .  .  .  Whether  you  will  have  heard  the  bad 
news  from  London,  I  cannot  tell ;  but  by  a  letter  from 
Kelsale  on  Wednesday,  we  are  informed  of  the  death  of 
Mrs.  Heber,  who  was  brought  to  bed  of  a  son,  heir  to  an 
entailed  estate  of  1500^.  per  annum,  on  old  Christmas 
Day.' 

The  father's  wish  was  that,  as  Martin  was  to  take 
Cambridge  on  his  way  to  Beccles,  he  might  have  the 
advantage  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Smith, 
Master  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College, — his  own  former 
Head.  He  therefore  furnished  the  young  man  with  a 
letter  of  introduction ;  "  indulging  the  partiality  of  a 
father  in  thinking  that  the  Master  might  find  some 
amusement  in  even  his  accounts  of  their  sister  Univer- 
sity." ....  To  Martin  himself,  the  father  writes: — 

"  When  at  Cambridge,  do  not  neglect  my  proper  com- 
mendations to  all  in  due  order :  and  I  dare  say  you  will 
be  attentive  to  their  academical  customs,  and  such  of 
the  public  Exercises  as  your  stay  there  shall  give  you 
opportunities  of  hearing,  even  more  than  to  a  comparison 
of  the  Buildings,  &c.  with  those  at  Oxford.  I  recollect 
nothing  more  that  is  of  importance  at  present,  besides 
putting  you  in  mind  to  write  before  you  leave  Oxford, 
and  give  us  a  detail  of  your  intended  route,  and  the 
time  of  beginning  it." 

The  election  of  Martin  Joseph  Routh  to  a  fellowship 
at  Magdalen  (July  25th,  1775)  determined  his  sub- 
sequent career.  He  was  now  20  years  of  age,  and  must 
have  henceforth  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  frequent  inter- 


1 6  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1775 

course  with  his  chief, — the  admirable  Dr.  George  Home, 
who  was  President  of  the  college  until  1791.  He  under- 
took pupils, — one  of  whom  (Edward  South  Thurlow9) 
was  a  nephew  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  of  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln.  Granville  Penn  [1761-1844],  grandson  of 
the  founder  of  Pennsylvania,  was  afterwards  another  of 
his  pupils.1  This  gentleman  (whose  name  will  come 
before  us  again  by  and  by)  became  famous  as  an  author, 
chiefty  on  subjects  connected  with  Divinity,  and  is  styled 
by  Routh, — '  vir  nobilis,  idemque  in  primis  ornatus  et 
litteratus,' 2  in  connexion  with  his  "  Critical  Revision  of 
the  text  and  translation  of  the  N.T."  And  now  Routh 
wholly  gave  himself  up  to  study.  He  was  ordained 
deacon  at  Park  Street  chapel,  Grosvenor  Square,  by 
Dr.  Philip  Yonge,  bishop  of  Norwich,  Dec.  aist,  1777. 
He  had  already  proceeded  M.A.  in  1776  (Oct.  23rd): 
was  appointed  college  Librarian  in  1781  ;  and  in  1784 
and  1785,  junior  Dean  of  Arts,  enjoying  the  satisfaction 
in  the  latter  year  of  seeing  his  brother  (Samuel)  admitted 
Demy.  He  had  already  been  elected  Proctor, 3  in  which 
capacity  he  was  present  at  an  entertainment  given  to 
George  III,  who,  with  Queen  Charlotte,  visited  the  Uni- 
versity about  this  time.  The  first  symptoms  of  the 
King's  subsequent  malady  had  not  yet  appeared:  but 
Routh,  in  describing  the  scene,  while  he  did  full  justice 
to  the  intelligence  and  activity  which  marked  the  King's 
face  and  conversation  (he  sat  opposite  to  him),  dwelt  on 
the  restlessness  of  his  eye  and  manner, — which  was 
afterwards  but  too  easily  explained. 

In  these  days, — when  College  tutors  avail  themselves 
of    the   Easter   Vacation    to   "explore    Palestine    from 

9  Eldest  son  of  John  Thurlow,  of  2  Opuscwla, — i.  93. 

Norwich,    esq., — matriculated     as  3  '  1784,   April.      I  was    elected 

G.  C.  Q  Oct.  1781,  aged  17.  Senior  Proctor  of  the  University  in 

1  See  page  47.  my  twenty-ninth  year.' — MS.  note. 


1775]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  17 

Hebron  to  Damascus,  besides  paying  a  visit  to  Alex- 
andria, Cairo  and  the  Pyramids," — the  following  recital 
of  an  unsuccessful  attempt  made  about  a  hundred  years 
ago  "  to  see  France,  and  if  possible  to  reach  Paris," 
sounds  fabulous.  The  exact  date  of  the  incident  cannot 
now  be  recovered,  but  it  appears  to  have  been  about 
1775.  And  "I  believe"  (says  my  accomplished  in- 
formant4) "I  can  give  you  the  exact  words  as  they 
were  spoken  to  me  on  the  occasion  of  my  first  visit  to 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Routh,  towards  the  end  of  the  year  1 845 :  "- 

"I  had  resided  in  Paris  during  the  previous  five 
years,  and  I  suppose  the  President  thought  that  a  con- 
versation about  that  capital  would  interest  me  more 
than  any  other  topic.  He  talked  of  the  eglise  S.  Koch,- — 
and  of  Notre  Dame  with  its  two  towers, — and  the  view 
which  might  be  seen  from  them ; — particularly  asking 
me  about  the  new  bridge  across  the  Seine,  close  to  the 
Tuileries,  which  he  thought  must  be  seen  from  one  of 
those  towers.  I  believed  that  no  one  who  had  not  seen 
Paris  could  know  so  much  about  it ;  and  inquired  of 
Dr.  Routh  how  many  years  had  elapsed  since  he  was 
last  there  ?  He  replied  in  the  following  words : — 

" '  A  great  many  years  ago,  Madam,  when  I  was  a 
student,  I  and  two  of  my  companions  determined  to  see 
France.  I  bought  myself  a  pair  of  new  shoes,  and  we 
walked, — yes.  Madam,  we  walked, — to  Bristol ;  intend- 
ing to  find  a  ship  which  would  take  us  across  tho 
channel,  and  to  proceed  on  foot  to  see  as  much  as  we 
could  of  France,  and  if  possible  to  reach  Paris. 

"  '  But  when  we  got  to  Bristol,  I  resolved ' — (with  a 
determined  movement  of  the  head) — '  to  go  no  further ; 
for  the  new  leather,  Madam,  had  so  drawn  my  feet,  I  could 
scarcely  walk.  So  I  returned  to  Oxford  to  read  about 
France  in  books."5 

4  Mrs.  Sarah  Eouth,  -wife  of  the  that  she  would  give  me  the  story 

President's  nephew  (Robert  Alfred),  in   writing.     (Amport,  July   I5th, 

in  compliance    with    my  'request  1880.) 

VOL.  I.        •  C 


1 8  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1780 

Later  in  life,  Bouth's  desire  to  travel  revived.  In 
April  1788,  he  planned  a  visit  to  some  of  the  continental 
libraries  in  order  to  collate  MSS.  His  father  was 
averse  from  this  scheme.  He  was  himself  unacquainted 
with  modern  languages ;  so,  after  an  interview  with  the 
gentleman  who  was  to  have  acted  as  his  interpreter, 
which  proved  the  reverse  of  encouraging,  he  abandoned 
his  project  for  ever.  One  would  have  thought  that  his 
intimacy  with  so  considerable  and  so  interesting  a 
traveller  as  Dr.  Kichard  Chandler  [1738-1810],  who  was 
a  fellow  of  his  own  society,  would  have  proved  his 
successful  incitement  to  foreign  travel  at  all  hazards. 

It  was  the  belief  of  the  President's  widow,  on  being 
interrogated  concerning  what  she  knew  or  had  heard  of 
the  remote  past,  that  when  *  her  dear  man '  first  went  to 
Oxford,  he  interchanged  letters  with  his  father  weekly. 
The  impression  may  have  resulted  from  the  very  active 
correspondence  which  certainly  went  on  as  long  as  life 
lasted  between  Peter  Routh  at  Beccles  and  his  son  at 
Magdalen.  Only  a  few  of  the  father's  letters  yet 
exist;  but  they  betoken  a  good  and  thoughtful  person: 
grave,  yet  always  cheerful ;  affectionate,  and  with  an 
occasional  dash  of  quiet  humour.  Between  the  two  there 
evidently  prevailed  entire  unity  of  sentiment.  Peter 
llouth  keeps  'Martin  '  informed  of  what  is  passing  in  his 
neighbourhood :  tells  him  the  rumours  which  from  time 
to  time  reach  remote  Suffolk  ;  and  relieves  his  parental 
anxiety  by  communicating  the  concerns  of  their  own 
immediate  circle.  The  son,  in  return,  chronicles  his 
pursuits  and  occupations,  which  are,  in  fact,  liu  studies ; 
and  until  long  after  he  is  thirty  years  of  age — through- 
out his  father's  life,  in  short — submits  his  compositions 
as  deferentially  to  his  judgment  as  when  he  was  a  boy 


1786]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  19 

of  fifteen.  '  I  do  not  recollect'  (he  wrote  in  1791,  with 
reference  to  his  dedication  of  the  c  Reliquiae '  to  the 
Bishops  of  the  Scottish  Church)  c  that  I  was  indebted  for 
any  alteration  of  the  original  dedication  I  sent  my 
father,  except  in  two  instances.  I  adopted  the  words  non 
nisi  precarium,  and  the  fine  sentence,  et  ipsi  emineatis  in 
principibus  JudaeJ 

In  another  place,  Eouth  commemorates  with  evident 
pleasure  his  father's  correction  of  the  Latin  rendering 
by  Turrianus  of  a  passage  in  a  certain  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Antioch.  "  Utroque  loco  "  (he  says)  "  vocem, 
&c.  cum  voce  &c.  conjungendam  esse  vidit  pater  meus 
reverendus,- 6  vvv  Iv  eiprjur/,  quern  consului,  et  in  expo- 
nendis  verbis  secutus  sum." 

It  was  with  reference  to  the  speech  which,  in  pur- 
suance of  ancient  custom,  Martin  had  to  deliver  at  the 
expiration  of  his  Proctorship,  that  his  father  sent  him 
the  following  shrewd  remarks  (April  3rd,  1786)  on 
writing  a  speech  for  delivery  : — 

'In  regard  to  the  part  of  your  speech  transcribed  in 
your  last,  I  have  to  remark  that,  upon  revising  it,  you 
must  pay  a  particular  attention  to  your  own  manner 
of  speaking,  and  how  the  periods  run  off  your  own 
tongue ;  and  that  probably,  where  you  find  an  obstruc- 
tion, it  will  arise  from  the  feet  not  being  sufficiently 
varied,  or  the  same  endings  or  cases  following  close 
upon  each  other.  A  little  change,  I  think,  would  im- 
prove a  clause  which  struck  me  for  the  last  reason,  viz. 
"  Si  animos  ex  desidi  improbaque  muneris  mei  executione  gra- 
viori  ictu"  &c.  Alter  this,  if  you  please,  to  per  and  the 
accusative,  and  think  of  a  better  word  than  executio. 
Again,  change  some  words  which  occur  too  often  in  so 
short  a  composition,  as  orator,  oratio  and  munus.  After 
cum,  which  you  begin  with,  the  subjunctive  should  fol- 
low, according  to  classical  usage,  even  where  the  sense 
is  positive  and  without  contingency.  Not  but  I  believe 
there  are  instances  to  the  contrary.' 

c  % 


20  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1786 

At  the  end  of  a  fortnight,  the  father  enters  into 
minuter  criticism,  and  discovers  excellent  scholarship. 
But  the  correspondence  is  not  by  any  means  always  of 
this  severe  type.  Father  and  son  wrote  about  books, 
because  learning  was  with  both  a  passion;  and  about 
divinity,  because  it  was  evidently  uppermost  in  the 
heart  of  either.  As  a  rule,  however,  these  letters  have 
a  purely  home  flavour ;  and  sometimes  when  Martin  lets 
out  incidentally  what  a  very  studious  life  he  is  leading, 
he  draws  down  on  himself  affectionate  rebuke.  *  It  may 
be  grown  trite  by  repetition,  and  I  shall  not  render  it 
more  irksome  by  prolixity : — Air  and  exercise  and,  above 
all,  the  cold  bath  is  what  you  must  pluck  up  resolution 
to  make  use  of.'  The  hint  was  not  thrown  away.  A 
shower-bath  continued  to  be  a  part  of  the  President's 
bed-room  furniture  till  the  day  of  his  death. 

c  I  am  glad  you  find  more  entertainment  in  Tertullian 
than  I  am  afraid  I  could  do  myself.  All  I  know  of  him 
is  from  quotations,  very  frequently  met  with,  which  have 
seldom  failed  of  puzzling  me  with  some  enigmatical 
quaintness.' 5 

Next  year,  Peter  Kouth  writes : — 

{ Your  acquaintance  with  the  Fathers  is  leaving  me  far 
behind ;  and  I  am  apprehensive  of  not  being  qualified  to 
talk  with  you  about  them  when  we  meet.  By  the  way, 
Sam  has  given  me  some  little  hope  of  seeing  you  in  a 
wig,  which  I  look  forward  to  as  the  breaking  of  a  spell 
which  has  counteracted  most  of  your  purposes  of  exer- 
tion, excursion  and  amusement.' 6 

Occasionally  the  old  man  indulges  in  a  little  pleasantry, 
and  many  a  passage  proves  that  he  was  by  no  means 
deficient  in  genuine  humour.  One  of  his  daughters 

5  Beccles,  May  i8th,  1786.  e  July  5th,  1787. 


THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  21 

('  Polly ')  was  qualifying  herself  to  undertake  a  school.7 
After  explaining  the  young  lady's  aspirations,  he  sud- 
denly breaks  off: — 

*  But  I  think  it  is  not  impossible,  from  the  rapid  steps 
taken  by  our  present  maccaroni  towards  working  a  con- 
fusion in  the  sexes,  that  if  you  should  ever  choose  to  be 
a  schoolmaster  yourself,  you  may  want  her  assistance  to 
finish  the  education  of  your  boys  by  giving  them  a  taste, 
and  a  dexterity  upon  occasion,  for  tambour- work  and 
embroidery.'8 

It  is,  however,  when  he  is  communicating  to  his  son 
some  piece  of  local  intelligence,  entertaining  him  with 
the  doings  of  some  familiar  friend  of  his  early  days,  that 
Peter  Eouth's  wit  flows  most  freely : — 

*  Last  Tuesday,  Mr.  Elmy 9  derived  immensity  of  hap- 
piness from  the  apotheosis  of  his  daughter.    Lest  the  rite 
should   be  disgraced   by  inferiority  in   the   sacrificing 
priest,  Mr.  Prebendary  Wodehouse  came  over  upon  the 
occasion.     I  rather  think  Sam  Carter  is  making  a  first 

attack  on  Miss ,  who  has  lately  had  an  addition  of 

'zoool.  to  her  fortune.     Weddings  have  been  very  rife 
here  for  half  a  year  past.' 1 

In  the  ensuing  August  (Martin  being  then  in  Warwick- 
shire),— '  Ought  I '  (asks  his  father)  '  to  run  the  hazard  of 
spoiling  your  visit  to  Dr.  Parr  by  transmitting  Mr. 
Browne's  report  that  Miss  Dibdin  is  not  there,  but  on 
the  eve  of  marriage  to  a  gentleman  in  the  Commons  ? ' 2 
Ten  years  had  elapsed  when  Peter  Routh  writes  :  '  If  you 

7  Eventually,  two  of  the  Presi-  in  1835,  but  ™  we^  secured  from 
dent's  sisters  conducted  a  boarding-  oblivion  "  by  the  fact  that  the  poet 
school   at   Brooke,   near   Norwich.  Crabbe  married  Miss  Sarah  Elmy 
(Fauconberge    Memorial,    p.    37,  at     Beccles     church,    Dec.    1783. 
note  2.)  (Ltfe>  i-  Ia8-) 

8  June  pth,  1773.  J  May  i8th,  1786. 

9  "The  name  became'  extinct  on  2  August  loth,  1786. 
the  decease  of  Mrs.  Eleanor  Elmy 


22 


MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1790 


do  not  exert  yourself  shortly,  your  friend  Boycatt  is  like 
to  get  the  start  of  you  at  least  in  the  matrimonial 
chase.' 3 

One  more  extract  from  this  correspondence  shall  suffice. 
It  refers  to  a  public  transaction  which  was  recent  in  July 
1790,  and  recalls  two  names  which  were  still  famous  fifty 
years  ago,  or,  as  the  writer  would  have  said,  '  agone ' : — 

'The  immaculate  patriots,  so  worthy  of  trust  and 
honour,  are  showing  themselves  every  day  more  and 
more  in  their  true  colours.  Having  gotten  a  substitute 
for  their  old  calves'-head  clubs,  they  figure  away  with  it 
to  purpose.  At  Yarmouth  (where,  by  the  way,  but  for 
the  tergiversation  of  Lacon,  the  Church  candidate,  they 
would  have  been  foiled  at  the  election)  an  anniversary 
feast  was  held,  Dr.  Aikin  in  the  chair,  in  the  national 
cockade.  He  had  been  till  very  lately  looked  upon  as  a 
candid  moderate  Dissenter;  but  has  now  vented  his 
rancour  in  a  pamphlet  which  it  has  been  thought  proper 
to  buy  in.  His  sister,  Mrs.  Barbauld,  has  signalized 
herself  in  like  manner.' 

It  would  have  been  a  satisfaction  to  have  possessed 
some  specimens  of  Routh's  letters  written  to  his  father 
during  these  early  years.  His  sisters  are  said  to  have 
preserved  some  of  them,  and  they  may  be  in  existence 
still.  The  following  note,  evidently  written  before  1791, 
must  have  been  addressed  to  Dr.  John  Randolph  (after- 
wards Bp.  of  Oxford,  Bangor,  and  London),  who  was 
Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  from  1783  to  7,  and  is 
almost  the  only  scrap  of  his  early  private  correspondence 
which  has  reached  me : — 

"  Mr.  Routh  presents  his  respectful  compliments  to 
Dr.  Randolph,  and  is  much  obliged  to  him  for  his 

3  Bungay,  February  isth,  1796.       graceful  memorandum  in  the  '  Eeli- 
Concerning  the  Rev.  W.  Boycatt,       quiae,'  vol.  ii.  p.  339. 
wee    the    President's   grateful    and 


1784]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  23 

excellent  discourse;    which,  in  his  poor  opinion,  if  he 
may  be  excused  the  pedantry  of  the  quotation,  exet  on, 

TrAettrra  Siaz/OTJ/uara  a£ta  TreTratSevjueVou  aKpt/3<3s  KCU  ov  TVVOVTOS 

•>$/}> 

az/opoy. 

The  first-fruits  of  his  studies  saw  the  light  in  1784 
(the  year  of  his  Senior-Proctorship),  when  he  was 
twenty-nine  years  of  age.  It  was  a  critical  edition  of 
the  '  Euthydemus '  and  'Gorgias'  of  Plato, — with  notes 
and  various  readings  which  fill  the  last  157  pages : 
a  model  of  conscientious  labour  and  careful  editorship 
which  will  enjoy  the  abiding  esteem  of  scholars.  He  is 
found  to  have  cherished  the  design  of  editing  something 
of  the  same  philosopher  thirteen  years  before  (Dec.  Qth, 
1771).  Some  account  of  the  copies  of  Plato  existing  in 
the  President's  library  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix 
(A)  to  the  present  volume.  Dean  Church  possesses 
Routh's  own  annotated  and  corrected  copy, — to  which 
however  he  had  made  no  additions  for  30  years  (1812-42), 
though  subsequently  he  made  several.  This  honourable 
beginning  of  a  great  career,  he  dedicated  to  Dr.  Thomas 
Thurlow,  Bishop  of  Lincoln  and  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
brother  of  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow,  whose  epitaph  in 
the  Temple  church  Routh  wrote. 4 

In  correcting  the  text  of  this  volume,  he  relates 
(Preface,  p.  xiv.)  that  he  had  been  greatly  helped  by 
a  youth  of  delightful  manners  and  extraordinary  intel- 
lectual promise,  Edward  Jackson  Lister,  between  whom 
and  himself  there  evidently  subsisted  a  romantic  friend- 

*  See  the  Appendix  (B).  This  in-  claimed  indignantly  to  one  who 
scription  is  printed  by  Lord  Camp-  alluded  to  the  fate  his  Inscription 
bell  in  his  'Lives  of  the  Chancellors'  had  experienced.  Dr.  Bloxam  quotes 
(v.  632),  but  *  merendo  appears  an  amusing  description  of  an  inter- 
instead  of  'merendi,'  which  pro-  view  between  Lord  Campbell  and 
voked  the  old  President  immensely.  the  President, — (Register  of  De- 
<His  Scotch  Latin,  sir!'  he  ex-  vnies, — p.  24-5.) 


24  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1784 

ship.  He  thus  feelingly  lingers  over  the  incidental 
mention  of  young  Lister's  name  (he  had  been  dead  two 
years) :- — '  quern  jam  quidem  ad  sedes  piorum  transtulit 
Deus  O.M. ;  cujus  autem  memoria  ex  hoc  pectore  nulla 
vi  temporis  adimetur.  Culti  et  elegantis  ingenii  speci- 
men ineunte  vel  prima  adolescentia  luci  edidit,  Bionis 
epitaphium  Adonidis,  carmine  Anglico  expressum : 5  vix- 
dum  autem  decimum  sextum  annum  superaverat,  quum 
terris  seternum  vale  dixerit.  AOz;  yap  tyiKtl  TO  0aoz', 
aTToQvr\(TK^i  veos.'  The  tender  regrets  thus  gracefully 
recorded  for  a  boy  of  sixteen  the  writer  cherished  un- 
impaired to  the  day  of  his  death.  In  the  north-east 
corner  of  St.  Michael's  Church,  on  a  small  mural  monu- 
ment, may  be  read  the  following  words,  which  were 
traced  by  the  same  hand  in  1852  : — ( In  ccemeterio  sepultus 
est  inscrijptione  mine  carens  Edvardus  Lister,  epitapMi  Adon- 
idis Anglicus  interpres.  Vixit  ann.  xvi.  Decessit  anno 
MDCCLXXXII. ;  cujus  cultlssimum  ingenmm  vel  excel- 
lentiora  spondens  ab  amico  septuaglnta  post  annis  hie  com- 
memoratur!G  One's  interest  is  not  diminished  by  the 
discovery  that  Lister  was  but  a  chorister  of  Magdalen, 
being  the  son  of  a  printer,  and  nephew  of  the  first 
editor  of  'Jackson's  Oxford  Journal.'  I  suspect  that 
the  youth's  family  must  have  come  out  of  Suffolk, — so 
purely  local  is  the  intelligence  with  which  Routh  enter- 
tains his  youthful  correspondent  in  the  only  epistolary 
trace  which  survives  of  this  friendship, — dated  from 
'Beccles,  Sept.  i8th,  1780.'  It  is  related  of  William 
Julius  Mickle  (the  translator  of  the  'Lusiad'),  that  he 


5  Oxford,  1786,— 8vo.  pp.  24.     It  to  Dr.  Ogilvie,  (Sept.  29,  1852):— 
first  appeared  in  print  in  1780, —  "I  am  about  to  copy  for  the  stone- 
"  finished  before  the  Translator  had  cutter's  model  the  following  Inscrip- 
arrived  at  the  age  of  fourteen." .  tion  proposed  to  be  placed  in  St. 

6  From  a  letter  of  the  President  Michael's  church." 


1784]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  25 

frequently  made  Lister  the  companion  of  his  walks,  and, 
as  they  rambled  together,  invented  tales  for  his  amuse- 
ment.7 

But  though  the  classics  were  ever  Routh's  delight, 
and  scholarship  amounted  with  him  to  a  passion,  he  had 
long  since  given  his  heart  to  something  nobler  far  than 
was  ever  '  dreamed  of  in  the  philosophy '  of  ancient 
Greece  or  Rome.  Having  already  laid  his  foundations 
deep  and  strong,  he  proceeded  to  build  upon  them. 
Next  to  the  Scriptures  (to  his  great  honour  be  it 
recorded),  he  saw  clearly  from  the  first,  notwithstanding 
the  manifold  discouragements  of  the  age  in  which  his 
lot  was  cast,  the  importance  to  one  who  would  be  a 
well-furnished  divine,  of  a  familiar  acquaintance  with 
the  patristic  writings.  '  Next  to  the  Scriptures : '  for, 
like  every  true  'master  in  Israel,'  he  was  profoundly 
versed  in  them.  This  done,  besides  the  Acts  of  the 
early  Councils  and  the  Ecclesiastical  historians,  he  is 
found  to  have  resolutely  read  through  the  chief  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  Fathers ;  taking  them,  as  far  as  prac- 
ticable, in  their  chronological  order  : — Irenseus,  Origen, 
Hippolytus,  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Eusebius,  Epipha- 
nius,  Didymus,  among  the  Greeks :  Tertullian,  Cyprian, 
Optatus,  Jerome,  Augustine,  among  the  Latins. 

The  nature  and  extent  of  his  patristic  reading  at  this 
time  may  be  inferred  with  sufficient  accuracy  from  a 
mere  inspection  of  his  MS.  notes  in  a  little  interleaved 
copy  of  the  N.  T.  (Amsterdam,  1639);  into  the  frequent 
blank  pages  of  which  it  is  evident  that  he  had  been  in 

7  Bloxam's  ' Register,'  eic,,  vol.  i.  churchyard  of  Forest  Hill,  on  the 

p.  193.      Mickle,  who  will  be   re-  north  side  of  the  Church.     I  found 

membered  by  his  beautiful  ballad  his  totnb-stone  there,    many  years 

on    Cumnor    Hall,    sleeps    in    the  ago. 


26  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1784 

the  habit  from  a  very  early  period — indeed,  he  retained 
the  habit  to  the  end  of  his  life — of  inserting  references 
to  places  in  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  where  he  met 
with  anything  unusually  apposite,  in  illustration  of  any 
particular  text.  On  the  fly-leaf  of  the  first  volume  of 
this  book  (for  it  had  been  found  necessary  to  bind  the 
volume  into  two)  is  found  the  following  memorandum, 
which  (as  the  writing  shows)  must  have  been  made 
quite  late  in  life:— 

'  Quae  in  sequentibus  quasi  meo  Marte  interpretatus 
sum,  ea  inter  legendum  libros  sacros  a  me  scripta  sunt, 
raro  adhibitis  ad  consilium  interpretibus  recentioribus, 
qui  meliora  fortasse  docuissent.' — M.  J.  R. 

1  At  vero  initio  coeptis  his  adnotationibus,  et  per 
longum  tempus,  meum  judicium  iis  interponere  haud 
consuevi ;  dum  quidquid  mihi  auctores  veteres  legenti 
ad  illustrandam  S.  Scripturam  faciens  occurreret,  illud 
hie  indicare  volebam.' 

The  foregoing  statement  as  to  what  had  been  his  own 
actual  practice  is  fully  borne  out  by  the  contents  of 
these  interesting  little  tomes,  where  all  the  earlier  notes 
consist  of  references  to  the  Fathers,  followed  occasionally 
by  brief  excerpts  from  their  writings.  In  a  later  hand 
are  found  expressions  of  the  writer's  individual  opinion  ; 
while  the  latest  annotations  of  all,  or  among  the  latest, 
are,  for  the  most  part,  little  more  than  references  to 
Scripture.  These  last  were  evidently  traced  by  fingers  ren- 
dered tremulous  by  age :  and,  to  say  truth,  cannot  always 
be  wholly  deciphered.  A  few  specimens  will  not  perhaps 
be  unwelcome.  When  a  young  man,  he  had  written 
against  St.  Mark  xiii.  32, — '  Vid.  Irenae.  L.  2,  c.  28,  p.  158 
ed.  Massueti.  Exponere  conatus  est>  Didymiis,  L.  3,  De  Trin. 
c.  22,  et  Tertull.  adv.  Praxeam  c.  26.'  Long  after,  he 
added,  '  Non  est  inter  ea,  quae  ostendit  Filio  Pater,  ut  Jiomi- 


1784]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  27 

nibus  significet,  diei  illius  cognitio.  Confer  8.  Joan.  v.  19, 
20,  et  cap.  xiv.  28,  et  xv.  15,  et  xvi.  13,  et  Act.  i.  7.' 

The  following  is  the  President's  note  on  i  S.  John  v. 
6  : — *  bi  vbaTos  KCU  afytaroj.  .Zte^s  et  Homo.  Vid.  Reliq. 
Sacr.  vol.  i.  p.  170,  et  p.  iji,  de  hoc  et,  commatibus  sequen- 
tibus.  Interpretatio  eorum  impediri  mihi  videtur  accessionibus 
JJatinis!  And  on  ver.  16  :  '  IOTIZJ  apapTia  irpbs  Oavarov. 
Fortasse  designator  peccatum  de  quo  Dominus  noster  in  evan- 
gelio  pronuntiatj —  referring  of  course  to  S.  Matth.  xii. 
31,  33. — On  St.  Luke  i.  32,  he  writes:  *  Ostenditur  his 
verbis  Maria  ex  Juda  tribu  orta!  On  v.  23  :  '  Tt  ICTTIV 
€VK07T&T€pov,  etc.  Sensus  verborum  est,  TL  eortr,  etc.  An 
facilius  est  dicere,  etc/ — On  ix.  27  :  '  ceo?  av  t6o)(rt  rrjv  PCLO-L- 
AetW  TOV  Qeov.  Vidend.  annonistud  de  sequentibus  exponen- 
dum  sit.  Confer  comm.  26  et  32.' — On  xiii.  II  :  '  irvev^a 
aarQevtlas.  Confer  Marc.  ix.  17,  c^ovra  Trvev^a  aA.aA.oz>. 
Hujus  capitis  comm.  16,  Satanae  attribuit  infirmitatem  mulieris 
ipse  Dominus,  ac  similiter  alibi." — On  St.  Mark  xv.  21  :'  TOV 
KdTtpa  'AXt^dvopov  KOL  'Povcfrov.  Christianorum,  ut  verisimile 
est,  quod  dignum  notatu  est.  Conf.  de  Rnfo,  Roni.  xvi.  13.^ 

But  the  most  interesting  of  his  annotations  are  often 
the  shortest ;  as  when,  over  against  St.  Luke  xviii.  8,  is 
written  :  '  irXrjv  6  vlbs  TOV  av6pu>iTov  eA^wz/  apa  €vprj(T€L  TTJV 
iria-Tiv  tirl  TTJS  yfjs  (the  old  man  had  taken  the  trouble  to 
transcribe  the  Greek  in  a  trembling  hand,  in  order  to  in- 
troduce the  pious  ejaculation  which  follows), — Concedat 
hoc  Deus? — With  the  same  pregnant  brevity,  his  note  on 
St.  Matth.  xxv.  9,  is  but — '  TOVS  moAowra?.  Vae  vaden- 
tibus  ! ' — In  truth,  his  suggestive  way  of  merely  calling 
attention  to  a  difficulty  is  often  as  good  as  a  commentary ; 
as  when  (of  i  Cor.  xv.  23—25)  he  says,  '  Quomodo  exponi 
debent  verba  Apostoli,  disquirendum? — Even  more  remark- 
ably, when  he  points  out  concerning  St.  Luke  xi.  5, — 'Quae 
sequuntur  Domini  effata,  usque  ad  comm.  13,  maxima  observa- 


28  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1784 

tione  digna  sunt.'—Qf  Hebr.  vi.  i,  2,  he  says, — '  pfja-is 
maximi  moment L' — Sometimes  his  notes  are  strictly  critical, 
as  when  against  St.  James  iv.  5,  he  writes,  '  Difficittime 
credendum  est,  Apostolum  non  attulisse  verba  alicujus  scriptoria 
incomperti?  His  translation  of  St.  Luke  vi.  40  is  as 
follows  : — '  Discipuhis  non  superat  magistrum  ;  seel,  si  omni 
parte  perfectus  sit,  magistri  aequalis  erit.' — On  St.  Mark  vi. 
3,  he  says,  '  d8eA$os  6e  'Ia/cco/3ou  KOL  'Icoo-rj.  Constat  ex  cap. 
xv.  com.  39  filios  hos  extitisse  alms  Mariae,  non  rrjs  OZOTOKOV.' 
— And  on  j  Cor.  xv.  29,  '  ri  /ecu  fiairri&vTai,  etc.  Mos 
fuisse  videtur  ut  multl  oaptizarentur  in  gratiam  Chrislianorum 
jam  defunctorum  qui  sine  laptismo  decessissent,  ut  vicaria 
tinctione  donati  ad  novam  vitam  resurgerent? — On  St.  John 
xxi.  23,  he  notes, — '  Senectus  aposloli  loannis  ante  scriptum 
ab  eo  evangelium  June  fortasse  colligenda  est.'  And  on  ver. 
25, — 'Feroa  odenduni  plurima  alia  praclara  miracula  fecisse 
Christum  ;  et  alia  exist  ere  posse  evangelia  de  Us  scriptaj 

Rare,  indeed,  are  references  to  recent  authorities  and- 
modern  books ;  but  they  are  met  with  sometimes. 
Thus,  against  St.  Matth.  xxi.  7,  he  writes: — *  His  quoque 
tewporibits  super  asinos  vecti  Her  faciunt  pauper es  Palaestiniy 
referent e  JosepJio  Wolfio  in  Itinerario  [1839]^.  186.  Humi- 
liter,  super  asinos  sedent!  And  against  St.  John  v.  17, 
'  o  7rar?/p  JJ.QV  epyd^rrcu.  Eelegat  nos  ad  Justin.  M.  Dial. 
cum  Tryph.,  §  23,  D'Israeli  <{ Commentaries  on  Charles  I," 
[1830],  vol.  iii.  p.  340.'  These  are  indications  of  a 
degree  of  variety  in  the  President's  reading,  for  which 
one  is  scarcely  prepared.  It  is  right  to  conclude  with  a 
fairer  specimen  of  his  manner.  The  following  is  his 
verdict  on  a  famous  critical  difficulty  (i  Tim.  iii.  16):— 
'  Veruntamen,  quid  quid  ex  sacri  text-its  kistorid,  illud  vero 
//and  cerium,  critici  collegcrint,  me  tamen  interna  cogunt 
anjumenla  pracferrc  lecfionem  0eoy,  quam  quidem  agnoscunt 
veteres  interpret cs,  T/tcodoretus  ceterique,  duabus  alteris  os  et  o. 


1782]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  29 

Haec  addenda  posui  Nofis  ad  S.  Hippolytum  contra  Noetum, 
p.  93,  vol.  i.     Scriptor.  Ecclesiast.  Opusculorum.' 

But  I  suppose  the  most  important  annotation  of  all  will 
be  deemed  the  following, — which  clears  up  a  place  of 
some  obscurity  in  one  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  by  merely 
pointing  out  that  the  Apostle's  meaning  has  been 
hitherto  universally  overlooked,  and  his  sentiment 
erroneously  rendered  in  consequence.  Against  Philip- 
pians  ii.  26,  having  noted, — "  KOL  a^^ovStv^  OLOTL  TJKowrare. 
Verla  vix  intelligo.  For.  legendum  KOL  abrjijLovovvTas  .... 
fimroO&v  r\v.  Confer  2  Tim.  i.  4  tva  x«pa?  7T\r]p(o0&  ; " — the 
President  has  added,  in  the  same  aged  writing, — "At 
vero,  quod  multo  melius  videtur,  ilia  fimroOcov  tfv  TTCLVTCLS 
KOL  aoriiJiQv&v,  de  Apostolo  ipso  interpretanda  esse, 
mr  amicissimus  Carolus  A.  Ogilvie.  Confer  cap.  i,  comm.  8." 
.  .  .  Yes,  he  is  right.  S.  Paul  is  speaking,  not  of 
Epaphroditus,  but  of  himself.  We  shall  henceforth 
translate  the  place, — (with  Ogilvie  and  Routh,) — "For 
I  longed  after  you  all,"  etc.  The  Latin,  Syriac,  Egyptian, 
Gothic  and  English  Versions  have  all  overlooked  this 

fact 8 These  specimens  of  the  President's  private 

Annotations  on  the  N.  T.  may  suffice. 

In  1782,  being  then  only  in  his  ayth  year,  and  again 
in  1783  or  4,  it  became  Routh's  singular  privilege  to 
direct  the  envoys  of  the  American  Church  to  a  right 
quarter  for  the  creation  of  a  native  Episcopate.  In- 
credible as  it  may  seem  to  us  of  the  present  day,  who 

*  Codd.  «  A  C  D  E,  etc.  exhibit  fj.ov£>v  rjv.  "  I  have  sent  him  there- 
to corrupt  text,— assimilated  to  the  fore"  (he  adds),  'iva...xapr)re)Kayu 
place  in  Timothy  already  quoted,  aXvirorepos  £>.  [Cp.  Matt.  xxvi.  37, 
and  to  I  Thess.  iii.  6.  Cp.  Eom.  i.  \vneia0ai  KCU  a.SrjfjLovfiv.']  The  reader 
1 1 .  will  also  recall  the  language  of  Phil. 

The  attentive  reader  will  note  i.  8  (emiroQu  -navras  vpas} ;  and  of 

the  sequence  of  thought  in  ver.  28.  2  Tim.  i.  4  (tTrwoOwv  ac  idciv . . .'tva 

St.  Paul  had  said  of  himself — aSrj-  xaP&s 


30  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1782 

witness  constantly  the  creation  of  new  colonial  sees,  it 
is  a  fact  that  for  nearly  two  centuries  our  American 
colonies  were  left  without  a  native  channel  of  Ordina- 
tion. From  the  settlement  of  the  first  American  colony 
in  1607  to  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Seabury  in  1784 
(Nov.  1 4th),  or  rather  until  his  return  home  in  1785,  all 
clergy  of  the  Anglican  communion  who  ministered  in 
America  were  either  missionaries,  or  had  been  forced  to 
cross  the  Atlantic  twice,  if  not  four  times,  for  Holy 
Orders.  This  necessity  deterred  many  from  entering 
the  ministry,  and  of  those  who  ventured  on  the  voyage 
so  large  a  proportion  fell  by  the  way  that  it  was  dis- 
heartening to  contemplate  the  sacrifice.9  The  difficulties 
which  attended  the  just  demand  of  the  American  Church 
for  a  native  Episcopate  grew  out  of  the  political  troubles 
of  those  times.  Because  episcopacy  was  identified  with 
the  system  of  monarchical  government,  its  introduction 
was  resisted  by  a  large  party  among  the  Americans 
themselves,  who  dreaded  (clergy  and  laity  alike)  lest  it 
should  prove  an  instrument  for  riveting  the  yoke  of  a 
foreign  dominion.  On  the  other  hand,  the  English  bishops, 
hampered  by  Acts  of  Parliament,  were  constrained  to 
exact  oaths  from  candidates  for  consecration  inconsis- 
tent with  the  duties  of  American  citizenship.  Hence  it 
was  that  the  project  of  obtaining  Bishops  for  members  of 
the  Church  of  England  settled  in  America,  though  "  re- 
newed from  time  to  time  from  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne 
to  that  of  George  III,  had  always  been  without  result. 
Petition  after  petition,  appeal  after  appeal  was  sent  from 
America.  The  Episcopate  of  England  was  implored  to 
secure  the  appointment  of  '  one  or  more  resident  Bishop 
in  the  Colonies  for  the  exercise  of  offices  purely  Epi- 

9  Beardsley's  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Samuel  Sealury,  (Boston, 
1881,)— p.  19. 


1783]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  31 

scopal  '  "  :  l  but  their  ability  did  not  second  their  inclina- 
tion. In  the  beginning  of  1783,  the  seven  years'  War  of 
Independence  being  practically  at  an  end,  it  was  felt  by 
Churchmen  in  America  that  the  moment  had  arrived  for 
decisive  action.  The  juncture  was  critical;  for  already 
(viz.  in  the  summer  of  1782)  a  pamphlet  had  been  issued 
at  Philadelphia  recommending  the  temporary  adoption 
of  a  substitute  for  Episcopacy  and  recourse  to  Presbyterian 
Orders,  —  the  anonymous  author  of  this  sad  production 
being  the  Rev.  W.  White,  who  afterwards  became  Bishop 
of  Pennsylvania.2  Accordingly,  on  the  Festival  of  the 
Annunciation  1783,  ten  out  of  the  fourteen  remaining- 
Connecticut  clergy,  —  faithful  and  clear-sighted  men,  — 
"  met  in  voluntary  convention  "  (as  they  phrased  it)  in 
the  (once)  obscure  village  of  Woodbury  ;  3  and,  besides 
uttering  a  grand  protest  against  the  fatal  project  which 
had  emanated  from  Philadelphia,  4  proceeded  to  nominate 
one  for  Consecration  as  their  Bishop.  The  venerable 
Jeremiah  Learning  was  the  object  of  their  choice.5  As 
an  alternative  name  to  be  put  forward  in  case  of  need, 
the  excellent  Samuel  Seabury  of  New  York  was  further 
designated.  Learning,  on  account  of  his  age  and  infir- 
mities, declined  the  appointment:  and  Seabury,  as 
bishop-designate  of  Connecticut,  sailed  for  England  in 
the  beginning  of  June,  —  reaching  London  July  7th,  1783, 
four  months  before  the  evacuation  of  New  York  by  the 
British  troops,  and  carrying  with  him  a  petition  to  the 
English  Bishops  for  Consecration.  His  testimonials  were 
dated  April 


1  Seabury  Centenary  (Connecti-  pp.  25-6.     "Dr.  Beardsley  stoutly 
cut),  1885,  —  pp.  17,  18.  holds  "the  same  view.    [The  Living 

2  Life  of  Seabury,  —  p.  97.  Church,  Aug.  27,  1881,  —  quoted  by 

3  Ibid.,  —  pp.  76-8.  Dr.  W.  J.  Seabury  in  his  Discourse, 
*  Ibid.,  —  pp.  98-102.  on  the  Election  of  his  great  ancestor, 
5  See  Bp.  Williams  on  this  sub-  •  —  p.  23.] 

ject,  in  the  Seabury  Centenary,  — 


32  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1782 

While  these  negotiations  were  in  progress,  and  while 
these  embarrassments  were  making  themselves  most 
severely  felt,  the  Danish  government  with  well-meant 
assiduity  offered  assistance.  The  Danish  Church,  how- 
ever, having  only  titular  Bishops,  was  incompetent  to 
render  the  required  help.  We  are  assured  by  American 
writers  indeed,  that  "  the  offer  of  the  Danish  government, 
made  through  Mr.  Adams  (at  that  time  the  American 
Minister  in  England),  related  only  to  the  Ordination  of 
candidates  for  the  diaconate  and  priesthood."  6  Inas- 
much however  as  a  Church  which  is  competent  to  ordain 
Priests  and  Deacons  is  competent  to  consecrate  Bishops 
also,  we  are  not  surprised  to  learn  from  unexceptionable 
authority  that  the  project  was  seriously  entertained  of 
resorting  to  Denmark  for  Episcopacy  on  the  present 
emergency.,  As  early  as  1782,  before  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  American  independence,  Mr.  Routh  had  been 
invited  by  Bp.  Thurlow  to  a  party  at  his  house  in 
London,  where  he  met  the  Rev.  Dr.  Myles  Cooper,  presi- 
dent of  King's  (now  Columbia)  College,  with  reference 
to  this  very  subject ;  and  succeeded  in  impressing  Dr. 
Cooper  with  the  fact  (well  understood  now,  but  not  so 
patent  f/icn.)  that  the  Danish  Succession  was  invalid. 
Dr.  Lowth,  Bp.  of  London,  was  present  and  corroborated 
Routh's  statement.7 

Quite  certain  it  is  (and  this  is  the  only  important 

6  Centenary,  p.  43.    Also  Life  of  America  the  wished  for  assistance 

Sealmri/,  pp.  193-4.   And  see  p.  1 21  in    compliance    with    the    request 

where  the  Abp.  of  Canterbury  (May  which  had  been  made  to  them  on 

3,  1784)  tells  of  the  encouragement  behalf  of  the  American  Church  by 

given   by   the   Danish   Bishops    to  Dr.   George   Berkeley,—"  till    the 

American     application     for     Holy  independence  of  America  be  fully 

and  irrevocably  recognised  by  the 

In  the  same  year  (1782)  it  is  Government    of  Great  Britain." — 

found    that    the    Scottish    Bishops  Ibid.  p.  45. 
declared   their   inability  to  render 


1784]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  33 

matter)  that  Dr.  Seabury,  whose  endeavours  with  the 
English  Bishops  were  of  necessity  unsuccessful,  was 
directed  (by  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow)  to  repair  to  Routh 
at  Oxford,  with  a  view  to  consulting  the  learned  young 
Divine  as  to  the  best  source  for  obtaining  valid  Con- 
secration, and  especially  as  to  the  validity  of  the  Danish 
succession :  Seabury  having  been  himself  persuaded  in 
London  that  he  might  safely  apply  to  the  Bishops  of  that 
country.  The  President  of  Magdalen  was  known  in  after 
years  to  refer  with  excusable  satisfaction  to  his  own 
share  in  that  (and  the  earlier)  memorable  interview. 
"  I  ventured  to  tell  them,  sir,  that  they  would  not  find  there 
what  they  wanted!'  He  convinced  his  auditory  on  both 
occasions  that  the  Scandinavian  sources — including  Nor- 
wegian and  Swedish  as  well  as  Danish, — were  not  trust- 
worthy. It  was  Bouth  in  short  who  effectually  dissuaded 
Seabury  from  the  dangerous  project:  strongly  urging 
upon  him  at  the  same  time  the  unimpeachable  claims  of 
the  Scottish  Episcopate, — "  of  whose  succession  there  is  no 
doubt." 8  The  precise  date  of  this  incident  is  not  recorded : 
but  it  probably  took  place  towards  the  close  of  the  inter- 
val between  July  1783,  when  Seabury  arrived  in  London, 
and  the  26th  of  the  same  month  in  the  ensuing  year,  when 
he  announced  to  his  friends  in  America  his  intention  of 
"  waiting  the  issue  of  the  present  Session  of  Parliament, 
which  it  is  the  common  opinion  will  continue  a  month 
longer" ;  adding,  that  then, — "  If  nothing  be  done,  I  shall 
give  up  the  matter  here  as  unattainable,  and  apply  to  the 
North, — unless  I  should  receive  contrary  directions  from  the 
Clergy  of  Connecticut":* — words,  by  the  way,  which 
effectually  dispose  of  the  imagination  that  "the  Con- 

8  The  reader  is  invited  to  refer  9  Beardsley's  Life  and  Corre- 

to  what  will  be  found  on  this  subject  spondence  of  Bishop  Seabury, — p. 
in  the  Appendix  (C).  I32-3« 

YOL.  I.  D 


34  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1784 

necticut  clergy  at  their  Woodbury  Conference  had  given 
instructions  to  ...  their  candidate,  that  if  he  should  fail  to 
obtain  consecration  in  England,  he  should  seek  it  at  the 
hands  of  the  Bishops  of  the  disestablished  Church  of 
Scotland."  1  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Seabury  delayed  to  act 
on  Routh's  sagacious  counsels  until  the  3ist  August, 
1784:  and  even  then,  it  was  through  Dr.  Myles  Cooper 
that  he  approached  the  Scottish  Prelates  2 — who  by  that 
time  supposed  "that  the  affair  was  dropped."  Dr. 
Seabury's  "  long  silence  had  made  them  all  think  that  he 
did  not  choose  to  be  connected  with  them."  "  We  are 
concerned  "  (they  added)  "  that  he  should  have  been  so 
long  in  making  his  application,  and  wish  that  in  an  affair 
of  so  much  importance  he  had  corresponded  with  one 
of  our  number."3  On  the  2nd  October  however,  the 
Scottish  primus, — having  in  the  meantime  indirectly 
ascertained  from  the  Abp.  of  Canterbury  that  he  and  his 
colleagues  would  run  no  hazard  by  complying  with 
Dr.  Seabury's  request 4, — professed  readiness  to  consecrate 
him:  and  accordingly,  on  the  I4th  November,  1784,  in 
an  upper  chamber  at  Aberdeen,  Dr.  Seabury  was  conse- 
crated first  Bishop  of  Connecticut  by  the  Bishops  of 
Aberdeen,  Moray  and  Ross  5 .  .  .  .  A  great  separation 
was  thus  providentially  averted  :  and  it  is  found  to  have 
been  mainly  due  to  the  counsels  of  one  young  in  years 
(for  he  was  but  twenty-nine),  yet  mature  in  Theological 
attainments, — a  man  of  singular  judgment  and  who  had 
given  himself  wholly  to  sacred  learning, — Martin  Joseph 
Routh.  In  1792,  the  spark  thus  providentially  elicited 
was  fanned  into  a  flame,— a  flame  which  has  kindled 
beacon-fires  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  vast 

1   Kealnry  Ce>itenary,~p.  5.  *  Seabury   Centenary,— p.    50.— 

a  Life  of  Seabury,— p.  136-8.  Life,— pp.  138-9. 

3  Ibid.— p.  141.  '5  Life  of  Seabury,— -p.  145. 


1784]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  35 

American  continent.  At  the  end  of  well-nigh  a  century 
of  years,  the  churches  of  England  and  America, — the 
mother  and  the  daughter  church, —  flourish  with  in- 
dependent life  and  in  full  communion. 6 

In  every  notice  which  has  appeared  of  Dr.  Routh, 
unreasonable  space  is  occupied  by  his  friendship  with  the 
eccentric  Dr.  Samuel  Parr,  who  was  an  enthusiastic  (and 
of  course  a  grandiloquent)  admirer  of  the  future  President 
of  Magdalen.  Bloxam  remembers  the  man's  grotesque 
appearance,  in  his  "  canonical  full  dress,  with  enormous 
wig,  surmounted  by  the  old  clerical  three-cornered  hat, — 
jumping  and  skipping  about  like  a  boy,  when  he  saw  the 
President's  carriage  driving  up  to  his  door  on  the  occasion 
of  a  visit."  7  Faithful  to  the  friend  of  early  life  until  the 
time  of  Parr's  death  in  i825,8  Routh  must  yet  have 
shrunk  from  his  adulation, — which  can  only  be  charac- 
terized as  oppressive :  must  have  been  amused  by  his 
foolish  vanity :  must  have  been  annoyed  by  his  pedantry. 
"  My  mother  told  me "  (writes  Dr.  Routh' s  nephew) 
"that  she  was  once  at  a  party  at  the  President's,  at 
which  Dr.  Parr  was  present.  He  asked  her  to  light  his 
pipe,  observing, — '  You  can  now  say  that  you  have  lighted 
Dr.  Parrs  pipe.'  "  .  .  .  .  "  Any  one  who  remembers  the 
President's  face  under  the  infliction  of  a  prolonged 
compliment,  will  easily  realize  the  mixture  of  amusement 
and  impatience  with  which  he  must  have  read  "  certain  of 
Dr.  Parr's  published  encomiums.9  He  complained  (not 
without  reason)  that  he  was  scarcely  able  to  decipher 
Parr's  letters.  John  Rigaud  expressed  a  wish  to  have 
one  (as  he  collected  autographs),  and  was  at  once 

6  See  the  Appendix  (C).  9  Bloxam's  Register  of  Demies, — 

7  Register  of  Demies, — p.  14.  pp.  12,  14. 

8  Sunday,  March  6, 1825,  aged  79. 

D  2, 


6  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH  :  [1784 


promised  a  specimen.  '  I  have  a  good  many  of  his  letters, 
sir.  I  haven't  read  them  all  yet  myself! ' 

Rigaud  remembers  the  President  telling  him  of  an 
interview  between  Dr.  Johnson  and  Dr.  Parr,  in  the 
course  of  which  the  former  made  use  of  some  strong  ex- 
pression which  considerably  stung  and  offended  the 
latter.  "Sir,"  (said  Parr  to  Dr.  Johnson),— "  you 
know  that  what  you  have  just  said  will  be  known,  in 
four-and-twenty  hours,  over  this  vast  metropolis." 
Johnson's  manner  changed.  His  eye  became  calm  ;  and 
(putting  out  his  hand),—"  Parr,  forgive  me  "  (he  said), 
"  I  didn't  quite  mean  it  ". .  ."  But," — (added  the  President 
with  an  amused  and  amusing  look.) — "  I  never  could  get 
him  to  tell  we,  sir,  ivliat  it  was  l/ial  Dr.  Johnson  had  said!' 

To  myself,  when  speaking  of  inscriptive  writing, 
Mouth  once  remarked  that  all  of  Parr's  inscriptions  were 
to  l.)o  traced  to  the  pages  of  Morcellus.  ('  He  got  them 
all  from  Morccllus,  sir/ — with  a  little  wave  of  his  hand.)1 
But  he  provided  a  shelter  for  Parr's  books,  (they  were 
piled  in  boxes  under  the  principal  gateway  of  the 
College),  when  the  Birmingham  rioters  threatened  to 
burn  his  library  at  Hatton,  (as  they  had  already  burnt 
Priestley's  Meeting-house.)  and  often  entertained  him  in 
his  lodgings  at  Magdalen.  His  dinner-table  to  the  last 
retained  marks  of  the  burning  ashes  of  Parr's  pipe. 

Porson,  another  of  his  guests,  shared  his  kindness  in  a 
substantial  form;  for  the  President  in  1792,  with  Dr. 
Parr,  raised  a  subscription  for  providing  him  an  annuity. 
In  1794,  Ptouth  did  the  same  kind  office  for  Dr.  Parr 
himself;  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Kett  and  Dr.  Maltby, 
raising  for  him  a  subscription  which  procured  him  an 
annuity  of  3oo/.  a  year. 

1  Steph.   Ant.    Morcelli   De   stilo  Inscnptionum  Latinarum,   libri   iii. 
1780],  410. 


i788]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  37 

We  are  apt  to  forget  that  this  was  a  period  (1775- 
1788)  when  a  great  stirring  in  sacred  science  was  cer- 
tainly going  on,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Griesbach's 
first  edition  of  the  New  Testament  (1775-7)  marks  the 
commencement  of  a  new  sera.  The  great  work  of  Gal- 
landius  was  completed  in  1781.  In  1786,  'codex  A' 
was  published  by  Woide,  and  Alter's  Greek  Testament 
appeared.  Birch's  '  Collations '  (and  indeed  his  edition 
of  the  Gospels)  saw  the  light  in  1788,  and  C.  F.  Matthsei 
in  the  same  year  put  forth  the  last  two  volumes  of  his 
own  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament.  The  Philoxenian 
version  also  was  then  first  published,  and  Adler  in  the 
next  year  published  his  collations  of  the  Syriac  text. 
After  an  interval  of  just  a  century  of  years,  we  note  with 
satisfaction  a  corresponding  sudden  revival  of  enthusiasm 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  same  studies.  Interesting  it  is  to 
have  to  record  that  at  this  very  time  we  first  hear  of 
Routh  also  as  a  student  of  divinity.  He  had  taken  his 
B.D.  degree  in  1786  (i5th  July), — the  subject  of  his  ex- 
ercise being  '  An  CHRISTUS  sit  vere  DEUS.  Assentur!  The 
following  paper  (dated  1788)  seems  to  have  been  drawn 
up  in  the  prospect  of  death : — 

'  I  request  that,  after  my  decease,  all  the  letters  and 
papers  of  whatever  kind  in  my  possession  be  burnt  by 
my  brother  Samuel  and  my  friend  Mr.  John  Hind, 
excepting  my  Collectanea  in  three  volumes,  from  the 
Fathers,  on  various  subjects  ;  my  collections  from  the  H. 
Scriptures  and  the  Fathers  on  the  Divinity  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  the  papers  relating  to  a  projected  edition  of  the 
remains  and  fragments  of  those  Ante-Nicene  Fathers 
who  have  never  been  separately  published ;  and  finally, 
an  interleaved  copy  of  my  Plato,  wherein  the  Addenda 
are  digested  in  their  proper  order  amongst  the  notes. 
These  papers  and  books  with  my  other  property  of 
whatever  nature,  I  leave  to  the  sole  disposal  of  my 
Father,  at  the  same  time  requesting  him,  if  any  overplus 


38  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1788 

remain  after  paying  my  debts,  to  present  the  following 
books  to  the  following  mentioned  persons.  To  the 
present  Lord  Bishop  of  Durham, Lord  Clarendons  Life  and 
continuation  of  his  History.  To  Edw.  Thurlow,  esq.,  Bishop 
Pearson  on  the  Creed.  To  Granville  Penn,  esq.,  Ernestis 
edition  of  Livy.  To  the  Rev.  George  Hirst,  Forster's 
Ilebreiv  Bible.  To  the  Rev.  John  Hind,  Grotius's  comment  on 
the  Old  and  New  Testament^  and  Fell's  edition  of  St.  Cyprian' 

But  it  is  time  to  call  attention  to  the  prospectus  which 
Routh  put  forth  in  the  same  year  (1788)  of  the  work  by 
which  he  will  be  chiefly  remembered ;  the  completion  of 
which  proved  the  solace  of  his  age,  as  the  preparation  of 
it  had  been  the  delight  of  his  maturity,  viz.  the  f Reliquiae 
Sacrae\  the  first  two  volumes  of  which  appeared  in  1814. 
In  the  Preface  he  explains  that  this  undertaking,  though 
discontinued  about  the  year  1790,  had  never  been  for  an 
instant  abandoned;  though  it  was  not  till  1805  that  he 
was  able  deliberately  to  resume  his  self-imposed  task. 
The  object  of  the  work  was  to  bring  together  and  to 
present,  carefully  edited,  the  precious  remains  of  those 
Fathers  of  the  second  and  third  centuries  of  our  gera,  of 
whose  writings  the  merest  fragments  alone  survive, 
and  whose  very  names  in  many  instances  have  only  not 
died  out  of  the  Church's  memory.  Let  us  hear  his  own 
account  of  this  matter  : — 

"  While  I  was  engaged  in  reading  through  the  ante- 
Nicene  Fathers,  1  could  not  but  linger  wistfully  over 
many  an  ancient  writer  whose  scattered  remains  are  too 
scanty  to  admit  of  being  separately  edited  ;  and  in  fact 
have  never  as  yet  been  culled  out  and  collected  together. 
Inasmuch,  however,  as  I  had  formed  the  intention  of 
acquainting  myself  with  the  constitution,  the  doctrines, 
the  customs  of  the  primitive  Church,  by  the  diligent 
study  to  the  best  of  my  ability  of  its  own  monuments,  I 
resolved  to  acquaint  myself  with  all  the  writings  of  the 
earliest  age.  And,  to  say  the  truth,  on  very  many  occa- 


THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  39 

sions  I  found  my  determination  to  overlook  absolutely 
nothing,  of  the  greatest  use  in  clearing  up  the  difficulties 
which  occasionally  presented  themselves.  At  all  events, 
systematically  to  neglect  so  many  writers,  strongly  re- 
commended to  us  as  they  are  by  their  piety,  their  learn- 
ing and  their  authority,  simply  because  of  the  very 
mutilated  condition  in  which  their  works  have  come 
down  to  us,  was  out  of  the  question.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  became  needful  to  submit  to  the  drudgery  of 
hunting  up  and  down  through  the  printed  volumes  of 
those  learned  men  who  have  treated  of  patristic  anti- 
quity, in  order  to  detect  any  scrap  of  genuine  writing 
which  they  might  happen  to  contain.  Such  a  pursuit  I 
could  never  in  fact  so  much  as  have  approached,  had  I 
not  been  resident  in  an  University.  The  resources  of 
no  private  library  whatever  would  have  enabled  me  to 
effect  what  I  desired. 

"While  thus  engaged,  I  was  inevitably  impressed  with 
the  conviction  that  he  would  render  good  service  to  the 
cause  of  sacred  learning  who  should  seriously  undertake 
to  collect  together  those  shorter  works  and  fragments ; 
especially  if  he  could  be  successful  in  bringing  to  light 
and  publishing  any  of  the  former  which  still  lie  concealed 
in  Continental  libraries,  besides  any  genuine  remains 
contained  in  unedited  Catenae  and  similar  collections. 
The  labour  of  such  an  undertaking,  I  further  anticipated, 
would  not  prove  excessive  if  I  took  as  my  limit  the 
epoch  of  the  first  Nicene  Council.  I  fixed  on  that  limit 
because  the  period  is  so  illustrious  in  the  annals  of  the 
Church,  and  because,  in  matters  of  controversy,  those 
Fathers  are  chiefly  appealed  to  who  preceded  that  epoch. 
Moreover,  I  could  not  forget  that  although  in  respect  of 
number  the  writers  with  which  an  editor  would  have  to 
do  would  be  by  no  means  small,  yet  in  respect  of  bulk 
they  would  be  inconsiderable  indeed,  one  or  two  writers 
alone  excepted,  whose  more  ample  remains  make  one 
wish  the  more  that  we  possessed  their  works  entire.  I 
knew  that  very  seldom  are  passages  from  their  writings 
to  be  met  with  in  Catenae,  or  in  other  collections  from 
the  Fathers ;  and  I  did  not  believe  that  there  were  many 


40  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE  :  [1788 

works  set  down  in  Library  Catalogues  which  have  not 
yet  seen  the  light.     But  of  this,  hereafter. 

"  I  hoped  therefore,  if  I  undertook  to  edit  such  a 
collection,  that  its  usefulness  would  not  be  materially 
diminished  by  its  bulk.  I  am  well  aware  that  Grabe  s 
'Spicileginm'  (which  was  never  completed)  comprises 
scarcely  a  hundredth  part  of  what  I  here  publish.  But 
then,  his  plan  was  to  fill  his  pages  with  apocryphal 
writings,  heretical  treatises,  and  those  remains  of  ortho- 
dox Fathers  which  often  appear  in  a  separate  form. 
Grabe' s  work  is  famous  and  not  without  its  own  proper 
use.  For  my  own  part,  I  strictly  confine  myself  to 
genuine  remains,  and  prescribe  to  myself  the  limits  of 
Catholic  antiquity,  leaving  all  fragments  of  Fathers, 
whose  works  it  is  customary  to  edit  separately,  to  those 
who  shall  hereafter  undertake  to  produce  new  editions 
of  those  Fathers'  works." 

Such  was  the  plan  of  the  'Reliquiae  Sacrae'  from  the 
first.  The  title  originally  intended  for  the  work  had 
been — ' Reliquiae  Sacrae:  sive  Opuscula  et  Fragmenta  Eccle- 
siasticorum,  qui  tempora  Synodi  Nicaenae  antecedebant,  et 
quorum  scripta  vel  ajmd  opera  aliena  servantur,  vel  cum  varii 
generis  auctoribus  edi  solenf-J  But  when,  at  the  end  of  six- 
and- twenty  years,  the  first  two  volumes  of  this  under- 
taking appeared  (viz.  in  1814),  not  only  the  Prospectus2 
(freely  rendered  above)  but  the  very  title  had  under- 
gone material  alteration  and  improvement.  The  Author 
was  probably  already  conscious  of  a  design  to  edit 
separately  certain  ancient  Opuscula.  All  apart  from 
these,  at  all  events,  he  proposed  should  stand  his  '  Reli- 
quiae Sacrae:  sive  Auctorum  fere  jam  per ditorum  secundi  ter- 
tuque  saeculi  post  Christum  natum,  quae  supersunt? 

Two  additional  volumes  of  this  undertaking  appeared 
in  1815  and  1818  respectively;  and,  looking  upon  the 
work  then  as  complete,  the  learned  editor  added  indices 

2  It  is  reproduced  in  the  '  Praefatlo,' — p.  x-xiii. 


1788]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  41 

and  corrections — some  of  which  had  been  furnished  by 
Dr.  Parr,  iainicu*  summns,  vir  doctrind  exqii'mtd ornatus?  It 
was  the  President's  wont  in  this  manner  to  acknowledge 
literary  kindnesses :  viz.  by  enshrining  the  friend's  name 
in  a  note,  commonly  with  the  addition  of  a  discriminating 
epithet  or  some  well-turned  phrase  ;  and  the  compliment 
(as  many  living  will  testify)  used  to  be  exceedingly 
coveted,  and  was  regarded  as  no  slight  distinction.  Thus, 
speaking  of  an  epistle  of  Cyril, — '  Ejus  autem  lectiones 
variances  kumanitati  debeo  viri  reverendi  Stepkani  'Reay 
e* BibliotJieca  Bodleiana,  cujus  facilitatem,  verecunrfiam,  eru- 
ditionemque  owines  agnoscunt ; ' 3 — as  well  merited  a  com- 
pliment (be  it  remarked)  as  ever  was  paid  to  a  truly 
pious  and  most  guileless  man. 4  The  '  Muratorian  frag- 
ment '  was  collated  for  him  through  the  good  offices  of 
one  whom  he  describes  as  "  vir  ornatissimws,  et  mihi  dam 
viveret  awicissimus,  Georgins  Frid.  Nott,  pluribus  scriptis 
eximiis  orbi  lltterato  notus"  5 

It  is  impossible  to  handle  these  volumes  without  the 
deepest  interest.  The  passionate  yearning  which  they 
exhibit  after  primitive  antiquity, — the  strong  determina- 
tion to  get  at  the  teaching  of  the  Church  in  her  best  and 
purest  days,  ere  yet  she  had  'left  her  first  love'  and 
declined  from  the  teaching  of  her  Founder,  or  had  shown 
an  inclination  to  corrupt  the  deposit ;— this,  added  to  the 
conscientious  labour  and  evident  self-denial  with  which 
the  learned  Editor  has  prosecuted  his  self-imposed  task, 
must  command  the  sympathy  and  admiration  of  every 

3  '  Opuscula?  ii.  95.  idge's  work  on  the  XXXIX  Articles 

4  He  was  Laudian  Professor  of  was  printed  by  the  Delegates  of  the 
Arabic,   and   died   aged    78  years,  Oxford   University  press    in    1840 
20  Jan.  1861.     "Under  the  super-  from  the  original  MS.  in  Dr.  Routh's 
intendence  of  the  learned  Mr.  Reay  possession. 

of  the  Bodleian  library"  (writes  the  6  Beliqq.  i.  403. 

President  of  Magdalen)  Bp.  Bever- 


42  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1788 

one  who  has  toiled  ever  so  little  in  the  same  fields.  To 
the  diligent  reader  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Euse- 
bius,  Routh's  Reliquiae  will  have  a  peculiar  interest :  for 
it  becomes  more  than  ever  apparent  how  precious  are  the 
golden  remains  which  that  remarkable  man  freely  em- 
balmed in  his  pages.  Let  the  truth  be  added — for  it 
is  the  truth— that  without  Eusebius  there  would  have 
scarcely  been  any  Reliquiae  Sacrae  for  learned  men  to 
edit.  Reckoning  the  patristic  matter  in  these  four 
volumes  (exclusive  of  Appendices)  as  covering  450  pages, 
it  is  found  that  these  would  be  further  reduced  to  1260,  if 
the  excerpts,  for  which  we  are  solely  indebted  to  Eusebius, 
were  away:  and  with  the  190  pages  which  would  thus 
disappear  would  also  disappear  the  names  of  Quadratus, 
Agrippa  Castor,  Dionysius  Corinthius,  Pinytus,  Rhodon, 
Surapion,  Apollonius,  Polycrates,  Maximus,  Caius,  Alex- 
ander Hier.,  Phileas  ;  besides  almost  all  that  we  possess 
of  Papias,  Melito,  Claudius  Apollinaris  and  Hegesippus; 
together  with  Anonymus  Presbyter,  Auctor  contra  Cata- 
phrygas,  the  account  of  the  Martyrs  of  Lyons,  and  the 
famous  epistle  of  the  churches  of  Vienne  and  Lyons  ; 
besides  the  notices  of  the  Concilium  Caesariense  and  the 
Concilium  Liiytlnncnse. 

What,  then,  constitutes  the  peculiar  merit  of  the  work 
now  under  consideration  ?  Chiefly  the  erudition  and 
sagacity  with  which  whatever  has  been  here  brought 
together  is  edited.  Unlike  the  industrious  Grabe,  to 
whom  nothing  came  amiss  that  belonged  to  a  primitive 
age  (no  matter  who  was  its  author),  Dr.  Routh  confined 
his  attention  strictly  to  the  undoubted  remains  of  high 
Callmliu  antiquity.  He  might  easily  have  enlarged  his 
store  from  unpublished  Catenae,  and  other  similar  sources; 
but  no  one  ever  knew  better  than  he  with  how  much 
caution  such  excerpts  are  to  be  entertained.  Whatever 


1 788]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  43 

the  President  deemed  open  to  suspicion,  that  he  uncere- 
moniously rejected.  A  remarkable  illustration  of  his 
method  in  this  respect  is  supplied  by  the  latest  of  his 
publications,  a  tract  to  be  described  hereafter,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  edits  from  the  Ckronicon  Paschale  four 
fragments  of  Petrus  Alexandrinus — (thus,  at  the  end  of 
thirty-nine  years,  adding  ten  pages  to  the  twenty-nine 
he  had  put  forth  of  the  same  Father  in  1814);  because 
he  made  the  discovery  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  that 
what  he  had  formerly  suspected  of  being  a  fabrication, 
proved  after  all  to  be  an  undoubtedly  genuine  fragment 
of  the  same  Alexandrine  Father.6 

Next,  the  vast  research  with  which,  from  about  forty 
different  sources,  the  President  had  gleaned  the  several 
articles  which  make  up  the  collection  (they  are  fifty 
in  all),  merits  notice.  Very  scanty  in  many  instances, 
it  must  be  confessed,  is  the  result.  In  the  case  of  'Aris- 
tides'  (A.D.  125)  not  a  single  word  of  what  the  man  wrote 
is  preserved:7  while  of  many  other  authors  (as  of  Aristo 
Pellseus,  Ambrosius  Alexandrinus,  Pierius,  &c.)  so  won- 
drous little  survives  (a  few  lines  at  best),  that  it  might 
really  appear  as  if  the  honours  of  typography  and 
the  labour  of  annotation  were  thrown  away.  Learned 

6 '  Haec  S.  Petri  Alexandrini  frag-  7  '  Reliqq?  i.  76.   Note,  that  what 

menta,  quae  in  limine  Chronic!  Pas-  the  Abbe"  Martin  edited  under  this 

chalis,  seu  Alexandrini,  sita  respu-  name  in  1883  [Analecta  Sacra  spici- 

erunt  critici,  propterea  quod  Atha-  legio  Solesmensi  parata, — Paris, — 

nasius      aliquanto      post      Petrum  pp.    6-n;     282-6],    is    explained 

scribens    in    iis    afferri   videbatur,  in  his  Prolegomena  (pp.  x-xi)    to 

nuno  ego  caeteris  S.  Petri  reliquiis,  be   the    work   of  '  Aristeas  ' :     but 

sed  tardus  addidi  ob  verum  titulum  because  "nullum   scriptorem  anti- 

eorum  in  MS.  Vaticano  a  Cardinal!  quum    novimus   qui    nominis   Ari- 

Maio  repertum,  et  a  Dindorfio  nu-  steae  gaudeat,  haec  est  ratio  cur  edi- 

perae  Chronici  editioni  praefixum.       tores fragmentum  homiliae 

Quam  quidem  editionem,  cum  voOa  retulerint    apologetae    Atheniensi, 

esse  haec  Fragmenta  crediderim,  de  quem  universa  laudavit  antiquitas." 
iis  consulere  neglexi.' — p.  19. 


44  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1791 

persons,  however,  will  know  better  :  and  to  have  said  this 
must  suffice.  It  is  believed  that  one  only  article  in  the 
entire  collection  first  saw  the  light  in  the  President's 
pages  :  viz.  a  fragment  of  Africanus,  about  fifty  lines 
long,  which  he  edited  from  two  MSS.  at  Vienna  and  one 
at  Paris.  8  But  he  also  recovered  the  Greek  of  a  certain 
fragment  of  Petrus  Alexandrinus  from  a  MS.  in  the  Bod- 
leian, —  the  passage  having  been  hitherto  only  known 
in  the  Latin  Version  of  Leontius  Byzantinus9  .....  A 
second  edition  of  the  'Reliquiae*  was  called  for  in  1846  ; 
in  preparing  which  for  the  press,  C.  A.  Ogilvie,  Richard 
Walker  and  William  Henderson  rendered  valuable 
help  :  —  the  first,  —  '  praemiis  pieiatis  et  doctrinae  donatus'  ; 
the  second,  —  '  ipsls  deficits  lonarum  litterarum  contentus  '; 
the  third,  —  '  vir  lectissimus,  amplis  honorilus  Academicis 
hand  if  a  pridem 


On  Tuesday,  April  I2th,  1791,  Dr.  Home,  who  in  the 
preceding  February  had  taken  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Lords  as  Bishop  of  Norwich,  sent  in  his  resignation  of 
the  Presidentship  of  the  College  ;  an  office  which  he  had 
held  for  23  years  ;  and  next  day,  (the  27th,  having  been 
fixed  for  the  choice  of  his  successor,)  Dr.  Burrough, 
Dr.  Metcalfe,  Mr.  B.  Tate,  Mr.  Parkinson,  and  Martin 
Joseph  Routh,  announced  themselves  as  candidates.  The 
election  was  made  a  matter  of  elaborate  canvas.  Next 
to  Routh,  Parkinson  was  the  greatest  favourite.  Those 
who  wrote  to  congratulate  the  new  President  on  his 
honours,  naturally  wished  him  length  of  days  to  enjoy 
them.  Seldom  certainly  have  wishes  more  nearly  re- 
sembled effectual  prayers.  But  it  was  of  course  from 
the  modest  parsonage  at  Beccles,  (whither  he  sent  at 

8  Reliqq.  ii.  228-31.  9  Eeliqq.  iv.  48,  line  3.     Cp.  p.  77. 

1  iv.  525. 


1793]  IHE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  45 

once  a  thank-offering  for  distribution  among  the  poor,) 
— that  '  Martin's '  heartiest  congratulations  proceeded. 
And  now  an  honourable  independence,  and  the  prospect 
of  learned  leisure,  together  with  as  much  of  external 
happiness  as  a  reasonable  man  ought  to  desire  for 
himself,  opened  in  large  measure  upon  him. 

Bishop  Home's  successor  (henceforth  [5th  July] 
*  Doctor  Routh ')  devoted  himself  forthwith  to  his  new 
duties,  and  obtained  a  mastery  of  the  subject  which 
surprised  the  society  which  had  elected  him  to  be 
their  head.  We  hear  little  or  nothing  of  him  during 
the  next  few  years.  But  a  passage  in  one  of  his 
father's  letters  to  him  (dated  April  9th,  1793),  explains 
how  he  proposed  to  supply  an  imperious  want  which 
was  sure  to  make  itself  felt  by  the  newly  made 
(bachelor)  President : — 

"  Your  request  of  Sophia's  company  and  attendance 
will  be  complied  with  :  with  pleasure,  I  will  say,  con- 
sidering the  mutual  advantage  you  may  derive  from 
it :  but  not  without  much  abatement,  from  the  regret 
we  shall  both  feel  at  parting  from  her.  Your  Mother 
more  especially,  to  whom  she  is  truly  a  right  hand." 

This  loved  sister,  who  afterwards  became  Mrs.  Shep- 
pard,  we  shall  presently  hear  about  again.  In  the 
autumn  of  the  ensuing  year,  the  President's  father  trans- 
ferred his  family  to  Bungay.  "  His  appearance  made  so 
deep  an  impression  on  me,  then  a  little  child,"  (writes  a 
correspondent  to  Notes  and  Queries),  "  that  it  yet  stands 
forth  clearly  and  vividly  from  the  dim  shadows  of  the 
past.  He  always  wore  the  gown  and  cassock."  2  Con- 
cerning Martin  himself  we  know  nothing  except  that 
he  continued  to  be  a  devoted  student  of  Patristic 
Divinity. 

8  N.  &  Q.  ist  Ser.  xii.  pp.  291,  2, 


46  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1795 

Of  the  many  precious  letters  he  must  have  written, 
none  are  forthcoming.  They  exist — if  at  all — among  the 
papers  of  departed  scholars  and  divines.  But  here  is  his 
own  draft  of  one  of  them  (to  whom  addressed  does  not 
appear)  which  certainly  deserves  to  be  preserved  : — 

'  Dear  Mr.  —  As  I  had  no  permission  to  communicate 
your  papers  to  any  one,  I  thought  myself  bound  to  keep 
them  as  private  as  possible. 

' 1  hope  you  will  forgive  my  reluctance  to  entering  into 
a  discussion  of  the  terms  of  the  proposition  you  have 
laid  down ;  but  I  think  myself  obliged,  for  more  reasons 
than  one,  to  declare  I  know  of  no  method  by  which  the 
genuine  doctrine  taught  by  the  Church,  of  the  SON'S  being, 
as  well  as  the  FATHEE,  very  and  eternal  GOD, — and  of 
the  HOLY  GHOST'S  being,  as  well  as  the  FATHEE,  very 
and  eternal  GOD, — can  be  defended  against  the  charge  of 
Tritheism  and  Idolatry ;  but  by  stating  ah  initio  that  the 
Church  believes  in  one  Eternal  Being  really  distinguished 
in  its  essence ;  which  Being  is  transcendently  One,  if 
Unity  admits  of  increase  and  diminution.  If  I  am  wrong 
in  my  judgment  of  your  mode  of  answering  Dr.  Priestly 
or  other  heretics,  I  hope  to  be  excused :  and  remain, 
'  Dear  Sir,  with  very  great  regard,  &c.' 

To  this  period  of  the  President's  life  belongs  an  in- 
cident of  interest,  concerning  which  however  I  have  been 
able  to  discover  nothing  beyond  what  I  proceed  to  relate. 
For  the  use  of  the  Gallican  Clergy  who  took  refuge  in 
England  during  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution, 
the  Convocation  of  the  University  of  Oxford  (March  loth, 
1795)  munificently  voted  that  an  edition  of  2000  copies 
of  the  Vulgate  Text  of  the  N.  T.  should  be  printed 
at  the  University  Press,  and  freely  distributed  among 
the  unfortunate  exiles  ; — "  Namqne  "  (to  quote  the  words 
of  their  spokesman)  "et  illucl  profngis  ereptumfuerat  solatium 
ut  Sanctos  Libros  secum  adportarent,  exilii  sid  comites  dulcls- 


'.THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  47 

simos"  3  Most  of  them  in  fact  had  made  their  escape  from 
France  in  such  haste,  that  they  had  brought  away  nothing 
with  them.4  A  copy  of  this  Edition, — in  a  solander 
case  lettered  behind  "  M.  J.  ROUTH  ET  G.  PENN," — (with 
Granville  Penn's  book  plate  inside  the  cover,)  was  pre- 
sented to  me  some  years  ago  by  one5  to  whom  I  am 
largely  indebted  for  information  concerning  the  President 
of  Magdalen.  It  is  thought  that  the  work  was  carried 
through  the  press  jointly  by  the  President  and  by  his 
former  pupil :  but  one  would  have  been  glad  to  repose 
on  something  better  than  surmise  in  respect  of  so  inter- 
esting an  incident.  It  is  clear  at  all  events  that  the 
copy  which  has  suggested  these  remarks  was  Granville 
Penn's,  and  that  the  President  had  some  close  connexion 
with  it ;  though  the  Annals  of  the  University  Press  afford 
no  evidence  that  either  *  G.  Penn'  or '  M.  J.  Routh '  was  con- 
cerned in  producing  the  edition  of  which  it  is  a  sample. 

"  Forty  years  ago,"  (wrote  Samuel  Rickards,  sometime 
fellow  of  Oriel,  to  James  Mozley  in  1854),  "I  had  a 
friend  at  your  college,  a  gentleman-commoner;  and  a 
very  odd,  though  well-meaning  man  he  was, — especially 
given  to  religious  oddities.  One  of  these  was  the  turning 
up  the  whites  of  his  eyes  in  chapel,  which  was  a  very 

3  From  the  prefatory  "'Literae  ad  1729,  d.  in  London  1806.] 

A.cademiar(fi  Oxoniensem  a  Joanne  4  Cox's  Recollections  of  Oxford, — 

Francisco  Episcopo  Leonensi  datae,  ist  ed.  p.  19. 

et  in  domo  Convocations  die  Mer-  5  My  old  friend,  now  my  neigh- 

curii  nmo  Maii  1796  publice  red-  bour,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bloxam,  for  28 

tatae"    [M.  l'Abb£  Martin  informs  years  fellow  of  Magdalen,  now  rector 

me  that   the  writer  of  this  letter  of  Beeding  Priory  in  this  county. 

was   '  Mgr.    Jean  Fra^ois    de   la  His  "  Register  of  the  Presidents, 

Marche,  eVeque  d'une  petite  ville  Fellows,  Demies,"  &c.  of  the  College 

connue  sous  le  nom  de  S.  Pol  de  which  he  has  so  long  adorned  and 

Le*on,  au  diocese  actuel  de  Quimper,  faithfully  served,  will  be  an  abiding 

dans  le  departement  de  Finistere,  a  monument  of  his  constancy,  dutiful- 

Vextre'mit^    de   la   Bretagne,   dans  ness,  and  pious  zeal. 
1'arrondissement   de   Morlaix ' :    &, 


48  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1810 

visible  token  of  some  other  things  about  him  unseen. 
This  only  brought  the  President  to  call  upon  him  oftener 
and  more  kindly,  it  seemed  ;  and  he  did  not  omit  to  tell 
him  that  such  ways  were  not  a  desirable  distinction  from 
other  people  engaged  side  by  side  with  him  at  their 
devotions  in  a  more  usual  manner.  I  remember  on  one 
occasion,  as  he  stood  before  the  fire,  just  going  away,  his 
eye  fell  upon  a  little  bust  of  either  Wesley  or  Whitfield, 
(I  forget  which,)  with  a  very  impassioned  expression  on 
the  countenance.  He  asked  who  it  was  ;  and  on  being 
told,  he  said  with  great  good-nature  and  seriousness 
too, — '  Surely,  for  many  reasons  besides  love  for  the  col- 
lege, the  spirit  as  well  as  the  presence  of  Bishop  Home 
would  be  better  dwelling  here,  than  such  a  stranger ! ' 
....  This  rebuke  had  the  desired  effect, — as  the  person 
to  whom  it  was  addressed  admitted  to  me  long  after."  6 

In  1810,  he  was  presented  to  the  Rectory  and  Vicarage 
of  Tylehurst,  near  Reading  (worth  iooo/.  a  year),  by 
Dr.  Thomas  Sheppard.  The  President  had  declined  the 
same  presentation  eleven  years  before,  disapproving  of 
the  condition  subject  to  which  it  had  been  then  offered 
him :  viz.  that  he  should  appropriate  300^  of  his  annual 
income  as  President  to  the  '  Livings'  fund '  of  Magdalen 
College.  Dr.  Sheppard  had  in  the  meantime  married 
the  President's  youngest  sister,  Sophia, — who  till  then 
had  done  the  honours  of  his  house ;  and  Tylehurst  had 
become  again  vacant  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Richard 
Chandler,  the  celebrated  traveller.  At  the  mature  age 
of  fifty-five,  Dr.  Routh  therefore  received  priest's  orders 
at  the  hands  of  Dr.  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  in 

'"'  Stowlangtoft  Rectory,  Dec.  27th,  are  again  and  again  going  over  the 

l%54- — Mozley's  correspondent  con-  loss  that  has  fallen  upon  you,  any 

eludes,  (referring  to  the  President's  remembrances  of  one  so  very  vener- 

recent  death), — "  It  seems  strange  able  may  drop  upon  your  mind  with 

to  write  of  things  so  long  past ;  but  something  of  comfort  in  them.   This 

such  an   event  brings  one's  recol-  at  least  is  my  way  of  consoling  you, 

lections    into   extraordinary   fresh-  and  I  will  not  doubt  that  you  will 

ness ;  and  it  may  be  that  while  you  take  it  in  good  part." 


1810]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  49 

the  Bishop's  private  chapel,  August  26th,  1810.  (By  the 
way,  Dr.  Landon,  Provost  of  Worcester,  had  enough 
of  humour  to  inquire  whether  the  President  was  properly 
examined  on  that  occasion.)  There  were  not  wanting 
some  to  insinuate  that  conscientious  scruples  had  been 
the  cause  why  the  President  of  Magdalen  had  continued 
in  deacon's  orders  for  three-and-thirty  years.  He  himself 
not  unreasonably  supposed  that  his  '  Reliquiae  '  was  the 
best  answer  to  such  a  calumny ;  and  explained  that  his 
only  reason  for  deferring  priest's  orders  had  been  because 
he  had  never  before  held  any  ecclesiastical  preferment. 
Henceforth  then,  in  his  case,  the  cares  of  the  pastoral 
office  were  superadded  to  the  claims  of  a  college,  and  tha 
occupations  of  a  laborious  student. 

He  made  no  secret  that  at  Tylehurst  he  preached  Town- 
son's  Sermons —abridged  to  a  quarter-of-an-hour  and 
corrected — every  Sunday  to  his  rustic  flock :  though  it  re- 
mains a  marvel  how  he  could  possibly  decipher  the  manu- 
script which  he  carried  with  him  into  the  pulpit.  "  There 
are  no  better  sermons,  John," — (he  used  to  say  to  his 
nephew,  who  was  also  his  curate,) — "  and  the  people  can- 
not hear  them  too  often."  He  always  preached  at  the 
morning  service,  weather  permitting,  during  his  residence 
of  three  months  ;  and  always  in  his  surplice : — yet  not  by 
any  means  so  much  for  conscience  sake,  as  for  a  sanitary 
reason.  He  was  apprehensive  of  taking  cold  if  he  took  off 
his  surplice.  His  practice  therefore  was,  after  giving  the 
blessing,  to  precede  the  congregation  out  of  Church, — to 
avoid  encountering  draughts.  But  he  told  his  nephew, 
(when  the  agitation  on  the  subject  was  at  its  height,) 
that  in  Suffolk,  se  puero,  the  surplice  was  universally  and 
exclusively  worn.  To  his  parishioners  he  was  always 
courteous ;  kind  to  them  all,  and  liberal  in  reducing  the 
tithe  payments  when  there  was  any  real  call  for  it.  One 

VOL.   I.  E 


50  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1815 

of  the  latest  acts  of  his  life  was  the  enlargement  of  the 
Church,  un&i—'incolarum  paroeciae  suae  aetate  provectiorum 
hand  immemorl — the  erection  of  a  porch  on  the  south  side. 

To  this  period  of  the  President's  life  belongs  the 
following  letter,  addressed  by  him  to  the  Rev.  William 
Aldrich,  fellow  of  Magdalen  and  Senior  Proctor ;  who,  at: 
the  conclusion  of  his  period  of  office,  having  to  prepare 
his  Proctorial  speech,  had  evidently  applied  to  the 
President  for  a  few  appropriate  sentences  to  commemorate 
the  chief  event  of  the  year,  viz.  the  decease  of  Dr.  John 
Evelcigh  [Provost  1781-1814]  and  the  succession  of  Ed- 
ward Copleston  to  the  Provostship  of  Oriel.  Such  a  letter, 
it  is  thought,  well  deserves  to  be  placed  on  record : — 

1  Tylehurst,  April  ist,  1815. 

*  Dear  Sir, — I  omitted  leaving  the  few  sentences  here 
subjoined  before  I  left  Oxford,  being  at  that  time 
unusually  occupied  and  engaged ;  but  last  night,  as  the 
time  pressed,  I  determined  on  making  you  wait  no 
longer,  at  the  same  time  hoping  that  you  might  only  now 
be  returned  to  Oxford  : — 

'  Dein  paucis  mensibus  interjectis  e  medio  nobis  ereptus 
est  vir  gravis  et  sanctus,  Orielensis  Collegii  praepositus, 
qui,  juncta  doctrina  turn  sacra  quam  externa  cum  literis 
Hebraicis,  in  scriptis  suis  non  tantum  divinas  Scripturas 
feliciter  exposuit,  sed  etiam  fidem  orthodoxam  invictissime 
defendit.  lleligionis  praemia,  quae  innocentia  vitae  atque 
inculpatis  moribus  DEO  adjuvante  meruerat,  virtutibus  et 
annis  plenus,  jam  melius  nosse  incepit. 

'  Huic  egregio  viro,  quern  diu  lugebunt  cum  ecclesia  et 
academia,  turn  vero  praecipue  celebre  musarum  domicilium 
in  quo  habitabat,  successit  grande  decus  atque  tutamen 
reruin  nostrarum,  is,  qui  omnium  tulit  suffragia,  nee  meo 
vel  cujusquam  alius  egens  prseconio. 

'  These  lines  such  as  they  are  I  have  sent,  depending  on 
your  secrecy,  and  remain  your  faithful  servant, 

'  M.  J.  KOUTH.' 


1820]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  51 

But  the  following  memorandum,  written  by  the  Presi- 
dent's hand,  refers  to  an  event  in  his  history  of  far  too 
much  importance  to  be  any  longer  withheld: — '1820, 
September  1 8th,  my  birthday.  I  married  Eliza  Agnes, 
eldest  unmarried  daughter  of  John  Blagrave,  esq.,  of 
Calcot  Park,  in  the  parish  of  Tylehurst.'  The  marriage 
was  solemnized  at  Walcot  church,  Bath, — in  which  city 
(as  she  explained  to  me)  Mrs.  Routh  had  been  brought 
up  by  her  aunt.  She  resided  at  22  Queen  square,  and 
had  known  her  future  husband  about  seven  years.  He 
was  now  exactly  sixty-five.  This  lady  (born  in  1790), 
the  tenth  of  a  single  family  of  twenty  children,  survived 
him  fifteen  years, — dying(March  23rd,  1869)  aged  seventy- 
eight, — and  lies  interred  in  Holywell  Cemetery.  Dr. 
Chandler  (she  said)  used  to  tell  her  that  'she  was  a 
tithe,  and  belonged  to  the  Rectory ' :  it  was  but  fitting 
therefore  that  she  should  have  married  the  next  Rector. 
Mrs.  Routh  loved  to  talk  about  her  husband, — whom  she 
greatly  revered.  She  remarked  to  me  that  he  used 
always  to  say  his  private  prayers  leaning  against  a 
table  and  standing.  He  had  told  her  (she  said)  that 
when  he  was  twelve  years  of  age  he  wrote  a  sermon 
which  so  surprised  the  family,  that  his  sister  was  curious 
to  know  whether  it  was  his  own.  To  convince  her,  he 
wrote  another.  Far  better  deserving  of  attention,  how- 
ever, is  Mrs.  Routh's  share  in  the  following  incident 
which  I  had  from  her  own  lips. 

Many  will  remember  a  shameful  murder  committed  in 
1 845  by  a  Quaker  named  Tawell.  Some  may  be  aware 
that  the  telegraphic  wires  were  first  employed  to  pro- 
mote the  ends  of  justice  on  the  same  occasion,  and  that 
the  murderer's  apprehension  was  the  consequence.  This 
man's  relations  lived  about  four  miles  from  Beccles,  were 
well  known  to  the  Rouths,  and  were  much  respected  in 

E  2, 


52  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1845 

the  neighbourhood.  One  morning  after  breakfast,  the 
President,  who  had  been  perusing  the  sentence  passed 
on  Tawell  by  Baron  Parke,  exclaimed  — ' Eliza,  give 
me  a  pen.'  She  obeyed :  whereupon  he  instantly  wrote 
the  following  letter,  which  was  duly  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  miserable  man  in  his  cell,  and  read  by  him  before 
his  execution.  The  Chaplain  of  the  gaol  was  brother  to 
the  well-known  Oxford  bedell,  Mr.  Cox, — who,  as  a 
former  member  of  Magdalen,  knew  the  handwriting. 
The  document  appeared  in  some  of  the  public  prints 
immediately  after : — 

« Sir, — This  comes  from  one  who,  like  yourself,  has  not 
long  to  live,  being  in  his  ninetieth  year.  He  has  had 
more  opportunity  than  most  men  for  distinctly  knowing 
that  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament  were  written 
by  the  Apostles  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind.  In  these 
Scriptures  it  is  expressly  said  that  the  blood  of  JESUS 
CHRIST,  the  Sox  of  GOD,  cleanses  us  from  all  sin ;  and  that 
if  we  confess  our  sins,  GOD,  being  merciful  and  just,  will 
forgive  us  our  sins  on  our  repentance. 

'  I  write  this,  not  knowing  how  long  you  have  to  live  ; 
but  in  the  name  of  the  faithful,  just,  and  merciful  God, 
make  use  of  your  whole  time  in  supplications  for  His 
mercy. 

'Perhaps  the  very  circumstances  in  which  you  are 
now  placed  may  be  the  means  of  saving  your  immortal 
soul ;  for  if  you  had  gone  on  in  sin  to  the  end  of  your 
life  you  would  infallibly  have  lost  it.  Think,  say,  and 
do  everything  in  your  power  to  save  your  soul  before 
you  go  into  another  life. 

'YOUR  FRIEND.' 

But  we  were  speaking  of  the  President  of  Magdalen 
as  incumbent  of  a  Berkshire  village.  His  nephew 
John  thus  writes  : — 

"  His  chief  occupation  at  Tylehurst,  when  not  engaged 


1832]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  53 

in  literary  pursuits,  was  visiting  Theale,  (a  hamlet  of 
the  parish  distant  three  miles  from  the  rectory,)  for  the 
purpose  of  superintending  the  building  of  the  Church 
there  which  was  done  at  the  sole  expense  of  his  sister 
Mrs.  Sheppard:7  begun  in  1820  and  finished  in  1830, — 
(as  long  he  used  to  say  as  the  siege  of  Troy,) — at  a  cost 
of  2,6,0001.  including  the  parsonage  house  :  a  sum  which 
in  these  days  would  have  built,  I  imagine,  three  Churches 
of  the  same  size.  I  have  known  him  walk  to  this  Church 
and  back  (6  miles)  with  a  severe  hill  to  climb,  when  he 
was  in  his  94th  year,  and  under  a  July  sun." 

The  other  work,  on  which  the  President  of  Magdalen 
founds  his  claim  to  the  Church's  gratitude,  appeared  in 
1832,  with  this  title :  'Scriptorum  Ecclesiasticorum  Opmcula 
praecipua  quaedam'  Within  the  narrow  compass  of  two 
octavo  volumes  we  are  here  furnished  with  what,  after 
exhaustive  search,  the  learned  editor  deemed  most  pre- 
cious among  the  remains  of  primitive  ecclesiastical 
antiquity.  The  prefatory  address  '  To  the  Reader,'  in 
which  the  contents  of  the  book  are  briefly  reviewed  and 
explained,  deserves  very  thoughtful  perusal.  Hippo- 
lytus  contributes  a  treatise  on  the  Divine  Nature. 
Against  heretical  depravation,  Irenaeus  and  Tertullian 
write.  Some  precious  authorities  concerning  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Sacrament  of  CHRIST'S  Body  and  Blood 
follow.  Against  Gentile  superstitions  Cyprian  furnishes 
a  treatise.  The  Creeds  and  Canons  of  the  first  four 
General  Councils  witness  to  what  was  the  faith,  what 
the  discipline,  of  the  Church  Universal.  And  so  much 
for  doctrine.  Polycarp,  Tertullian,  Cyprian  contribute 

7  This  loved  sister  sleeps  in  Am-  lulii    .   xxxi  .   |  anno   .  Salutis  . 

port  church.     Her  tablet  bears  the  MDCCCXLVIII  .  moerentibus  .  \  undi- 

following  epitaph  by  the  President :  que .  auxilio  .  orbis  .  et  .  perpetuas . 

— Eequiescit  .  donante  .  Deo  .  in  .  \  lacrymas  .  fundente .  domo  .  sua  . 

pace  .  Sophia.  \  vidua  .  Thomae  .  nisi.  \  viventem .  cum .  Christo  .  sem- 

Sheppard  .  S.  T.  P.  vixit  .  ann.  \  per  .  deflere  .  \  nefas  .  esset .  \  Vale  . 

LXXIX  .  mens  .  ix  .  decessit  .  die  .  vale  .  quae  .fuisti  .  carissima  . 


54  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1823 

what  tends  to  practical  piety.  Lastly,  the  pretensions 
of  the  see  of  Rome  to  authority  and  infallibility  are 
tested  by  an  appeal  to  antiquity.  We  are  shown  that 
Stephanus,  Bishop  of  Rome,  was  held  by  the  ancients  to 
have  excommunicated  himself  when  he  excommunicated 
the  Orientals;  and  that  Honorius,  another  Romish 
bishop,  was  first  condemned  by  a  general  Council,  and 
then  anathematised  his  own  successors.  To  these,  some 
important  treatises  were  added  in  1840,  when  a  second 
edition  of  the  work  was  called  for.  The  late  learned  and 
pious  Bishop  of  Chester  (Dr.  Jacobson)  re-edited  the 
*  Opuscnla'  in  1858,  with  much  self-denying  labour  and 
learning ;  withholding  nothing — but  his  name.  It  shall 
but  be  added  that  every  one  aspiring  to  be  a  student 
of  Divinity  should  possess  himself  of  Routh's  Opuscula 
and  Reliquiae,  and  should  master  their  contents.  The 
prefaces  to  both, — to  the  latter  especially, — should  be 
carefully  laid  to  heart. 

But  it  were  a  very  inadequate  sketch  of  Dr.  Routh's 
work  and  character  which  should  represent  him  only 
as  a  divine.  In  1823,  he  relates, — (his  autograph 
memorandum  lies  before  me,) — "  I  published  an  edition 
of  Burnet's  History  of  Ms  oivn  Time,  accompanied  with 
the  hitherto  unpublished  Notes  of  the  Earls  of  Dart- 
mouth and  Hardwick,  and  the  whole  of  Dean  Swift's, 
and  additional  ones  of  my  own  ;  besides  the  passages 
of  the  first  volume  in  folio,  which  had  been  suppressed 
by  the  first  editors."  Of  this  work,  a  second  and  en- 
larged edition  appeared  in  1833.  His  mind  seemed 
saturated  with  the  lore  of  the  period  of  which  Burnet 
treats;  and  (as  Dr.  Charles  Daubeny,  one  of  his 
fellows,  remarked)  when  he  made  it  the  theme  of  his 
conversation — 


1852]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  55 

'he  seemed  to  deliver  himself  rather  like  a  contemporary 
who  had  been  an  eye-witness  of  the  scenes  he  de- 
scribed, than  as  one  who  had  drawn  his  information  from 
second-hand  sources ;  so  perfect  was  his  acquaintance 
with  the  minutest  details,  so  intimate  his  familiarity 
with  everything  relating  to  the  history  of  the  indi- 
viduals who  figured  in  those  events.  On  such  occasions 
one  could  hardly  help  interrupting  him  in  the  course 
of  his  narrative  by  inquiring  whether  he  had  not  him- 
self witnessed  the  rejoicings  at  the  signature  of  the 
peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  or  shaken  hands  with  Presi- 
dent Hough  at  the  time  of  his  triumphant  return  to 
his  college,  on  the  restoration  of  the  fellows.  Availing 
himself  of  the  privileges  of  seniority,  he  had  the  tact 
to  lead  the  conversation  into  those  channels  with 
which  he  was  most  at  home,  and  astonished  the  eager 
listener  with  the  extent  and  accuracy  of  his  know- 
ledge. It  was  thus,  only  a  few  years  before  his  death, 
that  he  surprised  Mr.  Bancroft,  the  American  historian, 
with  his  knowledge  of  the  reign  of  James  II,  and  of 
the  early  settlements  in  America.  Nothing  in  the 
meantime  can  be  conceived  more  dignified,  more  cour- 
teous, more  ingratiating  than  his  address  and  manner, 
especially  during  his  latter  years,  when  the  peculiari- 
ties of  his  dress  and  appearance  were  set  down  to  his 
great  age,  and  the  fashion  of  a  period  long  gone  by. 
— which  enhanced  the  effect  of  his  affable  and  kind, 
though  formal  deportment.' 8 

In  1852  he  published,  in  a  single  volume,  with  many 
additional  notes,  Burnet's  ''History  of  the  Reign  of  King 
James  II.'  "  I  am  going  on  at  the  press  with  King 
James'  Life,"  (he  writes  to  Dr.  Ogilvie,Oct.  4th,  1851),— 
"  but  not  at  so  quick  a  pace  as  I  wish.  It  affords  me 
some  amusement."  The  last  words  of  his  short  Preface 
deserve  to  be  transcribed : — '  Under  all  our  changes,  the 
public  press  by  its  disclosure  and  powerful  advocacy 
of  the  truth,  has  been  found  protecting  right  against 

8  Biographical  sketch,— a,  leaflet,  signed  <  C.  DJ 


•56  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1852 

wrong,  and  maintaining  real  liberty.'  In  the  first  draft 
this  sentence  ran  thus: — 'A  free  press  will  be  found 
as  essential  as  ever  to  the  preservation  of  real  freedom.' 
His  own  politics  savoured  altogether  of  a  bygone  age.  He 
belonged  to  no  modern  party.  Daubeny  relates  (from 
hearsay)  that  'in  early  life,  Routh's  was  a  kind  of 
theoretical  Jacobitism,  such  as  had  been  cherished  very 
generally  by  the  clergy  and  country  squires  of  the  last 
century.'  But  disloyalty  was  abhorrent  to  his  whole 
nature.  He  was  all  for  the  prerogatives  of  the  Sovereign, 
and  jealous  of  the  encroachments  of  the  aristocracy. 
Thus  his  Toryism  carried  with  it  a  dash  of  liberalism. 
This  endeared  him  to  Sir  Francis  Burdett,  who  with 
generous  warmth  paid  an  eloquent  tribute  to  his  friend's 
merits  in  the  course  of  a  debate  in  the  House,  May  8th, 
1828.  His  churchmanship  was  that  of  the  best  Caroline 
divines.  Popery  he  abhorred.  "  They  have  no  support 
in  the  Fathers,  sir.  In  the  first  three  centuries,  not  one 
word."9  He  recognised  in  the  teaching  of  the  reformed 
Church  of  England  the  nearest  approximation  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Apostolic  age.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
formed  no  alliance  with  any  party  in  the  Church.  He 
was  above  party,  taking  his  stand  on  Scripture  and 
primitive  antiquity ;  although  concerning  his  sympa- 
thies, there  could  be  no  doubt.  "  I  never  saw  the 
President  look  so  black  "  (writes  Dr.  Bloxam)  "  as  when 
the  epithets  '  Tractarian  '  or  '  Puseyite '  were  employed 
in  his  presence."  Keenly  alive  to  politics,  (for  he  read 
4  the  Times  '  to  the  last,  and  watched  with  extraordinary 
interest  the  progress  of  the  Russian  war,)  he  chiefly 
regarded  the  movements  of  the  State  as  they  affected 
the  independence  and  purity  of  the  Church.  Even 
from  the  government  and  public  business  of  the  Univer- 

9  To  Dr.  Cotton,  Provost  of  Worcester  College. 


1852]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  57 

sity  he  kept  himself  aloof,  contented  to  administer 
his  own  college  well.  But,  as  I  have  said,  he  was 
an  anxious,  as  well  as  attentive  observer  of  what  was 
passing  around  him.  The  democratic  tendencies  of  the 
age  filled  him  with  alarm.  The  phrase  '  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment' so  offended  him  that  (January  17,  1800)  it  called 
forth  from  him  a  long  and  indignant  protest, — to  whom 
addressed,  I  know  not.  The  vulgar  error  that  our 
tripartite  Constitution  consists  of  '  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons,' — (whereas,  as  every  student  knows,  the  three 
Estates  of  the  Realm  are  '  the  Spiritualty ,  the  Nobility, 
and  the  Commonalty,'  the  Sovereign  being  above  and 
over  all); — this  also  used  greatly  to  disgust  him.  The 
interference  of  the  University  Commission  (of  1854),  he 
resented  with  unmingled  indignation  and  abhorrence. 
What  would  he  have  said  to  the  revolutionary  Com- 
mission of  1 876?  He  would  have  despaired  of  Oxford 
altogether  could  he  have  known  what  was  in  store 
for  the  institutions  he  had  loved  so  well,  at  the  end 
of  thirty  years. 

The  present  is  the  sketch  of  what  was  confessedly 
an  uneventful  life.  The  President  grew  very  aged 
amid  the  regards  of  a  generation  whose  sires  remem- 
bered him  an  old  man.  Well  informed  in  every  topic 
of  the  hour, — weighty  in  his  judgments, — animated  and 
instructive  in  his  conversation, — he  was  resorted  to  with 
affectionate  reverence ;  and  every  one  on  coming  away 
had  something  to  relate  in  proof  of  his  unfailing  readi- 
ness, clearness,  shrewdness, — the  extent  and  minuteness 
of  his  knowledge — his  unique  aptitude  at  reproducing 
names  and  dates  when  he  told  a  story.  Everything 
about  him  was  interesting, — was  marvellous :  his  cos- 
tume, his  learning,  his  wisdom,  his  wit,  his  wig.  He 


,58  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH  :  [1834 

never  came  abroad ;  so  that,  with  the  many,  his  very 
existence  rested  on  tradition.  One  of  his  fellows  in 
the  beginning  of  February  1834  writes, — "Newman 
was  closeted  the  other  day  for  two  hours  with  Dr. 
Routh,  receiving  his  opinions  as  to  his  work  [the 
History  of  the  Arians],  which  were  very  complimen- 
tary." 1  It  may  have  been  in  consequence  of  those 
two  hours  of  colloquy  that  the  President  used  to  speak 
of  him,  as  '  that  clever  young  gentleman  of  Oriel,  Mr. 
Newman'  :  but  there  were  several  other  interviews. 
In  the  last  volume  of  his  '  Reliquiae,'  (it  was  published 
in  1848,)  he  designates  him  as  "  vir  valde  perspicax  et 
eruditns  " 2 .  .  .  He  certainly  cherished  great  personal 
regard  as  well  as  respect  for  the  vicar  of  S.  Mary's  ; 
sending  him  some  of  his  books,  and  once  going  out 
of  his  way  to  find  and  give  him  a  copy  of  Casaubon's 
'  Adversaria'  "  Up  to  1845"  (writes  Dr.  Bloxam)  "  when 
Newman  declined  the  appointment,  he  always  sent  me 
over  to  Littlemore  to  ask  Newman  to  be  examiner 
for  the  Johnson  Scholarship.  On  the  last  occasion, 
Newman  wrote  to  decline  it  in  the  following  words : — 

"  I  wish  I  could  convey  to  you  how  much  I  felt  the 
great  kindness  of  your  message  to  me  by  Mr.  Bloxam. 
It  seems  almost  intrusion  and  impertinence  to  express 
to  you  my  gratitude,  yet  I  cannot  help  it.  You  are  the 
only  person  in  station  in  Oxford,  who  has  shown  me 
any  countenance  for  a  long  course  of  years ;  and,  much 
as  I  knew  your  kindness,  I  did  not  expect  it  now."  3 

"  Up  to  the  last,"  (continues  my  informant),  "  he  used 
to  speak  to  me  of  Newman  as  'the  great  Newman.'" 
Routh' s  attitude,  in  fact,  throughout  the  period  referred 
to,  admits  of  no  mistake.  The  appointment  of  Dr. 

1  Mozley's  Letters, — p.  39.  for  more  on  the  same  subject,  see 

2  Seliqq.  v.  368.  Bloxam's  Demies,— p.  34-7. 

3  For  the  rest  of  this  letter,  and 


1835]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  59 

Hampden  to  the  Regius  Professorship  of  Divinity  (in 
1836)  aroused  a  storm  of  indignation  in  the  University 
which  was  never  appeased.  Convocation  resolved  to 
petition  the  Crown  against  it,  and  an  extraordinary 
scene  was  witnessed  in  the  Sheldonian  Theatre  (March 
22nd)  in  which  however  the  most  interesting  feature, — 
(James  Mozley  calls  it  "  one  of  the  most  pleasant 
sights,") — "  was  old  Routh,  the  venerable  head  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  who  appeared  for  the  first  time,  I  suppose, 
in  these  many  years,  in  his  place  among  the  Doctors. 
At  the  first  glimpse  of  his  wig,  a  general  acclamation 
was  raised,  which  the  old  gentleman  returned  with 
several  bows,  in  all  the  courtesy  of  the  old  school"  4  .  .  . 
We  smile,  of  course :  and  yet,  when  about  this  very 
time  we  encounter  the  venerable  President  in  person,  he 
moves  before  us  like  one  of  his  contemporaries,  and  excites 
nothing  but  grave  respect.  Take  the  following  letter  of 
his  to  Hugh  James  Rose, — written  at  the  same  critical 
period  in  the  history  of  our  Church : — 

'  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  March  31,  1835. 

*  Reverend  Sir, — I  return  you  many  thanks  for  the  op- 
portunity you  have  given  me  of  sooner  reading  your  Concio 
ad  Clernm.5  The  judicious  remarks  it  contains  on  former 
periods  of  our  history,  expressed  in  excellent  Latinity, 
afforded  me  much  pleasure ;  at  the  same  time  that  the 
apprehensions  you  entertain  for  the  future  safety  of  the 
Church,  corresponded  with  my  own.  Let  us  however 
trust  that  GOD  will  favour  our  cause,  which  is  that  of 
justice  and  truth. 

'  I  have  to  request  further  favours  at  your  hands  :  the 
first  is,  to  thank  in  my  name,  as  I  am  ignorant  of  his 
address,  Mr.  Haiti  and  (the  author  of  Letters  to  you  on 
Milner's  Church  History)  for  the  perusal  of  his  appro- 
priate and  unanswerable  Strictures  ;  the  other  is  to  offer 

*  Letters,  p.  55. 
5  At  S.  Paul's  (aoth  Febr.  1835),  '  Jussu  Eeverendissimi,' — p.  19. 


60  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH  :  [1851 

my  kind  respects  to  Mr.  Ogilvie,  your  coadjutor  at 
Lambeth.— I  remain,  Reverend  Sir,  with  great  esteem, 
your  obedient  and  obliged  Servant, 

<M.  J.  ROUTE.' 

Something  was  said  above  about  the  President's 
marvellous  retention  of  his  faculties, — his  vivacity  and 
intellectual  vigour.  His  clearness  of  mind  and  ready 
recollection  of  dates  gave  him  a  great  advantage  in 
conversation.  He  was  once  telling  Dr.  Daubeny  of  the 
wish  entertained  by  an  illustrious  person  to  be  Chancellor 
of  the  University.  '  And  why  was  he  not  elected  ? '  asked 
Daubeny.  '  Because  the  Chancellor  chose  to  live,  sir ! ' — 
'  But/  rejoined  Daubeny, '  why  was  he  not  elected  after 
the  Chancellor's  death1?'  'Because  he  was  dead  himself,  sir,' 
he  replied; — with  a  rapidity  which  was  very  diverting 
to  those  who  overheard  the  conversation. 

The  retentiveness  of  his  memory,  even  in  respect  of 
trifles,  was  truly  extraordinary.  His  nephew,  John 
Routh,  having  had  a  seventh  child  born  to  him  in  1851, 
the  President  (who  had  entered  on  his  97th  year)  re- 
marked to  John  Rigaud  (fellow  of  Magdalen)  '  That  was 
your  number.'  How  he  came  to  know  the  fact — yet  more 
why  he  should  have  remembered  it — no  one  present  could 
imagine.  Shortly  before  his  death,  on  being  shown  in  a 
newspaper G  an  account  of  himself  in  which  his  age  was 
mentioned,  and  the  persons  specified  with  whom  he  might 
have  conversed,  he  exclaimed — '  I  am  described  as  being  a 
little  younger  than  Pitt.  The  blockhead,  as  he  knew  my 
age,  might  have  known  that  I  was  four  or  five  years  older' 

Dr.  Jacobson  described  to  me  a  visit  he  once  paid  him ; 
when,  after  a  little  talk,  the  President  challenged  him  to 
adjourn  to  the  garden  for  conversation:  remarking  that 
it  was  somewhat  gloomy  within,  but  cheerful  out-of- 

6  Maidstone  Journal,  some  time  in  1853. 


1844]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  61 

doors.  (It  was  during  the  dog-days.)  The  clock  struck 
3  as  they  entered  the  old-fashioned  demesne  (part  of  the 
garden  of  old  'Magdalen  Hall,')  and  the  venerable  man 
prolonged  a  most  animated  discourse  concerning  the  '88, 
until  the  clock  struck  5, — when  a  servant  came  to 
announce  dinner.  There  was  he,  dramatizing  every  in- 
cident ;  giving  the  actual  words  of  the  several  speakers  ; 
relating  the  fortunes  of  the  house  of  Magdalen  at  the 
period ;  "  and,  at  times,  looking  uncomfortably  over  his 
shoulder,  as  if  not  without  a  lurking  suspicion  that  the 
very  gooseberry-bushes  had  ears."  .  .  .  My  informant 
greatly  regretted  that  he  had  kept  no  notes  of  his  many 
conversations  with  the  old  President. 

Side  by  side,  however,  with  all  this  quick  intelligence, 
he  would  ever  and  anon  betray  the  fact  that  he  belonged 
to  a  quite  bygone  generation.  He  retained  many  obsolete 
expressions.  For  instance,  he  was  known  to  exclaim  to 
his  servant, — c  Bring  it  back,  sirraJi !'...'  There  comes 
my  lord  of  Oxford]  he  would  say  of  the  Bishop.  .  .  .  But 
in  fact,  it  was  impossible  even  for  those  who  revered 
him  most  not  to  be  merry  over  the  little  details  which 
occasionally  transpired.  Thus  (June  4th,  1844)  he  sent 
the  following  official  note  to  H.  P.  Guillemard  (Senior 
Proctor) : — '  Mr.  Woodhouse,  a  gentleman  commoner  of 
this  college,  has  my  permission  to  hire  a  one-horse  chaise, 
if  it  meets  with  the  approbation  of  the  Senior  Proctor!  And 
in  the  following  October,  R.  W.  Church,  the  present 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's  (Junior  Proctor),  received  a  similar 
message : — '  Mr.  Wm.  Woodhouse,  a  gentleman  com- 
moner of  this  college,  has  my  permission,  if  he  obtains 
the  Proctor's  consent,  to  make  use  of  a  vehicle  drawn  by  one 
horse?  ....  Little  did  the  venerable  writer  dream  of  the 
metamorphosis  which,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Cherwell, 
awaited  the  '  vehicle '  which  had  been  '  drawn  by  one 


62  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH  :  [1844 

horse'  as  far  as  Magdalen  bridge!  .  .  .  Add  certain 
peculiarities  of  costume  and  manner,  and  it  will  be 
readily  understood  that  there  were  many  good  stories 
current  concerning  the  dear  old  President, — some  of: 
which  were  true. 

I  should  despair  of  exhibiting  a  scene  which  I  once 
heard  (or  rather  once  satv)  John  Rigaud  describe  of  an 
examination  at  which  he  assisted  in  the  President's 
library, — the  last  which  the  President  ever  conducted  in 
person.  The  book  was  Homer,  of  which  the  youth  to 
be  examined  was  profoundly  ignorant.  What  with  the 
President's  deafness  and  the  man's  mistakes,  Rigaud 
thought  he  must  have  expired.  The  President  had  two 
copies  of  Homer,  one  at  each  side  of  his  chair ;  and  with 
immense  urbanity  handed  a  copy  to  the  youth  as  he 
entered.  When  the  man  read  the  Greek,  the  President 
thought  he  was  construing  into  English,  and  vice  versa. 
{;  What  was  that  you  said,  sir  ? "  he  would  inquire 
earnestly.  The  man  confessed  what  he  had  said.  One 
of  the  examiners  was  down  upon  him  in  an  instant. 
The  President  stood  up  for  the  victim,  on  the  charitable 
hypothesis  that,  "  perhaps  he  had  been  taught  so."  The 
man  speedily  put  it  out  of  all  doubt  that  his  method 
was  entirely  his  own.  Thereupon  the  President  con- 
strued the  passage  for  him.  Rigaud  was  fain  to  conceal 
himself  behind  the  newspaper,  and  sat  in  perfect  terror 
lest  he  should  be  appealed  to,  and  be  compelled  to 
exhibit  a  face  convulsed  with  merriment. 

Dr.  Routh  was  very  fond  of  his  dogs.  It  was  his  way, 
when  a  superfluous  bit  of  bread-and-butter  was  in  his 
hand  at  tea-time,  to  sink  back  in  his  chair  and  at  the 
same  instant  to  drop  the  morsel  to  the  expectant  and 
eager  quadrupeds,  which  have  been  known  so  far  to 
take  advantage  of  his  good  nature  as  fairly  to  invade 


1844]  -         '  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  63 

his  person,  in  order  to  get  rather  more  than  he  had 
contemplated  bestowing.  Very  mournful  was  the  ex- 
pression his  features  assumed  if  ever  Mrs.  Routh,  in  the 
exercise  of  a  sane  discretion,  took  upon  herself  to  expel 
the  dogs  from  the  apartment.  .  .  .  The  Vice-President 
once  informed  him,  in  the  name  of  the  fellows,  that  they 
had  resolved  to  enforce  the  college  order,  by  which  it 
was  forbidden  to  keep  dogs  in  college.  "Then,  sir,"  he 
rejoined,  "/  suppose  I  must  call  mine — cats!"  It  was  a 
characteristic  reply,  as  well  from  its  drollery  as  from  the 
indication  it  afforded  of  his  resolution  to  stand  up  for 
his  favourites.  His  dogs  must  perforce  be  permitted  to 
reign  undisturbed.  At  the  same  time,  his  respect  for 
authority  and  concern  for  the  discipline  of  the  college 
over  which  he  presided  would  have  made  him  reluctant 
to  violate  any  rule  of  the  society. 

John  Rigaud  helped  him  to  prepare  the  single  volume 
of  Burnet' s  work  for  the  press.  This  brought  him  con- 
stantly into  contact  with  the  venerable  President,  and 
rendered  him  so  familiar  with  his  manner,  that  he 
narrates  his  sayings  to  the  life.  It  also  introduced  him 
to  much  of  the  President's  mind  on  the  subject  of 
Burnet,  for  whom  he  entertained  wondrous  little  respect. 
When  the  Bishop  speaks  of  himself, — "Here  comes  P.  P., 
clerk  of  this  parish!"  he  would  say,  ejaculating  to  himself 
afterwards, — "Rogue!"  . . .  *  Why  is  it,  uncle,'  (once  asked 
his  nephew,  John  Routh,)  'that  you  are  always  working  at 
Burnet,  whom  you  are  always  attacking?'  To  whom  the 
President, — 'A  good  question,  sir!  Because  I  know  the  man 
to  be  a  liar  ;  and  I  am  determined  to  prove  him  so '  ... 
When  Burnet  was  at  last  finished,  he  sent  a  beautifully 
bound  copy  to  the  Chancellor,  and  pleased  himself  with 
the  prospect  of  receiving  an  autograph  acknowledgment 
from  the  great  Duke,  for  whom  he  entertained  an 


64  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1844 

ardent  admiration.  Day  after  day  elapsed,  and  still  no 
letter ;  but  the  President  suffered  no  one  to  know  that 
he  was  greatly  vexed  and  disappointed.  At  last  he 
opened  his  grief  to  Dr.  Bliss,  with  the  simplicity  of  a 
child  who  has  been  denied  a  lawful  gratification.  The 
Duke's  letter,  after  many  days,  was  discovered  lying  on 
a  little  table  by  his  side.  It  had  been  accidentally  over- 
looked. 

One  of  the  President's  most  characteristic  stories  re- 
lated to  a  privilege  case,  of  which  I  am  only  able  to 
relate  a  portion.  It  exhibited  the  House  of  Commons 
(for  which  he  entertained  very  little  respect)  in  an- 
tagonism to  the  Courts  of  Law.  The  Speaker  entered 
the  Court,  with  purpose  to  overawe  the  Judge  in  the 
administration  of  justice.  "I  sit  here  to  administer  the 
laws  of  England,"  was  the  solemn  dictum  of  the  great 
legal  functionary.  ( '  And  I  will  commit  you.,  Mr.  Speaker ; 
yes,  you,  Mr.  Speaker ;  if  you  had  the  whole  House  of 
Commons  in  your  belly."  .  .  .  But  no  trick  of  style  can 
convey  the  least  idea  of  the  animation  with  which  these 
words  of  defiance  were  repeated.  The  President,  having 
brought  the  Speaker  into  the  presence  of  the  Judge, 
grew  excited,  and  his  speech  at  once  assumed  the  dra- 
matic form.  At  "  I  sit  here,"  &c.,  his  whole  frame 
underwent  emotion:  he  raised  his  voice,  and  fixed  his 
eyes  severely  on  the  person  before  him.  At  "  the  laws  of 
England,"  he  struck  the  table  smartly  with  his  extended 
fingers.  The  threat  to  commit  the  Speaker  was  uttered 
with  immense  gusto,  and  evidently  repeated  with  in- 
creased gratification.  But  the  concluding  hypothetical 
defiance  was  overwhelming.  The  patriotic  narrator 
chuckled  and  fell  back  in  his  chair,  convulsed  with 
merriment  at  the  grotesqueness  of  the  image  which  the 
Judge  had  so  deliberately  evoked. 


1845]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  65 

What  goes  before  reminds  me  of  the  zest  with  which 
he  used  to  repeat  a  quatrain  relating  to  the  threatened 
fate  of  one  of  the  seven  deprived  Bishops  : 

'  And  shall  Trelawny  die  ?  .  .  . 
And  shall  Trelawny  die  ?  .  .  . 
Then  thirty-thousand  Cornish  boys 
Will  know  the  reason  why ! ' 

The  energy  exhibited  by  the  aged  and  enthusiastic 
speaker  will  be  readily  understood  by  those  who  knew 
him :  some  idea  may  be  conveyed  to  those  who  did  not. 
The  interrogation  in  the  first  line  was  exactly  repeated 
in  the  second.  There  was  the  same  grand  rolling 
enunciation  of  '  TVdawny' :  the  same  emphatic  inter- 
rogating '  die  ? ' :  the  same  pause,  as  if  waiting  for  an 
answer  at  the  end  of  the  line.  And  the  last  couplet 
followed  as  if  .the  silence  of  the  Government  must  be 
interpreted  fatally :  as  if,  therefore,  those  '  thirty  thou- 
sand Cornish  boys '  might  be  expected  to  enter  the  room 
at  any  moment. 

He  delighted  in  the  company  of  two  or  three  intimate 
friends  at  dinner,  on  Sundays  especially :  as  Dr.  Bloxam 
(whose  place  was  always  next  to  him,  on  his  left  hand), 
and  the  late  loved  President,  his  successor  (Dr.  Bulley) ; 
James  Mozley  (also  recently  deceased),  and  John  Bigaud 
of  his  own  college ; — or  again,  Dr.  Bliss  (Principal  of 
St.  Mary  Hall),  Philip  Duncan  of  New  College,  and  "  Mo 
Griffiths,"  of  Merton,  &c.  On  such  occasions  he  would 
be  very  communicative  and  entertaining,  abounding  in 
anecdote.  He  always  drank  the  health  of  his  guests 
all  round ;  once,  so  far  deviating  from  his  usual  practice 
as  to  propose  a  toast.  It  was  the  Sunday  after  the 
Duke  of  Wellington's  death  :  and  he  gave  "  the  memory 
of  our  great  and  good  Chancellor,  who  never  erred 

VOL.  I.  F     * 


66  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE  :  [1849 

except  when  he  was  over-ruled."  His  way  was,  after 
giving  his  cap  to  the  servant,  to  say  grace  himself: — 
before  meat, — "  For  what  we  are  about  to  receive, 
the  LORD  be  praised  ! "  Very  peculiar  was  the  em- 
phasis with  which  on  such  occasions  he  would  pronounce 
the  Holy  Name,  giving  breadth  to  the  "  o "  till  it 
sounded  as  if  the  word  "  awe  "  as  well  as  the  sentiment 
was  to  be  found  in  it;  rolling  forth  the  "r"  in  the 
manner  which  was  characteristic  of  him ;  and  pro- 
nouncing the  last  words  with  a  most  sonorous  enuncia- 
tion. His  manner  at  such  times  was  to  extend  his 
hands  towards  the  viands  on  the  table.  After  dinner, 
"  For  what  we  have  received,"  as  before.  .  .  .  John 
Rigaud  could  never  forget  the  solemn  emphasis  with 
which  he  pronounced  the  word  "  wrath "  in  the  Com- 
munion service. 

Favourably  known  to  the  dear  old  President,  accept- 
able to  his  wife,  and  intimate  with  most  of  his  Fellows, 
— I  could  easily  have  got  myself  invited  to  one  of  those 
quiet  little  Sunday  dinners  of  which  I  had  heard  so 
much.  But  I  shrank  from  making  the  first  move. 
The  reader  is  the  gainer,  for  the  description  which 
follows  is  from  the  pen  of  James  Mozley's  sister : — 

"Yesterday  we  dined  at  the  President's, —such  a 
curious,  interesting  scene!  The  President  is  more  old 
and  wonderful-looking  than  anyone  could  imagine  be- 
forehand. He  must  always  have  been  below  middle 
height ;  but  age  has  bent  and  shrunk  him  to  something 
startlingly  short  when  he  walks.  In  his  chair  one  does 
not  perceive  it  so  much.  The  wig,  of  course,  adds  to 
the  effect, — such  a  preposterous  violation  of  nature  L  It 
seems  quite  to  account  for  his  not  hearing  what  people 
say.  His  manner  was  most  kind  and  courteous  to 
Mamma ;  and  he  took  the  opportunity  (in  taking  her  in 
to  dinner)  to  say  some  complimentary  things  of  James, 
of  whom  I  think  he  is  very  fond. 


1849]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  67 

"  It  is  really  very  nice  to  see  his  Fellows  round  him. 
They  seem  so  fond  of  him.  An  indulgent  respectful 
reverence,  with  a  good  deal  of  fun  all  the  while,  is  the 
general  manner;  and  he  is  very  cheerful,  and  often 
laughs  with  the  greatest  heartiness.  Mrs.  Kouth,  in  her 
way,  is  as  unusual  a  person  to  meet ;  and  harmonises 
with  the  scene.  She  is  extremely  good-natured,  and 
probably  had  always  something  of  the  manner  of  a 
child, — so  wonderfully  simple  and  unassuming !  James 
says,  'What  an  absolute  contrast  their  drawing-room 
presents  to  that  of  any  other  Head  of  a  House  in  Oxford, 
in  the  terms  of  easy  familiarity  between  the  Fellows 
and  their  Head  ! ' 

"The  look  of  things  there  was  all  so  characteristic. 
The  house  full  of  books :  the  dining-room  filled  with 
folios  and  quartos, — drawing-room,  stair-case,  passages 
&c.,  with  smaller  books.  Mrs.  Routh  complains  she  shall 
soon  not  be  able  to  get  about,  from  the  accumulation  of 
bookshelves :  for  he  still  buys,  and  knows  where  every 
book  in  his  library  is.  She  took  us  into  his  dressing- 
room.  The  appointments  were  of  the  most  limited  kind  ; 
but  the  walls  up  to  the  ceiling  are  covered  with  books, 
and  there  is  a  set  of  steps,  which  Mrs.  R.  said  he  could 
ascend  quite  nimbly,  to  reach  any  book  he  wants. 

"  James  was  the  one  to  talk  to  the  President,  and  to 
draw  him  out.  They  talked  of  Hume,  Adam  Smith^ 
Home,  Parr,  Hurd,  Jortin,  Dr.  Johnson, — (whom,  by  the 
way,  Dr.  Routh  remembered  on  his  last  visit  to  Oxford ; 
describing  him  to  us,  as  though  seeing  him,  in  .'  a  brown 
tradesman's  wig '), — and  discussing  style,  &c.  ...  I  could 
not  hear  much  distinctly ;  but  knew  what  it  was  all 
about  .  .  .  Mrs.  Routh  calls  the  President  'my  own' 
('  Take  care,  my  own,'  I  heard  her  cry  out.)  She  is  very 
attentive  to  him."  6 

Let  me  recall  the  occasion,  the  pretext  rather,  on 
which  (Dec.  loth,  1846)  I  obtained  my  first  interview 
with  Dr.  Routh.  I  had  been  charged  with  a  book  for 
him,  and,  having  obtained  his  permission  to  bring  it  in 

6  Mozley's  Letters, —  (June  u,  1849), — p.  200-1. 


68  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH  :  [1846 

person,  presented  myself  at  his  gate.  Moss  received  my 
name  in  a  manner  which  showed  me  that  I  was  expected. 
With  a  beating  heart,  I  followed  the  man  up  the  old- 
fashioned  staircase — grim  old  Doctors  in  their  wigs  and 
robes,  and  bearded  divines  with  little  books  in  their 
hands,  and  college  benefactors  innumerable,  eyeing  me 
all  the  way  from  the  walls,  with  terrible  severity.  My 
courage  at  last  almost  failed  me ;  but  retreat  was  im- 
possible, for  by  this  time  we  had  reached  the  open  door 
of  the  library, — a  room  completely  lined  with  books,  (the 
volumes  in  that  room  were  reckoned  at  5000), — the 
shelves  (which  were  of  deal  painted  white)  reaching 
from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling ;  and  the  President  was  to 
be  seen  at  the  furthest  extremity,  his  back  to  the  window, 
with  a  blazing  fire  at  his  left.  At  the  first  intimation  of 
my  approach,  I  noticed  that  he  slipped  the  book  that  he 
was  reading  into  the  drawer  of  the  little  table  before 
him,  and  hastened  to  rise  and  come  into  the  middle  of 
the  room  to  receive  me.  The  refined  courtesy  which 
evidently  was  doing  its  best  to  persuade  me  not  only 
that  I  was  a  welcome  visitor  but  that  I  found  the  master 
of  the  house  entirely  disengaged.,  struck  me  much.  Most 
of  all,  however,  was  I  astonished  by  his  appearance. 
He  wore  such  a  wig  as  one  only  sees  in  old  pictures : 
cassock,  gown,  scarf  and  bands,  shorts  and  buckles.  And 
then  how  he  did  stoop  !  But  besides  immense  intelligence, 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  suavity  as  well  as  dignity  in 
that  venerable  face.  And — "You  have  come  to  see  a 
decrepid  old  man,  sir ! "  he  said,  as  he  took  me  by  the 
hand.  Something  fell  from  me  about  my  "veneration 
for  so  learned  a  Divine,"  and  my  having  "  long  coveted 
this  honour."  "  You  are  very  civil,  sir,  sit  you  down." 
And  he  placed  me  in  the  arm-chair,  in  which  he  told  me 
he  never  sat  himself. 


1846]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.'  69 

After  a  few  civilities,  he  began  to  congratulate  me  on 
my  bachelor's  gown,  pointing  to  my  sleeves.  I  learned 
to  my  astonishment  that  he  supposed  he  was  going  to 
have  an  interview  with  an  undergraduate.  He  inquired 
after  my  standing  in  the  University, — my  late,  my 
present  college.  "  And  you  are  a  fellow  of  Oriel,  sir  ? 
A  very  honourable  college  to  belong  to,  sir.  It  has 
produced  many  distinguished  men.  You  know,  sir, 
when  you  marry,  or  take  a  living,  you  can  always  add 
to  your  name,  'late  fellow.'  I  observe,  sir,  that  Dr. 
Pusey  always  does  so."  It  was  impossible  not  to  smile. 
My  name  (he  thought)  must  be  of  French  origin, — must 
be  another  form  of  Burgoyne.  It  soon  became  painfully 
evident  that  he  was  only  talking  thus  in  order  to  relieve 
me  from  the  necessity  of  speaking,  in  case  I  should  be 
utterly  at  a  loss  for  a  topic.  So,  availing  myself  of  a 
pause  after  he  had  inquired  about  my  intended  pursuits, 
I  leaned  forward  (for  he  was  more  than  slightly  deaf) 
and  remarked  that  perhaps  he  would  allow  me  to  ask 
him  a  question.  " Eh,  sir ? "  "I  thought  that  perhaps 
you  would  allow  me  to  ask  you  a  question  about 
Divinity,  sir."  He  told  me  (rather  gravely)  to  go  on. 
I  explained  that  I  desired  a  few  words  of  counsel,  if  he 
would  condescend  to  give  me  them — some  directions  as 
to  the  best  way  of  pursuing  the  study  which  he  had 
himself  cultivated  with  such  signal  success.  Aware 
that  my  request  was  almost  as  vague  as  the  subject 
was  vast,  and  full  of  genuine  consideration  for  the  aged 
oracle,  I  enlarged  for  a  minute  on  the  matter,  chiefly  in 
order  to  give  him  time  to  adjust  his  thoughts  before 
making  reply.  He  inquired  what  I  had  read  ?  "  Eusebius, 
Hooker  and  Pearson,  very  carefully."  He  nodded.  The 
gravity  which  by  this  time  his  features  had  assumed 
was  very  striking.  He  lay  back  in  his  chair.  His  head 


7<D  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE  :  [1846 

sank  forward  on  his  chest,  and  he  looked  like  one 
absorbed  in  thought.  "Yes — I  think,  sir,"  (said  he  after 
a  long  pause  which,  besides  raising  my  curiosity,  rather 
alarmed  me  by  the  contrast  it  presented  to  his  recent 
animated  manner,)  "  I  think,  sir,  were  I  you,  sir — that  I 
would — first  of  all — read  the — the  Gospel  according  to 
St.  Matthew."  Here  he  paused.  "And  after  I  had  read 
the  Gospel  according  to  St.  Matthew — I  would — were  I 
you,  sir — go  on  to  read — the  Gospel  according  to  St. — 
Mark."  I  looked  at  him  anxiously  to  see  whether  he 
was  serious.  One  glance  was  enough.  He  was  giving 
me  (but  at  a  very  slow  rate)  the  outline  of  my  future 
course.  "  I  think,  sir,  when  I  had  read  the  Gospel  ac- 
cording to  St.  Mark,  I  would  go  on,  sir — to  the  Gospel 
according  to — St.  Luke,  sir."  (Another  pause,  as  if  the 
reverend  speaker  were  reconsidering  the  matter.)  "Well, 
sir,  and  when  I  had  read  those  three  gospels,  sir,  were  I 
in  your  place,  I  would  go  on — yes,  I  would  certainly  go 
on  to  read  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John." 

For  an  instant  I  had  felt  an  inclination  to  laugh.  But 
by  this  time  a  very  different  set  of  feelings  came  over 
me.  Here  was  a  theologian  of  ninety-one,  who,  after 
surveying  the  entire  field  of  sacred  science,  had  come 
back  to  the  starting-point;  and  had  nothing  better  to 
advise  me  to  read  than — the  Gospel !  I  believe  I  was 
attempting  to  thank  him,  but  he  did  not  give  me  time. 
He  recommended  me,  with  much  emphasis,  to  read  a 
portion  of  the  Gospel  every  day.  «  And  after  the  Gospel 
according  to  St.  John,"  he  proceeded  -.—(Now  for  it, 
thought  I.  We  are  coming  to  the  point  at  last.)  "I 
would  in  the  next  place,  sir— I  think  "  (he  paused  for  an 
instant  and  then  resumed :)— "  Yes,  sir,  I  think  I  would 
certainly  go  on  to  read  the— Acts  of  the  Holy  Apostles  : 
a  book,  sir,  which  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  was  the 


1846]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  71 

work  of — St.  Luke."  *'  No  more  have  I,  sir."  (I  really 
could  not  help  it.)  "  No.  sir.  But  what  is  quite  evident, 
it  must  needs  be  a  book  of  altogether  Apostolic  antiquity, 
indeed  of  the  age  it  professes  to  be.  For  you  may  have 
observed  that  the  sacred  writer  ends  by  saying  that 
St.  Paul  dwelt  at  Rome  'two  whole  years  in  his  own 
hired  house.'  Now,  sir  "  (here  he  tapped  my  fingers  in 
the  way  which  was  customary  with  him  when  he 
desired  to  enforce  attention),  "no  one  but  a  contem-. 
porary  would  have  ended  his  narrative  in  that  way.  We 
should  have  had  all  about  St.  Paul's  martyrdom"  (he 
looked  archly  at  me,  and  slightly  waved  his  hand,— as 
much  as  to  say,  '  And  we  all  know  what  kind  of  thing 
that  would  have  been ! ') — "  all  about  his  martyrdom,  sir, 
if  the  narrative  had  been  subsequent  in  date  to  St.  Paul's 
death."  I  said  the  remark  was  new  to  me,  but  I  saw  its 
force.  He  only  wanted  me  to  nod.  He  was  already 
going  on ;  and,  not  to  presume  on  the  reader's  patience 
(for  it  cannot  be  a  hundredth  part  as  amusing  to  read 
the  story  as  it  was  to  witness  the  scene),  after  mention- 
ing the  seven  Catholic  epistles,  he  advised  me  to  read 
those  of  St.  Paul  in  the  order  of  Pearson's  "Annales 
Paulini."  He  spoke  of  the  book  of  Revelation,  and 
remarked  that  Rome  is  certainly  there,  whether  Imperial 
or  Papal.  Then  he  referred  to  Eusebius :  to  Scaliger's 
shrewdness  about  his  *  Chronicon ' ;  and  remarked  that 
there  is  no  Arianism  apparent  in  his  ecclesiastical 
History.  Next,  he  advised  me  to  read  the  seven  epistles 
of  Ignatius,  which  he  was  convinced  were  genuine, 
notwithstanding  what  Cureton  had  written  ;  also  that  of 
Clement  (for  the  Clement  mentioned  by  St.  Paul  wrote 
only  one  epistle.  It  had  been  doubted,  he  said,  but  the 
extracts  in  Clemens  Alex,  .are  no  valid  evidence  against 
the  authenticity  of  our  copies).  "  Read  these,  sir,  in  the 


72  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE  :  [1846 

edition  of  my  friend  Mr.  Jacobson."  I  said  I  possessed 
the  book.  "  Ah,  you  do,  sir  ?  Well,  sir,  and  after  the 
epistles  of  Ignatius  " — I  was  longing  for  an  opportunity 
of  showing  him  that  I  was  not  plane  hospes ;  so  I  ventured 
to  say  significantly  that  <:  I  thought  I  knew  which  book 
to  read  next !  "  He  understood  me :  smiled  pleasantly, 
and  nodded.  "  You  are  very  civil,  sir !"  .  .  .  It  was  time 
to  go.  Indeed  the  fire  was  so  exceedingly  hot  that  I 
could  bear  it  no  longer.  My  cap,  which  I  had  used  for 
a  screen,  had  been  smoking  for  some  time,  and  now 
curled  and  cracked.  What  annoyed  me  more,  if  possible, 
than  the  fire,  was  the  President's  canary,  in  a  cage  near 
his  elbow.  The  wretched  creature  was  quiet  till  we  got 
upon  Divinity ;  but  the  moment  his  master  mentioned  the 
Gospels,  away  it  went  into  a  paroxysm  of  song — scream, 
scream,  scream — as  if  on  purpose  to  make  it  impossible 
for  me  to  hear  what  he  said.  If  ever  the  President 
dropped  his  voice,  the  bird  screamed  the  louder.7 

I  said  I  had  kept  him  too  long  ;  but  wished  him  to 
know  what  a  comfort  and  help  his  example  and  witness 
had  been  to  me.  He  spoke  of  Mr.  Newman  with  many 
words  of  regret ;  declared  his  own  entire  confidence  ; 
assured  me  that  the  Truth  is  with  us.  Before  leaving,  I 
knelt  down  and  asked  him  for  his  blessing,  which  he 
instantly  proceeded  to  bestow.  "  No/'  he  exclaimed, 
"  let  me  stand ;  "  and  standing,  or  rather  leaning  over 
me,  he  spoke  solemn  words.  As  I  was  leaving  the  room, 
he  very  kindly  bade  me  come  and  see  him  again. 

A  full  year  elapsed  before  I  ventured  to  repeat  the 
intrusion.  Mrs.  Routh  met  me  in  the  street,  and  asked 
'  why  I  did  not  go  to  see  her  dear  man  V  'I  was 
afraid  of  being  troublesome.'  '  But  he  tells  me  that  he 
wishes  to  see  you.'  So  I  went.  (It  was  Nov.  29th, 

7  Strange  to  relate;  that  canary  died  on  the  day  his  successor  was  elected. 


1847]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  73 

1847.)  Would  that  I  had  preserved  a  record  of  what 
passed !  But  I  believe  it  was  then  that  I  ventured  to 
address  him  somewhat  as  follows :  "  Mr.  President,  give 
me  leave  to  ask  you  a  question  I  have  sometimes  asked 
of  aged  persons,  but  never  of  any  so  aged  or  so  learned 
as  yourself."  He  looked  so  kindly  at  me  that  I  thought 
I  might  go  on.  "  Every  studious  man,  in  the  course  of  a 
long  and  thoughtful  life,  has  had  occasion  to  experience 
the  special  value  of  some  one  axiom  or  precept.  Would 
you  mind  giving  me  the  benefit  of  such  a  word  of 
advice1?"  .  .  .  He  bade  me  explain, — evidently  to  gain 
time.  I  quoted  an  instance.8  He  nodded  and  looked 
thoughtful.  Presently  he  brightened  up  and  said,  "  I 
think,  sir,  since  you  care  for  the  advice  of  an  old  man, 
sir,  you  will  find  it  a  very  good  practice " — (here  he 
looked  me  archly  in  the  face), — "always  to  verify  your 
references,  sir ! "...  I  can  better  recall  the  shrewdness  of 
the  speaker's  manner  than  his  exact  words;  but  they 
were  those,  or  very  nearly  those. 

Several  days  before  the  visit  just  referred  to,  I  left  at 
his  door  the  first  volume  of  my  copy  of  his  '  Reliquiae ' 
and  '  Opuscnla,'  with  a  request  that  he  would  inscribe  his 
own  name  besides  mine  on  the  first  blank  page  of  both. 
Those  two  volumes  he  now  restored  to  me,  either  of 
them  furnished  with  a  graceful  (and  quite  different) 
inscription.  We  conversed  about  Patristic  remains.  I 
suggested  "that  the  Editor  of  Cyril  of  Jerusalem, — I 
forget  his  name  at  this  instant," — ("  O  but  I  don't,  sir  : 
De  Touttee.  Go  on,  sir:") — "had  not  quite  accurately 
culled  out  the  Creed  of  Jerusalem."  "  Ah,  indeed,  sir  ?  " 
(thoughtfully)  "I  will  look  to  it." — He  informed  me,  in 
passing,  that  he  had  a  fifth  volume  of  the  '  Reliquiae ' 
ready  for  the  press.  I  got  him  to  tell  me  something 

8  See  below,— vol.  ii.  347. 


74  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH  :  [1848 

about  it.  And  so  I  left  him.  But  imagine  my  surprise 
at  finding  myself  pursued  in  a  few  minutes  by  the 
President's  servant,  who  was  the  bearer  of  a  note.  It 
was  to  say  that, — 

"  Before  Mr.  Burgon  left  the  lodgings,  it  occurred  to 
the  President  that  as  the  measure  of  a  fifth  volume  of 
the  Reliquiae  had  not  yet  met  with  the  approbation  of 
the  Delegates  of  the  Press,  it  would  be  as  well  that  it 
should  not  be  publicly  spoken  of.  But  Mr.  Burgon  was 
not  within  hearing.  Excuse  this  scrawl." 

I  came  away  from  him  with  a  truly  golden  precept : 
but  on  a  subsequent  occasion  he  gave  me  another,  which 
I  have  many  a  time  acted  on  with  advantage.  Of 
course,  I  never  approached  him  without  some  excuse  or 
provocation.  Once,  for  example  (it  must  have  been  in 
1848),  he  sent  me  word  that  "he  had  a  book  for  me, 
and  would  be  glad  to  put  it  into  my  hands,  if  I  would 
do  him  the  favour  to  call  at  his  lodgings."  It  proved  to 
be  the  fifth  volume  of  the  '  Reliquiae'  I  think  it  was  on 
that  occasion  that  I  ventured  to  ask  him  (I  have  often 
been  ashamed  of  the  question  since)  if  there  was  any 
Commentary  on  Scripture  which  he  particularly  ap- 
proved of,  and  could  recommend.  He  leaned  forward, 
murmured  something  to  himself  (of  which  all  I  could 
catch  was  a  prolonged  and  thoughtful  "  No — I  don't 
know,  sir,"  or  something  to  that  effect),  and  so  evidently 
did  not  wish  to  make  any  reply,  that  I  quickly  changed 
the  subject ;  thanking  him  again  for  the  book  he  had 
given  me,  and  opening  it  with  unfeigned  interest  and 
curiosity.  He  took  the  volume  out  of  my  hands,  and 
proposed  to  show  me  something  which  he  expected  I 
should  "  find  worth  my  notice."  He  turned  with  diffi- 
culty to  the  last  page,  and  drew  me  towards  him.  I 
knelt.  "  Attend  to  this,  sir ; "  and  he  began  reading  the 


1848]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  75 

long  note  which  fills  the  lower  half  of  p.  369.  The  print 
was  too  small  for  his  aged  eyes  :  so  I  read  aloud.  I  re- 
member his  tapping  my  shoulder  smartly  with  the  ex- 
tremities of  his  fingers  when  I  came  to  the  words,  "  JEt 
velim  animadvertas,  decantatos  Petri  viginti  quatuor  annos  ad 
episcopatum  pertinere  universae  ecclesiae,  non  unius  Romanae; 
et  junctos  cum  Lini  annis  ....  complere  tempus  inter  mortem 
CHEISTI  et  martyria  apostolorum  Petri  et  Pauli  computari 
solitnm." 

It  was  the  President's  wont,  by  the  way,  when  speaking 
with  animation,  to  lay  his  extended  fingers  on  your  hand, 
or  even  to  seize  it.  Sometimes  he  would  tap  your  hand 
with  his.  Not  unfrequently,  in  order  to  rivet  attention 
to  what  he  was  saying, — (his  method  certainly  had  the 
desired  effect), — he  would  draw  his  fingers  together,  and 
as  it  were  peck  at  your  arm,  or  your  shoulder,  as  might 
happen. 

In  the  last  year  but  one  of  his  life  (1853)  he  sent  me 
a  little  tract  (his  last  production  !),  in  which  he  reprinted 
the  precious  note  described  above,  with  important  ad- 
ditions and  corrections.  It  disposes  of  the  pretence  that 
St.  Peter  was  Bishop  of  Rome  for  twenty-five  years,  by 
an  appeal  to  dates  furnished  by  the  same  ancient  catalogue 
on  which  we  depend  for  the  chronology  of  the  early 
Bishops.  .  .  .  When  I  was  going  away  with  the  volume 
of  the  'Reliquiae*  in  my  hand,  he  offered  to  send  the 
book  after  me  by  his  servant.  I  assured  him  that  I 
would  a  great  deal  rather  carry  away  the  treasure  home 
myself.  "  You  remind  me,"  he  exclaimed, " of  " — (naming 
some  famous  scholar,) — "  who  used  to  say  he  was  not 
ashamed  of  being  seen  carrying  his  tools." 

Another  year  elapsed.  Mrs.  Routh  told  me  that  the 
President  had  remarked  that  I  never  called.  To  remove 
all  ground  of  complaint,  I  speedily  found  myself  again  in 


76  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE  :  [1849 

the  President's  library.  I  began  to  pave  the  way  for 
some  patristic  question.  He  turned  to  me,  and  said 
rather  abruptly,  "  When  you  have  finished,  sir,  I  have 
something  to  say  to  you."  I  was  dumb.  "  Do  you  re- 
member, sir,  about  a  year  ago  asking  me  to  recommend 
to  you  some  Commentary  on  Scripture?"  "Perfectly 
well ;  but  I  am  altogether  astonished  that  you  should 
remember  my  having  taken  such  a  liberty."  He  smiled 
good-naturedly;  remarked,  with  a  slight  elevation  of  his 
hand,  that  his  memory  was  not  amiss,  and  then  went  on 
somewhat  thus  : — "  Well,  sir,  I  have  often  thought  since, 
that  if  ever  I  saw  you  again,  I  would  answer  your 
question."  I  was  delighted  to  hear  it,  and  told  him  so. 
He  went  on, — "If  you  will  take  my  advice,  sir — (an  old 
man,  sir !  but  I  think  you  will  find  the  hint  worth  your 
notice), — whenever  you  are  at  a  loss  about  the  sense  of  a 
passage  in  N.  T.,  you  will  be  at  the  pains  to  discover 
how  the  place  is  rendered  in  the  Vulgate ;  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate, sir.  I  am  not  saying,"  (here  he  kindled,  and  eyed 
rne  to  ascertain  whether  there  was  any  chance  of  my 
being  weak  enough  to  misunderstand  him  :)  "  not  that 
the  Itatin  of  the  Vulgate  is  inspired,  sir  ! "  (he  tossed  his 
head  a  little  impatiently,  and  waved  his  hand).  "  Nothing 
of  the  sort,  sir :  but  you  will  consider  that  it  is  a  very 
faithful  and  admirable  version,  executed  from  the  original 
by  a  very  learned  man — by  Jerome,  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury ;  certainly  made  therefore  from  manuscript  authority 
of  exceedingly  high  antiquity ;  and  in  consequence  en- 
titled to  the  greatest  attention  and  deference."  I  have 
forgotten  what  he  said  besides  ;  except  that  he  enlarged 
on  the  paramount  importance  of  such  a  work.  -It  was 
very  pleasant  to  hear  him.  He  seemed  happy,  and  so 
was  I.  Very  distinctly,  however,  do  I  remember  the 
impression  he  left  on  me,  that,  having  fully  delivered 


1849]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  77 

this  testimony,  he  did  not  care  to  prolong  that  topic  of 
conversation.  I  remember,  in  fact,  being  afraid  to  ask 
him  to  give  me  just  one  illustration  of  his  meaning.  It 
is  only  fair  to  add  that  I  have  since  discovered  for  myself 
several  proofs  of  the  soundness  of  his  advice ;  and  the 
anecdote  is  put  on  record  in  the  hope  that  other  students 
may  profit  by  it  likewise.  Consider,  for  example,  the 
Vulgate  rendering  of  on  in  S.  Mark  ix.  u,  28,  (Quid 
ergo)  :  and  of  ZKZLVOV  in  2  Tim.  ii.  26,  (ipsius). 

