Ex Libris 
 C. K. 
 

 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON 
 
 Collegium Cnclcnsc Collegium fligornfcnae
 
 HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

 
 JOHN WILLIAM BURGON 
 
 LATE DEAN OF CHICHESTER 
 
 WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS AND 
 EARLY JOURNALS 
 
 BY EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN, D.D., D.C.L 
 
 SOMETIME DEAN OF NORWICH 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES: WITH PORTRAITS 
 VOL. I 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 i 892
 
 Sttk 
 Annex 
 
 V- / 
 
 TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN (.OH 
 
 RICHARD 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF CHICHESTER 
 WHOSE UNVARYING KINDNESS AND TRUE FRIENDSHIP 
 
 THE SUBJECT OF THIS BIOGRAPHY 
 ACCOUNTED TO BE ONE CHIEF SOURCE OF THE HAPPINESS OF HIS 
 
 LIFE AT CHICHESTER 
 
 AND WHOSE SERMON ON THAT MOURNFUL SUNDAY 
 AUGUST 5. l888 
 
 is DEAN BURGON'S BEST AND MOST ELOQUENT EULOGY 
 
 THIS WORK IS 'BY PERMISSION') INSCRIBED 
 
 WITH SENTIMENTS OF AFFECTIONATE ESTEEM AND VENERATION 
 
 AND WITH GRATITUDE FOR ASSISTANCE RECEIVED IN IT 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR
 
 Tidorhs bg tbe late Bean tturgon. 
 
 THE REVISION REVISED THREE ESSAYS FROM THE 'QLAK- 
 
 TERLY REVIEW.' (I) NEW GREEK TEXT; (II) NEW ENGLISH 
 VERSION ; (III) WESTCOTT AND HORT'S TEXTUAL THEORY. Corrected 
 and Enlarged. With a Dissertation on i Timothy iii. 16. Svo. us. 
 
 THE LIVES OF TWELVE GOOD MEN. 
 
 MARTIN JOSEPH ROUTH. 
 HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 CHARLES MARRIOTT. 
 EDWARD HAWKINS. 
 SAMUEL WILBERFORCE. 
 RICHARD LYNCH COTTON. 
 
 RICHARD GRESWELL. 
 HENRY OCTAVIUS COXE. 
 HENRY LONGUEVILLE MANSKL. 
 WILLIAM JACOBSON. 
 CHARLES PAGE EDEN. 
 CHARLES LONGUET HIGGINS. 
 
 A New Edition, with Portraits of tlie Autlwr and tlic 
 Twelve Good Men. One Volume, 8vo. \6s.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT may perhaps be questioned, even by some of those 
 who greatly esteemed and admired John William Bur- 
 gon, whether his claims to be gratefully remembered by 
 the Church, and had in honour by future generations of 
 English Christians, might not have been satisfied by a 
 short Memoir. whether the part he played in ecclesias- 
 tical affairs, and in the history of religious thought during 
 the past half-century, was of sufficient importance to 
 justify so detailed a record of his life as is attempted in 
 these volumes. The author entirely thinks it was so, and 
 for the following reason. Burgon was in this country 
 the leading religious teacher of his time, who brought 
 ail the resources of genius and profound theological 
 learning to rebut the encroachments of Rationalism, 
 by maintaining inviolate the integrity of the written 
 Word of God as the Church has received it; by pointing 
 out its depth, its versatility of application, and absolute 
 inexhaustibility of significance ; and by insisting upon its 
 paramount claims to the humble and reverent reception of
 
 viii LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 mankind, as having been " given by Inspiration of God." 
 That nationalism has been in our times largely under- 
 mining the simple faith of our Bishops and Clergy, as 
 well as our laity, in those parts of the Divine Testimony 
 which seem to present difficulties either to the under- 
 standing or moral sense, there are unhappily only too 
 many evidences on all sides of us. " By faith we stand " 
 spiritually. And the great object of faith, the stay 
 and support on which it assures itself in temptation 
 and trial, is the Word of God. Rationalism therefore 
 busies itself industriously with the Word of God, to 
 see whether it cannot call in question its certainty, and 
 throw doubt upon its infallibility. The initial question 
 of Rationalism, the question by which the Evil One suc- 
 ceeded in supplanting the loyalty of our first mother to 
 her Creator, was, " YEA, HATH GOD SAID ? " " Is His 
 Word genuine ? Is it authentic 1 Are you sure that it 
 was He who spake to you 1 Are you sure of what He 
 spake ? And if indeed He uttered the vexatious restric- 
 tion which prevents your enjoyment of a tree ' good for 
 food,' and ' pleasant to the eyes,' and ' a tree to be desired 
 to make one wise,' how does that restriction comport 
 with His goodness and His desire to make you happy?" 
 This was pure Rationalism in the germ thereof, and as 
 it came from the mouth of its author. And it was to 
 receive subsequent developments in the history of the 
 Church. Sadducaism was its great development in the 
 Church of the Old Dispensation. And Sadducaism out- 
 lined with great exactness the features of modern 
 Rationalism. Without rejecting the Scriptures of the Old
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 Testament, as the Jewish Church had received them, the 
 Sadducees declined to interpret them in the obvious sen M 
 which was ordinarily and traditionally attached to them: 
 they explained away. it is hard to say how. but pro- 
 bably by some convenient allegorizing such passages 
 as were understood to assert a life after death, and a 
 world above and beyond the senses ; " the Sadducees 
 say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor 
 spirit." Now the two methods of modern Rationalism 
 are to call in question, wherever it can. the genuineness 
 of much which has hitherto passed as Holy Scripture, 
 ami, where it cannot do this, to offer natural explanations 
 of the supernatural, and to regard the narrative, where 
 it presents difficulties, not as historical in the strict 
 sense, but as an instructive legend or fable. And the 
 fundamental fallacy of all such methods will be found to 
 be an entirely wrong and derogatory mental attitude 
 taken up at the outset towards what the Church 
 presents to us as the Word of God. That Word is 
 conceived of as an ordinary book, to be subjected to 
 criticism of exactly the same kind as that which is 
 applied to Livy, or Herodotus, or Homer, by way of 
 discriminating the genuine from the spurious, the au- 
 thentic from the fictitious. The student is not in the 
 cell of an oracle, listening devoutly on his knees for the 
 response of the Deity, but in the dissecting room of an 
 anatomist, going to work with the scalpel upon a body 
 which he conceives of as dead, but which really in the 
 minutest member of it is instinct with the Divine 
 Life, the breath of the Holy Ghost. W T hen shall wt-
 
 x LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 learn that no profit is to be had from God's Oracles, 
 aye, and no progress to be made in the right under- 
 standing of them unless they are approached in quite 
 a different spirit 1 " When ye received the word of God 
 which ye heard of us, YE RECEIVED IT NOT AS THE WORD 
 
 OF MEN, BUT AS IT IS IN TRUTH, THE WORD OF GOD, 
 WHICH EFFECTUALLY WORKETH ALSO IN YOU THAT 
 BELIEVE." 
 
 Now this view of Holy Scripture as, in virtue of its 
 having been " given by Inspiration of God." altogether 
 unique in its character and its claims upon mankind, 
 Burgon stoutly and consistently defended in our time 
 against the underminings and corrosions of Rationalism, 
 bringing to the defence, as has been said, (what thousands 
 of those who entirely concur with his views have not 
 to bring,) talents, accomplishments, and learning of the 
 highest order, and that patient indefatigable industry of 
 research, which never jumps prematurely at conclusions, 
 however attractive, but toils and plods on, in the 
 assurance that the highest Wisdom reveals herself only 
 to those who bestow upon her the miner's toil, " seeking 
 her as silver, and searching for her as for hid treasures." 
 That in protesting for the grand truth, to the main- 
 tenance of which he consecrated his life, he was guilty 
 of occasional extravagances ; that the very impetuosity 
 of his zeal for the integrity of God's Word and its para- 
 mount claims carried him away now and then into sallies 
 of the pen, which it would have been better to restrain, 
 and perhaps sometimes led him to take up positions not 
 altogether defensible, may be freely admitted, without
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 in the least disparaging the value of the great work 
 which he did, or the grandeur of the position which he 
 held, as the brave champion in a rationalizing genera- 
 tion of God's Inspired Word. No great cause was ever 
 maintained successfully without infirmities of temper 
 and extravagances of statement in its champions. The 
 Reformation might have been strangled in its birth, had 
 it not been for Luther. But few indeed of those who 
 acknowledge the deep indebtedness of the Reformed 
 Church to Luther, would care to defend all his para- 
 doxical assertions about good works, or the slur passed 
 by him upon the Epistle of St. James as " an epistle of 
 straw." 
 
 Moreover, in a state of society, when a fresh originality 
 of character seems, under the levelling tendencies of the 
 day, to have become almost extinct among us, a strong 
 vivid individuality, like that of John William Burgon 
 especially when it is an individuality which has con- 
 secrated itself to a grand cause, seems to deserve a 
 distinct and detailed record. The very circumstances 
 of Burgon's birth and breeding contributed to give him 
 an originality of character possessed by few indeed 
 among the English clergy of his day. Of foreign ex- 
 traction by the mother's side, with a strong infusion of 
 Smyrniote blood in him (which of itself accounts to a 
 great extent for that perfervidv. m higenium of his, which 
 was always breaking forth) ; destined originally for a 
 mercantile life, and leading it till he had attained an age, 
 ten years in advance of that at which young English- 
 men usually go to College ; familiar too, long before
 
 xii LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 he came up to Oxford, with poets, artists, archaeologists, 
 literary men, his antecedents, so entirely out of the ordi- 
 nary groove, gave a peculiar complexion to his character 
 throughout life, and made other men, however gifted, 
 more or less tame in comparison with him. But quite 
 independently of external circumstances, which may 
 have contributed to form his character, the character 
 itself was one of great originality, with a vivid colour, 
 and an indomitable force of will all its own. This force 
 of will, while it gave him a tenacity of purpose in carry- 
 ing into effect everything he undertook, by its very 
 unyieldingness failed entirely to carry others with it. 
 Compromise was a word unknown to him ; he was in- 
 capable of making the smallest concession to those who 
 differed from him ; perfectly assured of the truth of his 
 own conclusions, he was also perfectly assured that those 
 who arrived at different conclusions were in the wrong ; 
 and therefore he stood and acted alone, and never had (as 
 indeed he never cared to have) a following among his 
 equals. Never, it is thought, were two members of the 
 same Communion so singularly contrasted in character 
 as he and Archbishop Tait, whose biographers have 
 recently presented the Church and the world with so 
 faithful and so graphic a portraiture of that very con- 
 siderable figure in the English Church of our day. Here 
 was a born ruler of men, a man who had the secret of 
 carrying his own point with others, but carrying it (as 
 only it can be carried in a free society, every member of 
 which has a voice of his own,) by conceding whatever 
 he did not think to involve a vital principle, in order that
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 what was vital might be maintained and preserved. Thus 
 the Archbishop became a great social force, not only 
 in the Church, but in the State; his weight was dis- 
 tinctly felt, and consciously acknowledged, in the Upper 
 Chamber of the Legislature. The Dean, though ardently 
 beloved and profoundly revered by his disciples, was no 
 social force at all. His work lay in literature, not 
 in affairs. He attracted by overwhelming kindness ; 
 he attached others by the strongest ties of gratitude, 
 affection, sympathy ; but he was no wielder of move- 
 ments, nor leader of men ; God had not formed him 
 to be so. Other points of vivid contrast between the 
 two characters will probably strike those who were 
 acquainted with both men, such as the calm, deliberate 
 judgment of the one, the passionate impulsiveness of the 
 other ; the phlegmatic temperament of the one, the 
 excessive sensibility of the other ; the ultra-Liberalism 
 of the one, the old-fashioned Toryism (not only by he- 
 reditary sentiment, but also by mental constitution) of 
 the other ; the somewhat prosaic, unaesthetic mind of the 
 one, and the exuberant poetry, romance, and artistic pro- 
 clivities of the other ; contrasts which cease only when 
 one reaches the lowest deep of both characters, where 
 it is seen clearly enough that both were men of prayer, 
 and both men of God. And when the survey both of 
 the contrasts and of the fundamental harmony is com- 
 pleted, the truth is realised of that profound and weighty 
 saying of the Apostle's ; " Now there are diversities of 
 gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of 
 administrations, but the same Lord. And there are
 
 xiv LIFE OF DEAN BUBOON. 
 
 diversities of operations, but it is the same God which 
 worketh all in all." 
 
 But putting on one side the interest of the character 
 which it is the purpose of these pages to depict, the 
 author ventures to hope that the work may be regarded 
 as a humble contribution to the Church history of our 
 times times characterized by a restless fermentation of 
 thought on all religious questions, and by the equally 
 restless movement which must always follow upon such 
 fermentation. If the review of these times has been in 
 the main a saddening one, if the movements and changes 
 have seemed to take a wrong direction, and if at present 
 the outlook upon religious thought in this country is 
 as dismal as it well can be, Rationalism speaking out 
 more confidently than ever its insinuations as to the 
 fallibility both of the written and the Personal Word of 
 God, writer and reader alike must console themselves 
 with the thought that a deference is due to accomplished 
 facts, as having been, even when calamitous, brought 
 about in the order of Divine Providence (as punishments, 
 it may be, of the Church's sin) ; and that there are still the 
 "seven thousand in Israel," " the remnant according to 
 the election of grace," who value the Inspired Volume of 
 Holy Scripture above all earthly treasure, and whose 
 simple child-like faith in its testimonies is proof against 
 all the suggestions of its fallibility thrown out by the 
 (so-called) Higher Criticism. In the hearts of all such 
 persons the memory of John William Burgon will be 
 embalmed for ever. 
 
 In concluding this Preface, the author desires to
 
 PREFA CE. xv 
 
 remind the reader that Burgon himself has not yet said 
 his last word on the subject nearest his heart. The 
 Church yet anticipates the great work, to the prepara- 
 tion of which he devoted the better part of his life, but 
 which he was not permitted to complete, his " Exposi- 
 tion of the true principles of the Textual Criticism of tin- 
 New Testament, and the Vindication ami Establishment of 
 the Traditional Text by the application of those principle*" 
 It is confidently expected that this work, now in pro- 
 cess of completion under the able editorship of the 
 Reverend Edward Miller, will, when it makes its ap- 
 pearance, set its seal upon the fame of Purgon as a 
 Textual Critic of the highest order, equally indefatig- 
 able in research, cautious in judgment, and keen in 
 acumen. 
 
 The enthusiastic affection, which Burgon inspired in 
 those who knew him well, and came under his influence, 
 has been the means of procuring for the author a vast mass 
 of materials, both in the shape of letters, and written con- 
 tributions ; and he is quite sensible that by far the 
 greater part of the interest of his work is due not to 
 his own share in it, but to communications made to him 
 by the friends of the deceased. To enumerate all those 
 who have made these helpful communications to him. 
 would be to fill several pages with names, and thus materi- 
 ally to lengthen the Preface. Let it suffice, while cordially 
 thanking all contributors, whatever shape their con- 
 tributions may have taken, to acknowledge his special 
 obligations to Mr. Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave, of Great 
 Yarmouth, the letters lent by whom (addressed to the
 
 xvi LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 late Mr. Dawson Turner) will be found to constitute 
 the chief interest of the earlier part of the work ; to 
 Mrs. Samuel Bickersteth, a typical disciple of Burgon's, 
 whose letters to her show, better than any description 
 can do, the affectionate ties which bound him to the 
 younger members of his flock ; to the Venerable Arch- 
 deacon Palmer, who has given all sorts of aid, in- 
 cluding a most able and interesting paper upon Burgon's 
 ministry at Finmere ; to the Reverend R. G. Living- 
 stone, Fellow and Tutor of Pembroke College, Oxford, 
 who, like other of Burgon's former curates, writes with 
 a warmth of affection and liveliness of appreciation 
 about him, which shows what he was to his colleagues 
 in the Ministry ; to the Reverend Alfred Hensley, of 
 Cotgrave Rectory, his earliest Oxford friend, who, de- 
 spite some differences of opinion, clung to him to the last 
 with unabated affection ; and to Lord Cranbrook, who 
 had the discrimination to see his singular merits, and 
 the claims which he had established upon the gratitude 
 both of the Church of England and the University of 
 Oxford, and who was doubtless the means of procuring 
 for him some recognition of these claims, in the very 
 modest preferment to which quite late in life he 
 attained. 
 
 We, his friends, deeply deplore him, not only from the 
 warm personal love which we entertained for him, but also 
 from its seeming to us, in our purblind view of capacities 
 and coming emergencies, that in the great struggle which 
 is impending for the genuineness, authenticity, and in- 
 fallibility of the Holy Scriptures, he was the man, who
 
 PREFACE. xvii 
 
 from his studies, his genius, his faithfulness, could 
 most effectively have helped the cause of Divine Truth. 
 But be we assured it is best as it is. As regards the 
 cause, God has many other arrows in His quiver, and 
 can and will raise up " the man of His right hand," and 
 " make him strong for His own self." And as regards 
 our friend, while we have lost, not indeed his sym- 
 pathy nor his prayers, but his counsel, and that access 
 to him which was so enlivening and so edifying, it is 
 our comfort to think that he has been spared from 
 witnessing the more recent developments of a Rational- 
 ising Criticism and a Latitudinarianising Theology, 
 and that 
 
 THE RIGHTEOUS is TAKEN AWAY FKOM THE EVIL 
 TO COME. 
 
 BBIGHTON, 
 
 September 18, 1891. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CONTEXTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE EARLY LIFE ....... i 
 
 (From his Birth [Aug. 21, 1813] to his Matriculation at 
 Oxford [Oct. 21, 1841].) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE OXFORD LIFE : FIRST PERIOD . . . .114 
 
 (From his Matriculation [Oct. 21, 1841] to his Admission 
 into the Order of Deacons [Dec. 24, 1848].) 
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD . . . .162 
 
 \v.-t IlsK-y, Worton, and Fininere [Dec. 24, i848-June 6, 
 
 1853]-) 
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD . . . .219 
 
 (From his leaving Finmere [June 6, 1853] to the commence- 
 ment of his tour in Egypt, the Arabian Desert, and 
 Palestine [Sept. 10, 1861].) 
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE : FOURTH PERIOD . . .292 
 
 (Tour in Egypt, the Sinaitic Peninsula, and Palestine 
 [Sept. 10, i86i-July 18, 1862].)
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE EASLT LIFE. 
 
 From his Birth [Aug. 21, 1813] to his Matriculation at 
 Oxford [Oct. 21, 1841.] 
 
 IT is usual to begin a Biography with some notice of 
 the ancestry of the person whose life is to be recorded. 
 If a prelude of this sort is in any and every case suitable 
 and appropriate, much more so is it in the case of the 
 subject of this memoir, JOHN WILLIAM BURGOX. For 
 with many other striking characteristics he combined a 
 perfect passion for pedigrees, and a remarkable industry 
 in the investigation of them. Among many other works 
 of a character wholly dissimilar, he has left behind him 
 a series of papers which he entitled " Parentalia," being 
 the results of a research into the pedigrees of his father 
 and mother ; a research to which, besides prosecuting it 
 at odd moments, he devoted a tour in the West Riding 
 of Yorkshire during the autumn of 1840. In a letter 
 descriptive of this tour, which he addressed to his great 
 friend Mr. Dawson Turner, of Great Yarmouth, under 
 date Dec. 2, 1840, other extracts from which will be 
 given lower down, he writes : 
 
 " At the risk of being laughed at, I must tell you what 
 I principally wished to do, in taking the queer tour I am 
 going to describe. Without such an explanation, you 
 will set me down for a tasteless ass, with all the world 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 before me. to select the West Riding of Yorkshire for the 
 scene of my summer pilgrimage. I wished to fill up the 
 wanting links in my pedigree, and to investigate the 
 history of my worshipful progenitors by a local inspec- 
 tion of wills, parish registers, and the like. So with 
 a little portfolio of memoranda collected in previous 
 years, a map, and my sketching apparatus, I started ; 
 and Tom" [his younger brother] "was the companion 
 of my wanderings aforesaid." 
 
 This tour added considerably to the genealogical par- 
 ticulars respecting his ancestry, which he had been for 
 several years previously engaged in collecting ; and the 
 fresh particulars were incorporated in the " Parentalia." 
 After a lengthy introduction, telling his reader how he 
 was first " put on the right scent " in his genealogical 
 researches ; how difficult any such work proves " when 
 accuracy and detail are aimed at " (" the age of a maiden 
 aunt being sometimes as great a mystery as any of an- 
 cient Eleusis ") ; how much still remains to be done by 
 him in the way of research " at Doctors' Commons, at the 
 Rolls' Chapel, and other similar repositories " ; and how 
 he is " wholly unable to sympathize with men who are 
 strangers to an interest " in such enquiries, he divides his 
 subject thus : " My plan is simply this. My prefatory 
 matter is followed by (i) a dissertation on our family 
 name ; (2) some account of the several families who have 
 borne that surname ; (3) some account of our own family. 
 This genealogical and biographical sketch is accompanied 
 by a pedigree and abstracts of wills, etc. Then comes a 
 short account of the De Cramer family " [his mother's] ; 
 
 " then of the Johnson family, and the families of 
 
 Murdoch and Broomer ; then of Eyre. After which 
 
 come some notices of Rose. These are followed by a 
 series of pedigrees of Burgon, from which a collateral 
 descent alone is to be traced." He labours learnedly to
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 3 
 
 prove that the name Burgon, or Le Burgon. " simply 
 signifies ' the Burgundian,' the native of Bourgogne or 
 Burgundy." From the mass of " Dryasdust " genea- 
 logical details there emerges every now and then (as 
 could not fail to be the case with one so brimful of sen- 
 timent) the sentiment of the writer ; as, when he comes 
 to the Burgons of Silkstone, in the West Riding of York- 
 shire ( <; a village," as he writes to Mr. Dawson Turner; 
 " degraded by its coal-mine, and by the vices such a 
 neighbour is ever productive of ") ; 
 
 " It is a pleasure to think that Silk-stone was the first 
 parish in this part of Yorkshire which was christianized, 
 that from this spot, as from a centre, the rays of 
 Gospel-light first disseminated themselves over the 
 neighbourhood. My forefathers therefore enjoyed in 
 a peculiar degree the priviledges " (in these early days 
 he always spells the word thus, as was the fashion 
 formerly), " and dwelt among the hills which were first 
 imprinted by ' the beautiful feet of them who preach the 
 Gospel of peace.' '' 
 
 He has not put upon record anything remarkable as 
 to his ancestry on the father's side ; but as to his mother's 
 father, the Chevalier de Cramer, Austrian consul at 
 Smyrna (who was born at Cologne, Feb. 10, 1757, and 
 died at Smyrna, Nov. 9, 1 809), he tells this story, which 
 will be read with interest for its own sake, and more 
 especially in connexion with the character of the teller. 
 The Chevalier's antecedents were these : Meeting with 
 indifferent success in commerce, he changed his line of 
 life, and having been thrown across an American gentle- 
 man (one Isaac Cramer 1 ), who took a strong fancy to 
 
 1 The original form of the Cheva- Cramer, a process easily effected 
 lier's name was Cremer ; but Isaac by the change of a single vowel. 
 Cramer made him his heir on con- The change, however, was duly 
 dition of his taking the name of legalized. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 him, and furnished him with the necessary funds, he 
 studied law and diplomacy at the University of Vienna, 
 and so distinguished himself in this more congenial 
 sphere, that in 1777 he was appointed Austrian Consul 
 at Smyrna. How he became Chevalier will be seen by 
 the following anecdote, given in one of the notes to the 
 '' Parentalia." 
 
 " When Napoleon was at Jaffa " [March 4 to 14, 1799], 
 " the French Church of St. Polycarp at Smyrna was 
 treated by the Turks as part of the spoil of the enemy. 
 Karasman Oglu 2 , claiming to be the lawful proprietor of 
 the church by right of conquest, sold it to the Greeks for 
 the sum of 50,000 thalers, 30,000 of which were actually 
 paid into his hands by the Greek purchaser. A few 
 Turkish soldiers had already entered the church, and 
 seated themselves upon the altars. At this juncture 
 intelligence of the outrage was brought to my grand- 
 father by the Cure of the church. ' Sir,' he said, ' there 
 is no French Consul here for me to apply to. To him of 
 right would belong the duty of defending this church from 
 sacrilegious invasion. But your faith supplies a suffi- 
 cient reason why you should stand forth as the defender of 
 the Church of St. Polycarp.' Not an instant was to be 
 lost. My grandfather had not even time to draw on his 
 
 2 Readers of Byron will be re- First of the bold Timariot bands, 
 
 minded of Giaffir's recommendation That won and well can keep their 
 to Zuleika (in " The Bride of Aby- lands. 
 
 dos ") of the bridegroom he had Enough that he who comes to woo 
 
 selected for her, a kinsman of this Is kinsman of the Bey Oglou." 
 very " Karasman Oglu." The Qote OQ thig pasgage says . 
 
 " a braver man " Carasman Oglou, or Kara Os- 
 
 Was never seen in battle's van. man Oglou, is the principal land- 
 
 We Moslem reck not much of owner in Turkey ; he governs 
 
 blood ; Magnesia. Those who, by a kind 
 
 But yet the line of Carasman of feudal tenure, possess land on 
 
 Unchanged, unchangeable hath condition of service, are called 
 
 stood Timariots."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 5 
 
 boots. He hastily put on his uniform, and seizing the 
 Austrian banner, repaired alone to the scene of outrage. 
 He quickly drove out the one or two Turks, whom he 
 found within the sacred edifice, and took up his station 
 on the threshold, grasping the Austrian flag, while the 
 banner of France floated about him. It was not long 
 before Karasman Oglu appeared in person, attended by 
 about two hundred Janissaries. Finding the entrance of 
 the church so guarded, he called upon my grandfather 
 instantly to withdraw. The other refused. ' This church,' 
 said the Turkish Prince, ' was French property, and by 
 right of conquest has become mine.' The other replied 
 that a possession of the Church cannot change hands like 
 a secular estate, and may on no account be forfeited. 
 The Turk advised the other not to resort to extremities, 
 declaring that he was resolved to obtain possession of an 
 edifice which he had already sold. My grandfather for 
 all reply drew his sword, and vowed that no one should 
 enter that church except by pulling down the Austrian 
 banner, nor cross that threshold except over his dead 
 body. His firmness triumphed. He saved the church of 
 St. Polycarp, and won for himself the abiding friendship 
 of Karasman Oglu, who. by the way, refused to refund 
 the 30,000 thalers, declaring they were the price of the 
 trouble he had already taken in the affair, 20,000 thalers 
 more being required for the actual transfer of the pro- 
 perty. When the story of his heroism was related to 
 the Pope, my grandfather was created a count of Rome 3 . 
 To this day, on the anniversary of its rescue out of the 
 hands of the infidels, a Mass is celebrated in the church 
 of St. Polycarp to the memory of Ambroise Hermann 
 de Cramer." 
 
 It is impossible for anyone who knew John William 
 Burgon not to recognise in him that chivalrous gal- 
 
 3 In a note to the "Parentalia" Pope Pius VII, dated 3Oth Sept., 
 
 he says; "My maternal grand- 1802, was created a Chevalier of 
 
 father received his lettre* de noblesse the Order of Christ." 
 28th Feb., 1800; and by a Bull of
 
 6 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 lantry, that utter carelessness of what might be the 
 consequences of a generous action to himself, which had 
 come down to him in the current of the Chevalier's 
 blood. He was just the man, had he been a soldier, to 
 have put himself at the head of a forlorn hope, and, 
 grasping the banner of England, to lead it into the 
 breach. He has been called, with something approaching 
 to a sneer, " the champion of impossible orthodoxies." 
 Substituting for the word " impossible," " offering diffi- 
 culties to belief" (as what really orthodox creed does 
 not ? the difficulties of belief are the trial to which God 
 submits our faith), we his friends, who mourn his loss, 
 not for our own sake only, but still more for that of 
 the Church, accept that description of him. In the 
 true spirit of his maternal grandfather he planted 
 himself resolutely in the doorway of the sanctuary of 
 the Faith, and grasping the banner of Divine Truth, 
 he vowed that the rationalist's desecrating foot should 
 never enter, except by pulling down the banner, 
 " nor cross that threshold except over his own dead 
 body." 
 
 There was another person of some mark among his 
 ancestry, of whom something may here be said, his 
 mother's aunt, Mrs. Baldwin (nee Maltass), of whom he 
 himself wrote an obituary notice in, the ' Gentleman s 
 Magazine' for December, 1839. The extraordinary 
 beauty of this lady, whose portrait by Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, with an ancient coin of Smyrna (her native 
 place) in her hand, is still to be seen in Lord Lans- 
 downe's gallery at Bowood, created a great sensation, 
 both at Vienna and in London, procured for her atten- 
 tions from the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV, 
 
 7 O 
 
 and elicited even from Dr. Johnson a burst of clumsy 
 amorousness.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 7 
 
 "In all the pride of youth and beauty," writes 
 her great nephew to the ' (jenth-manx Magazine ,' " she 
 was brought before the aged and infirm sage, whose 
 curiosity had been aroused by the story of her foreign 
 birth, and residence in distant lands. Johnson asked 
 her what was the colour of the Abyssinians? Mrs. 
 Baldwin replied that she did not know. ' But what 
 colour do you think they are 1 ?' persisted the author of 
 Rasselas. After some hesitation, and renewed professions 
 of utter ignorance on the subject, Mrs. Baldwin said that 
 she supposed they were brown. The doctor next said 
 that he should like to give her a kiss ; and the husband's 
 permission having been obtained, a kiss was formally 
 inflicted. Mrs. Baldwin could never forget the for- 
 bidding exterior of her Platonic admirer, and the servile 
 adulation of his future biographer." 
 
 Mrs. Baldwin had infirmities of temper, it appears (for 
 which, however, great excuses and allowances were made 
 by those acquainted with her circumstances), and in a 
 letter to Mr. Dawson Turner, accompanying the obituary 
 sketch above cited, her nephew, who, " knowing that she 
 was living quite alone, and but indifferently off, used to 
 pay her a periodical visit," describes amusingly how the 
 loss of a penny had on one occasion made her violate the 
 son of Sirach's precept, " Be not as a lion in thy house, 
 nor frantic among thy servants." She was storming at 
 her maidservant. " On such occasions I used to sit 
 quietly and say nothing ; for though I verily believe 
 she loved me exceedingly (simply because I used always 
 to be very respectful to her), I dared not begin any 
 buffoonery, such as ' Well, Aunt ; it certainly is a very 
 bad business, but I'll soon find it for you/ and then by 
 a piece of legerdemain fumble a penny out of my pocket ; 
 for she was so sensitive, so extremely shrewd, so clear 
 sighted in spite of her obliquity of mental vision, so 
 clever in spite of all her absurdities, that one would
 
 8 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 have been infallibly detected, and, if detected, rebuked 
 in the manner one does not like to be rebuked by 
 a woman, young or old." He dutifully accounts for 
 these occasional outbursts by her having been alter- 
 nately spoiled by adulation, and soured by unkindness ; 
 but doubtless she was naturally a woman of strong and 
 passionate temper, and those who love him best, and 
 esteem him most, will be the last to deny that he too 
 inherited a share of this characteristic of his mother's 
 family, while entirely free at all times from resentment 
 and personal dislike. 
 
 But to come to his immediate progenitors. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM BUKGON was born at Smyrna, August 
 21, 1813. His parents were Thomas Burgon, of London, 
 merchant (born Aug. i, 1787), and Catharine Marguerite 
 de Cramer 4 (born Aug. 7, 1790), eldest daughter and child 
 of the Chevalier Ambroise Hermann de Cramer, Austrian 
 Consul at Smyrna (some particulars of whose life have 
 
 4 It may be convenient here to family who are mentioned or al- 
 
 give a pedigree of the descendants hided to in this narrative, as also 
 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Burgon, to show who are its present repre- 
 
 in reference to the members of the sentatives. 
 
 Thomas Burgon, Esq., =p Catharine Marguerite de 
 
 6. Aug. I, 1787, 
 d. Aug. 28, 1858. 
 
 Cramer, 
 b. Aug. 7, 1790, d. Sept. 7, 1854. 
 
 Sarah Caroline JOHN Thomas Emily Helen Catharine 
 
 Burgon*, WILLIAM, Charles, Mary, Eliza b , Margaret, 
 
 fc.Julyi, b. Aug. 21, b. June 25, b. Feb. 1 6, b. May 28, 6. Oct. 27, 
 
 1812, 1813, 1816, 1819, 1823. 1828, 
 
 d. Apr. 6, d. Aug. 4, d. Feb. 14, d. May 6, d. Apr. 28, 
 
 1889. 1888. 1872. 1871. 1836. 
 
 Married (May 24, 1838) to the Rev. Henry John Rose, Rector of Houghton Con- 
 quest and afterwards (1866) Archdeacon of Bedford, who died Jan. 31, 1873. They had 
 five children, four of whom survive, Emily Susannah, Hugh James [d. 1878], William 
 Francis (Vicar of Worle), Anna Caroline, Gertrude Mary. 
 
 b Married (July 26, 1853) to Charles Longuet Higgins, Esq., of Turvey Abbey, 
 Beds.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 9 
 
 been given above), by Sarah Maltass, daughter of 
 William Maltass 5 , a merchant of Smyrna. Mr. Thomas 
 Burgon's family had for many years been connected with 
 the commerce of the City of London. He was a Turkey 
 merchant, and a member of the Court of Assistants of the 
 Levant Company, which position gave him a voice in the 
 management of the Company's affairs and the appoint- 
 ment of its officers. The Company, while it existed, 
 enjoyed a monopoly of the trade in the Levant; but 
 in the first quarter of this century monopolies were 
 becoming out of keeping with the spirit of the times; 
 and by an Act of Parliament passed in 1826 (6 Geo. IV. 
 cap. 83) the Levant Company, which had long carried 
 on a thriving business, was abolished. Mr. Burgon's 
 bouse, which was an old established one and had ex- 
 cellent connexions in the Levant, maintained its ground 
 for some time ; but the competition which the abolition 
 of the Company introduced into the trade, told more 
 and more unfavourably upon it, and having struggled 
 vainly for some fifteen years against losses, which to- 
 wards the end of that time 
 
 "huddled on" its "back, 
 Enough to press a royal merchant down, 
 And pluck commiseration of his state 
 From brassy bosoms, and rough hearts of flint. ; ' 
 
 5 Mrs. Thomas Burgon, there- Dean Burgon is often said to have 
 
 fore, was on her mother's side Eng- been of Greek extraction. But 
 
 lish, as on her father's Austrian. how ? If Margoton Icard (his mo- 
 
 Mrs. Baldwin (nte Jane Maltass) ther's maternal grandmother) were 
 
 was her mother's younger sister. Greek, he would have had Greek 
 
 The mother, however, of Sarah Mai- blood in his veins. But probably 
 
 tass (afterwards Madame de Cra- the word Greek is used loosely to 
 
 raer) and of Jane Maltass (after- denote a Smyrniote. Mrs. Thomas 
 
 wards Mrs. Baldwin) was one Burgon was a Smyrniote, as having 
 
 Margoton Ickhard (or, Icard). Of been born and bred at Smyrna, 
 
 what nationality was this lady ? where her family resided.
 
 io LIFE OF DEAS BUBOON. 
 
 at length collapsed in August 1841, and began to wind 
 up its affairs, a calamity memorable principally for the 
 effect it had upon the fortunes of the subject of this 
 Biography, for, had it not occurred, he would never pro- 
 bably have felt at liberty to gratify what had long been 
 the cherished wish of his heart, and to enter the Sacred 
 Ministry of the Church. Mr. Thomas Burgon, though 
 in the earlier part of his life distracted by the calls and 
 cares of business, incidental to the position of the head of 
 a great mercantile house, made himself, under the prompt- 
 ing of a natural instinct, one of the most eminent anti- 
 quarians of his time. So innate in him was the passion 
 for research into the monuments of antiquity, that, as 
 a child, he is said to have buried halfpence in his 
 father's garden, and to please himself with digging them 
 up again, and making believe that they were old coins 
 discovered by excavation. As his son inherited from 
 him this propensity for archaeology, and in his early 
 days contributed several articles to the ' Numismatic 
 Journal] besides a paper to the ' Gentleman s Magazine ' 
 " On a cairn in the Isle of Skye 6 ," it will not be out of 
 
 'Here are two private memo- [Apr. 1838]. No. VIII. Art. xxvii. 
 
 randa of his own. p. 237. 
 
 " My contributions to Akennan's 4. Pistrucci's Invention : A letter 
 
 'Numismatic Journal' were as to the Editor [June 1838] Num. 
 
 follows : Chron. No. I. Art. vii. p. 53. 
 
 1. Review of Millingen's ' Sylloge 5. On the Amelioration of the 
 of Ancient Unedited Coins of Greek Coinage, A.D. 1560 [May, 1839]. 
 Cities and Kings' [Oct. 1837]. No. No. V. Art. IV. p. 12. 
 
 VI. Art. xiii. p. 81. 6. On a hoard of Pennies of 
 
 2. On the Current Coins of Great Henry II. found in Bedfordshire 
 Britain, considered as works of Art [June 1839]. No. V. Art. XL 
 [Nov. 1837]. No - VII. Art xvii. p. 54. 
 
 p. 121. 7. On a new Method of obtaining 
 
 3. Review of the Marquis de Representations of Coins [Jan. 
 L 's ' Description de quelqves 1841]." 
 
 Medailles inedites de Mamlia,' etc. And again ;
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. n 
 
 place here to re-produce the obituary notice of Mr. 
 Thomas Burgon, which appeared in the ' Athetueum' of 
 Sept. n, 1858: 
 
 "In the death of Mr. Thomas Burgon the world of 
 collectors and connoisseurs of ancient art has lately 
 suffered an irreparable loss. He was long and honour- 
 ably known for his experience and judgment on matters 
 connected with antiquities and painted vases ; but more 
 especially in Greek and Roman metallurgy. His dictum 
 respecting the genuineness of a work of Art belonging 
 to these branches was almost infallible, and not a few 
 instances could be brought to bear in which the judg- 
 ment of foreign authorities deferred to his. To classic 
 learning he had no pretension; and all his scholarly 
 attainments appear to have been purely the result of 
 his devotion to the relics of antiquity. In early life, 
 Mr. Burgon was occupied in commerce, and his long 
 residence at Smyrna as a Greek merchant afforded him 
 peculiar opportunities of becoming practically acquainted 
 with the various circumstances under which particular 
 
 "My contributions to the ' Gen- "4. A reply to Bolton Corney 
 
 tleman's Magazine' are as fol- (refused), 
 
 lows : 5. A reply to Mr. John Bruce 
 
 I. A memoir of poor Soddington. on the orthography of Shakspeare's 
 
 See the Obituary of the" [Feb. name." [March 1840. Vol. xiii. p. 
 
 1838. New Series, vol. ix. p. an. 264. Signed, John William Burgon.] 
 
 No signature*.] " 6. A review of Rose's New 
 
 " 2. Strictures on the Review of General Biographical Dictionary." 
 
 Tytler's Book Defence of Ty tier's [May 1840. Vol. xiii. p. 497. No 
 
 views." [July 1839. Vol. *& signature.] 
 
 New Series, p. 23. "A lover of "7. A reply to Mr. Bruce's Reply 
 
 Historic Truth."] to my former letter 6 ." 
 
 " 3. A Memoir of Mrs. Baldwin. " 8. On a cairn in the Isle of 
 
 See the Obituary for" [Dec. 1839. Sky-:." 
 
 New Series, vol. xii. p. 656. No " g. A letter on D. Turner's book 
 
 signature.] of painted screens' 1 ." 
 
 The insertions in square brackets are not in the original memorandum, the 
 hiatuses of which have been filled up by a reference to the ' Gentleman't Magazine.' 
 
 b [May 1840. Vol. xiii. p. 474. Signed, John William Burgon.] 
 Sky." [Jan. 1841. Vol. sv. p. 33. Signed, J. W.B.] 
 
 * [Oct. 1841. Vol. ivi. p. 375 Signed, J. W. B.]
 
 12 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 objects were to be found. In his vocation he was 
 necessarily a traveller; but his own choice may, pro- 
 bably, have kept him so much among the Islands of the 
 Archipelago. He was at one time as much an explor- 
 ator as a collector, and his researches and excavations 
 in the Island of Melos (Milo] have tended considerably 
 to enrich the stores of the British Museum. At Athens, 
 also, Mr. Burgon carried on extensive excavations, and 
 discovered many fine vases, especially the celebrated 
 Minerva one, containing burnt bones, with the inscription 
 upon it, 'Tov 'AOeveOev 'AOXov efyu,' from which the 
 accidental omission of a letter puzzled Brondsted 7 and 
 all the learned world for a considerable time. His 
 entire collection passed some fifteen years ago to the 
 British Museum. Having so long had dealings with the 
 Turks, Mr. Burgon well knew how to pursue and to 
 obtain without suspicion objects of value that had been 
 discovered. His taste and judgment on Greek coins were 
 unparalleled ; and at an early period of his career, the 
 eminent connoisseur, Payne Knight, whose bronzes 
 and coins now form so important a part of the British 
 Museum, purchased from him a handful of Greek coins, 
 not indeed for an enormous price, but for (at that 
 time) a very large sum. Late in life Mr. Burgon found 
 a quiet retreat in the Medal Room of the British 
 Museum, where his wonderful memory and quick detec- 
 tion of forgeries were of especial value in regulating the 
 numerous acquisitions made by that department, and 
 
 7 The Panathenaic Amphora in [London, A. J. Valpy, M.A.], a 
 
 question was found by Mr. Burgon translation of which monograph into 
 
 at Athens, near the old Acharnian French was the earliest published 
 
 Gate, in the year of his eldest son's work of the subject of the present 
 
 birth (1813). The letter accidentally Biography. The whole inscription, 
 
 omitted by the copyist from the taken out of the archaic Greek 
 
 inscription on this Amphora is the spelling (which does not recognise 
 
 third e of the word AGevtOfv. As long vowels) runs thus : Twv 
 
 the word appears on the Amphora, 'AO-fjyjjOev a&\fuy tifu ; " I am [one] 
 
 it is AOtvtOv. The Chevalier of the prizes from Athens." It is 
 
 Brondsted restored the missing written from right to left, like 
 
 letter in his Monograph on Pana- Hebrew, 
 thenaic Vases published in 1832
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 13 
 
 where his courtesy and readiness to convey information 
 to visitors will ever be remembered with thankfulness. 
 He died on the 28th of August, in Burton Crescent, 
 aged seventy-one/' 
 
 Before we part company with Mr. Thomas Burgon it 
 may interest the reader to be presented with a short 
 sketch of his character drawn by his son in a letter to 
 his intimate friend Mr. Fellows ; " He is very anti- 
 poetical never read a romance in his life a high Tory 
 and high Churchman the creature of habit fond of 
 matter-of-fact reading and conversation still fonder of 
 chewing the cud of his own thoughts over his pipe in 
 a great measure self-taught that is to say all his pursuits 
 were struck out and followed alone not too rich and 
 having the care of a great business. . . . Before quitting 
 the subject however I must tell you that he likes and 
 <-fi(<rHis you, and, being a most indulgent parent in- 
 dulgent to a fault in no way opposes my fondness for 
 you and yours, tho', in his dry way, he wonders at 
 times what our correspondence can be all about." If 
 the son has rightly conceived the father's character, we 
 must suppose that the strong element of poetry, senti- 
 ment, and romance, which was so marked an ingredient 
 in his own mind, came to him from his mother. 
 
 Here is an extract from ' Music and Friends, or Pleasant 
 Recollections of a Dilettante] (a work by William Gardiner, 
 of Leicester, [1838, Longmans]), which gives a somewhat 
 lively picture both of Mr. and Mrs. Burgon. [Vol. I, pp. 
 422-3]. 
 
 " Dr. Eeid also introduced me to his near neighbours, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Burgon of Brunswick Square. Mr. Burgon, 
 our Consul 8 at Smyrna, is respectably noticed by Clarke 
 
 8 It may be queried whether Mr. Burgon was ever British Consul at 
 Smyrna. Undoubtedly he was a Turkey Merchant who had resided there.
 
 14 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 in his Travels as a Collector of Grecian Antiquities. 
 He employed not less than twenty men at Athens in 
 constantly digging for curiosities, and the coins he has 
 collected are considered rare and of great value. The 
 impressions of some are as fresh as if just come from 
 the mint. Mr. Taylor Cojnbe, one of the Curators of 
 the British Museum, spent the evening with us," [at the 
 Burgons' house in Brunswick Square], "and I was much 
 instructed by the knowledge he displayed upon all the 
 Greek antiquities. He particularly admired a gold coin 
 of Alexander, the helmet in such high relief that it 
 projected with an inconvenient degree of sharpness. 
 He pronounced it superior to any one in the Museum, 
 and said it was worth fifty times its weight in gold. 
 But the most invaluable of Mr. Burgon's eastern 
 treasures was his wife, a native of Greece 9 . Though not 
 beautiful, her form and manners were singularly elegant. 
 I could not but notice the peculiarity of the Grecian 
 outline in the nose forming an almost straight line with 
 the forehead, and the peculiar length of her neck. She 
 spoke, with great facility, most of the European 
 languages, and had a fine taste in music. I tendered 
 my service in choosing her a grand pianoforte at Broad- 
 wood's. In going there, I complimented her upon her 
 walking, when to my surprise she replied ; ' I walk 
 pretty well, consider I learn only tree year. In my 
 own country I always was carried.' This lady realised 
 in her person all the epithets which the poets of old 
 have bestowed upon the female form and grace of the 
 Circassian women." 
 
 Mr. Thomas Burgon was well known to, and on 
 intimate terms with, many of the literary, artistic, and 
 scientific men of his day. Rogers, the poet, as will appear 
 a little later in this chapter, was one of them ; C. R. 
 Cockerell, the celebrated architect, another. In the year 
 after John William Burgon's birth the family moved from 
 
 9 Mrs. Burgon's nationality has been discussed in a previous note. [See 
 above, p. 9, note 5.] By " a native of Greece " is meant a Smyrniote.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 15 
 
 Smyrna to England, stopping at Athens in their way. 
 Here they accidentally encountered Mr. Cockerell ; and 
 the father showed his friend with some pride the eldest 
 son, who had been born to him at Smyrna rather more 
 than seven months ago. Then followed a freak of Mr. 
 Cockerell's, which borrowed part of its point from the 
 circumstance of Mr. Thomas Burgon's having in the 
 preceding year discovered at Athens the Panathena'ic 
 Vase above referred to, and gained a name in con- 
 sequence among the savants and virtuosos of the day. 
 " He carried me up to the Parthenon on his shoulders " 
 (says a memorandum of the late Dean Burgon's), "and 
 dedicated me to Minerva at Athens on Sunday 3rd of 
 April, 1814." And the perpetrator of the freak attests 
 the fact, and gives it a happy turn in the following 
 letter : 
 
 " 20 July, 1842. 
 
 " My dear John, I can indite nothing more interesting 
 to you or to me on this page than the reminder that 
 about the year 1813" [the exact date, however, is that 
 given in the memorandum, Sunday April 3, 1814] "I 
 dedicated you to the Athenian goddess of Wisdom, 
 carrying you up to the Acropolis in my arms" (it 
 doubtless was so ; the child would be too young to sit 
 on a man's " shoulders," though it may have been raised 
 to that position for a moment in the act of dedication). 
 " which I should be very sorry to do now, and in company 
 with your father and mother. 
 
 "You have shown me that my labour was not in 
 vain ; for from Athenian you have now devoted yourself 
 to Divine Wisdom, and I doubt not will do credit to 
 us all 
 
 "Affectionately yours, 
 
 "C. R. COCKEBELL.''
 
 1 6 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Here is an earlier letter to him from Mr. Cockerell, 
 adverting to the dedication at the Parthenon, written 
 in reference to his article in Akerman's 'Numismatic 
 Journal,' " On the Current Coins of Great Britain, con- 
 sidered as Works of Art" (Nov. 1837). 
 
 " My dear Burgon, When I had the pleasure of thank- 
 ing you for your essay on our coinage, I was really not 
 qualified (by the hasty view of it) to endure any cross- 
 questioning on the subject. Since then I have read it 
 more carefully, and with very great pleasure, as well as 
 instruction. 
 
 " I think the criticism most apt and valuable, and 
 hope you will circulate it. The ideas thrown out are 
 ingenious, and often beautiful, and very creditable to 
 you. The justice done to Pistrucci is also a worthy act, 
 though I think Pistrucci over-rated, and differ with you 
 on the St. George and Dragon as a composition, and will 
 satisfy you of its absurdity any day you please, or I will 
 eat one. Then I think the lively, good humoured, and 
 smart manner (without flippancy) in which you have 
 written the article is entirely Platonic (?) \ and a style 
 never to be lost sight of on all subjects, because it is 
 Athenian, giving ' to science a milder air, and making art 
 but nature.' 
 
 ' Go on and prosper ; be assured that these elegant 
 tastes will make you more really prized and more really 
 happy, than if you were to be Lord Mayor, monopolizer 
 of the Turkey Trade, cloathed outside with fine linen and 
 inside with turtle, in short, than if you were a Bashaw 
 of four Tails. I feel to have dedicated you to the 
 Athenian Goddess to some purpose, and trust you will 
 remain a faithful devotee. 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 "C. K COCKERELL." 
 
 1 The writer has doubts whether " Platonic," his handwriting being 
 the word used by Mr. Cockerell is here and there difficult to read. 
 
 E. M. G.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 17 
 
 It should perhaps be said, as even great reputations do 
 not in these days of rapid movement long survive, that Mr. 
 Cockerell was very eminent as an architect, and also as a 
 man of general cultivation, and had spent many of his early 
 years in the study of ancient architectural remains in 
 Greece. Rome. Sicily, and Asia Minor, from which circum- 
 stance he imbibed a predilection for the classical style of 
 architecture. He was architect of the Bank of England. 
 Like most of Burgon's early friends, he was considerably 
 older than Burgon himself, a full quarter of a century. 
 
 It is a curious circumstance, the memory of which still 
 survives in the Burgon family, in connexion with 
 John William's inborn propensity to the use both of 
 the pen and the pencil, that, before he was two years 
 old, and when he could only speak a few words of 
 modern Greek, which he had picked up from his mother 
 and his nurse, he would imitate the action of writing 
 with his little hand on the table, saying, yp j</>oj, ypa<&> ! 
 (Grajj/w, G rap/io ; " I write," " I write.") His parents often 
 mentioned with amusement this incident of his earliest 
 years ; and added that " Johnny was never happy, unless 
 he had a pencil in his hand." 
 
 Having received instruction from his mother during 
 the first eleven years of his life, young Burgon was sent 
 to a school at Putney, kept by Mr. Watts, October 2, A.n. 18: 
 1824. He had already acquired the rudiments of draw- *' !1 
 ing at home, under the private tuition of Mr. Woodley ; 
 and it is characteristic of him both that one of his early 
 sketches (he had made attempts at drawing ancient 
 vases when he was only five years old) should be a 
 drawing of his first school, and also that his first letter 
 from school to his mother is to ask her acceptance ( ;! as 
 I know that you are fond of poems ") of a book of poems 
 " by Mr. Alaric Watts, who is Mr. Watts's brother." 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 1 8 LIFE OF DEAN BURGOX. 
 
 In connexion with his school life at Putney his sur- 
 viving sister writes : 
 
 " From a very early age my brother was a most 
 religiously disposed boy. I have heard my mother say 
 that at his first school (Mr. Watts's, at Putney) it 
 was his custom, besides showing kindness to and sup- 
 porting any little boys in trouble, to protect a French 
 boy, who was a Roman Catholic, while saying his 
 prayers. J. W. B. used to keep guard at the door of 
 their bedroom, and give notice of the approach of his 
 tormentors. . . From infancy he was. I should say, won- 
 derfully pure, thoughtful, liberal, and loving to the poor. 
 I have heard my mother say that, when quite a little 
 boy, he would occupy himself of an evening in making 
 little articles of worsted work for a poor woman (who 
 sat with her basket near our house in Brunswick 
 Square) to sell. He would take the articles to her him- 
 self, and on his return would describe to our mother 
 her thankfulness, and say ' she had blessed him.' This he 
 dwelt upon, and seemed to appreciate. These visits to 
 the poor woman afforded him the liveliest pleasure." 
 
 . 1828. In the summer of 1828, when he had not been quite 
 " I5 ' four years at Putney, where latterly he does not appear 
 to have been happy, he was removed to a school at Black- 
 heath, and placed under the charge of Mr. Greenlaw. 
 Several of his letters to his parents from both schools 
 have been preserved. While their topics are the ordinary 
 topics of schoolboys' letters, they show every now and 
 then, as might be anticipated, an intelligence and an 
 interest in certain branches of knowledge (not in the 
 regular school-work) above the average ; and they 
 derive a certain importance, in connexion with his life 
 and character, from the following memorandum made by 
 him respecting them when he came of age, which, even 
 if it shows perhaps a little sense of self-importance, 
 shows also a power of introspection not very common at 
 the age of twenty-one.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 19 
 
 " Memorandum. To-day, by mere chance, I stumbled on 
 this bundle of letters, written for the most part by myself 
 from school at an early period, and I lay them aside, 
 thinking that at some future day they may be interesting. 
 
 " From a hasty glance over their contents. I perceive 
 that I was 10 years ago much the same creature that I 
 am now. I notice the same love of books and of study, 
 the same hatred of school and contempt for the society 
 of my equals in age, which since I was 1 i. and first went 
 to school, I have never been able to shake off," (he 
 always, in his earlier days, lived with men older than 
 himself), " the same love of quiet, and consequent love 
 of home, the same ill-health, which is after all at the 
 root of half the evils of life ; in fact I perceive that, save 
 in a general manline**, which at 21 everyone must more or 
 less acquire, the 10 years in question have produced very 
 little alteration in the materials of my moral organisation. 
 
 " Good-night to you. Sunday Night, i o'clk. 
 "June 8th, 1834, 
 
 K JOHN W. BURGON." 
 
 A few short extracts from these schoolboy letters are 
 here subjoined, showing the affectionateness and domes- 
 ticity of his character, and his interest (even at that 
 early age) in antiquities, and in the vindication of the 
 truth of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Aug. 22, 1 828 \/Etat. 15]. (Returning, with his younger 
 brother Thomas, to school at Blackheath.) To his 
 Mother. 
 
 " I am sure the reason why the boys do not mind so 
 much leaving home is, because they do not feel the same 
 happiness in their circle at home, which proceeds from 
 that mutual affection which we always have, and I am 
 sure we ever will enjoy." 
 
 Blackheath, Oct. 27, 1828 [Mat. 15]. To his Father. 
 
 " I heard from Greenlaw " (the master of his school) 
 " that a niinniiiy lately arrived from Egypt has been dis- 
 covered to have been the high priest of Pharaoh, by 
 
 c 2
 
 2o LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 means of the hieroglyphics, in which great improvements 
 are making. This event is perhaps as excellent a proof 
 of the truth of Scripture History as can be produced for 
 the conviction of the incredulous, and I dare say it will 
 make many a fellow, who is fond of being thought 
 remarkable in his notions, &c., appear a most egregious 
 ass." In this last observation there is surely an augury 
 of much that was to come after. 
 
 His account of his Confirmation (by Bishop Murray of 
 Rochester) will be read with interest. It shows his serious- 
 ness in attending the Ordinance, though not the sensibility 
 which was so marked a feature of his character. 
 
 x 1829. Blackheath, May 26, 1829. To his Father. 
 
 ' 1 ' "I thought it a very solemn ceremony ; but my com- 
 panions seem to think very little about it. One thing 
 though I thought very absurd ; several of the women 
 and girls were in tears ! ! ! Now Mr. G. has been kind 
 enough to explain to us all, so often, and so fully, the 
 whole meaning and purpose of Confirmation, that I was 
 very far from anything like this ; and indeed, to tell 
 you the truth, this circumstance provoked my laughter 
 in spite of myself. I see nothing further to be implied, 
 than that you own that you are old enough to perceive 
 the necessity of doing your duty, and the propriety of 
 what has been promised in your name, when an infant, 
 and that in confessing your belief in Christ, you under- 
 take to do your best to do what is right. Three sermons 
 I have heard, and two I have read on the subject, and 
 this is what I extract from them. The bishop seemed 
 young. He was attended by a great many clergymen. 
 I enclose a little sketch of him from memory. Which I 
 think is rather like' 2 ." 
 
 " It surprises us to find in his be recorded ; but it appears strange 
 Journal of the year 1 834 the year that in the five years which had 
 in which he came of age this elapsed since the Confirmation of 
 entry: " March 28, Good Friday . . . one so religiously minded from boy- 
 Took the Sacrament for the second hood, he should have only corn- 
 time in my life." The date of hia municated twice ; more especially 
 first Communion does not seem to as his attendance at Church on
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 
 
 21 
 
 It is very many years since the writer saw Bishop 
 
 Murray ; but " the 
 little sketch" (in 
 pencil, the slightest 
 thing in the world 
 done with wonder-, 
 fully few strokes) 
 seems to summon 
 back the stately 
 and dignified pre- 
 sence of the Bishop 
 with his wig. Be- 
 neath it is written 
 by the draughtsman, 
 " Bishop of Roches- 
 * ter, May 26, 1829." 
 
 It may be men- 
 ' tioned here that in 
 later life Burgon, 
 who, as has been said, received instruction in drawing 
 
 Sundays (frequently twice, and not 
 unfrequently thrice) is carefully 
 noted, and observations are 
 usually made on the preachers he 
 hears. It must be remembered 
 however that it is quite of late years 
 that the desirableness of frequent 
 Communion has been recognised in 
 our Church, and admonitions to it 
 and opportunities for it given, and 
 that in the earlier part of the 
 century the notion of something 
 terrible and repelling in connexion 
 with the great Ordinance ("as if a 
 different God entered the Church 
 after the sermon," as an eminent 
 divine of those days well and 
 pointedly said) prevailed very 
 
 widely, and kept a persistent hold 
 even upon the minds of those who 
 were quite bent on doing their 
 duty, and were very attentive to 
 other religious observances. Mis- 
 taken as this notion undoubtedly 
 was, it yet furnished a security 
 against irreverence and the dis- 
 pensing with previous preparation ; 
 and it may be gravely questioned 
 whether, since this security has been 
 swept away, good Christians have 
 not been somewhat the losers in 
 edification. Constant Communion 
 implies a life of constant watchful- 
 ness and prayer, and only in associa- 
 tion with those conditions can & 
 blessing be expected upon it.
 
 22 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 before he went to school, from Mr. "Woodley, had a few 
 lessons from Dibdin in landscape-painting ; in which 
 he attained great proficiency, as may be seen from the 
 beautiful water-colour drawings which he made in the 
 course of his tour to Egypt and Palestine. 
 
 His desire to take Holy Orders dated from his earliest 
 youth, and it was only in deference to his father's strong 
 wish, and out of his own sense of the duty of filial 
 obedience, that he went into the counting-house after his 
 removal from school. " He disliked it more than I can 
 tell " (writes his surviving sister), " and found relief 
 only in the pursuit of Poetry and Art during his leisure 
 moments, when he returned from the city." 
 
 And thus we are brought to the year (i 830) succeeding 
 his Confirmation, when he commenced a book of extracts 
 from his reading with the following memorandum, which 
 shows his thoughtfulness at that early age, and his serious 
 determination to improve his mind : 
 
 "I have now attained my I7th year; and although in 
 the course of the last 10 years I have perused several 
 works, the contents of many, and the titles of a still 
 greater number, have escaped my recollection. This may 
 have been partly owing to my youth ; but must, I think, 
 be principally attributed to my never having preserved 
 extracts from them, or committed to paper my opinion 
 of their contents : such a custom would have induced me 
 to read with greater care, and by leading me to reflect 
 on what I had read, might have materially assisted me 
 in forming my judgment and taste. Although I have 
 suffered so many years to elapse without doing this, I do 
 not intend any longer to do so ; but as I read, shall note 
 in this book everything that may appear interesting or 
 worthy of observation. 
 
 " For my note book. 
 
 "(Signed) J. W. BURGON. 
 
 "Aug. 27, 1830."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 23 
 
 It should be added that, by way of completing his 
 education, he attended lectures at the London Univer- 
 sity, where he gained a prize for the best Essay in the 
 Junior Class, at the conclusion of the Session of 1829-30. 
 
 And now it will be well, before going further, to take 
 a general view of his occupations and surroundings 
 during the eleven years which were to elapse between 
 1830 and 1841. He was taken into his father's count- 
 ing-house, in the expectation that he would one day 
 succeed to the headship of it. The work, always most 
 distasteful to him, occupied most of his mornings, and 
 often detained him, especially on " Turkey Post days," 
 till a late hour in the evening. But so extraordinary 
 was his mental energy, that he not only (as will be seen 
 further on) composed his ' Life ami Times of Gres/tam,' 
 and many other literary pieces, both in prose and poetry, 
 of a more fugitive and less substantial character, but 
 found time, chiefly by sitting up to a very late hour, to 
 become versed in several departments of Art and 
 Archaeology, in the knowledge of rare and old books, of 
 pictures and engravings, and in the study and criticism 
 of Shakspere. And we are to think of him as moving, 
 from his school-days onward, in the society of men of 
 high cultivation, and literary or artistic eminence, who 
 were frequent guests at his father's house. This fell in 
 with his intellectual leaning, which was towards research 
 and literature in all its forms, and also with his moral 
 temperament, which was of an aspiring character, a 
 leaning and a temperament recognised by himself in the 
 memorandum which he made on coming of age, and which 
 has been given above : " I notice the same love of books 
 
 and of study, the same contempt for the society of 
 
 my equals in age, which since I first went to school 
 
 I have never been able to shake off." (See above, p. 19.)
 
 24 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 A few are here mentioned, whose names are constantly 
 re-appearing in his Journals and Letters, and whose 
 tastes and studies were no doubt in some measure com- 
 municated to him and contributed to the formation of 
 his mind. Mr. Cockerell has already made his appearance 
 in our narrative. Thomas Leverton Donaldson \b. 1795] 
 was another celebrated architect, and connoisseur of Art, 
 who was on intimate terms with the Burgon family. 
 Then, in the department of travel, besides Sir Charles 
 Fellows, who will be mentioned at length presently, 
 there was Mr. Frederick Catherwood, the author of 
 ' Travels in Yucatan! Sir Richard Westmacott, the sculptor 
 \b. 1775, d. 1856], well known as having executed the 
 bronze Achilles in Hyde Park, the statue on the Duke of 
 York's column, and several of the monuments of public 
 men in St. Paul's Cathedral, was another member of the 
 same circle. James Millingen [b. 1774, (I. 1845] had been 
 a very early friend of Mr. Thomas Burgon, and was in 
 entire sympathy with his tastes and pursuits, having 
 written on the " Ancient Unedited Coins of Greek Cities 
 and Kings, from various Collections, principally in Great 
 Britain [1837: 4to]," and on many similar subjects, and 
 being possessed of great critical acumen in judging of 
 coins, gems, and antiquities in general. He lived at 
 Florence, but frequently visited England in the summer, 
 and, when he did so, never failed to make his appearance 
 (always duly noted in John William Burgon's journal) 
 in Brunswick Square. Dr. Leemans, a Dutchman, 
 " Conservateur " of the Museum at Leyden, who came to 
 England to study Egyptian Antiquities in the British 
 Museum, received much kindness from Mr. Burgon 
 senior, and was constantly in the house, as John William 
 records, when little " Kitty," the treasure and joy of the 
 whole family, was snatched away by death. Dr. Lepsius,
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 25 
 
 a German, was introduced to the Burgons by Dr. 
 Leemans. He was a great student of Hieroglyphics and 
 a learned Egyptologist, became Keeper of the Egyptian 
 Museum at Berlin, and was appointed leader of the 
 great scientific expedition sent out by the Prussian 
 Government to Egypt, of which he wrote a description 
 in several large volumes. Of English literary men, 
 whose names are familiar to all, there were several who 
 maintained friendly relations with the family. The 
 poet Rogers was one of these ; and the following account, 
 extracted from John William's Journal, of a conversation, 
 which he had the honour of holding with Rogers at his 
 father's table, will be read with interest, as throwing 
 light both on his own character and that of the poet. 
 
 "Aug. 4, 1832." [.-E/af. 19]. "Rogers dined with 
 us. After dinner the following conversation took place 
 between us as nearly as I can remember. I asked him 
 how his new edition went on. He said, ' But slowly, it 
 being in the hands of the engravers.' When I asked 
 after Moore, what he was at, &c., he told me he talked 
 of a long poem we are some day to see of his. Rogers 
 is a queer man : he thinks me too young, I suppose, to 
 merit his confidence, or even to deserve being conversed 
 wilh. 1 was afraid of being troublesome, and therefore 
 
 said no more on the subject I then observed; 
 
 1 \Yliat a pity it is that the poet cannot exercise the same 
 power as the sculptor, and, after he has conceived some- 
 thing grand, commission another to execute it for him! 
 For.' 1 added, ' the charming part of the task is the con- 
 ception ; the execution is laborious, and takes up time.' 
 ' Then,' said Rogers, ' how much Byron would have left 
 us ! He would have sickened us ! ' I begged him to 
 recall that word. ' We might then have had an accumu- 
 hitii.n of/Av/v/'/v.v,' said I. He smiled, but said nothing. 
 I asked him what quality must we consider as most 
 essential for a poet to possess, imagination, judgment, 
 common sense, or what? He replied, he supposed 
 imagination, though common sense was indispensable. ' It
 
 26 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 is a pity,' said he, ' Byron had not more common sense.' 
 I said nothing. ' Homer,' he added, ' had more common 
 sense than any poet who ever lived.' The conversation 
 at table turned on Death (violent Death principally ; for 
 they were discussing the proposed reform in criminal 
 punishment). Donaldson observed that he did not see 
 why that extreme degree of fear should be manifested at 
 the prospect of Death. The answer seemed to remain 
 with Rogers, who replied ; ' You are the first man that 
 I ever heard say so/ Then, after a pause ; ' Shakspere 
 has expressed the sentiment better than any one else ; 
 
 " Aye, but to die to go we know not whither," &c.' " 
 
 Here is another account from his journal of a dinner 
 at Miss Rogers', at which he met the poet, and three 
 painters, Westall ( ; 'he teaches the Princess Victoria 
 drawing, and loves her as his own child ") ; Leslie (" a 
 fine man, with an intelligent, agreeable face .... his wife 
 is said to be the original of all his ladies ") ; and Ottley 
 (" strong in a particular branch of painting, very con- 
 descending and communicative, and possessing much of 
 the ' milk of human kindness ' "). 
 
 "Tuesday, i5th" (the year and month are not given. 
 Perhaps it was December, 1835, or perhaps March, 1836 ; 
 the 1 5th of both these months fell on a Tuesday). 
 " Samuel Rogers I have often scribbled about. He has 
 a peculiar way, and one which it is difficult to describe ; 
 for la morte parole gives one no notion of ione and man m-r. 
 His ' God bless me ' is as comical as a long paragraph 
 
 from the lips of a common man When Miss 
 
 Ottley had ended a little song, 'That is Italian,' said 
 Rogers, ' eh ? ' Miss Ottley told him that it was Spanish. 
 'Ah! Spanish,' observed the poet, without the least 
 alteration of feature or tone, 'I didn't know whether 
 I was in Italy or Spain.' ... In the course of the even- 
 ing I asked him whether he had ever seen Johnson. 
 ' No,' said Rogers, ' I never did.' I pressed him a little 
 closer. ' Once,' said he, ' when I was a very young man, 
 younger than you, I was passing Bolt Court with a
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 27 
 
 schoolfellow, and I proposed that we should pay Johnson 
 a visit. But when I laid my hand on the knocker my 
 courage failed me.' 'Have you not often repented it 
 since 1 ' ' Yes ; for I should have had a story to tell I 
 dare say he would have received us kindly ; and if he 
 had not, I don't know that I should have minded it.' 
 We were disturbed from the conversation by the sound 
 of the guitar in the next room. . . . The conversation at 
 table turned principally on painting and painters 
 Vandyke and so on. In answer to an inquiry Rogers 
 told me that Gainsborough's ' Boy in Blue ' was a Iracm-a 
 occasioned by Reynolds having said that blue was not a 
 good colour for the principal light in a picture. The 
 original was the son of a coachmaker in Long Acre." 
 
 And here another of his breakfasting with the poet 
 in company with his brother. 
 
 " This morning Tom and I breakfasted at St. James's 
 Place with Mr. Rogers. We were invited for half-past 
 nine, and took care to be punctual. I think Rogers so 
 interesting a person, that I shall set down everything 
 that passed as nearly as I am able. 
 
 " We found the breakfast on the table, and the Poet 
 writing at a little side-table. He rose to receive us, 
 remarking that he was sorry that it was such a dull day. 
 I replied that everything would be bright where we 
 were, with which I think he was pleased ; and then in 
 compliance with our entreaties he continued his letter. 
 
 " We amused ourselves in the meantime with his 
 pictures, and happened to be contemplating a most inter- 
 esting bust of Pope by Roubiliac, when he ceased writing. 
 He came near us, and talked to us about Pope, and that 
 bust, which is an original. Sir R. Peel has the marble 
 which was executed from it, and which is not nearly so 
 beautiful as the model. Rogers made us notice the 
 character of the mouth, and the intellectual formation of 
 the head. Then he alluded to Pope's deformity, and we 
 airi( t (1 that Millingen resembled Pope in some respects. 
 ^ hcii we sat down to breakfast, I observed to Mr. 
 Rogers that I never approached his house without feel-
 
 28 LIFE OF DEAN BURQON. 
 
 ing that I trod on holy ground, so many eminent men 
 had imprinted it with their footsteps. He smiled, and 
 told us that he certainly could number among his guests 
 some great names. ' After I had been here four weeks,' 
 said he, ' Fox came to pay me a visit, and there has 
 scarcely been a greater man than he.' I reminded him 
 of Sheridan, Scott, Byron, &c. He assented, and observed 
 that Sheridan had often been at his house. ' Oh, yes,' 
 said I, ' we know that well from books.' ... I told him, 
 a propos of Sheridan, that I did not think he was enough 
 regarded in the light of a warning ; with such splendid 
 talents, to have lived so unhappily and died so miserably ! 
 ' Yes,' said Rogers, ' I think so too. If he had had one 
 vice more, his history would not have been such a warn- 
 ing as it is, had he had the littleness to love money, 
 and the meanness to hoard it.' 
 
 "He said, speaking of his illustrious guests, that 
 nothing would satisfy Queen Caroline, short of paying 
 him a visit ; and she came. 
 
 " I happened to mention the name of Gray incidentally ; 
 and I am glad I did so, for it led to some interesting 
 conversation on the part of Rogers. I discovered that 
 he has my taste for old associations and classic haunts in 
 perfection. He told us where Gray lived (which with 
 some other particulars I shall note down in my life of 
 Gray) and perceiving the pleasure it gave us to hear him 
 talk about such things, told us which was Dryden's 
 house, which Newton's, and which Lord Mansfield's 
 (Pope's Murray). 
 
 " The hint for Dryden's house he had found (it seems), 
 in Spence's anecdotes, a book of which he is extremely 
 fond, and which he subsequently made his man-servant 
 bring down stairs for him to refer to. Gray's he was 
 told of by Mr. Nicholls, and Newton's he discovered in 
 walking through St. Martin's Street. He noticed a 
 curious little construction at the top of a house in that 
 street, on which he thought he could discern the word 
 Newfoui inscribed. He went in and found a boy scraping 
 the floor of the lower room, and he enquired of him the 
 meaning of the little pigeon-house on the roof. The
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 29 
 
 boy said that an old man named Newton used to sit up 
 and watch the stars from that little building all night. 
 ' Now,' said Rogers, ' no one notices such things ! ' . . . 
 We expressed our satisfaction at finding him as fond as 
 ourselves of such things. ' I live upon such recollections,' 
 he replied, ' I think of nothing else all day. . . . When 
 Wordsworth came to see me the other day, I took him 
 to see Dryden's house and Newton's observatory.' He 
 reminded us that Addison used to live in St. James's 
 Place, but he did not know the number. 
 
 " To return to Gray. I told him that I had seen Gray's 
 rooms at Cambridge, and the bar of iron which he had 
 caused to be fixed outside his windows, to effect his 
 escape in case of fire. 'Is it there still 1 ?' said Rogers ; 
 ' I remember Mr. Canning's narrative of the circum- 
 stance which occasioned Gray's departure from Peter 
 House. Some frolicsome young men placed a tank of 
 water under his window, and called out fire. Up flew 
 the window, and out came Gray -with his fire-escape, 
 which necessarily conducted him into the tank prepared 
 for his reception. The young men apologized, alleging 
 that they meant to have called out n-nfer\ but that in 
 their confusion they called out Jirc instead. Gray left 
 the College, contenting himself with observing that the 
 College was noisy, and the young men troublesome.' 
 
 " ' I was always from a boy fond of Gray,' said Rogers. 
 . . . ' Gray was a nervous, perhaps a finical man ; but he 
 commanded the greatest respect. Lord St. Helen's, who 
 is alive and well at 85 (?), told me that, when he went up 
 to Trinity College as a boy, he took with him a letter 
 for Gray, who came next morning to pay him a visit, 
 attended by three of his friends Stonhewer, Palgrave, 
 and another. They did not come as if in conversation, 
 in a group, or two and two ; but they walked in a line, 
 one after the other. On their departure the young men 
 of the College, who were assembled in the quadrangle to 
 see Gray come out, all took off their caps to him.' 
 
 " While on the subject of interesting sites, Rogers 
 remarked to us how few persons passing Milk Street and 
 Bread Street, remembered Milton and Sir Thomas More,
 
 30 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 who were born there. He praised Mackintosh's life of 
 the latter, and in remarking on the character of Sir 
 Thomas, insisted that he did not die for the sake of 
 Popish Supremacy, but that he died ion: freedom of opinion. 
 We talked a little about Egyptian antiquities, a study, 
 as Rogers observed, in which so much remains to be 
 learned by those who will concentrate their attention. 
 
 " When we arose from breakfast. Rogers told us that 
 the mahogany pier, which stands in his dining-room, and 
 supports a vase, was the work of Chantrey when he 
 worked for 5*. per day 3 . 
 
 " Turning to one of his pictures, he made a remark to 
 Tom which displeased me ; it displayed, I thought, such 
 a want of taste. ' West,' said he, ' used to refuse j^icoo 
 for that picture ' ; and in a similar strain he would remark 
 of other objects, as if the money value of the objects 
 around him was of any moment. 
 
 " I was meanwhile engaged in making some memo- 
 randa from his copy of Gray, which had belonged to 
 Cole 4 , the antiquary. I was amused to see that Rogers 
 has another of my weaknesses, viz., that of writing in 
 his books, and when he meets with anything which 
 interests him, noting the page at the end of the volume, 
 a trick of my own. Gray appears indeed to be one 
 of Rogers' favourites; he told me that he was an 
 especial object of his admiration from boyhood. Hence, 
 obviously, Rogers' ' Ode to Superstition,' which I re- 
 marked to him. I told him too, that I thought his 
 
 3 There is an anecdote, which the Antiquary, was born in 1714 and 
 
 writer is unable to trace to its died in 1782. He graduated at 
 
 source, of Chantrey himself having Cambridge, where he was the College 
 
 seen this mahogany pier, when he friend of Walpole, Mason, and Gray, 
 
 was breakfasting with Rogers, and He held the benefices of Hornsey, 
 
 having asked the poet if he could Bletchley in Bucks, and Burnham, 
 
 call to mind the name of the man near Eton. He left to the British 
 
 who made it. On Rogers' saying Museum fifty folios of Manuscript 
 
 that he could not, and that it was Antiquarian Collections. It was 
 
 made by some poor working man, his intention to compose an Athena 
 
 Chantrey is said to have replied, Cantabrigienses, as a companion to 
 
 " That man was myself." Anthony Wood's Athence Oxoni- 
 
 * The Rev. William Cole, the enses.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 31 
 
 genius very much resembled that of Gray ; they both 
 have written so little and so well. . . . We went up into 
 the drawing-room, and after looking a little at his vases, 
 left him. He is certainly a very amusing gentleman-like 
 man, and has the courtier- like art to make it appear that 
 he is receiving a favour, while it is quite obvious that he 
 is. on the contrary, conferring a considerable one." 
 
 Having seen what were the literary surroundings of 
 John William Burgon in his early life, we now return to 
 our narrative, which we left off with the memorandum 
 made by him in his note-book, at the age of 1 7, in the year 
 1830. The following year, 1831, was marked by the A.D. 1831. 
 formation of a very strong early friendship, almost of 
 the Pylades and Orestes type. such as young men are 
 apt to form in their prernitr<' jennesse, such as one whose 
 nature was so intense and passionate was certain to form. 
 His first acquaintance with the object of this friendship 
 is thus briefly recorded in the diary, which he appears to 
 have commenced in the previous year : 
 
 "Monday, Oct. 31, 1831. Went to Mr. Booth's a 
 small dance met a Mr. Fellows a delightful fellow, who 
 has seen Byron and H. K. White, and knows Moore, &c., 
 &c., &c. very agreeable evening." 
 
 In the autumn of the following year the friendship 
 thus begun was cemented by a tour which the friends 
 made together in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. 
 
 "Monday, Sep. 17, 1832. Drank tea with Fellows A.D. 1832 
 j)lanned trip to Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire." - t - J 9- 
 
 The trip began on Sept. 21, when they left London 
 for Nottingham, and ended on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 
 when they returned by the night coach from Not- 
 tingham to London. Matlock, Bakewell, Haddon Hall, 
 Chatsworth, the Peak, Dove-dale ("the most lovely 
 spot in the world "), Alton Towers, Southwell, Newstead
 
 32 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Abbey, Annesley, and Hucknall (the place of Lord Byron's 
 burial) were all visited. The last occasion of course did 
 not fail to elicit verses from Burgon ("written in the 
 Book at Hucknall Church ") ; Byron's poetry always had 
 a special charm for him, all the more from that vein of 
 sadness and melancholy which runs through it, and 
 which, though overlaid and concealed occasionally by the 
 exuberant and even extravagant frolicsomeness of his tem- 
 perament, was a real constituent of his own mind. He him- 
 self recognises this tendency of his mind, and the colour 
 which his own verses took from it, in his correspondence 
 with Mr. Fellows a month or two after the Derbyshire tour. 
 
 "Tuesday Night, Nov. 13, 1832. Do you remember 
 the few words that passed between us some hours ago, 
 about the melancholy that runs thro' my poetry? For- 
 give a midnight apology. 
 
 Oh ! blame not if I sometimes wake 
 A note thy friendship deems too sad 
 
 I would not, if I could, forsake 
 
 That mournful note, for one more glad! 
 
 Perchance you deem my spirits light, 
 Because these lips are wont to jest 1 ? 
 
 Alas! they share the gloom of night 
 When left, unmoved, within my breast. 
 
 The harp beneath the minstrel's touch 
 
 Oft utters such a blissful tone, 
 That you, to hear, might deem that such 
 
 Were uttered by its strings, alone. 
 
 But let the breath of heaven fly 
 
 Uncheck'd amid those trembling wires, 
 
 Go. hear the deep impassioned sigh 
 They render as each breath expires! 
 
 Then tell oh ! tell me which you deem 
 To be in truth their proper strain 
 
 The minstrel's gay, enchanting theme, 
 Or those self-uttered notes of pain?
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 33 
 
 Such are my feelings, ev'n if bliss 
 
 Is sometimes offered to me here, 
 My heart reminds me that it is 
 
 The prelude to a future tear. 
 
 And thus from childhood have I learned 
 To see things in their darker view ; 
 
 For even then my joys were earned 
 By drinking deep of sorrow too. 
 
 Then blame not, if I sometimes wake 
 A note thy friendship deems too sad ; 
 
 I could not, if I would, forsake 
 
 That mournful note for one more glad!" 
 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Fellows was a very con- 
 siderable man, perhaps the most distinguished archaeo- 
 logical explorer and discoverer of this century. He was 
 born at Nottingham in 1799, and thus was senior by 
 fourteen years to Burgon, a seniority which character- 
 ized almost all the early friends of the subject of this 
 Biography. Not only his love of archseological research, 
 but his great artistic aptitudes and his extraordinary 
 genius for drawing, were links uniting him to Burgon, 
 who was similarly endowed. He it was who discovered 
 (in 1827) the present route to the summit of Mont 
 Blanc, which superseded the route previously taken 
 by travellers, and who in his first expedition to Asia 
 Minor discovered the ruins of Xanthus, the ancient 
 capital of Lycia, and in his second thirteen other an- 
 , cient cities. These Asiatic discoveries are recorded in 
 a volume of some 500 pages published by Mr. Murray 
 in 1852, entitled ' Travels ami Researches in Asia Minor, 
 more particularly in the Province of Lycia' a work 
 which will be found as interesting to the general reader 
 as it is to connoisseurs in Archaeology. In reading 
 over the letters addressed by Burgon to this gentleman, 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 we are struck by the circumstance that, although Mr. 
 Fellows had so much the advantage of him both in 
 age, and in regard of a recognised position among the 
 literary and scientific circles of London, their familiarity 
 seems to have been as unrestrained as if the two had 
 been starting in life together. Burgon thinks that he 
 may talk any nonsense to Fellows, and vents upon him 
 the most atrociously bad puns ; nor is there any of that 
 self-restraint, and desire to write what is worth reading, 
 which characterizes his letters (for example) to Mr. 
 Dawson Turner, to Mr. Hunter, and to Mr. Tytler. 
 Indeed a vein of punning and poetizing runs through 
 all his letters to this early friend, to whom he was 
 evidently, despite one or two occasional misunderstand- 
 ings (which only proved the truth of the old adage, " The 
 resentments of lovers are the renewals of love "), most 
 deeply and, one may say, sentimentally attached. Mr. 
 Fellows had given him a ring containing a fragment 
 of granite taken from the summit of Mont Blanc : and 
 of course Burgon bursts into rhyme forthwith. Here is 
 his effusion : 
 
 i. 
 
 " My ring ! though I prize thee (and almost divine 
 Is the charm Friendship lends to that circlet of 
 
 thine), 
 When I think of thy dwelling on Earth's highest 
 
 hill, 
 There's a lustre comes o'er thee that's holier still! 
 
 2. 
 
 For the purest of snow, and the freshest of dew, 
 Unseen, sinking on thee, have hallowed thee too ; 
 And how oft, ere it gladdened the valleys below, 
 Has the breeze cooled its wings on thy dwelling of 
 snow!
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 35 
 
 3- 
 
 If the tale be a true one our fathers have told 5 
 (And who'd not believe them ?), that Angels of old 
 Full oft from their world of enchantment have flown, 
 To count the bright eyes that enliven our own, 
 
 4- 
 The peak, where this granite once grew, must have 
 
 been 
 
 The first trace of Earth they could ever have seen; 
 And who oh ! who knows, in their flight thro' the 
 
 air, 
 How often they've lingered to rest themselves there?" 
 
