AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 ROBERT GREGORY
 
 ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 1819-1911 
 
 BEING THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF ROBERT GREGORY, D.D. 
 
 DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S 
 
 PREPARED FOR THE PRESS, WITH NOTES, BY 
 
 W. H. HUTTON, B.D. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF NORTHAMPTON, CANON OF PETERBOROUGH 
 AND FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 
 
 1912 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 IT was my privilege to read, with great zest, the 
 autobiography of Dr. Gregory while he was still 
 alive ; and he had often talked with me about 
 many of the incidents in it. In preparing it for 
 the press, I have been guided at every point and 
 instructed in every difficulty by his daughters 
 who were with him to the end of his life. The 
 book is not only his but theirs : it is in no way 
 mine, but that I have had the happiness of helping 
 to give notes and illustrative matter that seemed 
 necessary, and to collect into a final chapter some 
 memories of the Dean by his friends. To every 
 one whose name is associated in it with reminis- 
 cence I owe the most grateful thanks : the reader 
 will know them to be due, page by page. I should 
 like also especially to thank the Right Hon. Sir 
 William R. Anson, Bart., M.P., for advice on a 
 particular point, the Rev. R. S. Gregory for several 
 notes, and the Very Rev. the Dean of Chichester 
 for permission to quote freely from his paper on 
 
 his uncle. 
 
 W. H. H. 
 
 Ascension Day 1912.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD, 1819-1843 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN, 1843-1873 . . 32 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES, 1867-1900 86 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ST. PAUL'S, 1868-1912 155 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ROBERT GREGORY IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS . 226 
 
 APPENDIX 
 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BY DR. GREGORY .... 270 
 
 INDEX 271 
 
 vii
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PORTRAIT AS CANON OF ST. PAUL'S . . Frontispiece 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL IN 1840 . . To face page 155 
 
 From an old Print. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL AT THE PRESENT TIME 225 
 
 From a Photograph. 
 
 PORTRAIT ON HIS NINETIETH BIRTHDAY . 266 
 
 From a Photograph by Barratt, Salisbury Court, London, E. C.
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 SOMETIME DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD, 1819-1843 
 
 AT the request of friends, I am about to note down 
 a few particulars of my life. Probably no one will 
 think it worth while to publish them, and with 
 that opinion I should perfectly agree, as I do not 
 feel that I have taken that leading part or occupied 
 such a prominent position as to so place my name 
 before the world ; nor do I expect that more than 
 a few friends will miss me when my Heavenly 
 Father calls me hence. But I have had a long 
 life, and been conversant with some matters 
 that have affected the life and well-being of the 
 Church, and been mixed up with some events of 
 importance, of which some few persons who have 
 known me may like to be reminded. 
 
 Robert Gregory, Dean of St. Paul's, was born at 
 Nottingham, on February 9, 1819. His father,
 
 2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 also Robert, was born at Nottingham, November 
 27, 1793, and died before he had completed his 
 thirty-first year. His mother, Anne Sophia 
 Oldknow, also of Nottingham birth, was born on 
 March 16, 1789, and died a few months before her 
 husband. Her father was twice Mayor of the city, 
 and her brother filled the same office just before 
 her death. A memoir of both of them was written 
 by Dr. Hannah, a Wesleyan minister, whose son 
 married the elder Robert Gregory's daughter. 
 The family was one of active successful traders, 
 with a strong sense of duty. 
 
 The strength of character, which seems to have 
 been a family inheritance, is illustrated by the 
 story which the Rev. R. S. Gregory remembers 
 from the lips of his father. The Dean's grand- 
 father, " who commenced the fortunes of the 
 family, invented the application of bones, when 
 ground in some particular way, as a manure : he 
 was too poor to afford to pay for a seat in the 
 coach, so he walked all the way from Nottingham 
 to London, to see the Home Secretary and get a 
 patent. The reason for doing this was because all 
 his letters to the Patent Office had been ignored : 
 so he went to London, to see the Home Secretary, 
 and knocked, and asked to see him. The footman 
 said ' Not at home,' but he pushed his way in, and 
 said he was not going to leave until he had seen 
 him : ultimately he did see him, got the promise of 
 a favourable reception for his patent, and then 
 walked back 124 miles." With the money he got 
 he bought some vacant land, and on that land 
 were afterwards built some model cottages, of
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 3 
 
 which the Dean writes later. I may add another 
 note, from the Dean of Chichester's paper on 
 " The lighter side of a great Churchman's charac- 
 ter," before I resume Dr. Gregory's own record : 
 " His infancy and boyhood were spent at Not- 
 tingham, where he lost both his parents at a very 
 early age. Considering he himself survived till his 
 ninety-third year, it is interesting to recall the fact 
 that his father died before he was thirty-one, and 
 his mother at about the same age, so that he was 
 actually in unbroken possession of what landed 
 property he had for a period only a decade short of 
 a century. On the occasion of the death of his 
 grandfather, which occurred just before that of his 
 father, he was a little chap of two or three years 
 old. According to the custom of those days, he 
 was invested for the occasion in an ungainly cloak 
 provided by the undertaker. With this he was 
 vastly pleased, and went dancing about, shouting, 
 'I'm to be a mourner, I'm to be a mourner,' 
 when some one amongst his elders, judging such 
 conduct to be unseemly, caught him a sound box 
 on the ear, which he has often told me * made him 
 a mourner indeed.' 
 
 My father and mother died in 1825 when I was 
 five years old. I and my three sisters were left 
 under the charge of an unmarried sister of my 
 mother, who was one of the most excellent of 
 women, but had not the slightest idea of how to 
 educate a boy. Afraid of the evil influences of
 
 4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 public schools, of which she had heard some ex- 
 aggerated accounts, she sent me to second-rate 
 private schools, where I learned but little. When 
 I was sixteen, in 1836, I was apprenticed for five 
 years to Messrs. Sands, Turner & Co., American 
 merchants at Liverpool. With my work there I 
 was greatly interested, and before the completion 
 of the term for which I was indentured, I had 
 risen to a principal place in the office. My father 
 had been a leading member of the Wesleyan 
 Methodists at Nottingham, and until I went to 
 Liverpool and for the portion of the time when I 
 was there I attended the Methodist Chapel. But 
 I never could accept what seemed to me the 
 prominent doctrine of their teaching. That it 
 should suffice to change one's position in God's 
 sight, to believe that Jesus Christ had died for me, 
 and that, upon the hearty acceptance of that belief, 
 I should no longer be a child of wrath, but have 
 become an accepted child of God, seemed altogether 
 inconsistent with what Christ had wrought for the 
 salvation of mankind. If a change of mind was 
 all that was needed to make me a partaker of the 
 salvation Christ had purchased for mankind, why 
 should not a change of mind on God's part have 
 sufficed to secure what was needed by man ? 
 Analogy seemed to me to contradict what was
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 5 
 
 taught, and though I made efforts to become 
 religious on the basis which was set before me, 
 reason and conscience rejected it ; I felt there was 
 no foundation on which to build. 
 
 Happily for me the Oxford Tracts were then 
 in course of being published, 1 and were arousing 
 much public attention. In them I found what I 
 wanted. From them I learned what the Son of 
 God had done for man ; and how man was to be 
 made partaker of the blessings He had purchased 
 for him, and how man was to be enabled to die 
 unto sin and to live unto God. With little or no 
 external teaching but what was derived from the 
 Oxford Tracts, I became a Churchman. I had 
 been baptized at St. Mary's Church, Nottingham, 
 when I was a few days old, and I now learned 
 from the Oxford Tracts for the first time what my 
 baptism was to me and what it had done for me. 
 
 Before leaving this part of my life, there are two 
 events which I should mention. When I was 
 about nine or ten years old I fished frequently 
 in the canal, in a boat belonging to my uncle. 
 One day I fell overboard and was pulled out 
 insensible, having passed through a stage when I 
 felt as if I were going to sleep on the softest bed 
 of down. The other event was when I was a little 
 
 ; 1833-1841.
 
 6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 more than sixteen. Returning from Liverpool 
 for a short holiday, I made arrangements with two 
 friends to accompany them to Heage, in Derby- 
 shire, for a day's shooting. On the night before 
 the expedition I dreamt that as I was walking 
 to my friend's house, from whence we were to 
 start, I saw some boys playing with a ball ; the 
 ball struck me, and I remonstrated with them on 
 their rudeness. The scene then changed, and I 
 found myself in a field where one of our party was 
 lying on his back dying, with a pocket handker- 
 chief over his face so that I could not distinguish 
 who it was. Next morning all happened as I had 
 dreamed. The boys were playing at ball, the ball 
 struck me : I remonstrated, and they gave me the 
 same answer as in my dream ; so that during the 
 morning, as we were driving to Heage, I was 
 oppressed with the thought of my dream, but 
 it seemed too cowardly to turn back for what was 
 only a dream. At breakfast our host cautioned 
 us that we should find the birds very wild, as they 
 had been cub-hunting over the land the day be- 
 fore. We had not proceeded far when some birds 
 got up ; one of my friends cocked his gun, but 
 found the birds too far off for him to fire. He 
 saw them light in the next field, ran up a bank 
 with a hedge at the top to see where they would
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 7 
 
 settle, got his gun entangled in the hedge, a twig 
 pulled the trigger as he turned round to return, 
 and the whole discharge went through his body, 
 and would have gone through my head if it had 
 missed him. I came at once to his side, bound up 
 the wound as well as I could, and then, leaving 
 him in the care of his brother, I rode off to fetch 
 a doctor and to tell his mother. Where he fell he 
 died about three or four hours after. 
 
 Times have so much changed that it may be 
 worth while to record that in my boyhood I saw 
 two sights which have happily long since not been 
 seen in England, and which we are apt to imagine 
 have been unknown here for a much longer time. 
 The first was the body of a murderer hanging in 
 chains on the spot where he had been executed. 
 It was in Sherwood Forest, between Nottingham 
 and Mansfield, where his crime had been com- 
 mitted and the penalty exacted. The other was the 
 public flogging of a man in Nottingham market- 
 place on market day. He was tied in a cart, and 
 a man with a cat-o'-nine-tails laid on heavily upon 
 his back as the cart was being driven slowly along. 
 I happened by chance to see these ; so far as I can 
 remember, they excited no special interest ; people 
 gave a stare as they passed, and then went about 
 their business.
 
 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 It may be worth mentioning that during the 
 whole time I was at Liverpool (1835-39), I had to 
 travel from Nottingham to Manchester by coach, 
 and then there was the railway to take me to 
 Liverpool. The only accident on a railway which 
 1 have witnessed was on one of these journeys. 
 Crossing Chat Moss, the lynch-pin was said to 
 have come out of one of the wheels of the engine, 
 and we stopped to repair damages. There was a 
 pilot engine some distance behind us, and it ran 
 into our train and smashed the last carriage. There 
 was one gentleman in it ; he providentially looked 
 out of the window, saw the danger, and got on to 
 the steps before the collision took place. He was 
 thrown across the other line, but he rapidly jumped 
 up, and as lie put his foot on the step of the 
 carriage in which I was, a train swept by that 
 would have killed him. 
 
 In 1840 the time arrived for me to make 
 new arrangements, and I was invited by Messrs. 
 Sands & Co. to go to New York with the pos- 
 sibility of joining their house there at some 
 future time, but my two remaining sisters (for 
 one had died) naturally looked to me to provide 
 a home where we could live together. With 
 this intention I took a house at Liverpool, and 
 went to Nottingham for a few weeks to make
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 9 
 
 arrangements for changing the residence of the 
 family. 
 
 Before I left Liverpool, the first attempt to cross 
 the Atlantic in a steamship was made. The Bristol 
 merchants were the first to think of making the 
 venture. They began to construct a larger steamer 
 (the Great Western) than had as yet been built. 
 When it was approaching completion, the Liver- 
 pool merchants awoke to the thought that it 
 would be a scandal for them to be beaten by the 
 Bristol people ; and they arranged with the City 
 of Dublin Steam Packet Company to send their 
 best steamer (the Royal William, a paddle-wheel 
 steamer) to New York. The experiment was 
 considered very risky, as it was thought that no 
 steamer could carry all the fuel that would be 
 required for the voyage, and even bets were made 
 that the steamer would never reach the other side 
 of the Atlantic. This she happily did, but after a 
 much longer passage than is now common. I saw 
 her start. 
 
 Robert Gregory's life at Liverpool was not an 
 easy one. His son says : " He went at sixteen and 
 stayed till twenty-one ; and at eighteen he had to 
 do the work of the head clerk, who had died, and had 
 received a salary of 800. They gave my father 
 nothing. He has often told me that when the
 
 10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 other clerks put on their hats and left (I suppose 
 about 10 P.M.), he would stop on all through the 
 night alone and get the bills of lading ready for 
 the ships ; then at twenty-one he was called in by 
 the partners and offered a joint-partnership, worth, 
 as he used to say, about 4000 a year. But 
 he refused and said : * I am going to be a clergy- 
 man,' and the partners' reply was, * Well, you are 
 a fool.' ' Where the autobiography is resumed, 
 we are told how this determination came about. 
 
 At that time John Hannah, 1 who was then a 
 scholar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was on 
 a visit to us. He was engaged to my eldest sister, 
 whom he afterwards married. One evening, after 
 my sisters had left us for the night, he began 
 seriously to talk to me about the future. Was it 
 not a waste of life for me simply to spend it in 
 amassing a fortune ; would it not be much better 
 to give more serious effect to the newly awakened 
 religious convictions that were working in me, to 
 abandon all secular business and become a clergy- 
 man ? I had visions of toiling for a time as a 
 merchant, and then, if fortune favoured me, seek- 
 ing to enter Parliament and push my way to the 
 front. Of course, if I should resolve to be ordained, 
 all this must be abandoned, and I must make up 
 
 1 See John Hannah : A Clerical Study, by J. H. Overtoil, 1890.
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 11 
 
 my mind to some humbler sphere of work. The 
 decision was practically in my own hands. I was 
 just of age ; my father had left me a modest 
 competency. I had only to resolve to give up all 
 that I was looking forward to at Liverpool ; my 
 way could be made clear at Oxford, for I could 
 go there as a gentleman commoner, and so be 
 admitted without examination. Happily I was 
 enabled to make the right choice, and within 
 three days of ever thinking of graduating at 
 Oxford or being ordained, I was matriculated, on 
 April 2, 1840. It is needless to say that this 
 was the turning-point of my life ; upon the 
 decision then made my whole future depended, 
 and I can truly say, though I have had to 
 encounter many trials, I have never once regretted 
 the choice I made. 
 
 When I went to Oxford there was railway 
 communication from Nottingham to London via 
 Rugby, but only a coach to convey passengers 
 from Rugby or Blisworth to Oxford ; whilst 
 the Great Western Railway was only open as far 
 as Maidenhead, but every term there was a further 
 advance in the construction of the Great Western 
 Railway, until it landed us at Steventon, which 
 was for years the nearest station to Oxford. There 
 was no railway to Oxford, because the college
 
 12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 authorities greatly feared the effects that a railway 
 through Oxford might have upon the discipline of 
 the university. 
 
 During my undergraduate days, I had the privi- 
 lege of taking part in my first church work. In 
 the lower part of the town of Nottingham, where 
 I had some property, there was a considerable 
 poor population, for which very scant provision 
 was made by the Church for their spiritual 
 instruction. At the suggestion of the Rev. W. 
 Butler, Head Master of the Grammar School, 
 with whom I was reading during vacation, I 
 became joint-honorary secretary with him to 
 a committee that was formed for building a 
 new church. Its labours were crowned with 
 success, and St. John's, Leen Side, was built, 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Gilbert Scott being our 
 architect. The patronage was placed in the 
 hands of the bishop of the diocese. 
 
 In the month after I matriculated at Oxford 
 there was a bye-election at Nottingham, in which 
 I took great interest. Nottingham being a county 
 as well as a borough, I was qualified as a free- 
 holder, as soon as I was of age and had my name 
 on the register. Political parties at that time were 
 very evenly balanced. Lord John Russell 1 was 
 
 1 It should be Lord Melbourne. Lord John Russell was Colonial 
 
 Secretary in his Ministry.
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 13 
 
 Prime Minister, with a majority of only one in 
 the House of Commons on which he could 
 confidently rely. At that time Sir Ronald 
 Ferguson, 1 one of the members for Nottingham, 
 and a supporter of the Government, died. There 
 was naturally a fierce contest, Mr. Walter of 
 the Times being the Conservative candidate. I 
 volunteered my services to canvass for him in a 
 part of the town where I was well known, having 
 property there. It was a surprise to me to be 
 told in nearly every house where the voters were 
 poor, " I shall vote for him as does best for me," 
 and when I sought to argue the question, the 
 reply invariably was, " Why is it worse for me, a 
 poor man, to take a few pounds for my vote, than 
 for Sir John Hobhouse, the other member for the 
 borough, to gain 5000 a year by being in Parlia- 
 ment?" (He was President of the Board of 
 Control.) The answer was obvious, but it was 
 equally obvious that it would have no effect. On 
 the day of the election, Mr. Walter gained every 
 hour up to 12 o'clock ; in the dinner-hour his 
 opponent reduced his majority. (It was then 
 open voting.) Being in the committee room, a 
 leading supporter of his came up to me and said, 
 
 1 General Sir Ronald Ferguson, colonel of the 79th regiment, and 
 M.P. for Nottingham, died April 10, 1841.
 
 14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 " There are twenty voters at the Flying Horse, 
 who want 400 for their votes ; we must have 
 them ; " and so he went and secured them. Mr. 
 Walter was elected. 1 
 
 The result of the election caused an early dis- 
 solution of Parliament. The borough was then 
 fiercely contested by two candidates on each side ; 
 and once, when I was in a low part of the town, 
 two friends of Mr. Walter came up to me and 
 said, " The mob is trying to murder Mr. Walter a 
 few streets off." We hastened to do what we 
 could to succour him, but fortunately the soldiers 
 arrived a few minutes before us. 
 
 On the nomination day we thought we had a 
 majority of 400 promised votes on which we could 
 confidently reckon. At the Nottingham elections 
 a number of the poorer voters, who would never 
 vote without money, were placed in public-houses 
 on the eve of the polling day under the protection 
 of a force known as the " Nottingham lambs," and 
 were taken out in the early morning to vote. I 
 had assisted in placing a certain number of these 
 men, whose names had been given me at head- 
 
 1 The poll was declared ou April 28: U" alter, 1983 ; Larpent, 1746. 
 'Hie Annual Register says: "This election excited some interest, 
 owing to the tottering state of the Ministry, and the presumed reaction 
 of public opinion generally, and especially upon the operation of the 
 New Poor I*aw."
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 15 
 
 quarters, in a public-house at the usual time. 
 Going early next morning to take them to the 
 poll, I met our two candidates, Mr. Walter and 
 Mr. T. B. Charlton, with Lord Lincoln and 
 several of the chief supporters of the party, near 
 the Central Committee Room, who said : " It is all 
 up with us, the other party have sent their agents 
 secretly, under one disguise or another, to all the 
 public-houses where we have voters bottled, and 
 have given each of these men a pound more than 
 we had promised, so that it is not worth our while 
 to go to the poll; we must rely upon a petition." 
 And this was what was done. I thought it well 
 to recount these political incidents, as I hope that 
 it would be difficult to find similar proceedings at 
 the present day, though possibly it may be that 
 indirect bribery has been substituted for direct ; 
 whilst the greatly increased size of the con- 
 stituencies makes the old method of procedure 
 more difficult, if not impracticable. 
 
 At the General Election in July, Sir D. H. 
 Larpent and Sir J. C. Hobhouse headed the poll, 
 defeating Mr. John Walter and Mr. T. B. 
 Charlton by large majorities. The Earl of Lincoln 
 and Colonel Rolleston were returned for South 
 Nottinghamshire without contest. 
 
 It is curious that the Dean made no reference
 
 16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 to earlier Nottingham experiences. In October 
 1831, when he was twelve years old, after the 
 rejection of the Reform Bill by the House of 
 Lords, the gravest disorder broke out in the 
 city and the neighbourhood. In October the 
 Castle was burnt, Colwick Hall (belonging to 
 Mr. Musters) was sacked, and a factory at Beeston 
 was destroyed. It is rather surprising that the 
 Dean should not have remembered the lurid 
 scenes which left so strong an impression upon 
 those who witnessed them. My mother, who 
 lived at Nuttall Temple, and was born in the 
 same year as the Dean, remembered vividly being 
 aroused in the middle of the night and prepared 
 for flight, but remaining in the house when it was 
 discovered that the rioters did not intend to 
 damage it. She saw from the windows the crowd 
 with torches pass by. I am inclined to think 
 that Robert Gregory cannot have been in Notting- 
 ham at the time. He was probably away at 
 school. 
 
 To Oxford, then, he went in the spring of 1840, 
 and entered the university on April 2. He 
 would tell that at his matriculation, when he had 
 translated the first line of Xenophon's Anabasis, 
 the examiner closed the book and passed him, and 
 then said, " Now, Mr. Gregory, I have only one 
 thing to say to you that I hope you will do just 
 what you like while you are here." " As he was 
 somewhat older than the ordinary undergraduate," 
 says Dean Hannah, " and as means were abundant 
 in those days, he became a gentleman commoner, 
 from which lie used to say he derived no advantage
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 17 
 
 whatever beyond the privilege of paying double 
 fees, and wearing a velvet college cap, which he 
 always did to the end of his days." 
 
 When young Gregory went to Oxford, the 
 Tractarian movement was at its zenith. There 
 were mutterings of coming storm, it is true. Silly 
 young persons and parsons had gone beyond 
 the wisdom of their teachers, and talked nonsense 
 in common rooms and churches. At the end of 
 1839 Mr. Newman had been annoyed by the 
 vagaries of John Morris of Exeter College, who 
 had preached for him at St. Mary's during his 
 short holiday away from Oxford, and in spite of a 
 caution " against extravagance . . . what does he 
 do [says Newman] but preach a sermon not simply 
 on angels, but on his one subject, for which he has 
 a monomania, of fasting ; nay, and say that it was 
 a good tiling, whereas angels feasted on festivals, 
 to make the brute creation fast on fast days." 
 But side by side with the extravagances of foolish 
 people. Newman noticed a real growth of serious- 
 ness in the university. He was cheered by the 
 number of weekly communicants at St. Mary's, 
 " in the dark, even " ; but still he felt desponding, 
 and feared " right principles " were " working up 
 to a collision with Puritanism, which may split 
 the Church." But he was steadily labouring on ; 
 his catechising at Littlemore " a great attraction " 
 in Lent, men walking out from Oxford every 
 Sunday to hear it; planning his MOW/ with three- 
 room cells ; advising many by letter as well as in 
 personal interviews ; known and marked by under- 
 graduates as he remembered Mr. Keble to have 
 
 B
 
 18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 been. Principal Shairp has recorded with unique 
 directness and sympathy the impression that he 
 made, the " mysterious veneration " that he in- 
 spired. So young Gregory must often have seen 
 him, for his college was but just across the street 
 from Oriel. " In Oriel Lane light-hearted under- 
 graduates would drop their voices and whisper, 
 ' There's Newman ! ' when, head thrust forward 
 and gaze fixed as though on some vision seen only 
 by himself, with swift, noiseless step, he glided by 
 awe fell on them for a moment, almost as if it 
 had been some apparition that had passed." 
 
 Such was Newman when Gregory first came to 
 know him, famous, widely influential, confident 
 in his own sincerity of belief in the Church in 
 England, yet beginning to feel some hesitation as 
 to the tendency of his opinions " to create Roman 
 sympathies." And it was in 1840, Dr. Liddon 
 tells us, that the nickname Puseyism first became 
 widely known. The great firm teacher who lived 
 so retired a life in Christ Church, and yet was 
 influencing so many throughout England, had 
 somehow, quite unconsciously, fixed his name as 
 the governing thought of the Oxford movement. 
 Popular intuition, as so often, had hit upon the 
 right person by whom to label the party. Pusey's 
 undeviating adherence to the Church of England, 
 his determination to treat her formularies and her 
 rules honestly, and yet to find them, to force them 
 sometimes to be, agreeable to the Catholic faith of 
 the ancient undivided Church, was a tower of 
 strength to the young men who were reviving the 
 life of the Church.
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 19 
 
 It was into Oxford, when this influence was 
 strong, that Robert Gregory was introduced in 
 1841. It is notable that, when he looked back 
 more than sixty years, with how little excitement 
 he spoke about it, though he said it was an excit- 
 ing time. We have read so much about the 
 Tractarians of recent years, that we fancy every 
 one in the period of their importance talking about 
 them. But this was by no means so, even in 
 Oxford. A former fellow of Magdalen, who was 
 born within a year of Robert Gregory, and was, as 
 a bright, clever Lincolnshire demy from Shrews- 
 bury School, his contemporary at Oxford, used, 
 in his later years, often to say : " I was in Oxford 
 all through those exciting years of which people 
 now talk so much, and when all these great men 
 were to be seen and heard there, but I knew 
 nothing at all about it." And an exact contem- 
 porary of Gregory's, who lived to be head of an 
 Oxford college, and died not long before him, came 
 no more closely into contact with the movement 
 during these years than from constantly attending 
 Mr. Newman's sermons. There is often a great 
 deal of excitement in Oxford, but the number of 
 undergraduates who are excited is very small. 
 We may be sure that, while Gregory was deeply 
 affected, there was no unhealthy excitement about 
 him. All that remains of Robert Gregory's 
 knowledge of Mr. Newman during these under- 
 graduate years, besides a reference later on in the 
 autobiography, is a small three-cornered note in 
 the famous delicate hand, addressed " R. Gregory, 
 Esq., C.C.C.," and in these words : " Dear Sir, I
 
 am much obliged by your note, and shall be glad 
 to see you at St. Mary's this morning. Yours 
 faithfully, John H. Newman. Oriel, Sunday 
 
 morning. 
 
 Though the autobiography says perhaps less 
 about it than we might expect, there can be no 
 doubt that the Tractarian movement, in its sted- 
 fast determination to bring out all that was best 
 in the Church of England and in its perpetual 
 insistence on simple sincerity of life, had a pro- 
 found influence on young Gregory, how profound 
 will be seen later on. But quite as important, 
 no doubt, was the influence of a very dear friend. 
 
 Archdeacon Hannah, the life - long friend of 
 Robert Gregory, was the son of an eminent 
 Wesleyan minister, also named John Hannah, who 
 was born in 1792 and died in 1867. The father 
 acted as delegate to the United States from the 
 Wesleyan Conference in 1824 and 1856, and was 
 President of the Conference in 1842 and 1851. 
 During the last twenty-four years of his life he 
 was tutor of Didsbury. He represented the old 
 orthodox type of dissent he never considered him- 
 self a dissenter and wrote, among other works, a 
 defence of infant baptism. His son John was born 
 on July 16, 1818, and was thus less than a year older 
 than Robert Gregory, whose sister Anne Sophia he 
 married on July 5, 1843. John Hannah the younger 
 was said Dr. Gregory when he preached his 
 funeral sermon " from his earliest years dedicated 
 to the ministry of the Church. I do not think that he 
 ever seriously entertained the thought of any other 
 vocation." He became a scholar of Corpus Christi
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 21 
 
 College, Oxford, in 1837, fellow of Lincoln, 1840, 
 and, after serving the college living of Combe, near 
 Woodstock, was rector of Edinburgh Academy 
 1847-1850, warden of Glenalmond 1854-1870, 
 vicar of Brighton 1870-1887, and archdeacon of 
 Lewes from 1876 to his death in 1888. He was 
 a man of wide reading and deep piety, a charming 
 companion and a true friend. There can be no 
 doubt that he influenced the earlier years of his 
 brother-in-law very deeply. In later life the two 
 men influenced each other, to the great profit of 
 each. In the last visitation address of Arch- 
 deacon Hannah, he quoted some words which may 
 well be inserted here : " Many a man without 
 genius, scholarship, or fancy, has gained by plain 
 honesty, patience, and common sense, a power over 
 the human heart, and a power over his work, which 
 his more accomplished brothers can only admire afar 
 off." And he added words of his own which are 
 equally appropriate in this connection : " It has 
 been prophesied that later ages will probably dwell 
 most, when recounting the virtues of the clergy of 
 our time, on the services which they have rendered 
 in promoting the physical, moral, and spiritual 
 welfare of the poor. These good works will re- 
 main a fragrant memory when the kindly hand of 
 time has drawn a veil over the history of our 
 jarring contentions, and when speculations, which 
 now rank high among the interests of the period, 
 will be altogether superseded and forgotten." No 
 life better illustrates the truth of these words than 
 that of Robert Gregory. 
 
 It is characteristic that the autobiography, the
 
 22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 moment the beginning of the Oxford career is 
 mentioned, goes off to the interests of the outside 
 world religion, human nature, politics which 
 always concerned the writer much more than 
 scholarship, or even spiritual influences, apart from 
 their practical issue in life. 
 
 \Ve return to the manuscript. He now begins 
 to tell about his Oxford life. 
 
 Immediately after the Easter Vacation I com- 
 menced my residence in Oxford, and steadily 
 applied myself to such studies as were required to 
 obtain an ordinary degree, and to read theology. 
 My life there was uneventful. I tried to gain ail 
 that I could from a university life. I spoke 
 several times at the Union, which I have always 
 regarded as a most difficult task. It has fallen to 
 my lot to have a considerable amount of public 
 speaking, and before audiences of various kinds ; 
 but no audience did I dread half so much as that 
 of the Union, none was so free in its criticism, and 
 in its desire to make a speaker look ridiculous. 
 The discipline was good for me, and in after life I 
 have often been thankful that I made the venture 
 at Oxford. 
 
 The narrative may here be interrupted for a 
 moment to record a famous occasion at the Union.
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 23 
 
 On February 10, 1841, Mr. Robert Gregory of 
 C.C.C. spoke against a motion " that the character 
 of John Hampden entitles him to the veneration of 
 his country men, "and moved as an amendment "that 
 John Hampden deserves the execration of every 
 good man, as a man illustrious for his crimes alone." 
 In later years the Dean was much amused at re- 
 ceiving the record of his youthful vehemence. 
 
 It was my privilege to be a frequent attendant 
 at St. Mary's, both at early morning Celebration 
 and at the afternoon service, when Newman 
 preached, as well as at the regular University 
 services, at which the undergraduates were ex- 
 pected to be present. 
 
 In the spring of 1843 I passed my final exami- 
 nation, and graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in the 
 following October. By this means I was enabled 
 to attend the Professors' lectures on Ecclesiastical 
 History and Pastoral Theology, and to prepare for 
 my ordination in the ensuing Advent. 
 
 There happened to be at that time a rumour in 
 the University (which I afterwards found to be 
 untrue) that the heads of houses had resolved to 
 refuse testimonials to candidates for Holy Orders 
 who neglected or refused to attend chapel on the 
 5th of November, when the service of thanks- 
 giving for the arrival of William III., as well as
 
 24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 for deliverance from the Popish plot was read. At 
 that time there was a good deal of discussion about 
 the " Divine Right of Kings," and as a young 
 Tory. I imagined that I had a strong view on that 
 subject. 1 therefore arranged to go down to 
 Bisley for a couple of days at that time, so as to 
 be out of Oxford on the 5th November, having 
 had an invitation to become curate to the Rev. 
 Thomas Keble, the vicar of that parish. This I 
 did, and went over to Gloucester to see the Bishop, 
 Dr. Monk, who accepted me as a candidate for 
 ordination in Advent. I was then ordained 
 Deacon, and in a black gown performed my first 
 ministration in church by reading the Gospel. 
 
 The religious state of Oxford during my under- 
 graduate days was very exciting. In the earlier 
 portion of it, Newman was at the zenith of his 
 influence. Most of the thoughtful and more 
 religious undergraduates were attracted by his 
 teaching, and to a greater or less extent might be 
 numbered amongst his followers. 
 
 I remember a tutor of one of the colleges, 
 who was of the careless school in matters of 
 religion, saying to me on Ash Wednesday : " I 
 wonder how many hundredweights of fish and 
 how little meat has been eaten in Oxford to-day." 
 
 At the same time, the many undergraduates
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 25 
 
 who were under the influence of the teaching of 
 the " Tracts for the Times " were very strict in 
 their attention to religious observances. 
 
 During the whole of my undergraduate days 
 my Sundays were spent as follows (and I have 
 no reason to suppose that what I and some other 
 members of my college did was at all different 
 to what was done in other colleges) : I went to 
 the Celebration at St. Mary's (Newman's Church) 
 at seven o'clock, to College Chapel at eight, to 
 the University service at ten and again at two, to 
 Newman's service at St. Mary's at four, and to 
 College Chapel at seven ; whilst on week-days I 
 generally was present at College Chapel both at 
 Matins and Evensong. 
 
 The heads of houses were aware of the feeling 
 amongst the undergraduates in favour of the 
 Tractarians, and set themselves in different ways 
 to oppose it. The Provost of Oriel questioned 
 candidates for Fellowship, when they called upon 
 him to give in their names, respecting the extent 
 to which they agreed with the teaching of the 
 " Tracts for the Times " ; and it was understood 
 that their answers would seriously influence the 
 Provost's vote at the election. The Warden of 
 Wadham fixed the dinner on Sundays at an hour 
 which would make it impossible for men to hear
 
 26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 the sermon at St. Mary's, and an undergraduate 
 rendered himself liable to rustication if he was 
 absent from the Sunday dinner in hall without 
 leave. But the opinions of the heads of houses 
 carried little weight with undergraduates. They 
 rarely saw them, and as a rule did nothing to 
 attract them to their belief. On the other 
 hand, the more enthusiastic of the young men, 
 influenced by the " Tracts for the Times," actively 
 spread their opinions amongst their brother under- 
 graduates, and some of them regularly attended 
 the weekly tea-parties which Newman had in 
 Oriel ; but this I never did. After the appear- 
 ance of Tract 90 [February 27, 1841], there was 
 a perceptible difference in the aspect of affairs. 
 The protest of the four tutors served as the 
 nucleus of an opposition ; a war of pamphlets 
 succeeded ; Newman preached less regularly at 
 St. Mary's ; there was a feeling of disquietude 
 in the minds of many. Extreme opinions and 
 practices were resorted to by some men who had 
 previously been moderate. They seemed to be 
 drifting, they knew not exactly whither ; but there 
 was with them a Roman bias which foreshadowed 
 what was about to happen. Thus with regard 
 to men in my own college, MacMullen was 
 Dean, and I remember some of us were one
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 27 
 
 day in his rooms, when we began to talk about 
 holy orders, and he insisted that the three 
 orders were Deacons, Priests (some of whom 
 had the power of ordaining, and so were called 
 Bishops), and the Pope. Whilst for practices, 
 I remember one Lent an old scout coming into 
 my rooms with the tears in his eyes, and saying : 
 " Please, sir, Mr. Meyrick " (a senior scholar of 
 the college) " has eaten nothing between Sunday 
 and Sunday but a handful of rice daily, creed in 
 water; last night he never took off his clothes, 
 but lay on his bed with his Bachelor's gown 
 round him." The consequence was that he began 
 to see visions and dream dreams, and then for a 
 time he had to be placed under the care of an 
 experienced keeper. Both these good men turned 
 Roman Catholics, as did Spencer Northcote, a 
 senior scholar, who was afterwards Principal of 
 Oscott. For a time distrust was everywhere. 
 The more thoughtful men were scared, and felt 
 that a catastrophe was at hand. Those amongst 
 us who had no tendency towards Rome clung 
 to Dr. Pusey's teaching, and no more unwise 
 step could have been taken by his opponents 
 than the condemnation of his sermon on the Holy 
 Eucharist by a court of six doctors [June 2, 
 1843], who were apparently conscious that their
 
 28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 action would be condemned by a large portion 
 of the younger members of the University, and 
 who therefore took the foolish step of keeping all 
 their proceedings strictly private, not venturing 
 to state what portions of the sermon they con- 
 demned, or allowing Dr. Pusey to repeat publicly 
 what they had said to him. Nothing was made 
 known but the unjust sentence which they 
 passed, and it can easily be understood how much 
 mischief was done by such proceedings in the 
 then excited state of men's minds, and this in 
 more ways than one. Staying with my brother- 
 in-law at Combe, near Oxford, during the latter 
 part of the long vacation of 1843, I went to 
 Littlemore for their anniversary festival, at which 
 Newman preached his last sermon in the Church 
 of England ** the parting of friends." Until 
 that day I had never realised the full meaning 
 of the words " he lifted up his voice and wept." 
 But then there was not a dry eye in the church 
 excepting those of the preacher : Dr. Pusey, 
 Morris of Exeter (afterwards a pervert to Rome), 
 and some others sobbed aloud, and the sound 
 of their weeping resounded through the church. 
 After the sermon Newman descended from the 
 pulpit, took off his hood, and threw it over the 
 altar rails, and it was felt by those present that
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 29 
 
 this was to mark that he had ceased to be a 
 teacher in the Church of England. 
 