The  President  lived  habitually  in  his  library, — a  room 
on  the  first  floor,  of  which  the  windows  looked  out  on 
St.  John's  quadrangle.9  It  was  the  same  room,  by  the 
way,  in  which  the  intruded  President  (Parker)  had  died. 
There,  surrounded  by  the  books  he  loved  so  well, — (a 
copy  of  Laud's  '  Devotions ' l  always  lay  on  his  table), — 
he  was  to  be  found  engaged  in  study :  poring  over  small 
print  (by  the  light  of  a  candle),  without  the  aid  of 
glasses,  to  so  late  an  hour,  that  Mrs.  Routh,  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  her  conjugal  discretion,  has  been  known  to 
insist  on  taking  away  his  candle.  But  she  found  him 
an  unapt  pupil.  It  was  commonly  past  midnight  when 
he  went  to  rest ;  and  he  would  sometimes  sit  up  till  one 
in  the  morning,  without,  however,  rising  later  in  con- 
sequence next  day.  At  ninety-seven,  besides  admitting 
the  consolation  of  a  cane, — which  his  friend  "  Walker 

9  The  lodgings  occupied  by  Presi-  dining-room:    while    windows    TO 

dents  Home  and  Kouth  were  de-  and  15  lighted  the  staircase.     The 

molished  in  1886.     One  surveying  drawing-room  was  behind.     While 

a  representation  of  the  south  front  I  write   (1887)    new   lodgings   are 

of  the  old  house  will  recognize  three  arising  on  the  site  of  that  picturesque 

rows    of   windows,    (1-5  :     6-10  ;  old  house. 

11-15):    and  may  like   to  be  in-  *  <  Oxford,  1667.*    He  had  given 

formed  that  windows  I  to  7  belong  the  copy  to  his  sister  Sophia,  July 

to  bed-rooms  : — that  windows  8  and  1818.     It  was    excepted  from  his 

9  indicate  the  library  : — windows  gift  to  Durham. 
13  and  14  (under  the  library)  the 


78  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1847 

has  brought  me,  to  support  me  in  my  occasional  visits 
to  his  garden,"  he  acknowledges  the  benefit  of  "  a  sub- 
stitution of  spectacles  of  a  little  higher  number.  Such  I 
have  procured  in  London,  and  am  now  writing  with.  I 
have  found  my  eyesight  of  late  much  improved."  This 
was  on  the  last  day  of  July,  1852.  On  the  i6th  August, 
— "I  am  no  longer  able  to  read  by  candle  light."  But 
such  revelations  were  only  made  in  confidence  to  his 
friend,  Dr.  Ogilvie.  When  he  had  occasion  to  approach 
his  windows,  his  ivig  was  all  that  was  discoverable  from 
the  quadrangle  beneath.  During  the  latest  years  of  his 
life,  being  seldom  or  never  able  to  attend  the  chapel 
service,  he  was  scarcely  ever  seen  except  by  a  privileged 
few.  '  For  a  long  time '  (wrote  the  Provost  of  Oriel,  Dr. 
Hawkins,  shortly  after  the  President's  death)  '  I  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  visiting  him  nearly  every  week  when 
I  was  in  Oxford,  and  rarely  saw  him  without  learning 
from  him  something  worth  the  hearing.' 

Another  of  my  intimate  friends  who  enjoyed  the 
privilege  of  visiting  the  President  whenever  he  pleased, 
was  the  Rev.  Edmund  Hobhouse,  fellow  of  Merton,  some- 
time Bp.  of  Nelson.  Three  short  letters  of  his  to  his 
father  written  about  this  time  ([1847-49-50],  when  he 
was  Vicar  of  S.  Peter's  in-the-East,)  will  be  acceptable  to 
the  reader  on  more  than  one  account : — 

"  [Merton  Coll.]  New  Year's  Day,  at  night,  1847. 
"  My  dear  Father, — I  have  been  carousing  with  one  of 
my — (not  the  youngest,  but  most  youthful-for-his-age, 
which  is  91),— parishioners, — the  President  of  Magdalen. 
I  was  obliged  to  leave  the  loy  '  Moses '  at  home  alone,  for 
although  his  young  friend  asked  him  to  come  under  the 
Subwarden's  wing,2  his  boyish  feelings  overcame  him 

'The  boy  Moses'  is  old  'Mo  friend'  being  President  Eouth  ;  and 
Griffith'  (concerning  whom,  see  '  the  Subwarden '  of  Merton,  Bishop 
below,— vol.  ii.  296-8) ;  'his  young  Hobhouse  himself. 


1849]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  79 

and  he  spent  New  Year's  Day  alone. — at  least  in  single 
combat  with  a  turkey.  We  met  a  blooming  bridegroom 
of  70  ['the  north-east  side  0/7°/  as  Mo  declares,]  Vaughan 
Thomas,  and  a  belle  of  80,  who  is  as  wonderful  in  her 
way  as  most  octogenarians. 

"The  good  old  President  talked  from  5  p.m.  to  10  p.m. 
on  all  subjects,  almost  incessantly :  memory  surprisingly 
accurate.  The  only  faculty  that  fails  at  all  is  the  hearing. 
It  is  quite  a  treat,  intellectual  and  spiritual,  for  his 
humility  is  as  striking  as  his  learning ;  and  his  charity 
in  speaking  of  individuals  is  very  admirable.  He  en- 
quired after  you  as  a  friend  of  Mr.  Heber." 

"  [Merton  Coll.]  Sept.  19,  1849. 

"Dearest  Father, — This  has  been  an  interesting  day. 
The  ven.  President  of  Magdalen  having  completed  his 
94th  year,  laid  the   cornerstone  of  the  new  Grammar- 
School  of  the  College.    After  the  ceremony,  he  expressed 
a  wish  to  say  a  few  words,  which  were  as  follows, — 
'Floreat  Grammatica. 
Floreat  haec  Schola  Grammaticalis, — 
Academicis  olim  propria, 
Omnibus  jampridem  patefacta.' 

"  They  are  singularly  appropriate,  as  they  sum  up  the 
whole  matter  which  was  at  issue,  and  which  was  remitted 
by  the  Kolls  Court  to  the  Visitor.  They  also  record  the 
original  intention  of  the  School,  and  the  wider  scope 
which  has  since  been  given  to  it.  It  was  clearly  proved 
by  evidence  that  the  School  was  intended  for  the 
Choristers  and  for  the  Demies  who  came  up  ignorant  of 
grammar. 

"The  School  is  designed  by  Buckler.  It  is  exactly 
the  same  proportions  as  the  old  one,  and  much  of  the 
elevation  is  borrowed  from  the  Founder's  School  at 
Waynfleet,  Lincoln." 

"  Dearest  Father, — I  called  on  the  venerable  Routh  the 
day  after  he  entered  his  95th  year,  honoris  causd,  and 
found  him  full  of  Macaulay.  He  thinks  that  M.  is  too 
1  onesided  a  gentleman'  to  hold  high  rank  as  a  historian. 
He  disproved,  from  documents  in  his  possession,  the 


So  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1850 

charge  against  Penn  of  tampering  with  Hough,  the 
President  of  Magdalen  Coll. ;  and  showed  that  Macaulay 
had  suppressed  facts  relating  to  James  Ilnd's  interview 
with  the  Fellows  of  Magdalen  Coll.  in  Ch.  Ch.  hall, 
by  which  James's  conduct  appeared  blacker:  and  also 
facts  relating  to  Charles  I.  seizing  the  four  members 
of  the  Commons,  which  would  have  put  that  act  in  a 
fairer  complexion.  He  has  a  MS.  account  of  a  conver- 
sation between  James  II  and  the  Vice-Chancellor  of 
Oxford  with  whom  he  lodged,  (Dr.  Ironsides  of  Wadham), 
which  shows  that  the  King  viewed  all  opposition  to  his 
Religion  as  personally  insulting  to  himself. 

"  It  was  a  very  interesting  interview  with  the  good  old 
man.  He  apologized  at  the  end  for  taking  up  so  much  of 
my  time."  3 

And  now  the  reader  has  been  presented  with  portraits 
of  President  Routh  by  several  different  hands.  It  is 
hoped  that  by  this  time  he  has  obtained  a  living  acquaint- 
ance with  the  man :  can  pourtray  him  to  himself.  It 
will  be  observed  that  we  all  independently  conspire  in 
exhibiting  the  same  features, — for  the  most  part,  in 
reproducing  the  self-same  expression. 

He  had  been  all  his  life  a  book  collector :  watching  as 
vigilantly  the  productions  of  the  Continental  press  as 
the  home  market.  '  I  should  esteem  it  a  favour '  (he 
wrote  to  a  bookseller  in  1801)  'if  you  could  procure 
either  at  home  or  abroad  any  or  all  of  the  undermen- 
tioned books,  as  you  mention  your  extensive  foreign 
correspondence.'  And  then  he  specifies  twenty-five 
recent  foreign  publications,  the  very  titles  of  which 
recall  a  remark  of  Dr.  Bliss  that  the  President's  library, 
though  probably  one  of  the  most  valuable  in  England,  to 
a  superficial  observer  might  have  seemed  of  small  ac- 
count. His  habit  of  reading  booksellers'  catalogues 

3  From  Mertoii  Coll.,  Sept.  a 7th,  1850. 


1850]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  81 

enabled  him  in  the  course  of  a  long  life  to  form  a  truly 
wonderful  collection.  It  consisted  of  upwards  of  16,000 
volumes.  An  analysis  of  its  structure,  by  the  hand  of 
an  accomplished  friend  who  has  made  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  its  contents,,  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix 
(A)  to  the  present  volume.  But  in  connexion  with  what 
has  last  been  offered,  the  following  incident  related  to 
me  (in  1856)  by  Dr.  Jacobson,  to  whom  it  happened, 
is  perhaps  sufficiently  characteristic  to  deserve  insertion 
here. 

Once,  on  entering  the  President's  library,  he  observed 
three  booksellers'  catalogues  standing  on  end  open  before 
the  fire  ;  and  was  presently  asked, — '  Pray,  sir,  did  you 
ever  acquire  a  habit  of  reading  booksellers'  catalogues  ? ' 
He  answered  in  the  negative,  admitting  however  that  he 
had  sometimes  been  guilty  of  the  act.  '  Then,  sir,  if  you 
never  did  acquire  the  habit,  I  would  advise  you  to  avoid 
it :  for  it  consumes  a  great  deal  of  time.' — (The  truth  is 
the  dear  old  man  used  to  insert  into  his  books  laborious 
references  to  booksellers'  catalogues  ; — of  which,  as  I 
learn  from  Canon  Farrar  of  Durham,  he  possessed  so  vast 
a  collection,  annotated  often  by  his  own  hand,  that  they 
fill  no  less  than  thirty  yards  of  shelves.  To  this  practice 
of  his  Peter  Elmsley  is  thought  to  have  playfully  alluded 
when  he  spoke  of  the  President  as  on  job-ucoraros).  Some 
time  after,  being  on  a  visit  to  his  brother-in-law  (Sir 
Francis  Palgrave)  at  Hampstead,  Dr.  Jacobson  devoted 
the  evening  to  examining  a  catalogue  of  Kodd  the  book- 
seller's, which  had  just  arrived  damp  from  the  printer. 
Having  marked  about  a  dozen  small  articles  which  he 
coveted,  behold  him  early  next  morning  in  Newport 
street,  presenting  to  Rodd  his  list  of  desiderata.  He 
learns  that  scarcely  half  of  the  lots  are  any  longer  for 
sale.  '  Well,  that  is  odd  !  why,  it  was  only  yesterday,' 

VOL.  i.  a 


82  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1851 

&c.,  &c.—  Then,  after  a  pause,—'  If  it  is  not  an  unfair 
question,—  May  I  ask  who  has  been  beforehand  with 
me  ?  '  '  The  President  of  Magdalen,  sir,  always  re- 
ceives from  our  printer  early  proof-slips  of  our  Cata- 
logues ;  and  it  so  happens  that,  two  days  ago,'  ..... 
Further  explanation  was  of  course  needless. 

The  library  of  the  President  of  Magdalen,  —  the  pro- 
duct of  a  long  life  devoted  to  sacred  Science,  —  was 
essentially  the  library  of  a  'learned  Divine.'  It  had 
been  formed  for  use,  and  contained  every  work  which 
one  engaged  in  Patristic  research  can  require.  Not 
a  few  publications  of  this  class  —  (as  eager  students  fur- 
nished with  a  slender  exchequer  know  but  too  well)  — 
are  costly,  as  well  as  of  rare  occurrence.  The  prix  de 
collection,  (so  the  French  happily  phrase  it),  is  especially 
felt  in  a  library  which  has  been  formed  as  his  was. 
Moreover  the  habit  of  collecting  was  persevered  in  to 
the  very  end.  In  1851  (Oct.  4),  he  told  Dr.  Ogilvie,  — 

"I  am  still  buying  scarce  and  estimable  books  that 
are  offered  to  me.  Amongst  others,  I  lately  purchased 
a  MS.  History  in  English  of  the  English  Bishops  from 
the  first  to  the  year  1670,  when  the  unknown  Author 
discontinued  his  work.  It  is  a  folio  volume,  written 
in  a  fair  and  legible  hand."  —  [Again,  in  1852  (Jan. 


have  been  lately  buying  more  books  than  usual, 
editiones  principes,  and  other  varieties.  This  would 
scarcely  be  rational,  if  it  was  on  my  own  account.  Yet, 
I  confess,  it  amuses  me.  But  enough  of  myself,  although 
I  am  writing  to  a  friend." 

Moreover,  he  loved  his  books,  —  was  acquainted  with 
them,  and  appreciated  them,  singly.  Though  unsolicitous 
about  the  external  attractiveness  of  his  copies,  he  was 
at  the  pains,  whenever  he  sent  any  to  be  lettered,  to 
design  in  capitals  the  precise  formula  which  he  intended 


1852] 


THE  LEARNED  DIVINE, 


to  have  impressed  on  each.4  The  result  of  so  dis- 
criminating a  taste,  supported  by  a  sufficient  income, 
might  well  prove  extraordinary.  The  monetary  value 
of  the  President's  printed  books  may  be  estimated  by 
the  fact,  that  Queens'  College  offered  him  for  the  entire 
collection,  at  the  time  of  their  receiving  the  Mason 
bequest  for  the  increase  of  their  library  in  1847,  ^ne 
sum  of  io,oool.  The  negotiations  which  ensued  fell 
through  from  the  single  circumstance  that  Dr.  Routh 
would  only  part  with  his  books  on  the  condition — (surely 
not  an  unreasonable  one !) — of  being  allowed  the  use  of 
them  for  the  remainder  of  his  life;  an  arrangement 
which  the  terms  of  the  Mason  bequest  prevented  the 
College  from  acceding  to.  By  consequence,  the  Library 
became  alienated  from  the  University  of  Oxford.  In 
1852,  (March  29th),  'being  desirous  that  it  might  serve 
the  purpose  of  promoting  the  glory  of  GOD  through  the 
advancement  of  good  learning,  and  feeling  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  recently  established  University  of  Durham,' 
the  President  of  Magdalen  carried  out  the  intention  he 
had  in  the  meanwhile  formed  of  transferring  his  library, 
(so  far  as  the  printed  books  were  concerned,)  by  deed  of 
gift  to  the  warden,  masters  and  scholars  of  the  northern 
University;  and  at  Durham  this  inestimable  treasure  is 
carefully  preserved  at  the  present  hour ;— a  remarkable 
indication  of  the  freshness  of  spirit  which  at  the  age  of 
ninety-seven  could  thus  reach  out  with  generous  sym- 
pathy, and  something  more,  to  the  youngest  rival  of  our 
ancient  Universities.  Singular  to  relate,  the  deed  of 


E.g. 


VSSERII 
OPVSC. 
DVO 


To  be  half-bound. 


To  be   half-bound  and  Lettered 
on  the  side. 


G  2 


84  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1852 

gift  in  question  was  discovered  after  the  President's 
death, — "  thrown,  by  accident  apparently,  into  a  portfolio 
of  waste  papers."  5  .  .  .  This  unique  collection  of  books 
fills  the  upper  floors  of  the  ancient  (xvth  century)  Ex- 
chequer buildings  of  the  Prince  bishops  of  Durham.6 

Bp.  Jacobson  "mourned  much  over  this  transference 
of  the  President's  library  in  its  entirety  to  Durham, 
without  allowing  the  Bodleian  first  to  select  from  it 
some  fifty  or  a  hundred  volumes  as  0peVrpa.7 "  Every 
real  student  of  Divinity  must  share  his  regret;  and 
some  may  be  aware  that  a  far  larger  number  of  volumes 
would  have  to  be  claimed  on  behalf  of  Bodley.  John 
Hi  gaud  recalls  an  occasion  when  the  President  remarked 
in  his  hearing, — (he  had  been  speaking  of  books  of 
criticism  on  the  New  Testament), — '  I  do  not  say  it 
vauntingly,  but  there  are  there '  (pointing  to  a  particular 
part  of  his  library)  '  two  hundred  books  which  are  not 
to  be  found  in  the  Bodleian.' 8 

The  reader  rnay  be  glad  of  some  further  details,  for 
which  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Farrar  of  Durham  : — 

"About  half  of  the  Library  is  Theological  (Divinity 
and  Ecclesiastical  History) ;  the  other  half,  secular, — the 
larger  portion  of  this  latter  being  connected  with  English 
History.  In  the  Theological  part,  about  a  fifth  (roughly 
speaking)  relates  to  the  Fathers  ;  about  a  fifth  to 
Dogmatic  Theology  proper  (exclusive  of  Controversial 
Theology).  The  Controversial  part  is  very  extensive 
and  almost  complete.  The  most  perfect  part,  a  collection 
probably  without  parallel,  relates  to  the  Romish  con- 
troversy, and  consists  especially  of  works  of  the  xviith 

'  From  Dr.  Bloxam.  tatis  Parisiensis  Doctoris  Sorlonici 

6  From  Canon  Farrar.  De    Vocatione    Ministrorum    Trac- 

7  From  Canon  Gray,— July   22,  tatus,  —  Paris    1618,"   Eouth    has 
l$$4-  written  "  Liber  hand  extat  in  cata- 

8  In  some  of  these  is  an  entry  to  logo  Bibliothecae  BorUeianae,  de  quo 
that  effect :  e.  g.  in  the  work  "  Anfo-  videndus  Antonius  Wood  in  Athenae 
niiChumpnaei  Anglittiacrae  Facul-  Oxon,  Tom.  I  mo.  voceFrancis  Mason.' 


1852]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  85 

century.  It  occupies  (being  works  in  8vo.  or  1 2mo.)  no  less 
than  about  20  yards  of  shelves ;  the  other  miscellaneous 
controversial  literature  only  filling  about  25  yards. — In 
the  secular  part  of  the  Library,  it  is  interesting  to 
observe  that  there  is  a  small  collection  of  works  on 
Physical  Science,  on  Topography,  and  on  Political 
Economy ;  and  a  fairly  large  collection  of  materials  for 
the  history  of  literature.  The  enormous  collection  of 
materials  for  the  history  of  the  English  nation  has  been 
above  named.  It  should  be  mentioned  that  this  com- 
prises, besides  Pamphlets  hereafter  described,  an  anti- 
quarian library  of  Heraldry,  Family  and  County  his- 
tories, and  the  like.  It  was  said  to  be  the  intention  of 
Dr.  Routh  at  the  time  when  the  first  volume  of  Mac- 
aulay's  History  of  England  was  published,  to  write  a 
refutation  of  the  statements  of  the  celebrated  iiird 
Chapter  on  the  social  and  moral  condition  of  the  English 
Clergy  at  the  Restoration.  This  portion  of  Dr.  Routh's 
Library  had  doubtless  furnished  to  his  mind  the  his- 
torical materials  of  which  he  would  have  availed  himself, 
had  he  executed  his  design." 

The  manuscript  portion  of  his  library  fell  into  his 
general  estate,  and  was  dispersed  in  I&55.9  The  most 
valuable  MSS.  were  purchased  by  Sir  Thomas  Phillipps. 
Two  of  these  were  a  Cyprian  of  the  xiith  (or  early  in  the 
xiiith  century),  "  from  the  Meerman  Collection  and  pro- 
bably used  by  Rigaltius,  Fell,  and  Baluzius,"  which 
fetched  267. ;  and  an  unpublished  MS.  (xii  century)  of 
Florus  Magister,  diaconus  Lugdunensis,  [A.D.  837],  which 
sold  for  6$l.  This  portion  of  Routh's  Library  abounded 
in  curiosities, — patristic,  theological,  antiquarian,  his- 
torical. Thus,  it  contained  the  original  autograph  of 
Bishop  Beveridge  on  the  XXXIX  Articles,  from  which 
the  Oxford  edition  was  published  in  1 84O.1  At  one  time 

9  It  was  sold  by  auction  by  Sotheby  specifies  some  Arabic  and  Persian 

in  July  1855,  at  prices  lower  than  MSS. 

was    anticipated.     The    Catalogue  x  See  above,  p.  41,  note  4. 
consists   of  29   octavo   pages    and 


86  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH :  [1847 

the  President  had  been  possessed  of  a  collection  of 
documentary  annals  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  the  first 
volume  of  the  Records  of  the  Oxfordshire  Quarterly 
Meeting  of  the  Quakers,  from  the  establishment  of  their 
Society  to  the  year  1746.  This  volume  had  long  been 
missing,  and  till  1828  had  been  sought  in  vain.  Having 
ascertained  that  it  was  in  the  possession  of  the  President, 
two  of  their  body  waited  on  him.  The  account  'they 
have  given  of  their  interview  with  Dr.  Routh '  (so  runs 
the  Quaker  minute)  'has  been  very  satisfactory.  It 
appears  that  the  gratification  he  has  derived  from  the 
perusal  of  the  volume  (which  from  its  instructive  ten- 
dency he  considers  creditable  to  the  Society)  had  in- 
duced a  wish  to  retain  it.  Notwithstanding,  he  obligingly 
offered  to  relinquish  it,  from  the  respect  which  he  felt 
for  the  Society,  and  a  willingness  to  render  complete 
those  records  which  ought  to  be  in  the  possession  of  the 
meeting.  As  he  wished  to  transfer  it  through  the 
medium  of  some  friends  appointed  by  the  body,  William 
Albright,  Daniel  Rutter,  and  John  Huntley  are  directed 
to  wait  on  him  for  that  purpose.'  In  '  grateful  acknow- 
ledgment of  his  kind  and  liberal  conduct,'  the  Quakers 
presented  him  with  '  a  few  volumes  of  our  Friends' 
writings,  both  ancient  and  modern,'  the  names  of  which 
follow. 

Among  Dr.  Routh's  MSS.  were  several  connected  with 
Genealogy, — a  study  which  he  was  evidently  very  fond 
of.  It  should  be  added,  (but  indeed  it  is  very  well 
known)  that  he  was  exceedingly  liberal  in  communi- 
cating his  books  and  MSS.  to  scholars. 

The  President  wanted  (or  thought  he  wanted)  no  as- 
sistance in  finding  his  books  ;  and  to  the  last  would 
mount  his  library-steps  in  quest  of  the  occupants  of  the 
loftier  shelves.  Very  curious  he  looked,  by  the  way 


1847]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  87 

perched  up  at  that  unusual  altitude,  apparently  as  en- 
grossed in  what  he  had  found  as  if  he  had  been  reclining 
in  his  chair.  Instead  of  ringing  for  Moss,  his  servant, 
he  would  also  on  occasion  help  himself  to  a  folio  as 
readily  as  to  a  smaller  tome.  Once  (it  was  in  February 
1847)  a  very  big  book,  which  he  had  pulled  out  unaided, 
proved  '  too  many '  for  him,  and  grazed  his  shin.  The 
surgeon  (Mr.  Lewes  Parker,  who  told  me  the  story) 
advised  him  to  go  to  bed  at  once.  *  No  thank  you,  sir ' 
(laughing);  'No  thank  you!  If  you  once  get  me  into 
bed,  I  know  you  will  never  get  me  out  again.'  '  Then, 
sir,  you  must  really  rest  your  leg  on  a  chair.'  This  was 
promised ;  and  a  sofa,  unknown  before  in  his  rooms, 
was  introduced.  Two  days  after,  the  doctor  reappeared ; 
outstripped  Moss,  and,  coming  quickly  in,  found  his 
patient  pushing  about  the  library-steps.  '  0  sir,'  (scarcely 
able  to  command  his  gravity,)  '  this  will  never  do.  You 
know  you  promised' — 'Yes,  yes,  I  know,  sir'  (laughing;) 
1  a  little  more,  sir,  and  I  should  have  been  in  the  right 
position.  You  see,  sir,  you  came  in  so  quickly !  '.  .  .  The 
injury  might  have  proved  dangerous,  and  it  did  occasion 
the  President  serious  inconvenience  for  a  long  time.  A 
friend  (I  think  it  was  Dr.  Ogilvie)  called  to  condole. 
The  old  man,  after  describing  the  accident  minutely, 
added  very  gravely  in  a  confidential  voice,  'A  worthies* 
volume,  sir  !  a  worthless  volume  !'  This  it  evidently  was 
which  weighed  on  his  spirits.  Had  it  been  Augustine 
or  Chrysostom  or  Thomas  Aquinas, — patience !  But  to 
be  lamed  by  a  book  written  by  a  dunce.  .  .  . 

His  leg,  however,  was  one  of  his  weak  spots  :  the 
organs  which  are  most  affected  by  catarrhous  colds  (to 
which  he  had  been  subject  throughout  his  life,  and  from 
which  he  suffered  severely)  being  another.  In  conse- 
quence, "  he  would  not  be  five  minutes  in  a  room,  if  he 


88  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1848 

knew  it,  with  the  window  open,"  (writes  his  nephew), 
"  and  he  always  had  a  fire.  He  told  me  that,  as  a  young 
man,  he  never  went  from  the  Cloisters  to  the  new  build- 
ings after  dark  without  putting  on  a  great  coat."  As 
for  his  leg,— he  confided  to  Dr.  Jackson  in  his  old  age 
that  "  he  used  to  be  fond  of  taking  longish  walks  ; "  but 
that  on  a  certain  occasion, —  (which  Dr.  Jackson  ascer- 
tained to  have  been  when  the  President  was  upwards  of 
sixty,) — having  walked  to  Islip  on  one  side  of  the  Cher- 
well,  and  returned  on  the  other,  when  at  Marston  he  heard 
Magdalen  bells  begin  to  strike  up  for  afternoon  chapel. 
Disliking  to  be  absent,  he  started  off '  at  a  trot,'  and 
arrived  only  just  in  time.  In  chapel  he  felt  something 
trickling  down  his  leg ;  and  on  coming  out,  found  his 
stocking  and  shoe  saturated  with  blood,  and  sent  for 
Tuckwell.  He  had  burst  a  varicose  vein,  which  always 
troubled  him  afterwards.  In  fact,  the  consequences  of 
that  '  trot '  from  Marston  occasioned  him  inconvenience 
to  the  last.2  But  before  that  incident,  his  nephew  notes 
it  as  remarkable  that  although  he  remained  for  many 
months  within  the  walls  of  the  College,  he  would  some- 
times take  a  walk  of  nine  miles  round  Oxford  without 
apparent  fatigue. 

It  was  in  1 848,  when  he  was  ninety-three  years  of  age, 
that  he  published  a  fifth  and  last  volume  of  his  '  Reliquiae,' 
— just  sixty  years  after  the  issuing  of  the  original  pro- 
spectus of  the  work.  He  had  already  printed,  in  two 
Appendices,  at  the  close  of  his  fourth  volume,  several 
pieces  which  do  not  strictly  fall  under  the  same  category 
as  the  '  Reliquiae '  proper ;  and  had  only  excluded  the 
Disputation  held  (A.D.  277)  between  Archelaus,  Bishop 
of  Mesopotamia  and  the  heretic  Manes,  because  of  its 
bulk.  (It  extends  over  200  octavo  pages.)  The  publi- 

2  From  Dr.  Jackson, — Holywell,  Jan.  17,  1878. 


THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  89 

cation  of  this  remarkable  monument  is  found  to  have 
been  part  of  the  President's  original  design  in  1788.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  prospectus  of  1788  specifies  the 
following  names  which  do  not  however  re-appear  in  any 
of  the  published  volumes  of  the  Reliquiae: — Sextus, — 
Ammonius  Alexandrinus, — Magnes  Hierosolymitanus, — 
Diodorus, — SS.  Anastasia  and  Chrysogonus.  He  styles 
this  fifth  volume,  '  Appendix  iii/  into  which,  besides  the 
'Disputation  '  already  mentioned  (first  published  in  1698), 
he  introduces  two  tracts,  one  by  Augustine,  the  other  by 
an  unknown  writer,  together  with  the  creed  of  Aquileia. 
But  the  most  interesting  feature  unquestionably  in  this 
concluding  volume  is  the  '  Catena,'  with  which  it  concludes. 
He  calls  it  '  Testimonia  de  auctoritate  8.  Scripturae  ante- 
Nicaena,  and  prefixes  a  '  Monitum,'  which  may  be  thus 
freely  rendered : — 

'According  to  some  of  our  recent  writers,  (followers 
themselves  of  a  teaching  alien  to  that  of  our  own  Commu- 
nion), the  primitive  Church  did  not  hold  that  the  Christian 
Faith  is  based  on  Holy  Scripture,  or  that  the  Scriptures 
are  to  be  regarded  as  the  Rule  of  Faith.  How  entirely 
the  Truth  lies  the  other  way  may  be  easily  shown  by  an 
appeal  to  ecclesiastical  documents  of  the  earliest  ages. 
For  the  effectual  refutation  therefore  of  an  opinion  which 
in  itself  is  fraught  with  perilous  consequence,  behold, 
thou  hast  here  a  collection  of  testimonies  to  the  authority 
of  Holy  Scripture,  gleaned  out  of  the  writings  of  primi- 
tive Christendom,  and  disposed  in  long  and  orderly 
series.' 

Accordingly,  collected  from  thirty-one  several  sources, 
beginning  with  St.  Peter  (2  Pet.  iii.  15,  16), — St.  Paul 
(i  Cor.  xiv.  37,  38), — St.  John  (xiv.  26), — Clemens 
Romanus  (c.  xlvii.), — and  ending  with  Eusebius, — about 
seventy-four  important  quotations  follow.  The  same 
volume,  by  the  way,  supplies  (at  pp.  251-2, — a  cancelled 


90  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1853 

leaf !)  another  interesting  illustration  of  the  President's 
favourite  and  truly  Anglican  method,  namely,  an  appeal 
to  primitive  Antiquity  on  the  subject  of  the  Invocation 
of  Saints.  What  he  delivers  on  this  subject  will  be  found 
of  great  interest  by  the  general  reader:  but  English 
Clergymen  should  without  fail  acquaint  themselves  with 
the  well-weighed  sentiments  contained  in  the  precious 
foot-note  just  now  referred  to. 

Even  this,  however,  was  not  the  President's  latest 
literary  effort.  It  had  always  been  the  Academic  custom 
to  issue  something  from  the  University  Press  at  the 
installation  of  a  new  Chancellor.  Accordingly,  when 
the  Earl  of  Derby  became  Chancellor  of  the  University 
of  Oxford  in  1853,  it  seemed  to  the  venerable  President 
of  Magdalen  a  fitting  occasion  for  producing  a  strena 
(so  he  phrased  it),  or  auspicious  offering  ;  and  there  were 
three  distinct  subjects  on  which  he  had  thought  much, 
and  collected  something  important,  which,  carefully 
edited,  he  foresaw  would  constitute  an  interesting 
pamphlet.  This  little  work,  extending  to  twenty-five 
pages,  appeared  in  the  beginning  of  December  1853. 
He  was  then  in  his  ninety-ninth  year.  He  called  it 
1  Tres  Ireves  Tractalus :'  the  first, — '  De  primis  episcopis  / 
the  second, — '  S.  Petti  Alexandrini  episcopi  fragmenta  quae- 
<!am  ;'  the  third, — '  S.  Ircnlae  illustrata  pqcris,  in  qua  ecclesia 
Romana  commemoratur?  They  are  introduced  by  the 
following  brief  notice  ('  Lectori  S.'),  bearing  date  *  A.D. 
1853.  Oxonio  ex  Collegio  Magdal.':— 

'  Inasmuch  as  there  is  perpetual  discussion  among  us 
at  the  present  day  concerning  Apostolical  Succession, 
Episcopal  Ordination,  and  the  authority  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  I  judged  that  I  should  be  rendering  useful 
service  if  I  produced  in  a  separate  shape  whatever 


1853]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  91 

remarks  on  these  subjects  I  had  already  put  forth  in 
the  Annotations  to  my  "Reliquiae  Sacrae"  The  object  I 
had  in  view  in  thus  amplifying  and  adding  to  my  old 
materials  was  to  illustrate  how  these  several  matters 
were  accounted  of  in  the  beginning,  in  order  that  thus 
the  Truth  might  be  the  more  firmly  established.  Fare- 
well.' 

After  this,  follows  the  President's  note  (c  De  Episcopis  et 
Presbyteris  Aclnotata  quaedam')  on  the  Council  against 
Noetus,3  as  enlarged  by  himself  on  two  subsequent 
occasions,  and  now  amplified  and  added  to  until  it 
attains  to  more  than  twice  its  original  bulk.  Next 
come  four  fragments  from  the  lost  work  of  Peter  of 
Alexandria  ( De  Pasc/tate :'  and  these  are  followed,  thirdly, 
by  a  restoration  of  the  original  text  of  a  passage  of 
Irenseus,  (iii.  3,* — it  exists  only  in  Latin), — which  is 
minutely  discussed,  and  shown  to  lend  no  countenance 
to  those  pretensions  which  writers  of  the  Romish  com- 
munion have  industriously  founded  upon  it.  He  be- 
stowed on  this  subject  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
labour,  the  rather  because  an  Anglican  Divine  of  the 
highest  reputation  for  learning  and  orthodoxy  (Dr.  Words- 
worth) had  in  a  recent  work5  failed  to  fasten  the  true 
sense  on  [the  lost  original  of]  the  central  expression  in 
the  phrase, — *  Ad  Jianc  ecclesiam,  propter  potentiorem  prin- 
cipalitatem,  necesse  est  omnem  convenire  ecclesiam;  hoc 
est,  eos  qui  sunt  undique  fideles.'  The  President  (and 
his  friend  Dr.  Ogilvie)  were  strenuously  of  opinion  that 
'recourse  to,'  (not  'consent  with])  is  the  thing  here  spoken 
of:  '  concursum  non  consensum,'  as  the  President  neatly 
puts  it.  Resort  was  to  be  had  to  Rome,  by  the  faithful 

3  '  Reliqq.,'  iv.  247.    See  pp.  526,       Massuet's  ed. : — p.  428,  ed  Stieren. 
and  v.  369.  5  Hippolytas  and  the  Church  of 

*  It  may  be  seen  at  pp.  175-6  of      Rome,  &c.  (1853),— pp.  195-204. 


92  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1853 

who  lived  round  about,  "  in  order  to  learn  the  tradition 
which  had  been  there  preserved  uninterruptedly  from 
the  Apostles'  time ;  although  not  there  alone,"  (as  Ogilvie 
justly  points  out,)  "for  Irenaeus  alleges  afterwards,  in 
the  same  chapter,  the  examples  of  both  Smyrna  and 
Ephesus."  6 

Such  then  was  the  last  literary  effort  of  "the  learned 
Divine,"  of  whom  I  have  been  solicitous  that  coming 
generations  should  both  cherish  the  memory  and  be  able 
to  reproduce  the  image.  It  was,  (as  I  have  said,)  de- 
signed as  a  "  festal  present "  to  the  new  Chancellor  of 
the  University, — who  found  in  the  copy  which  was  sent 
for  his  acceptance  a  highly  characteristic  inscription. 
The  author  described  himself  as; — '  Collegn  Magdalenensis 
Praeses,  possessorum  priorum  coheres,  eUi  olim  siiis  sedibus 
spretd  CJiai'td  Magnd  expulsorum,  tamen  postliminio  redeun- 
t  in  in.'  The  learned  Chancellor  returned  the  compliment 
by  addressing  to  the  old  President  a  copy  of  Greek 
verses ;  playfully  assuring  him  that  it  was  not  without 
dire  self-distrust  :— 

"  I  have  something  of  the  feeling  [with]  which  in  years 
earlier  still  I  used  to  take  up  a  copy  of  verses  to  my 
tutor ;  and  I  also  hope  that  no  flagrant  blunders  will 
bring  the  Chancellor  of  the  University  into  disgrace  in 
the  eyes  of  its  most  venerable  member."  7 

There  resulted  from  this  little  publication  what  must 
have  been  Routh's  latest  literary  annoyance.  Dindorf 
had  recently  produced  a  new  edition  of  the  *  Paschal 
C/tronicle'—on  the  very  threshold  of  which  lie  the  four 
fragments  of  Peter  of  Alexandria  already  referred  to. 
His  revised  text  had  perforce,  in  turn,  undergone 
critical  revision  at  the  hands  of  the  President :  and  an 

''  Ross,— July  1 8,  1853.  7  From  S.  Leonard's,— June  25,  1853. 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  93 

interview  with  the  German  was  the  consequence, — the 
unsatisfactory  nature  of  which  might  have  been  con- 
fidently predicted.  But  we  are  not  left  to  conjecture. 
The  courteous  old  man  wrote  as  follows  to  Dr.  Bliss,  who 
was  entirely  devoted  to  him,  and  with  whom  he  was  on 
the  most  confidential  terms  :— 

"  Professor  Dindorf  honoured  me  with  a  call ;  but  in 
consequence  of  my  deafness,  and  his  broken  English,  his 
visit  was  not  long.  I  made  him  a  present  of  my  short 
Tracts,  for  one  of  which  he  furnished  the  Text, — which 
text  I  have  endeavoured  to  amend.  Perhaps  I  have 
offended  him, — which  was  far  from  my  intention.  I  shall 
be  glad  to  see  you." 

A  few  days  after,  the  President  recurred  to  this  inter- 
view (Sept.  1 6th,  1 854,)  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Ogilvie  :— 

"  On  Tuesday,  my  nephew  and  Dr.  Bliss  are  coming 
to  Oxford  to  keep  my  birthday  .  .  .  After  scrawling 
short  answers  to  my  daily  received  epistles,  I  am  still 
able  in  a  morning  to  peep  into  books.  I  have  lately 
been  looking  at  the  authors  whose  text  required  most 
emendation,  and  have  left  behind  me  my  second 
thoughts.  I  have  had  Dindorf,  a  German  scholar,  calling 
on  me,  who  seemed  rather  angry  at  my  attempt  to 
correct  his  evidently  faulty  text." 

I  would  fain  proceed  with  what  seems  to  be  a  very 
interesting  letter  :  but, — strange  as  it  may  sound, — it  is 
impossible  to  decipher  what  comes  next.  Presently,  one 
is  able  to  grope  one's  way : — 

"  I  have  had  a  letter  from  my  good  friend  Duncan  at 
Bath,  who  is  unable  to  move  thence,  as  he  till  lately 
intended.  I  have  reason  to  think  that  the  Preface  to 
the  reign  of  James  II  has  given  great  offence. — I  lately 
purchased  a  MS.  of  a  published  work  of  Marcus  Anto- 
nius  De  Dominis,  Abp.  of  Spalatro,  but  containing  at  the 
end  of  it  a  long  inedited  letter  to  him  by  Morton,  Bishop 
of  Durham. — Dr.  Jacobson  has  lately  printed  an  edition 
of  Bishop  Sanderson's  works,  and  inserted  six  sermons 


94  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1854 

preached  by  the  Bishop  at  Carfax,  from  a  MS.  which 
I  lent  him. — I  have  lately  recovered  a  document  which 
proves  the  villainous  conduct  of  the  Earl  of  Sunderland 
more  directly  than  has  hitherto  been  done. — October 
will  soon  be  here,  when  I  hope  to  see  you  again,  for 
altho'  not  stronger,  yet  I  am  in  a  better  habit  of 
body  than  some  time  since.  GOD  bless  you  and 
yours  !  " 

There  is  in  all  this — what  need  to  say  it  ? — none  of 
the  decrepitude  of  ninety-nine.  Yet  was  it  remarked 
by  many  how  freely  during  the  last  year  or  two  of 
his  life  the  President  alluded  to  his  own  end  ;  speaking 
of  his  approaching  departure  as  one  might  speak  of  a 
journey  which  had  long  been  in  contemplation,  and 
which  must  needs  be  undertaken  very  soon.  "  I  some- 
times think  of  the  possibility  of  retiring  to  Tylehurst 
for  the  short  remainder  of  my  life," — he  wrote  to  Dr. 
Ogilvie  at  the  end  of  August  1 854 :  as  if  fully  sensible 
that  there  was  now  indeed  but  a  step  between  himself  and 
death.  Among  his  papers, — (but  there  is  reason  for 
believing  that  what  follows  belongs  to  an  earlier  date), 
—were  found  several  rough  drafts  of  his  own  intended 
epitaph,  which  may  perhaps  be  thus  exhibited  : — 

'  O  all  ye  who  come  here,  in  your  Christian  and 
charitable  hope,  wish  peace  and  felicity,  and  a  con- 
summation thereof  afterwards,  to  the  soul  of  Martin 
Joseph  Routh,  the  last  Rector  of  the  undivided  parish  of 
Tylehurst,  and  brother  of  the  pious  Foundress  of  this 
Church.  He  departed  this  life  ,  aged 

;  dying,  as  he  had  lived,  attached  to  the 
Catholic  Faith  taught  in  the  Church  of  England,  and 
averse  from  all  Papal  and  Sectarian  innovations." 

But  it  should  be  stated  that  the  writer  had  evidently 
found  it  impossible  to  satisfy  himself  with  the  opening 
sentence.  At  first  he  wrote, — '  Of  your  charity  and 
trust  to  GOD'S  mercy,  wish  peace  and  increase  of  bliss  at 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  95 

CHRIST'S  coining : '  and  though  he  ran  his  pen  through 
those  words,  he  was  loath  to  part  with  that  sentiment.  *  Of 
your  Charity  which  hopeth  the  best,  wish  peace  and 
final  felicity/  presented  itself  as  an  alternative.  Then, 
'  Of  jour  charity  '  began  to  sound  questionable.  '  In 
your  Christian  charity '  seemed  better  :  but  this  had 
given  way  to  '  charitable  hope/  when  the  pious  writer 
seems  to  have  been  reminded  of  the  impossibility  of 
elaborating  a  sentence  by  processes  like  these.  There 
perhaps  never  existed  a  scholar  who  found  it  more 
difficult  to  satisfy  himself  than  Dr.  Routh.  A  third 
and  a  fourth  draft  of  the  above  inscription  has  been 
discovered.  In  one  of  these  is  found  that  he  "  lies 
buried  in  the  adjoining  crypt,  with  his  wife,  Eliza 
Agnes  Blagrave  of  Calcot,  whom  the  LORD  grant  to 
find  mercy  from  the  LORD  in  that  day." 

The  fastidiousness  of  his  taste  in  such  matters  was 
altogether  extraordinary.  But  in  fact  it  extended  to 
everything  he  wrote  for  publication.  It  was  as  if  he  could 
never  satisfy  himself.  Addressing  his  friend  Ogilvie, — 

{i  I  send  you  "  (he  says)  "  the  last  corrected  sheet.  I 
should  be  glad  to  have  your  opinion  whether  the  comma 
after  *  veri '  (in  the  words  I  have  added  at  the  end)  had 
not  better  be  removed.  Your  answer  would  oblige  me, 
sent  at  any  time  before  one  o'clock."  8 

It  should  be  added  that  his  inscriptions  (and  he  wrote 
many)  are  for  the  most  part  singularly  original  and 
felicitous.  Room  has  already  been  found  for  a  few  of 
them :  several  others  will  be  found  collected  in  the 
Appendix  (B). 

But  a  document  of  more  importance  than  the  Presi- 
dent's epitaph  remained  incomplete  until  the  end  came. 

8  Nov.  i,  1853. 


96  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1854 

He  had  postponed  to  the  last  month  of  the  last  year  of 
his  life  the  business  of  making  his  will ;  and  inasmuch 
as  the  draft  (prepared  from  instructions  furnished  a  few 
days  previous),  was  only  sent  by  the  lawyer  to  Dr.  Ogil- 
vie  for  the  President's  signature  on  the  2oth, — that  is  to 
say,  two  days  before  his  death,  his  will  was  perforce  never 
signed  at  all.  Its  effect  would  have  been  to  divert  from 
the  family  a  large  part  of  his  property  to  charitable 
institutions.  The  President  was  heard  repeatedly  in- 
quiring for  '  pen  and  ink '  when  it  was  all  too  late.  .  .  . 
Such  an  incident  seems  more  impressive  than  any 
homily.  It  is  believed  that  at  a  much  earlier  period 
Dr.  Routh  had  made  a  will,  which  he  subsequently 
cancelled. 

"  The  last  time  he  attended  in  his  stall  at  Chapel  at 
the  consecration  of  the  Eucharist," — (writes  one  of  his 
Fellows,  and  as  faithful  a  friend  of  the  aged  President 
as  ever  lived, — Dr.  Bloxam.)  "knowing  that  he  could  not 
come  up  to  the  altar,  I  took  the  elements  down  to  him. 
Seeing  me  approach,  he  tottered  down  the  steps  from 
his  seat,  and  knelt  on  the  bare  floor  of  the  Chapel  be- 
low, to  receive  the  consecrated  bread  and  wine, — '  out  of 
reverence '  as  he  told  me.  It  was  no  common  sight  to  see 
the  old  man  kneeling  on  the  floor.  I  shall  never  forget  it." 

I  have  reserved  till  now  some  account  of  a  friendship 
which,  more  than  any  other,  was  the  solace  of  the  latest 
years  of  the  venerable  President's  life.  The  strictest 
intimacy  subsisted  between  himself  and  Dr.  Ogilvie  (Pro- 
fessor of  Pastoral  Theology  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church), 
—a  gentleman  whose  friendship  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
enjoy,  and  to  whose  sound  scholarship,  admirable  Theo- 
logical learning,  and  exceeding  personal  worth,  it  is 
pleasant  to  be  able  to  bear  hearty  testimony.  I  have 


1852]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  97 

been  shown  a  large  collection  of  letters  (most  of  them 
short  notes)  which  the  President  addressed  to  Dr.  Ogilvie 
between  the  years  1847  and  1854.  It  is  a  strange  thing 
to  have  to  say,  but  it  is  idle  to  withhold  the  avowal, — 
viz.  that  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  illegible.  Even 
where  one  succeeds  in  making  out  one  or  two  connected 
sentences,  there  is  commonly  a  word  or  two  about  which 
one  feels  doubtful  to  the  last.  Subjoined  is  a  striking 
illustration  of  the  inconvenience  complained  of.  The 
letter  which  follows  was  addressed  by  the  President  (in 
his  97th  year)  to  the  Rev.  John  Oxlee, — author  of  "  Three 
Sermons  preached  at  three  different  times,  on  the  Power -,  Origin, 
and  Succession  of  t/te  Christian  Hierarchy,  and  especially  that 
of  the  Church  of  England  "  9  (1816-21), — a  very  remarkable 
performance.  The  learned  and  faithful  writer  was  one 
of  the  many  pioneers  (overlooked  by  an  impatient 
generation)  who,  up  and  down  throughout  the  country, 
for  40  or  50  years  had  been  preparing  the  way  for  the 
revival  which  it  is  customary  to  date  from  1 833.  But 
now  for  the  letter  : — 

"Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  July  23,  1852. 

"  Reverend  Sir, — In  the  course  of  this  year  I  saw  in  the 
Oxford  Herald,  as  it  is  called,  an  advertisement  of  your 
[work]  on  Apostolic  Succession,  which  I  sent  for 
and  read  with  great  satisfaction,  particularly  that  part 

of  it  which that  Jewish  Presbytery  and  not  the 

Hierarchy the  Christian  Church.     But  I 

am  surprised  to  find  on  looking  at  the  title  page,  that 
it  was  not  recently  published  by  you,  as  the  date  was 
some  years  earlier. 

"  I  hope  GOD  grants  you  the  comfort  of  proceeding  in 
your  learned  researches  for  the  benefit  of  His  Church. 
I  am.  Reverend  Sir,  with  great  esteem, 

"  Your  faithful  Servant, 

"M.  J.  ROUTH." 

9  York,  8vo.  1821, — pp.  94,  n6and  108. 
YOL.  I.  H 


98  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1851 

The  four  or  five  words  above  omitted  have  defied 
the  skill  of  many  an  expert:1  but  the  thing  intended 
ty  the  writer  is  plain.  The  second  of  Oxlee's  three 
Sermons  (which  is  to  prove  "  that  the  Christian  Priest- 
hood is  a  perfect  Hierarchy,  emanating  immediately 
from  GOD  Himself,")  argues  "  that  the  primitive  regimen 
of  the  Church  must  have  been  a  close  imitation  of  the 
Jewish  presbyteral  bench":  and  seeks  to  establish 
"  that  the  government  instituted  in  the  Church  by  the 
Apostles  was  a  mere  transcript  of  the  Jewish  presby- 
terate."  2 — No  apology  can  be  requisite  for  these  details. 
Apart  from  the  interest  and  importance  of  the  subject, 
the  proof  of  Routh's  mental  activity  to  the  very  last,  and 
the  eagerness  of  his  disposition  on  a  point  of  sacred 
science,  fully  warrants  the  foregoing  brief  episode. 

It  was  of  his  confidential  letters  to  Dr.  Ogilvie  that 
I  was  speaking, — a  few  of  them  sealed  with  his  favourite 
impress, —  IXOYC.  Trivial  as  most  of  such  letters  per- 
force must  be,  they  rise  at  times  to  the  highest  standard 
of  interest.  Truly  characteristic  of  the  man  is  an 
incident  which  belongs  to  the  very  close  of  the  President's 
life ;  and  which,  on  more  than  one  account,  deserves  to 
be  recorded.  It  relates  to  the  great  mystery  of  the 
Sacrament  of  CHRIST'S  Body  and  Blood.  But  I  must 
first  explain  that  three  years  before  (viz.  in  1851) 
Dr.  Routh  had  held  many  a  colloquy  with  Dr.  Ogilvie 
on  this  subject ;  in  consequence  of  which  he  repeatedly 
formulated  in  writing  the  result  of  his  own  frequent  and 
prolonged  meditations.  On  Feb.  1 6th,  1 85 1 ,  he  writes, — 

"  I  am  reading  every  day  a  portion  of  Holy  Scripture, 
and  noting  what  makes  me  hesitate  about  its  meaning. 

'  Concerns  '  ?  '  sums  up '  ?    '  secures '  ? : — '  was  constituted  in'  ? 
2  Title-page,  and  pp.  18  and  24. 


1851]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE. 


99 


I  am  now  able  to  do  little  besides.  I  told  you,  I  believe, 
that  I  [have]  been  considering  what  was  said  in  Scripture 
respecting  the  Sacrament  of  the  LORD'S  Supper,  without 
any  reference  to  succeeding  writings.  In  confidence,  I 
will  submit  to  your  consideration  the  following  brief 
result  of  my  humble  inspection  of  S.  John's  vith  chapter  ; 
the  account  of  the  other  Evangelists  of  the  institution  ; 
and  of  S.  Paul  in  i  Cor.  xi  and  Heb.  [ix],  xiii : — 

"  Take  this  Bread,  representing  the  Bread  which  came 
down  from  Heaven,  and  the  Body  which  was  crucified 
and  broken  for  thee.  Feed  on  that  life-giving  Sacrifice, 
by  faithfully  believing  in,  and  thankfully  remembering, 
the  LORD'S  death."  3 

Later  in  the  same  year,  on  a  fragment  of  paper,  (the 
contents  of  which  may  be  gathered  from  what  will 
be  found  printed  at  foot),4  Ogilvie  has  written, — 

"N.B.  This  Paper  was  put  into  my  hands  by  my 
revered  friend,  the  President  of  Magdalen,  in  the  evening 
of  July  29th,  1851,  after  I  had  dined  with  him.  It 
relates  to  the  subject  of  several  conversations  which  we 
had  previously  held ;  and  is  intended  briefly  to  express 
the  result  of  his  meditations  on  the  Holy  Eucharist  and 
the  participation  of  CHRIST  therein: — meditations,  to 
which  he  had  been  led  by  views  lately  put  forth  in  some 

3  These  last  words  ('Take  .  .  .  fully  believing  in,  and  thankfullyre- 
death')  I  transcribe  from  the  writer's  membering,  the  LORD'S  death,  (un- 
corrected  formula,  wrapped  round  certain  date)  .  .  or  Eat  of  that  Sacri- 
the  letter.  fice  by  thy  faith  in  it,  and  thankful 

4  Feb.  1 6th,  (and  July  29,  1851,  remembrance  of  CHRIST,  for  the  ac- 
except  where  indicated  within  square  quirement  of  life  eternal,  and  union 
brackets) :— Take   this   [+  blessed  with  Him  (Apr.  27).  .  .  or  Eat  of 
(Apr.  2  7)]  Bread  [+  rightfully  thine  that  one  Sacrifice  for  Sin  by  faith- 
(Apr.  27)],  representing  the  Bread  fully  believing   and  thankfully  re- 
which  came  down  from  Heaven,  and  membering  it,  for  the  attainment  of 
the  Body  [  +  which  was  (Apr.  2  7)]  indwelling  holiness  and  everlasting 
crucified  and  [  —  crucified  and  (Apr.  life  (July  29)  ...  or  Feed  by  thy 
27:  July  2 9)]  broken  for  thee.    Feed  faith,  and  by  thy  thankful  remem- 
on,  by  thy  believing,  this  Sacrifice  brance,  on  that    one   Sacrifice   for 
for  the  acquisition   of   everlasting  Sin ;  that  CHRIST  may  dwell  in  thee, 
life,   in   thankful    remembrance   of  and  thou  mayest  have  everlasting 
CHRIST'S  dying  for  thee.  [or  Feed  on  life  (Dec.  17).] 

that  life-giving  Sacrifice  by  faith- 

H  2 


ioo  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1854 

quarters;  but  according  to  his  sound  judgment  and 
well-ordered  affections,  utterly  irreconcilable  with^  Holy 
Scripture  and  the  sentence  of  Antiquity.  C.  A.  O." 

But  on  the  5th  June  1854,  (when  he  was  within  a  few 
months  of  his  departure),  he  wrote  as  follows  and  gave 
the  paper  to  the  same  friend,  with  the  remark  that  this 
statement  of  his  belief  was  the  one  on  which  his  mind  at 
last  rested : — 

"  The  Bread  broken  and  the  Wine  poured  out,  symbols 
in  the  Eucharist  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  CHRIST,  impart 
to  the  recipient,  through  his  faith  in  the  Sacrifice  on  the 
Cross,  [or  in  CHRIST'S  Passion  for  him],  life  spiritual, — the 
abidance  of  himself  in  CHRIST,  and"  of  CHRIST  in  him. 
Our  SAVIOUR,  interpreting  His  own  words,  saith  that 
they  are  Spirit  and  Life :  [or  explaining  His  precept  of 
eating  His  flesh  and  drinking  His  blood,  saith  that  His 
words  are  '  Spirit  and  Life.'  " 

President  Routh's  desire  to  give  deliberate  expression 
to  his  own  settled  convictions  on  this  great  subject  is 
observed  to  have  become  intensified  as  he  drew  nearer  to 
his  end.  Once  and  again  did  he  preface  his  paraphrase 
with  such  words  as  these, — "  On  account  of  the  existing 
differences  about  the  Eucharist,  the  following  is  with  all 
humility  offered  as  a  strictly  Scriptural  exposition  of  the 
doctrine." 

Quite  in  harmony  with  what  goes  before  is  the  record 
which  survives  of  what  had  been  the  President's  Easter 
meditations  on  the  latest  Easter  of  his  life.  "  Soon  after 
my  return  to  Oxford  after  Easter  1854,"  (writes  Dr. 
Ogilvie),  "my  revered  friend  put  into  my  hands  a  paper 
of  which  the  following  is  a  copy, — the  result  of  his 
Easter  meditations  and  reflections  "  : — 

"  In  our  own  and  other  Liturgies,  on  Easter  Eve  and 
Easter  Day,  the  occurrences  of  each  day  are  related  on 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  101 

the  same  day.  This  has  occasioned  the  omission  of  an 
additional  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  Resurrection  from 
the  publicly  recited  relation  of  the  event  on  Easter-Day. 

"  It  is  related  (in  the  Gospel  for  Easter  Day)  that  two 
Disciples  of  CHKIST,  Peter  and  John,  'went  into  the 
Sepulchre  and  saw  the  linen  clothes  lie,  and  the  napkin 
that  was  about  His  head,  not  lying  with  the  linen 
clothes,  but  wrapped  together  in  a  place  by  itself; — and ' 
[of  the  latter,  it  is  said  that  he]  '  saw  and  believed ' — 
that  He  was  risen  from  the  dead. 

"  The  Jewish  story  of  the  body  being  taken  away,  while 
the  Roman  guard,  known  by  all  to  be  placed  at  the 
Sepulchre,  were  asleep,  is  thus  refuted ;  for  no  persons 
would  spend  their  time  in  a  leisurely  disposal  of  the 
investments,  after  having  taken  them  from  the  body, 
whilst  they  were  in  danger  of  perishing,  if  the  soldiers 
should  awake.  But  the  time  which  it  would  take  to 
divest  is  much  increased  by  what  is  recorded  in  the 
verses  of  the  xixth  Chapter  of  S.  John's  Gospel,  im- 
mediately preceding  the  verses  of  the  xxth  chapter 
that  form  the  Gospel  of  Easter  Day;  and  therefore 
not  read  to  the  congregations  of  our  churches,  on  that 
Festival : 

" '  Nicodemus  brought  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes, 
about  an  hundred  pound  weight, — and  they  wound  the 
Body  of  JESUS  in  linen  clothes  with  the  spices,  as  the 
manner  of  the  Jews  is  to  bury.' 

"  A  long  process  would  have  been  necessary  to  effect 
the  divestment  of  a  body  thus  bound  in  swathes  and 
with  ointments. 

"  It  is  to  be  regretted  that,  in  consequence  of  what  has 
been  before  mentioned,  this  additional  proof  is  omitted." 

Who  can  read  such  remarks  on  S.  John  xix.  38-42, 
without  a  secret  aspiration — O  that  so  occupied  I  may 
pass  the  last  Easter  of  my  own  earthly  pilgrimage  ? 

The  President's  latest  literary  annoyance  has  been 
described  above.  Infinitely  more  serious  was  the  sorrow 
of  heart  which  the  Universities'  Commission  of  1854 


102  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1854 

occasioned  him.  On  the  3rd  of  Aug.  he  complained  to 
Dr.  Ogilvie, — 

"  I  have  no  one,  either  niece  or  nephew,  with  me.  I 
have  no  friend  to  write  my  thoughts  to,  on  the  all 
interesting  state  of  affairs,  but  yourself.  Can  you  account 
for  the  desertion  of  the  Bishops  from  the  protection  of 
the  Church  and  University  ?  " 

The  Commission  fell — (as  well  it  might)— like  a  dark 
shadow  over  the  close  of  his  long  life  ;  the  harbinger  of 
worse  things  to  come, — viz.  the  Disestablishment  of 
Religion  in  Oxford,  and  the  Dechristianizing  of  the 
University  at  the  end  of  six-and-twenty  years.  I  for- 
bear to  enlarge  on  this  subject,  or  even  to  insert  the 
protest  of  the  President  of  Magdalen,5  on  the  occasion  of 
forwarding  to  the  Commissioners,  as  demanded,  a  copy  of 
the  Statutes  of  his  College.  The  reader  will  scarcely 
require  from  me  the  suggestion  that  it  was  as  if  with  Dr. 
Routh  the  old  order  of  things  departed  from  the  Univer- 
sity, and  the  irreligious  Revolution  began  of  which  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  we  have  not  yet  seen  the  bitter  end. 
But,  in  all  this,  as  I  have  said,  and  as  the  reader  sees,  the 
President's  chief  earthly  consolation  was  derived  from 
sympathetic  intercourse  with  his  friend,  Dr.  Ogilvie. 
What  need  to  say  that  his  one  great  resource  was  the 
same  which  has  been  the  stay  of  GOD'S  Saints  in  every 
age? 

"  I  wish "  (he  says)  "  I  was  saying  my  prayers  at 
Tylehurst  before  I  go  hence.  But  a  notion  that  I  may 
be  in  some  way  serviceable  in  the  crisis  that  is  approach- 
ing, keeps  me  here."  c 

Let  me  not  however  end  the  story  of  such  a  life,  with 
words  of  evil  omen.  "  In  the  autumn  of  i853,"7  (relates 

5  Having  delivered  my  own  senti-  a  paper  in  the  Appendix  (E). 

ments    on    tins    sad    subject   very  6  June  3oth,  1853. 

plainly  in  another  place,  I  pass  it  7  The    President    furnishes    the 

by  here.     The  reader  is  referred  to  approximate  date  of  this  visit ;  an- 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  103 

Bishop  Hobhouse,)  "  when  I  was  going  with  the  S.  P.  G. 
Deputation  to  attend  the  triennial  Convention  of  the 
U.  S.  Church  in  New  York,  the  President  sent  by  my 
hand,  as  a  present  to  the  Presiding  Bishop,  the  Tractate 
which  he  had  just  republished  from  the  '  Reliquiae.'  He 
added  a  message, — (which  however  I  did  not  deliver) — as 
an  apology  for  his  presumption."  8 

The  keepsake  I  carried  was  "  an  evidence  "  (says  Hob- 
house)  "  of  the  deep  interest  which  he  had  felt  for  the 
Church  of  the  U.  S.  ever  since  1783 :"  in  which  year,  (as 
already  stated),9  Dr.  Seabury  came  to  England  as  Bishop- 
elect  of  Connecticut  to  seek  Consecration,  and  was  by 
Routh  persuaded  to  go  for  that  purpose  to  Scotland.  On 
Hobhouse's  return  from  America  the  old  man  immediately 
sent  for  him,  and  required  an  account  of  his  mission. 
He  "  inquired  with  keenest  interest  of  the  proceedings  of 
Convention," — "  repeated  the  main  facts  above  stated, — 
and  expressed  his  joy  at  hearing  that  the  infant  over 
whose  birth  he  had  watched,  had  grown  to  be  so  prolific 
a  mother."  "His  interest  in  the  whole  business  was 
surprisingly  lively."  "  At  the  end  of  this  amazing  span 
of  years,  he  finds  himself  transmitting  a  message  to  the 
President  of  40  Bishops."  .  .  .  This  incident  (which 
belongs  to  the  last  days  of  1853)  must  have  brightened, 
like  sunshine,  the  latest  year  of  President  Eouth's  pro- 
tracted life. 

His  earthly  span  was  brought  to  a  close  on  the  even- 
ing of  Friday,  December  32nd,  1854.  For  several  days 

nouncing  to  Dr.  Ogilvie  (Aug.  5th,  paragraph     is     contemporaneously 

1853), — "  Mr.  Hobhouse  is  going  to  written  (by  Bp.  Hobhouse)  inside 

the  great  triennial  meeting  of  the  the  cover  of  the  copy  of  Routh'a 

American  Episcopal  Church  at  New  pamphlet  which   the   author   gave 

York."  him  on  his  return  from  America. 

8  Letter    to    myself, — Lichfield,  9  See  back,  pp.  29-35. 
Nov.  28th,  1878.    The  next  ensuing 


104  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE:  [1854 

he  had  been  fully  conscious  that  his  end  was  approach- 
ing :  and  on  the  previous  Sunday,  though  ill  and  weak, 
had  left  orders  that  the  Provost  of  Oriel  (Dr.  Hawkins) 
should  be  admitted  if  he  called  ;  explaining  that  he  had 
done  so,  '  Because  I  thought  perhaps  I  might  never  see 
you  again.'  He  was  singularly  talkative  on  that  day 
(Sunday) :  but  "  a  change  was  observed  in  him.  Still, 
he  had  his  usual  party  at  dinner ;  and  though  he  did  not 
join  his  guests  at  table,  he  saw  them  at  tea.  He  was 
more  sleepy  than  usual  then.  The  next  day  he  was 
worse  ;  but  on  Tuesday  he  revived  so  much  that  Bloxam 
lost  all  immediate  apprehension,  and  the  President  himself 
gaic^ — <  I  think  I  shall  be  a  little  longer  with  you,  sir.'  " 1 
He  requested  Bloxam,  who  had  called  by  the  President's 
request,  to  guide  his  hand  in  signing  a  cheque  for  some 
charitable  purpose,  and  to  convey  it  to  Dr.  Macbride. — 
"He  spoke"  (writes  Dr.  Hawkins)  "with  animation  and 
cheerfulness,  sometimes  with  more  than  his  usual  felicity 
of  expression.  '  Richard  Heber '  (he  said), '  collected  more 
books  than  any  other  person ;  he  had  four  libraries,  one 
at  his  own  place,  Hodnet,  another  at  Paris,  another  at 
Brussels,  another  at  Amsterdam.  His  library  at  Hodnet 
sold  for  53,ooo/. ;  and  his  Paris  library  was  very  good. 
I  have  the  catalogue,  sir,  in  my  room.  "  Mr.  Heber," 
said  Porson  to  him,  with  his  usual  caustic  humour,  "  you 
have  collected  a  great  many  books :  pray  when  do  you 
mean  to  begin  to  read  them  ?  "  But  the  present  Dean  of 
Christ  Church,  sir,  a  great  authority,  told  me  that  he 
never  asked  Mr.  Heber  about  a  book  without  finding 
him  well  acquainted  with  it.'  Thus,  even  in  respect  of 
a  trifling  matter,  the  speaker's  nature  became  apparent." 
The  Provost  of  Oriel  (from  whom  I  am  quoting)  remarks 
on  what  goes  before, — 

1  Mozley's  Letters,  (Dec.  23,  1854), — P-  225- 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  105 

"  Though  he  enjoyed  a  joke,  he  was  supremely  anxious 
that  whatever  he  said  should  be  true.  The  very  accuracy 
and  retentiveness  of  his  memory  had  probably  been 
assisted  by  this  constant  anxiety  for  Truth.  And  in  his 
later  years,  when  it  was  not  quite  so  ready  and  alert  as 
formerly,  it  was  curious  to  observe  the  working  of  his 
mind,  intent  to  gather  up  again  any  fading  recollections, 
and  not  permitting  you  to  assist  him,  but  recalling  his 
thoughts,  and  regaining  any  lost  clue  himself. 

"  For  some  time  past,"  proceeds  Dr.  Hawkins,  "  he  had 
rather  lain  on  his  chair  than  sat  upon  it ;  and  on  this 
occasion,  in  order  to  support  himself,  he  grasped  one  arm 
of  the  chair  with  his  right  hand, — with  his  left,  stretched 
over  the  other  arm,  touching  or  clasping  mine.  He  said 
emphatically  that  he  was  'ready.'  On  my  observing 
that  a  very  long  life  had  been  assigned  him  with  very 
little  illness  and  many  sources  of  happiness, — '  Yes,'  he 
said,  he  was  deeply  grateful.  '  Sir,  I  believe  everything 
i&  ordered  for  the  best.  Do  not  you  believe  that,  sir  ?  "! 

Later  in  the  day,  (Tuesday,  i9th  Dec.),  Dr.  Cotton 
(Provost  of  Worcester)  visited  him :  '  You  are  come,  sir,' 
said  the  President,  fto  one  that  is  going.'  He  conversed 
cheerfully  with  Dr.  Acland  next  morning  (Wednesday) : 
regretted  that  the  new  Museum  was  to  be  placed  in  the 
Parks  ;  and  remarked, — '  We  are  said  to  have  the  air  in 
the  Parks  from  the  Highlands  of  Scotland.  I  do  not  know 
whether  this  is  correct,  sir ;  I  think  the  hills  in  West- 
moreland must  intervene  :  but  I  have  not  inquired  into 
the  fact.'  To  Dr.  Jackson,  his  physician,  (who  for  ten 
days  had  been  unavoidably  away  from  Oxford,  and  in 
whose  absence  Dr.  Acland  had  attended  the  President,) 
— *  I  will  do  what  you  desire,  sir  ;  take  anything  you 
please ;  but  I  know  that  it  is  useless.  I  shall  go  to- 
morrow.' He  went  to  his  bed  reluctantly  on  that  same 


io6  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTE  :  [1854 

night, — Wednesday,  December  2oth :  went,  for  the  last 
time.  He  was  in  a  state  of  great  prostration. 

He  used  to  sleep  in  the  'Founder's  Chamber,' — (;King 
Charles's  room,'  as  he  himself  called  it,) — the  ancient 
apartment  over  the  College  gateway,  in  which  no  less 
than  seven  royal  personages  have  been  entertained  ;  an 
old  banqueting-room  therefore.  Dr.  Jackson,  paying  an 
early  visit  on  the  morrow,  which  was  Thursday,  was 
informed  by  his  patient,  that  "  it  was  the  first  time  that 
a  physician  had  ever  seen  him  in  bed.  He  had  been  seen 
by  a  surgeon"  (instancing  Tuckwell,)  "  on  more  than  one 
occasion."  Jackson  visited  him  a  second,  and  a  third 
time.  On  Friday  (22nd  December)  he  was  clearly  sink- 
ing ;  but  at  2.30  p.m.  spoke  a  little,  and  was  quite 
sensible.  He  expressed  a  wish  to  see  Dr.  Ogilvie, — who, 
as  he  knew,  had  his  unsigned  will  in  his  keeping, — c  to- 
morrow ; '  a  to-morrow  he  was  destined  never  to  know. 
It  was  plain  to  Dr.  Jackson  that  the  time  for  transacting 
business  of  any  kind  was  past.  *  The  President '  (he 
wrote  to  Dr.  Bliss)  '  is  as  ill  as  he  can  be  to  be  alive.' 

In  the  evening,  when  Esther  Druce,  his  faithful  old 
servant,  was  standing  at  the  foot  of  his  bed, — '  Now, 
Esther,  I  seem  better.'  He  crossed  his  hands  and  closed 
his  eyes.  She  heard  him  repeat  the  LORD'S  Prayer 
softly  to  himself.2  Presently  she  proposed  to  give  him 
some  port  wine,,  as  the  doctor  had  recommended.  He 
drank  it ;  feebly  took  her  hand,  thanked  her  for  all  her 
attention  to  him,  and  remarked  that  he  had  been  'a 
great  deal  of  trouble ; '  adding  that  he  had  made  some 
provision  for  her.  His  leg  occasioned  him  pain.  '  Let 
me  make  you  a  little  more  comfortable/  said  the  poor 
woman,  intending  to  change  the  dressing.  '  Don't  trouble 

2  I  obtained  all  these  particulars  from  her.  The  truthful  simplicity 
of  her  narrative  was  very  striking. 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  107 

yourself,'  he  replied.  Those  were  the  last  words  he 
spoke.  It  was  near  upon  half-past  seven  in  the  evening. 
Folding  his  arms  across  his  breast  he  became  silent.  It 
was  his  Nunc  dimittis.  He  heaved  two  short  sighs  and  all 
was  over.  .  .  .  '  I  have  just  seen  him,'  wrote  Dr.  Jackson. 
'  He  lay  perfectly  placid,  with  his  arms  crossed  just  one 
over  the  other,  as  if  asleep.  May  my  end  be  like  his,  at 
a  much  less  advanced  age  !' 

"The  representatives  of  my  dear  uncle,"  (wrote  his 
nephew 3  on  the  24th)  "  have  decided  that  he  shall  be 
buried  within  the  walls  of.  the  College. 

"This  decision  has  been  come  to  in  consequence  of 
a  strong  and  unanimous  wish  expressed  by  the  members 
of  the  College  that  his  remains  should  not  be  taken  from 
them.  I  confess,  after  reading  the  very  precise  manner 
in  which  he  has  given  directions  [for  his  burial  at  Theale], 
I  could  hardly  bring  myself  to  consent  to  their  non-ful- 
filment ;  but  my  Aunt  concurring  with  the  view  taken 
by  his  other  friends,  that  if  he  had  known  the  grief  it 
would  occasion  them  to  lose  the  last  relics  of  their  be- 
loved and  venerated  Head,  he  would, — (as  he  has  uni- 
formly done  on  other  occasions  in  matters  relating  to 
himself, — [the  taking  his  portrait  for  instance4]), — have 
sacrificed  his  own  feelings  to  the  general  wish  of  the 
[Society  over  which  he  presided], —  I  have  at  length  ac- 
ceded to  their  views." 

In  the  beautiful  chapel  of  the  College  of  which  he 
had  been  President  for  63  years,  Dr.  Routh  was  accord- 
ingly buried  (Dec.  29th,  1854)  on  the  Friday  after  his 
decease  ;  being  followed  to  the  grave  by  a  vast  concourse 
of  persons,  including  the  principal  members  of  the  Uni- 
versity, the  fellows  and  demies  of  his  own  college,  and  a 
troop  of  friends.  The  funeral  cortege  filled  two  sides  of 
the  cloisters.  '  It  was  the  most  touching  and  impressive 

3  To  Dr.  Ogilvie.     The  words  in  *  Concerning    portraits    of    the 

square  brackets  are  from  a  duplicate       President,    see    Bloxam's    Demies, 
of  the  letter  addressed  to  Dr.  Bliss.       iv.  31-4. 


io8  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH :  [1854 

scene,  I  think,  that  I  ever  witnessed/  wrote  one  of  the 
fellows  a  few  days  after.  But  the  weather  was  intensely 
cold, — the  wind  blowing  strong  and  bitter  from  the  north- 
east, as  Bodley's  librarian  (H.  O.  Coxe)  remarked  in  a 
letter  to  a  friend.  Not  a  note  of  the  organ  was  heard ; 
the  whole  body  of  the  choir  chanting  the  Psalms  without 
music.  The  open  grave  was  immediately  in  front  of  the 
altar ;  and  on  the  coffin  was  recorded  the  rare  circum- 
stance that  its  occupant  was  in  his  hundredth  year.5 

"  I  remember  when  our  President  died," — (I  am  quoting 
the  words  of  the  most  thoughtful  member  of  the  Society 
over  which  Dr.  Routh  presided, 6) — "  making  the  obser- 
vation to  myself  that  one  is  more  surprised  at  the  death 
of  old  persons  than  at  the  death  of  young  ones.  I  mean 
that,  though  the  laws  of  nature  prepare  one  for  it,  when 
it  actually  takes  place  it  is  more  of  a  downfall,  and  what 
one  may  call  a  crash,  than  the  younger  death  is.  There 
is  so  much  more  fabric  to  fall  down. 

"The  old  man  does,  by  his  very  length  of  life,  root 
himself  in  us ;  so  that  the  longer  he  lives,  the  longer,  we 
think,  he  must  live;  and  when  he  dies  it  is  a  kind  of 
violence  to  us. 

"I  do  not  know  whether  you  at  all  recognise  this 
aspect  of  the  departure  of  a  long  life," — (proceeds  the 
same  writer,  addressing  the  same  friend,) — "  or  whether 
you  partake  of  the  impression.  I  recollect  I  had  it  very 
strongly  when  the  whole  College,  with  all  its  train  of 
past  generations  that  survived,  followed  the  old  Presi- 
dent to  the  grave.  The  majestic  music  and  solemn 
wailings  of  the  choir  seemed  to  mourn  over  some  great 
edifice  that  had  fallen,  and  left  a  vast  void,  which  looked 
quite  strange  and  unaccountable  to  one." 

There  is  no  reason  why  this  narrative  should  be 
further  prolonged.  If  I  have  not  already  succeeded 

5  Anyone  desiring  a  particular  de-       (The  Demies.)— iv.  26-31. 
scription  of  the  President's  funeral  6  Mozley's    Letters,  —  (Jan.    31, 

is   referred   to    Bloxam's    Register,        1873):  p.  300-1. 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  109 

in  setting  before  the  reader  a  living  image  of  the  man 
whose  name  stands  written  above  these  pages, — by 
nothing  which  can  now  be  added  shall  I  effect  the 
object  with  which  I  originally  took  up  my  pen.  Martin 
Joseph  Routh  belonged  to  a  class  of  Scholars  and 
Divines  of  which  specimens  seem  likely  to  become  more 
and  more  rare  in  England  as  the  ages  roll  out :  but  the 
example  which  he  has  left  behind  him  of  reverence 
for  catholic  Antiquity  and  inflexible  attachment  to  the 
Church  of  his  Baptism, — above  all,  of  an  ardent  faith, 
and  an  absolute  prostration  of  the  intellect  before  the 
revelations  of  GOD'S  written  Word ; — this  is  for  every 
succeeding  generation. 

As  a  literary  man,  he  lays  no  claim  to  originality 
of  genius,  or  power  of  imagination.  His  marvellous 
memory  (so  accurate  and  so  comprehensive),  his  quick 
perception,  his  tenacity  of  purpose,  his  indomitable  in- 
dustry and  calm  judgment, — these  stood  to  him  in 
the  place  of  genius.  But  here  again  he  invariably 
proposed  to  himself  a  far  loftier  standard  of  critical 
excellence  than  he  was  capable  of  attaining  :  while 
yet  he  resolutely  strove  to  attain  it.  He  was  a  truly' 
remarkable  instance  of  self-culture.  Humour  he  had, 
and  a  certain  genialness  of  nature  which  greatly  en- 
deared him  to  those  with  whom  he  had  to  do.  Above 
all  he  had  an  unfailing  courteousness  of  mind  and  of 
manner, — courtesy  based  on  charity, — which  became  in 
him  a  power,  and  prevailed.  His  knowledge  of  human 
nature  was  great,  and  he  was  skilful  in  dealing  with 
men.  Apt  was  he  to  form  a  kindly  estimate  of  every 
body.  Firm  as  a  Governor,  on  matters  of  principle  he 
was  inflexible :  but  his  administration  of  discipline  was 
weakened  by  the  tenderness  of  his  disposition.  Though 
of  a  somewhat  choleric  temper,  his  fit  of  passion  was 


no  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH:  [1854 

soon  over  and  there  was  ever  a  ready  apology  at  hand. 
He  was  of  a  truly  kind  and  affectionate  nature.     'Given 
to  hospitality '  too  he  was,  but  wholly  without  ostenta- 
tion.     His   repasts,   when    he   entertained,   were    even 
severely  simple.     It  should  be  added  that  in  his  private 
charities,  he  was  prompt  and  munificent.     As  his  sister's 
steward,  he  gave  away  very  large  sums  to  Church  in- 
stitutions.    The  deep  unobtrusive  piety  of  his  spirit, — 
the  religious   calmness  of  his  habitual  temperament, — 
caused  him  to  be  greatly  revered  by  those  who  knew 
him  best.     He  was  observed  to  fast— -from  dainties.     His 
reverence  for  Antiquity  was  great :    for  Authority,  far 
greater.     He  would  not  however  have  been  a  Non-juror. 
(He  said  so.)     The  abuses  in  Church  and  State  of  his 
early   days,   he   thoroughly   abhorred.     He  was   by  no 
means  the  blind  landalor  temporu  acti.      On  the  contrary. 
He  took  a  hopeful  view  of  the  issue  of  all  the  move- 
ments  of    mind    around    him.      He    was    so    heartily 
Anglican,  because  he  knew — to  an  extent  not  attainable 
by    most    men — that    the    English    Reformation    was 
achieved  on  the  primitive  lines,  and  was   the   nearest 
'return  to  primitive  Catholicity   possible.      It   was   the 
supreme    desire   of  his  soul  to  be  remembered   as   one 
who  "  died,  as  he  had  lived,  attached  to  the   Catholic 
Faith  taught   in   the  Church  of  England,  and   averse 
from  all  Papal   and  Sectarian  innovation."     His  calm 
delight  in   the  Gospel  :    his  adoring  admiration  of  its 
perfections :    the  childlike  spirit  in  which  he  sustained 
his   soul   by  feeding  upon   its  very   letter  to  the  last 
hour   of    his   life  : — these    are   a   legacy   for   all    time. 
And 

"  There  are  no  colours  in  the  fairest  sky 

So  fair  as  these  ! " 
One  cannot,  as  it  seems,  too  greatly  admire  the  in- 


1854]  THE  LEARNED  DIVINE.  in 

domitable  energy  of  character, — the  consciousness  of 
high  and  holy  purpose, — which,  at  a  period  when 
Churchmanship  was  at  its  lowest  ebb,  (the  last  quarter 
of  the  i8th  century,  I  mean,) — could  deliberately  gird 
itself  up  for  such  an  undertaking  as  that  which  the 
President  commenced  in  lySS,7  as  well  as  faithfully 
prosecuted  throughout  all  the  ensuing  years  of  his  life. 
Among  his  contemporaries  he  was  unapproached  for 
Patristic  learning.  Dr.  Christopher  Wordsworth,  the 
great  Bishop  of  Lincoln  [1869-85],  might  reasonably 
experience  gratification  when,  after  reading  his  work  on 
Hippolytus,  the  President,  in  his  98th  year,  sent  him 
word 8  that  he  found  it  "  the  production  of  a  writer 
better  acquainted  with  primitive  Antiquity  than  any 
man  I  supposed  to  exist  among  us." 

Then  further, — The  generous  sympathy  with  which  in 
his  extreme  old.  age  he  reached  out  hopefully  to  a  new 
institution  like  the  young  Church  University  of  Dur- 
ham:— his  affability  to  strangers,  and  the  unwearied 
kindness  he  was  prepared  to  lavish  on  such  as  loved 
sacred  Science,  but  knew  next  to  nothing  about  it : — 
above  all,  the  affectionate  cordiality  which  subsisted 
between  himself  and  the  Fellows  of  his  College ; — these 
are  features  of  character  which  will  endear  his  memory 
to  not  a  few  who  shall  come  after  him.  And  yet  this 
was  not  nearly  all.  To  the  very  last  he  was  a  faithful 
and  true  man, — with  nothing  of  the  timidity  of  age, 
though  the  experience  of  a  long  life  had  taught  him 
caution.  He  was  one  of  those  who  signed  the  petition 
to  the  King  against  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Hamp- 
den  to  the  Regius  Professorship  of  Divinity  (Feb.  n, 
1836).  A  fortnight  later  (29  Feb.),  a  Requisition 
having  been  addressed  to  the  Hebdomadal  Board  that 

7  See  back,  pp.  38-40.  8  July  30,  1853. 


ii2  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH.  [1854 

Hampden's  Works  should  be  brought  before  the  Convo- 
cation of  the  University,  the  Heads  divided, — 20  against, 
and  4  for  it.  The  minority  consisted  of  Routh,  Gaisford, 
Gilbert,  and  Jenkyns.  He  was  a  fearless  Confessor. 
Had  his  lot  fallen  in  times  of  cruel  persecution,  he 
would  have  been  prepared  to  die  a  Martyr's  death. 

No  worthy  pictorial  representation  of  President  Routh 
exists, — a  circumstance  which  is  much  to  be  regretted: 
for  Ids  was  a  face  and  a  form  which  really  did  deserve 
commemoration  by  the  hand  of  a  consummate  artist. 
His  eyes  beamed  with  intelligence :  his  features  bore  the 
impress  of  character.  A  general  impression  of  his  ap- 
pearance is  all  that  can  now  be  derived  from  a  survey  of 
the  efforts  of  Thompson,  Pickersgill,  Hartmann.  The 
attempt  to  pourtray  him  should  have  been  made  fifty, 
forty,  at  least  thirty  years  sooner  ;  and  then  by  a  first- 
rate  hand.  Concerning  his  portraits,  see  above,  p.  107. 

There  appeared  in  the  University  on  the  occasion  of 
the  venerable  President's  departure  *  A  CENTURY  OF 
VERSES,' — which,  it  is  hoped,  may  without  impropriety 
be  reproduced  here.  They  are  the  work  of  one  who 
knew  him  only  slightly,  but  who  revered  him  greatly, 
and  to  whom  he  had  been  exceedingly  kind : — one  on 
whom  the  stroke  of  domestic  affliction  had  recently  fallen 
heavily ;  and  who,  on  returning  to  Oxford  after  the 
Christmas  Vacation,  sadly  bent  his  steps  in  the  direction 
of  the  President's  lodgings.  To  go  back  to  his  own 
College,  and  write  such  '  a  Century  of  Verses  '  as  the 
following,  was  a  kind  of  instinct  of  nature : — 

"  Grief  upon  grief !  it  seems  as  if  each  day 
Came  laden  with  a  freight  of  heavy  news 
From  East  or  West.     My  letters,  fringed  with  black, 


A  CENTURY  OF  VERSES.  113 

Bring  me  but  sighs :  and  when  the  heart  is  full 
One  drop  will  made  the  bitter  cup  o'erflow. 

Grave,  reverend  sir  !  I  scarcely  knew  how  dear 
I  held  thy  mem'ry,  till  I  stood  before 
Thy  darkened  gate,  and  learnt  thy  message  kind, — 
*  When  next  he  calls,  he  must  be  made  come  in.' 
Alas,  'twas  now  a  message  from  the  grave  ! 
There  was  no  voice  nor  motion :  calm  the  scene 
Around  me,  as  the  mem'ry  of  the  blest. 
For  still,  the  quiet  precinct  of  thy  home 
Seemed  like  some  little  favoured  nook  apart, 
Where  no  rough  wind  might  enter,  no  harsh  sound 
Make  itself  heard,  nor  chance  nor  change  intrude. 
Waynflete's  time-honoured  gateway,  decked  about 
With  kneeling  Saints,  and  shielded  from  rude  hands 
By  the  low  fence  which  girds  thy  modest  lawn, 
O'erhung  me  like  a  blessing ;  and  a  few 
Faint  flowers  were  lingering  near  me  ;  and  no  sound 
Broke  the  sweet  silence,  save  a  bird  that  trill' d 
Farewell  to  Summer  from  a  wintry  thorn. 

Would  I  had  seen  thy  honoured  face  once  more ! 
So  loath  was  I  to  weary  thee  ;  to  tax 
Thy  reverend  courtesy ;  and  add  the  weight 
Even  of  a  feather  to  thy  pile  of  years, 
That  still  I  keep  aloof  from  one  whose  words 
Were  ever  words  of  kindness  ;  whose  discourse 
Was  pleasant  to  me  as  a  skilful  song 
Which  haunts  the  heart  and  brain,  and  will  not  die. 
How  could  it  fail  be  so  ?  for  who  like  thee 
To  talk  of  ancient  times,  and  ancient  men, 
And  render  back  their  image  ?  who  like  thee 
For  sacred  lore  ?    Thy  speech  recalled  the  days 
When  Truth  was  deemed  eternal :  when  men's  eyes 

VOL.  I.  I 


ii4  A  CENTURY  OF  VERSES. 

Were  taught  to  hail  the  everlasting  hills 

As  beacons  of  their  journey;  and  their  hearts, 

Not  tossed  as  now  on  wretched  waves  of  doubt, 

Were  anchored  fast  to  that  eternal  shore 

Where  thou  didst  make,  and  now  hast  found,  thine  home. 

And  there  already, — (for  not  mine  the  creed, 
0  no,  not  mine  the  cold  unlovely  creed 
Which  dreams  of  treasures  lost  when  good  men  die,)— 
Already,  doubtless,  on  that  starlit  strand 
Hast  thou  been  welcomed  with  glad  words,  as  when 
Some  voyaging  barque,  long  time  detained  at  sea, 
Looms  in  the  offing,  and  a  thousand  hearts 
Flock  to  the  beach,  impatient  for  their  joy. 
There,  as  I  think,  thou  wilt  behold  the  eyes 
And  hear  the  voices  of  those  ancient  Saints 
Whose  few  yet  precious  pages,  once  the  sport 
Of  gusty  winds,  became  thy  pious  care  : 
The  Sarclian  Melito, — Polycrates, — 
Papias  the  Phrygian, — Pinytus  of  Crete, — 
Julius, — and  Hegesippus, — and  the  rest ; 
Who  lived  before  those  Seven,  to  whom  St.  John 
Spake  words  of  warning,  gave  their  souls  to  GOD. 

Calm  life,  that  labouring  in  forgotten  fields 
Didst  hive  the  sweets  of  each  !    calm  happy  life 
Of  learned  leisure  and  long  studious  days, 
Spent  in  a  curious  Paradise  of  Books  ; 
How  wert  thou  spared  to  witness  to  the  sons 
The  manners  and  the  wisdom  of  their  sires ! 
Kesembling  more  some  marvel  of  the  past 
Than  aught  of  modern  fashion.     Let  me  long 
Cherish  thy  precious  mem'ry !  long  retain 
The  image  of  thy  venerable  form 
Stooping  beneath  its  century  of  years, 
And  wrapped  in  solemn  academic  robes, 


A  CENTURY  OF  VERSES.  115 

Cassock,  and  scarf,  and  buckles,  bands  and  wig, 
And  such  a  face  as  none  beheld  before 
Save  in  an  ancient  frame  on  College  walls, 
And  heard  of  as  '  the  portrait  of  a  grave 
And  learn'd  Divine  who  flourished  years  ago/ 

Yet  would  thy  sunken  eye  shine  bright  as  day 
If  haply  some  one  touched  thy  favourite  theme, — 
The  martyred  Monarch's  fortunes  and  his  times  : 
Yet  brighter,  if  the  mem'ries  of  thy  youth 
Were  quickened  into  sudden  life :  but  most 
'Twas  joy  to  hear  thy  solemn  voice  descant 
Of  Fathers,  Councils,  and  the  page  Divine : 
For  then  thy  words  were  precious  and  well  weighed, 
Oracular  with  wisdom.     Or  if  men 
And  manners  were  thy  theme, — scholars  and  wits, 
The  heroes  of  past  years, — how  rich  thy  vein  ! 
Thy  speech  how  courteous,  classical,  and  kind  ! 
Each  story  new  because  so  wondrous  old: 
And  each  particular  exactly  given, 
The  name,  the  place,  the  author,  yea  the  page, — 
Nought  was  forgotten.    ;  But  I  tire  you,  sir,' 
(So  would  he  say:)  '  I  fear  1  tire  you,  sir  ? 
'An  old  man,  sir!' — while  one's  heart  danced  for  joy. 

He  sleeps  before  the  altar,  where  the  shade 
He  loved  will  guard  his  slumbers  night  and  day; 
And  tuneful  voices  o'er  him,  like  a  dirge, 
Will  float  for  everlasting.     Fitting  close 
For  such  a  life !  His  twelve  long  sunny  hours 
Bright  to  the  edge  of  darkness :  then,  the  calm 
Repose  of  twilight,  and  a  crown  of  stars." 

BEATI   MORTVI,   QVI   MORIVNTVR   IN   DOMINO. 
I  2 


(n).  HUGH    JAMES    ROSE: 

THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS. 
[A.  D.  1795-1838.] 

,  when  hearts  were  failing,  bade  us  stir  up  the  gift  that  was 
in  us,  and  betake  ourselves  to  our  true  Mother.' 

MANKIND  show  themselves  strangely  forgetful  of 
their  chiefest  benefactors.  The  name  above  written, 
besides  being  a  boast  and  a  praise,  was  reckoned  a  tower  of 
strength  by  Churchmen  of  a  generation  which  has  already 
well  nigh  passed  away.  Pronounced  now  in  the  hearing 
of  those  who  have  been  in  the  Ministry  ten,  fifteen,  twenty 
years,  it  is  discovered  to  be  unknown  to  them.  And 
yet  this  was  the  man  who,  sixty  years  ago,  at  a  time  of 
universal  gloom,  panic,  and  despondency,  rallied  the 
faint-hearted  as  with  a  trumpet  blast ;  —  awoke  the 
sleepers;  —  aroused  the  sluggish;  —  led  on  to  glory  the 
van  of  the  Church's  army.  It  shall  be  my  endeavour, 
however  feebly,  to  repair  the  omission  of  half  a  century 
of  years,  (for  Hugh  James  Rose  died  in  1838) ;  the  rather, 
because  his  only  brother  was  also  mine.  But  his  was  a 
life  which  deserves  to  have  been  written  by  some  far 
abler  hand.  Moreover,  it  should  have  been  written  long 
long  ago. 

Not  unaware  am  I  what  it  was  that  originally  de- 
terred the  Rev.  John  Miller  of  Worcester  College,  (another 
sometime  celebrated,  but  now  scarcely  remembered  name, 
to  whom  all  the  materials  for  writing  Mr.  Rose's  life  had 


THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PA  THS.      1 1 7 

been  entrusted),  —  from  accomplishing  his  task.  The 
discovery  was  speedily  made  that  to  write  it  adequately 
would  be  to  write  the  History  of  the  Church  of  England 
during  the  same  brief  but  eventful  period ;  and  such 
an  ample  Memoir  was  expected  at  the  hands  of  the 
Biographer.  Many  words  on  this  part  of  the  subject 
are  unnecessary.  The  events  were  all  too  recent  in 
which  Mr.  Rose  had  played  a  prominent  part,  for  he  was 
"  taken  away  in  the  midst  of  his  days."  Under  incon- 
veniently reversed  conditions  the  selfsame  problem  now 
solicits  me.  But  besides  that  I  enjoy  access  to  the  same 
written  evidence,  I  have  lived  continuously  with  those 
who  revered  Mr.  Rose's  memory  supremely,  and  whose 
discourse  was  perpetually  of  him.  I  will  therefore  do 
my  best  to  relate,  at  least  in  outline,  the  story  of  his 
important  life.  Long  have  I  been  troubled  by  the  con- 
viction that  it  would  be  a  shame  if  I  were  never  to 
make  the  attempt ;  and  an  opportunity  has  at  last  unex- 
pectedly arrived. 

A  singular  contrast  will  the  present  biography  be  ob- 
served to  present  to  that  which  immediately  precedes  it. 
Routh's  was  the  longest  of  the  Twelve  Lives  here  re- 
corded ;  Rose's,  the  shortest.  He  was  yet  unborn  when 
Routh  saw  his  39th  birthday,  and  Routh  survived  him 
sixteen  years.  Rose,  driven  from  place  to  place  in  quest, 
of  health,  succumbed  at  last  in  a  foreign  land  to  the  ^ 
malady  with  which  he  had  wrestled  in  agony  throughout 
eighteen  years  of  intellectual  warfare.  Routh, — who  ^ 
until  after  he  had  entered  his  looth  year  had  never  been 
seen  by  a  physician  in  bed, — passed  83  calm  studious 
years  within  the  walls  of  the  College  from  which  he  had 
never  wandered.  He  died  in  his  nest.  Both  alike  bore 
unfaltering  witness  to  the  same  Divine  truths  ;  but  they 
served  their  Master  in  vastly  different  ways,  and  their 


n8  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [*795 

pathways  in  life  never  met.  I  have  already  sought  to 
embalm  the  memory  of  Martin  Joseph  Routh.  It  is  of 
HUGH  JAMES  ROSE  that  I  am  to  speak  now. 

And  first, — He  was  lineally  descended  from  one  of  the 
oldest  of  Scottish  houses  ;  his  grandfather,  Hugh  Rose  of 
New  Mill,  Aberdeenshire, — (who  by  the  way  narrowly 
escaped  hanging  after  the  field  of  Culloden,  for  all  the 
Roses  were  on  the  Prince's  side,) — being  a  cadet  of  the 
Roses  of  Kilravock.1  Dr.  William  Rose  of  Chiswick, 
the  translator  of  Sallust  and  friend  of  Johnson,  was  this 
gentleman's  brother.  Samuel  Rose  therefore,  his  son,  the 
friend  and  correspondent  of  the  poet  Cowper,  was  Hugh 
James  Rose's  second  cousin. 

HUGH  JAMES, — elder  son  of  the  Rev.  William  Rose 
[/;.  1766,  d.  1844]  and  Susanna  his  wife  [£.  1762,  d.  1839], 
—was  born  in  the  parsonage  house  of  Little  Horsted,  in 
the  county  of  Sussex,  where  his  father  was  at  that  time 
Curate. — on  the  9th  of  June  1795.  His  young  nurse, 
who  had  never  before  had  the  care  of  an  infant,  is  re- 
membered to  have  delighted  in  the  child  greatly  and  to 
have  taught  him  the  alphabet  before  he  could  speak  :— 

"  In  a  lobby  of  the  house  we  inhabited  at  Uckfield,  to 
which  place  we  removed  when  he  was  about  a  year  old," 
(writes  his  Mother,)  "  there  hung  some  maps  and  charts 
of  History  in  which  were  many  large  letters.  Martha 
Summers  used  to  show  him  the  letters,  until  the  baby — 
if  you  asked  him  where  any  particular  letter  was — 
would  look  at  the  chart,  and  if  held  up  to  it,  would  put 
his  little  finger  on  the  letter  required." 

For  a  prolonged  period,  during  which  (owing  to  indis- 
position) his  Mother  was  unable  to  have  him  with  her,— 
'w  his  Father  took  him  into  his  school  to  keep  him  out 
of  the  way  of  mischief.  When  I  proposed  to  take  him 

Seethe'  Genealogical  deduction       — 1848,    (printed  by  the  Spalding 
of  the  Family  of  Hose  of  Kilravock,''       Club),  4to. 


1800]  THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      119 

again, — '  No,'  (said  Mr.  Hose)  '  he  is  learning  the  Latin 
grammar.  He  wanted  to  read  so  much  English  every 
day,  that,  not  having  time  to  hear  him,  I  gave  him  a 
Latin  grammar  to  employ  him.'  Before  he  was  four 
years  old  he  had  mastered  it.  I  have  often  heard  him 
say  he  could  not  remember  the  time  when  he  did  not 
know  the  Latin  grammar.  How  he  learned  to  read  at. 
all,  I  am  unable  to  say.  I  suppose  his  maid  helped  him. 
I  recollect  one  summer  morning,  (he  then  slept  in  'our 
room), — knowing  he  was  awake  and  yet  not  hearing 
him, — his  Father  asked — '  What  are  you  doing  ?  '  '  Read- 
ing Knox's  Elegant  Extracts'  '  You  can't  understand 
what  you  are  reading  ?  '  '  O  but  I  can,  Papa,'  and  he 
told  us  what  it  was.  He  was  then  about  four  years 
old. 

"  Sent,  a  few  weeks  after  to  Seaford,  for  the  benefit  of 
sea  air  and  bathing,  his  great  amusement  was  to  read  the 
newspaper  and  the  Arabian  Nights  to  some  ladies  there. 
They  said  it  was  not  like  the  reading  of  a  child,  but 
really  a  pleasure  to  listen  to. — I  recollect  his  once  asking 
his  Father  for  a  book,  when  the  only  one  at  hand  was  a 
volume  of  French  plays.  In  order  to  keep  him  quiet, 
his  Father  said — '  Read  Le  CicL'  Two  or  three  hours 
after,  he  had  finished  it.  '  You  cannot  have  read  the 
play  1 '  '  Yes,  I  have  ; '  and  he  instantly  repeated  the 
plot,  and  then  construed  every  sentence  his  Father  pointed 
out.  To  me  he  never  seemed  to  read  a  book ;  but  to  cast 
his  eye  over  the  page  and  to  know  its  contents." 

From  Little  Horsted  then,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Rose  removed 
to  Uckfield,  about  two  miles  off,  a  chapelry  of  the  parish 
of  Buxted.  His  change  of  abode  was  chiefly  occasioned 
by  his  desire  to  increase  the  number  of  his  pupils.  These 
now  grew  into  a  considerable  school  which  he  grafted  on 
a  small  parochial  foundation  endowed  by  a  former 
rector  of  Buxted,  Dr.  Saunders.  Mr.  Rose  afterwards 
became  curate  of  Uckfield,  under  the  then  rector  of 
Buxted,  Archd.  D'Oyly;  and  here  his  only  other  (sur- 
viving) child  (Henry  John)  was  born,  3rd  January,  1800. 


i2o  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1801 

Both  sons  alike  inherited  from  their  Father,  besides 
a  singularly  calm  and  equable  temperament,  the  same 
inflexibly  upright  and  guileless  nature; — from  their 
Mother,  the  same  masculine  good  sense,  clear  under- 
standing, and  strength  of  purpose.  They  grew  up,  until 
they  went  to  College,  under  the  parental  roof, — severed 
from  one  another  by  no  other  barrier  but  that  formidable 
span  of  five  years  of  early  life.  I  am  here  to  speak 
exclusively  of  Hugh  James  Kose  ;  but  I  propose  not 
to  lay  down  my  pen  until  (however  briefly)  I  have 
separately  commemorated  the  singular  goodness,  the  rare 
gifts  and  graces,  of  Henry  John,  his  younger  brother, — 
who,  by  his  marriage  with  my  sister,  became  an  elder 
brother  to  me.  Yes,  and  the  best  of  brothers.2 

A  few  other  incidents  remembered  in  connexion  with 
Hugh's  boyhood  are  not  without  interest.  Foremost 
in  respect  of  date  is  the  friendship  of  Dr.  E.  D.  Clarke, 
the  accomplished  traveller  \b.  1769,  d.  1822],  whose 
grandfather  and  father  had  been  successively  rectors 
of  Buxted,  and  whose  widowed  mother  continued  to  live 
at  Uckfield  with  her  family.  A  mind  intelligent  and 
appreciative  as  his,  joined  as  it  was  to  a  disposition 
singularly  generous  and  enthusiastic,  could  not  fail  to  be 
attracted  by  the  youthful  promise  of  such  an  one  as 
Hugh  James  Hose,  who  was  all  the  while  pursuing  his 
studies  with  rare  diligence  under  his  father's  roof.  Not- 
withstanding their  great  disparity  of  years,  a  strong 
attachment  sprang  up  between  them,  which  only  ended 
with  Dr.  E.  D.  Clarke's  death  in  1822.  But  it  com- 
menced a  long  way  back  ;  for  Clarke  is  remembered  to 
have  taught  the  child,  when  only  four  years  of  age, 
to  repeat  the  Greek  alphabet.  "To  be  heard  say  his 
Geek  "  was  thenceforth  a  prime  satisfaction  to  the  youth- 

2  See  below,  page  287. 


1802]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     121 

ful  Hellenist.  The  preceptor's  endeavour  to  instil  in  the 
same  quarter  at  the  same  tender  age  a  taste  for  fossils 
and  mineralogy,  by  showing  him  choice  specimens  in 
a  glass  case,  broke  down  calamitously.  To  the  philo- 
sopher's discomfiture  a  preference  was  candidly  avowed 
for  the  look  of  the  sugar-plums  in  the  window  of  the 
village  'shop'  .  .  .  Dr.  Clarke  evidently  delighted  in 
the  child,  and  must  have  had  his  full  share  in  developing 
his  powers. 

The  calamitous  health  from  which  Hugh  suffered  so 
direfully  later  on  in  life  had  its  beginning  when  he  was 
five  years  old.  An  attack  of  croup,  though  effectually 
subdued,  left  him  liable  to  frequent  inflammation  of  the 
lungs.  Always  patient  under  suffering,  it  is  remembered 
that  he  was  perfectly  satisfied  while  able  to  read  and 
amuse  himself.  When  too  ill  for  this,  he  would  urge  his 
maid  (if  his  mother  was  not  with  him)  to  read  to  him : 
and  so  excellent  was  his  memory  that  he  retained  all  he 
heard.  During  a  prolonged  confinement  to  the  house,  some 
one  suggested  to  the  child  collecting  impressions  of  seals. 
The  armorial  bearings  on  several  of  these  set  him  on 
the  study  of  Heraldry, — which  his  parents  encouraged 
by  procuring  for  him  the  best  books  they  could  on 
the  subject.  Blazoning  coats-of-arms  was  a  delight 
to  him, — till  a  neighbouring  gentleman,  weary  of  the 
study  of  Chemistry,  sent  him  all  his  retorts,  crucibles, 
&c.  Hugh  at  once  transferred  his  homage  to  the  new 
science, — which  he  cultivated  with  assiduity  and  success. 
"We  indulged  him  in  these  pursuits"  (writes  his 
Mother)  "as  he  was  never  able  to  join  in  the  active 
sports  of  other  boys."  It  may  be  added  that  he  acquired 
early  in  life  great  proficiency  in  the  use  of  his  pencil.  A 
water-colour  drawing  of  the  interior  of  Buxted  church 
survives  to  attest  his  youthful  skill.  "  Yes,  that  was  our 


122  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1808 

family  pew!  "—remarked  the  late  Bp.  of  Lincoln  with  a 
sad  smile,  when  I  once  showed  him  the  representation  of 
his  Father's  church.  Poetry  was  already  one  of  his 
delights ;  a  taste  which  grew  with  his  growth  and  never 
forsook  him. 

Besides  such  instances  of  mental  activity  and  extra- 
ordinary precocity  of  intellect,  the  fond  Mother  treasured 
up  many  an  interesting  trait  indicative  of  her  son's 
singular  loveliness  of  character  :  as,  his  considerateness 
for  the  feelings  of  others, — his  anxiety  to  relieve  suffering 
and  to  mitigate  distress, — his  entire  dutifulness  to  his 
parents.  No  young  man's  heart  ever  pointed  more  faith- 
fully to  "  home,"  as  the  scene  of  his  greatest  enjoyment, — 
the  haven  of  his  fondest  hopes.  The  "  Commandment 
with  promise "  was  written  indelibly  on  his  inmost 
nature.  To  the  very  end  of  his  life  it  was  his  supreme 
delight  to  repair  back  to  his  Father  and  his  Mother. 

But,  as  hinted  already,  his  health  became  early  a 
source  of  anxiety  to  his  parents.  Especially  from  the 
age  of  ii  to  14  his  state  was  such,  (he  had  in  fact  out- 
grown his  strength.)  that  the  best  medical  advice  became 
a  necessity.  In  a  happy  hour  Mrs.  Rose  resorted  to  the 
admirable  Dr.  John  Sims,  who  became  to  Hugh  James 
Rose  much  more  than  a  physician.  His  house3  was 
looked  upon  by  the  youthful  student  as  a  second  home  ; 
while,  between  the  children  of  Dr.  Sims  and  himself, 
there  sprung  up  a  warm  friendship, — but  in  fact  it  was 
love,  "love  stronger  than  death."  Rose  revered  and 
loved  Dr.  Sims  with  something  of  filial  piety,  and  was 
cherished  by  that  accomplished  physician  with  almost 
parental  tenderness. 

Better  deserving  of  commemoration  perhaps  than  any 
other  incident  of  this  period  of  his  life,  is  the  friendship 

3  At  that  time,  67  Upper  Guildford  Street. 


1812]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     123 

Hugh  Rose  enjoyed  with  the  family  of  John,  first  Earl 
of  Sheffield,  a  nobleman  of  excellent  character  and  first- 
rate  abilities.  Owing  to  the  proximity  of  Uckfield  to 
Sheffield  Place,  (but  indeed  it  was  for  a  better  reason,) 
from  very  early  days  Hugh  had  attracted  the  Earl's 
notice  and  become  a  favourite  with  him.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  was  in  consequence  invited  to  take  up  his 
residence  for  the  Midsummer  holidays  at  Sheffield  Place, 
in  order  to  read  with  Lord  Sheffield's  little  son,  George. 
The  old  peer  showed  his  discernment ;  for  not  only  were 
Rose's  classical  and  literary  attainments  already  those 
of  a  much  older  person, — (his  translation  of  Simonides' 
'  Danae '  written  before  this  time  reads  like  the  produc- 
tion of  one-and-twenty,) — but  his  pure  sentiments  and 
lofty  example  were  beyond  price.  The  honorarium  with 
which  his  services  were  rewarded,  he  dutifully  forced  on 
his  Mother's  acceptance, — who  relates  that  she  invested 
it  for  his  benefit  in  an  excellent  watch.  For  many 
succeeding  vacations  he  was  an  inmate  of  Sheffield 
Place, — indeed  he  spent  all  his  leisure  time  there. 

"  I  shall  offer  to  return  "  (he  wrote  to  his  parents  in 
July  1812)  "for  a  week  before  George  goes  to  school, 
just  to  put  him  in  training.  More  than  this  I  cannot 
do  ...  The  loss  of  this  month  will  throw  me  grievously 
back,  or  at  least  will  give  me  double  fag  for  a  long  time. 
Another  month,  I  should  hardly  recover  before  college 
time.  Only  /  can  know  the  additional  fatigue  of  mind 
and  vexation  of  spirit  produced  to  me  by  a  loss  of  time." 
[Next  day  (27th  July),  he  wrote,] — "I  am  sure,  when 
you  consider  that  I  cannot  study  at  all  here,  and  of  how 
much  consequence  it  is  to  me  to  lose  nothing  in  my 
learning,  since  everything  depends  on  my  own  exertions, 
— you  will  see  that  I  cannot,  consistently  with  any 
rational  ideas  of  progress  in  my  studies,  consent  to  stay 
longer,  even  were  I  asked.  Eight  or  nine  weeks  idleness, 
I  should  scarcely  recover  before  I  go  to  Cambridge." 


124  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1812 

At  the  close  of  the  ensuing  month  (24  August  1812) 
Hugh  James  was  entered  as  a  member  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge  :  and  went  up  to  reside  in  the 
October  term  of  1813, — being  then  18  years  of  age.  His 
tutor  was  Dr.  Monk,  afterwards  Bp.  of  Gloucester  and 
Bristol,  who  proved  his  constant  friend,  and  was  the 
great  encourager  of  his  studies.  In  the  next  year  (1814) 
he  gained  the  first  Bell's  Scholarship,  and  in  1815  was 
elected  .Scholar  of  his  College.  The  tidings  were  con- 
veyed to  his  Father  in  this  characteristic  letter : — 

"  Cambridge,  April  8th,  1815. 

"  Dear  sir, — I  could  bite  my  thumbs  !  This  is  Satur- 
day night  and  there  is  no  such  thing  as  throwing  a  letter 
at  you,  so  as  to  hit  you  before  Tuesday.  I  suffered  last 
night's  post  to  slip  through  my  fingers, — else  could  1 
have  told  you  a  piece  of  Neics.  Now  perhaps  it  is  "  no 
News."  But  your  son  has  got  all  that  he  wished  to  get 
in  consequence  of  his  perilous  journey  into  the  rnidst  of 
the  fever.  He  is  one  of  the  Scholars  of  Trinity.  They 
brought  the  list  to  me,  and  I  read  his  name  there  :  so, 
joy  to  you  all!" — (A  deal  of  general  gossip  follows.  The 
letter  ends,)—  "  xa^PeJ  which  does  not  mean  farewell,  but 
Mil!  E.  D.  CLARKE." 

That  the  subject  of  the  present  Memoir  should  have 
drawn  to  himself  the  most  intellectual  of  his  Cambridge 
contemporaries  was  inevitable.  That  he  became  a  de- 
voted student  does  not  require  to  be  told.  He  also  made 
a  great  figure  in  the  Cambridge  '  Union.'  But  in  fact  I 
may  not  linger  over  this  interesting  period  of  Hugh's 
life.  From  a  boy  he  had  been  a  prodigious  reader,  and 
cherished,  as  a  very  young  man,  a  burning  desire  to 
acquaint  himself  with  every  department  of  polite  learn- 
ing. It  was  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  of  which  ordinary 
spirits  seem  scarcely  to  have  a  notion.  To  the  writers 
of  antiquity  he  chiefly  devoted  himself,  and  not  a  few 
trustworthy  tokens  survive  of  his  exhaustive  method 


1815]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     125 

of  study.  His  copies  of  the  classics,  interleaved  and 
laboriously  annotated  in  Latin  by  his  own  hand  through- 
out, witness  eloquently  to  the  extent  of  his  reading,  and 
the  accuracy  with  which  he  read.  So  considerable  and 
excellent  are  the  critical  helps  now-a-days  provided  for 
beginners  that  it  sounds  fabulous  to  be  told  that,  80 
years  ago,  if  a  student  coveted  for  himself  exacter  and 
fuller  information  than  the  ordinary  schoolboy  Greek  or 
Latin  grammar  furnished,  his  only  resource  was  (like 
Ehud)  to  manufacture  the  weapon  for  his  individual  use 
with  his  own  hands.  One  is  the  less  surprised,  after  all 
this,  to  learn  that  so  early  as  in  the  spring  of  the  year  in 
which  he  went  up  to  Cambridge,  Rose  addressed  C.  J. 
Blomfield  (whom  the  public  only  knew  as  yet  as  a 
scholar)  on  the  subject  of  his  edition  of  '  The  Seven  against 
Thebes]  which  had  just  appeared  :  offering  critical  sug- 
gestions and  pointing  out  inaccuracies.  Blomfield  took 
the  remarks  of  his  youthful  critic,  (as  might  be  expected,) 
in  very  good  part, — admitted  the  mistakes, — encouraged 
him  to  write  to  him  again  freely,4 — and  on  learning  six 
months  later  that  Rose  was  proposing  to  go  up  to  Cam- 
bridge, "rejoiced  to  hear  that  Alma  Mater  was  about  to 
have  so  promising  a  son." 5  When  two  years  had  elapsed, 
and  Hugh  James  was  but  20  years  of  age,  C.  J.  Blomfield 
(Sept.  6th,  1815)  addressed  him  as  follows  :— 

"  I  shall  always  have  pleasure  in  hearing  from,  you  on 
these  subjects.  There  are  not  more  than  five  people 
in  England  who  really  understand  or  care  about  these 
things ;  and  I  am  glad  to  perceive  that  you  are  going  to 
be  a  sixth.  Let  me  exhort  you  not  to  lay  aside  your 
classical  pursuits  as  soon  as  you  have  taken  your 
degree." 

It  will  have  been  shortly  after  Mr.  Rose's  lamented 
decease  (in  1838)  that  his  aged  Mother,  being  entreated 

4  Dunton,— March  i7th,  1813.  5  Dunton,— Oct.  5th. 


126  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1816 

to  commit  to  writing  a  few  recollections  of  this  period  of 
her  son's  life,  penned  the  memorial  page  from  which  I 
have  already  once  and  again  quoted.  She  relates  that 
"  he  was  a  weekly  correspondent  during  the  whole  of  his 
residence  at  Cambridge.  His  college  vacations  were  our 
delight : — 

"  He  was  much  beloved  by  his  Father's  pupils :  much 
regretted  by  them  when  he  left  home.  He  made  himself 
very  pleasant  to  them,  and  selected  from  them  the  friends 
of  his  after  life.  As  a  token  how  tenderly  he  loved 
them, — The  servant  coming  in  one  day  when  we  were  at 
dinner  and  telling  us  suddenly  that  young  Chatfield,  who 
had  left  us  some  time  before  for  Cambridge,  was  dead ; 
he  fell  forward  on  the  table,  and  fainted." 

"  I  recollect  once  saying  to  Lady  Louisa  Clinton, — 
(who  was  gratifying  his  fond  Mother  by  her  praise  of 
him  and  his  gentlemanly  manners,) — '  I  think,  for  his 
manners,  he  is  indebted  to  the  society  he  meets  here! 
(i.  e.  Sheffield  Place.)  'No,'  she  answered,  '  he  came  here 
with  manners  as  perfect  as  if  he  had  lived  in  a  Court  all 
his  life  ;  and  what  I  particularly  admire  is  this, — His 
conduct  towards  my  Father,  who  is  not  famed  for  his 
patience.  But  he  bears  with  contradiction  from  your 
son, — who  always  treats  him  with  due  respect,  but  con- 
trives to  maintain  his  own  opinions  without  giving  the 
smallest  offence.  He  does  this  by  his  good  sense  and 
good  feeling.' " 

Immediately  after  his  Ordination  (Jan.  4th,  1819),  the 
aged  Earl  appointed  Mr.  Rose  his  domestic  Chaplain. 

At  Cambridge,  he  was  joint  author  of  a  jeu  $  esprit 
which  occasioned  much  merriment  in  the  University. 
The  mock  examination-paper  referred  to  attained  more 
enduring  celebrity  than  usually  falls  to  the  lot  of  such 
effusions,  having  been  transferred  to  the  'Annual  Register  ' 
for  1816.  It  is  noticed  here  as  affording  evidence  of 
that  vein  of  humour  which  seems  never  to  be  wanting 
from  minds  of  the  highest  order. 


i8i8]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      127 

In  1817  Rose  took  his  B.A.  Degree :  his  name  appear- 
ing in  the  Tripos  as  fourteenth  wrangler  of  the  year. 
His  great  powers  would  have  inevitably  won  for  him 
much  higher  mathematical  honours  had  he  been  willing 
to  do  as  so  many  far  less  highly  gifted  men  than  himself 
have  done,  viz.  sacrifice  everything  to  his  place  in  the 
honour  list.  The  mischievous  tendency  of  an  exclusive 
devotion  of  the  mind  to  Mathematical  science  finds  fre- 
quent expression  in  his  writings,  and  was  one  of  his 
most  deliberate  convictions.  Thoroughly  persuaded  of 
the  danger  of  such  exclusive  study,  he  had  the  courage 
to  act  accordingly,  and  to  lay  his  foundations  on  a 
broader  and  securer  basis.  Scholarship  with  him  amounted 
to  a  passion.  He  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  a  far 
greater  number  of  the  writers  of  antiquity  than  are  pre- 
scribed for,  or  indeed  are  supposed  to  come  within  the 
purview  of,  the  University  curriculum.  It  was  no  matter 
of  surprise  to  find  that  his  classical  success  was  complete, 
for  he  was  declared  first  Chancellor's  medallist  of  the  year. 
(The  classical  Tripos  it  will  be  recollected  was  not  estab- 
lished until  some  years  later.)  To  him  also  was  awarded 
in  1818  the  first  Members'  prize  for  a  dissertation  in 
Latin  prose,  of  which  the  subject  was  a  comparison  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  historians, — among  whom  Rose 
awarded  the  palm  to  Thucydides  and  to  the  Greeks.  He 
had  already  (1817)  distinguished  himself  by  the  publica- 
tion of  some  learned  "  Remarks  on  the  first  Chapter  of 
the  Bishop  of  LlandafTs  [Marsh's]  Home  Pelasgicae"  in 
which  he  shewed  cause  against  some  of  the  propositions 
of  that  prelate,  and  still  stronger  against  some  of  the 
conclusions  of  Dr.  Jameson,  in  his  '  Hermes  Scythicus' 

In  the  ensuing  October  (1818)  he  was,  to  his  infinite 
disgust,  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  a  fellowship  at 
Trinity,  and  it  was  out  of  his  power  ever  to  sit  again. 


i28  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1818 

By  the  result,  it  was  the  College  rather  than  he  that 
lost  an  accession  of  honour.  Relinquishing  University 
residence  at  once,  and  giving  up  his  pupils,  Rose  trans- 
ferred himself  to  the  family  of  John,  fourth  Duke  of 
Athole,  in  order  to  become  private  tutor  to  Lord  Charles 
Murray,  the  Duke's  son.  His  pupil's  illness  however 
brought  this  engagement  so  speedily  to  a  close  that  he 
was  at  liberty  to  receive  Deacon's  Orders  (Dec.  soth)  at 
the  hands  of  Bp.  Howley,  at  Fulham  ;  and  to  accept  the 
Curacy  of  Buxted,  March  i6th  in  the  ensuing  year, — 
1819.  His  Mother  relates  that, — 

"  from  the  time  he  could  speak,  he  always  said  he 
would  be  a  clergyman  '  like  Papa.'  I  remember  seeing 
him  one  Sunday  put  on  his  Father's  gown,  stand  up  on 
a  chair  and  speak  with  great  energy  over  the  back  of  it 
to  his  brother  and  cousins." 

So  true  is  it  that  '  the  child  is  father  to  the  man/  At 
a  very  early  period  Divinity  held  the  highest  place  in  his 
regard :  and  it  is  remembered  that  throughout  his  Col- 
lege career,  he  had  been  girding  himself  up  to  what  was 
shortly  to  become  the  one  business  of  his  life.  The 
examining  Chaplain  declared  with  astonishment  that 
Mr.  Rose's  papers  (for  Priest's  Orders)  displayed  the 
knowledge  and  attainments  of  a  man  of  forty. 

His  affections  had  in  the  meantime  been  drawn  to 
a  young  lady  who,  in  1816,  had  been  on  a  visit  to  his 
Parents, — Anna  Cuyler  Mair,  youngest  daughter  of  Capt. 
Peter  Mair  of  the  Hill  House,  Richmond,  Yorkshire  ; 
and  this  attachment,  ripening  with  his  return  to  Uckfield, 
effected  a  change  in  his  immediate  plan  of  life.  "  I  am 
sure  I  shall  not  do  for  an  old  bachelor,"  (he  had  written 
to  his  Mother  at  the  age  of  fifteen  from  Sheffield  Place) ; — 
•;  for  if  I  have  not  some  one  to  whom  I  may  communicate 
my  happy  and  my  unhappy  sensations,  I  lose  half  the 


THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      129 

pleasure  that  the  former  might  impart,  while  the  weight 
of  the  latter  seems  doubled."  He  was  united  to  Miss 
Mair  in  1819  (June  24th),  and  found  in  her  the  most 
devoted  and  helpful  of  wives.6 — In  the  days  of  her 
widowhood,  after  an  interval  of  some  twenty-five  years 
from  the  period  of  which  we  are  speaking,  I  knew 
this  lady  intimately :  and  now  find  it  impossible  to  with- 
hold the  tribute  of  a  few  words  of  loving  remembrance. 
She  was  less  demonstrative  of  her  feelings  than  any 
woman  I  have  ever  known;  but  her  affections  were 
wondrous  deep  and  strong.  Constitutionally  reserved 
too  she  was  ;  but  she  could  throw  this  off  entirely  when 
she  felt  sure  of  the  person  she  was  addressing.  Her  under- 
standing was  excellent :  her  piety  ardent  and  humble. 
All  her  instincts  were  good.  She  adored  as  well  as 
revered  her  husband,  over  whom  she  watched  with 
unwearied  devotion  until  in  a  foreign  land  she  closed  his 
eyes  in  death,  while  yet  in  the  zenith  of  his  reputation 
and  of  his  powers, — cut  off  by  disease  midway  in  his 
career  of  earnest,  holy  zeal  for  his  Master's  service.  She 
returned  at  once,  with  love's  true  instinct,  to  the  darkened 
home  of  his  parents,  and  did  a  daughter's  part  by  them 
to  the  last  hour  of  their  lives. — Let  us  go  back. 

Hugh  James  Rose's  Rectors  were  successively  Dr. 
D'Oyly,  Rector  of  Lambeth,  and  Dr.  Wordsworth,  Master 
of  Trinity :  both  of  whom  became  his  fast  friends  and 
eager  patrons.  At  Christmas,  1818,  he  removed  to  the 
neighbouring  village  of  Maresfield,  carrying  with  him 
the  pupils  whom  he  had  begun  to  take  at  Uckfield,  but 
retaining  his  curacy.  Here  he  continued,  with  his 
labours  divided  between  parish  and  pupils,  (who  were 
chiefly  young  men  of  rank,)  until  he  was  presented  by  Abp. 

8  The  only  issue  of  this  marriage  was  a  son,  born  in  1821,  who  lived 
but  a  few  days. 

VOL.  I.  K 


130  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1819 

Manners  Sutton  to  the  Vicarage  of  Horsham.  He  was 
ordained  Priest  (Dec.  I9th,  1819)  by  Bishop  Law,  at 
St.  James',  Piccadilly;  and  in  the  ensuing  year  (1820), 
published,  with  his  name,  a  pamphlet,  bearing  the  title 
of  "  A  critical  examination  of  that  part  of  Mr.  Benthams 
Church-of-Englandism  which  relates  to  the  Church  Cate- 
chism." Bentham's  pedantic  scurrilities,  which  have 
long  since  been  forgotten,  scarcely  deserved  the  honour 
of  such  notice. — In  October,  1821,  there  appeared  in  the 
'  Quarterly  Review  '  a  powerful  and  justly  severe  article 
from  Rose's  pen,  on  Hone's  'Apocryphal  New  Testament^ 
concerning  which,  in  December,  Mr.  Gifford  (the  editor) 
wrote  to  him  as  follows  :— 

"  I  have  seen  Hone's  Advertisements,  and  he  probably 
means  to  publish  something.  Your  Article  has  evidently 
stung  him  to  the  quick ;  and  I  arn  happy  to  inform  you 
that  it  has  given  very  great  satisfaction  to  the  Clergy  in 
general."  (The  writer  mentions  Dean  Ireland  as  his 
authority.)  "  Hone  has  had  the  impudence  to  address  a 
letter  to  me,  requesting  to  know  the  writer  of  the  Article. 
I  answered  him  as  he  deserved." 

At  the  end  of  a  few  months  (April,  1822),  Mr.  Gifford 
sent  him  a  second  encouraging  message : — 

"  I  had  felt  some  anxiety  about  Belsham's  translation, 
and  mentioned  to  one  or  two  of  my  friends  how  happy 
I  should  be  to  get  it  well  reviewed.  Your  letter  is 
peculiarly  acceptable  to  me,  and  I  receive  your  kind 
offer  with  pleasure.  May  the  result  be  as  important  as 
that  of  your  former  paper,  which  has  completely  de- 
stroyed the  sale  of  the  spurious  Gospels." 

Gratifying  it  is  to  be  able  to  add  on  the  authority  of 
the  publisher,  that  Hone  himself  afterwards  bitterly  re- 
pented of  his  detestable  publication. — About  the  same 
time  Mr.  Hose  contributed  to  the  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge  a  little  tract,  included  in  its 


1821]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     131 

catalogue  of  books  intended  for  the  counteraction  of 
infidel  writings,  with  the  title,  "  The  Folly  and  Danger 
of  Reading  Irreligious  Publications." — At  the  close  of 
1821,  the  Curate  of  Uckfield  found  himself  established 
in  the  Vicarage  of  Horsham. 

A  large  and  important  sphere  of  labour  thus  opened 
on  him,  and  he  threw  himself  into  his  new  duties  with 
the  zeal  and  earnestness  which  characterized  all  he  did. 
He  enlarged  the  church  accommodation  for  the  poor,— 
made  the  schools  more  efficient, — addressed  himself  to 
organizing  the  parish.  His  teaching  made  a  profound 
impression  on  the  people.  There  had  prevailed  much 
irreligion  in  the  place  with  which  the  Vicar  proceeded 
to  battle :  not  however  by  having  recourse  to  strange 
methods  of  excitement  and  the  now  fashionable  process 
of  "  Home  Missions,"  but  by  the  earnestness  and  power 
of  his  simple  and  affectionate  Addresses.  To  those  per- 
suasive teachings,  hundreds  of  the  humbler  sort  long 
after  eagerly  attributed  their  first  impressions  of  religion. 
An  eye-witness  of  his  labours,  who  evidently  knew  him 
well,  writes  as  follows  concerning  his  ministerial  work  at 
this  time  :— 

"  It  would  be  an  insult  to  the  memory  of  so  great  and 
good  a  servant  of  CHRIST,  to  say  that  he  was  an  attractive 
preacher ;  though  his  preaching  not  only  captivated  all 
hearts,  but  was  the  admiration  of  all  who  had  either  the 
taste  to  discern,  or  the  virtue  to  honour,  excellence  in 
that  most  difficult  and  rare  of  all  sacred  accomplish- 
ments,— the  art  of  speaking  with  power  and  intelligi- 
bility to  a  congregation  composed  of  the  various  grades 
of  society.  Perhaps  no  preacher  was  ever  more  free 
from  the  ambition  of  making  proselytes  to  himself  than 
Mr.  Rose  was ;  and  no  man  probably  ever  made  more 
than  he  did,  or  in  a  more  legitimate  way.  Spurious 
eloquence  he  had  none.  All  glitter  he  shrunk  from,  in 
the  pulpit  and  in  his  mode  of  living,  as  unworthy  of  the 

K  2 


132  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1821 

sacred  mission  upon  which  he  had  been  sent  forth,  and 
of  the  self-denying  character  of  Christianity.  Nothing 
could  be  more  dignified  than  his  appearance  and  manner, 
when  clothed  in  the  robes,  and  engaged  in  the  offices,  of 
his  profession.  In  the  tones  of  his  voice  there  was  even 
much  to  favour  the  peculiar  and  impressive  form  in 
which  his  ideas  were  conveyed  to  the  ears  of  his 
audience." 7 

It  scarcely  needs  to  be  added  that  the  religious  tone 
of  Horsham  under  such  a  Vicar  exhibited  a  marked 
change.  The  attendance  at  the  ordinary  services  and 
at  the  Sacrament  increased  largely.  He  published  for 
the  use  of  his  Parishioners  (in  1828)  a  Form  of  Family 
Prayer  for  Morning  and  Evening.  But  Rose  carried 
with  him  that  "  thorn  in  the  flesh  "  which  rendered  his 
public  ministrations  an  abiding  distress  to  himself.  The 
Church  was  large,  and  to  one  suffering  from  asthma  was 
trying  both  in  the  desk  and  the  pulpit  in  a  high  degree. 
Maresfield  (where,  perhaps,  decided  asthma  first  appeared) 
had  ill  agreed  with  him ;  but  Horsham,  from  the  low 
and  damp  situation  of  the  vicarage,  proved  still  worse ; 
so  that,  between  the  labours  of  his  parish  and  his  pupils, 
it  was  found,  by  the  end  of  a  second  year  (1823),  that  a 
complete  change  of  air  and  scene, — foreign  travel  in 
short, — had  become  little  short  of  a  necessity.  "  His 
pupils,"  I  say, — for  he  had  two  curates  to  maintain:  to 
dispense  with  pupils  was  therefore  impossible. 

Never  by  overworked  parish  priest  has  such  refresh- 
ment been  turned  to  better  account  than  on  the  present 
occasion.  Rose's  whole  heart  was  in  his  Master's  ser- 
vice, and  his  footsteps  were  directed  in  the  first  instance 
to  a  region  where  "Protestantism"  was  to  be  seen  bearing 

7  From  the  BrigJiton  Gazette,  J5 rit.  Magazi ne,  for  the  same  month, 
i;th  Feb.  1839,— quoted  in  the  p.  227. 


1824]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     133 

its  bitterest  fruits.     Little  as  yet  was  known  about  the 
matter  here  in  England,  for  "  'tis  sixty  years  since." 

It  was  the  phenomenon  of  German  Protestantism,  as 
the  system  was  to  be  seen  at  work  in  Prussia,  which 
shocked  his  piety,  aroused  his  worst  fears,  exercised  his 
intellect.  A  rationalizing  school,  of  which  the  very 
characteristic  was  the  absolute  rejection  of  a  Divine 
Revelation,  dominated  at  that  time  in  Prussia,  and  fur- 
nished the  subject  of  these  pages  with  materials  for 
raising  his  voice  in  solemn  warning  to  his  countrymen, 
at  a  time  when  in  high  places  the  fires  of  faith  and  love 
were  burning  very  low.  The  travellers,  who  had  left 
England  in  May  1824,  having  visited  Bavaria,  Austria 
and  Italy,  returned  home  at  the  end  of  a  twelvemonth 
exactly. — It  deserves  to  be  mentioned  in  passing  that  at 
Rome,  impressed  with  the  need  of  more  systematic 
ministrations  to  the  English  visiting  that  capital  than 
were  as  yet  provided  in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Stark, — Hugh 
James  Rose  made  himself  personally  responsible  (with 
Lord  Harrowby,  and  Sir  James  Clark,)  for  the  mainte- 
nance at  Rome  of  an  English  Chaplain :  and  at  the  same 
time  secured  for  the  English  congregation  those  very 
commodious  (if  not  strictly  ecclesiastical)  quarters  near 
the  Porta  del  popolo  which  continued  until  yesterday  to  be 
the  scene  of  the  daily  worship  of  the  English  residents. 
At  Rome  also  it  was  that  Rose  cemented  that  intimate 
friendship  with  Bp.  Hobart  which  he  was  accustomed 
to  regard  as  one  of  the  greatest  privileges  of  his  life. 

The  Discourses  on  "  the  state  of  the  Protestant  Religion 
in  Germany"  having  been  delivered  at  Cambridge  in 
May  1825,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  as  Select  Preacher, 
were  published  by  their  Author  in  the  ensuing  Septem- 
ber, and  made  a  great  impression.  A  warning  voice 


134  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1826 

they  also  proved  to  those  many  unstable  spirits  here  at 
home  who,  half  unconsciously  it  may  be,  had  become 
infected  with  the  virus  of  infidelity ;  and  who  in  divers 
quarters  were  ventilating  wretched  crotchets  of  their 
own  on  the  Eight  of  private  judgment, — Articles  of 
Faith, — a  fixed  form  of  Liturgy.  The  strangest  circum- 
stance in  connexion  with  the  publication  of  these 
Discourses  was  that  the  opposition  to  them  proceeded 
from — Dr.  Pusey.  In  the  year  of  his  appointment  to 
the  Professorship  of  Hebrew  (1828),  appeared  his  "  His- 
torical inquiry  info  tlie  probable  causes  of  the  rationalist 
character  lately  predominant  in  the  Theology  of  Germany"  8 
Rose  replied  in  1829,  in  a  second  and  enlarged  edition 
of  his  '  Discourses '  with  an  Appendix  :  to  which  Pusey 
rejoined  in  1830  by  publishing  a  "  Second  part "  of  his 
former  work,  "  containing  an  explanation  of  the  views 
misconceived  by  Mr.  Rose,  and  further  illustrations." 
It  is  needless  to  add  another  word  on  the  subject  of 
this  controversy,  which  has  long  since  lost  all  its 
interest.9  Pusey 's  religious  views  underwent  a  serious 
change  about  the  same  time  ;  and  shortly  after,  his  two 
learned  and  interesting  volumes  were  by  himself  with- 
drawn from  circulation.  The  result  of  this  controversy 
benefited  the  Church  chiefly  in  that  it  helped  to  bring 
Rose  prominently  before  the  public  (outside  his  own 
University)  as  a  fearless  champion  of  Catholic  Truth. 

He  had  however  already  fully  established  his  reputa- 
tion as  an  able  maintainer  of  Apostolic  Order  and 
vindicator  of  half  forgotten  Church  Principles  by  his 
Four  Sermons  preached  at  Cambridge  in  April  1826,— 
"  On  the  Commission  and  consequent  Duties  of  the  Clergy'' 
Written  without  any  idea  of  publication,  these  Sermons 

"  To  which  is  prefixed  a  letter       the  German."    8vo. 
from  Professor  Sack,  translated  from  9  See  i nfra,  pp.  248-52. 


1 826]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     135 

were  deemed  so  important  by  those  who  heard  them, 
that  their  Author  was  persuaded  in  1828  to  give  them 
to  the  public  with  a  considerable  apparatus  of  "  Notes." 
A  second  edition  was  called  for  in  1831,  when  the 
volume  was  enlarged  from  180  to  upwards  of  300 
pages.1 

Addressed  in  the  first  instance  to  those  who  were 
about  to  become  Ministers  in  the  Church  of  CHRIST, 
these  Sermons, — more  than  anything  else  which  pro- 
ceeded from  the  same  faithful  pen, — served  to  stir  up 
men's  minds  and  effectually  to  put  the  Clergy  in  re- 
membrance of  those  ancient  Truths  which  the  Clergy 
least  of  all  can  afford  to  forget.  Never  at  any  time 
has  the  Church  of  GOD  been  without  faithful  men  so  to 
witness  to  a  forgetful  and  a  careless  generation  :  and  the 
first  quarter  of  the  present  century  (when  the  outlook, 
it  must  be  confessed,  was  dismal  indeed,)  presents  no 
exception  to  the  gracious  rule.  He  would  be  rendering 
a  good  service  to  the  Church  who  should  collect,  and 
ever  so  briefly  annotate,  the  names  of  those  who  bore 
their  testimony  bravely  in  that  time  of  general  dis- 
couragement. We  are  speaking  just  now  of  Sermons 
preached  in  the  year  1826.  In  1827  Keble  published 
"  The  Christian  Year."  His  acknowledgment  of  Rose's 
volume  published  in  1828  will  be  read  with  interest:— 

"  Fairford,  Gloucestershire,  29  Sept.  1828. 
"  Dear  sir, — I  am  deeply  ashamed  to  be  so  tardy,  but, 
believe  me,  I  am  not  the  less  sincere,  in  offering  you  my 
best  acknowledgements  for  your  kindness  in  sending  me 
your  Sermons  on  the  Duties  of  the  Clergy.  I  say 
nothing  of  your  too  partial  mention  of  my  little  publica- 
tion in  one  of  your  notes ; 2  but  you  perhaps  will  give 

1  The 'Advertisement  to  the  first       'Hadleigh,  Suffolk,  September  26, 
edition'  is  dated  'Horsham,  May       1831.' 
19,  1828,'— to  the  second  edition,  a  Page  176  [  =  p.  162  ed.  1831.].. 


136  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1825 

me  credit  for  an  Author's  feelings  in  thinking  the  more. 
But  I  had  rather  tell  you  of  the  delight  (I  hope  not 
unimproving)  with  which  I  have  read  your  animating 
appeals,  and  mean  to  read  them  over  and  over  again  ; 
and  of  the  satisfaction  it  has  afforded  me  to  find  my 
own  notions  and  criticisms,  on  some  favourite  subjects, 
exactly  coinciding  with  yours.  Let  me  venture  particu- 
larly to  thank  you  for  that  part  of  the  fourth  sermon, 
in  which  you  point  out  the  effect  of  Christian  Know- 
ledge in  elevating  the  minds  as  well  as  correcting  the 
hearts  of  labouring  people:  (p.  83-85,)  for  the  recom- 
mendation of  Miller's  '  Bampton  Lectures  '  :  and  for  the 
hint  about  village  preaching  in  p.  169." 

It  was  in  1836,  at  the  Cambridge  '  Commencement,' 
that  Mr.  Rose  preached  a  Sermon  often  reprinted  after- 
wards, which  made  its  author  famous,  entitled, — "  The 
tendency  of  prevalent  opinions  about  Knowledge  considered" 

We  have  already  been  reminded  that  the  infirm  health 
which  constrained  Mr.  Rose  in  1824  to  have  recourse  to 
foreign  travel  resulted  in  good  to  himself  and"  the 
Church.  A  similar  reflection  is  forced  upon  us  by  the 
discovery  that,  in  1825,  he  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate 
for  the  Regius  Professorship  of  Greek  at  Cambridge,— 
when  the  lot  fell  to  Scholefield.  Reasonably  might  so 
excellent  a  Greek  scholar  as  Rose  aspire  to  an  office 
which  he  would  have  so  greatly  adorned,  and  which  his 
passion  for  sacred  Science  would  have  inevitably  turned 
to  good  account  for  the  criticism  of  the  N.  T.  But  the 
duties  of  the  Regius  Professorship  of  Greek,  had  he 
been  elected  to  that  Chair,  must  inevitably  have  made 
exorbitant  demands  on  the  time  of  one  whose  heart  was 
given  to  Divinity:  must  have  drawn  him  to  some 
extent  into  secular  reading:  must  have  interfered  in 
short  with  what  Rose  sincerely  desired  to  make  the  one 
great  business  of  his  life.  Previously  to  going  abroad, 


1825]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     137 

(that  is,  some  time  in  1823,)  he  had  seen  through  the 
press  his  '  Inscriptions  Graecae  Yetustissimae' — a  work 
however  which  was  not  published  until  his  return  from 
the  Continent  in  1825.  The  second  of  those  very 
ancient  inscriptions  ("  Inscriptio  Burgoniana ")  he  came 
to  our  house  in  Brunswick  Square  to  see,  in  November 
of  the  same  year.  A  letter  from  him  to  my  Father, 
(dated  *  Horsham,  Nov.  3,  1825')  lies  before  me,  de- 
scribing a  similar  (Panathenaic)  amphora  which  General 
Roller  had  shown  him  at  Naples.  His  pen-and-ink 
drawing  from  memory  of  that  object  is  surprisingly 
accurate.  "  On  the  top  of  each  column  should  be  a  cock," 
he  remarks,  "  but  that  is  beyond  my  graphic  powers."- 
While  on  the  subject  of  Greek,  it  may  be  here  mentioned 
that  in  the  first  days  of  1829,  Hose  produced  his  edition 
of  Parkhurst's  "  Greek  and  English  Lexicon  to  the  New 
Testament," — a  work  which  I  take  leave  to  say  will 
retain  its  value  to  the  end  :  notwithstanding  the  labours 
of  Schleusner  and  of  Wahl  in  the  same  line, — and  not- 
withstanding the  Hebrew  deficiencies  of  Parkhurst  him- 
self. The  bracketed  portions  are  all  by  Rose :  and 
these  are  invariably  conspicuous  for  that  excellent 
judgment,  sound  scholarship,  and  sterling  sense, — not 
to  say  that  healthy  Divinity — which  characterized 
everything  that  proceeded  from  his  pen.  One  does  but 
wish  that  he  had  contributed  more ;  but  his  hands  were 
always  full,  his  health  was  always  feeble,  and  he  was 
constrained  to  give  to  this  great  work  the  margins  only 
of  his  time. 

Belonging  to  this  period  of  Kose's  life,  and  apt  to  the 
subject  already  presented  to  the  reader's  attention,  is 
the  following  letter  of  Abp.  Howley,  then  Bishop  of 
London.  His  remarks  on  the  best  way  of  studying 
S.  Paul's  Epistles  strike  me  as  being  so  truly  admirable 


138  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1829 

—so  likely  to  be  of  real  service  to  students  of  the 
inspired  page, — that  no  apology  shall  be  offered  for 
introducing  them  here.  The  learned  prelate  seems  to 
be  replying  to  some  inquiries  of  Rose  on  the  subject :  3 — 

"June  28,  1829. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  do  not  know  how  your  time  can  be 
employed  with  greater  advantage  to  yourself  than  in 
selecting  the  notes  of  the  best  Commentators  on  the 
Epistles,  weighing  their  comparative  merits,  and  fully 
considering  the  accordance  of  their  several  interpretations 
with  your  own  notions  of  the  meaning  of  the  sacred  text. 
To  do  this  with  effect,  you  should  acquire  a  very  familiar 
acquaintance  with  the  originals  ;  and  a  readiness  in 
referring  by  memory  to  the  passages  which  treat  on 
similar  subjects.  You  should  go  through  them,  at  some 
times,  with  accurate  attention  to  every  particular 
sentence  and  word  ;  and  at  others,  should  read  them 
with  a  view  to  the  general  scope  of  the  argument,  the 
connection  of  parts,  and  the  main  design  of  the  writer. 
I  would  advise  you  to  look  with  attention  at  Erasmus's 
paraphrase,  and  the  explanations  of  the  several  Greek 
commentators. — In  this  way,  by  taking  your  time,  and 
frequently  meditating  on  these  invaluable  works,  you 
will  fix  in  your  mind  an  inexhaustible  store  of  original 
theological  knowledge,  and  may  produce  a  work  which 
will  supersede  the  compilation  of  Rosenmuller,  and  the 
ponderous  and  ill  digested  commentaries  of  Macknight. 
A  really  valuable  work  of  this  kind  is  not  to  be  pro- 
duced in  haste.  It  must  be  the  fruit  of  labour  continued 
for  years  ;  and  if  properly  executed,  would  confer  the 
highest  credit  on  the  author,  and  be  of  unspeakable  use 
to  the  young  student.  No  man  is  a  true  Theologian 
who  does  not  understand  the  Epistles ;  and  we  learn 
from  the  various  errors  of  sectaries  how  easily  their 
sense  is  misconceived  and  distorted  by  unstable  and 
illiterate  men. 

3  I  may  mention  that  H.  J.  R/s  the  elate  of  the  same  year  (1829). 

interleaved  travelling  copy  of  the  The  Epistles  are  largely  annotated 

N.  T.,  (it  was  presented  to  me  by  in  this  copy, 
his  widow,)  bears   on   the  fly-leaf 


1831]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      139 

"Indeed,  I  much  approve  of  your  plan,  which  even  if 
not  fully  accomplished,  will  repay  your  labour  at  every 
step, — conducting  you  by  degrees,  with  a  sure  footing 
and  a  firm  step,  to  the  heights  of  Theological  knowledge.  _ 
For  myself,  I  can  say  that  almost  all  I  know  of  Divinity 
is  derived  from  repeated  perusals  of  the  New  Testament 
in  the  original  language,  and  in  the  method  I  have 
recommended  to  you. 

"  I  remain,  my  dear  sir,  with  sincere  regard, 

"  Truly  yours, 

W.  LONDON." 

The  most  eventful  as  well  as  most  anxious  period  of 
his  life  was  that  which  began  with  the  year  1829, — the 
first  of  the  four  years  during  which  he  held  simul- 
taneously the  offices  of  '  Christian  Advocate '  and  of 
Select  Preacher  at  Cambridge.  Those  were  years  of 
great  intellectual  activity,  during  which  he  partially 
resided  at  the  University,  and  delivered  (namely,  in 
1830  and  1831,)  those  grand  "Eight  Sermons"  which 
made  his  name  everywhere  known  and  revered. 

There  is  but  one  opinion  concerning  Mr.  Rose's  power 
and  success  as  a  public  Teacher.  Not  only  was  his 
matter  in  the  highest  degree  important  and  weighty, 
but  his  delivery  was  earnest  and  impressive  beyond 
example;  his  grand  ecclesiastical  presence  contributing 
not  slightly  to  give  effect  to  all  he  said.  There  were 
with  him  none  of  the  arts— still  less  any  of  the  tricks— 
of  oratory.  He  eschewed  action,  was  perfectly  natural 
in  his  manner,  and  his  solemn  voice,  exercised  with 
manifest  effort,  testified  but  too  plainly  to  the  broken 
health  and  exhausted  natural  powers  with  which  he 
was  resolutely  contending.  In  spite  of  bodily  infirmity, 
his  whole  soul  seemed  to  find  utterance  in  the  words! 
he  delivered.  Supremely  conscious  of  the  importance  I 
of  his  message,  he  was  evidently  making  it  his  one  object  j 


140  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

to  convey  to  his  auditory  the  same  certainty  of  con- 
viction which  he  himself  enjoyed. 

The  auditory  at  Great-St.-Mary's,  the  University 
Church, — (I  have  been  assured  of  this  as  well  by  some 
who,  at  the  time  referred  to,  occupied  the  undergraduates' 
gallery,  as  by  some  of  the  loftiest  consideration  who 
were  present,) — set  a  higher  value  on  his  discourses, — 
attended  them  in  greater  numbers,  and  listened  to  them 
with  more  marked  attention, — than  in  the  case  of  any 
other  teacher  of  his  time.  "  He  was  the  first  preacher 
who  ever  really  impressed  me,"  says  one  who  from  1833 
to  1837  was  an  undergraduate.  "His  words  seemed  to 
take  liohl  of  you."  4 — Others  have  remarked  to  me  that  the 
air  of  authority  with  which  he  spoke  suited  well  his 
dignified  aspect  and  commanding  figure,  and  was  in 
strict  keeping  with  the  solemnity  of  his  deportment. 
But  beyond  all  things  men  are  found  to  have  been 
impressed  by  his  faithful  and  fearless  witness.  He  was 
the  brave  and  uncompromising  Apostle  of  Truth.  '  Prin- 
ciples '  to  be  maintained  in  their  integrity  against  craven 
counsels  of  expediency  and  the  base  truckling  of  an 
ungodly  age,  ever  ready  to  surrender  what  is  unpopular, 
— such  was  the  frequent  keynote  of  his  discourses  in 
public.  He  was  pleading  for  some  half- forgotten,  but 
vital  ancient  verity;  or  vindicating  some  neglected 
fundamental  of  the  faith.  Else,  he  was  stimulating  his 
hearers  to  'the  duty  of  opposing  evil';  or  he  was 
insisting  on  'Man's  need  of  a  sanctifying  purpose';  or 
he  was  exposing  the  '  Effects  of  sensuality  on  the  moral 
and  intellectual  frame.'  On  one  such  occasion, — (as  the 
Kev.  George  Williams,  who  was  present,  told  me,) — the 
subject  of  his  discourse  being  the  duty  of  contending  for 
the  Truth, — a  violent  thunderstorm  came  on.  Once  and 

*  From  the  Kev.  H.  Raymond  Sinythies. 