 Mr. Fellows took a strong interest in ancient clocks 
 and watches, a curious collection of which was left by 
 his widow, Lady Fellows, to the British Museum ; and 
 we find from their correspondence that Burgon, out of 
 the resources of his extensive reading (the pursuit of his 
 evenings when the business of the counting-house was 
 over), sent his friend several pertinent and helpful 
 memoranda on that subject. It seems that on one 
 occasion Mr. Fellows had pressed upon him the accept- 
 ance of a great curiosity, which from his intense love for 
 antiquities, and objects associated with great men, he 
 would naturally have much desired to possess, a watch 
 which had belonged to Milton. But with his usual 
 chivalrous delicacy of feeling, Burgon would not deprive 
 his friend of so great a treasure. It may be added that 
 *on religious subjects the friends entertained different 
 opinions, of a sufficiently serious character ; but these 
 differences do not seem on either side, certainly not on 
 Mr. Burgon's, to have created any coolness, or to have 
 diminished their intimacy and the interest which they 
 
 4 An allusion to Gen. vi. 2 ; " The be the Angels) "saw the daughters 
 sons of God " (by many supposed to of men that they were fair," &c. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 LIFE OF DEAN BURGOX. 
 
 felt in one another. Both parties candidly avowed their 
 convictions, and maintained them argumentatively, and 
 there the matter was allowed to drop, there was no 
 breach of mutual confidence or esteem. Burgon's tone 
 on the subject may be gathered from a single passage of 
 a letter to Mr. Fellows which bears date July 21, 1833. 
 
 " As regards what you have stated about religion, I 
 have only to say what I have often said before, and 
 what I shall often say again. I believe the sincerity, and 
 not the nature, of our peculiar modes of regarding the 
 Deity, will be one day called in question. I believe, in 
 spite of all that St. Athanasius has written on the 
 subject, that the Turk, who in a broiling sun thrice a 
 day prostrates himself on the soil, and, though there is 
 not a soul who beholds him, offers in that position his 
 adoration to his God, has a much better chance of going 
 to Heaven than the Christian, who is as regular in his 
 weekly round of crime as he is in his appearance on 
 Sunday Mornings at Church. Such is my creed ; and, if 
 it were not, you may very easily imagine that I should 
 weary you day and night with intreaties to think as I 
 think, and to see as I see 
 
 " The wonder is NOT that certain divine points should 
 be incomprehensible : but the wonder is that finite 
 reason should be able to comprehend so many of the 
 designs of Infinity. We believe sundry matters in every 
 day life, though we cannot explain them ; ' So let it be 
 with Csesar.' " 
 
 Quite in harmony with this last thought are the fine 
 lines which he sends to Mr. Fellows in the letter, in 
 which he announces to him his having won Lord Mayor 
 Copeland's prize for the best "Essay on the Life and 
 Character of Sir Thomas Gresham." It will be admitted 
 that the image, by which he illustrates the sentiment 
 that in the future state we, whose knowledge here has 
 been so partial, shall " know even as we are known," is 
 graceful and beautiful :
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 37 
 
 " Cold, prone to err. incredulous, and slow, 
 Man knows alas! how little here below, 
 In vain attempts, with vision so confined, 
 To scan the works of the Almighty Mind, 
 Or of the little, which 'tis his to scan, 
 To comprehend the complicated plan. 
 Yet will the day arrive no distant day 
 When, like thin mists before the morning's ray, 
 One glance from the Omnipotent shall roll 
 Error, and doubt, and darkness from his soul. 
 The mind, which, destined for a higher sphere, 
 Toiled darkly on through gloom and sorrow here, 
 Will wake in wisdom, and at once expand 
 In the mild climate of ' that better land ' ! 
 
 So fared the lily, which I saw lift up 
 Above the Ouse its alabaster cup ; 
 Fair as it seemed, while yet beneath the wave, 
 No sign whate'er of loveliness it gave ; 
 But when at last it rose above the stream, 
 Like one that wakens from a gloomy dream 
 It opened its bright eye, and far and wide 
 Burst into beauty o'er the azure tide." 
 
 " You understand of course that the water-lily yields 
 no blossom till it emerges from the waters. 
 
 " It is past i o'clock. Good night, dear F. 
 
 " J. W. B." 
 
 One more of his letters to Mr. Fellows, which reveals 
 much of his moral and intellectual character at this early 
 date, will be presented to the reader at the end of the 
 Chapter. 
 
 We pass on now to the date of his earliest publication, A.D. 1833 
 i 833, when he had reached the age of twenty. This, as 
 has been said, was a translation 6 , which was published in 
 
 The Title Page of this work is par le Chev*. P. O. Brondsted, et 
 
 in full, " Me'moire sur les Vases tradoit de 1' Anglais par J. W. 
 
 PanatWnaiques, adresse, en foruie Burgon. Avec six plancheo." 
 
 de lettre, Ji M. W. R. Hamilton, [Here follows a representation of
 
 38 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON, 
 
 Paris, of Chevalier Brondsted's monograph on Panathe- 
 naic Vases. The discovery by his father in 1813 of the 
 Panathenai'c Amphora, the inscription on which had 
 given rise to a question, which Brondsted in this 
 monograph settles, naturally had great interest for him ; 
 (" comme la de'couverte du premier vase panathe'naique," 
 he says in the " avant-propos " of his translation, "fut 
 faite par mon pere a Athenes. il est naturel que j'aie du 
 sentir un interet particulier et, pour ainsi dire, personnel, 
 pour tout ce qui concerne 1'explication de ces monuments 
 remarquables"), and he seems to have thought that it 
 would be useful to present in a language ' plus repandue 
 sur le continent " an essay which he characterises as 
 "rempli d'e'rudition et de recherches profondes." No 
 more need be said of this earliest publication of J. W. 
 Burgon's than that it shows not only his deep interest, 
 which, as we have already said, was hereditary with him, 
 in antiquarian research, but also a mastery over the 
 French language attained at an early age, which enabled 
 him to speak and write it like a native. 
 
 The memorandum made by him on the year of his 
 coming of age [1834] has been given above [see p. 19]. 
 
 the obverse and reverse of an old " On Panathenai'c Vases, and on 
 
 silver didrachm in Mr. Thomas the Holy Oil contained in them ; 
 
 Burgon's collection, which Brond- with particular reference to some 
 
 sted determined to be not Aeginetan Vases of that description now in 
 
 (as he had at first thought) but London : Letter addressed to W. 
 
 Athenian, and to have been struck R. Hamilton, Esq.. by Chev r . P. O. 
 
 with some reference to the Pana- Brondsted. From the Transactions 
 
 thenaic festivals, the vase on the of the Royal Society of Literature, 
 
 obverse of the coin being precisely Vol. II. Part I. London: A. J. 
 
 similar in form and proportion Valpy, M.A., Printer to the Society, 
 
 to all the Panathenaic amphorae 1832." Facing the Title Page is a 
 
 hitherto discovered]. "Paris, Li- fine engraving of Mr. Thomas 
 
 brairie de Firmin Didot Freres, Burgon (in the fifty-first 3 T ear of his 
 
 Rue Jacob, No. 24, 1833." age) as the discoverer of the first 
 
 The Title Page of the original Panathenaic Vase. 
 work of Broudsted is :
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 39 
 
 Iu the early part of the year 1835 we find him ad- 
 dressing the following letter to the poet Southey, in 
 view of a now edition by Southey of Cowper's works, 
 which had been announced. It is to be regretted that 
 Southey 's answer is not now to be found among Burgon's 
 papers, though the envelope is forthcoming which con- 
 tained it. and on which is written. " From the poet 
 Southey in acknowledgement of an anecdote of Cowper, 
 communicated to him by me. J. W. B., March 9, 1835." 
 
 "ii Brunswick Square, London, 14 Feb., 1835. 
 
 " Sir, In looking over the list of forthcoming publi- 
 cations. I see with much satisfaction that a new edition 
 is promised us of the works of that beautiful poet and 
 excellent man, Cowper. What makes this intelligence 
 yet more agreeable is the promise that the present volume 
 will be edited by yourself, and accompanied by a life of 
 the poet, from your own gifted pen. 
 
 On this occasion, though a perfect stranger, I take the 
 liberty (and I hope it is an excusable one) to communi- 
 cate to you a little anecdote respecting Cowper, which 
 is not perhaps so trivial as to be altogether undeserving 
 of the notice of a Biographer. ... A friend of mine, who 
 lives within a few miles of Weston, and whose father 
 was well acquainted with Cowper, tells me that in the 
 beginning of 1833, having occasion to visit Weston, he 
 
 ;it over Cowpt/r's house, to see it in sfatit quo for the 
 last time, as a farmer, who had just taken possession of 
 the place, was in the act of painting and whitewashing 
 the rooms to render them habitable. In the course of 
 his survey (and you may imagine it was rather a curious 
 one) my friend tells me that behind one of the shutters 
 in an upper room, he found the following lines written 
 in pencil, which he immediately recognised as being in 
 the hand-writing of Cowper 
 
 Farewell, dear scenes for ever closed to me! 
 Oh! for what sorrow must I now exchange you. 
 
 July 28, 1795.'
 
 4O LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 "What gives interest to these verses is the circum- 
 stance of the date, which, I believe, is the very day that 
 Cowper left Weston for Norfolk. ... I have preserved 
 this anecdote ; for it seems to me characteristic of the 
 man. He has been contemplating the accustomed pros- 
 pect from the window, perhaps for the last time, and he 
 unburthened his ever melancholy ill-boding heart by 
 writing a verse behind the shutter ! I long to read your 
 censure 7 of Cowper. In the meantime I am, Sir, with 
 much respect and admiration, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 This year (1835) was marked by his becoming ac- 
 quainted with Patrick Fraser Tytler, of whom he was 
 to publish a Memoir at the end of 1858, nearly a quarter 
 of a century later. In that memoir [p. 239, ed. 2] he 
 
 says : 
 
 We " (Tytler and himself) " first met at Mr. Rogers', 
 in St. James' Place ; but did not become acquainted 
 until I met him (i9th December, 1835,) at the Chev. 
 Brb'ndsted's, a learned Danish antiquary, and accom- 
 plished traveller, who was lodging at Palliano's in 
 Leicester Square. The party at Brondsted's being small, 
 and my own youthful pursuits being of a kindred nature 
 to Mr. Tytler 's, I remember regarding him as a lawful 
 prize, and making the most of the opportunity to discover 
 from him something about the nature and extent of the 
 
 7 The word certainly seems to be Laertes (Hamlet I. 3, 69) we find 
 
 " censure," which is generally used " Take each man's censure, but 
 
 of an unfavourable judgment. Oc- reserve thy judgment." 
 
 casionally however (like its Latin And again in Richard III (ii. 2, 
 
 original censura) it means merely 144) ; 
 
 a judgment or opinion, whether "Madam, and you my mother, 
 
 favourable or unfavourable. J. W. will you go 
 
 B.'s mind was thoroughly imbued To give your censures in this 
 
 with Shakspere's phraseology. And weighty business ? " 
 in Polonius's often-quoted advice to
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 41 
 
 MS. stores in our great national repositories. Enthu- 
 siastic he certainly found me, and observant, if not 
 learned, in such matters. The first note I ever received 
 from him, (February, 1836,) reminds me that I called 
 his attention to the curious Common-place Book of Lord 
 Burghley's among the Lansdowne MSS.. which contained 
 several entries of interest to himself. His affability, and 
 the patience with which, though his years fully doubled 
 mine, he surrendered himself for the whole evening to so 
 unprofitable a conversationist, I well remember ; as well 
 as the gratification I experienced at forming the ac- 
 quaintance of one whose tastes and whose manners were 
 so entirely congenial." 
 
 It was not until three years later (1838) that the 
 acquaintance thus formed with Tytler ripened into close 
 friendship. 
 
 li Circumstances " (doubtless, his researches for mate- 
 rials for the ' Life and Ti/,/rx of Grecian, ') " led me in 
 the beginning of the year 1838 to apply for permission 
 to inspect the Domestic and Flemish Correspond- 
 ence of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, preserved in the 
 State Paper Office. Mr. Tytler was then the only person 
 reading there ; and it is needless to say that the bond of 
 a common study, constantly pursued in the same room, 
 drew us very much together. When the Office closed, 
 we discussed as we walked home the questions on which 
 we had been respectively engaged, and the papers which 
 had passed under our eyes. Not unfrequently, at the 
 Office, one stole across to the desk of the other, docu- 
 ment in hand ; and many an interesting conversation 
 ensued, by which it is needless to say that I was very 
 much the gainer. Though but a novice in such studies, 
 I was passionately fond of them ; and, I suppose, made 
 up somewhat in enthusiasm and application for what I 
 wanted in knowledge. . . . He treated me like a younger 
 brother ; invited me often to his house, and admitted me 
 freely to his confidence. I grew very fond of him indeed, 
 and it made me happy to find that he was equally fond
 
 42 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 of me" [Burgon's "Memoir of P. F. Tytler, London: 
 1859, pp. 263, 4]. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Tytler exerted a consider- 
 able influence upon Burgon, though it was one which 
 Burgon was already thoroughly predisposed to receive. 
 There was a wonderful homogeneousness both of intel- 
 lectual and moral tastes between the two men. Tytler 
 was a great adept at comic sketches, witness his sister's 
 description of him, as given in Burgon's Memoir, 
 p. 297, which description, word for word, might have 
 been written for Burgon, although in point of fact it was 
 written for Tytler. One of his favourite amusements 
 was to draw comic sketches for young children, with 
 which he illustrated his letters to them, and of which 
 some specimens will be given at a later period of this 
 work. And deep would be Burgon's sympathy with 
 this beautiful eulogy upon children, which he has quoted 
 from Tytler [Memoir, pp. 132, 133]: 
 
 "In recalling the many days of happiness which I 
 have enjoyed, I am not sure but that (next to my own 
 domestic circle) the memory rests with the greatest 
 pleasure on the hours I have spent amongst children. 
 Amongst men and women, we are perpetually meeting 
 with all that overcasts the original excellence of our 
 nature ; with ambition, interest, pride, vanity ; with the 
 jarring of contending interests and opinions, the false 
 assumption of knowledge, the doublings of affectation, 
 the tediousness of egotism, or the repinings of disappoint- 
 ment. All these are perpetually elbowing us in our 
 intercourse with men. With children, we see Nature 
 in its real colours, and happiness unsullied as yet by an 
 acquaintance with the world. Their little life is like 
 the fountain which springs pure and sparkling into the 
 light, and reflects for a while the sunshine and loveliness 
 of Heaven on its bosom. Their absence of all affecta- 
 tion, their ignorance of the arts of the world, their free
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 43 
 
 expression of opinion, their ingenuous confidence, the 
 beautiful aptitude with which their minds instantly 
 embrace the doctrine of an over-ruling Providence, and 
 the exquisite simplicity and confidence of their addresses 
 to the Father in Heaven ; that unforced cheerfulness, 
 that ' sunshine of the breast,' which is only clouded by 
 ' the tear forgot as soon as shed ' ; all this is to be found 
 in the character of children, and of children only." 
 
 In introducing these sentiments of his friend's, Burgon 
 tells us that he sympathizes with them entirely. Those 
 who knew him would not need to be told so. Every 
 word might have been written by himself. 
 
 " J. W. B.'s tenderly kind feeling for us as children," 
 writes his surviving eister, many years younger than him- 
 self, " will always dwell in my heart. Many a time, when 
 we were little, and ill in bed, he would, though pressed 
 for time, before accompanying our father to the City, 
 hastily draw several pictures for us to paint, and bring 
 them up to us, with a plate of colours rubbed from his 
 own paint-box, to afford us amusement through the day. 
 Then, with many kisses and kind words, he would 
 promise to come up and see us immediately he returned 
 home, a promise he never failed to keep." 
 
 The record of the year 1835 must not pass over with- 
 out some notice of his visit to Shakspere's birth-place, 
 which is thus briefly recorded in his diary : 
 
 " 1835, Oct. 27, Tuesday. Drew Shakspeare's House 
 went over it made impressions of his tombstone, &c. . . . 
 I slept in Shakspeare's House drew and rhymed. (Kit's " 
 his youngest sister's " yth Birthday.") 
 
 He was on a ten days' tour with one of his sisters, in the 
 course of which they saw Woodstock, Blenheim, Charle- 
 cote, Hampton Lucy, and Stratford-on-Avon. The night 
 of the 2 jth was spent by him on an oaken settle in the 
 room shown as the birth-place of Shakspere, with the
 
 44 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 expectation, as many years after he told the Rev. John 
 Pickford, that the poetic afflatus would visit him ; but 
 he added that he awoke in the grey dawn, cold and 
 uncomfortable, and experienced no elevating sensation 
 whatever. Mr. Pickford, who was present in the family 
 circle at Turvey, when Dean Burgon (as he then was) 
 narrated this disappointing experience, and who is well 
 versed (if any man ever was) in old traditions and the 
 habits of thought of bygone generations, writes in 
 reference to this incident as follows : 
 
 " Perhaps J. W. B., when he spent the night on the 
 oak-settle at Stratford -on- A von, might have been think- 
 ing of what Persius says in his exordium : 
 
 ' Nee in bicipiti somniasse Parnasso 
 Memini, ut repente sic poeta prodirem.' 
 
 (Nor on Parnassus' two-peaked height 
 Remember I t' have dreamed at night, 
 And then woke up in twilight gray, 
 A poet at the spring of day.) 
 
 "I fancy this idea is very universal. The Welsh 
 proverb says that 'the man who sleeps on Snowdon 
 will awake a poet.' When Dean Burgon told me of 
 it, I quoted (in reference to the rawness of the early 
 October morning, which had disenchanted him) the lines 
 of Hudibras : 
 
 'When, like a lobster boiled, the morn 
 From black to red begins to turn.'" 
 
 It will be seen that in the following year (1836) he 
 did experience " a rapture," in rather more favourable 
 physical surroundings, over Milton's house. 
 
 It is possible that some may regard the incident of 
 passing the night on the oak-settle as a fantastic freak, 
 a piece of levity inconsistent with seriousness of character. 
 But the truth is that, from a very early age, the study to
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 
 
 45 
 
 which he devoted more time and labour than any other 
 always excepting that of the Holy Scriptures, which 
 drew to themselves after his Ordination ever more and 
 more his cares, his pains, his studies, was that of Shak- 
 spere, the sonnets as well as the plays. The writer has 
 now in his possession a manuscript book of Burgon's notes 
 on Shakspere with the most copious memoranda on the 
 Editions, the various readings, the antiquated expressions, 
 and the loci ctazsici of each play ; and from certain of 
 these memoranda it is clear that he had in contemplation 
 an edition of Shakspere, with a commentary and a life. 
 The notes are unfinished (doubtless from the fact that in 
 later life the pastoral labours and the sacred studies of 
 the Christian Ministry absorbed too much of his time) ; 
 but a page is left for each play with a heading, of which 
 a specimen is here given : 
 
 /ET. 41. 
 
 KING LEAR 25. 
 
 1605 (Malone). 
 
 Allusions to 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 J 
 
 a 
 
 & 
 
 bo 
 
 c 
 
 j 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 $ 
 
 
 oi 
 M 
 
 u 
 
 :, 
 
 =. 
 
 2 
 P 
 
 L-'- 
 
 3. 2 
 /. - 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 <) 
 
 M 
 
 B 
 
 *3 -2 
 
 ~- ~ 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 
 M 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 a 
 -- 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Only two or three of these pages, with their counter- 
 pages on the left hand of the reader, are absolutely desti- 
 tute of all annotation. The eleven earlier ones (Henry 
 VI, Part I ; Part II ; Part III ; Gentlemen of Verona ; 
 Comedy of Errors ; Richard II ; Richard III ; Midsummer 
 Night's Dream ; Merchant of Venice ; Love's Labour's 
 Lost ; Taming of the Shrew,) are copiously annotated on
 
 46 LIFE OF DEAN BURGOX. 
 
 both page and counter-page. His scheme seems to have 
 been to exhibit the plays in the chronological order in 
 which Shakspere wrote them. 
 
 A few excerpts from these Notes and Memoranda, 
 which, it is thought, might interest the reader, are given 
 in an Appendix. (See Appendix A.) 
 
 But before passing away from his studies in Shak- 
 spere, in which, as well as other literary pursuits, he 
 found a great relief from the always distasteful drudgery 
 of his father's counting-house, it will be well to give one 
 or two passages of his correspondence with the Rev. 
 Joseph Hunter, of Sheffield (b. 1783 ; d. 1861), an 
 eminent writer on British Antiquities, author of ' The 
 History and Topography of the, Parish of Sheffield] and 
 . ' The Hi-story and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster] 
 whose intimate knowledge of ancient writings and 
 minute points of history procured him in 1833 the 
 appointment of Sub-Commissioner of the Public Records, 
 and, on the re-construction of the Record Office in 1838, 
 that of assistant-keeper of the first class. 
 
 Here is the letter in which Burgon opened the cor- 
 respondence : 
 
 " Reverend Sir, The handwriting of this letter is un- 
 known to you ; but when 1 recall to your memory the 
 conversation you had with a stranger the other night, at 
 the party given by our friend Mr. Fellows, you will easily 
 recognise the writer. It is with reference to that conversa- 
 tion that I am now taking the liberty of addressing you. 
 
 " I believe I told you that I have, for some years past, 
 devoted all the leisure I have had at my disposal to 
 the illustration of Shakspeare's 8 life. Among other things 
 
 8 In the correspondence of Mr. latter with an e in the first as well 
 
 Burgon with Mr. Hunter the name as an a in the second. Shakspere 
 
 of Shakspere is spelt as they re- himself spelt his name with neither 
 
 spectively spell it, the former with one nor the other. Six genuine 
 
 an a in the second syllable, the signatures of his are in existence,
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 
 
 47 
 
 I discovered, unaided, the clue to his sonnets ; and 
 have pleased myself with the idea, that an Essay 
 
 them. Nobody ever spells Cecil's 
 name with two Is, because he him- 
 self so spelt it six hundred times. 
 Moreover, many eminent persons 
 have spelt their names in two or 
 more ways, e.g. Drydenand Raleigh. 
 The spelling of our great poet's name, 
 which has been sanctioned for 250 
 years by the majority of cultivated 
 and well-educated persons is indis- 
 putably SHAKSPEARE ; and to depart 
 from this established mode' of ortho- 
 graphy is affected and pedantic. 
 He points out, as regards Shak- 
 spere's acknowledged -signatures, that 
 three of the six are attached to one 
 document, his will, and " are there- 
 fore only entitled to one vote." The 
 three others he makes out to be 
 dubious. " It is true," he says, 
 " that the Parish Clerk of Stratford 
 spelt the name Shakspere 27 times 
 out of 30 in the Parish Register. 
 But Shakspeare's daughter and her 
 husband, Dr. Hall, who were his 
 executors, and certainly raised a 
 monument to him, spelt his name 
 as I spell it, SHAKSPEARE. If her 
 father had hinted any dislike to this 
 spelling, she would not have adopted 
 it for his monument." But the 
 reader who desires to pursue the 
 subject must refer for himself to the 
 articles in the ' Gentleman 's Maga- 
 zine? They are extremely charac- 
 teristic, the writer being assured 
 that his conclusion was beyond all 
 controversy the right one, and ex- 
 pressing himself with the vehemence 
 of an impulsive nature, as was 
 always J. W. B.'s wont. 
 
 " three attached to his will, and two 
 affixed to deeds connected with the 
 mortgage and sale of a property in 
 Blackfriars," and the sixth in his 
 copy of Montaigne's Essays, now in 
 the British Museum. Moreover in 
 the entries of his baptism and burial 
 in the Register of Stratford Church, 
 and in those of the baptisms of his 
 three children, and of the burial of 
 his son, the name is always spelt 
 SHAKSPERE. [See the first note to 
 the Preface to Knight's edition of 
 Shakspere, from which the above 
 particulars are taken.] It is thus 
 spelt therefore in this narrative. 
 
 The author, however, is quite 
 sensible that by adopting this mode 
 of spelling a world-famous name, he 
 would have incurred the (literary) 
 wrath of the dear friend whose 
 Biography he is writing. One of 
 Burgon's articles in the 'Genth,, 
 Magazine' [March, 1840, vol. xiii. 
 j>. jfi.f] i> " A Reply to Mr. John 
 Bruce on the Orthography of 
 Shakspeare's name." And in the 
 following May [vol. xiii. p. 474] 
 appeared in the same magazine " A 
 Reply to Mr. Bruce's Reply to my 
 former Letter," both articles signed 
 with his name at full length. Mr. 
 Bruce had contended that the name 
 should be spelt Shakspere, because 
 this was the continual and consis- 
 tent usage of the poet himself. 
 Burgon replies that there is no 
 proof that the poet invariably spelt 
 his name in one way, and some 
 good reasons for thinking he did 
 not, and that we do not necessarily 
 spell names as their owners spelt
 
 48 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 on the subject, at some future period, would not be 
 unattended with the approbation of men whom it is a 
 merit to please. I have accumulated by degrees, obser- 
 vations, having reference more or less directly to 
 Shakspeare ; and with a little leisure should be prepared 
 to publish an Essay on his life. 
 
 " But it appears that you have been yourself for many 
 years pursuing the same inquiries, and that on certain 
 subjects we have come to the same conclusions. Further, 
 I am inclined to believe from your conversation, that it 
 is your intention, sooner or later, to publish something 
 on the subject of Shakspeare. 
 
 " Now Sir, the frank and liberal style in which you 
 conversed with me the other night makes me desirous 
 of acting in a manner as courteous towards yourself ; 
 and I wish to know, whether it would give you pain, or 
 indeed any degree of displeasure, that I should proceed 
 with my humble Essay? I cannot of course resolve 
 this question for myself, because I am ignorant of what 
 your own particular intentions may be on the subject ; 
 though I must say, they appear to me likely to be on so 
 much more extensive a scale than the extent of my 
 leisure has ever permitted me to contemplate, that I 
 can scarcely imagine that such few observations as I 
 might be desirous of publishing, would interfere very 
 materially with you. I trust that you will regard this 
 letter in the light in which it is really written, and 
 that you will not deem the spirit of it either as inquisi- 
 tive or presumptuous. My only wish is, to avoid giving 
 you hereafter any mortification or displeasure. 
 
 " I am, Sir, with much respect, 
 
 " Your most obed*- servant, 
 
 "JOHN W. BURGON. 
 
 "Tuesday night, Feb. n, 1835. 
 
 "u, Brunswick Square. 
 
 "To the Rev. Joseph Hunter, No. 30, Torrington 
 Square."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 49 
 
 And here is Mr. Hunter's answer, written on the fol- 
 lowing day, courteously informing his young friend that 
 he was not the first who had discovered the clue to Shak- 
 spere's Sonnets. When all allowance has been made for 
 the complimentary vein of the letter (arising from the 
 natural gratification felt by Hunter at young Burgon's 
 deference to him as an authority), it is still clear that 
 the veteran antiquarian thought highly of the labours 
 and abilities of the juvenile one. 
 
 " 30, Torrington Square, February 1 2, 1 835. 
 
 " Dear Sir, I meet with so few persons who are 
 engaged in curious investigations connected with our 
 early literature, that it is quite a refreshment and a 
 pleasure to find that such investigations are being pur- 
 sued in quarters unsuspected. I heard of your enquiries, 
 of the manner in which they were conducted, and of the 
 results, with no other feelings than those of satisfaction ; 
 and so far from wishing them to cease, or from wishing 
 that the public should not, as speedily as to you may 
 seem meet, enjoy the benefit of them, I most earnestly 
 desire that they should be pursued, and I anticipate very 
 high gratification, whenever the world shall be favoured 
 with your work. 
 
 " This will I think be a sufficient answer to the more 
 material part of the truly obliging note which you have 
 addressed to me, a courtesy demanding from me the most 
 respectful acknowledgment. What I may do with my 
 own collections of a similar nature, I can by no means 
 tell ; I may go on collecting and planning to the end of 
 life, or I may snatch a few days of leisure from pursuits 
 * deeply interesting to me indeed, but little congenial with 
 these, and throw them before long upon the great heap 
 of Shakespear-criticism. This however ought not to 
 have, and cannot have, any effect on your operations, 
 as enquiries so entirely independent of each other must 
 needs lead to very different particular results, whatever 
 the general conclusions may be ; but I should think it 
 a very great misfortune, if my humble labours in this' 
 
 VOL. i. E
 
 50 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 department should deprive the public of the benefit of 
 enquiries so tasteful and so judiciously conducted as 
 yours, or yourself of the high honour which belongs to 
 such successful investigators in our national literature. 
 
 " The point itself, that the Earl of Pembroke was the 
 person to whom most part, or all, of the Sonnets were 
 addressed, you will have perceived is no secret, as you 
 have no doubt referred to the volume of the ' Gentleman s 
 Magazine' to which I referred you. Mr. Boaden, you will 
 perceive, there distinctly announces the fact, and details 
 some part of the evidence by which the conclusion is 
 supported. I had corresponded for many years before 
 that time with the friend who is named in my letter, on 
 this very point. It was indeed his discovery, not mine : 
 and it may be some satisfaction to you to hear that no 
 one will rejoice more than he in the appearance of your 
 Essay. But though the fact itself cannot therefore be 
 considered in the light of ' a secret,' there are inferences 
 to be drawn from it of a most curious nature, which may 
 equally entitle him who draws them to the merit of a 
 discoverer, and a discoverer in a region unknown, but full 
 of surprise and curiosity. 
 
 " I remain, with the truest respect, 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 " Your obliged and very faithful servant, 
 
 "JOSEPH HUNTER. 
 " John W. Burgon, Esq." 
 
 The correspondence between Mr. Hunter and the 
 young friend who had such a sympathy with him in 
 his Shaksperian studies, and in antiquarian subjects 
 generally, was carried on during the latter part of 1835 
 and the earlier part of 1 836, and witnesses to an acquaint- 
 ance of Burgon with general literature, which at his age, 
 and gained as it was during the short intervals of leisure 
 which his occupations at the counting-house allowed of, 
 is truly surprising.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 51 
 
 From this digression on the Shaksperian studies, which 
 engrossed him so largely in the earlier part of his life, 
 
 we return to our narrative. 
 
 . 
 
 Some two or three years after the publication of the 
 translation of Brb'ndsted's monograph on the Panathena'ic 
 Vases an announcement was made in the City that 
 " a prize would be given by William Taylor Copeland, 
 Esq., then Lord Mayor, to the author of the best Essay 
 ' on the Life and Character of Sir Thomas Gresham ; ' 
 which was to be comprised within such limits, that the 
 public recitation of it should not exceed half an hour." 
 Young Burgon was connected with the City by his 
 employment in his father's counting-house ; he had been 
 born and bred in commercial circles ; and thus Gresham 
 in the sixteenth century \fj. 1519 ; d. 1579], son of a Lord 
 Mayor, "the royal merchant" as he was called, who had 
 furnished out of his own purse the funds for building 
 the Royal Exchange 9 (the merchants had hitherto trans- 
 acted their business in the open air), was likely, inde- 
 pendently of any desire to win a prize, to be an attractive 
 subject to him, falling in as it did with his immediate 
 surroundings. We learn from a private letter, bearing A.D. 1836. 
 date March 15, 1836, that Mr. Renouard, who as English *' 23 ' 
 Chaplain at Smyrna in 1813 had baptized him, an 
 eminent Orientalist, an elegant scholar, and a man of 
 
 9 It may be added that the house traffic of the Gresham family with 
 
 of Gresham traded in the Levant, the Levant is supplied by the will 
 
 ,^md seems to have been one of the of Lady Isabella Gresham (Sir 
 
 . earliest English houses which did John's sister-in-law), where particu- 
 
 BO, and that Mr. Thomas Burgon lar mention is made of her ' Turkey 
 
 also, the father of the subject of this carpets,' a great luxury for a 
 
 Memoir, was, as has been already private individual, in an age when 
 
 said, a Turkey merchant, and an as- rushes formed part of the furniture 
 
 Bociate in the Levant Company, and of the court." Burgon's ' Life and 
 
 had a house of business at Smyrna. Times of Gresham,' vol. i. p. la. 
 " Another illustration of the early 
 
 E 2
 
 52 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 high general cultivation, had offered to look over the 
 manuscript before it was sent in. Young Burgon 
 availed himself gladly of so advantageous an offer. In 
 a letter of not quite three weeks afterwards (April 2, 
 1836) he acknowledged the receipt of Mr. Renouard's 
 criticisms; where the suggested alterations have been 
 verbal, " I have adopted them without hesitation ; where 
 the sentiment is concerned, I have taken the liberty of 
 weighing them a little, and, though I have invariably 
 availed myself of the sagacious interlinear pencilling, 
 there yet remain some few passages which I have noted, 
 as passages about which I should like to say a few 
 words to you." Further on in the same letter he gives 
 an account of the method in which the Essay had been 
 drawn up, which deserves to be quoted as illustrative 
 both of his habit of postponing work to the last moment 
 (a habit which clung to him in the composition of his 
 sermons, in which he was occasionally so pressed for 
 time that the manuscript was only finished just before 
 the bell for the service at which he was to preach went 
 down), and of the indefatigable industry and research 
 characteristic of his every literary effort : 
 
 " The truth is, that I acted very foolishly in the way 
 I wrote it. I deferred, from want of leisure, turning my 
 thoughts to the subject, till within a very few weeks of 
 the day appointed for the compositions to be sent in to 
 the worthies who were to pronounce on their merits. 
 When at last the time drew near, I obtained permission 
 from iny father to pass a few days at the British 
 Museum. Here, to my great astonishment, I discovered, 
 that what I contemplated as a mere Essay, was capable 
 of being amplified into something very like a Life. 
 I found letters original, and written in the very 
 crampest hands official documents, and, above all, an 
 immense mass of really useful information concerning 
 my hero ; scattered however of course, up and down, in
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 53 
 
 all manner of out of the way books. ... I assure you, 
 Sir, for the week or so I passed in .the Reading-room 
 pursuing this inquiry, I worked as few of the readers 
 there have done. The iron fist of time was pressing 
 upon me ; and if I failed to bring my work to an end by 
 the appointed time, there was but one alternative, to 
 abandon the undertaking altogether, a thing not to be 
 thought of with me. When the evening came, I used to 
 sit up in my lodgings (it was during the repairs of our 
 house) and I never rose from my papers till my hand 
 was literally too weary to guide my pen, or my brain 
 too tired to guide either. I used first to transcribe in 
 a fair hand the scarcely legible note I had made at the 
 Museum ; then, as collectedly as I was able, to weave 
 them into a kind of story, and I was finally only able to 
 finish transcribing my Essay into the book you have 
 seen, by half past two in the afternoon of the day ap- 
 pointed for the Essays to be sent in ; so that I literally 
 never once read over what I had written, till my MS. 
 was returned to me from Crosby Square. . . . Pardon this 
 long egotistical paragraph I did not know that it was 
 going to extend over so much paper . . . but I could not 
 suppress it altogether ; for it really seems scarcely proper 
 to trouble a kind friend with a composition containing 
 so many obvious inaccuracies. 
 
 " I must still go over it once more with a microscopic 
 eye ; for the pointing, and other such nitga, comparatively 
 unimportant as they are in MS., look terribly distinct 
 when they come to be printed. I have written to 
 Hamburg, and to Antwerp, on the subject of Sir Thomas 
 Gresham, and I have been assured from good authority, 
 that many an archive that has slumbered for centuries, 
 1 has been disturbed, and is undergoing examination, at both 
 places, for my sake. Do you know Dr. Lappenburg 1 ? 
 
 1 So J. W. B. spells the name. Chapter of the Church of Hamburg. 
 
 Johsnn Martin Lappenberg was an He doubtless was one of the per- 
 
 eminent German historian, born at sons to whom Burgon had written 
 
 Hamburg in 1794, where he was to institute researches about Gres- 
 
 appointed by the Senate of the City ham. When in London, Lappen- 
 
 of the Rolls, and where he berg often joined the circle iu 
 
 discovered the Archives of the Brunswick Square.
 
 54 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 " My paper warns me to conclude but I will not do 
 so till I have begged to be most kindly remembered to 
 your amiable sisters (I wish the world contained more 
 such ladies) and till I have offered you my share of 
 thanks for all your kindnesses to Caroline and Tom. 
 
 " Believe me most respectfully, dear Sir, 
 " Your obliged and affectionate 
 
 "JOHN W. BURGOX." 
 
 Shortly after the date of the above letter (April 2, 
 1836), and before the public reading at the Mansion 
 House of the abbreviated Gresham Essay (May 14 of the 
 same year) the first great shadow fell upon his life, 
 a shadow which contributed with later sorrows to give 
 a tinge of melancholy to his character, contrasting 
 strangely with, and throwing up into relief, the occa- 
 sional hilariousness of his buoyant spirits. This was the 
 death of his little sister Katharine Margaret (-'Kitty"), 
 born Oct. 27, 1828, to whom he was tenderly attached, 
 and of whose pretty childish ways and words he had 
 long been observant, as appears from sundry memoranda 
 in his Journal. 
 
 The circumstances of this dear child's death and 
 burial were deemed by him worthy of a special journal, 
 which he calls, " The Journal of my sorrows " ; and 
 justice would hardly be done to the extraordinary 
 sensibility of John William Burgon, both as regards 
 his love of young children, and his affection for kin- 
 dred, unless the reader were presented with a slight 
 sketch of the contents of this journal and one or two 
 extracts from it. Kitty had been ailing since Thursday, 
 April 14, but her sore throat was so much better on 
 Saturday, the 23rd, that " she ran about the house and 
 resumed all her dear old ways," and her brother went 
 with a light heart to visit Mr. Renouard at Swans-
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 55 
 
 combe, and to confer with him about the Gresham Essay, 
 in which Renouard had detected " several inaccuracies." 
 
 It was. however, but a 'momentary gleam of sunshine, 
 upon which the clouds were soon to close in again thicker 
 than ever. When he reached home on Monday, the 
 25th, he found that the child's " throat gave evidence of 
 a worse state " ; the complaint was pronounced to be an 
 " ulcer creeping downwards, and making for the wind- 
 pipe one of the gates of life " ; and the family were 
 assured by the medical practitioners that the only chance 
 of recovery was the opening of the wind-pipe. He darts 
 otf for the specialist who is recommended, and holds the 
 child down during the operation, which, however, proves 
 unsuccessful. 
 
 . . . "Three or four times did she make signs that she 
 wanted something ; for I told her, as often as she wanted 
 something, to lift up her hand ; and what do you sup- 
 pose the angel wanted? when I approached my face, 
 I found all she desired was to embrace me ; she passed 
 her thin poor hand round my neck, and in that un- 
 comfortatle posture, uncomfortable to herself, I mean 
 held me for half a minute at a time ; once she even 
 raised her parched lips to kiss me, and every time I 
 approached her face, I kissed her and called her the 
 names I knew she would like best." 
 
 Frightened at first by the thought that she was going 
 to die, 
 
 " 'Johnny,' she said, 'jx-ay;' and while she of her own ac- 
 cord folded her little hands, and looked up to Heaven, I 
 
 prayed aloud Presently she said she was ' better now,' 
 
 and folded her hands again. I then repeated the Lord's 
 Prayer to her, and she nodded approbation. She subse- 
 quently often looked up. and I reminded her of many con- 
 soling things, and told her of the angels, and, I am sure, 
 comforted her. She grew much calmer and happier, and 
 seemed to have no more religious misgivings. . . . And here 
 let me pause and reflect what awful moments must those
 
 56 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 have been to my angelic Kate, with which I am dealing so 
 briefly. When she asked me if she was going to die, doubt- 
 less the advancing shadows of death were falling upon her 
 soul. It must be an awful sensation that of dying ; one, 
 to which the external appearances are no real index ; 
 paleness means nothing, tells nothing ; but in the ' secret 
 closure of the breast,' in the inmost heart, there must be 
 a deep and indefinable dread, a consciousness of some 
 great change one cannot tell what the ground must 
 seem sinking from beneath one, the scene must seem 
 growing misty around one~, and on the ' prophetic soul,' 
 already loosening its connexion with the clay, must begin 
 to dawn the awful glories of an eternal morning. It 
 must be terrible, all alone, to have to walk through the 
 valley of the shadow of Death, to know that none of 
 those around you can participate in the perils of the 
 journey, that He, whom we have never yet known than 
 as the object of prayer, is to be our Guide, and that an 
 instant will bring us into His dread presence, which, 
 though one knows it to be at all times near, one fancies at 
 all times to be immeasurably distant. I say it must be an 
 awful thing to die ; and when afterwards I looked on 
 Kitty's lifeless face, I surveyed it and her wijh a deep 
 
 2 One is reminded of the opening And could fall back on nought to 
 
 of Cardinal Newman's ' Dream of be my stay, 
 
 Gerontius' written many years (Help, loving Lord! Thou my sole 
 
 afterwards : Refuge, Thou,) 
 
 " Pray for me, my friends ; a And turn no whither, but must 
 
 visitant needs decay 
 
 Is knocking his dire summons And drop from out the uni- 
 
 at my door, versal frame 
 
 The like of whom, to scare me Into that shapeless, scopeless, 
 
 and to daunt, blank abyss, 
 
 Has never, never come to me That utter nothingness, of 
 
 before ; which I came : 
 
 "Tis death, loving friends, This is it that hath come to pass 
 
 your prayers ! 'tis he ! ... in me ; 
 
 As though my very being had Oh, horror ! this it is, my 
 
 given way, dearest, this ; 
 
 As though I was no more a sub- So pray for me, my friends, who have 
 
 stance now, not strength to pray."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 57 
 
 respectful aw'e. Little, weak, helpless, dear child, thought 
 I. whom, while you lived, I considered as a tender play- 
 thing, and trembled lest the very winds should visit thee 
 too roughly. I taught thee, and unfolded thy young 
 mind as tenderly as sunshine unfolds the sweet blossom 
 of the rose ; for thou wast young, and more ignorant than 
 I ; but now Death hath made thee the wiser of the twain. 
 All that the wisest man on earth knows is foolishness 
 compared with what thou knowest ; thou, in thy inno- 
 cence, in thy helplessness, hast wrestled with the con- 
 queror ; thy agony is over, thy race is run ; all that I 
 dread, yet wish to know, thou knowest ; the mysteries of 
 Heaven have been revealed to thy sense. My sister, I 
 bow to thee now ! 
 
 Oh sweet one, think sometimes, when thou art in Para- 
 dise, of me think of thy old friend and brother, and be 
 my ministering angel ! ' 
 
 Dr. Leemans, an attached friend of the family, had 
 gi\ en the child a rose-tree a little time back. 
 
 " I remember the delight that rose-tree gave her, when 
 she first possessed it. It had then but one flower in 
 bloom, and the rest were in buds. Alas ! the flower she 
 loved was withering, but fresh blossoms were unfolding 
 around it ! Kitty was dead ; but the rose was living 
 blooming, fresh, and green, and strong ! ! Some of the 
 flowers and leaves were subsequently scattered in her 
 coffin, where they looked very lovely. The rose-tree 
 itself I have taken out of its mould, and preserved, root 
 and all, in paper. 
 
 | 
 
 In the evening came the leaden coffin. I stood at the 
 door trembling, while the men deposited within it the 
 darling form of my sister. Terrible as it was to me, I 
 was determined that her Jonah " (the child's way of pro- 
 nouncing Johnnie), "whom she loved so dearly, should see 
 her gently handled, and stand by through every scene, 
 even to the last."
 
 58 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 On Monday, May 2, the funeral took place, and Katie 
 was interred in the Church of St. Stephen's, Wai- 
 brook. With the other members of the family he goes 
 into the vault, and sees her deposited there, and sketches 
 from memory in " the Journal of my sorrows " the posi- 
 tion of the coffins. Kitty, however, was not to lie there 
 for ever. The dear child will come before the reader 
 again. Thirty-one years after she was to share, with 
 several of the mediaeval saints, the honour of a " Trans- 
 lation." She was enshrined in the heart of her brother ; 
 and he longed to have her grave in the place of his 
 residence, that he might pay it constant visits, and there 
 indulge in all the tender recollections which the thought 
 of her never failed to summon up in his mind. 
 
 Most touching are some of these reminiscences, which 
 he has committed to paper on August 14 of the same 
 year, when he finds himself " oppressed with a profound 
 melancholy," and " does not know what to do to console 
 himself." We are told of the extraordinary affectionate- 
 ness of the child, of her sensitive delicacy, of her fear of 
 giving pain, of her anxiety to give pleasure even in mere 
 trifles ; of all her little winning ways and frolicsome talk 
 with him, when he used to come in from the Counting- 
 house (" I used to praise her for the excellence of her 
 tone, and say in the tone of La ci darem la mano, ' I 
 know who's a fine girl ; her name is Kit^ ' ; to which 
 her reply always was, with a slight variation, ' I know 
 who's a fine boy; his name is Jo<?r'"), and how "she 
 used regularly every morning to trot into Mamma's 
 room at seven o'clock to wake her. I believe the 
 missing of that little creature's moving round the foot 
 of the bed every morning has occasioned more grief to 
 father and mother than the sight of her ever occasioned 
 
 joy."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 59 
 
 He says in the course of these reminiscences ; "I 
 shed tears while I write of such things." It is a little 
 hard sometimes to keep the eyes dry while reading of 
 them. 
 
 But we must return from this long digression to his 
 ' Life and Times of Grex/iain.' The work at the British 
 Museum having opened out new sources of information, 
 and brought to light a vast accumulation of materials, 
 which he was not at all prepared for, when he first ad- 
 dressed himself to his task, " the Essay, instead of forming 
 a slight pamphlet, as was anticipated, soon assumed the 
 size of a small volume." It won the prize, however, and 
 the condition imposed by the Lord Mayor as to the limits 
 which the public recitation was not to exceed, having 
 been complied with by selecting " such portions of it as 
 seemed best adapted for the purpose," these " were pub- 
 licly read at the Mansion House, May T4th, i 836, the office 
 of reader having been undertaken with singular kindness 
 by the Rev, George Cecil Renouard, B.D." (whom we 
 have already seen revising and amending it) " Rector of 
 Swanscombe, Kent ; of the value of whose long-standing 
 friendship" (it was "a friendship a baptisterio" as 
 Burgon called it, dating from the Baptismal Font) 
 " the writer is deeply sensible, and whose good offices on 
 this, and many other occasions, he gladly avails himself 
 of the present opportunity to acknowledge 3 ." 
 
 It appears that, notwithstanding his week's researches 
 in the British Museum, Burgon found that there was still 
 much to be discovered respecting Sir Thomas Gresham 
 in other quarters, and that his Essay, notwithstanding 
 his enlargement of it in bulk, beyond anything he had 
 
 3 Preface to Burgon's 'Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham,' 
 pp. viii, ix.
 
 60 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 originally contemplated, would still want the fulness 
 which might have been given to it, had the writer had 
 access to other sources. For on May 30, 1836. we find 
 him at Oxford 4 , bent upon prosecuting his subject still 
 further in the Bodleian Library. Here his reception by 
 Dr. Bandinel, then Librarian of the Bodleian, to whom 
 he presented two letters of introduction, seems to have 
 disappointed him ; and from the first day of his study 
 in the great Library he reaped little or nothing. But 
 having "heard a young fellow say something about 
 nightingales in Bagley Wood," he consoles himself very 
 characteristically by finding his way thither to hear 
 them, seeing en route a boat-race (" pretty sight, so full 
 of youth and lustihood"). The nightingales were not 
 as disappointing as Dr. Bandinel ; for two of them sang 
 to him " wonderfully loud and sweetly " (" moon up, and 
 some stars thought of dear Kit ' the little sister, whom 
 he had lost in the preceding month). Next day (Tuesday, 
 May 31), after a breakfast with Mr. Brancker at Wadham, 
 Dr. Bliss the Registrar of the University, "a small, white- 
 haired man, with an acute benevolent face/' joined the 
 nightingales in soothing his ruffled spirit and making up 
 for Dr. Bandinel ; " he received me with much kindness 
 entered into my views, and appointed me to-morrow 
 to come to him again: meantime he accompanied me 
 to the Bodleian: and put Catalogue of MSS. into my 
 hands read all day in the Bodleian." He prosecutes 
 his researches for information about Gresham in "the 
 Ashmole Library," and, under the auspices of his kind 
 
 4 The sister University he appears other objects of interest, makes a 
 
 by his Journal to have visited in few sketches, and spends a day at 
 
 1833 (the year, as already noted, of the Pepysian Library. He returned 
 
 his earliest publication) on Sept. 23. to London, October 3, after an 
 
 He records little of this visit. He absence often days, 
 sees the Fitzwilliam Museum and
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 61 
 
 friend Dr. Bliss, in the Library of St. John's College. 
 On the following day (Wednesday, June i) after he 
 had dined at the Angel, where he had put up, follows 
 the account (too characteristic to be omitted) of his 
 making his way to Forest Hill, "where Milton's wife 
 lived, and where Milton must have passed some of his 
 time." 
 
 " I unfortunately took the road to Shotorer Hill, which 
 threw me some miles out of my way. I scampered 
 across the country, and approached Forest Hill as the 
 night was coming on. or rather the twilight. The neigh- 
 bourhood seemed picturesque and Allegro-like ; and 
 something, I know not what, told me, when I reached 
 the summit of a slight ascent, that I was standing on 
 holy ground. I walked round a little church, and thro' 
 a farmyard and stood before a cottage. I saw a young 
 woman standing at the door. ' Pray, did not Milton live 
 here once, or somewhere hereabouts 1 ' ' Milton O O ! 
 that's a smart way from here.' ' I don't mean the place 
 called Milton; I mean a man who once lived here, and 
 bore that name,' &c., &c., &c. ' Well, but what was he ? 
 Was he a farmer or a tradesman, or any thin' o' that 1 ' 
 ' Oh ! farmer ! ' thought I. I explained to the damsel 
 as well as I could that the author of Paradise Lost was 
 what men call a Poet, &c. It ended by the farmer 
 coming out to our assistance. Milton's house has been 
 pulled down forty years. Some old men in the neigh- 
 bourhood, the farmer told me, could remember the place. 
 It must, I should think, have been nearly contiguous 
 with the house tenanted by my cicerone. On the site 
 grow some apple trees. The steps (two or three) of 
 Milton's house remain ; so does the garden-wall, and the 
 gateway that led up to the door, though the gateway has 
 been blocked up. There is a smaller gate hard by, which 
 has been left open. On a neighbouring barn there is a 
 barbarous Adam and Eve and the tree, &c., done in stucco 
 lias-ivlicf surprised me not a little. It is a touching 
 thought that all that neighbourhood was familiar to 
 Milton !
 
 62 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 "I leaned over the low garden-wall in the twilight, 
 watching the evening star, and felt perhaps as much 
 rapture as under the most favourable circumstances I 
 could have hoped to derive from a visit to the place . . . 
 I got back to Oxford at 1 1 o'clock very tired took tea 
 wrote Tom and Emily " (his only brother, three years 
 younger than himself, and his second sister, six years 
 younger), "and went to roost." 
 
 The next day he breakfasts and dines with Mr. Rogers 
 (afterwards Sir Frederick, and eventually Lord Blachford) 
 who shows him great kindness and asks him to meet at 
 dinner three men who were to become celebrities, Arch- 
 deacon Harrison, Dean Liddell, and Professor Mozley. 
 
 But neither these hospitalities, nor Dr. Bliss, nor the 
 evening star stealing out to shed its placid ray on 
 Milton's garden-wall, nor all these together, had quite 
 reconciled him to the reception he had met with at the 
 Bodleian and other libraries. For after recording a break- 
 fast with Dr. Buckland next day, and copying the inscrip- 
 tion on Dr. Burton's tomb in Christ Church Cathedral 
 (" very uncomfortably ; for Buckland would keep standing 
 all the time"), he explodes in his Journal more suo, and the 
 passage is worth quoting, because it contrasts so curiously 
 with his sentiments respecting Oxford in later days, when 
 he himself had become part and parcel of it, and shows 
 how personal connexion with an institution wholly alters 
 the point of view, from which it was regarded and criti- 
 cized ab extra. 
 
 " Oxford is certainly a most infernally ill-governed 
 place. There being no acknowledged principal, and the 
 scholastic habits of the people making them naturally 
 indolent and lazy " (the difference between the adminis- 
 tration of Oxford and that of the British Museum is 
 working in his mind), " the supreme command by in- 
 direct circumstances generally devolves (for it must
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 63 
 
 devolve somewhere) into the hands of" some one (it is 
 better to omit his too strong language) " who enacts 
 rigorous laws, or sanctions old abuses, till the whole 
 place becomes like one vast cobweb ; so that, fly which 
 way you will out of the direct line, you get entangled. 
 In fact, the place seems designed for one sole purpose, 
 viz. the accommodation of overgrown schoolboys. For 
 this I confess the arrangements are admirable ; there 
 are good masters, good lodgings, and there is quiet. But 
 surely this is not a legitimate and sufficient use for 
 Oxford the ancient the sacred the learned the 
 venerable the storehouse of wit, and the repository of 
 literary research ? The stranger (for whom such treasures 
 are surely in part accumulated!) is baulked at every 
 step. Does he want to see a library ? He has to 
 rummage out a nameless librarian, who knows nothing 
 of what is placed under his charge, nor desires to know 
 an old boy, who has crammed enough Greek, Latin, 
 and Logic, to enable him without shame to pass an ex- 
 amination, and who now eats, and drinks, and does nothing 
 on the strength of having sweated in his youth." 
 
 It is probable that this disappointment at Oxford may 
 have contributed towards, if it was not the sole cause of, 
 the temporary abandonment of the design of publishing the 
 Gresham Essay. At all events, in the Preface to the work 
 [p. ix] he indicates that it had been laid aside for a time. 
 The next year indeed we find him again in Oxford; but A.D. 1837. 
 with no design apparently of prosecuting his researches 
 into Gresham's Life and Times. He went there for a 
 three days' holiday with his elder sister, and saw and 
 _^did a great deal in that short space of time. To his 
 great disappointment, he found the Bodleian closed, 
 "this being the season of its visitation," but is com- 
 pensated by becoming acquainted with Mr. Newman 
 " who makes such a noise just now in Oxford," and hear- 
 ing him read Prayers "in the Lady Chapel of St. Mary's, 
 and deliver a short discourse." "He seemed austere
 
 64 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 and sickly ; there was something peculiar about his 
 manner ; for instance, he read in rather a peculiar style, 
 and observed sundry slight unusual forms, such as read- 
 ing from the first step of the altar, and dropping on his 
 knees on the next step, when he had occasion to kneel." 
 Afterwards, at the rooms of Mr. Browell, of Pembroke 
 College (who showed the strangers every kind of hospi- 
 tality, and acted as cicerone to them), "I had the ad- 
 vantage of five minutes' talk with Mr. Newman, who 
 looked in for not much more than ten minutes. Browell 
 had invited him to dine with us, but he was engaged 
 elsewhere. I was much pleased with his early retreat, 
 a custom of self-denial practised by him on all occasions, 
 as a young clergyman told me. Mr. Newman, after he 
 has retired to his apartments, occupies himself until a 
 very late hour." Not only Mr. Browell, but other 
 Academical celebrities Mr. Palmer of Magdalen College 
 (who " talked of nothing but Ecclesiastical History for 
 two hours, so that, listening to him, I scarcely could 
 attend to the beauty of the walks, pictures, architecture, 
 or any thing else "), Mr. Henry Burrows of St. John's, 
 Dr. Buckland of Christ Church, and Mr. Clough of Jesus, 
 showed the brother and sister much kindness and 
 attention, the latter " giving us a splendid dinner ! I will 
 only record the entree of a Welsh rabbit, eaten on toasted 
 bread, sopped in a mess of ale, negus, sherry, &c. I did 
 not like it ; but it was genuine Welsh. The liquor did 
 duty as a grace-cup after the cheese was ended." 
 But pleasant as the visit was, there was one great dis- 
 appointment in it, from his having made a previous 
 engagement for one of the nights when " Dr. Pusey 
 invited me to attend a theological meeting at his house, 
 and hear Mr. Newman." After recording which he 
 writes in his Journal : " And thus, I take it, ends this
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 65 
 
 visit to Oxford dear, delightful, theological, polemical, 
 well-fed Oxford. Esfo perpefua!" (He has quite re- 
 covered from the disgust occasioned at his visit of last 
 year by his reception at the Bodleian.) 
 
 Before we pass away from the year 1837, it may be 
 mentioned that he gained a medal in that year for a song 
 at the Melodists' Club, which was presented to him at 
 a dinner given by the Club at the Freemasons' Tavern 
 (Aug. 13). More than two years afterwards, he seems 
 to have received ^15 15*. from the publication and 
 sale of this song, which, he says, was " the first money 
 I ever earned in Literature." The verses, while they 
 cannot be characterized as more than pretty, show the 
 versatility of his powers, and the variety of his pursuits. 
 They breathe his usual sensibility, and are probably an 
 echo of his sorrows of the preceding year, when little 
 Kitty had been removed from the family circle. 
 
 Here are some of them: 
 
 " The friends, whom in Life's early morning we cherish, 
 
 Are fled ere the noon of existence is o'er ; 
 And when night gathers darkest around us, we perish 
 "\\ ith few hearts to love us, and none to deplore. 
 
 " Ah ! who when he sees by some rare chance united 
 
 Around him the faces and forms he loves best, 
 Each with hopes undeceived, young affections un- 
 
 blighted. 
 And joy the sole inmate of every pure breast 
 
 "> Ah ! who has not wished that just then a deep slumber 
 
 On him and his cherished companions might fall, 
 
 That the summons, which else would steal one from 
 
 their number, 
 Miirlit come like an Angel of peace to them all! " 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1838 occurred the burning A.D. 1838. 
 of the Royal Exchange, which was the occasion of re- ' L 2 * 
 VOL. i. F
 
 66 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 viving his project of publishing on the subject of 
 Gresham's Life and Times, as he tells us in his Preface. 
 
 " Two years had elapsed, when the destruction of the 
 Royal Exchange by fire in the beginning of 1838 seems 
 to have suggested the idea that a more auspicious 
 moment had arrived for the appearance of the life of its 
 founder ; and inquiries were made for the neglected MS." 
 (He had " laid it aside," under the impression that, with 
 the large mass of materials at command, justice could 
 not be done to the subject in a small compass.) " But 
 before it left his hands the writer determined to apply 
 for permission to inspect the correspondence of Sir 
 Thomas Gresham, which he was told existed in the 
 State Paper Office ; and the necessary facilities having 
 been very obligingly granted him by Lord John Rus- 
 sell ... to the State Paper Office he repaired. Great 
 indeed was his surprise and satisfaction at discovering 
 such a mass of historic evidence as was then first dis- 
 closed to him. Hundreds of letters now appeared in 
 place of the scanty documents which he had hitherto 
 known of; and these volumes are the result." 
 
 The Gresham family being of Norfolk extraction, and 
 deriving its name from a small village in Norfolk, the 
 free school of Holt in Norfolk having been the manor- 
 house of James Gresham, Sir Thomas's great-grandfather, 
 and Intwood Hall, about three miles from Norwich, 
 having been his country seat, inherited from his father, 
 it was obvious for young Burgon to apply to his father's 
 friend, Mr. Dawson Turner, of Great Yarmouth, for 
 assistance in his ' Life of Gresham,' not only as the pos- 
 sessor of a " valuable MS. library," but also as thoroughly 
 versed in the antiquities of the eastern counties. This 
 assistance he acknowledges in his Preface, pp. xv, xvi. 
 
 Accordingly ' Gres/tam ' was resumed, and, as was 
 Burgon's wont, "whatsoever his hand found to do, he 
 did it with his might." On the day of the Queen's
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 67 
 
 Coronation (Thursday, May 28, 1838) the brief entry in 
 his Journal is as follows : " Coronation Toin and 
 Helen " (his younger brother and youngest surviving 
 sister) " went to see it I did ' Gresham ' all day." 
 On Saturday, July 27 : " Said the last word to the 
 last sheet of T. G. !!!!"; and, finally, Aug. 26 (when 
 he is in the midst of a Scotch tour with his friend 
 Patrick Fraser Tytler) : " ' Gresham' came out." 
 
 But his visit to Norfolk in 1838 ought not to be 
 passed over without some detailed notice of it, because 
 this seems to have been the commencement of an inti- 
 macy, which he prized very highly, with the amiable 
 and estimable family of the late Mr. Dawson Turner. 
 The ostensible object of the visit was that he might 
 see with his own eyes Holt and Intwood, and make en- 
 quiries on the spot as to any particulars of the Gresham 
 family, which might have been handed down by tradi- 
 tion, and still linger among the peasantry. He accom- 
 plished this before he left the county ; but it is clear 
 from his Journal that his acquaintance with the Turner 
 family rather diverted him for a time from his avowed 
 object, by setting up another strong current of interest 
 in his mind, and exercising upon him an influence not 
 merely intellectual, but sentimental. Mr. Dawson Turner 
 himself was just such a character as would naturally 
 attract Burgon. He was highly cultivated, and was 
 strong in several subjects, particularly in antiquities. 
 Papers from his pen appear in the Transactions of 
 various scientific Societies ; several of the most inter- 
 esting monographs to be found in the Proceedings of 
 the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society were 
 contributed by him ; and it was he who wrote the letter- 
 press for Cotman's splendid engravings of ' The Antiqui- 
 ties of Normandy' He possessed valuable pictures and 
 
 P 2
 
 68 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 antiques, and, being a great botanist, had got together a 
 hortu* ticcus, which was one of the completest collections 
 of that kind in the country. But Burgon himself shall 
 give whathecalls "apen andinksketch" of him. Thus 
 he writes in his Journal of Monday, 16 April, 1838 : 
 
 " D. T. is an extraordinary man ; he combines the 
 banker with the man of letters. He is a classic and 
 a botanist, a picture-fancier, an autograph collector, and 
 general lover of rirfii,& pleasant companion, a kind host, 
 a zealous abettor in literary enquiries" (witness his 
 hospitality to young Burgon, when bent on prosecuting 
 his researches into Gresham's life), " the very tenderest 
 of husbands, and the very kindest of fathers. But the 
 business habit usque recurrit ; he tells you how much 
 this and that cost ; what he has been offered, and what 
 he has refused ; what he would and what he would not 
 give for other men's, and take for some of his own trea- 
 sures ... He reminds me of Scott" (Sir Walter), 
 " is so fond of dogs." 
 
 En route to Great Yarmouth, and again in returning 
 to London, Burgon stops at Norwich, lionises the Ca- 
 thedral, where "Dean Pellew is making immense im- 
 provements, or rather restorations. ; the roof, or rather 
 ceiling, a noble coup d'ceutt few tombs," " attends the 
 Cathedral service Apr. 15 " (it was Easter Day), where 
 " a lad sang the Anthem, But tAou didst not leave His soul 
 in hel^ like an angel, small voice, but so sweet it was 
 splendid, but there was not enough chaunting, and he 
 who has been to Oxford and Cambridge misses the 
 Amen*, which were done in prose," (Take notice, all 
 manner of people whom it may concern, that such is the 
 case in Norwich Cathedral no longer) ; sees the pictures 
 in St. Andrew's Hall, and the Guild Hall, and at the 
 latter place " the sword Nelson took from the Spaniard 
 at the battle of St. Vincent." On Easter-Monday he
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 69 
 
 gets to the Star at Yarmouth by 9 A. M. " A few doors 
 distant is the Bank, and over the Bank lives Dawson 
 Turner in a wonderfully contrived house, where there 
 is every luxury, every convenience, and no more idea 
 above stairs of what is passing below than there is in 
 the blue empyrean of what takes place in this nether 
 sphere. I found Mr. Turner admiring a newly acquired 
 Titian, for which he has paid ^ J i8o." He meets at 
 Mr. Turner's house Bernard Barton the Quaker Poet 5 , 
 and a propos of some Cowperian relics, which a very old 
 woman had recently been showing to Barton, and also 
 of Cowper's autograph translation of the ' Iliad ',' which 
 his host possessed and exhibited to his two literary 
 guests, he has a long talk about Cowper, and about 
 poets and poetry in general ; " we discussed the Lakers 
 and the Saltwater worthies ; Barton likes both Words- 
 worth and Pope, and is therefore all right but Lamb 
 seemed his favourite food he wrote his name in my 
 Album seemed a cheerful, grave, and (in a word) good 
 kind of little fellow." He is in the element in which he 
 luxuriates : " I cannot pretend to describe Mr. Turner's 
 Library such an immense collection of Books, illus- 
 trated, and in a thousand ways rendered valuable 
 MSS. drawings. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c." As to the hospi- 
 tality of his reception in this wonderful house, most 
 congenial to him as being the repository of so much 
 Literature, Art, and Antiquity, he writes " I am domi- 
 
 5 Bernard Barton (b. 1 784, d. himself to literature ; but Charles 
 
 1849), a member of the Society of Lamb dissuaded him from doing so in 
 
 Friends, was employed in a bank at strong and incisive terms ; " Throw 
 
 Woodbridge in Suffolk. His ' Me- yourself rather, my dear Sir, from 
 
 trical Effusions' published in 1812, the steep Tarpeian rock slap-dash 
 
 and a second volume of poems in headlong on iron spikes." He 
 
 1820 having been favourably re- received a pension of 100 a year, 
 
 ceived, he seems to have thought of in recognition of his poetical labours, 
 abandoning the bank, and devoting
 
 7 o LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 ciled in a bedroom fit for the great Cham of Tartary." 
 It is clear, however, from the Journal that (as already 
 hinted) the chief attraction of those four days at Yar- 
 mouth (April 1 6, 17, 18, 19 of the year 1838) was 
 a sentimental one. Such topics are sacred and must be 
 passed over in silence. But every one who knows how 
 passionately susceptible to affection of all kinds his 
 nature was, can imagine what would be the nature of 
 his self-communings under such circumstances. Suffice 
 it to say that colder and older men than John William 
 Burgon (he was then only twenty-five) have found the days 
 when love first lays hold of their whole being, and they 
 are made to feel the force of Coleridge's description of it, 
 "All thoughts, all passions, all delights, 
 
 Whatever stirs this mortal frame, 
 
 All are but ministers of Love, 
 
 And feed his sacred flame," 
 
 to be the golden days of this plodding, care-beset 
 earthly life, days of continuous delight, if only the 
 hope of ultimate union with the object upon which the 
 affections are set, however remote, is not entirely pre- 
 cluded. To him, than whom nobody ever knew better 
 how to put an heroic restraint upon himself in the 
 interests of the persons he loved, it seemed that, depen- 
 dent as some of the members of his family were upon 
 him, to have offered marriage to any one would have 
 been wrong, as gratifying his own inclinations at the ex- 
 pense of those who had a prior claim upon him. Those 
 who knew him but superficially would not have believed 
 it, he was at all times so gay and light-hearted ; but he 
 was ever austere to himself, and almost an ascetic in his 
 personal habits. Hence the strong attraction to the other 
 sex, which in the majority of men seeks and finds its grati- 
 fication in marriage, and soon sobers down in a single
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 71 
 
 tranquil channel, in him fastened more or less to the end 
 of his life on every agreeable woman whom he came across, 
 and assumed occasionally, though always in transparent 
 guilelessness and simplicity, an almost amatory expression. 
 
 In order that the continuity of our narrative may 
 not be broken, portions of his correspondence with 
 Mr. Turner will be given at the end of this Chapter, 
 from which it will appear that at that critical period 
 of his life when his father's mercantile failure left 
 Burgon free to indulge what had always been the 
 fondest wish of his heart, and to prepare himself for 
 Holy Orders in the regular way by going through 
 the curriculum of Oxford, and taking his degree, 
 Mr. Turner, who was generous and munificent in pro- 
 portion to his means, which at that time were ample, 
 if not excessively large, offered the assistance of his 
 purse towards the expenses of his academical career, 
 which, after some delicate and honourable demur on the 
 part of Burgon, was gratefully accepted. Mr. Turner 
 probably thought (and who will not be found to agree 
 with him '?) that a little help given at the outset of 
 his career to one who bade fair to become (as he did 
 eventually become) a great Doctor of the Church, and 
 a power in the religious life of the country, could not by 
 possibility be so well bestowed elsewhere, or bring in a 
 more really remunerative and satisfactory return. 
 
 Minor incidents of this or the ensuing year, which 
 need only be cursorily adverted to, are his contributions 
 to the ' Neic General Biographical Dictionary ',' which his 
 brother-in-law (Rev. Henry John Rose 6 ) was at that 
 time editing, of the Articles on Bertrand Andrieu 
 [1761-1822], the celebrated French engraver of medals; 
 
 6 Mr. Rose was married to his eldest sister, Sarah Caroline, on May 24, 
 of this year (1838).
 
 72 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 on Dr. Thomas Archer [1553-1630], a Fellow of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, who was in his day Hector of 
 Houghton Conquest, and a great benefactor to that 
 Parish; and on Dr. William Aubrey [1529-1 595]' a 
 civilian, who was appointed one of the delegates for the 
 trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, and whose efforts on the 
 Queen's behalf in that capacity were afterwards grate- 
 fully remembered by James I. This Dictionary, which 
 still maintains its reputation as an excellent book of 
 reference, was projected and partly arranged by the 
 Reverend Hugh James Rose ; and the earlier portion of 
 it was edited by the Rev. Henry John Rose, his brother, 
 who, however, finding the editorship too onerous for 
 him, as living out of London, and as having upon his 
 hands also the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitan*!,' was obliged 
 to resign it. Burgon described his delight at the relief 
 experienced by his brother-in-law in a letter to Mr. 
 Dawson Turner, dated April 2, 1840. 
 
 . 1839. The year 1839 was marked by a visit to Chequers in 
 Buckinghamshire, where the Bishop of Rochester, who 
 had confirmed him, was then residing [See for an ac- 
 count of this beautiful place ' The Life and Times of 
 Gregham,' vol. ii. p. 392, et sequent^ and where, after 
 his usual whimsical fashion, " I put on Cromwell's 
 clothes 7 ," and also by the Highland tour in company 
 
 7 Chequers had once belonged to name of Russell, had married Bishop 
 
 Richard Cromwell, who succeeded Murray's sister; and hence the 
 
 his father as Lord Protector. Its Bishop was much at Chequers. He 
 
 connexion with Gresham was that had probably heard that J. W. B., as 
 
 Lady Mary Grey, who was after- engaged in writing about the times 
 
 wards given in charge to him, had of Gresham, would be glad of an 
 
 previously been in the custody of opportunity of inspecting the place 
 
 Mr. William Hawtrey the then pro- of Lady Mary Grey's captivity, and 
 
 prietor of Chequers. Sir Robert goodnaturedly asked him to accom- 
 
 Frankland, the owner of the place pany him thither, an invitation 
 
 in 1839, who afterwards took the which was thankfully accepted.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 73 
 
 with his friend Tytler, in the course of which he was 
 apprised of the appearance of the work, on which he had 
 bestowed so much time and pains, ' The Life and Times 
 of Sir Thomas Gretham* On Saturday the loth of August 
 he leaves the Tower stairs with Tytler in " the Duke of 
 Wellington steamer," bound for Aberdeen, "passed 
 Yarmouth at about 2.30 A.M. on Sunday the nth," 
 (which probably set his pulses fluttering), and encoun- 
 ters a ground 
 
 " By a singular kind of sympathy " (Burgon was 
 full of sympathy, and was always both detecting and 
 exhibiting it : but was it so very ' : singular" under the 
 circumstances ?) " Tytler and I both lay in bed all day 
 without ever thinking of moving. It was very unlike a 
 Sunday but what was to be done 1 It was impossible 
 to stand upright, and on deck there was nothing to be 
 seen, if one could have mustered up pluck to dress one- 
 self. The wind was contrary, the sea rough, and all the 
 way to Aberdeen both continued so many conjectures 
 as to when we were to get to our journey s end very 
 disgusting to a man lying retching in his berth, unable 
 to read and do any thing except doze, and wish his crib 
 were two inches longer ' (those who were familiar with 
 his personal appearance will quite understand and 
 appreciate the wish). 
 
 ..." Tuesday, 13. I was awoke at 3 in the morning 
 by a cackling in the cabin. We were within sight of the 
 Aberdeen light. I dressed immediately and got on deck 
 it was very refreshing ' to scent the morning air ' 
 after so much confinement and closeness. It was of 
 course a greyish coldish morning sea quiet, but wind as 
 little contrary, and we went pitching forward slowly, as 
 if we were walking to Aberdeen. The shore looked thus " 
 (a slight pencil sketch) " low, grey, cliffy shore about a 
 mile or so off when we came nearer the light, which 
 was a double light, it looked thus" (another pencil 
 sketch) " ugly enough. ... A few boats shot by, and 
 others were sallying forth, and upon the hills a few
 
 74 LIFE OF DEAN BURQON. 
 
 houses were visible the story was told completely a 
 Scotch fishing village on a barren coast . . . such specu- 
 lations amused me till we rounded the corner, and saw 
 (for it was now 5 o'clock nearly) the town of Aberdeen 
 looked pretty and quiet every thing was delightful 
 in fact, and any thing would have seemed lovely after 
 the steam-boat." 
 
 So begins the Journal, with the aid of which was com- 
 piled the sprightly and beautiful account of his Highland 
 tour, which he himself gives in his 'Memoir of Patrick 
 Frasser Tytler' [pp. 269-289, 2nd ed. London: 1859], 
 to which account the reader is here referred. The 
 special Journal book of the tour is illustrated through- 
 out by rapid but expressive pencil sketches of the 
 objects he describes, (Marischal College and the Cathe- 
 dral of Aberdeen; Coxton Tower, "a mere sentry-box 
 of a house," yet the residence of knights " of the Innes 
 family " ; the " very extraordinary lime-tree " in the 
 garden of Gordon Castle ; the Castle itself ; the bridge 
 in Mr. Steuart's grounds at Auchlunkart ; the summit of 
 Ben Muick Dhui ; Ben Nevis as he first saw it ; the glen 
 of Rothiemurchus ; Patrick Fraser Tytler's portrait, and 
 that of his brother ; a dog on board the steamer off Skye ; 
 a barefooted girl in a shop at Keith, &c., &c.), and 
 it adds several particulars to those which have already 
 been given to the world in the Memoir of Tytler. Thus 
 the Memoir introduces us to the " two gentlemen 
 named Stewart, residing in the romantic Isle of Ai- 
 gais," and styled "The Princes," as being "supposed 
 descendants of Prince Charles Edward." In the Jour- 
 nal is an account of these gentlemen's dining at 
 Moniack (James Baillie Fraser's place), a day or two 
 after the Fraser family had taken Burgon to visit 
 "the Princes."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 75 
 
 " P. F. T. came in and told me that the Princes were 
 arrived. Went in to seal my letter and found them, one 
 on either side of old Mrs. Fraser. Strange fellows very 
 courteous but so odd. 
 
 " Dressed and so to dinner sate between Sir John 
 MacNeill and Mrs. Wedderburn. Next her was Jan (the 
 unmarried ' Prince '), and opposite me Charles. Jan is 
 like Charles I extremely wears a wig, and has much 
 fallen off, they say, of late years Charles is the hand- 
 somer man, but I (loot, as the Scotch say, how either would 
 look in a plain suit of black. Take their pedigree" 
 (meaning, their alleged pedigree : Charles Edward, who 
 in 1 766 took the title of Count d' Albany, and laid aside 
 that of Prince of Wales, had no children, and his title to 
 the English Crown passed at his death in 1788 to his 
 brother, Cardinal Henry Stuart, who died in 1 807, the 
 last heir male of the line of Stuart) : 
 
 " The Prince =p Duchess of Albany 
 
 Jan Beresford-Charles 
 (a?/, circa 55) (cet. circa 48) 
 
 1 
 a son 
 (art. 14) 
 
 a girl 
 (vet. 16) 
 
 1 
 a girl 
 qu*. 12? 
 
 1 
 
 a <firl 
 qu*. 9 ? 
 
 " After dinner I got them to talk of the second sight. 
 Sir John McN. was amusing. He told us a curious 
 story of a servant of his family having to swim across 
 a loch near the estate, a very expert swimmer ; but the 
 current was strong, and he was drowned. The youth's 
 death was announced before it was known that he had 
 perished (as it is Jirmly believed and stated) by a girl he 
 loved. But, be this as it may, nothing can be more cer- 
 tain than that she described the part of the lake where 
 his body would be found, which was not attended to on 
 account of its improbability ; viz. it was five miles from 
 the point he must have started, and on the same side 
 of the loch. The men who had searched for the body 
 (for the Highlanders always consider it to be a matter of
 
 76 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 great importance to recover a corpse under such circum- 
 stances) in despair did look at last in the place indicated, 
 and there sure enough they found the object of their 
 search. I never heard a more extraordinary and authen- 
 ticated story of second sight. The party explained to me 
 the nature of the faculty; it is not voluntary, but is 
 forced upon a person, and he can no more resist the 
 impression so conveyed than voluntarily receive it. 
 
 Fraser repeated his two admirable stories of the second 
 sight, particularly the one which Corrie's father (in 1810) 
 told him as having occurred to himself, viz. : Corrie 
 praised to his steward (one Donald) a girl reaping. 
 ' Ah ! she may reap well now, but it is the last time 
 she'll ever reap.' The old man was pressed. He said 
 that he saw the winding-sheet up to her neck, and that 
 she would not live a week. Corrie asked for a token. 
 Donald told him who her four bearers would be. She 
 died in less than a week. Corrie offered to be a coffin 
 bearer. The honour was great, and the proposal of 
 course acceded to. At the instant the procession should 
 have started, C. saw a favourite terrier of his getting into 
 a quarrel with a large strange dog : he stepped forward 
 to part them, and the man, to whom the 4th corner of 
 the coffin was foretold, actually filled Corrie's place." 
 
 But tire brightest of seasons must come to an end, and 
 the best of friends must part. Here is the account of 
 his parting from Tytler at Moniack, characteristically 
 effusive, and exhibiting the deep affectionateness of both 
 men : 
 
 " Breakfasted, and then the carriage was ordered for 
 me. I packed in my room, and then had five minutes' 
 parting chat with P. F. T. . . . We have been wonderfully 
 drawn together all along by a strange and strong sym- 
 pathy, which I cannot quite explain " (the grounds of this 
 sympathy have been pointed out in an earlier part of 
 the Chapter) ; " but I love him, and he loves me that is the 
 plain history of the case. We had a most affectionate
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 77 
 
 parting thanks on my side, put away on his, and 
 acknowledgments of condescension which he would not 
 allow. He told me that I was almost the only friend he 
 had in London reminded me that in the course of nature 
 I must survive him, and bade me with tears befriend his 
 children. Then he /v'.vW me on both cheeks once more 
 shook me by the hand we both agreed to be cheerful, 
 and not recur to these painful themes, and so, half in 
 tears, and half in smiles, we parted." 
 
 Then comes a description of the parting from the 
 rest of the Moniack family and their guests : 
 
 " I like them all. and from the very first liked them 
 loving Mrs. W. liking Lady M. and admiring and 
 feeling myself strongly drawn towards Sir John but 
 I was nervous spoke ill and I am not sure that one 
 of them understood me." (Who has not felt the same, 
 when overwhelmed with kindness and hospitality by 
 strangers, and having on a sudden to make some acknow- 
 ledgment ?) " Two or three days more might have turned 
 the scale." 
 
 He leaves Moniack for Inverness " in a pelting rain," 
 and having deposited his luggage at the Royal Hotel, 
 immediately takes a chaise to Antfield (William Fraser 
 Tytler's cottage), where he had been hospitably enter- 
 tained in the previous month. "Reached Antfield at 
 | to 2 Dear little cottage ! I know not how or why ; 
 but it seemed to me as if I had left my heart there, and 
 was going to find it. All were glad to see me ; but I 
 think 's quiet eyes said most, and 's soft, beau- 
 tiful ones." (The fact is he had more or less lost his 
 heart at Antfield, as he was always losing it everywhere, 
 even to the end of his life ; he could not resist the attrac- 
 tion of agreeable women.) " The drawings I brought, 
 I allude to my two copies of the portrait of their departed 
 sister threw a gloom over the day, which the weather
 
 78 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 added to ; and the holy hours it would have been im- 
 proper to profane by reading," (it was Sunday ; his 
 meaning is that, had it been a week-day, he would have 
 felt at liberty to interest and amuse himself with the 
 silent companions contained in the library of Antfield 
 Cottage ; he was always very conscientious as to Sunday 
 pursuits, and somewhat of a Sabbatarian). At 2 in the 
 morning of Monday (Sept. 16) he leaves Inverness by 
 the mail for Edinburgh, and recognises in his fellow 
 travellers a lady and gentleman whom he had already 
 fallen in with while he was staying at Moniack, and who 
 tell him about the country they pass through. A " gleam 
 of sunlight" breaks forth upon Craig Ellachie, as they 
 come near it, which " I shall never forget." " Near the 
 Aviemore Inn is Craig Ellachie. ' Stand fast, Craig 
 Ellachie!' is the war-cry of the Grants. How spirit- 
 stirring is the word, conjuring up that lovely scene, and 
 inspiring high resolve not to budge before the foe, but to 
 stand as feust as that everlasting rock! ! ! . . . Oh ! thoughts 
 like this rushed upon me at every step." They pass 
 Birnam Wood, Blair Athol, and Killiecrankie (the two last 
 " charmed me less than 50 things I had already seen "), 
 and had "a peep at Lochleven Castle" and reach 
 Edinburgh after crossing the Firth in an open boat. 
 In Edinburgh he is introduced to Thompson the Scotch 
 artist, some of whose pictures were then fetching from 
 j^2oo to ^300. 
 
 " Thompson we found full of his craft. ... I never saw 
 a greater enthusiast. He painted before me at Mr. 
 Wright's request, and gave me a brush. His system 
 of sketching in the fields is extraordinary splendid 
 effect, but produced so strangely ... he told me that he 
 began by pouring a bottle of boiling water over his 
 colour box to clean the colours! His brushes are of 
 bristle."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 79 
 
 During the days he spent at Edinburgh, he visited 
 most of the places indicated to him in the "paper of 
 instructions," which Tytler had given him, and dined 
 with Mr. Hog at Newliston: "At dessert I was par- 
 ticularly delighted with the crows which came to the 
 wood in millions, quite darkening the air I never saw a 
 more curious sight, or heard a more confused sound 
 detachment after detachment came wheeling in, till 
 night put an end to the gathering, or rather made 
 it invisible." 
 
 On Monday, Sept. 23, after an absence of just six weeks 
 and two days, he returned to London, evidently much 
 refreshed by the change of scene and all the genial 
 hospitality he had met with amongst the Scottish gentry. 
 The concluding paragraph of the Chapter in his Memoir 
 of Tytler, in which he records this tour, may be given 
 as exhibiting not only the poetry and sentiment which 
 were in him, but his ecclesiastical tendencies when he 
 was still a layman, and never expected to be anything 
 else. He is visiting Abbotsford, and has with him " a 
 truly intelligent fellow " who " had the border traditions 
 at his fingers' ends/' and who had acted as cicerone to 
 him : 
 
 " We both sat down at last on a hill-side, I to draw -. 
 Oliver, with two deer-hounds at his feet, to read me a 
 border-ballad. The name of the spot I have forgotten : 
 but the scene is printed deep into my memory. The 
 yellow moon, round as a shield, rose grandly above the 
 Cheviots ; and the glooming stole over the landscape 
 slowly, silently, beautifully. One by one the peaks of 
 grey and purple faded from my sight. I enquired the 
 name of some silvery hills in the far distance ; and 
 learned that they were ' in Northumberland! There was 
 magic in the word. I had been attending the kirk for 
 six weeks, and devoutly thirsted to hear the 'Te Deum'
 
 go LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 again. 'Among those hills,' I secretly said to myself, 
 ' it must be repeated every Sunday ! ' . . . John Oliver 
 could no longer see to read, nor I to draw. It was 
 growing quite late, when, with a swelling heart, I 
 wrote in the corner of my sketch-book, Good-night to 
 Scotland!" [Memoir of P. F. Tytler, p. 289.] 
 
