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ry
\
WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D.
FIRST VOLUME
I,ONDON : PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.j NEW -STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
Fairi.:
'. U U -1-1 t\ K n U L> iv.
A I u i: 1 KAlt BY W. K. BRIGGS.
THE
LIFE AND LETTERS
OF
WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK
D.D. F.R.S.
BY
HIS SON-IN-LAW
W. R. W. STEPHENS
PREBENDARY OF CHICHESTER AND RECTOR OF WOOLBEDING
AUTHOR OF 'life OF S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM ' 'CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM ' ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. L
THIRD EDITION
LONDON
RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET
Ijixblisljcrs in Orbinacu to ^er ^ajcsti| \\i f^xxttxi
1879
All rights reserved
3%
PREFACE.
One of the earliest recollections of my childhood is
r^: concerned with the subject of this Memoir. When
[-; I was about five years old, I accompanied my father
^I and mother to London, on a visit to my uncle, then
Mr. William Page Wood. As we were going up-
to stairs on our arrival, my eye was caught by an oil-
^ portrait of a man with red hair and a large mouth,
^ which hung over the door of the drawing-room,
>- and I exclaimed, ' I don't think he's a pretty man.'
^ The justice of the criticism was not denied. My
mother allowed that he was not 'pretty,' but in-
formed me that he was very good, and, moreover,
" that he was my uncle's greatest friend. And from
^ that time forward I became very curious about * the
good man,' as I was taught to call him.
That portrait on the staircase was one of the
things I looked forward to seeing on our annual
visits to London. I looked at it with increasinof
interest year by year, as I gradually heard and
better understood who the subject of the portrait
was ; how he was Vicar of a very large and very
smoky town, far away in the north ; how he had
249234
vi Preface.
built a great church there, what thousands of people
flocked to it, what beautiful music was sung there,
what eloquent sermons he preached, and how
deeply he was beloved by the people ; and then,
again, how full of mirth he was, what funny letters
he wrote, and what droll things he said and did.
And on further acquaintance with the portrait, I
could see there was a sparkle in the eyes, and a
bright honest smile playing about the whole coun-
tenance, which largely compensated for the plainness
of the features ; and I almost felt remorse for having
ever ventured to say that the person depicted was
not a * pretty man.'
The interest which I thus learned to take from
childhood in the life of the Vicar of Leeds must be
offered as my principal apology for attempting to tell
the story of that life. During my boyhood, indeed,
and early youth, when he was in the plenitude of
his strength and full tide of his work, I very rarely
saw him, but I constantly heard about him ; and
when in his old age I became connected with him
through my marriage, and resided near him, he often
talked to me like a veteran soldier of his old cam-
paigns, and thus filled up and coloured for me in
a great measure that picture of his life which the de-
scriptions of others had already drawn in outline. It
may seem to be a disadvantage, on the one hand, that
a biographer should not personally have witnessed
the work of his subject, but on the other, he may be
able to write the history of past conflicts and con-
troversies more dispassionately and calmly than one
Preface. vli
who has Hved in the midst of them and has actually
taken part in them. At the same time, no one can
be more deeply sensible than I am how exceedingly
difficult it is to put together a faithful narrative of a
life passed in times which are, for the most part, too
distant for the writer to draw much on his own re-
collections, and yet too recent to be studied in the
pages of history. Not that I have endeavoured to
write what is commonly called a ' Life and Times,' a
combination which generally results in doing justice
to neither the life nor the times. My aim has been to
write the life of the man, to make him the central
figure throughout, and to touch upon surrounding
events only in proportion as they concerned him,
only in order to indicate the exact position which
he occupied relatively to them, and to show how
far he affected them, or how far he was affected
by them. As far as possible, I have made him
speak for himself, by his letters and diary, by
extracts from his speeches and published writings,
and by such fragments of his conversation as I or
others could recollect. The difficulty of selecting
and arranging copious materials of this kind,
covering a period of more than half-a-century, can
hardly be conceived by any but those who have
made a similar attempt ; and some indulgence is
due, from which I hope not to be exempted, for
defects in the execution of such a task.
To those who have aided me in it, and without
whose aid it could not have been accomplished with
that measure of completeness to which I trust it may
viii Preface.
pretend, I beg here most gratefully to acknowledge
my obligations.
Foremost amongst these must be placed my uncle,
Lord Hatherley, and my wife's aunt, Miss Hook.
They not only supplied me with a vast quantity of
valuable letters, but their full and exact reminiscences
of distant events have been an unfailing source of
trustworthy information. Besides the letter embody-
ing his reminiscences, which Lord Hatherley has been
good enough to write expressly for this Memoir, I have
inserted a few letters addressed by him to his friend
between the years 1830 and 1834, not only on ac-
count of their intrinsic excellence, but as illustrating
the variety of subjects on which the two friends cor-
responded.
I must thank the Rector of Whippingham, the
Rev. Canon Prothero, for endeavouring to glean
some local information relating to the time when
Dr. Hook was curate of that parish.
To the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Coventry, tho'
Rev. F. M. Beaumont, I am much indebted for in-
troducing me to some of the old inhabitants of
that city, more especially W. Odell, Esq., and Luke
Dresser, Esq., whose communications have been ex-
ceedingly useful.
In Leeds my thanks are very particularly due to
the Rev. E. Jackson, Incumbent of St. James's, and
Honorary Canon of Ripon, whose recollections, as
the intimate and confidential friend of the Vicar
during the period of his greatest activity, have been
especially valuable to me.
Preface. ix
My thanks are also due to the present Vicar of
Leeds, to T. Pridgin Teale, Esq., M.D., to G. B.
Nelson, Esq., and others, and, last but not least,
to Mr. Edwin Moore, Registrar of the parish church,
who rendered me immense aid in the toilsome work
of searching out notices bearing on my subject, con-
tained in the local contemporary journals.
In conclusion, I beg to thank collectively the
large number of persons who have placed letters
at my disposal, many of which are regarded by the
possessors as very precious treasures. One word of
caution may here be given to the readers of these
letters. They must bear in mind that the writer
was a man of very strong feelings and impulses. He
wrote, and especially to the great friend of his life,
in the most spontaneous manner, out of a very full
heart, about whatever was uppermost in his mind.
This, indeed, in a great measure, constitutes their
peculiar charm ; that they are the freshest and most
artless expressions possible of the writer's thoughts
and feelings at the moment when they were dashed
off; but for the same reason they must not always be
taken as representing the deliberate and final con-
clusions of his mind upon the matters of which they
treat.
The life which it has fallen to my lot to portray
was a singularly noble life. I would fain hope that
not a few of those who shall read the record may be
stirred up by the perusal to emulate the life.
WooLBEDiNG RECTORY: September 2"] , 1878.
VOL. I. a
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
CHAPTER PAGB
I. Early Life and Education. a.d. 1798-1821 . i
IL Ordination. Life at Whippingham. a.d. 1821-
1826 49
III. Life at Moseley and Birmingham, a.d. 1826-
1829 . . 114
IV. State of the Church — Rise of the * Tractarian *
School — Life at Coventry, a.d. 1829- 183 7 138
V, The Election to the Vicarage of Leeds, 1837 295
VI. Settlement at Leeds. July to December 1837 369
VIL Part I. Public Life from 1838 to 1840 , 415
LIFE
OF
WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. A.D. I798-182I.
Walter Farquiiar Hook was the eldest child of
the Rev. James Hook and Anne his wife, and was
born on March 13, 1798, at the residence in Conduit
Street, London, of his maternal grandfather. Sir
Walter Farquhar, Bart. He was eleven months
older than his only brother Robert, who died in
1873. Their only sister, Georgiana, who was several
years younger, has survived both her brothers.
His paternal grandfather, Mr. James Hook, who
was a composer and teacher of music at Norwich,
married Miss Madden, a lady eminently skilled in
painting. Out of a numerous family by this mar-
riage, only two sons lived to manhood, James, who
was born in June 1771, and Theodore, who was
seventeen years younger than his brother.
VOL. I. B
2 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1798-
James inherited the talents of his father and
mother, and added to them very considerable lite-
rary powers of his own. It was truly remarked by
one of his friends that had he devoted his whole
attention to painting, music, or literature, he would
have achieved a high reputation in either of the
three professions. His two novels, indeed, * Pen
Owen ' and * Percy Mallory,' entitle him to a high
place among the writers of fiction. Some of his
juvenile sketches were shown by his mother to Sir
Joshua Reynolds, who was so much struck by the
genius of the young artist that he strongly recom-
mended the boy's parents to have him trained for
the profession of a painter. A series of caricatures
of the leading public men of the day, statesmen,
lawyers, actors, and divines, drawn and coloured
when he was a school boy at Westminster, aged
fifteen, remains in possession of the family. They
are inimitably good, not being in the least overdone,
though full of humour ; and their value as portraits,
sketched from the life, of such men as Pitt, Fox,
Burke, Lord Thurlow, Boswell, Kemble, Munden,
and many more, has been pronounced by connoisseurs
to be very high indeed.
In music he had the same aptitude as his brother
Theodore for playing impromptu on the piano, and
was superior to him in execution and general know-
ledge of the art ; but although a ready versifier, he
did not improvise verses to his own accompaniments,
the accomplishment for which Theodore earned such
a remarkable reputation. His artistic tastes in fact
were rather discouraged by his mother, who feared
that they might dissipate his mind and allure it from
-1 82 1 His Father at Westminster. 3
the higher pursuits for which his more soHd abihties,
as she thought, fitted him. James Hook, indeed,
enjoyed the inestimable advantage of the training
and influence of a sensible and pious mother
throughout his youth, and to the loss of this blessing
at a very early age the follies and foibles of his
younger brother were doubtless very largely owing.
In the latter part of the last century Westminster
and Eton were the two great rival schools of Eng-
land, and a brisk fire of epigram and satire was
continually going on between the two through their
magazines, the Etonian * Microcosm ' and the West-
minster 'Trifler.' Hook was the artist of the ' Trifler,'
and one of his drawings represented the boys of the
two schools as being weighed by Justice in a pair of
scales. The Etonians, it is needless to say, were high
in air, although George HI. and other weighty per-
sonages were trying to depress their scale ; the West-
minsters on the other hand touched the ground. This
affront was retaliated by an epigram in the * Micro-
cosm ' from George Canning, then an Eton boy :
What mean ye by this print so rare,
Ye wits, of Eton jealous,
But that we soar aloft in air
While ye are heavy fellows }
But his antagonist was as ready with his pen as with
his pencil, and retorted in the 'Trifler' in a similar
strain :
Cease, ye Etonians, and no more
With rival wits contend :
Feathers, we know, will float in air,
And bubbles will ascend.
During some of his holidays Hook wrote the
B 2
4 Life of Waller Farquhar Hooh. 179S-
libretto for two of his father's operas which were
brought out in London. But notwithstanding his
inclination for artistic and literary occupation such
as has been indicated, his mother, who was anxious
that he should enter Holy Orders, carried her point,
and after taking his degree from St. Mary Hall,
Oxford, he was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of
Sodor and Man in 1796, and he married in the
following year.
Those were the days when plurallsts flourished
and abounded, and through the interest mainly of
his father-in-law. Sir Walter Farquhar, who was the
confidential friend as well as the physician of the
Prince of Wales, preferments were heaped upon
Mr. Hook in rapid succession. He became Rector
of Sadington in 1797, Chaplain to the Prince of
Wales in 1801, Rector of Epworth in 1802, of
Hertingfordbury in 1804, and of St. Andrew and
St. Nicholas, Hertford, in 1805.
The early childhood of Walter Farquhar Hook
was spent at the Rectory of Hertingfordbury, and
to this the home of his earliest recollections he ever
looked back with the fondest affection. A very few
years before his death he made a journey with his
youngest son expressly to see it ; to pace once more
the pleasant lawn and garden, and to see if the
names were still legible which in his boyhood he
had carved upon some of the trees that shaded the
path by the river side — the names of himself and of
his friend William Page Wood, together with the
names of Shakspeare and Milton, whom they both
loved with a passionate devotion.
While the sensitive tenderness and affectionate-
-1 821 A Mother s Influence. 5
ness of his nature was inherited from both his parents,
the vein of comic humour which equally distinguished
him, and which sometimes burst forth into rhyme
or frolicsome mirth after the manner of his uncle
Theodore, was derived from his father. On the other
hand like so many men who have been good as well as
great, he thankfully acknowledged that whatever moral
virtue he had was largely due to the careful training in
early life of a pious mother. ' How much,' he writes
in 1829, * my dearest mother, do I owe to you. How
often do I trace all that is good in me to the blessing
of the Holy Spirit upon your labours, when in my
grandfather's bed-room you used to inculcate so
pleasantly the truths of Revelation into the hearts
of dear Bobby and myself ; those dear square, red
books of Mrs. Trimmer out of which you read to us
— how well I remember them, and how I wish I still
possessed them ! '
The two brothers, Walter and Robert, learned
all the rudiments of knowledge, including Latin,
from their mother till they were about eight or nine
years of age. A summary of their progress and
remarks upon their character which she wrote,
seemingly for her own private use, at the beginnings
of the years 1805 and 1806, are striking proofs of
the truth of the saying, * the child is father to the
man.' Walter is described as being very fond of
reading, inquisitive, and anxious to have everything
explained ; persevering, and resolute in conquering
difficulties, with a strong idea of principle, and a
warmth of religious feeling rare in so young a child.
His principal defects are said to be a shy and awk-
ward manner, and an impulsive and irritable temper,
6 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 179S-
easily exasperated by opposition, coupled, however,
with a keen sense of remorse. On the whole his
mother considered that his character was one which
required moderate, judicious encouragement, but
was unable to bear much praise. Those who knew
him best will easily recognise in this description
some of the qualities which were most conspicuous
in him throughout life.
When he was about nine years old he was sent
with his brother to a school at Hertford, kept by
Dr. Luscombe, and from this school he writes to his
mother in February 18 10 a letter which is the
earliest piece of his writing that I have discovered.
* Dearest Mother, — I wish June was come and
I had to tell you that I was in the Fourth Form.
I am very sorry that I am not in the Third Form,
but you know I tried very, very hard. It is an ill
reward for my fagging ; but it is the will of God
that I should not go into the Third Form, and the
will of God must be done.'
Soon after this the two brothers were removed
to Tiverton in Devonshire. Their recollections of
this school were not pleasant. The teaching was
indifferent, the discipline severe, and the food
scanty. They saved up their spare pence to buy
buns and loaves from time to time to alleviate the
pangs of hunger. In the letters, however, written
by Walter at this time there are no complaints ; and
in his handwriting there is very great improvement.
The style of his letters becomes curiously grand and
sententious ; but they are written then as ever after in
pure, sound English. In one too long for transcrip-
tion, bearing date November i, iSii, he begins : —
-i82i Tiverton School.
• ]\Iy dear Mamma, — You will with me pity that
wicked boy, Henry George Salter, who is now
publicly expelled from this school : and his master,
Master Richards, blotted his name from the Register,
October 30, 181 1, that it may be handed down to
generations.' Then follows an account of how this
' wicked boy ' enticed another to run away with
him, having borrowed a watch which he afterwards
sold, saying they would go to London where he
would persuade his grandmother to leave him her
immense fortune, which he would divide with his
companion. The runaways were captured, and
Salter wrote a contrite letter upon which young
Walter observes, ' Well, so far one would think him
to be penitent Salter, but /say, Salter the hypocrite ; '
and he then goes on to relate how this naughty boy
repeated his escapade, borrowing and selling another
watch, after which he was expelled in the awful
manner described at the beginning of the letter.
In 1 8 1 2, the year after this tragical occurrence, the
brothers were removed to * Commoners ' Winchester.
Their father had become a Canon of Winchester,
and this circumstance probably led to the selection
of the school. The narrative of Lord Hatherley ^
placed at the end of this volume and the letters
which I have added render it unnecessary for me
to trace at length Hook's school career, and I shall
confine myself to some general remarks upon his
character and conduct at this period.
In the first place having been ill taught at
Tiverton, he was very backward in scholarship,
which at that time was the beginning and ending of
* Formerly William Page Wood.
8 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1798-
education at a public school. At the instigation and
with the help of his friend, William Page Wood, as
will be seen, he ultimately obtained a fair position
in the school ; but it may be doubted whether under
the most favourable circumstances he would ever
have made a finished scholar. His mind was not of
that critical order which delights in nicely balancing
various forms of expression and determining their
precise shades of meaning. He always read books
for instruction or pleasure, and if he got this from
them he cared little about the mould in which the
contents were cast. Lively, ready, and original,
too, as he was in writing and conversation, he was
always rather slow of apprehension, he had great
difficulty in committing to memory, nor was his
memory, especially for words, very retentive. He
was never a rapid reader, and those who read aloud
to him — a luxury of which he was very fond in
later life — were always required to read very slowly
and sometimes to repeat a passage, not seemingly
obscure, several times before he could take it in.
On the other hand, even when he came to Win-
chester his delight in reading the best English poets
and historians, and the extent of his acquaintance with
them were very uncommon for a boy of fourteen.
His admiration for ShaksjDeare and Milton grew into
a passionate enthusiasm for which it would be hard
to find anything like a parallel. Scarcely any letter
written throughout his school or college days is
•without some reference to or quotation from these
favourites. To read them he neglected his school
work, and withdrew from the ordinary sports of his
schoolfellows. He complains in one of his letters,
-i82i WmcJiestcr.
September 1813, that the racket and bullying out of
school are so great that he can get no time to pursue
his favourite studies and meditations ; that he has
discovered a new hiding place, a hollow space about
six feet deep enclosed by stacks of timber, on a
wharf, into which he retreats to read, but that like all
the rest of his haunts he fears it will soon be detected.
Probably it was for the same purpose of undisturbed
reading that he chose to ' take a tunding,' that is, a
severe thrashing, twice, rather than fag at foot-ball.
It will readily be supposed that to a boy so averse
alike from the ordinary work and pastimes of the
place, school life was anything but a time of enjoy-
ment. In fact he often said that but for his friend-
ship with Wood it would have been insupportable.
His lamentations are poured forth in letters which
are at times really pathetic, but still more often
irresistibly droll, from the incongruity between the
tragic tone of despair in which they are written and
the actual circumstances of the case.
In October 18 13 he writes to his brother, who
for some cause was absent from school : * I hate
this place more and more every day. I was licked
yesterday more severely than ever before. I cannot
run or hollow out loud even now without hurting my
side, and I am to be licked again to-day for writing
this : yet I should not be able to write at another
time as I go " at top of hall " ^ and get so much to
do. I begin to fear my licking. If I am killed, which
I think I shall be, tell Etheridge ^ to send you my
* A technical Winchester phrase, signifying that the boy so placed
was liable to answer any demand for fagging.
' The school butler.
lo Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 179S-
books, and hope that I am in heaven happier than all
of you ; if for my sins I am condemned to hell, pity
me, dear Robert, pity me.^ Let Milton be buried with
me, as he has gone through all my hardships with me.'
Writing a year later he says that though he still
hates the place, he is not so rebellious as he used to
be, and regards his prison house from a more philo-
sophical point of view. * I endeavour to find out the
comforts, if any there be, and not the miseries of this
place, for as my dear and beloved bard, the honour
of England and of the whole of this terrestrial orb
says, " the mind is its own place and can make an
Heaven of Hell, an Hell of Heaven." Combined
with his love of reading in retirement was a habit of
meditation and reverie from which, though in itself of
rather a melancholy nature, he seems to have derived
a peculiar kind of enjoyment. Writing to his grand-
father, Sir Walter Farquhar, in 18 16, he says, *I
would have you know that if you think nothing ill
will turn out from this melancholy I should still like
to be possessed by it, as I am exceedingly happy
when I have it, owing to the amusing thoughts which
come into my mind at such times.'
His grandfather, indeed, who had won his way
from obscurity to the top of his profession by hard
industry and talents of the most practical order,
although he had formed a high opinion of the
abilities of his grandson, was much exercised by fears
lest he should become too poetical and dreamy to
make his way in the world. The following letter
written a short time before that of his grandson's
^ How Robert was to know whether he was condemned to hell or
not, does not appear.
-1 82 1 Winchester. ii
just quoted, is a quaint illustration of this dread, and
savours of that shrewd worldly wisdom, frugality, and
caution, to which he, in common with so many of his
countrymen, mainly owed his success in life.
Conduit St.: June 8, 1815.
My dear Walter, — Your passion and steady attachment
for Milton and Shakspcare, I admire, but as I have not
one single particle of poetic fire in my mind and never
had, I am not a judge of the justice of your adoration, and
therefore you must forgive me for not entering keenly into
your indignation at your tutor's presuming to correct
Shakspeare. The word ' beteem ' I certainly should not
have understood without your explanation, and I should
have been considered a great blockhead by you enthusiasts,
whom I, on my part, a man of plain common sense, deem
a little mad when you get on your hobbies. However I
don't mean to stop you full gallop. You may run on, and
I will every year add to your library books worth ten
guineas, as I am pleased that you have made so good an
use of my first present. I therefore desire that you will
rummage your poetic and critical brain, and let me know
the authors that your next passion lead you to, and before
18 1 5 is at an end I will furnish the next shelf in your
library. Sometimes I would wish you to descend from
the flights of poetry, and study those things that may be
useful to you in life, and teach a poor man how to live
comfortably upon little, and I shall therefore add to the list
you send me of books, Cocker's ' Arithmetic ' and Euclid's
* Elements.' Spare half an hour now and then to look into
them. You have a first cousin W. Mathison who has
shown some talent for figures, mathematics, &c. I have con-
sequently made him a present of Euclid's 'Elements,' and
if you get over the fifth proposition, the Bridge of Asses, I
shall conceive that with your assiduity and application you
may even become a mathematician as well as a poet. My
love to Robert. I don't know what he has done with his
ri Life of Walter Farqithar Hook. 1798-
ten guineas, and when he tells me this, I shall then tell
him what further I mean to do for him. I want to make
him a plodding Dutchman, by which means he may make
fortune enough to assist you and your family before you
get rich in the Church, or become a Bishop ; as a poet you
will run the risk of dying in a garret excepting you bestow
a little time occasionally on Cocker, and learn how to make
a little money go far, and to manage the sober, dull realities
of life in place of being in the poetical clouds for ever.
I have had a severe attack of cold and cough and been
confined to my room, but I am now much better. I am not
quite clear that you would have had so long a letter if I
had been able to trudge about as usual.
I am with great attachment, my dear boy,
Your affectionate Grandfather,
W. Farquhar.
There was not, however, in Walter Hook any of
that sickliness and softness, either of body or mind,
which is so commonly found in boys of a pensive,
meditative disposition, who have no relish for the
ordinary amusements of their companions. Although
tall, gaunt, and so old-looking for his age that one
of his school friends now living says, that his face In
mature manhood always seemed to him much the
same as what It was In boyhood, yet he was muscular
and vigorous In no common degree ; none could
swim further or dive deeper ; and an audacious bully
who once dared to say In his presence that Shak-
speare was a fool, was instantly felled to the ground
by the fist of the muscular devotee. Some soldiers
also on one occasion having tried to usurp a bathing
place belonging to the boys, he was selected to fight
one of the Intruders and made very short work of
his antagonist. Few, if any, of the boys had such a
-1 82 1 Winchester. I3
peculiar kind of droll humour, and to spend an evening-
with Walter in the holidays was considered by his
young cousins more amusing than a visit to the theatre.
The matron who took care of the boys' linen at
Winchester was celebrated for affectins: knowledo^e
on all conceivable subjects of enquiry, and it was his
delight to put such strange questions to her as would
elicit equally strange answers. ' Pray ma'am,' said
he one day to her with an air of exceeding solemnity,
* What is your opinion of Charles XII. of Sweden ? '
' Well, Mr. Hook,' she replied, ' I haven't been able
to read the papers lately and of course I am not
personally acquainted with him.' No one watched
with a keener vigilance for the extraordinary and
ludicrous blunders made by one of the old minor
canons of the Cathedral in his sermons. Two of
these especially were never forgotten, and were often
repeated by him, or as will be seen referred to in
his letters ; and indeed they were worth preservation
as specimens of the stuff sometimes tolerated in our
cathedral pulpits at the beginning of this century.
One was, * What is impossible can never be, and very
seldom comes to pass ; ' the other, * O tempora ! O
mores ! what times we live in : little girls and boys
run about the streets cursing and swearing before
they can either walk or talk.'
Again, although his religious feelings, and his senti-
ments of affection for his relations and intimate friend
are expressed in fervent rapturous language most un-
common in a schoolboy, yet there is nothing unnatural,
unhealthy, or effeminate to be detected in them. They
were the genuine offspring of a heart warm indeed and
tender, yet manly and courageous. He was, in fact,
14 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1798-
in boyhood and throughout Hfe eminently EngHsh and
eminently Christian ; qualities which in their highest
manifestation are incompatible with any tinge of
morbid sentiment in the character. And one of the
reasons why he regretted the rigid restriction of
school work to the study of Greek and Latin was
that boys grew up knowing more about Rome than
England, more about Paganism than Christianity.
Not that he was narrow in his tastes : he read any
history with great interest, and in good poetry he
delighted in any language in which he could read it ;
but English history and English writers had a charm
for him which the history and the writers of other
nations could not excite. Having been brought up,
too, in the strictest and straitest school of Toryism,
he fully believed that the British Constitution, alike
in Church and State, was the most perfect piece of
machinery which could be found under the sun, and
in the beginning at any rate of his school days he
was prepared sturdily to uphold the virtue of the
Prince Regent and the wisdom of Lord Castlereagh
asfainst all assailants. In like manner he would
scarcely allow a blemish in the moral beauty of Mr.
Pitt or a redeeming virtue in the moral blackness of
Mr. Fox. In June 18 16, he writes to his mother,
* At a party at Mr. Rickett's, in the course of conver-
sation Mr. R. said that drinking^ was the chief thinof
which killed our great statesman Mr. Pitt. I thought
at first he made a mistake and meant that fellow
Fox, so I just asked him over again to see if he
really meant what he said, but afterwards I asked
everyone who was present, when Mr. R. had left
the room, not to mention what had passed in
- 1 S2 1 Winchester. 1 5
Commoners for it would cause much laughter against
me, as I always call Fox a "drunken beast;" and
now I mean to ask you to petition grandpapa to
dictate a few lines as Pitt's doctor and send them
to me stating what really did kill him.'
Combined with his intense love and admiration
for everything English, and partly as a consequence
of it, was an antipathy and contempt for foreigners
and foreign institutions. He was quite prepared
to accept the saying of Sam Johnson, ' For all
I can see, foreigners are fools ; ' and he was fully
persuaded of the truth of the old popular tradi-
tion handed down from the days of Agincourt, that
'one Englishman was a match for fourteen French-
men.' Of course his estimates of public men and
historical characters in many cases underwent great
alterations with his advance in age, study, and ex-
perience, but foreigners as a whole he always re-
garded with aversion ; and there was one eminent
person of whose character his opinion never changed,
and that was Napoleon Buonaparte. His only com-
plaint, he says in 18 16 of Scott's ' Life of Napoleon/
was that he had * profaned British paper with the
name of ex-Emperor,' and to the end of his life he
never spoke of Napoleon by any other name than
Buonaparte, regarding him as an unprincipled tyrant
and a heartless ravager of the earth, colossal indeed
if measured by an intellectual standard, but morally
one of the meanest of mankind.
Although he did not obtain any classical prizes,
except one for getting into the Sixth Form by a spe-
cial effort, the nature of which is described in Lord
Hatherley's narrative, he twice gained the silver
1 6 Life of Walter Fai'quhar Hook. 1798-
medal for recitation on the Speech Day. The first
was in 1S16, when he recited the celebrated speech
of Antony upon the death of JuHus Csesar. His
voice already possessed much of that rich, melodious
softness and flexibility, combined with great volume
of tone, for which he was afterwards so remarkably
distinguished, and although he did not inherit any of
his father's or grandfather's musical talents, and could
not tell one tune from another, he was at this time
as always very pure in his pronunciation, and skilful
in the modulation of his utterances. His hearers on
this occasion seem to have been completely capti-
vated and enchanted. Canon Nott writes to his
father : ' Your son's speaking was admirable. It was
neither acting nor declamation, but a chaste medium
between the two. He himself felt and made others
feel the beauties of his poet. You know the speech :
t\\Q gradual introduction of the sneer, " For Brutus
is an honourable man," was admirable. Had it been
a sneer from the first, it would not have been in
nature. Antony did not venture to insinuate any-
thing: ao^ainst Brutus until he was certain he should
not offend, and this he could not have been in the
first instance.' He gained the medal also in the
following year for his recitation of Satan's speech to
the Sun in Milton's * Paradise Lost.'
The perseverance with which he worked for the
special examination already alluded to, in order
to obtain his remove into the Sixth Form, was
the first indication of that energy and industry
in study which were afterwards so eminently
characteristic of him. He sometimes rose at three
in the morning to read his Greek play ; and Dr.
-1 82 1 Leaves WmcJiester. 17
Gabell told his parents that the progress which he
made while working for his remove was beyond
what he could have thought it possible for any boy
to make in the time. Having, moreover, once won
his way to the highest form, he showed much anxiety
to maintain his position with credit ; and the mis-
cellaneous reading which had impeded his progress
upwards in the school where so much depended
on technical scholarship, now became an advantage
and a help.
His mother writes of him at this period with
mingled anxiety and pride.
His irritable, choleric temper, his fits of melan-
choly, his tendency in many ways to impulsiveness
and eccentricity, caused her some uneasiness ; but
on the other hand the warmth of his affection, his
deep sense of religion, and the capacity which he
had lately shown for working with dogged resolution
when once convinced that duty demanded it, filled
her with hope. Dr. Gabell also and all the masters
spoke of his general character and conduct in terms
of the most unqualified praise, and even admiration.
It had been intended that he should leave Win-
chester at the end of the year 18 16, but at the
urgent recommendation of Dr. Gabell, who thought
that the delay would enable him to enter upon his
Oxford career with better prospects of success, it
was decided that he should remain another half-year.
His grandfather obtained a nomination for him
from the Prince Regent to a studentship at Christ
Church, and in December 1817 he was admitted a
member of that House.
Save for the parting with his deeply beloved
VOL. I. C
1 8 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 179S-
friend, he quitted Winchester without a pang of
regret. But that parting was a very severe trial to
both. They had lived a life there which was all
their own ; a life bound by the closest ties not only
of common interests but of reciprocal obligations,
for each had helped to supply what was lacking
in the other. And though both felt sure that the
friendship never could be broken, yet frequent inter-
course was now to cease, and, as it turned out, for a
much longer period than either could have antici-
pated. Their favourite walk in meads, the old tree
beneath which they had compared their youthful
attempts in poetry, and Hook had read his tragedy
of James II., the chalk pit in which at 'Evening
Hills' they used to sit each with his Shakspeare
and read the dialogue by turns, the stroll home
by * Goddard's walk ' — all these scenes were to be
abandoned, all these incidents of daily life were to
be brought to a close, and bitter was the grief.
ITOVOL Ko'ivoi Xofywy,
6iJb6(jTS<ybs TS Kal avvsarios ^109,
vovs els sv dfKpoiv ov Bv(o, ....
ZucTKshaaTai irdvTa, KappiTrrai '^^a/xaL^
He began his residence at Oxford in Lent Term,
18 1 8. A letter from his grandfather written soon
after cautions him against allowing himself to be
drawn into discussions about the character of the
Prince to whom he owed his studentship ; advises
him to keep a commonplace book, and to practise
declamation before a looking glass that he may study
grace of action as well as eloquence in public speak-
ing. Encouraged by his grandson's success in reci-
* Greg. Nazianz. De Viid Sud, vol. ii. p. 8, C.
-iS2i Oxford. 19
tations at Winchester, Sir Walter Farquhar was at
this time anxious that he should prepare for the
Bar ; and no doubt with this view the recommenda-
tion to the rather gaunt, ungainly youth to study
gracefulness of action was not undesirable. His
awkwardness was no doubt increased at this time
by extreme shyness, of which the following letter,
describing his first appearance as a Freshman in
Hall, furnishes an amusing specimen.
Christ Church, Oxon.
My dear Brother, — When you went away I called on
Mr. Goodenough ; but finding him out, I had an audience
with Mrs. Bright, who was bright as usual in her conversa-
tion, promised to give me advice, and lend me * Anacharsis,'
&c. I then saw Mr. G., but all the information that I
could get from him was, that I was to dine in Hall, go to
Chapel, and hereafter write a Latin letter, all which I knew
before ; about an hour after this, I was seized with a
violent fit of what we Wykehamists call ' funk,' occasioned
(as learned physicians tell me) by the prospect of dining in
Hall ; the symptoms at length began to grow alarming, for
about one o'clock I could not read, write, or think, save of
going up into Hall. About half-past, my memory began
to fail, so much so, that I quite forgot whether the dinner
hour was a quarter to four or a quarter after four ; so I
went to dress. Somewhere about three the bells began to
ring for Cathedral, and as by this time I had entirely lost
my memory, I began to fear that I must have made a
mistake, and taken four for three when I was told the
hour. Consequently, I sallied forth, cap and gown, &c., &c.
when finding no dinner, or thought of dinner, I retired
again into my lurking hole, peeping out of my bedroom
window to see if I could see any men going to dinner ; at
a quarter to four I hurried out again ; no dinner ready ;
looked out of window for another half hour ; quarter past
four sallied forth again, and in about five minutes walked
c 2
20 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 179S-
* with stately pace and slow,' into Hall, astonishing the weak
minds of the inhabitants, who gazed with silent admiration
on me, either captivated by the brilliancy ot my head or
the beauty of my person. Mortal dull at dinner. Nobody
to talk to ; there were only two more Commoners besides
myself; blushed, looked sheepish ; tried to carve some veal
for myself, failed ; at length pulled off some meat ; blushed
again, looked more sheepish than before ; took courage at
length, and called like a hero for some cheese ; looked for my
cap, could not find it ; at length the servant discovered it ;
I marched out of Hall, and here I am. This, my dear Bob,
is all that I have done to-day, which amounts to nothing.
I am very dull indeed, I should like never to speak to any
one, as far as convenience goes, for it would enable a man
to study double tides ; but it seems so horridly stupid,
that I do not like it. I am rather grumpy, but I wrote this
in good spirits, having just performed a wonderful adven-
ture : but I am beginning to have a second attack, for how
am I to know where to sit in Chapel to-morrow, and various
other things. I wish very much that I knew somebody or
other ; it would be very convenient, to say the least of it,
but ' nihil est ab omni parte beatum,' and I am so delighted
with my room that I know not whether it does not make
up for other inconveniences.
His life, indeed, at Oxford was more peculiar
and isolated than it had been at Winchester ; and of
course there were more opportunities for seclusion.
He had no sympathy with the ordinary course of
study, and had no longer a friend at hand to stimu-
late him in uncongenial work. He soon, therefore,
abandoned all attempts to read for honours, and
fell back with zest upon the study of his favourite
English authors, to whom he now added Hooker
and Jeremy Taylor. But his beloved Shakspeare
still reigned supreme in his affections ; and it is not
too much to say that the characters in Shakspeare s
-1 82 1 Oxford. 2 1
plays were by far the most real companions and
friends of his Oxford life. With Newman he had
little or no acquaintance. With Pusey he had some
degree of intimacy, yet his name is very rarely
mentioned in his letters. Keble, who had taken
his degree eight years before, he beheld with a kind
of distant reverence and awe. The one unalterable
friend to whom he turned for sympathy in all moods,
whether of joyousness or depression, was his Shak-
speare. The following letters will forcibly illustrate
the truth of this observation, which indeed is corro-
borated by the countless allusions to the same
subject with which his letters teem during this
period. The first letter, from which an extract is
here given, was written on hearing that his grand-
father was recovering from a serious illness.
.... * You cannot imagine how truly happy your
kind letter made me. It set me quite in spirits.
The minute I opened the letter and saw the news I
pulled down my Shakspeare and had a very merry
hour with Sir John Falstaff. I was determined
to laugh heartily all that day. I asked Sir John to
wine with me. I decantered a bottle of my beloved
grandfather's best port, and Sir John and I drank
his health right merrily. Perhaps you will want to
know how my old friend Sir John drank my grand-
father's health. Why I took care to find out the
place where he drinks Justice Shallow's health.
And so when I said " Here's to Sir Walter," I looked
on the book and the knight said " Health and long
life to him." But perhaps you will think me a little
cracked for opening my " oak " to you, so I will talk
more seriously. . . .'
2 2 Life of Walter Farq^ihar Hook. 1798-
The next letter written to his father a month
later illustrates yet more vividly the manner in
which he peopled his solitude with the characters of
Shakspeare, so that never did anyone more com-
pletely make good the saying, ' Nunquam minus solus
quam cum solus.*
Christ Church, Oxford : April 27, 1 81 8.
Corckran has gone out sailing to-day with Mr. Barring-
ton, a son of Lord Barrington, so that I stay at home ; for
to tell you the truth till Corckran comes, since Halliday
left, I have taken no walks in the day-time, for it is impos-
sible to take a solitary walk, as in whatever direction you
go, you must meet some man, and therefore it looks so
spoony to be by yourself, that I do not like to walk out ;
and I do not like to walk with any man I know here, for
v/ith the exception of Duncombe, Sandford, and Napier,
who perhaps think the same of me as I do of my other
acquaintance, the men I know are such raffs in look and
manner, that I do not like to walk with them, lest I should
be judged by my comrades, I therefore go out at about
eight o'clock, and run for about an hour up and down
Christ Church walk (not meads), which is always deserted
about that time, except once I met a man not of the
University there ; but I do not think exercise agrees with
me, for I had almost forgotten what a headache was till
to-day, and yesterday I walked about seven miles with
Corckran, and am fit for nothing but a long letter ; and
yet I am as happy, if not more so (one single thing would
make me more so), than I have ever been, except last
summer. I have got into a very dissolute set of men, but
they are so pleasant that they make me very often idle,
when I otherwise should not be so. It consists of one Tuft,
H.R.H. Henry Prince of Wales, and a gentleman Com-
moner named Sir John Falstaff, and a Mr. Poins, and we
have several inferior associates such as Bardolph and Pistol,
and some others; and with these I spend most of my time :
^iS2i Oxford. 23
I breakfast with them, drink tea, and sometimes wine with
them ; of course they sit at a different table from me at
dinner.
Sir John, or as I call him (being great ' cons ' with him),
Jack, is very fond of a capon ; and I * sported beaver ' the
other day, and went into the market to find one, but could
not succeed. I have likewise been made acquainted by
Mr. Richardson of Edinburgh with a Danish Prince, and I
begin to think that I have mastered a knowledge of his
character, which is most amiable. However it is my inten-
tion to take all these to Whippingham, and there leave
them till I have taken my Degree, as they make me very
idle. I shall miss them much next term, for nobody at
Oxford can suit me like them.
The general charm of his letters at this period is
that they are not filled with the ordinary gossip of
an undergraduate about Oxford work, Oxford poli-
tics, Oxford amusements, but with subjects alto-
gether peculiar to himself.
The characters in Shakspeare's plays being his
most intimate friends, he was naturally very jealous
of Shakspeare's honour, and watched with the keenest
interest the manner in which he was represented
on the stage. A mutilated version of * King Lear *
which had lately been produced having come into
his hands, he writes in a fury of indignation to his
mother, November 1818 :
* It is the veriest trash I ever read. Had I time
I could point out hundreds of absurdities in it. I
could turn myself into a brute beast, and gaze with
pleasure at the men who pass off such stuff for our
Shakspeare's, were they hanging on the next tree.
This has plagued me more than you can imagine :
it has been in my thoughts day and night since I
24 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 179S-
first discovered it. I feel the pride of an English-
man in thinking that we can boast of Shakspeare,
and consequently I feel indignant and exasperated
at seeing our Shakspeare altered to the miserable
taste of the French, who have no theatre of their
own but only a corruption of the ancients. . . .
This preys upon my mind, and in good sooth makes
me quite unhappy ; let us quit the subject.'
The event, however, which most powerfully ex-
cited and absorbed his interest during a portion of
the year 1 8 1 8, was the great rebellion of the boys
at Winchester, which led to the temporary dissolu-
tion of the school. His interest was owing partly
to the intrinsic importance and extraordinary charac-
ter of the event, but more especially to the part
which his friend Wood played in it. I have selected
the following letter out of many which he wrote
upon the subject because, taken together with the
account given in Lord Hatherley's narrative, it forms
an interesting original piece of evidence respecting
a very curious episode in the history of Wykeham's
great school.
Christ Church, Oxford : May 12, 18 18.
My dear Mother, .... Grievance upon grievance
irritated them ; but the immediate cause was Gabell's
threatening to expel Porcher for setting watches to find
out when he was approaching, a custom handed down from
our ancestors, and daily exercised during the six years
which I had the honour of spending at Winchester. They
tried remonstrance, which as usual only irritated Gabell.
The spirit had been long concealed in the school ; this
made it break out. Several patriotic songs were sung, and
thus the lion in each boy's soul having been roused, a
rebellion was openly proposed. Every single boy in Com-
-1831 Rebellion at Winchester. 25
moners assented. A message was sent into College, and
all except unanimously agreed. This was on Wed-
nesday ; it was proposed to be carried into execution on
Monday ; consequently deputies met, and everything was
privately agreed, and notice given for each boy to supply
himself with a small pickaxe and a large club ; but on
Thursday information was given that Wickham, the sur-
geon, knew of the schemes, consequently open war com-
menced at a quarter to four. Thursday evening every
boy was armed with a club ; a patriotic song was sung.
Etheridge was seized, licked, and the keys of Commons
taken from him ; the Commoners rushed into College, took
the porter and his keys, and locked the great gates of the
inner quadrangle. They closed them to all the masters and
everybody, except David Williams and his wife, who passed
unmolested on condition that he would bring nobody else
in with him. A patriotic song was then sung, three cheers
given, and they fell to work with their pickaxes, and dug
up the great stones of the quadrangle, took possession of
the towers, carried their stones to the top of them, and
everything was prepared for a general siege. The Warden's
door was blocked up, and all his windows broken. These
proceedings went on admirably during the night, and
College was so admirably defended with such regularity
and order, that though Gabell, with John Williams as his
aide-de-camp, and some constables, made several attempts
to break into College, they were repulsed entirely. These
particulars I have from Wood's letter to me, and Deane's
(who did not join) to Heathcote. What happened in the
intermediate time I have not yet heard, as Wood had not
time to write a long account. All night those who were
not on duty sat on the top of the different towers of the
Chapel and College, singing patriotic songs. On Friday,
Bernard, the brother of the Prebendary, came down to say
that the military was called out, and all afterwards found
resisting would be sent to prison. A conference was after-
wards held with Urquhart from one of the Warden's
windows, the boys, except those on duty, standing on the
26 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 179S-
tower, in which he told them they might go whithersoever
they Hked. Afterwards they made an unfortunate sally,
intending some of them to have a dinner at the ' George/
and then return ; but they were met (notwithstanding the
promise of being unmolested) by a body of soldiers, by
Mrs. Heathcote's house. A little skirmish ensued. Two
or three who had dirks rushed into the middle of the
soldiers, and fought as brave men should do ; they were,
however, taken prisoners, and secured in the Cathedral.
The rest were then put to flight. They were persuaded to
meet Gabell, who expelled a certain number, and the rest
(having bound themselves to be expelled if one was) like-
wise went ; but some were taken by the constables, and
some were persuaded to go back. However, the next day,
most of them rushed up to the ' George,' where sixty of
them dined, and the rest went home. There are still be-
tween eighty and ninety who cannot escape ; but who
have broken every window in Commoners, and refuse to
go to chapel and school, who are only watching for an
opportunity to keep their oaths. If I had been the leader,
I should have managed better. There is a room in College
whefe all the wills and deeds of College are kept ; having
got them once in their hands, they could have threatened
to destroy them, and made College listen to any condi-
tions. A party of Wykehamists met last night, and drank
the health of the rebels in three times three.
In another letter he writes that he was quite
intoxicated with joy at hearing of the rebellion.
* All yesterday I was in such a fever of delight that
I have now no small headache. I was runningf all
over Oxford to get news, and then retailed them
with a little bragging to all the men of Eton and
Westminster that I know. The Etonians are full of
admiration : the Westminsters are thunderstruck.
Winchester will now be looked upon as the only
school ; it beats every other school in everything,
-i82i Oxford. 27
except Westminster in rowing and Eton in putting
on a neckcloth.'
In the following year, 18 19, we find him just
after passing his ' Little Go ' more averse than ever
from classical studies, more thoroughly wedded to
his own peculiar and secluded ways of life. In a
letter to his mother he declaims vehemently against
mere scholarship, and declares his conviction of his
utter inability ever to become a scholar in the tech-
nical sense. He would have written before but he
had been reading hard, and his faculties and feelings
seemed blunted by the labour. ' I hate verbal
critics,' he proceeds, 'even on Shakspeare, and
though they may be a useful, they seem to me to be
a rather despicable, set. I shall never become a
scholar, my memory is so wretchedly bad and I am
so deficient in the art of acquiring the idiom of
language ; these, together with an inaccuracy as un-
accountable as it seems incurable, and a slowness
almost inconceivable in reading, are powerful enemies,
and I am striving to conquer them, but hitherto in
vain.'
The quaintness and oddity of his habits are
indicated in the following letter to his aunt Mrs.
Mathison, written in the same year. There is a
tone of philosophic irony also in his remarks upon
the ways of ordinary men as contrasted with his own
which has a Shakspearian ring about it, and sounds
like the utterance of a disciple of the * melancholy
Jacques ' in ' As you like it.'
Christ Church, Oxford : 1819.
Not many years ago I thought when I arrived at the
age of twenty-one I should entirely put away childish
28 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1798-
things. But I really find in myself no alteration from
what I was twelve years ago. I know nothing, even the
most childish thing, in which I used to delight and find
amusement then, that I could not do just the same now.
And my mind is just as wandering and unsettled. My
ideas are more extensive, inasmuch as I know more ; but
they are cast in the same mould and run on the same
subjects. I used to find great pleasure in taking a stick
and flogging trees as if they were my schoolboys, and now
I can find just as much pleasure in taking a stick and
fighting through a hedge as if it were an army and I an
Orlando ; and there is not one of the many games which I
used to invent for myself then that I could not enjoy
equally now. And when I reflect coolly upon these things,
I think that half the world, discovering the little things in
which I can find amusement (which Heaven forefend),
would put me down as the most consummate idiot and
fool. And yet when, as I said before, I reflect coolly on
the matter, I think there is no more folly in them than
there is in the sports of hunting and shooting. I therefore
think * that all the world's a fool ; its actions show it. I
thought so once, but now I know it.' And I shall never
look for wisdom in any man ; I shall only respect the man
who has less folly than others.
He had to live frugally at Oxford, for his father,
notwithstanding his preferments, was a needy man.
In the summer of this year, hov^ever, just before the
end of term, he had an extra pound of pocket money
sent him, and determined to spend it in making a
pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon. What the delight
of this visit was by anticipation the following letters
will most clearly show ; but I have not discovered
any which were written soon after it had been made.
I only know that in spite of the adverse circumstances
mentioned in the second letter, he did succeed ia
-1 82 1 your7icy to Stratford. 29
getting to Stratford ; and the ecstasies of the en-
thusiast must be left to the imagination.
Oxford : June 1819.
My dear Mother, .... So Mrs. Siddons has been on the
stage. How unlucky I am never to be able to see her. I,
who feel a filial affection for the stage, corrupted, depraved,
and odious as it now is, yet I cannot but feel more than
ordinary interest in it, and still hope that the time will
come when the abominable, unconstitutional monopoly of
the two theatres will be done away with, and that all
theatrical talent will be employed in developing the
beauties of the real English drama ; and then Shakspeare
will shine forth in all his pristine glory. Indeed, it is not
my least ambition to be able some day or other to acquire
money enough to become a manager of some great theatre,
as Sheridan was ; and I am vain enough to think that it
would be a national benefit if I were to be so, as I should
enter heart and soul into the cause, and that, not for the
sake of filthy lucre, but merely to improve the taste of my
country and enhance the glory of Shakspeare. On Friday
week I start for Stratford, God willing, and return to Ox-
ford Monday, to Winchester Tuesday, I might go on
Thursday to Stratford, but I shall not, because I shall be
more likely to meet an Oxford face on that day, and I
shall want to settle many things, I have calculated the
expenses on a liberal scale. It is more than I expected it
would be ; but thanks to the kindness of my friends I shall
be able to support it.
I shall not go to the * White Lion,' which is a veiy
excellent inn, and that at which the jubilee was celebrated.
The * Shakspeare Inn ' is about the third. I did think
once of going to that, and may now. But the house that
Shakspeare was born in is divided into a butcher's shop
and the ' Swan,' a public-house. Now if this last can give
me only a clean bed, without bugs, which I hate, I mean
to go undoubtedly to that. The only objection is, that it
may make my friends think that they are justified in
30 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1798-
charging me with going there from some foolish feeling ;
whereas I merely go in a quiet manner to look at the
place, just as some people come to lionise Oxford. Now,
I mean to take with me a Dutch cheese, which will save
the expense of dinners ; for at breakfast I shall have two
eggs, and cut off a large slice of bread, which I shall eat
with my cheese, and my drink shall be the water of the
Avon, which Shakespeare, I make no doubt, drank many a
time before. I do not suppose that I shall find all the
pleasure which I expect. In thinking of it even, I have
been so pleased, till pleasure turned to pain, and I ended
with a headache. It is very foolish, but I always anticipate
pleasure in this manner. I cannot read properly now from
the very thoughts of it, and have not been able for a fort-
night.
Believe me, my dear Mother,
Your affectionate Son,
W. F. Hook.
He worried himself as people so commonly do in
the prospect of great pleasure by the dread of some-
thing occurring to prevent or mar It. ' I am always
thinking,' he writes, ' of the many things which will
happen to thwart me, and most of all I fear bad
weather. I am something like my mother who is
angry at every fine day in town lest the weather
should turn out badly when she gets into the country.
So I am terrified at this most delio^htful summer
weather.' Curiously enough his forebodings of evil
weather were verified, as the following lamentable
letter proves.
yoitrncy to Stratford-on-Avon.
Shipston : 1819.
My dear Mother, — Was ever anybody so unlucky ? but
I am not at Stratford. How do you think I intend spend-
ing my father's pound ? Why, even by sporting myself a
-i82i yourney to Stratford. 31
chaise to Stratford. I started at twelve last night from
Oxford, and arrived here at five. As it began to rain
prodigiously hard, and I was outside, as moreover I like
to be quite by myself on my entrance to Stratford, I deter-
mined upon breakfasting here, ten miles from Stratford,
and proceeding per chaise ; still, however, this rain will
continue pouring. What shall I do .-* I want not to enter
Stratford till it is fine. It is now one o'clock ; the rain has
set in, and the provoking people here will not even say a
kind word about the weather. When I ask them whether
it will clear up, they with one voice answer, ' That it looks
black.' Just heard of a return chaise ; must start. I
almost believe that this weather, beginning the very day of
my intended excursion, is intended as a punishment for
me, on account of some crime I have committed, or else
some demon is willing to drive me mad with vexation. I
have two days ; one of them will, I hope, be fine. All my
dreams have vanished with this, and I never shall again
trust to the prospect of delight in this world. I knew it
would be thus : I was sure of it. Well, all I can say is,
that if Shakspeare's spirit could govern the clouds, I think
it would for me ; for I verily believe he has few more
sincere admirers. Still, however, I feel a glow at approach-
ing his birthplace, and I am as puffed with pride and
vanity as I well can be. I despise the whole world, and
now I feel as if I were a being of superior order.
In June 1820 he had looked forward to a
meeting with his great friend Mr. Wood, who had
just returned to England from a two years' residence
at Geneva ; but his father was averse to his meeting
the son of a man who had so earnestly advocated
the cause of Queen Caroline, and in fact for a time
he forbade intercourse between them. His mother
could not put herself into direct opposition to his
father's commands, but seems to have done her best
to mitigate the severity of the trial to him. Of
32" Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 179S-
course the enforced separation only added to the
warmth of the friendship, and the following letter
shows that he was already emancipating himself from
the thraldom of that political school in which he had
been brought up, and that even King George IV.
was to him no longer such an impeccable being as in
the simplicity of boyhood he had once believed him
to be.
Christ Church, Oxford : June 15th, 1820.
My dearest Mother, — I have to entreat your forgiveness,
and my father's, for not having viewed the subject, which
I certainly did not, in the same manner in which you have
done ; and, though with the deepest and most acute sor-
row, I willingly give up that to which for two long years
Wood and myself have fondly looked ; a meeting in June.
But, I wish you to understand, I give it up on policy, not
on principle ; for you tell me that I must not let my feel-
ings overcome my principles. But what are, and (I appeal
to you) ever have been, my principles .'' Certainly to love
my friend ten thousand times better than my king : and a
friend too, whom I think to be one of the cleverest, I know
to be one of the best, and most pure in mind, of human
beings, before a king of whose purity and virtue (though I
yield to no one in loyalty and gratitude to him) I would
not wish to speak. But I see thoroughly the impolity of
it, though it struck me not before ; and I yield to your
superior judgment without a murmur. I like consistency
in politics, as in every thing else, and surely Alderman
Wood may do the same. For years he has supported the
Queen : and although he may have given her bad advice,
and we may lament it, we surely are not called upon to
abuse and insult him, as many papers have most illiberally
done. I am not his advocate, and I agree not in his
politics ; but as I abhor the Opposition when they charge
every action of the Minister to corruption, so in common
justice, I blame his advocates, when they call that man a
-i82i Friendship versus Politics. 33
rascal, who (with views never proved to be wrong) acts
injudiciously. I have long determined never to meddle
with politics and, by tying myself to a party, barter my
liberty. We live in dangerous times ; there are revolutions
all over the world, and doubtless England will suffer in her
turn. It will therefore be my object in life to be friends
with all — Tory, or ultra-Whig, or Radical. So may I
live, in virtuous ease, like Atticus of old ; and surely his
life was happier than Cicero's ; and, moreover, he had the
privilege of dying in his bed, while Cicero fell a victim to
the prevailing party.
I am of that disposition that I cannot live happily
without a friend ; my chief discomfort here has been the
want of the presence of one. The society of many, I
neither seek nor like ; but that of one, who will be as devoted
to me, as I to him, is the pleasure of life, and such a
friend, for nearly eight years, have I found in Wood. And
thus, though I will submit to almost anything, I cannot
desert him who has ever been faithful to me, the only one
person (out of my family) whom in this world I have
found so. I know, my dear father and mother, you never
would desire it, and I freely confess I would much, much
sooner see the King hurled headlong from his throne, which
God forbid, than act in such a manner. I willingly forego
a long, long anticipated pleasure, on policy not on princi-
ple. It is for this reason and this only, viz. that he is my
father's friend, that I like the King. If such had not been
the case, I should not much have admired his character.
I remain, my dearest Mother,
Your most affectionate, attached, and grateful Son,
W. F. Hook.
It was very probably owing to the bitter dis-
appointment caused by the prohibition of this long
desired meeting with his friend, joined to his in-
creasing repugnance to Oxford life and studies, that
he conceived about this time a very singular project,
VOL. I. D
34 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 179^-
that of offering himself for the situation of second
master in a school at Enniskillen in Ireland, which
he had seen advertised as vacant. In a long letter
to his parents he dilates on the advantages of this
scheme. The salary was 240/. a year, which would
be wealth to him and would make him independent
of them ; then he should take a quiet curacy in
addition, study the habits of the Irish, become editor
of some country journal and raise the tone of the
local press : he would have leisure for pursuing his
favourite studies, and executing his favourite design
of bringing out a new edition of the sonnets of
Shakspeare. In short, the unpleasant state of
politics, and the degenerate state of the theatre,
which he considered the disgrace of England at the
present time, made him long to escape into a serene
atmosphere of reverie and study all his own. I
have not found any reply to this curious proposal
or any further allusion to it in his own letters ;
yet he was clearly very much in earnest about it at
the moment.
The vigilance with which he continued to watch
the condition of the stage in his jealous anxiety lest
injustice should be done to his beloved Shakspeare,
was intense. ' I am waiting,' he writes (March
1 821), * anxiously for the arrival of the newspapers to
learn how Richard III. succeeded last night. Upon
this depends everything to me. If the masterspirits
of a better age are once more to tread our stage,
England will gain more true glory than she has done
from all the victories of Wellington ; but if she
refuses them she will be a degraded nation and a fit
subject for the speculation of the Radicals.'
-i82i ^ Oxford. 35
Next to Shakspeare there was no author whom
he read at that time with keener rehsh than Walter
Scott. He writes in several letters with enthusiasm
of * Kenilworth ' which had recently come out. Pil-
grimages were being daily made to Cumnor from
Oxford, and a subscription list had been set on foot to
present the landlord of the ' Sun ' with the sign of the
Bear and Ragged Staff. ' Undoubtedly,' he writes,
'"Kenilworth" is the finest poem of that "arch
knave " and " mad wag " Watty Scott, and I shall not
grudge my seven and sixpence to view the scene of
Dudley's love and Amy's fate.' Besides the study
of his favourite theological writers, he also gave con-
siderable time to English history. He begs his
father to get some copies of Malmesbury, Monmouth,
and other early chroniclers, and declares that he
will never again read the 'tasteless Hume.'
Greatly did he groan over the drudgery of
reading for his degree during the spring of 182 i ;
but that, to him, dreary season was brightened by one
brilliant gleam. He put into a raffle for Boydell's
illustrations of Shakspeare, and won it. His raptures
of joy must be given in his own words :
Christ Church, Oxford : April 1821.
My dearest Mother, — I have only one moment to tell
you some good news; I am almost intoxicated with joy.
There was a raffle for Boydell's illustrations of Shakspeare,
and though I could ill afford my guinea, with an almost
superstitious ieeling I did put in, and have just won ; it is
most glorious ; if I believed in fairies, I should swear that
Oberon and Titania and Puck guided my hand as I threw
the dice. It is a glorious thing, bound in blue morocco;
D 2
36 Life of IVatter Farquhar Hook. i7yS -
and if I had the text, it would be worth a hundred guineas.
The bookseller has offered me twelve for it, but considering
the manner I have won it. it would be sacrilege to part
with it. You will blame me for hazarding a guinea ; but
since I have won, it does not signify. When I can afford
it, I shall have my Reid's Shakspeare bound to match. I
once thought of making my father a present of it, because
it seems too magnificent a book for me ; but I cannot make
up my mind to do it, because I am so desirous of having
everything belonging to Shakspeare. I threw the dice
with so much confidence, I was actually superstitious about
it, and I am now quite drunk with joy, so that you must
excuse more. With most affectionate love to my dear
father, to whom I cannot give the book without he wants
it very much,
I am your most affectionate Son.
W. F. Hook.
In Easter Term, 1821, he went into the schools.
He had resolved to place himself in some way under
the protection of Shakspeare as his tutelary deity.
He therefore took with him a small head of the
poet carved out of his mulberry tree — a precious
relic which he had brought from Stratford-on-Avon —
to hold in his hand during viva voce ; and in his
paper-work he adopted a singular device which the
following letter will explain, and which it appears
had been a practice of old standing with him.
Christ Church, Oxford : June 1821,
My dearest Mother, — I have only time to tell you that
my cares are at an end and, as you would say, my educa-
tion finished. I did not take up enough books for a class,
I am afraid ; but I did what I did take up better than I
could have expected, and was thanked and praised for my
Divinity.
-1 82 1 Oxfoi'd. 37
By the bye, I must tell you a circumstance which amused
the examining masters not a little. I have had a custom of
writing the name of W. Shakspeare on every paper which
I think of importance, from ancient times. You will see it
written at the corner of this sheet in very small letters,
w>»-.A,,'..,. 1 which very {&\m people would discover ; but it so
happened that Mr. Cardvvell, one of the examining masters,
observed that this little Shakspeare was in all my copies,
and they called me up to know if I meant it as a charm ;
which I could not quite deny, and it afforded them great
amusement. This I have not told to any of my acquaintance
here who would think me a bit of a fool for my pains ;
but the report about the University is, that I was cutting
jokes with the examining masters all the time. They,
however, behaved very good-naturedly to me, except this
morning, when one of them, to the great amusement of all
the rest, made me prove the errors of the Roman Catholics
in worshipping relicks, and the folly of the Jews in wear-
ing phylacteries ; the absurdity of superstition, and inutility
of charms, all of which subjects I knew pretty well ; and
this, with something about the doctrine of the Trinity, made
up the whole of my examination in Divinity.
Now I must beg you not to tell this to my friends in
town, but keep it to yourself, for some of them would think
me an idiot ; I am afraid it will be soon spread over the
University, for Cardwell seemed to think it a very good
joke, and will tell it, I make no doubt. If so, I shall depart
immediately from this place. It is my intention to stay
here ten or twelve days, since, to my deep and unfeigned
sorrow, I shall not be able to see dear Gilbert. I can
come up directly if you wish it, but I shall write fully
to-morrow. I shall not take my degree, I think, till just
before the long vacation, when I shall return to Oxford,
I am at this moment too happy to write sense. I am
afraid the examining masters will think me a bit of a fool,
but they showed that they thought it innocent and laugh-
able folly. I would not, however, have yesterday over
' Facsimile of the original 'W. Shakspeare.'
i:49CC4
38 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1798-
again, really for a hundred pounds, poor though I am ; I
never was so miserable.
Classical honours he had neither desired nor
sought. But there was just one prize upon which he
had set his heart : the Newdegate prize for English
verse, and he resolved to compete for it. The
subject for 1821 was Psestum. 'With trembling
hands,' he writes, * and a throbbing heart have I
consigned the child of my hopes to the Registrar.'
He thought his good fortune in winning the Boy dell
Shakspeare in the raffle a bad omen ; it would be
impossible to have another great piece of luck in the
same year. And his apprehensions were fulfilled.
His lines, which have come into my hands, are
smooth, melodious, and free from the insipidity of
thought and turgidity of language which are so
common in Newdegate poems. But the prize was
gained by the Hon. Mr. Howard, afterwards Lord
Carlisle, who also carried off the prize for Latin verse
in the same year.
His failure to obtain this prize was perhaps the
most poignant disappointment of his life. At least
there was none on which he expressed his feelings
at the time in such inconsolable terms, although of
course the trial could not have been a very lasting
one. * With indescribable sorrow ' (thus he writes to
his father) ' I sit down to inform you that all my
hopes of gaining distinction at Oxford are now at an
end ; I feel after all my failures that I should like a
little quiet and retirement. I cannot pay my London
visits.' And so he proposes to go to Whippingham,
of which his father was now rector. The sweet air
i82i Leaves Oxford. 39
and scenery of the Isle of Wight would restore his
spirits. * I cannot now look,' he proceeds, * for dis-
tinction in life, but a quiet and humble one is perhaps
after all the happiest. I wish you and my mother
would decide for me what line I should take, and I
will endeavour — may God grant with success — to
perform its duties.' And in another letter, ' I long
to escape from this most odious place : I am dis-
gusted with Oxford, and my heart leaps with joy at
the thought of quitting it, I might almost say, for
ever.'
LETTERS FROM 1813-1821.
An Ideal Country Parsonage.
Winchester : November 7, 1813.
Dear Brother, .... I have only got to stay here two
years more, though two years is no short time ; then, I
suppose, I shall go to Oxford and, when I am twenty-three,
be made a parson. I do not intend to be minor canon, for
when I get a living I must still be minor canon ; but I
intend to have a living just in such a village as ' sweet
Auburn ' was before it was deserted ; but instead of ' pass-
ing rich with forty pounds a year' I intend to have a
thousand ; and I shall divide it thus : three hundred for
myself, three hundred for the poor, and four hundred for
books. I intend to keep a horse, tax-cart, and donkey,
one man servant, and one maid servant. I intend to have
a good library, and there shall be one corner which I will
call Poets' Corner ; and in my grounds I intend there shall
be a hill, and I shall build a sort of place like a temple at
the top, that I may sit and read at the top in summer. I
shall call it Mount Parnassus ; it shall be something like
Grongar Hill which Dyer so well describes. I shall have
40 Life of Walter Farqithar Hook. 1798-
the busts of Milton, Dryden, Pope, Young, and Thomson
there. In the morning I shall get up at seven in summer,
eight in winter, and take a walk in the garden for half an
hour ; come home to breakfast ; then I shall go to visit my
poor people, and at ten come home and write some of my
sermon; at eleven go out riding, or driving in my tax-cart ;
at twelve take luncheon, and go to Parnassus till two ; at
three dine ; after dinner go to Parnassus, except in winter,
when I shall sit over the fire with wine on the table, read-
ing. At eight I shall have prayers in my private chapel,
when all those poor people who come I shall put down in
my pocket-book to be attended to. At nine I shall go to
bed. My library will be open to all poor people. I shall
recommend Milton to them ; and I shall build around me
a large place like ' St. Cross ' for poor people who are too
old to work. I shall be very glad to see my dearest
brother Bob, mamma, papa, or any of my other good
friends. I shall always have a bed or two, not like Dr.
Wavell's, but all well aired, for my servants shall take it
by turns to sleep in them. I shall sport tolerable dinners ;
I shall have apples, and grapes, and all fruits, and goose-
berry wine and currant, and meat when my friends come.
I shall plant potatoes, and shall have a dog, a cat, some
rabbits and tame pheasants, and shall feed all young birds
that choose to come. My sermons will be on an average
about an hour long, never more, but generally as long. I
shall preach very good sermons for the poor people, but
not learned ones, as I do not want to be more learned. I
shall have a pair of cotton stockings to go to dine with the
squire or charity schoolmaster. I shall have a new coat
once in three years. I shall have one hat and one pair
of boots. My servant will have all my old clothes for his
livery. I shall have a bank at the church, and be the
warden to the charity school, which must attend my private
chapel to answer the responses. I shall have a hand
organ, and the clerk shall play it. I intend to have a river
in my garden, and shall have written in large letters on a
bit of board, ' At Parnassus. But mark what I areed thee,
-i83i Letters, 1813-1821. 41
now avaunt ! ' That is to say, that nobody must disturb
me when in soHtudc at my Parnassus. I shall keep wine
to give to the poor people that are sick, and shall always
have plenty on table at dinner, though I shall never drink
more than a glass or two at the very most, for two reasons :
one, because it would not be right to drink more, and the
other, because it would be too expensive. I shall often go
to the public-house to see that nobody is getting drunk.
My dog will dine with me, except when I have company.
Perhaps if it is not too expensive I will keep a mastiff too,
to guard the house, and a Newfoundland. I shall have
little or nothing to be robbed of except my books, so the
mastiff will live in the library. I shall have no plate, but
will have pewter spoons ; perhaps I may have a few plated
ones, in case I should have company. I shall write to my
dear Robert, and papa and mamma often. I shall always
give the clerk a Christmas-box, and they shall sing the
Christmas carols from Milton. I quite forget the beginning
(you must remember) ; in the middle there is, ' Thou sun,
of this great world both eye and soul ; ' and there is at the
beginning, speaking of God, 'To us invisible or dimly seen
in these Thy lower works, yet these declare Thy goodness
beyond thought and power divine.'
I shall have a moss house beside my river, and I intend
that there shall be trees about it, that my dear mamma
may be able to sit there when she comes. Dear Robert,
you shall have the best bedroom but one when you come
to see me, because papa must have the best. I shall intro-
duce you to the schoolmaster and the squire, and one or
two of the farmers ; and if grandpapa will be so kind as to
come to see me, I daresay I shall be able to make up a
rubber of whist. Now, dear Robert, you see how I intend
to live. I shall wish you good-bye. Perhaps you may be
Lord Mayor some day or other ; but I hope never to be
more than a country parson. Give my best love to papa,
mamma, and receive the same from
Your very affectionate Brother.
42 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1798-
A Schoolboys^ Debate.
Winchester : May 2, 1816.
My dear Mother, .... By the bye, I had an argument
of an hour and a half's duration one day on poHtics : I and
another of our club were the only ones against five col-
legians, all Opposition. They were very abusive of the
Prince, whom we defended most properly : we drew up the
Opposition one side of the table, my colleague and myself
on the other ; we always, except once, called each other
honourable gentlemen, but in the heat of argument, I could
not help breaking through the rule, and saying the honour-
able blackguard opposite, which gave great offence, and
was thought very vulgar. We at first agreed to conduct our
debates as in the House of Commons, but I was the first
who arose, and they declared (though it did not seem so
to me) that I spoke for half an hour ; so they thought I
should go on all night, and made it fair that we might
talk as we chose, which brought us down to common
argument. There were many boys standing round who were
very much amused with our earnestness, but particularly
with mine, for one of the fellows opposite asking. Can any
one who admires the ministers ever so much, say that the
Prince is not a fat, disgusting, and sinful, drunken beast } I
cried out so loud that Mr. Williams, who was at the bottom
of the school, sent for me for making a noise, and I with
difficulty got off an imposition. As we went on, I asserted
that he did not drink at all ; for grandpapa told me he did
not, but as I did not feel at liberty to mention his name,
my assertion went as nothing, and one member of the
Opposition bench quoted Bloomberg that he did drink
manfully, and does so still. Now will you ask grandpapa if
I may use his name next time we meet, which may be, by
the bye, to-day in school as we have nothing to do at that
time, but talk or read ; but I must tell you who I was
compared to — no less than Mr. Pitt, while my colleague
was Mr. Canning. The leader of the party was Mr. Fox,
-i82i Letters, 1813-1821. 43
because, owing to the violence of his action, he broke the
boards of one of my friend's books. I would not trouble you
with this, but that I want to get leave to quote grandpapa,
if they dare to touch on that head again. I was laughed
at much, and it put mc in a great passion, for while I was
praising my Lord Castlercagh, one of the fellows asked me
if I thought with papa on the Catholic question, for they
remember his sermon on that head, I was glad to find ; I
answered in the affirmative, and they triumphed much, in
saying that Lord Castlercagh did not. Will you tell mc
how to defend the noble Lord ? . . . .
To his Brother,'^ 18 16 — Lord Chesterfield's Letters — The
Spectator — Sam. Johnson — Poetical Justice.
My dear Robert, — You say you have of late been read-
ing Lord Chesterfield ; he is an author of whom I am
enabled to judge only by extracts that I have met by
chance, and by quotations that I have found from other
authors, but from what I have seen, he is very far from
being a proper author for you to waste much time in
studying, far from it ; indeed, I should think that my
mother would have a very reasonable objection to your
reading it, and if, as you say, you have read it and cannot
unread it, nevertheless, I am far from wishing you to pay
so much attention to it as will, and must naturally, be the case
in translating it from the French : he seems a mean, worldly,
despicable nobleman, and he seems to instruct a person
in a kind of egotism. Now if I were to advise you what to
read, I should propose the ' Spectator ; ' that would not only
exercise you in French, but would likewise improve your
English style, for the style of the amiable Addison is truly
divine, and were the Gods to talk English, it would without
doubt be the English of Addison ; you would by that be
able to see the whims and fancies and foibles of the last
century, and see what we have improved, what corrupted.
You would be able when you read Milton, to understand
him, too, better by far after the annotations of the amiable,
* Then in a house of business in Holland.
44 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 179S-
learned, and unpedantic Addison, whom I like far better
than Sam Johnson, who, though he was of good men
perhaps the very best, cannot have so much said of him as
a critic ; a sound moraHst he was, but far, very far, from
being a good critic. You have heard him extolled, so have
I, not as the greatest moralist and wisest of the men of
England, but as a superior critic. I must dissent from the
general opinion, and as I write to you, I doubt not but you
will excuse a boy objecting to the opinions of the learned,
but I have had a close intimacy with the Doctor, and tell you
that I think he is (and it is the greatest fault in a critic)
most partial ; witness the criticisms on Milton, Gray, and,
on the other hand, the unfortunate but unprincipled Savage.
From his criticisms on our greatest poets, he seems not to
have been able to feel any pleasure in the higher flights of
poetry, and when he looks at verses on lesser subjects, on
love, &c., he blames them for being unnatural, if they
happen to mention a heathen god, not perhaps as a deity,
but as a personification ; this he does with our poet
Hammond, who seems to be a very deserving bard, being
the only person who has succeeded in the way of Ovid and
Tibullus. But these are his lesser faults ; as a critic in the
higher flights, he was rigid, most rigid. If poor Horace
was to have such a critic, one might well cry, ' Alack, poor
Horace ! ' He believed in the divine right of kings — abomin-
able ! but he insists on poetical justice — worse and worse !
In dear Shakspeare's 'Lear,' he quarrels with the 'Spec-
tator,' who blames the alteration, and making of the piece
end happy. May I ask what can be more unnatural and
improbable than justice as administered in poetry ? does
the good man always go on well in this world .'' would not
everything then be good, and shall then the poet of
nature forget to be natural } Heaven forbid ! if this should
be debated in the House of Commons, and my Lord
Castlereagh — should even that great, that wonderful man
defend it with his Pitt-like eloquence, I would sit on the
opposite benches.
-i82i Letters, 1813-1821. 45
Anxiety to hear from his Brother.
Winchester : May 12, 1816.
My dear Robert, — It is so long since any letter has
been received from you, that I cannot refrain from writing,
if it is only to ask and intreat you to write to us soon, to
me, or to some other branch of the family. Any letter
received from you, or known by me to have lately been
received from you, would greatly ease my heart, for I
must own to you that I am most excessively uneasy about
you ; the length of time that has expired since you last
wrote is prodigious — write soon, I pray you — and your last
letter told us of your having an asthma, so that I think
there is ample room for my being uneasy about you. I hope
to goodness that before you read this I shall have heard
from you, or of you, my most darling brother. I did not
intend writing to you before I heard of you, at first, but
now I must write to beg you not to allow us to be any
more uneasy about you. To-day is a holiday, and I have
leave out to your friend, Mr. Woodburn, for papa and
mamma (' Alack the day ! ') are going from hence about
the visitation business ; you can easily guess how very and
truly unpleasant it is to me to lose their society. I should,
I trust, be more happy than I am to-day, for I am at
present in a low state, feeling very uncomfortable for more
reasons than one, but what always comes topmost to my
soul is the anxiety I feel on your account, my dearest
Robert ; I think it will do me good having leave out, it
will raise my spirits. I was forced to stop a moment, for
names have been just called in the hall to my great detri-
ment, for my stupid fool of a fag left my boiler in the
way, and Gabell has taken it as usual ; he took all my mess
things away the other day, and now the boilers, but I shall
not lick Elliot (whom you remember), for he is my fag.
I should have been bankrupt had it not been for the
enormous goodness of my most beloved mother ; for she
46 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1795-
made me a present of a pound when she went away, of which,
when I pay for this boiler, I shall have only six shillings
left, and that I must pay for a cheese, as I am ' in course '
with that to-night for the rest of the half-year. It is really
such nonsense of Gabell, allowing boys to have things,
and taking them away when he finds them ; but don't
mention this in your letters, for this one I mean to seal
with my own arms, which my most dearest mother has
presented me with. I have shown it to most fellows here,
and they all admire it so much, you cannot think, so that
it won't be seen and read, for I should not like them to
know of my extravagance, and by the time I want some
more very urgently, I shall beg for an advance of my holi-
day money, which mamma is always kind enough to give
me. You must mind to admire my seal, it is most beauti-
ful, and the impression is magnificent.
Would to heaven that the time was come when I am
to see you dearest, most beloved Robert again ; pray, pray
write, I long so much to hear from you, and tell me how
your asthma is. If you knew the agony of mind which I
now feel on your account, my sweet Robert, you would not
delay an instant. You will think me a fool, but you can-
not do so more than I myself do, on that account, but do
what I will, the most horrid ideas haunt me in every place,
so that I may justly feel desirous of hearing of you or
from you, and that too, soon. Now I shall leave off writing.
With my very best love to you, and praying you to write
soon,
I shall remain, most dear and darling Robert, upon rny
honour, your most dotingly affectionate Brother.
Christ Church, Oxford : February 182 1.
My dear Sister, — To so devoted an admirer of the fair
sex, as you know I am, and every true and loyal knight
must needs be, the letter of ' your naughtiness ' was of
course most acceptable, but I will confess that I shall find
-1 821 Letters, 1 8 13-182 1. 47
some diflficulty in endeavouring to answer it, since its sub-
ject was nearly uniform, and that subject being my own
praise, I am in modesty bound to be silent thereon. I beg
leave, however, to state that though you should certainly
have the most dutiful respect and veneration for the
character of your elder brother, yet there is no necessity
to make it the subject of your letters to him or of your
conversations with anybody else, so that, in future I shall
hope to hear more of papa and mamma, and less of my-
self; and indeed I shall have no very great objection to
hear something about yourself (though you are nobody),
and to know whether you are improving in your studies,
and are more or less naughty than you were a few weeks
ago. You must beg mamma to let you read the account
of our good King's reception at the theatres. I have just
been reading it, and it has rejoiced me so much that it has
given me a headache, or I am not quite sure that you would
receive this letter. It was one of the most glorious re-
ceptions, as represented in the new ' Times,' of which I
have read or heard. There are, however, one or two points
that have grieved me, but on which I will not dwell here.
You may nevertheless tell my father that the King of
England gave his royal sanction to, and manifested his
royal approbation of the vile interpolations which dis-
figure the ' Twelfth Night ' as now performed.
This is so unworthy George IV. that I quit the subject,
I like your idea of keeping my letters to show my grand-
children, they will no doubt form a fine red headed family;
and I hope that I shall be able to exhort them to follow
the good example of their Aunt Georgiana. But if you
are an old maid, I give you notice beforehand, that I will
not permit you to enter into my house, with a whole aviary
on your shoulders, and a pack of dogs of all sorts and sizes
at your heels. And now my dear Demoiselle, your true
faithful Sir Walter of the fiery plume has neither time nor
inclination to write any more, but having assured you how
highly I appreciate the honour of having opened a corres-
48 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1798-
pondence with the fair sex, and having desired you to give
my most devoted love to my dear father and mother, I
beg you to
BeHeve me to be, my dear Miss Hook.
Your most attached and very affectionate Brother,
W. F. Hook.
-i82i Choice of a Vocation. 49
CHAPTER II.
ORDINATION. LIFE AT WHIPPINGIIAM.
A.D. 182I-1826.
It had been Sir Walter Farquhars wish that his
grandson should study for the Bar : but it was wisely-
determined that he should be allowed to choose his
own profession after he had taken his degree ; and
in the course of the summer of 182 1 he declared his
fixed and unalterable desire to enter holy orders.
He went to London in July and witnessed the
coronation of George IV., but party spirit ran so
high in reference to the Queen's case that he was
not permitted by his father to meet his friend Wood ;
a privation to which he submitted, but with resent-
ment which he did not attempt to conceal. ' I
lament,' he writes, 'that party spirit has now come to
such a height that private intercourse between friends
must be sacrificed to political feeling. It does not
speak well for the times, and I could bring many
instances to prove that there is no necessity for
friends to part on account of diversity in their poli-
tical sentiments ; though that of Addison and Steele
will suffice.'
In fact his disappointment on account of his
failure as he called it at Oxford, his dissatisfaction
with the tone of politics and with the state of the
VOL. L E
50 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1821^
English drama, and the continued prohibition of
intercourse with his friend, all concurred to make
him turn with a sense of relief from the world, espe-
cially the world of London, to quiet preparation for
holy orders in the retirement of his father's rectory
in the Isle of Wight. In the latter part of the
summer the curacy of Whippingham became vacant,
and his father was anxious that he should fill the
situation and be ordained without delay. He was
examined by his father and privately ordained by
the Bishop of Hereford, who was also Warden of
Winchester, in the chapel of the college on Sep-
tember 30, and preached his first sermon in the
Parish Church of Whippingham on the following
Sunday.
And now being no longer shackled and fretted
by uncongenial studies, he threw the whole force of
his intellect and affections into the work to which he
had been called. While his well-beloved poets and
writers of fiction were still the companions of his
leisure hours, theology and ecclesiastical history
occupied the foremost place in his attention. He
had long delighted in these subjects, and he now
pursued the study of them with increased ardour,
because he felt it to be his duty as well as his
pleasure. But although everyone who knew him
intimately, believed, notwithstanding the comparative
failure of his career at school and college, that his
abilities were of no common order, probably no one
had discerned the prodigious capacity for study and
the immense practical energy which were to be
manifested as soon as they had got a fair field for
action. Probably also few were aware what a deep
•-i8:j6 Whippingham. 5 1
fund of tender, genial sympathy there was in one
who had hitherto hved rather after the manner of a
shy recluse, and few could have then foreseen what
a spell he would henceforth exercise over the hearts
of those who were confided to his pastoral care.
I propose to make a brief sketch of his character
and manner of life during the six years of his curacy
at Whippingham, reserving for a more particular
account the only episodes of importance in this quiet
period ; one of which was also the first event that
brought him into public notice.
His father being Archdeacon of Huntingdon and
Canon of Winchester, as well as a Royal Chaplain,
fond also of London society, a keen politician and
writer of political pamphlets, was frequently absent
from Whippingham, and when he was there seldom
could take much part in parochial duty from increas-
ing ill-health and infirmity. His son, therefore, was
practically curate in charge, and was often the only
inmate of the rectory for weeks or months together.
He seems thoroughly to have enjoyed his seclusion
and independence, although he had no lack of society
if he wished it, being always a welcome guest at many
houses, more especially Northwood, the residence of
Mr. Ward, near West Cowes, and Norris Castle, the
abode at that time of Lord Henry Seymour. Quiet
English country scenery had always a peculiar charm
for him, and he enjoyed it to the full in the Isle of
Wight. An early bathe in the Medina which flows
at the foot of the hill on which the rectory stands,
study from early morning till the beginning of the
afternoon, visits to his flock, evenings spent with his
kind and pleasant neighbours or in the society of his
E2
52 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1821-
fondly beloved Shakspeare or Walter Scott or Miss
Austen, nocturnal rambles on soft summer nights
sometimes prolonged till nearly dawn to listen to
the nightingale and watch the silvery light of the
moon upon the river or the sea ; these made up the
ordinary incidents of his daily life, a strange con-
trast in its calm and sweet repose to the years of
turmoil and excitement in great smoky cities which
were in store for him. Often and often in those
later years, as will be seen, did he pine for the tran-
quillity of his Whippingham days, and look forward
to the time when he might be able to retire to some
peaceful home in or near the Isle of Wight. And
one great reason of his contentment in old age with
the Deanery of Chichester was its proximity to the
island which he loved so well.
A few extracts from his letters at this time will
best illustrate the foregoing remarks. Writing to
his mother from Oxford where he was staying for a
while to attend Lloyd's Divinity Lectures before
taking priest's orders, he says, ' My bowels yearn
for our lovely island. To peace and quiet, to the
parish that I love and the studies I delight in, to
pursuits which are congenial to my soul and to that
retirement for which I am best adapted, to divinity,
to Shakspeare and the Muse, to green fields instead
of dirty streets, to the calm of the country instead of
the noise of the town, to the love of my simple flock
instead of the heartlessness of the world, I shall
return with increased joy and redoubled zest, there
to lay deep the foundations for future distinction in
the vocation to which I am heart and soul devoted.'
Although he was now sociable on the whole in
-1 826 Whippingham. 53
his disposition, yet at times the impulse to spend
part of his day alone with no society but that of his
beloved poets came upon him with a force curiously
sudden and irresistible. In a letter dated March
1823 he describes how he started one evening to
dine at Northwood ' in my best hosen, best trousers,
and best coat ; but when I had walked half-way to
Cowes it occurred to me that it would be much
preferable to return to my own fire-side and read
Shakspeare, which I accordingly did ; and I had
the satisfaction of hearing the rain come down in
torrents just about the time I should have been
walking home after my dinner.'
Those who know the Isle of Wight will recognise
in the following letters a very fresh and life-like
description of the sweet sunny days in spring, and
the blustering rainy south-westers, for which the
climate there even in summer is equally notorious.
yiuie 21, 1824. — * I arrived here cold and chilly
on Friday night at a house where I was not ex-
pected. Next day I woke early, intending to enjoy
the delights of the country, but found it pouring in
torrents ; I therefore tried to go to sleep, but failed.
I know not anything more miserable than my con-
dition that day : without any pursuit, all around dull,
dark, and dismal, a strong south-wester howling and
the pattering of the rain incessant. I was a perfect
" energumen," if being possessed with " blue devils "
as well as others entitle one to the name, and would
have thanked our Bishop most heartily had he been
at hand to exorcise me. Raining as it did, I was
forced to go out in self-defence. I found the farmers
grumbling because of the hay lately cut, and the
54 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
labourers surly and wet, the matrons coming from
market sulky and the maidens cross, the invalids
doubly ill, and all the parish out of humour. When
we do have bad weather in the island I verily believe
that it is worse than anywhere else in the whole
world. But now I have hit upon my line of reading,
and it may blow tempests and rain cats and dogs for
all I care.'
May 2, 1822.
My dearest Mother, .... This is not Whippingham,
it is Paradise ; and if you wish to form any idea of what it
now is, dismiss all recollection of it from your thoughts,
and read all the fine descriptions of gardens that you meet
with in the poets, particularly in Shakspeare and Spenser ;
and then you may be able to form some (though a very
slight) idea of what it is. I think all the birds in England
are on a visit to the island — at least I will be bound to say
that you never heard such a choir as we have here. One
feels all this the more by living alone ; and, as I have no
one else to talk to, and Heaven forbid that I should have
any, I may truly say with my friend the duke that I find
'tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in
stones, and good in everything.' Uncle Theodore would
say that it would be more convenient if I could take the
last assertion but one in a more literal sense. But really,
you cannot think what an interest I take in inanimate
Nature, and animate too. I begin almost sometimes to
think that I shall grow sentimental, which is the very last
thing I desire, and perhaps be inclined ere long ' to hail
the gooseberry bushes,' which I trust you have already
done at Sydenham. I generally take a stroll in the neigh-
bouring fields about five o'clock, and return home to dinner
between seven and eight ; and then read till about ten or
eleven, when I go out again, and flirt with the moon and
listen to the nightingale till one or two ; the moon is on
the water about that time. Alas, yesterday morning I
was wandering close to the Nashes (where there is a night-
-1826 Whippingham. 55
ingale) between one and two o'clock, but never a youth or
a lass did I meet going to the woods a-Maying ; all was as
still and silent as ever. And yesterday I could not resist
the temptation of galloping over the country in quest of a
Maypole, but not one was to be found ; and I must confess,
with all my attachment to the island, I could not conceive
a place where there is less reverence for old customs, less
of what you may call rural and poetic feelings in the
peasantry, than there is here. There never was such
weather as this is since the days of Dan Chaucer, and I do
sincerely hope it may last. I was made to live alone ; and
certainly if one can converse with trees and brooks and
stones, they must be the most pleasant companions, because
they cannot thwart you, dispute with you, or quarrel with
you. And hence I am miserable at the intended visit of
Duncomb and Pollen ; at least, if it continues fine like this ;
however, if they come, why then we must do as well as we
can. Did you ever read 'Pride and Prejudice'.^ I sent
for it a few weeks ago when I had a cold, which stuffed up
my nose and caused a ringing in my ears, and the weather
was rainy, so that I was too poorly to read anything
serious, and not in a humour for poetry. It amused me
very much ; it is a regular gossip throughout. I found
myself in a pleasant family circle, and listened to the
gossip without having the trouble of joining in it ; and at
last became so interested in their welfare that the mamma
herself could not have been more anxious about marrying
her daughters than I was. I loved Lizzie ; but I should
have married Jane if I had had my choice. Altogether,
for a bad gloomy day, and with a cold about one, it is a
very good kind of book ; but as to reading it in such
weather as this, and in the merry month of May, it would
be not only absurd, but impossible. Indeed, I suppose all
the world, except people of fashion and business, are read-
ing poetry and nothing else, without it is divinity.