1834]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      141 

again,  at  the  close  of  a  long  and  impassioned  paragraph, 
a  loud  crash  of  thunder  was  heard,  followed  by  "  a  sound 
as  of  abundance  of  rain."  "  It  was  really"  (added  my 
informant  with  deep  emotion)  "  as  if  high  Heaven,  by 
its  artillery,  were  bearing  witness  to  the  faithfulness  of 
the  solemn  message  which  the  preacher,  as  an  ambassador 
from  the  skies,  was  delivering  to  a  careless  generation." 
Some  weeks  after  I  had  written  the  foregoing  sentences 
the  Rev.  H.  R.  Luard,  Registrar  of  the  University, 
obligingly  sent  me  from  Cambridge  what  follows.  "  I 
found  the  enclosed"  (so  he  wrote)  "among  Mr.  Brad- 
shaw's  papers.  6 You  may  like  to  see  it: — 

"Even  deeper  than  Simeon's  influence  was  that  of 
Hugh  James  Rose, — the  man  who,  of  all  Cambridge  men 
of  that  time,  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the  great  Church 
revival.  George  Williams  often  afterwards  spoke  of 
the  effect  his  words  had  upon  him,  as  well  as  upon 
others.  There  is  one  sermon  in  particular  (*  On  the  duty 
of  maintaining  the  Truth! 5)  which  was  preached  before 
the  University  on  Whitsunday,  1834, — which  no  one 
can  now  read  without  seeing  how  they  stamped  them- 
selves upon  him  and  helped  to  form  his  character.  Two 
paragraphs  from  this  sermon  will  show  what  I  mean  :— 

'  If  one  were  asked  to  state  shortly  the  substance  of 
this  one  great  direction  and  command  as  to  the  method 
of  propagating  the  Truth,6  it  would  seem  to  be  that  the 
Truth  should  be  proclaimed  at  all  events,  without  fear 
and  at  any  sacrifice ;  the  only  caution  being  that  it  should 
be  proclaimed  without  unnecessary  and  useless  offence, — 
without  any  courting  of  persecution.  It  is  a  noble 
lesson  against  worldly  tactics  and  Politics,  that  simply 
and  boldly  to  speak  the  Truth, — is  esteemed  direction 
and  guidance  enough. 

5  '  Published    by   desire    of    the  darkness,  that  speaJc  ye  in  light  : 
Vice  -  Chancellor     and     Heads     of  and  what  ye  hear  in  the  ear,  that 
Houses,' — pp.  26.  preach  ye  upon  the  housetops.1    Mr. 

6  The    preacher's    text    was    S.  Bradshaw  quotes  from  p.  8  of  the 
Matth.  x.  27, — '  What  I  tell  you  in  Sermon. 


142  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1834 

'  Short  therefore  of  the  fanaticism  so  guarded  against, 
the  first  duty  of  a  Christian  to  Christian  Truth,  is  to 
proclaim  and  maintain  it  at  all  times,  and  in  all  places, 
—  against  all  opposition  ;  —  in  spite  of  all  persons,  —  in 
spite  of  Public  Opinion,  —  in  spite  of  the  fashion  of  the 
?  —  in  spite  of  changed  and  changing  circumstances,  — 


in  spite  of  expediency,  real  or  fancied,  —  in  spite  of  all  the 
usual  cry  of  bigotry,  and  intolerance,  and  ignorance.'  "  7 

I  pass  on  with  the  remark  that  while  all  that  was 
noblest  in  the  University  responded  eagerly  to  the 
message  of  the  Preacher,  his  fearless  addresses  provoked 
the  sneers  of  the  less  earnest,  the  opposition  of  the  less 
loyal  sort.  Where  will  not  base  compromise  find  its 
advocates?  And  when  will  the  faithful  proclaimer  of 
GOD'S  Truth  cease  to  incur  the  cordial  hate  of  the  anti- 
Church  party  ?  .  .  .  The  younger  men,  at  all  events,  who 
were  then  (as  they  are  now)  the  hope  of  either  Uni- 
versity, received  the  preacher's  lessons  into  an  '  honest 
and  good  heart,'  and  with  the  divinely  predicted  result. 
One  such  undergraduate  hearer  was  George  Selwyn,  the 
Apostle  of  New  Zealand.  Another  was  Bp.  Patteson. 
Another  was  Bp.  Abraham  ;  and  Sir  William  Martin 
was  another.  "I  could  hardly  express  my  husband's 
regard  and  reverence  for  Mr.  Rose  too  strongly,"  —  writes 

7  Obvious  it  was  to  assume  that  to  hear  Eose,  whose  text  was  '  What 

Mr.  Bradshaw's  statement,  and  the  ye  hear  in  the  ear  that  preach  ye 

anecdote   of  my  own  which  went  on  the  housetops?     It  was  an  in- 

imniediately  before,  relate  to  one  temperate,    uncompromising,   High 

and  the  same  occasion.     I  have  en-  Church  sermon.     The  language  was 

deavoured   to   verify  both,   by  in-  very  beautiful   and   eloquent,    and 

quiries   at  Cambridge  ;    and   learn  the  delivery  admirable  :  but  I  think 

that  the  late  Rev.  J.  Romilly,  in  a  more  inflammatory  party  Sermon 

his  MS.  Diary,  (Whitsunday,  May  has  hardly  been  preached  since  the 

1  8,    1834,)    writes    as    follows:  —  days  of  Sacheverel."  —  I   owe   this 

"Going  out  of  [S.  Botolph's]  Church,  extract   from  his  uncle's  diary,  to 

a  heavy  storm  of  rain.    So  we  stood  the  courtesy  of  G.  B.  Allen,  esq.,— 

a  long  while,  a  dense  mass,  in  the  to   whom  the   Rev.   H.   R.   Luard 

porch.—  At  2  we  went  to  S.  Mary's  obligingly  referred  me. 


1834]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      143 

Bp.  Selwyn's  widow.  "  He  often  said  that  to  him  he 
owed  more  than  to  most  others ;  ascribing  results  to  him 
who  had  sowed  the  seed."8  In  a  sermon  preached  before 
the  University  in  1854,  Selwyn  himself  bore  the  same 
testimony.  Patteson  and  Sir  William  Martin,  when  the 
thickness  of  the  globe  was  interposed  between  them  and 
England,  recalled  the  wisdom  and  truth  of  Rose's 
teaching  concerning  the  quasi-miraculous  progress  of 
the  Gospel  in  the  world,  considering  the  difficulties 
which  it  had  to  encounter.  Abraham  could  reproduce 
phrases  of  his  on  '  the  Truth,'  and  remembered  walking 
and  talking  with  men  about  the  sermon  afterwards, — 
a  rare  occurrence  at  that  time.  Not  until  that  Day 
when  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  shall  come  to  "  take 
account  of  His  servants,"  will  be  known  all  that  was 
effected  by  Rose's  teaching  at  Cambridge  from  the 
University  pulpit. 

Those  who  have  bestowed  attention  on  such  matters 
will  not  be  surprised  to  be  assured  that  Hugh  Rose's 
public  reading  of  Scripture — (an  act  which  Hooker  in 
a  famous  place  declares  to  be  "Preaching"  9) — partook  of 
the  same  weighty  and  impressive  character.  A  very 
competent  judge  once  assured  me  that  his  reading  of  the 
liiird  of  Isaiah  in  a  village  Church  in  Sussex  so  affected 
him,  that  at  the  end  of  many  years  he  was  able  to  recall 
his  grand  intonation,  and  the  solemnity  with  which  he 
delivered  those  awful  words.  Something  similar  the 
same  friend  related  to  me  concerning  the  way  he  had 
heard  Mr.  Rose  read  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  son. .  . . 
The  subject  of  impressive  reading  having  once  cropped 
up  in  Exeter  College  common-room, — (we  were  a  small 

8  Letter  to  me,—  'Lichfield,  Nov.  26,  1886.' 

9  Eccl.  Polity,  Book  V.  xxi.  4. 


144  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1830 

party  sitting  round  the  fire  after  dinner), — I  mentioned 
the  substance  of  what  immediately  precedes ;  when  one 
of  the  Fellows  (the  Rev.  Henry  Low)  to  the  surprise  of 
us  all,  in  the  quaintest  manner,  and  with  no  little 
emotion,  thrust  out  his  legs  on  the  hearth-rug  and, — 
with  an  ejaculation  expressive  of  his  entire  assent  to 
what  I  had  been  saying, — broke  out  somewhat  as 
follows : — "  Never  heard  him  read  but  once  ;  and  shall 
never  forget  it  as  long  as  I  live.  It  was  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. Never  heard  anything  like  it.  Never!"  ...  I  re- 
marked to  the  speaker  that  it  is  difficult  to  read  the  Ten 
Commandments  with  any  special  propriety ;  and  asked 
him  what  it  was  that  had  so  struck  him.  "  O  "  (exclaimed 
Low),  "it  was  as  if  Mr.  Rose  had  been  personally  commis- 
sioned to  deliver  the  decalogue  to  the  congregation." 

The  beginning  of  the  year  1830  witnessed  his  sever- 
ance from  Horsham.  To  the  great  joy  of  his  friends,  he 
had  been  appointed  by  the  Archbishop  to  the  important 
parish  of  Hadleigh  in  Suffolk. 

"  If  the  situation  is  such  as  to  enable  you  to  reside 
there  with  safety  to  your  health,"  (wrote  his  friend  and 
patron)  "I  shall  rejoice  in  having  been  able  to  give  you 
an  advantageous  exchange.  But  if  you  cannot  reside,  I 
should  consider  it  as  more  advisable  that  you  should 
wait  till  something  falls  in  a  better  situation."  x 

This  cure  had  every  external  attraction,  and  was 
entered  on  by  Rose  with  much  zeal.  He  rebuilt  the 
parsonage,  so  as  to  restore  to  use  "  an  ancient  gateway 
and  tower,  which  had  probably  stood  there  from  the 
time  of  Rowland  Taylor."  2  Fully  were  the  hopes  of  his 
friends  shared  by  himself  that  the  new  locality  would 
suit  him  better,  prolong  his  days,  and  afford  him  scope 

1  The  Abp.  to  H.  J.  K.,—  2  Churton's  Memoir  of  Watson, 
'Shirley,  Croydon,  Jan.  4,  1830.'  — i.  307. 


1831]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      145 

for  the  display  of  his  powers  which  were  now  con- 
spicuous to  all.  Unhappily,  such  hopes  were  doomed  to 
utter  disappointment.  In  the  meantime,  in  1829-30- 
3 1 -3  2  appeared  his  '  Christian  Advocate '  publications  for 
those  four  years,  which  will  be  found  described  at  foot 
of  page.3 

Here  also  room  must  be  found  for  a  brief  reference  to 
Rose's  important  edition  of  Bp.  Middleton's  great  work 
on  '  The  Doctrine  of  the  Greek  Article  applied  to  the  Criticism 
and  Illustration  of  the  N.  T.I — '  with  Prefatory  Observations 
and  Notes?  by  himself.  It  belongs  (according  to  Miller) 
to  the  year  1831.  The  only  editions  with  which  I  am 
acquainted  bear  date  1833  and  1841.  The  book  is  too 
well  known  to  require  any  commendation  of  mine ;  but  -i 
I  desire  to  record  the  Editor's  generous  anxiety  to  find 
out  privately  whether  50^  (i.  e.  half  of  the  sum  which  he 
received  from  the  publisher)  was  likely  to  be  acceptable 
to  the  Bishop's  widow. 

The  next  year  (1831)  was  made  memorable  to  the 
subject  of  these  pages  and  to  the  Church  by  the  in- 
ception of  the  '  British  Magazine?  Mr.  Rose  had  long 
been  deeply  impressed  with  the  absolute  necessity  of 
establishing  some  monthly  organ  for  the  dissemination 
of  sound  Church  views : — not  a  quarterly  collection 
of  Essays,  (like  the  '  British  Critic '  or  the  '  Christian 
Remembrancer '),  but  a  Magazine  of  general  Ecclesiastical 

3  1829," Christianity  always  Pro-  Opinions    and  Pursuits"  —  1831, 

gressive" — (sent  forth  as  the  Chris-  "Notices  of  the  Mosaic  Law :  with 

tian  Advocate's  publication  for  the  some  account    of  the   Opinions  of 

year,  but  embodying  the  substance  recent   French   writers  concerning 

of  his  discourses  as  Select  Preacher  it" — 1832,  "  The  Gospel  an  abiding 

in  1828.) — 1830,  "  Brief  Remarks  system:  with  some  remarks  on  the 

on  the  dispositions  towards  Chris-  '  New  Christianity '  of  the  St.  Si- 

tianity    generated    by    prevailing  monians" 

VOL.  I.  L 


146  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1831 

intelligence, — of  which  the  main  object  should  be  the 
defence  of  the  Church,  her  institutions,  her  doctrines. 
He  had  consulted  the  most  thoughtful  and  trustworthy 
of  his  friends  and  had  uniformly  received  from  them 
words  of  encouragement.  The  need  of  such  a  medium 
of  communication  had  in  fact  for  some  time  forced  itself 
on  the  attention  of  thoughtful  men  among  the  Clergy,— 
as  Churton,  in  his  'Memoir  of  Watson^  shows. 

"  I  am  sure  "  (wrote  Bishop  Blomfield)5  "that  it  ought 
to  give  intelligence  of  all  religious  proceedings  in  and 
out  of  the  Church ;  that  it  should  deal  but  sparingly 
with  Reviews ;  and  that  its  tone  should  be,  though  firm 
and  decided,  yet  gentle  ....  If  you  can  take  it  in  hand, 
there  will  be  an  end  of  the  difficulty." 

Joshua  Watson,  with  intense  sympathy  for  his  friend, 
while  he  encouraged  the  enterprise,  dissuaded  him  in  the 
strongest  terms  from  becoming  its  Editor.  His  brother 
Henry  once  described  to  me  the  circumstances, — (but  it 
is  so  many  years  ago  that  I  can  only  relate  them  gener- 
ally,)— under  which  Hugh  Rose  was  induced  to  take  the 
decisive  step.  He  was  on  a  visit  at  his  Father's  modest 
vicarage  of  Glynde,  (near  Lewes,  in  Sussex,)  when  to  his 
surprise  one  afternoon  he  received  a  visit  from  a  London 
publisher,  whose  purpose  in  searching  him  out  in  that 
remote  locality  was  to  announce  his  willingness  to 
undertake  the  commercial  responsibility  of  a  monthly 
religious  journal,  provided  only  that  Mr.  Rose  would 
consent  to  become  its  Editor.  Its  main  object  was  to  be 
that  already  defined ;  yet  must  not  the  Magazine  be  ex- 
clusively Theological.  It  was  to  embrace  topics  connected 
with  public  improvement.  Cordially  hating  periodical 
literature,  Rose  was  about  the  last  person  to  be  solicited 
on  such  a  behalf  with  any  prospect  of  success.  But  the 

4  Pages  276  to  281.  5  12  Aug.  1831. 


1831]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      147 

publisher  knew  very  well  what  he  was  about,  and  the 
kind  of  man  he  was  addressing.  He  succeeded  in  over- 
coming the  doubts  and  scruples — (they  were  neither 
slight  nor  few) — with  which  his  project  was  encountered. 
But  in  fact  he  had  an  ally  in  the  juncture  of  which  he  ~~ 
had  availed  himself  to  make  his  proposal,  which  effec- 
tually bore  down  opposition. 

The  times  were  critical  in  the  highest  degree.  There 
was  a  great  and  admitted  want  of  some  medium  of  com- 
munication between  the  Clergy  and  the  outside  world,  as 
well  as  with  one  another.  For  it  will  be  remembered 
that  in  1831  none  of  those  multitudinous  organs  which 
at  present  flood  every  bookseller's  counter  and  encumber 
our  library-tables,  were  in  existence.  Faithful  men  were 
.not  wanting  to  whom  the  cause  of  the  Church  was  very 
dear;  but  these  too  often  lived  in  practical  isolation. 
There  prevailed  also  throughout  the  period  (1830-4)  a 
terrible  faintheartedness  which  is  too  often  the  prelude 
and  the  token  of  a  lost  cause : — 

"  We  are  dying  of  timidity,  and  the  dread  of  responsi- 
bility," (wrote  Mr.  Newman  a  little  later).  "  The  Bishops 
must  come  forward  ;  else,  it  is  intolerable  that  all  sorts  of 
nonsense  should  be  thrown  out  by  Churchmen  on  the 
side  of  innovation,  without  the  Bishops  saying  a  word, 
and  yet  it  should  not  be  allowed  us  to  agitate  on  the 
other  side."6 

Even  more  ominous  was  the  seeming  apathy  which  men 
exhibited,  even  when  vital  interests  were  at  stake : — 

"I  suppose  there  can  be  no  doubt,"  wrote  Keble  from 
Fairford  (21  Feb.  1833),  "that  the  die  for  a  separation 
is  now  cast.  The  most  frightful  thing  to  me  is  the 
apparent  apathy  of  most  of  the  Clergy  even,  both  in 
Oxford  and  here  in  the  country." 

8  J.  H.  K  to  H.  J.  E.,— Jan.  i,  1834. 
L  2, 


148  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1831 

Even  when  the  Bill  for  the  suppression  of  half  the 
Episcopate  of  the  Church  of  Ireland  was  passing  through 
Parliament,  (writes  William  Palmer.)  the  same  apathy 
prevailed.  Sadly  was  the  want  felt  of  the  faithful 
spirit  which  should  fearlessly  proclaim  itself  ready  to 
contend  for  the  Truth:  the  bold  articulate  cry  which 
should  arouse  the  sleepers,  rally  the  wavering,  invigorate 
the  weak. 

It  was  clear  to  Mr.  Rose  that  the  overture  which  had 
come  to  him  thus  unexpectedly  might  be  converted  into 
a  great  opportunity  for  good.  Here  would  at  all  events 
be  a  rallying  point  for  the  friends  of  the  Church,  a 
mouthpiece  for  the  enunciation  of  Church  principles, 
and  an  organ  for  their  dissemination.  He  foresaw  too 
that  the  Clergy  might  be  thus  induced  to  communicate 
the  information  which  would  benefit  their  common  cause, 
if  they  could  but  be  got  to  take  the  thing  up  in  a 
generous,  trustful  spirit.  "  The  practical  question  is, 
whether  those  members  and  ministers  of  the  Church, 
and  those  laymen  who  have  a  sincere  interest  in  its 
welfare,  and  who  think  that  a  periodical  work  like  this 
will  tend  to  promote  that  interest,  will  attend  to  the 
call  that  is  now  made  to  them."  So  wrote  the  Editor 
in  1831-2.  "  One  great  evil  I  fear  admits  of  no  remedy" 
(he  added  a  full  year  afterwards) ; — "  namely,  that  I 
cannot  devote  all  my  time  to  it.  I  have  a  large  parish 
of  3500  people,  my  health  is  dreadfully  broken,  and  I 
cannot  give  up  entirely  my  own  reading.  The  only 
thing  to  be  said  on  the  other  side  is  that  I  happen  to 
have  a  large  acquaintance  among  the  Clergy."  It  was 
a  great  thing  to  him  to  find  that  men  of  excellent 
judgment  thought  well  of  the  undertaking.  In  brief, 
it  became  tJie  Church  organ  of  the  period, — numbered 
among  its  contributors  the  most  able  churchmen  of  the 


1832]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      149 

day, — and  proved  a  mighty  instrument  for  good.  On 
the  ist  March  1832,  the  first  number  of  '  The  British 
Magazine ' 7  appeared. 

The  following  letter  from  Hugh  James  Rose  to  his 
friend  Joshua  Watson  respecting  the  Magazine  when  it 
was  not  yet  half  a  year  old,  will  be  perused  with 
interest : — 

"  I  hope  that  on  the  whole  the  '  British  Magazine '  satis- 
fies you.  I  feel  that  I  could  make  it  much  better  if  I 
could  give  my  time  to  it,  and  I  would  willingly  give  it 
up  to  somebody  who  could.  But  till  it  is  more  fully 
established,  I  know  by  experience  that  the  more  valuable 
contributors  and  Clergy  will  not  communicate  with  a 
person  whom  they  do  not  know,  or  know  something 
about.  There  is  one  sad  evil  attending  it  just  now  which 
nothing  can  overcome, — and  that  is,  the  state  of  the 
times,  which  makes  one  hopeless,  humanly  speaking, 
of  doing  good ;  and  so  leaves  only  the  languid  movement 
arising  from  the  impetus  given  in  former  and  better 
days ;  or,  at  best,  imposes  that  hard  task  for  human 
constancy, — the  doing  from  a  sense  of  duty  what  you 
feel  a  moral  certainty  will  be  unsuccessful.  GOD,  in  His 
justice,  we  must  say,  may  well  destroy  our  Church.  The 
spirit  of  unbelief  even  may  spread  to  an  extent,  the  very 
thought  of  which  shocks  and  appals  the  heart :  and  such 
seems,  at  least,  to  our  little  wisdom  the  present  tendency 
of  things.  We,  of  a  surety,  in  this  our  day,  at  the  best 
can  hope  only  for  a  series  of  dreadful  and  difficult,  even 
if  ultimately  successful,  struggles  against  it.  And  these 
are  thoughts  which  tend,  in  a  degree  that  I  could  hardly 
have  fancied  before  experience,  to  deaden  the  active 
spirit  of  exertion  in  defence  of  secularities  however 
valuable,  (or  rather  invaluable,)  as  means.  There  is  no 
rest  for  the  sole  of  the  foot,  no  reposing  point  for  the 

7  — "  and   Monthly  Kegister   of  the   Poor,   progress    of    Education, 

Religious    and    Ecclesiastical    In-  etc." — The  first  number  is  prefaced 

formation,  Parochial  History,   and  by  the  Editor's  '  Address,' — pp.  i  o. 
Documents  respecting  the  state  of 


150  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1831 

wearied  spirit,  till  it  has  passed  over  this  dark  and 
stormy  ocean  of  thoughts,  and  remembered  that  the  fate 
and  fortune  of  the  various  branches  of  the  visible  Church 
of  CHRIST  are  things  on  which  the  Book  of  GOD'S 
wisdom  gives  but  a  dim  and  obscure  light,  seeming  even 
to  foretell  a  general  apostasy ; — but  that  this  does  not 
affect  the  hopes  and  prospects,  nor  diminish  the  aids,  of 
the  believer.  His  hopes  do  not  fail  with  a  failing 
Church ;  and  it  is  in  that  remembrance  that  he  must 
seek  the  strength  and  resolution  (as  far  as  in  himself  and 
his  own  thoughts  he  is  to  seek  them)  necessary  to  dis- 
charge his  duties  towards  it  to  the  utmost  while  it  re- 
tains its  existence  ;  and  to  witness  its  fall,  if  it  is  to  fall, 
not  indeed  without  the  bitterest  regret,  but  yet  without 
dismay.  But  enough  of  this.  These  are  thoughts  which 
are  familiar  to  you.  Perhaps  it  is  because  I  know  this, 
that  I  have  written  thus,  and  relieved  myself,  without,  I 
trust,  annoying  you."  8 

And  now  it  is  high  time  that  a  pause  should  be  made 
in  order  that  the  reader  may  be  definitely  introduced  to 
what  was  the  alarming  position  of  affairs  in  the  Church 
of  England  at  the  period  which  we  have  already  reached. 
Without  clear  notions  on  this  subject,  he  cannot  possibly 
appreciate  the  characters  which  group  themselves  round 
the  central  figure  of  the  present  narrative :  nor  indeed 
can  he  understand  why  the  men  should  express  them- 
selves, and  should  act,  as  they  are  observed  to  do.  I  must 
myself  have  recourse  to  the  pages  of  one9  who  had 
personal  experience  of  those  gloomy  times,  if  I  would 

8  H.  J.  R.  to  Joshua  Watson,—       with  the  publication  of  the  Tracts 
dated    <  Glynde,    Lewes,    July    30,      for  the  Times,  with  an  Introduction 

and  Supplement  extending  to  the 

9  Kev.  William  Palmer,  of  Wor-       present    time.' — Rivingtons,    1883, 
cester  College,— in  a  volume  which       (pp.  293).     I  have  also  availed  my- 
will  prove  an  important  contribu-       self  of  an  article  contributed  by  the 
tion  to  English  Church  history, —       same  friend  to  the   Contemporary 
'A   narrative  of  events  connected       Review,  (C.  72.)  for  May,  1883. 


1831]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      151 

report  this   matter   faithfully.      We   shall  find  it   our 
wisdom  in  fact,  with  him,  to  go  back  a  little. 

Enormous  material  prosperity  had  engendered  over- 
weening pride  in  the  nation,  and  a  shameful  forgetful- 
ness  of  GOD,  the  giver  :  — 

"  Allusions  to  GOD'S  being  and  providence  became  dis- 
tasteful to  the  English  parliament  :  were  voted  ill-bred 
and  superstitious:  were  made  the  subjects  of  ridicule. 
Men  were  ashamed  any  longer  to  say  Family-prayers,  or 
to  invoke  the  blessing  of  GOD  upon  the  food  which  He 
/  \  alone  had  provided.  The  mention  of  His  Name  was 
tabooed  in  polite  circles.  In  proportion  as  Religion 
openly  declined,  a  human  element  made  progress  under 
the  name  of  Philosophy  and  Science,  —  which  knew  of 
nothing  except  what  is  of  human  origin.  The  super- 
natural was  made  to  disappear.  The  consequence  was, 
that  society  began  to  demand  the  exclusion  of  the  super- 
natural from  the  Christian  system,  on  the  pretence  of 
wishing  to  make  it  more  widely  acceptable.  Did  they 
not  consider  that  to  exclude  the  supernatural  is  to  destroy 
Christianity  ',  to  proclaim  it  an  imposture  and  a  lie?"  l 

Few  men  now  living  have  before  them  the  condition  of 
the  Church  itself  as  it  was  some  sixty  years,  and  more, 
ago.  Her  fortunes  had  sunk  to  the  lowest  ebb.  Hope 
itself  was  nearly  extinguished.  The  Church's  days 
seemed  numbered  :  — 

"  A  Revolution  had  taken  place  in  the  relations  of 
Church  and  State.  Political  Revolution  had  followed, 
and  society  and  Christianity  along  with  it  seemed  in 
danger  of  subversion.  Reversing  the  policy  which  for 
three  centuries  had  intimately  connected  the  Church  with 
the  State,  —  a  policy  which  had  been  handed  down  from 
the  introduction  of  Christianity,  —  the  Government  of 
that  day  had  made  up  its  mind  to  ally  itself  with  the 
Church's  foes. 

1  Palmer's  '  Narrative,'  &c.  p.  21. 


152  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1831 

"  We  can  now  look  back  from  the  vantage  ground  of 
time  upon  the  agitating  contests  from  1812  to  1839,  con- 
nected with  the  grant  of  '  Emancipation.'  We  can  smile 
at  the  notion  that  men  could  have  been  so  deeply  moved 
by  such  a  question  as  that  of  the  grant  of  political  power 
to  Roman  Catholics.  There  are,  however,  two  sides  to 
most  questions ;  and  in  this  case,  a  very  serious  alter- 
native presented  itself  to  the  minds  of  Churchmen. 
They  saw  that  the  grant  of  political  power  to  the  Church 
of  Rome  meant  the  use  of  that  political  power  against 
the  Church  of  England.  They  were  convinced  by  the 
teaching  of  ages,  that  the  exaltation  of  the  former  meant 
the  injury,  perhaps  the  destruction  of  the  latter.  Ex- 
perience has  unfortunately  shown  that  they  were  right, 
and  that  those  who  ridiculed  their  fears  were  no 
prophets."  ~ 

In  the  meantime,  a  school  of  men  arose,  (the  Clergy 
themselves  contributing  some  of  its  most  dangerous 
elements,)  whose  conceit  led  them  to  imagine  that  they 
were  competent  to  reform  every  institution  and  to 
amend  the  whole  world  :— 

"  The  press  groaned  beneath  the  perpetual  issue  of 
pamphlets,  treatises,  discourses, — all  bent  on  the  refor- 
mation and  correction  of  the  Church,  from  head  to  foot. 
To  open  one  of  these  disquisitions, — which  undertook 
at  a  week's  notice  to  present  a  spick-and-span  new 
creation,  in  which  imperfection  was  to  be  unknown, — 
you  might  suppose  that  the  Church  of  England  was  a 
mass  of  corruption,  folly,  and  bigotry.  Everything  was 
wrong,  and  required  a  radical  change.  Nothing  could 
be  hoped  for,  except  after  the  expulsion  of  Bishops  from 
the  House  of  Lords, — the  overthrow  of  Chapters, — the 
abolition  of  Religion  in  the  Universities, — the  radical 
reform  of  the  Worship  and  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church 
in  a  liberal  direction.  The  Prayer-Book  was  to  be 
divested  of  its  antique  rubbish,— swept  clean  of  the 
supernaturalism  which  had  descended  to  it  from  the 

2  Palmer  in  the  '  Contemporary  Review,'  p.  637. 


1831]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      153 

Middle  Ages, — relieved  of  those  continual  professions  of 
belief  in  the  Trinity,  the  Deity  of  CHRIST,  the  belief  in 
Divine  Providence,  and  other  points  which  so  greatly 
troubled  the  delicate  consciences  of  those  Christians 
who  were  anxious  to  fraternize  with  Unitarianism  and 
Infidelity.  The  Church  of  England  of  the  future  was  to 
become  a  congeries  of  sects,  at  utter  variance  with  each 
other  in  doctrine  and  discipline,  each  preserving  its 
distinctive  peculiarities,-  with  the  single  exception  of 
the  present  Church  of  England ;  which,  by  authority 
of  Parliament,  and  without  any  reference  to  the  wishes 
of  its  Bishops,  Clergy,  or  People,  was  to  be  arbitrarily 
remodelled  and  vitally  changed." 3  "  Such  was  the 
disorganization  of  the  public  mind,  that  Dr.  Arnold  of 
Rugby  ventured  to  propose,  that  all  denominations 
should  be  united  by  Act  of  Parliament  with  the  Church 
of  England,  on  the  principle  of  retaining  all  their  dis- 
tinctive errors  and  absurdities."  4 

"What  claims  special  notice  in  all  these  proposed 
changes  was  the  spirit  of  irreverence  which  was  widely 
characteristic  of  the  period,  together  with  the  prevailing 
want  of  principle.  All  who  have  written  on  the  events 
of  that  time,  have  noticed  the  extreme  and  dangerous 
unsettlement  of  opinion  which  manifested  itself  about 
the  year  1 830, — the  era  when  the  Reform  mania  was  at 
its  height,  and  when  '  Reform '  was  decided  to  be  the 
panacea  for  every  human  ill.  In  the  midst  of  this 
revolutionary  turmoil,  the  Church  and  Christianity 
were  in  danger  of  being  swept  from  their  old  founda- 
tions, and  replaced  upon  the  philosophic  basis  of  the 
nineteenth  century." 5 

Such  a  deplorable  state  of  things — (what  need  to  say  it?) 
— was  not  arrived  at  without  protest  and  remonstrance. 
The  circumstance  is  too  much  lost  sight  of  by  those 
who  have  discussed  the  events  of  the  period.  To  read 
of  the  great  Church  Revival  of  1 833  as  it  presents  itself 

3  Ibid.  p.  639.  *  Palmer's  '  Narrative,'  p.  99.  5  Ibid.  p.  29. 


154  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1831 

to  the  imagination  of  certain  writers,  one  would  suppose 
that  in  their  account  the  publication  of  the  earliest  of 
the  '  Tracts  for  the  Times '  had  the  magical  effect  of 
kindling  into  glory  the  dead  embers  of  an  all-but-ex- 
tinct Church.  The  plain  truth  is  that  the  smouldering 
materials  for  the  cheerful  blaze  which  followed  the 
efforts  made  in  1832-3-4  had  been  accumulating  un- 
observed for  many  years :  had  been  the  residuum  of  the 
altar-fires  of  a  long  succession  of  holy  and  earnest  men. 
Not  only  here  in  England  had  there  been  many  to  bear 
faithful  and  fearless  witness,  but  the  great  American 
Church  had  done  her  full  part  in  "  preparing  the  way." 
Bp.  Hobart  of  Connecticut  [1775—1831], — Bp.  Doane  of 
New  Jersey  [1799-1859], — Bp.  Whittingham  of  Mary- 
land [1805-3879], — are  the  names  which  more  readily 
present  themselves ;  but  there  were  in  truth  many  others, 
— names  which  will  not  go  unremembered  or  unrecorded 
"  in  that  Day."  The  result  was  at  first  unperceived,  but 
it  was  very  real,  and  only  waited  the  arrival  of  the 
occasion  to  make  itself  distinctly  felt  and  seen.  As  at 
another  famous  occasion  of  national  apostasy,  GOD  was 
found  to  have  "reserved  to  Himself  seven  thousand"  who 
had  retained  their  hold  on  Catholic  Truth  amid  every 
discouragement.  A  very  facile  proceeding  truly  it  is  to 
speak  in  a  patronising  way  of  "  the  old  fashioned  piety" 
of  such  men  as  those  whose  names  will  be  found  col- 
lected at  the  foot  of  the  present  page.6  Would  to  GOD 

6  Thomas    Eandolph    [1701-83]:  Thomas  F.  Middleton  [1769-1822]  : 

Thomas  To  wnson  [17 1 5-9  2]  :  George  JohnBowdler  [1754-1823]  :  Charles 

Home   [1730-92]:    William  Jones  Daubeny    [1744-1827]:     Reginald 

(of  Nayland)  [1726-1800]:  Samuel  Heber  [1783-1826]  :  Charles  Lloyd 

Horsley      [1733-1806]:      William  [1784-1829]:      Alexander      Knox 

Stevens   [1732-1807]:    John   Ban-  [1758-1831]:    John    Jebb    [1775- 

dolph  [1749-1813]  :  William  Cleaver  1833]  :  John  Davison  [1777-1834]  : 

[1742-1815]:    John   Frere  [1740-  Thomas  Sikes  [1766-1834]  :  Richard 

1807]:  John  Shepherd  [1759-1805]:  Laurence    [1760-1839]:     William 


1831]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     155 

that  we  had  among  us  at  the  present  day  a  little  more 
of  that  '  old-fashioned '  thing, — a  little  less  of  that 
spurious  novelty  which  is  "  Catholic"  in  nothing  but  in 
name.  Church  feeling  was  EVOKED,  not  CREATED,  by  the 
Movement  of  1833. 

Undeniable  however  it  is  that  at  the  juncture  of  which 
we  speak  the  outlook  was  the  gloomiest  imaginable.  The 
Church  was  weak  and  divided  : — 

"  There  was  no  means  of  offering  an  effectual  resist- 
ance to  the  spreading  evil  of  unsettlement  and  infidelity. 
The  lines  of  religion  needed  to  be  restored  and  deepened. 
Principle  had  to  be  infused  where  there  was  none  to  fall 
back  upon.  It  was  in  vain  to  appeal  to  principles 
which  were  not  understood.  There  was  no  foundation, 
or  an  uncertain  one,  on  which  to  build."7 

"  At  the  beginning  of  the  summer  of  1 833,  the  Church 
in  England  and  Wales  seemed  destined  to  immediate 
desolation  and  ruin.  We  had  seen  in  1828,  the  repeal  of 
the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  cutting  away  from  the 
Church  of  England  one  of  its  ancient  bulwarks,  and 
evidencing  a  disposition  to  make  concession  to  the 
clamour  of  its  enemies.  In  the  next  year, — the  fatal 
year  1.829, — we  had  seen  this  principle  fully  carried  out, 
by  the  concession  of  what  is  called  'Roman  Catholic  Eman- 
cipation ' ;  a  measure  which  scattered  to  the  winds  public 
principle,  public  morality,  public  confidence,  and  dis- 
persed a  party,  which,  had  it  possessed  courage  to  adhere 
to  its  old  and  popular  principles,  and  to  act  on  them 
with  manly  energy,  would  have  stemmed  the  torrent  of 
Revolution,  and  averted  the  awful  crisis  which  was  at 

Van  Mildert  [1765-1836]  :  William  And  more  recently,  John  Miller  : — 

Howley  [1765-1848]:    Christopher  John     Keble :— W.     H.     Mill:— 

Wordsworth  [1774-1846]:    H.   H.  William   Palmer   of  Worcester: — 

Norris    [1771-1851]:     Martin    J.  Benjamin    Harrison: — Christopher 

Kouth    [1755-1854]:    John   Oxlee  Wordsworth.     But  '  the  time  would 

[1779-1854]  :    John  Kaye  [1783-  fail   me,'   were    any  thing   like   a 

J853] :     Joshua     Watson     [1771-  complete    enumeration    to    be    at- 

1855]  :  C.  J.  Blomfield  [1786-1857]  :  tempted. 
Hugh    James    Hose    [1795-1838].          7  Palmer's  '  Narrative?  p.  30. 


156  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1831 

hand."8  "  In  the  year  after  passing  this  measure,  which 
was  to  hold  out  the  olive  branch  to  contending  parties, 
the  Irish  peasantry  entered  into  a  conspiracy  to  despoil 
the  clergy  of  their  tithes.  The  alliance  with  the  Papal 
priesthood,  formed  in  the  vain  hope  of  conciliating  Irish 
discontent  and  closing  the  agitating  career  of  O'Connell, 
who  had  been  permitted  for  so  many  years  to  keep  that 
country  on  the  verge  of  rebellion,  had  rapidly  borne 
fruit.  Whoever  ventured  to  levy  tithes  was  doomed  to 
death.  Several  of  the  Clergy  were  accordingly  murdered, 
and  the  rest  reduced  to  starvation.  The  end  of  the 
Church  had  come  sooner  than  was  expected.  The  Clergy 
would  have  no  remedy  except  to  escape  to  England. 

"  The  withdrawal  of  all  support  from  Church  institu- 
tions :  the  open  and  violent  demands  for  the  legal  aboli- 
tion of  the  Irish  Church :  the  transfer  of  Irish  education 
from  Church  management  to  other  hands ;  all  indicated 
the  change  which  was  rapidly  passing  over  the  relations 
of  Church  and  State." 

In  the  meantime,  the  lesson  which  English  statesmen 
had  given  in  1829  in  remodelling  Constitutions,  speedily 
bore  bitter  fruits.  Their  policy  had  recoiled  upon  them- 
selves :— 

'•  England  at  once  found  itself  in  a  revolutionary 
vortex.  The  Reform  Bill  was  resisted.  It  was  enforced, 
and  carried  by  threats  of  rebellion.  The  mob  rose  and 
burned  down  the  Castle  of  Nottingham,  the  owner  of 
which  had  made  himself  obnoxious.  The  pa]ace  of  the 
Bishop  of  Bristol  was  burned  by  the  mob.  Bishops  were 
liable  to  insult  and  violence  if  they  appeared  in  the 
streets.  They  were  recommended  by  Lord  Grey  to  '  set 
their  house  in  order.'  At  Oxford  the  inhabitants  were 
in  alarm,  for  it  was  understood  that  the  Unionists, 
100,000  strong,  were  about  to  march  from  Birmingham 
and  raze  the  colleges.  In  London  great  bodies  of  revo- 
lutionists were  under  regular  military  training,  prepara- 
tory to  an  outbreak  in  the  event  of  the  Reform  Bill  being 

8  Ibid.  p.  96. 


1833]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     157 

rejected  ;  and  it  was  a  matter  of  uncertainty  whether  the 
House  of  Lords  or  the  Crown  would  survive  the  crisis, 
and  whether  the  next  year  might  not  find  England  a 
Republic.  When  the  new  parliament  met,  its  character 
was  apparently  revolutionary.  The  House  of  Commons 
was  prepared  for  any  course  of  action  however  dangerous. 
There  was  an  increasing  attack  upon  the  Church  of 
England  in  every  direction,  and  few  indeed,  and  weak, 
were  the  voices  which  in  timid  deprecation  were  raised 
on  its  behalf.  .  .  .  The  press,  with  a  few  exceptions,  was 
ranged  on  the  side  of  revolution  and  hostility  to  the 
Church.  So  violently  were  men's  passions  excited,  that 
an  inconsiderable  event  might,  like  a  spark  applied  to  a 
barrel  of  gunpowder,  have  led  to  a  fatal  explosion." 9  .  .  . 

It  was  at  such  a  juncture  then  in  the  state  of  public 
affairs,  secular  and  religious,  that  in  his  father's  humble 
parsonage,  on  a  breezy  slope  of  the  Sussex  downs,  Hugh 
James  Rose  determined  to  try  what  could  be  effected  by 
the  aid  of  a  monthly  journal  towards  reviving  the  hopes 
and  rekindling  the  aspirations  of  English  Churchmen.  It 
was  a  bold  venture  of  Faith— pro  Ecclesid  JJET. 

"The  climax  was  reached  in  the  beginning  of  1833. 
The  most  startling  illustration  of  the  new  attitude  of  the 
State  and  of  Parliament  towards  the  Church  of  England, 
and  of  the  character  of  measures  which  had  now  become 
possible  under  the  pretence  of  Reform,  was  at  that  time 
afforded  when  the  Ministry  of  the  day  introduced  their 
Billow*  the  Extinction  often  Bishoprics  and  two  Archbishoprics 
in  Ireland,  and  pressed  it  through  Parliament.  Churchmen 
were  told  that  they  had  reason  to  be  thankful  that  the  entire 
Episcopate  had  not  been  swept  away,  with  the  exception 
of  four,  or  even  one  Bishop  ;  that  they  were  to  consider 
themselves  fortunate  in  being  allowed  to  retain  Bishops, 
or  Clergy,  or  Churches  at  all. 

"  This  Act  of  the  Government  it  was  which  brought 
matters  to  a  crisis.  Its  result  was  the  Oxford  movement, 

9  Palmer  in  the  '  Contemporary  Review,'  p.  638-9. 


158  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

— which,  however  some  may  have  sought  to  explain  it, 
really  sprang  from  necessity;  the  need  felt  by  various 
minds,  agreeing  in  their  essential  feeling  towards  the 
Church  of  Eugland  and  its  principles.  It  became  evident 
to  them  at  once  that  something  required  to  be  done, 
in  order  to  meet  dangers  which  had  become  tangible,  and 
which  threatened  to  become  intolerable."  x 

"  The  necessity  of  associating  in  defence  of  the  Church 
had  already  suggested  itself  to  many  minds.  In  a  letter 
dated  Hadleigh,  February  i ,  1 833,  Mr.  Rose  wrote, — '  That 
something  is  requisite,  is  certain.  The  only  thing  is, 
that  whatever  is  done  ought  to  be  quickly  done :  for  the 
danger  is  immediate,  and  I  should  have  little  fear  if 
I  thought  that  we  could  stand  for  ten  or  fifteen  years  as 
we  are.'  " 2 

It  will  become  more  and  more  apparent,  as  we  proceed, 
that  if  to  any  one  man  is  to  be  assigned  the  honour  of 
having  originated  the  great  Catholic  Revival  of  our 
times,  tJiat  man  was  Hugh  James  Rose.  For  my  own 
part,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  fares  with  such  move- 
ments as  it  fares  with  rivers.  Their  true  source,  their 
actual  fountain-head,  is  remote,  is  insignificant.  A  con- 
fluence of  brooks  produces  in  time  a  stream, — into  which 
many  tributaries  discharge  themselves.  The  channel 
deepens,  —  widens,  —  receives  somewhere  a  considerable 
accession  of  waters.  And  now,  behold,  it  has  become 
a  mighty  river !  ...  So  was  it  with  the  great  Catholic 
Revival  of  which  we  speak.  But  it  remains  true,  for  all 
that,  that  amid  the  forms  which  crowd  around  us  and 
the  voices  which  make  themselves  heard  above  the 
'  hurley  burley,'  when  the  history  of  a  great  work  is  to 
be  deliberately  committed  to  writing,  one  authoritative 
voice,  one  commanding  figure,  becomes  conspicuous 
beyond  the  rest :  and  posterity  will  recognize  the  fact 
that  it  was  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE  who  was  the  true  moving 

1  Hid.  pp.  639-41.  2  Palmer's  '  Narrative?  p.  101. 


1831]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     159 

cause  of  that  stirring  of  the  waters  which  made  an 
indelible  impress  on  the  Church  of  England  between 
fifty  and  sixty  years  ago,  and  which  it  is  customary  to 
date  from  the  Autumn  of  1833.  It  was  he  who  so  early 
as  the  year  i822,3  had  pointed  out  to  the  Clergy  "Internal 
Union  "  as  "  the  best  safeguard  against  the  dangers  of  the 
Church."  In  1825,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  University 
pulpit  at  Cambridge,  he  had  directed  attention  to  the 
state  of  German  Protestantism, — a  spectacle  of  warning 
to  the  Church  of  England.  But  it  was  by  his  soul- 
stirring  discourses  on  the  Commission  of  the  Clergy, 
preached  before  the  same  University  in  1826,  that  he 
chiefly  recalled  men's  attention  to  those  great  Church 
principles  which  had  all  but  universally  fallen  into 
neglect,  if  not  oblivion.  His  eagle  eye  was  the  first  to 
discern  the  coming  danger,  and  his  commanding  intel- 
lect was  incessantly  occupied  with  the  problem  of  how  it 
was  to  be  effectually  dealt  with.  By  the  earnest  tone 
and  by  the  sterling  soundness  of  his  writings  he  had 
won  the  respect  and  confidence,  as  well  as  the  admiration 
of  the  Church.  He  was  already  the  trusted  ally  of  not 
a  few  of  the  faithful  laity  also.  Now  therefore,  when 
the  sky  grew  darkest  and  most  threatening  (1829-1831) 
and  the  muttering  thunder  was  filling  men's  souls  with 
a  terrible  anticipation  of  the  coming  storm,]all  eyes  were 
instinctively  turned  to  him  as  the  fittest  to  lead  and 
to  guide.  The  Bishops  should  have  taken  the  initiative, 
and  put  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  movement :  but 
not  one  of  them  stirred,  and  no  one  dared  approach 
them.  The  diocesan  organisation  to  which  the  genius  of 

3  Mr.  'Rose's  first  published  Ser-  Lewes  Deanery  Committee  of  the 

mon  (i  Cor.  iii.   8,  9)  bears  date  S.P.C.K."    It  breathes  the  self-same 

Sept.  soth,  182 1,  and  was  "preached  earnest  spirit  as  his  later  and  better 

at  the  parish  church  of  Brighthelm-  known  discourses, 
ston,  in  aid   of  the   funds   of  the 


160  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1832 

Samuel  Wilberforce,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  some  twenty  years 
later,  imparted  such  efficient  flexibility,  as  yet  existed 
only  in  theory.  Let  it  in  fairness  be  confessed  that  the 
traditional  cumbrous  exclusiveness  of  their  exalted 
station,  not  to  say  the  suspicions  under  which  they 
laboured  as  a  body,  disqualified  our  then  Bishops  from 
the  kind  of  action  which  at  the  close  of  the  first  quarter 
of  the  present  century  had  become  a  necessity.  Thus  it 
happened  that  a  standard-bearer  had  to  be  sought  for 
elsewhere  ;  and,  as  we  have  said,  the  man  on  whom 
Churchmen  fixed  their  hopes  was  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE. 

The  same  year  which  witnessed  the  establishment  of 
his  Magazine  had  been  already  rendered  memorable  by 
the  publication  of  William  Palmer's  "  Origines  Liturgicae, 
cr  Antiquities  of  the  English  Ritual,  with  a  Dissertation  on 
Primitive  Liturgies" — a  work  too  well  known  to  need 
description  here.  But  a  forgetful  generation  may  require 
to  be  told  that  it  marks  an  epoch :  for  those  volumes 
gave  the  first  impulse  to  inquiries  of  which  the  Church 
is  reaping  the  beneficial  results  at  the  present  hour.  A 
careless  age  may  also  with  advantage  have  it  pointed  out 
that  the  '  Origines '  are  not  so  much  a  reminder  that 
almost  every  "form  of  sound  words  "  which  we  employ 
has  been  transmitted  to  us  from  the  remotest  antiquity, 
as  a  witness  that  the  sentiments  and  principles  which 
those  time-honoured  words  embody  have  descended  to 
us  from  the  primitive  age.  By  Palmer's  *  Origines'  in 
short,  men  were  taught  that  our  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  is  a  testimony  to  our  fidelity  to  the  great 
principles  which  have  descended  to  us  from  the  Apostles, 
—a  record  of  '  one  Faith '  never  to  be  forsaken, — a  guide 
amidst  the  perplexities  and  uncertainties  of  human 
opinion.  The  author  writes  of  himself  as  follows : — 


1832]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     161 

"  From  Hugh  James  Rose,  soon  after  the  publication 
of  my  book  in  1832,  I  received  a  communication  asking 
my  aid  as  a  contributor  to  the  'British  Magazine!  I 
accordingly  contributed  a  series  of  articles  in  reply  to  the 
truculent  attacks  of  the  political  dissenters ;  which,  by 
means  of  a  large  mass  of  evidence  derived  from  dissenting 
publications,  directed  public  attention  to  the  small 
number,  the  difficulties,  and  declining  state  of  the 
dissenting  interest. 

"  Rose,  with  whom  of  all  men  living  I  most  deeply 
sympathized,  and  in  whom  I  placed  the  most  entire 
confidence,  (as  far  as  confidence  in  man  is  allowable)^  was 
in  his  time  a  bright  and  shining  light  of  the  Church 
of  England.  He  had  been  Christian  Advocate  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  He  was  the  most  powerful 
and  most  followed  preacher  there :  a  profound  scholar,  an 
eloquent  orator,  a  deep  thinker,  and  an  admirable  theo- 
logian. When  we  add  to  this,  accomplishments  the  most 
varied,  judgment  the  most  enlightened,  and  manners  the 
charm  of  which  were  universally  felt,  we  have  a  com- 
bination which  has  been  rarely  if  ever  excelled  in  the 
Church.  The  only  drawback  was  declining-  health. 
This  highly  gifted  and  admirable  man  was  a  victim 
to  perpetual  suffering,  which  in  a  brief  space  consigned 
him  to  the  sick  chamber  and  to  death.  Even  when 
I  first  knew  him,  his  tall,  bending,  and  attenuated  form, 
and  aquiline  features — which,  amidst  their  intellectual 
and  commanding  character,  gave  evidences  of  deep 
suffering — indicated  but  too  truly  the  sad  presence  of 
decline.  But  in  society,  that  grave,  and  even  sad  and 
solemn  expression,  gave  way  at  once  to  the  radiance 
of  intellect,  benevolence,  and  wit.  Had  this  noble  man 
lived,  he  would  have  been  the  greatest  ornament  and  the 
most  trusted  leader  of  his  Church."  * 

Palmer  himself  [#.  1 803]  was  a  younger  man.  Educated 
at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  he  enjoyed  one  considerable 
advantage  over  the  Divines  with  whom  he  shortly  found 
himself  associated,  viz.  that  he  had  studied  the  claims  to 

*  Palmer  in  the  '  Contemporary  Review?  p.  644. 
VOL.  I.  M 


1 62  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1832 

Catholicity  of  the  Churches  of  England  and  of  Eonie  a 
vast  deal  more  carefully  than  they  had.  The  '  Origines*  had 
been  commenced  in  1826.  He  went  to  reside  at  Oxford 
in  1828,  became  a  member  of  Worcester  College,  and 
devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  study  of  Divinity. 
The  appearance  of  his  work  in  1832  brought  him  at 
once  into  intimate  intercourse  with  Rose,- -who  enter- 
tained the  highest  opinion  of  his  learning,  judgment, 
and  orthodoxy.  At  his  solicitation  it  was  that  Rose 
visited  Oxford  in  the  summer  of  1832, — not  a  little 
influenced  doubtless  by  anxiety  to  enlist  under  his  banner, 
as  editor  of  the  'British  Magazine,'  the  services  of  the 
chief  men  of  promise  in  that  University.  Besides  Dr. 
Pusey,  Mr.  Newman  (as  the  reader  is  aware)  was  known 
to  him  already.  John  Miller  was  another  of  his  most 
esteemed  friends.  Froude,  Harrison,  Perceval,  Williams, 
and  many  others  were  drawn  more  or  less  into  relation 
with  him  about  this  time.  Palmer  writes  of  that  visit, — 
"  It  was  indeed  the  greatest  pleasure  that  could  well 
be  imagined  to  have  your  company  at  Oxford,  and  we 
shall  always  remember  it  with  delight.  It  is  a  matter 
of  rejoicing  indeed,  when  those  whose  objects  and  views 
are  in  perfect  unison,  and  on  whose  exertions  under 
Providence  such  precious  interests  may  depend,  are 
brought  to  know  and  value  each  other,  and  are  thus 
enabled  to  band  themselves  into  an  united  phalanx 
against  their  enemies.  I  know  your  visit  to  Oxford  will 
have  been  very  useful  in  this  respect,  and  I  shall  only 
add  that  every  one  seemed  to  feel  pleasure  in  seeing  you, 
and  expressed  the  greatest  value  and  respect.  This  I 
know,  and  I  could  also  mention  some  persons  to  whom 
your  conversation  and  sentiments  gave  the  most  heart- 
felt satisfaction."  5 

Individuals  were  found  to  remonstrate  with  Mr.  Rose 
for  seeking  help  at  this  time  exclusively  from  Oxford :-- 

5  Leamington, — July  i8th,  1832. 


l83s]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      163 

" I  am  a  little  perplexed"  (he  writes)  "by  Archdeacon 
Thorpe's  account  of  Oxford, — at  least  if  he  looks  at  it 
with  a  Churchman's  eye.  /  get  no  help  whatever  from 
Cambridge.  What  help  could  I  get  equal  to  Keble, 
Miller,  Palmer,  Newman,  Froude,  Hook,  Ogilvie  ?  I 
love  Cambridge  to  my  heart :  but  Divinity  is  not  her 
tower  of  strength  just  now."  6 

Another  frequent  contributor  to  the  'British  Magazine ' 
at  this  time  was  the  Author  of  the  '  Christian  Year'  "  I 
am  delighted,"  he  wrote,  (26  Feb.  1833),  "to  think  that 
persons  so  well  qualified  to  judge  as  yourself  and  Mr. 
Watson  account  those  hasty  thoughts  of  mine  to  be  not 
without  a  chance  of  doing  some  good  in  so  noble  a  cause." 
From  some  corrections  which  the  writer  proposes,  it  is 
found  that  the  paper  referred  to  is  one  of  a  series  on 
<  Church  Reform '  (pp.  360-78)  signed  "  K."  Five  son- 
nets too  are  his  (at  pp.  273-4),  and  another  on  "  Oxford 
from  Bagley,  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning,"  (at  p.  422.) 
On  the  ensuing  24  April,  enclosing  a  paper  on  '  Church 
Reform '  (which  appears  at  p.  726-34),  Keble  writes, — 

"  If  you  feel  dissatisfied  with  what  you  have  written, 
what  ought  1  to  feel !  but  I  don't  allow  you  to  be  a  fair 
judge,  especially  now  that  I  fear  you  are  unwell.  All  I 
know  is  that  others  whom  I  meet  with  don't  find  fault 
with  you,  and  that  I  am  more  and  more  convinced  of  the 

importance  and  usefulness  of  the  Magazine I  don't 

wonder  that  you  are  more  tired  than  your  readers  of  this 
eternal  Church  Reform  subject.  But  what  can  one  do? 
Whilst  Grey  and  Co.  go  on,  we  must  go  on  too,  as  we 
may.  And  I  must  say,  without  bandying  compliments, 
that  your  way  of  putting  these  matters  appears  to  me 
more  readable,  more  lively  without  pertness,  and  more 
likely  to  do  good,  than  anybody's  else  whom  I  have 
fallen  in  with.  Please  therefore  not  to  leave  off ;  except 
you  find  it  too  worrying  for  your  health Will  you 

6  To  Joshua  Watson,— Hadleigh,  June  ipth,  1833. 
M  2 


1 64  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

excuse  my  mentioning  to  you  one  word  which  vexes  me 
in  every  number  of  yours  1  '  Notices  of  the  Olden  Time.' 
I  don't  know  why,  but  I  suppose  from  some  odd  association, 
that  phrase  sounds  to  me  affected.  Don't  alter  it,  please,  un- 
less you  find  that  other  ears  are  like  mine  in  this  respect." 

In  his  next  letter  (May  i^th,  1833),  Keble  writes,— 
"  Would  not  *  Antiquarian  Notices '  suit  your  purpose  well 
enough  ?  It  would,  I  think,  include  such  remarks  on 
language  as  you  speak  of,  quite  as  correctly  as  the  pre- 
sent title,  to  which  I  so  hypercritically  objected.  I 
certainly  shall  be  glad  when  it  is  changed. 

"  Talking  of  Titles,  I  cannot  at  once  reconcile  myself 
to  Newman's  '  Lyra  Apostolical  I  am  sure  it  will  not 
give  the  idea  he  intends.  But  perhaps  he  depends  on 
being  able  to  get  people  to  associate  his  meaning  with 
the  phrase.  If  he  can  do  so,  well  and  good." 

This  allusion  to  the  '  Lyra^—si  which  however  the 
first  four  poems  did  not  appear  in  the  British  Magazine 
till  the  month  of  June  1833  (at  pp.  656-7) — reminds  me 
that  I  am  proceeding  too  fast.  As  .  early  as  the  year 
1830,  in  connexion  with  his  friend  and  colleague  at 
Lambeth,  Archd.  W.  R.  Lyall,  (afterwards  Dean  of  Canter- 
bury), Mr.  Rose  had  undertaken  to  edit  the  '  Theological 
Library'  which  was  to  consist  of  a  series  of  manual 
volumes  on  various  subjects,  but  which  might  all  be 
included  under  that  common  title.  The  first  volume 
contained  the  '  Life  of  Wicltf*  by  Le  Bas.7  Rose  himself 
was  to  have  contributed  a  '  Life  of  Martin  Luther'  The 
publication  extended  eventually  to  fifteen  volumes.8  This 
undertaking  it  was  which  first  brought  him  into  personal 
relations  with  John  Henry  Newman, — a  name  insepar- 
ably identified  with  the  great  Church  movement  which 
immediately  followed,  and  of  which  I  am  now  to  speak. 

7  Published  Dec.  22,  1831.  ij.)  was  published  Feb.  6th,   1839. 

8  The  last  volume  (Evans'  '  Bio-       I  am  indebted  for  these  details  to 

of  the  Early  Church,''  vol.       Mr.  F.  H.  Rivington. 


1831]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      165 

It  must  have  been  in  the  beginning  of  1831  that  Rose 
invited  Mr.  Newman, — (for,  in  introducing  him  into  this 
narrative,  I  must  be  allowed  to  designate  him  by  his  old 
familiar  name), — to  furnish  a  History  of  the  principal 
Councils.  Newman's  reply  ahddfefee  given  in  full.  J€ 
was  as  follows  :— 

"Oriel  College,  March  28,  1831. 

"  Sir, — I  have  allowed  myself  to  delay  my  answer  to 
your  obliging  letter  from  a  sense  of  the  importance  of 
the  undertaking  to  which  you  invite  me.  I  am  appre- 
hensive that  a  work  on  the  Councils  will  require  a  more 
extensive  research  into  Ecclesiastical  History  than  I 
can  hope  to  complete  in  the  time  to  be  assigned  me  for 
writing  it.  Otherwise,  I  am  well  disposed  towards  it. 
You  do  not  mention  the  number  of  Councils  you  intend 
should  be  included  in  the  History.  May  I  trouble  you 
to  give  me  a  description  of  the  kind  of  work  you 
desire  ?  and  what  books  you  especially  refer  to  in  your 
letter  as  the  sources  of  information?  and  what  time  you 
can  grant  me? 

"  I  fear  I  should  not  be  able  to  give  my  mind  fully  to 
the  subject  till  the  autumn,  though  I  wish  to  commence 
operations  sooner.  If  I  undertook  it,  it  would  be  on 
the  understanding  that  it  was  to  be  but  introductory  to 
the  subject  which  Mr.  Jenkyns  mentioned  to  you, — the 
Articles. 

"  I  had  considered  a  work  on  '  the  Articles '  might  be 
useful,  on  the  following  plan.  First,  a  defence  of  Articles : 
— then,  the  history  of  our  own : — then,  an  explanation  of 
them  founded  on  the  historical  view  : — then,  a  Disserta- 
tion on  the  sources  of  proof,  e.g.  Revelation  or  Nature, 
the  Bible  or  the  Church,  the  Old  or  New  Testament  &c. : 
—then,  some  account  of  the  terms  used  in  Theology  as  a 
Science,— e.  g.  'Trinity,'  'Person,'  'Merits  of  CHKIST,' 
'Grace,'  'Regeneration,'  &c.  And  lastly,  some  general 
view  of  Christian  doctrines,  to  be  proved  from  Scripture, 
and  referred  to  their  proper  places  in  the  Articles.  It 
seems  to  me  much  better  thus  to  collect  the  subjects  of 
the  Articles  under  heads,  than  to  explain  and  prove  each 


1 66  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1831 

separately, — with  a  view  both  to  clearness  of  statement 
and  fulness  in  the  proof  from  Scripture. 

"Will  you  consider  it  out  of  place  in  one  so  little 
known  as  myself,  to  add  that, — though  I  am  most 
desirous  you  should  be  put  into  full  possession  of  my 
views,  and  at  all  times  wish  to  profit  by  the  suggestions 
of  others,  and  am  not  aware  I  differ  in  any  material 
point  from  our  standard  writers, — yet,  intending  to  take 
upon  myself  the  entire  responsibility  of  everything  I 
write,  I  should  be  unwilling  to  allow  any  alteration 
without  the  concurrence  of  my  own  judgment :  and,  if 
the  change  required  were  great,  should  cheerfully 
acquiesce  in  my  MS.  being  declined,  rather  than  consent 
to  suppress  or  modify  any  part  of  it  I  deemed  of  import- 
ance? In  saying  this,  perhaps  I  am  raising  actual 
difficulties  in  my  wish  to  avoid  possible  prospective 
ones:  yet,  in  a  matter  of  this  kind,  I  deem  it  best  to 
use  as  much  openness  as  possible,  begging  your  indul- 
gence towards  it,  and  being  entirely  disposed  to  welcome 
in  turn  any  frank  statement  of  your  own  sentiments 
which  you  may  find  it  necessary  to  communicate  to  me. 

"  I  am,  Sir,  your  very  faithful  servant, 

"  JOHN  H.  NEWMAN." 

The  generous  earnestness  of  the  writer  was  the  cause 
that  he  scarcely  appreciated  the  extent  and  largeness  of 
his  subject.  By  September  1 2th,  its  vastness  was  evidently 
overpowering  him.  At  the  end  of  ten  months,  however, 
by  severe  industry  and  not  without  injury  to  his  health, 
he  had  brought  his  labours  to  a  close  and  proposed  that 
their  title  should  be  '  Notices  of  the  Principal  Councils  of  the 
Primitive  Church  in  illustration  of  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  Christianity'  Not  until  i  833  did  the  volume  appear, 
and  then  as  an  independent  publication,  as  well  as  under 
an  entirely  different  title,— <  The  Arians  of  the  Fourth 
Century ' ; — the  delay  having  been  occasioned  by  Hurrell 
Froude's  journey  to  the  south  of  Europe,  in  which  Newman 


1832]     THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      167 

accompanied  him.  This  proved  Newman's  great  work, 
—the  work  by  which  he  will  be  chiefly  remembered.9  It 
was  ready  for  publication  however,  as  already  stated,  by 
the  month  of  August  1832  ;  in  which  month,  by  the  way, 
the  author  ran  over  from  Brighton  to  see  Rose,  who  was 
then  on  a  visit  at  his  father's  vicarage,  Glynde  near 
Lewes, — himself  in  broken  health.  A  letter  which  he 
received  from  Newman  later  in  the  year  will  be  read 
with  interest  on  more  accounts  than  one  : — 

"  Oriel  College,  Nov.  26th,  1832. 

"  My  dear  sir, — Your  account  of  your  health  has  caused 
me  very  great  concern.  I  sincerely  wish  you  could  get 
away  for  some  months, — or  rather  I  wish  I  could  take 
the  liberty  of  urging  you  so  to  do.  Is  it  not  possible  for 
an  Editor  so  to  arrange  his  prospective  business  as  to 
intrust  it  to  others  for  a  few  months?  Any  use  you 
could  make  of  myself  among  others  (on  my  return)  to 
accomplish  so  desirable  an  object,  shall  be  yours.  I 
know  indeed  how  valuable  personal  superintendence  is, 
and  on  this  account  feel  bound  always  to  pray  for  the 
increased  personal  influence  of  one  whose  continuance  in 
active  exertion  is  of  such  moment  to  the  Church  ;  yet  it 
is  far  the  lesser  of  the  two  evils  to  suspend  exertion  than 
to  lose  the  power  of  making  it. 

"  You  must  not  suppose  that  Froude  and  I  are  running 
away  as  truants  for  mere  pleasure.  He  goes  for  his 
health,  having  a  consumptive  tendency  which  alarms  his 
friends.  I  have  been  for  years  suffering  from  duties  too 
many  for  me,  and  take  the  opportunity  of  recruiting 
myself  for  further  service:  but  it  makes  me  ashamed 
almost  to  go,  when  I  see  persons  labouring  who  are  more 
indisposed. 

<;  We  propose,  if  you  will  let  us,  on  our  return,  to 
systematize  a  Poetry  department  for  you, — which  I  am 

9  "  Let  me  take  this  occasion  of  permanent  stand  in  our  literature." 

offering  my  grateful  thanks  to  Mr.  — Rose's  '  Apology  for  the  Study  of 

Newman  for  his  invaluable  work  Divinity'  [see  below,  p.  185],  1834, 

on   Arianiam,  which  will  take  its  —p.  41. 


1 68  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1832 

sanguine  will  be  above  the  ordinary  run  of  such  ex- 
hibitions, and  may  be  useful.  We  shall  ask  for  2  pages 
in  each  No.,  and  shall  insert  in  that  space  4  brief  compo- 
sitions, each  bringing  out  forcibly  one  idea.  You  will 
smile  at  our  planning  such  details,  before  you  have  heard 
a  word  about  it :  but  if  it  interferes  with  any  plan  of 
yours,  of  course  we  shall  take  a  negative  from  you  very 
lightly.  Our  object  is,  to  bring  out  certain  truths  and 
facts,  moral,  ecclesiastical,  and  religious,  simply  and 
forcibly, — with  greater  freedom  and  clearness  than  in 
^Tlie  Christian  Year.'  - 1  will  not  go  on  to  say,  with  greater 
poetry.  If  it  answered  on  trial,  we  should  be  content  to 
carry  it  onad  injinitum.  It  might  be  called  ^Lyra  Apostolical 
"  When  you  see  or  write  to  Archd.  Lyall,  will  you  thank 
him  for  me  for  a  very  kind  letter,  which  I  did  not  answer 
for  fear  of  troubling  him?  He  made  me  the  desirable 
offer  to  form  a  personal  acquaintance  with  him,  half 
asking  me  down  to  see  him.  I  hope  some  time  or  other 
I  may  enjoy  the  benefit  he  proposes,  though  my  journey 
prevents  my  doing  so  now." 

The  friends  set  out  in  December  1832.  ...  "I  came  to 
Rome  from  Naples,"  writes  Mr.  Newman  ;  who  (in  the 
pages  of  the  'British  Magazine' J)  presented  his  country- 
men, on  his  return,  with  his  impressions  of  the  place  and 
its  Religion.  He  begins  by  describing,  with  his  usual 
felicity  of  phrase,  his  feelings  on  first  approaching 
Rome.  "  Let  me  think  awhile  "  (he  proceeds)  "  on  the 
subject  thus  given  me  "  : — 

"It  cannot  be  denied  that  Rome  is  one  of  the  four 
monsters  of  Daniel's  vision.  Do  Christian  travellers 

keep  this  enough  in  mind  1     I  think  not But 

further,  Rome  is  put  on  a  level  with  Babylon,  in  Scrip- 
ture ;  nay  it  is  worse  than  it.  The  vengeance  has  fallen 
on  Babylon,  and  it  is  no  more.  On  Rome,  too,  plagues 
have  come ;  but  it  survives.  What  does  this  circum- 
stance imply?  that  further  judgments  are  in  store?  I 
fear  it  does,  Rome,  the  mightiest  monster,  has  as  yet 
1  Vol.  v  (Jan.  1834), — PP-  l-n.  See  below,  p.  197, 


1832]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     169 

escaped  on  easier  terms  than  Babylon.  Surely,  it  has 
not  drunk  out  the  LORD'S  cup  of  fury,  nor  expiated 
the  curse  !  And  then,  again,  the  fearful  Apocalypse 
occurs  to  my  mind.  Amid  the  obscurities  of  that  holy 
book,  one  doctrine  is  clear  enough, — the  ungodliness 
of  Rome  ;  and  further,  its  destined  destruction.  That 
destruction  has  not  yet  overtaken  it ;  therefore  it  is 
in  store.  I  am  approaching  a  doomed  city." 

This  is  terrible  reading  truly,  though  it  be  scrip- 
tu rally  true.  We  are  surprised  to  be  presently  assured 
that  — 

"  In  the  book  of  Revelation,  the  sorceress  upon  the  seven 
hills  is  not  the  Church  of  Rome,  as  is  often  taken  for 
granted,  but  Rome  itself, — that  bad  spirit  which,  in  its 
former  shape,  was  the  animating  principle  of  the  Fourth 
Monarchy,  and  now  has  learned  by  experience  a  deeper 
cunning."  "If  any  one  thinks  this  a  refined  distinction," 
(proceeds  the  pious  writer)  "  difficult  to  enter  into, 
and  useless  if  understood,  I  admit  it  is  most  difficult, 
but  not  useless." 

The  question  however  at  once  arises, — (we  ask  it 
respectfully,) — But  is  it  logically  possible  ?  We  are  in- 
vited to  believe  that  "  the  animating  spirit  of  the 
Fourth  Monarchy "  is  also,  as  far  as  Rome  is  concerned, 
the  animating  spirit  of  the  Fifth  and  last.  But  the  Fifth 
and  last  Kingdom  is  confessedly  '  the  Kingdom  of  GOD,' 
— the  Christian  Church, — of  which  the  animating  spirit  is 
GOD.  When  therefore  the  same  writer  asserts  that, 

"  not  in  good  only,  but  in  evil  also,  the  old  spirit 
has  revived ;  and  the  monster  of  Daniel's  vision,  un- 
tamed by  its  former  judgments,  has  seized,  upon  Chris- 
tianity as  the  new  instrument  of  its  impieties,  and 
awaits  a  second  and  final  woe  from  GOD'S  hand";2 — 

what  else  does  he  assert  but  that  the  Church  of  Rome — 
forsaken  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  GOD — is  under  the 

2  Ibid,  pp.  124  and  133. 


1 70  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

usurped  dominion  of  Satan ;  and  therefore,  as  a  Church, 
awaits  a  tremendous  doom  ?  All  doubt  on  this  sub- 
ject is  in  fact  removed  by  what  we  shall  hear  from 
him  by  and  by.3 

In  his  "  Apologia,"  4  Mr.  Newman  writes, — "  Froude 
and  I  made  two  calls  upon  Monsignor  (now  Cardinal) 
Wiseman  at  the  Collegia  Inglese  shortly  before  we  left 
Rome."  To  which.  Froude  adds  the  startling  intelli- 
gence that  their  object  had  been  to  ascertain  on  what 
terms  they  might  be  admitted  to  Communion  with 
Rome,  and  that  they  had  been  surprised  to  learn  that  an 
acceptance  of  the  Decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  was  a 
necessary  preliminary.5  To  ourselves,  the  only  matter 
of  surprise  is  that  two  such  learned  Anglicans  should 
have  thought  it  worth  their  while  definitely  to  make 
such  an  inquiry.  It  is  gratifying  at  all  events  (as  a 
friend  of  theirs  well  remarks)  to  know  that  Froude's 
opinions  were  only  in  the  course  of  formation  ;  and 
that  in  the  following  year,  when  approaching  death, 
he  expressed  himself  as  follows  : — 

"  If  I  was  to  assign  my  reason  for  belonging  to  the 
Church  of  England  in  preference  to  any  other  religious 
community,  it  would  be  simply  this, — That  she  has 
retained  an  apostolical  Clergy  and  exacts  no  sinful 
terms  of  communion :  whereas  on  the  one  hand,  the 
Romanists,  though  retaining  an  apostolical  Clergy, 
do  exact  sinful  terms  of  communion :  and,  on  the 

3  See  below,  p.  264-5.  a  whole."    (Fronde's  'Remains,'  pp. 

4  Page  97.  304-7).— "I   say   nothing  here   of 

5  "  We  got  introduced  to  him  to  her   intense   hatred   of  us,"  wrote 
find  out  whether  they  would  take  Newman  at  this  very  time:   "and 
us   in   on    any  terms  to  wh'eh  we  the    iron    temper   with   which    she 
could  twist  our  consciences  ;    and  resists  all  proposals  of  ever  so  little 
we  found  to  our  dismay  that  not  concession."     ('  British  Magazine,' 
one  step  would  be  gained  without  vol.  v.  p.  131.) 

swallowing  the  Council  of  Trent  as 


l833J    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     171 

other,  no  other  religious  community  has  retained  such 
Clergy."  6 

His  language  at  least  establishes  that  this  bold  and 
adventurous  reasoner,  whose  sole  object  was  Truth, 
wherever  it  might  be  found,  was  to  the  last  a  faithful 
adherent  of  the  Church  of  England.  At  the  period 
referred  to  however  Mr.  Newman,  with  entire  sincerity, 
would  have  expressed  himself  in  the  same  terms.  It 
was  from  Eome,  in  the  meantime,  that  he  sent  the  first 
number  of  the  '  Lyra  Apostolica '  to  England,  accom- 
panied by  the  following  letter  : — 

"Kome,  March  i6th,  1833. 

"  My  dear  sir, — I  send  two  numbers  of  the  '  Lyra? 
which  if  you  think  them  worthy,  may  be  inserted  re- 
spectively in  the  Magazine  for  May  and  June.  But  if 
you  prefer  waiting  till  we  come  home,  well  and  good. 

"  I  will  make  two  requests :  first,  that  no  poetry  from 
other  correspondents  should  follow  the  '  Lyra '  so  closely 
as  to  seem  to  come  under  its  title.  Next,  (which  your 
better  judgment  may  decline  granting.)  that  you  would 
put  a  line  of  notice  before  every  number  of  the  'Lyra' 
to  signify  that  '  The  Editor  is  not  responsible  for  the 
opinions  contained  in  it.'  This  would  set  us  at  liberty 
to  speak  freely,  which  might  be  inexpedient  in  a  known 
person  such  as  yourself.  The  motto  is  part  of  Achilles' 
speech  on  returning  to  the  battle.  If  you  think  that 
beginning  with  yroier  8'  is  harsh  and  unprecedented, 
pray  put  yi/oio-eo-fl',  though  this  is  flat:  or  omit  it 
altogether,  or  substitute  another. 

"  We  were  very  sorry  to  see  at  Malta  an  announcement 
in  the  paper  that  you  had  resigned  the  Christian  Advo- 
cateship.  Is  this  from  ill  health  ?  anyhow  it  is  grievous. 

"We  have  received  great  civilities  from  M.  Bunsen, 
who  is  a  most  amiable  and  accomplished  person. 

"How  pleased  we  should  be  to  get  a  peep  at  the 
'British  Magazine'  here,  and  see  the  state  of  feeling  in 

6  Froude  to  Perceval,  Sep.  9,  (p.  41)  of  Perceval's  'Letter  to  Dr. 
1834.  I  quote  from  the  Appendix  Arnold'1  &c.  1841. 


172  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

the  Church  upon  that  cursed  spoliation  bill  which  the 
Papers  give  us  notice  of! 

"  With  Froude's  best  regards  and  good  wishes,  ever 
yours  very  truly  "  JOHN  H.  NEWMAN. 

"We  intend  being  in  England  by  the  middle  of 
June."  7 

It  was  the  9th  of  July  before  Newman  (who  had 
lingered  behind  his  companion)  set  foot  in  England. 
"  When  I  got  home  from  abroad,"  (he  writes),  "  I  found 
that  already  a  movement  had  commenced  in  opposition 
to  the  specific  danger  which  at  that  time  was  threaten- 
ing "  the  Church.  "  Several  zealous  and  able  men  had 
united  their  counsels,  and  were  in  correspondence  with 
each  other." 8  As  already  explained,  the  sacrilegious 
Bill  for  the  suppression  of  half  the  Episcopate  of  the 
Church  of  Ireland  which  was  then  being  eagerly  pressed 
through  Parliament,  had  brought  matters  to  a  crisis. 
Newman  reached  Oxford  at  what  proved  to  himself  a 
critical  moment :  for  on  the  very  next  Sunday  after  his 
arrival  (July  i4th,  1833)  Keble  preached  from  the  Uni- 
versity pulpit  his  famous  Assize  Sermon,  which  was 
published  at  once  under  the  title  'National  Apostasy? 
This,  in  Newman's  case,  was  like  the  application  of 
a  spark  to  a  train  of  gunpowder.  Throughout  his 
travels,  but  especially  as  he  drew  nearer  home,  he  had 
been  visited  with  strange  spiritual  impressions  that  a 
great  work  was  awaiting  him  in  England.  "I  began 
to  think  that  I  had  a  mission."9  He  walked  back  to 

7  Immediately  follows,  written  in  These  poems  are  to  be  found  in  vol. 

the    same    beautiful    handwriting,  iii.  p.  656-7  (June) — and  (with  the 

No.  I, — (i)  The  Course  of  Truth:  Commune  Doctorum  by  Isaac  Wil- 

(2)  The  Greek  Fathers :   (3)  David  liams  prefixed)  in  vol.  iv.  p.   24-5 

numbering  the  people :  (4)  The  Saint  (July*)  of  the 'British  Magazine'  for 

and  the   Hero  .  .  .  Also,  No.  II, —  1833. 

(i)  The  Church  of  Rome  :  (2)  FIAT-  8  Apologia, — p.  103-4. 

AOT  MIMHTH2  :    (3)  Moses  seeing  9  Ibid.— pp.  99-100. 
the  Land:  (4)  The  Pains  of  Memory. 


1833]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     173 

Oriel  from  St.  Mary's, — deeply  moved  by  what  he  had 
heard,  (though  indeed  the  sermon  in  question  is  by  no 
means  extraordinary),  and  "  ever  considered  and  kept  the 
day,  as  the  start  of  the  religious  movement  of  1833." 
For  '  religious,'  read  Tractarian  in  the  foregoing  sentence, 
and  the  statement  is  historically  correct.  But  the  religious 
movement,  as  we  have  seen,  had  made  its  beginning 
f(  not  with  observation  "  several  years  before.  I  chiefly 
avail  myself  of  Mr.  Newman's  truthful  reminiscences 
of  this  period,  because  he  pays  at  the  outset  a  graceful 
tribute  to  the  subject  of  these  pages,  and  furnishes  us 
with  another  portrait  of  the  man  as  he  appeared  in  the 
eyes  of  those  who  from  personal  intercourse  were  alone 
competent  to  describe  him.  After  enumerating  "Mr. 
Keble,  Hurrell  Froude,  Mr.  William  Palmer  of  Worcester 
College,  Mr.  Arthur  Perceval,  and  Mr.  Hugh  Rose,"  the 
writer  proceeds  as  follows : — 

"  To  mention  Mr.  Hugh  Rose's  name  is  to  kindle  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  knew  him,  a  host  of  pleasant  and 
affectionate  remembrances.  He  was  the  man  above  all 
others  fitted  by  his  cast  of  mind  and  literary  powers  to 
make  a  stand,  if  a  stand  could  be  made,  against  the 
calamity  of  the  times.  He  was  gifted  with  a  high  and 
large  mind,  and  a  true  sensibility  of  what  was  great 
and  beautiful ;  he  wrote  with  warmth  and  energy ;  and 
he  had  a  cool  head  and  cautious  judgment.  He  spent 
his  strength  and  shortened  his  life,  pro  Ecclesid  DEI,  as  he 
understood  that  sovereign  idea.  Some  years  earlier  he 
had  been  the  first  to  give  warning,  I  think  from  the 
-  University  pulpit  at  Cambridge,  of  the  perils  to  England 
which  lay  in  the  biblical  and  theological  speculations  of 
Germany.  The  Reform  agitation  followed,  and  the  Whig 
government  came  into  power.  .  .  .  He  feared  that  by  the 
Whig  party  a  door  would  be  opened  in  England  to  the 
most  grievous  of  heresies,  which  never  could  be  closed 
again.  In  order  under  such  grave  circumstances  to  unite 
Churchmen  together,  and  to  make  a  front  against  the 


174  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

coming  danger,  he  had  in  1 832  commenced  the  '  British 
Magazine]  and  in  the  same  year  he  came  to  Oxford  in  the 
summer  term,  in  order  to  beat  up  for  writers  for  his 
publication.  On  that  occasion  I  became  known  to  him 
through  Mr.  Palmer.  His  reputation  and  position  came 
in  aid  of  his  obvious  fitness,  in  point  of  character  and 
intellect,  to  become  the  centre  of  an  ecclesiastical  move- 
ment." l 

I  was  unwilling  to  interrupt  this  retrospect :  but  we 
have  to  resume  our  narrative  at  the  period  immediately 
antecedent  to  Mr.  Newman's  return  from  his  travels  : 
and  I  again  prefer  to  avail  myself  of  the  statements  of 
an  eye-witness  and  chief  actor  in  the  scene  to  be 
described, — William  Palmer  : 

"  When  the  month  of  June  1833  arrived,  those  friends 
who  had  been  in  correspondence  upon  the  prospects  of 
the  Church,  from  Surrey,  Suffolk,  Hampshire  and 
Oxford,  felt  that  the  time  had  come  for  personal  confer- 
ence and  comparison  of  views  upon  the  all-important 
subject  which  occupied  their  thoughts.  The  suggestion 
for  a  meeting  presented  itself  contemporaneously  to 
several  minds  ;  and  Rose  took  the  initiative  by  inviting 
Froude,  Perceval,  Keble,  Newman,  myself,  and  those 
who  thought  with  us,  to  a  conference  at  Hadleigh 
Rectory,  to  meet  in  the  latter  part  of  July.  We  met 
there  on  July  25  for  the  transaction  of  business.  Those 
present  were,  Hugh  James  Rose,  Richard  Hurrell  Froude, 
Arthur  P.  Perceval,  and  myself.  Keble  had  been  expected 
to  be  present,  but  he  did  not  appear." 

His  reply  to  Rose's  invitation — dated  'Fairford,  i6th 
July  1833,' — follows: 

"  My  dear  Friend, — Mr.  Palmer  has  communicated  to  me 
your  land  and  tempting  invitation,  which  I  heartily  wish 
it  was  in  my  power  to  accept.  Believe  me,  few  schemes 
would  be  more  pleasant  to  me,  if  I  was  in  a  condition  to 
indulge  in  schemes  at  all.  But  my  Father's  great  age 

1  Apologia,— -pip.  104-5. 


1833]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     175 

and  failing  health,  and  the  circumstance  that  he  has  no 
one  to  be  with  him  in  my  absence  but  my  sister,  who 
is  never  well,  make  me  quite  a  home-bird, — unless  when 
I  can  get  my  brother  or  some  of  his  family  to  take  my 
place  :  and  then  I  am  bound  to  be  working  at  Hooker, 
who  hangs  on  hand  sadly  on  account  of  these  my 
engagements.  Nevertheless  I  would  put  by  every  thing 
and  come  to  you,  if  I  could  persuade  myself  that  I  could 
be  of  much  use  in  discussions  such  as  you  and  our 
friends  are  meditating :  but  I  know  my  own  deficiency 
in  ecclesiastical  learning  so  well  as  to  be  quite  prepared 
to  hear  or  read  with  great  profit  what  might  pass  on 
such  an  occasion,  but  very  unequal  to  suggest  or  argue 
points  at  the  time.  And  this  is  really  the  plain  truth, 
and  makes  me  tolerably  sure  that  altho'  I  should  deeply 
regret  missing  such  a  visit  as  you  offer  me,  your  counsels 
will  have  no  great  loss." 

Keble  therefore  was  not  one  of  those  who  attended 
the  Hadleigh  Conference.  Neither  was  Newman  present. 
It  was  in  fact  but  a  fortnight  since  he  had  returned 
from  the  Continent.  But  it  is  evident  from  what  he 
has  stated  in  print  on  the  subject,2  that  he  was  bent 
on  independent  action.  "  We,  however,"  (writes  Palmer), 
"  met  to  do  what  we  might  towards  the  defence  of  the 
Church."  In  anticipation  of  their  visit  on  the  morrow, 
Mr.  Rose  remarks  (in  a  letter  to  Joshua  Watson), — "  Le 
Bas  is  with  me  for  a  day  or  two.  The  Oxford  friends 
have  begged  to  bring  down  Mr.  Copeland,  as  a  good 
man  and  true.  Would  that  you  were  here  to  moderate 
and  guide  us!  "3 

It  is  remembered,  (and  is  not  likely  to  be  soon  for- 
gotten), that  the  friends  met  in  the  chamber  over 
the  entrance  of  the  old  tower  built  by  Archdeacon 
Pykenham  in  1495, — having  one  large  window  over  the 
doorway, — and  two  windows  at  right  angles  looking  the 

2  Apologia, — pp.  107-112.  3  July  23rd,  1833. 


176  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

other  direction.  I  may  add  that  the  late  Archbishop  of 
Dublin  (R.  C.  Trench)  at  the  period  referred  to  was  Rose's 
Curate.4 

"  I  remember  very  well  the  room  at  Hadleigh  Rectory 
where  our  Conference  was  held  in  1 833," — (writes  William 
Palmer,  in  reply  to  a  request  of  mine  many  years  after 
that  he  would  favour  me  with  his  reminiscences  of  what 
took  place  on  the  occasion  referred  to) : — 

"  It  was  in  the  back  of  the  house,  looking  towards  the 
garden.  I  think  it  was  Rose's  study.  Here  we  met 
after  breakfast  for  some  hours  each  day  for  three  days, 
sitting  round  the  room.  Each  in  succession  spoke  on 
the  dangers  of  the  Church  and  the  remedies  suggested ; 
after  which,  we  all  expressed  opinions.  The  publication 
of  Tracts  and  other  works  was  much  dwelt  on,  but  we 
could  not  settle  any  details.  All,  I  believe,  felt  the 
seriousness  of  this, — the  first  attempt  to  combine  for 
the  preservation  of  great  essential  principles.  I  know 
I  was  myself  impressed  with  the  importance  of  what 
we  were  about,  but  on  the  whole  the  result  was  dis- 
appointing :  it  did  not  lead  to  the  practical  agreement  we 
needed.  We  had  to  adjourn  the  whole  matter  to  Oxford." 

At  Oxford  therefore,  on  their  return,  the  friends  (with 
Newman  and  Keble)  took  counsel  together  ; — Froude 
(a  man  of  splendid  abilities  and  real  genius,  but  sadly 
wanting  in  judgment  and  of  fatal  indiscretion, 5)  rendering 
the  good  cause  the  greatest  disservice  in  his  power  by 
speaking  of  the  Hadleigh  Conference  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend  as  "  the  conspiracy ":  which  letter  was  soon  after- 
wards published.  Undeniable  however  it  is  that  the 
Hadleigh  Conference  had  given  definite  form  and  sub- 
stance to  the  idea  of  united  action, — which  had  only 
been  adumbrated  by  Rose's  visit  to  Oxford  in  the  summer 

4  The  foregoing  details  are  sup-  lars   to   refresh   his   memory,   just 

plied  by  the  Very  Eev.  E.  Spooner,  before  his  death." 
Rector  of  Hadleigh, — who  adds  that  5  See    Churton's    'Memoir,' — ii. 

Treiich  "  wrote  to  ask  for  particu-  139-41. 


1833]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     177 

of  the  preceding  year.6  They  spoke  of  themselves, 
among  themselves,  as  "  the  Society!' 7  Not  that  the 
Oxford  friends  were  altogether  able  to  agree  as  to  the 
method  to  be  pursued.  Palmer  was  for  strictly  corporate- 
efforts  :  Newman,  for  individual  and  separate  action. 
"  No  great  work "  (he  says)  "  was  done  by  a  system  ; 
whereas  systems  rise  out  of  individual  exertions.  Luther 
was  an  individual." 8 

It  was  the  Long  Vacation  of  1833,  and  the  friends  met 
at  Oriel, — to  which  College  they  almost  all  belonged. 
Before  the  3rd  of  September,  Newman  had  put  forth  the 
first  three  of  the  Series  which  soon  became  famous  as 
the  "  Tracts  for  the  Times.  "9  These  were  followed  before 
the  close  of  the  year  by  seventeen  others, — of  which  seven 
were  by  Newman, — two  by  John  and  one  by  Thomas 
Keble, — two  by  Benjamin  Harrison, — and  one  apiece 
by  J.  W.  Bowden,  E.  H.  Froude,  Alfred  Menzies,  E.  B. 
Pusey.  One  (No.  15)  was  a  joint  composition  and  has 
a  peculiar  history.1  Something  more  will  have  to  be 
said  concerning  these  '  Tracts '  by  and  by  [pp.  194—226.] 

While  however  the  efforts  of  Churchmen  at  the  period 
we  have  reached  are  being  reviewed,  it  requires  to  be 
stated,  that  at  Palmer's  instance,  an  Association  was  re- 
solved  upon  to  maintain  pure  and  inviolate  the  Doctrines, 
Services  and  Discipline  of  the  Church  of  England ;  and 
an  'Appeal  to  Churchmen  '  (also  from  his  pen)  to  unite 
with  that  object,  met  with  an  instantaneous  and  hearty 
response  from  all  quarters.  An  Address  to  the  Primate 
was  drawn  up;  which,  by  the  beginning  of  1834,  had 

6  See  above, — p.  162.  9  Mozley's  Letters,— pp.  33,  34. 

7  See  J.  B.  Mozley's  Letters, —  x  See  Newman's  Apologia,— pp. 
PP-  33>  34>  36>  37-  II5~6.     The  reader  is  also  referred 

8  Apologia, — p.m.     See  below,  to  the  Appendix  (D). 
p.  198. 

VOL.  I.  N 


178  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

been  signed  by  8000  Clergy, — the  greatest  combination 
hitherto  known  in  the  Church  of  England.  A  strong 
desire  was  now  expressed  by  lay  churchmen  to  take 
part  in  the  movement.  This  was  formulated  by  Joshua 
Watson :  2  and  the  result  was,  that — 

"  From  every  part  of  England,  every  town  and  city,  there 
arose  an  united,  strong,  emphatic  declaration  of  loyalty 
to  the  Church  of  England.  The  national  feeling,  long 
pent  up,  depressed,  despondent,  had  at  length  obtained 
freedom  to  pour  forth  ;  and  the  effect  was  amazing. 
The  Church  suddenly  came  to  life.  ...  To  its  astonish- 
ment, it  found  itself  the  object  of  warm  popular  affection 
and  universal  devotion.  Its  enemies  were  silenced."3 

This  preliminary  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  Oxford 
movement  has  been  somewhat  overlooked  by  those  who 
have  undertaken  to  describe  its  origin  and  progress. 
Quite  plain  is  it  that  the  heart  of  the  Church  of  England 
was  still  sound.  Churchmanship  (it  deserves  to  be  re- 
peated) was  evoked — not  created — by  these  appeals.  The 
fact  is  unmistakable,  and  is  very  much  to  be  noted.  All 
that  was  henceforth  needed  was  sound  guidance  on 
genuine  Anglican  lines,  and  a  strong  continuous  impulse 
from  head-quarters.  Beyond  all  things,  (as  I  venture  to 
think,)  the  stimulus  of  a  '  final  School  of  Theology ' 
which  was  withheld  from  Oxford  until  1869,  should  then 
have  been  applied.  But  to  return. 

Little  can  the  friends  who  met  in  conference  at  Had- 
leigh  have  imagined  on  what  a  painful  tenure  their  en- 
tertainer was  holding  his  life  :— 

"  I  have  been  up  three  nights,"  (he  wrote  to  Joshua 
Watson  on  the  I9th  June).  "  I  should  not  mention  this, 
but  on  many  occasions  I  am  SQ  jaded  by  want  of  rest  that 
I  really  believe  I  write  in  a  sad  careless  and  dejected 

2  Churton's  '  Memoir, ' — ii.  33-4. 

3  Palmer  in  the  C.  It.,  (May,  1883),  p.  653-4. 


1833]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      179 

way.     It  is  really  only  the  locly  which  guides  the  pen  in 
such  cases,  and  to  this  I  hope  you  will  impute  it."  4 

As  little  can  the  friends  have  known  that  the  deplor- 
able state  of  his  health  had  already  constrained  him  to 
surrender  in  intention  the  pleasant  Rectory-house  in 
which  they  were  among  the  last  to  enjoy  his  hospitality. 
His  friend  Lyall  had  been  down  to  visit  him,  had  wit- 
nessed his  sufferings,  and  had  persuaded  him  to  consent 
to  some  plan  of  exchange.  In  July,  Rose  writes, — 

"  It  is  difficult  to  say  how  much  I  regret  the  loss  of 
Hadleigh.  No  place  which  I  have  ever  seen  as  a  clerical 
residence  had  the  same  character  or  the  same  attraction 
from  the  memory  of  predecessors,  as  this :  and  there  is 
no  country  place  where  one  could  be  more  useful  both  to 
the  parish  and  the  neighbourhood.  But  I  have  not  had 
one  day's  health,  and  hardly  one  night's  rest,  since  I 
came  in  the  beginning  of  January.  I  am  tongue-tied 
and  hand-tied,  doing  nothing  in  my  parish,  and  so  ex- 
hausted by  sitting  up  at  night  that  I  can  hardly  read  or 
write  in  the  day.  There  was  therefore  no  possibility  of 
refusing  such  kindness,  or  passing  such  an  opportunity 
which  seemed  providential.  If  it  should  please  GOD  that 
I  can  be  of  service  by  being  in  health,  I  shall  rejoice 
indeed.  And  if  otherwise,  I  shall  at  least  know  that  I 
have  tried  what  I  could  try.  .  .  .  My  wife,"  (he  adds  in  a 
post-script)  "  who  loves  this  place  exceedingly,  behaves 
like  a  heroine  about  it."  5 

It  is  due  to  the  excellent  woman  thus  referred  to,  that 
I  should  transcribe  the  words  with  which  Palmer  dis- 
misses his  recollections  of  the  Hadleigh  Conference:— 

"  Mrs.  Rose,  whom  I  knew,  seemed  to  be  admirably 
suited  to  be  a  help  meet  for  him.  Her  excellent  sense, 
firmness  of  character,  and  unfailing  affection,  were  his 
great  support  during  the  sad  years  of  suffering  which  he 

*  From  Hadleigh,  1833. 

5  H.  J.  E.  to  Joshua  Watson,  from  Hadleigh,  5  July,  1833. 

N  3 


i8o  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

had  to  endure.  What  a  flood  of  memories  and  thoughts 
too  deep  for  expression  must  have  been  in  that  woman's 
mind  ! " 

The  essential  feature  of  the  plan  which  Archdeacon 
Lyall  had  designed  for  the  relief  of  Mr.  Rose's  health 
involved  exchange  for  a  considerable  London  cure.  This 
part  of  the  scheme  (which  was  the  feature  which  chiefly 
recommended  it  to  Rose's  acceptance,  and  which  his 
physician  greatly  applauded,)  was  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment. Thus  driven  away  from  Hadleigh, — without  plans 
for  the  future,  but  with  a  profound  conviction  (the  words 
are  his  own)  that  "  all  was  for  the  best,"  and  "  more  than 
contented  to  go  where  he  might  be  at  all  useful," — Rose 
resigned  his  valuable  preferment  in  Suffolk,  accepting  in 
exchange  the  small  cures  of  Fairstead  in  Essex,  and  S. 
Thomas's,  Southwark.  The  latter  he  retained  till  his 
death.  The  reluctance  with  which  he  submitted  to  these 
repeated  enforced  migrations, — so  fatal  to  that  repose  of 
mind  which  beyond  all  things  he  craved  for  himself  as 
the  condition  of  toiling  successfully  in  his  Master's  ser- 
vice,— is  more  easily  imagined  than  described.  Of  a 
truth,  the  phenomena  of  this  mortal  life  of  ours,  always 
a  mystery,  are  sometimes  felt  to  be  beyond  measure  per- 
plexing. Some  satisfaction  in  the  meantime  it  may  well 
have  been  to  him,  at  this  juncture,  to  be  addressed  as 
follows  by  an  attached  and  deservedly  honoured  neigh- 
bour,—  (rector  of  Whatfield,  the  adjoining  parish  to 
Hadleigh,)— the  Rev.  F.  Calvert  Wheatfield 6  :— 

"  You  have  the  satisfaction  in  leaving  Hadleigh  of 
knowing  that  you  have  deputed  an  old  friend  to  repre- 
sent you  :  that  in  providing  that  parish  with  an  incum- 
bent, you  have  thrown  your  mantle  upon  a  worthy 
successor,  who  is  of '  the  School  of  the  Prophets ;'  and 

6  The  letter  is  dated  Oct.  16,  1833. 


1833]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      181 

that  you  have  earned  there  and  in  the  neighbourhood 
as  much  esteem  and  more  regrets  than  any  reasonable 
man  would  wish  for." 

Rose  however  was  not  kept  long  in  doubt  as  to  the 
further  service  for  which  his  Master  designed  him.  The 
University  of  Durham,  a  new  foundation,  was  at  that 
moment  struggling  into  existence.  Liberally  endowed 
out  of  the  ample  resources  of  the  see,  its  object  was  to 
secure  for  the  Northern  counties  educational  advantages 
corresponding  to  those  for  which  the  youth  of  England 
had  hitherto  been  constrained  to  resort  either  to  Oxford 
or  to  Cambridge.  It  was  further  wished  that  Durham 
University  might  become  a  school  for  the  special  educa- 
tion of  the  Clergy.  The  scheme  had  been  elaborated  by 
the  provident  wisdom  and  munificence  of  William  Van 
Mildert,  the  illustrious  prelate  who,  happily  for  the  new 
University,  was  at  that  time  [1826-1836]  set  over  the 
See  of  Durham.  But  all  was  as  yet  in  an  inchoate 
state.  Two  years  later  Van  Mildert  was  still  aiming  at 
the  annexation  of  prebendal  stalls  to  Academical  Offices, 
and  hoping  to  obtain  a  royal  Charter  for  his  University, 
— which  however  was  not  obtained  until  the  year  after 
his  death,  viz.  in  1837.  His  watchful  eye  and  appre- 
ciative judgment  had  in  the  meantime  marked  out 
Hugh  James  Rose  as  the  one  man  in  England  who  was 
fittest  by  his  sound  theological  learning  and  orthodoxy, 
—the  breadth  of  his  views  and  the  ardour  of  his  dis- 
position,— to  set  an  impress  on  Durham  as  a  School  of 
Divinity,  if  he  might  but  be  persuaded  to  become  the 
first  to  occupy  the  professorial  Chair.  Accordingly,  the 
Bishop  had  already  caused  overtures  to  be  made  to 
him  through  their  common  friend — Joshua  Watson.  To 
the  latter,  on  the  I9th  June,  Rose  had  replied  as 
follows : — 


182  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

"  With  respect  to  Durham,  I  feel  the  full  kindness  of 
your  letter,  and  I  have  every  inclination  to  the  post 
which  a  hope  of  usefulness  could  give,  and  which  the 
connexion  with  such  an  Institution,  such  a  Cathedral, 
such  a  Bishop,  and  with  books,  could  cause  to  me 
who  like  all  such  things.  But  still,  I  know  too  what 
embarrassment  to  myself  and  others  I  might  cause  and 
how  much  and  constantly  my  infirmities  must,  in  that 
case,  be  considered  and  brought  forward.  This  would 
be  wrong,  degrading  and  bad.  I  now  know  what  I  have 
to  endure.  And  one  sacrifice  will  be  all,  and  will  save 
farther  necessity  of  worrying  people  with  tales  of  illness 
and  representations  of  infirmity."  7 

There  was,  in  the  meantime,  but  one  opinion  on  the 
part  of  those  whose  voice  in  such  a  matter  was  entitled 
to  most  deference,  as  to  what,  for  the  Church's  sake,  was 
most  desirable.  The  Archbishop  made  no  secret  of  his 
distress  that  there  should  be  any  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
his  accepting  the  Divinity  Professorship  at  Durham : — 

"  It  would  in  my  opinion "  (he  writes)  "  be  of  the 
greatest  advantage  to  the  infant  institution  to  have  the 
credit  of  your  name  in  that  office ;  not  to  mention  the 
still  more  important  advantage  which  the  students 
would  deiive  from  such  an  instructor."8 

Thus  in  short  it  came  to  pass  that,  at  the  end  of 
several  weeks,  Mr.  Rose,  anxious  though  he  was  to  be 
spared  the  responsibility,  yielded  to  the  earnest  solicita- 
tions of  the  excellent  Northern  Prelate.  He  was  in  fact 
left  \vitliout  alternative.  This  appears  from  what  he 
wrote  to  Joshua  Watson  on  the  a;th  of  September.  The 
Bishop  of  London,  having  objected  to  the  scheme,  had 
addressed  some  inquiries  on  the  subject  to  the  Bishop  of 
Durham  :— 

"  He  has  received  in  return  really  an  affecting  letter, 

7  H.  J.  E.  to  Joshua  Watson,—  8  The  Abp.  to  H.  J.  H.—'Lam- 

Jated  Hadleigh,  19  June,  1833.  beth,  Sept.  17,  1833.' 


1833]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     183 

describing  his  own  anxiety  in  such  terms  as  could  not 
be  resisted,  and  setting  a  value  on  my  going  there  far 
beyond  what  justice  warranted."  "At  last  therefore," 
proceeds  Rose,  "  all  my  plans  for  the  long  space  of  three 
months  seem  settled.  Hadleigh  I  left  finally  on 
Wednesday, — with  what  a  sorrowful  heart,  I  cannot  tell 
you ;  though  (true  to  the  end)  it  dismissed  me  with  a 
violent  fit  of  asthma.  Syren-like  it  looked  pleasanter 
than  ever  while  it  stabbed  me.  It  is  a  sad  blow  and  break 
up  altogether,  on  which  I  have  no  heart  to  dwell."  9 

No  one  with  a  human  heart  can  read  such  words, — 
wrung  out  of  such  an  one  as  Hugh  James  Rose, — without 
experiencing  a  pang  of  the  liveliest  sympathy.  We  have 
already  heard  his  estimate  of  his  delightful  home.  To 
its  exquisite  beauty,  grandeur  even,  all  who  have  visited 
the  locality  bear  testimony.  Behold  him  driven  forth 
from  it,  after  three  years  of  painful  occupancy,  by  an 
invisible  Hand!  ...  A  further  extract  from  the  same 
letter  will  not  be  unacceptable  :— 

"  Having  by  law  four  or  five  months  my  own,  I  have 
placed  them  at  the  Bp.  of  D.'s  disposal ;  and  contrary 
to  my  expectation,  he  has  accepted  this  wretched  pro- 
posal, and  I  am  going.  I  am  sorry  to  go,  because  I  fear 
that  I  am  unfit ;  but  seeing  the  sacrifices  the  Bishop 
makes,  and  his  present  wretched  state  from  Mrs.  Van 
Mildert's  fresh  attack,  I  would  not  fail  for  any  consider- 
ation. The  house  at  S.  Thomas's  must  be  painted  and 
this  will  be  done  while  we  are  gone.  Whether  I  shall 
return  after  the  first  term,  and  go  for  six  weeks  in  April, 
or  stay  on  at  once  till  March,  I  must  leave  to  circum- 
stances. At  all  events,  I  shall  (£).V.)  be  in  London  part  of 
the  Spring.  And  this  is  a  great  comfort  to  me.  For  I 
cannot  say  how  much  in  these  critical  times  I  want  to 
talk  to  you,  nor  how  anxiously  I  look  forward  to  seeing 
you  again. 

"I  'read  in'  at  S.  Thomas's  on  Sunday;  and  shall, 

9  H.  J.  K.  to  Joshua  Watson,— dated  Fairstead,  27  Sept.,  1833. 


184  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

I  believe,  be  at  Addington  from  the  next  Tuesday  or 
Wednesday  till  Friday, — returning  here  on  Saturday, 
and  starting  for  Durham  very  soon,  for  I  must  have 
a  week's  quiet  talk  with  Thorpe.  I  fear  sadly  that 
there  is  no  plan.  He  says  that  they  await  my  arrival  in 
order  to  settle  most  important  matters  as  to  the  Theo- 
logical Degrees.  Of  all  this  I  know  nothing,— nay,  do. 
not  even  know  what  he  means,  and  only  know  that  in 
a  former  letter,  he  said  that  everything  was  left  un- 
decided for  me.  Now,  however  fine  it  is  to  legislate,  it 
is  also  very  nervous.  O  that  I  could  take  you  down 
with  me !  Might  not  Durham  be  made  a  grand  Theo- 
logical School,  where,  even  after  the  Universities,  they 
who  could  afford  it  might  go  for  a  year  or  two  ?  Think 
of  this,  and  tell  me  any  thing  which  strikes  you."1 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  addressed  a  few 
days  later  to  Newman  will  be  read  with  interest : — 

"  You  have  perhaps  heard  from  others  that  I  am  in 
future  to  divide  my  time  between  a  cure  of  about  250 
people  in  Essex,  and  a  very  small  one  in  London,  where 
however  I  think  some  sphere  of  usefulness  among  the 
medical  men  seems  to  offer  itself.  However  this  may 
be,  very  small  cures  are  the  only  fit  ones  for  me  just 
now.  Whether  it  may  ever  please  GOD  to  restore  me  to 
a  capacity  for  more  active  exertion  again  remains  to  be 
seen,  with  patience. 

"  Till  my  house  at  S.  Thomas's  is  ready  for  me,  I  am 
going  down  to  Durham,  at  the  Bishop's  earnest  request, 
to  do  what  I  can  towards  laying  a  good  foundation 
there.  The  prospect  has  its  bright  and  its  dark  side 
also.  There  are  many  difficulties ;  but  I  have  views 
which,  if  they  could  be  realized,  would  make  Durham 
a  stronghold  for  the  Church.  How  ardently  do  I  wish 
that  my  health  had  been  such  as  to  have  enabled  me  to 
take  the  appointment  permanently !  These  things  how- 
ever are  ordered  for  the  best." 2 

1  H.  J.  R.  to  Joshua  Watson,—  2  H.  J.  E.  to  J.  H.  N.— [Fair- 

Fairstead,  27  Sept.  1833.  stead]  Oct.  I,  1833. 


l83s]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     185 

Under  such  circumstances  then,  and  with  such  aspira- 
tions, Hugh  James  Rose  repaired  to  Durham  in  order  to 
keep  the  Michaelmas  Term  of  1833.  He  reached  the 
scene  of  his  destined  labours  in  the  latter  part  of 
October.  Some  may  care  to  be  told  that  the  house  he 
OQCupied  was  that  adjoining  to  the  gateway  of  the  Close 
(in  Durham  called  "  College  ")  on  the  North  side ;  and 
that  his  study  was  the  room  on  the  right  of  the 
entrance-hall.  The  Lectures  for  the  Students  in  Divinity 
were  given  in  private,  catechetically,  day  by  day, — on 
the  Exegesis  of  the  New  Testament.  On  Sunday  even- 
ings, Mr.  Rose  gave  a  general  Lecture  addressed  to  the 
whole  University.  His  drawing-room,  where  he  received 
his  pupils  after  lectures  on  Sunday  evenings,  was  the 
right  hand  of  the  two  rooms  facing  a  visitor  'who  entered 
the  hall.3 

The  Dean  and  Chapter  having  decided  that  each 
Professor  in  the  University  should  deliver  besides  a. 
public  Lecture  in  the  course  of  every  Term,  Rose  took 
for  the  subject  of  his  own  inaugural  Address,  '  An 
Apology  for  the  Study  of  Divinity' ;  delivering  it  in  Bp. 
Cosin's  Library.  This  was  afterwards  published.  Far 
more  brilliant  and  effective  however  was  his  terminal 
Divinity  Lecture  for  the  ensuing  Lent  Term,  which  he 
delivered  to  the  same  auditory,  and  from  the  same  place, 
April  15,  1834.  This  second  Lecture  is  entitled  '  The 
Study  of  Church  History  recommended.'  It  is  indeed  an 
admirable  composition,  and  should  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  every  candidate  for  the  Ministry.  Newman 
writes  concerning  it, — 

"  I  have  just  been  reading  the  second  Durham  Lecture 
on  the  study  of  Church  History.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  compositions  I  ever  met  with,  and  en- 

3  From  my  friend,  Professor  A.  S.  Farrar,  Canon  of  Durham. 


1 86  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1834 

thusiasm  we  know  is  catching.  I  trust  it  will  carry 
away,  as  well  as  inform  and  convince,  a  great  many 
readers.  It  is  scarcely  becoming  to  say  all  this ;  but 
I  have  been  talking  of  it  to  every  friend  I  come  near, 
and  cannot  refrain  unburdening  myself  to  you  in  the 
number."  4 

To  the  "exquisite  peroration"  of  this  heart-stirring 
production,  the  Rev.  John  Miller  used  freely  to  invite 
attention.  After  quoting  it  in  full,  he  points  out  that 
'•not  even  this  deep  tone  of  heart-felt  earnestness  and 
loftiness  of  view  could  save  the  writer  from  the  sensitive 
attacks  of  party- spirit.  The  lecturer  had  pronounced  an 
unfavourable  opinion  of  Milner,  as  a  Church  historian. 
This  was  presently  denounced  as  a  designed  attack  in 
gross  upon  an  entire  body  of  men  and  principles,  and 
as  a  manifesto  on  the  part  of  the  new  University 
of  Durham  to  such  effect.  It  is  needless  to  revive 
forgotten  names,  and  to  rekindle  the  ashes  of  a  spent 
volcano  ;  but  the  extreme  sensitiveness  thus  indicated 
was  a  curious  (and  to  Mr.  Rose,  at  the  moment,  a  rather 
painful)  indication  of  human  infirmity."  I  venture  to 
add  that  it  is  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  neither 
Jortin  nor  Mosheim  found  living  patrons ;  for  the 
lecturer  denounced  them  both,  but  especially  the  former 
and  the  school  of  which  he  was  a  chief  exponent,  in 
terms  of  unmeasured  condemnation5: — 

"  I  could  hardly  describe  a  good  Church  historian 
better  than  by  saying  that  he  ought  to  be  exactly  what 
Jortin  was  not"  With  characteristic  warmth  Rose  pour- 
trays  and  condemns  "  that  most  unwholesome  tone  of 
mind  which  is  disposed  to  consider  anything  which  is 
not  commonplace  as  extravagant ;  everything  bold,  as 
rash  ;  everything  generous,  as  foolish;  everything  like 
inflexible  adherence  to  principle,  as  bigotry  and  violence. 

*  J.  H.  N.  to  H.  J.  R.,— Oriel,  June  2nd,  1834.  5  PP-  4°  to  60. 


1834]  THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      187 

To  fight  for  principles,  in  the  eyes  of  such  persons," — 
(he  is  speaking  of  typical  Divines  of  the  last  century,) — 
"  can  arise  only  from  madness  or  wickedness  ;  and  they 
use  the  weapon  of  ridicule  or  censure  accordingly." 
He  adds, — "  If  we  wish  for  any  proofs  of  this,  and  of 
the  harm  done  by  it,  let  us  look  to  the  notions  enter- 
tained as  to  Church  Government  in  the  present  day, 
which  are  to  be  ascribed  wholly  to  these  writers."  6 

Had  these  two  terminal  Lectures  been  all  the  visible 
fruit  of  this  venture  of  faith  and  enterprise  of  love,  (for 
only  in  some  such  light  can  Mr.  Rose's  brief  occupancy 
of  the  Divinity  Chair  at  Durham  be  regarded,)  it  might 
not  be  said  that  he  had  attached  himself  to  the  new 
University  in  vain.  But  he  achieved  a  vast  deal  more. 
Towards  the  close  of  February  1834,  he  writes  (from 
"  College,  Durham,")— 

"  I  have  been  here  nearly  six  months,  and  have  now 
so  arranged  matters  as  to  courses  of  lectures,  etc.,  that 
twenty-four  out  of  the  twenty-six  Prelates  have  agreed 
to  accept  the  full  education  here,  (i.  e.  three  years  before 
B.A.,  and  two  at  Divinity,)  or  a  B.A.  degree  from  the 
older  Universities  with  our  Divinity  lectures." 

Such  would  have  been  his  prospects  of  more  than 
ordinary  efficiency  in  this  new  and  honourable  post, 
had  health  allowed  of  his  retaining  it.  But  though  he 
found,  contrary  to  expectation,  that  the  air  of  Durham 
agreed  with  him  at  least  as  well  as  any  he  had  lately 
tried,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  undertake  the  quan- 
tity of  required  labour,  with  any  hope  of  continued 
power  to  discharge  his  duties  to  his  own  satisfaction.7 

"They  overwork  me  here,"  (he  wrote  to  Joshua 
Watson  in  the  same  month  of  February  1834),  "for 
while  my  brother  Professor  has  two  Lectures  a  week, 

6  P.  52.  7  From  the  Kev.  J.  Miller's  brief  '  Memoir.' 


'i88  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1834 

I  have  seven  days'  lectures,  and  the  Sunday  evening 
lecture  is  a  very  distressing  and  weary  one."  The 
consequence  was,  that  in  February,  Rose  was  looking 
forward  to  a  southward  journey  with  much  eagerness. 
Every  discouragement  notwithstanding,  out  of  his  very 
modest  salary,  (it  was  but  £500  a  year,  and  no  house 
had  been  attached  to  his  Divinity  Chair,) — "  I  have 
induced  the  Bishop "  (he  writes)  "  to  fix  an  Assistant 
on  me  ;  and  have  urged  Thorpe  to  make  it  open  to  the 
Bishop  and  Chapter  to  call  on  me  to  find  Assistants, 
if  things  prosper."  .  .  .  The  prospect  of  being  of  use  in 
educating  a  considerable  body  of  the  younger  clergy, 
was  what  determined  him  to  persevere,  if  it  were 
possible,  at  Durham.  A  certain  measure  of  improved 
health  he  looked  upon  as  "  creating  an  obligation  in 
conscience."  But  the  measure  of  health  of  which  he 
spoke  thus  hopefully  would,  by  any  one  else,  have  been 
called  grievous  bodily  infirmity.  On  his  way  to  London, 
he  paid  a  short  visit  to  a  friend,  and  was  forced  to  pass 
the  whole  night  sitting  upright  in  a  chair, — wholly 
unable  to  endure  a  recumbent  posture  in  bed. 

To  the  same  friend  (writing  from  London  about  the 
end  of  March)  he  pleaded  as  an  excuse  for  not  having 
written  sooner,  an  attack  of  asthma  which  had  disabled 
him  ever  since,  and  which  nothing  but  a  fortnight's 
residence  in  the  smoke  of  London  had  availed  to  relieve. 
His  whole  life  may  be  truly  described  as  one  persistent 
endeavour,  "  in  much  patience,  in  weariness  and  painful- 
ness,"  to  approve  himself  a  faithful  servant  of  his  Divine 
Master.  He  wrote  to  Newman  (from  "  College,  Durham." 
March  loth,  1834), — "I  leave  this  beautiful  place  with 
great  regret ;  uncertain  as  it  is  whether  I  shall  ever 
return."  The  end  of  the  matter  was,  that  he  finally 
announced  his  determination  not  to  accept  the  pro- 


1834]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     189 

fessorship,  and  he  visited  Durham  no  more ;  his  brother, 
the  Rev.  Henry  John  Rose,  then  Fellow  of  St.  John's, 
Cambridge,  having  attended  there  for  him  in  the  summer 
term  of  1834.  And  thus  his  connexion  with  the  north 
ended. 

One  of  the  most  gratifying  incidents  in  his  life  was  his 
appointment,  (in  February,  1834,)  while  yet  at  Durham, 
to  be  Domestic  Chaplain  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Since  October  1829,  ne  nac^  stood  in. the  same  relation  to 
the  Bishop  of  London.  Hence,  Blomfield  writes,— 

"  You  will  render  more  service  to  the  Church,  as  things 
are,  in  the  character  of  his  Grace's  Chaplain,  than  you 
could  do  as  mine :  and  therefore  I  freely  relinquish  you, 
with  a  view  to  the  Church's  good,  and  yours — not 
mine."  8 

That  this  was  no  sudden  choice,  the  reader  is  already 
aware.  It  was  in  fact  the  result  of  friendly  relations 
which  had  subsisted  for  upwards  of  sixteen  years.  Dr. 
Howley's  first  letters  to  him  are  dated  1818,  while  Bishop 
of  London.  Rose  thus  found  himself  brought  into  close 
intimacy  with  one  of  the  wisest  prelates  who  ever  graced 
the  throne  of  Augustine.  Because  Dr.  Howley  was  no 
author, — was  neither  famous  as  a  preacher,  nor  impres- 
sive when  he  spoke  in  public, — he  has  left  a  name  with 
which  churchmen  of  the  present  generation  are  only 
slenderly,  if  at  all  acquainted.  But  those  who  knew  him 
best,  bear  eager  testimony  to  a  singularly  lofty  as  well 
as  lovely  and  attractive  character.  Lord  Aberdeen,  who 
had  seen  as  much  of  the  world  as  any  statesman,  declared 
"  that  after  forty  years  of  intimate  acquaintance,  he  had 
found  less  of  human  infirmity  in  the  Archbishop,  than  in 
any  man,  without  exception,  he  had  ever  known." 9 

8  C.  J.  B.  to  H.  J.  K.,  17  Feb.  9  Churton's  Memoir  of  J.  Watson, 

1834.  — ii.  262. 


1 90  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1834 

There  was  an  exquisite  tenderness  in  all  his  domestic 
relations.  A  man  of  genuine  yet  most  unobtrusive  piety, 
he  stayed  his  heart  upon  his  GOD,  and  enjoyed  the 
covenanted  reward  of  "perfect  peace."1  His  calm 
and  admirable  judgment, — clear  understanding, — fine 
tact, — never  forsook  him.  Singularly  conscientious  in 
the  exercise  of  his  patronage,  Abp.  Howley  was  besides 
a  great  discerner  and  rewarder  of  merit :  he  instinctively 
attracted  to  himself  good  and  learned  men :  was  a  muni- 
ficent encourager  of  sacred  learning  in  others,  as  well  as 
a  great  proficient  in  such  lore  himself. 2  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  from  1809  to  1813,  he  had  been  Kegius 
Professor  of  Divinity  at  Oxford.  His  special  claim  to 
the  Church's  gratitude  is  founded  on  the  fact  that  he 
presided  wisely  at  the  helm  during  a  season  of  extra- 
ordinary trial  to  the  Church,  and  under  the  Divine  bless- 
ing piloted  the  good  ship  safely  through  the  storm,  at  a 
time  "  when  neither  sun  nor  stars  in  many  days  appeared, 
and  no  small  tempest  lay  on  her."  Guarded  in  his 
utterances,  of  necessity  he  was,  (for  indeed,  his  exalted 
station  recommended  an  amount  of  caution  which  to  a 
common  observer  might  easily  have  been  mistaken  for 
timidity) ;  yet  was  he  by  no  means  deficient  in  moral 
courage.  On  a  certain  occasion  "  when  there  was  reason 
to  fear  a  calamitous  nomination  for  a  vacant  bishopric, 
the  Archbishop  told  Joshua  Watson  that  he  had  fully 
made  up  his  mind,  if  such  nomination  were  made,  to 
refuse  to  consecrate.  He  would  sooner  sacrifice  fortune, 
office,  and  even  life."  3  Even  his  acceptance  of  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  '  Library  of  the  Catholic  Fathers,' — of  which 
Newman,  Pusey  and  Keble  were  the  responsible  Editors, 
—  at  the  end  of  all  the  controversy  of  the  anxious  year 

Is.  xxvi.  3.  The  person  alluded  to  was  of  course 

2  See  above,— pp.  1381-9.  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold. 

3  Churton's  Memoir, — ii.   261-2. 


1834]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      191 

1836,  was  a  spirited  and  faithful  act.     Rose  then  wrote  to 
Pusey,— 

"  I  have  quietly  ascertained  from  the  Archbishop  that 
he  would  very  gladly  accept  the  dedication  of  your 
work,  with  the  plan  of  which  he  is  much  pleased.  I 
think  you  must  alter  the  last  word  of  the  dedication. 
'  Grace,'  per  se  is  a  very  awkward  word.  Perhaps  a  few 
words  might  be  altered  in  the  Prospectus.  What  relates 
to  deciding  on  controversies  without  discussion,  will  be 
misunderstood — without  a  few  words  to  guard  it. 

"  The  more  I  think  of  it,  the  better  I  am  pleased.  For 
the  ordinary  men  to  read  the  large  and  Christian  views 
of  the  Gospel  which  they  will  find  in  the  Fathers,  will 
be  of  great  consequence.  The  only  objection  I  have,  is, 
that  it  will  be  a  coup-de-grace  to  all  Greek  among  Divinity 
students.  It  is  very  hard  for  a  Chaplain  to  extort  any 
from  them  now.  A  few  used  to  think  of  reading  the 
Fathers  in  Greek.  But  if  they  can  get  them  in  English, 
adieu  to  Greek  in  this  labour-hating  age. 

"  Yours  ever  very  truly, 
"Addington,  Oct.  8,  [1836].  «  H.  J.  R." 

"  Excuse  this  scrawl :  but  as  I  have  had  27  letters 
to-day,  I  am  really  not  up  to  anything  better  or 
clearer." 

"  Mr.  Rose's  friends"  (writes  the  excellent  Rev.  John 
Miller)  "cannot  easily  forget  the  delight  with  which, 
in  moments  of  unrestrained  intercourse,  he  would  ex- 
patiate in  terms  of  heartfelt  gratitude  on  the  blessings 
to  which  a  good  and  gracious  Providence  had  introduced 
him, — by  thus  bringing  him  into  intimate  acquaintance 
with  all  that  was  most  dignified  in  station,  most  engaging 
in  private  life :  the  near  observance  of  a  deep  and  un- 
affected piety  with  which  none  could  be  conversant 
^without  being  the  better  for  it;  and  the  tender  and 
mnvarying  kindness  which  in  sickness  and  in  health 
ever  made  Lambeth  and  Addington  more  than  a  home 
to  him." 

Hugh  Rose  spoke  to  his  brother  Henry  with  enthusiasm 


192  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1834 

of  the  pleasure  and  profit  he  had  derived  from  occa- 
sionally reading  a  portion  of  S.  Paul's  Epistles  with  the 
Archbishop  during  some  of  their  short  journeys  together. 
The  following  letter  from  his  Grace,  written  about  this 
time,  exhibits  in  an  interesting  manner  the  oneness  of 
sentiment  which  prevailed  between  them.  It  refers  to 
Rose's  Visitation  Sermon  preached  at  Chelmsford  (July 
25,  1 834), — '  Christians  the  Light  of  the  World.'  From  page 
18  onwards,  the  subject  of  Excitement  in  Religion  is  dis- 
cussed4: on  which  Archbishop  Howley  remarks, — 

"  I  have  read  your  Visitation  Sermon  with  great 
pleasure :  you  have  taken  the  elevated  ground  of  true 
Christian  Philosophy, — of  that  Philosophy  which  exalts 
and  invigorates  the  principles  and  the  understanding, 
and  warms  and  delights  the  heart.  I  entirely  agree 
in  your  general  view  of  the  duty  of  individuals  and 
communities,  and  of  the  system  of  excitement  by  which 
we  endeavour  to  advance  good  works  ;  a  practice  which, 
with  little  consistency,  is  more  peculiarly  adopted  by 
men  who  are  ready  to  condemn  all  resort  to  secondary 
motives,  for  the  purpose  of  quickening  diligence  or 
awakening  attention  to  Truth. 

"  I  have  not  either  time  or  strength  for  entering  into 
discussion  on  any  of  these  matters  in  writing  ;  but  con- 
ceiving them  to  be  of  the  greatest  importance,  I  should 
like  to  talk  them  over  with  you  with  your  Sermon  in 
my  hand,  and  with  reference  to  other  points  immedi- 
ately connected  with  the  propositions  asserted  in  it 5." 

I  gladly  avail  myself  here  of  a  passage  in  the  brief 
Memoir  of  Mr.  Rose  which  the  Rev.  John  Miller  con- 
tributed to  the  pages  of  the  '  British  Magazine '  :— 

"The  succeeding  year,  1835,  seems  to  have  been,  on 
the  whole,  one  of  comparative  bodily  quiet,  though 

*  This  is  pointed  out  to  me  by  the  5  Abp.    Howley   to   H.  J.  R., — • 

accomplished  and  obliging  sub-libra-       '  Addington,  Sept.  6,  1834.' 
rian  of  the  Bodleian,  F.  Madan,  esq. 


1835]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     193 

bringing  little  or  no  reprieve  from  constant  exertion  in 
other  ways  ;  for  many  painful  public  questions  variously 
affecting  the  prospects  of  the  Church,  some  of  them 
connected  with  Government  measures,  and  others  with 
proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  allowed  no  mental  rest  to  Mr.  Rose  .... 
During  this  year,  nevertheless,  he  seems  to  have  obtained 
a  three  months'  respite  from  his  more  absolutely  wearing 
toils,  at  his  father  s  vicarage  in  Sussex ;  from  whence 
the  following  lively  picture  of  his  state  and  feelings 
cannot  fail  to  be  read  with  interest.  It  may  be  recol- 
lected that  the  summer  and  autumn  of  that  year  were, 
in  general,  remarkably  fine  : — 

" '  Well,-  after  all,  loving  the  country  as  I  do,  and 
daily  bemoaning  myself  because  I  cannot  live  in  it, 
I  doubt  whether,  even  if  I  did  live  in  it,  or  any  country 
divine  of  you  all,  loving  the  country  as  much  as  you 
may,  can  enjoy  it  half  as  much  as  I,  now  a  regular 
London  parson,  have  done  this  very  evening,  Saturday, 
July  4.  My  father's  vicarage  is  in  the  midst  of  our 
Sussex  hills,  and  the  perfect  quiet  of  the  out-of-the-way 
village,  the  extreme  gentleness  of  the  form  and  outline  of 
the  downs,  as  well  as  of  their  swell  and  fall,  were  always 
delightful ;  but  now,  coming  in  contrast  with  all  the 
remembrance  of  the  borough  of  Southwark  imprinted 
by  familiar  converse  of  the  last  six  months,  I  can  hardly 
express  the  pleasure  which  they  give  me.  But  how 
singular  it  is,  on  suddenly  coming  to  a  scene  of  this  kind, 
to  observe  the  storm  and  tempest  of  remembrances  of 
old  times  which  it  conjures  up  ;  and  how  the  events  and 
feelings  of  past  years  drive  one  another  on,  almost  with 
a  drawn  sword,  the  one  not  tolerating  the  other's  stay 
but  for  an  instant ! ' 

"  In  his  next  letter  Mr.  Rose  says  : — 

" '  I  am  delighted  at  your  confessing  your  delinquencies, 
at  the  very  moment  when  I  was  thinking  of  writing  to 
confess  mine.  With  me,  I  believe  it  is,  if  not  old  age, 
at  least  decline.  I  answer  to  the  whip  as  I  did  formerly, 
but  I  do  not  volunteer  exertions.' 

VOL.  I.  O 


194  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

"  It  is  too  plain  that  he  himself  perceived  his  health 
to  be  departing  from  him  now  continually  more  and 
more!  Still,  as  already  said,  this  year  (1835)  was  one 
of  comparative  external  quiet." 

I  have  proceeded  with  my  personal  narrative  up  to 
this  place,  unwilling  to  distract  the  reader's  attention  : 
but  we  may  no  longer  lose  sight  of  the  progress  of  that 
great  Ecclesiastical  movement  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
Kose  had  been  largely  instrumental  in  originating,  and 
which  had  reached  a  memorable  epoch  when  we  referred 
to  it  last.  With  this  view,  we  must  go  back  a  little, — 
go  back  to  Oxford  and  to  the  Long  Vacation  of  1833.° 

It  will  be  recollected  that  Mr.  Newman  and  his  friends 
were  at  that  time  eagerly  prosecuting  their  noble  design 
to  arouse  Churchmen  to  a  sense  of  their  danger,, — to 
remind  them  of  certain  neglected  or  forgotten  funda- 
mental truths, — to  convince  them  of  the  Church's  in- 
herent privileges  and  glorious  destiny.  Of  the  twenty 
"  Tracts  for  the  Times "  which  appeared  in  quick  suc- 
cession between  September  gth  and  the  end  of  the  year 
1833,  a  few  words  have  been  already  offered.  Before 
penning  the  first  of  these,  Mr.  Newman  (in  a  letter  dated 
August  1 6th)  had  written  to  Mr.  Rose  as  follows  :— 

"I  have  been  writing  some  sketches  of  history  from 
the  Fathers,  and  send  you  four  of  them.  Should  you 
think  they  will  suit  your  Magazine,  you  are  welcome 
to  them :  and  may  call  upon  me  for  as  many  more  as 
you  please. — As  to  the  subject  of  '  Canonical  Obedience' 
I  fear  it  lies  out  of  my  line.  It  is  either  a  point  of 
English  Ecclesiastical  History  (I  suppose),  or  of  Casuistry. 
Froude  sends  a  number  of  his  '  Becket!  And  I  have 
transcribed  the  '  Lyra  Apostolica '  for  October." 

Thus  began  that  interesting  series  of  papers  (they 
were  at  first  called  "Letters")  which  appeared  in  suc- 

6  See  back,  p.  174  to  p.  177. 


l833]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     195 

cessive  numbers  of  the  'British  Magazine]  and  which 
were  eventually  (viz.  in  1840)  collected  into  a  little 
volume  by  their  accomplished  Author,  and  published 
under  the  title  of  "  The  Church  of  the  Fathers."  The 
first  of  this  series  appeared  in  October  i833.7  Bose 
thought  very  highly  of  them.  In  April  1835,  he  writes 
from  Lambeth : — 

"First,  I  rejoice  more  than  I  can  easily  say,  at  the 
renewal  of  the  '  Church  of  the  Fathers!  Secondly,  I  shall 
be  in  great  despair  if  the  '  Lyra '  is  silent,  as  I  think  it 
the  best  part  of  the  Magazine.  Thirdly,  I  wish  you 
would  send  me  in  very  short  space,  what  is  to  be  said 
against  your  detestable  (proposed)  change  of  Statute." 8 

Again,  in  September  of  the  same  year : — 

('  It  is  a  shame  to  ask  you  for  more  papers  on  the 
Fathers,  but  I  am  so  satisfied  of  the  great  good  they  have 
done  that  I  shall  truly  rejoice  if  you  can  resume  them."9 

And  in  the  ensuing  December : — 

"  I  am  persuaded  from  all  I  hear  that  your  '  Church  of 
the  Fathers '  has  done  more  good  than  almost  any  thing 
which  has  come  forth  of  late — and  heartily  do  I  wish  it 
could  go  on.  Your  '  Home  Thoughts '  will  be  put  in  type 
directly."  1 

These  later  notices  however  belong  to  a  subsequent 
period.  Only  four  of  the  '  Tracts '  had  appeared 2  when 
Rose,  on  the  very  eve  of  his  departure  for  Durham,  sent 
the  Author  of  the  first  three  the  following  encouraging 
letter,— dated  '  Fairstead,  Oct.  i4th'  [1833]:— 

JBrit.  Mag., — vol.  iv.  p.  421.  mission,  respectfully  addressed  to 

H.  J.  K.  to  J.  H.  N.,— April  the  Clergy :— (No.  2)  The  Catholic 

1835.  Church : — (No.  3)  Thoughts  respect- 

Walderahare, — Sept.  28,  1835.  fully  addressed  to  the  Clergy  on 

S.  Thomas's, — Dec.  10,  1835.  Alterations  in  the  Liturgy  : — (No. 

Their  subjects  were, — (No.   i)  4)   Adherence    to    the  Apostolical 

Thoughts  on  the  Ministerial  Com-  Succession  the  safest  course. 

O  2 


1 96  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

"  My  dear  Newman, — I  wish  I  had  time  or  strength 
to  answer  all  your  most  interesting  Letters. — (i)  I  say 
that,  as  far  as  my  opinion  goes,  your  Tracts  are  excel- 
lent, and  not  too  strong.  They  will,  I  think,  tell  better, 
if  separate.  And  I  should  perhaps,  in  reprinting  them, 
alter  a  phrase  or  two.  For  example  p.  3, — 'gave  us  the 
HOLY  GHOST,'  should  either  be  omitted,  or  explained  in 
its  fall  sense. 3  As  a  single  phrase,  it  is  not  understood, 
as  I  have  generally  [observed  ?],  but  is  either  explained 
below  its  real  meaning,  or  supposed  to  mean  on  the  other 
hand  what  it  does  not. 

"  (2)  Your  '  trash '  is  so  admirable  that  I  should  have 
kept  it  in  spite  of  all  you  say,  and  used  it  in  my  next 
'  No.' ;  only  that  you  have  left  blanks  which  I  have  no 
books  to  enable  me  to  fill  up.  Pray  go  on  with  this,  and 
if  you  can  let  me  have  this  very  chapter  very  soon.  The 
order  of  your  travels  hardly  signifies, — and  the  chapter 
on  Kome  will  strike  people  very  much. 

"  (3)  I  8°  al°ng  entirely  with  every  word  as  to  the 
Liturgy,  the  Burial  Service,  and  alterations  in  them.4 

"  (4)  With  respect  to  what  is  advisable  for  your  Asso- 
ciation to  do  at  the  present  moment,  it  is  very  hard  to 
say.  I  cannot  but  think  that  a  general  Declaration  of  the 
Clergy  in  opposition  to  Whately's  horrid  speech,  and 
statement  of  the  opinion  of  some  3  or  400  Clergy,  would 
do  great  good ;  and  if  judiciously  drawn  up  might  be  very 
generally  signed.  Could  not  your  Association  take  this 
quietly  in  hand?  I  wish  Froude  would  communicate 
confidentially  with  Lyall  at  Hadleigh,  (saying  it  is  at  my 
request,)  on  this  matter.  I  mean  to  work  the  thing  in 
the  North. 

"  Your  '  Ambrose '  paper  I  have  not  yet  had  time  to  look 
at,  but  I  take  it  with  me. 5  Once  every  week  a  parcel 
is  to  be  sent  down  to  Durham  from  250  Regent  Street. 

"  I  can  [add]  no  more.  For  with  all  my  concerns 
pressing  on  me  at  this  moment,  just  on  the  eve  of  a  long 
journey,  I  have  some  difficulty  in  snatching  a  minute. 

3  The  reference  is  to*  Tract  No.  i.'  — ch.  ii.  (That  paper  appeared  in 
1  The  reference  is  to  'Tract  No.  3.'  the  November  No.  of  the  Brit. 
5  See  the  Church  of  the  Fathers,  Mag.,  vol.  iv.  p.  540.) 


1833]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      197 

I  start  to-morrow  for  Durham,  where  I  hope  to  be  on 
Saturday,  or  Monday. 

"  Pray  let  me  hear  again  there  what  you  are  doing  and 
how  I  can  help  you.  I  shall  on  the  whole  be  more  quiet 
there,  if  I  am  at  all  well,  and  may  be  more  useful.  The 
great  matter  is  how  to  circulate  your  Tracts. — I  have 
thought  it  very  advisable  to  tell  a  great  man  who  has 
written  to  complain  of  the  Article  on  the  Election  of 
Bishops,6  that  there  is  a  very  large  number  of  persons 
who  hold  such  opinions  and  are  ready  to  avow  them.  It 
is  really  well  that  this  should  be  known.  It  will  frighten 
some  great  men  and  strengthen  others. 

"  Ever  yours,  H.  J.  ROSE." 

The  '  trash '  (in  paragraph  3,)  is  Newman's  designation 
of  the  first  number  of  his  "Home  thoughts  abroad"  which 
appeared  in  January  and  February,  1 834. 7  The  second 
and  last  number  of  "Nome  thoughts"  was  not  published 
till  March  and  April  1 836,8 — the  March  instalment  being 
prefaced  by  a  commendatory  and  somewhat  remarkable 
Editorial  note.  Shortly  after  (Nov.  23,  1833),  Newman 
writes  :— 

"  I  am  in  all  sorts  of  scrapes  with  my  Tracts, — abused 
in  every  quarter,  (amid  some  cheering  criticisms),  and  I 
doubt  not  with  considerable  reason.  No  one  person  can 
hit  off  the  exact  truth,  much  less  exact  propriety :  yet 
individual  exertions  have  a  force  about  them,  which 
perishes  in  the  hands  of  a  Committee.  So  I  must  be 
forced  to  suffer  criticism,  in  order  to  tend  towards  effect- 
ing certain  ends, — and  take  blows  and  wounds  as  in  a 
battle  ; — only,  alas !  they  are  not  generally  considered  so 
honourable  as  scars.  If  I  can  but  get  half-a-dozen 
friends  to  give  me  an  opening,  I  do  not  care.  Tamil's 
is  our  depot.  You  may  get  them  all  there,  and  make 

6  The  reference,  I  presume,  is  to  7  Brit. Mag., vol.v. pp.  i  to  u,  and 

a  Letter  signed  'F'   [Froude?]  on  pp.  121  to  131.   See  above,  p.  168-9. 

the   "Appointment  of  Bishops  ly  8  Ibid.,  vol.  ix.  pp.  237  and  357. 

the    State" — which    appeared    in  — At  foot  of  p.  237  occurs  the  note 

Sept.,  1833  (Brit.  Mag.,  iv.  290).  by  Rose,  referred  to  in  the  text. 


198  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1833 

what  use  of  them  you  please,  with  whatever  corrections  you 
like  :  for,  as  much  as  possible,  we  desire  to  avoid  the  pre- 
tence of  authorship.  I  have  spoken  all  along  as  if  I  were 
the  only  writer, — which  I  am  not ;  but  seem  to  be  the 
chief,  and  am  the  Editor. 

"  Palmer's  Address  is  milk  and  water.  However,  it 
effects  three  points : — it  teaches  the  Clergy  to  reflect 
and  combine :  it  strengthens  the  Archbishop  against  his 
opponents  :  and  it  brings  out  the  Church  as  a  body  and 
power  distinct  from  the  State.  How  the  plan  of  Asso- 
ciations goes  on,  I  hardly  know.  In  some  parts  it  suc- 
ceeds capitally  ;  but  I  am  not  sanguine  as  to  the  good  of 
any  formal  bodies, — and  I  cannot  relish  moving  without 
our  Bishops.  I  wished  to  secure  in  each  neighbourhood 
(i.  e.  two  or  three  in  a  county)  some  energetic  man  who 
would  be  in  correspondence  with  the  rest  elsewhere ; 
and  would  be  an  organ  of  communication  with  his  im- 
mediate neighbours.  Thus,  we  might  pick  our  men, 
and  throw  and  keep  the  power  in  our  own  hands.  How- 
ever it  is  a  matter  of  practicabilities, — and  I  have  not 
the  means  or  experience  to  do  more  than  theorize 
about  it."  9  (So  far,  Mr.  Newman.) 

From  Durham,  at  the  end  of  less  than  a  fortnight, 
writing  to  Newman,  Hose  says  :— 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  decided  to  go  on 
with  the  Tracts.  I  can  see  no  other  way ;  and  the 
giving  them  up,  which  Palmer  advertised  me  of,  quite 
put  me  out  and  perplexed  me, — as  I  told  him  in  a  letter 
sent  two  days  ago.  We  are  justified  in  circulating  Tracts 
in  defence  of  that  which  we  have  sworn  to  maintain  ;  and 
we  are  bound,  if  necessary,  to  do  it.  Nor  do  I  care  how 
few  at  first  support  them.  If  they  are  right  and  just 
and  true,  they  will  make  their  way,  by  GOD'S  blessing."  J 

Some  communications  to  the  "  British  Magazine  "  from 
the  excellent  Isaac  Williams  are  thus  referred  to  by  the 

9  J.  H.  N.    to  H.  J.  E,., — Nov.       Newman's  'Apologia,' — pp.  110-2. 
23rd,  1833.     In  illustration  of  this  l  H.  J.  R.  to  J.  H.   N.,— from 

letter,  see  above,  p.  177.     Also,  cf.       'College,  Durham,'  Dec.  5,  1833. 


1834]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      199 

Editor.  Characteristic  enough  is  the  acknowledgment 
of  the  criticism.  The  two  passages  may  as  well  be  set 
down  in  close  succession  : — 

"  May  I  beg  you  to  thank  Mr.  Williams  most  heartily 
for  his  papers,  which  every  one  likes  ?  I  wish  I  knew 
him  well  enough  to  advise  him  to  do  himself  more  justice 
by  finishing  his  Poems  more."2  (So,  Rose.) 

"  Thanks  for  your  note  about  Williams.  He  is  a  care- 
less fellow  and  wants  rowing,  and  I  am  glad  I  have  your 
authority  for  doing  so.  The  worst  is,  he  smiles  and  con- 
fesses it.  I  wish  you  knew  him."  3  (So,  Newman.) 

On  New  Year's  Day,  1834,  the  Editor  of  the  '  Tracts  for 
the  Times '  writes  thus  loyally  to  Mr.  Rose  at  Durham: — 

"  Not  a  day  passes,  at  least  not  two  days,  without  my 
complaining  at  your  absence  from  us ;  if  it  were  only 
for  this  reason, — that  you  would  settle  half  a  hundred 
amicable  differences  between  Palmer  and  myself.  Never 
had  I  such  proof  of  the  necessity  of  the  Episcopal  system, 
or  such  bitter  thoughts  about  the  present  widowed  state 
of  our  Church, — the  members  of  which  are  surely  as 
sheep  without  shepherds.  Had  you  been  near  us,  you 
should  have  had  sovereign  control  and  direction  of  what- 
ever was  done,  as  far  as  I  was  concerned.  If  I  differed, 
still  I  would  have  submitted, — if  only  on  the  selfish 
principle,  that  union  is  a  first  condition  of  success.  And 
if  I  do  not  exactly  give  you  now  the  same  supreme 
management  of  our  conduct,  it  is  only  because  you  are 
distant,  because  you  have  not  followed  us  into,  and 
cannot  duly  enter  into,  our  present  position,  (however 
many  words  I  may  use  in  explanation ;)  and  cannot  be 
consulted  on  an  emergency.  Often  have  Palmer  and  I, 
both  of  us,  thought  of  writing  to  you, — but  a  decision 
was  necessary  before  your  answer  could  come." 

It  is  indeed  for  every  reason  deeply  to  be  deplored 
that,  at  so  critical  a  period  of  the  Church's  history,  the 

2  H.  J.  E.  to  J.  H.  N.,— 'Dur-  3  J.  H.  N  to  H.  J.  K.,— '  Oriel 
ham,'  Dec.  29,  1833.  College,'  Jan.  I,  1834. 


2OO  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [l834 

only  man  in  England  who  was  competent  to  guide  the 
movement  should  have  been  so  entirely  severed  from  the 
head-quarters  of  intellectual  activity.  We  are  speaking 
of  fifty  years  ago.  To  be  residing  at  Durham  then  was 
like  residing  in  Shetland  now.  In  explanation  of  the 
interval  which  had  occurred  between  Tract  No.  4,  (dated 
21  Sept.)  and  No.  6  (dated  29  Oct.),  Mr.  Newman  writes 
concerning  the  "  Tracts  for  the  Times  "  as  follows  : — 

"  Their  history  is  this.  We  began  them  at  the  end  of 
August ;  stopped  them  at  Palmer's  wish,  who  wanted 
an  Association,  and  feared  them:  began  them  again  at 
your  encouragement  at  the  end  of  October,  and  are  now 
continuing  them  with  all  our  might."  4 

And  continue  them  they  did.  By  the  end  of  1834, 
thirty  more  of  the  Tracts  had  been  published.  Of  these, 
eleven  were  reprints  only :  (7  from  Bp.  Wilson's  writings, 
3  from  Bp.  Cosin,  i  from  Bp.  Beveridge) :  the  remaining 
nineteen  were  the  work  of  Newman  (8), — Perceval  (3), 
—Thomas  Keble  (2),- — Benjamin  Harrison  (2), — John 
William  Bowden  (2),— C.  P.  Eden  (i),—  John  Keble  (i). 
All  had  been  well  done  so  far.  Neither  indeed  was  any 
fault  to  be  found  with  the  work  of  1835, — which  wit- 
nessed the  publication  of  twenty-one  more  Tracts  (Nos. 
47  to  67).  Seven,  in  fact,  of  these  were  but  reprints 
(as  before)  from  the  writings  of  our  older  Divines  (Bps. 
Wilson  and  Bull).  Of  the  rest,  Keble  was  responsible 
for  4:  Froude  and  Pusey, — for  2:  Newman,  Harrison, 
Wilson,  Bowden. — for  i  each  :  2  are  of  unknown  author- 
ship. But  then  of  these,  at  least  5  had  been  written  in 
the  previous  year ;  and  the  rest  bear  date  in  the  first  half 
of  1835.  This,  I  suppose,  explains  why  Rose,  writing 
to  Newman  from  S.  Thomas's,  loth  Dec.  1835,  says, — 

"  I  hear  you  are  going  to  stop  your  issue  of  Oxford 

4  As  before, — Jan.  i,  1834. 


1835]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     201 

Tracts.  When  you  have  decided  on  doing  so,  let  me 
know,  as  I  wish  to  write  a  paper  on  them, — tolerably 
strong,  as  to  the  stupid  folly  which  could  not  understand 
or  value  them." 

Thus  heartily  did  Rose  stand  up  for  the  Tracts,  at  the 
period  of  their  commencement.  But,  as  his  letters  show, 
he  was  all  this  time  bent  on  something  of  a  loftier  kind, — 
something  at  once  more  systematic  and  more  enduring. 
Accordingly,  in  more  than  one  letter  he  urges  upon 
Newman  his  sense  of  the  paramount  necessity  of  pro- 
ducing some  great  work  on  Ecclesiastical  History.  Hear 
him,  in  a  further  extract  from  the  letter  last  quoted : — 

"But  now  as  to  the  great  matter, — Church  History, 
Church  History,  Church  History.  I  confess  that  this 
weighs  on  my  mind  with  the  weight  of  a  duty — not 
from  any  notion  of  capacity  or  capability— but  from  a 
sense  of  the  dreadful  mischief  daily  done  from  want  of 
it,  and  the  duty  of  doing  all  that  can  be  done  to  supply 
the  want.  I  have  told  Maitland  my  conviction,  after 
thinking  of  the  thing  more  carefully,  that  Fleury,  as  it 
is>  would  •  be  too  long ;  and  that,  without  suppressing  a 
detail  or  a  word  which  would  give  light  or  life  to  the 
narrative,  very  many  words  (surplusage)  may  be  abridged. 
He  says,  in  reply,  that  the  book  could  not  then  be 
thought  of  or  appealed  to  as  the  old,  standard  work. 
This  is  true.  But  then  we  could  not  have  a  Translation, 
— with  such  additional  notes,  corrections,  &c.  as  would  be 
necessary, — under  40  octavo  volumes,  as  far  as  I  can  see. 
This  would  never  do  as  a  work  to  be  almost  required  of 
every  Divinity  student.  One  might  insist  on  his  reading 
1 8  or  20;  and  into  this  compass  I  think  Fleury  might 
be  brought,  without  injury  to  his  vitality  or  readableness. 
In  short,  what  can  lie  done  effectually  to  correct  present 
ignorance  and  prevent  future,  is  the  question, — not  what 
one  would  like  or  wish. 

"  The  present  translation  is,  I  fear,  dreadfully  bad,  but 
we  could  perhaps  find  translators  without  much  difficulty. 
Would  it  then  be  impossible  to  find  6  or  8  persons 


202  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1835 

who  would  portion  out  this  work,  and  from  a  sense  of 
duty  and  hope  of  doing  good,  undertake — some  to  verify 
every  reference  (this  would  not  be  so  bad  as  it  seems,  for 
Fleury  generally  relies  on  Tillemont,  and  Tillemont  gives 
the  references) ;  and  others  to  read  the  works  not  used 
by  Fleury,  and  to  look  at  other  modern  Church  His- 
torians in  order  to  see  what  views  are  taken  by  different 
writers  ?  I  can  only  say  for  myself  that  I  am  ready  for 
one  to  enlist  and  begin  at  once.  It  seems  to  me  that 
there  would  be  one  or  two  difficulties  only :  and  those, 
such  as  must  press  on  any  work  of  the  kind  undertaken 
by  more  than  one  person, — as,  difference  of  opinion  on 
some  few  topics.  (The  working  rules  might  be  drawn  up 
very  easily.)  For  example,  as  to  the  Disciplines  Arcam. 
But  there  I  think,  and  in  all  such  cases,  one  easy  rule 
would  do.  Let  the  Editor  for  that  part,  state  all  the 
facts  of  the  case  in  a  manner  so  full  and  careful  as  to 
satisfy  all  his  collator ateur s , — and  then  state  also  the 
two  different  views  taken.  I  know  not  that  anything 
would  be  much  better  than  this.  There  is  little  fear 
that  people  will  not  take  a  strong  opinion  enough  on 
most  points :  and  where  good  and  learned  men  differ, 
(the  difference  not  being  one  of  principle,  but  of  judg- 
ment on  facts.)  is  there  any  harm  in  a  suspended 
opinion1?  I  feel  my  own  necessarily  suspended  from 
ignorance  in  so  many  cases,  (and  in  some  at  least  not 
from  my  own  fault),  that  I  am  not  sensible  of  this  being 
a  very  great  evil.  Then  again,  if  there  was  difference  as 
to  the  character  of  a  particular  person  (Hildebrand  was 
mentioned)  and  his  views,  yet  surely  two  persons  differ- 
ing about  them,  might  be  satisfied  with  the  same  account, 
i.e.  that  account  being  drawn  up  not  by  a  partisan  of 
either,  but  by  one,  who  being  aware  that  men  equally 
capable  of  judging  differed,  was  anxious  to  state  every 
&<&  fairly  and/>%.  I  at  least  have  often  felt  and  said 
*  I  do  not  agree  with  such  a  view,  but  the  writer  is  so 
fair  and  honest  in  stating  the  opinion  and  views  of  those 
from  whom  he  differs,  that  I  have  no  objection  to  make.' 
"  Forgive  all  this  long  letter.  The  matter  is  very  near 
my  heart.  '  The  night  is  far  spent,'  and  my  own  deep 


1835]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     203 

feeling  is,  '  What  have  I  done  ?  What  am  I  doing  in  the 
cause, — what  account  can  I  give  of  time  and  oppor- 
tunities, if  all  are  allowed  to  pass  by  without  my  doing 
even  the  little  which  by  strenuous  efforts  I  might  ? '  This 
indeed  does  not  apply  to  others.  But  here  is  a  sad  and 
mischievous  deficiency  producing  daily  and  fearful  evil : 
and  it  wants  many  to  combine  and  remedy  it. 