 There are many accounts of the famous scene 
 of September 25, 1843, which Robert Gregory 
 here so briefly and so pointedly describes. I need 
 not quote them, for they are well known. But 
 there is one which I have not often seen referred 
 to, and I may take a few points from it, for they 
 seem especially to supplement what has been said 
 here. 1 Edward Bellasis, a barrister of forty-three, 
 next year to become a serjeant-at-law, was an 
 intimate friend of the Tractarians, and he came 
 down to Oxford on the 23rd of September for 
 the purpose of attending the dedication festival 
 at Littlemore two days later. Writing on the 
 24th to his wife, he said : " Newman, I am told, 
 is very much out of spirits. He gave up his 
 living on Monday last." On the afternoon of 
 that day he had attended " early communion at 
 St. Mary's at seven " and the cathedral at eight- 
 he heard Newman preach a sermon without any 
 allusion to his retirement. Next morning he 
 called for Dr. Pusey at a quarter to ten, and they 
 walked briskly out to Littlemore. " The service 
 was at eleven, and, as usual, the chapel was 
 decorated, with flowers upon the altar, in the 
 
 1 Memorials of Mr. Serjeant Bellasis, 1800-1873, by Edward Bellasis, 
 London, 1895, pp. 61 sqq. In the quotations 1 have ventured to 
 correct the extraordinary punctuation of the printed text. For the 
 knowledge, and the loan, of this book 1 am indebted to the Rev. Canon 
 Ollard, Vice-Principal of S. Edmund Hall, Oxford.
 
 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 windows above, over Mrs. Newman's tomb, and 
 on every seat on both sides of the middle aisle, 
 chiefly dahlias, passion-flowers, and fuchsias, and 
 they were most beautiful as well as elegantly 
 arranged. The service commenced with a pro- 
 cession of the clergy and school-children from the 
 schools to the chapel, chanting a psalm as they 
 walked. The officiating clergy were Newman 
 (for the last time), Pusey, Copeland, and Bowles. 
 There was a communion, and Newman preached 
 his farewell sermon. It is easy enough to tell 
 you these simple facts, but it would be no easy 
 thing to convey to you any adequate impression 
 of the whole scene, the crowd of friends from all 
 parts, the half-mournful greetings, the extreme 
 silence of the chapel, though crowded till chairs 
 were obliged to be set in the churchyard, the 
 children with their new frocks and bonnets 
 (Newman's parting gift). I did not see Newman 
 speak to any one before the service. The offertory 
 was stated to be intended to be applied to com- 
 pleting the reseating of the chapel, and the 
 communicants were 140 in number. But the 
 sermon I can never forget, the faltering voice, 
 the long pauses, the perceptible and hardly 
 successful efforts at restraining himself, together 
 with the deep interest of the subject, were almost 
 overpowering. Newman's voice was low, but 
 distinct and clear, and his subject was a half- veiled 
 complaint and remonstrance at the treatment 
 which drove him away." After a summary of the 
 sermon, Mr. Bellasis added : " Newman received 
 the communion, but took no farther part in
 
 BOYHOOD AND OXFORD 31 
 
 officiating. Dr. Pusey consecrated the elements 
 in tears, and once or twice became entirely over- 
 come and stopped altogether. However, nothing 
 I can say to you can give you the remotest idea 
 of the sorrowfulness or solemnity of the scene."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN, 1843-1873 
 
 THERE were not a few whose allegiance to the 
 Church of England was threatened, even destroyed, 
 by the treatment Pusey had received and by the 
 withdrawal of Newman. But Gregory was not 
 one of these. He was firmly convinced of the 
 truth and Catholicity of the English Church as he 
 understood it. He was, as all through his life, 
 quite unmoved by popular clamour or unjust judg- 
 ment. He quietly prepared for ordination as 
 curate to one of the Tractarians. 
 
 In the spring of 1843 I passed the examination 
 for an ordinary pass degree, the only thing to be 
 noted about which was that I was examined viva 
 voce on the same day with Alexander Forbes, 
 afterwards Bishop of Brechin, his name standing 
 alphabetically first of the ten men so examined 
 that day, and my name the last. On Christmas 
 Eve in the same year I was ordained deacon by 
 the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and after a 
 short holiday I entered upon the duties of the 
 
 curacy at Bisley. In the following year I was 
 
 n
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 33 
 
 ordained priest. All my life through I have felt 
 that it was a great privilege to have been curate to 
 Mr. Keble. 1 He was most kind and thoughtful, 
 and whilst very steadfast to the Church principles 
 he held, he was singularly averse to eccentricities 
 of ritual, or to changes in the service which might 
 offend any of the parishioners. Appointed to the 
 vicarage of ISisley by Lord Eldon, as Chancellor, 
 he had from the first endeavoured to obey the 
 rubrics so far as possible without giving offence. 
 His was the first church in which the practice of 
 regular double daily service was revived ; whilst at 
 the same time he persevered for more than twenty 
 years in the use of a hymn book which he dis- 
 liked, which had been introduced into the church 
 by his predecessor, a very Low Churchman, whose 
 widow and family continued to live in a house ad- 
 joining the churchyard. He had built a chapel of 
 ease at Oakridge, a hamlet of the parish about two 
 miles distant from the mother church, and whilst 
 I was curate a beautiful little church was built at 
 Bussage, another hamlet, at the cost of a number 
 of Oxford undergraduates. My home was to be 
 in a parsonage adjoining the Oakridge chapel, and 
 I was to be responsible for looking after that part 
 
 1 Thomas Keble, younger brother of John. He was born 1793, was 
 fellow of C.C.C. and rector of Bisley from 1827 to his death in 1876. 
 
 C
 
 34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 of the parish. About every matter of difficulty 
 Mr. Keble gave invaluable advice, but he would 
 never allow me to accompany him in a visit to a 
 sick person : he thought it would trench upon the 
 privacy of a sick-room, which he felt ought to be 
 sacred. He had erected and supported schools 
 both at Bisley and Oakridge, and whilst he regularly 
 taught in the former, he expected me with strict 
 regularity to teach in the latter. He held that 
 this was the only way of attaching the children to 
 the Church, and that through the children was the 
 best avenue of successfully reaching the parents. 
 For tins part of the discipline of my first curacy, I 
 have always been most thankful, as I have no doubt 
 that the principle on which he acted is the true 
 one, and that the loss of Church influence is untold, 
 wherever the clergy neglect to take an active part 
 themselves in the education of the younger 
 members of their flock. They have less technical 
 knowledge of the art of teaching than the trained 
 teachers, but their office gives them a power and 
 influence with children in school which is of the 
 greatest value in forming religious impressions in 
 them. The only peculiarity that I can remember 
 in the services at the Parish Church, was that when 
 there was a funeral on a Sunday afternoon, the 
 coffin was brought into the church before the
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 35 
 
 service, and laid on a catafalque in the central 
 aisle, the Psalms in the Office for the Burial of the 
 Dead (both of them if the deceased had been a 
 communicant, one of them if he had not been) and 
 the Lesson from 1st Corinthians being used instead 
 of the Psalms and Second Lesson for the day. It 
 is also worthy of remark that we never had an 
 early Celebration. The only one I ever saw in 
 those days was at St. Mary's Oxford. 
 
 After I was ordained priest, I celebrated 
 standing in front of the altar, because I never 
 could see that the rubric ordered any other position. 
 Mr. Keble assisted me the first time I was 
 celebrant, and he said to me afterwards : " I think 
 you are right in the position you took ; it seems 
 most conformable to the rubric. Some few people 
 took it when I was ordained, but I never have 
 done so ; but take care to let the people see you 
 break the Bread and elevate the Cup : English 
 people dislike the appearance of mystery." 
 
 Parochial work, as it is now happily understood 
 by most clergymen, was then little practised. At 
 Mr. Keble's suggestion I made a complete speculum 
 of the part of the parish committed to my care. I 
 called at every house, and obtained the names of 
 all the families, ascertained whether they were 
 baptized and confirmed ; whether they attended
 
 36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 church or elsewhere. There were about one thou- 
 sand people for whom I was responsible ; this made 
 me known to them as the curate of the parish, and 
 gave me a knowledge of them which was invaluable 
 during the whole time I remained in the parish. 
 Another duty at the suggestion of Mr. Keble I 
 undertook, which was not common in those days. 
 I had an evening class of a few of my younger 
 grown-up parishioners. The number was limited, 
 as in that way it was thought that such a class 
 would be more likely to form the nucleus of a 
 body of workers that might help in the parish, 
 than one could expect from a large number. The 
 class was successful, and though the rule about 
 attendance was very strict any young woman not 
 attending without having given previous notice 
 being liable to dismissal only one had to be sent 
 away during nearly three years that the class was 
 held. There were no pupil teachers, no Govern- 
 ment help towards the support of the schools ; no 
 inspection or trained teachers ; all that was distant 
 by some years. The Sunday Schools were a large 
 and an important part of parish work ; the girls 
 often attending until they were married, and the 
 boys remaining to a much later age than they have 
 done in recent years. At Bisley, Isaac Williams, 
 one of the most prominent writers of the " Tracts
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 37 
 
 for the Times," was curate. He had been Fellow 
 and Tutor of Trinity College Oxford, and was the 
 author of an exposition of the Gospels, and other 
 works in prose and in verse. Mr. Thomas Keble 
 wrote several of the " Tracts for the Times." 
 
 Isaac Williams worked with Newman for some 
 time as his curate at St. Mary's, but he was always 
 very anti-Roman in his principles and sympathies. 
 He said to me one day that in his heart he could 
 not help feeling that Rome was the Scarlet 
 Woman of the Apocalypse ; but he shrank from 
 saying so in any of his books. He was a victim to 
 asthma, which troubled him for many years, and 
 at last compelled him to give up all clerical work. 
 I learned one day, when calling upon Williams, that 
 Newman had seceded to Rome, as he showed me 
 a letter that he had just received from him stating 
 that this had been done. He had two children 
 born to him whilst I was at Bisley, and at his 
 request I immersed them when I baptized them, 
 the water having been warmed. AVe were all a 
 good deal amused at the baptism of his first child. 
 He said he was resolved that his children should 
 none of them have the Jewish names by which he 
 and his brother were called, so he was christened 
 "John Edward," after John Keble and Edward 
 Manning, and the child's initials were J. E. W.
 
 38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 It may be well to show Mr. Keble's feeling with 
 regard to perversions to Rome by what happened 
 on one occasion. I had to go to Oxford, and when 
 there, as I was in Parker's shop, a gentleman came 
 up to shake me heartily by the hand. Not in the 
 least recognising him, I said to him : " You have the 
 advantage of me, might I ask your name?" Upon 
 which he turned away in a huff and said : " Oh, 
 that is it." It was Mr. Estcourt, who had been 
 curate of Cirencester and had turned Roman a 
 week or two before. When I told Mr. Keble, he 
 was much pleased and said : " That is the way you 
 should always treat those fellows." 
 
 The most startling thing that happened during 
 my tenure of the curacy at Bisley occurred a 
 few months after my entering on the duties of 
 that office. The church at Bisley was much 
 disfigured by a number of galleries erected at 
 different periods, several of them having a flight 
 of steps outside the church, with a doorway cut 
 through one of the windows. There were no 
 fewer than thirteen doors to the church. Beside 
 this a large deep gallery, with four square pews, 
 had been erected under the chancel arch, the 
 bottom of it almost touching the head of a tall 
 person entering the chancel, and the erection so 
 completely blocking the voice of the clergyman
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 39 
 
 reading from the altar that the ante-communion 
 service had to be read from the reading-desk. 
 Isaac Williams, my brother curate, being much 
 troubled with asthma, Mr. Keble, having to be 
 away for some days, had requested me to assist 
 Mr. Williams at the ordinary ten o'clock week- 
 day service. After one of these services, coming 
 out of church, Mr. Williams said : " That chancel 
 gallery will drive me out of the parish." To this 
 I said : " Why do you not pull it down ? " " Would 
 you do it ? " he replied. To which I said : " With 
 pleasure." " Well," he answered, " I will pay 
 anything that has to be paid." Upon which, with 
 the help of two carpenters, I set to work, and 
 before night it was down. There was, of course, a 
 considerable disturbance, and the act was a foolish 
 one, but how much obloquy fell upon Mr. Keble I 
 never knew till twenty years after, and then talk- 
 ing matters over with him he told us, for it had 
 so happened that immediately after the downfall 
 of the gallery I was married to Mary Frances, 
 daughter of Mr. William Stewart, Black Rock, 
 near Dublin, and was absent from the parish for 
 some weeks. 
 
 Mr. Gregory's marriage took place on June 5, 
 1844. The children of the marriage were : Emily
 
 40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Mary, who died in 1911 ; Robert Stewart, now 
 rector of Much Hadham, Hertfordshire ; and 
 Francis Ambrose, long a missionary in Mada- 
 gascar, and now (since 1904) Bishop of Mauritius. 
 Mrs. Gregory died on June 21, 1851. 
 
 In 1847 I reluctantly left Bisley, as I found that 
 domestic affairs at Nottingham demanded that I 
 should be for a time within easy reach of that 
 town. It was seven years since I had come of 
 age, and I could obtain no satisfactory settlement 
 of the business arising under my father's will. I 
 therefore took the curacy of Panton and Wragby, 
 in Lincolnshire. On my journey there I stayed a 
 few days at Oxford, during which time the pro- 
 posal to ask Mr. Gladstone to become a candidate 
 for the representation of the University in Parlia- 
 ment was mooted ; and as he was then a Tory and 
 a High Churchman I attended a meeting at the 
 Star Hotel to promote an invitation to him to 
 become a candidate for the University. On the 
 Sunday after my arrival at my new curacy I had 
 to assist Mr. Yard (the rector) at the celebra- 
 tion of Holy Communion. He administered the 
 Bread to two persons, whilst repeating the words 
 only once ; arid upon the altar were two chalices,
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 41 
 
 showing that the assistant was expected to adopt 
 the same plan. I was placed in a difficulty ; the 
 custom of administering to a whole rail full at a 
 time, saying the words only once, was then com- 
 mon, and I had denounced it strongly. I felt that 
 I had the choice between the rector's use and 
 leaving the curacy next day. I chose the latter 
 and used only one chalice, administering to each 
 person separately. But so far from having to 
 leave the next day, the rector never mentioned 
 the difference between us, and never administered 
 to two at a time afterwards. 
 
 As evidence of the frequency of the custom just 
 mentioned, I may state that at the church in 
 Nottingham, at which we regularly attended, this 
 plan of administering to a rail full with one repeti- 
 tion of the words was always done, and it so 
 scandalised a dear, good, old-fashioned gentleman 
 that he invariably waited till the last rail full had 
 been communicated, and then knelt down by him- 
 self, so compelling the clergyman to administer to 
 him individually. 
 
 Panton Hall was then let for a ladies' boarding- 
 school, and for a time I volunteered to give re- 
 ligious instruction to the girls, but I found after 
 some months that I had the credit of being a 
 higher Churchman than suited the popular taste,
 
 V2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 and so at a hint l from the lady at the head of the 
 school my visits were discontinued ; but the whole 
 party were regular attendants at the church. Here 
 we had daily services, and I found that one or two 
 of the family of a farmer, who lived near the church, 
 not infrequently attended ; but I had to open the 
 church and ring the bell as well as read the service, 
 and was often the only person in church. At 
 Wragby there was an excellent school, which was 
 placed under my care, and in which I regularly 
 taught on certain days of the week ; besides which 
 I invited the schoolmaster to come on one or two 
 evenings in the week to learn Latin, which he 
 gladly did for some years. In the leisure of a 
 country curacy I wrote for a Denyer essay prize 
 at Oxford and obtained it, Alexander, afterwards 
 Bishop of Derry and Archbishop of Armagh, ob- 
 taining the other prize. 2 I also wrote a pamphlet 
 a plea for small parishes. In a large proportion 
 of the Lincolnshire parishes a custom had grown 
 up of providing only one service, alternately morn- 
 
 1 This, as a draft letter (May 25, 1848) of his shows, was a proposal 
 that he should teach only once a fortnight instead of once a week. 
 His letter is an illustration of his life-long feeling that religious 
 education, if given at all, must be a reality, not a sham. 
 
 * Mrs. Denyer's theological prizes were awarded in 1850 to William 
 Alexander, New Inn Hall, for an essay on "The Divinity of our 
 Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," and to Robert Gregory, 
 Corpus, for an essay on "True Faith must be accompanied by Good 
 Works."
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 43 
 
 ing and evening, on the Sunday, although the in- 
 cumbent's income in many of the parishes was 
 considerable. In those days of pluralities it fre- 
 quently happened that the resident incumbent of 
 one parish undertook the charge of a neighbouring 
 parish, sometimes as incumbent of both parishes ; 
 of others as incumbent of one parish and curate of 
 the other, each parish having only one weekly 
 service. It need scarcely be added that such a 
 system contributed greatly to the spread of dis- 
 sent. I therefore collected returns from nearly all 
 the parishes in the county of their value, popula- 
 tion, and the number of Sunday services, which I 
 published, accompanied with a plea that when 
 there was a sufficient income for the support of 
 a clergyman the parishioners were entitled to two 
 services. It will give some idea of the level of 
 church opinion at the time to say that when my 
 rector gave a copy of the pamphlet to the Bishop 
 of the Diocese (Dr. Kaye), after reading it, he 
 said : " Tell Mr. Gregory that I think his pamphlet 
 will do good, but he must understand that by 
 writing it he has for ever closed against himself all 
 prospect of promotion in this diocese." 
 
 A Plea in Behalf of Small Parishes, with 
 Particular Reference to the County of Lincoln,
 
 44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 by Robert Gregory, M.A., Curate of Panton, 
 Lincolnshire, was published by Rivingtons in 
 1849. It is an exceedingly interesting and very 
 vigorous pamphlet directed against the joining 
 of parishes and consequent holding of only one 
 service in each on Sunday, against the " boxing 
 up " of pews, and against the inadequate pay- 
 ment which, in some cases, made clergymen 
 pluralists. It has an appendix showing the value 
 of Lincolnshire livings and the number of Sunday 
 services held in the churches. It is dated March 
 20, 184!). The evidence that it afforded of neglect 
 on the part of many parish priests may well account 
 for the feeling expressed by Dr. Kaye. 
 
 A letter from the Bishop to the Vicar of Grimsby 
 is extant, in which he heartily approves of the 
 pamphlet and takes blame to himself for not 
 compelling, as well as urging, the clergy to the 
 performance of their duties. Isaac Williams wrote 
 to the author cordially endorsing his strictures on 
 those ** who receive Church incomes without ful- 
 filling its duties." He added : " I have just been 
 reading a Lincolnshire man's travels in the deserts 
 of Sahara, where he says that the Mahometans, 
 during the journey of the caravans, formally kept 
 their five times of prayer during the day, i.e. every 
 day, so that I don't think any apology is necessary 
 for two services on a Sunday. I suppose practi- 
 cally nothing increases Sunday services more in a 
 neighbourhood than the daily service ; one instance 
 of this latter speaks of itself so strongly as to put 
 that way of going on out of countenance. You 
 speak more gently and patiently of your brother
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 45 
 
 clergy than I could have done the things for 
 which poor people are sent to Botany Bay are 
 trifles compared with this way of going on." 
 
 While he was in Lincolnshire he made friends 
 with many notables of the county, among them 
 Sir Charles Anderson, the lifelong friend of Bishop 
 Wilberforce. Of Sir Charles, whom I w r ell re- 
 member, when I was a boy, as one of our 
 nearest neighbours, and of his other Lincoln- 
 shire friends, the Dean would often talk to me 
 in his old age. Lincolnshire memories were 
 always happy ones for him. 
 
 I may add here something from Dean Hannah's 
 reminiscences, which fitly illustrates the require- 
 ments of a country parson in the middle of the 
 nineteenth century : 
 
 " He was all his life very fond of exercise, but it 
 always took the form of walking. He was an 
 excellent walker, and never tired. Panton, his 
 second curacy, was just ten miles from Lincoln 
 station. He had frequent occasion to go there 
 to catch his trains for Nottingham, and he had 
 a horse in his stable at the time. But he always 
 walked both there and back, and he used to tell 
 me that he easily covered the ten miles within 
 the two hours. Once when he was on a tour 
 with my father in Switzerland, they were walking 
 up a mountain at least he was walking and my 
 father was riding by his side. He was then well 
 on for sixty, and his performance excited the ad- 
 miration of the guide, who remarked to my father : 
 ' He marches well, that Herr, specially for such a 
 fat Herr.' When I was Vicar of Brighton, Dean
 
 46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Goulburn was living in retirement in the town, 
 and we three often used to go out for walks to- 
 gether. The favourite excursion was along the 
 cliff to Newhaven, and back by train. On one 
 occasion my uncle had provided himself with a 
 large and juicy pear, which he destined for his 
 refreshment by the way. This he deposited in 
 the pocket of his long tail-coat. At some point 
 of vantage on the road he threw himself down 
 for a few minutes on a grassy bank, from which 
 he jumped up in a hurry, saying: "I have sat 
 down upon my pear." He produced it out of 
 his pocket somewhat in the form of a Scotch 
 scone, but lie was not to be baulked of his pros- 
 pective refreshment, and promptly consumed it, 
 to the immense amusement of Goulburn, who 
 frequently asked me in after years : * Has Gregory 
 sat down on any more pears ? ' 
 
 Whilst I was curate of Panton and Wragby the 
 Church was much agitated by the question of the 
 clergy preaching in their surplices, a charge of 
 the Bishop of London (Blomfield) having given 
 prominence to the question, and also to the pro- 
 priety of collecting alms in church during the 
 reading of the offertory sentences. The news- 
 papers of London and the country thundered 
 against the clergy who dared to introduce such 
 Popish practices, whilst an ignorant people attached 
 importance to what they wrote. In Lincoln-
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 47 
 
 shire, owing to the absence of vestries in many 
 parishes, the clergy had been accustomed to preach 
 in their surplices, and not in black gowns. A 
 neighbour of mine, anxious to prove his sympathy 
 with the popular opinion, introduced the black 
 gown in preaching, and for doing so was mobbed 
 by his parishioners as a Puseyite. At this time the 
 Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Church Union 
 was started for the purpose of uniting the clergy 
 and laity of the diocese in defence of Church 
 principles, and I was appointed one of its 
 Honorary Secretaries. Its chief action consisted 
 in promoting the election of two members of its 
 own body as proctors to represent the clergy 
 in Convocation, and so helped to further the 
 revival of Convocation, by the voices of its 
 representatives, who contended for such revival. 
 
 In 1851 my wife died and left me three 
 young children ; the rectory house at Panton, 
 in which we lived, had too limited accommoda- 
 tion for us when my sister came to take charge 
 of my house and children, and so I resolved 
 to seek a curacy in London. 
 
 When I was at Panton I was a good deal 
 scandalised with the miserable accommodation 
 provided in the cottages for the labourers. Some 
 of them had only one bedroom, none more than
 
 48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 two. I accordingly wrote to Mr. Turner, who 
 owned the whole of the parish ; in reply he 
 said he was painfully aware of the unsatisfactory 
 state of many of the cottages on his estate, and 
 that he was spending a considerable sum every 
 year in building new ones, but that his estates 
 had come into his possession with such very 
 defective cottages that it would take some years 
 before he could complete what was needed. 
 This stirred up my resolve to do what I could 
 to improve the dwellings for the poor in 
 Nottingham, where I had some property. It 
 so happened that a small field belonging to me 
 had recently been made available for building 
 purposes, together with a good deal of land in 
 the immediate neighbourhood of the town. A 
 philanthropic individual had offered a prize for the 
 best design for workmen's cottages ; this design 
 I adopted, and covered my land with houses of 
 this type. 
 
 To this Mr. R. S. Gregory gives me a note 
 " about the houses my father built in Nottingham. 
 Over sixty years ago the Nottingham Corporation 
 offered a prize for the best plan of a workman's 
 cottage, not to exceed in cost of construction 
 100. My father had had a small piece of vacant 
 land left him by his father, and he took the prize
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 49 
 
 plan and built some cottages on the land, now 
 known as Stewart Place." 
 
 Mr. Gregory was then getting his property into 
 good order again. Dean Hannah says of this 
 period : 
 
 " Owing to the bad management of those to 
 whose hands his father had entrusted it, this pro- 
 perty was in considerable confusion, and a great 
 deal of money had been lost during his long 
 minority. When at last he got the management 
 of his affairs into his own hands, he hardly knew at 
 first how much could be saved out of the wreck. 
 His business talents, however, served him in good 
 stead at this crisis of his life, and he soon had 
 things on a more satisfactory footing. But ere 
 long, trouble of another kind came upon him. 
 After a brief wedded life of only seven years his 
 first wife died while he was at Panton, and he 
 declared that his life was ended and his work was 
 done. But as soon as he had pulled himself to- 
 gether, he determined to give up his country 
 curacy, and to seek for more strenuous labours 
 in some large town. Young, unknown, and 
 friendless, he encountered considerable difficulty 
 in getting what he wanted. After many dis- 
 appointments, he once wrote to my father : ' No 
 one has offered me a curacy, or a bishopric 
 either.' 
 
 " It was somewhat difficult in those far-ofF days 
 for a young and inexperienced clergyman, without 
 any influential friends, to get a start, but after a 
 time he secured a curacy under Mr. Dalton at 
 Lambeth Parish Church, and he moved to London 
 
 D
 
 50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 with his three motherless children, his sister taking 
 charge of the house for him." 
 
 Of his three sisters one had died young ; another 
 was Mrs. Hannah. His unmarried sister Juliana, 
 who came to live with him now, was as hard and 
 devoted a worker as himself. Not only did she 
 now bring up his young children, but she was all 
 her life a friend and servant of the poor. Stories 
 are told of her which illustrate the strength of her 
 character and the vigour of her common sense. 
 Canon Bromfield, still vicar of St. Mary's, Lam- 
 beth, knew her work for thirty -four years, and tells 
 of her wonderful energy and capacity. It was said 
 of her (as of her brother) that she had never tam- 
 pered with her conscience, and so black was always 
 black to her and white white. After her brother 
 left Lambeth she still continued to work there, 
 living in the orphanage which she had started 
 (thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Lyall) for girls 
 to be trained as pupil teachers, most of whom were 
 daughters of clergy, officers, and " upper class " 
 people. Every day they had breakfast at 7, 
 then went to matins at 8, before their day's 
 work. Miss Gregory kept up this rule for herself 
 to an advanced age, and it was only with the 
 greatest difficulty that she was induced, when over 
 eighty, to put off her breakfast till 8-80 "it 
 seemed so self-indulgent." She worked, like her 
 brother, not only in the parish, but for the mission 
 field, with immense energy. She gave away 
 over a quarter of her small income, and was 
 always " doing without " something so as to give 
 away the money. Her niece tells two very
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 51 
 
 characteristic stories of her. She was a personage 
 of highly energetic action, and once when conduct- 
 ing a Mothers' Meeting treat to a friend's house in 
 the country, where it had been stipulated that no 
 babies should be brought, she cast her eye round 
 the railway carriage as the train started : " Mrs. 
 Brown, you've brought your baby ; I told you not 
 to," and sweeping down on it, handed it through the 
 window to the reluctant curate, who had come to 
 the station to round up the party and see them off 
 
 A girl in whom she had been greatly interested 
 attached herself some years later to the Salvation 
 Army. After a while she went out of her mind, 
 and the Salvation Army authorities came to Miss 
 Gregory to ask her to provide for the girl, to 
 which she replied : " No ! you took her away to 
 squall and bawl for you ; and now she's squal- 
 ling and bawling on her own account you can keep 
 her." 
 
 It was indeed an energetic world which Mr. 
 Gregory set moving at Lambeth. Thus the story 
 of the life there is told. 
 
 Answering an advertisement in the Guardian, 
 I had the offer of a curacy at Lambeth at the 
 Parish Church, which I accepted, and on Advent 
 Sunday, 1851, I commenced my duties as curate 
 of Lambeth under the rector, the Reverend C. B. 
 Dalton. 1 The work was necessarily very different 
 
 1 Dr. Hannah, Dean of Chichester, says: " When my uncle first came 
 to London as curate of Lambeth, he lived at 10 Lambeth Terrace, and he
 
 52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 from that which had hitherto fallen to my lot. 
 There were in the parish about 15,000 people, and 
 I had to look after a district containing about a third 
 of that number, in addition to which the amount of 
 surplice duty baptisms, marriages, and funerals 
 was very considerable. I had also charge of a 
 large boys' school, in which 1 regularly gave re- 
 ligious instruction. The problem of dealing with 
 such a number of people was perplexing. To 
 know them personally seemed out of the question. 
 I did what I could. I endeavoured to make a 
 speculum of my people, as I had done in previous 
 curacies, but this was slow work. The routine 
 work of the parish occupied much time ; the sick 
 demanded care and thought ; then it was only one 
 or two members of a family that I found at home ; 
 and, what was most trying of all, the people were 
 incessantly moving, so that before every house 
 i?i a street had been visited, a considerable percen- 
 tage of its inhabitants had changed their abode ; 
 some had gone to other parishes, some into other 
 streets in the parish or neighbourhood. Like all 
 systematic work, it did some little good ; it made 
 the people feel that they were cared for, that the 
 
 continued to reside in that house for some time after he became 
 incumbent of St. Mary's, until the parsonage for that living was 
 built."
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 53 
 
 Church looked after them. It also compelled one 
 to know that the great majority made no profes- 
 sion of religion, and though with very few excep- 
 tions the people welcomed and seemed grateful for 
 the visits of a clergyman, these visits for the most 
 part left no permanent impression. It compelled 
 me to recognise some great defects of administra- 
 tion : amongst them was the considerable percen- 
 tage of unbaptized children. I was anxious to 
 check this by refusing to bury unbaptized children, 
 and in all cases to require proof that a child had 
 been baptized before allowing it to be buried with 
 the rites of the Church. To this my rector ob- 
 jected, and as I felt that this might make it my 
 duty to resign the curacy, I laid the question 
 before two clerical friends, on whose judgment I 
 relied. They both said the responsibility rested 
 with the rector, not with me, and therefore it 
 behoved me to act in the manner he directed, 
 which I did, and remained. 
 
 The rector was in delicate health, so that a 
 large proportion of the preaching fell to the share 
 of the three curates, of whom I was the junior. It 
 may give some idea of the churchmanship of the 
 time to mention an experience I had. Seeking to 
 point out a danger to which I thought the congre- 
 gation was exposed, I spoke strongly about the
 
 54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 evil of mere formal religion, and that God's severest 
 judgment would fall upon those who made a pro- 
 fession of religion whilst their practice did not cor- 
 respond with their profession; an energetic member 
 of the congregation disliked what had been said so 
 much, that he made the church resound with violent 
 kicks against the pew opposite to his own ; and in 
 a few days the churchwardens waited upon me to 
 request that I would apologise and promise not to 
 speak so in the future, or they must lay the matter 
 before the bishop. This I begged them to do, as 
 I certainly could not comply with their request. 
 The bishop did not gratify them by condemning 
 the sermon, but he recommended me to be more 
 cautious in the future. 
 
 For two years I held this curacy. On Advent 
 Sunday, 1853, I entered upon the incumbency of 
 St. Mary the Less, Lambeth, to which the rector 
 of Lambeth had presented me. 1 The parish con- 
 tained about 15,000 people. With a few (possibly 
 half a dozen) exceptions, they belonged to the 
 labouring classes. The church possessed no attrac- 
 tions. It was one of the last built out of a grant 
 from Parliament in the reign of George IV. It 
 
 1 "This was a benefice," Dean Hannah says, " worth considerably 
 less than 1m curacy;" in fact, "till he was appointed canon of St. 
 Paul's, he hardly got bread and butter from the Church."
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 55 
 
 had been allowed to fall into a very undesirable 
 condition ; the walls and roof were dirty ; there 
 was no provision for heating it ; in short, every- 
 thing told of a neglected, poverty-stricken condi- 
 tion. There was no parsonage house. There 
 was an endowment of 400 in the 3 per cent, 
 consols, with a subscription of 60 a year, pro- 
 mised for three years more ; and with fees and 
 pew rents that raised the income to 90 a year. 
 There were two schoolrooms adjoining the church, 
 that were used for Sunday-schools, and one of 
 them was lent to a dame who collected in it a 
 few children on week days, and her income con- 
 sisted of the pence they paid her. It need hardly 
 be said that the attendance at church was very 
 scanty. 
 
 The first duty was obvious. Until the church 
 was made properly usable there was no hope 
 of anything being effected. The good people 
 of the mother parish that I was leaving and 
 other friends kindly enabled me to accomplish 
 this. The next point was to open the schools and 
 make them attractive. This was done after the 
 Christmas holidays. Under the care of a trained 
 master and a trained mistress the two schools 
 were opened, with three boys in one school, and 
 three girls in the other, paying 6d. a week each ;
 
 56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 for as at the time there was neither subscriber nor 
 endowment, it seemed necessary to charge a fee 
 that gave promise of the schools becoming to 
 some extent self-supporting. At the end of the 
 first quarter the numbers in each school had risen 
 to thirteen ; but the schoolmaster was so dis- 
 satisfied that he had not more children under his 
 care that he left. At the suggestion of the 
 Principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea, I took 
 a master who had recently passed the Govern- 
 ment examination in the first division of the first 
 class. Unfortunately he was no disciplinarian, 
 and a few weeks after his taking charge of the 
 school, Her Majesty's inspector, happening to 
 pass the school, and, looking in, found the boys 
 playing at leap-frog, and the master feebly remon- 
 strating with them. There was no help for it, 
 another change had to be made ; and from that 
 time forward the numbers grew, and both schools 
 prospered. 
 
 Very similar success attended my efforts to 
 form an art school in the parish. There were 
 in it, and in the immediate neighbourhood, a 
 considerable number of young mechanics, many 
 of them employed in Maudslays' steam-engine 
 factory, to whom it would prove a great advantage 
 to be able to draw sufficiently to set out their
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 57 
 
 own work. At that time Mr. Cole, 1 as he then 
 was, had commenced operations at the Science 
 and Art Department, and was anxious to obtain 
 a number of schools where drawing might be 
 taught, the Department offering to provide a 
 teacher. I accordingly sought an interview with 
 him and offered to light one of my schoolrooms 
 in any way he wished, provided that he would 
 approve of it for evening classes to be taught 
 drawing. To this he readily consented, and a 
 commencement was made in the late autumn, 
 under the direction of a committee of gentlemen, 
 who had kindly agreed to help and bear their 
 share of the responsibility. The first two masters 
 were only moderately successful ; but after a time 
 Mr. Sparkes was placed in charge of the school, 
 and under him it rapidly grew and flourished, 
 and in the course of years the success of the 
 school raised a new difficulty. The accommoda- 
 tion was insufficient ; and what made the matter 
 still more trying, the master of the day school 
 complained every morning that the evening 
 classes had utterly disarranged his room, whilst 
 in the evening the art schoolmaster made a 
 somewhat similar complaint of what was done 
 
 1 Afterwards Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B. (1808-1882), was, among many 
 other public activities, secretary of the Science and Art Department 
 from 1853 to 1873.
 