Believe me,
Your most affectionate Son.
56 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1821-
His solitude at the Rectory was relieved by the
periodical visits of his parents and sister, and occa-
sionally of his aunt, Miss Farquhar — Aunt Eliza as
she was called, who seems to have been quite a
type of the old maiden aunt of a family — very kind,
but rather exacting, and somewhat overwhelming in
her ecstatic affection and fussy anxiety for every
member of the family ; qualities which could not
fail to provoke playful sallies of humour from her
nephew. The following letter written during his
mother's convalescence after a severe illness in
December 1824, puts the worthy aunt completely
before us :
I have no news whatever to tell you. Aunt Eliza was
a little disgusted at my not bringing back particulars
enough concerning you. Let Georgiana therefore inform
us how many hours you usually sleep, how much pheasant
you generally eat, and whether Lady Charlotte's society does
not particularly, in a kind of indescribable peculiar way,
suit you. She must tell us also whether you read, and
what you read, and whether you feel exhausted after read-
ing, as is sometimes the case, or whether, as is also some-
times the case, you do not feel exhausted. Because, if you
do not feel exhausted, it will do you good ; but if you do feel
exhausted, Aunt E. 'hopes to God' that my father will
prevent your reading too much. Aunt E. will not believe
me when I tell her that you do not like to read. She says
it is all very well for me to say so, or even for you,
but with your peculiar temperament she knows that it is
impossible. In short, Georgiana must send us more par-
ticulars.
P.S. Quarter past three o'clock. — Tell Georgiana that
I am happy in knowing she will write a most beautiful
hand. Aunt Eliza can perceive it even now ; there were
some letters and some words quite perfect in her last note.
-1826 WhippingJiam. 57
Aunt E. descanted on it for three-quarters of an hour ' by
Shrewsbury clock ' yesterday, and was quite angry with
me, even to the stamping of stick authoritatively on the
floor, when I was rather sceptical.
P.S. — I open my note once more to say that Aunt E.
says it is only just three, not a quarter past
Some time after this, when his mother was still
in delicate health, he accompanied her on the journey
from Whippingham to London. East Cowes, the
place of embarkation for the main land, is about two
miles distant from Whippingham, and whilst waiting
for the boat the following report of their progress
was sent back to the anxious aunt : words under-
lined after her own style.
Most confidential.
My dearest Aunt, — As it will be satisfactory to you to
know how we are proceeding on our journey, I cannot
resist the temptation of sending you word that we have
advanced as far as Cowes most prosperously. My dearest,
most beloved mother has borne the journey very well
indeed.
Your most devotedly, adoringly affectionate Nephew.
Besides this playful kind of humour which was
an essential part of his nature, and which, as will
be seen, was constantly bubbling up and overflowing
into all the action of his life, he at this time still
practised many of the more whimsical kind of frolics
which, as he mentions in one of his letters transcribed
above, he had Invented for his own amusement.
His sister, who naturally came in for a full share of
5$ Life of Walter FarqiiJiar Hook. 1821-
his raillery and banter, and whom he frequently ad-
dressed with mock solemnity as
Demoiselle buxom, blithe, and debonair,
With a naughty look and auburn hair,
used often to accompany him in his walks and rides.
Now and then he would suddenly dart from her
side, make a furious rush at trees or hedges and
thrash them with tremendous violence, pretending
that they were enemies.
As his sportive freaks were always of the most
innocent and childlike character — the mere exube-
rance of animal spirits, so also his jocosity was now
and always utterly free alike from coarseness and
sarcasm or satire ; it never jarred either with the
amiability or earnest piety of his character, but
blended itself with these qualities and enhanced
their charms.
His mirth was the pure spirit of various wit,
But never did his God or friend forget.
And this absence of discord In his character
makes it the more easy to turn from the contempla-
tion of h^im in his lighter moods to the consideration
of that serious work as a pastor and a student to
which he was now heart and soul devoted. The
parish of Whipplngham was at that time very ex-
tensive, and included East Cowes about two miles
distant from the Rectory and Parish Church, con-
taining a poor maritime population. No direct and
separate provision for ministering to the spiritual
wants of these people had been made. Many lived
in a condition of godless ignorance ; a few who were
more religiously disposed attended their parish
-1826 Whipphigham. 59.
church sometimes in the morning, and very com-
monly some dissenting chapel in the evening. Mr.
Hook obtained the use of a large sail loft ia
which he held an evening service on Sundays, and
catechised the children. These services were very
largely attended by sailors, fishermen, and other poor
people, and were productive of excellent results.
When he was paying a visit to Whippingham after
he had become Dean of Chichester, and was walking
with the present Rector, Canon Prothero, about his
old parish, an aged man came up and anxiously en-
quired if he remembered him. He said he did, and
afterwards told the Rector that the man was one
who had been a loose liver in his youth, but had
been Induced to attend the Sunday evening services
in the sail loft and had become an altered character.
Any man who has made the experiment will be
ready to acknowledge that it is no small labour after
two full services in one church to walk two miles to
conduct a third service in another place, and then to
walk home ; and this not once or twice on special
occasions, but every Sunday and all the year round.
The number of communicants also increased so
largely during his administration that on great
festivals the intervals between his services on Sun-
days were very short. In May 1825, he writes,
* On Whitsun Day I was properly worked. We had
a very fine attendance at the Altar. I was not out
of church till a quarter to three o'clock ; went in
again at three ; had five christenings and a funeral,
and was not out till five, when I had to start Imme-
diately to be in time for the school at East Cowes
at six, from which I was not released till eight.*
6o Life of Walter Farqithar Hook. iS2r-
His zeal, however, was well supported by physical
strength to match it, and he seldom, if ever, com-
plained of fatigue. One very hot evening, however,
in June 1825, he arrived at Northwood rather weary
and very hot after his service in the sail loft. His
friend, Lord Henry Seymour, happened to be there
and proposed that a chapel of ease should be built
at East Cowes ; a practical suggestion which not
long after, though not in Mr. Hook's time, was
carried into effect.
As he always looked back to Whipplngham
■with gratitude for the leisure which it had afforded
him to lay deep the foundation of his theological
and historical learning, so also did he regard his
residence there as the period in which, more than
in any other, he had acquired the pastoral tone of
his mind and formed the pastoral habits of his life.
When he was not in his study he was constantly
engaged in visiting his people, and the parish, though
extensive, was not so large as to prevent his be-
coming in this way the intimate friend of every
member of his flock. His power of sympathy, the
most indispensable qualification of a successful pastor,
was in this manner continually being drawn out and
strengthened, and became then and ever afterwards
a principal, if not the principal, source of his extra-
ordinary influence over the hearts of those amongst
whom he ministered. It was his belief that the
larger scale on which work has to be carried on
in towns, the multiplicity of business in which town
clergy are involved, and the consequent distraction
of their energy and sympathy into a variety of
channels, rendered a town parish an unfavourable
-1S26 Whippbigham, 61
school for learning the duties of the pastoral vocation.
' I say without hesitation,' he writes long after he had
become Vicar of Leeds, * that the very worst training
a man can have is that which he receives if appointed
early in life to a town parish. The strong pastoral
feeling is generated in the country, and I attribute
what little success I have had entirely to my country
breeding.' Two or three extracts from his letters
written during the Whippingham period will suffice
to show how completely he had learned in the most
genuine and literal sense to identify himself with the
joys and sorrows of his people, to rejoice with them
that rejoiced, and to weep with them that wept.
The first is to his mother in December 1824.
' Your permission and recommendation to have
the feast on Christmas Day in the barn is in every re-
spect agreeable to me. The children will think more
of it — and if it had been given at the school the
parents would have thought that it was done by
subscription, and have claimed as a right what they
ought to receive as a favour. It really was gratify-
ing to see the many happy faces which were there
yesterday when I gave notice of our intentions, and
it was comical to see the doubtful ones of those who
were not quite sure but they had exceeded the
number prescribed of bad tickets. I doubt very
much whether the children enjoy the thoughts of it
more than myself. I wish to heaven we could feed
the whole parish, and that every day.'
In like manner, attendance at a village club
dinner, which to so many clergy is a vexatious and
irksome business, was to him a real pleasure. ' On
Easter Monday it would sadly grieve me not to
62 Life of Walter Farqithar Hook. 1821-
preach to the club and dine with them. It is one
of the days I enjoy most in the whole year.'
Then to take the other side of sympathy : the
following is a specimen how thoroughly he entered
into the trouble of others as if it was his own, and
how his affection for his people and theirs for him
had its root in the discharge of his pastoral duty
amongst them ; so that it was essentially the love of
a pastor for his flock and of a flock for their pastor.
* The Tassels are going to Bideford ; they start to-
night. You cannot think how sorry I feel at parting
with them, for I had trained both of them for Holy
Communion, and he took it for the first time on
Christmas Day, and she on Whitsun Day : and she
was a convert of mine from the Dissenters. Poor
Tassel : he cried like a child at parting with me,
and so to keep him company I cried too.*
When he first made up his mind to take Holy
Orders he declared his intention of dedicating two
years entirely to a deep study of divinity, and to the
foundation of his style. This intention was more
than fulfilled, for he was a most industrious and
laborious student during the whole six years of his
curacy at Whippingham, laying up stores of know-
ledge and thought during that period which were of
incalculable value to him throughout the rest of his
life. In fact, whenever he was not visiting in his
parish he was engaged in study, and in order to
ensure complete privacy he had a little wooden hut
erected near the corner of the churchyard, in which
he used to read. He once asked his uncle Theodore
what he should call it. * I should call it Walter's cot,'
was the reply of the ever ready punster. In this cot
-1S26 Whippingham. 63
or hut he worked at his books, often as many as
nine or ten hours, sometimes rising very early and
reading on, with only the interval of breakfast, till
two or three o'clock in the afternoon. Sometimes but
more rarely he sat up late at night, but in any case
he usually spent a considerable part of the evening
as well as the morning in this retirement.
In the first year after his ordination as deacon
he appears to have read chiefly with a view
to his ordination as priest, which took place at
Christmas 1822, and also to fill his mind with
matter for sermons which for a considerable time
caused him no little anxiety and trouble. He
w^as indeed so exceedingly distrustful of his powers
that at one period he did not venture to preach his
own, but having written one which he preached on
behalf of some charity at Newport, and which was
much commended, he plucked up courage and
writes, May 1822, to his mother : * I am now in such
good humour with myself that I shall take to writing
my own sermons again, for during the last two or
three months I have not dared even to attempt one.*
In 1824 he embarked on a course of reading
according to a plan of his own, and completed it in
1826. The annexed chart of this course is a sin-
gular monument of industry, when the necessary
avocations of parochial work and occasional interrup-
tion from other causes are taken into consideration.
The piles of note books also, in my possession, all
bearing date within the space of these two years, are
an evidence how steadily and solidly the work was
done.
64
Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
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66 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
His primary object in following out this course
was to obtain a clear and comprehensive view of the
principles of the Church Catholic from the earliest
times, to trace the introduction of errors into the
Western Church during the period of Papal domina-
tion, and to measure the extent to which these errors
were renounced by the Reformers of the sixteenth
century, especially in our own country. And as the
result of his researches pursued on this historical
method, he was led to the conviction which all his sub-
sequent studies strengthened, and to which he ever
held with a tenacious grasp, that the Reformed Angli-
can Church was a pure and apostolical branch of the
Church Catholic : that she was essentially Catholic
as being on all vital points of constitution, doctrine,
and practice in harmony with the primitive Church,
and on the other hand essentially Protestant, as
opposed to the pretensions of the Papal power and
to the corruption in teaching and practice of the
Middle Ages. The close of his career of study at
Whippingham left him with his antipathies matured
against the Romanist who would corrupt the Church,
against the Puritan who would destroy it, against
the Latitudinarian and Erastian who would sacri-
fice its principles to considerations of expediency
and worldly interest. And it was his destiny to
carry on, throughout his life, a manful and almost
incessant contest with these three great elements of
danger to the purity and integrity of the Church of
England.
After this general sketch of his life at Whipping-
ham, into which it seemed desirable to enter in order
to show how strongly and deeply the foundations of
-1826 Visitatio7i Sei'mon. 67
his future career, both as a pastor and an ecclesiastical
historian and theologian, were laid, it only remains to
relate in a few words the two incidents by which
alone the calm seclusion of this period was in-
terrupted.
His father had been appointed to preach at
Newport, the chief town in the Isle of Wight, on the
occasion of the Bishop of Winchester's visitation in
the summer of 1822 ; but as the time approached he
began to shrink from the exertion owing to the
feeble state of his health. He determined to pro-
pose his son as his substitute, to the no small dismay
of the young man, who, as has been seen, was
extremely diffident of his powers of composition if
not of delivery at this time, and who was as yet only
in deacon's orders. Remonstrances, however, were
in vain : the Bishop gave his consent ; the young
deacon set about his task with the energy and per-
severance which always distinguished him in a case
of necessity or duty. July 2 arrived. The Bishop
(Tomline) passed the night at the rectory, and on
the following morning Mrs. Hook, full of maternal
anxiety, drove him to Newport in her pony chaise.
The excellence of the sermon in itself, the per-
fection of the young preacher's utterance, and the
musical tones of his voice made a very great impres-
sion upon all who heard him. The Bishop was
especially warm in his praise of it, and made an
exception to a rule from which he said he very rarely
departed in requesting that it should be printed.^
1 It may now be found in vol. i. of the Church and her Ordinances,
a selection of Dr, Hook's sermons recently edited by his son, Rev.
Walter Hook, Rector of Porlock, published by Bentley and Son.
F 2
68 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
The sermon is entitled * The peculiar character
of the Church of England independently of its con-
nexion with the State.' A certain stiffness and for-
mality of style betray the youth of the author and
the painfulness and care with which he wrote at this
time; but the argument is neither crude nor feeble.
It is sustained with the confidence of one who feels
sure of his ground and sees his way. That it is the
duty of Englishmen to belong to the Church, not
because it is established but because it is a pure
branch of the Church Catholic ; that such a Church
can exist in purity and vigour under any form of
government, either severed from the state or in
alliance with it ; that the continental Reformers in
their intemperate zeal founded new churches,
whereas the English only cleansed and repaired the
superstructure, leaving the old foundations intact ;
that many of the leading foreign Reformers became
as dogmatic and exacting as popes, whereas in
England individuals, however eminent, had not
assumed any such overbearing authority ; that the
most dangerous enemies to the Church were still, and
always had been, the conforming Puritans, men who
adhered to the form but rejected the spirit of the
institution, who, in the words of South, ' live by the
altar, but turn their back upon it ; catch at the pre-
ferments of the Church, but hate the order and dis-
cipline of it : ' these are the principal topics of his
discourse. These were positions which he maintained
to the end of his life ; and the clear and bold assertion
of them at this period proves that the laborious plan
of study on which he was about to enter did but
deepen convictions at which by previous reading he
-1826 Dr. LtLscombe. 69
had already arrived. When the sermon was pub-
Hshed, the congratulations which reached his parents
from persons well qualified to judge of its merits were
numerous and hearty. Mr. N orris, Rector of South
Hackney, writes :
* I can only express my thankfulness that in a day
of rebuke and of blasphemy, when Gebal and Ammon
and Amalek,and the confederation of aliens, are setting
the battle in array against the Church, there are men
rising up and enlisted under her banner who have so
eminently qualified themselves for her defence. The
sketch taken of the important subject is a most
masterly one : Indeed I cannot conceive of one more
masterly within the same compass .... I never
passed half an hour so much to my satisfaction as
that of which I am now detailing to you the impres-
sion.'
The second episode in the Whippingham period,
occurring near the close of it, was a matter of much
more importance.
An old friend of his father's, Dr. Luscombe, who
had once kept the school at Hertford in which, as has
been related, Walter and his brother Robert began
their education, had been resident for five years in
France, engaged in tuition from 1820 to 1825. It
was reckoned that about fifty thousand English were
then sojourning in that country ; but the supply of
clergy and places of worship for such as belonged to
the Church of England was extremely inadequate ;
they were not licensed or subject to any regular
supervision, much laxity of practice prevailed, and
young people grew up without receiving the rite of
Confirmation. It appeared to Dr. Luscombe that
7o Life of Walter Farqukar Hook. 1821-
some recognised, authorised bond of union was
highly desirable to hold together these scattered
congregations, and keep them true to the principles
of the Church of their mother country. Such a tie
he conceived might be found in the appointment of a
bishop, or at least an archdeacon, for the express
purpose of overlooking and organising the clergy and
their flocks. He consulted his friends in England on
the subject as early as the year 182 1, and there were
none of them who entered so warmly into the project
as Archdeacon Hook and his son.
It was at first thought that the design might be
effected by the appointment of a suffragan to the
Bishop of London, to whose spiritual jurisdiction all
British residents on the Continent were nominally
subject. Dr. Howley, then Bishop of London, and
other prelates, as well as Mr. Peel and Mr. Canning,
the Home and Foreign Secretaries of State, were
consulted, who after much deliberation and cor-
respondence expressed themselves adverse to the
proposal. They entertained fears that the sending
of a bishop by the Established Church of England
to minister in France might be regarded by the
Government of that country as an unwarrantable
intrusion, and occasion jealousies and suspicions, if
not difficulties of a more serious kind. The project
accordingly languished and seemed likely to be
abandoned. But meanwhile the young curate of
Whippingham had been following out a line of study
which, as we have seen, led him to discern clearly and
to value deeply the essential principles of the Church
independently of any connexion with the State. He
had consequently learned to take a peculiar interest
-1826 Dr. Luscombe. *]\
in the disestablished Church of Scotland, and the
iinestablished Church in America. In the former
his interest had been more especially excited by a
brief account of it in the memoirs of William Stevens,
Esq., written by Judge Allan Parke, a friend of his
father's, by whose advice he proceeded to read
Skinner's ' Ecclesiastical History ' and the * Annals of
Scottish Episcopacy.'
The past sufferings and the present poverty and
obscurity of the Scottish Church kindled in him
feelings of the tenderest compassion ; its purity and
zeal, feelings of the warmest admiration and respect.
Suddenly it occurred to his mind that this despised
and insignificant branch of the Church Catholic
might execute the design to which the Church of
England, hampered by its connexion with the
State, had not dared to put its hand. Not only
would a measure which he considered most salu-
tary be thus accomplished, but also a visible proof
would be supplied of the vital power of a true
branch, however small, of the Reformed Catholic
Church, and of the thread of unity which tied
all such branches together. As by the consecra-
tion of Bishop Seabury, the first American Bishop,
in 1784, the little Church of Scotland had be-
come the parent of a large and flourishing Church
in the New World, so he trusted she might pro-
pagate another on the European continent. A re-
quest was therefore forwarded at his suggestion to
Dr. David Low, Bishop of Ross and Argyle, that
he would sound the judgment of his brother bishops
on the subject. After much correspondence lasting
over several months, and relating chiefly to the
72 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
question whether an election on the part of the
EngHsh clergy in France should be required, and
also how far it would be prudent or gracious for the
Scottish Church to send out a bishop to minister to
British subjects without the direct sanction of the
English Church and Government, the College of
Scotch Bishops proposed to consecrate Dr. Luscombe
himself as their missionary bishop to British resi-
dents on the continent of Europe : he on his part
pledging himself to renounce all offers of preferment
in England. Intimations were received from the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mr. Peel and Mr.
Canning, that no obstacles would be raised by the
Church or Government in England to this plan.
Sunday, March 20, 1825, was fixed for the consecra-
tion, which was to take place at Stirling ; and Dr.
Luscombe requested his old pupil, now Curate of
Whippingham, to accompany him as his chaplain and
to preach the sermon.
His visit to Scotland was always regarded by him
as one of the most memorable events in his life.
He deeply valued the friendships which he then
formed, more especially with Bishops Sandford and
Low, Mr. Walker, afterwards Bishop of Edinburgh,
and last but not least with the learned, warm-
hearted and deeply pious Bishop Jolly, a model of
primitive simplicity and poverty in manner of life,
of whom Bishop Hobart the American remarked,
* Men go from the extremity of Britain to America to
see the Falls of Niagara, and think themselves amply
rewarded by the sight of this singular scene in
nature. Had I gone from America to Aberdeen
and seen nothing but Bishop Jolly as I saw him for
-1826 Offer of a London Church. 73
two days, I should hold myself greatly rewarded.
In our new country we have no such men, and
I could not have imagined such without seeing
him.'
Just as Mr. Hook was starting on his journey an
offer was made of a church in Regent Street, London,
or rather a request that he would become a candidate
for the incumbency by the detestable plan then not
uncommon of preaching in the church as a specimen
of his powers. His friends and, to some extent, his
parents, who wished to push him forward at a speed
in excess of his inclinations, were very anxious that
he should accede to the application, and even after
his arrival in Scotland he was pestered with en-
treaties to return to London for the purpose. But
he never wavered in his refusal. At the beginning
of his journey to the North, then an affair of several
days, he writes while still in London : * I think that
a clergyman ought to preach anywhere when he is
asked, either to instruct a flock, or to assist a brother
clergyman, but most decidedly not to show his
qualifications any more than to gratify his vanity ;
and with respect to London I never can fight my
way in the world. If the State divorces the Church
I shall have little doubt of becoming a great man in
it : but I do not understand the ways of the world.'
And after his arrival in Edinburgh he writes to his
father with a decisiveness intended to put a stop to
all further solicitations : ' I have finally and com-
pletely made up my mind to abandon all thoughts of
the church in Regent Street. I am very willing and
very desirous to take a high ground, but I never will
do so unless I am sure that I can keep my footing
74 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1S21-
at least with satisfaction to myself, if not with ad-
vantage to others. I willingly volunteered my ser-
vices on the present important occasion because I
had the vanity to consider myself qualified to a
certain extent to fulfil it without disgrace. I do not
feel myself competent for the situation offered in
London. It would necessarily lead to a superficial
reading for a temporary purpose, and I should be
unable to enlarge that platform upon which I mean
to build my hopes. Besides which I should not
choose to undertake any office which would, as it were,
limit my services to only a particular and inferior
branch of my calling (viz. preaching). In addition
to this, I have no notion of being chosen like a public
singer or actor. . . . Here therefore ends this
matter.'
His father indeed had been a little fascinated by
the prospect of his son's abilities being displayed in
London, but his more sober judgment was adverse
to the step. * Walter's advance,' he writes, ' in his
pursuits is extraordinary. He is up at six o'clock
every morning in this month of February and lights
his own fire, and I think it would be injurious to him
should he be interrupted before he has completed the
course of study by which he promises to become a
most eminent theologian.' His father thought also
that, with the exception of Bishop Andrewes, few
men had risen to distinction as divines who had
begun as preachers only.
The following group of letters will furnish the best
record of his visit to Scotland. The first extract, which
is from a letter written at York, I merely introduce
as an illustration of the wide difference between the
-1826 yourney to Scotland. 75
tongue of the North and South of England before
the days of railways and education acts.
* You will be glad to hear of our arrival here,
having travelled a day and a night, or rather twenty-
six hours ; if indeed this be York we are in. For I
rather suspect that while asleep in the coach last
night they must have carried me over to Germany,
since the language here talked may be German or
Danish, but certainly is not English. I heard the
" Cryer " just now pursuing his vocation, but I would
defy those who live nearer the sun than York to
understand what he intended to give notice of.'
To his Mother.
Whippingham : December 20, 1824.
I am so full of ideas all bearing upon my Scotch sermon
that I grudge every moment that I am not reading. I
wish for a dozen eyes and a dozen brains and a dozen
such memories as Woodfall's, for I could name a dozen
books, all of which I want to read at once, and the diffi-
culty is which first to choose ; for as soon as I sit down to
one I immediately wish that I had taken up the other.
Had the good Bishop Low consulted me how best he could
have gratified me, it would have been by coupling my
name as he has done with my dear father's. There is a
kind of beautiful rhythm in the sentence : * To the two
Hooks, father and son, though entirely unknown to me, I
could wish my respects to be made through you for the public
and honourable mention which they have made of our pool
but still respectable Church.'
To that poor but respectable Church I last year became
a subscriber of \l. annual subscription, which when I be-
come a Bishop I mean to make 100/. I think the corre-
spondence which has taken place between the Scotch
Bishops and Dr. Luscombe speaks volumes in praise of
the former; the readiness, the zeal, the kindness, the true
76 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
Christian feeling with which they have one and all
entered into his views remind one of former and better
times ; of days when a Bishop was almost another name
for a martyr. There is no single office that I would so
gladly undertake as that of preaching Dr. Luscombe's Con-
secration Sermon, and I am sure there is none for which at
present I am so well prepared.
His Vexation at the Application of Bishop Gleig to the
Government for its Sanctioji to the Consecration of Dr.
Liisconibe in Scotland,
Whippingham : December 28, 1824.
I look upon the whole business as now at an end. I shall
now cease from collecting materials for my sermon and
return to my regular pursuits. I should have thought that
experience would have taught Bishop Gleig the absurdity
of applying to Government for its decision on a subject
jpurely theological ; a subject on which most of its members
are probably ignorant, and in which in these days of
liberality and conciliation they would certainly not willingly
commit themselves. Is Government friendly to the Episco-
palians of Scotland .'' When has it proved itself so .■* Has
it not always been the policy of every Government, Whig
or Tory, to oppress, persecute, exterminate the Episcopal
Church .'' Was not even their present bare toleration
merely wrung from it, with a Lord Chancellor haranguing
vehemently against them } But even look further, when
the greatest and wisest and best of our prelates, when
Wake and Potter and Seeker, names ever to be honoured,
were earnest with Government to permit Bishops with-
out temporal rank to be sent to our colonies — what did
Government do .-' It treated the application with contempt ;
or was deterred by political circumstances. It has been
the work o{ nearly a century to wring from Government per-
mission to send Bishops to our colonies.
He then goes on to admit that Dr. Luscombe
being a presbyter, not of Scotland but of England,
-1826 Dr. Ltiscombes Consecration. *jy
Bishop Glelg was quite justified in applying (pri-
vately) to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his
permission to consecrate. ' It is strictly according
to the courtesy of the Catholics (true Catholics, I
mean) not to ordain ministers of another Church
without permission from the Bishop at the head of
it. As Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, was justly
offended when the Bishops of Palestine ordained the
celebrated Origen.'
Edinburgh. — Stirling. — Consecration of Dr. Lnscombe.
Stirling : March 20, 1825.
My dearest Father, — I was delighted to find a letter
from my beloved mother awaiting me here, and containing
so good an account, on the whole, both of herself and you.
I have, seen much, and been much interested since I wrote
last. I know not when I spent a pleasanter day than that
in which I dined with Mr. Walker, who is a man superior
both for his learning and piety. Bishop Low has been our
constant companion ; Dr. Russell, also, has amused and
instructed us by his conversation. On Friday last I went
to church at Bishop Sandford's, and was surprised to find a
congregation of perhaps 150 persons attending, dressed
mostly in mourning. This is the good old way of keeping
Lent. The church is a most beautiful one, and the light
is pleasing and solemnly deadened by the painted windows.
It holds, without galleries, about a thousand persons : it is
not so large as Mr. Alison's chapel. There is close to it
an ugly, tasteless kirk in which Sir Henry Moncrief
officiates ; Bishop Low says it is compared to a bandbox
in which Bishop Sandford's Church came down from
England. Bishop Low is old enough to remember when
the penal laws, the ' accursed '46 and '48,' ^ as they are
^ By the Acts of 1746-48 anyone officiating as Minister in any
episcopal chapel in Scotland without receiving his letters of orders
from some Bishop of the Church of England or Ireland, registering
them, taking all the oaths required by law, and praying for the King
78 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
called, were in full force ; and the marks of the chains are
still left upon his mind. The true Episcopalians appear
to be fond of dwelling upon the sufferings of their ancestors
in the holy cause. Among the sufferers was old George
Rose's father ; he lived at Brechin in Forfar, and having a
second charge fourteen miles off in the Highlands, he had
to trudge there on foot, through rain and snow, with only a
crust of bread and an onion in his pocket. He was appre-
hended after the '46 for reading Prayers to more than four
persons, and put on board a man-of-war in his old age,
during the winter months. When Bishop Home was told
of this, 'Ah ! ' said he, ' I should not have guessed George
Rose's parentage from his principles.' Aunt Eliza will
like the following anecdote of Mr. Skinner the historian,
grandfather of the present Bishop. He prayed for the
Elector of Hanover by name, and as King ; yet for reading
prayers to more than four persons he was put in prison ;
he used to read the prayers aloud to himself at the prison
window, and all his congregation assembled below to
catch the words as they fell from him, and for this these
Presbyterians actually wished him to be punished still
further. Talk of the Papists ! where was such persecution
as this subsequently to the days of Constantine ? The
Church is little better off now.
Poor old Bishop Gleig is seventy-two years old, breaking
by age, and otherwise afflicted ; but he is too poor to be able
to have an assistant This is permitted by a Government
which intends to provide for the Papists ; by a Government
which yearly gives 8,000/. to the English Dissenters, which
has long made an allowance to the Papists and Presbyterians
in Ireland. Many Highland congregations are without
ministers, because there are no funds to pay them with ;
congregations which would rather become Papists than
Presbyterians. The case is at present before Government,
and Royal Family by name, was for the first offence to be imprisoned
for six months, for the second to be transported to one of His Majesty's
plantations for life. These laws remained unrepealed, though not
actively enforced, up to 1792.
-1826 Letters from Scotland. 79
but with little prospect of being attended to. Lord Bexley
has interested himself warmly in it. This is creditable to
his Lordship, as the Bishops here run into such an
extreme against Calvinism as to be charged with Pela-
gianism by their enemies, but unjustly. Will you believe
it } an application was intended to be made to the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge for assistance with
respect to the Highland congregations, when upon sound-
ing previously some of the English Bishops, two of them
dared, in the hardihood of ignorance, to start an objection
so infamously Erastian as to say that the assistance ought
not to be afforded, since the Episcopal Church was a
dissenting Church in Scotland. One blushes with indigna-
tion and shame, but I much fear that too many on the
Bench are little better than Erastians. In our journey
hither we had much to interest us. On the Pentland Hills
of Covenanting infamy, the snow was lying. We passed
through Linlithgow, the favourite Palace of James IV. ; we
passed Falkirk and Bannockburn ; of Bannockburn the
Scotch are still most proud. Two Englishmen were
wandering on the field and called to a country lad, to
show them some particular spot in it. He recounted all the
deeds of that day of Scotland's glory with the accuracy of
a bard. The Englishman then offered him half-a-crown.
' Na, na,' said the clod, ' keep your siller to yoursel, the
English have paid dear enow for Bannockburn before this.'
Bishop Gleig has just sent to ask me to drink tea with him,
so I must obey. Sunday : I have just returned from
church, and I am able to say that at last Dr. Luscombe is
a Bishop. We met at Bishop Gleig's Bishop Sandford ;
he is the most delightful loveable old man you ever saw, I
never knew anyone who looked more truly what one would
wish a Bishop to look. His voice is so soft, his manner so
gentle, his demeanour so gentlemanlike, that he must win
all hearts. He is always in full dress, with his short
cassock and buckles, as all the Bishops here are accustomed
to be. I never knew a more striking and solemn ceremony
than that which I have witnessed to-day. As a sight, it
8o Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 182
would have been more affecting if it had been at Edinburgh
in one of the magnificent chapels there. Stirling Chapel
is an ugly building, much about the size of our Church at
Whippingham, with rather a larger congregation. My
sermon was about forty minutes long ; I was sorry for it
for Bishop Sandford is a great invalid, and could hardly
remain out the service. Bishop Low was very much
pleased with it ; and Bishop Gleig said he could promise
me that he never heard a sermon more to his liking upon
such an occasion. Bishop Gleig, though a most eccentric
character, is a great divine ; so I consider this a great
compliment.
Visit to St. Andrew^ s. — Dr. Chalmers.
St. Andrew's : March 24, 1825,
My dearest Mother, — I am writing this in an apartment
which once formed part of the palace of our unfortunate
Archbishop Sharp. It is rather remarkable that the first
thing which met our eyes upon entering Edinburgh was
a placard, announcing the exhibition of Allan's picture of
that most fiendlike act of Presbyterian intolerance and
bigotry, and upon our arrival at St. Andrew's we were
forced into the house of that unfortunate martyr. Whether
it forbodes ill to Bishop Luscombe or me, I know not ;
but I believe that, as far as I am concerned, I could
suffer martyrdom very decently, but then I should like it
to be in the more regular way ; by the halter or the stake,
not by the knife of the assassin. The first thing we did
this morning was to wait upon Dr. Chalmers, Professor of
Moral Philosophy, a friend of Dr. Luscombe's, to request
permission to attend his lecture ; he received us very
civilly ; we shall meet him at a small party this evening.
I was glad to attend his lecture, as it would be contrary to
my principles to hear him preach. His lecture was a very
good one, showing how the discoveries which have been
made by geologists tended to the corroboration of revela-
tion. He availed himself largely of Professor Buckland's
works ; but it is rather surprising that while he referred to
-1S26 Letters from Scotland. 81
Cuvier by name, he omitted to mention that great English
geologist. His style was rather too figurative ; one or two
splendid sentences towards the close produced great effect.
I was not aware that the force of a few words would be so
great, for it was not the matter, but the words, which told.
I shall in future endeavour to close my sermons with a
few strong sentences. I understand that Chalmers has in
his former lectures praised our English divines, and pro-
nounced the hierarchy of England to have been the great
bulwark against infidelity. Upon the whole his lecture
was a good one; but I doubt much if it had been delivered
by an Englishman, whether it (or any of his works, if the
works of an Englishman), would have obtained for the
author that fame which the Whigs have bestowed upon
Chalmers. He gave me the idea of a person who spoke
more for effect than utility ; to produce admiration for
himself rather than to afford edification to others. We
afterwards viewed the ruins of the cathedral ; dauntless did
I stand under them, for I am convinced, God be thanked,
that I have not in my veins one drop of the blood of John
Knox ; if I had, I would draw it from my body, at the
risk of my life. I refer to a story which was told me by
Bishop Low. When Dr. Johnson was shown the ruins of
St. Andrew's, they pointed out to him a part of them
which was likely to fall, and for fear of its doing mischief,
they were thinking of taking it down. * No,' said the good
Doctor, ' let it stand for the present, it may chance to fall
upon the head of some descendant of John Knox.'
The Episcopalians here are not numerous, but, as is
the case everywhere in Scotland, they are the most respect-
able inhabitants. The present chapel is a room fitted up
for the purpose, and by far too small for the congregation.
The new chapel is nearly finished ; it is a small, handsome,
Gothic building, in the shape of a cross. I have recom-
mended that at each gable end there should be erected a
small cross on the exterior of the building ; and I am
particularly urgent to have a slight alteration made by
which the altar may be placed at the east, whereas they
VOL. I. G
82 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
were going to place it at the north. Bishop Luscombe was
not warm upon the subject at first, but now, just as I am
coohng, he takes my view to the full extent. I say that I
do not esteem it quite so essential as I did, because,
although the early Christians did almost invariably worship
to the east, and particularly look to the east when pro-
fessing their faith, there is, if I mistake not, an exception
to the rule mentioned by Eusebius in describing the
Church of Paulinus, which lay, I think, north and south,
instead of east and west ; but Eusebius mentions it and
remarks upon it as an exception to the rule. The Epis-
copalians are much delighted in having about a fortnight
ago carried a point which was thought impracticable. For
three centuries no service has been performed at the grave
of an Episcopalian. The holy service was always per-
formed in a room, a little dust being brought in a plate to
be thrown upon the body. About a fortnight ago, an
Episcopalian lady died, one who was universally respected
and deeply lamented. Bishop Low was determined to
'take the bull by the horns,' and came over from Pittenweem
to perform the last service for his departed friend himself.
No disturbance was offered, although many Presbyterians
were present. The established ministers regard our Church,
which never wilfully interferes with them, with greater
feelings of hostility than any of those sects which are most
violent against the establishment. For the ministers of the
other Dissenters rank below the established ministers, but
the Episcopal Clergy always above them.
Doctor CJiatuicrs — Presbyterian Theological Parties.
Edinburgh: Tuesday before Easter, 1825.
My dearest Mother, .... As I told you in my last, I
was much pleased with my visit to the kingdom of Fife.
On the evening of the day upon which I wrote last I had the
pleasure of meeting Dr. Chalmers, who, although he never
dines out, came in the evening and partook of the whiskey
toddy (most odious beverage). Both he and Dr. Nicol;
-1 826 Letters from Seat laud. 8^
the Principal of the University, gave precedence to Bishop
Luscombe, who was called upon to say grace. With Dr.
Chalmers I had some conversation tcte-ci-tcte in the draw-
ing-room. He is an unassuming man, and in close corres-
pondence, evidently, with our Evangelicals ; however, I did
not want to enter into controversy with him, but talked
upon his experience on the management of the poor at
Glasgow, the nature of which I remembered to have read
in the ' Edinburgh Review.' His idea is this, that if you
teach the poor to look for no assistance from the rich, they
will, from the mere feeling of self-preservation, lay up for
themselves a sufficient store for their old age ; and that by
the mutual interchange of good offices among themselves,
they will not only make themselves more comfortable and
independent, but the very disgrace which will attend the
acceptance of favours, without the possibility of returning
them, will operate in a great measure to prevent any kind
of distress ; except such as results from casualties, which
is the proper object of charity. This is, as far as I could
understand, his theory, and very good it seems to be. But
these theorists, when they come to practice, are found at
fault. I asked him what he would do, if, as is sometimes
the case in England, he found a sick person lying on a bed
without a blanket, and in a room without a fire. ' Oh ! '
quoth the professor, * I can prescribe nothing for that false
state of society in which you are in England.' So that, in
fact, his theory is only applicable to a new country. Dr.
Chalmers is a ' high flyer,' a leader of the party ; the ' high
flyers ' answer to our Evangelicals. Principal Nicol is the
leading man of the moderate party, a great speaker at the
General Assembly. The moderate party, I am grieved to
say, incline to Socinianism in general. But the Principal,
who was really most kind to us, by the indignation he
expressed against the English Presbyterians who have
lapsed into that Deistical, horrible heresy, is, I hope and
trust, free from all taint. The Principal himself showed us
the two churches. In one I was much surprised to see the
monument of Archbishop Sharp ; and truly a matter of
G 2
§4 Life of Walter Fa7'qtthar Hook.
surprise it need to be to find such a record of Presbyterian
atrocity in a Presbyterian kirk. But the secret came out
afterwards ; they had intended to pull it down, but it was
found that the best estate belonging to the kirk was left
upon condition of the monument being permitted to re-
main. Our host, Mr. Binny, knew my uncle Walter very
intimately, and spoke of him with great affection ; he was
acquainted with uncle Robert also in India.
Bishop Luscombe has gone, with my piayers for his
success. It was necessary that I should spend a week in
Edinburgh, for I have not seen all the lions of the city, and
I have to see those of the vicinity. My father advised me
to do all that was necessary to do at first, but I have not
followed his advice strictly on this point, for this reason.
In this Presbyterian land they do not commemorate the
day of our Saviour's death. I would not choose, therefore,
to be in the country during Passion week, especially when
most of the families of our persuasion are coming to town
to celebrate the great festival which succeeds. Many
persons, very wrongly in my opinion, go to kirk in the
country, but, not acknowledging the capability of a Presby-
terian minister to consecrate the sacramental elements, go
during the great festivals to some place where there is an
Episcopal chapel. So here I stay till Easter Monday, and
here do you direct till you hear again.
Your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
Visit to Bishop Jolly.
Aberdeen : April 12, 1825.
My dearest Mother, — When I wrote to you last I was
about to start for Fraserburgh, from which place I reluc-
tantly tore myself away yesterday morning, being under
an engagement to dine with Bishop Skinner here. Not
arriving at Fraserburgh until ten o'clock on Saturday
night, I did not wait upon good Bishop Jolly till the follow-
ing morning. I knew that the Bishop rose at four o'clock ;
and therefore I called at nine : but I knocked at the door
-i82<s Letters from Scothuid. 85
in vain. I was told by a passer-by that if I walked on
the opposite side of the road, the Bishop would probably
see me, and speak to me from the window. No one how-
ever appearing, I began to fear that he was gone on a
visitation ; I knew that he kept no servant, and that an old
woman in the neighbourhood took care of the house, who
after shutting the shutters and so forth of an evening, very
often locked the Bishop in, and took the key with her to
her own house. For this woman I enquired ; she refused to
disturb the Bishop before ten. I accordingly gave her my
card to deliver to him when she went to him. He imme-
diately sent me a note requesting me to call upon the
Rev. Mr. Pressley, who would respectfully conduct me to the
Bishop. At half-past ten therefore I saw the good old man.
He was dressed in his canonicals, with the whitest and
largest wig in Christendom. His room was small, with
a small round table and a desk, and various books of
reference on the surrounding shelves. He seemed truly
glad to see me, and said ' I am to understand that you are
the son, the reverend and worthy son, of a dignified Arch-
deacon of the honoured Church of England.' He after-
wards asked me whether that good worthy man, the Arch-
deacon, were well. I set him right, of course, about my
father's age, and told him that he had lately been very ill ;
he then adverted to the grand day at Stirling. * I can as-
sure you,' said he, * my heart was with you. I read through
the whole of the Consecration Service, on that morning ;
and my reverend assistant, Mr. Pressley, and myself prayed
together heartily that the grand design might turn out to
the glory of God.' He then informed me that it was
impossible for him to leave his parish during Lent, or he
would have been at Stirling on that grand day, as he was
preparing his young folk for Confirmation. In his own
parish, he has an annual Confirmation ; in the diocese it '\\
only triennial. In his own small parish he had nineteen
persons to confirm, out of whom eleven were converts from
Presbyterianism. The Bishop did not seek first to convert
them, but they made the advance. Now this is very glorious..
£6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
and very striking'. I asked him whether he did not think
it necessary that they should be first baptized ; he said
that he would confess to me, as I was a friend, that they all
were re-baptized, and this at their own request, since they
had scruples about lay baptism, and of course, when they
were converted they regarded, as we do, the ministers of the
Scotch Established Church merely as laymen. Be careful
not to talk of this ; for although it is always done, it is
done under the rose, since the ministers of the Establish-
ment are very irate indeed when they discover that we
re-baptize the quondam members of their communion.
The bishop would not permit me — a reverend clergyman
of the honoured Church of England (and he said 'we
are very like the Church of England, almost the same,' )
— to sit without the rails of the altar, but I sat within with
him, and read the Epistle. In the afternoon Mr. Pressley
said it would be * brotherly to read prayers,' which I did.
Between the services, I was delighted with the conver-
sation of the good, dear Bishop ; a biscuit and a glass of
wine was all his dinner ; in general he takes a basin of
soup, but, in honour of me, he had some wine that day,
Avhich made his dinner. He has perhaps as good a
divinity library as any clergyman in Great Britain ; some
most scarce and valuable books are in it. It has been the
collection of fifty years ; many of them presents, or bought
when books were cheaper than they are now. It shows
what a man may do on a little ; for this most apostolic
Bishop has only 60/. a year to live on, having by ill health
been obliged to procure an assistant at 40/. per annum ;
this 40/. is exclusive of the 60/. ; of this 60/, he spends
half in charity. You can form no conception how he is
beloved. It is a beautiful sight to see the children running
across the street when he appears, and holding down their
little heads while he lays his hands upon them and blesses
them. Many of the grown up people kneel down and
receive his blessing also. Last year when Mr. Walker was
at Fraserburgh, some fishermen, going out on the whale
fishing, walked six miles before they sailed, to receive his
-1826 Letters from Scotland. 87
blessing. It was the old custom in England, long retained
in Scotland, for any person when waiting on a Bishop, to
kneel down and beg his blessing. I lament, however, to say
it is going out here, and is retained only by Bishop Jolly,
except on particular occasions. Mr. Pressley told me that
he always knelt down and received his blessing on Sunday
morning, or when he waited on him on clerical business, or
to pray with him. This worthy young man, Mr. Pressley,
is treading in the Bishop's steps ; he was ordained deacon
at nineteen ; he is now only twenty-four. His reading has
been so extensive that he would shame many first-rate
divines in England ; all our great English authors he knows
well ; he has read the Fathers, that is the best of them ; he
can refer to any sentence of Scripture, mentioning even the
chapter and verse ; he can read any book in Latin, Greek,
or Hebrew ; and this good young man is living contentedly
on 40/. a year, out of which he has to contribute to the
support of his parents. He is educating two young men
gratis (for they cannot afford to pay him) for the Episcopal
Church, and has a gentleness and urbanity of manners
w hich is perfectly wonderful, considering that he has nev'cr
been farther south than Aberdeen. For a few years
Government allowed 100/. per annum to each of the Scotch
Bishops ; it was called a regium donum. Five years ago
it was stopped, with no reason assigned, by this very
Government who mean to pension the Papists. ]Mr. Press-
ley says this stoppage necessitated Bishop Jolly so much
to curtail his charities that it weighed much upon the good
man's spirits, and he has stinted himself ever since. At
six o'clock I went to drink tea with the Bishop. The old
woman brought a teapot with the tea made from her own
house, wrapped in a pocket handkerchief, and having laid it
on the table, begged a blessing and departed. The Bishop
and I (for Mr. Pressley was gone to a Sunday school) then
got the cups and saucers from the closet, and drank our tea ;
he said ' You see I am a perfect monk, not from choice,
but a wonderful train of Providence placed me in the situ-
ation I am in, and I am perfectly happy.' He talked of
SS Life of IVal/er Farqiihar Hook. i?2i-
the reception the bishops met with from the good King
George, a print of whom was given him at Edinburgh.
* But,' said he, pointing to a print of Prince Charles, * he has
been over my fireplace for forty years, and I could not
find it in my heart to depose him.' So he has placed the
king in the next honourable situation, between the effigies
of Archbishop Laud and Archbishop Sancroft. I said
that I wanted a copy of the Scotch Episcopal Communion
Service, and asked where I could get one ; he said he had
one by him, and would give it to me. ' I am ashamed,' he
said, ' to give you only a little sixpenny pamphlet, but,' look-
ing with affection on his books, ' these are to be a legacy to
our poor Church, so I cannot part with them.' I insisted
on his writing his name in the little book, and this is what
he wrote : * Accepted with much goodness by the Rev. W.
F. Hook, from Alexander Jolly, Bishop, whom he delighted
by his company in Fraserburgh, Low Sunday, 1825.' I
need not tell you that to my dying day, I shall value this
little book. I could write on this subject for ever, but my
paper warns me to conclude. After shaking hands with
the dear old Bishop, I knelt down, and never, never shall I
forget my feelings when, laying his two hands upon my
unworthy head, he said, as if from his heart of hearts, ' My
6on, may God Almighty bless you by His Holy Spirit,
preserve you from sin and danger, direct and prosper you
in all your studies and holy duties, and keep you in His
love and favour evermore.' I must add that he wishes that
whenever that worthy and venerable man, the archdeacon
writes to the now Bishop Luscombe, he will state that he
(Bishop Jolly) will think of him QWQvy morning, and pray
in great truth for his success.
The four consecrators of Dr. Luscombe were :
Bishop Gleig, the Primus ; Dr. Sandford, Bishop
of Edinburgh ; Dr. Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen ;
and Dr. Low, Bishop of Ross and Argyll. The
very sight of Dr. Skinner was interesting, for he
was a direct link between these peaceful times and
-1826 Consecration of Dr. Ltiscombe. 89
one of the most suffering epochs of the Scottish
Church. His grandfather, the Rev. J. Skinner, for
sixty-four years pastor of Langslde, had been im-
prisoned for six months under the oppressive Act
of 1748 for the crime of reading the EngHsh Liturgy
to more than four persons, although he had taken
the oaths of allegiance to Government. Large
crowds, however, used to gather on Sundays round
the Tolbooth, to whom he preached from the grated
window of his cell. His son was afterwards Bishop
of Aberdeen, and father of the Bishop who assisted
in the consecration of Dr. Luscombe. The object
which the Scottish Bishops had in view in con-
secrating Dr. Luscombe will best be understood
from the concluding words of the Letters of Colla-
tion which they delivered to him : ' He is sent by
us, representing the Scotch Episcopal Church, to
the Continent of Europe, not as a Diocesan Bishop
in the modern or limited sense of the word, but for
a purpose similar to that for which Titus was left
by St. Paul in Crete, that he may " set in order the
things that are wanting " among such of the natives
of Great Britain and Ireland as he shall find
professing to be members of the United Church
of England and Ireland and the Episcopal Church
in Scotland, and to these may be added any
members of the Episcopal Church of America who
may chance to be resident in Europe. But as our
blessed Lord, when He first sent out His apostles,
commanded them, saying, " Go not into the way of
the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans
enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel," so we, following so divine
90 Life of Walter Farquhar Hooh. 1821-
an example .... do solemnly enjoin our right
reverend brodier not to disturb the peace of any
Christian Society established as the National Church
in whatever nation he may chance to sojourn, but to
confine his ministrations to British subjects and to
such other Christians as may profess to be of a
Protestant Episcopal Church.
* And we earnestly pray God to protect and
support him in his arduous undertaking, and to
grant such success to his ministry that he may be
among those who, having turned many to righteous-
ness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.'
The sermon preached on this occasion^ elicited
great praise from the Scottish Bishops and others
who heard it, and was the first production which
brought the author into public notice. It is entitled
' An attempt to demonstrate the Catholicism of the
Church of England and the other branches of the
Episcopal Church.' In force and freedom of style
and weightiness of matter, it is a very great
advance upon the sermon of 1822. The prac-
tical bearing of the sermon upon the matter in
hand consisted In demonstrating that, if there was
an essential unity between all branches of the
Reformed Catholic Church, the appointment of a
Bishop by one branch to minister to members of
other branches hitherto destitute of such provision
could be no intrusion or usurpation. Notwithstand-
ing differences of nationality and position, such as
the Church being established in one country and
disestablished in another, yet in itself was it one and
indivisible ; consequently the English, Scotch, and
* No. 2 in vol. i. of The Church and her Ordinances.
-1826 Sermon at Slirling. 91
American members of the Church, clerical and lay,
sojourning on the Continent might freely acknow-
ledge the authority of a Bishop duly consecrated
and sent forth by any one of the three branches.
Neither was there any fear, as some had supposed,
that such a Bishop would disturb the foreign Pro-
testants or the Roman Church.
The following wise words might well be weighed
by those Dissenters, on the one hand, who seek to
upset the Church of England as at present estab-
lished, and on the other by those members of the
Church who dally and coquet with Nonconformists,
whether Protestant or Romanist. ' We seek not to
interfere with, much less to overthrow, any Christian
form of worship which may be established by its
civil constitution, so long as it tends to promote (as
every Christian mode of worship will in a greater
or less degree promote) the great ends of virtue,
morality, and religion. For ourselves, we lay claim
to the privilege of worshipping the Almighty in the
manner we conceive to be prescribed by him, and
of keeping clear from what we consider to be error
on the one side or on the other, whether resulting
from the innovations of the Protestant or of the
Romanist. In this country (Scotland) grateful for
the toleration which is afforded to the Reformed
Catholic Church, its pious ministers, while they
vindicate its doctrines and maintain its discipline,
seek not to interfere with the Presbyterian estab-
lishment : but although they cannot enter Into its
communion or attend its services, they duly appre-
ciate its merits in contributing to rear and foster a
thinking and religious people. The same sentiments
g2 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
influence us when resident in a country where the
Church of Rome is estabHshed. Far be from our
views that misdirected and fanatic zeal, which would
seek at all hazards the downfall of even an erro-
neous mode of Christian worship, reckless of the
consequences ; which in removing one stumbling-
block may open the door to a thousand others, and
let loose passions which war against the spirit of
Christianity itself.'
The mission of Bishop Luscombe, however,
harmless as such a proceeding would be considered
in the present day, excited a great deal of contro-
versy at the time, and was viewed with displeasure
and alarm by many good Churchmen on the very
grounds which were combated in the sermon
quoted above. Many persisted in thinking that a
Bishop consecrated by a disestablished Church,
could have no right to exercise authority over the
members of an established Church, although residing
out of their country ; and also that his introduction
into the dioceses of a Church which was in alliance
with the State, and was also a branch, although a
corrupt one, of the Catholic Church, could not be
justified. Mr. Norris, rector of South Hackney,
was one of the most eminent who held these views
on the subject, and he expressed them in an article
in the ' Christian Remembrancer ' for December 1825.
Had Christianity itself been in danger, then, since
salus Ecclesics supreina lex, he thought the irregu-
larity would have been pardonable, but not otherwise.
To this article and other adverse criticisms, Mr.
Hook replied in the same journal, May 1826. He
points out that of the Catholic Church it had been
-1826 Replies to Crilics. 93
an invariable tenet that the Episcopate was one,
and that consequently a member of the Church owed
allegiance, not merely to the prelates of the country
in which he was born, but to the duly consecrated
Bishop of the place in which he might happen to
reside. * With that Bishop he is bound to com-
municate, notwithstanding differences in rites and
ceremonies, except where, as in the case of Greece
and Rome, they have degenerated into heretical and
idolatrous superstition ; for there, as it was ruled by
Cyprian and thirty-six other prelates in the case of
the Spanish Bishops, IMartialis and Basilides, the
clergy and people are not only authorised, but in
duty bounden, to renounce their allegiance ; and the
orthodox Bishops of a neighbouring nation, acting
not in their ordinary but in their Catholic character,
are permitted to send one of their number to pre-
side over those who may continue in the primitive
faith. ... If the Church of England were merely
a sect, then indeed it would be necessary for the
English abroad on all occasions to apply for sanction
to the authorities at home ; but being in fact, when
once they have quitted the shores of England, mem-
bers of the Church at large, their allegiance becomes
due, as I said before, not to an English diocesan,
but to the Ordinary of the place wherein they reside ;
if in Scotland to the Scottish Bishop, if in America
to the American Bishop, and so on. When, how-
ever, they are resident on the Continent of Europe,
there are few places where there is an authority
established which they can conscientiously acknow-
ledge, for, as Theodoret observes, " where Christians
are given to the worship of angels," {a fortiori of
94 L^f^ of Walter FarqiiJiar Hook. 1821-
saints) " they have left the Lord Jesus Christ."
They must therefore in this case apply to proper
ecclesiastical authority for the appointment of an
Ordinary, qualified for the discharge of episcopal
functions. The question then Is, In whom is that
authority vested? "Simplex"^ would answer that
they could only apply to the Bishops of England,
whereas I contend that though I should prefer it,
yet this Is by no means necessary, and in some cases
may be an inexpedient course. Suppose, for instance,
I were resident in a town in France, in which there
were also resident several Scottish and several
American Episcopalians, " Simplex," if not an Eras-
tian, will allow that we should be all of the same
communion, and that if any one should refuse to
hold communion with the others we should be schis-
matics. Suppose also an American clergyman were
to come to reside among us for the purpose of per-
forming divine service, and that, convinced of the
irregularities arising from want of an Ordinary, and
desirous of securing the rite of Confirmation for our
children, we should determine to apply In the proper
quarter for the redress of the grievance ; if the
Englishman should contend that application should
be made to the English bench, and the Scotchman
should plead for the Episcopal College In Scotland,
the American would think it necessary to uphold
the dignity of the prelates in the United States.
Each party would, in this instance, be acting on the
narrow principles of a sect, and Catholic unity
would thus be destroyed. But sinking all national
distinctions they would, if they acted properly and
* One of his critics who wrote under this name.
-1S26 Bishop Lnscombcs Mission. 95
as really Catholic Christians, come to the determi-
nation of applying" to any lawful authority, capable
of judging- of the expediency or inexpediency of
granting their petition and relieving their wants.
Referring to the records of the Church in its primi-
tive and purest ages, they would find that the
Christians in those days, when they were in want of
a Bishop, did not think it necessary to apply to any
particular Church, but to a synod of neighbouring
Bishops canonically convened.'
It only remains to say, that Bishop Luscombc
met with a most cordial reception in France, from
the British Ambassador at Paris, and from all mem-
bers of the Reformed Church abroad ; and if his
mission was not ultimately so successful as had beea
hoped, the failure was due to causes which were
not connected with the nature of the mission itself,
and into which therefore it is not worth while to
enter here.
LETTERS, 1822-1826.
Renewal of hitercoiirsc zvith Ills Friend William Page Wood.
Whippingham, Isle of Wight : March 1822.
My dearest Mother, .... I shall now proceed to my
own business, which is, of course, quite and entirely confi-
dential between you and me. After nearly eleven years'
friendship, the better half of Wood's life, and no small
portion of mine, it would be useless to deny that we are
both of us impatient to meet once more. If, therefore, the
same objections do not still exist, I am sure you, my kind
mother, will endeavour, if possible, to procure and accelerate
that meeting. Had you not kindly mentioned the subject
gS Life of Walter Fai'q7ifiar Hook. 1821-
when last here, I should have given it up as a hopeless
case for the present, but since by your mentioning it
there must be a possibility, I cannot restrain my feelings so
far as not to express my wishes, and to strive to promote
an object 1 have so much at heart. This point, however,
I leave to my father's decision of course. If it is thought
expedient that we should not yet meet, then I shall remain
here ; for, except for that purpose, I would not sacrifice the
solitude, peace, and quiet which I am here enjoying in
perfection. But if (as God grant it may be) it is possible,
or rather expedient, for me to see Wood, I will tell you
the plan which sometimes flies athwart my brain as I
compose myself to my evening's nap ; though it will never
be put in execution, forasmuch as I have already enjoyed
it in anticipation. I should like to get a parson's holiday,
and spend three days with you in town, that I may make
a solitary expedition to the Tower, and pay my usual visit
to Poet's Corner, and see the Panoramas, and go to Astley's
or one of the minor theatres, which is a thing I want to
do for sundry reasons. Then I should like to spend three
days with dear Aunt Mathison at Hampstead, and after
that, to go with my father to the visitation ; from thence to
Cambridge. All this is very fine talking, you will say, but
it is prodigiously dissipated for a parson, and veiy expen-
sive. And yet, if you except the three days in town, when
I shall be on a visit to you, the week at Cambridge is not
much after four years' absence, to those who, for nearly
seven years, were scarcely ever four hours absent from one
another in a day.
Your most affectionate Son,
W. F. Hook.
Invitation to be Stezvard at a Ball.
Whippingham : April 1822.
Mr. H.'s note did not arrive till yesterday, but the
answer was in time ; what it was I suppose you have antici-
pated. I should verily as much have thought, nay, even
more seriously, of going to Jericho than of becoming
-1826 Letters, 1 82 2-1 826. 97
steward to a ball. I should be worried and bothered my-
self, and worry and bother everybody else ; and as to my
qualification, if I were to dress up one of my father's cows
she would perform the duties with infinite more grace and
good humour than I should. Besides the plague of it
would be so great that I should die under it, and it would
look very ill upon my tombstone to see ' Here lies Walter
Farquhar Hook, B.A., student of Christ Church, chaplain
to his Grace the Duke of Argyll and sometime curate of
this parish. He died of a ball, universally regretted, on the
23rd day of April 1822, in the 25th year of his age.'
Detestation of French Characters.
' Conduct is Fate ' I cannot read. I am too much of a
John Bull to take any interest in Monsieurs and Madames
and Mademoiselles, and I suppose the heroine is a French
woman ; and how could I take any interest in the adven-
tures of a woman born and bred in that country where
Buonaparte tyrannised, and that atheistical villain Voltaire
spat his dirty venom at Shakspeare.
Law's ' Serious Cat/.*
Whippingham, Cowes, Isle of Wight : May 5, 1824.
My dearest Brother, ... I have lately been reading a
book the Dean of Winton gave me, Law's * Serious Call.'
I had not read it for several years ; it is a book exquisitely
written, and written in such a manner that I defy any
body to read it without being interested. Dr. Johnson
when he was at Oxford took it up, expecting to find it a
dull book, and perhaps to laugh at it. These are his own
words, but says he, ' I found Law an overmatch for me,
and that was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest
of religion, after I became capable of rational enquiry.
Now of this book I intend always to read a chapter every
morning ; I am sure it will be of advantage through the
whole day ; and if you will do the same, you have only to
VOL. I. H
98 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1821-
order it at Rivingtons, and place it on your bookshelf as a
gift from a devotedly attached brother. You will think the
first day that he commands impossibilities, but you will on
the second day think those impossibilities less impossible ;
and I pray God to grant us both His grace that we may
both go on thus improving every day. You will, I am sure,
take in good part this wee-bit prose. You know me, you
know how weak I am, how easily I have yielded, and still
yield, to temptation. You have always been my friend
and confidant. I tremble often at the thoughts of the
future, and I have been tempted to despair of the mercy oi
God ; but on that mercy I have now learned wholly and
solely to rely, through my blessed Redeemer, and humbly
I pray that I may finally be triumphant over those evil
thoughts and wicked passions which too often assail me.
I pray the same for you, my dear Robert, and I entreat you
to join in the prayer. Believe me, my dearest Robert, to
remain
Your devotedly attached Brother,
W. F. Hook.
The three letters which follow relate to a visit to
London to see Dr. Hobart, the Bishop of New
York, and will perhaps be better understood if pre-
faced by a few words of explanation. Before the
declaration of Independence in 1783, the Church in
America had nominally been subject to the epis-
copal supervision of the Bishop of London. Com-
missaries were sent over by him from time to time,
and very Ineffectually as a rule did they discharge
their work. After the establishment of the Re-
public it became necessary for the American Church,
if it was to be episcopal at all, to obtain Bishops
for itself. Dr. Seabury was sent over to England
in 1785 to seek consecration from the Archbishop
of Canterbury ; but the prelates of the Established
-1 826 Bishop Ilobart. 99
Church were afraid of taking the step lest it should
involve the English Government in difficulties with
the American Republic, which had just been recog-
nised. Dr. Seabury accordingly was consecrated by
the prelates of the Scotch Church. Three other
Bishops were afterwards consecrated in England,
the political impediments having been surmounted.
The American Church, thus refounded, set about
adapting itself to the altered condition of things
with laudable zeal and wisdom ; but for some time
it had to contend against misrepresentation, obloquy,
and suspicion, and it was sinking into an unsatis-
factory state of supineness when in 1798 John
Henry Hobart was ordained to the ministry. He
quickly began to rouse the Church into vigorous
action, and in 181 1, at the age of thirty-six, he was
consecrated Bishop of New York. I will conclude
these remarks by an extract from a lecture on the
American Church given by Dr. Hook in Leeds, in
which he alludes to the visit mentioned in the letters
below.
' For several years the moral persecution which
Bishop Hobart had to endure depressed his spirits,
but never for a moment slackened his energfies.
Every kind of falsehood was invented to blacken his
name, and for a time he had to fight almost single-
handed the battle of the Church. But by degrees
friends rallied round him, they increased in number,
they gave him their confidence ; he lived down his
enemies. Long before his death he had the hap-
piness — and a greater happiness man can scarcely
enjoy — of counting among his supporters and friends
some who had been at one time his bitter opponents.
H 2
lOO Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 182 1-
Even among those who still thought it their duty to
pursue a course of conduct different from that which
suggested itself to him, many regarded him in private
with feelings of friendship ; and in the various de-
nominations which at one time had gone out of
their way to oppose him, many so much admired his
wisdom, his foresight, and his energy, that they were
now ready to admit that they were prepared to take
him for their model, and to bring his principles of
energetic action to bear on those very denominational
peculiarities which he most condemned.
'In 1823, worn out and fatigued with his many
anxieties and cares, he visited Europe ; and he was
received in England with those feelings of admiration
and respect which he so fully deserved.
' I was at that time a curate in the Isle of Wight.
There were no railroads and very few steamboats,
and travelling therefore was expensive ; but though
I could ill afford it, I journeyed to London on a cold
November day on the top of the coach to receive at
the end of my journey the blessing of a man whom
I admired, respected, and revered. I found him in
the grandeur of his simplicity as ready to open his
full mind to a young curate as he would have been
to a person of his own age and station. He prided
himself, and went out of his way to show it, on being
a Republican ; and the mixture of Republican with
High Church principles perplexed not a few among
those who approached him, and who confounded the
Church with the Establishment. He gave some
offence by preferring his own branch of the Church
to ours on those matters of detail in which a dises-
tablished Church must differ from an Establishment.
t^l
-1826 Letters, 1 822-1 826. 101
He told me that the cause of the Church was re-
tarded in America at that time by the fact that many
narrow-minded persons still felt that there must be,
on the part of the Episcopalians, a secret attachment
to the principles of the English monarchy which was
treason to American republicanism. He wished
while showing and proclaiming his devoted attach-
ment to the Church of England to prove in his own
person that he could be a loyal citizen of the United
States. From that time the progress of the Church
in the United States has been rapid and satisfac-
tory.'
Bishop Hobart and the American Church.
16 St. James's Street, London : November 1823.
My dearest Father, — I write to request a very great
favour of you. The Right Reverend Father in God John
Henry Hobart, Bishop of New York, has arrived in
England, and is, I hear, staying at Mr. Norris's. Now, as
I know that you are acquainted with Mr. Norris, I should
feel, if it is not improper, the greatest possible pleasure in
having an introduction given me to him. If you think this
no improper intrusion, and you can send me a letter of
introduction by return of post, I can easily go by the stage
to Hackney some day next week. Few people, I flatter
myself, in England are better acquainted than I am with the
history of the Apostolic Church in America. I have been
making, since I have been in town, a close abstract of Bishop
White's history of that Church, published only in America,
and I think I shall be able to afford you some entertain-
ment and information on that subject when we meet. It
is so interesting a history that really, were I a little older,
and a deeper divine, I should instantly set to work, and
from my notes, the appendix to Bishop White, and my
conversations with Mr. Wheaton, I should publish a short
account of it. With these feelings, you will not wonder
I02 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
that I would strain a point to get an introduction to Bishop
Hobart. I have frequently met the Dean of Winton, and
I always join him to talk a little High-Churchery. He is
quite as delighted with the Apostolic Church in America
as I am. I am more particularly interested in the subject,
as it will cause Episcopacy to be better understood in
England by the generality of persons.
Mistaken for Bishop Hobart.
16 St. James's Street : November 12, 1823.
My dearest Mother, .... I can give you but little
family news. I went to Hackney yesterday. When I
arrived at Mr. Norris's I was received by his servant with
the most marked and peculiar respect ; he told me that
Mr. N. was out, but that he would return soon, and
entreated me to sit in the library while he sent to town for
his master. By this time several of the other servants had
collected round the door, and the maids were looking out
of window. I said that I would not permit Mr. N. to be
sent for, when the servant told me that his master would
never forgive him if he sent not for him express. I then
said I would walk about Hackney and call again in the
course of an hour, when the sei-vant begged me to leave
my name. Alas ; on seeing my card, and on finding that
I was a simple presbyter, all his respect and admiration
vanished. He then said that Mr. N. was gone to town to
fetch Bishop Hobart, Bishop of New York. ' We thought,'
quoth he, * that you, sir, were the Bishop.' You cannot
think how I was flattered by this, and no Bishop, of either
Scotland or America, could have assumed more episcopal
dignity when surrounded by moody Covenanters or hostile
sectarians, than I assumed when perambulating the streets
of Hackney. I called again on Mr. Norris, who had not
met the Bishop, who was detained in town by business
with the American ambassador. This, and the miscarriage
of his letters, in which he had arranged that the Bishop
should, like the apostles of old, be ' brought by the
-i826 Letters, 1 822-1 826. 103
Church ' all the way from Dover to London — that is, that
he should sleep and stay at the houses of different clergy
men on the road — these things, I say, had evidently put
him a little out of sorts ; and although he was particularly
civil, I did not get from him all that information which I
expected, nor did he even offer me the loan of the official
papers of the American Church. By the way, if my father
thinks it practicable, and I can get at the ' Quarterly '
through Croker, I think of drawing up an article for that
review from my knowledge of the American Church. It
can be done in the shape of a review on Bishop Dehon's
sermons, and I think it may be rendered instructive,
interesting, and useful.
Your most devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
Meeting with Bishop Hohart.
16 St. James's Street, London : November 13, 1823.
My dearest Mother, .... I have just come from that
great and good man, Bishop Hobart. To be sure, I went pre-
disposed to like him ; but my expectations were surpassed
beyond expression. His spirit, his vivacity, his judgment,
are striking even in half an hour's conversation. His sober,
but zealous piety ; his strong, vehement, but tempered
orthodoxy ; his veneration for our Church, his candour
with respect to his own, have won my heart. And when
he told me that he had read my father's charge, in New
York, I could not help giving him an invitation to Whip-
pingham ; when he expressed his pleasure at the prospect
of an introduction to the archdeacon, but he feared that
his health would not permit him to visit us at present, as
he would have to go south, but on his return he promises
to come. Alas, I fear that you will be away at that time.
There is no difference in his appearance from that of a
simple presbyter, nor is his exterior very polished, but
there is a strong, marked expression in his face which
speaks of one who has stood firm in the hour of peril, and
I04 Life of Walter FarqjiJiar Hook. 1821-
who has fought, and will fight, the good fight, ay, and (for
God is on his side) will eventually prevail over all his
enemies. Gilbert says that the respect with which he is
treated at New York is wonderful ; that even the Evan-
gelicals who differ from him are forced to acknowledge the
pre-eminent sanctity of his character and the sobered zeal
of his religion. Nay, Gilbert has even been asked by
Presbyterians, 'Have you seen our Bishop.-" and they
spoke of him as a great man that he must see before he
left New York. Now the Right Reverend Father himself
told me in conversation that it was necessary that the
character of the Bishop should be upholden, as the Repub-
licans would all be very willing to carp at and deny the
necessary respect due to the office. I felt, of course, the
awe and respect which a presbyter ought to feel in the
presence of a Bishop ; but he was very condescending, and
seemed to think that the honour was rather conferred on
him than on me. I wish I was settled in the neighbour-
hood of town, for I long to be dabbling in High-Churchery.
However, my day is not yet come ; I shall one day or
other hope to be a bulwark of the Church. In the mean-
time, I must lay deeper the foundation, which has been too
much neglected.
I shall be glad to return to you all — sweet and peaceful
Whippingham, my family, the school, the parish.
Your most devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
Whippingham, Isle ofWight : June 5, 1825.
My dearest Robert, — I do from my heart wish you
many, many happy returns of the day whether, as it is
doubtful, to-day or to-morrow be your real birthday.* To-
day I dine with Lord Henry and I shall propose your
health. To-morrow, to make assurance doubly sure, I will
drink it in my toast and water, which is my strongest beve-
* Because Robert was born so near midnight that it was difficult
to determine to which day his birth belonged.
-1S26 Letters, 1822-1826. 105
rage, except on Sundays, when I take a glass of wine. I
will do what is more, I will make peculiar mention of you,
my dear, dear brother, in my private prayers, and especially
to-morrow which is, I believe, your proper birthday, when I
shall have an opportunity of doing so in the most solemn
rite of the Church, as I have appointed that day for the
private administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper to a rich parishioner. And if the present dissipa-
tion of London has not too much disordered your thoughts,
if you are fully prepared, I would advise you not only to
form good resolutions upon your birthday, but to confirm
them by receiving that sacrament as soon after as you pos-
sibly can. There is an administration of it every Sunday at
St. Martin's. If you are not prepared then, the question is,
why are you not .■' and I would advise you just to look at the
quotation from Dr. Andrewes's sermon as given by Judge
Park in his excellent little work upon the Sacrament ; at
the end.
Adviee to a Yotmg Man of Business.
Whippingham, Cowes : December 6, 1825.
My dearest , — If I may be allowed to give you a little
advice, it is simply this, to confine your attention almost
exclusively to one point and one subject ; that is, your pro-
fession. No man ever succeeded in any one thing whose
thoughts were not exclusively devoted to it. Let all your
readings bear upon this point ; make yourself thoroughly
master of one subject (and no man can hope to be master
of more), and general knowledge will flow in wonderfully,
where you least expect it. I should say that your fault is
a desire to be able to say something of every thing. You
have many irons in the fire, but not one red-hot. You
dogmatise upon every subject, whether you understand it
or not, and I think sometimes take up opinions at second
hand. I was struck with this when you were with us ;
there were some points on which I had intended to have
io6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
gained information from you, but whenever I alluded to
them, I found that you knew nothing of particulars ; and
had only a general, that is to say, a confused notion upon
them ; I therefore did not press them. If you wish for
proof of the truth of this charge, just ask yourself upon
what single point I could consult you as an authority, and
yet again on what single subject would you not hazard an
opinion. If you wish to succeed in any profession, the
thing is, to make yourself completely and entirely master
of every subject relating to it. This is of course the work
of time; and then upon that subject you may be justified
in dogmatising if you please ; on all others be silent in
most instances, in all speak with diffidence. There is
another point on which I wish to prose you ; you have very
good abilities and a very sound judgment, if you were
pleased to exercise them, but you now seem to regard the
opinion of any person of great name as a law, and im-
mediately adopt it as your own. When you are struck
with any opinion or sentiment, ponder on it seriously, re-
flect on it, and judge for yourself whether there be not
some error in it ; until you are able to decide thoroughly
upon it, never sport it as your own. A man of real
talents would never do so under any circumstances. You
should always remember that pretenders to genius are
fond of starting a paradox to make fools stare ; but they
never do so without supporting it with a specious argu-
ment. He who professes to hold an opinion and yet
cannot support it, is considered not very wise. Again, if
a person lays down the law upon a subject, and when
questioned is found to know really little or nothing upon
it, that person is noted as a superficial fellow. All this
lecture amounts to this : Human nature is such that it is
scarcely possible for a man to be thoroughly master of
more than one subject, though he devote his life to it ; if
he is not master of some one subject, thoroughly master, he
will not succeed, and is not wise. Circumstances point out
the one subject to be studied ; providence has appointed
you to be a man of business, and in so doing tells you
-i?o6 Letter's, 1 82 2-1 826. 107
what it is to which you are exclusively (always except-
ing the higher claims of religion) to devote your time.
You seem to wish to have that general knowledge
which you hear great talkers lay claim to ; these great
talkers are men of quickness who let fly at everything and
astonish greater fools than themselves ; but they never
fail to expose themselves when talking to those who have
really studied any particular subject out of the many
which they pretend to understand. I can only judge from
my own experience. I know some men that pass for men
of talent ; their knowledge of the law, of general literature,
of physics, and metaphysics, &c., &c., has astonished me ;
they have had just as much pretensions to theological
subjects, the only one on which I am really capable of
judging. I have found them upon getting on that topic
overbearing and positive, but most awfully ignorant ; those
men I have of course set down as empty pretenders, and I
consider them as ignorant on subjects relating to law,
physics, metaphysics &c., as I have found them to be in
theology. These people are admired at dinner parties,
and so forth, but if they had to make their bread by their
talents, they would be found lamentably deficient. Now
to shine in mixed companies, is not to be your business,
however much your vanity may desire it ; it is your duty
to become a steady, unpretending, well-informed banker.
I say, unpretending; for depend upon it, where a man
knows most, there he will be most modest.
Whippingham : May 9, 1826.
My dearest Mother, — I have no patience with in
making such a fool of himself. A boy of sixteen, with his
head full of Ovid, Tibullus, and Catullus, would not be guilty
of such folly. I would advise him like Romeo to look out
for a new mistress in the first pretty face he meets, and
Rosaline will be soon forgotten in the superior charm of
Juliet. * Tut, man, one fire burns out another burning ; take
thou some new infection to thine eye, and the rank poison
of the old will die.' Shakspeare does well to call such
io8 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
love ' fancy.' It is in my opinion all a pack of nonsense.
I do not mean to say that all love is nonsense, but such a
kind of ideal love as 's, unrequited and for a person
whose character he does not know, is quite nonsense in any
but a child. Tell all this, and add with my love that I
think him a blockhead.
You surprise me about J. W. I think his marriage a
very bad thing. He will never be a good divine, if he
marries so early in his clerical life. No man should marry
at all events while he is in the lower order of the Diaconate.
Three or four years undisturbed by family botherations are
positively necessary even to ground a man .... Yet I
would have you know that I have a female correspondent
from whom I heard only yesterday. The letter came from
Cheltenham, and was franked by a Bishop. The lady has
in her veins the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She
is a steady, respectable body, rather the worse for years,
not pretty, but very good. You are acquainted with her,
and her name I leave you to guess.
Baptism of Converts from Anahaptism.
Whippingham, Cowes, Isle of Wight: May 29, 1826.
My dearest Father, .... Yesterday something singu-
lar and important occurred. Ryder brought his two sons
to be received into the Church, informing me that they
had been ' named,' by which the poor people here mean
privately baptized ; but upon putting the questions to him
according to the directions in the Prayer Book, I found
that they had only been immersed in water by an Ana-
baptist teacher at an Anabaptist conventicle. I therefore
administered the Sacrament to them according to that form
which the Church prescribes in doubtful cases : * If thou
hast not been baptized already, I baptize thee in the
Name,' &c. The children were six or seven years of age,
and through ignorance, I administered the Sacrament to
them by sprinkling ; but on reference to the Rubrics and
-1826 Letters, 1 82 2-1 S 26. 109
the Liturgical writers, I am afraid that I acted too hastily,
for by the Rubric we are directed to dip the child, unless
'they certify that it is weak,' which in the case of infants is
always of course inferred. In a case like the present, the
proper course would have been to apply to my Ordinary.
Now, my Lord of Winton being, I ain sorry to say, a very
Low Churchman, would most probably be willing to allow
the validity of an Anabaptist's dipping ; but in this case,
his would only be an opinion, and that the opinion of a
fallible man in opposition to the doctrine of the Church.
But in proportion to his being low in principle, he is
very strict in discipline ; and should it come to his ears
that I have acted on my own discretion contrary to a
Rubric, he may be, and that justly, offended. Perhaps
therefore, you will explain the case to his Lordship, and
express my very great sorrow for this irregularity, the only
one that I am conscious of having been guilty of since
I have been in his diocese ; he would, no doubt, have
directed me to pour water on the child, which by the way
I did, and always of course do ; sprinkling, therefore, is a
wrong term : but I ought, no doubt, to have applied to you,
and you to the Bishop.
I remain, your most devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
Expected Meeting with Agents of Religious Traet Society.
Whippingham, Covves, Isle of Wight : June 9, 1826.
My dearest Mother I so fully expected to have
seen you to-day, that I am sadly disappointed at your
non-arrival. I am so full of St. Andrew's, and am building
such churches in the air, that I long to talk over all my
schemes with you and my beloved father. Welcome, there-
fore, doubly welcome will you be to this beautiful abode of
black-beetles and crickets ; it will certainly reconcile me
to our departure that we shall at least escape those odious
companions, since one or two have paid me a visit in bed.
no Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
I dread them as much * as a sick girl.' I have much to say,
but I cannot write now ; I am in what we used to call at
school 'a blue funk,' for I am to be attacked by two
heretics to-day, at 4 p.m. The challenge was conveyed
in the following anonymous note, received yesterday : ' An
auxiliary to the Religious Tract Society having been lately
formed at West Cowes, the committee respectfully pre-
sent the enclosed (to wit, a pamphlet) to the Rev. W. F,
Hook, soliciting his approval and assistance. Two of the
collectors will wait on Mr. H. to-morrow, at 4 o'clock p.m.,
to receive his answers.' Now as I live on very good terms
with Mrs. , Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Brown, &c., and even go
so far as to shake hands with them, they suspect me, I
suppose, of heresy ; but I shall content myself with telling
them very plainly that I cannot, consistently with my
principles, interfere with the religious institutions of any
parish except my own ; or patronise a society established
for religious purposes, unless it be under the official super-
intendence of my Diocesan ; and thus I shall decline all
argument. But as the Apostle tells me to beware of
false prophets who come to me in sheep's clothing, because
inwardly they are ravening wolves, I have ordered the
deacon, on his allegiance to a priest of the Church of
Winchester to attend the conference. These little breezes
in a quiet life are very pleasant, but nevertheless, as I said
before, I am in a bit of a * funk,' and can write of nothing
else.
Your most devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
Interview with Agents of Religious Tract Society.
Cowes, Isle of Wight : June 13, 1826.
My dearest Mother, .... When I wrote to you last, I
believe I informed you that I expected an interview with
some schismatics ; at the appointed hour they came, and
I asked them whether they had applied to the Bishop
officially on their entering his diocese, and whether the
-i826 Letters, 1822-1826. 11 1
Society was placed under his direction. On their answering
in the negative, I told them that I could not consistently
with my feelings and principles as a clergyman of the
Church of England, sanction a society professedly estab-
lished for a religious purpose, unless it were placed officially
under the direction of my Diocesan. I told them also
that the Bishop is the ordinary minister of God over the
whole diocese, and that we only preside over our respective
parishes under his superintendence, and consequently that
all things relating to religion through the whole district
must be under his guidance. I quoted one or two passages
from St. Ignatius, who was consecrated a Bishop by the
Apostles themselves, to show that this was no new rule ;
but that, in the verj^ first age of the Gospel the law was,
that nothing was to be done without the Bishop, that we
were to obey the Bishop, &c. Thus I gave them to under-
stand that it was as much a point of conscience with me,
when presiding over this parish, to oppose, as I had no
doubt it was with them, to support, the Tract Society.
As I said all this very civilly, wishing indeed, in a quiet
way, while accounting for my own principles, to convince
them of the error of theirs, they were not at all offended,
but they stated, that owing to Mr. Nickson's having given
his sanction at West Cowes, they had obtained so very
many subscribers, that they were anxious also to obtain
my support, and they hoped that (although they saw that
I could not conscientiously belong to the Society) I would
not oppose their proceedings, as they would pledge them-
selves to circulate nothing but the essentials of Christianity.
I then told them that I did not intend to discuss any
particular points, but I was afraid that we could not agree
as to what were the essentials of Christianity ; for instance,
I asked them if they worshipped the same God as myself,
One Being in a Trinity of Persons, the Trinity in Unity.
They seemed shocked at my doubting this, and I begged
their pardon, telling them that I always act firmly upon
the principles of the Church of Christ, and not troubling
myself with the tenets of others, I might naturally be
112 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1821-
ignorant on that point. They held also the doctrine of the
Atonement. But when I asked if they held the Sacra-
ments to be the ordinary means of grace, they were silent ;
and they were also silent of course, when I asked them if
they believed in the Divine Institution of the Church. I
then observed that these were essentials, according to my
faith ; and I dared not presumptuously declare which, of
things that God pronounced to be essential, is the most es-
sential, although I would by no means condemn those who
were so unfortunate as not to believe all. Yet, even if my
former objection were overcome, I could not support a
society which taught only part of what I believe to be
essential, as sufficient.
They then described the mighty good which had been
done, the number of drunkards reclaimed, &c., by the
Society. Without denying that much good might have
resulted, I asked them whether they thought that I might
do what I considered evil that good might come. Besides
which, I asked them whether these persons did not owe
their conversion to the grace of God, at which they ex-
claimed yes ; ' then I believe that He would not have left
them unconverted, but other means would have been found
if their minds had been prepared, even if this Society had
not existed.* In short I told them that it was no use talk-
ing of the good done by the Society when I thought it
wrong to belong to it, for that would be, as I said before,
to argue on a Popish principle (and I abhor all Popery),
that the end sanctifies the means. I offered them refresh-
ment, and lionised them all over the garden ; and we
parted the best friends imaginable.
I remain, your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
Whippingham : August 7, 1826.
My dearest Robert, — If tears were guineas, you should
be relieved from all your difficulties immediately, for I
cried very much at your letter. You must, however, keep
-i826 Letters, 182 2-1 826. 113
your mind composed, for it is madness to add to real
grievances by fretting about them. Do endeavour, my
dear, to bear up like a man under your present pressure ;
and to be able to do so, address your mind to God in
prayer. It is of no use to fall down on your knees when
you are visited by misfortune, unless you determine in
your heart to lead a strictly religious life for the time
to come. Recollect that by a religious man no one single
sin is to be permitted, tolerated, or even winked at. Sins
of weakness, sins unpremeditated, committed through the
strength of temptation, will be pardoned upon repentance ;
but he who does not intend in all things to strive to the
utmost to do his duty, can have no pretence whatever to
be called religious. I say this, because now is the time
seriously to form good resolutions ; and because, in becom-
ing religious, you not only lay up a store of happiness
hereafter, but secure it here. Virtue, says a celebrated
writer, is happiness in hand, and heaven in reversion.
VOL. I.
114 ^^f^ ^f Walter Farquhar Hook. 1826-
CHAPTER III.
LIFE AT MOSELEY AND BIRMINGHAM.
A.D. 1826-1829.
In the spring of 1825 Archdeacon Hook was ap-
pointed to the Deanery of Worcester ; and, although
he did not take up his abode at Worcester before
the following year, the pleasant home at Whipping-
ham had to be broken up. His son's plans were
unsettled for some time. It was at first proposed
that he should be Curate of Stone (a country living
near Worcester, held at that time with the Deanery),
and also act as Chaplain to St. Oswald's Hospital in
Worcester. His fancy was much captivated by this
project ; it seemed to offer that combination of re-
tirement and activity which was most to his taste.
In May 1826 he writes, ' I know not any situation
which is so likely to suit me. Whilst living in per-
fect seclusion — a kind of monastery — I shall yet be
able, when I find it dull at home, to enjoy a little
family society at the Deanery.' This plan however,
fell through.
The next scheme was to get the living of St.
Andrew's in Worcester for him. To this also he
was quite favourable, for he began to think that
-1829 Moseley. 115
much leisure in a small country parish might foster
in him habits of indolence and dreaminess, to which-
he still considered himself too prone. * My wish
and desire is to be guided wholly by my dear father's
judgment. I am, however, sure of one thing, that
it is both for my interest and my happiness to be
actively engaged in my vocation : for my interest,
because being naturally of a heavy, indolent habit, I
want continual excitement to keep me awake ; and
for my happiness, for I grow every day more and
more exclusively devoted to my clerical pursuits, so
much so indeed that nothing affords me pleasure
except as it is connected with them. I am afraid
that a small parish, much as I have speculated
upon it in lazy moments would after all be the
worst thing for me in the world ; for, although I
should still employ myself diligently in the specu-
lative, I should soon grow careless in the active,
parts of my profession ; and habits are quickly
formed.*
The fact is that literary occupation to which he
turned with such energy and zeal in his old age was
always the kind of work to which his natural incli-
nation most powerfully gravitated ; but the pastoral
vein was also strong, and an equally strong sense of
duty being thrown into that scale turned the balance
in its favour. Hence that remarkable combination
of literary and pastoral activity which we shall find sa
conspicuous in the whole of his subsequent career
down to the time of his retirement from Leeds. He
was first and foremost, from the time of which we
are now speaking, a diligent parish priest ; but he
ever considered it a principal part of his duty as a
I 2
ii6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1826-
parish priest not only to exhort, reprove, and console,
but also to teach, and he never forgot that he who
would teach must learn. He was, therefore, an in-
defatigable student, and from his study, day by day,
he went out into his parish full of ideas to be im-
parted to others, and carried forward to some practical
issue.