 Nothing more need be recorded of the year 1839, 
 except that the Counting-House and its drudgery are 
 evidently becoming increasingly distasteful to him. 
 " Tuesday, Oct. 22. Passed a disgusting day, bothering 
 
 with 's matters brought up the ledger in the 
 
 evening, and went to bed quite sick." " Oct. 23. 
 Another disgusting day! How weary I am of this 
 mode of life ! " His longing for Oxford and the Ministry 
 is gaining a greater hold upon him. "Nov. i, 1839. 
 Had a long talk with my father to-night relative to the 
 Church." " Nov. 29. Before going to bed sent Tytler 
 my Review of his book " (the History of Scotland) " for 
 ' The Times 'City all day Talked to dear and " (two 
 of his sisters) " about my Oxon. wishes." 
 
 l8 4- On the first page of the Journal for 1840 stands this 
 Memorandum : 
 
 " It is impossible to enter upon a new year without 
 a pang of regret for the past, and a sentiment of un- 
 easiness and anxiety " (caused probably by symptoms of 
 his father's affairs being in an unsound state) " respect- 
 ing the future. God grant that the year which we have 
 this day commenced may be unmarked by calamity. 
 Rather will I hope that ere 1841 appears, some bright 
 star for which I have long been watching will rise 
 above the gloom which hangs over the horizon of the 
 future. J. W.B. Jan. i, 1840." 
 
 The " calamity," however, was staved off, and the year 
 1840 appears from the corresponding memorandum on 
 Jan. i, 1841, to have been a comfortable one: "The 
 past year has brought with it many blessings. May
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 
 
 the year on which we have this day entered leave at 
 least as sweet a fragrance behind it ! Laus Deo ! Jan. 
 i, 1841." 
 
 The most noticeable incident of his private history in 
 the year 1 840 is what he calls his " summer ramble " in 
 Yorkshire, taken in prosecution of his researches into the 
 pedigree of his family, which he describes in the follow- 
 ing lively letter to his friend Mr. Dawson Turner. He 
 had been six years previously at York 8 (in the September 
 of 1 8 34), as he tells Mr. Turner ; and it would seem as if 
 the chief cause which took him there on the earlier 
 occasion was the same as that which moved him on 
 
 8 From a most amusing letter 
 dated Sept. 1 8, 1834, written to 
 one of his sisters from New Malton 
 in Yorkshire, it would seem that 
 the Minster, which he praises so 
 highly to Mr. Turner, scarcely 
 attracted his regard at all on the 
 occasion of his first visit to York, 
 all he says about it being, " On 
 Sunday I went to the Minster as 
 a matter of course." The chief 
 feature of the letter is the account 
 of his trip from York to Scarborough, 
 where he gets into a difficulty by 
 strolling too far along the shore, 
 and is precluded by nightfall from 
 crawling back again the way he 
 had come, (" a slimy assortment of 
 rocks," slippery with ooze and sea- 
 weed), and obliged to climb the 
 clitl', which was " very high, very 
 steep, very crumbly, and very full 
 of crevices " ; where also he " buys 
 a bladder, and tries to swim, but no 
 go sunk " ; and where finally he 
 kills with a stone a wounded curlew, 
 which " went squeaking along the 
 shore" (" I put it out of its /</> cy : 
 VOL. I. 
 
 so don't begin the Lamentations of 
 Jeremiah over the 'poor thing ' "), 
 and afterwards laid it out, and 
 measured it. and drew it. The 
 following about his physique is 
 amusing : <4 You can't think how 
 much disagreeable notice I attract 
 from my immense altitude. At 
 Lincoln I heard the people saying, 
 'There he comes,' as often as I 
 clambered up or ambled down the 
 interminable hill on which their 
 Cathedral stands .... This very 
 evening I heard a farmer's wife call 
 her husband as I passed, and say 
 the moment I was gone, ' Gad, he's 
 a tall lad, an't un ? ' Is it not 
 monstrous? These runty little 
 thick-set Yorkshiremen seem to 
 consider me as a wild beast escaped 
 from some show, and I tremble lest 
 some zealous being or other should 
 take upon himself to 
 
 'put me in the parish 
 Stocks for a vagrant.'" 
 The letter concludes, " Your loving, 
 cramped, stiff and sleepy Brother, 
 JOHN W. BCBGOJJ." 
 
 G
 
 82 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 the latter one; for we find him on his former visit 
 spending one whole day, and two halves of days, "at 
 the Prerogative Office." He was wonderfully persistent 
 in all that he put his hand to. The letter, though in- 
 teresting throughout, is of such dimensions that space 
 forbids the presentation of it in its entirety to the reader. 
 And here it may be observed that for the most part 
 the letters of his early life are of unusual length, and folded 
 in a form which has become since the introduction of the 
 Penny Postage altogether obsolete. Almost always they 
 are written on the old-fashioned letter paper, the form of 
 which was quarto, and the first sheet is twice folded long 
 ways, before the final folding of the paper into the letter 
 form, and the writing of the address on the outside of 
 the second sheet. Not unfrequently, in the case of cor- 
 respondence with intimate friends, his letter occupies 
 two whole sheets and a half of this paper, and the 
 address is on the back of the half-sheet, which is made 
 to act as an envelope, the writer taking care, before he 
 begins the half-sheet, to mark ofi' a little space for the 
 seal or wafer, to be kept clear of writing. We shall 
 never see such letters again as these of a former genera- 
 tion. We shall never see letters as long, nor, it may be 
 added, letters as much worth reading. Rowland Hill's 
 penny postage has knocked letters, considered as a piece 
 of literature, on the head ; although it is true, no doubt, 
 that whenever there is a strong individuality in the letter 
 writer, it is sure to come out, even if he writes only 
 a dozen lines. The opening paragraph of the present 
 letter, as also his reflexions about Silkstone, have been 
 given at an earlier period of this Chapter, pp. i, 2, 3. 
 He was accompanied by his brother. 
 
 " Brunswick Square, December 2, 1 840. 
 " My dear Sir, . . . Without troubling you with the
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 83 
 
 reasons w//y, Lichfield was the first place we visited. I 
 cannot say we travelled there, for we went by steam 
 there are no coaches thither nor I believe anywhere 
 else except to Yarmouth so we may be said to have 
 ///.v/W from place to place, wherever we had occasion to 
 go except when we walked, and then we seemed to 
 crawl. With Lichtield we were of course delighted. It 
 is clean and quiet, and the little Ecclesiastical aristocracy 
 which encircles the Cathedral afforded us much entertain- 
 ment. Then there are the literary associations Johnson, 
 Miss Seward, Darwin, Day (who wrote Sandford and 
 Merton) and many, many more of lesser celebrity. We 
 had the good fortune, though we arrived there friendless, 
 in an odd kind of way, which there is no accounting 
 for, to experience a world of kindness from complete 
 strangers ; of which an example may suffice. We were 
 walking after Church in the fields, wondering where 
 Johnson's willow stood. A leisurely looking old buffer 
 with drab unmentionables happening to come by, I 
 asked him if he could show us the place. He seemed 
 quite pleased at being asked such a question, marched 
 us up to the spot immediately, informed us that he had 
 lived 150 no, 50 years in Lichfield and knew every- 
 thing and everybody. Here we bowed, and, as Robinson 
 Crusoe expresses it, ' made as though ' we did not want 
 to trouble him any further ; but he did not seem at all 
 inclined to go, and asked whether I admired Johnson. 
 In consequence of my reply, nothing would satisfy him, 
 but conducting us to Mrs. Porter's house, showing us the 
 walk where Johnson ran the race with a little Scotch 
 girl, then taking us to the Bishop's Palace, telling us 
 a world of curious matters about Lichfield ; in short 
 lionizing us. The oddest thing he mentioned was 
 that the house shown as Johnson's birth-place is 
 decidedly not the house where he was born and he 
 narrated so many circumstances in corroboration of this 
 statement, that I really almost believe him. . . . Another 
 gentleman (Dr. Harwood, the author and antiquary) 
 showed us all manner of Johnsonian relics beginning 
 with books and autograph letters in abundance, and 
 
 G 2
 
 84 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 ending with tea cups, a tea board, punch bowl, and 
 table linen. 
 
 " From Lichtield we rushed to Sheffield. I have omitted 
 to praise the exquisite beauty of the end of the chancel 
 built by Bishop Langton; but that we admired the 
 master-piece of Lichfield, you will of course understand, 
 not forgetting the exquisite sculpture of Chantrey. 
 Well, we went to Sheffield; thence to Ecclesfield; 
 thence we walked to Bradfield slept at the very least 
 of little inns and on the morrow, after drawing and 
 examining registers, walked over the Moors through Bol- 
 sterstone to a place called Peniston. These places are 
 almost out of the world, and the roads between them, 
 being cross-roads (or rather no roads at all, for the 
 moors are only recently enclosed), are out of the world. 
 The scenery was picturesque enough at times, but the 
 most expressive epithet I can think of is, wild. I never 
 (except in the Highlands), walked over a wilder region 
 very hilly very rocky very barren the villages of 
 extreme rarity the hamlets very small and poor and 
 few the language very uncouth. From Peniston we 
 walked to Silkstone and here it is time to mention that 
 Ecclestield, Peniston, and Silkstone are graced with 
 most beautiful and remarkable Churches. Ebenezer 
 Elliott, the blacksmith poet 9 , beautifully calls Ecclesfield 
 Church, ' the minster of the Moors ' ; and it well 
 deserves the name 
 
 9 I. Ebenezer Elliott (b. 1781, d. ing to the flowers, and birds, and 
 1 849) the son of an iron-founder at trees, "are my companions; from 
 Rotberam in Yorkshire, a man of them I derive consolation and hope ; 
 extraordinary mark and mental for nature is all harmony and 
 power. His best known piece, beauty, and man will one day be 
 perhaps, is his ' Com IMW Rhymes,' like her ; and the war of castes and 
 which gave an impetus to the the war for bread will be no more." 
 ultimately successful agitation a- The word " ironmonger," perhaps, 
 gainst the Corn Laws. Though he would more accurately than "black- 
 wrote on political subjects defiantly smith " denote the occupation by 
 and bitterly, as considering the which he gained a moderate for- 
 people to be down-trodden and tune. The above particulars are 
 refused their rights, there was a taken from the 'Imperial Dictionary 
 vein of true pathos in his poetry. of Universal Biography,' s. r. 
 " These," said he to a friend, point- ELLIOTT, EBEXEZEB.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 85 
 
 " Although one needs not to travel beyond the precincts 
 of one's hearth-rug to know and to feel the blessed 
 privilege of our Church Establishment, never perhaps 
 does one so practically and fully appreciate its value, as 
 when one is taking a journey and finds oneself in the 
 position described by a living poet ' The night is dark 
 and I am far from home.' The kindness we experienced 
 wherever we went, from the parochial clergy, was truly 
 surprising, almost touching. 
 
 " Do not fancy that I thrust myself upon any but it 
 became my vocation, going to consult a register, to call 
 upon its cusfode. The preliminary conversation gener- 
 ally terminated in a request that we would consider 
 ourselves the guests of the family for the rest of the day 
 and really, however grateful we felt, and however 
 agreeable such an episode always must be, the kindness 
 we experienced generally proved fatal to the accomplish- 
 ment of the main object we had in paying the visit. 
 
 We have good reason to remember the kindness of the 
 clergyman of the last-named place Silkstone ; and I 
 believe it. was thinking more especially of him, which 
 occasioned this digression. His name is Watkins. If 
 I were to begin to describe, I should fill my paper ; so 
 pray walk on with us to Barnesley, the next town, 
 and let us escape the fascination of all the bright eyes 
 at Silkstone. 
 
 We entered Barnesley very early on Sunday morning 
 having been compelled, owing to the lateness of the 
 hour when we left the vicarage, to bivouac at Silkstone, 
 in a horrid little inn (the best of half-a-dozen abominable 
 ones), in a room which the night before had accommo- 
 dated four-and-twenty ragamuffins, who called them- 
 selves foresters-, and kept us awake all night with their 
 drunken revelry in the apartment beneath. We had a 
 most singular sermon at Barnesley from Wolff the mis- 
 sionary and here having passed two days one to 
 please ourselves, and one to please the clergyman, we 
 made the best of our way across the country to Burgh 
 Wallis and Kirk Brain with the latter, an unapproach- 
 able village in winter. It is indeed a singularly un-
 
 86 LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 favoured spot. The Humber occasionally floods the 
 adjacent country, and has been known to stand four 
 inches deep in the rectory parlour and such a rectory ! 
 like an unhappy farm house! The church is also 
 uninteresting but ancient and highly picturesque. Our 
 forefathers were influenced by a purer spirit than we. 
 
 "We had seen sufficiently rough practice during the 
 last few days to rejoice to find ourselves at Doncaster 
 hi terra cognitd- with half a score of letters awaiting our 
 arrival, and a relay of that nameless commodity, which is 
 after all the very mainspring of travelling. Here we 
 also found that a lady had had the kindness to prepare 
 a kind reception for us, and we passed a pleasant 
 evening in consequence with her brother, a Mr. Henry 
 Bower. His library would please you, being choice, 
 and containing some curious books. On the whole, 
 getting into a drawing-room, or a library, when one is 
 far from home, must be allowed to constitute a most 
 charming episode. Your stage-coach and railway ar- 
 rangements are marvellously brutalizing. 
 
 " Come along, sir ! I cannot allow you to stand fiddle- 
 faddling in Doncaster. Mr. Bower, as you see, is old 
 and weak, and it is a shame to keep him struggling 
 with the quartos, which he is scarcely strong enough to 
 lift down from his shelves, or to replace there. Here we 
 are at Rotheram pray admire the beautiful Church. 
 and do not forget Conigsburgh Castle, which we passed 
 on the way. A quarter-of-an-hour conducts you from 
 Rotheram to Sheffield at least it conducted us. Here 
 we paused for half-a-day ; and then went by the rail- 
 way to York. If you have ever seen, or if you have 
 never seen, the Minster, it matters not. In the one case 
 I need not in the other, it would be in vain for me to 
 attempt to describe it. I had seen it before, but, strange 
 to say, I had forgotten it whether since 1834 I have 
 learned to appreciate more fuUy what I see, or whether 
 my eyes have improved I cannot tell but this time, the 
 Minster literally overcame me. I felt that I could have 
 gazed upon it for ever. Its enormous size is not by any 
 means its only charm, though I felt sensibly how
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 87 
 
 prolific a source of sublimity size is. Every thing 
 conspires to make it one of the grandest of human 
 creations. Its pale grey tint, its infinite multiplicity 
 of detail, its variety yet harmony of parts and oh ! 
 above all, the magnificent prodigality of invention which 
 it displays. What an exquisite mind the man must 
 have had which could harbour such a conception as 
 York Minster! how pure and graceful a fancy! what 
 inexhaustible copiousness of invention ! ... It literally 
 takes away one's breath to examine such a structure. 
 Why do we attempt nothing like it now-a-days ? We 
 can squander many millions sinfully ; Why do we 
 never devote one million to raising a temple to Almighty 
 God 1 ? 
 
 " We returned, as we came, and then proceeded to the 
 Peak of Derbyshire crossing some very Scotch-looking 
 moors, till we cast anchor at Castleton. Three days 
 soon slipped away, while we were exploring the mines 
 and caverns of this interesting district nor were the 
 hours we passed with Dr. Orton, the vicar of a neigh- 
 bouring village Hope the least agreeably or profitably 
 spent. He was honest enough to declare he considered 
 an intelligent being to converse with, as so great a prize, 
 that if we wanted to give him pleasure, we must agree 
 to pass our evenings with him and his family. The 
 want of society in so remote a region must indeed be 
 severely felt. Think of a parish 35 miles in extent 
 containing 12 or 13 hamlets, unprovided with churches, 
 and think of the consequent mental stagnation ! . . . 
 
 " Our visits to two of the Derbyshire mines gave us 
 quite a new idea on the subject of the famous Peak 
 cavern. The truth seems to be that the entire district 
 is perforated by a thousand natural passages, and that 
 where these accidentally encounter the surface, there a 
 cavern becomes celebrated. Exploring some of these 
 holes was pleasant enough, but far pleasanter was it, to 
 emerge from their recesses into the holy daylight, and 
 look down the Vale of Hope one of the most peaceful 
 and when seen as we saw it, steeped in the golden light 
 of autumn one of the most beautiful in this Vale of Tears.
 
 88 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 " Leaving Hope, we went to Bakewell, having taken 
 Chatsworth and all its royal splendours in our way. 
 Haddon Hall is far more to my taste. You have doubt- 
 less visited that glorious old baronial residence, to walk 
 through which, is to live in the reign of good Queen 
 Bess, and to feel oneself brought into closer intimacy 
 as it were with the great and gay of those days. Here 
 we drew and raved our fill, and then followed a rather 
 amusing episode. 
 
 " Some thirty years ago, my father travelled in Greece 
 with a son of the celebrated Dr. Darwin 1 . When they 
 parted, (which was at Smyrna) Darwin was bound for 
 Lichfield, and my father for London so, after the long 
 interval, when Tom and I announced our wish to go to 
 Lichfield, il Padrone proposed introducing us to his 
 friend, and gave us a letter accordingly to Dr. Francis 
 Sacheverell Darwin. With some palpitation as to the 
 reception we were likely to receive on reaching Lich- 
 field, to the old house of the Darwins we repaired a 
 huge red-brick mansion house, such as one's grand-dad 
 would have inhabited. We were laughed at for our pains. 
 The Dai-wins had quitted Lichfield for twenty years. 
 Dr. was Sir Francis Darwin in short, we looked so like 
 the descendants of Rip Van Winkle, that we looked quite 
 foolish so the letter of introduction was thrust back 
 into the portmanteau, and all hopes of talking over lang 
 syne with Darwin ides abandoned. 
 
 "But when we were at Bakewell, to our surprise we 
 discovered that we were within seven' miles of the 
 knight, who lived near Darley Dale, we were told, and 
 in short, from the report we heard of him and his, we 
 
 1 Dr. Erasmus Darwin [6. 1731, Burgon, appeared in 1781. It is 
 
 d. 1802], a physician at Lichfield, divided into two parts, the first 
 
 eminent as a physiologist and poet. being devoted to the phenomena of 
 
 He and Dr. Johnson were the vegetation, and the second to the 
 
 centres of two circles at Lichfield, < Loves of the Plants,' a poetical 
 
 entirely distinct from one another version of the sexual system of 
 
 in sympathies, politics, and creed. Linnams. See 'Imperial Dic- 
 
 'The liotanic Garden,' some lines tionary of Universal Biography: 
 
 f which, in the old physician's . v. DARWIN, ERASMUS. 
 handwriting, his eon gave to
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 89 
 
 determined to march to Sydnope (for so his house is 
 called), and take his worship by the beard. It was a 
 pleasant walk, but a queer country to go speering after 
 a stranger in. and we were led a weary dance over the 
 hills before we discovered his homestead. At last we 
 reached a solitary place far off and alone on the 
 shoulder of a hill, and commanding a wide and wild 
 view and there we found the object of our search. He 
 was not a little surprised, but I believe more pleased 
 than surprised, to see us. I was older than my father 
 was, when he parted from Darwin, and the sight of us 
 set our host a-dreaming of old times, and seemed to 
 make him feel that he was an oldish man. He intro- 
 duced us to his wife and daughters (grown up women by 
 the way), and we passed a very happy evening. 
 
 " Next day he showed me some of his father's books, 
 gave me four lines of ' The Botanic Garden ' in his 
 father's autograph and lionized us over his singular 
 dwelling : after which we reluctantly bade him farewell ; 
 and his son conducted us a round-about way across the 
 hills to Matlock. . . . On the whole Sir F. D. is a very 
 remarkable creature. I think there is something morbid 
 in his temperament ; for he seemed to shrink from the 
 idea of London, and wandering from his own fireside. 
 He said he hoped to live quietly and to die there and 
 never to stir till he went down to be buried with his 
 fathers in the family resting-place, which is not far 
 oft'. . . . Sydnope is all of his own contrivance ; and he 
 glories in having created an oasis in that wilderness. 
 When he came, there was no house no water no "trees 
 un /tof/ii/i;/ ! ' Now,' said he, ' I have built a village 
 here is abundance of wood and water, yonder are three 
 trout ponds ' in short, he seemed to think it a <1isgra.ce 
 to live in a house made comfortable to your hand, and 
 has let a fine old paternal mansion to strangers, accord- 
 ingly. He procured a wild boar from the Pyrenees, and 
 a sow from Canton, and peopled his woods with wild 
 boars to the terror of all the country round ; but the 
 breed is deteriorating now in other words the neigh- 
 bours are no longer kept in fcrrorem. But enough of
 
 90 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Sydnope and its kind owner. Six or seven hours on the 
 railway brought us from Matlock to Brunswick Square." 
 
 1841. In the year 1841 the storm, which had been long 
 2 ' impending, was to burst upon the head of his family. 
 To himself it proved the means of bringing about what 
 he had so long and earnestly desired, and thus broke 
 with blessings on his head. In the latter end of March 
 and at the beginning of August we find such entries as 
 these in his journal; "Miserable day at the counting- 
 house " ; " Passion week, and to me a day of suffering 
 mental," " a day like some of the preceding, quite the 
 shadow of death," " a day of rare excitement and 
 anguish," &c., &c. But in the middle of it all he is still, 
 with wonderful mental energy, pursuing more congenial 
 occupations, getting " fragments of Roman pottery from 
 the foundations of St. Bartholomew's Church," " draw- 
 ing the Roman tesselated pavement in Threadneedle 
 Street," " visiting his friend Renouard at Swancombe, 
 and his brother-in-law Mr. Rose at Houghton/' "read- 
 ing No. 90 of the Oxford Tracts/' and " Newman's letter " 
 thereon, going " to a conversazione at Crosby Hall" " pro- 
 ceeding with my Harmony," "finishing roughing out 
 my Harmony," (the Harmony of the Gospels, a work 
 which he had much at heart, which he began long before 
 he went to Oxford, carried on at intervals during his 
 whole life, but has left alas ! in an unfinished state, with 
 an instruction that it is not sufficiently advanced for pub- 
 lication). On the Ascension Day (Thursday, May 20), 
 "They all went to Dodsworth's, and took the Sacra- 
 ment ; I could not" 
 
 When we come to the month of August, we are con- 
 fronted by this ominous memorandum at the top of the 
 page," !& Perhaps the most memorable page in this book." 
 " Aug. 2. A day of cruel anxiety, occasioned by a letter
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 91 
 
 found at the City." " Aug. 5. TJie plot begins to thicken 
 bitter state of anxiety," and so on, until we come to 
 " Thurs. Aug. 19. Saddish day Final winding up by 
 T. B." (his father) t: at the City his last day there. 
 Thank GOD, every thing went very well." The bolt 
 had fallen ; his father's house of business had suspended 
 payment, and his family had touched the lowest deep ; 
 but the " cruel anxiety " was over, for the worst was 
 known, and it now remained for John William Burgon 
 to show the indomitable energy and sanguineness which 
 were in him. by rising above misfortunes and lifting 
 himself, and those who were in great measure dependent 
 upon him, out of the wreck. The family removed to 
 Houghton Conquest Rectory in Bedfordshire, the Rev. 
 Henry John Rose's living, who had married his elder 
 sister in j 838. Burgon himself was left in London for a 
 lew weeks, to pack furniture and books, to make up the 
 accounts of the house for presentation in Bankruptcy, 
 to make up also the household accounts, assort the 
 tradesmen's bills, and clear out the counting-house. But 
 the sable cloud had its silver lining which it turned forth 
 on the night. He managed to escape for a day or two to 
 Houghton Conquest, where he had "a joyous meeting" 
 with the other members of his family ; and on " Sun. 
 August 29. Professor Corrie and I stood Godfathers for 
 Rose's little boy" (Hugh James Rose so named after his 
 illustrious uncle, who had been born in the previous 
 December, so that in all probability the Sacrament of 
 Baptism had been privately administered to him, and 
 this was only his Admission to the Church). On his 
 return to London, the Harmony of the Gospels was 
 carried on vigorously in September, and he speaks of 
 himself as " in the evening busy with my Greek." The 
 Greek would be wanted at Oxford, and the consent of
 
 g 2 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 his father to his going to Oxford was given on the 9th 
 of October. On the i6th he rejoined the family at 
 Houghton preparatory to his going up, under the 
 auspices of his brother-in-law, for matriculation, an 
 account of which will be given in the next Chapter. 
 It needs not to be said that with a family so generally 
 esteemed, and so much beloved by those who had the 
 privilege of intimacy with them, the sympathy was 
 universal. " The creditors all behaved most kindly," he 
 writes in his journal. " Tytler wept, when I told him." 
 And on the 2oth of August, in the letter in which he 
 announces the catastrophe to Mr. Dawson Turner, he 
 says, " Your friendly spirit, I am sure I am not mistaken 
 in supposing, will partake the gratification I feel in 
 mentioning the universal sympathy, which hitherto my 
 dear father has met with. I may truly say that it is 
 quite touching and affecting." From a second letter to 
 him, dated three days later (Aug. 23), it appears that 
 Mr. Turner, when the announcement reached him, by no 
 means contented himself with expressions of sympathy 
 and kind feeling, but with his usual considerate munifi- 
 cence offered his purse to his young friend, probably 
 (out of delicacy) in the shape of a loan which Burgon 
 might repay, when he had reached that position of 
 independence to which Mr. Turner felt that his abilities 
 and industry would soon raise him. In answer to this 
 generous offer he writes (Aug. 23, 1 841) : 
 
 " Sincerely thanking you for your prompt and busi- 
 ness-like way of meeting the exigency of the case, I 
 have the pleasure to say that for the present at all events, 
 I do not see the least occasion for troubling you. Do 
 not think that I am shilly-shallying now: when I tell 
 you that your letter found me with my Greek Grammar 
 in my hand, jou will guess which way my thoughts are 
 tending, whither, believe me, they have been tending
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 93 
 
 long since, though never till now with any good chance 
 of my body following them. The future, as far as I am 
 concerned, seems to stand thus. For three months 
 (about) I am indispensable here " [in London]. " At the 
 end of that time. I intend (D. V.) to go to Houghton, 
 where a quiet room, the run of a good classical library 
 (better than I need, a furious deal) and dear Rose's 
 help these three blessings have long since been promised 
 me. My backwardness (in Greek especially) is what 
 vou would not believe ; and indeed my ignorance gener- 
 ally is frightful. I can only hope by a few months' 
 serious application to get into a condition to be fit to go 
 to Oxford. 
 
 " Then my necessities will begin. What they will be, 
 I know not. If it depended on me, I should say little 
 enough. ... I shall keep no society ; get into a garret, if 
 I can, (for lico reasons), my habits are quite the reverse 
 of expensive, and I have books. On the other hand, a 
 good Tutor I will have, coute qne coule. I cannot suppose 
 that I shall want much more than \w a year, at 
 least I fix that sum in my mind as a kind of point to 
 reason from. 
 
 " Now my inclination would assuredly be not to tres- 
 pass upon any resources my father might have, at all: but 
 the propriety" [possibility?] " of gratifying this inclina- 
 tion, I have yet to learn. Meantime I go to work with the 
 soothing certainty that, in case of need, there are certain 
 friends (I believe, if the truth were known, you occupy 
 the van) on whom I may RSLY for aid in the promotion 
 of my scheme. I hope I am not premature in mention- 
 ing an item in my intentions, in such case, on which I 
 dwell with singular complacency. It is this. Since 
 Death is the only barrier I can conceive to my ulti- 
 mately disencumbering myself of the painful part of a 
 pecuniary obligation (for of the obligation, I neither 
 could nor would wish to rid myself), I should deposit 
 a small life policy in your own or any other person's 
 hands. Thus dying, I should close my eyes in peace, 
 and living, I should have the satisfaction of having made 
 a small provision (a beginning towards something con-
 
 94 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 siderable) for those who are far dearer to me than life 
 itself." 
 
 And then, after some further particulars of his plans 
 and prospects for his family and himself, follows a para- 
 graph which exhibits the wonderful elasticity of his mind 
 under trouble, and the sanguineness of the energy, which 
 could address itself to new literary exploits in so grave 
 a crisis of his fortunes : 
 
 " I thank you for your advice respecting any publica- 
 tion on so difficult a matter as Early Christianity ; but 
 I will tell you what I contemplated. 
 
 " I perceive that men are mightily disposed to dislike 
 the authority of the Fathers : so that when Mr. Newman 
 writes on ' the Church of the Fathers,' it is replied, ' Oh, 
 who cares for them ? ' At least out of ten devout persons 
 three or four or five would say so. Well ; it struck me 
 that the right thing would be to write a little book (or a 
 big one, if the matter allowed), and to call it the Church of 
 the Apostles, since no one objects to them. The design is 
 simply this. To exhibit, from whatever source, but of 
 course mainly from Holy Writ, what was the constitu- 
 tion and actual state of the Church in the Apostles' 
 days. Any one who has not thought much on the 
 subject would never believe or dream of the astounding 
 quantity of available matter there is in the Epistles of 
 St. Paul, and indeed throughout the New Testament. 
 It is perfectly astonishing how much may be elicited 
 and inferred. A little aid may be drawn from ancient 
 monuments ; and it was in reply to a hasty hint dropped 
 on this part of the subject, that dear Rose, who is ever 
 ready to help me in everything of the kind, took fire. 
 You shall hear more of this scheme, D. V. some of these ilays 
 . . . Remember your promise to read Bp. Beveridge." 
 
 This contemplated work appeal's to have dropped 
 through from the multiplicity of other calls upon his 
 time, unless indeed we may say that much the same 
 design was afterwards carried into effect by him in
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 95 
 
 another form, that of a Series of Lectures on the Acts 
 of the Apostles, a work which he has left complete, and 
 which only needs for its production careful editing, and 
 such a number of subscribers as would guarantee his 
 representatives against pecuniary loss, if they were to 
 publish it. How deeply interesting these Lectures were 
 found by those who were privileged to hear them, and 
 how greatly these persons long for their publication, not 
 only as recalling to themselves personally the happy and 
 sacred hours spent in listening to them, but as a valuable 
 contribution to the exegesis and spiritual teaching of 
 that most important portion of the New Testament, it 
 would be difficult to say. Let it be lawful to hope 
 that some practical steps may ere long be taken in this 
 direction. 
 
 The last incident which has to be recorded of the year 
 1841 is the commencement of the exquisite drawings of 
 his father's valuable collection of Greek Antiquities, 
 which it was arranged should be offered for sale to the 
 British Museum. It wrung John William Burgon's 
 heart (both as a connoisseur, and as having known every 
 article in the collection for the greater part of his life, 
 ami having gloried in his family's possession of so great 
 a treasure) to part with these antiquities. And he deter- 
 mined that the collection should not leave his father's 
 roof without his making a faithful drawing of all the 
 principal articles in it, however much labour such an 
 enterprise might entail upon himself. Here is the 
 memorandum, which he makes in his Journal on a sub- 
 ject which must have touched him to the quick. 
 
 "I began to draw the collection of Greek antiquities 
 7 December, 1841, and drew almost without intermission 
 till 24 January, 1842. From that day to 2 March drew 
 for about seven hours a day, when I completed the task.
 
 96 LIFE OF DEAN BURGOX. 
 
 It was providentially decided that the Collection was 
 to pass to the British Museum for j'6oo on Wednesday, 
 23 March. 
 
 " Conveyed to the Museum on Ascension Day, Thurs- 
 day, 5 May, 1842. Sic transit " 
 
 It was thought desirable that these drawings, now in 
 the possession of the family, should be taken to the 
 Museum, and there left awhile for the careful identifica- 
 tion of each Article. The portfolio containing them has 
 been returned with the following memorandum from 
 Mr. Arthur H. Smith, of the Department of Greek and 
 Roman Antiquities : 
 
 " Mr. Burgon's drawings are all taken from objects in 
 the Burgon collection, now in the British Museum. 
 
 "Apart from the delicacy of the dra wings, they are 
 chiefly remarkable for the skill with which they repro- 
 duce the various styles and characters of the objects. 
 This power of reproducing a variety of styles with 
 accuracy is seldom acquired except by draughtsmen 
 specially trained to the work. 
 
 "The principal objects in the collection have for the 
 most part been satisfactorily published elsewhere. 
 
 " If it is desired to publish specimens, I would suggest 
 the urn numbered 282, 282 A. This urn has not been 
 engraved, and its colouring has much deteriorated since 
 Mr. Burgon's sketch was made. 
 
 "The manuscript notes attached add, in some in- 
 stances, information of value, not hitherto in the pos- 
 session of the Museum, as to the origin of the objects. 
 Compare a note sent by me to the ' Classical Eerieu- ' of 
 November, 1889, respecting the bronze hare, numbered 
 334. A. H. SMITH." 
 
 It is much to be regretted that a copy of the drawing 
 of the urn numbered 282, 282 A cannot be presented to 
 the reader, but the tinting of these sketches constitutes 
 perhaps their greatest beauty, and could not be satis- 
 factorily reproduced.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 97 
 
 Before concluding this Chapter, as it is proposed to do, 
 by presenting to the reader a few further extracts from his 
 letters of this early period to Mr. Fellows, to Mr. Dawson 
 Turner, and to Mr. Renouard, all of them extremely char- 
 acteristic of the writer (of his deep interest in those old 
 archives, which are the sources of history, and in antiqui- 
 ties generally, in discoveries and explorations ; of his love 
 of fun ; of his love of and connoisseurship in Art ; of his 
 conjectures in etymology), it seems desirable to say some- 
 thing of the divines and clergy, under whose influence 
 he was brought during the thirteen years which elapsed 
 between his leaving school in 1829 and his going to 
 Oxford in 1842, and whose teaching must have helped 
 to form his religious character. The family had sittings 
 at St. Pancras under the incumbency of Dr. Moore, and 
 usually attended that Church ; but John William had 
 conceived an ardent admiration for the preaching of Mr. 
 Dale, then Vicar of St. Bride's, and. as he never cared 
 to attend Church alone (the exuberant sympathy in his 
 nature made this distasteful to him), used frequently 
 to persuade his mother, whom he loved to have by his 
 side at Church, and other members of his family, to 
 accompany him to St. Bride's. Against the Sundays in 
 his Journals (the S. denoting which is always written in 
 red ink, to mark it to the eye) we find such entries as 
 these: "Heard dear old Dale at St. Bride's preach a 
 beautiful sermon " ; " M. C. and I went to hear Dale 
 preach at St. Giles's capital divine sermon was 
 delighted to hear his old voice again " ; " Mother's 
 birthday. Gave her Dale's sermons pd. 10*. 6d" Some- 
 times, for a spiritual treat, he takes them to hear Melvill, 
 at that time the most eminent pulpit orator in the com- 
 munion of the English Church; "Went with M. and 
 Lingham to hear Melvill Glorious ! " " Heard Melvill 
 
 VOL. i. H
 
 98 ' LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 preach in Fenchurch Street before the Lord Mayor lie is 
 a sensible Irving " (of Irving he could form some judgment, 
 as he writes in his Journal that one Sunday he heard him 
 " preaching sub dio ") ; " Heard Mr. Melvill preach a fine 
 sermon, full of force and beauty, at Bedford Chapel." 
 Sometimes, but very rarely, he wanders out of the Angli- 
 can fold for his spiritual pasture on Sunday ; " Heard 
 Dr. Chalmers at the Scotch Church magnificent but I 
 never was in such a crowd before." And the following 
 entiy will be read with interest, in reference to his own 
 future sermons, which were so original and instruc- 
 tive ; " Dec. 6, 1835 " {.Mat. 22]. " Heard Dale ' Come 
 to me ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest' the text I have always thought I would make 
 my first sermon on, if I were in the Church he made a 
 powerful sermon, but did not handle the text as I think 
 of handling it . . ." Later in point of time, and conse- 
 quent chiefly on the family's moving from Brunswick 
 Square to Osnaburgh Street, they had sittings in Christ 
 Church, Albany Street, which then became their district 
 Church ; but previously to the removal, John William 
 had often been attracted to Mr. Dodsworth's ministry ; 
 and then we have such entries as these : " P. T. and I to 
 Dodsworth's (Laus Deo!) magnificent sermon." The 
 following memoranda will have interest for those 
 who remember the raging of a controversy, excited 
 by a charge of Bishop Blomfield, once fierce enough, 
 but now almost exploded like the crater of an extinct 
 volcano ; for the surplice has all but driven the gown 
 out of the field: "Jan. 24, 1841. Dodsworth, with M. 
 and E. He preached first time in his surplice." " Jan. 
 31, 1841. Heard Mr. Manning at Dodsworth's." " Feb. 
 7, 1841. To Dodsworth, who preached in his gown!!" 
 There can be little doubt that the influence brought to
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 99 
 
 bear upon him by the preaching of Mr. Dodsworth, and 
 other clergymen of the same theological school, would tend 
 to incline him towards the Tractarian movement then in 
 progress at Oxford, and would predispose him to receive 
 favourably in its earlier stages the teaching of Mr. New- 
 man, for whom he conceived the deepest reverence, a 
 sentiment which never forsook him, even when Mr. New- 
 man seceded from the English Church. How little he 
 sympathized with the extravagances and (as he regarded 
 them) corruptions which developed themselves at a later 
 stage of the movement, and were characterized chiefly by 
 sensational services and an efflorescence of Ritualism, 
 every one knows, who remembers the course taken by 
 him in the controversies of later days, and which it will 
 be the province of a subsequent Chapter to record. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO MR. FELLOWS, TO MR. 
 DAWSOX TURNER, OF GREAT YARMOUTH, AND TO 
 THE REVEREND GEORGE CECIL RENOUARD, B.D., 
 RKCTOR OF SWANSCOMBE IN KENT, IN THE YEARS 
 1833, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841. 
 
 I. To MR. CHARLES FELLOWS. 
 
 "June 21. Shortest Night, 1833. To-day is the 
 longest day ... I am always unhappy on this day ; and 
 at a moment like the present, when all is silent save the 
 wind, which is low and gusty, and Time, whose quick 
 footsteps I fancy I discern in the ticking of my watch, a 
 feeling of sadness comes over me, which is as groundless 
 as it is without remedy . . . After all, if it were not for 
 the nights, what a stupid thing life would be ... When 
 should we poor Merchant-rum breathe, eh ? Eh, you 
 freeman, you bachelor, you rogue? ... I fancy, nay, 
 I'm sure, that nights were invented (among other good 
 reasons) for the convenience and consolation of dis- 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo LIFE OF DEAN BURGOX. 
 
 contented Merchant-men. Oh ! F., what will become of 
 me, if I don't grow wiser as I grow older? am I destined 
 to be a new edition, with illustrations, of the old story 
 a garret and a half-penny loaf? I hope not, with all my 
 soul ... I am not quite jockey enough to ride Pegasus 
 without saddle or bridle ; but intend either to have a 
 stall for the beast, or, if I can't afford it, to have him ciif 
 up for the hounds . . . Both resources are attended how- 
 ever with inconvenience : and I have made*up my mind 
 that the happiest man after all is the matter-of-fact, cold 
 devil, who knows how to mind his purse, and keep his 
 temper, who has got no vulture passions to quiet, and 
 who cannot discern joy and sorrow at a league's distance 
 . . . For my own part, I feel I am irrevocably a poet, and 
 therefore the opposite to the being I have sketched. 
 Yet, strange to say, I envy not that man his sangfroid or 
 his purse ; I think his happiness is bought at too dear a 
 price. 
 
 " Here I go, you see, on the old tack : but I can't help 
 it. If I were to tell you all (I could not tell you all. I 
 only mean, if I could), you would stare. I mean, all the 
 odd ways of thinking I have lately acquired . . . Do you 
 know I feel as if I were two persons, or, rather, as if I 
 had two brains ? the one sees things as they are, or as 
 they appear to be, and that is my matter-of-fact brain ; 
 the other sees things as, I suppose I must say, they are 
 not, that is to say, fancifully and that is my imagin- 
 ative brain. I religionise and philosophize with both 
 these brains ; one presents me with a straightforward, 
 tangible view of the subject, and the other with a 
 strange, sceptical idea of it : and the sceptical, shadowy 
 idea confuses the clear and substantial one ; and the 
 clear and substantial one mars the elegance of the scep- 
 tical and shadowy . . . When I was younger, I had more 
 reason than imagination ; as I grow older I find the latter 
 acquires strength and impairs the former. So much the 
 better for my poetry, but so much the worse for my 
 religion. I have come to the resolution therefore of 
 thinking on religious matters only with my matter-of-fact 
 brain, and keeping my sceptical one for profane matters.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 101 
 
 ... I am fully persuaded that Fa if// is nine- tenths of our 
 duty : and to see its full importance, consider it not so 
 much as an end. as, as a means. To give you an idea of 
 my two brains' mode of action, and to take a simple 
 instance. I am alone, we will suppose, and I pluck a 
 flower ; in a moment my fanciful brain invests it with 
 feeling, and the flower reproaches me for plucking it ; 
 but my sensible brain then thinks it high time to step 
 in, and sneer at my credulity and my folly. Do you 
 understand me? I hardly understand myself, but have 
 given you a bad example of what I mean. Farewell 
 however for the present. I have made you my father 
 confessor, you see. Good-night, dear F. If you have 
 leisure and inclination, scribble a line to 
 
 " Your ever affectionate friend, 
 
 -JOHN W. BUBGON. 
 - i to 2." 
 
 II. To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Brunswick Square, April 2, 1840. 
 
 " My dear Sir, I remember being very much 
 
 affected by a sermon I once read of Mr. Newman's. It 
 was on the use of ht/jnit&ex, and, as well as I can recollect, 
 the writer urged the importance of acting, in spiritual 
 matters, on the holy impulse of the moment, and sug- 
 gested that the very transient nature of the motive 
 constituted in fact the strongest reason why it should be 
 instantly availed of. This beautiful precept, which is 
 identical, in a measure, with your own invaluable rule, 
 ' to do everything the instant you think of it,' I have 
 constantly endeavoured to apply to the daily practice of 
 life ; and, to come to the subject before us, without 
 further circumlocution, I have repeatedly had occasion 
 to perceive how, in the case of letter- writing, every thing 
 depends (if you would write a pleasant letter) on sitting 
 down when the humour comes upon you, and the in- 
 xfaitf it comes upon you 2 , and quietly, but perse veringly, 
 
 a In precisely the same vein, and the Rev . G. C. Renouard in a 
 with some badinage, he addresses letter dated "Brunswick Square,
 
 102 LIFE OF DEAN BUEGON. 
 
 writing on till you come to the end of your letter. So 
 have I not done on the present occasion. This letter is 
 destined therefore to be a dull one the next, I faithfully 
 promise, shall be as happily written as if it had pro- 
 ceeded from a native of Arabia Felix. 
 
 Let me see. Perhaps I had better begin by telling you 
 what I know about the late scandalous proceedings with 
 regard to the Exchequer Documents. The newspaper 
 and ' Gentleman* Magazine ' accounts of the aforesaid 
 iniquities you doubtless read, and so I need not repeat 
 that part of the story ; but you may be interested (I can- 
 not say ' pleased ') to hear the accounts of the importance 
 of the documents in question fully corroborated. On 
 Thursday, in consequence of a catalogue I received from 
 Sotheby, I went to see a small portion of the paper 
 documents which one of the persons, into whose hands 
 these treasures have fallen, had entrusted him with the 
 sale of. Very curious indeed they were ! and I am glad 
 to be able to add that half-a-dozen of the most interesting 
 lots are lying before me at the present moment, including 
 Secretary Davison's account of expenses, connected with 
 his mission to the Low Countries in 1577. 
 
 " These autographs belonged, as I discovered, to a 
 binder named Mackenzie, living in Westminster, who 
 had bought them as waste paper. You will not be sur- 
 prised to hear that in the evening I ran as far as that 
 worthy's house, and asked him a few questions. The 
 whole of his paper documents he said were at Sotheby's ; 
 but his house was full of parchments, which he had 
 bought at the rate of yd. per lb., and which he would sell 
 
 29 Dec., 1839. Consider, my dear on which it was traced. The 
 
 Sir, how profitable to wanderers in peasant, mounted on his ass, would 
 
 strange lands might not the ex- bethink himself that he had asses' 
 
 tempore practice here recommended skin at hand ; and the barks of 
 
 prove ! The hunter mounted on his trees, if not for albums, would make 
 
 elephant would avail himself of the capital nigrums for the world at 
 
 tusk of the animal, and write a large. To descend from this folly, 
 
 letter to his absent friend, as un- and end the sentence rationally," 
 
 sophisticated as the ivory tablets &c., &c.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 103 
 
 me for is. 6d. I offered him 20 or 30 or 40 times that 
 sum, if he would allow me to pick out a few pounds, but 
 no multiple of is. 6d. would induce him to accede to the 
 proposition. It was very tempting, there were the bags 
 half-a-dozen of them two or three untouched, worth 
 from 6d. to i*. to the makers of papier mdche, and what 
 might they not contain 1 The following considerations 
 made me resolve to refuse the entire collection. It would 
 have cost 120; I examined one untouched bag to the 
 depth of a foot or two, and it contained, LITERALLY, rub- 
 bish : dusty, dirty fragments, about an inch or two square ; 
 and lastly, however agreeable it may be to possess a few 
 choice specimens of parchment documents, it is not 
 pleasant to turn parclmn-nt deali-r. Per contra, I must in- 
 form you that the proprietor of these documents had 
 selected, out of a single bag, as he said, a dozen or two of 
 documents which he showed me, and they were curious 
 very. One was a list of Queen Elizabeth's gentleman- 
 pensioners, with their salaries, and so on. I wonder 
 what you would have done, if you had been there ! . . . . 
 I mean still to watch over the documents in question. 
 But how disgraceful is the entire proceeding ! Bulls of 
 Popes, books of royal payments and receipts (including 
 some extraordinary entries), expenses of our army and navy 
 every thing in short appertaining to finance from the 
 time of Henry VIII down to the middle of the eighteenth 
 century ! The entire collection produced j^yo ! and ^400 
 was disbursed in order to ensure the mutilation of the 
 documents, which the nation is now anxious to recover 
 at a vast expense, and to repair ! ! ! Rodd says he 
 would cheerfully have given j J 6ooo or 7000 for what 
 the fishmonger bought for ^70. Thinking about these 
 things interferes with my sleep, and makes me quite 
 unhappy. . . . 
 
 " My dear Sir oh, by the by ! I was going to tell you 
 that I have lately had a delightful letter from Lepsiua, 
 and I must not conclude till I have told you something 
 more about it. Do you remember that Herodotus men- 
 tions a figure of Sesostris cut on the live rock on the 
 road between Sardis and Smyrna, with an inscription in
 
 iO4 LIFE OF DEAN BURGOX. 
 
 hieroglyphics, &c. ? Well, Renouard told my father at 
 Smyrna that he had seen such a figure, and my father 
 told Renouard that Herodotus had described it but 
 there the matter ended. One day at table the matter 
 was talked over (last year) in Lepsius's presence. What 
 does Master Leppy do but get Baron Humboldt to write 
 to the ambassador at Smyrna, to obtain, if possible, for 
 love or money, a copy of the figure 1 ? The inquiry, hope- 
 less as it seemed, proved successful ! and the intelligent 
 creature has written a learned paper on the subject, 
 proving that Herodotus was perfectly accurate in his 
 description, and points out sundry important infer- 
 ences derivable from the examination of the monument ! 
 .... He starts soon for Egypt, and will (if he lives) do 
 wonders He says that he found great scepticism on the 
 subject of hieroglyphic literature among the literati of 
 Germany, but that he had an opportunity of lecturing 
 before the Academy of Berlin in pleno, and adds trium- 
 phantly, ' J espere d'avoir de'chire' le grand voile d'incre'- 
 dulite' mystique, ou de scepticisme ignorant, de maniere 
 que le trou ne saurait plus etre raccommode' par ces 
 Messieurs ! ' . . . Leemans also writes me a long and 
 agreeable letter. He is going to be married in June, 
 and of course is half distracted in consequence." 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 "Brunswick Square, June 29, 1840. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Charles Fellows is on his way home from Asia 
 Minor, and in about a month more may be expected in 
 London. He has completely failed in his endeavours to 
 bring away marbles, &c., from Lycia, but that was the 
 fault of this blundering, bungling Government of ours. 
 Some new towns, however, he has discovered, and his 
 portfolio is full of sketches, copies of inscriptions, and 
 antiquarian novelties. Another ' Journal ' will be upon 
 the stocks in the course of the Autumn. John Murray 
 already pncks up his ears quite vertically in anticipa-
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 105 
 
 " Talking of such matters. I will repeat to you a Royal 
 I. fit mot. A gentleman on whom I called the other day 
 told me that, in the course of an interview he had had 
 with the Duke of Sussex, Allen the quaker waited upon 
 his Royal Highness, in order to remind him of his pro- 
 mise to present a petition against capital punishment. 
 The Duke did not seem quite to like the job. and 
 observed that Scripture has declared. ' Whoso sheddeth 
 man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' ' Please 
 your Royal Highness.' replied the quaker, ' when Cain 
 killed Abel, he was not hung for it.' ' That 's true.' 
 rejoined the Duke. ' but remember, Allen, there were not 
 twelve men in the world then, to make a jury.' 'This 
 was not bad for a Royal Duke,' said my friend ; but I 
 think it good to come from anybody. 
 
 " To-day I saw such a charming Hogarth ! Painted 
 on a bit of deal. It was a pannel in a house, which a 
 person I was calling upon, lately bought of a nephew (I 
 think) of the painter. When you are next in town, I 
 must show it you. It belongs to a neighbour of ours. 
 How delightful such rencontres are in the dull journey of 
 life ! I have been thinking all day of that picture, and 
 all day has the remembrance of it filled me with plea- 
 sure. It is a scene from Hudibras, and is done with 
 black and yellow paint alone 
 
 " Your obliged and affectionate, 
 
 "JOHN W. BURJON." 
 
 To MB. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Brunswick Square, 10 Aug., 1840. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Talking of pictures. I passed two or three hours at 
 Hampton Court last Saturday very delightfully. With 
 the gallery you are doubtless well acquainted, if it is 
 possible ever to become well acquainted with so multi- 
 tudinous a collection. The trash is immense ; but a
 
 io6 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 man must be a perfect brute, who could carry away with 
 him such * predominant impression. Surely there never 
 was a gallery better calculated to charm a student, 
 whether History, Biography, or Manners be his favourite 
 pursuit. The portraits of our ambassadors and other 
 worthies in Elizabeth's reign, and for the previous and 
 succeeding half-centuries, are well worth a pilgrimage to 
 Hampton. Holbein is altogether charming, and so is 
 Kneller or Lely, I forget which. I will dismiss this 
 subject by telling you a charming little circumstance, 
 Do you remember Sir Henry Wotton's will? If you 
 do not, pray reach down "Walton's Lives and read it. 
 He leaves to his beloved master (Charles I) four portraits 
 of Doges of Venice who were Doges in his time, their 
 names being inscribed behind each : also a Table (as he 
 calls it) of the Senate House of Venice, in which he is 
 represented having an audience with Carlo Donato, the 
 Doge. All these pictures, he says, are by Fialetto, and 
 he begs the king to accommodate them in some corner 
 of one of his houses. Well, sure enough, there these 
 pictures all are ! ... You can't think how delighted 
 I was to see them, and to think of dear old Wotton's 
 eyes having so often reposed on these identical por- 
 traits. Now don't you think this a charming circum- 
 stance? It is the pleasantest event I have known for 
 some weeks 
 
 " This evening, while I was at dinner, I recognised a 
 voice in the Hall, and sure enough it was he Charles 
 Fellows! He had been only three hours in London. 
 So the very dust of Asia Minor was yet hanging about 
 him. He has discovered ten ancient cities in Lycia ! ! ! 
 An artist who accompanied him has made heaps of 
 drawings, while he busied himself with copying Inscrip- 
 tions ; so we are in a fair way of another big book. 
 Murray has already blown a flourish of trumpets in the 
 'AthetuKum: Fellows is looking sunburnt and lean, but 
 he is extremely hearty ; nor has he had half-an-hour's 
 illness from the day he left England. He has been 
 absent ten months."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 107 
 
 To ME. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Br. Square, 12 Aug., 1840. 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " That Mrs. - " [a member of Mr. Turner's family] 
 " has been in trouble, I am very sorry. . . . She is one of 
 the best and sweetest persons I ever saw. . . . What 
 excellent creatures women are ! and from the hour we 
 come into the world, until the end of the chapter, how 
 much trouble we give them ! " 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Brunswick Square, Jan. 19, 1841. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " As regards ' the Granger Society 3 ', I altogether disap- 
 prove of its design. We don't want prints of the Earl of 
 Stratford, Oliver Cromwell, Charles I, &c., &c. I could 
 fill a page on this subject ; but the upshot of it all 
 would be my humble opinion, that the only desideratum 
 is as follows, namely, spirited outlines of all the un- 
 kiKin-n curious family portraits which are stowed away 
 in the galleries yea the attics of our noble- and gentle- 
 men. Four of these or more, issued every month, would 
 at last constitute indeed a curious work. E.g. the 
 father and mother of Sir T. More at Weston Hall in 
 Suffolk unknown portraits, both of them; the Lucy 
 family at Charlecote ; in short the innumerable portraits 
 of the great rjreat and the little great men of former days, 
 with which England teems." 
 
 3 So called (probably) from the ' Biographical History of England 
 
 Rev. James Granger, Vicar of from Egbert the G/reat to the 
 
 Shiplake in Oxfordshire, [6. 1716, d. Serolution' is illustrated by en- 
 
 1776], an eminent biographical graved portraits of the persona 
 
 writer and portrait collector. His whose lives he narrates.
 
 io8 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 III. To THE REV. G. C. RENOUARD. 
 
 " 1 1, Brunswick Square, 12 March, 1838. 
 " My dear Reverend Friend, 
 
 t; My time is so exceedingly engrossed that I must 
 write but a short letter, and the object of it is, to enquire 
 whether you can tell me, or can put me in the way of 
 being told, when oranges were first introduced into Eng- 
 land, the longum and the brevum (sic in the sermon of a 
 dissenter, texte H. J. Rose], the longum and the brevum 
 of the matter is, I am having a splendid portrait of 
 Gresham by Sir Antonio More 4 , engraved for a frontis- 
 piece, and I want to know why he is represented (like 
 one of the Miss Flamboroughs) with an orange in his 
 hand. Here are a few facts, but 1 need not say they 
 must not influence you. 
 
 " I think the picture may have been painted about the 
 year 1556 that is to say, the middle of Mary's reign. 
 In the middle of Mary's reign Gresham went into Spain ; 
 in the State Paper Office I find one of his letters dated 
 from Seville. 
 
 " Sir A. More was a friend of Gresham's, painted him 
 three times, and lived at Antwerp, where Gresham's 
 commercial celebrity was rife." 
 
 Before the publication of his work, Burgon had probed 
 to the depth the question, on which he here seeks light 
 from Mr. Renouard. Sir Francis Palgrave (whom prob- 
 ably Mr. Dawson Turner had succeeded in interesting 
 in the subject) had informed him that the supposed 
 orange in Gresham's hand was really a pomander, that is, 
 only an orange externally, the skin of an orange " stuffed 
 
 Sir Antonio More (Moro) was Mary her painter, and after her 
 
 born at Utrecht in 1525 and died at death in 1558, passed into the 
 
 Antwerp in 1581. When in Eng- service of her husband Philip II 
 
 land he was appointed by Queen of Spain, who took him to Madrid.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 109 
 
 with cloves and other spices," and carried about like a 
 vinaigrette " as a fashionable preservative against in- 
 fection." In Note xix of the Appendix to Gresham's 
 Life, Wolsey is described (from a passage in Cavendish's 
 Life of him) as carrying one of these pomanders, "a 
 very fair orange, whereof the meat or substance within 
 was taken out, and filled up again with the part of a 
 sponge, wherein was vinegar, and other confections 
 against the pestilent airs ; the which he most commonly 
 smelt unto, passing among the press, or else when he was 
 pestered with many suitors." The passage of ' The Vicar 
 of If (ikrji <'!<!.' at which Burgon glances in the above letter 
 to Mr. Renouard, is worth quoting from the delicacy of 
 its satire : " My wife and daughters happening to return 
 a visit at neighbour Flamborough's, found that family 
 had lately got their pictures drawn by a limner ; who 
 travelled the country and took likenesses for fifteen 
 shillings a head .... there were seven of them, and 
 they were drawn with seven oranges, &c., &c." Farmer 
 Flamborough's daughters affected gentility and refine- 
 ment ; and although the pomander had gone out of use 
 in the Vicar of Wakefield's time, and, when met with in 
 portraits, it was mistaken for an orange, its associa- 
 tions with persons of the higher class clung to it still ; 
 Mrs. Flamborough meant it to indicate that her 
 daughters were ladies, and moved in good society. The 
 pomander, or perfume ball, was one of the articles com- 
 posing the stock in trade of a huckster, or travelling 
 salesman, in Shakspere's time. " I have sold all my 
 trumpery," says the rogue Autolycus in ' Winter '* Tale ; ' 
 " not a counterfeit stone, not a riband, glass, pomander, 
 brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, 
 bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting " [Act 
 IV. Scene iii.]. Burgon's note referred to above is
 
 no LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 thoroughly exhaustive of the subject, and is one of many 
 incidental indications of the thoroughness with which he 
 executed Gresham's Biography (as indeed everything 
 else which he set his hands to), and the deep research 
 which he brought to bear even on the minutest points. 
 
 To THE REV. G. C. RENOUAKD. 
 
 " j i Brunswick Square, July 7, 1839. 
 
 " My deai* Friend, 
 
 "Truly rejoiced am I to say that the penultimate sheet 
 of either of my volumes [' The Life and Times of Ores/Mm '] 
 is now in my hands, . . . and when I tell you that the 
 first figure upon each is a 5, you will not be surprised 
 to hear me add that I begin to be heartily tired of the 
 responsibilities of great and small pica ; and would not 
 on any consideration that mine hero should have lived 
 ten years longer. . . . No he is dead, his funeral 
 oration has been recited ; and I have parted with him 
 for ever. . . . Two volumes of 500 pages each with 
 copper plates, woodcuts, and other illustrations to 
 say nothing of appendix, table of contents, and index 
 is, take it altogether, a kind of thing which I shall 
 not be easily induced to undertake de novo for any 
 knight, baronet, lord, viscount, earl, marquis, or duke, 
 in the peerage. . . . Gresham may think himself lucky 
 to have been the subject of a young author's opus mag- 
 nnm. ... I take it that an older cock would have known 
 better, than to do such lusty battle on such slight provo- 
 cation. Let me see I should hope by the middle of the 
 month to have done all that I can do towards shoving 
 the old knight off the stocks ; say a week or ten days 
 binding, &c., and getting in order for the discerning 
 public and so perhaps by the first week in August, 
 some evening, when you shall be at tea here (or, better 
 still, at dinner), I shall have the pleasure of presenting 
 you with the first copy I give away. Do you remember 
 your kindness to me 'lang syne' in this matter? / 
 shall never forget it, and mean to perpetuate the memory 
 of the same in my preface."
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 1 1 1 
 
 To THE REV. G. C. REXOUARD. 
 
 "Brunswick Square, April 20, 1840. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Renouard. 
 
 " Here followeth the etymology of riff-raff, 
 
 ereev-rav 
 
 the Hebrew for ' a mixed multitude,' the word used in 
 the Exodus, taste Dr. McCaul 5 ." 
 
 To THE REV. G. C. RENOUARD. 
 
 " City, 10 June, 1840. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Renouard, If a man were to come and 
 ask me what was written round the Emperor of China's 
 breakfast room, I should immediately address myself to 
 you in order to obtain the information. I am sure you 
 would be able to tell rne, if you chose. There is nothing 
 in the whole range of philology, from the unknown 
 tongue downwards, which is not as familiarly known to 
 you as your own vernacular. Mr. Thorpe has just this 
 instant put a question at my father, which we must refer 
 to you, ere we can answer. Pray tell us in what book 
 an engraving and account is to be found of the inscrip- 
 tions on the obelisk at Constantinople. Have they ever 
 been engraved, or otherwise published, and how, and 
 when, and where and by whom ? 
 
 " I should think it necessary to apologize to any one but 
 yourself, dear Mr. Renouard, for coming with such a 
 categorical category of questions ; but I know you will 
 dismiss the inquiry with the same readiness as I should 
 dismiss a troublesome fly who should settle on my nose 
 on a hot summer's day. 
 
 " Ever, my dear friend, 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " JOHN W. BURQON." 
 
 3 This derivation of nff-raff from Old French words ' rif etraf,' mean- 
 tin' Hebrew :n 3"i? ('ay-rev rav) is ing "every bit," "II ne lui lairra 
 highly ingenious, and if Dr. McCaul rif ny raf" " He will not leave him 
 were, as very probably he was, a single morsel, however trifling," 
 skilled in etymology, is worthy of to use Abram's phrase (Gen. xiv. 23), 
 consideration. Skeat, however, in " from a thread to a shoe-latchet." 
 his ' Etymological Dictionary of (he And he pronounces both rif and 
 Language ' [*. r.], cites the raf to be of Teutonic origin.
 
 1 1 2 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 To THE REV. G. C. RENOUARD. 
 
 "Brunswick Square, 14 August, 1841. 
 
 " My kind Mr. Renouard, Yesterday evening, while I 
 was at dinner, a parcel was put into my hands inscribed 
 * J. W. B., Esq., from Rev. G. C. Renouard.' My first 
 impulse was to exclaim. ' This is a mistake.' but when I 
 had turned the pages over, and came at last to a Har- 
 monic bretis, my ' prophetic soul ' made me sensible that 
 it was no mistake at all, but just one proof more of 
 that watchful, friendly care, which from the earliest 
 time I can remember, you have unceasingly displayed 
 towards me. 
 
 "You will not require to be assured, my dear Mr. 
 Renouard, that I feel much touched by this mark of 
 your friendship, not only a* a mark of friendship, but 
 indeed as a most salutary help, which has appeared pre- 
 cisely at the time when it was needed most. Till I have 
 completed my own task, I do not propose to consult the 
 oracle ; but the moment I have brought my own crude 
 imaginings to the sticking place (i. e. before I begin to use 
 the paste pot 6 ) I shall diligently examine the Harmony 
 with which you have supplied me. and so obtain a solu- 
 tion of all my difficulties. I feel as if it were you who 
 helped me. Although so distant, it seems as if you had 
 made a long arm, as the phrase is or rather as if you 
 were at your pupil's side. Once more accept my best 
 thanks. The excellent binding, and the extreme merit of 
 the copy, does not escape me. I am very grateful for 
 everything. 
 
 " Your obliged and affectionate, 
 
 " and most faithful servant, 
 " JOHN W. BUBGON. 
 
 HU Harmony was made by Gospels in the order in which he 
 
 cutting to pieces a printed copy of tl. ought they ought to stand, 
 
 the Authorised Version of the Abundant room is left for annota- 
 
 Goc pels, and pasting in to a large tions in the margin of the paper, or 
 
 manuscript book of scribbling paper on the leaf opposite to the Harmony, 
 
 the various excerpts from the different which is generally left blank.
 
 THE EARLY LIFE. 
 
 1 1 
 
 " I suppose you know that wa** is no corruption of 
 eat, but a good Teutonic word, represented in our 
 language by ' Mess ' 7 ; also that I. H. S. does not mean 
 liniiuini.ru Salvator, nor ever did mean, but that it is 
 the monogram of 'I7j<roi5y, and nothing else. 
 
 " Pardon this little P. S. If I am ever troublesome with 
 my etymological ana, remember, dear Mr. Renouard, that 
 it is all your fault for giving me such a taste that way, 
 or at all events, for fostering it." 
 
 7 This etymology also is very 
 doubtful ; and it would be safer to 
 adopt the usual one, that the word 
 M ;-.->" is derived from the words 
 "Ite mitsa est " said by the Priest 
 in dismissing the Catechumens or 
 Non-Communicants, when the Mass 
 (or Communion Service proper) was 
 about to commence. At all events, 
 even if J. W. B.'s connexion of mass 
 with "mess " be accepted, " mess " 
 is not a Teutonic but a Latin Word, 
 coming from the verb mitto, which 
 has among its meanings "to place 
 
 upon the table," " serve up." Hence 
 a " mess " means a dish, something 
 served up in a dish. The Italian word 
 " messo " means " a course at table." 
 Mr. Renouard was strong in 
 philology and etymology ; and 
 Burgon amused himself with throw- 
 ing out etymologies for him to rise 
 at, like a fish at a fly. One would 
 be interested to know what he said 
 to these etymologies suggested by 
 his young friend ; but the letters 
 containing his observations on them 
 have not been preserved. 
 
 VOL. [.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 
 
 From his Matriculation [Oct. 21, 1841] to his Admission 
 into the Order of Deacons [Dec. 24, 1848]. 
 
 . 1841. THE middle of October, 1841, found John William 
 ^- 28.] 5 ur g 0n a t the place where he was destined to spend so 
 large a portion of his time, and where his brother-in-law, 
 the Rev. Henry John Rose, always acted towards him so 
 brotherly a part the "moated parsonage" house of 
 Houghton Conquest in Bedfordshire, the charms of 
 which and of the surrounding country he has himself 
 described so picturesquely in his ' Lives of Twelve Good 
 Men' " The scenery round about his" [Mr. Rose's] "se- 
 cluded 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 8 ." He went there Oct. 16, 1841, and on Tuesday, 
 Oct. 19, we find this entry in his Journal: "Having 
 asked a blessing on our errand, Rose and I started per 
 Fletcher's coach for Oxford. Reached there in the even- 
 ing." What followed shall be given in the language of 
 four very interesting letters written to his sisters 9 (then 
 
 8 ' Lives of Twelve Good Men ; ' (2) To Miss H. E. BUEGON .... 
 
 HENKT JOHN KOBE. Vol. i. p. Oct. 28, 1841. 
 
 288. (3) To Miss BURGON .... Oct. 
 
 ' (i) To MissBuBGON. Kev. H. 29,1841. 
 
 J. Kose, HoughtoQ Conquest, Oct. (4) To Miss H. E. BUEGON .... 
 
 37, 1841. Oct. 30, 1841.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE : FIRST PERIOD. 1 1 5 
 
 staying at Houghton) after his return to London on 
 Friday, Oct. 22. 
 
 "We passed Hartwell. and through Aylesbury, and 
 Thame (whence the Thames takes its name, a curious 
 town full of ancient-looking houses) and so on to Oxford 
 over Forest Hill, where the first Mrs. Milton lived : 
 and here Fletcher the coachman treated us to a charming 
 Malaprop-, for he declared that there was a tree still 
 existing under which Milton wrote ' Pilgrims Progress! 
 What struck him most, however, was the difficulty 
 Milton must have found in travelling from Cambridge 
 to Oxford before the Oxford and Cambridge coach was 
 started." 
 
 They put up at ' : the Angel," where they are located 
 in two bed-rooms, called respectively ' Jubilee " and 
 " Hertford " ; and there in the evening, " Dear Rose 
 wrote a letter to Dr. Pusey, announcing the arrival of 
 the bear and his keeper" (the jocose names, which the 
 family had given to himself and Mr. Rose), " and we 
 then went to bed." The next day they attend service at 
 St. Peter's Church (then under the incumbency of the 
 Rev. Walter Kerr Hamilton, afterwards Bishop of Salis- 
 bury), the architectural beauties of which, its parvis, its 
 preaching-book (ruled with orderly columns for all sorts 
 of statistics), and its crypt, " in consequence of the recent 
 rains about one foot under water/' are described in his 
 usual lively manner. Then he goes into ecstasies to his 
 sisters about the Bodleian Library : 
 
 " Such extraordinary pictures ! " [in the Bodleian 
 Gallery] " a dozen or two of the old founders 
 with their wives coats of arms and inscriptions in 
 gilt letters such old loves \ There is Lord Burghley 
 on his little muile l , Columbus all the old Bishop* 
 
 1 In the portrait in question, on the white mule, on which he 
 Lord Burleigh ia represented sitting used to ride down to Westminster. 
 
 I 2
 
 ii6 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 in short such a collection as one would not know 
 
 where to match out of Oxford ; nor are works of art 
 altogether wanting. There is a most speaking likeness 
 of Garrick, some fine Gainsboroughs, a superlative Sir 
 Joshua. In short there is much to study and admire, as 
 well as to smile at and feel interested in." 
 
 After a visit to Parker's shop, " a kind of lounge for 
 the young men who love books," and " the stores of 
 which make one's very heart flutter/' they returned to 
 their Hotel, to await the great man, under whose auspices 
 John William Burgon was to matriculate at Oxford as a 
 Commoner of Worcester College. 
 
 " Dr. Pusey had announced himself for one o'clock ; 
 and soon after one the waiter came into the room where 
 we were sitting, looking like a dog with his tail between 
 his legs, and announced Dr. "Pusey. 
 
 " I believe you have seen him : however he is much 
 improved in appearance, since we saw him last at Dods- 
 worth's. He has grown plumper (rather), and looks a 
 little more cheerful. He immediately entered on the 
 subject of our visit with Rose, and very kindly proposed 
 to conduct him (and me) to Worcester College, where he 
 said he would introduce us to the Provost of the College, 
 having first distinctly declared it to be his opinion that 
 Worcester College was the best I could go to. 
 
 " We went towards the place with him, and he talked 
 to us as we went along, or rather he talked to Rose. I 
 cannot pretend to write all he said, first because it was 
 very slight, next because I heard him imperfectly, and 
 lastly because what he did say, and I heard, requires the 
 modifying influence of tongue, eye, and face to give it its 
 due meaning, and no more. The general upshot of what 
 he said was that it was distressing to be so misunderstood 
 and misrepresented. 
 
 J. W. R spells the word " muile," it with which his sister would 
 and marks it under, probably to be familiar, 
 indicate some mode of pronouncing
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 1 1 7 
 
 " On arriving at Worcester College, I remained in the 
 Quadrangle, while my two conductors knocked at the 
 Provost's door. I was extremely anxious to see Worcester 
 College, as you may easily suppose, a place that is to 
 become my Home ! and I was not disappointed. It is a 
 newish-looking College, but pretty ; and within the 
 quadrangle are some very ancient buildings. It is in 
 fact the most recent collegiate foundation in Oxford, 
 having been endowed by a Sir something Cook, in the 
 year 1 700, or thereabouts ; but it is to me a delightful 
 circumstance that it occupies the site of the most ancient 
 establishment for religious instruction in Oxford, St. 
 Frideswide's Abbey (founded A.D. 700) always excepted, 
 of which hereafter. What follows is a slight sketch of 
 the front of the College, from memory " [here follows a 
 very rapidly executed pencil sketch], " This is the 
 front. When you have got through the door, you 
 see somewhat thus" [another hasty sketch]. "I had 
 scarcely lost sight of Mr. Rose and Dr. Pusey, when 
 they re-appeared, and they told me that the Provost had 
 gone out for a ride. It was accordingly settled that 
 the visit must be deferred till to-morrow. Dr. Pusey 
 walked homewards, and we insensibly followed in the 
 direction of Christ Church (of which he is a Canon) ; and 
 in about a quarter of an hour we stood at his door, the 
 right hand corner of a magnificent quadrangle, the largest 
 in Oxford, built by Cardinal Wolsey with truly royal 
 magnificence. He desired us to walk in, which we gladly 
 did ; and he led the way into a cheerful library, in sad 
 but sacred confusion. The legs of the wooden chair on 
 which he was sitting were altogether blocked up by the 
 works of Irena3us and St. Basil. Over his mantel-piece 
 were three German prints, thus ; " [rough pencil sketches 
 of two of them] " St. John the Baptist ; our Saviour's 
 Passion ; and the third was an interesting representation 
 of St. John's preaching, I suppose. Before him were the 
 portraits of his two poor sickly children, and I think 
 elsewhere in his room (or else it was at Mr. Newman's), 
 Vandyke's treble portrait of Charles I. His books were 
 mostly on Divinity, all learned. He said with a smile
 
 1 1 8 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 that, his Fathers were in the next room, mostly. Rose 
 talked to him about Neander 2 , of whom Dr. P. gave us 
 a very interesting account ; but I leave dear Rose to tell 
 you what he said about Bickersteth, &c., &c., &c. We 
 took leave of Dr. Pusey in the course of about half an 
 hour. In the meantime he had kindly repeated his offer 
 of supplying me with half a sitting-room in his house 
 till accommodation can be provided for me in College 
 (which is extremely kind and condescending, though I 
 fear it will not suit); and he said he would write to 
 Dr. Cotton, his brother-in-law, to make an appointment 
 for us for the morrow. And so we took our leave of 
 him." 
 
 After their dinner at the Hotel that evening (" tough 
 beefsteaks, and potatoes like bullets, whereof the horrible 
 memory haunts me yet"), 
 
 "there came a note from the Provost of Worcester 
 College, bidding us call upon him at nine next morn- 
 ing Next morning accordingly we got up like 
 
 good boys, brake our fast betimes, and then got under 
 way for Worcester College. Dr. Cotton in his note 
 had recommended that I should be examined at once, 
 and Dr. Pusey seconded the motion, much to my 
 alann and disgust. However, we resolved, if Dr. Cotton 
 should repeat the invitation to be examined, that I 
 should immediately do the needful; and accordingly, I 
 had scarcely lost sight of Mr. Rose (who went into the 
 
 * Mr. Rose, who was an accom- man came in and purchased the new 
 
 plished German scholar, had trans- volume, just as the brothers-in-law 
 
 lated 'Neander's History of the were leaving the shop ; whereupon 
 
 Christian Religion and Church Mr. Newman indicated a desire to 
 
 during the firt three centuries' know Mr. Rose, which led to the 
 
 The second volume of this transla- visit to his rooms described in the 
 
 tion had just appeared, the first sequel. Neander, a Jew by birth, 
 
 having made its appearance in 1831, but a Christian by deep conviction 
 
 ten years earlier. The second and by Baptism, was born at Gottin- 
 
 volume was lying upon Parker's gen, Jan. 17, 1789, and died of the 
 
 counter, when Burgon and Mr. cholera, July 14, 1850. 
 Rose were in the shop. Mr. New-
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE : FIRST PERIOD. 1 1 9 
 
 Doctor's, while I waited in the Quadrangle) before he re- 
 appeared, and introduced me to Dr. Cotton. He is a 
 small man, looking like an old little lot/ very kind and 
 gentle 3 ; and he assured me it was a very small matter ; 
 told me that the Tutor who should examine me, knew 
 that I must be handled gently, and in short said enough 
 to make me instantly run off' in quest of what I had five 
 minutes before been so nervous about. I found the 
 Tutor (a Mr. Muckleston 4 , I think) in his studious little 
 room, and told him what I had come for. He seemed a 
 little astonished to hear that I had read no Greek for ten 
 years, and that I knew so little of Latin. However, he 
 bade me name the books I would be examined in. Tibby " 
 (the supposed name of " the Bear," as he called himself,) 
 ' happened the night before to have had a little talk 
 with his keeper over a proof-sheet of Herodotus, in which 
 some books had come wrapped up from Parker's. So, 
 being at a loss to know what to say, he now said he 
 should like to be examined in Herodotus and Cicero, 
 which was rather saucy ; but you know Tibby is a saucy 
 fellow. 
 
 " Well, my executioner was very kind about it ; chose 
 half-a-dozen easy lines of each, and told me to turn a 
 little of ' the Spectator ' into Latin. So he gave me a pen 
 and ink and paper, and said I must make haste, for in 
 
 3 " Our Provost, might I paint Ever the first in Chapel : at his 
 
 him, was a man prayers 
 
 Of wondrous grave aspect : of A homily to inattentive hearts : 
 
 stature small, The college loved, revered him, to 
 
 Yet full of Christian dignity ; so a man." 
 
 full " Worcester College " [Poems by 
 
 Of human kindness, that a child John William Burgon, B.D., Dean 
 
 could pick of Chichester]. 
 
 The lock upon his heart. Twas * " Then, would you know our 
 
 sport to watch, Tutors, each was great, 
 
 When chased by beggars near the But in his several way. What 
 
 College wall, excellent gifts 
 
 (Some mother of a fabulous brood Were Muckleston's ! (my Tutor 
 
 of bairns,) he ; well skilled 
 
 How soon he'd strike his colours to In dialectic ; grand in all the moods 
 
 the foe. From ' Barbara' on)." Hid.
 
 120 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 half-an-hour we should be wanted in the Convocation 
 Room (where the young men are matriculated). Of 
 course I made sad hash of it ; but he said it would do 
 very well, and took me into another room, where my 
 name was taken down ; and I was told I must imme- 
 diately provide myself with a cap and gown and a 
 white tie. 
 
 " A little juicy tailor was in attendance with plenty of 
 caps and gowns ; and he lent me one which, though it 
 did not fit, did very well for the purpose. The white 
 tie was a sad home thrust ; but my friend who had been 
 examining me undertook to supply that, which he kindly 
 did immediately, and out I walked, looking, or at least 
 feeling, wonderfully awkward and foolish. I scarcely 
 knew whether I stood on my head or my heels when I 
 entered the Convocation Room, and found myself in a 
 little mob of persons with caps and gowns, maces, and 
 red inner garments. 
 
 " Here, however, to my surprise and pleasure, I met 
 some friends. Brancker was the first to find me out, 
 and very surprised he was to see me, as you may sup- 
 pose. He welcomed me very cordially, and had scarcely 
 done so, when Mr. Jacobson espied me. He was ex- 
 tremely friendly. Next, who should I see but Mr. 
 Hensley ! He had just come to enter his brother, also at 
 Worcester College ; so he introduced me to him 
 
 4i Well ; there was a great deal of delay, while some 
 twenty young B.A.'s were being metamorphosed into 
 M.A.'s, after which ' we youth ' were called up, one by 
 one, and in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor were re- 
 quested to sign the Thirty-Nine Articles ; that is to say, 
 we signed our names in a great book. My own interest- 
 ing autograph ran as follows (I leave Mr. Rose to 
 explain). 
 
 ' ' John W. Burgon, Gen. Fil. CoU. Vigorn.' I think 
 that was all ; but I felt nervous and scarcely knew what 
 I wrote. 
 
 " Well ; we were then presented each with a copy of 
 
 Statutes (I should rather say, extracts from the 
 
 Statutes) of the University, and desired to stand round
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 121 
 
 in a circle : when the first young man, in behalf of us all, 
 read aloud an oath which we took, and in ratification of 
 which wo all kissed the Bible. This oath is such a lort 
 of an Oath, that I cannot resist the inclination I feel 
 to set it down for you, though I rather begrudge the 
 trouble : 
 
 " ' I, J. W. B., do swear that I do from my heart abhor, 
 detest, and abjure as impious and heretical, that dam- 
 nable position and doctrine " That Prince* excommunicated 
 of di-fniri'il Ly ihe Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, 
 may he deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other 
 whutxoer- . 
 
 " ' And I do declare, that no foreign Prince, Person, 
 Prelate, State, or Potentate hath, or ought to have, any 
 jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or au- 
 thority, ecclesiastical, or spiritual, within this realm. 
 " ' So help me God, &c.' " 
 
 The Mr. Hensley 6 , whom he mentions above, became 
 during their undergraduate career, and remained ever 
 afterwards, despite material differences in their theo- 
 logical views, Burgon's fastest and fondest friend. He 
 has given most valuable assistance to the writer in 
 drawing up the narrative of the early Oxford days of 
 his old friend ; and excerpts from Burgon's letters to 
 him will be presented to the reader in the sequel. He 
 it is to whom Burgon paid, ten years afterwards, the 
 visit which he describes so beautifully in the touching 
 little poem, "Worcester College" [' Poems' p. 86], in 
 the course of which the two old College friends " count 
 o'er the names" of their academical contemporaries, 
 many of them departed, 
 
 "many more 
 
 Grown husbands, fathers, widowers ; while of some 
 We had no news, and wondered how they fared." 
 
 8 Now the Reverend Alfred Hensley, Rector of Cotgrave, near Not- 
 tingham.
 
 1 2 2 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 In the last extract from his letters to his sisters, he 
 has been describing the ceremony of his admission to 
 the University in a spirit of badinage, and in a tone of 
 mock solemnity ; but he is aware that, underlying the 
 badinage, there is a proud consciousness in his mind of 
 having attained at length to membership of a world- 
 famous corporation. After he has restored his Academi- 
 cals to the "juicy little tailor," and his white tie to the 
 tutor who had lent it, and was, in point of costume, him- 
 self again, 
 
 " I then went in search of the porter of the College. 
 I already felt six inches taller since breakfast I felt as 
 if a part of the burthen of Oxford had fallen on my 
 shoulders. I was part and parcel of the grass plot and 
 the College. The College was my college ; the quad- 
 rangle, my quadrangle ; the porter, my porter ; the 
 porter's son, my porter's son. I accordingly sent him 
 in quest of his dad : for I wanted to examine my Library, 
 my Hall, and my Chapel. 
 
 "The Library is spacious, and well-furnished, al- 
 together a very superior one. The Hall is clean and neat 
 and cheerful ; but not at all (or very little) Collegiate, I 
 mean, it is Greek, not Gothic. Ditto of the Chapel. 
 However, all three pleased me much. The Prayers are 
 read in Latin every morning at \ past 7 in winter, and 
 seven in summer ; so Tibby must turn out a little 
 earlier than he has been accustomed." 
 
 Mr. Newman having given Mr. Rose some encourage- 
 ment to think that he would be glad to receive a visit from 
 him and his protege", they determine to pay their respects 
 in that quarter, find the great man "at dinner in the 
 Common Room," but were told that they might perhaps 
 see him later, " for that he usually sate up and wrote 
 rather late." After spending the evening with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Jacobson, and chatting till nearly ten o'clock, they 
 again repair to Oriel College.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 123 
 
 We found Mr. Newman sitting by his fireside in a 
 comfortable library-looking sitting-room. He had been 
 writing ; and, as I should think, something which he felt 
 anxious about ; for at every few words there occurred 
 an erasure. He apologized for the confusion in which 
 we found him ; but it was quite superfluous, for every- 
 thing was in very tolerable order. I did not remark in 
 his furniture anything remarkable. He had a print or 
 two ; by the by it was he who had the portrait of 
 Charles I ; I noticed nothing else particularly 
 
 " Mr. Newman was kind enough to say he 
 
 should hope to see me when I go up to Oxford. I hope 
 he will. I am sure I shall covet his friendship ; but it 
 is equally certain that I will not pester him, or run after 
 him. or after any one else. Ask Rose to tell you the 
 story of the New Zealander's breakfast, if he has not 
 told it to you already, which I would lay a small wager he 
 has done. You can't think how well Mr. Newman told 
 that story ! He talked to us about several matters, 
 railroads, monumental inscriptions, New Zealand, Dr. 
 
 Pusey, &c., &c. In his voice, he is more like than 
 
 any one else we know ; both in voice and manner, but 
 very unlike him in face. On such occasions, however, 
 paying a first visit, at an uncouth hour, without any 
 particular object, the conversation, as you know, is 
 always rather tire par lea c/ieveux. We did not quite hide 
 our faces behind one another and say, ' No, Sir ' ' Don't, 
 Tom ' " [here a rough grotesque sketch of the attitude 
 indicated] ; " but something very like it." 
 