 58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 by the elementary schoolmaster. Fortunately, 
 Vauxhall Gardens, which were in my parish, were 
 being sold for building sites, and we were able 
 to purchase what was required for the site of 
 an art school the first in London. Towards 
 the building of this the Art Department made a 
 grant of about the fourth of the sum required ; 
 and we had to agree about the terms of the trust- 
 deed. I insisted that the clergyman of the parish 
 should always be chairman of the Committee of 
 Management. The other members of the com- 
 mittee were quite satisfied that I should be chair- 
 man us long as 1 was vicar, but that on my leaving 
 they should be free to elect whomsoever they chose. 
 To this I would not consent, and so they all 
 resigned. This placed me in a considerable diffi- 
 culty, as the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII.) 
 had kindly promised to lay the first stone before 
 he started for Canada. Under these somewhat 
 untoward circumstances the first stone was laid, 
 and the trust-deed was completed. However, 
 after a short time the difficulty was overcome. 
 My kind friends resumed their offices as members 
 of the committee ; the requisite funds were raised, 
 and the building was completed. In it we had 
 day as well as evening classes, and the history 
 of the school has been most satisfactory ; many
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 59 
 
 of our students gained the gold and silver medals 
 at the Royal Academy ; some of them became 
 very distinguished, Mr. Ouless (one of these) 
 being numbered amongst the most eminent por- 
 trait painters and Royal Academicians ; and Tin- 
 worth (another of them) being well known for 
 his beautiful productions in terra-cotta and other 
 ware. Moreover, Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) 
 Doulton, who was one of the Committee of Man- 
 agers, was persuaded by Mr. Sparkes, the master 
 of the school, to recommence ornamental earthen- 
 ware productions, for which Lambeth had once 
 been famous, in order to find employment for 
 students in the school ; so that the Doulton 
 pottery ware had its origin from the school and 
 its pupils. 
 
 The poverty of the parish was a difficulty that 
 had to be seriously considered. The applications 
 for assistance were numerous, and the amount 
 of apparent destitution was great. With the 
 help of some energetic friends, and especially of 
 Mr. Burnett, whose distillery works and residence 
 were in the parish, we opened a soup kitchen in 
 the winter, and we had a system of furnishing 
 the poor women with one day's work in the 
 week, for which we paid them eighteenpence, and 
 then disposed of the articles they had made, at
 
 60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 little more than the cost price of the material, to 
 the poor people of the parish. The success of this 
 society led us to make application to the Govern- 
 ment Clothing Department for a portion of the 
 contracts they had to give out for clothing for 
 the soldiers. We found that the ordinary con- 
 tractors were miserably under-paying the women 
 who worked for them, and we could without 
 loss pay them double what they were receiving. 
 \Ve accordingly undertook as large a portion of 
 the contracts for shirts and great-coats as the 
 Clothing Department was willing to entrust to 
 us. One year we made 100,000 shirts and 
 several thousand great- coats, and for some years 
 the amount of work of this kind that our poor 
 parishioners performed fell little short of the 
 quantity just named. We were fortunate in 
 having a most able and efficient lady as over- 
 looker, and to her firmness and kindness this most 
 valuable effort for relieving the poverty of the 
 parisli largely owed its success. Unfortunately 
 some other parochial institutions of the kind were 
 not so well managed, and eventually the Govern- 
 ment erected more extensive premises for carrying 
 out the work, and ceased to give out contracts. 
 My parish was one of the last that was deprived 
 of its work, as our admirable overseer was per-
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 61 
 
 suaded to undertake the same office for the 
 Central Government Stores that she had for some 
 years performed for us ; and thus many of the 
 women who had been helped with work from our 
 institution continued to have work provided for 
 them at the Government establishment. 
 
 Another work that occupied my attention soon 
 after my appointment was the erection of a 
 parsonage. 1 There was no house near the church 
 that I could rent in which I could live with my 
 family. We had services twice daily in the 
 church, and it was on every account desirable 
 that the pastor should live amongst the people 
 for whom he had to care. With only one curate 
 to help me, there was more work than could be 
 properly done, so that it was essential that there 
 should be the least possible waste of power and 
 energy. A house standing upon rather more 
 ground than the other cottages in the same street 
 with the church was purchased, pulled down, and 
 a good parsonage built on the site. 
 
 The special difficulty of the parish that was 
 never really overcome during the twenty years 
 that I was incumbent was attracting the people 
 to church. They had lost the habit of attending 
 public worship, and it seemed as though nothing 
 
 1 See above, p. 52, uote.
 
 62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 would enable them to recover it. The influence 
 of the church was felt in a variety of ways 
 through the parish, but it never secured a really 
 good attendance at the services. The church was 
 not well placed ; it was at the corner of the parish, 
 close to Lambeth Walk, a street full of shops of 
 all kinds, in which more business was done on a 
 Sunday morning than at any other time in the 
 week, and yet, though it was so near to the 
 church, was itself not in the parish ; this was a 
 hindrance, whilst the absence of a middle-class 
 population deprived the church of the influence 
 which persons of a somewhat superior position of 
 life do exert over their poorer neighbours. 
 
 It was impossible not to feel that the insufficient 
 income provided for the incumbent of my own 
 parish and for several of those in the rural 
 deanery was a hindrance to the influence of the 
 church. Up to that time the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 mission had very usefully applied such funds as 
 were then at its disposal to laying the foundation 
 of new parishes, by providing an income of 150 
 a year for places where new churches were most 
 wanted, and in encouraging private gifts for the 
 endowment of poor parishes by doubling the sums 
 contributed by benefactors. For the churches in 
 South London it seemed as though nothing would
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 63 
 
 be done, as there were no wealthy residents in 
 the parishes, and no Church authority seemed 
 disposed to take the matter in hand. I there- 
 fore ventured to propose that the clergy of 
 the deanery, then comprising fifty ecclesiastical 
 parishes or more, should take action, and do 
 something to show that they were alive to the 
 needs of the poorer parishes, if they could do 
 nothing more. The plan proposed was warmly 
 taken up, and in every church in the deanery 
 but one, there was to be annually a collection 
 for the fund, which realised a very considerable 
 sum. This was offered to some of the poorest 
 parishes upon the condition that they raised a 
 sum equal to that given out of the general fund, 
 and then the whole amount was offered to the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission and was doubled by 
 them. Several parishes were thus materially 
 helped during the two years that the association 
 was in existence. At that time the archdeacon, 
 supported by the bishop, started an association 
 for raising funds to help to build churches and 
 endow them, and to provide schools. As two 
 associations for a similar purpose in the same 
 diocese would have fatally injured each other, 
 the Ruri-decanal Association ceased to exist. 
 But nothing more was done for the augmenta-
 
 64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 tion of poor benefices ; and after a time the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission endowed several of 
 them without the help of private contributions. 
 The success of our local association had, how- 
 ever, the happy effect of stimulating a few other 
 dioceses to undertake the same work, either at 
 the time or subsequently. 
 
 Shortly after I was inducted incumbent of 
 St. Mary the Less, a decision of the Court of 
 Chancery respecting some local charities placed 
 the district parishes in a much better position 
 than they had previously been. These had 
 hitherto belonged exclusively to the Parish 
 Church ; they were now to be divided with the 
 district parishes. These charities Walcot and 
 Hayles consisted of land that had been given a 
 long time previously for charitable purposes, and 
 upon which houses had been erected. The leases 
 had expired, and the charities, having come 
 into possession of the rack rents of the houses, 
 were very rich ; by a decree of the Court of 
 Chancery, the money was to be employed in 
 accordance with the wills of the testators, 
 partly in supporting schools for the education 
 of the poor, and partly in providing pensions 
 for poor inhabitants of Lambeth. By this decree 
 my parish came into possession of about 100
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 65 
 
 a year for the furtherance of education. With 
 this prospect it was clear that we might 
 venture to increase the number of our schools. 
 Until new premises could be built, we rented 
 a schoolroom attached to a dissenting chapel. 
 Vauxhall Gardens, that were in my Parish, 
 were being sold for building purposes ; I there- 
 fore applied to the owner to sell me land for 
 the site of the new schools. To this he readily 
 assented ; when the transaction was completed, 
 he said that he had always desired to give a 
 site for a church, but it must be on the con- 
 dition that all the seats were free and unappro- 
 priated. With the considerable increase of 
 population that covering the garden with houses 
 was certain to bring, it was obvious that a new 
 church would be needed ; I therefore gladly 
 accepted his offer, and upon the site he gave 
 the church of St. Peter's, Vauxhall, now stands. 
 He further said that I might select any part 
 of the gardens I liked for the site of the 
 church, that the manager's house would be 
 pulled down, so that I might have that corner 
 if I preferred it. I inquired whether he would 
 sell the manager's house, for a parsonage, at a 
 price of the land on which it stood, and the 
 
 value of the building viewed as old material. 
 
 E
 
 66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 To this he cordially assented, so that for 600 
 (which was generously given for the purpose by 
 a liberal Churchman, Mr. R. Foster) an excellent 
 parsonage was secured, and the church was to 
 be placed on the adjoining plot, and the new 
 schools were to stand immediately behind both. 
 
 In a comparatively short time excellent schools 
 for 800 children, with a master's house, were 
 built, and, in close proximity to it, the Art 
 School, which has already been mentioned, was 
 subsequently erected. The foundation of the 
 Art School was laid by the Prince of Wales, 
 before his tour in America, and was the first of 
 the many acts of the kind that were performed 
 by his Royal Highness. On the northern side 
 of the church, the parsonage being on the 
 southern side, an orphanage was erected, a 
 few years later, for the benefit of orphan 
 daughters of professional men, who might wish 
 to be prepared for the office of teachers in 
 elementary schools. The girls were to be 
 apprenticed as pupil teachers, and their salaries 
 for that position were to be applied towards the 
 cost of their maintenance, as the orphanage had 
 no endowment. The cost of the building was 
 generously given by Mrs. Lyall, the widow of 
 a late Dean of Canterbury ; and my unmarried
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 67 
 
 sister undertook the management and provided 
 what funds were needed for its maintenance. 
 
 This provision for the education of the children 
 of the parish did not satisfy me. The population 
 belonged almost exclusively to the hand-labouring 
 classes : but then these classes included men in 
 very different positions ; some were foremen or 
 skilled artisans earning high wages ; others were 
 of the ordinary type of labourers, who had no 
 knowledge of any trade, and whose earnings 
 were on a much more moderate scale ; whilst, 
 again, there were others of the poorest classes, 
 having only irregular employment. It seemed 
 desirable to have schools adapted to all these 
 classes ; in the new schools, built on Vauxhall 
 Gardens, we charged a weekly fee of sixpence ; 
 in the old schools, that were first opened, the 
 charge was threepence ; and in the poorest 
 portion of the parish, called Salamanca, I was 
 anxious to erect a school where the charge 
 should be only a penny a week. This was 
 eventually secured. Tn the higher schools we 
 taught more advanced subjects, and as early as 
 1862 or 1863 the highest class of girls were for 
 a time taught cookery, long before instruction 
 was given in the culinary art in any other school, 
 but the experiment was not successful : the
 
 68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 parents of the children complained that they 
 sent their children to school to learn to read, 
 to write, and to do sums : and if they must be 
 taught cookery they would remove them to 
 other schools ; and so rather than lose the older 
 girls from the school, the experiment was 
 abandoned. 
 
 Adjoining the schools we erected a building, 
 the upper portions of which was devoted to 
 carrying on the Army work, which has been 
 already described, and some parochial institu- 
 tions ; the lower storey was fitted up for the 
 cooking kitchen, in which the lessons just named 
 were given, and in the winter months was used 
 as a soup kitchen. One year there were efforts 
 made in some parts of London to provide very 
 cheap dinners for working people. We deter- 
 mined to make the experiment in the excellent 
 premises we had for the purpose, but this was 
 a failure ; there were no large factories working 
 near us, and consequently no sufficient supply 
 of working people needing the accommodation. 
 
 Another failure we had in the same building. 
 We tried a Working Men's Club for some two or 
 three years. At first it promised to be successful, 
 but the theory then was that to make such clubs 
 successful they must be managed almost exclusively
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 69 
 
 by working men. We tried this principle, and it 
 undoubtedly led to failure. Working men with 
 one or two more educated persons to assist them 
 would probably succeed ; but when left entirely to 
 them, little jealousies arose, disputes sprang up 
 about trifles, the minority who could not get their 
 own way left the club, and so from various causes 
 of the kind, our club did not succeed, and we were 
 compelled to close it. 
 
 Another school had yet to be built. Those we 
 had were well filled, but we had not adequate 
 accommodation for the infants. So before the 
 Education Act of 1870 was passed we built a large 
 boys' schoolroom, to which we removed the boys 
 from the school adjoining the church, and turned 
 their schoolroom into one for infants. We had 
 thus accommodation for about 1800 children, and 
 with the aid of the Government Grants, the en- 
 dowments which have been mentioned, and sub- 
 scriptions, we had no great difficulty in maintaining 
 them and making them thoroughly efficient. 
 
 Some twenty-five years after this last school had 
 been built, and after I had left Lambeth, I was 
 invited by the incumbent of a parish bordering on 
 my old one to speak at a meeting of his parishioners, 
 whom he was calling together to make extensive 
 additions to the school accommodation of his
 
 70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 parish. At this meeting I told of the small 
 beginnings of popular education in my old parish, 
 when two men jumped up and said : *' We were two 
 of the boys that made up the thirteen at the end 
 of the first quarter." They had both risen to 
 positions of some influence, and were prospering in 
 the world, bearing a high character. It has been a 
 source of special satisfaction to me to know how 
 many of the children educated in the schools in 
 which 1 was interested turned out well in after life, 
 and proved by their subsequent conduct that the 
 religious truths planted in their hearts when they 
 were at school had assisted in the formation of a 
 high moral and religious character. It hardly 
 needs to be said that the true test of the excellency 
 of a school is much more accurately measured by 
 the manner in which its pupils fulfil their duties 
 when they have grown to maturity, than by their 
 immediate success in passing standard examinations. 
 There were two other objects in which I also 
 became interested. The one was the improvement 
 of the Lambeth workhouse, which was in my 
 parish, just opposite the church. The Guardians 
 had a profound dislike to external interference and 
 did their best to hinder people from the outside 
 knowing what was being done. Miss Louisa 
 Twining was at the time labouring to induce
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 71 
 
 ladies to take an interest in the inmates of such 
 institutions by reading to the sick, and showing 
 sympathy in various ways to those who had no 
 friends of their own. I remember attending a 
 meeting of the Guardians, many of whom I knew, 
 to urge her request to be allowed to send visitors 
 for these good purposes. After I had withdrawn 
 the Guardians talked the matter over, and I was 
 then told that they had unanimously agreed to 
 reject her request, because when she was allowed 
 to go over the workhouse some time before, she 
 had called the attention of some of the friends 
 who were with her to obvious defects in the 
 management. 
 
 The other object was the rescue of fallen women. 
 A dear good friend of mine had undertaken the 
 charge of a penitentiary, and it had been publicly 
 asserted that numbers of the unhappy women 
 would gladly leave their miserable life, if it could 
 be shown to them that they would be cared for and 
 helped. In consequence my friend and I for many 
 nights walked about Regent Street and the Hay- 
 market from 9 o'clock at night till 2 o'clock in 
 the morning trying to persuade the fallen women 
 who were plying their infamous vocation or rather 
 seeking for opportunities to do so, to enter into a 
 penitentiary. Some of them stayed for a time
 
 72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 and listened to what we had to say ; but the 
 results were most unsatisfactory. One or two 
 were persuaded to go into refuges ; but so far as I 
 recollect, they grew tired of the restraint in a day 
 or two and left to resume their old course of life. 
 What I saw convinced me that such personal 
 appeals as we endeavoured to make to them were 
 useless. There must be first a movement of their 
 own will to desire to leave off their evil life, before 
 there can be ground for hope that they will make 
 a real effort to amend their ways. 
 
 I am not aware that there was anything excep- 
 tional in the manner in which the parish was 
 administered I was blessed with exceptionally 
 good curates, one and all of whom did their work 
 in an exemplary way. At first there was only one 
 to assist me, but after St. Peter's Church had been 
 built, and made the centre of a legally constituted 
 district parish, there were eight clergymen work- 
 ing in what had formed my parish when I was 
 appointed. And ten years after I came into the 
 parish the Ecclesiastical Commissioners raised the 
 income of the incumbent to 300 a year. Of 
 course there were Bible classes, gatherings of old 
 boys, communicant and pupil teachers' classes, 
 clothing clubs, a penny bank, a small band of 
 district visitors, an insufficient number of Sunday
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 73 
 
 school teachers, and incessant efforts to make 
 these various organisations more efficient ; but in 
 spite of all that was done, the attendance of the 
 people at church was never satisfactory. 
 
 He was indeed a devoted parish priest. Truly 
 says his nephew, " his whole interest in life was 
 absorbed in his work of various kinds, and he had 
 absolutely no idea of pleasure or amusement in 
 anything outside their scope. Even when he 
 took his annual holiday, he got it by taking duty 
 in some country parish, and getting the use of the 
 vicarage in exchange. But he did this more for 
 the sake of his family than himself, and was always 
 only too ready to return to the slums of Lambeth, 
 or the intricate lanes of the City, as the case might 
 be." The church which he found was built in 
 1828, and in the curious taste of that period. He 
 transformed it. He also built besides St. Peter's 
 Church, St. Peter's School, the School of Art, the 
 Orphanage, the Soup Kitchen, with club-room over 
 it all now in St. Peter's Parish. The present 
 vicar of St. Mary's, the Rev. G. H. W. Bromfield, 
 writes : " He built in this parish Salamanca 
 School Church and Sancroft Street School 
 Church. There have been services ever since. 
 The latter has been developing for many years, 
 and we hope will soon develop into St. Anselm's 
 Church." Well might Archbishop Sunnier, who 
 laid the foundation stone of St. Peter's Church, 
 call Gregory " The Queen Bee of my diocese."
 
 7* AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Among his curates were Mr. Arthur Tooth, who 
 seems to have found the work too hard and left 
 suddenly ; Mr. Stephen Gladstone, of whom more 
 later ; and Mr. R. W. Dixon, historian and poet. 
 The List was one day discovered lying flat on the 
 ground in the vestry making verses, and when 
 asked if it was not an uncomfortable position, 
 replied, " Oh, no ! I was absorbed in the In- 
 finite." Devoted though Mr. Gregory was to 
 his own parish, it was not long before he found 
 it impossible to restrict his interests to its limits. 
 Thus he continues : 
 
 After I had been in Lambeth some years I was 
 invited to become a member of the Standing Com- 
 mittee of S.P.G. I felt that there would be an 
 attraction in such work that would necessarily 
 draw of!' my thoughts and attention from my 
 parish, and occupy an amount of time that might 
 profitably be expended in looking after the people 
 who were placed under my charge, and for whom 
 I was responsible, and so I declined. The follow- 
 ing year I was asked to join the Committee of the 
 Additional Curates Society, and again I declined. 
 My old rector, Mr. Dalton, then came to me and 
 said, " Are you right in refusing ? The Society 
 provides you with funds to enable two additional 
 clergymen to be employed in your parish, and the 
 Committee think that you can be of service to the
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 75 
 
 Society by joining them. Is it right for you to 
 accept the benefit and refuse the service to which 
 you are invited ? " I felt the force of what he 
 said, and I withdrew my refusal, and for many 
 years took an active part in managing the affairs 
 of the Society. When the Rubicon was once 
 passed I felt unable to refuse similar invitations 
 from other societies in which I felt a great interest, 
 and in 1865 I became a member of the Standing 
 Committee of S.P.G. and in 1860 a member of the 
 Committee of the National Society ; and of this 
 last - named Society I was chosen to be the 
 treasurer in 1869, and in its affairs I have 
 taken a lively and active interest ever since. 
 Of my connection with this Society I shall 
 have more to say presently. 
 
 1 cannot refrain from inserting here, from the 
 minutes of the S.P.G., the resolution in which his 
 services were commemorated : 
 
 " The members of the Society assembled in 
 the monthly meeting of the Society, on Friday, 
 October 20, 1911, in the Society's House, desire 
 to record their reverence and respect for the life 
 work of the late Robert Gregory, D.D., up to 
 within a short time of his death Dean of St. 
 Paul's. 
 
 " Spared to work for his Divine Master in the 
 Church till his ninety -third year, he was ever one
 
 76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 of the staunchest supporters of the Society, bring- 
 ing to its council board his remarkable business 
 aptitude with signal advantage to its work 
 abroad. 
 
 " Becoming an incorporated member in 1856, a 
 member of the Standing Committee in 1865, and 
 a vice-president in 1871, he was nearly the 
 Society's oldest member, and retained his affec- 
 tion for it to the last. 
 
 " In 1904 he had the joy of seeing his mission- 
 ary son raised to the episcopate as Bishop of 
 .Mauritius. The Society begs to assure his family 
 of its lasting gratitude towards one of its most 
 honoured members." 
 
 The autobiography now turns to political matters, 
 and nothing could better illustrate Dr. Gregory's 
 attitude towards politics than the story which 
 follows. 
 
 I was somewhat amused at a political event 
 which happened early in 1865. Mr. Thomas 
 Hughes (author of Tom Browns Schooldays) 
 was anxious to represent Lambeth in Parlia- 
 ment. He had probably held communications 
 with members of his own party ; but how this 
 might be I do not know ; but he was anxious 
 to be introduced to the constituency at a public 
 meeting by one of the clergy of the borough. He 
 came to solicit me (though quite unknown to him) 
 to undertake this office. He said : " We are pro-
 
 bably not of the same politics, but if you would 
 introduce me, I would make this arrangement 
 with you. I would undertake to work in ways 
 that would please you in matters relating to the 
 Church, whilst in all other matters I should 
 freely take my own line." My answer to him at 
 once was, " I do not believe in such transactions ; 
 I can have nothing to do with such a proposal." 
 Upon which he went to another clergyman, who 
 did what he wanted. A few months later he 
 became one of the members for the borough, 
 after which he retired from Parliament. 
 
 Two interesting letters show that Mr. Gregory's 
 doubts of Mr. Gladstone's political position had 
 begun at least as early as 1859, when that 
 statesman was seen by acute observers to be on 
 the verge of junction with the Liberals. On 
 June 11 the Derby Ministry was defeated in the 
 Commons. On that day Mr. Gregory wrote to 
 the Burgess for the University of Oxford, who 
 voted with the Government in the critical division, 
 and two days later he was answered. The two 
 letters speak for themselves. 
 
 " ST. MARY'S PARSONAGE, 
 
 LAMBETH, llth June 1859. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, It is with considerable hesita- 
 tion that I write to you, but I venture to do so, 
 as I know that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain
 
 78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 what those beneath us think, and because it may 
 possibly be of some importance to you to know 
 the opinion of some of your constituents. In the 
 present political crisis we are all assured that your 
 presence will be eagerly sought by the Cabinet 
 which is about to be formed ; whilst I imagine 
 that you would be unwilling to join it, it may 
 strengthen your resolution to know what effect, 
 in the opinion of an active supporter, such a step 
 would be likely to have on your re-election. I 
 voted for you when you were first proposed for 
 the University, and have been steadfast in my 
 allegiance throughout ; besides this, I have can- 
 vassed for you at every election, and induced 
 several of my friends to vote for you. Should 
 there now be a contest, besides my own vote, two 
 of my present curates and a late curate would be 
 tolerably sure to vote as I advised. I only 
 mention these things to justify my now writing 
 to say that, should you become a member of a 
 Cabinet in any way resembling that which was 
 shadowed forth in one of the weekly papers, I 
 should be under the most unpleasant necessity 
 of being no longer among those on whose aid you 
 can rely ; and, as I have reason to think that in 
 such a course I should be joined by many of your 
 oldest and staunchest supporters, I have little 
 doubt that your success would be imperilled if 
 a candidate at all eligible should oppose you. It 
 would give me the greatest pain not to be found 
 among your upholders, because there is no states- 
 man in whose integrity, singleness of purpose, and 
 religious as well as political principles I have so
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 79 
 
 much confidence. But as it seems probable, in 
 the present state of political parties, that Mr. 
 Bright must have the fate of the incoming ministry 
 in his hands, it is almost inevitable that the 
 measures they will submit to Parliament must be 
 so framed as to secure his support ; and therefore 
 I should feel it my duty to use whatever little 
 influence 1 may possess in the manner most likely 
 to be prejudicial to a Government holding power 
 under such auspices. Trusting that you will 
 kindly excuse my thus troubling you, and that 
 you will attribute my doing so to its real cause 
 a most sincere anxiety that your present connexion 
 with Oxford may never be severed as long as you 
 live, I remain, my dear Sir, your obedient servant. 
 
 "RoBT. GREGORY. 
 
 " Rt. Hon. VV. E. GLADSTONE." 
 
 The answer follows : 
 
 " 11 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, June 13, '59. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I thank you very much for 
 your letter, of which it is impossible to mistake 
 the kind intention. I am glad of every aid in the 
 difficult work of guiding my conduct at this period 
 of public exigency and political disorganisation, 
 and no aid can be more legitimate, or more ac- 
 ceptable, than such as you tender me. The states- 
 men who displaced Lord Derby's Government are 
 under no obligations to me for assistance, and I 
 have no means of knowing whether any co-opera- 
 tion will be sought from me in the new Govern- 
 ment. If it should not, I shall look with favour
 
 80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 upon the intentions, particularly as to foreign 
 policy, with which it is likely to be formed. If it 
 should, I can, I fear, give no other pledge than 
 that I shall endeavour to be guided in my reply by 
 the same principles as have hitherto governed me. 
 
 ' 1 thank you most sincerely for the sentiments 
 you are good enough to express, and I remain very 
 faithfully yours. W. E. GLADSTONE." 
 
 During the years which followed, the opinions 
 of Mr. Gladstone became even more and more 
 opposed to those in which Mr. Gregory was un- 
 alterably fixed. The next passage of the auto- 
 biography excites no surprise. 
 
 In 18G4 there was a meeting of several Con- 
 servative gentlemen connected with the University 
 at Oxford, when it was determined to bring for- 
 ward Mr. Gathorne Hardy in opposition to Mr. 
 Gladstone, whenever there should be a dissolution 
 of Parliament, which it was then thought could 
 not be very distant. At every election since he 
 was first chosen, Mr. Gladstone had been opposed, 
 and at all of them I had travelled up from the 
 country and voted for him. When it was first 
 proposed to bring him forward to represent the 
 University, I happened to be at Oxford, and I was 
 one of a small party who met at the Angel Hotel 
 to ask him to become a candidate. It was then
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 81 
 
 said, " Peel has deceived us, but Gladstone is a 
 Tory to the backbone." As he gradually drifted 
 from his old moorings under the influence of the 
 party divisions caused by the introduction of the 
 question of Free Trade, 1 I had lost confidence in 
 him, and I had resolved that, for the future, I was 
 not to be numbered amongst his supporters. At 
 the meeting just mentioned I was not present ; 
 in fact, I had not been invited to be present ; but, 
 immediately after it had been held, one or two of 
 my friends who were there wrote and asked if 
 I would support Mr. Hardy. 2 This I promised 
 to do. The mode of procedure resolved on was 
 to get up an address to Mr. Hardy as numerously 
 signed as could be by the electors, inviting him to 
 become a candidate. Into this struggle I threw 
 myself heartily, and I wrote many scores, if not 
 hundreds, of letters to members of the University, 
 asking them to sign the memorial. The appeal 
 was very successful, and the number of electors 
 who thus pledged themselves to support Mr. 
 Hardy gave good promise that he would win the 
 seat. When a dissolution was announced, Mr. 
 Hardy's supporters met to formally appoint an 
 
 1 Dr. Gregory was a Protectionist all his life. He watched with 
 interest, not unmixed with a sense of triumph, his party returning to 
 what had always been his principles. 
 
 2 Afterwards Earl of Cranbrook. 
 
 F
 
 82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 election Committee. At this meeting, on the 
 motion of Lord Robert Cecil (now Lord Salisbury), 1 
 Sir John Mowbray was made chairman, and, to 
 my great surprise, I was made one of the two 
 vice-chairmen, under the idea that I should repre- 
 sent the High Church party, and my colleague, 
 the Reverend Charles Oakley, Rector of St. Paul's, 
 Covent Garden, the Low Church party. Most of 
 the leading Tractarians were personal friends of 
 Mr. Gladstone's, and were members of his Com- 
 mittee. At the General Election Mr. Gladstone's 
 connection with Oxford as its representative in 
 Parliament was severed. 2 
 
 It is a fit commentary on this divergence 
 between Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Gregory, re- 
 dounding to the honour of both men, that when 
 the son of the former was to be ordained it was 
 to the latter as curate that his father wished him 
 to go. The ancient Toryism of the vicar never 
 interfered with the modern Liberalism of the 
 curate. They worked together with unbroken 
 affection and unstinted energy. 
 
 The theology of Mr. Gladstone was, of course, 
 in close accord with that of Mr. Gregory. At 
 the ordination examination, when Mr. Stephen 
 Gladstone was a candidate, there was some fear, 
 
 1 The late Marquess. 
 
 : Tin- poll was declared on July 18, 1865 : Heathcote, 3236; 
 (Juthorne Hardy, 1004; Gladstone, 1724.
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 83 
 
 for a rumour got about that, the time before, a 
 man had been " plucked " for " High Church 
 leanings." Mr. Gregory evidently thought there 
 was something in it, for he wrote to the Arch- 
 deacon and said that after So-and-So had been 
 rejected he thought it very probable that Stephen 
 Gladstone might meet the same fate ; if he did, 
 said Mr. Gregory, he should at once resign his 
 benefice and state his reason publicly. He had 
 some reason for his apprehension of unfairness, 
 for about this time the Archdeacon, distrusting 
 some alteration he had made, determined to 
 investigate it, and did so in a scarcely straight- 
 forward manner, but with an unexpected result. 
 He appointed a meeting in the church at 
 10.30 with the Vicar, and at 10 o'clock with 
 the churchwardens, two small Lambeth trades- 
 men. When Mr. Gregory appeared in the 
 church at 10.30, not knowing of the previous 
 assignation, the Archdeacon greeted him with, 
 " Oh, here you are, Mr. Gregory. I have 
 been trying this last half-hour to talk to your 
 two churchwardens about this alteration you have 
 made, and all I can get out of them is, ' If 
 Mr. Gregory says so, it must be right.' ' This 
 was the very natural result of the cordial relations 
 he always had with those who worked with him, 
 or under him, in the church. It was so, one 
 may interject here, to the end of his life. "At 
 St. Paul's, the head virger, when lamenting his 
 absence in his long illness and saying how he 
 missed him, epitomised it by saying, 'The Dean 
 always knew all about everything.' He always
 
 84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 used to consult those under him about any order 
 that they would have to carry out, and listened 
 with interest to any difficulties or objections 
 they might see in executing it, so that when the 
 matter was settled the orders were carried out 
 whole-heartedly." 
 
 There was nothing more striking in his way 
 of working than the way in which he took those 
 who worked with him into his confidence. I 
 cannot illustrate this better than in the words in 
 which Mr. Stephen Gladstone, in sending to me a 
 short letter on the parish work at Lambeth, tells 
 of his transparent sincerity : 
 
 "Not long after I became Curate, on a Sunday 
 evening walk, Canon Gregory told me this, and 
 it greatly impressed me, as it seemed to speak 
 so highly to his honour. He said a man called 
 on him and asked him to hear his confession. 
 Canon Gregory at once felt, How can I receive 
 another's when I have never made my own? He 
 asked the man to call again in a few days, and 
 arranged in the interval to seek the same help 
 for himself before his visitor returned." 
 
 Mr. Stephen Gladstone's description of the 
 work at Lambeth and the character of the Vicar 
 may fitly conclude this chapter. 
 
 " Canon Gregory in the sixties, when I had the 
 privilege of working with him, was a devoted and 
 indefatigable parish priest, manly, many sided, 
 keen and clear-sighted, full of resource, never 
 harried in his large and poor parish, trustful and 
 generous-hearted, always busy but never in a 
 hurry, ever ready to listen and advise. He told
 
 PARISH WORK IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 85 
 
 me he never went to bed and left a letter un- 
 answered. As his public work grew he enlarged 
 his staff so as to ensure the best for his 10,000 
 parishioners. He was glad to co-operate with 
 men of very diverse opinions, being himself broad- 
 minded, and ready to learn as well as to rule. 
 As a business man he gained influence with many 
 who by their liberal gifts enabled him to provide 
 that teeming district, not only with churches and 
 mission rooms, but also with schools of different 
 grades, enabling a poor boy with gifts to rise by 
 degrees till (as happened in some cases) he could 
 be sent to the university. Certainly he was one of 
 the very earliest pioneers in the field of popular 
 education. His foundation of a large art school 
 was another illustration of this. He had also 
 built and endowed a beautiful church (St. Peter's, 
 Vauxhall) in those early days. He had been him- 
 self constant in religious teaching in his schools, 
 an unwearied visitor, a most generous friend of 
 the poor, an outdoor preacher, and, with the help 
 of a large staff of lay helpers, the organiser of all 
 sorts of parochial good works. His whole heart 
 was set on the good of the people. Except for 
 his yearly holiday he never seemed to relax his 
 unselfish energies. All was done, not only with 
 the highest purpose, but with his irrepressible 
 brightness, humour, and tact, and of parish quarrels 
 or misunderstandings we never heard. He won 
 the love as well as the respect of all."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES, 1867-1900 
 
 THE "troubles of the Church," a phrase which so 
 often means that people squabble about unimport- 
 ant matters now issued in a Royal Commission, 
 appointed on June 3, 1867, to examine the rubrics 
 and deal with the Lectionary. Bishop Wilberforce, 
 writing to Mr. Gregory's old Lincolnshire friend 
 Sir Charles Anderson, says : " I have no patience 
 with our being driven to legislate, to put ourselves 
 into the utterly false position of asking for more 
 power from the House of Commons, tying up 
 the future expansive power of the Church of 
 England, destroying the liberty of congregations 
 and the restraining and directing power of the 
 bishops." He hoped that a Commission might 
 be a way out of difficulties. 
 
 On it sat a large number of persons represent- 
 ing all sorts of views. Among the prelates were 
 Archbishop Longley and Bishops Ellicott, Wilber- 
 force, Tait, and Thirlwall : lawyers and clergymen 
 of different views balanced each other, and there 
 was Dean Stanley to puzzle them all. Mr. Gregory 
 thus tells his share in the work. 
 