After the contemplation and failure of several
plans, he was appointed to the perpetual curacy of
Moseley, near Birmingham, to his entire satisfaction.
'At the thought of Moseley,' he writes in June 1826,
* I felt the spirit (without the powers) of Athanasius
and Horsley rising within me, and a very pugnacious
desire of grappling with the descendants of Priestley
and jousting with the humanitarians of Birmingham.'
In fact he was getting so eager for work that he
hardly cared where he went. Even as late as
October there seems to have been some new pro-
posal that Moseley should be given to a cousin, and
something else found for him ; upon which he writes
that he was quite willing to surrender Moseley,
'only I am so tired of my holiday that a cure of
souls I must and will have ere long, even though I
take it gratis. I should not at all object to taking
a curacy in one of those delightful churches in Bir-
mingham ; indeed I should particularly like it. For
although there are good preachers in Birmingham,
the services of the Church are shamefully con-
ducted. ... I wish to goodness the rectors would
think less of preaching, and more of having the
liturgy rightly performed.'
The end of October, however, saw him fairly
established at Moseley, now a suburb of Birmingham,
-1829 Moseley. 117
but at that time a quiet country village nearly four
miles distant from the town. He was delighted
with the aspect of it. * It is just the place,' he says,
' where I can live and die in peace and seclusion,
which is all I want. We have a capital shop in the
village where meat and beer, and cheese and eggs,
and whipcord and thread, and tops, and gingerbread,
and garden stuff, and butter and milk and cream,
and almost everything are sold. Now I have turned
these good people also into booksellers, and as soon
as I finish this scratch I am going off to them with
the Society's Bibles and Prayer Books, and as I will
undersell the Bible Society even though the money
comes, as it will, out of my own pocket, I shall per-
suade the " Missus " to buy them of me, offering the
books at 5 per cent, below the Bible Society's price.'
His stipend was only 150/., and as he wished to
spend liberally upon parochial matters he measured
his personal expenses on the most frugal scale. He
drank raspberry vinegar instead of wine, and fre-
quently eat pork instead of beef and mutton, which
were then considered very dear, he writes, at Zd. and
']\d. a pound. He declared himself a confirmed
bachelor, not only, however, because he could not
afford to marry, but for another and singular reason ;
that he should wish his wife, if he had one, to con-
form to the model of George Herbert's pastor's
wife, of whom one indispensable qualification was to
be that she should cure and heal all the wounds
and sores of the parishioners with her own hands.
* Now I never could bear to have these dressed
•with my wife's hands ; therefore I must remain a
bachelor.'
ii8 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1826-
With his sermons he began to take very special
pains, being the more careful because Socinians
abounded in the parish and neighbourhood, and not
a few came to his church. * I am now reading very-
hard,' he writes in May 1S27, 'to prepare myself to
state and enforce the Catholic doctrine concerning
the Third Person on Whit Sunday, and that of
the hypostatic union on the Sunday following. I am
going to Birmingham this morning for the purpose
of getting the works of Athanasius, and Bishop
Horsley's tracts.'
The practical work which occupied him most
during the summer of 1827 was the foundation of a
village school. On June 18 he writes to his mother,
' I write a few lines lest you should be anxious, but I
have not time for much. I have been on my legs
since seven o'clock this morning all over Birmingham
and its vicinity to persuade some landholder to sell
us the eighth of an acre of land for building upon ;
but I have not yet succeeded. We have a meeting
on Friday, and what with computing the expenses,
talking over my neighbours, preaching two sermons
to convince the rich of the necessity of establishing
schools, drawing up resolutions, superintending the
plans and estimates of builders, applying to everyone
who thinks himself a gentleman and soliciting his
support, I am pretty busy ; but I never was in my
life in better health and spirits, and I am sure that I
never was happier, for I feel that I am just in my
element.'
It must be owned that the laity of the neighbour-
hood seem to have been far from enthusiastic in the
work, but the energy and resolution of the young
-x829 Moseley. 119
curate at length succeeded in breaking down all
obstacles. ' I have at last persuaded the good
people,' he says, ' that what is represented as utterly
impossible does sometimes come to pass.' His
squire, Mr. Taylor, let half-an-acre on a lease of
ninety-nine years at a guinea rent, and the building
was soon begun. His first experience of opposition
from members of the extreme Evangelical party
began in connexion with this undertaking. They
are commonly designated the ' saints ' in his letters
of this period. There was no kind of opposition
which irritated and vexed him more than this ; but he
met it \yith much forbearance, and for the most part
foiled his assailants with considerable dexterity.
' One old Saint,' he writes, ' has annoyed me much.
He appeared to approve the plan until the day of
our meeting, and then all at once he sent me a note
containing a statement of sundry difficulties in the
way of the proposed establishment, and resigning
into my hands the accounts of the Sunday school
and evening lecture. As to his objections I passed
by them with contemptuous silence ; and as to the
accounts I returned them, stating that I had no
intention to take upon myself the office of treasurer to
the Sunday schools ; that if he wished to call a meet-
ing of the subscribers and resign his office into their
hands, I should have no objection to permit a notice
to that effect to be given in the church, and, upon
their appointment, to take the office ; but even then I
would not receive any unaudited accounts, which has
brought Mr. Saint to his right senses, and pleased
the subscribers because it looks business-like. I
have indeed stolen a march on the "saints" by con-
I20 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1826-
verting an old widow lately who was once their
leader.' She had consulted him about supporting
the Bible Society, and he had convinced her that it
was based on unsound principles. He now intended
to put her at the head of his list of school visitors,
and employ her to counteract any interference on
the part of others. It was his customary policy,
as soon as he had made an impression on anyone's
mind, to lose no time in giving him work of some
kind to do, in which the newly inculcated principles
might be strengthened by exercise.
In August of this year he paid a visit to his
friends the Wards in the Isle of Wight, and assisted
in the Sunday service at Whippingham, where the
Rev. James Ward was now curate in charge.
When he preached in the afternoon, not only the
church but the churchyard was crowded ; all the
windows of the church being set open, so that many
persons outside, owing to his strong, clear voice,
could hear most of the sermon ; and when he left
the church the path to the rectory was lined with his
old parishioners. An eye-witness said it was one
of the most interesting and affecting sights he ever
beheld.
About the same time he accepted the offer of
a Lectureship at St. Philip's, Birmingham, Dr.
Gardner, Canon of Lichfield, being the rector,
and entered upon his duties there in September.
The stipend was 250/. per annum, so he was
enabled to keep a curate at Moseley ; though he
did not spare himself, for after walking or riding
four miles into Birmingham, visiting the sick or the
schools there, and returning to Moseley, he would
-1829 Moseley and Birmingham. 121
frequently walk two miles or more about that
parish.
One evil custom connected with the mode of
conducting the Burial Service had prevailed in
Moseley, with which he and his curate resolutely
refused to comply, though it involved a sacrifice of
fees amounting to about 20/. a year. That part of
the funeral service which is appointed to be read
in the church had been commonly omitted, unless
the officiator received a hatband or half a guinea.
The bodies of the poor were, as a consequence,
very rarely taken into the church, until Mr. Hook
abolished this odious and shameful distinction
between poverty and wealth.
In the latter part of October 1827 Dr. Gardner
was dangerously ill, and Mr. Hook thought that in
the event of death it might be his duty to reside
altogether in Birmingham. * Dr. G.'s successor,' he
writes, ' would do everything in his power to render
my situation disagreeable,^ and thus to force me to
resign ; but of that I should be very regardless and,
to compare small things with great, I should, like
old Hooker, take care that if "right Geneva" was
preached in the morning, " right Canterbury " should
be heard in the evening .... Old Gabell was
one of my congregation yesterday. He was quite
enthusiastic in his eulogy upon my sermon, criticising
it just as he used to do my prose tasks at school.*
The work in Birmingham which engaged most
of his time and attention was the establishment of
a Penitentiary and the superintendence of schools.
* The appointment of St. Philip's being vested in the Bishop, then
an extreme Evangelical, Bishop Ryder.
122 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1826-
An extract from a letter, descriptive of the pro-
ceedings at a committee in connexion with the
former work, illustrates very well the attitude which
on this and similar occasions he adopted towards
N onconformists.
* I think I have gained some credit by the way
in which I have managed the committee. I have
insisted that the rector of the parish in which the
Penitentiary is situated shall ex officio be a mem-
ber of any committee, and that the chaplain shall
be licensed by the Bishop, which, though of slight
use in the present reign, will be a wholesome check
when it pleases heaven to remove our present most
worthy Diocesan. . . . The " saints " want to esta-
blish a committee of ladies. This I have resolutely
opposed — a female committee always causes squab-
bling. The " saints " thought I should oppose any
co-operation with dissenters ; when I observed that
if they proposed any such resolution as the one in
the Bath Penitentiary, which says that the parochial
clergy and ministers of dissenting congregations
shall be ex officio members of the committee, I
should oppose them most decidedly, because I could
not conscientiously admit any proposition which
would go to assert the ministerial office of a
dissenting teacher. But if they excluded the
dissenters from religious interference, I said that I
should be among the first to seek the support of
that respectable body of men. I added that I
would never refuse to co-operate with dissenters,
when I could do so without compromising the prin-
ciples of the Church, but that I would sacrifice
nothing.'
-1 829 Moseley and Birmingham. 123
He succeeded in defeating- the proposal for a
committee of ladies, and remarks, ' My triumph was
rather unexpected. I find myself much in the same
predicament as the Duke of Wellington was, last
session, when he carried his amendment of the Corn
Bill against the ministers. I had no expectation of
being in a majority. I only intended to oppose so
strongly that Hodson and Spooner might see they
were not to dictate to us. Hodson came down to
the meeting thinking that he would be able to carry
all before him, and when it was given against him, he
and our chairman sat quite aghast, the latter actually
forgetting to count hands. Hodson immediately
withdrew from the office of secretary, having de-
clared a ladies' committee to be a sine qua non, and
the unanimous call upon me to supply his place
was certainly the greatest compliment that could
be paid, because it was as much as declaring me
to be the leader of one side, as Hodson is of the
other.*
Besides occasional shorter visits, he once a
month devoted the greater part of a day to a care-
ful examination of the schools for poor children in
Birmingham. He mentions in one of his letters,
that he inspected the Blue Coat School from twelve
to one o'clock, the Boys' National School from two
to four o'clock, and the Girls' from four to five
o'clock. How he won the hearts of many of the
children, may be learned from the following inter-
esting letter, written to me by Mr. Peers, for many
years a working silversmith in Birmingham.
I attended Pinfold Street School in 1828, which stood
upon the present site of the London and North Western
124 Ltf^ ^f ^y<^^i^'^ Farquhar Hook. 1826-
Railway Station, Dr. Hook was a busy, bustling man, full
of life, and a great lover and forwarder of education.
Once a month he came down to our school, and after
going through it and looking into everything, he examined
the first class. I was in that class, and we always did
our best, because we knew the man and loved him. His
examinations were thorough and searching ; he warmed
to his work, and so did we. When he had finished, he
would say, ' Well done, my boys, you are a credit to the
school.*
I never saw the good man again, since the last time
that he examined the school, but he always took an
interest in any of the scholars. He sent me his portrait
some years since, which I often look upon with pleasure.
God bless him ! I trust we shall meet again in heaven,
where he is gone.
Since I received this letter, I have found another
amongst Dr. Hook's papers, addressed to him in
1864 by the same person. It was called forth by a
letter which had appeared in the ' Times,' and had
been copied into the ' Birmingham Daily Post ' on
the relation of political parties to the Church. This
will be mentioned more particularly in its proper
place. The first part of the letter from his old
Birmingham scholar is concerned with that subject ;
but in the latter part he refers to his boyish recol-
lections of the Curate of Moseley.
If I mistake not, sir, I have very old reasons to respect
you. I can remember when I was a little boy, and you
took a great interest in the Birmingham National School,
and when you had examined the first class, in which I was
a scholar, you used sometimes to show how pleased you
were by emptying your pocket of all your loose silver to
-1829 Moseley and Birmingham. 125
be divided among us. Oh ! those were glorious times. It
sometimes came to as much as 2\d. each ; and then the
consultation as to what we should do with so vast a sum !
No Privy Council was ever more solemn in their discus-
sion ; nor did the Rothschild family ever feel the weight of
their riches more than we did ours.
But somehow the ' hot suck ' shop, at the top of Lease
Lane, generally got the lion's share of the money. Only
once, I remember, we marched in a body to an empty
house in High Street, which had been converted into a
theatre, to see the * Babes in the Wood.' That was my
first view of scenic representations, and I have to thank
you, sir, for many an hour's enjoyment, for it set me
reading, and reading has been to me like an extra sense
given by the Deity.
I think you were at the examination when two books
were put up as prizes for competition, and I won the first
prize. It is lying by my side as I write, and the date is
July 20, 1829. I often think of you and the years gone
by, and when you bring out a new work, I read the reviews
of it in the papers with interest, as I am too poor to pur-
chase the books themselves.
May God give you His blessing, and may you be led
by His hand still higher in His Church, to do good to
His people, is the sincere wish of your humble servant,
A. Peers.
In February 1828 his father died, and the
family was left very ill provided for. His mother
and sister resided with him for a short time at
Edgbaston, and afterwards took a small house at
Leamington. His mother was extremely anxious
to obtain a living for him, but he earnestly depre-
cated, and finally forbade her application to the Lord
Chancellor, the Bishop of Lincoln, and other patrons
with whom she had some acquaintance. He had
126 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1826-
enough, he said, to support him as long as he re-
mained unmarried, and did not wish to have a rich
Hving.
Lord Lyndhurst, however, the Chancellor, who
was an old schoolfellow and friend of his father's,
would have given him the rich living of Stone, had
it not been promised to Mr. Peel, a brother of the
Home Secretary. * I am extremely sorry,^ he writes,
* that it is not in my power to give you the living of
Stone, which I should be desirous of doing, as well
from the respect I bear for the memory of your father,
as from the very favourable report I have heard of
your own character and acquirements.' He offered
him the living of ' Stoke Bliss,' in Herefordshire
(which was declined), and added, ' I shall be glad if
it is in my power on a future occasion still further to
assist you.'
His Birmingham friends, meanwhile, were in
great dread of losing him. A 'round robin' was
largely signed in May 1828, entreating the Bishop
to give him the living of St. Philip's in the event
of Dr. Gardner's death, which then seemed im-
minent. The committee which organised the
movement was a mixed body of leading Tories,
Whigs, and Dissenters ; a very remarkable coalition
in days just preceding the Reform Bill, when party
strife was carried on with unprecedented bitter-
ness. * It is a curious thing,' he writes, * that I am
popular with the Dissenters, and a great number
of them always form part of my afternoon con-
gregation.'
In August 1828 a letter appeared in one of the
Birmingham papers urging that the stipend of the
-1829 Offer of Holy Trinity, Coventry. 127
lectureship at St. Philip's should be augmented by-
annual subscription lest the present lecturer should be
lost to the parish from the necessity of his seeking a
more amply endowed post, * In my own circle,' the
writer says, ' I am acquainted with at least a dozen
who eagerly wait for an opportunity of this kind to
testify their admiration of the greatest genius that
has ever graced the pulpits of our town. Let but the
appeal once be made, and I am fully satisfied that
it would not be made in vain.'
But if the people of one town were anxious not
to lose him, the people of another town were equally
anxious to gain him for themselves. Early in the
autumn of 1828 the living of Holy Trinity, Coven-
try, became vacant, and some of the parishioners
lost no time in seeking an interview with him,
and begging him to apply to the Lord Chancellor
for it. After going over to Coventry with his friend
Wood to survey the church and parish, he deter-
mined on making an application to Lord Lyndhurst,
through his uncle. Sir Thomas Farquhar. The
Chancellor wrote to him in very friendly terms on
October 3rd, offering the living, * I am informed,'
he said, ' that it is a situation which requires great
exertion and much discretion on the part of the
incumbent. I trust, and have no doubt, that
you will fulfil the opinion which I entertain of you
in making this appointment. Yours very truly,
Lyndhurst.
Having now completed those early stages of his
life in which, first as a schoolboy, and afterwards as
a curate, he occupied a dependent and subordinate
position, two features in his character may be noticed
128 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1826-
which specially distinguish it during this period.
First, his humble and reverent submission to
authority ; the more remarkable in one whose
natural disposition was fiery and impulsive. How-
ever much his wishes were at variance with the
decisions either of his schoolmasters or his parents
in early youth, he never questioned the superiority
of their judgment, and never hesitated to comply
with it. And in like manner as a curate, first under
his father and afterwards under Dr. Gardner, he
never would act on his own responsibility, but before
every step he took he had consulted and obtained
the consent of his chief. Secondly, whatever posi-
tion he was called upon to fill he made the best
of it ; he saw all its advantages and few of its
drawbacks, and discharged the duties of his office
with a cheerful persuasion that of all duties in
the world they were the pleasantest which could
be assigned to him.
LETTERS, 1827-1828.
To his Father. — Meeting tvith Mr. Wilberforce, the father
of Bishop Wilberforce.
June 4, 1827.
And now you will wish to know how I, of all men in
the world, should have fallen in with Mr. Wilberforce, or
Mr. Wilber, as his intimates style him. Since I have been
at Moseley, conciliation has been the word with me, as
well as with his Majesty's ministers, but not, as in the case
of the latter, with the sacrifice of principle. And the
'saints' and I are on the best possible terms — I, on the one
hand, hoping to convert them, and they expecting, on the
-i829 Letters, 182 7-1 828. 129
other, to pervert me ; so a whole gang of their sanctities
having come to Birmingham to a Jews' Society on Thurs-
day, I was invited to meet the leaders at dinner at Mr.
Palmer's on Friday. I accepted the invitation, and we
really had a pleasant and even cheerful party. Mr. ,
the leading 'saint' of Birmingham, and chaplain to my
Lord Bishop, had previously called upon me. lie is a
most delightful man, and I should have some hope of him
if his wife were not as full of spiritual pride as an egg is of
meat. I wished to have a little conversation with Mr.
Wilber after dinner, and we gossiped together for some
time. He began by recommending me not to study or to
take exercise directly after meals, but to take up one of
Scott's novels ! which I must own made me stare. We
talked on till he alluded to the London University, which
he said he had not supported because there was not provi-
sion made for religious instruction, although there was to
be admission to all parties. He thought those evidences
might be admitted to which even Socinians would not
object. I told him that I hoped he would not consider
me presumptuous, but I could not go so far with him as
that, for the objections would not be removed in my mind
if a false religion were allowed to be taught ; that the step
he proposed seemed to me to go towards the establishment
of Socinianism ; and that, besides, a Christian has no right
to preach part of the truth — he must preach the whole or
none ; he must not only preach Christ, but Him crucified.
So that I amused myself by attacking the psciido-Evmi-
gclical on really Evangelical grounds, and almost to make
him appear as the advocate of Socinianism ! He then said
that he would agree with me to a certain point, but he
thought that since we could not do all the good we wished,
we might nevertheless do all that was possible for us to
do. To this T replied that I agreed in this doctrine, as
long as we could do this good by lawful means ; and here,
I told him, appeared to me to be the grand difference be-
tween his principle and that of those whom I considered
to be right ; namely, that we do not solely regard the end,
VOL. I. K
130 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1826-
but also attend to the means — that to do a great good we
do not consider ourselves justified in acting even a little
wrong. He would not allow that such were his principles,
but he could not prove the contrary. I then showed him
that on his own grounds the good he proposed could not
be obtained. The object he hoped to gain was this — that
evidence should be brought to prove the Scriptures genuine
and authentic, and that then, this point gained, we might
afterwards convert them by reasoning from Scripture
genuine religion ; but, I said, suppose the genuineness of
the Scriptures to be proved, a Socinian lecturer would
persuade his auditory that our version is incorrect, and if
they could not refer to the original they would then have
recourse to Mr. Belsham's Bible, and thus be more
hardened in their Socinianism. I concluded by stating it
as my principle to do right, according to the rules of the
Church, and I leave the rest to Providence. He seemed
to be much interested in the conversation, for we stood for
a long time by ourselves, and we then went to other sub-
jects. He shook me heartily by the hand at parting.
Miss Wilberforce received the Sacrament at my hands
yesterday. I am afraid, however, that she will take but a
bad account of me to her papa, for I gave them a most
strong sermon against trusting to religious feelings, and
showed that it a zeal for the promotion of religion was not
accompanied with the regular discharge of other duties, or
even if it led us into schism, it might be inspired by a
lying spirit, and that by our conduct only we could judge
of the influence of the Spirit.
Prospect of a Lectureship at St. Philip's, Birmingham.
Moseley, Birmingham : September i8, 1827.
My dearest Mother, — My spirit is quite up with respect
to the Lectureship of St. Philip's, and many are the mighty
castles of orthodox utility that I have been building upon
-i829 Letters, 1 827-1 828. 131
the subject, I intend to recall, if possible, the remnant of
Dr. Story's scattered friends ; I shall volunteer my services
as secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge, and by my activity compel the Bishop to give it
more decided support. When I am licensed, I shall speak
to his lordship about establishing a branch of the Society
for Propagating the Gospel. I intend to take the blue-
coat school (which has been much neglected by the clergy)
under my fostering wing, I shall tell Hodson that on all
points where we do not differ, I will go hand in hand with
him ; and thus get my footing in the national and infant
schools. I shall take also great pains with my sermons, and
thus by exertion and prayer I hope to obtain God's grace,
and to do some good in my generation. All this, however,
will occupy my whole mind so completely as to render it
necessary for me to decline engagements as much as pos-
sible, and my visits to Worcester will be like angels', * few
and far between.' I am not quick, and require delibera-
tion ; in a bustle and confusion, also, I can do nothing ; I
require calm and retirement to collect my thoughts. I
intend to devote all the energies of my mind, by God's
blessing, to my new appointment, and I long to begin, I
shall be obliged to keep a horse for myself and curate,
which I think I can do at a neighbouring farmer's for six
or eight shillings a week. I shall also get my curate to
take a lodging with two bed-rooms, and by paying him a
small sum for one of them, I shall have an apartment in
Birmingham ; and I shall get Dr. Gardner to give me the
key of the parish library, which can be my Birmingham
study, in which I will make a point of passing one day out
of the seven, so that people may know where to find me,
Whateley tells me that my appointment has given much
satisfaction, and that Dr. Gardner is very much pleased
with it.
Your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
K2
132 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1826-
Hard Work.
8 Colmore Row, Birmingham : November 2, 1827.
My dearest Mother, .... I have now so much on
hand, that you must not expect me to be a very good
correspondent ; indeed, I am quite awestruck at my
temerity in undertaking what I have done. A semi-saint
told me, upon my saying that I respected Mr. Hodson's
character, though I disHked his principles, that he knew
Mr, Hodson and Mr. Garbett also respected me, inasmuch
as they are afraid of me, both as being steady in my
principles and having much influence in the neighbour-
hood. I am here almost single-handed. There are many
persons who will act orthodoxly when put up to it, but
they cannot advise as to the line to be taken, and there is
a prevalent wish to yield as far as possible to the ' saints ' on
one side ; and, on the other, one or two persons are so
violently opposed to them that they put themselves in the
wrong. I have another difficulty to overcome : my Mose-
ley people, I hear from all quarters, are very angry at my
leaving them. With all these difficulties I am expecting
my new schoolmaster and mistress from Bath, and I have
to attend a sub-committee for forming a penitentiary, of
which I am the only member who even pretends to
orthodoxy. If I can get through all these things well, I
shall not care ; but I must own that I regard my present
position with fear and trembling. Besides all this, I have
sermons to write or to correct with the greatest care, for
people discuss points on which I have spoken in the pulpit,
and seem to watch me very narrowly — in fact, I find my-
self placed in a very prominent situation, too prominent
for my time of life, and it is with no ordinary diffidence
and fear that I look forward to the future.
Your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
-1 829 Letters, 1 82 7-1 82 8.
Blunders in Bishops' Titles.
8 Colmore Row : December lo, 1827.
My dearest Mother, .... I wish a certain person
would not trouble himself in matters ecclesiastical ; he has
made the most ridiculous blunder in censuring the writer of
the 'Times ' for calling the Archbishop of Canterbury the
' Metropolitan ' ; thinking, I suppose, that the Bishop of
London, being Bishop of the civil metropolis, must natu-
rally be so of the ecclesiastical one. He said not long ago
that the Bishop of Winton had refused the Metropolitan
see, meaning the see of London. A censor of others
ought himself to be correct. I see the papers continue to
speak of the reconsecration of the Bishop of Rochester ; I
wish very much to know whether this is true. If it is, all
I can say is, that it is the most infamous, shameful act of
barefaced schism that has ever been committed in the
Church of England since the Reformation, degraded as
she has too often been, and still is, by those careless
Bishops and Archbishops, who have not scrupled to violate
at will the fundamental principles and canons of the
Universal Church of Christ. I have not time for more ; I
expect some staunch friends to meet me here for the
purpose of arranging places for Wednesday. I have just
been reading the last report of the S. P. C. K., where the
reply of Bishop James to the address of the Bishop of
Gloucester is given. I am still more convinced than ever
that there could not be a more unfit man than Bishop
James for the Church of India ; evidently not a divine, and
also evidently an egotist. He will be unable to meet the
Greek Christians in the way in which they ought to be
met ; and, ignorant of the nature of the Church, he will be
unable to propagate Christianity in the way in which it
ought to be propagated. He is a semi-saint, and if the
Church Missionary Society and Bible Society ply him,
as no doubt they will, with flattery, he will soon be a
red-hot one.
134 '^^/^ ^f ^Valter FarquJmr Hook, 1826-
With best love to my father, of whom I shall still be
anxious to hear,
I remain, your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook,
Letter from Bishop Jolly on the Death of Mr. Hook's Father.
Fraserburgh : March 24 (Annunciation Eve), 1828.
My very dear reverend Brother, — Ever thinking of you
with affectionate esteem, I felt how you must have been
affected upon the demise of your most venerable and worthy
father, now for ever happy. A heart so tenderly filial as
yours (and the best hearts feel most) must have smarted
under the stroke, while you kissed the rod with entire sub-
mission and resignation to the holy will of our Heavenly
Father. I pretend not, therefore, to suggest topics of conso-
lation to you, who have them for your own use in abundance,
and minister them to others. And indeed, at present, I am
very unfit to write anything upon any subject, being, upon
the back of a heavy cold, under particular oppression and
languor. But having a letter from our mutual dear friend
of Fifeshire, in which he kindly writes of you, I could not
forbear to give you the trouble of my line of condolence
with the best wishes of my heart, which begs your prayers
for me in return. The very title which your excellent
father most worthily bore was endearing to me. His ever
memorable predecessor, great and good Dr. Hickes, in his
preface to Bishop Campbell's book on the intermediate state
of the soul, writes and states that scriptural and truly
primitive doctrine so as, in my opinion, to yield a vast
fund of consolation under our momentary separation (and
that only in respect of bodily intercourse), from our
deceased friends. Bishop Hickes I consider and rank
among the best writers against the corruptions of the
Church of Rome. The truly Catholic practice of prayer
for the advancement of the final consummation of the bliss
-i829 Letters, 182 7-1 828. 135
of the faithful departed, plants a barrier strong against
some of its most dangerous doctrines and practices.
That quondam dean, with whom the late good dean
now is, drew up a prayer to be used for himself after his
decease, which he put for that purpose into the hand of a
friend ; from that friend our excellent Bishop Rattray
received it in London, 17 17, and I have it in the hand-
writing of Bishop Alexander, Bishop Rattray's successor.
As my paper may, I think, contain it by compressing, I will
transcribe a copy which you will receive as a curiosity. I
entertain no doubt upon the point ; and my great favourite,
Dr. S. Johnson, used such prayer, and would probably have
done it with more confidence had he been as well versed
in the ancient fathers as Dr. Hickes was. The phraseology
is that of the Apostolical Constitutions.
* O God, who by Thy nature art immortal and ever-
lasting, by whom all things mortal and immortal were
created, and who madest Thy rational creature, man, the
inhabitant of this world, subject unto death, but hast pro-
mised him a resurrection unto eternal life ; O God, who
wouldst not suffer Enoch and Elias to undergo the sentence
of death ; O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who art
the God of men, not as they are dead but as living ;
because the souls of all live unto Thee, and the spirits of
the just, whom no torments can touch in any degree, are
in Thy hand, they being all holy in Thy sight ; do Thou,
O Lord, now look upon this Thy servant, whom Thou hast
chosen, and taken from this into the other state. O Thou
lover of men, forgive him all his offences, which he hath
committed willingly or unwillingly against Thee ; and send
Thy benevolent angels to him to conduct him into the
bosom of the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, and of all
Thy righteous servants who have pleased Thee from the
beginning of the world ; into that region of light, where
there is no sorrow, no grief, no lamentation, but a calm and
quiet place of bliss and blessed spirits, and a haven of rest,
free from the storms and tempests of this world, and where
the souls of the just converse together in a joyful expecta-
136 Life of Walter Fargtikar Hook. 1826-
tion of their future reward, and behold the glory of Christ.
In whose name, we beseech Thee, O Father of spirits, to
accomplish the number of Thine elect, that we with this Thy
servant, and with all who are gone before us, and who
shall follow us to their promised rest, may have our con-
summation of perfect bliss, both in body and soul, at the
resurrection of the just ; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who
rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from whence
He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and
the dead. To whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, the
Lord, and Giver of Life, be all glory, honour, worship,
thanksgiving, and adoration, now and for ever. Amen.'
In the above I do most humbly think there is nothing
but what results from the blessed apostle's prayer for his
dear Onesiphorus which we read last evening, ' The Lord
grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that
day.' The final blotting out of sin awaits His coming from
Heaven to raise and refine the body also, and make it a
fit companion for the soul in eternal glory ! meanwhile,
although the body lies insensible, the fellowship of souls in
the Communion of Saints, remains uninterrupted, and defe-
cated of corporeal affections, is the more spiritualised. The
translation of our dear departed friends elevates our hearts
more to the heavenly state, and to think of the bliss of
Paradise. I ever read those words of St. Cyprian (in his
sweet little book, ' De Mortalitate,') with tender emotion.
' Magnus illic nos carorum numerus expectat ; parentum,
fratrum, filiorum, frequens nos et copiosa turba desiderat,
jam de sua immortalitate secura, et adhuc de nostra sollicita.
In horum conspectum et complexum venire, quanta et illis
et nobis in commune laetitia est ! '
Accept now, my very dear reverend sir, this poor
attempt of my goodwill to express the cordial attachment
of your very respectful
Alexander Jolly.
I earnestly request a place in your prayers.*
' The good Bishop lived ten years after the date of this letter, and
died aged eighty-two. I cannot forbear relating the affecting circum-
-i829 Letters, 1827-1828. 137
stances of his last illness and death as recorded by his chaplain the
Rev. Charles Pressley. A lay friend visited him in the summer of
1838, when a general synod of the clergy was about to take place. ' Tell
Dr. Walker ' (Bishop of Edinburgh), he said, ' that I am dying, getting
weaker and weaker. I trust to his taking care that things are so
managed at the synod that the principles of the Church may be
preserved unimpaired. I am more and more convinced of the awfully
responsible situation of the clergy, and I greatly fear that (not ex-
cepting myself), they fall far short of what they ought to be.' His
Iriend remarked that it all the clergy performed their duty as he had
done his, they might have confidence : to which he replied that he had
no confidence in anything but the merits of his Saviour, on which
alone he trusted. A few days after this, on the evening of St. Peter's
Day, he seemed better than usual, and was left alone for the night
about nine o'clock. When his attendant returned in the morning
about seven o'clock he found the Bishop dead, lying in the most easy
posture with his hands folded across his breast, and a most serene
expression of countenance. Sutton's ' Disce mori ' (' Learn to Die,')
lay by his side.
138 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook, 1829-
CHAPTER IV.
STATE OF THE CHURCH RISE OF THE * TRACTARTAN
SCHOOL LIFE AT COVENTRY. A.D. 1 829- 1 837.
We have now reached the period when the subject
of this memoir begins to occupy a conspicuous place,
not only as an eminent parish priest, but also as an
actor in the great ecclesiastical movements of the
age. In order, therefore, to form a just estimate of
the character and value of his work, it seems de-
sirable to take a brief survey of the condition of
the Church of England at this epoch.
She had but lately begun to shake off the lethargy
by which she had been oppressed during the eigh-
teenth century. The causes of that depression had
been manifold. The unfortunate attachment of a
considerable body of the clergy to the dynasty of the
Stuarts excluded for more than half a century many
men of ability, learning, and earnest piety — men
devoted to Catholic doctrine and practice of the
purest type — from positions of influence in the Es-
tablished Church. In the reigns of the first two
Georges, the energy of the Church, such as it was,
had to contend, on behalf of the first principles of
faith and morality, against a flood tide of Deism,
Atheism, and profligacy. It was as much as she
could do to stem the torrent ; she did not advance,
-1 837 State of the Church. 139
and in many vital respects she slipped back. Whilst
the reason was occupied with evidences and demon-
strations, the religious sentiments and emotions were
comparatively uncultivated and the love of many
waxed cold. It was the policy of the State to de-
press the Church, and to convert it as much as
possible into a servile implement for political pur-
poses. Worldly-minded ministers conferred bishop-
rics on worldly-minded men, under whose misrule
fearful havoc was made in the doctrine and discipline
of the Church. Laxity and listlessness in the dis-
charge of spiritual functions pervaded, with some
noble exceptions, all ranks of the hierarchy. In
days when a Bishop of Winchester made one visit-
ation only in the course of twenty-one years — when an
Archbishop of York confirmed but once — when a
Bishop of Llandaff, who never resided in his diocese,
complacently thanked God that he had not spent
his time in idleness, but had been usefully employed
in writing many ' seasonable publications,' and build-
ing and planting on his estate in Westmoreland —
when candidates were admitted to ordination, after
a few hasty questions put by a chaplain, sometimes
in the cricket field, or after his return from hunting,
it is not surprising that parish priests, especially in
rural places, were to be seen smoking their clay pipes
with village gossips outside the alehouse ; that they
caroused with their squire or farmers over the punch
bowl ; and that on Sundays they preached, what
Samuel Pepys would have called ' lazy, dull sermons *
in mouldy churches, to scanty congregations.
Such scandals were not extinct at the beginning
of this century, but they were rapidly diminishing ;
140 Life of Walter FarquJiar Hook. 1829-
for during the latter half of the former century, a
noise and a shaking had been going on amongst the
dry bones.
That great apostle of Christ, John Wesley,
and his disciples, kindled a flame of piety in the
land, although the Church in her coldness and
pride repelled it. The spiritual work which the
Wesleyans conducted, after their secession, out-
side the Church, was carried on by the Evangelical
school which grew up within the fold. But the
Evangelicals were unable to revive the Church,
for the simple reason that they did not compre-
hend or enforce more than a part of her doc-
trine, while they were comparatively regardless of
ecclesiastical discipline and liturgical ordinances.
They had a zeal for God, but not according to know-
ledge. Their theology was based, rather on the
teaching of Wesley and Whitfield, than on a study of
the primitive fathers and the history of the Church,
or the great divines of the English Reformation.
The sum and substance of it was the doctrine con-
sciously embraced of man's inability to save himself,
a total abnegation of his own merits, and an abso-
lute dependence on the merits of Christ's sacrifice
for salvation. They were powerful in showing the
work done for us by our Redeemer ; where they
failed was, in showing the work which he does in us,
more especially through the Sacraments, and (In
their measure) through other ordinances of the
Church as divinely appointed means whereby men
may become partakers of the Divine Nature. By
their neglect of discipline and ordinances they con-
fused the lines of demarcation between the Church
-1837 State of the Church. 141
and Dissent, and fed the ranks of Nonconformity
instead of recruiting from them. A very marked
increase in the number of sects is visible after the
rise of the EvangeHcal movement. Thus, while the
Church is indebted to the Evangelicals for an infu-
sion of piety, she is also unhappily indebted to them
for the creation of much schism and confusion.
The revival of the Church was to come from
men of another stamp ; from men who understood
and taught and, as far as possible, practised the prin-
ciples of the Church in their integrity and fulness.
From the time of the Restoration onwards, such
men had never been wanting ; even in the darkest
days of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy and cold-
ness they were to be found, although like the seven
thousand in Israel, who had not bowed the knee
to Baal, they were often unnoticed and unknown.
Religious societies, which lasted from the Re-
storation to the reign of the Georges, had been
formed for the avowed object of 'promoting holi-
ness of heart and life,' including amongst the means
to this end daily services, weekly celebration of
Holy Communion, a strict observance of the fasts
and festivals of the Church, monthly conferences of
the clergy, the establishment of schools, and various
other agencies for reclaiming the vicious and igno-
rant. There were about thirty-nine of such societies
in or near London, with branches in other parts of
the country. These societies gave birth to the * So-
ciety for Promoting Christian Knowledge ' whence
proceeded the ' Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts,' They were stifled soon
after the commencement of the Hanoverian rule,
142 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
but they had bred a race of men which never died
out. Such, amongst Bishops, were Wilson and
Butler, Wake and Potter, Gibson, Berkeley, and
Louth ; amongst the second order of clergy, Bingham
and Waterland ; amongst the laity, Samuel Johnson.
They were the successors, though at long intervals,
in thought and feeling, of Collier and Ken, and
Nelson and Horneck.
And when we cross the boundary which divides
the last century from the present, the number of
such men, especially amongst the laity and the
inferior ranks of the clergy, largely increases.
William Stevens, the Treasurer of Queen Anne's
Bounty ; Jones of Nayland ; Bishops Van Mildert,
Lloyd, and J ebb; Alexander Knox, Joshua Watson
and Henry Handley Norris, are only the most con-
spicuous and able amongst many who studied, loved,
and reverenced the principles of the Anglican Church
and of the Church Catholic as it was constituted
before the disruption of Eastern and Western Chris-
tendom. In this succession, for at present it was
a succession rather than a definite school or party,
the subject of this memoir is entitled to be placed.
Bishop Jebb, indeed, Joshua Watson, and Mr. Norris
were his personal friends in early life. He was a
connecting link between such men and the Oxford
Tractarian School, which was yet unformed.
The great and good men whose names I have
just cited did much — some by their writings, others
by their practical exertions — to promote the know-
ledge of sound principles and to engender that
corporate feeling and action on the part of the
Church in which she was as yet very deficient. By
-1837 State of the Church. 143
their efforts, the National Society for Promoting the
Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Estab-
lished Church was founded in the year 181 1, and
the old Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge
and Propagating the Gospel were quickened into
fresh life. But much remained to be done. By the
end of that period to which the present memoir has
been brought down, the organisation of the Church
was still very incomplete. Episcopal Visitations and
Confirmations were in many instances very irregularly
performed. Agencies for sustaining the corporate
life of the Church were in abeyance. Convocation,
suppressed in 171 7, was still silent. Congresses,
conferences, and even ruridecanal meetings were as
yet things unknown. There were not those large
bodies of hearty supporters of the Church which
are to be found among the laity of the present day,
although there were earnest and enlightened laymen
who have never been surpassed in their attachment
to it.
The clergy also were as a body very deficient in
activity and such learning as pertained to their voca-
tion. It was remarked by Dr. Hobart, the Bishop
of New York, when he visited England in 1824,
that while the best educated among the English
clergy were well versed in scholarship or divers
branches of science, they were very commonly igno-
rant of the theology and the history of the Church.
There seemed good ground for such complaint,
when for a long time it was found impracticable to
get support for a journal of sacred literature. * The
country clergy,' wrote Mr. Norris, 'are constant
readers of the " Gentleman's Magazine," deep in the
144 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
antiquities of the signs of inns, speculations as to
what becomes of swallows in winter, and whether
hedgehogs or other urchins are most justly accused
of sucking milch cows dry at night.' It was not till
the year 1818 that Mr. Norris and Joshua Watson
induced Mr. Iremonger to start the ' Christian Re-
membrancer.'
The diocesan supervision of the clergy, in fact,
was so imperfect, and they so rarely met in those
voluntary conferences in which experiences are com-
pared and emulation is kindled, that if a country
parson was inclined to lapse into the easy-going
country gentleman, there was no strong force of
public opinion in the Church to hinder him. Sydney
Smith's rhyming summary of Bishop Blomfield's
first Charge in the Diocese of Chester in 1825 is a
burlesque, but it indicates truly enough the kind of
amusements to which the country clergy in that part
at least of the kingdom were addicted.
Hunt not, fish not, shoot not ;
Dance not, fiddle not, flute not ;
But, before all things, it is my particular desire,
That, once at least in every week, you take
Your dinner with the Squire.
Moreover, even amongst High Churchmen, so
called, both clerical and lay, the idea of the Church
as a divine institution, rather than a merely political
institution or department of the State, was very
imperfectly formed ; while, even as a department
of the State, its growth and action were hampered
and impeded at every turn. Most of the parochial
endowments remained as they had been in the days
when the clergy were celibate, and the value of
-1837 State of the Church. 145
money was five times as great as it is in the nine-
teenth century. Out of a total of some 10,600
parochial benefices at the beginning of this century,
the incomes of more than half were under 50/. a year.
The number of the parochial clergy was 10,300,
actually smaller than the number of parishes to be
served ; hence a vast number of pluralist incumbents,
parishes without parsonage houses, curates dividing
their time between several cures, often considerable
distances apart, Sunday services cut down to one in
a fortnight, sometimes to one in three weeks, or on
accidental occasions ; holy communion celebrated
at rare intervals, and in some instances altogether
dropped for several years. There were indeed
churches where divine service was still carried on
daily, sometimes even twice a day, but this was for
the most part in towns where special endowments
existed from ancient times for the purpose, and they
were mere ghosts of what they once had been in
days when the religious societies were in full
activity. It was suggested by some, as one induce-
ment amongst others to Mr. Hook to take the living
of Trinity, in Coventry, that the Wednesday and
Friday services had been dropped since the death of
the late Vicar, and that there was no need to resume
them.
In the distribution of the clergy, there was the
same kind of disproportion relative to the popula-
tion as that which prevailed in Parliamentary repre-
sentation. Just as great manufacturing towns where
the population had risen to 50,000 or 100,000 souls,
returned only one member to Parliament or none at
all, so very commonly were they provided with but
VOL. I. L
146 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829 -
one or two pastors. This was not the fault of the
Church ; for before the Church Building Act of 181 8
it was not possible to divide a parish without a special
Act of Parliament, the cost of which was ruinously
great. After the passing of this Act and the
establishment of the Incorporated Church Building
Society, a great spring in the direction of church
extension took place. During the first seven years
of this century only twenty-four churches were con-
secrated in the kingdom, whereas between 182 1 and
1830 the number was 308, and Bishop Blomfield
between 1828 and 1856 consecrated more than 200
in the diocese of London alone.
But while the Church had been heavily clogged
in her endeavours to keep pace with the population,
Dissent had been free ; Dissent, never powerful in
the country, stepped into the great waste places in
large towns, and established strongholds from which
it is now only beginning to be dislodged. During the
first two or even three decades of the century. Dissent
did not assume a very hostile or aggressive tone to-
wards the Church, because the Church was too feeble
and inactive to provoke jealousy or alarm. It was
not until the Church began to shake herself free from
her slumber and her shackles, and to do her duty
by the nation as she never had done it before, that
Dissent began to clamour for disestablishment and
disendowment. While the Church * was dying * as
Sydney Smith said, ' of dignity,' Dissent was quiet
and content. Thus it will be seen that the most
active opposition which Dr. Hook encountered in
the earlier part of his career proceeded, not so much
from the Dissenters outside the Church, as from the
-1 837 State of the Coimtry. 147
more fanatical of the Evangelicals inside her walls.
This indeed was also due to the principle, which he
always advocated and practised, of absolute tolera-
tion towards them ' that are without ' : he neither
denounced them nor molested them in any way, but
left them to pursue their course without interference,
and whenever it was possible, without compromising
his principles, he worked with them. ' There is a
line between us,' he used to say, ' but across that
line we shake hands.'
The state of the country when he became Vicar
of Trinity, Coventry, was not such as to render the
pastoral charge of a large manufacturing parish
agreeable or encouraging. The repeal of the
Corporation and Test Acts in 1828, and the passing
of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill in 1829, had in-
deed removed two irritating causes of political
discontent, but the social condition of the people
was one of deep and deplorable distress. The long
exhausting war with the French, which ended in
the victory of Waterloo, had left the nation bur-
dened with a huge debt. The population rapidly
increased after the establishment of peace, while
the duties on the importation of foreign corn
hindered a supply of food adequate to the increased
demand. In addition to this the poor laws were ill
devised and ill administered, while, to crown all,
Parliamentary representation was so unequal that
large masses of the people were unable to seek re-
dress for their grievances through natural and
constitutional channels. From all parts of the
country during the years 1829 and 1830 innumer-
able petitions poured into Parliament representing
L 2
148 Life of Walter Fai'qiihar Hook. 1S29-
the pitiable state of depression and distress which
prevailed in every department of industry. Agri-
cultural labourers were found starved to death. In
spite of landlords' reducing rents and clergy fore-
going payment of tithe, wages fell. The peasantry in
their dense ignorance and mad despair took to break-
ing machines and burning ricks, and night after
night the sky was lit up with the ruddy glare of the
flames which were destroying the nation's food.
The distress of the manufacturing districts was
less severe and was more patiently endured ; but
frequent strikes, and occasional disturbances of a vio-
lent character proved that it was keenly felt. The
returns of the Coventry Union at this time illus-
trate the state of things in that city, and may be
taken as a sample of the condition of large towns all
over the country. The number of families receiving
relief in Coventry in the year 1827 was 280; the
number in 1830 was 1,312. The number of paupers
in the house at the close of the year 1827 was 183 ;
the number at the beginning of the year 1830 was
456. These statistics moreover were a very imper-
fect representation of the distress in Coventry. It
is an ancient privilege of the inhabitants in that city
that any man who has served an apprenticeship of
seven years at one trade is entitled to the franchise,
and the holders of this franchise are at all times very
reluctant to forfeit it by falling upon the parish.
Hence the distress of the operatives in Coventry,
especially the weavers, during a depression of trade
is always peculiarly great.
Although the clergy, speaking generally, did
their utmost by the most charitable and self-denying
-1 837 State of the Count? y. 149
labours to relieve the misery by which they were
surrounded, yet their popularity as a body was at a
low ebb, owing to the unfortunate opposition which,
with some exceptions, they offered to the demands of
the nation for Parliamentary Reform. The Bishops,
who consistently voted against the Reform Bill in
the Upper House, were insulted and threatened in
public; and in the riots of Bristol in 1831 the
Bishop's palace was rifled and partly burnt. By not
heartily throwing themselves into the cause of Re-
form the clergy lost a magnificent opportunity of
attaching the people to the Church, and were too
commonly regarded by the vulgar mind as opponents
rather than champions of the great Christian prin-
ciples of liberty and justice. The interests of Libe-
ralism and Dissent came to be considered identical,
although there is no natural or necessary connexion
between them. Deeply beloved as the Vicar per-
sonally was by the poor of his parish in Coventry,
he owns in one of his letters that it was a rare thing
to get a civil answer from a working man, if he was
a stranger. Although theoretically a Tory, and as
such opposed to the Reform Bill, yet he abstained
from taking part in any public opposition to the
measure ; he was not slow to recognise the justice of
it when it had become law, and as time went on he
became, especially on social and educational questions,
a Reformer himself of a bold and advanced type.
From political agitation of any kind he always held
aloof on principle, and he was of too large and inde-
pendent a mind to attach himself irrevocably to any
party leader in the affairs of either Church or State.
• Nullws addict us jtirare in verba ^nagistri ' was a
150 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
motto which he was accustomed to quote in refer-
ence to himself.
The throes and struggles by which the country
was convulsed during the slow and painful birth of
the Reform Bill, amongst other good results, com-
pletely woke up the Church. The events which her
foes hoped, and which some of her friends feared,
would effect her downfall, really turned out in many
u^ays to her advantage ; they led to the removal or
rectification of abuses, they caused her truest-hearted
members to rally round her in force, to * lengthen her
cords and to strengthen her stakes.'
All kinds of schemes of Church Reform, some
reasonable, others violent and wild, were afloat.
While some persons would have been content with
the abolition of Church rates and the readjustment
of ecclesiastical revenues, others demanded the ex-
pulsion of the Bishops from the legislature, and
others the complete separation of Church and State ;
while others, such as Dr. Arnold and Lord Henley,
though they did not agree in details, would have
united all sects with the Church by Act of Parlia-
ment, on the principle of each retaining its distinctive
doctrines, and all using the buildings of the Church
in common, just as one sometimes sees cats, dogs,
mice, and all manner of birds confined within one
cage. The proposals for alterations in the Liturgy
were countless, and would, if acted upon, have
improved that venerable compilation off the face of
the earth. The usual lies were diligently circulated
concerning the * enormous wealth ' and ' State pay '
of the clergy ; the usual ' scandals ' were industri-
ously sought out, or fabricated, for the purpose of
-1837 The Oxford Movernent. 151
disgracing a whole order in the eyes of the world
by parading the delinquencies of a few unworthy
members. On the other hand the attachment of
many to the Church was wholly or mainly political :
they viewed it as a department of the State, and
were profoundly ignorant of Church principles.
The alarm of the friends of the Church, already
excited by the Roman Catholic Relief Bill and by
the Reform Bill, was brought to a height by the
suppression often Irish Bishoprics in 1833.
It was then that a small knot of friends, men of
mark indeed in the Universities but otherwise little
known to the world, began to take counsel together
to devise means for helping the Church in the hour,
as it was believed, of extreme peril.
At the beginning of the Long Vacation of 1833
the Rev. W. Palmer of Worcester College, Oxford,
and Mr. Hurrell Froude met in the Common Room
of Oriel, and resolved to form an association for the
purpose of vindicating the rights of the Church, and
restoring the knowledge of sound principles. The
design was communicated by Mr. Palmer to Mr.
Hugh James Rose, then Rector of Hadleigh in
Suffolk, and by Mr. Froude to Mr. Keble. Mr.
Newman was at that time absent from England, but
joined the party on his return from the Continent.
The Rev. Arthur Perceval also was soon afterwards
added to the number. A conference of the friends
was held at Hadleigh, and they parted comforted in
spirit and strengthened in purpose, more especially
by the influence of the learned, large-minded, warm-
hearted Rector, Mr. Rose, ' who,' to quote the words
of the most illustrious of that company, * when hearts
152 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
were failing, bade us stir up the gift that was in us
and betake ourselves to our true mother.'
Mr. Rose had started the ' British Magazine' in
1832, a periodical which, under his able editorship,
and afterwards under that of Dr. Maitland, helped
much to cultivate a spirit of churchmanship, and to
extend a knowledge of sound Church principles.
Some articles by Mr. Palmer had lately appeared in
the Magazine calling attention to the increasing
feebleness of Dissent, more especially as betrayed in
the tendency to endless subdivisions of sects, the ig-
norance of many of their ministers, and the estrange-
ment from their ranks of the higher orders of society.
In July 1833, Mr. Hook had contributed a paper to
the same journal, in which the absurdity and im-
practicability of Dr. Arnold's scheme for identifying
Church and State by the simple expedient of includ-
ing all denominations within the lines of the Church,
were ably exposed. He pointed out that any such
attempt to secure the Establishment by sacrificing the
fundamental principles of the Church would involve
the loss of nearly all the best of the clergy, who
would never consent to minister in a Church so
constituted, and that (to quote his own words) ' the
sight would not be edifying of ejecting the most
learned and devoted of the clergy to turn their
churches into parochial Exeter Halls.'
He was not present at the conference at Had-
leigh ; but from letters written to him by Mr. Rose,
Mr. Palmer, and Mr. Perceval, it is clear that he was
kept well informed of the proceedings of the newly-
created party. After the conference at Hadleigh,
frequent meetings took place at Oriel College
-1 837 The Oxford Movement. 153
between Mr. Newman, Mr. Keble, Mr. Palmer, and
Mr. Froude, the first result of which, and of corre-
spondence with their friends at a distance, was that
a formulary was drawn up entitled, ' Suggestions for
the Formation of an Association of Friends of the
Church,' which was printed and extensively circu-
lated in all parts of England in the autumn of 1833.
The objects of the Association were defined to be :
* I. To maintain pure and inviolate the doctrines,
the services, and the discipline of the Church : that
is, to withstand all change which involves the denial
and suppression of doctrine, a departure from primi-
tive practice in religious offices, or Innovation upon
the apostolical prerogatives, order, and commission of
bishops, priests, and deacons.
' 2. To afford churchmen an opportunity of ex-
changing their sentiments, and co-operating together
on a large scale.'
Mr. Palmer visited several of the large towns to
enlist the sympathy of the clergy in the Association,
and from none did he meet a heartier welcome or
receive more cordial promises of support than from
the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Coventry, and such clergy
belonging to that city or neighbourhood as were
under his influence.
One of the most direct fruits of the Association
was an address signed by about 7,000 of the clergy,
and presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury
(Howley) in February 1834. This address was a
declaration, that amidst the growth of Latitudinarian
sentiments and ignorance concerning the spiritual
claims of the Church, the signatories wished to
express their devoted adherence to the apostolical
154 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1S29-
doctrine and polity of the Church, and their deep-
rooted attachment to the Liturgy as an embodiment
of the primitive faith ; but that while they deprecated
any rash innovation in spiritual matters, the primate
might rely upon their hearty and dutiful support in
carrying into effect such wholesome reforms as the
times might require, especially such as would tend to
revive the discipline of ancient times, to strengthen
the connexion between the bishops, clergy, and
people, and to promote the purity, efficiency, and
unity of the Church.
This address was signed by Mr. Hook. It was
not long afterwards followed by a declaration on the
part of the laity, which was mainly composed by
Joshua Watson. Its language was similar to the
address of the clergy, save that it insisted more
forcibly on the importance of protecting the Church
as an establishment, asserting that ' the consecration
of the State by the public maintenance of the
Christian religion Is the first and paramount duty of
a Christian people.' Many laymen, zealously de-
voted to the Church, abstained from signing the
declaration on account of these strong expressions,
and among them Mr. W. P. Wood. It received,
however, the signatures of about 250,000 heads of
families. The activity of the Vicar of Holy Trinity
in obtaining signatures in Coventry may be esti-
mated from the- fact, that in his parish 1,120 names
were appended to the document, whereas in the
adjoining parish, though nearly double in population,^
the number was only 529.
Although he did not object to the declaration
I TV.O nnnnl-^tinn of Holy Trinity Parish was ;'bout 10,000.
-1837 The CJnirch and the Establishment. 155
notwithstanding tlic prominence which it gave to the
duty of supporting the Church as an estabHshmcnt,
yet he thought that many High Churchmen at this
time dwelt too much on that aspect of the Church,
and overlooked its higher and more commanding
claims as a Divine Institution. On the other hand,
he fully allowed and, with advancing years, became
increasingly convinced of, the value of an Estab-
lished Church in keeping religion alive in places
where, without it, the people would probably relapse
into total godlessness. Writing to Mr. Wood, in
June 1834, he confesses that at one time he had
been too much in favour of disestablishment, and
says, ' My error consisted in thinking only of the
purity of the Church. I would far sooner myself
live in a Church unshackled by the State ; but then
we must look to the indirect good ; to the forming a
religious atmosphere. It is something to provide
a religion for quiet, unreflective classes of society,
who, but for an Establishment, would be respectable
Nothingarians.'
The same argument is worked out at length, and
with very considerable force, in the second of two
sermons which he preached about this time on the
' Church and the Establishment.'
'It is true,' he says, 'that even though the
Church were not established, religion would still have
its influence. I will go even further, and add, that
so far as regards those who are churchmen in deed
and in truth, the Church itself would be benefited by
a separation from the State : for she would regain
those undoubted rights from which, for the sake of
harmony, she now recedes : the right, for instancj^ r^
156 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
legislating for herself on all occasions, and of elect-
ing her Bishops without the interference of the civil
power. The question with the legislator is not
whether the Church would do much good, though
unconnected with the State, but whether by an
alliance therewith she cannot do more good ; and the
question with the churchman is, whether, for placing
in abeyance some of her spiritual rights, the Church
does not receive compensation by the indirect in-
fluence she is enabled to exert. The Church may be
less free, but is she not more efficient ? ... It is,
indeed, not as churchmen but as patriots that we
deprecate the desecration of the State ; that is to
say, we deprecate it for the sake, not of those who are
within the pale, but of those that are without : we
deprecate it not because the Church would be a less
efficient minister of grace to the faithful if, driven
from her glorious cathedrals, she summoned her
children around her in the upper room of a hired
house, or the caves of the desert, but because she
would be a less effectual preacher of morality to the
unenlightened and the unbeliever. Her voice would
still be the voice of the charmer, but it would not
reach so far. . . . The strong would have their meat,
but how would the babes be supplied with milk ? . . .
In short, where there is no national establishment
they who require instruction least receive it most ;
and they who require it most receive it not at all.
And, therefore, whether we look at the fact with
the eye of the legislator or of the Christian, the
circumstance of stationing a man of education,
respectability, and religion in each parish where the
inhabitants are too poor to support, or too ignorant
-1 837 The ' Tracts for the Thnes^ 157
to desire, an instructor, is an advantage to the
country which will only then be properly appreciated
when it is lost.'
Thus he held the balance between those who,
in their zeal for the Establishment, underrated the
claims of the Church, and those who in their zeal for
the purity of the Church undervalued the advantages
of an establishment. This last was the error, he
conceived, of Mr. Hurrell Froude and some other
enthusiasts of the new movement, who were amongst
the writers of * The Tracts.' These Tracts, which
afterwards became so celebrated under the name of
' Tracts for the Times,' began to appear towards the
latter part of the year 1833. M^- Newman was
their editor, and in a great measure at first their
author. Dr. Pusey made his first contribution to
the series by the Tract on Fasting in the end of
December. The writers were generally known to
be Oxford men, and the tracts themselves were
commonly designated the Oxford Tracts. The origi-
nators of the new movement had always contem-
plated the necessity of employing the press for
the revival of those principles which they had at
heart ; but when the Tracts began to appear Mr.
Palmer, Mr. Perceval, and some others, were anxious
that they should be subjected to a committee of revi-
sion, and thus go forth stamped with the authority
of the whole school or association. Mr. Newman,
however, Mr. Keble, and Mr. Froude were wholly
opposed to this proposal. * If we altered to please
everyone,' wrote Mr. Newman to Mr. Palmer, 'the
effect would be spoiled. They (the Tracts) were not
intended as symbols e cathedra^ but as the expression
158 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
of individual minds ; and individuals feeling strongly,
while on the one hand they are incidentally faulty in
mode or language, are still peculiarly effective. No
great work was done by a system ; whereas systems
rise out of individual exertions.'
From this point the leading men of the new
movement, although maintaining now and long after-
wards the most friendly intercourse, were fairly
divisible into two main classes. There were those
who by age, position in the Church, or family asso-
ciations, were closely connected with the old school
of High Anglicans. They were men who, although
they would not surrender to expediency the smallest
atom of what they deemed essential, nevertheless
valued the Establishment ; and in all matters relating
to the revival of forgotten doctrines or abandoned
customs were inclined to proceed with caution and
judgment. Such were Mr. Palmer and Mr. Le Bas.
Some of them, especially those who were incumbents
of parishes, were eminently practical in their views
of things ; they were men of tact, accustomed to feel
the pulse of their people, and knew the risk of
putting new wine into old bottles. Eminent in this
class were Mr. Rose, Mr. Paget, and the subject of
this memoir.
Amongst the men in the other class, were some
who had been originally brought up in the Evangeli-
cal school, and who now embraced High Church
principles and sentiments with all the ardour of those
who have discovered a new treasure ; others were
young, few of them had pastoral cures, some of them
were resident in Oxford. Amongst these were the
Tract writers. Full of intellectual vigour and learn-
-1837 The Tract Writers. 159
ing, full of earnest piety, full of hope and even
confidence that they were destined to work out a
second Reformation of the Church, they wrote freely
and fearlessly, unfettered by restraints, especially such
as are felt by men who, moving in a practical sphere,
have to consider not only the best possible, but also
and primarily, the best practicable. Hence although
it was a long time before Mr. Hook and others
like-minded publicly expressed their disapproval of
any of the Tracts, believing, as they did, that on the
whole the dissemination of them was most salutary ;
yet even in the earlier Tracts, which were the least
open to objection of any, they detected expressions
which they regretted as unseasonable, incautious,
and liable to misunderstanding, if not in themselves
objectionable. They watched them as they came
out with interest, with much sympathy, but with no
little anxiety. In the earlier numbers, Mr. Hook
for the most part rejoiced, as teaching what he had
long been endeavouring to inculcate ; he distributed
them, but with caution, among his flock, and warned
those who read them against particular parts which ap-
peared to be inconsiderate or overstrained in expres-
sion. Nevertheless, he seems to have been regarded
by the Tract writers for some time as the principal,
almost the solitary, instance of one who worked out
in a large parochial sphere fully and freely the princi-
ples which they taught. Mr. Newman, in a letter con-
gratulating him on the recovery of his health in the
latter part of 1834, begs him not to risk it by a repe-
tition of overwork. * Your being obliged,' he says,
' to retire from parochial duty, would be a calamity
we ought to try to prevent, as we have no specimen
i6o Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
(so far as I know) but that which you supply of the
influential nature of true Church principles on a town
population.'
On the other hand it must be carefully borne in
mind that he was neither a colleague nor a disciple
of the Tract writers. He was for a certain time with
them, but he was never <?/*them. He had advanced
some distance upon his career, with clearly formed
principles and aims, the result of patient study and
practical experience under guidance, long before
many of the most eminent of the Tract writers had
settled their opinions and line of action. Presently
they came up with him ; he welcomed them as fellow
travellers, and for a while they journeyed side by
side. After a time when, as will be seen, they
diverged from his path, and got into difficulties, he
defended them as long as he conscientiously could ;
and when their most illustrious leader fell away from
the ranks of the Church, when the Tracts came to an
end and the party was shaken to its foundation,
he went on his way at the same steady pace and
with the same undeviating straightforwardness of
movement as before his connexion with them. The
uncomfortable and painful contact into which he was
afterwards brought at Leeds with some extreme
disciples of this party will be narrated in its
proper place. It will suffice to close this general
sketch by remarking that to extremes in every direc-
tion he was always steadily opposed. Whichever
school was for the time being most dominant, aggres-
sive, and dangerous to the highest interests of the
Church, whether it was the Puritan, the Latitudi-
narian, or the Romanising school, received the full
-1 837 Coventry. i6i
force of his attack. And this was the reason why,
whilst really being in the mean, he often appeared
to superficial observers to be gravitating towards
one of the extremes ; so that when he attacked
the Puritans or Erastians he was denounced as a
Tractarian, and when he attacked the Romanizers
he was upbraided for deserting the ranks of High
Churchmen ; whereas, in fact, he remained steadfast,
only facing first in one direction and then In another.
As Bishop Wllberforce once happily expressed It,
' Hook is like a ship at anchor, which, without moving
from its anchorage, always swings round to turn Its
breast to the tide.'
The letters written during his Incumbency at
Coventry are so numerous and full that they supply
a chronicle of his life, almost month by month, and I
have not found It necessary to do more than to add
a few details which they do not contain, or to explain
some matters to which they refer.
He read himself In at Holy Trinity, Coventry,
on Sunday, December 14, 1828, and on January 4,
1829, he preached his farewell sermon at St. Philip's,
Birmingham, on the text i Cor. xIII. i, 2,3. One of
the Birmingham papers, In reporting the sermon, re-
marks, 'We can give the matter of his discourse, but
the charm of his manner and voice must be left to
the Imagination or the memory, for It Is Indescribable.'
In the same month the congregation of St.
Philip's presented him with a service of plate, bear-
ing an inscription, which stated that it was given ' In
testimony of their respect and of their gratitude for
his zealous services as Lecturer during the past four-
teen months.'
VOL. I. M
1 62 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook, 1829-
On February 15, he preached his first sermon
in the Church of Holy Trinity, Coventry, and began
to enter on his pastoral labours there.
He had now a sphere of work adequate to his
powers, and those powers were soon to be alike
quickened and chastened by coming under the influ-
ence of her to whom not only the happiness but
also the success of his future life was very largely
owing.
He had become acquainted in Birmingham with
Dr. John Johnstone, a physician of very high repu-
tation, a man of great ability and scientific know-
ledge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, the intimate
friend and biographer of Dr. Parr. Dr. Johnstone's
eldest daughter, Anna Delicia, was only seventeen
years of age when Mr. Hook was appointed to his
living in Coventry, but beneath the most girlish play-
fulness and sparkling vivacity of manner, was a
deep fund of sound practical wisdom and earnest
piety. He had not been slow to discern and to be
captivated by this combination of high qualities, but
her extreme youth and his own want of means until
he had obtained a living deterred him for some time
from declaring his attachment.
In February 1829 she wrote a valentine in verse
to a lady with whom he was acquainted, under the
assumed name of * John Bright.' The handwriting
however was detected, the verses were shown to Mr.
Hook, and he composed the following reply for his
friend, which was in fact the first approach to an
open declaration of his sentiments. It is dated
February 15th, the very day on which he officiated
for the first time as Vicar In his church at Coventry,
i837 Anna Delicia Johiistofie. 163
and it is therefore a curious illustration of the natural
and innocent way in which he passed from things
grave to gay.
Lady, I think that you are right,
When valentines you would indite,
Under fictitious names to write ;
And upon none could you alight
So well appropriate as ' Bright.'
Between yourself and all that's bright,
You thus comparison invite ;
Let us examine then your plight.
Winning the heart of many a wight.
Those soft dark eyes are beaming brigJit,
And far eclipse the orbs of night ;
The Paestan roses are less bright
Than th' hues which on your cheek unite.
Upon that neck — (itself as bright
As alabaster's purest white)
The locks that hang in ringlets light
As ebony are black and bright ;
When you are smiling with delight,
Your smile is as the sunbeam bright,
Revealing to the enraptured sight
Those teeth than ivory more bright ;
While the two pouting hps they bite,
Are as the coral red and bright.
But brighter far, O far more bright,
The charms within ! if brought to light,
They'd prove that you're perfection quite :
A mind with wit and talent bright,
A soul so pure, that well it might
Be deemed the soul of angel bright.
Hence, lady, I must think you right
When you assume the name of Bright.
It was perfectly true ; — ' Brightness ' was emi-
nently characteristic of his future wife. The fresh-
M 2
164 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
ness and buoyancy of her spirits never forsook
her to the end of her Hfe, although that hfe was
shortened by care, anxiety, and toil which overtasked
her physical strength. Naturally elastic, however,
as her spirit was, the invariable and equable cheer-
fulness which she exhibited was partly sustained
from a sense of duty. Her husband was attacked
with some alarming epileptic fits soon after his set-
tlement at Coventry, and she was then informed by
the doctors that his future health and, perhaps, his
life would depend upon his preservation from those
moods of undue depression to which impulsive and
irritable temperaments, such as his, are especially
liable. Thus her original and natural disposition to
cheerfulness was cultivated and trained into a habit,
but at times the maintenance of this habit, as one of
the duties of daily life, was a severe strain. There
was no doubt a considerable fund of common sense
and practical wisdom in her husband, but there were
also some of the eccentricities which belonof to that
order of mind which we call genius, and the very
warmth of his affections and vehemence of his
impulses which, on the one hand, constituted his
strength, on the other overbore at times his calmer
judgment, and hurried him into acts of which the
consequences were embarrassing. By her superiority
in discernment of character, and in the affairs of
practical Hfe, his wife was constantly engaged in
saving him or extricating him from the awkward
positions into which his reckless generosity and his
violent fits, either of affection or antipathy towards
individuals, were constantly urging him. To make
both ends meet with a large family and small means,
~i837 Anna Delicia Hook. 165
to mediate, to conciliate, sometimes to soothe and
encourage, sometimes to warn and repress, was the
daily task of her life, and nobly did she discharge it.
He himself knew his failings, and he had prepared
her mind for the work she would have to do. In
one of his letters, written before their marriage, he
says, ' I never can or will intentionally hurt your
feelings ; but I am rather an uncouth being whom
you must polish and tame. I am a kind of Cimon
and you must be my Iphigenia.' Having to deal
with one who was always very irrepressible in the
expression of his feelings, and occasionally allowed
them to outrun the bounds of discretion, she was as
a rule reserved and undemonstrative, although this
habit was partly also due to the circumstances of
early life. ' I was very timid,' she writes, ' in my
early youth, and used often to get put down if ever,
conquering my shyness, I uttered anything senti-
mental ; and these early influences wear deeper into
the character than people are commonly aware of,
even to quenching sometimes what was originally a
prominent part of it. I think there is a great deal
of self-knowledge required to discover how far we
may indulge our feelings, and when we ought to
repress them ; but perhaps in this we may take our
common duties as a measure, and whatever unfits
us for them we may suppose to be undue.* How
admirably and wonderfully these * common duties '
were discharged, alike in the household and in the
parish, cannot be adequately understood save by
those who actually witnessed the execution of them ;
but the depth and fervour of her religious feel-
ings may be known to all who read the * Medita-
1 66 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
tions for Every Day in the Year,' which were com-
posed by her, or ' The Cross of Christ,' which she
compiled, although, appearing as they did under
the editorship of her husband, they have commonly
been ascribed to him. There are few women who
could turn from the drudgery of account-keeping
and other matters of domestic or parochial business
to the composition of manuals of devotion, which
have been the refreshment and consolation of
thousands of pious Christians. In a letter written
late at night from Leeds, she says, ' I have a great
bundle of proofs at my side, and account-books
frowning at me in the distance and threatening an
hour or two of calculation and puzzling. How I
hate them ! being in a constant apprehension of
spending too much and not having enough to meet
all demands.' The close juxtaposition of her Book
of Meditations and of her account-books alluded to
in this letter is not a bad key to the character of the
writer : she was eminently devout and at the same
time eminently practical.
And this union of qualities was the great secret
of her remarkable influence alike within the circle of
her family and beyond it. She was, indeed, at once
the fresh and cheerful companion of her children,
entering with keen relish into their amusements and
pursuits, especially music, in which she was uncom-
monly skilled ; and also the counsellor on whose
sound judgment they could always rely for instruction
and advice respecting their duty in this world, and
their preparation for the world which is to come.
And in like manner, outside the walls of home, the
curates who looked up to her as a mother, and a
-1837 Anna Delicia Hook. 167
large number of friends, young and old of both sexes,
were wont to turn to her before all others for the
Christian sympathy and the wholesome counsel which
were never asked in vain.
Few, indeed, have more nearly fulfilled the
description of the virtuous woman drawn long ago
by the Wise Man :
She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue
is the law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and
eateth not the bread of idleness.
Her children arise up and call her blessed ; her husband
also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest
them all.
And not less applicable to her are the words of
one of our wisest and noblest poets :
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller between life and death,
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill :
A perfect woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command :
And yet a spirit too, and bright,
With something of an angel light.
I have dwelt thus long upon the character of
Mrs. Hook not only because it deserved some
special notice, but also to impress on the reader of
this memoir that, although comparatively few direct
allusions to her may occur in the following pages, it
must never be forgotten that, while her husband is
the prominent actor in the foreground, she is always
1 68 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
a controlling regulating principle in the background,
and that without her it is probable that he never
would have become what he was, or have accom-
plished the things which he did.
They were married on June 4, 1829, and in the
latter part of the summer the bells of Holy Trinity
Church rang to welcome the arrival of the Vicar
and his young wife. They took up their abode in
one of a row of small red brick houses in a by-
street called St. Nicholas Place. The street itself
is rather gloomy, but the situation is high, and the
back windows command a good view of the ancient
city of Coventry, out of the midst of which rise
conspicuous the two noble churches of St. Michael
and Holy Trinity with their graceful and lofty spires.
The house soon became too small for their needs,
and they then moved to a larger one in the
Leicester Road, just outside the town. Soon after
the Vicar and his wife had settled in their home it
was broken into by burglars who were probably
tempted by the hope of getting the service of plate
which had been presented to him by his flock in
Birmingham. As they did not succeed in robbing
the house of any valuable contents, the incident
would be hardly worth recording but for the singular
and ludicrous circumstance that the thieves drank a
quantity of ink under the impression that it was port
wine, and one of them was afterwards detected by
the stains of ink upon his clothes.
As the temporal condition of the people of
Coventry was deeply depressed when he entered
upon his pastoral charge, so also was the spirit of
churchmanship at a low ebb. That kind of irre-
-■1837 Coventry. 169
verence towards holy places and holy things w!i*ich
is bred partly of ignorance, partly of that indifference
which is the result of ignorance or at least of low
and feeble ideas on the whole subject of religion,
was prevalent and startling. He found that it was
the custom at vestry dinners to propose as the first
toast, ' Trinity in Unity,' which was considered a
pleasant punning allusion to the dedication of the
Church to the Holy Trinity ; and no one seemed to
have any perception of the profanity of the practice
until the new Vicar pointed it out and put a stop
to it. On such a subject he could speak with a
dignified sternness and a force of resolution which
few dared to resist or disobey. On one occasion
a vestry meeting was so numerously attended that
it was adjourned from the vestry to the church.
Several persons kept their hats on. The Vicar
requested that they would take them off, but they
refused to comply. ' Very well, gentlemen,' he re-
plied, ' but remember that in this house the insult is
not done to me, but to your God ; ' and the hats were
immediately taken off.
In the internal arrangements of the church, the
principal alterations which he made consisted in re-
moving a painting at the east end, which represented
a kind of Moorish Temple, and placing a simple Rere-
dos in its stead ; filling the east window with stained
glass, detaching the prayer desk from the pulpit,
beneath which it had stood confronting the people,
and turning it round so that the officiating priest
faced eastwards. On this subject there is a very ex-
cellent letter by him in the ' British Magazine ' for
October 1833, i" which he points out that ' confined
1 ']0 Life of Waiter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
in a narrow box, the officiating minister cannot per-
form his various offices as he ought to do ; with his
face always turned to the people, most of the people,
listlessly rolling in their seats, seem to think he is
reading to them.^ The points on which he mainly
insists are : that when the priest is praying he ought
to be as low as possible in position, provided he can
be heard ; and when preaching only so high as con-
veniently to overlook his flock. He also proves that
the chancel is the proper place in which to say the
prayers ; but concludes, * I am not visionary enough
to suppose that in these days we shall be permitted
to go back to the chancel, though I trust that I have
shown that if we iimst have a reading desk, we ought
not to make it look like a pulpit.'
As regarded the services of the church, he found
that it was a common practice with his parishioners
to attend church on Sunday morning and to go to
some Dissenting chapel in the evening. He there-
fore began evening services on Sunday during the
summer of 1830. These were very largely attended,
nearly 2,000 being generally present ; and the people
were so unwilling they should be dropped, that in
the month of August a meeting was held in the
vestry, at which it was resolved that the church
should be lighted with gas. The resolution was
carried into effect, and on November 7, 1830, even-
ing service was held for the first time in the newly
lighted church, being the first church ever opened
for evening service in Coventry.
In Lent of the following year he gave a course
of lectures, which were delivered on the morning
of each Wednesday, and so great was the interest
-1^37 Coventry. 171
which they excited that, as I have been told by an
aged parishioner, who was then a young man in a
house of business, he and many others similarly
occupied used to get permission from their employers
to leave their offices to attend them. Others, who
were unable, to quit business at that hour, entreated
the Vicar to deliver the lectures in the evening in-
stead of the morning. Several anonymous letters to
this effect have come into my hands. In one of
these the writer concludes, ' with many, many thanks
for your increasing attention to our spiritual and also
our temporal welfare, and trusting that you may long
be spared to dwell among us, I remain, reverend sir,
Your dutiful servant and parishioner.' And this is
only a specimen of others expressed in the same
style of admiration and gratitude.
In Holy Week of the same year, or as it was
then more commonly called, Passion Week, he deliv-
ered day by day the lectures which were afterwards
published under the title of the ' Last Days of our
Lord's Ministry.' This was his first literary ven-
ture, and not one of the least successful. He was
encouraged to undertake the work by the learned
and pious Bishop of Limerick, Bishop Jebb, who
had now been residing some time for the sake of his
health at Leamington, where he had first formed in
T828 an acquaintance with Mr. Hook, which had
soon ripened into a close and affectionate friendship.
The Bishop corrected the proofs of the volume, sug-
gested the title, and in part composed the dedication
which runs thus : ' To William Page Wood, of
Lincoln's Inn, Esq., late Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, this volume is inscribed as the record
172 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
of an early and unlntermitting friendship.' He re-
ceived letters expressing high admiration of the work
from Southey, Wordsworth, Joshua Watson, Mr. Le
Bas, Dr. Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield,
Bishop Monk of Gloucester, and Judge Alan Park,
who took a kind of fatherly interest in his career.
But perhaps the testimony which he valued most
of all was that of good Bishop Jolly, who in writing to
thank him for the copy which had been presented to
him, said, 'You have traced the adorable steps of
our Divine Redeemer dying for us, in such a manner
as has affected my heart and repeatedly sent me to
my prayers.'
And the following acknowledgment of a similar
gift from one of his churchwardens, who made it his
special business to keep all the parochial accounts,
was just the kind of evidence that he had not
laboured in vain, in which his pastoral heart espe-
cially delighted, and which stimulated him to
further exertions more than any other kind of
praise.
* If at any period I have in the least degree con-
tributed to your comfort and convenience, I am
amply rewarded by your confidence and esteem, and
by the advantages which I have derived from your
ministerial instructions.
* That you may long continue to be our pastor and
guide, is the earnest prayer of your devoted, faithful
servant, James Wall.'
The preface to a new and cheaper edition in the
year 1863 pointing out, as it does, how uncommon
the delivery of such a course of lectures was at the
period when they were originally published, bespeaks
-1837 Coventry. 1 73
for them a kind of historical interest, apart from
their own intrinsic merits, which are of a high order.
* The author of this Httle volume,' he writes,
'was in Edinburgh in the year 1825. . . . During
Passion Week he occasionally assisted Dr. Sandford,
the . earnest-minded Bishop of Edinburgh, who
preached every day on the events of that sacred
season. Deeply impressed with what he heard, the
author determined if he ever had a parish of his
own to follow the example of the pious prelate ; and
in the Passion Week, 1831, the following sermons
were delivered day by day in the Church of the Holy
Trinity, Coventry. At that time there was not
perhaps any other parish in England, certainly not
in the large towns, where this course was pursued.
Now, after the lapse of thirty years, we are able
to affirm that there is not perhaps a large town in
England in which a daily course of sermons is not
delivered during the Holy Week. We bless God for
this increased attention to public duty which indi-
cates an increased devotion of mind to the things of
God. Many things to which a pastor, thirty years
ago, had to call especial attention, are now regarded
as truisms ; a pleasing circumstance which is stated
to account for the fact that some things in the notes
to these discourses are proved or explained which in
the present day would be taken for granted.'
In fact this course of lectures, like so many other
things which he said and did, would scarcely deserve
special mention, save as an illustration of the manner
in which he led the way in the reformation and
revival of the Church, anticipating to a great ex-
tent that more general revival which was afterwards
174 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
the result of the Tractarian or Oxford movement.
And this indeed is the impression which his minis-
try at Coventry seems to have left most deeply en
graven in the minds of those who lived under it.
Aged parishioners, to whom I applied for informa-
tion respecting his work amongst them, while in
some instances unable to recall many particulars of
it, were all unanimous in saying, ' He was the
beginner of all things here ; he set everything a
going.' And this is a truth which cannot too con-
stantly be borne in mind in reading the record of his
early life. Sunday evening services, frequent com-
munions. Saint's day services — these are wonderfully
common things now, but they were rare novelties
then. The voice of the Church had been almost
dumb during the season of Lent, and
He was the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
How scanty, indeed, were the services in a large
number of our parish churches at this period, may
be gathered from a letter by Dr. Burton in the
'British Magazine' for May 1832, in which he re-
commends that sermons should be preached at
evening as well as morning services, and that where,
as zvas most cormnoji, the Holy Communion was
celebrated four times a year, at the great festivals,
an additional celebration should be held on the Sun-
day following each of those festivals. The editor in
a note observes that, ' in one large village known to
him there was an early communion at eight o'clock as
well as at the usual hour on the great festivals.'
The multiplication therefore of services and ser-
-1 837 Coventry. 175
mons by the Vicar of Holy Trinity may well have
been deemed amazing. He did not, however, mul
tiply services without seeking in a corresponding
degree so to instruct and train his flock that they
might comprehend and value them. This he did by
frequent explanations in his sermons of the several
ofiices in our Prayer Book, more particularly in the
year 1834 by a complete series of lectures on the
Liturgy. His Sunday evening sermons almost
always consisted of an expository course upon some
subject, or upon some book of Holy Scripture. For
several years he was engaged in this manner upon
St. Matthew's Gospel, and the sermon afterwards so
notorious, ' Hear the Church,' was originally com-
posed for this series.
Thus he gathered around him a body of intelli-
gent as well as devout worshippers ; persons who
felt the influence of his learning as well as of his
piety. How intense his own devotion was, those
who saw and heard him minister in the services of
the Church could best understand ; and how deeply
he felt his responsibility as a leader of the devo-
tions of others may be gathered from the following
letter to Mr. Wood.
I find it always wise to keep quiet in my study on
Monday. The increasing excitement and fatigue during
twelve hours on the Lord's Day demand that kind of rest
which I can only find in my study. A layman is not
aware of what a High Church parson goes through on a
Sunday. To say nothing of the noise of schools, and the
fatigue of catechising and preaching, a layman has in
church to do little else than join in the devotion. But a
clergyman, besides praying, has also the excitement of
endeavouring to set off the glorious services of the Church
176 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
to the best advantage. Even if he does not officiate at
the prayers, still he has to respond loud, and to take the
lead, so as to excite others to do their duty — that duty
which Protestants so sadly neglect. Then if you find your
congregation joining well, there is the excitement of joy :
if not, there is the annoyance ; and all this coexisting with
one's own devotions, with the feeling that you are in some
degree responsible for the deficiencies of the congregation ; —
all this quite knocks me up, not on the Sunday, but on the
Monday morning, and I consequently feel it quite impor-
tant to remain quiet.
The Sunday schools and catechising, to which
reference is made in this letter, occupied a great
deal of his interest and attention ; and in the admin-
istration of this department he had an able assistant
in his wife. Writinof soon after their settlement at
Coventry, he says, ' She has taken possession of the
Girls' Sunday school, and is to have the management
under her husband and pastor of the Girls' National
school. In fact she is a very notable person, and I
really like her tolerably well.' The rapid and steady
increase in the number of children attending the
Sunday schools is a powerful indication of the pro-
gress made in this most important branch of pastoral
work. In the summer of 1829, when the Vicar en-
tered on his charge, the total was 120. In August
1834 the number had risen to 524 boys and 407 girls ;
fifty-two adults also were instructed on Sunday even-
ings, and before the Vicar quitted Coventry in 1837
the total number of Sunday school children consider-
ably exceeded 1,200. His old scholars retain a lively
impression of his teaching and catechising ; he was
never dull and heavy, and whilst severe in the re-
pression of levity or irreverence, he at times rallied
- 1 837 Coventry . 177
the interests of the children and won their sympa-
thy by mingling fun with his reproofs. ' Why, what
is the matter with you ? ' he said one cold winter's
morning, when he thought the children of his class
were slow in answering, ' I think the frost has got
into your throats.' There was something in his tone
and manner, as he said it, which tickled the fancy of
the children, and their wits and voices were effectually
thawed for the rest of the school hour. How com-
plete was the control which he exercised over them,
and how promptly and instinctively they responded
to his admonitions, was curiously illustrated one day
ill church. They had been noisy and ill-behaved
during the service, and consequently in his sermon
he addressed them in a particularly grave and ear-
nest manner, ending with an appeal to their good
feelings, and saying, * I am sure, my dear children,
you won't do this again ; ' whereupon they stood
up in a body there and then and replied, ' No, sir ;
we won't.*
Besides reviving and extending the Sunday
schools, he was the principal founder of other useful
institutions, some of which continue in a highly
flourishing condition to the present day. ' I am
endeavouring,' he writes in 1830, 'to establish an
infant school, a dispensary, and a savings' bank ; on
the first I am opposed by Dissenters because I in-
sist on the master being a member of the Church,
but I have triumphed gloriously, as I have raised
300/. and they only 100/. On the second, I am
opposed by the doctors ; and on the third, by the
bankers, publicans, and brewers. We are all,
however, very good friends.'
VOL. I. N
178 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
The infant school was opened in January 1831.
The dispensary was started in 1830, but owing partly
to the depression in trade and the secretary becom-
ing insane, it remained for some time almost in
abeyance. At length in 1834 trade having become
more prosperous, Mr. Dresser, a gentleman, who to
this day takes an active part in the management
of the institution, suggested to the Vicar that the
opportunity was favourable for reviving it. The
Vicar took up the matter most warmly, and became
himself one of the six trustees. The thing was
established on a sound, self-supporting basis, and is
perhaps the most thriving institution of its class in
the kingdom. The free members subscribe a penny
a week ; the number of free members is about 13,000,
and their subscriptions amount to 1,500/. a year,
enabling the committee to pay three surgeons at the
rate of nearly 300/. a year each.
Some few years ago a debt of 600/. was incurred
in building another house. It was proposed to the
free members, who now principally manage the
concern, that they should provide for the discharge
of the debt. This they did by a voluntary rate of
one shilling a head payable quarterly, which not only
cleared off the debt, but left a surplus which was
invested and produces interest to the amount of 1 20/.
a year.
The savings bank also was established mainly
through the exertions of the Vicar in 1834. The
balance in the first year was 1 24/. : the present
amount of deposits from 7,300 depositors is about
225,000/. with a surplus fund of 4,300/ Of course
the lasting prosperity of these and similar institutions
- 1 837 Covc7i try. 1 7 9
has been due not only to the sound principles on
which they were originally based, but also to the skill
and energy of those who have been concerned in
the management of them ; but all who recollect
their foundation agree in attributing it to the activity
and perseverance of the Vicar. In matters of this
kind his power consisted not in working the prac-
tical details of business, for which he never had any
aptitude or liking, but first of all in discerning and
securing the right workmen, and then interesting
them in their duty and animating them with zeal
and courage to fulfil it.
The institution in which, from the nature of the
case, he took personally the most lively interest was
the Religious and Useful Knowledge Society, which
was founded in May 1835 for the purpose of forward-
ing and extending such knowledge by means of a
library, classes of instruction, and periodical lectures.
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
made a grant of books to the value of 25/., which was
the starting point of the library. The Vicar was
indefatigable in securing lecturers and giving lectures
himself, which were delivered during the first winter
in St. Mary's Hall. The subscriptions to the society
were one shilling, half-a-crown, or five shillings a
quarter, and the society was so popular that in
January 1836 it was resolved that a room should be
built or bought in which the library might be kept
and the lectures carried on. This society and the
Mechanics' Institute were afterwards united under
the name of the Coventry Institute, which still exists,
but is used more as a reading room and club than
anything else ; the Free Library, School of Art, and
N 2
i8o Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
Science classes having superseded the more educa-
tional purposes to which it was formerly devoted.