 Next morning, he sees Mr. Rose off to Houghton 
 Conquest, and is late for the commencement of the Daily 
 Service at St. Mary's, but in time for the Lessons, 
 " which Mr. Newman read beautifully ; " after which, 
 
 " I had still an hour or two to pass in Oxford ; so 
 I went to see Brancker. He received me with much 
 kindness. He is Divinity Lecturer at his College (Wad- 
 ham), and gave me much useful practical advice. He 
 assured me that, if I could number Dr. Pusey, Mr. New-
 
 1 24 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 man, and Mr. Jacobson, among my friends, I should 
 come up to Oxford under the best auspices. He begged 
 me to write to him, if I wanted any further information, 
 &c., &c. So we parted ; and I took a stroll round the 
 garden of Wadham College, one of my favourite 
 
 haunts 
 
 "After a farewell visit to Parker's, I glanced once 
 more at all the beloved buildings, and said in my heart 
 to the towers, spires, and walls around me, ' Good-bye 
 for the present, my dears.' I then went to the inn, 
 wrote a hasty line to Dawson Turner, and came home" 
 [to Brunswick Square] " by the Great Western Railway, 
 
 as fast as steam would carry me My best love 
 
 to all around you, and many kisses to the beardless of 
 the beloved circle." 
 
 In what remains of this Period we shall leave John 
 
 William Burgon, through the medium of his letters, to 
 
 speak for himself. Certain facts, however, need to be 
 
 stated, by way of explaining those letters. On March 
 
 1842. 10, A.D. 1842, his work being now at an end in London, 
 
 ' J he bade adieu to Brunswick Square, after drawing the 
 
 rooms in which he and his family had lived so long 
 
 and happily. 
 
 "At I2 left home!!!! !," says the Journal; "Rose 
 and I reached Houghton at 7. I this day entered on a 
 new life. May God bless it ! It was a sad parting." 
 
 (His mother and sisters did not leave the old home till 
 June 2, more than two and a half months afterwards.) 
 Thenceforth his time was divided between Oxford during 
 the terms, and Houghton Conquest during the vacations, 
 where he devoted himself unintermittingly under Mr. 
 Rose's guidance to his classical studies. Rarely did he 
 allow himself a week or ten days at home under the 
 roof of his parents, who still continued to reside in 
 London after quitting Brunswick Square. Those who
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 125 
 
 remember the consuming passion for poetry, which he 
 had exhibited in his early life, will not be surprised to 
 find that, on going to Oxford, the first object of his 
 ambition, perhaps it should be said of his strenuous 
 determination, was to win Sir Roger Newdigate's prize 
 for the best composition in English Verse. For this prize 
 he competed in 1 842, his first year of residence at Oxford 
 (the subject being Charles XII), in 1843 (the subject 
 being Cromwell), and again in 1844 (the subject being 
 the Battle of the Nile), all three times unsuccessfully. 
 But his energy and elasticity of mind were proof against all 
 discouragement: and in 1845 came a brilliant success, all 
 the more gratifying because so long delayed, ' Petra* 
 
 "May 23, 1845. At i\ o'clock, Greswell announced A.D. i 
 to me that I had won the Newdigate ! ! Lam Deo." 
 
 And on a separate page at the end of the Diary : 
 "June 5, 1845. Yesterday I recited ' Petra' in the 
 Theatre. I have great reason to feel most thankful for 
 the joyful manner in which all went off. How good to 
 us our Heavenly Friend is ! I felt all manner of com- 
 forts, and have since been only able to call to mind more. 
 May I live to consecrate my prose and verse to His 
 honour and praise ! J. W. B." 
 
 Later in that year he took his degree of B.A., Nov. 
 20 6 , after being under examination in the Schools from 
 Nov. 12 to Nov. 19 (both inclusive). 
 
 6 In a letter to Mr. Hensley pure villainy." It is rather touching 
 
 (who, as we have seen, had been to read in his Journal of the next 
 
 matriculated on the same day), month (May 25, 1848) ; "Hensley 
 
 dated April 28, 1848, he looka for- took his degree. I could not (not 
 
 ward to taking his M.A. degree money enough)." In the following 
 
 with his old friend : " We must month, however, the money seems 
 
 put on our M.A. gowns (D.V.) to have been found. "Wed. June 
 
 the same day next term, and strut 14, 1848, put on my M.A. gown, 
 
 all round Oxford in them, running Laus DEO." 
 over the Proctor, if possible, for
 
 i26 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 On a separate page at the end of the Diary occurs this 
 note, written at the close of his Examination, and before 
 it was known what Class he had gained : 
 
 " 57 St. John's Street, igth Nov., 1845. Wednesday 
 Evening. With inexpressible gratitude to the Giver of 
 all good, do I here set down the record that my troubles 
 ended this day. My anxious reading, my many thought- 
 ful, wistful hours, have all tended to this point ; and it 
 is past ! God be thanked and praised ! Let me now 
 look forward to something higher, nobler, more abiding ! 
 J. W. B." 
 
 On Nov. 26, "The Class List came out at 3. Thank 
 GOD, I am no lower." This is the only notice taken by 
 him in his Journal of what must have been a sore dis- 
 appointment to him, his failure to take a First Class. 
 One of the reasons of this failure probably was that, 
 while enjoying and appreciating the Classics in a way 
 which they who obtain the highest honours very rarely 
 are found to do, he was, from want of early grounding, 
 deficient in the technicalities of Grammar, and the nicer 
 refinements of Scholarship. But let us listen in this 
 matter to his contemporary and intimate College friend, 
 Rev. Alfred Hensley, who thus writes to the author as 
 to Burgon's attendance at Lectures, and his eagerness to 
 avail himself of all the opportunities held out to him. 
 
 " Never did a more devoted, humble, loyal, dutiful 
 ahiniiiux pass the threshold of Alma Mater; never did any 
 student strive more vigorously to avail himself of all 
 advantages within his reach. Day and night were well 
 alike to him ; and I have ever marvelled how his con- 
 stitution bore the excessive strain, continuous as it was, 
 and how in the intervals of meals, and slight restricted 
 recreation, he invariably maintained a buoyant, exube- 
 rant cheerfulness and fun, which made happy all who 
 had the good fortune to be associated with him. 
 
 "Burgon took no more than a Second Class. How was
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 127 
 
 this ? You are doubtless aware of his disadvantageous 
 start. I do not attribute his failure (shall I so call it ?) 
 to this ; but as in a march, & forced march through a 
 territory, the man who now and again steps aside in 
 botanical or geological research, is retarded in his pro- 
 gress, so Burgon was never satisfied without a nice 
 exact ferretting out of every difficulty, sometimes amus- 
 ingly apparent in the Lecture Room, where the tutor 
 always indulged and appreciated his integrity and zeal. 
 He never rested until he had acquired all that could be 
 known respecting the matter before him. His inter- 
 ruptions of the Lecture were to be seen as well as heard ; 
 and his humble, plaintive manner of enquiry was a strik- 
 ing contrast to the dry, solemn mode of the tutor's 
 reply, who nevertheless, I believe, always appreciated 
 Burgon's earnest thirst for information. I believe his 
 notes on the Classics would wonderfully testify to the 
 fact of his probing every question to the depth, and 
 would thus tell of hours lost, I mean by lost, that 
 a much more superficial acquaintance would have an- 
 swered his purpose in the Schools Nothing, I 
 
 feel sure, would have induced Burgon to undergo the 
 process of cramming ; he would have regarded it as a 
 moral degradation." 
 
 His own view of the reasons of his failure to obtain 
 a First Class will be seen in the Letter of Nov. 22, 
 1845, to Mr. Dawson Turner. 
 
 The names of the Masters of the Schools who con- 
 ducted the Examination in Michaelmas Term, 1845, were 
 Henry George Liddell (now Dean of Christ Church), 
 Charles Daman, John Matthias Wilson, and Arthur 
 West Haddan. 
 
 Early in the year succeeding that in which he took A - D - l8 
 his degree there appeared his " Remarks on Art with 
 reference to the Studies of the University. In a letter 
 addressed to the Rev. Richard Greswell, B.D., Tutor 
 (late Fellow) of Worcester College." His soul must
 
 i 2 8 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 have been in its pleasant places, while writing that 
 pamphlet; for it would take him back to the old 
 familial- pursuits and associations of his early life, 
 which had been broken off for three full years by the 
 stern necessity of classical studies. It is pleasant to 
 see, while reading it, how much at home he is in his old 
 element, and how discursive he accordingly becomes, 
 expatiating freely on either side of him, as tempting 
 themes seduce him from the straight path of his argu- 
 ment. The ostensible purpose of the Letter is to urge 
 upon Mr. Ores well, his most kind friend, and recently his 
 College Tutor, and through him upon the authorities of 
 the University generally, the providing of some means, 
 more than Oxford then afforded, of studying Ancient and 
 Modern Art. Ancient Literature, he argues, to the study 
 of which the University directs her alumni, as the prin- 
 cipal instrument of Education, is more or less closely 
 connected with Ancient Art, so that " to understand either 
 one must study loth" and " that to understand the one 
 thoroughly, without studying the other at all, is utterly 
 impossible " [p. 46]. He suggests therefore that a series 
 of casts be provided from the ^Eginetan marbles, from 
 the Parthenon marbles, and from the celebrated sculp- 
 tures of the epoch after Alexander the Great (the Laocoon, 
 Farnese Hercules, &c.) and placed in the Taylor Gallery 
 in a position accessible to students. But he also takes 
 occasion to enlarge on ancient Coins, as illustrative of 
 ancient history, and furnishing many portraits of the 
 great personages of antiquity. And although he holds 
 painting, as distinct from colouring, to be an Art 
 of Christian growth, he would fain " see the walls of 
 some building in Oxford adorned with faithful copies of 
 the grandest pictures in the world " ; for " no one can 
 study the works of Raphael without improvement : no
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 129 
 
 one can understand them without study" [pp. 68, 69]. 
 " Two of the affections of bodies," he says [p. 13], 
 " Number and Quantity are deemed sufficiently im- 
 portant to constitute the principal feature in the education 
 of the sister University : a high place too they enjoy in 
 our own system. Is it not somewhat extraordinary that 
 two other, equally inseparable, affections of bodies, 
 Form and Colour should constitute, in neither place, 
 oii;/ part of education at all? " It must be admitted that 
 in this Pamphlet he calls attention, in a manner at once 
 useful and interesting, to a weak point in the then sys- 
 tem of education at the University, that point being 
 the very jejune provision made for the cultivation of 
 artistic tastes in her students. He maintains that those 
 students are not without the rudiment of such tastes, as 
 is shown by the pictures with which they adorn the walls 
 of their rooms. " We have but to look around us to be 
 convinced that there exists in this place a strong yearning 
 for Art : which only wants direction, in order that it may 
 be made available for a high purpose." It may be added 
 that several of the suggestions made in this pamphlet in 
 regard to the Taylor Gallery, have so commended them- 
 selves as reasonable to the authorities of the University, 
 that they have been carried into effect. 
 
 It may be mentioned in this connexion as another 
 instance which goes to shew that artistic occupations 
 had not lost for Burgon the attractiveness, which from 
 his earliest years they had, that the Frontispiece of Mr. 
 Linwood's 'Anthologia Oxoniensis.' in which are represented 
 the coins of some of those cities of Asia Minor, which 
 contended for the honour of having been the birthplace 
 of Homer 7 , was executed by him. He was one of the 
 
 7 This Anthology contains many pieces of Latin and Greek Verses, 
 exquisite translations, and original Perhaps the gem of the Collection is 
 VOL. I. K
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 earliest members of the Oxford " Art Society," of which 
 Dr. Wellesley and Mr. Greswell, Burgon's old College 
 Tutor and most kind friend, were the leaders and heads ; 
 and the work of designing the Frontispiece for Mr. Lin- 
 wood's book would be in every way a congenial one, not 
 only because Art was one of his fortes, but as summoning 
 back to him the associations of his past. The publica- 
 tion is dated 1846, the year in which he put forth his 
 ' Remarks on Art.' 
 
 On the 1 3th of April, 1846, began the Examination for 
 the Oriel Fellowship. From the brief notes in his Diary 
 he seems to have regarded his success as hopeless. 
 "Monday, Ap. 13. English Essay and Latin writing 
 Felt sure it was hopeless trying further." "Tues. Ap. 
 14. Latin Essay. Physical Paper. It is quite hopeless." 
 On a separate page at the end of the Diary is this 
 longer note. 
 
 "April 14, 1846, Tuesday night (2 o'clock). Yes- 
 Mr. Osborne Gordon's Greek Elegiacs to right, Chios. No. 7 and 8, the 
 on Chantrey's monument to the Two obverse and reverse of the coin be- 
 Children in Lichfield Cathedral. low, both of Mytilene. The seated 
 ParsSecunda. xx. Here is a descrip- figure (at head of title-page) recalls 
 tion of Burgon's Frontispiece, with a class of Greek sepulchral reliefs, 
 which Mr. Arthur Evans, keeper of in which departed ladies for in- 
 the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, stance are represented with articles 
 has kindly furnished the author : of the toilet, such as the unguent- 
 "The Medallions, as you rightly vase and mirror, suspended above 
 suppose, represent coins referring to the person here represented. Bur- 
 some of the cities that contended gon, who was no doubt familiarised 
 for Homer's birthplace. No. I, with with this kind of reliefs at Smyrna, 
 Legend of OMHPO2, answers to the has here apparently adapted one to 
 head of. Homer on coins of los; this the character of a Muse (the pensive 
 is on the left of the title-page. No. attitude suggesting perhaps Poly- 
 a, (on the right) with Homer seated, hymnia) and added the lyre. Eros 
 is from, a coin of Smyrna. No. 3, as a racer is introduced below, per- 
 left, Colophon.. No. 4, to right, haps to indicate the lighter subjects 
 Mytilene. No. 5, left, Teoa. No. 6, of the volume."
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 131 
 
 terday and to-day I have been at Oriel, trying for one of 
 the three vacant Fellowships. I had bright hopes till I 
 went in, and then all left me ! It is indeed hopeless. I 
 will add a word on Friday, when all is over. 
 
 " It is my comfort to think that all such things are in 
 higher keeping. GOD be praised for my disappointments, 
 as well as for my gratifications ! Amen, Amen ! " 
 
 But on Friday, the i 7th, an agreeable surprise was in 
 store for him. 
 
 " Ap. 17. Friday Night. I was this day elected a 
 Fellow of Oriel College. Hensley and Acres outstripped 
 the Provost's servant by half a minute in bringing me 
 the news. How full of blessings has my life been till 
 now ! This, the last, not least ! How wondrous it seems 
 that I should be vice Newman ! . . . . May GOD give me 
 grace and help to live as if I loved HIM, and was sen- 
 sible of His exceeding favour and mercy ! " 
 
 His degree taken, and his Fellowship secured, his next 
 principal object was to prepare himself for Holy Orders. 
 With this view, he attended, while residing in Oxford, 
 the Lectures of Professors Hussey and Jacobson. And 
 when at Houghton Conquest, he devoted himself to un- 
 remitting Theological study : and we meet with such 
 notices in his Diary as the following, written across the 
 register of several days ; " I was all this time fagging at 
 Pearson and some of the Fathers often for twelve hours 
 a day." 
 
 Under the date June 4, 1847, we come across this A-D- 184; 
 notice in the Diary : " Gained the Mlerton (Laus Deo !)." 
 The subject of the Ellerton Theological Essay Prize in 
 that year was, "The importance of Translation of the 
 Holy Scriptures 8 ." In the year 1846 he had competed 
 
 * On the title-page of his MS. in Passion Week, 1 847 Written on 
 copy of this Essay, he has written ; the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thtirs- 
 " Begun on the evening of Monday day and Saturday transcribed on 
 
 K 2
 
 132 
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 unsuccessfully for the same prize, the subject then being, 
 " That a Divine Revelation contains mysteries is no valid 
 argument against its truth." 
 
 It should be mentioned, if only by way of shewing the 
 immense amount of work of various descriptions under- 
 taken by him, that after his degree he took private 
 pupils, not however apparently to read for Honours 
 (which he seems to have considered that his Second 
 Class hardly justified him in doing) but simply to 
 prepare them for taking an ordinary degree. Thus 
 writes one of them to the author under date March 29, 
 1890: 
 
 Easter Monday and Tuesday, and 
 on Wednesday, when it was given 
 in." He had no high esteem for his 
 production ; for on one of the fly- 
 leaves is written in pencil ; " I never 
 glance over this very jejune Essay, 
 or think of it, without shame. The 
 rapidity with which it was written 
 is its sole apology. The success 
 which attended it, its sole merit. 
 J. W. B." Nevertheless, hia Essay 
 shews a perfect mastery of the main 
 points in which the Authorised Ver- 
 sion needs amendment, and sums up 
 very effectively all the learning on 
 the subject of the Septuagint. It is 
 interesting to observe that, while he 
 indicates passages of the New Tes- 
 tament, in which the Translation 
 might be improved, he does not ad- 
 rocate Revision. " It is the part of 
 a shallow wisdom that would seek 
 to tamper on slight grounds with 
 such a monument of collective learn- 
 ing and sound judgment [as the 
 Authorised Version]. And when it 
 u discovered (as every one will dis- 
 cover who makes the experiment) 
 
 that an approximation to excellence 
 is after all the utmost that is attain- 
 able ; that inconsistencies will be 
 discoverable after the greatest pains 
 have been bestowed, and that 
 scarcely a word can be disturbed in 
 the existing text without affecting 
 the harmony of remote and ap- 
 parently unconnected passages ; that 
 an attempt to remedy a mistransla- 
 tion in one place will probably in- 
 troduce an inconsistency i n another; 
 and that almost every thing, as it 
 stands, seems to have an assignable 
 reason ; when these considerations 
 have been duly entertained, it may 
 well be expected that the boldest 
 and most sanguine will be deterred 
 from the attempt to re-model." This 
 expectation was disappointed, as we 
 know. Remodelling, of the most 
 thorough and drastic character, both 
 as regards the text and the transla- 
 tion, was attempted some years 
 afterwards, and called down severe 
 castigation on its perpetrators from 
 the pen of the Denyer Prize Essayist 
 of 1847.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 133 
 
 " I read Greek Plays with Mr. Burgon at Oriel. There 
 was a tradition then that his elegant and felicitous trans- 
 lations got him his Fellowship at Oriel. Anyhow, it was 
 very charming to read with him. He was, as you know, 
 among his many other accomplishments, a poet. I, too, 
 loved poetry ; so we were quite en rapport. When we 
 finished the Plays, he said, ' Now, B *****, if you in- 
 tend to go in for Honours, and read Ethics, you had 
 
 better go to a First Class man.' So I went to , 
 
 then an enthusiast and a scholar. But I returned, after 
 taking my degree (a Pass, from broken health), to read 
 Theology with Mr. Burgon, following him over to 
 Houghton Conquest, where lived dear Mrs. Rose his 
 sister, and where I became very intimate with all the 
 family. Of his Theology I need say nothing: he was 
 a Master in it. He certainly, to my mind, interested his 
 
 pupils in their work When we finished our Plays, 
 
 and I was about to return to my College in the evening, 
 he would kiss me on the cheek, amusing, if it had not 
 
 been so sweet and loving Dear Dean Burgon ! 
 
 although of late years we corresponded only at Christ- 
 mas, I owe to him very much His last kind act 
 
 was to give me an introduction to Bishop John Words- 
 worth, our Diocesan." 
 
 And thus another (under date March 12, 1890), who 
 was a private pupil of J. W. B.'s some eight or nine 
 years after the time of which we are now speaking 
 (1847):- 
 
 " Burgon was very kind to me when I was at Oxford ; 
 
 and I often went to his rooms I only went in for 
 
 a Pass, and I got it ; so I am bound to say that he was so 
 far a success. I was very fond of him ; and he was most 
 quaint. To see him, as he talked of Mediaeval Art, pose 
 as a Saint in an old stained glass window was a sight to 
 
 be remembered But no stories of him that I know of 
 
 seem much good when written down. It was the man and 
 
 the manner that made them When one thinks 
 
 of him, it is as the true, fearless, loving friend, with a
 
 134 L IFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 heart that was not ashamed to shew its tears or its 
 love." 
 
 Finally, it will be desirable to say something in refer- 
 ence to Burgon's connexion with the Oxford Movement, 
 and to the influence which, as one or more of the an- 
 nexed letters shew, Mr. (afterwards Cardinal) Newman at 
 first exercised over him. The Movement was at its close 
 when he matriculated at Oxford in the October of 1841. 
 Early in that year the celebrated Tract XC had made 
 its appearance. This famous paper resembled, in the 
 sensation which it created in the Church, one of those 
 closing displays in pyrotechnics, the detonations of which 
 are repeated again and again, even when we think every 
 explosion to be the last. Bishop after Bishop charged 
 against the Tract. Four Tutors of important Colleges 
 " remonstrated," in the name of religion and morality, 
 against a method of interpretation, by which the Thirty- 
 Nine Articles might be made to mean anything or 
 nothing 9 . The Hebdomadal Board pronounced its mode 
 of interpreting the Articles to be " inconsistent with the 
 Statutes of the University." Shoals of Pamphlets and 
 Sermons threatened to overwhelm and extinguish the 
 offending paper, as an avalanche buries underneath it an 
 Alpine village ; bound up with all the censures it elicited, 
 Tract XC became the centre of a literature of its own. 
 Last, but not least, it exploded the series of ' Tracts for the 
 Timesl which were thenceforth discontinued by Mr. New- 
 man in deference to the unfavourable judgment which 
 his own Bishop, in common with every other Bishop on 
 the bench, pronounced upon this ill-starred publication. 
 
 The "Remonstrance" was ad- of Brasenose, Mr. Wilson of St. 
 
 dressed to the Hebdomadal Board, John's, Mr. Griffiths of Wadhain, 
 
 or Body of Heads of Houses, and and Mr. Tait of Balliol. 
 was signed by Mr. Churton, Tutor
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 135 
 
 John William Burgon, though at that time only a 
 theologian and controversialist in posse, had lived in the 
 midst of the ferment which the publication had created, 
 and must have been perfectly well aware of the many 
 grave censures which had been launched against it by 
 men of all schools in the Established Church. We can 
 only suppose that, being more or less prepossessed in 
 favour of the Oxford Movement by his attendance upon 
 Mr. Dods worth's ministry in London, he had elected to 
 take sides with Mr. Newman, and to support him, as 
 long as he found it practicable to do so, with all the 
 chivalrous generosity of his ardent and enthusiastic 
 nature. Alas! that this generous confidence of his 
 was destined to receive a rude shock, amounting to 
 a death-blow, when in October, 1845, Mr. Newman 
 a>ked of Father Dominic, the Passionist, then his 
 guest at Littlemore, admission into the one Fold of 
 Christ 1 ." 
 
 In that secession " there were great searchings of 
 heart," which revealed, in other cases besides that of 
 John W'iUiam Burgon, who were, and who were not, 
 true at the core of their moral being to the principles of 
 the English Reformation. Yet his deep personal vene- 
 ration for Mr. Newman subsisted still. In his letter to 
 Mr. Lawson of June 17, 1845 ( a portion of which will be 
 submitted to the reader presently), he gives a glimpse of 
 his feelings of vexation and dismay, should Newman's 
 secession, which was then only apprehended as possible, 
 occur. What his emotions were, when it did occur, and 
 having been sceptical at first as to the truth of the 
 rumour, he received confirmation of it from Dr. Pusey, 
 we learn from the interesting Address delivered by 
 
 1 The words in which Mr. New- tism, in his ' Apologia ' [London, 
 man himself expresses his Re-Bap- 1864], p. 367.
 
 136 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Prebendary Powles at the dedication of the Dean Burgon 
 Memorial Window in the Lady Chapel of Chichester 
 Cathedral (April 12, i89o) 2 . When Dr. Pusey told him 
 it was but too true, " he was completely overcome, 
 and burst into a passion of weeping so violent and so 
 long as to greatly perplex his companion. Speaking 
 of it to me many years afterwards, Burgon said, ' I 
 shed so many tears then that I have had none to shed 
 since.' " 
 
 L.D. 1848. It appears from his letters to Mrs. Hugh James Rose. 
 " and other friends, that early in the autumn of 1 848 he 
 had had thoughts of postponing his Ordination for six 
 months, and accompanying a pupil to Egypt and Syria. 
 But the scheme was frustrated. " I was within an ace 
 of starting for Egypt and Syria in a week or two," he 
 writes Sept. 14, 1848, in his usual punning vein, to the 
 Rev. R. Lawson (an intimate College friend, who had 
 now taken 'Holy Orders), "but cholera and war have 
 knocked the scheme on the head ; so it will be Sam 
 Oxon instead of John Crocodile after all." 
 
 His views and feelings in prospect of his Ordination, 
 as well as the account of this solemn crisis in his life, 
 so pregnant with happy consequences to himself and 
 others, will be best given in the words of the two 
 letters to Mrs. Hugh James Rose, with which this 
 Section closes. 
 
 What has been said will, it is hoped, serve to explain 
 the following excerpts from his Letters, where they may 
 need explanation. The Letters are given in the order of 
 their dates. 
 
 2 Printed for Private Circulation by Wilmshurst, Chichester.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 137 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Worcester Coll., 16 Feb., 1843. 
 
 ' My dear Friend, 
 
 " The Christmas Vacation has intervened since I ad- 
 dressed you last. I passed it altogether at Hough ton. 
 fVTVx&s fic'f, dAA.' ojuco? Ta TU>V TCKOVTCOV o/jt/ma^' TjfSioror 
 She-new 3 ! So said Sophocles, and so felt I. To be 
 invited home, and at Christmas too, Christmas, which, 
 in the words of the old song, 'comes but once a year,' 
 to be invited by one's Mother, and to have to decline ! I 
 never did such a thing in my life. But I felt clearly 
 that the alternative lay between pleasure and duty 
 Had I gone home, I should have done nothing ; by stay- 
 ing at Houghton I mastered the Agamemnon. I think 
 it is by far the most difficult Greek I ever encountered, 
 harder by far than the speeches in Thucydides (through 
 which I am ploughing very cheerfully). These last are 
 hard, excessively, I admit; so hard that I frequently 
 screw up my lamp about midnight, in order to throw 
 light on the subject, and rub my eyes (in vain) in order 
 to see through the condensed mass : but -^Eschylus offers 
 difficulties of quite another kind. A grammarian might 
 see through the one ; but it requires a poet to see through 
 the other. 
 
 " He reminds me very much of Shakspeare. They 
 were kindred spirits. I could almost point out passages 
 where one feels sure that if Shakspeare had written 
 Greek, he would have hit on the same turns of expression, 
 the same bold imagery and strong language. This is the 
 kind of speculation which particularly endears my 
 studies to me. I am told that it will avail me nothing 
 in the Schools, that it will not pay. But I care not ; 
 
 3 " Tho' it turned out for good, B.'s letters has been to accentuate 
 
 most sweet it is, his Greek quotations. Usually 
 
 Xathless, to see one's parents face to these are unaccentuated. From 
 
 face" want of practice probably, he did 
 
 [CEdipus, speaking of his long not feel confident enough to accen- 
 
 exile from Corinth]. (Ed. Tyr. 998, 9. tuate any but the more ordinary 
 
 The only liberty taken with J . W. words.
 
 i ^8 LIFE OF DEAN BUEGON. 
 
 O 
 
 it will make me happy; and we shall see, three or 
 four years hence, whether something new is not to be 
 said in illustration of the old Tragedians. ;! studied 
 the Agamemnon with the aid of Peile's Edition, which 
 you perhaps have seen. After I had finished my task, I 
 nattered myself that I understood the play pretty well, 
 and took the liberty of writing Mr. Peile a long letter of 
 three pages on the subject, chiefly critical. He has sent 
 me a very kind reply. 
 
 " I never passed eight weeks more uneventfully than 
 those of Christmas. I studied all day ; and the gloomy 
 season protected me from many invitations, and intrusions 
 of visitors. The contrast the country presented to the 
 bonny garb of green in which I had left it, was very 
 painful. The comfort was to consider that when I visit 
 Houghton again, all the beauty will be restored. Oh ! 
 how glorious it will be. I long to grapple with Aristo- 
 phanes, and renew my acquaintance with ^Eschylus, 
 things impossible here, where quantity is so insisted on, 
 and, I fear, as a necessary consequence, quality over- 
 looked. But I am not going to find fault with mine 
 University, where I am as happy as the days are long, 
 I mean as the days are short. 
 
 "I wish very much you could have heard a very 
 remarkable sermon Mr. Newman preached before the 
 University on the Feast of the Purification, the most 
 remarkable production of its class I ever heard 4 . So ex- 
 
 * Here ii another description of to hear what Newman had to say, 
 
 this famous sermon by another and St. Mary's was crowded to the 
 
 auditor, equally appreciative with door. The subject he spoke of was 
 
 Burgon, and equally endowed with ' The Theory of Development in 
 
 the poetical gift, the late Principal Christian Doctrine,' a subject which 
 
 Shairp. since then has become common 
 
 "There was one occasion of a property, but which at that time 
 
 different kind, when he spoke from was new even to the ablest men in 
 
 St. Mary's pulpit for the last time, Oxford. For an hour and a half he 
 
 not as parish minister, but as drew out the argument, and perhaps 
 
 University preacher. It was the the acutest there did not quite 
 
 crisis of the movement. On the 2nd follow the entire line of thought, 
 
 of February, 1843, the Feast of the or felt wearied by the length of it, 
 
 Purification, all Oxford assembled lightened though it was by some
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 139 
 
 tremely universal in its scope, that it was impossible, 
 from hearing it once, to grasp its meaning as a whole, 
 and so exceedingly subtle and often metaphysical, that it 
 was no less difficult to understand its several parts. Still 
 the general impression was clear enough, and such as I 
 shall not easily forget. Often when I am at my Greek, 
 a passage or a sentiment comes swelling across me, and 
 I cannot but stop to admire, even in memory, the un- 
 atit-cted eloquence of the preacher. I thought him sin- 
 gularly effective, yet could not but feel how completely 
 his very weakness (so to speak) was his strength. His 
 silence was eloquent, and his pauses worth a torrent of 
 rhetoric. He spoke of the connexion between Faith and 
 Reason, and enlarged on the memorable peculiarity of 
 the pages of Inspiration that, containing as they do the 
 principle of life within them, they are capable of infinite 
 xi>tence, and are eternally spreading and developing 
 
 startling illustrations. Such was 
 the famous ' Protestantism has at 
 various times developed into 
 Polygamy,' or the still more famous 
 ' Scripture says the sun moves round 
 the earth, Science that the earth 
 moves, and the sun is comparatively 
 at rest. How can we determine 
 which of these opposite statements 
 is true, till we know what motion 
 is ? ' Few probably who heard it 
 have forgot the tone of voice with 
 which he uttered the beautiful pas- 
 sage about music as the audible 
 embodiment of some unknown reality 
 behind, itself sweeping like a strain 
 of splendid music out of the heart of 
 a subtle argument : 
 
 ' Take another instance of an 
 outward and earthly form, or 
 economy, under which great wonders 
 unknown seem to be typified ; I 
 mean musical sounds, as they are 
 exhibited most perfectly in instru- 
 
 mental harmony. There are seven 
 notes in the scale ; make them four- 
 teen ; yet what a slender outfit for 
 BO vast an enterprise ! What science 
 brings so much out of so little ? 
 Out of what poor elements does 
 some great master create his new 
 world ! Shall we say that all this 
 exuberant inventiveness is a mere 
 ingenuity or trick of art, like some 
 game or fashion of the day, without 
 reality, without meaning? We 
 may do so ; and then, perhaps, we 
 shall also account the science of 
 theology to be a matter of words ; 
 yet, as there is a divinity in the 
 theology of the Church, which those 
 who feel cannot communicate, so 
 there is also in the wonderful crea- 
 tion of sublimity and beauty of 
 which I aui speaking,' &c., &c." 
 [Principal Shairp's 'Studies in 
 Poetry and Philosophy, 1 pp. 249-51. 
 Edinburgh: 1886.]
 
 140 
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 themselves in fresh forms of being 5 . I cannot how- 
 ever hope to give you an idea even of Newman's sermon. 
 I only alluded to the subject, because I gather from your 
 recent letters that you feel interested concerning him. 
 One of his friends who called on me yesterday, told me 
 that the sermon (with twelve others, all preached before 
 
 the University) will be published on Saturday 
 
 And now, my good friend, I wish you farewell. I fear I 
 write a sad, dull letter, but if you will fancy to yourself 
 a poor monk, the lonely tenant of a lonely cell in the 
 lonely corner of a lonely quadrangle in a lonely college, 
 will you wonder at his having no Paradise of Dainty 
 Devices ? In truth, I have nothing but my affectionate 
 good wishes to send to you all, and I beg you will ac- 
 cept them. 
 
 " Ever most faithfully yours, 
 
 5 J. W. B. has in his mind such 
 passages of the great Sermon as 
 these : " Such sentences as ' The 
 Word was God,' or ' the Only- 
 begotten Son who is in the bosom of 
 the Father,' or 'the Word was 
 made flesh,' or 'the Holy Ghost 
 which proceedeth from the Father,' 
 are not a mere letter which we may 
 handle by the rules of art at our 
 own will, but august tokens of 
 most simple, ineffable, adorable 
 facts, embraced, enshrined accord- 
 ing to its measure in the believing 
 mind. For though the develop- 
 ment of an idea is a deduction of 
 proposition from proposition, these 
 propositions are ever formed in and 
 round the idea itself (so to speak), 
 and are in fact one and all only 
 aspecta of it," p. 334. " Revela- 
 tion itself has provided in Scripture 
 the main outlines and also large 
 
 "JOHN W. BURGOX." 
 
 details of the dogmatic system. 
 Inspiration has superseded the 
 exercise of human Reason in great 
 measure, and left it but the com- 
 paratively easy task of finishing the 
 sacred work. The question, indeed, 
 at first sight occurs, why such 
 inspired statements are not enough 
 without further developments ; but 
 in truth, when Reason has once 
 been put on the investigation, it 
 cannot stop till it has finished it; 
 one dogma creates another, by the 
 same right by which it was itself 
 created ; the Scripture statements 
 are sanctions as well as informants 
 in the inquiry ; they begin and they 
 do not exhaust," p. 335. [Fifteen 
 Sermons preached before the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford, between A.D. 1826 and 
 1 843, by John Henry Newman,some- 
 time Fellow of Oriel College. New 
 Edition. London, MUCCCLXXXVU.]
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 141 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Houghton Conquest, July 1 7, 1 843. 
 
 " My dear Friend, .... I called on Mr. Rogers, 
 who certainly shows marks of his age, I mean men- 
 tally. Though he had been at home a few days before, 
 and expressed a particular wish to see me when I came 
 from Oxford, he seemed to have a very vague idea of the 
 categories of Trodev and TTOU'' (whence and where), "as far as 
 / was concerned. He was extremely kind however, 
 wanted me to breakfast with him, and gave me a Lec- 
 ture in the art of writing Poetry, &c., quite in the old 
 style, declaring that he had never in his life written 
 more than a couplet per diem ; that the young men wrote 
 all too fast, and so far repeated himself as to ask me 
 whether I should like to see the same thought expressed 
 by Wordsworth, Milnes, Southey and himself. Of course 
 1 \vas game for everything he pleased, and had and 
 capita (I c<l, as if it had been new to me. It was very 
 droll to hear him, in the same chair of the same room, 
 among the same pictures, and in the same voice, making 
 the very same remarks I have heard him make, at least 
 before, at intervals of a year or two. 
 
 " I write these few lines from a little room which looks 
 down on an avenue of limes, which limes being in full 
 blossom, attract swarms of bees (whose hives are in the 
 garden beneath) and a perpetual low hum is the result 
 from morning till night. I love bees they always seem 
 so industrious and one always thinks (at least / do) of 
 the delicate fare they are providing for me. At \ past 
 4, when I opened my window this morning, they were all 
 hard at work, humming away in their brown aprons, like 
 a set of little Manchester mechanics. 
 
 " My daily work has been hitherto twenty chapters of 
 Herodotus, and as many as I can master of Livy. I wish 
 to get it up to ten a day. I read besides with care two 
 chapters in the Old Testament, learn a piece of Latin by 
 heart, do a Latin exercise, and read a chapter of Greek 
 history. If I can go on as well as I have begun, or
 
 142 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 rather better, I shall satisfy myself > who, though I know I am 
 working as hard as ever I can, never feel satisfied, scarcely. 
 The thought of what I have to do has prevented nie from 
 knowing what it is to have my mind at rest, ever since I 
 went up to Oxford. I am quite in love with my books, 
 and enjoy my occupations amazingly." 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 " Houghton Conquest, St. Thomas' Day, 1 843. 
 
 " My dear Friend, 
 
 " You will see by the date of this letter where I am. I 
 prolonged my stay rather late in Oxford, because I was but 
 ill prepared for the little examination at the end of the 
 Term, and a few days all to one's self are suck a luxury after 
 the incessant occupation of eight weeks, occupation 
 which, however salutary 1 know and feel it to be, is a great 
 trial to one of my roving propensities, who hate wearing 
 blinkers ; but when I come across some curious subject. 
 love to follow up the hint (which commonly leads me 
 a most will-o'-the-wisp dance 'over brook, over briar'), 
 luxuriating, as I go, in all the odd pieces of information 
 I pick up on my way. To return, however, the result 
 of the few days I staid up was very satisfactory ; and I 
 had the pleasure of seeing ' exemplary ' written against 
 my name in the Provost's black book. If he does not give 
 me a book when I go back, I shall call him a very un- 
 gentlemanly person. 
 
 " I think the pleasantest party I was at during the 
 Term was at Mr. Newman's, who kindly invited me to 
 dinner at Oriel. It was very agreeable, you may be 
 sure, to be so near so good and so great a man for so many 
 hours. He joined in all the light talk which floated 
 round the table, and seemed to encourage it (I say light, 
 only as the reverse of serious or solemn) ; but at moments 
 he sank his head, as if deep in thought, and there came 
 over his very remarkable features such a painful expres- 
 sion of severe abstraction that it was almost startling to 
 witness. He is a wonderful man in every point of view :
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 143 
 
 and the only one I ever discoursed with, whom, entirely 
 loving. I felt I could not at all approach ; I scarcely know 
 how to explain myself ; but if you knew him you would 
 nod assent, and require no explanation. He certainly 
 cannot but feel that the habitual abiding place of his 
 thoughts is where no common mind could follow. Wish- 
 ing to know his mind well, would be like wishing to keep 
 company with an eagle, whose joy is to soar up the 
 sunbeam, and whose dwelling place is the pathless rock. 
 .... He was so kind, at my request, as to write some 
 words for me at the end of a beautiful Greek Testament 
 I use. Perhaps you will like to know the words he 
 chose ; they are from Habakkuk iii. 17, 18. 
 
 " Your kind partiality encourages me to hope you will 
 not think me playing the egotist too much, if I give you 
 an account of the studies of last Term. 
 
 " Old Aristotle I like better as I understand him more ; 
 but he requires a very peculiar and careful study. I 
 mean to give him both in due time ; at present I wish 
 to go over my work, and I have still Plato and Juvenal, 
 and Virgil, and Tacitus unbroken ground ! . . . . But 
 the studies I give my heart to, are those which directly 
 or indirectly bear on the sacred profession ; nor do I 
 really value any thing else, except so far forth as it bears 
 on this, and what classic reading does not in some degree 
 bear upon it ? " 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Houghton Conquest, Dec. 21, 1844. 
 
 " You will be glad to hear that I have been appointed 
 to the office of sub-Librarian of our College Library. It 
 is always held by an undergraduate for the actual 
 Librarian, who is a non-resident Fellow. I mean to 
 begin my Mayoralty by having cases made for three or 
 four of our crack books. One is Inigo Jones's copy of 
 Palladio, the margin of which he has jilted with his MS. 
 notes. Another is a curious volume bound with pearls ; 
 and another is a MS. Life of the Black Prince in Norman - 
 French, written by his Esquire. I hope some day I may
 
 144 LIFE OF DEAN BUBOON. 
 
 have the pleasure of showing you such of our Books as 
 you may care to see. It is one of the best Libraries in 
 Oxford." 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TCJRNER. 
 
 "Wore. Coll., April, 1845. 
 
 " Then we called on Mr. Rogers, who is just as usual 
 
 in appearance He saluted us with a speech you 
 
 will recognise as characteristic. ' Thank you for coming 
 to see me. I knew you were coming ; so I had some 
 crocuses laid down for you ! Come and look at them. 
 There they are, four and sixpenny worth, three pence 
 a piece ! But the misfortune is, the sparrows come and 
 eat them, as fast as the gardener lays them down.' It 
 often strikes me as such an odd thing that rich men talk 
 so much about money, persons of very high rank espe- 
 cially. I always think it bad taste ; and, however con- 
 venient a commodity, and important to be talked very 
 gravely about at certain times and in certain places, it is, 
 generally speaking, a very uninteresting and disagreeable 
 topic. I hope I am not wrong." 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 " Worcester College, May 23, 1 845. 
 
 " My dear Friend, I am sure you will sympathize 
 with my joy in having gained the Newdigate. Mr. Gres- 
 well brought me the joyful intelligence this afternoon (as 
 I was hard at work on that most unpoetical of subjects- 
 Logic), and Garbett confirmed the story immediately 
 after. Since which I have had a levy of friends in my 
 room ; but I steal a few moments to waft the news in a 
 quarter whence I have received so much kindness 
 whither so many affectionate thoughts so often tend- 
 where I am sure the news will impart some portion of 
 the pleasure it has imparted to myself. 
 
 " I feel very grateful for this blessing, and that on every 
 account. It is my last chance it is a sacred subject it 
 is the first poem the college has gained, and I know how 
 much pleasure my dearest ones will feel at my success.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 145 
 
 I shall also now see the foundation of a little library 
 laid Bull and Bingham and Hooker, and a few more, 
 all in smart jackets, flaming some with the University, 
 some with the College arms See how I look for- 
 ward ! But the truth is, I am just emptying my heart to 
 you. However, we have come to the bottom of it, and 
 the end of my story, and the few minutes of leisure which 
 remain, I will dedicate to some less egotistical theme." 
 
 To ROBERT LAWSON, ESQ. (an intimate College friend). 
 
 " Houghton Conquest, June 17, 1845. 
 
 - My don rest Robert, You are so kind as to allude 
 to l Pefra,' and to tell me of a few things which the hurry 
 of the last moment rendered it quite impossible for me to 
 consult you about, but which I wished much to ask you. 
 I should not be such an ass as to allude to such a trifle 
 as those verses still, except that I know (or am willing 
 to believe) that your partiality for the writer will reconcile 
 you to the egotism ; or to recur to the text as it stands, 
 except that I have strong reasons for believing that the 
 poem will pass through a second edition in which case, 
 one must, of course, desire to remedy as many blemishes 
 as possible. In truth, I had the satisfaction of learning 
 that nearly all the 500 which were first struck off, were 
 sold in one afternoon, so that next morning 500 more 
 were printed, and then the type was kept no longer 
 standing; so that Macpherson told me he should look 
 for reprinting the thing. 
 
 " Now I must recur to the passages you mention. 
 What sounded like ' public ' (you rascal for alluding to 
 Trafalgar Square !) I meant for ' bubbling,' and am glad 
 to find your taste accords with mine. If the line ever is 
 reprinted, it shall be 'bubbling 6 ,' which I altered to 
 ' babbling ' at Shairp's suggestion. So of ' sail'd ' for 
 
 ' Who many a time art well And small birds sing, and 
 
 content to stray bubbling fountains play." 
 
 Where garden-alleys quench 'Petra,' lines 7, 8, 9. 
 the blaze of day, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 1 swam 7 ,' and ' Saints' for 'Angels 8 ' all of which I shall 
 put back as they were originally. There is more euphony 
 in ' Saints impatient ' than ' Angels eager,' especially as 
 in the next line ' gates ' is meant to balance ' Saints ' still, 
 for the sacred text's sake, and because we both rather 
 prefer it, I alter that also. 
 
 " And now, I bid goodbye to a subject I am growing 
 heartily sick of. I have received such an immense num- 
 ber of letters, and many such silly ones, all about that 
 one short silly poem, that it will be quite pleasant to 
 hear of something new. To say nothing of a letter I got 
 from a mad lady, one informed me that Oxford ought to be 
 proud of me ! ! ! a class of remark which is really enough 
 to bring tears of laughter into the eyes of a dead cat. 
 .... And yet, on the other hand, the kindness and 
 chastened assurances of kind remembrance which my 
 success has brought me from many cherished quarters 
 was worth writing a hundred ' Petras' for; and I am 
 willing to hope that it is having the effect of watering 
 and keeping green my name in other places besides, 
 where I should be very sorry for it ever to be forgotten. 
 
 I hope in three weeks to finish Herodotus, and then to 
 give Thucydides a month. Then Livy, and after him 
 I suppose I must race over my plays: but (to speak 
 gravely) I hardly feel quite strong and great as I know 
 the responsibility, and keen as I feel the incentive to be, 
 I tire sadly over my work, and am shocked to perceive 
 how much more graces of style, pathetic pieces of narra- 
 tive, and touches of nature strike me, than the names of 
 people and places, and such things as get men first and 
 second classes in the schools. 
 
 " Since we have nothing better to write about, and I 
 am determined to write you a good long letter, I will beg 
 you to notice, as an example of the nature and pathos of 
 
 7 " For ships of Petra swam on eager to unfurl 
 
 every tide." The twelve broad gates, and 
 
 'Petra' line 226. ev ' ry gate a pearl." 
 
 "The twelve bright Angels, 'Pet,' lines 357, 358.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 147 
 
 Herodotus, one or two trifles. I suppose the Book in 
 your hands I. 112: observe how the mother keeps back 
 the alternative of exposing even the dead child, till she 
 finds her husband inexorable, and then solacing herself 
 with the thought of the ^00-1X77177 TCK/JTJ!" [royal burial 9 ] 
 " .... I. 1 19 : observe the touching incident, /ecu dyaA.a/3ow 
 TO AoiTra T>V Kptb)i\ ' gathering up the relics of what had 
 
 been his child * ! ' and the words which follow I. 1 22 : 
 
 the natural love of the child for his mother, or rather, 
 her who had supplied a mother's place to him ' He was 
 always going on about her, and could talk of nothing but 
 Cyno 2 ' .... and to give only one example more, I. 136 ; 
 after which 1 37 begins, ' Now I like this custom 3 !'.... But 
 enough of my Books, which now occupy all my thoughts. 
 " About Mr. Newman I have indeed felt most deeply. I 
 believe the story you have heard is not quite the true one ; 
 but of course no one can pretend to know anything with 
 
 9 Cyrus, when an infant, was 
 ordered by Astyages his grandfather, 
 who had been made apprehensive 
 by a dream that Cyrus would one 
 day reign in his stead, to be exposed 
 upon a mountain infested by wild 
 beasts, and a herdsman was com- 
 manded to execute the royal orders. 
 He would have done so, had it not 
 been for the entreaties of his wife, 
 who had just been delivered of & 
 still-born child, and suggested, that 
 the still-born child might be ex- 
 posed, and the little Cyrus brought 
 up by her husband and herself, as if 
 he had been their own. " In this 
 way," she said, " we shall not be 
 taking bad counsel for ourselves ; 
 for the dead child will receive a 
 royal burt//,and the living one will 
 not lose his life." 
 
 1 Astyages, infuriated with Har- 
 pagus, one of his courtiers, for not 
 having made sure that the infant 
 Cyrus wa* p-.-.t to death, punished 
 
 him by serving up to him at a Royal 
 Banquet the flesh of his own son, 
 and after he had eaten it, shewing 
 him the child's head, hands, and 
 feet. Harpagus did not at the 
 moment remonstrate, but contented 
 himself with gathering up whit 
 remained of his son's body for 
 honourable burial. 
 
 3 This is said of Cyrus, when he 
 first joined his own parents, Cam- 
 byses and Mandane, but still could 
 not forget the affection shewn him 
 by his foster-mother ' Cyno,' the 
 herdsman's wife. 
 
 3 The Persian custom, which 
 Herodotus says he likes, i?, that 
 " before a child is five years old, he 
 never comes in sight of his father ; 
 but passes his time with the women ; 
 which is done for this purpose, that 
 should he die while yet an infant, 
 he may not cause any grief to his 
 father." 
 
 L 2
 
 148 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 reat certainty about his intentions. It is ray belief that 
 he will entirely quit us. My belief is equally strong that 
 Pusey will not. A keen blow indeed either would be (I 
 say, ' would be,' for why should one not hope against 
 hope ?). Still, if one may use profane words concerning 
 holy things, one may surely say of our holy branch of 
 the Church Catholic, as the spirit of Pytho said of his 
 treasure of old time, 'ATTO2 Uaros flvat rS>v ea>urou TrpoKa- 
 rija-dat " [he himself was sufficient to guard his own pro- 
 perty 4 ] : " nor need we be too unhappy at anything that 
 may befall it from without. What I grieve for is, to 
 think how such a defection would undo all, or much, of 
 the good (not all of course) which has been done. Who, 
 for example, could appeal to Jeremy Taylor's writings, 
 or Laud's, or Hooker's, if they had died in the Romish 
 Communion 1 ? .... On the other hand, it must be ad- 
 mitted that N. has met with cruel treatment enough to 
 demoralize a saint, if that were possible. Persecuted, 
 hunted down, silenced, and abused in his silence ; mis- 
 represented when he has spoken, and reviled when he 
 has refused to speak. In short, one can wonder at nothing. 
 Still, it would have been a more glorious thing to have 
 subsided into the quiet curate, or remained the rector, 
 who would read, but never preach, or even to have 
 remained silent at Littlemore, except by the occasional 
 production of some work of vast learning, research, and 
 labour, instead of turning in disgust from his Mother ! 
 .... One is, however, perhaps chalking out a course ov 
 
 /car' avQpa-nov Anyhow, our course is clear. Through 
 
 good and ill report to stick to our colours, praying for 
 
 4 This has reference to the answer was sufficient to guard his own pro- 
 given by the Oracle at Delphi, when perty. The answer would be given 
 Xerxes sent a division of his army by the Pythoness or Priestess of 
 to sack the temple, and bring to the Temple. Burgon represents her 
 him all the accumulated treasures as speaking under the influence of 
 found there. In answer to the the same "spirit of divination" 
 Delphians, who consulted theOraele, (literally, spirit of Python) which 
 as to whether they should bury the possessed the damsel in the Acts of 
 treasures or transport them else- the Apostles. See Acts xvi. 16 (and 
 where, the Deity forbad them to marg^. The story is told by Hero- 
 be moved, saying that he himself dotus, Urania, Lib. viii. Cap. 36.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 149 
 
 sweet tempers and strong hearts (if need be) : advancing 
 nothing one does not feel sure of; and when once ad- 
 vanced, dying rather than recalling. I am inclined to 
 think with you, that a fiery trial is at hand. When it 
 comes. I am inclined to believe (>"/ /</'//>/, our monstrous, 
 culpable laxity, will prove almost our ruin. Why will 
 our clergy, aye, or our laity either, dine out on Fridays ? 
 \Vhy do we keep no Lent? Why do we neglect, so reck- 
 li >>ly, many of the rubrics in the Communion Service? 
 Why do the clergy ape the laity, instead of showing 
 themselves, what they really are, above them ? Why is 
 there not daily Service in every considerable town in the 
 land, more frequent Communions, larger alms given, and 
 the < 'huivh made the almoner? Till we all every one 
 of us, you and I strain every nerve to change the exist- 
 ing state of things, we cannot call ourselves safe. I will 
 add one final question. How can the clergy go up to 
 their beds, or allow their temples to rest (I forget the 
 exact words), while a large section of every village in the 
 kingdom lies practically excommunicate ? My very heart 
 boils within me when I think of the supineness of our 
 people ; and with all this to have the coolness to regard 
 ourselves as perfect and immaculate. ' Perfect! 
 
 "Many thanks for telling me about dear Temple 5 , who 
 is very dear to me. I quite understand your allusions to 
 his character, and believe more and more every day that 
 we know (I mean that men know) very little of one 
 another. It is curious to think this. That men should 
 be living side by side, and speaking freely, and able to 
 speak all they choose, and yet that there should be a wall 
 built up between them (so to speak), so that they never 
 really get at one another ! He is a very delightful cha- 
 racter. It has long been at my heart, and many a time 
 given me a strange pang to remember, on leaving him, 
 that something I have said may give him annoyance or 
 
 The present Bishop of London. Bishop, if it were only for the pur- 
 
 The writer thinks it well to print pose of shewing the compatibility of 
 
 one out of the numerous testimonies such personal affection with contro- 
 
 borne by Burgon's letters to his versial antagonism to some of the 
 
 warm personal affection for the views entertained by the object of it.
 
 150 LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 pain. I can only say I would never breathe a word to 
 hurt him, or any one I love. 
 
 " Your affectionate Friend. 
 
 "JOHN W. BURGON." 
 
 To ROBERT LAWSON, ESQ. 
 
 (Mr. Lawson had consulted him, it appears, on the best 
 method of instructing a backward pupil in Divinity.) 
 
 "Houghton Conquest, Sept. 18, 1845. 
 " i o'clock in the morning. 
 
 " You will need no assurance, I trust, my dearest 
 Robert, that I read and m-ead your affectionate and 
 interesting long letter with much satisfaction. I am the 
 more sorry to perceive, on recurring to it now, that 
 I have omitted by my long silence responding to the 
 wish you expressed for a few hints as to drilling Divinity 
 into a heterodox bear ! I never yet kept a menagerie of 
 in v own ; and should therefore look for hints to you 
 still, since you ask it, and there are three or four weeks 
 more of the Vacation, I will devote half a page, late in 
 the day as it is, to so precious a theme. My plan, then, 
 would be, I suppose, much such as you must have fol- 
 lowed yourself. Genesis must be read witli particular 
 care, and can easily be remembered as a story. The ten 
 generations from Adam to Noah, and ten again from 
 Shem to Abraham, are obvious land marks. With the 
 last named, the History more decidedly begins, and the 
 pedigree from Terah to the twelve Patriarchs must ab- 
 solutely be got by heart. Then let the places of Moses 
 and Aaron be ascertained in the pedigree ; and condense 
 the four ensuing books into a view of the several offences 
 of the people, and their consequent punishments; for 
 instance : 
 
 i. Murmuring at Taberah, punished by fire. 
 
 2 - Kibroth Hattaavah * plague. 
 
 3- > Hazeroth leprosy. 
 and so on. You will be helped to this by Psalms Ixxviii. 
 and cvi., and see i Cor. x. 
 
 \ ou must also, of course, lay stress on the delivery of the
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 151 
 
 Law, and the institution of the Levitical priesthood, 
 and pick out such parts of the 
 
 Moral law . Deut. iv. to xi. 
 
 . , ... . as may impress 
 
 Ceremonial . xn. to xvi. > 
 
 ... . your pupil with its 
 
 Civil ... xvii. to xxvi. ) J 
 
 character so singularly tempered with mercy, that the 
 very nest of young birds is made an object of the Divine 
 solicitude [Deut. xxii. 6. /]. Then determine in your 
 own mind the principal typical persons and typical 
 things: e.g. Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, Joseph, 
 Moses, Joshua, &c., the Ark, the Deluge, the Jewish 
 feasts, the Exode, &c. Next, the great prophecies (which 
 should be learnt by heart), I mean that to Adam, to 
 Noah, to Abraham, Balaam's, and the like. 
 
 " The places occupied by the twelve tribes on settling 
 under Joshua, their six servitudes and thirteen Judges 
 (especially those six that delivered them from the six ser- 
 vitudes respectively), this brings you to the time of 
 Samuel. whose personal history is easily taught. In- 
 deed, with him j/rophecy and royalty begin, and a new 
 epoch, as it were, opens. Saul's character may be nicely 
 gathered from Newman's Sermon David's whole history 
 should form the subject of a briei analysis by your pupil, 
 making him pick out the pedigree from St. Luke 6 , 
 or the B. of Chronicles (for the sake of Rahab and 
 Ruth, &c.). Solomon's sin, and the rending of the king- 
 dom, with the date of Israel's and Judah's captivity, are 
 the skefafon of all that remains. For Jeroboam s character 
 make him read Newman's Sermon : and let him off with 
 the histories of the most memorable of the kings, only 
 as Ahab, Hezekiah, and the like. But why all this irpos 
 flooras " [to persons who know it] "'?.... I should per- 
 haps rather say at once pick out in st 'rings, the main 
 dates, the main types, the main prophecies, the chief 
 persons however briefly : insist on his remembering 
 the great divisions of the subject, and coax him to in- 
 
 6 Though Burgon has written " St. whose genealogy, and not in St. 
 Luke/' one is disposed to think he Luke's, Rahab and Kuth are men- 
 must have meant St. Matthew, in tioned, ch. i. r. 5.
 
 152 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 sert into each the most salient events and picturesque 
 passages. Alas, this is impossible, I know, with a block- 
 head ; but what more delightful when there is the best 
 
 desire on the learner's part 1 . . . With such a . pupil I 
 should insist on his recollecting for me off-hand the 
 Jirst mention of angels, money, monuments, writing, altars, 
 &c., &c. ; the history of every place (ab ovo), as Bethel, 
 Shechem, Jericho : the great men of each tribe (for who 
 recollects off-hand that with regard to Benjamin, for 
 instance, Gen. xlix. 27 was probably fulfilled in the per- 
 sons of Saul and St. Paul 1 Who recollects that the 
 prophet Samuel was descended from Korah ? or that 
 Samuel's grandson wrote so many of the Psalms e. g. 
 Ps. Ixxxviii ? 7 ). 
 
 To MR. DAWSOX TURNER. 
 
 "Oxford, Nov. 22, 1845. 
 
 " My dear Friend, 
 
 " I cannot tell you with what glee I saw the days of 
 tiwlo in the Schools glide away, and the list of subjects 
 for examination growing ' fine by degrees and beautifully 
 less ' ; till nothing remained but the day of viva voce. 
 Yet, how capricious the heart is !..... I seem to care 
 no more about it, now I am through, than if I were still 
 an undergraduate. This is partly owing to the feelings 
 which naturally arise on such an occasion. I only gave 
 in eleven books for examination, because I felt I knew 
 them. I had read enough Plato for a book, and was 
 urged to take up Virgil at a venture ; but the conscious- 
 ness that I had not read the latter since I was at school, 
 and that I had not a sufficient accuracy of acquaintance 
 with the former to stand an examination in it. made me 
 reject both from my list. Accordingly, feeling that I had, 
 
 7 This Psalm is attributed in the two names, Joel and Vashni. See 
 
 title to " Heman the Ezrahite." In i Chron. vi. 28, with i Sam. viii. 2. 
 
 i Chron. vi. 33 we read "Of the That Samuel was a Korahite, or 
 
 sons of the Kohathites : Heman a descended from the Korah branch 
 
 singer, the son of Joel, the son of of the Levitical family, is shown by 
 
 Shemuel." Shemuel is merely the comparing i Chron. vi. 33 with v. 
 
 Hebrew form of the name Samuel ; 37 of the same Chapter, 
 and Samuel's eldest son went by
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE : FIRST PERIOD. 1 5 3 
 
 as it were, earned my degree, I seem to have only got my 
 due and scarcely that; for Herodotus was scarce of 
 any service to me and two of the books I had mastered 
 most completely, Aristophanes and ^schylus, I was 
 merely tried in, to the extent of some ten or twenty 
 lines; so that, instead of rejoicing, I now rather wish I 
 might go in again. The whole examination went against 
 me. I had got up a great deal of formal Logic and' 
 Science ; and the questions set were almost all such as 
 a man might answer who had read the Ethics in a trans- 
 lation, and drunk deeply of modern Metaphysics. Then, 
 //</ nmlrn, there were some capital things for translation ; 
 and I was required on the public day to translate on 
 paper the first Chorus in the CEdipus Coloneus, which 
 was of course ihe thing I should have chosen. The Essay 
 too was on a capital subject, the history of Greek 
 
 Poetry In short there was nothing that I regret 
 
 but the unfairness of the induction that is sure to be 
 
 made concerning me If they estimate me by what 
 
 I did best, I know where they would put me ; if they 
 look at the shadows, the worst things done, I also 
 know where I ought to be, and as I think of one cr the 
 other, I feel unhappy, or at ease ; so that, as I began by 
 saying, my Bachelor's gown is by no means a panacea 
 for all the past. 
 
 " I cannot, however, fully realise the notion that the 
 heavy labour I was going through till Ash Wednesday is 
 all ended. It seems impossible that I may go to bed at 
 twelve, it' I like ; that I may breakfast without Butler's 
 sermons before, or take tea without reading so many 
 hundred lines of a Greek play ; nay, that I may break- 
 fast or dine when I please. Even Magazines and Reviews 
 are open to me now, which they have not been for the 
 last three years .... How rny health has stood it, I can- 
 not understand. I did not let any one know how I was 
 going on ; but fear I was, at last, acting as it would 
 have been impossible for ine to have gone on acting. 
 For many weeks past I have not had five hours sleep 
 and in order to read without molestation, abridged myself 
 in food and exercise to the minimum point (consistent
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 with comfort). The very eve of going in for viva race, I 
 read for nineteen hours without stirring except to chapel : 
 and yet, though I only slept from four till seven, I was 
 as fresh, and as full of spirits, as if some strange joy 
 animated " (awaited ?) " me, instead of a serious trial. In 
 truth I have been in a most unnatural state for a long 
 time, and suppose I must not be surprised if I feel the 
 effects of it by-and-by. 
 
 <; My public examination will, I fear, tell heavily 
 against me. As long as Mr. Liddell tried me in Divinity 
 and Science, all went well. When he resigned me to the 
 tender mercies of his colleague, Mr. Daman, the spell was 
 broken. The evening was drawing in ; I felt giddy and 
 tired ; and with scarce enough light to read by, I was 
 requested to start with the last three lines of a chapter 
 in the third Book of the Annals of Tacitus 8 . I could 
 scarce see the sentence (as he was civil enough to per- 
 ceive), and he bade me close the book. ' Who iras 
 Silanus ? ' I could not remember. ' W T ell, never mind. 
 Who was ' somebody else ? I could have almost jumped 
 over the table with vexation. He made a stand at the 
 history of the gem Mnilia, and the history of Tegea during 
 the Peloponnesian War. I must have appeared to him a 
 
 complete idiot Against this I set (in my mind) my 
 
 paper work. What kind of average THEY mean to strike, 
 I cannot divine. If it is disgraceful, you will not hear it 
 from me." 
 
 To MR. DAWSON TURNER. 
 
 "Oxford, 26 Nov., 1845. 
 
 " My dear Friend, I am very sorry I have not better 
 news to send you. If the Examiners had been- me, 
 they would have given me a First Class. To judge from 
 my papers, I had perhaps no right to hope for more than a 
 
 Probably the Chapter was xxiv, was allowed by Tiberius to return 
 
 in the last sentence of which Decius from exile, and to live in Home as 
 
 Silanus is mentioned, who, at the a private citizen, 
 intercession of his brother Marcus,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 155 
 
 second. But the report had got abroad that I was to 
 have been at the top of the tree ; and I am conscious that 
 the poicer is not lacking. and so I cannot but feel a 
 little crest-fallen. 
 
 ' When you consider, however, that it is exactly the 
 fifteenth Term since I opened my books, that during the 
 interval, I have devoted three months to writing for as 
 many prize poems, and that everything in the Schools 
 has gone against me. it will not appear strange." 
 
 To MRS. Hi ;ii JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Oriel, Dec. 18, 1848. 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Rose. 
 
 "I have been reading attentively for Examination, 
 as you will scarcely require to be told: and am now 
 at the very close of my reading, which is still far, very 
 far from what I had intended. How unfortunate it 
 is that one should be compelled to pass the season 
 immediately previous to Ordination in what feels so 
 secular a process the cramming in, namely, of facts ; 
 and taking hasty surveys of pleasant fields of inquiry, 
 which might well occupy one for weeks or months ! those 
 surveys too not being, unfortunately, devotional or even 
 practical, but simply speculative, and with a constant 
 view to (li*ij!ay. I heartily wish the Examination over. 
 Without fearing it exactly, I can" (cannot?) "but feel 
 painfully conscious of my weak points, and look for- 
 ward with anything but satisfaction to those days to be 
 passed athletically, grappling with questions which 
 have shaken Christendom, and of which I know but one 
 aspect, or writing sermons addressed to nobody, and 
 
 therefore all about nothing It will be soon over, 
 
 however, and a period of peace will succeed. 
 
 " You will, I am very sure, remember me as I would 
 wish to be remembered at this solemn season ! How 
 solemn it is to me, I need hardly tell you. When I think 
 that much of my prosperity in Holy Orders may perhaps 
 depend on the spirit, and temper in which I present 
 myself to receive the Gift, I quite sink into myself. 
 Then the review of my past life, though not terrible to
 
 156 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 me (thanks to God's mercy, which has always kept me 
 back), is yet so full of painful recollections ; I am con- 
 scious to myself of so many wrongnesses thought, or 
 done, so many duties left undone, that I could half per- 
 suade myself that it is not for me to counsel others : that 
 I had better first be what I wish to make the flock of 
 Christ ; and so shrink away from the thing I have all my 
 life so longed for ; and which, even while I am so con- 
 scious of my own unworthiness, I do, nevertheless, so 
 earnestly desire to obtain .... You will, I am sure, bear 
 with my egotism, and kindly understand what I would 
 say, and what I cannot but feel. The many years I have 
 waited, the unexpected delays, and now at last the 
 certainty that the whole thing is drawing has drawn 
 into sight, is all but here, and in another week will be 
 numbered with the things which are past ; thinking of 
 all this fills me with conflicting thoughts. Hope and 
 fear, joy and regret a bright anticipation overwhelmed 
 with a hundred misgivings, such (as well as my weary 
 hand and aching head can between them paint it) such 
 is a true picture of what I have been experiencing for 
 the last few weeks ; and which neither Heresies nor 
 Councils, Creeds nor Articles, Patriarchates nor Anti- 
 paedo-baptism, avail to banish from my thoughts for 
 many minutes together. 
 
 Smile, if you will ; but I must tell you of another scheme 
 which, after floating in and out of my head for years, at 
 last takes shape ; and I propose to carry it out imme- 
 diately after Christmas : a series of cheap religious 
 prints for the poor. I mean to start it in Rose's and my 
 joint names (Oxford and Cambridge), to get guinea 
 subscribers (clergy mostly, of course), and promise so 
 many shilling numbers .... Tell me whether you approve 
 t will be thoroughly Anglican, without being 
 absurdly Protestant e.g. I shall have the Blessed Virgin 
 and Child more than once : on the other hand, I shall 
 ignore all Saints save the Twelve Apostles . . . The point 
 wherein I trust for success is the cheapness and smallne** 
 of the pictures. I associate dear Rose with myself as a
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 157 
 
 joint guarantee to the public, as a compliment to him, 
 dear fellow, and as a good adviser. But as I have not 
 hinted the thing to him yet, nor have I talked of it to 
 any save Parker (and one or two private friends), you 
 will, of course, keep the little scheme at present to your 
 <>\vn good self .... I prefer talking to Rose about this, 
 instead of writing, since I shall be with him so soon." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "34, Osnaburgh Street, 5 Jan., 1849. 
 
 " My dear Bishop , I take to myself no small blame 
 for having kept you so long in the dark as to my 
 movements. You knew that I was going to be 
 ordained on Xmas Eve from myself, and should not 
 have been indebted to the public prints for the in- 
 formation that I duly received the Gift which I had so 
 long wished for. 
 
 " But you will, I know, have made excuses for me. 
 You will easily guess that I must have fallen into the 
 midst of a busy cheerful circle, and that there was no 
 time for letter writing. You may even have shrewdly 
 divined that I was asked immediately to preach a 
 sermon, and accordingly had to write one. Two ser- 
 mons, if you please for my second bantling is lying 
 before me. This in truth has been the history of my 
 .-iU-nce. 
 
 " But now I must tell you a little about Cuddesdon 
 and my Ordination the most memorable event in my 
 very uneventful life. I take it for granted that I tell 
 my selfish tale to the same indulgent ear which has so 
 often encouraged me to be garrulous in my own behalf. 
 
 - We went to Cuddesdon then, on Thursday and 
 attended Divine Service in the Parish Church which 
 adjoins the Bishop's garden. Trench preached (S. 
 Thomas' Day). . . . We then returned to examination, 
 which commenced with some translation from Hooker 
 into the most judicious Latin we could muster. Next 
 
 9 He calls Mrs. Hugh James Rose "Bishop," and sometimes "your 
 Lordship," after his wont, jocosely.
 
 158 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 came a paper of New Testament questions. Then 
 some luncheon or a walk according to our notions of 
 Ember week. Then a paper of Old Testament ques- 
 tions and lastly a Sermon. We were very tired when 
 we went to dress at six. It was a great relief to attend 
 the peaceful and soothing service in the palace Chapel 
 where we thenceforward met, morning and even- 
 ing, till our departure. It is a very exquisite little 
 edifice, adjoining the palace, in most perfect taste. 
 The windows are the gift of the Queen, Prince Albert, 
 and other great folks. ... At the Bishop's side was 
 his pastoral staff. I assure you nothing could have 
 been more Episcopal or if I may use the word, more 
 Apostolic, than his bearing and the same impress was 
 recognisable in every arrangement, down to the minutest 
 appointments of the household. 
 
 " Next day, Friday, we had (as on Thursday night) 
 an extempore Charge, and resumed our examination. 
 We had papers on Doctrine, Liturgical and Historical 
 matters, and next day a paper of very well chosen 
 parochial questions. 
 
 " It was impossible not to admire the Bishop's tact. 
 On Thursday after dinner (which followed Chapel 
 immediately) and on Friday after the less substan- 
 tial repast at which we all (about fifty in number) 
 were assembled, as soon as the servants had with- 
 drawn, the Bishop raised his voice and his head, and 
 in the cleverest manner possible made the conversa- 
 tion general. He addressed a remark to one of his 
 chaplains, and speedily, in reply to the question of 
 some one present, made some remarks on ruri-decanal 
 associations, education of the poor, pravers for the 
 lower orders, and all those topics which were sure to 
 be most interesting to those present. This was excel- 
 lently well done, for all were entertained, all edifed, 
 and it was optional to any one present to ask what- 
 ever questions he chose. 
 
 " I must also tell you that about forty had beds pro- 
 vided for them in the palace, his plan being to have 
 all the candidates for his guests. ... He also contrived
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 159 
 
 to see every one twice some even three times and 
 not only remarked on the papers (which it was clear 
 he had read\ but discoursed leisurely and kindly on 
 one's prospects, hopes, wishes, &c., &c. It really was 
 most admirable. . . . On the Saturday morning we all 
 partook of the Eucharist ; and in the evening he gave 
 a very powerful and eloquent charge, one of a series, 
 which when collected will form a Commentary on the 
 ( h'dination Service. 
 
 " But how did you fare ? asks my Bishop. Why, 
 my deal* Lord, to say the truth, your Lordship's brother 
 found some fault with my doctrine. I believe I have 
 imbibed Bp. Bull's theory of Justification and Sancti- 
 tication 1 , and I am assured it is not the Anglican 
 
 Dissertation II, Chap, xviii. 2.] 
 
 " I constantly affirm that justifi- 
 cation by Divine appointment pre- 
 supposes sanctification, at least the 
 primary and less perfect sanctifica- 
 tion. For God, though He justify the 
 ungodly through Christ (Rom. 4. 5), 
 i. e. him, who having been such, yet 
 through faith and true repentance 
 has ceased to be such, nevertheless 
 will not justify the ungodly, Exod. 
 34. 7, i. e. him. who still remains in 
 his wickedness. Briefly : it is in- 
 coiisi^tent with the righteousness of 
 God (as we have said elsewhere) to 
 forgive any man his sins, and withal 
 to give him a right to a heavenly 
 life, who is not cleansed from his 
 sins, nay, who is not also in a man- 
 ner made partaker of ' the Divine 
 nature.' " [ Examen Cenxurce.'. 
 Answer to Stricture xx. 3.] 
 
 Binhop Wilberforce was always 
 very clear and strong in maintain- 
 ing the priority of Justification to 
 Sanctification, and that the latter 
 process could not commence until 
 the sinner had been justified freely 
 through faith in Christ. 
 
 1 It may be convenient to the 
 reader to have this theory exhibited 
 in Bishop Bull's own words : 
 
 " St. Paul rejects from justifica- 
 tion the following descriptions of 
 works : 1st. Ritual works pre- 
 scribed by the ceremonial law. 
 2nd. Moral works performed by 
 the natural powers of man, in a 
 state either of the law, or mere 
 nature, before and without the grace 
 of the Gospel. 3rd. Jewish works, 
 or that trifling righteousness incul- 
 cated by the Jewish masters. 4th 
 and lastly. All works separate from 
 Christ the Mediator, which would 
 obtain eternal salvation by their 
 own power, or without reference to 
 the covenant of grace established 
 by the blood of Christ. . . . On the 
 other hand, that moral works aris- 
 ing from the grace of the Gospel do, 
 by the power of the Gospel covenant, 
 efficaciously conduce to the justifica- 
 tion of man and his eternal salvation, 
 and so are absolutely necessary, St. 
 Paul not only does not deny, but is 
 employed almost entirely in estab- 
 lishing." [' Hurmonia Apostolica?
 
 i6o 
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Theory. I asked what I had better read. The Bishop 
 recommended me three books the third being Luther s 
 Commentary on the Galatians ! * . . . However, I feel a 
 
 1 He is writing to Mrs. Hugh 
 James Rose in his usual gay, light- 
 hearted style. It must not be 
 supposed that Bishop Wilberforce 
 recommended to him no other Book 
 than ' Luther's Commentary on the 
 Galatians,' or that he recommended 
 even this without qualifications. 
 For this is Burgon's notice in his 
 private Diary of his interview with 
 the Bishop. 
 
 "The Bishop had had a short 
 interview with me on Friday, ap- 
 proving of my papers, and asking 
 me general questions of a personal 
 and private kind. To-day he sent 
 for me, and very distinctly, but 
 kindly, showed me the incorrectness 
 of my views on Justification, Sancti- 
 fication, and Absolution. I re- 
 garded Sanctification to precede 
 Justification. The contrary, he 
 says, is true. I supposed (and still 
 believe) that Grace is given in 
 Baptism. He says, 'No, but the 
 dead bud is grafted into the living 
 stock, man's fallen nature into the 
 Body of Christ.' All Absolution is 
 moreover simply declaratory. ' Thy 
 sins are forgiven thee ' spoken by 
 Christ Himself revealed a fact, 
 not made it. (Here I think there 
 is a fallacy.) I am to read Jackson 
 Hooker's Sermon Luther on 
 Galatians (exceptis excipiendis). 
 He bade me also read his Charge of 
 1845" 
 
 The work of Dean Jackson's 
 prescribed by the Bishop for Burgon 
 
 to read was no doubt " his most 
 excellent Exposition of the Creed," 
 (so called by Izaak Walton in his 
 ' Life of Mr. Richard Hooker '). 
 The full title of this work is " The 
 Eternal Truth of Scriptures, and 
 Christian Belief thereon wholly de- 
 pending, manifested by its own light. 
 Delivered in two Books of Com- 
 mentaries upon the Apostles' Creed. 
 The former containing the poultice 
 grounds of Christian Religion in 
 general, cleared from all escejitiiDi* 
 of Atheists or Infidels. The later, 
 Manifesting the grounds of Re- 
 formed Religion to be so firm and 
 sure, that the Romanists cannot 
 oppugne them, but with the nfti-r 
 ovrthrow of the Romish Church, 
 Religion and Faith. By Thoma* 
 Jackson, D.D., London, 1653." 
 There was added afterwards ' The 
 Third Book of Comments upon the 
 Creed' which deals with " the blas- 
 phemous positions of Jesuites, and 
 other later Romanists,concerningthe 
 authority of their Church." Jack- 
 son was Master of Corpus Christi 
 College, Oxford, Dean of Peter- 
 borough, and a Chaplain of King 
 Charles I. The Sermon of Hooker's 
 prescribed by the Bishop was the 
 celebrated " Learned Discourse of 
 Justification, Works, and how the 
 Foundation of Faith is overthrown " 
 [Serm. II. Vol. iii. p. 601 et se- 
 quent. Ed. Keble] one of the 
 standard works of Anglican Theology 
 on the subject of Justification.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FIRST PERIOD. 161 
 
 very dutiful deacon, and mean to read very faithfully 
 what my Bishop has prescribed. 
 
 "All this distressed me, you may be sure. I felt 
 quite crest-fallen. In the midst of my chagrin, I was 
 happy to discover that the Bishop had given me the 
 post of honour among the deacons appointing me to 
 read the Gospel in the Cathedral. This was really a 
 consolation, and quite restored my equanimity. 
 
 " The History of Sunday you can fancy very well. 
 All was most solemn and reverently managed. Not 
 like the Archbp. of York who, I am shocked to hear, 
 walks round the Communion rails putting a single 
 hand on the heads of the kneeling Candidates for Orders 
 
 </ Bishop sits in the best throne the Dean of Ch. Ch. 
 will provide, and conveys the Gift clasping each head 
 in his hands. Nothing could be better done. ... I really 
 must say the Bp. of Oxford's entire deportment is truly 
 Apostolical, and I shall henceforth be his defender, as 
 in duty bound 
 
 " And now I have finished my story and will be brief 
 in concluding : for I have caught a severe cold, and am 
 weaiy and indisposed. But I must, tell you that I have 
 thought very much of you, dear Mrs. Rose, all through 
 this sad season sad to you, though joyous to many. . . . 
 I long very much to hear something of you. I do 
 earnestly hope that this last trial is not heavier than 
 you can find strength to bear. . . . Pray remember that 
 that dear child 3 is certainly with him: and who shall 
 say that she may not be a great comfort to him too 1 . . . 
 Then take heart. It is but for a few short years. God 
 grant that we may all meet there at last. 
 
 " All here join me in love to you. I always ask your 
 blessing, and beg to be remembered as your obliged 
 and affectionate Friend, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 3 He alludes to Josephine Mair, she had adopted, and whose death 
 the orphan daughter of a brother of (on Sept. 17, 1848) was a great 
 Mrs. Hugh James Rose's, whom grief to her. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 1 62 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 TEE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 
 
 WEST ILSLEY, WORT ON, AND FIN MERE. 
 
 [Dec. 24, 1848 June 6, 1853.] 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM BURGON was admitted, as we have 
 seen, into the Sacred Order of Deacons on the 24th of 
 A.D. 1848. December, 1848. The day following was Christmas 
 Day ; and his loving heart, so susceptible at all times 
 to the domestic affections, urged him to spend it, as 
 usual with him, in the family circle, with father, mother, 
 brother, and sisters. He would present himself to them 
 moreover in his new character as a minister of CHRIST : 
 a circumstance which would give the re-union the 
 deepest interest, both to them and to himself. Although, 
 as he tells Mr. Renouard in a letter dated December 27, 
 1848, he was "not free from the Ordination" that is, 
 the Service lasted "till half-past three in the after- 
 noon," and the excitement of the occasion must have 
 added greatly to the fatigue, he left Oxford by the 
 mail train at 2 A.M. the next morning, and, having 
 "slept near the Station," reached Osnaburgh Street, 
 the then residence of his parents, at 9 A.M. At n he 
 went with them to the Church they then attended, 
 Christ Church, Albany Street, and " assisted Dodsworth 
 in distributing the Sacrament" (the first act this of 
 his ministry), and " read the lessons." On the following 
 Sunday (Dec. 31) he preached his first Sermon at 
 the same Church in the evening ; not on the Great
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 163 
 
 Invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour," &c. 
 the text, upon which he says in one of his early journals 
 that he had always thought he would make his first 
 Sermon [See above, Chap. I, p. 98], but on an equally 
 great word of the glorified Saviour, " Behold, I stand 
 at the door and knock," &c. Rev. iii. 20. On the inside 
 of the cover of the manuscript is this characteristic 
 memorandum, showing that he was conscious of 
 having fallen into the snare, which besets all young 
 preachers, of pouring out all their stores at once ; " The 
 chief fault of this sermon is that it is too full, as 
 Dodsworth very justly remarked. I perceive I have 
 lugged in all the following topics," &c., &c. He 
 returned to Oxford on January 27, after spending A.D. 1849. 
 a fortnight at Houghton, where also he preached on L 36- ^ 
 both the Sundays of his stay there ; and then, as soon 
 as possible, he plunged into that direct Pastoral work, 
 to which he had already felt so powerfully drawn, in 
 which he spent, not his money only, but his strength, 
 his time, his loving endeavours, in a word himself, for 
 the people committed to his charge, and which seems to 
 have always yielded to him a higher satisfaction and 
 a purer enjoyment, even than that which he derived 
 from study. His first Curacy was West Hsley, " a parish 
 on the Berkshire downs," which he held for rather more 
 than a year, beginning on the 25th of February, 1849, 
 and retiring finally 4 on the 2oth of March in the following 
 year. During his tenure of this Curacy he was admitted 
 to the Priesthood, December 23, 1849; and of this his 
 
 * His ministry at West Ilsley, as and ending with Palm Sunday, 
 
 \\illbeseenbytheletters.wasnot April i, 1849. On Sun. June 17 
 
 continuous. His first engagement he seems to have revisited Ilsley 
 
 lasted only for the six weeks of Lent, (merely for the day), and preached 
 
 beginning with Sun. 25 Feb. 1848, two Sermons. On Sun. Oct. 21 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 second Ordination his mother, to his great comfort and 
 satisfaction, was a witness. The people of West Ilsley 
 seem to have wound themselves specially around his 
 heart, as indeed did all the people of whom at any time 
 he took the Pastoral Charge ; attachment to his flock 
 was always one of his characteristics ; but probably in 
 the case of West Ilsley the feeling may have been in- 
 tensified by the freshness and novelty of the interest 
 which this new relationship excited in his mind. His 
 journals and letters, excerpts from which last will be 
 given, according to our plan, at the end of this Chapter, 
 sufficiently evince his interest in his flock, and the lively 
 pleasure which he took in ministering to them. But an 
 anecdote, with which his friend Bishop Hobhouse has 
 favoured the author, will put his sentiments before the 
 reader in a more vivid way than any amount of descrip- 
 tion. In a letter to the author, dated July 4, 1889, in 
 the course of which the Bishop shows the most correct 
 appreciation of the secret of Burgon's character, he 
 writes thus : 
 
 " I will here record a proof of his clinging affection 
 for places and persons, the more remarkable, because 
 this affection was drawn out by objects which to most 
 people would have offered no attraction. Soon after his 
 
 commenced his second engagement also appear from the letters, hearing 
 
 at Ilsley, which lasted till Dec. 16, (in the course of his engagement at 
 
 1849, the Sunday before he was Worton) of a Confirmation which 
 ordained Priest. On Sunday, Jan. 20, was announced for West Ilsley, 
 
 1850, commenced a third engage- he' made an arrangement with the 
 ment at Ilsley (he notes that " I Rector to prepare the Candidates, 
 administered my first Sacrament in which he did at various visits during 
 Church," he not having been pre- the latter part of March, and the 
 viously qualified to celebrate the t earlier part of April, 1851, and 
 Holy Communion on Sunday, Feb. afterwards on Easter Day (April 
 to, 1850) which terminated on 20, 1851) administered to the con- 
 Wednesday, March 20. But, as will firmed their first Communion.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 165 
 
 Ordination he took an engagement to minister in a 
 small village Church on the Berkshire downs, which 
 he could reach on Saturdays after his week's work was 
 done in Oxford. He used to talk of this place with 
 delight. Some years after I took the duties there. 
 Amongst those I had to visit there was one aged and 
 lone woman, whose disposition, naturally sour, resisted 
 the usual persuasions to contentment. She remembered 
 Mr. Burgon's visits, but not his advice, which I begged 
 her to recall. The one thing she could recount was 
 his extraordinary love for the West. Ilsley people. 
 She told her story in this droll way : ' One day I 
 looked up at yonder hill, and I saw Mr. B. at the top 
 on't with his hands over his head, a-waving his hat. 
 He then spread out arms, as if he were clasping s/ : 
 to his breast. He ran down the hill, and began visiting 
 from door to door. When he came to my house, I 
 asked him For whatever did you do that (imitating his 
 gestures) on the hill ? Oh ! because I love the Ilsley 
 people, and I was embracing you all, glad to find my- 
 self among you. Love the Ilsley people? says I; 
 Why, if you had lived among them so many years 
 as I have, you'd know that Ilsley folk are no better 
 than other folk. I'd clap my hands, if I could get away 
 from them.' 
 