 About the same time I was placed on the 
 Ritual Commission, which was asked for in order 
 to stave off Parliamentary interference with the 
 
 M
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 87 
 
 services of the Church until the whole question 
 had been thoroughly examined. There was a 
 great outcry against a number of practices which 
 have since become quite common, and which 
 differed essentially from observances introduced 
 a quarter of a century later, some of which 
 were undoubtedly Romish, whilst others of them 
 seemed to me puerile and childish, and which, so 
 far as I could see, could never by any possibility 
 tend to spiritual edification. But between 1860 
 and 1870 great efforts were made by the Puri- 
 tanical party to resist and uproot whatsoever was 
 advocated by the Tractarians. Instead of con- 
 fining their opposition to points where they had 
 the law undoubtedly on their side, they raised 
 an outcry against everything that they did not 
 themselves practise. And in this it must be 
 sorrowfully said, they were encouraged by the 
 Courts of Law, and by some of the bishops. 
 The Gorham judgment, given a few years earlier, 
 would rival in its injustice the decisions of any 
 law courts that ever had been subservient to 
 external influences. In this case the desire was 
 to please the popular voice ; at other periods it 
 has been the wish of the King or of influential 
 courtiers that had to be gratified. Following 
 upon this decision there were others, chiefly
 
 88 ATTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 relating to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, and St. 
 Barnabas', Pimlico, that stimulated the desire for 
 drastic proceedings against the High Church party 
 and all their principles and doings. So bad had 
 the outcry become, that it was feared the Arch- 
 bishop (Longley) might yield to an extent which 
 would threaten a serious schism in the Church. 
 To stave off immediate action and to give time 
 for calm and serious thought, it was determined 
 to appoint a Royal Commission (it was generally 
 supposed that this was done at the suggestion 
 of Bishop Wilberforce) to examine the Ritual 
 directions contained in the Prayer-book, and to 
 see how far they were capable of bearing the 
 constructions put upon them by different parties 
 in the Church, and whether by legislation or 
 otherwise improvements could be introduced that 
 would calm the excitement that was then agitating 
 the country. The Commission sat for three years 
 and a half, and certainly succeeded in accomplish- 
 ing one of the ends for which it was appointed. 
 It gave time for reflection ; and, during the interval 
 between its appointment and final report, the 
 country had to some extent come to learn the 
 dangers that were involved in such legislation 
 as the Puritan party desired, and had ceased to 
 wish for Parliament to interfere with the existing
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 89 
 
 directions contained in the Prayer-book. The 
 only legislation that issued from its deliberations 
 was a revised table of Lessons which considerably 
 diminished the amount of Holy Scripture read 
 in Church. 1 In the discussion of this part of the 
 work of the Commission I had no share ; for, not 
 expecting that the Commission would meet during 
 the last months of the year, I had gone to Italy. 
 From no other of its meetings was I absent. On 
 the Commission I was one of a comparatively small 
 minority ; we met at breakfast, generally at Lord 
 Beauchamp's on the days when the Commission 
 sat, and arranged our proceedings with respect to 
 the business that was to come before us. Beyond 
 the two points I have named, I doubt whether the 
 Commission did either good or harm ; but its ex- 
 tended sittings greatly diminished popular interest 
 in the work on which it was engaged, and the 
 amusing thing was that the delay in making a 
 report was due in no inconsiderable measure to 
 the long and weary harangues of some of its 
 members, notably Lord Harrowby, who were 
 perpetually urging the duty of making rapid 
 progress. Along with others I was unable to 
 
 1 The Dean particularly disliked all abbreviations of the service, 
 and once, in some place where they were staying, said to his nephew, 
 Dr. Julius Hannah, " You will come to Matins with me, Julius, 
 I suppose, though they do give you only a mouthful of prayers."
 
 90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 sign some of the later reports, and I gave my 
 reasons for so doing. 
 
 Whilst this Commission was sitting, I was elected 
 a Proctor in Convocation, for the clergy in the 
 Archdeaconry of Surrey. The events that led to 
 my election were peculiar. Prebendary Randolph, 
 Rector of Sanderstead, was our representative ; and 
 1 had on one or more elections taken an active 
 part in securing his success. One day, happening 
 to pass near Dean's Yard, it occurred to me to 
 look into the Jerusalem Chamber, where I knew 
 Convocation must be then sitting. Randolph saw 
 me, and came to where I was sitting and said, 
 " I never mean to come here again ; I shall resign. 
 You ought to be Proctor." I said, " Don't do 
 that. If you resign, I shall not be a candidate; 
 we have arranged with Dupuis, Vicar of Richmond, 
 that lie shall come forward when you retire. My 
 benefice is such an unimportant one, the Surrey 
 clergy would think it a presumption on my part 
 to seek the office." Coming out of Convocation, 
 almost the first person I met was Dupuis. I told 
 him what Randolph had just said, and added that 
 we should of course look to him to champion 
 our cause : with the thought of which he was 
 much pleased. I never saw either of them again. 
 
 Within the next three months both died : there
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 91 
 
 was no prominent person in the Archdeaconry to 
 undertake the office, and for lack of a better candi- 
 date I was proposed and elected by a majority 
 of two ; so far as I can remember, the numbers 
 were 43 and 41, Mr. Garbett being my opponent. 
 Parliament was dissolved before Convocation met 
 again, so that I had to stand a second election 
 before I took my seat, the majority at the second 
 election being the same as at the first, and my 
 opponent being the same. I was re-elected once 
 more for Surrey. After that, having resigned 
 my benefice in the diocese, and become a canon 
 of St. Paul's, I was elected by the Chapter of 
 St. Paul's to represent them, which I did until 
 I had an ex officio seat as Dean. I think I 
 
 uu 
 
 attended every session of Convocation, and took an 
 active part in many of its discussions, and for one 
 group of Sessions I occupied the chair, as Deputy- 
 prolocutor at the request of the Prolocutor, as he 
 had met with an accident which made it impossible 
 for him to be present. It is unnecessary for me to 
 say anything here about what I said and did in 
 Convocation. That is recorded in the Chronicle, 
 and I may return to the subject later on. 
 
 But something must be said of the great part 
 Dr. Gregory played for many years in the assembly
 
 92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 of the Church. To recall the work he did in 
 the Lower House of the Canterbury Convocation 
 would be to tell again the story of the contro- 
 versies of more than thirty years, for in almost 
 all of them lie was a prominent actor. Not that 
 he was by choice a controversialist : far from it. 
 But his strong sense of justice, his abounding 
 energy, and his intense interest in all that con- 
 cerned the efficiency of the Church, urged him 
 forward again and again, and his sterling character 
 soon won for him a place of something like pre- 
 dominance in the House. In 1879 Dr. A. Blom- 
 field, afterwards Bishop-suffragan of Colchester, 
 wrote some clever lines of " Sketches in Convo- 
 cations," in which are embalmed the memories of 
 many notable men, such as Denison, and Harri- 
 son, and the gracious Lord Alwyne Compton, 
 " th' unwearied chairman of defunct committees." 
 The climax of the record comes with the lines 
 which describe Mr. Gregory : 
 
 " St. Paul's great Proctor last in view appears, 
 And tours Gregorian rouse our flagging ears, 
 With facile humour versatile, to steer 
 From 'grave to gay, from lively to severe.' 
 With plain good sense and homely wisdom strong 
 When brief, yet clear; and not a bore when long; 
 Full oft his brethren's suffrages he gains, 
 States strong convictions, yet excess restrains ; 
 Strikes the nice balance, with adjustment keen, 
 And hits with happy tact the golden mean. 
 But if o'erpowering numbers turn the scale, 
 Willing to conquer, yet content to fail, 
 See him with ready smile the verdict meet, 
 Good-humoured, or in triumph, or defeat."
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 93 
 
 As a prose pendant to this, let me add the 
 memories which have been furnished me by Dr. 
 R. E. Sanderson, who was long his friend and 
 companion in the House. He says : " What a 
 newly-elected Proctor would naturally endeavour 
 and be most likely to estimate, as far as possible, 
 would be the influence of individual members of 
 the House how far it would be certain to prevail, 
 and the reasons why they were prominent mem- 
 bers. There can, 1 think, be no sort of doubt 
 that Dean Gregory had more the ear of the 
 House, and influence over the House at that 
 time, than any other member. It is now more 
 than twenty years ago. But I have not for- 
 gotten the conviction with which this impression 
 was forced upon me. This influence which he 
 held over this House, I noticed was due not 
 so much to any eloquence on his part as 
 to the subject-matter of his speeches and his 
 manner of speaking. Whenever he spoke it was 
 obvious that he was speaking from conviction. 
 He was evidently basing what he said on genuine 
 opinions, resting upon a long experience, and upon 
 strong personal belief. It was also notable that 
 he was recommending what was practical prudence 
 and clear common sense. He never attempted to 
 make speeches. He spoke and kept to the point, 
 and was never tempted to swerve from it. He 
 seemed carefully to avoid such a thing as oratory. 
 
 "And this was exactly what the House then most 
 needed. For the temptation (and, all things con- 
 sidered, it was a very natural temptation) which 
 beset many members was to display their eloquence,
 
 94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 and so to stray from the points really at issue. 
 It was said, e.g., eminently of one really eloquent 
 Proctor, that he won by his oratory the admiration 
 and attention of the whole House, but never 
 secured their votes. 
 
 " Dean Gregory's manner of sentences was, on 
 the other hand, as rugged as was the tone of his 
 voice. His sentences were short and crisp, and 
 therefore, though perfectly intelligible and to the 
 point, they required close attention. He seemed 
 to be quite at his ease while speaking. Yet every 
 one of his hearers was convinced that he was giving 
 expression to his real thoughts. He never paused 
 for lack of words, and he never repeated himself. 
 And this mode of utterance was just the style 
 and matter which would attract the acceptance of 
 such an audience as the Proctors in Convocation. 
 
 " \Vhen advance of years perhaps, and, it may 
 be, the growth of the wide and chequered influ- 
 ence of St. Paul's, demanded his more continued 
 presence at his Cathedral, and he became less 
 regular in his attendance in Convocation, it was 
 a most serious loss to the debates, and perhaps 
 is still felt to be so by those who are among the 
 senior Proctors of the House." 
 
 Dr. Hannah says of his work in Convocation 
 that " he loved it with almost a parent's fond 
 affection," arid adds : "At Convocation time 
 numerous and largely attended were the dinner 
 parties at the Deanery, and on one occasion when 
 my aunt was ordering for a dinner party, the cook 
 is reported to have asked, " Please, ma'am, is this 
 to be a dinner for ladies and gentlemen, or for those
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 95 
 
 Convocation people ? " So deeply had he imbued 
 his family with the importance of that venerable 
 assembly that his little daughter is said to have 
 spoken in the sternest condemnation of some clergy- 
 man of their acquaintance, " Why, he interrupted 
 father when he was talking about Convocation." 
 
 Apropos of interrupting, Dr. Gregory was him- 
 self on one famous occasion called upon himself to 
 exercise that weapon. A certain speaker (said to 
 be an eminent archdeacon who died many years 
 ago and archdeacons are generally understood to 
 be bores) got up again and again. At one meeting 
 they counted him doing so seventy times. All were 
 in despair : " How can we stop him ? " " Stop 
 him ? " said Mr. Gregory, " I'll stop him." The 
 next time the archdeacon arose he was pulled by 
 the coat-tails and a voice said, " My dear old 
 friend, when ARE you going to sit down ? " He 
 sat down instantly, and without offence. 
 
 Testimonials to the influence he exercised in 
 Convocation are overwhelming. I will only select 
 a simple letter from Dean Church, who weighed 
 his words more carefully than any other man of 
 his day a letter, too, which shows the affectionate 
 intimacy between the two. It is dated February 9, 
 1881, from the Deanery, St. Paul's : 
 
 " MY DEAR GREGORY, I quite forgot that 
 to-day is your birthday, till the girls reminded me. 
 Let me wish you many more happy ones and 
 they will be happy ones if they are marked by 
 such events as your noble speech of this morning. 
 Ever yours, R. W. CHURCH."
 
 96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 The speech was on a gravamen, which, Canon 
 Gregory moved, should be made an articulus cleri 
 (in the technical language of Convocation), 
 asking the bishops to " forbear to interfere by 
 authority with such diversities of ceremonial as 
 are consistent with a literal interpretation of the 
 Rubrics," at the same time restricting the " orna- 
 ments " to those covered by the rubric, and 
 securing, for those who desired "a simpler ritual, 
 . . . celebrations of the Holy Communion in a 
 plainer form." The speech itself is so admirable 
 an example of Mr. Gregory's style that it may 
 well be printed here. It will serve to explain 
 and illustrate better than anything else what 
 follows in his autobiography. 
 
 He said 1 : " The present position of things is 
 very grave. Two clergymen have lately been put 
 in prison, and a third some time ago. A fourth 
 has been deprived of his benefice by the sentence 
 of a court ; and these tilings have necessarily led 
 to a great deal of anxiety ; because this is the 
 way in which persecution takes place in our days. 
 Times alter, and with them the manner in which 
 persecution is carried out. Three hundred years 
 ago we should have burnt these persons ; at the 
 present day we throw them into prison or take 
 from them the means of living, and so bring them 
 to poverty. The present plan is apparently more 
 merciful, but it may be doubted whether in the 
 long run it does not cause quite as much suffering. 
 Hut then it may be said, * Yes, but it serves them 
 right ; for have they not broken the law ? ' That 
 
 1 The Chronicle of Convocation, February 1881, p. 62.
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 97 
 
 is quite true. They have broken the law ; but I 
 should like to know what single person who has 
 ever been persecuted did not break the law ? 
 What was said of the Divine Founder of our 
 faith ? ' We have a law, and by that law He 
 ought to die.' Then it is said that these clergy- 
 men are not persecuted, but only prosecuted ; 
 but, whichever it be, it is proposed that these 
 men shall be expelled from our borders, and that 
 they shall be divested of any position they may 
 hold in the ministry, on the ground that they 
 have broken the law. If this is to be so, we 
 are bound to consider whether there is a suffi- 
 ciently strong case to justify the risk of a pro- 
 ceeding of this kind. It seems to me that there 
 are just three courses open to us. First, we 
 might persevere in the policy of coercion ; or we 
 might temporise ; or, lastly, we might try a 
 policy of conciliation. Now, as to the first of 
 these courses, it must be tolerably clear that if 
 the policy of coercion is to be continued, if 
 everyone who determines to use vestments and 
 various articles of Church furniture is to be prose- 
 cuted, we shall have to deal with no inconsider- 
 able numbers of our brother clergy. It is 
 manifest that those who sympathise with these 
 persons form no small portion of the ranks of 
 the clergy of the Church of England. It is quite 
 clear that there are thousands certainly there 
 are many hundreds who sympathise with them : 
 men who do not practise the ritual themselves, 
 but who, if those who do are to be put in prison, 
 will feel that the position is intolerable, and will 
 
 G
 
 98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 consider themselves called upon to stand by their 
 suffering brethren. If we are to stamp out ritual- 
 ism to the extent that would be necessary in order 
 to eliminate it from the borders of the Church of 
 England, it will require a very formidable amount 
 of persecution indeed. I am not prepared to say 
 that in the case of a great and fundamental error 
 like Arianism we ought to shrink even from such 
 ;i course as that ; and in the days of St. Athanasius 
 it was felt better to jeopardise the external interests 
 of the Church than to hold any compromise with 
 heresy. But what we have to ask ourselves is 
 whether there is at present any sufficient cause 
 for bringing about a crisis such as I have described. 
 In my opinion, there is no such sufficient cause. 
 In the first place, if you challenge these persons 
 with being breakers of the law, so far from admit- 
 ting it at once, they reply, ' No ; we are the only 
 people who keep the law.' This may or may not 
 be right, but a very large proportion of those who 
 have carefully studied the matter agree that their 
 view is correct. At all events, it is a very doubtful 
 question. Of the two interpretations of the Orna- 
 ments rubric which have been put forward, it is 
 very doubtful whether that adopted by the Privy 
 Council is really the true and right one ; and if it 
 be, the balance of evidence in its favour is so very 
 minute that, under other circumstances, a new set 
 of lawyers might not impossibly come to a different 
 conclusion. Then is it wise to precipitate a crisis 
 by attempting to carry out a policy which must 
 deprive the Church of some hundreds perhaps 
 some thousands of men who, from the com-
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 99 
 
 mencement of their career, have precluded them- 
 selves from what are called the prizes of the 
 profession by the earnestness and sincerity of 
 their convictions ? For these men know that 
 the views which they advocate will consign them 
 to a life of poverty, so far as our ancient endow- 
 ments are concerned. It is easy for men in high 
 place, and for men surrounded with flatterers, who 
 pour their honeyed accents into their ears, to say, 
 ' Let us have peace ' ; but these are times of 
 anxiety and distress, and when we think of the 
 millions who are living in neglect of all religion 
 when, too, we see men working with earnestness 
 and success amongst them, we have very good 
 reason, indeed, for doubting the wisdom or pro- 
 priety of persistence in a policy of coercion a 
 policy which must deprive the Church and the 
 nation of the most valuable labours of men who 
 are content to work, one might almost say, with- 
 out wages in arduous and repellent fields. But, 
 further, these men say not only that they are 
 observing the rubric, but also that they are 
 faithful to the highest traditions and principles 
 of the Church of which they are members. There 
 are those in this House who hold the name of 
 John Hampden in the utmost possible honour 
 as the defender of political truth. Once a tax 
 was levied upon the county in which he lived ; 
 but he thought it was illegal, and, rather than 
 pay it, he suffered persecution or prosecution. 
 After a time his conduct was successfully vin- 
 dicated, and John Hampden has ever since been 
 held in the greatest honour. Well, these men
 
 100 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 think that to defend the rights and liberties of 
 the Church of Christ is a matter of far more 
 importance than any question of paying a few 
 shillings or half-crowns that might have been 
 unjustly demanded of an individual ; and they 
 therefore think they are bound to resist a set 
 of Courts which have been established in defiance, 
 or at least without the knowledge and co-opera- 
 tion, of the spiritualty, whereas at the time of the 
 Reformation settlement it was promised that the 
 spiritualty should have the same authority in 
 matters spiritual as the temporally in matters 
 temporal. I do not entirely agree with all their 
 arguments; but I, for one, cannot help feeling 
 that there is enough in their contention to justify 
 them, from their point of view, in the course 
 which they have taken. These two considera- 
 tions- first, that these men have from the begin- 
 ning asserted, and asserted with a great show of 
 probability, that they are keeping the law; and, 
 secondly, that they say they are defending the 
 rights of the Church seem to me to be absolutely 
 conclusive against a policy of coercion. And 
 now one word as to the manner in which the 
 judgments are given in these Courts. Is that, 
 I would ask, such as should demand the moral 
 approval of the people who are brought before 
 such tribunals? The other day I was looking 
 at the Life of Lord Campbell, and I found the 
 following entry with respect to the Gorham case : 
 
 " 'HARTRIOOK, December 21, 1849. 
 
 " ' The Judicial Committee have been occupied with the 
 hearing of the great case of Gorham v. Bishop of Exeter,
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 101 
 
 which went on many days. I found myself a member of a 
 tribunal to decide a question of dogmatic divinity, having 
 for assessors the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and 
 the Bishop of London. The great question was whether the 
 Church of England teaches that there is absolutely spiritual 
 regeneration by the act of infant baptism, or whether she 
 does not tolerate the doctrine that the regeneration depends 
 upon the condition of prevenient grace. 
 
 " ' On the last day we sat evening as well as morning, and 
 we had an elegant repast provided for us in the Council 
 Chamber at the public expense. We afterwards held a 
 conference and " broke" the question, when I was rejoiced to 
 find that, with one dissentient, we were all inclined to the 
 opinion, so desirable for the peace of the Church, " That 
 neither Liturgy nor Articles can be said exactly to define 
 the mode by which regeneration is operated, and that the 
 point on which the parties differ may be considered an open 
 question " ' (vol. ii. 266). 
 
 " I don't say that all that is not very proper ; but 
 still the idea of a number of lawyers one of them 
 a Scotch Presbyterian, who did not profess to have 
 made any study of the dogmatic theology of the 
 Church of England sitting down to a luxurious 
 repast and then undertaking to settle what was to 
 bind the conscience of the Church of England for 
 all future time, does not strike one as quite the 
 thing. It is said that the Privy Council decides 
 the questions submitted to it entirely in accordance 
 with law. But I have had sent to me a remark 
 which was made by the late Lord Chancellor, 
 which I should like to read to the House. It has 
 reference to a debate in the House of Lords on the 
 24th of April 1871, on the subject of Emmanuel 
 Hospital :
 
 102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 " ' Lord Cairns remarked, in reply to Lord Granville, that 
 the action of the Privy Council was not confined to legal 
 questions, but extended to questions of discretion, expediency, 
 and policy.' 
 
 " These two quotations may well be read in con- 
 nection with each other. Lord Campbell was 
 delighted to find that with one exception their 
 lordships were able to decide in favour of the view 
 which he thought desirable for the peace of the 
 Church : and Lord Cairns declares that the Privy 
 Council acts from motives of discretion, expedi- 
 ency, and policy. Well, I had always thought 
 that in questions of religion the first thing to be 
 thought of was the vindication of the truth. We 
 have been reminded that the Privy Council is, in 
 fact, the successor of the Star Chamber; and as 
 the members of the Star Chamber were prohibited 
 from mentioning whether its decisions were unani- 
 mous, so the Judicial Committee has adopted the 
 same rule of secrecy. If, then, a policy of coercion 
 could not he adopted without wrecking the Church 
 of England, let us proceed to inquire whether it is 
 desirable to adopt one of temporising. I entirely 
 differ from those who take that view. If ever such 
 a policy would have been right, the time for it has 
 passed away ; and the longer this question is kept 
 alive the greater will be the injury which is likely 
 to be inflicted upon the Church and upon tire souls 
 of men. \Ve have had enough of it, and, in my 
 opinion, nothing would be more unwise or more 
 unstatesmanlike. Such being the case, shall we 
 not frankly accept a policy of conciliation ? I 
 would say, by all means let us embrace these men
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 103 
 
 as brethren. Let us recognise the good they are 
 doing, and say in God's name, to them, ' Go and 
 do more.' If any one thing would tend more than 
 another to moderate counsels and the restraint of 
 excesses, it would, I believe, be the acceptance of 
 a policy of conciliation. Mark, I am not an advo- 
 cate for a conciliation that is to get rid of any part 
 of the Reformation settlement. While I am for 
 the fullest conciliation, I would nevertheless limit 
 it in two important respects. In the first place, 
 nothing must be introduced that is not included in 
 the celebrated Ornaments rubric. Do not let us 
 try to get behind that, but let us accept the Orna- 
 ments rubric and its fair limits. But, besides 
 that, I think the prejudices and prepossessions of 
 people ought to be very much respected. I should 
 be very unwilling for anything to be done in the 
 opposite direction, and I think, therefore, that pro- 
 vision should be made for the good, excellent, 
 pious people who dislike ritual. They should, I 
 hold, be provided with such services as they can 
 enjoy ; and I have reason to believe that these 
 ritualists are not so wedded to ritual that they 
 think it their absolute duty never to dispense with 
 it. On the contrary, I believe they would thank- 
 fully provide plain services at fitting times, to be 
 arranged between themselves and the Bishop. I 
 am speaking, therefore, not in favour of a policy of 
 conciliation pure and simple, but in favour of a 
 policy of conciliation limited by the two considera- 
 tions which I have placed before the House. I 
 believe that if the House should speak with a 
 large and overwhelming majority in this sense, the
 
 104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 future of the Church of England may still be a 
 bright and glorious one. If, on the other hand, 
 it should adopt the only possible alternative a 
 course of persecution I should look upon dis- 
 establishment as absolutely certain. This grand, 
 noble old Church would become a mere wreck a 
 mere shadow of her former self, divided into two 
 or three sections, possessing little influence in the 
 country, and no spiritual power in the world. She 
 would be degraded and disgraced, because we had 
 yielded to an angry, impetuous irritation, which, if 
 it had had the power, would have relighted the 
 fires of Smithfield, and which, failing that, would 
 send men we dislike to prison or deprive them of 
 their means of living. Let us rather accept the 
 great and noble position which God has given us. 
 Let us show that we love and admire the enthusi- 
 asm of earnest men who, with their hearts on fire 
 with the love of Christ, are ready to go forth and 
 spread abroad the truth in the most degraded parts 
 of the country and of the world." 
 
 The speech may fitly introduce what Dean 
 Gregory wrote about " The Ritualists " long after 
 the earlier excitements had subsided. His position 
 is further illustrated in a letter of his to Mr. 
 Mackonochie, April 4, 1808, in which, while urging 
 him to certain concessions, he said : " I am not a 
 ritualist, but so many things are mixed up with 
 your cause that I value above all things, that I feel 
 compelled to say and do what I can to preserve 
 you from attack."
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 105 
 
 Throughout the whole time I have been in Holy 
 Orders there has been considerable excitement 
 about ritual and the doctrinal questions connected 
 with ritual. Of one or two points connected with 
 this controversy I have had incidentally to speak in 
 what I have already written ; with many aspects 
 of the question I have had to deal in Convocation ; 
 whilst with a still greater number I have been 
 only interested as other Churchmen have been. 
 But as these questions have formed an important 
 factor in the ecclesiastical history of our times, it 
 may be well for me to recall events and impressions 
 made upon me by them. 
 
 About the year 1842, before I was ordained, the 
 Church of St. Barnabas, Pimlico, was consecrated ; 
 and then for the first time in a church in recent 
 days the choir men and boys were clad in surplices. 
 This created a great excitement ; a riotous mob 
 was collected outside the church, and those taking 
 part in the service were subjected to insults and 
 rough treatment. About the same time there was 
 a series of trials against Mr. Bennett, the Vicar of 
 St. Paul's, Wilton Place, for alleged infringe- 
 ments of the law of the Church by introducing 
 into the churches of St. Paul's l and St. Barnabas 2 
 what were alleged to be illegal ornaments ; and in 
 
 1 Knightsbridge. z Consecrated St Barnabas Day, 1850.
 
 106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 1849 there was a trial Gorham and the Bishop 
 of Exeter to compel the latter to institute Mr. 
 Gorham into the rectory of Bramford Speke, 
 which the Bishop declined to do on account of 
 the claimant's belief concerning infant baptism 
 being in direct opposition to the teaching of the 
 Prayer- Book. In all these cases the Privy Council 
 decided against what I and the whole body of 
 High Churchmen regarded as the teaching of the 
 Prayer-Book. The feeling amongst us was that 
 those in high places were resolved at all hazards 
 to put down the then unpopular teaching set forth 
 by the " Oxford Tracts," and that it was a matter 
 of indifference to the judges whether the law was 
 with them or against them ; the unpopular teach- 
 ing must be put down ; if the law upheld such 
 teaching, so much the worse for the law ; it must 
 be changed, and as this could not be done directly 
 by an Act of Parliament, then it might be done 
 indirectly by interpreting existing law to mean 
 what they wished it to mean. The consequence 
 of this was that ecclesiastical law, or rather its 
 administration, fell into contempt ; and I re- 
 member being asked by Sir Percival Heywood 
 at the Derby Church Congress about the action 
 he should pursue with respect to the Rev. S. F. 
 Green at Miles Platting, a benefice in his gift.
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 107 
 
 He felt that he had been unjustly deprived, 1 and 
 he was seriously considering whether he ought not 
 to commence an action to secure a reversal of that 
 decision. He told me that he had consulted 
 several distinguished lawyers ; that they had all 
 agreed with him, and assured him that if he took 
 the case into Court he would assuredly obtain the 
 verdict he desired. He wished to know what I 
 thought. My advice was to submit to what had 
 been done, and to take no further action, for I 
 said : " Though the law may be as clear as day- 
 light, you may depend upon it, the judges will 
 decide against you." He took the cause into 
 Court, and the result was what I anticipated. 
 
 I have said so much to give an idea of the 
 feeling at the time concerning the action of the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts, but it is not my intention to 
 deal at any length with the individual cases that 
 were brought before them, but only with such as I 
 had a more direct and immediate interest in. 
 
 When I was ordained priest in 1844 I carefully 
 studied the rubrics in the Prayer Book, and desir- 
 ing to obey its injunctions as closely as I could, I 
 thought the proper place at which to celebrate 
 Holy Communion was standing before the Table, 
 
 1 Strictly speaking, the " benefice fell vacant through lapse of 
 time " [Cornish, English Church in XIX Century, ii. 150], Mr. Green 
 being in prison.
 
 108 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 at all events during the time of consecrating the 
 elements. There was at the time no question 
 about the positions, and I remember the first time 
 I celebrated, Mr. Thos. Keble, my vicar, acting as 
 deacon, said, " I think you are right in standing 
 before the Table ; I never do it ; but take care that 
 the people always see you break the Bread and 
 take the Cup in your hand ; remember the origin 
 of hocus-pocus." I always followed his advice, 
 and after the Purchas judgment had pronounced 
 that the position which I had always followed was 
 illegal, 1 was placed in a dilemma. On the one 
 hand, I was satisfied that the words in the Prayer 
 Book meant what I had understood them to mean ; 
 and on the other hand, there was the decision of 
 the Court, concerning which I have given my 
 opinion a little higher up. Talking the matter 
 over with my then colleagues, the late Dean 
 Church and Dr. Liddon, and giving them my 
 views and my reasons for them, they both said, 
 " Write down what you have just said to us and 
 publish it as a pamphlet." This I did. 1 At the 
 same time, Mr. Beresford Hope summoned a 
 meeting at his house of those who objected to 
 
 1 I presume that by this is meant The Purcha* Judgment: A Letter 
 of the Hi#hop of London by the two Senior Canont of St. Pauft, 1871. 
 But in 187() Mr. Gregory also published The Position of the Priest 
 Ordered /<// the Rubrics in the ( 'ommunion Service interpreted by themtelve*.
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 109 
 
 the decision of the Court, to determine what should 
 be done. Many proposals were made ; amongst 
 them, that we should have a friendly suit and try 
 to get the decision reversed. I consulted one or 
 two lawyers of my acquaintance, and they dis- 
 suaded me, saying that a friendly suit was a most 
 dangerous experiment. The judges always felt that 
 it was the object to force them to give a decision 
 in one way, and that if it was possible they would 
 not do so. At our next meeting I happened to 
 be in the chair, and said this ; upon which Lord 
 Robert Cecil (the present Marquess of Salisbury *) 
 said, " Then there is only one course open to us, we 
 must get two men to challenge their Bishop to pro- 
 secute them," and turning to me, he asked, whether 
 I would be one of them. I at once said, "Yes, I will, 
 if Dr. Liddon will join me. 2 Upon this I sketched an 
 outline of what I thought should be said, and went 
 down to Oxford to talk the matter over with Liddon. 
 As we were talking, Dr. Pusey came in, and it was 
 the last time I saw him. All agreed that we should 
 do what we had been asked to do, and Dr. Liddon 
 
 1 The 3rd Marquess, died 1903. 
 
 2 A letter from Mr. Berdmore Compton, Rector of St. Paul's, Covent 
 Garden, dated March 7, 1871 (referring to a meeting at Mr. Hope's as 
 " yesterday's "), urges Mr. Gregory in the most earnest and affectionate 
 manner not to sacrifice himself. " Consider the satisfaction with which 
 the Puritan party would see you and Liddon resign your stations in 
 the Church and the former dirty uselessness of St. Paul's re-established."
 
 110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 prepared the paper, which was published, the author- 
 ship being ascribed to the two senior Canons of St. 
 Paul's. This we sent to our Diocesan and he re- 
 quested us to come and see him. This we did ; he 
 argued the question with us, and sought to show 
 what evil we were doing, and how much mischief 
 we were inflicting on the Church. As we were 
 leaving, I felt that the Bishop's parting words 
 would be, that he would be obliged to prosecute 
 us. I anticipated this by saying, " My lord, we 
 have one parting request to make, and that is, if 
 you prosecute anyone you will prosecute us." 
 Tii is put an end to prosecutions, if there had 
 ever been any thought of such in the Diocese of 
 I Condon. 
 
 The Life of Dr. Liddon (by Canon .1. O. Johnston, 
 1904, pp. 145 sf/q.) gives the correspondence at this 
 time between the two Canons of St. Paul's and their 
 Bishop. On February 23, the Judicial Committee 
 gave judgment in the Purchas case, declaring the 
 eastward position illegal. On March l,the Church 
 Association declared its determination to give the 
 bishops " no peace " till they enforced this deci- 
 sion. Next day Mr. Gregory and Dr. Liddon 
 wrote to the Bishop, stating that they were unable 
 to recognise in the judgment any sufficient reason 
 for departure from their existing practice. The 
 Bishop answered, and Mr. Gregory replied again on
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 111 
 
 March 3 l : "As you have been so good as to speak 
 out to me, I feel sure you will excuse my speaking 
 out to you in reply. You dread anarchy : it is 
 my feeling that it has been for some time since 
 the condition of the Church, and that so long as 
 a Law Court assumes the power of legislation it is 
 impossible for it to be otherwise. You appeal 
 to the Civil Courts, as if disobedience to them 
 would be a parallel case to the present ; I deny 
 the inference they keep within their province 
 and administer the law. Parliament legislates. 
 The final Court of Appeal tries to legislate : in 
 so doing it oversteps its power, and thus intro- 
 duces anarchy. Take the recent judgment. It 
 confesses that the position of the celebrant is one 
 of great difficulty to decide : it virtually confesses 
 that the law of the Church has not decided it. 
 But there are certain considerations which induce 
 the Court to think a certain place is most probably 
 intended, and so it legislates for the future of the 
 Church, it assumes the functions of a Synod, it 
 decrees eventually deprivation against all who dis- 
 obey its new decree. A lay court (proper) would 
 say that in all penal causes where there is a doubt, 
 the decision must be for acquittal, and so would 
 incite Parliament to legislate, as it could not. 
 I have promised canonical obedience : when the 
 obedience demanded is contrary to the canons, and 
 in my firm belief to the law of the Church, I am 
 obliged to consider the whole question. There 
 
 1 This letter is given in the Life of Dr. Liddon; hut some charac- 
 teristic sentences from it may well he quoted here in their first form, 
 which is more brief than as finally sent.
 
 112 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 must be a higher law somewhere ; if, e.g., it was 
 proposed to omit the ' not ' out of the Command- 
 ments, I suppose the action of the higher law 
 would be allowed. I think that some higher 
 law requires that we * should render to Ca?sar the 
 things that are Caesar's, and to God the things 
 that are God's.' If Ca?sar, sitting on the judgment- 
 scat can ordain new ritual, he can ordain new 
 doctrine also, and then where shall we be landed ? 
 I am quite aware that Csesar bears the sword, and 
 that he can make his power, however exerted, felt. 
 It is well that it is so. It deepens the sense of 
 responsibility. I only mention it to show that 1 
 have thought over the whole subject. Your 
 Lordship thinks it impossible that anyone can 
 regard it as an ordinance of God whether the 
 celebrant stands on one side of the holy table or 
 another. That in itself is a matter indifferent ; 
 but it is not indifferent whose order about it we 
 obey, as I have already shown. Moreover, in the 
 eyes of thousands of young men recently won from 
 the kingdom of Satan, it is regarded as a matter of 
 deepest moment. The Church of England has for 
 many years not been too successful with men of 
 this class half-educated, ill-informed, narrow, but 
 zealous and earnest, and advancing to higher 
 tilings. The ' offence ' this judgment will cause 
 to them God only knows. The many it will 
 wound and cause to doubt, and eventually drive 
 from Him, He only knows. I am obliged to 
 think of them. Their souls are very precious, 
 more precious than the Establishment. I am 
 trying to act with a deep sense of my responsi-
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 113 
 
 bility. If I am right, may God strengthen me. 
 If I am wrong, may He convert me. Whatever 
 is before me, may I seek only His glory." 
 
 On March 22 took place the interview with 
 the Bishop described above. The correspondence 
 continued for some time. Letters from the 
 Bishop, dated July 8 and July 13 are preserved, 
 with the draft answers. Mr. Gregory says that 
 " many clergymen go so far as to believe it to 
 be immoral to plead before " the final Court of 
 Appeal : he " could not quite say that." But he 
 asked that, in the prosecution which seemed 
 impending, he and Dr. Liddon might be tried 
 by a Civil Court ; " it was because we felt that 
 charity for our brother demanded such a sacrifice 
 at our hands. Our being sent to prison could 
 matter to nobody but ourselves." As to the 
 Court, he said that those of his way of thinking 
 felt it a hardship for any cause to be tried by 
 it, " because whether its decision be favourable 
 or unfavourable to our views, we equally reject 
 now, as we have rejected for years, attaching 
 the slightest consideration to its decrees." He 
 made it clear that the matter was to him one 
 of plain principle : the Court had authority to 
 speak for Cresar, but was " utterly without 
 authority from Christ to judge in His name." 
 
 Undated, and without signature, is another 
 letter of Mr. Gregory's, apparently written also for 
 the two Canons of St. Paul's, to the Bishop of 
 London. This points out, in answer to the view 
 that dress or posture are matters of indifference, 
 that it was precisely as not being such that the 
 
 H
 
 114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Church Association were attacking the position. 
 After speaking of the cases where small acts 
 symbolise much, the letter continues : 
 
 " And just in the same manner the position 
 of the celebrant typifies to a very large number 
 of English Churchmen, and to ourselves among 
 the number, what we hold to have been the 
 distinctive principles of the English Church since 
 the Reformation, the Church of Bishop Andrewes, 
 of Laud, of Barrow, Beveridge, Keble, &c. We 
 may be unable to adduce positive evidence, such 
 as would satisfy the requirements of a Court of 
 Law upon what their practice was, for nothing is 
 more difficult than to prove what each generation 
 practises, and which it feels to be too notorious 
 to need recording; but we have ample evidence 
 to satisfy our own minds, and to convince us that 
 to accept and to submit to what appears to us to 
 be a perfectly novel interpretation, would be a 
 betrayal of our trust and an abandonment of that 
 real connexion of the Church of England of to-day 
 with the Church of England of the past, which 
 is in our eyes essential for the maintenance of 
 its position as a branch of Christ's Church. 
 