One of his last acts on behalf of the society
before he left Coventry was to write an application
for support to Sir Robert Peel, as being an owner of
land in the neighbourhood, to which he received the
following reply.
* I am afraid my local interest in connexion with
Coventry is too remote to enable me on that ground
to accede to your request without the establishment
of rather an inconvenient precedent. But the insuffi-
ciency of that claim on my contribution is amply
supplied by my respect for your character and for
your unremitting and successful exertions to promote
the moral and religious instruction of the people
committed to your spiritual charge. I have with
pleasure, therefore, enclosed the sum of 10/. in aid of
the object in respect to which you have addressed
me.'
The origin and early progress of this society are
described by the Vicar in the following letter, dated
June 1836, to the Dean of Hereford, who seems to
have applied for information concerning it as a guide
to himself in establishing something of the same
nature.
Very reverend and dear Sir, ... As this society has
gradually arisen from the circumstances of this place and
not from any particular plan devised by me, I must trouble
you with a little history in order to enable you to perceive
its nature ; and at the same time I must disclaim any wish
to hold it forth as a model. It is adapted, I think, to our
position — in another place it might require various modi-
fications. Indeed it has been always my rule of conduct
-1837 Coventry. 181
not to adopt any general theory as to the management of
a parish or the regulation of schools : but (having formed
certain principles from which I never permit any notions of
expediency to lead me to deviate) to take the materials I
find, and to mould them, not into the best shape I can
imagine, but into the best that circumstances will admit.
I have invariably maintained strong Church principles, and
declared my resolution never to act on any others : and
then I leave them to do their work. Of these principles
this society is the fruit — as will now be seen.
When first I came here about eight years ago, I of
course catechised the children regularly at church. As
the children in the upper classes became too old for school,
they many of them requested permission to stay as teach-
ers. To this, of course, I readily consented. Their number
increasing they formed themselves into a society under the
superintendence of the clergy of the parish. And now we
have a Sunday school of nearly twelve hundred children,
managed almost entirely by these teachers, about fifty in
number. The clergy have only to look into the school for
a few minutes before church to see that all is going on right,
and the teachers bring what classes they think fit to be
catechised at church. With these persons of course a
familiar intercourse has taken place ; and with the clergy
of the town and neighbourhood, churchwardens, &c., we go
out into the country in the summer and dine together,
while at Christmas they all dine with me. These are all
very zealous churchmen, and tJicy are the originators of the
society in question. About twelve months ago they came
to me, and said they were much in want of the means of
self-improvement, and that young persons who had left
school had only the resource of the Mechanics' Institute,
which having been started by the Political Union was
managed by Radicals and Dissenters, and where all the
good principles imbibed at school were destroyed. They
complained also that the Church was continually attacked
by persons in their own line of life, and that they had no
books to refer to for the defence of their principles. They
i82 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
suggested, therefore, the establishment of a Mechanics'
Institute on right principles. I accordingly called them
together, asking one or two other friends to attend, when
they proposed that the Bishop should be President, the
Archdeacon Vice-President, and that every clergyman in
the town should be ex officio on the committee, which
would consist besides of fifteen members. The property
was vested in four trustees, who have a veto on all pro-
ceedings of the committee. To exclude politics, the trustees
consist of two Tories and two Whigs. There are three
classes of subscribers, 5^. per quarter, 2s. 6d. per quarter
and IS. per quarter — thus to admit all orders of society.
The first class have tickets of admission to all lectures,
transferable, and may also introduce a friend ; the second
class, transferable tickets ; the third class, non-transferable
tickets. The object here is to bring all kinds of people
together. There is a reading-room open every evening
from seven to nine o'clock, an important arrangement as
many young apprentices go to an alehouse merely because
they have no comfortable apartment in which to sit. On
the table we have the * Saturday ' and * Penny Magazine,*
the 'British' and the 'New Monthly,' ' Chambers' Edinburgh
Journal,' &c., and any books may be had from the library.
Classes are formed for reading history, for arithmetic, and
drawing. I conduct one myself of divinity, chiefly of young
shopkeepers, and relating to Church history and those ques-
tions in religion which cannot be conveniently handled in the
pulpit. We have already about nine hundred volumes in
the library in various branches of literature. For I am very
desirous to cultivate among the people not merely a sciai'
tific but a literary turn of mind, to induce them to relish
poetry and works of imagination : for the civilised mind is
best prepared to give the heart to religion. We have had
lectures given, twelve on experimental philosophy, twelve
on physiology, two on perspective, one on the origin and pro-
gress of society, and I am now preparing one on the history
of literature and science. We have upwards of six hun-
dred members. We have met with most violent and furious
-1 837 Coventry. 183
opposition from Dissenters of all classes except Wesleyans.
I have been abused most fiercely in the Radical paper,
and the Mechanics' Institute, from a spirit of opposition, has
increased from sixty members to two hundred. But this
only shows that we are doing good. Such is our history.
The remarks at the close of this letter are emi-
nently characteristic of the writer, and illustrate his
favourite maxim, that plentiful abuse partly indi-
cated, partly promoted the prosperity of the cause
which was attacked. His parting words to the
members of the society, in which he sketched the
history of its progress, were to the same effect. * At
first the members had pursued the noiseless tenor of
their way unmolested, an insignificant body. But
the little society had grown into a large and im-
portant institution, and then like all other prosperous
parties they were surrounded with a host of op-
ponents and revilers. But the society when reviled
reviled not again, and the good policy of this conduct
became apparent since their opponents saved them
the trouble of advertising.*
The manner also in which the society grew up,
as described in the beginning of his letter, is a good
example of the way in which, alike at Coventry and
Leeds, he always adapted his action to circumstances
and never forced circumstances to square with some
preconceived plan of action. He inculcated prin-
ciples and left them to work. The consequence of
this wise policy was, that to a great extent the
action of the Church in his parish proceeded from
the laity ; it was the spontaneous fruit of the spirit
which they caught and of the principles which they
learned from him. Hence, also, they took an un-
184 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
common pride and interest in things which were
their own production. Writing later in life he says,
' My plan has never been to force a practice, but
rather to have things forced upon me. My aim has
been to lay down principles and encourage a cer-
tain kind of spirit : then, after a time, as men love
to find fault, they have blamed me for not acting up
to my principles. The answer is then ready : " Oh !
very well ; if ^^^^ wish it, I will do it." Thus a choral
service at Leeds was actually forced upon me.' And
here we have a key to the meaning of his famous
saying many years afterwards at the Church
Congress in Manchester where he had been asked
to relate how he managed his parish. ' I did not
manage it ; the parish managed me.'
After this general sketch of his work at Coventry
it only remains to mention, in their chronological
order, a few incidents which seem to require a more
particular and separate notice.
First among these must be placed the remon-
strance which he addressed, in 1830, to his diocesan,
Dr. Ryder, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, a
prelate of extreme Evangelical views, for presiding at
a meeting of the Bible Society in Coventry. The
letter has a twofold interest, because it was employed
as a weapon against him, seven years afterwards, by
the party which vehemently opposed his election to
the Vicarage of Leeds.
The following account of the transaction and
copy of the letter is taken from one of the local
newspapers of the day :
On Thursday, August 19, 1830, the Bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry presided at the eighth anniversary of the
-1837 Covefttry. 185
Coventry Bible Society. His lordship said that although
it had occasioned him some inconvenience, he could not
suffer the present anniversary to pass without coming for-
ward to express his constant and unceasing attachment
to the British and Foreign Bible Society, supported, as it
was, by the most respectable inhabitants of Coventry and
its neighbourhood. He highly approved of the Society and
the object which for five-and-twenty years it had uniformly
pursued ; and it was gratifying to him that it had a ten-
dency to promote a union of Christians of all denominations,
without compelling them to compromise their principles.
He would repeat, that the Society should have his un-
ceasing support, and he wished to see it extend itself
through the whole of his large and populous diocese — a
diocese containing not less than 1,000,000 souls. A few
days before the meeting, the Rev. W. F. Hook, Vicar of
Trinity Parish, Coventry, and his curate addressed the
following remonstrance to the Bishop :
* My Lord, — We feel it to be our duty respectfully to
represent to your lordship the mischief that is likely to
result to the cause of religion in this city, from your de-
termination to preside at the meeting of the Bible Society
on Thursday next.
' Surrounded by Dissenting teachers, your lordship will
not be supported by the clergy of this town, with perhaps
one solitary exception. And we do earnestly request
your lordship to reflect on the impression which will be
made on the minds of our people when they see their
Bishop co-operating with sectarians in promoting measures
uncalled for by the exigencies of the place, and inconsis-
tent with the principles inculcated by their more immediate
pastors. As far as our own parish is concerned, if your
lordship's object is to supply us with Bibles, we can obtain
all that we require from the Society for Promoting Chris-
tian Knowledge ; if it be to levy contributions for the
speculations of the society in foreign parts, we beg to
inform your lordship that the demands upon the charity
i86 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829^
of our more opulent parishioners for local purposes are
already greater than can be easily met, and that the poor
will be injured in proportion as the society is benefited.
We will take the liberty further to observe that your lord-
ship compels us, in self-defence, to state to those persons
committed to our charge what our reasons are for declin-
ing to support a society at which our Bishop presides. If
we fail to convince them that we are right, we shall expose
ourselves to their contempt, and our ministrations will
become ineffectual ; if, on the other hand, we succeed, we
shall do what is equally to be deprecated, by rendering
our Bishop obnoxious to their censures ; or, at all events,
those who hold to the one side will despise those who hold
to the other ; and while we are humbly endeavouring to
promote harmony and goodwill in our parish, your lord-
ship will, unintentionally, be the means of exciting a party
spirit, than which nothing can be more detrimental to the
sacred cause in which we are engaged. So important it
is, in an extensive parish like this, to maintain unanimity
and concord, among Churchmen at least, that we seriously
and solemnly, in the name of our common Lord and
Master, entreat and implore your lordship not to sow
among us the seeds of discord.
'Your lordship is so honest in the discharge of all
that you conceive to be your duty, that we feel assured you
will not be unnecessarily offended at our maintaining our
own principles with equal honesty and zeal, or at our
endeavouring to avert what we have reason to know will
be attended with the most mischievous consequences, by
causing a division in our flock and by affording a triumph
to Dissenters.
* On the merits or demerits of the Bible Society, we at
present say nothing. Our observations have reference
only to your lordship's supporting it, so far as our parish
is concerned, in opposition to our wishes, and in spite of
our well-known opinions and principles. With our humble
but hearty prayers to Him from whom all good counsels as
well as all just works do proceed, that He may vouchsafe to
-1837 Coventry. 187
direct your lordship to a wise decision upon the subject,
we have the honour to remain
' Your lordship's obedient servants.'
In 1 83 1 he was attacked with fits of an epileptic
nature, in which he lost his consciousness and lay to
all appearance as one dead for five or ten minutes.
They were attributed by the doctors to over-anxiety,
and excitement of the brain. His first seizure was
during the Archdeacon's visitation in June 1831.
He turned faint while reading the prayers in his
church, and was carried in an unconscious state into
the vestry, where he recovered, and wrote a note to
his mother, who was then at Leamington. Fearing
lest she should hear an exaggerated account, he makes
as light of it as possible, and attributes it mainly
to a little worry and nervous anxiety lest the Arch-
deacon, an Evangelical, should say anything unortho-
dox in his church, and so interfere with his usefulness.
His father-in-law. Dr. Johnstone, insisted on his
abstaining from all parochial work for a time, and
the greater part of the summer was spent under Dr.
Johnstone's roof, where he gradually recovered his
nervous power. The preparation of his lectures on
' The Last Days of our Lord's Ministry,' for publica-
tion was his chief occupation during this period of
enforced leisure. He was not permitted to return
to his parish before September. The enthusiasm
with which he was greeted by his flock filled him
with delight, and made him set about his work again
with renewed energy and spirit. * On coming out
of church,' he writes to Mr. Wood, ' the first evening
that I preached, there was quite a mob round the
1 88 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829^
door of people rushing forwards to shake hands with
me, and my hand, though a good stout one, was
nearly squeezed to a mummy/ And the following
letter to his mother describes the occasion more
minutely.
September 1831.
My dearest Mother, — You will be glad to hear that I
am wonderfully well this morning ; I only went to church
once yesterday, that is to say, in the evening, when I
preached. Delicia had made me go on Saturday morning
by way of a break, and it was lucky I did, for the manner
in which I was received as I drove through the town, and
the way all the old people came up to shake hands with
me, with tears in their eyes, quite affected me ; nothing
could have been more gratifying to my pastoral feelings
than my reception yesterday ; there was an immense con-
gregation, and as I left the church there was quite a mob
collected round the door to shake hands with me, and
bless me ; it was indeed one of the happiest moments of
my life ; may God Almighty bless them all. How much
has poor Coventry been maligned. I was affected when
I began my sermon, but soon took courage and proceeded
right well, although to add to my nervousness someone
fainted almost as soon as I commenced. I took for my
text Psalm cxix. 71 : *It is good for me that I have been
afflicted.' Coker Adams and his warm-hearted family
were all present, and nothing could have been kinder.
The churchwardens are to apprehend me if I go into the
town on week-day duty, and to take me before Coker
Adams as a Justice of the Peace. It was well for me that
Coker Adams was with me, for he performed the service
as if he had some fellow feeling with my people, rejoicing,
as they evidently were, to see their pastor once again. I
have not felt so well as I now do for a long time, and I
will tell you why I did not like to defer my first sermon ;
the prospect of it so excited me, and rendered me so
nervous that I really think I should have been made ill
-1837 Covefitry. 189
had I put it off till next Sunday ; for the three or four
last days I could do nothing, and the very fact of persons
telling me that they doubted whether I should be equal to
the exertion almost incapacitated me for it : the act itself
was not very fatiguing, but the anticipation of it was both
absorbing and exciting ; it was on these gounds that I
determined to get it over as soon as I could. I am now
so calm and comfortable, and in such good temper with
the world, that my sermon must have been better than a
dose of physic.
He was not wholly free from epileptic attacks
for three or four years, and occasionally had to
suspend work to recover his strength, and for a
time the thought of resigning Coventry and seeking
a rural parish was seriously entertained by him and
his friends. But gradually the attacks abated, until
he attained that singularly robust state of health
which he continued to enjoy far into old age. The
recovery and subsequent preservation of his health
were due day by day to his wife, in a measure which
can hardly be over-estimated. By her union of
cheerfulness, common sense, and piety, she exercised
that calming, soothing influence which had a most
salutary effect, physical as well as moral, upon his
sensitive and excitable temperament. ' I am very
sorry to think,' she writes during one of his absences
from home, * of you as being so languid and nervous.
It is a sign of an over-wrought mind. I, too, have
suffered " no end " from my nerves, and have come
to an idea on the subject which, I think, has helped
me more than anything else to act against the
malady. It seems to me that when we are placed
in a situation tolerably free from temptation of an
190 Life of Walter Farqiiha7^ Hook. " 1829-
ordlnary kind, and when God has blessed us with a
frequent and free access to the means of grace, by
which we have been enabled to subdue our passions
and submit our wills to His, He allows the devil
to work upon us in another way, by turning the
very sensitiveness which God has given for a special
blessing, into a temptation. I have endeavoured to
battle and subdue these feelings in every way in my
power, and have found if I take them in that light,
that I can put aside the perplexing feelings. Here
is my philosophy : and from what I have observed
of your cranky fits, I am almost sure a similar course
would answer. Never allow yourself wittingly any
contortions of feature or body, they only add to the
misery ; and set about doing something quite in an
opposite line to that which worries you.'
By the close of the summer of 1834, his health
seemed to be re-established — his wife writes in July
that he was in * monstrous spirits, and had not been so
well for ages,' and that he had left off the wig which
he had worn since his first attack, after which his head
had been shaved. Some persons in Coventry have
a lively recollection of his wig, for in his fits of frolic-
some mirth he would sometimes take it off and kick
it across the room.
In the autumn, however, of this year, his health
was again a cause of uneasiness. There was a slight
recurrence of the fits, and he again went for rest and
retirement and medical care to his father-in-law's
house. He preached two sermons at Oxford in
November, having been appointed one of the select
preachers for the University, and it is not improbable
that this effort, which seems to have caused him
- 1 837 Coventry. 191
much nervous anxiety, may have partly occasioned
his relapse. He did not, however, betray any
symptoms of weakness during his visit to Oxford,
and the sermons were considered eminently suc-
cessful. His cousin, Walter Hamilton, afterwards
Bishop of Salisbury, writes to Mrs. Hook : ' He was
looking very well, was in excellent voice, and com-
manded the most complete attention. I never
recollect so strong an impression created. He
preached in the morning on the Glory of God, and
in the evening on the Special Providence of God.
His matter was most eloquent, and his manner very
impressive and effective. In the evening the church
was crowded to excess. In short, he has been quite
successful — may the blessing of God rest upon his
awakening appeals.'
The following letters, however, show that his
health was unsettled throughout the latter half of
the year 1834, and that he still clung to the idea of
retirement to a country living.
To ArcMcacon Hamilton.
Coventry : August 5, 1834.
My dear Uncle, — When I was at Leamington on
Friday, my mother showed me a copy of the note you
wrote to the Chancellor, requesting him to give me St.
George's, Bloomsbury ; and I cannot refrain from express-
ing to you my warmest and most grateful thanks for your
consideration of me. Your kindness to me on this and
very many other occasions I feel indeed most deeply.
About the same time I had been privately informed my
dear friend Archdeacon Baylcy was trying to obtain for
me St. Margaret's, Westminster ; but the Dean of Ripon
will not now resign, as the Bishop of Lichfield threatens,
192 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
in the event of a vacancy, to hold it in commendam.
But the object of our wishes is a country living ; and if
I might name a living, it would be Hertingfordbury.
Delicia and I are quite agreed on that point ; and the
innocent pleasures of a country life are those most to be
desired for my little ones, to whom is due my first and
dearest duty, I have been thirteen years in holy orders,
and seven of these I have spent in situations as difficult
and laborious as any in England ; and if I live for two or
three years longer I shall think myself privileged to re-
tire, for I am come to St. Basil's opinion, that happiness
is to be found in quiet. Fervour and zeal are providen-
tially ordained to set us a-going on our Christian course ;
but the perfection of a Christian life is to be found in
calmness and peace. Give my love to Walter, and tell
him how happy we shall be to see him here, though our
cool temperature will but ill accord with his boiling heat.
From what I have heard and seen of my reverend cousin,
I suspect that he has taken his place in his friend Words-
worth's boat, ' in shape a very crescent moon,' and gone up
into the clouds, looking after what he will not find, the god-
dess Perfection. If this be so, I am glad of it ; few men are
worth anything who have not wandered a little among the
clouds ; and then by degrees they come down, and find
that men, though not perfect, may gradually pass from
dutiful sons to affectionate parents and kind masters, and
die good honest Christians, and that such are the charac-
ters to be valued.
Your grateful and affectionate
W. F. Hook.
To W. P. Woody Esq. — Sermons at Oxford.
Oxford : November 3, 1834.
My dearest Friend, — Although I have so much to do,
say, and see, that I cannot write a long letter, yet I know
that you will like to receive a line from me, and to hear
that I am passing well. I preached twice yesterdav, and
-1837 Letters from Oxford. 193
although I did not preach as well as I could wish, yet I
hope I may have set some young heads a-thinking in the
right way, which is what I aim at in my sermons, since
two undergraduates have called upon me to request per-
mission to read my evening sermon. As they are perfect
strangers to me I shall refuse to lend the sermon, but I am
going to their college (Lincoln), and shall read it over to
them, with my comments ; thus I am going to give a
divinity lecture.
I have been amused (and so will you be) at finding
in a French paper (' L'Univers,' just brought to me by an
acquaintance at Worcester College) a quotation from my
sermon on the Church, almost every word, by the bye, spelt
wrong. I am classed with Bishop J ebb, Reveridge, {sic),
Joseph Mede, Hammond, and others among the great
divines of the Church of England. I was going to return
home to-morrow, but having received an invitation from
Dr. Burton, I thought it right to accept it. The Dean of
Christ Church has also invited me, which is very civil,
for Oxford is a perfect aristocracy ; the heads of houses
keep entirely aloof from the masters, and the masters from
the undergraduates ; which is, I think, on the whole a good
thing. It was rather awful to sit in a large kind ot
chapter room, before going into sermon, and to see the
heads of houses one by one come in, not deigning a look,
each silently taking his place till the procession was pre-
pared to move into church. It is a good thing to find
how infinitely small one really is, after having played the
great man in a parish. My reception in Oxford, after so
many years of absence, has been very gratifying and, in-
deed, flattering.
To Mrs. Hook.
O.xford : November 3, 1834.
My dearest Love, — I can only find a single sheet of
paper in the blotting book, and I therefore write a billet-
doux. I am very well, I preached yesterday tolerably,
VOL. I. O
194 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook, 1829-
not so effectually as I could wish, but I hope with some
effect, as two undergraduates have just called on me to
ask permission to read the sermon I preached in the after-
noon. We went to evening service at Newman's church ;
he is, my dear love, the most delightful apostolical man I
ever met; I wish you could have been with me at the
service ; his sermon was one of the most useful I ever heard.
I have been much amused at finding myself quoted as a
great divine in a French paper, called 'L'Univers.' I
suppose I may now consider that I have a ' continental
reputation ! '
I will call on Mr. B (d. v.) as I pass through
Leamington ; thanks for the hint. I long to be at home ;
kisses to the brats, love to Miss Ross, a box on the ear to
yourself.
Your reverend Husband,
W. F. Hook.
Beaumont Street, Oxford : November 3, 1834.
My dearest Mother, — As I mentioned in my last that
I had been ill, I think it right to tell you now that I con-
tinue to be well ; all the better, indeed, for my delightful
little holiday. My duties yesterday were light, compared
with those I have at home ; but as you probably fancy
them greater than they were, you will be glad to hear
that I am not at all knocked up. I preached twice, and
then attended the evening service of my admirable friend
Mr. Newman. Now I consider it to have been a blessed
privilege to have been able to unite, both on Saturday
(All Saints' Day) and Sunday, in public prayer with that
apostolical man ; his appearance, his voice, his sermon, were
so perfectly what they ought to be, that I could almost
have imagined that one of that glorious army of saints
and martyrs, whose memory we were celebrating, had
risen from the grave and come among us. Mr. Palmer
and myself afterwards dined in Merton Hall with Walter
Hamilton ; the Fellows there appear to be pleasant men of
Seeks a Coiintry Living. 195
the world, but the society was not such as to suit Palmer
and me : besides, it is a waste of precious time to associate
with men who are not of my own party, when I have only
three or four days to spare for Oxford. I am very much
of my friend Rose's opinion, that we do ourselves no good
by mixing much with other people, whose opinions do not
accord with our own on fundamental points.
Your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
To the Bishop of L icJificld.
Coventry : December 29, 1834.
I\Iy Lord, — The kindness of your last letter encourages
me to make a request to your lordship. My medical friends
concur with your lordship in thinking it to be essential to
my health that I should quit the noise and oppositions of
this place ; and although I should regret to leave a parish
where I am now enjoying the fruits of my past labour, yet,
with an increasing family, I think it my duty to listen to
their advice.
It is not, indeed, to be supposed that anyone who has
a pleasant country living, will be willing to exchange it
for this ; but I have sufficient interest with Lord Lynd-
hurst to feel sure that, on my resigning this piece of pre-
ferment, he would be willing to present me to some other
of equal value, upon my application.
The difficulty is, to know where an eligible rectory
within reasonable distance of London is, or is likely to be,
vacant. And my request, therefore, to your lordship is,
that you will have the kindness to inform me whenever
you know such to be the case. I beg to apologise for
this intrusion upon your valuable time, an intrusion which
may be considered as the penalty for having made me
what I most sincerely am, my lord,
Your lordship's ever obliged and dutiful servant,
W. F. IIOOK.
02
196 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
But before the offer of the country living came,
he had shaken off the malady (which never re-
turned) and was, physically, prepared for the gigantic
labours which he was destined to undertake and ac-
complish.
On the complete restoration of his health in
1835, a very handsome and costly testimonial of
plate, to which the poor subscribed in large numbers
as well as the rich, was presented to him. In the
course of his reply to the address made at the time
of presentation, the Vicar said, * It has been my
endeavour to unite with the firmest and most un-
compromising adherence to the principles of that
blessed Church of which you are respected members,
and of which I glory in being a minister, the great-
est courtesy towards those who unfortunately differ
from us, the greatest charity in judging of the
motives of others, and goodwill towards all men.
By this public mark of your approbation I presume
that you desire me to persevere in this course, and
by God's help so I will.'
The only remaining event of importance which
deserves a separate notice was the visit, in the
summer of 1833, of Dr. Low, Bishop of Ross,
Moray, and Argyll, whose friendship he had formed
on the occasion of the consecration of Dr. Lus-
combe in 1825.
The last relic of oppression of the Church of
Scotland was not yet removed by the repeal of the
Act which prohibited anyone who had received holy
orders in that Church from ministering in England.^
The Vicar of Trinity shortly before the arrival of the
* This Act was repealed in 1840.
-1 837 The American Church. I97
Bishop was dining with his old friend Judge Park.
' I told him,' he writes to Dr. Low, ' with some
complacency that I was expecting a visit from your
reverence, when he reminded me of the iniquitous
Act of Parliament which prevents your officiating in
England. I replied that I should elevate a seat
within the rails of the altar for the Bishop, and
though the State might silence him, the Church
should receive him with the same episcopal honour
as she would offer to our own diocesan. You will
be received in this house by as firm and true a body
of the clergy as any in England, many of whom are
devoted admirers of your Church — some, indeed,
made so by me, for I speak of my visit to the Scotch
Church wherever I go, and I have lent all the books
bearing upon your history to the right hand and to
the left.'
The Bishop accordingly was welcomed at Coven-
try with all the honour which the clergy could pay
him. Besides beino- conducted into the church with
the reverence usually shown to episcopal visitors,
and being placed in the seat of dignity within the
sanctuary, he was also entertained at a public dinner
which all the clergy of the neighbourhood attended.
The event was thoroughly gratifying to the Vicar
who delighted in any opportunity, however small,
of testifying to the unity of the Reformed Catholic
Church by paying equal honour to all branches of it,
whether established or disestablished. To enlighten
the profound ignorance which then commonly pre-
vailed respecting the Episcopal Churches in Scot-
land and America, to kindle an interest in their
welfare, and to promote their prosperity by every
iqS Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
means which lay within his power, was in fact one of
the labours of his hfe. The condition indeed of the
American Church about this time was viewed by
him, and some of his Oxford friends, especially Mr.
Newman and Dr. Pusey, with considerable anxiety.
The opinions and the tone of some of the American
clergy and Bishops who had recently visited Eng-
land seemed to them far from satisfactory. On the
subject of Baptismal Regeneration, especially, there
seemed reason to fear that the American Church
might split into two sections — the western taking
the extreme Protestant view, the New York con-
nexion following the Catholic doctrine. Mr. New-
man thought it would be highly desirable that two
or three able and learned men of sound views
should go over to New York and make it their
head-quarters for several years, for the purpose of
propagating Catholic truth ; but it seemed impossible
to find men who combined ability, leisure, and means
to undertake the work. Mr. Hook proposed send-
ing books instead of men ; and started a subscription
for purchasing a complete set of the Fathers to be
presented to the library of the Episcopal College at
New York. * It is obvious,' he writes to Mr. New-
man in April 1835, 'that surrounded as the Church
there is by papists and fanatics, our grand hope
under God must rest with a learned clergy. . . .
Certainly the divinity of some of our Transatlantic
brethren (and fathers even) is somewhat crude ; *
and in December of the same year he says in another
letter to Mr. Newman :
I wrote to Dr. McVicar to ascertain what standard
works of the Fathers they possessed. He stated in answer.
-1837 Last Year at Coventry. 199
scarcely anything ; except Cotelerius and one or two very
common editions. They have Bingham and Suicer and
books of that sort. I cannot contribute myself more than
5/., and I expect to raise in this neighbourhood 20/. more.
I feel anxious to assist the brethren in America, because
though they have a Catholic Church, there prevails among
its members very little genuine Church principle. I have
watched their progress for some years, and have seen
with sorrow that there has always been an inclination even
among their best men to yield to the prevailing opinions of
the age : see, for instance, their Rubric on Regeneration. I
fear that our American fathers and brothers are too apt to
consider that if they maintain the one doctrine of Epis-
copacy, sadly curtailed as the jurisdiction of Bishops is,
nothing more is required.'
As he lived to see these fears dispelled, and to
esteem some of the American clergy and Bishops,
especially Dr. Doane, the Bishop of New Jersey, as
distinguished ornaments of the Church, it was no
small pleasure to him to reflect that he had ever
striven to promote intercourse between the English
and American members of the Church, and had thus
helped to keep the Transatlantic branch stedfast in
the faith.
The year 1836 was the last of his ministry at
Coventry, although, his health being now re-esta-
blished and all idea of seeking a country living
being abandoned there seemed every prospect of his
remaining where he was for some time to come.
He was thoroughly contented, thoroughly happy.
His habit indeed of makino- the best of his circum-
stances whatever they were, which was due partly to
his sanguine, manly, and cheerful disposition, partly to
his trust in the Providence of God, had never failed
him even when the state of his health seemed to
200 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
indicate the expediency of rest and change. * Thank
you,' he wrote to a friend in the midst of that crisis,
'for wishing what I wish myself — a country parish ;
not, however, that I wish to leave my own dear
parishioners, for I do really love Coventry from the
bottom of my heart, but I long to see woods, hills,
and lakes ; I quite pine for all this. Nevertheless,
God's will be done. Determined I am of one thing ;
to take things as they come, to look on the bright
side, to thank my Saviour and my God, and to
endeavour to show my gratitude by my obedience.'
And his obedience was rewarded by finding himself,
after eight years of labour in Coventry, the vicar of
a grateful parish, possessed of much influence in the
town and neighbourhood, and triumphant over the
opposition which he had encountered in the outset
of his career. This of course had proceeded from
Dissenters and extreme Evangelicals, though it was
never comparable in vehemence to that which he
afterwards experienced in Leeds. A Nonconformist
minister in the city, a man of some ability, attempted,
by delivering a set of lectures in his chapel in 1 834, to
confute the lectures on the Liturgy which were being
given by the Vicar in his church ; but, as the Vicar
remarked, the attack upon his series enhanced their
importance, had the effect of an advertisement, and
increased the number of his hearers.
On the first Sunday in each month he, at one
time, omitted a sermon owing to the large number
of communicants. A few malevolent Evangelicals
represented this to the Bishop as a great derelic-
tion of duty, although at that very time, being the
season of Lent, he preached thrice every week.
• 1837 Death of Infant Son. 201
The Bishop, however, although himself an extreme
Evangelical, was a kind and fair man, and dismissed
the complaint with the contempt it deserved.
There was, however, one source of annoyance to
which the Vicar never was reconciled, and which, I
have often heard him say, was the only reason why
he really was glad to leave Coventry. The income
of the living depended on a rate levied on all house-
holders in the parish. The system was so dis-
tasteful to him that he never would push his rights
against defaulters, and consequently seldom received
more than half the amount to which he was entitled.
The assessors of the rate were appointed at a parish
meeting, and, on one occasion, soon after he became
Vicar, the Dissenters procured the nomination of one
of their party with a view to annoying the Vicar and
keeping down the rate. But they had mistaken
their man. The Vicar met him soon after his ap-
pointment, shook hands with him in his heartiest
manner, saying, ' I am very glad you are appointed ;
I shall trust you to do all that is just an4 right, and
that is all I care about.' The man, however, did not
relish his office and resiofned.
The year 1836 ended in grief. Mrs. Hook's
father died on December 28, and a few weeks before
this event their eldest and, at that time, their only
boy was taken from them after a lingering illness.
The brief reports of his condition, written by his
father from day to day to various relations and
friends, are deeply affecting in their expression of
passionate affection for the child, coupled with meek
submission to the will of God. And now and then,
even in the midst of his anxiety and distress, the
202 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
irrepressible vein of his playful humour comes to the
surface, as in one of the reports which is cast into the
shape of an official medical bulletin, and is addressed
to his brother Robert, and Mr. and Mrs. Wood, as
Messrs. Robert, William, Charlotte, & Co.
Sympathisers,
London.
The invitation which he received to become a
candidate for the Vicarage of Leeds, early in the
following year, was a salutary diversion to the
thoughts of the sorrow-stricken parents. But a
more particular account of his election to Leeds and
departure from Coventry must be reserved for
another chapter.
LETTERS, 1829-1836.
To his Curate^ Rev. E. Gibson.
Coventry : March lo, 1829.
My dear Sir, — I am extremely sorry to be obliged to
quarrel with you so early in our acquaintance, and espe-
cially after the very kind and gratifying note which I have
just received.
It is lucky that we are both parsons, or a duel would
probably ensue ; for you have treated with the greatest con-
tempt one part of my note yesterday — that which requested
the pleasure of your company at dinner. This is a kind
of insult which can only be atoned for by your making a
point of dining with me in spite of any other engagement
which you may have. No excuse whatever can be ad-
mitted, and therefore no further answer is required. Come
you must, or we must fight in private — without seconds,
to avoid the scandal.
Yours most truly.
-1 837 Letters y 1829- 1836. 203
To the same.
Rue Castiglione, Paris : June 29, 1829.
[After asking for information about the Parish] — ' I am
heartily sick of Paris ; hate P>ance, and think Frenchmen the
most detestable of human beings. In three weeks I hope to
be in dear old England, and never shall I wish again to quit
her shores. I particularly feel the want of clerical employ-
ment, and of books of reference when reading the Bible.
Should I not, however, return before the Archdeacon's visit-
ation, will }'ou have the kindness to make my apologies, and
to take care that every kind of attention is shown him t I
dislike the man's principles, and think the man himself a
humbug, but I should not like him to have it in his power
to say that I had shown any disrespect to his office ; I wish,
therefore, to be particular on this point. . . ,
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Charitable Judgments — Character
of George I V.
July 6, 1830.
My dearest Friend, .... I have just been publish-
ing a sermon. I am afraid you will consider me rather
ultra ; but you will see by my attack on the Bishops that,
Tory though I am, I can still be independent. If I main-
tain my own principles strongly, God, who knows my
heart, can bear me witness that I am equally ultra in the
charity with which I judge of others. I always hold that
we may condemn opinions, but that we may not condemn
those who hold them. That we may, for instance, say that
damnation is threatened against habitual drunkenness, but,
that we may not say to the drunkard, * Thou wilt be
damned.*
I have felt much the death of poor King George, for he
was so kind a friend to my father and my grandfather, that I
looked upon him with something like family affection. When
we consider the faults of his education, the talent which was
early used to corrupt him, and the strength of the tempta-
204 ^i/^ ^f Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
tions to which he was exposed, I think the judgment
which has been passed upon him by the London papers
in general, harsh and unchristian. In such a case espe-
cially, I hold that the rule 'Judge not' is peculiarly applic-
able. You, of course, have had other feelings towards him
than I have had, but now he is gone, I dare say you feel
as I do.
What a blessing it is to have been well and piously
brought up in middling life, and thus unexposed to those
temptations to which the extremes of high life and low
life are so peculiarly exposed. When we take eternity
into consideration I think that this is a blessing, the extent
of which cannot be too highly estimated. The very circum-
stance of being obliged to labour for subsistence is the source
of many virtues, to which a higher station would render us
strangers ; while the being exempted from actual penury
enables us to encourage those tastes and feelings, without
which the moral man cannot be brought to any degree of
perfection. The more I see of the world, the more am I
impressed with the advantage of being placed in that
station of life which leads a man to labour in a liberal pro-
fession rather than in a trade ; though I consider a trade,
in nine instances out of ten, to be preferable to an inde-
pendent fortune.
To some few persons an independent fortune is an
advantage ; but how many does it ruin .-' while the number
of persons improved by professional avocations, and even
by professional ambition, is incalculable. Your Charlotte
may complain that your professional business takes you
too much from her ; but perhaps, (tell her not this, lest she
utterly discard me) the very fact that you are obliged
sometimes to leave her renders the moments you spend
in her society doubly dear.
Yours devotedly,
W. F. Hook.
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 205
To the same — Recollections of School Days — Contentment —
Foreign Chnrchcs and Sects — TJie Bible Society.
July 19, 1830.
My dearest Friend, .... The disposition of my mind
is to revert to old times and old friends with more than
usual fondness ; I forget the discomforts of the former and
the faults of the latter, and love to remember them, and
to cherish their memory. When I think of Winchester I
put out of consideration the floggings and bullyings and
revilings, which rendered me miserable on first going to
school ; and think only of the happy hours I used to pass
with my friend, with whom I did, indeed, take sweet coun-
sel, and who was always ready to sympathise with me
under discomforts to which I was more sensibly alive than
most boys of my age. And when I remember good old
Gabell, I think only of his great kindness, his very great
kindness to me, and of the admirable manner in which he
instructed us, without reference to his occasional mis-
management out of school. I have seen him several times
since, and I love him the more, from the deep interest he
seems always to take in the welfare of his quondam naughty
boys. Under these circumstances, nothing touched me
more than the delightful picture you have drawn in your
letter of the old man sitting in the House of Commons,
like a patriarch, surrounded by his children. I wish I
had been with you ; indeed, I wish more and more to be
settled in London, I should so like to mix under altered
circumstances with my contemporaries ; moreover, a little
clerical and literary society would do me good, in addition
to the immense advantage — leaving pleasure out of the
question — which I should derive, as I have always done,
from a nearer intercourse with you. I think my mind has
much improved of late, and, I begin to hope that I could
stand my ground in such a field as London, without dis-
gracing myself or doing injury to the Church. I should
have shrunk from it a year or two ago. But, after all,
2o6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
what am I saying ? I scarcely know whether I am speak-
ing the truth ; I sometimes sit me down and think that I
am the most contented of human beings, since my church
is just the kind of church I like, and my parish suited to
my abilities ; while my new curate suits me in every way.
But at other times, when I try to wish for something,
I wish for London. This is a kind of contradiction, but
it is that kind of contradiction which, I presume, exists
occasionally in all minds in a healthy state. My notion
is, that we should always be so contented as never to
envy anyone else ; and yet not so contented as to prevent
a proper degree of emulation. While acting from the
higher motives of religion, we are not to eradicate but to
direct the inferior motives which set human nature in
motion ; character is to be continually improved, and as
long as this process is going on, no matter how it is
accomplished ; for the glory is to be ascribed to God, whose
providence ordains those circumstances under which we
are placed.
With respect to your observations about the circula-
tion of the Scriptures in Greece, &c., you, by taking a
view rather inclining to one side, and I, by taking a
view rather inclining to the other side, without materially
disagreeing, would, perhaps, arrive at an opinion in which
there would be a shade, and only a shade, of difference.
My studies have lain among the primitive writers, and in
the study of the early antiquities of the Church ; and my
principle, perhaps originating from that circumstance, is
this, to endeavour to render the Church as conformable as
possible with the primitive model. Hence, I differ from
such divines as Paley ; he would make such alterations
in the Church as would render it more comprehensive,
taking, if I may so say, a political view of it; and this
seems to be the object with most of the Church Reformers
of the day. For this purpose he would do away with
many primitive customs, to which those who think with
me are attached. Thus he looks to what must be impos-
sible, owing to the lax state of discipline, a union with
Protestant Dissenters. Now we look not to this, but by (if
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 207
any alteration is necessary) even a return to some of the
usages discarded at our Reformation, to conform more
and more to the primitive model ; that thus, when the
Roman Catholic Churches abroad gradually attempt to
reform themselves, or what is yet more likely, when the
Church of Greece, to which I mainly look, begins to re-
form, they may see that this can be done without running
into that discord and confusion which is certainly the
disgrace of Protestantism, and which as certainly makes
it stink in their nostrils. The Greeks abominate the Pope ;
but our disunion they abominate equally. They dread
reformation on this account ; ours is the only Church which
shows that the Church can be reformed, not as in the
case of most other Protestants — I ought to except those
of Denmark and Sweden — that to correct abuses it must be
first overturned and then rebuilt, de novo ; and we prevent
them from feeling an inclination to reform, by so many of
our countrymen in those parts making common cause with
all Protestants. Let us leave events, say I, to Providence ;
let us bring ourselves as near to perfection as we can ;
nor would I ever for one moment admit it as a ground
for any concession, that the safety of the Establishment is
concerned. Concede, in God's name, on all points where
concession is innocent, but never from the worldly con-
sideration of sustaining the worldly pre-eminence of the
Church, With respect to the circulation of the Scriptures
in Greece, I conceive that, where any prospect of good
arises, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
would come forward ; but the absurdity is, to commence
on a new field ere half the work is done on the old ; our
own colonies are lamentably destitute. As to our liturgy,
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge would
never think it a necessary accompaniment to the Scrip-
tures among the Christians of the Church of Greece. But
you can have no conception of the mischief done there
and elsewhere by the circulation of Bibles by the Bible
Society, translated imperfectly and, I may say, dishonestly,
or at least, unfairly, by Socinians.
The traveller Macfarlane, whose work on Constantinople
2oS Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
you have probably read, asserts that the Bible circulated
among the Greeks is written in such strange Romaic that
they cannot read it You will find this, and some other
striking cases, stated in the third edition of Arthur
Perceval's ' Reasons Why I am not a Member of the
Bible Society,' a little tract which I would very strongly
recommend to your notice ; it only costs one shilling.
To the same — Preparations for Sunday Evening Services —
Remonstrance with the Bishop for attending the Meeting
of the Bible Society.
September 5, 1830.
I have been of late rather overworked, and I foolishly
consented to make a tour in Wales ; I was only absent
five days, so you may imagine that I was rather hurried,
but as I could not enjoy myself when absent from my
beloved wife, and as m.uch travelling does not agree with
me, I returned without being much refreshed as to mind,
and with a body rather the worse for wear. Then I have
been busily employed in getting subscriptions for lighting
my church by gas ; as I am anxious to establish a third
service on the Sunday evening, which I did during the
summer, and found it to be highly serviceable. This third
service I give to my parish ; for, as your friend Irving
would say, ' Silver and gold have I none, but what I have —
that is my labour — I bestow,' Though even here, by the way,
— since for ' none ' we ought to read ' but little ' — my purse
suffers, as it entails upon me the expense of a curate. In
most parishes the evening lecturer is paid ; but I thus take
that payment on myself I say this, because I have been
abused like a pick-pocket, not by my own parishioners,
but by Dissenters and Evangelicals, because I addressed
a remonstrance to the Bishop for coming to preside at a
Bible meeting in my own parish, and they wish to make it
appear to the world that, somehow or other, this arrange-
ment will benefit my pocket.
I remain, your devoted Friend,
W. F. Hook.
-1837 Letters, 1829-1836. 209
Visit to the Bishop of London.
10 Dean's Yard, Westminster : October 1S30.
Wife ! — Learn to treat your husband with the respect
which is due to a man of his consequence. When the
Lord Bishop of London invited the Rev. Vicar of Holy-
Trinity, Coventry, to dine with his lordship, at his lord-
ship's palace at Fulham, who do you think was the only
person (with the exception of the chaplain) that the said
Lord Bishop thought worthy to be invited to meet the
said Rev. Vicar, your honoured lord and master .-' hear and
be confounded — His Grace the Lord Archbishop of Can-
terbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitan !!!!!!
Your poor weak little bit of a mind would indeed have
been astonished and astounded to hear how these three
pillars of the Church (for I consider the chaplain as a
nonentity) discuss affairs ecclesiastical ; yet, without a joke,
it was an awful solemnity. The poor Vicar was quite
dumb-founded till he had refreshed his nerves by a glass
of the Bishop's best wine. Things were going on smoothly
after this, when, lo and behold ! in a meek and gentle voice
the Lord Archbishop challenged the poor priest to take a
glass of wine, and the said priest was again overpowered :
he spilt the wine, first on the table-cloth, then on his coat,
and forgot to bow to his grace. Luckily ' Piety Without
Asceticism ' ' was named, and the very thought of his dear,
kind, apostolical patron, the Bishop of Limerick, inspired
the poor priest once more with courage. We all chanted
the praises of the work ; and then the poor priest was
listened to with interest, as he could give the latest account
of Ireland's best Prelate. Indeed, he/ could not help
thinking that his grace the metropolitan seemed to treat
him with more respect, when he remembered, probably,
that he, the said priest, was immortalised by being men-
tioned in ' Practical Theology,' as Bishop Jebb's friend.
At ten o'clock the three assembled pillars, accompanied by
' Tide of a work by Bishop Jebb.
VOL. I. P
2IO Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
Mrs. Blomfield, went to the chapel, where upwards of fifty
servants were assembled ; this was indeed a sublime and
touching sight. A delightful chapel, the prayers read by
a Bishop, and the Vicar kneeling at the side of an Arch-
bishop. Well here ends the history : how I have lived to
write it I know not ; but I can say no more, for by eleven
o'clock I must attend the meeting of Convocation at St.
Paul's, thence I shall have to hurry to the levee. I asked
the Bishop whether I was to preach next Sunday ; he said
* of course,' as he never preached except by the King's
command : but then he dines with the King on Saturday,
when probably he will be commanded. You had better send
this letter on to my mother, who will be anxious to hear
how things went off at Fulham. Kiss our sweet babe for
me till you are tired. I am aweary of these honours, and
long to be back with my dear, dear wife, who has in me a
Most devoted Husband,
W. F. Hook.
To his Wife — First Sermon at the Chapel Royal,
16 St. James Street, London : November 1830.
My dearest Love, .... I had the honour yesterday of
preaching before their Majesties. Bob says I delivered
the sermon well ; but I do not think the sermon itself was
a good one. I trust, however, that I may have touched
the hearts and roused the feelings of some of my congre-
gation ; for I warned them in pretty strong terms of the
danger, as well as the sin, of denying God and deserting
the cause of religion. The Bishop of Chichester ^ came
into the vestry after service, and introduced himself as an
old friend and schoolfellow of my father's ; he said he could
not mistake me from my likeness. His lordship told me
that in the bidding prayer I ought not to name the Bishop
of the Diocese when preaching in a royal chapel, since
such chapels are considered as peculiars. * And,' said he,
' I may without fear of offence point out one fault, when
^ Dr. Cam
-1 837 Letters, 1 8 29-1 836. 211
there is so much to admire, both in matter and manner.' I
made one great, uncavalierlike mistake. The etiquette is,
to walk down from the pulpit backwards, and I was told of
it twenty times at least ; but when the sermon was ended I
forgot it all, and in my eagerness to escape, down I ran with
my back to his Majesty. I have heard of various eulogies
(the abuse, of course, not being reported to me) from
persons who are so ignorant of ecclesiastical affairs as not
to know so wonderful a person as myself, for one person
to Gilbert Mathison called me Mr. Wood ; another to Mr.
Tupper, Mr. Cook. But I see the Court circular, in the
newspapers, sets the matter right. Upon the whole, I am not
plccised with myself ; I have seldom been more discontented
with any of my performances of any kind.
Your most devoted Husband,
W. F. Hook.
From W. P. Wood, Esq. — Character of Lord Brougham.
Lincoln's Inn : Dec. i, 1830.
.... Assuredly, my dear friend, the situation of our
country does not appear to be such as to inspire ambitious
thoughts, and those who undertake to steer us through our
difficulties are bold adventurers. I have little doubt that
Lord Brougham had sense sufficient to foresee the difficul-
ties to which the new administration will be exposed. I
seriously think that he has acted most honestly in taking
office. In fact, as I believe I have often said to you, I do
not consider that Brougham was ever dishonest, in the
worst sense of the word ; but, with a sincere desire to
promote many useful objects, he at the same time is beset
by no slight degree of what the American Channing calls
'self-exaggeration.' Added to this defect, he is frequently
the servant of sudden impulses, for lack of sufficient fixed-
ness of character. Whatever want of confidence may
have been evinced by his associates towards Brougham,
has arisen rather from his independence than his servility,
p 2
2 12 Life of Walter Farquha7' Hook, 1829-
and he certainly has never been guilty of an actual breach
of political principle. His conduct in taking office was
marked with his usual faults, and precipitancy. He refused
the seals, and then must immediately make a speech to let
the world know that he had declined office (for nobody
of course would have supposed that it had been offered
to him) : he is then told, that an administration cannot be
formed without him, and he has in my judgment acted
rightly in accepting office, believing of course, as he does,
that a Whig administration will be beneficial to the country,
and that he himself (an advantage he certainly will not un-
derrate,) will thus be enabled to realise many of his schemes
for the public benefit and his own renown. The latter
object he is, I think, anxious — as most men are, and he
perhaps more than many — to attain, but he fortunately
couples it with the best method of attainment. He will, I
think, in all probability overthrow the ministry by endea-
vouring to take the lead of them ; and his splendid speech
on the establishment of local courts, the peroration of
which I think as magnificently eloquent as any remains
of ancient didactic eloquence, furnished a specimen of his
probable course ; the bill being brought in, as he stated,
independently of any communication with the ministry.
From W. P. Wood, Esq. — Sympathy between Rich
and Poor.
Lincoln's Inn : May 21, 1831.
.... I do not intend to trouble you with politics, but
I am sure that a great proportion of the troubles which
disturb old-established governments arise from the want
of sympathy between the rich and poor. I mean that real
sympathy which consults the feelings, and the mental as
well as bodily wants of the sufferer ; that truly Christian
spirit of benevolence which prompts the more favoured
individual to lower himself as far as possible to the level
of the poorer classes in his intercourse with them ; to con-
vince them that he regards himself standing before God
-i837 Letters, 1829-1836. 213
as humbled a creature as the meanest of his brethren, and
that he feels his worldly wealth only entrusted to him
as a means of effecting the most extensive good ; whilst,
after all the good which he can effect, he is but an unpro-
fitable servant. It is not enough to say that in England
more is done for the poor, than in any other country, by
gifts : the question is Jiozo is the wealth given .-* and if it
should ever be shown that more of actual intercourse
with the poor exists among the gentry of this country than
of any other nation, yet is it after all but comparative ; and
I fear we are very, very far below what might be expected,
after eighteen centuries of instruction in real wisdom have
been vouchsafed the world. In one respect we are decidedly
behind our continental neighbours, and that is in the in-
effable distance between master and servant. It is impos-
sible you can work upon the minds of those who regard
you with no affection ; and I would ask if anyone can
point to more than half-a-dozen instances of attached
domestics within his own knowledge. I would follow
up my inquiry by asking him the reason. I do not think
that foreigners, in general, sufficiently avail themselves of
the advantages they have over us in this respect, by
influencing the minds of their dependants ; but, I can safely
say that we can never hope to effect much benefit in our
families while this barrier exists. . . ,
I fully agree with you in the excellent view you take of
the gradation of duty. An instance of perverted feeling
on this subject was shown the other day in this great mart
of all extravagance. Crowds had attended meetings held
in the new hall in the Strand, for converting the Continent by
' Sabbath Societies,' and various other contrivances ; but at
a meeting for the promotion of 'district visiting,' the only
really efficacious means of bettering the temporal and
spiritual condition of the poor, but a few stragglers could
be collected. Those who are thus usefully employed
were perhaps better engaged than in contributing to the
parade of a public meeting, but where were the customary
haunters of these exhibitions .-* preaching in imagination to
214 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829^
the Chinese, or weeping tears of joy over a letter from
Otaheite.
To IV. P, Wood, Esq. — Parochial Work — Opposition front
Dissenters.
January 31, 1831.
.... This letter only comes a month after the time ;
it ought to have been received on the first of January. I
hope it will be received on the first of February, and
though it would not be according to etiquette to express
what I heartily wish, that you may pass a happy twelve-
month, yet, here are from me and mine, to you and yours,
most hearty wishes for a happy elevenmonth. Christmas
time is among the parsons, as you well know, no holiday
time; much extra duty always awaits us; and the delightful
task of dispensing charities, feeding the national school
children, &c., S:c., consumes time most voraciously. In
addition to this, ours has, till within the last ten days, been
the city of the plague ; small pox, measles, scarlet and
typhus fever have been raging around us ; and God
Almighty be thanked that w^e, of this household, have
hitherto escaped. I have likewise had the very disagree-
able duty of having to beg, from house to house, to get
support for our intended infant schools. I am beginning to
be a little vain, for I cannot but suppose, as all my friends
assert, that the bitterness, I may say the fierceness, with
which I am assailed by some of the Dissenters here, must
arise from having emptied their shops by establishing an
evening service, and stirring up the Churchmen who were
before permitted to go to sleep. Every kind of abuse, the
most personal, has been heaped upon me, on account of
this infant school. I was told that it was expected that
the Church should come forward, and that the Dissenters
would contribute. Together, therefore, with all the bene-
ficed clergy of the city, we called a meeting, only insisting
that the children should be taught the Creed, Lord's
Prayer, and ten Commandments, and that the master
should be a member of the Church. It was necessary to
i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 215
do this before calling a meeting, because we knew that,
while Churchmen would supply the money, the Dissenters
would be able to outnumber us by resorting to measures
for packing the meeting, to which we would not conde-
scend. We thought it right, therefore, to state what we
should consider a sine qua iion. At the meeting, if the
Dissenters could not conscientiously support our plan, I
intended to propose, that we should raise a subscription
together, and establish two schools ; one to be superin-
tended by the clergy, the other by the Dissenters, with an
understanding that neither party would receive the chil-
dren dismissed for ill-conduct from the other establishment.
But a violent Dissenting teacher, abetted by as violent an
Evangelical clergyman, chaplain to the Bridewell, called
an opposition meeting, branded us with the title of intole-
rant bigots, and determined to crush us. We have let
them have their way ; when reviled, we have carefully
abstained from reviling again ; and the consequence has
been that we have raised nearly 300/., and their subscrip-
tions are, I suspect, so inconsiderable that they have
hitherto refrained from publishing them. Their funds have
chiefly been supplied by the Quakers, who at first promised
to support us ; by some few among the gentry at a distance,
who were deceived by their assuming the name of an aiiti-
scctarian infant school ; and by the political characters who
have subscribed to both. All this is easily written, but it
was not so easily done. It has been personally satisfactory
to me, since many persons have given their five pounds,
saying at the same time that they had not intended to
support an infant school, but they were glad of any oppor-
tunity to show their respect for me. Thus you see how I
am situated ; you cannot in Coventry take a single step in
any matter without meeting with a factious opposition. I
have found, however, staunch friends where I did not expect
them ; while this has been balanced by an opposition, which
has shown its bitterness in ascribing to me words and
deeds which have not a shadow of foundation in truth.
2i6 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1829-
To the same — Foundation of a Dispensary. — Resignation of
Moseley — Parochial Work.
Coventry : March 14, 1831.
My dearest Friend, — I lose no time in thanking you
and your wife for your kind letter of congratulation, if
it be a subject of congratulation, that I have entered
my thirty-fourth year and am no better than I am.
I am at present a bachelor, my spouse having run
away from me, with the heiress of all the Hooks, to
pay a visit to her father and mother. I am too busy to go,
and I am at present almost too nervous to write, for I am
to make my first — no, my second (after a long interval)
— appearance as an extempore speaker to-morrow. The
thought of it, strange as it may appear, in one who
preaches so often, makes me ache all over. The meeting
is called for the purpose of establishing a self-supporting
dispensary, and I am to move the first resolution. We
shall be opposed by a host of medical men ; but a dispen-
sary of some sort or other shall be established ; they may
bully, but we are determined not to yield. You tell me
you shall write to me on politics ; remember. Sir Radical,
that I am a Tory ; so moderate your tone of triumph, if it
be from mere compassion. But in truth, I am too much
occupied in parochial details to be able to busy myself in
politics ; and the state of politics is such at present as so
to sadden my poor Tory heart that I avoid the subject as
much as possible, seeing that I could do no good. I
seldom indeed advert to them, except when I offer the
prayer for Parliament, which is offered from the heart.
But let us fly from this gloomy subject, and let me tell
you of what will probably prevent our intended visit to
London by burdening us with expense. We are about to
change our house, having found one to our liking, just out
of the town, but in the parish. And as we cannot go to
you, why will not you come to us .? we have a nice airy
situation, a good small garden, and everything that can
-1837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 217
allure you. The expense of flitting is not all ; for I have
now diminished my income 50/. a year, by resigning
Moseley. I was overpersuadcd by my mother to keep it,
but for the last year and a half I have been anxious to
give it up, from a feeling that my being non-resident at a
living so near Birmingham was injurious to the cause of
religion ; I retained it, however, for the sake of my curate.
That difficulty has been overcome ; for the Bishop of
Rochester, the patron, having heard of my wish, sent me
a letter last week stating that he wished to bestow the
preferment so as to advance the cause of true religion, and
to counteract the effects of the fanaticism prevalent in
Birmingham and its vicinity. He consequently placed
the nomination in my hands, and I have nominated my
curate. This is very noble in his Lordship, since we had
some misunderstanding when he took possession of the
Deanery. All these things, with the small-pox raging like
a plague around us ; with a dispensary, savings bank, and
infant school to be established ; with lectures every Wed-
nesday, and lectures to prepare for every day in Passion
Week ; with, I am delighted to say, an improving parish,
and consequent increase of parochial duty — all these things
must account for the fact that Walter Hook is not so good
a correspondent as he once was, that when he has time to
write, his pen is employed in sermons rather than in letters ;
but it will not prove to William Wood, who knows him so
well, that his love and friendship are one whit the less.
To the same — Lectures on the Last Days of our Lord's
Ministry —Change of House — Foundation of a Dispen-
sary — Calu mn ies.
Leicester Road, Coventry : April 13, 1831.
.... I delivered my lectures every day in Passion
Week to a very attentive and devout congregation. Indeed,
I have reason to hope that they were of service, not only
to myself, but to many who heard them. On one person
in particular I know that they have made a serious im-
2i8 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
pression, and a Socinian lady who was with me all the
week presented herself at the altar on Easter day. I have
indeed been very successful in my ministry of late, for two
of the leading surgeons in my parish have not only become
regular attendants at church but have received the Sacra-
ment. . . . All this has been highly satisfactory, and I am
in good humour with my parish. It was nevertheless hard
work, for I had only written one of my lectures when I
commenced, and had in consequence to sit up late and
rise early ; besides which, I started one evening to see my
little wee bit of a wife (she is only about an inch taller
than yours), and having found her as well as could be, I
returned in the morning. Then I have been very busy in
moving from St. Nicholas Place to this house. I have
been labouring night and day to get it ready for Delicia,
so that she may have no trouble or fatigue when she re-
turns, which I hope will be on Friday. I have seldom
felt so anxious for any day since I left Winchester ; my
feelings are just those with which we used to look forward
to the holidays : I have been so busy about all this, that
I have not seen her for a week. I must tell you that this
house though in the parish is in the country ; quite rural,
with a garden and all. I have been studying the art of
gardening too ; I can give you the history of gardening,
from that of Paradise to that described in the Canticles ;
and from that of Alcinous to that of Academus, and so
on to Sir William Temple and Kent, down to our own
times, not forgetting the hanging gardens of Babylon.
This morning I have been sowing peas : but there have
arisen a very disagreeable sect of Dissenters in my little
plantation ; they are known by the name of slugs, and have
opened a conventicle in the very heart of my cabbage-bed.
I am a bigoted, intolerant wretch, as you know, and
mean to burn them, not with fire and fagot, but with
lime. I must narrate another grievance. In endeavour-
ing to establish a self-supporting dispensary I have in-
curred the wrath of all the doctors in this place ; I know
not whether I mentioned this before, but so it is, and thus
-1837 Letters, 1829-1836. 219
I am placed between two fires. In the Coventry papers
the doctors are attacking me as a hypocrite, &c. &c., and
all the time a Dissenting teacher is publishing every week
an ecclesiastical lecture, in which he holds me up to cen-
sure for various iniquities : one, in particular, is rather
amusing, he accuses me of avarice, and calls me ' the holy
minister of Holy Trinity.' Now avarice is certainly not
one of my faults ; and if he inquired further he would find
that while by my rate here, at the lowest valuation, I
ought to receive 498/. a year, I only in fact receive 250/. ;
and when some of my parishioners found fault with my
collector (for the business is not managed by me), he told
them that the blame did not rest with him, but if anyone
goes to the Vicar he not only excuses them but gives them
something for the trouble of calling. However, so it is
with my Dissenting friends ; many of my real faults are
passed over, and things are brought against me of which
my conscience does not accuse me. Now you know my
sensibility, and will think, perhaps, that all these things
are sufficient to drive me mad ; but no, I have found the
secret which enables me to laugh at them. I have learned
not to care for man's judgment, and simply to think how
far I am doing what is right in the sight of God.
Infidels and fanatics are furious against me, but that
only proves that having flung the stone at them, I have
made the curs yelp, while my congregation has increased,
and my flock, generally speaking, are devoted to me.
To tJie same — Abstinence from Politics,
May 16, 1831.
My poor dear Friend, ... At Worcester you car-
ried all before you, but I voted of course for Lygon. In
Coventry I never meddle with politics. My principle is
this ; to do those duties, or rather to attempt to do them,
which Providence points out to us, by the circumstances
under which we are placed, always remembering that the
2 20 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
nearest and easiest duties are to us the first in importance.
Thus I consider my first duty is to my family, including
my servants ; my next to the parish, over which the Holy
Ghost has made me overseer ; then to my diocese, my
country, and so on to all mankind. It is that which
our hand findeth to do that we are to do with all our
might. And the mischief of the present age is, that every
one is striving to do some great thing ; while those minor
points, which are first to the individual, are neglected.
Men are devising schemes to convert heathens, while
their own families, and perhaps themselves, are quite as
much in need of conversion ; they are anxious to waft
the Scriptures from the Ganges to the Mississippi, but for-
get to make the Bible their own companion and familiar
friend. It would be well for England if, instead of
clamouring for reform, men would do (as Rickman, the
Quaker architect, observed to me the other day) their own
business, and reform themselves. It was on these prin-
ciples that I voted at Worcester, having a vote for the
county. I thought myself in these times called upon to
exercise my privilege and, consequently, I voted like an
obstinate old Tory (as Lord Lyttleton, who brought in his
brother-in-law, called me). I take a gloomy view of things.
It is at the same time a comfort to me to feel that you,
who are so much wiser than I am, and are not a party
man, at least, not violently so, think otherwise. I consider
you as a thoroughly honest politician. The men I dislike
are those who support the Reform Bill simply because it
is introduced by their friends.
To Hon. and Rev. A. Perceval — Advantages of an
Establishment.
Coventry : May 25, 1831.
I am now become a waiterupon Providence. For some
inscrutable purpose the country appears to me to have been
demented ; the afflicting hand of Providence is upon us,
and we must diligently labour to ascertain precisely what
-i837 Letta's, 1829-1836. 221
our duty is, both in bearing and forbearing, and then seek
for grace to perform it.
As churchmen, we have the blessed conviction that the
Church will flourish more under oppression than at any other
time. St. Hilary says ' Hoc habct proprium ecclesia, dum
persecutionem patitur floret, dum opprimitur proficit, dum
laeditur vincit, dum arguitur intelligit, tunc stat, quum
superari videtur.'
But as patriots and as Englishmen who but must weep }
let the Church be unestablished and infidelity will be ram-
pant. I am one of those who think a little religion to be
better than none at all. And I regard the establishment
of the Church to be one of the means appointed to lead
men gradually to a serious sense of the faith. A man may
love the Church at first merely because it is an institution
of his country. With an honest mind, like the apostles
when first called to be disciples, their principles may be
too secular. Too many do not advance at all, but many
more come by degrees to see how the Church is the mysti-
cal body of their Saviour, and glorying in their privilege,
they not only abide in Christ but Christ abides in them.
From fruitless they are pruned into fruitful branches of the
Vine. That God will devise other means for bringing
those who are of honest and good hearts to the truth, no
one will deny, but no Christian can contemplate without
sorrow the withdrawment of one of the visible means
hitherto ordained for that purpose, even though the Church
itself be purified, while depressed, thereby. As a Church,
the Reformed Catholic Church in England will be benefited
by its disunion from the State ; but, as the Bishop of
Limerick observes, the question is not whether the Church
be less pure, but the country be not more pure. And one
of the offices of the Church is to be the salt of the earth,
and indirectly to purify even worldlings. I refer our
calamities to the repeal of the Test Act ; for then the
State virtually renounced every connexion with religion.
It pronounced religion to be, so far as the State is con-
cerned, a thing indifferent.
222 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
England is now in the position of a man who has
excommunicated himself. To the special protection of
Providence and of grace it has no longer a covenant
claim. Our legislation is in fact of any religion, which is
the same as saying of no religion.
Convalescence.
Birmingham : June 14, 1831.
My dearest Mother, — Although I am mending fast, the
doctor entirely disapproves of my leaving the Monument at
present, and my system is, strictly to follow the advice ot
the doctor under whose care Providence, by the arrangement
of circumstances, has placed me ; then, as our good Lord
of Limerick says, if I die, it is his fault and not mine.
That I am better will appear from this, that I am growing
hourly more impatient to return to dear Coventry ; happy
I never can be out of my parish, and I long to offer my
prayers once again in my noble church. There is no church
in England that suits me so well. ' Say not this is lame
devotion that cannot mount without the help of such a
wooden stick ; rather 'tis lame indeed which is not raised
though having the advantage thereof This sentence is
from Fuller, whose * Holy State ' I am reading, much to
my edification and delight. I am going out a-fishing to-
day ! ! but truth to tell, I should be more in my element
if I were at Coventry trying to catch men ; the fact is
that I am so identified with my parish that, if too much duty
knocks me up, a little duty is essential to amuse me.
Without parochial duty I feel much as a dram-drinker
must do when robbed of his morning draught.
An Author' s Anxieties about the Publication of his
First Book.
The Monument : August 1831.
My dearest Mother, .... On one point you dis-
appointed mc in your last ; you told me that you had had
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 223
a long conversation with the Archdeacon about me, and
yet told me not what the Archdeacon said : now this is
acting the part of Tantalus. All that he said about
divinity would of course be interesting to me, for he is
my pope. His medical opinions you might have sup-
pressed, because, as he has not graduated in medicine, I
might be unwilling to follow his advice; indeed, I hope
you will no more write on that subject. But I am very
anxious to hear what he says of my lectures ; from your
sileace I suppose he does not think them worth publishing,
which annoys me. Pray let me have them back again ;
the only little solace I have consists in preparing these
lectures for press. It is a light and agreeable study, such
as Dr. Johnstone approves of; it leads my mind back to
the happy period when I delivered them, and sometimes
flatters my vanity by making me hope to be useful after I
have been consigned to the grave. The thought of being
compelled to dismount my little hobby is painful ; it is
as much as telling me that I am put entirely on the shelf,
and then what am I to do .-' for I have no one pleasure,
no thought, no wish that is not professional : pray send
me back my poor little lectures, and pray for me that I
may have health and strength to preach them yet again,
and fail not to let me know at once if they are condemned ;
put me out of my pain, suspense is disagreeable ; I have
been able to do nothing at them for the last two or three
days, because if those two are condemned, it is needless to
go on with the others ; and then poor Othello's occupation
is done.
To W.P. Wood, Esq.
Coventry : December i, 1831.
My dearest Friend Now for your letter ; —
thank you much, for the delightful pouring out of your
feelings ; and believe me, that when I read the senti-
ments of humble piety which you therein express, I am
more proud of the friendship which has ever been my
honour as well as my delight. Thank God it is not on
2 24 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
our own works that we depend for hope, as to everlasting
bhss. Christ is our all in all, and to Him we can only-
approach by faith. Now it is on this doctrine of justifica-
tion by faith alone, that I delight to dwell when I am
inclined to despond ; I then throw myself without reserve
at the feet of Christ. You, my dear Wood, understand
me in what I say, and know very well that I am not
pleading the cause of Antinomianism. Nothing is more
easy than to reconcile St. Paul and St. James, when we
understand the scheme of redemption as revealed in the
Gospel. I only refer to that doctrine, which is our greatest
comfort and consolation when we are humbled and laid in
the dust. It is not the only doctrine of Scripture, and
therefore we shall miss the truth if we consider it without
reference to others which limit and elucidate it ; but it is
the doctrine that gives life and health to the humble and
lowly of heart. As to prayer, I suppose every person has
some different method of elevating his soul to communion
with the Deity. For my part, I find I can pray best when
I am walking in my garden ; indeed, I am generally a peri-
patetic in my devotions, and I find the open air my most
delightful temple. Again, I know nothing more conducive
to bring me to a devotional disposition than to read some
portion of the Bible, till I gradually sink off into a holy
reverie. I throw out these hints, because when first I
became seriously impressed with religious feelings, I had
some of those difficulties of which you seem to complain.
And even in those days when we cannot take the usual
delight in prayer and praise, we ought to remember that
our Saviour knows our hindrances, and that by Him, the
will will be taken for the deed ; when we have struggled
much without success, faith will, in this sense, be counted
to us for righteousness.
-i837 Letters, 1829-1836. 225
From IV. P. Wood, Esq. — Uses of a Belief in Angels —
Irvingism.
Lincoln's Inn : March 1832.
.... I thank you for your beautiful hint as to the
Angels.* It is curious that I have two or three times said
to my wife that I thought we were too much in the habit
of neglecting the clear doctrine, as laid down in the Bible,
of spiritual agents subordinate to the Deity, and of their
interference with the events of this world. There is certainly
a degree of danger in dwelling too much on such a subject
if the mind be predisposed to enthusiasm ; but at the same
time I think that the great caution of many preachers has led
to a carelessness even as regards the restless machinations of
our great spiritual adversary. You will recollect that you
told me an anecdote of a Unitarian saying * nobody could
believe in the devil.' Still more may have been deprived
of great spiritual consolation from the neglect of those
many beautiful passages in Scripture which represent the
watchfulness of the angels over those who serve God, and
their great interest in all that concerns our welfare. People
are very apt to imagine that their deceased friends take
an interest in their conduct, for which we have no direct
Scriptural authority (the parable of Lazarus being, perhaps,
only a parable), and which may prove a dangerous conceit
as tending to saint worship. Now the clear knowledge
afforded us of the ministry of Angels ought to be no less
consolatory.
My mind has been brought to dwell upon many of the
deeper points of the ' mystery of Godliness ' owing to a
visit from two young friends, who have been, to a certain
extent, led away by the enthusiasts of Irving's school.
With regard to the alleged miracles, I think it is at once
an answer to say that no miracle has yet been even
stated; for the uttering of sounds which no one professes to
^ That the knowledge of tlieir sympathy should be an auxiliary to
our devotions.
VOL. L Q
226 Life of Walte7' Farquhar Hook. 1829-
comprehend is so far from miraculous that any of us could
do the same thing for hours together ; and I think I satis-
fied our friends of the wonderful difference between such
quackery and the stupendous miracle of the day of Pente-
cost. But the greatest difficulty I met with was on the
subject of election. My own views on this subject do not
quite coincide with Whately's. I think a little more is
meant than the simple fact of election to privileges which
may be accepted or waived, and I confess I rather lean to
the doctrine of those who think that God, foreseeing who
will accept the conditions of salvation, and having promised
that all who do so accept them shall be saved, may be said
in that sense to have elected the saved. But then I am
quite certain from Scripture that although God knows this,
no man can know it, no man can see the end of his career,
which God does see, and therefore no man can be assured
that he will continue in a state of grace. A man may
perhaps feel an assurance that through Christ's mercy,
if he were to die that moment, he would be saved, but
he can say nothing more. Not even St. Paul would
venture on so bold (so almost blasphemous) a conviction,
I Cor. ix. 27, Phil. iii. 11-14. You have, I dare say,
observed a remarkable mistranslation in Heb. x. 38, where
' any man ' has been substituted for ' he,' and thus a strong
text against absolute, certain election has been consider-
ably weakened. Rom. viii. 29, 30-33, and some other
passages induce me not to adopt Whately's views entirely,
though I think the word ' election ' is often used in his sense ;
for, as he has observed, there are no strict logical definitions
in the Gospel. Irving, of course, adopts the most pre-
sumptuous and dangerous doctrine of the high Calvinists.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Christian Sympathy.
Leamington : March i, 1832.
My dearest Friend, — As usual, I must begin my letter
with an excuse. To avoid this frequent repetition, let it
-i837 Letters, 1829-18 -56. 227
be fairly understood that I love you as much as ever ;
you must not therefore attribute my silence to any diminu-
tion of affection. A little writing soon knocks me up ; and,
consequently, I can never think of a letter until my sermons
are off the stocks, and that seldom is till Saturday evening.
We came here last week to visit my mother. My brother
having also arrived, we are, what we seldom are, all of us
together. I have also enjoyed the society of my honoured
friend and patron, the Lord Bishop of Limerick ; he is
indeed a right worthy successor of the Holy Apostles : to me
he has ever been like a parent. He has perused the manu-
scripts of my lectures, and what is more, with unheard of
kindness, he offers to correct the press for me, and to take
all the drudgery of publication off my hands. This, he
says, will be a little useful employment to him ; and it will
be everything to me to be sent into the world under such
auspices. He has, however, directed me to write some
notes, and has moreover advised that the publication
should be deferred till the end of the year, since nobody
now thinks of anything but reform and cholera. I in-
tended to answer your last most interesting letter fully,
but I have forgotten to bring it with me. But I remember
well one topic to which you refer, which is, the want of
Christian sympathy which you seem to experience when
worshipping in church. This is a subject on which I have
had very many conversations with my reverend brethren
in this neighbourhood ; for fifteen or twenty of us frequently
meet, not to discuss, but to converse ; being happily of
pretty nearly the same principles in religion, though there
are slight shades of difference in our politics. Nothing
fills the Dissenting chapels so much as their being able to
remedy the defect of which you complain. When a man
has seriously turned his thoughts to religion, he comes to
church and finds no one sympathising with him, no one
under circumstances somewhat similar, ready to communi-
cate his thoughts. He goes to a meeting house, he is
immediately hailed as a convert ; he is flattered, calmed,
and soothed. Now we have considered whether some such
Q2
2 28 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
steps as these might not be profitably adopted in the
Church ; it would immediately increase its popularity with
some religionists ; for man is an aristocratic animal, and
sectarianism flatters the aristocratical feeling. Everyone
in religion, as in everything else, likes to be a peg above
his neighbour, and to be one of a party superior in purity
or in wisdom to those around him. If, then, we were to
consider merely the religionists, if merely the popularity of
the Church, it might be well to adopt some such classifica-
tion as prevails with the Methodists. But the Church of
Christ, I conceive, is not intended to be confined as to its
benefits and advantages to those who are true Christians :
here is the mistake with the sectarians. There is a yet
more extensive object, though less flattering to human
pride ; it is to act as leaven and as salt by which the mass
of society may be gradually purified ; it is indirectly to
benefit those who are without, as well as those that are
within the pale ; to improve men's morals, when it cannot
prevail upon them to become Christians in very deed.
Thus it has been shown by Bishop Jebb that, in the com-
mission of the Apostles, our Lord commanded them first
to convert individuals, and then to convert nations ; to have
to do with whole masses of society. While the Church
was composed merely of individuals, as was the case till
the time of Constantine, it was in its purest state ; when it
was allied with the world, its discipline was relaxed, and
consequently it became less pure. But the question is,
not whether the Church be less pure, but whether the
world by this contact, be not more pure ; and of this no
one, I presume, can doubt. We ought, therefore, always to
recollect this secondary but very important character of
the Church, this leavening and salting purpose for which it
is intended, and not to administer it so as to seek the grati-
fication of those only who are really pious in their feelings.
The advantage of this indirect influence on society is great.
Suppose I prevail upon a man no further than to respect
the common decencies of life ; as to his fate we dare not
decide, God alone can judge ; but this I see, that his
-iS37 Letters, 1829-1S36. 229
children being brought up morally, and orderly, are pre-
pared to embrace the whole faith, as it is in Jesus. Pray
read Bishop Jebb's beautiful perfect sermon on transmissive
religion in ' Practical Theology ' ; if you have not the book,
say so, and I will send you a copy.
To his Wife — Account of Visit to Lincoln to he Installed as
Prebendary of Caistor}
Lincoln : Trinity Sunday, June 1832.
My dearest Love, — I wrote to you chiefly to state my
intentions with respect to my movements. I hope to leave
this early on Tuesday morning, and to reach London the
same day ; but you must not be alarmed if I do not make
my appearance till Wednesday. My journey here was
prosperous ; I got on to Loughborough from Leicester, in
a return chaise for two shillings. With the collegiate
church of Southwell, I fell desperately in love ; it is really
beautiful, with fine old Norman arches. I attended service
there, and found the choir well managed. The town itself
is pretty, and I should not object to have a stall there,
with a living attached. From Southwell to Lincoln, the
journey is easy ; but I was obliged after all to post one
stage. Arrived at Lincoln, I found the inn in much confu-
sion, for there was a visitation dinner. ' Whose visitation is
it .'' ' I asked : ' The Archdeacon of Stow's,' was the answer ;
and sure enough I saw his reverence at no great distance,
giving a jobation to a churchwarden. * Give the Arch-
deacon this card,' said the Prebendary elect ; on receiving
which, forth comes my kind friend Archdeacon Bayley,
pulls me into the room, and says, * Gentlemen, allow me
to introduce our new Prebendary ; you have all heard of
Mr. Hook ; ' and then a long eulogy was pronounced.
' P^or his own sake, therefore,' said the Archdeacon, * and
his admirable father's sake, let us drink his good health
' The stall had been given him by the Bishop, who was a friend of his
father.
230 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
in a bumper,' The Dean was present, and invited me to
dine with him to-day. The preacher of the visitation
sermon gave me a bed, two miles in the country at his
pretty Parsonage. The Sub-dean has been most kind, but
unfortunately his house was full, and he could not therefore
give me a bed ; but he has forced me to stay over Monday
to meet Archdeacon Bayley, the Dean, and others at
dinner. The Dean, Sub-dean, and a brother Prebendary
dined with me yesterday at the Inn ; a very bad custom, I
think, but so it is. The Minster is grand beyond descrip-
tion, it beats every other cathedral, in my opinion, out of
the field, except York, and it yields not to that. The in-
stallation is a very good ceremony, it took place yesterday.
To-day I read in, morning and evening, and preached
twice ; this in fact it is that has quite decided me not to
go away to-morrow ; a day's rest will be useful. I long to
see you again, my dear, sweet little wife, and I long also to
behold our darling. May God Almighty bless you both.
I hope to find a letter at the post. Love to all friends.
Your devotedly attached Husband,
W. F. liooK.
In the autumn of 1832 his mother and sister
spent some time in the Lake Country near Rydal.
They became intimate with the Wordsworth family,
and paid almost daily visits to the poet's house.
One day during the severe illness of his sister, Miss
Wordsworth, they found the poet sitting by her
side, where he had been for hours rubbing her feet.
Miss Hook wrote a letter to her brother full of
enthusiastic admiration for this trait of fraternal
affection on the part of Wordsworth ; to which he
replied in the following strain :
I wish you could read Quinctilian or Longinus, and
-i837 Letters, 1829- 1836. 231
then, as in times past, I should set you a portion to learn
by heart, and initiate you into the arts of composition.
Most horrible was the bathos into which your last letter
plunged. Having descanted not only on the genius but
the virtues of the poet, having entered into 'your little
boat, in shape a very crescent moon,' and carried me into
the third heaven, you then introduce me to the venerable
bard — surrounded by the Muses — doing what } striking
the silver lyre ? no ! rubbing his dear old sister's cold toes.
fie ! Miss Hook ! fie ! as a punishment I shall put down
my pen, and conclude this letter just when I please. I
should not indeed write to you at all, but that I should
like to earn another such letter, excepting that part which
descants on brotherly affection towards cold feet in a sister.
1 hope that you will always be able to keep your feet
warm with exercise, and your heart still warmer by enthu-
siasm, kept of course under the fraternal control of good
sense. . . .
The Lakes — Wordsworth.
Coventry : September 8, 1832.
My deatjst Mother How I do envy you your
delightful visit to the Lakes ; no, envy is not the right
word, for I should like to enjoy it with you, I think as one
grows older, and becomes more christianised (almost all
other terms have been so wrongly applied, that it is scarcely
lawful to use them), as the natural man goes down hill, and
the moral man learns to take higher and higher flights
towards those heavenly regions where he humbly hopes
to live for ever with his Saviour and those who were
worthy of his love on earth ; so do we feel more deeply,
more intensely, the beauties of inanimate nature — that
nature to which your honoured friend Wordsworth has,
more than any other poet, given a voice ; a voice which
speaks to the very heart of hearts. In early youth there is
an enchantment in the scenes of nature which makes
every lad worth anything, think and hope that he is born
232 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
to take station among the poets of his country. How
beautifully are these feelings described in the ' Excursion.*
But the boy tries his hand at expressing his thoughts, and
finds in despair that language fails him : he cannot say all
he feels, and rushes out from the Temple of the Muses in
despair. Encouragement no one can give, for he who
feels strongly will most likely feel awfully sensitive in
permitting his feelings to be known ; they can only be
fully opened to a person of the same age, a wife, or such a
friend as Wood. Then other pursuits engage the attention,
the feelings are chilled by a cold world ; worldliness of
mind ensues, ambition urges on to exertion, and the soul
is more and more alienated from heavenly aspirations.
After this comes disappointment and misfortune ; those
blessings in disguise, when religion becomes once more a
reality, when the soul becomes elevated, the affections
spiritualised, and the mind no longer earthy ; and it is then
that nature in her grand and in her calmer scenes once
more speaks to the heart. Having diligently marked not
only the progress of my own mind, but that of many of my
contemxporaries, and having also had minds opened to me
by persons who have wished for spiritual consolation in
my parish, I am so convinced that this is the usual process
with such as become rightly religious, that the tone of my
sermons is always in accordance with these notions. I
don't like violent philippics against vice, or those feelings
which zvill have their way. I like to paint the loveliness
of religion, to call back the mind to those calm joys it
experienced, before worldliness, or inordinate ambition, or
the passions assumed their tyranny ; and then to show how
by degrees God's grace will not only restore those amiable
sentiments of childhood, but give them a vigour and a
holiness of which the worldly can form no conception.
Now, as I humbly hope that my mind has become spiri-
tualised, I feel that I am just in the condition to profit by
those delightful views which you and dear Georgiana so
well describe. I should indeed delight to wander over
your- mountains, and pour out my thoughts, not in poems,
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 233
but in sermons. I am weary of towns, and especially of
manufacturing towns, and I sigh for the country.
Deh'cia and I agree that of all places we have seen
Hertingfordbury would suit us best, yes, even more than
Whippingham ; she likes the retirement of Hertingford-
bury, and I confess that the dark, shady walk by the river
has fresh charms for me as I grow older. I am, as the
good dear Bishop would say, something self-complacent,
at the praise you tell me has been bestowed on me by
Wordsworth ; Delicia and I have guessed the truth. It
is so utterly impossible that he should ever have heard of
me, that we conclude thus : One day Mrs. Hook was
talking to the poet, and, in the overflow of her maternal
fondness, she told him that her son was the finest preacher
and best parson, &c., &c., in England. Well, many days
had elapsed, and the poet had meanwhile been in the
third heavens. When Mrs. Hook calls on him again, the
name of her son is mentioned ; * Oh,' says the poet, * I
have heard that your son is a very fine preacher, and a
very good divine.' ' Who told you ? ' 'I quite forget,*
replies the poet, 'but I am certain that I have heard it.'
I am so convinced that this, or something like it, is the
fact, that I am not vain, as I otherwise might be, at the
eulogy. But I am indeed complacent at the idea of my
being known, even by name, to the living poet of England.
I have in my time so worshipped poets, that the very
thought of being known to such a poet as Wordsworth
stirs up the enthusiasm which the noise and smoke and
bustle of a large town has well nigh quenched. By the
bye, I do not at all approve of Mr. Macaulay's criticism ; I
hate to hear people call Wordsworth 'the modern Milton,'
as they so frequently do : it gives one the idea of his being
one of the servile herd of imitators. Now, of all poets that
ever existed, saving only Homer, and my old friend,
Shakspeare, Wordsworth is the most original. He has
shaped out a line peculiarly and entirely his own ; and one
of the reasons that for a long time he was not popular with
the mob of readers, was this very circumstance— he was so
234 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
dififerent from the namby-pamby poetasters they had
been accustomed to admire, that they could not relish
him ; or else, because he was so different from other poets,
they knew not by what rules to try him. But Wordsworth
was a true poet, and those many hearts he touched by his
poetry soon learned that he was to give laws, or rather to
provide materials, from which future Aristotles might
frame laws, and not to receive them from pedants.
Your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
To W. P. Woody Esq. — Origin of Heathen Ideas about a
Future State.
Coventry : October 3, 1832.
My dearest Friend, .... Since you left us, we have
been going on as you, knowing our ways of proceeding,
would expect, with the exception that I have of course had
some arrears of business to make up after my happy holi-
day during your stay with us. I have made but little
progress in the metaphysical or philosophical inquiries, if
they deserve the name, on which we conversed when you
were with us. I am, however, reading St. Augustine's ' De
Civitate Dei,' or rather the three last books of it, which
relate to the doctrine of the Resurrection. Some years
have passed since I read it before, and I may trouble you
on some future occasion with my thoughts upon that very
extraordinary work. I am also going to read Cicero's
Tusculans ; the more I consider the subject, the more
convinced I am, that the better informed among the
heathen held the doctrine of a future state, merely as a
careless opinion, not as an article of faith, which would
influence practice ; but that the doctrine was, in some sense
or other, universally held by the mass of mankind, appears
to be indisputable. Whence could it arise that such was
the fact .^ Not from the discoveries of reason, for even
when a Plato reasoned thereon, he only fell into absurdities,
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 235
but from a tradition which was gladly received, because
congenial with the mind of man, ever looking forward, and
ever ready to believe that God is just. But then, where is
the revelation of the fact, which a tradition would suppose ?
We can only speak on this point by reference to Scripture,
and Scripture does not record any early revelation. But
then, Scripture does tell us of the promise to Adam of a
future deliverer, and it does also tell us that this promise
was handed down in many instances from sire to son. At
first, the Patriarchs might have expected its fulfilment
before they themselves saw death, but when their children
found that their expectations were erroneous, they would
look for the fulfilment of the promise after their death ;
but if they were to be interested in its fulfilment, this
would of course induce them to suppose that they would
be recalled from the dead. To confirm this expectation,
the rapture of Enoch may have been intended. It seems
much more likely that men should in early ages have
received the doctrine, in some such way as this, than that
they should have arrived at it by any metaphysical reasons.
An express revelation then, of course, could not be till the
doctrine of the Atonement, on which the doctrine of the
Resurrection depends, was fully known. You see, I take
rather a midway station bctweeen Warburton and his
opponents. I know not whether I have made myself
intelligible, but I hope if you understand me, and any
facts or arguments,/;-^ or con., suggest themselves to your
mind, you will send them.
Your devoted Friend,
W. F. Hook.
Publication of Lectures en ' Last Days of our Lord.*
Lichfield: November i, 1832.