 " The poor old dame did in fact bring out my dear 
 friend's loving spirit in the strongest contrast to her 
 own soured one. There was the fact so unintelligible to 
 her that, because he had ministered for a few weeks 
 to Christ's flock in that village, that flock, even in the 
 person of one of its least attractive members, had 
 become very dear to him ; the place was clothed with 
 an affectionate interest, drawing him at the cost of 
 valued time to demonstrate his love in his own peculiar 
 manner. 
 
 "It was the same at Finmere ; it was the same 
 wherever he ministered, or was kindly treated ; the heart 
 was kindled with an irrepressible and durable affection. 
 The spot and its interests became sacred to him, once 
 and for ever."
 
 1 66 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Nor was this interest in his people merely sentimental. 
 There was no amount of time and trouble which he 
 grudged, no toil which he would not take for them. 
 Here is an anecdote sent to the author by one who had 
 a full knowledge of all the circumstances. 
 
 " On one occasion, when going to Ilsley in those days, 
 seven miles from the nearest railway station (Steventon), 
 he took back with him a little lad, who had for some 
 weeks been in the Oxford Infirmary. The day was a 
 bright one (in the Autumn), and the white roads of that 
 district reflected the sunshine, and with their chalky 
 dust made walking along them a great toil. Mr. Burgon 
 usually walked rapidly; and, although no doubt he 
 moderated his pace as much as possible to accommodate 
 his fellow-traveller, still the hills and dusty road, com- 
 bined with his long strides, in the course of a mile or 
 two so exhausted the youDgster, who no doubt was 
 weakly through his recent illness, that at Rowstock he 
 fairly gave in, and sat down by the road-side and cried. 
 Mr. Burgon sat down too. and consoled the lad with 
 sugar-plums from his pocket; and after a little while 
 again essayed to finish the remaining five miles of the 
 journey. But the little fellow was too exhausted to 
 proceed ; and so his kind companion lifted him up, and 
 carried him pick-a-back along the dusty road and over 
 the steep downs, till he reached his home, where he set 
 him down in his mother's arms." 
 
 Before we pass away from Ilsley, we may notice that 
 in his Journal of Sunday October 28, 1849 (before he 
 was ordained Priest therefore) is found this Memorandum. 
 "As before. So happy! first extempore Sermon." He 
 was not an extempore preacher, and probably before an 
 educated congregation very rarely indeed omitted to 
 take a manuscript into the pulpit. However, the late 
 Warden of All Souls, Dr. Leighton, assured the author 
 that on Sunday afternoon he had once heard Burgon
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 167 
 
 preach extempore at St. Mary the Virgin's Church "in 
 a most instructive and edifying manner " (perhaps thiy 
 may have been in connexion with the afternoon Cate- 
 chizing of the Choristers). On the author's mentioning 
 this to Burgon, he said he might have done it once, 
 but it was never his rule. " Considering that Heads of 
 Houses, Tutors of Colleges, and men of the highest 
 Academical distinction were often members of my Con- 
 gregation at St. Mary's, I should have thought myself 
 exceedingly presumptuous, had I ventured to address 
 to them my crude thoughts on the spur of the moment." 
 But among the rustics of Ilsley and Finmere, on the 
 other hand, one cannot fancy his never unburdening 
 his mind (as the Scotch Ministers say) "without the 
 paper." The above Memorandum is a proof that he did 
 so, at least occasionally. 
 
 When his engagement at West Ilsley came to an end, A.D. 18 
 M it did on March 20, 1850, he sought and found * 
 another temporary engagement at Worton in Oxford- 
 shire, where there were two Churches to serve (that 
 of Nether Worton and that of Over Worton), and 
 where he speaks of himself as receiving great kindness 
 from the family of Mr. Wilson the Rector, notwith- 
 standing some discrepancy between them in regard 
 of theological views. But the population of Worton 
 was very small ; and he seems to have been engaged 
 on the understanding that the Sunday duty was to 
 be his province, and so he did not make that personal 
 acquaintance with the members of the flock so essential, 
 according to his own view, to the realisation of the 
 Pastoral relationship. The reader will be amused 
 to read in his letter to Mrs. Hugh James Rose of 
 April 30, 1851, how happy it made him to be released 
 from Worton one Sunday sooner than had been origi-
 
 1 68 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 nally arranged, because it set him free to revisit the 
 flock to which he was so much attached at Ilsley, an 
 opening for which just then presented itself, and after 
 preparing the Candidates for an impending Confirmation, 
 to give them their first Communion on Easter Day, 
 which was his final and happy farewell to his first 
 Curacy. 
 
 Later in the same year he undertook a third Curacy, 
 that of Finmere in Oxfordshire, then united with 
 Mixbury under the Pastoral care of a clergyman 
 every way remarkable, and for whom he conceived, it 
 will be seen, the greatest veneration, The Reverend 
 William Jocelyn Palmer. Mr. Palmer himself resided 
 at Mixbury, and hence Finmere, which was two miles 
 off, became more or less Burgon's sole charge. He 
 received, however, every possible assistance from the 
 Rector's sister, a maiden lady who occupied the parson- 
 age of Finmere, and did the work of a clergyman's wife 
 in that parish. And here the writer has the good fortune 
 to be able to present the reader with an account of 
 Burgon's ministry at Finmere from the most trust- 
 worthy of sources, the pen of the Venerable Edwin 
 Palmer, Archdeacon of Oxford, one of Mr. Palmer's sons, 
 who was often present at Finmere during the Sundays 
 which Burgon spent there. Thus the Archdeacon 
 writes : 
 
 " Mr. Burgon was never licensed to the Curacy; indeed, 
 he was actually residing at Oriel during the three years 
 into which his Finmere engagement fell. All that he 
 undertook was to come to Finmere every Saturday, and 
 stay there till Monday and not even this in the Long 
 Vacation. That Vacation it was his habit to spend 
 with his brother-in-law, the Rev. Henry John (after- 
 wards Archdeacon) Rose, at Houghton Conquest, in 
 Bedfordshire. He used to say that he needed the Long
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 169 
 
 Vacation ' for the education of his biggest pupil ' mean- 
 ing himself. He very rarely stayed at Finmere for more 
 than two nights at a time, except at Christmas and at 
 Easter. That he should have grown deeply attached to 
 the Finmere people, and should have attached them 
 deeply to himself, in so short a period and with such 
 intermittent ministrations, may seem wonderful ; but 
 the unique character of his ministrations serves to ex- 
 plain it. He came to Finmere regularly on the Saturday 
 afternoon. That same evening he went round, as a rule, 
 to every house in the village, and sometimes visited out- 
 lying cottages or farms also. On the Sunday, besides his 
 work in the church and the school, he made a practice of 
 visiting all the sick in the parish. In one case of great 
 urgency he is remembered to have gone five times in one 
 Sunday to a single house. He was liberal with his 
 money to a fault. During the first few weeks of his 
 connexion with Finmere he would bring with him joints 
 of meat from Oxford, and carry them himself to cottages, 
 the inmates of which had struck him as specially 
 needy. Against this particular method of charity the 
 Rector thought it necessary to protest. Mr. Burgon 
 abandoned it, somewhat unwillingly, in deference to his 
 Rector's long experience. But his bounty found for it- 
 self other channels ; it was irrepressible. On the Mon- 
 day morning he not unfrequently entertained at break- 
 fast in his lodging ten or a dozen of the school-children. 
 The provision was as abundant as at an Oxford 
 tutor's breakfast party ; the host at least equally 
 acceptable to his guests. Indeed, his kindness to the 
 school-children was unbounded ; for the little ones he 
 showed great fondness. He played with them, and en- 
 couraged them to hang about him, as men who love 
 children will caress the young children of a friend. 
 They returned his affection heartily. It was common to 
 see them crowding round him in the village street, or 
 running along by his side. The old Rector applied to 
 him the words of Goldsmith ' They plucked his gown 
 to share the good man's smile.' But if his kindness to 
 the children was overflowing, their elders had a full
 
 170 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 share of it also. Two illustrations may suffice. A poor 
 woman who was very ill, and was thought to be near 
 death, expressed one Sunday a strong wish to see again 
 her son, who had been sent to the Radcliffe Infirmary at 
 Oxford for an affection of the eyes. 'You shall see 
 him ! ' said Mr. Burgon. After Evensong, which was at 
 three o'clock, he walked over to Bicester (eight miles), 
 went into Oxford, got the lad out of the Infirmary, 
 brought him over to Finmere that night, and showed 
 him to his mother, and took him back to the Infirmary 
 on the Monday morning. The mother recovered. On 
 another occasion, in winter, a boy belonging to a large 
 and very poor family was out of work. He had asked 
 all the farmers for employment in vain. Mr. Burgon 
 took up his case. Before his own breakfast on the 
 Monday morning, he went round himself to every farm- 
 house in the parish. It was not until he had completed 
 the round that he met with success. The last farmer 
 whom he visited gave way. When incidents like these 
 are related, it seems right to add that his care for the 
 souls of the people was as active as his care for their 
 bodies. 
 
 " His remarkable diligence in visiting the sick and the 
 whole has been already mentioned. It may be worth 
 while to say a word about his dealings with those who 
 were confirmed during his employment at Finmere. On 
 the 2 ist of March, 1852, Bishop Wilberforce held a Con- 
 firmation at Mixbury for the two parishes of Mixbury 
 and Finmere. At that Confirmation Mr. Burgon pre- 
 sented thirty-nine candidates from the parish of Fin- 
 mere fifteen men and twenty-four women of whom 
 the eldest was forty-seven, the youngest fifteen. He 
 had prepared them with the greatest care. Five of them 
 were not actually living in the parish at the time ; but 
 two of these five, and all the thirty-four who were living 
 in the parish, received the Holy Communion from him 
 on Easter Day. To fix these memories more deeply, he 
 wrote, printed, and distributed, five stanzas of eight 
 lines each with this heading : ' Finmere Verses : to re- 
 mind us of our Confirmation, at Mixbury, on the 2ist of
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 171 
 
 March : and of our First Communion, at Finmere, on 
 Easter Day, A. D. 1852.' Nor did he stop here. At 
 Christmas in that same year he wrote, printed, and dis- 
 tributed, ' A Letter to the Parishioners of Finmere,' not 
 unlike, in its general choice of topics, the Pastoral Letters 
 which parish clergymen sometimes introduce into parish 
 magazines, but characteristic of the writer in its tender- 
 ness and particularity. In this letter he recited the 
 names of all those who had been confirmed that year, 
 mentioned the number (not of course the names) of 
 those who had communicated at Easter, and asked ' But 
 what of those other three ' who did not communicate ? 
 ' And out of the thirty-six who came to the Lord's Table at 
 Finmere on Easter Day, how many have presented them- 
 selves for the second time?' Other words were added of 
 affectionate warning and entreaty. A letter to him, dated 
 twenty-one years later, from one of those whom he pre- 
 jiaivd for that Confirmation, was found after his death, 
 which showed that his fatherly care and kindness was 
 not easily forgotten. 
 
 "It may be added that he distributed at Finmere a 
 simple Manual of Private Prayer, prepared by himself, 
 and submitted to the judgment of the Rector, which he is 
 believed to have printed expressly for that parish. It 
 was printed inside a sheet of letter paper. He certainly 
 dedicated to the parishioners of Finmere a funeral ser- 
 mon, which he preached at Mixbury on the death of the 
 Rector, in the autumn of 1 853, after his own connexion 
 with Finmere was terminated. 
 
 " Mr. Burgon's first Sunday at Finmere was the twenty- 
 second Sunday after Trinity, 1851 ; his last was Trinity 
 Sunday, 1853. The whole time between those dates is 
 only eighteen months ; but he bore the people of that 
 parish always in his heart. He came back to preach to 
 them on the i5th of November, 1858, when their church 
 had been restored by the exertions of a new Rector, and 
 he seems to have composed two hymns for that occasion. 
 He maintained a correspondence with many of them for 
 many years, and continued to help those who needed it, 
 as he found occasion. Every person from Finmere who
 
 1 72 LIFE OF DEAN BUSOON. 
 
 came to the Oxford Infirmary, while he remained at 
 Oriel, was regarded by him as his special charge. Others 
 who visited Oxford for other reasons, he encouraged to 
 come and see him in his college rooms : those who came 
 he showed about and entertained as if they had been 
 friends of equal rank with himself. He kept always 
 near him, both at Oxford and at Cbichester, a little book 
 of Finmere memoranda. The news of his death caused 
 no less sorrow in that village than it caused in Oxford 
 itself." 
 
 While he was thus immersed in pastoral occupations 
 during the Saturdays, Sundays, and often also during 
 the Mondays, of the Oxford Term time, he was carrying 
 on many other pursuits and studies at his College on the 
 other days of the week, and throwing himself with the 
 keenest possible interest into the academical movements 
 of the day, and into the political and theological ques- 
 tions, which the course of events, or the progress of 
 thought, threw up to the surface. In the first place, his 
 private pupils, the engagement with whom was neces- 
 sitated by his desire, not only to make himself entirely 
 independent of his father, but also to lay by something as 
 a provision for the members of his family, occupied a 
 great deal of his time, and not of his time only, but of 
 his care and thought ; for his character was such that he 
 could do nothing without throwing his whole mind into 
 it, and warming with the interest of his work. Then he 
 had during this period (as almost always) literary, or 
 quasi-literary work in hand. His pen and his pencil 
 were never idle. We shall see that the Notes and 
 Dissertations of his ' Harmony,' which then " promised to 
 be his opus magnum" grew during this period to a con- 
 siderable bulk ; and it is some consolation to those who 
 cannot but regret that this work (which more or less 
 occupied him all his life) was never finished, to observe
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 173 
 
 a statement in one of his letters to Mrs. H. J. Rose, 
 that his ' Commentary of the Gospels ' had grown out of the 
 Harmony.' The Scripture Cottage Prints a scheme 
 which had been conceived at the time of his first Ordina- 
 tion, and about which he had then consulted Mrs. Hugh 
 James Rose appeared in 1851 ; and on the eve of his A.D. 18- 
 thirty-eighth birthday (Aug. 20 of that year) he writes * '' 3 ' 
 one of his sprightly little notes 5 to Mr. Renouard, to ask 
 the favour of being allowed to dedicate to him the com- 
 pleted work, of which the twelfth and last Part, " now on 
 the stocks, is to be accompanied with a peck of letter- 
 press." That a work of this sort is most desirable, as 
 providing artistically good prints, in substitution for the 
 miserable daubs too often found on cottage walls ; that 
 the dissemination of such prints amongst our peasantry 
 might contribute to their mental, and (under God's 
 blessing) to their spiritual elevation ; and that Burgon 
 was eminently qualified to conduct such an enterprise, 
 from his inborn genius for art, and from the culture 
 which in early days he had bestowed upon that genius, 
 will be universally allowed. 
 
 The fifty smaller Cottage Prints (the series which 
 was dedicated to Mr. Renouard) were not coloured. They 
 are well- executed tinted engravings from the Sacred 
 Pictures of the great Masters, which are more or less 
 familiar to every one. Put late in 1852, and early in A.D. 18 
 1853, " Large Coloured Sacred Prints for the School and ^- 3 
 the Cottage " of a much less artistic character, were put 
 forth in three Parts by the same Editors. 
 
 "'The School' has been first named," they say in 
 
 5 It is dated " Eve of 'lavuciStov'B it was doubtless by this name tliat 
 
 Birthday. Aniio ^Erse Dionysiacae, Mr. Renouard, who baptized him, 
 
 1851." 'lavtHiSiov is the modern was in the habit of calling him in 
 
 Greek for "Little Johnnie"; and his childhood and youth.
 
 174 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 their Prefatory Address, "as the primary object of 
 Parochial solicitude the source and centre of Ministerial 
 hope. But the adornment of the Cottage was the object 
 of the present undertaking, as well as of the smaller 
 Series of ' Cottage Prints,' which we published last year. 
 . . . Concerning the merit of the present Series of Prints, 
 as works of Art, we dare not speak very confidently. . . . 
 We heartily wish that these Engravings were of a higher 
 order ; but at the same time we feel that they have 
 sufficient merit more than sufficient we shall perhaps be 
 told to please the class for which they are chiefly in- 
 tended. The Texts in the ornamental border do not of 
 course conduce to the pictorial effect of the engraving. . . . 
 But they make the picture a vast deal more instructive, 
 and help to produce that kind of gaudy magnificence, 
 which uneducated eyes delight to contemplate." 
 
 The Pteverend F. E. Paget addressed some remarks 
 to the Publishers of these Sacred Prints as to the service 
 done to Cottagers by the publication, and as to the in- 
 dispensability of some such pictures to their instruction 
 and edification. 
 
 " No one who does not live among Cottagers," he wrote, 
 "can have the faintest conception how indispensable 
 pictures are for the purpose of conveying instruction 
 (and, I may add, comfort) to their minds; nor how 
 intense is their ignorance with respect to matters with 
 which it is assumed that they are familiar, but which 
 have not been brought before them through the medium 
 of pictures. I can, of my own knowledge, confirm a 
 statement which I have lately seen in print, that there 
 are grown persons, who had no idea of the manner of 
 our Blessed LORD'S death until a print of the Crucifixion 
 was, of late years, brought before them." 
 
 It should be noticed, in speaking of the studies carried 
 on during this period contemporaneously with his 
 pastoral work in rural districts, that his first Sermon . 
 before the University, which naturally demanded much
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 175 
 
 and careful preparation, was preached on April 26, 1851. 
 Its subject was The Interpretation of Holy Scripture, 
 and it developed itself into and was followed by, a series 
 of six Lectures on the same subject delivered in Oriel 
 College Chapel ; and both may be regarded as the 
 nucleus of his Volume on " Inspiration and Interpreta- 
 tion," in which he answers seriatim the Seven Essays of 
 the notorious Essays and Reviews. 
 
 It remains to say a word of the Academical, Political, 
 and Ecclesiastical movements to which references are 
 made in the Letters subjoined to this and the following 
 Period. The New Statute, which established a fourth 
 School of Law and Modern History, and for which he ex- 
 presses to Mr. Renouard so strong an antipathy, was 
 passed by Convocation April 23, 1 850. But this, besides 
 being the spontaneous act of Oxford herself, was a very 
 meagre instalment of those fundamental and revolution- 
 ary changes in the constitution and administration of the 
 University, into the acceptance of which Oxford was to 
 be coerced by the action of a (so-called) Liberal Govern- 
 ment, which had but little sympathy either with the 
 Academy or the Church. Probably some of those, who 
 most strongly urged the establishment of the Law and 
 History School, may have regarded that measure as a 
 sort of lightning conductor, which might either avert 
 altogether the Academical revolution threatened in high 
 quarters, and evidently impending, or, if it was to come, 
 might at least mitigate its severity. If so, they strangely 
 miscalculated its effect. In the very next month, Lord 
 John Russell gave notice of the intention of the Govern- 
 ment to issue a Royal Commission " to inquire into the 
 State, Discipline, Studies, and Revenues of the University 
 and Colleges of Oxford," and in August the Commission 
 was actually issued. In vain did the Duke of Wellington,
 
 i -6 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 as Chancellor of the University, offer vigorous opposition 
 to the measure. In vain did even the Liberal Lord 
 Brougham deprecate "a rash and inconsiderate inter- 
 ference with the Universities." In vain did the Heb- 
 domadal Board, the then ruling body of the University, 
 remonstrate. In vain (on May 21, 1851) was a petition 
 to Her Majesty in Council against the Commission of 
 Inquiry carried in a full house of Convocation (the 
 legislative body of the University) by a majority of 144. 
 Asked in the House of Commons whether the proceed- 
 ings of the Commission were to be suspended, until the 
 petition had been presented and decided upon, Lord 
 John Russell emphatically answered, " Certainly not." 
 The Commission sat to brew its revolutionary measure 
 during 1851 ; and in the May of 1852 appeared the 
 bulky Blue Book of 800 pages containing its Report, 
 with an Appendix of "forty-seven Recommendations, 
 some of them affecting the University, and others 
 particular Colleges 6 ." It was not, however, till 1854 
 that the Oxford University Bill, which was founded on 
 this Report was introduced and carried in Parliament. 
 Burgon's estimate of the serious evils likely to accrue 
 from it will be submitted to the reader in the next 
 Chapter. 
 
 Two Parliamentary Elections for the University took 
 place during this period (December 24, 1848 to June 6, 
 I ^53)- That which took place in July 1852 was 
 necessitated by the Dissolution which the late Lord 
 Derby, then Prime Minister, had advised. On this 
 occasion a vain attempt was made to oust Mr. Glad- 
 
 The above particulars respect- Mr. G. V. Cox's ' Recollections of 
 
 in:,' the Royal Commission, and the Oxford' [London: 1870]. Mr. 
 
 resistance which it encountered in Cox's own phraseology has been in 
 
 the University, are all taken from some cases retained.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 177 
 
 stone from the seat which (with Sir Robert Inglis as his 
 colleague) he had held since July 1847, Dr. Marsham, 
 the Warden of Merton. who was put up against him, 
 obtaining only 758 votes to Mr. Gladstone's 1108. And 
 shortly afterwards another Election for Oxford University 
 became inevitable. Lord Derby's Government, having 
 been defeated in December upon the financial projects of 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Disraeli), at once 
 resigned, and Lords Aberdeen and Lansdowne undertook 
 to form a Government on the basis of an union between 
 the Whigs and the followers of Sir Robert Peel. Mr. 
 Gladstone, consenting to become Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer under this Administration, had to be re-elected 
 by the University at the opening of the year 1853. He 
 had given great offence by his joining in the vote which 
 led to the resignation of the Government of Lord Derby, 
 and accordingly it was resolved that his election should 
 be opposed. He was again victorious over his opponent 
 (Mr. Perceval), but by a majority greatly reduced from 
 that by which he had beaten Dr. Marsham (124 votes 
 as against 350). The fact that between the two elections 
 Lord Derby had succeeded the Duke of Wellington as 
 Chancellor of the University (the Duke having died 
 September 14, 1852) contributed to embitter the feeling 
 of the constituency against Mr. Gladstone, as one who 
 had put himself in opposition to its head. It will be 
 seen that Burgon, like so many other members of the 
 constituency, while offended by many parts of Mr. Glad- 
 stone's political conduct, and grievously disappointed in 
 the expectations he had formed of him as a champion 
 of the Church, nevertheless supported him to the end by 
 his vote, more on the ground of the inadequate mental 
 calibre of his opponents than of any sympathy with the 
 YOL. I. N
 
 178 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 (so-called) liberal views, which he had then begun to 
 develop 7 . 
 
 In the years 1849, 1850 two questions, which still 
 continue to divide members of the Church, were in 
 consequence of current events warmly agitated. These 
 were the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, and the 
 power of a lay Tribunal to adjudicate in matters of 
 doctrine. In 1849 Bishop Philpotts of Exeter had re- 
 fused to institute Mr. Gorham to Brampford Speke, 
 on the ground of his denying the teaching of the Cate- 
 chism, that Regeneration accompanies Infant Baptism 
 necessarily and universally. Mr. Gorham, having been 
 condemned by the Ecclesiastical Court, appealed in 
 1850 to the Queen in Council, who reversed the 
 sentence, eliciting thereby from Archdeacon Denison a 
 protest against the right of the Queen in Council to ad- 
 judicate in a matter of doctrine. Then followed the 
 Bishop of Exeter's letter to the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury (Sumner), charging his Grace with having changed 
 the ground which he had taken up in his earlier writings 
 on the subject of Baptismal Regeneration, one of the 
 most lucid, vigorous, and crushing pamphlets which has 
 ever appeared on a controversial subject. In two days 
 
 7 In saying this, the author must was demanded in order to justify 
 earnestly deprecate being under- opposition to him. It was Goliath 
 stood to disparage either Mr. Round, in full panoply advancing against a 
 Dr. Marahain, or Mr. Perceval, all stripling with sling and stone. Per- 
 of whom were high-minded, high- haps the voters on the unsuccessful 
 principled, and honourable men, and side in those contests may have 
 each of whom successively he him- occasionally consoled themselves 
 self cordially supported as against under their crushing defeats with 
 Mr. Gladstone. But the unusual the thought of that ancient en- 
 brilliancy of Mr. Gladstone's powers counter, and its lesson that the 
 and attainments not unnaturally 'strong side, as this world accounts 
 made very many feel that a candi- strength, .is not necessarily the right 
 date of more than ordinary lustre side.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 179 
 
 it reached a fourth edition, and the copy of it now before 
 the author is stated to be the sixteenth edition. But 
 the Archbishop held on his course unmoved, as indeed 
 he could not well avoid doing, and on August 20, 1 850, 
 Mr. Gorham was inducted into the living of Brampford 
 Speke by mandate of the Primate, overruling the refusal 
 of the Diocesan. It will be seen in the ensuing corres- 
 pondence with what vehemence and ardour Burgon threw 
 himself into the controversy, and maintained the doctrine 
 which Mr. Gorham had impugned. On the other hand it 
 will be seen with equal clearness that he was throughout, 
 and from the very earliest days, a most loyal and attached 
 member of the Reformed Church. After a grave consulta- 
 tion with Mrs. Hugh James Rose, upon whom he seems 
 to have thought that her revered husband's mantle had 
 fallen, he withdrew his name (by a letter which bears 
 date July 23, 1 849), from the English Church Union, on 
 which it had been placed, as he tells her, without his 
 consent being asked. His remonstrances with Mr. Dods- 
 worth, when he found what Homewards tendencies he 
 was developing, and his determination "never again to 
 wear a surplice in that Church " will be read with 
 interest. In fact, what was said of him, when he un- 
 folded his ecclesiastical views at some party of Oxford 
 men, "Why I declare, Burgon, that you are quite a 
 jii-imitive Tractarian" represented very accurately his 
 whereabouts in Religious Opinion. He had strong 
 sympathy with the Tractarian movement at its outset, 
 in its revival of discipline, in its recognition of the value 
 and blessing of the Apostolical Succession, and above all 
 in its reinstatement of the Daily Office, and its teaching 
 on the subject of the Sacraments; but further than this 
 he could never be induced to go ; Ritualism had always 
 a repellent effect upon him ; and he consistently inain- 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 tained that it was a corruption and running to seed of 
 the High Church movement, not a sound and healthy 
 development of it. In times like the present, when 
 nothing commends itself to popular acceptance but that 
 which is extravagant and in extremes, it cannot be 
 supposed that his views on religious subjects will 
 find favour with the many ; but by those who read in 
 his letters the expression of his interest in, and his love 
 and care for his rural flocks, it will be universally agreed 
 that, whatever else he may have been (and he was very 
 much besides), he at least was singularly qualified to be 
 a Christian Pastor, singularly endowed with the sym- 
 pathy and self-sacrifice whereby souls are won, one, 
 on whose heart those texts were graven as the animating 
 principles of his ministry; "God is my record, how 
 greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus 
 Christ ; " " And I will very gladly spend and be spent 
 for your souls 8 ." 
 
 The letters to Mr. Hensley subjoined to this Chapter 
 exhibit the clinging affection to his old College friend, 
 which he maintained inviolate and intense amidst 
 certain differences of political and religious opinion, 
 while those to Mr. Renouard show the distastefulness to 
 him of the (so-called) Academical Reforms which had set 
 in, and at the same time the interest in etymology and 
 other departments of study, which his many-sided mind 
 found room for, even while he was taking private pupils, 
 and keenly interesting himself in the work and responsi- 
 bilities of a zealous Parish Priest. And the author has 
 found himself unable to withhold from the reader the 
 letter in which Mr. Palmer, his venerated and much 
 
 8 The marginal rending of the the reading in the text. The origi- - 
 Authorised Version of 2 Cor. xii. nal has, virtp -ruv 
 15, is here adopted, as preferable to
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 181 
 
 loved Rector, while not obscurely indicating his cordial 
 sympathy, tempers his enthusiasm, and suggests to him 
 improvements both in his writings and his method of 
 working. The second letter of Mr. Palmer, suggesting 
 to him a new subject for a Cottage Print, has an inde- 
 pendent value from the striking Fable that accompanies 
 it, and which came to Mr. Palmer himself from the cele- 
 brated Jones of N ayland. 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Oriel, 23 Feb., 1849. 
 
 " My dear Bishop I am sure you will be interested to 
 hear that to-morrow I am literally going to turn Country 
 Curate ! My parish is West Ilsley, a village in Berk- 
 shire amid the Downs. My Rector, the Honble. and 
 Rev. Edw. Moore, is absent for six weeks more at 
 Windsor (where he is Canon), and I am to have sole care 
 of the Parish during his absence. I feel as nervous, as 
 you may suppose, and as curious as if I was going to 
 see MI/ irife. It is eighteen miles off, and I am full of 
 work with pupils, lectures I attend, &c., &c., &c., so that 
 I fear I shall only be able to go over on Saturdays, and 
 half hesitate at undertaking such a responsibility ; but 
 AV/,//,< one must, and I feel so like a sword rusting in its 
 
 sheath, that I am really every way pleased to go 
 
 You will of course hear from me ere long, with some 
 particulars of my doings. 
 
 ik Ever most affectionately yours, 
 
 " J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Oriel, 27 Feb., 1849. 
 
 " Well, my dear Bishop, every thing went off charm- 
 ingly in my rural parish. Every thing is as pleasant as 
 you can suppose. The railway takes me ten miles to- 
 wards Ilsley ; a crazy little horse and gig trundles me the 
 remaining eight at a pace by which the horse designs (I
 
 182 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 see clearly) to facilitate thought or reading. The village 
 (which I reach at five) contains about 400 people, who, 
 with the exception of the Squire and his sister, and four 
 farmers, are all day-labourers. The Church is small and 
 unattractive. The Parsonage house new and large. 
 There is little to charm one in the place ; but it is my 
 portion, and it is charming therefore to me. 
 
 " On my arrival I proceeded full trot to the extremity 
 of the village, and began to make acquaintance with the 
 people. This lasted till between eight and nine. Next 
 day, at the intervals between services, I did the like, 
 and on Monday morning visited some more. So that, on 
 
 the whole, I do not think they can feel neglected 
 
 I never had two entire services all to myself schools, 
 
 &c., before. I like it immensely I meditate a 
 
 few reforms however. There is not a soul in Church 
 
 scarcely who kneels ; and very /<?? in Church at all 
 
 I find also that Baptisms are celebrated after service, and 
 I gave in to the practice so far as to baptize my first child 
 
 accordingly in presence of an empty Church May 
 
 I venture, my Lord, to plead your authority and express 
 orders, and baptize the next candidates for Baptism during 
 Service ? I must try to bring this about before I leave 
 Ilsley. You will wish to hear the name of my first 
 Babe. Noah Newman! .... The absurdity of helping 
 Noah into the Ark struck me so forcibly that it almost 
 
 destroyed my gravity. 
 
 I can add no more just now, but that I am your affec- 
 tionate Deacon, 
 
 " J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 " Oriel, Easter Monday [April 9], 1849. 
 " My dear Bishop, 
 
 " My career at West Ilsley my very happy career- 
 terminated, very happily, on Saturday ; the first day on 
 which I had felt anything like dulness there. My en- 
 gagement with Mr. Moore only lasted for the six Sundays 
 m Lent but I wished very much indeed to talk to them
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 183 
 
 on Good Friday, so I staid. Easier Day was too great a 
 privilege, it seems. The Provost appointed me to preach 
 in Chapel ; so my body was at Oriel, and my heart 
 only at Ilsley. I achieved my purpose, or rather pur- 
 poses, and thank God with all my heart ; for each 
 success was an wupeakable comfort to me. I had my little 
 church very full. I hammered (often in extempore para- 
 graphs) Sunday after Sunday at their knees, till all 
 knelt. or pretended to do so ; and I christened my four 
 children before a full congregation. It was the happiest 
 afternoon of all ; for I addressed my sermon to the cln/ilrcn 
 (having announced beforehand that I should do so), so 
 that the incident of the Baptism came in most oppor- 
 tunely, and all went off well ; though one of the little 
 ( 'hi istians <H<1 keep bawling at the top of her lungs, ' Give 
 me my bonnet, I say, and let me go ho-o-oo-me' . . . Un- 
 luckily, I had left my sugar-plums at the Rectory ; so 
 there was no help for it. 
 
 " As my Bishop also, I am bound (as well as itn-lined) 
 to tell you that I made my first essay at catechizing 
 during service, on Good Iriday afternoon, instead of 
 a Sermon, and had a little row of weeping Naiads to 
 catechize : to my immense annoyance at the time (for I 
 thought they were frig/if etiet/, which after the rehearsal 
 in the schoolroom was a great deal too bad), but of 
 course to my pleasure afterwards, for the little dears 
 proved wrry fo think I icas going away on the morrow /// 
 .... I had indeed taken great pains with them, for 
 which they seemed very grateful. In short, we all 
 parted with mutual regret. Many and many and 
 many a time did I think of you and wished for you 
 too. . . ." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Oriel, May i, 1849. 
 
 " Tell me whether you approve of my legacy to 
 
 my people. These prayers (the result of no small delibera- 
 tion) I had mounted on thin pasteboard, secured with a 
 strip of cloth behind, so as to open and shut like a little
 
 1 84 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Portfolio. I hope too you will like the May-day verses 
 which I wrote for Magdalen College 9 . 
 " And now farewell. 
 
 " Ever your affectionate 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Houghton Conquest, July 9, 1849. 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " Now I will not throw into the shape of a grumble 
 a visit I paid to Ilsley on the last Sunday of Term, and 
 the two sermons I was requested to write (for the Church 
 Building Society), and Carry l with me. I will simply 
 record my visit to my Curacy, the return as I felt it to 
 be, as a fact in my recent life. I had felt so much in 
 earnest with that little parish, that I am half ashamed to 
 confess how considerable a place in my thoughts the con- 
 templated return to Ilsley occupied. When I got there, 
 everything seemed go changed ! Instead of crossing bare 
 and bleak downs, with a stupid boy flogging at a whitey- 
 brown pony for a couple of hours, my Rector came to 
 conduct me through basking sunshine. On reaching the 
 brow of the hill which commands the village, it was, and 
 was not, the same. The trees all out in bottle-green liveries, 
 and every field, which I had left black, fragrant with 
 bean-blossom, or waving with the promise of harvest. 
 But the greatest change was still to come. It seemed 
 incredible to me that there could be more than two rooms 
 in the house. A Drawing and a Dining room, flowers, 
 and a piano, with two or three men servants, and eight 
 or ten women servants, I wondered where they had all 
 
 9 These verses will be found in his some neighbouring hill 
 
 little Volume of ' Poems (1840 to Blown such a blast of her en- 
 
 1878)' [Macmillan, 1885], "May chanted horn 
 
 Morning on Magdalen Tower." That youth forgets his slumber?" 
 
 " What do we, up so early, this &c., & c . 
 
 May morn ? > His sister Caroline, Mrs. Henry 
 
 Hath Health, the huntress, from John Rose.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 185 
 
 come from ! ... In short I secretly pined for ' the Sacra- 
 mental quarter 2 ,' and preferred my active Lenten life to 
 the new sphere of light and sunshine, into which I had 
 so unaccountably been introduced. 
 
 " I would rather talk to you, than write, about Mr. and 
 Mrs. Moore, their two Sons and two Daughters. I shall 
 only write that they were kind and hospitable, and that 
 I was sorry to run away so soon. I left there on Mon- 
 day, packed up my things on Tuesday, and on Wednesday 
 morning hurried to London. I saw little of my people ; 
 but all I saw, showed that they had not forgotten me. . . . My 
 first Curacy / shall assuredly never forget. I may add 
 that I believe I am to resume the care of the little flock 
 from i January to 31 March (F.axter -Day, thank God!) 
 1850. But ffiis also is to anticipate. A blissful anticipa- 
 tion it ?'# though ! 
 
 " 1 preached twice for Dodsworth " [in London, at 
 Christ Church, Albany Street]. " The second time before 
 a large congregation, and spoke my mind on a subject which 
 I suppose had never been spoken of before in that church. 
 I mean the sin of talking loosely in society, as if you ap- 
 proved of Romanism, and so perhaps really unsettling, 
 if not actually sending over, the weak and wavering. 
 I rather trembled at my own boldness, and thought it 
 son in I wl very extraordinary, amid the extreme quiet of 
 the Church, to be saying what I kneir was hitting right 
 and left so many, without phrase and circumlocu- 
 tion, and for the space of two pages. But I had counted 
 the cost. I took a week to think over what I had 
 written, and was prepared to stand or fall by it. Dods- 
 worth took it very well, though I am sure I surprised 
 him. ... I am sure it is much needed in that parish. 
 I can write to you (and to scarcely any one else) freely ; 
 
 * He means Lent, Easter, Ascen- Death and Burial," followed by 
 
 sion-title, and Whitsun-tide, when '* the glorious Resurrection and As- 
 
 tlie chief Mysteries [Sacramento) of cension," and by " the coming of the 
 
 our Redemption are commemorated, Holy Ghost." This period may be 
 
 "TheBaptisin,Fasting,andTemp- called the Sacramental quarter of 
 
 tation,the Agony and Bloody Sweat, the year. 
 the Cross and Passion, the precious
 
 1 86 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 and I assure you if you could hear the way that the 
 Margaret Street Chapel people, and some of Dodsworth's 
 talk, you would really think that it was a settled point 
 in that quarter that our own Holy Communion is good 
 only as a pis aller ; that Romanism is the thing after 
 all. They almost swear by Allies s book\ I could tell 
 you of many things said and done, which would quite 
 amaze you. They are just as wild one way, as certain 
 good people are another. One shares the usual and 
 obvious fate of being kicked by both parties. However, 
 being as saucy as most people, I kick in return. Were 
 I permanently to live among them, I feel I should very 
 soon be obliged to take up an antagonistic position. As 
 it is, visiting London only at long intervals, and for a 
 very short time, I feel that I shall do my part if I merely 
 fire off a single gun every time in a certain direction. 
 Meantime I see clearly that London is the place, however 
 distressing it would be to become a London Rector. I 
 see further that if I had a parish in London, I should 
 stand almost alone. Romanism I abhor. Your dry (I 
 beg your Lordship's pardon ! their dry) Protestantism I 
 hate. I allow no unction, no nothing in the Romish 
 system, which ours may not surpass. I allow no simpli- 
 city, jealousy, variety in Protestantism, which is not com- 
 patible with something far higher, and more soul-stirring. . 
 .... But, I tell you honestly, if I had a large parish to 
 look after, I must rush up to Broad Street 3 once a week, 
 or you must come and pitch your tent somewhere near 
 me, during all responsible times; for the sense of my 
 
 insufficiency very often almost unmans me 
 
 " There are two or three things in your letter to answer. 
 My Prayers (thank you for your criticism) I know are 
 a touch too high ; but I think I could bring a parish up 
 to them (if I might) in a few weeks. Surely, if only 
 twenty copies in a hundred are used, one is doing huge 
 good. And can one not make sure in a school that all 
 use them ? . . . Out of delicacy, I left the hundred copies 
 behind, and find only four or five had been distributed ! . . . 
 However, your advice so weighs with me, that if you 
 * Broad Street, Brighton, where Mrs. Hugh Jaines Rose was then living.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 187 
 
 will tell me of your notion of a maximum for a school- 
 child, I will see what can be done. . . . Depend upon it, we 
 neglect the lambs of the flock. They grow up godless ; 
 then come the cares of life ; then sickness ; and the 
 Clergyman stars his fingers, and wonders at the ignor- 
 ance of the person he is addressing, who can neither 
 understand htm, nor pray for himself. ' 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 " Royal Hotel, Ramsgate, Oct. 12,1 849. 
 " My dear Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " I rejoice to tell you that I return on the 2ist to my 
 old curacy ! ! ! It is offered me till the 2nd December, 
 and again for three months in 1850, beginning with the 
 middle of January. I feel so glad. I can think of nothing 
 
 else But when your Lordship pleases to bestow 
 
 a London living upon me (which once, with some naivete, 
 you asked me why I did not fake I), I will resign my 
 splendid property on the Berkshire Downs, and migrate 
 to the Metropolis " 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Oriel, Monday, 10 Dec. 1849. 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " A poor wretch who has been working himself all this 
 term into fiddle-strings who has had pupils (perforce) 
 all the morning of every day and the anxieties of a 
 little parish, besides the actual amount of work required 
 for the same little parish to fill up all that remained of 
 every day ; who has consequently never known the 
 peace of a quiet walk, or a thorough night's rest for 
 eight weeks exactly ; and who now that he ought to be 
 making his peace with God in the miserable ten days, 
 which remain before the Examination at Cuddesdon 4 , finds 
 he must cram up heresies, and councils, and dates ; this 
 is the poor animal, whom you are good enough to call 
 
 For Priests' Orders.
 
 i88 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 your friend, and prove that you regard him as such, by so 
 writing to him as you now write to me. I WILL find 
 time for THAT, but I cannot for any thing else. 
 
 " I enclose what speaks for itself. They were distri- 
 buted mounted on cards (I have a few for you). It 
 will show you the kind of anxiety I have had. I believe 
 now EVERY ONE in the place has prayers ; and oh! the 
 joy I have felt at discovering FOR CERTAIN that scores of 
 children use them daily I mean the maturer prayers I 
 sent you. I have also visited EVERYBODY in the place, 
 
 and know all about them But this is not done 
 
 without some wear and tear 
 
 "I left Oxford before it was light on Saturday, and 
 on reaching Ilsley, after breakfasting, visited 36 families. 
 I returned to my fireside about 8, dined, and at 10 o'clock 
 fell asleep, woke at 3 in the dark, and began my Sermon, 
 suggested by the news picked up in my parish peram- 
 bulation This followed by incessant talking, from 
 
 10 o'clock in the morning of Sunday till 5 in the even- 
 ing, is really enough to tire a nobler creature than my- 
 self. I quite long for rest. 
 
 " Yours most affectionately, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 " Oriel, Good Friday night [April 29], 1850. 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " But I really must tell you how I have been ' going 
 on,' as I call it. I have been trying to do the work of 
 two men, and have found it, to say the least, hard work. 
 My Oxford week I have tried to discharge in four days 
 and a half: a week at Ilsley is the remaining fraction. 
 
 The impression left upon me by nine weeks 
 
 labour in this way is that of profound weariness 
 
 I have commonly had to write one sermon between 10 
 [p. m. on Saturday] and 3 on Sunday morning. My Mon- 
 day I have given to my parish, which I have left with the
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 189 
 
 bleak dawn of Tuesday, so as to be in Oxford (nineteen 
 miles oft') by 9 in the morning. Of late, great anxiety re- 
 specting a woman with a fever, carried me over once or 
 twice in the week. From Didcot (the nearest station) I 
 have walked always over the hills, and this, added to the 
 work which I found, or made, when I got there, quite 
 
 knocked me up It was my first case of listening 
 
 to an agonized conscience in the near prospect of death. 
 
 I shall not easily forget it ! I could go on about 
 
 my parish for a week ; I could tell you how tenderly we 
 parted, and what kind, cheering news I get from them. 
 But I should only be tedious. I could tell you, too, of 
 all I tried to achieve, but it would serve no purpose, 
 except to foster that self-comcioumexs, which I am sure 
 mars one's usefulness sadly, and prevents, many a time, 
 
 the descent of the Divine blessing on one's labours 
 
 I feel rather more disposed to be penitential, and tell you 
 of all my slips, and sad experiences ; but you would be 
 very, very weary, and wish I had never broken silence. 
 
 I will therefore turn my thoughts away from 
 
 that handful of sheep in the wilderness and look onwards. 
 
 " What a crisis we seem to have come to in Church 
 
 matters ! . . . . Something Mttxf. follow, I think 
 
 You have seen the Bishop of E.'s Letter of course 5 . 
 
 " I have as yet signed nothing, nor taken any step. I 
 have in truth seen no protest which I could sign. All 
 express too many opinions, I think. Why not stick to the 
 
 one point, the washing away of original sin ? 
 
 After Easter I hope something may be done here ; but all 
 is still at present. Hussey is trying to get the Heads to 
 act. It is like asking elephants to dance. 
 
 " I rejoice in only one feature of the matter namely, 
 the dignity of the question at issue. It is not a doctrine 6 . 
 
 5 1 A Letter to the Archbishop * He is speaking of Baptismal Re- 
 
 qf Canterbury ' [Sumner] 'from generation, which is the subject on 
 
 the Bishu)i of Exeter ' [Philpotts]. which the Bishop of Exeter joined 
 
 John Murray, Albemarle Street, issue with the Archbishopof Canter- 
 
 1 850. bury.
 
 i QO LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 It is almost Religion itself. It is an article in the Creed. 
 It is a thing to die for. On the other hand, no distress- 
 ing course of coming events, scarcely, can be fatal to us 
 as a Church ; and I hope the few waverers one hears of 
 will feel that it is indeed so. The excitement produced 
 keeps men generally quiet, but I need hardly tell you 
 that this is a question which is stirring men to the very 
 foundation, trying them all. 
 
 " Ever your affectionate, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 " 34, Osnaburgh Street, June 26, 1 850. 
 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " Your approbation of my sermons is the highest praise 
 1 ever desire, except of course the practical praise of see- 
 ing them influence any the humblest of my fellow- 
 servants for good I must have many a talk 
 
 with you before I presume to work a parish. Full of 
 hopes I am, overflowing with a confident belief that an 
 immense deal may be done by well directed zeal and 
 sound teaching. Yet, when I am to be put to the proof, 
 remains all a mystery ; and strange as it may sound, with 
 all my desire for parochial work, it is a mystery which I 
 do not at all feel disposed to pry into. I am not at all 
 impatient ' one step enough for me.' 
 
 " What I do desire is not to die till I have had the 
 shepherding of a flock 7 . In that task I am content to 
 wear myself out, and if the prophecies of friends are to 
 go for aught, I should soon do so. ' I do hope you will 
 never have a parish,' was the farewell of a kind soul at 
 Ilsley ; and I have since been informed that I should kill 
 myself, if I had only FIVE PERSONS in my parish. The 
 picture will I hope make you laugh to read, as it does 
 
 7 He means as Incumbent, with had only shepherded the flock of 
 a flock of his own. As Curate, he another.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 191 
 
 me to write No, no. I have learned many lessons in 
 
 Ilsley, and one is, to know that one cannot do every 
 thing for everybody. 
 
 " O, I had such a pleasant visit there on Whit Monday ! 
 
 The poor were very glad to see me, and their 
 
 humble welcome was untnistakeable. 
 
 " Since my arrival in London, I have been too unwell 
 to go to church. 1 do hope for your approval in my 
 resolve nerer to wear a fti'r^/ice any more at DodtwortJrt 
 Churcli. It must certainly show sympathy of a certain 
 kind to officiate with him. and I do NOT sympathize at 
 all. Do pray notice this first in your reply. 
 
 " You have heard of course that Newman is lecturing 
 in town. The lectures are said to be most entertaining. 
 Last week I met a man who had been to them (a lawyer). 
 We were dining together. 'For shame !' I cried ; 'and 
 pray what did you learn 1 ' 'To despise Popery more than 
 ever,' he replied ; ' but at the same time to feel that the 
 Church of England is no Church at all.' ' So that you 
 came away disbelieving everything ? ' ' Why, yes, rather.' 
 
 And who can doubt that this was a type of a 
 
 class ? The Clergy go also. I begged to be told 
 
 a a me or two. M ... of W ... ., a person I particu- 
 larly distrust was the only one he named. Is not this 
 also distressing ? O, we live in bad times yet not worse 
 than many which have gone before not so bad (if 
 Scripture speaks true) as some which will come after. 
 But the remedy is plain study of the Word of God, and 
 possessing one's soul in patience, and persevering in well- 
 doing to the end I feel as happy as need be, 
 
 though I neither am blind to the danger (which is coming 
 very close), nor, I humbly trust, indifferent to it. 
 
 " Ever your most affectionate and obliged, 
 
 " JOHN W. BURGON. 
 " ' O for him 8 back again ! ' I say many a time to my- 
 
 * He means Mr. Hi-gh James Rose, his correspondent's late husband.
 
 192 LIFE OF DEAN BUEGON. 
 
 self. We are a poor set, the best of us. I get mubbed for 
 condemning some people's views as unsound y and really 
 the belief seems spreading that no one ought to presume 
 to talk so, just as if every thing were not either right or 
 WRONG! and if wrong, to be branded as such, that all 
 may see. Adieu, my dear Bishop." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "H. Conquest, Jan. 15, 1851. 
 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " I called on Pusey, on Christmas Eve, and he read me 
 a letter just received from D[odsworthJ. It began that 
 he was broken-hearted, and asked P. to pray for him, &c. 
 &c. ; and you may imagine that the day after I reached 
 London I called on D. I found him in his study, and 
 when I alluded to the questions of the day, he repeated 
 the words he had written to P., and expressed utter 
 despair of the Ch. of E., or rather implied utter dis- 
 belief in it. In reply to my remonstrances, he insisted 
 that the Church had surrendered to the Crown the alle- 
 giance which it owed to Christ. This I denied. He 
 opened a drawer, and drawing forth a MS., read me 
 several passages. I was still firm, and showed him on 
 every ground that his data were insufficient ; that his 
 precedents from history had been before the world for 
 hundreds of years, and escaped, as valid arguments, all 
 the learned ; that granting them real, they would amount 
 to nothing but the errors of individual men, such as the 
 Bishop of Rome had committed by the dozen, as all 
 History attests, and then I pressed him with the essen- 
 tials of a Church, which even he must allow we retained 
 abundantly. Of course when I alluded to his congrega- 
 tion, he winced, and turned away in tears. But it was 
 far too late to influence him. He had given in his 
 resignation three weeks before, and had evidently made 
 up his mind. In truth, I make little doubt but what 
 these men first lose their hearts, and then cast about for 
 arguments wherewith to fortify their reason. All I could 
 say he met doggedly. I argued as a Dissenter might
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 193 
 
 argue, he said. About Rome he fired up, and protested 
 that men mistook the question as concerns that Church. 
 So, with many warnings to him to be humble and dis- 
 trust himself, at the end of two hours we parted. Judge 
 of my amazement to learn that four or five days later he 
 had turned Romanist ! His wife continues constant to 
 Christ Church with some of the girls, and a bitter posi- 
 tion must her's be indeed. 
 
 " My last visit in London was to her. I ventured to 
 remind her that she owed a higher duty to One above, 
 even than to her husband. She begged I would come 
 and see her when I came to London. 
 
 " Alas, in the meantime what a deadly blow do these 
 men aim at our Holy Church ! How do they retard any 
 upward movement! How do they bind our arms and 
 cripple us! Who have spoken more strongly against 
 Romanism than Newman, Allies, Dodsworth, and the 
 rest? What pretence have we then for requiring cre- 
 dence, while we maintain the Church's authority, and yet 
 disclaim Romanizing tendencies 1 But I am sick of the 
 subject. 
 
 " I do begin to distrust amazingly some of those who 
 yet remain to us. You will easily guess the kind of 
 chaps I mean. They form an amazingly small crew, 
 the ultras, I speak of, of course. You will be glad to hear 
 that Tritton takes an opposite line ; but how sad the 
 case of B * * * * ! 
 
 " And now for something else though one cannot 
 help yet once more reverting to it, to exclaim, How odd 
 it does seem that no one is found willing to conduct the 
 services of a large London Church in so unshowy a way 
 as to disarm censure and baffle Puritanism, yet from the 
 ) 'in I i lit teach all that an honest English heart can desire ! 
 It would be a rare triumph, indeed, in London. In the 
 country, I do believe the case is common. 
 
 ' Ilsley is to enjoy its lawful Vicar till June : on dis- 
 covering which, I cast about, and was anxious to hear of 
 some one wanting Sunday help. The first offer which 
 
 VOL. i. o
 
 194 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 came to me, I gratefully accepted. I am apprentice to 
 the Rev. W. Wilson, of Worton House, near Woodstock, 
 or rather near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. Two little vil- 
 lage Churches (Upper and Lower Worton) claim me, one 
 in the morning, the other in the afternoon. My master 
 is cousin to Daniel Calcutta, and he has a host of rela- 
 tions who are dissenters still, individually, he satisfies 
 me, and would, I am bold to say, satisfy you. He would 
 not accept the living of Islington, because of his dissent- 
 ing kinsmen in the vicinity. I took an early opportunity 
 to flare up on the Sacraments, and resolved, if they 
 could stand that sermon, to go on letting the truth come 
 out in its several aspects in my sermons, as occasion 
 might serve, without ever going out of- my way to bring 
 it forward ; we get on capitally. 
 
 " This Cure forms a singular contrast to Hsley. There, 
 I arrived in an empty house, and at once set off, full trot, 
 after the villagers. Sunday was all fag ; everything 
 was on my (happy) shoulders. Here I am one of a large 
 cheerful family ; the organ and piano fill up leisure 
 moments and I ignore the handful (they are but a hand- 
 ful) of villagers. I do as I am wished, of course." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "5 Burton Crescent, April 30, 1851. 
 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 "Ever since Christmas, you know, I have been offi- 
 ciating on Sundays at Worton, in Oxfordshire, a village 
 belonging to the Wilsons, with whom I lived and from 
 whom I experienced a world of kindness. They used to 
 rail at Tractarianism, but they were good enough to 
 agree with me, so I never defended what I did not under- 
 stand and the result was sixteen very happy Sundays. 
 Of course I brought away a heap of regrets. I remember 
 many opportunities very imperfectly availed of a hun- 
 dred things said and done which require forgiveness. 
 Still, they are kind enough to speak approvingly of 
 every thing, so I must be content to turn the past into a 
 warning to myself. What I desired there was more
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 195 
 
 work. My duties began on Sunday morning, and ended 
 on Sunday evening consisting, generally, of two full 
 services, and a kind of family service in the hall. This 
 last seemed to give great satisfaction. Some neighbours 
 and the servants formed the congregation, which gene- 
 rally numbered about thirty. There is an organ in the 
 hall, and one of the ladies played. Some of us had ears, 
 and all had voices. The Hymn ended, we read some 
 Psalms. Then I read and expounded the Gospel for the 
 day which lasted half an hour after which we had a 
 selection of Prayers from the Prayer Book, and another 
 Hymn. This was all nice enough, but I like more tcork. 
 I knew no one in the parish, and the carriage which had 
 conducted me to the scene of my duties on Saturday 
 night, conveyed me thence on Monday morning. 
 
 " You will not be surprised to hear that my heart 
 leaped to my mouth with joy, when I heard of a Con- 
 firmation coming on at Ilsley my first Curacy ! and 
 conceived the plan of preparing the young people, all of 
 whom I knew and loved, for the blessed rite. The Rector 
 was away all the week, so I petitioned for leave to have 
 the use of the Schoolroom on Thursday evenings. This 
 was freely granted. I received carte blanche to act for the 
 best, and was promised a bed at the Rectory to lay my 
 bones on at night. Oh, I cannot tell you how blessed a 
 period that was to me ! . . . Out of my thirty-one young 
 folk, twenty-eight were confirmed on the 24th of March. 
 I gave them r>-n<1<-:i-(iv.x for the following Thursday, and 
 explained that I should proceed from the Confirmation 
 to the Communion Service. They were all most atten- 
 tive, and regular, and delightful poor creatures ! I used 
 to talk to them from seven o'clock till nine, and then see 
 some of them, one by one, at the Rectory, in private, 
 Nothing could have worked better. I will also tell you 
 some day what I said to them. I am sure you will 
 agree with me that I exactly went between the two ex- 
 tremes of asking an improper question, and asking none. 
 I thought of a formula, which should leave the conscience 
 ALL ALONE with GOD, and yet should render it quite im- 
 possible that the conscience should leave me, as it per- 
 
 2
 
 196 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 haps came to me, unawakened. All this was done, you 
 must know, in the certainty that Mr. Moore, not I, was 
 to have the joy on Easter Day of giving them their first 
 Communion. 'Judge of my delight on being told, at 
 Worton, ten days before Easter: ' My dear Mr. Burgon, 
 Frank is coming back ; and will be with us on Easter Day, 
 so that our pleasant Sunday meetings are now at an 
 end !...'! saw the dawn of the joy I had so longed for, 
 at once. I had already offered Mr. Moore (at Ilsley) to 
 take his Good Friday services for him. It was my lot, 
 on the Monday, to have to take young Tytler whose 
 guardian I am, to Windsor. So I called on Mr. Moore, 
 and with a beating heart told him that I was free from 
 my duties at Worton. ' Then perhaps you would stay 
 over the Sunday ? ' was his immediate reply. I could ill 
 suppress my delight, as you may suppose . . . How I did 
 seem repaid in that instant for all my anxieties, and the 
 long walks on Friday mornings over the bleak Berkshire 
 Downs, at \ past 6 o'clock in all weathers, when 
 sometimes I was haunted with strange misgivings as to 
 whether I was not meddling with another man's parish 
 unduly, doing no good and much, much besides ! 
 Well, Good Friday came, and in two long sermons, I 
 humbly hope, besides buoying up and encouraging my 
 twenty-eight, I demolished all the excuses I had ever 
 heard against coming to the Holy Table (especially the 
 popular one at Ilsley ; ' There are some that come, who 
 ought not,' &c.). I announced a double Sacrament (one 
 at eight, the other after the morning service), and ex- 
 plained that all who wished to come would now be 
 without excuse . . . Well, thank God ! ! ! I found twenty- 
 eight happy country faces awaiting me when I made my 
 appearance, fifteen of whom were of the number of those 
 who had been confirmed. I ranged these fifteen before 
 the rails, and bade them watch all that was done, taking 
 care that they should stand, kneel, and respond properly. 
 In fact, I was Bishop, Ordinary, Rector, and all, and 
 literally shed tears for joy ... 
 
 "At n, twenty-three more came ... Do you think 
 that twenty-two out of twenty-eight newly-confirmed
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 197 
 
 persons was a sufficient proportion for the first Com- 
 munion ? I mean to have all before I have done. One 
 poor woman, aged 20, was confined this kept her away. 
 A child of 14 cried to come ; but a naughty grandmother 
 kept her away at the last moment, so that four was really 
 the sum of those who absented themselves. I longed for 
 them all, and they all knew it ; but I forced none to come, 
 of course. In the afternoon, I felt that I was preaching 
 my farewell sermon : so without any personalities I gave 
 all the poor creatures a charge against falling away from 
 grace given ; by preaching about the ejected Demoniac 9 : 
 and I really was very weary by that time, for I had had 
 four christenings, a burial, and so on. Next morning, I 
 wound all up by a breakfast to ninety- seven children, 
 visited for three or four hours, and returned to Oxford 
 .... I cannot tell you how much joy mingled with my 
 regret at leaving the village ! Not least of all was I 
 pleased, I think, with the cheerful promise they almost 
 all gave me to use a form of family evening prayer after 
 supper. I enclose you a specimen. But you cannot 
 think how nice it looks pasted down on cardboard .... 
 Tell me also if you do not approve of my other enclosure, 
 which I got Mr. Moore to sign, and had pasted inside 
 the cover of twenty-two Bibles. 
 
 -' And now my story is nearly done. When I add that 
 I wrote seven sermon* in Passion Week, besides the phy- 
 sical occupation I have described, you will not wonder 
 that I felt weary as well as busy. On my return from 
 Ilsley, I felt the pressure of my University Sermon very 
 keenly ; but there was our Oriel Fellowship coming on, 
 us well. These two things, in short and such effects of 
 past fatigue, that I fell asleep on my chair every evening, 
 and slept till one or two in the morning entirely filled 
 up all my time ; and that is why you never heard from 
 me .... I literally COULD not write. 
 
 " The University Sermon I speak of was my first. It 
 was on 'Inspiration of Scripture The Doctrine of 
 
 * Probably he means the ejected text having been St. Matt. xii. 33. 
 demon (or " unclean spirit "), his 34, 35.
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Accommodation considered 1 .' I mean to continue the 
 subject as I took the liberty of announcing if ever I 
 have an opportunity afforded me, by discussing the 
 discrepancies of the four Gospels, types, and allegories. 
 Enough, however, of all this selfish talk. Though, by 
 the way, I must still tell you many things about myself. 
 I hope you are not yet tired ? 
 
 " Well, and now you ask me many questions, to which 
 I am bound to send you a full and free answer. But 
 pray suffer me, after I have turned my private story in- 
 side out before you, as freely as I would my coat, 
 suffer me to add a brief, but most honest prayer that you 
 will not suffer your friendship ever to beguile you into 
 such a miserable thing as asking a favour for one who 
 will never ask a favour for himself. Your questions 
 point so clearly one way, that it would be mere hypocrisy 
 to pretend not to see their drift. I will answer them, 
 however, without hesitation ; for you deserve it at my 
 hands. You will not believe me the less sincere in the 
 hearty assurance that I am perfectly content with the 
 bounties God has already heaped upon me. You will 
 believe me when I say that I envy no person, office, or 
 thing ; and desire nothing but liberty to serve God, as a 
 humble member of thi* branch of the Church Catholic, all 
 the rest of my life, in the way He pleases. And now to 
 answer your question. 
 
 " If I were an isolated being, I should have long 
 since invested all my little worldly resources in a 
 library, and transferred it and its owner to the most 
 demoralized spot I could find, where, with a common 
 Curate's stipend, I might simply have tried what I 
 could make of the despaired-of side of human nature. 
 My mornings I will give all my days to study, my 
 afternoons to parish work, if parish work is ever al- 
 lowed me. But I am not the isolated thing I spoke of ; 
 
 1 This Sermon was probably the Essayists. The Sixth Sermon in 
 
 nucleus of his whole Volume on that Volume is entitled, "The 
 
 ' Inspiration and Interpretation,' Doctrine of Arbitrary Scriptural 
 
 in which he answers the Seven Accommodation considered."
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 199 
 
 and thus all my views are other than they would have 
 been. 
 
 Whether I could do most good in town or country, I 
 cannot tell. I believe I could be happy and useful in 
 either sphere. The only place where I could not be happy 
 would be where there was nothing to do. You will 
 laugh at me, perhaps pity me ; but I would rather have 
 70,000 than 70 to look after. (The other day, one who 
 knows me said he thought the care of 'all the parishes in 
 England' would 'just suit '(!!!) my taste.) How many 
 years I should live, and be able to endure the anxiety of 
 such shepherding, I know not. Neither, however, do I care : 
 for I mean to remain single. I do not think I should, or 
 ought to, refuse a London parish, if it were offered me. 
 
 " I suppose one cannot WISH for the post of those, who 
 go to fill the place of one who has been beloved and re- 
 gretted : whose business it is to unteach, whose duty it 
 i> to pull down and re-construct. To be exposed to con- 
 stant odious contrast ; to be for ever taunted with 
 ' what Mr. Bennett used to do ' ; and in self-defence, to 
 be obliged to say, ' But, my friend, I think Mr. B. was a 
 very injudicious person, one who showed a shameful 
 disregard of Episcopal authority, and one with whom I 
 do by no means agree,' all this, I say, must be a heavy 
 portion. One cannot icish for it! can one ? 
 
 ' But show me a church, in a crowded district, an un- 
 licked, shapeless mass of people, an income which would 
 secure me against debt (for I never have laid by nor do 
 I desire to lay by a penny), above all, let me be called to 
 this by the voice of the Chief Shepherd ; and then, if you 
 ever saw me figuring in the papers with a cock and bull 
 quarrel about candlesticks or crosses, or any such tom- 
 foolery, tell me that I have taken leave of my senses. 
 For really, I should feel that I had no right to decline 
 such a charge. I am a sword in a sheath. I will not 
 draw myself. But any one who likes to draw me may ; 
 and he will find that I can cut, and keep my temper. 
 At least, I hope for God's help to be all my fancy paints, 
 but alas ! my experience so rarely sees !
 
 2oo LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES HOSE. 
 
 "Bui-ton Crescent, Dec. 23, 1851. 
 
 "My dearest Mrs. Rose, Since I wrote to you last, 
 I have been leading the same quiet student's life as 
 ever, considerably tasked by my friends, in divers 
 ways ; and therefore I am willing to hope that I have 
 been living usefully. My Saturdays, Sundays, Mon- 
 days are engrossed by the care of a little parish Fin- 
 mere on the borders of Oxfordshire, four miles from 
 Buckingham. My Rector, the Rev. W. J. Palmer, has 
 two adjoining churches Finmere and Mixbury at the 
 latter of which he resides. 
 
 "Mr. Palmer is a clergyman of the George Herbert 
 class. He is absolute monarch of his parishes, and exer- 
 cises the functions of Lawyer and Physician, as well as 
 Parson. He is the father and friend of all. His 
 daughters work the schools, and indeed the parishes, 
 like Curates. Everything is very primitive. We preach 
 in the morning, wearing our surplice, and catechize in 
 the afternoon for twenty minutes. The children stand 
 ten or twenty yards off, so that all present hear, and, it 
 is hoped, are edified. The boys in school all wear white 
 smocks : the greatest girls pinafores. They are all kept 
 in such complete subjection that till sixteen, seventeen or 
 eighteen they remain in school and at that age the boys 
 literally come to be examined (as to their heads) by a 
 wise woman of the village, weekly ! . . . I am learning, 
 as much as I am teaching, at Finmere. 
 
 " When I enter, the bell stops, and all the congregation 
 rise. Friday, the clerk, robes me, and when I kneel, 
 they all resume their seats. The responses are literally 
 deafening, and the people for once really do say their 
 prayers on their knees. 
 
 ; ' Not that things are perfect, even at Finmere. The 
 farmers do not come to church ! The Duke of Bucking- 
 ham's ' failure ' (as the people phrase it) is also severely 
 felt by the poor. Stowe is about a mile or two off 
 now a deserted wreck: but once the source of much 
 charity, and the cause of employment to a large part of
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 201 
 
 the parish. ... I believe I shall remain at Finmere till 
 
 June I am working away steadily at my 
 
 Harmony, but slowly. However, I must not omit to tell 
 you that there has grown out of it another work a 
 Plain Commentary on the Gospels. As it appears, you 
 will receive it from me, a few Chapters at a time. It 
 will cost me immense trouble. I humbly hope that it 
 will also be of immense use . . . Seriously, it has long 
 grieved me to think that our farmers, small tradesmen, 
 and better class of poor, should be without a guide in the 
 reading of the Book of Life. It has seemed to me a 
 downright disgrace to the Church that this class of 
 persons should be driven to Dr. Isaac Watts, Scott, and 
 those sad blind guides, who show truth through a dis- 
 torting medium. This is a humble endeavour, as far 
 as the Gospels are concerned, to supply a wholesome 
 diet. The Chapters will at first form single tracts. Mr. 
 Armstrong, to whom I sent down a specimen, intends for 
 the sake of them to continue the Parochial Tracts. In 
 this way one will be able to give a poor soul a Chapter 
 to read, instead of anything else: and I scarcely can 
 conceive a more useful form of Tractarianisrn. Here 
 also I am sure of your approbation. The entire work 
 may of course be reprinted afterwards 
 
 " Ever, dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " Your affectionate Friend and Servant, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 " 5 Burton Crescent, July 8, 1 852. 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " I have been, as I said, very busy for ages past : and 
 my parish (little Finmere, nigh Buckingham) has been 
 the chief occasion of my busyness. The work of a parish 
 priest that is, his week's work compressed into four 
 days, or three is always a severe trial: particularly 
 when an Oxford life is going on side by side with it. 
 
 " The event in my stewardship (which ended last
 
 202 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Sunday), most agreeable and striking in remembrance, 
 is the Confirmation which was holden at Mixbury, Mr. 
 Palmer's other village, about two miles from Finmere, 
 in the spring. I had thirty-nine persons to prepare, of 
 which thirty-six were villagers ; and I cannot tell you 
 the comfort and the pleasure of those Lenten days of 
 preparation. I went to live at Finmere, in order to 
 work the problem the better, and had four classes, and 
 explained, urged, exhorted, and rebuked till many a 
 time I was quite worn out. However, the labour was 
 blessed by Him ('without whom nothing is strong, 
 nothing holy') abundantly. All my thirty-six came 
 to the LORD'S Table on Easter Day, and a thrice happy 
 Easter it was ; for I scarcely dared hope to see some of 
 those stubborn knees bended of their own free will. 
 
 "How I wish you could have seen us muster under 
 the 'Cross Tree' one fine morning in March, and pro- 
 ceed two and two along the whole length of the village. 
 I gathered a few of the eldest men about me (to save 
 any sense of shame by the presence of so many juniors) ; 
 and a little behind us followed the women and girls. 
 Not a word was spoken ; and it was impossible not to 
 feel the reality of the impression made both on ourselves 
 and on others, as every household came out of their 
 homes, and stood at the cottage doors to see us pass. 
 I made as many parents and sponsors accompany us as 
 was possible ; and on the whole nothing could have 
 been more delightfully managed, or more successful. 
 The Bishop praised us, and spoke kindly to me ; and all 
 were pleased. My Rector's pat on the back went to my 
 heart. He was ill in bed ; but the Bishop went to see 
 him, and he sent me a message. 
 
 " I must tell you a plan I adopted, for I think it was 
 a good one. I numbered the tickets and the names, and 
 against every name worthy of such notice, I set a 
 character, in three words or less. The Bishop was 
 pleased, for he was able to know what to say : and he 
 told me afterwards that he knew the people, almost before 
 he verified their numbers. 
 
 ''Next came the preparation of my Candidates for
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 203 
 
 Holy Communion. During Passion-week I had three 
 Services daily and two sermons : but the delight ex- 
 ceeded the weariness. And really the amount of inno- 
 cence and goodness, to which my assiduity introduced 
 me, has increased to an immense extent my regard for 
 that human nature which we hear so much reviled; has 
 made me revere the holy estate of poverty; has taught 
 me a hundred lessons. 
 
 Enclosed. I send you a copy of verses which I pre- 
 sented first, to all my Confirmees, and next, to all the 
 village. The broadside was meant to be pasted against 
 the cottage wall. 
 
 " On Sunday last I officiated at Finmere for the last 
 time, and took leave on the Monday morning. It was 
 sufficiently affecting. The poor little dears all came out 
 from the village school to see me drive off. and formed 
 (to my surprise and pleasure, when the gates were 
 unfolded) a long line, reaching far into the road. The 
 sight quite unmanned me, and haunts me still. They 
 are certainly a most affectionate, amiable race ; and pre- 
 sent specimens of virtue and goodness common enough, 
 I dare say ; but which 7 have never been so happy as to 
 meet with elsewhere. It must, in part at least, be the 
 result of fifty years of careful shepherding on the part 
 of the venerable Rector, a man of primitive piety, and 
 surprising goodness. To tell you all the village polity 
 of Finmere would take a long letter, or rather a long 
 pamphlet : and without the details, the story would be 
 worth little. Some day, I hope I may have the comfort 
 of talking to you about it. Better still would it be (if 
 it should ever so please GOD), that I might hereafter show 
 you my own copy of Finmere in a parish of my own : for 
 I am not Uind, though I am so fond of the place and 
 people ; and see clearly how all might be abundantly 
 improved. Yet it would be hard to find its like ; and 
 indeed, I doubt whether there be another village so 
 managed in England. And thus much for Finmere ; or 
 rather, thus little 
 
 "Finmere 'What Finmere again?' No, I was
 
 2O4 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 only going to say that my village claimed me, in con- 
 sequence of the very alarming illness of a poor woman, 
 all Commemoration week : so that I saw nothing of the 
 Bishops American, English, or Scotch. who mustered 
 so thick in the haunts where I generally abide. The 
 Bishop of Oxford kindly invited me to Cuddesdon to 
 meet them all, the Bishop of London included ; but I 
 was so distressed at what was going on chez woi, that I 
 could not find it in my heart to go, after I had promised: 
 which I was sorry for afterwards. By the way, I must 
 tell you a bon mot of the Bishop of Exeter. A friend of 
 mine was keeping the Ladies' gate at the Theatre ; when 
 Harry of E. comes up, foxy and humble, and says : ' I 
 suppose, as an old woman, I may be permitted V . . . Rather 
 rich eh ? 
 
 "And talking of Oxford, I must tell you that I run 
 down on Saturday, to vote for Gladstone and return. 
 His election is certain ; but we want a large majority." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Houghton Conquest, Sept. 15, 1852, Midnight. 
 
 "My dearest Mrs. Rose, It will be the iyth by the 
 time this reaches your hands ; and I would not have so 
 mournful an anniversary to pass without sending you a 
 few lines. They will but assure you of what you know 
 already; namely, that I think of you very faithfully 
 every day. Still, even such things are worth telling ! 
 
 " How the years roll on ! She is seventeen years and 
 nine months old ! Or does not the dear child 2 rather 
 reckon the years of her life from the anniversary of her 
 Death 1 ? .... Either way, depend upon it, dear Friend, 
 these anniversaries are by her most solemnly observed, 
 most faithfully remembered. Your love and kindness 
 must be her constant theme. Your loneliness her con- 
 stant thought. You the subject of her constant prayer. 
 
 " Pray, when you read the Epistles (indeed the Gospels 
 themselves ; for they also are full of it), pray notice how 
 
 2 The "dear child" is Josephine adopted child, and her brother's 
 Mair, Mrs. Hugh James Rose's orphan daughter.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 205 
 
 much is said of Patience and Hope. Few persons, I think, 
 would believe, until their attention happened to be called 
 that way, how large a place these two graces hold. I 
 was struck only last night, in the second Lesson (Rom. 
 xv.), at the mention in verse % 5 of GOD, as the God of 
 Patience, and in verse 13, as the God of Hope. What 
 wonder that such an One should, in verse 33, be styled 
 the God of PEACE likewise ? 
 
 " This is only to send you my love, and to request that 
 I may be ever remembered as my dearest Mrs. Rose's 
 " Obliged and affectionate friend, 
 
 J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Houghton Conquest, Ampthill, Oct. 4, 1852. 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 "Ask not for my history ; for the Knife-Grinder was 
 a hero compared to your friend. If you were a bird of 
 the air, having access to my window, you would begin by 
 this time to cherish a theory that birdlime had secured 
 me to my chair ; and that there was the same chance of 
 the parish Church taking a walk as of my making an 
 excursion. Most assiduously, indeed, have I kept my 
 seat, or been at my place in the House (as an M.P. 
 would say). But a busy M.P. would think as con- 
 temptuously of me as the feathered biped itself could do, 
 if he had detected that a few familiar pages had supplied 
 me with work these many days. In truth all I have 
 done has been to write about as much Commentary as 
 would, I suppose, fill a small volume of 400 or 500 
 pages. My dear Mrs. Rose, being neither a bird of the 
 air, nor an M.P., will neither wonder at me, I know, nor 
 despise : but she will admit that the man who can plead 
 guilty to a Long Vacation so spent, is a man without a 
 history. 
 
 " The more I study the Gospels, the more their depth 
 amazes me. A curious illustration of this occurred the 
 other day. On Saturday evenings I begin my Sermon :
 
 206 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 an over-refinement of taste, I fear it is, which prevents 
 me from pouring my heart and mind out on paper in 
 anything like a decent space of time, unless I feel the 
 spur actually pricking. The certainty, at 6 o'clock, that 
 unless I begin in an hour, it will be midnight before I 
 finish, secures a beginning by 8 o'clock. Accordingly, 
 when it was near upon that hour, I transcribed the 
 Parable of the Hid Treasure. (I had come down to it, 
 in regular order, in my last four or five Sermons.) For 
 a few moments I hesitated as to the desirableness of 
 adding the Parable of the Pearl, and contrasting the two 
 Parables together. But I wisely abstained. Tell it not 
 in Gath : but the clock struck 2 when I laid down my 
 pen ; and I had not yet finished. The last four pages of 
 the Sermon opened upon me quite a new thought, for the 
 first time, as I wrote ; at least it struck me as a kind of 
 novelty. The fulness of that short Parable so marvel- 
 lously presented itself to my mind, as I went on, that I 
 crept to bed literally with a feeling of amazement. 
 
 " And if the microscope applied to GOD'S Works reveals 
 more and more of wonder, shall it be thought strange that 
 a higher power of attention directed to His Word shall 
 also elicit more and more things to marvel at ? 
 
 " Another undertaking which, as you may suppose, has 
 occupied no small share of my attention and time (and 
 of Rose's also), has been our Large Prints, of which Part I 
 will be published in about ten daj's, and a copy, of course, 
 will wait on yourself. It may seem strange, but (as the 
 publisher himself admitted the other day), volumes of let- 
 ters have been written by me on this subject. Every print 
 has been the subject of correspondence with publisher, 
 artist, engraver, printer. It has really seemed endless. 
 However, twelve prints are now ready ; and the remain- 
 ing twenty-four will be issued before Xmas. We have 
 then two new schemes two more devices in the same 
 line, ready to set afloat. I am determined to follow up 
 a thing I am so fond of a thing which I know to be so 
 useful, and so much wanted ; a thing, too, where I see a 
 mighty field open, and ourselves without a rival ! 
 
 " A Roman Catholic publisher offered to take 300 copies,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 207 
 
 if Hering would leave out the texts ! (I suppose to slip 
 iii the Douay Version instead of our own.) You may 
 easily guess the answer he got. Masters the other day 
 proposed to ' go snacks ' (if you know the meaning of the 
 phrase). He also got repulsed, and with considerable 
 slaughter. 
 
 " The association of thought is obvious 3 . How great 
 an event has happened within these few da} r s ! The 
 Duke ! I hardly know whether to be glad or sorry that 
 I am away from Oxford. I rejoice in Lord Derby as a 
 man who cannot' be fond of the Blue Book 4 ; but I feel no 
 enthusiasm on his behalf. I am content to see him 
 appointed, and to be spared the labour of taking a side. 
 
 " I must tell you since I tell you all my little secrets 
 that I have been invited to stand next year (when it will 
 
 3 The mention of " repulsing with 
 great slaughter " gives rise to the 
 thought of the great Captain and 
 Warrior of the Age, the Day of 
 whose Funeral Burgon celebrates in 
 his little Volume of Poems. 
 
 1 " Sep. 14, 1852. Oxford lost 
 her noble Chancellor, England her 
 noblest son, Arthur Duke of Wel- 
 lington. As soon as the shock 
 occasioned by his loss was past, 
 Alma Mater, as in duty bound, 
 began to look round for an ' Almus 
 Pater,' in his place. Lord Harrow- 
 by and Lord Ellesmere (good men, 
 and highly respected, but ' not 
 quite equal to the place') were only 
 named to be put aside. That the 
 Bishop of Exeter should have been 
 for a moment thought of was only a 
 proof of (not hero-worship, but) 
 Bishop-worship in a few ultra- 
 Tractarians. Lord Derby, once 
 named, was at once our future 
 Chancellor : every one retiring be- 
 fore him as ' the right man in the 
 right place.' On the I2th of Octo- 
 
 ber he was unanimously elected 
 Chancellor, in the usual form of 
 elections in Convocation." [G. V. 
 Cox's 'Recollections of Of ford,' 
 p. 386, and Ed.] 
 
 "The Blue Book," of which 
 Burgon thinks that Lord Derby 
 " cannot be fond," is " the Report 
 of Her Majesty's Commissioners, 
 appointed to inquire into the State, 
 Discipline, Studies, and Revenues 
 of the University and Colleges of 
 Oxford," which had appeared in the 
 previous May. It was a pitce (Je 
 resistance for any one, that " bulky 
 Blue Book of 800 pages." Mr. Cox 
 tells a touching story (on the au- 
 thority of the Duke's housekeeper) 
 of his being engaged on it the night 
 before his death. " He was then, 
 I think, going to bed, and it was 
 late. He had with him the Oxford 
 Blue Book, with a pencil in it ; and 
 he said to Lord Charles Wellesley, 
 who was with him, ' I shall never 
 get through it, Charles, but I must 
 work on.'" [Footnote on p. 386.]
 
 2o8 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 perhaps become vacant) for the Gresham Readership in 
 Divinity. It would be a nice thing to get. I have been 
 Jilting myself for some years now. It is time I think to 
 come out with something. 
 
 " Dear me ! and how that word ' out ' reminds me of 
 one omission ! for it reminds me of my Harmony, and 
 of your request to be informed of one which you might 
 use! 
 
 " I recommend to your use a little thing, price 6cL I 
 think, printed by Parker of Oxford. It occurs at the 
 end of a little half-crown book, called ' Daily steps toward* 
 Heaven' but may be bought separately. (The Book itself 
 is not bad to give to a humble friend, or even to read 
 oneself, if one were a little more ' poor in spirit ' than 
 (alas !) I am.) .... It will give you all you will want in 
 a small space, and is of such a compass that you can 
 supply others with it, in case of need. 
 
 " But no Harmony extant is worth much ; and none can 
 be depended on. Still, something is better than nothing ; 
 and if ypu are ever in doubt, write to me, and I will give 
 you the best answer I know how to give, by return of 
 post. 
 
 " Remember that the Sermon in St.Matthew v., vi v vii., 
 and that in St. Luke vi. are the same. The events in 
 St. Matthew iv. 18, St. Mark i. 16, and St. Luke v. 1-1 1 
 are identical. This is certain 5 . How the little Harmony 
 I recommend represents the matter, I know not. 
 
 " Ever my dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 " Your obliged and affectionate faithful friend, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 5 The reader will recognise here mind, bat on which others, equally 
 
 one of J. W. B.'s foibles, connected qualified to speak, differed from him. 
 
 with the intensity of his character, as absolutely indubitable and in- 
 
 the habit of speaking of points on controvertible. 
 which he himself had made up his
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 209 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "Oriel, April 21, 1853. 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " Finmere still takes up a great deal of my time, and 
 has, till lately, occupied a huge share of my thoughts ; 
 for my Rector has been reported as dying, and I have 
 been looking for an immediate termination of my duties. 
 .... Only this day, he is thought to be actually mend- 
 ing ! So bad was he that his sons withdrew from Oxford 
 
 to be with him and the family This looked serious, 
 
 and teas serious. Thank GOD he is better ! for verily the 
 welfare of many hundreds widows, and sick persons, 
 
 and young children depends on his frail life I 
 
 know they prayed for it. I know too that it was against 
 his will. He asked me not to pray for anything but that 
 his faith should not fail in the hour of Death. Who shall 
 say that this amendment is not in answer to a strong 
 prayer '?...... 
 