 " We fully believe that the Church of England 
 has ' power to decree rites and ceremonies,' as your 
 Lordship asserts, but we hold that such power is 
 lodged in the two Houses of Convocation, and 
 not in the Court of Final Appeal. Your words 
 appear to suggest the latter, but we feel sure 
 that such an interpretation would be foreign to 
 what you believe concerning the administration 
 of the Church."
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 115 
 
 The letter concludes with an earnest assertion 
 that it is on behalf of many parishioners that the 
 stand is made. 
 
 As Mr. Gregory has said, the Bishop decided 
 to take no action. The form in which he 
 announced this decision was a letter in which 
 he stated that he would prosecute the two Canons 
 of St. Paul's if they broke the law in the way they 
 claimed the right to do, if he was " duly called upon, 
 by the authorities of the Cathedral to which we 
 belong, to take cognizance of the offence." This 
 was on June 28. That he should so be called 
 was, of course, not in the least likely. Out of 
 the Chapter of five, Gregory and Liddon were 
 two. The Dean, Dr. Mansel, was the last person 
 in the world to call in the Bishop to prosecute 
 them : the only recorded saying of his on the 
 " Ritual" question is that when the Court ordered 
 a cope at the Holy Communion 
 
 " Then Zion, in her anguish, 
 With Babylon must cope." 
 
 Canon Melville, though by no means in theological 
 agreement with them, said on his deathbed, " I 
 have loved and admired many men, but I have 
 never loved any man as I do Liddon " : and he was 
 succeeded by Lightfoot, far too wise and learned 
 a man to approve of such prosecutions. In July 
 Dr. Mansel died, and at the end of the next month 
 the Rev. R. W. Church accepted the Deanery. 
 
 We may now return to the autobiography. 
 The case next dealt with was that of Mr. Ridsdale, 
 who was prosecuted under the Public Worship
 
 116 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Regulation Act of 1874. Archbishop Tait sent 
 the case for trial before Lord Penzance as Judge 
 of the Arches Court. 1 The two principal questions 
 were the vestments required or authorised by the 
 rubric, and the eastward position. The counsel 
 for the appellant, Mr. Ridsdale, were Mr. James 
 Fit/jumes Stephen and Mr. Arthur Charles; 
 on the other side were Dr. Stephens and Mr. 
 Benjamin Shaw. 
 
 But this was doomed not to be the end of the 
 relations to the legal aspect of the case. In the 
 year 1875 a prosecution was commenced against 
 Mr. Hidsdale of Folkestone, for adopting the same 
 practices for which Mr. Purchas had been con- 
 demned. At first the English Church Union 
 undertook his defence; but before the trial came 
 on the question was raised at the Union whether 
 it was right for them to have any concern with a 
 trial in a Court in which they utterly disbelieved ; 
 and whether by so doing they would not commit 
 themselves to a recognition of the legal right to 
 be obeyed, which would be inconsistent with their 
 previous action. Upon this certain persons came 
 to me and asked whether Dean Church and I 
 would undertake the responsibilities of the case. 
 
 1 For the hi story of the case, see Memorial* of Karl ofSelborne, 1865- 
 1HD.1, i. .'577 *'/'/.; Perry, St. PauFs English Church History, 3rd Part, 
 48.5 K<]<I. ; Cornish, Hinttiry of Knylish Church, ii. 143 sqq.
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 117 
 
 To this we agreed, upon the condition that our 
 legal responsibility should be limited to 500. 
 This having been arranged, before the trial came 
 on I was summoned to a conference with the 
 counsel who were to represent us in Court. I took 
 my pamphlet with me and gave it to Mr. Stephen, 
 our leading counsel. About a fortnight after the 
 trial I happened to meet him on the Thames 
 Embankment, when he came up to me and said, 
 " You would see by the papers that I adopted 
 the arguments in your pamphlet, and the Court 
 approved them by giving their decision with 
 respect to the eastward position in accordance 
 with them." 
 
 It was this conviction that the Law Courts did 
 not administer justice to the Ritualists when their 
 causes were before them that drove all who 
 adhered to the principles of the High Church 
 party to act together. There were many of them 
 who regretted the extent to which ritualistic 
 practices that seemed to show an attraction 
 towards Rome were being developed, and who 
 felt that sooner or later they would occasion 
 trouble to the Church, but who also felt con- 
 strained to remain strictly neutral, or to hold 
 out a helping hand to men with most of whose 
 principles they agreed, but some of whose practices
 
 118 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 they very much disliked. It was impossible fairly 
 to look at the sayings and doings of their more 
 prominent opponents and not to see that in their 
 hearts they extremely disliked the whole High 
 Church movement, and the principles on which 
 it was based, and not to feel that if it were 
 possible they would drive all who sympathised 
 with such views out of the Church of England. 
 The eastward position and frequent celebrations of 
 Holy Communion seemed to be as much disliked 
 by them as vestments and incense. Whatever 
 High Churchmen did was attacked, if there was 
 the slightest hope of obtaining a favourable 
 judgment in the Law Courts. Their teaching was 
 misunderstood and misrepresented, and whenever 
 there seemed to be an opening for raising the " No 
 Popery " cry against them, it was unscrupulously 
 made the most of. For some years after 1832 
 the adherents of the " Oxford Tracts " were 
 numerically weak, and it seemed as though it 
 might be possible to make short work with them. 
 But every year their followers increased, partly 
 owing to the mistakes and exaggerations of their 
 opponents, until in every representative assembly 
 of clergy, their friends and supporters were a 
 formidable minority, if not an actual majority : 
 the proportion of their lay adherents naturally
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 119 
 
 did not rapidly become so formidable, but even 
 amongst these laity those who sympathised with 
 them became a very formidable body. The most 
 serious blow that was given to the attacks upon 
 them, of which I have spoken, was Archbishop 
 Benson's judgment in the case of the Bishop of 
 Lincoln, that was afterwards confirmed by the 
 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. 1 In 
 this case the Bishop of Lincoln was attacked for 
 having taken part in services in which certain orna- 
 ments were used and practices followed that had 
 been declared illegal by the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 The Archbishop dared to go behind the judgments 
 that had been previously given, and to examine 
 the whole question from a much wider point of 
 view than had been previously taken, and pro- 
 nounced many things to be legal that had been 
 previously proscribed. This for some years put 
 an end to ritual prosecutions, but, unfortunately, 
 instead of furnishing a limit beyond which it was 
 undesirable to advance, it seemed rather to be 
 viewed as an encouragement to some to multiply 
 ceremonies that had never been seen in one of 
 our churches since the Reformation. Some eager 
 and enthusiastic men seemed to persuade them- 
 selves that the same perseverance in spite of 
 
 1 On August 2, 1892. See Life of Archbishop Benson, ii. 374.
 
 120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 opposition which had at last secured the liberty 
 to use certain vestments and to practise certain 
 ceremonies would have the same effect in legalising 
 other things for which there was not the like 
 support then found in the pages of the Prayer 
 Book. 
 
 This revived the idea of the need for making 
 new efforts to amend the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 Objections had been raised, not only to the unfair- 
 ness of the judgments given by them, but also 
 to the principle on which they were constructed. 
 Many of the more moderate members of the 
 High Church party were desirous to stop practices 
 that were creeping into use, but felt that it was 
 impossible for men to be assailed in Courts to the 
 constitution of which they had conscientious 
 objections, and in which it was notorious they 
 would not plead, but would rather suffer judgment 
 to go against them without their being heard. 
 A Royal Commission had sat on the subject, by 
 which many valuable proposals had been made, 
 but none of them had been acted on, and a system 
 which they had practically condemned was still 
 allowed to continue. 
 
 That Mr. Gregory continued to take a keen 
 interest in these questions may be seen from a
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 
 
 letter he wrote on November 10, 1900, to Bishop 
 Creighton, in which he stated his disagreement 
 with certain clergy who were at that time 
 threatened, but his conviction that " prosecutions 
 only increase the evils which they are intended 
 to cure." 
 
 To turn now to other events in my life. Besides 
 the two Royal Commissions of which I was a 
 member, there are two others of which I formed 
 a part. The one sat in 1870 and the following 
 year, and was on the administration and opera- 
 tion of the Contagious Diseases Acts. I entered 
 the Commission with my mind entirely unformed 
 on the subject ; but I was satisfied, after hearing 
 the large amount of evidence placed before us, 
 that the earlier Acts had done great good ; that 
 they had considerably diminished the amount of 
 vice in the various towns which were brought 
 under their influence, and had saved many un- 
 wary young women from a miserable life of sin. 
 The later Acts, which aimed at a complete 
 systematization of dealing with the disease in 
 question, seemed to me to be open to objection 
 on moral grounds, whilst it was evident that 
 they were not more effective in diminishing the 
 amount of disease than the earlier Acts had 
 been. I was therefore strongly in favour of
 
 12i> AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 upholding the earlier Acts and repealing the 
 later ones ; and I greatly regretted when the 
 House of Commons, under the influence of ex- 
 treme opponents and theoretical philanthropists, 
 repealed both sets of Acts, and so opened a 
 way to the evil consequences which have since 
 ensued. 
 
 The other Royal Commission of which I was 
 a member was concerned with the Parochial 
 Charities of the City of London. These amounted 
 to a large sum, and for many years a large portion 
 of this had been applied in the several parishes to 
 which a larger or smaller portion of it belonged, 
 to the relief of the poor of the parish, and the 
 sustentation of chanties in the parish or else- 
 where, to maintaining the fabric and services of 
 the Church and to subsidising the income of the 
 Incumbent, where it was small. Over a large 
 portion of these charities the parishioners had an 
 absolute right of control, as the land from which 
 the revenue was derived had been twice con- 
 fiscated once at the Reformation, and a second 
 time by Oliver Cromwell during the Civil Wars. 
 When therefore the union of parishes for the 
 purpose of poor law administration was decreed 
 by Parliament, the parishioners were perfectly 
 within their right in paying over a portion of
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 123 
 
 the sum received for these charities in meeting 
 the amount levied upon them for the relief of the 
 poor. The chief point in dispute amongst the 
 members of the Commission was the extent 
 to which these charities were ecclesiastical. Pre- 
 bendary Rogers 1 was anxious that all should be 
 placed under the direction of a Board of Trustees, 
 who were to be at liberty to apply them to ecclesi- 
 astical or philanthropic purposes at their discretion. 
 To have accepted such an arrangement would 
 practically have robbed the Church of large sums 
 of money that had been expressly given for her 
 support. In this the majority of the Commis- 
 sioners agreed and recommended that a small 
 Commission, on which the Charity Commission 
 should be well represented, should be appointed 
 to decide under which of the two heads ecclesi- 
 astical or philanthropic each charity should be 
 placed. When an Act was passed a few years 
 later to give effect to the recommendations of 
 the Royal Commission, it directed that the two 
 funds should be kept distinct, and that it should 
 be left to the Charity Commission to decide to 
 which of these the several charities should be 
 
 1 It may be told here that Mr. Rogers once said : " Your ideas and 
 mine, Gregory, differ fundamentally. I believe in flannel petticoats, 
 and you believe in the Church Catechism."
 
 124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 applied. The result was that the Charity Com- 
 mission decided that one-third of the whole 
 amount should be regarded as ecclesiastical, and 
 two-thirds as philanthropic ; as the total annual 
 value of these charities exceeds 100,000, it is 
 important that the Church should not be defrauded 
 of her rights, as she so commonly is. The Act 
 of Parliament provided that a body should be 
 nominated by the Crown and certain interested 
 parties to manage these charities, under the name 
 of the City Parochial Charities Trust. Of this 
 Trust I have been a member since its first 
 formation. 
 
 With regard to the proportion of the fund 
 assigned to ecclesiastical purposes, there were 
 many points to be considered. A certain portion 
 of the sources from which it was derived had been 
 devoted to the maintenance of the fabric and the 
 services of the churches, and had no doubt been 
 given for that express purpose. Were these 
 churches and parishes to be deprived of all help 
 from funds which, for centuries, had belonged 
 to them ? To meet this difficulty the Bishop of 
 London, acting in harmony with the Charity 
 Commissioners, appointed a Committee consisting 
 of the Bishop of Bedford, Archdeacon of London 
 (Dr. (iiffard), Mr. H. Gibbs (now Lord Alden-
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 125 
 
 ham), 1 Dr. Freshfield, Sir John Jennings, and 
 myself, who were to recommend what amount 
 should be given to each church for maintaining 
 the services and the fabric. These recommenda- 
 tions made by this Committee were all confirmed 
 by the Charity Commissioners, and they proffered 
 to several parishes a loan for the improvement 
 of their churches, the capital sum to be repaid 
 by instalments. The remaining surplus was to 
 be divided amongst the dioceses included in the 
 metropolitan area, according to their population 
 within these limits, arid was to be distributed by 
 their respective Bishops, who were to report to 
 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to what purposes 
 it had been dedicated, and the extent to which 
 the selected parishes were benefited by it. 
 
 In the year [ ], 2 I ventured to say in Con- 
 vocation that a good work would be done for 
 the Church if we could start an insurance office 
 for insuring against fire, churches, schools, par- 
 sonages and their contents, and other property 
 belonging to church people ; whatever profits were 
 made to be given to Church charities, after due 
 
 1 The first lord ; died 1907. 
 
 8 The year is left blank in the record, and no record of any such 
 speech has heen found. The Dean always said that he made the 
 speech in Convocation, but it is possible that he first developed the 
 idea in a speech elsewhere.
 
 126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 provision had been made for remunerating those 
 who provided the necessary capital for the under- 
 taking. At the time my statements were con- 
 troverted and nothing was done, and perhaps I 
 was remiss in not pushing forward what I was 
 convinced would be useful in many ways. After 
 a time the Secretary of Queen Anne's Bounty 
 took up the subject : he entirely shared my 
 opinions, and he endeavoured to obtain the con- 
 sent of the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty 
 to his seeking to pass a Bill through Parliament 
 enabling the Bounty Board to undertake this 
 business. But partly through the influence of 
 persons interested in other fire insurance offices, 
 and partly from opposition for other reasons, the 
 Secretary's proposal failed to obtain that support 
 which was necessary for its success. Upon this 
 happening I had the opportunity of laying the 
 question before the Board of Directors of the 
 Clergy Mutual Assurance Society ; I did so, and 
 they were disposed to take up the subject, and 
 some of the members invited me to join their 
 board, in order to push the matter forward. This 
 I declined to do, and in an indefinite kind of way 
 it was arranged that on some future day I should 
 talk the matter over with them. But before that 
 some day arrived I happened to meet Canon
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 127 
 
 Blackley, who told me that he and some friends 
 of his were endeavouring to start a joint stock 
 company, with limited liability, to carry out the 
 object I had in view, and he invited me to join 
 them ; for, as he truly said, if we all worked 
 together we shall succeed ; if two societies are 
 started, both will fail. I therefore consented to 
 join them, and in this way the Ecclesiastical In- 
 surance Company was started, which has been a 
 most conspicuous success. 
 
 There was another important venture made on 
 somewhat similar lines with which I have been 
 connected, which has done much good, but which 
 has not been a conspicuous financial success. 
 Some years before we moved in the matter of 
 Church High Schools for Girls, a society for the 
 same purpose had been formed on undenomi- 
 national lines. One day Archdeacon Emery 
 asked if I would join with him and some others, 
 and commence a Church High Schools Company. 
 This I gladly did; many schools have been founded 
 and are being carried on by this Company, and 
 it may be hoped that its useful operations may be 
 greatly extended. 
 
 The many activities here recorded have extended 
 far on in the Dean's life. Others of equal interest
 
 128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 are now to be considered which also belong to the 
 period after the great change which he mentions 
 before entering into them. 
 
 The new points of departure in my life were 
 crowded together in a very short space of time. 
 In November 1868 I was nominated by Mr. 
 Disraeli to be a Canon of St. Paul's, and I was 
 installed on St. Thomas' Day. The vacancy was 
 made by the appointment of Canon Champneys to 
 be Dean of Lichfield ; his vacancy was first offered 
 to arid accepted by the Rev. G. Prothero, but upon 
 the elevation of Canon Wordsworth to the Bishop- 
 ric of Lincoln, a vacancy was made in the Chapter 
 of Westminster, to which Mr. Prothero was trans- 
 ferred, and I was appointed to St. Paul's. I shall 
 have so much to say concerning what happened at 
 St. Paul's, that I will postpone all that relates to 
 it, until I have written what seems necessary con- 
 cerning the other important position to which I 
 was called. 
 
 In the spring of 1869 Archdeacon Sinclair re- 
 signed the office of Treasurer of the National 
 Society, which he had occupied for many years, 
 and at the almost unanimous request of the Com- 
 mittee (there were two opponents), I was invited 
 to succeed him, and I gladly accepted the in vita-
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 129 
 
 tion, as I had always felt the deepest interest in the 
 subject of popular education. 
 
 The times were anxious ; there had been for 
 some years a growing sense that the nation had 
 not fulfilled as it ought the duty of providing ade- 
 quate funds for the education of the poorer classes; 
 there had been a rapidly increasing jealousy of the 
 Church on account of the great efforts and per- 
 sonal sacrifices made by its members to furnish 
 schools and efficient teaching for the labouring 
 classes of the community. The influence of the 
 Church party in Parliament was weak, Mr. Glad- 
 stone, who had been for some time the champion 
 of the Church's interests, having thrown himself 
 into the arms of the Nonconformists and depending 
 to a considerable extent upon their support for his 
 position as Prime Minister. It was therefore felt 
 that any legislation on the subject of education 
 would have as one of its objects, the diminution 
 of the Church's influence in that important sphere 
 of philanthropic work. The appointment of Mr. 
 Forster, who was a Quaker by religious profession 
 and an advanced Liberal, and who was never bap- 
 tized, to the important position of Vice-President 
 of the Committee of Council of Education, to whom 
 the framing of the Education Bill would necessarily 
 be entrusted, forboded no good to Church schools.
 
 130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 In opposition to these influences there was a re- 
 actionary feeling of justice aroused in many minds, 
 and notably in those of Mr. Gladstone, who a few 
 years previously had taken an active part in 
 spreading Church schools, and of Mr. Forster, by 
 the extreme position taken up by the Radical and 
 dissenting party. The object of this party was to 
 make the education secular, and to make it impos- 
 sible for the Church party and other religionists to 
 carry on their schools, by withholding from them 
 all State recognition and assistance. The arrange- 
 ment eventually accepted was that the State 
 should assume a position of strict neutrality, with 
 respect to religion. Her Majesty's Inspectors were 
 to be forbidden to examine in any way into the 
 religious teaching given to any of the schools, 
 whilst the School Boards to be established under 
 the Act were to be left free to give or to withhold 
 from giving any religious teaching ; whilst in the 
 event of their resolving to give religious teaching, 
 it was only to be such as was provided by the 
 British and Foreign School Society, a Noncon- 
 formist educational authority, for schools in con- 
 nection with the various dissenting bodies ; the 
 Cowper Temple clause which was to be the 
 authoritative controller of the religious teaching 
 given in Board Schools being in reality the clause
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 131 
 
 inserted in the deeds of all British and Foreign 
 schools. In other respects the teaching in the 
 Voluntary and the Board schools was to be re- 
 tained. In the Bill as introduced by the Govern- 
 ment, the School Boards were to be allowed to 
 make grants to the Voluntary schools in their dis- 
 tricts ; but this was so violently opposed by the 
 Radicals, that the permission was withdrawn, and 
 in lieu of it a considerable increase in the ordinary 
 Government grant was promised ; but as this in- 
 creased grant was to be enjoyed equally by the 
 Board schools and the Voluntary schools, it afforded 
 no advantage to the latter in its struggle with the 
 former, which were to have the right of making 
 unlimited demands upon the rates for the schools 
 they established. At the time it was boldly as- 
 serted by Mr. Forster and members of the Govern- 
 ment that the education rate would never exceed 
 3d. in the pound. By this many were deceived, 
 the School Boards generally seeming to regard it 
 as their duty to make Voluntary schools impossible. 
 For this purpose, in many places, notably in Lon- 
 don, they multiplied schools to a most unnecessary 
 extent, and increased expenditure to an excessive 
 extent, so that a 3d. rate became rather the lowest 
 than the highest sum required. 
 
 Professedly the Education Act of 1870 was to
 
 132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 supplement and not to supplant the existing edu- 
 cational system ; covertly, and, as it seemed to 
 many, intentionally, it was so drawn that it must 
 at no distant period destroy most, if not all, the 
 Voluntary schools ; so completely was this felt to 
 he the case that the Bishop of London (Jackson) 
 said to me in the Hoard-room of the National 
 Society. " In seven years you will not have a 
 school left." As proof that the expectation of the 
 IVamers of the Act that many schools would be 
 transferred to Hoards, it may suffice to mention 
 that the Bill as drawn and presented to Parliament 
 provided that a majority of the managers of any 
 Voluntary school could at any duly summoned 
 meeting transfer their school to a Board, and it 
 also provided that if there was no provision in the 
 trust deed for the transfer of the school, such a 
 vote as that just named would legally accomplish 
 all that was required. In this form the Bill passed 
 through the House of Commons, but at the insti- 
 gation of the National Society, on the motion of 
 Lord Carnarvon, the clause was altered in the 
 I louse of Lords, so that a majority of two-thirds of 
 the managers of the school and also of two-thirds 
 of the subscribers towards its support was required 
 to make the transfer legal. 
 
 It ought to be mentioned that there was very
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 133 
 
 little that was original in Mr. Forster's Act. 
 Two or three Sessions previously a Bill had 
 been introduced into the House of Commons by 
 several private members closely resembling that 
 which eventually passed, except that it did not 
 contain the objectionable Cowper Temple clause, 
 which was proposed by a private member of that 
 name, but it was understood at the time that 
 his action was instigated by the Government, 
 and in the earlier Bill there were no compulsory 
 clauses, about which there have been strong 
 differences of opinion, the most vehement 
 supporters of the principle affirming that it has 
 not proved a success, because its demands are 
 not sufficiently peremptory, and are not enforced 
 with unbending stringency by the magistrates ; 
 whilst others (of whom I am one) never thought 
 it could accomplish what it was designed to 
 effect, as parents and children would alike have 
 excited in them a distaste for an education that 
 had to be enforced by fine and imprisonment, and 
 would naturally do their utmost to secure failure to 
 a system that was thus imposed upon them. After 
 nearly thirty years' experience of its working, I 
 suppose that most candid people would think 
 that educationally it has done neither so 
 much good as its friends prophesied for it, nor
 
 134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 so much evil as its opponents anticipated, whilst 
 the educational system for which it was respon- 
 sible is now universally allowed to have been a 
 signal failure, as well as an extravagantly costly 
 one. 
 
 When the clauses regulating the kind of reli- 
 gious teaching that was to be permitted in Board 
 schools was introduced in the House of Commons 
 by Mr. Cowper Temple, it was objected to by 
 the National Society ; and though its full effect 
 was not fully realised, it was felt that it struck 
 a deadly blow at the kind of religious teaching 
 for which Churchmen had always contended. 
 Protests were made by a few people : some 
 few, of whom I was one, did what they could 
 to hinder its becoming law : but their task was 
 hopeless. The Bishops seemed cowed by the 
 authority of Mr. Gladstone ; the Church party 
 in the House of Commons was feeble and lacked 
 a determined leader to speak strongly of its dan- 
 gers ; whilst in the House of Lords it was felt 
 to be useless to resist what the House of 
 Commons had accepted, and those who should 
 have stood in the breach shrank from the un- 
 popularity of opposing what seemed satisfactory 
 to most politicians. 
 
 The religious effect of this Bill has been, in
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 135 
 
 my opinion, disastrous. The deference to super- 
 iors that was taught in Church schools was more 
 than ignored, children were practically taught 
 that it was derogatory to show marks of respect 
 to superiors in station, and hooliganism is the 
 natural result. Rudeness, sometimes offensively 
 displayed towards superiors in the streets, has in 
 many places become common, whilst the deference 
 that used to be shown to superiors has become 
 a thing of the past. 
 
 When the Education Bill of 1870 passed, the 
 friends of religious education were not so well 
 prepared for it as they ought to have been. 
 The changes, introduced a few years previously, 
 in the manner in which State help was afforded, 
 had shaken the confidence of many people in 
 the stability of the position of these schools, 
 which were being erected at great cost, and 
 in the system of education which they repre- 
 sented. Mr. Robert Lowe's scheme of payment 
 by results, and the manner in which he had 
 placed his proposals before the House of Commons, 
 had raised a feeling that further changes might 
 be expected, and the rapid increase of schools by 
 voluntary bodies, and especially by Church people, 
 which had been proceeding up to that time, had 
 been materially checked. Moreover, a few earnest
 
 136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Churchmen, amongst them my good friend Arch- 
 deacon Denison, had so decried the interference 
 of Government with popular education and the 
 measures proposed for co-operating with Church 
 people and other religious bodies, as to add to 
 peoples' fears and doubts. Their actions had 
 tended to chill the zeal and enthusiasm with 
 which the cause of furthering the spread of 
 Church schools had been carried on for some 
 years previously. From these combined causes 
 it came to pass that whilst some villages and 
 most towns were fairly provided with Church 
 schools, other villages were left without any 
 efficient school, and some large towns, notably 
 London, were most inadequately provided with 
 schools. 
 
 The Committee of the National Society fully 
 realised the danger of this state of things, and, 
 in the year previous to the introduction of the 
 Education Bill by Government, had made a 
 vigorous effort to stimulate backward parishes 
 to provide themselves with schools. To several 
 places the offer was made of a donation of 
 100, in addition to their ordinary grant, if the 
 parishioners would exert themselves and raise 
 the further sum that would be required to erect 
 a school. This caused several schools to be built,
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 137 
 
 and it aroused the attention of many apathetic 
 persons to the fact that the National Society, 
 which represented the Church in the matter of 
 popular education, keenly felt that the only 
 effectual way of retaining any share of the hold 
 which the Church had so long possessed over 
 popular education was to provide schools wher- 
 ever they were needed. This was very strongly 
 my own view of the situation, and I did what 
 I could to give effect to it. 
 
 One of the points which had to be considered 
 when the Education Bill was framed was the 
 assistance which should be given by the State 
 towards the erection of new schools. When 
 political people first began to realise that some 
 political advantage might be gained by advo- 
 cating popular education, after the Reform Bill 
 of 1832 had greatly extended the franchise and 
 admitted large numbers of the upper portions of 
 the labouring classes to vote at elections, the 
 impulse was to offer a bounty, more or less 
 liberal, towards erecting school buildings. As 
 the system developed, under the able adminis- 
 tration of Sir J. Kay Shuttleworth, this form 
 of promoting popular education was greatly ex- 
 tended, and in some cases nearly one-half of the 
 cost of the building was furnished by the National
 
 138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Exchequer. When the Act of 1870 was passed, 
 it was obviously unnecessary to furnish any por- 
 tion of the cost of building schools, provided by 
 the Boards, which that Act called into existence, 
 as the rates would supply to an unlimited extent 
 whatever money was needed, and the plea that 
 the object of the Government was to treat all 
 schools Voluntary or Board with perfect equal- 
 ity, was an apparently popular way of depriving 
 Voluntary schools of the assistance on which, 
 for many years, they had been led to depend ; 
 and thus under the pretence of equal dealing a 
 heavy blow could be given to the increase of 
 Voluntary schools, which many of us thought 
 that members of the Government desired, not- 
 withstanding their professions of a different wish. 
 
 To effect the object aimed at in the quietest 
 manner, the Act provided that no building grants 
 for schools should be given that were not applied 
 for before the end of the year : in other words, 
 during the little more than the four months of the 
 year still remaining. It was thought that this 
 would be safe, as few places would apply ; whilst 
 it had the look of liberal dealing. To the surprise 
 of everyone, Church people all over the country 
 were aroused to the importance of protecting 
 religious education, and not permitting only a
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 139 
 
 mongrel form of religion, in which no one really 
 believed, to be taught to children in whom they 
 were interested, and applications for building 
 grants were sent in by hundreds. This caused 
 very heavy and unusual demands to be made 
 upon the funds of the National Society. It was 
 felt that if the central representative of the Church 
 could hold out a helping hand to those who thus 
 applied, their efforts would probably be crowned 
 with success, as the friends on whose generous 
 contributions they relied for the necessary funds, 
 would be stimulated to give if the proposal had 
 the imprimatur of so important an authority ; 
 whereas if this were denied, the prospects of 
 success would be greatly diminished. Encouraged 
 by several wealthy members of the Committee, 
 and especially by Mr. Hubbard (afterwards Lord 
 Addington), the Society promised help to every 
 school that applied, and pledged itself to the 
 extent of many thousand pounds beyond the 
 funds it then possessed, assured that before the 
 buildings could be erected and the promised grants 
 demanded, there would be sufficient provision to 
 pay all that was wanted. The event justified the 
 line adopted ; hundreds of new schools were built, 
 and the introduction of a School Board was averted 
 from many a parish.
 
 140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 To those of us who believe that the kind of 
 religion that can be taught in Board schools was 
 certain to lower the moral and religious tone of 
 the country this was a result that gave great satis- 
 faction. For many years the eager advocates of 
 extended popular education in Parliament had 
 been urging that with the spread of education 
 vice and crime would diminish, and to give effect 
 to their contention they had secured orders from 
 the Home Secretary that the amount of education 
 possessed by every criminal should be registered, 
 and because a very large percentage of these un- 
 fortunates were illiterate, they urged that their 
 ignorance was the cause of their criminality ; 
 whilst Sir Charles Reed, Chairman of the Lon- 
 don School Board in some of its early days, 
 never wearied in giving assurances to the people 
 of the Metropolis that they could not make a 
 better investment than in building Board schools, 
 as these would so seriously diminish the number 
 of criminals that the saving on prisons and 
 criminals would greatly exceed the amount they 
 would have to pay for School Board rates. 
 Believing, as I do and always have done, that 
 definite religion is the only solid foundation on 
 which improved morality can be built, I have 
 always combated the assertion that secular educa-
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 141 
 
 tion, or such miserable religious instruction as is 
 commonly given in Board schools can improve the 
 morality of the country. And shortly after the 
 passing of the Act, as well as since that time, I 
 ventured to state this openly in sermons, speeches, 
 and articles in reviews. I hold that the returns 
 given in the Government reports on crimes have 
 fully justified my contention, as the number of 
 juvenile criminals and of moral offences has greatly 
 increased, notwithstanding the efforts of the many 
 excellent reformatories and industrial schools in 
 which thousands of criminally disposed children 
 are removed from scenes of temptation and placed 
 under excellent instructors, and the many changes 
 in the criminal laws which tend all to lessen the ap- 
 pearance of crime that was formerly more clearly 
 revealed to the public eye. Many criminals who 
 used to be sent for trial to Petty Sessions or Assizes 
 can now be summarily dealt with by the magis- 
 trate, so that whilst the numbers of offenders tried 
 at Assizes or Petty Sessions has diminished, the 
 number of offenders summarily dealt with by 
 the magistrates has greatly increased. 
 
 With this feeling about Board schools it seemed 
 obvious that I could not consistently undertake 
 any part in managing them. When the first 
 London School Board was elected in 1870, I
 
 U2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 was asked to become a candidate for Lambeth, 
 but I declined. Three years later, at the second 
 election, I was persuaded to be a candidate for the 
 City Division, and was elected for it. My reason 
 for doing so was mainly this : it was seen that the 
 School Hoard regarded the Voluntary schools as 
 rivals and not as friends, and that no opportunity 
 of injuring them was lost. Board schools were 
 built in close proximity to Church schools to draw 
 away their scholars ; the best teachers in some 
 Church schools were induced to leave them and 
 undertake the charge of Board schools by the offer 
 of greatly increased salaries; and it was thought 
 that I might be of some use in defending the 
 interests of the threatened schools by becoming 
 a member of the Board. Our opponents had a 
 decided majority, so that not much could be 
 effected ; but I was able to do something to 
 hinder a liberal salary being given to the Chair- 
 man of the Board. I was privately asked whether 
 I would support a proposal to that effect, and upon 
 my saying that I should do all I could to oppose 
 it, it was not brought forward. It would have 
 been unpopular with the constituencies, and un- 
 less the Church party could have been induced to 
 support it, there was a great probability that at the 
 next election power would have passed into their
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 143 
 
 hands. At the expiration of the three years for 
 which I had been elected, I declined to stand again, 
 as my feeling of opposition to undenominational 
 religious teaching, as it was practically ordered by 
 law, grew stronger and made me shrink from the 
 responsibility of appearing in any way as a sup- 
 porter or approver of it. I have often deeply 
 regretted the words of praise and approval given 
 to Board schools by Bishops and other dignitaries 
 of the Church, as I felt that it gave them a stand- 
 ing in the eyes of half-educated people and others 
 who did not seriously understand the question, that 
 they would not otherwise have enjoyed, whilst it 
 afforded an excuse to people not liberally minded 
 to refuse help to Voluntary schools. That there 
 are amongst Board school teachers very earnest 
 religious people, who by the example of their lives 
 and the earnestness of their teaching do good 
 service, I have no doubt, but this is an accident ; 
 and under a system like that of the London 
 School Board, which does not permit candidates 
 for the office of teacher to be questioned respect- 
 ing their religious belief, the idea of the children 
 being taught definitely any faith must necessarily 
 be very doubtful. If some teachers are believers, 
 others are unbelievers; if in some schools the 
 children are taught a reverent faith in our Lord
 
 144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Jesus Christ, in others they are practically taught 
 that all sense of the importance of such a faith is 
 idle and unnecessary. I had an illustration of 
 what happens in some Board schools through a 
 teacher seeking my advice on a matter of con- 
 science. In compliance with the wish of her 
 father, who was a clergyman, she had under- 
 taken the office, and was evidently a thoroughly 
 conscientious, religious woman, who did her best 
 to implant the rudiments of the Faith in the hearts 
 and minds of the children under her care. The 
 mistress of the class below her was a strong dis- 
 senter-Baptist, I think ; the teacher of the class 
 above her was an agnostic, so that in three years 
 as the children advanced they passed under these 
 three different religious influences, with the result, 
 as the good lady thought, of regarding all religion 
 as a matter of no importance. Her doubt was, 
 whether she would be justified in throwing up her 
 appointment under these circumstances in opposi- 
 tion to the wishes of her father. She was over 
 thirty years of age, and I thought she would be 
 justified. I mention the circumstance because I 
 imagine it must describe a state of things that 
 frequently happens, and illustrates an obvious 
 common danger in all the London Board schools, 
 where no one is supposed to know whether the
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 145 
 
 teacher is a Churchman or a Baptist, a Roman 
 Catholic or a Quaker, a Christian or a Parsee. 
 