My dearest Mother, .... The work is to come out this
week, and therefore your country bookseller will have no
difficulty in obtaining copies from his agent in London. I
think you had better send the copy to Mr. Southey, and
236 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
all others, except to Mrs. Grant, from yourself; I will be
your debtor for the last, and also for one which I should
like to present to Mr. Wordsworth if he will accept it. Tell
him that it comes from me who venerates his character
and who has derived, not only intellectual pleasure, but
moral improvement from his immortal writings. I am
afraid, however, that neither he nor Southey will approve
of what was written, not by a retired scholar, but by a
clergyman, who has never known what leisure is, since
he entered into holy orders, and who is therefore guilty
perhaps of unpardonable presumption in thrusting himself
into the republic of letters. I certainly wish for the
success of the work, not because it deserves success, but
because, if I am not severely cut up, I may be able to do
something better. I am glad to hear you talking, or
rather to read you writing of settling at the Lakes : we
might easily arrange matters, so that we could spend two
or three months with you in the summer, and you, two or
three months with us in the winter. I only wish that we
had commenced housekeeping less expensively than we
did, for though our expenses are less than those of most
persons in our station of life, yet they leave us not the
means of travelling, or indulging our wishes on several
other points. From various circumstances, our income,
which I once thought would be 800/. a year, and thus very
plentiful, has fallen down to 500/., which is certainly more
than many of our betters possess, but is, nevertheless,
only barely equal to the many demands upon us. If I
can but make 200/. by my book, it will be glorious.
Delicia could then have a piano of her own ; I would get
a Benedictine Chrysostom ; my church should be presented
with a painted window ; and you and Georgiana should
have our company in your visit to the Lakes next year.
I remain, my dearest Mother, your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 237
To IV. P. Wood, Esq. — Different Classes of Writers —
Letter from Wordsworth.
November 27, 1832.
It seems that we, once the most proHfic of letter-writers,
are now compelled to commence each epistle with an
apology. But as Thompson said when writing to his
sister, we know one another better than to interpret our
silence into any decay of affection. It seems to me that
the intellectual world may be divided into two parties ;
first, there is a class consisting of those whose talents are
ever ready, whose armour is ever bright and polished.
Such was Shakspeare, such was our dear lost Sir Walter
Scott, such are those differing infinitely in degree but not
in genus, whose pen is at all times prepared to write a
letter, or to chatter and gabble in society on every sub-
ject. The next class consists of those who have the pen
of a ready writer, but who can only use it when the fit of
inspiration is upon them. At the head of this tribe,
according to his biographers, was Milton ; and, though
infinitely beneath their great masters, such are they who
can sometimes write with a vigour and energy and zeal
and enthusiasm, for which at others they sigh in vain. In
this latter class I rank myself ; my vigour is at all times
but weakness, but yet comparatively it is vigour when
contrasted with the listlessness and lassitude with which I
am occasionally oppressed for weeks and months. Some
months there are when I pen off a sermon at a sitting,
and can write a fresh one every day in the week ; while
there are many weeks when my poor head conceives, but
brings forth nothing. So also is it with respect to letter-
writing, I have been long waiting till the spirit would
move me to unburden my mind to you, but alas, my spirit
is for the present quite immoveable, and I therefore compel
myself to write merely on the principle, that even in such
friendships as ours a discontinuance of intercourse for any
great length of time is dangerous. My mother and sister
238 Life of Walter Fm'qiihar Hook. 1829-
have also formed a bosom friendship with the great poet
Wordsworth, who appears to be as heavenly-minded, as
pure, and as christian in his daily intercourse with society
as I think him to be pre-eminent in his poetry. At my
mother's request I presented him with a copy of my
lectures ; and so complacent am I at the autograph letter
in which he acknowledges the present that, at the risk of
being accounted rather vain, I shall copy it.
' Dear Sir, — I cannot but avail myself of the present
opportunity to thank you for the very valuable volume
of lectures which I have had the honour of receiving
from you through the hands of your excellent mother.
Having been absent from home I have not had opportunity
yet to read more than the two first discourses, with the
matter and manner of which I have been exceedingly
pleased. The first and paramount importance of the sub-
ject cannot but recommend to general notice, at least so
I trust, a work executed with so much sincere piety and
fervour, and with learning and ability of so high an order.
Wishing you earnestly success in the labours of your
ministry, and health and life to prolong them,
* I remain, dear Sir,
* Faithfully your obliged,
* Wm. Wordsworth.'
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Baptismal Regeneration.
January 3, 1833.
Most happy indeed I am once more to see your dear
old fist, and I hasten to assure you that my prayers for
you and your Charlotte shall be as fervent as yours are
for us. The feelings you express at the commencement
of your letter are natural, and I fear those which we must
all of us experience ; they are, however, so well expressed
that had your letter come last week I should have put
some of your observations into my sermon. I think you
will find much comfort and much food for thought if you
can read Mr, Alexander Knox's letter to the Bishop of
-1837 Letters, 1829-1836 239
Limerick, published in tiie introduction to Burnet's ' Lives,*
just edited by his lordship. It will not take five minutes
to read, and probably, therefore, you will be able to borrow
it of your bookseller. In every sentiment there expressed
I fully agree ; but I am inclined to quarrel with some of
his expressions, and especially with his reference to the
text, ' Except ye be born again, ye cannot enter into the
kingdom of Heaven.' It is not fair to quote thus partially,
for our Lord says, ' Except a man be born of water and
of the Spirit' a passage which Dr. Wall shows was in-
variably interpreted by the ancients as relating to baptism.
I conceive the doctrine to stand thus : We are not by
nature entitled to eternal life ; it is important that this
should be constantly borne in mind ; nothing can more
strongly impress this upon us than a rite by which we are
translated from a state of nature and placed in covenant
with God. This fact declares that our only trust, even
with respect to innocent babes, is in God's free, undeserved
mercy : even for them we do not claim Heaven as a
matter of rigJit. The Holy Ghost, the divine Person,
under whose superintendence the Christian Church is,
receives us in the ordinance appointed by our Saviour as
children of God ; and thus as heirs, not for our own merits
but through God's mercies in Christ, of heaven — heirs, not
possessors. As children of God we are, moreover, entitled
by the covenant to the assistance of the Holy Ghost, if
duly sought. Woe to parents and sponsors who teach
not their children how to avail themselves of this great
privilege. If we avail ourselves of it, then the Holy Ghost
renews or renovates our souls ; this is a process to go on to
our dying day ; we, with the assistance of the Holy Ghost,
are to go on improving our souls, until they become en-
tirely changed from what they would have been if left to
nature. An effectual change vinst take place, but whether
it be slow or not will depend on circumstances. When-
ever by repentance we replace ourselves in the covenant
with God, the Holy Spirit still stands ready to effectuate
this change ; the change, as I said before, is not complete
240 Lif^ of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1829-
till we go hence and be no more seen ; but it may be
very marked and discernible, especially in those who have
not been religiously brought up, I believe till the days
of Calvin there had been no dispute on this subject ; and
it is a most important one, since as you will easily see it
is an effectual check upon fanaticism, to which a weak
mind, holding the doctrine of the Spirit's forming a new
heart within us, may incline, and still more, as silen-
cing the doubts of those who would otherwise begin to
despair of their election. Whether there be any other
election than this is not for us to know. That point has, in
my mind, been quite set at rest by Archbishop King's
admirable sermon on Predestination, edited by Whately.
If you have not read it, it will amply repay all trouble.
In Mr. Knox's conversation with a member of your pro-
fession, now dead, you will see what appears to me to
be a useful remark on the advantages of an Establishment
in keeping up a low tone of religion among those who
otherwise would have no religion, and in thus preparing
the way for true religion.
* Judge not.*
March 22, 1833.
My dearest Brother, — I must beg to thank you for
your great kindness in writing to me, notwithstanding the
many claims upon your time. In all your excellent
sentiments I most cordially agree. Christianity, while it
enjoins us to threaten with severity the living, teaches us to
hope for the best, with respect to the dead. * Judge not,'
says our Saviour. His words are not, Judge not harshly,
but 'Judge not' — ^judge not at all. And why.-* Because,
as you very justly observe, you cannot tell what disad-
vantages, from internal weakness or the force of external
temptation, another person has had ; you cannot tell what
disadvantages were opposed to his apparent advantages.
You can tell, to a certain extent with respect to yourself,
what advantages have been afforded you, and you know
that for the neglect of them you will be punished : but the
-i837 Letters, 1829-1836. 241
Searcher of hearts, and He only, can tell this with respect
to others. Be this, however, as it may, sure I am that the
wretched sinner who dares to judge another with respect to
his eternal state places himself on the same footing as the
most determined profligate ; and certainly, unless he re-
pents, excludes himself from any part in Christ. As to
our poor dear uncle, the speech to Mr. Cooper, which
you related in your last, proves that he had been thinking
of his latter end ; but, however, that may be, he who dares
to judge him is no Christian. Thus perfectly agreeing
with you, my beloved brother,
I remain, your devoted Brother,
W. F. Hook.
To IV. P. Wood, Esq. — Calvinism — Wesley.
April 13, 1833.
My dearest Friend, .... So much have I to say to
you, that I know not where to begin. In your first letter
I perfectly agree with you in your opinion touching those
dogmas which are usually called Calvinistic ; but which
might perhaps with equal propriety be called Augustinism,
as Augustine was their first promulgator. I think that,
even admitting them, they need not perplex a humble-
minded Christian. But alas ! this is not always the case ;
a clergyman finds in his intercourse with his flock that
these opinions lead to the most fatal consequences. I do
not think much of what polemics say against them, with
respect to their encouraging men in sin. However theo-
retically this may be a legitimate consequence from the
doctrine, it is not practically found to be the case, or, at
least, not often.
The way they operate for evil is through the awful
despair to which they depress some, and the awful presump-
tion to which they excite others. If all men were men of
sense it would not much signify ; we could easily satisfy
them. But you can have no conception of the difficulty we
sometimes find in quieting unnecessary alarms. I have
VOL. I. R
242 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
heard it said that men of business lay it down as a rule that
when they deal with a man they always treat him as a
knave. Sure I am that a pastor must, if he wishes to do
good, treat men as fools. It is not till men arrive at my
age that people unburden their minds to their pastor ; but
I have now had many consciences, the consciences of edu-
cated persons, laid open to me, and have had in some
degree the advantages of a confessor ; and I am inclined
to think that the fools far surpass the knaves. Oh, the
difficulty of knocking a foolish idea out of some persons'
heads ; it is quite surprising. It is only surpassed by the
difficulty of knocking in a right idea. So that you must
not always think that a poor parson is fighting a shadow
when he is combating a doctrine, which to you may
appear to be a matter of indifference ; for it is not for
the wise alone that we write and preach and think. Still,
I regard these points merely in the light of preventing
persons from enjoying those comforts of religion which
they would otherwise have. So long as a person is
brought to Christ, and gives his heart to Christ so that
it may be prepared for heaven by the Holy Spirit, so
long, I think, he is safe ; though the devil may have power
for awhile to torment him. A clergyman, in my humble
opinion, is to be regarded as much as a comforter as an
adviser.
I like what you say of Wesley. Intellectually and
morally, he was a great man ; his latter days were his
worst, for this plain reason — he was worshipped as some-
thing more than human ; and whose head would not be
turned by such adoration } A great man of the world
feels that most of his worshippers are worshipping him
chiefly with a view to their own interests ; but Wesley
must have felt that among his adorers were some of the
best of God's creatures. That he erred, grievously erred
in his conduct, I think. That religion, before his day, had
become too much a business of the head alone, I admit ;
and that he was a main instrument of restoring it to the
dominion of the heart, must ever be acknowledged. But
->837 Letters, 1829-1836. 243
the believer in a providence must ascribe the consequences
of all events to God, and God alone ; he must not per-
mit the good that has been deduced from an action to bias
his judgment in deciding on the nature of the action itself.
Wesley might have been as much the instrument of good
without his schism as with it. We can never too con-
stantly bear in mind that we are not to look to the end,
but, leaving all events in the hands of God, take the cir-
cumstances which He provides for us, and then ask, What
under those circumstances is my duty ? That it is which
God tells me to do : in that way it is that I am to advance
His glory.
To the same — Importance of Encouragement — Puseys
Criticism on his Lectures.
May 8, 1833.
.... I think that the system adopted by Evangelical
preachers, and to which Benson would seem to incline, is
a very bad one, viz. to divide their people into two parts,
the saints and the sinners. For my part, I know that
my own growth in grace has been very slow and gradual ;
and, therefore, I am desirous of encouraging others, who,
though perhaps not quite so far advanced as I am now,
are still going on, and yet feel something like despair at
the slowness of their progress. Few are they who come
regularly to church who have not some feelings of reli-
gion, some wishes to improve. Encourage, excite, animate
such persons ; don't say to them, ' You must be damned,
because you are not better than you are ; * but say, ' I am
glad to see that God is so merciful to you : now try if you
cannot make a little further spring in the straight and nar-
row path.' O encourage, encourage, encourage one another !
I hate your preachers that are always dealing in hell and
damnation ; I am sure that they can have never experienced
the difficulties with which most people have to contend,
and I am doubtful how far you can account that as a
virtue which it has required no difficulty to acquire ;
while I am quite certain that the wickedness is great to
R 2
244 Zz}^ of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
regard with self-complacency what is merely a gift. For
a man to say, I am never in a passion, therefore, how
much better a man I am than so and so, is, of course,
absurd, if he has never been tempted by the passion of
anger. But he who, being naturally an ill-tempered man,
has overcome the wicked passion, may say, God has given
me proof that He is assisting me with His grace on this
point, and, therefore, I have full confidence, that confidence
which experience gives, that He will likewise assist me on
others, where now I am almost inclined to despair. I
have been interested in what you say about the critics and
criticism of my poor volume, which, except when it is re-
verted to by you, I have well nigh forgotten. It is clear
that Pusey is disappointed with it ; he tells me he agrees
with what I say of Church government in my first lecture,
but thinks it unduly pushed forward on such an occasion ;
it takes too prominent a place. Here I plead guilty ; it
is undoubtedly a fault ; but when a man gets on his hobby,
his hobby will be frisky. By the bye, I have told you
why I insist so much on this point ; of course I should
insist on anything that I believe to be truth ; for we are
to be the guardians not only of saving truths but of all
truth. But the reason why I think it expedient to bring
forward this matter so much is that, it seems to me, we are
in these days hurrying to a very dangerous extreme, which
our wise Reformers providentially avoided. All the writers
on Church reform seem to take it for granted that our first
step ought to be a step for which everything is to be sacri-
ficed ; to conciliate Protestant sects. Now I maintain that
the Reformed Episcopal Church ought to present to the
world a system which will conciliate the good opinion of
other parties besides Protestants. The day will surely come
when the Greek Church will awaken to a sense of her
errors ; surely it will be not a little important to let them
see that reformation is not incompatible with the most
steady adherence to ecclesiastical discipline and tradition.
So with respect to those foreign Churches in connexion
with Rome ; it is most important to show that we can
-i837 Letters^ 1829-1836. 245
retain what is Catholic, while we renounce what is Popish.
It is in some such manner as this that I expect union
to be restored to Christendom. When Catholic Churches,
Greek, Roman, and Reformed, all purified of their grosser
errors, are united in one sacred bond of union, then may
we hope that sectarianism will fade away.
To tJie same — Extremes in Religious Feeling — Over-esti-
mate of Preaching — Keble's ' Christian Year*
June I, 1833.
.... You can hardly imagine the difficulty there is
in keeping people just at the right heat. It is a fact, that
Dissent generally abounds in those parishes where the
clergy are most active, and insist earnestly on the necessity
of sanctification ; and I conceive the reason to be that
they warm up the cold hearts to a certain heat, and then
many of them boil over. Of persons whom I have been
permitted to be the instrument of awakening to a lively
sense of religion, I feel morally certain that several, though
so attached to me that they will not desert me so long
as I remain among them, would, in the event of my leaving
them, seek ' to sit under ' an Evangelical preacher. You
will not misunderstand me in what I have said. I do not
like the one class of preachers more than the other, for I
think the medium between the two that which is right.
But if driven to the choice, I would prefer him who is
rather too cold to him who is rather too warm, as giving
though not the most pleasant, yet the most wholesome
food. For, after all, the right religious heat is to be kept
up in our own hearts by ourselves, and chiefly by the
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It is a dangerous down-
falling in the present age to exalt the ordinance of
preaching unduly, and to make it, as some do, a third
Sacrament. The being moved at a pathetic discourse is
no more proof of our being in a right religious tone of mind,
than the crying at a tragedy is proof of a tender heart.
Buonaparte could deluge the world with blood for his selfish
246 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
purposes, and yet weep over the sufferings of a wounded
soldier. Sensibility does not necessarily imply a kind dis-
position. Talking of sacred poets, I hope you have read
and often recur to the ' Christian Year,' written by a most
holy man, an acquaintance of mine at Oxford, Mr. Keble.
He is a man the most meek, the most humble, and yet the
most gifted with genius and learning, of any I ever met
with. He went to Oxford at fourteen, and carried away
all the honours and prizes ; and lately refused to stand for
the Headship of his College, though almost certain of suc-
ceeding, that he might be the comfort and support of his
aged father, and relieve him from the cares of his parish
by acting as his curate.
From W. P. Wood, Esq. — The Philosophy of Jeremy
Bentham}
10 Dean's Yard, July 3, 1833.
.... I will at once tell you all that occurs to me
respecting the Utilitarians or Benthamites ; but in the first
place you would, I think, do well to ascertain whether this
pestilent sect abounds at Oxford as much as at Cambridge.
I know but few Oxford men, and I do not think that among
those few there is one Benthamite, and of course if the error
be not rife, then your lectures would be directed, compara-
tively speaking, against a phantom. At the same time the
principle which I term the principle of ' refined selfishness,'
and which is in fact pure Epicureanism revived, is one that
may readily find its way to the corrupt portion of our
hearts ; and though few have the patience to explore it
through all its intricacies as traced in Bentham's work, yet
most men have some practical acquaintance with it, and
are glad, at some time or other, to find the dictates of an
unregenerate heart dignified with the title of Philosophy.
If you have had time to look into Bentham's work
' Mr. Hook was thinking of introducing some criticisms upon Benthamism
into his Oxford Sermons,
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1836. 247
which I mentioned to you, you will find that he assumes
that there are only three principles of action, i. asceticism,
2. sympathy, 3. utility. There is a misplaced attempt at
facetiousness involving a gross misstatement of the first of
these principles at the outset of the book ; for it is a bad
introduction to a work professing strict philosophy to lay
down that the principle of asceticism consists in supposing
the ' misery of His creatures to be gratifying to the Creator.'
The principle, though carried to an excess, was in itself
good and true, namely, the subduing of sensual appetites as
a means of freeing the mind from their bias. Like every
other device of man, this principle failed with the monks
as it had failed with the Stoics, and I think that on inquiry
it would be found the radical vice of the system was its
leading men to dwell too exclusively on self, by which in
the first place pride, and in the next indifference to the
happiness of others, became gradually engendered in the
ascetic.
The principle of ' sympathy ' is dismissed with nearly
the same flippancy by Bentham. If you want to see what can
be made out of that principle, you should read Adam Smith's
* Theory of Moral Sentiment.' You will find there a convic-
tion equally strong with that of Bentham of the inadequacy
of the principle as a guide of moral action, but on different
grounds, for I ten thousand times prefer it to Bentham's
substitute, and think a man much more likely to act right
in following the dictates of a refined sympathy such as is
delineated by Smith, than in acknowledging no guide but
his own self-conceit ; that is, I prefer the heart to the head
even in the natural man, though I see no necessity for
separating feeling and reason, the great but opposite error
of the Sympathetic and Utilitarian doctors.
Before proposing his own doctrines, however, Bentham,
in one of his most obnoxious passages (chap. ii. § 18 and
note), tells us he utterly discards the theological principle,
and that which refers right and wrong to the will of God,
which he says cannot be the revealed will as contained in
the Sacred Scriptures, for that is a system to which nobody
248 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
ever thinks of recurring at this time of day, for (what do
you think ?) the details of political administj'ation ! and even
before it can be appHed to the details of private conduct, it
is universally allowed by the most eminent divines of all
persuasions to stand in need of ample interpretations, else
to what use are the works of those divines ? (! !) In time,
Bentham's own argument may recoil upon himself, for his
disciple Mill has already published pretty ample exposition
of his master's principles which, therefore, are insufficient,
* else to what use ' are the said Mill's works ?
He then proceeds in a note to tell you his notion of
God's will. * The principle of theology refers everything
to God's pleasure, but what is God's pleasure ? God does
not. He confessedly does not 7iow ' [ergo, I suppose He never
did. Q. E. D.] * either speak or write to us. How then are
we to know what is His pleasure ? ' [now the grand arcanum
of Utilitarianism is to be revealed] ' By observing what is
our own pleasure and calling it His. Accordingly what
is called the pleasure of God, is and must necessarily be
(revelation aside) neither more nor less than the good
pleasure of the person, whoever he be, who is pronouncing
what he believes or pretends to be God's pleasure.* Here
is, you will observe. Atheism in all its hideousness, and an
acknowledgment that, revelatioii aside, there is no medium, a
result at which Bishop Butler, I think, satisfactorily arrives
in his ' Analogy,' though happily for him he embraced the
opposite alternative, and did not set revelation aside. I
think these parts I have pointed out by far the most
vulnerable of Bentham's work. He is an acute logician, and
like Spinosa, from whom he borrowed largely, you must
attack his first principles, or you will find his deductions
unassailable. It is true there is a moral rediictio ad
absiirdtim in some of his conclusions on legislation, as
where he considers the murder of an infant by the consent
of both parents a trifling error ; but although you may say
at once the principles must be wrong which lead to such a
result, you will find the result is correctly deduced from
them, and as an * ad absurdum ' is not considered the most
-1837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 249
satisfactory refutation, it is better to attack the principles
per dirccttun. Now it appears to me that the whole evil of
the system is apparent in the last quoted note. He lays
down the principle of utility as that which produces the
greatest happiness to each individual as regards morals, or
the greatest happiness to the greatest number as regards
politics. This happiness he considers to be composed of
certain ingredients divisible into two classes, viz. pleasures
and pains ; and he has given a very beautiful analysis of
them, borrowed, however, in a great measure from Spinosa's
third book * De Afifectibus.' He then establishes four * Sanc-
tions ' (i) the physical, by which a man will avoid physical
pain, and seek physical pleasure ; (2) the moral, which
operates chiefly through the medium of the opinion of
others as to our conduct, so that he sometimes calls it
the sanction of human or public opinion ; (3) the political
sanction, namely, the pains and pleasures affixed by laws
to our conduct ; (4) the religious sanction, which he con-
siders too weak to have any effect, on account of the dis-
tance of its proffered pains and pleasures ; for he calls those
pleasures the most desirable which are most speedy, certain,
intense and lasting, and vice versa of pains.
Now one thing that stares you in the face in all this
doctrine is, what can be the use of it } It is our interest,
he tells us, to secure the greatest lot of desirable pleasures
with the least admixture of pains, but pray who is to tell
us which are most desirable t He makes a fine catalogue,
somebody else may make a different one ; or, in other words,
as he tells us in the famous note, God's pleasure (and a
fortiori, the wisest man's opinion) is to be judged by every
individual according to his own fancy. In one sense, indeed,
his whole theory is only a truism ; for men will necessarily
act according to what gives the most pleasure and least
pain, and do not require Bentham's recommendation to do
so ; but if Bentham means, as he does, that the philosopher's
view of pleasures and pains is to be taken, how can he ex-
pect that any man will give more credit to his (Bentham's)
philosophy than he (Bentham himself) is willing to give to
250 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829^
others who assert what God's pleasure is ? Each man will
answer, ' I am my own philosopher, and know best what
will give me the most pleasure and least pain.' The thief,
the drunkard, the debauchee may say, ' It is very true our
pleasures are short, but they are intense, and make up by
their intensity for want of duration,' and so on. To sum
up. Men will always in one sense seek pleasure and avoid
pain, but you say, ' We mean philosophical pleasure and
philosophical pain ; ' then I answer ' Every man will be his
own philosopher, and as for your sanctions how are they
to act upon men whom you teach at the outset to despise
any rule of conduct but that which their own good pleasure
suggests } '
Now to turn to the more pleasing picture. What is the
peculiar beauty of Christianity ? It affords ample scope
for the exercise of the reason, but at the same time teaches
us that there is a divine reason which, unlike ours, coincides
with the affections ; perfect wisdom and perfect love being
identical. It teaches us that our hearts are desperately
corrupt and widely removed from the guidance even of
natural reason, for what we would not that we do. How
is this corruption to be cured ? By the eradication of the
selfish principle which regards neither God nor man, and
the implanting of a faith which enables us in some sense
to see the union of wisdom and love. But how can such
eradication be effected .-* By no other means than a child-
like submission to Him whose works proved His authority,
and who spake as never man spake, and by giving up our
whole affections also to Him as the undoubted fountain
of light and love. We are thus at once enlightened in
our understandings, and corrected in the depravity of our
hearts, which, no longer dwelling on ourselves, expand in
benevolence to our fellow-creatures as such ; that is, as the
offspring of a common Father, who must, as indeed He
tells us, love them, and whom He therefore commands us
to love.
I will only add one hint. Take the three principles of
love, fear, and mere selfish calculation, and how quickly can
-i837 Letters, 1829-1836. 251
the advantage of the first be perceived as enforcing action,
whether the object loved be present or absent, with equal
energy and uniformity ; whilst fear, independently of its
slavish effects on the mind, will not operate without the
strongest conviction of the power and presence of the person
feared ; and selfish calculation is irregular in its results,
depending on the caprice of passion and the changes of
sensibility.
Hearty Greeting on Return to his Parish.
July 15, 1833.
My dearest Mother, .... My dear flock rallied round
me yesterday in grand style, as if glad to see me after even
one Sunday's absence. I certainly intend to take a month's
holiday, or rather absence from my parish ; I know few
things more delightful than the return to one's parish after
a short absence ; the smile of recognition, the friendly nod,
sometimes even the extended hand, as one walks up the
aisle to the vestry, which awaits one from the earlier
comers to church. Then the clerk, the sexton, the beadles,
all activity and bustle, the bolder few pressing into the
vestry to say they are glad to see the Vicar back ; the
triumphant voluntary of the organist, the responses rather
better made than usual, the charity children seeming as if
they would speak if they dared, the poor ' God blessing
you, glad to see your reverence back ; ' then, when in the
pulpit, you look round upon the well-filled pews, their in-
mates seem to look back a ' How d'ye do 1 ' All these are
joys which a pastor's heart only can feel ; and feeling them,
he feels himself more than repaid for all his troubles.
These joys I have experienced, and I hope to experience
them again. And now having given you this pretty picture,
I will send to you a parson's blessing, if you will send a
mother's blessing in return to
Your devoted Son,
W. F. Hook.
252 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1829-
From W. P. Wood, Esq. — Christian Ethics — Brewstet^s
Life of Newton.
Lincoln's Inn : August 1833.
.... I agree with you certainly on the point of con-
science, and detest Paley's chapter on the Moral Sense.
The question is not, whether it be thought right in one
country to kill your aged parents, and in another to
cherish them, but whether there be, or be not, a principle
within us, which occasions uneasiness when we do that
which we think wrong, however erroneous our estimate of
right and wrong may be. I have not read Brown's ' Philo-
sophy of the Mind,' but have read his ' Cause and Effect,'
a work undoubtedly of great merit and some originality,
but falling into the general error or vice of the Scotch
school — abusing Berkeley, and at the same time pillaging
him most unmercifully, so that one cannot but suspect
them of Voltaire's course with Shakspeare — thieving, and
throwing filth upon their booty to conceal it.
I like your suggestion of Scripture Ethics, the more so
because, in my vanity, one of my favourite plans if ever I
became rich, and free from the necessary drudgery of a
profession, has been to write on what I meant to term
Christian Ethics. , . . My scheme would be to draw out
a system, as near as possible resembling those of the
heathen authors, whose heads were by no means deficient ;
and thus to point out more clearly, in what they were
really deficient in each branch of duty ; for though my
principles would be essentially different, and therefore the
results would be correspondingly modified, yet, no doubt,
\k\& principle of conscience has been too strong to be, in
fact, obliterated, and therefore the details of right and
wrong in the several relations of life would not vary so
much as might be at first imagined. . . .
I have been pleased lately with the Life of Newton,
by Brewster. Brewster is, I am happy to find, a sincere
Christian, and as such takes great pains to clear up the
question of Newton's alleged insanity, of which some
-1837 Letters, 1829-1836. 253
infidel French philosophers, (as they style themselves)
have made use, in order to effect a wider breach than
already too often exists between intellect and religion,
and to prove that none who have eaten of the tree of
knowledge can ever be desirous of approaching the tree
of life. These miserable men seem to envy the blissful
serenity which religion alone was able to impart to
Newton's naturally irritable temperament ; and have as-
serted, first, that he was mad during the latter half of his
life ; second, that he wrote his theological works during
that interval. Brewster has demonstrated from published
and unpublished documents, first, that he was never de-
ranged, though he suffered a short attack of extreme ner-
vous excitement, occasioned by the loss of his papers by
fire ; and second, that one of his principal theological works
was written before even his alleged madness, and that he
w^as also before that time in correspondence with Locke
on the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation.
Zeal for God, not according to knowledge,
Birmingham : August 23, 1833.
My dearest Brother, . . . The error of lies not in
his religious principles, but in weakness of judgment, and
consequent obstinacy of character ; it is his logic, not his
religion which is to blame ; not his principles, but his wrong
application of them. His position is true, that if the
commands of his God and the wishes of his father are at
variance, the former are to be obeyed rather than the latter ;
but he does not see that it is, in the first place, important
to be morally certain as to what the command of God in
any particular case is ; for a man may (as he has done)
mistake for a command of his God what is, in fact, merely
the surmise of his own mind. He thinks it to be his duty
to God to attempt the conversion of his sisters ; but, who
commissioned him to do this ? who gave him authority
over his sisters ? If he looks to the Bible, he may be
certain that it is his duty to honour his parents ; if he
254 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
appeals to his common sense, he must perceive that he
cannot dishonour them more than by leading their children
to infer that they have neglected their education, in the
most essential of all points. He thus neglects a duty of
which he may be certain, to perform a duty which he
cannot prove that he is commissioned to perform. For
again I ask, who gave him such commission .'' all he can
say is, that he feels it to be a duty ; but I remember a
poor man who felt it to be a duty to send the first good
man he met to heaven, and consequently he killed him.
To trust to mere feeling is absurd ; we are always to do
what our conscience thinks right, but we are to enquire
whether that is right which our conscience thus thinks.
That it would be his duty, if he had children of his own,
to seek for God's grace to instil into their minds the
doctrines he believes to be true, there can be no doubt ;
that he is thus to promote God's truth wherever Provi-
dence affords an opportunity for doing so, without the
violation of any known duty, is also not to be doubted ;
but here Providence does not open a door to him ; he
cannot attempt this without dishonouring his parents. As
Lady observes, the children are theirs not his ; if God
intends him to be the means of awakening them (supposing
that they are not awakened to a proper sense of religion),
he will call their parents to himself and put it into their
minds to leave him as their guardian. Then what is
now presumption will become a duty. He is now acting
as if he were without faith in the special providence of
God. I say all this because I am sure he will only be
confirmed in his errors if they are ascribed to his religion.
Religion has nothing to do with them. He would be indig-
nant at the idea ; but I think that between his religious
principles and mine, there can scarcely be a shade of
difference ; the grace of God has softened and sanctified
his heart, and his affections are right with his Saviour. It
is the head that is the source of all the mischief, I have
known him quote texts of Scripture in a sense directly
opposed to what is correct, from mere ignorance of the
-1837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 255
Greek ; he converses on religious topics only with persons
as ignorant as himself: he learns to dogmatise on his own
imaginations ; he becomes self-sufficient and soon learns to
think all the world wrong except the few weak but well-
meaning characters who love his virtues and have not the
skill to discover that he is no wiseacre. Now all this
might just as well have happened to him if he had given
up his mind to banking instead of religion ; he would then
perhaps have undertaken, on some hypothesis of his own,
to set you all right in the mode of doing business. Depend
upon it, my dearest Robert, that the fault in all this
matter is to be traced to a weak head, not to a pious
heart ; his piety only renders his obstinacy and self-suffi-
ciency less than they would otherwise have been ; and I
doubt not but that these faults, venial faults, will gradually
diminish in so bright and almost perfect a character. But
let the language of his friends be to him, not 'you are too
religious,' for then he will think himself a martyr ; but ' you
are a bit of a blockhead ; ' he may then perhaps seek for
advice. I take it, his education was defective ; not being
of an energetic character, he did not work, I suppose, at
Eton ; and it may be lamented that he had not been sent
instead to a good strict tutor, who would have compelled
him to study. When he was with me, I wished to per-
suade him to study Adam Smith, but he had no powers of
application, and soon laid aside what could only be
mastered by deep thought. I think now the best thing
would be for him to have a separate lodging, and not to
live in his father's house, where his morbid feelings would
be increased, and if it were possible to find a really
religious friend of great abilities, who would urge him on
to deep study, even on theological matters, I think all
would come right. The worst of it is, there are no really
learned and clever men whom he will tolerate ; men of his
sort can only put up with flatterers, with persons who
entirely agree with them.
Your devoted Brother,
W. F. Hook.
256 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
From W. /*. Wood^ Esq. — Berkeley's Philosophy.
Lincoln's Inn : December 7, 1833.
.... I am glad you are about to read Berkeley. There
was never, I think, any man since Plato who was gifted
with imagination and reasoning power in so high a degree ;
and if he, like Plato, occasionally let his imagination run
wild, yet I question whether Plato ever, like Berkeley, prac-
tically acted on the views which were deemed visionary,
and thus gave evidence of sincerity and singleness of heart.
I am always in love with Berkeley when I think of his
proffered resignation of the bishopric to ameliorate the
condition of the unhappy Bermudians. . . . You will feel
the great value of Berkeley as giving a sound resting place
for the mind amid the bewilderments of metaphysics. It
is quite false to say that Hume has demonstrated that
there is no siich thing as spirit ; on the same principle
Berkeley had shown that there was no such thing as
matter. In the first place, Berkeley makes no such asser-
tion, but simply that matter, considered independently of
mind, is a nonenity. That all those sensations we daily
experience from objects termed external, are real, Berkeley,
who is eminently an experimental or Baconian philosopher,
was never absurd enough to deny. For external, read
independent of us or our minds, and you will have
Berkeley's notion of matter as regards man ; but he boldly
asserts that matter cannot be conceived of by us as inde-
pendent of a mind. The Scotch metaphysicians to a man
either wilfully or stupidly jumble a mind with the mind,
meaning each individual's mind, whilst by a mind, Berkeley
means i-^;«^ mind or other ; and admitting that the table at
which I am now writing will exist when I do not think of
it, the question is. Can it exist if there be no mind to
limit out its nature, which is but an aggregate of sensations.?
Berkeley says, No ; and experience, I think, demonstrates
that what can only be known as an object of sensation,
owes its existence to a sentient power ; not mine or yours,
-1837 Letters, 1829-1836. 257
because experience shows the sensations to exist indepen-
dently of your will or mine, but to the Eternal sentient
power by whose will our minds perceive it as that which is
created or willed by Him. This is always to mc the most
beautiful demonstration of a God, and most satisfactory
refutation of the eternity of matter which is, according to
Berkeley, an absurdity, matter being but the stage in
which certain volitions of the Supreme Mind arc exhibited
to man. The resurrection of the body also becomes thus at
once intelligible, because He who wills us to perceive the
efforts of His will in a certain manner now, may cause us
to perceive them in a similar manner at any future time,
blessing us probably with additional pleasure by a more
thorough perception of the beauty of His work. By ^us*
you will see I consider the mind alone, regarding the
material about lis as no other than a combination of God's
impressed thoughts (if I may so say) which affects our
minds with various impressions, such as pain and pleasure
and their infinite varieties. . . .
I have not time to write to you about Miss Martineau's
Tales, of which of course you have heard, and we have read
many. Some are, I think, excellent, and all are powerful
where her imagination comes into play. Her reasoning is
not and does not pretend to be original. It is taken verba-
tim from Malthus and McCulloch, a bad school, and her
sectarianism not unfrequently peeps out ; but I would
recommend you strongly to read the ' Manchester Strike,'
which might I think be useful to your poor people at
Coventry hereafter, if the time should come when any such
folly should be meditated.
To IV. P. Wood, Esq. — Plaiii Sermons — Optimism —
Mode of Conducting Divine Service.
December 9, 1833.
And now, my dearest friend, I am determined to sit
down to have a little gossip with you. When one's hands
are full one thinks it impossible to write a long letter, and,
VOL. I. S
258 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1829-
therefore, neglects to commence one ; an unwise course,
seeing that a short letter is better than none, and that, in
this respect as in some others, one frequently finds that
what is * impossible, does sometimes come to pass.' I be-
lieve Seneca is right when he says, ' Scis quare non possumus
ista ? quia nos posse non credimus.'
In the first place let me ask whether you think Rose
has done justice to your brother's sermons. The slight
censure makes the praise doubly valuable, and I incline
to agree with the critic, that there is something rather
objectionable in the sermon on our Saviour's sufferings. I
wish he could be prevailed upon in another edition to give
us more than twelve, or rather, to send out a second
volume. I really have never read anything better fitted
for its intended purpose than that volume. ' Dispeream
si quid legi unquam sanctius, aut si quid potuit populo
tradier utilius.' I hate the title ; it would be better were
it to describe the sermons as addressed to a congregation
entirely agricultural ; ' plain sermons,' &c., plain everything
I dislike, because the term has been used so much, that
it seems to savour of affectation ; it as much as says, I,
the author, could do a great deal better, but behold how I
condescend to men of low estate. Now it is well known,
and admitted on all hands, that really plain sermons, such
as his, are the most difficult compositions in the language.
Tell him to go on ; I wish he would learn the art of weaving,
and send me some sermons for my manufacturers ; I am
such a ' thick ' that I cannot, for the life of me, understand
the art of weaving, and I seldom venture beyond a quota-
tion, to remind my people that their days are swifter than
a weaver's shuttle.
I am a bit of an optimist, I always look to the bright
side of things ; though I sometimes croak, as I sometimes
scold Delicia, not because she deserves a scolding but, as
I tell her, to keep her up to duty-mark (a very whole-
some exercise, take my word for it). You will, of course,
rub out the parenthesis before you show this to your wife.
But I really like to trace good out of evil ; you know how
-i837 Letters, 1 829- 1 836. 259
I disapproved of Roman Catholic Emancipation, but now
that the measure has been carried, instead of looking on
the attendant evils (as I think them), I look to the good
which will result, and one great good in my opinion is,
that we shall no longer attempt to club together, and to
hold up general Protestantism against Popery. Take
Protestantism in general, that is, all sects not popish, and I
think there is quite as much error on one side as the other.
I would side with a Papist rather than a Unitarian ; I hope
that henceforth the question will simply be between the
Church of England and the Church of Rome ; so far as we,
who are members of the Church of England, are leaving
other Protestants to fight their own battles, we have a very
strong case. As to theirs, I fancy they must fight hard
to obtain the victory. In like manner, the attacks which
are made on the liturgy will do good, by inducing per-
sons to examine the subject yet further, and thus to
appreciate its excellencies more highly. The clergy have,
in my opinion, been very careless as to their mode of per-
forming divine service, reading prayers instead of performing
service. The officiating minister ought to have two objects
always in view ; his own devotions and a desire to excite
the devotions of others, and to do justice to the glorious
services of the Church. The latter object is too often lost
sight of ; for my part, I continually keep it in view, and
even when I am not officiating myself, I always in my own
church appear in my official character, and take as much
pains to lead the responses as the clerk. Justice is very
seldom done to the liturgy ; I had some remarks on this
subject in the October number of the ' British Magazine.*
To the same — Attitude toivards Dissenters.
December 20, 1833.
During the season of Christmas — sermons, sacraments,
and holy rejoicings, you cannot expect a long letter. But
yet I cannot refrain from expressing to you how heartily
and entirely I concux with you in ail you say in your last
S2
26o Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
The comparison between the worshippers on Mount Gerizim
and the Dissenters is admirable, and is precisely the view
I have always taken of the question. We are, moreover,
always in speaking of an action to make the distinction
between what is absolutely and what is relatively right
or wrong. It is for the intention only, i.e. the relative
rightness or wrongness, that a man will be judged, if he
has properly enquired, as far as his abilities permit, as to
the absolute nature of the action. That schism is a sin,
we know, but that every schismatic (so called) is a sinner,
I by no means admit, for he may not act with a schis-
matical intent. And yet it may be charity in me, in some
instances, to tell him that I think him a schismatic, in
order to awaken him to enquiry. In some instances I say ;
for my rule is never to disturb the faith of those who
have been educated in Dissent, if they hold the doctrine
of the Atonement, if they are persons not qualified to
judge of the differences between us. Believe me, my
dearest friend, that you have quite mistaken me, if you
think I regard Presbyterians, Wesleyans, &c., in the light
of heathens, /z,^ fyhoiro. I regard them just as you do ;
they look only to the end, without sufficiently thinking of
the means ; they labour to bring men to Christ, and they
do well, but they forget that besides this there is another
object which ought not to be overlooked ; to wit, the pre-
servation of the purity and unity of the Church. I believe
that our position is this : you may be going in the right
road, and I hope you are ; but I feel more certain that this
is the right road, and, therefore, I remain in it ; my assur-
ance is stronger.
To the same — Ths Gpod and Evil of the Established
Church.
February 4, 1834.
.... I perfectly agree with you in thinking that a
man may be attached to the Church, and opposed to an
establishment ; Bishop Hobart was so, and most of the very
high Churchmen in England are so : it was indeed chiefly
-1837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 261
with a view to them that I have printed the second sermon.^
If you look to the rehgious public only, I should agree ;
but, looking to the irreligious also, I do not agree. I know
that you think an establishment tends to secularise the
clergy ; but I see quite as much, and more, secularity
among the Dissenting ministers. If the clergy are too
much inclined to Toryism, the Dissenting ministers are to
radicalism, and some of the Dissenting meeting-houses in
this city are, every Sunday evening, converted after service
into political debating societies. Is not the Dissenting
teacher as secular when seeking to fill his pews by preach-
ing, not truth, but popular doctrine, as the clergyman who
makes unworthy compliances to conciliate a patron ,-• Both
are to be condemned ; but while the world lasts some
degree of secularity in twelve thousand men there must
be ; the only question is, whether it matters how it shows
itself ,'' Mind, my dear friend, I do not quarrel with you
for taking just the opposite view, I only state what occurs
to me : my prejudices may induce me to exaggerate the
advantages of an establishment, and yet the time was when
I preferred being without one.
From W. P. Wood, Esq. — Advantages and Evils of an
Established Religion.
Lincoln's Inn : February 1834.
, ,\ . \ think you have brought forward every argu-
ment in favour of an establishment with the greatest
force. You tell me you hope to convert me, and will, I
dare say, think me an obstinate creature if not quite a
convert. However, I will acknowledge that you have
confirmed my perhaps hesitating opinion that where we
find a Church established we ought not to lend any assist-
ance towards z^//establishing. I am not a lover of change
at any time for the sake of change (though you may
smile at this, looking to my radicalism) ; I ever consider
change as a positive evil, for assuredly happiness consists
* * On tlie Church and the Establishment.'
262 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829^
in tranquillity, and He who is all wise and all happy is
immutable ; but there are cases, as all must admit, where
the evils of abiding in your actual state and the advantage
to be derived from a change fully justify the effort and
sacrifice required for alteration. Such, however, is not,
I think, the case with regard to the establishment.
Amongst the evils, which I cannot but yet think inci-
dent to the compulsory support by the State of any
religious doctrine, there are to be found unquestionably
great and perhaps counterbalancing benefits, and I would
not root up the tares lest the wheat be rooted up also.
Of course I do not think an establishment unscriptural,
that is, forbidden by Scripture, or I should consider the
question settled. * Unscriptural ' is one of those convenient
words for controversy, which allow the opponents of the
Church the widest possible field by keeping off any close
attack. In one sense, unquestionably, the Establishment
is unscriptural ; that is to say, the early Christian Church
as delineated in Scripture rested, from the necessity of the
case, upon no support from the State, and this the Dis-
senter falls back upon, when pressed by argument. I think
your argument as to the Jewish Church a very good one
against the Establishment being unscriptural in any other
sense, but I do not think it equally good as a positive
reason to urge us to an alliance of Church and State, for
there was a direct temporal covenant between God and the
Jewish nation. The government remained in some sense
a theocracy even after St. Paul's conversion, and where God
was the temporal monarch it was almost a necessary conse-
quence that His ministers would be temporal governors also.
My objections, or rather I should say my difficulties, as to
establishments are several ; first, political, the difficulty of
choosing your establishment, for I incline to think that the
forcing of six millions in Ireland to pay for the maintenance
of the religion of one million is almost unscriptural in the
worst sense. In Scotland we have acted differently ; treat-
ing Ireland as a conquered country, that is, by the rule of
force. I think an establishment of our Church in India,
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 263
supported by forced contributions from the natives, would
be monstrous. To this I know you will answer that the
tithes are a gift by Christian possessors. This may, and
I think, does apply to England ; but consider how the pos-
sessors acquired their property in Ireland — by nothing in
fact but brutal violence done to the large majority of
that nation, though a weak minority as compared with the
overwhelming forces of England. My second objection to
establishments is, their effect on the clergy, but I will
not enter into a long disquisition on this point ; and my
third objection is, the effect on the laity, who become
members of a Church because it is established, and make
no further enquiry. I admit great force in the arguments
you bring forward as to the indirect effect on families,
and I admit also the difficulties entangling the whole
question, but I should ever wish, above all things, to see
the questions kept separate, for there are not many who
have your liberality in thinking one can belong to the
Church of Christ without being over anxious as to the
seats of bishops in Parliament, and the other consequences
of a union between Church and State ; and this species of
bigotry is itself one of the evils of that union, for I fear
many give the State at least equal consideration.
To W. P. Wood, Esq.— A busy Week.
Coventry : Easter Monday, March 31, 1834.
I write to you to thank you for your kind letter, though
I cannot write much ; for although my hard work of
Passion Week is over, yet my feasting work of Easter Week
has begun. My curate, Mr. Crawford, this day regales the
girls of our blue-coat school ; to-morrow our vestry dine
together ; next day I feast fifty young operatives, who
assist in the management of our Sunday schools ; Thurs-
day, I suppose, I shall be sick with all this festivity ;
Friday, I must visit my poor ; Saturday, write my sermon \
so, you see, though very pleasant, my hands are very full ;
and, to add to my calamities, my wife is going to desert
264 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
me ; she is to pay a visit for ten days to her parents, at
the Monument ; I hope to join her for two days next week,
and then I intend (D.V.) to take a bond fide holiday, by
skipping a Sunday and spending a fortnight at Leaming-
ton with my mother.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Correspondence of Alexander Knox
and BisJwp J ebb — Henry Martin — Lucas on Happiness.
September 22, 1834.
i . . . I exhort you very earnestly to read the cor-
respondence of Knox and J ebb, because it is a book
well calculated to calm your mind at the present time,
and to set one a-thinking in the right line. I am rather
urgent upon this subject, because, moreover, while Mr.
Knox frequently reminds me of you, while he was to
Bishop Jebb nearly as much as you are to me ; their
system of Christian philosophy is one peculiarly adapted
to you. I think that of late (and under your present
afflictive circumstances it is natural that it should be so)
your views with respect to religion have taken a less bright
turn than I could wish ; I mean that you seem to despond
too much about the capabilities of renewed human
nature and, falling a little into the spirit of the age, to
rate too highly the active, and too lowly the contempla-
tive life. On all these points the words of Knox and
Jebb appear to me to be the words of soberness and
truth. We are not to underrate, and we are not to over-
rate, the persons of active life, the practical men as they
are called ; but the meditative Christian may, perhaps,
be able to draw nearer to perfection than the other ;
though the meditative Christian philosopher would scarcely,
in these days, be called a Christian at all. I would not
have you measure yourself by Henry Martin, nor would
I have held you up to Henry Martin as a model. I think
that Martin, by the bye, committed a grievous error in
throwing himself out of that sphere to which Providence
assuredly called him ; and hence, probably, his want of
-i837 Letters, 1829-1836. 265
success. I wish not to detract from the virtues of so
admirable a man ; but I should say to another, if God has
caused you to be born in a Christian country, has put it
into your parents' minds to give you a learned education,
and has so far blessed your exertions as to enable you to
become a senior wrangler, you should read in that circum-
stance His command to serve Him as a man of learning
and reading. Practical work may be performed by an in-
ferior intellect, not only as well, but better ; the religious
cultivation of intellect is a duty to those who have the time.
Again, I would say that those who find themselves en-
gaged in a secular profession ought not to torment them-
selves, because they are not directly engaged in God's work ;
they may do more good by the rhetoric of their good
example. Knox and J ebb are great perfectionists ; re-
ligious edification, not religious excitement, was what they
sought ; and feeling sure that the Scriptures could not urge
an impossibility, they fully expected to reach, and I really
believe they did reach what the Scripture means by per-
fection ; although, because not a bustling, busy, practical
man, Bishop Jebb was much abused by the Evangelicals.
If you wish to see what the Scripture means by perfection,
I would refer you to a book recommended in their letters,
the second volume of Lucas upon Happiness ; a work
which is so strictly devotional that it would be a good
one for your Sunday readings. I delight in it ; you will
there find it, I think, satisfactorily proved that when the
Scriptures speak of perfection, they mean habitual righteous-
ness. Conversion begins, perfection completes, the habit.
Habit is second nature, therefore the habitually righteous
are called new creatures, partakers of the divine nature, &c.
Lucas shows how a man, in this world, can live without
sin, that is, mortal sin ; venial sin or imperfections of course
there are, but these he would style frailties : I perfectly
agree with him. If you look upon sin as unconnected
with a Saviour, there can be no such thing as venial sin ;
sin is the transgression of the law, and the soul that
sinneth it shall die. But what has Christ done for us ?
266 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1829-
He has procured heaven for the habitually righteous ; they
are thus freed from the penalty of the original law ; and
being under the Gospel their occasional infirmities are
either not to be called sins, or to be classed as venial sins,
not having in them any longer the sentence of death.
Connected with this subject Lucas and the correspondents
would open a via media with respect to Romans vii.,
neither agreeing with those who would apply the passage
to the renewed Christian as long as he is in the flesh,
nor agreeing with those who would have applied it to the
unrenewed. They would apply it to such as are in a pro-
gressive state, who are in progress to renovation ; to the
babe in Christ, the young man of St. John, not to the per-
fect man, not to the fathers.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Scrmon-wriiing — Knox and Jehh —
Regeneration and Renovation.
September 31, 1834.
I avail myself of a wet day and a little poorlytnde to
have a little coze with you. I very often feel inclined to
write to you, indeed I always do when I am in meditation
mood ; but that is the very time, of course, for sermonising
also : and as duty must yield to pleasure, so my correspond-
ence with you flags, that sermons may exist. For my part,
I think one sermon per week for a man of moderate
abilities, and with three days entirely devoted to practical
work, during which writing and reading must be suspended,
is quite enough. I write my sermon at a sitting, at least
generally, and I find those extempore discourses tell best ;
but then I have to think it well over during the early days
of the week, and to consult commentators when there is
need ; and sometimes one cannot help feeling, as one
advances in learning oneself, that it would be pleasanter to
have a more intellectual congregation than I have here.
It is not pleasant, and perhaps not profitable, to be obliged
to check one's thoughts, and to blot out a page because
you feel it to be above the reach of any of your hearers.
1S37 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 267
But then, on the other hand, the moral disclph'ne is very-
useful ; and when a man begins to think that he could do
better in a more extensive sphere, the probability is that
there is a spirit of pride lurking in the heart, and ' Get thee
behind me, Satan ! ' ought to be resolutely said with a
prayer for grace.
Delicia and I are reading together the correspondence
of Bishop Jebb with Mr. Alexander Knox; it is a work which
no one can read without improvement. The natural,
fervent, glowing eloquence of Mr. Knox is sometimes very
striking. In the use of some terms he is unfortunate ; e.g.
he uses the word regeneration for what we should call
renovation, making, as the apostle does, a distinction
between the washing of regeneration and the renewing of
the Holy Ghost. Both are needful to make the complete
Christian, but the renewing of the Holy Ghost may not be,
as we too sadly see, where the regeneration has been.
Regeneration was the term applied to baptism by all the
Fathers; by every writer, I believe, till the Reformation,
and it was used to denote, not the final triumph of grace
over the heart, but the primaiy operations of the Spirit in
the scheme of man's redemption. The Puritans used the
term to signify the final triumph of grace over the heart ;
and then, giving a new meaning to the term, abused the
Church for using the word in the old sense. I believe that
much of the difficulty which some persons have as to the
true doctrine is to be traced to their considering, perhaps,
without acknowledging, grace to be indefectible, and to
their forgetting that by the neglect of the person or the
parent the Spirit may be quenched. I look upon the
doctrine as important, as it at once puts an end -to idle
fears as to election. We can say to the penitent who has
been baptized, ' You are elected, so far as the Scripture
says anything of election ; ' and it enables us to tell others,
'If you fall, the fault will be yours, since the Holy Ghost
has covenanted to create a new heart in you, if you will
but apply to Him.* While on this subject I will mention a
new argument, which I have lately met with on infant
268 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
baptlsm. Christ blessed infants. Was His blessing an idle
ceremony ? No ; if He blessed, He sanctified them ; but
how could He sanctify, except by imparting to them a
portion of His Spirit ? How the Spirit operates we know
not. I would add, with respect to infant baptism, that I
apprehend doubts on the subject may be traced to our
regarding the Lord Jesus as an instructor, rather than as
* the way, the truth, and the life,' through whose merits a
being who comes into the world condemned may obtain
salvation.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Summoned to Preach at Oxford.
October 9, 1834.
I suppose you will soon be settled again in London, I
therefore write to you a hasty line — a hasty line — because I
have much to do. I have within the last few days received
a notice from Oxford calling upon me, as select preacher,
to preach on the first Sunday in November. The sudden-
ness of this (as I did not expect to be called upon before
Christmas), has quite shaken my nerves ; and I begin to
feel, that in consenting to become a select preacher before
the University, I have presumptuously taken a position
far above the reach of my abilities. Who am I, that I
should address a learned body, being so unlearned myself.?
I really do feel that I have been guilty of unheard of pre-
sumption. When I know myself to be really in my
place, I have no fears ; but I do fear much, fear lest I
should injure the cause I have at heart ; and also, lest I
should do discredit to myself, and thus interfere with my
usefulness in many ways, when I thus put myself, as it
were, out of my place. Now with these feelings it would
be an inexpressible comfort to me if you would read my
sermon ; having your sanction, I should have confidence,
for I know you would not flatter. I rejoiced to hear from
Mrs. Wood that you are very busy ; but as you never
work on Sundays, I am thinking that you might kindly
permit my discourse to form part of your Sunday readings.
-1837 Letters, 1 829-1 836, 269
either next Sunday se'nnight, or the Sunday following. We
so cordially agree in our views on metaphysical and theo-
logical subjects, that your opinion would be to me more
valuable than anyone's else. The only point I believe on
which we differ, is on the necessity of the State's having a
religion. I did once entertain your views, and prefer the
state of things in Am.erica ; and I believe that these
are the highest Church views, and lead one more closely
to investigate its spiritual claims, I cannot enter now
into the arguments which have made me think differently,
but I will (d.v.) some time or other ; I only allude to the
circumstance, because there arc one or two passages in the
sermon, which I have now nearly finished, bearing upon
that point.
To Rev. y. H. Newman — Suffragan Bishoprics}
April ir, 1835.
Our friend, A. Perceval, I find, prefers the division of
the Diocese to the restoration of Suffragans. I confess I
agree with you rather than with him on this point, because
I think it most important that there should be frequent
intercourse between the people and the highest order of
pastors, and this under existing circumstances can only be
done by the reinstitution of Suffragans. Of course we
should all prefer the establishment of twenty or thirty new
Dioceses, but of that there is no hope,
I am not so fearful of an open attack as of a system of
undermining. Hating the Church as they do, I verily be-
lieve that the Whigs will attempt to ruin it by preferring
unworthy characters. And surely we ought to be pre-
pared for action, we ought to be prepared to petition
generally throughout every Diocese against such an ap-
^ The Church Commission issued their first Report this year, con-
taining proposals for the formation of some new sees, and the readjust-
ment of diocesan boundaries and episcopal incomes.
270 Life of Walter FarqitJiar Hook. 1829-
pointment, and to adopt every lawful means to prevent
its confirmation, if made. I think too we ought to get up
petitions without loss of time, praying the King to make
some alteration in the mode of appointing bishops. I
suppose you have read Perceval's pamphlet on the subject.
... I fear that the majority of Conservatives in Parliament
are influenced by little better than party feelings with
respect to religion.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Siijfyagan Bishops — Admission
of Laymen to Convocation — Church and Dissent.
April 1S35.
.... I cannot help saying how entirely I agree in all
the sentiments you so well express, except in your allusions
to the Bishops. I consider it important in this age, when
political power is everything, that there should attach some
degree of political power and consequence to the heads of
the Church. I do not say that the attachment of the peer-
age to the bishoprics is not attended with some evil, but
I think the good preponderates, and I hope that there will
be instituted suffragan bishoprics, for which the constitu-
tion makes provision without peerages, and this will bring
the bishops and the people, as you wish, into closer com-
munion. I perfectly admit what you say touching the
propriety of an occasional national synod ; say, a synod to
be held once in three years, together with annual diocesan
synods ; and I should wish to have the laity represented
in them. My former objection was to Convocation, which
is, in fact, not an ecclesiastical synod, but, merely a con-
vention of ecclesiastics, originally called by the King to
tax themselves, and afterwards — first from convenience and
then from custom — formed into an assembly for the dis-
cussion of spiritual affairs. I am an advocate for the
introduction of laymen, though I think the proportion is
too great in the American convention, to the constitution
of which there are some objections. It is a curious fact
-i837 Letters, 1829-1836. 271
that, when the attention of the laity is called to such
matters, the laity always become higher Churchmen than
the clergy, the latter generally I suppose, feeling a fear
lest they should appear to advance their personal claims
when defending the rights of their order. Our two great
High Church authorities are, Robert Nelson, Esq., and
Henry Dodwell, Esp. ; and it is a curious fact that,
when it was lately proposed in America that the pulpits
of the Church should be opened to all sectarians holding
the doctrine of the Trinity, the clergy yielded, but the
laity resolutely resisted the shameful proposition. So
again, when it was proposed to let the Wesleyans unite
with the Church on condition that their existing ministers
should not be episcopally ordained, here also the clergy,
looking to the immense accession to their numbers (not of
course to their principles, or what ought to be their
principles) which would thus occur, gave ground ; but the
laity would not consent. Anything which would bring
these subjects under discussion would be a good, at least
in our opinion, who believe that we have the truth ; and
it is lamentable to see how ignorant the clergy are, even
good, pious, hardworking men, on the commonest points of
discipline. I agree with you also in what you say of Brother
Jonathan ; with all his faults he is our brother, and if I
am driven from England, I shall hope to abide with him.
America is the next best country to our own, and as to
what travellers say of the Americans, we may always
reply : the wonder is, not that they are behind us, but that
so new a country should have come so near to us.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Catniness and Confidence in
the Discharge of Duty.
Leamington : May 6, 1835.
.... The cure of twenty thousand souls would not
be to me more arduous than that of nine thousand, for
why .'' in either case it is impossible to attend to them all,
272 Life of Walter FarquJmr Hook. 1829-
and God does not require impossibilities at our hands.
I should feel then as I feel now, ' All that the Father
giveth to me, will come unto me ' ; there will be a special
providence over those who are prepared to embrace the
means of salvation, and either they will be led to me, or I
to them. It is the fault of the present day, to think and
to act as if man could do everything, and certainly to
forget God's special Providence. Hence that busybodyness
which distinguishes the religious world, and prevents that
depth of piety which is the result of sober, calm reflection,
and which shows itself in doing calmly, and unostentatiously,
not what seems likely to be attended with the greatest
results, but simply the duty our hand findeth to do. What
does God require of me .-• is the question to be asked, and
the answer is, nothing that can interfere with any immediate
duty. Your immediate duty, for instance, of a Sunday
afternoon is, as you say, with your father ; you would be
wrong then to omit this, even were the entire welfare of
the school to depend on your individual exertions ; for God
can provide teachers for the school without your aid. In
the morning, no immediate duty claims your time, and you
therefore devote it to a work of charity. Now with these
principles, I should not feel any fears in undertaking any
parish ; and though I do not see any objection to the plan
you propose, of licensing rooms for divine service, yet I
would never do anything irregular for any object whatever,
under the conviction that the times and seasons are in
God's own hands.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Youthful Dreams — Advice to
Young Poets.
October 14, 1835.
.... Yesterday I returned, and this my first holiday I
dedicate to my friend ; for though, after a day of labour, I
cannot sit down to write a letter, because the stooping tries
me, I know no recreation greater than that of writing to
you. I always in doing so regain some portion of that
-i837 Letters, 1829-1836. 273
boyish enthusiasm for which, as we advance in years, we
so often sigh in vain. I remember well the days when
the highest object of my ambition was that we should be
famed in story as the modern Pylades and Orestes, and
appear as twin authors, the rivals of Beaumont and
Fletcher. Those were days when I thought no one worthy
of consideration except a poet ; and I fondly dreamed
what I found out, to my great comfort, in good time to
be only a dream, that I was born to be one whose eye
should be always in a * fine frenzy rolling.' I have this
day thought of this the more, since I found awaiting my
arrival from Oxford a small volume of poems by a very
youthful poet, requesting me to give my advice as to the
publication of them. This kind of thing has often occurred
to me, and it places one in a most awkward predicament.
If you advise the author to publish, you only send him to
the flogging form to be scourged to death by the critics ;
and if you tell him honestly that the thing will not do,
you seriously hurt a mind which must be sensitive {iniist
be, or it would not overflow in poetry), and do injury to
feelings which are for the most part amiable. I do cor-
dially enter into the feelings of the poor young writers, for
I have felt as they feel, and had I been in their situation
of life with a friendly pastor to consult, I should most
likely have written the same kind of warm-hearted, respect-
ful, tremulous letter as those are which I am frequently
in the habit of receiving. The volume now before me is
accompanied by a letter, which, as it gives me archiepis-
copal honours (bishops having succeeded poets in my love),
styling me ' most reverend Sir,' is very flattering. But
poor lad, what am I to do for him .-* with much poetical
sentiment he has much bad grammar, with no povver of ex-
pression : — that is, he is born to admire poetry, not to write
it ; although he expects clearly that when his volume sees
the light, some future Johnson will contend for his admission
into the assembly of British poets. I must do to him as
I have done for others : after a civil word or two, I must
VOL. I, T
2 74 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. i«29-
assume the look, not of a critic, but a friendly adviser, of a
Moecius or a Horace, and say of the poem,
.... nonumque prematur in annum,
Membranis intus positis ; delere licebit
Quod non edideris. Nescit vox missa reverti.
This must be the text, and I must expound it ; happy I,
that my proteges understand not Latin, or perhaps their
minds would go a little higher up the page and understand
my hint too clearly, upon seeing.
Qui nescit, versus tamen audet fingere.
Luther and C Connell compared — Catholicisvi most potent
against Popery.
October 1835.
My dearest Mother, .... I am glad that Georgiana so
thoroughly understands the principles of the Church of her
Saviour, and is not ashamed of them. The danger now is,
not from Popery, but from that snare of Satan, ultra-
Protestantism. Perhaps, if she had read as much about
Luther as I have done, she would have floored her anta-
gonist by stating her abhorrence of that man's principles.
I am amused to hear those who abuse O'Connell eulogising
Luther ; for Luther's line of conduct, his violence, his in-
subordination was precisely similar to that of O'Connell.
Luther was certainly a most ultra- radical, and he certainly
permitted the Elector of Hesse to marry two wives in
order that he might secure him for a political partisan.
Both he and O'Connell have made religion their pretext ;
but whether they were not both rather influenced by a
factious spirit, may be doubtful ; the only difi'erence
between them is, that they have taken the opposite
extremes. I am a lover of truth wherever it leads, and
therefore I will not seek to whitewash Luther merely
because he was a useful instrument against Popery. I am
rather amused at your saying that you would not receive
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 275
the Sacraments from a Popish priest, and in the same
sentence professing admiration of the Church ; for if the
ministrations of Popish priests be not vahd, how do you
prove the vaHdity of our own orders, descended as we are,
in regular line from Popish priests ?
Let Georgiana glory in being called a Papist, while she
holds not Popish, but Catholic principles. All the great
divines of the Church of England, from the blessed
martyr Laud, down to Bishop Butler, and from Bishop
Butler down to our own times, to Mr. Rose, all have been
called Papists, though they have hated the Pope, and done
more service against Popery than all the Ultras, who really
act on Popish principles. Tell her that when a man in
argument urges extreme cases, it is a sign that he is a
blockhead, and I always cut the matter short by saying :
' Pray, what would you do if you were a horse } W^heri
you have made up your mind on that point, then I will
tell you what I should do were I placed in circumstances
in which I never expect to be placed.'
Your devoted Son.
Contentment with Coventry.
Coventry : October 2T, 1835.
My dearest Mother As to any change in my
preferment, I speak the sentiments both of Dclicia and
myself, which we often express to one another in great
sincerity, that we should contemplate any change with
sorrow. Here we are, as perfectly happy and as nearly
contented as mortals can be. Two hundred a year, to
enable me to buy a few more books and her to have a
little carriage, would be the very summit of our wishes j
and if that wish were granted, other evils would attend.
If we improve our condition in one way, we should only
injure it in another ; we have here a union of perfect
retirement in one respect, with just sufficient excitement
in another. I hope you will persevere in your course of
T 2
276 Life of Walter Fai'qnhar Hook. 1829-
saying nothing about me or my affairs ; as the good old
Bishop used to say, * The less we hear of ourselves, either
in praise or dispraise, the better.' As regards myself, my
system has always been to act according to my own views,
to do what I think right, without the least regard to the
opinions of others, to evil report, or good report ; this is
the only way to obtain peace of mind and consistency of
conduct. I find now that those who were at one time
very angry with me, seeing they cannot alter me, are
beginning to praise me ; to wit, our kindhearted Bishop.
I will not budge a step to go over to others, and therefore
many others of my acquaintance have come over to me,
while all do me the favour of leaving off any attempts to
convert me. I have always determined to be independent,
to go my own way to work, and consequently, I am as
obstinate as a pig ; unless a friend chooses to call my
obstinacy perseverance in a good cause. I never care for
censures, and when I am praised, my chief rejoicing is, if I
know myself, that my principles have prevailed. For as
to the praise of man, I know its worthlessness, for I find in
general when it is bestowed upon me it is a bitter satire,
alluding rather to what it is supposed I have done than
to what is really the case.
I heard to-day from my friend, my very kind friend,
Mr. Rose ; by the way, his is a very flattering letter, as he
expresses his great wish that nothing may take me away
from Coventry. When people say this, it is a real compli-
ment ; and dear, dear Coventry, I never wish to leave thee. I
confess I feel what the good Bishop would have called a little
sinful pride, at having the title of ' Mr. Hook of Coventry ' :
my ambition is, to be known in after times in the catalogue
of our Vicars as * the painful preacher of Coventry.'
-i837 Letters, 1S29-1S36. 277
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Sermons, Means of Instruction
rather than of Grace — Dr. Mobcrlj — Sermon at Oxford.
November 21, 1835.
.... I do not look upon sermons, as people in the
present day too frequently do, as direct means of grace,
but simply as means of instruction. The ultra-Protestant
notion, that preaching is a direct means of grace, was un-
known to the ancients ; they taught men to seek for grace
chiefly in the two Sacraments, and then in prayer. The
relative merits of the ordinances may be seen from the
following outline of their penitential discipline. There
were four orders of penitents : first, the 'rrpoaKkaiovrss,
flentes, whose station was in the vestibule of the church,
who begged the prayers of the faithful, as they went into
the sanctuary ; not daring to join in the public prayer
themselves. Second, the aKpoajfisvot, andientes, who were
allowed to enter the church, to hear the Scriptures read,
and to attend the sermon, but not allowed to stay for the
common prayers. Third, the yovvK\iPovT£9, geniificctentcs,
who were admitted to the prayers, and were blessed by the
Bishop ; but when the rest of the congregation stood (as
was the universal custom on Sundays) in prayer, they were
obliged to kneel ; their station was round the reading desk.
Fourth, the awiarafiivoi, consistentes, who were admitted to
all the privileges of the common prayer, and even stood at
the rails of the altar while the faithful communicated, but
were not yet permitted to communicate themselves.
When I was at Oxford, I had the pleasure of hearing the
new Master of Winch Jster preach. He was select preacher
in the morning, I in the afternoon. I afterwards met him
at Dr. Burton's, and he told me he remembered my last half
year at Winton ; I suppose, therefore, you knew more of
him. His name is Moberly ; he is a delightful preacher ;
his discourse was deeply mctaph)'sical, on Predestination,
and I thought he handled it admirably. I certainly never
preached to such a mob before, not even in my own church ;
2^S Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
not only was the church crowded with gownsmen up to
the pulpit stairs, but the townspeople presented in the
distance quite a sea of heads. You will perhaps think I
was appalled at the sight ; but no ! I am very nervous
jvhen I preach in a place for the first time, but when I am
accustomed to it, my nerves become hardened. It is not
from nerves that I suffer so much as from great excite-
ment, and as I am excited just as much when I write what
I am to speak, as when I speak what I have written,
sermonising does not particularly agree with me. I find
that I can put myself in precisely the same position of
mind when delivering my sermon as when writing, and
consequently can add extempore bits. And this is in fact
all that extempore preachers really do, if they are speakers
worth anything ; they have a speech by heart, of which they
are so thoroughly masters that they can add to it, take away
from it, or partially change as they go on. If the speech
is their own, the overflow of their own thoughts, they can do
this ; if, as is generally the case, they have only worked up
other people's ideas, they cannot do this, and consequently
they fail ; is not this the case }
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Refusal of a joint Offer made by
him and Archdeacon Bay ley to provide a second
Oirate.
December 1835.
Where I feel a little overworked now-a-days is in a
department where help cannot be given. People write to
me from all quarters requesting advice on this point or
that ; here on a parochial matter, there on a doctrinal matter.
Quarrels and misunderstandings and jealousies occur
between persons in this parish on whom I must depend,
which no one but myself can set to rights. Meetings are
proposed and societies formed in which I am compelled to
come forward, because I have some personal influence.
For instance, at the present moment some of my people
are eager to have a meeting for the Irish Clergy ; the
management of which will be most troublesome to me, as
-1837 Letters, 1S29-1836. 279
I shall have so to arrange matters as not to give offence to
our very touchy Archdeacon, to get influential people to
attend, to draw up all the Resolutions, and above all to
take care that it does not degenerate into a political
assembly. In all this no curate can help me. Were I
writing to anyone else it would seem conceited in me to
say this. But I can only place the matter before you by
so doing. By steadiness to certain principles, and by having
gone straightforward in my course, and by the success of
some of my measures, I have acquired an influence over
much superior men to myself who have been wanting in
perseverance. And here it is that I am sometimes a little
overworked.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Argument — Prejudice — Religious
and Useful Knowledge Society.
February r, 1836.
.... You say that my argument about the Reforma-
tion is monstrous, and that it will convince no one. My
dear friend, did you ever know anyone convinced by
argument .'' it is a thing I never attempt. All that I
attempt is to confirm those in their opinion, whose opinion
I believe to be correct ; and this you seem to admit will
be done. My own conviction is, that men never entirely
quit their hereditary opinions and principles, except from
interest or passion ; I look upon the Whig son of a Tory,
or the Tory son of a Whig, as an ill-conditioned cur.
All that I should attempt to do would be to modify ; to
make a man less vehement and violent, and so to prepare
the next generation for an imperceptible change. If a
W^hig turns Tory, or a Dissenter a Churchman, I rejoice,
but it is generally speaking merely because his family will
be educated in what I think right principles, that their
prejudices will be in favour of the truth ; the convert
himself in nine cases out of ten (mind, I make exceptions),
has been influenced by some passion or pride. We inherit
in like manner our religion, and it was intended that we
28o Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1829-
should do so. Christianity was taught by word of mouth,
before the Scriptures were written ; what we receive by
tradition, we correct and improve by reference to Scripture.
No man takes his rehgion from Scripture only ; it would
take a lifetime to do this ; he is what he was brought up,
and corrects himself by the Scriptures which were given
•for that purpose. And I look upon the advantages of an
Establishment to consist greatly in this, that it secures a
wide spread of traditionary religion, creates a prejudice in
favour of religion. I put down a man who pretends to be
unprejudiced as a humbug. The great thing is, to create
good prejudices : this is what the Bible tells us to do, when
it bids us bring up our children in the ' nurture and admoni-
tion of the Lord.' It is through the spectacles of prejudice
that we look upon facts the most clear ; for instance and
with reference to that which has given rise to these obser-
vations, what different impressions are made on your mind
and mine by certain facts. We learn from history that the
vote for the renunciation of the Popish supremacy in the
Irish Parliament was unanimous, that it was received with
joy throughout the nation, the clergy having been un-
popular ; that in Convocation the bishops and almost all
the clergy (in England I believe there were only 138 dis-
sentients, but that is not to the purpose) assented to the
Reformation ; there were only two, some say four. Bishops
who refused. From these facts (and I only regret that in
my sermon I did not quote my authorities more fully), I
draw inferences which you think monstrous, because you
simply say you cannot believe the facts. So it is ; I do not
expect to convince you ; I should say at once 'he is a
Whig, there is no hope of convincing him.' My point is
gained if I add one more impulse to the conviction of
those with whom I think the truth is ; and all I can
expect of you is, what you are willing to say, that there
is more to be said on the subject than you before sup-
posed.
As to parish business, I am at present, as I believe every
active man occasionally is, in hot water, and if you were
-i837 Letters, 1829- 1836. 281
to see our Whig newspaper and some other publications
you would think your friend a very devil incarnate. I be-
lieve I mentioned to you that just before I left home in the
summer the teachers of my school expressed a wish to
form a society for the improvement, after quitting school,
of the young people, and especially with a view to the
establishment of a library of religious books. Well, I
rejoiced at the proposal and entered into it cordially ; I got
a grant from the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge of 25/., emptied my own library of all my spare
works ; begged books of others, and the end has been that
we have now a library containing nearly 500 volumes, and
we have 600 members. The Mechanics' Institute having
gone on for years and not having above 200, our success
has excited the wrath of the members of the latter society,
against which I have never done a hostile act ; and now
they let out upon me the vials of their abuse, and even
threaten my person, which is very illiberal in liberals.
This kind of thing does not move me, for my rule never
is to oppose, but to proceed in my own course ; I never
interfered with the Mechanics' Institute, though I could
not conscientiously belong to it. I instituted our Society,
because I considered its establishment a positive good ;
and all these attacks on me do good. As I said before,
I do not hope to gain converts from them, and their
abuse of me makes those who love me as their pastor
more zealous ; while, on the same grounds, the others will
not win from us any worth keeping. That there was need
of our society is proved from this, that at the Mechanics'
Institute an order was made to admit religious books,
which was immediately rescinded, because to meet the
religious views of some of the members, it would be
necessary to admit Tom Paine's works. Meanwhile, not
conscious of having done any man wrong by establishing a
society in which religion is recognised as a branch of useful
knowledge, we are raising money to erect a building and I
am preparing to deliver a lecture on savings banks. Can
you assist me ? it is not much in my line of business but
282 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
there are only seventeen weavers in all Coventry who put
into our savings bank ; so that I think I ought to do some-
thing ; pray help me if you can.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Accused of Intolerance — Sermon at
Oxford.
Shrove Tuesday, February 17, 1836.
.... I am rather amused with our opponents having
styled me the Rev. Autocrat of Coventry ; my autocracy
simply consisting in always doing what I think to be right,
without regard to consequences, and the result being, as it
generally is, that, as I will not go over to others, others
come over to me. I have a strong feeling that I will not
belong to a society from which my Saviour and my God
is virtually excluded. I belonged to a rather good library
and reading room in this town, from which I withdrew on
that account, viz. that no religious books were admissible ;
the object of course being to obtain the support of all
sects. I did not state, and have not stated, this to be my
reason, but simply retired, not having sufficiently examined
the subject to urge the principle upon others ; but the
more I reflect on it, the more inclined I am to think that
I am right. An express exclusion of the Master we serve
ought to be a virtual exclusion of ourselves. I mention
this because I should like to know whether and what you
have to object to it. If things go on as they now are, I
shall be obliged in self-defence to assert my principles.
Our position is this ; we are accused of intolerance and I
know not what all for not having acted with the Mechanics'
Institute ; and as to religious works it is asked, Why
could not the Rev. Autocrat establish a Church lending
library } and we are assailed with all manner of abuse.
Now, it certainly seems to me that the intolerance is all
on the other side ; for it is intolerance to try to compel
another, no matter how, whether by ridicule, abuse, or
force, to walk in my way ; but it is not intolerance for me
to refuse to walk in the same path with another if I dis-
-1837 Letters, 1S29-1S36. 283
agree with him, or if I cannot conscientiously do so. You
are kind enough to ask how my sermon went off at Oxford,
and I hope by the attention that is paid to me, that by
the blessing of a good God my labours in the University
will not be vain. My brother was there, and he was
told that the church was fuller than it had ever been since
's memorable sermon, in which he attacked the
Church just before he quitted our communion. It was
indeed a grand and imposing sight, as one stood in the
pulpit, and until I got well into my subject I was very
nervous and, as I was afterwards told, looked deadly pale.
From the pulpit you see nothing but men, and the black
gowns give a sombre appearance to the scene. There is
too, a most awful silence, occasioned doubtless by the
absence of children, and of the rustling of silks and satins.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Justification — Neglect of Primitive
Tradition — Interpretation of Scripture.
March 25, 1836.
, , . . Since I wrote yesterday I have found that the
prayer you object to is found verbatim in Bishop Andrewes'
devotions ; nor did he seem to anticipate the shadow of
an objection to it. The fact is, in his time the tra-
dition of our Church was much purer and more primitive
than it has been since the Rebellion. It is perhaps now
peculiarly erroneous, from the fact that those who stirred
up the religious feelings in the country about fifty years
dgo, and their successors the Evangelicals or popular
party have gone, not to the fountain head, not to the
tradition as it was set a-flowing by the Apostles, and
jealously watched and guarded by the primitive Church,
but merely to the doctors of the Reformation, who, how-
ever praiseworthy in their resistance to Popery, were not
of course armed at all points, and were better skilled most
of them to pull down than to build up. The doctrine may
be best stated perhaps by altering the terms ; Justification
is by faith alone, the salvation of the justified by works,
284 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
founded upon faith, and wrought through the influence of
the Holy Ghost. No one may approach the Father but
through the Son. He who is brought to the Father by
the Son is permitted to make the offering of good works,
which, knowing his own impotence, he implores the Holy
Ghost to enable him to perform. Thus did the traditional
religion of the Primitive Church accord with all parts of
Scripture, whereas the modern ultra-Protestant ideas so
ill accord with Scripture as a whole that Luther actually
rejected the Epistle of St. James, thus in fact condemning
the ultra-Protestant notion of justification by faith as
unscriptural. And in these days for one that preaches
justification by works, there are a hundred that preach
justification by faith alone. Yet St. James expressly tells
us that we are justified by works ; why reject St. James
more than St. Paul .-* The consequence of modern teaching
has been high pretensions, but much lax morality, much
fanaticism with little mortification, but the consequences
are not the consideration ; the question is simply. What
has been revealed .■* To ascertain what has been revealed,
it is I apprehend necessary, first, to discover what the Uni-
versal Church taught, when the means existed of ascer-
taining this fact ; and then to see whether this tradition is
confirmed by Scripture. If it be, then I conceive we may
be sure that we have the truth. We shall only err if we
assert as truth what I, an individual teacher, think that
Scripture means. What / think the Scripture means, an
Arian or Socinian may not think. I do not blame anyone
for holding to the modern doctrine ; for in point of fact
most persons must receive their doctrines in the first
instance from tradition, from what their teachers tell them,
adhering to them if they appear to be proved by Scripture,
rejecting them only if they are directly contrary to
Scripture. But those who are able or have time to
examine more deeply, to ascertain what was the traditional
teaching in the Apostolic age, they are bound to correct
the erroneous tradition of their own age. Thus it was that
I said in my preface, the prayers published by me would
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 285
not accord with the religious feelings of the present time ;
ergo, I stand a chance of being abused, but it is my duty to
throw my drop into the stream which is purifying the
tradition of the time.
To IV. P. Wood, Esq. — A Drifter into Romanism — Trans-
viissive Religion.
April 18, 1836.
.... And now for Minchln. I predict that he will be-
come a Romanist, because his affections are engaged on
that side. He is disgusted with the illiberality of ultra-Pro-
testants, which is doubtless great, but he does not perceive
the illiberality of Romanism, which is yet greater. See par-
ticularly Pope Pius's Creed and the Canons of Trent ; this
one-sided view of that question shows the predilection, and
when that is the case, Romanism has much to say for
itself My opinion is that God intends that religion shall
be as the general rule transmissive ; and that we are to
take the religion we inherit, and examine it by the Scrip-
tures, adhering to it if we find the Scriptures in great
degree confirming what we have received, correcting and
improving what was deficient in our father's creed or
practice; but in doubtful cases interpreting Scripture so
as to lean to the side of our ancestors ; thus using our
reason, but acting with humility. This makes it important
for us never for the sake of peace to shrink from the asser-
tion of truth, since it is most important to make the tradi-
tional religion of our country what it ought to be. Now it
appears to me that to Minchin very little religion was
transmitted ; what he learned was very imperfectly learned
at Winchester. He has lived chiefly abroad, and there the
religion transmitted to him has been Romanism ; it has
had attractions for him, and he is much in the condition of
a man who has been born and bred a Romanist. When he
examines, he will incline to the side of Romanism ; doubt-
ful points will receive force from this prejudice, he will
often see the weakness of an argument on our side, seldom
286 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
on the side of the Romanists. I think, however, the best
book you can send him at present is a Httle work I re-pub-
lished a few years ago with notes. * Friendly Advice to the
Roman Catholics.' It is by the celebrated Dean Comber,
and is written in a very mild, conciliatory tone. If this
makes an impression, I will think of some other works for
his edification. I like your idea of Hooker ; it is always
better to explain the nature of true Churchism than to
make a decided attack on Romanism ; to assert the truth
than to combat error. Palmer has a work in the press,
perhaps the most important on this subject since the days
of Hooker, and intended to meet the modern objections of
Romanism ; I wish it were out. You know I am an un-
flinching asserter of what I believe to be the truth, regard-
less of persons and consequences, and I am therefore called
illiberal and bigoted, &c. But I never condemn an indivi-
dual who piously belongs to the system I may censure and
oppose. I would stay the progress of an erroneous system,
even sometimes when I should refrain from seeking to
make a proselyte of one who belongs to the system ; for
unless that proselyte can be made by sound reasoning, you
gain nothing by winning him, and perhaps injure his own
character ; saving that you secure the better education of
his children, which is sometimes to be considered. I can
thus oppose Romanism, but love a Romanist ; and I
should rejoice to renew my acquaintance with old Toody,
of whom I can never think without affection ; even though
we could not prevail upon him not to take this false step,
to which, as I conceive, I can trace the circumstances
which led him.
To a Young Clergyman — Opinion on Lay Baptism — Advice
about Private Life — Treatment of Dissenters.
Leamington : July 27, 1836.
My dear , — The question you propose is a difficult
one to answer. So far as argument goes, it appears to nie
that the line of argument adopted by you is correct, and
-iS37 Letters, 1 829-1836. 287
lay baptism ought not to be considered valid. But I am
inclined to think that the practice of the Catholic Church
has been on the other side, and that lay baptism, though
considered uncanonical, improper, and much to be censured,
has not been treated as invalid. When heretics were
received into the Church they were not baptised, but con-
firmed, and by the act of confirmation the previous unca-
nonical act was made canonical. But here we may observe
that all the ancient heretics had, in some sense, the
Apostolical succession : they had Bishops, though not
canonical ones. To this, however, it is replied that hereti-
cal orders were never regarded as valid. In short, the
whole subject is a difficult one. Some divines make a
distinction between toy, and unaiitJiorised baptism, lay bap-
tism when the Bishop sanctions it being accounted valid,
but Dissenting baptism, not having secured the episcopal
sanction, invalid. The Church in this country, from the
period of the Reformation, and indeed before that time,
till the reign of James I., undoubtedly sanctioned lay
baptism by licensing midwives to baptise. When that
rubric was altered and we were directed to send for a minis-
ter, it would seem to decide that it ought to be a ministe-
rial act. I remember two strong instances in the primitive
Church on the other side. St. Athanasius was baptised by
his playfellows in sport, and this baptism was deemed
sufficient ; and so was that of an actor who was baptised
in the regular form on the stage in a play written to ridi-
cule Christianity.
Being removed from all my books I cannot enter more
fully into the subject, but you will see it incidentally dis-
cussed in Dr. Pusey's admirable treatise on Holy Baptism,
published among the Oxford Tracts, to which I particularly
invite your attention. You may consult also on the one
side Lawrence, on the Invalidity of Lay Baptism, and on
the other Bingham's ' Scholastic History of Lay Baptism.*
As to the practical point I am in the habit of telling people
that at least there is some doubt on the subject, and if they
received lay baptism and are fearful on that account, I use
288 Life of Walici" Farqiihar Hook. 1S29
the conditional form, ' If thou hast not been before baptised,'
&c., as found at the end of our Baptismal Service, and this
is the course pursued by the Bishops and clergy in Scot-
land when persons come over to them from the Established
Church. . . . You may depend upon it that nothing is to
be done in a parish without a patient care of the schools.
It is by patience only, a patient continuance in well-doing,
that you will be able to make your present situation an
agreeable one, always remembering that permanent comfort
and happiness are not intended for this world. Peace is
the reward of our labours here, in the world to come, pur-
chased for us by our Lord. You must also remember that
you let many precious years pass by, to say the least of it,
in carelessness, for which you ought to make up by humili-
ation, mortification, and other holy exercises. If you have
not strength of mind to do this for yourself, you ought to
pray that God may take the discipline of you into His own
hands — that he may so order things that your pride and
vanity may be mortified, that while in His hands you are
an instrument of good you may not for a season witness
the effects of your labours. To a man who ought like you
to seek for mortification, who ought to take the lowest seat
at the heavenly banquet, I should say that your present
situation because tinpleasant is a very proper one. And
perhaps it may be well after a week of such fasting and
prayer to ask earnestly and seriously why it is unpleasant.
Seek not the pretext but the real reason of your present
discontent. Particularly be sure that vanity, pride, pre-
sumption have nothing to do with it. I mention these
faults as being those of young men very frequently which
can easily be masked by an appearance of religious zeal.
I sincerely hope as you say that the cause of Catholi-
cism is prospering everywhere, though I am inclined to take
a less sanguine view of our present position than you do.