"  Ever  yours,  H.  J.  R. 

"  I  have  kept  this  for  2  days  from  a  misgiving  whether 
I  was  right  as  to  Tillemont.  I  think  so,  but  have  not 
looked  at  him  for  years,  and  cannot  go  to  Lambeth  to 
look.  Can  you  not  come  and  see  us  this  vacation1?"  5 

What  precedes  was  written  in  December  1835.  Rose 
had  been  long  insisting  on  the  great  need  of  producing 
an  Ecclesiastical  History.  Thus,  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember, he  had  urged  the  same  topic  on  Newman's  atten- 
tion : — 

"  The  one  thing  to  be  kept  in  mind  is,  that  every  day 
lost  is  mischievous.  The  second,  that  under  these  cir- 
cumstances we  cannot  do  what  we  would,  but  must 
submit  to  do  what  we  can.  We  must,  I  fear,  attend  to 
this,  for  we  see  now  and  shall  see  every  day  more,  (as 
the  circumstances  of  the  time  call  more  loudly  for 
knowledge  of  the  past,  if  there  is  to  be  wisdom  in  our 
counsels,  or  acts,)  the  mischief  of  our  present  destitute 
condition  on  this  great  point.  Waddington's  2nd  edition 
is,  I  fear,  getting  into  large  circulation.  But  to  talk  of 
original  works  of  any  length  and  rapid  production  in  the 
same  breath  is  absurd."  6 

In  writing  to  Pusey  about  the  same  time  (September 
8th),  Rose  expresses  a  sentiment  closely  resembling 
something  in  the  foregoing  letter,  which  it  seems  to  me 
impossible  to  read  without  emotion.  Surely  his  words 

5  H.   J.    R.    to   J.    H.    N.,—  S.       28th,    1835.     The   reference    is   to 
Thomas's,  Dec.  loth,  1835.  Dean  Waddington's  'History  of  the 

6  As  before,—  Waldershare,  Sept.       Church: 


204  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1835 

are  destined  to  awake  a  mournful  echo  in  every  thought- 
ful heart ! 

"  As  life  goes  on,  how  humbling  and  depressing  it  is 
to  think  what  means  and  opportunities  have  been 
granted  to  one  for  being  an  instrument  in  GOD'S  hand, — 
and  how  they  have  been  neglected !  how  life  is  wearing 
away  without  presenting — (not,  GOD  knows,  as  a  matter 
of  pride  or  merit,  but  of  comfort  and  consolation,) — the 
remembrance  of  good  even  attempted,  far  less  done ;  how 
it  has  been  wasted  on  things  of  no  account,  to  say  the 
best,  and  too  often  on  things  far  worse.  Would  to  GOD, 
that  when  the  last  hour  comes,  such  remembrances  may 
not  haunt  it."7 

In  the  meantime  the  reader  will  be  inquiring  for 
Newman's  reply  to  Rose's  letter  given  above :  and  it  is 
a  real  pleasure  to  transcribe  the  loyal  terms  in  which  he 
responded  to  the  importunity  of  his  chief  :— 

"  My  dear  Rose, — As  to  the  Church  History,  I  for  one 
shall  be  ready  to  undertake  it  according  to  my  ability, 
and  am  at  your  service.  I  never  should  stickle  (I  think) 
for  any  but  Catholic  truths,  therefore  you  need  not  fear 
I  should  fidget  about  the  Uisciplina  Arcani  .  .  . 

"  As  to  characters,  I  think  that  would  be  a  difficulty : 
yet  it  may  be  avoided  by  keeping  to  Fleury,  and  to 
facts. 

"  We  can  do  nothing  without  an  Editor.  I  will  readily 
submit  to  any  one  you  name, — though  I  had  much 
rather  it  should  be  yourself,  if  your  time  permits.  I  do 
not  mean  you  should  formally  be  Editor,  but  should  be 
referee  and  should  have  power  of  suppressing  matter, 
and  should  apportion  out  our  work  for  us. 

"  Further  we  should  have,  first  of  all,  tables  of  authori- 
ties drawn  up:  e.g.  a  man  taking  the  loth  century 
would  feel  indebted  to  Mr.  Maitland  if  he  would  tell 
him  where  to  go,  &c. 

"  I  cannot  rely  on  my  French  enough  either  to  trans- 
late or  abridge.  I  am  pleased  to  hear  you  think  the 

7  H.  J.  E.  to  E.  B.  P.,—'  Glynde  by  Lewes,'  Sept.  8,  1835. 


1835]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     205 

'  Church  of  the  Fathers '  useful.  The  first  leisure  I  have, 
I  will  attempt  some  more.  We  are  not  quite  certain 
whether  to  continue  or  suspend  the  Tracts.  I  am  ready 
to  correct  the  type  of  the  *  Home  Thoughts '  at  any 
time."8 

And  thus  we  are  brought  back  to  the  subject  of  the 
' Tracts  for  the  Times:  and  the  interruption  already 
adverted  to  in  their  production, — viz.  throughout  all  the 
latter  half  of  the  year  1 835.9 

But  at  this  point,  a  distinct  change  came  over  the 
complexion  of  the  work.  It  was  partly  external.  The 
first  66  of  the  Tracts, — (1833-34-35), — averaged  9  pages 
each:  the  last  tract  which  appeared  in  1835  (No.  67) 
extended  to  400  pages.  This  was  in  fact  Pusey's  volume 
on  Baptism, — which  had  the  miserable  effect  of  giving  a 
party  name  to  what  ought  to  have  been,  and  at  the 
outset  actually  was,  a  Catholic  movement.  The  pious 
author  of  the  Tract  in  question  (in  reply  to  certain 
observations  of  H.  J.  K.)  explained  that  he  "regarded  it 
as  in  itself  incomplete,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  followed 
by  a  fuller  consideration  of  *  Absolution '  and  the  '  Holy 
Eucharist,'  as  far  as  they  are  means,  or  tend  to  assure 
us,  of  forgiveness  of  sins.  And  this  I  hope  to  do  here- 
after, if  GOD  permit."  J  It  was  however  the  altered  spirit 
of  the  subsequent  Tracts  which  effectually  distinguished 
them  from  their  predecessors.  The  first  which  appeared 
in  the  ensuing  year  (No.  71,  dated  Jan.  ist,  1836)  was  by 
Newman, — "against  Romanism,  (No.  i)."  And  this  Tract  it 
was  which  effectually  inaugurated  a  new  epoch.  I  gladly 
avail  myself  here  of  the  remarks  of  a  learned  and  faith- 
ful Divine  (the  Ven.  Benjamin  Harrison), — himself  a 

8  J.  H.  N.  to  H.  J.  R.— Oriel,          1  E.  B.  P.  to  H.  J.  K.— Ch.  Ch. 
Dec.  15,  1835.  Mar-  22>  l836- 

9  See  above, — p.  198  to  201. 


2o6  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

contributor  to  the  Tracts, — who  is  at  once  a  competent 
and  an  impartial  witness  on  this  subject: — 

"A  re-opening  of  the  controversy  .between  the  two 
Churches  had  been  pointed  to  with  far-sighted  clearness 
long  before,  by  a  learned  Prelate  who  at  that  time 
[1816-20]  ably  filled  the  office  of  Professor  of  Divinity 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge.  '  If  we  mistake  not 
the  signs  of  the  times,'  (said  Bishop  Kaye,  of  Lincoln,) 
'  the  period  is  not  far  distant  when  the  whole  contro- 
versy between  the  English  and  Komish  Churches  will 
be  revived,  and  all  the  points  in  dispute  again  brought 
under  review.'  And  he  observed,  speaking  with  special 
reference  to  one  main  point  at  issue,  that  it  was  '  most 
essential  that  they  who  stand  forth  as  the  defenders  of 
the  Church  of  England  should  take  a  correct  and  rational 
view  of  the  subject, — the  view,  in  short,  which  was  taken 
by  our  Divines  at  the  Reformation ; '  and  in  regard  to 
which,  '  we  in  the  present  day,'  (said  his  Lordship,) 
'  must  tread  in  their  footsteps,  and  imitate  their  modera- 
tion, if  we  intend  to  combat  our  Roman  Catholic  adver- 
saries with  success.'  But  when  at  length  the  controversy 
came,  some  of  those  who  might  have  been  supposed  to 
be  best  prepared  for  it,  spoke  of  it  as  having  '  overtaken' 
them  '  like  a  summer's  cloud  '  [the  first  words  of  Tract 
No.  71]  ;  and  whilst  the  line  of  defence  marked  out  at 
that  time  [1836],  was  strong  and  unassailable,  so  far  as 
it  represented  faithfully  that  which  had  been  taken  of 
old  by  the  chief  Reformers  and  great  Divines  of  the 
Church  of  England,  it  was  far  otherwise  in  regard  to 
certain  modifications  and  concessions  which, — honestly, 
no  doubt,  but,  as  the  event  proved,  unwisely, — were 
thought  necessary  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
day."* 

It  is  not  needful  further  to  transcribe  Archdeacon 
Harrison's  remarks  on  Mr.  Newman's  proposed  method 
of  handling  "  The  Controversy  with  the  Romanists"  The 

2  Charge  delivered  to  the  Clergy  of  the  Archdeaconry  of  Maidstone, 
May  1851,— pp.  23-4. 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     207 

second  Tract  "against  Romanism"  (No.  72)  had  for  its 
subject  '  Prayers  for  the  Dead'  Tract  75  (pp.  207)  was 
a  partial  Translation  of  l  the  Roman  Breviary!  Enough, 
it  is  thought,  has  been  said  to  explain  the  following 
correspondence, — in  which,  for  obvious  reasons,  Hugh 
James  Rose  shall  be  the  chief  speaker.  No  one  can 
affect  surprise  at  being  told  that  he  had  already  taken 
serious  alarm  at  the  course  affairs  were  pursuing  at 
Oxford, — the  altered  tone  of  the  '  Tracts  for  the  Times! 
An  essential  change  had  in  fact  come  over  the  spirit  of 
the  movement.  Rose's  earliest  words  of  serious  remon- 
strance were  addressed  to  Dr.  Pusey : — 

"You  must  deeply  feel  our  great  misfortune  in  the 
Church  of  England, — the  total  want  of  any  substantive 
School  of  Divinity.  We  have  nothing  which  deserves 
the  name  of  a  School  among  us ;  but  we  have,  in  that 
lamentable  absence,  one  large  active  agitating  Party,  bound 
together,  not  (as  a  School)  by  common  views  founded  on 
learning,  but  by  common  vulgar  mischievous  feelings 
based  in  ignorance.  And  to  oppose  this,  what  have  we  ? 

"  Nothing  but  individual  and  isolated  efforts  of  solitary 
students,  and  the  somewhat  low  tone  of  the  mass. 
There  is  no  value  for  deep  learning  or  for  thorough 
knowledge  of  Antiquity ;  and  still  less  for  those  great 
Catholic  principles  on  which  alone  (under  GOD'S  blessing) 
reliance  can  be  placed.  There  are  no  heads  to  guide,  no 
strong  hand  to  rule  us.  We  are  like  sheep  without  a 
shepherd.  The  very  magnitude  of  the  evil  has  produced 
something  of  a  reaction  and  feeling  after  a  better  state  of 
things.  Too  many  indeed  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
party,  because  they  feel  their  own  weakness ;  and  in  a 
painful  sense  of  it,  feel  also  that  they  want  some  tangible 
leaders,  and  guides,  and  rallying  points.  But  some  who 
cannot  embrace  the  doctrines  of  the  party,  yearn  after 
the  older  and  sounder  views  '  if  haply  they  might  find 
them.'  The  first  real  ground  of  hope  which  has  been 
visible  has  been  the  existence  of  a  body  of  men  at 


2o8  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

Oxford,  with  many  close  friends  through  the  country, 
whose  characters  and  reputation  stood  high ;  whose 
learning  could  not  be  doubted ;  and  who  have  fearlessly 
stood  forward  in  combination  to  speak  the  old  truths 
together,  and  thus  to  give  confidence  and  hope  to  the 
individuals  who  in  various  parts  of  the  country  had 
from  time  to  time  'in  much  fear  and  trembling'  ventured 
to  proclaim  the  same  truths  after  their  strength,  or  their 
feebleness. 

"  Considering  the  immense  importance  of  strengthening 
and  propagating  the  impression  made  by  these  truths, 
and  of  consolidating  into  one  body,  (which  may  be 
respectable  and  even  formidable  by  its  strength,)  those 
who  hold  them, — so  that  the  young  men  may  have  a 
distinct  and  visible  light  before  them,  towards  which 
and  by  which  to  move, — I  can  hardly  describe  my  own 
sense  of  the  importance  of  your  movements  just  now. 
If  you  leave  our  present  standing-point,  very  many  from 
fear,  very  many  from  conviction,  will  break  away.  The 
enemy  will  have  the  best  possible  handle  to  use  against 
you,  and  for  himself  and  his  own  ends  ;  i.  e.  the  increas- 
ing his  strength  and  scattering  to  the  four  winds  of 
heaven  all  united  elements  of  opposition  to  it.  We  can- 
not expect  in  our  time  again  to  see  even  the  first  stone 
laid  of  the  building  which  has  been  so  long  '  the  desire 
of  our  eyes.' 

"  I  will  not  apologise  again  for  so  writing,  because  I  am 
sure  you  will  give  me  credit  for  not  presuming  to  inter- 
fere from  any  value  of  my  own  opinions:  but  simply 
from  the  strong  feelings  and  persuasions  to  which  I  have 
referred. 

"  Yours  ever  most  truly, 

H.  J.  ROSE." 

"Lambeth,  Saturday  April  3Oth  [1836]." 

It  would  be,  in  my  account,  a  violation  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  what  was  evidently  meant  to  be  a  strictly 
confidential  communication  that  I  should  transcribe 
more  than  the  opening  sentences  of  Mr.  Newman's  reply 
to  the  foregoing  letter  of  Hugh  James  Rose  to  Dr.  Pusey. 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     209 

Indeed,  those  opening  words  I  only  insert  because  they 
are  the  necessary  introduction  to  Rose's  letter  which  will 
immediately  follow : — 

"Oriel  College,  May  ist,  1836. 

"  My  dear  Rose, — Pusey  has  sent  me  your  note.  I  have 
not  yet  seen  him,  nor  do  I  know  what  he  will  say  to  it  : 
and  I  put  this  down  on  paper  at  once,  that  his  and  my 
impressions  may  be  both  our  own ;  and  you,  if  you  do  not 
mind  the  trouble,  may  have  them  both.  Your  note  is 
very  important,  and  I  hope  you  will  not  consider  me  but 
partially  alive  to  its  importance,  which  I  try  to  be  fully. 
From  your  silence  about  my  letter  of  this  day  fortnight 
or  three  weeks,  and  your  letter  now  to  Pusey,  I  con- 
jecture thus  much, — that  you  are  not  satisfied,  and  are 
afraid :  yet  have  nothing  very  definite  to  say." 

Hugh  James  Rose  replied  as  follows : — 

"[Lambeth],  9  May,  1836. 

"  My  dear  Newman, — I  am  inclined  to  think  that  your 
account  is  very  nearly  right,  viz.  that  I  am  not  quite 
satisfied  and  yet  do  not  know  exactly  what  to  say. 
I  will  however  endeavour  to  tell  you  the  sort  of  feeling 
which  I  have  on  the  subjects  which  we  have  been  dis- 
cussing, that  you  may  judge  how  far  I  am  wrong. 

"  First  of  all,  I  must  premise  that  I  consider  the  English 
as  an  eminently  anti-reading  nation,  and  that  of  course 
the  Clergy  partake  of  this  character: — that  there  are  14 
or  16,000  of  them ; — and  that  in  any  nation  the  far  larger 
part  of  such  a  body  would  not  be  students,  and  there- 
fore still  less  so  with  the  English ; — and  that,  of  those 
who  will  more  or  less  be  students,  a  very  large  pro- 
portion can  hardly  be  left  safely  to  their  own  guidance, 
but  want  direction  and  authority  as  much  as  the  others. 
One  may  lament  that  all  this  is  so.  One  may  say  that 
they  who  are  to  teach  others  ought  to  be, — or  at  least 
that  it  seems  very  desirable  that  they  should  be, — of  a 
different  genus.  But  lament  and  think  as  one  will,  I 
hold  it  to  be  beyond  all  controversy  that  such  we  are, 

VOL.  I.  p 


210  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

and,  for  a  very  long  period  at  least,  shall  be.  And  if 
this  is  so,  although  it  may  also  be  grievous  to  deal  with 
such  persons,  in  some  respects,  and  tedious  in  comparison 
with  dealing  with  those  on  whose  industry  and  whose 
judgment  we  can  rely,  we  must  bear  all  this  strictly  and 
constantly  in  mind,  if  any  good  is  to  be  done. 

"  Now,  take  the  matter  of  Antiquity  into  consideration  in 
connexion  with  all  this.  With  the  non-reading  part,  it 
may  be  of  very  little  consequence,  perhaps  ;  but  I  will 
honestly  confess  that  I  am  a  little  apprehensive  of  the 
effects  of  turning  the  readers,  such  as  thay  are,  out  to 
grass  in  the  spacious  pastures  of  Antiquity  without  very 
strict  tether.  All  that  is  in  Antiquity  is  not  good ;  and 
much  that  was  good  for  Antiquity  would  not  be  good  for 
us.  Yet  it  seems  to  me  that  without  the  tether,  without 
strict  and  authoritative  guidance  in  short,  they  are  just 
as  likely  to  get  harm  as  good :  to  deduce  very  false  and 
partial  conclusions  from  very  insufficient  premises ;  and 
to  set  up  as  objects  for  imitation  what  may  catch  the 
fancy  and  strike  the  imagination,  but  what  is  utterly 
unfit  for  our  present  condition.  The  Homilies  of  the 
Fathers  may  be  studied  with  the  greatest  advantage  by 
those  who  can  exercise  their  judgment ;  but  to  attempt 
to  address  audiences  now  in  such  or  such  a  manner, — 
lecause  it  was  clone  by  this  or  that  Father,  (and  only  and 
simply  because  it  happened  to  be  the  style  of  his  day  in 
all  public  speaking),  in  the  4th  or  the  5th  century, — 
cannot,  I  think,  lead  to  good,  and  may  lead  to  a  good  deal 
of  evil.  I  mention  this  as  a  very  simple  and  short 
instance  to  explain  my  meaning  by.  I  wish,  in  a  word, 
considering  what  English  readers  commonly  are,  that 
Antiquity  should  be  studied  by  them  only  with  full, 
clear  and  explicit  directions  how  to  derive  from  it  that 
good  which  is  to  be  derived  from  it ;  and  to  avoid  the 
sort  of  quackery  of  affecting  Antiquity,  which  is  very 
likely  to  lay  hold  of  quick,  but  not  very  comprehensive, 
minds. 

"  Again, — (and  to  lead  me  on  to  the  next  point), — \isuch 
minds  are  led  to  search  out  all  the  opinions  and  practices 
of  Antiquity  as  of  great  value,  because  they  are  derived 


1836]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     211 

from  Antiquity, — where  they  and  we  shall  get  to,  it 
seems  hard  to  tell.  It  is  an  expedition  in  which  I  most 
earnestly  desiderate  good  guides  and  experienced  drivers ; 
and  then,  we  shall  return  from  it  rich  in  health  and  in 
knowledge.  Without  these  requisites,  I  eschew  the  under- 
taking. We  have  all  a  love  of  change,  and  of  finding 
out  that  they  who  went  before  us  passed  by  or  mistook 
some  things  or  many  things,  and  that  this  should  be  set 
right.  But  there  are  very  very  few  who  are  fit  for  the 

task It  is  on  this  ground  that  I  regret  your 

declaration  of  preference  for  a  somewhat  different  Liturgy, 
and  somewhat  different  usages,  from  the  present.  Could 
all  this  be  confined  to  persons  like  yourselves,  no  possible 
objection  could  be  felt  to  it.  But  what^ow  say  and  do, 
will  set  five  hundred  heads  agog,  which  it  will  be  very 
hard  to  set  at  rest  again.  It  is  only  real  learning,  and 
long  thought,  and  sober  reflection  (like  yours),  which  can 
discern  what  has  some  real  ground  for  consideration  and 
acceptance ;  while  quick  and  ingenious  men,  once  set  on 
the  track  of  thinking  that  we  are  in  a  very  imperfect 
state,  and  that  we  have  deserted  Antiquity,  will  pour  a 
thousand  follies  and  falsehoods  out  upon  us,  and  in- 
dispose very  many  to  all  such  fair  consideration  as 
I  speak  of. 

"On  the  same  sort  of  ground,  I  wish  that  you  had 
somewhat  more  represented  the  Apostolic  Succession  as 
a  regular,  undoubted  doctrine,  held  undoubtingly  by  all 
true  Churchmen,  and  only  a  little  neglected, — than  as  a 
thing  to  which  we  were  to  recur  as  a  sort  of  ancient 
Novelty, — a  truth  now  first  recovered.  I  do  not  mean  that 
you  have  done  this,  as  I  put  it  broadly ;  but  I  mention 
it  to  illustrate  the  kind  of  use  to  be  made  of  Antiquity 
with  the  common  run  of  Clergy.  We  must  find  out  what 
is  really  fit  to  be  taught,  and  teach  it  as  of  Authority ', — 
as  a  doctrine  which  has  always  been  held, — not  as  a 
thing  which  they  are  to  go  and  look  for,  and  find  out, 
and  prove  by  themselves.  On  this  account  too,  however 
grievous  in  some  respects,  I  am  persuaded  that  it  is  our 
wisdom  to  keep  our  ground^  and  not  to  change  it  at  all :  to 
keep  it  well  and  soundly,  and  not  as  we  have  done  it :  to 


P  2 


212  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE.  [1836 

keep  it  by  showing  that  such  was  the  teaching  and  belief 
of  Antiquity,  and  that  it  is  only  novel  ignorance  which  has 
deserted  or  abandoned  the  grounds  which  the  Reformed 
Church  always  meant  to  hold. 

"  It  may  be  true,  as  you  say,  that  our  orb  of  doctrine  is 
not  entirely  teres  atque  rotundus.  But  I  am  persuaded 
that  these  additions  (not  being  essentials)  cannot  with 
safely  be  proposed  to  the  mass.  If  they  are  once  impressed 
with  the  notion  that  we  are  imperfect,  and  require  improve- 
ment and  change,  they  have  not  the  means  of  knowing  or 
discovering  how  much  or  how  LITTLE  ;  and  are  merely 
converted  into  ignorant  Reformers.  I  am  well  aware  that 
to  you, — knowing  so  fully  and  thoroughly,  and  having 
so  often  gone  over,  the  solid  reasons  from  antiquity  and 
argument  by  which  the  ground  on  which  we  do  stand  is 
to  be  defended, — the  simply  defending  that  may  appear 
tedious.  But  as  far  as  my  opinion  goes,  you  will  do  the 
greatest  possible  service,  (and  it  is  one  which  will  more 
than  exhaust  the  lives  of  any  living  men),  if  you  will  go 
on  quietly  indoctrinating  the  mass  of  the  Clergy  with 
these  reasons;  with  teaching  them  the  real  strength  of 
their  grounds  ;  and  inspiring  them  with  that  respect  for 
the  discipline,  and  the  practices  which  they  have  been 
taught,  which  ought  to  arise  from  a  respect  for  Antiquity 
and  from  a  knowledge  of  the  full  extent  to  which  we 
have  it  with  us.  You  have  probably  a  set  of  ingenious, 
clever,  promising  and  highly  endowed  students  to  deal 
with.  But  if  you  will  examine  a  few  dozens  of  Candi- 
dates for  Orders,  rough  as  they  run,  I  think  you  will  come 
to  my  side  of  the  argument. 

"  To  conclude  my  homily.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  you  will 
have  the  patience  to  go  on  teaching  the  younger  Clergy 
wJiat  the  Church  is  :  what  are  the  true  notions  of  the 
Sacraments  and  the  Ministry  :  how  entirely  what  we  teach 
has  ever  been  taught  by  the  Catholic  Church  ; — if  you 
will  give  its  full  colouring  and  relief  to  all  those  parts  of 
our  system,  about  the  actual  existence  of  which  no  one 
can  doubt,  (Commemorations  of  Saints  and  Martyrs, 
Fasting,  &c.),  but  which  have  been  thrown  into  the  shade, 
—by  pouring  in  the  light  of  Antiquity  through  your  own 


1836]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.    213 

windows ; — you  will  do  the  greatest  service.  But  for  the 
mass,  I  am  persuaded  you  must  confine  yourself  to  that ; 
and  to  giving  them  specimens  of  the  pure  moral  and 
doctrinal  tone  (not  manner)  of  teaching  in  the  early 
Church. 

"  For  the  next  class,  you  will  do  the  greatest  service  if 
you  will  direct  and  closely  confine  them  in  their  study 
of  Antiquity,  as  well  as  warmly  exhort  them  to  it ;  teach- 
ing them  especially,  /  think,  to  study  the  wholesome 
tone  of  doctrine  contained  in  the  writings  of  the  great 
Lights  of  the  Church,  rather  than  to  look  for  supple- 
ments and  corrections  of  any  defects  of  our  own. 

"  I  have  very  ill  explained  what  are  perhaps  vague  and 
unreasonable  notions.  But,  looking  as  I  do  to  you  Oxford 
men  with  great  hope,  I  am  most  anxious  that  no  chance 
of  good  shall  be  lost, — no  road  to  evil  opened.  I  am 
aware  that  my  notions  will  seem  dull^  limited  and  stupid. 
But  I  do  beseech  you  to  look  at  the  numbers  and  the 
kind  of  our  instruments  ;  and  to  remember  that  '  the 
speed  of  the  horseman  must  be  regulated  by  the  powers 
of  his  horse.'  GOD  has  so  decreed,  and  we  must  abide  by 
His  decree,  and  do  the  best  we  can  with  things  as  they  are. 
Ever  yours, 

"  H.  J.  ROSE. 

"  P.S.  /  of  course  can  have  no  objection  to  your  repub- 
lishing  the  '  Lyra!  But  must  it  cease  ?  "  3 

The  foregoing  admirable  letter  produced  a  joint  reply 
from  Mr.  Newman  (nth  May),  and  Dr.  Pusey  (iath 
May,  Ascension  Day,  1836),  on  a  single  sheet  of  paper. 
It  does  not  require  insertion.  But  Mr.  Rose's  splendid 
rejoinder, — which  was  suggested  by  a  perusal  of  New- 
man's 7ist  "Tract  for  the  Times" — may  on  no  account  be 
withheld.  No  faithful  English  Churchman  will  ever  read 
it  without  emotion.  No  one,  truly  loyal  to  the  Church  of 

3  Referring  to  the  post-script  of  October  the  'Lyra'  in  a  volume. 

Newman's  letter  of  May  ist, — "  I  It  will  probably  come  to  an  end  in 

havethoughts,withyourandRiving-  a  month  or  two." 
ton's    concurrence,   to    publish    in 


214  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

his  Baptism,  who  reads  it  once,  will  fail  to  read  it  a 
second  and  a  third  time ;  and  to  bless  GOD  that  senti- 
ments so  truly  Catholic  should  have  been  so  emphatically 
delivered,  and  at  such  a  time.  I  purpose  that  they  shall 
remain  on  record,  as  the  grand  witness  of  one  who  under 
every  discouragement  "held  fast  the  form  of  sound 
words"  ;  earnestly  "  contended  for  the  faith  which  was 
once  for  all  delivered  to  the  Saints "  ;  and  remained 
"  faithful  unto  death."  Well  would  it  have  been  for  the 
Church  of  England  had  his  spirit,  his  counsels,  guided  the 
Tractarian  movement  of  1 833  ! 

"Lambeth,  May  13  [1836]. 

"  My  dear  Newman, — Endure  me  for  once  more ;  re- 
membering always,  if  you  please,  that  I  speak  with  perfect 
sincerity  when  I  express  my  own  consciousness  of  inferi- 
ority to  yourself  and  Pusey  in  all  respects :  that  I  do  not 
venture  therefore  to  speak  in  any  other  way  than  as  a 
seeker  of  Truth  for  myself\ — not  as  a  guide  or  monitor 
to  others.  Remember,  if  you  please,  also,  that  our  evil 
Cambridge  habits  often  induce  or  permit  us  to  speak 
more  broadly,  strongly  and  straightforwardly  than  we 
ought ;  but,  as  speaking  in  real  regard,  affection,  esteem 
and  reverence,  so,  without  a  notion  that  any  offence  can 
be  given  or  taken  where  such  sentiments  animate  the 
speaker.  I  only  mention  this  because  I  have,  I  know, 
grievously  offended  Perceval  by  my  bad  habits  of  free 
thought  and  speech. — After  this  preamble,  I  must  first 
formally  give  up  Abp.  Wake,  and  any  other  Abp.  you 
please  :  and  '  Revolution-Protestantism.' 4  and  any  other 
Protestantism  you  please  (except  my  own)  entirely  to 
your  tender  mercies.  I  have  nothing  to  say  for  the 
delinquents  ;  and  only  rather  wonder  how  and  why  they 
were  brought  into  court  to  receive  judgment  on  this 
occasion.  You  shall  brand  them  as  Socinian,  or  Infidel, 

4  Newman,  in  his  letter  of  May  Eome":     and   had   enlarged   with 

nth,  had  said  that  he  "could  not  severity  on  the  "  Kevolution-Pro- 

endure  the  mode   in   which   Wake  testantism  "  of  1688. 
(e.  g.)  conducts  the  controversy  with 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      215 

or  anything  else  you  please, — and  deliver  them  over  to 
the  secular  arm  afterwards.  I  am  no  soldier  of  theirs. 

"  But  to  have  done  with  folly.  I  have  been  reading 
your  ist  No.  against  Romanism  5, — the  last  half  of  which 
is  admirable.  Towards  the  first,  I  feel  somewhat  as 
towards  part  of  your  'Home  Thoughts  abroad]  and 
several  other  papers  and  letters.  Perhaps,  to  say  all  in 
a  few  words,  I  should  say  that  the  impression  which  they 
would  produce  on  my  mind,  if  I  did  not  know  you,  and 
therefore  which  I  cannot  but  suppose  they  will  produce 
on  others,  is  this  nearly  :— 

"  '  The  hearts  and  affections  of  these  writers  are  not  with 
us.  Their  judgment,  arising  from  deep  learning,  thought 
and  piety,  is  against  Rome  decidedly ;  while  still  they 
think  that  she  has  much  which  we  want.  In  this 
unhappy  state,  they  feel  that  in  the  Church  of  England, 
— and  there  alone, — is  safety :  but  they  feel  that  there  is 
nothing  more.  A  good  deal  to  tolerate,— &  good  deal  to 
deplore ; — something  no  doubt  to  be  thankful  for,  on  the 
principle  of  regard  for  the  bridge  which  carries  you  over, 
—but  little  or  nothing  to  love.  They  join  her  on  the 
principle  of  '  any  port  in  a  storm,' — of  a  pis-aller.  They 
can  find  nothing  better,  nay,  nothing  else, — and  therefore 
they  are  thankful  that  there  is  any  port  where  they  can 
be  moored  in  perfect  safety.' 

"  Do  not  suppose  that  I  am  giving  this  as  MY  conception 
of  your  views ;  but  I  am  much,  very  much  inclined  to 
believe  that  such  is  the  conception  which  would  be 
forced  on  a  stranger.  A  young  and  ardent  mind,  whose 
learning  did  not  represent  to  it  the  impassableness  of  the 
gulph  to  Romanism,  would  jump  to  the  conclusion  that 
that  form  which  did  not  satisfy  the  heart  and  the  affec- 
tions, must,  on  that  ground,  be  false : — that  though  there 
may  be  errors  in  Romanism,  yet  they  are  not  fatal : — 
and  that  by  taking  the  Bossuet  picture  of  doctrine  as 
true,  and  then  adhering  to  Rome,  he  should  at  once 
satisfy  his  judgment  and  his  affections.  One  of  a 
sterner  stamp  and  of  more  learning  would  perhaps  be 
indignant,  and  say  that  what  you  tolerate,  he  loves ;  and 

5  Tract,  No.  71,— dated  Jan.  ist,  1836.     (See  back,  pp.  205-7.) 


216  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

that  *  you  too  MUST  love  it,  ere  to  you  it  can  seem  worthy 
of  your  love ' : — that  it  has,  in  fact,  what  is  necessary  to 
call  forth  and  hold  the  affections,  when  duly  and  fully 
considered  and  appreciated. 

"  But  however  that  might  be,  what  you  say  is  that  we 
are  now  in  too  cold  a  state ;  and  that  there  ought  to  be 
something  more  calculated  to  lay  hold  of  the  affections  : 
—that  unless  the  Church  pour  forth  her  treasures,  and 
people  feel  it  to  be  a  privilege  to  be  a  Churchman,  we  can 
have  nothing  to  expect  but  schisms  and  heresies.  Now, 
(fully  agreeing  with  this),  I  am  here  a  little  perplexed  as 
to  what  you  wish  to  be  done  now;  because  you  very 
justly  say  that  nothing  material  can  be  done  till  the 
feeling  of  the  Church  at  large  goes  with  you  :  that,  e.  g. 
Monasteries, — a  better  Liturgy, — a  different  form  of 
Confession  of  Faith, — and  so  on,  could  not  be  achieved 
now.  What  then  can  ?  what,  I  mean,  material  enough  to 
give  you  any  chance  of  winning  hearts ,  which  you  have  not 
in  fact  now  ? 

"  I  shall  not  allow  you  (see  the  Cambridge  impudence  !) 
to  speak  of  the  right  doctrine  of  the  Sacraments,  or  the 
Ministry,  AS  SUCH  THINGS, —  because  they  are  not  addi- 
tions to  our  present  Faith.  Too  much  neglected,  un- 
doubtedly, they  have  yet  always  been  held  and  taught 
by  a  very  large  body  of  Churchmen  as  being,  what  they 
really  are, — the  true  doctrine  of  the  Church.  What  then 
is  it  1  I  really  apprehend  that  what  can  be  added  is 
so  little  that  it  cannot  be  very  effectual. 

"  I  am  looking  to  practice.  In  argument  one  may  argue 
abstractedly  for  Monasteries,  or  any  thing  else.  Surely 
'  Prayers  for  the  dead '  (a  most  deceptive  phrase),  and 
'  Exorcism  before  Baptism,'  for  example,  will  go  a  very 
little  way,  even  if  they  could  be  introduced.  (By  the 
way,  I  utterly  eschew  that  phrase  '  Prayers  for  the  dead ' 
instead  of  '  Prayers  for  departed  Saints.'  It  is  a  sort  of 
enlisting1  of  some  of  our  strongest  sympathies  under 
false  colours.  It  is  too  painful  a  subject  to  dwell  on. 
You  perhaps  do  not  know  the  bitterness  of  clinging  with 
passionate  love  to  the  memories  of  some,  of  whom,  rich 
as  they  were  in  human  gifts,  the  cold  judgment  cannot 


1835]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     217 

but  doubt  whether  they  were  not  lacking  in  one  thing ; 
and  can  therefore  little  estimate  the  temptation  which 
the  Romanist  notion  (a  little  misunderstood  it  may  be) 
holds  out.  The  Catholic  notion  has,  in  fact,  nothing  of 
that  (delusive)  comfort.  And,  however  valuable  sub- 
jectively, is  objectively  a  matter  which  will  never  lay 
strong  hold  of  the  suffering  heart.  For  whether  I  only 
commemorate,  and  bless  GOD  for,  those  who  are  de- 
parted in  His  faith  and  fear  and  are  now  in  His  Hand, 
expecting  their  full  consummation, — or  whether  I  pray 
that  they  who  are  of  a  truth  in  his  Hand,  may  have  more 
of  his  joy  than  He  hasyetf  given, — can  never  make  any 
strong  difference  to  my  feelings.  Make  men  understand 
what  we  mean  by  '  the  Holy  Catholic  Church '  and  '  the 
Communion  of  Saints,'  and  what  can  be  done  by  any 
power  to  win  the  heart,  will  be  done.) 

"  I  must  therefore  say, — You  perplex  me.  Bring  out 
(as  I  said  in  my  last  letter)  into  their  full  relief,  that 
which  we  have, — Fasts  and  Feasts, — more  frequent  Com- 
munion,— more  thorough  understanding  of  the  Nature 
of  the  Sacraments, — the  Powers  of  the  Ministry, — the 
Privileges  of  Members  of  CHRIST'S  Holy  Catholic 
Church.  Bring  into  play  (what  our  German  friends 
would  call)  the  Historic  Element ; — not  trying  the 
vain  course  of  reproducing  the  Past,  which  can  never 
be ;  but  giving  to  our  whole  condition,  by  the  Historic 
Element,  that  continuity  and  connexion  with  the  Past, 
which  throws  such  chains  round  the  individual's  affec- 
tions, and  is  so  precious  for  Society  itself: — all  this 
is  not  only  feasible,  but  full  of  hope,  powerful  to  win, 
to  charm,  to  attract,  to  hold.  I  do  not  say  that  by 
degrees  nothing  more  may  be  done.  I  should  be  slow 
to  reject  the  assistance  of  Art,  or  the  assistance  of 
sound  Legends,  as  parts  of  the  Historic  Element.  Nor 
do  I  see  why,  prudently  introduced,  they  should  offend, 
if  they  could  be  had, — which  is  the  doubtful  point. 
Neither  do  I  say  that  a  Liturgy  fuller  of  variety,  such 
as  you  suggest  from  the  analogy  of  the  Easter  An- 
them,— (for  I  rather  shrink  from  the  introduction  of 
what  Coleridge  called  'New  former  Prayers '), — might  not 


218  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

be  productive  of  good.  But  you  yourself  seem  to  hold 
out  this,  that  any  considerable  movement  towards  im- 
provement or  addition,  (or  supplement  rather),  could 
not,  be  made  till  the  whole  Church  was  in  a  frame  to 
admit  or  require  it.  What  then  is  it  precisely  and 
distinctly  which  you  aim  to  do  NOW  1 

"  The  search  for  Catholic  Antiquity  must,  rely  on  it, 
be  made  FOR  nine-tenths  of  the  Ministry  at  least,  and 
the  results  GIVEN  them.  Take  the  Romanist  Priest- 
hood in  their  very  most  palmy  condition,  and  in  any 
country  you  please  where  they  lived  undoubtedly  on 
this  notion.  How  many  ever  acquired  it  from  their 
own  individual  studies  ?  (Earnestly  do  I  wish  you 
were  Examining  Chaplain  in  a  large  Diocese  for  a 
few  years.)  Knowing  the  value  of  the  treasure,  and 
knowing  its  practical  use  to  the  Romanist,  we  take 
for  granted  (as  is  natural)  that  he  has  dug  for  the 
precious  ore  himself.  But  it  is  not  so,  speaking  of  the 
large  mass  of  them  ;  nor,  I  apprehend,  can  it  ever  be 
so.  We  may  inspire  the  mass  with  the  reverence  for 
it,  and  give  them  the  practical  element  resulting  from 
it ;  but  nothing  more.  This  (the  reverential  feeling)  is 
all  that  is  really  of  consequence  practically. 

"  I  will  shut  up  what  I  have  ventured  to  say  on  this 
head  with  the  simple  expression  of  my  own  full  be- 
lief that  'if  we  know  how  to  use  what  we  really  have, 
without  any  of  the  'supplements,' — (which  after  all  are 
infinitely  small  when  compared  with  what  we  have), 
— we  have  all  which  is  wanted  to  win  and  to  hold ; 
and,  AT  THE  SAME  TIME,  to  purify  and  exalt.  For  un- 
questionably, by  a  freer  and  fuller  appeal  to  the  sen- 
SHOHS, — (such  as  the  Romanist  in  one  way,  and  the 
Wesleyan  in  the  other,  make), — we  can  win  (and  hold 
perhaps)  : — but  as  to  purifying  and  exalting  /  .  .  .  The 
progress  and  the  real  victories  of  the  Gospel  principle 
must  not  be  numbered  but  weighed. 

"  Under  this  view  you  must  let  me  not  endure,  but 
lore — and  warmly  and  passionately  love — my  Mother 
Church.  I  will  not  talk  of  the  glorious  Reformation 
[you  forbid  me]  : — but  deliverance  is  deliverance.  And 


1836]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     219 

though  we  may  deplore  that  there  were  evils  to  be  de- 
livered from,  that  was  not  our  fault.  And  we  must 
bless  GOD  for  rescuing  us  from  them, — as  the  daughter 
of  an  ancient  house  would  grieve  indeed  that,  when 
her  parents  and  brethren  were  gone  to  their  rest,  the 
heir  turned  the  pure  and  happy  home  of  her  infancy 
into  a  brothel : — but  she  would  and  must  bless  GOD, 
and  rejoice  that  she  was  able  to  escape  from  pollution, 
and  from  the  bondage  and  sin  to  which  a  continued 
stay  within  the  venerable  walls  would  have  condemned 
her. 

"You  must  let  me  believe  that  though  there  is  not 
the  glare  and  glitter  round  'my  Mother's  sober  brow' 
which  exists  elsewhere, — there  is  what  will  win  all 
hearts,  and  charm  all  eyes  which  will  study  her  coun- 
tenance, and  are  capable  of  improvement, — of  reverence, 
— of  affection  : — that  she  is  a  true  daughter  and  co- 
heiress of  that  ancient  House, — with  all  the  family  linea- 
ments on  her  face,  and  no  small  portion  of  the  family 
jewels  in  her  keeping: — that  she  will  not  only  safely  in- 
troduce me  into  the  bosom  of  the  family  here  below 
and  above, — but  has  green  pastures  and  waters  of  com- 
fort in  abundance,  to  cheer  me  on  the  journey. 

"  To  Pusey  I  have  only  a  word  or  two  to  say,  and 
therefore  do  not  trouble  him  with  a  separate  letter. 
I  would  only  suggest  that  in  any  possible  incursions 
into  Antiquity,  we  are  not  like  our  own  Reformers, 
looking  for  Truth  and  not  knowing  what  will  break 
upon  us.  We  know  exactly  what  the  Truth  is.  We 
are  going  on  no  voyage  of  discovery.  We  know  ex- 
actly the  extent  of  shore.  There  is  a  creek  here,  and 
a  bay  there, — all  laid  down  in  the  charts  ;  but  not  often 
entered  or  re-surveyed.  We  know  all  this  beforehand, 
and  therefore  can  lay  down  our  plans,  and  not,  (as  I 
think),  feel  any  uncertainty  where  we  are  going,  or 
feel  it  necessary  or  advisable  to  spread  our  sails  and 
take  our  chance  of  finding  a  newr  Atlantis.  6  If  we 

6  Dr.  Pusey  had  written  a  joint  Day,  1836), — from  which  a  brief 
letter  with  Mr.  Newman  (dated  the  extract  is  all  that  needs  to  be  sub- 
day  following  his,  viz.  Ascension  joined: — "I  thank  you  much  for 


22O  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

had  any  hopes  of  this  kind,  I  would  say  too  of  the 
good  ship,  (perhaps,  alas  !  with  the  same  ambiguity  as 
of  old), — "Jrco  Kctr'  ovpor. 

"  One  thing  more  to  him.  Surely,  a  practice  not  noticed 
in  Scripture,  and  the  interpretation  of  a  doctrine  noticed 
there,  do  not  stand  on  the  same  ground !  GOD  has 
committed  Truth  to  the  Chwrch  and  to  the  Scripture, — to 
their  joint  keeping.  To  resist  the  consent  of  Catholic 
Antiquity,  therefore,  as  to  the  interpretation  of  doctrine, 
or  as  to  Church  Government,  must  surely  be  madness  or 
unbelief  on  every  ground.  But  does  it  really  follow,  that 
on  this  account,  I  must  defend  a  practice  on  an  indifferent 
matter ;  and  that  I  must  hold  up  '  Exorcism  before 
Baptism,'  because  I  would  have  the  verdict  of  Catholic 
Antiquity  as  to  '  Regeneration  in  Baptism  ? '  .  .  .  Is  this 
so  ?  And  if  so,  why  ?  .  .  .  Surely,  as  far  as  doctrine  is 
involved,  I  might  believe  in  Demoniacal  possession  in 
our  LOKD'S  and  the  Apostles'  time, — as  firmly  as  in 
His  Miracles,  and  in  the  spiritual  gifts  given  ta  the 
early  Christians  ;  and  yet  hold  that  Satan  was  chained 
now,  and  has  long  been :  that  his  power  in  that  way  has 
been  contracted  for  ages ;  and  that  we  no  more  suffer 
from  'Possession'  than  we  enjoy  Miraculous  Gifts, — as 
a  matter  of  fact  \  and  that  consequently,  Exorcism  might 
have  been  even  necessary  in  the  Apostles'  time, — supposing 
it  tit  en  to  have  been  used ;  but  that  there  was  no  reason 
for  continuing  a  custom  of  so  peculiar  a  kind,  except 
on  proof  of  its  continued  necessity. — I  here  give  you  every 

our  letter,  and  hope  to  profit  by  it.  if  he  be  told  that   he  is  to   look 

But  I  trust  that  there  are  practical  for  certain  herbs  which  have  been 

cautions,  \vhich  we  generally  give,  planted  everywhere,  and  that  he  is 

which  will   remove    some   of  your  not  to  bring  away  any  things  which 

apprehensions.     Thus,  we  do  take  he  does  not  find  in  every  part  of 

care  not  to  build   on   one   or   the  the  field, — why,  a  volatile  labourer 

other  Father,  but  on  Catholic  An-  will   soon   lay   down   the   business 

tiquity.     Now,  if  a  person  be  sent  altogether,  and  an  ardent  one  will 

to  any  one  field  to  bring  all  he  can  be  sobered  "  . .  . .  And  further  on, — 

out  of  it,  he  will  bring  the  wfelix  "  And  this  is  what  I  meant  by  saying 

lolittm  as  well  as  other  things,  and  that  we  must  spread  our  sails,  not 

perhaps  be  more  taken  with  it  than  knowing  whither  we  should  be  car- 

with  good  seed ;  the  steriles  avence  ried." 
being  constantly  the  tallest.     But, 


1836]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     221 


advantage, — the  supposing  a  custom  built  on  a 
and  a  truth.  But  many  customs,  though  good  and 
innocent,  may  have  been  built  on  neither ;  and  surely 
cannot  therefore  be  raised  to  the  same  consequence  as 
the  interpretation  of  great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  I 
may  appeal  to  Catholic  Antiquity  for  the  one,  without 
binding  myself  to  receive  the  other. 

"Now,  I  really  do  not  contemplate  troubling  you  any 
more.  I  have  ill  explained  what  I  mean.  I  only  want 
justice  done  to  what  we  have  ;  love  felt  to  it ;  and  a  strong 
belief  felt  too,  that  if  justice  le  done  to  it,  it  can  win  love 
and  keep  it. 

"  You  will  forgive  (I  beseech  you  to  do  so)  any  Cam- 
bridgeisms;  and  believe  me,  not  in.  form  only  but  in.  fact, 
heartily  and  affectionately,  in  REGARD  and  RESPECT,  yours 

ever'  "H.  J.  ROSE." 

It  is  not  needful  that  I  should  pursue  this  corre- 
spondence any  further.  It  was  practically  closed  by 
a  long  letter  from  Mr.  Newman  (dated  '  Iffley,  May  23rd, 
1836  ') ;  and  the  subject  shall  be  here  dismissed  with  the 
single  statement  that,  in  his  'Apologia,'  the  same  writer 
has  with  perfect  truthfulness  and  candour  summarized 
what  were  his  feelings  towards  the  Church  of  England 
at  this  time : — 

"  I  felt  affection  for  my  own  Church,  but  not  tender- 
ness. I  felt  dismay  at  her  prospects,  anger  and  scorn  at 
her  do-nothing  perplexity  ...  As  to  leaving  her,  the 
thought  never  crossed  my  imagination." 7 

But  the  letter  in  which  Mr.  Rose  finally  withdrew  from 
the  discussion  is  too  valuable  to  be  withheld.  It  was 
written  from  Lambeth,  on  the  soth  of  July,  1836,  and 
ran  as  follows  : — 

"  I  did  not  answer  your  last  very  interesting  (painfully 
so  in  some  points)  letter,  for  I  think  we  now  understand 

7  Apologia,— p.  95. 


222  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

one  another  pretty  well. — I  would  only  say  that  some  of 
the  points  of  which  you  complain,  seem  to  me  either 
susceptible  of  easy  remedy  or  hardly  to  require  any.  For 
example,  as  to  a  formal  recognition  of  the  American 
Episcopal  Church.  When  she  actually  emanated  from  us 
only  half-a-century  ago  :  derives  her  Orders  from  us :  and 
those,  formally  given,  after  the  fullest,  most  formal  and 
definite  consideration  and  consultation;  —  what  other 
recognition  could  be  wanting  ?  If  any  is  wanting,  I  am 
persuaded  it  would  not  be  withheld.  But  a  formal  re- 
cognition would  only  be  either  ( i ),  Eecognising  ourselves ; 
or  (2),  Saying  that  the  Consecration  of  the  American 
Bishops  was  duly  performed,  and  therefore  valid.  With 
respect  to  their  officiating  here,  they  are  only  on  the  same 
ground  as  the  Church  in  Scotland ;  and  unless  they 
are  to  be  allowed  to  hold  preferment  here  (i.  e.  if  the 
line  must  be  drawn  somewhere),  I  think  it  is  perhaps 
at  the  right  place.  They  who  officiate  once,  may 
surely  officiate  often.  Then,  they  might  be  Curates  : 
and  to  say  that  a  man  to  whom  you  give  cure  of 
souls  at  a  low  price  and  on  a  temporary  agreement, 
is  unfit  to  hold  that  charge  as  a  permanent  one  with 
more  advantage  to  himself,  would  be  very  objectionable 
indeed. 

"  Then,  as  to  the  Breviary.  Do  you  mean  that  the 
Church  itself  ought  to  undertake  to  publish  an  amended 
Breviary'?  For  such  a  publication  by  yourself,  or 
Williams,  or  Keble,  or  any  other  person  of  sufficient 
name  in  the  Church,  would,  I  am  sure,  be  hailed  not 
with  objections,  but  joy.  But  I  hardly  see  how  the 
Church  could  undertake  it,  though  I  do  not  believe  that 
any  objection  would  be  felt,  if  it  was  set  forth  by  authority 
as  a  book  for  the  voluntary  use  of  Christians,— either 
Ministers,  or  private  Christians.  Surely,  our  Church 
cannot  be  said  to  fail  in  good  feeling  to  the  Breviary 
when  her  daily  Service  is  so  much  taken  from  it !  The 
question  whether  she  might  not  take  a  little  more  is  a 
very  fair  one,  but  is  not,  I  think,  a  reason  for  complaint. 
I  think  the  enjoining,  or  compelling  the  public  use  of  a 
very  long  book  would  be  difficult  and  not  advisable. 


1836]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     22 


But,  short  of  that,  I   do  not   conceive  there  would  be 
any  difficulty  whatever. 

"  Ever,  my  dear  Newman,  most  truly,  heartily,  and  with 
sincere  regard  and  attachment,  yours, 

<;  H.  J.  ROSE." 

Here  too,  with  a  few  brief  remarks,  we  may  take  leave 
of  the  '  Tracts  for  the  Times,' — which  pursued  their 
brilliant  course  until  the  publication  of  Tract  No,  90 
(Jan.  25th,  1841)  brought  the  series  to  a  calamitous  close. 
They  had  begun  admirably  in  the  Autumn  of  1833,  and 
continued  to  do  good  service  until  the  middle  of  1835, 
when  there  was  a  sudden  halt.  They  were  resumed,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  the  first  days  of  1836,  under  seriously 
altered  conditions  :  whereupon  they  encountered  rebuke, 
suspicion,  disfavour  at  the  hands  of  their  best  friends. 
But  all  this  has  been  already  placed  before  the  reader 
with  a  fulness  which  has  never  been  attempted  before. 

We  can  but  regard  the  famous  publication  in  question 
as  a  grand  opportunity  misused,  as  well  as  calamitously 
lost.  The  attention  of  religious  persons  had  been  irre- 
sistibly drawn  to  the  contemplation  of  many  a  half  (not 
wholly)  forgotten  Catholic  truth.  Weary  of  modern  no- 
velties and  the  nostrums  of  rash  and  incompetent  advisers, 
men  were  heard  on  every  side  confessing  that  "  the  old 
is  better."  The  discovery  was  straightway  made  that 
there  had  been  reserved  an  armed  host  ready  to  respond 
to  the  voice  of  the  trumpet  when  it  should  utter  no 
uncertain  sound.  A  little  patience  would  have  lived 
down  hostile  clamour:  a  little  consistency  must  have 
disarmed  suspicion :  a  little  prudence  might  have  silenced 
censure.  But  on  the  contrary.  All  was  done  as  if  to 
frustrate  and  disappoint  expectation.  The  Tractarian 
leaders  of  the  movement,  strange  to  relate,  seem  to  have 
been  haunted  by  a  suspicion  that  the  office  of  the 


224  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

Theologian  is  to  exaggerate  sacred  Truth, — the  business 
of  a  Divine,  to  'startle'  mankind.  Accordingly,  they 
went  off  on  '  Prayers  for  the  dead '  and  '  Purgatory,' — as 
if  forgetting  that  even  the  Intermediate  State  was  scarcely 
recognized  by  the  generality  of  their  readers. — *  Exor- 
cism '  before  Baptism,  was  pleaded  for  at  a  time  when 
Baptismal  'Regeneration'  itself  was  generally  discre- 
dited.— "  The  Breviary,"  (and  "  the  Roman  Breviary  "  of 
all  documents ! 8) — was  recommended  to  the  notice  of 
a  Church  which  had  become  forgetful  of  the  structure 
and  method  of  her  own  matchless  '  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.' — 'Reserve  in  communicating  Religious  Knowledge^— 
was  advocated  for  a  generation  singularly  unacquainted 
with  Divine  things,  and  largely  addicted  to  Unbelief.— 
How  did  it  ever  come  to  pass  (one  asks  oneself),  that 
men  so  intelligent,  as  well  as  so  learned,  should  have  so 
entirely  overlooked  the  actual  needs  of  those  with 
whom  they  had  to  do?  Inspiration, — Miracles, — Pro- 
phecy,— were  all  left  to  take  care  of  themselves!  No- 
where do  we  find  the  severe  historical  truth  of  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  (e.  g.  of  Genesis  i,  ii,  iii,)  insisted 

8  On  this  subject  the  reader  is  viary,  Pontifical,  Manual,  and  other 

referred    to    M.    1'Abbe"   Laborde's  public  service-books  of  the  Church 

'  Lettres  Parisiennes,   on  discussion  of  Rome ;    with  brief  annotations, 

xiir  tcs  deux  Liturgies,  Paiisienne  shewing  the  rise  of  all  that  is  foolish 

et  liomaine,  pour  eclairer  la  deter-  and  superstitious,  and  the  antiquity 

'initiation  de   ceux   qui  out   a    pro-  of  what  remains  good  and  commend - 

noncer  cntre  le  Missel  et  le  Breviaire  able  in  them.     This  might  be  done 

Romain,  et  entre  le  Missel  et  leBre-  in  a  very  few  volumes,  and  those 

viaire  de  Paris,' — Paris,  1855.    The  not  very  large.  .  .  It  is  certain  that 

author    pertinently    asks,  —  "  Que  the  leaders  in  the  Church  of  Rome 

diront  de  nous  les  Protestants  ?  Que  would  with  reason  look  upon  it  as 

diront  de  nous  les  savants  ?"..."!  a  terrible  blow  given  them,  if  such 

have  often  been  thinking"  (wrote  a  translations  could  be  published  in 

learned    non-juror    [1720])    "that  all  the  vulgar  tongues  of  Europe." 

one  could  not  do  a  greater  service  — Preface  to  Johnson's  '  Collection 

to  the  Reformation  than  by  trans-  of  Canons  '  &c.  §  xi. 
lating  into  English  the  Missal,  Bre- 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      225 

upon, — side  by  side  with  a  vindication  of  the  mysterious 
(or  prophetical]  texture  of  Holy  Writ.  It  is  a  memorable 
fact  that  throughout  this  period  (1830  to  1850)  Holy 
Scripture  itself  experienced  marked  neglect.  No  Com- 
mentary in  the  vernacular  tongue  was  so  much  as 
attempted.  The  Romish  controversy  was  revived;  but 
nowhere  (that  I  can  discover)  was  the  impassable  barrier 
between  England  and  Rome  explained  with  the  vigour, 
the  clearness,  the  fearlessness  which  characterized  the 
writings  of  our  elder  Divines.  The  sufficiency  of  our 
Baptismal  and  Communion  Offices  was  by  no  one  loyally 
maintained.  On  the  contrary.  There  is  a  tone  of  dis- 
content,— an  undutiful  disposition  to  find  fault, — almost 
everywhere  discernible.  The  Editors  of  the  later  "  Tracts  " 
did  not  perceive  that  by  the  course  they  were  pursuing, 
(intending  nothing  less,)  they  were  bringing  discredit 
on  Catholic  antiquity  generally; — sowing  distrust  and 
suspicion  in  a  thousand  quarters ; — paving  the  way  for 
many  a  dreary  secession  to  Rome,  on  the  one  hand, — 
many  a  lapse  into  blank  unbelief,  on  the  other.  To  the 
partial  miscarriage  of  the  Tractarian  movement  is  to  be 
attributed,  in  no  slight  degree,  that  miserable  lawless- 
ness on  the  part  of  a  section  of  the  Clergy,  which  is 
among  the  heaviest  calamities  of  these  last  days ;  as 
well  as,  in  an  opposite  direction,  that  ugly  recoil  which 
has  already  disestablished  Religion  in  our  ancient  Uni- 
versities, and  of  which  we  have  not  yet  nearly  seen 
the  end. 

The  praise  and  true  glory  of  the  religious  movement 
which  it  is  customary  to  connect  with  the  year  1833, 
consisted  in  the  mighty  impulse  which  was  then  given  to 
religious  thought  and  sacred  learning  on  the  ancient  lines. 
Two  publications,  known  as  the  "  Library  of  the  Fathers  " 
and  the  "Anglo-Catholic  Library" — (they  are  but  a  part 

VOL.  i.  q 


226  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE: 

of  the  literary  product  of  the  period), — led  to  the 
dissemination  of  a  vast  amount  of  the  best  Church 
teaching.  The  publication  of  new  and  improved  editions 
of  the  works  of  all  our  greatest  Divines  largely  increased 
men's  acquaintance  with  the  resources  of  our  own 
Anglican  Divinity.  The  movement,  notwithstanding 
every  discouragement  and  drawback,  was  to  an  extra- 
ordinary extent  over-ruled  for  permanent  good  :  but, — 
Why(w  sorrowfully  ask  ourselves), — whyww&  it  so  largely 
frustrated1?  and  why,  to  so  great  an  extent,  disfigured 
with  evil  ? 

Posterity,  because  it  can  only  contemplate  a  man  and 
his  times  in  perspective, — in  other  words,  can  only  survey 
results, — is  apt  to  think  of  such  an  one  as  the  subject 
of  the  present  memoir  as  eminently  successful  in  the 
battle  of  life, — foremost  among  the  winners  of  the 
race.  And  no  doubt,  essentially,  Hugh  James  Rose  did 
outstrip  his  fellows, — did  win  for  himself  (as  we  may  now 
confidently  declare)  "a  beautiful  crown."  But  let  any 
one  read  through  bundle  after  bundle  of  his  corre- 
spondence with  attention,  and  he  will  arise  from  the  task 
with  a  woefully  different  impression  on  his  mind.  The 
man  who  wrote  those  and  received  these  letters,  (he  will 
secretly  tell  himself,) — was  living  in  a  state  of  perpetual 
harass, — was  in  the  very  centre  of  an  agony  of  strife. 
Ever  on  the  unpopular,  and  (as  it  seemed)  the  losing 
side,  he  knew  that  he  had  the  powers  of  the  World  against 
him, — a  host  of  opponents,  and  wondrous  few  to  help 
him  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  battle.  By  the  common 
run  of  men,  he  was  stigmatized  as  illiberal,  narrow, 
bigoted, — because  he  unflinchingly  upheld  the  Church's 
teaching.  His  earnestness  in  his  Master's  cause  was 
regarded  as  fanaticism :  his  eagerness  in  contending  for 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     227 

the  Truth,  was  denounced  as  "inflammatory."  Easy- 
going people  were  afraid  of  him  :  the  lovers  of  expediency 
and  counsellors  of  compromise  hated  him  very  cordially. 
On  the  other  hand,  by  the  firebrands  of  his  party  he  was 
suspected  of  being  half-hearted.  His  devoted  attachment 
to  the  Church  of  his  Baptism  was  in  their  account 
"  Erastianism."  They  had  all  manner  of  bad  names 
for  him : — 

"There  were  other  reasons,  besides  Mr.  Rose's  state  of 
health,"  (writes  Mr.  Newman  in  his  Apologia,) — "which 
hindered  those  who  so  much  admired  him  from  availing 
themselves  of  his  close  co-operation  in  the  coming  fight. 
United  as  both  he  and  they  were  in  the  general  scope  of 
the  Movement,  they  were  in  discordance  with  each  other 
from  the  first  in  their  estimate  of  the  means  to  be 
adopted  for  attaining  it.  Mr.  Eose  had  a  position  in 
the  Church,  a  name,  and  serious  responsibilities ;  he  had 
direct  ecclesiastical  superiors ;  he  had  intimate  relations 
with  his  own  University,  and  a  large  clerical  connexion 
through  the  country.  Froude  and  I  were  nobodies ;  with 
no  characters  to  lose,  and  no  antecedents  to  fetter  us. 
Eose  could  not  go  a-head  across  country  (sic),  as  Froude 
had  no  scruples  in  doing.  Froude  was  a  bold  rider,  as 
on  horseback,  so  also  in  his  speculations.  After  a  long 
conversation  with  him  on  the  logical  bearing  of  his 
principles,  Mr.  Eose  said  of  him  with  quiet  humour,  that 
'he  did  not  seem  to  be  afraid  of  inferences.'  It  was 
simply  the  truth ;  Froude  had  that  strong  hold  of  first 
principles,  and  that  keen  perception  of  their  value, 
that  he  was  comparatively  indifferent  to  the  revolu- 
tionary action  which  would  attend  on  their  application 
to  a  given  state  of  things ;  whereas  in  the  thoughts 
of  Eose,  as  a  practical  man,  existing  facts  had  the  pre- 
cedence of  every  other  idea,  and  the  chief  test  of  the 
soundness  of  a  line  of  policy  lay  in  the  consideration 
whether  it  would  work.  This  was  one  of  the  first 
questions,  which,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  ever  occurred  to  his 
mind.  With  Froude,  Erastianism, — that  is,  the  union 
(so  he  viewed  it)  of  Church  and  State, — was  the  parent, 

Q  2 


228  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

or  if  not  the  parent,  the  serviceable  and  sufficient  tool,  of 
liberalism.  Till  that  union  was  snapped,  Christian 
doctrine  never  could  be  safe ;  and,  while  he  well  knew 
how  high  and  unselfish  was  the  temper  of  Mr.  Rose,  yet 
he  used  to  apply  to  him  an  epithet,  reproachful  in  his 
own  mouth ; — Rose  was  a  '  Conservative.'  By  bad  luck, 
I  brought  out  this  word  to  Mr.  Rose  in  a  letter  of  my 
own,  which  I  wrote  to  him  in  criticism  of  something  he 
had  inserted  into  the  Magazine :  I  got  a  vehement 
rebuke  for  my  pains,  for  though  Rose  pursued  a  con- 
servative line,  he  had  as  high  a  disdain  as  Froude  could 
have,  of  a  worldly  ambition,  and  an  extreme  sensitiveness 
of  such  an  imputation."  • 

All  this  is  faithfully  stated, — "  vehement  rebuke  "  and 
all.  (But  that  rebuke  elicited  an  apology,  truly  honour- 
able to  him  who  penned  it.1)  ....  Nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  "going  a-Jiead  across  country"  was  never, 
at  any  time,  one  of  Hugh  James  Rose's  accomplishments. 
Rather  was  '  stare  super  antiqnas  mas  I  the  very  motto  of 
his  soul :  a  true  '  Catholic  '  lie  \  "  averse  "  (as  President 
Routh  phrased  it)  "  from  all  Papal  and  Sectarian  innova- 
tion." ...  I  am  provoked  to  recall  the  speech  of  a  French 
dancing-master  to  Rose's  father,  who  had  sent  Hugh 
James  and  Henry  John,  when  boys,  to  be  instructed  by 
him  in  the  orchestric  art.  "  Sir,"  (exclaimed  the  despairing 
dancing-master  when  the  lads  returned  home  re  infectd), 
— "  I  do  most  sincerely  pity  you  for  being  the  father 
of  two  such  sons."  The  wretched  man  only  meant  that 
neither  of  the  boys  displayed  the  slightest  aptitude — for 
cutting  capers.  To  return  however  to  what  I  was  saying. 

Rose  used  "  great  plainness  of  speech  "  :  and  this  too 
gave  offence.  His  vigorous  handling  of  the  questions  of 
the  day — his  'straight  hitting' — conspicuous  in  every 

9  Apologia,— pp.  105-7.  i§34   (81   Pall  Mall):    the  latter, 

1  The  former  is  dated  March  24th,       March  3oth  (Oriel  College). 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     229 

number  of  the  "  British  Magazine"  created  for  him  many 
enemies.  By  consequence  his  experience  was  that  "  the 
race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong."  He 
had  to  look  on,  while  the  chief  rewards  were  freely 
assigned  to  candidates  of  second,  or  even  third-rate 
ability;  himself  not  without  serious  secular  anxieties, 
alike  for  the  present  and  the  future.  GOD  be  praised  that 
"  there  remaineth  a  rest,"  (an  eternal  sabbath-keeping) 
"  to  the  people  of  GOD  " :  and  that  "  a  crown  of  life  "  is 
in  reserve  for  those  who  have  been  "faithful  unto  death  "  ! 
But,  with  his  mortal  eyes,  the  man  whose  life  I  am 
writing  saw  nothing — either  of  rest  or  of  reward. 

As  I  have  said,  his  whole  life  is  found  to  have  been 
one  long  weary  conflict  with  evil, — moral,  political, 
social,  spiritual.  At  the  very  outset  of  his  career,  when  the 
coarse  vehemence  of  Cobbett  was  employed  in  some  of 
the  latest  efforts  of  his  pen  on  the  side  of  destruction,  it 
was  Hugh  James  Rose  who  came  forward  to  answer  him 
in  his '  Six  Letters  to  the  Farmers  of  England!2  But  it  is  im- 
possible in  a  memoir  like  the  present  to  do  justice  to  the 
zeal  which  he  brought  to  the  cause  of  order  and  public 
safety. 3  What  is  certain  is,  that  from  the  time  that  he 
came  to  the  front  there  has  been  no  interval  during  which 
the  Church  has  been  in  want  of  well-organized  literary 
support  in  that  kind  of  periodical  literature,  which  is  so 
needful  for  the  changeful  exigencies  of  the  day.  The 
"British  Magazine"  was  the  first  endeavour  to  supply  this 
public  want.4  To  a  superficial  observer  he  might  have 

2  — <  On  Tithes  and  Church  Pro-  calumnious   falsehoods   which    had 
perty,' — 2nd  Edition,  '  revised  and  been      anonymously     promulgated 
corrected,' — 1831,  pp.  79 :  an  admir-  concerning  the  Clergy  of  the  Church 
able  production.  of  England, — with  a  view  to  alien- 

3  In  1832,  Mr.  Rose  published  a  ating  the  people  from  the  Church, 
vigorous  '  Letter  to  the  Inhabitants  *   Churton's   Memoir  of  Joshua 
ofEadleigh  and  its  neighbourhood '  Watson, — vol.  ii.  7-8. 

(pp.  33), — in  refutation  of  certain 


230  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

seemed  to  be  allowing  himself  no  rest :  but  the  truth 
was  that  he  was  allowed  none.  We  have  reached  an 
epoch  in  his  brief  history  (1835-6)  which  indeed  brought 
him  comparative  bodily  quiet,  yet  it  yielded  him  no 
relief  from  mental  distress.  The  season,  in  fact,  to 
all  true-hearted  and  reflecting  churchmen,  was  one  of 
most  disquieting  anxiety.  Thus,  in  March  of  this  year, 
he  says  to  a  friend :  "  I  write  in  haste,  and  not  in  good 
spirits ;  as  you  may  discern.  What  is  hanging  over  us 
—the  '  clouds  and  darkness  '  of  the  Church  Commission 
—weigh  one  down  a  good  deal."  Again,  with  reference 
to  the  Education  and  Charity  crotchets  of  the  time — "  I 
feel  the  magnitude  of  the  subject  oppress  me,  and  my 
own  inability  to  do  it  justice  at  all  times,  but  especially 
under  such  pressure  of  business."  The  threatened  spolia- 
tion of  our  Cathedrals, — the  scandalous  appointment  of 
Dr.  Hampden  to  the  Regius  Professorship  of  Divinity  at 
Oxford,  followed  by  his  yet  more  scandalous  elevation  to 
the  Episcopate  : 5 — the  mischievous  counsels  which  pre- 
vailed in  respect  of  the  S.  P.  C.  K.'s  publications,  and  the 
irregular  proceedings  of  the  *  Church  Pastoral  Aid  Society  ': 
— not  to  mention  the  conflicting  schemes  for  Church 

5  Those  who  care  to  pursue  this  Oxford?     With  reference  to  Hamp- 

subject  are  invited  to  read  Dr.  W.  den's  'Moral  Philosophy  Lectures,' 

H.  Mill's  'Letter  to  a  Clergyman  in  Hugh  J.  Rose  thus  wrote  privately 

London  on  the  Theological  Character  (Aug.  I2th,  1836)  to  Benjamin  Har- 

of  Dr.  Hampci 'en'' ',s  Hampton  Lectures,  rison: — "But  the  book   is  so  atro- 

and  the  extent  and  value  of  subsequent  cious— is  so  mischievous  in  tendency 

justifications    of   their  meaning,' —  —so  indecent  in  expression  and  so 

1848,   pp.    32:    together   with   the  miserably  vague  and  weak  in  Philo- 

four   papers   by  Archdeacon   Har-  sophy,— that   it    must  be    exposed 

rison  (in  the  "  British  Magazine,"  and  held  up  to  the  scorn  and  de- 

for  February,  March,  April,  May,  testation  which  it  deserves.     These 

1848), — on  'the  Theory  and  Theo-  are  strong  words,  but  I  really  do 

%.V   of  Dr.   Hampden' 's   Bampton  not  think  that  less  strong  words  (of 

Lectures,    and   the   Censure  passed  course,  in  private}  would  describe 

upon   them   by  the  Convocation   of  it." 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      231 

Building  which  were  then  sorely  exercising  men  of  such 
different  schools  as  Bishop  Blomfield  and  Dr.  Pusey,  (as  his 
correspondence  with  both  abundantly  attests) :  these,  and 
many  like  matters,  pressed  heavily  on  one  who,  through 
broken  health,  was  hardly  able  "  to  hold  his  own."  A 
multitude  of  public  questions  there  were,  of  more  or  less 
painful  interest,  in  addition  to  the  direct  Acts  of  the 
Government,  which  exercised  and  troubled  him.  Pre- 
cious to  him  as  the  apple  of  his  eye,  the  Church  was 
passing  through  an  ordeal  of  severe  humiliation  and 
affliction,  not  to  say  of  actual  danger.  Hear  him 
addressing  Mr.  Newman  at  this  very  juncture  : — 

"  I  confess  that  my  feelings  are  dreadfully  embittered 
and  my  hopes  dreadfully  lowered  just  now,  when  I  see 
the  clouds  gathering  as  they  are.  Within  the  Church,  I 
fear  faction  more  than  ever.  You  have  heard,  I  conclude, 
that  the  Church  Missionary  Society  is  about  to  erect  a 
College  at  Calcutta  to  educate  Missionaries  in  the  teeth 
of  Bishop's  College,  and  without  even  telling  their  own 
friend,  Bishop  Wilson.  Then,  in  another  quarter,  the 
Chester  and  Lichfield  Church-Building  Societies,  striking 
at  the  root  of  our  whole  Parochial  System  of  Church 
Discipline, — such  as  it  is.  And  without  the  walls  of  Troy, 
if  anything  can  be  done  to  twist  all  Education  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  Church,  it  will  now ;  while  some  of  the  Heads 
of  the  Church  are  anxious  to  do  just  as  much  mischief 
and  show  as  much  folly  in  the  matter  where  it  is  in  their 
hands.  On  this  'subscription'  question,  I  greatly  fear 
the  exhibition  of  their  opinions  in  the  Lords.  A  few 
days  however  will  shew  ....  GOD  be  merciful  to  us ! 
Humanly  speaking,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  darkness 
and  storm  are  gathering,  —  the  light  vanishing  fast 
away."6 

6  Dated  "S.  Thomas's,  June  i  yth  do  ad  Clerum,  full  of  dreary  pre- 

[^SS]."     The  reader  is  invited  to  sage,  which  H.  J.  E.  must  have 

refer  back    to   p.   59, — where    in-  written  about  this  very  time, 
teresting  mention  is  made  of  a  Con- 


232  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

In  the  case  of  Mr.  Hose,  as  already  hinted,  bodily 
infirmity  was  superadded  to  every  other  trial  and  form 
of  trouble.  In  October  1835,  he  gives  a  deplorable 
account  of  his  own  health:  recognizes  tokens  "how 
heavily  Time  lays  his  hand"  upon  him :  declares  that  he 
has  now  no  exertion  in  him,  no  voluntary  exertion  at 
least.  "  I  can  answer  to  the  whip  still :  but  do  nothing 
till  the  blow  descends  .  .  .  For  oneself,  these  things  are, 
or  ought  to  be,  warnings  how  fast  the  allotted  time  is 
going ;  and  disease  effectually  doing  the  work  of  years."  7 
To  the  same  faithful  friend,  (but  this  was  in  1834),  he 
had  described  himself  as  "  having  almost  always  written 
under  the  actual  pressure  of  disease,  and  known  that  in 
all  probability  he  must  print  under  the  same  circum- 
stances." 8  I  am  reminded  of  the  terms  in  which  (in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Newman)  he  refers  to  a  sermon  which  he 
had  published  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year : — 

"  I  hope  you  have  received  a  Visitation  Sermon  of 
mine,  in  which,  under  miserable  circumstances  of  illness 
and  haste,  I  have  most  unworthily  handled  a  very 
important  topic, — Excitement  in  Religion.  I  wish  £ome 
one  would  take  it  up  who  could  do  it  justice.  It  is  the 
pivot  on  which  most  of  our  religion,  as  now  vaunted, 
turns." IJ 

In  this  instance  however  we  have  already  heard  the 
highly  eulogistic  sentence  pronounced  by  a  most  accom- 
plished critic  and  thoroughly  competent  judge, — Arch- 
bishop Howley.1 

It  will  be  remembered, — notwithstanding  the  intro- 
duction of  a  few  extracts  from  letters  of  an  earlier  date, 
—that  we  had  brought  our  narrative  down  to  the  spring 

7  To  Joshua  Watson,— Oct.  28th,  *  See  above,— p.  192.     The  Ser- 

1835.  mon  is  called  "  Christians  the  Light 

*  To  the  same, — Feb.  2oth,  1834.  of  the  World." 
9  S.  Thomas's,— Sept.  gth,  1 834. 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     233 

of  1836.  The  adverse  course  of  Church  matters  about 
that  time,  and  notably  the  disgust  and  alarm  with  which 
the  "  Reports  "  of  the  Church  Commission  inspired  him, 
acting  powerfully  on  his  already  greatly  enfeebled  frame, 
are  found  to  have  induced,  in  the  case  of  Hugh  James 
Rose,  a  sentiment  of  despondency  amounting  to  despair. 
Weary  of  the  unavailing  struggle  (June  1836)  he  enter- 
tained serious  thoughts  of  accepting  his  American  friends' 
strongly  urged  offer  of  a  Professorship  in  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  New  York.  He  already  numbered  among 
the  American  Bishops  some  of  his  own  dearest  and  most 
attached  personal  friends, — men  of  primitive  piety,  lofty 
attainments,  and  truly  Apostolical  soundness  of  teaching.2 
The  prospect  seemed  to  him  the  best,  which  at  this  time 
suggested  itself,  as  far  as  usefulness  went.  He  saw  that, 
superadded  to  great  opportunities  of  promoting  the  cause 
of  Catholic  Truth,  and  training  a  considerable  body  of 
Clergy  in  sound  Church  principles,  he  should  in  this  way 
at  least  secure  for  himself  a  moderate  competence  with- 
out the  labour  of  periodical  authorship  (so  hateful  to  him), 
— under  which  his  spirits  failed,  yet  without  which  he 
could  not  live.  This  modest  prospect,  added  to  his 
hopelessness  as  to  public  matters,  arising  from  the  almost 
universal  cowardice,  led  his  thoughts  beyond  the  Atlantic. 
What  alone  made  him  hesitate  was  the  question  of 
duty. 

But, — (and  this  is  the  second  occasion  on  which  we 

2  Eev.  John  Miller,  in  his  brief  lina,  the  son-in-law  of  Bishop  Hobart. 

Memoir   of  H.   J.  K,.,  remarks, —  Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the 

"Among    the   ornaments    of   that  protestant     episcopal     church     in 

church,  whose  society  during  their  America,  it  is  right  to  state  that  the 

sojourn  in  England  gave  him  both  defence  of  Bishop  Hobart  against 

pleasure  and  satisfaction,  it  would  the  *  Theological  Quarterly'  which 

be  injustice  to  an  inestimable  per-  appeared  in  the  '  Christian  Remem- 

son  not  to  mention  the  name   of  brancer,'  was  written  by  Mr.  Rose 

Dr.  Ives,  the  Bishop  of  North  Caro-  [vol.  viii.  542-50]. 


234  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

have  had  to  make  a  precisely  similar  remark,) — he 
was  not  suffered  to  remain  long  in  doubt  as  to  what 
were  the  designs  of  a  gracious  Providence  with  regard 
to  himself.  The  consecration  of  Dr.  William  Otter  to 
the  see  of  Chichester  (Oct.  2nd,  1836),  left  King's  Col- 
lege, London,  without  a  head;  and  all  eyes  were  in- 
stantly directed  to  Hugh  James  Rose  as  the  fittest 
person  to  preside  over  the  infant  Institution.  His 
personal  predilections  of  course  lay  altogether  with 
our  older  foundations  :  and  had  he  enjoyed  any  pros- 
pect of  that  learned  leisure  which  it  would  have  been 
his  supreme  ambition  to  devote  to  the  defence  and 
service  of  the  Church,  he  might  have  hesitated.  But 
here  was  a  post  of  honour  and  great  usefulness  coming 
to  him  unsolicited,  and  presenting  a  greater  concur- 
rence of  advantages  than  were  to  be  met  with  else- 
where in  the  range  of  his  horizon.  He  thought 
therefore  "  that  he  ought  on  all  accounts  to  be  thank- 
ful, and  say,  Yes."  Without  candidature,  much  less 
solicitation  of  any  sort  on  his  part,  he  was  proposed 
as  Principal  in  August,  and  appointed  to  the  office  on 
the  aist  October.  It  was  the  joint  act  of  Abp.  Howley 
and  of  Bp.  Blomfield. 

"  If," — (wrote  Mr.  Rose  to  Joshua  Watson), — "  my 
responsibilities  do  not  press  me  quite  down,  and  things 
go  on  as  quietly  and  satisfactorily  as  I  hope  they 
may,  I  shall  only  be  too  happy  in  thinking  that  my 
staff  is  set  up  for  life,  and  that  no  more  changes  await 
me,  till  the  last." 3 

His  main  regret  was  that  his  future  duties  would 
sever  the  precious  link  which  for  the  last  two-and-a- 
half  years  had  connected  him  with  the  Archbishop. 
Some  compensation  it  was  that  he  should  henceforth 

3  From  S.  Thomas's,  Oct.  24, 1836. 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     235 

be  nearer  to  '  6  Park  Street,  Westminster,' — where  his 
friend  Joshua  Watson  resided  ;  and  he  could  not 
forget  that  he  should  be  henceforth  spared  those  daily 
journeyings  from  Lambeth  to  S.  Thomas's  which  had 
alike  consumed  his  time  and  overtaxed  his  bodily 
strength. 

The  satisfaction  which  this  appointment  afforded  to 
churchmen  is  eloquently  expressed  by  the  following 
hearty  letter  of  congratulation  addressed  to  the  new 
Principal  of  King's  College  by  one  of  kindred  spirit, — 
Walter  Farquhar  Hook  : — 

"Coventry,  Oct.  i7th,  1836. 

"  My  dear  Friend, — I  have  just  heard  from  Mr.  Le 
Bas  that  the  newspaper  report  is  correct,  and  that 
you  are  indeed  to  succeed  Bp.  Otter  at  King's  College ; 
and  bored  to  death  as  you  must  be  by  letters,  I  cannot 
refrain  from  expressing  my  exceeding  great  joy  at  this 
appointment, — my  rapturous  delight;  for  really  nothing 
for  a  long  time  has  given  me  such  pleasure.  I  rejoice 
at  it,  as  one  who  has  the  privilege  of  calling  you  his 
friend,  because  it  provides  you  with  a  comfortable  resi- 
dence in  London,  where,  and  where  only,  as  I  have 
heard  you  say,  you  enjoy  anything  like  health : — and 
I  rejoice  at  it  much  more  on  public  grounds,  for  if 
we  had  sought  through  the  wide  world,  we  could  never 
have  found  a  man  so  admirably  qualified  for  the  situa- 
tion as  you  are.  This  will  be  admitted  by  those  who 
only  look  to  learning  and  talents ; — how  great  then  must 
be  the  joy  of  those  who  regard,  as  far  superior  to  learn- 
ing and  genius,  the  possession  of  sound  Catholic  prin- 
ciples !  Since  I  first  heard  of  the  chance  of  your  being 
appointed,  I  have  prayed  that  so  it  might  be :  and 
I  do  really  think  that  the  appointment  of  such  a  man 
to  such  a  post  at  such  a  time,  is  a  subject  for  devout 
thanksgiving ;  while  I  humbly  pray  that  GOD,  of  His 
infinite  mercy,  may  bless  your  labours  to  the  good  of 
His  Church,  and  grant  you  many  many  years  of  health 
and  strength  to  labour  in  this  field." 


236  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [l836 

In  the  meantime,  a  delightful  prospect  of  usefulness 
was  opening  upon  him.  The  religious  supervision  of 
the  College  was  to  rest  with  himself,  and  to  lecture 
to  about  a  hundred  young  men  in  Divinity  was  to 
be  his  own  special  province.  It  became  at  once  a 
prime  subject  of  solicitude  with  him  to  raise  the 
Medical  students  and  to  encourage  a  better  class,  by 
founding  small  medical  fellowships  where  Classical  and 
Mathematical  attainments,  as  well  as  Religious  know- 
ledge, should  be  the  subjects  of  examination.  The 
essential  feature  of  this  scheme  was  munificently  sup- 
plied by  Joshua  Watson.  Rose  entered  on  his  active 
duties  as  Principal  in  the  last  week  of  October  1836, 
having  already  announced  his  intention  to  resign  his 
little  cure  of  Fairstead,  in  Essex. 4  His  wife,  whose 
long  and  dangerous  illness  throughout  the  greater  part 
of  the  year  had  contributed  no  inconsiderable  element 
to  his  mental  distresses,  was  by  this  time,  to  his  great 
joy  and  comfort,  very  much  better.  Affectionate  and 
able  assistance  in  all  the  heavier  labours  of  the  Magazine 
had  been  already  secured.  The  misgivings  which  had 
been  entertained,  as  well  by  himself  as  by  his  friends, 
on  the  score  of  his  own  health,  for  the  moment  seemed 
groundless.  So  far  all  was  cheering. 

A  letter  which  he  wrote  at  this  juncture  to  his  friend 
Bp.  Doane  claims  insertion  here,  as  well  for  its  in- 
trinsic interest  as  from  the  circumstance  that  it  seems 
to  have  never  reached  its  destination.  I  the  more 
willingly  give  it  place  because  of  the  affectionate  warmth 
with  which  the  writer  mentions  certain  great  lights  of 

*  "I  have  to-day  resigned  Fair-  therefore  for  a  little  more  than  three 
stead  for  ever,'"— (King's  College,  years.  (In  legal  documents,  I  find 
Jan.  4th,  1837.)  He  had  held  it  the  place  spelt,  '  Fairsted.') 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     237 

the  American  Church, — men  who  are  known  to  have 
contended  earnestly  for  the  faith,  and  borne  fearless 
witness  to  the  Truth  (all  honour  to  them  !),  at  a  period 
long  anterior  to  the  Oxford  Revival, — true  pioneers  they, 
of  the  great  Religious  movement  which  is  popularly 
held  to  have  commenced  in  1833. 

"King's  College,  Nov.  3rd  [1836]. 

"  My  dear  and  valued  Friend, — Such  a  letter  as  yours 
ought  not  to  have  been  unanswered  a  day.  Its  warmth 
and  kindness  went  to  my  heart,  and  I  felt  that  if  it  had 
pleased  GOD  that  I  could  have  followed  the  dictates  of 
my  inclination  and  visited  you,  I  should  have  found 
one  to  whom  I  could  at  once  open  my  whole  heart,  and 
to  whom  I  could  speak,  as  I  never  could  to  any  but  the 
friends  of  early  life,  with  one  exception, — and  that  ex- 
ception was  our  beloved  and  lamented  Bishop  Hobart. 
Let  me  now  assure  you  that  I  did  feel  all  your  kindness 
most  sensibly  and  deeply,  and  that  I  must  indulge  the 
hope  that,  although  circumstances  seem  now  to  remove 
farther  than  ever  all  hope  of  moving  on  my  part,  the 
Mother  Country  and  Church  may  prove  a  magnet  which 
shall  operate  across  the  ocean,  and  bring  you — like 
Bishop  Ives — for  a  season  among  us.  That  would  indeed 
be  a  source  of  most  heartfelt  gratification  to  me ;  and  I 
should  depend  on  your  bringing  Mrs.  Doane  to  us  at  once 
and  considering  my  house  as  your  English  home,  which 
you  should  use  as  your  own  and  as  should  suit  your 
convenience  and  comfort  in  all  ways  during  your  sojourn 
amongst  us. 

"The  reason  for  my  silence  was  that  just  as  your 
letter  came,  the  Principalship  of  King's  College  had  been 
placed  at  my  disposal,  although  quietly:  that  I  was  in 
some  doubts  and  embarrassments  about  it;  and  that, 
without  telling  you  a  longer  story  than  was  worth 
telling,  I  could  not  explain  to  you  what  my  condition 
was  at  the  moment,  and  I  did  not  like  to  answer  such 
a  letter  except  as  one  old  friend  to  another.  Suffice  it 
now  to  say  that  I  resolved  finally  to  take  the  station, 
and  that  last  week  I  was  appointed  and  confirmed  in 


238  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1836 

my  office,  and  am  now  commencing  to  exercise  it,  re- 
taining however  my  little  Church  at  St.  Thomas's,  which 
is  very  near  me  and  where  I  shall  officiate  as  I  have 
done. 

"  I  will  not  now  enter  into  the  painful  question  of  our 
Church  condition.  In  the  '  British  Magazine  '  for  Sep- 
tember, I  stated  the  facts  of  the  case, — and  you  would 
see  from  it  that  with  a  Government  so  weak  as  the  pre- 
sent, and  perhaps  any  Government  which  can  be  formed 
for  some  years,  the  course  of  Legislation  whether  on 
Church  or  State  affairs  must  be  perfectly  uncertain ; 
that  the  Government  itself  can  never  say,  till  the  time, 
what  it  can  do. 

"  You  will  see  with  pleasure  the  announcement  of  the 
Translation  of  the  Catholic  Fathers,  which  will,  I  trust, 
tend  to  spread  Catholic  principles  among  us.  My  only 
objection  to  it  is  that  if  they  can  be  got  at  in  Transla- 
tions, the  originals  will  not  be  read ;  and  that  thus, 
another  of  the  few  remaining  motives  to  the  study  of 
Greek  and  Latin  will  be  done  away.  In  an  age  so 
impatient  of  labour  and  so  determined  to  produce  effects 
rapidly,  the  study  of  language  is  of  course  distasteful  in 
the  extreme ;  and  it  requires  great  exertion  to  keep  it 
up. 

"  Dr.  Wordsworth's  Compilation  from  our  best  writers 
will  be  a  most  valuable  book.  It  will,  in  some  degree, 
supply  our  sad  want  of  a  Work  on  Systematic  Divinity, 
as  you  will  see  by  looking  at  his  plan  ;  and  will,  at  the 
same  time,  bring  young  men  acquainted  with  our  great 
writers. 

"  A  thousand  thanks  for  your  excellent  Charge  and 
Sermon.  The  Archbishop  spoke  to  me  of  the  Charge, 
which  he  had  read  immediately  on  receiving  it,  with 
great  pleasure. 

"  I  very  much  wish  that  I  could  find  some  young  man 
among  you,  who  would  undertake, — say  twice  in  the 
year, — to  send  me  a  precis  of  what  has  taken  place  most 
interesting  in  your  Church.  If  it  extended  to  six  or 
eight  pages,  it  would  not  be  too  much.  I  wish  to  make 
the  British  Magazine  a  sort  of  general  Episcopal  Register. 


1836]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     239 

Do  you  know  of  any  such  person  ?  The  publishers  would, 
I  am  sure,  be  very  glad  to  pay  for  this.  Their  rate  of 
payment  is  £10  los.  per  sheet. 

"  Give  my  best  and  kindest  compliments,  and  those  of 
my  wife,  to  Mrs.  Doane  and  say  how  glad  we  should  be  to 
welcome  her  to  England.  From  my  windows  at  King's 
College  you  have  the  finest  view  of  the  Thames  to  be 
found  in  London.  Ever  truly  and  affectionately  yours, 

"H.  J.ROSE." 

In  connexion  with  what  goes  before,  one  word  may  be 
allowed  here  on  the  subject  of  the  '  Library  of  the  Fathers] 
— an  undertaking  which  lay  very  near  to  Rose's  heart. 
The  first  volume  (a  translation  of  Augustine's '  Confessions]) 
was  not  actually  published  till  November  1 838.  Rose  did 
not  live  therefore  to  see  the  first  of  those  39  volumes 
which  gave  so  important  an  impulse  to  the  study  of  the 
Patristic  writings,  and  were  not  discontinued  till  January 
1 3th,  1 858.  Field's  admirable  ed.  of  Chrysostom's  '  Homi- 
lies on  S.  Matthew  s  Gospel'  appeared  at  Cambridge  in 
1839,  and  was  speedily  followed  by  an  English  transla- 
tion. Something  will  be  found  offered  elsewhere  con- 
cerning this  important  undertaking.  .  .  .  But  it  may  not 
be  overlooked  that  Rose's  prime  solicitude  was  to  induce 
the  Clergy  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  Greek  and 
Latin  Fathers  in  the  original  idiom.  Thus,  writing  to 
Benjamin  Harrison  (August  12,  1836),  he  says : — 

"  I  have  been  talking  to  Newman  about  a  plan  I  have 
of  printing  with  a  few  notes  and  general  remarks,  Chry- 
sostom's Commentary  on  two  of  the  shorter  Epistles,  just 
to  convince  young  men  that  they  are  easy  reading.  If 
we  could  coax  those  who  do  read  to  such  studies,  instead 
of  the  everlasting  crambe  about  Justification,  and  thus 
teach  them  that  the  Gospel  is  something  larger  and  better 
than  the  range  of  the  Quinquarticular  Controversy,  it 
would  surely  be  good.  But  the  question  is, — Will  any 
one  buy  such  a  book  ?  " 


240  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1837 

The  writer  of  the  foregoing  letter  to  Bp.  Doane,  it  is 
plain,  was  buoyed  up  by  a  cheerful  hope.  Nor  is  proof 
wanting  that  he  got  through  the  winter  of  1836-7  with 
comparative  immunity  from  suffering.  He  delivered  to 
the  Divinity  Students  of  King's  College  (1836-7)  a 
Course  of  Lectures  on  the  "Evidences  of  the  Christian 
Religion"  which  were  received  with  enthusiasm  as  well 
as  listened  to  with  marked  attention.  During  the  first 
term  also,  and  during  part  of  the  second,  he  had  preached 
in  the  College  Chapel.  At  the  end  of  50  years,  the 
effect  of  the  Principal's  solemn  Addresses  remains  un- 
effaced.  One  who  remembers  those  days  very  freshly, — 
Dr.  Manning,  who,  by  an  interesting  coincidence,  is  also 
Mr.  Rose's  most  recent  successor  at  Fairstead  Rectory, — 
writes  :— 

"  Under  GOD,  I  think  I  may  say  that  I  almost  owe  my 
spiritual  life  to  Mr.  Rose.  I  was  at  King's  College, 
London,  during  the  time  that  he  was  Principal  there,  and 
I  shall  never  forget  the  impression  which  his  teaching 
and  his  holy  life  made  on  me  and  a  large  number  of  my 
fellow  students." 

I  ventured  to  ask  for  more.     Dr.  Manning  proceeds  :— 

"  He  was  with  us  for  so  short  a  season,  and  during  that 
period  out  of  our  sight  for  so  considerable  a  time  through 
illness,  that  it  was  more  the  general  tone  of  holiness 
about  him,  than  the  result  of  personal  intercourse,  which 
influenced  us.  His  manner  was  very  dignified,  and 
apparently  a  little  stern, — perhaps  he  was  more  looked  up 
to  and  reverenced  than  beloved.  He  had  a  high  sense  of 
discipline.  I  well  remember  the  effect  which  an  unwise 
reception  of  his  first  lecture,  or  a  speech,  (by  the  applause 
of  the  students),  had  upon  him.  Dr.  Otter  (whom  he 
succeeded)  had  just  been  made  Bishop  of  Chichester.  He 
remained  for  a  short  time  at  King's  College,  and  he  and 
Mr.  Rose  used  to  come  to  the  Chapel  together.  After 
prayers,  on  the  morning  following  the  event  I  have 


1837]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      241 

mentioned,  as  they  were  going  out  of  the  Chapel,  they 
both  stopped  ;  and  Dr.  Otter  told  us  that  Mr.  Rose  wished 
us  not  to  applaud : — Dr.  Otter  adding,  that,  though  well 
intentioned,  it  was  hardly  consistent  with  proper  respect 
for  one  who  held  that  office  over  us." 

As  was  hinted  above, — the  letters  of  his  correspondents, 
his  own  letters,  alike  attest  that  at  the  coming  in  of  the 
new  year  (1837)  the  Principal  of  King's  College  was 
in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  usual  mental  vigour.  Part 
of  a  communication  from  Mr.  Newman  (Jan.  3rd,  1837) 
will  be  perused  with  interest.  The  references  to  the 
'  Lyra,'  and  to  his  actual  occupations,  are  occasioned  by 
the  editorial  importunities  of  his  correspondent : — 

"  (3  is  Froude's  initial  in  the  '  Lyra'  I  was  very  sorry 
it  had  to  stop,  but  the  reason  was  simply  this, — the  only 
ones  I  could  rely  on  as  forthcoming,  were  my  own ;  and 
they  were  all  written  when  I  was  abroad,  with  the 
exception  of  two  and-a-half.  It  went  on  then  till  the 
supply  was  exhausted.  I  should  have  run  out  sooner, 
unless  I  had  stimulated  Keble  to  send  some  contri- 
butions. 

"  I  have  been  wishing,  ever  since  I  left  off,  (that  is, 
the  last  two  or  three  months,)  to  send  more  '  Churches 
of  the  Fathers ' ;  but  my  time  and  thoughts  have  almost 
been  absorbed  with  books,  questions  and  compositions 
on  the  subject  of  Eomanism.  I  am  publishing  a  sort 
of  Via  Media  as  far  as  it  goes,  and  of  course  it  makes 
me  very  anxious  to  be  accurate.5  I  do  not  think  I 
deviate  from  our  great  writers  in  any  point, — certainly 
any  point  in  which  they  agree.  Doubtless  I  shall  make 
some  mistakes  after  all:  but  not  for  want  of  pains. 
Most  of  it  has  been  re-written,  not  re-transcribed, 
several  times :  good  part,  from  four  to  six  times.  This 
will  account  for  my  apparent  idleness. 

"  You  deserve  some  rest  by  this  time.     No  one  can 

5  Eeferring  to  his  'Lectures  on  Popular  Protestantism.''  It  was 
the  Prophetical  Office  of  the  Church,  published  in  1837  •  tlie  2nd  edition, 
viewed  relatively  to  Eomanism  and  in  1838. 

VOL.  I.  R 


242  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1837 

doubt  the  '  British  Magazine '  has  been  of  extreme  ser- 
vice to  the  Church  since  it  appeared.  It  is  too  valuable 
a  work  to  let  drop."  ° 

To  Dr.  Pusey,  a  few  days  later  (January  9th),  Rose 
renewed  the  warning  which  he  had  repeatedly  uttered 
to  the  Editor  of  the  '  Tracts  '  since  the  beginning  of 

1836:- 

"  As  to  my  fears  of  your  Oxford  proceedings,  I  only 
say, — Keep  where  you  are,  and  go  no  further.  I  do 
not  say  that  the  English  are  a  people  of  good  sense, 
but  I  say  they  abhor  extremes,  and  always  fly  off  from 
those  who  carry  things  too  far.  I  mention  this  as 
a  fact.  Now,  I  certainly  saw,  or  rather  heard  read, 
articles  in  the  'British  Critic'  from  Oxford,  containing 
expressions  which  it  seemed  to  me  could  only  provoke 
jealousy  and  suspicion.  I  can  see  no  good  in  that. 
I  stick  entirely  by  Bp.  Sanderson's  doctrines  on  these 
matters  :  and  if  you  will  cast  your  eye  on  the  extract 
from  him  (in  Dr.  Wordsworth's  new  work)  on  'Expe- 
diency,' I  should  be  very  glad.  I  do  not  think  it 
justifiable  to  say  exaggerated  things  in  order  to  startle 
people.  We  have  an  uphill  game  to  fight.  We  want 
courage  and  perseverance  to  fight  it.  But  it  is  the 
Truth,  and  by  GOD'S  help  it  will  prevail,  if  we  do 
justice  to  it.  If  we  do  all  we  can  to  provoke 
opposition  and  cause  suspicion,  the  case  may  be  very 
different." 

Happy  would  it  have  been  for  the  Church's  peace  and 
prosperity  had  Rose's  sober  counsels  prevailed.  He  had 
said  something  very  similar  to  Newman  on  an  earlier 
occasion  (Oct.  22nd,  1834),  and  in  his  usual  kind  and 
indulgent  way.  There  is  only  room  for  one  brief  ex- 
tract from  that  letter  : — 

;'  Your  letter  to  me  touches  one  topic  which  I  want 
fairly  argued  out.  It  is  one  of  Hare's  notions,  as  well 

6  J.  H.  N.  to  H.  J.  K.  (at  King's  Coll.),— Jan.  3,  1837. 


1837]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     243 

as  yours,  that  saying  startling  and  extravagant  things 
is  very  good.  And  I  feel  that  there  are  some  ad- 
vantages in  it.  But  still,  what  does  permanent  good 
and  produces  permanent  conviction,  and  correction,  and 
improvement, — is  the  more  perfect  and  calm  state- 
ment, free  from  all  extravagance ;  to  which  we  can 
resort  in  all  moods  of  feeling  and  on  all  occasions. 
Do  argue  this  out  for  me,  for  I  am  suspended  in  mind 
about  it." 

At  the  commencement  of  his  Principalship  then,  (Oct. 
1836  to  Jan.  1837),  as  we  have  said  already,  Rose's 
prospects  at  King's  College  were  cheering.  But,  with 
the  early  Spring  of  1837,  all  his  sky  became  heavily 
overcast.  "  I  do  not  yet  get  down  stairs," — he  wrote  on 
the  4th  of  February.  The  prevalent  scourge  of  that 
period,  ('the  influenza'  as  it  was  called),  fastening  on 
a  frame  already  greatly  debilitated,  brought  matters  to 
a  crisis.  "  I  have  been  shut  up  for  weeks  in  my  bed- 
room," (he  writes  of  himself  on  the  4th  March),  "with 
a  fierce  spasmodic  cough,  not  yet  subdued."  And  though 
he  partially  rallied  in  the  Spring,  there  came  on  a  relapse 
in  the  ensuing  May,  from  which  he  never  recovered. 
"  I  am  still  confined  to  the  bed-room,  and  half  to  bed,"- 
he  wrote  on  the  28th  June:  and  though  in  the  same 
month  he  left  London,  yet  was  he  "  too  ill  to  write  or 
speak  to  almost  any  one."  He  was  conveyed  to  the 
Isle  of  Wight  for  change  of  air ;  and  for  three  months 
was  the  cherished  guest  of  his  ancient  friends,  the  Sims 
family,  at  Niton.  A  two  days'  visit  there  from  his 
accomplished  physician  and  friend,  Dr.  Todd, 7  was  re- 
assuring: but  the  patient  gives  but  a  sad  account  of 
himself  in  the  following  affecting  lines  which  he  ad- 

7  Robert  Bentley  Todd,  M.D.  and       Physiology  at  King's  College,  Lon- 
F.E.S.   [1809-1860],— Professor  of      don. 

E  2 


244  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1837 

dressed  to  his   faithful   ally   and   confidential  adviser, 
Joshua  Watson,  in  July  :— 

"  I  can  sit  up  longer  in  the  day  and  walk  a  hundred 
yards  with  as  little  fatigue  as  fifty.  If  pure  air,  perfect 
quiet,  and  an  utter — I  will  not  say  mere  idleness  but — 
torpor,  vacuity r,  apathy  of  mind  as  to  all  mental  employ- 
ment, are  means  of  cure,  these  I  have  in  full  perfection. 
....  I  feel  very  strongly  every  day  what  a  warning  my 
condition  gives  as  to  the  necessity  of  caring  for  those 
things  which  belong  to  our  peace  in  other  days  than 
those  of  languor  and  indisposition ;  for,  earnestly  as  I 
may  desire  to  give  my  thoughts  to  them  now,  no  small 
share  of  the  same  vacuity  and  torpor  of  mind  prevails 
with  respect  to  those  great  concerns,  as  does  towards  the 
worthless  objects  of  time."8 

This  last  year  but  one  of  Hugh  James  Rose's  life 
(1837)  was  in  fact  nothing  else  but  one  long  agonizing 
conflict  with  disease ;  of  strenuous  and  persistent  efforts 
on  his  part  to  give  a  lofty  impress  to  the  teaching  of 
King's  College, — only  not  entirely  frustrated  by  the  in- 
veterate character  of  his  malady.  The  state  of  his  health 
became  so  serious  that,  in  the  month  of  September,  he 
wrote  to  the  Bishop  of  London  to  say  that  he  "placed 
himself  in  his  and  the  Council's  hands,  and  that  his 
resignation  was  ready  if  they  thought  that  his  absence 
could  by  possibility  prejudice  the  College."  9  His  pro- 
posal was  not  entertained  for  a  moment : — 

"  The  Council  of  King's  College "  (replied  the  Arch- 
bishop, to  whom  it  is  evident  that  Rose's  letter  was 
communicated)  "will,  I  am  certain,  be  too  happy  to 
make  any  arrangements  which  may  ensure  the  con- 
tinuance of  your  services  when,  by  the  blessing  of  GOD, 
you  have  recovered  your  health,  and  are  enabled  to 
resume  your  laborious  duties  with  safety  to  yourself. 

8  H.  J.  K.    to    J.  W.— July  7,  9  To  the  same,— Clapham  Com- 

1837.  mon,  Sept.  23rd,  1837. 


1837]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      245 

"We  are  disappointed  at  the  postponement  of  your 
visit,  and  expect  to  be  compensated  for  the  delay  by  the 
pleasure  of  having  you  with  us  for  a  longer  time.  We 
hope  indeed  to  keep  you  many  weeks.  You  can  hardly 
be  in  a  place  better  suited  to  the  comfort  of  an  invalid. 
The  distance  is  not  so  great  as  to  prevent  you  from 
visiting  London  whenever  your  presence  may  be  re- 
quired at  the  College ;  and  Mrs.  Howley  and  I  can 
mutually  vouch  for  each  other,  that  there  is  no  house  in 
the  kingdom  where  you  and  Mrs.  Rose  would  be  more 
truly  welcome."  x 

From  a  letter  of  Mrs.  Rose  to  the  Rev.  John  Miller,  it 
is  found  that  after  the  three  months  spent  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  she  and  her  husband  had  first  repaired  to  Glynde 
in  Sussex,  in  order  to  pass  a  few  days  with  Rose's  aged 
father  and  mother.  Thence,  (Sept.  i9th)  they  had  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Harrisons  at  Clapham,  where  they  were 
domiciled  for  three  weeks.  After  this,  it  was  settled 
that  it  would  be  better  for  Mr.  Rose  not  to  attempt 
residence  at  King's  College  during  the  October  Term, 
but  to  establish  himself  somewhere  in  the  neighbour- 
hood,— where  he  could  maintain  some  little  superinten- 
dence of  the  College,  without  being  sufficiently  near  at 
hand  to  be  perpetually  harassed  by  its  requirements. 
Accordingly,  availing  themselves  of  the  Archbishop's 
gracious  hospitality,  early  in  October  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Rose  repaired  to  Addington,  and  remained  there  till  the 
beginning  of  1838. 

Meanwhile,  Hugh  James  Rose's  exertions  for  the  Col- 
lege were  most  strenuous,  and,  all  circumstances  taken 
into  account,  may  be  declared  to  have  been  even  extra- 
ordinary. He  had  prepared  his  course  of  Divinity  Lectures 
(for  1837-8)  on  "Ecclesiastical  History,"  though  he  was 

1  Addington,  29th  Sept.  1837. 


246  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE: 

obliged  to  deliver  them,  at  least  in  part,  by  deputy.  His 
devoted  friend,  Mr.  Allen,  Chaplain  of  the  college,  (since, 
Archd.  of  Salop,)  read  them  for  him :  he  himself  being 
confined  to  his  sick  chamber.  He  also  preached  oc- 
casionally in  the  College  Chapel,  but  found  it  dreadfully 
fatiguing.  No  wonder ;  for  his  organs  both  of  respira- 
tion and  speech  were  by  this  time  thoroughly  impaired, 
and  no  longer  capable  of  abiding  relief, — much  less  of 
permanent  cure.  As  might  have  been  expected,  the 
return  to  King's  College  (about  the  middle  of  January) 
promptly  undid  whatever  of  benefit  had  accrued  from 
the  delightful  repose  and  salubrity  of  Addington  Park. 
The  season  was  unusually  severe.  Rose  was  entirely 
confined  to  the  house.  "  The  worry  of  College  business," 
— (a  thing  inevitable  to  the  Principalship  of  a  new 
Institution,  but  which  was  minimized  in  his  case  as  far 
as  was  practicable), — proved  more  than  his  strength  could 
endure.  It  became  plain  to  the  loving  eyes  which  watched 
his  frail  condition  with  incessant  anxiety,  that  he  was 
losing,  not  gaining  ground. 

As  this  sketch  of  a  life, — whether  to  be  more  fitly 
characterized  as  'sorrowful'  or  'glorious,'  I  really  know 
not, — draws  to  a  close,  one  feels  as  if,  with  breathless 
anxiety,  one  were  watching  the  fortunes  of  a  runner 
engaged  in  a  race — with  Death.  The  brave  heart,  sus- 
tained by  a  secret  consciousness  that  the  well-being  of 
the  Church  of  CHKIST  depends  in  a  measure  on  his 
prolonged  exertion,  makes  another  and  yet  another 
desperate  effort,  as  scorning  to  give  in.  Are  not  his 
faculties  as  clear  as  ever1?  his  powers  of  mind  even  more 
vigorous  3  May  he  not  yet  hold  out  for  a  time  ?  But  it 
is  evidently  a  terribly  unequal  contest.  There  is  no 
chance  for  him.  He  will  have  to  give  in  soon, — must  be 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      247 

beaten  at  last.  To  talk  of  the  "  health  "  of  one  in  such  a 
state  is  to  misuse  words.  There  is  not  enough  of  life 
remaining  in  him  to  enable  him  to  do  the  work  which 
yet  he  is  resolved  to  do.  But  in  the  meantime,  strive  to 
the  end  he  evidently  must  and  will.  Thus,  he  had 
undertaken  to  seek  to  enlist,  by  private  correspondence, 
the  practical  sympathy  of  many  of  high  position  in  the 
Church  in  an  edition  of  Chrysostom's  Homilies  on  S. 
Paul  (for  the  'Library  of  the  Fathers'),  and  thus  excuses 
himself  to  Dr.  Pusey  (Feb.  3rd,  1838)  for  his  silence  as 
to  the  result :  revealing  incidentally  how  great  a  sufferer 
Hugh  James  Rose  had  been  from  sickness  during  the 
last  year  but  one  (1837)  of  his  life: — 

"  You  will  naturally  say,  Did  you  never  enquire  the 
result  ?  The  answer  shall  be  frankly  given.  I  heartily 
pray  you  may  never  know  its  force.  The  Influenza  is 
a  most  extraordinary  disease  in  one  respect.  It  pros- 
trates mind,  in  many  cases,  quite  as  much  as  body ; 
and  the  recovery  of  each  is  equally  slow.  For  months 
I  felt  that  writing  a  Letter,  or  a  paragraph  of  half-a- 
dozen  lines,  was  terrible:  and  although,  with  the  partial 
return  of  bodily  strength  with  which  it  has  pleased 
GOD  to  bless  me,  something  of  former  feelings  shows  a 
tendency  to  return,  yet  still  the  apathy,  the  indifference, 
— to  things  which  a  few  months  ago  would  have  haunted 
me  day  and  night  till  I  had  written  and  done  what  I 
could, — the  listlessness  and  the  inaptitude  for  exertion, 
exist  to  a  degree,  which  if  I  did  not  view  them  as  a 
trial,  (and  therefore,  I  firmly  believe,  a  blessing,)  would 
be  most  painful.  To  say  the  truth  then,  under  the 
passiveness  of  this  incubus,  I  never  did  write  to  enquire 
what  had  been  the  result  of  the  correspondence. 

"  What  I  have  just  said  will  serve  to  show  how  sincerely 
I  must  rejoice  that  a  publication  which  I  think  likely 
to  do  so  much  good  as  Chrysostom  on  S.  Paul  is  to  go 
on  without  my  being  obliged  to  bestir  myself.  Other- 
wise, I  should  indeed  have  rejoiced  at  being  united 


248  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

with  you :  and  still,  if  life  should  be  continued  and 
energy  return,  I  should  hope  that  some  other  point  of 
union  may  offer.  I  hope  that  your  last  word  but  one 
about  Field  ('he  cd  not')  was  ' could /  not  'would'" 

The  last  two  letters  which  (so  far  as  I  am  aware) 
passed  between  Mr.  Rose  and  Dr.  Pusey  shall  be  given  in 
full.  Both  are  in  a  high  degree  interesting : — 

[King's  College,]  "March  14,  1838. 

"  My  dear  Pusey, — I  should  have  answered  your  kind 
and  most  welcome  letter  before,  had  I  not  been  rather 
pressed  by  business. 

"  First,  let  me  say,  as  to  the  Advertisement,2  that  I  had 
not  seen  it :  and  that  if  I  had,  I  should  never  have 
thought  of  it  again,  as  I  am  quite  sure  that  you  would 
do  nothing  intentionally  unkind.  I  should  have  con- 
cluded it  a  mere  bookseller's  transaction.  On  one 
account  I  am  glad  you  mentioned  the  matter,  for  I  really 
was  not  aware  before,  that  directions  on  these  matters 
were  advisable.  It  never  occurred  to  me  to  give  any ; 
but  if  they  are  given  by  authors  commonly,  of  course 
one  ought  to  attend  to  the  point  more. 

"  Most  heartily  do  I  wish  that  we  had  known  each 
other  personally  before  that  German  War,  and  I  am 
sure  it  would  never  have  taken  place.  I  should  have 
profited  by  your  very  far  superior  knowledge  of  the 
subject,  and  should  have  done  the  work  of  warning  the 
English  student  more  effectually, — a  work  which  you 
would  have  rejoiced  to  see  done  as  much  as  I  could. 
That  was  the  real  point  of  consequence.  It  was  in  some 
degree  gained,  but  not  wholly.  I  find  now  (and  Mr. 
Becker  observed  the  same  to  me)  marvellous  things 
thought  of  men  of  whom  the  Germans  have  spoken  only 
with  just  contempt  for  years  and  years. 

"  My  fears — (and  perhaps  in  my  present  condition  of 
health  they  are  more  easily  excited) — as  shadowed  out 
in  a  former  Letter,  were,  that  there  was  a  tendency  to 
exaggerate  differences  on  minor  points  ;  so  as  to  array 
those  who  have  one  common  end  in  view, — and  would 

2  I  presume,  of  Pusey' s  work  mentioned  above, — p.  134. 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     249 

arrive  at  it  by  almost,  if  not  precisely,  the  same  road, — 
if  not  against,  at  least  apart  from  each  other.  I  deeply 
regret,  as  far  as  I  am  myself  concerned,  (and  I  only 
presume  to  allude  to  myself  as  having  been  mixed  up 
with  these  matters  constantly  in  the  management  of  a 
Periodical),  that  we,  i.e.  Oxford  and  London,  are  not 
nearer :  for  a  few  words  would  often  explain  that 
that  to  which  it  might  not  be  unnatural  to  attribute 
much  meaning,  had  really  none  at  all.  As  an  example, 
take  your '  Fifth  of  November '  Sermon, 3  which  has  not 
been  noticed.  I  daresay  it  has  been  thought  that  this 
was  in  consequence  of  our  views  not  agreeing.  The 
real  fact  was  that  I  had  no  one  to  whom  I  could 
with  comfort  assign  the  task  of  reviewing  it:  that 
it  could  not  be  passed  over  with  a  mere  'Dr.  Pusey's 
striking  and  valuable  Sermon ; '  and  that  therefore  I 
felt  I  must  take  it  in  hand  myself.  I  soon  found  that 
I  was  quite  inadequate,  at  present,  to  cope  with  the 
fair  and  full  consideration  of  so  deeply  interesting  and 
very  wide  a  subject, — and  so,  the  matter  has  died  away. 
My  wife  and  I  read  the  Sermon  with  great  eagerness, 
and  with  a  strong  sympathy  with  great  part  of  it.  But 
for  want  of  power  to  apply  myself  to  the  minute  exami- 
nation of  all  the  great  questions  raised  in  it,  I  could  not, 
if  asked  at  this  moment,  say  either  'Yes'  or  'No  '  to  the 
question, — Do  you  entirely  take  Dr.  Pusey's  view  ? 
There  were  one  or  two  points  about  which  I  was  going 
to  write  to  you  when  preparing  to  review  the  Sermon, 
which  I  did  not  quite  make  out.  One  related,  I  know,  to 
certain  modern  miracles.  I  really  did  not  know  to 
what  you  alluded,  while  I  fully  agreed  in  generally  repro- 
bating the  spirit  of  unbelief  which  would  turn  away 
and  scoff  at  all  the  evidence  which  could  be  brought  on 
such  a  point. 

"  In  my  Lecture  to-day  I  made  a  solemn  cohortation  to 
all  the  Students  who  were  to  be  Divines,  to  study  here- 
after Chrysostom's  Homilies  on  S.  Paul ;  and  told  them 
they  would  probably  soon  have  a  good  edition  of  the 
work.  I  had  proposed  (and  in  some  degree  begun  to 

3  '  Patience  and  Confidence  the  strength  of  the  Church' — 1837. 


250  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

collect  materials  for  the  purpose)  to  show,  in  a  Preface, 
how  very  accurate  the  Criticism  of  the  words  and  style 
of  S.  Paul,  which  we  find  in  these  Homilies,  is.  In  one 
respect,  this  is  an  inferior  merit ;  but  it  has  its  intrinsic 
value,  and  as  a  proof  of  minuteness  and  perseverance  in 
the  study  of  the  Apostle's  writings,  is  very  important, 
as  we  thus  learn  to  repose  extensive  confidence  in  our 
guide. 

"  I  hope  to  hear  a  better  account  of  Mrs.  Pusey  as  the 
Spring  advances.  This  (March  14)  is  really  a  genial  day, 
with  a  gentle  free  air,  worthy  of  May. 

"  Believe  me  to  be,  ever  very  truly  yours, 

"H.  J.  ROSE." 

"  P.S.  I  wish  very  much  that  I  could  get  more  people 
to  send  Reviews  of  Books  they  may  be  reading,  such  as 
have  sometimes  appeared,  prefixed  to  the  regular  Reviews. 
Would  any  of  your  friends  about  you  send  such  an 
account  of  poor  Froude's  most  interesting  '  Remains '  ? 
I  do  not  know  to  whom  to  give  them  for  Review.  For 
very  few  can  understand  or  appreciate  his  very  peculiar 
excellencies.  A  book  so  miscellaneous,  touching  on  so 
very  many  points,  is  a  very  hard  matter  for  a  regular 
Reviewer ;  and  a  sketch,  such  as  could  be  given  in  the 
kind  of  Review  I  mention,  would  be  far  preferable. 

"I  have  mentioned  in  two  cases  difficulties  about 
Reviews.  I  find  it  pressing  very  often  on  me.  Young 
men,  whatever  be  their  talents,  are  not  good  at  giving  a 
just  judgment  of  books, — and  one  can  hardly  ask  older 
persons  to  take  up  such  small  matters  as  Magazine 
Reviews  which  are  necessarily  so  short.  The  Correspond- 
ence liemews,  so  to  speak,  would  be  very  useful/' 

What  follows  is  Dr.  Pusey 's  answer  to  part  of  the 
foregoing  letter.  It  is  undated,  but  clearly  belongs  to 
the  March  of  1838. 

"  My  dear  Friend,— I  thank  you  most  truly  for  your 
kind  words  about  our  '  German  War,'  which  I  too  have 
long  regretted  ;  and  the  more,  since,  though  I  thought  at 
the  time  your  blows  were  the  heavier,  I  (which  at  the 
time  I  did  not  think)  commenced  it.  It  had  indeed  not 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     251 

taken  place,  had  we  known  each  other  then:  but  I 
thought  you  attached  an  undue  weight  to  things  ex- 
ternal: I  mean,  to  the  authority  (as  distinct  from  the 
inward  life,)  of  the  Church, — of  its  Articles, — and  its 
Liturgy.  And  myself  did  not  sufficiently  realize  the 
blessing  attending  on  our  own  Church,  as  distinct  from 
other  reformed  bodies ;  nor  had  observed  the  Providence 
which  has  watched  over  her;  or  the  way  in  which  (as 
distinct  from  any  '  binding  force ')  our  primitive  Liturgy 
must  have  supported  the  faith  of  many  who,  in  the  last 
century,  were  probably  far  from  entering  into  its  full 
meaning,  but  of  themselves  would  have  sunk  far  lower. 
I  thought  again  that  you  laid  too  much  stress  on  the 
'  binding  force '  of  Creeds  and  Articles ;  and  myself  did 
not  sufficiently  appreciate  the  inward  power  of  Creeds 
in  moulding  the  mind,  and  keeping  it  from  straying. 
Such,  at  least,  is  my  impression ;  though  it  is  now  long 
since  I  have  looked  into  what  we  wrote. 

"  But  this  is  past  and  gone.  The  most  grievous  part, 
as  you  say,  is  that  the  work  was  but  half  done ;  and, 
what  is  for  me  the  saddest,  that  I  have  been  thought 
(though  I  protested  against  it  in  the  2nd  volume),  to 
have  been  opposed  to  you,  where  I  felt  altogether  with 
you,  as  to  Rationalism  itself.  I  thought  we  differed 
about  the  causes  and  extent  of  it ;  not,  for  a  moment,  as 
to  its  perniciousness  and  shallowness ;  and  I  feared 
people  in  England  were  verging  towards  [it]  in  a  way 
which  I  thought  you  did  not  see.  I  feared  lest  cold  dry 
views  on  the  one  hand,  and  especially  a  decayed  Pietism 
on  the  other,  might  find  their  parallel  among  us,  and 
bring  in  Rationalism  here  also.  We  ought  to  have  been 
fighting  side  by  side,  instead  of  with  each  other :  you, 
against  the  impugners  of  Church  Discipline,  Subscription, 
Authority ;  which,  in  those  quiet  days  in  Oxford,  /  did 
not  even  know  of :  you  upholding  Creeds ;  and  /, 
opposing  'human  systems'  (as  distinct  from  Creeds, 
and  indeed,  as  I  have  since  seen  more  distinctly,  opposed 
to  their  very  ^0os).  However,  I  trust  that  we  were  even 
then  friends  in  heart.  (I  grieved  at  the  time  when  I 
heard  of  your  ill-health,  which  the  worry  of  this  contro- 


252  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

versy  must  have  aggravated.)  And,  since  'precious  are 
the  wounds  of  a  friend/  our  mutual  blows  may  have 
done  us  each  good ;  and  any  hastiness  I  trust  [has]  been 
forgiven  by  Him,  whom  we  both  meant  to  serve, — as 
we  long  ago  cordially  forgave  and  forgot  any  pain  which 
either  may  have  caused  the  other. 

"  I  only  wish  there  were  any  way  in  which  we  might 
co-operate :  yet  so,  I  trust,  we  have  been  doing  ;  for,  if 
right  principles  prevail,  the  shallow  works  you  speak  of 
(such  as  Rosenmuller  I  suppose)  must  fall  of  themselves. 
But  I  wish  they  had  been  got  rid  of  long  ago :  and  so, 
I  the  more  regret  that  we  were  ever  opposed;  and 
seemed  to  be  so,  more  than  we  were. 

"  With  every  good  wish,  ever  yours, 

[March  1838.]  "  E.  B.  P." 

The  history  of  1838, — the  concluding  year  of  Hugh 
James  Rose's  earthly  life, — presents  an  exaggerated 
repetition  of  what  had  been  the  history  of  1837.  As 
already  hinted,4  it  was  one  brave,  but  hopeless  as  well 
as  incessant,  battling  with  disease.  We  have  already 
heard  of  his  lecturing  to  the  students  in  Divinity  in 
March,  and  urging  them  to  the  study  of  Chrysostom. 
His  last  course  of  lectures  was  read  for  him  by  Arch- 
deacon Allen ;  to  whom,  on  the  J  ith  of  June,  he  wrote, — 
"  I  am  rather  inclined,  as  no  other  regular  Lecture  day 
will  occur,  to  take  some  extra  day,  as  for  example 
Monday  the  1 8th,  for  a  concluding  Lecture  of  my  own. 
But  I  will  not  yet  give  notice  of  it."  When  the  day 
came,  he  found  himself  utterly  unequal  to  the  effort. 
Deeply  did  he  deplore  his  inability;  for  the  occasion 
(the  close  of  the  Academic  year)  was  a  memorable  one, 
and  his  mind  was  full  of  anxious  forebodings  concerning 
himself.  He  wrote  a  short  valedictory  Address  (which 
Allen  read  to  the  young  men)  on  two  sheets  of  paper : — 
*  See  above,  p,  246-7. 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      253 

"Believe  me," — (these  were  among  his  latest  words,) 
— "  that  although  I  have  been  unable  from  illness  to  hold 
much  personal  intercourse  with  many  of  you,  I  consider 
you  as  a  very  solemn  charge  committed  to  me.  I 
earnestly  pray  to  GOD  to  bless  and  lead  you  in  the  right 
way,  and  to  send  His  blessing  on  such  humble  endea- 
vours as  I  can  make,  whether  in  the  Lecture  Room  or 
the  Chapel,  to  lead  you  to  a  knowledge  of  His  truth  and 
Salvation.  I  am  unable  to  go  into  any  practical  details 
now ;  but  be  assured  that  if  it  pleases  GOD  to  permit  me 
to  return  with  renewed  strength,  1  desire  nothing  so 
much  as  that  you  should  come  and  hold  free  and  unre- 
served intercourse  with  me  on  these  most  important 
topics." 

As  a  further  indication  of  his  energy  and  mental 
activity  throughout  this  period,  in  addition  to  that  which 
his  letters  furnish,  it  may  be  recorded  that  it  was  in  this, 
his  last  year  (1838),  that  he  induced  the  learned  Dr.  Alex- 
ander McCaul  to  translate  'Kimchi  on  Zeckariah*  He  would 
have  got  the  whole  of  his  Commentary  on  the  Prophets 
executed,  had  he  lived.  But  by  this  time  his  disease 
was  gaining  rapidly  upon  him.  Trial  was  again  made 
of  Niton  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  with  about  as  much, 
— or  as  little, — success  as  in  1837.  To  the  Rev.  John 
Miller  he  wrote  in  July, — 

"  I  continue  much  in  the  same  state  as  I  have  been  in 
for  some  months  :  not  going  back  ;  perhaps,  since  I  came 
here,  going  a  little  forward.  But  the  specific  complaint 
remains  much  the  same,  and  while  it  does,  I  cannot  gain 
strength,  as  the  expectoration  keeps  me  down.  I  am 
tolerably  well  for  the  first  half  of  the  day,  and  then  long 
to  go  to  bed." 

Subsequently,  to  ensure  a  more  complete  change,  a 
little  continental  excursion  was  tried.  He  visited  Paris 
for  a  short  time,  and  returned  to  Niton  on  the  ist  Sep- 
tember ;  whence  he  repaired  into  Sussex,  in  order  to  repose 


254  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE: 

— (it  was  destined  to  be  for  the  last  time!)— under  the 
shadow  of  his  anxious  parents'  roof.  Writing  from  his 
father's  vicarage,  (Glynde,  10  Sept.  183  8),  he  tells  a  friend, — 

"  Our  winter  destiny  is  yet  unsettled.  I  fear  being 
sent  abroad,  and  I  can  ill  describe  how  heavily  the 
thought  sits  on  me."  [And,  to  another  intimate,  writing 
about  the  same  time,  he  says, — "  You  can  little  imagine 
how  the  thought  depresses  and  wears  me,  when  I  remem- 
ber how  much  I  must  break  up,  and  alter,  and  leave  to 
others 5."]  "  The  warm  dry  air  of  Paris,  however,  did  so 
well,  and  the  sea  has  latterly  done  so  ill  for  me,  that  I 
think  it  probable  they  may  give  up  Madeira,  which  was 
the  scheme,  for  some  continental  residence.  We  go 
hence  in  a  day  or  two ;  after  which  King's  College  will 
be  our  address  till  we  go.  if  we  go." G 

There  is  a  dash  of  intense  melancholy  in  everything  he 
wrote  about  this  period.  How  sad  is  the  avowal  in  the 
words  which  follow — addressed  (Sept.  24th)  to  his  bosom- 
friend,  Joshua  Watson  :— 

"  Composition,  I  find,  becomes  a  much  heavier  task  as 
I  grow  older,  instead  of  a  more  easy  one :  and  to  some 
men, — 1  mean,  even  superior  men, — it  is  unspeakably 
burthensome.  Two  of  the  best  Clergy  I  know,  spend 
their  lives — I  might  almost  say  without  a  figure — in 
misery,  on  this  very  account.  They  think  they  ought  to 
write ;  but  though  they  have  excellent  sense  and  con- 
siderable acquirements,  this  power  they  have  not." 

It  must  have  been  at  an  advanced  period  of  1838,  that 
a  little  incident  of  interest  occurred  which  displays 
the  Principal  of  King's  College,  while  in  a  state  of  great 
bodily  prostration,  labouring  to  do  his  Master's  work 
with  zeal  beyond  his  powers.  An  alumnus  of  the 
College,  then  about  17  years  of  age, — (one  of  those  who 

5  To  Rev.  Benj.  Harrison, — Niton,  Sept.  4th,  1838. 
*  To  Eev.  John  Miller. 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      255 

had  attended  his  Divinity  Lectures), — for  whatever 
reason,  had  attracted  his  favourable  notice.  Let  the 
young  man  himself,  at  the  end  of  49  years,  be  invited 
to  tell  us  the  rest : — 

"  Mr.  Rose  had  been,  I  think,  for  two  or  three  months 
confined  to  his  house  by  illness.  One  of  the  College 
servants  informed  me  that  the  Principal  wished  to  see 
me  in  his  room,  at  two  o'clock.  On  entering,  I  suppose 
I  must  have  exhibited  some  surprise  or  alarm.  I  well 
remember  what  Hfelt  on  seeing  him, — pale  and  emaciated, 
—propped  up  with  pillows  in  an  easy  chair  by  the  fire- 
side. He  said  to  me, — '  Don't  be  frightened  at  the  sight 
of  death, — if  it  is  death  you  see.'  He  made  me  sit  down 
by  his  side.  He  told  me  that  '  he  was  being  sent  away 
from  England ;  he  thought  it  was  to  die,  but  if  he  should 
live  till  I  had  taken  my  degree  at  the  University,  he 
wished  me  to  promise  that  I  would  come  and  see  him 
when  I  entered  into  holy  Orders.'  He  said  such  kind 
things,  and  gave  me  such  good  advice,  as  touched  my 
boyish  heart  very  deeply;  and  I  have  never  forgotten 
the  impression  made  upon  me.  I  then  learned  for  the 
first  time  that  I  loved  him, — whom  I  thought  I  only 
reverenced."  7 

In  reply  to  further  inquiries,  the  same  gentleman 
(Oct.  6th)  writes  :— 

"  I  cannot  remember  the  exact  date  of  that  interview ; 
but  I  know  that  it  was  very  shortly,  if  not  immediately 
before  he  left  England.  After  so  many  years  I  find  it 
impossible  to  recall  all  that  he  said  to  me.  From  the 
state  of  his  health  the  interview  was  necessarily  a  short 
one ;  and  what  he  said  was  of  so  kind  and  personal  a 
nature,  that  I  should  not  like  to  reproduce  it,  even  if 

I  could  accurately  remember  his  words I  was  sent 

for  to  what  was  called  '  The  Principal's  Room,' — which 
communicated  with  his  house  and  also  with  the  College. 
It  was  upstairs.  At  the  moment  I  entered  by  the  door 

7  MS.  communication  from  the  stead  Kectory, — Sept.  28th,  1886. 
Kev.  F.  J.  Manning,  D.D.,  Fair-  See  above,  p.  240-1. 


256  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

communicating  with  the  College,  a  lady  (whom  I 
supposed  to  be  Mrs.  Rose)  left  the  room  by  the  door 
communicating  with  the  house.  He  had  not  been  seen 
by  any  of  the  students  for  a  very  long  time  previously, — 
I  cannot  remember  how  long,  but  it  must  have  been 
some  months.  I  feel  quite  sure  that  I  was  the  last  who 
saw  him." 

If  Hugh  James  Rose's  trusted  intimates  were  not 
many,  yet  must  it  be  confessed  that  firmer,  or  more 
generous,  or  more  enthusiastic,  friends,  no  man  ever  had. 
This  remark  is  specially  suggested  as  his  earthly  life 
hastens  to  its  close.  They  seem  to  gather  round  him  :  to 
claim  the  privileges  of  affection :  to  vie  with  one  another 
in  seeking  to  diminish  his  anxieties  and  lighten  his 
burdens.  The  admirable  Joshua  Watson,8  whose  name 
has  already  more  than  once  come  before  the  reader,  was 
strenuous  with  him — (quite  vainly  however) — to  regard 
him  as  his  banker  all  the  time  he  should  be  away  from 
England.  He  was  Rose's  habitual  confidant  and  coun- 
sellor,— his  senior  by  some  four-and-twenty  years.  The 
Sims  family  have  been  already  mentioned  as  the  loving 
intimates  of  his  youth, — his  devoted  nurses  at  the  close 
of  life.  S.  R.  Maitland,  (librarian  of  Lambeth,)  the  witty 
and  accomplished  author  of  so  many  precious  contri- 
butions to  the  Ecclesiastical  literature  of  that  time, 
yielded  to  no  one  in  attachment  to  Rose's  person  and 
devotion  to  his  service.  It  was  he,  in  the  main,  who 
now  made  himself  responsible  for  carrying  on  the  "British 
Magazine."  And  in  this  connexion  I  may  not  fail 
to  mention  the  Harrisons  (to  whose  house  on  Clapham 
Common  Rose  used  to  resort  as  to  a  home) ;  the  rather, 

The  reader  is  referred  to  a  valu-  notices  of  his  contemporaries,  and 

able  "Memoir  of  Joshua  Watson"  spans  an  important  but  neglected 

by  the  late  Archd.  Churton, — 2  vols?.  period  of  our  Church's  history, — the 

1 86 1.     It    abounds    in    interesting  former  half  of  the  present  century. 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     257 

because  it  was  the  appointment  of  Archd.  Harrison 
to  be  his  colleague  at  Lambeth,  which  proved  one  of  the 
most  comforting  incidents  which  attended  Hose's  ex- 
patriation. At  Mr.  Harrison's  house,  Rose  and  his  wife 
spent  their  last  days  in  England,  and  from  it  they 
started  on  their  sorrowful  journey  to  the  South. 

It  has  been  justly  remarked  concerning  him  that  he 
possessed  in  a  supreme  degree  the  art  of  inspiring 
confidence, — of  winning  the  trustful  esteem  and  regard 
of  all  with  whom  he  had  to  do.  But  there  really  was 
no  '  art '  in  the  case.  He  was  born  to  be  a  leader  of 
men.  He  naturally  inspired  confidence, — unconsciously 
communicated  to  others  a  measure  of  the  generous 
enthusiasm  of  his  own  noble  nature.  Let  it  be  added 
that  he  invariably  conciliated  the  affection  also  of 
those  who  came  much  in  his  way,  and  knew  him  best. 
In  a  letter  to  Benjamin  Harrison,  written  from  Niton 
(Sept.  4th,  1838),  a  few  weeks  before  his  final  departure, 
he  says  : — 

"  Of  the  Archbishop's  and  Mrs.  Howley's  kindness 
it  is  impossible  to  speak  too  highly.  I  owe  more  than 
I  can  say  to  both,  for  the  degree  of  it  shown  to  us. 
And  to  him  I  owe  yet  higher  obligations  than  even 
for  any  kindness  of  a  temporal  nature :  for  I  have 
learned  more  from  him  than  from  all  my  teachers 
put  together, — too  happy  if  I  could  carry  into  prac- 
tice the  lessons  of  true  wisdom,  human  and  Divine, 
which  I  have  gathered  from  him.  You  may  think 
this  strong  language  now ;  but  if  he  lives,  you  will 
find  every  year  that  your  opinion  of  his  powers,  of 
his  very  large  views, — his  very  long  weighed  views  of  all 
great  subjects,  (brought  forward  as  if  casually  and  with 
the  simplicity  of  a  child), — increases  more  and  more." 9 

9  Postscript  (p.  78)  of  the  Charge  offered  (pp.  189-92)  concerning  the 

quoted  above,  at  p.  206.    The  reader  Archbishop's  character.      See   also 

is  referred  to  what  has  been  already  pp.  244-5  and  258. 

VOL.  I.  S 


258  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

It  will  be  freely  admitted  that  such  words  from  Hugh 
James  Rose  are  no  common  testimony.  His  sentiments 
moreover  were  freely  reciprocated  by  the  illustrious 
object  of  his  admiration  and  regard.  The  Archbishop 
remarked  to  Joshua  Watson  how  greatly  beloved  Mr. 
Rose  was  throughout  his  household  : — "  Each  one,  from 
Mrs.  Howley  to  the  lowest  servant,  would  do  anything 
for  Rose."  l .  .  .  .  Some,  whose  high  Ecclesiastical  position 
perforce  suggested  a  cautious  mode  of  address,  are 
observed  to  break  through  the  conventional  restraints  of 
office  in  order  to  assure  him, — when  at  last  his  health 
hopelessly  gave  way, — that  "he  was  to  consult  no  one's 
convenience  but  his  own;  to  obey  no  orders  but  those 
of  his  physician." — This  was  in  1837.  At  the  end  of 
a  year  (Aug.  7th,  1838),  the  same  friend  (Bp.  Blomfield) 
writes : — 

"  I  see  all  the  inconveniences  of  putting  the  Principal- 
ship  in  Commission  for  a  time  ....  One  thing  however 
must  be  looked  upon  as  settled ;  viz.  that  you  must 
do  whatever  your  medical  advisers  tell  you  ought  to 
be  done ;  and  we  will  do  the  best  we  can  for  the 
College.  Do  not  therefore  suffer  yourself  to  be  made 
uneasy  by  any  anxiety  on  this  head."  [And  again 
on  the  26th  Sept.] — "  I  have  just  received  your  letter, 
and  have  only  time  to  say  that  you  must  not  wait 
for  the  final  arrangement  which  may  be  made  for 
supplying  your  place  during  your  absence  from  Eng- 
land, although  no  time  will  be  lost  in  taking  it  into 
consideration.  I  will  desire  Mr.  Smith  to  call  a  Council 
for  Friday  in  next  week  (I  shall  not  be  home  till  the 
Thursday)  and  I  will  bring  the  matter  forward.  But  do 
not  wait  for  this. 

"  I  am  truly  sorry  not  to  receive  a  more  favourable 
report  of  your  health.  The  good  wishes  and  prayers  of 
many  will  go  with  you  into  Italy :  those  of  all  who  are 

1  Memoir,  byChurton,— ii.  183. 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     259 

connected  with  the  College  I  am  sure  will  follow  you. 
Pray  let  me  hear  from  you  from  time  to  time  after  you 
have  left  England. 

"  With  regard  to  the  '  Warneford  prize/  I  think  you 
had  better  give  out  the  subject  at  once,  if  the  time 
is  come.  How  the  Essays  are  to  bear  directly  upon 
Kevelation  I  do  not  see.  I  will  think  of  the  Library 
scheme,  and  see  Mr.  Brewer  when  I  am  settled  at 
Fulham. 

"  With  earnest  prayers  for  your  restoration  to  health 
and  continued  usefulness,  I  remain  always  your  sincere 
and  faithful  friend, 

"C.  J.  LONDON." 

Three  "Lieutenants"  had  in  the  meantime  presented 
themselves  : — Lonsdale  (afterwards  Bp.  of  Lichfield), 
Archdeacon  Lyall,  and  Dr.  W.  H.  Mill.  The  last  named 
being  in  Italy,  his  address  could  not  be  obtained  when 
the  Council  of  King's  College  met.  Lyall's  faithful 
friendship,  Rose  was  unwilling  to  tax.  The  first  was 
deemed  the  fittest  person,  being  one  of  the  Council ; 
and  on  him  the  appointment  fell. 2  But  Mill,  (whose 
writings,  it  is  to  be  feared,  are  far  too  little  known 
by  the  Clergy  of  the  present  generation,)  was  im- 
measurably the  greatest  man  of  the  three, — a  name 
to  be  remembered  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  Anglican 
Divines  :  "  one  of  the  few  men  who,  in  this  day,  in 
their  reading  and  acquirements,  recall  to  us  the  memory 
of  the  giants."  3 

Within  a  few  days  of  his  quitting  the  shores  of 
England,  Rose  was  anxiously  making  provision  for 
"the  Geological  Lectures  required  for  the  Engineering 
class,"  and  other  claims  of  King's  College.  But  his 
work  was  already  clearly  over.  The  end  had  all 

2  H.  J.  R.  to  Joshua  Watson,—  s  H.  J.  E.  to  Joshua  Watson,— 
8  Oct.  1838.  Sept.  14,  1831. 

3  2 


260  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

but  come.     His  friend  C.  J.  Blomfield  writes  to  him  (8th 
Oct.),- 

"If  I  should  not  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you 
again  before  you  take  your  departure,  let  me  offer 
you  a  Bishop's  blessing,  and  the  best  wishes  of  a  friend. 
Write  to  me  as  soon  as  you  are  settled." 

But,  whatever  interest  may  attach  to  such  expres- 
sions of  friendship,  we  seem  rather  to  desire  that  the 
subject  of  the  present  Memoir  should  be  heard, — speaking 
of,  and  for,  himself  during  these,  the  last  days  of  his 
life.  Three  weeks  before  quitting  the  shores  of  England 
for  ever,  he  wrote  as  follows  (Sept.  24th,  1838)  to  his 
loved  Joshua  Watson,  with  reference  to  the  destined 
place  of  his  exile : — 

"  Rome  is  doubtless  far  preferable  to  Madeira,  although 
a  long  and  serious  journey.  But  still,  it  is  exile.  I  am 
ashamed  of  being  so  ill  able  to  contend  with  myself  on 
this  point.  But  I  cannot  get  over  it  as  I  would.  I  feel 
it  very  much  in  one  respect : — I  have  just  got  to  that 
point  when  I  can  do  the  pleasantest  of  all  things  to  me, 
i.  e.  helping  on  good  men.  This  will  be  all  broken  off 
and  go  into  other  channels.  Still,  do  not  think  that  I 
am  blind  to  the  kindness  with  which  I  am  treated,  and 
the  great  and  undeserved  mercies  which  I  receive.  To 
yourself  I  never  can  be  grateful  enough." 

With  such  feelings  Hugh  James  Rose  was  preparing 
to  quit  his  native  land.  Buoyed  up  he  naturally  was  by 
the  hope,  not  to  say  the  desire,  to  return  :  but  it  is  evi- 
dent that  he  was  visited  by  many  a  sad  presentiment 
that  the  end  was  approaching,  though  he  cannot  have 
anticipated  that  he  was  destined  not  even  to  reach  the 
proposed  goal  of  his  journey.  "  Of  myself  "  (he  wrote  to 
Joshua  Watson  on  the  8th  of  October,) — 

"  I  hardly  know  what  to  say.  Sometimes  there  seems 
a  spring  of  life  which  hints  at  recovery,  but  conviction  or 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      261 

depression  at  other  times  tells  a  tale  of  speedier  conclusion. 
If  this  is  so,  I  am  sure  that  any  aid  or  advice  you  can 

give  my  Wife  will  not  be  wanting I  should  be 

very  glad  that  she  kept  up  intercourse  with  those  who 
have  been  my  best  friends,  and  to  whom  she  is  deeply 
grateful." 

The  valedictory  sound  of  these  mournful  words  would 
lead  one  to  suppose  that,  as  far  as  the  writer  was  con- 
cerned, all  correspondence  on  ordinary  topics  was  by  this 
time  at  an  end.  It  was  not  so.  And  I  the  rather  insert 
the  calm  argumentative  letter  which  follows,  because  it 
conveys  a  livelier  notion  than  any  words  of  mine  could 
possibly  do  of  the  intellectual  vigour  and  earnestness  of 
the  man  :  his  indomitable  energy  in  giving  expression  to 
his  more  important  convictions  ;  and  the  resolute  witness 
which  he  was  ready  to  bear,  almost  within  the  very  jaws 
of  Death,  to  the  sacred  cause  of  Truth.  He  was  to  leave 
England  for  ever  on  Saturday,  the  i3th  October.  On  the 
preceding  Thursday,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Newman  as  follows : — 

"  My  dear  Newman, — I  am  ordered  to  pass  the  winter 
at  Rome,  and  I  cannot  leave  this  country  without  a  line 
of  farewell  and  kind  wishes  to  yourself  and  to  those  who 
are  labouring  with  you  in  the  good  cause  at  Oxford. 
Pray  remember  me  most  kindly  to  Dr.  Pusey  and  Mr. 
Williams  in  particular.  Tell  the  latter  that  Mr.  Mait- 
land  has  chief  charge  of  the  'British  Magazine,'  and  would 
be  most  glad  to  receive  anything  from  him ;  and  that 
Harrison  and  some  of  his  friends  will  look  after  it  also. 
Maitland  is  so  excellent  in  all  points  byegone,  (which  is, 
by  the  way,  an  excellence  in  itself,)  that  he  cares  very 
little  about  what  is  going  on  now.  On  this  account  it  is 
that  I  have  begged  my  brother,  Harrison,  &c.  to  look 
after  Church  matters. 

"  Your  new  No.  of  the  '  British  Critic '  is  full  of  talent 
and  very  amusing ;  but  there  are  two  points  urged  very 
strongly  in  it,  about  which  I  doubt, — in  one  case,  as  to 
the  thing  itself,  and  the  manner  of  putting  it ;  and  in  the 


262  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

other,  as  to  the  latter.  This  second  is, — The  urging  the 
necessity  of  making  Religion  mysterious,  in  such  an  age 
as  this.  Now,  as  far  as  I  understand  the  writers,  I  agree 
with  them,  i.e.  I  think  that  the  strong  and  constant 
inculcation  of  the  Communion  of  GOD  with  Man,  and 
those  ordinances  which  He  has  planted  in  the  Church, 
and  so  on,  is  indeed  a  most  wise  and  necessary  measure. 
But  it  is  to  be  observed  that,  in  all  these  cases,  the  mys- 
teries are  built  on  GOD'S  express  promises,  as  recorded  in 
Scripture  and  preserved  by  the  Church.  But  one  of  the 
writers  (on  *  Sir  F.  Palgrave  ')  so  puts  the  matter  as  to 
appear  to  recommend  adopting  mystery,  in  any  shape  we 
can  get  it,  as  a  counterpoise  to  Utilitarianism.  The 
question  is, — Can  we,  have  we  the  right  to  introduce  any 
mystery  for  which  we  have  not  authority  ?  If  it  is  said 
that  this  is  only  a  strong  way  of  putting  the  matter,  I 
doubt  the  expediency;  for  it  obviously  lays  us  open  to 
very  plausible  misrepresentation.  And  besides,  I  really 
think  Truth  so  awful  a  thing,  that  we  have  no  right  to 
exaggerate  it  on  one  side,  either  to  startle  and  draw 
attention,  or  to  compensate  for  abandonment  on  the 
other. 

"The  other  point  is, — The  vehement  rejection  of  all 
Evidence,  except  that  of  Testimony  of  the  Church,  and 
of  all  appeals  to  Reason.  Now,  it  is  singular  that  the 
writer  (on  '  Magnetism ')  so  forgets  his  own  point,  that 
he  builds  his  assertion  on  the  fact,  that  this  reliance  on 
the  Church  is  more  logical,  than  reliance  on  any  other 
Evidence.  This  I  do  not  deny.  But  if  we  are  thus  to 
recur  to  Logic,  to  Reason, — why  may  I  not  do  it  in  one 
way  as  well  as  another  ? 

"  But  the  fact  is  that  this  rejection  of  what  are  com- 
monly called  '  the  Evidences'  excludes  wholly  all  con- 
sideration of  Unbelievers  and  of  faint  Believers.  Happy 
they  who,  having  received  the  Faith  as  He  would  have 
them,  are  so  strong  in  it,  as  to  want  nothing  more.  But 
think  of  the  vast  variety  of  human  minds !  How  often 
is  Doubt  sent  as  a  trial  of  the  Soul.  And  if,  under  its 
severe  trial,  the  mind  can  find  its  views — derived  from 
the  Church,  but  not  held  as  strongly  as  they  ought, — 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      263 

confirmed  by  thoughts  from  other  quarters,  Why  reject 
them?  Again:  What  can  be  done  with  actual  unbe- 
lievers ?  They  may  say  that  they  will  hear  the  Church, 
when  convinced  that  Scripture  is  true  and  that  GOD  has 
ordained  a  Church.  But  how  do  you  teach  them  this1? 
I  may  lament  that  there  are  such  men,  but  surely  we 
must  not  overlook  them. 4  And  again :  If  we  are  only 
to  receive  what  is  handed  to  us,  how  should  we  have 
escaped  from  Romanism  ?  I  do  not  see  the  clue  to  this. 
"  Excuse  my  thus  writing  ;  but  I  feel  anxious  on  these 
points,  and  know  that  they  have  already  excited  a  good 
deal  of  attention.  Again,  farewell !  you  and  your  labours 
will  have  my  warmest  wishes  and  most  hearty  prayers. 

Ever  yours,  ..  TT    T   ^ 

"H.  J.  ROSE. 