 Another educational matter in which I came 
 to take great interest arose in this way. One day 
 I had a letter from Cardinal Manning in which 
 he said that he should be greatly obliged if I 
 would come and see him, as the state of the 
 Roman Catholic schools was becoming very 
 critical, and he did not see what steps it was 
 desirable to take, and knowing the interest I took 
 in the question of Voluntary Schools and dis- 
 tinctive religious teaching, he should be glad of 
 my advice. I accordingly went, when he told me 
 that the strain upon himself and his co-religionists 
 for the support of their schools was becoming 
 almost intolerable, and he did not see for what 
 remedy he should agitate in order to obtain relief. 
 I had often thought over the subject, and pro- 
 ceeded to show him, that serious as was the 
 condition of the Voluntary Schools, it had never 
 been placed before the world in such an authori- 
 tative form as would compel outsiders to believe 
 what the state of the case really was, and that 
 I was satisfied nothing would, or could, be done 
 until the true position of affairs had been carefully 
 enquired into by a Royal Commission, and we 
 
 had recommendations from such a body for more 
 
 K
 
 146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 equitable treatment. He unhestitatingly adopted 
 the suggestion, and said, " I will at once direct 
 all the clergy under my jurisdiction to petition 
 for the appointment of such a Commission." This 
 was done, and in the course of a year or so the 
 Royal Commission on education was appointed, 
 and of it I was a member. In the evidence taken 
 by it, and in the recommendations it made, there 
 was provided the authoritative statement which 
 I felt to be needed, and there is reason for 
 thinking that these, and the interest aroused by 
 their publication, and the discussion they excited, 
 materially assisted in securing the small, but 
 not altogether unimportant ameliorations in the 
 position of the Voluntary Schools which have been 
 provided by recent legislation. At the same time 
 I feel that no settlement of the question can be 
 satisfactory, until there is meted out to Church 
 people and other believers in a definite revelation 
 from God the same treatment that is accorded to 
 those who are satisfied with the hazy, indefinite 
 kind of so called religious teaching which is known 
 as undenominationalism, in which no one really 
 believes, and which is held to be satisfactory only 
 by those who take their views of religion from 
 what is popular with the world, and who regard 
 creeds and religious dogma as matters of party,
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 147 
 
 and not as in any real way affecting man's relations 
 to God ; in other words, who are content to 
 measure the truth or falsehood of religions as of 
 all other things, by their influence in making the 
 present life easy and comfortable, and ignore 
 altogether their relation to an eternal future. I 
 do not think that it is necessary for me to say 
 more here about matters educational and the part 
 I took in them. All this is practically set forth 
 in the articles I wrote for the School Guardian 
 and in other publications, and can be more 
 accurately learned from such sources by any one 
 who thinks it worth his while to ascertain it, 
 than they possibly could from reminiscences of 
 mine penned many years after their occurrence. 
 Or possibly I may say something more on the 
 subject later on. 
 
 The School Guardian issued its first number on 
 January 1, 1876, and Mr. Gregory was practically 
 though not technically its editor for many years. 
 He was a constant contributor, always clear 
 in his enunciations of policy, trenchant in his 
 criticisms, full of sympathy for the children and 
 the teachers, devoted to the encouragement of an 
 education of the whole being, body, soul, and 
 spirit, w r hich had God for its centre and its light. 
 
 In his first article he stated the aims that he
 
 U8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 set before him. Thirty years before, the National 
 Society had begun to issue its monthly paper. 
 Now it was to be developed on the same principles. 
 " Our object will be to support every measure 
 which promises really to improve the education 
 of the people, and to oppose whatever we think 
 would degrade or undermine it." The National 
 Society, which had worked for the education of 
 the poor when many people doubted whether they 
 should be educated at all, had a right to quote its 
 past as a guarantee of its intentions in the future. 
 ' Our principles will remain the same as they have 
 ever been. \Ve wish to know no party in Church 
 or State ; to recognise equally the rights of school- 
 managers and school-teachers ; to urge upon all an 
 adequate discharge of the responsibilities of their 
 position, and to secure for all a fair recognition of 
 the good work they accomplish. Satisfied that 
 no system of education can be permanent or 
 satisfactory which does violence to the religious 
 principles or scruples of any large section of the 
 people, we shall advocate tolerance and equal 
 privileges for all, special privileges for none." 
 
 An article on January 15 asserts again the 
 claim for equality of treatment: "Denominational 
 schools ask for no special favour; the last thing 
 their supporters wish to do is to tax opponents for 
 their maintenance ; but they do ask that their 
 money shall not be withdrawn from the schools 
 of which they approve in order to maintain an 
 objectionable system." 
 
 On May 20 of the same year he discussed the 
 transfer of Church Schools to the School Boards,
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 149 
 
 pointing out the fact that where this was done 
 " the only thing that is certain is that the kind 
 of religious education designed by the founders of 
 the school cannot under any circumstances be im- 
 parted." The cost of education would fall on all 
 ratepayers, not on a few benevolent people ; but 
 " when the question comes to be debated whether 
 it is better to make sacrifices to educate the rising 
 generation in the principles of the Church, or to 
 let them grow up without any definite religious 
 education in order that the cost of such education 
 may be thrown upon the rates, there is danger 
 of our not being far from a second question, viz., 
 Why devote endowments to secure the instruction 
 of adults in the doctrines of the Church when they 
 might have been taught to believe a multitude 
 of religions without any need for endowments ? 
 ' Feed my lambs ' was a charge as solemnly given 
 by the Founder of our religion as ' Feed my 
 sheep.' If the Church is content to surrender the 
 care of the lambs, it cannot be expected that her 
 regard for the sheep will be rated very high, or 
 will continue very long." 
 
 No words could better express the convictions 
 of the writer's heart. 
 
 Year by year, amid parochial work which would 
 have been more than enough to exhaust the energies 
 of most strong men, Mr. Gregory held on at the 
 National Society, preaching week by week his 
 ideal of an education which should be at once 
 national and religious. 
 
 Canon Erskine Clarke, who was long associated 
 with his educational work, writes of it thus :
 
 150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 " As one who sat for many years at the Board 
 of the National Society under the Chairmanship of 
 Dean Gregory, I have a lively recollection of the 
 interest which he took in the work. He used to 
 walk along the Embankment from the Deanery, 
 and always arrived with almost absolute punctu- 
 ality for the meetings. He had evidently carefully 
 studied at home the agenda with the lists of 
 applieations, so that he was ready to state the 
 c i re u instances of each case and to propose the 
 grant which he thought should be made. He 
 always did so with much sympathy for poor 
 parishes, especially in Wales, where good work 
 appeared to be going on, but he had small toler- 
 ance for the well-to-do parishes. It was a favourite 
 plan of his to suggest a grant much above the 
 usual seale on condition that the whole sum re- 
 quired should be raised, so as to encourage managers 
 to elear off their debts. For many years (till 
 181)5) Dean Gregory acted as Treasurer for the 
 Society and gave keen attention to its finances, 
 which he managed with so great skill that he left 
 them in excellent condition. It was by his fore- 
 sight and capable negotiations that the Society 
 was able to move from the rooms long occupied 
 behind Westminster Court- House to the first-rate 
 freehold premises in Great Peter Street, without 
 making any special appeal or crippling the funds 
 available for grants. 
 
 " The Dean was a very keen and outspoken 
 politician. He had no liking for the legislation 
 of 1870, and did not mince his language when 
 he had to speak on the School Board system
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 151 
 
 either at meetings or in the Lower House of the 
 Convocation of Canterbury, where for many 
 years he was a notable figure and wielded much 
 influence." 
 
 During the period of incubation of the Volun- 
 tary Schools Act of 1897 he was in the counsels of 
 those who were engaged in preparing it, and he is 
 believed to have helped to draw up the provision 
 that schools should be rated at a sum which a 
 willing tenant would pay who had to fulfil the 
 obligations of the trust deeds. His interest in the 
 Society and in education remained firm to the end. 
 His own notes of a conference (February 11, 
 1891) with Lord Cranbrook and Mr. W. H. Smith, 
 before the Bill of L891, follow : 
 
 " The following points were discussed, with 
 which I substantially agreed. This applies to the 
 paragraphs not included in brackets : those in 
 brackets were not discussed, and are only men- 
 tioned as suggestions to be considered. 
 
 " I. That there should be a free school within 
 reach of every child, and that a maximum grant 
 of 10s. be made for every child attending such a 
 school. The sum might be varied so as not to 
 exceed a fourth of the sum expended on the 
 child's education, provided that every school 
 spending more than 2 (or 3) on each child was 
 required to give a reason satisfactory to the 
 Department for expenditure beyond that sum on 
 pain of forfeiting the grant. 
 
 "That where a school is the only elementary 
 school within an area of 2 miles, it is compulsory 
 upon it to be free.
 
 152 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 " That where there are more schools than one 
 within such area, it be at the option of the 
 managers to make the schools free and receive 
 the special grant, or to retain a system of fees 
 not to exceed Od. a week on the average, and 
 enjoying the same advantages from the Govern- 
 ment grant as at present : provided always that 
 a sufficient number of schools are free to satisfy 
 the requirements of a previous clause. 
 
 "II. That there be placed upon the Committee 
 of Management of every free school, a minority, 
 say one, two, or at most three, of the parents of 
 the children attending the school, to be elected by 
 all the parents of such children. 
 
 "III. That in thinly peopled neighbourhoods 
 where there is only one elementary school, and that 
 a voluntary one, the County Council may require, 
 on the petition of a certain number of the in- 
 habitants of the district for whose benefit the 
 school exists, to erect a class-room in which the 
 children of parents not belonging to the religious 
 body represented by the managers of the school 
 may receive religious instruction from the ministers 
 or authorised representatives of the religious body 
 to which their parents belong. And in all Board 
 Schools, whether town or country, the Cowper 
 Temple clause be so far relaxed as to allow 
 clergymen or authorised representatives of the 
 religious bodies to which the parents belong to 
 give definite dogmatic instruction to those children 
 whose parents wish them to receive it. And in all 
 cases the time-tables shall be so arranged as to suit 
 the convenience of such teachers, provided that
 
 ACTIVITIES 153 
 
 such time for religious teaching shall be at one of 
 the times ordered by the Conscience Clause now 
 in force. 
 
 ** IV. That the special grant for free schools 
 might be distributed to " areas " through the 
 County Councils, and riot by the Education 
 Department to individual schools. 
 
 " V. That a charge of a fixed sum, say 
 1,500,000, be placed on the Consolidated Fund, 
 so that the grants for free schools to that extent 
 may not require an annual vote of Parliament. 
 It would be ruinous to many Voluntary Schools 
 if in some year Parliament should refuse to 
 vote the grant. And, looking to possible persons 
 who might fill the office of Vice-President of the 
 Council, it is quite conceivable that at their insti- 
 gation there might be such a refusal. Fees once 
 destroyed in any school could not easily be 
 reimposed, so that to lose a fixed source of income 
 for one about which there was any uncertainty 
 would place the schools making the change at a 
 disadvantage. 
 
 " [VI.] Provision should be made that schools 
 selecting to continue to charge fees may, after due 
 notice, become free, and receive their share of the 
 special grant, or that schools, determining in the 
 first instance to be free, may reimpose fees on 
 their scholars upon forfeiting the special grant. 
 
 " [Should all Board Schools be free ? Where 
 there is an option the Board Schools to be made 
 free ?] 
 
 " That any free school ejecting a child except 
 from its being already quite full, on account of
 
 154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 its poverty, bad clothing, or the character of its 
 parents, shall be liable to forfeit the special grant 
 for the year ; and it shall be sufficient evidence 
 that a school cannot claim to be so full as to 
 be unable to admit such a child seeking admission 
 if any other child shall be admitted before it can 
 be shown that a vacancy has been made by some 
 other child previously attending having left the 
 school." 
 
 In 1895 the Dean wrote a most interesting 
 survey of the whole subject of popular elementary 
 education in a volume which is still invaluable for 
 those who study its history. 
 
 The epitaph that would best describe the long 
 work for education was that of the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury in 1006, when he called Dean 
 Gregory " the foremost veteran of the tight for 
 maintaining definite religious teaching."
 
 ST. PAUL'S, 1868-1912 
 
 THE last years at Lambeth were made happy by 
 Mr. Gregory's marriage, on July 17, 1861, to 
 Charlotte Anne, daughter of Admiral the Hon. 
 Sir Robert Stopford. How happy was the mar- 
 riage, how gracious and sympathetic the wife, is 
 known to all who were friends in the forty years 
 that followed. Mrs. Gregory died in 1904. Of 
 the three daughters, Eleanor, Christiana, and 
 Alice, it shall only be said here that they made 
 their father's life happy to the end. His sons 
 were serving the Church with all the earnestness 
 and devotion which comes of right to the children 
 of such a father ; one in England, the other first in 
 Madagascar for many years and then as Bishop of 
 Mauritius. If in response to their wish nothing is 
 said here of those who were with him at the last, 
 it is impossible to recall him to mind without their 
 being an ineffaceable part of the picture. There is 
 a story which may speak for itself at the very be- 
 ginning of those many years of affection. When 
 the hard poverty of the years at Lambeth was at 
 last relieved by the appointment to St. Paul's, the 
 father's first reference to the emoluments was : 
 " Now we can get a rocking-horse for the little 
 
 155
 
 156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 children." No affection could be closer than that 
 between Mr. Gregory and his children. 
 
 The strenuous life of a devoted parish priest and 
 the services which he had rendered in the general 
 work of the Church had made Mr. Gregory well 
 known in London ; but many may have thought 
 that statesmen in power would have been afraid of 
 giving "promotion" to a man of opinions so definite 
 and of such determination in expressing them. 
 Mr. Disraeli, however, was not a timid person, and 
 his own views on social questions and on the diffi- 
 culties and sorrows of the poor w r ere reflected in 
 the energetic action of Mr. Gregory ; though a 
 letter of Bishop Wilberforce's shows that there 
 was a certain reluctance to appoint a man whom 
 some believed to be " extreme." Whether party 
 politics were also considered in the matter we need 
 not enquire. It is enough to remember that the 
 work at Lambeth was widely recognised a letter 
 of Jenny Lind's, which she asked should not be 
 published, for it is evidence of the generosity of 
 her sympathy, witnesses to the fact. Now it led 
 to such reward as it is in the power of statesmen 
 to give a call to new work which was in its way 
 as difficult as the old. 
 
 I turn now to my relations with St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, which formed one of the most interest- 
 ing portions of my life. 
 
 Nominated to a Canonry there in November 
 18G8, when I was nearly fifty years old, I was in- 
 stalled on St. Thomas' Day in the following
 
 ST. PAUL'S 157 
 
 month. My nomination had not been pleasing 
 to the existing Canons, and Archdeacon Hale, to 
 whom was entrusted the task of installing me, 
 apparently desired to mark this by the manner in 
 which the service was arranged. On a specially 
 dark evening of the shortest day in the year, after 
 the four o'clock service, every light in the Cathe- 
 dral was turned out ; some friends from Lambeth 
 who had come to see me installed were compelled 
 to leave the Cathedral before the service for my 
 installation commenced, and the only persons 
 allowed to remain were my wife and children. A 
 procession was then formed ; a virger walking first 
 with a small taper in his hand provided the only 
 light in the Cathedral, then myself and after me 
 Archdeacon Hale ; we walked to the high altar at 
 the extreme east end of the Cathedral, and then 
 the usual service was read by the Archdeacon, and 
 I was placed in a chair instead of a stall, and we 
 returned to the vestry. A more miserable and 
 disgracefully slovenly service I never saw. I 
 knew a little of one of the Minor Canons of St. 
 Paul's 1 through his brother, who had a manu- 
 factory in my parish in Lambeth, and efficiently 
 helped me as Treasurer of some of the parochial 
 
 1 This was Mr. Coward, who died only a few months hefore the 
 Dean in 1911.
 
 158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 charities. Immediately after my nomination to a 
 Canonry, his brother, the Minor Canon, invited me 
 to dine with him in Amen Court, where he lived 
 in one of the Canons' houses, having charge of the 
 chorister boys, who were day scholars living within 
 reach of St. Paul's. After dinner he talked freely 
 with me about the state of things at the Cathedral. 
 Amongst other things he said, " Let me venture 
 to give you some advice. The position you are 
 about to fill is a very good one, and one that you 
 may thoroughly enjoy; but do not imagine that you 
 can make any changes or improvements. Every 
 new Canon when he comes is full of plans for doing 
 this, that, and the other, by which he may amend 
 the existing state of things ; but take my word for 
 it, this is an Augean Stable that nobody on earth 
 can sweep, therefore let things take their course, 
 and do not trouble about them." He went on 
 further to say, " I know the Minor Canons do not 
 fulfil all their duties, but there is no fear of the 
 Chapter finding fault with them, for none of them 
 do the duties to which they are pledged." In 
 course of a further conversation, he clearly showed 
 that he thought tilings would run on in their 
 present course until there was a convulsion, when 
 it was impossible to foretell what might happen. 
 The conversation which I had with my friend
 
 ST. PAUUti 159 
 
 the Minor Canon, deepened in me the conviction 
 I had long entertained, that one great reason why 
 additions to the services of the Church were not 
 welcome, as they should be, to the laity, and made 
 the most of, arose from the responsible clergymen 
 failing to show their appreciation of their value 
 by their example. Thus in parishes where daily 
 services or frequent celebrations of Holy Com- 
 munion were introduced, the clergy came when 
 they were responsible for the service, but only 
 irregularly when they were not. This left the 
 impression upon the minds of lay people that 
 they did not much value taking part in the 
 prayers or attach much real spiritual importance 
 to them, but that they only had them said as 
 a matter of duty. Their example is looked to ; 
 if they habitually come when they are not ob- 
 liged, then it seems that they really value what 
 they invite others to take part in ; when they 
 do not, others soon find it inconvenient and a 
 burden to put other things aside in order to be 
 present. This holds specially true with Cathe- 
 dral Choirs. If the Dean and Canons seldom 
 or never come, except when they are obliged, 
 the inferior members feel it a hardship that those 
 who are placed highest, and receive the largest in- 
 comes, are rarely found in their places for prayers,
 
 160 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 whilst themselves are compelled to be there. 
 Whilst if their superiors are never absent when 
 it is possible for them to be present, the inferior 
 members of the body feel the whole position of 
 things changed. Throughout my connection with 
 the Cathedral, 1 made it my endeavour to realise 
 this, as I have striven to do when I was a parish 
 priest. As illustrative of the state of things I 
 may mention that some years later the present 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Temple, told me 
 that when he was a young man he attended St. 
 Paul's one Sunday morning, intending to remain 
 for Holy Communion. When the earlier part 
 of the service was over, a virger came to him and 
 said, " I hope, sir, you are not intending to remain for 
 the sacrament, as that will give the Minor Canon 
 the trouble of celebrating, which otherwise he will 
 not do." Upon this Mr. Temple left the Cathedral. 
 
 Thus he began, clearly, trenchantly, to write of 
 the great work he was called upon to do at St. 
 Paul's. What it was that needed to be done has 
 often been told by none more simply and truth- 
 fully than himself. It might be summed up in 
 words once uttered by Bishop Blomfield : " I 
 wonder what that great building has ever done 
 for the cause of Jesus Christ." Those words were 
 said more than half a century ago. No one could 
 say them now.
 
 ST. PAUL'S 161 
 
 What Church did, and Liddon did, and many 
 others, and Gregory himself, has been eloquently 
 told. But it must not be thought that their work 
 was entirely foreign to the traditions of the Church 
 to which they belonged, or even novel at the day 
 when they undertook it. St. Paul's had, though a 
 century and more back, n great history of devoted 
 service : never more so than in the days of those 
 sermons of Donne immortalised by Izaak Walton. 
 And the monument of Donne was fitly the one 
 memorial which had survived the fire, to encourage 
 his successors. Other Cathedral churches had re- 
 vived, some, it may be hoped, had never lost, the 
 customs of reverent devotion and the care of all 
 those who were engaged in the holy service. 
 Similar to the aims of Robert Gregory in 1868 
 were those of Walter Kerr Hamilton when he 
 became Canon and Treasurer (he was afterwards 
 Precentor and ultimately Bishop) of Salisbury in 
 1841. Mr. Hamilton was like Mr. Gregory in 
 being no musician, but he set himself to do all 
 that was possible to make the musical service 
 reverent, beautiful, and appropriate to the Church's 
 seasons : he devoted " much time and effort to 
 forming the intimate acquaintance of the choristers 
 and lay vicars, with a view to leading them to feel 
 their high privilege in taking so prominent a part 
 in the worship of God, and to replacing the per- 
 functory and irreverent spirit, which is too common 
 in Cathedral choirs, by a sincere and earnest de- 
 votion." And his attendance at the Cathedral 
 services was regular all the year round. "He 
 allowed nothing to interfere with an obligation 
 
 i,
 
 102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 so binding upon himself, and so stimulating, by 
 way of example, to others." He revived the use 
 of the Cathedral for constant services, early and 
 late ; he preached continually ; and he did his ut- 
 most to secure that the Cathedral Chapter should 
 l)e really resident and engaged in definite duties 
 connected with the Cathedral church. What he 
 had begun in practice he set forth, when he be- 
 came Bishop, in a letter to the Members of his 
 Diocese, in 18.55, on "Cathedral Reform." In 
 this he said " Let Deans and Canons be the 
 best of men, yet, if they have parishes, their 
 hearts will probably be in the duties of their 
 care of souls, and the three months' residence 
 at the Cathedral will have passed away before 
 they have undertaken any real, definite work ; 
 and, of course, any continued engagement in 
 such work as specially belongs to Cathedrals is 
 absolutely impossible." 
 
 We learn all this from Dr. Liddon's memoir of 
 Bishop Hamilton, published in 18G9 ; and it is 
 easy to see how the influence of the Bishop, re- 
 flected in the life and aims of his chaplain, proved, 
 when that chaplain found himself at St. Paul's 
 with Mr. Gregory, fruitful in the reorganisation of 
 the services and duties attached to that great 
 Cathedral. The period which began with Walter 
 Kerr Hamilton at Salisbury in 1841 may be said 
 to conclude with Edward White Benson at Truro 
 in 1878, and it may be called the Epoch of Cathe- 
 dral Reform. The aims of the prime movers in it 
 were the same throughout. Dr. Benson's The 
 Cathedral: its necessary place in tlie life and work
 
 ST. PAUL'S 163 
 
 of the Church (1878) echoes and enforces with 
 its author's own peculiar skill the lessons which 
 study and experience had taught him, as they had 
 taught his predecessors. He insists, for example, 
 on the necessity of extending " to the Canons the 
 law which already requires Deans to reside nine 
 months," and his wide ideal of Cathedral worship 
 " the ceaseless supplication for grace, the perpetual 
 intercession, the endless praise unbroken yet ever 
 new like Nature herself with daily- varying, never- 
 changing majesty" is that which by this time 
 St. Paul's was setting conspicuously before the 
 nation and the Church. The copy of this book, 
 used and very carefully marked and noted by 
 Dean Church (now in my possession) serves to 
 link the aims of Archbishop Benson to the realisa- 
 tion in the great London church. During all this 
 period public attention was being directed to the 
 Cathedrals. Dean Goulburn's book On the 
 Principles of the Cathedral System, 1870, is 
 another example, which stands midway in the 
 time; and Dr. Goulburn was a close friend of 
 Mr. Gregory. So the Epoch of Cathedral Reform, 
 in which many good men were active, may be 
 said, though it did not originate there, to find its 
 centre, and its most complete success, in St. Paul's. 
 The task before the reformers at St. Paul's was 
 a heavy one. It was on the practical side that it 
 first appealed to Mr. Gregory. And what was 
 needed, and what he did, when he first became 
 Canon, is thus told by himself. What he tells 
 illustrates much that we have said above.
 
 164- AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 The circumstance already narrated about my 
 installation showed me that there was plenty of 
 room for improvement ; and the first impression 
 was speedily confirmed by everything that I saw. 
 The most ordinary improvements with respect to 
 the dress of the clergy officiating, and the ordering 
 of the services that were found elsewhere, had not 
 been introduced at St. Paul's. No clergyman 
 wore a cassock ; there was little or no order in 
 entering the Cathedral at service time ; the Canon 
 came from his vestry, and the Minor Canons and 
 singing men and boys from theirs, and met at the 
 mouth of the choir, stragglers taking their seats 
 afterwards. The choir was wretched ; it consisted 
 of six or eight boys and two, three, or four men, 
 just as they happened to turn up. The appointed 
 music had sometimes to be changed, because there 
 were not men of the right voice to sing what was 
 appointed. At the Celebration of Holy Com- 
 munion there was no credence table for the 
 Elements, but all were placed on the Altar just as 
 they would have been in a Dissenting Chapel. 
 No voluntary was played as the clergy and choir 
 entered the church ; and the choir men read 
 letters and talked during the service, and it was 
 never known for more than one member of the 
 Chapter to be present at a service except on very
 
 ST. PAUUS 165 
 
 special occasions ; the Minor Canons attended 
 more regularly, because there was a fund divided 
 amongst them according to the number of their 
 attendances. All the services were in the choir ; 
 that in the morning of Sundays and week-days at 
 9.45, that in the afternoon at 3.15. I have several 
 times gone into the Cathedral on Sunday mornings 
 when there was not a single person present ; a few 
 gathered as the service proceeded, whilst the 
 number of communicants (there was a celebration 
 nominally every Sunday morning) was very small. 
 The attendance of people at the afternoon service 
 on Sundays was better, and perhaps amounted to 
 100 or 120, except during the singing of the 
 anthem, when a number of people assembled at 
 the mouth of the choir and left so soon as the 
 anthem had been sung. The number of persons 
 at the daily services was painfully small. 1 
 
 When I was made a member of the Chapter, 
 it consisted of Dr. Mansel, who was appointed 
 Dean on the death of Dean Milman, the month 
 before I was nominated to be a Canon ; Arch- 
 deacon Hale, who was also Master of the Charter- 
 
 1 The print of St. Paul's in 1840, which is reproduced as an illustra- 
 tion, p. 155, shows the bareness of the apse, and is apparently designed 
 to illustrate the irreverence of the choir, but the figures can only be 
 regarded as fanciful, even by those who most violently malign the 
 past.
 
 166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 house, and who took much the most interest in 
 the affairs of the Cathedral; Dr. Dale, who was 
 also Rector of Therfield in Hertfordshire ; and 
 Canon Melville, who was also Rector of Barnes. 
 The vacancy that I rilled was made by the promo- 
 tion of Canon Champneys to the Deanery of 
 Lichfield. 
 
 After my installation, Canon Champneys, who 
 held the Vicarage of St. Pancras together with the 
 Canonry, and also Canon Dale, whom Champneys 
 had succeeded at St. Pancras when he had taken 
 the Rectory of Therfield, strongly urged me to 
 hold St. Pancras together with the Canonry; as 
 Mr. Disraeli had suggested that I should do when 
 he offered me the Canonry. This I steadfastly 
 refused to do, as I felt that holding a benefice with 
 a Canonry was to a considerable extent a cause of 
 the interests of the Cathedral being so grievously 
 neglected. I therefore determined to vacate my 
 benefice in Lambeth so soon as I could secure a 
 successor to carry on such work as I had com- 
 menced, and, that I might have no pecuniary 
 inducement to retain it, 1 resolved that the income 
 of the benefice should all be given away in charity. 
 Five years later the Rector of Lambeth agreed to 
 appoint one of my Curates, and I resigned. 
 
 The state of things, as will be seen from what
 
 ST. PAUL'S 167 
 
 I have already said, was not encouraging at St. 
 Paul's. From the first I did not shrink from 
 speaking very plainly to my colleagues on the 
 subject. I insisted that we ought to endeavour 
 to make the Cathedral the centre of the religious 
 life of the diocese, and make it more worthy of 
 filling such a position. A feeble effort had been 
 made to decorate the Cathedral a few years 
 previously : a portion of the roof of the choir 
 had been gilded, and two of the eight spandrils 
 of the dome had been filled with mosaics, the 
 design for one of them having been given by 
 Stephens and of the other by Watts. But the 
 funds raised were soon exhausted, and there was 
 nothing in the condition of the Cathedral to tempt 
 people to give more. Beyond the annual services 
 for the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, 
 for S.P.G., and for the gathering of the charity 
 children which had been carried on within its walls 
 for more than a century, nothing was done. At 
 an early Chapter after my appointment, I stated 
 my views very plainly, upon which Archdeacon 
 Hale, thinking to show up an inconsistency which 
 he expected, said, " Here is an application for the 
 Bible Society to hold their annual service in St. 
 Paul's; what do you say to that?" I at once 
 responded that I would gladly welcome them.
 
 168 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 It was not the Society that I should naturally 
 have welcomed to begin with, but on that account 
 it formed a more valuable precedent. 
 
 A more important matter occurred in the follow- 
 ing November. 1 was in residence, and, being very 
 much annoyed at the miserable attendance of choir- 
 men on All Saints Day, on the following morning, 
 instead of following the virger into the Dean's 
 vestry after the conclusion of the service, I turned 
 the other way when coming out of the choir and 
 accompanied the choir into the south aisle, where 
 they vested ; then, closing the iron gate, I asked all 
 present to remain for a few minutes, as 1 had some- 
 thing to say to them. I then spoke of the dis- 
 graceful attendance of the singing men, and the 
 miserable services we had in consequence. I then 
 proceeded as quickly as I could to a meeting of 
 the Ritual Commission which met that morning, 
 thinking no more of what had happened. Return- 
 ing home from the Ritual Commission, I saw to 
 my surprise on the placards of the evening papers 
 at the news shops the announcement of " Extra- 
 ordinary proceedings at St. Paul's." I instantly 
 procured a paper, and then read all that I had 
 said to the choir. This seemed to attract general 
 interest, as it was copied into newspapers all over 
 the country. I had papers with it in sent me from
 
 ST. PAUL'S 169 
 
 distant parts of Scotland. My colleagues were 
 much scandalised at the publicity thus given to 
 the state of things at St. Paul's, and Archdeacon 
 Hale proposed that we should revive the disci- 
 pline Chapter that for many years in old times 
 used to sit every Saturday. This was done, and 
 that Chapter has very usefully sat on every Satur- 
 day since that time, and has taken note of all 
 lapses of duty during the preceding week. 
 
 Another important change grew out of the 
 formation of this Saturday Chapter. The Sun- 
 day and week-day services up to that time were 
 at 9.45 and 3.15. The early hour on Sundays 
 was apparently fixed for the convenience of the 
 Minor Canons, all of whom had benefices in the 
 City, and who were able to take part in the 
 service in their own churches by leaving the 
 Cathedral before the sermon ; whilst the early 
 hour for evensong on week-days was most in- 
 convenient for any business men who might wish 
 to be present. The new time fixed for the Sunday 
 morning service was 10.30, as it was felt that if it 
 were later it would be inconvenient for the vicars 
 choral, all of whom were obliged to live at a 
 distance from the Cathedral on account of the 
 high rents charged for houses near the Cathedral, 
 and who had to return in time for the service at
 
 170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 *3.15. The hours for the week-day services were 
 fixed at 10 and 4. The change was made on 
 Advent Sunday (November 28) 1869. 
 
 A year after Mr. Gregory's appointment as 
 Canon of St. Paul's the opportunity of work for 
 which he was exceptionally qualified was given 
 him hy a vacancy in the post of Treasurer of the 
 Cathedral. Early in 1869 he studied the sta- 
 tutes of the Cathedral with the hope of discover- 
 ing means of remedying the anarchy which he 
 found in its government. He then suggested 
 that " the proper starting point " would be 
 " to unite the offices of Treasurer, Precentor, and 
 Chancellor to the Canonries, and that their work 
 and stipend might go together." The proposal 
 was accepted, and on the death of the Treasurer 
 shortly afterwards, it was carried unanimously by 
 the Chapter, who requested the Bishop of London, 
 in whose hands the nomination lay, to appoint 
 Canon Gregory to the office. It is an illustration 
 of the difficulties that beset Cathedral reformers, 
 that no sooner was this agreement arrived at, and 
 the unanimous request conveyed to the Bishop, 
 than one of the Canons changed his mind, and 
 he privately urged the Bishop not to assent to 
 the proposal. Mr. Gregory first heard of this 
 through a chance meeting with the Bishop, and 
 he was not unnaturally astonished. The corre- 
 spondence which ensued is notable in the curious 
 records of Cathedral life. The matter is worth a 
 word or two, for it became mixed up with the new
 
 ST. PAUL'S 171 
 
 Canon's efforts to reform the choir, and its satis- 
 factory conclusion made it possible for him to do 
 what no one else had strength to do, and to start 
 the movement which made St. Paul's what it is 
 to-day. A few extracts will illustrate these points. 
 The Canon who had changed his mind wrote thus 
 to Mr. Gregory on November 3, 1869, to explain 
 his singular behaviour : 
 
 " After last Friday's Chapter, it came into my 
 mind to consider in detail the duties of the Trea- 
 surer's office, and how they would be exercised 
 by one perfectly conversant with the Statutes of 
 the Cathedral, and as impressed with the sense 
 of our defects as you appear to be ; and I came 
 to the conclusion that were the Sacristan and 
 Virgers under your command the government of 
 the Cathedral would pass from the hands of the 
 Dean into yours. This I communicated to the 
 Dean, who did not see the matter as clearly as 
 I do, and having fears that you would use your 
 power to make changes in the management of 
 the church such as the other members of the 
 Chapter would not approve, I informed the Bishop 
 that I had changed my opinion as to the expedi- 
 ency of uniting the Treasurership to your Canonry. 
 You must pardon me for thinking that the account 
 given in the Morning Post to-day of a scene in St. 
 Paul's Cathedral justifies in some degree my doubts 
 in this matter." 
 
 The "scene" was the deserved rebuke the 
 autobiography has already recorded ; and to this 
 Dean Mansel referred when he wrote next day to 
 Mr. Gregory :
 
 172 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 " HUNSTANTON, Nov. 4, 1869. 
 
 " I am sorry that you have embroiled yourself 
 with the choir in the matter of the procession. I 
 had noticed an irregularity the last evening I was 
 at the Cathedral, and had any one of the senior 
 men been there I should have endeavoured to 
 arrange matters quietly through him. The next 
 morning the procession was better, but there was 
 still no senior, but I had intended immediately 
 after my return to speak with them through one 
 of themselves. By a little quiet management 
 one may do something, but a public rebuke and 
 an open rupture will, I fear, make the matter far 
 more difficult for me to deal with. These men 
 have had their own way so long under the old 
 regime that it is far easier to lead than to drive 
 them. They are like spoilt children, and have 
 points of dignity which no one but themselves 
 would dream of. As regards the other matter, 
 told me two days after the meeting that 
 he had quite changed his mind about the Trea- 
 surership. I told him that I had written to tell 
 the Bishop that the whole Chapter concurred in 
 the view I suggested. He admitted that he had 
 concurred at the time, but said that on further 
 consideration he had changed his mind and should 
 tell the Bishop so, which I think he had a right 
 to do, as my former letter had mentioned him as 
 concurring in an opinion which he no longer holds. 
 He informed - and myself in the vestry of 
 his change of opinion, and under these circum- 
 stances I thought he was justified in informing 
 the Bishop also."
 
 ST. PAUL'S 173 
 
 Gregory replied to his brother Canon: "I. 
 am not surprised that you think the account of 
 what happened in the Cathedral justifies your feel- 
 ing that I am unfit for the office of Treasurer. 
 Hitherto everybody outside the Cathedral has 
 cried shame upon our services ; our own officers, 
 whenever spoken to on the subject, invariably 
 do the same ; and some of us certainly deeply 
 feel the truth of what is said. It occurred to 
 me that the proper plan was to speak openly to 
 the choir, as private remonstrance has failed, 
 and that it was not fair to those we blamed if 
 we failed to use a single means to excite them 
 to a proper discharge of their duties. ... I deeply 
 feel that we cannot stay as we are. Public atten- 
 tion is now drawn to us, and I cannot but hope 
 that it will not leave us alone till all necessary 
 improvements have been made." 
 
 On the 5th of November the Canon, who had 
 changed his opinion again, endeavoured to justify 
 his change, and took occasion to add : " I certainly 
 regret the publicity which has been given to the 
 expression of your feeling in the Cathedral. I 
 had reason to think that the Chapter were not 
 only fully aware of the defective condition of the 
 choir, but that they were even proceeding rapidly 
 to amend it. And I fear lest persons whom you 
 did not mean to offend may take affront and throw 
 impediments in our way. I am as fully sensible as 
 you can be of our defects ; but on the other hand, 
 I venture to state that not a year has passed, for 
 a long period, without improvements taking place 
 for which there is every reason to be thankful.
 
 174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 We may be a long way from perfection, but we 
 have not been standing still, like persons satisfied 
 with their condition." 
 
 Mr. Gregory's answer was characteristic : " 1 
 am very glad to find that our divergence of opinion 
 is narrowed to so small a point. You still think 
 that the office of Treasurer with a Canonry would be 
 most advantageous to the interests of the Cathedral, 
 but that I am so dangerous a man that the present 
 system, or want of system, would be better than 
 the amended one with me to administer it. 1 
 am too anxious to see the Cathedral rescued from 
 its present position of anarchy to allow any per- 
 sonal feelings to stand in the way of so desirable 
 a change." He begged that some other of the 
 Canons should hold the office, and added: "Don't 
 let us lose this opportunity of improving the manage- 
 ment of the Cathedral ; and if my standing aside 
 conduces to this, I will as gladly stand aside as I 
 would burden myself with fresh duties if that were 
 thought most desirable." 
 