As to Dissenters I literally know nothing of them. You
speak of a schism among the Methodists. I am sorry to
hear of it ; for all schisms, even schisms among schis-
matics, engender bad feelings. Sure I am that we shall
-i837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 289
not profit by any such evil deeds. Those who quit Dissent-
ing congregations are far more likely to turn infidels than
Churchmen. A true Churchman will feel that to him a
high trust is committed, viz, the preservation of God's
truth. It may be that in maintaining God's truth he may
have to fight single-handed against a multitude. Still he
will be unmoved. In God's good time His Holy Spirit will
bring over the people to the side of His truth, and till that
time comes we must keep our souls in patience. One of
the worst things a man can do is to try and make converts,
one of the next is to attack Dissenters, or to have anything
whatever to do with them. Keep aloof from Dissenters as
persons of a different religion, and try to build up the two
or three God sends to you in the principles of the Holy
Catholic Church,
I could say much more, but want of room prevents my
so doing.
Believe me to be, my dear ^
Your faithful and sincere friend.
To his Wife, during a Tour in the Autumn of 1836 %vith a
Lady and Gentleman in the North of England.
I was amused with something Mrs. B. told me on the
way, which accounts for a very warm reception I met with
at the inn at Matlock, The landlord's daughter there
gazed on me with an admiration which much perplexed
me. The servants followed the mistress's example, I was
removed to the best room in the inn, and everybody
seemed delighted to serve me. They had caught my
name, and the fair daughter of the landlord said to Mrs.
B., * Excuse me, ma'am, but I suppose Mr. Hook is the
great Mr. Hook.' ' Yes,' said Mrs. B. * Ah ! ' said the fair
Maid of the Inn, ' I have just been reading his beautiful
work " Gilbert Gurney." ' ' Oh ! ' quoth Mrs. B., ' this Mr.
Hook is nephew to that Mr. Hook ; and though his works
VOL. I. U
290 Life of Walter Fai'qtihar Hook. 1829-
are very celebrated, they are of a different kind ; ' but, alas !
my friend confesses that the young lady was sadly dis-
appointed.
To a yoimg clergyman — Study and Dissenters.
Coventry : November 2, 1836.
My dear Friend, — I have just received your delightful
and gratifying letter, and though I am rather overwhelmed
with my correspondence, having sometimes to write eight or
nine letters in a day, I shall always be glad to hear from you
if you will kindly permit me to take my own time for my
answer. I say this because it may occasionally be agree-
able to you, living in such retirement as you do, to open
your mind to a friend. But I must protest against your
speaking of me in the terms you do ; I can only aid you
by having a little more experience and having experienced
all those evils which you have to lament, and by being
able, in consequence, to sympathise with you while I offer
advice. . . . There are two points in your letter to which
I must now address myself.
It seems clear to me, in the first place, that you require
some hard study ; something rather dry. If you were near
a library, with plenty of time, I would mark out a course
for you. As it is, I recommend you to read through Bing-
ham's ' Antiquities,' to be followed by Palmer's * Origines
Liturgicae,' and then I would have you go on with Jeremy
Collier's ' Ecclesiastical History of England.' By these
means you will lay in a vast store of useful information ;
you will be giving to yourself a habit of study, and you will
overcome a habit of self-indulgence which may creep on
us even in our studies. During the first seven years that I
was in orders, I was a hard student, and I used to rise at
four o'clock in the morning. This, perhaps, would not suit
you, but when you are at these studies, it might be well
to read standing, or in a part of the room far from the fire.
This keeps up attention, and is a little useful bodily disci-
►I 837 Letters, 1829-1836. 291
pllne. I agree with you as to what you say with respect
to works on personal devotion in your particular case.
Your heart is right, and what you now chiefly want is self-
discipline.
In the next place, if the Methodists do attend church,
and do not attend meeting, they are clearly not Dissenters.
The original Methodists under Wesley were on very many
points much to be admired. Their doctrine of Perfection
is good, and has been of great use against the prevailing
Calvinism of the day. I am afraid that in my last I did
not express myself quite clearly. What I mean is this,
that we ought to look with a single eye to the truth, not
to the filling of our churches, and decreasing Dissent or
anything else. What we are required as preachers to do is,
to declare all the counsel of God, reckless of consequences.
If people take offence, they must do so ; if not, then give
God the praise. Our business is to state fairly the tradition
of the Church as it is preserved in our Ritual, Liturgy, and
Articles (learned men go to the fountain-head at once, the
primitive Church), and then to prove that the tradition of
the Church is scriptural. We receive our religion from the
Church, wQp'ove our religion from the Bible.
Your affectionate Friend.
I would advise you always to read with a pen in your
hand, noting down everything remarkable in a common-
place book.
To the Rev. T. H. Tragett—How to Refit a Church-
Catechising,
Coventry : November 5, 1836.
.... And now let me congratulate you on your
parish — I wish it were entirely your own, as it is unpleasant
to depend on the life of another ; I have often dreamed
of retiring upon just such a parish; about 2,000 people.
Yours is doubtless a holy ambition, to make your little
parish a perfect model of what a parish ought to be ; such
U 2
292 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1829-
a parish I have in Utopia, and I will tell you what I would
do with it. If the walls of the church are strong, I would
gut it. I would beg of my friends and acquaintance till I
obtained 200/. (if you should think of anything like this,
come to me for i/. \s.\ I would then entirely refit the
interior, having no pews, and erecting in the chancel an
open seat, like one of the stalls in a cathedral, for my
reading-pew. I would then observe who were regular
attendants at church, and at Christmas give them a good
dinner. This would soon increase the congregation, and
why should we not act thus } Our Blessed Lord fed the
five thousand before he began to teach them ; and if we
can bribe people to hear us, they may afterwards stay
without a bribe. But indeed, with such a parish you might
give them all a good dinner of roast beef and plum-
pudding, for as much as two dinners to your equals would
cost ; and the surest way to men's hearts, as old Hamond
used to say, is down their throats ; and when you have
their hearts they will patiently hear you, while you endea-
vour to cure their souls. As to the children, they are cer-
tainly the first and grand consideration. Vou say you are
a wretched catechist, but the art of catechising does not,
any more than that of reading and writing, come by nature ;
but to become a good catechist you must catechise, and it is
astonishing how rapid is the improvement, both on the
part of the catechiser and the catechised. It is important
to have by heart the answers in Grossman and Lewis, and
the books with which the children are acquainted, so that
when the questions you have put in other words are unan-
swered, you may fall back on those they have by rote, and
so shame the fools. And the first boy or girl who smiles
at any little pleasantry of which you may be guilty, will
deserve a reward, as giving proof that the intellect is begin-
ning to thaw, I have found it best to stick to the Church
Catechism, as by a little skill you can put questions from
all the books they may have learnt, without much forcing ;
one question leads to another. It is impossible, however,
to draw too largely on the bank of stupidity, and the same
-1837 Letters, 1 829-1 836. 293
questions must come perpetually over and over again ;
Henderson on the Catechism is a work which will give you
some invaluable hints. You ask what I did at Whipping-
ham and Moseley : I laboured much at my schools, and
never missed an attendance there all day on the Fridays,
when I examined all the classes ; only catechising in church
in Lent. I was younger then than I am now, and I should
now catechise in church under any circumstances, under
the expectation of receiving greater grace, and under the
conviction that the fact of their being examined in church
impresses it on the minds of the children that it is not
knowledge, but religious knowledge, that they come to
receive. In Coventry', I can only get the lower orders to
attend, but next spring, (d.v.) Augusta will be catechised
with the rest, and I hope this example will have good
effect. At Whippingham and Moseley my schools cost me
a mint of money ; not much less than 20/. a year, for I
established a system of tickets, which came to a great deal.
This was folly, but my schools there were my hobby ; still
at first it is well worth while to incur some expense ; for it
is astonishing how it quickens the wits, and the attention
to find that attention has a marketable value. Here, again,
I act on the system that we may begin with giving the
loaves and fishes : thence, when you have secured atten-
tion, you may proceed to higher principles, and gradually
drop the bribing plan ; for once get an active stirring spirit
in a school, and it will remain.
Your affectionate Friend.
From W. P. Wood, Esq. to W. F. Hook— On the Death of
his Infant Boy.
Lincoln's Inn : December 23, 1836.
.... It is a great comfort to know that you are thus
upheld in the hour of need. Doubtless our God is a ' very
present help in trouble,* and it should be at once a confirm-
ation of our faith and an exhortation to abide in it when
294 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook.
we see that so severe a dispensation can be softened and
tempered to you both. I sometimes ask myself under
such trials, what would my situation be if I believed not in
a hereafter ? I am not at all surprised that the heathen
should have so often resorted to self-destruction. But to
the Christian the heaviest afHiction is but a cloud, or at the
most but as a thick mist, and if he cannot always see that
God hath ' set his bow in the cloud,' yet he knows that the
hour of the power of darkness is measured, while his hope
is unbounded as eternity. ' Heaviness may endure for a
night, but joy cbmeth in the morning.' . . . One sometimes
feels it a happiness to be permitted to retire from the bustle
of life under domestic affliction, though of course such
feelings must not be indulged beyond very moderate limits,
as we are readily tempted to sink into morbid indolence.
The daily labour we are called upon to perform seems mer-
cifully ordered in a world where death prevails, to tear away
our minds from too deep and overpowering a sorrow for the
dead, and to divert them also from an appalling fear of death.
The poor, who have so much to contend with, find, I have no
doubt, great relief in the necessity of constant occupation.
You will have a comfort which none but those of your
vocation can enjoy, that while your occupation will allay
your sorrow, it will not tend to separate you from God. For
the great danger with men of other professions is that they
will try to bully their feelings by over-activity and bustle ;
and instead of casting their cares upon God, try to for-
get them, and in the experiment too frequently end by
forgetting Him also.
The Election to Leeds. 295
CHAPTER V.
THE ELECTION TO THE VICARAGE OF LEEDS, 1 837.
In the year 1836 Mr. William Page Wood and his
wife paid a visit to the Vicar of Trinity at Coventry.
Soon after their return to London they were invited
by Dr. Williamson, the Head Master of Westminster
School, to meet a barrister from Leeds, Mr. Robert
Hall, who had recently taken a house in Dean's
Yard, where they also at that time resided. When
the day for dining at Dr. Williamson's arrived, Mr.
Wood was unable, owing to a feverish cold, to fulfil
his engagement, and his wife was very unwilling to
leave him, but knowing that ladies would be wanted
to make up the party, she thought it would be selfish
to decline at the last moment. At dinner she sat
next to Mr. Hall. He was not only an agreeable
and able man, who had taken first-class honours at
Oxford, but a zealous Churchman, and he therefore
listened with interest to an account which Mrs. Wood
gave of the great and good work which had been,
and was being, done by her husband's friend at
Coventry. To this conversation so accidental, as it
would be carelessly called, so nearly being missed
owing to the reluctance of one of the parties to leave
home on that particular evening, the appointment of
Mr. Hook to the Vicarage of Tweeds was, under
296 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
God, primarily due, so that to the end of his life he
was accustomed to call Mrs. Wood his ' patroness ' ;
and that the wife of his deeply beloved friend should
have been unconsciously instrumental in sending
him to the place where he did his greatest work and
won his greatest fame, was a circumstance on which
he reflected with delight to the end of his life.
In January 1837, a few months after the meeting
just mentioned with Mr. Hall, the Vicar of Leeds,
Dr. Fawcett, somewhat suddenly died. The patron-
age of the living is vested in twenty-five trustees.
The senior trustee at that time was Mr. Henry
Hall, father of Mr. Robert Hall, who also himself
was a junior member of the body. No sooner had
Mr. Robert Hall heard of the death of Dr. Fawcett
than his mind reverted to the description which he
had heard of the hard-working Vicar of Coventry.
He is the man for Leeds, thought Mr. Hall, if he
is all that he has been represented to be. So he
instantly hastened to Coventry, verified by private
enquiry and observation the account which he had
received of the man and his work, and on his return
called upon Mr. Wood to tell him that if his friend
would become a candidate for the vacant living he
would do his utmost to secure his election. But he
added that great opposition must be expected, as
Mr. Hook belonged to a school in the Church totally
different in thought, feeling, and practice from any
which prevailed in Leeds, a school, moreover, which
at that time, owing to its supposed connexion with
the ' Oxford movement,' was regarded with peculiar
suspicion. Mr. Hall, therefore, was anxious that no
time should be lost in ascertaining whether he would
The Election to Leeds. 297
consent to be a candidate for the living, in order
that the largest possible number of testimonials
might be got together from persons representing
various shades of opinion in the Church. How the
application was made and received will be seen
from the following letter to Mr. Wood. The
absence of Mrs. Hook, who was staying with her
mother, increased the difficulty of coming to an
immediate decision.
Coventry : February 22, 1837.
My dearest Friend, .... On Sunday I received,
quite unexpectedly, from Oxford a letter stating that I
had been recommended in several quarters to the trustees
of the Vicarage of Leeds, and that the trustees wished
to ascertain through my kind friend Dr. Barnes, Sub-dean
of Christ Church, whether, if the living were offered to
me, I would accept it. It is a great calamity to be
separated from Delicia at such a moment ; but, in order
that we might communicate with one another by letter,
I took two or three days to consider the business, and I
have now written to say that if offered the appointment I
would accept it, but that I should decline presenting my-
self as a candidate, or adopting any steps for procuring it.
My rule has been this, not to shrink from any duties to
which I may be providentially called, having full reliance
on the grace of my Saviour ; on the other hand, in humble
distrust of myself, not to seek any responsible office.
Delicia tells me that, if our family increase, we cannot go
on long as we now do, and that if her health fail we have
not the means of educating our children according to their
condition ; I see, too, that her anxiety lest we should not
be able to make the two ends of the year meet is weighing
on her health and spirits ; so that I think I am justified
in the step I have taken. Leeds is valued at 1,257/., the
average of three years before the last Parliamentary returns.
If I do not obtain the appointment, my pride will be morti-
fied, a very good thing ; I was not aware of the existence
298 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
of the evil passion in me till on self-examination, I found
that my chief wish to obtain the living is to prevent the
mortification : it will be a good Lent exercise therefore.
If I get it it will be sad, not only to quit a people whom
I love, and by whom I am loved, but to leave many kind
friends ; and not least, to move far away from those still
loved remains, which are deposited in Trinity Church.
From you and yours, to be removed 190 miles, will be like
banishment ; I confess that the objections were so strong
on my mind that I had fully determined to refuse the
thing out and out, but Delicia, together with her mother
and sister, urged the thing upon me, and I have done as
I have said. I am sore perplexed ; — I dread the thing.
Did I ever tell you that the Bishop of Worcester told
our friend. Lord Eastnor, that there were two livings
likely to be soon vacant, to the first of which he would
present me ? St. Philip's, Birmingham, is one, the other
I do not know ; I should like to wait for these birds in
the bush, for at my time of life, just forty, I do not like
breaking new ground.
The conflict of arguments and feelings in his own
mind v^ras so great that from the first he declared to
his wife the decision must rest with her, not with
himself.
I have, really and honestly speaking, (he writes to
her on March 2) no wish upon the subject. The worldly
considerations weigh not with me in the least. The only
thing that makes me hesitate to say no is this — there is
no Church feeling, no Catholic feeling, as I am informed
in that part of the country. People there do not know
what the Catholic Church is, and if I may be honoured as
an instrument to introduce Catholicism there, as I have
done here, I should feel that I have not lived entirely in
vain. Then on the other hand we must remember that I
should probably have a bad successor here : ' one who
* The Whig Ministry being then in office.
The Election to Leeds. 299
would undo all that I have been doing during eight years
of labour, so that when the one thing is weighed against
the other I think I should not be induced on these grounds
to make the change. You now know my feelings on the
subject : yours, I repeat, must lead to the decision, for it is
mere matter of feeling not of duty.
If our sweet boy had lived, perhaps the patronage
would have been a temptation, but now I cannot expect
to live to see a son of mine labouring in the service of the
beloved Church, so that is out of all consideration. To me
the agreeable part has taken place. I am very sensible of
the honour of having been singled out, without my having
the remotest intention of becoming a candidate ; and yet
these compliments are very humiliating. How humiliating
it is to find that the world thinks you better than you really
are; how much the conscience reproaches one on these
occasions. Perhaps I am more than usually sensible of this
from the self-examination to which this season of Lent
has led me. What a blessing, my dear love, it is, that
the Apostles and primitive Bishops appointed this season
for us to perform that duty which, if not compelled to do
it, we should, perhaps, put off and put off, and never per-
form.
Your devoted, adoring Lover.
His wife and her mother were in favour of his
consenting to be nominated as a candidate, and so
one step was gained. But the inflexible resolution
of the candidate on another point threatened to be a
formidable, if not fatal, obstacle to further progress.
He flatly refused to go to Leeds to present himself
to the trustees ; still less would he consent to preach
a ' trial sermon,' or canvass interest on his behalf, as
most of the other candidates had done. Here was
a dilemma which at first caused no small vexation
and perplexity to Mr. Robert Hall and his father,
300 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
and some of the other trustees whom he had inspired
with an enthusiastic desire equal to his own for the
election of his candidate. Mr. Wood, however,
suggested as a solution of the difficulty that some of
the trustees should go to Coventry unknown to the
Vicar, and he promised that he would not give his
friend any intimation of their visit. Some old people
in Coventry can remember the curiosity which was
excited on Sunday, March 12, 1837, by the appear-
ance in Trinity Church of six strange gentlemen at
the morning and evening services, who had requested
that they might be placed together in a position
favourable for hearing the reading and preaching of
the Vicar. Who they were and what they heard
will be learned from the following letter, written by
the Vicar the day after to Mr. Wood :
Coventry : March 13, 1837.
My dearest Friend, — Wearied with the labours of
yesterday I cannot write con spirito, but still I must make
you acquainted with the state of affairs. Yesterday
Coventry was filled with trustees, Hall, Becket, Gott,
Banks, Tennant, and one from the enemies' camp, Atkin-
son, to spy out the nakedness of the land.
They all in the morning spoke to me of what would
happen if I went to Leeds ; in the evening it was ' when
you go to Leeds.' Mr. Gott said, ' I suppose you must
be aware that many of the trustees are favourable to you.'
* Pooh, nonsense,' quoth Mr. Banks, ' you have the very
large majority,' The prudent Mr. Hall, however, only
reckons on twelve. But we were talking of Dr. Thorpe,
and Sheepshanks was saying something not quite compli-
mentary, when Mr. H. said, ' We will say nothing about
that, as we mean him to vote for us ; but he is not one of
the twelve certain.'
I verily believe that the sermon I delivered in the
The Election to Leeds. 301
evening, I wrote under the special direction of God ; it
was written quite extempore and in a hurry on the Satur-
day, but if I had laboured to preach at the trustees I
could not have done so well. You know I am preaching
on St. Matthew's Gospel, and the text that came to me
was Matthew xxiii. 8, 9, 10, when I was naturally led
to explain in a simple manner the impropriety of choosing
for an authority in religion either the Pope or a Protest-
ant Reformer, and how we took for our guidance, in
doubtful points, the customs of the first churches. This
explained to my friendly trustees (though I did not in
the least expect to see them) my views as they are, and
not as they are misrepresented. I then branched off into
a discourse on justification by faith, making the law our
rule of righteousness, but not our means of justification, in
a manner that could not but appease the fears of my
opposing visitor. One of the trustees, Mr. Gott, who
seemed very much impressed with the sermon, and asked
me to lend it, which I thought better to decline, said to
Sheepshanks, ' That sermon ought to be published.' ' Oh,'
exclaimed my enthusiastic partisan, 'if you think that, every
sermon preached every Sunday evening ought to be pub-
lished ; this is by no means the best we hear here.' Dear
good Sheepshanks is almost mad with zeal. With Mr.
Atkinson I had some conversation in the vestry ; of course
I could not give him entire satisfaction, but he was more
favourably impressed than he had been before ; I assured
him I did not hold the doctrine of Transubstantiation. He
is a nice, pleasant, well-informed man ; I told him that I
would not discuss, but I was fully convinced of the truth
of my principles, and would answer him any questions he
might like to ask. He cross-examined me, but in a pleasant,
gentlemanlike style.
The reader will perceive from the foregoing
letter that however much puzzled some members of
the congregation at Holy Trinity may have been
by the visit to their Church of six rather inquisitive
302 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
strangers, the Vicar himself was not equally taken
by surprise. The fact was that four out of the six
trustees had called upon him the night before, not
however so much to make known the purpose of
their coming to Coventry, as to entreat that he
would consent to go to Leeds for a few days, not to
preach, not to canvass, but merely to be seen. Mr.
Hall, indeed, had written to the same effect a few
days before, * The wish to hear you preach is given
up. I find that the opinion is gaining ground that
it is improper for a man to get up into a pulpit for
the purpose of preaching not Christ crucified, but
himself and his preferment. There is, however, a
strong wish to see you : some of the trustees have
declared their determination not to vote for a man
they have never seen.'
To these solicitations, which were backed by his
uncle, Archdeacon Hamilton, and Mr. Wood, he
yielded, and writes to the latter that he has accepted
the invitation to be the guest for two days of Mr.
Henry Hall, the senior trustee, *to exhibit my fat
carcase at Leeds, and I certainly look what the
people here call jolly.' But the prospect of the
tremendous responsibilities which would fall upon
him in the event of his election deterred him from
any enthusiasm in his own cause. * I feel interested
in my success,' he writes, 'as I should do in that of
the respectable Mr. Richard Roe or John Doe if
they were engaged in a contest, and I was of their
counsel. But when I think of the thing itself or the
pang of parting with old friends, and the annoyance
of breaking up new ground, my heart becomes sick,
and I ask why I consented to embark in this affair.'
The Election to Leeds. 303
Meanwhile those who were eager for his success
had collected a mass of testimony in his favour from
very various sources, in order to prove that he was
respected and admired not by one school or party
only in the Church, but by many, and had * won
golden opinions from all sorts of people.'
At the request of his friends he asked Sir
Robert Peel whether the letter which he had written
in answer to an appeal on behalf of the Religious
and Useful Knowledge Society,^ might be used as a
testimonial. To this he received the followine
reply. It was one of the few testimonials for which
he made personal application, and was probably one
of the most telling.
Whitehall : March i, 1837.
Sir, — You have my full permission to make whatever
use you please of the letter to which you refer. It contains
a sincere and disinterested testimony to your character
and acquirements, from one who has not the pleasure of
your personal acquaintance, and who had no conceivable
motive for bearing that testimony, excepting the firm
impression that you had, as a preacher and minister of
religion, essentially served the cause of religion and of
charity, in two great manufacturing towns, and under
circumstances of no ordinary difficulty, by a rare combina-
tion of ability, firmness, and devotion to the duties of your
spiritual office.
I am Sir, with much respect, your faithful Servant,
Robert Peel.
One of the warmest testimonials was from the
Bishop of Lichfield, Dr. Butler, formerly Head
Master of Shrewsbury, a man of critical mind, and
not addicted to lavish praise.
' Quoted above, p. 180.
304 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
As a parochial minister he is considered an example,
not only in the district to which he belongs, but far be-
yond it, of what an indefatigable, pious, and strictly con-
scientious clergyman ought to be. His immense church
at Coventry I have witnessed full to overflowing. He has
inspired into that large parish under his care, containing
about 10,000 inhabitants, quite a new life ; and the ex-
ample has widely spread through the city, which is be-
coming full of attachment to the Church, though previously
remarkable for Dissent. I may appear to have written
strongly, but I am quite sure I have written only the
truth, and I ought to say that in political opinions Mr.
Hook and I do not perfectly agree ; you may, therefore,
feel assured that I have not been influenced in my testi-
mony by any party feeling.
Mr. Le Bas pronounced him to be 'the fittest
man in England to preside over such a parish as
Leeds. Let Coventry and Birmingham be appealed
to. If the former place is silent, it would only be
because it could not raise its voice without danger
of losing the spiritual guide who has bowed the
hearts of his congregation towards him as the heart
of one man.'
Mr. Keble wrote, * I was acquainted with Mr.
Hook when he was an undergraduate at Christ
Church, and I believe that his conduct was then as
blameless and exemplary, as his heart was unques-
tionably always open and generous. Since that
time I have not often met him, but I have read his
publications, and I should say that for eloquent
persuasiveness, and soundness of principle, they
certainly rank among the first of the age, to say
nothing of the rare theological learning which they
exhibit. As a preacher I need only refer you to the
The Election to Leeds. 305
fact that no one draws such crowded congregations
among the young men of Oxford :- no bad test,
perhaps, of the quahties which make a person
effective in that duty.'
A large number of the clergy in Coventry and
the neighbourhood signed an earnest declaration of
their affection and esteem. * We have witnessed In
him,' they said, ' a combination of ability, zeal, and
spiritual-mindedness in the discharge of his parochial
duties such as is seldom met with, and we see the
fruits of it in a very greatly increased and increasing
attendance in his parish upon public worship and
the Lord's Supper. The younger portion of us
have looked up to him in every duty as an exemplar,
and in every difficulty as a kind and faithful guide,
and those amongst us who are his contemporaries
or his seniors have beheld with heartfelt respect
and approbation his apostolic zeal for his Master's
glory.' This collective testimony from the clergy
was clenched by a private letter to the trustees from
his great friend Mr. Tragett, who had held a cure
in Coventry. ' The clergy,' he writes, * of the city
of Coventry and its extensive neighbourhood looked
up to him as their head and chief ; and his learning,
wisdom, and discretion formed the bond of union
and zealous co-operation by which we were all
enabled to act in harmony amongst ourselves, and
to the general benefit of the community.'
Such are a few specimens out of a great multitude
of testimonials which poured in thick and fast from
persons of various positions in the Church.
There was one enthusiastic partisan, however,
whose zealous activity occasioned some anxiety and
VOL. I. X
3o6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
annoyance to him for whose benefit it was intended.
Mr. Theodore Hook announced his intention of
writing to Sir John Beckett, who had great influence
in Leeds, on behalf of his nephew. The nephew
deprecated the appHcation, and suggested that it
should at least be made through Mr. Croker, a
common friend, rather than directly by Mr. Theo-
dore Hook himself. But the uncle was not to be
thwarted, and replied to the remonstrance in the
following characteristic letter : —
I dare say I have done wrong — I don't care if I have.
I am sure I haven't done harm. I really don't see why /
should not write to Sir John, or why I should ask Croker
to ask him. I do their jobs : why the deuce should they
not do mine } It is not as if I asked them to prop up a
stupid, ill-conditioned cur, because he happened to be my
relation. It is / who do them a favour in giving them the
opportunity of getting such a clergyman. If you are angry,
I can't help it. I will have my own way, so I don't care.
.... Come now, none of your nonsense — don't be angry
and look cross ; the mouse may do good to the lion.
The last clause in this letter indicates the humble
respect and almost reverence with which the cele-
brated humourist regarded his clerical nephew. His
was a warm-hearted and generous disposition, sus-
ceptible also of religious feelings, and capable of
admiring and envying in others that strength of
moral purpose which was unhappily too much lacking
in himself
The supporters of Mr. Hook had good reason
for making very strenuous efforts on his behalf In
the first place there were many competitors, the
most formidable being Mr. Molesworth and Mr
The Election to Leeds. 307
Hugh Stovvell, and they had been present in the
town and had i)rcached in several of the churches
long before Mr. Hook had been brought forward as
a candidate. The election was to take place on
March 20, and it was not till the beginning of March
that his name appeared in the published lists of
candidates. And then a fierce storm of opposition
burst forth, and every endeavour was made to pre-
judice and intimidate the electors. The * Record *
wrote in an agony of alarm, and sought to persuade
the religious world that he was a very monster of
Tractarian iniquity. * He professed that kind of
modified popery with which the ** Tracts for the
Times " were filled. For his fierce bigotry and
intolerance he could be compared only with Laud :
he consigned all Dissenters to the uncovenanted
mercies of God, and denied the right of private
judgment, which the " Record " considered the fun-
damental principle of the Reformation. A Jesuit in
disguise could not do more mischief to the Esta-
blishment than one who in spirit and doctrine
seemed as if he had been brought up within the
Holy Inquisition.' In short, it would be impossible
to imagine an appointment more fraught with disaster
to Leeds and to the Church of England.
These pleasant remarks in the * Record ' were
followed by a sharp attack in the * Christian Ob-
server,' directed against his statements in two of
his Oxford sermons on the value of Catholic tra-
dition and the authority of the Church. Feeble as
the criticism was, his supporters dreaded the effect
it might produce on the minds of some of the
trustees, especially as it insinuated that his views
X 2
3o8 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
were identical with those expressed in the * Tracts
for the Times,' and it was thought expedient that Mr.
Wood should address a letter to one of the Trustees,
exposing the fallacies and misrepresentations of the
article. ' The reviewer,' he writes, * maintains that
the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of
Protestants.' In one sense we all agree in this.
All admit that nothing is to be believed which
cannot bear the test of Scripture. In another sense
it is not admitted by the reviewer himself, for in
disputed points he says, * We will refer to nothing
but the Bible and our own authorised formtilaries^
What are these but the creeds, articles, catechism,
&c. ? Is not the catechism taught to children before
they can themselves deduce it from the Bible, and is
not this transmissive religion ? The reviewer talks
of our putting the Bible to the humble office of
confirming opinion. The office of an umpire in
settling disputes is not considered a humble one. If
each man is to be his own interpreter, you may have
Muggletonians "et hoc genus omne" without end, and
" quot homines tot sententise." The Oxford men do
not say the Church is infallible, but they believe that
the Holy Spirit is promised to the Church : they
believe the Church consists of men united in a faith
which is cemented by well-approved formularies
handed down from age to age. The Church may
err ; but the chances of error in the case of indi-
viduals are infinitely greater.*
As the time for the election drew nearer, the
strife of parties in Leeds waxed very hot. The
papers were filled with all kinds of statements, true
and false, concerning the candidates, and the trustees
The Election to Leeds. 309
were inundated with letters, many of them anony-
mous, until it was not easy to keep their heads clear
or their tempers cool. Those who were known to
be favourable to Mr. Hook, especially Mr. Robert
Hall, were subjected to the most severe inquisitorial
examinations respecting his character and opinions
by the evangelical leaders in Leeds. Mr. Hall in
one of his letters gives a specimen of a cross-ques-
tioning which he endured. What were Mr. Hook's
opinions on baptismal regeneration ? Did he preach
the necessity of a converted heart ? Did he make
justification and sanctification prominent points in
his preaching, or did he merely concede them } Did
he support the Church Missionary Society ? Was
he of holy life and conversation ? Of course he did
not play cards or countenance gay amusements
himself, but did he permit his family to do so ? and
so on for nearly two hours, until Mr. Hall's patience
was fairly worn out, and he declined to be tormented
any longer.
Mr. Hook himself was so much distressed at
having become the occasion of contention and ill-
will that about this time he announced his intention
of withdrawing from the contest, in the following
letter to Mr. Robert Hall :—
Dear Sir, — I send a line, though in the greatest haste,
to acknowledge and to thank you for your kind letter.
This is necessary, because tv/o or three days may elapse
before I can obtain a sight of the * Christian Observer,*
which no person, that I can hear of, in this neighbourhood
takes in, and which was lately expelled from our Clerical
Society on account of the loicJiristian spirit, as it seemed
to us, in which it was conducted, especially on account of
3IO Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
its abuse of that good man, my dear friend, the late Bishop
Jebb. Although I have never written any of the Oxford
Tracts, nor indeed, have read them all, still, I am known
to be a High Churchman, and it is not wonderful that I
should be attacked by the ' Christian Observer,' which is
the organ of Low Churchism or No Churchism.
But it may be necessary for me, when I have read the
articles to which you refer, to trouble you with a few
remarks in vindication of my character, and it will then be
my wish to retire from this unpleasant contest. I consider
it due to you, my dear sir, and to my friend Wood, not
to take this step without your sanction. I wrote to him
on the subject yesterday ; and I now state to you what
my wish and, unless you prohibit it, my intention is. I
thank God that my circumstances are independent, and
I am very happy here. When I was brought forward
as a candidate on this occasion, I felt anxious for my
success, because it is my nature to take an eager interest
in any business in which I am engaged. But I am very
unwilling to cause dissension among the trustees. I do
not choose to have my peace of mind disturbed by the
abuse of anonymous assailants, and I am unwilling to
place myself in a situation which may give rise in me to
those angry feelings which I condemn in my opponents.
I am now able to retire without a feeling of regret, with-
out bearing ill-will to anyone, with a sense of obligation
to the trustees in general and with feelings of gratitude
towards you which will, I hope, ripen into a lasting friend-
ship. I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble,
and I will endeavour to repay you for it by using all the
influence I possess in favour of that candidate who is con-
sidered by you fittest for the situation.
Believe me to be, my dear Sir, with every sentiment of
gratitude and respect,
Your obliged and faithful servant.
The Election to Leeds. ' 311
His friends, however, unanimously insisted on his
retracting this decision. ' We must, if possible,' wrote
Mr. Robert Hall, * have the best man in the king-
dom for Vicar of Leeds : you must therefore suffer
me for the present to consider you as not having
retired from the contest.' And Mr. Henry Hall
wrote to the same effect : * Attempts have been made
to force upon us some clergymen of the Low Church
party, and, in furtherance of this object, exceptions
have been made to some of your doctrinal views ;
but I assure you the misrepresentations of the
" Christian Observer " have produced no effect on
the majority of the trustees ; we are convinced that
you will faithfully preach the Gospel to our people
(this is what they look for, regardless of party
names), and that you will by your *' preaching and
living " stop the mouths of all gainsayers.' And
Mr. Wood restored the calmness of his friend by
dwelling on higher considerations. * We will not
do those who have shown so much kindly feel-
ing the injustice of supposing they will be turned
from their good purpose by an anonymous attack.
If we have trusted the event sufficiently to God,
nothi7iz ouc^ht to disturb us : if we are but conscious
that we otirselves have not occasioned failure, either
by negligence in proper exertion, or by undue eager-
ness, then the result will be right and good, and no
scribbling in reviews or anything else can alter the
case.*
Not long after this, in compliance with the
request of the deputation which went to Coventry,
Mr. Hook paid his visit to Leeds, and on Wednes-
day, March 15, he was introduced to the trustees at
312 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
their weekly meeting in the vestry of the parish
church. The following letters refer to the event : —
First Visit to Leeds — Machinations of the Hostile Party.
My dearest Friend, — I send just one line to say that
I have returned from my northern expedition in good case.
I wish I had gone to Leeds before, for my mind is now
quite at ease. If I am to stay here, the comfort, a
little quiet, and the regular routine of my duties, will be
delightful ; if I am to go to Leeds, now that I have recon-
noitred the country, I know that I shall not enter upon
duties for which I am wholly disqualified. I feel quite up to
the work, by God's grace ; depending on the Divine assist-
ance, I shall embark in it, if at all, with vigour and con-
fidence. We arrived, as Hall will have told you, on
Tuesday. On Wednesday morning I saw most of the
clergy, all of whom but two are on my side, and one of
whom had generously drawn up a vindication of my
doctrines. I stated to the trustees that I had come to
Leeds at the request of certain of their body, not to
canvass, but to be able at once to deny certain charges,
if brought against me. To avoid all appearance of can-
vassing I left the town on the Wednesday evening. The
cfergy seemed to think me their Vicar, who is spoken of as
somebody next in importance, if not to the king, at least to
his prime minister. Several trustees told me that I might
consider myself as elected ; even Hall seems to be in good
cheer: but I know the party I have to deal with too
well to feel anything like confidence. They have to meet
on Wednesday for the purpose of memorialising the
trustees against me ; they have represented me, as I sup-
pose you have heard, not only as a Papist, but as a
drunkard, a gambler, &c., &c. How I bless God that
he has given me a heart that never bears malice or hatred;
irritated I may sometimes be, but these kind of things do
The Election to Leeds.
not irritate me. I have many, very many difficulties to
contend with, from a nature desperately wicked ; but this
is one of my advantages, that I scarcely notice, and im-
mediately forget injuries. I should think that my best
chance is, that the opposite party have no distinguished
person to bring forward ; and the town clergy very properly
say that, if they are passed over, they ought, at least,
to have put over them a man of eminence ; and such,
I presume, from the abuse heaped on me they suppose
me to be. I suppose you have seen Stowell's letter
following the attack upon me in the * Record.' I told
the trustees that I should regard an attack in the
' Record ' in the light of a testimonial. I was told that
some of the opponents threatened to withdraw their ac-
counts from Becket's bank, if they voted for me. Since
writing this, the Coventry paper has come in ; by whom
the Leeds paragraph was written I know not ; I suspect
Sheepshanks. I am deeply gratified by the conduct of
the people here ; they are all anxious for my welfare, and
yet sorry to part with me. Is not this nice and kind and
generous } This, too, will render my remaining here the
more comfortable, especially as they will know that it is
only party violence that will exclude me.
Fro7n Mrs. Hook to Mr. and Mrs. Wood.
Coventry : 1837.
My dear Friends,— I received your letter during my
solitude, and was quite comforted by it. Though I felt
desperately anxious all the time the old boy was away,
yet he is come back so well, so pleased, so frisky, and so
tiresome, that I can hardly write a word for his coming
and making impertinent remarks. His account of Leeds
is satisfactory, and I feel that as a home it will be pleasant,
though its distance from London must be a drawback. I
suppose you will hear the result as soon as we do. I really
314 Life of Walter Farqithar Hook.
cannot help feeling anxious, in spite of my determination
to think either way the best.
Ever your truly attached Friend,
A. D. Hook.
There remained only three days between his
departure from Leeds and the 20th, the day ap-
pointed for the election, and in this little interval
the opposition fired their last and largest gun. This
was a petition to the trustees against his appoint-
ment, signed by 400 persons. A copy of his letter
to the Bishop of Lichfield in 1830, deprecating his
presiding at a meeting of the Bible Society, was
apppended to the document. The following is the
memorial : —
To the Trustees of the Advoivson of the Vicarage of Leeds.
We, the undersigned inhabitants of the parish of Leeds,
and members of the Established Church, beg leave respect-
fully to memorialise you upon the pending election to the
vacant vicarage. We have heard with considerable alarm
that there is every probability that the Rev. W. F. Hook
will obtain a majority of your suffrages. We beg to sub-
mit to you our decided opinion that, on account of the very
peculiar tenets maintained and published by that gentle-
man, such election will be attended with the most mis-
chievous consequences to the interests of the Establishment
in this parish.
The following are some of the doctrines which Mr.
Hook avows in his published works, and which we consider
in the highest degree objectionable. He denies the right
of private judgment in matters of religion. He maintains
that Holy Scripture is an insufficient guide to salvation ;
and that no man ever did, and few ever could, form their
The Election to Leeds. 315
code of faith and morals from the Bible, and the Bible
only. He virtually excludes Methodists and Dissenters
of every name from the pale of Christianity. He is the
avowed opponent of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
and we have reason to believe that he is unfriendly to the
Church Missionary Society and to the Society for Promo-
ting Christianity amongst the Jews. He addressed an
expostulatory letter to the Diocesan of his present Incum-
bency upon the occasion of his taking the chair at one of
the meetings of the first, a copy of which we beg to sub-
join.
Your memorialists observe, with unfeigned satisfaction,
a growing disposition in the members of the Church of
England, in this parish, to unite, as in a common cause, in
the advancement of its interests. They beg respectfully,
but firmly, to avow their conviction that the immediate
effect of Mr. Hook's election will be to interrupt this holy
harmony, by reviving those irritating discussions, the exist-
ence of which between her members has so long been the
subject of regret with every true friend of the Church ;
thereby not only to open again that division within her own
bosom which they had hoped would soon have been alto-
gether obliterated, but ultimately to widen it into a hope-
less and incurable schism. It is also observable, and your
memorialists allude to the fact with the utmost pleasure,
that the asperities of other classes of Christians in the
parish against our Church have of late been considerably
modified and softened down, and that many among them
are disposed to listen to the strong arguments which may
be adduced in her favour, and to attend upon her services.
The effect of the election of a clergyman of Mr. Hook's
avowed opinions upon such persons is sufficiently obvious.
Having only been attracted thither by the prevalence of
sentiments diametrically opposed to his, they will with
proportionate force be repelled, and finally estranged, from
her communion.
We do not wish to go too minutely into matters of
objection ; still less do we desire to take an offensive atti-
3i6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
tude, or do anything that may wear the appearance of dic-
tation. We disclaim all motives save those arising from
what we believe to be a christian duty. It is in this spirit
that we would respectfully call upon you to consider the
appointment about to be made, not merely as one of taste
or expediency, not as one of personal feeling, but as one
involving the everlasting welfare of souls. We would ven-
ture to add that your office was instituted for the benefit
of the inhabitants ; and we earnestly hope and pray that
you may so fulfil it as to promote the paramount object
which we trust we all have in view.
This memorial, however, was instantly followed
by a counter-declaration signed by about 300 per-
sons.
To the Trustees of the Advowsoii of the Vicarage of Leeds.
March 17, 1837.
We, the undersigned frequenters of the Parish Church,
and other friends of the Establishment generally, beg leave
respectfully to address you on the subject of certain recent
measures which have been taken to influence, if not to
coerce, your choice, of a Vicar for this extensive parish. We
wish to express to you that we have viewed the proceed-
ing with considerable regret ; and that we utterly disclaim
and disavow any participation in it. We sincerely trust
that in the execution of your high duty you will set aside
all such representations ; and we can assure you that we
rest with the most perfect confidence in the rectitude of
your judgment, and in your well-known and long-tried
attachment to the doctrines and principles of the Church
of England.
On Monday, March 20, the trustees assembled
in the vestry for the purpose of election. All were
present except Mr. John Hardy and Mr. Peter
The Election to Leeds. 317
Rhodes. Each wrote his own name on one side of
a card, and on the other the name of the candidate
for whom he voted. One of the trustees collected
the cards, the sides on which the names of the
electors were written being uppermost. When
handed to the chairman they were reversed, so that
he saw the names of the candidates only. Having
examined the cards, the chairman, Mr. Henry Hall,
said that the Rev. W. F. Hook was elected by six-
teen trustees out of twenty-three. He then went
into the choir and announced the result of the
election to a large crowd of parishioners. He de-
clared that the trustees had been influenced by the
purest motives, and deprecated a hasty judgment of
their choice. They had sought, and believed that
they had found, a man of piety and learning, of
amiable disposition and literary attainments ; one
who in the late scene of his labours had been inde-
fatigable in ministering to the wants, spiritual and
temporal, of all his parishioners.
The announcement and address was received
by the assembly with much applause, only mingled
with a few murmurs and faint cries of * Stowell.'
The church bells rang out a joyful peal, and Mr.
Henry Hall started with a full heart to carry the
good news to Coventry.
The feelings with which the recipient of the
tidings was affected will best be gathered from the
letters placed at the end of this chapter.
The sentiments of his old parishioners were well
expressed in one of the principal local journals. * It
is with mingled feelings of triumph and regret,*
wrote the ' Coventry Standard,' ' that we announce
3i8 Life of Walter Farquhar liook.
that the Rev. W. F. Hook was on Monday last
elected Vicar of Leeds by a very decided ma-
jority of the trustees. He will carry with him not
only the respect and good wishes, but the warm
gratitude, the individual personal affection, of a large
portion of the inhabitants of this city, both rich and
poor ; and although his future lot be cast far away
from those among whom he has ministered for
several years, yet he will ever live in their memories
a a most zealous and indefatigable minister, a
judicious and affectionate friend.'
This prediction has thus far been verified. In
the brief but excellent sketch of his life which
appeared in the parish magazine of Trinity parish,
Coventry, in November 1875, one month after his
death, the writer says, * Thirty-eight years have not
effaced from the grateful minds of his old parishioners
the remembrance of their Vicar. A generation has
indeed grown up which knows him not, and yet his
name is so familiar to us all that we find it difficult
to realise the long lapse of time since he was living
and working in our parish. The work he did in
Coventry has been permanent and abiding. ... it
is almost impossible to over-estimate the manner in
which he quickened Church life.' These are not
vain words. How vividly he is remembered and
how deeply honoured by the aged, the writer of this
biography can testify, being under obligation to
many who have been as eager to impart information
concerning the work of their former pastor, as during
his life-time they were zealous to assist him in that
work. The stained glass in the great west window
of their magnificent church is the visible proof of
The Election to Leeds. 319
the affection, gratitude, and respect of the parish-
ioners of Holy Trinity for that Vicar who, in the
words of one who preached on the occasion of the
window being completed,^ ' undertook his ministry
in days when earnestness in Church Hfe was rare,'
and where manifested * was frequently received with
aversion if not with contempt ' : who ' in much
difficulty, misapprehension, and misrepresentation
laid here the sound foundation of Church principles,
and commenced the system of parochial administra-
tion which has become more and more firmly esta-
blished under his successors.'
He was instituted Vicar of Leeds on April 4,
and the next three months were occupied by the
painful and harassing process of severing his con-
nexion with one place and forming it with another.
On Sunday, the i6th, he * read himself in.' His
rich, powerful, melodious voice produced its full
effect upon the musical ears of the northern people,
and he had not proceeded far in the prayers before
a godly old Dissenter present was heard to say,
smiting his knee with his hand, ' He'll do ; he'll do.'
On this Sunday he preached twice, enormous
crowds being present at both services. He was
labouring under a heavy cold, a very rare occurrence
with him, and had difficulty in speaking so as to
be heard, which was a great vexation to him in the
morning, as his sermon was mainly a declaration of
his principles, and of the line of conduct which his
parishioners were to expect from him. 'You see
before you,' he said, * a firm, determined, consistent,
uncompromising, devoted, but I hope not unchari-
* Rev. H. W. Bellairs, June 24, 1877.
320 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook.
table, son, servant, and minister of the honoured
Church of England. It is as a minister of the
Church of England that I am placed here. I am
7iot placed here to indulge in speculations of my
own as to what / may think to be useful, or what /
may think to be expedient — I am instituted under
the Bishop to administer the discipline, the sacra-
ments, and the doctrines of Christ as the Lord hath
commanded, and as this Church and realm hath
received the same. I am to labour for the salvation
of souls and the edification of the Church, but not in
ways and modes of my own devising, but according
to the laws, the regulations, the spirit of the English
Church. And immediately that I find that I cannot
conscientiously adhere to those rules and act in that
spirit, I shall tender my resignation to the Bishop,
and feel myself bound, not only as a Christian but
as a man of honour, to retire from a situation the
duties of which I am unable to discharge. The
Church is not infallible ; but as we find her now
existing in this country I believe her not to be in
error, and my conduct shall always be regulated by
her authorised decisions.' After pointing out the
value of tradition as elucidating Scripture, and the
supremacy of Scripture as the test of tradition,
after declaring his intention not to * select one or
two doctrines, and representing these as all-sufficient,
to overlook in carelessness or reject in rashness all
the rest — for if this kind of preaching would suffice,
why should the Bible be so thick a book, or rather
such a large collection of books } ' — after maintaining
that through an unbroken episcopal succession the
three Orders in the Church of England could satis-
Tirst Sermon at Leeds. 321
factorily prove their commission to act as ambassa-
dors of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of
God, he conchided : * And in asserting this shall I
give unnecessary offence to my Dissenting friends,
and many such I hope to have ? I say, No. For
my part I think better things of the candid, honest,
conscientious Dissenter. By vindicating the doc-
trine and discipline of the Church of England I do
indeed by implication assert that he is in error.
But does he not do the same by us ? Does not he
imply that we are in error, when he secedes from
our communion, or refuses to conform to it ? This
he must do if he would justify his secession. And
if he does think us in error, he will never find in
m.e one who will censure him for explaining to his
hearers the ground of his dissent. However erro-
neous I may consider those grounds, I shall ever
contend that he is more than justified, that he is
hound to state them honestly and fairly to his
people : only let all things be done in charity,
gentleness, and courtesy. What I ask then for
myself is no more than what 1 am fully prepared to
concede. . . . One of the great blessings of a full
and free toleration is this : that we may now all of
us contend fully and freely for the truth, and the
whole truth. As a lover of truth then I am a friend
to toleration. When the law assumed that all men
were Churchmen, and on that account compelled all
men to attend the service of the Church, the chari-
tably disposed would, of course, be ready to sacrifice
many portions of truth to satisfy the scruples of
weaker brethren. Now we are not required to
make any such sacrifices : we may now keep our
VOL. I. Y
322 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
eyes steadily fixed upon the truth, and if any man
think that the truth is not with us, he suffers no
hardship in withdrawing from us. And as a lover
of peace, as well as of truth, I thus openly, fairly,
and honourably avow my principles. Depend upon
it we promote peace, not by falsifying facts, and
telling men that we do agree when we do not agree,
for this only leads to endless disputes, but by stating
clearly and firmly what our differences are, and by
then agreeing to differ thereon. Those persons who
thrust themselves into a promiscuous throng are
liable to inconveniences and quarrels : but draw a
line decidedly between disagreeing parties, and then
over that line of demarcation opposite parties may
cordially shake hands. With Dissenters, therefore,
in religious matters I may not act, but most readily
will I number them among my private friends.
Never in my almsgiving will I make any distinction
of persons : in such cases Samaritan and Jew shall
be both alike to me. I will say to them, and I will
not take offence if they retort the saying upon me,
that I think them in error : but every person who
happens to oppose what we hold as the truth is not
of necessity a wilful opposer of truth as such. Their
lov^e of truth may be as great as ours. Our prin-
ciple, therefore, will be the same, though the appli-
cation of that principle may be different, and for our
common principle we may love and respect, while
we may sometimes oppose, each other. We must
indeed all of us learn to forbear one another and to
forgive one another, even as Christ our blessed
Redeemer, who died for our sins and rose again for
our justification, hath forgiven us.'
Farewell to Coventry. 323
I have quoted rather largely from this inaugural
sermon, not only as being in itself instructive, but
also because this bold and manly declaration of his
principles, at the outset of his career, procured for
him the respect of adversaries with whom he might
otherwise have been brought into unpleasant col-
lision. He adhered without wavering to the prin-
ciples thus early avowed, and was consequently
saved from the misery experienced by amiable but
vacillatincf characters who seek to conciliate and
please all, and too often end in exasperating all.
One of the local papers, referring to the sermon,
remarked : ' The Vicar has already made a strong
and favourable impression upon his parishioners.
He has clearly expounded his doctrines and de-
veloped his plans. With regard to the latter there
will naturally be a variety of opinions : but it must
be universally admitted that he commenced the
duties of his office with manly candour, that his
abilities are first-rate, and that his demeanour is
most kind and conciliating.'
The month of June was the last of his residence
at Coventry. A parting address in May, signed
by thirty-three male and thirty-two female teachers
of the Sunday school, concluded with these touching
words : ' We cannot omit to congratulate you upon
the success with which your exertions have been
crowned by the great increase in the number of
communicants, and the flourishing state of our
schools ; and at the same time to express our
warmest thanks for the spiritual instruction and
consolation we have received from you as our
revered pastor and affectionate friend. That tlie
Y 2
324 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
blessing of the Lord God Almighty may rest upon
you and yours, that the Spirit of Truth may guide
you even to the end, and that you and we likewise
may be of that happy number who shall be blessed
at the coming of our Lord, is the hearty desire and
humble prayer of the teachers of Trinity Church
Sunday School.' The Vicar ended his reply by
saying : ' My parting injunction to you is, Love the
Church. You live in evil days, when evil tongues
are railing against all that is great and good and
holy in the land. May I always hear that the
teachers of these schools continue to be what they
now are, loyal, dutiful, zealous children of the
dear old Church. May you grow in grace as you
grow in years. May you increase in faith and all
the fruits of faith, and to this end I exhort you to
be earnest in prayer, regular in your attendance on
the duties of the sanctuary — frequent communicants.
Let us all persevere in this course and then our
parting will not be an eternal one : we shall all meet
before the throne of God and of the Lamb, where
those who meet meet to part no more. You have
often received my blessing, and you have been
taught to regard it as the blessing of one com-
missioned by God to bless His people. With my
blessing therefore I now conclude. The peace of
God,' &c.
On June 12 he preached his last sermon at
Coventry. There were not many dry eyes in the
vast congregation when in the well-known voice,
unrivalled in sweetness and pathos, to which his
feelings on the occasion lent an additional tenderness,
he said : ' And now I have finished my ministry in
Farezvell to Coventry. 325
this parish. My friends — for you are my friends,
and, thanks be to God, I know not an enemy in the
parish — my friends, who have made so much allow-
ance for my many deficiencies, who have received
so very kindly the little good of which God in His
mercy has used me as the instrument ; my young
friends whom I have trained in the way of truth ;
teachers of the Sunday school, members of the
vestry (may you always continue to be as united a
body as you have been during the last nine years) ;
you who have assisted me in visiting the sick and
needy ; you, with whom in your sorrows I have
wept and who in my sorrows have wept with me ;
you whom I have been the means of reconciling
after disagreements ; my poorer brethren whom I
have ever held in honour ; my elderly friends with
whom I have taken sweet counsel ; my Christian
triends, whose sacrifice of prayer and praise it has
been my blessed duty to offer to the throne of grace,
whom through my ministry Christ has fed with the
bread of life — friends one and all — my prayer to you
is, may God deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt
kindly with me and mine : my exhortation is, those
things which ye have learned and received and
heard of me do, and the God of peace shall be with
you, for you have heard of me, not my own con-
jectures, but the words of truth as the Church has
received them.'
Capacious as is the church of the Holy Trinity
it could not contain all the people who thronged to
it on that Sunday evening, and hundreds waited
outside to give their Vicar a parting shake of the
hand, and to exchange a few farewell words. And
326 Life of Walter Farquliar Hook.
so he departed, full of zeal and energy, full of high
aims and aspirations, full of confidence, not in him-
self, but in the Master whose he was and whom
he served. The Evangelical party in Leeds and
throughout the country were dejected and appre-
hensive, but the ' Record,' writing more in sorrow
than in anger, counselled quiet resignation to the
inevitable : they had done all they could to prevent
so calamitous an appointment, and now that it was
made in spite of them, it only remained for them to
pray that it might be overruled by God for the
good of His Church and the spiritual welfare of the
great community at Leeds. The gratitude of the
Church is due to the * Record ' for recommending a
prayer to which such an abundant answer has been
vouchsafed.
To his Wife — A Day of Discomfort.
Coventry : February 23, 1837.
My dearest Love, — If you were in the dumps when
you wrote I shall be able to pay you in kind. I have a
cold, which always depresses me. Tom Minster is out, and
all those who help me in visiting the sick are ill. Sixteen
sick persons demand what I have not physical strength to
give, daily visiting. I have just returned, completely wet
through, from trudging all over the parish, after having
performed services, baptisms, and funerals. At the last
the pitiless storm drenched me. I think I should have
been in despair, if Russfield had not very kindly offered to
visit some of the people for me. I had come home, hoping
for two hours' rest before going to deliver my lecture ; but I
have come to a fire nearly out, and have letters to answer,
not all of them the most agreeable. Here is one from
my mother, saying that Georgiana has been seriously ill.
Letters on the Election. 327
I should certainly go over and see them, but besides my
lecture to-night, I have a sermon for to-morrow, and three
in prospect for Sunday, for Woodward is engaged, and
Sheepshanks is unwell. . . . Here is also a letter from a
Mr. Robert Hall, another of the trustees, asking whether if
I were appointed, I should consider it ' a call.' I shall
answer him much in the manner I answered Dr. Barnes.
At my time of life, approaching forty with a constitution of
fifty, and nerves shattered with those dreadful fits, it is natural
to think twice before I determine to break up entirely
new ground. I had never thought of going north. I had
always expected to settle either in this neighbourhood or
in London. But I now heartily hope that we may obtain
Leeds. I foresee that if we remain here, the cares of a
straitened income will be fatal to our happiness, ... I do
not expect to see you back next week, for I am morally
certain that you will soon quite break up. You have
undertaken more than you can get through. But I will
not go on this melancholy strain. I am worried, over-
worked, chilled, and, in short, as you were when you wrote.
By the time you receive this I may be better. I am
almost sorry I let Minster go. / had not a single holiday
the first four years I was in orders.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Self-examination,
Coventry : March lo, 1837.
My dearest Friend, — The questions put by his cate-
chist to Mr. Hall ' have sent me to the duty of self exami-
nation. His catcchist is a right worthy man, such as my
heart loves ; he has heard that I am an ungodly wretch,
and he wishes to prevent my doing mischief Surely he is
justified in this. I have carefully examined myself as to
the motives he attributes to me ; I will tell you the result.
* Party-spirit ' : now I do confess that I find myself to be
a little too much influenced by that ; mine is a falling
' See above, p. 309.
328 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
party, and I feel a little complacent in adhering to it ; and
I fear that I might do as the worthy catechist has done,
occasionally attribute a wrong motive to another, in the
heat of my zeal ; of this I repent, and by God's grace will
amend. But certainly party-zeal has not been for sixteen
years my motive, in labouring as I have laboured for Christ,
and His Church ; for if ever party-feelings are excited,
they almost immediately cool, and I feel sorry for any
excesses of which I have been guilty. However, the impu-
tation of this motive to me, though incorrect, shall make
me very watchful for the future.
Next comes ' restlessness of temperament ' ; here I am
certainly not guilty, for indolence is the besetting sin of my
natural man. You know not how very loth I am to quit
my easy chair, to go about my Father's business in my
parish : you cannot conceive the pain it frequently is to
me to act the prominent part I do in the clerical affairs of
the district.
* Ambition ' : when I was ambitious, it was of literary
fame, which was the only fame I cared for ; to renounce all
hopes of literary distinction as I did, when I entered into
orders was pain and grief to me, but I had grace to do it.
As to professional honours I value them not a rush ; were
I desirous of them, I should be much more likely to attain
them by staying where I am, than by seeking to go to Leeds,
I am not insensible to the advantages of station, but my sole
wish for any advancement of that kind would be, not sel-
fish, but to extend my usefulness, by giving greater weight
to any arguments among those of my younger brethren
whom it is my great delight to lead. You cannot imagine a
person who cares less for these things than I do,
* Vanity ' : on this point I have suspected myself, but
certainly my vanity would never lead me to any great exer-
tions, I rather pique myself on having formed a just estimate
of my own powers, and that is a very low one. I fall so in-
finitely short of what I intend in all that I do, that I have
never done anything without being plunged into despond-
ence ; and therefore a little praise instead of puffing me up
Letters on the Election. 329
encourages me. It makes me feel that while I know
that I have failed, yet that I have not failed so entirely as
I feared ; I dread disgrace more than I covet praise. Now
in whatever degree those faults may influence me, unknown
to myself, we may easily find other motives for my sixteen
years of labour. You know what my temper was in boy-
hood, and you know what it is now ; it seems to me some-
times as if a miracle had been wrought in mc, my temper
has become so improved. People will not believe me
sometimes when I tell them how bad my temper was ; and
they see how well I am able to keep it under severe provo-
cations. I have had other passions in my time to contend
with ; I had a very bad soil to cultivate, but by the grace
of God I am what I am, still a sinful, alas ! my dear Wood,
a very, very sinful creature, but one who has found grace,
and who has grown in grace ; and when I feel and know
what great things the Saviour has done for me, I have
only to ask you not to consider me as a brute beast, in
order to make you certain that I must be actuated by zeal
for my dear Master's service. Gratitude alone would in-
flame my love, and love inflamed would urge an eager
mind on to action. Indeed I think at times that nothing
but a regular education and a keen sense of the ridiculous
would keep me from fanaticism. Gratitude to my God, the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is sufficient to inflame my
love for Him, the Holy Trinity, and His Church ; and com-
mon feelings of humanity would urge me to endeavour to
procure for others the great blessings I have enjoyed and
do enjoy myself If Mr. Hall's catechist knew how much
more has been done, because needed, for my poor soul than
for that of most men, he would not have sought for inferior
motives to account for my conduct. To me much has been
forgiven, and therefore I love much. Will you pardon all
this egotism } you have always been my father confessor,
and I think it right to lay the whole case before you now,
because, as you have doubtless been sponsor for my piety
to Mr. Hall, I wish to let you see whether you can safely
stand up for me. But I am still so very conscious of the
330 Life of Walter Farqukar Hook.
indwelling of sin in this mortal body of mine, that I would
not have you say much. I know that many better persons
may be obtained for Leeds than I am, but certainly there
can be none more desirous of doing his duty to his God,
his Saviour, and his Church.
From Robert Hall, Esq., Congratulatory on His Election to
the Vicarage.
Leeds : March 20, 1837.
My dear Mr. Vicar, — My father will have informed you
how the Almighty has disposed our hearts to confer upon
you a station of much responsibility. May He turn it to
the everlasting benefit of thousands of immortal souls and
your own welfare, both here and hereafter.
My father relieves me from the necessity of writing to
you at any considerable length, though I shall probably do
so when my spirits have subsided into their ordinary
course. I am still too much agitated to write in a business-
like manner. You will be pleased to hear that, notwith-
standing the attempt at agitation, the announcement of
your election was very favourably received by a numerous
assemblage of parishioners who were collected in the chan-
cel awaiting the result. My father of course will consult
with you as to the proper period of your making your ap-
pearance here. One of the churches is to be reopened on
the 30th. I have no doubt you will be requested to offi-
ciate, but if the time now proposed be too early, I have
little doubt it might be postponed for a short time. . . .
Wherever we may be, I need hardly assure you that my
wife and I shall have the greatest pleasure in being of every
possible service to Mrs. Vicaress and yourself. That God
may bless you both and make you blessings to others is,
I assure you, the reiterated prayer of
Yours very faithfully,
Robert IIalu
Letters on the Election. 331
To W. P. Wood, Esq.
Coventry : March 21, 1837.
My dearest William and not less dear Charlotte, — Mr.
Hall senior, a man whom I can take to my heart, has just
arrived with the presentation to Leeds. I am stupified,
and therefore cannot express my feelings. I am really
overwhelmed ; the thought of leaving dear Coventry is full
of sadness ; the responsibility of my new position alarms
me : thus I may be pardoned for not actually feeling joy.
Pray for me, pray for us, my dearest friends ; and God
Almighty grant that our new promotion may be attended
by a corresponding growth in grace. I have, of course,
many letters to write, and two services daily during this
week, so no more at present from
Your devoted grateful Friend.
To Rev. E. Gibson.
Coventry : March 23, 1837.
My dear Friend, — Understanding that you were ap-
prised of my success by my most kind and zealous friend
Sheepshanks, I did not write yesterday, as I had many
friends at a distance impatient to hear from me. But did
you argue from this that I am ungrateful for all your judi-
cious exertions on my behalf.'' No! or you would not be
the Edward Gilson I love — and love especially because
he always finds out the virtues and is rather blind to the
faults of his friends. Believe me that I shall never forget
your kindness.
To my wife and me this is not pleasure without alloy.
The thought of leaving dear Coventry, where we have so
many friends, where we have spent so many happy years,
where we have so many kind parishioners, where one
blessed child is buried, is a thought full of grief. But so is
everything in this world ; all happiness must be of a mixed
nature, or this world would be heaven.
332 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
Remember me, dear Gibson, in your prayers, and pray
that I may bear in mind the verse of Gregory Nazianzen,
or' evTrXoets \iaKi.<jra \ii\s.vr]<TO fdXTjf.
Your ever grateful Friend.
To Rev. T. H. Tragett
Coventry : March 23, 1837.
My dear Tragett, .... Be it known to you, that out
of twenty-three trustees sixteen voted for me, though there
were thirty-five candidates. The ' Evangehcals ' repre-
sented me to be a gambler, a drunkard, and a Papist ; at
last they found out that I was a Whig ! They were most
fierce against the Oxford Tracts, making them speak all
sorts of heresies ; but then one of my supporters silenced
them by saying that I was not one of the writers of those
Tracts, and that therefore I was not to be judged by them :
but it was urged, ' he is known to be the friend of Pusey,
Keble, and Newman.' ' Yes, and this is one of his testi-
monials.' What higher honour can a man have on this
earth } Will you thank that apostolic man Keble for
writing in my favour, as I am told he did.
I am, your most affectionate Friend.
From the Bishop of Ripon.
40 Devonshire Place : March 23, 1837.
Dear Sir, — Allow me to offer you my sincere congratu-
lations upon your election to the vacant vicarage of Leeds.
From the prevalence of Dissent and from the variety of
opinions in matters of religion which exist there, it may be
considered as the most important cure in the diocese of
Ripon ; but from what I hear of your power of conciliating
those who differ from you, without surrendering your own
principles, I trust that we shall before long see that influ-
ence beneficially exerted in your new sphere.
Letters on the Election. 333
In my Archdeacon, Mr. Musgrave, you will find a
person most able and most willing to render you any
assistance in his power on your first entry upon your new
duties, and I regret that I am not at present in the
country to afford you my services also — but be assured
that my prayers shall not be wanting for a blessing on
your labours.
Believe me, dear Sir, your faithful friend and servant,
C. T. RiroN.
To W. P. Wood, Esq.
Coventry : March 30, 1837.
My dearest Friend, .... I cannot but think it very
mean and paltry, if not something worse, on the part of
your wife, to presume on her merits as being my patroness
and as having got me a living for the purpose of indulging
in gross personalities. The trustees who came here had
indeed received such accounts of my personal appearance
that one of them said, ' We expected to see a Saracen's
Head get up into the pulpit, whereas we found ratJier a
gooa-looking man than otherwise.' So to settle disputes I
thought, I'll paint it, and shame the fools. The likeness is
considered admirable. An ugly fellow I must confess I am.
The artist came to me and asked me to sit, as he wished
to publish the engravings. I said, No. He said that if he
succeeded it would be a very great thing for him ; and
then charity whispered, why should not he as well as I
have some of the good things of Leeds } He was to give
me the painting ; but as I will not give you what costs me
nothing, I shall make him a present of his ten guineas ;
what is the use of having money, but to make those around
us happy .'' and how pleased Mrs. Rosenburg will be when
Mr. Rosenburg goes home and counts out the money he
did not expect to receive ; and then who knows but what
they will remember their benefactor in their prayers ; and
thus I shall have made a righteous use of mammon. Though
334 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook.
I write pleasantly, I am very much depressed with the
thought of what is awaiting me. Firmness, gentleness,
patience, these are the weapons with which I shall have to
fight. When my firmness is displayed, then there will be
fierce attacks, foes will rage, the crafty will try flattery,
friends will frown and call me obstinate ; you will hear all
manner of evil against your friend. Then I shall up with
the shield of gentleness ; they may rage, but I shall seek
for grace to remain calm, firm in principle, courteous in
conduct. At last patience will have her perfect work : the
good among my opponents, seeing that I will not go round
to them, will come round to me, I have confidence in my
success, if only I have health and strength for two or three
years. My only annoyance is about that dear good man
Robert Hall ; he thinks that I have only to go to Leeds
and all the Evangelicals will be at my feet. I know them
better ; when they find that I do not renounce my prin-
ciples and embrace theirs, then their fury will be great ; by
gentleness I intend to appease it, but do impress upon
dear excellent Hall's mind that I must have time ; per-
haps two or three years.
Yours devotedly.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — First Ser 711011 at Leeds.
Armley House, Leeds: April 19, 1837.
My dearest Friend, — I send a line because I know that
you and your lady will wish to hear of us. Most calami-
tously, I was so hoarse on Sunday that, though surrounded
by an immense mob, I could not do more than whisper
my sermon. To my annoyance, however, there were re-
porters present from the three newspapers, and I was
strongly urged to print my sermon by Mr. Hall, on behalf
of the trustees. As I had not the remotest idea of printing
it when I wrote it, this is a bore ; but as it will most likely
be misrepresented in the newspapers, I thought I had bet-
ter send it to the press, which I have accordingly done.
Letters on the Election. 335
After so much success and flattery, I look upon this failure
(for a complete failure it was) as a merciful Providence ; it
is a warning to me not to be too confident in myself ; it
tells me on whose strength I must wholly and solely rely.
I am happy to say that I did not feel any annoyance
whatever from such feelings as might arise from mortified
vanity ; I have regarded the failure as a mercy, and not
been annoyed at it the least, except so far as I failed in my
wish to let my mode of conduct be known. This will be
remedied by the publication. I look upon all this with
some complacency, as it proves to me that I have grown
in grace. Indeed I can conscientiously say that all that has
occurred of late has been as yet to my spiritual improve-
ment ; I have not so much of youthful enthusiasm and fervour
as I once had, but I have more childish reliance. We like
everything we see here extremely ; the church has capabi-
lities about it, and I hope to turn it inside out. The services
of the church cannot now be properly performed in it ; it is
like a conventicle built up in a church. I have arranged to
keep a third curate, and my curates will cost me 260/. a
year, which is a large deduction from my income.
Advice to his Sister about the Spiritual State of one of her
Friends.
Armley House, Leeds: April 19, 1837.
My dearest Mother, .... Georgiana's poor friend's
mind is in a morbid state, and do what she will, she will
be unhappy until God's good time arrive for making a
change in it. The fault seems to be, both on her part and
on Georgiana's, that they are looking for some display of
feeling, which must naturally depend on temperament. Let
her rather think on her actions ; God has given her grace,
through the merits of the Saviour in whom she believes, to
lead a good life, and that is an earnest that He will give her,
for her Saviour's sake, life everlasting. It is certainly
very sinful on her part never to have communicated ; and
33^ Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
most probably it is on that account that she is now deprived
of spiritual comfort. Let her amend on this point, but let
her not suppose that she is to find immediately all the com-
fort that a regular communicant enjoys, though this does
sometimes happen. Georgiana should bear in mind that
this is a case for special grace, and that prayer for her friend
will be of more avail than reading or talking to her ; but
she may read for her comfort the account of our Saviour's
agony, and show to her from thence that the withholding
of spiritual comfort for a time is not a proof of God's dis-
favour.
Lord Hatherley s Letter. 337
LETTER FROM LORD HATHERLEY
TO THE EDITOR.
My dear Nephew, — I write in fulfilment of my
promise to supply you with a brief account of the
school and college life of my late dear friend, your
father-in-law. Our friendship began in 181 2, soon
after I had become a commoner at Winchester, and
continued to his death in 1875. It commenced al-
most at first sight ; though nothing could be imagined
more improbable than that our several ages, disposi-
tions, prejudices, and family training should have
allowed such a result.
In the first place when we met each other in
18 1 2 at Dr. Gabell's school, which was associated
with the ancient foundation of William of Wyke-
ham at Winchester by the style of * Commoners,'
'Hook Senior ' (for we knew no Christian names)
was over fourteen years of age, and I was not yet
eleven ; he was tall, strong, and impetuous, I was a
short, small, and ordinarily quiet child. He had
been imbued from childhood with High Church
notions as they were then understood, and with the
genuine old Tory doctrines of the political party
then in power. I had been brought up in the
Church of England, but my political instruction had
been in what was then thought to be the radical
VOL. I. Z
$^S Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook.
school, and these impressions had been strengthened
by very constant reading, even in childhood, of the
' Morning Chronicle ' and ' Cobbett's Register.' To
this it may be added, that the positions in life of
our parents were wide apart. His father was a
beneficed clergyman, and a Canon or Prebendary (as
he was then called) of Winchester Cathedral, and
his career, through the influence of his father-in-
law. Sir Walter Farquhar, had been attended by the
favour and personal notice of the Prince Regent ;
whilst my father was engaged in business in the
City of London, and was, not long after this time,
honoured by the personal confidence of the Princess
of Wales, the Regent's ill-used wife.
Besides these discrepancies, both ' Hook Senior'
and his brother Robert had brought with them
from Tiverton school but little acquaintance with
Latin and Greek, and on the part of my friend I
may say but little disposition to acquire it ; whilst
I found from an early period perhaps too much plea-
sure in entering into competition with others in these
studies whenever the opportunity was offered me.
Notwithstanding the improbability of our form-
ing a friendship for life, it was by God's providence
so ordered that from December i8i 2, or thereabouts,
till October 1875, when he was taken from us, we
scarcely passed a fortnight without either meeting or
hearing from each other by letter.
Our friendship began in a most unsentimental
manner. His backwardness in study had occasioned
him to be still In a low form of the school, and there-
fore subject to fagging, and we first foregathered
at a large fire in Commoners' Hall, being engaged,
Lord I la i her ley s Letter. 339
under the system of domestic slavery which then
existed, in preparing- the breakfasts of our respec-
tive masters. This led to our interchanmno: such
thoughts upon the pursuits most agreeable to us as
our young minds could suggest, and I soon found
that, though backward in the studies of the school,
he was very forward and vigorous in mind.
He was far beyond, not only myself, but most
other boys nearer to his own age in the school in his
acquaintance with English Literature. He was espe-
cially well acquainted with the great works of Shaks-
peare and Milton, and with other standard authors
of English poetry, whilst he had already begun, under
his father's roof, to read some of the then accepted
authors in Divinity. At that time, I think, the
works of Archbishop Seeker, and Nelson's * Fasts and
Festivals ' were most commonly referred to by him.
As a proof that T am not antedating, by defect of
memory, his early acquaintance with Shakspeare, I
may mention that I have since his death been
allowed to possess myself of the very edition in
which we often read together, and which on the fly
leaf bears his name with the date 181 1.
In a few months after our return to school in
January 18 13 we became inseparable. I was able
to assist him in the ordinary course of school study,
which service he more than repaid by forming my
mind to an enjoyment of our English authors, and an
appreciation of Shakspeare and Milton not common
in early boyhood. Besides these, our favourite
authors, we read together as years passed on any
new works that made their mark. He was plen-
tifully supplied with these from home. Amongst
z 2
340 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
others I recollect Walter Scott's successive poems,
Maturin's * Bertram ' and Milman s * Fazio' ; the latter,
however, was, I think, sent to me by Hook after he
had gone to Oxford. But whilst thus assisting me
in the perusal of our English classics, he did me the
yet greater service of forming my mind to a genuine
delight in reading for its own sake, whereas the de-
sire of excelling rather than a delight in excellence
had been my motive to exertion. And even now
looking back on our long course of life side by side,
I own his moral superiority in this respect. He was
singularly free from the low ambition of surpassing
others, and though there may at one time have been
some degree of self-indulgence in his avoiding the
labour of acquiring knowledge through the medium
of languages with which he was not familiar, yet
even in his schooldays he conscientiously encoun-
tered this labour when convinced that it was his
duty so to do, irrespective of any competition with
others.
I will not enter into details of the progress of our
'friendship from year to year, but may briefly state
the course of our school life. I passed him in the
school owing to his comparative indifference to
competition in the study of Latin and Greek ; but
when I had reached the sixth or highest form in the
school, I strongly urged on him the desirableness of
an effort to reach that form in which we should then
pursue our studies together, and at the same time
he would have the advantage of being solely under
the direct tuition of Dr. Gabell, the Head Master.
The regulation established by Dr. Gabell facilitated
such an exertion. Any boy who had once attained
Lo7'd Hatherley s Letter. 341
a place in the form immediately below the sixth was
offered promotion at any time to the sixth form on
condition that he passed a voluntary examination in
a book of Livy and one Greek play. I had myself
been thus promoted over the heads of several boys
otherwise before me in the school, and I succeeded
in directinor Hook's mind to the same course. He
had no great difficulty in achieving our object. I
went over with him the same book of Livy and the
same play, the Medea of Euripides, as I had myself
taken up for my examination, and we had the great
pleasure of pursuing exactly the same studies together
for the residue of his school career, that is till 181 7,
or more than half a year.
Meanwhile our English readings had become
more and more frequent, especially during the sum
mer evenings, when we used to build ourselves an
arbour for the summer in a thick hawthorn tree,
and taking our several editions of Shakspeare with
us, read out by turns the various parts of each play.
Besides his pocket edition, already referred to, he
possessed one by Reed in twenty-one volumes, the
whole of which (notes and all) we swallowed if we
did not digest them. In the year 18 14 (I think) he
instituted an * Order of St. Shakspeare and St.
Milton;' April 23, Shakspeare's birthday and death-
day, being our chief festival. Of this Order we
two were styled the Founders and Knights Grand
Masters, and to it were admitted a few of our com-
mon friends as Knights Grand Crosses, amongst
whom was the present Sir W. Heathcote.^ We did
* The following is the description of the Order copied from the
blank page in one of the volumes of the pocket Shakespeare : —
342 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
not omit to read prose authors, and the * Spectator '
was a book in frequent use.
From what I have already stated you will readily
understand that he obtained but few school distinc-
tions. A book prize attended his successful effort
to reach the sixth form per saltum, and he gained
the silver medal for public speaking, being undoubt-
edly the best orator of the school. He was also
at the end of his career distinguished as our cham-
pion, and was selected to fight any inhabitant of the
town (including on one occasion some soldiers of a
regiment in the barracks) in case of infringement
by them of our privileges.
Dr. Johnson has said that a debt of gratitude is due
to the memory of all schoolmasters by whom men who
have distinguished themselves, as did my friend, were
trained ; and I cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge
the debt we both owed to Dr. Gabell as an instructor.
That, indeed, was the only title {informator) that he
enjoyed as connected with the foundation: the Warden
(at that time Dr. Huntingford, Bishop of Hereford)
A List of the Knights of the Most Poetical Order ofSS.
Shakspeare and Milton.
llr S' ^?'^^' \ Founders and Knights Grand Masters.
W. P. Wood, J
Henry Minchin, \
* EDWARD AUSTEN, ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^
William Heathcote,
Philip Hevvett, J
By His Majesty's Command.
^J T^" -.,7 * [ Secretaries of State.
W. P. Wood, j
GOD SAVE KING
SHAKSPEARE.
* Better known as Austen Leigh, a nephew of Miss Austen the novelist, and
author of a memoir of her.
Lo7'd Hatherleys Letter. 343
being the chief governor of Wykeham's College. But
of Commoners ' Gabell was the ' master,' and I
always thought him very deficient in the qualifications
necessary for that post. His chief deficiency was a
total distrust of the boys, which led him never to
believe their statements. It was this defect which
(subsequently to Hook's leaving the school) led to a
rebellion. But as a teacher Dr. Gabell excelled.
He possessed the happy art of thoroughly searching
out every boy's ability and industry, by methods of
his own, with which I ought not to encumber your
pages, and further he felt, and therefore conveyed to
generous and intelligent young minds, an enthusiastic
love of the best classical literature. Learning by
heart formed a prominent part of the teaching of
the school, and this circumstance probably in a
great measure kept Hook back in his progress. His
memory was not accurate in details, while the amount
of recitations from Latin and Greek poets of which
some boys were capable was portentous. A noble
lord is yet living ^ who committed to memory the
whole (I think) of Virgil's .^neid and several books
of Homer. Winchester has always been a hard
working school. Accuracy was insisted upon ; work
was not slurred over, nor was brilliancy considered
to be any compensation for indolence. The school
has produced hard workers through life. The
Archbishopric of Canterbury and the Speakership
of the House of Commons have been each held
once, and the Great Seal three times, by Wykeham-
ists within my memory, and I have sat in a Cabinet
where three out of sixteen members had been
educated at Winchester.
1 Lord Saye and Sele.
344 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
As boys we all took much interest in politics,
though I think out of 200 probably less than one-
quarter were Whigs, and I was almost a solitary
Radical. Hook established a Parliament which sat
in the deserted Palace of the Bishop. I think that
of its members only Sir Alexander Maletand myself
have survived. Our debates were no doubt highly
esteemed by ourselves : they were perhaps none the
worse for the absence of reporters, or even a gallery.
I have not yet noticed the tie which more espe-
cially bound my dear friend and myself together
from boyhood to age. It so happened that I became
a prefect at the early age of fifteen. The prefects
were entrusted with the discipline and management
of the school. There were eight of them in Com-
moners presiding over 142 other boys, and two in
each week were responsible for the general order of
the school. It had become almost a rule that these
eight boys should receive at stated times the Holy
Communion. I had not been confirmed, and this
led me to think very seriously about the whole
subject ; and first whether I ought, as it were com-
pulsorily, to take so serious a step at all, and secondly
whether I could properly do so before confirmation.
This latter point, however, was, shortly before the
time for communicating, set at rest by the Warden
of the College, Bishop Huntingford, holding a con-
firmation in the College Chapel. I submitted my
anxieties on this head to my friend, as I did all my
other difificulties in matters of religion. I need not
dwell more on the subject. Suffice it to say that he
consulted his father and some others of the clergy
upon it, supplied me with books on the subject of
Confirmation and Holy Communion, instructed and
Lord Hatherleys Letter. 345
encouraged me in every way ; and thus my first
Communion was the special cement of our Hfe-en-
during- friendship, and a foundation was laid on which,
notwithstanding every difference of opinion in matters
less grave, we could rest as on a rock.
During our holidays we used to see each other
occasionally only. In the winters of 18 15 and 18 16
my father, having been elected Lord Mayor for two
successive years, resided at the Mansion House.
Hook, when in town, lived in Conduit Street at the
house of Sir Walter Farquhar, his grandfather. He
contrived a plan of our meeting for an hour or two
each day in St. Paul's Cathedral. At that time
anyone could be admitted there on payment of two-
pence, and was allowed to remain as long as he
pleased, and many a time did we pace the aisles
together for hours when the service was over. In
the summer holidays my family usually resided at
Little Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, and at times
Hook was in that neighbourhood at Roehampton,
staying with his uncle, Mr. Thomas, afterwards Sir
Thomas, Farquhar,
The first letter of a series which continued
without interruption for nearly sixty years was
written to me by Hook on December 29, 18 16.
It is dated from Winchester, where his father was
then residing as Prebendary, and addressed to me
at the Mansion House. I copy a small part of it.
He was still a school-boy, but intended (as ultimately
was the case) to leave Winchester School at the
end of the long half-year terminating in July.
I went on Thursday to Southampton to see Mrs.
Siddons, whom I heard so much ridiculed here by two of
her acquaintances that I scarcely expected to be able to
34^ Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
tolerate her; but I found her most kind and pleasant.
She said she had known me when I was a child, and was
happy to renew the acquaintance. In the evening, after
dinner, she gave me my choice of what she should read to
me, and I chose Macbeth, which she read through, passing
over a few uninteresting scenes. She acted Macbeth quite
as well as Lady Macbeth, and of course surpassed Kean in
every respect. Though she is sixty-two yet she looked
most beautiful when she was reading, and I can very well
fancy her once being ' with matchless beauty crowned.' But
what I liked most to hear, was Satan's speech to the Sun,
in Milton, which she read most charmingly : her voice and
manner suits entirely with Milton. I took a long walk the
next morning, with Miss Siddons, who is a very sensible,
agreeable girl, and some people think very handsome.
Mrs. Siddons was very condescending, and in talking over
several of Shakspeare's plays, showed a great deal of taste,
learning, and judgment. She took, however, the part of
Lady Macbeth, in which I could not quite agree with her,
and her daughter helped me to defend poor Macbeth,
against whom Mrs. Siddons was rather spiteful. . . . By
the bye, I shall have free access to John Kemble's library,
which you know, according to Steeven's account, is the best
in England for old books and valuable and scarce editions,
not of classics, but of old English authors.
At the beginning of February 1817 I received
another letter from him, of which I give a short
extract in order to show the passionate enthusiasm
which his affection always evinced towards me. It
was poured forth in prose and verse, and from youth
to age, and I will only give this specimen of what
you and all he loved well know to have been his
characteristic : the most unselfish, ardent devotion
to his friends. He refers to his returning to school
a week before I should be there, owing to his father
leaving Winchester, to explain which it may be men-
Lord Hatherleys Letter. 347
tioned that the school was open for the reception
of the foundation boys who returned a week before
the commoners were obliged to do so.
.... I shall not be able to avoid going to Commoners
on Sunday night, and thus I shall spend a whole week with-
out you ; you may well imagine how miserable I shall be,
for I could better spare you in any other place than that
in which every turn I take will bring you to my remem-
brance ; but stay as long as you can, for you may be
assured that I can have no greater pleasure than knowing
that you enjoy yourself; and if you could, I would not
wish you to hurry back into Commoners on my account
as I do not reckon myself at all selfish, but I tJiink and
hope that I feel more pleasure in your happiness than in
my own, and I only write this that you may take com-
passion, and whenever you have a moment to spare and
roneniber me, may just send me a line of consolation, even
if it is every day, and but a line. I write to you now
because I am very dull, too dull to read even our dear
Shakspeare, and I want to complain, and so pitch upon
you to be the person to be plagued with hearing my com-
plaints. I had an offer of going to Oriel this instant, there
being a sudden vacancy, and not going back to Winchester,
but I much prefer returning : indeed I should be wretched if
I did not go back this half-year, for though Oxford may
have some greater comforts than Winchester, yet the enjoy-
ing your company at the one and not at the other would
make the one most delightful, the other most uncomfort-
able, and though we shall separate at the end of next half-
year, the thought of not spending one more half-year
with you, would have made me wretched. Gabell most
strongly advised my staying, and I am glad to stay.
When the end of the long half-year arrived, July
1 8 1 7, we underwent our first real parting, and very
sad it was. We paced the long galleries at the
back of the bedrooms in Commoners for an hour or
34^ Zz/^ of Walter Farqtihar Hook.
two in great grief. In the holidays he met with
some sHght accident, and I went from Twickenham
to see him in London, after which he wrote me a
letter, of which I have copied a small part to show
the extreme warmth of his feelings in return for a
very slight service.
My most beloved Friend, — I cannot possibly wait an
instant, without expressing to you my deep and heartfelt
gratitude for your conduct towards me during the last two
days. Had you not before this had possession of my heart,
your late kindness would certainly have given you a just
title to my affection. Indeed I do not repent of my
foolish action, since by that means I enjoyed so very much
of your society, and since owing to that, I spent two of the
happiest days that I ever did spend. Again, my dearest
Wood, let me express my gratitude to you for foregoing the
pleasures of your holidays, and shutting yourself up in the
room of a poor sick fellow.
I returned to Winchester in September 1817,
and in November received a letter from him refer-
ring to a squib which he had sent to the ' Sun '
newspaper. He had at all times much of the
exuberant humour of his Uncle Theodore, subdued
as years went on by the graver realities of his life,
but always ready to break forth when he was in the
company of an intimate friend. I insert the first
portion only of this letter.
I have become an author already. On Sunday last I
sent a squib to the ' Sun ' newspaper which it has published
in yesterday's edition. The name of it was, ' The Meeting
of Jacobins.' I will send you the paper if I can get one. I
ought not to send you a copy as there is in it ' The Lord
M r and Jacobins of the City of London. The Lord
M r returned thanks.' Tell me directly if you are
Lord Hatherley s Letter. 349
sulky. I tell you honestly, I am not certain whether it was
not an interpolation of the ' Sun,' because it is not in my foul
copy, and because they have thought fit to insert a puff at
the end of it in favour of their paper, but I plainly tell you
that I should have inserted it if I had thought of it, but I
rather think I did not. Not that I think your father a
Jacobin precisely ; but as I call Lord Grey, under the title of
Lord Dapple, a Jacobin, and likewise Mr. Brougham, you
will not be angry. ... I shall cut you up some time or
other. God bless you. I love you with all my heart and soul.
