Order of service. Cards. IV. Remarks on the Archbishop's Judgment (1890). V. The Waverley Novels arranged Chronologically The frontispiece is a reproduction of the portrait by Mr. H. T. Munns, painted in 1882 (see p. 233), leave to copy which has been kindly given by his son, Mr. H. E. Munns, of West-End Chambers, Birmingham. The other is from a photograph taken in 1889, in the possession of the Bishop's son, Mr. W. B. Wordsworth. THE EPISCOPATE OF CHARLES WORDSWORTH CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE-ELECTION TO THE SEE OF ST. ANDREWS 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.' Summary of early life, 1806-1853-Harrow, Oxford, Winchester, Glenalmond-Election as Bishop-Peculiar circumstances-Nature of the opposition-His claims on Churchmen-His criticism of Bishop Torry's Prayer Book and views on Establishment-The Prayer Book describedCharles Wordsworth's action respecting it-Establishment' an article of the Christian Faith '-Criticism on Mr. Gladstone-Strong feeling forty years ago-His character enables him to bear opposition. CHARLES WORDSWORTH, second son of Christopher Wordsworth, sometime Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Priscilla (Lloyd) his wife, was born 22 August, 1806, the day on which, as it happens, eighty-eight years later, I begin writing this memoir. He was baptised at Lambeth Palace 19 February,2 1807-nearly six months after his birth-the His elder brother John, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, was a laborious and most accomplished scholar, and a very amiable man, who died young, 31 December, 1839. His younger brother Christopher, Fellow of the same College, Head Master of Harrow School, Canon of Westminster, and finally Bishop of Lincoln, died 21 March, 1885. Both were educated at Winchester College as Commoners. 2 The day, as he afterwards noticed, on which his first grandson was born in 1880. B Archbishop, Charles Manners Sutton, and William Wordsworth, the poet, being his sponsors. He was educated at Harrow School, where he went first in 1820, and at Christ Church, Oxford, which he entered in 1825. His early years, though chequered with occasional clouds of ill-health and fits of nervousness, to which he was liable all his life, were bright and successful. He was brilliant as a scholar, and in writing Greek and Latin verse he became a poet. Latin verse composition especially was his peculiar delight and solace to the end of his long life. He was distinguished in almost all manly exercises, particularly cricket, rowing, tennis, and skating. Tall, handsome, and athletic, with a strong and prepossessing countenance, set off by brown curly hair and brightened by a winning smile-to which the engraving of G. Richmond's portrait does some, but not sufficient justice he seemed destined for great achievements. After taking his degree (1830) he acted for a time as a private tutor at Oxford, numbering among his pupils a remarkable band of eminent men, of whom Mr. W. E. Gladstone, Cardinal Manning, Bishop W. K. Hamilton, and Lord Canning will probably be considered by posterity as the most eminent. After some interesting and somewhat enterprising travels in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany, in 1833-4, he came back to England engaged to be married to a lady whom he had met at Paris-Miss Charlotte Day, eldest daughter of the Rev. George Day, rector of Earsham, near Bungay. On his return to Oxford he was appointed to a public tutorship at the College by Dean Gaisford, and on 21 December, 1834, he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Bagot, of Oxford. In the summer that followed he became Second Master of Winchester College, a position which enabled him to marry (29 December, 1835). This office not only afforded him an opportunity of teaching such as he was specially qualified to embrace, but it gave him an equally important experience of management, since it involved the internal control of the ancient College and its seventy scholars, to which and to whom his heart became closely knit. Besides the intimate friendship of the much-loved and noble-hearted Warden, R. S. Barter, it brought him into daily and familiar relations with Dr. George Moberly, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, whose mind (as I can testify from my own experience) was specially fitted to strengthen and clarify the Church principles and to sharpen the intelligence of all with whom he came into close contact. He held the office of Second Master for about eleven years, until March 1846. His marriage was a very happy one, but Mrs. Wordsworth died, to his extreme grief, on Ascension Day, 10 May, 1839, after giving birth to a daughter, the only child of their union. In the following year, at the Advent Ordination (13 December 1840), he was ordained Priest by the Bishop of Winchester-a delay of six years after his diaconate, such as would have seemed somewhat remarkable in this generation,' especially in one who conceived his duties as Master as involving so much of pastoral responsibility. He had left Oxford before the 'Movement' was in full force, but he was, no doubt, considerably influenced by it, and for a time he appeared, at least to others, to be likely to throw in his lot with it.3 Certainly, in his relations to his boys, he seemed to a great It may be remarked that Dr. Arnold was not ordained Priest till 1828, having been ordained Deacon in 1818. 2 The two volumes of Christian Boyhood at a Public School, published in 1846 and dedicated to Dr. Moberly, may be mentioned as giving a valuable record of this relation. His sermon on Evangelical Repentance, with its Appendix (Oxford, 1841 and 1842), is important in reference to the question of Penitential Discipline in the Church of England. 3 He has discussed his relation to the Oxford Movement at some length in the first volume of the Annals, 322-326. It contains, amongst other interesting matter, an affectionate estimate of his debt to his father-the Master of Trinity. |