 Happily it was not long before harmony was 
 restored in the Chapter. Dr. Mansel was far too 
 eminent a man to feel any petty jealousy, and far 
 too acute a man not to recognise the abilities of 
 the new Canon. Mr. Michael Gibbs, Vicar of 
 Christ Church, Newgate Street, was appointed 
 Treasurer ; but Mr. Gregory managed the finances 
 (though he was not collated to the Treasurership 
 till 1882), and a great impetus was given to the 
 movement for reform. The record now turns 
 aside for a moment to a subject in which Mr. 
 Gregory was always keenly interested.
 
 ST. PAUL'S 175 
 
 I was very anxious to see something done for 
 the further decoration of St. Paul's : I felt that 
 the very little which had been accomplished only 
 served to make more manifest the plainness and 
 coldness of the blank, dirty walls of the Cathe- 
 dral, which had been painted probably in the days 
 of Sir Christopher Wren, and had been neither 
 washed nor repainted since : but the task was a 
 serious one, and it occurred to me that the first 
 step I ought to take was to see how other churches 
 of a similar style of architecture were decorated. 
 I therefore resolved to go to Italy to see especi- 
 ally St. Peter's at Rome. This I accordingly 
 did, taking with me my eldest son. I could 
 lay claim to no artistic knowledge, nor to any 
 artistic taste which would enable me to give 
 hints to those entrusted with the work, but to 
 see what others had done would to some extent 
 educate the eye, and preserve me from making 
 foolish suggestions. 
 
 On my return I proposed to my colleagues 
 that we should revive the Decoration Com- 
 mittee, and see whether something more might 
 be done. After several discussions, sometimes of 
 a rather acrimonious character, this was agreed 
 to, and in the early part of 1870 the members 
 of the old Committee were called together, and
 
 176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 a few new ones added to them. Before this 
 Committee could accomplish anything, a number 
 of changes took place in the constitution of the 
 Chapter, which caused delays, and, in fact, no- 
 thing was really done until after the formation of 
 a new Chapter. Early in the year 1871, Canon 
 Dale was nominated to the Deanery of Rochester, 
 and was installed just before Easter, when Dr. 
 Liddon was happily selected by Mr. Gladstone 
 to take his place as Canon of St. Paul's. On 
 July 13, 1872, a public meeting to inaugurate 
 the undertaking was held at the Mansion House, 
 when subscriptions to the amount of 25,000 
 were promised, and it was stated that the sum 
 required would be 250,000. The Lord Mayor 
 was in the Chair ; the Bishop of London, the 
 Dean, and several influential laymen spoke, and 
 the meeting seemed generally impressed with the 
 idea that something ought to be done. Shortly 
 afterwards Archdeacon Hale became seriously 
 ill, and early in November he died, and Bishop 
 Claughton, who was then presiding over the 
 Diocese of Colombo, was nominated by the 
 Bishop of London to succeed him, but was un- 
 able to return home to be installed for some 
 months. Early in the following February, to 
 my great grief, Canon Melville died, and his
 
 ST. PAUL'S 177 
 
 Canonry was filled by Mr. Gladstone nominat- 
 ing Dr. Lightfoot, who was transferred a few 
 years later to the See of Durham. In little 
 more than two years, I thus became Senior 
 Canon. 
 
 With the advent of Dr. Liddon to St. Paul's 
 a new state of things commenced. His fame as a 
 preacher was great, and so soon as it was known 
 that he was to preach in St. Paul's, a large congre- 
 gation assembled. The choir would no longer find 
 room for them ; and Dr. Liddon preached from the 
 pulpit under the dome, which had been placed 
 there for Sunday evening services that had been 
 commenced during the great Exhibition of 1851. 
 The choir was made to attend somewhat more 
 regularly ; the services were more reverent, and 
 it was felt that a new spirit was beginning to stir 
 in the Cathedral. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the first decisive step 
 dates from Mr. Gregory's management of the 
 finances. Miss Church says : l " Canon Gregory, 
 to whom, as Treasurer, the work of fighting for 
 terms fell [with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners], 2 
 had gone into the fray possessed of a distinct and 
 complete conception of the work that a Cathedral 
 
 1 Lije and Letters of Dean Church, p. 215 sqq. 
 3 See below, pp. 179-80. 
 
 M
 
 178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 might do, and of the funds that would be neces- 
 sary to its achievement. He had planned out this 
 work on a large scale, with the conviction that 
 whatever the Metropolitan Cathedral attempted to 
 do should be done with nobility and distinction. 
 With this plan before him he demanded a staff, an 
 equipment, a plant, a stock of corporate resources, 
 adequate to the intention. These, instead of 
 being pinched down to the lowest level of effici- 
 ency, must be enlarged and enriched beyond their 
 present scope to meet the strain of multiplied 
 services, and of a church continuously open and 
 in use. The Commissioners were impressed with 
 the practical reality of the Treasurer's design, and 
 recognised that his large demands were all regu- 
 lated by a strict eye to business. They became 
 content to entrust the Cathedral with the funds 
 that such a scheme necessitated. The actual 
 settlement of the scheme, in all its details, occu- 
 pied most of the first years of the new Dean's rule. 
 It involved a complete revision of each and every 
 department of the Cathedral staff'. But it was an 
 immense gain for him that the preliminaries were 
 through and that all was in train by the time that 
 he arrived, and that he inherited a Treasurer keen 
 to press on with a work already in hand and 
 intimately congenial." 
 
 It is of the beginning of his work that Mr. 
 Gregory now tells. It may here be noted that 
 he was Treasurer in a double sense : first to the 
 Cathedral, an honorary post, 1 later to the Chapter, 
 the position of real importance. From this point 
 
 ' See below, p. 180.
 
 ST. PAUL'b 179 
 
 it will be well not to interrupt the continuous 
 narrative written by the Dean. 
 
 There was now every chance for an entirely 
 altered state of things at St. Paul's. Nearly all 
 who would be inclined to oppose improvements 
 had been removed by death, and those appointed 
 to succeed them were as anxious as I could be that 
 St. Paul's should occupy the position it ought to 
 fill. The removal of all but one of the old Canons 
 brought necessity for the commutation of the 
 Chapter estates with the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 missioners within reasonable distance. It was 
 therefore only to be expected that the Com- 
 missioners should invite us to take the initial 
 steps. Accordingly Dean Mansel and I waited 
 upon Mr. Youle, who represented the Commis- 
 sioners in transactions of the kind, and the Dean 
 endeavoured to impress upon Mr. Youle the im- 
 portance of dealing liberally with the Cathedral 
 on account of the sources from which its income 
 had been derived and the circumstances connected 
 with it. His speech was somewhat lengthy, and 
 Mr. Youle grew impatient, and said, " I must see 
 you again," and named another day when we were 
 to repeat our visit. At the second interview our 
 good Dean was not more successful than at the
 
 180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 first, and when it was over Mr. Youle sent for our 
 Chapter clerk, Mr. Lee, and said to him, "Tell 
 Canon Gregory, that if he brings that Dean of his 
 again I will not give St. Paul's a penny more than 
 I am obliged." We were then very near the 
 holidays, and nothing more could be done until he 
 returned from the country. 
 
 In lcS71 consideration was given for a proposal 
 to diminish the income of the Rectory of St. Peter 
 le Poer in Broad Street, which amounted to nearly 
 G2000 a year, whilst the population was very small ; 
 and it was determined to take of this sum 1125, 
 and add 200 a year to the income of four large 
 ill-endowed parishes in St. Pancras, to give 125 
 to a fifth, and to further the creation of two new 
 district parishes, also in the parish of St. Pancras, 
 by appropriating 100 a year to each of them, and 
 calling upon the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to 
 raise the endowment of these two new parishes to 
 .'300 a year each. This was successfully done ; the 
 new parishes were constituted, and a church has 
 been built on each of them. 
 
 At the same time it was resolved that a member 
 of my Chapter should be appointed Treasurer, and 
 be responsible for overseeing all the financial 
 affairs of the Cathedral, reporting on them to the 
 Chapter, the appointment to be annual. I was
 
 ST. PAUL'S 181 
 
 appointed and have been re-elected every year 
 since. The office is unpaid. Up to that time, 
 no member of the Chapter had oversight of the 
 finances ; all was placed in the hands of the 
 Receiver. All that the Canons did was to sign 
 the Cathedral bills for payment at the end of 
 every quarter without knowing anything at all 
 about them. Orders were also given for fitting 
 up the North-West Chapel as a Chapel, 1 the east 
 end to be raised and an altar to be placed therein. 
 Up to this time the Chapel had been seated all 
 round with a great table in the centre, round 
 which the worshippers at the early (8 o'clock) 
 matins knelt every morning. Shortly after this we 
 had early celebrations in this Chapel, at first on 
 Sundays and Saints' days, afterwards every day. 
 
 Dean Mansel went to his old home at Cosgrove 
 to stay at his sister's house (she had married her 
 cousin, who was the squire) shortly after the 
 interview with Mr. Youle. There he died most 
 suddenly on the last day of July. A few days 
 later I buried him in the churchyard at Cosgrove, 
 in a spot which he had himself chosen. 
 
 Our anxiety was now about his successor. On 
 the day I heard of the Dean's death, I met Mrs. 
 Gladstone, one of whose sons was then working 
 
 1 Now called St. Dunstan's Chapel.
 
 182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 with me at Lambeth. We talked over the im- 
 portance of the choice that would be made by 
 the Prime Minister. She kindly said : " Come to- 
 morrow morning at 10 o'clock, and say to Mr. 
 Gladstone what you have said to me." I hoped 
 that Dr. Liddon would be appointed. Whilst we 
 were talking, Sir Robert Phillimore came in. He 
 said: " How well do I remember meeting Bishop 
 Blomfield on Ludgate Hill, and his saying to me, 
 k I look at that great Cathedral and think of its 
 large revenues and great responsibilities, and ask 
 myself what good is it doing to this great city, and 
 I feel compelled to answer, not any to a single soul 
 in it. 1 ' Mr. Gladstone first offered the Deanery 
 to Dr. Hook, who was then Dean of Chichester, 
 and, on his refusing it, to Rev. R. W. Church, who 
 after some hesitation and many doubts, happily 
 for the good of the Cathedral, accepted it. These 
 changes necessarily stopped the commutation 
 negotiations for a time. Early in the next year 
 they were renewed. In the meantime an event 
 had occurred which helped materially to facilitate 
 the arrangements. 
 
 The Prince of Wales had a very serious attack 
 of illness, and for a time his life was despaired of. 
 Happily he recovered, to the great joy of the 
 nation. In a sermon preached by Dr. Liddon in
 
 ST. PAUL'S 183 
 
 the Cathedral, he said : " If such an event had 
 happened in some preceding ages, the Queen and 
 her nobles would have united with the loyal 
 citizens in offering up hearty thanksgiving in this 
 great church of the Metropolis for the mercies 
 God has vouchsafed to the nation." This was 
 repeated to the Queen by someone who had been 
 present, and Her Majesty announced her intention 
 of doing what the preacher had suggested. On the 
 appointed day, February 27, 1872, the Cathedral 
 was crowded with a vast congregation, galleries 
 having been erected wherever convenient positions 
 for them could be found ; the whole nation rang 
 with what was being done in St. Paul's, and people 
 seemed to begin to realise that Cathedrals might 
 be made to fill an important position in the 
 development of Church life. 
 
 Before proceeding further to describe what has 
 been attempted and done at St. Paul's to make it 
 a more complete representative of Church spiritual 
 life in London, it may be well to say something of 
 the condition into which this Cathedral had fallen ; 
 and probably it resembled the Cathedrals in other 
 parts of the country, the influence and circum- 
 stances by which it had been moulded to become 
 what it was having equally affected them. 
 
 The primary idea for the Cathedral was that it
 
 184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 should contain the Bishop's throne, and as such, 
 the place where in an especial manner he should 
 meet the clergy and laity over whom he was ap- 
 pointed to preside. On great and important 
 occasions it was here that great assemblies of 
 the people of the Diocese were held to give thanks 
 for victories obtained over enemies, for relief from 
 any scourge of famine or sickness by which the 
 nation had been visited, for entreating God's mercy 
 when any severe sorrow or calamity seemed to be 
 impending, and for the clergy to take counsel 
 witli their bishop respecting matters affecting the 
 doctrine or discipline of the Church. Beside this, 
 within the walls of the Cathedral there was to be 
 a continuous strain of prayer and praise, and the 
 "showing forth of the death of the Lord till He 
 come, 1 ' ever sounding to remind all who would 
 listen that there is something higher and better 
 than life in this world, and that to this the chief 
 church in the Diocese was to be the noblest and 
 most inspiring witness. To enable this important 
 end to be accomplished, those who founded 
 Cathedrals endowed them with a sufficient in- 
 come to secure an able and accomplished body 
 of clergy to minister at their altars ; of choirmen 
 and boys to chant melodiously the services that 
 were being continually held ; and for all other
 
 PAUL'S 185 
 
 requisite purposes. Beside this, there were con- 
 nected with them a number of small special en- 
 dowments, each of them applicable to the support 
 of a priest to live in or near the land given as 
 endowment, who should minister to the people in 
 that immediate neighbourhood. The holders of 
 these endowments were called prebendaries, some 
 of whom were called into residence from time to 
 time, and in conjunction with the Dean (where the 
 Cathedral was not connected with a monastic insti- 
 tution), governed the Cathedral. The Cathedral of 
 St. Paul's, from its position in the Metropolis, after 
 the nation became Christian, necessarily became 
 very prominent, as within its walls the kings and 
 great men of the nation were frequently gathered on 
 such occasions as those that have been named above. 
 It could not have been many centuries after the 
 foundation of the Cathedrals that the state of 
 things by which they were surrounded became 
 materially altered. The whole country was divided 
 into parishes, but there was no longer need for the 
 labours of the prebendary on or near the plot of 
 land from which his income was derived ; whilst 
 the increasing splendour of the Cathedrals and the 
 munificent gifts which were showered upon them 
 (notably upon St. Paul's) made their chief offices, 
 the much-coveted, wealthy positions in the Church.
 
 186 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Then came the long and dreary reign of pluralities. 
 The possessions of the Church were eagerly seized 
 upon by men who sought wealth for themselves 
 rather than the spiritual good of those for whom 
 that wealth was given. The public services of 
 the Church were scrupulously, often magnificently, 
 rendered, but there was a grievous lack of that 
 piety and religious enthusiasm which are essentially 
 necessary for any spiritual office to reach the hearts 
 and influence the lives of those for whose benefit it 
 was called into existence. Under these circum- 
 stances what had been was continued, but no effort 
 was made to adjust the work of the Cathedral to 
 the altered circumstances of the time. The Canons, 
 chiefly interested with the benefice or benefices 
 that they held elsewhere, kept their statutable 
 attendances at the Cathedral, but the direction 
 of its affairs and the ordering of its customary 
 services naturally fell into the hands of members 
 of the Cathedral filling subordinate positions. 
 
 To a greater or less extent such was the con- 
 dition of all the Cathedrals in England half a cen- 
 tury since, but at St. Paul's an additional difficulty 
 had been placed in the path of those responsible 
 for its government. The glorious old Cathedral 
 had been burnt down in 1666, and a new one 
 erected, partly by the liberality of some generous
 
 ST. PAUL'S 187 
 
 benefactors, but to a still greater extent by the 
 proceeds of the coal tax that had been voted by 
 Parliament for the purpose. This tax had not 
 only supplied all that had been required, but had 
 left a small surplus, which had been invested and 
 brought in a very few hundreds of pounds an- 
 nually, which were applicable to the repairs of the 
 building. In addition to this, some time in the 
 eighteenth century, Dr. Clarke, Dean of Win- 
 chester, had left to the Cathedral by his will the 
 profit lease of the Manor of Tillingham, the free- 
 hold of which belonged to the Dean and Chapter 
 of St. Paul's. The first 300 of annual profit 
 that this lease yielded was to be divided in sums 
 of 30 each to ten poor benefices named by the 
 benefactor, and in the event of the profit ex- 
 ceeding that sum, such surplus was to be given 
 to the Chapter of St. Paul's for the support or 
 improvement of the fabric. Early in the nine- 
 teenth century that surplus amounted to 630 an- 
 nually, and the Trustees, forgetting or ignorant of 
 the terms of Dean Clarke's will, gave 100 each to 
 nine of the poor benefices and 30 to the tenth. 
 This tenth Incumbent, feeling himself to be unfairly 
 treated, commenced an action against Dean Clarke's 
 Trustees, when the will had to be produced, and 
 even-handed justice was dispensed by the payment
 
 188 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 to all the benefices being reduced to 30, and the 
 balance being handed over for the benefit of the 
 fabric of St. Paul's. There was thus a sum of 
 nearly 700 a year specially provided for keeping 
 the fabric in repair. This led the then Dean and 
 Chapter to the conclusion that they were no 
 longer responsible for providing the money needed 
 for that purpose, although by statute a first charge 
 upon all endowments of the Cathedral had been 
 assigned by its founders and benefactors to main- 
 taining the fabric and the keeping up the services. 
 In the eyes of those responsible for the Cathedral 
 this provision had been superseded by the later 
 Act of Parliament, under the provisions of which 
 the present Cathedral had been erected, and by 
 the liberality of Dean Clarke. Consequent upon 
 this the fabric and the services grievously suffered : 
 economy was the thing chiefly thought of. 
 
 A further difficulty that was hanging over the 
 Cathedral when I was appointed a member of 
 its governing body was the carrying out of the 
 Cathedral Act of 1842. By that Act all the 
 estates of the Cathedral were to be surrendered 
 into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 
 and a fresh arrangement made about their income, 
 so soon as the members of the Chapter existing 
 at the time of the passing of the Act ceased to
 
 ST. PAUL'S 189 
 
 hold their offices. By this Act the income of 
 the Dean was to be 2000, and that of each of 
 the Canons 1000 ; previous to that time their 
 receipts were larger. Besides this the Prebendal 
 stalls were to be disendowed, and the whole of 
 the money obtained in this way was to be applied 
 to providing an income for some of the many un- 
 endowed churches existing all over the country. 
 To facilitate the passing of the Act, and to meet 
 the objections of some of its opponents, it had 
 been arranged that, instead of the Dean and 
 Canons becoming merely stipendiaries, the Eccle- 
 siastical Commissioners should take such a pro- 
 portion of the income that would have fallen to 
 them if they had been appointed previous to the 
 passing of the Act. This condition of things 
 remained for some years, when a second Act of 
 Parliament ordained that the sums specified above 
 were to be paid by the Dean and Canons irre- 
 spective of what the income of the Cathedral 
 might be. When I was appointed Canon, 7/22 
 parts of the net income of the Cathedral were 
 paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners ; and in 
 the year 1863 the Dean had received 2337 in- 
 stead of 2000, and to each of the three Canon- 
 ries to which occupants had been appointed 
 during the period intervening between the two
 
 190 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Acts of Parliament respecting their incomes, 
 1168 instead of 1000; but in the two years 
 preceding 1 863, the receipts of Dean and Canons 
 had fallen short of the amount at which their 
 stipends had been intended to be fixed. 
 
 When, therefore, the question of entering upon 
 the surrender of the Chapter estates to the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners came under con- 
 sideration, the question naturally arose whether 
 those members of the Chapter who were in re- 
 ceipt of an income somewhat in excess of the 
 amount eventually to be allotted to the occu- 
 pants of the stalls they held should continue to 
 receive the larger sum they now enjoyed, or be 
 placed on the lower level which their successors 
 would occupy. A difference of opinion between 
 the Chapter and the Commissioners caused a 
 delay in making the required settlement, which 
 as a matter of fact, was not seriously entered 
 upon until after the death of all the members 
 of the Chapter who were in receipt of the larger 
 income. In 1871 and 1872 the negotiations with 
 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were renewed, 
 and the Dean and Canons held frequent meet- 
 ings to decide upon the demands which ought 
 to be made for the future maintenance of the 
 Cathedral and its services. We endeavoured to
 
 ST. PAUL'S 191 
 
 lay down a scheme of what St. Paul's ought 
 to be. Its musical services ought to be second to 
 none ; the choristers who were to take part in 
 those services ought to have a school provided 
 for them in which they might be lodged and 
 boarded as well as efficiently educated ; the 
 fabric ought to be more carefully looked after 
 than it had been ; greater precautions taken 
 against fire than had previously existed ; whilst 
 all those who took part in the services should 
 be liberally, but not extravagantly paid. This 
 theory of what the Cathedral ought to be when 
 laid before the Commissioners, or those who re- 
 presented them, was approved, and an income 
 was assigned to the Cathedral which in the 
 opinion of the Chapter would suffice to accom- 
 plish what its members desired. 
 
 Some little time was needed to carry out 
 what had been resolved upon. Sir John Goss, 
 the organist, owing to advancing years, retired, 
 and Dr. Stainer l succeeded him. Under his able 
 and skilful management the choir was reor- 
 ganised. The original strength of the choir was 
 eighteen, of whom twelve were in Holy Orders, 
 and constituted an independent corporation, and 
 were designated Minor Canons, and the other 
 
 1 On Lady Day 1872.
 
 192 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 six were lay clerks and were also an indepen- 
 dent body. Until comparatively recent times 
 the whole eighteen occupied the same benches, 
 and the Minor Canons took equally with the 
 lay clerks a full share in the musical part of 
 the service, and since I have been at St. Paul's 
 there has been a Minor Canon who told me 
 that he had frequently sung the solo parts in 
 an anthem. But the laxity introduced by the 
 Dean and Canons was contagious, and as they 
 hud only been present in the Cathedral when 
 their allotted term of residence required them to 
 be, the Minor Canons not unnaturally followed 
 their example, and were only present when they 
 were responsible for singing the service or read- 
 ing the lessons; and so the choir was reduced 
 to six men, who attended very irregularly, to 
 whom two or three supernumeraries had been 
 added without being placed on a regular foot- 
 ing. The first reform of the choir was to add 
 twelve assistant Vicars- Choral to the six Vicars 
 of the foundation, thus raising the number to 
 what it had originally been. 
 
 The choristers needed also to be placed on a 
 better footing. Until a choir school could be 
 built, one of the Canons' houses continued to be 
 appropriated for the choristers, who were lodged
 
 ST. PAUL'S 193 
 
 and boarded as well as instructed. This change 
 was made at the beginning of 1873, when No. 1 
 Amen Court was fitted up to receive twelve 
 additional choristers, who were then elected and 
 admitted by a special service compiled for the 
 purpose ; the number being increased to forty 
 when the choir school was built. We were 
 very fortunate in securing the services of the 
 Rev. Albert BarfF as the first head master of 
 our resident choir school. Under his kindly 
 and religious care the youthful members of the 
 choir greatly assisted in raising the reverent 
 tone of the Cathedral services/ whilst carefully 
 selected additions to the numbers of assistant 
 Vicars-Choral, joined to the improvement in the 
 number and qualifications of the choristers, made 
 the musical services at St. Paul's conspicuous 
 for their excellence as well as for the religious 
 tone in which they were rendered. The diffi- 
 culty was to find a suitable site for the new 
 choir school. This was at last happily accom- 
 plished ; the lease of some land adjoining the 
 Deanery falling in, the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sioners gave us the site which had formed part 
 of the Deanery grounds, and gave us money to 
 erect the required school. Whilst it was being 
 built we experienced one of the annoyances to 
 
 N
 
 194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 which those who have to carry out building 
 operations in London are liable. We placed the 
 plans before our advisers, and the Dean with 
 special earnestness pressed upon them possible 
 claims for light and air. They confidently 
 assured us that there was not the slightest 
 danger. With this assurance we were content 
 that matters should proceed ; when the school 
 was half built, all the owners of property oppo- 
 site the school sent in claims amounting to 
 .-7000 for loss of light and air, and the advisers 
 on whose assurances we had relied immediately 
 turned round and told us that the claims were 
 irresistible. Upon this we determined so to 
 alter the plans of the building as to enable us 
 to resist all such demands, and to wait until 
 the buildings opposite the school should be re- 
 erected, and raised to a height that would en- 
 able us to claim from their owners an amount 
 sufficient to carry out our original design. This 
 has now been partially accomplished, and it is 
 doubtful whether it is desirable to proceed 
 further with alterations to our buildings. 
 
 The organisation of the Cathedral was to 
 some extent re-arranged. The fabric was pro- 
 tected against fire in several ways that were 
 much needed, some of them very costly; a
 
 ST. PAUL'S 195 
 
 complete body of workmen for keeping the 
 building in repair was provided. The provision 
 for showing the upper portions of the Cathedral 
 and the crypt were placed on a different and 
 better footing ; punctuality of attendance at the 
 services was rigorously enforced ; and wherever 
 improvements seemed to be required, efforts 
 were made to accomplish them. 
 
 Amongst other changes that had to be made 
 was a re-arrangement of the terms and condi- 
 tions on which the virgers were engaged. For 
 many years, probably from the time of the re- 
 building of the Cathedral, they had been placed 
 in a quasi-independent position. They received 
 no pay from the Chapter, but were allowed to 
 exact two pence from every person visiting the 
 Cathedral when no service was proceeding ; 
 besides this they had a share of the money re- 
 ceived from persons ascending to the AVhispering 
 Gallery, Library, Stone and Golden Gallery, and 
 Ball. In 1851, owing to questions asked in 
 Parliament, and the holding of the great Ex- 
 hibition in London that year, the fee of two 
 pence for visiting the Cathedral was discon- 
 tinued, and the virgers were allowed 400 a 
 year as compensation. Shortly after, the funeral 
 car on which the Duke of Wellington's body
 
 196 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 had been borne to St. Paul's for burial, was 
 deposited in the crypt of St. Paul's, and was 
 shown to visitors at a charge of sixpence each ; 
 tli is was assigned to the virgers when the 
 annual payment of 400 was withdrawn. The 
 whole arrangement was bad, as it lessened the 
 control which the Dean and Chapter ought to 
 have over the virgers, and also prevented their 
 making such arrangements as they might think 
 best for showing the Cathedral, as they were 
 painfully reminded a few years later, when the 
 Fenians were seeking to terrorise the Metro- 
 polis, and the Cathedral authorities were warned 
 by the Home Office of the risks they would 
 run, if they allowed the public to visit the 
 various parts of the building with the freedom 
 which had been previously accorded to them. 
 Before this difficulty had arisen, the Dean and 
 Chapter had happily made an arrangement by 
 which the virgers should no longer have an 
 interest in the fees charged for showing the 
 Cathedral, and had substituted a liberal fixed 
 salary in its place. 
 
 The question was then mooted amongst us 
 whether it was not possible to have some services 
 of a rather different character from those ordinarily 
 given in the Cathedral, which might be of general
 
 7'. PAUL'S 197 
 
 interest and might especially attract a number of 
 the younger men engaged in business pursuits. 
 We took counsel with several persons who had 
 special knowledge of the men for whom we were 
 anxious to do what we could. The universal 
 recommendation was : if you wish to have the 
 young men, you must exclude women, for there 
 is a silly fear on the part of many young men of 
 being chaffed by their companions ; and if the 
 service can be in any way represented as an 
 ordinary religious service, the dread of being 
 ridiculed will make your effort a failure. Accord- 
 ingly we resolved to have a series of lectures of a 
 semi-secular character, and the success with which 
 our effort was crowned for some years was a 
 pleasing surprise to all of us. We should have 
 been contented if our audience had reached a 
 hundred ; at every lecture during the first year it 
 amounted to quite a thousand. As the proposer 
 of the plan, I had to undertake the first course of 
 four lectures, when I took for my subject, " Are 
 we better than our Fathers ? " and endeavoured to 
 draw as complete a comparison as I could between 
 the existing state of things and what they were 
 in the days of Charles II., when the Cathedral was 
 built. Canon Liddon took the next course, and 
 was followed by Canon Lightfoot, and then by
 
 198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 the Dean. The manuscript of our lectures was 
 borrowed by the leading London papers and 
 printed in them in extcnso ; and they were after- 
 wards copied into many of the more important 
 provincial papers. These lectures were continued 
 for several years, but as the interest in them 
 diminished after a time, they were discontinued. 
 The first lecture was given on November 7, 
 1871. 
 
 The success of this attempt encouraged us to 
 make another effort to come into friendly relations 
 with the City young men. We requested them to 
 write their names in a book at the Chapter House, 
 in order that we might invite them to meet us at 
 a soiree at the Chapter House. Many of them 
 gratefully responded, and the members of the 
 Chapter had pleasant conversation with them, 
 after they had partaken of the usual light refresh- 
 ments ordinarily provided on such occasions. 
 These meetings were held for several years, and 
 eventually ceased to be held, as the engagements 
 of several members of the Chapter rendered it 
 well-nigh impossible for them to be present except 
 in their months of residence. 1 
 
 1 Hut the St. Paul's Lecture Society and the Amen Court Guild 
 have developed this idea and become great educational and spiritual 
 influences.
 
 ST. PAUL'S 199 
 
 On Whitsunday, May 19, 1872, we had a choral 
 celebration of Holy Communion in the Cathedral 
 for the first time, and after Easter Day 1873 this 
 had been continued every Sunday and Saints' 
 day ; it is certainly one of the most attractive and 
 beautiful services in the Church of England. 
 Previous to that time the Dean, if present, or the 
 Canon in residence, always celebrated ; subse- 
 quently the duty was undertaken by a Minor 
 Canon, when the Dean or Canon in residence was 
 not musical, which it rarely happened that he was. 
 On the 1st January 1877 we commenced having a 
 daily celebration of Holy Communion in the 
 North- West Chapel, which has been continued 
 uninterruptedly ever since. Besides this, at the 
 request of some City young men, we had a late 
 evening service daily, which was at first held in 
 the crypt, and afterwards in the North- West 
 Chapel. Some time later, at the request of some 
 City people, we had a service in the same place in 
 the middle of the day, which practically carried 
 on all the year round a service that we had 
 during Lent under the dome, at which there 
 was a sermon. 
 
 During the great Exhibition of 1851, there had 
 been an evening service on Sundays at St. Paul's, 
 which was continued at intervals during three
 
 200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 months in the year. This was made part of the 
 regular services, and with the help of a large 
 voluntary choir is very popular. Beside these 
 services there was introduced the rendering of 
 oratorios by the Cathedral choir assisted by an 
 orchestra, the voluntary Sunday evening choir and 
 others. On the first Tuesday evening in Advent 
 we had Spohr's " Last Judgment "; on the Feast 
 of the Conversion of St. Paul at the afternoon 
 service we had Mendelssohn's " St. Paul " ; and 
 on the Tuesday evening in Holy Week, Bach's 
 " Passion Music." These services have been 
 held for many years, and the crowds that attend 
 them prove their popularity. With the im- 
 proved services the attendance at the Cathedral 
 greatly increased, so that alike on Sundays and 
 week days the congregations are large. The 
 rirst of the special services named above was 
 held on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, 
 187.'*. 
 
 Besides our own services, we lend the Cathedral 
 continually for the annual festivals of various 
 religious bodies, when they find their own choirs, 
 and their friends generally gather in large num- 
 bers. The only service which has been discon- 
 tinued has been that of the Charity Children. For 
 many years this formed a popular and interesting
 
 ST. PAUL'S 201 
 
 spectacle. Galleries were constructed all round 
 the dome in which many hundreds of children, 
 who were being educated in the Ward and other 
 schools of the City were placed and sang the 
 service, and some well-known preacher was ap- 
 pointed to give a sermon. The arrangements for 
 this service occupied about six weeks, during 
 which time all the services in the Cathedral had 
 to be discontinued, and the sound of axes and 
 hammers resounded from morning to night. Such 
 a cessation of the ordinary services seemed to the 
 Chapter very objectionable, beside which after 
 several thousand pounds had been expended in 
 cleansing the walls and adorning the Cathedral, 
 it was most objectionable to have the large amount 
 of dirt introduced which was inseparable from the 
 work of the carpenters and others. The Chapter 
 therefore resolved that the service might be held 
 for the future on the floor of the Cathedral, but 
 that no more galleries should be erected. The 
 promoters of the service objected to the change, 
 and as they could not continue to have it in the 
 manner in which they had been accustomed, they 
 declined to have it at all ; and so it was discon- 
 tinued. There was a further benefit in this to the 
 Cathedral, as up to that time all the wood used 
 for the galleries had been stored in the crypt from
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 one festival to another, which made a large portion 
 of the beautiful crypt look like a mere lumber 
 room ; the wood being no longer wanted was 
 disposed of, and the crypt was repaved and made 
 to assume its proper appearance. 
 
 In 1875 we found it necessary to deal with a 
 matter that was causing confusion. By the 
 Cathedral Act of 1842 it was ordered that in 
 the future the number of Minor Canons at St. 
 1'aul's should be reduced from twelve to six as 
 vacancies arose, and that the appointment should 
 rest entirely in the hands of the Dean and Chapter 
 instead of the Chapter having only the option of 
 selecting one out of two candidates, presented to 
 them by the College of Minor Canons; but there 
 was no provision in the Act for dealing with the 
 estates of individual Minor Canons when a separate 
 endowment had been so provided. At St. I 1 aid's 
 eacli stall held by a Minor Canon was separately 
 endowed, and as no one could deal with such 
 endowment except the Minor Canon who held it, 
 an impossible condition of things had been created. 
 Our predecessors had ignored the Act, and had 
 continued to appoint to vacant Minor Canonries in 
 the manner that had been the practice before the 
 Act was passed. This we felt to be unsatisfactory. 
 It exposed us to the charge of not obeying the
 
 ST. PAUL'S 
 
 law, which we were anxious to do. \Ve therefore 
 declined to fill up two vacant stalls belonging to 
 the Minor Canons, and determined to obtain an 
 Act of Parliament, without which nothing could 
 be rightly done. This was happily effected ; and 
 for the future Minor Canonries were to be held 
 upon conditions which promised to be more 
 effective for the good of the Cathedral. 
 
 Another important change had been made with 
 respect to the Assistant Vicars-Choral, of whom 
 twelve had been appointed after the commutation 
 of the Chapter estates. The musical services in 
 many Cathedrals were notoriously injured to a 
 serious extent in consequence of there being no 
 provision for pensioning off the singing men when, 
 through advancing years, their musical powers had 
 begun to fail. We therefore made provision for 
 securing a pension for the Assistant Vicars-Choral 
 when they reached sixty years of age ; they were 
 to pay 5 per cent, of their incomes, and the 
 Chapter was to provide the very considerable 
 further sum that would be needed to secure them 
 a pension of 60 a year. To which sum they 
 were to be entitled if they had been members 
 of the choir for thirty-five years, and there was 
 to be a diminution of 2 for every year less than 
 thirty-five that they have served in the choir.
 
 204 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 This scheme has worked beneficially for many 
 years, and is now established on a firm footing. 
 At the same time we elaborated a scheme to 
 encourage thrift amongst the staff employed for 
 the repairs of the Cathedral and other work, by 
 which they were encouraged to make provision for 
 their old age. One special point at which we 
 aimed was that each man should become the 
 owner of the house in which he lived. This 
 fund has quite answered its purpose, and already 
 four of our employees own the houses in which 
 they live. 
 