I spent the Christmas holidays of 181 7 in Paris,
whither my father summoned me and my younger
brother from Winchester. Whilst there I received
a letter from him dated Winchester, December 30,
A.N.A. 5, the latter form being an abbreviation for
* Anno nostrse amicitias,' which he adopted to mark
the date of our friendship, begun in 181 2. In this
letter he affects to treat me, not very consistently,
as a Jacobin and as a friend of Napoleon. The
following is a short extract :
I took it most kind in you, my beloved Wood, to write
to me so soon after your arrival, when you could so well
have pleaded want of time and various other excuses. I
do nevertheless earnestly request you not to think that I
shall be offended if you do not write often, for it is my
wish that you should see everything, and as your stay is
but short in Paris, I will wait patiently till you leave it to
hear of all the wonders to be seen there ; but you must not
humbug us untravelled folk, and you must not return as
the monkey that had seen the world, for let me tell you,
Mr. Alderman, I will have none of your airs. Your letter
was as instructive as it was amusing, as replete with good
advice as it was with just observation. I was scarcely
ever better pleased with a letter even from you, and
all your letters must please your adoring friend. I see
that you did not sleep in the diligence, but had your
350 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
eyes and ears open, and from the beginning I augur well of
your excursion. It will enlarge your ideas by letting you
have an insight into the ways and customs of foreign
nations, and make you, Mr. Jacobin, learn to respect, love,
and reverence the sacred establishment of our blessed
constitution in Church and State. You seem to have seen
a great deal in a short time, and to have been struck, as
everybody is, with the magnitude and magnificence in
which Royalty lives in France, and the misery of the
poorer orders. You will not, I conclude, wish for those
sumptuous palaces in England. Let our Prince have his
* Thatched Cottages,' and be able to keep up the dignity of
his state — we want no more. I would rather see the
Louvre and Tuileries in France than in England. With
the pictures perhaps you were at first dazzled, but I think
your taste will soon reject the false style of French artists,
for I understand since the departure of your friend at St.
Helena, most of the pictures are of the French school,
which, in my humble opinion, is no more to be compared
to the English, than I to Hercules. We have undoubtedly
more and better pictures in England, but in a free state the
sovereign cannot monopolise all the good things. Every
nobleman and almost every gentleman in England has at
least two or three pictures by first-rate artists. Not so in
France, where I believe you will find that almost every
picture of worth belongs to the royal family. Were all
the first-rate pictures of the English, Italian, and Dutch
schools in England to be collected, I doubt not but that
we should fill a room much longer than half a mile. Your
English indignation is justly roused by the plan of justice
in France, and your English heart naturally revolts at the
idea of want of liberty of the press ; but I think if you con-
sider the present character of the French, and the weak
foundation of the French government, you will acknow-
ledge that France is not at the present time fit for liberty
of the press, which is always so much open to abuse that it
is even at times dangerous to our firmly fixed government,
and consequently would be replete with danger to the ill-
built fabric of the French Constitution.
Lord Hatherleys Letter, 351
In the next letter, dated from Whippingham
January 4, 1818, a.n.a. 6, he tells me that he is to
go to Christ Church, Oxford, in about a fortnight.
There are some observations I feel impelled to
quote from this letter, owing to the happy direction
which at this early period it gave to the subsequent
correspondence of a life.
May our affection, which is already gigantic, grow
every year till it reaches that heaven where it can never
be made twain. Remember, my adored friend, that the
first and the most essential part of friendship is to mark
the faults, and theti to love the virtues, of the object of
our affection. Remember that none but a friend can tell
us our faults ; that it would be presumptuous and invidious
in anyone else so to do ; and, therefore, I put the marking
of our faults before the admiring of our virtues. But the
seeing them is not enough ; they must be told. No man
can view his own errors ; they must be told to him, and
pointed out to him, before he repents. Bear in mind that
when Cassius says, ' a friendly eye would never see those
faults,' Brutus admirably replies, ' Flatterers would not,
though they be as huge as high Olympus,' thus drawing
the direct line and denominating him, who, by most men,
would be called a friend, to be, in many instances, nothing
more than a flatterer. This I do not mean to apply to
the morals, habits, and customs, but even to the lowest
and least observed faults. When we were together such
freedom we always exercised without reserve ; therefore,
in our letters let our remarks on one another's train of
thought, style of letter-writing, and action be free, open,
and more inclined to blame than to praise, for I mean to
tell you honestly and truly everything I do, everything I
think, everything I feel. Amen. Thus ends my sermon ;
and if you are not asleep, I will now be a little merrier.
My correspondence with Hook after he left
school was constant. I missed him and his guidance
only too much ; for a growing dissatisfaction with
352 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
Gabell's mismanagement of the school, especially
his want of confidence in the boys, led to a rebellion
in May 1818, in which I took part. It is enough
to say that although I then thought, and still think,
that grave grounds of complaint existed, I have
never ceased to regret the pain I gave to our Head
Master, with whom personally I was rather a favour-
ite, and the greater pain I must have given my
parents. Happily no evil consequences resulted
from it to the school, nor indeed to my own sub-
sequent career. I was deservedly sent away from
the school, an opportunity being first offered me of
saying that, owing to my youth, I had been over-
persuaded. This notion was not true in fact, nor
under any circumstances would it have been likely
to meet with my assent. But besides this, all the
head boys had signed a paper before the rebellion
broke out, to the effect that whatever happened to
one should happen to all. The Head Master and
second master in conclave called up the first and
third boys and expelled them, keeping me confined
in a separate room till this had been done ; but from
the window of this room I saw and conversed with
these two boys, and then on being summoned to
judgment stated all the facts, and said that my
course was clear. I then went home, taking also
my younger brother ^ with me, who had signed the
same paper. These statements will explain my
friend's next letter.
.... I am heartily sorry for the Rebellion, In the
first moment I was so pleased with it that I scarcely
considered the merits or demerits of the case ; but now,
^ Mr. Western Wood, afterwards M.P. for the City of London.
Lord Hat her ley s Letter. 353
when I reflect upon the great kindness and affectionate
care of Gabell for the school, I cannot but feel sorry when
I consider the injury it may do him. But all this would
not affect me in any serious manner, as your banishment
perhaps will. All my fears have been roused by Heath-
cote telling me that Coplestone, the Provost of his college,
says that he shall not receive Porcher if he hears that he
has been at all active in the Rebellion. Are you, my most
beloved Wood, sure of getting in at Cambridge .-* Is there
no doubt "i Did you take an active part in the business
yourself.? Austen, who saw Ward, tells me that you did. I
hope you did not, but, my most dear William, think not
that I mean to upbraid you ; I should myself have done the
selfsame thing, but I should have repented of it afterwards
most likely. I trust that by this time your father has for-
given you. Send me word if he has or has not.
My younger brother was sent back to school,
and before the end of May I was travelHng alone
through France to Geneva. At Geneva I remained,
passing through the usual course of philosophy at
the * Auditoire,' for two years. My way was made
smooth by the presence of some near relatives at
Geneva, who before my arrival had made arrange-
ments for my living en pe^ision at M. Duvillard's,
the Professor of Belles Lettres. There were, at
different times, some six or seven people, English,
German, and French, in the same pension ; one of
the Englishmen being an old Winchester school-
fellow. I alone, however, followed the course of
the Auditoire. I wrote a few lines to Hook from
Calais, and again from Geneva, where I received
my first letter from him, dated Christ Church, May
24, 181 8, and during the two years of my residence
at Geneva our correspondence never flagged. I
VOL. I. A A
354 Z-^/^ of Walter Farquhar Hook.
will not, however, overload this narrative by further
extracts from his letters. Suffice it to say that they
indicate much divergence of his thoughts from the
work of the place, and contain constant expressions
of regret at his disappointing those who were in-
terested in his distinction, and who believed (as I
ever had) in his powers of mind, if he could once be
brought to fix them earnestly upon his work. He
wrote once or twice a poem for the Newdegate
prize, which he sent to me for criticism, but with the
exception of Divinity he read little which could
avail him from a University point of view. His 'set'
of companions, though always young men of ability
and worth, were, owing to his college being Christ
Church, men of higher worldly position than himself,
and did not encourage him in study. In a letter
dated March 6, 1819, he says: 'You asked me in
your last whether I study with anybody — no, nor
ever will without I can do so with you. You asked
with whom I most associate. My acquaintance
here is not extensive, and I am not a bit more with
one person than another.' His college tutor was
Dr. Vowler Short, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph,
to whom he was much attached, and of whom he
always spoke with gratitude.
My letters interested him because we had many
interesting persons then living at Geneva, with
whom I had such acquaintance as a boy can have
with men. Amongst our Professors were De Candolle
the botanist, De la Rive, Pictet, and Rossi, after-
wards a peer of France, and finally Prime Minister
of Pius IX. in his days of zeal for reform, in whose
service he was assassinated. He came to Geneva
Lord Hatherley s Letter. 355
as a refugee from the despotic government of Pius
VII., which drove him from Bologna. Dumont,
Sismondi, and the late Due de Broglie were also
then residing at Geneva.
On July I, 18 19, Hook wrote me a rapturous
account of his first pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon.
In May 1820, just as I was about to pass an
examination for the degree of ' Bachelor of Letters '
at Geneva, Queen Caroline happened to pass through
that town on her way to England. My father was
anxious that I should avail myself of an offer to
travel in her suite. We were to meet him and Lady
Anne Ham.ilton on the road. This I accordingly
did, meeting them at Montbard, and all of us pro-
ceeding to St. Omer, where we met Brougham,
then the Queen's Attorney General, and Lord
Hutchinson. It was then that the offer was made
to the queen to receive a large annuity, on condition
that she should not take the title of queen, or attempt
to land in England. Her answer was her departure
that same evening from St. Omer to sleep on board
an English packet, whence she despatched a letter
addressed to Louis XVIII., stating her desire to
free him from her unwelcome presence on French
soil, though she had thought that some of the ordi-
nary tokens of respect might have been paid to one
whose brothers had perished on the field in support-
ing the monarchy of France. I pass over, however,
this episode of my life, intensely interesting as it
was at the time to me ; believing, as I then did, and
still do, that the wicked charges against that perse-
cuted woman were false. I only mention the mode
of my return to England because it occasioned some
A A 2
35^ Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
trouble, as I afterwards learned, to my dear friend,
whose family were strong Tories, and had been
personally favoured by George IV. Hook, how-
ever, never wavered even for a moment in his
devotion to me ; his mother, also, was aware of his
affection for me, and she was uniformly kind in
promoting it.
It so happened that I was laid up with ague,
caught whilst travelling by night through the marshes
of St. Omer. I could not, therefore, go to him, nor
indeed did we meet till late in 1822 ; for as soon as
I had recovered from the ague I made a journey,
lasting from June to October, with persons employed
in getting up the case of Queen Caroline abroad,
to whom I acted as a volunteer interpreter for the
Italian witnesses, until a regular interpreter could
be obtained. In one letter written to me just before
I left England he says : ' I forgot in my last to tell
you that I called on Gabell as I passed through
Winchester, and after having laughed at the like-
lihood of your becoming a real rebel, he said,
** Remember me, when you write, most particularly
and kindly to him, and tell him that he will always
find a welcome in my house." He expressed the
greatest regard for you. When I was there I met
a young lady who asked me much about our Oxford
Commemoration, and I told her how delighted I was
to hear the simultaneous hurrah, the magnificent
and glorious burst of enthusiasm, the moment the
name of Robert Southey was mentioned : that it
was also not a little pleasant to see one poet applaud-
ing another — Milman cheering his brother bard
Southey, and quoth Dr. Gabell, "you have the
.honour of speaking to Miss Milman."'
Lord Hatherley s Letter. 357
I met Gabell myself not long afterwards, when
he was most kind to me, and I felt all my penitence
for the rebellion renewed. I had to cut short my
Italian journey just as I was about to leave Rome
for Naples and Sicily. The horses were at the door
when I received a letter from my father, enclos-
ing one from the Rev. G. Macfarlane, Fellow of
Trinity, who was to ^^be my private tutor at Cam-
bridge, informing me that if I were not in England
by October 21, I should, by the University regula-
tions existing at that time, lose a whole year. My
friend was now working hard for his degree, and I had
to set to work at my Cambridge studies in Trinity.
We did not, therefore, meet till late the next year.
In 1 82 1 he came to town for the coronation of
George IV. ; but we did not meet then, as no doubt
there was a difficulty in our doing so either at his
home or mine, the minds of our relatives being so
differently affected as regarded the unhappy position
of the queen.
It was not till the summer of 1822, nine months
after his ordination, that Hook and I again met. I
was then about to make a short visit at Southamp-
ton, and met him by arrangement at Winchester,
having a delightful walk with him for a few hours
over all our old haunts, especially the meadows in
which we used to read. I will not attempt to
describe the joy of this happy meeting, at which we
agreed that if it were possible we would contrive
some meeting for a longer period in the next year.
Unhappily for the remainder of my vacation in
this year, I suffered from disordered health, chiefly
in the form of a most troublesome giddiness,
which was afterwards yet more aggravated, and
35B Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
threw me very much back in my preparation
for my degree. Our scheme consequently, which
included a visit from him to me at Cambridge,
had to be postponed till the next year. I had
numerous letters of the kindest sympathy from him
during the whole of my illness. In one of these,
dated September 17, 1822, he says, *I have read
lately nothing — yet I have rea.d the novel of " Eve-
lina," and am trudging through " Sir Charles Gran-
dison."' I mention this because about the same
time I had often talked of Richardson's novels with
Macaulay (then an undergraduate), who, when I
said that I had got through ' Sir C. Grandison ' after
seven attempts, replied, ' You will not enjoy it till
you have read it seven times through.'
In a letter dated June 1822, after some remarks
on Scott's last novel, the ' Fortunes of Nigel,' and
upon a novel by Lockhart, called ' Adam Blair,' he
proceeds : ' By the way, I must not omit to recom-
mend to you a book which has entertained me very
much, entitled " Pen Owen." It is a new novel,
and what pleases me is that it is quite void of that
canting and whining sentimentality and that some-
times blasphemous saintism and methodism with
which so many modern novels abound.'
Several years after this I discovered that his
father was the author of the book. I had often
laughed at his vehement 'John Bullism,' which
adhered to him through life, and in reference to this
he says, writing in December 1822, * I am not quite
so national as you think, and if ever you give me a
little more of your much desired society, and talk of
foreigners as you did and can do, I will promise to
Lord Hatherley s Letter. 359
be an apt disciple to liberality : to your liberality,
not to Leigh Hunt's.' (Leigh Hunt was at that
time the editor of ' The Liberal.')
In January 1823 he writes, after reading Moore's
* Loves of the Angels,' and the first act of Byron's
* Heaven and Earth ' in * The Liberal ' :
I think it (Moore's Poem) a complete failure, and in
parts quite wicked ; although I will do him the justice to
say that I believe he did not intend to be so. I am very
much averse to poets coming into contact with the
Almighty, or straying into the infinitely incomprehensible.
He is pleased to represent the angels of God, the par-
ticipators of infinite happiness, as finding heaven dull, and
descending upon earth to gratify, not their love, but their
lust. I am indignant and sorry. The fact is that even
the sublime and heavenly Milton soared too high, and in
his third book he off"ends me much by introducing the
reader to the Almighty Himself. But if Milton did not
succeed in the regions of heaven what modern poetaster
can hope for success .'' Lord Byron's ' Heaven and Earth *
in the ' Liberal ' is in parts extremely fine, and throws
Tommy Moore quite into the background. There are
parts which are almost sublime. . . . But when I praise
* Heaven and Earth ' I may be influenced by having
heard it most beautifully read by my uncle Theodore.
In May 1823 he wrote a letter, from which I
extract the following passage. The playful ideas
about our future careers which it contains were in
some respects singularly in accordance, in others as
singularly contrasted with the actual facts of our
subsequent lives.
I am, at present, in the most melancholy mood —
distressingly so. Some evil must be impending, or is it
the sudden return of winter after the summer-like autumn
we have spent ? I feel that loneliness of heart and
360 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
mind of which I do often complain. I think after all I
must get me a wife ; but where shall I find one to suit
my taste and disposition, and if I do find such a one,
will she not be worse than a fool if she accepts such a
wretch as I am ? How delightful would it be to have a
small cottage in some sequestered shady valley, with a wife
who could understand all the sentiments of my heart, and
enter into all my feelings as you used to do : to have her
there equally the friend of my friend, who would find in
my house a pleasant retreat from the toils and worries of
a lawyer's life. I could fancy you nursing, with almost
parental fondness, my second boy, William Wood Hook,
taking a delight in his improvement, and urging him by
presents in the career of learning, while I should hold you
up to him as the model of perfection in virtue and true
religion as well as learning. Then we should laugh
heartily at all your bachelor peculiarities, and fit up one
room peculiarly for you, just according to your taste and
ideas of comfort. N.B. When we pay a visit to London
we shall always refuse your offer of a room in your house
in the most delicate terms we can, dreading the damp
beds, and unaired dungeony rooms of a bachelor's house —
but we shall be very happy to dine with you. At length
a change will take place ; and we shall feel a little awe at
your approaching visit, and mount wax candles instead
of muttons in our candlesticks, and talk big among our
neighbours ; ' because why "i why because ' my Lord Chan-
cellor, the Earl of Lignum, and Baron Billy-squad is
coming to pay us a visit — and we shall find you just the
same good, dear, affectionate, unaffected creature as before ;
and your lordship will take my son, William Wood Hook,
under your lordship's more immediate protection, and will
give my eldest boy a living, and offer to get me a Deanery
or a Bishopric, which I of course shall refuse ; and then I
shall be proud of having such a friend, and I shall make
a memoir of your life, and, a la Jimmy Boswell, take
minutes of your conversation and treasure your bon-mots,
and make selections from your letters, and leave it to my
Lord Hat her leys Letter, 361
son to be published v/hen we are both dead and gone ; and
then — and then will be an end of our eventful history.
He was indeed most blessed in the wife to
whom six years later he was united, but he did not
pass any portion of his married life amid rural or
sequestered scenes. I soon followed his example as
regarded marriage, and fulfilled his anticipations by
presenting my godchild (not, however, bearing my
name), his second son, but the eldest surviving, to the
first benefice which became vacant after my appoint-
ment to the office of Lord Chancellor. Alas ! after
a short life of usefulness, he was but a little while
since removed from this life, but reunited, as I hope,
to his loving and beloved parents.
I answered his letter with some corresponding
wish, common enough to those who have a labo-
rious life before them, that we might live in ' some
secluded abode, blessed with our own society and
that of our wives and children ; ' for in a letter dated
June 4, 1823, he quotes this passage and says, ' I
do assure you that with the addition of health I
should think this dream of yours, if fulfilled, would
be happiness complete. Let us labour some twenty
years hence to bring it about. But alas ! twenty
years ! how awful is it to think of the change which
may take place between this and then ! To one or
both of us Time will perhaps — nay, will probably
be changed into eternity ; or, if permitted to linger
yet longer in this world of misery and turmoil, our
hopes, our wishes, our ideas may suffer a dismal
change : a dismal one, I say, because few persons
are bettered by contact with this filthy world. Well,
my dearest friend, let us pray for the blessing of the
362 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook.
Almighty, and may He grant what I hope and
think may really be the case, that our friendship
may never, never end.'
After the six years of friendship during the
remainder of our unmarried life which succeeded
this letter, we lived to thank God for forty-five years
of uninterrupted friendship between ourselves, our
wives, and his children — a union broken only by the
sad removal of his wife four years before his own
decease. But such retirement as I had imagined
was not reserved for us : once only did I again,
some years after we were both married, refer to the
possibility of it, and I was struck with his reply,
* When you have no more work to do you will die.'
A sense of the privilege of working for his heavenly
Master was never absent from his mind. It over-
came his strong bias to literary self-indulgence, the
strongest temptation that can be offered to men of
vigorous powers of thought.
In January 1824 I took my degree, and in
October 1825 I obtained a Fellowship at Trinity;
but as I was readino- for the bar in the chambers of
an equity draughtsman throughout the year 1824,
whilst Hook was occupied in his clerical duty as his
father's curate at Whippingham, we seldom met, but
our correspondence was constant. When his father
was made Dean of Worcester in 1825 my friend
frequently resided at the Deanery, but early in the
year 1828 his father was unexpectedly seized with a
fatal illness and died at Worcester, aged fifty-six.
Writing in February 1828 soon after this event,
Hook says : * Our circumstances are at present not
the most brilliant, but I am philosophical enough
Lord Hatherley's Letter. 363
not to care about that. Much interest was used
with the Lord Chancellor (Lyndhurst) to procure
for me my dear father's living of Stone, worth about
800/., which had been taken in exchange for Whip-
pingham ; but his lordship merely sent me a very
kind letter, promising future patronage and offering
me a living (which proves not to be vacant) of 300/.
a year. He was an old friend and schoolfellow of
my father.' In fact, my friend's family was but ill
provided for. His younger brother was placed in a
way to be provided for in Herries and Farquhar s
bank, but his mother and a sister much younger
than his brother were left with himself dependent on
a very slender fortune.
In the summer of 1828 his mother took for a
time a small house at Leamington, whither he ac-
companied her and his sister for a short holiday,
and here I paid them a visit. He preached a
sermon at Leamington which attracted the attention
of Dr. Jebb, the Bishop of Limerick, who was then
staying there on account of his health. Bishop Jebb
asked him at once to visit him, and they had much
happy intercourse, their acquaintance speedily ripen-
ing into friendship. He was greatly pleased with
this occurrence, having much revered the character
of the Bishop, and being in a manner almost ac-
quainted with him by perusal of the well-known
* Correspondence ' between him and Mr. Alexander
Knox. Several of the letters that passed between
Hook and the Bishop have been printed in the
* Life of Bishop Jebb,' by his chaplain, the late Rev.
Charles Forster.
During my stay at Leamington the benefice of
364 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook.
Holy Trinity at Coventry became vacant. This
was a benefice in the gift of the Lord Chancellor,
and on talking over his letter before referred to, we
resolved to go over to Coventry to make enquiry
about the nature and special character of the duties
that would be required of an incumbent of that
parish. The result was that Hook applied to the
Lord Chancellor, and on October 3, 1828, he wrote
to me, * I have just heard from the Chancellor. He
has, in the most kind and flattering manner, con-
ferred upon me the Coventry living. I have no
time at this agitating moment for more than most
earnestly to request your prayers.'
We had both been somewhat misled in supposing
the income of the benefice to be 500/. a year, but I
do not think that the facts, if known, would have
altered Hook's wish to undertake the work, for he
could not but be conscious that he had powers of
usefulness which waited but the opportunity for
development.
On November 29, 1828, he wrote to me to
mention the error about the income of the living ;
not with any great amount of disappointment, but
in that easy temper with which he always took
matters of mere worldly consideration. ' The living,*
he writes, ' is only 360/., and there is no house. This
is a bore on two accounts. First, I cannot do all
the good in my parish that I could wish with so
small an income : and secondly, I cannot marry.*
On February 11, 1829, he slept for the first time
in his parish and wrote me a letter, from which I
transcribe the following passage :
I write to you at night just before I sleep for the first
time in my parish. Think of the overpowering sensations
Lord Hatherhy s Letter. 365
of thus entering upon a new sphere, where the good that I
may be the instrument of doing is great, but where the
mischief of which I may be the cause is incalculably-
greater. I have been rash and presumptuous in seeking
this situation, for which, unless I am strengthened from
above, I am utterly unfit. Think of this, and think of poor
me when you are praying. You know not half my weak-
ness; you know not how much I stand in need of the
renovating, the assisting grace of God. There is a com-
munion of saints, and one Christian benefits in the prayers
of another. It is delightful to reflect on this : it is delightful
to think that we may, in some way or other to us unknown,
contribute to the welfare of our friends by our prayers —
that there is unseen fellowship among true Christians.
May the God of heaven, for His blessed Son's sake, shower
down upon you, my most dear friend, every blessing, both
temporal and spiritual ; and now, while I am praying for
strength, now when I am incurring these awful responsi-
bilities, let your prayers be united with mine. Pray for me
and my flock, that I may be able to do my duty and they
theirs.
Scarcely more than a month after this I received
a letter from him dated March 1 1, 1829, full of joy,
announcing his engagement to your dear mother-
in-law, the commencement of happiness which was
never interrupted save by her death ; and in the
following August I was enabled to mention my
engagement to her with whom I have enjoyed up to
the present hour every blessing that a union, un-
clouded by aught but that which may at times have
overshadowed us from without, could bestow. It
pleased God that the marriages thus formed increased
our friendship, and more than doubled its brightness
by the no less warm attachment of those who had
succeeded to the first place in our affections. And
here I fitly break off the narrative of our youth,
366 Life of Walter Fm^quhar Hook.
leaving to you the exposition of his later years ; and
only making, In conclusion, a few remarks upon the
salient points of his character and career.
There was In him a rare combination of genius
in devising, and industry in carrying into effect,
schemes for the full development of the power of the
Church ; first, in evangelising those large masses of
our population whose hearts so few have been able
to reach, and then in building up their faith upon a
firm foundation. His special Inspiration In this
great work was, as we who knew him best believed,
to be found In the unbounded sympathy of his
Christian love, first, towards his Saviour, and through
Him to all for whom that Saviour died. He was
thus delivered from narrow excluslveness on the
one hand, and on the other from an unreal, though
apparent, breadth of fellowship with any save those
who were, like himself, devoted to his Master's
cause. For the one great characteristic of his course
was In all things reality. Hence In more than one
instance he gave support to men from whom. In
many serious respects, he differed, if only convinced
of their Christian earnestness. I remember espe-
cially the period when Mr. Newman published his
celebrated Tract XC. After having received a letter
from Hook expressing his great regret at the publi-
cation, and his disapproval of Its tone, I was surprised
by another letter consequent on the part taken by
the Oxford authorities against the author, In which
he says, * I have nailed my colours to the mast, and
intend to stand by Newman.' His firm adherence,
however, to his own principles became so well
known after a short experience of his parochial
Lord Hathe7'ley s Letter. 367
ministrations in Coventry and Leeds, that he found
ardent helpers ready to support him in any work
which he undertook. Hence the extraordinary
results of his ministry in increased churches and
schools. I remember going with him one evening
to a gathering of 600 Sunday school teachers who
had 1 2,000 pupils under them. But this energy of
feeling, if confined to sympathy only, would have
done but little. His industry was unparalleled.
He rose before five o'clock, and was at his literary
work from six to nine, and after his breakfast at
the latter hour he devoted his whole time to his
parish, morning and evening, with the exception of
a Saturday evening's holiday. He was bold and
fearless to a degree which is rarely experienced in
one who was also tender and loving as a woman.
He was keen in discerning and persevering in up-
holding the true interests of the great Anglican
branch of the Church Catholic, now extended over
the larger portion of the globe. Whatever doubts
might be suggested as to the expediency of Bishop
Luscombe's appointment, in which he took a leading
part, it was the beginning of our largely developed
colonial and foreign episcopate. For the Church
in the great borough of Leeds he acquired a position
which it had never before attained. On all public
occasions, such as the opening of the new Town
Hall by her Majesty, and the like, he and the other
clergy, mainly through his influence, were to be
found occupying a prominent official position. His
influence was built up on a solid basis of Church
principle, and was felt to extend to many of the
neighbouring industrial centres of our manufacturing
368 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook.
districts. To the present day * T* ould Vicar and
f wife ' are household words among the old inhabit-
ants of the great parish of Leeds.
He foresaw the development that education
must receive in a free country, and he was one of
the earliest to secure for the Church her true position
in forwarding that great work, not by the exclusion
of others from the field of labour, but by her own
superior activity. He was intolerant only of pre-
tension and indolence, and in the midst of indefati-
gable labours he had no leisure for petty ambitions.
The scanty portion of leisure that public duty
permitted him to enjoy was devoted to his home,
and that devotion was requited by the unbounded
affection of his happy household.
i^37 First Six Months at Leeds. 369
CHAPTER VI.
SETTLEMENT AT LEEDS.
JULY TO DECEMBER I 8 3 7.
In May 1837 the new Vicar took his degree of D.D.
at Oxford, and preached twice on Sunday at St.
Mary's, the church being thronged with an immense
crowd up to the very steps of the pulpit. The
beginning of July saw him and his family fairly
established in the house in Park Place, Leeds, which
was to be their happy home for twenty-two years.
There were no buildings at that time on the opposite
side of the road ; the situation was airy and plea-
sant ; within easy reach of the heart of the town,
yet not so near as to be overwhelmed by the smoke
of its multitudinous factories and mills.
And now the gigantic magnitude of the work
which lay before him became day by day more
clearly visible. It was enough to appal the stoutest
heart, and bewilder the steadiest brain. In the
character of its inhabitants, and in the condition of
their religious life, Leeds was a typical specimen of
a West Riding town.^ The common people were
' For a very interesting account of the Church in the West Riding
during the past century, see the Quarterly Review for April 1878.
VOL. I. B B
370 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
rough, uncouth, headstrong, and independent in a
degree calculated to daunt and repel a stranger, until
he discovered that below this rugged surface there
often glowed warm hearts, generous feelings, and
strong earnestness of purpose. John Wesley owned
that at first he had been startled and dismayed by
the wildness and rudeness of the inhabitants of
the West Riding, but he soon perceived that no-
where would a heartier response be made to his
awakening appeals ; nowhere was he destined to
reap a richer harvest of disciples. The tempera-
ment indeed of the people, excitable, impulsive, and
emotional, supplied a peculiarly favourable soil for
the reception of Wesley's doctrines. While the
spirit of the Church was torpid, and her outward
development was hampered by causes to which
the attention of the reader has been directed in a
former chapter,^ Methodism grew and flourished ;
Methodism alone kept pace with the rapid and
enormous increase of population in the northern
manufacturing towns, and struck its roots deeper
and deeper year by year into the affections and
understandings of the people. The Evangelical
pastors of a former generation, such as Henry Venn
of Huddersfieldand William Grimshaw of Haworth,
had promoted rather than impeded the growth of
Dissent, and the religion of pious Churchmen was
of a Methodistic type.
The Church had now just become alive to her
responsibilities. The See of Ripon, after much vex-
atious opposition in Parliament, had been founded
' Chap. iv. page 146.
1837 First Six Months at Leeds. 371
in 1836, so that Bishop Longley and Vicar Hook
almost simultaneously began the labours by which
they were destined under God to win back for the
Church her long-lost supremacy in that part of the
country.
It was indeed none too soon to begin the work;
for there were enormous arrears of duty which
nothing but the most persevering and energetic
industry could overtake ; there was ignorance on
the part of Churchmen which only patient teaching
could enlighten ; apathy, which only burning zeal
could quicken ; and, on the part of political and
religious opponents, there were prejudice and sus-
picion which only the most forbearing charity could
surmount.
The conditions then which the Vicar of Leeds
was called upon to face at the outset of his minis-
try were briefly these. First, a huge and rapidly
increasing population ; secondly, ignorance ; and
thirdly, active opposition.
The population had risen from 53,162 in 1801
to 123,393 in 1831. The provision on the part of
the Church for the spiritual necessities of the place
was and had long been miserably inadequate. The
parish comprehended the whole of the town and a
large portion of the suburbs. In 1825 there were
only four churches in the town besides the parish
church, and nine in the suburbs. The total number of
the clergy was eighteen. Ten years later the town-
churches had been increased to eight by the erection
at considerable cost of three large and ugly Peel
churches, which proved to be total failures. They
B B 2
^^2 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
were without endowment, the congregations were
very scanty, and the stipend derived from pew rents
was next to nothing. The town churches were mere
chapels of ease to the parish church ; no districts
were assigned to them, the patronage of nearly all
was vested in the Vicar, and most of the baptisms,
marriages, and funerals were performed at the parish
church, the fees for such offices amounting to about
600/. a year.
The Vicar of Leeds in 1837 was patron of the
churches of St. Paul, St. James, St. Mary, Christ
Church, Armley, Beeston, Bramley, Chapell Aller-
ton, Farnley, Headingley, Holbeck, and Hunslet.
He had the joint patronage of St. John's with the
Mayor and the three senior Aldermen, and of
Trinity Church with the minister of St. John's and
the Recorder. With the exception of the districts
of Woodhouse, Christ Church, and St. Mary's, he
was responsible for the entire pastoral charge of the
whole township. Yet the clerical staff of the parish
church for a long time past had consisted only of
the Vicar, one curate, and a clerk in orders. Nearly
the whole of their time was occupied in discharging
the more mechanical functions of the clerical office.
They were at the parish church from eight to half-
past eleven every morning for marriages. They
baptized twice and churched twice every day, and
burials were performed daily ; in winter twice a day,
and in summer three times. One of the curates of
the late Vicar who remained in charge of the parish
during the vacancy, observes in a letter to Dr. Hook
that the want of districts to each church in the town
i837 First Six Months at Leeds. 373
and the inordinate labours consequently heaped on
the Vicar and his curates, prevented the successful
prosecution of any plans for bringing the Church to
bear on the people : the schools were only in the
proportion of one in twenty-three of the population.
' Had we ten new churches/ he writes, ' with a cor-
responding staff of clergy, and ten new schools, we
should not have one too many.'
Weak, however, as the Church was, the Dissen-
ters and Socialists entertained the most implacable
animosity against it, and the appointment of a Vicar
reputed to be bold and lofty in his aims, and inde-
fatigable in energy, provoked them to put forth
all their strength. The contest began immediately
after his election and before his residence in Leeds.
The opposition called loudly upon the people to
muster in force at the vestry meeting in April for
the election of churchwardens, and to take good care
that only such men were appointed as would act on
a system of rigid economy and pay deference to the
wishes of the vestry. A set of High Church and
extravagant churchwardens might be the means of
imposing a heavy church-rate on the parishioners
against their will, might sanction or introduce
strange or distasteful practices, and involve the
parish in most vexatious and costly proceedings in
the spiritual court.
The result of this appeal was that a large
mob attended the vestry meeting in the parish
church. The parishioners chose the seven whom
they were entitled to elect. Most of them were
Dissenters, or men otherwise unfavourable or in-
374 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
different to the interests of the Church. The Vicar
had the right of choosing one for Kirkgate ward ;
but the Vicar was not present. Mr. Taylor, the
curate in charge, occupied the chair, as his repre-
sentative, and nominated Mr. Garland — a good
Churchman — for the office of Vicar's churchwarden.
A turbulent scene ensued. It was alleged by a
large section of the meeting that, in the absence of
the Vicar, the right of electing his churchwarden
lapsed to the vestry. The curate and a few sup-
porters maintained, on the contrary, that it devolved
on him who acted as the Vicar's delegate. The
chairman acted with spirit and firmness. The
opposition proposed a resolution embodying their
view, but he refused to put it to the vote. He was
bullied for two hours, but held his ground ; and
finally, amidst groans and hisses, entered the name
of Mr. Garland in the minute-book as having been
duly appointed by the Vicar's representative. The
opposition appended a protest to this entry, and the
meeting Avas dissolved.
The parish churchwardens proved true to the
spirit in which they had been elected. The Vicar
on his arrival found the surplices in rags and the
service books in tatters, but the churchwardens
doggedly refused to expend a farthing upon such
things. When they assembled at the church for a
vestry meeting, they and others like-minded piled
their hats and coats upon the holy table, and some-
times even sat upon it ; but the new Vicar with stern
resolution quickly put a stop to such profane outrages.
He told them that he should take the keys of the
1837 First Six Months at Leeds. 375
church, and that no meetings would be held there in
future. * Eh ! ' said one, ' but how will you prevent
it ? We shall get in if we like.' ' You will pass
over my dead body, then,' replied the Vicar. Arch-
deacon Musgrave also paid a visit to the church, met
the churchwardens in the vestry, and told them that
unless the necessary things were provided, within a
given time, steps would be taken to compel them ; or
if they called a vestry and a rate was refused, the
vestry would be proceeded against. The church-
wardens grumbled excessively at these demands,
and complained more especially of the increased
expenditure for sacramental wine, owing to the
weekly celebration of Holy Communion. It was
their custom at this time to remain in the vestry
during the administration of that Sacrament, osten-
sibly to guard the wine, but the Vicar had reason to
suspect that they themselves occasionally con-
sumed it.
The malignant hostility to the Church and the
Vicar, of which the seven churchwardens were the
official instruments, displayed itself on a large scale
at a church-rate meeting held on August 19. The
building in which the meeting was convened could
not contain the masses who thronged into it, and it
was proposed that they should adjourn to a large
oblong enclosure, surrounded by the buildings of the
Cloth Hall, and commonly called the Old Cloth Hall
Yard. Here, on being called to the chair, the Vicar
found himself confronted by a mob of nearly 3,000
persons. A statement was made of the probable
expenses for the coming year. They amounted to
376 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
355/. \\s. 6d. A halfpenny rate was proposed and
seconded. A Baptist preacher named Giles then
rose and delivered a furious harangue, directed
partly against church-rates and partly against the
Vicar. At the conclusion of his philippic the Vicar
got up and began by observing that the speech of
the gentleman who had just sat down might be
divided into two parts, one consisting of an attack
upon the system of church-rates in general, and
the other of abusive language towards himself — the
vicar. ' Into the general question of church-rates,'
he continued, * I shall not enter upon this occasion.'
* Eh ! why won't 'ee ? ' shouted a thousand sturdy
Yorkshire voices. * Because, my friends, you
wouldn't listen to me if I did (laughter). I will
only observe that the settlement of this particular
church-rate rests entirely between yourselves and
the churchwardens. I personally am not concerned
in it. You have elected your own churchwardens.
You know they will not do more than the law
requires, and that the law will compel them to do
what the law requires to be done. Therefore if you
do not grant the church-rate the Church itself will
sustain no injury, because the money will come
out of the churchwardens' pockets (laughter). With
regard to the second part of my friend's speech, that
which consisted of personal abuse, I would remind
you that the most brilliant eloquence without charity
may be but as sounding brass'' (the tone of his
voice and the twinkle in his eye as he uttered these
words are described by an eyewitness of the scene
as irresistibly comic), ' and,' he proceeded, * I am
glad to have this early opportunity of publicly acting
1837 First Six Mo7iths at Leeds. Zll
upon a Church principle — a High Church principle —
a very High Church principle indeed — ' (a pause,
and breathless silence amongst the expectant
throng) — ' I forgive him ; * and so saying he stepped
up to the astonished Mr. Giles and shook him
heartily by the hand, amidst roars of laughter and
thunders of applause from the multitude.
The day was gained. The rate was passed, and
a vote of thanks to the chairman was carried with loud
acclamation. None could appreciate better than a
crowd of Yorkshiremen the mixture of shrewdness,
good humour, and real Christian feeling by which
he had extricated himself from the difficulties of his
position and turned the tables against his opponents.
It was the first great public occasion, outside the walls
of the church, which enabled the people to see of
what stuff he was made, and It did much to procure
for him that sympathy and respect from the working
people which he continued to enjoy to the end of his
career at Leeds. Meanwhile, both by his ministra-
tions in the church and by pastoral and social inter-
course he was rapidly winning over large numbers in
all ranks, not only to himself, but to the principles
of the Church. Even before he had taken up his
abode In Leeds Mr. Robert Hall had discerned with
delight evident symptoms of coming success.
* So you have made up your mind,' he wrote, * to a
three years' martyrdom. Believe me, unless like the
ranter in the play you ' love to be p^?rsecuted,' you will
either manage very ill or you will be agreeably disap-
pointed. At present, let me tell you, you are almost more
popular than, as a politician, I could have wished. The
rcubon is, in part, that those who condemned you itnnad
37^ Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
are, most of them, compelled to absolve you read ; in part,
it is common reaction ; in part, that the Wesleyans of
Coventry have sent a high character of you to the Wes-
leyans here, so that the Evangelical attempt to awaken
the antipathy of that body has signally failed. You really
would admire the commendable appetite with which some
of them are eating their own words. ... On the other hand
I cannot but look upon the late opposition as almost a
providential means of awakening the old High Church
principles, which had been slumbering in the hearts of
the congregation of the parish church, and though even
they will require gentle treatment at first, you will find
them prepared to listen to you with docility.'
The congregations at the parish church soon
became so large that scarcely standing room could
be found at the Sunday services. Much space u^as
wasted by the large appropriated pev^s and galleries
with which the church was encumbered. The poor
sometimes went an hour before the time of service,
yet were unable to get in. Some of them would go
to the afternoon service, which was less numerously
attended, and sit on to retain their places for the
evening service, when the church was most densely
thronged. The old parish church was a very large,
and in many respects a very handsome fabric, but
singularly 111 adapted for public worship. It was a
great cross church of extraordinary breadth in the
nave — ninety-seven feet, owing to double aisles — and
with a chancel of extraordinary length, which for
practical purposes was completely severed from the
nave, not only by the bulky piers and arches, which
supported a massive central tower, but by a heavy
gallery built across the eastern arch. The double
rows of columns also which supported the nave and
i837 First Six Months at Leeds. 379
aisles were such serious obstructions to sight and
sound that most unseemly behaviour often occurred
in those distant parts to which the eye and even the
powerful voice of the Vicar were unable to pene-
trate. Early in the autumn of 1837 an address was
presented to him, signed by 640 parishioners,
praying for the improvement of the parish church,
and a subscription list was shordy afterwards opened,
headed by the Vicar, Mr. Benjamin Gott, and Mr.
Christopher Beckett, with donations of 200/. each.
According to the plans first prepared by Mr.
Chantrell the architect, it was proposed to take
down the tower and rebuild it on the north side, to
widen the chancel and fit it for service, to remove
the galleries, and great pews from the nave, and
generally to repair the whole structure. The esti-
mate for carrying these alterations into effect was
6,000/. In any case it was necessary to remove the
tower, for on examination it was discovered that the
piers, two of which were cracked from top to bottom,
rested on a rotten foundation of loose stones and
rubbish, a very little way below the surface of the
ground ; and the safety of the fabric could not be
ensured from one day to another. On further con-
sideration, also, the inconveniences arising from the
great width and obstructive columns of the nave
appeared so objectionable, the foundations and walls
of the whole building were discovered to be so in-
secure, and the cost of restoration seemed likely to
be so much greater than was at first expected, that
the plan of remodelling was abandoned, and it was
determined that a wholly new church should be
erected.
380 Life of Walter Farquhar Hooh, 1837
There can be little or no doubt that in the
present day some parts of the old structure, and the
general character of the whole, would have been
preserved ; and the extreme dislike of the Vicar to
the church, which is so strongly expressed in the
letters at the close of this chapter, arose from his
inability to detect the real beauties which were
concealed beneath deformities of modern growth.
But he was also convinced, and perhaps rightly, that
the construction of the building was very ill adapted
for the proper and devout celebration of the services
of the Church of England. Any attempt moreover
at what is now called * restoration ' would probably,
at that time, when the revival of architectural know-
ledge and taste was in its infancy, have proved a
complete failure ; and the new church, although it
doubtless deserves, from a purely architectural and
artistic point of view, some of the severe criticisms
which have been freely bestowed upon it, possesses
several great merits to which attention will be drawn
in the proper place.
Feeling strongly as he did that a due celebration of
Divine Service was impracticable in the old church,
the Vicar devoted all his energy, and all the means
at his command, to promote the successive schemes
of alteration and rebuilding. Trade was in a deeply
depressed condition, but he knew well that there
was wealth more than sufficient for the purpose, and
he was determined that the rich men should do
their duty. One of the most eloquent and successful
speeches which he made in the first year of his
appointment was at a great meeting, held November
8, to consider the best means of rendering the church
iS37 First Six Months at Leeds. 381
suitable for public worship. The plan for shifting
the position of the tower and remodelling the interior
of the church was at that time the only plan which
had been brought forward.
' The Parish Church of Leeds,' said the Vicar,
* has been described by Thoresby as " black but
comely." Black, I am sorry to say, it still is, but
comely it has ceased to be, because owing to various
alterations which have taken place from time to
time, not upon any fixed plan, the convenience of
individuals rather than the accommodation of the
public has been considered. As the church at pre-
sent stands it is almost, nay altogether, impossible
to perform the services of the sanctuary with that
order and decency with which we ought to perform
them. Owing to the wide aisles and passages where
persons can loiter without taking any part in the
service or hearing the sermon, but wait to see where
they may get convenient places, great noise and
confusion during the early part of the service must
necessarily prevail.' After observing that the Com-
munion Service could not be performed in the
chancel, and that the church was the most difficult
for the voice of all the churches in which he had
ever officiated, he proceeded to say, 'at present it
holds about 1,500 people : by the proposed plan we
shall get 1,200 more kneelings. I use the word in
preference to the term sittings, that persons may be
reminded that they come to church not to sit and
hear a sermon, but to kneel before their God in
prayer. And of these 1,200 fresh kneelings, 700
will be free for the use of the poor. I think I have
stated reasons sufficient to convince anyone who
382 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
may be tempted to ask the Judas question, To what
purpose is this expense ? I think I have used
arguments sufficient to convince the utiHtarian ; but
I must remember that I am addressing- Churchmen
— men accustomed to take a higher aim, to be in-
fluenced by a hoher sentiment and a diviner
principle. To them I say go and look at the
parish church, and then tell me if that be a church
befitting a parish so distinguished for opulence as
this. I bid them leave their homes, decorated by
every art which elegance, refinement, and taste can
suggest, and I tell them to go look on the Church of
God, and I think the blush of shame will mantle on
their cheeks when they reflect that while they are
dwelling in their ceiled houses, the tabernacle of
God is dwelling behind curtains. I consider a hand-
some church to be a kind of standing sermon, saying
to the people. See how Churchmen love and honour
their God, oh come hither and worship in the beauty
of holiness ! I trust we shall be animated with the
spirit of David, who desired to build a house for the
Lord exceeding " magnifical, of fame and of glory
througrhout all countries." I trust we shall be ani-
mated with the spirit of Solomon, who loved the
House of God, and the house which he built was
great, for he said, " Great is my God above all gods."
I trust we shall be animated with a desire that when
the children of our people go forth to distant parts
of the land, or to foreign countries, they may cast a
longing lingering look upon their native town, and
speak of the holy and beautiful house where their
fathers worshipped. I trust we shall be influenced
by the Spirit of that Blessed Being of whom when
1 837 First Six Months at Leeds. Z^
o
He became incarnate and died for our sins it was
said, ** The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up " :
and I trust it is under the influence of His Holy-
Spirit that I now say to you in the words of the
prophet, "Go up to the mountains and fetch wood,
and build the house of the Lord, and the Lord will
have pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the
Lord." '
The conclusion of the speech was followed by
loud and prolonged cheering ; and Mr. Christopher
Beckett in seconding a vote of thanks to the Vicar
as chairman, observed that it was impossible to
estimate the value to the town of such a man : for
the good influence which he had in six months
exercised on all classes of the community in Leeds
was indescribable. The meeting testified its appro-
bation of these remarks by passing a vote of thanks
to the trustees for having elected such an excellent
Vicar for the town.
The enthusiasm, kindled at this meeting, for the
work of remodelling or rebuilding the parish church
was never suffered to flag. A committee of sixteen,
with the Vicar as chairman, was formed who
carried on their labours with unabating zeal until
the completion of the new church in 1841.
An unusual number of important speeches were
made by the Vicar during the first two years of his
ministry at Leeds ; and they were probably the most
eloquent and effective which he ever delivered. It
has commonly been said that he was not a good
speaker. This statement, however, must be ac-
cepted with great reservations. It is true, if by a
good speaker is to be understood one who can be
384 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
depended upon to speak with a certain degree of
excellence on all occasions and on any subject,
whether he understands it or not. It Is not true
If the designation may be extended to those who,
though they may be unable to speak well always,
everywhere, and on all subjects, nevertheless can
at times speak powerfully, and even brilliantly, upon
subjects with which they are thoroughly acquainted,
and in which they feel a deep interest.
The Vicar of Leeds was one of this class. There
were two conditions under which he could speak emi-
nently well. One was when he was thoroughly roused
and put upon his mettle by the presence of a multitude
either warmly sympathetic or fiercely antagonistic.
* Large mobs,' he once remarked to me, ' inspired
me to speak : under excitement and before a large
multitude, when I got Into a declamatory and rather
rhetorical vein, I could go on unceasingly ; but I
never could speak much or fluently at small private
meetings.'
The second condition which enabled him to
speak effectively was when his interest and feelings
were thoroughly enlisted In a subject, and the speech
Itself was the outcome of much previous thought and
study. The preparation of such speeches cost him
much labour, but they were for the most part very
telling in delivery. ' I have made three or four
great speeches ' he said ' in the course of my life —
speeches, I mean, which took more than an hour to
deliver, were much applauded at the time, and fre-
quently quoted afterwards ; but the effort of mind
was very great to me, because I am not naturally a
speaker, and my memory is not good. My plan
1 837 First Six Months at Leeds. 385
was to have a distinct outline in my head, a per-
oration, a certain number of points prepared and
assigned to particular parts of the speech, and others
to be brought in as well as I could.' Speech-making
at meetings was a part of his duty which he never
relished, and would gladly ofttimes have avoided,
had it been possible or right to do so. But as it
was an unavoidable necessity, especially at the outset
of his career in Leeds, he girded himself to discharge
this, like every other duty, with all his might.
At the time that he became Vicar of Leeds and
Dr. Longley Bishop of Ripon, very great ignorance
prevailed in the West Riding concerning the true
principles, and the deep claims upon Churchmen, of
the two venerable Societies for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, and Propagating the Gospel in Foreign
Parts. One of the Leeds parish churchwardens
who had attended morning service at St. John's
observed to a friend as he came out : ' We have been
having a sermon and collection for a Christian
Knowledge Society : can you tell me what the
Society is for ? ' A very great increase in the
support given in Western Yorkshire to the two so-
cieties dates from the zealous and eloquent pleading
of their cause by Vicar Hook and Bishop Longley.
A large meeting on behalf of the Propagation
Society was held in the Music Hall at Leeds on
October 17, 1837, the Bishop presiding. And this
was the first occasion of the kind on which the
oratorical powers of the Vicar were manifested.
After describing at considerable length the history
and the nature of the society in clear and forcible
language, he concluded in the following words :
VOL. I. C C
386 Life of Walter Farqtihar Hook. 1837
' If the Society in a great measure confines its
exertions to the dependencies of the British Empire,
it is to be remembered that on the British Empire
the sun never sets, so that everyone will agree that
here is " ample room and verge enough " for the
most extensive operations. The Society feels that
charity ought to begin at home, and it knows that
he is worse than an infidel who does not provide for
his own household. To her colonies and depen-
dencies, indeed, the debt owed by England is great.
For those colonies and dependencies have become
ours — how ? By right of conquest. Now I can
admire and glory in the valour of our army and
navy. I can admire and glory in the skill and
genius of our generals, our Wolfes, our Clives, our
Cornwalllses, our Lakes, and our immortal Welling-
ton, who fought his country's batdes on the plains
of India, as well as on the fields of Spain and
Waterloo. I can admire, I say, the valour of our
troops and the skill of our generals, but in vain were
that valour and in vain that skill unless our arms
had been crowned with success by the God of
battles. And who is the God of battles ? It is the
Lord strong and mighty ; it is that Blessed Being
who, when for our sakes He became incarnate and
died upon the cross, gave us that commandment to
which I have alluded before, " Go and disciple all
nations." And can He have given us the victory
merely to pamper our national pride — pride in all its
shapes, national and individual, being condemned in
His Gospel .■* Did He give us the power to tread
down our enemies and to laugh them to scorn,
merely to increase the wealth of our merchants that
1837 First Six Mo7itJi5 at Leeds. 387
they might become, as they have become, the princes
of the earth ? Oh no, my friends ! He crowned
our arms with victory that a way might be opened
to the most religious nation of Europe — that a way
might be opened to the piety of England to preach
the pure and unadulterated truths of the Gospel, to
administer the Christian Sacraments, and to organise
the Christian Church. And I hope that it will be
the glory of the reign of our beloved youthful
sovereign to see this object accomplished. We
look back to other reigns for the success of our
arms ; may posterity look back to the reign of
Victoria as the period in which Christianity was
propagated, and the Church established, throughout
the vast dominions of the British Empire —
These be thy trophies, Queen of many isles,
On these high Heaven shall shed benignant smiles.'
The Bishop in his speech at the close of the
meeting, after commenting on the extraordinary
ignorance respecting the nature of the Society which
had prevailed in the West Riding, and the very
slender support which in consequence had been
given to it, observed that, so far as the town of
Leeds was concerned, ignorance could no longer be
pleaded ; and even if there was a disposition on the
part of any to persist in such ignorance, he could
not but think that after the eloquent, fervent, and
stirring address of their gifted and beloved Vicar
they would be ashamed of their ignorance, and
would henceforth gladly aid in the diffusion in
foreign parts of the everlasting Gospel of the great
Captain of their Redemption.
c c 2
388 Life of Walter FarquJiar Hook. 1837
The Vicar was equally indefatigable in ex
plaining the principles of the Society for Promo
ting Christian Knowledge, and in establishing
branches va connexion with it, not only in Leeds,
but in many of the neighbouring towns. The local
papers between 1837 and 1842 contain such very
numerous reports of his speeches on these occasions,
that out of so many it is difficult to select the best ;
but at any rate I think few better specimens could
be found than the following, delivered at one of the
annual meetings of the Leeds District Committee.
It illustrates also very well the manner in which
fixed principles were blended in him with Christian
charity and liberality of sentiment, and the distinction
between principles and opinions here made was one
which he was very fond of drawing. . . . ' The
question may be asked with reference to this society.
How do you propose to effect the object which you
have in view } And, in the name of the Society, we
answer, by the Bible rightly inte7'preted. The Bible
contains all things necessary to salvation, and it is
from the Bible that we ascertain the will and word
of God ; but of course the Bible wrongly Interpreted
does not express the mind of the Lord : the whole
stress therefore of the question lies on the right in-
terpretation of Scripture. The Society consequently
in the first place circulates freely the Holy Scriptures,
and then it circulates books and tracts by which men
may be enabled to understand the Bible rightly. In
the first place, books and tracts are supplied for the
young that, as reason dawns, and before they pro-
ceed to the study of Scripture, their minds may be
thoroughly imbued in Church principles : prepared,
^^37 First Six Mo7iths at Leeds. 389
prejudiced, if the term is preferred, for understanding
the Scriptures in the sense of the Church. And in
the next place books and tracts are provided for
adults — such books as will instruct them to reduce
Scripture principles to practice, and will prevent
them from drawing from Scripture heretical con-
clusions. Such is the course pursued by this Society
to speed Christian knowledge by the Bible rightly
interpreted. The responsibility incurred by the
Society in so doing is very great, and before we can
give it our support we must ascertain the principle
under which the Society itself acts in thus seeking
to lead men to the right understanding of Scripture.
There is scarcely a doctrine of Scripture which has
not been controverted by some sect or party : there
must be a right sense to be applied to each of these
controverted doctrines. The Society undertakes to
lead men to the right sense : but how are we to
know that the Society itself has acquired the right
sense ? What is the guide of the Society ? To
this the answer is, the Society is guided by the
Church. Now here another question would arise if
the claims of the Society were brought under the
notice of persons who were not members of the
Church. We should then have to show why the
Church has authority in controversies of faith, and
why the sects by which the Church is surrounded
have not such authority. But this is not necessary
in addressing Churchmen, for they will accept our
twentieth Article, which declares " that the Church
hath authority in controversies of faith." According
to that authority we act in interpreting Scripture,
and so we come to a decision on the fundamental
390 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
doctrines of Christianity which are controverted.
But although the principles of the Society are such,
when we go to the depository we take up one book
or tract and say, *' This is an excellent work : I shall
circulate it," and then perhaps we take up another
and say, " I do not at all like this tract, and shall
not purchase it." How can this be ? will perhaps
be asked ; and to answer this question we must
consider the difference between a principle and an
opinion. By a principle we mean a doctrinal state-
ment asserted and defined by the Church. If to
this we are perversely opposed, we are heretics. But
then consistently with adherence to this principle a
variety of subordinate opinions may be held. This
may be illustrated by another reference to the twen-
tieth Article. In that Article it is said that " the
Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies."
To deny this would be heresy. But notwithstanding
this, we may hold and express an opinion as to the
wisdom, or the contrary, of any particular rite or
ceremony so decreed. For instance, the Church
appoints that we should kneel at public worship, but
some may hold an opinion that kneeling is not the
best attitude. Few perhaps would maintain that
the usual attitude of sitting or lounging is more
reverential than kneeling ; but we know that in the
primitive ages some churches, while directing the
people to kneel at other times, directed them to stand
on Sundays in order to testify that the feast of our
Lord's Resurrection is a joyful holiday, and there
may be persons who think that it is a better ceremony
than that which is adopted by us. Or, take a more
solemn subject. The Church teaches us that in the
i^37 First Six ATonths at Leeds. 391
blessed Eucharist " the body and blood of Christ
are verily and indeed taken and received by the
faithful." To deny this would be heresy ; but as
to the viaimer of His presence, "who is verily and
indeed taken and received " — this is an opinion, and
in asserting our opinions there may be considerable
difference allowed, so long as we do not adopt the
opinion transubstantiation, which is by our Church
condemned. . . . And now, my Christian friends, I
have endeavoured to point out to you the distinction
between principle and opinion, that you may see
how it is that persons belonging to the same branch
of the Catholic Church may hold the same principles,
and yet differ in many of their opinions. J. wish
you to observe how, in spite of such differences,
there may be brotherly love, there may be friendly
intercourse, there may be union, except where it is
the interest of worldly-minded men to foment
differences, lest their occupation should cease ; except
where parties are formed and party spirit cherished
by the low ambition of individuals who seek through
faction an ephemeral distinction, conscious that the
mediocrity of their talents is insufficient to secure
for them permanent respect. With regard to those
who are not members of the Church, union with
them is impracticable, for between us and them
there is a difference of principle : there is no common
stock of principles to which we can appeal. But
among spiritually-minded Churchmen there may be
union, notwithstanding great differences of opinion ;
and where there is not a worldly object in keeping
parties separate, I am confident that by mutual
explanation it would be found that the differences
39 2 Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1837
are not so great as they appear to be, and as persons
interested in creating or maintaining parties would
represent them. As a case in point, I know some
persons who refuse to support this very Society, on
behalf of which I am now pleading. If I were to
say to them. Here is the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, and because you refuse to
belong to it you are not friends to the promotion of
Christian knowledge, I should act most uncharitably :
they are as zealous as you or I can be for promoting
Christian knowledge, but they are of opinion that
this Society is not the best for effecting that object.
For my part, my opinion is in favour of this Society,
and I call upon you to support it with zeal. But at
the same time I protest against that exuberance, that
intolerance of zeal, which can induce the advocates
of this or any other self-formed Society to anathe-
matise those who are conscientiously opposed to it.
Such an anathema has been heard, as you are aware.
Anglo-Catholics, among whom there are many
spiritually-minded men, whose thoughts are more in
heaven than on earth, have been denounced, because
they are opposed to a self-formed Society,^ as
" agents of Satan " : they have been called " serpents
who pollute our churches and leave their slime about
our altars — serpents who ought to be crushed,"
whether by bell, book, and candle, whether by the
faggots of Smithfield or the racks of the Inquisition,
the deponent sayeth not. These are very dreadful
words, for they were intended to apply to me and
^ The London City Mission which had lately sent an agent to Leeds.
The Vicar had been fiercely denounced by a part of the press for
declining to co-operate with him.
1837 First Six Months at Leeds. 393
to the majority of this great assembly. But it is
charity to believe that they were not real words —
that the Christian brother who uttered them did not
think of the awful meaning of these expressions ;
but that, forgetful of the solemn account which for
every idle word he will one day have to render, he
used them as mere rhetorical flourishes, as flowers
of oratory to point a period. I only hope that such
flowers of rhetoric will not be employed to-day. We
are Christian people assembled for a sacred object :
let us act on Christian principles, and, above all, in
a Christian temper.'
But it was not only by speeches at large annual
meetings of this kind that the vicar promoted the
work of the Society. Before the close of the year
1837 a scheme had been devised for dividing the
whole town into twelve districts, in each of which
a branch of the Society was to be established.
The committees of these branches were to consist
of a chairman, the clergyman of the district, and
two visitors for every thousand inhabitants. A
depository was to be established in each district,
where specimens of the publications of the Society
should be kept and exhibited, and notices placed
in the window directing the attention of the public
to the name, nature, and design of the Society.
The duty of the visitors was to call upon persons of
all classes, in order to discover who were in want
of Bibles and Prayer-books amongst the poor, and
amongst the richer people to advocate the claims of
the Society upon their support. Once a month they
were to report progress to the chairman, and once a
quarter the chairmen of the several districts were to
394 Life of Walter Farquhm" Hook. 1837
meet the general committee for the transaction of
business at the Central Depository. The first of
these branches was opened in December 1837, in
St. Mary's Bank School, which was densely crowded
when the Vicar as chairman explained the nature of
the work which this and the other branches would
have to perform. And from this time forward, as
branch after branch was formed in this district and
in that, the Vicar was always at his post as president,
making his addresses a vehicle of instruction in the
primary principles of the Church generally, as well as
of the Society, and thus casting the net of the Church's
influence further and further into the broad and deep
waters in which he had been called to labour.
But the most direct influence which he exercised
upon the minds and hearts of his people was of
course through his sermons and pastoral intercourse.
Seldom did any preacher so happily blend instruc-
tion with exhortation in his sermons. Sunday by
Sunday, with great weight of learning and with
great force and perspicuity of language, did he un-
fold the true nature and principles of the Church of
England ; her apostolical succession — her foundation
by St. Augustine, her purification by the Reformers
of the sixteenth century, her harmony in creed and
practice with the Primitive Church. Sunday by
Sunday did he, in his sermons and in catechising
the school children in church, exhibit the meaning,
the beauty, and the value of the Anglican Liturgy.
But with the didactic he never forofot to mino^le the
hortatory and practical ; he never forgot for a mo-
ment that the supreme duty of the pastor is to win
men to Christ, and to lead them to cast their sins at
1837 First Six Months at Leeds, 395
the foot of His Cross ; and all his teaching about the
ordinances of the Church was intended to show that
they were, when rightly and faithfully used, means
to this great end ; that they were the hem of Christ's
robe, through which men might touch Him and be
healed of whatsoever spiritual disease they had. No
Evangelical — no Methodist, ever preached ' Christ
crucified ' more fully, freely, fervently, constantly
than he did ; he only differed from them in pointing
out the rich provision made by Christ in His Church
for aiding men in drawing near to Himself, and in
exhorting believers to look to a steady course of
obedience rather than feelings and frames of mind
as tests of spiritual growth.
The effects of such teaching became visible in
the course of even a few months. The whole num-
ber of communicants when he entered on his charge
at the parish church was little more than fifty, and
amongst these there were no young men, and very
few men of any age. One who had been the Vicar
of St. John's for thirty years declared he had never
seen a young man at the Lord's table. A steady
and rapid increase set in after Dr. Hook's arrival,
and in the course of two or three years we find him
speaking of 400 and 500 persons communicating on
Easter day. The more frequent confirmations which
were instituted after the establishment of the See of
Ripon were of course a great assistance in promoting
this improvement. Formerly they had taken place
once in seven years only, when a vast number of ill-
prepared j^oung people were brought together from
great distances. The occasion was frequently the
scene of scandalous festivities and improprieties, and
39^ Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
many of the candidates returned to their homes ini-
tiated in vice, instead of being confirmed in goodness.
After the appointment of the Bishop of Ripon the
confirmations were at first triennial and ultimately
annual. The first confirmation at Leeds after the
election of Dr. Hook took place in October 1837,
when upwards of 1,000 candidates of various ages
were presented by him and the other clergy of the
township.
But the most remarkable result of his teaching
this year was the conversion to the Church of three
Methodist preachers, with a certain number of
their followers. The movement was purely spon-
taneous on their part, for it was not the custom of
the Vicar to seek or allure proselytes from the ranks
of Nonconformity. His business, he conceived, was
to proclaim truth rather than to combat error, to
build up the Church rather than to attack the sects
who had seceded from it.
The Methodist teachers came to him and informed
him that, having become convinced of the truth of
Church principles by his sermons and speeches, they
wished to be received into the fold ; but there was
one difficulty which weighed upon their minds
and the minds of their followers. They felt un-
willing to abandon the practice of class-meetings : a
practice to which they had always been accustomed,
and which they considered to be salutary in its
effects. * Do not let this be an impediment,' said the
Vicar ; ' by all means have your class-meetings, and
I shall be delighted to become one of your class-
leaders.' To this they readily assented. The first
meeting, however, at which he was present, he
1837 First Six Months at Leeds. 397
attended more in the capacity of a distinguished
visitor than of a leader. It was held at the house of
one of the principal members of the connexion, who
presided at the head of a long table in the middle
of the room. The Vicar, and one of his curates who
accompanied him, were invited to occupy chairs near
the leader, while the members of the class sat round
the walls facing the table, until the leader gave out
a hymn, when they all turned their faces to the
wall. The hymn being ended, the leader read and
•expounded a portion of Scripture, after which the
members of the class were called upon to ' tell their
experiences.' For some time there was no response
to the invitation, although it had been made in the
most encouraging tones. At length a man got up,
and beginning, ' this night I set up my Ebenezer,'
proceeded in a declamatory style to inform the
meeting how he had formerly believed that he saw
the light of truth and followed the path of righteous-
ness, but how he had been smitten by 't' Vicar's
sermon t'other night,' and now perceived that he had
been all the while walking in darkness and ungod-
liness. This remarkable experience having been
related, and no more being offered on the part of
others, the Vicar was invited to ' improve the occa-
sion.' He had discerned clearly enough that the in-
tention of the speaker had been to gratify him by
paying compliments to his persuasive preaching, and
to magnify himself in the eyes of all present by get-
ting credit for his superior discernment of the Vicar's
great powers. The Vicar, therefore, began by
observing that his visit to the class-meeting had been
most interesting and instructive to him, for he now
39^ Life of Walter Farqiihar Hook. 1837
saw the full value of the practice of telling expe-
riences. Here was a man who had himself believed,
and had led others to believe, that he was a pillar of
truth and a pattern of godliness, but who now came
forward to declare that all this had been a mistake
and an imposition. ' So now, brother,' continued the
Vicar, * we see what your fault has been — self-deceit,
brother, and hypocrisy, too — yes, hypocrisy, brother.
Oh ! what a hypocrite you have been, brother ; you
must repent of your hypocrisy.' The feelings and
countenances of the assembly, especially of the
member thus addressed, may be better imagined
than described, as the unmerciful Vicar ran on in
this strain. To bring matters to a close the leader
proposed that the Vicar should ' engage in prayer,'
upon which he took out his Prayer Book and said
the greater part of the Litany in a tone and manner
described by an eyewitness as peculiarly impressive
and affecting, after which he shook hands with the
leader and departed with his companion, to discuss
at the Vicarage the singular scene at which they had
assisted.
The result of his deliberations was, a resolution
that while willing to allow class-meetings, under the
superintendence of himself or one of his curates,
the * telling of experiences ' should be absolutely
forbidden, as likely to minister to spiritual pride
and presumption. Many of the Wesleyans, however,
were not content to enter the Church on this condi-
tion, and only a few of the more sober kind actually
came over. The Church ' class-meeting,' which had
its origin in this occurrence, became a weekly
meeting of communicants and church workers for
1 837 First Six Months at Leeds. 399
instruction and counsel under the Vicar, and has
been carried on from that time to this.
The following is a copy of rules for the class,
which I have found in the handwriting of Dr. Hook.
1. This class consists of persons who are communi-
cants, or preparing to become so, and is to be regarded
as a private meeting of my friends : as private as if we
were to assemble at the Vicarage.
2. Strangers, therefore, can only attend when introduced
by a member, and any person becoming a member will
be considered as such for half a year at least.
3. Those members of the class who are willing to take
or distribute tracts will signify their desire to do so to
me, and will pay a penny a week to the treasurer of the
fund. But it remains optional to any member of the
class to become a tract distributor or not.
4. For those who undertake to distribute tracts I shall
provide a fresh tract every week. They will lend the tract
among their neighbours as they shall see fit, and then
they may keep the tract to form part of a library for the
use of their servants.
5. Covers are provided for those who wish to lend their
tracts.
6. Many of the tracts will be of a superior description,
for sending, not merely to the poor, but to better educated
classes of society, who maybe prejudiced at present against
the principles of the Church, or who may require con-
firmation in the principles which they profess.
The meeting was in fact a w^eekly instruction by
the Vicar in some book of Holy Scripture, or some
portion of the Liturgy. It was one of the principal
means by which he rallied round him a body of
earnest and intelligent workers, so that it became
a centre in which religious light and warmth were
400 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
gendered, and from which they were diffused to
others.
The following letters will complete the sketch
which I have attempted to draw of his jfirst half-year
at Leeds, a period which, being of an eventful and
exceptional character, seemed to demand a chapter
for itself.
To his Sister — First Impressions of Leeds.
The Vicarage, Leeds : July 5, 1837.
My dearest Georgiana, — We this night sleep for the
first time in the Vicarage, and as you have been a good
girl, and written to me (for you) very well of late, I will
indulge you with a letter. Things are now beginning to
be very comfortable : the house is a delightful one, just
the kind of house I particularly like — lofty rooms but not
too large. I have a delightful study, which is the only
room completely furnished, besides our bedroom. Pratt
is like a brother, and seems highly pleased with every-
thing. He manages to understand the Yorkshire lingo
better than I can. To Yorkshire manners I am becoming
a little reconciled. I am beginning with the greatest
delicacy to hint to the people that this house is not quite
public property. Hitherto everybody seems to have thought
himself justified in entering it, and in criticising all that
the Vicar has been doing ; while sturdy beggars, men out
of work, meet me at every turn, and almost demand relief.
I am now in full work ; the poor curates, sexton, clerk,
&c., are surprised : they evidently thought that I should
let them go on in their own slovenly way, while I should
be employed in some grand undertakings, such as building
new churches and schools ; whereas the learned doctor
(they doctor me here, ' Yes, Doctor, No, Doctor,' at almost
every second word), says, * fair and softly,' one thing at a
time. They heard nothing of me the first week. I first set
my study in order, and next the parish church must be
iS37 Letters, 1837. 401
put in order ; so to show how things shall and must be
done, I am taking all the full curate's duty ; I have this
day offered the prayers three times, besides burying, bap-
tizing, and churching. The stated services in this church
are prayers three times a day; and instead of seeking for
a congregation, the curates, sexton, clerk, &c., have endea-
voured to prevent one being formed, and then used that as
an excuse for having no service. I have ordered the sexton
whenever there is no congregation, to go into the street
and to give two old women sixpence a-piece to come in
and form one ; so that no sham excuse can be tolerated.
The curates have now but little to do, though I make
them attend ; for when I have ordered the funerals to be
properly performed, they have urged that it was impossible,
so with baptisms &c. ; and, therefore, in order to refute
them, I have taken the duty myself, just to prove that
* what is impossible can sometimes come to pass.' The
black looks with which I am regarded, notwithstanding
the soft words used, are rather amusing ; but the services
of the Church shall be performed as they ought to be,
before anything else is done. I am also busily employed
with an architect, devising some plan to make decent my
nasty, dirty, ugly old church. I am determined to get
that into something like order, if possible. The difficulties
are tremendous, but I am in good heart.
To the Rev. J. IV. Clarke — Nature of the Work to be done
at Leeds,
Vicarage, Leeds : July 7, 1837.
My dear Clarke, — I write to you again to say that now
you are appointed lecturer, you may entirely suit your
own convenience, and what you think to be due to your
two parishes, about the time of your coming here. The
curate and clerk in orders make not a little fuss about the
work they have to do, which, nevertheless, is but little ; and
your absence does not add to their labours though your
VOL. I, D D
402 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
coming will diminish them. My system is to do one thing
at a time, and not to have too many irons in the fire ; and
my business now is to get the ministerial work at the
parish church properly performed ; I am therefore myself
undertaking full curate's duty. Nothing could have been
more slovenly than the proceedings at the parish church —
baptisms, marriages, funerals, all slurred over ; this I am
resolutely reforming in spite of the curates, clerk, sexton,
&c. Their system has been, not to consult the convenience
of the public, but to save themselves trouble. My system
is, not to care for the trouble of the clergy, but to consult
the convenience of the public, and to enamour them of
our services by having them solemnly and devoutly per-
formed. In this good work I shall look forward to your
kind and cordial co-operation. If you and I show that we
attach importance to the solemn performance of even the
slightest duty connected with our dear Master's service ;
that we consider even the office of a doorkeeper in His
house an office of honour ; that, convinced of His presence,
we are as devout in offering the prayers when only two or
three are present, as when there are two or three hundred ;
we shall find His blessing attending us, and we shall be
the means of converting others. I confess I attach the
very greatest importance to the solemn performance of
the occasional duties. As in this respect you will have to
act as my strict ally, I wish, if you have time, you would
read again and attentively Wheatley on the Common
Prayer, and any other similar work. I prefer Wheatley
to Shepherd, because the 7]0o^ of Wheatley 's teaching is
more Catholic, more in accordance with the Church spirit.
It might be well also to read over the Oxford Tracts ; not
that I care whether you agree with them or not, but
because the people here are all reading them, and it would
be expedient to know something of them, and because,
however you may differ on particular points, you cannot
but be delighted with the fine, noble, and truly Christian
spirit with which they are written.
Your affectionate Friend.
1 837 Letters, 1837. 4^3
To the Rev. Saimiel Wilbcrforce — Clerical meetings —
Character of Churchnianship in Leeds.
Vicarage, Leeds : July 1837.
My dear Friend, .... My next object in writing is to
request you to give me a few hints as to the rules of youi
clerical society, with a copy of the prayer you use at meet-
ing. There are altogether twenty-two clergymen in this
parish, who are somewhat under my jurisdiction, and I
propose giving them a breakfast once a month at my
house, where we shall form a kind of club. There are three
* Evangelicals ' of the old school, about four or five high
Establishment men, beginning to understand a little about
the Church, and the rest are 'orthodox-men' of the old
school ; all steady, quiet, but (except the four or five I
have alluded to) illiterate men. These are my materials :
my wish is to infuse into them a Church spirit. Any
advice will be gratefully received from you, who have
succeeded so well in the Isle of Wight, The announcement
of my intention to give these breakfasts has given much
satisfaction, I prefer breakfasts, not only because it will
be most convenient to all parties concerned, but because in
a town great clerical dinners would give rise to evil report.
I do not find my position here an easy one. The town you
know, and therefore I need not tell you that it is more
smoky than any town in England ; the vicarage is, I am
thankful to say, a comfortable, airy house, or I should fear
for the health of my children. We meet with much civility
and kindness from the people ; but the lower orders are
disagreeably uncouth in their manners. The church is
the most horrid hole you ever saw ; dirty, and so arranged
that it is impossible to perform the Communion service in
the chancel ; and moreover it is situated in the very worst
part of the town, the very sink of iniquity, the abode of
Irish papists. Part of this evil I hope to remedy by raising
a sum of m.oney for re-edifying the church. I could do
D D 2
404 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
much for about 3,000/., but trade is now so bad that I do
not venture to commence the subscription hst. As to
Church feeling, to Cathohcism, the thing is utterly un-
known to clergy and laity. The de facto established
religion is Methodism, and the best of our churchpeople, I
mean the most pious, talk the language of Methodism ; the
traditional religion is Methodism. An Independent teacher
of some celebrity remarked to me the other day, that his
sect is affected by this fact just as we are, so that I have to
begin and lay a new foundation. I intend, please God, to
begin soon a course of sermons on the Liturgy, and I fancy
some persons who think themselves good Churchmen will
rather stare when I speak of the Liturgy as absolutely
good, their mode of defence having hitherto been that it
is not absolutely bad ; that it needs great reforms, but still
it is not so bad as to force them to desert the Establish-
ment ; which is here the all in all of Churchism.
You see I have no easy course before me ; but I shall
hope that God has called me to this post to be the instru-
ment of a great change, and I shall expect the prayers of
all true friends of Catholicism. I am proceeding by de-
grees. I am now labouring to effect a reform in the mode
of administering the occasional services of the Church,
which have been sadly neglected. Believe me to be,
Your obliged and affectionate Friend.
To W, P. Wood, Esq. — First Impressions of Leeds.
Vicarage, Leeds: July 1837.
My dearest Friend, — I am in your debt for two letters,
and perhaps they will long remain unanswered if I do not
avail myself of the present half-hour to write to you ; not
that I can answer for having so much time at my own dis-
posal, the interruptions here being incessant. Trade is so
very bad that half the population are begging; such sturdy
beggars as the Yorkshire beggars it has never been my
i837 Letters, 1837. 405
fortune to meet ; in Coventry, in the worst of times I never
saw the like. But let me begin at the beginning, and tell
you first how I like Leeds, that parish in which you, under
Providence, have placed me. On the whole I am well
pleased, though the labour which I anticipate is great. The
house is airy and pleasant, and this is with me a great
point ; I really think that if I had had a good airy study
at Coventry, I should never have left it. I am disappointed
in the country round ; indeed one can hardly get into the
country till a horseman, not of the first order, is prepared
to return to the town, for the suburbs are very extensive.
But oh ! my dear Wood, such a church as I have ! I
really loathe it; I cannot preach comfortably in it, I can
scarcely make myself heard ; and the dirt, the indecorum,
&c., &c., quite distress me. You know my system as I
learnt it from Bishop Jebb. I do not oppose Dissenters by
disputations and wrangling, but I seek to exhibit to the
world the Church in her beauty ; let the services of the
Church be properly performed, and right-minded people
will soon learn to love her. But here, all that is thought of
is preaching ; partly, without doubt, because the church is
so arranged that to perform the services well and properly
is almost impossible ; tlien among the curates, sexton,
clerk, &c., there has been a system of doing as little as
possible. Here I have been obliged to act contrary to my
nature, and to be a stern reformer ; though, as my wish
always is to give as little offence as possible, I think I have
not made enemies. The morning and evening services
have been neglected on the week day, i.e. the curates
have attended, but finding no congregation, have declined
what they call 'reading prayers.' This I have met by
ordering the sexton to make a congregation, even if he
have to pay people for attending, so that now there can be
no shuffling ; and to bring the thing into repute, I have
not only attended daily, which is a blessing and comfort,
but performed the service myself. So likewise baptisms,
funerals, have all been most slovenly performed ; I have
laid it down as a rule that the convenience, not of the
4o6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
clergy, but of the public, shall be considered in every
instance. I am much annoyed on Sundays by persons
coming to hear me preach ; but they will soon find out that
I am not that most detestable of all characters, a popular
preacher. And then I shall get my regular flock around
me, and I am longing to preach a course of sermons on
the Liturgy, which will, I think, surprise the Leedites, as
they imagine that there can be only two subjects for
sermons. Justification and Sanctification. The real fact is,
that the established religion in Leeds is Methodism, and
it is Methodism that all the most pious among the Church-
men unconsciously talk. If you ask a poor person the
ground of his hope, he will immediately say that he feels
that he is saved, however great a sinner he may be ; so
that you see I have much to contend with. Last night,
the teachers of the Sunday schools (Sabbath schools, as
they rejoice to call them) met together to deliver to me
a congratulatory address. Delicia and Mrs. Johnstone
went with me, and we were all highly disgusted (the ladies
more than myself, for they are more unused to it) at the
presumption and spiritual pride, as well as impertinence of
the leading teachers, not the whole body. Meek and gentle
Mrs. Johnstone seems quite roused about it. They pro-
posed forming themselves into a society, to meet every
month ; to begin every meeting with prayer and praise ;
upon which, being up to their tricks, I immediately said
that I highly approved of their design, and that, as they
were Churchmen, I would give them the greatest of all
possible pleasures ; they should come to church, attend
evening service at seven o'clock, when I would preach
to them, and they should afterwards meet in the vestry.
It then came out that they had been accustomed to as-
semble for extempore prayer, which they wished to be
continued ; upon which I suggested that those who wished
to be Churchmen would of course prefer the privilege of
the Church prayers. When they begged me to pray, out I
brought my praycrbook, and went through the Litany,
which seemed deeply to impress the majority, and having
i837 Letters, 1837. 407
begun with one of Wesley's hymns, they ended with the
hundredth psalm, I having evidently succeeded in raising
a Church spirit among the majority, Mrs. Johnstone was
present at the address of the Coventry teachers, and was
much struck with the difference of the spirit between the
two parties ; however, I hope by God's blessing to remedy
all this. I shall begin to catechise in church (D.v.) the
first Sunday in August. I have been much worked lately
with committees and public meetings ; on Monday I had
to make two eloquent speeches ; one on an address to the
Queen, when I applied to her the words of Shakspeare
(Archbishop Cranmer) to Queen Elizabeth, 'Truth shall
nurse, holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her,' &c.;
the other on raising a subscription for the poor. I make
a point of going everywhere and doing everything, as it is
important at first to show what one can do ; afterwards we
may rest on our oars. On Wednesday I am to preside at
a floral show. The worst of it is, that I cannot preach
here ; I know that there is no one in church who can have
a thought in sympathy, that even my very expressions are
not understood, and I do not 5nd the spirit in me ; this is
a fault, and must be remedied by prayer. Love to your
wife, to great E. and little E. ; my lady is very busy
a-furnishing.
Your devoted Friend.
To W. P. Wood, Esq. — Cathedral Choirs — Accession of
MctJiodists.
Leeds: August 1837.
.... I perfectly agree with you in your regrets at the
carelessness of our English choirs. The fact is, that chant-
ing and all old Catholic practices have only been tolerated
in England, the majority of our people being ultra-Protes-
tants. I have always wished that a body of the laity
would come forward with a remonstrance to the ecclesias-
tical commissioners, reminding them that the interest of
4o8 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
the laity ought to be attended to in their arrangements ;
and since they will re-arrange the cathedrals, that the
income of one stall at least should be appropriated in each
cathedral to increase the efficiency of the choirs. . . . You
will be delighted to hear that my success here already
exceeds my most sanguine expectations. Churchmen have
hitherto been accustomed to think the Church bad enough,
but not too bad for them as Tories to belong to it. They
seem quite delighted to hear me prove that the Church
is absolutely excellent. My course of sermons on the
Church and Liturgy is received enthusiastically; and — glory
be to God ! — my most earnest prayer, it seems, is likely to
be granted, for this morning I received an intimation that
some of the leading Methodists, convinced by what I have
said, are desirous of leaving their society and of acting
under me on Church principles. If I can but enlist their
Methodism, their godly enthusiasm, in the right cause !
I have offered to meet them with rapture. It is a great
advantage to be so thoroughly grounded in my principles
as I am, for I know exactly how far to concede and where
to stop. I have thorough confidence in myself on these
points.
To the Rev. T. H. Tragett — Settling at Leeds.
August 21, 1837.
My dear Tragett, . I . . We have here a large, airy,
comfortable, delightful house. I could not wish for a better ;
it is situated in the best part of the town, and will reconcile
us, if anything can, to a town residence. Furnishing goes
on very slowly. You can easily imagine the higgling and
haggling and bargaining which is constantly going on. Mrs.
Hook and Mrs. Johnstone have found out all the cheap
shops, and if in the morning they manage to have saved a
penny, you cannot imagine what pleasant companions they
are in the evening. As to religion, the traditional or
established religion in Leeds is Methodism ; and conse-
iS37 Letters, 1837. 409
quently, as is natural, since we breathe a Methodistic
atmosphere, everything has a Methodistic tendency. A
pious Churchman here means a person who Hkes an estab-
lishment, and consequently supports the Church ; but
then the Church is not sufficient to supply his wants ; so
that he probably institutes two or three prayer-meetings in
some large house or warehouse on the week-days, where
he can indulge in extemporaneous prayer and Methodistic
rant. Nor do the people venture to entertain a notion that
the Church is right; their mode of defence is to show that
it is not so very wrong that it is sinful to belong to it ; they
do therefore belong to it, looking forward to the day when
it will be reformed, i.e. brought down to the state of some
Methodistic sect. Even many of the clergy, without know-
ing it, shape their doctrines and style of preaching accord-
ing to the Methodistic system ; and those who are not
humdrum, labour not to instruct, but to excite. Then I
have, to meet all this, a dirty, ugly hole of a church, in
which it is impossible to perform divine service properly ;
the chancel for example, being formed into an almost dis-
tinct church, and the body of the church being arranged to
look as near as possible like a conventicle ; which same
ugly old church is located in the very St, Giles's of Leeds,
I am now preparing a plan for pulling the church half
down, and rebuilding it ; but this will cost between three
and four thousand pounds, and I fear to start the subscrip-
tion now while trade is so bad. I am stirring up the clergy
by insisting upon the strictest rubrical observance in all
the occasional services — baptisms, marriages, and funerals.
Nobody here seems to have a notion that baptism is any-
thing more than a form of registration ; I think it my duty
therefore to have it always administered with peculiar
solemnity. They do stare sometimes when I tell them that
before administering the Sacrament, I require them to
attend the prayers of the Church, and pray with me : they
think by the Sacrament I must needs mean the Lord's
Supper.
4IO Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1837
Visit to the Archbishop of York {Harcourf).
Bishopthorpe Palace : October 27, 1837.
My dearest Mother, — Although I am but a naughty-
boy touching our correspondence when I am, as I generally
am, overwhelmed with business, yet you must do me the jus-
tice to admit that whenever I have leisure I am accustomed
to bestow my tediousness upon you. I have now nothing
very particular to say, further than to tell you that the kind-
ness I experience in this house is beyond all description
great. The condescension and kindness of the dear Arch-
bishop is to me an honour and a pleasure ; he talks with
me every morning from breakfast to luncheon, and I sit
by him on the sofa all the evening. He asked me yester-
day whether I had ever a relation at Westminster, and
when I told him of my father, he said that when he was
Subdean of Christ Church, and went as an examiner to
Westminster, he remembered seeing some funny figures
painted on the wall, and they said, ' Those are some of
Hook's doings.' This is a most extraordinary memory. He
must mean my father, because he said afterwards, he must
have been contemporary with Greville Howard. The only
persons staying here besides the family have been Lord
and Lady D . Lady D begged to be introduced
to me, and is coming here with Lord to-day. Miss
Harcourt says Lady is very anxious to see some-
thing of me, and I have been asked to remain here the
rest of the week ; but I have declined, as I have much to
do at home. The odd thing is, that whenever I come here
I am always treated as the great man, and am directed to
hand out the great lady, next to the Archbishop. This, as
you may imagine, is very different from what I have been
accustomed to, and I feci terribly shy ; I can get on with
the Archbishop admirably, but the ladies make me shock-
ingly nervous. Lady Wenlock asked to be introduced to
me yesterday, and Lord Ashley (whom I do not know, and
1837 Letters, 1837. 411
who, I should think, was much opposed to me) asked Miss
Harcourt immediately whether they had seen anything of
Bishop Hook. ' I always call him Bishop Hook,' he said,
' and I hope he will be such soon.' He left a message for
me, stating that he should have spent a day with me at
Leeds, if he could have delayed his journey. You will be
amused with this gossip, and therefore I write it ; but you
must not think it will make mc worldly. I never enjoy my-
self as I do when engaged in my parish duties ; and, on the
other side, the detestation with which I am regarded by
the Peculiars, is not to be described ; wherever I go they
preach to their people, and warn them, at the peril of their
souls, not to come near me.
To IV. P. Wood, Esq.— Hard Work— The Oxford School.
Leeds: November 13, 1837.