 " Believe me ever, my dearest Mrs. Rose, with many 
 thanks for your kind note, 
 
 " Ever your affectionate, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENSLEY. 
 
 "Osnaburgh Street, Jan. 8, 1849. 
 
 " My dear Hensley, dear affectionate old Hensley, 
 I was very happily ordained on the 24th the 
 solemnest thing I ever experienced. I felt the blessing 
 of many prayers in my inmost spirit ; and many I know 
 were poured out for me before the day and upon it. The 
 examination at Cuddesdon was most apostolically con- 
 ducted. Every thing was quite perfect. The Bishop 
 kindly made me read the Gospel in the Cathedral. 
 
 " We are both too fond of the Gospel to differ much, 
 but we differ a little and you must come round three- 
 fourths of that little while I. on my side, will cheerfully 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 budge the remaining one-fourth You know my dis- 
 like to Romanism : but we must be very careful how we 
 teach our people the principles of dissent, while we think 
 of nothing less, but desire simply to acquaint them with 
 the freedom of the Gospel. 
 
 "Nothing is more certain than that we are born in 
 Sin ; nothing more certain than that Baptism is a new 
 Birth ; nothing more certain than that Conversion is still 
 often needed. We have no life except through CHRIST, 
 and in Him. We get this life by the Sacraments. The 
 one grafts us into His Body ; the other makes us actual 
 partakers of it. By thus becoming partakers of the Man- 
 hood of CHRIST, we hope for resurrection. ' The Church, 
 which is His Body,' is the dispenser, the channel, of His 
 graces. . . . He who fails to teach the people committed 
 to his charge this doctrine, keeps back the truth from 
 
 them, and has no consistent scheme of Salvation 
 
 The talking to a set of poor wondering people about 
 ' CHRIST, and Him crucified,' is all well : but it is not 
 
 enough They must be told how they are to become 
 
 partakers of Him, and must be urged to partake. They 
 want to be shown their interest in this precious SAVIOUR, 
 which does not consist in talking about His Cross, but in 
 wearing it in their hearts. 
 
 " Now, dear Alfred, don't be angry with all this ; but 
 let me know where you stick, and I will help you over the 
 stile, if I can. 
 
 " Do not think me growing polemic. I like it less and 
 
 less daily. You, I like more and more My kind 
 
 regards to Mrs. Hensley. 
 
 " Affectionately yours, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENSLEY. 
 
 "34, Osnaburgh Street, April 6, 1850. 
 
 " My very dear Hensley, 
 
 "I hope your blood has been boiling about the Gorham 
 Case. Be sure and read the Bishop of Exeter's letter. 
 Take care and hold fast the Doctrine of the Catechism
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 211 
 
 and Prayer Book generally. It is the very foundation of 
 true religion. How strange it is to see men mystifying 
 themselves about the meaning of the word regenerate. 
 Just as if it meant made indefi'dilly holy ! ! ! 
 
 Ever, dear Hensley, your affectionate friend, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENSLEY. 
 
 "Finmere, June 24, 1852. 
 
 "Dear affectionate Heart, Many thanks for your 
 letter, which contains the assurance of your kind remem- 
 brance, and therefore contains the most precious thing 
 you can send me. You are very kind to write me a 
 few lines so often, and to persevere in loving one who 
 sends you so few tokens of his regard. 
 
 " However, if I write seldom, remember that it is be- 
 cause I am very busy, not because I am very changed. 
 I think often of your kindness, and I like to think of it, 
 and of you. We had many happy days together at dear 
 old Worcester : and the memory of them cannot happily 
 be ever taken away from either of us. 
 
 " I who have no wife, nor am likely to rather cling 
 to the past, than reach out to the future. You are 
 blessed in a life for which you are very fit ; and may 
 well have forward-looking thoughts. 
 
 " I am sorry to see that we shall be on opposite sides 
 at the Election. I am not for Maynooth, Jews, or Romish 
 Ecclesiastical Titles, but I am for Gladstone. 
 
 " Affectionately yours, dear old man, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND G. C. RENOUARD. 
 
 "Oriel, Dec. 7, 1849. 
 
 " My dear Friend, 
 
 " This day has been an eventful one for Oxford. Whe- 
 ther I am right in adopting that saying of the old Greek, 
 *H6e j] f)fj.(pa TOIS "EAArjo-i ^eyoAcov KCLK&V ap(i, or not, re- 
 mains to be seen. I can but fear the worst. A majority 
 of fourteen in Convocation voted in favour of the estab- 
 
 P 2
 
 2i2 LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 lishment of a fourth school namely, Modern History. 
 We did indeed by a large majority reject the details of 
 this novelty: but the principle has been admitted 6 , 
 yielded to the pressure from without, and I can but 
 think it a most dangerous step. Denison spoke well ; 
 and his 'nolumus Germanizari ' elicited a very hearty 
 cheer : we all flatter ourselves also that we are in most 
 Conservative trim : but, rightly or wrongly, we have 
 fallen into the weakness of yielding to the spiiit of the 
 age. ... ... 
 
 " Ever your obliged and most affectionate, 
 
 " JOHNNY." 
 
 To THE REVEREND G. C. RENOUARD. 
 
 "Oriel, Feb. 8, 1851. 
 
 " My dearest Friend, 
 
 " I have sometimes thought I would make a collection 
 of curious Epitaphs. It should be a election rather. At 
 times one meets with things that extremely charm one, 
 and surely such ' composures ' (as our forefathers would 
 say) fall under a very affecting category ! The tuneful 
 sigh over the dead ! Even if the thought be false, and 
 the diction incorrect, it is always an interesting matter 
 that it should be what the living have written over the 
 dead ! Even if the epitaph begin, as one I often see 
 
 ' Near this monument of human Inst' ability.' 
 
 there is a peculiar interest in the human fact that some- 
 one was so foolish as to write such nonsense, when his 
 heart was full of grief Tell me some day if you 
 
 ' Mr. C. V. Cox, in his ' Secollec- School was affirmed, lut the detail^ 
 tionsof Oxford' [Macmillan, 1870], were leftfor recontidtration." The 
 says of the occasion referred to [p. speeches in Convocation were al- 
 367] ; " Dec. 7. The new Examina- ways at that time in Latin ; and 
 tion Statute was again put to the the celebrated dictum of Arch- 
 vote. Its main features were ap- deacon Denison which Burgon here 
 proved and carried, but, as four or refers to was, " Nolumus Universi- 
 five of the clauses were rejected, it tates Angliae Germanizari," " We 
 again came out of Convocation in a will not that the Universities of 
 mangled and damaged state. The England should be Germanized." 
 iiulitution of a Modern History
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE : SECOND PERIOD. 2 1 3 
 
 ever kept any register of the kind An absurd 
 
 line occurs to me, the last, I think, in the Epitaph on a 
 Lady Mary Saltonstall (or some such name) in Ivor 
 Church, Bucks, 
 
 ' She broke the bank of virtue when she died.' 
 
 But to come back a little from this digression. My 
 Oxford life is an unvaried round of quiet study, broken 
 by pupils considerably, I confess ; but the taking of them, 
 I hold to be a duty under the circumstances. All the 
 leisure I can command, however, and in Vacations my 
 leisure is considerable, I devote to my ' Harmony of the 
 
 Gosjjefs,' which promises to be my Opus Jfagnum 
 
 The Harmony itself has been long since achieved, but 
 the Notes and Dissertations have grown under my hand 
 till I almost tremble. It is an alarming fact to have 
 convinced oneself of, that the majority of writers on the 
 Gospels have left many omissions to be supplied, many 
 mistakes to be rectified, by we. That some little Rose 
 will hereafter wonder at the omissions and mistakes of 
 ' Uncle John,' is more than likely ; but that matters not. 
 It is something to have advanced the study of the most 
 precious thing in the whole world (which I take the 
 Gospels to be) ; and that I humbly hope I may be the un- 
 worthy instrument of doing. One inquiry leads to 
 another ; and there is scarcely a section of importance 
 in the Gospels which does not involve the necessity of 
 traversing new fields of knowledge. Thus to instance 
 the question of the Passover only, I have been led to in- 
 vestigate more topics than most persons would believe. 
 Some knowledge of the Talmud; some familiarity with 
 ditt'erent texts ; some appreciation of the respective merits 
 of Translations ; some knowledge of Jewish Antiquities ; 
 some acquaintance with the opinions of the Fathers ; some 
 kind of review of the controversy ; some slight astronomi- 
 cal information, these and the like of these inquiries I 
 am continually obliged to undertake. It is marvellous 
 what a thnnnxjh knowledge and how much incidental 
 information is got, when one has to study in this way 
 for oneself, unaided. To be brief, I trust I shall be ready 
 by Xmas, 1851.
 
 214 
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 " I have also compiled a little Glossary of the County 
 of Beds 7 . Poor Tritton, Earle (Anglo-Saxon Professor), 
 and I used to meet weekly to discuss it. Since his 
 derangement, another of our fellows supplies his place ; 
 and we three form a kind of Philological Club 8 , meeting 
 
 7 Some excerpts from this Glossary 
 will be presented in Appendix B. 
 
 8 The following verses, found 
 among J. W. B.'s papers, but not in 
 his handwriting, must, it is thought, 
 refer to this Club at a subsequent 
 period of its existence, four mem- 
 bers not three being mentioned 
 in the verses. 
 
 " Many-sided are their feasts, 
 Poets, critics, linguists, priests, 
 Fish, and flesh, and fatted bird, 
 Kelished by some piquant word. 
 Eatin', talkin', talkin', eatin', 
 Burgon, Earle, and Jones, and 
 
 Chretien 
 
 For one prey the country scour, 
 While another they devour ; 
 Though the bush be yet un- 
 
 scanned, 
 
 Sprinkle salt on bird in hand ; 
 Or, when satiate and replete 
 With tea, and toast, and eggs, 
 
 and meat, 
 
 Plunge into the brakes of eld 
 Full cry, where the leader smelled. 
 Jones, and Earle, and Chretien 
 
 urge on 
 
 Bounds of Asiatic Burgon ; 
 Burgon, Jones, and Chretien curl 
 In and out round Saxon Earle ; 
 Chretien, Burgon, Earle give 
 
 tones 
 
 Discrepant from Celtic Jones ; 
 Jones, and Earle, and Burgon 
 
 meetin" 
 
 Snuff the track of Frankiah Chre- 
 tien; 
 
 ' View him twig him bite him 
 
 seize him 
 At him catch him hold him 
 
 tease him ! ' 
 
 By sharp encounter of their wits 
 Quarry caught is torn to bits, 
 Minced, mauled, dissected, an- 
 alysed, 
 
 And catawampously concised ; 
 Or, if their effort fails to nab it, 
 (As when, to earth sly Reynard 
 
 running, 
 
 The pack canine pursues a rabbit,) 
 Glossarial hunt subsides to pun- 
 ning." 
 
 In Burgon's Journal of Nov. 
 1852, we find this entry: "24 
 Wed. Glossarial Breakfast at 
 Jones's." And in the Journal of 
 the following month ; " Dec i , 
 Wed. Glossarial Breakfast with 
 C. P. C." The above verses (on 
 which is written in pencil, Stowe, 
 Dec. 1852 ?) doubtless refer to these 
 breakfasts. The description of the 
 Club, which he gives to Mr. Re- 
 nouard early in the preceding year, 
 was probably shortly after its forma- 
 tion. The original members had 
 been three, but in course of time 
 became four. 
 
 Professor Earle writes thus of the 
 Philological Club in question; "It 
 was the most informal thing in the 
 world; but it went on for a long 
 time, I think several years. Perhaps 
 from 1849 or 1850 to 1855 or -6. 
 It always consisted of four members,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 215 
 
 at breakfast in one another's rooms to discuss etymologies 
 and the like. How I wish you were one of us ! It is 
 really very amusing. I think I have been a benefactor 
 to the Club, by enacting that each of us must always come 
 furnished with a fact (for the Glossary has long since 
 been discussed all through). The result is that we really 
 do something (besides eating a mutton chop) as often as 
 we meet You shall have our three last ; and per- 
 haps it may induce you to supply me with a fact, which 
 shall duly be attributed to its author, next Thursday, 
 when the breakfast is in my rooms. 
 
 " i (Earle). That ' bridal ' is a corruption of ' bride-ale ' 
 
 (i. e. a wedding feast). 
 Also, that ' near ' is the comparative of nigh ( = 
 
 nigher ) : that ' nearer ' is a solecism ; at least, is a 
 
 double comparative 9 . 
 
 and the original four were Burgon, 
 Chretien, myself, and I think Poste. 
 It must have been when Poste went 
 off to London that Basil Jones took 
 his place. It was the duty of every 
 member to bring one Philological 
 Fact with him, and to entertain 
 (i. e. give breakfast) in his turn. 
 The four facts supplied material of 
 conversation, which seldom fell short, 
 but certainly did sometimes fall, 
 as the satirist says, into punning. 
 Burgon was very ready to seize the 
 chance of a pun. . . . Burgon's philo- 
 logical skill was not great; but, 
 what was of vastly more import to 
 the hilarity of our most delightful 
 meetings, he had a relish for the 
 subject such as I never saw exceeded 
 in any man. Once, my fact was the 
 history of bridal (a fact at that time 
 by no means generally known) ; and 
 the point was that the second 
 syllable is not a Latin adjectival 
 ending, as it is in nuptial, but the 
 vulgar English word ale. This he 
 
 refused to credit ; and, whenever it 
 was recurred to, it was ever the 
 same, 'No, no! a joke's a joke; but 
 we must draw the line somewhere.' " 
 
 Burgon's strong tendency to ety- 
 mology, and the unsouudness of 
 some of the etymologies which he 
 himself proposed, have already come 
 before the reader in some of his 
 earlier letters to Mr. Renouard. 
 The author's cordial thanks are 
 due not only to Professor Earle for 
 the letter just given, but also to 
 the present Bishop of St. David's 
 (the "Celtic Jones" of the verses) 
 for having furnished him with his 
 own reminiscences of the Club, and 
 with suggestions as to how to obtain 
 further information on the subject. 
 The Bishop thinks that Mr. Poste 
 was in all probability the author of 
 the verses above. 
 
 Both these etymologies, pro- 
 posed by Professor Earle, may be 
 accepted without hesitation, if 
 Skeat's ' Etymological Dictionary '
 
 216 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 " a (Chretien). An attempt to show that ' bath ' in 
 English, and ' bain ' in French, both come from a 
 common root. However, it was deemed not 
 proven. 
 
 " 3 (J- W. B.) A very humble contribution, viz. That 
 the village opposite Dorchester Church, just over 
 the river, which flows past its east end, is called 
 ' Overy,' and that there was once a little bridge 
 connecting the banks. (Compare St. Mary Overy, 
 in Southwark, and London Bridge.) 
 Also, that 'shrew' was used in the i4th or i5th 
 century to denote one of the male sex. 
 
 " I beg my dear Mr. Renouard to believe me ever to 
 be his much obliged and 
 
 " Most affectionate Friend and Servant, 
 
 "JOHN W. BURGON." 
 
 FROM THE REV. W. J. PALMER TO THE REV. J. W. BURGON. 
 
 Mixbury, June 8, 1852. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " I have been engaged of late, and still am, in looking 
 over and reconsidering my Sermons which have been 
 often delivered, but probably never will again. If I meet 
 with any I may think you would like to see, I will put 
 them aside. I will freely impart to you whatever my 
 experience in the fifty years service of a small country 
 parish may suggest, which, however, is not much more 
 than a sense of my own deficiency, I assure you. But I 
 know now what you are looking forward to, and would 
 very gladly serve your purpose. You must again forgive 
 me for saying that you must check that ardour of spirit, 
 which prompts you to fancy what you desire to find, and 
 leads you to exertion and expenditure, which must ex- 
 haust your strength and means. ' Our Minister,' say the 
 poor people now, ' must be the richest man in the world ' ; 
 in that / know they are mistaken. But they say also, 
 
 is to be considered, as it may safely etymologies sanctioned by it beyond 
 be, as an authority which puts the the reach of controversy.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: SECOND PERIOD. 217 
 
 perhaps, ' He must be the best ' ; that they find it so I do 
 not wonder. But I know there you feel they are mis- 
 taken. There are none at Finrnere, I do assure you. who 
 have not the most ample cause for saying, ' We have 
 done those things we ought not to have done, and have 
 left undone those things we ought to have done,' and still 
 is there ' no health in us.' You will be able to keep 
 going longer, if you go not quite so fast. I hope you will 
 not be hurt. I hope you will not be displeased, I hope you 
 will not be angry, when I tell you that the very maid- 
 servant says of you, and she herself is not a slow one, 
 ' his feet are on the other side the gate and his head in 
 the study.' 
 
 " I am, my very dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours most truly and faithfully. 
 
 "W. J. PALMER." 
 
 FROM THE REV. W. J. PALMER TO THE REV. J. W. 
 BURGON. 
 
 "Finmere, July 23, 1853. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Burgon, I have just laid my hand upon 
 a Fable or Allegory of ' The two Caterpillars,' the author 
 of which I don't know, but which I remember to have 
 had from my Tutor, Mr. Jones of Nayland, about sixty 
 years ago. I send you in this a copy of it l , and request 
 (if you think fit) that it may be made the subject of a 
 Cottage Print, if any set is likely to be on hand which 
 would admit of such an ingredient. I think some such 
 clever designer as yourself or your brother-in-law, Rose, 
 might easily adorn the margin of the letterpress with a 
 
 1 The Fable is the Story of a worth preserving, as, besides giving 
 
 Caterpillar, which was warned by a glimpse into the devoutness of 
 
 another insect of the same species the writer's mind, it shows his 
 
 not to attempt to crawl to a neigh- appreciation of one of Burgon's 
 
 bouring and more attractive leaf, strong points, his readiness with 
 
 but, in defiance of the warning, his pencil, and powers of pictorial 
 
 making the attempt, fell to the representation. Mr. Palmer was a 
 
 ground and was killed, and thus model Rector, and Burgon always 
 
 lost the chance of becoming a regarded him as such, 
 butterfly. Mr. Palmer's letter is
 
 2i8 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 few vignettes of Caterpillars and Butterflies, in a way 
 likely to catch the eye and please the fancies, and so 
 perhaps indelibly fix upon the minds of some a realiza- 
 tion as it were of the change we are taught to believe 
 that we also shall undergo, and the care which is neces- 
 sary on our part now, to preserve the hope of that blessed 
 end alive upon the table of our minds. 
 
 " I am, 
 
 " Yours ever faithfully and truly, 
 " W. J. PALMER."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 
 
 From his leaving Finnic re (June 6, 1853) to the commence- 
 'ment of his tour in Egypt, the Arabian Desert, and Palestine 
 (Sept. 10, 1861). 
 
 BURGOX experienced a keen pang in parting from Fin- 
 mere, though his labours there, added to the work of 
 having to prepare six Lectures on the Interpretation of 
 Holy Scripture for delivery in Oriel Coll. Chapel [see 
 above p. 175], "brought on" (as he tells Mrs. Hugh 
 James Rose in a letter dated June 21, 1853) "erysipelas A.D. 18 
 in the foot, swelled glands, headache, and a pack of "' 
 horrors." " It was very sad parting from my Finmere 
 folks," he writes ; " very touching also are the letters the 
 dear little children continue to send me thence. But it 
 is wholesome to be rooted up ; I know it and feel it ; 
 and I have left them in good hands, so that I have no 
 regrets but selfish ones to ponder over." Earlier in the 
 same letter he announces to his correspondent an impend- 
 ing event of the deepest domestic interest to him and his ; 
 " Dear Helen " (his youngest sister) <; is going to be mar- 
 ried to her and to our very old friend, C. L. Higgins, of 
 Turvey Abbey, Beds. It is a source of real satisfaction 
 to us all, as you may imagine .... and it seems to be 
 like a special blessing bestowed by Providence I mean 
 Almighty God on myself." The nuptial knot was knit 
 by his own ministry in the Church of St. Mary Mag- 
 dalen, Munster Square, Regent's Park, on the 26th of 
 July, 1853.
 
 22O LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 His last letter to Mrs. Hugh James Rose (or more 
 probably only the last which has been preserved ; for this 
 lady did not die till the spring of 1 855) is dated " Houghton 
 Conquest, Sep. 16, 1853," the eve of the anniversary of 
 Josephine Mair's death, when it seems to have been his 
 custom to write Mrs. Rose a letter of consolation, under 
 the painful associations which the season would naturally 
 awaken in her. The substance of it will be found at the* 
 end of this section. 
 
 It will be seen from this letter that he was at this time 
 busily engaged upon his ' Plain Commentary on tJie Holy 
 Gospeh, intended chiefly for Devotional Heading I to a certain 
 Chapter of which (St. Matthew xxv) he calls Mrs. Rose's 
 attention. The Advertisement at the beginning of this 
 work is dated November 24, J 853 ; but it was not pub- 
 lished till 1854. It was in the first instance put forth 
 anonymously, Mr. Parker, the publisher, it appears, 
 having recommended the suppression of his name : but 
 in the second edition, put forth ten years afterwards (in 
 1864), he claims the authorship. "It is thought," he 
 says in the Advertisement, " that besides its use in the 
 closet, such a Commentary as the present, especially if it 
 be studied for a few minutes beforehand, might be made 
 
 available for reading aloud in the family while in 
 
 order to facilitate its distribution among a large and 
 most important class of readers, but whose wants seem 
 to have been hitherto very little considered, it has been 
 so contrived that any single chapter may be procured in 
 the shape of a separate Tract." The line taken in this 
 most interesting Commentary, the principle which rules 
 all its expositions, cannot be more fully and more tersely 
 expressed than by the two mottoes on its title-page, the 
 one from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (vi. 16), 
 " Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 221 
 
 therein ; and ye shall find rest for your souls " ; the other 
 from a prayer of Bishop Wilson's, " Grant, LORD, that 
 in reading Thy Word, I may never prefer my own senti- 
 ments before those of the Church in the purely ancient 
 times of Christianity." Hence the interpretation of any 
 particular passage always travels in the old traditional 
 track, nor will a trace be found of novel and ingenious 
 methods of solving Scriptural difficulties. It would be 
 useless, for example, to expect to find in it any vestige of 
 that modern exposition of St. Matthew xxv, which re- 
 gards the first two Parables (those of the Virgins and the 
 Talents) as indicating the judgment of the Church, and 
 the last (that of the Sheep and Goats) the judgment of 
 the Gentiles or unevangelized " nations," who, never 
 having had the Gospel proposed to their faith, are tried 
 not by its requirements, but by their compliance or non- 
 compliance with that law of love, which was written 
 upon man's heart in the beginning, Burgon finds in the 
 last parable, as he says to Mrs. Rose, nothing more than 
 "the solemn Commentary of the SPIRIT on the two 
 parables which precede." And again, one might be sure 
 beforehand that not a vestige of the notion that " he that 
 is least in the kingdom of heaven " in St. Matt. xi. u, 
 means "he that seems least, is accounted ly the men of Ids 
 day least'' and that Christ is really speaking of Himself 
 as "greater than the Baptist," would be found in the 
 ' Plain Commentary! Yet, on the other hand, it can- 
 not be said that a modern view as to the meaning of a 
 difficult passage finds itself denied a hearing, if only 
 there is any reason in it. Thus, while the writer holds 
 it to be "even monstrous" to think that St. John the 
 Baptist's motive in sending two disciples to enquire, 
 "Art thou he that should come," &c., was "a personal 
 sense of doubt," and that "at the end of more than a
 
 222 LIFE OF DEAN BUEGON. 
 
 year s imprisonment he had become perplexed and stag- 
 gered," he at the same time admits it to be probable 
 enough that, though the conviction of the Baptist's dis- 
 ciples was the principal object of the question which they 
 were instructed to ask, he may also have desired for 
 himself " the comfortable corroboration from the lips of 
 CHRIST, of his own deep-rooted and well-grounded con- 
 victions respecting Messiah." It should be added that 
 while the expositions of the 'Plain Commentary' are 
 chiefly drawn, either from the old Fathers, or from the 
 work of standard Divines of the English Church, num- 
 berless little gems are introduced from writers of the 
 day. Take the following upon St. Matt. x. 29, 30, " Are 
 not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one of 
 them shall fall to the ground without your Father," 
 &c., &c. " It has been truly observed by a living writer, 
 that ' not till belief in these declarations, in their most 
 literal sense, becomes the calm and settled habit of the 
 soul, is life ever redeemed from drudgery and dreary 
 emptiness, and made full of interest, meaning, and Divine 
 significance.' " The works of Mr. Isaac Williams more 
 especially were to Burgon a mine of edification in which 
 he loved to quarry. 
 
 From the Chapter to which he refers Mrs. Hugh James 
 Rose, a single extract may be here presented to the reader 
 as characteristic of Burgon's general style of exposition, 
 and indicative of his profound conviction that the 
 minutest particulars in Holy Scripture have their signi- 
 ficance, that in the lively Oracles nothing is thrown out 
 at random no word, for which another might with 
 equal propriety be substituted. The text commented on 
 is, " And five of them were wise, and five were foolish." 
 
 " Take notice that three out of four suffer loss in the par- 
 able of ' the Sower ' : while here, kalfarz rejected : in the
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 223 
 
 parable of ' the Talents,' it is one in three : in the parable 
 of ' the Pounds,' it is one in ten : while, in the parable of 
 ' the Marriage of the King's Son,' it is one out of an infinite 
 number. The intention of this seems to have been to re- 
 press the inquiry, ' LORD, are there few that be saved ? ' ' 
 
 This observation sounds like one of Mr. Isaac Williams's. 
 But even supposing it to have been his originally, it is a 
 remark which Burgon would cordially adopt, altogether 
 in keeping with his own line of exposition. 
 
 Before we quit the subject of this valuable Commentary, 
 by which, whatever shortcomings may be found in it, it 
 will hardly be denied that a considerable service was 
 done to English exegetical Theology 2 (for the Commentary 
 has throughout a characteristic idea and a guiding prin- 
 ciple of its own, and makes accessible to English readers 
 the leading expositions given by the early Fathers), 
 it will be interesting to hear the criticisms of the Rector 
 of Finmere upon the separated Chapters of it, which 
 were submitted to him at an earlier date, before the 
 whole work was published in its entirety. Thus he 
 writes about it in a letter of June 8, 1852, from which 
 excerpts on another subject have been already made: 
 
 2 The 'Plain Commentary' is and hi* son, Mr. F. P. Nash, came 
 widely circulated in America, and specially from America to repre- 
 has received many testimonies from sent his father at the Funeral." 
 American, as well as from English, This incident (a somewhat extra- 
 readers. One of not the least ordinary one, if the time demanded 
 striking is the following, which was for a voyage from New York to 
 mentioned in ' The Record ' news- Oxford is taken into account) is 
 paper of August 17, 1888, when given on the authority of ' The 
 describing the Funeral of the late Record,' the writer having had no 
 Dean of Chichester : opportunity of enquiring into the 
 
 " One of the greatest admirers accuracy of the report. Possibly 
 
 in America of the late Dean was Mr. Nash may have left New York 
 
 Professor Nash, of Hobart College, on the arrival by telegram of the 
 
 Geneva, West New York, particu- report of Dean Burgon's serious 
 
 larly because of his ' Plain Ex- illness, and previously to his death, 
 position of the Four Gospels ; '
 
 224 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 "The observations on the 5th of St. Matt, and the 
 1 5th of St. Luke seem to me very judicious ; but you 
 will allow me to say your undertaking is a bold one, 
 and, I should fear, one with the execution of which you 
 yourself are not likely to be satisfied in the end. Others 
 have done the same thing ; I think Sumner's (the pre- 
 sent Abp.) is the last. There are doubtless many things 
 in all parts of the Gospels, of which we obtain the under- 
 standing but by degrees. They are as it were the prin- 
 ciples of our spiritual life ; and he that comments on a 
 book of principles should feel sure that he understands 
 them thoroughly. I do not understand the Notes to 
 which you frequently refer, or where to find them. Some 
 seem to mean the observations passed by yourself on 
 other verses of the Chapter in hand, that seem to have a 
 similar meaning, or look the same way. The title-page 
 infers that much authority is attached to primitive notes 
 and commentaries of the Fathers ; and I do not doubt that 
 some perhaps most of your observations on difficult 
 and doubtful or allusive passages, are borrowed from 
 that source. You frequently refer the reader to parallel 
 places of Scripture, illustrative of those before you. or 
 authorising the interpretation put upon them. This is 
 quite right. But if you have anywhere borrowed from 
 the Fathers, might it not be right to refer to that 
 authority also in a footnote ? " 
 
 A very just and judicious criticism by an older 
 divine upon the production of a younger. There was no 
 doubt a venturesomeness about the whole undertaking, 
 and a conception of its originality, which needed a 
 wholesome check from an older and wiser head ; and 
 in the Commentary itself there certainly is a deficiency 
 of specific acknowledgment of Patristic sources, where 
 it is clear that such sources have been resorted to. 
 Bishop Christopher Wordsworth, in his ' Note* on the- 
 Greek Testament I always makes the acknowledgment of 
 the Patristic author whom he cites, if he does not always
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 225 
 
 refer to the part of his writings, in which the exposition 
 is to be found 3 . 
 
 The beginning of the year 1854 found literary occupa- A - D - 8 5< 
 tion for Burgon of a class entirely different from the 
 ' Plain Commentary on the Holy Gospels,' an occupation 
 which removed him for a short time from theological 
 research into the much less congenial atmosphere of 
 Academical controversy. A short Paper had been sent 
 round to all the Oxford Common Rooms, entitled 
 ' Common-Room Common-Places? professing to be a corre- 
 spondence between a resident (Endemus) and a non- 
 resident Fellow of a College (Ecdemus) 4 , which at once 
 
 3 In a letter to Burgon from Dr. 
 Pusey, signed "Yours affectionately, 
 E. B. P.," but bearing no date, the 
 writer alludes to the exposition 
 given by Burgon of the passage, 
 " Upon this rock I will build my 
 Church" (St. Matt. xvi. i8X Bur- 
 gon (in loc.~) though he does not 
 altogether exclude other meanings, 
 thinks the Rock to be St. Peter 
 himself. Not so Dr. Pusey. He 
 says ; " Mr. - wrote to attack 
 me for your Commentary " [probably 
 portions of the Commentary had 
 been submitted to Dr. Pusey by 
 Burgon]. " I said that I had, in 
 a long note to Tertullian, expressed 
 my own belief that the Rock was 
 the Faith (objective, not subjective) 
 in our Lord as God and Man, which 
 St. Peter had just confessed ; or, 
 which is in fact the same, our Lord 
 as God and Man, as then believed 
 in and confessed by St. Peter. 
 This reconciles the different in- 
 terpretations of the Fathers, and 
 makes them one, instead of con- 
 flicting. Those who understand 
 VOL. I. 
 
 the Rock of Christ are rather more 
 than those who understand it of 
 St. Peter. The same Father ex- 
 presses himself in different ways. 
 It is a long note, to which, if you 
 thought it worth while, you would 
 find a reference in the Contents." 
 
 4 On the title-page of Burgon's 
 own copy of this Paper it is stated 
 that " Endemus " was the nom de 
 plume of Mr. Grant, a Fellow of 
 Oriel, and " Ecdemus " of Mr. 
 Palgrave, a Fellow of Exeter. It 
 seems to have been thought at first 
 that "the Two Oxford Fellows," 
 who claimed the authorship of 
 ' Common-Room Common-Places? 
 were Fellows of the same College ; 
 and, the letter of " Endemus" being 
 dated from " Oriel," and speaking 
 to " Ecdemus " of " our separate 
 existence as a corporate body " and 
 of " the retrospect of our Oriel 
 years," it was naturally supposed 
 that " Ecdemus " must be a Fellow 
 of Oriel too ; and on these grounds 
 the letter of "Ecdemus" was 
 wrongly attribute! to Mr. Poete.
 
 226 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 drew from its sheath his controversial pen, a weapon 
 he was at all times apt to use somewhat too freely. 
 University Keform of a very trenchant and thorough- 
 going character was impending. The "Royal Com- 
 mission of Inquiry into the State, Discipline, Studies, 
 and Revenues of the University and Colleges of Oxford" 
 had reported as far back as the 27th of April, 1852 ; and 
 the " Oxford University Bill," remodelling the Constitu- 
 tion of the University, and entrusting seven Com- 
 missioners with power to make Ordinances and Regula- 
 tions for the Colleges, was to be introduced into the 
 House of Commons on March 17 of this year (1854), and 
 to become Law, by receiving the Queen's Assent, on the 
 7th of August. " Endemus " and " Ecdemus," evidently 
 playing into one another's hands, had urged that the 
 principal and primary duty of both Colleges and Uni- 
 versity was Education, and that, in any arrangement 
 which might be in prospect, everything should be en- 
 tirely subordinated to this end. the intention of Founders 
 being set aside as inapplicable to modern social wants, 
 and Fellowships being made to furnish stipends for 
 Tutors or Professors, or rewards of Academical merit, 
 which might give their holders an advantageous start in 
 such professions as they might choose. Burgon in his 
 ' Oxford Reformers : a Letter to End emu* and Ecdemus,' after 
 lecturing them on the undutiful and ungenerous tone 
 and spirit of their letters, insists that the great motive 
 of the intention of the Founders of Colleges was the 
 
 Burgon however discovered the true thus : 
 
 authorship of this letter (more "It requires to be made known 
 
 objectionable, in his view, than that that Horace was under a wrong 
 
 of Endemus), and would not have impression, when he suggested that 
 
 two such letters credited to the ' POST efiert aniini motus interprete 
 
 account of his own College, Oriel. lingua.' " 
 
 And he announces his discovery
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 227 
 
 desire to provide for the education of the Clergy, and to 
 promote the study of Theology, and appends to his pam- 
 phlet a most valuable letter to the same effect from 
 Professor Earle, which, as it goes into the question his- 
 torically, and is written with perfect calmness, might 
 well have been considered to be by itself a sufficient 
 answer to the many crude schemes of Academical Reform 
 which the occasion was giving rise to. Burgon's pam- 
 phlet was sent by him to Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer and Member for the University, from 
 whom it received a prompt and courteous acknow- 
 ledgment, whereupon Burgon took occasion to address to 
 Mr. Gladstone a letter expressive of the apprehensions, 
 entertained by him in common with many of the leading 
 Academics of that day, as to the results of the course 
 which the proposed Reforms were likely to take, and 
 imploring Mr. Gladstone not to yield to the revolutionary 
 impulse which was abroad among persons avowedly hos- 
 tile to Oxford as it then was, as also among professing 
 but treacherous friends. This letter will be found at the 
 end of the Section. Mr. Gladstone sent a long and care- 
 ful reply to it, which (like his former letter acknow- 
 ledging " Endemus ") the author regrets that he is not 
 permitted to publish. He has however permission to 
 quote the concluding sentence of a letter to himself, in 
 which Mr. Gladstone says that, " while I do not recede 
 from the sentiments which my letters to Mr. Burgon 
 contain, I am in certain respects concerned, even grieved, 
 at the turn which Oxford Reform has taken." Well 
 may he be so ; considering that whatever improvements 
 may have come in the train of Academical Reform, the 
 general effect of it at both Universities has undoubtedly 
 been to effect a divorce between the Church and the 
 higher Education of the country. In writing to Mr. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Gladstone on the subject, Burgon of course felt his pen 
 to be under a certain restraint ; but, in pouring himself 
 out to his old College friend, Mr. Hensley, he could un- 
 bosom himself without reserve as to his dislike of the 
 changes which had already been effected, and his still 
 more serious apprehension of those which would ulti- 
 mately result from the working of the Oxford University 
 Act, and while many will think that he paints these 
 results in colours unduly gloomy, it cannot be denied 
 that all that he there predicts has come to pass. The 
 letter will be found at the end of the Section. 
 
 We now come to the saddest period of Burgon's life, 
 the period which threw a shadow over his susceptible 
 soul never entirely to be dissipated, though he, no doubt, 
 like other men, was accessible to the healing and restor- 
 ative influences of lapse of Time. In the letter to Mr. 
 Hensley just referred to, the date of which is July 19, 
 1854, he had told his old friend; "I am sorry to say 
 that my dearest mother both has been, and continues to 
 be, very poorly indeed. I feel very heavy on the sub- 
 ject." Not two months after these words were written 
 (September 7, 1854) he lost his mother. Four days after 
 her death (Sept. n), sitting in the room in which she 
 had died, " and near her leaden coffin," he wrote " a 
 brief record of her latter days and illness, together with 
 some account of the manner of her departing ; for in 
 after years such records are unspeakably precious, and 
 no memoranda of this nature are worth much, if they 
 are not made immediately." The record fills about 
 eighty closely written pages of a small memorandum- 
 book, which of course (if it were only out of respect 
 to the sacredness of such sorrow) can only be rapidly 
 summarised here. He tells of the proximate occasion of
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 229 
 
 the fatal malady, a cold caught in the autumn of the 
 preceding year, of its origin in heart-complaint "at 
 a far remoter period," of its distressing symptoms, 
 swollen feet, "fighting for breath," inability to sleep 
 otherwise than in a sitting posture ; of his mother's 
 inability to " inlay " his commentary on St. Luke, a 
 work which she had already done for the earlier part of 
 the work, and of the gradual failure of her powers, as 
 manifested in her altered mode of welcoming him back 
 
 O 
 
 home. 
 
 "In old times the driving up of my cab to the door 
 was the signal for her I loved hastily to descend the 
 stairs. She used to meet me almost at the door in the 
 hall, exclaiming ' Welcome ! Welcome ! ' and, with her 
 dear kind arms extended, embracing me and kissing me 
 heartily on the cheek three or four times. Presently, it 
 used to be on the stairs that I saw her outstretched 
 arms, and received her warm embrace. By degrees, it 
 seemed to me as if she descended a fewer and fewer 
 number of stairs. Latterly it was at the drawing-room 
 door that I felt her hearty and repeated kiss, and 
 [heard] her emphatic ' Welcome, welcome, my boy ! my 
 poor boy,' and so on. What a warm embrace it used to 
 be! She used to open her dear arms quite wide, and 
 enfold me. But she could not quite do this at last, or, 
 at least, not in quite the same way. I believe the last 
 time but one I came home, she only rose from her chair. 
 The last time of all, I embraced her, on arriving home, 
 as she sat in her chair ! . . . This was on Tuesday the 
 5th Sept. O what a painful bewildering kind of day 
 that was ! . . . She rejoiced to see me, but regretted to 
 have disturbed me, and taken me from my studies. She 
 alluded to my Commentary, a work which was ever 
 very dear and interesting to her. ' While you are 
 trying to do good to the souls of so many,' she said, ' to 
 take you away ! ' ; 
 
 He records her end with great minuteness as to each
 
 230 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 slight particular. He tells how for the last time he 
 (who had lain so often in her arms) took her in his, and 
 lifted her on to her bed ; how, as soon as it was clear 
 that she had passed away, he, his brother and three 
 sisters, 
 
 " laid her out on the bed where she had died. A heavy 
 task it was for us all. Still we were wonderfully 
 supported; and we preferred doing this, a thousand 
 times, than that profane hands should intermeddle with 
 our grief. . . . The wedding ring which I drew off the 
 fourth finger of her left hand, the kind ones present 
 urged on me to wear myself. ' And this 1 ' I said, draw- 
 ing it off. ' O wear it, wear it,' they all exclaimed. 
 Accordingly, I placed it on my little finger ; and there, 
 if it please GOD, I will wear it till I die 5 . . . . We knelt 
 all together and prayed by the bedside. ... I slept on 
 the sofa in my beloved mother's room that night, 
 Thursday. It was awful, but pleasant. I prayed near 
 her, very happily." 
 
 On Saturday, Sept. 9, he and his youngest sister went 
 to Oxford (returning the same day), and arranged that 
 the interment should take place in a strip of ground in 
 the Holy well cemetery, belonging to St. John the Baptist's 
 Paiish, in which Parish his rooms at Oriel stood. "I 
 chose the place, a dry gravelly rock near a boundary 
 wall. Will not that spot become the most familiar to 
 me, as well as the most dear, of any in Oxford ? " On 
 Wednesday night, Sept. 13, he brought the body of his 
 mother to Oxford, where it was met at the station by 
 the College servants, and deposited in his rooms at 
 
 4 The circumstance of hie always life, as has been shown already, to 
 
 wearing this wedding-ring may the charms of agreeable women, 
 
 perhaps have given colour to the that people who had no knowledge 
 
 wholly groundless on (lit that he of his antecedents thought he must 
 
 was once married, and liad lost his have been married ; and what they 
 
 wife in the course of a few months. wished to believe they did believe. 
 He was so susceptible throughout
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 231 
 
 Oriel. He "passed the night in a chair by the side of 
 it," occasionally getting snatches of sleep, but often 
 waking. At 7 A.M. next morning he and his brother- 
 in-law (Rev. Henry John Rose), who had now joined 
 him, after communicating and attending Matins at 
 St. Mary the Virgin's Church, visited the cemetery and 
 "saw the men digging the grave." Then, in the room 
 where the body lay, " they read, wrote, thought, and 
 kept silence till i P.M.," when his father, brother, and 
 Mr. Higgins arrived from London. At 2.30 P.M. the 
 funeral left Oriel for the Chapel of the Cemetery, pre- 
 ceded by the Marshal and Bellman of the University. 
 The mourners were six, his father, brother, two brothers- 
 in-law, and the Rev. Charles Marriott, an intimate 
 friend and Fellow of the same College with himself. 
 
 i Hobhouse, assisted by Sargent and Walton, with a 
 quire of boys (twelve or fourteen), met the corpse, 
 singing the sentences to the music suggested in Cran- 
 mer's P. B. I prefer for your feeling the solemn sound of 
 a single voice reading those grand words ; but the 
 effect of the music was soothing and impressive most 
 kindly meant and, as a mark of respect and honour 
 to the dear departed one, most acceptable to me. For 
 the same reason, I was not sorry to see some strangers 
 present in the Chapel, and I liked to see the Marshal 
 and the other at head and foot of the coffin, all the 
 time it stood in the Chapel, while the Psalms were 
 being chanted, and Hobhouse read." 
 
 The interment concluded, his father and brother and 
 Mr. Higgins having left Oxford by an evening train, he 
 and Mr. Rose revisited the grave, and repeated their 
 visit several times in the forenoon of the next day. 
 Having " bought tiles to edge the ground," and given 
 instructions for laying them ("My wish is to have a 
 border, nine inches wide, of rich garden mould, enclosing
 
 2i2 LIFE OF DEAN BURGOX. 
 
 O *" 
 
 a square of fine turf ; the whole to be enclosed by a 
 rough species of tile "), he himself returned to London 
 in the early afternoon of Friday, 15 Sep. 
 
 The loss of Parents is, in the ordinary course of Nature, 
 the common lot of mankind, and while such bereave- 
 ments cannot fail to be bitter to dutiful and affectionate 
 children, they are soon acquiesced in as the inevitable 
 experience of all who reach mature age. But it is 
 thought that a very small minority of men, actively 
 engaged in the business and cares of life, would, fourteen 
 years after the removal of a mother, feel and write as 
 follows : 
 
 "H. C." [Houghton Conquest], "Monday, 7 Sep. 1868, 
 between 6 and 7 P.M. This is the day and the hour 
 which always seems to bring me nearest to my beloved, 
 a day of sweet and solemn recollection, as well as of 
 awful meditation. For I ask myself, where is she 
 abiding 1 ? And I tell myself that it must be in the 
 place of perfect peace. And so I seem to stand in 
 adoration near the half-opened gates of Paradise, and 
 something tells me that the Beatific Vision is the bliss of 
 those who dwell within. Does she think of me ? Yes. 
 And she has prayed for me, and for us all, often ; and her 
 prayers have been heard. O the many blessings which 
 have befallen me ! On her last birthday, I was fairly 
 startled by the token that reached me that so it was. 
 
 " The years circle round, and I miss her sadly. I note 
 in myself the tokens of advancing age. It is hard to 
 believe that I am fifty-five, and that she would have 
 been seventy-eight were she here. For I seem to fancy 
 myself always a boy ; and her O I can never think of 
 her as an old woman ! 
 
 " J. W. B." 
 
 Nor let the above be thought of as a mere transient 
 gush of emotion, called forth by associations which a 
 particular season had awakened up. Thus writes Bishop 
 Hobhouse to the author, one of Burgon's intimate Oxford
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 233 
 
 friends, who, as we have just seen, had read the words 
 of Christian hope over Mrs. Burgon's grave. 
 
 " From the moment that my dear friend laid his 
 mother's remains in the retired corner assigned to the 
 Parish of St. John the Baptist, he cherished that spot as 
 the most sacred in the world to his feelings. He risifed 
 if <1 <i>?t/, standing over it bareheaded. He decorated the 
 whole adjoining wall with sculpture and with creeping 
 plants. He was anxious to extend this care in a measure 
 to the whole enclosure. He readily lent his artist-mind 
 and his skilled pencil to any who were seeking to decor- 
 ate the graves of their kinsfolk ; and such ready aid was 
 readily sought. We both cherished, the spot greatly, 
 believing that care for the resting-place of the Departed 
 is a direct outcome of faith in the communion of Saints, 
 and helps to deepen that faith. We were in frequent 
 communication about the care of the ground. Our 
 deeper feelings about it we expressed by meeting in the 
 Cemetery Chapel on Easter Even and All Saints' Day, 
 and reciting a short service selected from the Prayer 
 Book." 
 
 Troubles are said never to come alone (a maxim of 
 human experience the truth of which may possibly be 
 insinuated in those words of Eliphaz to the Patriarch 
 Job, " He shall deliver thee in six troubles : yea, in 
 seven there shall no evil touch thee " ) ; and within seven 
 months of the death of his mother two more bereave- 
 ments wrung Burgon's heart, one, the death of Dr. 
 Routh, the President of Magdalen, at the ripe age of 
 ninety-nine, whose memory he has embalmed both in 
 poetry and prose, the other that of Mi's. Hugh James 
 Rose, whom he regarded, as his letters to her show, with 
 mingled affection and veneration, and to whom he pro- 
 bably unbosomed himself with greater freedom than to 
 any other correspondent out of the precinct of his own 
 family. Dr. Routh passed away on the 22nd of Decem-
 
 234 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 her, 1854; Mrs. Hugh James Rose on the 5th of April, 
 1855. He alludes very touchingly to the proximity of 
 these deaths with that of his mother in the opening of 
 his " Century of Verses in Memory of the President of 
 Magdalen College" [' Poems,' p. 119] : 
 
 " 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, 
 Bring me but sighs: and when the heart is full 
 One drop will make the bitter cup o'ernow." 
 
 During the time of his sorrows, and while the more 
 arduous and solid work of his Plain Commentary was 
 progressing, he was preparing and passing through the 
 press his ' Ninety Short Sermons for Family Reading, follow- 
 ing the course of the Christian Seasons? The impress of 
 this sorrowful time is stamped upon them by their in- 
 scription, " To the blessed memory of my mother, 
 Houghton Conquest, Sept. 7, 1855." In the Preface, 
 1855. which is dated Oxford, October 15, 1855, he tells us 
 42 'J the demand which he designs by these Sermons to 
 meet : " Many who observe the practice of occasionally 
 reading a Sermon aloud to their household, are heard to 
 declare that they can scarcely find anything quite suit- 
 able for that purpose. The length of most Sermons is 
 a fatal objection. Some are thought too abstruse ; and 
 some, too polemical." Of these Sermons it is sufficient 
 to say that his style and favourite phrases characterize 
 them throughout ; that, though he tells us that he is 
 " not conscious of having gone out of his way, in order 
 to be original," they contain (as could hardly fail to be 
 the case with a mind so fresh and unconventional as his) 
 many striking and edifying original thoughts, and that 
 Dr. Hawkins, the Provost of Oriel, read and found edifi- 
 cation in them in his latter days during his retirement
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 235 
 
 at Rochester. Thus Burgon writes in his ' Lives of Twelve 
 Good Men' ["Edward Hawkins: The Great Provost," 
 vol. i. p. 458] : 
 
 " 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.'' 
 
 A single passage from these Sermons must suffice, as a 
 specimen of the striking observations which they contain 
 throughout. The text is, " He saw also a certain poor 
 widow" (St. Luke xxi. 2), and the title, "NOTHING 
 
 LITTLE IN GOD'S SIGHT/' 
 
 " Now, the one circumstance in all this wondrous and 
 varied narrative to which we wish to call attention, is, 
 that amid all these mighty discourses and amazing pro- 
 phecies, amid all the weariness of His Human Body, and 
 the anguish of His Human Soul ; amid griefs unrevealed 
 and bitterness of spirit unutterable ; the LORD of Heaven 
 and Earth was at leisure to sit down and watch the ways 
 of one of the very humblest of His creatures. ' He saw also 
 a certain poor widow.' . . . After His eight withering 
 woes denounced upon the Scribes and Pharisees, which 
 must have goaded them to madness, (for they were at once 
 the proudest and the most powerful of the people) after 
 tli lit. and just before He entered upon that far-sighted 
 prophecy which glanced onward, from the coming de- 
 struction of the City to the very end of the World, 
 blending the near, and the far future, so wondrously ; and 
 showing that the Blessed Speaker's eye was filled with 
 images of magnificence and grandeur unspeakable, the
 
 236 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 destinies of thfe whole Human Kace, and the consumma- 
 tion of all things : (the moment is well worth observing ; 
 for it was the brief moment which separated the SAVIOUK'S 
 discourse concerning the things of Time and of Eternity, 
 the little halting-place between His leave-taking of 
 His enemies, and His anticipation of the ruin which was 
 to be brought upon them ; first, by His avenging armies ; 
 next, by His legions of angels) it was at that particu- 
 lar instant, we repeat, and therefore while His heart 
 must have been occupied in the way we have been 
 describing, that our LORD, seating Himself over against 
 the Treasury, (that is, the alms-chests which were destined 
 to receive the offerings of the people) looked up, and 
 beheld how they cast money into the Treasury. And 
 many that were rich cast in much. And there came a 
 poor woman ; and (as St. Luke remarks) ' He saw her ! ' 
 . . . He saw before Him the destruction of the Temple, 
 and the Fall of Jerusalem, and the wreck of Nature, and 
 the crash of Worlds, and the setting up of the great 
 white Throne, and the gathering together of all the 
 Tribes of the Earth : all this He saw. But ' He saw also 
 a certain poor widow' And she threw in two mites, 
 which make a farthing. . . . He had the leisure, had the 
 inclination, had the sovereign will, to scrutinize the act, 
 and to weigh it in a heavenly balance, and to pronounce 
 upon it, calmly, and at length, as if Life and Death 
 hung upon the issue. He called unto Him His Disciples, 
 and saith unto them, ' Verily, I say unto you that this 
 poor widow hath cast in more than they all. For all f/tet/ 
 did cast in of their abundance : but she, of her want, did 
 cast in all she had, even all her living.' These gracious 
 words on the lips of our SAVIOUR awaken in us a deep 
 sense of wonder and admiration. . . . We desire to fill our 
 minds with the single thought of God's watchful and 
 observing eye, which nothing is so little as to escape ; 
 nothing is so trifling as not to interest and engage. The 
 Psalmist has expressed this in a single verse of the i I3th 
 Psalm, ' Who is like unto the LORD our God, that hath 
 His dwelling so high ; and yet humbleth Himself to 
 behold the things that are in Heaven and Earth ! ' '
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 237 
 
 The Sermons are all adapted to the Ecclesiastical 
 Seasons, at which they are designed to be read ; and. as 
 with the poems of ' The Christian Year,' those which turn 
 upon the Lessons have lost their point in connexion with 
 the Ecclesiastical Seasons, by the substitution of the New 
 for the Old Lectionary. 
 
 A letter to Mr. Hensley, of Dec. 21, 1855, which will 
 be found at the end of this Section, contains an interest- 
 ing notice of his literary work at that date, past and 
 prospective. His "Commentary" and his "Sermons" 
 are "finished," and he is then engaged on ' Brief Memoirs 
 of the Colleges of Oxford' of which " eight I have written, 
 and /<??*; have been published ; the rest will appear before 
 June." His anticipations as to the date at which he 
 should get this work off his hands, appear to be prema- 
 ture ; for in a later letter to Mr. Hensley (of March 1 7, 
 1 857,) he announces that he is "finishing off his Memoirs of 
 the Colleges, Wadham, Pembroke, and Worcester remain- 
 ing still to be done." The notice of this work therefore 
 had better be postponed for the present. Meanwhile, 
 ' The History of our Lord Jesus Christ : Exhibited in a Series 
 of Seventy-two Coloured Engravings,' edited by his brother- 
 in-law (Rev. Henry John Rose) and himself, of which he 
 says in his letter of Dec. 2 1 , to Mr. Hensley ; " My prints 
 are published this day by Hering ; and I hope he will 
 make them answer," demands a few lines of notice. 
 The Prefatory Address (dated Houghton Conquest, Oct. 
 j 2th. 1855) contains an illustration of the missionary value 
 of Sacred Prints from the letter of a lady connected with 
 the Natal Mission. Mr. Rose had given some of his 
 pictures to Bishop Colenso for use among the natives. 
 
 " Your heart would have ached," the lady writes, "at 
 the scene I have just witnessed. Three old wrinkled Kafir 
 women from the country, who had never heard of their
 
 231 
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 GOD and SAVIOUR, came to see the pictures, which some 
 others had told them of. I was so engaged in writing to 
 you, that I gave them to ' Boy,' " [a Kafir youth so 
 named], " and told him to show them. They had been 
 with him a long time, when they begged to come and 
 thank me. They were weeping, and came and took my 
 hand and said, ' They had never known about it.' It was 
 heartrending to see their careworn faces, which spoke of 
 life's trials and troubles borne all alone. 
 
 " One evening four Kafir women came, and it was 
 touching to see how they appreciated the picture of the 
 ' little children coming to JESUS.' With their infants in 
 their arms, they told each other that they might come to 
 Him." 
 
 The Prefatory Address deprecates the idea that the 
 circulation of these Sacred Prints in the cottages of the 
 poor would be the thin end of the wedge for the intro- 
 duction of Popery. 
 
 " If we thought that result possible, we would cut off 
 our right hands rather than be the promoters of such 
 a taste. But it is not possible. Still less cause is there 
 to dread that encouragement is thereby given to irrever- 
 ence; that any undue familiarity with holy things is 
 thereby fostered in the humbler class. IN o ; let the 
 representations be but Scriptural and healthy, and they 
 will not be found to have any Romanising tendency : 
 let them be but dignified and devout, and they will 
 not promote irreverence." 
 
 The whole of the Address savours strongly of the 
 characteristic style of the junior partner in the work. 
 It is inscribed to the well-known American Poet and 
 Divine, the Reverend Arthur Cleveland Coxe, M.A., 
 afterwards Bishop of New York, but then Rector of 
 Grace Church, Baltimore, a friend of both the Editors, 
 and one of Burgon's many Transatlantic correspondents 
 and admirers.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 239 
 
 A letter to Mr. Hensley of Nov. 8, 1856, gives an A.D. 1851 
 account of his health, and of the multiplication of his 
 literary plans, notwithstanding the slow progress which 
 he makes with the work then in hand, and concludes 
 with one of those beautiful and edifying thoughts which 
 are thrown out occasionally in the course of his corre- 
 spondence. Excerpts will be found at the end of the 
 Section. 
 
 The next letter, dated Oriel, March 17, 1857, in which 
 he proposes another visit to Mr. Hensley, and offers him 
 Christian consolation under a bereavement which had 
 desolated his home, shews also his penetration in matters 
 of Art, and the confidence which his friends reposed in 
 his judgment on such matters. He takes stock, as 
 before, of his literary work, and mentions the Lenten 
 Sermons by eminent Preachers at St. Mary-the-Virgin's 
 and other Churches in Oxford, which were inaugurated on 
 the Ash Wednesday of this year by Bishop Wilberforce. 
 He also tells his friend that he has recently commenced 
 "reading Genesis with a class of the citizens at the Town 
 Hall." 
 
 ' The Historical Notices of the Oxford Colleges' which 
 he says in this last letter that he is " finishing off," 
 must have been a piece of work which his antiquarian 
 proclivities, and his strong love of Oxford, must have 
 contributed equally to make congenial to him. The 
 title of this work is " The Arms of the Colleges. By 
 Henry Shaw, F.S.A., Author of Dresses and Decorations 
 of the Middle Ages, &c., &c..with Historical Notices of the 
 Colleges by the Rev. John W. Burgon,M.A., Fellow of Oriel 
 College." The magnificent blazonry of the Arms of the 
 University and the Colleges is due entirely to Mr. Shaw, 
 Burgon being responsible only for the letter-press which 
 accompanies each plate of Arms. He requested Mr.
 
 240 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Shaw to state in the Advertisement prefixed to the 
 Second Number that, although the writer of the ' His- 
 torical Notices ' " has not followed servilely in the track 
 of previous writers, it must not create surprise if he has 
 repeatedly availed himself of their labours, and some- 
 times even quoted their words. He has endeavoured 
 however, in every instance, to add something to what has 
 hitherto appeared in print : to obtain corroboration, 
 where it was feasible, of the statements he has repro- 
 duced ; and to impart an air of novelty to an old and 
 often-attempted subject, by invoking aid from less 
 obvious sources of information than are generally ap- 
 pealed to." His 'Historical Notices' he inscribes to 
 Dr. Cotton, Provost of Worcester College (where his 
 undergraduate life had been passed), and at that time 
 (1855) Vice-Chancellor of the University. He directs 
 the binder of the completed work to place the Colleges 
 in the order of the date of their Foundation, Merton 
 standing first and Worcester last, Oriel (the College 
 which had adopted him), fifth. In his " Notice " of the 
 earnest of these he studiously points out how " the idea 
 of a College, as elaborated in Walter de Merton's mind, 
 was that of an endowed corporation of Scholars, free from 
 
 rotes connected with the University, in the 
 
 matter of study ; and with the Church, in doctrine and 
 discipline. His idea was therefore distinct from the 
 Monastic idea, by the absence of vows, and by the 
 distinct employment provided for the inmates." In 
 the Notice of Oriel College he shews how Edward II 
 and Adam de Brom, his Almoner, adopted in their 
 foundation the idea of Walter de Merton, declaring that 
 they had in view 
 
 " ' the honour of the Church ; whose ministrations 
 should be committed to faithful men, who may shine
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 241 
 
 like stars in their watches, and instruct the people 
 not only with their lips, but in their lives.' Quite 
 a vulgar error is it in fact to confound the Col- 
 legiate institutions of Oxford and Cambridge with 
 the monastic system. These Societies were intended, 
 in the first instance, to supply the great and grow- 
 ing need which the Monasteries overlooked. They 
 were designed for the education of parochial clergy ; and 
 were set on foot by earnest-minded men, in advance of 
 their age, who, sincerely desiring the Church's welfare, 
 perceived that the truest way to promote it was to im- 
 prove the condition, and increase the efficiency of the 
 stationary and secular clergy." 
 
 Of Worcester, to the Historical Notice of which he 
 appends his verses on " Worcester College," he says, as if 
 to counterbalance the lateness of its collegiate origin : 
 
 "Although it is true that this is the last-founded of 
 the nineteen colleges of Oxford, yet it is just as un- 
 deniable that if a stranger, visiting the University, were 
 to require to be shown the oldest extant specimen of 
 collegiate residences of which the place can boast, we 
 should conduct him to Worcester College," 
 
 " a terraced height 
 
 Crowned by tall structures of a classic mould 
 On this side; and on that, a row of small 
 Irregular antique tenements tcith quaint shields 
 Bossing each doorway. Wide between the twain, 
 Guiltless of daisies, spread an emerald lawn, 
 Severing as 'twere the old world from the new, 
 The present from the past : and there were flowers 
 (So bright and young beside those old grey walls !) 
 Which humanized the scene, as children do, 
 With touch of fresher nature," &c., &c. 
 
 But the series of ' Historical Notices ' is interesting and 
 attractive throughout. Perhaps that of Jesus College, 
 with its deeply interesting account of Dr. Francis Man- 
 sell, the royalist President, ejected during the Common- 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 wealth and reinstated at the Restoration, and also of the 
 discipline of the College during the early part of the 
 seventeenth century, when "conversation was to be 
 conducted in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew (!)," and " the col- 
 lege porter was also the college barber 6 ," will instruct 
 and entertain the reader as much as any. While the 
 account of Bishop Fox's Statutes for Corpus Christi 
 (A. D. 1527) and of the opening of the Bishop's tomb in 
 Winchester Cathedral in 1820, when "the figure was 
 found lying undisturbed, as it had been laid three cen- 
 turies before," the robes, mitre, gloves, and boots, all 
 faded, but entire, and "the fragments of the broken wands 
 of the officials who attended his obsequies discernible on 
 either side of his coffin," will draw attention to the notice 
 of a College illustrious in many ways, but in none more 
 than from the circumstance of having had among its 
 scholars Mr. Richard Hooker, whose rooms can be with 
 certainty identified at the present day, " the circum- 
 stance " (of his having inhabited those particular rooms) 
 " having been made the subject of contemporary record." 
 The notes which he would draw up preparatory to 
 the " reading Genesis with a class of the citizens at the 
 Town Hall" (see the letter to Mr. Hensley of March 
 
 * " These, and many other regula- from Wales to Oxford (which is 
 tions, though evidently copied from just a hundred years since), stage- 
 older statutes, show the permanency coaches being as yet unknown, he 
 of a state of things which it is hard made the journey, in company with 
 to realize in connexion with the three other friends, in six days ; the 
 reign of the first James" (its statutes party having provided themselves 
 were given in the year 1612 by four with Welsh ponies for the occasion, 
 commissioners appointed by the which they used to dispose of on 
 king). " And yet, it is not necessary reaching the University. Only 
 to refer to written evidence in illus- punch and ale were then drunk in 
 tration of vicissitudes at least as Oxford: or if sherry appeared at 
 striking. I am informed by the dinner, it was handed round to the 
 venerable Principal of Jesus College, guests as liqueur" 
 that when his father first came up
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 243 
 
 17. iS^?), no doubt served as the nucleus of Ten Ex- A.D. 1857. 
 
 \jEt A. A 1 
 
 pository Lectures on Genesis, which he has left behind, 
 and which he contemplated one day continuing, until he 
 should have made a complete Commentary on the First 
 Book of the Pentateuch, as he has done on the Acts of 
 the Apostles. He had always a particular attraction to 
 the Book of Genesis, partly from the great freshness and 
 simplicity of the picture which it presents of Patriarchal 
 manners, and partly from the feeling that the attitude 
 which a man takes up as regards the first Chapter 
 (which is a specimen of pure Revelation, and where 
 human testimony could not have been, as in so many 
 other parts of Holy Scripture it was, the vehicle of the 
 Divine communication) is decisive of the soundness or 
 unsoundness of his views as regards the question of 
 Scriptural Inspiration generally. His ' Homiletics on 
 <',iesis ' (as Dr. Samuel Seabury calls them in a letter 
 in which he speaks of them in high terms) will be 
 noticed in another Section, when we reach the year 
 ( j 865) in which that letter was written. 
 
 In the year 1858, when such movements were com- A.D. 1858. 
 parative novelties in our Church, as they are now no 
 longer, Bishop Wilberforce inaugurated Missions at 
 Henley, Reading, and other places in his Diocese, he 
 himself personally taking the chief part in the Mission 
 Services at the town fixed upon as the centre, and 
 sending selected missioners to hold evening Services at 
 the neighbouring villages. Burgon was opposed to 
 Home Missions in their later developments, as we 
 shall see hereafter ; but, ever loyal in his allegiance to 
 his Bishop, he would not hold aloof from a movement 
 which that Bishop had set on foot, with high expecta- 
 tions of what was to come of it. 
 
 He was invited to preach at Henley ; and he complied. 
 R 2
 
 244 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 " Mr. Burgon," says one of his hearers in a letter to the 
 author, 
 
 "preached a remarkable Sermon at Henley, taking as 
 his text, ' There is a lad here,' and that was all. Of 
 course the eyes of all the lads in the Church were 
 fastened upon him ! The moral he pointed was to the 
 effect that nothing was too insignificant for the Master's 
 use. Even this poor lad with his slender provision was 
 destined to feed five thousand." 
 
 The reader will be struck with the similarity of this 
 line of thought to that which is taken in the passage 
 cited above from his ' Short Sermons for Family Reading ' ; 
 as also by the similarity of the text upon which the 
 lesson is founded a lesson drawn in both cases from a 
 single humble, nameless individual " He saw also a 
 poor widow." Both discourses were evidently coined 
 in the same mint. 
 
 It was Bishop Wilberforce's way to spare neither him- 
 self nor his subordinates. In a letter to Mr. Hensley 
 dated Easter Tuesday, 1858, Burgon tells his friend in 
 connexion with this Mission ; " I think I must send you 
 a paper of the Sermons, &c. Seven fell to me : twenty-two 
 to the Bishop's share ! I also preached the Ordination 
 Sermon." And an excerpt from a letter of the same year 
 to the same friend (June 3, 1858), recalling the circum- 
 stances of a visit paid by him to Mr. Hensley in 1856, 
 will, it is thought, interest the reader, as one of those 
 gleams of playful, frolicsome affectionateness and domes- 
 ticity, which lighted up Burgon's character throughout 
 life, and constituted one of its greatest charms. It will 
 be found at the end of this Period. 
 
 In the August of this year (i 858), nearly four years after 
 the death of his mother, Burgon lost his father, and then 
 experienced that sense of desolateness and being left
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 245 
 
 alone in the world, which no bereavement brings with 
 it so keenly as that of parents-. It was possibly when 
 David heard of the death of his father and mother in 
 the land of Moab (see i Sam. xxii. 3), that, smarting 
 under this experience, and with a reference to the office 
 of the "gathering host" in the march through the 
 wilderness, whose duty it was, coming in the rear of 
 the other tribes, to take up and carry forward any sick 
 or infirm folks who might have dropped from mules 
 and caravans without being noticed, he sang those sweet 
 words of consolation, put into his mouth by the Holy 
 Spirit ; " When my father and my mother forsake me, 
 then the LORD will gather me" (Ps. xxvii. 10 marg.}. 
 Here are Burgon's reflexions on the same experience, a 
 year after he had been called upon to go through it. 
 
 " Houghton Conquest. Sunday Evening, Aug. 28, 
 1859, about 20 min. to 10 p.m. It is a year exactly, 
 within a few minutes, since I lost my dearest Father. 
 
 and I cannot help reverting to my great, my 
 
 irreparable loss. 
 
 ' For though my dear Father had been too much of 
 an invalid, oppressed with too many infirmities to be 
 as it were much of a companion for some years, yet his 
 great tenderness and affection was something on which I 
 have since discovered that I used to lean ; and the want 
 of it I every day feel more and more. I have no one 
 now, no one, to whom I can turn for unmingled 
 sympathy in joy or sorrow; no one, who can and will 
 rejoice in my joy, and sorrow for my sorrow, as some- 
 thing which belongs to himself. A parent's love is so 
 singular a sentiment that it almost requires to be called 
 by a different name. Sweeter and softer it is even than 
 the love of married life ; for it dates from remote in- 
 fancy and the dawn of remembrance ; and it is not 
 co-ordinate with another love, but it loves itself in its 
 object, and is a shadow of the Divine Love, even the 
 love of our Father in Heaven !
 
 246 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 " How much do I feel the want of my dearest Parents ! 
 How solemn is the thought that I shall never behold 
 either of them any more ! that I must gather up, and 
 garner away the images which memory presents ; for 
 that the originals are departed for ever ! . . . . I shall go 
 to them ; but they shall not return to me. 
 
 " Strange indeed it seems to be writing such words ; 
 for I can scarce believe the reality of what I write. I 
 was 41, and I was 45, when I lost them. And so from 
 infancy, through boyhood, on to early manhood, and at 
 least until I had passed the middle term of life, we were 
 together. Two days arrived 7 Sep. 1854 and 28 Aug. 
 1858 and O the difference ! At first, a bereaved and 
 broken heart, and next a desolate, or rather a destroyed, 
 home. All seems quite changed ! The generation of my 
 early manhood seems quite passed from me ; and I find 
 myself taking up a position of my own, drifting down 
 a distinct current, associated with new friends, and as 
 completely severed from the past as if an ocean rolled 
 between ! " 
 
 From a later memorandum made on the same anni- 
 versary in the year 1860, it appears that all Mr. Thomas 
 Burgon's children, as well as John William, were " sitting 
 about" him, as " he lay upon his death-bed." His body 
 was brought to Oxford by his son, and buried in the 
 Holywell Cemetery, by the side of that of his wife. 
 
 l8 59- In the Lent of 1859, another effort was made by Bishop 
 Wilberforce to organize a series of Special Services in 
 North Bucks, similar to that which in the preceding 
 year had been made at Henley-on-Thames, and Burgon 
 was again called in (with sixteen other preachers) to give 
 his help, which he did with promptness and efficiency. 
 The occasion has a special interest in connexion with 
 his views on the subject of Home Missions, because he
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 247 
 
 printed and published (at the request of the Bishop and 
 Clergy) the Ordination Sermon which he preached at 
 Buckingham, March 20, 1859, the day on which the 
 Mission terminated, prefixing to it " Some account of 
 the Special Services for the Working Classes in North 
 Bucks during the Lenten Ember Week of 1859." In 
 this Preface he not only records the proceedings of the 
 Mission on each day of the Week, as well as those of 
 the Conference of the Clergy and Laity which was held 
 on the Saturday, but also at some length vindicates the 
 movement from certain objections to which he thinks it 
 might be open. His summing up of the objections and 
 of the answers to them is that, while "no remedy of 
 Man's invention for any evil under the sun is an un- 
 mixed good," there is " a considerable balance of good to 
 be clearly foreseen, or at least to be confidently hoped 
 for," from efforts like the present. 
 
 " The object," he says, " was to quicken the spiritual 
 life of an agricultural district : to stir up, and if possible 
 to awaken, the slumbering vitality of a certain portion 
 of a large, and once neglected Diocese. The machinery 
 employed was simply that which the Church herself has 
 provided for such purposes : but the efforts were of an 
 unusually cumulative character ; and the novelty of the 
 endeavour, such as it is, consisted in the systematic 
 concentration of efforts within a certain district ; the 
 extraneous help invocated on a somewhat large scale ; 
 and the presence, example, and powerful co-operation of 
 the Diocesan, throughout. It is only necessary to refer 
 to the list of Preachers to see how utterly devoid of a 
 /tarty character the whole endeavour has been." 
 
 To a student of Burgon's mind and character the 
 difference between the tone of this Preface and his entire 
 disapprobation of the Home Mission movement at a 
 later period, when it had more or less identified itself
 
 248 
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 with a particular School of Theology, and had shaken 
 itself altogether free from the control and superintendence 
 of the Diocesan, is of great interest and curiosity. Yet 
 it cannot be fairly alleged that he had altered his views 
 on the subject of an important Church movement. The 
 movement in its maturity had acquired certain features 
 which did not belong to its original design. The Sermon 
 itself, to which the account of the Special Services is pre- 
 fixed, is on the text, " One soweth, and another reapeth." 
 Beyond the opening of it, in which he points out the 
 prophetic associations connected with " the parcel of 
 ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph," and in 
 which the allegorizing of " the sixth hour," of the meeting 
 with the Samaritan woman at the well, and of the 
 " fruitful bough by a well," is quite in his own vein 7 , 
 
 7 "Look more closely at the 
 picture, and you discover many of 
 those fainter lines which go to com- 
 plete the image, and conspire to 
 produce the general effect. It was 
 harvest-time, as the language of the 
 great Husbandman shews. Behold, 
 the fields of that fertile region were 
 white already to harvest. Again, 
 it was the sixth hour : which, as 
 you are aware, in St. John's Gospel 
 denotes the evening of the day, our 
 six o'clock. It was the Evening of 
 the World therefore, shewn in a 
 figure : and lo, the harvest of the 
 Earth was, in a figure, ripe. How 
 fitting therefore was it that at that 
 hour of the day, and at that season 
 of the year, and at that spot of the 
 Holy Land, our SAVIOUR CHRIST 
 should have begun to gather in the 
 first-fruits of His spiritual Harvest ! 
 ... As Isaac's servant meets Re- 
 bekah, as Jacob himself meets 
 
 Rachel, as Moses encounters Zip- 
 porah, at a . well ; what more 
 fitting than that He, of whom all 
 these were shadows, the Bridegroom 
 as He loved to call Himself, should 
 meet His alien Spouse, the Samari- 
 tan Church, at a well of water 
 likewise? . . . Verily, here was 
 Jacob's remote descendant at last 
 fulfilling the dying Patriarch's 
 prophecy, after the most exact and 
 literal fashion. It was beside Jacob's 
 well that He sat ; and in ' the 
 parcel of ground that Jacob gave to 
 his son Joseph ' that He discoursed 
 with the woman of Samaria : and 
 lo, Joseph becomes at once a 
 ' fruitful bough,' even that 'fruitful 
 bough by a well,' of which the 
 dying Patriarch made prophetic 
 mention, ' whose branches run ' 
 over the wall ' which heretofore 
 had severed Jew and Gentile !" [pp. 
 18, 19].
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 249 
 
 there is little in it that lifts it above the ordinary run 
 of good sermons appropriate to their occasion. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1859 appeared the work, 
 which it appears from his letters he had been for some 
 time preparing for, " The Portrait of a Christian Gentle- 
 man. A Memoir of Patrick Eraser Tytler, author of 
 ' The Hixtory of Scotland J By his friend, the Rev. John 
 W. Burgon, M.A. Fellow of Oriel College." Mr. Tytler 
 had passed away more than nine years previously, on 
 the Christmas Eve which followed the day of Burgon's 
 Ordination to the Priesthood, Dec. 24, 1849. 
 
 " Love's own hands decked the room, and the couch 
 whereon Mr. Tytler lay, with holly; and it seemed to 
 those who, sorrowing for themselves, looked upon him 
 in his last sleep, that to him alone had come the real 
 joy of Christmas." [J/ewo/r, 2nd Ed. p. 353.] 
 
 It might seem strange that Burgon, loving Tytler as 
 he did, allowed several years to elapse before he " sought 
 to embalm " his friend's " memory in the only way which 
 -was permitted to him." But a moment's reflexion solves 
 any difficulty which might be felt on this head. Only 
 admitted to full Orders at the moment of Ty tier's death, 
 the first duty incumbent upon him was evidently to 
 " make full proof of his ministry," which he did by 
 throwing himself with all the fervour of his ardent 
 nature into the Pastoral Work of his Curacies at West 
 Ilsley and Finrnere. But he was not at liberty to give 
 himself to that work exclusively. At that period of his 
 life, it will be remembered, he was compelled by the 
 narrow stipend of his Fellowship and the necessity of 
 assisting, as much as he could, the members of his family, 
 to take private pupils. He had on his hands at the 
 same time his 'Plain Commentary on the Gospels,' as
 
 250 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 well as his ' Short Sermons for Family Reading ' : it was 
 evidently his intention to make his mark in Divinity 
 before he ventured upon a work of purely secular Lite- 
 rature. Add to this that not only did the Church 
 movements and the Academic movements going on in 
 his immediate neighbourhood absorb an unusual amount 
 of his attention, and draw ever and anon contemporary 
 strictures and observations from his facile pen; but that 
 his mother's death in 1854 created in him a mental dis- 
 turbance of a peculiar character, much more than men of 
 ordinary mould experience under similar bereavements. 
 Tytler had been especially dear to him; but he had 
 literally no time to do justice to Tytler's memory and to 
 the materials which Tytler's friends put into his hands, 
 until he had thoroughly initiated himself into the Sacred 
 Ministry, had consecrated his earliest literary labours to 
 the cause of Religion, and had leisure to breathe again 
 after what he would feel to be an overwhelming domestic 
 calamity. Then he put his hand to the work, and 
 produced (the reader will remember that this was not 
 his earliest attempt at Biography, Gresham preceded it 
 by more than twenty years) what was certainly one of 
 the most successful and popular biographies of the day. 
 The work has long been before the public ; and we shall 
 not stay to present the reader with any specimens of it, 
 one or two having been already given in the Chapter 
 which recorded the origin and growth of his friendship 
 with Mr. Tytler. Suffice it to say that the writing of 
 Tytler's Memoir must have been a most congenial task 
 to him, from the thoroughly kindred spirit of the 
 biographer and his subject Tytler's piety, playful- 
 ness, vivacity, excessive love of children and delight 
 in playing with them, as well as his extraordinary in- 
 dustry and incessant application to study, even to the
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 251 
 
 prejudice of his health, were all exactly reproduced in 
 his younger friend; to which it may be added that 
 the lofty chivalrous feeling which is such an essential 
 element in high breeding, and contributes to make Tytler's 
 Memoir the ''Portrait of a Christian Gentleman" charac- 
 terized Burgon in a high degree, and was occasionally 
 in him carried to the verge of the Quixotic. The 
 beautiful little Poem " L'Envoy, addressed to P. Fraser 
 Tytler," and " intended for the conclusion of a long un- 
 finished poem, is a touching testimony to the community 
 of sentiment which Burgon felt to exist between him 
 and Tytler ; 
 
 And bold I am to vaunt these joys to thee" 
 (the joys of common sights and common sounds), 
 
 " Friend of my heart ! for unto thee I know 
 The simplest joys the dearest still to be," &c., &c. 
 
 The general appreciation of Tytler's Memoir by literary 
 men may be judged of by the accompanying letter from 
 the Reverend Edward Churton (afterwards Archdeacon 
 of Cleveland), whose general cultivation and competence 
 as a literary critic are still remembered. A very flattering 
 notice of the Book appeared also in the ' Quarterly Review' 
 and in other periodicals of a high class ; and a second 
 Edition, to which the author added a few new pages,was 
 " called for within two months of the date of publication." 
 
 FROM THE REVEREND EDWARD CHURTON, RECTOR 
 OF CRAYKE. 
 
 "Bournemouth, May n, 1859. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Burgon, How can I thank you in any 
 due measure for your Memoir of P. F. Tytler? There is 
 only one epithet, which we could find to apply to it, 
 and that one we have repeated from beginning to end,
 
 252 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 as we read one Chapter after another, or rather inter- 
 rupted our reading to repeat it after every second page 
 or paragraph. It is charming, a charming piece of 
 Biography, and surely of one of the most charming 
 characters that has ever been shown upon this transient 
 scene. We respond to every syllable of the last para- 
 graph of your Postscript; we feel assured from the 
 beautiful specimens of his conversation and rare social 
 virtues, which you have given us, that all must have 
 been as pure and lovely as you say. 
 
 " What a beauty there is in his language itself, what 
 pure enjoyment of Nature, what power of appreciation 
 of character ! The Letter given in pp. 248-9, is worthy to 
 be engraved in letters of gold. But how many little moral 
 lessons of the same character are scattered up and down ! 
 
 " Your own personal narrative of the excursion to Ben 
 Muik Dhui is as delightful a bit of reading as I ever came 
 across. It is truly redolent of the Highlands. But who 
 can forbear envying your good fortune in having enjoyed 
 such an excursion with such company ? 
 
 "I left the neighbourhood of London in 1835, when 
 it seems that Tytler's ' Hut. of Scotland ' first began to 
 be much noticed. After settling in the N. Riding, 
 opportunities of meeting friends, who were literary 
 men, or who read the literature of the day, were much 
 diminished ; and I fear, except for some casual mention 
 of some of his historical discoveries in Letters from some 
 of my friends, I have made no acquaintance with them. 
 But truly your account of the man is enough to make 
 others beside me wish to know more of his writings. 
 He was one, if ever there was one, who had such a high 
 sense of the duties of an historian : and his power must 
 have been great. 
 
 " The judgment of poor Mary Q. of Scots, p. 228, is 
 very interesting. I have W. Tytler (the Grandfather's) 
 Book at Crayke : and I thought at least that he proved 
 the accusers to be so worthless, that he had destroyed 
 the old evidence, on which Robertson and Hume built. 
 But I have seen a volume or two of Prince Labanotf s
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 253 
 
 Collection : and one cannot, I think, go far with Mary's 
 own Letters without a moral impression that she was 
 not quite the person one would like to take a brief to 
 defend. I suppose these later discoveries are those which 
 turned the balance against her in Tytler's honest mind. 
 
 " Do not trouble yourself to answer this, but consider 
 it as an irrepressible testimony of thanks to you for your 
 admirable Book. It must surely go through more 
 editions : and then should we not have a Portrait in the 
 front of it ? 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, 
 
 . CHURTON." 
 
 The earlier part of the year 1860 was marked for A.D. 18 
 Burgon by his three months' sojourn at Rome (Feb. 19 ^'' 4 
 May 20). The Rev. R. E. R. Watts (now Vicar of Wisbech), 
 at that time Chaplain of the English Congregation at 
 Rome, had occasion to be absent from his post for six 
 months. Burgon, whose duties at Oxford did not allow 
 him to be absent for so long a time, was only able to 
 relieve Mr. Watts for half of the period ; and it was 
 arranged that for the other three months of Mr. Watts' 
 absence Archdeacon Thomas should undertake the duties 
 of the Chaplaincy. Once embarked on the Pastoral work 
 at Rome, we find him, true to his character and methods 
 of action at West Ilsley and Finmere, throwing the whole 
 of his heart into his Ministry, and expressing an almost 
 extravagant delight in it, just as on those earlier 
 occasions. For this is the Dedication of his 'Letters 
 from Rome,' originally published in the ' Guardian ' 
 at intervals between Aug. 15, 1860 and Jan. 2, 1861, 
 and afterwards collected, and published, with the 
 insertion of several additional Letters, in a single 
 volume [Murray: 1862];
 
 254 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 To THE ENGLISH CONGREGATION AT ROME. 
 
 (" February May, 1860 ;) 
 " The most ' beautiful flock ' I ever shepherded : 
 
 In grateful remembrance of the days 
 Which their kindness made passing sweet to me ; 
 
 And with a humble prayer 
 
 That, to some members of that flock at least, 
 
 The imperfect Ministrations of those days 
 
 May not have been unblessed. 
 
 "Oriel, 1861." 
 