"  We  hope  to  go  on  Saturday."  5 

We  have  just  listened  to  words', — ("  I  feel  anxious  on 
these  points"} — which  afford  the  true  solution  to  the  phe- 
nomenon of  such  an  one  as  Hugh  James  Rose  writing 
such  a  letter  as  the  preceding  under  circumstances  so 
unfavourable  in  every  way  to  the  effort.  Let  the  plain 
truth  in  this  matter  for  once  be  plainly  stated.  Writers 
of  the  Tractarian  school, — their  tone  and  spirit  even  more 
than  their  actual  utterances, — had  been  causing  him,  ever 
since  the  first  months  of  1836,  a  vast  amount  of  mental 
anxiety  and  grave  spiritual  disquiet : — 

"I  think  that  review  of  Froude,"  (he  had  written  to 

*  "  Being   asked    his   opinion  of  study  of  such  arguments ;  and  some 

Bishop  Butler's  'Analogy,'  Hugh  J.  appear  to  shrink  from  the  study,  as 

Rose  said  :  '  The  best  answer  I  can  suggestive    of    doubts  which   they 

give  is,  that  my  own  copy  is  worn  have  never  felt.     But  if  I  had  the 

out  by  frequent  use.     It  is  a  book  charge  of  the  education  of  a  young 

that   grows   more   and   more   upon  enquiring  spirit,  I  should  think  it 

you,  as  you  become  intimate  with  my  duty  to  provide  all  safeguards 

it.'     This  led  to  a  conversation  on  against  danger.'    Churton's  Memoir 

the  subject  of  Evidences.     'There  of  Joshua  Watson, — ii.  8,9. 

are  many  minds  which  seem  happy  5  Cla-pham  Common,  [Thursday] 

and  safe  in  themselves  without  the  Oct.  u,  1838. 


264  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

Joshua  Watson  a  few  months  before,  speaking  of  what 
had  recently  appeared  in  the  'British  Critic^)  "the 
most  to  be  regretted  of  anything  which  I  have  seen 
from  our  Oxford  friends.  It  shows  a  disposition  to  find 
fault  with  our  Church  for  not  satisfying  the  wants  and 
demands, — not  of  the  human  heart, — but  of  the  imagina- 
tion of  enthusiastic,  and  ascetic,  and  morbid-minded 
men.  This  no  Church  does,  or  can  do,  by  any  honest 
means.  He  who  has  these  desires  may  satisfy  them 
himself.  The  mass  of  men  have  them  not.  To  quarrel 
with  the  Church  on  this  ground  is  to  show  a  resolution 
to  quarrel  with  her."  G 

The  extravagances  of  the  leaders  of  the  Movement  had 
in  fact  become  by  this  time  an  aggravation  of  Rose's 
disorder.  So  near  to  his  heart  of  hearts  lay  the  Church's 
malady,  and  so  large  had  been  his  share — ever  since 
1825 — in  reviving  the  hopes  of  Churchmen  when  those 
hopes  had  all  but  universally  failed,  that  he  could  not 
but  regard  with  alarm  and  dismay  symptoms  of  inse- 
curity in  the  bulwarks  which  he  had  been  mainly  instru- 
mental in  erecting  against  the  enemy's  assaults.  Not, 
of  course,  that  he  dreamed  of  open  unfaithfulness,  actual 
tergiversation,  in  any  quarter;  least  of  all  in  a  chief 
standard-bearer,  like  John  Henry  Newman.  How,  in 
fact,  was  ii  possible,  in  1837  and  1838,  to  anticipate  an 
actual  lapse  to  Romanism  on  the  part  of  one  who  in 
1837,  and  again  in  183 8,  published  such  a  terrible  denun- 
ciation of  the  Romish  Church  as  the  following  ? — 

"  If  we  are  induced  "  (wrote  Mr.  Newman)  "  to  believe 
the  professions  of  Rome,  and  make  advances  towards 
her  as  if  a  sister  or  a  mother  Church,  which  in  theory 
she  is,  we  shall  find  too  late  that  wTe  are  in  the  arms  of 
a  pitiless  and  unnatural  relative,  who  will  but  triumph  in  the 
arts  which  have  inveigled  us  within  her  reach.  .  .  .  Let  us  be 

6  This  was  written  in  January,  1838.  (Churton's  Memoir  of  Joshua 
Watson, — ii.  63.) 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     265 

sure  that  she  is  our  enemy,  and  will  do  us  a  mischief  when 
she  can  ....  We  need  not  depart  from  Christian  charity 
towards  her.  We  must  deal  with  her  as  we  would  towards 
a  friend  who  is  visited  by  derangement ;  in  great  affliction, 
with  all  affectionate  tender  thoughts,  with  tearful  regret 
and  a  broken  heart,  but  still  with  a  steady  eye  and  a 
firm  hand.  For  in  truth  she  is  A  CHURCH  beside  herself, 
abounding  in  noble  gifts  and  rightful  titles,  but  unable  to 
use  them  religiously  ;  crafty,  obstinate,  wilful,  malicious,  cruel, 
unnatural,  as  madmen  are.  Or  rather  she  may  be  said 
to  resemble  a  demoniac  ....  Thus  she  is  her  real  self  only 
in  name ;  and.  TILL  GOD  VOUCHSAFE  TO  RESTORE  HER,  WE 

MUST  TREAT  HER  AS  IF  SHE  WERE  THAT  EVIL  ONE  WHICH 
GOVERNS  HER."  7 


No  one  may  for  an  instant  doubt  that  the  pious  and 
truthful  writer  really  meant  what  is  contained  in  the 
foregoing  awful  passage.  It  was  the  deliberate  result 
of  all  his  study  and  observation,  all  his  reading  and 
reflection  on  the  subject  of  the  Romish  branch  of 
'the  Church  Catholic,  down  to  the  time  of  his  writing. 
Rose  therefore,  I  repeat,  would  have  refused  to  entertain 
the  faintest  suspicion  of  defection  at  any  future  time 
in  his  correspondent.  For  that  is  no  obiter  dictum  which 
I  have  been  transcribing ;  but  a  passage  from  a  published 
volume  on  the  very  subject  to  which  it  relates.  And  the 
sight  of  it,  when  he  saw  it  in  print  in  1837,  did  not 
daunt  its  author;  for  he  republished  it  in  1838.  Equally 
certain  however  it  is  that  the  same  keen  eye  and  quick 
perception  which  had  enabled  Rose  to  discern  Theologi- 
cal ability  of  the  highest  order  in  certain  of  the  Oxford 
men  of  1831  and  1832,  qualified  him  now  to  descry 
deadly  mischief  in  the  altered  tone  and  method  of  some 

7  Romamsm  and  Popular  Protes-  Rome  is  spoken  of,  and  that  by 
tantism, — pp.  102-3.  Note,  that  here  name.  The  reader  is  reminded  of 
not  the  'City'  but  the  '  Church'  of  what  was  said  above,  at  p.  168-70. 


266  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

of  them.  In  1838  moreover  Newman  was  responsible 
for  the  "British  Critic"  \  and  therefore  to  some  extent 
was  identified  with  the  prevailing  sentiments  of  that 
periodical.  "  The  'British  Critic '  under  your  hands  is  no 
ordinary  matter,  and  of  course  will  be  read," — Rose  had 
pointed  out,  with  something  like  severity,  a  few  months 
before.8  Hence  then  it  was  that  his  latest  act  before 
leaving  England  was  to  examine  the  latest  number,  and 
to  commit  to  writing  the  foregoing  remonstrance  on  what 
he  had  been  distressed  to  discover  there. 

One  more  letter — a  very  short  one — "  from  the  same  to 
the  same,"  is  the  last  with  which  the  reader  shall  be 
troubled.  I  would  gladly  have  introduced  (but  I  do  not 
find)  the  communication  to  which  it  was  a  response. 
The  purpose  of  Mr.  Newman's  missing  letter  was  evi- 
dently to  obtain  his  friend's  sanction  to  the  exquisite 
Dedication  with  which  he  proposed  to  adorn  the  forth- 
coming (ivth)  volume  of  his  own  admirable  Sermons. 
It  claims  introduction  in  this  place  for  the  second  time : 
— "  To  the  Rev.  Hugh  James  Rose,  B.D.,  Principal  of 
King's  College,  London,  and  Domestic  Chaplain  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury ;  who,  when  hearts  were 
failing,  bade  us  stir  up  the  gift  that  was  in  us,  and 
betake  ourselves  to  our  true  Mother,  this  volume  is 
inscribed  by  his  obliged  and  faithful  Friend."  It  is  but 
right  to  add, — as  well  for  his  sake  who  penned  these 
beautiful  words,  as  for  the  sake  of  him  to  whose  sad 
heart  those  words  ministered  comfort, — that  this  Dedica- 
tion was  not  the  language  of  ordinary  complimentary 
address.  Mr.  Newman  had  concluded  the  latest  of  his 
previous  letters  (it  bears  date  8th  July  1838), — "  Believe 
me,  my  dear  Rose,  if  you  will  let  me  say  it,  that  you  are 

8  H.  J.  R.  to  J.  H.  N.,— Clapham  Common,  July  7th,  1838. 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     267 

ever  in  my  prayers,  morning  and  evening, — knowing 
your  value  and  loving  you."  There  was  profound  regard 
and  real  admiration, — the  sincerest  affection  too  there 
was, — on  either  side  ;  and,  (it  is  a  comfort  to  know  it,)  it 
prevailed  to  the  very  last. 

Neither, — (it  will  not  be  out  of  place  that  I  should  add,) 
—was  the  subject  of  this  Memoir  one  to  whom  the 
proposed  Dedication  appealed  in  an  ordinary  way.  In 
the  earlier  part  of  this  same  year  (1838),  the  Rev.  John 
Miller  had  asked  his  permission  to  pay  him  a  similar 
compliment  by  dedicating  to  him,  (in  a  prefatory  letter), 
the  third  edition  of  his  famous  Bampton  Lectures.  Rose 
wrote  concerning  it  as  follows: — 

"  What  Miller  proposes  gives  me  more  pleasure  than  I 
can  express.  I  could  say  with  truth,  and  if  you  saw  me 
for  a  day  you  would  be  sure  that  I  do  say  it  truly  now  at 
all  events,  that  most  of  the  things  of  this  world  have  lost 
their  value  for  me.  Rank,  reputation,  riches,  except  so 
far  as  the  last  might  give  me  what  I  want,  rest,  are  all 
gone  by ;  but  I  have  still,  in  all  its  strength  and  fresh- 
ness, the  sense  of  pleasure  at  any  public  testimony  that 
they  whom  I  really  esteem  and  value  feel  so  far  at  least 
kindly  towards  me,  that  they  are  not  unwilling  to  speak 
of  me  or  to  me  in  public  as  their  friend.  I  feel  this  to  be 
perhaps  the  best  and  most  satisfactory  testimonial  which 
a  man  can  leave  behind  him."9  ...  "I  shall  not  leave 
children  to  come  after  me  who  will  care  for  my  name ; 
but  if  I  did,  I  should  rather  leave  them  such  records  than 
almost  any  thing  else." l 

Hugh  James  Rose's  last  letter  to  John  Henry  Newman 
—(the  occasion  of  which  has  already  been  fully  explained) 
— follows : — 

"  My  dear  Newman, — I  little  thought,  when  I  wrote 
yesterday,  what  pleasure  was  in  store  for  me  to-day.  Be 

•  To  J.  W.  (?),— March  1st,  1838.          1  To  the  same,  Aug.  8th,  1838. 


268  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

assured  that  your  letter,  in  giving  me  such  an  assurance 
of  your  regard,  sends  me  off  on  my  winter's  exile  much 
more  cheerful.  I  shall  consider  (not  making  fine  speeches) 
the  placing  my  name  where  you  propose  to  do,  as  a  very 
great  honour  publicly, — and  privately  a  very  very  high 
gratification  indeed. 

"  This  last  day,  my  head  (feeble  now  at  best)  is  quite  in 
a  whirl.     I  will  only  therefore  say  again  '  pray  GOD  bless 
you  and  prosper  your  labours  in  His  cause.' 
"  Ever  most  truly  yours, 

"H.  J.  ROSE. 

"  King's  College,  Oct.  lath,  1838." 

It  is  plain  therefore  that  the  foregoing  incident  was 
almost,  if  not  quite,  the  latest  which  Kose  will  have 
associated  with  his  departure  from  the  shores  of  England. 
If  the  actual  terms  of  the  proposed  Dedication  (which 
however  bears  date  'Nov.  I9th')  were  at  the  same  time 
sent  him,  it  would  not  surely  be  fanciful  to  regard 
the  incident  as  a  premonitory  token  of  the  blissful  greet- 
ing which  was  awaiting  the  "  good  and  faithful  servant " 
at  the  end  of  his  journey, — that  is,  beyond  the  grave. 
His  work — (excepting  indeed  so  far  as  to  suffer  is  to  work) 
—was  already  ended. 

A  short  sad  story  is  all  that  yet  remains  to  be  told. — 
His  last  week  or  two  in  England,  Kose  spent  at  the 
house  of  his  friends,  the  Harrisons,  at  Clapham, — Mrs. 
Rose  going  daily  to  and  from  King's  College  to  'pack 
up.'  They  embarked  at  Dover  (one  faithful  female 
servant  with  them)  on  Saturday  the  I3th  October;  and 
after  a  very  stormy  passage,  landed  at  Calais.  At  Paris, 
a  new  ground  of  uneasiness  appeared  in  the  distressing 
symptom  of  a  tendency  to  swelling  in  the  limbs. 
Mr.  Rose  felt  unwell,  but  the  physician  thought  it  was 
nothing,  and  that  they  might  safely  proceed  on  their 
way.  Travelling  by  the  route  of  Geneva,  which  promised 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     269 

to  be  attended  with  fewer  inconveniences  than  that  of 
Marseilles,  the  party  reached  Florence  about  the  middle 
of  November.  Glad  they  were  to  get  there,  for  a  very 
suffering  journey  it  had  proved.  The  dropsical  symptoms 
were  on  the  increase, — which  rendered  locomotion  pain- 
ful, and  changes  of  whatever  kind  irksome  in  a  high 
degree. 

They  took  up  their  quarters  in  the  hotel  known  to 
English  travellers  as  "il  Pelicano"  (or,  by  another  title, 
the  '•''Arms  of  Great  Britain")  where  Mr.  Rose  had  stayed 
during  his  former  visit  to  Italy  in  1824.  Here,  he 
received  all  the  attentions  which,  under  the  circum- 
stances, were  possible :  but  the  rapid  progress  of  his 
malady  soon  made  it  apparent  that  it  would  be  imprac- 
ticable for  him  to  proceed  any  further  on  his  journey. 
Meantime,  he  had  the  advantage  of  a  kind  and  skilful 
physician,  (Dr.  Harding),  who  attended  him  most  dili- 
gently and  watched  his  case  with  real  interest.  What 
need  to  add  that,  above  all,  he  enjoyed  the  consolation 
of  the  tenderest  and  most  devoted  of  nurses, — not  to 
mention  the  loving  care  of  his  wife's  faithful  attendant  ? 
All  was  in  vain.  Complications  of  disease  came  on 
which  no  art  could  check.  He  could  never  again  be 
moved  from  the  room  into  which  he  had  been  first 
carried  on  his  arrival.  It  became  plain  that  he  was 
destined  to  end  his  days,  like  the  saintly  Leighton,  "  at 
an  inn."  Nothing,  in  the  meanwhile,  could  exceed  the 
calm,  tranquil  condition  of  his  mind :  contented  with, — 
entirely  resigned  to, — whatever  might  be  GOD'S  will 
respecting  him. 

I  am  sure  that  if  Mrs.  Rose  were  living  she  would 
have  allowed  me  to  transcribe  her  own  description  of 
the  closing  scene.  Unwilling  that  her  friend  Mrs. 
Harrison  should  receive  from  any  one  but  herself  the 


270  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

tidings  of  her  beloved  husband's  departure,  she  wrote  to 
her  on  the  ensuing  day  as  follows : — 

"On  Friday,  the  2ist  December,  he  seemed  so  tran- 
quil and  so  free  from  annoyance, — spoke  so  much  and  so 
delightfully, — that  I  really  flattered  myself  all  would 
yet  be  well.  The  medical  man  too  said  he  was  certainly 
better,  and  had  every  chance  of  a  quiet  night,  and  left 
him  with  satisfaction.  In  less  than  an  hour  he  became 
very  uneasy,  and  passed  a  very  sad  night.  When 
morning  came  and  I  saw  his  countenance  by  daylight,  I 
was  certain  that,  humanly  speaking,  hope  was  at  an  end. 
He  desired  me  to  tell  him  what  the  Doctor  thought  of 
him,  and  if  he  was  much  worse.  .  .  .  He  passed  the  day 
tranquilly  and  happily :  told  me  what  he  wished  to  be 
done :  begged  I  would  not  give  way,  as  he  could  not  bear 
Mat.  During  the  day,  from  time  to  time,  he  listened  to 
such  portions  of  prayer  and  Scripture  as  were  most  fit 
for  a  person  so  circumstanced;  and  the  last  thing  he 
seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  was  '  the  Litany  for  a  soul 
departing '  in  Bp.  Cosin,  (except  a  few  detached  verses  at 
the  very  last).  At  half-past-four  the  Doctor  came  and 
wished  him  to  take  some  broth.  He  assented  with  his 
usual  gentleness,  and  I  left  him  for  a  moment  while  the 
doctor  gave  it.  A  look  from  him  recalled  me.  A  slight 
obstruction  in  swallowing  occasioned  him  inconvenience, 
and  I  offered  to  sustain  his  head.  He  looked  at  me  as  if 
to  thank  me, — tried  to  say  something,  but  could  not 
articulate.  He  then  turned  on  me  a  look  so  full  of 
peace,  and  holy  hope,  and  tranquillity,  that  I  felt  sure 
that,  in  that  awful  moment,  his  GOD  and  SAVIOUR 
comforted  him  with  an  everlasting  comfort.  For  the 
few  moments  that  life  remained,  he  seemed  wholly  free 
from  pain,  and  passed  away  like  an  infant  falling  to 
sleep.  But  he  never,  while  life  remained,  took  his  eyes 
off  me  ;  and  the  remembrance  of  that  holy  and  happy 
look  will  be  my  comfort,  when  the  bitterness  of  death  is 
past." 

Thus,  a  little  before  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of 
Saturday,  the  22nd  of  December  A.D.  1838,  when  he  had 


1838]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     271 

attained  the  age  of  43  and-a-half  years,  ended  the  earthly 
career  of  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE.  How  forcibly  is  one  re- 
minded of  what  is  read  to  us  on  'All  Saints'  Day'  out  of 
the  book  of  Wisdom, — an  apocryphal  work  truly,  yet 
full  of  Gospel  teaching,  Gospel  hope : — "  The  souls  of  the 
righteous  are  in  the  hands  of  GOD,  and  there  shall  no 
torment  touch  them.  In  the  sight  of  the  unwise  they 
seemed  to  die,  and  their  departure  is  taken  for  misery. 
But  they  are  in  peace  ! " 

On  S.  Stephen's  Day,  his  remains  were  attended  to 
their  last  resting-place  by  his  truly  bereaved  widow. 
As  no  strangers  had  been  about  him  in  his  last  illness,  so 
neither  in  death  were  any  hands  but  her  own  and  those 
of  her  faithful  servant  suffered  to  perform  towards  him 
the  last  ministrations  of  love.  Together,  (for  "  Love  is 
strong  as  Death  !  "  2)  they  laid  his  shrouded  body  where 
it  will  slumber  on  until  the  Archangel's  trumpet  shall 
wake  it  from  its  last  long  sleep.  Together,  they 
followed  it  to  its  last  abode,  and  had  the  comfort  of 
seeing  it  deposited  in  a  locality  which  at  that  time  must 
have  been  one  of  even  affecting  beauty.  Mrs.  Rose 
used  to  describe  it  as  "  a  retired  and  lovely  spot,  within 
the  last  few  years  permitted  by  the  present  government 
of  Tuscany  to  be  purchased  for  a  protestant  cemetery, 
situated  just  without  the  limits  of  the  city  of  Florence, 
on  the  road  to  Fiesole."  She  explained  that  "  the  large 
size  of  the  cypress  trees  indicated  it  to  have  been  a 
garden  for  a  long  time  past,  and  contributed  an  appro- 
priate feature  to  the  scenery  of  a  locality  now  conse- 
crated to  a  higher  and  holier  use."  It  may  be  sufficient 
that  I  should  describe  in  a  note  the  painful  change 
which  has  since  come  over  this  sacred  locality.3  As 

2  Song  of  Solomon,  viii.  6.  1871 ,  in  company  with  my  nephew, 

3  When  I  visited  Florence  in  Sept.      the  Kev.  William  Francis  Hose,  vicar 


272 


HUGH  JAMES  ROSE: 


[1838 


soon  as   the   last    offices   of  love   had   been  fully  dis- 
charged, Mrs.  Rose  hastened  back  to  England:  did  not 


of  Worle  in  Somerset  (the  Rev. 
Hugh  James  Rose's  only  surviving 
nephew),  we  were  supremely  anxious 
to  visit  this  sacred  locality, — the 
burial  place  of  the  English.  Its 
beauty  had  often  been  vaunted  in  our 
hearing.  We  had  always  heard  of  a 
walled  enclosure  on  a  little  declivity, 
seemingly  shut  out  from  the  world  : 
the  dark  foliage  of  the  funereal 
garden  contrasting  grandly  with  the 
everlasting  hills  which  form  the 
background  of  the  picture.  It  was 
distressing  as  well  as  perplexing  to 
find  ourselves  driven  to  a  new  and 
populous  quarter  of  the  city,  entire- 
ly built  over  with  houses  of  the 
better  class  ;  and  in  the  centre  of 
(what  in  London  would  be  called) 
"  a  Square,"  to  halt  before  a  small 
oval  mound-like  enclosure,  sur- 
rounded by  iron  railings,  and  full  of 
memorials  of  the  dead.  The  reader 
will  divine  what  had  happened. 


Florence  has  spread  in  the  direction 
of  the  English  burying  ground. 
The  soil  surrounding  it  perforce  was 
levelled  wherever  houses  had  to  be 
built ;  the  boundary  walls  of  the 
cemetery-garden  were  demolished, 
and  the  cypress  trees  hewn  down. 
But  it  was  determined  that  the 
English  Campo  Santo  should  be 
spared ;  and  an  iron  railing  seems 
to  have  been  thought  the  least  un- 
sightly way  of  keeping  that  little 
hill  of  graves  inviolate. 

In  the  south-east  corner  of  this 
cemetery  we  found  the  monument 
we  were  in  search  of.  It  is  a  marble 
altar-tomb,  with  the  following  in- 
scription on  its  upper  surface.  The 
memorial  had  evidently  been  un- 
cared  for  during  the  thirty-two 
years  since  its  erection,  and  pre- 
sented a  neglected  look  which  gave 
us  pain.  Of  course  we  did  not  leave 
it  altogether  as  we  found  it. 


HUGO    JACOBUS    ROSE    S.T.B. 

Anglus 

Reverendissimo  in  Christo  patri 

Gulielmo  Archiepiscopo  Cantuariensi  a  sacris  domesticis 
Collegii  Regalis  apud  Londinenses  Praefectus 

qui 

cum  jam  in  Academia  Cantabrigiensi 
quid  egregia  posset  indoles 
rectissimis  studiis  informata 
haud  obscure  significaverat 

id  deinceps 

quum  ex  umbra  in  solem  processerat 

clarissimis  patefecit  indiciis 

Totum  se  dedit  Ecclesiae 

In  concionibus 

quarum  permultas  casque  gravissimas 
coram  academicis  suis  habuit 


1839]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      273 

rest  in  fact  until  she  reached  the  darkened  vicarage  of 
Glynde, — the  abode  of  her  husband's  parents.4 

Many  were  the  letters  of  sincere  condolence  written  on 
the  occasion :  many  the  expressions  of  bitter  regret,  on 
public  as  well  as  on  private  grounds.  A  few  brief 
specimens  of  either  deserve  insertion.  Mr.  Newman  thus 
addressed  the  desolate  widow  :— 

"I  will  only  say  that  in  sorrowing  for  the  loss  the 
Church  has  sustained  in  Mr.  Rose,  I  am  sorrowing 
particularly  for  one  who  was  always  a  kind,  condescend- 
ing friend  to  me.  In  fact  it  was  he  who  has  brought  me 
into  notice.  He  was  the  first  to  induce  me  to  write  on 
Theological  subjects,  and  then  to  praise  me  when  I  had 
written.  So  generous,  so  noble-minded  and  warm- 

magna  vultua  formae  staturae  dignitate 

canorae  vocis  dulcedine 

sancta  copiosa  flexaniina  eloquentia 

oculos  aures  mentes  omnium 

tenebat  in  sese  defixas 

In  scriptis 

strenuus  fidei  Christianae  defensor 

insanientem  redarguit  sapientiam 

Ingravescente  Ecclesiae  et  reipublicae  periculo 

de  neutra  desperavit  et  ut  alii  bene  sperarent 

inter  primes  effecit 

Felicissime  in  sacris  litteris  versatus 

Graecarum  Latinarumque  scientissimus 

animi  candore  eximio 

singular!  morum  suavitate 

omnium  omnis  aetatis  et  ordinis 

mirifice  sibi  concilians  benevolentiam 

per  brevis  sed  actuosae  vitae  curriculum 

et  in  valetudine  semper  infirma 

consulens  aliia  prodigus  sui 

domi  maximis  laboribus 
non  tarn  fatiscens  quam  fractus 

hospes  eheu 

in  hac  urbe  Florentina  placide  conquievit 
xi  kal.  Jan.  MDCCCXXXIX.  a.  aet.  XLIII. 

Have  anima  generosa  dulcis  et  pia. 

4  The  reader  is  invited  to  turn  back  to  p.  129.     See  also  pp.  179-80. 
VOL.  I.  T 


274  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1839 

hearted  in  all  he  did  and  thought !     This  I  have  ever 
kept  in  mind,  and  may  I  never  forget  it. 

"The  recollection  of  the  last  seven  years  is  full  of 
sad  yet  soothing  thoughts  to  me.  How  wonderfully 
things  are  carried  on  !  Each  has  his  part  in  the  great 
work.  Mr.  Rose  was  favoured  to  begin,  what  he  has 
not  been  given  to  finish.  I  associate  him  in  memory 
with  a  dear  and  intimate  friend,  whom  he  knew  and 
valued,  and  who  in  like  manner  had  his  part  assigned 
him,  did  it,  and  was  taken  away."  5 

Dr.  Pusey  wrote  to  Benjamin  Harrison, — 

"  Our  friend  Rose  is  taken  to  his  rest,  from  what  would 
year  by  year  more  have  worried  and  vexed  his  noble 
and  anxious  spirit.  It  is  a  sad  void  to  us  all :  but  we 
know  not  how  his  spirit  is  employed,  and  whether  he 
may  not  have  some  office  of  interceding  for  the  Church, 
higher  and  more  holy  and  more  unintermitting  than 
when  in  the  body.  '  They  live  to  GOD.'  "  6 

Dr.  Wordsworth  (Master  of  Trinity)  expressed  the 
apprehensions  of  a  thousand  hearts  when  he  declared, — 

"  His  uses  to  his  Church  and  country  at  this  most 
needful  time  were  of  a  kind  and  degree,  which,  I  deeply 
fear,  we  must  in  vain  look  for  again  ;  with  all  their 
promise,  had  it  so  pleased  GOD,  of  increasing  power  and 
efficiency."  7 

"  Pardon  my  poor  memory,"  wrote  Bp.  Inglis  (of 
Nova  Scotia)  many  years  after,  to  Joshua  Watson,— 
"  for  recollecting  your  feelings  and  your  expression  of 
them,  when  you  were  all  struggling  and  praying  that 
even  the  last  nickelings  of  life  should  be  prolonged  in 
such  a  man  as  Hugh  James  Rose.  All  hope  of  active 
employment  had  vanished;  but  you  said,  with  very 
forcible  expression,  that  his  very  name  was  a  treasure ; 
and,  until  the  vital  spark  was  gone,  King's  College, 
and  the  Church,  and  his  friends  would  still  possess  more 

5  Oriel  College,  Jan.  29,  1839.  7  Churton's    Memoir   of  Joshua 

6  Ch.  Ch.,  13  Jan.  [1839.]  Watson,— p.  65. 


1839]   THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.      275 

than  common  riches  in  his  name.  You  infused  your 
own  feeling  into  mine,  and  there  has  been  no  change  or 
perversion  since."8 

Archdeacon  Churton  also,  recalling  the  occasion  long 
after,  says : — 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  loss  of  such  a  man  to 
the  Church  of  England  at  such  a  time.  It  is  certain 
that  while  he  lived,  his  eloquence  in  the  pulpit,  his 
ability  as  a  writer,  his  wisdom  in  counsel,  his  learning 
in  controversy,  and  the  many  graces  of  his  personal 
character,  had  raised  him,  without  his  seeking  it,  to  the 
rank  of  a  Master  in  the  Schools  of  the  Prophets  ;  and 
enabled  him  to  guide  and  animate  the  efforts  of  a  large 
body  of  men  of  the  highest  promise  at  either  University. 
When  he  was  removed,  the  best  of  them  were  full  of 
mournful  forebodings.  The  bolder  and  less  patient 
proceeded  to  those  extreme  expositions  of  opinion,  which 
he  had  never  ceased  to  deprecate ;  and  the  effects  were 
in  many  ways  disastrous."9 

Enough  of  this  however.  Besides  the  fine  inscription 
(from  the  pen  of  Bishop  Lonsdale)  on  the  marble  altar- 
tomb  which  covers  his  mortal  remains  at  Florence,  there 
was  set  up  a  memorial  tablet  to  Hugh  James  Rose  (the 
inscription  being  the  work  of  Bishop  Copleston)  in  King's 
College  Chapel,  London.  But,  to  my  mind,  no  tribute 
to  Rose's  memory  suggests  a  more  affecting  image  than 
that  of  the  aged  Archbishop,  his  attached  friend  and 
patron,  who, — on  receiving  from  Mrs.  Rose  a  manuscript 
which  she  presented  to  the  library  at  Lambeth, — wrote 
on  the  first  leaf, 

Multis  ille  bonis  flelilis  occidit, 

Nulli  flebilwr  quam  mihi. —  W.  Cantuar. 

His  Grace  one  day  asked  Joshua  Watson  whether  he 
could  name  any  one  to  succeed  their  lost  friend  as  Chaplain 

8  Churton's  Memoir— p.  67.  9  Ibid.,— p.  63. 

T  1 


276  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

at  Lambeth.  "  I  do  not  ask,"  (said  the  Archbishop),  "  for 
a  man  to  supply  Mr.  Rose's  place.  That  is  impossible ; 
it  can  never  be  supplied.  But  he  must  have  a  suc- 
cessor." l 

Greatly  is  it  to  be  regretted  that  no  adequate  portrait  of 
this  admirable  man  survives  to  acquaint  posterity  with 
his  personal  aspect.  A  spirited  chalk  drawing  which 
hangs  upon  the  walls  of  this  Deanery  is  the  only  pic- 
torial representation  of  him  known  to  exist.  It  has 
been  very  well  lithographed:  the  artist, — '  F.  Tatkam:' 
the  date, — •'  1834.'  I  only  know  besides2  of  a  striking 
marble  bust  which  was  executed  for  Archd.  Harrison  by 
a  private  friend  ;  but  it  is  a  posthumous  effort.  Of  this, 
I  believe,  replicas  have  been  made.  His  personal  aspect 
was  certainly  most  striking ;  his  figure  tall  and  com- 
manding,— a  grand  "  ecclesiastical  "  presence,  as  one  of 
his  pupils  remarked :  a  singularly  intellectual  brow, 
a  wondrous  grave  and  thoughtful  countenance.  You 
could  not  talk  with  him,  or  indeed  be  in  his  company, 
without  at  once  recognizing  in  him  a  being  of  no 
common  order.  From  personal  observation  I  am  unable 
to  say  more  ;  for  it  was  only  in  the  last  year  of  his  life 
that  I  was  introduced  to  him.  From  that  time  forward 
however,  through  many  years  (1839-73),  I  heard  him  so 
frequently  spoken  of  by  his  brother  (and  mine),  as  well 
as  by  his  widow  (who  did  not  follow  him  till  April  6th, 
1855)  that  I  seem  to  know  him  more  intimately  than 
many  of  his  contemporaries  can  have  done. 

Some  notices  of  Hugh  James  Rose  as  a  preacher  and  as 
a  reader  have  been  offered  in  a  former  page.3  Arch- 

1  Churton's  Memoir, — ii.  66.  referred  to  in  a  subsequent  page  [p. 

'-'  The  profile  portrait  on  his  mural  293],  scarcely  deserve  notice, 

tablet  in  the  chapel  of  King's  Col-  3  Supra,  p.  139  to  p.  144.     Also 

lege,  London,  and  the  slight  thing  pp.  131-2. 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     277 

bishop  Howley  was  often  heard  to  declare  of  him  that 
"  he  was  the  best  preacher  in  England."  His  delightful 
address  and  conversation  have  already  once  and  again 
been  adverted  to.4  "  On  the  whole,"  writes  William 
Palmer,  (who  knew  him  intimately,  and  at  my  request 
sent  me,  in  his  old  age,  a  sheet  of  reminiscences), — 

"  I  do  not  think  that  I  have  ever  met  elsewhere  any- 
thing like  his  charm  of  manners,  intellect,  goodness, 
sweetness,  strength,  wit  and  acuteness,  and  breadth  of 
view,  combined  with  rare  common  sense  and  varied  ac- 
complishment. Alas,  we  shall  never  see  his  like  again. 
Would  that  I  could  recall  his  words,  but  my  memory 
does  not  extend  to  words.  His  candour  was  remarkable, 
and  he  never  was  restrained  by  politeness  from  stating 
his  full  and  sincere  opinion.  I  have  given  an  instance 
in  the  '  Narrative.'  5 

"I  have  not  mentioned  his  exceeding  kindness  and 
benevolence  of  manner.  If  ever  there  was  a  perfect, 
polished,  dignified  gentleman,  it  was  he. 

"  I  did  not  very  often  see  him.  I  was  busy  in  Oxford 
and  he  was  at  Hadleigh, — then  in  London,  sometimes 
lodged  in  his  Chaplain's  rooms  at  Lambeth  Palace.  He 
resigned  Hadleigh  not  long  after  our  meeting  there.  He 
was  obliged  when  in  London,  as  Archbishop's  Chaplain 
and  Principal  of  King's  College,  continually  to  go  out  of 
town  at  night  to  some  environ,  deep  in  fog,  in  order  to 
obtain  relief  from  asthma  by  the  thickness  of  the  air. 
He  was  in  perpetual  suffering." 

Superfluous  surely  it  is,  after  all  that  has  gone  before, 
that  I  should  seek  to  draw  out  in  detail  the  character 
of  Hugh  James  Hose.  The  single  word  which  expresses 
the  result  of  a  perusal  of  the  many  memorials  of  his 
early  life,  is  his  duUfulnes8,—fif*i,  and  above  all,  to  his 
Parents.  This  disposition  may  be  declared  to  enfold 
within  itself  the  germ,  not  only  of  all  the  human  charities, 

4  Supra,  pp.  161-2  :   173-4.  5  New  edition,- pp.  224-5. 


278  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE: 

but  of  those  also  which  are  due  immediately  to  GOD. 
In  the  case  before  us, — next  to  religious  veneration  and 
pious  awe, — the  prevailing  characteristic  of  the  man, 
beyond  controversy,  was  a  burning  zeal  for  his  Master's 
honour  and  glory.  It  was  shown  by  his  supreme 
solicitude  for  the  well-being  of  the  Church,  as  the 
authorized  channel  of  GOD'S  Grace,  and  His  one  appointed 
instrument  for  the  Salvation  of  Mankind.  To  those  who 
witnessed  his  efforts  for  the  attainment  of  this  sacred 
object,  his  straightforward  independence  was  conspicuous, 
—his  noble  disdain  of  worldly  ambition, —the  utter 
absence  in  him  of  anything  like  self-seeking.  His  con- 
scientiousness and  candour  scarcely  struck  men  less. 
His  life  of  suffering  had  resulted  in  weaning  him  effectu- 
ally from  this  world  and  its  concerns.  Thus  had  there 
grown  up  in  him  that  absolute  resignation  and  sub- 
mission of  himself  to  the  Divine  Will,  which  seems  to 
belong  to  the  very  essence  of  the  saintly  life. 

Nor  will  the  attentive  and  thoughtful  reader  have 
failed  to  note,  in  passing,  how  singularly,  under  the 
mysterious  shaping  of  Providence,  Mr.  Rose's  wretched 
health,  his  actual  bodily  infirmities,  were  made  sub- 
servient to  GOD'S  purposes:  certainly  proved  conducive 
to  the  welfare  of  CHRIST'S  Church.  That  absolute  neces- 
sity of  foreign  travel  which  drove  him  from  his  cure  at 
Horshain,  in  1824,°  became  the  occasion  of  his  writing 
his  earliest  work,  which  resulted,  (so  to  express  the 
matter,)  in  the  first  influential  stirring  of  the  waters. 
His  expulsion  from  beautiful  Hadleigh,  in  1833,?  by 
conveying  him  first  to  Durham,  then  to  King's  College, 
London,  largely  extended  his  sphere  of  influence  and 
caused  his  '  light  to  shine  before  men '  to  a  degree  which 
would  have  been  impossible  had  he  been  permitted  to 

6  See  above>  PP-  I32-4-  7  See  above,  pp.  179-83. 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     279 

end  his  days  in  the  tranquil  enjoyment  of  a  delightful 
country  cure.  The  Hand  which  shaped  his  painful 
destiny  thus,  to  some  extent,  becomes  visible  to  one  who 
is  contented  to  give  attentive  heed  to  the  strange  sad 
story  of  his  earthly  career.  That  such  a  life  remains, 
after  all,  a  mystery,  is  undeniable:  yet  even  to  us 
there  are  traces  discernible  in  it  of  a  gracious  and  lofty 
purpose,  a  wise  and  beneficent  plan.  Of  the  extent  to 
which  the  individual  character  may  have  become 
moulded  by  such  a  -discipline  of  pain  and  sorrow,  I 
forbear  to  speak.  This  point  has  been  slightly  touched 
upon  already. 8 

I  have  nowhere  adequately  spoken  of  his  love  of  poetry. 
He  accounted  himself  "  a  vehement  Wordsworthian." 
He  found  relief  under  public  anxiety  in  sacred  poetry, 
and  spoke  of  Cowper  as  one  of  his  sources  of  comfort  :— 

"The  nightingale  in  the  hymn  'Far  from  the  world, 
O  LORD,  I  flee/  especially  pleases  me.  But  I  cannot 
always  read  Cowper.  His  melancholy,  though  morbid, 
was  so  real,  and  the  pathos  of  his  language  goes  so 
directly  from  the  heart  to  the  heart,  that,  having  passed 
the  age  when  'sad  fancies  we  affect,'  I  cannot  always 
bear  it."  9 

The  truth  concerning  Hugh  James  Hose,  in  a  word,  is 
this, — that  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  are  lovely,  are 
of  good  report, — whether  in  Providence,  in  Nature,  in 
Literature,  or  in  Art, — he  loved  those  things  with  all 
his  soul.  His  intense  appreciation  of  natural  scenery, — 
in  particular  the  Down  scenery  of  his  native  county,  of 
which  he  would  discourse  with  a  kind  of  rapture, — 
amounted  in  him  to  a  passion.  Some  of  his  written 
thoughts  on  this  subject  are  wondrous  beautiful.  But 
his  one  supreme  object  of  meditation  and  delight  was 

8  See  p.  267.  9  Churton's  Memoir  of  Watson,—  ii.  9,  10. 


2 So  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

the  Word  of  GOD.  At  an  earlier  age  and  to  a  far  greater 
extent  than  is  given  to  most  men,  he  made  the  sublime 
discovery  that  there  is  that  in  those  blessed  pages  which, 
while  it  affords  the  largest  exercise  for  the  loftiest 
faculties  of  the  mind  of  Man,  alone  satisfies  every  noble 
and  generous  craving  of  the  heart,  as  well  as  every 
grand  and  devout  aspiration  of  the  spirit.  Had  his 
lot  fallen  on  quieter  days,  and  had  he  been  blessed  with 
learned  leisure,  (instead  of  having  to  toil  for  his  liveli- 
hood), he  would  have  enriched  the  Church's  treasury 
with  many  a  fruit  of  his  large  knowledge,  matured 
wisdom,  sound  scholarship,  exquisite  taste.  But  he 
succumbed  in  what  seemed  to  himself  a  struggle  for 
the  Church's  very  existence  ;  and  scarcely  lived  to  see 
more  than  the  dawn  of  the  fruition  of  his  soul's  devoutest 
hope. 

HOW    IS    HE  NUMBERED   AMONG    THE    CHILDREN    OF    GOD, 
AND   HIS   LOT    AMONG   THE    SAINTS ! 


The  lesson  which  the  foregoing  grand  life  reads  to 
a  future  generation  is  a  precious  and  a  practical  one. 
Should  a  season  of  fiery  trial  again  overtake  our  beloved 
Church, — days  of  persecution,  or  of  defection  from  the 
Faith,  or  of  darkness, — let  not  despondency  prevail  in 
any  quarter.  There  may  be  no  mistrust  of  the  love  or 
of  the  power  of  Him  who  hath  shown  Himself,  all  down 
the  ages,  our  Church's  sufficient  strength  and  stay. 
"Only"  let  men  "be  strong!"  Above  all,  let  them 
beware  of  resorting  to  strange  expedients  for  the  recovery 
of  peace  within,  or  for  the  procuring  of  safety  from 
without.  Away,  especially,  with  the  preposterous  imagi- 
nation that  some  sort  of  union  may  yet  be  patched  up 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     281 

with  the  Apostate  Church  of  Rome !  Rome,  in  England's 
day  of  greatest  trouble,  will  prove  England's  deadliest 
foe.  And  does  she  not  lie  unmistakably  under  the 
tremendous  curse  of  GOD  ?  The  one  only  essential  unity, 
—the  unity  which  alone  has  our  LORD'S  assurance  of 
abiding  safety, — is  that  which  subsists  between  "the 
branches"  and  "the  Root,"— (which  is  Himself).  "I  am 
the  Vine,"  saith  He:  "ye  are  the  branches."1  It  is 
Rome  that  hath  severed  herself  from  England,— not 
England  from  Rome ;  she  that  is  un-catholic,  not  we : 
witness  her  two  latest  acts  of  Apostasy, — the  dogma  of 
*  the  Immaculate  Conception  '  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and 
the  dogma  of  the  Pope's  *  Infallibility.'  What  would 
the  ancient  Catholic  Fathers, — Athanasius,  and  the  two 
Gregories,  Chrysostom,  and  Cyril ;  Cyprian,  and  Ambrose, 
and  Augustine,  and  Leo, — have  said  to  Rome  now  ? 

When  the  evil  day  comes,  our  greatest  source  of 
weakness  (I  grieve  to  know  it)  will  be  our  own  "un- 
happy divisions," — the  fruit,  to  some  extent,  it  must  be 
sorrowfully  admitted,  of  the  fatal  misdirection  given  to 
the  Tractarian  movement  at  the  end  of  about  two  years 
after  its  beginning  ;  namely,  in  i  ^36.  Only  let  Church- 
men beware  of  multiplying  those  divisions  needlessly. 
Rather  let  them  insist  on  waiving  differences  on  points 
confessedly  non-essential.  Beyond  all  things,  if  men  are 
wise,  their  grand  solicitude  will  be  '  stare  super  antiquas 
mas'.  They  will  republish, — if  need  be,  they  will  strive 
to  the  death  for, — "the  Faith  once  for  all  delivered  to 
the  Saints."  The  three  Creeds  of  the  Church,  they  will 
at  all  hazards  insist  on  retaining  in  their  integrity :  the 
creed  called  '  Athanasian  '  in  particular  ;  impressed  with 
the  solemn  fact  insisted  on  by  Dr.  Waterland,2  that 

1  S.  John  xv.  4,  5  :  xvii.  21.  2  Works,  iii.  256,  ed.  Van  Mildert. 


282  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE:  [1838 

"  as  long  as  there  shall  be  any  men  left  to  oppose  the 
Doctrines  which  this  Creed  contains,  so  long  will  it  be 
expedient,  and  even  necessary  to  continue  the  use  of  it, 
in  order  to  preserve  the  rest :  and,  I  suppose,  when  we 
have  none  remaining  to  find  fault  with  the  Doctrines, 
there  will  be  none  to  object  against  the  use  of  the  Creed, 
or  so  much  as  to  wish  to  have  it  laid  aside." 

Supremely  careful  to  ''strengthen  the  things  which  remain" 
men  will  be  content  to  let  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer  alone. 
When  hearts  are  failing,  each  faithful  son  of  the  Church, 
—not  separating  himself  from  his  fellows, — will,  on  the 
contrary,  (like  HUGH  JAMES  ROSE.)  call  upon  them  to 
take  heart,  and  '  stir  up  the  gift  that  is  in  them,  and 
betake  themselves  to  their  true  Mother':  resolved  that, 
tide  what  tide,  (GoD  helping  him)  nothing  shall  ever 
shake  /tun  from  his  steadfastness  in  the  faith  of  the 
Gospel, — Jiim  from  unflinching  loyalty  to  the  Church  of 
his  Baptism.  There  is  no  telling  what  great  things  GOD 
may  be  pleased  to  work  by  the  instrumentality  of  one : 
one,  with  neither  rank,  nor  station,  nor  wealth,  nor 
worldly  influence,  nor  high  office  in  the  Church3  to 
support  him :  but  on  the  contrary,  one  weighed  down 
(it  may  be)  by  incurable  malady,  and  burthened  with  his 
own  full  share  of  secular  anxieties.  .  .  .  Surely,  (I  have 
once  and  again  told  myself,  as  I  have  slowly  unravelled 
the  history  of  this  noble  life,)  the  method  of  GOD'S 
Providence  hath  ever  been  the  same :  working  out  *  the 
counsel  of  His  will'  by  instruments  the  feeblest  and 
most  unpromising, — and  they,  having  often  to  contend, 
as  in  the  present  instance,  with  disadvantages  of  the 
gravest  and  most  discouraging  kind ! 

'  The  titular   dignity  of  '  joint-  lated  to  the  Prebend  of  Middleton 

Dean  of  Hocking,'  Rose  ceased  to  in  Chichester  Cathedral, — which,  in 

enjoy  when  he  resigned  Hadleigh  Nov.  1833,  he  also  resigned.     Such 

iu  1833.     In  Feb.  1827,  he  was  col-  were  his  ecclesiastical  honours  ! 


1838]    THE  RESTORER  OF  THE  OLD  PATHS.     283 

So  only  may  the  men  of  a  coming  generation  reason- 
ably cherish  the  conviction  that  although  every  human 
help  shall  fail  them,  yet,  inasmuch  as  this  our  branch  of 
the  Church  Catholic  unquestionably  holds  GOD'S  TRUTH, 
it  will  never  be  by  GOD  Himself  forsaken,  nor  indeed 
seem  to  be  by  Him  forgotten  long.  The  rain  may 
descend,  and  the  floods  come,  and  the  winds  blow,  and 
beat  upon  this  House.  But  it  cannot  fall ;  because  it  is 
founded  upon  a  rock.  '  And  that  Rock  is  CHRIST.' 


NOTE, — That  Mr.  Eose's  published  writings  (of  the  years  indicated)  will 
be  found  mentioned  in  the  Memoir  in  the  following  places,  viz. : — 

Of  A.  D.  1817  and  1818  [p.  127]:— Of  1820  and  1821  [p.  130]: — 
S.  P.  C.  K.  Tract  (which  was  a  Sermon  preached  at  Uckfield  Oct.  31, 
1819,)  [p.  131]  : — of  1821  and  1822  [p.  159]  : — three  of  1825  [p.  133-7]  : 
— of  1826  [p.  136]:— of  1828  [pp.  132-4-5]  :— of  1829,  1830,  1831,  1832 
[p.  145]  : — two  more  of  1831  [pp.  229  and  139]  :  another  of  1832  [p.  229]  : 
— of  1833  [p.  145]: — four  of  1834  [PP-  H1*  I92>  and  l85-°l  : — of  l835 
[PP-  59,  23i]  :— Defence  of  Bp.  Hobart  [p.  233]. 

I  have  omitted  to  notice  two  very  remarkable  Sermons  :  one,  '  in  aid  of 
the  Refuge  for  the  Destitute,'1 — April  24th,  1831  :— the  other,  '  The 
Churchman's  Duty  and  Comfort  in  the  present  times/ — July  18,  1833. 
[This  latter  Sermon  was  therefore  preached  seven  days  before  the  Hadleigh 
Conference.]  Also  an  Article  in  the  '  Quarterly  Eeview'  (April  1837),-— 
'  Manners  of  the  xith  and  xiith  Centuries? 

The  following  short  Papers,  Paragraphs,  and  Notices  in  the  'British 
Magazine,'  are  marked  (in  his  own  copy)  by  Henry  Eose  as  having  been 
written  by  his  brother  Hugh :  but,  extending  no  further  than  November, 
1834,  it  is  evidently  a  very  imperfect  enumeration  of  his  brother's 
contributions  to  the  Magazine. — Vol.  I.  pp.  60:  273:  376  (Dale):  377 
(Tyler):  439:  484  (Tiptaft) :  486  (?)— Vol.  II.  pp.  26:  45  note  f:  61 
(Watson):  136  (?) :  140:  144  (continued)  :  195:  285:  399:  416:  417.— 
Vol.  IV.  pp.  261:  390:  508:  617  (being  'Prayers  by  Jtobert  Rolle,  the 
Hermit  of  Hampole,' — which  H.  J.  E.  printed  in  pamphlet  form  in  1833, 
'  with  Notes '). — Vol.  VI.  86 :  205  :  212  :  308  (foot-note)  :  313  ('  Statesmen's 
Morality'):  314  (•  Conciliation  ):  437  (' the  Newspapers'):  55  2  'Liberal 
notions  of  Equity  and  the  Law  of  the  Land ') :  553  ('  The  "  Patriot ''.'; 


JOHN   ROSE. 

[A.  "D.  1800—1873.] 

IT  would  have  been  to  mar  the  unity  of  the  foregoing 
grand  life,  to  attempt  to  weave  into  it,  however  briefly, 
the  story  of  another  and  a  kindred  life.  *  Kindred '  in 
every  sense  :  for,  with  corresponding  views  and  aims, 
identical  antecedents  and  traditions,  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE 
was  HUGH  JAMES'S  only  brother. 

What  gives  him  a  claim  to  be  distinctly  commemo- 
rated in  this  place  is  the  fact  that  he  it  was  who,  under 
every  emergency,  with  entire  self-denial  and  always  in 
the  most  ungrudging  manner,  came  forward  to  relieve 
the  overtasked  brain  and  exhausted  bodily  powers  of 
that  illustrious  brother  whose  career,  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave,  forms  the  subject  of  the  preceding  167 
pages.  And  yet,  the  picture  of  so  beautiful  a  character 
as  that  of  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE  would  have  deserved  ex- 
hibiting for  its  own  sake. 

His  parentage, — the  entire  framework  indeed  of  his 
early  life, — has  been  already  set  forth  particularly.1  He 
was  born  at  Uckn'eld  in  Sussex,  on  the  3rd  of  January 
1800,  and  like  his  brother  received  his  early  education 
entirely  at  his  Father's  hands.  No  thoughtful  person 
will  affect  to  doubt  the  unique  advantages  of  education 
at  a  public  school:  yet  is  one  for  ever  reminded,  as 
by  the  instances  before  us,  that  real  proficiency  in  learn- 
ing is  only  attainable  when  a  man  is  resolved  to  take 
exceeding  pains  with  himself.  At  the  age  of  1 7,  Henry 
John  Rose  was  sent  up  to  Cambridge  and  was  admitted 
a  pensioner  of  Peterhouse, — June  25th,  1817.  Thence 
(October  31^,  1818,)  he  migrated  to  S.  John's  College. 
His  name  appeared,  in  1821,  bracketed  fourteenth  in  the 
list  of  Wranglers  ;  having  enjoyed  yet  higher  distinction 
in  the  Classical  Examination  of  the  same  year.  He  was 

1  See  above,  pp.  118-20. 


HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  285 

admitted  shortly  after  (6th  April  1824)  foundation  Fellow 
of  his  College,  and  at  once  devoted  himself  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  Classical  learning  and  Divinity.  He  made 
himself  a  capital  Hebrew  scholar  at  a  time  when  none 
of  those  aids  were  available  which  now-a-days  solicit 
aspirants  after  such  lore  ;  without  also  the  advantages 
which  a  well-furnished  exchequer  is  everywhere  able  to 
command.  "  I  knew  Henry  John  Rose  at  Cambridge," 
(wrote  the  late  learned  Dr.  Field :)  "  We  sat  together  for 
a  Hebrew  Scholarship  in  1823:  I  being  the  successful 
candidate."  2  By  such  an  one  it  was  no  discredit  to  have 
been  surpassed  in  any  branch  of  human  learning.  Later 
on  in  life  he  was  attracted  to  the  study  of  Syriac  by 
Cureton's  revival  of  the  Ignatian  controversy,  and 
acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of  that  precious  idiom. 
At  Cambridge  also  he  made  himself  a  complete  master 
of  the  German  language,  as  his  translation  of  Neander's 
'  History  of  the  Christian  Religion  and  Church  during  the  first 
three  centuries]  in  two  volumes  (1831  and  1841),  attests. 
He  became  chiefly  known,  however,  from  his  Hulsean 
lectures  delivered  in  1833,  and  published  in  the  ensuing 
year  : — <  f]ie  Law  of  Moses  viewed  in  connection  with  the  his- 
tory and  character  of  the  Jews,  with  a  defence  of  the  Book  of 
Joshua  against  Professor  Leo  of  Berlin.'  By  these  two 
publications  he  established  a  high  reputation  as  an 
accomplished  scholar,  as  well  as  a  learned  and  philo- 
sophical Divine.  He  resided  at  S.  John's  College  for 
about  seventeen  useful  and  happy  years.  No  man 
was  ever  prouder  of  his  University  or  more  sincerely 
attached  to  his  College  than  he.  For  a  short  period  (viz. 
from  March  1832  to  September  1833)  he  was  Minister3 
of  S.  Edward's  Church  in  Cambridge. 

He  found    time    however   at   College   for   something 

2  Letter  to  myself, — '  2   Carlton  a  monastery  suppressed  in  the  xvth 
Terrace,  Norwich,'  April  3,  1884.  century.     Hence  its  immunity  from 

3  "  The  term  '  Minister  '  has  al-  Episcopal  jurisdiction.     I  believe  it 
ways,  until  very  lately,  been  applied  holds  an  altogether  unique  position 
to  the  Incumbent  of  S.  Edward's,  in  this  respect." — (From  the  Rev.  J. 
— which  is  a  donative,  and   came  /.  Lias.} 

into  the  hands  of  Trinity  Hall  from 


286  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  [POST- 

else  besides  Classical  literature  and  Divinity.  He  lived 
throughout  the  unquiet  and  unsettled  period  which  pre- 
ceded and  followed  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill,  and 
took  a  prominent  part  with  his  pen  in  politics.  Scarcely 
need  it  be  added  that  he  was  as  strong  a  Conservative 
as  he  was  an  earnest  Churchman.  He  published  besides 
"  an  Answer  to  '  The  case  of  the  Dissenters^  "  in  1834  .  also 
a  letter  addressed  to  Professor  Lee  (June  13,  1834), — 
which  I  do  not  remember  to  have  ever  seen. 

But  throughout  all  that  period  of  College  residence, 
Henry  Rose's  home  affections  were  paramount.  In  1824, 
his  Father  had  been  presented  to  the  Vicarage  of  Glynde, 
near  Lewes,  (by  Dr.  J.  S.  Clarke,  in  right  of  his  canonry 
at  Windsor) ;  and  thither  it  was  as  much  the  delight  of 
Henry  John,  as  of  his  brother  Hugh  James,  at  every 
opportunity  to  repair.4  His  presence  always  brought 
light  and  life  to  the  little  household.  His  Mother,  who 
was  very  observant  of  character,  shrewdly  remarked  of 
him, — "  Henry  never  hangs  up  his  jiddle."  It  was  her 
idiomatic  way  of  indicating  an  equable  temperament 
which  requires  neither  auditory  nor  excitement  in 
order  to  prove  habitually  cheerful  and  communicative, 
pleasant  and  entertaining. 

In  1824-5  ne  accompanied  his  brother  and  Mrs.  Rose 
in  their  tour  through  Germany  and  Italy, — a  tour  which 
was  destined  to  bear  such  memorable  fruit :  Mr.  Henry 
Tufnell  (one  of  Mr.  Hugh  Rose's  pupils)  being  another  of 
the  party.5 — In  1827-8  he  is  found  to  have  executed 
a  considerable  portion  of  his  brother's  edition  of  Park- 
hurst's  '  Greek  and  English  Lexicon  of  the  New  Testament,' 
which  appeared  in  1829.  (The  preface  is  dated  '  Hors- 
ham,  Jan.  2nd.')  All  the  matter  (writes  his  brother) 
"from  Ka//7ro!>  to  Evpaco,  from  'TaKLi'OLvos  to  'TTrooreAAco, 
and  from  XO/JTOJ  to  ^Hjuos,"  is  by  Henry  Rose.6 

I  had  the  happiness  to  make  his  acquaintance  during 

4  See  above,  pp.  122,  126,  146,    6  See  above,  concerning  this  work, 
150,  167,  193,  245,  253-4,  &c.      —p.  137. 

5  See  above,  pp.  132-4. 


SCRIPT.]  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  287 

a  youthful  visit  to  Cambridge  ;  and  in  the  December  of 
1836,  being  in  London,  he  came  to  seek  me  out  in 
Brunswick  Square.  He  had  already  (namely  in  the 
spring  of  1834)  carried  forward  his  brother's  work  as 
Divinity  Professor  at  Durham  for  one  or  two  terms  ;7  and 
now  that  the  same  brother  was  domiciled  in  King's 
College,  his  little  parish  of  S.  Thomas's  in  Southwark 
requiring  a  locum,  tenens,  Henry  Rose  took  up  his  residence 
at  the  Vicarage.  At  this  time  moreover  it  was  that,  in 
consequence  of  Mr.  Hugh  Rose's  deplorable  health,  Henry, 
further  to  relieve  him,  undertook  the  Editorship  of  the 
'Encyclopaedia  Metropolitan^  as  well  as  of  the  'British, 
Magazine!91  Both  publications  were  still  superintended 
by  Hugh  James,  —  but  the  labouring  oar,  in  respect  of 
both,  devolved  to  Henry,  who  carried  on  the  former 
long  after  his  brother's  death.  The  Biographical 
Dictionary'  at  first,  at  all  events,  was  under  his  sole 
management;  while,  for  the  '  Encyclopaedia  ,'  he  wrote  the 
later  portion  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History,  —  namely, 
chapters  x,  xi,  xii  (A.D.  1700  to  1858);  which  form 
the  last  115  pages  of  a  volume  which  has  since  been 
separately  published.9  We  saw  a  great  deal  of  him  at 
my  father's  house  during  this  period.  The  society  he 
occasionally  met  there  delighted  him  greatly,  and  he  was 
with  all  of  us  a  cherished  guest. 

In  the  Spring  of  3838  (24th  May),  —  which  was 
destined  to  be  the  last  year  (22nd  December)  of  his 
brother's  life,  —  Henry  John  Rose  married  Sarah  Caroline, 
eldest  daughter  of  Thomas  Burgon,  esq.  (subsequently 
of  the  British  Museum),  having  been  already  (viz.  in 
1837)  presented  by  his  College  to  the  Rectory  of 
Houghton  Conquest  in  Bedfordshire.  In  that  moated 
parsonage  house,  —  erected  by  Dr.  Zachary  Grey,1  (the 
editor  of  Hudibras,)  —  for  about  thirty  years  (1842-72),  I 
passed  all  my  vacations,  and  still  can  but  linger  fondly 
over  every  mention  of  its  name.  My  brother  possessed 


7  See  above,  pp.  188-9.  from  tjie  XHIth  century  to  the  pre- 

8  See  above,  pp.  261.  sent  day]  —  1858. 

9  'History  of  'the  Christian  Church,          l  Hector  of  Houghton  1726-66. 


288  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  [POST- 

a  capital  library,  consisting  chiefly  of  works  of  Divinity, 
—which  proved  to  me  an  unspeakable  help  ;  for  he  was 
as  willing  as  he  was  apt  to  guide  me  to  sources  of  infor- 
mation,— to  teach  and  to  communicate  his  knowledge. 
In  short,  I  owe  to  him,  and  to  the  calm  seclusion  of  his 
delightful  home,  more  than  I  am  able  to  express.  There  it 
was  that  I  toiled  at  an  as  yet  unpublished  'Harmony  of  the 
Evangelists ' — which  I  always  hoped  would  be  my  first 
essay  in  Divinity :  and  there  '  a  Plain  Commentary  on  the 
Gospels'  was  entirely  produced.  The  consequence  has 
been  that  while  life  lasts  I  shall  find  it  impossible  to 
dissociate  those  accidents  of  time,  place  and  occupation. 
All  have  got  woven  into  one  another.  The  blessed  pages 
(strange  to  say)  ever  seem  to  me  to  have  for  their  near 
foreground  the  little  orchard  which  all  day  long  I  used 
to  look  down  upon  from  the  windows  of  my  bed-room 
(which  was  also  my  study),  and  the  pleasant  avenue  of 
umbrageous  limes  beside  it  and  beyond.  How  also  shall 
I  ever  be  able— even  if  I  desired  it — to  divest  my 
memory  of  that  perpetual  click  of  the  gate  at  the  end  of 
the  avenue,  throughout  the  live-long  day,  which  be- 
tokened the  approach  or  the  exit  of  another  and  yet 
another  pensioner  on  the  unfailing  bounties  of  the 
household  ? 

Henry  Rose  found  that  '  the  lines  had  fallen  to  him  in 
pleasant  places.'  The  scenery  round  about  his  secluded 
Rectory  was  of  that  sweet  domestic  character  which, 
without  ever  aspiring  to  the  praise  of  being  actually 
beautiful,  yet  in  effect  always  pleases, — never  tires.  In 
a  sheltered  hollow  of  the  chain  of  hills  which  form  the 
southern  limit  of  the  landscape,  were  to  be  seen,  till 
1 856,  the  remains  of  '  Conquest  Bury,' — the  ancient 
homestead  of  the  Conquests,  who  had  been  lords  of  the 
soil  thereabouts  for  400  years.  In  a  westerly  direction 
stretched  Houghton  Park,  in  which  the  Countess  of 
Pembroke  ('  Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother,')  in 
1615  built  herself  a  stately  mansion  which  was  only 
reduced  to  a  shell  in  1794.  It  was  there  she  passed  her 
widowhood.  Those  picturesque  ruins,  surrounded  by 


SCRIPT.]  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  289 

fine  forest  oaks,  are  approached  from  the  North  and 
West  by  an  avenue  of  wych  elms, — from  the  South  by 
an  avenue  of  chesnuts.  At  the  foot  of  one  of  those  oaks , 
commanding  a  charming  view  of  '  the  Ruins,'  is  a  seat 
which  was  inscribed — till  time  and  weather  rendered 
the  letters  illegible — *  JOHN  HOOKHAM  FKEKE.'  A  plea- 
santer  walk  is  not  to  be  found  in  all  that  neighbourhood 
than  the  walk  from  Hough  ton  to  Ampthill,  a  distance  of 
about  two  miles.  I  speak  of  the  way  over  the  hill, 
which  may  be  greatly  varied  and  made  full  of  interest 
and  beauty.  Contiguous  is  Ampthill  Park,  —  famed 
for  its  giant  oaks;  some  of  which  in  the  time  of  the 
Commonwealth  were  pronounced  too  aged  for  shipbuild- 
ing purposes.  In  the  same  park  an  obelisk  marks  the 
site  of  Ampthill  Castle, — where  Queen  Catharine  of 
Arragon  resided  while  the  business  of  her  divorce  was 
pending.  A  superb  lime-tree  avenue  contributes  another 
charm  to  this  classic  locality. — But  indeed  the  walks 
about  Houghton,  in  whichever  direction,  are  all  delight- 
ful ;  and  every  walk  conducted  to  the  abode  of  a  kind 
and  congenial  neighbour. 

Once  established  at  Houghton,  Henry  John  Rose  gave 
himself  up  to  the  duties  of  the  Pastoral  office,  never 
thenceforward  absenting  himself  from  his  post  for  more 
than  two  successive  Sundays  in  the  space  of  four-and-thirty 
years.  Besides  re-edifying  the  parish  School  of  Houghton, 
— (an  endowed  foundation  which  has  long  since  lapsed 
into  insignificance,) — he  accounted  it  his  singular  felicity 
that  he  was  enabled,  before  he  died,  to  superintend  the 
complete  restoration  of  his  own  beautiful  parish  Church  ; 
as  successful  a  monument  of  the  skill  of  Sir  G.  Gilbert 
Scott  as  is  to  be  anywhere  seen  in  England.  Rose 
certainly  found  it  in  a  deplorable  condition, — the  chancel 
in  particular  (for  which,  as  Rector,  he  was  personally 
responsible)  having  fallen  into  a  state  of  even  squalid 
neglect.  Thanks  chiefly  to  the  munificence  of  the  pre- 
sent Duke  of  Bedford  and  the  liberality  of  the  late  Lord 
John  Thynne  of  Haynes  Park,  nothing  remained  to  be 
desired  for  Houghton  Conquest  Church,  when  he  left  it. 

VOL.  I.  U 


290  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  [POST- 

The  chancel  he  restored  to  far  more  than  its  original 
beauty.  His  large-hearted  brother-in-law  C.  L.  H.,  (the 
name  last  commemorated  in  the  present  volumes),  by 
subscriptions  collected  throughout  the  Archdeaconry, 
provided  the  parish  Church  with  an  excellent  organ. 
The  village  minstrelsy  when  Henry  Kose  first  knew  the 
place  was  certainly  of  a  type  which  would  now-a-days 
be  pronounced  fabulous. 

The  best  traditions  of  an  English  country  parsonage 
were  to  be  witnessed  at  Houghton  in  perfection.  Keal 
learning  and  sound  Divinity,  pure  taste  and  graceful 
hospitality, — nourished  there  and  abounded.  Within 
doors,  there  was  unfailing  loving-kindness, — unbroken 
peace  and  joy:  without,  there  was  (with  all  their  faults)  a 
GoD-fearing, — a  well-disposed  and  affectionate  peasantry. 
No  place  was  ever  more  fortunate  in  its  neighbouring 
Clergy  than  this :  good  and  faithful  men,  all  of  them, 
with  whom  it  was  always  a  privilege  to  be  brought 
into  familiar  intercourse.  Rose's  secluded  dwelling 
was  sought  out  by  many  a  Continental  scholar, — (as 
Lepsius,  Land,  and  Lagarde) ;  as  well  as  by  many  whose 
names  Englishmen  agree  to  hold  in  honour ;  as  P.  F. 
Tytler,  Dr.  Corrie,  Temple  Chevalier,  Dr.  W.  H.  Mill, 
J.  B.  Mozley,  A.  C.  Eraser,  H.  L.  Mansel,  William  Kay, 
Charles  Marriott,  Bishops  Cleveland  Coxe  and  Quintard. 
Quite  as  well  deserving  of  commemoration,  in  my  account, 
as  anything,  is  the  act  (or  rather  the  habit)  of  faith 
which  left  the  Rectory, — (a  lone  house  at  the  end  of 
a  lane  leading  from  the  village,) — wholly  without  an 
occupant  every  Sunday,  in  order  that  the  entire  house- 
hold might  be  enabled  to  attend  Divine  Service. 

Concerning  the  Parson's  library  I  have  already  spoken. 
His  books  had  been  collected  for  use, — not  for  ornament : 
and  it  was  remarked,  when  specialists  or  men  of  great 
attainments  visited  him,  that  it  seemed  as  if  there  was 
something  to  be  found  in  the  library  on  every  subject 
that  could  be  named. — It  will  be  remembered  that 
Henry  Rose  was  one  of  the  contributors  to  '  Replies  to 
Essays  and  Reviews;  (1862), — having  selected  for  his 


SCRIPT.]  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  291 

province  the  wretched  sophistries  of  Dr.  Rowland  Wil- 
liams. He  undertook,  besides,  a  '  Commentary  on  the  Book 
of  Daniel'  for  the  Speaker's  Commentary, — which  how- 
ever unhappily  remained  unfinished  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  He  also  became  one  of  the  Revisionists  of  the 
Authorized  Version  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  and 
took  part  with  his  pen  in  all  the  great  Ecclesiastical 
questions  of  the  day.  At  an  earlier  period,  he  had  been 
joint-editor  of  several  collections  of  '  Scripture  Prints  for 
Cottage  Walls!  He  further  edited  Berkeley's  private 
papers,  (which  he  had  inherited  from  his  brother,)  for  the 
late  collected  edition  of  Bishop  Berkeley's  '  Works' ; 
and  occasionally  contributed  articles  to  the  '  Quarterly,' 
the  *  English'  and  the  '  Contemporary  Review!  To  the 
'  Literary  Churchman '  he  also  communicated  not  a  few 
Reviews  of  foreign  publications. 

I  cannot,  in  this  place,  withhold  an  expression  of  dis- 
appointment and  regret  that  one  so  accomplished  and  so 
learned  did  not  leave  behind  him  some  more  considerable 
monument  of  his  attainments  and  his  genius  than  any 
which  have  been  hitherto  enumerated.  But  he  was  a 
singularly  modest  man :  was  the  reverse  of  ambitious 
and  self-seeking :  loved  learning  for  its  own  sake :  was 
at  all  times  willing  rather  to  toil  for,  and  to  bestow  him- 
self upon,  others,  than  to  assert  and  to  contend  for 
himself.  It  was  indeed  a  very  lovely  character.  His 
sweetness,  gentleness,  consideration,  forbearance,  refine- 
ment, were  apparent  to  all.  Large-hearted  and  liberal  - 
handed  too  he  was,  beyond  his  means. 

Let  me  be  allowed  here  to  pourtray  him  yet  further. 
He  was  of  a  most  calm  temperament :  possessed  a  singu- 
larly quick  and  clear  understanding  ;  and  was  endowed 
with  an  extraordinary  memory.  His  regard  for  Truth 
was  conspicuous  in  the  accuracy  with  which  he  would 
repeat  a  story:  and  he  told  a  story  particularly  well. 
His  library  seemed, — nay,  was — all  in  disorder  ;  but  he 
could  always  find  a  book  with  ease,  almost  in  the  dark ; 
and  he  would  turn  to  the  place  required  with  surprising 

'U  2 


292  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  [POST- 

readiness.  Quite  characteristic  of  him  was  his  exceed- 
ing  fairness.  This  quality  of  mind  it  was  which,  combined 
with  his  generous  warmth  of  heart,  conciliated  to  him  in 
so  eminent  a  degree  the  Clergy  of  his  neighbourhood. 
He  was  the  President  of  a  Clerical  Society  which  used 
to  meet  once  a  month  at  one  another's  houses  from 
March  to  October  inclusive,  for  mutual  edification.  At 
one  time,  discussing  the  Kubrics, — at  another  Parochial 
difficulties, — at  another,  hard  places  of  Scripture, — it  shall 
but  be  added  that,  under  his  Presidentship,  those  gather- 
ings of  brethren  became  a  great  instrument  for  spiritual 
improvement,  as  well  as  a  delightful  social  bond.  Pro- 
ductive were  they  of  unmingled  good  to  all  the  neighbour- 
ing parishes,  as  some,  yet  living,  would  eagerly  attest. — 
And  now,  to  proceed. 

In  1866,  Henry  John  Rose  succeeded  Dr.  Tattam  as 
Archdeacon  of  Bedford,  by  appointment  of  Dr.  Harold 
Browne,  Bishop  of  Ely;  and  was  ever  after  a  regular 
attendant  at  all  meetings  of  Convocation.  In  consequence 
of  his  office,  he  became  also,  from  this  time  forward,  the 
author  of  many  '  Charges  '  and  '  Sermons  '  on  the  questions 
which  have  of  late  years  disturbed  the  peace  of  the 
Church.  Some  of  these  will  be  found  noted  at  foot  of 
the  page.2  Here  also  should  be  commemorated  the  great 
interest  he  took  in  the  proceedings  of  the  '  Bedfordshire 
Archaoloffical  Society' — to  which  indeed  he  contributed 
some  valuable  and  very  interesting  papers. 

2  The  English  Liturgy  a  Protest  wardens  of  the  Archdeaconry  of  Bed- 

agaimt  Romish  Corruptions, — (Two  ford — May  3ist,   1867. — Another, 

Sermons),    1850.    .    .    The   question  — June     23rd,    1869. — Another, — 

'  Why    should    we    pray    for   fair  June  ist,  1870. — Another,  (his  last), 

weather  ?  '      answered,  —  (Harvest  — May  14^,1872. — He alsoput forth 

Home,  Market  Harborough),   1860  papers  on  the  following  subjects  : — 

.  .  .  Position  of  the  Church  of  Eng-  DocumentsrelatingtoMiltonthepoet, 

land  as  a  National  Church  histori-  [1845], — (Brit.  Mag.)  .  .  .    On  the 

colly  considered, — (PrimaryCharge),  Jewish  Shekels,  1853, — (Num.  Soc.) 

— 1868    .    .    .    Christian    Charities  .  .  .  Remarks  on  documents  relating 

cleared  from  the  misrepresentations  to  John  Milton  and  Isaac  Barrow, 

of  (  Ecce    Homo,' — at    Cambridge,  [1856],  .  .  .  Bp.  Home's  Life  and 

1868  .   .  .    Charge  to  the  Church-  Letters,— (Cont.  Eev.,  1867.) 


SCRIPT.]  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE. 


293 


But  it  was  not  so  much  by  his  singularly  varied  learn- 
ing and  vast  stores  of  general  information,  or  even  by 
his  published  writings,  that  Archdeacon  Rose  was  known 
in  the  county  where  he  lived  and  among  the  large  circle  of 
attached  friends  of  which  he  was  the  centre  and  chief 
ornament.  It  was  his  genuine  sympathy :  his  inflexible 
integrity:  his  singleness  and  sincerity  of  purpose:  his 
correct  judgment :  the  moderation,  courtesy,  and  kind- 
ness which  he  displayed  on  all  occasions,  public  as  well 
as  private ;  but  above  all,  his  unswerving  Churchman- 
ship  and  uncompromising  zeal  for  the  Truth,  which  drew 
men  to  him  and  made  him  universally  respected  and 
beloved.  Nothing  knew  he  of  the  hollow  arts  and 
supple  tricks  whereby  popularity  is  sometimes  courted, 
or  of  the  spurious  liberality  which  is  at  all  times  ready 
to  surrender  to  public  clamour  the  things  which  are  not 
its  own.  He  was  an  English  Churchman  of  the  good  old 
type  ;  of  which,  (be  it  remarked  in  passing,)  samples  are 
not  by  any  means  so  rare  as  certain  of  the  new  school 
would  have  us  believe.  I  have  spoken  of  him  as  the 
very  model  of  a  dutiful  Son,  a  devoted  Brother.  It  can- 
not be  improper  to  add  that  he  was  also  the  tenderest  of 
Husbands,  the  most  loving  and  indulgent  of  Fathers,  the 
faithfullest  of  Friends.  His  singular  sweetness  and  even- 
ness of  temper :  his  unfailing  playfulness  of  disposition 
and  cheerfulness  of  spirit, — a  feature  of  his  character 
which  did  not  forsake  him  to  the  last :  but  above  all  his 
deep  unaffected  piety,  made  his  home  ever  bright  and 
happy.  All  who  came  within  its  influence  acknowledged 
its  charm  ;  and  not  a  few  have  been  known  to  speak  of 
it  as  their  ideal  of  an  abode  of  pleasantness  and  peace. 

In  person,  Henry  John  Rose  considerably  resembled 
his  brother  Hugh  James.  There  was  in  both  the  same 
exalted  stature, — the  same  intellectual  forehead, — the 
same  dignified  presence.  A  spirited  crayon  drawing, 
(executed,  I  think,  in  1839,)  by  the  accomplished  hand  of 
E.  U.  Eddis,  R.A.,  is  the  only  portraiture  of  him  which 
is  known  to  exist:  for  a  representation  of  him  (at  Durham) 
as  his  brother's  shadow,  scarcely  merits  notice. 


294 


HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  [POST- 


The  end  came  suddenly,  after  a  few  days  of  very  acute 
suffering,  on  Friday  the  3ist  of  January,  A.D.  1873,— 
when  the  Archdeacon  had  just  completed  his  73rd  year. 
A  more  interesting  group  of  meritorious  Clergy  and 
faithful  Laity,  than  the  incumbents  and  gentry  of  the 
neighbouring  parishes  who  followed  him  on  foot,  in  long 
procession,  to  the  grave, — I  have  never  met  with  in  any 
country  district.  Few  of  them  indeed  are  anywhere 
alive  at  this  time  :  but  at  first  the  void  which  the  Arch- 
deacon's death  occasioned  was  acknowledged  as  well  as 

very  painfully  felt  by  them  all He  was  survived  by 

his  wife  and  five  children, — two  sons,  both  in  Holy  Orders, 
and  three  daughters  ;  the  eldest  of  whom  was  married  in 
1 870.  He  sleeps  in  the  south-eastern  angle  of  Hough  ton 
Conquest  churchyard.  His  eldest  son  (named  after  his 
illustrious  uncle  'Hugh  James'  \fj.  1840,  d.  1878]),  M.A. 
of  Oriel  College,  rests  by  his  side,  and  is  survived  by 
two  little  children  of  delightful  promise, — Theresa  and 
Charles  Henry.  The  Archdeacon's  younger  son,  Rev. 
William  Francis  Hose,  M.A.  of  Worcester  College, — 
(Hugh  James  Rose's  only  surviving  nephew), —  was 
appointed  by  Lord  Chancellor  Cairns  to  the  vicarage 
of  Woiie,  Somerset,  in  1874.  I  shall  only  say  of  him, 
that  he  is  treading  closely  in  the  footsteps  of  his  Father. 


Obvious  it  is, — and  to  no  one  more  obvious  than  to 
the  present  writer, — that  the  task  of  writing  the  '  Life  of 
Hugh  Jamex  Ease  '  should,  for  every  reason,  have  devolved 
on  his  younger  brother  Henry.  There  had  subsisted 
between  them  throughout  life-  the  most  loving  confidence. 
Henry  knew  Hugh's  mind  on  every  subject ;  and  could 
have  produced  a  hundred  sayings  as  well  as  details  of 
interest,  without  effort.  During  my  frequent  sojourns  at 
Houghton,  I  did  not  fail, — sometimes  with  earnestness, 
—to  urge  the  Rector  to  undertake  this  task,  even  as  a 
duty.  Finding  however  that  I  could  not  prevail,  I  at 
last  abstained  from  reviving  a  subject  which  I  saw  was 


SCRIPT.]  HENRY  JOHN  ROSE.  295 

inexpressibly  painful  to  him.  He  could  never  converse 
about  his  brother  for  long  without  exhibiting  emotion. 
Hugh  James  Rose's  early  death,  which  was  to  the  Church 
the  ruin  of  a  great  expectation,  the  disappointment  of  a 
grand  promise, — was  to  his  Parents,  to  his  Widow,  and 
to  his  Brother,  also  a  sorrowful  legacy  of  tears. 

May  I  be  permitted  to  add,  that  it  has  been  a  real 
solace  and  support  to  me  during  the  compilation  of  that 
earlier  Memoir,  to  know  that  I  was  achieving,  however 
imperfectly,  a  work  which  hundreds  besides  his  Widow 
and  his  Brother,  (though  no  one  nearly  so  ardently  as 
they,)  supremely  desired  to  see  at  last  undertaken  by 
some  friendly  hand  ? 


an).  CHARLES  MARRIOTT: 

THE   MAN   OF  SAINTLY  LIFE. 

[A.  D.   1811-1858.] 

WHAT  is  here  proposed  is  not  so  much  to  write 
a  Life,  as  to  pourtray  a  Character.  Greatly 
do  I  regret  that  I  did  not  long  ago  fulfil  the  intention, — 
(long  ago  conceived  and  never  consciously  abandoned), — 
of  committing  to  paper  some  recollections  of  the  holy 
man  whose  name  stands  written  above  the  present  page. 
At  the  end  of  thirty  years,  the  more  delicate  traits  of 
such  an  one  as  he  are  apt  to  grow  blurred  and  indistinct. 
His  obiter  dicta,  in  particular,  can  no  longer  be  recalled. 
It  is  only  the  general  result  which  remains  so  indelibly 
impressed  on  the  memory.  Since  however  an  opportunity 
for  repairing  this  long-standing  omission  at  last  presents 
itself,  it  shall  not  be  let  slip.  It  would  be  a  reproach  if 
no  written  memorial  were  to  survive  of  a  character 
so  unique,  so  beautiful,  so  saint-like,  as  that  of  Charles 
Marriott.  And  certainly  the  thing  must  be  done  now,  or 
it  will  never  be  done  at  all. 

Utterly  at  a  loss  should  I  have  been  concerning  the 
first  chapters  of  his  history,  but  that  I  have  been  allowed 
access  to  a  short  biographical  sketch  which  his  brother 
John  drew  up  in  1 859 ;  and  have  been  entrusted  with 
certain  "Memoranda  concerning  Charles  Marriott  and 
his  Parents," — the  work  of  an  accomplished  first  cousin  ; 


i8n]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  297 

of  which  documents  I  shall,  without  further  acknowledg- 
ment, freely  avail  myself. 

CHARLES  MARRIOTT,  third  son  of  the  Reverend  John 
Marriott  [1780-1825],— Rector  of  Church  Lawford  in 
Warwickshire,  and  Curate  of  Broad  Clyst,  Devon, — was 
born  at  Church  Lawford  on  the  24th  of  August,  1 8 1 1 . 

Certain  interesting  features  of  character  are  perceived 
to  have  descended  to  him  from  an  earlier  generation.  His 

grandfather's  house  is  described  as  "  a  happy  home 

full  of  bright  minds  and  warm  hearts, — a  little  needing 
regulation  perhaps,  and  severally  somewhat  overapt  to 
do  what  seemed  right  in  their  own  eyes ;  but,  in  every 
essential  respect,  thoroughly  at  one.  All  made  the 
service  of  GOD  their  end :  all  were  attached  members  of 
the  Church  of  England ;  and, — (what  in  those  days  was 
essential  to  domestic  concord), — all  were  of  the  same  way 
of  thinking  on  political  questions.  Loyal-minded  Tories 
were  they  all,  and  staunch  Anti-Gallicans.  A  passion 
for  reading  prevailed  throughout  the  household."  My 
informant  adds, — "When  our  Father,1  then  at  Christ 
Church,  told  Dean  Cyril  Jackson  that  he  had  a  younger 
brother  (John)  coming  up  to  matriculate,  who  he  hoped 
might  be  admitted  to  '  the  House,'  the  old  man's  answer 
was,—'  Glad  of  it.  Like  the  breed!  " 

JOHN,  father  of  John  and  CHARLES  MARRIOTT,  more 
than  justified  the  Dean's  anticipations.  Five  years 
before  the  institution  of  the  "  Class-list,"  viz.  at  the 
Easter  of  1802,  (in  which  year  the  Examination  statute 
came  into  force),  the  only  successful  Candidates  for 
honours  were  "Abel  Hendy  [Bible  clerk]  of  Oriel,  and 

1  George  Marriott,  esq.,  barrister,  — and  Sophia,  (whose  words  I  am 
father  of  the  Ven.  Fitzherbert  Mar-  in  the  main  quoting,) — Charles  Mar- 
riott, (Archdeacon  of  Hobart  Town),  riott's  first  cousins. 


298  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [i8n 

John  Marriott  ofCk.  C$."  The  books  taken  up  were  Cicero, 
Quintilian,  Livy,  Juvenal,  Lucretius,  Aristotle  (Ethics  and 
Rhetoric),  Thucydides,  Sophocles,  ^Eschylus  and  Pindar. 

In  externals,  John  Marriott  presented  a  remarkable 
contrast  to  his  son, — (the  subject  of  the  ensuing  memoir)  ; 
being  a  man  of  peculiarly  charming  manners,  with  an 
almost  dangerous  facility  of  expression  and  a  fascinating 
addre&s  which  made  him  the  darling  of  society,  especially 
among  woman-kind.  Besides  his  classical  attainments, 
he  was  singularly  felicitous  as  a  poet.  He  could  throw 
off  graceful  English  verses  with  as  much  readiness  as 
most  men  can  write  an  ordinary  letter,  and  is  the  author 
of  several  well-known  hymns : 2  but  he  is  chiefly 
remembered  as  the  author  of  the  "Devonshire  Lane."  3  The 
charm  of  his  conversation  and  character  won  for  him, 
(when  he  was  for  a  short  time  in  Scotland  as  tutor  to 
the  young  heir  of  Buccleuch),  the  friendship  of  Walter 
Scott,  who  dedicated  to  him  the  2nd  canto  of  '  Marmion.' 
In  those  introductory  verses,  Scott  testifies  that  his 
friend's  "  harp,  on  Isis  strung,  To  many  a  border  theme 
had  rung;"  and  affectionately  reminds  him  of  their 
joyous  rambles  "up  pathless  Ettrick  and  on  Yarrow,"- 
the  scene  of  many  a  prouder  hunting  in  ancient  days. 

But  (adds  the  Minstrel  of  the  Border), 

"Our  mirth,  dear  Marriott,  was  the  same. 

Nor  dull,  between  each  merry  chase, 
Pass'd  by  the  intermitted  space ; 

2  The  hymns,  '  Thou,  tvhose  A  I-  Princess   the    other   day    inquired 
mifjhhj  Ward,' — mnd'GoDwhomadett  after  it !)    It  begins, — '  In  a  Devon- 
earth  and  heaven,' — are  by  him.  He  shi  re  Lane  as  I  trotted  along  |  T'other 
also  contributed  a  ballad  to  Scott's  day  much  in  want  of  a  subject  for 
'  Border  Minstrelsy.'  song,  |  It  came  into  my  mind,  p'rhaps 

3  This  jeu  ffietprit  is  not  known  in  spired  by  the  rain,  |  Sure  Marriage 
to  have  been  ever  printed  ;  yet  has  is  much  like  a  Devonshire  Lane.' 

it  got  about  strangely  (An  Austrian 


i8u]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  299 

For  we  had  fair  resource  in  store, 
In  Classic  and  in  Gothic  lore, 
We  marked  each  memorable  scene 
And  held  poetic  talk  between." 

John  Marriott  was  in  fact  one  of  the  most  polished 
and  accomplished  gentlemen  of  his  time.  His  wife, 
Mary  Ann  Harris,  (of  a  Rugby  family,)  Charles's  Mother, 
is  known  to  have  been  a  lady  of  exceeding  piety,  and 
was  gifted  with  a  very  fine  understanding. 

The  sons  of  this  couple,  John  and  Charles,  loved  to 
believe  that  their  Father's  religious  principles  were 
identical  with  their  own.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Oxford 
movement,  thirteen  years  after  their  Father's  death,  they 
even  published  a  volume  of  his  sermons  4  to  establish  the 
point.  His  pulpit  teaching,  in  the  main,  may  very  well 
have  been  what  they  could  have  themselves  adopted; 
but  it  is  certain  that  his  sympathies  and  friendships  were 
rather  with  the  most  large-minded  and  cultivated  sec- 
tion of  the  Low  Church  party  of  his  day, — with  men 
like  John  Bowdler  and  the  Thorntons,  rather  than  with 
the  Watsons  and  their  school.  Whatever  his  opinions 
may  have  been,  his  piety  was  warm  and  genuine.  Of 
Ms  winning  personal  qualities,  I  have  spoken  already. 
More  than  twenty  years  after  his  death,  his  memory  was 
affectionately  cherished  in  his  parish  in  Devonshire. 

Some  lines  written  on  Charles's  christening-day  by 
his  father  are  preserved.  They  conclude  with  an 
aspiration  which  enjoyed  abundant  fulfilment: — 

4  'Sermons  ly  the  late  Rev.  John  Edition.     "My  father's  sermon  on 

Marriott,  M.A,  Eector  of  Church  'Union  with  CHRIST'  is  the  one  I 

Lawford  and  Domestic  Chaplain  to  value    most    highly    in    the    new 

the  Duke  of  Buccleugh  and  Queens-  volume." — [C.  M.  to  "Rev.A.  Burn, — 

berry, — edited   by    his    sons,'    &c.  '  Chichester  Dioc.  College,  Feb.  6th, 

This    volume    reached    a    Second  1840']. 


300  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1820 

"Grant  to  this  child  the  inward  grace 

While  we  the  outward  sign  impart. 
The  Cross  we  mark  upon  his  face 

Do  Thou  engrave  upon  his  heart. 
May  it  his  pride  and  glory  be 

Beneath  Thy  banner  fair  unfurl'd 
To  march  to  certain  victory, 

O'er  sin,  o'er  Satan,  o'er  the  world." 

Charles's  earliest  lessons  in  reading  and  writing  were 
from  the  village  schoolmaster  of  Broad  Clyst, — a  humble 
functionary  who  lived  to  hear  of  his  pupil's  subsequent 
honours  at  Oxford.  Greatly  delighted  with  the  intelli- 
gence, the  old  man  lifted  up  his  hands  and  exclaimed,— 
';  Why,  I  should  think  he  could  teach  me  now  !"....  In 
due  course,  Charles  came  under  his  father's  guidance  with 
other  pupils : — 

"  I  well  recollect  "  (writes  his  brother)  "  the  satisfac- 
tion my  Father  used  to  express  at  his  rapid  progress  in 
learning.  His  childhood  gave  promise  of  his  great 
powers.  He  very  early  acquired  the  habit  of  thinking 
out  subjects  for  himself;  and  used  to  form  his  own  con- 
clusions with  great  distinctness,  and  often  with  a  degree 
of  judgment  far  above  his  years,  on  matters  of  difficulty 
and  importance.  From  the  very  commencement  of  his 
education  he  showed  singular  aptitude  in  acquiring 
languages.  Indeed,  no  kind  of  knowledge  seemed  to 
come  amiss  to  him.  When  quite  a  child  he  preferred 
reading  on  any  subject  that  happened  to  be  uppermost 
in  his  mind,  to  the  out-of-  door  amusements  which  occupy 
the  leisure  of  most  boys  :  never  happier  than  when 
ensconced  behind  the  window-curtain  (where  he  could 
sit  unobserved  and  unmolested)  he  was  devouring  the 
'  Encyclopaedia  Britannica*  From  this  source  he  picked  up 
a  vast  amount  of  miscellaneous  information,  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  knowledge  which  he  turned  to  good 
account  in  after  years." 

So  far,  his  brother.  His  cousin  writes, — "  When  taken 
with  the  children  to  see  Exeter  Cathedral,  while  the 


1825]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.          301 

elder  ones  were  trying  to  measure  the  circumference  of 
the  great  bell  with  bits  of  string,  Charles  was  heard  from 
behind  to  deliver  (in  his  small  peculiar  voice)  the  oracular 
counsel, — *  Take  the  diameter.' " 

"  Another  incident  strikingly  foreshadowing  a  prevail- 
ing disposition  of  his  after  life  is  remembered  of  him  at 
the  same  early  period.  No  one  could  make  out  what 
became  of  his  pocket-money.  It  was  neither  spent  nor 
hoarded.  When  the  family  left  Broad  Clyst,  a  wail  from 
the  old  almswomen — (they  lived  close  to  the  Parsonage 
gate) — revealed  the  secret.  *  How  they  should  miss 
Master  Charles  !  he  always  brought  them  his  money  of  a 
Saturday/  " 

He  once  told  his  cousin  Sophia  that  questions  about 
the  Morality  of  Trade  used  greatly  to  exercise  him  while 
yet  very  young.  He  would  ponder, — How  it  could  be 
right  to  buy,  and  then  sell  for  more  than  the  thing  had 
cost  you  ?  And  this  problem  again  re-asserted  itself  later 
on  in  life,  and  led  him  to  risk  all  that  his  profuse  alms- 
giving had  left  him  of  his  private  fortune,  in  an  attempt 
to  set  on  foot  a  system  of  trading  on  improved  principles. 
It  was  a  clear  going  beyond  his  measure,  and  ended 
(as  might  have  been  expected,)  in  disappointment  and 
disaster.  But  to  proceed  in  order. 

It  was  the  delicacy  of  his  Mother's  health,  requiring 
a  warmer  climate,  which  constrained  the  removal  of 
the  family  into  Devonshire, — in  which  county  Charles 
accordingly  passed  most  of  his  earliest  years.  His 
parents,  both  died  when  he  was  yet  a  boy :  his  Mother 
in  1821,  when  he  was  only  ten  years  old;  his  Father 
in  1825,  when  he  was  not  quite  fourteen.  They  were 
residing  at  Broad  Clyst  at  the  time.  The  Mother, 
though  a  complete  invalid  during  the  whole  of  his 
childhood,  and  for  some  years  too  ill  to  take  any 
part  in  his  education,  may  well  have  left  the  impress 


302  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1825 

of  her  own  deep,  reverential  earnestness  and  holiness 
of  spirit  upon  her  children's  minds.  It  is  impossible 
to  read  certain  letters  which  her  husband  wrote  on 
the  occasion  of  her  death,  and  which  have  been  pre- 
served, without  suspecting  that  we  know  whence  were 
derived  to  John  and  Charles  Marriott,  her  sons,  the 
singular  simplicity,  sincerity  and  humility  of  character 
which  afterwards  were  so  conspicuous  in  both ; 5  in 
Charles  especially.  How  tenderly  the  memory  of  this 
beloved  wife  was  cherished,  is  attested  by  some  lines 
written  by  her  husband  on  hearing  his  little  daughter 
play  one  of  her  first  tunes.  He  was  taken  ill,  of  a 
painful  and  distressing  disorder,  in  the  summer  of 
1824:  was  removed  to  London  for  better  advice,  but 
without  avail ;  and  died  on  the  3oth  of  March,  1825. 

The  guardianship  of  John  Marriott's  children  was  left 
to  their  mother's  sister,  Miss  Frances  Octavia  Harris. 
For  about  two  years  they  lived  with  her,  under  the  roof 
of  their  father's  youngest  sister,  Miss  Sophia  C.  Mar- 
riott, at  Rugby.  Then  it  was  that  the  attempt  was 
made  to  send  Charles,  as  a  day-boy,  to  Rugby  school ; 
but  the  experiment  proved  hopeless.  He  was  so  utterly 
miserable,  so  unfit  to  cope  with  other  boys,  that  the 
plan  was  abandoned  at  the  end  of  one  term.6  Their 
aunt,  Miss  Harris,  afterwards  married  the  Rev.  Andrew 
Burn  of  Kynnersley,  in  Shropshire,  who  had  been  the 
Rev.  John  Marriott's  Curate  at  Church  Lawford : 
whereupon,  John  and  Charles  became  his  pupils  until 

5  There  was  a  younger  brother,  of  the  late  Eev.  J.  Marriott,  aged 

George,  who   died  young,    after   a  13,   Aug.    24th.'      And   I   find   his 

long  period  of  failing  health.  name    in    the    School   List    at    the 

"  In  the  Rugby  School  Calendar  bottom  of  the  Upper  Remove  (Form 

appears  in  the  January  Entrances  below  the  Fifth).     He  must  soon 

of  1825,— 'Marriott,  Charles,   son  have  left."     (From  Dr.  Bloxam.) 


1829]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  303 

they  went  to  College.  At  Kynnersley  therefore,  where 
Mr.  Burn  resided,  first  as  Curate  and  afterwards  as 
Rector,  the  remainder  of  Charles'  youthful  days  were 
chiefly  passed.  There  were  five  or  six  other  pupils  in 
the  house,  amongst  whom  Charles  always  held  the 
foremost  place  in  ability  and  acquirements.  His  brother 
adds,  that  "  though  his  quaint  sayings  and  doings  were 
often  a  source  of  amusement  to  his  companions,  he 
was  looked  up  to  by  them,  both  for  his  superior 
understanding,  and  on  account  of  the  high  standard  by 
which  all  his  conduct  was  regulated." 

"  The  sort  of  life  which  he  led  at  Kynnersley  pro- 
bably suited  him  much  better  than  the  ]ife  at  a 
public  school  would  have  done.  His  health  was  al- 
ways delicate,  and  I  think  it  is  very  doubtful  whether 
he  could  have  borne  the  roughness  and  exposure  in- 
cident to  a  more  public  education.  As  it  was,  his  genial 
temper  and  his  desire  to  be  on  the  most  friendly  terms 
with  his  companions,  led  him  to  share  most  of  their 
amusements  in  a  way  that  was  beneficial  to  him,  devoted 
as  he  was  by  nature  to  study  and  retirement." 

In  the  year  1828  he  stood  for  a  scholarship  at  Balliol 
College,  but  failing  to  obtain  it,  he  entered  at  Exeter 
College  on  the  24th  March  1829.  In  the  ensuing 
November  being  18  years  of  age  he  competed,  and 
this  time  successfully,  for  an  open  Scholarship  at 
Balliol, — a  considerable  achievement  for  a  youth  who 
had  enjoyed  such  slender  educational  advantages.  An- 
drew Burn  was  a  good  man,  of  'Evangelical'  senti- 
ments, and  must  have  been  a  competent  scholar ;  but 
it  was  rather  "  as  having  been  a  second  Father  to  him  " 
that  he  was  gratefully  remembered  by  Charles  Marriott 
to  the  last  days  of  his  life.  His  cousin  "doubts  if 
Charles  was  strongly  influenced  by  any  one,  till  he 
went  to  Oxford." 


304  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1832 

"  We  cousins  "  (proceeds  my  informant)  "  saw  but  little 
of  him ;  but  I  remember  he  always  seemed  to  know 
something  of  every  subject  that  was  started,  however 
remote  from  his  own  sphere  of  study.  It  was  once 
remarked  as  strange  that  any  should  ever  have  thought 
of  educating  fleas.  'How'  (it  was  asked)  'were  they  to 
set  about  it  ? '  Charles  looked  up  from  his  book; — '  The 
first  thing  to  be  done  is  to  put  them  in  a  pill-box,  till 
they  are  quite  tired  of  jumping.' — He  had  a  very  power- 
ful memory.  After  reading  Wordsworth's  '  Vernal  Ode,' 
(a  poem  of  135  lines  with  very  recondite  thoughts),  once 
through,  and  glancing  at  it  a  second  time,  he  repeated 
the  whole  by  heart. 

"  In  the  little  intercourse  we  had,  I  remember  best  his 
manner  when  anything  was  discussed  in  his  company. 
He  would  almost  always  wait  '  till  livelier  tongues  from 
emptier  heads  had  spoken,'  and  then  would  drop  a  few 
weighty  words  which  put  the  whole  matter  in  a  new 
light.  The  question  was  once  started,  how  '  the  wisdom 
of  the  serpent '  came  to  be  held  up  as  a  pattern,  seeing 
that  in  practice  what  passes  for  '  wisdom  '  is  often  action 
severed  from  high  principle.  After  one  and  another  had 
tried  to  explain  it,  Charles  enunciated  the  Patristic 
explanation  of  Gen.  iii.  15:  [a  mistaken  gloss,  being 
founded  on  the  (utterly  false)  Septuagintal  rendering  of 
the  Hebrew :  but  affording  a  capital  moral  lesson, — ] 
with  which  he  shut  up  the  debate." 

In  the  Michaelmas  Term  of  1832,  after  an  under- 
graduateship  marked  by  the  highest  standard  of  moral 
conduct  as  well  as  by  close  application  to  study,  Charles 
Marriott  obtained  a  first  class  in  Classics  and  a  second 
in  Mathematics, — which  was  a  great  disappointment  to 
many  besides  himself.  They  had  made  up  their  minds 
that  he  was  to  take  a  "  double  first "  ;  and,  but  for  his 
persistent  bad  health,  he  would  certainly  have  achieved 
it.  He  had  not  the  physical  power  to  read  for  both 
schools  ....  Already  did  he  number  among  his  friends 
all  the  more  intellectual  men  of  his  day:  not  that  he 


1833]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  305 

confined  his  regards  to  such,  for  he  was  always  ready  to 
become  the  friend  of  anyone  whose  conduct  gave  proof 
of  high  principle, — however  inferior  to  himself  in  abilities 
and  attainments.  And  his  friendship  once  given,  was 
not  easily  lost.  "  I  believe  "  (writes  his  brother)  "  there 
was  nothing  within  his  power  that  he  was  not  ready  to 
do  for  a  friend  who  wanted  his  help.  Many  such 
instances  have  come  to  my  knowledge,  and  I  believe 
there  were  many  more  known  only  to  himself."  At  the 
ensuing  Easter  (1833),  he  was  elected  to  a  Fellowship  at 
Oriel,  in  the  room  of  Robert  Isaac  Wilberforce.  Frede- 
rick Rogers  (now  Lord  Blachford)  was  elected  at  the 
same  time.  He  was  at  once  appointed  Mathematical 
Lecturer,  and  afterwards  became  a  Tutor  of  the  College. 
It  was  a  memorable  epoch,  for  in  the  autumn  of  that 
same  year  (1833)  the  *  Tracts  for  the  Times'  were  com- 
menced. Newman  and  Froude  were  away  from  Oxford 
at  Easter,  (when  the  Oriel  fellowship  election  takes  place), 
but  Marriott  made  the  acquaintance  of  both,  if  he  had 
not  made  it  already,  on  their  return  in  the  autumn : 
and  the  Society  numbered  besides  among  its  members 
Keble  and  Jenkyns,  Dornford  and  Denison,  Christie  and 
Mozley,  Walker  and  Eden. 

•  Marriott  was  in  consequence  something  more  than  an 
eye-witness  of  the  Tractarian  movement  from  its  original 
inception  to  its  close.  He  was  throughout  this  period 
a  great  student,  and  became  devotedly  attached  to 
John  Henry  Newman;  the  attractive  charm  of  whose 
mind  and  manner,  converse  and  teaching,  was  a  thing  not 
to  be  described.  There  probably  occurs  in  most  studious 
men's  lives  an  interval  of  a  few  precious  years  during 
which  they  have  been  able  to  devote  themselves  exclu- 
sively to  the  cultivation  of  their  favourite  science :  and 
these  were  Charles  Marriott's  years  of  severest  thought 

VOL.  I.  X 


3o6  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1838 

and  toil.  But  the  brief  entries  in  the  private  Diary 
which  he  kept  about  this  period  indicate  an  amount  of 
intellectual  activity  and  manysidedness  which  is  even 
perplexing.  He  was  studying  with  Johnson  (late  Dean 
of  Wells)  the  higher  Mathematics  and  Astronomy :  was 
obtaining  help  from  another  source  in  Music  (organ  and 
piano)  and  singing :  was  entertaining  himself  at  the  same 
time  with  poetry  (Shakspeare,  Milton,  Wordsworth, 
Southey),  Biography,  contemporary  History  and  Meta- 
physic.  As  if  this  were  not  enough,  his  mind  was  at 
work  on  Aristotle  and  Cicero, — Irvingism  and  Astrology, 
— Agriculture  and  tithes, — Logic  and  Political  Economy, 
—  Pantheism  and  the  Poor  Laws, —  Comets  and  Geology, 
—Utilitarianism  and  Ontology, — the  Progress  and  Pro- 
spects of  Society.  He  was  also  an  active  member  of 
a  Moral  Philosophy  society,  which  I  believe  owed  its 
beginning  to  William  Sewell,  and  died  of  neglect  some 
thirty  years  ago.  But,  as  I  have  said,  Divinity  was  the 
business  of  Marriott's  life.  He  was  already  recognized  as 
a  student  of  the  highest  type,  and  in  1838  found  himself 
importuned  by  Bp.  Otter,  in  the  second  year  of  his  brief 
but  admirable  Episcopate  [Oct.  2nd,  i836-Aug.  2oth,  1840], 
to  undertake  the  Principalship  of  the  '  Diocesan  Theological 
College'  (for  preparing  Candidates  for  Holy  Orders)  which 
the  Bishop  was  anxious  to  establish  in  Chichester. 
Marriott  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  this  excellent  Pre- 
late, but  determined  first  to  recruit  his  health  by  spending 
a  winter  in  the  south  of  Europe. 

Leaving  England  on  the  i6th  of  November  1838,  he 
journeyed  leisurely  south :  visiting  Lyons,  Nismes, 
Avignon,  Genoa,  Leghorn,  Pisa,  and  reaching  Rome  on 
the  3cth  October.  At  Rome  he  found  Benjamin  Harrison 
and  Manning,  Gladstone  and  George  Richmond,  besides 
other  English  friends, — the  society  to  which  Hugh  James 


1840]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  307 

Rose  was  to  have  contributed  one  more  conspicuous 
element.  Aware  that  Rome  had  been  Rose's  destination, 
Marriott  made  repeated  inquiries  after  him,  and  at  last 
learned  his  death  when  he  was  himself  on  the  eve  of 
departing  (January  i8th,  1839),  in  order  to  return  north- 
ward. At  Florence  (on  the  22nd)  he  "  went  to  look  for 
Mrs.  Rose,  but  found  that  she  had  been  gone  some  time." 
So  he  repaired  to  the  Cemetery  and  saw  his  friend's 
grave,7 — "dictis  quae  dico  ad  sepulcra  eorum  qui  re- 
quiescunt  in  CHRISTO."  Ten  days  after  reaching  England, 
he  repaired  to  Chichester,  and  unpacked  his  books  on  the 
26th  February,  1839. 

The  Theological  College,  which  in  his  time  was 
located  at  '  Cawley  Priory,' — (the  name  of  a  delightful 
residence  surrounded  by  an  ample  garden,  situated  in 
the  South  Pallant),8 — was  singularly  fortunate  in  being 
at  its  outset  presided  over  by  so  accomplished  a  scholar, 
so  judicious  a  Divine,  so  pure  a  spirit.  He  had  for 
his  colleague  the  Rev.  Henry  Browne, — (author  of  that 
remarkable,  but  little  known  work,  '  Ordo  Saeclorum^) 
— of  whose  abilities  he  entertained  a  very  high  opinion. 
I  have  heard  him  say  that  he  never  knew  a  man  who  in 
so  eminent  a  degree  possessed  the  art  of  making  his 
often  abstruse  meaning  intelligible  to  others,  as  Henry 
Browne.  At  the  opening  of  the  Lent  Term  in  the  en- 
suing year  (1840),  Marriott  delivered  an  inaugural 
' Lecture'  (on  the  Studies  preparatory  to  Holy  Orders, 

7  See  above,  p.  271-2.  was  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  non 

8  These   pleasant   quarters   were  esse.     Reviving  at  the  end  of  nine 
abandoned  in  the  Spring  of  1844. —  months  under  the  Principalship  of 
Marriott's  colleague  succeeded  him  the    learned    Philip    Freeman,    it 
as  Principal  in  1841.     The  institu-  again  became  prosperous;  and  has 
tion  declined,  and  at  the  end  of  a  flourished  and  been  successful  ever 
few  years  (viz.  at  the  close  of  1845)  since. 

X  2 


3o8  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1840 

which  he  afterwards  printed,  "  together  with  the  Rules 
of  the  College,  and  an  Appendix  containing  a  List  of 
Books  used  and  referred  to  in  the  Course  of  Study.") 
He  also  edited  critically  for  the  use  of  his  students  the 
(so-called)  "  Canons  of  the  Apostles  "  in  Greek,  with  John- 
son's English  Version  reprinted  from  '  The  Clergyman's 
Vade  mecum*  [ed.  1714],  together  with  Johnson's  English 
Notes.  This  is  in  fact  a  very  valuable  pamphlet.  The 
'Praefatio'  is  dated  '  Peterport,  Guernsey,  Nov.  I3th, 
1 840.'  An  admirable  Address,  '  The  Church's  method  of 
communicating  Divine  Truth] — which  on  the  title-page 
is  stated  to  have  been  "a  Lecture  delivered  at  the 
opening  of  Lent  Term,  1841," — completes  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  printed  Memorials  of  his  connexion  with 
this  Theological  College.  It  was  by  Bishop  Otter  that 
he  was  ordained  Priest  on  "Whitsunday,  1839,  at  All 
Souls',  London, — of  which  church  Dean  Chandler  was 
at  that  time  Rector. 

Some  notion  of  his  method  with  his  students  is  to  be 
derived  from  a  letter  of  his  to  the  Rev.  J.  Bliss,  dated 
from  the  '  Diocesan  College,  Feast  of  S.  Matthias, 
1840:'- 

"  At  present  we  read  in  the  Bible  daily  from  twelve 
to  one  ;  construing  from  the  Greek,  whether  in  the  Old 
or  New  Testament,  and  considering  both  language  and 
sense  in  some  degree  critically.  Then  we  take  half  an 
hour  either  at  Hooker  [bk.  v.],  with  reference  to  the 
Prayer-book,  Canons,  &c.,  or  Justin  Martyr's  '  Apologia' 
construing  slowly  on.  Pearson  might  take  Hooker's 
place,  or  Beveridge  on  the  Articles,  another  term.  And 
Justin  might  be  replaced  by  S.  Clement,  or  S.  Ignatius, 
or  the  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Nicaea,  &c.  At  break- 
fast and  tea  we  read  Ecclesiastical  History,  Biography, 
&c.  As  to  exercises  we  have  done  but  little.  A  com- 
parative table  of  the  Baptismal  Services, — a  short 
instruction  on  Confirmation, — are  some  of  those  which 


1840]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  309 

I  have  set.  I  hope  we  shall  do  more  in  this  way  in 
future.  But  I  am  only  just  learning  my  way.  On 
Saints'  days  we  read  a  Psalm,  comparing  LXX,  Vulgate, 
&c.,  and  looking  at  Commentaries.  Theodoret,  S.  Au- 
gustine, Chrysostom  and  Jerome  are  all  most  useful 
as  Commentators.  Theodoret  is  the  most  handy.  The 
Students  are  expected  to  abstain  from  public  amuse- 
ments, and  from  sporting,  and  to  inform  me  beforehand, 
if  they  conveniently  can,  when  they  wish  to  be  absent 
from  our  meals,  and  never  to  miss  Lecture  without 
leave.  I  have  begun  a  course  of  weekly  Lectures  on 
Ecclesiastical  History." 

Subjoined  is  a  characteristic  extract  from  another  of 
Marriott's  letters  written  at  this  same  time.  It  was 
addressed  to  C.  F.  Balston,  esq., — who  had  consulted 
Marriott  concerning  Coleridge's  *  Aids  to  Reflection*  The 
letter  is  sure  to  be  perused  with  interest  :— 

"I  well  remember  that  in  my  last  term  'in  rooms,' 
having  already  made  some  little  progress  in  Coleridge, 
I  somehow  or  other  found  time  to  read  the  first  book  of 
Hooker's  '  Ecclesiastical  Polity'  I  did  not  then  master  it, 
nor  have  ever  done  so  since  ;  but  I  found  within  the 
first  few  pages  of  it  enough  to  stay  my  mind  in  all  after 
enquiries  after  Truth.  I  should  be  curious  to  know 
(unless  indeed  I  have  anticipated  the  question)  whether 
you  would  light  upon  the  same  words,  which  fixed 
themselves  indelibly  on  my  mind,  so  that,  for  years 
after  reading  them,  not  a  day  passed  but  they  were  fresh 
in  my  recollection.  Pray  do, — when  you  have  either 
now  or  at  some  other  time  read  the  first  few  pages  (not 
to  look  for  any  one  saying,  but  really  to  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  the  Author), — let  me  know  what  strikes  you  as 
his  great  dictum.  I  shall  not  be  the  least  disappointed 
if  we  differ,  for  I  suppose  there  are  hundreds  of  dicta  in 
his  writings,  that  singly  involve  the  germ  of  all  true 
philosophy.  For  every  Truth  has  such  a  relation  to  the 
rest  of  Truth  ;  that  they  cannot  be  apart.  And  Words, 
as  Coleridge  goes  far  to  show,  carry  much  more  in  them 


310  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1841 

than  the  first  meaning  we  attribute  to  them.     But  more 
of  this,  if  you  will,  some  other  time."  [ 

The  hints  afforded  by  his  brief  Diary  at  this  period 
of  his  life  indicate  the  same  multifarious  reading, — 
the  same  craving  after  diverse  departments  of  study, — 
which  we  have  already  encountered.  He  was  assiduously 
occupied  with  Hebrew  and  with  Anglo-Saxon.  His 
enthusiastic  remarks  on  natural  scenery  (for  he  was  a 
great  walker)  and  his  occasional  record  of  the  beauti- 
ful aspect  of  the  heavens  at  sunset,  are  full  of  fresh- 
ness and  delight.  We  also  meet  with  frequent  indica- 
tions of  variable  health  and  of  a  most  infirm  body. 
He  complains  of  drowsiness  and  of  a  proneness  to  catch 
cold.  We  are  not  surprised  to  learn  that,  at  the  end 
of  two  years,  he  was  forced  to  resign  his  Principalship. 
The  demand  which  it  made  on  his  powers  was  too 
great.  He  returned  to  Oriel,  and  in  October  1841  was 
appointed  sub-Dean  of  his  College. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  in  this  return  of  his  to 
Oxford  there  was  any  admixture  of  shrinking  from  toil 
and  effort.  Of  his  absolute  singleness  of  purpose  he 
gave  a  signal  illustration  at  this  very  juncture, — afford- 
ing proof  that  he  was  prepared  to  sacrifice  at  the 
shrine  of  duty  whatever  the  world  had  to  offer  that 
was  to  himself  most  attractive.  In  truth,  all  through 
life,  to  do  what  was  right  seemed  the  one  only  thing 
he  set  before  himself  as  worth  a  thought.  Archd.  Mar- 
riott, his  cousin,  relates  as  follows  : — 

"I  saw — (he  had  a  special  reason  for  showing  it  to 
me) — the  letter  in  which  he  consulted  Newman  as  to 
whether  he  should  offer  to  accompany  Bp.  Selwyn  to 

9  'Chichester  Dioc.  Coll.,'  Feb.  16,  1840. 


1841]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  311 

New  Zealand,  when  the  Eishop  was  going  out  (as  he 
then  believed)  without  a  single  educated  man  as  his 
helper.  This  was  in  1841.  The  step  would  have 
involved  the  sacrifice  of  all  Charles's  habits, — of  all  he 
was  specially  fitted  for, — and  above  all,  of  that  close 
association  in  work  and  constant  intercourse  with  New- 
man, which  was  the  joy  of  his  life.  The  question  was 
put  as  simply  as  a  soldier  might  have  asked,  at  which 
gate  he  should  mount  guard.  The  only  approach  to  an 
expression  of  feeling  was, '  I  like  best  being  your  servant, 
but  one  must  not  always  go  by  liking.'  I  do  not  know 
whether  the  Bishop  ever  heard  of  this  thought.  Assuredly 
to  be  a  Missionary  in  a  new  country  was  not  Charles's 
vocation.  The  severance  from  his  friend  came  in  a  far 
harder  form.  I  do  not  know  whether  they  ever  met 
after  Newman  left  our  Church." 

I  will  but  add  that  his  interest  in  the  New  Zealand 
Church  remained  unabated  to  the  last.  Besides  keeping 
its  Bishop  acquainted  with  the  progress  of  Church 
affairs  in  England,  and  affording  him  many  a  practical 
proof  of  his  sympathy,  it  was  for  the  benefit  of  Selwyn's 
candidates  for  the  ministerial  office  that  Charles  Marriott 
edited  a  precious  volume  of  *  Analecta  Christiana]  which  de- 
serves to  be  reprinted,  and  might  well  become  a  standard 
text-book  in  our  Theological  Colleges.  The  former 
part  was  published  in  1844, — which  is  the  date  of  the  in- 
teresting Epistle  dedicatory  :  the  latter  part,  in  1848.  It 
contains  extracts  from  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of 
Eusebius, — two  Epistles  of  Ignatius, — excerpts  from 
Clemens  Alex., — two  treatises  of  Athanasius, — four  of 
Chrysostom's  Homilies  on  the  Acts, — and  the  Apology  of 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus.  It  extends  to  371  pages.— In  1 848, 
Marriott  edited  in  T2mo.  four  of  Augustine's  shorter 
Treatises,1  which  he  also  inscribed  to  Bishop  Selwyn,— 

1  De  Catechizandis  rudibus. — De  Eerum  quae  non  videntur.—De 
Symbolo  ad  Catechumenos.—De  Fide  Utilitate  Credendi. 


3i2  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1841 

announcing  at  the  same  time  his  design  to  offer  him 
someday  something  by  Bernard. 

Truly  critical  was  the  moment  at  which  he  re-appeared 
in  Oxford.  "  From  the  end  of  1 841 , 1  was  on  my  death-bed, 
as  regards  my  membership  with  the  Anglican  Church,"- 
writes  Mr.  Newman  in  his  'Apologia:  "  I  had  given  up  my 
place  in  the  movement,  in  my  letter  to  the  Bp.  of  Oxford  in 
the  Spring." 2  True,  that  it  was  not  until  the  Michaelmas 
of  1843,  that  "beginning  to  despair  of  the  Church  of 
England,"  Mr.  Newman  resigned  his  cure  of  S.  Mary's:3 
not  until  another  two  years  had  fully  run  out,  that  he 
actually  lapsed  to  the  Church  of  Home.  4  But  the  good 
work  which  he  had  entered  upon  with  so  much  zeal  and 
alacrity  in  the  September  of  i833,6  at  the  end  of  seven 
years  he  had  practically  abandoned ;  and,  at  the  close  of 
the  eighth  year,  had  openly  withdrawn  from.  At  that 
precise  season  then  it  was  that  Marriott  came  back  to 
Oriel :  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  it  was  he  who 
must  stand  in  the  gap  which  Mr.  Newman's  impending 
desertion  had  already  occasioned,  or  that  much  of  the 
good  work  which  had  been  begun  must  collapse.  Some 
words  which  he  addressed  about  this  time  to  Bishop 
Selwyn  claim  insertion  here,  as  giving  his  own  view  of 
the  position  he  found  himself  occupying  in  Oxford : — 

"  My  health  continues  weak,  and  inadequate  to  any- 
thing very  laborious,  though  I  hope  I  am  not  wasting 
iny  time.  My  advisers  seem  agreed  that  my  work  is 
here,  and  my  sober  judgment  goes  with  them,  even  after 
every  allowance  for  the  certain  truth,  that  our  labourers 
abroad  do  as  much  as  any  body  here,  to  strengthen  us  at 
home.  2$  at  one's  ivay  is  harder  to  find,  here,  and  ones  dangers 
ch$er  at  hand,  and  ones  responsibilities  incalculable.  The 

2  Apologia,  p.  257.  *  Ibid.  p.  366. 

3  Ibid.  p.  306,  also  p.  325.  5  See  above,  p.  177. 


1845]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.    .       313 

times  are  forcing  on  us  a  change,  which  under  GOD  must 
be  prevented  from  issuing  in  confusion,  and  must  receive 
a  character  by  the  efforts  of  a  few;  and  though  I  have 
scarcely  any  judgment,  or  power  of  calculation  in  the 
matter,  I  have  a  place,  which  seems  assigned  me  by 
Providence.  It  is  a  subordinate  one ;  but  I  do  not  know 
how  to  relinquish  it  without  a  real  desertion  of  duty.  It 
is  all  but  wrong  of  me  to  speak  of  this  again,  but  really 
my  sympathy  with  your  Mission  is  such,  that  I  cannot 
help  thinking  at  times  how  it  would  be,  were  I  engaged 
in  it."  6 

How  truly  agonizing  this  entire  period  [1841—45]  was 
to  Charles  Marriott,  may  be  more  easily  imagined  than 
described.  With  his  boundless  power  of  sympathy, — 
his  warm  affections, — his  unwavering  devotedness  to 
the  Church  of  England, — it  was  a  constant  source  of 
heart-ache  to  him  to  witness  token  after  token  of  grow- 
ing estrangement  on  the  part  of  one  for  whom  he  enter- 
tained such  entire  reverence  and  affection.  It  was  (to 
use  Mr.  Newman's  own  image)  like  witnessing  the  dying 
agonies  of  some  loved  object  indefinitely  prolonged. 
What  had  first  opened  Marriott's  eyes  to  the  approach- 
ing catastrophe  as  a  thing  probable,  as  well  as  how  it 
affected  him,  is  best  illustrated  by  his  letter  to  Newman 
already  partially  quoted  in  the  '  Apologia:  "  One  very 
dear  friend,  now  no  more,  Charles  Marriott,  sent  me  a 
letter  at  the  beginning  of  1845,  from  which,  from  love 
of  him,  I  quote  some  sentences  "  : 7— 

"Bitton,  Jan.  i5th,  1845. 

"  If  you  saw  B.  in  town,  he  will  have  told  you  that  he 
shewed  me  a  letter,  which  I  think  he  has  shewn  to  no 
one  else.  I  must  at  once  write  you  my  mind  upon  it ; 
though  you  know  me  well  enough  to  be  aware,  that  I 
never  see  through  any  thing  at  first,  nor  feel  it  as  it  is. 

6  From  ' Littlemore,— Sept.  I3th,  1842.' 

7  Apologia,  p.  361-2. 


314  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1845 

How  it  affects  my  chief  concern, — the  best  manner  in 
which  I  can  hereafter  serve  GOD, — I  know  not.  It  casts 
a  gloom  over  the  future,  which  you  can  understand,  if 
you  have  understood  me,  as  I  believe  you  have.  But 
I  may  speak  at  once,  of  what  I  see  and  feel  at  once,  and 
doubt  not  that  I  shall  ever  feel :—  that  your  whole  con- 
duct towards  the  Church  of  England,  and  towards  us 
who  have  striven  and  are  still  striving  to  seek  after 
GOD  for  ourselves,  and  to  revive  true  Religion  among 
others,  under  her  authority  and  guidance,  has  been 
generous  and  considerate ;  and,  where  that  word  is 
appropriate.  I  may  add  dutiful, — to  a  degree  that  I 
could  scarcely  have  conceived  possible.8  The  course 
you  have  adopted  has  been  one  more  unsparing  of  self 
than  I  should  have  thought  human  nature  could  sustain, 
though  I  know  little  of  it  but  the  slight  reflection  of 
your  pain  at  some  points  when  perhaps  it  has  been  my 
lot  unwillingly  to  add  to  it.  If  I  have  been  too  dull  for 
your  intention,  I  know  you  will  forgive  one  who  most 
deeply  loves  you,  and  whose  very  resistance  to  your 
hints  arose  from  that  love.  I  have  felt  with  pain  every 
link  that  you  have  severed,  but  I  have  asked  no  ques- 
tions, because  I  felt  it  to  be  necessary  that  you  should 
measure  the  disclosure  of  your  thoughts  according  to 
the  occasion,  and  the  capacity  of  those  to  whom  you 
spoke."  [Then,  after  a  passionate  inquiry  whether  any 
course  of  joint  action  could  be  devised  as  "a  possible 
means  of  keeping  us  together  amongst  ourselves,  as  well 
as  of  uniting  us  to  our  Brethren,"  Marriott  concludes:] 
"  I  say  no  more  at  present,  for  I  write  in  haste  in  the 
midst  of  engagements  engrossing  in  themselves,  but 
partly  made  tasteless,  partly  embittered  by  what  I  have 

8  So  honorable  a  trait  of  character  he  has  felt  that  he  must  be  drawn 

deserves  to  be  specially  commemo-  out  of  it.  It  is  hardly  possible 

rated.  Writing  to  his  Aunt  from  that  I  should  ever  have  the  same 

Oriel,  (Oct.  1 2th,  1845,)  C.  M.  says,  hold  of  any  mind  that  he  has  had 

"There  is  hardly  anything  in  of  mine  ;  yet  he  contrived  to  detach 

which  I  more  thoroughly  admire  me  from  depending  on  himself,  and 

Newman  than  the  manner  in  which  to  give  me  over  to  Pusey,  sooner 

he  has  thrown  aside  the  power  he  than  even  passively  allow  me  to  be 

had  in  the  Church  of  England,  since  drawn  after  him." 


1845]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  315 

heard ;  ...  I  do  not  press  you  for  one  word  of  explana- 
tion. It  may  be  a  self-deceiving  apathy,  but  I  think  it 
is  not.  Be  it  as  it  may,  I  am  willing  to  trust  even  you, 
whom  I  love  best  on  earth,  in  GOD  s  Hand,  and  in  the 
earnest  prayer  that  you  may  be  guided  into  all  Truth, 
and  so  employed  as  is  best  for  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 
and  for  yourself:  and  remain  ever  yours  affectionately, 

"C.  M." 

It  was  at  such  a  juncture  then,  that  Marriott  nobly 
came  forward, — identified  himself,  as  he  had  never  done 
before,  with  the  '  Tractarian '  movement,  (with  all  that 
was  Catholic  in  it  he  had  been  all  along  in  profoundest 
sympathy), — and  manfully  stood  in  the  breach.  Never 
was  there  a  time  when  such  calmness  and  intrepidity 
were  more  needed.  Not  that  he  was  one  to  controul, 
and  guide,  and  govern.  Like  John  Keble,  he  was  with- 
out the  peculiar  gifts  which  are  required  for  a  leader. 
Indeed,  only  in  the  capacity  of  a  subaltern  could  any  one 
in  Oxford  have  come  forward  at  that  particular  moment. 
Hugh  James  Rose  had  been  for  three  years  removed 
from  the  scene, — "perhaps  the  only  man"  (to  quote  a 
remark  of  Dr.  Wordsworth's  to  Joshua  Watson)  "who,  not 
going  all  lengths  with  the  authors  of  the  movement,  was 
really  respected  by  them.  Others  may  allay  the  storm, 
but  he  would  have  prevented  the  outbreak."9  Keble 
was  far  away  at  his  country  cure.  Pusey  was  the  only 
leader  at  head-quarters :  and  to  him  Marriott  opportunely 
joined  himself.  He  brought  to  the  cause  every  good  and 
perfect  gift  which  at  that  time  it  most  urgently  needed  : 
I  mean,  above  all  things,  a  well  merited  reputation  for 
sound  Theological  learning  and  solid  Classical  attain- 
ment,— combined  with  what  I  can  only  designate  as  a 
truly  Apostolic  holiness  of  character, — a  most  conciliatory, 
sympathizing  disposition, — entire  singleness  of  purpose. 

9  Churton's  Memoir  of  Joshua  Watson, — ii.  145. 


316  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1845 

But  his  prime  qualification  for  supplying  Newman's 
place  was  his  unswerving  loyalty  to  the  Church  of  his 
fathers,  —  his  absolute  and  undoubting  confidence  in  the 
Apostolicity  of  the  Church  of  England.  Cherishing  no 
miserable  suspicions  on  this  subject,  he  was  scarcely  able 
to  understand  how  they  could  be  seriously  entertained 
by  any  competently  learned  person.  His  view  of  what 
constitutes  a  living  branch  of  C  HEIST'S  Holy  Catholic 
Church  soared  far  above  the  region  of  logical  quibbles,  — 
intellectual  subtleties,  —  arbitrary  definitions,  —  irrelevant 
truisms.  l  It  was  the  view  of  Andrewes  and  of  Hooker, 
—  of  Laud  and  of  Bull,  —  of  Barrow  and  of  Bramhall,  —  of 
Pearson  and  of  Butler,  —  of  Rose  and  of  Mill.  Rather 
was  it  the  view  of  GOD'S  Word,  as  interpreted  by  the 
Church  Catholic  in  all  ages.  He  may,  —  he  must  have 
secretly  entertained  grave  doubts  concerning  the  Catho- 
licity of  the  Church  of  Rome  :  concerning  the  Catholicity 
of  the  Church  of  England,  he  never  harboured  one  mis- 
giving. "  For  my  own  part  "  (he  said),— 

"  though  I  may  be  suspected,  hampered,  worried,  and  per- 
haps actually  persecuted,  I  will  fight  every  inch  of  ground 
before  I  will  be  compelled  to  forsake  the  service  of  that 
Mother  to  whom  I  owe  my  new  Birth  in  CHRIST,,  and  the 
milk  of  His  Word.  I  will  not  forsake  her  at  any  man's 
bidding  till  she  herself  rejects  me  ;  nor  will  I  believe,  till 
there  is  no  other  alternative  (which  GOD  forbid  should 
ever  be  !),  that  she  has  fallen  as  she  herself  tells  me  she 
fall."  2 


The  office  to  which  Marriott  found  himself  promoted, 
—(words  which  I  cannot  write  without  bitterness,)  — 
was  no  sinecure.  No  pains  had  been  taken  by  the 
authors  of  "  the  Tractarian  movement  "  to  lay  foundations. 

1  As,  '  Xecnrus  judicat  orbis  ter-  2  To  Sir  J.  W.  Awdry,—  Oriel, 
rarnni?  —  a  principle  fatal  to  Eo-  Feb.  20,  1845. 


1845]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  317 

The  younger  men  to  whom  it  appealed  became  speedily 
intoxicated  with  the  "  new  wine  "  of  which  they  had 
found  themselves  suddenly  recommended  to  drink  freely. 
They  had  never  had  it  explained  to  them  systematically 
wJiy  they  were  '  Churchmen/  and  wherein  they  were 
*  Catholic.'  They  had  been  stirred  by  the  war-cry  of  a 
party,  in  the  forefront  of  which  they  recognized  what- 
ever was  noblest,  purest,  most  highminded  in  the  Uni- 
versity. They  had  learned  its  watch-words,  and,  with 
generous  impetuosity,  had  adopted  its  principles  and  its 
practices.  But  what  was  to  be  done  when,  at  the  end  of 
a  few  years,  the  leader  of  the  movement  was  seen  to  "  go 
over," — and  when  it  became  the  fashion  for  his  lieutenants 
to  speak  half-heartedly  of  the  Anglican  cause,  and  to 
describe  themselves  from  many  a  pulpit  as  "  faint,  yet 
pursuing'"?  Only  too  evident  was  it  that  leader  and 
lieutenants  alike — with  all  their  great  attainments  and 
splendid  gifts — had  lost  their  way ;  were,  after  all,  un- 
acquainted with  the  impregnable  strength  and  true 
Catholicity  of  their  Anglican  position.  A  sound  Regius 
Professor  of  Divinity  at  that  juncture  would  have  been 
an  incalculable  blessing :  but  what  was  to  be  hoped  for 
when  such  an  one  as  Dr.  Hampden  filled  the  Divinity 
Chair1?  "Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead  ?  Is  there  no 
physician  ?  "  must  have  been  the  voiceless  exclamation 
of  many  a  faithful  heart.  In  the  meantime,  with  pitiful 
indiscretion,  the  disciples  of  '  Tractarianism '  seemed  bent 
on  precipitating  a  crisis  by  the  extravagance  of  their 
public  utterances.  Excellent  and  able  men, — as  Ward, 
Oakeley,  Faber,  Macmullen  and  half  a  score  others, — 
openly  vied  with  each  other  in  their  professions  of 
unfaithfulness.  What  wonder  if  this  provoked  fierce 
denunciation, — uncompromising  opposition?  The  worst 
anticipations  of  Hugh  James  Rose  were  more  than 


3i 8  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1845 

realized.    In  1 844  (Sept.  5)  Marriott  described  to  Selwyn 
the  position  of  affairs  at  Oxford  as  follows  : — 

"  In  Church  matters  we  are  much  at  a  stand.  Many 
are  in  great  alarm  about  Romanism;  and  inclined,  for 
fear  of  it,  to  persecute  any  one  who  believes  half  the 
Church  Catechism.  Those  with  whom  I  feel  most  sym- 
pathy are  disabled  from  acting  publicly  by  people's 
want  of  confidence ;  while  some  are  pressing  beyond 
our  views,  and  trying  to  bring  everything  to  a  strictly 
Roman  standard.  Unless  Captain  Lysias,  or  some  better 
influence,  comes  in,  we  are  likely  to  be  roughly  handled 
between  Pharisees  and  Sadducees." 

In  the  ensuing  February  [1845],  Marriott  wrote  : 3 — 

"  The  Bishop  of  London  has  put  Oakeley  in  the  Court 
of  Arches  for  publishing  a  claim  to  hold  all  Roman  doc- 
trine (as  distinct  from  teaching  it)  while  he  signs  the 
Articles.  The  cause  will  come  on  pretty  soon,  I  believe. 
....  I  wish  they  would  not  push  things  to  such  ex- 
tremities as  drive  people  mad,  and  almost  absolutely 
paralyse  the  Church  of  England  during  the  agitation. 
It  is  much  the  same  at  Oxford.  The  working  of  the 
University  is  seriously  impeded  by  commotions." 

Throughout  the  whole  of  this  trying  period,  Mr.  New- 
man's friends, — (and  no  man  ever  had  more  enthusiastic, 
more  devoted  adherents  than  he), — refused  to  listen  to 
the  confident  language  in  which  his  impending  fall  was 
openly  predicted:  declined  to  admit  any  evidence  con- 
cerning him  but  his  own.  They  trusted  him  implicitly  : 
insisted  on  hoping  against  hope;  until  he  himself  in- 
formed them  (Oct.  8th,  1845) tnat  the  fatal  step  had  been 
taken,  and  that  he  had  actually  transferred  his  allegiance 
to  that  Church  which  a  few  years  before  he  had  publicly 
denounced  with  unsparing  bitterness  as  under  the  actual 
domination  of  Satan.  4  To  many,  when  the  University 

3  To  the  Rev.  W.  Cotton,— from  Oriel. 
*  See  above,  p.  264-5. 


1845]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  319 

re-assembled  after  the  Long  Vacation,  such  tidings  con- 
cerning Mr.  Newman  seemed  simply  incredible.  Marriott, 
in  a  letter  to  Bishop  Selwyn  ('  S.  Simon  and  S.  Jude, 
1845'),  expresses  what  was  the  sentiment  of  a  hundred 
hearts  besides  his  own : — 

"  A  change  has  come  over  the  whole  face  of  things  here. 
To  many  eyes  perhaps  there  seems  little  difference ;  but 
to  those  who  have  fairly  estimated  the  worth  of  one 
who  has  left  us,  all  seems  altered.  My  own  hope  is  to 
labour  on  towards  the  restoration  of  our  Church ;  but  it 
must  be  in  heaviness  the  best  part  of  my  days.  How 
many  we  are  likely  to  lose  I  do  not  know;  but  some 
whom  I  regret  much  are  already  gone.  I  can  hardly 
believe  that  I  am  now  going  on  with  works  and  schemes 
for  our  own  Church ;  and  Newman,  still  living  within 
three  miles,  not  only  wholly  separated  from  all  my 
undertakings,  but  in  a  manner  opposed  to  them.  Not 
that  he  has  yet  done  anything  like  opposition,  nor  that 
I  think  he  will  take  an  aggressive  line ;  but  still,  his 
weight  is  now  on  the  side  of  drawing  from  us  those 
whom  we  would  keep,  and  so  undoing  what  we  do." 

Impossible  it  is  to  exaggerate  the  mischievous  effect 
which  Newman's  lapse  to  Romanism  had  on  the  religious 
movement  inaugurated  by  Hugh  James  Rose  some  fifteen 
years  before.  A  master-stroke  of  Satan's  policy  it  cer- 
tainly was,  thus  effectually  to  paralyze  the  Church's 
newly  recovered  life,  and  to  divert  into  many  an  un- 
healthy channel  those  energies  which  it  was  beyond 
his  power  to  quell  and  render  inactive.  For  a  time 
there  prevailed  on  every  side  nothing  but  dismay  and 
perplexity, — confusion  and  half-heartedness, — suspicion 
and  distrust.  Much  of  the  good  which  had  been  already 
effected  was  more  than  undone : — 


to 


"  We  are  leaving  no  stone  unturned  "  (wrote  Marriott 
his  Aunt)  "  where  we  see  a  hope  of  doing  anything 


320  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1845 

towards  restoring  and  maintaining  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  towards  checking  the  now  almost  prevailing 
tide  of  secession."6 

What  wonder  if  progress — except  on  sectarian  lines — 
henceforth  became  impossible?  Writing  to  Bp.  Selwyn 
(on  Christmas  Eve,  1845),  Marriott  says,— 

"  There  has  been  much  talk  of  extending  Education  in 
Oxford.  Had  it  been  18  months  ago,  I  could  have 
raised  money  to  found  a  College  on  strict  principles. 
Now,  people  are  so  shaken  that  I  do  not  think  anything 
can  be  effected." 

But  over  and  above  all  this,  there  is  no  describing 
what  an  amount  of  heart-break,  and  consequent  spiritual 
misery,  Mr.  Newman's  defection  occasioned.  Many  (as 
Mark  Pattison)  drifted  from  their  moorings  entirely,  and 
subsided  into  something  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
absolute  unbelief.  More  grievous  still,  (if  that  were  pos- 
sible), the  moral  shock  which  all  underwent  proved  in- 
calculably severe.  Men  were  heard  to  ask  one  another, — 
Who  then  is  to  be  trusted  ?  and  what  professions  of  fidelity 
are  henceforth  entitled  to  attention  ?  That  thing  which 
the  Psalmist  said  '  in  his  haste,' — are  we  then  henceforth, 
every  one  of  us,  to  say  at  our  leisure  ?  Not  that  any 
respectable  person  in  Oxford  suspected  Mr.  Newman 
either  of  insincerity  or  of  untruthfulness.  But.  the  facts 
being  such-and-such, — What  was  to  be  made  of  them  ? 

Not  to  dwell  longer  on  a  period  which  I  can  never  re- 
call without  anguish  and  heart-ache, — Marriott  found 
himself  surrounded  by  the  perplexed  and  half-hearted,  the 
desponding  and  the  despairing  ;  by  avowed  Romanizers, 
and  by  men  who  were  almost  without  any  faith  at 
all.  He  was  written  to,  resorted  to  ; — worried  with  the 

6  C.  M.  to  his  Aunt,— Oriel,  Oct.  12,  1845.. 


1845]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  321 

conscientious  doubts,  scruples,  perplexities,  of  a  hundred 
persons  who  had  no  claim  upon  him  whatever ; — became 
at  last  entangled  in  an  unmanageable  correspondence. 
But  in  the  meantime  there  had  been  a  vast  amount 
of  literary  labour  enterprised  by  the  leaders  of  the 
party :  and  by  whom  was  this  to  be  carried  successfully 
forward,  if  not  by  some  high-souled  student,  who,  like 
the  man  of  whom  I  am  writing,  would  be  content  to  toil 
on  without  fee  or  reward ;  without  the  refreshment 
which  self-chosen  labour  at  least  brings  with  it ;  without 
indeed  any  help  or  encouragement,  but  that  of  his  own 
approving  conscience  ? 

This  is  the  proper  place  for  making  reference  to  the 
immense  quantity  of  hack-work  (if  the  expression  be 
allowable)  to  which  Charles  Marriott  cheerfully  sub- 
mitted. In  no  other  way  can  I  designate  certain  of  his 
literary  labours.  He  was  for  at  least  fourteen  years 
associated  with  Dr.  Pusey  and  Mr.  Keble  as  joint 
Editor  of  the  "Library  of  the  Fathers"1 — (to  which 
undertaking  however,  the  last-named  Divine  contributed 
nothing  but  the  sanction  of  his  name):  and  throughout 
that  entire  period,  every  most  irksome  and  inglorious 
department  of  editorial  responsibility  was  freely  imposed 
upon  Marriott  singly.  His  brother  John  relates  with  truth, 
that  "  in  one  shape  or  another,  the  '  Library  of  the 
Fathers'  was  always  on  his  hands.  Either  he  was  trans- 
lating,— or  he  was  correcting  the  translations  of  others. 
He  was  collating  manuscripts, — or  else  he  was  correcting 
the  press.  The  work  was  carried  on  at  all  times,  and 
wherever  he  was."  To  my  own  infinite  disgust,  I  once 
found  him  (with  a  severe  head-ache)  making  the  Index  to  a 

7  The    earlier    volumes    of  that       the  editorship  of  Dr.  Pusey,  Mr. 
great  undertaking  appeared  under       Keble  and  Mr.  Newman. 
VOL.  I.  Y 


322  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1847 

volume  of  Augustine,— I  think  it  was  vol.  xxii.  Of 
course  I  took  it  from  him  and  did  it  myself.  Between 
1841,  in  which  year  he  put  forth  the  Translation  of 
Chrysostom's  Homilies  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, — 
and  1 855,  when  he  was  struck  down  by  paralysis, — he  is 
found  to  have  edited  at  least  24  volumes  (i.  e.  more  than 
half)  of  '  the  Library.'  Twelve  of  these  volumes  were 
works  of  Chrysostom  (viz.  his  Homilies  on  S.  Matthew 
and  on  S.  John, — on  the  Acts  and  on  S.  Paul's  Epistles). 
Eight,  were  works  of  Augustine  (viz.  his  short  Treatises, 
his  Commentary  on  S.  John's  Gospel  and  on  the  Psalms). 
Four,  consisted  of  Gregory  the  Great's  '  Moralia '  on  the 
Book  of  Job. 8  Dr.  Pusey,  in  the  *  Advertisement '  (Advent 
1857)  prefixed  to  vol.  xxxix,  (which  is  the  vith  and  con- 
cluding volume  of  Augustine's  Exposition  of  the  Psalms), 
thus  freely  acknowledges  the  largeness  of  his  obligations 
to  the  subject  of  the  present  Memoir  : — 

"  The  first  hundred  pages  of  this  volume  were  printed, 
when  it  pleased  GOD  to  withdraw  from  all  further  toil 
our  friend,  the  REV.  C.  MARRIOTT,  upon  whose  editorial 
labours  the  '  Library  of  the  Fathers  '  had,  for  some  years, 
wholly  depended.  Full  of  activity  in  the  cause  of  Truth 
and  religious  knowledge, — full  of  practical  benevolence, 
expending  himself,  his  strength,  his  paternal  inheritance, 
in  works  of  piety  and  charity, — in  one  night  his  labour- 
was  closed,  and  he  was  removed  from  active  duty  to 
wait  in  stillness  for  his  LORD'S  last  call.  His  friends 
may  perhaps  rather  thankfully  wonder  that  GOD  allowed 
one,  threatened  in  many  ways  with  severe  disease,  to 
labour  for  Him  so  long  and  so  variously,  than  think  it 
strange  that  He  suddenly,  and  for  them  prematurely, 
allowed  him  thus  far  to  enter  into  his  rest.  To  those 
who  knew  him  best,  it  has  been  a  marvel,  how,  with 
health  so  frail,  he  was  enabled  in  such  various  ways,  and 
for  so  many  years,  to  do  active  good  in  his  generation. 

8  These  volumes  (Nos.  18,  21,  23,  tively.  In  strictness  the  volumes 
31)  bear  date  1844-5-7-50  respec-  are  three, — in  sundry  'Parts/ 


1848]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  323 

Early  called,   and   ever  obeying  the  call,  he    has   been 
allowed  both  active  duty  and  an  early  rest." 

How  laboriously  and  conscientiously  Charles  Marriott 
did  his  work,  may  be  inferred  from  his  Preface  to  vol. 
xxxv,  which  volume  is  the  conclusion  of  Chrysostom's 
*  Homilies  on  the  Acts.'  In  fact,  all  his  work  was  first- 
rate,  under  whatever  conditions  of  haste  and  discomfort 
it  was  produced.  Yet  could  not  one  help  feeling  angry 
at  witnessing  such  fine  abilities  wasted — (for  it  waft 
a  waste) — on  what  an  infinitely  humbler  instrument 
could  have  perfectly  well  accomplished ;  while  more  than 
one  great  undertaking  remained  unapproached,  which 
scarcely  any  one  of  his  contemporaries  could  have 
achieved  nearly  so  well  as  he,  and  which  he  himself 
wanted  nothing  but  leisure  and  repose  of  mind  to  under- 
take at  once.  I  am  thinking  especially  of  a  Commentary 
on  S.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  which  was  to  have 
been  the  work  of  his  life, — but  of  which  a  very  slight 
sketch  is  all  that  he  ever  effected.  Allusion  is  made  to  the 
"  Lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,'"  which  he  delivered 
at  S.  Mary's  during  the  last  two  years  of  his  Ministry 
[1853-5],  and  which  were  posthumously  published  by 
his  brother  in  1859.  Even  this  sketch  does  not  extend 
beyond  the  xiiith  chapter.  An  elaborate  exposition 
of  the  entire  Epistle  was  in  fact  to  have  been  his 
contribution  to  that  '  Commentary  on  the  Bible '  which 
Dr.  Pusey  announced  as  to  be  edited  by  himself,  and  of 
which  the  several  portions  were  actually  assigned  to 
different  labourers.  Of  this  great  undertaking  the  only 
portion  which  ever  appeared  was  Pusey's  own  precious 
'  Commentary  on  the  Minor  Prophets ' :  but  I  remember 
Dr.  William  Kay's  telling  me  that  he  had  finished  his 
Commentary  on '  Genesis,'— (which  was  the  book  assigned 
to  him), — many  years  before  Pusey's  death. 

Y  2 


324  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

Besides  thus  taking  the  labouring  oar  in  the  editorship 
of  the  'Library  of  the  Fathers,'  Marriott  was  a  chief 
promoter  of  the  scheme  for  producing  the  original  Texts 
of  certain  of  the  giants  of  old  time.  The  '  Bttliotheca 
Patrum'  (for  so  it  is  called)  was  commenced  in  1838,  with 
Augustine's  '  Confessiones.'  Field's  admirable  edition  of 
Chrysostom's  '  Homilies  on  8.  Matthew's  Gospel '  followed 
in  1839.  The  task  of  editing  Theodoret's  '  Interpretation 
of  S.  Paul's  Epistles '  devolved  on  Marriott.9  He  collated 
for  this  purpose  Codices  in  the  Paris  library.  But  he 
was  evidently  extending  his  editorial  regards  to  other 
Fathers.  Writing  to  Bishop  Selwyn  from  'Littlemore, 
September  I3th,  1842,'  he  says: — 

"  I  have  been  spending  some  time  in  Paris,  looking  at 
MSS.  of  S.  Chrysostom,  and  collating  some  of  Macarius ; 
and  T  hope  we  shall  very  soon  be  going  on  again  with 
editions  of  some  part  of  the  Fathers  in  the  original.  I 
am  now  spending  a  day  or  two  with  Newman,  in  his 
Parsonage  at  Littlemore,  where  he  leads  almost  a 
monastic  life,  giving  the  whole  morning  to  study  and 
devotion.  The  quiet  that  reigns  here  is  new  to  me,  and 
very  favourable  to  reflection,  though  I  doubt  whether  I 
am  equal  to  such  a  life  myself." 

It  was  at  the  Easter  of  1 850  that  Charles  Marriott  suc- 
ceeded C.  P.  Eden  as  Vicar  of  S.  Mary-the-Virgin's,  which 
is  also  the  University  church.  Nothing  could  exceed  the 
zeal  and  alacrity  with  which  he  threw  himself  into  the 
duties  of  his  new  office.  He  and  I  had  always  been 
friends  ;  but  from  this  time  forward  I  saw  a  great  deal  of 
him.  Having  no  parochial  cure  of  my  own,  I  was  able 
at  all  times  to  assist  him  at  his  Services,  to  administer 
the  early  Sacrament  (7  a.m.)  for  him,  or  altogether 

9  '  Theorforeti  Interpretatio  in  om-       Marriott   B.D.' — Pars    I,    1852. — 
nes  S.  Paidi  Ephtolas :   ad  fidem       [Pars  II  is  dated  1870.] 
codicum  Parisiensium  recensuit  C. 


1854]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  325 

to  stand  in  the  gap  when  he  was  away,— which  happened 
not  seldom.  He  was  greatly  loved  by  his  parishioners  ; 
as  well  he  might  be, — so  exceedingly  attentive,  kind  and 
sympathizing  was  he  in  times  of  sickness  or  trouble.  He 
was  greatly  reverenced  also.  The  Cholera  visited  Oxford 
while  he  was  Vicar  (viz.  in  1854),  and  the  utter  disregard 
he  displayed  for  his  own  personal  safety, — his  mag- 
nanimous self-sacrifice, — evidently  impressed  certain  of 
his  (and  my)  "  dearly  beloved  brethren  "  far  more  than  all 
our  discourses  put  together.  It  was  very  striking  to 
hear  [1863—76]  words  of  downright  enthusiasm  concerning 
him,  from  lips  not  by  any  means  given  to  such  language. 
"  Mr.  Marriott  was  a  saint,  if  ever  there  was  one,  Vicar ! 
And  as  for  those  girls  in  black,  people  may  call  them 
popish,  or  whatever  they  like:  but  let  me  tell  you, 

if  ever  there  were  Angels  upon  earth  " The  man 

was  choked  with  emotion  at  the  recollection  of  those 
days,  and  could  not  proceed.  But  the  events  referred  to 
demand  more  particular  notice. 

"  When  the  Cholera  broke  out  in  1 854  "  (writes  Sir 
Henry  Acland)  "  it  was  Long  Vacation.  There  was  no 
real  authority  to  administer  the  arrangements.  I  was 
put  in  charge.  I  had  to  arrange  two  departments  :  one, 
That  a  lady  should  visit  all  cases  in  the  houses  of  the 
poor ; — the  other,  That  a  lady  should  take  charge  of  a 
white-washed  cow-house  in  a  field  where  many  cases 
were  sent.  Miss  Skene  undertook  and  fulfilled  the  first 
duty ." 1  "  She  visited  daily  every  house  (within  a  certain 
area)  to  instruct  the  Nurses,  to  comfort  the  sick,  to  cheer 
the  disconsolate ;  and,  where  need  was,  herself  to  supply 
a  sudden  emergency,  or  to  relieve  a  wearied  attendant. 
By  day  and  by  night  she  plied  this  task,  and  when  she 
rested,  or  where, — as  long  at  least  as  she  knew  of  a  house 
where  disease  had  entered, — is  known  to  herself  alone."  '2 

1  MS.  letter  to  myself, — May  4,  2  Acland's  Memoir  on  the  Cholera 

1887.  at  Oxford  in  1854,— p.  99. 