My dearest Friend, — Although every moment of my
time is occupied, I must write a line to thank you for your
letter, and to thank you also for having thought of me
when you were in foreign parts. I cannot tell you how
much I miss the advantage of that correspondence with
you, which has been the blessing of my life ; from which I
have perhaps derived more of benefit than from any other
thing whatever. But I now have to preach four times a
week : twice on Sundays, once on Wednesdays at Mr. R.
Hall's school, which I have had licensed, and on Friday
evenings at church. This, with constant interruptions—
everybody exhorting me not to overwork myself, but
everybody thinking that his own particular business ought
to be made an exception to the general rule he would lay
down — gives me much occupation. I have sent you an
' Intelligencer,' which will gladden your heart ; but you
must not suppose that all things are going on smoothly.
As to the success which seems to have attended me
hitherto, it humbles me to the dust ; it seems as if God
intended to use me as an instrument of good, while I am
412 Life of Walter Farqtthar Hook. 1837
horribly afraid that I may be a Balaam, that my heart is
not so completely converted as it ought to be. This feeling
has depressed me ever since the meeting, but I had much
profitable prayer yesterday, and was in tears during the
greater part of the morning service. I certainly do not
find my progress what I wish, and T am dreadfully afraid
of being myself a castaway ; and yet on one grand point —
temper — the progress of grace has been such as to make
me humbly hope that the great work is going on in me.
I agree with much that you say about my Oxford friends ;
they are certainly the most injudicious of mortal men.
Palmer, you know, has long cut the connexion with them.
I am afraid they will upset the coach, they are such very
Jehus. What you say about ceremonies meets my view,
only that I should wish to see many ceremonies gradually
and imperceptibly restored. The Oxford school system is
decidedly bad, but you have only looked on one side of
the question, and do not perceive their principle, which
must be taken into consideration when forming a judgment.
We are on the eve of a new controversy with the papists,
who are breaking up new ground ; they do not now insist
on image worship, worship of saints, &c., &c., as necessary
doctrines ; they say it is only a part of the discipline of
the Church to which individuals are at liberty to object if
they will. This system of explaining away the obnoxious
parts of Romanism was invented by Bossuet, and is carried
out by Wiseman. They then say their worship, their
mode of propounding doctrines, their ecclesiastical lan-
guage, and their ceremonies are much nearer to what we
read of in the primitive times as the practice of the
Universal Church than those of the English Church. Surely
then, they argue, you had better be with us ; we will not
compel you to believe more than you now do, but you will
be nearer the primitive model. You are not aware how
great a weight this has with many people. I know it,
because I have now under my tuition two of the daughters
of my neighbour, Mr. Newton, the celebrated Methodist
preacher, who are resolute to go over to Popery ; their
iS37 Letters, 1837. 413
feeling is what I have described, and it is the case with
others. Now the Oxford school say (and I agree with
them) that all this is owing to our having, ev^er since Crom-
well's time, endeavoured to assimilate both our mode of
stating our doctrines and our forms with tJie conventicle,
with ultra-Protestants. Work the Church of England, they
say, as she ought to be worked, attend to her real instruc-
tions as to ceremonies, state your doctrines, e.g. Regenera-
tion, as she states them in her formularies, and you rob
the papist of this argument Where I disagree with them
is in the abruptness of their proceedings, and their dis-
regard of weaker brethren ; they act really from a dread
of Popery, but seeing all its strong points, against which
ultra-Protestants rather declaim than argue. It is time
for a committee, and I must conclude. Our love to your
good wife.
Yours devotedly.
From the Rev. Hugh James Rose.
Addington Park : December i8, 1837.
My dear Friend, .... I cannot say how much your
account of Leeds and your own proceedings interested me,
nor how thankful I am that it has pleased God's Providence
to raise up such a powerful instrument of good in so im-
portant a place. I have long maintained that if the richer
manufacturing laity are taught their duty to the souls of
those whose bodies they use as machines for making money,
and in consequence (for I believe fully that it would be a
consequence) they build churches, and the clergy then use
the opportunity, the manufacturing districts may become
towers of strength for the Church. Till quite lately, no
attempts have been made to ascertain these its great points ;
you will go far to have them ascertained, for it is not
merely directly that you will operate ; the impression made
at Leeds will be carried far and wide. May it please God
to preserve and prosper you ! The principles on which you
go will at first gain attention by their entire novelty, and
414 L^f^ of Walter FarqiLhar Hook. 1837
then, we may believe and trust, will hold it by their truth.
Within the last ten years they have revived wonderfully,
and have made their way. I deeply regret that some of
their most powerful and valued advocates will put weapons
into their opponents' hands, and thus render the progress
less sure and less rapid : for example, they, in that most
learned and useful tract on the Breviary, give a service for
Bishop Ken ; it could not be a matter of principle to do
so, for at best it is an illustration of what had been said ;
and of course the cry at once was, ' Oh, here is canonisation ! '
&c., &c. This is really building up walls on purpose to
knock one's head against, and I am really often inclined to
believe that Newman goes on Luther's principle about his
marriage : ' I did not wish to marry ; I was not in love, but
I wished to drive the papists mad.' Again, the handling
matters of detail as to uniformity of practice just now, is
another most inexpedient way of proceeding. We have
certain great notions to inculcate — the Church, the Sacra-
ments, the Apostolical Succession. Let us be content with
attending to these now ; when these are generally accepted,
they will bring forward their fruits in due season of humble,
docile, obedient minds, anxious to be guided and directed,
and then a sufficient uniformity will follow ; to dwell on it
now is only to give the adversary occasion, and thereby to
endanger the acceptance of those vital principles and
doctrines to which I allude. This our friends will not see,
but to all such representations they only answer that this
is expediency, humbug, and is the natural and necessary
result of living in London, a soil in which they hold that
all principle perishes. Indeed, I have my doubts whether
they do not think that all commerce with mankind (i.e.
reducing principles to practice) is destructive, and that the
article cannot be had genuine except in a college (.? whether
even a college at Cambridge would do). I grieve for this,
knowing the value of the men, and their power, their zeal,
their excellence.
Believe me, affectionately yours,
H. J. Rose.
1838 Conservative Banquet. 415
CHAPTER VII.
PART I. : PUBLIC LIFE FROM 1 838 TO 184O.
It is proposed in the first part of this chapter to
sketch what may be termed the pubHc Hfe of the
Vicar during the first three years of his ministry,
including under this head his speeches, pubHshed
sermons, and pamphlets. The second part will
contain an account of his parochial w^ork during the
same period.
In April of the year 1838 a Conservative banquet
on a very large scale was held in Leeds. The short-
lived administration of Sir Robert Peel in 1835 had
been beaten on a resolution moved by Lord John
Russell, ' That the House should resolve itself into a
committee of the whole House to consider the state
of the Established Church in Ireland, with the view
of applying any of its surplus revenues, not required
for the spiritual care of its members, to the general
education of all classes of the people, without dis-
tinction of religious persuasion.' The majority,
however, against Sir Robert Peel's Government on
this motion had not been more than thirty-three in
a very full house. The Melbourne administration
was weak, and was forced to purchase stability by
a closer alliance than many of its supporters relished
with the Irish Roman Catholic leader O'Connell
and his party — 'O'Connell and his tail,' as they were
4i6 Life of Walter Fm^qtihar Hook. 1838-
vulgarly called. Churchmen were filled with appre-
hension also lest the Government should be tempted
to buy the support of the Socialists in England, by
taking away some of the property of the Church for
the purposes of national education on secular
principles.
On all accounts, therefore, the Conservative
party deemed it of the utmost importance to rally
their forces with energy and promptness. On the
one hand there was a reasonable prospect of their
succeeding, by a determined and united effort, in
overthrowing the Liberal Government ; on the other
the continuance of that administration in power was,
in their judgment, fraught with peculiar perils to the
Constitution both in Church and State. The hopes
of their party centred in Sir Robert Peel. They
trusted that he might succeed in uniting the more
moderate reformers with those members of the Tory
party who, like himself, were prepared, however
reluctantly, to concede changes which the spirit of
the age seemed to demand ; to soften and conciliate
adversaries by a timely surrender, short of sacrificing
principle, instead of exasperating them by a stub-
born and ineffectual resistance.
The Vicar of Leeds was one of those who con-
sidered that the best chance of averting calamity
from the Church at this crisis lay in the return of
Sir Robert Peel to power. He therefore departed
for once from his general rule of holding aloof
from all political demonstrations. He attended the
banquet in Leeds, and made one of the most
eloquent and effective speeches, lasting nearly an
hour, which he ever delivered.
-1840 Conservative Banquet. 417
Rarely has a larger festival of the kind taken
place in any of the great provincial towns of
England. A special pavilion, designed by Mr.
Chantrell, was erected for the occasion on a plot of
ground near Park Row. The dining saloon was
120 feet long, by 80 broad. Nine tables, each 99
feet long, in the body of the hall, and a cross table
65 feet long at the top, accommodated 1,200 guests,
whilst 500 ladies in the gallery, and 200 servants,
made up a total of nearly 2,000 persons present.
The Chairman was Mr. William Beckett ; and
among the principal speakers were Sir George
Sinclair, Lord Wharncliffe, Lord Maidstone, and
Sir Francis Burdett, who indeed was honoured as
the most distinguished guest of the evening, occupy-
ing a place on the right of the Chairman, next to
Lord Wharncliffe. Immediately below Sir Francis
sat Sir George Sinclair, and next to him the Vicar.
The health of the Vicar and clergy of Leeds was
proposed, about the middle of the evening, by the
Hon. Philip Savile, and was drunk with four times
four amidst tremendous cheering, which was renewed
and lasted for a long time when the Vicar rose to
return thanks. * Gentlemen,' he began, ' I rejoice
to hear those shouts, for they have been raised not
as an idle compliment to the clergy of Leeds — they
are not intended as a compliment to me individually
— they are intended — are they not ? — to attest your
zeal, your loyalty, your devotion to the cause of the
Church. I see before me many familiar faces, many
who are accustomed to attend my ministry. To
them I have had other opportunities of stating the
spiritual claims of the Church, the spiritual advan-
voL. I. E E
4 1 8 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
tages, the spiritual privileges of belonging to the
Church. But I stand before you this day not as
your pastor, but as one of your fellow subjects come
here to declare my adhesion to the Conservative
cause — my determination to unite with you, by
every lawful means and measure, to uphold and
maintain those rights and privileges to which as
an Englishman I am entitled. To the rights and
privileges of an Englishman, to the blessing of
living under a limited monarchy, of living under
the most glorious constitution ever devised by the
wisdom of man (blessed be the providence and
grace of God) — to those rights and privileges I was
born. And when I was ordained to the ministry
by the hands of the Bishop, those rights and privi-
leges I did not renounce ; and not having renounced
them, I am justified in coming forward to state that
I will defend them by every lawful means, when I
think they are in danger, as I now think they are
in danger. To the rights and privileges of a Roman
citizen St. Paul was born, and he did not think it
inconsistent with his duty as an Apostle of Christ
to defend them upon fitting occasions. Therefore
I am not to be daunted by that clamour which is
sometimes raised against the clergy when they dare
to meet their lay brethren for a political object. I
have never been a busy politician because I had
neither time nor inclination. Once and only once
in my life before this have I attended a political
dinner ; but I have abstained, not because I had no
right to be present, but because I thought my at-
tendance might interfere with my ministerial useful-
ness — a regard for which is my first and primary
-1840 speech of the Vicar. 419
duty. And, gentlemen, I am present this day at
this glorious, this splendid festival, because I verily
believe that my absence would have interfered with
my ministerial usefulness. I think that you would
have considered your Vicar as wanting in his duty,
if in this cause he had shown himself afraid to come
before you from any dread of the pitiless pelting of
a profligate Whig press — a press which seems to act
upon the assumption that a Popish priest can do
no wrong, and a Protestant clergyman can do no
good.'
He then proceeded to dilate upon the danger
that a Government which had depressed the
Church and favoured the Roman Catholics in
Ireland would depress the Church in England, not
indeed of deliberate purpose, but from the exigencies
of their situation, by weakly yielding to the counsels
of the Secularists and the Dissenters on the subject
of education.
' The attempt ' he said * to establish Infidelity in
this country is proceeding thus. The patrons and
propagators of Infidelity are going throughout the
length and breadth of the land. They are exciting,
not, observe me, the pious Dissenters, for the pious
Dissenters on this question are with the Churchmen,
but the political Dissenters — they are stirring them
up by their speeches, by their penny cyclopaedias,
by their twopenny trash, by their semi-official publi-
cations, to demand the establishment of some system
of secular education to be paid for by the country,
to be conducted by commissioners appointed by the
Government. Now, gentlemen, the education of
the people of this country is, at the present time,
£ £ 2
420 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 183S-
-conducted thus. In the first place the Church
undertakes the education of the people. This in
remote villages and country places is done almost
entirely by the Church. Of course the system of
education conducted by the Church is based upon
religion — that religion being the religion of the
Bible, the Prayer Book, and the Catechism. In our
larger towns, however, a very respectable body of
men object to the education we give, because they
object to our religion. They, therefore, set up
rival schools and conduct the education of a part of
the people themselves. They think we are wrong,
and we think they are wrong, but still we are
united. The pious Churchman and the pious Dis-
senter are united in considering that the education
of an immortal being — a being who is to be educated
not merely for time but for eternity — must be based
upon religion ; and happy am I to know that the
religious feeling of this religious community has
been roused upon the subject. The advocates for
the secular system of education say "No, there shall
be a system of secular education, not based upon
religion, and then, after that, the people may send
their children for religious instruction where they
please." I should like to know what time the
children of the poor would have to give to this
double system of education, as every person who
has been at all employed in education is well aware
that two-thirds of the children sent to our schools
are sent there not for the sake of reliofious instruction
but for the sake of the general information we give,
the price we demand being that they shall also re-
ceive religious instruction. So that if this secular
-i84o Speech of the Vicar. 421
system be established, two-thirds of the children will
be brought up without any religious instruction, with-
out any knowledge of their Saviour and their God.
* I say I rejoice to find that attention has been
called to this subject, and that ministers have said
that they will not give their sanction to any education
that is not based upon religion. But judging of
their past conduct, we have a right to ask : What do
you mean by religious instruction } Do they mean
scriptural education ? Yes, some of them reply.
Well, but we may ask what kind of scriptural educa-
tion ? Do you mean such as that which is given in
Ireland ? Now the scriptural education given in
Ireland is not the whole Bible, but selections from
the Bible. It is very true that good selections may
be made from the Bible, containing every leading
doctrine of our religion, but if we go to Ireland we
find that the leading doctrines are excluded from
their extracts, so that their system of religious
teaching is very much like an orange with the juice
squeezed out of it. But let that pass ; and the
question may again be asked. What do you mean by
religion ? Is it the religion of the Church of England ?
No ; because, if that were so, the present system
would require no alteration, and that would exclude
the Dissenters. Is it the religion based upon
Protestantism ? No ; because that would exclude
the Papists. Well then, let us ask, do you mean
Christian principles ? No ; that would exclude the
Deists. So then their exclusive system of educa-
tion would include no religion at all' After observ-
ing that the Government had been deterred from
brincrinsf forward a scheme of education based on
42 2 Life of Walter Fa^'quhar Hook. 1838-
the Prussian plan, on account of the large sum of
money, about 300,000/., for which they would have
to ask Parliament, he proceeded, * The Government,
then, not finding themselves strong enough to ask
for such a sum, have laid aside their project for the
present, and their friends, in their writings and cheap
publications, are pointing out a species of property
which they think may be made available for their
object ; that is, the Church property. They ask for
a portion of the Church's property for the purposes
of their secular education. They reason thus : they
say they intend the education of the people — for the
education of the people, indeed, in part they do
intend ; but, as we all know, only in part. The
Church, we know, was established for the sanctifica-
tion of the people, and education is only one branch of
that work. But they shirk that part of the question ;
and they say that the whole of the people will not
be educated by the Church, and therefore they must
take a part of the property of the Church, as they
will compel the people to be educated in their way.
And they say that the State may at any time take
away the property of the Church, because it was
originally given to her by the State. Now if I were
to meet a man in the street to-day, and were to give
him half-a-crown, am I, if I meet him to-morrow, to
take it back, and say I have found some one more
worthy ? But I deny their premisses altogether.
When did the State give property to the Church ?
Where is the Act of Parliament by which it was
given ? *
He then proceeded very lucidly to demonstrate
by reference to facts, well known to every student
-1840 speech of the Vicar. 423
of history, the origin of ecclesiastical endowments in
the gifts of individual benefactors, and also to expose
the fallacy, more common then than it is now, of
supposing that at the time of the Reformation this
property was taken from one Church and handed
over to another.
He concluded his speech as he had begun, by
warning his hearers against such a system of secular
education as must lead to Infidelity. * But, gentle-
men,' he said, ' I have not much fear : I had not
much fear when I came into the room, and after the
able speeches we have heard this evening from our
senators, my fears are fewer. ... It cannot be very
long before he is called to the head of affairs — the
pilot admitted by all persons to be the pilot best
qualified to weather the storm — Sir Robert Peel.
He is our leader : he must be our leader : and he is
worthy to be our leader. Of his learning the schools
of Oxford are witness ; his piety is attested by his
unimpeachable morality and his regular attendance
on the ordinances of religion. By his wisdom, his
statesman-like qualities, his grasp of mind, all
Europe has been astonished. He is too wealthy to
desire office for the mere coming of Quarter Day.
He is too great a patriot to desire it for anything
but for his country's welfare. He was great as a
minister, and in my humble judgment he has been
greater still in the ranks of the Opposition. When
he joins the ranks of the Opposition he seems to
have determined never, for any party purpose, to
violate a single constitutional principle, or to forget
his loyalty to his sovereign ; and from this position
he has not been driven by the jeers of taunting foes
424 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
or the exhortation of enthusiastic friends. He has
scorned to be the leader of a faction, that he might
become, as he will become, the leader of his country.
Under his guidance, supported as he will be by
Wellington, the hero of the age : by Stanley, second
only to himself; by the manly Graham, by our own
Beckett, by Lord Wharncliffe and all the Wortleys,
— by Lord Maidstone and all the youthful senators ;
and though last, not least in our estimation, by the
worthy baronet who has honoured us this day by
his company — under Sir Robert Peel's guidance, I
say, assisted by these, we cannot greatly fall : but
the Church and State will be upheld — which may
God Almighty of His mercy grant'
All the newspapers in their comments on this
festival concur in pronouncing the Vicar's speech
to have been the most striking of all which were
made that evening. None were comparable to it
in weightlness of matter, in sustained eloquence, and
in the musical voice and dignified manner of the
speaker. None elicited more frequent and enthu-
siastic applause from the assembly. I have made
rather copious extracts from it, not merely as illus-
trations of his powers of oratory, but as expressions
of his views on the subject of national education :
views from which he never departed in principle,
although the scheme proposed in his celebrated
pamphlet hereafter to be noticed, * How to Render
more Efficient the Education of the People,' was
erroneously Imagined by many to be inconsistent
with them.
The eulogy on Sir Robert Peel is a remarkable
expression of the admiration and respect which he
-1840 ^ Hear the Church!* 425
entertained for that eminent statesman : an admira-
tion and respect greater than that which he ever
entertained for any pohtician, save for one of a yet
loftier and more comprehensive genius — WilHam
Ewart Gladstone.
In June of this year (1838) he preached at the
Chapel Royal, before the young Queen and her court,
the memorable sermon, 'Hear the Church!' It
deserves the epithet which I have applied to it,
because it excited much commotion at the time
in the political and fashionable world, and ran
through twenty-eight editions, in which about one
hundred thousand copies were sold. But in the
present day it is difficult to comprehend the sensation
which it produced (a proof how much the doctrine
it set forth has gained ground) ; and even then it
was astonishing to those who thoroughly understood
the sermon — to no one more than the author him-
self. It was an old sermon, originally composed
at Coventry as one of a series on the Gospel of
St. Matthew, and subsequently delivered at Leeds
and other places. A few alterations only were intro-
duced to adapt it to the occasion, and the sermon
itself was selected because he thought it would
answer the aim which he had in view as well as if
he had written a new one. That aim simply was
to lay before the young sovereign the claims, the
character, and the privileges of the Church of which,
in the providence of God, she had been called to be
the temporal Head. Surrounded as she was at that
time by ministers whose ignorance of the history of
the Church, and misconceptions of its true principles
and constitution might, as he feared, prejudice her
426 Life of Walter Farqtchar Hook. 1838-
mind with fatal errors on the subject, he conceived
it to be his duty, so far as in him lay, to prejudice
her mind in favour of the truth.
He began by stating that he was going to speak
of the Church not as a mere National Establishment,
but in itself — as a religious community — intrinsically
independent of the State : in other words, that he
was about to treat of the Church not in its political,
but purely in its religious aspect. After pointing
out that the mere fact of establishment by civil
government could not in itself constitute the claim
of any form of religion to our obedience, since on
that principle we should have to become Presby-
terians in Scotland and Holland, Papists in Italy
and France, and Mohammedans in Turkey ; after
demonstratinor on the other hand that the dissolution
of the tie between the Church and State, though it
would be highly injurious to the State, and probably
destructive of the monarchy, could not vitally impair
the energies of the Church — a fact of which the
Church in America was a standing witness — he
proceeded to indicate the real claims of the Church
to the allegiance of Englishmen, by answering the
question. When and by whom was this Society which
we call the Church instituted ?
It would be needless in the present day, even
if the sermon were not accessible to all who may
choose to refer to it, to follow the preacher over
well-known ground. That the Church of England
was not founded but reformed in the sixteenth
century ; that the Roman Catholics in England are
descended from a party who, in the reign of Eliza-
beth, quitted the Church because they thought it was
-1840 ^ Hear tJu Church!' 427
reformed too far, just as the Protestant Dissenters
quitted it because they thought it was not reformed
far enough ; that the Bishops of the English Church
trace their origin by a continuous succession back
to the Apostles, and hence claim to derive their
authority from Christ Himself — these are historical
facts which are now familiar to most well-educated
persons, facts which no one who pretends to a
moderate acquaintance with history can venture to
dispute, whatever his opinion respecting their doc-
trinal significance may be. They were, however,
startlincr to some who heard them for the first time
as they were announced by the preacher in the
Chapel Royal. They were disbelieved or mis-
understood ; by many they were misrepresented
as defiant assertions, by an ecclesiatical bigot, of
exacting and overweening claims on the part of the
Church ; claims which, if pushed to extremity, might
be dangerous to the civil constitution. The conse-
quence was that the sermon became invested with
an exaggerated importance never expected, still less
intended, by the preacher. The unnecessary agita-
tion, however, respecting it had the good effect of
leading thousands to read the sermon who otherwise
would never have even heard of it, and thus helped
to spread far and wide the truths which the writer
so earnestly desired to propagate. There are many
who can date from the perusal of that sermon an
increase in their attachment to the Church, or the
creation of an attachment never felt before. There
are many who can remember how, for the first time,
they perceived the bearing on personal religion of
right knowledge respecting the origin of the Church,
428 Life of Walter'- Farquhar Hook. 1838-
when they read the words, * Let us ever remember
that the primary object for which the Church was
instituted by Christ, its Author and Finisher, and
for which the ApostoHcal succession of its ministers
was estabh'shed ; that the primary object for which,
through ages of persecution and ages of prosperity,
and ages of darkness and ages of corruption, and
ages of reformation and ages of latitudinarianism,
and now in an age of rebuke and blasphemy, now
when we have fallen on evil days and evil tongues
■ — the primary object for which the Church has still
been preserved by a providential care, marvellous, if
not miraculous, in our eyes, was and is to convey
supernaturally the saving merits of the atoning blood
of the Lamb of God, and the sanctifying graces of
His Holy Spirit, to the believer's soul. In the
Church it is that the appointed means are to be
found by which that mysterious union with Christ is
promoted wherein our spiritual life consists : in Her
it is that the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity
abideth for ever, gradually to change the heart of
sinful man, and to make that flesh which He finds
stone ; gradually to prepare us for heaven while
our ascended Saviour is preparing heaven for us.'
Many, too, can remember how a spirit of zeal
was kindled within them as they read the burning
words with which the sermon ends. * Against the
Church the world seems at this time to be set in
array. To be a true and faithful member of the
Church requires no little moral courage. Basely to
pretend to belong to her, while designing mischief
against her In the heart — this is easy enough ; but
manfully to contend for her, because she is the
-1840 * Hear the Church!'' 429
Church, a true Church, a pure Church, a holy
Church, this is difficult to those who court the praise
of men or fear the censure of the world. May the
great God of Heaven, may Christ, the great Bishop
and Shepherd of souls, who is over all things in the
Church, put it, my brethren, into your hearts and
minds to say and feel as I do, " As for me and my
house we will live in the Church, we will die in the
Church, and if need shall be, like our martyred
forefathers we will diey^r the Church." '
Earnest and decided Churchmen of course re-
joiced in this clear and courageous vindication in
high places of the character of the Church. Letters
of congratulation and gratitude poured in from
all directions. Dr. Doane, the American Bishop of
New Jersey, wrote that he had long been following
the author with his eye and heart as the able and
fearless advocate of the principles to which his life
was pledged, that he secured with eagerness all his
publications as they came out, and he had been
so deeply impressed with this sermon that he had
printed it, and presented a copy to every clergyman
in his diocese, and to most of the leading laymen.'
Henry, Bishop of Exeter, said he had read it
with unmixed gratification, and ' I heartily thank
you,' he writes, ' for the fidelity as well as the ability
with which you have placed the important subject
before the mind of Her to whom of all others it is
of the highest consequence that the mighty truth
should be familiar.' He proceeds to say that he
had at first understood that her Majesty was dis-
pleased with the sermon, but had since learned, from
a quarter which could hardly be misinformed, that
430 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
this was not the case, but that she expressed herself
interested in the subject, and " seemed to feel it to
be 7iew as well as moinentous!^ *
The following letter to his wife shows how
completely unprepared the writer was for the com-
motion caused by his sermon.
10 Dean's Yard : June 20, 1838.
My dearest Love, .... It is quite astonishing what
a noise my poor sermon at the Chapel Royal has made ;
there were some thirty or forty peers unable to get in, and
there were all kinds of reports about what I said. Robert
heard someone say yesterday at Lady Wemyss's party,
that nothing is talked about but the duel (Lord C.'s about
Grisi) and the sermon. The Bishop of London, who was
present, was very kind ; he told me at the levee, (from which
I have just returned) that some persons about the Queen
wished to make out that it was political, and he had just
been sent for to give his opinion. He asserted that there
was not the slightest allusion to politics, unless it were
political to speak of the Church of England as a true
Church. The Duke of Wellington spoke to me at the
levee, and said he heard that I had preached a very fine
sermon last Sunday. The Archbishop of Canterbury
apologised for not having written to thank me for my Life
of Hobart, the preface to which he particularly liked. Sir
John Beckett is kindness itself; he introduced me to the
Duke. All this seems to me very strange, for I only
preached that old Leeds sermon which you remember.
They say at the Carlton, that the Queen was much affected,
and on returning home retired for about an hour ; if this
be true, one may hope that good has been done.
It will be seen also from this letter that the writer
was led to believe that no offence had been taken,
where certainly no offence was intended to be given.
Nevertheless a report got about that he had been
-1840 Visit atio7i Sermon, 431
forbidden to preach in the Chapel Royal again. He
wrote to the ' Times ' to contradict the truth of the
report, adding- that he had not any reason to suppose
that her Majesty was otherwise than pleased with
the sermon.
In August 1838 he preached at the primary
visitation of Bishop Longley, held in Leeds ; taking
as his text Acts vii. 26, ' Sirs, ye are brethren : why
do ye wrong one to another ? ' The sermon was
entitled ' A Call to Union on the Principles of the
English Reformation.'^ Some of the leading Evan-
gelicals in Leeds and elsewhere, as well as those
journals which were the organs of the Evangelical
school, persisted in identifying him with the writers
of the Oxford Tracts, and further accused him and
them in common of being untrue to the principles
of the Reformation. Taking their stand upon the
celebrated, but obscure and much abused, saying of
Chillingworth, ' The Bible and the Bible only — the
religion of Protestants ' as the cardinal principle of
the Reformed Church, the assailants vehemently
denounced the Tract writers and the Vicar of Leeds,
on account of the deference which they paid to the
voice of the Church, as expressed in the writings
of the primitive Fathers, in the decrees of General
Councils, and in her ancient liturgies and creeds.
The aim of the Vicar in his ' Call to Union' was to
demonstrate that this appeal to antiquity was the
very principle upon which the English Reformation
was conducted, and that consequently a departure
from that principle was chargeable, not upon himself
or upon the Tract writers, but upon their opponents
^ Printed in vol. i. of ' The Church and her Ordinances,' p. 90.
432 Life of Walter Farqttliai' Hook. 183S-
He supported this argument by a great mass of his-
torical evidence, partly woven into the body of the
discourse, partly introduced into notes appended to
it, proving point by point how careful our Reformers
were, alike in doctrine, ritual, and formularies, to base
every part upon primitive models ; how earnestly
they deprecated on all occasions the supposition that
they were devising, or wished to devise, novelties —
or that they trusted to their private judgment. He
contended, therefore, that, however much members
of the Church might differ in opinions about
details, they ought to find a principle of union in
the Ritual, Liturgy, and Articles of the Church,
because in deferring to them respect would be
paid, not to the judgment merely of individuals
such as Cranmer, Ridley, or Parker, but to the
traditional doctrine of the Universal Church as
it existed in those days when the Church was sub-
stantially one, and a strict correspondence on all
vital matters was maintained between the several
branches of it. He earnestly exhorted all to bear
in mind that nothing could excuse the introduc-
tion of faction and discord into the Church. The
duty of every clergyman at least was plain ; if he
could not conscientiously conform to the teaching
and practice of the Church, he was free to withdraw ;
and, as an honest and honourable man, he was
bound to withdraw from her communion. * Every
conscientious English clergyman,' he said, * acts on
the principle that while Scripture, and Scripture
only, is his rule of faith, he is, in the interpretation
of Scripture, to defer to the Ritual, Liturgy, Articles,
and formularies of the Church of England ; he is to
-1840 A Call to Union.
i-jj
promote the glory of God, peace upon earth, and
goodwill among men ; but to do so, not in the way
which he may imagine to be the wisest, but according
to the regulations, canons, rubrics, customs of his
Church. To these he is bound by vows the most
solemn to conform' — if he could not conform, let
him depart. * And where are we to look,' he con-
tinued, * for unity, if we find it not here ? And what
terms of reprobation can be sufficiently strong to
designate the conduct of those who, by causing
discord among brethren, in principle united, would
thereby make music for our enemies ? * The con-
cluding part of the sermon is pitched in the same
strain. * Remember that if the propagation of evan-
gelical truth be one portion of our duty, it is no less
our duty, by the sacrifice of all personal considera-
tions. ... to preserve " the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace." Remember that our enemies are
many and mighty ; the two extremes of Romanism
and ultra- Protestantism are banded together with
infidelity against us ; and if, like Samson's foxes,
they are pulling different ways, the brands which are
attached have one and the selfsame object — our
destruction. And is this a time to divide our house,
and to form parties and factions ? '
An extract from one of the notes to this sermon
will present to the reader a clear view of his attitude
at that time towards the Tract writers. Havino-
pointed out that when Mr. Wilberforce, in his later
years, and some of the more moderate leaders of the
Evangelicals, encouraged a spirit of deference to the
authoritative decisions of the Church of Eneland. the
question then arose, What are Church principles f
VOL. I. F F
434 ^if^ ^f Walter Farquhar Hook. 183S-
Is any party consistently acting upon them ? * At
such a time,' he proceeds, 'the celebrated Oxford
Tracts made their appearance. The reputed writers
of the Tracts were men of ardent piety, who had
been attached to the Evangelical school, and it
was among the younger men who had been educated
in that school that they created a strong sensation.
Hence, perhaps, the bitterness with which they are
assailed by some of the older partisans of that sec-
tion of the Church. To those who, like the present
writer, had been educated strictly on the principles
of the English Reformation, and belonged to the
old orthodox school, they brought forward nothing
new ; and though we may have demurred to some of
their opinions, and have thought that in some things
they were in an extreme, we rejoiced to see right
principles advocated in a manner so decided, and in a
spirit so truly Christian. Against some of the pious
opinions supported in these Tracts objections may oc-
casionally be raised, for perfect coincidence oi opinion
is not to be expected. I do not myself accord with all
the opinions expressed in them, or always admit the
deduction attempted to be drawn from the principles
on which we are agreed, I think, too, that while
manfully vindicating the principles of the English
Reformation, in their fear lest they should appear to
respect persons too highly, they did not appreciate
highly enough the character of some of our leading
Reformers, or make due allowance for the difficulties
in which they were placed.' At the same time he
expressed his conviction that the object of the
writers was * to imbue the public mind with those
Catholic principles by the maintenance of which the
-1840 The Oxford Tracts. 435
English Reformation was gloriously distinguished.
This cannot be done unless on those principles
opinions are formed, and from them conclusions
drawn ; and at the very time that we may combat
a particular opinion, if we admit the truth of the
principle on which it is based we only confirm the prin-
ciple, and impress it more deeply on men's minds.
I am not one of those who would say, " Read the
Oxford Tracts, and take for granted every opinion
there expressed ; " but I am one of those who would
say, " Read and digest these Tracts well, and you
will have imbibed principles which will enable you
to judge of opinions." Their popularity will increase,
since their arguments are not answered or their
statements confuted : they are opposed simply by
railing. And those who judge of such things only
by second-hand reports and garbled quotations, and
anonymous misrepresentations in newspapers, will of
course rail on. May the day come when they may
be awakened to a sense of the danger of thus vio-
lating the golden rule of charity. In the meantime
the wise, the candid, those who are not the mere
partisans of religion, but really religious, will them-
selves read the Tracts ; and if they do read they will
commend. They may censure particular opinions,
but they will commend the whole.'
These remarks may have been partly due to a long
letter received from Dr. Pusey a short time before, in
which, after showing how seriously the intentions of
the Tract writers were misunderstood and maligned,
he entreated the Vicar to befriend them, as oppor-
tunities of so doing might occur. He had pointed
out in this letter that the Tracts did not profess to be
F F 1
43 6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
tests of Catholicity, but only guides to It ; and as such
he hoped that the Vicar would be able to give them a
general support. * As for your being a disciple of us,'
he continued, * the thing is absurd. Newman said
that you had formed your views long before many
of the writers — long before myself, upon many points.'
But what more especially provoked him to make
this defence of the Tract writers was the indig-
nation which he felt at the violent denunciation which
had been lately flung at their productions (more
especially the Remains of Mr. Hurrell Froude) from
the university pulpit by Dr. Faussett, Margaret Pro-
fessor of Divinity, Oxford. He himself also was
suffering from similar treatment at the hands of
Evangelical preachers in Leeds and other parts
of the country. He pointed out in his sermon that
such conduct was a violation of the fifty-third Canon,
which directs * that if any preacher shall in the pulpit
purposely impugn or confute any doctrine delivered
by any other preacher, in the same church or In any
church near adjoining, without permission from the
Bishop, a complaint shall be made to the Bishop
by the aggrieved party, and the said preacher shall
not be allowed any more to occupy that place
which he hath once abused except he faithfully
promise to forbear all such matter of contention in
the Church, until the Bishop hath taken further
order therein.' And in a note he remarks : ' Of all
the glaring violations of this Canon none Is of
course so conspicuous as that which has been lately
exhibited by Dr. Faussett. . . . The present dis-
course is sufficient to show that I am not any
more than Dr. Faussett inclined to approve of Mr.
-1840 Dr. Faussett^s Sermon. 437
Froude's Remains. I deeply, indeed, regret the
publication of that work without a protest on the
part of the editor against the author's many para-
doxical positions. With a kind heart, and glowing
sensibilities, Mr. Froude united a mind saturated
with learning, but from its very luxuriance pro-
ductive of weeds together with many flowers.
Though he always took an original, he sometimes
took a morbid, view of things, and while from his
writings all must derive much food for thought,
from many of his opinions the majority of his readers
will, like myself, dissent. But if, in contemplating
the evils inseparable from a great movement, he does
not sufficiently appreciate (and I think he does not)
the wisdom of our Reformation or the virtues of
many of our Reformers ; if, while condemning the
Romish, he censures the English, Church, we may
think him to be in error in these particulars without
condemning him wholesale. Still less ought those
persons to condemn him for not fully appreciating
our Reformation who consider the work of the
Reformers in retaining our present Baptismal Service
" a burthen hard to bear," and the service " an ab-
surdity which they do not believe in their hearts."
Had Dr. Faussett contented himself with writing
a pamphlet or a review, while we might have con-
sidered him incompetent to sit in judgment on such
a mind as Mr. Froude's, we should have had no
cause of complaint. But cause of complaint the
Church has when he makes one work a pretext for
attacking certain of his clerical brethren whose
learning he may be unable to appreciate, but whose
piety and zeal he would do well to imitate. ... If
438 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
Dr. Faussett has a right on one Sunday to attack
his brethren in the ministry, than whom he is not
himself one whit more infallible, the brethren thus
attacked might Sunday after Sunday ascend the
pulpit and assail Dr. Faussett and his projected new
Oxford school of Divinity. If, with equal indis-
cretion and no greater regard for the regulations of
the Church, they had done so — if, deducing their own
conclusions from Dr. Faussett's manifest opposition
to fastings and mortifications of the flesh, they had
headed their discourses with the taking title " Re-
vival of Sensualism " just as he has charged them
with "The Revival of Popery,"^ Dr. Faussett, indeed,
would have had no ground for complaint, but the
Church would have had to deplore an exhibition the
most disgraceful, though the natural consequence of
Dr. Faussett's conduct'
After this note had gone to the press the charge
of the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Bagot) was published ;
and the Vicar added some remarks upon it, con-
trasting its sober judgments, wise counsels, and
affectionate fatherly tone with the coarse, indlscri-
minating invectives of Dr. Faussett. * The Bishop,'
he observed, ' had a right to do what Dr. Faussett
had no right to do ; his lordship had a right to
pronounce sentence ex cathedra, after examination,
on the conduct and doctrines of his clergy, among
whom are the writers of the Oxford Tracts.' And
he then gives some extracts from the charge, in
which the Bishop declares that, after diligent inquiry,
he had been unable to find anything in the conduct
or writings of the persons alluded to which could
1 The title of Dr. Faussett's sermon.
-1840 Bishop Bagot's Charge. 439
fairly be interpreted as breaches of the doctrine or
discipline of the Church of England. ' Generally
speaking,' said the Bishop, ' I may say that in these
days of lax and spurious liberality anything which
tends to recall forgotten truth is valuable ; and when
these publications have directed men's minds to such
important subjects as the union, the discipline, and
the authority of the Church, I think they have done
good service ; but there may be some points in
which, from ambiguity of expression or similar causes,
it is not impossible but that evil, rather than the in-
tended good, may be produced on minds of a peculiar
temperament. I have more fear of the disciples
than of the teachers.' At the same time the Bishop
continued, ' I would implore them by the purity of
their intentions to be cautious, both in their writings
and actions, to take heed lest " their good be evil
spoken of;" lest, in their exertions to re-establish
unity, they unhappily create fresh schism ; lest, in
their admiration of antiquity, they revert to practices
which heretofore have ended in superstition.'
The Bishop, in the difficult and delicate situation
which he then occupied in relation to the Tract
writers, was particularly grateful to the Vicar of
Leeds for the line adopted in his sermon, and more
particularly for the support given to the Charge,
which, notwithstanding the gentleness of its tone,
some of the Tract writers were disposed to think
implied so much disapproval of the Tracts, that the
publication of them ought to be discontinued.
' I have read your sermon,' wrote the Bishop, ' with the
greatest pleasure and satisfaction, agreeing entirely with
all you say throughout, and I feel much indebted to you
440 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838--
for the note respecting my late Charge. It will do more
than anything else could have done to quiet and satisfy the
minds of those excellent men (some I may call friends)
whose high principles of obedience to authority, but whose
over-sensitiveness made them apprehensive that my Charge
might be construed (but surely only by perversion) into a
cens2ire upon the Tracts, and make them liable to a charge
of inconsistency if they did not discontinue the publication.
By a private correspondence with Dr. Pusey and Mr.
Newman I sufficiently satisfied their minds to induce them
not to adopt such a course, and that nothing could be
further from my wish than to cast a general censure upon
the work. I merely state this to prove to you how very
valuable to them such a note as you have kindly added
with reference to my Charge was, and how peculiarly well-
timed.
The sermon gave great satisfaction not only to
the Bishop of Oxford and the Tract writers but also
to a large body of moderate Churchmen.
On the other hand the ultra- Protestant section
of the Church could not forgive him for having
demonstrated that they, and not the high Churchmen,
M^ere unfaithful to the spirit of the Reformation ; and
their journals and reviews discharged a volley of
attacks upon the sermon, more distinguished for acri-
mony of tone and vehemence of language than for
weight of learning or strength of argument. ' Eraser's
Magazine,' among others, took up the cudgels, and
produced an article in January 1839 which was
exceedingly applauded by a large portion of the
press, but of which it may suffice to observe here
that the flippancy and vulgarity of the style in
which it is written arc only equalled by the strange
misconceptions displayed of the main positions of
the writer whom it attacks.
-1840 Hurricane at Leeds. 441
From those storms of controversy which are the
products of human infirmity and passion, it is rather
a relief to turn for a moment to an account of one of
those convulsions of nature for which man is not
responsible. One night in the month of January
1839, a tempest of extraordinary fury raged over
the North of England. The Rev. H. W. Bellairs
was on a visit to the Vicar of Leeds, and has kindly
supplied me with his reminiscences of the storm.
Early in the morning, above the roaring and raving
of the wind, he heard a terrific crash, and on open-
ing his bedroom door discovered that a part of the
roof was blown away ; and the strange creaking
and crackin^f sounds throucjhout the house led
him at first to imao-ine that the hurricane was ac-
companied by an earthquake. * I went downstairs,'
he writes, ' and, hearing voices, followed them to a
room on the basement where I found the Vicar
with a child on either knee, his servants, and a
captain of artillery, who was staying in the house,
standing round him. The Vicar was perfectly un-
moved ; calming, comforting, and reassuring all with
those words of faith, hope, and love which none
knew better than himself how to use. Whilst we
were there another fearful crash came, breaking
through the roaring of the wind, which even in the
house was overpowering. In a few minutes some
one came in, I think from the next house, saying
that a chimney there had fallen through the roof,
burying two female servants in its ruins, and that
the master of the house was in the street utterly
beside himself. The Vicar put down the children,
went to the window, and saw the poor fellow cling-
442 Life of Walter FarqiLhar Hook, 1S3S-
ing to some iron railings opposite the Vicarage.
The storm was raging with such violence that it
was almost impossible for anyone to stand unaided.
The Vicar, however, struggled across the road, got
hold of the man and brought him into the Vicarage,
and calmed him until he was able to return to his
house. The quiet courage, strong faith, and affec-
tionate bearing of the Vicar in that hour of fear and
peril, no one who witnessed it can ever forget.*
The following letter from him to Mr. Wood is a
vivid description of the hurricane.
January 17, 1839.
My dearest Friend, — You have not I hope been visited
with that dreadful hurricane which alarmed us here in these
northern regions. Never did I hear wind blow as the
wind blew on the morning of last Monday se'nnight. The
beds rocked under us, and a tremendous crash was heard ;
when Delicia begged me to go upstairs, and bring the
children down to our own room. Imagine my horror,
when, as I approached the stairs I heard screams ; and
imagine my joy when I counted my children and found
none wanting, at the time when the wind pierced me to
the very bones, blowing upon me from the open sky, for
the roof of the day-nursery had fallen in with a terrific
crash. No one in that room could have escaped with life.
In the very next room our dear little Jemmy was asleep ;
and the darling girls in the room adjoining that. Two
hours later, for the downfall happened at six o'clock, they
would have been dressing in the day-nursery, and must
have perished. Three stacks of chimneys were blown
down in our house. We have been obliged to send the
children away, and Delicia and I have been confined to
two rooms, the only two in which fires could be lighted,
and have been driven from one to another. In the midst
of all this, a cold from which Delicia had long suffered
-1840 National Edtication. 443
became worse. Inflammation and fever have ensued, and
she has been confined to her bed. God be praised she is
much better now .... These things come to tell us what
ungrateful wretches we are. How little we value the
blessings which appear to be common blessings — health
and peace — till we lose them. How applicable to the
circumstances of the storm is the twenty-ninth Psalm. I
read it afterwards at my family prayers, and preached on it
last Sunday. It was indeed merciful that in all Leeds only
one life was lost.
The year 1839 was a critical one for the Church
in respect to the question of National Education.
The ' Central Society of Education ' was pressing its
demands for a secular system, under which religious
instruction of any kind should be absolutely forbid-
den, while the Government in February proposed its
scheme for the establishment of a Board of Educa-
tion, and of a model or normal school, with teachers
of divers religious persuasions, and a Rector of no
religion in particular. The Board, which was to
consist of the President of the Council and five other
privy councillors, did not need any Act to call it
into being ; and thus that remarkable dynasty known
by the title of ' my lords,' whose wonderful and in-
scrutable decrees are a source of annual amusement,
or vexation, to school managers, came into existence
at once — fully armed, like Athene from the head of
Zeus. The remainder of the measure passed the
House of Commons by a majority of two in the
month of June, but in the House of Lords a series
of resolutions, to be embodied in an address to the
Crown against the Bill, was moved by Archbishop
Howley, supported by Bishop Blomficld in one of
444 ^if^ ^f ^^^^^'^ Farquhar Hook. 1838-
the ablest speeches he ever delivered, and carried by
a large majority.
The interval between the first proposal of the
scheme in February and the debates in June, was
occupied by Churchmen in great efforts, both to
convince the public mind of the work which the
Church had already accomplished in the cause of
national education, and to devise plans for enabling
her to strengthen and extend her operations. The
Vicar threw himself into this work with immense
energy. He foresaw indeed that the day was not
far distant when the State would be compelled to
undertake the education of the people, and he also
perceived that in a country where the forms of
religious belief were so manifold as in England, the
only education which the State could provide, con-
sistently with discharging its duty towards the whole
population, must be of a purely secular kind. But
at present he did not very frequently or publicly
enlarge upon this topic. Meanwhile there were
two calamities which he exceedingly dreaded, and
laboured most sedulously, as far as in him lay, to
avert. One was the appropriation by the State of
ecclesiastical property, at the instigation of Socialists,
to the purposes of secular education. This, as has
been seen, was the topic on which he more especially
dilated in his speech at the Conservative banquet in
1838. The other was the acceptance by the Church
of any specious offer from the State of some diluted
form of religious education, which he was convinced
would be a mere counterfeit — a system under which
children would receive only vague and indistinct
ideas about religious truths, and consequently grow
-1840 National Education. 445
up into ' nothingarians.' The honesty and thorough-
ness of his nature, and his firm persuasion that clear
dogmatic teaching was the only guarantee for sound
morality, the only solid platform upon which it could
be built up, revolted against the notion of any com-
promises and cheats in connexion with this matter.
As an escape from such evils he had already con-
ceived in his mind the germ of that bold and original
scheme, which, eight years afterwards, he formally
propounded in his celebrated letter to the Bishop of
St, David's. The outlines of it are sketched in the
following letters, written at the close of 1838, to Mr.
Wood. Let the State undertake the secular part of
education, which is all that it can honestly and con-
sistently undertake, and let the Church and the sects
undertake the religious part, the State taking care
that all have a fair field. Such were the ideas
already working in his mind, which were afterwards
developed in the pamphlet to which allusion has just
been made.
Education Scheme.
I am still sadly in want of some one to manage the
educational affairs of this parish ; if you hear of any en-
thusiast, pray tell me of him. All I should require would
be, his having Church principles. On the subject of educa-
tion, I have been thinking more of late, and am in corre-
spondence on the subject with some influential people. My
advice is, to find from all parties what concessions can be
made without sacrifice of principle. I propose a measure,
which is this ; that a board of education be formed in every
parish ; the Incumbent chairman, his curates ex-officio
members, and a certain number of ratepayers to complete
the board. If pressed, I would concede that Dissenting
ministers, resident in the parish three years, should also be
44^ Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
members. The board to have power to lay a rate, and to
decide on the books to be used ; no direct religious instruc-
tion to be given ; but no child to be admitted who cannot
bring a certificate of being a member of some Sunday-
school, where religious instruction is given. Absence for
three Sundays from Sunday-school without leave, to be
punished by three months' expulsion from National school.
Each clergyman, or Dissenting minister, to be permitted to
attend on Fridays to instruct his own children ; a separate
room to be provided for the purpose. A normal school to
be established in London for training masters by Govern-
ment, under directors ; the two Archbishops, and Bishops
of London, Durham, and Winton, directors always ; the
rest to be appointed by Government, provided that they
appoint five Dissenting ministers. You see we here provide
for general education, and yet assert the necessity of
religious education. Probably we shall have to define
religious education to be Biblical, or the Socialists may so
denominate their system. I should like to know your
opinion of this scheme. It is rather liberal, but while it
concedes much to Dissenters, it gives the Church the lead ;
and this point Dissenters ought to concede. I shall feel
extremely obliged to you not to mention this plan till you
hear from me again. I have particular reasons for particu-
larly wishing this. I am so accustomed to tell you all
things, that I cannot help mentioning my plan to you, but
it is for the present a secret.
Education Scheme — A New Magazine — Parochial
Reading Rooms.
Vicarage, Leeds: November 28, 1838.
My dearest Friend, .... Anything like a semi-religious
education, I deprecate, but I have no objection to let the
State train children to receive the religious education we
are prepared to give ; the State at the same time insisting
on their coming to us for the purpose. But of course, on
consideration, I shall not propound my plan to anyone ;
-1840 National Education. 447
being not a little surprised to find that I am more liberal
than that odious Whig fellow, William Wood. I cannot
help suspecting that evil communications with you cor-
rupted my good manners. I am, however, delighted to
find that our sentiments so entirely accord with respect to
education : our principle is, I see, precisely the same ; only I,
in despair, was prepared to make a larger sacrifice than
you think quite necessary. I rejoice to know this. Only
let us have anything rather than a mutilated Bible, a semi-
religion, which is worse than an avowedly Infidel education ;
worse because it leads to the same end without causing
that alarm which the avowal of Infidelity would excite.
As to my plans here, I have heard of a man from Sam.
Wood, who, he thinks would suit us ; perhaps, if you could
call on Mr. Wood, your knowledge of the Leeds localities
might assist him further in forming his judgment. He seems
to me to be just the kind of person ; but then he cannot
afford to come, I suspect, under 100/., or 150/., a year, but
this sum I cannot (so says my woman of business) at
present spare ; I have, however, written to my good lord
Bishop, and asked him to form a board of education in
this town ; if he will do this in the course of two or three
months, as a paid secretary will be wanted, I think I shall
send for this gentleman and run the risk of his being
appointed, engaging him at the lowest salary at which he
will come. I have never found Providence to fail me, and
I think that this is a kind of thing in which I may be a
little bold.
At present, his School Board scheme was only
whispered to intimate and confidential friends as a
kind of esoteric doctrine. The disclosure of it
would have been too rude a shock to the feelings of
those who still clung to the belief that the Church,
being called the National Church, was not only bound
to educate the whole people but was competent to
discharge the task. The immediate duty of Church-
448 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
men he considered at that time was obvious : namely,
to make the most of their opportunities, to show-
that they could at least take the lead in the work of
national education, and so to deepen the claim of the
Church upon the gratitude of the nation. The es-
tablishment of local boards of education in populous
places would, he thought, assist in the consolidation
and extension of the Church's educational work, and
he was therefore anxious, as mentioned in the letter
transcribed above, to form one with as little delay
as possible for the parish of Leeds.
Accordingly on March 14, 1839, a large meeting
was held in the Music Hall, the Bishop of Ripon
being in the chair, to take steps for the purpose.
The Vicar made a long and elaborate speech on the
occasion, and as it contains some very interesting
information respecting the state of national education
at that time, I shall not hesitate to present to the
reader some rather full transcripts and paraphrases
of his remarks.
He began by observing that, as he was address-
ing an assembly of Churchmen, he should assume as
a fact indisputable among themselves that no edu-
cation could deserve the name which was not based
upon religion. If education consisted in training up
a child in the way he ought to go, no Christian man
could venture to suppose that this end would be ac-
complished unless religious principles were brought,
indirectly at least, to bear upon all the instruction
given. If this were acknowledged, it clearly behoved
Churchmen at that crisis to bestir themselves. * We
must offer to the country the best possible education,
or the State will take the duty of education upon
•-1840 speech on Echtcation. 449
itself, and if the State does this it must eventually
adopt a purely secular education — an education not
based upon religion. The only country in which a
State education is consistently conducted is Holland,
and there religion is avowedly excluded. In Prussia
religion is assumed as the basis, but there the
Government cannot act consistently on the prin-
ciples it asserts. It must be obvious that when
a State undertakes the education of the people it
cannot make religion its basis. It may pretend to
do so at first, but the State religion will be found on
investigation to be no religion. Let us suppose the
State were at the present time to undertake the
education of the people — let us suppose it to concede
the principle that education must be based on reli-
gion — the question immediately occurs on what
religion is it to be based ? Shall it be the religion
of the Church of England ? If so, no change is
necessary. But a change is demanded to meet the
views of those who dissent from the Church. The
State, it will be said, is to provide for the education
of all the people. Well, then, let us now ask, is the
education to be exclusively Protestant ? No, not
if the principle is adhered to, for that would exclude
the Romanists. Carry on the principle, and we may
ask, again, is the education to be Christian ? If
Infidelity prevails (and, alas ! it does prevail to a
fearful extent), Jews, Turks, and Infidels will all
demand that the education of the country shall be
so conducted as not to exclude them. And the7i
what is the religion on which the State education is
based ? It certainly looks as much like no religion
as possible. I do not say that this will be the im-
VOL. I. G G
450 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
mediate consequence of a State education, but it is
its direct tendency. The objection to Church edu-
cation is its exclusiveness. If the State forms a
new system of rehgion less exclusive, still, since
it must exclude some parties, the argument against
exclusiveness may be brought to bear against that
State sect also, and so on until at length it is
found that every religion must be exclusive, and
that nothing is really liberal but Atheism. As soon
as the State undertakes to control religion, religion
must be corrupted, for it will then cease to be busied
with God's truth and will be dabbling with expe-
diency. The question will be, not what does the all
pure and all perfect God command, but what will
man — fallen, corrupted, wicked man — consent to
receive.'
After showing that one of the purposes for which
the Church was endowed was to educate the people,
except such as dissented from her teaching; that
this work had been much neglected during the middle
ages, revived during the sixteenth century by the
establishment of Grammar Schools, but in abeyance
during the depression of the Church in the days of
the Commonwealth, he proceeded to sketch the work
accomplished by the Church on behalf of national
education, from the foundation of the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge in the reign of
William III. * One of the first objects,' he said, 'of
that Society was to found and endow public charity
schools ' ; and such was the success of its labours that
in the year 1741 we find it had established more
than 2,000 schools in different parts of the country.
After observing that this was the first Society which
--1S40 speech on Edtication. 451
had advocated and supported the general education
of the people, and that it was essentially and entirely
an offspring of the Church, he continued : ' Nor may
it be forgotten that in thus advocating the cause of
education the Church was, for a long time, rowing
against the stream. It is easy now to call meetings
and urge upon society the duty of educating the
poor, because the topic is a popular one. But the
Church during the last century had to fight against
a prejudice, many great and good men of all parties
being prejudiced against the education of the people.
I myself remember twenty years ago that in our
chanty sermons all we attempted to prove was that
there could be no harm in educating the people —
that there was no probability of that injury resulting
from it to society which some persons seemed to
fear ; that the danger was not from over-educating,
but from under-educating the poor. And is the
Church now to be upbraided, as if her increased zeal
for the education of the people was the result of a
pressure from without ? By whom is the accusation
made ? By the representatives of those who, during
the past century, did nothing for education. Is not
the doinof somethinq' better than the doinof nothincr,
and has not the Church done much if she has
preached down the prejudice which for a time existed
against the education of the poor ? Until that
prejudice was annihilated it was impossible to do
great things. The Government was unwilling to
aid because the Government was unwilling to do an
act which might be unpopular among those classes
of society to which it looked for support. Thanks
be to God that prejudice has been overcome, and
G G 2
452 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
Christians are now prepared to admit that our
Creator would not have given to man a reasonable
mind to distinguish him from the brute unless He
had intended the intellect to be cultivated, and that
it is the duty of the rich to assist the poor in the
cultivation of their minds. The better educated the
poor man is, the more ready will he be to listen to
the dictates of his reason and his conscience — the
less likely to be led astray by the inflammatory sophis-
try of the demagogue, the more likely will he be to
become loyal to his Queen and true to his Church.'
He then entered into some statistics to prove
the extent to which, at that time, the Church was
discharging her duty in respect of national education,
especially as compared with the various nonconform-
ing communities.
Of daily scholars above the age of seven
there were in Dissenting Schools . 47,287
Of Sunday scholars in the same . . 550,107
Total of all ranks and descrip-
tions in Dissenting Schools . 597,394
In schools connected with the Church there were ; —
Of daily scholars in Grammar Schools
and Colleges .... 603,428
In elementary schools connected with
the National Society, which was esta-
blished by Churchmen in 1811 . . 514,450
Total of daily scholars , .1,117,878
Sunday scholars only, in Church Schools 435,550
Total of all ranks and descriptions in
Church Schools .... 1,553,428
* We may, then,' he said, * fairly assert that we
-1840
speech on Education.
453
have the education of the people in our hands ; and
why should it be taken away from us ? We have
received no favour from Government; whatever
money has been voted by Parliament for educational
purposes has been offered to the Dissenters equally
with ourselves. But the people flock to our schools.
. . . Five years ago it was proposed by Lord Al-
thorp that 20,000/. should be voted for the purposes
of education, and this sum has been annually voted
ever since. And the two Societies, the National
Society on the part of the Church, the British and
Foreign Society on the part of the Dissenters, were
selected as the administrators of the fund. The
grant was to be distributed to these two societies,
on a principle of perfect fairness, each Society taking
a share proportionate to the sum which it raised by
voluntary contributions. This was hailed as a boon
by the British and Foreign School Society, and
seemed likely to operate in favour of Dissent ;
yet it has turned out that the National Society has
been able to avail itself of the grant to nearly double
the amount of the British and Foreign School Society.
The returns are as follow of the applications made
by the two Societies : —
1S34
183s
1836
1837
1838
Total
National Society
British and Foreign .
11,081
9,796
13,002
7,168
17,130
5, 28 1
11,456
5,810
17,041
6,090
69,710
35,285
He then advocated the adoption of some plan of
compulsory education. ' It is said that there are
112,035 children above the age of seven utterly
destitute of any kind of education whatever. How
454 Z^/^ of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
can the Church help that ? We open schools in all
places, but we cannot compel the parents to send
their children to them. There is no lack of means of
education ; the misfortune is that there are 100,000
wicked parents who will not avail themselves of the
means provided. How is this to be remedied ? It
is said, by schools supported by Government. But
why should those schools be more likely to be at-
tended than the existing schools ? Is the attendance
to be compulsory ? There is no need to establish
Government Schools on that account, for the chil-
dren may be as well compelled to attend existing
schools as any other newly devised schools, I do
not mean that they should be compelled to attend
Church Schools. Let the parents have the choice
of the schools, but let there be some law which will
empower the magistrates to insist on all children
being sent to soine school. If a parent neglects to
educate his child, he is doing an injury not only to
the child but to the community itself, which suffers
from that child's ignorance and vice. If the State
may interfere for the punishment of crime it may
surely interfere for the prevention of crime ; it may
surely take the part of the poor neglected child
when it exclaims, " Save me from my wicked
parents. Compel them to give me that which I
have a right to demand at their hands — the means
of becoming a good man and a good Christian."
This is virtually the utterance of every neglected
child who is ci;;ying in our streets.' He advocated
some such plan as that suggested by Mr. Horner,
that ' the enjoyment of certain privileges and civil
rights, the admission to certain offices and employ-
-»84o Speech on Education. 455
ments, should depend upon the possession of a
certain amount of education ; and I beheve,' he
added in conclusion, ' that it will be found that what
the people are opposed to is, not the act of compel-
ling men to educate their children, but that of
compelling them to educate in those particular
schools which the Civil Government may appoint.'
The point in which he considered the work of
education at that time to be most deficient, and to
which he earnestly exhorted in his speech that more
attention should be paid, especially by the National
Society, was the training of masters. * The fault,'
he said, ' of the National Society has been, not in
adhering to Dr. Bell's system, but in making the
observance of that system the primary object of
attention. The Society recognises the duty of
training masters, but it does not see that this is the
first and grand object. We want not systems but
masters ; ' and here he cited the opinion of men who
had studied the subject in Prussia, that it was the
master and not the system which made the school,
and that attention should be chiefly directed to the
formation of training schools, in which good masters
might be prepared for their important and respon-
sible duty.
The last needs upon which he touched were
Infant Schools, and good Middle Class Schools in
connexion with the Church. It had been calculated,
he said, that the infant population between three
and seven years of age amounted at that time to
a million and a half. And although many Infant
Schools had been established the number compared
with what was required was next to nothing. With
45 6 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
regard to commercial or middle class schools he
thouo^ht it would be highly advantageous if the
Board, at the request of the masters, were to
conduct periodical examinations, and award prizes
to the best scholars, publishing their names. The
terms of connexion with the Board for such schools
should be that the respective schools should be
conducted on truly religious principles, in accordance
with the doctrine and discipline of the Church of
England, and that no religious instruction incon-
sistent with the same should be given or be per-
mitted to be given in the schools.
The resolution which he moved at the conclusion
of his speech was that a Local Board of Education,
embracing all the townships of the parish of Leeds,
should be established. The other resolutions passed
at the meeting were —
That the Board consist of all the clergy officiating in
the parish of Leeds ; of a committee of laymen to be
appointed by the Bishop ; and of a secretary.
That the Board be requested to take immediate steps :
1. To raise fresh subscriptions for the purpose of educa-
tion.
2. To promote the building of new National, Sunday,
and Infant Schools.
3. To unite with the Board existing Schools or Acade-
mies conducted by members of the Church.
4. To ascertain the educational statistics of the parish.
5. To adopt measures for the formation of a Training
School for Masters.
6. To institute a commercial school which may serve
as a model school.
The Board of Education thus founded was the germ
of the Diocesan Board, which has been for nearly
-1840 Letter to National Society. 457
forty years the principal instrument of elementary
and middle class education throughout the Diocese
of Ripon.
The following letter to the secretary of the
National Society, about a year after the formation of
the Leeds Educational Board, shows how appre-
hensive he was lest the Society should be tempted
to surrender the least particle of its principles for
the sake of some supposed advantage. The Factory
Act alluded to in this letter was passed in the year
1833, under the guidance of Lord Althorp : it limited
the hours for the employment of children in factories,
and provided that part of the time when they were
not engaged in labour should be spent in school.
Letter to the Secretary of the National Society.
Reverend Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter, dated the nth instant, in which you
desire me to give my opinion with regard to the working
of the Factory Act, so far as those provisions are concerned
which respect the education of the poor.
You inform me that ' it has been urgently represented
to you from various quarters that a special provision should
be made by the National Society for the case of the factory
children, whose education is made compulsory ; and that
some measure should, if possible, be taken to remove the
difficulties which, under present circumstances, prevent
them from attending schools which are either now in union
with the Society, or might hereafter be united.' Now here
I may be permitted to remark that although the factory
children are compelled to attend some school, they are not
compelled to attend any particular school ; and that there
exists at present no difficulty whatever to prevent their
attending schools in union with the National Society,
except in places where the school hours arc not made to
458 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
correspond with the arrangements of the factory. In a
large school in my own parish we order the business of the
school so as to meet the factory hours, and the majority of
the children come to us for instruction. It does not seem
to me necessary, under existing circumstances, for the
National Society to do more than recommend a similar
arrangement in all manufacturing districts. To the in-
struction we are prepared to give, some parents or guardians
will object ; but they suffer no hardship, because schools
will be always open for their children, which, conducted by
Dissenters, are many of them equal, some of them superior,
to the schools in union with the National Society, with
the single important exception that in them the Church
Catechism is not made the basis of education.
You inform me further that it has been recommended,
in order to remove a difficulty, which does not at present
exist, that ' so far as concerns any child whose parents or
guardians specially request that it should not be taught
the Church Catechism, the managers of schools should not
be required to enforce instruction in that formulary.'
I presume that no circumstances can arise which will
justify the National Society in acting upon this recommen-
dation. If I understand rightly the object of the National
Society, it is not to provide for the general education of
the people, but to provide a particular kind of education.
If the National Society, ambitious to conduct the education
of the people generally, is willing to renounce the peculiar
features of a Church education, and to adopt some unde-
fined principles of religion as the basis of the instruction
to be given in the Society's schools, it seems to me that the
committee of the National Society ought to coalesce with
the committee of the Privy Council ; or if it refuse to do
this, I apprehend that a vast number of the clergy will
prefer to receive their directions from the Privy Council.
The question of inspection is, in the minds of many, one of
very minor importance ; and, indeed, under the proposed
alteration, the inspection of persons appointed by Govern-
ment will be preferable to that of persons appointed by
-1S40 Letter to National Society. 459
the Society, as ccstcris paribus the superintendence of a
committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council is preferable to
that of a voluntary association, which, notwithstanding its
charter, the National Society to a certain extent still is.
But if, on the other hand, the National Society professes
to be a Church Society, and to conduct the education of
the people on the principles of the Church, it is utterly
impossible for it to accede to the measure proposed without
ceasing to be what it professes to be. We might just as
well entertain a proposition for filling our churches by
suspending the use of the forms of morning and evening
prayer, as accede to a proposal that we should abandon
the Catechism when instructing the young. The same
Church which has imposed upon us a formulary for morning
and evening prayer, has appointed a formulary to be used
by us when instructing the youth of our flock ; we are as
much bound by that formulary as we are bound to observe
the Liturgy when conducting the morning sacrifice of prayer
and praise. It ought to be clearly understood that the
Society is recommended to give up a fundamental principle,
for if the use of the Catechism may under any circum-
stances be suspended, we have only to make out a strong
case of expediency, and it may be suspended under all
circumstances. And if the Society thus concedes a principle,
it will not only offend the conscience of many pious Church-
men, but convert into its most decided opponents some
persons who are now its warm supporters.
You observe in conclusion that ' the chief question to
be considered is, whether the Society, by refusing the con-
cession called for, would, as is confidently asserted, forego
the opportunity to give full instruction on Church principles
to many thousand children whose parents and guardians
are willing they should receive it.'
On this passage I remark that it is not to the words
but to the doctrine of the Catechism, that is, to the doctrine
of the Church, as briefly stated in the Catechism, that the
parents and guardians are supposed to be hostile.
If, then, the concession be made, the Society will be
460 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
virtually pledged, and in honour bound to abstain from
giving to the children of such parents or guardians any
instruction in Church principles ; the Society will therefore
be pledged to educate them in the principles of Dissent,
(for you teach error, if you abstain from teaching truth) or
else in principles disconnected with religion of any kind.
And in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where the Dissenters
are very numerous, and where a vast number of professing
Churchmen, who are willing for political purposes to up-
hold an Establishment, are vehemently opposed to the use
of the Catechism, especially to that part of it which asserts
with such peculiar force the doctrine of the Sacraments, I
have no hesitation in giving it as my opinion that more
than three-fourths of the parents and guardians will apply
for the exemption, so that the Society will be doing, in fact,
what in theory it condemns : — it will be giving a non-
religious education.
It is, I am well aware, stated that an attempt is to be
made to compel the masters of factories to provide schools,
as well as to afford time for the education of the children
employed in their factories. Until this be the law of the
land, there can be no reason why the National Society
should legislate on the subject. But even if it were the law
of the land, I would rather propose to the manufacturer
to erect his schoolrooms so as to admit of two departments,
one for the education of Churchmen, in which a master
might be provided by the National Society ; another for
the education of Dissenters, than recommend the Society
to give up one of its fundamental principles.
On these grounds I hope that before you make the
concession, you will very seriously consider the whole
subject. The facts of the case are not precisely as they
have been represented to you. If you give up the im-
portant principle which you are recommended to concede,
you actually gain nothing while you lose much. You may,
it is true, have a greater number of names on the books of
the Society, but you will educate fewer than you now do
on sound religious principles, for many will now send their
--1840 Presbyterian Rights asserted. 461
children to our schools, ijt spite of \k\t obnoxious Catechism,
who (professing Churchmen as well as conscientious Dis-
senters) will reject it if they have the option. And if you
conciliate for a time those political Churchmen who uphold
the Church merely or chiefly because it is Established, and
forms part of the Constitution of the country, but whose
views may change with the changing circumstances of
political warfare, you will at the same time alienate from
the society that large and increasing body of persons who,
caring little or nothing for the political importance or
dignity of the Establishment, belong to the Church of
England because they believe it to be the Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church in this country, and support the
National Society because it is regarded by them as an
institution through the instrumentality of which they can
carry out the principles of the Church in the education of
the people. — I have the honour to be, Reverend Sir,
Your faithful and obedient servant.
In the autumn of this year (1839) he published a
pamphlet entitled ' Presbyterian Rights Asserted.' It
is a vindication of the claims of the second order in
the hierarchy to their due share in the administra-
tion of the Church, against a too prevalent tendency,
as he conceived, to the assumption of arbitrary
power on the part of many of the Bishops. Even
his own diocesan, mild and amiable as he was,
seemed to him occasionally to err in this respect.
The pamphlet was, I believe, the only production
which he ever published anonymously ; the reasons
for withholding his name in such a case being
weighty and obvious. In concentration of evidence,
in force of reasoning, and in touches of humour, it
has been surpassed by few, if any, of his writings.
The subject was one on which he had thought much
462 Life of Walter Fai'qiLhar Hook. 1S38-
and felt deeply, and it is remarkable what a clear
view he had of some points in connexion with it
which are only just beginning to be generally
acknowledged in the Church.
* The present circumstances,' he began, * of the
Church of England, and her future prospects, render
it highly important for the clergy of the second
order in the ministry to understand their real posi-
tion in the Church : their duties and obligations to
the first order on the one hand, and their own rights
and privileges on the other.'
That a very general ignorance prevails on this
subject it is impossible for anyone to doubt. By
the generality of our legislators it is unknown that
we possess any peculiar rights and privileges ; they
regard us as mere servants of the State, and they
look upon the Bishops as magistrates to keep us in
order. This, too, is perhaps the view generally taken
by those of the clergy who are designated Low
Churchmen. . . . Someof those who are styled High
Churchmen are apt to err in the opposite extreme.
Being deeply impressed with the divine right of
Episcopacy, they forget that the right of the Presby-
tery is equally divine, and draw the hasty conclusion
that Episcopacy is a despotism, and that to the
caprice of their diocesan all the clergy of a diocese
are bound without questioning to submit. ... I
believe that, with very few exceptions, there has
never existed a body of men more desirous of doing
their duty than the existing Bishops of the Church
of England. But their notion of Episcopal duty
varies considerably. Some appear among us as
spiritual peers, associating with the other clergy as
Presbyterian RigJits asserted, ' 463
the Lord- Lieutenant of the county with the inferior
magistrates. These are generally the best, though
not apparently the most active, Bishops in the Church.
They never needlessly interfere with the parochial
clergy, but are always willing to assist them ; they
are great patrons of learning and piety. Other pre-
lates seem to regard themselves as schoolmasters ;
indeed, I have heard it said of a high Establishment
prelate that his notion of a Bishop is, that he is an
examining master plus a p7'octor. Others, again,
consider the whole diocese as one parish, and every
parish priest as their curate ; thus reducing the
clergy in point of fact to two orders, bishop and
deacon. These are the most busy prelates ; but
their activity, as we shall see, is not always advanta-
geous to the Church. They seem most of them to
have forgotten the authority, rights, and privileges
of the second order of the ministry, which possesses
authority, rights, and privileges scarcely inferior to
their own. . . .
' Now the present writer was a zealous sup-
porter of Episcopacy at a period when to speak of
the Apostolical succession was looked upon as a
sign of dementation by many who are now the most
able advocates of the doctrine . . . But he did this
not from any exclusive regard to the honours of
Episcopacy. He was influenced only by his love
for the Church of Christ. " Pro ecclesia Dei— pro
ecclesia Dei " was his motto then as it is now — the
motto which he hopes will cling to his parched lips as
he breathes his last breath. The well-being of the
Church requires that due honour should be paid to
the Episcopate ; but the well-being of the Church
464 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
requlres that more honour than is due to it should
not be rendered.*
He then proceeds to show that most evils arose
in the body ecclesiastical as in the body physical, or
in the moral system, from a disproportion between
the parts. Lay influence had undoubtedly of late
been too great in the Church. Laymen had thrust
themselves into the places of the clergy — sent forth
missionaries, done ministerial acts, and in turns were
securing to themselves by means of the five-trustee
churches the powers exercised by the lay Dissenters,
of whose tyranny the most vehement advocates
of schism among Dissenting preachers loudly com-
plained. To counteract this usurpation the clergy
had been zealous in pointing out the rights of Epis-
copacy, until there was a risk of violating proportion
in that direction. It should be remembered that all
members of the Church of Christ, lay as well as
clerical, were consecrated ; the laity at baptism to
preach the Gospel by a holy example. As heads of
families they inherited patriarchal rights ; they were
to instruct their households in the Gospel and minister
at the domestic altar. The Presbyter was ordained
to preside over an assembly of families, the Bishop
over an assembly of parishes, the Metropolitan over
an assembly of dioceses. If the Presbyter unduly
interfered with the family arrangements, confusion
ensued : — a confusion also ensued if the Bishop
unduly interfered with the parochial arrangements.
The Bishop was a 7rarr)p Traripcov, an episcopus
episcoporum (a father of fathers, an overseer of
overseers). These were their titles In the early ages
of the Church : high titles, but titles which recog-
-1840 Presbytei'ian Rights Asserted. 465
nised the authority of the Presbytery. * If the
Bishop be spiritual overseer to us let him not forget
that we are spiritual overseers to the laity : if he be
a spiritual father to us we are spiritual fathers to our
people.' Did the Bishop in the existing- Church
thus respect the authority of presbyters ? The
question was more easily asked than satisfactorily
answered. Straws showed which way the wind
blew. At most visitations the Bishop was to be
seen sitting within the chancel while the presbyters
humbly stood outside. Yet by the fourth council of
Carthage it was decreed that, whenever the Bishop
took his seat, the presbyters should not be allowed
to stand ; and one of their titles in the primitive
Church was * the clergy of the second throne,' be-
cause they were accustomed to sit with the Bishop,
though on less elevated seats, within the rails of the
sanctuar}'-, the deacons standing round.
So again the episcopal charges of the day, though
courteous and kind in style, were rather the addresses
of a magistrate to his subjects than of a supreme
ruler to his ^^-rulers. And he proceeds to prove, by
reference to a great number of authorities, that in the
ancient Church the presbyters were regarded, not as
the servants, but as the councillors and coadjutors, of
the Bishop. 'If we are to do nothing without the
Bishop, the Bishop is to do nothing without us,'
Yet in recent times this principle had been
strangely forgotten alike by Bishops, presbyters,
and laity. Take, for instance, the composition of
the Ecclesiastical Commission appointed under Sir
Robert Peel. How was it constituted .-* The laity
of the Church were represented ; the first order of
VOL. I. H H
466 Life of Waltei' Farqithar Hook. 1838-
the clergy were represented ; but of the second
order not one was called to the council : they were
utterly disregarded. If the laity and the Bishops
agreed, the second order — the presbyters — were to
be compelled to submit.
So again with the Church Discipline Bill. ' Fa-
cilities were introduced for correcting delinquent
clerks of the second order, but not a word is said
of facilitating actions against delinquent clerks of
the first order. Let it not startle the high Church-
man that I thus speak : he is not really a high
Churchman who maintains the divine right of the
Episcopate, and forgets the divine right of the Pres-
byterate. In the primitive ages Bishops were (not
frequently, but as occasion required) deposed.'
So again it was said that the Dean and Chapter
of a diocese formed the ecclesiastical senate which
the Bishop ought to consult.^ Yet ' we never hear
a Bishop stating in his charge that, having consulted
with his Dean and Chapter, he has decided on this
or that line of conduct in the government of his
diocese.' But, granting this to be a point which
might require further consideration, one thing at
least was certain, that if a Bishop ever consulted
his presbyters he was bound to do so when he
entered their parishes for the discharge of Episcopal
offices. Yet there were some prelates who did not
hesitate to head a faction against the incumbent of
the parish. ' Let us suppose a hard-working painful
parish priest to have matured all his plans for the
management of the parish over which the Holy
Ghost has made him overseer ; let us suppose him
* Blackstone, bk. i. c. ii.
-1840 Presbyterian RigJUs Asserted. 467
to have united the Churchmen, always excepting a
factious few ; to have shown from Scripture and the
teaching of the Church the principle upon which he
gives his support to some and withholds it from
other religious societies ; to have been proceeding
cautiously, introducing first one institution then
another — we can easily understand his feelings if
all of a sudden he shall hear that the Dissenters,
having united with the factious few of the Church
who happen to be opposed to him, have determined
to hold a meeting of the Bible Society, or the
Religious Tract Society, or the Lancasterian School
Society, or some similar institution, and that the
Bishop, without deigning to consult him or even to
apprise him of his intentions, will preside at it.
The spiritual peer attends, accompanied perhaps by
one or two temporal peers and other great men
desirous to conciliate the Dissenters before the next
election ; and thus he who ought to be the centre of
unity becomes the rallying point of schism. The
liberal sentiments of the spiritual peer are applauded
the more loudly because they are contrasted with
the exclusive Church principles of the pastor of the
parish ; and, as his lordship passes through the
street, his condescension on the platform to his
reverend brethren of the Baptist, Independent, and
Unitarian "Churches" is compared with the cold
distant bow with which, in the embarrassment
occasioned by some undeveloped consciousness of
having done wrong, he meets the minister of the
Established Church, that is, of the Church which,
in common with his Independent and Unitarian
brethren, he does not regard as tJie Church of the
H H 2
468 Life of Walter Fai'quliar Hook. 1838-
parlsh, but only as that one Church out of many
which happens to be established by law. And so
all parties separate : the Dissenters to laugh at
** the humbug of the Bishop's apron ; " the factious
Churchmen to eulogise the spirituality of the Epis-
copal leader of their schism ; the spiritual peer to
declaim to the temporal peers on the extreme want
of judgment in the incumbent of the parish, who
ought to concede something to the Dissenters, while
his lordship is in turn congratulated on the popu-
larity he is by his liberality securing for " the Esta-
blishment;" the profane to laugh at the flooring of
their pastor ; the worldly-minded to express their
indignation at the idea of an incumbent with only
1 50/. a year thinking that the Church and her prin-
ciples are dearer to him than they are to a Bishop
with 4,000/. a year ; the poor to lament the insult
offered to their best friend ; the presbyter himself
to weep in private and to pray ; and of prayer he
will have ample need lest he should be disgusted
into inactivity. The true Churchmen also will
grieve in private and ask what ought to be done ?
.... Now, it is one of the objects of this pam-
phlet to let people see what ought to be done.
They ought to remonstrate. The presbyter should
protest against the invasion of his rights. He may
even appeal to the Metropolitan. I contend that he
may do, that he ought to do, this on high Church
principles. ... It becomes us to assert the principle
that the Bishop has no right to enter into our parish,
or to hold a meeting there, without having first con-
sulted the incumbent and the other clergy of the
parish. If he do so he commits an act of schism.
-1840 Presbyterian Rights Asserted. 469
Let no fear of being deemed unfilial deter us. If
the Bishop be our father the Church is our mother ;
and if our father injure our mother we must protect
her even against him. I once heard of a man of
rank who was about to strike his wife. His son
interposed, bound his arms, and carried him out of
the room, and then he immediately loosed him and
let him go. The father instantly raised his hand to
strike his son. The pious son put his hands behind
him and said, " You may strike me if you will, I will
bear it all ; but you shall not strike my mother."
And so we must deal by our Bishop, when he
would damage the Church by violating her prin-
ciples. I do not say that the Bishop may not sup-
port the Bible Society, or any similar institution, if
he will. He may be able to explain away all the
texts which command us to keep the unity of the
body — that is, the visible Church — as well as of the
spirit. . . . All I contend for is that in the principles
shown to be those of the Church in this pamphlet,
he has no right to enter a parish to support the
Society where the presbyters are opposed to it.*
Having illustrated a similar contempt for the
rights of presbyters by a reference to the Church
Building Acts, armed with which a faction opposed
to an incumbent frequently planted a church in his
parish without his consent and to his great annoy-
ance, the Bishop abetting them in his ignorance of
the locality and the circumstances, he concludes the
pamphlet by affirming that in all which he had said
he had not the least intention or desire to depress
the Episcopate. He would ever value a Bishop's
blessing, ever maintain the honour of the order ; but
470 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
when Bishops were tempted to assume authority
which did not pertain to them, and to apply to Par-
liament for the power of the sword, he would not
hesitate to apply to them the words of St. Jerome,
' Contenti sint honore suo ; patres se sciant esse, non
dominos, amari debent, non timeri.'
In November of this year (1839) he attended
a great meeting at Manchester on behalf of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, The local
papers state that such a large gathering for a re-
ligious purpose had seldom if ever been witnessed
in Manchester. The principal speakers were the
Rev. Richard Durnford, now Bishop of Chichester,
the Rev. Hugh Stowell, and the Vicar of Leeds.
The Vicar's speech occupied more than an hour,
and the glowing eulogies upon it with which the
newspapers abounded for more than a week after-
wards seem to prove that it was regarded as the
speech of the evening. The most powerful and
telling part of the speech was that in which he
justified the Society's principle of attending first to
the colonies and dependencies of the English Empire.
* The Crown of England,' he said, ' has seventy-five
millions of heathen and Mohammedan subjects :
until we have converted them we have certainly
enough to do. If our objectors will enable us to
convert the seventy-five millions of our heathen and
Mohammedan fellow- subjects, we shall be happy to
go elsewhere. The colonies indeed have a very
solemn claim upon us. We have heard allusion
made to the condition of the pious colonist who goes
out, we will suppose, to the backwoods of America,
and sometimes an appeal is made to our feelings, and
-1840 speech at Manchester. 471
we are told to think what his feelings must be as the
Lord's day dawns upon him, when he hears no chime
of the village church bell calling him to the sanc-
tuary of the Lord. This is indeed a subject which
may move our hearts, but we are to remember that,
of those who go out of our country, the majority, I
greatly fear — No ! I dare not judge, for our Lord says
"Judge not" — have very little regard for religion.
They go to a place where there is no pastor to
remind them of their duty, to attend them in ad-
versity and sickness, to preach to them the doctrines
of repentance, and to lay before them the glories
of redemption. Their little stock of religion soon
diminishes, their children are unbaptized, they never
hear their Saviour's name, unless perhaps it lingers
in some traditionary curse. And so England —
Christian England — is engaged in establishing the
empire of Infidelity. We have heard allusions
made to Australia : let us come to a few facts. To
Australia we have transported one hundred thousand
of our fellow-subjects for the selfish purpose of pro-
tecting our property and our lives. We have made
no provision of any kind, till very lately, for preaching
to them the doctrine of repentance and of the cross.
There were 900 persons last year transported from
London, and between 2,000 and 3,000 from England
and Wales, and you may judge of the condition of
that colony when I tell you that in Sydney with a
population of 16,300 there are 219 beershops. The
police magistrate could not reckon the number of
spirit shops, but he knew that the average consump-
tion of spirits was four gallons per man per annum,
and that every kind of vice was there prevalent.
472 Life of Walter Farquhar Hook. 1838-
' However, I will pass from the colonies, because
it is in India that we already begin to see how the
application of our principle works. We find that
ever since the Church has presented in India an im-
posing front, ever since we have had Bishops there,
and a regularly organised clergy, the natives are
beginning to think that the English are a people
who have some religion. They know that we are
a wise and understanding people, and they are
beginning to enquire what is the religion that we
profess. What more do we want ? We know that
we have God's truth, and we know that if the spirit
of enquiry be excited, God's truth will ultimately
prevail.'
He then glanced at some of the most cruel and
revolting superstitions of India as constituting an
appeal to common humanity, and ended with an
appeal to the feelings of those who knew and valued
the blessings of Christian faith. * In His name,
whose you are and whom you are bound to serve ;
in His name who has bought you with a price, even
the price of His own most precious blood, that He
might make you a peculiar people, zealous of this very
thing, zealous of good works; in His name whom,
if you really believe in Him, you must love and
adore ; in His name for whom, if you really believe in
Him, you must be prepared to spend and be spent,
to labour, to suffer and to die ; in His name, His
sacred name (in humble reverence I pronounce it),
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon
men to listen to that voice which sounds from the
East and from the West, saying, " Come over and
help us ! " * This conclusion of the speech was greeted
-1840 speech at Leeds. 473
with a loud burst of cheering which lasted for
several minutes.
The propagation of Christianity in India, boldly
and honestly, was a duty on which he most earnestly
insisted, maintaining also that the matter was one
in which duty and interest coincided : for he had
the sagacity to foresee that the false and timid
policy adopted by the Indian Government, of en-
deavouring to conciliate the goodwill of the people
by patronising their heathenism, and dissembling if
not repudiating our own Christianity, was fraught with
peril to the stability of our tenure; a presentiment
which was indeed fearfully verified by the outbreak
of the Indian mutiny. He spoke with eloquent
indignation on the subject at a meeting for the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge held in
Leeds in the spring of 1840. 'Till very lately,' he
said, ' no native convert could be employed by the
British Government, though the native idolater
could. Is this the way to support religion ? Look
to the island of Ceylon. When the Dutch were in
possession they built churches and schools ; but
when England came into possession we thought that
bad policy. The churches were neglected, the
schools were suffered to decline, the former system
of idolatry was re-established, and its priests had
increased salaries awarded. Those who would con-
demn a religious establishment in England, who
would diminish the income of the Christian clergy,
were found to advocate an idolatrous establishment
in Ceylon. And this was considered good policy.
It is well indeed that we no longer profit by the
pilgrim tax, but we still pay 6,000/. a year to support
474 -^C/^ ^f W'alter Fa7'qukar Hook. 1838-40
the old idol of Juggernaut. Look at what was
done last year. Nineteen of our soldiers refused to
take part in some Hindoo idolatrous ceremony : of
these nineteen one was a Mohammedan, the rest
were Christians. They were all put under arrest.
The Mohammedan pleaded conscience, and he was
suffered to go free. The Englishmen pleaded con-
science, too, but they were put in prison : that is to
say, those who were in authority feared the Moham-
medan population, but they did not fear the Christians'
God, who though unseen will surely punish. And
His punishment seems even now impending. Al-
ready our enemies are intriguing, and the Burmese
are in a state of insubordination. Let the Church in
England implore a merciful God to avert the im-
pending calamity. Let us bestir ourselves to make
the Church in India more efficient, so that, if our
nation shall be cast out, the Church of Christ may
still exist there — I trust under native bishops.'
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
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