 It must be remembered that, just as at Hsley and 
 Finmere there had been many other calls, in connexion 
 with his College, his University, his pupils, his literary 
 works to distract him from his pastoral labours, so at 
 Rome there were a thousand new objects, offering all of 
 them points of the deepest interest to a mind like his, 
 which, in a man less many-sided, and less capable of 
 doing many things at once, might have been held to 
 excuse some amount of lukewannness and slackness 
 in Pastoral duty. We find, however, from the "Letters" 
 that his ears and eyes are wide open to every object of 
 attraction offered by the Eternal City; his note-book, 
 sketch-book, and pencil are, as usual, in his hand all 
 day long. He attends observantly all Roman services 
 and forms of Devotion, and compares them with the 
 Anglican, not unfairly 8 , though always of course with 
 
 8 In proof of this, see his account certainly the least dull of teachere 
 of a Jesuit's excellent sermon at a and preachers) ; and the following : 
 "Missione" on Ascension Day " He must have a very cold hard 
 [Letter ix. p. 82], his admission heart who should be able to pass 
 respecting the " Dialogo," that it the solemn season of Lent in Rome, 
 " combines almost all the advantages untouched by the number and 
 of public chatechizing, and entirely variety of the methods he sees em- 
 escapes all its evils," [p. 87] (the ployed for stimulating the piety of 
 vivacity of the "Dialogo" would the people. ... I would defy any 
 doubtless commend it to one who was clergyman, let his views be what
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 255 
 
 a decided preference for the latter; he listens to and 
 reports Sermons and dialogos (showing that he must have 
 possessed a fair working knowledge of Italian, probably 
 he obtained the rudiments of it in childhood from his 
 mother); he witnesses processions, missions, and the 
 grotesque absurdities of relic-worship; he has inter- 
 views with the superiors of Convents, and elicits from 
 them the truth as to the exact observance in their 
 establishments of the Seven Hours of Prayer ; he visits 
 and minutely describes the Catacombs, copying and 
 commenting upon many of the Inscriptions, and showing 
 therefrom the " unequivocal sympathy of the Primitive 
 Age with the English rather than with the Romish 
 branch of the Catholic Church " ; he gets access to 
 several of the more rarely visited objects of interest, as 
 well as to those which all the world makes a point of 
 seeing ; and before leaving Italy, he visits Naples and 
 Pompeii, and makes the ascent of Vesuvius, an incident 
 which he records in his usual vivid and picturesque 
 strain. The Book is concluded by three very useful 
 Letters addressed to a nameless correspondent, who had 
 apostatized to Rome, and had thought fit to remonstrate 
 with him on his "position" as a member of the Church 
 of England. They are " intended to embody a popular 
 reply to the popular objections made by Romanists or 
 Romanizers against our own branch of the Catholic 
 
 they might, to survey, in some out- standing on a palco (or little low 
 
 of-the-way church, the large circle scaffold), just above their heads, 
 
 of seated persons, commonly of the without experiencing the liveliest 
 
 humblest class, listening with rapt emotions of pleasure ; and, (if the 
 
 attention to some very familiar ex- truth must be spoken), a secret 
 
 position of Christian duty, which ejaculation, ' I only wish I could 
 
 was being delivered to them with make people attend half as well to 
 
 infinite unction and gesticulation me \ ' " [Letter vi. p. 64.] 
 by an impetuous, earnest speaker,
 
 256 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Church." In his Preface to the Work he explains that 
 the Letters were not, in strictness, written from Rome, 
 where indeed he could find no time to write them, but 
 were drafted and thrown into shape after his return to 
 England, from copious notes and sketches which he 
 had made upon the spot. It is no doubt of a popular 
 character, and addressed throughout (as he tells us in the 
 Preface) "to intelligent rather than learned readers" ; but 
 taking into consideration his pastoral work at Rome, 
 and his Replies to the Seven Essays in 'Essays and 
 Revieics,' to which he found it necessary to address him- 
 self immediately after his return, while this lighter 
 work, descriptive of his experiences at Rome, was yet 
 upon the stocks, it is really a most extraordinary 
 performance. 
 
 Letters II and III, addressed to the Principal of St. 
 Edmund's Hall (Dr. Barrow), though such as the general 
 public might esteem " dry " (as indeed a lady hinted to 
 the writer that she thought them) 9 are in one point of 
 view the most valuable and interesting of all. The 
 first of them gives a useful popular account, such as any 
 one who applies his mind cannot fail to understand, of 
 Codex B, the celebrated Vatican Manuscript of the New 
 Testament, and of the labours of Cardinal Mai and Ver- 
 cellone in connexion with it. In the second he discusses 
 the relative value of the quarto and octavo editions of 
 the Codex put forth by Mai and Vercellone, and the 
 probable amount of accuracy with which each of them 
 represents the original Codex, now lost. He sums up 
 by fully admitting the antiquity of Codex B, of which 
 
 "A lady did the writer the stantly improve his style : for that, . 
 
 honour to send him word that if he ' Codex was very dry.' " [Footnote 
 
 expected these Letters to be read by to p. 64.] 
 any of her own sex, he must in-
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 257 
 
 he says, " I see not how it can be thought more modern 
 than the beginning of the fourth century " ; while, as 
 regards the authenticity of its text, " a very different 
 thing from the antiquity of a Codex," his judgment is 
 that " the text of Codex B is one of the most vicious 
 extant/' In this manner he preludes his drastic ob- 
 servations on the shortcomings of Codex B (as also of 
 Codex N the Sinaitic Manuscript) in Chapters VI and 
 VII of his ' Last Twelve Verses of St. Mark? and, at a later 
 period, in his ' Revision Revised! In the judgment of 
 Dr. Scrivener, the greatest living English authority on 
 the Greek Text of the New Testament, Burgon ascribed 
 to Codex B a value considerably below that to which it 
 is injustice entitled. This will appear from a letter of 
 Dr. Scrivener to the author, which will be more suitably 
 introduced in connexion with Burgon's later labours on 
 the text. 
 
 He was indebted, he tells us, for the high privilege of 
 examining the Vatican Manuscript (of which he must 
 have availed himself on several occasions) to the Cava- 
 liere G. B. de Rossi, author of ' The Christian Inscriptions 
 in the Catacombs of the First Six Centuries after Christ! 
 But that he was accompanied in his visits of inspection 
 to the Vatican by other persons versed in the MS. 
 treasures of the great Library, may be gathered from 
 the following memorandum forwarded to the author by 
 the Reverend Henry Symonds, Rector of Tivetshall : 
 
 "In the summer of 1860 I was at Rome at the time 
 when Mr. Burgon was acting as Chaplain to the English 
 residents there. I was wandering one day about the 
 Vatican Library, admiring Raffaelle's beautiful decora- 
 tions of the book-cases, when I saw collected round 
 a table in the window Mr. Burgon and two others. He 
 was examining a rather large MS. It occurred to me 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 at once that this might be the renowned ' Codex Vaticanus ' ; 
 for I knew that he was a man likely to be interested in 
 seeing it. I therefore accosted him, telling him that 
 I was accustomed to MSS., having been for seven years 
 one of the Librarians at the Bodleian. He received me 
 most kindly, saying ' Oh ! then you are quite the right 
 person to see this MS., which is the ' Codex Vaticanus' 
 So I had the satisfaction of seeing this famous Manu- 
 script, which falls to the lot of very few. We talked 
 about Coxe " [Henry Octavius Coxe, one of the " Twelve 
 Good Men " of whom Burgon wrote Memoirs], " and the 
 many quaint things that he would say. This interview 
 gave me the chance of seeing several other MSS. .among the 
 very rarest of the Vatican Collection. Mr. Burgon had 
 with him an Englishman, who seemed to be perfectly at 
 home in the Vatican. He asked if there were any 
 others I should like to see. I mentioned six or seven of 
 the very oldest. He said he knew the numbers of them, 
 and called for them at once. While I was examining 
 these, Mr. Burgon pulled out and opened a pen-knife, 
 for the purpose of cutting his pencil. The Custode im- 
 mediately seized the ' Codex Vaticanus ' in his arms, 
 evidently thinking that Burgon was going to cut out 
 a leaf or leaves. But he soon allayed the Custode* 
 fears by saying that the MS. was as dear to him as 
 to the keeper of it. When I met Mr. Burgon at the 
 Deanery at Norwich, I recalled the incident to him." 
 
 Burgon returned from Rome in the May of 1860 to 
 find himself appointed Select Preacher, and was called 
 upon to make his first appearance before the University 
 in that capacity at the commencement of the October 
 term. His appointment was surely one of the instances, 
 in which the hand of God's " never-failing Providence," 
 which, whether we can trace it or not, "ordereth all 
 things," great and small, "both in heaven and earth," may 
 be traced in visible operation. It was the year in which 
 that most censurable volume of crude, rationalistic,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 259 
 
 and dangerous speculations called ' Essays and Reviews] 
 a volume which we might congratulate ourselves 
 was long since dead and buried, if it were not that 
 the recent springing up of the dragon's teeth indicates 
 that "the mystery of iniquity doth" still "work,"- 
 was put forth by six of the higher Clergy and one lay 
 member of the Church of England, to the unsettlement 
 of many minds not well grounded in the truth, and to 
 the dismay of all who had learned to consider their 
 Bible, and the old faith which it enshrines, the most 
 precious of all treasures. What may be called the first 
 note of this ill-starred movement was struck by the 
 Sermon preached in Oxford during the visit of the 
 British Association 1 , of which Mr. G. V. Cox in his 
 ' Recollections of Oxford ' [2nd Ed. p. 461] gives the follow- 
 ing notice : 
 
 " Dr. Temple was not contented with preaching a 
 sermon of a somewhat rationalistic tendency to what 
 in a great measure, an ultra-Liberal audience, but, 
 having dressed it up afresh, he presented it as an Essay 
 ' On the Education of the World,' in the forefront of 
 that unhappy volume ' Essays and Reviews.' " 
 
 The ground no doubt had long been preparing in the 
 minds of the alumni of Oxford. Doubts had been sown 
 among them even by their authorised teachers. 
 
 " Divinity Lectures " (writes the Rev. Henry Deane, 
 reviewing the history of religious thought among the 
 undergraduates in Oxford between 1846 and 1856) 
 were as a rule very poor during this period. ' Suspend 
 your judgment on the Mosaic miracles,' one Tutor is 
 reported to have said. ' Do you see any difficulty in this 
 Article?' asked another Tutor, while lecturing on the 
 Thirty-Nine Articles. Of course the class saw no more 
 
 1 The visit commenced June 25. 
 S 2
 
 260 LIFE OF DEAN Brn- 
 
 difficulty in an Article than they did in Aristotle-. 
 after a few words he said ; ' Do you all see the difficulty 
 now ?' Of course they all saw it. ' Very well,' said the 
 Tutor, ' let us go on to the next Article.' 
 
 Of course the influences brought to bear upon the 
 unhappy undergraduates were by no means all of this 
 sort. Many of the older men were deeply interested in 
 them, and doing a noble work among them, specially Dr. 
 Heurtley (Margaret Professor of Divinity), Mr. Linton, 
 Mr. Litton, nay, Burgon himself who, some time before 
 the period at which we have now arrived, had set up 
 Sunday Evening Bible Classes for the young men of his 
 own College, which were extended, after he became 
 Vicar of St. Mary's, to embrace a larger circle. 
 
 " The appearance of ' E**ay* and Review*,' " continues 
 Mr. Deane, " was hailed with delight by many of the 
 undergraduates. It was not so much the cleverness of 
 the Essays that they admired as the independence of 
 thought displayed by the Essayists. . . . The volume was 
 the first thing that made us believe that seven Ei _ 
 men of note had made up their minds to tell us the 
 truth. The ' E**ays and Review* ' were shortly followed 
 by Part I of Colenso ' On the Penlatewch ;' and I believe 
 that these two works, and the effect produced upon us 
 undergraduates and neo-graduates by them, led Burgon 
 to preach his famous Sermons on ' Inspiration and Inter- 
 pretation.' " 
 
 It was so undoubtedly. Burgon himself says as much 
 in his Preface to the Volume, which is dated " Oriel, June 
 24th, 1861." 
 
 " ' Euayt and Review*,' " he says, " with the turn of the 
 year experienced a vast increase of notoriety. The 
 entire Bench of Bishops condemned the Book ; and 
 Houses of Convocation endorsed the Episcopal censure. 
 ... A clamour also arose for a Reply to these seven
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 261 
 
 champions, not exactly of Christendom. ' You 
 but why do you not rc)>ti/ V became quite a popular form 
 of reproach. ... It struck me that I should be employing 
 myself not unprofitably at such a juncture, if (laying 
 aside all other work for a month or two ;" we have 
 seen that he had on his hand the drafting, and throwing 
 into the shape of ' ]<<//< r* front AWr /<> l-'r/c/tilx In l.mj- 
 finul! the various notes and memoranda which he had 
 made during his Roman Chaplaincy ;)"! were to attempt 
 a short reply to the volume in question, myself; and to 
 combine with it the publication of the Sermons I had 
 already preached" (in his capacity of Select Preacher); 
 " and which I had the comfort of learning had not only 
 been favourably rrri\vd by some of those who heard 
 them, but had attracted some slight notice outside the 
 University also. Accordingly, with not a little reluc- 
 tance, in the month of February I began." 
 
 The work is in two parts, Destructive and Construc- 
 tive, to use his own phraseology. In the earlier part. 
 whieh is "addressed to the undergraduate members of 
 Oriel College," he demolishes seriatim the arguments of 
 the Essayists. His affectionate solicitude for them it 
 is. he says at the close of this part, which has moved 
 him to write. 
 
 " I trace these concluding lines (of a work which, 
 but for yoit, would never have been undertaken,) in a 
 quid' empty College, and in the room where we have so 
 often and so happily met on Sunday evenings. Can you 
 wonder if, at the conclusion of what has proved rather a 
 lim\y task, (so fiafifnf to me is controversy), my thoughts 
 revert with atli etionate solicitude to yourselves, already 
 sea tt civil in all directions ; and to those evenings which 
 more, I think, than any other thing, have gilded my 
 College life? In thus sending you a written farewell, 
 and praying from my soul that GOD may bless and keep 
 you all, I cannot suppress the earnest entreaty . . . that 
 you would persevere in the daily study of the pure Book
 
 262 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 of Life ; and that you would read it, not as feeling your- 
 selves called upon to sit in judgment on its adorable 
 contents ; but rather, as men who are permitted to draw 
 near, and invited to listen, and to learn, and to live. And 
 so farewell!" 
 
 It is not necessary or desirable to notice in any detail 
 this first and controversial portion of a work, which, 
 admitting certain flaws and extravagances of expression 
 in it, cannot be otherwise regarded than as a powerful 
 blow struck for God's Truth, at a time when that Truth 
 was being gradually undermined by the corrosions of a 
 plausible Rationalism, and a magnificent vindication of 
 the primary axiom of Revelation that God's word is to 
 be received, by those who hear it from Prophets and 
 Apostles, " not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, 
 the word of God." [See i Thess. ii. 13.] Burgon is 
 never seen at his best in controversy; even granting 
 that there is something in the error which he opposes, 
 which may well rouse and exasperate a righteous zeal, 
 he seems to lose all self-command in inflicting the 
 censure, and when his conscience reminds him that even 
 the worst errorists are to be remonstrated with before 
 they are condemned, his remonstrance is too apt to take 
 the form of a lecture and a scolding. Suffice it to say 
 that he holds the Seven Essays to be knit together (as 
 there is no doubt they are) by a common underlying 
 idea, presented by the different writers in different 
 aspects of it ( :! the germ of the last essay is contained 
 in the first "), and that upon his Reply to the last Essay, 
 (" On the Interpretation of Scripture ") he has bestowed 
 especial pains and attention, giving an analysis of it 
 in his Table of Contents, as he has done to none of 
 the others. The writer of that Essay had maintained 
 that Scripture is to be interpreted like any other
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 263 
 
 book. Burgon shows that, if the Bible were like 
 any other book in its origin and authority, the prin- 
 ciple of interpreting it in a similar method might 
 be freely accepted ; but that, since it is of a different 
 character from every other book in the world, being not 
 the word of man, but, though given through the vehicle 
 of human minds and human language, the word of G.od, 
 this difference of character justifies, or rather necessi- 
 tates, a different style of interpretation. He would have 
 done well to have added at full length what he has only 
 quoted the concluding words of the following illustrious 
 testimony to the soundness of his view, and to the shallow- 
 ness and radical unsoundness of the view of his opponent, 
 from Bacon's 'Advancement of Learning} a testimony 
 which, coming as it does from the Father of Inductive 
 Science, and probably the greatest thinker and philo- 
 sopher that our country has ever produced, deserves to 
 be written in letters of gold : 
 
 "But the two latter points, known to God, and un- 
 known to man, touching the secrets of the heart, and the 
 successions of time, do make a just and sound difference 
 between the manner of the exposition of the Scriptures, 
 and all other books. For it is an excellent observation 
 which hath been made upon the answers of our Saviour 
 Christ to many of the questions which were propounded 
 to him, how that they are impertinent to the state of the 
 question demanded ; the reason whereof is, because not 
 being like man, which knows man's thoughts by his 
 words, but knowing man's thoughts immediately, he 
 never answered their words, but their thoughts : much 
 in the like manner it is with the Scriptures, which being 
 written to the thoughts of men and to the succession of 
 all ages, with a foresight of all heresies, contradictions, 
 differing estates of the church, yea and particularly of 
 the elect, are not to be interpreted only according to the 
 latitude of the proper sense of the place, and respectively
 
 264 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 towards that present occasion, whereupon the words were 
 uttered, or in precise congruity or contexture with the 
 words before or after, or in contemplation of the principal 
 scope of the place; but have in themselves, not only 
 totally or collectively, but distributively in clauses and 
 words, infinite springs and streams of doctrine to water 
 the church in every part : and therefore as the literal 
 sense is, as it were, the main stream or river, so the 
 moral sense chiefly, and sometimes the allegorical or 
 typical, are they whereof the church hath most use : not 
 that I wish men to be bold in allegories or indulgent or 
 light in allusions ; but that I do much condemn that 
 interpretation of the Scripture, which is only after the 
 manner as men use to interpret a profane book."- 
 " Philosophical Works. Of the Proficience and Advance- 
 ment of Learning, divine and human." By Francis 
 Bacon. Vol. I. Book ii. p. 128. 
 
 The second and constructive part of 'Inspiration and 
 Interpretation,' equally necessary with the first,and far more 
 interesting, is a gift of permanent and lasting value to 
 the Church. The first Sermon recommending the study 
 of the Bible, and giving instruction in the right method of 
 studying it, was "intended," he tells us in the Preface, " to 
 embody the advice which he had already orally given to 
 every undergraduate who had sought counsel at his hands 
 for many years past in Oxford." The points are, that 
 the Bible is to be read through without any commentary 
 or extraneous help, beginning at the beginning, and never 
 skipping anything, " the best and freshest and quietest 
 half-hour in the whole day " being " deliberately appor- 
 tioned to this solemn duty," which "jealously-guarded 
 half-hour will be found to be the one green spot in the 
 day, like Gideon's fleece, fresh with the dew of the. 
 early morning, when it is 'dry upon all the earth 
 beside.' " It should be added that Burgon guards care- 
 fully against tho false inference, which some might be
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 265 
 
 disposed to draw from this admonition to " read the Bible 
 through patiently, and humbly, and laboriously," without 
 note or comment, the inference " that a man is either 
 at liberty or able to gather his own religion for himself 
 out of the Bible. The Book of Common Prayer is your 
 sufficient safeguard. The framework of the Faith is there 
 prescribed for you ; and within those limits you cannot 
 well go wrong." 
 
 The second Sermon is addressed to answer the objec- 
 tion, " But this Book, for which you claim entire perfec- 
 tion and absolute supremacy, is inevitably destined to 
 be demolished by Natural Science." It is with the 
 supposed conflict between the first chapter of Genesis 
 and the discoveries of geological science that the Sermon 
 deals. The teaching of a masterly Sermon preached 
 before the University by Dr. Buckland (a great scientific 
 authority) was warmly espoused by Burgon, as suffi- 
 ciently solving all difficulties of this kind. After the 
 first verse of Genesis, which simply records the creation 
 by Almighty Power of all things out of nothing, a lapse 
 of as many ages as the geologist may require may be 
 supposed, in entire consistency with the sacred narrative, 
 to take place. At the close of this long period of ages, 
 some great catastrophe took place which submerged the 
 earth, and wrapped it about with vapour, causing " a 
 dire eclipse." A pipe had recently broken in St. Mary's 
 Church which submerged all the seats, and necessitated 
 the removal of the University Sermons to the Cathedral, 
 where Burgon was then preaching. " Shall I think it a 
 matter of course that one little flaw in a pipe shall, in a 
 second of time, transform the orderly well-compacted 
 seats of a goodly church to one unsightly mass of shape- 
 less and disordered ruin ; and shall I pretend to stand 
 aghast at the strangeness of a similar overthrow of this
 
 266 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Earth's furniture at the mere fiat of the Most High ? " 
 In what follows of Genesis I. after verse i, the account 
 of the reconstitution of the ruined earth out of the chaos, 
 and its furniture for the abode of man, the days are to 
 be taken as literal days, as the reason assigned for the 
 sabbatical rest requires, an hypothesis to which Burgon 
 tenaciously clung to the latest years of his life, when he 
 had occasion to put it forth afresh. Without at all 
 entering into the discussion, which is not the province of 
 the Biographer, it may just be said that it is very 
 doubtful whether the theory of regarding the days as 
 long periods of time does not introduce greater difficul- 
 ties than it removes. 
 
 In Sermons III. and IV. he develops his Theory of 
 Inspiration, explaining and vindicating in the latter 
 the Plenary Inspiration of every part of the Bible, and 
 pointing out that the possible corruption of the text in 
 some passages constitutes no valid objection against the 
 Inspiration of the original and true autograph of the 
 Prophets and Apostles. From a note to Sermon III. 
 [p. 83 k.] it appears that the teaching of Sermon II. as 
 to the method of reconciling Genesis and Geology had 
 been, on the Sunday after its delivery, " directly con- 
 travened (it does not appear by whom) from the 
 University Pulpit." From his rejoinder it would seem 
 as if the preacher, who had contravened his teaching, 
 had indicated that Moral Science is, no less than 
 Physical Science, opposed to some parts of the plain 
 teaching of the Bible. In reply he points out that 
 the Moral Sense of man has, in virtue of the Fall become 
 depraved, as the first Chapter to the Romans shows, and 
 that a depraved Moral Sense -must not presume to sit in 
 judgment upon the consistency of God's moral attributes 
 with certain Scriptural precepts to certain persons. This,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 267 
 
 however, is only an incident in the Discourse. It is 
 chiefly occupied with apparent discrepancies in the 
 Gospels, very many of which only seem to require for 
 their solution the knowledge of some slight circumstance 
 which would bring all into harmony. Spite of "the 
 dignity of the pulpit " (' : I hate the very phrase, it has 
 been made too often the cloak of dulness "), this is 
 illustrated by the supposition of a trial at the Antipodes, 
 where three witnesses depose severally on oath to having 
 seen A. B. "standing before Carfax Church, while the 
 clock wag striking one " ; " passing by St. Mary's, when 
 the clock of that Church was also striking one " ; and 
 on the steps of the Cathedral, when the Cathedral clock 
 was striking one, the apparently discrepant testimonies 
 of the three being brought into harmony by the fact, 
 not known to every one, that "the three clocks in 
 question were, till lately, kept five minutes apart." In 
 the fourth Sermon the doctrine of Verbal Inspiration is 
 affirmed with all that uncompromising strenuousness of 
 assertion which was part of his character And surely 
 every one, on calm reflexion, must think with Burgon 
 that, if Inspiration is to avail for the instruction of 
 mankind, the phraseology in which the sense is con- 
 veyed, no less than the sense itself, must be subject to 
 its control. 
 
 "As for thoughts being inspired, apart from the words 
 which give them expression, you might as well talk of a 
 tune without notes, or a sum without figures. No such 
 dream can abide the daylight for a moment." 
 
 This Sermon is followed by a Supplement, in which he 
 deals with the theory that, " the office of the Bible being 
 merely to make men wise unto salvation," it does not 
 follow that the Inspiration under which it was written 
 must have secured the writers " against slips of memory,
 
 268 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 inaccuracies of statement, inconclusive reasonings, incor- 
 rect quotations, mistaken inferences, scientific errors,"- 
 a view which he admits " recommends itself occasionally 
 to candid, and even to reverential minds." He requests 
 any favourer of this theory to test it " by running his 
 pen through the places which he suspects of being- 
 external to the influence of Inspiration," and ventures 
 "to predict that such an one will speedily admit that 
 his erasures are either so very few, or so very many, 
 as to be fatal to the theory ' of which they are the 
 expression." 
 
 In Sermon V. he passes from the Inspiration of Holy 
 Scripture to its Interpretation. The great point here is 
 the Holy Ghost's method of Interpretation, as applied 
 to His own foregone utterances, in other words, the 
 principles which govern the citations made in the New 
 Testament from the Old. In these passages GOD has 
 been pleased to give us a clue to the interpretation of 
 His own Word. This method of the Holy Ghost, 
 when we study it, " altogether establishes the fact that 
 the Bible is not to be interpreted like any other Book" the 
 thesis this which the last of the Essayists and Reviewers 
 had laboured to establish. It is in this Sermon that the 
 writer, while carefully guarding himself against impeach- 
 ing the historical character of the narratives of Holy 
 Scripture, opens the way for those typical and allegorical 
 interpretations in which he so much delighted. Our Lord 
 Himself says that " Moses wrote of me." " Shew me the 
 places in the Pentateuch," says Burgon, "which prove 
 that CHRIST was 'to suffer these things,' and then to 
 'enter into glory.' You cannot do it; unless indeed 
 you admit Isaac's sacrifice, the indignities done to 
 Joseph, and his exaltation, the Paschal Lamb, the wave- 
 sheaf, &c., &c., to be figures of Christ, and recorded, as
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 269 
 
 being so, 'for our admonition, upon whom the ends of 
 the world are come.'" But the above are only hints as 
 to the line which the interpretation of Scripture is to 
 take ; there are many other types, not generally recog- 
 nised as such, which we shall see if we look under the 
 surface. Thus, in the narrative of Joseph's temptation, 
 
 " Potiphar's wife may, (as the best and wisest of ancient 
 and modern Divines have thought), symbolize the Power 
 of Darkness ; and Joseph our Divine LORD. The garment 
 Joseph left in the woman's hand, may represent that 
 fleshly garment of which the true Joseph divested Him- 
 self, (axeubvtrdijLfvos, as St. Paul speaks in a very 
 remarkable place, which certainly means, 'having 
 stripped off from Himself,') the mortal body- which 
 Satan apprehended (his sole triumph !), and by which he 
 was ensnared, when a greater than Joseph gat him out 
 from an adulterous world." 
 
 There is a grand passage, which we cannot find space 
 for, but which the reader should certainly consult 
 [Serm. V. p. 1 76] on the mystery of the interview be- 
 tween Melchizedek and Abram, bursting into view in 
 Psalm ex. just midway between the time of Abraham 
 and the time of Christ. 
 
 Sermon VI., " The Doctrine of Arbitrary Scriptural 
 Accommodation Considered," was not one of the course 
 which he was called upon to deliver as Select Preacher, 
 but was in fact his first University Sermon, preached ten 
 years previously, with the added lights which the ex- 
 perience of those years had thrown upon it. The notion 
 combated in it is, that any passage of foregone Scripture 
 
 3 It would seem from this that the clause which is given in the 
 
 Burgon (in Col. ii. 15) accepted the margin of the Revised Version : 
 
 reading r^v aaptca for ras apxas. hating put off from himself his 
 
 Or perhaps he took the words " his body, he made a skoic of the princi- 
 
 body " to be understood after a-atit- ftalities, &c. 
 Svaaptvos, a way of understanding
 
 270 LIFE OF DEAN BVRGOX. 
 
 has been by any New Testament writer " wrenched away 
 from its natural bearing and intention ; and made to 
 accommodate itself, and, on the part of the writer, 
 quite arbitrarily, to a purpose, with which it has, in 
 reality, no manner of connexion." The passage instanced 
 in is Rom. x. 5 to 10, the contrasted utterances of " the 
 righteousness which is of the law " and " the righteous- 
 ness which is of faith," in which St. Paul quotes with 
 some notable alteration, and with what may be called a 
 running commentary, Deut. xxx. 1 1 to 15 ; '' as fair an 
 example as could be desired of what is sometimes called 
 'Accommodation'. . . I know not an instance of what, 
 in any uninspired writing, I should have been myself more 
 inclined to stigmatize as such." The variation of St. 
 Paul from Moses, " Who shall go clown into the deep" 
 instead of " Who shall go over the sea" in order to point 
 the application to the descent of Christ into Hades, is 
 made under the immediate prompting of Inspiration, 
 it is God " calling in the wealth of His ancient treasury, 
 in order to recoin it, that He may more enrich us there- 
 by," God, " taking His ancient speeches back into His 
 mouth, in order that He may syllable them anew, making 
 them sweeter than honey to our lips, yea, sweeter than 
 honey and the honeycomb." And that the Christian 
 application, which St. Paul makes of the passage, was 
 intended by the Holy Spirit, when He put it into the 
 pen of Moses, he gives good reasons for thinking, one 
 of them being that in the first verse of the twenty-ninth 
 chapter of Deuteronomy the covenant, among "the 
 words" of which the passage is found, is said to be a 
 distinct covenant, at the end of the pilgrimage of Israel, 
 " beside the covenant which he made with them in 
 Horeb" at the beginning of it, forty years ago. This 
 new covenant Bishop Bull takes to be the covenant of
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 271 
 
 Grace, which is implicitly and darkly preached in the 
 passage in question ; and Burgon gives other reasons for 
 thinking that what St. Paul finds in the passage of 
 Moses was really designed by the Spirit who inspired 
 Moses to write it, is anything but an arbitrary 
 accommodation. The author cannot but think that, 
 apart from interpretations of particular passages, the 
 true and only clue of sound interpretation has been 
 laid hold of, by the direction to look to the quotations 
 made from the Old Testament in the New, and to con- 
 sider what guidance and light may be discovered in 
 them. The difficulties here, as in the Bible itself, begin 
 with the beginning ; for the prophecies, of which St. 
 Matthew finds a fulfilment in our Lord's infancy (St. 
 Matt. ii. 15, 17, 23), are surrounded with difficulties, and 
 offer doubtless to him, who studies them with devout 
 docility, numerous bright glimpses into the Spirit's 
 method of interpretation. 
 
 The last Sermon deals with the subject which had 
 been discussed by the third Essayist, the actual title of 
 whose essay was " On the Study of the Evidences of 
 Christianity" ; but, as Burgon truly says, the Essay should 
 rather have been called, " The Validity of THE EVIDENCE 
 FROM MIRACLES considered, or rather denied." The 
 Sermon considers both the Moral Marvels of Scripture 
 (meaning, the perplexing problems which certain parts 
 of it throw out to the moral sense), and its Physical 
 Marvels, that is, its recorded miracles. Jael's act is 
 selected as presenting a difficulty of the former class, 
 and is elaborately vindicated. We must start with the 
 assumption that her act was moral, because " God pro- 
 nounced her blessed, and distinctly commended her for 
 her deed, and no action can be immoral which GOD 
 praises." He then shows how under the peculiar circum-
 
 272 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 stances, and from Jael's point of view, the act was jus- 
 tifiable, nay, something more. "It is quite evident 
 that each fresh oppressor of Israel was regarded, in the 
 strictest sense, as the enemy of God; and that, as the 
 enemy of the LORD God of Israel, Sisera was summarily 
 slain by the Kenite's wife." As regards miracles the 
 " physical marvels " of Holy Scripture, while cordially 
 admitting that "general laws of inscrutable Wisdom 
 determined each case of miraculous interposition," he 
 repudiates with something like scorn Mr. Babbage's 
 suggestion that a miracle, is not " an exception to those 
 laws which we know, but really the fulfilment of a 
 wider law which we did not know before " ; shows that 
 the paring down and extenuating the supernatural 
 element in a miracle is, in view of all the circumstances, 
 an untenable explanation ; and protests with his usual 
 warmth (yet not too warmly) against the Ideology, which 
 recognises in the miraculous narratives of Scripture 
 nothing of matter of fact, but only the allegorizing of 
 truths of weightiest import. The Sermons are followed 
 by Appendices, chiefly confirmatory of his own view, 
 from the works of Bishop Horsley, Bishop Butler, Bishop 
 Bull, Bishop Pearson, and from the sermons of his great 
 friend and predecessor in the Vicarage of St. Mary's, the 
 Rev. C. P. Eden, a memoir of whom appears in ' The Lives 
 of Twelve Good Men.' 
 
 And what was the immediate effect upon the audience, 
 the reader will be disposed to ask, of the above Ser- 
 mons ? Very much what the effect was of inspired 
 preaching of old, and what will always be the effect 
 of faithful preaching, framed on the model of the inspired. 
 " The multitude of the city was divided " ; " some be- 
 lieved the things which were spoken, and some believed 
 not." " We did not think much of them at the time,"
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 273 
 
 writes one who was then an undergraduate, and attended 
 the Sermons, "many of the passages in them being 
 grotesque. It was said that an undergraduate of Oriel 
 who had great influence with Burgon begged him to 
 change his tone. The last sermon or sermons were very 
 different from the first." No doubt, as in all Burgon's 
 sermons and addresses, so in these also, there is a certain 
 style foreign to the ordinary and conventional usage of 
 the English pulpit, which was inseparable from the 
 strong and marked individuality of the man ; but as for 
 any grotesquenesses which could present a serious stum- 
 bling-block except to minds of a most frivolous order, if 
 there were such in the delivery, they have been ex- 
 punged previously to publication. But the writer has 
 been credibly informed, on authority which he cannot 
 doubt, that the theory of Scriptural Inspiration pro- 
 pounded in the Fourth Sermon presented a grave difficulty 
 to the minds of some thoughtful and religiously-minded 
 hearers among the undergraduates, who were not pre- 
 pared for the alternative which seemed to be incisively 
 presented to them ; Either the whole Bible is inspired, 
 " the words as well as the sentences, the syllables as 
 , well as the words, the letters as well as the syllables, 
 every ' jot ' and every ' tittle ' of it ; " or the whole of it 
 must be abandoned, since no part of it can be certainly 
 depended upon as an infallible guide. To this the 
 present writer can only say that, supposing the doctrine 
 i tic n. leafed to be a true one, the offence given thereby, 
 however much it is to be regretted, could not have been 
 avoided. And if the way of stating the truth was not 
 (as perhaps it may not have been) altogether judicious, 
 can the meaning which it was intended to convey be 
 seriously questioned by devout and thoughtful men ? 
 We know that GOD has not been pleased absolutely 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 to secure the text of His Holy Scriptures from cor- 
 ruption (by carelessness of transcribers, interpolations 
 of words designed only as marginal explanations, and 
 so forth) ; he has left a certain amount of uncertainty 
 here and there on the ipsissima verba of Prophets and 
 Apostles, to exercise the discrimination of those of 
 His servants who have leisure and skill for such 
 studies, as also for the trial of the faith of His child- 
 ren in general ; but supposing us to be in undoubted 
 possession of the original autographs of Moses, Isaiah, 
 the Evangelists, St. Peter, St. Paul, should we be 
 willing to admit that a single verse or word of the text 
 could be uninspired, and to dispense with it freely, as 
 being immaterial, in our vain conceptions, to the just 
 expression of the Holy Spirit's meaning? Without 
 being at all prepared to assert that all parts of Holy 
 Scripture are equally precious, equally vital, or have an 
 equally deep spiritual import, an assertion surely which 
 would carry its own refutation on the face of it, must 
 we not maintain, if we hold Inspiration at all, that 
 as, in the natural body of man, the breath of life is 
 diffused through the whole frame (resides in the ex- 
 tremities in the hair and the nails as well as in the 
 head and the heart) so there is not a single jot or tittle of 
 inspired Scripture which has not God's breath in it, and 
 which, as having God's breath in it, has not some function 
 or other to fulfil in the design of His inscrutable wisdom, 
 though we may not always know or be able to discern 
 what that design is ? If this image conveys a real truth, 
 no part of the Bible, however apparently insignificant 
 to us, not even the catalogue of the Dukes of Edom, 
 or the long string of names of persons, of whom it is 
 given us to know nothing but the names, as in Rom. 
 xvi, could be dispensed with without a real loss.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 275 
 
 But there were other hearers of Burgon's famous 
 Seven Sermons, who were neither moved to levity by 
 his "grotesque passages," nor offended and scandalized 
 by his making the Inspiration of the Inspired Writers 
 cover (as they considered) too wide a field. Here is 
 the testimony of one of them, taken from a communiquee 
 to the Record newspaper of August 17, 1888. The 
 initials appended at the end of the paper are C. H. W. 
 The author thinks it best to let it stand alone, without a 
 word of comment except this, that it is in the highest 
 degree unlikely that C. H. W. stood alone in the im- 
 pressions which he carried away from Burgon's ministry. 
 Indeed if the reader will refer to the interesting paper 
 by the Rev. R. G. Livingstone given in a later Section, 
 in the early part of which he gives an account of 
 Burgon's Bible Readings with the undergraduates in 
 his rooms at Oriel, he will see that Mr. Livingstone 
 had imbibed from the Bible Readings very similar im- 
 pressions to those which " C. H. W." derived from the 
 Seven Sermons ; " It was nothing short of a revelation 
 to me to discover that the study of the Bible could be 
 made so full of interest and brightness so attractive, as 
 he made it." 
 
 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LATE 
 DEAN BUEGON. 
 
 [From the Record newspaper of August 17, 1888.] 
 
 " From first to last, all my reminiscences of Dean 
 Burgon are bound up with the Bible, treated as few 
 teachers of divinity now appear to regard it, as God's 
 word written ; ' absolute, faultless, unerring, supreme.' 
 Some report of his being an interesting preacher drew 
 me to the Cathedral at Oxford, one Sunday afternoon in 
 the October Term of (I think) 1860, but I have no 
 
 T a
 
 276 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 means at hand of verifying the exact date. I went to 
 hear the University Sermon, which he was appointed 
 to preach. It turned out to be the first of ' Seven 
 Sermons on the Inspiration and Interpretation of Holy 
 Scripture,' delivered in answer to Essays a>/d Reviews. 
 There was but a small congregation to listen to this 
 first sermon. The hearers increased as the series con- 
 tinued. But those who went from the beginning were 
 well repaid. I can never forget what I heard that 
 afternoon. It all comes back to me whenever I come 
 across the text, ' Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast 
 the words of eternal life.' 'The study of the Bible 
 recommended, and a method of studying it prescribed,' 
 is the title of the sermon, which was specially addressed 
 to undergraduates. The title gives a very fair account 
 of the contents ; but no words that I can put together 
 will describe what I myself gained that afternoon. 
 In regard to Scripture, I acquired the rudiments of a 
 fresh sense. I knew much of the text of the Bible 
 already, I read it as a habit, loved it, admired it, and 
 had learned much of it by heart. But I had never 
 learned to look at the Bible as the preacher that day 
 did. I went away with the feeling that I had just been 
 presented with a new book, and must set to work to 
 study it from the beginning, as though I had never seen 
 it before. I began to do so, in the kind of way that 
 was then suggested, and I have gone on ever since. 
 The Bible has never ceased to be what it then became, 
 a mine of hid treasure. And there is just as much to be 
 learned still as there was at first. In fact, there seems 
 to be much more. I cannot describe what happened 
 that day in any better words than those which I first 
 employed to describe it : ' Thy words were found, and 
 I did eat them ; and Thy word was unto me the joy and 
 rejoicing of my heart.' 
 
 "From that time I began to take opportunities of 
 attending St. Mary's when Burgon was there. Of course 
 I heard the rest of the seven Sermons. Some of the texts 
 made scarcely less impression upon me than the first 
 had done. ' Do ye not therefore err because ye know
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 277 
 
 not the Scriptures, neither the power of God ? ' was one 
 of them. How often have I verified the fact that ignor- 
 ance or disregard of Scripture is at the root of erroneous 
 teaching! And what a source of strength the discovery 
 of this fact has been ! Again, ' Through faith we under- 
 stand that the worlds were made by the word of God/ 
 handled as Burgon handled it, was the beginning of 
 another lesson of almost equal worth. I learned that 
 for the understanding of the early chapters of Genesis 
 it is not science or literary criticism that is demanded, 
 but implicit faith in the record of creation to begin with, 
 and then careful observation of what is written. I see now 
 that not only is there no contradiction between Genesis 
 and geology, but that the two do not even cross each 
 
 other's paths Few men ever search the Scriptures 
 
 as Burgon did, or can tell others how to search them. 
 Hardly any one believes the Bible in the same way. A 
 very little work done in his style carries one quite out- 
 side the common horizon of criticism and exegesis. But 
 it almost demands Burgon's talent for homely exposition 
 and vivid illustration, to bring the knowledge obtained 
 by his method before the ordinary sight. I would rather 
 have heard him read the two lessons in the Sunday 
 service than listen to any preacher I have ever heard, 
 except (perhaps) himself. From his sermon on some 
 Scripture scene or character I should learn more than 
 from any other source of information upon earth. With- 
 out wishing to say anything disparaging of others, there 
 is to my mind the same sort of difference between 
 Burgon's treatment of sacred history in matters of detail 
 and what one commonly hears, as there is between 
 a street boy's chalk scribble on a door or paling and 
 a drawing of some sacred subject by Mr. Frederick 
 Thrupp. It is not so much that what one commonly 
 hears is inaccurate and wrong though too often it is 
 both as that hardly any one seems to see that strict 
 taste and perfect accuracy are required for the treatment 
 of Scripture scenes and characters. The saints of the 
 Old and New Testaments never complain. If living 
 men are caricatured or misrepresented, they can remon-
 
 278 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 strate, and perhaps write to the newspapers ; but Moses 
 and Elias, Samson and David, St. Peter and St. John 
 keep silence, and let men take what liberties they will. 
 
 " Dean Burgon never took liberties. He was as careful 
 of the honour and reputation of a character in Holy 
 Scripture as of his dearest living friends. I once heard 
 him read the description of Rizpah's care for her dead 
 children, from the Sunday lesson in the Second Book of 
 Samuel. It was a thing never to be forgotten. As one 
 said who was present, 'he read it as though she had 
 been his own sister ! ' and so it was throughout. But 
 his choicest theme was the Gospels. These were his 
 favourite study. Here he was accustomed, as he said 
 himself, to ' weigh every word in hair scales.' And what 
 unsuspected beauties did he bring to light ! How many 
 passages there recall him to memory ! The story of our 
 Lord's temptation in St. Matthew, the harmonizing of 
 what is told us of the healing of the centurion's servant, 
 or of the blind men at Jericho ; the record of Pilate's 
 indecision, and the title on the Cross ; the incidents of 
 Easter morning, and of that third appearance of our 
 Saviour at the sea of Tiberias ; not to mention the text 
 containing that solemn question, 'What shall it profit 
 a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own 
 soul?' all these are inseparably associated with his 
 memory in my own mind ; some of them, I doubt not, in 
 the minds of many. "We were to have had the text 
 of the Gospels, and their harmony, from his pen before 
 this. It was all but finished, and was promised years 
 ago. But who is there to finish it, and who can gather 
 up the thousand threads of loving reverential knowledge, 
 that have fallen from his grasp ? 
 
 "Dean Burgon was above all things else a Bible 
 student and a man of God. He never failed to impress 
 upon us St. Paul's lesson, that to 'speak with the 
 tongues of men and angels,' to ' understand all mysteries 
 in Scripture,' was nothing without life and love. His 
 personal appeals to the conscience were always most 
 heart-searching and solemn. He believed what he
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 279 
 
 taught. From his intense belief in Holy Scripture 1 
 have often rekindled my own. I never left him without 
 feeling stimulated and reproved. To his teaching, under 
 God, I owe all I know of divinity. Outside of Holy 
 Scripture I know nothing. But for him, I should never 
 have known the Bible apart from commentaries. Since 
 he entered into rest, my thoughts have constantly tried 
 to follow him into the Paradise of which he spoke with 
 such reverential and humble insight. And my desires 
 have been chiefly set upon two things. I cannot but 
 believe that all the best and noblest souls among the 
 saints of old must have risen up to greet him, and to 
 take part in the welcome given him by ' the Lord of the 
 dead and living.' I wish I could have heard what they 
 said to him, and seen how they received him there. 
 I doubt whether there has been such a reception for 
 many a day. And next I have wished that I could ask 
 him one question : ' What do you think now of all you 
 taught us about Holy Scripture ? Do you still see it in 
 the same light, or are the men of this generation at all 
 right in supposing that there is in the Bible a certain 
 admixture of dross and error, from which we must by 
 our critical faculties eliminate and sift out the truth ? ' 
 To this question I have received an answer. I have no 
 doubt of it at all, and it is this: 'I have given unto 
 them the words which Thou gavest me (p^/xara, words 
 spoken before they were given), and they have received 
 them, and have known surely that 1 came out from 
 Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send me. 
 I pray for them.' It is enough. There is nothing to 
 alter in this view of Holy Scripture, which the man of 
 God taught us. It is the very same message that I first 
 heard from his lips : ' Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou 
 hast the words (pj^ara) of eternal life/ It may be that 
 men will count us fools for thinking so ; but let me be 
 a fool with Burgon, if it be so, and let the wise men 
 of this generation say what they please. It will all 
 come right hereafter, and we have not long to wait. As 
 he said himself, 'Be patient, O my soul, until the day 
 break, and the shadows flee away.' "
 
 280 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 To MRS. HUGH JAMES ROSE. 
 
 "H. Conquest, Sept. 16, 1853. 
 
 "My dearest Mrs. Rose, I cannot forget what to- 
 morrow is 3 ; and if I could suppose that you could 
 yourself forget, I would not write to convey to you 
 one of the melancholy thoughts which the anniversary 
 ever brings to me. But your faithful heart will have 
 felt the shadow, which day by day deepens for you at 
 this sad time : and if I cannot (as I know I cannot) even 
 help to dispel it, I can at least convince you that my 
 thoughts are with you. And this may be a small 
 comfort in its way. Indeed all here remember the anni- 
 versary ; and have already feelingly alluded to it. 
 
 " The blow seemed full of wrath ; but you have been 
 spared to see that there was mercy in it. Or if you 
 have not seen much, your faith may at least suggest 
 some very bright and comfortable reflexions. 1 will not, 
 for I need not, particularly explain what I mean. I will 
 content myself instead with inviting you to read atten- 
 tively a portion of Scripture, on which I have been com- 
 menting for the last few days, namely, St. Matthew xxv. 
 You may also, if you please, read in connexion with it, 
 St. Luke xix. i to 27. I gave twelve hours yesterday to 
 the Commentary, and still feel very full of the thoughts, 
 which the chapter of St. Matthew especially suggested, 
 and which seem to me not inapplicable to yourself. 
 Pray observe the concluding verses of it, from verse 31 
 to the end. It seems to me like the solemn commentary 
 of the Spirit on the two parables which precede 4 . . . . 
 And with this remark I shall dismiss the subject. 
 
 " Let me earnestly request that you will not, by any 
 undue abstinence, distress yourself, and impair the spring 
 
 s Sept. 17 was the anniversary of xxv. 30. The " passage which ends 
 
 Josephine Hair's death, which he the chapter " (what is usually called 
 
 had already adverted to in an earlier the Parable of the Sheep and Goats) 
 
 letter to Mrs. Hugh James Rose. " may be considered, in some sort, as 
 
 See above, p. 161, and footnote. the solemn Commentary of the Spirit 
 
 4 These very words occur in his on the two parables which precede." 
 1 Plain Commentary * on St. Matt.
 
 7 HE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 281 
 
 of your mind, when these sad days come round. Nor 
 yet feel regardless of things present, and suffer yourself 
 to grow weary of the sun. Rather let me affectionately 
 implore you to catch eagerly at every little blessing, 
 which Almighty Love throws in your way ; and be 
 happy knowing that God wills nothing less than the 
 happiness of His creatures, in time and in eternity. 
 ^e how, this year, a Sunday follows your day of 
 heaviness. Is it not a blessed earnest that, though 
 ' heaviness may endure for a night, yet joy cometh in 
 the morning ? ' 
 
 " My dearest Mrs. Rose, 
 
 " Your affectionate, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 FROM THE REVEREND J. \V. BURGON TO THE RIGHT 
 HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. 
 
 " Oriel, Feb. 27 [1854]. 
 
 My dear Mr. Gladstone, I am much struck with 
 your kindness overwhelmed with work as you must 
 be in finding time to write me so long a letter. My 
 first impulse was, not to trouble you with any reply : 
 but besides wishing to thank you for your kindness, I 
 desire to say what occurs to me as often as I advert to 
 the letter I received from you on Friday. The few 
 words which follow are not committed to paper, believe 
 me, with the remotest desire of provoking rejoinder. 
 You will have read them, and I shall be content. 
 
 You speak of //>- L'n'i'->-f*ity. as if [it] had an existence 
 apart from the Colleges. Not only however is this not the 
 case actually, but even 1tixtf>r'vn1ly I find no traces of the 
 circumstance either. At all events, why the separate 
 'xi>u-nce and distinct operation of the University is now 
 to be fostered and developed I must (very humbly) 
 profess myself unable to perceive. Neither can I 
 acquiesce in the supposition that the religious character 
 which ei-t-ry founder stamped on every College in Oxford 
 is an indication that the University (supposing it to have
 
 282 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 had a distinct, independent existence) bore a different 
 impress. 
 
 " Let it be supposed however that this is a matter of 
 opinion. And let it be granted that you are a far better 
 judge of the matter than myself. What appears to be 
 the simple fact, Government is about to take steps with 
 regard to this ancient seat of piety and learning which 
 will amount to nothing less than a revolution. Respon- 
 sible, the Government is not to any earthly power. The 
 country at large is indifferent as to what they do in this 
 regard. Fathers who have smarted for their sons' ex- 
 travagance at College will applaud anything which looks 
 like a measure of retaliation; while the sons (who are 
 sure to impute to the University the faults which were 
 all their own), they also will look on and rejoice. Was 
 there ever a measure proposed, having a manifest ten- 
 dency to weaken the Church, to cripple one of her 
 healthiest limbs, to divert into other channels the 
 revenues which are directly or indirectly hers, and to 
 promote secular at the expense of sacred learning ; was 
 ever such a measure proposed without winning support 
 and favour from the world at large, whether within or 
 without the House of Commons ? 
 
 "No less as a Christian statesman, therefore, than as a 
 faithful son of Oxford, I will but implore Mr. Gladstone 
 to keep himself (if possible) unbiassed as well by the 
 animosity of those who hate us, as by the conflicting 
 views and wishes of our almost as dangerous professing 
 friends. I will make bold to remind him that the truth 
 is not of necessity on the side of those who are most 
 clamorous for change: that these Institutions have worked 
 well hitherto are working well now will work better 
 and better every year, if let alone : that the world grows 
 stronger daily, and that this is no time for dismantling 
 those fortresses where the Church has ever nursed her 
 warriors, and whither she has never turned in vain for a 
 champion in her hour of need. 
 
 " This visible framework of things is indeed passing 
 fast away; and it is no figure of speech which you 
 employ, but a sober reality, when you speak of hereafter
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 283 
 
 looking Founders in the face. They did their work nobly, 
 and have long since gone to their reward. Do not you 
 suffer others to mar their holy work ! Let me cling to 
 the hope that while you assist, and in some degree direct 
 the counsels of Government, so great an injury as I 
 apprehend will never befall these ancient institutions. 
 Do not you, dear Sir. I beseech you, consent to a measure, 
 the tendency of which may directly or indirectly be, 
 to promote the encroachments of the world upon the 
 Church, and to weaken the cause of Christ in the world. 
 Forgive my great boldness : but this matter lies far 
 nearer to my heart than you would suppose. I am 
 ever, with sincere regard and admiration, my dear Mr. 
 Gladstone, 
 
 " Your obliged and most faithful servant, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENSLEY. 
 
 "5, Burton Crescent, July 19, 1854. 
 
 " My dear affectionate Old Man, . . . 
 
 " I am sorry to say that my dearest mother both has 
 been, and continues to be, very poorly indeed. I feel 
 very heavy on the subject. The rest of my beloved 
 circle are tolerably well remember you with affection 
 and send you a very kind message indeed. 
 
 " Oxford, I fear, has seen her best days. Her sun has 
 set and for ever. She never more can be what she has 
 been, the great nursery of the Church. She will be- 
 come a cage of unclean beasts at last. Of course we 
 shall not live to see it; but our great grandc/ti/ilrcn will: 
 and the Church, (and Oxford itself) will rue the day 
 when its liberties and its birthright were lost by a 
 licentious vote of a no longer Christian House of Com- 
 mons. 
 
 " The mischief will quickly show itself in some small 
 respects. The Dissenters, who now talk like injured 
 men for being excluded from the walls of the University 
 (which is no injury at all), will soon be heard to com- 
 plain that they have not equal rights with ourselves.
 
 284 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 They will discover that they have a conscience, and 
 cannot attend chapel or divinity lectures. . . . They will 
 claim (and obtain) the right of proceeding to M.A. and 
 holding fellowships. THE END will be the driving out 
 the Church from what has hitherto been her fortress 5 : 
 and she will have to build herself little strongholds else- 
 where. ... It is one of our many national steps in a 
 downward direction ; one of our many abandonments of 
 a great principle ; one of the many preliminary measures 
 to the severance of Church and State ; one of the many 
 approaches to a state of national irreligion ; one of the 
 many beginnings of the end, which mark the slow but sure 
 advent of the latter days. 
 
 " You have asked for my opinion, my dear friend ; and 
 I give it you freely and fully : very grieved to have to 
 give such an opinion ; very sorry to have to draw so 
 gloomy a picture concerning the future destiny of the 
 place we both love so well. 
 
 " In the meantime, it is our joy to think that while 
 the nation sins thus heavily or, to say the least, errs so 
 grievously, every individual may advance in holiness 
 and virtue, and serve GOD acceptably, however humbly, 
 in his generation, and stand erect in his place in the 
 latter days. 
 
 " May we be found, we and all we love best where 
 the good and great of all ages will be, for CHRIST'S sake ! 
 
 "Remember me most kindly to your dear wife, and 
 believe me, 
 
 " Ever, my dearest Old Man, 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENSLEY. 
 
 " 5, Burton Crescent, London, Dec. 21, 1855. 
 " My dearest Hensley. I cannot explain to myself, 
 and therefore shall scarcely be able to explain to you, 
 
 5 All these prognostications were Universities Tests Act seventeen 
 fully realised at the passing of the years later in 1871.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 285 
 
 how it should happen that letters, which give me such 
 lively pleasure as yours always do, should accumulate 
 upon me unanswered. Had you me under you, however, 
 a rapier in your right hand, and a bludgeon in your left ; 
 a pistol in each pocket, spurs at your heels and a crow- 
 bar between your teeth, Mrs. Hensley beside you with 
 needles, a bodkin, and a toasting fork I say, did I be- 
 hold punishment in so many shapes awaiting me, I 
 should falter out that the only cause has been because I 
 have felt that any day I could write ; and because I have 
 always determined that the day should be to-morrow, a 
 day which, as you are aware, never comes. 
 
 ' The penny post has many advantages doubtless ; but 
 I am sure its counterbalancing evils are of a very serious 
 nature. Among the chiefest I reckon this, that one 
 seldom or never writes letters as the men of the century 
 beginning 1725 and ending 1825 wrote them, letters of 
 private friendship, written for friendship's sake; note* 
 one writes true : but letters seldom, if ever. Every 
 post brings in its half-dozen sundry appeals, which will 
 have the best end of an hour in the reading, replying, 
 and rending. Thus one's time for correspondence gets 
 flittered away, and the full tide of ink becomes dispersed 
 in a hundred imperceptible channels. It seems to me as 
 if I never wrote a pleasant letter to a friend. 
 
 " Thank you, dearest fellow, for your many affectionate 
 little letters, which give me so many agreeable peeps at 
 a domestic fireside, a gentle wife, and (I like to think) a 
 well cared for parish. All your little doings interest me, 
 will always interest me, as much as you can desire or 
 design : and I ever cherish the hope of spending some 
 few days with you, where I may learn by heart the 
 lesson I already know by rote ; namely, the name and 
 nature of your whereabouts. Whenever my sisters see 
 me looking a little fagged or thin, I am commonly asked 
 why I do not pack up my traps, and go down to see 
 Alfred Hensley 'who always invites you so affec- 
 tionately,' &c. My own history, dear friend, has been
 
 286 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 a most monotonous one since you saw me. My Com- 
 mentary and Sermons finished, before turning to any- 
 thing biographical, I have been engaged on an antiquarian 
 matter, a brief memoir of the Colleges of Oxford. En/hf 
 1 have written, and four have been published. The rest 
 will appear before June. But it is an expensive work 
 (only one copy given me I) and you must not buy it. 
 The last number will be Worcester. That you may get, 
 if you like, and make Spiers happy. (Think of Spiers 
 turning publisher !) But I long to get this off my hands, 
 and turn to the life of my dear friend Tytler. From 
 that I go on to Routh, and then, if I live, to my Har- 
 mony. In the meantime, my prints are published this 
 day by Hering, and I hope he will make them answer. 
 (I need hardly say that these things are all the Pub- 
 lisher's, not mine.') Thus have I rattled on, and covered 
 two sheets, and you would scarcely believe that I write 
 with an aching heart, full of affecting recollections, which 
 this festive (not joyous) season brings thick upon me. 
 
 " But I will not write sadly to the man I love at such 
 a time. He will wish to know that I am with my father, 
 sister, and brother ; that I go hence (on New Year's Day) 
 to Turvey Abbey ; and thence to Houghton ; returning 
 to Oriel by the i9th January : but if he desires to picture 
 me truly, he must picture one whose heart seems buried, 
 and who tries to live in the future in vain. The year 
 1854 earned away with it what gave life its sweetness 
 and its charm 6 , charm and sweetness unknown or at 
 least unappreciated until they were removed. 
 
 " God bless and keep you and your dear wife, dearest 
 Hensley. Remember me affectionately to her, I beg. Be 
 sure and spend a night at Oxford going or coming. 
 When I give you a cold welcome, then forget 
 " Your loving friend, 
 
 "J. W. BURGON." 
 
 * He means his mother, who, it will be remembered, died Sept. 7, 1854.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 287 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENS LEY. 
 
 "Oriel, Nov. 8, 1856. 
 " My dearest Old Man, 
 
 " I am very well thank you, dearest fellow : that is to 
 say. I have nothing in particular in the way of health to 
 complain of. Strong I cannot say I do feel ; but I do 
 not ail in any way except, alas, SPIRITUALLY. 
 
 "What vexes me most is the utter inability I ex- 
 perience TO DO anything. I am seldom, if ever, inactive: 
 yet the impertinences of daily life fill up the day; 
 and the residuum is a sleepy head and weary limbs. 
 And yet. by a strange perversity, my plans thicken 
 and multiply with my inability to carry them into 
 execution. 
 
 " Thus though I have smarted considerably under 
 the mortification of not being able to open my box of 
 Ti/flt'r papers since the Long, I have actually begun 
 collecting materials (traditional, of course, chiefly) of 
 Dr. Routh ! . . . that will form an amusing memoir, I do 
 believe 
 
 " Now I take it for granted that Dadfla never thinks 
 of going into the nursery, even of a rainy day; that 
 week after week passes, and he is quite content with 
 a report from the nuss, &c., &c., &c. ... Or does the 
 old man pass whole hours with the little duck in his 
 arms? 
 
 " The weather with us is cold and cheerless. Penarran 
 itself must be looking queer and the roads must have 
 regained their wintry character. Well, every season has 
 its charm : and in tits si bene as the inscription runs 
 on the monument in Houghton Church it matters little 
 what weather is without. The sense of God's love and 
 support is the intuJt, remember, not the image of the 
 passing cloud now, all the changes and chances of this 
 mortal life are passing things ! . . . My kindest regards at
 
 288 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 the Moat : love to your sister : kiss to baby : and all 
 that is affectionate to yourself, from 
 
 " Dearest Old Man, 
 
 " Your loving 
 
 J. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENSLEY. 
 
 "Oriel, March 17, 1857. 
 " My dearest Friend, 
 
 " Pray give 7 a special kiss for me, and tell her 
 
 that her mark is the first cross thing I ever saw her do 
 and that I am persuaded, when I think of her dear 
 parents, that it will be the last ! 
 
 " I daresay you will like the chair 8 on the whole 
 
 Everything of that kind looks rubbishy in a dirty shop. 
 When the chair gets worn, and is in the good company 
 of your fireside, it will improve, I am persuaded. 
 
 " Nothing shall prevent me (D.V.) from reposing in it 
 this summer, as you so affectionately propose. I quite 
 long to see the Brithyn again (how it seems but 
 yesterday since I looked on them last) and to hear the 
 Mule prattling along, and to pace, with you, the short 
 walk between the yew trees 9 ! 
 
 7 A grotesque name for Mr. Hens- And roved the mountain- valley near 
 
 ley's young child, who, being unable thy home, 
 
 to write, had put a cross against Dear Hensley ? 
 
 that clause o f the letter in which she Meanwhile the Mule went sparkling 
 
 sent her love to Burgon. on its way 
 
 * Burgon had been commissioned Beside us, babbling, bubbling. And 
 
 by his friend to purchase a chair you said, 
 
 for him in Oxford, which, in send- ' The Mule comes trickling down 
 
 ing it off to him, he describes at from yonder hill ; 
 
 length. Finds the Mahelly; the Mahelly 
 
 9 " Did we not hold such converse, finds 
 
 when, last June, The Severn ; and the Severn finds 
 
 We paced thy garden-walk between the sea. 
 
 the yews,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 289 
 
 " And now, about the portrait ; I saw at Reading the 
 other day, something in a style which I think on the 
 whole will please you letter than Richmond. It is in 
 coloured chalk, marvellous life-like, and the artist is avail- 
 able (which I am sure Richmond is not), and it will be 
 rather cheaper . . . may I obtain for you the artist's name 
 and address (I asked both, but forgot the reply !), and 
 either communicate with him, or put you in communi- 
 cation with him yourself? 
 
 " I am confident that the result would delight you MORE 
 than Richmond. You will perhaps say, ' But wliy ? if R. 
 be the best draughtsman of the human head living ? ' 
 I answer, ' Because this is NOT to be a portrait, but a 
 copy of two imperfect representations, and I doubt 
 whether the marvellous reality of Richmond's pencil would 
 not rather realise those two representations than the sainted 
 original . . . Do you see what I mean ? A less piercing 
 and precise, a more sulmi^ire pencil, would be more 
 likely to please you than Richmond's vigorous handling 
 of a subject which, alas ! he never saw. 
 
 "As regards my books you will need no assurance 
 that I have as yet found time for nothing ! No, I am 
 indeed finishing off my memoirs of the Colleges (Wadham, 
 Pembroke and Worcester alone remain to be done) ; but 
 this is all I shall be able to achieve on this side of 
 Easter, I am sorry to say. After Easter, however (D.V.) 
 I shall apply myself vi et arm is to old Routh, and trust 
 I may have done something considerable by the Long 
 Vacation. 
 
 All find the sea at last! A little while pp. 86, 87]. 
 
 Parted asunder, but a little " The Brithyn," writes Mr. Hens- 
 while ley, " are two hills springing up 
 
 And then all find the sea.' .... abruptly in the vale of the Severn, 
 
 Whereon we took and almost overhanging the river. 
 
 Our journey home in silence, and They are about seventeen miles 
 
 sat down from Kerry, and form a very pretty 
 
 To watch the slumbers of thy feature in the landscape, when 
 
 motherless babe." looking down the Vale of Severn 
 
 " Worcester College " [' Poems,' from Kerry heights. ' 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 " Think of me at five o'clock on Sunday evening (till 
 six) reading Genesis with a class of the citizens, at the 
 Town Hall. Last Sunday was my second lecture ; 
 I have about fifty, and enjoy it much. So, I think, do 
 they ... I cannot bear the sense of inactivity ! 
 
 " As regards local news, the chief is that Neate (who 
 lives above me) is the candidate for Oxford borough 1 . . . 
 
 " On Wednesday and Friday evenings we have Lenten 
 Sermons at St. Mary's. The Bishops of Oxford and 
 London, Dr. Hook, Moberly, Trench, Wordsworth, 
 Pusey, are among the preachers. I wish you could 
 see how full St. Mary's is on those evenings. 
 
 " I think much of you, dearest fellow, knowing how 
 full of grief all this season cannot fail to be. Let me 
 entreat you, however, to look with gratitude on that 
 little bud of promise which is yet left you, and to 
 remember that every bursting leaf and opening flower 
 is a precious pledge, as well as a most living type, 
 of the great reality which is in store for her, for you, 
 and (for the merits of Him who died for all!) I trust 
 for me also. 
 
 " Ever my dearest Alfred, 
 
 " Your most loving friend, 
 " J. B." 
 
 1 Mr. Neate, eminent for his to this squib, which has been pre- 
 
 abilities even among Fellows of served by Mr. G. V. Cox (' Eecol- 
 
 Oriel, who were all in those days lections of Oxford" 2nd edition, 
 
 men of mark, was elected for the p. 427) : 
 
 City, but unseated for bribery in " Poor Mr. Neate soon lost his seat, 
 
 the following July on the ground Upset by his agents for bribery ! 
 
 that his Committee (to whose pro- So the neat's tongue was dried, 
 
 ceedings he was not privy) had en- With many jokes beside, 
 
 gaged a very large number of the Quae nunc esset longum per- 
 
 constituents as paid messengers; scribere." 
 the circumstance which gives point
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: THIRD PERIOD. 291 
 
 To THE REVEREND ALFRED HENS LEY. 
 
 "Oriel, June 3, 1858. 
 
 " My dearest Hensley, 
 
 " I rejoice to hear so nice an account of you and yours. 
 I trust it will last for ever ! How the summer seems to 
 have burst upon us ! I fancy I see your house and gar- 
 den, and the green dell beyond, and I hear the Mule 
 babbling, and I see you coming towards my window with 
 a smile upon your face. It is breakfast time, and we 
 have tea, bacon, and a large crusty loaf. It is tea time, 
 and we have the same kind of loaf and tea, and some 
 
 little cutlets Now it is prayer time, and Hyacinthe 
 
 comes in. ' so fond of Papa ! ' you cry, ' and so good.' 
 .... Whereupon the hope of the house pulls to pieces a 
 nosegay of flowers, kicks, yelps, and goes through mani- 
 fold exhibitions of a meek and chastened spirit. Lo, she 
 is conveyed upstairs, and ' so good/ exclaims ' dear 
 Papa.' 
 
 " A kiss to the chick, my love to the Moather 2 , a 
 heart) 7 , more than hearty, greeting to your dear self! 
 " Ever your affectionate, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 2 By the Moather Burgon means 
 Mr. Hensley 's father and mother- 
 in-law, who resided near him at 
 " the Moat," a place so called 
 from an ancient earthwork and dyke 
 in the grounds. " The Moather " 
 means the good people at the Moat. 
 Mr. Hensley was at the time re- 
 ferred to (as at the date of this 
 
 letter) Curate of Kerry (St.Michael), 
 Newtown, Montgomeryshire. Hya- 
 cinthe, the then "motherless babe," 
 of whose " slumbers " mention is 
 made in " Worcester College " 
 ['Poem*,' p. 87], was Burgon's god- 
 child, and he always manifested a 
 loving interest in her.
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 
 Tour in Egypt, the Sinaitic Peninsula, and Palestine. 
 [Sep. 10, 1861 Julg 18, 1862.] 
 
 IT was John William Burgon's ministry at Rome 
 which gave occasion to his tour in the East. " Behind 
 A.P. 1860. the pulpit of our little Church," he writes in his Journal 
 7-1 under date Oriel, Sunday Evening, Oct. 14, 1860, "sat a 
 lady whose face I never saw. The two ladies next to 
 her I always noticed, and was always interested with 
 the younger." The "little Church" was the English 
 Chapel at Rome; and the lady turned out to be Miss 
 Webb, who when he met her at the house of a mutual 
 friend (Mrs. Macbean), " spoke of the East and her in- 
 tention to travel there," and subsequently, in an expedition 
 which he made with her and her two friends to Sette 
 Bagni, definitively proposed to him to accompany 
 them to the East; " but I rejected the proposal grate- 
 fully but firmly. . . It was not till we made the circuit 
 of the Lake Albano together she and I that I ever 
 seriously contemplated accompanying her to the East." 
 Subsequently, " a fortnight (O that never-to-be-forgotten 
 fortnight !) at Naples cemented our friendship, and 
 acquainted us not a little with one another. I can 
 see the finger of God in it all. How dexterous in its 
 operation ! And will He not work for me in the days to 
 come ? I think it ; and in that humble confidence shall 
 go on my way rejoicing."
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 293 
 
 Further particulars of this meeting with Miss Webb, 
 and of their plans, will be found in his letter from Naples 
 to his sister (Mrs. Henry John Rose), excerpts from which 
 will be given at the end of this Period. 
 
 It appears from his Journal of a fortnight later 
 (Oct. 27, 1860). that (for that year) he underwent a 
 keen disappointment as regards the Eastern tour, Miss 
 Webb writing to him " to announce that she had aban- 
 doned her Eastern journey, and to explain the grounds 
 of this entire change in her plans." The change 
 caused him, it appears, not disappointment only, but 
 pecuniary loss (connected with some arrangements as to 
 the change of College Officers, a change affecting the 
 income of such Fellows as held office). But both dis- 
 appointment and loss he bore, as the Journal attests, in 
 the most exemplary manner, reckoning up his gains by the 
 postponement of the tour (for it turned out to be only 
 postponed, not abandoned) in the following fashion : 
 
 "i.I shall have the comfort of seeing dearest Hugh " 
 (his nephew, recently come up to Oriel) " through tkejirst 
 year of his University course. 
 
 I shall be able to keep on at the Workhouse, and 
 my other useful and quasi-pastoral occupations. 
 
 " 3. I shall gratify the Reays " (great friends of his 
 from the very commencement of his Academical life), 
 and many others by stopping in England. 
 
 I shall have time to prepare myself fully by 
 reading and otherwise for my Eastern tour. 
 
 "5-1 shall be able to publish ( D.V.) at least two works 
 before I go, besides finishing my Roman Letters. 
 
 6. I shall enjoy twice as pleasant a tour (D.V.) ; for 
 I shall start with her. and earlier in the year. 
 
 I shall enjoy the benefit of a year's interval of rest ; 
 and truly that is requisite after a journey to Rome. 
 
 " 8. The East will probably be more settled by that 
 time, so that we shall see much more
 
 294 LIFE OF DEAS BURGOX. 
 
 " On the whole I desire to bless God for all that 
 happened, and to express my unfeigned submission to 
 His Divine decree." 
 
 On June 25, 1861. the Journal notes ; 
 
 " To-day, at a little after 2 p.m., I wrote the last words 
 of ' copy ' for c Inspiration and Interpretation ' (the Table of 
 Contents). Very thankful I feel to have completed the 
 task, and very, very weary too. The weather is sultry : 
 the College empty ; my rooms littered and dust}' ; on 
 every side some trace is discernible of something which 
 has been neglected in order to enable me to give the 
 more time to this task." 
 
 On the icth of September, 1861, the much wished for, 
 but deferred tour began, the party consisting of Miss 
 Webb, Miss Frances Guise (a cousin of Miss Webb's), Cap- 
 tain and Mrs. Bayley, and himself. Two ladies' maids 
 accompanied Miss Webb, the elder of whom insisted on 
 taking her bullfinch with her, which bird will figure in 
 the story further on. The various stages of the tour, as 
 well as (for him personally) its ill-starred and disastrous 
 close, are thus described rapidly in a most affectionate 
 and interesting letter addressed to one who had been in 
 early days his Tutor at Mr. Greenlaw's School in Black- 
 heath, the Rev. Dr. John Forbes, Emeritus Professor of 
 Oriental Languages in the University of Aberdeen. The 
 letter is dated Jan. 12, 1863, and was written in the 
 course of his somewhat tedious convalescence. 
 
 M In the autumn of 1861 , 1, who till 1860 (when I went 
 for three weeks as English Chaplain to Rome) had iii vei 
 allowed myself holiday or recreation since 1841, left 
 England on rather a distant tour. A lady whom I had 
 known at Rome invited me to accompany her party as 
 her Chaplain. We went from Constance across the Alps 
 to Milan, Venice, Trieste, whence we proceeded to Alex- 
 andria and Cairo. We went up the Nile to the Second 
 Cataract, and back to Cairo. Thence to Sinai, Petra,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 295 
 
 Hebron, and Jerusalem. There, at the end of a fortnight, 
 I fell ill ; and the dream of my life (Samaria and Galilee) 
 I could not visit. A fever caught at Jerusalem, but in- 
 judiciously treated, fastened upon a constitution naturally 
 strong, but enfeebled by over-study. I was conveyed to 
 Jaffa ; lingered some weeks at Beyrout ; and finally 
 reached England last July, where I have been ill ever 
 since ! The rest of my party saw all I so much desired 
 to see, the Holy Land, Smyrna, Constantinople, the 
 
 Danube, Munich, and so on Need I tell you that I 
 
 endeavour to bow my heart to the Divine decree, sure 
 and certain that perfect Love and unerring Wisdom have 
 been at work on my behalf." 
 
 For the rest, Burgon shall speak for himself, in his 
 own lively and affectionate style, both as to the original 
 proposal of the tour, and as to his own experiences of 
 foreign travel, and the movements of his party. 
 
 To MRS. HENRY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 "Naples, June 3, 1860. 
 
 " My dearest Carry, 
 
 "This is only to communicate to you what I cannot 
 keep from you at Houghton and Turvey any longer 
 though I must entreat that for the present it may be 
 kept strictly to yourselves. 
 
 " As I was riding round the Lake of Albano, side by 
 side with Miss Webb, she told me in a kinder manner 
 than I like to write down, that she wished to try to 
 persuade me to accompany her to the Holy Land as her 
 (J/nijjlaiii. Her party consists of a naval officer and his 
 wife, a Miss Wynne, and of course Servants, &c. I 
 hesitated, but she is so much in earnest, and this visit 
 to Naples has so clenched the matter that I think it may 
 now be regarded as a thing to come off if God wills. 
 
 "The brief outline is: I am to join her at Thebes, 
 shortly after Christmas we are to see part of the Nile ;
 
 296 LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 then to take Petra if we can ; if not, to go at all events 
 all about the Holy Land. She says laughing that she 
 leaves the mapping out of that part of the tour to me ! ! ! 
 Then we are to come through Smyrna, Constantinople, 
 Athens, and Greece generally, to Venice, and to part 
 either there or at Florence. The tour will last some six 
 or seven months. 
 
 "I have tried to persuade her that my society as 
 Chaplain is not worth the having : but she is quite firm, 
 and in short the thing is settled. 
 
 " You will ask who is she ? She is a lady of consider- 
 able fortune I find a niece of Sir John Guise I 
 
 did not meet her in Rome until a few days before she 
 left : but then we became friends. My poor ministry 
 seems to have been very acceptable to her. 
 
 " Of course I could not be with her now, except that 
 her cousin and her kinsman are travelling with her : so 
 we four form a pleasant party very pleasant to me 
 certainly. The retinue consists of her two maids and 
 courier. We go about delightfully ; and she is never 
 tired of seeing us happy. 
 
 " Many, many more particulars when we meet. Her 
 wish was that I should have started down the Nile with 
 her in October : but I cannot get away from College so 
 soon, and I must and will start my boy 3 nicely before I go. 
 After Christmas, I see no reason however why I should 
 not allow myself this great gratification the realisation 
 of all my wildest dreams. She tells me very often that 
 we shall see everything, and is for ever making me talk to 
 
 her about the Holy Land, and about the Gospels 
 
 She has never heard of my Commentary, or Sermons. 
 It is a friendship which has grown out of a slender 
 beginning indeed. Her manners are very charming, and 
 
 3 He means his nephew, Hugh back to my happiness " (in the ar- 
 
 James Eose (Mrs. Henry John rangement with Miss Webb) "is 
 
 Rose's eldest son, named after his the necessity of leaving my dearest 
 
 illustrious uncle, the Rev. Hugh Hugh behind me at Oriel. God 
 
 James Rose), who had recently come grant that I may make the most 
 
 up to Oriel. He says in his Journal of the present term to start him 
 
 (of Oct. 14, 1860) : The only draw- fairly in his new career."
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 297 
 
 her independence and pleasant good sense are truly 
 delightful. 
 
 " With a hearty kiss to all (whom I long to embrace) 
 " Ever, my dearest Carry, 
 
 " Your loving Brother, 
 
 " J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HENRY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 " Hotel du Brochet, Constance, 
 " Sunday, Sept. 22, 1861. 
 
 " My dearest Carry. I seem to have been marvellously 
 silent towards you all : but the days fly wondrous fast, 
 and every moment of them is filled wondrous full. Let 
 me at least tell you something about ourselves. 
 
 " That we came hither all safe and sound, I think you 
 know. Our route lay through Paris, Basle, Zurich ; but 
 we travelled so fast that we saw nothing except the 
 beautiful Swiss panorama from the railway-carriage 
 window, coming from Basle to the Lake of Constance. 
 On arriving here all that hospitality could provide has 
 made the place delightful to me. We have delightful 
 quarters (eight or nine rooms at the best hotel), a carriage 
 daily, and unbounded kindness. 
 
 " Our Hotel is within 100 yards of the Lake, beyond 
 which is a belt of blue mountains. The quaint old man- 
 sion in which the famous Council of Constance was held 
 is on our right, very picturesque it is. (I have drawn 
 it of course.) The scenery is far from grand (except that 
 snow mountains come to view the moment the air is 
 clear), but it is very beautiful indeed, and the drives are 
 delightful. The people quite charm me. They are so 
 quiet, honest, sober, civil, kind to their animals, and in- 
 offensive, that you cannot return from a walk without 
 liking them better than before you started. The place is 
 Roman Catholic, and the contrast between this form of 
 Romanism and the Romanism of Rome interests me 
 immensely. Miss Fanny" [Miss Guise] "and I get an 
 early walk, and poke into every hole and corner, and come
 
 298 LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 back two or three times a day with a host of new notions 
 and odd discoveries. Tell dearest Rose that my very 
 circumscribed knowledge of German is the greatest barrier. 
 But we contrive after a fashion. Miss Fanny knows about 
 a hundred words, and I have learnt about twenty. 
 
 " It would not interest you much, or indeed at all, to 
 have the names of the places we have driven to and 
 drawn. I reserve it all for some happy future day. The 
 chief thing I wish to explain is that we are here so long 
 simply because, Constance being the residence of Miss 
 Webb's courier (who has a charming house by the Lake 
 about two miles off), she makes her head- quarters, and 
 keeps her carriages and luggage here. All the planning 
 and packing takes place here, and it is only within the last 
 day or two that the plan of our future march has been 
 fixed. We have been joined by Mrs. Bayley only to-day, 
 and she is not quite well. On Tuesday v;e start. Our 
 route lies through Milan and Verona to Venice. There 
 we are to halt for six days, and so on to Trieste, whence 
 at the end of two days we proceed to Alexandria. 
 
 " This is a charming old place a decayed city, but full 
 of interest. I have made several drawings, chiefly in 
 order to get my hand in, and hope that I shall be able 
 to achieve something of interest before I return. 
 
 " You will be glad to hear that I feel wonderfully im- 
 proved in health, and I am told look much better than 
 when I came out ... I read and write next to nothing ; 
 but eat, drink, sleep, draw, and walk or drive. Miss 
 Webb's kindness is unbounded. All is as luxurious 
 and comfortable as can be. I was so gratified to hear her 
 say after I had been vaunting of Tina 4 to her, that she 
 hoped to have her as her guest some day in Chesham 
 Place. 
 
 " I find my sketching umbrella very useful ; but the 
 weather has been rainy and even cold. In the East it 
 will be invaluable. All my equipage does well as far as 
 I have had occasion hitherto to prove it. 
 
 4 His niece Emily, the eldest daughter of Mrs. Henry John Hose.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 299 
 
 " I will write in a day or two again. But I am anxious 
 to send you all my love, and to ask after you all. Re- 
 member me with fondest love to every one. Tell the 
 beloved children that I miss them sadly. 
 
 " Ever dearest Carry, 
 
 " Your loving brother, 
 " J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND HENRY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 "Hotel de la Ville, Milan, Oct. 2, 1861. 
 
 "My dearest Rose. It is midnight, and this is the 
 second of two fatiguing days ; but I perceive that the 
 next and the next will be even more fatiguing ; so I 
 must send you a few lines before going to bed. 
 
 "We left the Tyrol and entered Lombardy on Monday, 
 coming across the Stelvio Pass, which is perhaps the 
 grandest. I can scarcely give you any idea of it with 
 my pen, but I have made plenty of sketches (indeed my 
 pencil never rests) and kept a full journal The Stelvio 
 Pass is the highest carriage road in Europe, being 9176 
 feet above the sea, and half a mile (perpendicular) above 
 the Simplon, 1000 feet above the great St. Bernard. The 
 day was splendid, not a cloud in the sky, and the view 
 unspeakably grand. The Ortler Spitze (' the giant of the 
 Rhaetian Alps ') was before us ; and we looked down on 
 its many glaciers streaming from its sides, every wrinkle 
 in the ice visible. I wished much for you all ... We 
 were far above the line of perpetual snow of course. 
 Then we descended (the road quite wonderful, eternal 
 zigxags) to Bormio, where we slept. Yesterday we came 
 on from Bormio (the first town in Lombardy) to Morbegno 
 (starting at six, and getting in at eight, fourteen hours 
 drive), a small town in the Valtelline (or Val of Tellina), 
 passing through a perfect garden for beauty of scenery 
 and fertility of country. The vintage was going on, and 
 the sights were lovely. Peasants carrying huge baskets 
 of grapes, carts with full vats, and all sorts of rustic 
 occupations, such as Virgil may have seen. The costume 
 most picturesque, and all most pleasing. To Miss Webb,
 
 coo LIFE OF DEAN BUBOON. 
 
 \j 
 
 who knows every inch of the road by heart, and who is 
 disgusted because she cannot post with four horses, it 
 was stupid enough ; but to me it was a rare treat. 
 
 " This morning we came on from Morbegno to Colico 
 (on the banks of the Lake of Como) and went down the 
 lovely lake in the afternoon from end to end. At eight 
 we left Como, and reached Milan at ten. We are in 
 splendid quarters 
 
 " To-morrow I must be up early. A valet fle place is to 
 wait upon me ; and I flatter myself I shall tire him out. 
 We have but one day here ! On the next day we go on 
 to Venice and stay there for five days. I long to receive 
 news of you all there D.V. Till Oct. 12, letters will find 
 me at Hotel de la Ville, Trieste. 
 
 " I think of you all hourly. Tell my Tan 5 that as we 
 drove past the Rosanne river, Miss Fanny asked me if I was 
 not thinking of Anna Rose. Kiss all for me. Remember 
 your Article on Bishop Home for the Quarterly 
 
 " With much love, ever, my dearest Rose, 
 " Your loving Brother, 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEKEND HENKY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 " Between the Island of Philse 
 
 "and the ist Cataract, Jan. 16, 1862. 
 
 " My dearest Rose, This is my first letter to any of 
 you since I was nearly in this locality about one month 
 ago. And it must be to you, because your birthday fell 
 out about midway. I did not fail to think of you. my 
 dearest fellow, very affectionately on the 3rd, and to 
 wish you from my soul (and to myself and to so many 
 more) many happy returns of that day. May GOD 
 preserve and bless you, bless you in your beloved ones, 
 and in your Parish, for CHRIST'S sake. 
 