326  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1854 

Miss  Hughes  carried  on  the  latter  work  to  the  end. 

"  This  lady,  with  more  constancy  than  prudence  could 
approve,  and  more  energy  than  a  woman's  strength  could 
long  endure,  was  by  day  and  by  night  among  the  people; 
superintended  all  the  arrangements,  and  provided,  to  the 
best  of  the  means  allowed  to  her,  for  all  their  wants.  In 
all  leisure  moments,  with  the  help  of  her  friends,  she 
taught  the  children ;  not  only  by  the  teaching  of  books 
and  of  needlework,  but  by  the  persuasion  of  games,  and 
by  the  discipline  of  cleanliness,  often  not  less  necessary 
than  unpalatable.  Nor  in  these  rude  and  temporary 
contrivances  was  a  lesser  but  an  important  act  forgotten. 
The  cheerful  decoration  of  flowers  and  of  pictorial  illus- 
trations was  provided  at  the  Hospital  and  the  other 
buildings ;  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  remove  the 
horror  of  the  pest-house,  by  such  means  as  we,  in  this 
country,  alas  !  are  daily  proved  to  understand  so  much 
less  than  any  Continental  people. 

•'  May  those  orderly  habits,  and  the  nightly  prayers 
and  the  hymns  of  the  infants,  be  transplanted  to  some 
widowed  and  fatherless  homes  where  they  were  not 
known  before !  While  these  acts  of  strength  and  love 
spring  up  in  time  of  need,  let  none  be  heard  to  doubt  the 
practical  powers  and  noble  nature  of  English  women  ! " 3 

Miss  Hughes  writes,4 — "  In  the  time  of  the  Cholera  in 
Oxford  (1854)  Mr.  C.  Marriott  gave  constant  and  most 
valuable  help  to  the  sick  in  the  temporary  hospital  in 
the  '  Field  of  Observation.'  Fearless  and  faithful, — is  the 
best  description  of  his  work  among  them.  He  usually 
came  twice  a  day, — certainly  once  each  day  while  the 
cholera  was  at  the  worst,—  and  at  any  time,  day  or  night, 
I  knew  I  could  send  for  him  or  Mr.  (afterwards  Bishop) 
Venables,  if  the  dying  needed  spiritual  help. 

"You  will  remember  the  terrible  cases  of  small-pox 
which  occupied  one  part  of  the  rough  Hospital.  I  was 
unwilling  that  Mr.  Marriott  should  have  the  risk  of  going 

3  Acland's  Memoir, — p.  98. 

*  MS.  letter  to  Sir  H.  W.  Acland,— Easter  1887. 


1854]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.         •  327 

into  it ;  but  he  would  not  allow  any  care  for  himself  to 
hinder  any  possible  help  he  might  give  to  the  souls  of 
the  sick,  however  loathsome  their  bodily  condition  might 
be.  And  with  the  cholera  patients  he  would  minister  to 
the  last  moment.  I  seem  to  see  him  now  hearing  the 
confession  of  a  dying  man  in  one  part  of  the  ward,  while 
in  another  part  the  priest  from  the  Roman  Catholic  church 
in  S.  Clement's  was  ministering  in  like  manner  to  one  of 
his  flock. 

"  There  was  one  case  of  awful  despair  in  a  poor  dying 
woman  who  refused  to  listen  to  any  words  of  the  mercy 
of  GOD,  saying  only  'too  late,  too  late.'  To  her,  Mr. 
Marriott  devoted  much  care  and  many  prayers.  It 
seemed  as  though  no  impression  could  be  made  upon 
her.  The  cry  went  on — 'too  late,  too  late,  too  late  for 
me'  But  Mr.  Marriott's  tender  fervour  to  bring  her  to 
faith  and  trust  in  her  SAVIOUR  prevailed  at  last.  He 
said, — '  But  you  do  believe  in  the  love  of  those  around 
you,  now  that  JESUS  sends  it  to  you1?'  With  what 
seemed  the  last  effort  of  life,  she  raised  herself, — clasped 
her  arms  round  the  neck  of  the  sister  who  was  attending 
to  her, — and  kissing  her  answered, — 'Yes,  it  is  love.' 
The  last  struggle  followed  almost  immediately  and  we 
heard  her  say,  '  JESUS,  save  me,' — the  words  he  had 
entreated  her  to  use.  So  his  prayers  had  been  heard. 
She  died  in  hope  and  faith. 

"  There  was  one  part  of  Mr.  Marriott's  work  in  the 
*  Field  of  Observation '  which  was  the  bright  spot  of  the 
day.  It  was  with  the  Children  who  had  been  brought  in 
on  the  death  of  their  Parents,  or  from  infected  localities. 
You  will  remember  the  two  tents  which  were  used  for 
dormitories  for  the  boys  and  for  th6  girls ;  to  these,  late 
in  the  evening,  when  they  were  settled  for  the  night, 
Mr.  Marriott  used  to  go,  and  after  saying  prayers  with 
them,  ended  by  singing  Ken's  '  Evening  hymn.'  To  watch 
him  and  the  children  with  their  up-turned  faces  and 
clasped  hands  was  a  scene  of  beautiful  harmony  to  eye 
and  ear." 

In  the  foregoing  narrative  I  find  one  little  circumstance 


328  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

omitted,  which  may  not  however  pass  unrecorded  by  me. 
The  Rev.  John  Marriott  relates, — "  In  the  course  of  his 
attendance  on  the  small-pox  cases,  Charles  caught  the 
disease,  and  was  seriously  ill  for  some  time.  But  he 
recovered  in  the  course  of  the  Spring  and  resumed  all  his 
employments  as  vigorously  as  ever.".  .  .  And  so  much  for 
the  terrible  Long  Vacation  of  1854. 

I  was  a  regular  attendant  at  S.  Mary's  throughout 
C.  M.'s  Ministry  [1850-5],  as  I  had  been  when  Eden  was 
Vicar  [  1 843-50]  ;  and  before  that,  during  the  last  years 
of  Mr.  Newman's  incumbency  [1842  and  3].  The  three 
men  were  greatly  dissimilar  as  teachers,  certainly :  but 
they  all  three  agreed  in  certain  essential  respects.  They 
were  original ; — they  were  highly  intellectual ; — they 
were  good  teachers >  and  were  evidently  thoroughly  in 
earnest  as  to  what  they  taught ; — they  all  three  seemed 
to  be  (they  were)  penetrated  with  a  sense  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  their  Office,  and  the  importance  of  the  message 
they  were  commissioned  to  deliver.  And  yet,  O  how 
diverse  they  were!  The  sermons  of  the  last  named 
Divine,  which  have  since  become  everywhere  famous, 
were  like  those  of  no  other  preacher  for  their  finished 
beauty,  their  pathetic  interest,  their  constraining  power. 
There  is  no  telling  how  they  affected  the  heart,  moved 
the  will,  gratified  the  understanding.  Concerning  Eden's 
pulpit  addresses,  sufficient  will  be  found  hazarded  further 
on.  As  for  dear  Charles  Marriott's  sermons,  they  were 
singularly  unadorned  productions;  yet  most  precious 
views  they  were  on  the  deepest  of  subjects,  boldly  and 
clearly  enunciated,  yet  set  down  only  in  the  way  of  hint 
or  outline  :  recommended  by  remarks  which  seemed  as  if 
they  had  been  hastily  drawn  up  from  the  deep  well  of 
the  preacher's  own  spiritual,  saintly  experience.  He 


1850]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.          329 

would  knit  his  brows,  and  preach  very  much  as  if  he  were 
in  earnest  conversation  with  you.  Everything  he  said 
was  weighty,  and  full  of  Gospel  sweetness:  thoroughly 
well  worth  trying  to  remember.  But  the  thoughts  some- 
times seemed  to  me  deficient  in  arrangement,  as  well 
as  in  elaboration  and  finish :  the  whole,  sounding  as  if 
it  had  been  committed  to  paper  at  a  disadvantage. 
I  once  saw  him  finishing  a  sermon, — under  conditions 
which  would  have  accounted  for  anything.  It  was  Sun- 
day morning, — the  University  sermon  just  over,  and 
the  bell  going  for  the  parochial  Service.  In  less  than  5 
minutes  he  must  be  in  Church.  I  rapped  at  his  door, 
"  Come  in," — (without  raising  his  head).  He  was  lean- 
ing, sprawling  rather,  over  his  table, — with  his  ink-bottle 
secured  to  his  button-hole  (like  a  tax-gatherer)  and 
eagerly  writing.  He  did  not  speak, — nor  did  I :  but  I 
had  my  own  thoughts  on  the  subject  ....  There  was  no 
pretension  whatever  to  oratory.  Like  James  Mozley,— 
he  was  no  *  speaker.'  (Anything  but  that !)  It  was  the 
importance  of  what  he  said  that  constrained  attention  to 
his  utterances.  His  manuscript  (like  Eden's)  was  with- 
out erasure  or  correction  of  any  kind. 

His  brother's  view  of  this  matter  claims  attention  : — 

"  Though  he  had  no  special  gift  of  eloquence,  yet,  from 
the  fulness  of  his  mind  and  the  careful  way  in  which  he 
had  thought  out  the  meaning  of  Scripture,  his  sermons 
were  composed  rapidly  and  with  ease.  They  flowed 
from  his  pen  without  a  pause,  and  from  this  facility 
of  composition,  there  is  an  ease  and  freshness  about 
them  which  conveys  the  impression  of  what  is  spoken 
without  book.  They  exhibit  no  attempt  at  high  finish :  but 
abound  in  clear  expositions  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  in 
striking  passages  enforcing  his  own  views  of  Divine 
Truth, — his  own  high  standard  of  Christian  life.  I 


330  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

should  say  that  the  main  design  and  aim  of  his  teaching 
was  to  bring  people  to  a  knowledge  of  their  true  posi- 
tion and  privileges  as  Christians,  and  to  exhort  them  to 
a  faithful  and  earnest  use  of  the  high  gifts  bestowed 
upon  them  through  the  Gospel.  All  his  powers  were 
devoted  to  the  earnest  endeavour  to  do  good  in  his 
generation." 

It  ought  to  have  been  sooner  mentioned  that  in  1843, 
yielding  to  the  urgent  desire  of  his  friends,  Marriott 
published  the  former  of  two  volumes  of  Sermons,-— 
which  proved  the  chief  literary  memorial  which  he  was 
destined  to  leave  behind  him.  He  styled  the  volume, — 
'  Sermons  preached  before  the  University  and  in  other  places.'' 
They  range  from  1838  to  1843.  In  the  '  Advertisement' 
prefixed,  he  says  :— 

"  As  the  writer  is  conscious  that  many  things  are  im- 
perfectly explained,  he  begs  to  have  that  construction 
put  upon  them  which  is  most  agreeable  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  holy  Catholic  Church  in  all  ages,  and  in  particular 
of  that  branch  of  it  to  which,  through  the  mercy  of  GOD, 
he  belongs." 

The  second  volume  of  his  Sermons  ('preached  in  Bradjield 
Church,  Berks,  Oriel  College  Chapel,  and  other  places*} — 
appeared  in  1850.  It  was  dedicated  to  his  excellent 
and  devoted  brother,  the  Rev.  John  Marriott,  Curate  of 
Bradfield,  and  was  prefaced  by  an  apology  for  the  want 
of  style  and  finish  in  some  of  the  Sermons.  The  author 
points  out  that  although  he  had  sometimes  "  written  at 
the  notice  of  a  few  hours,  he  has  often  been  putting 
down  the  thoughts  of  many  years." — I  will  but  declare 
concerning  both  these  volumes  (so  little  known!)  that 
they  are  simply  priceless,  and  will  richly  repay  those 
who  will  be  at  the  pains  to  inquire  after  them. 

In  the  '  Preparatory  Thoughts '  to  one  of  his  works, 


1850]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  331 

(c  Reflections  in  a  Lent  reading  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans? 5) 
he  says  : — 

"  I  must  strive  to  order  all  my  doings  for  the  day,  so 
that  each  may  have  its  proper  place  :  and  it  will  be  well 
even  to  attend  to  my  books  and  papers,  that  they  may 
be  rightly  put  in  place,  so  that  I  may  know  where  I  am, 
and  where  my  work  is,  and  may  not  spend  time  uselessly 
in  looking  for  this  and  that." — (pp.  2-3.) 

Impossible  it  was  for  any  one  who  knew  the  man  and 
was  acquainted  with  his  rooms,  to  encounter  the  fore- 
going virtuous  resolution  without  a  smile.  Those  rooms 
were  the  very  picture  of  disorder.  But,  I  am  impatient 
to  add, — they  were  not  in  that  respect  a  faithful  reflex  of 
his  mind ;  much  less  of  his  spirit.  He  was  no  confused 
thinker, — neither  was  there  any  want  whatever  of 
serenity  and  calmness  in  his  soul.  He  could  find  a 
book,  and  the  place  in  a  book  too,  as  readily  as  any 
studious  man  of  my  acquaintance.  If  you  were  sud- 
denly to  ask  him  a  profound  question  in  Divinity,  he 
could, — and  with  evident  pleasure  would, — instantly 
focus  his  thoughts,  and  proceed  to  explain.  No.  The 
disorder  was  the  inevitable  result  of  Marriott's  over- 
tasked life  and  over-crowded  shelves ; — added  to  the 
publicity  of  a  College  staircase,  and  (what  every  real 
student  at  last  discovers  to  his  regret)  the  insufficiency 
of  ordinary  college  accommodation  for  one  who  is  en- 
gaged in  laborious  research.  Undeniable  however  it  is 
that  anything  more  untidy  than  Marriott's  rooms  can 
scarcely  be  imagined.  His  library  was  a  very  fine 
one ;  but  the  Fathers  were  suffocated  with  dust, — 
supplementary  shelves  encumbered  every  wall,  passage, 
angle, — the  pamphlets,  sermons,  catalogues,  were  liter- 
ally without  number It  is  a  comfort  to  be  able 

5  1849,— p.  146. 


332  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

to  add  that,  instead  of  being  scattered  after  his  death, 
his  library  was  transferred  to  Bradfield, — where  it  is 
now  preserved  in  its  entirety.  I  remember  being  in- 
vited by  Mr.  Keble  to  assist  in  securing  the  collection 
for  some  Colonial  see,-— in  South  Africa,  I  think. 

It  deserves  to  be  mentioned  that  it  was  to  C.  M.'s  zeal 
and  liberality  that  S.  Mary's  is  indebted  for  its  present 
interesting  Vestry.  Allusion  is  made  to  the  small  apart- 
ment, (once,  I  believe,  the  Chapel  of  S.  Catharine,6) 
which  connects  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  Chancel 
with  the  "old  Congregation-house," — (for  such  is  the 
proper  designation  of  the  long  vaulted  chamber  beneath 
the  solarium, — once  the  University  library,  now  known 
as  the  '  Law  School ').  Till  his  time,  S.  Catharine's 
chapel  had  been  the  receptacle  for  the  University  fire- 
engine, — then  transferred  to  the  ancient  vaulted  chamber 
already  mentioned,  which  adjoined  it  on  the  north.7 

He  was  pre-eminently  one  of  those  friends,  (I  did  so 
greatly  enjoy  their  society  at  Oxford !),  who  had  no 
objection, — on  the  contrary,  who  loved, —  to  talk  freely 
when  we  were  alone  together  about  the  hard  things  of 
Scripture.  Woollcombe  was  another  of  these, — and  Kay 
another, — and  Gandell,  another.  I  cannot  say  how  re- 
freshing it  was  to  get  Marriott  on  such  subjects.  I  never 

6  See  Peshall's  History  of  Oj ford,  period  it  was  used  as  a  chapel  for 
— p.  58.  the  '  Scholares  non-ascripti'  of  the 

7  This  historical  locality, — (name-  University;  but  I  am  not  surprised 
ly,  the  '  old  Congregation-house '  of  to   learn    (1887)   that  "  for   a  long 
the    University,    which    had    long  time  past  there  have  been  no  Ser- 
fallen  into  a  state  of  squalid  dese-  vices  of  any  kind  held  there,"  and 
cration), — was    in    1871     zealously  that  it  has  again  lapsed  into  a  state 
renovated  mainly  through  the  exer-  of  entire  neglect.     It  is  scarcely  a 
tions  of  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Kitchin,  habitable  locality, — damp,  dark,  and 
now  Dean  of  Winchester.     For   a  much  below  the  external  level. 


1850]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  333 

found  him  unprepared.  The  seemingly  tangled  pro- 
phecy on  the  Mount  of  Olives  being  once  the  subject  of 
conversation,  he  furnished  me  instantly  with  the  clue  to 
its  unravelment :  pointing  out  that  ravra  (or  iravra  ravra) 
is  the  expression  invariably  used  to  denote  the  event  in 
the  foreground,  (viz.  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem), — in 
contradistinction  from  the  end  of  the  World,  which  is 
spoken  as  rj  ^epa,  or  rj  fjfjLtpa  eKeiVrj.8 — He  was  always 
fresh  and  original.  [Something  concerning  the  ancient 
allowance  of  Polygamy,  which  (by  an  oversight)  will  be 
found  further  on  (in  page  355)  should  have  been  intro- 
duced in  this  place.]  Our  talk  being  once  about  Jael, 
I  asked  him  how  he  got  over  the  difficulty.  He  replied 
instantly, — "  I  suppose  she  regarded  Sisera  in  the  light 
of  a  wild  beast :  a  creature  to  be  snared  and  destroyed, 
by  any  possible  method." — I  perceived  on  such  occasions 
that  he  always  had  his  own  view, — had  thought  the 
matter  out  for  himself., — although  he  was  saturated  with 
the  Patristic  method,  and  was  the  last  man  in  the  world 
to  depart  from  what  really  was  Catholic  teaching.  But 
on  this  head, — (for  the  subject  is  not  only  very  interest- 
ing, but  of  the  highest  importance  also,) — he  shall  be 
allowed  to  speak  for  himself.  To  a  friend  who  '  objected 
to  any  appeal  to  Catholic  Antiquity,  except  as  speaking 
through  Councils,'  he  replied, — 

"  More  perhaps  than  you  are  aware  might  be  collected 
from  the  early  Councils.  .  .  .  But  I  will  not  insist  on 
that.  I  should  rather  maintain  that  there  is  a  truly 
Divine  Tradition  in  the  Church,  of  which  the  inductions 
of  individuals  are  only  very  imperfect  pictures,  but 
which  is  represented  with  tolerable  fairness  by  the  con- 
senting testimony  of  various  students.  It  is  upon  such 
Tradition  (collected,  as  I  believe,  with  supernatural  aid) 
that  the  decrees  of  Councils  are  framed,  as  you  may 

8  S.  Matt.  xxiv.  33, 34,  compared  with  ver.  36. 


334  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

read  at -length  in  Vincent  of  Lerins,  or  in  the  history  of 
almost  any  Council.  And  therefore  I  believe  such  a 
Tradition  to  be  a  real  source  of  Truth,  though  I  cannot 
be  sure  that  I  individually  get  from  it  the  exact  truth. 
I  prefer  it  to  any  modern  tradition,  because  no  modern 
tradition  can  possibly  be  Apostolic  when  it  contradicts  an 
earlier  universal  Tradition." 

"  For  using  such  induction,  and  attributing  a  high 
authority  to  its  results,  we  have  both  the  precept  and 
the  example  of  the  Church  of  England  :  precept,  in  the 
Canon  of  1571,  and  example  in  setting  forth  the  Homi- 
lies, which  make  use  of  passages  from  holy  Fathers  as 
grounds  of  argument.  On  the  particular  subject  in 
question  "  [I  believe  the  Holy  Eucharist  is  referred  to] 
"  you  must  remember  that  we  have  the  Liturgies,  as  well 
as  the  Fathers,  for  testimony  to  the  doctrine  of  early 
times ;  and  their  testimony  is  more  like  that  of  a  Council, 
than  that  of  an  individual  Doctor."  9 

Any  one  reading  with  attention  his  Sermons, — the  two 
precious  little  volumes  (described  at  p.  330  as  published 
in  1843  and  1850,) — will  understand  something  of  his 
delightful  way  of  handling  sacred  subjects  :  his  spirit 
so  calm  and  thoughtful. — so  reverent  and  profound.  It 
is  difficult,  at  the  end  of  many  years,  to  produce  speci- 
mens :  but  I  will  recall  one  characteristic  incident,  and 
then  pass  on.  Unfortunately  the  subject-matter  on  the 
occasion  referred  to  has  entirely  passed  out  of  my  re- 
collection ;  but  the  external  circumstances  of  the  case 
dwell  as  freshly  with  me  as  if  the  thing  had  happened 
yesterday,  and  these  exhibit  the  man. 

It  must  have  been  about  the  year  1854,  (for  I  was 
commenting  on  S.  John), — and  well  into  the  winter,  (for 
the  snow  lay  deep  on  the  ground), — that  I  had  been 
devoting  the  whole  of  more  than  one  long  day  to  the  study 
of  certain  doctrinal  passages  in  the  fourth  Gospel ;  which 

9  To  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Walker, —  — 2 ooth  anniversary  of  the  martyr- 
dated  "  S.  Leonard's,  Jan.  10, 1 845,  dom  of  Abp.  Laud." 


1854]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  335 

must  evidently  be  regarded  in  connexion  with  one  another, 
and  explained  by  the  same  doctrinal  clue  :  but  concerning 
which  I  had  made  the  perplexing  discovery  that  all  the 
Greek  Fathers  (as  it  seemed)  interpreted  them  in  one 
manner, — all  the  Latin,  in  another.  How  to  reconcile 
the  two,  I  saw  not :  and  who  was  /  to  adjudicate  between 
the  giants  ?  I  was  greatly  distressed.  The  College  clock 
— (to  quote  an  expression  of  Mr.  Newman's,1) — had 
"  struck  as  many  as  ever  it  could,"  and  I  was  getting 
desperately  tired :  but  (i),  To  go  to  bed  was  out  of  the 
question:  while  (2),  To  postpone  the  record  of  what  had 
been  occupying  me  wholly  for  the  last  13  or  14  hours,  I 
foresaw  would  be  fatal.  The  morrow  was  to  be  a  busy 
day:  then  came  Sunday;  and  by  Monday  morning, — 
Where  would  be  the  many  delicate  threads  which  I  now 
held,  as  it  were,  in  my  hand  ?  There  were  but  two  men 
(so  at  least  I  judged,)  who  were  competent  to  help  me  : 
Pusey — (but  how  to  persuade  the  porter  to  let  me  in 
through  Canterbury  gate  at  such  an  hour?):  and 
Marriott.  It  was  a  dreary  night.  What  if  he  should  be 
gone  to  bed  ?  and  the  lamps  out  on  the  break-your-neck 
stairs  ?  .  .  .  "  I  can  but  try,  at  all  events,"  I  told  myself. 
So,  wrapped  in  a  railway -rug,  I  picked  a  path  through 
the  snow,  and  blundered  up  Marriott's  staircase.  There 
was  a  gleam  of  light  under  his  door :  so  he  had  not  gone 
to  bed.  Half  ashamed,  I  rapped.  "Who's  that  ?"  I  held 
the  door  open, — and,  of  course,  in  streamed  the  icy  blast. 
A  fractious  voice  again  exclaimed, — "  Who's  that  ?  I  say. 
Will  you  be  so  good  as  either  to  come  in,  or  else  to  go 
out?  for  I'm  suffering  from  a  cold  in  my  forehead.'' 

1  A  man  came  in  late  to  a  College  clock  strike,  sir."—"  And  I'm  sure, 

lecture   (12.15  p.m.).      The  gentle  Mr.   So-and-so, — the  clock— struck 

reproof  was, — "You  are  very  late,  — as  many  as  ever  it  could."  [From 

Mr.  So-and-so."—"  Didn't  hear  the  the  late  Eev.  B.  E.  Bridges.] 


336  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1854 

Sincerely  begging  his  pardon,  I  kicked  the  door  to 
behind  me,  and  advanced.  Marriott's  expiring  candles 
just  enabled  him  to  recognize  me  :  for  fire-light  there  was 
none.  He  did  not  know  how  to  make  sufficient  amends 
for  his  discourtesy.  He  was  '  So  glad  to  see  me,' — 
'  Wouldn't  I  sit  down  ? ' — '  The  tea  was  not  quite  cold,'— 
'  The  water  would  boil  in  a  minute,' — '  Pray  throw  off 
your  rug,' — and  so  on.  Meanwhile,  other  candles  had 
been  lighted  and  the  dying  embers  had  been  raked 
together.  His  kindness  was  touching.  A  few  words 
sufficed  to  explain  my  errand.  I  sat  down  and  so  did 
he.  I  explained,  and  he  listened:  but  soon  he  grew 
restive.  I  named  the  Greek  Fathers  one  by  one,  Atha- 
nasius,  Gregory,  Basil,  &c.  and  stated  the  substance  of 
their  remarks.  (I  heard  an  impatient  "  yes,  yes  ") :  then 
I  specified  the  Latins,  informing  him,  one  by  one,  what 
they  each  said,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Augustine,  &c.  (Again 
I  heard,  "  I  know,  I  know.")  "  Then,  since  you  know, 
tell  me  how  these  Doctors  are  to  be  reconciled ;  for  they 
seem  to  me  to  be  opposed  and  inconsistent.  I  have 
nothing  more  to  say."  ....  He  was  silent,  but  slowly 
began  rocking  himself  to  and  fro  in  his  chair, — like  one 
putting  an  infant  to  sleep  :  and  after  a  considerable  pause, 
began.  It  was  all  very  lucid, — all  very  beautiful :  dis- 
jointed but  logically  coherent.  He  kept  twitching  his 
hand  before  his  forehead,  twitching  and  snatching,  as  if 
he  were  trying  to  catch  a  fly.  He  explained  to  me  very 
ingeniously  and  thoughtfully  as  much  as  I  wanted  to 
know  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  In  fact  I  saw 
it  all,  at  the  end  of  his  second  or  third  sentence.  In  a 
few  minutes  more  1  was  to  be  heard  insisting  on  his 
letting  me  depart, — and  he  was  to  be  seen  insisting  on 
lighting  me  downstairs.  I  speedily  regained  my  fire- 
side,— blotted  several  sheets  of  paper, — and  long  before 


1854]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.          337 

the  clock  struck  two,  had  forgotten  every  Greek  and 
every  Latin  Father,  —  besides  Charles  Marriott  and 
S.  John  himself.  In  the  morning,  my  last  night's  adven- 
ture seemed  the  queerest  of  dreams.  I  awoke  laughing 
at  the  recollection  of  the  dear  fellow's  fractious  "  Who's 
that  ?  "  and  the  proposed  dilemma  that  I  must  "  be  so 
good  as  either  to  come  in,  or  else  to  go  out." 2 

1  would  fain,  without  more  delay,  say  something  which 
should  be  illustrative  of  this  beloved  friend's  beautiful 
character.     Of  his  many  conspicuous  graces  I  am  really 
at  a  loss  which  to  single  out  for  the  foremost  place.  Some- 
times, his  profound  humility  of  spirit  first  presents  itself 
to  my  memory :  at  other  times,  his  singleness  of  purpose: 
at  others,  his  purity  of  heart:   at  others,  his  utter  un- 
selfishness :  at  others,  his  candour  and  forbearance,  (that 
eirteuccta  which  S.  Paul  [Phil.  iv.  4]  commends).     He  was 
so  indulgent  in  his  estimate  of  other  men's  words  and 
actions  :  severe  only  towards  himself.     Occasionally,  it 
is  the  habitual  consideration  and  kindness  of  his  dispo- 
sition which  forces  itself  on  my  recollection  as  his  pre- 
eminent grace.     But  straightway  there  spring  up,  side 
by  side  with  these,  instances  of  his  rigid  conscientious- 
ness ;  or  again,  tokens  of  his  boundless  charity.     He  was 
about  the  fairest  man  I  ever  knew.    Perhaps  his  consistent 
holiness, — the  habitually  devout  and  reverent  tone  of  his 
mind, — was   his   prevailing   characteristic.     There   was 
something  unspeakably  sweet,  and  pure,  and  simple  in  the 
outcome  of  his  habitual  inner  life.     His  was  indeed  a 
heavenly  character.     To  me  he  seemed  habitually  to  walk 
with  GOD.     I  first  understood  the  meaning  of  that  Scrip- 
ture phrase  by  closely  observing  him.     A  brother-fellow 

2  Unable  to  recall  the  precise  ob-       the  last  words  of  S.  John  xiv.  28,— 
ject  of  my  visit,  I  am  but  sure  that       where    the  Greek   and    the   Latin 
it  was  not  the  mystery  involved  in       Fathers  are  similarly  divided. 

VOL.  I.  Z 


338  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

expresses  my  meaning  exactly  when  he  remarks  that 
"  he  seemed  to  move  in  a  spiritual  region  out  of  the  reach 
of  us  ordinary  mortals." 

No  thoughtful  reader  will  be  surprised,  after  all  that 
goes  before,  to  hear  me  declare  that  Charles  Marriott 
afforded  a  signal  instance  of  that  influence  for  good 
which  a  Collegian  of  high  character  and  holy  life  is 
enabled  to  exercise  at  the  University.  One  consequence 
of  this  was  that  many  young  men  came  up  to  Oxford 
recommended  to  his  notice  by  their  Parents.  His 
practice  was, — besides  inviting  them  to  his  rooms,  calling 
on  them,  or  taking  a  walk  with  them, — to  hold  once  or 
twice  in  the  term  a  kind  of  general  reception  in  the 
Common  Room :  at  which  some  senior  men  would,  at 
his  request,  look  in  for  half-an-hour.  It  was  quite  a 
lesson  to  see  how  Marriott  conducted  himself  on  such 
occasions.  He  invariably  singled  out  for  attention  the 
most  shy  and  alarmed,  or  the  most  awkward  and  cuWnh, 
or  the  most  stupid  and  silent,  of  the  youths  present.  He 
would  pursue  these  unpromising,  unattractive  creatures 
into  the  corner  of  the  room  whither  they  had  retired  for 
concealment :  would  carry  them  tea,  toast,  &c.,  &c.,  and 
in  short,  insist  on  making  friends  with  them.  The  trouble 
he  would  take  on  such  occasions  used  quite  to  astonish 
me.  But  in  truth  it  was  a  part  of  his  Religion.  He  was 
always  the  succourer,  advocate,  champion  of  the  neglected 
and  forlorn;  the  feeble  and  the  friendless;  the  lowly  and 
retiring.  I  have  really  never  seen  any  one  like  him  :  for 
his  acts  of  this  class  were  not  the  result  of  occasional 
conscious  effort.  It  was  Ids  nature  to  be  thus  kind, 
sympathizing,  friendly :  and  to  be  so  at  all  times, — and 
to  all.  And,  as  I  was  saying,  his  example  in  this 
respect, — the  influence  of  his  daily  practice, — was  felt 


1850]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  339 

to  be  a  leavening  power  by  all  who  came  in  Charles 
Marriott's  way. 

His  unfailing  good  nature — but  in  fact  it  was  his 
inveterate  Christian  consideration  —  really  knew  no 
bounds.  Overwhelmed  (as  he  always  was)  with  all 
manner  of  work,  he  never  denied  himself  to  any  one 
who  saw  fit  to  call  on  him,  or  wanted  anything  of 
him.  "  I  see  you  are  too  busy.  I  will  not  disturb  you," 
once  exclaimed  Edward  King, — (the  present  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  who  was  at  that  time  an  undergraduate 
of  Oriel, — "  a  royal  fellow,"  as  C.  M.  used  to  call  him,) — 
and  was  proceeding  to  leave  the  room.  "  That  depends," 
(quietly  rejoined  Marriott,)  "  on  the  relative  importance 
of  what  /  am  doing  and  what  you  have  come  to  me 
about."  The  reply  aptly  expresses  what  the  speaker 
seems  always  to  have  felt — viz.  that  the  1 2  hours  of  every 
day  had  to  be  spent  in  GOD'S  service,  and  that  he  was 
not  a  competent  judge  beforehand  of  how  GOD  might  be 
most  acceptably  served.  He  therefore  always  held  him- 
self in  readiness  to  meet  any  demand  which  might  by 
any  one  be  made  upon  him  for  a  measure  of  his  time,  or 
for  a  share  of  his  attention.  A  singular  illustration  of 
the  thing  I  mean,  presents  itself. 

A  poor  man,  (resident  in  his  parish),  having  solicited 
an  interview,  communicated  his  trouble,  which  was  this : 
—With  a  legal  claim  (as  he  felt  sure)  to  considerable 
property,  he  was  yet  unable,  in  consequence  of  his  im- 
pecunious condition,  to  assert  his  rights.  Marriott  bade 
the  man  bring  him  the  evidence  on  which  he  relied, — 
promising  to  consider  it.  Sundry  deeds,  abstracts  of 
wills,  &c.  were  the  consequence  ;  and  the  Vicar, — relying 
on  the  light  of  nature,— proceeded  to  unravel  the  problem. 
It  taxed  his  patience  and  his  legal  knowledge  to  the  full. 

Z  2 


340  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

But  the  issue  was,  that  after  a  day  or  two  of  incessant 
(and  therefore  most  inconvenient)  labour,  he  satisfied 
himself  that  his  client  was  in  error.  The  man  had 
no  case, — and  of  this  the  Vicar  convinced  him  .  .  .  Let  it 
be  remembered  that  I  am  not  relating  this  incident  with 
unmingled  admiration.  Marriott  should  have  put  the 
matter  into  professional  hands,  and  reserved  himself  for 
inquiries  of  a  different  class.  But — such  was  the  man! 
His  compassionate  nature  led  him  to  sift  the  case  to  the 
bottom  ;  and  he  could  not,  of  course,  foresee  what  a  dance 
his  guide  would  lead  him. 

I  recall  another  humble  incident  somewhat  in  point, 
and  certainly  in  a  high  degree  characteristic.  One  very 
hot  afternoon  in  the  Long  Vacation,  he  entered  my  room 
in  beaver  with  a  troubled  brow,  and — "  Would  I  go  for 
a  walk*?"  "Certainly."  I  took  my  hat  and  prepared 
to  follow  him.  "You  won't  mind  a  couple  of  firatsl  "  he 
said  inquiringly.  (I  groaned  inwardly.)  "  Do  you  mean 
that  two  boys  are  to  walk  with  us?"  Yes,  he  meant 
that.  (They  were  two  choristers,  I  believe,  whom  he 
had  promised  to  befriend,  and  this  was  how  he  was 
keeping  his  word.)  We  plodded  along  in  profound 
silence,  and  at  last  found  ourselves  on  the  turnpike  road 
to  Kidlington :  the  heat  tropical, — the  {  brats '  kicking 
up  the  dust  in  front.  At  the  end  of  the  first  half-mile 
he  ejaculated, — "I  hope  you  don't  mind  my  not  talk- 
ing?" "If  you  are  disinclined  to  talk,  never  mind. 
I  can  think."  Rather  ashamed  of  this,  he  straightway 
added, — "Unless  you  would  put  up  with  my  talking 
about  S.  Augustine.  I  have  been  at  work  upon  him  all 
day,  and  I  can  really  think  of  nothing  else."  The  rejoinder 
was  obvious ;  and  a  truly  interesting  conversation  fol- 
lowed. It  proved  in  fact  as  remarkable  a  walk  as  I 


1851]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  341 

ever  took  in  my  life ;  and  would  have  been  a  delightful 
one, — but  for  the  heat,  the  dust,  and  the  « brats.'  On 
getting  back  to  Oriel,  he  challenged  me  to  a  cup  of  tea. 
The  prospect  of  a  quiet  half-hour  in  his  rooms, — with 

Augustine   for  reference,  and   without  the  boys, was 

charming :  but  at  sight  of  the  dusty  perspiring  urchins, 
his  heart  evidently  melted.  He  let  fall  something  about 
their  '  perhaps  liking  something  to  eat.'  For  all  reply, 
up  rushed  the  young  villains  before  us,  while  behind 
came  '  Richard '  with  two  breakfast  commons  and  a  pot 
of  jam.  The  rest  may  be  imagined.  .  .  .  But  how  was  it 
possible  to  overlook  the  man's  sincerity  and  self-sacri- 
fice,— the  genuine  kindness  of  heart, — which  could  be 
thus  considerate  towards  the  two  uninteresting  children 
who  had  already  ruined  his  afternoon  and  were  now 
going  to  spoil  his  evening  ? 

From  Trinity  until  the  Christmas  of  1851,  Marriott's 
Curate  at  S.  Mary's  was  the  Rev.  Robert  E.  Sanderson, 
of  Lincoln  College,  —  now  a  Prebendary  of  Chichester 
Cathedral,  D.D.  and  Head-master  of  Lancing  College, 
Sussex.  Invited  to  recall  what  he  is  able  of  those  days, 
my  friend  and  neighbour  has  furnished  me  with  the 
following  characteristic  and  interesting  narrative.  But 
he  begins,  of  course,  by  lamenting  the  obliterating 
influences  of  six-and-thirty  years : — 

"What  can  never  pass  from  my  recollection  is  the 
clear  outline  of  his  personal  aspect  and  bearing,  his 
ways  and  manner.  And  these  were  very  characteristic, 
and  for  that  reason  were  very  dear  to  those  who  loved 
him  well  for  what  he  was  in  mind  and  heart- and  spirit. 

lr  Apart  from  these  general  impressions,  what  remains 
most  fixed  in  my  memory  are  the  evenings  which,  soon 
after  I  became  his  Curate  at  S.  Mary's,  he  devoted  to 
the  study  with  me  of  the  opening  Chapters  of  the  ist 


342  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1851 

Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  You  knew  his  rooms  better 
than  I  could  describe  them.  A  corner  of  a  table  was 
cleared  of  tokens  of  disorder  even  more  incongruous 
than  books  and  papers ;  and  we  set  to  work  with  a  Greek 
text  of  the  New  Testament  only  in  our  hands.  Presently, 
a  Commentary ;  then,  a  Greek  Concordance ;  then,  a 
Father :  book  after  book  was  hunted  up  from  chair  and 
sofa  and  floor, — rescued  from  what  looked  more  like  the 
ruins  of  a  sacked  and  plundered  library,  than  a  student's 
room.  Of  course  time  was  lost  in  the  search,  and  we 
seldom  got  through  more  than  3  or  4  verses  in  the 
evening.  But  then,  not  a  word  was  passed  over.  And 
a  whole  flood  of  light  was  thrown  from  collateral 
points  of  view  upon  these  words,  until  they  shone  out 
quite  vividly,  as  words  inspired.  The  quiet  and  mono- 
tonous tone  of  his  voice,  full  of  frequent  hesitations,  yet 
always  solemn,  always  reverent,  is  in  my  ear  to  this 
day.  He  taught  as  one  who  was  also  learning.  And 
that,  I  take  it,  is  the  true  spirit  of  the  expounder  of 
Holy  Scripture.  Certainly  it  was  the  first  real  lesson  I 
ever  received  in  the  true  method  of  studying  it.  So,  he 
knew  as  little  as  I  did  how  the  hours  passed.  Time  and 
the  world  seemed  forgotten.  The  manner  of  our  reading 
was  as  if  we  were  in  the  presence  of  things  eternal,  and 
concerned  with  them  only. 

"  I  think  we  spent  two  evenings  a  week  for  six  months 
over  these  readings.  Yet  we  did  not  get  beyond  the 
middle  of  the  3rd  chapter  of  the  ist  Epistle.  To  the 
student  of  to-day  such  slow  work  would  seem  a  waste  of 
time.  Certainly  it  was  not  the  way  to  prepare  for  '  an 
Examination.'  Fresh  from  the  Schools  however,  this 
seemed  to  me  the  very  merit  of  the  method. 

"But  what  lavish  kindness  did  he  show  in  all  this! 
nor  less,  in  receiving  me  every  Sunday  evening  to  dine 
with  him  in  Oriel.  I  have,  since,  often  thought  how 
unspeakably  it  would  bore  me  now  to  have,  every  Sun- 
day, to  entertain  the  same  young  Deacon  at  dinner. 
But  Charles  Marriott  never  let  himself  seem  to  be  bored. 
And  I  see  now  better,  why  it  was  so.  Though  of  a 


1851]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  343 

nature  quite  susceptible  of  provocation,  he  had,  I  doubt 
not,  so  disciplined  himself  by  the  law  of  loving- kindness, 
as  to  have  acquired  a  placidity  which,  when  he  was 
engaged  in  what  he  conceived  to  be  a  duty,  or  a  charity, 
seemed  part  of  himself.  But  I  know  he  keenly  felt  the 
irritations  when  they  caught  him  unawares.  When 
overworked  and  ill,  the  incessant  rapping  at  his  door  by 
triflers  and  intruders,  really  was  a  shock  to  him.  I 
can  hear  now  his  patient  (yet  impatient)  cry  '  Come  in.' 
His  nerves  were  wounded,  as  the  body  might  feel  hurt 
by  a  blow.  We  have  all  felt  the  same.  But  there  was 
this  difference: — He  patiently  endured  it  for  years  to- 
gether. We  should  have  quickly  found  a  remedy. 

"  It  was  peculiar  to  him,  in  a  way  I  never  remember 
to  have  seen  in  like  degree  in  others,  to  be  asleep, — I 
mean,  to  be  asleep,  not  to  seem  asleep, — and  yet,  as  if  by 
a  kind  of  unconscious  cerebration,  (to  use  a  cant  word), 
to  have  the  power  of  calling  to  mind  what  had  been  said 
the  while  in  his  presence.  An  instance  of  this  occurred 
to  me,  when  he  criticized  a  Sermon  of  mine  of  which  I 
could  have  declared, — for  I  saw  him  asleep  during  it, — 
that  he  had  not  heard  a  word.  I  cannot  account  for 
this.  WTas  it  possible  that  the  brain  did  receive,  more 
distinctly  than  is  usual,  the  spoken  sounds  and  retain 
them,  till  he  awoke  to  recall  them  for  use  ? 

"  If  his  mental  powers  were  thus  at  times  awako 
when  he  was  asleep,  there  were  times  when  he  was  so 
absent  as  to  be  really  half  asleep  when  he  walked  and 
talked  as  if  awake.  This  would  explain  his  want  of 
readiness  in  giving  expression  to  what  in  truth,  he  knew. 
And,  as  if  by  a  kind  of  economy,  it  became  habitual  to 
him  to  say  when  consulted, — '  Don't  trouble  yourself  to 
find  this  out.  Pusey  knows.  He'll  tell  you.' 

"  In  truth  he  so  taxed,  and  so  neglected  his  bodily  and 
mental  powers,  that,  (as  was  inevitable.)  both  gave  way ; 
and  the  end  came  before  he  could  leave  behind  him  any 
permanent  mark  of  his  really  large  powers.  His  great 
industry,  and  his  wide  sympathies,  and  his  affections 
distracted  him.  He  lacked  concentration.  This  was 


344  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

fatal  to  him  and  his  memory.     And  so  his  life  passed 

by." 

It  was  often  remarked  that  Marriott  "  knew  something 
of  everything."  It  would  be  truer  to  say  that  he  knew 
a  great  deal  about  most  things.  The  variety  and  extent 
of  his  knowledge,  in  departments  quite  foreign  to  his 
own,  often  astonished  his  intimates.  Such  was  the 
versatility  of  his  intellect,  that  it  was  evident  he  had 
left  no  branch  of  Science  wholly  unexplored.  He  was 
conspicuously  of  a  metaphysical  turn,  had  a  most  subtle 
intellect,  delighted  much  in  whatever  problems  illustrate 
the  Science  of  Mind.  Some  of  his  playful  remarks  on 
such  subjects  were  of  the  quaintest  and  most  original 
description.  I  was  telling  him  of  the  distress  I  ex- 
perienced at  the  inveterate  way  a  typographical  error 
would  sometimes  elude  my  vigilance,  however  often 
I  might  read  over  a  printer's  proof.  To  comfort  me, 
(I  suppose,)  he  told  me  that  he  was  troubled  with  the 
same  infirmity  of  vision ;  gravely  adding  that  recently 
while  watching  a  certain  letter,  he  "  had  distinctly  seen  it 
uncurl  itself  and  turn  into  " — some  other  letter. — A  quick 
observer  too  he  was.  He  would  sometimes  enter  my 
room  at  night,  muffled  up, — ('the  veiled  prophet'  we 
used  to  call  him), — to  tell  me  of  a  circle  of  light  round 
the  moon,  an  Aurora  lorealis,  or  some  such  interesting 
phenomenon,  and  invite  me  to  come  out  for  a  moment 
into  the  quadrangle  to  gaze  at  it  with  him.  He  was 
sincerely  fond  of  the  exact  sciences,  and  had  a  real 
acquaintance  with  Astronomy.  On  a  clear  night,  he 
would  often  plant  the  fine  telescope  which  is  kept 
in  Oriel  library  on  the  summit  of  the  College  tower 
in  order  to  observe  the  planets.  This  struck  one  the 
more,  because  not  only  were  his  hands  always  quite  full 


1850]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  345 

of  work,  but  his  organism  was  so  delicate  that  exposure 
to  cold  and  damp  was  apt  to  disable  him. — He  studied 
Music,  and  understood  its  theory,  though  as  a  performer, 
it  must  be  candidly  confessed  that  he  was  but  a  slender 
proficient. — It  must  have  been  from  his  father  that 
he  inherited  his  aptitude  for  Poetry,  which  was  con- 
siderable. I  have  seen  him  sit  down  and  write  twelve 
lines  in  short  rhyming  measure  without  serious  hesitation 
and  delay. — Though  he  was  no  draughtsman,  he  was  the 
author  of  a  large  portfolio  of  portraits, — some  of  them 
very  striking  ones, — of  the  members  of  the  Common 
Room,  executed  by  tracing  in  outline  the  shadow  of 
their  profiles  (o-Kiaypatyia  the  Greeks  would  have  called 
it)  against  the  wall. — At  one  time  of  his  life  he  had  made 
Moral  Philosophy  sufficiently  his  study  to  offer  himself 
as  a  candidate  at  Magdalen  College  for  the  vacant  chair. 
Mr.  Newman  in  a  letter  to  the  President, — ('  emboldened 
by  the  great  kindness  the  President  had  so  long  showed 
him,') — strongly  recommended  his  friend  and  brother- 
fellow  for  the  office.  The  letter  is  dated  Nov.  i5th, 
1841:— 

"  He  has  lately  been  Principal  of  the  Diocesan  Theo- 
logical College  at  Chichester,  a  situation  which  he 
resigned  from  infirm  health.  He  is  a  grave,  sober,  and 
deeply  religious  person :  a  great  reader  of  ecclesiastical 
antiquity;  and  has  more  influence  with  younger  men 
than  any  one  perhaps  of  his  standing.  He  has  lately 
become  one  of  the  Editors  of  the  Translations  which  we 
are  making  from  the  Fathers." 

Once,  at  a  College  meeting,  the  Provost  having  turned 
to  him  for  his  opinion  on  an  intricate  question  relating 
to  the  College  property, — perceived  that  he  was  asleep. 
"Ah  ! "  exclaimed  Hawkins,  laughing,  "  it  is  useless  ask- 
ing Marriott,  I  see."  But  Marriott,— leaving  off  nodding, 


346  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

and  opening  his  eyes, — to  the  astonishment  of  us  all, 
took  up  the  discussion  at -the  right  place,  and  delivered 
his  opinion  concerning  the  problem  before  the  society, 
like  one  thoroughly  versed  in  the  law  of  farms. — He  was 
indeed  of  a  most  inquisitive  turn,  and  was  always  enter- 
taining himself  with  some  strange  problem, — e.g.  with 
the  theory  of  shaving.  I  remember  his  inviting  me  to 
guess  how  many  strokes  of  the  razor  are  necessary  for  a 
single  performance. — At  a  fellowship  examination,  he 
proposed  for  one  of  the '  General  Questions,' — (but  his  sug- 
gestion was  overruled,) — "  Explain  the  principle  of  the 
boot-jack,  the  smoke-jack,  the  bottle-jack!'  Accordingly,  he 
was  greatly  tickled  and  diverted  by  any  utterly  un- 
scientific remark.  He  had  been  endeavouring  to  elicit 
from  a  humble  railway  official  the  source  of  a  recent 
accident, — wJiy  the  boiler  had  burst.  "  Don't  you  see," 
(replied  the  man),  "there's  apt  to  remain  in  the  boiler  at 
night,  when  the  fire  is  out,  a  naasty  sulpJtrous  vaccum"- 
which,  in  the  speaker's  view,  was  enough  to  account  for 
any  extent  of  disaster. — An  old  servant  of  his  family, 
who  was  very  prone  to  break  the  family  crockery,  could 
only  explain  each  fresh  disaster  by  remarking  that  it  was 
"  cruel  crips  dome." — The  parish-clerk  of  Bradfield,  being 
much  offended  with  the  Sunday-school  children's  prac- 
tice of  bringing  their  dinner  to  Church,  and  eating  it 
between  the  services, — "  No.  I  don't  like  it,"  (exclaimed 
the  old  man) :  "  it  do  look  so  very  6%-matical." — He  was 
quite  taken  aback  when  an  undergraduate, — more  skil- 
ful in  driving  a  team  than  in  construing  Greek, — having 
to  read  in  Chapel,  announced  "  Here  beginneth  the  first 
chapter  of  the  book  of  the  prophet  Barouche" 

This  phase  of  his  character, — I  mean,  his  keen  apprecia- 
tion of  whatever  was  droll,  absurd,  or  humourous, — must 


1850]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  347 

have  struck  certain  of  his  intimates  and  contemporaries 
forcibly;  for  many  of  them3  have  reminded  me  of  it, — 
professing  at  the  same  time  their  inability  to  produce  a 
single  specimen.  "  Have  you  "  (asks  his  cousin  Sophia) 
"  quite  brought  out  the  fact  that,  along  with  his  deep 
seriousness  of  mind,  there  was  a  keen  sense  of  the  ludi- 
crous,— a  peculiar  delight  in  anything  quaint  and  odd  ; 
and  even  a  vein  of  something  like  satire,  which  he  would 
use  to  put  down  anything  he  peculiarly  objected  to?" 
— Of  this  last,  I  can  only  recall  a  single  instance.  A 
brother-fellow  having  on  the  previous  evening,  more  suo, 
behaved  himself  somewhat  overbearingly  at  dinner, — 
(they  had  been,  with  other  fellows  of  Oriel,  Anthony 
Froude's  guests  at  Exeter,) — ejaculated  to  Marriott  on 
coming  out  of  chapel, — "  My  friend,  I'm  afraid  I  made 
rather  a  fool  of  myself  last  night."  ..."  I  observed  nothing 
unusual"  was  the  other's  calm  reply. 

I  wish  I  could  bring  out  this  lighter  aspect  of  my 
friend's  character  more  fully,  but  the  general  impression 
is  all  that  dwells  vividly  with  me.  What  has  been 
offered  must  suffice  on  this  head.  I  was  unwilling  that 
Charjes  Marriott  should  be  thought  wanting  in  a  trait 
which  no  man  of  genius  was  probably  ever  wholly 
without.  But  it  is  not  the  aspect  of  his  character  which 
habitually  presents  itself  to  me  when  I  think  of  him ; 
though,  (strange  to  relate,)  at  the  close  of  life,  when  his 
great  mental  powers  gave  way,  the  sense  of  what  was  droll 
and  incongruous  seemed  among  the  last  to  forsake  him. 

What  I  am  far  more  prone  to  recall, — far  more  fond  of 
recalling, — is  the  deliberate  purpose  with  which,  (simple 
as  a  child  in  this  behalf,)  he  sought  (and  found)  repose 
for  his  spirit  in  the  familiar  Gospel  page.  I  have  seen 

3  As  Canon  E.  F.  Wilson,  of  Eownhams,  Southampton. 


348  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

him  refresh  himself  in  this  way ;  and  it  was  impossible 
to  see  it  without  feeling  refreshed  also.  The  distractions 
of  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  (which,  to  say  the  truth, 
made  Academic  life  a  warfare), — added  to  the  disorder  of 
his  rooms,  (which  really  passed  all  bounds,) — must,  one 
would  have  thought,  produce  a  state  of  mental  perplexity 
and  unrest  enough  to  crush  the  spirit  and  darken  the 
very  light  of  life.  But  it  was  not  so.  He  had  a  source 
of  inward  calmness, — had  access  to  spiritual  consolations, 
— of  which  few  avail  themselves  so  largely.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  he  was  of  a  kindred  nature  to  that  Saint  who 
said, — "  When  I  am  in  heaviness  /  will  think  upon  GOD:" 
and  who  habitually  spoke  of  GOD  as  '  his  stronghold 
whereunto  he  might  always  resort, — his  house  of  defence 
and  his  castle.'4  His  cousin  Sophia  having  once  ex- 
pressed to  her  brother  (the  Rev.  Wharton  Marriott)  her 
apprehensions  "  that  Charles's  innumerable  '  irons  in  the 
fire '  produced  a  burden  of  anxiety  which  would  prove 
too  much  for  him/' — "  I  do  not  think  so  "  (replied  the 
other) :  "  he  is  so  entirely  persuaded  that  all  things  are 
as  GOD  wills, — and  that  He  will  determine  whether  it  is 
best  that  anything  should  succeed  or  fail, — that  I  do  not 
think  he  troubles  himself." 

It  may  not  however  be  concealed  that  Marriott's  best 
instincts  were  constantly  exposing  him  to  serious  incon- 
venience. Signally  was  this  apparent  in  respect  of  the 
Printing  establishment  which  he  set  up  at  Littlemore. 
After  the  dreary  events  of  the  early  Spring  of  1846, 
when  Mr.  Newman  made  his  mournful  exit  from  that 
village,  Marriott  (besides  succeeding  to  his  rooms  at 
Oriel5)  made  it  his  business  to  become  possessed  of  the 

4  Ps.  Ixxvii.  3  :   Ixxi.  2.  (P.  B.  version.) 

5  See  below,  p.  388. 


1850]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE. 


349 


humble  quarters  in  which   his   friend   had   resided  at 
Littlemore  since  1842  : — 

"I  have  taken  the  premises  Newman  occupied  at 
Littlemore  ;  partly,  because  I  did  not  wish  that  he  should 
be  embarrassed  with  them  :  partly,  because  I  was  appre- 
hensive lest  any  of  his  new  friends  should  be  led  to  urge 
him  to  put  a  Roman  colony  there, — which  would  be  no 
good  to  them  and  a  great  annoyance  to  us."6 

But  what  was  to  be  done  with  those  three  or  four 
cottage  tenements  which  Newman  had  made  into  one  by 
merely  connecting  them  externally  with  a  shed  ?  Mar- 
riott persuaded  himself  that  it  would  be  a  judicious 
proceeding  to  convert  the  premises  into  a  Printing  office. 
This,  of  course,  involved  the  paid  services  of  a  super- 
intendent and  of  press-men.  He  could  not  but  be  aware 
that  all  the  many  nameless  requirements  of  a  commercial 
undertaking  must  in  addition  inevitably  be  encountered, 
— as,  the  frequent  purchase  of  type,  ink,  paper,  &c.  &c. 
&c.  Above  all,  there  must  be  a  constant  succession  of 
works  to  print,  or  the  press  must  stand  still.  The  con- 
sequences might  surely  have  been  foreseen.  The  Little- 
more  printing-press  was  a  perpetual  worry  to  him,  as 
well  as  a  heavy  tax  on  his  time  and  drain  on  his  finances. 
I  cannot  say  how  much  it  used  to  distress  me  to  see  such 
an  one  as  Charles  Marriott  laying  down  a  sheet  of 
Augustine  or  of  Theodoret,  in  order  to  unpack  a  heavy 
assortment  of  great  and  small  pica,  newly  arrived  from 
the  type-founder :  or,  toiling  up  to  Littlemore  "  to  see 
what  the  printers  were  about "  :  or,— (worst  of  all  !)— 
writing  something  with  inconvenient  speed  in  order  to 
supply  the  compositors  with  "  something  to  go  on  with." 
Writing  to  Bp.  Selwyn  (May  T/j-th,  1846),  he  had  said,— 

"I  am  reading  S.Augustine  De  catecUzandis  rudilu* 

6  To  his  cousin  Fitzherbert,— Bradfield,  Easter  Day  1846. 


35° 


CHARLES  MARRIOTT: 


[1850 


with  my  Missionaries  that  are  to  be,  and  I  recommend  it 
decidedly  to  the  notice  of  such  persons,  not  only  for  doc- 
trine, but  for  some  very  valuable  practical  hints."  [At 
the  end  of  a  year  and-a-half,] — "My  press  at  Littlemore 
gets  on  slowly,  and  it  will  be  some  months  before  I  can 
linish  S.  Augustine  De  catechizandis  rudibus"  7 

At  foot  will  be  found  indicated  a  few  of  the  publications 
(not  original)  which  emanated  from  this  press. 8  In 
many  instances  however,  (as  already  hinted,)  he  printed 
at  Littlemore  short  things  of  his  own. 9  Of  these,  one 
in  particular  deserves  honourable  mention.  I  allude  to 
a  little  volume  entitled  "  Hints  on  Private  Devotion!'  It 
extends  to  84  pages,  bears  date  1848,  and  is  dedicated 
to  Alexander  Forbes,  the  pious  and  accomplished  Bp.  of 

the  Littlemore  Press,  but  the  plan 
was  not  carried  any  further.] — 
'  Hymnale  secundnm  Usum  insignis 
acpraeclarae  Ecclesiae  Sarisburien- 
sisj  &c. — '  Preces  Privatae,  in  Stu- 
diosorum  gratiam  collectae,  et  Regia 
authoritate  approbatae,  A.  D.  1568  ' ; 
— a  small  square  volume  of  690 
pages.  The  copy  he  gave  me  ('  Con- 
tubernali,  Amico,  Adjutori/)  bears 
date  March  1854. — '  Sacra  Aca,- 
dcmica.  Preces  atque  Cantica  in 
studiosorum  usum.' — '  A  Sermon 
preached  at  Littlemore,  at  the  con- 
secration of  the  new  Chancel,'  by 
Samuel,  Lord  Bishop  of  Oxford. — 
'  Family  Prayers,  with  Prayers  for 
grown  Persons  and  young  Children, 
for  the  Use  of  the  Parish  of  Brad- 
field.'  [This  was  reprinted  in  1869.] 
The  Address  is  signed  by  'John 
Marriott '  and  '  John  le  Mesurier.' 
'  School  Prayers  for  Morning  and 
Evening':  compiled  by  the  Rev. 
W.  J.  Butler,  Vicar  of  Wantage. 

9  See   below,   the   long    note   at 
p.  370-2. 


7  Nov.  4th,  1847.   See  back,  p.  311. 

8  Besides  the  works  already  in- 
dicated,— '  The  Danger  of  Schism,' 
— [a  sermon  preached  (1806)  by  his 
father  at  Dr.  Sanclford's  consecra- 
tion] :     Oxford,     1847,    PP-     !3- — 
'  Psalm  c.iix,  in  Parts  for  the  day.' 
[It  bears  no   date]. — 'Prayers  for 
Persons  associatt  d  in  aid  of  Chris- 
tian  Ni^ionx,' — Littlemore,   1848, 
pp.  12. — '  Occasional  Reflections  upon 
several  subjects,'    by  the  Hon.  R. 
Boyle,   &c.      [Originally   published 
in    1665.      The    preface    is    dated 
'  Littlemore,'     1848.]     pp.     389. — 
'  Lectures   on  the  History  of  Eng- 
land '    for   young   persons  :     vol.    i. 
Anglo-Saxon   period, — by   a    Lady 
[Mrs.    Trevelyan"1, — 2    vols.    I2mo. 
1850-4. — «  The  Lift'  and  Times  of 
Hincmar,  Alp.  of  Jiheims,'  by  the 
late  J.  C.  Prichard,vicar  of  Mitcham, 
formerly  fellow  of  Oriel,  1849,  PP- 
566.     [This  work  had  been  written 
by  his  friend  while  at  Madeira  and 
Barbados  in  search  of  health.     It 
was  intended  to  form  one  of  a  series 
of  Ecclesiastical  Biographies  from 


1850]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  351 

Brechin.  It  reached  a  third  edition  in  1850,  is  very 
valuable,  and  ought  to  be  far  better  known  than  it  seems 
to  be.  His  publisher  was  Mr.  Parker  of  Oxford. 

While  on  this  subject,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to 
omit  some  record  of  the  fact,  that  in  the  latter  years 
of  his  life  Marriott  was  drawn  into  supporting  a  Quixotic 
commercial  undertaking  which  went  by  the  name  of 
"  The  Universal  Purveyor  " : — 

"  The  object  of  it"  (writes  his  brother  John)  "was  to 
place  the  supply  of  the  ordinary  necessaries  of  life  on 
(what  he  believed  to  be)  a  better  footing;  and  the 
prevention  of  the  adulteration  of  goods.  It  was  also  in- 
tended to  do  away  with  the  mischiefs  of  excessive  compe- 
tition, and  the  practice  of  false  advertising  and  puffing 
of  goods.  His  friends  greatly  regretted  that  he  suffered 
himself  to  become  involved  in  this  scheme. — for  which 
he  was  wholly  unfit,  alike  by  education  and  by  habits. 
But  he  believed  it  to  be  the  commencement  of  a  great 
work  for  good,  and  no  persuasion  could  induce  him  to 
give  it  up.  The  result  was  the  waste  (for  it  proved 
an  utter  failure)  of  a  very  considerable  sum  of  money, 
and  a  degree  of  worry  and  trial  to  himself,  which  I 
am  convinced  had  a  great  share  in  bringing  on  the 
malady  which  cost  him  his  life." 

It  has  been  already  remarked  that  certain  of  Marriott's 
best  instincts  were  apt  to  bring  him  into  trouble. 
One  sad  example  of  this  is  already  before  the  reader.  I 
cannot  help  remembering  that  there  was  also  a  grotesque 
element  in  the  practical  operation  of  some  of  his  chiefest 
graces.  I  am  sorry  to  be  so  often  funny  in  my 
reminiscences  of  what  was  in  reality  as  sad  a  life  as  any 
in  this  collection,  and  of  a  character  which  was  so 
supremely  holy  also.  But  if  the  reader  is  to  be  informed 
what  manner  of  man  Charles  Marriott  actually  was,  the 


352  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

traits  must  be  set  down  as  they  present  themselves,  or 
it  will  not  be  a  faithful  portrait. 

He  was  "  given  to  hospitality,"  and  entertained  largely. 
I  do  not  mean  that  he  gave  "dinner  parties."  He 
brought  his  strangers  into  Hall.  But  in  fact  every  one 
of  distinction  in  the  Church  who  visited  Oxford,  either 
knew  him  or  else  brought  him  letters.  Sometimes  it 
was  a  learned  Romish  ecclesiastic — as  Dom  Pitra — who 
was  his  guest ;  and  delightful  it  was  to  meet  men  of  that 
stamp  at  his  table.  Especially  at  breakfast, — (that 
characteristic  Oxford  meal !) — he  was  fond  of  entertaining 
visitors,  and  careful  to  invite  men  of  kindred  pursuits  to 
meet  them. 

An  American  Bishop  for  example,  attended  by  three  of 
his  Clergy,  having  crossed  the  Atlantic,  would  present 
himself  at  Marriott's  door, — who  instantly  asked  them 
all  four  to  breakfast  next  morning,  and  sent  off  cards  by 
his  servant  to  certain  of  his  intimates,  who  found  them- 
selves invited  to  meet  the  strangers  '  to-morrow  at  9 
o'clock.'  On  his  way  from  Hall  or  Chapel — or  in  the 
street — he  would  ask  another,  and  another,  and  another, 
as  he  happened  to  encounter  them.  Unfortunately,  he 
kept  no  reckoning.  The  result  may  be  imagined.  On 
entering  the  dear  man's  rooms  next  morning,  whereas 
breakfast  had  been  laid  for  ten,  fifteen  guests  had 
assembled  already.  While  we  were  secretly  counting 
the  tea-cups,  another  rap  was  heard,  and  in  came  two 
University  Professors.  All  laughed:  but  it  was  no 
laughing  matter,  for  still  another  and  another  person 
presented  himself.  The  bell  was  again  and  again 
rung:  more  and  more  tea  and  coffee, — muffins  and  dry 
toast, — butter  and  bread, — cream  and  eggs, — chops  and 
steaks, — were  ordered;  and  'Richard'  was  begged  to 


1850]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  353 

'  spread  my  other  table-cloth  on  my  other  table.'  The 
consequence  was  that  our  host's  violoncello, fiddle- 
strings  and  music-books, — printers'  proofs  and  postage 
stamps,  —  medicine-bottles  and  pill-boxes, — respirator 
and  veil, —  grey  wrapper  for  his  throat  and  green 
shade  for  his  eyes, — pamphlets  and  letters  innumer- 
able,— -all  were  discharged  in  a  volley  on  to  the  huge 
sofa.  At  last,  by  half-past  nine  (thanks  to  Richard's 
superhuman  exertions)  twenty  of  us  (more  or  less)  sat 
down  to  breakfast  ....  I  am  bound  to  say  that  the 
meal  was  an  entire  success, — as  far  as  the  strangers  were 
concerned.  They  were  greatly  entertained, — in  more 
senses  than  one.  There  was  plenty  of  first-rate  conver- 
sation too.  Good-humour  certainly  prevailed  universally. 
The  delightful  absurdity  of  the  whole  proceeding  was  so 
painfully  conspicuous,  and  the  experience  (to  strangers)  so 
unique !  .  .  .  But  O  the  consequences  of  such  a  scrimmage 
to  the  poor  overworked  student  when  the  guests  were 
gone,  and  the  serious  business  of  the  day  had  to  com- 
mence !  Chaos  must  first  be  reduced  to  order : — the 
letters  must  be  read  and  answered: — the  proof-sheets 
scrutinized  and  annotated : — there  would  be  callers  to 
attend  to, — bores  to  encounter, — engagements  to  keep. 
And  long  before  that,  the  second  post  would  have  come 
in,  and  perhaps  another  batch  of '  illustrious  strangers ' 
would  have  announced  their  arrival.  The  good  part  in 
which  Marriott  took  all  this  kind  of  thing,  was  to 
me  astonishing.  I  remember  more  than  once  teasing 
him  on  such  occasions  by  gravely  inquiring, — "  Don't 
you  think,  dear  fellow,  that  you  and  I  should  both 
be  greatly  improved  if  we  were  to  get  married?"  The 
subject  was  of  course  far  too  solemn  for  a  light  response. 
He  would  reply  as  gravely, — "When  our  friends  find 
Angels  to  marry  them,  I  think  you  and  I  may  be  content 

VOL.  I.  A  a 


354  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

to  let  marriage  alone," — or  words  to  that  precise  effect. 
His  allusion  was  to  Mrs.  Acland, — as  perfect  a  Christian 
gentlewoman  as  ever  adorned  society:1  a  most  delightful 
person. 

Certain  of  Marriott's  contemporaries,  remarking  on 
his  personal  peculiarities,  have  made  prominent,  almost 
exclusive,  mention  of  his  absent  manner, — his  aptness  to 
fall  asleep, — his  strange  nervousness :  have  treated  him 
in  short  as  if  he  had  been  a  curiosity,  a  phenomenon 
and  nothing  more.  But  are  such  matters  deserving  of 
more  than  slight  incidental  notice1?  They  were  the  mere 
accidents  of  the  man.  Truly  has  it  been  remarked 
concerning  him  that, — 

"  He  never  spared  himself,  and  did  not  allow  himself 
sufficient  rest.  He  seemed  not  to  be  able  to  spare  the 
time  necessary  for  sleep ;  and  this  probably  helped  very 
much  to  wear  out  his  strength,  which  was  never  very 
great.  He  frequently  suffered  from  illness,  of  which 
continual  drowsiness  was  one  of  the  symptoms ;  but  he 
always  contrived  to  shake  it  off  when  there  was  work 
to  be  done."2 

His  peculiarities, — call  them  infirmities  if  you  will, — 
if  they  are  to  be  insisted  upon,  might  surely  be  explained 
also,  as  well  as  counter-balanced.  Only  fair,  for  example, 
would  it  be  straightway  to  add  that  Marriott's  familiar 
talk  was  always  original  and  supremely  excellent, — that 
his  chance  remarks  generally  left  you  something  to 
think  about.  His  words  with  reference  to  Scripture,  in 

1  I  may  be  allowed  to  mention,  lieve,  if  here  in  Oxford  we  had  to 

out  of  love  and  veneration  for  the  name  one  model  woman  whom  we 

memory   of    that    admirable   lady,  should  wish  to  represent  our  sex, 

that  after  her  death  (October  25th,  we    should   all  agree  in  naming — 

1878),  more  than  one  choice  speci-  Sarah  Acland" 
men   of    womankind   remarked    to  2  Literary  Churchman, — Oct.   I, 

me  somewhat  as  follows: — "I  be-  1858: — p.  359. 


1850]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  355 

particular,  which  were  always  thus  weighty,  keep  coming 
back  to  me,  at  the  end  of  thirty  years,  when  I  seemed  to 
have  forgotten  them.  Talking  of  the  allowance  of  poly- 
gamy in  the  ancient  days, — "  You  may  observe  "  (he  once 
remarked  thoughtfully)  "that  we  are  constantly  told 
of  the  domestic  misery  which  it  occasioned.  We  are 
generally  shown,  in  a  subsequent  page,  that  it  eventually 
led  to  deplorable,  even  to  dreadful  consequences."  (How 
grand  a  commentary  on  Jacob's, — on  David's  sorrows! 
Why,  it  is  the  story — ev  oAt'yw — of  the  disruption  of  the 
Kingdom !) 

Then,  for  his  habits.  Nothing  was  commoner  than 
to  hear  him  rallied  for  falling  asleep  at  the  wrong 
moment, — at  S.  Mary's,  for  instance,  during  the  Univer- 
sity Sermon.  (By  the  way,  he  once  told  me  that  the 
only  preacher  who  ever  had  the  power  to  keep  him 
awake  was  Mr.  Newman.)  In  part  constitutional,  this 
habitual  drowsiness  was  certainly  in  part  the  result  of 
excessive  brain-work, — so  that  he  was  at  all  times  not 
indisposed  to  close  his  eyes,  and  presently  to  slumber. 
He  commonly  wore  a  black  silk  skull-cap,  the  nodding  of 
which,  during  the  University  Sermon,  certainly  had  a 
droll  effect.  Singular  to  relate  however, — (let  me  be 
forgiven  for  again  referring  to  this  peculiarity), — Mar- 
riott's power  of  attention  was  not  by  any  means  effectually 
suspended.  He  always  knew  what  the  Sermon  had  been 
about, — better  than  many  who  boasted  that  they  had 
kept  wide  awake. 3 — Again,  quite  true  is  it  that  when 
suddenly  accosted  in  the  street,  especially  by  strangers, 
he  would  exhibit  hesitation,  perhaps  would  look  be- 
wildered, would  even  stare,  and  for  a  few  moments  not 
utter  a  word.  More  than  that.  He  was  at  all  times 

3  James  B.  Mozley  had  the  same  infirmity,  and  the  same  peculiarity. 
See  his  Letters, — p.  6l . 

A  a  3 


356  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

prone — in  the  Common  Koom  especially — to  subside  into 
fits  of  silence.  But  really,  (so  at  least  it  ever  seemed  to 
me),  this  was  only  either  (i),  Because  he  was  very  tired 
and  had  nothing  particular  to  say :  or  else  (2),  Because 
he  was  oppressed  with  secret  meditation:  or  else  (3), 
Because  the  topic  in  hand  was  one  on  which,  if  he  de- 
livered himself  at  all,  he  must  speak  with  more  delibera- 
tion, and  at  greater  length,  than  was  practicable  at  such 
a  moment  and  before  such  an  auditory :  for  he  was  con- 
scientious to  a  degree.  Certainly,  in  ordinary  conver- 
sation, he  was  not  wanting  in  quickness  or  vivacity. 
I  do  not  of  course  forget  that  if,  when  alone  together, 
you  appealed  to  him  for  his  opinion  on  some  very  grave 
matter,  he  was  apt  to  look  steadfastly  at  you,  and  pause 
for  several  seconds  before  making  any  reply :  but  by 
this,  you  were  always  greatly  the  gainer.  On  recule 
(says  the  proverb)  pour  mieiix  sauter.  Unconsciously,  (as 
it  seemed),  he  was  taking  time  to  think ;  and  yet,  not  so 
much  pausing  to  clear  his  own  views  on  the  subject, 
as  taking  a  moment  to  consider  how  he  might  put  his 
view  of  the  problem  most  intelligibly  and  suasively 
before  you.  The  consequence  was  that,  as  a  rule,  his 
words  were  thoughtful,  weighty  and  worth  hearing. 
Often,  his  casual  remarks  were  profound, — far-reaching, 
—affording  evidence  that  the  man  from  whom  they  pro- 
ceeded had  well  considered  the  subject,  and  had  taken 
a  larger  or  a  deeper  view,  of  it  than  the  generality  of 
his  fellows.  I  find  this  feature  so  admirably  touched 
in  a  brief  notice  which  appeared  immediately  after 
his  decease,  that  I  shall  here  simply  transcribe  the 
passage : — 

"In  society  he  was  generally  silent  and  thoughtful, 
but  very  observant  of  all  that  was  going  on  around  him. 
Seldom  speaking  unless  spoken  to,  and  then  often  taking 


1854]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  357 

several  minutes  before  he  gave  an  answer  to  a  question 
which  had  perhaps  been  asked  heedlessly,  but  of  which 
he  saw  all  the  bearings  better  than  the  person  who  had 
asked  it,  he  would  not  give  his  answer  until  he  had 
turned  them  all  over  in  his  mind  :  and  then  it  would  be 
so  cautious  and  guarded,  that  it  was  sometimes  difficult  to 
fathom  his  meaning ;  but  when  the  hearers  had  arrived  at 
it,  they  found  a  depth  in  it  which  they  had  little  anticipated'' 4 

Never,  to  my  mind,  did  C.  M.  appear  to  more  advantage 
than  when  for  a  few  days  he  made  himself  one  of  a 
domestic  circle.  His  considerateness  on  such  occasions 
was  even  extraordinary.  He  at  once  threw  off  his  cares 
and  his  silent  fits,  —entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  little 
household, — was  full  of  quaint  sayings  (which  were  long 
remembered)  and  entertaining  anecdotes  (which  were 
well  worth  telling).  The  tone  of  his  conversation,  the 
tendency  of  his  remarks,  was  always  the  best  imaginable. 
Chivalrously  courteous  and  indulgent  towards  the  ladies 
of  the  family, — instinctively  seizing  the  most  interesting 
aspect  of  the  trifle  of  the  hour, — he  always  seemed  to  lift 
up  the  table-talk,  as  well  as  to  sanctify  it.  It  was  more 
than  once  remarked  to  me  by  one  who  is  now,  with  him, 
in  bliss, — "  Whenever  he  comes  among  us,  he  always 
seems  to  bring  a  blessing  with  him." 

His  sympathy  was  excessive  :  his  heart,  most  tender 
and  affectionate.  There  was  something  almost  womanly 
in  his  kindness.  At  a  season  of  bitter  affliction  (it 
was  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1854)  I  remember  re- 
ceiving one  particular  visit  from  him.  It  was  a  raw 
comfortless  night, — the  wind  howling  up  the  college 
staircase.  Who  could  it  be  ?  What  could  any  one 
want  with  me  on  such  a  night, — at  such  an  hour  ?  .  .  .  It 
was  Marriott.  He  entered  ;  .  divested  himself  of  his 

*  See  the  reference  above,  in  note  2  (p.  354)- 


358  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1850 

cloak, — wrapper, — veil.  I  still  could  not  imagine  what 
had  brought  him, — for  he  said  nothing :  but  sat  down  near 
me,  and  sadly  surveyed  the  fire.  I  soon  felt  what  his  errand 
must  be.  He  knew  my  heart  was  heavy — was  aching.  He 
had  come — to  keep  me  company :  and  he  sat  silent,  like 
Job's  friends  ;  and  for  the  same  excellent  reason. 5 

Perhaps  his  prevailing  grace, — certainly  his  most 
interesting  character! stic> — was  his  unbounded  Charity, 
using  that  word  of  course  in  its  Gospel  sense.  He 
recognized  the  good  in  everything  and  in  everybody :  in 
his  opponents, — and  in  conflicting  schools  of  thought, 
— and  in  rival  parties, — and  in  unsound  books, — and 
in  false  philosophy,— and  in  erroneous  propositions. 
When  we  were  reading  over  the  papers  of  candidates 
for  a  Fellowship,  and  perhaps  making  merry  over  some 
extremely  foggy  production, — "  O  "  (Marriott  would  ex- 
claim) "  the  man  has  a  view  \  "  And  he  would  proceed 
to  hammer  out  what,  to  his  apprehension,  the  man 
(though  he  certainly  had  not  said  it)  at  least  had  in- 
tended to  say.  This  wonderful  kindness  and  con- 
siderateness  of  disposition :  this  indomitable  readiness 
to  make  allowances  for  everybody,  and  determination 
to  see  "  good  in  everything," — resulted  in  a  loveliness 
of  character  which  there  is  really  no  describing.  He 
never  said  a  harsh  thing, — nor,  I  verily  believe,  thought 
very  ill, — of  anybody.  You  could  not  vex  him  more 
than  by  launching  out  against  some  common  acquaint- 
ance, of  whom  you  entertained  a  very  unfavourable 
opinion. — But,  in  fact,  you  ran  the  risk  of  throwing 
him  off  his  balance,  if  you  did  :  for  though  the  indi- 
vidual was  no  friend  of  his,  but  an  avowed  and  trouble- 
some opponent,  and  a  highly  objectionable  creature 

5  Job  ii.  13. 


1848]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE. 

into  the  bargain,— he  would  not  allow  the  harsh  cen- 
sure to  pass  unchallenged.  Ready  was  he,  on  the 
contrary,  to  discover  all  manner  of  extenuating  circum- 
stances, or  he  would  invent  an  ingenious  hypothesis 
to  cover  the  man's  latest  delinquency.  The  consequence 
was,  he  could  never  be  persuaded  to  believe  that  any  one 
was  an  impostor,  or  was  taking  advantage  of  his  sim- 
plicity. This  easiness,  and  utter  absence  of  suspicion, 
often  entailed  inconvenient  results.  He  was  incessantly 
beset  by  beggars :  was  always  being  preyed  upon :  knew 
to  his  cost  what  it  is  to  live  on  a  College  staircase,  and  to 
enjoy  the  reputation  of  being  "  a  very  kind  gentleman." 

No  scheme  of  benevolence  lay  nearer  to  the  heart  of 
Charles  Marriott  than  the  founding  of  a  College  or  Hall 
for  the  reception  of  Poor  Students.  Deeply  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  this,  and  no  other,  was  the  avowed 
purpose  and  intention  of  those  very  'Founders  and  Bene- 
factors' to  whose  piety  and  munificence  the  Colleges  of 
our  two  Ancient  Universities  are  indebted  for  their 
existence,  he  resented,  with  what  I  can  only  describe  as 
a  holy  indignation,  the  practical  exclusion  of  poor  men 
from  the  benefits  of  an  University  career.  Many  of~ 
the  Colleges  are  plainly  declared  in  their  Statutes  to 
be  eleemosynary  foundations.  What  else,  for  instance, 
is  the  College  to  which  he  and  I  belonged, — concerning 
which  the  Founder  says, — 

"Hoc  enim  in  eadem  domo  specialiter  observari 
volumus,  ut  circa  eos  qui  ad  hujusmodi  eleemosynae  par- 
ticipium  admittendi  fuerint,  diligenti  solicitudine  cave- 
atur,  ne  qui  praeter  humiles,  indigentes,  ad  studium  habiles, 
proficere  volentes,  recipiantur  "  1 G 

6  In  proof  that  the  Colleges   of  encouragement  of  Learning  in  the 

Oxford— (the  remark  applies  equally  sons  of  poor  Parents,  the  reader  ia 

to  those  of  Cambridge) — were  in-  referred  to  the  end  of  the  present 

tended  by  their  Founders  for  the  volume,  Appendix  (G). 


360  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1848 

Equally  patent  is  the  fact  that  our  ancient  Colleges 
have  entirely  drifted  away  from  this,  the  known  in- 
tention of  their  Founders, — have  completely  lost  sight  of 
their  very  raison  d'etre.  From  causes  which  it  is  need- 
less to  specify, — Oxford  has  become  exclusively  an 
University  for  the  rich.  And  nowhere,  not  even  in 
Keble  College,  is  it  at  this  instant  possible  to  procure 
the  full  benefits  of  an  University  education,  except  at  a 
cost  which  is  simply  ruinous  to  persons  of  slender  re- 
sources ;  utterly  unapproachable  by  the  actually  poor. 
No  doubt,  if  a  youth  is  able  to  compete  successfully  for 
a  '  Scholarship,'  the  case  is  different :  but  how  can  such 
a  result  be  expected  for  one  who  has  enjoyed  no  early 
advantages  at  all  ?  To  insist  therefore  that  it  is  as  fair 
for  one  as  for  another,  that  benefactions  of  this  class 
(worth  from  70^  to  lool.  a  year),  should  be  the  rewards  of 
'  merit} — is  to  talk  nonsense.  It  is  no  '  merit '  whatever  if 
a  youth  of  1 8,  from  the  sixth  form  of  one  of  our  public 
schools,  produces  a  vastly  better  Greek  or  Latin  exercise 
than  a  youth  of  20  or  21  who  has  blundered  his  way  into 
the  mysteries  of  Greek  and  Latin  composition  with  few 
external  helps,  or  none.  Does  not  '  merit '  dwell  rather 
with  /rim,  who,  fired  with  a  sublime  ambition,  and  in 
resolute  defiance  of  "  Poverty's  unconquerable  bar," 
presses  forward, — as  if  encouraged  by  the  beckoning  of  a 
viewless  hand :  secretly  conscious  of  power,  and  only 
asking  that  he  may  have  the  means  of  existence  provided 
him,  and  be  allowed  '  fair  play '?...'  Time  and  I 
against  any  two!'  says  the  Spanish  proverb.  WJio.  at 
some  time  or  other  of  his  life,  has  not  felt  it  1 

To  provide  some  remedy  for  this, — (not  by  the  pre- 
posterous method  recently  adopted  by  the  University,  of 
suffering  men  to  lead  non-collegial e  lives  in  Oxford,  and 


1848]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  361 

eventually  to  scramble  through  the  Schools  as  best  they 
may, — with  none  of  the  advantages  of  the  place  except  a 
barren  degree), — Marriott,  as  I  have  said,  was  unremitting  ^ 
in  his  efforts  to  procure  the  establishment  of  a  College  or 
Hall  for  the  reception  of  Poor  Students  :  and  so  to  confer 
upon  its  inmates  the  advantages  of  an  University  course, 
—without  the  fatal  drawback  of  entailing  upon  them  at 
the  same  time  a  ruinous  outlay.  This  (he  saw  clearly) 
would  be  far  preferable  to  the  plan  of  planting  them 
in  the  existing  Colleges, — where  the  rate  of  expenditure 
is  fixed  by  the  tyranny  of  custom  and  fashion  far  higher 
than  could  possibly  be  made  consistent  with  the  strait- 
ened financial  resources  of  the  class  which  he  desired  to 
benefit.  Not  that  the  alumni  of  such  a  College  would  of 
necessity  be  drawn  from  a  lower  stratum  of  society.  His 
undergraduates  would  probably  be  for  the  most  part, — 
what  to  a  large  extent  our  undergraduates  at  present 
are, — the  sons  of  persons  exercising  liberal  professions 
or  engaged  in  commerce:  socially,  therefore,  undistin- 
guishable  from  the  rest  of  the  Academic  body.  The 
one  difference  would  have  been  the  essential  condition 
for  their  being  admitted,  viz.  the  public  avowal  that  they 
were  alike  unable  to  pay  from  icol.  to  250^.  a  year 
— (aye,  or  anything  like  it,) — for  the  privilege  of  an 
University  education,  and  incapable  of  competing  suc- 
cessfully for  those  prizes  which  are  invariably  the 
rewards  of  previous  training  of  a  high  order,— viz. 
College  Scholarships. 

His  benevolent  heart  was  always  full  of  this  project. 
In  1848  he  addressed  a  "Letter  to  the  Rev.  E.  C.  Woollcomle, 
Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Balliol  College,  on  University  Extension, 
and  the  Poor  Scholar  Question."  Mr.  Wooll  combe  had 
previously  published  a  Letter  to  the  Provost  of  Worcester 


362  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1848 

on  the  same  subject,  to  which  Marriott  wished  to  call 
attention,  and  to  add  further  suggestions  of  his  own.  His 
early  death  was  the  principal  occasion  why  this  high- 
souled  project  eventually  came  to  nothing :  but  he  is 
known  to  have  obtained  promises  of  considerable  sums 
of  money  for  the  foundation  and  endowment  of  such  a 
Hall  as  he  contemplated,  and  a  modest  fund  was  actually 
raised  and  vested  in  Trustees, — which,  had  he  lived,  might 
by  this  time  have  grown  into  a  permanent  blessing  to 
the  University.  .  .  .  I  have  said  so  much  on  this  subject 
in  the  humble  hope  that  in  future  years  some  one  like 
the  munificent  Merchant-prince  who  in  our  own  days 
has  founded  and  endowed  Hertford  College,  Oxford, 
may  be  moved,  after  reading  what  has  been  above 
offered,  to  bestow  on  the  Church  the  incalculable  benefit 
of  such  a  College  as  has  been  indicated.  Marriott, 
besides  pledging  himself  largely  towards  the  foundation 
of  a  College  for  poor  scholars  in  Oxford,  was  a  liberal 
promoter  of  William  Se well's  work  at  Radley  and  of 
Edward  Munro's  work  at  Harrow  Weald. 

But  there  was  another  cognate  scheme  of  benevolence 
which  Charles  Marriott  as  fondly  cherished,  and  which  at 
one  time  he  considered  to  be  on  the  very  eve  of  practical 
development.  As  far  back  as  the  year  1842  he  had 
sufficiently  matured  his  design  to  announce  it  in  the 
following  terms  to  the  Rev.  E.  Coleridge : — 

"  My  dear  Coleridge, — If  my  plan  is  permitted,  I  think 
of  sending  the  following  notice  to  friends,  but  not  making 
it  quite  public. 

"  It  has  been  determined,  in  consequence  of  communica- 
tions from  some  of  the  Colonial  Bishops,  to  open  a  house 
at  Oxford  for  the  preparation  of  Candidates  for  Holy 
Orders,  who  are  disposed  to  begin  life  on  the  principle  of 


1842!         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE  16* 

o^o 

being  content  with  food  and  raiment,  and  serving  where 
they  are  most  needed,  and  wherever  the  Bishop  under 
whom  they  serve  may  place  them.  With  this  view  a 
plan  of  preparation  is  offered  to  those  who  can  be  well 
recommended,  and  are  at  the  same  time  willing  to  live 
by  strict  rule,  and  in  a  homely  manner.  They  will  have 
to  do  some  things  for  themselves  which  are  usually  done 
by  servants :  but  nothing  of  this  kind  will  be  expected 
of  them,  which  is  not  shared  by  the  person  who  presides 
over  the  House.  They  will  be  expected  to  attend  the 
daily  service  of  the  Church,  except  in  case  of  sickness  ; 
and  to  be  regularly  present  at  the  devotions  and  instruc- 
tioiis  of  the  House ;  and  to  abstain  from  every  practice 
that  is  in  the  least  unsuitable  to  such  an  establishment. 
Each  will  have  a  bed-room  to  himself,  but  there  will  be 
one  or  more  common  sitting-rooms,  according  to  the 
numbers.  It  is  hoped  that  no  one  will  apply  for  admis- 
sion who  is  not  prepared  cheerfully  to  observe  the  utmost 
regularity.  These  terms  are  not  likely  to  be  tempting  to 
many,  but  it  is  hoped  that  those  whose  views  are  chiefly  in 
the  service  of  GOD  and  its  rewards,  may  find  here  an 
opportunity  of  fulfilling  their  earnest  wishes,  and  the 
help  of  likeminded  companions. 

"  If  you  are  acquainted  with  any  young  men,  who  are 
disposed  and  fitted  to  take  advantage  of  this  plan,  you 
would  oblige  me  much  by  putting  me  in  communication 
with  them,  and  by  informing  me  whether  they  would 
need  pecuniary  assistance  towards  the  expenses  of  their 
stay  in  this  place ;  as  it  may,  in  some  cases,  be  obtained. 
Economy  will  be  carefully  observed,  and  no  profit  of  any 
kind  made  from  the  students.  You  will  remember  that 
I  have  not  yet  got  the  consent  of  the  authorities  here,  to 
set  this  on  foot,  but  I  hope  to  do  so  shortly.  If  they 
refus.e,  I  cannot  help  it."  7 

Such  were  the  benevolent  designs  with  which  Marriott's 
heart,  head,  hands  were  always  full.  His  brother  re- 
marks :— 

"  Some  of  his  intimate  friends  had  long  felt  that  he 

7  From  Oriel,—'  0  sapientia,  1842.' 


364  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1854 

was  overtasking  his  strength.  I  often  tried  to  press  upon 
him  the  duty  of  keeping  within  bounds,  and  restraining 
the  sort  of  nervous  eagerness  with  which  he  pushed  on 
at  every  thing  in  which  he  was  engaged.  He  would 
listen  patiently  to  advice  of  this  kind,  and  sometimes 
allow  that  it  was  needed.  But  it  seemed  to  produce  no 
abatement  of  laborious  exertion.  He  appeared  to  be 
under  an  irresistible  impulse  to  be  always  doing  some- 
thing,— and  whatever  it  was,  his  whole  energy  and 
attention  was  thrown  into  it  without  reserve.  His 
charities  were  large  and  free,  and  he  was  always  most 
ready  to  devote  time  and  care  to  the  sick,  and  to  give 
them  the  fullest  share  of  his  ministerial  attention  and 
sympathy.  At  the  same  time  he  was  carrying  on  a  very 
large  correspondence  with  a  great  variety  of  persons. 
There  were  many  whom  he  had  helped  forward  in  their 
education,  with  whom  he  kept  up  afterwards  regular 
communication.  Many  persons  consulted  him  about 
religious  anxieties  and  difficulties, — and  he  was  mixed 
up  with  many  undertakings  of  various  kinds  for  doing 
good  work  in  the  Church.  He  also  corresponded  with 
more  than  one  of  our  colonial  Bishops  on  matters  affect- 
ing the  interests  of  the  Church  in  the  Colonies. 

"  In  addition  to  these  various  and  engrossing  employ- 
ments, he  was  in  1 854  elected  a  member  of  the  Council 
for  the  government  of  the  University.  He  devoted 
a  great  deal  of  anxious  and  laborious  thought  to  the 
questions  brought  under  his  notice  in  this  capacity.  His 
mind  was  never  made  up  on  any  subject  connected  with 
the  welfare  of  the  University  without  a  very  careful 
endeavour  to  see  through  it  in  all  its  bearings,  and 
to  weigh  exactly  whatever  might  be  brought  forward  on 
either  side  of  the  question." 

The  present  is  confessedly  rather  an  attempt  to  pour- 
tray  a  Character,  than  to  write  the  history  of  a  Life. 
Room  must  be  found  however  for  one  more  historical 
incident ;  viz.  for  Charles  Marriott's  editorship  of  the 
'Literary  Churchman'  from  its  commencement  (viz.  'Satur- 
day, May  5th,  1855')  until,  at  the  end  of  ten  weeks,  his 


1855]  •       THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  365 

connexion  with  that  valuable  periodical  was  suddenly 
brought  to  a  calamitous  close.  The  publication  itself  was 
a  literary  venture  of  Mr.  John  Henry  Parker  of  Oxford. 
Very  characteristic  is  the  editorial  Address  prefixed  to 
the  first  number :  from  which  I  subjoin  an  extract : — 

"We  believe  that  nothing  is  more  fatal  to  the  true 
conveyance  of  information  with  respect  to  religious 
statements,  than  the  way  of  representing  them  which  is 
prompted  by  unwillingness  to  admit  the  solid  truth  of 
any.  There  is  more  truth  in  a  false  statement,  there  is 
more  truth  in  the  garbled  representation  of  it  by  an 
adversary,  than  in  the  cold  and  lifeless  impression  of  it 
which  comes  through  the  medium  of  an  unbelieving 
mind;  and  none  but  an  unbelieving  mind  can  be  wholly 
indifferent.  Rather,  indifferentism  itself  is  a  sectarian 
opinion,  and  one  of  the  last  to  which  a  religious  mind 
can  shew  any  kind  of  partiality. 

"  But  Truth  is  better  set  forth  by  the  gravity  of  simple 
enunciation,  than  by  the  violence  of  invective  or  the 
piquancy  of  ridicule." 

At  foot  of  the  page  will  be  found  enumerated  the  more 
important  articles  contributed  to  the  'Literary  Church- 
man by  C.  M.,  the  Editor.8  The  latest  of  those  Reviews 

8  Besides  the   editorial  Address,  In  No.  4,  of  Menzies'  '  Reformers 

or  Prospectus  of  the  Journal,   (in  before   the  Reformation] — pp.  80- 

No.  I,  p.  5),  a  Review  of  Maurice's  I  : — of  '  Dogma  of  the  Immaculate 

' Learning    and    Working,"1 — Ibid.  Conception? — pp.    82-3: — of   'Li- 

pp.  8-10: — of  Pusey's  'Doctrine  of  guori's  Moral  Theology' — p.  87: — 

the  Real  Presence,'' — No.  2,  pp.  31-  In  No.  5,  of  Mozley's  '  Augustinian 

4: — of  ' Saravia   on  the  Holy  Eu-  Doctrine    of    Predestination' — pp. 

charist' — pp.  34-6: — of  Meyrick's  102-4: — of  Taylor's  'Evidences? — 

'  Papal  Supremacy  tested  by  Anti-  pp.  105-7  : — In  No.  7,  of  Koussel's 

quity? — p.    36  : — of    Bp.    Selwyn's  '  Catholic  and  Protestant  Nations 

'Verbal  Analysis  of  the  Holy  Bible'  compared,' — pp.  128-130.  ...  Dr. 

—p.  36. — In  No.  3,  of '  The  Dogma  Barrow,  the   learned   and   amiable 

of  the  Immaculate    Conception? —  Principal  of  S.  Edmund  Hall,  suc- 

pp.  56-8: — of  Conybeare's  l Essays'  ceeded    C.   M.    as    Editor    of   the 

pp.  59-61: — of  Pinder's    '  M edita-  ' Literary  Churchman' 
tions? — p.  62  : — of  Wordsworth  on          For  all  these  details,  I   am   in- 

'Bunseri's    Hippolytus?—?.   65.—  debted  to  Mr.  James  Parker. 


366  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1855 

must   have   been    the    last    thing    he   ever   wrote    for 
publication. 

The  end  came  unexpectedly,  and  in  a  moment, while  he 
was  thus  freely  spending  himself  in  the  discharge  of  his 
many  duties.  I  have  reason  to  preserve  a  lively  re- 
collection of  what  proved  to  be,  in  effect,  the  closing 
scene.  Reference  is  made  to  the  morning  which  followed 
the  night  of  June  29th,  1855.  My  servant  (George 
Hughes)  awoke  me  with  the  tidings  that  'Mr.  Marriott 
was  upon  the  floor  of  his  inner  room,  lying  on  his  face.' 
Bidding  him  run  for  Dr.  Acland,  I  hastened  to  the 
spot,  raised  my  friend  from  the  floor,  and  with  the 
aid  of  his  servant  conveyed  him  to  his  bed.  Acland 
presently  helped  us  to  undress  him,  and  elicited,  as 
consciousness  and  the  power  of  speech  returned,  the 
outline  of  what  had  befallen  him.  He  had  been  dining 
at  Radley, —  (S.  Peter's  Day,  the  occasion  of  their 
'gaudy,') — and,  in  company  with  some  friends,  had 
bathed  in  the  river  on  his  way  back  to  Oxford.  He  felt 
ill  and  faint  in  the  water,  but  was  brought  to  Oxford  in 
a  boat,  and  walked  to  his  rooms.  There  he  complained 
of  headache  and  sickness,  and  was  left  by  his  friends 
intending  to  go  to  bed.  The  following  morning  he  was 
found  by  his  servant,  —  having  fallen  on  the  floor 
insensible  by  his  bedside.  It  had  been  a  stroke  of 
paralysis,  which  had  resulted  in  the  loss  of  the  use 
of  his  left  side.  His  speech,  though  intelligible,  was 
considerably  affected. 

All  has  been  said.  I  might  as  well  here  lay  down  my 
pen.  Remedies  were  of  course  administered,  and  a  letter 
dictated  by  himself  was  despatched  to  his  brother,  who 
instantly  repaired  to  Oxford. 

As  soon  as  Charles  could  bear  the  journey,  he  was 


1858]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  367 

conveyed  (23rd  of  August)  to  Bradfield  in  Berkshire,— 
the  residence  of  his  excellent  brother,  the  Rev.  John 
Marriott,  who  was  Curate  of  that  parish :  and  with  him 
he  remained,  tenderly  nursed  and  lovingly  watched  over, 
until  his  death.  Hopes  were  at  first  encouraged  that  he 
might  to  a  certain  extent  recover  the  use  of  his  limbs ; 
but  this  was  not  to  be.  He  was  carried  from  room 
to  room,  and  when  placed  in  his  chair  had  not  the 
slightest  power  of  raising  himself  from  it.  He  was  con- 
veyed out-of-doors  daily.  His  cheerfulness,  fortunately, 
never  forsook  him.  He  was  fond  of  being  read  to.  This 
sad  state  of  things  lasted  for  upwards  of  three  years. 

His  life-long  habits  of  self-control  were  manifest  during 
his  illness,  notwithstanding  his  weakened  condition  both 
of  body  and  mind.  It  was  quite  his  prevailing  feeling 
that  he  must  do  what  the  doctors  ordered,  as  the  right 
thing, — although  he  never  could  be  brought  to  under- 
stand that  he  was  not  in  a  fit  state  to  go  back  to  Oxford 

and  return  to  his  manifold  employments  there In 

the  Spring  of  1858,  his  strength  manifestly  declined.  In 
August  came  a  severe  epileptic  seizure ;  and  early  in 
September  he  suffered  from  inflammation  of  the  lungs. 
Under  this,  it  became  manifest  that  he  was  sinking.  He 
continued  to  be  sensible  till  late  on  the  i4th :  and  on  the 
morning  of  Wednesday  the  i5th,  between  7  and  8  o'clock 
(September  i5th,  1858),  with  a  very  slight  struggle,  he 
surrendered  his  pure  spirit  to  GOD,  and  entered  on 
his  Saint's  rest, — having  lived  but  47  years. 

On  the  ensuing  Monday,  his  loved  remains  were  laid  in 
a  vault  belonging  to  the  Rector,  under  the  south  transept 
of  the  parish  Church  of  Bradfield.  It  was  a  delicious 
autumn  afternoon, — bright  and  calm, — and  there  were 


368  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1858 

none  present  but  just  a  few  who  really  cared  for  the  one 
who  had  '  gone  before.'  The  Rev.  Upton  Richards,  who  was 
standing  next  to  me,  when  the  last  words  of  peace  were 
spoken,  whispered  in  my  ear, — 'Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart  / '  .  .  .  I  was  thinking  the  same  thing. 

I  have  passed  thus  hastily  over  the  last  three  years  of 
Charles  Marriott's  life,  and  have  touched  thus  lightly  on 
its  close,  for  an  obvious  reason.  His  career  had  been — 
(surely  I  may  say  '  mysteriously  ') — brought  to  a  close  on 
S.  Peter V?  Day,  1 855 :  for  it  was  on  that  day,  ere  yet  he 
had  completed  44  years  of  mortal  life,  that  his  "  many 
excellent  gifts  "  suffered  what  amounted  to  total  eclipse. 
But  he  had  "  fought  a  good  fight "  :  he  had  "  finished  his 
course":  he  had  "kept  the  faith."  Henceforth,  as  we 
confidently  hope  and  humbly  believe,  there  was  laid  up 
for  him  that  "  crown  of  everlasting  glory "  which  the 
good  LORD  "hath  promised  to  them  that  love  Him." 
.  .  .  And  "  they  shall  be  Mine,  saith  the  LORD  of  hosts,  in 
that  day  when  I  make  up  My  jewels." 


I  seem,  in  what  precedes,  to  have  done  this  dear  friend 
no  manner  of  justice.  I  have  revealed  not  a  few  of  his 
little  personal  eccentricities  :  said  not  a  few  things  about 
him  which  will  provoke  a  smile.  I  do  not  seem  to 
have  exhibited  a  corresponding  solicitude  to  adumbrate 
the  surpassing  holiness  of  his  character. 

But  there  is  nothing  whatever  to  suggest  a  smile  in 
the  spectacle  of  one  leading  without  effort  a  life  wholly 
above  the  world  :  utterly  scorning  the  littleness  of  party  : 
absolutely  devoid  of  self-conceit, — or  self-seeking, — or 
self-esteem.  Like  Hugh  James  Rose,  and  like  John 
.Keble,  and  like  Isaac  Williams,  Charles  Marriott  was  well 
content  to  go  down  to  the  grave  without  experiencing 


1858]          THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.          369 

any  of  those  marks  of  favour  which  are  considered 
the  appropriate  rewards  of  men  who  have  greatly  dis- 
tinguished themselves  above  their  fellows,  and  rendered 
important  services  to  the  Church.  He  was  incapable  of 
coveting  for  himself  any  earthly  reward,  but  that  of  his 
own  approving  conscience. 

The  purity  of  his  spirit  was  extraordinary.  No  one 
who  heard  him  deliver  a  certain  discourse  in  the  College 
Chapel,  in  which  he  spoke  with  horror  about  fornication, 
— will  ever  be  able  to  forget  it.  At  a  Penitentiary  Meeting 
at  which  Bp.  Wilberforce  presided,  held  in  the  College 
hall  a  short  time  after,  I  read  out  to  the  men  a  grand  page 
from  that  same  sermon,  and  remember  to  this  hour  the 
effect  of  the  awful  words, — though  it  was  the  merest  echo 

of  the  discourse  as  originally  delivered What  fell 

from  him  on  that  occasion  was  not  what  any  of  us  might 
have  said,  approaching  the  subject  from  the  stronghold  of 
Christian  chivalry.  It  was  the  utterance  of  one  standing 
face  to  face  with  the  realities  of  the  unseen  World,  and  in 
view  of  the  terribleness  of  eternal  death.  ...  I  can  but 
repeat  that  if  ever  there  was  a  man  in  whom  the  Gospel 
became  a  living  principle  of  action, — a  practical  thing, — 
the  very  guide  of  the  daily,  hourly,  life  and  conversation, 
— that  man  was  Charles  Marriott.  He  was  a  great  power 
for  good  in  the  University, — a  leavening  principle  in  the 
College  to  which  he  belonged, — a  blessing  to  every  society 
in  which  he  mingled. 

Care-worn  and  haggard  as  he  sometimes  looked,  when 
one  came  suddenly  upon  him  in  his  own  dusty  and  un- 
tidy rooms,  and  found  him  evidently  working  against 
time ;  somewhat  shabby  too  as  he  was  in  his  attire  when 
walking  in  public,  (like  certain  other  celebrated  charac- 
ters who  shall  be  nameless) ; — Marriott  had  the  hand- 

VOL.  i.  B  b 


370 


CHARLES  MARRIOTT: 


[1858 


somest  face  of  any  man  of  my  acquaintance, — and  (like 
Samuel  Wilberforce  in  that  respect)  responded  remark- 
ably to  the  process  of  the  toilette  :  looked  well,  in  short, 
when  "  got  up  "  with  ordinary  care.  His  noble  forehead, 
his  beautifully  cut  features,  his  mouth  so  full  of  firmness 
and  expression,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  look  upon.  There 
exists  no  adequate  pictorial  representation  of  him.  An 
engraving  from  a  portrait  by  Drummond  recalls  his 
features  with  tolerable  success  :  but  it  is  altogether  want- 
ing in  manliness,  character,  dignity. 


It  is  impossible  to  lay  down  the  story  of  such  a  life  as 
the  present,  without  something  akin  to  disappointment. 
The  man's  abilities  were  so  splendid, — his  attainments  so 
rare, — his  opportunities  so  unique.  And  what  did  he 
effect  ?  What  monuments  of  his  genius  or  of  his  learning 
has  he  left  behind  him  ?  Candour's  voice  falters  over 
the  enumeration  of  Charles  Marriott's  printed  '  Works.' 9 


9  Histwo'Z,ec£wres'(atChichester 
Theological  College)  have  been 
spoken  of  above,  at  p.  307-8  :  also.his 
edition  of  the  '  Canones  Apostt.' — 
Concerning  his  'Analecta  Chris- 
tiana,' see  p.  308  : — concerning  his 
edition  of  Thcodoret's  'Interpretatio 
in  omnes  B.  Pauli  Epistolas' — p. 
324  : — concerning  certain  Treatises 
of  Augustine,  —  p.  109.  —  1  have 
noticed  his  posthumous  '  Lectures 
on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,'  at 
p.  323.— Of  his  two  Volumes  of 
'  Sermon*,'  something  has  been  said 
at  p.  330.— His  'Reflections  in  a 
Lent  reudiny  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,'  are  noticed  at  p.  331.  Of 
his  admirable  '  Hints  on  Private 
Devotion '  enough  has  been  said  at 
P-35Q. — His  labours  for  the  'Library 


of  the  Fathers  '  are  referred  to  at 
pp.  321-2. — I  only  know  besides,  of 
the  following  occasional  efforts, — 
chiefly  single  Sermons  : — 

'  The  Church's  Instruments  for 
the  work  of  the  HOLY  SPIRIT,' — a 
Sermon  on  the  Colonial  Bishoprics, 
- — 1841,  pp.  21. — '  Numbering  our 
Days,' — a  Sermon  preached  (1842) 
on  the  death  of  Rev.  H.  Stevens, 
late  Rector  of  Bradfield, — 1843,  pp. 
28,  with  a  remarkable  Appendix  of 
practical  hints  collected  under  eleven 
heads.  [This  Sermon  seems  to  have 
also  borne  the  more  appropriate 
title  '  Preparation  for  Death.'} — 
'  University  Extension  and  the  Poor 
Scholar  Question,'  a  Letter  to  the 
Rev.  E.Woollcombe,'— Oxford,  1 848, 
pp.  14. — 1A  Letter  to  the  Reo.  H. 


;858] 


THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE. 


Excellent,  admirable  even,  as  they  are,  can  they  be  said 
to  have  at  all  fulfilled  the  lawful  expectations  of  his 
friends'?  Were  not  his  days  consumed  in  literary 


W.  Bellairs,  on  the  Admission  of 
the  Children  of  Dissenters  to  Church 
Schools,' — Littlemore,  1849,  PP-  J4- 
— '  Five  Sermons  on  the  Principles 
of  Faith  and  Church  Authority,' 
[preached  in  1844,  J849,  1850,  &c.], 
Littlemore,  1850,  pp.  69.  ["  These 
were  published  in  answer  to  the  re- 
quest of  a  friend  who  had  claims 
on  the  author  both  from  his  office 
and  from  personal  intimacy.  He 
had  found  that  he  frequently  had 
to  answer  in  private  the  difficult 
question, — 'What  are  the  grounds 
of  .our  belief  in  any  of  the  particulars 
of  the  faith?'  and  he  thought  it 
might  be  useful  to  throw  out  pub- 
licly such  a  statement  as  might 
suggest  to  others  the  tone  of  thought 
most  likely  to  lead  to  solid  satisfac- 
tion and  the  attainment  of  Truth. 
'  The  path  of  humility  and  good 
order  is  the  way  to  Truth  and  Unity : 
and  if  every  one  were  first  to  en- 
deavour to  receive  the  Truth  as 
handed  down  to  him  by  his  own 
forefathers,  and  then  to  extend,  in 
a  secondary  way,  to  others  the  same 
favourable  construction  which  this 
endeavour  would  lead  him  to  put 
on  the  documents  of  his  own  Church, 
even  the  present  divided  state  of 
Christendom  might  before  long  be 
brought  to  an  end.' "  (Lit.  Church- 
man. See  above,  p.  364.)] — '  The 
Unforgiving  Servant,'  preached  at 
S.  Mary's,  and  dedicated  (with  an 
affectionate  Address)  to  his  parish- 
ioners,— Littlemore,  1850,  pp.  24. — 
'  Two  Sermons  on  Civil  and  Social 
Duties,  especially  on  the  Duty  of 
Educating  the  Poorer  Classes,' — 
Littlemore,  1853,  pp.  31.  — «  The 

B 


true  cause  of  insult  and  dishonour  to 
the  Church  of  England,' — preached 
at  S.  Mary's,  Jan.  5,  1851, — pp.  18. 
— 'Singleness  of  purpose  the  secret 
of  success,' — preached  at  S.  Mary's 
upon  the  occasion  of  the  death  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  Sept.  I9th, 
1852.—'  The  Unity  of  the  SPIRIT,' 
— preached  at  S.  Mary's  (on  Ephes. 
iy-  3>)  when  a  collection  was  made 
for  the  Patriotic  Fund,  Nov.  1854. 
— 'A  short  Catechism  for  very 
young  Children'  —  (pp.  u)  1852. 
— '  Prayers  before,  Thanksgiving 
after,  Holy  Communion,'' — privately 
printed  [1846],  pp.  32.  [It  bears  no 
Author's  name,  but  my  copy  was 
from  him.] — '  Letter  to  the  St.  Hon. 
W.  E.  Gladstone,  M.P.,  on  some  of 
the  provisions  of  the  Oxford  Uni- 
versity Bill,'  (May)  1854. — '  The 
New  Year.'  Plain  Sermons,  (No. 
24,)  1849. — '  GOD,  and  not  system, 
the  strength  of  the  Church.'  Ser- 
mon on  Ephes.  iv.  10.  London, 
1880. — '  On  the  digestion  of  Know- 
ledge.'— Sermon  on  S.  John  xv.  24  : 
— Sermon  on  Philippians  iii.  18,  19, 
— written,  at  Dr.  Pusey's  request, 
for  a  course  of  Sermons. — '  Sin  not 
imputed,'  Ps.  xxxii.  10  (written  for 
Rev.  A.  Watson's  Sermons  for  Sun- 
days, &c.,  &c.  [Series  I.]  1845.) — 
'  The  joyful  sound  of  the  New  Crea- 
tion.' Ps.  Ixxxix.  15.  (The  same, 
[Series  II.]  1845.)— 'The  Co-opera- 
tive Principle  not  opposed  to  a 
true  Political  Economy;  or  Re- 
marks on  some  recent  publications 
on  Subjects  relatice  to  the  inter- 
communion of  Labour,  Capital,  and 
Consumption?  Oxford,  1855. 
At  p.  350,  will  be  found  enu- 


372  CHARLES  MARRIOTT:  [1858 

drudgery  ?  Not  by  choice,  but  yielding  to  a  sense  of 
duty,  did  he  not  submit  to  a  series  of  lowly  tasks  which 
two  or  three  men  of  average  ability  and  attainments 
might  have  discharged  every  bit  as  well  as  he  ?  There 
can  be  but  one  answer  to  these  questions. 

Was  then  his  life  a  failure  ? 

No,  it  was  not  by  any  means  a  failure.  A  man  may 
bequeath  to  posterity  other  and  better  '  Works '  than  the 
products  of  his  pen.  It  is  by  a  conventional  use,  or 
rather  misuse  of  language,  that  we  so  limit  the  meaning 
of  a  familiar  word.  The  Last  Day  will  reveal  how  much 
of  good  Work  Charles  Marriott  did  in  his  generation,  by 
his  career  of  lofty  self-denial, — his  singleness  of  heart, — 
his  saintliness  of  spirit, — his  pure  converse, — his  con- 
sistent course.  That  sowing  of  his  will  hereafter  be 
found  to  have  resulted  in  a  splendid  harvest.  His 
"  works  "  were  the  daily,  hourly  outcome  of  his  inward 
holiness, — the  influence  on  others  of  the  essential  sanctity 
of  his  individual  character.  He  lives  at  this  day,  he  will 
go  on  living1,  in  the  good  lives  of  others.  "  If  I  have  any 
good  in  me  "  (remarked  Edward  King,  Bp.  of  Lincoln,) 
"  I  owe  it  to  Charles  Marriott."  Thousands  there  must  be, 
yet  living,  who  would  eagerly  say  the  same  !  His  light 
shone  steadily  before  men, — and  so  shone  that  they  glorified 
GOD.  There  is  no  telling  what  a  blessing  such  an  one  is 
in  a  place  like  Oxford.  He  insensibly  moulds  characters. 
His  presence  is  felt  to  be  a  constraining  power.  Young 
and  old, — lofty  in  station  and  lowly, — wise  and  simple, 
—  all  are  the  better  for  it.  And,  (as  I  have  explained  in 
an  earlier  page,)  Charles  Marriott's  example  was  especially 

merated  certain  works  printed  at  His  connexion  with,  and  work  for, 
his  Littlemore  press,  which  he  must  the  ' Literary  Churchman*  will  be 
have  had  the  trouble  of  supervising.  found  remarked  upon  at  pp.  364-6. 


1858]         THE  MAN  OF  SAINTLY  LIFE.  373 

precious  at  a  moment  of  general  dejection,  and  half- 
heartedness  bordering  on  despair;  when  the  suspicion 
was  industriously  inculcated  in  certain  quarters  that  the 
Church  of  England  was  powerless  to  retain  within  her 
embrace  the  Saints  she  had  nursed  at  her  bosom.  Here 
was  the  best  practical  refutation  of  the  calumny ! ...  On 
no  account  may  such  a  life  be  spoken  of  as  "  a  failure." 

We  are  tempted,  perhaps,  to  deplore  the  want  of  con- 
centration of  purpose  in  such  an  one,  and  to  regret  that 
he  did  not  habitually  set  Ms  face  like  a  flint  to  defy  the 
distracting  influences  amid  which  he  lived.  Had  he 
pursued  the  course  which  some  may  think  themselves 
competent  to  have  prescribed  for  the  guidance  of  his  life, 
doubtless  the  result  would  have  been  largely  different. 
But, — Is  it  quite  certain  that  the  world  would  thereby 
have  been  a  greater  gainer?  or  that  the  Saint  himself 
would  have  eternally  worn  a  brighter  crown  ? 

Charles  Marriott  resolutely  did  the  work  which,  ac- 
cording to  his  best  judgment,  GOD  gave  him  to  do  ; — did 
it  with  a  single  eye  to  the  Master's  glory ; — did  it  "  with 
a  perfect  heart."  He  lived,  as  I  have  once  and  again 
said  already, — he  lived  quite  above  the  world :  lived,  "  as 
seeing  Him  who  is  invisible. "  Like  Enoch,  he  "  walked  " 
habitually  "  with  GOD."  His  daily  "  life  and  conversa- 
tion" were  a  perpetual  witness  to  the  transfiguring 
power  of  the  Gospel:  a  living  commentary  on  its  maxims 
and  the  very  best  illustration  of  its  precepts.  .  .  .  Who  will 
presume  to  judge  such  an  one  ?  Who  will  not  rather 
render  thanks  to  "the  Father  of  spirits"  for  the  blessing 
of  his  bright  example,  and  pray  for  grace  to  follow — at 
however  humble  a  distance-  -in  his  holy  footsteps  ? 


EDWARD   HAWKINS : 

THE   GREAT   PEOVOST. 
[A.D.   1789—1882.] 

IN  the  heart  of  Oxford,  hemmed  in  by  public  thorough- 
fares,— on  a  small  plot  of  ground  which  has  been 
the  possession  and  the  home  of  one  society  since  '  the 
age  of  Scotus  and  Occam  and  Dante,' — stands  a  College 
of  which  from  A.D.  1828  to  A.D.  1882  the  subject  of  the 
present  memoir,  Dr.  Edward  Hawkins,  was  Provost.  It 
derives  its  familiar  designation  from  the  mansion  (called 
;  le  Oriole ')  which  anciently  occupied  part  of  its  site,  and 
had  been  the  property  of  Eleanor  of  Castile ;  its  actual 
title  being  '  the  House  or  Hall  of  S.  Mary.'  In  the  words 
of  Cardinal  Newman  (himself  a  fellow  and  chief  orna- 
ment of  the  same  house  from  1823  to  1846), — 

'  The  visitor,  whose  curiosity  has  been  excited  by  its 
present  fame,  gazes  with  disappointment  on  a  collection 
of  buildings,  which  have  with  them  so  few  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  dignity  or  wealth.  Broad  quadrangles, 
high  halls  and  chambers,  ornamented  cloisters,  stately 
walks  or  umbrageous  gardens,  a  throng  of  students, 
ample  revenues,  or  a  glorious  history, — none  of  these 
things  were  the  portion  of  that  old  foundation ;  nothing 
in  short,  which  to  the  common  eye  a  century  ago  would 
have  given  tokens  of  what  it  was  to  be.' 

But  Oriel  under  the  Provostships  of  Eveleigh,  Cople- 
ston,  and  Hawkins,  earned  for  itself  a  great  reputation ; 


1737]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  375 

achieved  a  name  which  is  already  a  household  word 
wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken.  Will  the 
present  writer  be  disappointed,  (he  asks  himself)  in  his 
hope  that  by  drawing  with  an  affectionate  hand  a 
sketch,  however  slight  and  imperfect,  of  the  last-named 
of  those  three  Provosts,  he  will  win  the  thanks  of  not 
a  few  generations  of  Oxford  men  who  already  carry 
with  them,  indelibly  imprinted  on  their  memories,  the 
image  of  that  dignified  presence,— that  reverend  form, — 
that  familiar  face?  EDWARD  HAWKINS  had  in  truth 
become  an  historical  personage  long  before  his  resigna- 
tion of  the  active  duties  of  his  office  in  1874.  And 
though  we  ejaculate  ' Floreat  Oriel'  as  fervently  now  as 
when  we  used  to  drink  the  toast  in  his  company  over 
the  Founder's  cup, — (filled  inconveniently  full  of  hot 
spiced  wine)  on  'the  gaudy,' — we  cannot  conceal  from 
ourselves  that  the  College  over  which  he  actively  pre- 
sided for  46  years  will  henceforth  hold  its  onward  course 
under  essentially  changed  conditions.  EDWAED  HAWKINS 
was  the  last '  PROVOST  OF  ORIEL.' 

'Our  family,' — wrote  his  great-grandfather  in  1737, 
(Mr.  Csesar  Hawkins  of  Ludlow  in  Shropshire,  to  his 
son  Sir  Csesar  Hawkins,  the  first  Baronet,) — 'had  a 
good  estate  at  Pottersbury  in  Northamptonshire ;  at 
Long  Compton  in  Warwickshire ;  and  at  Blackstone  in 
Worcestershire.  And  my  great-grandfather  had  a  regi- 
ment of  horse  in  King  Charles  the  First's  time, — which 
proved  the  beginning  of  the  family's  ruin.'  Colonel 
Csesar  x  Hawkins,  the  soldier  who  thus  stands  foremost 

1  The  Provost  did  not  know  how  established   with   some    immediate 

this  name  (which  has  prevailed  for  descendant  of  that  Sir  Julius  Csesar 

at  least  nine  generations)  originally  [1557-1636],    whose     history    has 

came  into  his  family.    A  connection  been  so  laboriously  investigated  by 

(it  is  presumed)    might   easily  be  Lodge,  Norroy  herald. 


376  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1688 

in  the  family  annals,  was  a  conspicuous  personage 
during  the  period  of  the  Great  Rebellion.  He  was 
governor  of  Greenland-house  in  Buckinghamshire,  which 
had  been  garrisoned  for  the  King  with  a  view  to  com- 
manding the  passage  over  the  Thames  from  Henley  and 
Reading  to  London.  After  gallantly  defending  it  against 
the  Parliamentary  army  under  Lord  Essex  during  a 
severe  six  months'  siege,  Colonel  Hawkins  was  forced 
to  surrender  Greenland  in  July  1644,  (the  whole  struc- 
ture having  been  beaten  down  by  cannon,)  but  on 
honourable  terms. 2  Clarendon  describes  him  as  march- 
ing into  Oxford  with  his  three  hundred  men ;  and  relates 
that  he  was  immediately  despatched  with  the  royalist 
force  under  command  of  Colonel  Gage  to  the  relief 
of  Basing-house.  Dr.  Francis  Hawkins,  the  Colonel's 
grandson,  was  appointed  Dean  of  Chichester  [1688-99] 
—perhaps  in  recognition  of  the  losses  his  family  had 
sustained  in  the  King's  cause.  Certain  it  is  that,  as 
Chaplain  of  the  Tower,  he  '  had  merited  of  the  govern- 
ment by  zealous  service  among  the  State  prisoners,  and 
had  been  particularly  acceptable  in  his  dealing  with 
Fitz-Harris  before  his  execution.' 3  At  Chichester,  he 
found  a  disorganized  Chapter  and  a  dilapidated  Deanery. 
Hawkins  has  left  a  record  of  the  former  circumstance  in 
the  '  Act-book  '  of  the  Dean  and  Chapter  4  :  of  the  latter, 

*  Lipscomb's  '  Hacks,"1  iii.  576, —  Library, 

quoting  Whitelock's  '  Memorials.''  *  He  was  obliged  solemnly  to  re- 

3  Kennett's   '  Collections,''    Lans-  mind  the  Chapter  (May  2,  1695)  by 

downe  MSS. — Details  of  this  busi-  formal   protest, — '  quod  omnia  sub 

ness  are  found  in  'A  narrative,  being  nomine  Decani   et  Capituli  contra 

a   true  Relation  of  what  discourse  voluntatem  Decani  pro  tempore  ex- 

passed   letween  Dr.  Hawkins   and  istentis   peracta,    invalida   sunt/ — 

Edward      Fitz-IIarys,     esq.,      late  and    that    a    certain     transaction 

prisoner   in    the    Tower :     with   the  effected  in  defiance   of  his  known 

manner  of  taking  his  Confession'  will,  '  omnino  vacua  et  nullius  va- 

— London,  fol.   1681,  pp.  10.     Two  loris  existit.'    His  signature  follows, 

or  more  copies  are  in  the  Bodleian  (Act  Book  ii.  fol.  142.) 


1789]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  377 

there  survive  large  material  traces.  The  Deanery  (which 
then  stood  on  the  city  wall)  was  left  a  ruin  by  the  Par- 
liamentary forces  under  Sir  William  Waller.  Parts  of 
the  structure  are  yet  discernible  in  the  wall  which 
bounds  the  Dean's  garden  on  the  south. 

Fourth  in  descent  from  the  same  soldier,  was  Sir  Csesar 
Hawkins,  [1711-86,]  pre-eminent  as  a  surgeon,  created 
first  Baronet  of  the  family  in  1778.  He  purchased  the 
manor  of  Kelston  in  Somersetshire,  from  the  Haringtons ; 
razed  their  old  family  mansion,  and  (in  1760)  erected 
a  modern  residence  on  a  site  nearer  the  Avon.  It  is 
described  as  *  charmingly  placed '  on  a  hill,  overlooking 
the  river  which  there  makes  a  graceful  bend.  There  is 
a  portrait  of  him  by  Hogarth  at  the  College  of  Surgeons. 
His  youngest  son  Edward,  [1753-1806,]  became  succes- 
sively Vicar  of  Bisley  (near  Stroud  in  Gloucestershire)  in 
1778,  where  most  of  his  children  were  born, — and  (twenty 
years  later)  Hector  of  Kelston,  whither  he  removed  in 
1 800.  He  was  the  father  of  thirteen  children,  of  whom 
the  subject  of  the  present  memoir  was  the  eldest.  He 
died, — (it  is  stated  on  his  monument,) — "  5th  January, 
1806,  aged  53." 

EDWARD  HAWKINS,  of  whom  I  am  now  to  speak,  was 
born, — not  at  Bisley,  however,  but  at  Bath, — on  the  2,7  th 
February,  1789:  'a  little  more  than  nine  weeks  before 
the  opening  of  the  States  General  at  Versailles,  and  the 
commencement  of  the  French  Revolution.'  The  friend 
who  notes  this  coincidence  of  dates,  proceeds  as  fol- 
lows : — 

'The  first  time  I  was  at  Bisley  in  Gloucestershire  (of 
which  Mr.  Thomas  Keble  was  then  Vicar),  I  found  a 
tradition  in  the  village,  that  the  Provost  of  Oriel  was 
born  there.  On  my  return  to  Oxford,  I  said, — "Mr. 


378  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1796 

Provost,  I  have  just  returned  from  a  visit  to  the  parish 
where  you  were  born." — "  Where  have  you  been1?  " — "At 
Bisley,  in  Gloucestershire." — "No,"  said  the  Provost, 
"  I  was  not  born  there."  Then,  observing  my  look  of 
surprise,  he  went  on : — "  I  ought  perhaps  to  have  been 
born  there,  but  I  was  not.  My  father  was  in  the  habit 
of  spending  some  time  in  Bath  during  the  winter  months, 
and  at  Bath  I  was  born."  I  remember  his  adding  the 
number  of  the  house  and  the  street  in  which  he  first 
saw  the  light,  but  the  details  have  escaped  me.'  5 

Of  his  earliest  years  nothing  is  remembered  except 
that  he  was  of  a  very  delicate  constitution.  His  parents 
showed  him  to  a  doctor,  who  declared  that  nothing  was 
discoverable  to  forbid  the  hope  that  the  child  might 
reach  the  appointed  limit  of  human  life.  It  certainly 
required  a  prophet  to  foretell  that  the  weakly  little  boy 
would  live  to  fulfil  almost  a  century  of  years.  At  the 
age  of  seven  (1796),  he  was  sent  to  school  at  Elmore,  in 
Gloucestershire,  under  the  Rev.  Edward  Patteson.6  El- 
more-court,  then  occupied  as  a  school-house,  is  the 
picturesque  ancestral  seat  of  the  Guise  family.  Here, 
the  sons  of  many  of  the  gentry  of  Gloucestershire  and 
the  neighbouring  counties  (as  the  father  of  the  late 
Baronet,  who  himself  was  at  school  there,  informed  his 
son),  received  their  education.  From  Elmore,  when  he 
was  twelve  years  old  (February  5th,  1801),  Edward  was 
transferred  to  Merchant-Taylors'  School ;  and  thence 
was  elected  to  an  '  Andrew  exhibition '  at  S.  John's 
College,  Oxford,  on  S.  Barnabas'  day  1807, — being  at 

5  From  the  Rev.  Robert  George  in  1794.     This  lady  adds  that  her 
Livingstone,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  father,    (in    conjunction    with    his 
Pembroke  College,  Oxford.  brother-in-law,    Rev.    Joseph   Par- 

6  In   the  '  Quarterly    It.'  I    had  sons),   succeeded  to  the  School  in 
written  under  'Dr.  Bishop.'    I  owe  1788,  and  carried  it  on  till   1798; 
the  correction  to  Miss  Patteson,  who  when   it   was    left   by   them   in   a 
was  herself  born   at   Elmore-court  nourishing  state,  with  52  boys. 


1806]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  379 

that  time  third  monitor  in  the  School.     The  date  of  his 
admission  at  S.  John's  will  have  been  June  29th. 

Little  of  interest  has  been  recovered  concerning  these, 
his  youthful  years.  But  the  following  incident  belongs 
to  the  same  early  period,  and  may  be  thought  to  deserve 
insertion.  The  date  was  probably  1803,  when  Edward 
Hawkins  was  14.  It  cannot  be  later  than  1805. 

1 1  had  heard  him  (in  my  undergraduate  days  at  Oriel) 
say,  that  he  once  saw  Lord  Nelson.  I  reminded  him  of 
this  long  after  (Dec.  1880),  when  he  stated  as  follows. 
He  was  walking  up  Holborn,  and  suddenly  became 
aware  of  a  considerable  outburst  of  excitement  in  the 
street.  People  were  huzzaing  and  clapping  their  hands. 
Looking  about  to  discover  the  cause,  he  saw  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street  an  officer  in  naval  uniform. 
He  at  once  recognized  him  by  his  features  and  by  the 
fact  that  he  had  lost  an  arm.  It  was  Nelson  who  was 
the  object  of  the  applause  of  the  crowd.  "And,"  added 
the  Provost,  (with  a  peculiar  quick  movement  of  his 
head,  which  all  Oriel  men  will  remember,) — "  I  saw  that 
he  liked  it."  These  words  are,  I  think,  characteristic  of 
the  speaker,  showing  how  keen  an  observer  he  was,  even 
as  a  boy. 

{ He  told  me  that  he  had  seen  William  Pitt,  the  states- 
man,— not  alive  however,  but  lying  in  state.  Pitt  died 
23rd  January  i8o6.'7 

To  return  to  Oxford,  however,  and  to  Hawkins  at 
S.  John's,  in  1807.  He  had  already  (Jan.  loth,  1806)  been 
deprived  of  a  Father's  care.  '  I  lost  my  Father '  (wrote 
the  Provost  of  Oriel  to  me,  fifty  years  later,)  '  when  he 
was  only  52.  I  was  yet  at  school;  and  his  youngest 
son  was  but  half-a-year  old.'  By  this  event,  Edward 
(the  eldest  of  ten8  surviving  children)  found  himself,  at 

7  From  the  Eev.  E.  G.  Living-       at  Torquay  in  1876 :— Frances  (the 
stone.  second  daughter  so  named) : — Mary 

8  Three  sisters, — Sarah,  who  died       Ann  (also  the  second  daughter  so 


380  EDWARD  HAWKINS  :  [1806 

the  age  of  1 7,  in  a  position  of  greatly  increased  responsi- 
bility. He  had  been  appointed  joint  executor  with  his 
Mother  (Margaret,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Howes, 
of  Morningthorpe,,  Norfolk,)  and  her  brother.  Thought- 
ful and  judicious  beyond  his  years,  he  came  to  be 
regarded  in  consequence  by  his  younger  brothers  and 
sisters  almost  in  the  light  of  a  Father ;  and  indeed  he 
did  a  Father's  part  by  them  all,  most  faithfully  and 
fondly.  His  Mother,  now  left  a  widow,  repaired  with 
her  little  brood  to  Chew  Magna,  a  village  about  7  miles 
from  Bristol  (10  or  12  from  Bath),  where  her  husband 
and  she  had  rented  the  Manor-house,  as  a  place  of  tem- 
porary sojourn  in  1800,  while  Kelston  Kectory  was 
undergoing  repair  and  enlargement.  It  must  have  been 
a  profound  sense  of  her  own  desolation  and  the  greatness 
of  her  need, — thus  left  with  ten  children  (seven  of  them 
sons)  to  sustain,  educate,  and  direct  in  life, — which 
determined  her  choice  of  a  text  for  her  husband's 
memorial  tablet  in  Kelston  church.9  She  claimed  the 
fulfilment  of  the  Divine  promise,  and  wrote  (from  Jere- 
miah xlix.  TI) — 'Leave  thy  fatherless  children.  I  will 
preserve  them  alive.  And  let  thy  widows  trust  in 
Me.'  .  .  .  At  Chew  Magna  she  continued  to  reside  till 

named)  who  yet  lives  : — and  six  — John  and  Charles,  who  died  in 
brothers;  viz.  Francis,  M.D.,  Phy-  India  in  1818  and  1830: — and 
sician  to  the  Queen's  Household  and  Robert,  the  present  Vicar  of  Lam- 
Registrar  of  the  Royal  College  of  berhurst,  Kent. 
Physicians,  who  died  in  1877,  aged  9  For  much  help  hereabouts,  I 
83,  and  is  remembered  as  the  '  kind-  am  indebted  to  the  Rev.  Francis  J. 
hearted  friend  of  the  afflicted  in  Poynton's  'Memoranda,  Historical 
sickness': — Caesar  Henry,  Serjeant-  and  Genealogical,  relating  to  the 
Surgeon  to  the  Queen,who  died  2oth  parish  of  Kelston  in  the  county  of 
July,  1884,  and  was  able  to  relate  Somerset,' — 1878,  a  privately  printed 
that  he  had  been  consulted  by  four  4to.  of  much  local  interest  and  an- 
generations  of  the  Royal  Family : —  tiquarian  ability.  The  author  gives 
George  (the  second  son  so  named),  a  pedigree  of  the  Hawkins  family  at 
in  Holy  Orders,  who  died  in  1826  :  pp.  22-3. 


1810]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  381 

1820-1,  when   she   removed  to   Newton   St.  Loe   near 
Bath. 

To  the  same  village, — soon  after  the  period  when  the 
widow  had  returned  there  with  her  children, — also  came 
to  reside  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Richard  Buckle.  He  had  once 
commanded  a  vessel  in  the  trade  with  the  African  gold- 
coast,  which  at  that  time  was  carried  on  in  Bristol ;  but 
he  now  held  an  office  in  the  Bristol  Custom  House.1  A 
friendship  sprang  up  between  the  two  families ;  the 
younger  members  being  almost  always  together,  and 
sharing  the  same  amusements.  Their  gardens  joined, 
'and  an  easy  path  was  soon  made  over  the  low  wall 
between.'  Strong  political  sympathies  helped  to  cement 
this  friendship.  A  radical  member  (Mr.  Hunt)  having, 
to  their  general  disgust,  been  returned  for  Bristol, 
the  children  thought  it  their  duty  to  burn  him  in  effigy : 
their  parents  looking  on  with  undisguised  satisfaction. 
The  Waverley  novels  as  they  successively  appeared 
furnished  delightful  occupation  for  social  gatherings  in 
the  evenings. 

Edward  Hawkins  and  his  sister  Sarah, — (they  were 
devoted  to  one  another,  inseparable,  and  entirely  like- 
minded), — on  the  one  side,  and  Mary  Ann  Buckle  (the 
only  daughter)  on  the  other,  grew  fast  friends.  The 
future  Provost  of  Oriel  already  displayed  those  charac- 
teristics for  which  he  became  distinguished  in  after  life. 
A  strong  sense  of  duty  was  ever  paramount  with  him. 
He  expected  to  find  it  in  others,  and  habitually  set  his 
brothers  an  example  of  steady  application  ;  exercised 

1  His  father,  with  a  large  family  villes  of  Worcestershire.    Richard's 

of   sons    and    daughters,   lived   at  wife  (Mary  Pryor  Osborne)  was  of 

Chaseley   and    '  the    Mythe '    near  a   Puritan   family   connected   with 

Tewkesbury,    and    was    connected  Speaker  Lenthall. 
with  the  Dowdeswells  and  Turber- 


382  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [i8n 

severe  self-control ;  denied  himself  amusements,  and 
whatever  belonged  to  mere  personal  gratification.  His 
sympathy  for  sorrow  is  still  affectionately  remembered, 
as  well  as  his  skill  in  ministering  to  a  broken  spirit. 
Mrs.  Buckle,  having  suddenly  lost  her  husband  (in  1826), 
remarked  that  Edward's  words  were  the  first  which 
procured  her  any  measure  of  real  comfort.  He  had  an 
accomplished  and  very  delightful  brother  (George)  who 
was  carried  off  by  consumption  at  the  age  of  26, — to 
whom  his  ministerial  offices  were  most  tender  as  well  as 
unremitting.  In  the  end,  the  two  families  left  Chew 
together,  and  Newton  near  Bath  became  the  home  of 
both.  Their  former  intimacy  had  already  ripened  into 
warm  friendship.  Edward's  days  were  spent  in  severe 
study  :  but  he  found  that  he  could  occasionally  spare  an 
evening  for  a  walk  with  Mary  Buckle.  After  an  interval 
of  so  many  years,  a  vivid  recollection  is  preserved  of 
the  intelligence  and  kindness  with  which  in  one  of  those 
early  walks  he  explained  the  nature  of  Perspective, — the 
principle  on  which  those  many  converging  lines  were 
drawn,  and  which  the  young  lady  had  but  very  imper- 
fectly apprehended  by  the  light  of  Nature.  Not  alto- 
gether unacceptable,  it  may  reasonably  be  conjectured, 
to  a  girl  of  a  singularly  modest  and  retiring  disposition, 
must  have  been  the  society  of  a  youth  so  thoughtful  and 
high-minded  as  Edward  Hawkins. — But  it  is  time  to 
resume  the  story  of  his  Oxford  life. 

Supplemented  by  many  a  studious  vacation,  his  thir- 
teen laborious  terms  at  S.  John's  resulted  in  a  double-first 
class  in  the  Easter  term  of  1 8 1 1 .  Hawkins  was  the  fifth 
person,  (Sir  Robert  Peel  being  the  first,  and  John  Keble 
the  third,)  who,  since  the  establishing  of  the  Class-list 
in  1807,  had  achieved  that  honourable  distinction.  In 
the  next  year  he  became  Tutor  of  his  College;  and 


1813]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  383 

reckoned  among  his  pupils  the  late  President  Wynter  and 
H.  A.  Woodgate,  who  both  cherished  a  very  high  opinion 
of  his  powers.  At  Easter  1813  he  was  elected  to  a 
fellowship  at  Oriel, — '  in  staurol  as  the  ancient  chamber 
over  the  gateway  is  styled  in  the  Dean's  register.2 

Dr.  John  Eveleigh,  who  had  been  Provost  since  1781, 
was  already  entering  on  the  33rd  (which  was  to  be  the 
last)  year  of  his  headship  ; — Edward  Copleston,  John 
Davison,  Richard  Whately,  and  John  Keble,  being  among 
the  most  conspicuous  of  the  fellows.  Facile  princeps  how- 
ever at  the  time  of  which  we  speak  was  Eveleigh  himself, 
— a  name  still  remembered  with  veneration  in  Oxford. 
To  him,  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Parsons,  Master  of 
Balliol,  belongs  the  honour  of  having  originated  the 
reform  of  the  University  examinations  and  established 
the  '  Class-list.'  What  wonder  if  Oriel  rose  into  emi- 
nence under  the  guidance  of  such  a  spirit  ?  '  He  was 
Provost  when  I  was  elected  Fellow,'  wrote  Mr.  Keble  to 
me  in  1855.  'I  had  known  him  as  long  as  I  could 
remember  any  one.  He  was,  I  verily  believe,  a  man  to 
bring  down  a  blessing  upon  any  society  of  which  he  was 
a  member.'  Over  the  fire-place  in  Oriel  Cornmon-room 
hangs  his  portrait, — a  very  grand  work  by  Hoppner  :  the 
face  full  of  dignity  and  intelligence. 3 

Such  was  the  College  into  which  Hawkins  was  intro- 
duced on  his  election  to  a  Fellowship  at  Oriel.  To  the 
outside  world  names  like  the  foregoing  are  probably 
suggestive  of  none  but  the  gravest  images, — severe 
treatises  and  recondite  conversation.  But  Oxford  men 

2  Admission   to   a  fellowship   at  ever  been  in  Easter  week. 

Oriel,  down  to  1819  inclusive,  took  3  See   above,  concerning  Provost 

place  on  S.  Margaret's  day,  (aoth  Eveleigh,  in  the  memoir  of  Presi- 

July), — though    the   Election    has  dent  Routh,  p.  50. 


384  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1813 

will  not  require  telling  that  there  was  a  playful  side  to 
all  this.  To  say  the  truth,  we  have  never  busied  our- 
selves with  such  enquiries  as  the  present,  without  being 
almost  diverted  from  our  purpose  by  the  multitude  of 
grotesque  memories  which  we  have  unintentionally 
evoked.  Thus,  one  fails  to  recognize  '  Davison  on  Pro- 
phecy,'— (though  Hawkins  is  there  plainly  enough), — in 
the  following  story  of  those  early  clays  which  the  Provost 
related  long  after.4 — Davison  (rushing  in), — 'Hawkins, 
I'm  horribly  afraid  they're  going  to  make  me  junior 
Treasurer.  I  know  nothing  of  accounts.  I  shalfbe  sure 
to  make  mistakes.'  Some  hours  later, — '  Hawkins,  I  am 
a  ruined  man.  They  would  make  me  serve.' — '  Never 
fear.  Put  down  everything,  and  you  are  quite  safe.'— 
A  year  elapses :  re-enter  Davison.  '  I  told  you  so, 
Hawkins.  I'm  a  ruined  man.  My  accounts  are  wrong 
by  hundreds.' — 'Don't  be  alarmed.  Let  me  see  them.' 
The  quarter- book  is  brought  and  patiently  examined. 
'  Added  up  quite  right ' :  (Davison  turns  deadly  pale :) 
'  but  you  had  no  occasion  to  add  in  the  date  of  the  year?— 
— An  aged  member  of  Christ  Church  (long  since  departed) 
declared  to  the  present  writer  that  the  only  thing  he 
could  recall  of  the  Oriel  Common-room  of  that  period  was 
a  frolicsome  tournament  on  the  hearth-rug  between  two 
mounted  combatants  (known  to  the  public  for  encounters 
of  a  very  different  kind),  armed  with  the  hand-screens 
which  for  many  a  long  year  used  to  adorn  (?)  the  mantel- 
piece.— A  rustic  parson,  whom  Whately  more  suo  had 
been  for  a  long  time  enlightening  after  dinner,  before 
going  away  came  up  to  the  oracle  with  much  formality, — 
gathered  himself  to  his  full  height, — and  gravely  thanked 
him  '  for  the  pains  he  had  taken  to  instruct  him  throughout 
the  evening.'  '  O,  not  at  all'  (exclaimed  Whately).  'It's 

*  To  Canon  Eden, — of  whom  a  memoir  is  given  further  on. 


1813]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  385 

a  very  pleasant  thing  to  have  an  anvil  to  leal  out  one's 
thoughts  upon' — The  Provost  himself  told  a  friend 5  in 
1880,  that  'when  he  was  examined  for  his  Fellowship,  at 
Oriel,  the  examination  took  place  in  the  Ante-chapel ; 
and  the  weather  being  bitterly  cold,  two  of  the  candidates 
had  a  boxing-match  in  order  to  keep  themselves  warm.' 

"  It  was  Milman,  since  Dean  of  S.  Paul's," — (the  Pro- 
vost related  long  after,6) — "who  brought  me  tidings 
of  my  election.  When  he  entered  my  rooms,  he  found 
me  reading  a  book.  After  telling  his  news,  he  glanced 
on  the  book  in  my  hand,  and  burst  out, — '  But  I'll  tell 
you  what  it  is,  sir !  If  the  Provost  and  Fellows  had 
known  what  the  book  is  which  I  have  found  you  reading, 
they  would  never  have  elected  you  to  a  fellowship  at 
Oriel.'  The  book  I  was  reading," — (proceeded  Hawkins, 
his  features  assuming  a  look  of  the  quaintest  humour) — 
" was  Hume's  Essay  on  Miracles" 

It  requires  an  effort  to  realize  the  change  which  has 
passed  over  English  life, — manners,  dress,  habits, — since 
the  date  referred  to,  viz.  A.  D.  1813.  '  The  first  time  I  saw 
Whately,  he  wore  a  pea-green  coat,  white  waistcoat, 
stone-coloured  shorts,  flesh-coloured  silk  stockings.  His 
hair  was  powdered.'  Heber,  when  the  Provost  first  saw 
him,  *  was  dressed  in  a  parsley-and-butter  coat.'  Arnold, 
in  a  'light  blue  coat  with  metal  buttons,  and  a  buff 
waistcoat ' — (I  am  quoting  words  of  the  Provost  spoken 

6  The  Rev.  Robert  G.  Livingstone,  hoax.     In  the  ensuing  vacation  he 

who    also    supplies    the    following  discovered  his  mistake,  and  of  course 

anecdote  : — '  Another  poetical  con-  took    the    earliest    opportunity   of 

temporary  was  Reginald  Heber.    In  going  to  Heber's  rooms  and  frankly 

his  first  term  of  residence  the  Provost  explaining  why  he  had  not  sooner 

found   Heber's   card  on   his  table,  acknowledged  his  courtesy.' 

He  had  not  expected  a  visit,  and  6  To  Dr.  Bright,  Canon  of  Ch.  Ch. 
assumed  that  the  card  must  be  a 

VOL.  I.                                         C  C 


386 


EDWARD  HAWKINS: 


in  1857) — must  have  been  a  less  picturesque  object.  As 
late  as  1847  the  senior  fellow  of  Oriel  (the  Rev.  Edward 
Miles  Rudd),  used  to  appear  at  the  College  '  gaudy '  in 
black  shorts.  He  had  travelled  up  from  Northampton- 
shire in  a  fly — devoting  to  the  journey  two  days.7  Rudd 
however  was  an  exceptional  case,  for  he  was  senior 
Fellow  as  early  as  1819.  At  an  earlier  period,  (if  Archd. 
Berens'  contemporary  sketch  may  be  trusted),  he  was 
decorated  with  a  pig-tail. — Better  deserving  of  record  is 
the  fact,  that  the  fellows  of  Oriel  were  the  first  in  Oxford 
to  break  through  the  tyranny  of  fashion  by  abandoning 
the  immoderate  use  of  wine  which  prevailed  in  the 
upper  ranks  of  English  society  until  a  period  within  the 
memory  of  aged  persons  of  the  last  generation.  This  was 
the  first  Common-room  where  tea  was  drunk.  Dr.  Mac- 
bride,  the  venerable  Principal  of  Magdalen  Hall,  once 


7  '0  yes,'  writes  the  Eev.  H.  T. 
Ellacombe,  of  Clyst  St.  George, 
Devon,  (a  contemporary  of  the  Pro- 
vost), on  being  appealed  to  for  any 
reminiscences  of  the  Oriel  of  early 
days, — '  I  can  jot  down  de  vest-it  n  in 
1808-9.  When  I  was  matriculated 
and  went  into  residence,  all  the 
Tutors  and  Dons  wore  black  breeches 
and  silk  stockings  from  morning  to 
night :  the  undergraduates,  breeches 
and  white  stockings.  I  have  heard 
my  father  (who  was  at  Wadham) 
say,  that  when  Provost  Eveleigh 
came  to  matriculate  he  had  on  blue 
worsted  stockings'  [The  reader  is 
invited  to  refer  back  to  the  Memoir 
of  President  Routh,  p.  1 2].  '  Dinner 
was  at  4,  where  none  could  appear 
without  silks,  breeches  with  knee- 
buckles,  silver  or  gilt.  The  gentle- 
men commoners  wore  the  dress  gown 
at  dinner  and  in  chapel.  Gaiters 
were  not  allowed  with  gown.  Cloth 


boots  came  in.  We  called  them 
buskins.  One  day,  after  lecture, 
Copleston  asked  me  if  the  Proctors 
allowed  me  to  wear  gaiters  ?  When 
Rigaud  was  Proctor  [1810],  the  men 
tried  to  wear  trousers,  and  he  al- 
lowed them,  and  gave  great  offence 
to  the  Dons  for  the  lax  discipline. 
I  once  travelled  outside  from  Bath 
with  Tom  Kennaway,  in  shorts  and 
whites  without-any  leggings  or  boots. 
He  caught  cold,  sickened  and  died 
at  Balliol.  I  attended  his  funeral 
in  the  Churchyard  hard  by.  I  often 
boated  in  cap.  Beaver  was  seldom 
worn  within  a  mile  or  so  of  Oxford. 
Men  were  sconced  if  accidentally 
they  appeared  in  Hall  undressed. 
The  sconce-table  was  hung  up  in 
the  buttery.' . . .  Strange,  that  trivial 
matters  like  these  should  take  such 
a  fast  hold  of  the  memory,  while  so 
much  of  living  interest  has  been 
entirely  forgotten ! 


THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  387 

described  to  me  with  great  naivete  the  contempt  with 
which,  some  sixty-five  years  ago,  it  used  to  be  said, — 
'Why,  those  fellows  drink  tea!1  'The  Oriel  tea-pot' 
became  a  standing  joke  in  the  University. 

Much  to  be  regretted  is  it  that  the  practice  has  not 
been  adopted  in  Colleges  of  perpetuating,  in  connection 
with  each  set  of  rooms,  the  names  of  its  successive 
occupants.  Failing  this,  it  seems  strange  that  no  pains 
have  been  taken  to  preserve  a  record  of  the  rooms  which 
were  tenanted  by  men  who  afterwards  became  famous. 
4  The  only  room  in  which  I  ever  regularly  resided,'  (wrote 
the  author  of  '  The  Christian  Year'  in  1855,  in  reply  to  my 
inquiry,) — '  was  up  one  pair  of  stairs,  /  think  on  the  left, 
opposite  C.  C.  C.  gateway.  Davison  had  it  before  me,— 
Dornford  afterwards.  Is  it  not  Marriott's  now  ?  my  head 
is  confused  on  that  point.' — Sure  of  approval  I  have 
transcribed  the  entire  paragraph  before  stating  that,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  door  of  what  was  Mr.  Keble's 
sitting-room  (effectually  identified  by  the  gateway  oppo- 
site) is  on  the  right  of  one  who  has  ascended  one  pair 
of  stairs.8  Charles  Marriott,  from  1844  to  1 855,  occupied 
the  corresponding  rooms  on  the  next  staircase  (No.  3)  to- 
wards the  Chapel, — first  floor  to  the  right :  his  immediate 
predecessor  having  been  John  Henry  Newman.9  But 
any  one  who  can  recall  the  studious  aspect  of  the  apart- 
ments in  question  while  occupied  by  those  two  famous 
Divines, — ill-carpeted  and  indifferently  furnished,  as  well 
as  encumbered  with  book-shelves  in  every  part, — would 

8  It  in  on  the  left-hand  of  the  9  "  I  am  just  going  to  change  my 
staircase, — to  one  who  stands  in  rooms  in  College  and  take  New- 
Oriel  quadrangle  and  approaches  man's,  of  which  I  hope  the  atmo- 
the  foot  of  the  stairs.  Such  an  one,  sphere  may  do  me  some  good."— 
if  the  college  were  suddenly  removed,  (Charles  Marriott  to  Bp.  Selwyn,— 
would  find  himself  facing  the  gate-  '  Bradfield,  Sept.  5th,  1844.')  .  .  . 
way  of  C.  C.  C.  See  above,  p.  348. 

C  C  2 


388  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1813 

entirely  fail  to  recognize  them  in  their  present  guise. 
They  were  mercilessly  smartened  up  after  Marriott's  sad 
death. 

'You  succeeded  Newman  in  these  rooms,  I  know,' 
(remarked  the  present  writer  to  Charles  Marriott,  while 
watching  beside  his  sick-bed).  '  Didn't  I  once  hear  you 
say  that  Newman  succeeded  Whately  ? ' — *  Yes,  and  he 
told  me  that  when  he  took  these  rooms,  he  found  the 
last  of  Whately 's  herrings  still  hanging  on  the  string 
before  the  Chapel  window.'  To  render  this  story 
intelligible,  it  requires  to  be  explained  that,  (before  the 
Chapel  underwent  renovation  some  five -and -twenty 
years  ago),  a  partition  of  lath-and-plaster  separated  the 
bay  of  the  west  window  from  the  Ante-chapel, — making 
it  a  nondescript  appendage  to  the  set  of  rooms  of  which 
we  are  speaking ;  available  as  a  larder,  an  oratory,  or  a 
lumber-closet,  according  to  the  taste  of  the  occupant.  It 
was  a  '  fad '  of  the  future  Archbishop  to  pull  a  herring 
daily  from  the  string,  and  to  frizzle  it — sine  ulld  solennitaie 
—for  breakfast,  on  the  coals  of  his  fire.  His  ways  in 
truth  were  very  peculiar :  some  of  them,  rather  nasty. 

Dr.  Whately,  as  fellow,  had  also  lived  in  the  rooms 
opposite :  and,  as  an  undergraduate,  in  Robinson's 
buildings,  ground  floor  to  the  right.  Under  Newman's 
rooms  lectured  (not  lived)  Bp.  Hampden,  1831-3.  The 
same  rooms  in  1846  were  occupied  by  Dean  Church. 
Over  Newman  lived  Hurrell  Froude.  Oriel  men  will  re- 
member that  they  are  the  only  rooms  on  that  side  of  the 
college  with  a  window  looking  East.  Dr^Pusey's  rooms 
were  on  No.  i  staircase,  first  floor  to  the  right, — subse- 
quently Eraser's,  the  late  excellent  Bp.  of  Manchester. 
Samuel  Wilberforce  lived  in  the  rooms  immediately 
beneath, — the  corner  rooms  on  the  ground  floor.  Robert 
Isaac  Wilberforce  occupied  and  lectured  in  the  Dean's 


1815]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  389 

rooms  in  the  corner  of  the  further  quadrangle,  looking 
into  Magpie  Lane, — now  *  Grove  Street/  Copleston,  at 
the  time  of  his  election  to  the  headship,  lived  on  No.  5 
staircase,  first  floor  to  the  right.  Arnold,  during  the  six 
years  when  he  was  a  Fellow,  never  occupied  rooms  in  the 
college:  and  Hampden  left  Oriel  almost  immediately 
after  his  election  to  a  fellowship.  In  his  undergraduate 
days  he  had  occupied  the  rooms  over  John  Keble's.  It 
shall  only  be  added  that '  Hawkins  is  believed  to  have 
occupied  the  rooms  above  those  which  Pusey  subsequently 
occupied, — viz.  in  the  south-west  angle  of  the  college 
looking  towards  Canterbury  gate.  Pusey 's  rooms  were 
mine  from  184 7  to  1876.  I  followed  James  Fraser. 

Of  the  fifteen  years  during  which  Hawkins  was  fellow 
of  Oriel  (1813-28),  the  first  six  were  unencumbered  with 
the  responsibilities  of  college  tuition ;  and  he  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity  which  was  presented  to  him  of 
accompanying  to  the  continent  as  tutor,  James  William, 
Lord  Caulfeild,  only  son  of  the  Earl  of  Charlemont; 
making  one  of  the  family  party.1  All  that  is  remem- 
bered of  this  incident  has  been  set  down  by  the  same 
interesting  pen  2  which  has  already  supplied  us  with  more 
than  one  notice  of  the  Provost  of  Oriel's  early  life,— 
obtained  in  1880  from  the  Provost's  lips: — 

'During  the  interval  between  the  restoration  of  the 
Bourbons  and  the  return  of  Napoleon  from  Elba,  Mr. 
Hawkins  was  in  Paris :  where  he  saw  RafFaelle's  "  Trans- 
figuration" and  the  other  masterpieces  which  Napoleon 
had  plundered  from  the  picture  galleries  of  the  qontinent, 
hanging  on  the  walls  of  the  Louvre. 

1  The  Earl's  residence  was '  6  Rue  Dean  Gaisford's   marriage :    ('Hail 

Eoyale,  pres  la  place  Louis  XV ',' —  to  the  maid  who  so  graceful  advance?, 

as  appears  from  a  letter  addressed  'Tis  sweet  Ellen  Douglas  if  riyht  I 

to   'Edward   Hawkins,    esq.' — con-  divine,'  &c.) 
taining  the  well-known  verses  on  2  Kev.  R.  G.  Livingstone. 


390  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1815 

'  The  news  of  Napoleon's  escape  from  Elba  was,  (he 
said),  most  unwelcome  in  Paris.  The  Parisians  believed, 
not  unreasonably,  that  it  had  been  effected  with  the 
connivance  of  England.  They  argued  thus  : — Napoleon 
was  shut  up  in  an  Island.  The  English  were  masters  of 
the  Mediterranean,  their  ships  cruising  everywhere.  If 
Napoleon  escaped,  it  must  have  been  because  they 
allowed  him  to  do  so.  There  was  a  great  outburst 
of  popular  indignation  against  England  in  consequence, 
and  the  Provost  was  warned  not  to  venture  into  out-of- 
the-way  parts  of  Paris  by  himself,  lest  he  should  be 
exposed  to  insult, — perhaps  to  violence.  He  stayed 
in  Paris  as  long  as  he  possibly  could,  only  quitting 
the  city  on  the  morning  of  the  day  [2oth  March,  1815] 
on  the  evening  of  which  Napoleon  entered  it.  As 
he  hurried  to  the  sea  coast,  he  had  some  misgivings  that 
he  might  be  arrested,  and  treated  as  English  travellers  in 
France  had  been  treated  at  the  time  of  the  rupture  of  the 
Peace  of  Amiens.  But  the  general  opinion  was  that 
Bonaparte  would  not  repeat  in  18:15  the  policy  which, 
without  really  serving  his  interests,  had  made  him 
intensely  hated  in  1803.  Mr.  Hawkins  reached  England 
without  molestation.  He  at  once  went  down  to  Oxford. 

'  It  was  on  this  occasion  (I  think)  that  he  told  me  there 
was  with  him  in  the  stage-coach  between  London  and 
Oxford  only  one  other  passenger, — a  gentleman  endowed 
with  a  singular  charm  of  manner  and  great  powers  of 
conversation.  At  Nuneham,  (which  was  his  destination,) 
the  stranger  on  leaving  the  coach  said  to  his  companion, 
— "  I  hope  the  next  time  you  are  in  London,  you  will  call 
on  me." — "  Nothing,"  said  Mr.  Hawkins,  "  would  give  me 
greater  pleasure;  but — I  do  not  know  your  name." 
"  Oh ! "  said  his  fellow-traveller,  "  my  name  is  Wilber- 
force."— "  What!  are  you  the  Mr.  Wilberforce  1"— "  Well," 
(replied  the  other,)  "  I  suppose  I  must  say  I  am."  This 
was  the  Provost's  first  introduction.  He  called  on  his 
new  acquaintance  in  London,  and  from  that  time  till  his 
death  enjoyed  a  considerable  degree  of  intimacy  with 
him. 

*  He  told  me  that  the  object  of  Mr.  Wilberforce's  journey 


1815]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  391 

to  Nuneham  was  to  make  arrangements  for  placing  his 
sons  under  the  tuition  of  a  clergyman  there.  I  suspect 
that  it  was  the  conversation  between  London  and  Nune- 
ham, and  the  friendly  intercourse  which  ensued,  which 
eventually  determined  his  choice  of  a  college  at  Oxford 
for  three  of  his  sons.' 

In  the  year  1824,  Mr.  Wilberforce  strongly  urged 
Hawkins  to  undertake  one  of  the  two  newly-founded 
Bishoprics, — Jamaica  and  Barbadoes.  'I  had  however 
laid  out  for  myself  a  different  course  of  life,' — added  the 
Provost  in  recounting  this  incident,  long  after,  to  his 
friend,  Archdeacon  Grant.  The  sees  were  eventually 
accepted  by  Lipscombe  and  Coleridge. 

Returned  to  Oriel  (in  March  1815),  Hawkins  ad- 
dressed himself  seriously  to  the  study  of  Divinity.  This 
was  not  his  earliest  passion.  His  strong  desire  had  been 
to  become  a  lawyer.  In  truth,  his  mind  was  essentially 
legal  in  its  texture ;  and  had  he  made  Law  the  business 
of  his  life,  no  one  who  knew  him  will  doubt  that  he 
would  have  attained  the  highest  rewards  which  that 
profession  has  to  offer.  What  determined  him  to  take 
Holy  Orders  and  to  devote  himself  to  the  sacred  calling, 
was  his  supreme  anxiety  to  assist  his  Mother, — a  widow 
left  with  ten  children  and  a  slender  income.  In  other 
words,  he  regarded  it  as  a  paramount  duty  to  do  a 
Father's  part  by  his  six  younger  brothers :  and  he  knew 
that  the  career  which  awaited  him  in  Oxford  would 
second  his  inclinations  far  more  effectually  than  the 
problematical  rewards  of  the  Bar.  He  gave  himself  up 
to  sacred  studies  therefore.  And  thus  we  reach  a  period 
of  his  life,  concerning  which  some  interesting  notices 
have  been  preserved  in  the  Autobiography  of  the  most 
famous  of  his  contemporaries, — Dr.  Newman.  It  should 
be  explained  that  this  remarkable  man  was  elected  from 


392  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1824 

Trinity,  of  which  college  he  had  been  a  scholar,  to  a 
fellowship  at  Oriel  in  1822:  that  in  1823,  Hawkins 
became  Vicar  of  S.  Mary's  ;  and  that  in  the  next  ensuing 
year,  Newman  was  ordained  to  the  curacy  of  S.  Clement's. 
This  fixes  1824-5,  (when  their  ages  were  respectively 
35-6  arid  23-4,)  as  the  period  referred  to  in  the  ensuing 
recollections : — 

'From  1822  to  1825  I  saw  most  of  the  Provost  of 
Oriel,  Dr.  Hawkins,  at  that  time  Vicar  of  St.  Mary's ; 
and  when  I  took  Orders  in  1824,  and  had  a  curacy  in 
Oxford,  then,  during  the  Long  Vacations,  I  was  espe- 
cially thrown  into  his  company.  I  can  say  with  a  full 
heart  that  I  love  him,  and  have  never  ceased  to  love 
him ;  and  I  thus  preface  what  otherwise  might  sound 
rude,  that  in  the  course  of  the  many  years  in  which  we 
were  together  afterwards,  he  provoked  me  very  much 
from  time  to  time,  though  I  am  perfectly  certain  that  I 
have  provoked  him  a  great  deal  more.  Moreover,  in 
me  such  provocation  was  unbecoming,  both  because  he 
was  the  Head  of  my  College,  and  because,  in  the  first 
years  that  I  knew  him,  he  had  been  in  many  ways  of 
great  service  to  my  mind.' 

The  passage  which  follows  will  be  more  conveniently 
introduced  further  on  [p.  432].  After  which,  Dr.  New- 
man proceeds, — 

'He  was  the  means  of  great  additions  to  my  belief. 
He  gave  me  the  "  Treatise  on  Apostolical  Preaching,'"  by 
Sumner,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  from 
which  I  was  led  to  give  up  my  remaining  Calvinism, 
and  to  receive  the  doctrine  of  Baptismal  regeneration. 
In  many  other  ways  too  he  was  of  use  to  me,  on  subjects 
semi-religious  and  semi-scholastic.  It  was  he  too  who 
taught  me  to  anticipate  that,  before  many  years  were 
over,  there  would  be  an  attack  made  upon  the  Books 
and  the  Canon  of  Scripture.  I  was  brought  to  the  same 
belief  by  the  conversation  of  Mr.  Blanco  White,  who 
also  led  me  to  have  freer  views  on  the  subject  of  In- 


1824]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  393 

spiration  than  were  usual  in  the  Church  of  England  at 
the  time. 

'  There  is  one  other  principle  which  I  gained  from 
Dr.  Hawkins,  more  directly  bearing  upon  Catholicism 
than  any  that  I  have  mentioned ;  and  that  is  the  doc- 
trine of  "Tradition."  When  I  was  an  undergraduate, 
I  heard  him  preach  in  the  University  pulpit  [May  ^ist, 
1818]  his  celebrated  Sermon  on  the  subject,  and  recollect 
how  long  it  appeared  to  me,  though  he  was  at  that  time 
a  very  striking  preacher ;  but,  when  I  read  it  and  studied 
it  as  his  gift,  it  made  a  most  serious  impression  upon 
me.  He  does  not  go  one  step,  I  think,  beyond  the  high 
Anglican  doctrine,  nay  he  does  not  reach  it ;  but  he  does 
his  work  thoroughly,  and  his  view  was  in  him  original, 
and  his  subject  was  a  novel  one  at  the  time.  He  lays 
down  a  proposition,  self-evident  as  soon  as  stated,  to 
those  who  have  at  all  examined  the  structure  of  Scrip- 
|  ture,  viz.  that  the  sacred  Text  was  never  intended  to 
,  teach  doctrine,  but  only  to  prove  it:  and  that,  if  we 
''""would  learn  doctrine,  we  must  have  recourse  to  the 
formularies  of  the  Church ;  for  instance,  to  the  Catechism, 
and  to  the  Creeds.  He  considers  that,  after  learning 
from  them  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  the  inquirer 
must  verify  them  by  Scripture.  This  view,  most  true 
in  its  outline,  most  fruitful  in  its  consequences,  opened 
upon  me  a  large  field  of  thought.' 3 

There  is  no  need  to  enlarge  on  the  remarkable  Disser- 
tation thus  introduced  to  the  reader's  notice.  Yet, 
inasmuch  as  it  seems  to  be  little  read,  we  may  be  al- 
lowed to  declare  that  those  88  pages  deserve  the  atten- 
tion of  every  student  of  sacred  Science.  Such  an  one 
is  invited  to  suspend  his  judgment  till  he  reaches  the 
end.  He  may  then  perhaps  be  of  opinion  that  the 
Author  would  have  done  well  to  define  and  limit  the  pro- 
vince of  Tradition :  but  the  reader  will  assuredly  be  most 

3  '  History  of  my  Religious  Opin-  of  his  'Apologia,'  p.  8  to  p.  9.  The 
ions,' by  John  Henry  Newman,  8vo.  reader  will  be  reminded  of  p.  392 
1865,  pp.  379  :  being  a  new  edition  when  he  reaches  p.  465. 


394  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1825 

of  all  struck  by  the  explicit  statement  of  what  he  knew 
before  indeed,  but  had  never  before  seen  distinctly  for- 
mulated :  viz.  that  it  seems  to  have  been,  from  the  first, 

'  the  general  design  of  Heaven  that  by  oral  or  traditional 
instruction,  the  way  should  be  prepared  for  the  reception 
of  the  mysteries  of  Faith ;  that  the  Church  should  carry 
down  the  system,  but  the  Scriptures  should  furnish  all 
the  proofs  of  the  Christian  doctrines.' — (Page  18.) 

The  New  Testament  does  indeed  presuppose  through- 
out— (witness  the  preface  to  S.  Luke's  Gospel) — con- 
siderable knowledge  of  Christian  doctrine.  But  in  fact 
this  entire  province  of  enquiry  will  be  found  explained 
and  expanded  in  the  same  writer's  '  Bampton  Lectures ' 
for  1840, — which  have  for  their  object,  'An  inquiry  into 
the  connected  uses  of  the  principal  means  for  attaining 
Christian  Truth;'4  'the  connected  uses,  that  is  to  say, 
in  order  to  this  end,  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  Church ; 
of  human  Reason  and  of  illuminating  Grace.'  5  In  the 
meantime,  the  '  Dissertation  upon  tl/e  use  and  importance  of 
unautl tentative  Tradition,  as  an  introduction  to  the  Christian 
doctrines 'G  published  in  1819,  at  once  established  the 
reputation  of  the  writer  as  a  thoughtful  Divine.  He 
was  then  thirty  years  of  age. 

The  most  popular  of  his  writings, — an  elementary 
'  Manual  for  Christians]  which  was  probably  suggested  by 
the  requirements  of  his  parishioners,  now  appeared,  and 
went  through  at  least  seven  editions.  A  characteristic 
'  Letter  upon  compulsory  attendance  at  the  Communion^  pub- 

4  See  the  Preface,  pp.  vii.-viii. —  5  See  the  'Advertisement '  prefixed 

Quite    similar    is    the    purport    of  to  the  3rd  Edition  of  his  Sermon. 

'Christianity,  not  the  Religion  either  6  'Including  the  substance   of  a 

of  the  Bible  only,  or  of  ike  Church?  Sermon  preached  before  the  Univer- 

— a  sermon   preached   at  Maldon,  sity  of  Oxford,  May  31,  1828,  upon 

July  28,  1830,  at  the  Bp.  of  Lon-  2  Thess.  ii.  15.' 
don's  primary  Visitation. 


1825]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  395 

lished  anonymously  in  1822, — together  with  a  thoughtful 
Sermon  entitled  '  Systematic  Preaching  recommended}  de- 
livered at  S.  Mary's,  June  4th,  1825, — are  his  only  other 
original  productions  of  the  same  period.  But  in  1824, 
he  edited  Milton's  poetical  works  in  four  volumes, — an 
admirable  performance,  which  bears  in  every  page  tokens 
of  that  unfailing  conscientiousness  which  characterized 
whatever  he  took  in  hand.  His  editorial  notes  are  sub- 
scribed '  E.'  One,  of  peculiar  interest,  occurs  at  pp. 
xcix-ci,  in  which  he  gives  his  own  estimate  of  the  poet's 
opinions  and  character.  He  considered  Milton's  views 
Arian : — 

c  Dr.  Routh  remarked  to  me  one  day  ' — [these  words, 
dated  1848,  are  written  in  the  editor's  own  interleaved 
copy,  facing  page  c], — '  that  the  Arian  hypothesis  was 
better  suited  to  a  poem.  Milton,  however,  would  not  have 
admitted  anything  of  Arianism  even  into  a  poem,  had  it 
not  been  his  own  belief.  See  the  posthumous  work  "  De 
Doctrind  Christiana"  published  in  1825  [Cantab.  4to]  by 
the  present  Bishop  of  Winchester,  Dr.  Charles  Sumner.' 
[A  translation  was  issued  by  him  in  the  same  year  and 
place.] 

Next  in  importance  to  Hawkins's  '  Dissertation  on 
Tradition}  is  his  sermon  preached  before  the  University 
some  ten  years  later  (viz.  Nov.  n,  1838),  on  '  The  Duty 
of  Private  Judgment,' :  of  which  the  object,  (as  might  be 
divined  from  its  title),  is  not  to  vindicate  the  right — but 
to  explain  and  enforce  '  the  duty  of  Private  Judgment.' 
It  reached  a  third  edition  in  1854.  The  author  had 
intended  that  it  should  form  part  of  a  larger  work, — 
which  however  eventually  shared  the  fate  of  so  many 
other  similar  projects,  in  never  attaining  fulfilment. 
The  *  Bampton  Lectures  '  (already  referred  to)  were  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  large  systematic  Treatise  which 
prior  to  1854  he  had  cherished  the  hope  and  intention 


396  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1825 

of  some  day  giving  to  the  world.  .  .  Henceforth  I  shall 
content  myself  with  merely  enumerating  Dr.  Hawkins's 
published  writings.7 

The  period  of  his  incumbency  at  S.  Mary-the-Virgin's 
(1823-8)  was  rendered  memorable  to  the  University  by 
the  energy  and  skill  with  which  he  commenced  and 
brought  to  a  successful  termination  the  present  internal 
arrangement  of  the  University  church  :  happily  recon- 
ciling the  conflicting  claims  of  the  University  and  of  the 
parish,  and  securing  an  apportionment  of  the  seats  which 
has  proved  satisfactory  to  both  parties,  down  to  the 
present  time.  In  this  great  work  he  was  supremely 
fortunate  in  procuring  the  professional  services  of  a 
gentleman  named  Plowman, — a  native  and  resident  of 
Oxford. — who  (as  Sir  Gilbert  Scott  pointed  out  to  the 
present  writer)  was  far  in  advance  of  his  time  in  his 
knowledge  of  Gothic  architecture,  and  in  his  sense  of 
propriety  of  arrangement.  Those  were  very  early  days. 
Church  restoration  had  not  as  yet  been  thought  of.  But 
under  the  guidance  of  the  accomplished  architect  already 
mentioned,  the  work  proceeded  admirably.  The  chancel 
was  wisely  let  alone :  but  the  organ-loft  was  furnished 

7  In  1861,  appeared  his  Sermon  Family  Sermons,' put  forth  by  the 

on  '  The  Province  of  Private  Judg-  S.  P.  C.  K.  in  1833  and  following 

ment,  and  the  rigid  conduct  of  Reli-  years  :    viz.  '  Building  on  the  sure 

gious  inquiry' ',  and  another  in  1863,  Foundation*     (i.     155-168),      and 

on' The  liberty  of  Private  Judgment  'Church  Music'  (v.  149-164). — In 

within    the,   Church    of   England'  1838,  appeared  his  sermon  on  '  The 

These  had  been  preceded  (in  1831)  Duty    and    Means    of   promoting 

by  an  elementary  sermon  on  '  The  Christian   Knoivledge   without    im- 

Way  of  Salvation''   (pp.  36). — His  pairing  Christian  Unity.' — In  1839, 

'  Discourses  upon  some  of  the  prin-  he  pleaded  for  '  Church  Extension 

cipal  objects  and  uses  of  the  His-  in  England  and    Wales'    [In  the 

torical   Scriptures  of  the   0.  T.,'—  Notes  at  the  foot  of  pp.  394,  421  and 

J833  (pp.  193), — is   an  interesting  447,  will  be  found  enumerated  all 

volume.     He  also  contributed  two  his   other  known   publications   not 

sermons   to   a   series   of    '  Original  mentioned  in  the  Text.] 


1 8 26]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  397 

with  a  stone  front  towards  the  nave  ;  while  the  beautiful 
pillars  were  disencumbered  of  the  monuments  which 
until  then  encrusted  and  disfigured  them.  These  were 
transferred  to  the  walls  of  the  church.  In  March  1828, 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  resigning  to  his  celebrated 
successor  (Mr.  Newman)  a  renovated  church,  and  a  parish 
in  which  he  had  laboured  conscientiously  for  six  years. 
Full  forty  years  after  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking, 
'Rebecca'  (the  dear  old  sextoness  of  S.  Mary's)  might 
be  seen  invariably,  at  the  close  of  the  University  sermon, 
to  station  herself  near  the  more  easterly  of  the  two  doors 
on  the  south  side, — by  which  the  Provost  always  left  the 
church  ;  and  he  was  observed  never  to  fail  in  bestowing 
upon  her  a  bow  of  friendly  recognition.8  He  abounded 
in  such  acts  of  courtesy  and  consideration, — which  all 
appreciate,  but  especially  the  brother  or  sister  of  low 
degree. 

Previously  to  the  Provost's  incumbency,  there  seem  to 
have  been  no  fixed  seats  in  the  nave  of  S.  Mary's.  The 
Vice-chancellor's  chair  was  at  the  extremity  of  the  church, 
in  front  of  the  west  door,  and  therefore  faced  the  east. 
This  arrangement  had  prevailed  at  least  from  the  days 

8  '  Eebecca '  was  quite  an  institu-  Muster  Newman  with  his  ways  : — 

tion.     Her  memory  went  back   to  then  there  was  Muster  Eden  with 

the   prse-historic  period.     She   had  Ms  ways  : — then  there  was  Muster 

evidently   learned    to    regard    the  Marriott  with  Ms  ways : — then  there 

Vicars  of  S.  Mary's  in  the  light  of  was  Muster  Chase  with  his  ways : — 

an  interminable  procession  of  rather  and  now,  there's  you  with  yourn? — 

troublesome    individuals.       One   of  When    questioned   concerning   Dr. 

them,  (in  1863,)  was  so  rash  as  to  Newman,  she  invariably  wound  up 

address  her  as  follows  : — '  I  wish,  her  reply  with, — '  Yes,  it  was  hi* 

my  dear,  you  wouldn't  rattle  your  mother  as  gave  my  mother  her  six 

keys  quite  so  loud  when  you  unlock  silver  spoons.'    For  example, — 'Tell 

the  pew-doors.'     Eebecca  began  to  me,  Eebecca,  where  he  used  to  stand 

cry.  *  0  don't  cry,  Eebecca.'    'Imust  when  he  consecrated  the  elements.' 

cry':  then,  sobbing  and  soliloquizing,  '  He  used  to  stand  and  do  exactly 

— '  First  there  was  Muster  Hawkins  as  you  do ...  Yes,  it  was  his  mother,' 

with  his  ways  : — then    there   was  &c.  &c. 


398  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1827 

of  Charles  II,  for  Aubrey  speaks  of  the  '  Doctors'  men ' 
coming  in  at  the  end  of  sermon,  from  the  ale-house  hard 
by,  wiping  the  foam  from  their  beards.9  As  for  the 
parochial  services  of  S.  Mary's  in  1828,  they  were  the 
same  which  his  successor  maintained,  viz.  '  Two  services 
and  one  sermon  on  Sundays  and  Good  Friday :  one 
service  and  sermon  on  every  festival :  and  a  service 
(without  a  sermon)  daily  throughout  the  rest  of  Holy  week, 
and  on  Ash  Wednesday.'  The  Sunday  sermon  at  4  p.m. 
(which  afterwards  became  so  famous)  is  believed  to  have 
been  introduced  by  Hawkins. — He  was  now  also  White- 
hall preacher  (1827— 8), and  was  accounted  impressive  in  the 
pulpit  by  men  most  competent  to  pronounce  an  opinion. 
Let  it  further  be  noted  as  a  marvellous  token  of  his 
ability  and  shrewdness  in  estimating  character,  that  he 
should  at  this  period  (1827)  have  predicted  'that  if  Mr. 
Arnold  were  elected  to  the  head-mastership  of  Rugby,  he 
would  change  the  face  of  education  all  through  the  public 
schools  of  England.'  l 

With  the  year  1828  came  the  great  event  of  his  public 
life,  namely,  his  election  to  the  Provostship  of  Oriel. 
Dr.  Copleston,  who  had  presided  over  the  college  with 
singular  ability  and  success  since  the  death  of  Dr.  Eve- 
leigh  in  1814,  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Llandaff  towards 
the  close  of  1827  :  and  Hawkins,  in  February  1828,  was 
elected  to  succeed  him  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
society, — which  at  that  time  reckoned  among  its  fellows 
Keble  (elected  in  1811):  Henry  Jenkyns  (elected  in 
1818) :  Dornford,  Awdry,  and  Rickards(all  three  elected 
in  1819):  Jolf  (elected  in  1821):  Newman  (elected  in 

9  Aubrey's  Lire*, — Vol.  ii.  P.  ii.       tenement  which  faces  the  west  en- 
p.  421.     The  public-house  referred       trance  to  S.  Mary's, 
to  ('  the  City  Anns  ')  is  an  ancient  l  Stanley's  'Life  of  Arnold,' — 1.51. 


1827]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  399 

1822)  :  Pusey  (elected  in  1823) :  E.  I.  Wilberforce  and 
Hurrell  Froude  (both  elected  in  1826). — Davison  (who 
had  been  elected  in  1800),  and  Whately  (in  1811),  as  well 
as  Hampden  and  Arnold2  (both  elected  in  1815),  were  no 
longer  fellows. — Under  ordinary  circumstances  such  an 
incident  might  well  have  been  passed  over  with  the  mere 
recital  of  the  fact.  But  a  mistaken  opinion  prevails  so 
inveterately  concerning  the  Provost's  election,  that  it 
may  be  as  well  here  to  produce  a  few  interesting  letters 
which  establish  the  facts  of  the  case  beyond  the  risk  of 
misconception.  The  first  two  are  from  Mr.  Keble, — both 
written  at  the  close  of  1827  :— 

*  Coin  St.  Aldwin's,  near  Fairford.  December  9th,  1827. 

'  My  dear  good  Hawkins, — I  have  brought  over  this 
sheet  of  paper  to  my  Father's  little  parsonage  that  I 
might  write  on  it  to  you  between  the  Services,  and  thank 
you  for  the  pleasure  and  comfort  of  your  kind  little  letter 
this  morning.  It  would  be  too  bad  for  you  and  me,  who 
have  been  working  together  so  long  in  the  same  cause, 
to  begin  snarling  and  growling  at  this  time  of  day  and 
in  the  middle  of  Advent  for  an  affair  of  this  sort :  and  I 
never  was  much  afraid  of  it,  I  may  say  not  at  all :  but 
now  we  have  it  under  one  another's  hand  and  seal,  we 
are  bound  in  honour  to  behave  well.  And  I  am  in  great 
hopes  that  by  not  caring  too  much  for  things,  we  shall 
be  enabled  to  turn  what  might  have  been  unpleasant 
into  a  time  of  comfortable  recollection  as  long  as  we  live. 
You  and  I  agreed  to  remember  one  another  at  a  trying 
time  for  us  both,  a  little  more  than  a  twelvemonth  ago : 
if  you  please,  we  will  do  the  same  now. 

'  I  hope  I  am  not  putting  anyone  to  inconvenience  or 
annoyance  by  not  writing  as  yet  more  decidedly  on  the 
subject.  If  it  is  wished,  I  will  do  so  immediately;  but 

2  The  successive  holders  of  that  Arnold, — 1822,  J.  H.  Newman, — 

fellowship  stand  thus  in  the  Dean's  i846,J.W.Burgon.'  (Communicated 

register: — '1814   [sic,  but  it   is  a  by  C.  L.  Shadwell,  esq.,  fellow  of 

mistake:    it   should   be    1815],   T.  Oriel.) 


400  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1827 

if  not,  I  believe  I  ought  to  wait  about  two  or  three  posts 
more. 

'  Give  my  very  kind  regards  to  the  Provost  and  all  the 
fellows,  and  believe  me  ever,  my  dear  Hawkins,  your 
most  affectionate  enemy, 

<J.  K,  Jim.' 
'Fair-ford,  December  28th,  1827. 

'  My  dear  Hawkins, — Having  brought  all  into  a  sum, 
(as  George  Herbert  says,)  I  have  pretty  well  satisfied 
myself  that  greatly  as  the  college  would  be  benefited 
were  the  choice  of  the  majority,  in  this  important  matter, 
to  fall  on  me,  it  may  yet  do  very  well, — provided  you  are 
a  good  boy  and  do  your  very  very  best, — under  your 
auspices  :  and  such  being  the  case,  and  I  having  private 
and  family  reasons  of  my  own,  which  lead  me,  as  a  matter 
of  taste,  not  to  wish  for  the  office,  I  really  see  no  reason 
why  the  college  should  be  troubled  with  any  difference 
of  opinion  about  the  matter.  I  wrote  to  this  effect,  last 
night,  to  Froude,  and  shall  probably  write  to  Plumer  and 
Newman  to-day  :  and  I  feel  very  well  satisfied  with  my- 
self for  what  I  have  done:  so  please  not  to  make  any 
objection,  for  I  shan't  change.  At  the  same  time,  to 
prevent  misconception,  I  must  tell  you  that  I  don't  at  all 
do  this,  as  shrinking  from  the  Office  itself.  I  have  not 
at  all  a  Nolo  epucopari  feeling  towards  it ;  and  perhaps  I 
do  not  think  it  so  very  much  more  difficult  a  trust 
than  any  other  pastoral  employment, — nor  have  I  any 
other  reason  to  think,  from  what  experience  I  have  had, 
that  I  am  particularly  deficient  in  the  art  of  managing 
youths  of  that  age.  I  say  this,  because  I  don't  want  to 
have  it  imagined  that  I  am  eaten  up  with  a  kind  of 
morbid  mistrust  of  myself:  and  also  in  order  to  prepare 
you  for  a  little  amicable  discussion  as  to  the  principles 
of  University  discipline,  with  which  you  may  expect  to 
be  regaled  when  I  next  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you. 
Not  that  I  think  there  is  any  great  difference  between 
us :  I  am  sure  we  used  always,  I  thought,  to  agree  very 
well  on  those  as  well  as  on  most  other  matters,  and  so  I 
dare  say  we  always  shall. 

'  Good-bye,  my  dear  Hawkins.     Remember  me  to  all 


1 828]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  401 

the  Christmas  dirge-men  if  there  be  any,  and  believe  me 
ever  yours  most  affectionately, 

'  J.  KEBLE.  Jun.' 

Next  in  date  is  a  letter  from  Robert  Isaac  Wilberforce, 
written  from  his  Father's  house  : — 

*  Highwood  Hill,  January  3rd,  1828. 

'  My  dear  Hawkins, — Your  letter  to  me  was  so  kind, 
that  it  encourages  me  to  write  to  you  in  return  with 
openness.  It  would  be  very  presumptuous  in  me,  were 
I  not  forced  to  it,  to  undertake  to  pass  any  judgment 
between  such  persons  as  yourself  and  Keble.  But  having 
been  pressed  by  Newman  to  make  up  my  mind,  it  seems 
but  right  to  you,  after  the  very  kind  way  in  which  you 
have  treated  me,  that  I  should  tell  you  myself  that  it 
appears  to  me  upon  the  whole  that  I  ought  to  vote  for 
Keble.  I  cannot  however  say  this  without  expressing 
the  very  great  pleasure  it  will  give  me  (should  the  deci- 
sion be,  as  it  seems  it  will,  in  your  favour,)  to  see  vou  in 
a  situation  for  which  you  are  so  well  suited. 

'  I  have  received  a  letter,  as  you  are  aware,  from 
Keble,  which  had  it  come  sooner  would  perhaps  have 
prevented  my  coming  to  any  conclusion  on  a  point 
which  I  have  found  so  difficult ;  but  as  I  had  made  up 
my  mind  just  before  this  letter  arrived,  I  think  it  would 
hardly  have  been  honest  to  you  not  to  have  mentioned 
that  I  had  done  so.  As  I  understand  that  half  the 
number  of  Fellows  have  declared  their  intention  of 
voting  for  yourself,  I  suppose  there  is  little  doubt  what 
will  be  the  result  of  the  election,  but  at  the  same  time  it 
seems  to  me  but  right  to  wait  and  know  what  is  the 
opinion  of  those  who  agree  with  myself,  before  I  declare 
for  any  other  person  than  Keble. 

*  I  have  written  this  in  a  very  confused  and  awkward 
way,  both  because  I  feel  rather  at  a  loss  how  to  express 
myself  properly  in  regard  to  persons  whom  I  have  been 
so  long  used  to  look  up  to;  and  because  I  have  been 
hurrying  that  I  may  not  be  too  late  for  the  post  which  is 
just  departing. 

*  Allow  me  to  conclude  by  again  expressing  the  great 

VOL.  I.  D  d 


402  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1828 

pleasure  it  will  give  me  to  see  you  in  the  high  Office 
which  is  about  to  be  vacant ;  and  by  thanking  you  for 
the  kind  way  in  which  you  have  written  to  me.  Believe 
me,  ever  your  obliged  and  affectionate  friend, 

'  ROBERT  I.  WILBERFORCE.' 

Though  the  actual  election  to  the  Provostship  did  not 
take  place  till  February,  it  is  evident  from  a  letter  from 
Pusey  to  Hawkins,  (written  from  Berlin,  isth  January, 
1828,)  that  the  society  had  come  to  a  practical  decision 
on  the  subject  several  days  before  the  date  of  Pusey's 
letter.  A  single  extract  will  suffice  : — 

'  I  had  received  the  intelligence  which  your  letter  of 
this  morning  confirms,  some  little  time  ago  through  one 
from  Keble  to  Newman,  and  only  delayed  the  expression 
of  my  satisfaction  at  the  comfortable  mode  of  the  termi- 
nation of  the  election,  till  I  should  receive  an  official 
account.  .  .  .  The  whole  affair  (from  the  candour  and 
kindly  feeling  which  has  been  shown)  has  been  particu- 
larly satisfactory ;  and  we  have  each  our  particular 
sources  of  pleasures.  I,  in  seeing  an  anxious  wish  thus 
fulfilled  ;  and  you,  in  possessing  so  fully  the  confidence 
and  approbation  of  all  the  members  of  your  body ;  and 
without  making  invidious  parallels  with  the  late  Provost, 
(whom,  as  a  man,  every  one  must  respect,)  I  anticipate 
infinitely  more  both  for  our  College  and  the  University 
from  his  successor.' 

On  the  22nd  January,  Robert  Isaac  Wilberforce  again 
wrote  from  Highwood  : — 

'  The  whole  matter  may  now  be  considered  as  settled, 
and  I  can  truly  say  that  I  feel  the  greatest  pleasure  in 
being  able  to  congratulate  you  on  your  appointment  to 
an  Office,  in  which  I  can  only  wish  that  you  may  be  as 
useful  as  your  own  desires  would  lead  you  to  be :  and 
this  is  after  all  wishing  you  happiness  in  the  truest 
sense. 

'I  did  not  understand,  I  see,  what  you  said  about 
Awdry,  or  my  last  letter  would  have  been  rather  dif- 


1828]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  403 

ferent.  ...  I  wish  I  had  used  more  diligence  in  ascer- 
taining his  sentiments  and  Chur ton's,  but  the  latter  I 
tried  in  vain  to  find  ;  and  the  former  I  have  hardly  ever 
seen,  so  that  I  felt  shy  of  going  to  call  upon  him.  Had 
I  communicated  with  either  of  them,  I  should  of  course 
have  stated  my  intention  of  voting  for  you  unconditionally 
in  my  last  letter.' 

The  next,  from  Richard  Hurrell  Froude,  written  on  the 
following  day,  deserves  to  be  given  entire. 

'January  23rd,  1828. 

'  My  dear  Hawkins, — Though  I  don't  set  so  high  a 
value  on  the  emanations  of  my  pen  as  to  volunteer  a 
superfluous  communication,  yet,  from  what  Churton  said 
to  me  in  his  note,  I  fancy  I  ought  to  supply  an  e'AAetju/xa 
in  my  last  letter,  by  making  a  more  formal  declaration 
of  my  unconditional  and  uncompromising  determination 
to  rank  myself  among  your  retainers.  I  am  really  very 
sorry  that  my  stupid  delay  in  answering  your  letter 
should  have  caused  you  any  bother  (to  use  a  studiously 
elegant  expression,  than  which  I  cannot  hit  on  a  better) : 
and  this  is  the  more  provoking,  as  T  actually  had  written 
you  an  answer  the  first  day ;  but  as  I  said  something  at  the 
end  of  it  about  my  Brother,  which  afterwards  I  thought 
too  gloomy,  and  which,  I  believe,  was  suggested  by 
seeing  him  look  particularly  unwell  from  some  accident, 
I  thought  it  rather  too  hard  to  call  on  you  for  sympathy 
in  my  capricious  fancies. 

'  I  suppose  I  may  take  the  liberty  to  enclose  this  in  a 
cover  to  the  Bishop,  otherwise  I  should  hesitate  to  draw 
on  your  purse  as  well  as  your  time  for  such  a  scribble  as 
this.  However,  I  have  left  you  enough  clear  paper  at 
the  end  to  work  out  a  question  in  Algebra,  or  make  the 
skeleton  of  a  sermon.  And  as  this  is  probably  worth 
more  than  any  words  I  have  to  put  into  it,  I  shall 
conclude  by  begging  you  to  consider  me  yours  ever 
affectionately, 

'  RICHARD  H.  FROUDE.' 

Lastly,  John  Henry  Newman,  who  was  then  examining 
in  the  Schools, — (he  had  been  ill  and  was  much  depressed 

D  d  2 


404  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1828 

by  the  recent  death  of  a  loved  younger  sister3), — in  an 
undated  note  which  clearly  belongs  to  the  same  period, 
— thus  refers  to  the  Provost's  altered  position  in  the 
college,  where  however  he  was  still  lecturing  and  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  the  *  Dean ' : — 

'My  dear  Dean, — Round,  and  my  other  kind  col- 
leagues, will  not  let  me  go  into  the  Schools  to-morrow  or 
next  day.  Dr.  Kidd  has  advised  me  to  go  out  of  Oxford, 
and  Wilberforce  has  persuaded  me  to  go  home  with  him 
till  Friday  or  Saturday.  We  shall  start  at  J  past  12. 
Let  me  know  if  you  see  any  objection  to  this.  I  would 
call,  but  your  lectures  are  in  the  way.  I  hope  this  will 
be  the  last  week  for  ever  that  lectures  will  hinder  me 
calling  on  you.  I  wanted  to  talk  with  you  in  our  walk 
to-day  on  this  interesting  subject.  You  must  excuse  me. 
I  have  implied  above  the  substance  of  what  I  had  to  say. 
Yours  ever  affectionately, 

1  J.  H.  NEWMAN.' 

In  a  subsequent  letter,  Newman  expressed  his  satis- 
faction at  the  result  of  the  election  as  lest  for  the  College  ; 
though  he  could  not  have  voted  against  Keble.  Indeed, 
so  late  as  in  1877,  when  paying  his  brother-in-law  a  visit 
at  Plymtree, 

'  Among  many  other  interesting  things,  he  mentioned  his 
extreme  surprise  at  Pusey  having  stated,  in  a  sermon  (I 
think  he  said)  on  the  opening  of  Keble  college,  that  he 
(Newman)  came  to  regret  the  vote  and  influence  he  had 
used  in  the  election  of  the  Provost.'4 

The  actual  election  took  place  on  the  2nd  February, 
and  was  attended  by  the  usual  traditional  forms  of 

3  c  The  delay  of  the  election  will  brother  can  have,  he  has  most  richly 

afford  a  most  welcome   respite   to  —her  whole  life  having  been  a  pre- 

poor  Newman,  who,   (you  perhaps  paration  for  that  hour.' — (Pusey  to 

have    heard,)   lost,    last   Saturday  Hawkins, dated' Berlin, Jan.  1828.') 

after  only  24  hours'  cessation  of  ap-  4  Eev.  T.  Mozley  to  the  Provost, 

parently  strong  health,  his  youngest  3rd  July,  1878. 
sister.     Every  consolation,  which  a 


1828]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  405 

admission  to  the  Headship.      One  thing  that  happened 
was  informal : — 

'  You  must  have  heard  from  Mr.  Golightly,'  (writes  the 
friend  to  whom  we  are  already  indebted  for  not  a  few 
interesting  notices 5),  '  the  ludicrous  incident  connected 
with  the  event.  Part  of  the  ceremonial  of  installation  con- 
sisted in  solemnly  closing  the  college  gates.  The  newly 
elected  Provost  was  then  required  to  knock,  in  order  to 
be  formally  admitted  by  the  Dean,  and  received  by  the 
fellows  assembled  under  the  archway.  Dr.  (now  Car- 
dinal) Newman  was  at  that  time  Dean  of  the  college. 
The  gates  were  duly  closed,  and  the  fellows  stood  waiting 
for  the  expected  signal.  At  last  a  knock  was  heard,  and 
the  Dean  advancing  asked  "  Quis  adest?"  "Please  sir," 
(replied  a  tremulous  voice),  "  It's  me,  the  college  washer- 
woman." The  gate  was  opened,  and  between  the 
Fellows,  drawn  up  in  two  ranks,  passed  a  venerable 
matron  laden  with  baskets  of  clean  linen. 

'  Again  the  gate  was  shut,  and  again  there  was  a  false 
alarm.  At  last  three  sharp  incisive  taps  were  heard. 
"  I  knew,"  said  Mr.  Golightly,  "  before  a  word  was 
spoken,  that  now  there  was  no  mistake."  Again  the 
question  "  Q^as  adest  ? "  was  asked,  but  this  time  with 
the  response — "Edvardus  Hawkins  hujusce  collegii  Praeposi- 
tus." — I  have  heard  that  Cardinal  Newman,  being  asked 
within  the  last  twelve  months  about  this  little  episode, 
declared  that  he  had  no  recollection  of  it.  My  informant 
was  an  undergraduate  eye-witness  of  the  scene,  and  I 
can  hardly  believe  that  he  was  mistaken  in  his  recol- 
lections.' 

As  the  news  of  Hawkins's  election  to  the  headship  of 
Oriel  spread  through  the  provinces,  in  the  tardy  fashion 
of  those  days,  it  was  the  signal  for  a  shower  of  interest- 
ing letters  of  hearty  congratulation  from  distinguished 
men.  The  best  known  name  is  that  of  William  Wilber- 
force,  three  of  whose  sons  had  been  educated  at  Oriel. 
By  one  correspondent,  the  event  was  hailed  as  a  blessing 

5  Eev.  E.  G.  Livingstone. 


406  .EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1828 

to  the  Church  and  to  the  world.  All  alike  regarded  it 
as  fraught  with  advantage  to  the  college  and  to  the 
University.  Arnold's  letter  of  congratulation  (written 
from  Laleham,  Feb.  8th)  seems  to  reflect  the  history  of 
this  election,  with  entire  truthfulness  and  accuracy.  All 
eyes  had  been  directed  to  two  fellows  of  the  college, — 
Hawkins  and  Keble, — as  the  fittest  to  succeed  Copleston 
in  the  headship.  Both  were  general  favourites:  and 
with  the  election  of  either  the  entire  society  would 
evidently  have  been  fully  content.  The  majority,  under 
any  circumstances,  would  have  been  with  Hawkins: 
but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Kelile  declined  to  come  forward. 
'  Let  good  old  Hawkins  walk  over  the  course,' — was  the 
deliberate  decision  of  his  rival.  And  now  for  Dr.  Arnold's 
letter  :— 

'  I  am  by  no  means  certain  that  this  will  find  you  in 
Oxford ;  but  I  do  not  know  where  else  to  send  it,  and  I 
do  not  wish  to  delay  any  longer  my  most  hearty  con- 
gratulations on  your  election  to  the  Provostship. — I  will 
not  pretend  to  say  that  my  rejoicings  would  have  been 
equally  unmixed,  had  Keble  been  a  candidate  against 
you ;  but  as  he  is  better  pleased  to  continue  as  he  is,  I 
do  rejoice  most  sincerely  and  entirely,  both  for  your  sake 
and  that  of  the  college  ; — and  though  I  should  have  been 
no  less  glad  to  see  him  Provost,  yet  I  can  safely  say  that 
not  even  his  election,,  nor  that  of  any  other  man,  would 
have  given  me  more  pleasure  than  yours  has  done. — But 
my  pleasure  is  now  unmixed,  because  there  is  not 
the  disappointment  of  one  friend  to  set  against  the 
success  of  another.' 

After  all  that  goes  before,  it  is  pleasant  to  get  back  to 
the  charities  of  domestic  life,  and  to  encounter  such  a 
touch  of  nature  as  is  found  in  the  congratulatory  letter  of 
W.  D.  Conybeare:0— 

0  Dated  Cardiff,  Feb.  yth.  He  and  subsequently  became  Dean  of 
was  Bampton  Lecturer  in  1839,  Llandaff. 


1 8 28]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  407 

'  That  your  establishment  in  life  under  circumstances 
so  honourable  has  taken  place  while  you  had  yet  a 
Parent  alive  to  share,  and  more  than  share  in  the 
gratification  it  affords, — is  one  of  the  most  material 
additions  of  pure  happiness  which  such  success  can 
admit.  I  think  of  your  mutual  congratulations  not  with 
envy,  but  with  some  distant  hope  that  some  of  my  own 
boys  may  hereafter  have  a  similar  treat  in  store  for  their 
own  Mother.' 

In  the  Dean's  register  book,  and  in  Provost  Hawkins' 
handwriting,  (for  he  was  Dean  at  that  time,)  is  to  be  seen 
his  Address  to  the  Fellows  (Jan.  3oth,  1828)  after  reading 
to  them  their  late  Provost's  instrument  of  resignation, — 
as  eloquent  a  tribute  of  affection  and  dutiful  regard  as 
ever  was  penned.  Copleston — ('  Spell  it,'  he  used  to  say, 
'  with  the  fewest  letters  you  can ') — was  certainly  a 
very  remarkable  personage.  But  his  celebrity  was  local. 
He  made  his  reputation  at  Oxford,  where  he  was  con- 
fessedly supreme,  and  exercised  extraordinary  influence. 
When  he  went  forth  from  the  University,  it  was  'cum 
bonis  ominibus  votisque ; '  but  it  was  found  that  he  had  left 
his  great  reputation  behind  him.  He  made  no  figure 
either  in  his  diocese  or  in  the  senate, — nor  yet  in  the 
republic  of  letters. 

His  successor,  as  already  stated,  entered  on  the  duties 
of  office  on  the  2nd  of  February.  It  remains  to  add  that 
before  the  year  was  ended  (soth  December)  he  was 
united  to  the  object  of  his  early  attachment, — Miss  Mary 
Ann  Buckle.  They  were  married  at  Cheltenham,  by  the 
Rev.  F.  (afterwards  Dean)  Close.  And  thus  began  that 
long  course  of  domestic  felicity  which  was  only  interrupted 
by  his  own  death:  for  he  had  certainly  found  the 
gentlest,  most  devoted,  and  most  helpful  of  wives. — No 
producible  recollections  remain  of  that  early  period, 
except  a  general  impression  of  the  exceeding  brilliancy 


408  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1829 

of  the  conversation,  and  the  high  intellectual  character 
of  the  Fellows  of  the  College, — of  whom,  at  first,  Mrs. 
Hawkins  was  slightly  afraid.  There  was  indeed  an 
unattractive  stiffness  and  formality  in  the  highest  Aca- 
demic circles,  at  the  time  we  speak  of,  which  since  then 
has  all  but  disappeared.  To  return,  however,  to  what  is 
our  proper  subject. — A  passage  claims  insertion  here, 
which  was  written  with  reference  to  the  Provost's 
marriage.  Mr.  Wilberforce,  after  apologizing  for  being 
somewhat  tardy  with  his  congratulations,  wrote  con- 
cerning himself  as  follows : — 

"  It  is  really  true  that  not  long  before  I  entered  into 
the  state  of  wedlock,  I  had  almost  been  led  into  forming 
a  resolution  to  continue  through  life  a  single  man.  And 
even  when  I  was  enjoying  the  first  pleasures  of  the 
union,  I  could  not  so  well  appreciate  the  blessings  of  the 
state,  as  now  when  entered  into  my  7oth  year,  I  find  my 
infirmities  soothed  and  my  spirit  cheered  by  the  affec- 
tionate endearments  of  a  Wife  and  Children.' 7 

Since  George  Anthony  Denison,  who  succeeded  to  the 
Provost's  vacant  fellowship,  made  acquaintance  with 
Oriel  at  this  very  juncture,  it  was  obvious  to  challenge 
my  friend  for  some  reminiscences  of  the  place  and  the 
period.  There  is  a  freshness,  a  truthfulness  in  his  narra- 
tive which  quite  lays  hold  of  the  imagination : — 

"  I  came  from  Ch.  Ch. ;  from  a  life  as  distinct  in 
sundry  ways  from  the  life  of  Oriel  Common-room  as 
could  well  be.  The  grave  interests  which  were  stirring 
to  their  depths,  or  at  least  beginning  to  stir,  the  Oriel 
life  and  conversation,  were  not  present  to  me.  .  .  . 
Charles  Neate  and  I  soon  became  fast  friends.  We 
agreed  that  Common-room,  with  all  its  great  elements  of 
life,  was  an  inordinately  dull  place.  We  found  the 
reason  to  lie  in  this, — that  the  men  were  afraid  of  one 
another :  were  living  together  under  the  restraint  which 

7  Highwood  Hill,  5  Jan.  1829. 


1829]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  409 

attaches  naturally  to  a  sense  of  incipient — to  become 
pronounced — divergence.  And  we  set  ourselves  to  bring 
into  it  some  life  and  pleasantness ;  not  without  consider- 
able success. 

"  I  recall  the  sentence  pronounced  upon  it  some  few 
years  after  by  my  dear  old  friend  Charles  Drury,  himself 
an  Oriel  man  of  some  1 8  years  before  me.  '  Come  and 
dine  in  Hall '  (I  said)  '  and  we  will  go  to  Common-room.' 
— <  Well,  I  think  it  will  be  dull  from  all  I  hear,  but  let 
us  go.' — He  was  a  man  of  wonderful  humour  and  great 
conversational  power.  After  a  while,  I  saw  him  making 
faces  at  me:  which  I  understood,  and  moved  to  go. 
When  we  got  outside,  the  wrath  of  the  man  exploded. 
Soon  afterwards  I  sent  him  a  yearly  present  of  brawn. 
He  wrote, — '  My  dear  George, — When  I  had  unpacked 
the  brawn  and  set  it  on  end,  it  looked  much  pleasanter, 
and  tasted  a  great  deal  better,  and  was  every  way  more 
agreeable  than  the  Fellows  of  Oriel.'  But"  (proceeds 
my  friend)  "  look  at  the  men.  Now  and  then  Hawkins, 
Whately,  Keble,  Senior,  Arnold:  commonly,  Newman, 
R  Wilberforce,  H.  Froude,  Blanco  White.  I  have  not,  I 
see,  added  Dornford, — who  had  his  own  special  vitality, 
but  a  little  overdone  with  Aristotle,  and  military  recol- 
lections. The  sum  of  all  is,  that  it  was  very  dull. 
WThat  was  really  filling  minds  was  either  suppressed,  or 
touched  sometimes  not  very  pleasantly. 

"But  with  all  this,  I  can  recall  no  instance  of  unkindness : 
many  of  truest  kindliness.  And  here  I  like  to  repeat  to  you 
what  passed  between  Newman  and  myself  20  years  after 
....  He  wrote  back  most  kindly,  saying  that  he  would 
rather  have  the  kindliness  of  my  letter  than  what  I 
might  have  been  able  to  do  for  what  he  wished.  He 
then  went  on  to  say,  that  it  had  long  been  in  his  mind 
to  tell  me  that  he  was  afraid  that  not  unfrequently,  when 
we  were  together  in  Common-room,  he  had  been  harsh 
and  unkind  in  his  manner  towards  me,  and  that  he 
wished  now  to  take  the  opportunity  of  saying  it. 

"  I  was  greatly  moved  at  this,  and  wrote  to  say  that 
I  had  no  recollection  of  anything  like  what  he  referred 
to;  but  that  if  it  had  been  so,  it  was  probably  to  be 


410  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1829 

accounted  for  by  the  fact  that,  at  that  time,  he  was  more 
in  earnest  than  I  was. 

"As  I  end  writing  this,  I  remind  myself  that  it  is  to  be 
found  at  p.  68  of  'Notes  of  my  Life!  " 8 

Only  fair  to  the  men  of  that  day  is  it,  after  what  im- 
mediately precedes,  that  room  should  be  found  for  the 
impressions  of  another  impartial  and  competent  observer, 
writing  confidentially  to  a  friend  at  the  same  period. 
William  Jacobson,  at  the  age  of  six-and-twenty, — (he 
was  not  yet  fellow  of  Exeter,) — relates  as  follows: — 

"I  spent  three  days  at  Oxford  on  my  way  back  to 
this  greenest  of  islands.  My  friend  Neate  insisted  on 
my  quartering  myself  upon  him  at  Oriel,  and  assuredly 
I  had  no  sort  of  reason  to  quarrel  with  the  peremptori- 
ness  of  his  hospitality.  The  high-table  and  common- 
room  of  that  College  are,  I  should  imagine,  as  good 
specimens  of  their  genera  as  one  could  easily  find.  With 
regard  to  the  Chapel,  I  certainly  had  no  idea  that  any 
thing  like  it  existed  at  either  University.  The  decorum, 
the  full  attendance,  the  uniformity  of  response,  were  all 
delightful.  It  seems  to  be  the  rule  that  whatever  fellows 
are  seen  at  dinner  should  show  themselves  also  at  Chapel. 
This  cannot  but  have  the  happiest  possible  effect  on  the 
whole  system.  How  differently  must  the  daily  Service 
be  regarded  in  such  a  case,  from  the  way  in  which  it  is 
viewed  in  the  many  colleges  where  for  the  seniors  to  go 
to  Chapel  is  the  exception, — to  stay  away,  the  rule ! 
Neate's  mind  certainly  is  wonderfully  improved  since 
his  election."9 

To  the  Provostship  of  Oriel,  (which  is  an  ecclesiastical 
office),  Queen  Anne  annexed  a  Canonry  at  Rochester  in 
1714.  This  entailed  the  necessity  of  a  three  months' 
residence  in  the  Cathedral  precincts, — which  proved  as 
beneficial  to  the  Cathedral  body  as  refreshing  to  Hawkins 

b  Eaxt  Brent,— Aug.  4th,  1883.          (See    the    Index    to     the    present 
9  Dublin,— March  5th,  1829.    To       volume  for  the  name  of  that  gentle- 
George    Syclenham    Eursdon,    esq.       man.) 


1830]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  411 

himself.  His  habits  of  business  and  his  appetite  for 
work,  joined  to  his  lofty  integrity  and  soundness  of 
judgment,  made  him  an  invaluable  member  of  the  Chap- 
ter. When  he  had  seen  about  80  years  of  life,  he 
remarked  (to  the  Principal  of  S.  Mary  Hall)  that  'in 
consequence  of  the  age  and  infirmity  of  some  of  his  colleagues' 
he  was  obliged  to  bestow  increased  attention  on  Cathe- 
dral business. 

The  Provostship  of  Oriel  was  further  endowed  with 
the  Rectory  of  Purleigh  in  Essex, — where  of  course  per- 
sonal residence  was  impracticable :  and,  (let  it  be  re- 
corded to  the  Provost's  honour,)  no  one  more  than  himself 
desired  the  separation  of  that  living  from  the  headship. 
In  the  meantime  his  practice  was  to  place  at  Purleigh  a 
trustworthy  locum  tenens  with  an  ample  stipend,  and  to 
hold  himself  individually  responsible  for  all  parochial 
charities  and  benefactions.  Quite  in  keeping  with  his 
large-hearted  liberality  was  it,  that  when  his  first  Curate 
became  disabled  through  paralysis,  the  Rector  continued 
to  him  his  stipend  until  his  death. — On  the  other  hand, 
to  prevent  the  severance  of  the  Canonry  at  Rochester 
from  the  Headship,  was  the  object  of  the  Provost's 
supreme  anxiety  to  the  latest  moment  of  his  life.  As 
the  years  rolled  out,  and  'liberal'  opinions  developed 
themselves  in  the  society,  it  became,  on  the  contrary,  the 
chief  aim  of  the  majority  of  the  fellows  to  achieve  the 
severance  of  the  Canonry,  with  a  view  to  secularizing 
the  headship  of  the  College1, — to  which  the  Canonry 
was  supposed  to  be  the  immediate  obstacle.  The  Provost, 

1  By  ineffectual  application  to  the  propriated  by  the  representative  of 

House  of  Lords  in  1 869  : — to  the  the  Founder  and  by  Parliament  to 

Prime  Minister  and  to  the  Lord  the  Head  of  the  Society  should  be 

Chancellor,  in  1871 — and   1875. —  taken  as  a  contribution  (to  Univer- 

But  in  1879,  the  College  made  '  the  sity  purposes}  of  the  College  itself 

singular  suggestion,  that  funds  ap-  from  its  own  revenues.' 


4i2  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1840 

on  the  other  hand,  maintained  that  there  are  duties  at- 
taching to  the  Headship  of  a  College  as  '  a  place  of  Re- 
ligion, Learning,  and  Education '  which  a  layman  is 
incapable  of  discharging.  This,  which  may  be  called  the 
Pastoral  aspect  of  his  Office  in  regard  to  the  young  com- 
mitted in  some  measure  to  his  care,  he  never  lost  sight 
of,  but  was  thoroughly  conscientious  in  its  discharge. 

Thus,  it  was  his  practice  to  send  for  every  freshman, 
and  to  question  him  as  to  his  religious  knowledge,  before 
admitting  him  to  Holy  Communion.  A  former  scholar 
of  Oriel2  relates, — 

'  He  asked  me  whether  I  had  been  confirmed  ?  who 
had  prepared  me  for  Confirmation  ?  and  if  I  knew  what 
work  was  the  basis  of  the  lectures  on  Confirmation 
which  I  had  attended?  I  happened  to  be  aware  that 
Seeker's  Lectures  were  largely  used  by  the  head  Master 
of  Rossall,  and  I  had  subsequently  read  them  myself. 
"  Didn't  you  think  it  a  very  dry  book  ?  " — to  which  I 
readily  replied  in  the  affirmative.  He  further  questioned 
me  in  order  to  ascertain  if  I  understood  the  nature  of  the 
Ordinance  and  the  obligations  therewith  connected.  This 
was  his  invariable  practice  with  freshmen.' 

The  Provost's  care  and  consideration  for  the  younger 
members  of  his  college  were  remarkable.  So  was  his 
discernment.  An  incident  is  remembered  in  connection 
with  one  who  has  since  achieved  for  himself  a  great 
reputation. — One  of  the  Tutors  (Clement  Greswell)  was 
unduly  severe  towards  a  certain  undergraduate  at  '  Col- 
lections '  (as  the  examination  at  the  end  of  Term  is 
called) ;  which  the  Provost  perceiving,  came  to  the 
youth's  rescue.  Having  conducted  him  patiently  over 
his  books,  he  ended  by  complimenting  him  on  his  work  ; 
adding  that  he  possessed  excellent  abilities,  and  might, 
if  he  cultivated  them,  command  success  and  future  dis- 

2  Rev.  R.  G.  Livingstone. 


1860]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  413 

tinction.  The  youth  so  encouraged  was  the  present 
Viscount  Cranbrook, — whom  Mr.  Disraeli  privately  spoke 
of  as  his  *  right-hand  man.'  It  should  be  recorded,  to 
Clement  Greswell's  honour,  that  this  incident  did  not  in 
the  least  affect  his  subsequent  friendly  bearing  towards 
his  pupil.  I  suspect  by  the  way,  (and  I  speak  as  one 
who  lived  on  a  college  staircase  for  thirty  years,)  that 
the  elder  members  of  such  a  society  little  know  the 
impression  made  for  good  (or  for  evil)  on  the  juniors,  by 
their  casual  utterances. 

In  connection  with  this  part  of  the  subject,  (the 
friendly  relation,  namely,  which  the  Provost  maintained 
with  the  undergraduate  members  of  his  College),  his 
punctual  hospitality  deserves  special  mention.  '  Given  to 
hospitality '  as  he  conspicuously  was,  they  came  in  for 
their  full  share, — as  many  of  them  will  remember  'and 
gratefully  attest.  .  .  Often  have  I  in  Vacation  time, — 
(when  the  cook,  suppose,  had  begged  for  a  holiday,  and 
there  was  not  so  much  as  a  'remainder  bisket'  left  in 
the  cupboard,) — availed  myself  of  the  known  proclivity  of 
my  Chief. — Once,  at  mid-day,  Nature  asserted  herself  so 
imperiously,  that, — (exclaiming  '  I  really  must  run  over 
to  the  Provost's  for  something  to  eat,') — I  presented  my- 
self at  the  Provost's  luncheon-table.  I  was  received 
with  undisguised  pleasure, — not  unmingled  with  merri- 
ment when  it  had  been  explained  that  (to  speak  plainly) 
nothing  else  but  a  pang  of  hunger  had  brought  me. 
While  crossing  '  quad,'  I  had  secretly  resolved  to  repay 
the  anticipated  hospitality  by  making  myself  as  pleasant 
as  I  could:  so  I  began  to  tell  the  Provost  the  drollest 
stories  I  could  think  of.  The  Provost  laughed  till  he 
fairly  cried,  and  finally  (to  his  guest's  infinite  satis- 
faction) took  off  his  spectacles  in  order  to  wipe  them. 


414  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1860 

Vain  satisfaction !  short-lived  boast !  The  Provost 
availed  himself  of  the  interval  (so  like  the  dear  man !) 
to  give  me  a  lecture.  '  I  declare,  Burgon,  you  are  most 
agreeable  and  entertaining.  Now,  who  would  believe 
that  you  could  be  so  severe  with  your  pen  ?  Why,  when 
you  are  writing  controversially,' — Heaven  knows  what 
wholesome  but  unpalatable  truths  were  going  to  follow. 
Providentially  the  recollection  of  the  last  story  at  this 
instant  recurred,  and  again  the  Provost  began  to  laugh. 
What  need  to  say  that  his  guest  availed  himself  of  the 
golden  opportunity  to  make  his  bow  to  Mrs.  Hawkins 
and  to  effect  a  speedy  retreat  ? 

It  was  characteristic  of  the  Provost  that, — strict,  even 
severe  as  he  was  in  respect  of  minor  irregularities  on 
the  part  of  the  undergraduates, — whenever  a  case  of 
real  misconduct  came  before  a  College  meeting,  it  was 
generally  he  who  interposed  between  the  offender  and  the 
extreme  sentence  of  collegiate  law ;  counselling  the  less 
severe  course,  out  of  consideration  for  '  the  young  man's 
prospects.'  Woe  to  the  '  young  man '  however  if  he 
made  his  appearance  at  '  Collections  '  smelling  of  tobacco ! 
The  Provost  had  a  great  abhorrence  of  it ;  and  would 
inveigh  against  its  use,  referring  to  the  cigar  as  a  '  nasty 
weed,' — much  to  the  amusement  of  offending  under- 
graduates. .  .  .  One  summer's  evening,  it  became  plain 
to  him  that  the  obnoxious  smell  was  gradually  infecting 
every  part  of  his  '  lodgings.'  The/cws  et  origo  mail  he 
could  not  divine.  Could  it  be  some  practical  joke  of  the 
undergraduates  ?  The  odour  seemed  to  come  from  above. 
Upstairs  accordingly  he  went :  and  at  last  discovered  his 
guest,  Abp.  Whately,  quietly  enjoying  a  cigar  on  the 
leads. 

Another  characteristic  story  comes  to  mind  and  claims 


1830]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  415 

insertion. — The  Provost  from  his  library  window,  (it 
looked  out  on  the  back  quadrangle),  espied  on  a  certain 
Monday  morning  two  undergraduates  chasing  one 
another  (more  juniorum)  over  the  grass.  The  sermon  in 
the  college  chapel  overnight  had  been  preached  by 
1  Charlie  Daman,'-  its  subject,  *  The  childlike  spirit'  The 
Provost  sent  for  the  offenders,  and  addressed  them  some- 
what as  follows  : — {  Mr.  Evans  and  Mr.  Cruickshank,  I 
believe  you  both  heard  Mr.  Daman's  sermon  yesterday 
evening.'  The  men  bowed.  'I  suspect  you  misunder- 
stood its  drift.  It  was  the  'childlike' — not  the  childish — 
disposition  which  the  preacher  recommended.  Good 
morning ! ' 

The  same  conscientious  solicitude  for  the  under- 
graduates of  his  college  it  was,  which  made  him  at  the 
very  outset  of  his  career  as  Provost,  oppose  the  desire 
of  the  Tutors, — (Newman,  Wilberforce,  Froude.) — to  re- 
model the  lectures,  introduce  new  books,  and  establish 
far  closer  relations  between  themselves  and  their  pupils. 
The  result  of  the  Provost's  refusal  to  sanction  these 
innovations,  was  Newman's  retirement  from  the  tutor- 
ship in  1831.  It  is  needless  to  linger  over  a  contro- 
versy which  has  long  since  lost  its  interest,  and  is  only 
traditionally  remembered.  Something  infinitely  more 
important  awaits  us. 

The  period  at  which  Edward  Hawkins  became  Provost 
of  Oriel  will  be  for  ever  memorable  in  the  annals  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Men  of  the  present  generation  are 
little  apt  to  realize  what  was  then  the  posture  of  affairs. 
The  Church's  prospects  seemed  desperate.  I  have 
already,  in  an  earlier  part  of  the  present  volume,  endea- 
voured to  set  forth  the  disastrous  facts  of  the  case  in 
outline.  It  must  suffice  on  the  present  occasion  to 


4i 6  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1833 

remind  the  reader  of  what  was  offered  concerning  the  state 
of  public  affairs  [1827-33]  from  page  150  to  page  160. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  under  the  pretext  of  '  Reform, 
the  country  seemed  to  be  on  the  brink  of  a  Revolution, 
. — in  which,  together  with  the  social  and  political  fabric 
which  had  been  the  growth  of  ages,  the  Church  itself  as 
a  visible  Institution  was  to  all  appearance  destined  to 
be  swept  away.  The  Bishops  were  recommended  to  'set 
their  house  in  order.' — How  churchmen  woke  up  to  a 
sense  of  the  impending  danger  and  bestirred  themselves 
at  this  juncture, — as  well  as  with  what  success, — has 
been  already  set  forth  somewhat  in  detail.  The  climax 
was  reached  when  a  Bill  for  the  extinction  of  ten 
Bishoprics  and  two  Archbishoprics  in  Ireland  was  intro- 
duced in  the  beginning  of  1833.  The  immediate  result 
was  the  Oxford  Movement.  An  appeal  which  was  made 
to  members  of  the  Church  met  with  a  noble  response. 
A  clerical  Address  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
signed  by  8000  of  the  Clergy.  A  lay  declaration  of 
attachment  to  the  Church  was  signed  by  upwards  of 
230,000  heads  of  families.  "  From  these  two  events  we 
may  date  the  commencement  of  the  turn  of  the  tide 
which  had  threatened  to  overthrow  our  Church  and  our 
Religion."3  The  Church  found  herself  the  object  of 
warm  popular  affection.  Immediately  after  appeared 
the  < Tracts  for  the  Times: 

The  one  strong  hand,  which  at  that  juncture  was  com- 
petent to  steer  the  good  ship  safely  through  the  storm 
which  still  lay  heavily  upon  her,  was  unfortunately  away. 
Calamitous  to  relate,  the  current  of  religious  enthusiasm 
became  early  diverted  into  an  unhealthy  channel,  and 
assumed  a  party  character.  All  this  matter  however 
has  been  explained  so  fully  in  an  earlier  page,  that  I 

3  Perceval's  '  Collection  of  Papers,'  &c.  (1842), — p.  12. 


1841]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  417 

will  not  reproduce  the  dreary  details  here.4  How  the 
Tracts  pursued  their  brilliant  career  until  the  year  1841, — 
when,  at  the  instance  of  the  Diocesan,  they  were  abruptly 
discontinued, — is  familiarly  known  to  all.  But  no  one 
personally  unacquainted  with  Oxford  at  that  period,  can 
have  any  idea  of  the  amount  of  feverish  partizanship 
which  attended  the  later '  Tractarian '  movement,  or  of  the 
extent  to  which  suspicion  and  distrust  marred  endea- 
vours, well  meant  but  certainly  injudicious,  which  ought 
to  have  been  productive  of  unmingled  good.  The  Tracts 
became  tinged  with  a  foreign  element.  They  lacked 
the  genuine  Anglican  flavour.  Some  who  had  been 
foremost  in  promoting  the  Revival  were  in  consequence 
held  responsible  for  views  which  they  would  have 
sternly  repudiated.  Thus,  discredit  was  brought  on  the 
good  cause.  Its  best  friends  were  offended.  They  insisted 
that  the  authors  of  the  Tracts  were  removing  the  old 
landmarks, — were  building  on  insecure  foundations.  At 
a  much  earlier  period,  the  keen  eye  and  powerful  intel- 
lect of  Hugh  James  Rose  had  foretold  that  '  the  next 
great  conflict  of  the  Church  of  England  would  be  with 
Romanism:  Personal  friendship  however,  and  regard  for 
great  principles  held  in  common,  kept  men  silent.  In  the 
meantime  Mr.  Newman  met  the  taunts  of  those  who 
charged  him  with  '  Romanizing '  by  employing  fiercer 
language  concerning  Rome  than  had  ever  been  heard 
before.  He  denounced  her  as  '  a  lost  Church  ' :  *  a  Church 
beside  herself ' :  'heretical,' '  profane,' '  unscriptural,' '  im- 
pious,' *  blasphemous,'  '  monstrous,' ' cruel' :  'resembling  a 
demoniac,'  and  requiring  to  be  treated  '  as  if  she  were  that 
Evil  One  which  governs  her!5  His  words  were  received  by 

*  See  above,  pp.  205-25  :  242-3  :      Office  of  the  Church,  viewed  rela- 
274-5,  &c.  &c.  tively   to  Romanism  and  popular 

5  'Lectures  on  the  Prophetical      Protestantism,'— 1838,  pp.  102-3. 

VOL.  I.  E  6 


418  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1841 

his  friends  as  trustfully  as  they  had  been  by  himself 
sincerely  spoken. 

But  the  appearance  (Jan.  25,  1841)  of  Tract  No.  90, 
('  Eemarks  on  certain  passages  in  the  39  Articles']  brought 
matters  to  a  crisis.  It  put  a  non-natural  sense  on  the 
Articles  ;  rather,  it  explained  them  away.  The  Heads 
of  Houses,  (at  that  time  the  governing  body  of  the  Uni- 
versity,) proposed  a  sentence  of  condemnation ;  and 
entrusted  the  Provost  of  Oriel  with  the  responsibility 
of  formulating  the  document.  It  was  publicly  declared 
(March  15,  1841),  that  'modes  of  Interpretation,  such  as 
are  suggested  in  the  said  Tract,  evading  rather  than 
explaining  the  sense  of  the  39  Articles,  and  reconciling 
Subscription  to  them  with  the  adoption  of  errors  which 
they  were  designed  to  counteract,  defeat  the  object  and 
are  inconsistent  with  the  due  observance  of  the  Statutes.' 
A  war  of  pamphlets  followed.  But,  the  Tracts  having 
been  stopped  by  authority,  the  prosecuting  parties  might 
well  have  rested  satisfied  with  their  advantage.  New- 
man was  still  Vicar  of  S.  Mary's,  and  his  affecting  and 
beautiful  sermons  (at  the  4  p.m.  service)  exercised  a 
wondrous  influence  for  good  over  the  younger  men  of 
the  period.  All  refused  to  believe  that  one  who  had 
denounced  Romanism  a  few  years  before  in  such  tremen- 
dous language,  could  ever  unsay  every  word  of  it: 
forsake  the  Anglican  communion,  and  walk  over  to  the 
opposite  camp. 

When,  however,  Mr.  Ward  of  Balliol  openly  avowed 
his  joy  and  wonder  at  finding  all  the  Roman  doctrines 
pervading  the  whole  body  of  English  Churchmen ;  and 
asserted  that,  for  his  own  part,  in  signing  the  Articles  he 
had  renounced  no  one  Romish  doctrine :  especially  when  it 


1845]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  419 

became  apparent  that  such  monstrous  unfaithfulness  was 
spreading,  and  infecting  the  younger  members  of  the 
University ; — the  Heads  became  alarmed.  Four  years 
had  elapsed  when,  at  the  instance  of  470  Oxford  gradu- 
ates, they  consented  to  invite  Convocation  to  ratify  their 
own  condemnatory  'Declaration '  of  1 841 .  Even  then  how- 
ever faith  in  the  sincerity  of  Mr.  Newman's  professions 
remained  unshaken.  Thus,  on  reading  an  announcement 
in  the  paper  (Feb.  6,  1845)  that,  on  that  day  week, 
'  members  of  Convocation  will  be  called  upon  to  condemn 
the  mode  of  interpretation  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
suggested  in  the  9oth  "Tract  for  the  Times"  as  evading 
rather  than  explaining  their  sense,  and  reconciling  sub- 
scription to  them  with  the  adoption  of  Konian  Catholic 
errors,' — Mr.  Gladstone  wrote  to  the  Provost  of  Oriel 
pleading  for  time : — 

'  I  freely  avow  my  hope  that,  if  the  University  enters 
upon  the  consideration  of  a  particular  and  limited  portion 
of  his  works,  they  will  not  exclude  from  view  the  great 
mass  of  his  teaching.  I  cannot  forget  what  the  standard 
of  life  was  in  Oxford  at  the  time  when  I  was  myself  a 
resident,  nor  conceal  from  myself  that  he,  by  his  Paro- 
chial Sermons  and  otherwise,  has  had  no  small  share  in 
its  elevation  to  what  it  is  now  believed  to  be.  I  ask  to 
be  allowed  to  think,  by  myself  and  with  others,  what 
acknowledgment  may  be  due  to  him  for  his  great  work  on 
Romanism,  when  I  am  called  to  guard  against  the  conse- 
quences of  other  works  supposed  to  be  in  its  favour. 

The  Provost  (Feb.  8th)  replied  : 

'  You  consider  that  we  ought  to  weigh  Mr.  Newman's 
other  publications,  and  even  to  compare  the  good  and  ill 
effects  of  his  teaching.  Were  this  so,  certainly  I  could 
never  vote  upon  such  a  question  at  all.  I  could  not 
even  enumerate  his  works,  and  I  have  not  actual  know- 
ledge of  the  fact  as  to  several  of  them  which  are  anony- 
mous. But  no  human  being  can  possibly  estimate  the 

E  e  2 


42O  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1845 

comparative  good  and  evil  consequences  of  his  writing 
and  teaching,  &c.  ;  although  we  ought  to  be  desirous 
and  ready  to  acknowledge  the  good  we  believe  him  to 
have  effected.  Yet  I  greatly  fear  that  your  impressions 
at  a  distance,  and  mine  on  the  spot,  are  very  different.' 

The  end  of  the  matter  was  that  on  the  eve  of  the  pro- 
posed 'Declaration  and  Degradation'  (Feb.  i2th,  1845), 
the  Proctors,  (H.  P.  Guillemard  of  Trinity,  and  B.  W. 
Church,  now  Dean  of  S.  Paul's,)  notified  to  the  Vice- 
Chancellor  their  intention,  in  virtue  of  the  prerogative  of 
their  office,  to  negative  the  Decree  against  Tract  90. — It 
was  perhaps  the  best  solution  of  the  business  which  could 
have  been  devised,  and  proved  a  great  relief  to  a  vast 
majority  of  the  residents. 

I  well  remember  the  events  concerning  which  I  write  : 
remember  too  how  warmly  I  took  Mr  Newman's  side 
throughout,  (for  I  sincerely  loved  him :)  and  how 
heartily  I  rejoiced  in  the  action  of  the  Proctors  who 
bravely  cut  the  knot  which  there  was  no  untying.  Yet 
am  I  bound  to  admit, — looking  back  calmly  at  that 
period  through  the  long  vista  of  intervening  years, — 
that  I  see  not  how  it  was  possible  for  the  '  Hebdomadal 
Board'  of  those  days,  as  conscientious  and  honourable 
men,  to  pursue  a  different  course  from  that  which  they 
actually  adopted.  In  Joshua  Watson's  words : — 

"  The  cards  were  dealt  to  them ;  and  if  they  had  refused 
to  play,  they  had  surely  failed  in  their  duty  to  the  Uni- 
versity as  custodes  juventutis  academicae.  Nothing  could 
release  the  body  from  their  obligation  to  protect  those 
entrusted  to  their  charge  from  looking  upon  the  bonds 
of  Subscription  as  a  mere  rope  of  sand.  Let  who  will 
bring  the  bill,  they  were  bound  when  it  was  brought,  by 
their  oaths  of  office,  to  find  it  a  true  bill,  and  send  it  to 
the  regular  tribunal  for  judgment."  6 

6  Churton's  'Memoir,' — ii.  152. 


1845]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  421 

I  have  been  constrained  thus  again  to  refer  to  the 
early  history  of  that  great  religious  movement  with 
which  the  name  of  Oxford  will  be  ever  associated,  not 
only  because  it  supplies  the  frame- work  of  twelve  of  the 
most  eventful  years  of  the  Provost  of  Oriel's  life  [1833- 
45], — but  because  it  so  largely  influenced  his  public  acts 
and  determined  the  character  of  his  writings,7  as  well  as 
affected  his  individual  happiness.  He  was  throughout  in 
the  very  thick  of  the  fight.  His  position  was  in  truth  a 
most  difficult  one.  Utterly  alien  to  his  habits  of  thought, 
— his  tastes  and  sympathies, — as  was  the  method  of  the 
Tractarian  writers,  the  chief  of  them  had  been,  nay,  still 
were,  his  personal  friends.  In  sending  to  a  fellow  of  the 
College  (in  1851)  his  '  Sermons  on  Scriptural  Types  and 
Sacraments]  he  wrote, — 

"  My  principal  object  in  publishing  this  volume  was 
not  to  treat  of  Types,  so  much  as  to  meet  R.  Wilberforce's 
views  of  the  Incarnation,  &c. ;  but  I  was  unwilling  to 
publish  a  book  solely  against  an  old  friend  and  member 
of  Oriel,  and  therefore  I  introduced  several  other  matters 
into  the  last  two  Sermons,  and  added  the  first  two." 

His  '  Sermons  on  the  Church '  in  like  manner  were  occa- 

7  It   must   suffice   in   this   place  Hawkins]. — Oxford,  1835  (pp.  26). 

merely  to  enumerate  the  productions  — '  The  Ministry  of  Men  in  the  Eco- 

of  his  pen  at  this  time.    They  were,  nomy  of  Grace,  and  the  danger  of 

— 'Oxford  Matriculation  Statutes,  over-rating   it.''    1840  —  (pp.   42). — 

Answers  to  the  "  Questions  addressed  '  The  Apostolical  Succession'  (2  Tim. 

to  Members   of  Convocation   by  a  i.  6,  7).     Feb.  27,  1842  (pp.  46).— 

Bachelor  of  Divinity  [Dr.  Pusey] " :  '  The  Nature    and    Obligation    of 

with  brief  Notes  upon  Church  Au-  Apostolic  Order'      May  29,   1842 

thority;  &c.     By  a  resident  Mem-  (pp.  30).—'  The  presence  of  GOD  in 

ber  of  Convocation  [Dr.  Hawkins].  the   Church  by  the  HOLY  SPIRIT' 

—Oxford,  1835  (PP-  29).— 'A  Letter  June  4,  1843  (pp.  30)-—  'Sermons 

to  the  Earl  of  Radnor  upon   the  on  the  Church,  preached  before  the 

Oaths,  Dispensations,  and  Subscrip-  University  of  Oxford  [in  1843-4-5].' 

tion  to  the  XXXIX.  Articles  at  the  1847  (pp.  225).  See  above  (p.  421-2) 

University  of  Oxford'     By  a  resi-  concerning  this  last-named  volume, 
dent  Member  of  Convocation  [Dr. 


422  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1845 

sioned  (as  he  explains  in  the  Preface)  by  that  series  of 
events  which,  commencing  in  1833,  came  to  a  head  in 
1841,  and  finally  resulted  in  the  open  defection  of  many 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  in  1845. — Those  who 
had  no  personal  acquaintance  with  the  period  of  which 
we  speak  (1841-5)  must  be  referred  to  what  has  been 
already  offered  on  the  subj  ect.8  Like  inexperienced  swim- 
mers when  the  stream  is  running  strong,  men  were  borne 
onward, — drifted  they  knew  not  whither.  The  disciples 
of  the  Tractarian  movement  were  in  many  instances 
tempted  to  say  much  more  than  they  either  believed 
or  felt.  Some,  with  fatal  instinct,  carried  out  principles 
to  their  logical  issues,  and  far  outwent  their  guides.  To 
the  Heads  of  Houses  realizing  the  responsibility  of  their 
office,  and  doubtful  '  whereunto  this  would  grow,' — it 
became  a  matter  of  supreme  distress  to  witness  among 
the  undergraduates  unequivocal  tokens  that  the  move- 
ment contained  a  Homeward  element,  which  recommended 
itself  to  warm  and  impulsive  natures.  The  Provost  of 
Oriel's  life  was  thoroughly  embittered  by  the  perpetual 
antagonisms  into  which  the  inflexible  integrity  and 
conscientiousness  of  his  disposition, — together  with  his 
thorough  loyalty  to  the  Church  of  England, — brought,  or 
rather  forced  him. 

The  catastrophe  arrived  but  too  soon.  After  the  Long 
Vacation  of  1845,  it  became,  known  that  Mr.  Newman 
had  already  deserted  to  the  enemy's  camp.  Hoc  Ithacus 
relit.  A  terrible  triumph  was  thus  given  to  the  ultra- 
Protestant  party.  But  the  event  was  also  a  miserable 
fulfilment  of  the  worst  fears  and  predictions  of  not  a 
few  good  and  faithful  men ;  while  it  was  a  source  of 
deepest  grief  and  absolute  dismay  to  as  many  as  had 

8  E.g.  in  the  Memoir  of  Charles  Marriott,— pp.  312-21. 


1845]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  423 

resolutely  hoped  against  hope, — entirely  trusted  as  well 
as  loved  their  teacher.  We  felt  that  we  had  been 
betrayed,  and  we  resented  the  wrong  which  had  been 
done  us.  Amicus  Plato,  sed  magis  arnica  Veritas. 

Then  carne  the  recoil.  The  shock,  which  had  been 
thus  given  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  University,  was 
tremendous.  Its  remote  effects  are  experienced  to  this 
hour.  At  Oxford,  men  fairly  reeled  beneath  the  intelli- 
gence ;  and  though  but  few,  comparatively,  followed  Mr. 
Newman  to  Rome,  hundreds  who  remained  behind  in 
very  perplexity  drifted  from  their  moorings, — lapsed 
into  indifferentism, — were  prepared  to  believe,  or  to  dis- 
believe, almost  anything.  One  of  the  most  able  and 
accomplished  of  Newman's  clerical  adherents,  Mark 
Pattison,  became  (in  1861)  a  contributor  to  the  shameful 
'  Essays  and  Reviews!  It  is  anguish  at  the  end  of  three- 
and-forty  years  to  recall  the  sharpness  of  the  trial  which 
assailed  us  when,  amid  the  falling  leaves  and  shortening 
days  of  October  1845,  we  went  back  to  Oxford  ;  and 
were  made  sensible  of  the  partial  paralysis  of  the  great 
Anglican  revival  which  had  been  entered  on  with  so 
much  promise  some  thirteen  years  before.  How  far  the 
flood  of  Infidelity,  which  has  since  invaded  the  Univer- 
sity, is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  great  break-up  of  1841-5, 
is  a  secret  known  only  to  GOD. 

It  was  confidently  expected  by  the  Provost's  friends,— 
indeed  it  was  often  announced  in  the  public  journals, — 
that  he  was  about  to  be  appointed  to  a  Bishopric.  For  a 
series  of  years,  whatever  politics  were  in  the  ascendant, 
at  every  fresh  vacancy,  the  eyes  of  all  in  Oxford  were 
directed  to  him\ — a  great  and  just  tribute  to  his  honesty 
and  courage.  'Now  that  the  English  Church  Bill  has 
passed,'  (wrote  Hampden  from  Ewelme,  Aug.  15,  1836,) 


424  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1847 

£I  have  been  looking  out  for  your  name  among  the 
nominations  to  the  bench, — which  would  give  me  plea- 
sure on  every  account,  except  for  Oriel  and  Oxford, 
where  it  is  too  evident  you  could  not  be  spared.  A 
fortnight  before  this  reached  him,  it  was  so  confidently 
rumoured  that  Hawkins  had  been  designated  for  the 
vacant  see  of  Chichester,  that  Dean  Chandler  wrote  to 
recommend  to  his  notice  as  the  fittest  person  to  be  his 
'  provincial  secretary,'  the  gentleman  who  had  discharged 
the  duties  of  the  same  office  to  the  late  Bishop.  It  was 
currently  reported  that  one  reason  why  he  was  not  raised 
to  the  Episcopal  bench,  was  the  condition  of  Oriel 
previous  to  1841,  which  rendered  it  certain  that  New- 
man would  have  been  elected  Provost  if  Hawkins  were 
removed: — an  event  which  would  have  been  greatly 
deprecated  by  the  dispensers  of  patronage  long  before  the 
appearance  of  Tract  No.  90. 

It  may  also  be  here  mentioned  that,  first  in  1840  (by 
the  Duke  of  Wellington),  and  again  in  1870  (by  the 
Marquis  of  Salisbury),  the  office  of  Vice-Chancellor  was 
pressed  upon  his  acceptance ;  but  was  by  him  firmly 
declined  for  grave  and  good  reasons. — The  Bampton 
Lectureship,  (of  which  we  have  spoken  already),  was 
simply  forced  upon  him,  in  1840. — A  yet  more  re- 
markable proof  of  the  Provost's  'capacity  for  taking 
trouble'  was  afforded  by  his  undertaking  a  few  years 
after,  when  requested  to  do  so,  the  office  of  Dean  Ireland's 
'Professor  of  the  Exegesis  of  Holy  Scripture.'  His 
'Inaugural  Lecture  read  before  the  University,  Nov.  2nd, 
1847,  with  brief  Notices  of  the  Founder,'9 — is  valuable 
and  interesting.  Ireland  himself  [1761-1842],  who 
became  Dean  of  Westminster,  was  of  humble  origin,  and 

9  Published  in  1848, — pp.  59. 


1854]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  425 

had  been  a  '  Bible-clerk '  at  Oriel.  This  Professorship 
Dr.  Hawkins  held  for  fourteen  years, — resigning  it, 
Oct.  1 9th,  1 86 1.  It  is  needless  to  declare  that  he  threw 
himself  into  the  office  with  conscientious  earnestness, 
and  discharged  its  duties  with  exemplary  fidelity ;  largely 
increasing  his  own  private  library,  for  purposes  of  study, 
with  books  in  this  particular  department  of  Divinity: 
which  books,  by  the  way,  he  bequeathed  to  his  successors 
in  the  chair  of  the  '  Exegesis  of  Holy  Scripture.'  He 
lectured  three  days  weekly, — devoting  one  of  the  days 
to  a  general  lecture  which  he  read  :  the  other  two,  to  the 
exegesis  of  some  Epistle.  Canon  Farrar  of  Durham  at- 
tended the  Provost's  lectures  for  one  or  two  years,  and 
thought  very  highly  of  them.  He  reminds  me  that  the 
Professor  used  to  place  in  the  hands  of  each  pupil  a 
printed  list  of  Commentators,  classified,  with  particulars 
of  the  works  and  dates  of  each.  He  was  the  first  '  Ireland 
Professor.' — And  now  to  proceed. 

One  war  was  no  sooner  completely  over,  than  the 
Provost  of  Oriel  found  another,  of  quite  a  different  kind, 
but  even  more  formidable,  thrust  upon  him.  It  is  not 
needful  here  to  discuss  at  any  length  the  next  great 
event  in  the  history  of  Oxford, — the  Revolution  effected 
by  the  *  Universities  Commission '  of  1 854.  But  it 
marks  an  epoch :  and  Hawkins  is  too  inextricably  mixed 
up  with  the  fortunes  of  Oxford  that  I  should  pass  it 
by  with  only  a  few  words. 

At  the  period  referred  to,  the  government  of  the  Uni- 
versity was  practically  vested  in  the  Heads  of  Houses. 
These  constituted  the  '  Hebdomadal  board,'  which  exer- 
cised the  initiative  in  all  measures.  It  had  long  been 
felt  in  Oxford  that  some  opening  of  initiative  power  to 


426  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1854 

members  of  Congregation  was  necessary,  and  that  a 
Eepresentative  board  ought  to  exercise  the  function 
hitherto  monopolized  by  the  Heads.  Other  changes 
there  were,  which  the  University  was  both  able  and 
willing  to  adopt  for  its  own  improvement.  The  '  Tutors' 
Association'  formulated  not  a  few  suggestions  for  in- 
ternal reform,  which  were  favourably  received  in 
Oxford,  but  were  disregarded  by  the  Commissioners. 
The  Government  scheme, — which  originated  with  men 
either  unacquainted  with  Oxford  or  else  inimical  to 
its  best  interests,  and  which  was  finally  thrust  upon  the 
University  by  an  unfriendly  House  of  Commons, — was 
nothing  else  but  a  moral  and  constitutional  wrong ;  a 
needless  invasion  of  the  liberties  of  the  University  and 
of  the  Colleges,  as  well  as  a  shameful  perversion  of  the 
known  intention  of  Founders  and  Benefactors.  Fellow- 
ships which  had  been  expressly  endowed  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  students  of  Divinity,  and  for  half  a  thousand  years 
had  been  the  means  of  maintaining  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land a  body  of  learned  Clergy,  were  now  for  the  first 
time  alienated.1  It  was  not  pleaded  that  there  no  longer 
existed  the  need  which  had  occasioned  their  original 
foundation.  Notorious  it  was,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
need  was  greater  than  ever.  Neither  was  it  pretended 
that  they  were  either  unworthily  filled,  or  were  not  dis- 
charging their  educational  function  in  strict  conformity 
with  the  known  intentions  of  their  Founders, — with 
signal  advantage  to  the  State,  and  with  high  honour  to 
the  University.  In  open  defiance  of  Right,  the  Clerical 
tenure  of  fellowships  was  reduced  within  certain  arbi- 
trary limits :  by  which  act  of  injustice  to  Founders  and 
to  the  Church,  a  fatal  precedent  was  established  for  a 
yet  more  sweeping  act  of  confiscation  at  the  end  of  less 

1  See  the  Appendix  (F). 


1854]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  427 

than  20  years.2 — The  claims  of  Poverty  had  been  the 
object  of  paramount  solicitude  with  Founders.3  This 
qualification  and  condition  of  election  to  Fellowships 
and  Scholarships,4 — never  omitted  among  the  require- 
ments recited  by  them,  and  generally  recited  first, — was 
now  formally  abolished. — One-fifth  of  College  Revenues 
was  further  claimed  for  the  endowment  of  University 
Professorships. — The  right  of  internal  management  on 
the  part  of  the  Colleges,  was  unreasonably  interfered 
with.  It  seemed  as  if  the  House  of  Commons  had 
entirely  lost  sight  of  such  elementary  facts  as  the  follow- 
ing:— That  collegiate  revenues  are  in  no  sense  of  the 
word  *  National  property ' :  that  trusteeship  is  not  owner- 
skip  :  that  the  State  at  best  is  but  supreme  Trustee  :  and 
that,  so  long  as  the  actual  trustees  of  property  are 
discharging  faithfully  the  provisions  of  a  beneficial  trust, 
the  State  has  no  right  whatever — legal  or  moral — to 
interfere.  Least  of  all  was  it  warranted  in  interfering 
destructively  with  'the  oldest,  the  freest,  and'  '(let  the 
enemies  of  Oxford  say  what  they  will)  '  by  far  the 
purest  of  the  ancient  Corporations'  of  this  Church  and 
Realm.5 

How  distressing  to  such  an  one  as  the  Provost  of 
Oriel  were  the  grave  organic  changes  thus  thrust  upon 

2  '  Clerical  Tenure  of  Fellowships,  GENTI  SOLICITUDINE    CAVEATUR  NE 
a  Letter  to  Sir  W.  Heathcote,'  by  QUI  PEAETEB  honestos,  castos,  paci- 
theRev.  F.  Meyrick,— 1854,  pp.  15.  ficos,  humiles,  INDIGENTES,  ad  stu- 
All  that  has  happened  since  the  first  dium  habiles  et  prqficere  volentes, 
Universities'  Commission  is   there  ADMITTANTUR.'— It   cannot   be  too 
clearly  foretold.     See  the  Appendix  plainly  stated  that  College  endow- 
(E).  ments     are     of    an     eleemosynary 

3  See  the  Appendix  (G).  character  throughout. 

4  The    following    clause    occurs,  5  '  Objections  to  the  Government 
verbatim,  in  the  Statutes  of  Merton  Scheme  for  the  present  subjection 
and  Oriel  Colleges  : — '  Circa  eos  qui  and  future  management  of  the  Uni- 
ad  hujusmodi  eleemosynae  partici-  versify  of  Oxford,'  by  Charles  Neate, 
pationem  admittendi  fuerint,  DILI-  — 1854,  pp.  40. 


428  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1854 

the  University,  and  upon  the  College  over  which  he  had 
honourably  presided  for  six-and-twenty  years, — no  need 
to  explain.  As  a  good  man,  he  resented  the  seculariza- 
tion of  revenues  set  apart  for  a  clearly  defined  sacred 
purpose.  As  an  honest  man,  he  deplored  the  injustice 
done  to  the  poor  by  defrauding  them  of  their  birthright. 
Since  Founders  and  Benefactors  bestowed  their  bounty 
on  the  express  condition  that  none  should  partake  of  it 
but  those  who  really  needed  it,  he  denounced  the  legis- 
lation by  which  this  pious  intention  of  theirs  was  wholly 
set  aside.  The  transparent  fallacy  of  claiming  that 
henceforth  the  '  Merit '  of  candidates  shall  alone  be  con- 
sidered,—  while  all  that  is  meant  by  'Merit'  is  the 
number  of  marks  obtained  at  a  competitive  examination., — he 
remarked  upon  with  just  ridicule  and  displeasure. 

Especially  offensive — (where  all  was  unacceptable) — 
to  one  in  his  peculiar  position  was  that  enactment  of  the 
new  '  Ordinance '  which  henceforth  made  it  competent 
for  the  youngest  member  of  the  foundation,  at  College 
meetings,  to  initiate  proposals  for  further  changes  in  the 
government  of  the  College,  or  in  the  management  of  its 
affairs.  The  experience  of  all  history,  the  vocabulary  of 
every  nation  in  the  civilized  world,  condemns  the  prin- 
ciple of  such  license.  Idle  moreover  it  were  to  deny 
that  the  consequence  of  the  new  Constitution  to  the 
peaceful  well-being  of  Oriel  was  simply  disastrous.  We 
gladly  hasten  over  this  period ;  recording  only  concern- 
ing the  Provost,  that  with  characteristic  uprightness  he 
loyally  accepted  his  entirely  changed  position  :  held  his 
own,  as  well  as  he  might,  by  the  dignity  of  his  manners 
and  by  the  singular  admixture  of  gentleness  with  firm- 
ness which  had  become  natural  to  him :  made  the  best  of 
the  new  order  of  things,  and  maintained  a  cheerful  front 


1854]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  429 

notwithstanding.  Not  in  the  least  degree  did  the  adverse 
course  of  events  sour  him :  rather  did  it  seem  as  if  the 
bitter  experiences  of  life  were  producing  in  him  the 
opposite  result.  Meantime,  he  clung  to  whatever  re- 
mained of  the  good  ancient  order:  still  as  of  old, 
observing  the  Founder's  requirement  that  thrice  a-year 
his  venerable  Statutes  [dated  Jan.  2ist.  1326], — (so  far 
at  least  as  they  still  remained  in  force,) — should  be  read 
in  the  hearing  of  the  assembled  society, — though  no 
longer  as  heretofore  at  the  close  of  Divine  service,  and  in 
the  College  chapel. 

In  Oriel  Common-room  are  to  be  seen  three  as  fine 
portraits  of  three  successive  heads  of  a  House  as  are  to 
be  found  anywhere  in  Oxford : — viz.  Dr.  Eveleigh  [1781— 
1814]  by  Hoppner:  Bp.  Copleston  [1814-27]  by  Phillips: 
Dr.  Hawkins  [1828-82]  by  Sir  Francis  Grant.  So 
truthful  and  life-like  is  the  last-named  work,  that  we 
deem  it  superfluous  to  say  anything  concerning  the 
person  of  the  subject  of  the  present  Memoir, — except  to 
remark  that  he  was  rather  short  in  stature,  which  would 
hardly  be  inferred  from  the  picture.  The  desire  of  the 
society  to  possess  a  portrait  of  their  chief  on  the  com- 
pletion of  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his  Provostship,  was  a 
gratifying  incident  at  this  anxious  and  sorrowful  period 
of  his  life.  The  history  and  date  of  the  picture  are 
interestingly  commemorated  by  the  following  letter  to 
myself: — 

"Vines,6  Kochester,  Aug.  29,  1854. — I  called  on  Mr. 
Grant  on  my  way  from  Hampshire  to  Rochester,  and, 
(without  an  actual  sitting,  for  which  the  day  was  unsuit- 
able,) he  got  his  idea  of  the  picture.  I  have  since  gone* 

6  '  Vines '  (an  appellation  recently  the  Precincts, — which  anciently  con- 
dropped  at  Rochester)  used  to  be  stituted  the  monks'  vineyard.  The 
the  designation  of  the  Houses  in  Provost's  residence  was  there. 


430  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1854 

up  from  Kochester  to  give  him  three  very  long  sittings, 
and  he  wished  for  no  more.  If  all  goes  well  with  me,  I 
am  to  go  to  him  again  in  October.  But  the  picture  is  far 
advanced,  and  he  is  himself  much  pleased  with  it.  Neate 
gave  him  the  choice  of  the  size  of  Bp.  Copleston  (which 
is  a  'Bishop's  half  length'),  and  of  Eveleigh  ('half 
length ') :  and  he  chose  the  latter.  I  left  him  entirely  to 
himself.  He  is  a  clever  man,  and  a  skilful  painter.  And 
if  my  journeys  are  a  little  fatiguing,  my  sittings  with 
him  are  really  agreeable." 

Resuming  the  style  of  remark  which  will  be  found 
above  at  pp.  411-5,  let  me  be  allowed  in  this  place  to 
collect  and  exhibit  together  certain  of  those  personal 
characteristics  which  made  up  the  man,  and  gave  him  his 
marked  individuality ;  causing  him  to  be  feared  by 
many,  and  loved  by  more ; — disliked  by  very  few,  and 
certainly  respected  by  all.  Everyone  who  was  brought 
into  intimate  relations  with  him,  was  observed  in  the 
end  to  conceive  a  sincere  affection  for  him.  Let  it  only 
be  considered  how  entirely  diverse  the  men  were,  with 
whom  he  was  thus  brought  into  close  relation,  and  occa- 
sionally into  sharp  antagonism, — (for  he  touched  Keble, 
Newman,  Pusey,  on  one  side :  Whately,  Arnold,  Hamp- 
den,  on  the  other  ;) — and  when  it  is  further  remembered 
that  he  was  to  the  last  on  friendly  relations  with  them 
all,  something  else  strikes  one  as  deserving  of  notice, 
besides  tlie  breadth  of  the  Provost's  sympathies.  It  was 
remarked  concerning  him  by  those  who  knew  him  best, 
that  '  lie  never  lost  a  friend.' 

"  There  is  one  point "  (I  quote  from  a  letter  of  James 
Fraser,  Bp.  of  Manchester), — "  which  I  always  thought 
remarkable, — the  influence  he  exerted  in  the  most  opposite 
'directions :  upon  Arnold  and  Hampden,  in  one, — and 
upon  Newman  (at  least  at  one  time)  and  S.  Wilberforce, 
in  another.  This,  I  think,  you  have  hardly  brought  out 
sufficiently. 


1854]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  431 

"  I  remember  Neate  telling  me  that  he  was  once  talking 
to  Sir  Francis  Baring  (at  the  time  he  was  his  private 
secretary)  about  the  Provost,  and  said,  '  He  ought  to 
have  been  'made  a  bishop.'  Sir  Francis  replied, '  By 
which  party  ? '  And  Neate  answered,  '  By  either!  This 
illustrates  what  I  mean."  7 

The  very  key-note  of  all  his  actions, — the  one  sufficient 
clue  to  whatever  he  said  or  did, — was  his  high  conscien- 
tiousness. Beyond  everything  he  was  solicitous  to  be 
truthful, — exact, — impartial, — just.  And  this  funda- 
mental feature  of  his  character  manifested  itself  in  many 
and  very  different  ways.  For  example,  it  made  him 
unduly  lenient  towards  those  who  had  conscientiously 
experienced  a  divergence  from  the  orthodox  standard  of 
belief.  Moreover,  in  the  trying  period  of  his  Provost- 
ship,  he  seems  to  have  been  constantly  brought  into  con- 
tact with  men  who,  having  thus  got  severed  from  their 
early  moorings,  found  themselves  tossed  on  a  sea  of 
interminable  doubt.  No  better  illustration  than  the 
following  can  be  appealed  to,  of  the  indulgence  and  for- 
bearance he  was  prepared  to  display  towards  those  who 
(in  his  judgment)  were  thus  suffering  for  conscience 
sake : — 

'  There  is  still  another  painful  (extremely  painful) 
separation  to  which  I  must  submit,'  (wrote  Blanco  White 
to  him  in  1835) :  '  I  do  not  conceive  that  you,  as  head  of 
Oriel  college,  could  allow  a  professed  anti-Trinitarian  to 
be  one  of  its  members.  To  spare  you  therefore  the  painful 
necessity  of  excluding  me,  I  beg  that  you  will  take  my 
name  off  the  College  books.  My  heart  is  deeply  affected 
as  I  resign  the  external  honour  which  I  most  valued  in 
my  life :  but  I  should  prove  myself  unworthy  of  ever 
having  belonged  to  your  society,  if  I  could  act  deceitfully 
towards  it.' 

7  Manchester, — Oct.  30,  1883. 


432  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1854 

The  Provost's  reply  is  characteristic  : — 

'As  to  the  business  part  of  your  letter,  I  am  not  the 
person  to  exclude  you  from  this  college  because  I  hear  of 
a  conscientious  change  in  your  Theological  views.  I 
shall  not  withdraw  your  name  therefore ;  at  least,  at 
present.  But  the  use  I  shall  make  of  your  letter,  if  I 
should  be  driven  to  such  a  step,  (which  however  I  do  not 
anticipate,)  will  be,  to  cut  short  any  proceedings  against 
you  from  any  other  quarter  in  the  University,  by  declaring 
your  withdrawal.' 

So,  when  Arthur  Hugh  Clough  once  and  again  com- 
municated certain  difficulties  of  his  own  in  respect  of 
Subscription,  the  Provost  discouraged  his  scruples, — 
invited  him  to  reconsider  the  matter, — was  indulgent, 
to  a  fault.  Such  conduct  was  liable  to  misconstruc- 
tion. He  appeared  to  be  only  half-hearted  himself. 
But  it  was  not  so.  At  the  root  of  the  matter  lay  his 
desire  to  be  inflexibly  just.  His  essential  kindness  of 
nature  determined  the  course  which  he  pursued  in  each 
particular  case. 

Even  a  more  conspicuous  manifestation  of  the  same 
habit  of  mind  was  his  scrupulous  exactness  of  statement 
and  inveterate  solicitude  for  entire  accuracy: — 

'  He  was  the  first  who  taught  me  to  weigh  my  words,' 
(wrote  Dr.  Newman  in  1864),  'and  to  be  cautious  in  my 
statements.  He  led  me  to  that  mode  of  limiting  and 
clearing  my  sense  in  discussion  and  in  controversy,  and 
of  distinguishing  between  cognate  ideas,  and  of  obviating 
mistakes  by  anticipation, — which  to  my  surprise  has  been 
since  considered,  even  in  quarters  friendly  to  me,  to 
savour  of  the  polemics  of  Rome.  He  is  a  man  of  most 
exact  mind  himself,  and  he  used  to  snub  me  severely,  on 
reading,  as  he  was  kind  enough  to  do,  the  first  Sermons 
that  I  wrote,  and  other  compositions  which  I  was  engaged 
upon.' 8 

8  'History  of  my  Religious  Opinions,'  p.  8. — See  above,  p.  392. 


1860]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  433 

What  has  already  been  said  will  account  for  the  com- 
plexion of  the  Provost's  Divinity.  He  never  kindles 
enthusiasm.  It  is  never  his  object.  His  solicitude  is 
rather  to  warn  his  reader  against  some  error  of  excess  or 
defect.  To  guard  a  subject  against  exaggerated,  inac- 
curate, or  one-sided  statement ; — to  resist  any  attempt, 
at  the  end  of  an  argument,  to  import  into  the  conclusion 
one  atom  more  than  was  contained  in  the  premisses  ; — to 
secure  for  every  adverse  view  a  fair  hearing,  and  to 
require  that  the  amount  of  Truth  which  it  contains,  (be 
it  ever  so  little,  and  that  little  ever  so  overlaid  with 
error,)  shall  be  candidly  recognized : — this  is  invariably 
the  good  man's  way, — the  sum  of  all  his  striving.  Of 
course  it  is  neither  winning  nor  attractive ;  no,  nor  is  it 
agreeable.  And  yet,  those  who  talked  Divinity  with  the 
Provost,  learned  to  do  something  more  than  respect  him. 
They  fairly  loved  the  man.  And  why?  Because, — (besides 
being  compelled  to  admit  that  there  really  was  a  great 
deal  of  truth  and  wisdom  in  what  he  said), — they  soon 
found  out  that  his  practice  was  so  very  much  better  than 
his  theory.  Thus,  (as  he  once  told  the  present  writer,) 
his  favourite  book  of  Devotions  was  Wilson's  'Sacra 
Privata ' :  but  he  characteristically  added, — '  Not  that  I 
agree  with  all  he  says.  He  is  an  inaccurate  writer.' 
'  Inaccurate  '  however  as  Bp.  Wilson  may  have  been,  his 
Prayers  were  continually  in  the  Provost's  hands, — from 
early  manhood  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Speaking  of 
'  self-denial,'  or  rather  of  self-discipline  (in  his  sermon, 
'  CHEIST  our  example '),  he  has  a  remarkable  reference 
to  it,  which  he  concludes  by  recommending  the  '  Sacra 
Privata'  as  'an  admirable  work  for  daily  use'  [p.  20]. 
(Strange,  that  even  here,  he  deems  it  necessary  to  intro- 
duce the  caution  that  Bp.  Wilson -'is  not  indeed  an 
accurate  writer.') 

VOL.  I,  F  f 


434  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1860 

The  characteristics  I  have  thus  indicated, — (biographi- 
cal honesty  requires  that  it  should  be  confessed), — were 
sometimes  attended,  in  the  practical  business  of  daily 
life,  by  inconvenient  results.  Rigid  truthfulness  and 
perfect  exactness  of  statement  become  grotesque  or 
annoying,  as  the  case  may  be,  when  they  come  to  the 
front  unseasonably  or  are  pressed  to  an  unreasonable 
extent.  A  multitude  of  instances  here  suggest  them- 
selves, some  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  re-call  without 
a  smile.  Woe  betide  the  man  who  in  telling  a  story  in 
his  presence  introduced  the  wrong  person,  place,  or  date, 
— quoted  the  wrong  book,  or  gave  the  wrong  reason ! .  .  . 
Invited  once  to  preach  the  Easter  sermon  in  the  College 
chapel,  I  took  for  my  subject,  '  The  walk  to  Emmaus! 
For  my  own  part  (I  ventured  to  say)  I  would  rather 
have  heard  that  discourse  than  any  other  mentioned  in 
the  Gospels.  The  passages  possibly  referred  to  by  the 
Divine  Speaker, — the  probable  outline  of  His  discourse, 
— the  preciousness  of  such  a  specimen  of  Interpretation : 
— all  this  was  dwelt  upon.  At  the  end  of  a  few  minutes 
the  preacher  was  to  be  seen  accompanying  the  Pro- 
vost (according  to  custom)  across  '  quad  '  in  the  direc- 
tion of  his  '  lodgings,' — not  indeed  expecting,  but  cer- 
tainly desiring  from  his  Chief  a  few  words  of  sympathy 
if  not  of  approval.  After  a  considerable  pause,  the  Provost 
turned  short  round, — 'I  observe  you  pronounce  it  "Emmdu-s" 
Why  do  you  pronounce  it  "Emmdu$"V — 'Isn't  it  Emmaus  ?' 
'  No.  Emmaus.  Emm&us.'  By  this  time  the  Provost's  door 
was  reached.  It  only  remained  to  bow  and  part, — and  to 
return  to  one's  solitary  quarters  wondering  at  the  intro- 
duction into  'the  walk  to  Emmaus'  of  so  petty  (and 
problematical)  a  matter  as  the  accentuation  of  the  'a.' 

Another  incident  comes  back — The  same  individual 


1860]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  435 

ventured  once  to  present  himself  on  a  begging  errand. 
The  Provost  was  in  his  library,  writing  at  his  very 
small,  and  (as  it  seemed)  most  inconvenient,  desk.  He 
rose  at  once,  greeted  me  kindly,  and — 'Won't  you  sit 
down  ? '  '  Thank  you,  I  only  came  to  ask  if  you  could 
spare  a  sovereign  out  of  the  college  Communion-alms 
for  one  of  our  laundresses,  who  has  lost  her  husband 
suddenly,  and  (I  find)  is  in  distress  for  a  little  ready 
money.'  After  making  some  enquiries  concerning 
the  case, — '  The  chapel  Communion  -  alms  !  Are  you 
aware  that  you  speak  of  a  fund  which  is  largely  in  my 
debt  ?  It  has  been  drawn  upon  until  it  exhibits  a  con- 
siderable deficit.'  '  That  settles  the  question  of  course,'— 
and  I  was  already  hastening  to  the  door.  '  No,  no,  come 
back !  That  fund  is  exhausted :  but '  (here  he  transferred 
his  hand  to  the  opposite  corner  of  the  same  drawer  and 
drew  out  a  well-filled  green  purse :) — '  but  I  can  give 
the  poor  woman  a  couple  of  sovereigns  with  pleasure, 
out  of  another  fund,'  &c.  &c.  An  effort  was  made  to 
express  satisfaction  and  to  return  thanks,  but  it  was 
rendered  unsuccessful,  (ist), — By  the  assurance  that 
the  laundress  was  perfectly  welcome,  and  that  if 
more  relief  was  needed,  more  could  be  had :  but  espe- 
cially, (adly), — By  the  recital  (for  the  second  time)  of 
the  fact  that  the  'Communion  alms,'  as  a  source  of 
bounty,  had  long  been  in  a  state  of  non  esse,  and  that  the 
present  relief  came  from  a  different  quarter  :  in  short,  I 
must  go  away  convinced  that  /  had  made  a  mistake.  It 
was  difficult  to  get  off  on  such  occasions  without  letting 
him  see  that  one  was  bursting  with  laughter.  (As  if  one 
cared  a  snap  of  the  finger  out  of  which  of  his  purses  the 
two~sovereigns  came, — so  long  as  the  widow  had  them  !) 

This  painful  accuracy  in  exceedingly  minute  matters, 
Ff* 


436  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1860 

amounted  to  a  passion.  On  having  to  administer  to  his 
Mother's  estate, — (she  attained  the  age  of  94,  and  died  in 
1859), — he  was  obliged,  (at  least  he  was  determined),  to 
recall  every  particular  of  certain  transactions  which  had 
occurred  40  or  50  years  before.  He  was  enabled,  (by  means 
of  a  queer  little  memorandum-book  in  his  possession),  to 
ascertain  the  exact  days  on  which  he  had  written  every 
letter,  and  on  which  he  had  received  every  reply.  No 
detail  seemed  to  escape  him.  He  had  a  genius  for  such 
minute  accuracy  of  detail. — 'I  always  felt,3 — (remarks 
one9  who,  like  Neate,1  was  ever  loyal  to  his  Chief,) — 
'  that  if,  in  matters  of  business  especially,  there  was  a 
blot,  he  would  be  sure  to  hit  it :  and  I  think  this  rather 
lessened  than  increased  the  care  with  which  one  pre- 
pared for  his  judgment.  One  was  apt  to  shift  the 
responsibility  on  the  critic.' — At  college  meetings,  his 
fastest  friends  could  not  help  many  a  time  recalling  an 
epigram  of  Charles  Neate's, — (as  true-hearted  and  faithful 
a  Fellow  of  the  college,  by  the  way,  as  any  that  have 
ever  adorned  its  annals) : — 

'  Hie  est  Praepositus,  Qui  magna  gerit, 

Cunctis  oppositus  :  Et  tempus  terit, 

Dum  parva  quaerit.' 

And  yet,  (let  it  be  in  common  fairness  added),  there 
was  not  one  present  who  would  not  have  eagerly  recog- 
nized the  truth  of  the  concluding  lines  of  the  same  witty 
strain : — 

'  Vir  reverendus 
Et  metuendus, 
Sed — diligendus.' 

Every  member  of  the  Society  must  have  felt  that  it 
was  nothing  else  but  rigid  conscientiousness,  after  all, 

9  The  Eev.  Dr.  Chase,  Principal  of  S.  Mary  Hall. 

1  Concerning  this  dear  friend,  see  the  footnote  in  vol.  ii.  p.  221. 


1860]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  437 

which,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  was  at. the  bottom  of 
whatever  in  the  Provost  sometimes  occasioned  certain 
of  us  considerable  annoyance. 

'His  imperfections'  (writes  a  former  Fellow),  'were 
only  the  reverse  side  of  his  good  qualities.  He  had  the 
strongest  sense  of  duty  and  responsibility;  and  in 
following  this  out,  during  the  early  days  of  his  Provost- 
ship,  he  was  apt  to  think  he  must  prescribe  to  others 
what  they  must  do  and  think.  But  0,  how  the  avavray^- 
I'laros  evvota  prevails !  .  .  .  I  have  always  suspected  that 
I  did  not  do  justice  to  his  character.  His  brave  integrity 
I  was  never  blind  to :  but  my  own  mind  (if  I  have  one) 
and  his,  were  of  such  different  shapes,  that  neither  of  us 
could  be  trusted  to  describe  the  other.  I  know  he  would 
deserve  more  than  it  would  occur  to  me  to  say.  On  one 
point,  all  accounts  agree  ;  that  what  might  have  been 
considered  the  less  attractive  features  of  his  character 
got  wonderfully  softened  as  he  grew  older.  "  Lenit 
albescens  animos  capillus"'  ...  So  far,  Canon  Eden  of 
Aberford. 

Interesting  it  is  to  obtain  from  an  entirely  different 
quarter  precisely  the  same  generous  and  discriminating 
estimate : — 

'  The  two  things  which  specially  come  into  my  thoughts 
when  I  remember  him,  are  these : — His  singularly  high 
conscientiousness,  even  where  it  seemed  to  me  it  was 
a  mistaken  conscientiousness.  And, — I  think  I  never 
knew  such  an  instance  of  the  mellowing  effect  of  in- 
creasing years.  They  do  not  always  have  that  in- 
fluence. With  him  they  had.  There  was  all  the  alert- 
ness, the  keenness,  the  brightness,  of  the  old  days.  But 
the  sharpness  which  used  to  be  so  characteristic  of  those 
days,  was  gone.  And  I  don't  think  I  know  such  a 
change  in  any  one  else.'  ...  So  far,  Dean  Church. 

Reference  has  already  once  and  again  been  made  to 
the  strength  of  the  ProvostTs  domestic  affections.  '  Should 
you  not  say  that  his  prevailing  characteristic  was  his 


438  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1870 

inflexible  love  of  Truth  /" — asked  I,  conversing  with  his 
brother  Csesar.  There  was  a  pause. — *  Tell  me  what  you 
consider  the  prevailing  feature  of  your  brother  Edward's 
character.'  'Affection  for  his  family]  was  the  emphatic 
reply. — <  Losing  our  Father  a  few  months  after  my  birth,' 
(so  writes  his  brother  Kobert,)  'he  may  be  said  with 
truth  to  have  filled  the  place  of  a  Father  to  me  through 
all  my  life.  To  his  inflexible  uprightness  and  integrity, 
and  to  his  unwearied  kindness  and  liberality,  I  owe  all 
that  I  have,  and  all  that  I  am.' — The  reader  will  be 
grateful,  and  the  writer  2  must  and  shall  forgive  me,  for 
the  following  extract  from  a  private  letter  of  his  (ad- 
dressed to  a  very  young  lady,)  where  this  feature  of  the 
Provost's  character  is  exquisitely  touched  : — 

'  Circumstances  happened  to  make  me  familiar  with  this 
topic,  when  as  yet  T  knew  little  or  nothing  about  Theo- 
logical controversy, — in  which  I  need  not  tell  you,  the 
Provost  as  time  went  on  took  a  prominent  part.  One 
does  not  know  how  long  controversies  will  live ;  but 
domestic  piety  is  remembered.  Have  you  patience  for 
an  anecdote  ?  In  Plutarch's  Life  of  Antony,  mention  is 
made  of  a  certain  "  Proculeius."  Who  knows  anything 
about  him  now  ?  The  most  accomplished  poet  of  his 
century  says  his  name  shall  not  perish  ;  being  embalmed 
by  one  circumstance, — his  tender  care  and  protection  of 
his  brothers.  I  will  not  spoil  Horace  by  translation : 
you  have  plenty  of  College  friends  who  will  translate 
for  you : — 

"  Vivet  extento  Proculeius  aevo 
Notus  in  fratres  animi  paterni  ; 
Ilium  aget  penna  metuente  solvi 
Fama  superstes." ' 

Golightly,3 — (another  Oriel  man,  one  of  the  truest  and 
most  warm-hearted  of  friends,) — once  remarked  to  the 

2  Rev.  Canon  Eden,  of  Aberford      Memoir   appeared,  viz.  in  October 
(Aug.  1883), — wno  was  inter  vivos      1883. 
when  the  first  draft  of  the  present         3  See  his  name  in  the  General  Index. 


1874]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST. 


439 


present  writer, — '  I  think,' — (and  here  he  assumed  an  air 
of  comic  gravity), — '  if  I  were  called  upon  to  characterize 
our  dear  Provost  by  an  epithet  which  should  be  least  of 
all  expressive  of  his  actual  temperament, — I  should 
describe  him  as — as — gushing'  .  .  .  Yes.  That  is  precisely 
what  the  dear  man  never  was.  A  constitutional  dread  of 
overstepping  by  a  hair's  breadth  the  strict  limit  of  truth, 
(so  at  least  it  seemed),  not  only  guarded  him  effectually 
from  anything  approaching  to  sentimental  outburst,  but 
even  kept  in  check  ordinary  expressions  of  warmth : 
restrained  him — even  unpleasantly^  if  the  truth  must  be 
told — while  in  converse  with  those  whom  he  really  did 
love  and  trust,  as  if  through  fear  of  possibly  overstating 
his  feelings.  Illustrations  of  this  will  occur  to  many 
who  read  these  lines,  and  constrain  some  to  lay  down 
the  page  in  order  to  recount  with  a  hearty  laugh  some 
experiences  of  their  own.  Dr.  Chase  relates  as  follows : — 

'  In  the  October  Term  1874,  after  the  appointment  of 
a  Vice-Provost,  but  before  the  Provost  left  Oxford,  we 
met  Pusey.  Pusey,  digressu  veieris  confusus  amid,  was 
beginning  an  affectionate  but  rather  mournful  farewell, 
and  used  some  expression  implying  that  it  was  final. 
"  0,  not  at  all !  I  hope  we  may  meet  here  again."  .  .  . 
And  yet,  this  was  the  man  who  kept  death  so  habitually 
in  view,  that  whenever,  before  the  Long  Vacation,  he 
made  any  arrangement  for  the  ensuing  October  term,  he 
always  prefaced  it  with — not  "  When"  but — "If  we  meet 
in  October."  ' 

I  often  had  occasion  to  call  upon  him  on  an  affectionate, 
at  all  events  on  a  dutiful  errand ;  and  always  found  him 
writing  at  the  same  uncomfortable  little  desk,  occupying 
the  same  little  arm-chair,  (a  keepsake  evidently,) — in 
which  it  was  impossible  to  lounge.  He  would  rise  and 
offer  me  two  of  his  fingers.  "  Give  me  your  whole  hand, 


440  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1874 

Provost.  I  won't  take  your  two  fingers."  He  gravely  sur- 
rendered all  the  five.  "  Well,  Mr.  Burgon  ?  . . ."  («  Mister  " 
at  the  end  of  20  years  !  It  almost  made  one  cross  to  be 
so  accosted.  But  he  did  not  mean  it, — as  the  tone  of  the 
subsequent  conversation,  when  he  had  thawed  a  little, 
plainly  showed.)  "  I  wish  you  wouldn't  call  me 
Mister''  He  turned  up  the  whites  of  his  eyes, — half 
amused,  half  astonished  at  such  frivolity. 

Those  who  appreciated  and  sincerely  loved  him,  were 
chiefly  annoyed, — (and  this  is  a  part  of  the  truth  which 
aho  requires  to  be  stated,) — because  by  this  habit  the 
Provost  did  himself  such  gross  injustice :  seemed  so 
unlike  what  he  really  was.  Those  who  called  him  '  the 
East  wind  '  were  wholly  unaware  that  though  the  arrow 
had  a  bad  habit  of  pointing  that  way,  the  wind  was  in 
reality  blowing  due  South.  He  had  the  warmest  as 
well  as  the  most  feeling  heart.  An  illustration  presents 
itself.  Upwards  of  five-and-thirty  years  ago,  a  youth  of 
fortune  came  up  to  Oriel,  who  ought  to  have  been 
absolutely  prohibited  wine.  He  was  at  once  invited  to 
an  undergraduate  party.  Maddened  by  two  or  three 
glasses,  he  effected  his  escape  from  his  bed-room  on  the 
'  bell  staircase,'  and  got  out  on  the  roof  of  the  college. 
The  result  might  have  been  foreseen.  The  night  was 
dark.  He  fell.  "  George," — (my  faithful "  scout,"  who  had 
a  passion  for  telling  me  something  dreadful  the  first  thing 
in  the  morning), — woke  me  with  the  intelligence  that 
"  Mr.  [I  forget  the  poor  fellow's  name]  is  lying  dead  in 
the  quad."  Bidding  him  (half  asleep)  "  Send  for  a 
doctor  and  tell  the  Provost," — I  rose,  and  was  out  in 
less  than  five  minutes:  in  what  costume,  may  be 
imagined.  There,  sure  enough,  on  his  face,  close  to  the 
Chapel-door,  lay  the  poor  youth :  his  black  curly  hair 
blown  this  way  and  that  by  the  chill  morning  wind. 


1874]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  441 

Life  was  extinct.  A  broken  bone,  somewhere  near  the 
wrist,  protruded.  I  stood  transfixed  with  horror.  In 
about  an  hour,  the  Chapel- bell  began  to  ring.  When  at 
last  the  Provost  appeared,  his  bands  were  tied  perfectly 
square.  Shocked  he  evidently  was,  but  he  betrayed  so 
little  emotion  that  I  was  astonished.  Of  course  the 
event  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  entire  society : 
but,  by  the  end  of  term,  it  had  become  a  thing  of  the 
past  with  all — except  one.  Mrs.  Hawkins,  in  conversation 
with  me,  expressed  herself  so  "glad  that  the  Provost 
would  be  soon  going  to  Kochester,"  that  I  ventured  to 
inquire  why  she  was  so  glad  ?  I  learned  that  he  passed 
wretched  nights, — "always  seeing  on  his  pillow  the  pale 
features  of  that  young  man  who  was  found  dead  in  the  guad- 


'  Shortly  after  I  took  my  degree '  (writes  Mr.  Living- 
stone), '  an  undergraduate  (Denis  Bond)  died  during  one  of 
the  short  vacations ;  dictating  to  his  Father,  on  his  death- 
bed, a  very  touching  letter  of  farewell,  which  he  desired 
should  be  sent  to  certain  of  his  Oriel  friends,  whom  he 
named.  One  of  these  permitted  me  to  make  a  copy,  and 
I  showed  it  to  the  Provost.  On  the  following  Sun- 
day evening,  in  his  sermon,  he  referred  to  poor  Denis 
Bond's  death,  and  read,  or  rather  tried  to  read,  some 
extracts  from  the  letter.  But  several  of  the  under- 
graduates present  told  me  that  he  was  so  overcome  by 
emotion,  his  voice  so  trembled,  that  it  was  with  difficulty 
that  they  could  make  out  what  he  wished  to  say.  They 
were  much  surprised'  (adds  my  informant)  'at  seeing 
the  Provost,  usually  so  calm  and  self-possessed,  so  com- 
pletely overmastered  by  his  feelings.' 

But  by  far  the  most  touching  incident  in  his  domestic 
history  was  his  profound  grief  on  the  death  of  his  eldest 
son,  Edward,  (named  after  Dr.  Pusey,  his  godfather,) 
who  may  be  truly  said  to  have  died  a  martyr's  death, 


442  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1862 

—October  8th,  1862,  aged  29.  A  copy  of  the  affecting 
Memoir  which  the  heart-broken  Father  compiled  on  that 
occasion  and  confided  to  a  few  private  friends,  deserves 
a  place  in  our  chief  public  libraries  ;  for,  apart  from  its 
personal  interest,  it  supplies  a  page  in  the  history  of  the 
African  Church  which,  besides  being  faithfully  remem- 
bered in  Heaven,  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  upon  earth. 
The  young  man,  full  of  Missionary  ardour,  came  home 
but  to  die  : — 

'And  so,  his  spirit  fled  in  the  chamber  adjoining  that 
in  which  he  was  born  ;  and  in  the  Cathedral  where  I 
had  baptized  him,  there  we  joined  in  the  service  at  his 
funeral ;  and  in  the  Cathedral  cemetery  above  St.  Mar- 

faret's  hill,  we  laid  his  remains  in  the  grave.  .  .  .     May 
not  in  my   son's  case  apply  the  SAVIOUR'S  words, — 
"Whosoever  shall   lose  his    life  for   My  sake   and  the 
Gospel's,  the  same  shall  save  it  "  ? ' 

Some  very  sweet,  very  affecting  verses  conclude  this 
narrative  of  (what  seemed)  an  untimely  end. — In  1870, 
(December  6th)  the  Provost  also  lost  his  eldest  daughter, 
'Meta'  (Margaret),  who  lies  interred  at  Oxford  in  the 
sweet  funereal  garden  of  Holywell, — another  great  grief. 
But  his  first  bereavement  had  come  early  (July  nth, 
1846), — when  he  lost  his  saintly  little  daughter,  Lucy 
Anne,  before  she  was  quite  8  years  and-a-half  old.  She 
sleeps  in  Oriel  ante-chapel.  It  is  to  her  that  the  Provost 
makes  pathetic  reference  in  the  last  page  of  the  Memoir 
of  his  son,  already  spoken  of: — 

'  I  have  even  administered  the  sacrament  of  the  LORD'S 
Supper  to  a  dear  dying  child,  not  of  age  to  be  confirmed, 
but  not  too  young  to  live  and  die  in  the  true  faith  of 
CHRIST.' 

Grave  and  sedate  as  he  was  for  the  most  part  in  his 
speech,  he  could  unbend  delightfully  on  occasions.  His 


1870]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  443 

table-talk  was  in  fact  first-rate,  and  should  have  been 
taken  down.  He  had  known  a  surprising  number  of 
famous  men ;  had  read  many  good  books ;  and  his 
observations  about  either  were  never  either  weak  or 
ordinary.  His  memory  also  went  a  long  way  back,  and 
(like  President  Kouth's)  was  both  minute  and  exact. 
He  was  not  only  very  hospitable,  but  he  evidently 
enjoyed  entertaining  his  guests.  He  would  tell  a  good 
story  with  capital  effect :  but  his  prevailing  solicitude 
throughout  was  evidently  that  what  he  related  should 
be  accurate.  He  is  believed  once, — but  only  once, — to 
have  been  guilty  of  the  indecorum  of  a  joke,  (it  was  in 
fact  a  pun,)  in  the  Convocation  House  : — 

'Mr.  Neate  had  proposed  a  change  in  the  Academical 
dress  of  the  commoners,— on  the  plea  that  if  their  gown 
were  less  unbecoming,  they  would  be  less  disinclined  to 
wear  it.  The  Provost  of  Oriel  rose,  and  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  all  announced  himself  in  favour  of  the  change. 
"  But,"  added  he, — (so  the  story  runs), — "I  am  of  opinion 
that  the  change  should  be  made — ly  Degrees"  '' 

Utterly  incorrect  however  is  the  notion  such  an  anec- 
dote would  convey  of  the  Provost.  Far  more  character- 
istic is  a  pathetic  incident  which  also  occurred  in  the 
Convocation  House,  between  1870-4: — 

'  A  proposal  had  been  made  to  abolish  the  Saint's -day 
Sermons  at  S.  Mary's,  on  the  ground  that  so  few  went 
to  hear  them.  The  Provost  protested  against  the  change, 
saying  that  an  institution  good  in  itself  should  not  be 
abolished  because  people  were  too  indolent  to  profit  by 
it.  It  was  in  fact  lowering  the  Church's  standard  to 
the  practice  of  the  careless  and  the  indifferent.  He  con- 
cluded by  saying  that  as  he  saw  the  great  majority  of 
those  who  heard  him  were  in  favour  of  the  change,  he 
would  not  divide  the  house,  but  he  could  not  allow  the 
measure  to  pass  without  a  protest.  A  few  moments 
afterwards  the  question  was  put  in  the  usual  form, 


444  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1870 

"  Placetne  vobis,  domini  Doctores?"  and  we  heard  the 
Provost's  "Non  placet."  There  was  no  division,  and  so 
the  measure  passed.  Two  or  three  minutes  afterwards, 
he  quietly  withdrew  from  the  house.  Somehow,  the 
whole  scene, — the  appearance  of  the  man;  his  snow-white 
hair  and  venerable  aspect,  his  few  earnest  words,  and 
then  his  quiet  departure, — made  a  great  impression. 

*  And  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  this  was  merely  a 
sentimental  appeal  on  his  part.  He  invariably  attended 
the  Saint's-day  Sermons  himself.  A  dear  friend  of  ours 
who  was  much  in  his  confidence  (E.  C.  Woollcombe) 
once  informed  me  that,  observing  how  badly  those  Ser- 
mons used  to  be  attended,  the  Provost  and  a  few  others 
had  pledged  themselves,  early  in  life,  to  be  regular  in 
their  attendance  at  S.  Mary's.  He,  at  all  events, — busy 
man  as  he  was, — is  found  to  have  adhered  faithfully  to 
his  purpose  to  the  end. 

'  One  of  the  Provost's  last  appearances  in  the  Uni- 
versity pulpit  I  well  remember.  His  sermon  4  had  for 
its  object  to  point  out  the  different  degrees  of  impor- 
tance attaching  to  different  religious  duties,  and  he 
quoted  with  admirable  effect  from  Bp.  Burnet  the 
pathetic  story  of  the  meeting  in  Bocardo  prison  of 
Bishops  Hooper  and  Ridley  after  their  quarrel  about 
the  colour  of  the  episcopal  robes,— when  the  one  was  on 
his  way  to  his  painful  death  at  Gloucester ;  the  other, 
awaiting  martyrdom  in  Oxford :  and  when  both  of  them 
doubtless  viewed  with  very  different  eyes  the  question 
which  had  once  divided  them.' 5 

There  is  in  most  characters  a  contradictory  side, — so 
to  speak:  an  aspect  of  the  character  utterly  alien  to 
what  seems  to  be  its  proper  and  prevailing  aspect.  No 

'  The  duty  of  weighing  the  re-  the  Provost  preached  at  S.  Mary's  : 

lative  importance  of  Questions,  spe-  but  I  am  reminded  by  a  writer  in 

dally  of  Religious  Questions.' — Jan.  'the  Guardian'  [Oct.  3ist,  1883, — 

29th,  1871,— pp.  20.  p.  1 63  2]  that  it  was  not.  He  preached 

5  From  the  Rev.   E.  G.  Living-  before  the  University  for  the  last 

stone. — I  once  supposed  that   this  time  on  the  26th  Oct.  1873. 
had  been  the  very  last  sermon  which 


1870]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  445 

one  who  knew  the  Provost  only  in  his  public  relations 
would  ever  have  suspected  him  of  writing  jocose  verses, 
—sending  his  sister  Sarah — (her  birthday  was  Feb. 
1 4th) — a  yearly  'Valentine';  and  insisting  on  calling 
his  brother  Csesar's  house  (No.  26,  Grosvenor  Street)  the 
'  Oriel  Hotel.'  He  invariably  addressed  his  delightful 
sister-in-law  as  the  'landlady,'  and  styled  himself  her 
'  faithful  and  affectionate  customer.'  Thus,  in  1 869,  he 
sends  some  playful  verses  about '  Inns '  in  general  to  '  the 
landlady  of  the  Oriel  Hotel,' — following  up  his  verses 
with  speculations  as  to  their  possible  meaning : — 

'And  there  are  Antiquaries  who  think  they  have 
ascertained  the  locality  of  that  particular  Inn,  which 
they  find  flourished  about  300  years  ago  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  a  great  square,  at  that  time  the  resort  of 
the  nobility,  and  called  "  Grovenor"  or  "  Grosvenor  Square" 
but  now  deserted  for  a  swamp  called  "Belgravia."  They 
think  also  that  the  "  Oriel  Hotel "  derived  its  name  from 
an  old  gentleman,  whose  initials  alone  have  been  dis- 
covered, but  whose  title  they  find  on  an  old  tombstone  ; 
thus, — 

"  Here  lies  E.  H.,  of  whom  nothing  is  memorial 
But  that  he  lived  and  died  Provost  of  Orial." 

'The  old  spelling  ("Orial")  favours  this  conjecture; 
but  the  point  is  still  involved  in  obscurity,  and  impera- 
tively demands  and  deserves  further  investigation.' 

In  1 874  (Dec.  ^8th)  he  thus  concludes  a  letter  to  his 
'landlady':— 

'  P.  S. — Thanks  to  dear  Caesar's  care  and  skill 
His  patient  here  (who  felt  so  ill) 
Now  feels,  and  says,  he's  greatly  better. 
And  thus  I  close  my  stupid  letter.' 

So  late  as  Feb.  6, 1877,  he  sent  the  same  gentle  creature 
the  '  Pillow  thoughts  of  an  aggrieved  guest,  after  obey- 
ing the  imperious  Lady's  command  to  go  to  bed  early.' 


446  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1874 

In  the  autumn  of  1874  (October  3rd),  Dr.  Hawkins  re- 
signed into  the  hands  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  (for  the 
Crown  is  the  Visitor  of  Oriel,)  the  active  duties  of  the 
Provostship.  Though  he  had  very  nearly  completed  his 
86th  year,  he  was  still  unconscious  of  the  decrepitude  of 
age :  but  (in  his  own  words)  he  '  had  for  some  time  been 
led  to  contemplate  this  step,  from  a  growing  conscious- 
ness of  duties  neglected, — and  especially  of  those  oppor- 
tunities of  usefulness,  not  easily  described  but  highly 
important,  which  the  Head  of  a  College  ought  to  find 
in  his  relations, — social,  pastoral,  parental, — with  the 
younger  students  with  whom  he  is  officially  associated.' 6 
His  failing  sight  in  particular  rendered  correspondence 
onerous  and  difficult.  Other  considerations,  which  it  is 
painful  to  recall,  may  have  concurred  to  second  his  reso- 
lution to  resign  to  a  Vice-Provost  the  active  manage- 
ment of  the  College.  One  less  keenly  conscientious  than 
himself,  especially  had  his  lot  been  cast  in  happier  times, 
would  unquestionably  have  retained  his  office  to  the 
last.  Lord  Chancellor  Cairns,  in  acknowledging  the 
Provost's  letter,  with  the  Petition  which  accompanied 
it,  remarks, — 

'  I  have  read  the  letter  with  mixed  feelings  of  regret 
and  admiration.  Regret,  that  you  should  find  the  weight 
of  advancing  years  oblige  you  to  withdraw  from  the 
College  any  portion  of  the  personal  superintendence 
which,  with  such  great  public  advantage,  you  have  so 
long  exercised  over  it :  admiration,  at  the  testimony  which 
your  lucid  and  comprehensive  explanation  gives  that  the 
weight  of  so  many  years  sits  so  lightly  upon  you.' 

A  graceful  intimation  follows,  that  this  last  considera- 
tion alone  occasioned  the  Lord  Chancellor  any  difficulty 
in  complying  with  the  prayer  of  the  Petition.  A  Vice- 

6  To  D.  B.  Monro,  esq.,  at  that  time  Dean  of  the  College, — Nov.  I9th, 
1874. 


[874] 


THE  GREAT  PROVOST. 


447 


Provost  was  however  duly  appointed  in  the  first  days  of 
December :  and  thenceforth,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  the 
Provost  occupied  his  Canonical  residence  at  Rochester 
continuously.  He  crossed  for  the  last  time  the  threshold 
of  the  College  over  which  he  had  so  long  and  so  faith- 
fully presided, — on  the  afternoon  of  Thursday,  the  I7th 
day  of  December,  1874.  An  enumeration  of  his  several 
published  writings  since  the  list  last  given,  (viz.  in  page 
421),  will  be  found  at  the  foot  of  this  page.7  .  .  .  He  left 


7  '  The  duty  of  Moral  Courage. 
A  Sermon  preached  before  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford  on  the  first  Sunday 
in  the  Term/ Oct.  17,1852.  (pp.  21.) 
— 'A  Letter  to  the  Principal  of 
Magdalen  Hall  [Dr.  Macbride] 
upon  the  future  Representation  of 
the  University  of  Oxford:  By  the 
Provost  of  Oriel,— Oxford  [Feb.] 
1853.  (pp.  16.) — '  CHRIST  our  Ex- 
ample. A  Sermon  preached  before 
the  University  of  Oxford  on  the  first 
Sunday  in  the  Term,'  Oct.  1 6, 1853. 
(pp.  22.) — 'A  Letter  to  a  noble 
Lord  [Earl  of  Radnor]  upon  a  recent 
statute  of  the  University  of  Oxford 
with  reference  to  Dissent  and  occa- 
sional Conformity.'  By  the  Provost 
of  Oriel.  Oxford,  1855.  (pp.  22.) 
— '  Christian  Unity.  A  Sermon 
preached  before  the  University  of 
Oxford,'  Feb.  18,  1825  (pp.  26.)— 
'  Spiritual  Destitution  at  home.  A 
Sermon  preached  before  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford,'  Feb.  12,  1860.  (pp. 
34)  :  [a  very  earnest  and  interesting 
plea,  based  on  the  increase  of  our 
population  from  10  millions  and-a- 
half  to  very  nearly  21  millions, — 
the  doubling  of  the  number  of  the 
people  within  the  space  of  50  years.] 
— '  Notes  upon  Subscription,  Aca- 
demical and  Clerical:  1864.  (pp. 


69.)— •' Additional  Notes  on  Sub- 
scription, Academical  and  Clerical  : 
with  reference  to  the  Clerical  Sub- 
scription Act  of  1865, — the  Repub- 
lication  of  Tract  XC.—The  Tests' 
Abolition  (Oxford)  Bills.'— 1866. 
(pp.  66.) — '  The  Pestilence  in  its 
relation  to  Divine  Providence  and 
Prayer.  A  Sermon  preached  before 
the  University  of  Oxford,'  Dec.  9, 
!866. — 1867,  (pp.  29.) — '  Our  debts 
to  CcB&ar  and  to  GOD.  A  Sermon 
preached  before  the  University  of 
Oxford  on  Advent  Sunday,'  Nov.  29, 
1868.  (pp.  28.) — 'Judgment  ac- 
cording to  our  privileges  :  Duties, 
according  to  our  powers.  A  Sermon 
preached  at  the  re-opening  of  the 
Chapel  of  S.  Mary  Hall,  Oxford,  on 
Whit-Sunday,  I  June  1873.'— 'Con- 
siderations upon  the  public  use  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed  and  the  proposed 
Synodical  Declaration  —  [dated 
May,  1873].'  (pp.  14-)—'^  Supple- 
ment and  an  Appendix  to  Considera- 
tions upon  the  public  use  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  and  the  proposed 
Synodical  Declaration.'  [June  1874] 
pp.  23. — In  this  same  year  (viz.  1874) 
was  published  by  the  S.  P.  C.  K. 
the  Provost's  'Notes  on  Church  and 
State,1  (pp.  23),— an  admirable 
pamphlet. 


448  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1874 

behind  him,  (it  has  been  admirably  declared),  '  the  recol- 
lection of  a  pure,  consistent,  laborious  life,  elevated  in  its 
aim  and  standard,  and  marked  b}^  high  public  spirit  and 
a  rigid  and  exacting  sense  of  duty.  In  times  when  it 
was  wanted,  he  set  in  his  high  position  in  the  University 
an  example  of  modest  and  sober  simplicity  of  living ; 
and  no  one  who  ever  knew  him  can  doubt  the  constant 
presence,  in  all  his  thoughts,  of  the  greatness  of  things 
unseen,  or  his  equally  constant  reference  of  all  that  he 
did  to  the  account  which  he  was  one  day  to  give  at  his 
LOED'S  judgment  seat.'8 

The  changes  which  subsequently  befell  his  beloved 
University, — the  second  Revolution  rather  which  it  was 
destined  to  experience, — he  watched  at  a  distance  with 
profound  anxiety  and  concern.  Already  was  it  foreseen, 
in  well-informed  quarters,  as  '  not  improbable  that  new 
strifes  are  impending.  The  vultures  scent  the  carcase 
and  are  hastening  to  their  prey.'  In  truth,  it  required 
no  prophet  to  make  men  aware  that,  disastrous  as  had 
been  the  Legislation  of  1854-7,  there  remained  in  Oxford 
far  too  much  of  its  ancient  Religious  constitution  and 
character  to  satisfy  the  secularist  party.  A  heavy  blow 
was  inflicted  in  1871  by  the  'Universities  Tests'  Act,' — 
subsequently  to  the  passing  of  which,  no  declaration  of 
Religious  belief  was  any  longer  allowed  to  be  made  at 
the  taking  of  any  degree  other  than  degrees  in  Divinity. 
In  this  way,  the  door  was  set  wide  open  for  the  Secular- 
ization of  University  teaching.  Something  was  indeed  said 
about  '  proper  safeguards  for  the  maintenance  of  Religious 
instruction  and  worship : '  but  at  the  end  of  five  years 
even  this  flimsy  provision  was  swept  entirely  away. 
Nothing  less  had  been  clearly  foreseen  by  the  friends  of 
Religion  in  Oxford.  'The  effect,  whatever  may  be  the 

8  The  Guardian,  Nov.  4,  1874. 


1876]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  449 

intention  of  Mr.  [now  Lord  Chief  Justice]  Coleridge's  Bill, 
can  be  nothing  less  than  the  de-Christianizing  of  the 
Colleges?  (These  are  the  first  words  of  Dr.  Chase's 
pamphlet  on  this  occasion.)  '  I  cannot  conceal  from  my- 
self '  (wrote  Dean  Mansel)  '  that  your  Tests'  Bill  is  but 
one  of  a  series  of  assaults  destined  to  effect  an  entire  separ- 
ation between  the  'University  and  the  Church!  Accordingly, 
in  1876  a  fresh  '  Oxford  University  Commission  '  having 
been  appointed,  it  became  the  one  object  of  the  enemies 
of  the  Church  to  oust  the  Clergy  from  their  endowments 
and  to  de-Christianize  the  Colleges.  The  animus  of  the 
proposed  legislation  no  one  could  mistake.  A  fatal  error 
had  been  committed  by  the  framers  of  the  Commission 
when  they  gave  to  an  unknown  and  irresponsible  trium- 
virate of  three  from  every  College, — often  its  junior 
fellows,  elected  by  the  'liberal'  majority  of  the  govern- 
ing body, — equal  powers  with  the  Commissioners  them- 
'  selves  in  framing  a  new  Constitution.  Thus,  the 
death-blow  to  Oxford  was  dealt  by  those  whom  Oxford 
had  nourished  in  her  bosom,  and  was  even  now  sustain- 
ing by  her  bounty.  In  the  meantime,  no  pains  were 
taken  to  disguise  the  intentions  of  those  at  whose  mercy 
the  entire  Collegiate  system  was  thus  placed.  The 
Chancellor  of  the  University  (the  Marquis  of  Salisbury) 
having  appointed  one  Commissioner  who  was  known  to 
have  the  interest  of  Theological  study  and  Religious 
Teaching  in  the  University  supremely  at  heart,  the 
secularists — after  having  been  defeated  in  the  Upper 
House9 — did  not  rest  until  they  had  procured  from  the 
Government  the  exclusion  of  that  man's  name  from  the 
Commission.1— The  draft  of  the  Statutes  proposed  for 
Magdalen  College— which  secured  for  the  College  at 

9  Seethe'  Times  'of  April  i,  1876.  the  Dedication  prefixed  to  the  Ser- 
1  This  will  be  found  explained  in  inon  quoted  below  in  note  6,— p.  45 1. 
VOL.  I.  G  g 


450  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1876 

least  5  (out  of  40)  Clerical  Fellows -, — was  actually  in  print 
when  Lord  Selborne  resigned  his  chairmanship.  There- 
upon, the  secularists,  under  a  new  Chairman,  re-opened 
the  entire  question ;  recalled  the  draft  Statutes  already  in 
print ;  and  by  a  majority  of  one  vote  (5  against  4)  reduced  the 
number  of  Clerical  Fellows  to  3.2 — The  case  of  Lincoln 
College  is  sufficiently  remarkable  to  merit  independent 
notice.  In  the  Royal  Charter  of  foundation,  confirmed 
by  Parliament  in  1427,  Robert  Flemming,  Bp.  of  Lincoln, 
was  empowered  to  unite  three  neighbouring  Churches 
into  one :  "  Et  easdem  Ecclesias  sic  unitas,  annexas,  et 
incorporatas,  '  Ecclesiam  omnium  Sanctorum  '  nominare : 
et  eandem  Ecclesiam  in  Ecclesiam  collegiatam  sive  Collegium 
erigere"  Lincoln  College  therefore  is  something  more 
than  a  College  of  Priests,  its  fellows  being  all  of  necessity 
graduates  in  Divinity.  It  is  a  Collegiate  Church.  Each 
Fellow  has  his  '  stallum  in  choro  et  vocem  in  capitulo.' 
Will  it  be  believed  that  in  the  proposed  new  Statutes 
for  Lincoln  no  provision  was  made  that  one  single  Fellow 
should  le  in  Holy  Orders  ?  3 

In  brief,  the  number  of  Fellowships  to  be  held  by 
Clergymen  was  reduced  in  every  College  to  two,  one,  or 
none.  The  possibility  was  contemplated  of  there  not 
being  a  single  Fellow  of  the  College  in  Holy  Orders, — not- 
withstanding that  the  Colleges  are,  without  exception, 
Ecclesiastical  foundations,  openly  and  avowedly  endowed 
for  the  sustentation  of  the  Clergy.4  The  new  Statutes 
abolished  in  all  the  Colleges  (except  two5)  the  require- 
ment that  the  Head  shall  be  in  Holy  Orders, — thereby 

2  See  the  Appendix  (E).  (Eu  8ov\c  dya.ee  Kal  mark  !)     Well 

3  This  discreditable  proposal  was  may  secularists  be  so  anxious  to  sub- 
only  frustrated  in  the  House  of  Lords  statute  Lay  for  Episcopal  visitors, 
by  the  brave  and  determined  oppo-  *  See  the  Appendix  (F). 

sition   of  the   Visitor, — Dr.  Chris-  5  Viz.  Christ  Church  and  Pem- 

topher  Wordsworth,  Bp.  of  Lincoln.       broke  College. 