 "You are doubtless sufficiently familiar with the 
 
 5 His niece, Miss Anna Rose, daughter of his correspondent.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 301 
 
 geography of the Nile to understand from my date 
 where we are, and what we are about. We have happily 
 achieved our journey as far as the second Cataract (which 
 we saw and shot), and from that spot (Wady Halfeh) 
 have been coming down the Nile ever since, arriving at 
 this village (Mehatte) last night after spending a long 
 day at Philse. We reached the second Cataract on the 
 3 ist of December (singularly enough), and have been 
 since coming back, stopping to see every Temple in the 
 way. There are fifteen of them ; and I have made draw- 
 ings of all but two, which we saw on a Sunday. I have 
 been very happy, and have copied several inscriptions 
 (especially the curious one, which the soldiers of Psammi- 
 tichus engraved on the left leg of the colossal figure of 
 Rameses the Great, close to the door-way of the rock 
 Temple of Abou-Simbel). Indeed I have not been idle 
 (except sometimes between sunset and seven o'clock) for 
 a single hour, I. believe. We have all enjoyed perfect 
 health and been very happy. As for Miss Webb's kind- 
 ness, I cannot describe it. She says she will repeat the 
 journey next year, if I will, or rather can, come with her ; 
 for we all wished sadly to have gone up as high as 
 Abyssinia. She stops the boat till I have done drawing, 
 and is bent only on making us all happy, in which she 
 certainly succeeds. I long for you to know her. Mr. 
 Bayley will have made far more than a hundred photo- 
 graphs, some exquisite ones. Miss F. is the helper of all 
 the party, and my companion in all my scrambles and 
 drawings the gentlest, cheerfullest spirit imaginable. 
 Mrs. Bayley has looked after my eyes as kindly as any 
 sister could, touching them with nitrate of silver every 
 morning, and giving me a lotion every evening for half- 
 an-hour. I perceive that my hard reading has weakened 
 them very considerably. Thank GOD however, since the 
 three dark days at Cairo, I have not been hindered a 
 single day from drawing, though I have winked and 
 blinked like an owl. 
 
 " We have seen some wonderful sights certainly ; but 
 two are preeminent, viz. the Rock Temple of Abou- 
 Simbe] and the Island of Philae, which is the loveliest
 
 102 
 
 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 object imaginable, and quite a romance 6 . I had no idea 
 of the beauty and interest of the Nile, and we are all 
 agreed that travellers must be blind to have said so little 
 about it. What a vividness will what I have been seeing 
 and doing for the last two months give to all my sub- 
 sequent reading in relation to Egypt ! and how I should 
 rejoice if you could be here you all to share the delight 
 with me ! 
 
 " Since I wrote the preceding we have shot the rapids, 
 of the Cataract and are safely moored to the Island of 
 Elephantine. As we came in between it and Syena 
 (Assouan), I read aloud and laughed heartily over the 
 account of the place given by Herodotus (Crophi and 
 Mophi) 7 . That feat of shooting the Cataract is really 
 
 6 " A calm and noble reach of the markable for the magnificence of 
 
 the panorama which they afford, or 
 the historical associations which 
 they evoke ; but the view of Philse 
 is nothing but one of pure beauty 
 .... The temple of Karnac is the 
 embodiment of the majesty of Egyp- 
 tian art ; Philse is the point at 
 which we see that majesty blending 
 with the pure beauty of Greece. 
 The scene of ruin almost heightens 
 the effect of Karnac; it jars with 
 
 majestic river, shut in like a lake 
 with its mountain border, soon 
 opened on us through a portal of 
 the last of those scattered piles of 
 sombre rocks through which we had 
 forced our noisy way ; and in its 
 midst an island slept, as it were, in 
 enchantment the sacred Philse ; 
 its temples of mysterious sanctity 
 half hidden by sheltering groves of 
 palm, and reflected far down into 
 the broad, silent, and glassy river. 
 Gliding across this tranquil basin, 
 we furled our sails and laid the boat 
 under the deep cool shadow of a 
 high bank overhung with foliage; 
 certainly the most beautiful spot in 
 Egypt. A graceful columnar build- 
 ing, of the later style of Egyp- 
 tian art on a bold and massive 
 foundation, looked down from amidst 
 clusters of palms upon the water 
 one of those combinations rather 
 like the creation of a painter's fancy 
 than an actual scene." Bartlett's 
 ' The Nile Boat ' [London : H. G. 
 Bohn, 1862], p. 209. 
 
 "Other views in Egypt are re- 
 
 the beauty of Philae. We look away 
 from the black rocks ; we hear the 
 distant roar of the cataracts, speak- 
 ing of rage and strife ; and we re- 
 cognise in the lovely island the 
 abode of Peace." Bell's ' From 
 Pharaoh to Fellah ' [London : Wells 
 Gardner, 1888], p. 142. 
 
 7 The passage of Herodotus re- 
 ferred to will be found in Book II. 
 Euterpe. Cap. 28. A translation of 
 it is subjoined : 
 
 "With regard to the sources of 
 the Nile, not one of the Egyptians, 
 or Libyans, or Greeks, with whom 
 I have conversed, ever professed to 
 know anything, except the Registrar
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 303 
 
 a perilous operation. We took on board thirty-two 
 fresh sailors, and in our boat alone we were sixty souls. 
 An accident would be certain destruction ; but an 
 accident has not happened for twenty-five years, when 
 the boat was lost, and all the fourteen people on board 
 perished. The tide boils through a channel ten yards 
 wide and about fifty long, and along you rush with 
 three men to each of the ten oars, two pilots and two 
 captains being all the time objurgating and urging the 
 men and one another. The instant the peril was over, 
 out caine the drum and tambourine, and some of the 
 sailors sitting in a circle began to chant a merry tune, 
 w r hile an old buffoon danced with a stick. O we have 
 certainly seen some of the strangest scenes imaginable 
 of late ! I long to describe it all to you. 
 
 " I heartily trust I shall have good accounts of you all. 
 It makes me anxious after so prolonged an absence from 
 England. 
 
 " This evening I believe we leave Assouan and begin 
 to drop down the Nile to Cairo, where we expect to be 
 
 of the sacred treasure of Minerva bottomless,' he said, ' was the con- 
 
 at Sais, a city of Egypt. But this elusion at which Psammitichns the 
 
 individual, in my opinion at least, king of Egypt arrived by experi- 
 
 was only joking when he asserted ment ; for having caused a cable to 
 
 that he had a thorough knowledge be twisted many thousand fathoms 
 
 of the subject. He however gave i n length, he let it down into the 
 
 the following account : < That there aperture, and yet never reached the 
 
 are two mountains, whose crests rise bottom.' " 
 
 into sharp peaks, situate between The historian adds, as his own view 
 
 the city of Syene in the Thebaid o f the subject, that, supposing the 
 
 and Elephantine ; and that the story about Psammitichus's experi- 
 
 names of these mountains are, of ment to be true, what really pre- 
 
 the one Krophi, and of the other vented the plumb-line from going to 
 
 Mophi ; that the sources of the the bottom was, not that there was 
 
 Nile, then, which are bottomless, no bottom, but that the strong eddies 
 
 flow from between these two moun- and whirlpools which the Registrar 
 
 tains; and that one half of the admitted to exist at the source of 
 
 water flows into Egypt, and towards the river (and which still are found 
 
 the north, while the other half at the Cataracts), would not allow 
 
 flows into Ethiopia, and towards the lead to sink, 
 the south. That the sources are
 
 304 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 by the middle of February, and to stop at Cairo till the 
 end of the month. Thence Sinai and Petra, if GOD will. 
 
 About sixteen Temples remain to be inspected 
 
 and drawn between this and Cairo, at which place I 
 mean to send home all my journals and sketches and 
 purchases, which are very numerous, all three of them. 
 No pyramids as yet, and Thebes only cursorily, have we 
 seen. In short, three months is not enough (nor six 
 months either) for Egypt. 
 
 " I shall be curious to hear the fate of my book " [' In- 
 spiration and Interpretation^ " in which a great deal remained 
 to be done by yourself. I hear from England that 750 
 copies were sold at Murray's book-sale. . . . You seem to 
 have had cold weather. With us it is very hot ; far too 
 hot to draw in the sun, but the nights in Nubia (which 
 is a lovely country with a delicious climate) were cold 
 
 enough We are absurd enough to feel as if it were 
 
 quite commonplace to be in the vicinity of Thebes, quite 
 cockney. Every thing in Nubia is so agreeable ; the people 
 so harmless and kind ; the face of Nature so interesting ! 
 In short, I cannot express the easy luxury of such travel- 
 ling as this. 
 
 " But it is time to conclude. Adieu, dearest Rose. GOD 
 bless you all. We talked and thought of you so much 
 on Christmas Day, when we decked our cabin with 
 evergreens, and had turkey and plum pudding. We 
 have daily prayers, and spend some of every day with 
 our Bible, which gives quite a home flavour to our 
 furtherest wanderings. 
 
 " Ever, my dearest Rose, 
 
 " Your loving brother, 
 
 J. W. B." 
 
 The above letter contains, in its earlier part, a reference 
 to his having " copied the inscription which the soldiers 
 of Psammitichus engraved on one of the legs of the colossal 
 figure of Rameses the Great, close to the door-way of 
 the rock Temple of Abou-Simbel " [Ipsamboul]. On the
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 305 
 
 night of the 4th Jan., 1862 (twelve days previously to 
 the date of the letter) he had spent an hour in the rock 
 Temple, which he afterwards described in print, by 
 extracts from his Journal. This he did in compliance 
 with the request of Aliss Finn, the daughter of the 
 English Consul at Jerusalem, who showed him the 
 greatest possible kindness when under his roof, and 
 brought very low by the Jerusalem fever. Some ex- 
 tracts from this paper (now not easily obtainable) are 
 here presented to the reader, partly in order to illustrate 
 the preceding letter, partly by way of exhibiting the 
 poetry that was in him, and that intense susceptibility 
 to the sublime and the grotesque (they lie proverbially 
 close together), which characterized him from his earliest 
 youth. 
 
 While we were at breakfast, a swing of our boat 
 brought us within a stone's throw of Abou-Simbel. We 
 were soon moored to the bank, Up a hill of golden 
 sand the mighty sand-drift which half hides the front 
 of the Temple, we climbed impatiently ; and every 
 sentiment of awe and admiration, even of surprise, 
 which the first sight of the four amazing colossal figures 
 which guard the entrance had inspired, was reproduced 
 in an instant. There is a calm dignity in those faces, 
 an air of imperturbable gravity prevailing over what 
 might once have turned into, but what you feel never 
 can become, a smile, which awes and yet wins you at 
 the same instant." 
 
 lie then describes the interior of the Temple, with its 
 vestibule and thirteen chambers, and its adytum (or 
 inmost shrine), behind the altar of which, "a mere 
 square block of stone, four grim gods sit, facing you as 
 you enter." 
 
 " My next object was to obtain a sight of the famous 
 Greek inscription left by the soldiers of Psammitichus 
 VOL. i. x
 
 306 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 (B.C. 600), on the base of one of the colossal figures of 
 Rameses the Great at the left of the entrance. Nothing 
 was to be seen, the sand being more than half way up 
 the calf of the figure in question. There had accumu- 
 lated round us a strange number of men and boys. They 
 live, I suspect, on the top and in the rear of the rock in 
 which the Temple has been excavated. Like birds of 
 prey at the sight of carrion, down they had come at the 
 news of our two boats. Ali was instructed to offer 
 twenty of them five piastres apiece if they would remove 
 the sand, with a promise of extra pay (so as to make up 
 a pound) if the inscription were discovered. Twenty or 
 thirty men and boys were busily at work in an instant, 
 scooping away the sand with right good will, and chant- 
 ing lustily all the while. One to whom I owed the 
 pleasure of that journey, and who always took the 
 liveliest interest in operations of this nature, on hearing 
 of my agreement with the natives, kindly insisted on 
 defraying the expense herself. The shrewdness of those 
 fellows amused us all. Without understanding a word 
 of English, they divined the upshot of what she was say- 
 ing, and instantly changed their chant and its burthen : 
 admitting her, so to speak, into the concern. (Before, I 
 had figured alone.) Any thing more unscientific than 
 their method I never witnessed. The sand streamed 
 back as fast as they removed it ; and still they were for 
 going on, without resource or remedy of any kind. Their 
 stupidity astonished me. The ladies of our party took 
 their seats on a little fragment of rock, and watched 
 the operation with great delight. It was really a very 
 animated scene." 
 
 The inscription having at length been disinterred, 
 Burgon copies it with great care, and, standing on the 
 backs of "two most good-natured and accommodating 
 Nubian boatmen, takes accurate measurements of the 
 face of one of the four colossal figures at the entrance." 
 
 The Paper concludes thus : 
 
 " Strange, that after transcribing so much of my 
 Journal, I have not yet written the few words, for the
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 307 
 
 sake of writing which I took up my pen ! After what 
 precedes they will at least be fully intelligible ; which 
 else, they certainly would never have been. 
 
 " At about ten o'clock in the evening of this most in- 
 teresting day, a strong wish came over me to go back, 
 and pay one more visit to Rameses the Great. Two of 
 our party expressed their willingness to bear me com- 
 pany. We furnished ourselves with a slender pole, to 
 the extremity of which we secured a candle : left our 
 shoes behind us, (the sand was so warm and soft to the 
 feet, and walking with shoes was so very inconvenient) 
 and after the most noiseless fashion imaginable, took 
 our starlight way towards the Temple. We were soon 
 there. 
 
 "Having entered, we made a complete survey over 
 again of every part ; leisurely exploring the walls in 
 every direction with our solitary candle, so as to obtain 
 a notion of what was anywhere incised upon them. 
 The silence was intense : the whirring of the wings of a 
 nervous little bat, who made the circuit of the Temple 
 with us, the only thing audible. We found our way into 
 the remotest chamber of all, the shrine ; where (as I 
 have said before) four gloomy gods face you, in a sitting 
 posture. Quite awful was it to find them still sitting 
 there in the dark, as, twelve hours before, we had left 
 them, motionless, in grim majesty. 'And there they 
 will sit ' (we said to ourselves) ' unconscious of change, 
 until the ages shall have run out, and the end shall 
 be!' 
 
 " The last thing I did on leaving the great hall of the 
 Temple was the first thing I had done on entering it, 
 namely, to obtain a careful survey of the features of the 
 first colossus on the right, by lifting up the candle above 
 the head of the figure. I cannot express how striking 
 was the result. In that vast, mysterious, cavern-like 
 chamber the only object in bright relief was the coun- 
 tenance of the monarch who, 3,200 years ago, had caused 
 this mighty fabric to be wrought out of the solid rock. 
 The serene majesty of the expression of those features 
 was even affecting. It was the deep repose, the profound 
 
 X 2
 
 3o8 LIFE OF DEAX BcsG"X. 
 
 calm, of death. Making the boatman -who waited on us 
 hold the light for me, I drew for a few minutes, minutea 
 which seemed like hours: so many ^solemn thoughts 
 crowded themselves in, unbidden. None of us spoke. 
 The silence was so intense that one might have heard 
 the ticking of one's watch. What is strange, at la.-t. 
 on looking up from my paper, I thought I saw the 
 beoinning of a smile on the lips of Ranieses. Intently 
 I gazed, and of course recognised the sufficiently obvious 
 fact that the supposed smile was merely the effect of my 
 own imagination. But it is just as certain that I gazed 
 on until. I am half ashamed to write it. but it is true. 
 until the features seemed to me to smile again. Then 
 they grew graver than ever : but at last I felt sure that 
 they relaxed just a little bit again. One's nerves 
 were* getting over-strung. I invented a sentiment for 
 the lips to utter, and felt sure that I was interpreting 
 their most expressive outline rightly. I daresay, if ] 
 had been alone, and had stopped long enough. I should 
 have heard Ranieses speak. It would have been some- 
 what to this effect : ' You seem astonished, Sir, at what 
 you are beholding in this remote corner of my dominions. 
 No wonder; for with all your boasted civilisation and 
 progress, you could not match this edifice in the far-away 
 land to which (as I gather from your uncouth dress and 
 manners) you and your friends belong. I have been re- 
 posing here in effigy for upwards of 3.000 years. I have 
 seen generation after generation of ancient Greeks, and 
 then generation after generation of ancient Romans, enter 
 this hall ; peep and pry, as you have done this evening ; 
 and then vanish at yonder portal, as you will your- 
 selves do a few moments hence. If I smiled for an in- 
 stant just now (it is not my wont to smile). it was only 
 because you really looked alarmed as well as awed at 
 my presence. But I shall not smile again. So now, go 
 home, Sir, go, and write a book, like the rest, about the 
 little you have seen in Egypt ; but let it humble you 
 to remember that Ranieses will be standing here, un- 
 changeable, long after you, and your book, and all that 
 belongs to you is utterly forgotten. You may go, Sir.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 309 
 
 It is getting late for you. You had better go, Sir. 
 Good night ! ' 
 
 \Ve lingered : retiring a few steps, and then turning 
 again to look ; profoundly conscious that we were 
 looking our last ; that we should never fasten our eyes 
 on those glorious forms again. I fancy too that we 
 were, all three, impressed with an uneasy suspicion that 
 it was not mere lifeless stone that we had been visiting, 
 and were now leaving to profoundest silence and utter 
 gloom. ... It was a relief to emerge into the fresh 
 ev.-ning air; to survey the starry heavens overhead, 
 Orion, and the rest; and to recognise our two boats, 
 bright with lights, beneath us, moored to the bank of the 
 broad shining river." 
 
 To MRS. HIGQINS. 
 
 "Cairo, Feb. 21, 1862. 
 
 The contents of box No. i were very acceptable. 
 The reviews" [of his Book on 'Inspiration and Inter- 
 /,,;'/, it'ion '] "interested me of course. I think they are 
 not by any means unfair, from the point of view of 
 almost any one but a Divine and he a very earnest 
 one. Laymen will naturally think me unduly harsh. 
 I cannot say, after the two opposite currents of praise 
 and blame, whether I am right or wrong. I suspect I 
 must be "rather in the wrong, and have been too personal, 
 though I am by no means sure. Dr. Jebb, Mr. Darby, 
 ami MANY others, back me up unconditionally. Anyhow 
 I think the l J/ifi'ian/ >'// n ><// /,/n /t,' unreasonably brief con- 
 cerning so very large and thoughtful a work, and '-Tin', 
 niii. ' somewhat harsh ; for the Reviewer barely 
 
 admits. however, it matters not. I did what I thought 
 
 my duty 
 
 " Your loving Brother, 
 
 "J. W. B."
 
 3io LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 To MRS. HENRY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 "Cairo, Feb. 26, 1862. 
 
 " How much I wished for you and the beloved children 
 in Nubia ! Travelling there is so very delightful, and 
 so very amusing ! I drew incessantly, and shall have 
 a great deal to show you when I return. 
 
 "But when that will be I do not exactly know; for 
 Chase holds on S. Mary's (entre nous) till October ; and 
 there is a great, great deal in our programme ! Meantime 
 I accumulate keepsakes for you all ; and keep ample 
 journals of every day's occupations. The interest of 
 these countries to one who dips a little below the surface 
 is indeed great. When you consider that Memphis (close 
 by) was illustrious certainly a few centuries after the 
 Flood, it is needless to say how stirring and how striking 
 are all indications of the missing links in the long chain 
 of the history from that day to this. You would be 
 amazed at the interest and the wonder of the ground 
 I drive over daily. 
 
 " To-morrow, for example, we hope to pass at Helio- 
 polis the On of Genesis. The solitary Obelisk which 
 stands in the middle of it was there in Joseph's time, and 
 it was there probably that Moses received his education 8 . 
 It is a most complete wilderness now, but one which 
 seems to teem with mysterious life ! 
 
 "Your loving Brother, 
 
 J. W. B. 
 
 "The carriage is at the door and the donkeys are 
 waiting." 
 
 Dean Stanley enters with even seen standing in its proper place, 
 more enthusiasm than Burgon on and there it has stood for nearly 
 the associations clinging to this fa- four thousand years. It is the 
 mous obelisk. "The other vestige oldest known in Egypt, and there- 
 of the great Temple of the Sun (the fore in the world, the father of all - 
 igh-priest of which was father-in- that have arisen since. It was 
 law of Joseph) is the solitary obe- raised about a century before the 
 Uft which stood in front of the tern- coming of Joseph ; it has looked 
 pie. This is the first obelisk I have down on bis marringe with Ase-
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 311 
 
 To THE REVEREND HENRY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 "Cairo, Feb. 26, 1862. 
 
 '''My dearest Rose, 
 
 " That I am well, and so on, you will learn from my 
 letters already written, and which will reach England 
 along with this. I do not suffer in any respect eyes or 
 hand ; but I have thought it right to consult a great 
 oculist who is here for his health, and whose advice 
 amounts almost to this 'Wear spectacles, attend to 
 your bodily health, and do not use your eyes at night.' 
 More easily said than done! However, I really mean 
 to be careful. 
 
 "All is now settled for our journey. We shall be off 
 by the close of next week (D.V.), with upwards of thirty 
 camels. Our exact equipage you shall hear more of 
 by and by. The sheik who carries us to Akaba came 
 to see us yesterday quite a dark son of Ishmael. Ali, 
 our dragoman, is deemed the best dragoman in the 
 place, and he says our sheik is the best to Akaba. 
 A great deal depends on the man we have with us, for 
 we have so many ladies ; and we want to see Petra. 
 
 " The nature of this last difficulty I never understood 
 before. There are three tribes of Arabs between this 
 and Hebron, and they must be severally conciliated by 
 a payment of money each taking us over his own 
 territory. Unless they are actually at war, Ali (who 
 knows them all) says there will be no difficulty in pass- 
 ing three days at Petra. The only expense of that feat 
 (extra) is about 1 a head for leave to pitch our tents 
 there. I should like to see that stronghold of Edom, 
 dearly, I confess. 
 
 nath ; it has seen the growth of Lateran, of the Vatican, and of the 
 
 Moses ; it is mentioned by Herodo- Porta del Popolo ; and this vener- 
 
 tus ; Plato sate under its shadow : able pillar (for so it looks from a 
 
 of all the obelisk* \\hk-h sprang up distance) is now almost the only 
 
 around it, it alone has kept its first landmark of the great seat of the 
 
 jx>sition. One by one it has seen wisdom of Egypt." Stanley's ' Sinai 
 
 its sons and brothers depart to great an<l Palestine in connexion with 
 
 destinies elsewhere. From these their History,' [London, 1856], IN- 
 
 gardens came the obelisks of the TRODUCTION, pp. xxxi, xxxii.
 
 3i2 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 "Miss Webb is resolved not to hurry in the Holy 
 Land, and really considers me to an extent, which makes 
 me quite ashamed to think how much I am and shall be 
 indebted to her. She insists on my going to the East 
 of the Jordan, drawing everything, and even prescribing 
 the line of march .... I trust my health will be spared 
 to me! 
 
 " Our going up the Nile and back was delightful 
 indeed, and by no means uneventful. We had a kind 
 of shipwreck at the First Cataract, having a hole knocked 
 in the bottom of one of the boats, which rilled and partly 
 sunk, damaging stores, &c., and compelling those on 
 board to come off in the jolly boat. Of course this 
 occasioned delay. In truth, going up the Cataract in 
 a large boat is really a dangerous operation. No one at 
 last remained on board but Mr. Bayley and myself, 
 besides the crew. Rope after rope cracked ; and if the 
 main rope of all had given way, we should have been 
 lost. Literally, twenty-five years ago the Pasha's boat 
 was lost, and all hands perished. 
 
 " In fact nothing can well be conceived more pic- 
 turesque and amusing, or at the same time worse 
 managed. You are compelled to put your boat into the 
 hands of the Cataract pilots, who bring their men ; all 
 behaved so badly the first day, that Ali was forced to 
 have six of the daks bastinadoed. This was done by order 
 of the Governor of Assouan (Syene). Next day, in con- 
 sequence of the manifest difficulty, as many as 400 
 or 500 men assembled on the banks to haul us through. 
 O the jabber and the row of that little army of naked 
 Nubians! To complete the scene, they quarrelled and at 
 last came to blows! A blood feud among those quaint 
 boulders would have been a scene indeed. To pacify 
 them was impossible ; but Ali got us out of the scrape 
 in a manner worthy of a great man. 
 
 "With perfect calmness he called for pen and ink, 
 went on board, and wrote a letter to the Governor of 
 Assouan requesting an immediate supply of soldiers, for. 
 that the Cataract sheiks were just going to blows. The 
 certain prospect of their villages rased to the ground, and
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 313 
 
 themselves bastinadoed or worse, wrought like magic. . . 
 As scon as it was discovered what he was doing, the 
 ringleaders rushed on board, and wanted to prevail on 
 Ali not to write. He wrote though as calmly as possible : 
 then gave the letter to one of his own men ; posted him 
 on a rock, a quarter of a mile on the way to Assouan, 
 and instructed him to rush off without stopping the 
 instant he saw another blow struck. . The storm lulled 
 at once ; and the remarkable scene followed of the two 
 boats hauled up by that large multitude. I shall never 
 forget the sight. . . . The return too, when we shot the 
 Cataract (as it is called), was very striking. You come 
 tumbling headlong, as it seems, down a roaring current 
 about thirty feet wide and a few hundred yards long. 
 One touch against a rock would consign you all to ruin. 
 The joy of all the men when you are through (going up 
 as well as coming down) is laughable. 
 
 " And what shall I say of Karnac, with its mighty 
 ruins, the Tombs of the Kings at ancient Thebes, the 
 vocal Memnon, and so on ! ... I must describe these 
 sights piecemeal, as I write to one or the other of you. 
 I often thought of you all during my visits to these 
 places, especially, I think, at Thebes, where I used to 
 go on shore at sunrise with Mr. Bayley, and ride or walk 
 from Luxor (where our boats were moored) over the 
 vast plain where Thebes stood, making once the Colossi, 
 at another time, the Memnonium, at another, the 
 Tombs of the Kings, my object. I drew or examined 
 these wonders all day ; and we all returned at sunset 
 over that same wondrous plain. These rambles I never 
 shall forget while I live. And O the interest of tran- 
 scribing the inscriptions ! On the legs of the Colossus 
 (the vocal Memnon as he is called) I saw the Emperor 
 Hadrian's name. 
 
 " But I must not go on further, or there will be no 
 room for anything else 
 
 " With kindest love to all, ever, my dearest Rose, 
 
 " Your loving Brother, 
 
 J. W. B."
 
 J4 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 To CHARLES LONGUET HIGGINS, ESQ. 
 
 " Cairo, March 6, 1862. 
 
 " My dearest Charles, 
 
 " I never advert to the scenes I have been of late sur- 
 veying without seeing first one, then another, stand out 
 in magnificent prominence. Philse ever wins me by its 
 romantic beauty the only bit of Romance in Egypt : 
 Aboo Simbel, by its solemn grandeur, (a rock temple 
 in Nubia, in front of which are four stupendous colossal 
 statues of Rameses the great): Karnak, by its archi- 
 tectural magnificence a very forest of gigantic columns, 
 many of which belong to Temples anterior to the Exode : 
 the Tombs of the Kings, by their historical interest, 
 vast halls full of sculpture and hieroglyphics : but the 
 Pyramids are after all the greatest wonder of all. You 
 have seen them, so I need not describe. Did you ascend 
 the greatest, and go inside? I performed both feats, 
 and came away more wonderstruck than when I stood 
 at the foot. But who can stand at the foot of the great 
 pyramid of Ghizeh and not be wonderstruck? In that 
 huge triangle, St. Peter's at Rome might hide itself : 
 while from its apex the spire of Strasburgh Cathedral 
 might swing securely ! 
 
 " But Cairo itself is enough to interest any intelligent 
 being is it not ? We have been in all about five weeks 
 here, and I think we have seen all the principal sights. 
 I hope you visited the mosks. With a Government 
 order, and a Janissary at one's heels, one is now allowed 
 to inspect any, and we have inspected all the best. They 
 are really superb, not as showy objects, but as grand 
 specimens of Oriental architecture. The prevailing 
 feature in them all is a square pillared court, with a 
 fountain in the middle (where the court is open). The 
 pillars are invariably the spoils of ancient Temples of 
 9 time: but the rest of the inosk is purely Eastern. 
 The walls are inlaid with black and white marble and 
 porphyry. Tiles and fresco ornaments cover the upper 
 
 * A word which cannot with certainty be deciphered.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 315 
 
 part. The floors are carpeted, or covered with mats. 
 The windows delight me much. They are painted: the 
 odd feature being that the pattern (generally geometrical, 
 or looking like Arabesque work on an Indian shawl) 
 is circumscribed not by lead, as with us, but with white 
 pierced stone, which gives a peculiar lace-like effect to 
 those small elevated windows, which is very pleasing. . . . 
 The Bazaars of Cairo are also very interesting : but in- 
 comparably the woxf curious thing here is the Roman 
 fortress. It is about two miles off, and was the central 
 point of }'.</>/ jjfian Babylon the Babylon of St. Peter's 
 2nd Ep. I do believe. The Christian Church there 
 stands at the top of the ancient Roman staircase, and 
 adjoining to what is still a Temple of Diana ! And over 
 the door is a Greek inscription of the time of Diocletian 
 which I have copied and very curious it is .... (I have 
 copied so many inscriptions !) 
 
 " To Heliopolis we have been twice, and each time 
 with rare pleasure. It stands in the land of Goshen, 
 unmistakeably. What a wondrous spot! It scarcely 
 yields in interest to a scene we visited on Monday, 
 namely the gathering place of the Israelites previous to 
 their starting for Canaan. The locality is quite un- 
 mistakeable, I think : and I am little disposed to believe 
 a lame story. You will recognise the spot on the map, 
 if I remind you that Cairo would be its northerly point, 
 the Nile its western boundary, and the hills of Mokattum 
 its eastern. The southern line being drawn at the open- 
 ing of the Wady el Tyh, or of the Wandering. 
 
 " Your loving Brother, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HE^RY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 "Suez, March 15, 1862. 
 
 " My dearest Carry, I think I rather owe a letter to 
 yourself than to any other member of the family ; so I 
 will avail myself of a halt at this delightful Hotel to tell 
 you how we have fared hitherto.
 
 n6 LIFE OF DEAN BUEGON. 
 
 O 
 
 " We left Cairo with AH on Saturday the 9th at mid- 
 day, some of us (I for one) mounting our camels at the 
 door of Shepheard's Hotel, and proceeding through Old 
 Cairo towards the Desert. I suspect this is the Barneses 
 of Exodus, from which the Israelites journeyed. At 
 Besatin, at the edge of the Desert, we met the ladies and 
 our Arabs, and set forth as follows : Miss Webb on a 
 pony ; the other seven on camels : seventeen Arabs of 
 the tribes of Towara and Haiatat with their sheik (////- 
 larrak) ; a cook, two men servants, and a groom, some 
 on foot, some on camels, and a heap of luggage. In fact, 
 we are thirty-one souls, and our caravan consists of 
 thirty-five camels, a foal, a horse, and a donkey 
 
 " We are woke at 4 ; at 6 we breakfast, and at 7.30 we 
 are all on our way. At 1 2 we halt for -J- of an hour for 
 luncheon, and at 3 we halt for the night. The six tents 
 are pitched in less than \ an hour, and by 5.30 our 
 dinner is ready. Then the servants dine. At 8 we 
 have tea, and then the servants have theirs. We then 
 have prayers and go to bed. 
 
 "Miss Webb and one of her maids have one tent: 
 Miss Fanny and another maid, another; Mr. and Mrs. 
 Bayley one ; I have another ; Ali and the courier sleep in 
 the saloon tent, and some in the kitchen. We have each 
 of us a portmanteau and bag, a bundle of wraps, and 
 well-crammed saddle-bags. Each has an iron bedstead, 
 
 and the dragoman provides bedding Everything I 
 
 have brought is most useful ; and the bag the dear chil- 
 dren gave I carry so regularly everywhere that Miss 
 Fanny calls it my harness. It is invaluable. 
 
 " I like camel riding immensely, and could go on 
 camel-back to the world's end. It is a hundred times 
 pleasanter and less fatiguing than a horse or donkey. 
 As for getting off, I can do it without waiting for the 
 animal to come down; and when weary I sit side- 
 saddle. I can write and read, and do all but draw on 
 the creature's back. It is unfortunately only too easy 
 to sleep as well which I must avoid. I am, thank GOD, 
 quite well : and we are all most prosperous. 
 
 " But we have had our adventures already. A blood
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 317 
 
 feud exists between the tribe we are with, and another 
 which it was feared we should encounter on the third 
 day. By consequence we took a <l<-fonr, and came 
 through a wild rocky valley of exceeding grandeur and 
 sublimity a branch of the Wady Ramlieh. which has 
 not been taken by any traveller for six years. Blood 
 would have flowed had we met ; so we had spies posted 
 on every crag ; and when it was over we were told of 
 our danger. But the strangest accident happened to us 
 on Thursday night. We were encamped at C (reference 
 to a rough tracing of the route). At our rear were the 
 Gebel Attaka 1 , or Towarak, a noble chain of purple 
 mountains, and the Red Sea was within twenty yards of 
 our tents. Doubtless the Israelites saw that locality, 
 
 wherever their crossing place may be fixed Well, 
 
 there was a little wind at sunset, and at 10 it blew con- 
 siderably. Still I was so weary that I slept like a top 
 till \ past i, when a shrill cry from Miss Webb woke 
 me roused us all. Her lent had been blown flat tlofn. 
 It was in fact blowing great guns, and I expected every 
 minute to see all our six tents scattered. You may 
 imagine the consternation in the dark. However, with 
 about twenty men we soon righted the tent, and knocked 
 in the pegs afresh of all: but to stand the storm was 
 hopeless : so we dressed as well as we could, and packed 
 in double quick time, and divided ourselves into two 
 companies. All and I, with some Arabs, conducted the 
 ladies and servants to Suez ; the rest staid behind to 
 look after the property and follow when it was day. So 
 at 3 we set off I on foot, carrying at Miss Webb's 
 request the bul/Jindt (! !), she on her donkey, and the rest 
 on camels. It was a very solemn walk, the Gebel 
 
 1 " I have at last, as far as mor- sage" [of the Red Sea] "combines in 
 
 tal eyes can see it, seen the passage representing this as the impediment 
 
 of the Eed Sea. . . . High above which prevented the return of the 
 
 the whole scene towered the Gebel Israelites into Egypt when Pharaoh 
 
 'Attaka, the ' Mountain of Deliver- appeared on their rear. It was this 
 
 ance,' a truly magnificent range, which ' shut them in.' " Stanley's 
 
 which, after all, is the one feature ' Sinai and Palestine ' [London : 
 
 of the scene unchanged and unmis- 1856], pp. 65, 66. 
 takeable. Every theory of the pas-
 
 318 LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 Towarak or Attaka showing like a grey shadow on our 
 left, and before us the level horizon. The ground was 
 seamed with countless camel tracks, in which I was 
 careful to tread to avoid a fall. The sun was invisible, 
 and the grey morning melted very slowly into daylight. 
 At 7i we reached Suez, and really I was glad to rest on 
 a sofa, where sleep overtook me before I was aware. 
 
 " Our future intended route you know, I think, in 
 outline. We sleep to-night (Sat.) in our tents, about 
 of an hour's walk from Suez ; and next day (alas that 
 it should be Sunday !) halt at Ayn Mousa (Moses' Wells). 
 In ten days we hope to reach Sinai and thence make our 
 way to Akaba (Ezion Geber). There we hope to find 
 the sheik of Petra to give us camels and escort for Petra 
 else, we go straight to Hebron. But as soon as I reach 
 Jerusalem (D.V.) some of you will hear from me again. 
 .... Are my darlings all well ? I think of them daily. 
 Embrace them for me and tell Lady Dundee 2 that 
 I would give the world to hug her just now. 
 
 " Ever, dearest Carry, your loving Brother, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To THE REVEREND HENRY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 " Akaba (the Elath of Scripture), Ap. 9, 1862. 
 
 "My dearest Rose, I have been sending to dearest 
 Helen a general sketch of my movements since we 
 reached Suez, Friday, i4th March. Let me fill up some 
 of the details in a letter to your dear self. 
 
 " Everything has been hitherto most prosperous, and I 
 am agreeably surprised to find that desert travelling is 
 even delightful. Of course the tent is but a makeshift ; 
 and rising at 4 is a tiresome trick ; and there is little 
 fun in passing eight hours consecutively on consecutive 
 days, on the back of a camel. But it is to me a great 
 point to be introduced to marvellous scenes such as 
 those we have gone through, and to be for ever treading 
 
 * A jocose name for his niece Gertrude, Mrs. Henry John Kose's 
 youngest daughter.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 319 
 
 in the footsteps of the Israelites, and to see the scenes 
 they certainly looked on. Even now, we are on their 
 track, for they came to Ezion Geber and Elatk (which is 
 Akaba) on their final way to the Promised Land. 
 
 " The points considered as almost identified, after leav- 
 ing Suez, are Ayn Moussa. Marah, Elim, the encampment 
 by the Red Sea (Num. xxxiii. 10), which is a fixed 
 locality beyond all doubt, and a glorious point to fix 
 also : then Sinai, and the way thither (which we certainly 
 came), and lastly the spot which we are at now. But 
 since the people of GOD wandered about the peninsula 
 for thirty-eight years, one cannot doubt that they were 
 acquainted with almost every Wady 3 , and had encamped 
 beneath almost every mountain. Thus all the ground 
 seems invested with a kind of sacred interest. From 
 this place forward one especially feels the influence of 
 association. With Hebron begins the Promised Land 
 itself. 
 
 " We are likely to have a superfluity of protectors. Two 
 of the Petra Sheiks are arrived, and the Sheik of the 
 Allowm tribe and his brother (who own the territory 
 from Akaba to Hebron) are all in our camp. We crack 
 our humble jokes together daily, and are on very friendly 
 terms. I was writing in a grove of palms when the 
 Petra Sheik entered, lay down on the ground, and began 
 to smoke. I bungled out a sentence, on which he began 
 enumerating all the things he^could show us, the sik (or 
 ravine which leads to Petra), Aroons tomb, Wddy filoussa, 
 and so on. All being now settled about our going to 
 Petra, last night (loth April) Imbarrak (the Tawarah 
 Sheik, who brought us from Cairo to Akaba) took leave 
 of us in the moonlight with his thirty camels, and re- 
 traced his steps to Sinai. 
 
 3 " It is necessary to use this the mountain torrents or winter 
 
 Arabic name (w;idy), because there rains for a few months or weeks in 
 
 is no English word which exactly the year such is the general idea 
 
 corresponds to the idea expressed of an Arabian ' wady,' whether in 
 
 by it. A hollow, a valley, a de- the Desert or in Syria." Stanley's 
 
 pression more or less deep, or t - BO and Palestine' [1856], p. 15. 
 wide, or long worn or washed by
 
 ^520 LIFE OF DEAN BUEGON. 
 
 \j 
 
 "April 29. We arrived in Jerusalem I an hour ago, 
 and until Mr. Finn comes in, I am writing these 
 few lines in his office. We achieved Petra with great 
 effort, passing four and a-half days there : including Good 
 Friday and Easter Day. We ascended Mount Hor also. 
 The interest the wild wonder of those localities, sur- 
 passes my powers of description. Unhappily, I was 
 far from well the day I reached Petra, so that I lost an 
 afternoon lying on the grass among the wild Arabs, 
 dozing away the time. But I made a great effort, 
 walked about from morning till night, and drew a great 
 deal every day we were there. The view from Mount 
 Hor is affectingly grand, and the very shape of the 
 mountain-top reduces it to a certainty that we were in 
 the very spot where Aaron surrendered his soul to GOD 4 . 
 It was deeply affecting, and gave a reality to Scripture 
 such as I have never experienced before. 
 
 " As for Petra. it is too much to describe. It passes all 
 expectation. Please GOD, I will some day sitting by 
 your dear fireside tell you and Carry and the beloved 
 chicks all about it. But it seemed to me passing strange 
 to be wandering alone with a single attendant, among 
 wild ravines, where one was at every instant falling in 
 with lawless men, each armed with a sword and a gun, 
 who yet sat down by my side, watched me draw, and 
 were as peaceable as English labourers. However, I 
 must be candid with you. I attribute our safety, under 
 GOD, to oui' excellent dragoman (who is Miss Webb's 
 bete noire}. ... To explain what 1 mean, Sir Capel Moly- 
 neux, who was there with a large party two weeks 
 before us, was so impressed with the danger of visiting 
 Petra (from the constant feuds they witnessed, &c.), that 
 
 " Mount Hor is one of the very 'the mountain" (Hor). Num. xx. 
 
 few spots connected with the wan- 23. (2) The statement of Josephus 
 
 derings of the Israelites, which ad- (Ant. IV. iv. 7), that Aaron's death 
 
 mite of no reasonable doubt occurred on a high mountain enclos- 
 
 The proofs of the identity of ' Gebel ing Petra. (3) The modern name 
 
 Haroun,' as it is now called, with and traditional sanctity of the 
 
 Mount Hor, are (i) The situa- mountain as connected with Aaron's 
 
 tion 'by the coast of the land of tomb." Stanley's 'Sinai and Pales- 
 
 Edom,' where it is emphatically tine' [1856], p. 87, footnote i.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 321 
 
 he literally sent a dromedary across the Desert to stop 
 us and deter us from our projected visit 
 
 " I have written some account of Hebron to our 
 beloved Racks 5 . The journey between Petra and Heb- 
 ron is of exceeding interest and struck my fancy much, 
 as it would have struck yours. At first, one is in the 
 Arabah, or great valley, plain rather, which forms a 
 high road between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea ; and 
 on first leaving it, one is in a dreary wilderness (that of 
 Sin or Zin, if I remember right). But from the instant 
 one sees the pass of Sufdh (ZephatK) before one, all is 
 delightful. That is beyond a doubt the ' way of the 
 spies,' the way by which Israel tried to force their 
 passage and were repulsed. Palestine begins to dawn 
 on you from that spot, and a more instructive sight can 
 hardly be imagined. 
 
 " Ever, dearest Rose, your most loving Brother, 
 
 " J. W. B." 
 To MRS. HIGGINS. 
 " Akaba (the ancient Ezion Geber), April 10, 1862. 
 
 " It seems to me a good long time since I wrote 
 
 to you, and I am sure it has not been because I have 
 not thought of you, for I think of you daily. Let me 
 devote a few moments of leisure to you now ; for I have 
 an immense deal to tell you. 
 
 " I am writing under the shade of some Palm trees in a 
 delicious little grove at Akaba, at the end of the gulf 
 of that name the N.E. extremity of the Red Sea only 
 Miss Webb is writing on a mat at my side. Among the 
 trees a party of Bedawin Arabs are in loud altercation, 
 and presided over by their chief Mohammed, who (now 
 that old Husseyn is dead) is the sheik of the whole 
 tribe of the Allouins. It is'too hot to go and draw, and 
 a letter to you all is just the thing for me to do. Let 
 me explain all that has occurred since I wrote last, 
 which was at Suez. We pursued the usual route, 
 certainly treading close in the steps of the Israelites, 
 
 5 A comical name given in the family to his niece, Mr. Rose's eldest 
 daughter. 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
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 1 - si^y 
 
 ^: 
 _~ .-.- L--: - 
 
 7 :- ' 
 
 
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 will I km- defigtt 
 I aki 
 
 
 --- :_ :
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 323 
 
 mountain itself from H. which strange to say 
 
 < this day. Down the romantic or radker 
 sublimely savage Wd1y Liza, I also got two walks, and I 
 climbed the lofty Jr&l Katfariue. I realty feel quite at 
 home at Sinai, which is a proud and a strange 
 
 From the awful scene we came away to 
 taking the W&dy MotatM (or written vaL- 
 I have copied many of the inseriptkinfi, and an 
 that I have the cine to their real history. They are the 
 writing of ancient pilgrims 9 coming owu 
 scenes. Here we fell in with a Major ~ 
 knew our dear father, and had spent an 
 Osnaburgh 91 He asked after you ! 
 
 also did he entertain us, with eapricotm 
 He is mining for turquoises where (as the 
 shew) tite ancient Egyptian kin^s had their 
 miaes ; and he shewed us many of the dwellings of those 
 ancient men. It was ahoy the i a most picturesque 
 incident in our travels, 
 
 ~ We came out on the sea at last the sea of the Gulf of 
 Akaba passed the Hm4i*r .Atttmm \ or heap which indi- 
 
 retam of tfee 
 ' il. -. -"_ . 
 
 two r three m\Hamt Mdi giw the eatt of 
 in tite Wadj Swifidi. in it re- pieoo. of & | I], -they 
 
 ih. 
 
 * Bean Staaley dneoBses tie 
 aerip*i ia tie" Widy Mofcatteb tbe true < 
 onpp.6i.6; of theiS56ed.af iii kage rtwe f < 
 
 MJ] 
 
 -
 
 324 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 cates the boundary of the territory of the Tawarah and 
 Alouin tribes ; and finally on Saturday reached Akaba, 
 a poor place, but a beautiful locality to my eye -. Here 
 I have made several drawings. 
 
 " We are much disappointed to find that all chance of 
 reaching Jerusalem by Easter is at an end ; but it is 
 something to find (as this day we have done), that we 
 shall certainly see Petra. The day before yesterday, on 
 returning from a walk, I heard to my joy that Sheik 
 Mohammed was in my tent. I entered and found a 
 most picturesque group assembled. On my rug lay the 
 great man in a scarlet pelisse with gold lace and light 
 blue trowsers, encumbered with pistols, sabres, and so 
 on. He was smoking and resting his elbow on my roll 
 of wraps. Ali is on one side (the Dragoman), and on the 
 other Imbarrak (a sheik of the Tawarah who has ac- 
 companied our caravan from Cairo). In front, the guard 
 of Akaba. How he was wrapped up ! But so are all 
 the Allouins, with cloth veils over their heads, and two 
 cords to keep it in its place. I told him through Ali 
 that if we were in England I would entertain him 
 hospitably, but that my property among the Allouins 
 was so exceedingly inconsiderable, that I really could not 
 pretend to do anything of the kind. He laughed at the 
 
 heights of Gilead; just as the tra- lated by Martin: Edinburgh, 1857) 
 
 veller now sees the ' Hadjar Alouin' p. 464. 
 
 the pile of stones that denotes the * " 'Akaba is a wretched village, 
 
 boundary of the Alouin and of the shrouded in a palm-grove, at the 
 
 Towara tribes at the head of the north end of the Gulf. ... It stands 
 
 Gulf of Akaba." ' Sinai and Pales- on the site of the ancient Elath, 
 
 tine,' p. 319. There was, however, ' The Palm Trees,' so called from 
 
 no " mistaking " in the matter. It the grove. Its situation, however, 
 
 was expressly called " an altar" by is very striking, looking down the 
 
 the persons who built it (Josh. xxii. beautiful gulf, with its jagged ranges 
 
 2 3), and, although not built for actual on each Bide." ' Sinai and Palex- 
 
 saerificial purposes, it was designed tine,' p. 84. Of Ezion-geber, which 
 
 " to serve as a witness in after Burgon, as we see from the date of 
 
 times that the tribes on the East of his letter, identified with Akaba, 
 
 Jordan had a part in Jehovah, and Stanley says; "There is nothing 
 
 in His altar which was at His taber- to fix the site of Ezion-geber, ' the 
 
 nacle in Canaan." See vv. 24, 26, Giant's Backbone.' " 
 37, and 'Jfeil on Joshua* (trans-
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 325 
 
 joke. Then I gave him dear Charles's message to his 
 father, and said how sorry he would be to hear that 
 Sheik Husseyn is dead. He shrugged up his shoulders, 
 and said that 'no one could help it. ... I should have 
 dearly enjoyed joining in the conversation which fol- 
 lowed, and which was very animated. Ali explained to 
 me that the wretched man was laying a plan for stop- 
 ping and robbing all who come by this way, as a 
 punishment to the Sultan for sending the Hadj (or 
 pilgrim caravan) by steam direct to Mecca, instead of 
 sending them round this way. 
 
 " There is not much to be done here but I have done 
 and drawn all I could. One of the two Sheiks of Petra 
 is arrived, and we take Mohammed and bis brother all 
 the way to Hebron (and to Petra of course), as an ad- 
 ditional escort and protection. No party ever travelled, 
 surely, with more comforts and conveniences than we do. 
 
 I cannot tell you how much kindness I experience, 
 nor how happy I have been. My health is perfect We 
 do but travel eight hours a day. The rest shall be added 
 D.V. at Jerusalem. 
 
 " Jerusalem, 30 Ap, Well, dearest, we achieved Petra 
 gloriously, and I drew considerably, though alas ! I felt 
 m KY// there. It was strange, passing Good Friday 
 and Easter Day in that wild region. On Easter Monday 
 ft. and encamped at the foot of Mount Hor (which 
 however we had ascended, on our way to Petra), and so 
 made our way across the Araba, until we reached the 
 pass of Svfdh (Zephath) which is the ancient road the 
 road by which Solomon's caravans brought the wealth of 
 India (the apes ' and the ' peacocks ') into Palestine, and 
 where had been also certainly 'the vay of the spies*. ' 
 From this spot forward all is delight and wonder, the 
 frontier-land of Palestine, exactly the scenery of English 
 Downs ; and as you advance, it is the scenery of Devon- 
 shire. David at Ziph. Maon, and Carmel, (we saw them 
 alt, and they are called by the same names to the present 
 day !) would not have known the difference, had he 
 been simply transported into some of the Devonshire 
 
 * See Num. nL L
 
 326 LIFE OF DEAN BUBGON. 
 
 valleys. Trees there are NONE ; but shrubs and flowers 
 abound ; and the whole soil is gray stone cropping out 
 among faded grass, the effect of which is lovely, especi- 
 ally if, here and there, a little patch of cultivated land 
 comes to view. 
 
 " From Hebron (where we spent two days How it did 
 rain!) we came on yesterday hither, one of the most 
 beautiful rides I ever took in my life. We had been on 
 camel back for fifty days, having come some 800 miles, 
 which made a horse a pleasant change. At 5 in the 
 evening, when (after the delicious view of Bethlehem, 
 and after inspecting Rachel's tomb) we got to the 
 convent of Mar Elias, I saw Jerusalem before me. I 
 thought I should have fallen off my horse. But it is 
 at first a sadly disappointing place. More of this in 
 my next. Please address to me 'Post Office, Beyrout,' 
 immediately on receiving this. 
 
 " Your most loving Brother, 
 
 "J. W. B." 
 
 To MRS. HENRY JOHN ROSE. 
 
 "Petra, Easter Day [April 20], 1862. 
 
 " My dearest Carry, You will I daresay have kindly 
 speculated ' where John is passing Easter Day ' ; or 
 rather you will have connected him with Jerusalem for 
 some days past. But we were delayed at Akaba (Ezion 
 Geber, or rather Elath) for a week, and, other hindrances 
 conspiring, we found ourselves slowly pacing into this 
 wondrous city, on our descent from Mount Hor, on 
 Wednesday last. We have been here ever since; and 
 expect to-morrow morning at 4 o'clock to be up, and at 
 7 off" for Jerusalem, or rather for Hebron. 
 
 " I hardly know how to give you any idea of all I 
 have been seeing for many days past, and above all of 
 Petra, which is the most astonishing and interesting 
 place I ever visited, and may well stand alone. Nature 
 has done wonders for it, but Man has availed himself of 
 every hint, and turned it into a triumph. The approach, 
 between steep cliffs which almost beetle overhead, at
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 327 
 
 the end of a mile turns you out upon a rock-temple of 
 exquisite beauty. The Wady Moussa (or torrent-bed of 
 Moses 4 ), which gives its name to the entire locality, 
 then guides you through the town past the theatres and 
 countless tombs, and not a few Roman temples, escaping 
 through a gorge in the cliffs on the west. Sandstone 
 cliffs enclose the site of this wondrous City, lofty, 
 picturesque, and in colour unrivalled. But there is 
 nothing rosy 5 in Petra by any means. 
 
 " We have spent four delightful days here, wandering 
 about and drawing as much as one pleased. We came 
 from Akaba with both the Skeiks of Petra, the brother 
 
 * " Before you opens a deep cleft 
 bet ween rocks of red sands tone rising 
 perpendicularly to the height of 
 one, two, or three hundred feet. 
 This is the Slk, or ' cleft'; through 
 this flows if one may use the ex- 
 pression the dry torrent, which, 
 rising in the mountains half an hour 
 hence, gives the name by which alone 
 Petra is now known among the Arabs 
 Wady Moussa. ' For,' so Skeyh 
 Mohammed tells us ' as surely as 
 Gebel Harun (the Mountain of 
 Aaron) is so called from the burial- 
 place of Aaron, is Wady Mousa 
 (the Valley of Moses) so called from 
 the cleft being made by the rod of 
 Moses when he brought the stream 
 through into the valley beyond.' " 
 Stanley's ' Sinai and Palestine ' 
 [1856], pp. 89, 90. 
 
 8 He alludes, no doubt, to his own 
 description of the cliffs of Petra in his 
 Prize Poetn (line 125 to 135) "not 
 virgin white . . . not saintly grey," 
 &c., &c. 
 " But rosy-red, as if the blush of 
 
 dawn 
 Which first beheld them were not 
 
 yet withdrawn : 
 The hues of youth upon a brow of woe, 
 
 Which men call'd old two thousand 
 
 years ago ! 
 Match me such marvel, save in 
 
 Eastern clime, 
 A rose-red city half as old as 
 
 Time ! " 
 
 Travellers do not seem to agree 
 entirely as to the colour of the rocks 
 at Petra. Robinson, as quoted by 
 Burgon in a foot-note to his Poem, 
 says that they present " not a dead 
 mass of dull monotonous red ; but 
 an endless variety of bright and 
 living hues, from the deepest crim- 
 son to the softest pink." Dean 
 Stanley on the other hand says : 
 " All the describers have spoken of 
 bright hues scarlet, sky-blue, or- 
 ange, &c. Had they taken courage 
 to say instead, 'dull crimson, indigo, 
 yellow, and purple,' their account 
 would have lost something in effect, 
 
 but gained much in truth A 
 
 gorgeous, though dull crimson, 
 streaked and suffused with purple, 
 these are the two predominant col- 
 ours, ' ferruginous,' perhaps, they 
 might best be called, and on the 
 face of the rocks the only colours." 
 'Sinai and Palestine ' [1856], p. 88.
 
 328 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 of the Sheik of the Allouins, and indeed a lot of semi- 
 official fellows: but the chief Sheik of Petra is my 
 friend Harb (i.e. war] Ben Gazeh. A more thorough 
 gentleman I never saw in my life. He went with us to 
 the top of Mount Hor, where a singular scene occurred. 
 He was forced to pay a kind of blackmail himself! He 
 paid it with great dignity (3 f.), seeing guns levelled, 
 &c., &c., but reminded the miscreants that he has the 
 power to sweep them all from the mountain. 
 
 " O my dearest Carry, that view from Mount Hor, 
 what a magnificent and affecting spectacle it is! We 
 read aloud the account of Aaron's death, and surveyed 
 the sight which he must have contemplated with his 
 dying eyes; turning ours, you may be sure, in the 
 direction of Palestine. . . . 
 
 " Ever, dearest Carry, your loving Brother, 
 
 "J.W. B." 
 
 To Miss GERTRUDE ROSE. 
 
 "Jerusalem, May 4, 1862. 
 
 "My dear beloved little Sister 6 , I will not go to bed 
 until I have written you a letter, as a proof that I 
 remember you on your precious Birthday. How I 
 should rejoice in giving you a tremendous kiss! and 
 I would not promise to keep myself to one by any 
 means. 
 
 " We have been very busy, since we arrived, in seeing 
 the sights of Jerusalem and as a first step we ex- 
 changed pur tents for a house not a very smart one : 
 but still infinitely pleasanter than being under canvas. 
 ... I think I have enjoyed most the walk to Bethany 
 over the Mount of Olives. You would be astonished at 
 the exquisite beauty of the landscape on the other side 
 of the Mount. The Dead Sea is seen, with the glorious 
 mountains of Moab soaring up behind it, while all the 
 foreground is decked with exquisite colours, and at your 
 feet lies the quiet little village of Bethany. We were 
 shewn the grave of Lazarus, the house of Simon, of 
 
 4 Hia niece, Mrs. Henry John Rose's youngest daughter.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 329 
 
 Martha, and so on ; but it is the view of the landscape 
 which so delighted me : for that, at least, is genuine, and 
 must be the very same which so often cheered the eyes 
 of the Son of Man. 
 
 " The Garden of Gethsemane is a disappointing, dis- 
 enchanting place 7 : being merely a few of the oldest 
 trees walled in, the ground being planted with roses and 
 potherbs. This, as you know, is just beyond the brook 
 Cedron. 
 
 " Yesterday we visited the fort of Gihon, the valley of 
 Hinnom, the potter's field, the fort and village of 
 Siloain, and many old tombs, the Armenian Convent, 
 the Syrian Church, the House of Caiaphas, the scene of 
 the Last Supper, and so on. This will give you a 
 notion of the things you are taken to see. Of course, 
 one cannot believe scarcely anything, not even the 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre itself. Still it is deeply 
 interesting to be shewn spots which are so famous 
 everywhere. But it is refreshing to turn from many 
 of these sights to the realities of the place. Thus the 
 ancient Temple wall, as Solomon left it, is wondrous 
 perfect in many places : and the sight of this quite 
 transports one back to sacred times. In one place 
 (called the Jews' place of wailing} there are five courses 
 of these huge stones, twenty or thirty feet long ; and 
 very strange is it to witness the lamentation of those 
 modern Israelites, shedding real tears and sobbing, 
 
 7 " A few words, and perhaps the when they stood free and unpro- 
 
 fewer the better, must be devoted tected on the rough bill side ; but 
 
 to the Garden of Gethsemane. . . . they will remain, so long as their 
 
 In spite of all the doubts already protracted life is spared, the 
 
 that can be raised against their most venerable of their race on the 
 antiquity or the genuineness of their surface of the earth ; regarded as the 
 site, the eight aged olive trees, if most affecting of the sacred memo- 
 only by their manifest difference rials in or about Jerusalem ; the 
 from all others on the mountain, most nearly approaching to theever- 
 have always struck even the most lasting hills themselves in the force 
 indifferent observers. They are now with which they carry us back to 
 indeed less striking in the modern the events of Gospel History." 
 garden enclosure built round them Stanley's ' Sinai and Palestine ' 
 by the Franciscan Monks, than [1856], p. 450.
 
 ^o LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 \j \J 
 
 while they repeat the Psalter, and pause to kiss the 
 walls of their ancient Temple. 
 
 " Jerusalem itself is a most picturesque town, though 
 dirty and inconvenient. It is built on a hill, or rather 
 two or three hills ; and the curious mixture of Saracenic, 
 Gothic (brought by the Crusaders), ancient, and purely 
 modern masonry, produces quite a perplexing effect on 
 the mind. The people in the streets sustain the im- 
 pression; for they seem to be of every nation under 
 heaven, Jews, Turks, Spanish, Russians, Germans, Ar- 
 menians, Arabs. It seems to me as if they could talk 
 every language in the world except English, French, or 
 Italian. 
 
 "To-day we have been twice to our little English 
 Church, Miss Fanny and I between the services going 
 out by St. Stephen's Gate in order to have a good long 
 gaze (of one hour and a half) on the Mount of Olives. 
 . . . Well, darling, I have to thank you with all my 
 heart for your dear letter, which awaited my arrival 
 here. Pray write to me a little oftener. Your next 
 must be to Beyrout after receiving this. 
 
 " And so I send you a hearty kiss, and all the most 
 loving wishes heart can form for the darling little girl's 
 prosperity. The keepsake I hope to bring. With fondest 
 love and a kiss to all, 
 
 " Ever, my little darling, your loving Uncle, 
 
 "J.W. B." 
 
 Between the date of his last letter (May 4), and May 
 19, when he wrote to Mrs. Higgins to announce what 
 had befallen him, he became so seriously ill that all 
 thought of prosecuting his tour had to be abandoned, 
 and the only thing to be done was to make the best of 
 his way home. The proximate cause of this illness was 
 a damp underground room, which unfortunately fell to 
 his lot in the house occupied by Miss Webb's party, the 
 better apartments being naturally assigned to the ladies. 
 But that there were other remoter causes, arising from
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 331 
 
 his own imprudence, he seems from his Journal to have 
 at all events suspected. Writing at Houghton Conquest 
 at the end of January in the ensuing year (1863), he 
 says of bis illness : 
 
 " I had been not quite well for many days. I suspect 
 I may have caught cold from frequent early bathing in 
 the Red Sea at Akaba. On reaching Petra I felt ill. 
 However, I entirely got over the sense of indisposition. 
 But at Jerusalem I gradually found myself falling a prey 
 to disease. Lassitude, which nothing but mental activity 
 enabled me to shake off, headache, and a sense of cold in 
 my limbs, all this came on, induced as I firmly believe, 
 by the damp room allotted to me as a bed-room. I still 
 remember very keenly the sense of illness, with which 
 
 on the afternoon of " (he has forgotten the exact 
 
 date of the day) " I sank. A very skilful man, Mr. 
 Chaplin, could only attend to me for two days ; and I 
 fell into the hands of a Greek named Masaraki. . . . 
 The Finns removed me to their house, and treated me 
 like a brother (surely it was something to have fallen ill 
 on Mount Moriah, and to have been nursed on Mount 
 Zion !), but all was in vain. Humanly speaking, I feel 
 xure I should have got well within a reasonable time, if 
 I had but been skilfully treated at first. But it was 
 not to be." 
 
 The connexion between his illness and the room which 
 had fallen to his lot becoming apparent to his fellow- 
 travellers, it was arranged by Miss Webb that another 
 and proper bedroom should be provided for him on the 
 return of the party from an excursion to Jericho. This 
 excursion he was enabled to make ; and he writes to Mrs. 
 Higgins : " The journey to Jericho did me good ; but the 
 mischief had sunk into my constitution, and I felt 
 wondrous ill." His " new quarters " (on the return from 
 Jericho, May 10) were, he says, " delightful, though in a 
 low part of the town." As his travelling companions 
 were obliged to leave him, to make the tour of the Holy
 
 332 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 Land, it was arranged that he should be removed to the 
 house of the English Consul, Mr. Finn, where, " on the 
 highest summit of Mount Zion " he became " the guest of 
 a most amiable and delightful household. Really the 
 kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Finn is what I shall never 
 be able to forget." 
 
 " Monday, May 20. I have received a kind note from 
 Miss Webb, from which I learn that their plan of start- 
 ing holds, and that she proposes to leave behind a capital 
 lacquai de place, to see me safe as far as on board the 
 steamer at Jaffa. This is kind and considerate, and 
 relieves me of all anxiety." 
 
 In Mr. Finn's house, 
 
 " all that love could do for me was done. Can you fancy, 
 while I was eating an orange for very despair, at 12 
 o'clock at night the door opening, and Mrs. Finn com- 
 ing in (so like a sister !) with an entreaty that she might 
 with an etna make me some sago?'' [this was on the 
 night before he left Jerusalem, May 23]. " Having once 
 discovered that I want so much support, simple hot slices 
 of mutton were at all times ready for me ; at starting" [at 
 8.30, on the morning of the 24 th] " I ate a plateful. With 
 her own hands, she sent off for the furniture of my 
 litter the pillows and mattress off my bed. Else the 
 journey would simply have been unmanageable. Finally, 
 after a few croaky words of prayer and friendship, the 
 Consul in person mounted his horse, preceded by his 
 cawasses (official attendants), and with his son accom- 
 panied me (mounted on a donkey) outside the Jaffa Gate. 
 Here I found my litter, which I can only describe as 
 a crazy covered little wagon, pulled along by two mules, 
 one behind, one before." [In the margin of his letter he 
 gives a sketch of the litter.] " I had not gone a quarter 
 of a mile when the whole thing came to the ground with 
 a crash. It would have been ungrateful indeed to grum- 
 ble. At 9 I was off. ... The sight of Mizpah (where 
 Saul was made king) revived me, and I kept casting an 
 eye of interest on the scenery for hours. But I was
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 333 
 
 very ill ; and the jolting, as we -went over the scarcely 
 passable road (for a Syrian road is often a mere pile of 
 rocks) took a great deal out of me." 
 
 At Ramleh he was domiciled for the night (" a night 
 of rare suffering") in an Arabian house, and next morn- 
 ing, as he is wondering " how he should possibly get 
 through the day on Arab diet," is visited by a German 
 Missionary, who had married an English lady, and is 
 suitably fed, as well as most kindly nursed and tended 
 in their house. After " a second night of unspeakable 
 trouble and unrest " he is in his litter again at 7.30 the 
 next morning (May 26), and at 11.15 reached the Pales- 
 tine Hotel, Jaffa 8 . 
 
 The next day (May 27), "the Russian packet having 
 arrived," he totters down to the shore, leaning on the 
 arm of the consul of Jaffa, Assaad a Khayat, and there 
 is caught up by the sailors, and laid in the boat which 
 Captain Mansell, who was surveying the coast, had 
 kindly lent him for the purpose of his embarkation. 
 " It was delightful to find myself in Jack's arms, who 
 treated me like a plaything." On board the packet, Mr. 
 Meredith, the Civil Engineer (" the same who laid down 
 the Smyrna Railway, and who of course knew many of 
 our own Smyrna connexions "), placed his dragoman at 
 Burgon's disposal, and " promised not to forsake me till 
 he saw me safe on shore. I am sure you" [Mrs. Higgins] 
 li and dearest Charles will not require the assurance that 
 so many marks of Mercy and Providence and Love many 
 a time overcame me. I murmured to myself many a 
 time ; ' I see, I see Thine Almighty Fingers moving.' " 
 Stretched on a mattress and pillows which were placed 
 for him on the highest deck, he drank in the sea-breeze 
 
 8 Letter to Mrs. Higgins, " Palestine Hotel, Jaffa, Monday, May 26, 
 1862."
 
 334 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 for five hours of daylight ; and at night the steamer was 
 moored off Mount Carmel, " a sad night of suffering to 
 me" The next day he -was laid upon the deck again : 
 and in the afternoon " we neared Beyrout and Lebanon 
 grand and beautiful all but I felt too ill to enjoy any- 
 thing." Mr. Meredith, -with the utmost kindness, ful- 
 filled his promise, got the patient through the Customs 
 (which, had he been alone, t: would have been a simple 
 impossibility in that hot sun and with those noisy 
 clamorous men"), and delivered him safe at the Belle 
 Vue Hotel, Beyrout 9 . 
 
 At Beyrout, he found the regular practitioner (Dr. 
 Berkeley) absent, he having been sent for to attend the 
 celebrated Henry Buckle, who was then lying sick with 
 fever at Damascus, and who died there while Burgon 
 was at Beyrout. In Dr. Berkeley's absence he at first, 
 by the advice of the Consul-General, Mr. Niven Moore, 
 consulted a Milanese doctor, under whom for a time he 
 seemed to progress favourably, but who at last gave him 
 a quack medicine, which brought on alarming symptoms. 
 This led him to send for Dr. Berkeley, who had by that 
 time returned, and who took his case in hand. Still he 
 found himself very low and weak. " Utter prostration 
 is all I can say for myself," he writes to Mr. Rose on the 
 6th of June ; " How can a man be taking 6 gr. of quinine 
 per day, and three wine glasses of tonic, with wine, pale 
 ale, and solid food at 9, i, and 5, without being strength- 
 ened ? But there is an indescribable languor and faint- 
 ness, a desire to fling myself on the sofa, which is 
 distressing. Still I hope and believe, as the Doctor says, 
 that I am decidedly better." 
 
 At Beyrout he remained, invalided, for the whole 
 month of June. Miss Webb, it appears from a letter 
 
 Letter to Mra. Higgins, " Beyrout, Ascension Day, May 29, 1862."
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 335 
 
 to one of his nieces dated June 14, rejoined him here in 
 the early part of the month. "Her arrival," he says, 
 " has already worked a great change in my health for 
 the better." In a letter to another niece, written six 
 days after, he says ; 
 
 " Only one great mistake have I made since I have 
 been here. Dear Miss Webb most kindly proposed car- 
 riage exercise ; and the Doctor was strenuous in second- 
 ing the move. No one told us that the carriage could 
 not come within i \ miles of the Hotel ! That walk, and 
 the drive that followed, almost made me ill. I returned 
 in a boat, but O ! it was pain and grief to me. This is 
 some days ago ; but I recollect it still with horror, like 
 some dreadful nightmare ! " 
 
 The extraordinary affectionateness of these two letters 
 to his nieces (one of them written on the young lady's 
 birthday), makes them unsuitable, except in the short 
 passages already cited, for publication (one of them 
 begins, for example, " My own most tender and sweetest 
 of little sisters "). It would seem as if the strong love of 
 kindred and of young people, which characterized him 
 throughout his life, was rendered more intense, and even 
 extravagant in its expressions, by his then state of 
 physical prostration and imbecility. But the piety 
 of his mind as well as its tenderness comes out in his 
 effusions during this illness. Witness the following 
 verses, which were written as he was lying on the deck 
 of the French steamer, which conveyed him from Bey- 
 rout to Marseilles. 
 
 " LINES WRITTEN IN ILLNESS." 
 
 ' When sorrow's tide runs all too high, 
 And on my bed I sleepless lie 
 With throbbing pulse and tearful eye,
 
 -;6 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 \) O 
 
 Jesus my Saviour, mighty Lord, 
 By Angels and by Saints adored, 
 Help me to lean upon Thy Word. 
 
 To lean on that. to lean on Thee, 
 What difference? There, Thy form I see, 
 Thy voice it is that speaks to me. 
 
 And there in all my deep distress, 
 And in my spirit's loneliness, 
 I find Thee waiting but to bless. 
 
 Hold Thou me up from day to day, 
 And lest these footsteps go astray, 
 Still keep them in the narrow way. 
 
 Nor do I ask that when I die 
 An angel may be hovering nigh ; 
 I pray for THEE to stand close by. 
 
 Be with me in that darksome hour 
 When Satan struggles most for power 
 Lest spirit, soul, or flesh should cower. 
 
 And for the rest, O Father, Son, 
 And Holy Ghost, Thy Will be done! 
 I know 'twill be a righteous one. 
 
 "J. W. B. 
 
 "Written July 3, 1862, lying on the deck of the 
 steamer, before it left Beyrout." 
 
 His Journal (already quoted) written on the 3ist of 
 January, in the ensuing year, gives this rapid summary 
 of his voyage from Beyrout to England : 
 
 " On July 3, I was conveyed on board the Jourdain 
 which reached Marseilles July 16. We 1 hurried on to 
 Paris, and after a halt hurried home, reaching Chesham 
 Place on the evening of Friday, July 1 8." 
 
 1 Captain and Mrs. Bayley accom- took charge of him during the 
 panied him home, and most kindly voyage.
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 337 
 
 In Chesham Place was the Town i % esidence of Miss Webb. 
 His sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Higgins, met 
 him there, and conveyed him the next day to Turvey 
 Abbey, their place in Bedfordshire. 
 
 t; It was an unspeakable comfort," he says, "that 
 meeting with dearest Helen and Charles. Their kind- 
 ness is not to be told. But Oh ! in what need I was oi 
 kindness and help. I was reduced to an extraordinary 
 degree. At Turvey I could scarcely sit upright. My 
 nights were sleepless and painful; my days I used to 
 pass on the sofa. To walk for twenty minutes in the 
 garden was a supreme object of dread with me, an 
 effort to which I was wholly unequal. I could neither 
 write nor read. I could neither dress nor undress 
 myself at all. Thus in many respects I was worse than 
 at Beyrout ; but in one respect I was better, viz. that 
 a little conversation was not so oppressive, or rather so 
 overwhelming, exhausting. ... A visit of five weeks to 
 Dover (24 Sept. to 30 Oct. 1862) did much for me ; but I 
 went back sadly by spending two days in London. At 
 last (Tuesday, 1 8 Nov.) I came on hither " [Houghton 
 Conquest]. " I have had ample leisure, since I first fell ill. 
 to think over the whole of what I have felt to be a most 
 mysterious dispensation. Nearest to me, and most in- 
 disputable, have been the marks of God's watchful provi- 
 dence and love." 
 
 He then speaks with deep gratitude of all the persons 
 who have shown him kindness in his illness, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Finn at Jerusalem, Captain Mansell and Assaad a 
 Khayat at Jaffa, and Mr. Meredith on board the steamer 
 to Beyrout. 
 
 " All these were instruments in God's hands : I 
 could never lose sight of Him. But that which has 
 most struck me with wonder is the astonishing way 
 in which I have been denied a sight of the sacred ob- 
 jects I left England expressly in order to see. It was 
 VOL. i. z
 
 338 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 passing strange. A few weeks would have shewn me 
 what I most wished to see, Bethel, Shechem, Nain, 
 Nazareth, Carmel, and oh ! far, far, above all. the Sea 
 of Galilee, but no ! Deo aliler visnm est \ In pain, and 
 in weakness, and in sorrow, and in loneliness. I went by 
 sea to a point far north of the Holy Land. Damascus 
 was within reach. But even Damascus I could not 
 visit. ... I came home in broken health, and quite a 
 wreck." 
 
 The secret of his disappointment he finds in the 
 imagined sinfulness of his going abroad, when St. Mary's 
 was waiting for him as its Pastor. 
 
 " How can I review this solemn dispensation without 
 a deep suspicion that I can understand it also ? I do 
 believe that I ought never to have gone, and oh ! that I 
 had stayed in England, and undertaken the duties of St. 
 Mary's ! Oh ! how gladly would I undo the past if that 
 were possible ! 
 
 " Most solemn of all has been the prolonged duration 
 of my illness. Here is not only the denial of my desires, 
 but their chastisement as well. At the end of a full 
 
 miserably weak." 
 
 It will be seen that this conviction of his having acted 
 wrongly in going abroad recurred to him again and dis- 
 quieted him in the month preceding his death, when, as 
 during the illness which arose from the Jerusalem fever, 
 his bodily powers were prostrated. The reader will be 
 inclined to think that on both occasions his physical 
 weakness had affected the mind, and rendered it morbid ; 
 and that the sounder view of the subject is that which 
 he tells us, strange to say, in the same page of his 
 Journal had sometimes presented itself to him, when 
 pondering the subject of his illness :
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 339 
 
 " I have even thought sometimes that had I commenced 
 work again at Oxford, in Oct. 1 86 1, a severer break-down 
 might have been the consequence, so reduced was I, 
 and overworked, when I went abroad. The religious 
 troubles, which have since occurred there, might also 
 have been too much for me. I try to find comfort 
 where I can/' 
 
 But it is a long lane which has no turning, says the 
 old proverb, and. seriously ill as Burgon had been so ill 
 that on his first arrival at Turvey, Mr. Higgins had said 
 to his wife, "we must do all we can for the dear one, 
 but I fear he will not leave our house alive," so ill that 
 he himself was continually saying to his sister and 
 brother-in-law, " My work is done, I shall never be able 
 to do anything more," he began to rally after his visit 
 to Dover, and found himself able to dispense with the 
 two sticks, by the help of which he had hitherto walked. 
 The following letter seems to show that his mind also 
 had recovered its tone, and that in affection for his 
 friends, love of little ones, and tenderness towards past 
 associations, he was the same as ever. 
 
 To THE REV. ALFRED HENSLEY. 
 
 " Turvey Abbey, Bedford, Nov. n, 1862. 
 
 " Dearest Old Buck, I have been long wishing to 
 write to you. I have to thank you for many kind en- 
 quiries, and am now able to tell you, under my own 
 fist, that I am a great deal better than I was, though 
 still a lame dog, and very far from well. 
 
 " I have been over wonderful scenes, and often thought 
 of you, when I was most happy in them. But the 
 interest of entering the Holy Land (alas ! I did but 
 enter it !) surpassed everything. I made many sketches, 
 some of which I shall much like to shew you one bright 
 day. 
 
 Z 2
 
 340 LIFE OF DEAN BURGON. 
 
 " And on your side, what have you been doing "? 
 spoiling our little Fanny eh ? come, be honest, and tell 
 me exactly what kind of little maiden she is. Re- 
 member me kindly to your dear wife also, and be sure 
 you do not forget me yourself. 
 
 " Time steals on apace. Do you remember how we 
 two walked up Beaumont Street together, some twenty 
 years ago, to be matriculated 1 It seems like yesterday. 
 And yet, when my younger nephew took the same walk 
 the other day (he also is at Worcester), I was forcibly 
 reminded that full many a yesterday, to-day, and 
 to-morrow have gone to make up the sum of the years. 
 
 " One word more and I have done. Some one told me 
 the other day that you had helped to spread a report, 
 that I am going to be married. Nothing in the world is 
 more untrue. I have not had, for some years past, any 
 intention whatever of the kind. Do me the favour then, 
 if it be ever in your power, to contradict, in the roundest 
 manner, a report which cannot but be injurious to some- 
 body, and against which, when it is unfounded, every 
 instinct of chivalry revolts. Believe me ever, my dearest 
 old man, Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " JOHN W. BURGON. 
 
 " I fear I shall not be able to return to Oxford on this 
 side of Xmas. I hope you are well ? Adieu ! " 
 
 One quite sees in the fact of his having travelled in 
 the company of two or three ladies, whose society he 
 much enjoyed, and who greatly admired him, the genesis 
 of the false report about his marriage. 
 
 When Christmas came, his return to Oxford had still 
 
 1863- to be postponed; for on the i2th of January, 1863, we 
 
 3 find him thus writing to Professor Forbes, his old Tutor 
 
 at Mr. Greenlaw's School, Blackheath. He writes from 
 
 his elder sister's house at Houghton Conquest, to which, 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Higgins had brought him on Nov. 18 of 
 
 the preceding year. In the earlier part of the letter,
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE: FOURTH PERIOD. 341 
 
 after referring to the after life of several of his school- 
 fellows at Blackheath, he gives Professor Forbes a rapid 
 sketch of what had befallen him since he left school, 
 bringing down the narrative to the time of his illness, 
 and concluding thus : ' ; I am convalescent. nay, really 
 getting well ; but I am advised not to think of returning 
 to Oxford, until after Easter." From another paragraph 
 of this letter we find that the interest always hitherto felt 
 by him in the structure of Holy Scripture is still the 
 same as ever. Professor Forbes in his letter to him, had 
 referred to the subject of Parallelism, the great principle 
 of Hebrew poetry, and seems to have asked his opinion 
 on Bishop Jebb's well-known application of the principle 
 to the Lord's Prayer, and other passages of Holy Scripture 
 not usually considered poetical. Burgon replies : 
 
 " One word about Parallelism. I am not an un- 
 believer ; still less an unwilling listener; but / cannot 
 ee the proof. I see enough to feel convinced that there 
 is something in it. but I cannot take the leap sometimes 
 required of me ; or I hesitate to admit something which 
 seems to me purely arbitrary ; or an analogy seems to 
 me fanciful ; or a correspondence which clearly main- 
 tains in three instances, breaks down (me jwKce) in the 
 fourth. Thus (to speak somewhat at random) the Lord's 
 Prayer I have always thought consists of three petitions 
 which have God, and four which have men, for their 
 object. But you bid me isolate the fourth, and regard 
 it as a central petition, on either side of which others 
 balance. The Beatitudes I reckon at eight, not seven. 
 But be they in a manner seven, their partial correspon- 
 dence with the Lord's Prayer I have long since noticed 
 (and Augustine before me) ; but it is not (as far as I can 
 see) complete and systematic. To be brief, I wish to be 
 persuaded, but cannot persuade myself of more than this, 
 that there is something in it. Jebb has brought me thus 
 far, but no further. In the meantime I should rejoice 
 unspeakably if by this, or by any other unsuspected
 
 342 LIFE OF DEAN BUROON. 
 
 method, men could be convinced of the Divine structure 
 of the material of Holy Scripture. The hostility of the 
 world against God's Word is the most fearful sign of 
 the times." 
 
 His convalescence under God's blessing proceeded 
 favourably, and on the 9th of Feb. 1863, a letter was 
 addressed to him by Canon (afterwards Bishop) Christo- 
 pher Wordsworth, who had recently put forth his ' Tour 
 in Italy*! which was evidently designed to amuse him in 
 his retirement. The Canon had tried, he tells him, when 
 at Rome, to conciliate Padre Vercellone by showing him 
 Burgon's courteous words about him in his ' Letter* 
 from Rome V 
 
 " But, au contraire, your strictures on the errors in the 
 Roman edition 4 , and still more your strictures on the 
 errors of the Church of Rome (which he felt I believe to 
 be too well merited), were too much for him ; and he 
 almost foamed at the mouth. ... I had some reason to 
 fear that he would take me, and put an end to me by 
 letting me quietly down into the well of his Convent." 
 
 We find from his Journal that on the 5th of August 
 he was able to leave Houghton for Margate, where he 
 
 a The first Edition of the ' Tour ' and admirable edition of the Vul- 
 
 appeared early in 1863, and was no gate, which he has now in hand, 
 
 doubt sent by the Canon to his and of which part has already ap- 
 
 invalid friend shortly after its pub- peared. It ought to have a place 
 
 lication. A second Edition was in all our college libraries." ' Letters 
 
 published six months after, the from Rome to Friends in England,' 
 
 Preface to which is dated July p. 34. 
 
 39, 1863. The tour itself com- 4 The Canon means Cardinal Mai's 
 
 menced May 13, 1862, and may Edition of the Codex Vaticanus, 
 
 be said to have ended when the completed, after the Cardinal's 
 
 Canon and his party reached Paris death in 1854, by Padre Vercel- 
 
 on the return journey, July 4, 1862. lone. The "strictures" will be 
 
 "I cannot name this learned found in Letters II and III of 
 
 gentleman without recommending Burgon's ' Letters from Rome.' 
 to your notice the very laborious
 
 THE OXFORD LIFE; FOURTH PERIOD. 343 
 
 staid till the 1 1 th of September to complete his recovery, 
 then returning to Houghton. On the previous day, 
 icth September, which he notes as being the anniversary 
 of the day of his departure from England in 1861, he 
 received a letter from Mr. Chase, intimating his intention 
 of resigning the Vicarage of St. Mary the Virgin's, and five 
 days after, September 15, came another letter announc- 
 ing that he himself would be appointed to succeed Mr. 
 Chase, on Michaelmas Day, that is a fortnight afterwards. 
 By some dear friends and admirers in Oxford he was 
 strongly urged to accept the position. Hereupon he 
 moralises thus in his Journal : 
 
 " How is it that I am so faithless, as to be full of mis- 
 givings about my health, strength, ability, and the like? 
 Surely I am the most faithless thing alive ! 
 
 " My heart sinks too (but that is surely not inexcus- 
 able) at the consciousness that this is the last of my many 
 vacations here" (at Houghton) ; "the thought is heavy ; 
 and I watch the sands running out of the glass with a 
 pang unspeakable. Those many quiet studious days 
 and nights, at Christmas, at Easter, and in the summer, 
 sweetened by unceasing kindness, and by the society 
 of those seven who are so dear to me," [his sister and 
 brother-in-law and their five children], " are almost at 
 an end. This pleasant vicissitude with Oxford life, 
 a prolonged vicissitude, which I have found salutary for 
 mind and body will be no more. For short periods 
 it may be resumed ; but alas ! it must henceforth be 
 reckoned with the treasures of the past. This dear place 
 can never more be my home \ 
 
 " Such sorrow is good for us. It is good to face it. and 
 to feel it too. All things must come to an end. An 
 adopted like a real home, cannot (alas) be for ever. All 
 things here below have an end ; and I must now brace 
 up my heart to go forth when God calls me, and not 
 seek my own selfish enjoyment, as I did this time two 
 years ago. 
 
 " O my God, be with me ! leave me not, neither
 
 344 LIFE OF DEAN BURQON. 
 
 forsake me ! let the Angel of thy Presence comfort me. 
 and shew me my way in this wilderness of life, for the 
 sake of JESUS CHRIST, the Saviour of us all. J. W. B." 
 
 On Friday, the 9th of October, 1863, he left this happy 
 home for Oxford, to be inducted to the Vicarage of 
 St. Mary's. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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