1876]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  451 

depriving  the  Church  of  its  only  remaining  guarantee 
that  the  Head  of  a  College  shall  be  a  Christian.  Hence- 
forth, there  is  nothing  whatever  to  prevent  a  College 
being  presided  over  by  a  Socinian,  or  a  Papist.  The 
education,  in  any  College,  may  at  any  time  pass  entirely 
into  the  hands  of  avowed  Unbelievers.  Christian  parents 
henceforth  send  up  their  sons  to  Oxford  without  any 
guarantee  whatever  that  those  sons  shall  be  Christianly 
brought  up.  .  .  .  Public  attention  was  faithfully  directed 
to  this  subject  at  the  proper  time,6  but  without  effect. 
To  interfere,  seemed  to  be  nobody's  business. 

Nor  is  this  all.  That  the  Colleges  were  specially 
intended  for  the  encouragement  of  Learning  in  the  sons 
of  poor  parents  has  been  often  proved,7  as  well  as  largely 
insisted  on.8  Next  to  a  burning  jealousy  for  GOD'S  honour 
and  glory,  nothing  is  more  conspicuous  in  the  records  of 
these  ancient  foundations  than  a  holy  solicitude  on  this 
head.  But,  by  the  new  legislation,  the  sacred  claim  of 
Poverty, —  (meaning  of  course  thereby  those  'pauperes 
Sc/wlares*  who  would  gladly  come  up  to  Oxford,  could 
they  in  any  way  afford  to  do  so,) — is  set  at  nought.  It  is 
no  longer  possible,  except  at  what  would  be  to  such 
persons  a  ruinous  cost,  for  a  man  to  obtain  the  full 
benefits  of  an  University  education.  Thus  the  poor 
have  been  robbed  of  their  birthright, — on  the  plea  that 

6  <  The  Disestablishment  of  Eeli-  Hall :— (i)  'A  Plea,  for  John,  Lord 
gion  in  Oxford,  the  betrayal  of  a  Craven,  and  the  Eleemosynary  pur- 
sacred  Trust : — words  of  warning  pose  of  Founders  generally'  [n.  d.] : 
to  the  University  '  : — a  sermon  — (2)  '  The  rights  of  "  Indigentes  " 
preached  before  the  University  Nov.  in  respect  to  College  Foundations,' 
2ist,  1880,— by  the  Dean  of  Chi-  A  Letter  to  Sir  J.  Pakington,  1856: 
Chester  ;  2nd  edition,  with  Appen-  —(3)  « Education  for  frugal  men 
dices. — pp.  56.  at  the  University  of  Oxford.'  (An 

1  See  Appendix  (G).  account  of  the  experiments  at  S. 

8  See  the  following  by  the  Kev.  Mary  and  S.  Allan  Halls,  1864.) 

Dr.   Chase,  Principal  of  S.  Mary  See  at  the  end  of  Appendix  (G). 

Gg  3 


452  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1876 

the  surplus  revenues  of  the  Colleges  are  required  for 
increasing  the  incomes  of  what  is  demonstrably  an  uselessly 
enlarged  Professoriate.9  The  consequence  is,  that  we  are 
drifting  back  into  the  state  of  things  out  of  which  Walter 
de  Merton  rescued  the  University  in  1264.  In  Oxford, 
at  the  present  instant,  far  more  than  a  tithe  of  the  Under- 
graduate body,  'unattached'  to  any  College,  are  living 
sparse  about  the  city;  picking  up  their  learning  under 
the  gravest  disadvantages,  and  ostracized  from  the 
society  of  their  fellows.  The  *  Unattached^'  system  is  a 
retrograde  movement,- — an  imposture  and  a  sham.  The 
recent  Legislation  will  infallibly  result  in  a  deteriorated 
Clergy,  and  the  decay  of  sacred  Learning, — whereby  the 
Church  of  England  will  be  despoiled  of  its  distinctive 
boast  and  ornament.1  It  only  remains  to  add,  that  the 
substitution  of  the  Professorial  for  the  Tutorial  system ; 
— the  establishment  of  bodies  of  married  Fellows,  who 
block  the  way  to  advancement  and  fatally  retard  pro- 
gress ; — the  system  of  combined  College  lectures,  and 
the  consequent  severance  of  the  bond  which  ought  to 
subsist  between  Undergraduates  and  their  Tutors,  as 
well  as  the  destruction  of  the  entire  system  of  Collegiate 
life: — all  these  things,  coming  at  the  heels  of  the  organic 
changes  adverted  to  at  the  outset,  have  established  a 

9  The  reader  is  invited  to  inquire  fingers  of  one  hand, 

for  a  '  Eetnrn  '  made  on  the  subject  x  '  If  there   be  one  gem  in  the 

of  Professors  and  Professorial  Lee-  diadem  of  the  Church  of  England 

tares,   by   order   of  the    House    of  which  shines  with  a  brilliancy  be- 

Commons,  and  ordered  to  be  printed  yond  the  rest,  and  a  brilliancy  pecu- 

ii  July,  1876.     It  is  certainly  little  liarly  her  own, — that   jewel  is  the 

calculated  to  stimulate  the  founding  large,  and  profound,  and  sanctified 

of  additional   Professorships, — cer-  learning,    which   has    characterized 

tainly   not    the   increasing   of    the  her  Clergy.'     ('  Clerical  Duties,'  an 

actual   emoluments    of   Professors.  Ordination  Sermon  preached  at  Ch. 

Interesting  it  would  be  to  ascertain  Ch.,  Dec.  3oth,  1835, — by  Rev.  W. 

how  many  of  the  existing  staff  some-  Jacobson,  since  Bp.  of  Chester.) 
times  count  their  auditory  on  the 


1879]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  453 

hopeless  gulf  between  the  Oxford  of  the  past  and  the 
Oxford  of  the  future.  Kather  has  the  de-Christianizing  of 
the  Colleges  effectually  abolished  what  has  hitherto  been 
the  prime  ornament  of  this  Church  and  realm.  Men  will 
certainly  wake  up,  when  it  will  be  all  too  late,  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  crime  which  has  thus  been  committed ; 
the  irreparable  injury  which  in  these  last  days  has  been 
inflicted  on  our  two  ancient  Universities.  Posterity  will 
demand  an  account  of  it :  will  call  for  the  production  of 
the  obscure  names  of  the  principal  offenders :  will  pass 
on  them  a  sentence  of  severe  condemnation.  But  only 
in  'the  great  and  terrible  Day  of  the  LORD'  will  it 
become  fully  known  how  hateful  the  secularization  of 
religious  endowments,  which  were  doing  their  work  well, — 
and  the  de-Christianizing  of  ecclesiastical  foundations, 
which,  had  they  been  let  alone,  might  have  provided  a 
bulwark  against  the  growing  infidelity  of  the  age ; — 
how  hateful,  I  say,  are  these  acts  in  the  eyes  of  the  great 
Head  of  the  Church,  to  whom  those  endowments  were 
deliberately  given  and  still  rightfully  belong;  and  for 
whose  honour  and  glory  the  foundations  were  confessedly 
set  apart. 

The  Provost  of  Oriel's  latest  public  act  (March  5th, 
1879)  was  to  memorialize  the  Commissioners  concerning 
'  the  New  Code  of  Statutes  framed  for  Oriel  College. '  He 
complains  that  the  proposed  Code  '  proceeds  on  a  wrong 
principle '  :— 

'  It  repeals  all  the  existing  Statutes,  together  with  the 
Ordinance  framed  by  the  Commissioners  in  1857,  in- 
cluding the  Founder's  original  Statutes,  and  those  relating  to 
subsequent  Benefactions ;  leaving  out  of  sight  the  main 
design  of  the  Foundation, — which  the  Commissioners  desire  to 
keep  in  mew,  and  which  the  Provost  and  Fellows  are  above 
all  others  concerned  to 


454  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1879 

'  The  true  course  was  surely  that  which  was  observed 
by  the  Commissioners  in  1857;  who  left  the  existing 
Statutes  in  full  force,  except  so  far  as  they  were  either 
expressly,  or  by  manifest  implication,  repealed.  It  is  in 
fact  only  from  the  Charter  of  the  Foundation,  and  the  original 
Statutes  (which  are  its  complement),  that  we  learn 
the  main  design  of  the  Founder,  and  the  true  character  of 
the  Institution. 

'  It  was  to  be  Ecclesiastical :  a  School  of  Divinity;  not 
for  Education  generally,  but  specially  for  Theology,  and  the 
training  up  of  Christian  Ministers : — "  COLLEGIUM  SCHO- 

LAKIUM  IN  SACKA  THEOLOGIA  STUDENTIUM," — established 
"AD  DECOKEM  ET  UTILITATEM  SACBOSANCTAE  ECCLESIAE" 
..."  cujus  ministeria  personis  sunt  idoneis  committenda, 
quae  velnt  stellae  in  custodiis  suis  lumen  praelcant,  et  popu- 
los  instruant  doctrind  pariter  et  exemplo."'  ['Charter,' 
p.  5  :  '  Statutes,'  p.  7.] 

Accordingly,  the  Provost  and  all  the  Fellows  (except 
three)  were  to  be  in  Holy  Orders.  And  this  fundamental 
enactment  has  been  maintained  inviolate  throughout  up- 
wards of  half-a-thousand  years.  It  is  especially  on  this, 
('  the  Ecclesiastical  character  of  the  Provostship  and  of  the  In- 
stitution,' 2)  that  the  aged  Chief  of  the  College  founds  his 
protest ;  as  well  as  on  the  manifest  injustice  and  in- 
expediency of  the  proposed  revolutionary  changes. 
Clear  it  must  needs  be  to  every  honest  mind,  that  in- 
asmuch as  College  endowments — fenced  about  with  safe- 
guards which  the  Founders  themselves  deemed  im- 
pregnable— were  given,  accepted,  and  have  ever  since 
been  held,  expressly  for  the  support  of  'Religion  throughout 
the  land ; — now  at  last  to  divert  these  to  secular  uses  is 
nothing  else  but  the  letrayal  of  a  sacred  Trust.  In  the 
words  of  Earl  Cairns, — 

'Because  Ecclesiastical  property  is  held  in  trust  for 
others,  that  trust  has  to  be  protected ;  and  therefore  the 

2  The  reader  is  again  referred  to  the  Appendix  (F). 


1875]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  455 

State  has  a  duty  to  perform.  But  the  only  duty  which 
the  State  has  to  perform,  and  the  only  power  which  the 
State,  morally  speaking,  possesses,  is  the  duty  and  the 
power  to  see  that  the  trusts  are  executed,  and  that 
a  proper  object  of  the  trust  remains.  And  provided  the 
trust  is  executed  and  the  object  of  the  trust  remains,  I 
maintain  that  Parliament  is  no  more  competent,  morally,  to 
deal  with  property  of  that  kind  than  it  is  to  deal  with  private 
property' 

Enough  on  this  sad  subject.  As  might  have  been 
anticipated,  the  Provost's  Memorial  was  of  no  manner  of 
avail.  Will  the  present  governing  body,  (we  ask  our- 
selves),— after  abolishing  their  Founder's  Statutes  and 
contravening  in  every  respect  his  plainly-declared  inten- 
tion,— still,  on  their  three  Commemoration  days,  solemnly 
confess  before  GOD  their  bounden  duty  so  to  employ 
their  Benefactors'  bounty  ;  as  we  think  they  would  approve 
if  they  were  upon  earth  to  witness  what  we  do  '  / 

It  only  remains  to  sketch  the  closing  scene  of  what 
may  be  truly  described  as  an  historic  life.  The  Pro- 
vost's lot  had  been  cast  in  a  most  eventful  period  of  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  England, — in  the  most  eventful 
of  the  fortunes  of  her  two  ancient  Universities.  His 
days  had  in  consequence  been  spent  amid  fierce  Academic 
conflicts  ;  and  in  these,  he  had  consistently  and  promi- 
nently borne  a  part  second  to  none  in  importance  and  in 
dignity.  A  life  it  had  been,  from  first  to  last,  of  obsti- 
nate and  prolonged  antagonism, — of  uncompromising 
resistance,  and  of  stern  unbending  protest, — against  two 
great  successive  movements  :  the  '  Tractarian '  move- 
ment,— which  he  condemned,  as  disloyal  and  dishonest ; 
the  '  Liberal '  movement, — which  he  abhorred,  as  irre- 
ligious and  revolutionary.  Of  the  one,  so  far  as  it  was 
local,  he  was  mainly  instrumental  in  occasioning  its 


456  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1875 

break-up  in  1 845.3  The  other  he  lived  to  see  triumphant. 
So  varied  and  so  grave  an  experience  has  fallen  to  no 
other  head  of  a  House  since  Oxford  became  an  University. 
.  .  .  Whether  the  liberalism  of  the  old  Oriel  school, — the 
school  of  Whately,  and  Arnold,  and  Hampden,  to  which, 
some  fifty  years  before,  Edward  Hawkins  had  himself 
belonged, — was  not  largely  responsible  for  the  dis- 
organisation of  the  University  which  has  subsequently 
prevailed, — I  forbear  to  inquire.  Principles  were  then  sur- 
rendered, views  were  then  strenuously  advocated,  which 
paved  the  way  for  yet  larger  demands  and  yet  more 
fatal  concessions.  We  know  on  the  best  authority  that 
they  that  have  "sown  the  wind  shall  reap  the  whirl-* 
wind."  But  men  cannot  see,  and  will  not  be  shown, 
the  end  from  the  beginning.  .  .  .  The  same  Article 
proceeds  :— 

"  Impossible  it  was,  in  the  meantime,  for  those  who 
had  occasionally  found  themselves  most  strongly,  and 
perhaps  most  painfully  opposed  to  the  Provost  of  Oriel, 
not  to  admire  and  revere  one,  who,  through  so  long 
a  career,  had,  in  what  he  held  to  be  his  duty  to  the 
Church  and  to  Religion,  fought  so  hard, — encountered 
such  troubles, — given  up  so  many  friendships,  and  so 
much  ease ; — and  who,  while  a  combatant  to  the  last, 
undiscouraged  by  odds  and  sometimes  ill-success,  had 
brought  to  the  weariness  and  disappointment  of  old  age 
an  increasing  gentleness  and  kindliness  of  spirit,  which  is 
one  of  the  rarest  tokens  and  rewards  of  patient  and  genuine 
self-discipline.  A  man  who  had  set  himself  steadily  and 
undismayed  to  stem,  and  bring  to  reason,  the  two  most 
powerful  currents  of  conviction  and  feeling  which  had 

3  See  an  interesting  and  admir-  ment  of  the  Provost  of  Oriel,'  in  the 
ably  written  Article,  headed  'Retire-  '  Guardian  '  of  Nov.  4,  1874. 


1875]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  457 

agitated  his  times, — left  an  impressive  example  of  zeal 
and  fearlessness,  even  to  those  against  whom  he  had 
contended." 

Henceforth,  happily  for  his  peace  of  mind,  the  Provost 
was  entirely  removed  from  that  unquiet  atmosphere,  and 
from  those  harassing  influences  which  had  long  since 
passed  beyond  the  sphere  of  his  individual  control. 

The  subdued  and  restful,  the  happy  and  very  humble 
spirit,  in  which  the  few  remaining  years  of  his  life  (1875 
to  1882)  were  spent, — within  the  precincts  of  the  Cathe- 
dral with  which  he  had  been  for  nearly  half  a  century 
connected,  and  in  the  domestic  seclusion  of  his  own 
peaceful  home, — surprised,  even  affected,  those  who  were 
nearest  and  dearest  to  him.  It  was  a  greatly  diminished 
circle :  for  his  only  surviving  son,  (Csesar,  4  whom  he 
saw  last  in  1878,)  was  in  India;  and  there  remained 
to  him,  besides  his  devoted  wife,  only  his  daughter  Mary. 
Two  little  grandchildren  however,  Maude  and  Kate,  who 
had  been  recently  added  to  his  household,  were — (what 
need  to  say  it  ?) — a  prime  refreshment  and  solace.  (He 
is  remembered  to  have  been  once  caught  rolling  the 
bowls,  with  one  of  them,  on  the  beautiful  turf  of  S. 
John's, — his  own  ancient  college.  Never,  in  truth,  did  he 
appear  to  more  advantage  than  when  in  the  society  of 
children.  They  seemed  fond  of  him.)  His  rather  con- 
fined and  by  no  means  ornamental  garden  now  became  a 
continual  source  of  pleasure  to  him.  The  works  of  GOD, 
as  His  works,  were  a  downright  joy, — perpetual  re- 
minders of  the  Divine  wisdom,  the  Divine  goodness. 
It  seemed  now  as  if  every  budding  tree  and  flowering 

4  Caesar  Richard,— bora  at  Oxford,      at  Umritsur  in   the  Punjab.     He 
Feb.  6, 1841:— Deputy  Commissioner      married  at  Amballa,  Oct.  16, 1867. 


458  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1875 

shrub  ministered  thankful  delight,  —  leading  him,  as  it 
did,  to  expatiate  to  those  about  him  on  the  wonderful 
variety  and  beauty  of  Nature,  and  on  the  mysterious 
chemistry  of  Creation.  He  never  failed,  (except  when 
actually  forbidden,)  to  attend  Divine  Service  in  the 
Cathedral  once  a  day;  and  till  within  the  last  year 
or  two  of  his  life,  he  even  took  part  in  the  Communion 
Service.  His  devoutness  was  remarked  by  many. 

The  Psalms  were  now  his  constant  manual  of  Devotion: 
Latterly  they  were  read  to  him,  and  he  would  repeat 
the  alternate  verses.  His  widow  informed  me,  — 

'  Your  own  "  Short  Sermons"  of  which  I  read  many  to 
him  on  Sunday  evenings  in  the  garden,  pleased  him 
much.  "  The  teaching  of  the  Harvest"  he  greatly  liked. 
I  could  name  many  others,  if  I  searched  the  volumes. 
They  were  not  new  to  him,  of  course:  but  you  would 
have  liked  to  see  the  expression  of  his  face,  as  he  thus 
renewed  his  acquaintance  with  them,  in  our  pleasant 
shady  garden.' 

This  is  touching  enough,  —  especially  as  the  author  of 
the  Sermons  in  question  has  experienced  from  those 
honoured  lips  many  and  many  a  salutary  snub.  He 
recalls  affectionately  one  particular  walk  back  from 
S.  Mary's  with  the  Provost,  after  an  unlucky  Palm- 
Sunday  sermon  in  which  a  mystical  reference  had  been 
claimed  for  '  the  multitudes  that  went  before,  and  that 
followed.'  5  '  You  are  too  fanciful/  was  all  that  the 
preacher  got  for  his  pains.  —  *  I  am  sorry  you  think  so.'— 
'  Yes,  Burgon,  you  are  too  fanciful.'  But  he  said  it  very 
kindly.  It  was  like  a  Father  reproving  a  Son  for  some 
slight  indiscretion. 


5  S.  Matth.  xxi.  9  ;  S.  Mark  xi.  9.  KOI  fj.€ra  TTJV  irapovaiav,  afi&v  TOVT' 
—  (Of  npoayovrfs  KCLI  of  aKoXovOovvres  eari  TIpotprjTwv  KCLI  'AiroaroXajv.  —  Cor- 
af/x/3oA.d  flat  rwv  rrp^j  TTJS  irapovolas,  derii  Cat.  in  S.  Matth.  p.  651.) 


1877]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  459 

The  present  Bishop  of  Rochester  (Dr.  Thorold), — aware 
of  what  I  am  about, — writes  to  me  as  follows  : 6 

'  Though  rny  recollections  of  the  Provost  of  Oriel  travel 
back  43  years, — to  a  time  when  the  Head  of  a  House 
was  a  kind  of  demi-god  in  Oxford,  whom  an  under- 
graduate could  hardly  pass  without  the  shiver  of  an  un- 
speakable awe, — my  personal  knowledge  of  him  only 
dates  from  July  1877,  when  I  went  to  pay  him  a  visit 
of  ceremonious,  but  sincere,  respect  on  first  arriving  as 
Bishop  in  the  Cathedral  city; — and,  if  I  mistake  not, 
met  him  coming  to  bestow  the  same  mark  of  considera- 
tion on  me.  Urbane,  and  with  a  certain  stateliness  of 
manner,  which  however  was  wholly  devoid  of  pomposity, 
(he  was  too  real  a  gentleman  to  be  pompous), — he  had 
nothing  of  stiffness  or  austerity.  He  had  evidently 
become  mellowed  into  softness  by  his  multiplying  years. 

'  He  was  one  of  the  most  delightful  of  raconteurs  ;  and 
I  was  only  too  thankful  to  sit  at  his  feet,  listening  to  a 
flow  of  anecdote  which  went  back  to  the  great  war. — 
seasoned  with  an  Attic  flavour  which,  if  pungent,  was 
never  bitter.  More  than  once  he  advised  me  on  Diocesan 
matters  with  singular  sagacity :  especially  in  respect  of 
Lay  work,  which  I  was  just  then  busily  organizing,  and 
in  which  he  expressed  much  interest. 

'  Exactness  was  a  passion  with  him.  He  would  have 
set  a  King  right,  if  his  Majesty  had  slipped  in  a  date. 
And  if  this  defines  one  side  of  his  nature,  the  disciplinary 
instinct  in  him  indicates  another.  His  personal  Religion, 
though  it  may  be  thought  to  have  been  lacking  in  what 
is  commonly  understood  by  unction,  always  impressed  me 
as  unusually  sincere,  reverent  and  practical.  I  am  not 
sure  that  I  should  have  welcomed  many  opportunities 
of  preaching  before  him,  had  I  been  a  young  man  expect- 
ing criticism.' 

So  far  Bishop  Thorold.  I  have  availed  myself  of  his 
interesting  jottings,  not  because  they  throw  fresh  light 
on  the  Provost's  character,  but  because  they  correspond 

6  Selsdon  Park,  Croydon,— 7  Nov.  1887. 


460  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1877 

so  exactly,  and  from  a  wholly  independent  point  of  view, 
with  the  impressions  carried  away  by  others :  of  which 
indeed  one  more  specimen  has  yet  to  be  given. 

It  was  remarked  during  these  last  years  of  his  life  how 
greatly  he  seemed  to  enjoy  the  visits  of  his  old  Rochester 
intimates, — especially  those  of  his  immediate  neighbour, 
Archdeacon  Grant.  Canon  Colson,  rector  of  Cuxton  (a 
neighbouring  parish,)  who  throughout  this  period  seldom 
passed  a  week  without  seeing  him,  and  often  accompanied 
him  back  to  his  house  after  the  Prayers, — relates  of 
himself  that,  being  a  Cambridge  man,  and  only  knowing 
the  Provost  by  his  great  Oxford  reputation,  he  '  expected 
to  find  him  rather  stiff  and  awful.'  '  But,  to  my  great 
surprise, 

'  Of  all  the  gentle  courteous  men  it  has  ever  been  my 
good  fortune  to  know,  he  was  I  think  the  most  so.  There 
was  not  a  particle  of  donnishness  in  all  the  intercourse  I 
had  with  him  ;  and  his  great  and  sweet  gentleness  in- 
creased as  he  drew  nearer  to  his  end.  He  never,  for 
instance,  allowed  one  to  leave  his  house,  without  himself 
coming  to  the  door ;  and  in  all  outward  demeanour,  was 
to  my  mind  the  model  of  unassuming  kindness  and 
courtesy.  Then,  too,  there  could  be  no  greater  treat 
than  to  get  him  to  talk  about  old  times,  and  the  great 
Oxford  movement  in  which  he  had  taken  so  large  a  part ; 
and  he  was  always  most  ready  to  do  so.  But  never,  so 
far  as  I  can  remember,  did  he  speak  with  bitterness  of 
any  one ;  always  preserving  what  (I  suppose)  had  been 
his  uniform  character, — calm, gentle,  judicial  impartiality, 
free  from  all  personal  prejudice. 

'  I  may  mention  another  point  of  interest.  For  many 
years  we  have  had  two  meetings  of  the  Clergy  of  the 
three  Rural  Deaneries  in  this  neighbourhood,  in  the 
Chapter-room.  The  Dean  and  Canons  are  of  course 
invited  to  attend.  I  do  not  remember  any  of  these 
meetings  taking  place  without  the  Provost's  being  pre- 
sent, unless  illness  prevented  him  ;  nor  without  his  taking 


i88o]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  461 

a  most  keen  interest  in  the  discussions.  He  did  not 
often  speak ;  but,  no  matter  what  the  subject,  or  how- 
ever insignificant  the  speaker,  he  was  all  attention  ;  and, 
on  one  occasion,  wrote  and  distributed  a  small  pamphlet 
on  the  subject  which  had  been  before  the  meeting.  I 
mention  this  as  a  mark  of  his  gentle  loving  sympathy ; 
as  of  course,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the  speakers  at  such 
a  gathering  were  only  the  Clergy  of  the  town  and  neigh- 
bourhood,— who  had  no  special  claim  on  his  attention.' 7 

The  same  feeling  pen  which  has  already  contributed 
so  many  valuable  reminiscences  of  the  Provost  of  Oriel, 
corroborates  in  an  interesting  passage  the  foregoing 
remarks.  The  Rev.  R.  G.  Livingstone  writes : — 

'Almost  all  the  information  I  have  sent  you  was 
derived  from  his  own  lips  during  a  visit  which  I  paid 
him  at  Rochester  (Dec.  1880),  when  he  was  within  a  few 
weeks  of  completing  his  9  2nd  year.  Never  can  I  forget 
the  kindness  and  courtesy  of  my  venerable  host  during 
that  visit: — how  he  apologized  for  not  being  able  to 
accompany  me  to  the  Dockyard  at  Chatham ; — how  he 
urged  me  to  prolong  my  stay  over  the  coming  Sunday  in 
order  that  I  might  hear  his  favourite  preacher,  Arch- 
deacon Grant;8 — and  much  beside.  The  last  time  I 
saw  him  was  Monday,  soth  December  1880.  It  was  a 
wild  stormy  day, — the  rain  pouring  in  torrents,  the  wind 

7  From  Canon  Colson,  of  Cuxton.  on  Missionary  work,  which  will  be 

8  This  excellent  Divine,  who  oc-  one  of  the  most  interesting  volumes 
cupiedtheHouseimmediatelyfacing  of  the  year.     I  think  they  will  be 
the  Provost's,  died  25  Nov.   1883,  read  with  pleasure  and  profit  by  our 
aged  nearly  78  years.     He  was  the  Antipodes.     There  is  a  good  deal  of 
author  of  an   admirable   course   of  historical  matter  in  them,  which  I 
Bampton  Letures  (1843)  on    '  The  believe   will  be   illustrated  in   an 
past  and  prospective  Extension  of  Appendix.      The    principles    seem 
the  Gospel  by  Missions  to  the  Hea-  thoroughly  good,   and  he  preaches 
then,'     The  Kev.  Charles  Marriott,  them  like  a  man  who  would  go  at  a 
—[see  above,  pp.  310-3,]  writing  to  wink  to  Japan  or  Tartary.     If  they 
Bp.  Selwyn  from  Bitton,  May  isth,  don't  do  some  good,  I  shall  think  we 
1843,  says  : — "Dr.  Grant,  of  New  are  a  set  of  stock  fish." 

College,  is  giving  Bampton  Lectures 


462  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1882 

blowing  boisterously.  The  moment  came  for  my 
departure.  I  had  taken  leave  of  the  entire  party  in  the 
drawing-room,  and  was  hurrying  across  the  hall.  On 
looking  round,  I  saw  the  Provost  following  me.  In  vain 
I  implored  him  not  to  expose  himself.  It  was  to  no  pur- 
pose. He  would  accompany  me  to  the  door  and  see  the 
last  of  me.  ...  I  recall  with  affectionate  interest  this 
last  instance  of  that  gracious  courtesy  of  manner  which  I 
had  so  often  admired  in  the  venerated  Head  of  my  old 
College.  It  was  the  conclusion  of  a  long  series  of  kind- 
nesses received  at  his  hands  since  I  entered  Oriel,  almost 
exactly  twenty-four  years  before  that  day.' 

With  such  an  d§i>\\iov  one  would  have  been  glad  to 
bring  this  sketch  to  a  close :  but  a  few  sad  words  remain 
still  to  be  added.  Painful  it  is  to  have  to  record  that  yet 
another  great  domestic  affliction  befell  the  subject  of  this 
memoir  within  six  weeks  of  his  own  departure :  the 
death,  namely,  of  his  daughter-in-law  Alice,  (his  son 
Caesar's  wife),  whom  he  was  expecting  from  India,  and 
of  whom  he  was  devotedly  fond.  Her  little  son,  Edward 
Caesar,  almost  brought  the  tidings  of  his  mother's  death. 
It  was  a  very  great  sorrow ;  and  yet  was  sweetened  to 
the  Provost  inexpressibly  by  the  sight  of  his  only  grand- 
son. ...  So  chequered,  from  first  to  last,  with  shade 
and  sunshine,  is  this  mysterious  mortal  life  of  ours  ! 

It  shall  but  be  added  that  there  have  not  been  found 
among  his  multitudinous  papers  any  such  memorials  of 
his  own  times  as  some  expected  and  more  desired.  It 
is  perhaps  matter  of  regret  that  posterity  will  not  enjoy, 
from  that  just  and  discriminating  pen,  notices  of  the 
events  which  he  assisted  in  moulding,  and  of  the  famous 
personages  with  whom  he  was  brought  into  close  contact. 
He  kept  a  Diary  indeed,— kept  it  regularly:  but  it  was 
of  a  strictly  private  description.  It  is  written  in  a  kind 


1882]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  463 

of  cipher,  and  is  nothing  else  but  a  conscientious  record  of 
the  writer's  state  of  mind  and  employment  of  his  time. 
It  cannot  be  made  useful  to  others  in  any  way.  It  was 
intended  to  be  as  secret  a  thing  as  his  personal  religion, 
— and  was  in  fact  part  of  it.  Far  better  it  is  that  from 
such  records  the  veil  should  never  be  withdrawn.  But 
the  inner  life  of  such  an  one  as  EDWAKD  HAWKINS, 
Provost  of  Oriel,  would  be  more  instructive  than  many 
homilies.  It  is  suspected  that  it  would  also  furnish  a 
salutary  rebuke  to  an  age  of  unbounded  license,  shame- 
less expediency,  immoderate  self-indulgence. 

During  the  last  three  months  of  his  life,  his  bodily 
strength  had  sensibly  decreased.  There  was  however  as 
yet  no  positive  illness.  An  attack  of  pain  in  his  chest 
and  side,  which  took  place  on  the  night  of  Monday,  1 3th 
November,  was  the  first  premonitory  token  of  what  was 
to  follow.  It  was  a  serious  symptom,  but  it  occasioned 
no  alarm.  He  was  better  on  the  Wednesday ;  and  met 
and  conversed  with  Archd.  Grant,  as  well  as  took  leave 
of  his  little  grandson,  who  was  returning  to  school. 
Late  on  Friday  night,  the  pain  returned  in  a  severer 
form,  and  he  never  rallied  :  but — conscious  of  his  state 
— passed  away  at  about  9  in  the  morning  of  Saturday, 
November  i8th,  1883  ;  when  he  was  within  three  months 
of  completing  his  94th  year. 

On  the  ensuing  Friday  he  was  interred  close  to  his 
loved  son  Edward,  in  the  Cathedral  precincts'  cemetery, 
on  the  breezy  hill-side  which  looks  down  upon  the 
Medway.  He  had  himself  been  the  means  of  recovering 
that^parcel  of  ground  from  the  Ecclesiastical  Commis- 
sioners, being  part  of  the  original  endowment  of  the 
Cathedral  by  Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent,  in  the  lifetime  of 


464  EDWARD  HAWKINS:  [1882 

Justus,  first  Bishop  of  Rochester.  (The  charter  is  dated 
28th  April,  A.D.  604).  Singular  to  relate,  the  fall,  that 
very  morning,  of  a  railway-bridge  near  Bromley,  so 
effectually  blocked  the  line,  that  a  large  party  from 
Oxford, — consisting  chiefly  of  Fellows,  Scholars,  and  other 
undergraduate  members  of  Oriel,  together  with  many  of 
the  College  servants, — were  unable  to  reach  Rochester 
in  time  to  be  present  at  the  funeral.  Many  there  were 
besides  who  desired  to  follow  their  Chief  to  the  grave  ; 

o 

but  who,  having  got  as  far  as  Bromley,  found  them- 
selves absolutely  prevented  from  proceeding  any  further. 
One  former  fellow  of  the  College — (I  had  come  on  to 
Rochester  at  an  earlier  hour) — represented  the  Society. 
I  cannot  say  how  strange  it  seemed  to  me  to  find 
myself  standing  by  that  open  grave  without  any  of  the 
rest :  without  at  least  Chase  by  my  side  !  .  .  .  Dean  Scott 
pronounced  the  words  of  peace  over  his  ancient  friend, 
and  has  since  penned  the  inscription  which  marks  the 
spot  where  the  Provost  of  Oriel  la  laborious  tandem  re- 
qnievit! 

It  seems  worth  recording  that  there  appeared  in  the 
public  journals  on  this  occasion  several  admirable 
biographical  notices  of  the  Provost, — some  of  them  dis- 
playing a  very  just  appreciation  of  his  excellence  ;  all  of 
them  containing  interesting  and  discriminating  remarks 
on  his  career  and  character.  It  seems  to  have  been 
universally  felt  that  a  great  historical  personage  had 
disappeared  from  the  scene.  Men  of  all  parties  showed 
themselves  aware  of  his  moral  and  intellectual  greatness, 
and  generously  vied  in  paying  a  warm  tribute  to  his 
memory.  Those  notices  are  public  property.  But  the 
few  words  which  follow,  expressive  of  personal  regard 
and  private  regret, — (they  were  addressed  to  his  Widow  in 


1882]  THE  GREAT  PROVOST.  465 

her  'supreme  desolation/) — are  not  to  be  found  elsewhere 
and  will  be  read  with  profounder  interest  :— 

^ '  I  have  followed  his  life  year  after  year '  (wrote  Car- 
dinal Newman 9)  '  as  I  have  not  been  able  to  follow  that 
of  others,  because  I  knew  just  how  many  years  he  was 
older  than  I  am,  and  how  many  days  his  birthday  was 
from  mine. 

'  These  standing  reminders  of  him  sprang  out  of  the 
kindnesses  and  benefits  done  to  me  by  him  close  upon 
sixty  years  ago,  when  he  was  Vicar  of  St.  Mary's  and  I 
held  my  first  curacy  at  St.  Clement's.  Then,  during 
two  long  Vacations  [1824-5]  we  were  day  after  day  in 
the  Common  Room  all  by  ourselves,  and  in  Christ 
Church  meadow.  * 

'  He  used  then  to  say  that  he  should  not  live  past  forty, 
— and  he  has  reached  in  the  event  his  great  age.' 


My  task  is  now  ended. — From  the  Provost's  published 
writings,  supplemented  by  his  large  private  correspond- 
ence, future  historians  of  the  Church  of  England  will 
be  just  as  competent  as  any  of  ourselves  to  estimate  his 
character  as  a  Divine  and  a  Controversialist ;  and  to 
assign  him  his  rightful  place  in  the  history  of  his  times 
More  competent,  it  may  be :  for  passion  will  then  have  sub- 
sided; prejudice  and  partiality  will  by  that  time  have 
ceased.  My  one  endeavour  has  been  with  an  affectionate 
and  dutiful  hand  to  trace,  as  faithfully  as  I  know  how, 
those  personal  outlines — to  fix  those  vanishing  linea- 
ments— which  will  enable  posterity  to  identify  and  in- 
dividualize the  man.  At  this  instant  they  dwell  vividly 
with  not  a  few  of  us.  Pass  a  few  short  years,  and  they 
will  begin  to  die  out  of  men's  remembrance  ;  and  once 
departed,  such  things  can  never  be  recalled. 

9  Nov.  1882.  xSee  above,— pp.  392-3- 

VOL.  I.  H  h 


APPENDIX  (A). 

PAGE 

DR.  SOUTHS  LIBRARY 467 

APPENDIX  (B). 
DR.  ROUTE'S  LATIN  INSCRIPTIONS        .        .        .        .     47  2 

APPENDIX  (C). 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  AMERICAN  EPISCOPACY    .        .    480 

APPENDIX  (D). 
AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  'TRACTS  FOR  THE  TIMES'        .    491 

APPENDIX  (E). 

IRRELIGIOUS  CHARACTER  OF  THE  OXFORD  UNI- 
VERSITY COMMISSION  OF  1877-81.  THE  CASE  OF 
MAGDALEN  COLLEGE 492 

APPENDIX  (F). 

THE  COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  ESSENTIALLY  ECCLE- 
SIASTICAL FOUNDATIONS 493 

APPENDIX  (G). 

THE  COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  INTENDED  FOR  THE 
CULTIVATION  OF  LEARNING  IN  THE  SONS  OF 
POOR  PARENTS  .  5°3 


APPENDIX  (A\ 

DK.  ROUTH'S  LIBRARY. 

[Referred  to  above,  at  pp.  81-5.] 

MY  friend  Canon  Farrar,  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the 
University  of  Durham,  has  been  so  good  as  to  furnish  me 
with  some  account  of  the  President  of  Magdalen's  very  interest- 
ing and  valuable  Library,  now  at  Durham.  It  was  obvious 
to  weave  certain  of  the  materials  thus  placed  at  my  disposal 
into  the  story  of  the  President's  Life.  Accordingly,  some 
account  of  the  formation  and  contents  of  his  library, — as  well 
as  how  it  became  alienated  from  Oxford, — will  be  found  given 
above,  from  p.  80  to  p.  87:  whither  the  reader  is  referred. 

The  impression  made  by  the  sight  of  those  many  books  on 
one  visiting  the  President's  lodgings,  is  noticed  in  pages  67-8  : 
— their  locus  is  recorded  in  the  note  (9)  to  p.  77  : — the  Presi- 
dent's perseverance  as  a  book-buyer  to  the  end,  is  exhibited 
at  pp.  82  and  93—4.  Canon  Farrar  shall  now  be  heard  :— — 

"  The  Library  of  a  Scholar  has  a  value  as  a  record  of  his  tastes 
and  employments,  apart  from  the  information  afforded  by  the 
manuscript  notes  which  he  may  have  inserted  in  his  books.  Ac- 
cordingly, a  short  account  of  Dr.  Routh's  Library  becomes  a  de- 
sideratum. 

"  He  left  behind  him  a  library  of  printed  books, — a  Collection  of 
MSS.,  and  separate  papers  or  notes  written  by  himself.  It  is 
probably  to  these  last,  that  notes  like  the  following  refer, — which 
occur  in  certain  of  Dr.  Routh's  books  :  e.  g.  in  his  copy  of  Lord 
John  Russell's  work  on  'the  English  Government  and  Constitution' 
1823,  Dr.  Routh  has  written, — 'See  MS.  South  /25.'— [The  second 
collection  above  named,  the  MSS.  namely,  will  be  found  briefly 
treated  of  above,  in  pp.  85-6.] 

"  A  visitor  to  the  library  who  remembers  that  Dr.  Routh's  first 
publication  (1784)  was  an  edition  of  the  'Euthydemus'  and  'Gorgias  ' 

H  h  2, 


468  APPENDIX  A. 

of  Plato,  will  instinctively  search  among  the  Classical  books  for 
the  copies  of  Plato  which  exist  there.  There  are  many  copies, 
several  being  early  printed  editions: — an  Aldine  folio,  1513;  a 
Frobenius,  1561  ;  two  of  H.  Stephens,  1578;  one  of  which  contains 
a  note  by  Dr.  Routh  in  Latin,  date  1782,  stating  that  the  copy 
had  formerly  belonged  to  Magdalen  College,  but,  having  been  re- 
placed by  another,  had  been  given  to  him.  The  two  dialogues 
which  he  edited  two  years  later,  are  bound  separately  '  propter 
foedatas  atramento  chartas ; '  and  one  leaf  wanting  in  the  '  Gorgias ' 
he  has  supplied  by  making  a  careful  transcript.  Three  other 
editions  may  be  named ;  the  second  of  which  at  least  is  interest- 
ing as  having  almost  certainly  been  used  by  Dr.  Routh  when  an 
undergraduate.  One  is, — 

"  '  Platonis  Dialogi  V.  Recensuit  N.  Forster.  Oxonii  e  typis  Claren- 
don. 1745.'  There  are  many  notes  at  the  end  in  Dr.  Routh's  early 
handwriting.  The  following  specimens,  taken  at  random,  may 
suffice  : — 

"  P.  24.  Dr.  Routh  explains  the  cause  of  a  law  of  homicide  by 
quoting  Roman  law. 

"P.  67  and  again  p.  139.  This  place  he  notes  as  quoted  by 
Origen  ' contra  Celsum.' 

"  P.  27.  He  compares  Eurip.  Orest. 

"  Lower  down,  Clem.  Alex,  is  referred  to. 

"  A  page  occurs  about  the  history  of  various  readings. 

"  P.  278.     He  writes  (Phaedo   ch.  v$'}  ev  avrfj,  ovcry  evavrla.      Why 

singular  ?  Why  feminine  ?  "  Wherever  he  quotes  Greek,  the  ac- 
centuation is  carefully  attended  to. 

"  The  second  copy  of  Plato  is  '  Plat.  Dialog.  III.  opera  Guil.  Et- 
wall  A.B.  e  Coll.  Magd.  Oxonii.  e  Typ.  Clarendon.,  1771.'  This  con- 
tains Dr.  Routh's  handwriting  in  the  same  year,  i.  e.  three  years 
before  he  graduated.  The  copy  has  been  much  read,  and  there 
are  notes  at  the  end  by  him,  almost  entirely  on  various  readings. 
These  two  books  give  us  a  peep  into  the  careful  linguistic  studies 
of  the  young  scholar. 

"  The  third  work  is  a  very  early  printed  one,  entitled  '  Platonis 
Gorgias  et  Apologia  pro  Socrate,  Leon.  Aretin.  Interpreted  It  has 
belonged  to  Philip  Beroaldus  the  elder ;  and  Dr.  Routh  has  taken 
the  trouble  to  copy  into  it  a  long  extract  from  the  Catalogue  of 
the  Magliabecchian  Library  describing  it." 

Note,  that  Routh's  own  annotated  and  corrected  copy  of  the 
two  Dialogues  of  Plato  is  in  the  possession  of  Dean  Church  (of 


DR.  ROUTE'S  LIBRARY.  469 

S.  Paul's) : — see  above,  p.  23.  ...  See  also  (at  p.  37)  Routh's 
memorandum,  made  in  1788,  concerning  "an  interleaved  copy 
of  my  Plato,  wherein  the  Addenda  are  digested  in  their  proper 
order  amongst  the  notes."  Canon  Farrar  proceeds, — 

"In  reference  to  the  subject  of  note-writing,  it  may  be  re- 
marked that  Dr.  Routh  evidently  was  not  in  the  habit  of  writing 
notes  in  the  margin  of  his  author's  pages ;  nor,  except  in  very  rare 
cases,  such  as  those  above  cited,  on  separate  leaves  at  the  end  of 
the  work.  His  notes  are  usually  very  short  ones,  (in  later  life,  in 
English),  relating  to  the  author  or  the  price  of  the  edition ;  e.  g. 
in  a  work  'Remarks  upon  F.  Le  Courayers  Book  by  Clerophilus 
Alethes,'  he  has  taken  the  trouble  to  insert  the  Christian  name 
'  John '  before  '  Constable'  in  a  bookseller's  inscription  of  author  and 
price  ;  or  (to  cite  another  instance)  in  a  work  'An  original  Draught 
of  the  Primitive  Church  entitled ' — (here  follows  the  title  of  Lord 
King's  work) — 'by  a  Presbyter  of  the  Ch.  of  England,  3rd  ed.  London 
1727,'  he  has  added  '  called  the  last  edition,  and  scarce.  In 
Bryant's  Catalogue  1834,  price  9$.' 

"  Such  memoranda  are  at  least  interesting  as  evidences  of  Dr. 
Routh's  passion  for  Bibliography.  Indeed  it  may  be  stated  that  in 
the  curious  or  rare  books  is  always  a  note,  giving  either  an  ac- 
count of  the  work  and  editions  of  it,  or  of  the  price  which  various 
copies  of  it  have  fetched  at  various  times.  In  his  copy  of  Her- 
mann's '  Consultation'  (1548)  there  are  remarks  on  all  these  points. 
In  a  work  entitled  '  A  short  Compend  of  the  growth  of  the  Romane 
Anti-Christ,  composed  in  the  7,  8  and  9  Centuries, — Edinburgh— 
Andro  Hart  1616,'  is  this  note,  with  '95.'  marked  as  price  of  the 
book  : — 

" « Symson  (M.  Patrick),  late  Minister  of  Striveling  in  Scotland,  Historic 
of  the  Church,  the  second  part,  containing  a  discourse  of  the  noveltie  of 
Popish  Keligion,  1625,  18*.,  quoted  in  Thorpe's  Catal.  for  1826.  The 
volume  is  dedicated  to  Prince  Charles.  Perhaps  another  edition  of  this 
work  and  of  the  former  part  of  it  printed  at  Edinburgh  in  1615.  The 
Bodleian  Catal.  runs  thus  :  "  Patrick  Symson,  History  of  the  Church  since 
the  days  of  our  Saviour  untill  this  present  age.  Lond.  1624,  4to,  et  Lond. 
1634,  fol."' 

"  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  in  Dr.  Routh's  Library  are 
many  books  of  rare  interest.  It  would  be  tedious  to  give  a  list. 
It  may  suffice  to  enumerate  the  following :— (i)  A  copy  of  the 
*  Order  of  Communion?  1548,  one  of  four  copies  known:  this  copy 
agreeing  with  that  at  the  Bodleian,— whereas  the  copy  in  Cosin's 


470  APPENDIX  A. 

Library  agrees  with  that  at  Cambridge.  (2)  An  onginal  copy  of 
Hermann's  '  Consultation ' :  —  of  the  'First  Book  of  Homilies' : — of 
the  'Injunctions  of  Edward  VI?  1548: — (3)  Exemplars  (of  which 
more  will  be  said  below),  of  the  ist  and  2nd  'Prayer  Books'  of 
Edward  VI,  and  of  the  Scotch  ' Prayer  Book'  of  1637.  (4)  Various 
early  printed  copies  of  the  Sarum  and  other  Office  books.  (5)  A 
folio  work  of  Plates  of  'French  Monasteries'  of  which  only  three 
copies  exist,  the  rest  having  been  destroyed,  it  is  supposed,  in  the 
Revolution,  to  preclude  future  legal  claims  on  the  part  of  the 
Monasteries.  In  this  book,  on  the  inside  of  the  old  binding,  Dr. 
Routh  has  written,  '  It  was  stated  to  me  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Pugin, 
the  Architect,  that  there  were  not  more  than  three  copies  known  of  this 
ivork.9 — A  learned  note  on  the  history  of  the  book  has  been  added 
(1845)  by  Dr.  Bloxam. 

"  Perhaps  among  literary  rarities,  certainly  among  literary 
curiosities,  should  be  specified  a  volume  containing  two  Aldine 
editions  of  'Gregory  Nazianzen'  viz.  Orat.  9,  1536  and  Orat.  16, 
1516,  with  the  autograph  of  Cranmer,  "Thomas  Cantuar,"  as  its 
former  possessor,  on  the  title  page.  Dr.  Routh  has  added  this 
prefatory  note, — '  Harum  principum  editionum  EXEMPLA  quae  prae 
manibus  ~habes,  penes  BEATUM  MARTYREM  THOMAM  CRANMERUM  Archiepi- 
scopum  Cantuariae  olim  fuerunt,  utiostendit  Chirographum  ejus  libello 
praepositum."1 — The  inscription  is  (as  usual)  in  black  ink  ;  but  at  a 
subsequent  period  Dr.  Routh  has  rewritten  in  red  ink  the  words 
above  printed  in  small  capitals. 

"  It  has  been  already  stated  that  the  memoranda  prefixed  by 
Dr.  Routh  to  his  books,  refer  generally  to  bibliographical  notices  of 
them,  with  an  account  of  the  prices  which  the  volume  has  fetched. 
It  is  a  proof  of  the  advance  of  knowledge  within  the  last  half  cen- 
tury concerning  early  editions  of  our  Prayer  Book,  and  other  Office 
books  and  Reformation  documents,  that  many  of  Dr.  Routh's  notes 
offer  information  which  now  abounds  even  in  popular  manuals,  but 
which  was  rarely  to  be  met  with  seventy  years  ago  when  these 
notes  were  written.  The  following  may  be  worth  citing  as  ex- 
amples. The  first  probably  has  a  distinct  value,  as  seemingly 
indicating  an  edition  generally  unknown  of  the  First  Prayer  Book 
of  Edward  VI.  In  this  volume,  a  copy  of  the  date  1549,  '  Mense 
Maii,"1  (Edw.  Whitchurch), — Dr.  Routh  has  written  the  following 
long  memorandum : — 

"  A  copy  Lond.  Grafton  1549 — £14  14  o  Straker's  Catal.  1838.  Of  the 
great  rarity  of  the  copies  of  this  First  Liturgy,  even  in  the  beginning  of 
the  i8th  century,  see  Collier's  Preface  to  the  2nd  vol.  of  his  'Eccles1. 


DR.  ROUTE'S  LIBRARY.  471 

Hist.''  p.  4,  and  Shepherd's  Preface  to  his  '  Elucidation  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer?  2nd  edit. 

"  Ames,  in  his  '  Typographical  Antiquities?  p.  22,  mentions  two  editions 
of  it  by  Edw.  Whitchurch,  one  the  7th  of  March,  1549,  and  the  other  the 
1 6th  of  June.  This  other  edition  appears  by  the  colophon  at  the  end  of 
the  book  to  have  been  finished  on  the  fourth  of  May.  But  that  of  March 
1549  is  to  be  understood  of  March  in  the  following  year,  1550,  according 
to  the  civil  year,  which  begins  with  the  month  of  January,  instead  of  the 
ecclesiastical  year  commencing  on  the  25th  of  March  ;  for  according  to 
Strype,  'This  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  printed  first  in  the  month  of 
June  (1549),  an(l  a  second  edition  thereof  came  forth  March  8  following, 
with  very  little  difference,  only  that  in  the  first  edition  the  Litany  was  put 
between  the  Communion  Office  and  the  Office  for  Baptism.  In  the  second,  it 
was  set  at  the  end  of  the  Book.'  ('  Ecclesiastical  Memorials?  vol.  2.  p.  87). 
Herbert  had  in  his  possession,  although  Strype  appears  ignorant  of  its 
existence,  this  edition  of  May  1549  (see  v°l-  *•  P*  545)  >  and  it  should  seem 
to  be  on  account  of  the  different  collocation  of  the  Litany  noticed  by 
Strype,  the  first  edit,  of  the  first  Liturgy  of  K.  Edwd.  Herbert's  copy  also 
was  printed  by  Whitchurch,  who  he  says  was  joined  in  the  same  patent 
with  Graf  ton  for  printing  Bibles  and  Books  of  Divine  Service.  It  "appears 
that  Mr.  Heber  possessed  a  copy  of  Grafton's  edition  in  1549,  as  he  did 
those  of  Whitchurch  in  June  1549,  and  March  1549  or  1550.  See  Virtue's 
...  &  7.  p.  of  the  Catalogue. 

"In  1814  Mr.  Randolph's  copy  of  this  edition  sold  for  £2  170;  and  in 
1825,  in  Arch's  Catalogue,  it  was  put  at  £660.  A  Latin  Translation 
of  this  First  Liturgy  is  inserted  in  Bucer's  '  Scriptores  Anglicani?  Basil. 
X577>  PP-  377-455-" 

"  Again,  on  another  page  Dr.  Routh  has  inserted  a  notice  oi  a 
copy  of  this  first  Liturgy,  printed  24  May,  1549,  at  Worcester,  by 
John  Owen. 

"  In  Dr.  Routh's  copy  of  the  Second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI, 
(Grafton,  1552,)  there  is  no  remark  but  'June,  1810.  Sale  (loth  B.'s]  at 
Stewart '$,9$.'  And  lower  down,  '^4. 145. 6d.,  bought  of  Thorpe  in  1835.' 

"In  his  copy  of  the  Scotch  Book,  Edinburgh  (Robert  Young) 
1637,  he  has  written,—'  This  copy  of  the  Scotish  Liturgy,  the  pretext 
for  the  ensuing  Tumults,  belonged  to  K.  Chs.  1st:  as  appears  by  the 
Royal  arms  stamped  on  the  Covers'  And  below,—'  a  copy  in  Kers- 
lake  of  Bristol,  Catal.  in  1845,  at  5  guineas.'  " 

Dr.  Farrar  concludes,—"  These  desultory  notices  of  the  quality  of 
Dr.  Routh's  books,  and  of  the  kind  of  memoranda  which  they  con- 
tain, would  be  imperfect  without  a  special  mention  of  the  valuable 
arid  probably  unique  collection  of  original  PAMPHLETS,  mainly  of  the 
i;th  century,  which  form  the  most  valuable  element  in  the  library. 
The  manuscript  catalogue  of  these,  which  does  not  include  those 


472  APPENDIX  B. 

bound  up  in  other  parts  of  the  library,  and  catalogued  elsewhere, 
fills  73  pages,  and  comprises  about  600  pamphlets.  Though  men- 
tion was  made  of  Dr.  Routh's  habit  of  collecting  pamphlets  through 
the  controversies  of  his  own  time,  it  is  in  respect  of  those  of  the 
1 7th  and  early  i8th  centuries,  that  the  collection  is  at  once  com- 
plete as  well  as  unique. 

"Among  the  Books  are  many  presentation  copies,  containing 
the  Authors'  autographs.  One  little-known  writer  has  addressed 
his  modest  work  '  To  the  Revd.  and  justly  esteemed  Dr.  Routh.' 
What  words  could  more  neatly  express  what  was  fitting  ?  " 


APPENDIX  (B). 

DR.  ROUTH'S  LATIN  INSCRIPTIONS. 

Besides  not  a  few  lesser  specimens  of  the  President's  Latinity, — 
(most  of  which  are  indicated  at  foot *), — four  of  Dr.  Routh's  Latin 
Inscriptions  will  be  found  in  the  earlier  pages  of  the  present 
volume.  Thus,  at  page  8,  note  (4),  is  given  [i]  the  Inscription 
which  marked  the  site  of  the  Vic AEAGE- HOUSE  of  S.  Peter  s-in- 
the-East.  At  p.  24,  ivill  be  found  [2]  the  touching  ^Epitaph  in 
St.  Michael's  Church  on  young  EDWARD  LISTER.  At  p.  53, 
note  (7).  is  exhibited  [3]  the  Epitaph  on  his  sister  /Sophia  (MRS. 
SHEPPARD),  in  Amport  Church.  At  p.  92,  are  given  [4]  the  words 
he  wrote  in  his  '  Festal  present '  to  the  Earl  of  Derby,  Chancellor 
of  the  University. 

Subjoined  are  as  many  other  specimens  of  President  Routh's 
Inscriptive  writing  as  have  come  to  my  knoivledge.  Without 
bestowing  more  labour  on  the  inquiry  than  the  subject  is  worth, — 
(and  I  am  sure  I  have  already  spared  no  pains), — I  find  a 
greater  degree  of  accuracy  than  is  here  achieved,  unattainable. 
But  in  fact  the  Author  changed  his  mind  so  often,  that  we  are 
never  sure  that  we  have  before  us  his  ultimae  curae  ....  The 
Inscriptions  follow,  [5]  to  [29], — with  little  attempt  at  order : — 

[5].  Beneath  a  monumental  bust  O/LORD  CHANCELLOR  THIIR- 
LOW,  now  placed  in  the  Vestry  room  of  the  Temple  Church, 
London  : 

1  See  pages  19,  26-9,  40,  41,  43-4,  50,  75,  72,  84. 


DR.  ROUTES  LATIN  INSCRIPTIONS.      473 

BAKO  THURLOW  a  Thurlow  |  summus  regni  Cancellarius  [  hie 
sepultus  est.  |  Vixit  annis  LXXV.  mensibus  x.  Decessit  anno 
Salutis  Humanae  MDCCCVI  |  idibus  Septembris.  |  Vir  alta  mente 
et  mngna  praeditus  |  qut  |  nactus  praeclarissimas  occasiones  | 
optime  de  patria  merendi  |  jura  Ecclesiae,  Regis,  Civium  |  in 
periculum  vocata  |  firmo  et  constant!  ammo  |  tutatus  est. 

Concerning  this  Epitaph,  see  above,  p.  23,  note  (4).  The  in- 
scription has  been  misprinted, — and  one  special  circumstance 
alluded  to  in  it,  misrepresented, — by  Lord  Campbell,  in  his  Life 
of  Lord  Thurlow.  [See  Burns  '  Ecclesiastical  Law,'  vol.  iii.  p. 
364,  .  .  ed.  1809.] 

"In  adapting  ancient  language  to  our  modern  tongue,"  (writes 
Dr.  Parr),  "  we  must  be  content  very  often  with  approach.  I  have 
talked  the  subject  over  with  one  whose  erudition,  sagacity,  wari- 
ness, and  exquisite  sense  of  propriety  weigh  with  me  very  much  ; 
and  in  his  own  epitaph  for  Lord  Thurlow  he,  to  my  entire  satis- 
faction, has  written  '  a '  not '  de  '  for '  Thurlow,' — the  place  whence 
the  Title  comes." — [To  Lord  Holland. — 'Works/  vol.  viii.  p.  589.] 

[6].  A  mural  monument  placed  against  the  western  wall  of 
Magdalen  College  Chapel,  near  the  north  door,  and  over  against 
the  spot  where  DR.  OLIVER  was  buried,  is  thus  inscribed  : 

Corpus  hie  situm  est  |  IOANNIS  OLIVARII.  S.T.P.  |  praesidis 
optimi  et  doctissimi  sua  sponte  pauperis  vixit  an.  LXI.  Qui 
cum  ad  domum  fortunasque  suas  |  Caroli  causa  amissas  rediisset  | 
post  paulo  hominibus  exemptus  est.  |  Have  anima  egregia  forsitan 
et  |  huic  saeculo  exemplo  futura. 

Dr.  Oliver, — (Lord  Clarendons  Tutor), — became  President  of 
Magdalen  College  A.D.  1644  :  was  deprived  A.D.  1648,  and  was  re- 
stored A.D.  1 660.  He  died  (on  the  2  >jth  October)  in  the  year  follow- 
ing. .  .  .  On  other  mural  monuments  in  the  same  Ante-chapel : 

[7].  H.  S.  E.  quod  mortale  fuit  |  BENJAMINI  TATE  S.T.P.  ( 
annos  plus  quadraginta  socii,  |  qui  |  familiae  suae  vetustatem  | 
morum  dulcedine  et  comitate  |  ornavit  |  quippe  amicitiae,  si 
quis  alius,  tenax  |  Tarn  miti  ingenio  fuit  in  omnes,  |  ut  apud 
Collegium  suum  |  cujus  ecclesias  tenuiores  pio  munere  do- 
navit,  |  magnum  desiderium  sui  |  reliquerit.  |  Obiit  Novembris 


474  APPENDIX  B. 

xxn,    anno    Salutis   MDCCCXX  |  vixit   annos   LXIX,    mens.   iv  | 
Georgius  Tate  arm.  |  fratri  optime  de  se  merito  |  H.  M.  p.  c. 

[8].  Eeliquiae  •  JOANNIS  -  SHAW  •  S.T.P.  |  annos  •  plus  •  quin- 
quaginta  •  Socii  |  qvi  •  vixit  •  ann.  LXXIII  •  mens  •  x  |  decessit  • 
xix  •  Kal  •  Febr  •  anno  •  Salutis  •  MDCCCXXIV  |  vale  •  o  •  dulcis  • 
facete  •  simplex  •  fortis  •  sapiens  |  Joannes  •  et  •  Josephus  . 
Parkinson  |  haeredes  •  ex  •  test  |  Amico  •  bene  •  merenti  •  P. 

In  Ingram  s  '  Memorials  of  Oxford,'  the  fifth  line  of  the  above 
reads,  —  Vale  o  dulcis  simplex  ingeniose  fortis  sapiens.  And  in 
the  last  line,  for  l  p.'  is  found  '  P.P.' 

[9].  H.  S.  E.  |  AETHURUS  LOVEDAY  S.  T.  P.  |  annos  fere 
triginta  socius,  |  filius  Joannis  Loveday  e  Caversham  |  in  agro 
Oxon.  armigeri  |  et  frater  Joannis  Loveday  e  Williamscot  |  in 
eodem  agro  i.  c.  D.  |  Virorum  opt.  jam  olim  in  hoc  collegio 
commensalium  |  et  litteris  studiisque  doctrinse  |  egregie  ex- 
cultorum.  Qui  subtus  jacet  Arthurus,  |  patrem  indole  et 
virtute  referens,  |  comis  fuit,  simplex,  apertus,  |  atque  in  opis 
indigentes  liberalissinms  |  Vixit  ann.  LX.  menses  v.  Decessit 
in  pace  |  iv  nonas  Junii  anno  Salutis  MDCCCXXVII.  |  Haeredes 
cognato  suo  carissimo  j  P.  c. 

[10].  H.  S.  E.  |  HENRICUS  BALSTON  A.B.  In  semicom- 
rnuuariorum  ordinem  |  annos  abliinc  quatuor  cooptatus,  |  vixit 
ann.  xxiv  mens.  viu,  |  Decessit  die  xxin  Decemb.  A.  s. 
MDCCCXL  |  Pietate  irisignis,  moribus  integer,  |  dulcis,  simplex, 
nee  inficetus,  j  ingenio  baud  mediocri  j  ac  singulari  quadam 
subtilitate  praedito  :  |  aetate  jamjam  maturescente,  |  eheu  ! 
quam  propere  abreptus  |  in  CHEISTO  requievit  |  yev^rto  TO 


Henry  JBalston,  (brother  of  the  preszni  ArcJideacon  of  Derby), 
was  a  very  excellent  person.  He  died  in  1840,  a  Demy  of  Mag- 
dalen, and  sleeps  in  the  ante-Chapel. 

[n].  The  only  child  of  Dr.  Bliss,  Principal  of  S.  Mary  Hall, 
is  thus  commemorated  on  a  mural  monument  against  the  north 
wall  (beneath  the  organ  gallery)  in  S.  Peter  s  Church,  Oxford  : 

£  !  SOPHIAE  ANNAE  BLISS,  annorum  xi  |  quae  ipso  natali 
suo,  v  kal.  sextiles  |  dulcissimain  aniinam  efflans  in  pace  cuin 


DR.  ROUTES  LATIN  INSCRIPTIONS.       475 

sirailibus  sui  requievit  |  jam  semper  victura  |  orbi  parentes 
Philippus  et  Sophia  Bliss  |  filiolae  solerti,  piae,  obsequenti, 
fecere. 

[12].   The  next  epitaph  was  not  adopted  by  the  family. 

Corpus  hie  situm  est  |  JOANNIS  ANTONII  filioli  Joannis  | 
Henrici  BLAGEAVE  armigeri.  |  Is  haeres  antiquae  Blagraviorum 
in   agro  |  Bercheriensi    gentis   futurus   erat,  |  nisi   aliter   DEO 
visum    esset.  |  Caelestibus   additus    est   die  secundo  mensis  | 
Januarii,  Anno  CHKISTI  MDCCCL. 

[13].  Immediately  above  Mrs.  Sheppard's  tablet  in  Amport 
Church, — (her  epitaph  will  be  found  above,  at  page  53), — is  to  be 
seen  the  following  on  the  President's  sister,  ANNA  ROTJTH.  It  is 
presumed  to  have  been  the  last  epitaph  he  wrote. 

ANNA  ROUTH  vixit  annos  LXXXIX.  Decessit  anno  CHEISTI 
MDCCCLIV.  Fratrum  quinque  superstes,  et  sex  sororuin,  e 
quibus  una  Sophia  munifica  juxta  memoratur,  Annae  sorori 
piae,  justae,  benevolae,  Martinus  Josephus  Routh,  aetate 
superans  omnes  suos,  hoc  mon.  ipse  moribundus  posuit. 

[In  two  earlier  drafts  of  the  foregoing  Epitaph,  Mrs.  Sheppard 
is  styled  "  munifica  ilia  Sophia."  In  one  of  them,  he  speaks  of 
himself  as  "  frater  natu  maximus "  :  in  the  other,  as  "  aetate 
superans  hos  omnes."] 

[14].  On  a  mural  monument  of  white  marble  affixed  to  the 
north  wall  of  the  interior  of  the  new  Church  of  'All  Saints,' 
Waynflete  : 

Cum  excisa  esset  vicina  Omnium  Sanctorum  ecclesia,  |  re- 
motumque  cum  ea  RICAKDI  PATTEN  sepulchrum,  |  in  quo 
quidem  pulcherrimo  monumento  |  filius  ejus  Gulielmus  "Win- 
toniae  Episcopus  |  patri  caput  sustinens  spectabatur,  |  hunc 
titulum  parenti  Fundatoris  sui  |  Praeses  sociique  Collegii 
Magdalenensis  posuerunt. 

The  following  is  another  draft  of  the  same  : 

Excisa  Omnivm  Sanctorvm  ecclesia  |  dirvto  que  cvm  ipsa 
ecclesia  |  monvmento  Ricardi  Patten  sepvlcrali  |  in  qvo  filivs 
eivs  Gvlielmvs  episcopvs  Wintoniensis  |  patri  capvt  svstinens 


476  APPENDIX  B. 

spectabatvr  |  Praeses  Sociique  collegii  Magdalenensis  |  parent! 
fvndatoris  svi  |  hoc  marmor  posvervnt  in  memoriam. 

[15].  On  a  slab  of  black  marble  placed  over  the  spot  where  the 
monument  of  RICHAKD  PATTEN  formerly  stood  in  the  old  Church 
(since  demolished")  of 'All  /Saints,'  Waynflete  : 

Subtus  corpus  jacet  Ricardi  Patten  |  pater  qui  fuit  illustris 
Waynfleti.  |  Monumentum  ejus  mira  arte  fabricatum  !  olim  a 
filio  patri  hie  positum  in  collegio  S.  Mariae  Magdalenae  con- 
servatur.  |  Praeses  Sociique  Magdalenenses  p.  p.  |  ne  ossa 
parentis  Fundatoris  sui  violarentur.  | 

[16].  On  a  brass  plate  affixed  to  the  back  of  the  WAYNFLETE 
Stall  in  Eton  College  Chapel  : 

Praeses  Sociique  Magdalenenses,  illustris  Waynfleti  Funda- 
toris sui  memores,  cum  fuisset  olim  hujusce  Collegii  Archididas- 
calus,  dein  Praepositus,  in  honorem  ejus,  quod  sedile  vides, 
fabricandum  jusserunt. 

[i  7].  On  the  seat  of  a  Gothic  chair  in  the  President's  drawing- 
room, — fashioned  out  of  the  COLLEGE  OAK  which  fell  in  A.D.  1789 : 
Quercus     Magdalenensis     corruit    |    Festo     S.      Petri     A.D. 
MDCCLXXXIX  |  cujus    e     ligno     ne    arboris  |  usque    a    Collegio 
fundato  |  notissimae  |  prorsus  abolescat  memoria     hanc  sellam 
|  Praesidens  Sociique  |  fabricandam  curaverunt     A.D.  MDCCXCI 
|  luxta     exemplar  |    a     Ricardo     Paget.    A.M. ;    semicom.   | 
delineatum  |  caelavit  |  Robertus  Archer,  Oxoniensis. 

[i8j.  Inscribed  on  a  brass  Plate  on  the  foundation  stone  of 
the  new  MAGDALEN  HALL,  deposited  May  %rd,  1820 : 
In  honorem  DEI,  bonarumque  literarum  profectum, 
imum  hunc  lapidem  Aulae  Magdalenensis, 
Regis  Georgii  quarti  auspiciis,  in  alia  sede  renovatae, 
Collegium  Magdalenense  p.  c. 

[19].  On  the  foundation-stone  of  the  new  OEGAN-LOFT  IN 
MAGDALEN  COLLEGE  CHAPEL, — laid,  August  ist,  1831  : 

Anno  Sacro  1831,  regnante  Gulielmo  quarto, 
ad  pristini  moris  rationem  hie  refectus  est  organicus  suggestus, 
caeteraque  Chori  supellex  impensa  Collegii  instaurata. 
Architectus  Ludovicus  Nochells  Cottinghani. 


DR.  ROUTES  LATIN  INSCRIPTIONS.       477 

[20].  On  a  brass  plate  in  the  Foundation-stone  of  MAGDALEN 
COLLEGE  XEW  SCHOOL,—  laid  September  iqth,  1849  : 

Scholam  grammaticalem  veteri  Aulae  Magdalenensi, 
quae  in  alia  sede  mine  floret,  prius  annexam, 
rursus  intra  moenia  sua  aedificandam  curaverunt 
Praeses  Sociique  Magdalenenses,  Anno  Salutis  MDCCCXLIX. 

[21].  Over  the  Lodge  of  HOLY-CROSS  (oftener  called  l  Holy- 
well')  CEMETEKY,  Oxford:  [See  vol.  ii.  pp.  328-9.] 

>J«  Ut  corpora  servorum  CHRISTT  in  sex  paroclms  degentium 
post  nrilitiam  saeculi  una  conquiescant,  hoc  Coemeterium 
Stae  Crucis  appellatum  sacravit  Samuel  Ep.  Oxon.  A.D. 
MDCCCXLVIII. 

[22].  On  a  magnificent  silver-gilt  SALVEE,  presented  to 
Dr.  Routh  by  Alexander,  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  given  by 
the  President  not  long  before  his  death  to  the  College  (June  16, 
1851),  he  caused  to  'be  engraved  : 

Ut  Imperatorio  dono  sit  semper  honos, 

coinmissum  fidei  est  Magdalenensium, 

salvum  conservandum  a  rapacibus  et  furibus  tutum. 

[23].  At  the  request  of  a  member  of  his  society,  the  President 
wrote  (Nov.  1852)  the  following  Inscription  for  a  PATEN  to  be 
used  at  Holy  Communion  : 

Factam  affabre  .patinam,  ex  qua  recipiant  fideles  salutiferum 
Eucharistjae  pabem,  Panem  vivum,  qui  de  caelo  descendit,  in 
memoriam  revocantein,  Ecclesiae  dedit  suae  Willoughbiensi, 
Thomas  Henricus  Whorwood,  S.  T.  P.  Salutis  anno  MDCCCLII. 

[24].  The  following  Inscription  for  a  bust  of  the  DUKE  OF 
WELLINGTON  underwent  supervision  at  least  14  times,  between 
Nov.  i  and  Dec.  16,  1852  : 

Cum  missae  sub  jugo  essent  Europae  gentes, 
omnes  eas  liberavit  victo  victore  Wellingtonius, 
patriae  non  sibi  gloriam  sempiternani  quaerens. 
A  lady  asked  the  President  for  an  English  rendering  of  tfie 
above :  whereupon  at  least  an  equal  number  of  quatrains  were 
executed, — of  which  the  following  seems  to  have  been  the  last  : 


478  APPENDIX  B. 

When  conquered  Europe  bent  beneath  the  yoke, 
Her  chains  great  Wellington  indignant  broke  : 
Conquering  the  conqueror,  all  intent  he  came 
Not  on  his  own,  but  on  Britannia's  fame.  2 

[25].  Concerning  the  following  Inscription  on  a  bust  of  SIR 
FRANCIS  BURDETT,  the  President  wrote  thus  to  Dr.  Ogilvie, — 

"  I  should  have  finished  my  scrawl  sooner,  hut  three  days  ago  I  re- 
ceived an  application  from  Miss  Burdett  Coutts  for  an  Inscription  on 
her  Father  s  bust  to  be  placed  in  her  new  School  at  Westminster.  I 
sent  her  the  following  one  on  my  old  and  valued  friend : 

FRANCISCO  BURDETT  Baronetto  |  Patriae  amantissimo  |  verae 
libertatis  vindici  |  Instituta  majorum  et  Leges  colenti  obser- 
vanti,  |  viro  excellentis  virtutis  publicae  et  privatae  |  Filia 
Angela  Georgina  optimo  Parenti. 

"  I  had  no  good  Friend,  like  yourself,  to  consult,  and  I  thought  it 
was  all  plain  sailing.  But  perhaps  I  am  mistaken.  And  if  you  would 
favour  me  with  any  observations,  I  will  write  to  Miss  Coutts  to  delay 
engraving  the  inscription."  [To  C.  A.  Ogilvie,  D.D., — Aug.  5,  1853.] 

['  The  bust  referred  to  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Westminster 
School.  It  stands  in  the  ante-room  of  the  Library  ^n  Ashburnham 
House,  on  a  pilaster, — inscribed  as  above?  (From  the  Rev.  W.  G. 
Rutherford.)] 

[26].  Written  in  a  copy  of  Plato  presented  to  HENRY  BEST, 
B.A.,  Demy  of  Magdalen  College  : 

DNO  BEST,     in  literis  colendis,  diligentia  eximia  et  propitia 
minerva  uso,  |  Praesidens  et  Socii  Collegii  B.  M.  Magdalenae. 
Oxon  :  |  ne  amor  tali  alumno  debitus  teste  omnino   careat,  | 
hoc  munusculum  D.D.  |  14  mo  die  Julii,  Anno  Salutis,  1789. 

[27].  Written  in  one  of  a  set  of  Books,  presented  by  Magdalen 
College  to  ROUNDELL  PALMER,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Magdalen 

2  To  his  friend  Dr.  Ogilvie  (Aug.  But  I  prefer  my  own,  as  more  per- 

12,  1854),    the   President   wrote, —  haps     deserving     the     epithet     of 

"  I  like  your  version  of  the  Lines  '  spirited,'   which    Mr.   JBurgon    of 

on  the  Dulfe  of  Wellington  as  giving  Oriel  assigned  to  the  original  with- 

with  elegance  the  aim  of  the  original.  out  my  feeling  its  propriety" 


DR.  ROUTES  LATIN  INSCRIPTIONS.      479 

College  and  Barrister,  who  had  pleaded  successfully  the  cause  of 
the  College  School  in  the  Court  of  Chancery,  A.D.  1847  : 

Viro     ornatissimo  |  ROUNDELL    PALMEK,    i.  c.     collegii    S. 
Magdalenae  Oxon.  Socio  |  quod  collegii  patrocinio  suscepto  j 
strenue    et   feliciter   rem   gesserit  |  Praeses    Sociique    Magda- 
lenenses  |  libros  hosce  grati  animi  et  summae  |  in  eum  benevo- 
lentiae  testimonio  d.d. 

[28].  In  a  copy  of  the  Second  Edition  of  his  "  RELIQUIAE," 
which  he  sent  as  a  present  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  he 

wrote : 

% 

Imp.  Nicolao,  Regum  Orbis  Terrarum  potentissimo,  Reliquias 
hasce  Veteris  Ecclesiae  Catholicae,  a  se  collectas  ac  denuo 
adornatas,  offert  M.  J.  Routh,  annos  natus  xcvii,  Anno  Sacro 
MDCCCLII,  Imperatoris  Alexandri  Beneficiarius. 

"  You  are  aware,"  (says  the  President,  addressing  his  friend  Dr. 
Ogilvie,3)  " of  the  Emperor  Alexanders  visit  to  me  forty  years 
ago?" 

I  suspect  that  what  the  President  actually  wrote,  immediately  after 
his  own  name,  was, — 'Anno  sacro  MDCCCLII,  suoque  xcvni.' 

[29].  The  next.,  on  the  porch  of  Theale  Church,  begun  by  the 
President  in  the  last  year  of  his  life,  was  evidently  completed  by 
his  nephews  in  the  year  after  his  death  : 

A.  S.  MDCCCLIV  et  MDCCCLV  | .  Quo  tempore  |  huic  Ecclesiae 
renovatae  |  ala  Borealis  est  addita  |  MAETINUS  JOSEPHUS 
ROUTH,  S.  T.  P.  |  incolarum  paroeciae  suae  |  aetate  provectio- 
rum  baud  immemor  |  annum  ipse  jam  agens  centesimum  |  ostio 
meridionali  |  porticum  adstruendam  curavit  |  necnon  cancellum 
istum  |  suis  sumptibus  refecit.  |  Vitreas  picturatas  haeredes 
|  Patrui  de  se  optime  meriti  |  memoriam  colentes  |  posuerunt. 

3  July  3  ist  1852, — '  the  day  of  my  sister  Sheppard's  death  in  1849.' 


480  APPENDIX  C. 

APPENDIX    (C). 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  AMEEICAN  EPISCOPACY. 

[See  above,  pp.  29-35.] 

THE  Eev.  Dr.  Beardsley  (Rector  of  S.  Thomas's  Church, 
New  Haven,  Conn.  U.S.A.),  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  zeal  for 
the  Church  which  he  adorns,  insists  that  the  story  in  the  text, — 
so  far  as  President  Routh  is  concerned, — must  needs  be  pure 
fable.  He  contends  that  Dr.  Routh  cannot  have  dissuaded 
Dr.  Seabuiy  from  availing  himself  of  the  friendly  overtures  of 
the  Danish  Church :  cannot,  at  a  critical  juncture,  have  strenu- 
ously directed  him  to  the  Scottish  succession  for  Episcopal 
Orders.  And  this,  notwithstanding  the  President's  often- 
repeated  declaration  that  he  did  both  these  things.  "  The 
question  "  (he  assures  us)  "  lies  between  Routh  and  the  truth  of 
history."  And  he  hints  at  the  infirmity  to  which  flesh  is 
liable  "  when  approaching  a  century  of  natural  existence." 

If  Dr.  Beardsley  will  be  at  the  pains  calmly  to  peruse  the 
Memoir  which  stands  first  in  the  present  volume,  he  will  be  con- 
vinced, long  ere  he  reaches  the  concluding  (ii5th)  page,  that  his 
view  is  untenable.  The  President's  veracity  has  never  yet  been 
challenged.  The  accuracy  and  retentiveness  of  his  memory  were 
unexampled.  His  minute  acquaintance  with  American  affairs 
astonished  even  Americans  who  visited  him  within  a  few  years 
of  his  decease.  That  such  an  one  should  have  invented  the  story 
he  so  often  and  so  circumstantially  related,  is  incredible. 

This  matter  has  been  made  important  by  Dr.  Beardsley,  who 
considers  that  Dr.  Seabury  and  the  rest  of  the  Connecticut 
clergy  '  would  be  placed  in  an  awkward  position '  if  the  truth  of 
the  President  of  Magdalen's  statement  were  admitted. 

That  they  would  have  been  placed  in  a  very  awkward  position 
indeed  had  Dr.  Seabury  resorted  to  Denmark  for  consecration, 
is  true  enough  :  but  that  any  inconvenience  whatever  results  to 
him  or  to  them  from  his  having  been  effectually  warned  of  his 


BEGINNING  OF  AMERICAN  EPISCOPACY.   481 

danger  at  a  critical  moment,  I  see  not.  Since  however  my 
narrative  has  been  so  unceremoniously  handled,  besides  care- 
fully re-writing  and  enlarging  what  will  be  found  at  pp.  29-34, 
I  venture  to  submit  to  Dr.  Beardsley  certain  principles  which 
(it  is  thought)  should  guide  us  in  dealing  with  historical 
testimony. 

When  two  distinct  and  somewhat  different  aspects  of  the 
same  transaction  are  set  before  us, — proceeding  from  opposite 
quarters,  but  both  alike  vouched  for  by  thoroughly  trustworthy 
persons, — our  business  (it  is  presumed)  is  first,  To  inquire 
whether  they  do  not  admit  of  reconcilement;  with  a  view  to 
their  being  both  suffered  to  stand.  We  may  not  begin  by 
importing  into  the  discussion  national  or  personal  prejudices. 
We  may  not  accuse  the  principal  witness  of  having  fabricated 
his  facts, — only  because  those  facts  are  distasteful  to  ourselves. 
We  may  not  prop  up  our  own  contention,  by  making  much  of 
some  minute  inaccuracy  of  detail1  which  we  have  (or  think 
we  have)  detected  in  our  opponent's  narrative ;  but  which 
evidently  does  not  touch  the  life  of  the  question  at  issue;2 — 
nor  may  we  so  distort  or  exaggerate  any  particular  feature 
of  the  evidence  as  to  produce  the  semblance  of  contrariety 
where  none  actually  exists.  And  yet,  (as  logicians  are  aware,) 
even  contrariety,  unless  it  amounts  to  contradiction,  admits,  for 
the  most  part,  of  even  easy  reconcilement.  As  for  charging 
a  witness  of  unquestioned  veracity  with  falsehood,  it  is  the  last 
shift  of  a  controversialist  who  is  conscious  of  the  weakness  of 
his  cause.  History  cannot  be  written, — Truth  must  be  regarded 

1  I  am  speaking  here,  it  will  be  always  at  second-hand  from  someone 
remembered,  of  human  narratives.  who  heard  him  tell  it, — slight  dis- 
When  we  have  to  do  with  the  in-  crepancies  of  detail  between  two  or 
spired  page,  the  magnifying  glass  more  versions  of  the  story  are  tobeex- 
may  be  always  applied  to  the  lesser  pected.    The  only  essential  points — 
details,   and  to  any  extent.     Only  the  only  statements  to  be  contended 
we  must  be  fair,  and  make  sure  for  — are   those   wherein  the  wit- 
we  understand  our  Author  rightly.  nesses  furnish  identical  testimony  ; 

2  Let  it  in  all  candour  be  pointed  those  of  the  witnesses,  especially, 
out— in  all  fairness,  admitted-that  who   heard   Kouth    tell  the   story 
inasmuch  as  it  is  noifrom  Dr.  EoutJi  more  than  once,  and  are  prepared 
himself  that  we  obtain  this  story,  but  solemnly  to  renew  their  testimony. 

VOL.  I.  I  i 


482  APPENDIX  C. — THE 

as  a  thing  unattainable, — if  we  are  to  disbelieve  incidents,  not 
improbable  in  themselves,  which  persons  of  the  highest  honour, 
truthfulness,  accuracy,  clear-headedness,  solemnly  declare  did 
happen ;  and  repeatedly  assure  us  happened  to  themselves. 

Now,  the  one  piece  of  evidence  relied  on  by  my  worthy  opponent, 
is  the  following  passage  in  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  Daniel  Fogg 
(a  member  of  the  '  Woodbury  conference ')  written  to  a  friend 
5  or  6  weeks  after  Seabury  had  set  sail  for  England : — 

"  We  Clergy  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  instruct  Dr.  Seabury, 
if  none  of  the  bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  will  ordain  him, 
to  go  down  to  Scotland,  and  receive  ordination  from  a  non-juring 
Bishop."  3 

But  what  does  this  necessarily  amount  to  ?  It  may  mean  no 
more  than  this, — That  after  it  had  become  known  that  Learning 
declined  the  voyage  to  England,  (for  it  was  Learning,  not  Seabury, 
who  was  nominated  at  Woodbury,)  and  before  Seabury's  anxious 
and  hurried  embarcation  for  our  shores, — certain  of  the  Con- 
necticut Clergy  conveyed  to  the  latter  at  New  York  a  message 
to  the  effect  above  recorded.  But, — Is  it  certain  that  Seabury 
ever  received  their  message  ?  And, — Were  the  "  instructing  " 
parties  men  of  sufficient  mark  for  their  advice  on  such  a  point 
to  command  his  attention  ?  And, — With  what  amount  of 
authority  was  the  "  instruction  "  conveyed  1  All  we  know  for 
certain  is  that  Seabury  himself  did  not  consider  that  he  had  left 
America  "  instructed"  as  to  what  was  to  be  his  alternative  course 
of  action.  This  is  proved  by  his  letter  written  twelve  months 
later,  in  which  he  says  that  he  shall  wait  for  another  month,  and 
then  apply  to  the  Scottish  Bishops — "  unless  he  should  receive 
contrary  directions  from  the  Clergy  of  Connecticut" 

Dr.  Beaidsley's  claim  that  these  were  Seabury's  "Original 
instructions  "  '  — "  the  instructions  given  from  Woodbury  in 
March,  1783,"  5  &c., — is  a  pure  assumption.  In  a  letter  to  my- 
self (dated  Nov.  13,  1878,)  he  writes,—"  The  fact  that  the  Con- 
necticut Clergy  at  their  meeting  at  Woodbury  gave  instructions 

8  Hawks  and  Perry's  'Conn.Church  *  '  Life  of  Seabury,' — p.  79. 

Documents,'  (1863), — 11.213.  5  '  Seabury  Centenary ,' — p.  43. 


BEGINNING  OF  AMERICAN  EPISCOPACY.    483 

about  it,  strips  Routh's  claim  of  the  very  semblance  of  truth." — 
I  shall  content  myself  with  warning  my  esteemed  correspondent 
(i),  against  inventing  his  'facts':  and  (2),  against  drawing 
illogical  inferences  from  them.  For  it  is  at  least  undeniable 
that  Seabury  did  not  act  like  one  who  had  come  over  furnished 
with  any  "  instructions  "  at  all, — except  to  obtain  consecration 
in  England  at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  and  to  return. 

I  beg  that  it  may  be  observed  that  I  have  nowhere  asserted  that, 
in  1782-4,  the  idea  of  resorting  to  the  Scottish  Bishops  in  order 
to  secure  for  America  the  gift  of  Episcopacy,  originated  with 
Martin  Joseph  Eouth; — was  for  the  first  time  conceived  by  him; — 
or,  as  an  idea,  was  at  any  time  exclusively  his  property.  Such 
a  statement, —  (which  might  be  thought  to  be  implied  by  the 
narratives  of  Bp.  Coxe,  of  Western  New  York,  and  of  Bp.  Eden, 
the  Scottish  Primus), — happens  to  be  inconsistent  with  the 
known  facts  of  history.  The  S.P.G.  so  early  as  1 703  had  enter- 
tained the  idea  of  sending  a  Suffragan  to  America ;  and  even 
then,  the  Bishops  of  Scotland  "  were,  regarded  as  the  channel 
through  which  that  assistance  could  most  readily  be  obtained."  6 
Cheerfully  therefore  do  I  make  the  sentiment  of  Bishop  Williams 
my  own, — "I  am  in  no  wise  concerned  to  deny  that  the 
thought  of  applying  to  the  Scottish  Bishops  may  have  been  an 
entirely  original  thought  in  the  mind  of  more  than  one  person 
in  England  in  the  year  1783  and  1784."  I  do  but  demur  to 
the  statement  which  the  same  excellent  friend  proceeds  to 
make  :  viz.  that  "  the  fact  is  proved  .  .  .  that  this  purpose  was 
in  the  minds  of  our  [American]  Clergy  long  before  it  could  have 
been  conceived  in  England  " 7  .  .  .  (What !  before  1703  ?) 

But  in  fact,  that  other  learned  Divines  besides  Routh  were 
aware  of  the  validity  of  the  Scottish  succession,  and  had  their 
eyes  intently  fixed  upon  it  at  this  very  time,  is  certain.  Thus, 
in  1782-3,  Dr.  George  Berkeley  suggested  to  Bp.  Skinner, 
(coadjutor  to  the  Primus  of  the  Scottish  Church,)  that  the 
Bishops  of  Scotland  should  consecrate  a  bishop  for  America. 

6  Anderson's  'History  of  the  Colonial  Church?— in.  36- 

7  'Seabury  Centenary,' — p.  27. 

I  i  1 


484  APPENDIX  C. — THE 

In  the  autumn  of  1783,  a  Mr.  Elphinstone  pleaded  the  same 
cause  in  the  same  quarter.8  Originality  of  conception,  I 
repeat,  is  not  the  thing  here  contended  for.  I  am  only  con- 
cerned to  insist  on  what  really  is  a  well  authenticated  fact, 
viz.  that,  (however  it  may  have  come  to  pass,)  it  fell  to  Martin 
Joseph  Routh  to  disabuse  Seabury's  mind, — if  not  of  the 
intention  to  have  recourse  to  Denmark  for  consecration, — at 
least  of  the  notion  that  Denmark  had  it  in  its  power  to  impart 
to  him  the  wished-for  boon.  The  President  was  able  long 
after  to  reproduce  the  very  words  he  had  used  to  the  envoys 
of  the  American  Church  in  1782-4.  "  I  ventured  to  tell  them, 
sir,  that  they  would  not  find  there  what  they  wanted."  Equally 
certain  is  it  that  Routh  insisted  on  the  unquestionable  validity 
of  the  Scottish  succession;  and  that  he  further  strenuously 
counselled  application  in  that  quarter 


Dr.  Beardsley  informs  me  that  he  finds  no  trace  in  the 
Seabury  correspondence  of  any  of  the  circumstances  which 
obtain  such  prominence  in  my  pages.  I  have  been  more  for- 
tunate. It  needs  (I  think)  but  little  skill  in  '  reading  between 
the  lines/  to  discern  clear  allusions  to  every  part  of  this 
matter ; — as  well,  I  mean,  to  those  who  had  recommended 
Seabury  to  have  recourse  to  the  Scandinavian  Bishops  for 
consecration,  as  to  him  who  had  been  so  strenuous  with  him 
on  behalf  of  the  Scottish  succession  to  the  exclusion  of  every 
other, — in  Seabury's  letter  to  Jarvis,  dated  June  26th,  1784 : — 

"  I  have  had  opportunities  of  consulting  some  very  respectable 
Clergymen  in  this  matter "  (he  writes) :  "  and  their  invariable 
opinion  is  that,  should  I  be  disappointed  here,  .  .  it  would  become 
my  duty  to  obtain  Episcopal  consecration  WHEREVER  IT  CAN  BE  HAD.  The 
Scottish  succession  was  named.  IT  WAS  SAID  TO  BE  EQUAL  TO  ANY  SUCCESSION 
IN  THE  WORLD,  ETC.  There,  I  know  Consecration  may  be  had."  9 

Will  any  one  doubt  that,  were  Seabury  among  us  at  this 
day  to  be  questioned,  he  would  tell  us  that  it  was  chiefly 
to  fiouttis  learning,  and  to  Routh's  earnestness  that  he  was 

8  'Seabury  Centenary,' — p.  47.  9  Beardsley's  'Life'  &c. — p.  131. 


BEGINNING  OF  AMERICAN  EPISCOPACY.    485 

alluding,  when  he  penned  the  foregoing  sentences  1  Who  does 
not  recognise  the  counsel  to  look  to  Denmark,  to  Norway,  to 
Sweden  for  Episcopal  Orders,  as  the  result  of  some  of  those 
"  consultations "  with  "  very  respectable  Clergymen  in  this 
matter,"  of  which  Seabury  speaks ; — "  Episcopal  Consecration  " 
to  be  obtained  "  wherever  it  may  be  had "  1 — But  that  is  not 
nearly  all.  Is  it  possible  for  any  unprejudiced  person  to  read 
what  goes  before  without  discerning, — if  not  an  actual  incli- 
nation on  the  part  of  the  writer  to  avail  himself  of  some 'other 
succession  instead  of  the  Scottish, — at  least  a  considerable 
amount  of  indecision  as  to  whether  he  might  not  with  safety 
do  so  ?  "  The  Scottish  succession  was  named,"  writes  Seabury. 
"There"  (he  adds)  "/  know  that  Consecration  may  be  had." 
You  do  1  Then,  Why, — if  you  came  out  from  America  '  in- 
structed,' in  the  event  of  your  failing  in  England,  to  repair  for 
Consecration  to  Scotland,1 — why  do  you  still  put  off  for  three 
months  making  a  move  in  that  direction  1  Why  refer  that 
very  question  back  to  the  Connecticut  Clergy  1  ...  But  the  answer 
is  obvious.  The  case  is  a  transparent  one.  Made  very  sick  by 
reason  of  '  hope  deferred '  : — worn  out  by  repeated  delays  and 
half-hearted  professions  : — perplexed  by  conflicting  counsels  :— 
saddened  by  an  exhausted  exchequer, — Samuel  Seabury's  brave 
heart  and  eagle  spirit  was  at  last  severely  tried.  The  sup- 
posed '  Instructions '  with  which  he  had  come  furnished  from 
America  are  only  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Foggs  letter.  Seabury 
knew  nothing  at  all  about  them. 

What  I  am  contending  for,  is  not  a  new  view  of  the  case. 
I  invite  Dr.  Beardsley's  attention  to  the  following  passage  in 
a  letter  which  the  Bp.  of  Edinburgh  (Dr.  James  Walker) 
addressed  to  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  A.  P.  Perceval,  54  years  ago, 
or  just  50  years  after  Dr.  Seabury's  vwit  to  England.  (The 
letter  is  dated  March  roth,  1834)  :— 

"The  Church  of  Norway  and  Denmark  is  similar  in  all  respects  ; 
though  unfortunately  deficient  in  that  most  important  point,  the 
Episcopal  succession,— which  was  so  little  known,  that  Dr.  Seabury, 

i  '  Seabury  Centenary,'—?.  5.  The  reader  is  invited  to  caU  to  mind 
what  was  offered  above,  in  p.  34. 


486  APPENDIX  C.—Tna 

when  lie  failed  to  obtain  consecration  in  England,  was  actually  in 
treaty  with  the  Bishop  of  Zealand.  He  was  better  directed  to  our 
then  almost  unknown  Church :  and  this  direction  was  given  by 
Lowth,  then  Bishop  of  London  [1777-87] ;  and  I  have  very  lately 
heard,  that  the  venerable  President  Routh  was  the  means  of  direct- 
ing Bishop  Lowth  to  our  Bishops."  a 

The  case  before  us,  I  repeat,  is  a  transparent  one.  Contrariety, 
— much  less  contradiction — there  is  here  none.  Directed  by 
his  countrymen  to  the  English  Archbishops  and  Bishops,  to 
them  Seabury  persistently  addressed  himself.  One  cannot  but 
suspect  that  had  the  Prelates  of  England  been  as  apostolically 
minded  as  he  was, — had  they  shared  the  Evangelical  earnestness 
of  those  ten  grand  men  who  "  met  in  voluntary  convention  "  at 
Woodbury, — they  would  have  made  a  way  for  conferring  on 
that  devoted  soldier  of  the  Cross  the  boon  he  so  reasonably 
implored  at  their  hands.  But  it  was  an  evil  and  a  dark  time. 
Driven  hither  and  thither  for  counsel  and  support,  SAMUEL  SEA- 
BURY  was  for  a  while  beguiled  into  the  mistaken  supposition  that 
valid  Episcopal  Consecration  might  be  had  from  the  Scandinavian 
Churches :  of  which  fatal  notion,  MARTIN  JOSEPH  ROUTH 
was  the  man  who  disabused  his  mind  effectually.  '  The  Scottish 
succession]  he  assured  Seabury,  was  '  equal  to  any  succession 
in  the  world  : '  and  lie  further  convinced  him  at  great  length 
that  this  was  his  one  only  jwssible  resource  at  the  present 
juncture  ...  It  will  have  been  with  a  lively  recollection  of  that 
interview  that  Seabury  ended  his  sentence  with  an  c  et  cetera.' 

Yes,  in  the  evidence  before  us  there  is  no  contrariety  what- 
ever. The  deeply  interesting  and  highly  honourable  conditions 
of  the  problem,  as  far  as  America  is  concerned,  are  in  no  respect 
affected  by,  or  inconsistent  with,  the  personal  recollections  of  one 
who  was  again  and  again  heard,  by  several  persons  yet  living, 
to  recount  them.  And  it  will  remain  true  to  the  end  of  time, 
that  the  service  rendered  to  the  Church  of  the  United  States 
by  the  President  of  Magdalen  College  when  a  very  young  man, 

2  Perceval's  '  Collection  of  Pa-  Swedish,  Norwegian,  and  Danish 
perBj  Sfc.  1842, — p.  67.  See  also  Episcopate,  which  is  declared  to  be 
from  p.  64  to  p.  76  concerning  the  without  validity. 


BEGINNING  OF  AMERICAN  EPISCOPACY.    487 

was  simply  priceless  ;  a  service  which  cannot  be  too  handsomely 
admitted, — or  too  heartily  acknowledged, — by  American  church- 
men at  the  present  day. 

That  I  may  not  be  thought  to  have  lightly  assumed  the 
trustworthiness  of  the  story  I  have  set  down  in  the  text,  I  shall 
here  insert  Bishop  Hobhouse's  reply  to  Dr.  Beardsley's  con- 
tention in  the  '  Guardian '  newspaper : — 

"Batcombe,  Bath,  Dec.  22nd,  1882. 

"Reverend  sir,— In  reference  to  your  letter  to  the  'Guardian,' 
just  published,  I  venture  to  supply  the  following  facts  : — 

1.  That  Dr.  Seabury  did  visit  Dr.  Routh  in  Oxford. 

2.  That  he  was  sent  thither  by  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow  to  con- 
sult Dr.  Routh  about  the  validity  of  the  Danish  succession. 

3.  That  Dr.  S.  had  been  persuaded  in  London  to  apply  to  the 
Danish  Bishops,  and  that  Dr.  Routh  succeeded  in  dissuading  him, 
in  favour  of  the  Scottish. 

4.  That  though  Dr.  Routh  was  only  28  and  a  deacon,  he  was 
known  as  a  learned  man. — Lord  Thurlow  knew  him  through  his 
clergyman  brother,  Mr.  Thurlow. 

5.  That  Dr.  Routh  lived  in  my  parish,  and  often  talked  to  me  on 
such  subjects. — In  1853,  when  I  was  sailing  for  America  with  the 
S.  P.  Gr.  Deputation  to  attend  the  General  Convention,  Dr.  Routh 
sent  a  book  and  message  to  be  presented  by  me  to  the  presiding 
Bishop. — On  that  occasion,  he  recited  the  above  facts  as  the  cause 
of  his  special  interest  in  the  Church  of  the  United  States ;  and 
he  repeated  them  on  my  return. 

6.  There  was  no  failure  whatever  in  his  unexampled  powers  of 
memory,  even  in  his  looth  year. 

You  may  find  it  as  hard  to  believe  this,  as  to  believe  that  at  28 
he  had  acquired  the  position  of  an  oracle  in  certain  departments  of 
learning:  but  both  facts  are  certain.  His  mental  history  is  un- 
paralleled." 

The  testimony  of  an  admirable  living  American  Prelate, — 
Dr.  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  Bishop  of  Western  New  York,— may  be 
more  acceptable  to  Dr.  Beardsley.  In  his  delightful  volume 
('Impressions  of  England,'  1856,— p.  138),  my  friend  writes:— 

"  I  had  seen  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Samuel  Rogers.  There 
was  one  whom  I  desired  to  see  besides,  and  on  some  accounts  with 
deeper  interest,  to  complete  my  hold  upon  the  surviving  Past.  For 
sixty  years  had  Dr.  Routh  been  President  of  Magdalen,  and  still 


488  APPENDIX  C. — THE 

his  faculties  were  strong,  and  actively  engaged  in  his  work.  I  saw 
him  in  his  97th  year :  .  .  .  the  most  venerable  figure  I  ever  beheld ! 
Nothing  could  exceed  his  cordiality  and  courtesy ;  and  though  I 
feared  to  prolong  my  visit,  his  earnestness  in  conversation  more 
than  once  repressed  my  endeavour  to  rise.  He  remembered  our 
colonial  Clergy,  and  related  the  whole  story  of  Bishop  Seaburys  visit, 
and  of  his  application  to  the  Scottish  Church,  which  Dr.  Routh  himself 
first  suggested.  'And  now,'  (said  I,)  'we  have  30  Bishops  and  1500 
Clergy.'  He  lifted  his  aged  hands,  and  said  '  I  have  indeed  lived  to 
see  wonders,'  and  he  added  devout  expressions  of  gratitude  to  GOD, 
and  many  enquiries  concerning  our  Church.  I  had  carried  an  intro- 
duction to  him  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jarvis ;  and  at  the  same  time 
announced  the  death  of  that  lamented  scholar  and  Divine,  whose 
funeral  I  had  attended  a  few  days  before  I  sailed  from  America. 
He  spoke  of  him  with  affection  and  regret,  and  also  referred  to  his 
great  regard  for  Bishop  Hobart." 

Another  American  clergyman,  the  Rev.  D.  J.  Aberigh-Mackay 
(in  a  letter  dated  4th  Nov.  1882,  which  appeared  in  the 
'Guardian'),  bears  similar  testimony, — in  consequence  of  a  visit 
lie  paid  to  the  President  in  July  1852.  Other  records  to  the 
same  effect  are  to  be  met  with  elsewhere.  But  my  friend  Bp.  Hob- 
house's  testimony  is  so  valuable,  because  he  was  intimate  with 
the  old  President,  and  heard  him  often  tell  the  story. 

"  The  spark "  (I  have  said)  "  became  a  flame  which  has 
kindled  beacon-fires  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
great  American  continent."  The  progress  of  that  *  spark '  until 
it  became  a  'flame'  was  destined  nevertheless  to  be  gradual. 
In  1787  (Feb.  4th),  Bishops  White  and  Provoost  were  canoni- 
cal ly  consecrated  at  Lambeth  by  Dr.  John  Moore,  Abp.  of 
Canterbury  (assisted  by  three  other  English  Bishops),  for  the 
Dioceses  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  respectively :  but, — 

"  It  was  with  the  understanding  that  they  should  not  join  with 
the  Bishop  of  Scotch  consecration  in  conferring  the  Episcopate 
upon  any  one  else,  until  another  person  should  have  been  sent  to 
England  to  be  consecrated ;  so  that  it  could  always  be  said  there 
were  three  Bishops  of  the  English  line,  (the  usual  canonical  num- 
ber); who  joined  in  the  consecration  which  was  to  begin  the  line 
here  [in  America].  And  this  understanding  was  acted  upon :  for 
although  there  were  in  this  country  [America],  in  1787,  the  three 


BEGINNING  OF  AMERICAN  EPISCOPACY.    489 

Bishops  of  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York,  the  two  latter, 
true  to  the  English  prejudice,  would  not  join  with  the  former  in 
perpetuating  the  Succession,  until  they  were  supplemented  by 
another  who  was  consecrated  in  England  in  I79o."3 

The  consecration  of  Bishop  Madison  of  Virginia  at  Lambeth, 
(Sept.  i  Qth,  1790),  by  the  same  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
(assisted  by  two  other  English  Bishops),  completed  the  Episcopal 
College  in  the  United  States :  and  the  consecration  by  Bishop 
Provoost,  (assisted  by  Bishops  White,  Madison  and  Seabury),  of 
Dr.  Thomas  John  Claggett  (Sept.  ifth,  1792)  as  Bishop  of 
Maryland,  was  the  first  canonical  consecration  in  North  America. 
.  .  .  Since  that  time,  the  consecrations  have  been  regularly  and 
canonically  maintained  in  the  Anglican  line,  to  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  Scottish  succession  (which  however  is  not  another) 4 
has  been  happily  united :  and,  at  the  end  of  a  century  of  years, 
the  Churches  of  England  and  America  flourish  with  independent 
life  and  are  in  full  communion.  The  American  Bishops  number 
at  this  instant  seventy-one. 5 

How  splendidly  the  daughter  Church  has  vindicated  and 
illustrated  the  Apostolicity  of  her  descent  by  the  Catholicity  of 
her  teaching, — is  known  to  everyone  who  knows  anything  at  all 
about  these  matters.  Worthy  to  be  remembered  in  connexion 
with  the  greatest  Bishops  of  Christendom  are  JOHN  HENRY 
HOBART  [i  775-1830],  Bp.  of  New  York :— GEORGE  WASHINGTON 
DOANE  [1799-1859],  Bp.  of  New  Jersey: — JACKSON  KEMPER 
[1789-1870],  the  great  Missionary  Bp.  in  the  Western  Terri- 
tories [1835-1859],  and  then  Bp.  of  Wisconsin  [1859-1870]  :— 
WILLIAM  HEATHCOTE  DE  LANCEY  [1795-1865],  Bp.  of 
"Western  New  York: — and  especially  WILLIAM  EOLLINSON 
WHITTINGHAM  [1805-1879],  Bp.  of  Maryland.  But  the  fore- 
most of  the  '  goodly  fellowship,' — the  first  American  Bishop, — • 
SAMUEL  SEABURY  [1729-1796],  Bp.  of  Connecticut,  was  second 

3  '  The  Union  of  Divergent  Lines  derived  from  it  most  of  the  fore- 

in   the   American    Succession,'' — by  going  names,  dates,  facts, 

the  Rev.  W.  J.  Seabury,  D.D.  (New  *  Ibid. 

York,  1884, — pp.  15,— a  singularly  5  '  Church  Almanac''  for  1^87,— 

lucid,  unprejudiced  and  able  per-  New  York,  pp.  69-70. 
formance:) — pp.    6   to   8.     I   have 


490  APPENDIX  C. 

in  greatness  to  none  of  his  successors  :  "  that  brave,  patient, 
self-sacrificing  soldier  of  the  Cross,  who  dared  all  and  gave  all 
that  he  might  win  for  the  Church  of  the  United  States  of 
America  the  precious  gift  wliich  binds  her  to  the  historic 
Church  ;  and  through  it,  to  the  great  Day  of  Pentecost,  and  the 
Mount  of  the  Ascension."  .  .  .  The  words  last  quoted  are  the 
words  of  one  whose  name  will  be  remembered  by  posterity  in 
close  connexion  with  the  illustrious  band  before  enumerated,  — 
JOHN  WILLIAMS,  D.D.  the  present  Bishop  of  Connecticut  and 
Presiding  Bishop  of  the  United  States.  Long  may  he  live,  — 
(he  will,  I  trust,  allow  me  to  call  him  'my  friend,')  —  to  be  a 
tower  of  strength  to  the  great  American  Church  ! 

I  cannot  conclude  this  long  note  without  remarking  that 
verily  there  have  been  times  when  Churchmen,  Clergy  and 
Laity  alike,  seem  to  have  apprehended  wondrous  imperfectly 
that  declaration  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  —  '  MY 
KINGDOM  is  NOT  or  THIS  WOELD/  W  lio  will  dare  to  deny  that 
every  condition  of  canonical  consecration  would  have  been  fulfilled 
had  the  first  Bp.  of  Maryland  (Dr.  Claggett)  been  consecrated 
by  Bp.  Seabury,  assisted  by  Bps.  White  and  Provoost  1 

To  conclude.  —  A  glorious  future  is  reserved  for  the  Church 
of  the  United  States.  Only  let  her  be  supremely  careful,  tide 
what  tide,  to  '  hold  fast  that  which  she  hath,  that  no  man  take 
her  crown/  Never  may  she,  —  yielding  to  the  blandishments 
and  importunities  of  false  friends,  or  to  the  menaces  and 
persecutions  of  avowed  enemies,  —  surrender  '  one  jot  or  one 
tittle  '  of  that  '  Faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  Saints/  which 
is  her  priceless  inheritance.  Rather  will  she,  (if  she  cares  for 
the  integrity  of  her  existence,)  'contend  earnestly'  for  the  Truth, 
if  need  be,  to  the  very  death6.  Behold,  HE  '  cometh  quickly'  ! 


6    TrapanaXuiv     (Trayojvi^faOai     rrj        tcaXov  a-yStva  TTJS  iriarfcus  (l  Tim.  vi. 
airag  TrapadoOdar)  TOIS  dylois  irlffrfi        12)  :  —  TOV   dyuva    TOV   Ka\ov 
(&.    Jude   ver.    3).  —  dyuvi^ov   TOV       viap.au  (2  Tim.  iv.  7). 


APPENDIX  D.  491 


APPENDIX 

AUTHORSHIP  OF  THE  'TRACTS  FOR  THE  TIMES.' 

[Referred  to  above  in  pp.  174  to  177  :  194  to  201  :  205  to  223. 
Also  pp.  305,  312,  $c.,  417-22.  £e0  afoo  voJ.  ii.  pp.  49  to  52.] 

I  SHALL  perhaps  be  rendering  an  useful  service  if  I  here  put 
on  record,  —  as  far  as,  at  this  time  of  day,  the  facts  are  discover- 
able, —  the  authorship  of  the  several  TEACTS  FOR  THE  TIMES. 
In  this  endeavour,  I  have  been  chiefly  assisted  by  my  revered 
friend,  the  late  Archd.  Harrison. 

Of  the  Ninety  Tracts,  eighteen  are  merely  reprints  from  the 
writings  of  old  English  Divines  :  —  viz,  twelve  (No.  37.  39.  42. 
44.  46.  48.  56.  53.  55.  62.  65.  70)  derived  from  the  works  of 
BP.  WILSON:  —  three,  from  BP.  COSIN  (No.  26.  27.  28):—  one, 
from  Bp.  BEVERIDGE  (No.  25):  —  one,  from  BP.  BULL  (No.  64): 
—  one,  from  ABP.  USSHER  (No.  72). 

Four  are  'Catenae'  (No.  74.  76.  78.  81).  The  last  was  by 
ARCHD.  HARRISON,  —  and  had,  prefixed,  a  tract  by  DR.  PUSEY. 

Of  the  remaining  Sixty-eight,  —  twenty-seven  were  by  J.  H. 
NEWMAN  (No.  i.  2.  3.  6.  7.  8  [but  see  below,  "P.S."].  10.  n. 
19.  20.  21.  31.  33.  34.  38.  41.  45.  47.  71.  73-  75-  79-  82.  83.  85. 
88.  90).  —  Eight,  by  JOHN  KEBLE  (No.  4.  13.  40.  52.  54.  57.  60. 
89).—  Seven,  by  DR.  PUSEY  (No.  18.  66.  67.  68.  69.  77.  81). 

Four  were  by  J.  W.  BOWDEN  (No.  5.  29.  30.  56).—  Four,  by 
THOMAS  KEBLE  (No.  12.  22.  43.  84).—  Four,  by  ARCHD. 
HARRISON  (No.  16.  17.  24.  49). 

Three  were  by  the  Hon.  A.  P.  PERCEVAL  (No.  23.  35.  36).— 
Three,  by  R.  H.  FROUDE  (No.  [8  1  see  below,  "  P.S."]  9.  59. 
63)  :—  Three,  by  ISAAC  WILLIAMS  (No.  80.  86.  87). 

ALFRED  MENZIES  of  Trinity  contributed  one  tract  (No.  14)  : 
—and  C.  P.  EDEN  one  (No.  32).  [Concerning  the  latter, 
something  is  said  in  the  *  Life  '  of  C.  P.  E.] 

One  tract  was  the  joint  production  of  W.  PALMER  of  Worcester 
and  J.  H.  NEWMAN,  viz.  No.  15.  [See  the  'Apologia,'  pp.  1  15-6-] 

One  tract  (No.  51)  is  of  uncertain  authorship.  It  is  thought 
to  have  been  the  work  of  R.  F.  WILSON. 


492  APPENDIX  E  AND  F. 

The  authorship  of  two, — No.  58  and  61, — is  unknown. 

The  sum  of  these  numbers  will  be  found  to  be  NINETY, — 
when  attention  is  paid  to  the  circumstance  that  No.  81  has  been 
reckoned  loth  among  the  '  Catenae  '  and  among  the  'Tracts.' 

P.S. — No.  8  is  assigned  above  to  Newman  :  but  Marriott,  in 
a  letter  to  Rev.  A.  Burn  [' Chichester,  Jan.  29,  1840'],  writes, 
—"You  ought  to  know  that  Froude  was  the  author  of  the  Tract 
'  The  Gospel  a  law  of  liberty,'  " — which  is  the  subject  of  No.  8. 


APPENDIX    (E\ 

IRRELIGIOUS  CHARACTER  OF  THE  OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  COM- 
MISSION OF  1877-81.     THE  CASE  OF  MAGDALEN  COLLEGE. 

[Referred  to  at  pages  449-50.] 

THE  animus  of  "  the  University  of  Oxford  Commissioners  " 
of  1877-81  was  remarkably  shewn  in  respect  of  MAGDALEN 
COLLEGE.  The  old  Foundation  had  been  for  40  Fellows,  of 
whom  34  were  in  Holy  Orders. — By  the  Commission  of  1854-6, 
the  Fellows  (nominally  40  still)  were  reduced  to  30,  of  whom 
20  were  in  Holy  Orders. — By  the  arrangements  of  the  Com- 
mission of  1877-81,  it  had  been  definitely  settled — up  to  the 
beginning  of  November  1880 — that,  besides  "Professor"  and 
"  Official  Fellows"  (i.e.  Tutors  and  Bursars),  of  the  12  Fellow- 
ships which  remained  to  be  elected  to,  six  should  be  held  by 
persons  in  Holy  Orders.  The  draft  of  the  Statutes  decided  on 
for  the  College  by  a  majority  of  the  Commissioners  was 
actually  in  print  when  Lord  Selborne  withdrew  from  the 
Commission.  It  secured,  and  in  a  manner  saved,  the  Religious 
character  of  the  Foundation.  Now,  let  what  happened  next  be 
carefully  noted. 

The  vacancy  caused  by  the  retirement  of  Lord  Selborne 
from  the  Commission  was  supplied  by  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  Bradley,  Master  of  University.  The  Rt.  Hon.  Mountague 
Bernard  now  became  Chairman.  Whereupon,  the  Secularists 
instantly  reopened  the  entire  question :  recalled  the,  draft 
Statutes  already  in  print  ;  and  the  next  time  the  College  came 


OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  COMMISSION,  1877-81.    493 

before  the  Commissioners  (Nov.  2,  1880),  l>y  a  majority  of  one 
vote  (5  against  4),  reduced  the  number  of  Clerical  Fellows  to 
two, — of  which  Two  Clerical  Fellows  (it  has  been  pointed  out 
to  me)  one  is  to  be  the  '  Dean  of  Divinity';  an  office  concerned 
with  the  Choir,  in  consequence  of  the  elaborate  character  of 
the  Chapel  services  which  are  a  marked  feature  in  the  College, 
— greatly  appreciated,  and  largely  resorted  to,  by  '  the  public.' 

The  evil  animus  which,  in  a  matter  of  so  much  gravity, 
could  thus,  per  fas  et  nefas,  pursue  its  unholy  advantage  to  the 
bitter  end,  aptly  illustrates  the  spirit  with  which  the  Colleges 
of  Oxford  have  recently  been  dealt  with,  and  must  strike  every 
fair  looker-on  with  astonishment  and  displeasure.  "Will  any 
one  pretend  that  it  was  right,  on  the  strength  of  a  single  vote, 
to  go  back  and  inflict  a  deadly  injury  on  an  ancient  Society, 
— against  the  will  of  the  College  itself,  and  in  plain  defiance  of 
the  ascertained  intention  of  its  Founder, — especially  after  it 
had  actually  survived  the  ordeal  of  a  hostile  Commission  1  The 
object  plainly  was  to  obliterate  the  Religious  character  of  the 
Foundation. 


APPENDIX    (P), 

THE  COLLEGES  OF  OXFOBD,  ESSENTIALLY  ECCLESIASTICAL 
FOUNDATIONS. 

[Referred  to  at  pages  426  :  450-5.  See  also  pages  201-2.] 
IT  will  not  be  a  waste  of  time  that  I  should  put  on  record 
for  the  benefit  of  ordinary  Readers,  some  evidences  of  the  truth 
of  the  often-repeated  statement,  that  "  The  Colleges  of  Oxford1 
are "  essentially  Religious  Foundations.''  Few  probably,  un- 
acquainted with  our  College  Statutes,  are  aware  of  the  extent 
to  which  those  ancient  documents,  (which  by  the  last  Universi- 
ties' Commission  have  been  repealed  and  set  aside  entirely,) 
witness  to  the  Religious  Spirit  which  is  found  to  have  invariably 
actuated  our  Founders.  I  have  therefore  made  a  few  excerpts, 

1  There  is  no  difference  in  this  respect  between  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 


494         APPENDIX  F. — THE  COLLEGES 

— the  passages,  in  short,  which  caught  my  eye  while  turning 
over  the  pages  of  the  College  Statutes; — and  I  recommend 
the  matter  to  the  attention  of  as  many  as  it  may  concern. 

But  I  cannot  dismiss  this  Appendix  without  a  few  words  of 
solemn  Remonstrance  addressed  to  those  who  have  displayed 
so  much  impatience  to  get  rid  of  the  record  of  the  Intentions 
of  the  pious  Founders  and  Benefactors  whose  bread  they  are 
nevertheless  not  ashamed  to  eat : — whose  bounty  maintains 
them  : — and  to  whom  they  are  indebted  for  every  blessing  they 
enjoy  in  this  place,2 — including,  in  many  instances,  their  social 
status  and  their  individual  influence.  Why  disguise  the  Truth? 
It  is,  because  the  periodical  reminder  of  those  Intentions, — (for 
our  College  Statutes,  by  the  Founder's  express  command,  have 
until  lately  been  read  over  in  the  hearing  of  the  assembled 
body,  twice  if  riot  three  times  every  year,) — It  is,  I  say, 
because,  to  our  modern  Secularists,  the  frequent  reminder  has 
proved  unbearable  that  the  College  was  founded  "  ad  honorem 
DEI,  et  in  augmentationem  cultiis  Divini"  It  was  incon- 
venient, (to  use  no  stronger  expression),  to  hear  the  echo  of 
a  human  voice,  and  that  the  voice  of  the  Founder  of  the 
College, — borne  across  the  gulf  of  upwards  of  half-a-thousand 
years, — addressing  the  men  of  the  present  generation  after  the 
following  (or  some  similar)  solemn  fashion  : — 

"  Dum  labentis  saeculi  corruptelam  in  mente  discutimus 
judicio  rationis,  et  quanta  velocitate  mundana  pertranseant 
solicita  meditatione  pensamus,  certo  videmus  certius  quod 
fragilitatis  humanae  conditio  statum  habet  instabilem,etquae 
visibilem  habent  essentiarn  tendunt  visibiliter  ad  non  esse. 
Ad  Ipsius  ergo  misericordiam  qui  regit  quos  condidit, 
cujus  Regnum  fine  non  clauditur,  nee  ullis  limitibus  coarc- 
tatur,  oculos  mentis  erigimus,  et  quae  sibi  placentia 
aestimamus,  votis  amplectimur,  et  desiderio  exsequimur 
vigilanti:  Ejus  clementiam  totis  cordis  viribus  efflagitantes, 
ut  nobis  in  presenti  aerumna  laticem  suae  pietatis  aperiat, 
et  dirigat  secundum  suum  beneplacitum  actus  nostros." 

2  Written  at  Oxford,  in  1880. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  FOUNDATIONS.         495 

After  this  solemn  preamble,  follows  the  declaration  of  the 
Founder  (of  Oriel)'s  intention  : — 

"Cum  itaque  ad  laudem  Nominis  sui,  et  decor  em  et 
utilitatem  sacrosanctae  Ecclesiae  sponsae  suae,  statuerimus  et 
ordinaverimus  quoddam  Collegium  SCHOLAEIUM  IN  SACRA 
THEOLOGIA  STUDENTIUM  IN  UNIVEKSITATE  OXONIENSI, 
PERPETUIS  TEMPOBIBUS  DURATURUM,  .  .  .  Ordinationeni 
fecimus  infra  scriptam,  quam  perpetuis  temporibus  inviola- 
biliter  praecipimus  observari," 

It  is  of  course  inconvenient  in  a  high  degree  to  Secularists 
to  have  to  sit  and  listen  to  such  a  lecture  as  the  foregoing  from 
their  Founder,  two  or  three  times  a  year.  Hence,  their  im- 
patience to  silence  his  reproachful  accents, — and  to  bury  in 
oblivion  College  Statutes,  with  the  memory  of  their  Author. 

But  these  persons  are  assured  that  it  is  not  possible  so  to 
sever  with  the  Past  at  pleasure ;  so  to  efface  the  record  of  the 
intentions  of  ancient  Benefactors.  "  Litera  scripta  manet."  And 
not  only  so,  but  those  pious  Intentions  themselves  are  prone  to 
rise  up,  as  from  the  grave,  and  make  themselves  heard  reproach- 
fully when  men  least  expect  it.  The  prayers  of  those  many 
Founders  are  not  forgotten  (be  sure  !)  before  GOD  :  nor  yet  the 
memory  of  the  pious  vows  which  found  fulfilment  when  they 
had  created  this  glorious  place.  All  are  as  fresh  in  the  memory 
of  the  MOST  HIGH  as  in  the  hour  when  they  were  originally 
breathed.  And — there  will  yet  come  a  stern  day  of  reckoning 
(Nemesis  the  ancients  called  it)  :  for  corporate  bodies,  like 
nations,  are  reckoned  with  in  this  World, — even  as  individuals 
are  in  the  next.  My  excerpts  follow : — 

i.  "  Imprimis  a  DEO,  ejusque  cultu  religioso,  uti  par  est,  ini- 
tium  facientes" — is  the  exordium  of  the  Statutes  of  UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE. — The  Master  must  be  " in  Sacerdotio  constitutus" — 
"  Omnes  autem  Socii  dent  operam  Theologiae  continue,  nee  ali- 
quam  aliam  facultatem  admisceant ;  et  intra  quartum  annum 
post  inceptionem  in  Artibus,  suscipiant  Diaconatus  ordinem  : 
et  anno  exinde  complete,  in  Presbyteros  ordinentur." — This 
College  has  the  patronage  of  10  cures  of  souls. 


496          APPENDIX  F. — THE  COLLEGES 

ii.  A  religious  motive  clearly  was  paramount  with  Devor- 
guilla,  widow  of  John  Balliol  the  founder  of  BALLIOL  COLLEGE 
(1282).  This  appears  from  the  prominence  given  in  her  very 
brief  Statutes  to  the  attendance  of  the  "  Scholares  "  at  Divine 
Service, — their  "  Grace "  before  and  after  their  meals, — &c. 
The  Statutes  of  1507,  which  have  hitherto  governed  the 
society,  direct  that  the  Master  shall  be  "Theologid  doctus, 
cultui  Divino,  virtuti  et  studio,  dedilus;  horumque  nutritor  et 
incitator."  Provision  is  further  made  "  ne  laborantibus  ancillis, 
id  est  logica  et  philosophia,  torpescat  domina  Theologia:" — 
a  sentiment  which  is  adopted, — the  very  words  being  tran- 
scribed,— by  Bp.  Fox  (1517),  the  founder  of  Corpus.  Also, — 
"  ne  friyescat  fervida  in  DEUM  charitas  abscondaturve  talentum 
traditum,  statuimus  ut  Socii  hujus  Collegii  intra  quatuor  annos 
post  Magistratus  gradus  susceptionem  ordine  Sacerdotali  con- 
stituantur." — Peter  Blundell  ordained  that  the  six  /Scholarships 
which  he  founded  and  endowed  should  be  held  by  "  Students  in 
Divinity."" — This  College  presents  to  19  cures  of  souls. 

in.  Walter  de  Merton,  Bp.  of  Eochester,  the  founder  of 
MERTON  COLLEGE,  in  his  Statutes  (12  7  4)  directs  that  the  larger 
number  of  his  Scholars  "artium  liberalium  et  philosophiae  studio 
vacent,  donee  ....  tamquarn  in  his  laudabiliter  provecti,  ad  stu- 
dium  se  transferant  Theologiae:" — words  which  are  borrowed 
by  the  Founder  of  ORIEL,  and  introduced  into  his  Statutes.  The 
College  was  instituted  for  '  Scholares  dociles,  in  artibus  libera- 
libus,  Canone  et  Thedlogid  studentes.'  (Canon  Law  was  sub- 
sidiary and  preparatory  to  Theology, — not  an  independent 
pursuit.) — This  College  has  the  patronage  of  17  cures  of  souls. 

iv.  EXETER  COLLEGE,  founded  by  Walter  Stapeldon,  Bp.  of 
Exeter  (1316),  is  to  be  presided  over  by  a  Rector, — "  Sacrae 
Theologiae  Baccalaureus  ....  cultui  Divino  deditus." — "Artium 
vero  Magistri  omnes  et  singuli,  tempore  suae  necessariae  re- 
gentiae  complete,  statim  ad  Sacram  Theologiam  se  divertant ;  ei 
tarn  diligenter  operain  dantes,  ut  decimo  post  completam  re- 
gentiam  anno,  promoveantur  ad  gradum  Baccalaurei ;  ac 
deinde,  ante  octavurn  annum  completum,  ad  ipsum  Doctoratus 


ECCLESIASTICAL  FOUNDATIONS.          497 

Sacrae   Theologiae   gradum    actualiter    promoveantur." This 

College  has  the  patronage  of  16  cures  of  souls. 

v.  OKIEL  COLLEGE  was  founded  "  ad  honorem  DEI  .  .  .  et  in 
augmentationem  cultus  Divini"  It  is  described  in  its  Statutes 
(1325-6)  as  "Collegium  Scholarium  in  sacrd  Theologid  stu- 
dentium  in  Universitate  Oxoniensi  perpetuis  temporibus  dura- 
turum:" — in  its  Charter  of  Foundation,  as  designed  "ad 
decorem  Sacrosanctae  matris  Ecclesiae,  cujus  ministeria  personis 
sunt  idoneis  committenda,  quae,  velut  stellae,  in  custodiis  mis 
lumen  praebeant,  et  populos  instruant  doctrina  pariter  et  ex- 
emplo."  Of  its  Scholars,  "  decem  pro  primaria  fundatione 
Collegii  illius,  .  .  .  studio  vacent  Theologiae." — John  Franks, 
Master  of  the  Rolls  (1441),  added  4  Scholars, — "ad  DEI 
Ecclesiam  et  Cleri  augmentum:"  and  Bp.  Smith  (1507),  one 
more, — "  in  laudem  DEI,  exaltationem  Jldei  et  Divini  cultds." — 
In  1529,  when  the  full  number  of  18  Fellows  had  been 
attained,  all  were  to  be  ultimately  Theologians, — as  was  laid 
down  by  Bp.  Longland,  acting  as  Visitor  in  1545:  and  again 
by  Bp.  Gibson,  the  great  Canonist,  in  1722.  Queen  Anne 
annexed  a  Canonry  of  Rochester  to  the  Provostship  for  ever.  .  .  . 
We  of  Oriel,  by  the  way,  on  our  three  Commemoration  days, 
while  thanking  GOD  for  the  advantages  bestowed  upon  us  by 
our  Founder  and  Benefactors,  pray  that  "  we  may  never  forget 
that  it  is  our  bounden  duty  so  to  employ  them  as  we  think  they 
would  approve,  if  they  were  now  upon  earth  to  witness  what  we 
do"  This  College  presents  to  1 4  cures  of  souls. 

vi.  Robert  de  Eglesfield  (1340)  says  concerning  QUEENS' 
COLLEGE, — "  fundavi  .  .  aulam  quandam  collegiarem  Magistro- 
rum,  capellanorum,  theologorum,  et  aliorum  Scholarium  ad  or- 
dinem  Sacerdotii  promovendorum."  His  College  was  founded  "ad 
honorem  DEI,  et  augmentationem  cultus  Divini."  His  Fellows 
were  to  be  at  first  13, — "sub  mysterio  decursus  CHEISTI  et 
Apostolorum  in  terris."  Vacancies  must  be  filled  up  by  persons 
in  Priest's  Orders,  or  who  promised  on  oath  to  take  Holy  Orders 
immediately. — This  College  presents  to  28  cures  of  souls. 

VOL.  I.  K  k 


498          APPENDIX  F. — THE  COLLEGES 

vn.  The  Statutes  of  NEW  COLLEGE  (1400)  begin  by  proclaim- 
ing the  Founder's  intention  "ut  Sacra  Scriptura  seu  pagina, 
scientiarum  omnium  aliarum  mater  et  domina,  sua  liberius  et 
prae  caeteris  dilatet  tentoria."  He  designed  to  promote  the  other 
sciences  and  faculties, — "  et,  ut  praecipue  ferventius  etfrequentius 
CHRISTUS  evangelizetur,  et  fides  cultusque  Divini  Nominis  auge- 
atur  et  fortius  sustentetur, — Sacra  insuper  Theologia  :  ut  sic 
dilatetur  laus  DEI,  gubernetur  Ecclesia,  rigor  atque  fervor 
Christianae  religionis  calescant." — This  College  presents  to  41 
cures  of  souls. 

vni.  Thomas  Eotheram,  Bp.  of  Lincoln  and  afterwards  Abp. 
of  York,  the  second  Founder  of  LINCOLN  COLLEGE  (1479), 
"  videntes"  (as  he  says)  "  piam  intentionem  Ricardi  [Flemming] 
antecessoris  nostri,  esse  ad  laudem  DEI,  ad  augmentum  Cleri,  et 
profectum  universalis  Ecclesiae" — proceeds  to  found  "  quoddam 
Collegium  Theologorum  .  .  .  pro  destruendis  haeresibus,  et  errori- 
lus  evellendis,  plantandisque  Sacrae  doctrinae  seminariis." — 
"  Statuimus  insuper  et  inviolabiliter  ordinamus  quod  nullus  in 
nostri  collegii  collegam  perpetuum  admittatur,  .  .  .  nisi  quod 
eligendus  talis  sit  in  Sacerdotio  constitutus,  vel  ad  minus  infra 
annum  immediate  post  electionem  in  Sacerdotio  constitutus" 
All  these  must  in  due  time  graduate  in  Divinity.  Chapters  vii, 
viii,  ix  of  the  Statutes  ("  De  Sermonibus  dicendis,"  "  De  Officio 
Divino  et  assignatione  ad  altaria,"  "  De  suffragiis  dicendis  pro 
Fundatoribus  et  Benefactoribus,")  bear  eloquent  witness  to  what 
was  in  the  mind  of  the  Founder.  It  was  to  be  nothing  else  but 
a  College  of  Priests.  It  still  enjoys  the  patronage  of  9  cures  of 
souls.  .  .  .  See  more  above,  at  p.  450. 

ix.  Abp.  Chicheley,  founder  of  ALL  SOULS'  COLLEGE  (1443), 
assigns  as  his  motive  the  needs  of  the  Clergy  of  his  day : 
"  Statuentes  quod  quilibet  Magister  in  artibus,  statim  postquam 
necessarian!  regentiam  compleverit,  et  tres  annos  ultra,  ad 
facultatem  Theologiae  illico  se  convertere  debeat  et  etiam  teneatur" 
Also,  "  quod  Socius  quilibet  dicti  Collegii,  infra  duos  annos  post 
regentiam  suain  .  .  . ,  se  ad  sacerdotium  .  .  .  faciat  promoveri" 
— This  College  presents  to  1 7  cures  of  souls. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  FOUNDATIONS.         499 

x.  William  Waynflete,  Bp.  of  Winchester  (1479),  founded 
MAGDALEN  COLLEGE  "  ad  laudem,  gloriam  et  honor  em  omnipo- 
tentis  DEI,  &c.  extirpationem  haeresium  et  errorum,  augmentum 
Cleri,  decorem  sacrosanctae  matris  Ecclesiae"  &c. :  (borrowing  a 
sentence  already  quoted  from  the  Oriel  Statutes.)  Over  this 
"Aula  perpetua  eruditionis  scientiarum  sacrae  Theologiae  et 
Philosophiae"  was  to  be  set  "persona  Ecclesiastica  in  Praesidem." 
The  founder  aimed  at  "  sustentationem  Jidei  Christianae,  Ecclesiae 
profectum,  Divini  cultds,  liberaliumque  artium,  scientiarum,  et 
facultatum  augmentum"  Besides  his  40  Fellows,  who  within 
a  year  of  their  regency  were,  with  certain  exceptions,  to  enter 
the  Priesthood,  he  appointed  twelve  "  altaris  et  Capellae  [dicti 
Collegii\  ministri,  deservientes  quotidie  in  eadem :  quorum  vide- 
licet quatuor  presbyteri,  et  octo  clerici  existant."  The  three 
Deans  of  his  College  were  to  be  " provectiores  in  Theologid"- 
This  College  has  the  patronage  of  41  cures  of  souls. 

XI.  William  Smyth,  Bp.  of  Lincoln,  and  his  co-founder  of 
BKASENOSE  COLLEGE  (1521)  announce  that  they  aim  "ad 
sustentationem  et  exaltationem  fidei  Christianae,  Ecclesiae  sanctae 
profectum,  et  Divini  cultus  augmentum."  Next,  because  "  omnes 
et  singuli  in  Sacrd  Theologid  studere  optantes,  ex  facultatibus 
scientiarum  sophistriae,  logicae,  et  philosophiae  florescunt,"  there* 
fore  they  are  solicitous  for  the  prosecution  of  those  other  studies 
by  their  "scholares."  The  Principal  must  be  a  graduate  in 
Divinity,  or  at  least  a  Master  of  arts  in  Priest's  Orders,  "  sacrae 
Theologiae  studio  deditus."— This  College  presents  to  53  cures 
of  souls. 

xii.  Richard  Fox,  Bp.  of  Winchester  (1517),  founder  of  CORPUS 
CHEISTI  COLLEGE,  at  the  beginning  of  his  Statutes  is  divided 
between  the  image  of  a  ladder  by  which  to  mount  up  to  Heaven; 
and  a  hive, — "  in  quo  scholastic!,  veluti  ingeniosae  apes,  dies 
noctesque  ad  DEI  honorem  dulciflua  mella  conficiant  ad  uni- 
versorum  Christianorum  commoditatem."  He  ordains  that  his 
Masters  "ad  ipsum  Doctoratus  sacrae  Theologiae  gradum  ad- 
volent,"  and  shall  preach  Sermons  in  public,  of  which  he  specifies 
the  occasions.  Finally,  "  ne  quisquam  se  a  Dominico  retrahat 

K  k  3 


500          APPENDIX  F. — THE  COLLEGES 

ministerio,"  every  Fellow  of  the  College  (save  the  one  who  might 
study  Medicine)  was  required  to  take  Holy  Orders  within  a  year 
of  his  regency. — This  College  presents  to  2  2  cures  of  souls. 

xiu.  Of  CHEIST  CHUECH  (1532)  it  is  sufficient  to  state  that  it 
is  essentially  a  Cathedral  Foundation.  At  the  head  of  it  is  the 
Dean.  Five  of  its  Canons  are  Professors  of  Divinity :  the  sixth 
being  the  Archdeacon  of  Oxford.  "In  hoc  Collegio  nostro 
instituendo,"  (says  its  Founder,)  "  id  unum  spectaverunt  cogita- 
tiones  nostrae  ut,  ad  illustrandam  Divinae  Majestatis  gloriam 
recta  animorum  institutione  educata  juventus,  turn  moribus 
turn  literis  eatenus  proficiat  ut  non  vitse  minus  exemplo  quam 
verd  et  sincerd  Evangelii  praedicatione  Jidem  CHKISTI  Salvatoris 
simplicioribus  animis  commendare  queat" — The  House  enjoys 
the  patronage  of  93  cures  of  souls. 

xiv.  The  founder  of  TEINITY  COLLEGE  (1554)  aims  at  "  ortho- 
doxaefidei  Religionisque  Christianae  incrementum."  "  Theologiae 
studio  singulos  Artium  Magistros  statim  post  necessariam  suam 
regentiam  completam,  sine  temporis  intervallo  gnaviter  animos 
intenderepraecipio."  The  chapter  (20)  "De  haereticorum  vitando 
consortio  "  ("  Quum  in  votis  semper  habuerim  sinceram  CHEISTI 
Eeligionem,  ab  omni  haereseos  labe  puram,  CHEISTI  populo  iri 
commendatum,"  &c.)  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  spirit  and  inten- 
tion of  the  Founder  of  Trinity. — The  College  presents  to  10 
cures  of  souls. 

xv.  ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE  was  founded  (1555)  "ad  hmorem 
Sanctissimae  et  individuae  Trinitatis  .  .  .  et  ad  totius  caelestis 
hierarchiae  gloriam,  et  ad  Christianae  religionis  augmentum." 
"  Cum  igitur  "  (says  the  pious  founder)  "  instituti  nostri  sit  ortho- 
doxae  fidei  et  Christianae  professionis  augmentum"  &c.  "  ut 
Theologia,  verbique  Divini  sincera  praedicatio,  mater  ac  Domina 
Scientiarum  omnium,  sua  liberius  latiusque  germina  emittat,"  &c. 
"  Artium  Magistri,  omnes  et  singuli,  tempore  suae  necessariae 
regentiae  completo,  statim  ad  sacram  Theologiam  se  convertant : " 
proceeding  to  the  highest  degree  in  Divinity. — This  College  has 
the  patronage  of  3  2  cures  of  souls. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  FOUNDATIONS.          501 

xvi.  JESUS  COLLEGE  (1571)  was  founded  "ad  summi  et  Omni- 
potentis  DEI  gloriam  et  honorem,  ad  Christianae  et  sincerae  Reli- 
gionis  amplificationem,  et  stabilimentum,  ad  errorum  et  falsarum 
persuasionum  extirpationem,  ad  augendum  et  continuendum  pie- 
tatis  cultum."  "Artium  quoque  Magistri,  omnes  et  singuli, 
tempore  necessariae  suae  regentiae  complete,  statim  ad  sacram 
Theologiam  se  divertant :  eidem  tarn  diligentem  exinde  operam 
dantes,  ut  septimo  post  gradum  Magisterii  ademptum  anno,  ad 
baccalaureatum  in  Theologid,  et  exinde  ad  gradum  Doctoris  in 
eadem  facultate  admittantur,  sub  poena  amotionis  a  Collegio  in 
perpetuum,  nisi  ex  causa  rationabili/'  &c. — This  College  presents 
to  1 9  cures  of  souls. 

xvn.  WADHAM  COLLEGE  (1612)  is  described  as"quoddam 
Collegium  perpetuum  Sacrae  Theologiae,"  &c.  The  Warden 
must  be  a  Doctor  of  Divinity.  Masters  must  proceed  either  in 
the  faculty  of  Theology,  Medicine,  or  Civil  Law. — The  College 
presents  to  1 3  cures  of  souls. 

XVHI.  The  Statutes  of  PEMBEOKE  COLLEGE,  which  bear  date 
1629,  require  that  "Omnes  Socii  et  Scholares  sui  ad  studium 
Theologiae  obligabuntur,  et  erunt  Presbyteri  intra  quatuor  annos 
a  gradu  Magisterii  in  artibus  suscepto.  Nee  manebunt  in  Col- 
legio ultra  viginti  annos  ab  eodem  gradu,  nisi  fuerint  Theologiae 
laccalaurei."  Thomas  Teesdale's  seven  Fellows  are  all  bound 
to  take  Holy  Orders.  Queen  Anne  annexed  a  Canonry  of 
Gloucester  to  the  Mastership  for  ever. — The  College  presents 
to  8  cures  of  souls. 

xix.  WORCESTER  COLLEGE,  though  not  founded  till  1714, 
retains  the  same  character  : — "  Quicunque  sive  in  Socios  sive  in 
Scholares  admittendi  sunt,  ex  Ecclesia  Anglicana  sint:  intra 
quatuor  annos  a  gradu  Magisterii  suscepto,  Sacris  Ordinibus 
initientur,  et  post  annum  e  diaconatu  ad  sacrum  Presbyteratus 
ordinem  promoveantur.  .  .  .  Nee  plures  unquam  eodem  tempore 
quam  duos  in  facultate  alia  quam  Theologiae  incipere  permit- 
timus." — The  College  presents  to  10  cures  of  souls. 


502         APPENDIX  G. — THE  COLLEGES 

But  he  who  would  understand  to  what  an  extent  the  Religious 
element  pervades  the  Statutes  of  the  Colleges  of  Oxford,  must 
inspect  those  Statutes  for  himself.  The  constant  requirement 
that  the  Bible  shall  be  read  during  time  of  dinner, —  (sometimes 
the  portion  so  read  being  explained  afterwards  by  one  of  the 
Fellows) :  the  frequent  provision  made  for  holding  Theological 
Disputations,  or  giving  Divinity  Lectures,  in  the  Chapel :  the 
duties  of  the  "  Catechist : "  the  provision  for  public  Grace  before 
meals, — for  Prayers, — for  the  observance  of  Festival  Days, — for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Choir,  and  for  Divine  worship  generally : 
— these  and  many  other  like  details,  all  point  unmistakably  in 
one  direction,  and  prove  incontestably  that  the  recent  Legisla- 
tion is  nothing  else  but  a  reversal  of  the  Intentions  of  Founders 
and  Benefactors.  Who  that  surveys  the  foregoing  extracts  will 
deny  that  "  THE  DISESTABLISHMENT  OF  KELIGION  "  in  such  In- 
stitutions as  these,  is  "  THE  BETKAYAL  OF  A  SACRED  TRUST  "  ? 


APPENDIX    (G). 

THE  COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  INTENDED  FOR  THE  ENCOURAGE- 
MENT OF  LEARNING  IN  THE  SONS  OF  POOR  PARENTS. 

[Referred  to  at  pages  320:   359-63:  427:  45I~3-J 

THE  following  notices  on  this  subject,  indicative  of  the  inten- 
tions of  Founders,  are  derived  from  a  cursory  inspection  of  the 
Statutes.  Such  notices  might  be  very  largely  increased  : — 

"  Eos  semper  in  Scholares  Collegii  eligi  volumus  "  (so  run  the 
Statutes  of  UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE)  "  qui  sunt  facultatibus  pau- 
periores."  .  .  .  The  pious  foundress  of  BALLIOL  (1282)  has  a 
notable  injunction  : — "  Et  ut  melius  provideatur  sustentationi 
pauperum,  ad  quorum  utilitatem  intendimus  laborare,  volumus 
quod  ditiores  in  societate  Scholarium  nostrorum  ita  temperate 
studeant  vivere  ut  pauperes  nullo  modo  graventur  propter  ex- 
pensas  onerosas."  The  Statutes  which  till  lately  exclusively 
governed  the  society  were  those  framed  by  the  Bps.  of  Win- 
chester and  Carlisle  in  1507.  These  provide  that  the  Scholars 


INTENDED   FOR    THE  POOR.  503 

shall  wait  on  the  Fellows  at  table,  and  "  de  reliquiis  mensae 
Magistri  et  Sociorum  vivant," — a  sufficient  indication  of  what 
must  have  been  their  condition.  .  .  .  The  qualifications  of  the 
"  Scholares "  of  EXETER  COLLEGE  are  thus  set  down : — "  ad 
proficiendum  aptiores,  in  moribus  honestiores,  et  in  facultatibus 
pauperiores."  .  .  .  The  following  is  the  provision  on  this  subject 
in  the  Statutes  of  ORIEL  : — "  Hoc  enim  in  eadem  domo  specia- 
liter  observari  volumus,  ut  circa  eos  qui  ad  hujusmodi  eleemo- 
synae  participium  admittendi  fuerint  diligenti  solicitudine 
caveatur,  ne  qui  praeter  humiles,  indigentes,  ad  studium  ha- 
biles,  proficere  volentes  recipiantur."  . . .  The  founder  of  QUEENS' 
COLLEGE  (1340)  ordains, — "  Sint  insuper  semper  in  eadem  aula 
pauperes  juvenes  in  subduplo  numero  ad  maximum  numerum 
parem  Scholarium  in  eadem  pro  tune  existentium :  ita  quod 
numerus  eorundem  pauperum  numerum  septuaginta  duorum 
CHRISTI  discipulorum  non  excedat."  "  Pauperes  tales  nominari 
volo  et  assumi  juxta  formam  electionis  Sociorum,  ita  tamen 
quod  indigentes  de  med  parentela  vel  consanguinitate,  et  de  locis 
ubi  beneficia  dictae  aulae  consistunt,  caeteris  praeferantur." 
The  regulations  concerning  these  poor  boys  fill  several  pages  of 
the  Statutes.  .  .  .  William  of  Wykeham  (1400)  speaks  of  NEW 
COLLEGE,  as  consisting  "in  et  de  numero  unius  Custodis  ac 
septuaginta  pauperum  indigentium  Scholarium  clericorum."  .  .  . 
So  Abp.  Chicheley  (1443)  describes  ALL  SOULS'  COLLEGE  as 
"  unum  Collegium  pauperum  ac  indigentium  Scholarium,  cleri- 
corum."  .  .  .  MAGDALEN  COLLEGE  was  intended  to  be  "  per- 
petuum  Collegium  pauperum  et  indigentium  Scholarium,  cleri- 
corum."  Over  and  above  these, — "  sint  alii  triginta  pauperes 
Scholares,  vulgariter  Demyes  nuncupati."  .  .  .  TRINITY  COLLEGE 
was  founded  (1556)  "ad  perpetuam  pauperum  Scholarium  in 
Academia  degentium  sustentationem."  "Turn  quod  in  omnibus, 
et  super  omnia,  paupertati  faveatur,  ita  ut  ii  tantum  ad  hujus 
eleemosynae  participationem  admittantur,  qui  inopid  pressi,  unde 
vivant,  seque  in  bonarum  literarum  studiis  sustentent,  non 
habent :  et  omni  fere  amicorum  ope  destituti  esse  cognoscuntur. ' 
.  .  .  The  founder  of  S.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE  (1555)  declares  that — 
"quia  CHRISTUS  praecipit  pauperes  recipere  in  hospitia,  nos 


504  APPENDIX  G. 

ordinamus  et  volumus  quod  omnes  in  collegium  nostrum  ad 
annos  probationis  eligendi,  sint  pauperes  et  indigentes  Scholares, 
clerici"  Accordingly  he  provides  an  endowment  for  50  "  Scho- 
lares pauperiores."  .  .  .  The  expression  recurs  in  the  Statutes 
of  PEMBKOKE  COLLEGE  with  reference  to  Thomas  Teesdale's 
foundation  (1629).  His  Scholars  were  to  be  "  ex  pauperioribus." 
.  .  .  JESUS  COLLEGE  (1571)  was  founded  (inter  alia)  "ad  pau- 
perum  et  inopid  afflictorum  sublevationem."  .  .  .  WADHAM  is 
described  (1612)  as  "  aliquod  Collegium  pauperum  et  indigen- 
tium  Scholar  ium." 


Let  me  refer  here  to  three  Pamphlets  by  my  friend  and  late 
brother-Fellow,  Dr.  Chase,  Principal  of  S.  Mary  Hall,  who  has 
ever  been  the  firm  and  consistent  champion  of  the  "  Pauperes 
Scholares," — the  faithful  advocate  of  the  claims  of  Poverty  on 
our  Collegiate  Foundations:  — (i)  ' A  Plea  for  John  Lord  Craven, 
and  the  Eleemosynary  purpose  of  Founders  generally '  [_n.  dJ]  : — 
(2)  '  The  Bights  of  "  Indigentes"  in  respect  to  College  Foundations' 
A  Letter  to  Sir  J.  Pakington,  1856  : — (3)  ' Education  for  frugal 
men  at  the  University  of  Oxford.  An  account  of  the  experiments 
at  S.  Mary's  and  S.  Alban  Halls,' — 1864.  ...  I  have  also  before 
me  some  prophetic  words  of  his  in  a  short  pamphlet  entitled 
'  The  De-Christianizing  of  the  Colleges  of  Oxford'  reprinted  from 
the  "  Standard"  of  Oct.  27,  1868.  Dr.  Chase  begins,— " THE 

EFFECT,  WHATEVER  MAY  BE  THE  INTENTION,  OF    ME.   [nOW  Lord 

Chief  Justice]  COLEKIDGE'S  BILL,  should  it  pass  into  an  Act, 
CAN  BE,  under  the  present  circumstances  of  the  University, 

NOTHING  LESS  THAN  THE   DE-CHRISTIANIZING  OF  THE  COLLEGES 

OF  OXFORD." — A  truer  sentence  was  never  penned. — "  I  cannot 
conceal  from  myself  "  (the  words  are  Dean  Mansel's)  "  the  con- 
viction that  your  Tests'  Bill  is  but  one  of  a  series  of  assaults 
destined  to  effect  an  entire  separation  between  the  University  and 
the  Church!' 


•  * 


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Burgon,  John  William' 
782       Lives  of  twelve  good  men 


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