 Not to break through the narrative concerning 
 what might be described as the ordinary work of 
 the Cathedral, I have reserved the description of 
 other tilings until that portion was concluded. I 
 would now revert to what has been done for its 
 decoration. At the time of the Thanksgiving 
 Service for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, 
 somewhat similar services were held all over the 
 country. In many places offertories were gathered, 
 and the sums collected were sent up as contribu- 
 tions towards the decorative fund of St. Paul's. 
 This and other subscriptions collected in London 
 reached an amount that justified a commencement 
 being made. About two things to be done there 
 was perfect unanimity of opinion. The one was
 
 ST. PAUL'S 205 
 
 that the remaining spandrils in the dome should 
 be filled with mosaics. Designs for them had been 
 generously given by Mr. Stephens and Mr. Watts. 
 These were duly enlarged, and the work was en- 
 trusted to Messrs. Salviati of Venice, who had 
 executed the two that were already in position. 
 The other alteration was the removal of the organ 
 from under one of the arches on the north side of 
 the choir, whither it had been placed a few years 
 previously, having stood before that time on the 
 screen at the west end of the choir. It was now 
 placed against the north and south walls at the 
 west end of the choir. Mr. Richmond, father of 
 the artist to whom we have been so much in- 
 debted later on, strongly urged that the old screen 
 should be restored to its place and the organ 
 placed upon it ; and was so much disturbed at 
 this not being agreed to that he retired from 
 the Committee. 
 
 Unanimity now seemed to be at an end. The 
 Committee had selected Mr. Burgess to be their 
 architect on the motion of Mr. Beresford Hope, 
 but it was made up of such discordant elements 
 that it soon became apparent that there was small 
 chance of progress being made. Mr. Burgess ex- 
 pounded his views, some of which were very 
 visionary, one of them especially so, and that
 
 206 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 concerned the commencement he wished to make. 
 He proposed that the whole of the interior should 
 be veneered with different coloured marbles, and 
 that we should begin with an aisle of the nave. 
 The cost he estimated at half a million. Against 
 this there was a natural outcry, and the more 
 violent opponents, not content with rejecting the 
 proposal in Committee, wrote irritating and unfair 
 letters in the papers, especially in the Times, 
 accusing those who were willing to adopt some 
 of Mr. Burgess's proposals of a desire to mediffi- 
 valise St. Paul's, and labouring somewhat un- 
 scrupulously to raise the odium theologicum 
 against those who differed from them. The 
 other members of the Committee being anxious 
 that something should be done, and that the 
 party cry should not destroy all chance of 
 making some progress, then agreed on the pro- 
 posal of those who had differed from them that 
 an effort should be made to substitute some- 
 thing better for the pictures by Sir James 
 Thornhill on the upper portion of the dome, 
 and at the suggestion of Mr. Oldfield it was 
 agreed that we should ask Sir Frederick Leighton 
 and Mr. Poynter to give us designs from the 
 Revelation of St. John that might be substi- 
 tuted for the designs from the life of St. Paul
 
 ST. PAUL'S 207 
 
 now existing. After a time cartoons by these 
 eminent men were sent in, but the Committee 
 felt that they were not quite what was wanted, 
 and so all hope of making further progress was 
 practically abandoned for some years. 
 
 The first attempt to get free from the impasse 
 into which we were plunged was a proposal that 
 the Committee should undertake the work of 
 beautifying the dome, whilst to the Dean and 
 Chapter was entrusted the task of doing what 
 they could to decorate the choir; certain gifts, 
 amounting to a considerable sum, specially dedi- 
 cated by their donors to work in the choir, being 
 transferred to them for the purpose. The Chapter 
 then deliberated about what should be done, and 
 Mr. Burgess having died, it was necessary to 
 begin by selecting an architect. Without any 
 hesitation Mr. Bodley was chosen, and it was 
 resolved to ask him to prepare a design for a 
 reredos, as it was evident that with that a begin- 
 ning must be made, as so much of what would 
 afterwards have to be done would depend upon 
 it. In due course a design was completed and 
 presented to the Chapter ; the plan was to some 
 extent an alternative one ; the central portion 
 was in any case to be executed, but the sides of 
 it might either be the wings as they now are, or
 
 208 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 instead of them might be light iron work, such 
 as that now placed on the north and south 
 sides of the sanctuary. These plans were then 
 submitted to the Decoration Committee, as it 
 was thought desirable that all should be done 
 that could be done to heal the breach that had 
 so long existed amongst its members, and were 
 approved by every member of it, except Mr. 
 John Walter, the wings as they now are being 
 especially approved by Mr. Fergusson, who was 
 considered a great authority on such matters, and 
 was the chief opponent of much that Mr. Burgess 
 had proposed. After this no further delay was 
 made, and Messrs. Brindley & Farmer were 
 directed to proceed with the design that had 
 been approved, under the superintendence of 
 Mr. Bod ley and his partner. The work of con- 
 structing the reredos was commenced in the 
 Cathedral in August 1886, and was completed 
 on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, 
 1888, on which day it was dedicated at the 
 morning service. It took about a year and 
 a half to complete, and the cost of it and the 
 marble pavement in front of it was 30,000. 
 Some Protestant zealots raised objections to it; 
 the Court at the first instance overruled the objec- 
 jection ; on an appeal, a different judgment was
 
 ST. PAUL'S 209 
 
 given by Lord Chief Justice Coleridge and Justice 
 Manisty, but their ruling was summarily rejected 
 by the final Court of Appeal. 
 
 The decoration of the Cathedral was thus fairly 
 commenced ; but I have a little anticipated. On 
 November 1, 1878, a new peal of twelve bells 
 were rung for the first time. The Corporation 
 of London gave the tenor bell, the others were 
 given by the City Companies. Up to this time 
 the Cathedral had only possessed two bells, so 
 that however joyous the occasion it could not 
 be marked by bell-ringing. The bells from the 
 first were rung by the College Youths, a guild of 
 bell-ringers. At one time there was an idea of 
 training the servants of the Cathedral, so that 
 they might be the ringers, but this was found 
 to be impracticable. There was a special ser- 
 vice of dedication in the Belfry when the bells 
 were first rung, at which the Bishop of London, 
 the Dean, and some members of the Chapter with 
 the choir assisted. 
 
 In 1871 the Corporation invited the Chapter 
 to throw open the west front of the Cathedral 
 by removing the iron rails which surrounded the 
 space, now marked by granite pillars and a cause- 
 way outside them, and offered to contribute a 
 
 sufficient sum of money to cover the whole ex- 
 
 o
 
 210 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 pense. This offer the Chapter accepted, and in 
 1879 the Corporation at their own request under- 
 took the responsibility of keeping the churchyard 
 around the cathedral in order as a garden. At 
 the same time the iron fence round the church- 
 yard was lowered, and on the south side was 
 moved, so that a causeway might be constructed 
 outside of it. In the same year three of the houses 
 in Amen Court intended for the Minor Canons 
 were completed : up to that time no provision for 
 the residence of the Minor Canons near the Cathe- 
 dral had been made since the Great Fire, 1666. 
 The remaining houses for Minor Canons were 
 completed in 1881. In 1882 the great bell of 
 the Cathedral and the largest in England, 
 weighing nearly 17 tons, was hung in the South- 
 Wcst Tower, and was named Great Paul ; it was 
 intended that this bell should have been hung 
 with the other bells in the North- West Tower, 
 and its size was determined by the circular 
 opening in that Tower. But when the bell had 
 been cast by Messrs. Taylor of Loughborough, 
 and it had to be hung, it was found that the 
 difficulty of placing it in the intended position, 
 and the cost of doing so, would be very much 
 in excess of what the surveyor had reckoned, 
 so that it was thought desirable to hang it in
 
 ST. PAUUS 211 
 
 the other tower, which on many accounts is 
 much better. The funds required were raised by 
 subscription, to which the City Guilds liberally 
 contributed. 
 
 Prebendary Randolph held the stall of Cant- 
 lowes for many years. The land with which it 
 was endowed (part of Kentish Town) was let for 
 building purposes, and had become very produc- 
 tive. For several years he sent me, as Treasurer 
 of the Chapter, some hundreds of pounds annually, 
 saying that at some time we would settle together 
 how it could be best appropriated. I suggested 
 to him that as he desired to do something for 
 the stall which he had held for fifty years, and 
 which would become disendowed at his death, it 
 might be endowed with what would produce 100 
 a year, and that for the future it should be held 
 by the Diocesan Inspector of Religious Know- 
 ledge, and that the income should be part of his 
 salary ; this was subsequently effected through 
 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. He also de- 
 sired to do something for the benefit of the 
 other prebendaries, and he arranged that to each 
 of them should be paid two guineas when they 
 preached on the Saints' Days appointed to them, 
 and sufficient sums were invested under the 
 charge of the Dean and Chapter to carry out
 
 212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 this object. Prebendary Randolph cordially ap- 
 proved both projects. 
 
 On Easter Eve, 1883, during the service at 
 evensong, a man named Campion ran rapidly 
 up the choir, sprang upon the Altar, and threw 
 down the Cross and the vases with flowers be- 
 fore lie could be overtaken by some gentlemen 
 in the choir and one of the Canons, 1 who ran 
 up as speedily as they could. He besought 
 them not to pull him down from the Altar, 
 and when he was being conducted downstairs 
 into the crypt to be taken to prison by the 
 police, lie cried out as loudly as he could : " Pro- 
 testants to the rescue." The next day the Lord 
 Mayor fined him 5, which was paid by a gentle- 
 man who was understood to be an agent of the 
 Protestant Working Men's Association, and it 
 was said that this Association had prompted him 
 to do what he did, and that several cheques were 
 sent him as a reward for what he had done. 
 
 A second outrage of an even more offensive 
 character was perpetrated in the North - West 
 Chapel, as the Dean was celebrating at the 
 eight o'clock service on Good Friday in 1885. 
 A man named Beere rushed to the credence 
 table and smashed the cruet with his umbrella ; 
 
 1 This was himself. See p. 200.
 
 ST. PAUL'S 213 
 
 he then turned to the Altar and knocked over 
 the paten and chalice ; when he was seized and 
 held down until he was handed over to the 
 police, his friends piteously besought that he 
 might be released, but it was felt that such 
 outrages must be punished. The Lord Mayor 
 sentenced him to a month's imprisonment. 
 
 In 1885 we had to alter the Chapter House 
 so as to make it convenient for the residence of 
 one of the Canons. This was done by adding 
 another storey, and by making it possible com- 
 pletely to sever the inhabited part of the house 
 from the business portion. The reason for this 
 requirement was that until the Cathedral Act 
 of 1842 became law, St. Paul's had only three 
 Canons, the Dean being reckoned as the fourth. 
 That Act provided an income for the two Arch- 
 deaconries, which were without endowment. The 
 Archdeacon of London was to act as Canon, and 
 to receive two-thirds of the income of a Residen- 
 tiary Canonry (1000), and the Archdeacon of 
 Middlesex was to have the remaining third. 
 Archdeacon Hale was Archdeacon of London 
 at the time of the passing of the Act, and as 
 he was also Master of the Charterhouse, which 
 gave him an excellent residence within easy 
 reach of the Cathedral, he did not want a
 
 2U AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 house at St. Paul's. He was succeeded as Arch- 
 deacon by Bishop Claughton, who did not wish 
 to live in the city, so that no house was needed 
 for him. When he died and Dr. Giffard suc- 
 ceeded him, a house was required. At first a 
 serious effort was made to obtain one of the 
 houses appertaining to St. Paul's School, as that 
 school was being removed to Hammersmith ; 
 but this not being obtainable, we were con- 
 strained to enlarge the house. In 1897 an Act 
 was passed securing the Archdeacon of London 
 the same income that is enjoyed by the other 
 Canons, but upon the conditions that he holds 
 no other benefice. 
 
 On the *27th of February 1887 a most un- 
 accustomed congregation assembled in the Cathe- 
 dral. During the preceding week the Socialists 
 wrote to Dr. Giffard, as Canon in residence, to 
 say that they intended to come in force to St. 
 Paul's on the following Sunday, as they had 
 gone to Westminster Abbey on the preceding 
 one. They asked that the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury should preach to them, and if he were 
 unable to do so, then the Bishop of London ; 
 Dr. Giffard wrote in reply that the Canon in 
 residence always preached on Sunday afternoons, 
 and that no alteration could be made. They
 
 ST. PAUUS 215 
 
 came in great force and filled every part of the 
 Cathedral; beside which many hundreds, if not 
 some thousands, were outside, the crowd ex- 
 tending a considerable distance down Ludgate 
 Hill. One of their number came into the 
 vestry and asked that a service should be given 
 to those outside. Upon this I went down with 
 one of the prebendaries, a Minor Canon, and four 
 choristers to do what they desired. We had a 
 short service, and then they proposed to march 
 off, which they did, and we returned to our 
 seats in the Cathedral. Dr. Giffard gave an 
 admirable sermon, and when they found that 
 they could not intimidate the clergy and the 
 church-goers, they ceased to invade the churches 
 as they had threatened to do, and as they had 
 done on two or three preceding Sundays. 
 
 On January 21, 1890, a new ambulance station 
 was opened under the steps at the west front of 
 the Cathedral on the south side by the Order of 
 St. John of Jerusalem, which has been found most 
 useful in cases of accident and emergency. Dr. 
 Freshfield was the promoter of it, and is supposed 
 to have borne the cost of it. It has been continued 
 ever since, and is still flourishing. 
 
 On September 16, 1890, Dr. Liddon was 
 buried in the Cathedral crypt. He had been ill
 
 216 AVTOKIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 for some months, and had not been able to take 
 his residence in August. It was thought he was 
 a little better, and he went under the care of 
 one of his nieces to Weston- super -Mare, where 
 lie died very suddenly. The Dean was most 
 anxious to take part in the service at his funeral, 
 and read the prayer of Committal, but he was in 
 a very weak health, and his voice was so low as 
 to be almost, if not quite inaudible. Those who 
 then saw him feared that his own end would 
 soon be near, and so, unhappily, it was ; for on 
 the 9th December he died at Dover, whither he 
 had gone for his health. He was buried at 
 YVhatley in Somersetshire, of which place he 
 had been Vicar for many years before he was 
 translated to St. Paul's. The first part of the 
 Burial Service was said in the Cathedral ; his 
 body having been placed in the North - West 
 Chapel on the previous evening. The funeral 
 was on December 15th. 
 
 On Christmas Eve, Lord Salisbury offered me 
 the Deanery, and I gladly accepted the offer, and 
 was installed on the following 5th of February, 
 the members of the Lower House of the Convo- 
 cation of Canterbury most kindly doing me the 
 honour of adjourning to be present at my installa- 
 tion. It would be difficult to imagine a greater
 
 ST. PAUL'S 217 
 
 contrast than that between my installation as 
 Canon of St. Paul's and my installation as Dean. 
 
 When I was appointed Dean everything was 
 ripe for making immediate progress with decorat- 
 ing the Cathedral. There was a considerable sum 
 of money in hand that had been collected some 
 years previously, and the subject had been much 
 in our minds. During the last few years of 
 the life of my honoured predecessor, he was 
 unable from ill- health to take an active part 
 in the affairs of the Cathedral. He had most 
 generously begged me on more than one occasion 
 to do whatever I felt was desirable for pressing 
 this forward ; but where another must bear the 
 responsibility of what is done, one naturally 
 shrinks from taking active measures, more especi- 
 ally when, as in this case, I felt that he possessed 
 a much larger share of artistic knowledge than I 
 did, so that I might make him responsible for 
 work which he did not approve, and which, if he 
 had been in good health, he would have objected 
 to. After I became Dean, all this was changed. 
 I became responsible, and if under my superin- 
 tendence mistakes were made, the blame would 
 rightly fall on me. 
 
 It fortunately happened that, within a few days 
 after my being appointed Dean, a friend of Mr.
 
 218 A r TOMOGRAPHY OP" ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 (now Sir) W. 13. Richmond, suggested to me that 
 he should be employed to give designs for mosaic 
 work, with which the roof and spandrils in the 
 choir and other parts of the Cathedral might be 
 decorated. The Decoration Committee was called 
 together and unanimously determined to place the 
 important duties which he was willing to under- 
 take in the hands of Mr. Richmond, and on the 
 terms that he suggested ; and in the following 
 month (March) men were set to work to erect the 
 necessary scaffolding and make the required pre- 
 parations for carrying on what had been arranged. 
 On the 16th May 1801, the beautiful new 
 High Altar constructed from a design of Messrs. 
 Hod ley & Garner, and given to the Cathedral by 
 Mrs. Ambrose (Dr. Liddon's sister), was fixed in its 
 place, and became the High Altar of the Cathe- 
 dral. On 10th November in the same year, the 
 Chapel behind the High Altar, to be called the 
 Jesus Chapel, was dedicated by a celebration of 
 Holy Communion in it. Until this year the peal 
 of bells from the time of their being given to the 
 Cathedral, had rung the old year out and the new 
 year in ; but a noisy crowd had gathered in the 
 churchyard in the previous year and had scandal- 
 ised the people by their noisy and indecent be- 
 haviour ; it was therefore decided that the bells
 
 ST. PAUL'S 219 
 
 should ring from nine till ten instead of at mid- 
 night ; this change did not effect all the good it 
 was hoped that it would do, as crowds continued 
 yet to gather on the flags at the west end of the 
 Cathedral, and to make a great noise until after 
 midnight. 
 
 On Wednesday, 20th January 1892, a Memorial 
 Service was held in the Cathedral in honour of the 
 Duke of Clarence and Avondale, who was being 
 buried at Windsor at the same hour. This was 
 the first service of the kind ever held in St. Paul's. 
 The Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, representatives of 
 several of the City Guilds, and a large congre- 
 gation were present. 
 
 In the years 1892-1894 the eight niches in the 
 drum of the dome were filled with statues of the 
 four eastern and four western most illustrious 
 doctors of the Church. This was done at the cost 
 of the Dean and Chapter. On IGth May 1893, 
 there was a special service held in the Cathedral at 
 the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury to 
 counteract the attempt which was being made by 
 the Government of the day to disestablish and dis- 
 endow the Church in Wales. The Cathedral was 
 crowded with a representative congregation, in- 
 cluding a large number of Bishops and Clergymen, 
 the Convocations of Canterbury and York, Church
 
 220 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 wardens, and others from Wales ; a most unusual 
 number of persons communicated. 
 
 During the same year the lower windows in the 
 .Jesus Chapel were filled with stained glass by 
 Mr. Keinpe, and the monument to Dr. Liddon 
 was placed there. There was also a new clock 
 fixed in the South- West Tower. The old clock 
 had for some time shown signs of being worn out ; 
 so that the Chapter felt it to be desirable to obtain 
 a new one, for which they found the funds. There 
 were also fixed in the Cathedral, in the south aisle, 
 slabs with the names of all the Bishops of London 
 that were ascertainable ; and slabs in the north 
 aisle with a list of all the Deans from the time of 
 the Norman Conquest. It was thought impractic- 
 able to give the names of the chief rulers of the 
 Cathedral before that date, as it was uncertain 
 whether any of them were called Deans. 
 
 The stained glass window in the Consistory 
 Court to the memory of Archdeacon Hessey was 
 unveiled on April 21, 1894, and during May there 
 were three trials of lighting the Cathedral by elec- 
 tricity. The present system of lighting is very 
 insufficient and unsatisfactory, but the experi- 
 ments made with the electric light were anything 
 but what we wanted, and, coupled with the great 
 expense which the change would involve, made it
 
 ST. PAUL'S 
 
 very evident that things were not at present ripe 
 for the adventure, but must be faced when a new 
 system of lighting is introduced. In 1899 a 
 generous American friend offered to bear the 
 whole expense of lighting the Cathedral with 
 electricity, and this has since been done. 
 
 On the 20th June 1897 there were services to 
 mark a nation's joy at the completion of the 
 sixtieth year of Her Majesty's reign. At the 
 morning service (Sunday) the Prince and Princess 
 of Wales and several other members of the Royal 
 Family were present ; immediately behind them 
 were some members of both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment. The barristers and members of the various 
 learned bodies in the Metropolis attended in large 
 numbers. At the afternoon service the Lord 
 Mayor and Corporation and the City Guilds 
 were present. On the following Tuesday the 
 Queen drove in state through the City, stopping 
 in her carriage at the bottom of the western steps 
 of the Cathedral whilst a short service was held. 
 The gardens, or rather enclosed churchyard, was 
 lent to the Corporation and some of the larger 
 City Guilds, so that on it they might erect stands 
 to seat the members of their respective bodies. 
 
 There are two matters, external to the Cathedral, 
 which the Chapter took in hand that I ought to
 
 222 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 mention. The one is the management of an estate 
 at Tillingham in the county of Essex, which was 
 the only portion of their ancient endowments 
 that was left to them by the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 missioners at the commutation of their estates in 
 187J, the remainder of their income being provided 
 by half-yearly cheques from the Commissioners. 
 The Tillingham estate is believed to have been 
 given by King Ethelbert for the maintenance of 
 the fabric of the Cathedral on the completion of 
 the first structure in 609. No doubt he gave the 
 whole of the manor, a considerable portion of 
 which has since been alienated, probably at the 
 Reformation period. The remainder had been 
 let on lease, a small annual rent being reserved 
 and a considerable fine being levied every seven 
 years on the addition of that period to the length 
 of the lease. This most unprofitable manner of 
 dealing with the estate had to be put an end to. 
 The lease of Tillingham was during a part of the 
 last century the property of Dr. Clarke, who was 
 Dean of Winchester. By his will he provided 
 that ten poor parishes should each receive 30 
 annually from the profits of the lease, and when 
 the available income exceeded 300 a year, the 
 surplus beyond that amount was to be given to 
 the Chapter of St. Paul's and applied to the
 
 ST. PAUL'S 223 
 
 sustentation of the fabric. But more concerning 
 this need not be said, as it has been described in 
 one of the earlier pages. 
 
 The other matter which they have taken in hand 
 is an effort to increase the income of some of the 
 poorest benefices in their gift. Owing to the 
 agricultural depression from which the rural 
 parts of the country, and especially the county 
 of Essex, have suffered, parishes that once pro- 
 vided a modest independence for the clergyman 
 in charge no longer do so, the clerical income 
 having fallen from 300 to 250, which it was 
 twenty-five years since, to less than 200 a year. 
 In 1806 the Chapter resolved to have annual 
 collections on one Sunday in the year. This they 
 hoped would produce not less than 100, to which 
 they resolved to add 100 from their own funds. 
 By applying to Queen Anne's Bounty, these sums 
 would be doubled, and so make an acceptable addi- 
 tion of about 12 to the income of the one benefice 
 to which the money would be given. The material 
 benefit to the benefices thus assisted is valuable, 
 but beside this the effort has the advantage of 
 proving to the incumbents of the poor livings that 
 the Chapter heartily sympathise with them in the 
 pecuniary difficulties in which they are placed, and 
 are anxious to do what they can to help them.
 
 I do not feel sure that this long record of 
 the progress of the Cathedral in things mainly 
 material, which I have been enabled to give 
 owing in some measure to the assistance I have 
 obtained from a diary kept by our good Dean's 
 virger ; but it occurred to me that the story of 
 what has been done in this way shows how much 
 the past had left to be done, and how little had 
 been accomplished during the many generations 
 which had intervened between the times of Sir 
 Christopher Wren and the present. The record 
 also shows how much may be done by steadily 
 keeping in view what is really required, and 
 making such progress in doing what is needed 
 as circumstances permit. The mosaic work has 
 now been steadily advancing during nearly eight 
 years, and it will certainly require at least as many 
 more years to complete what ought to be done ; 
 and whether those responsible for the Cathedral 
 will be able to proceed must depend upon the 
 liberality of those good people who appreciate 
 the importance of adding to the beauty and com- 
 pleteness of the chief church in this great and 
 wealthy city. 
 
 I have not said much about the services in the 
 Cathedral. 1 trust that there is no need to do 
 this, as the most satisfactory statements with
 
 ST. PAUL'S 225 
 
 respect to them would count for little. Long 
 after I have passed away and been forgotten, I 
 hope they will continue to be as good, if not better 
 than they now are. I would only add that the 
 Cathedral has become in a very marked and 
 decided manner the centre of the religious life 
 of the Metropolis. Every society of great in- 
 fluence delights to hold its festival gatherings 
 within its walls, and few weeks pass during the 
 year without one or more of such gatherings. 
 
 So the Dean ended his story of the work at 
 St. Paul's, to which he devoted the last half 
 of his long life. He worked with all his great 
 strength and with all his large heart for the church 
 he loved. And the story, as he has told it in an 
 entire unconsciousness of how great was his own 
 work, remains as a lesson for all those who would 
 make our Cathedrals worthy of the Nation and the 
 Church.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ROBERT GREGORY IN THE MEMORY 
 OF HIS FRIENDS 
 
 So the aged Dean told the story of St. Paul's 
 as he knew it. Those who see the Cathedral 
 now, and compare it with the descriptions of it 
 in 1808, may well be amazed at the difference 
 hetween the " magnificent architectural monu- 
 ment, waiting, in dignified renown, for the dis- 
 covery of its activities," and the centre of all 
 its religious work which London knows to-day. 
 In all that has been done llobert Gregory had 
 his share, and a great share. Others were fine 
 preachers, skilled musicians, wise leaders of men, 
 saintly, inspiring, sagacious. He claimed no great 
 place in the eyes of men, nor in the work which made 
 the revived St. Paul's famous was he pre-eminent. 
 Yet lie was a good speaker, and a preacher 
 to whom men listened attentively ; a painstaking 
 follower and supporter of those who made the music 
 and the decorations of St. Paul's renowned in 
 English art: a wise, honest, and true counsellor of 
 all who sought to serve God, the Church, and the 
 Nation. His own work at St. Paul's was to make 
 all other work possible. He was the wise steward 
 who made provision for the needs of all ; and 
 ehierly, he was concerned with the details of 
 
 tM
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 227 
 
 Cathedral management. He made it his business 
 to know everything that had to be done, and every 
 one who had to do it. He recognised the import- 
 ance of details in preparing the harmonious whole. 
 He was a master of finance. But it was the 
 religious side of the whole work which appealed 
 to him above all and guided him in everything. 
 And the measure of the success which came to 
 the simple sincerity and directness of his own life 
 is to be seen in the contrast between the service 
 as, for example, Dr. Liddon first described it 
 the choir standing about and talking before 
 service, and talking as they walked in proces- 
 sion, sitting during the service and talking during 
 the prayers, sitting after the Consecration in the 
 Eucharist and the quiet solemnity of the whole 
 choir to-day. Such an example is no less striking 
 than that which every visitor sees, the stately mag- 
 nificence of the whole building, its decoration, and 
 its ceremonial. 
 
 The Dean's own account says little indeed about 
 himself. What needs to be told, for any true 
 picture of his character, may best be said by some 
 of those who worked most closely with him. And 
 first Mr. Somers Clarke (in a letter dated Cairo, 
 Feb. 11, 1912) writes this of a man he "loved 
 and venerated more than most " : 
 
 " Whilst Canon Gregory (I speak of him here 
 long before he was Dean) was not without very 
 strong Conservative instincts, he seemed always 
 ready to listen to projects which many men would 
 have opposed simply because the thing proposed 
 had not been done in the Cathedral before. It
 
 228 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 did not follow that he would favour the pro- 
 posal. Between 1870 and 1880 I was much 
 mixed up with sundry musical functions, more 
 especially with Plain Song or Gregorian Music 
 as people call it. It was nearly always Canon 
 Gregory one had to see and consult. He was 
 clearly the moving and controlling spirit in the 
 Chapter. In fact, I cannot recall having had to 
 do with any other member of the Chapter, except 
 that now and then the formal permission of the 
 Dean had to be obtained. 
 
 "It was proposed that players of certain wind 
 instruments should walk in the procession. Canon 
 Gregory was in no way a musical man. Opposition 
 was anticipated to this innovation : the matter was, 
 however, set before him, both on the practical and 
 aesthetic side. He was convinced, recommended 
 that they should be adopted, and the musical in- 
 struments in this connection are now a matter of 
 course. 
 
 " The Cathedral was at that time lighted in a 
 temporary fashion with gas standards, the effect 
 being miserable. Permission was asked to hang 
 temporary chandeliers in two lines from the choir 
 roof. (I have had the pleasure of lighting the 
 church, permanently, in this manner.) If the 
 temporary lighting were admitted, it was to con- 
 fess that the standards, as they existed, were in- 
 adequate. However, the possibilities of how the 
 thing might be done had been worked out: I laid 
 the advantages to be gained before Canon Gregory, 
 and begged for the loan of steel wire from the 
 Cathedral stores. Here again, when he saw the
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 229 
 
 advantages, the Canon was convinced and was 
 sympathetic with the scheme. 
 
 " My recollections of his brother Canons in those 
 days is that, as regards the Cathedral and its 
 services, they preferred to follow the saying, 
 ' quieta non movere.' 
 
 " We now jump to more recent times : 
 
 " In 1897 I was appointed architect to the Dean 
 and Chapter, and from that time forward I saw a 
 great deal of the Dean. 
 
 " His straightforward and direct way of dealing 
 with things was soon made evident. 
 
 "In returning with him one day from a meeting 
 of a Committee, I asked how it was that a certain 
 person had not been a member of that Committee. 
 
 " The Dean's answer was very characteristic : 
 ' That gentleman never knows his own mind : 
 he will agree first with one speaker, then with 
 another. I would prefer to be contradicted ten 
 times over and reasons given for it, rather than 
 have to do with a man of that type. Let a man 
 know his own mind and firmly support his views. 
 I can get on with that man.' 
 
 " I remembered this statement for future use, 
 and always found that the Dean was as good as 
 his word. His devotion towards the Cathedral and 
 his veneration for all that it meant was profound. 
 He was not a man of taste, he did not care for 
 music, he did not appreciate colour : and yet he 
 most fully realised the value of these as offerings 
 of worship, the offering to God of our best in 
 whatever direction it might be. 
 
 " Soon after I entered into office, he said to me :
 
 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 * Nothing must be done here but of the very best. 
 If the money at our disposal will not now com- 
 plete this thing or that, we must do a little, and 
 hope for more to come ; but we allow no cutting 
 of the coat according to the cloth.' 
 
 " Another saying was, when some needful repairs 
 were to l)e taken in hand : ' We must not hear 
 any more about this work after it is finished, for 
 thirty years. That is the way the Cathedral was 
 built.' A statement absolutely true, for nearly 
 everything done in the church at the time of its 
 erection shows that the most scrupulous care was 
 exercised, both in the execution and in the selection 
 of materials. 
 
 * No doubt the people who did not understand 
 him, or did not stand up to him, had their toes 
 trodden on occasionally. This was often the re- 
 sult of the rapidity with which he grasped a situa- 
 tion. Me was somewhat impatient of vacillation. 
 To those who had a good case, knew what they 
 wanted to lay before him, and stuck to their guns, 
 it seemed to me, he was a most generous listener 
 and good friend, and did not in the least object 
 when one of his own schemes was overturned. He 
 saw the reason and was convinced. To show his 
 love of the Cathedral and his attention to details 
 of the work connected with it, I may relate that 
 when he was just eighty years of age he insisted 
 on accompanying me to the ' Stone Gallery,' a 
 height of some 200 feet above the church floor, to 
 examine certain works just taken in hand, and so 
 vigorous was he at that age that he accomplished 
 the journey with very little difficulty.
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 231 
 
 " When technical questions arose, he had an amus- 
 ing way of saying bluntly : * You ought to know, 
 that's what the Chapter pays you for.' I cannot 
 say that the pay was excessive. On behalf of the 
 Cathedral he was prepared to make very exacting 
 bargains. 
 
 " His straightforward and rather blunt methods 
 did not lend themselves to diplomacy. His way 
 was to speak out, and that firmly and plainly. 
 
 ' k When some very fierce attacks were being made 
 by certain people upon the decorations in progress 
 at the Cathedral, the statements were necessarily 
 the subject of consideration by the Decoration 
 Committee. ' Who are these people ? ' said the 
 Dean. ' I should much like to know what right 
 they have to speak. How much have they sub- 
 scribed ? ' It was pointed out that it was hardly 
 politic to assume this attitude on the part of the 
 Committee. The appeal for funds had been made 
 to the public at large ; the Cathedral was a great 
 National Church : it was hardly possible to say 
 that only subscribers ought speak out their views. 
 The Dean unwillingly assented, and fired a parting 
 shot to the effect that * he was well convinced 
 these objectors had subscribed little enough, if 
 anything.' ' 
 
 The reredos and the scheme of decoration are 
 now part of the St. Paul's which Dean Gregory 
 handed on to posterity. Yet it is too soon to 
 anticipate the judgment of future ages. Dr. 
 Liddon thought the former, when he judged its 
 design in 1883, much happier than the latter. 
 Many now would reverse this judgment. But
 
 i>32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 Dr. Gregory cordially accepted the view of the 
 expert advisers as in both reredos and general 
 scheme of decoration, and the completion of both 
 will always be linked with his name. 
 
 When Dean Church died on December 9, 1890, 
 no one could doubt who would be the fit successor. 
 Lord Salisbury knew well what every one in 
 London felt, and the offer of the Deanery was 
 the recognition of the devotion which the oldest 
 of the Canons had given to its service. When the 
 new Dean accepted office he was about to begin 
 his seventy-second year, but he was still young in 
 strength, and he remained young till the end. 
 A tew typical letters may express what many 
 felt. 
 
 " AnniNGTON PARK, CROYIMJN, Christmas Day 1890. 
 
 " MY ni'.AK CANON GREGORY, Let me add one 
 line of mine 1 pray not of yours to the thousands 
 whieh are being written to express deep satisfac- 
 tion that the devoted lover and servant of St. 
 Paul's should succeed to the Deanery. God give 
 you all health, strength, and blessing. 
 
 *' I* ray give best wishes of the season to Mrs. 
 Gregory. Yours sincerely, 
 
 "Emv. CANTUAR." 
 
 Heside the letter from the Archbishop we may 
 put this from Hishop Stubbs, who had been his 
 brother Canon and warm friend, and had taken 
 his advice at the critical moment of decision 
 whether he should give up the scholar's life for 
 the labours of the episcopate :
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 233 
 
 " CUDDESDON, December 25, 1890. 
 
 "My DEAR GREGORY, My most grateful, and 
 hopeful, and generally benedictious good wishes. 
 Lord Salisbury generally does the best thing ; 
 here, I think, he has had no choice. I am truly 
 delighted. I trust that you will live to be happy 
 in it all. With best love all round and happy 
 Christmases. I am, yours ever, 
 
 "W. OXON." 
 
 And from across the Atlantic Bishop Doane 
 wrote : 
 
 " BISHOP'S HOUSE, ALBANY, Dec. 26, 1890. 
 " My dear old friend Gregory, 
 I think I must turn Tory, 
 Because I am so very 
 Pleased with Mr. Sa-lis-bury, 
 Who went and whispered to the Queen, 
 There's only one man to be Dean, 
 As it is plainly to be seen. 
 And all men will agree, I ween, 
 And that's that staunch old Churchman Tory, 
 Alike with years and honours hoary, 
 The Very Reverend Dean Gregory." 
 
 " Please forgive the impudence and the bad 
 quantities, &c. &c., my dear friend. We went 
 off into a hurrah yesterday when we heard the 
 news. It was a zest to Christmas. And we all 
 drank at dinner as the second toast (after the first 
 one of * absent friends,' which took in all of you), 
 ' the Dean of St. Paul's.' " 
 
 So happy words and happy faces welcomed the 
 Treasurer when he became Dean. The years from 
 1891 to 1911 were happy years years, till near
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 the end, of ceaseless work for the Church ; years 
 blessed always by the affection and loyalty of 
 those with whom he lived and those with whom 
 he worked. His devoted wife was active as he 
 was for the Church, and they taught the lesson 
 thoroughly indeed to those who followed them. 
 Her working party for the needs of poor mission 
 churches, begun in Amen Court, continued for 
 many years ; and her quiet charm as hostess made 
 the Deanery something of a home to those who 
 came there from far and near. At the times of 
 Lambeth Conference they specially delighted to 
 secure American bishops and their wives as guests. 
 Bishop Doane, whose lines are quoted above, was 
 a guest with his wife in 1888 and 1897, and again 
 (after her death) in 11)08. Between him and the 
 Dean a very close and warm friendship existed. 
 
 As the years went on his principles became 
 " known and read of all men." Without in any 
 way claiming a position which did not belong to 
 him, he became a recognised leader in London of 
 those who held definite opinions. Politically he 
 remained all his life an unbending Tory ; no one 
 would have been so foolish as to call him an un- 
 intelligent one. He had very clear and definite 
 ideas of the true policy for England at home and 
 abroad, and of the limits of constitutional action in 
 Church and State. He was a patriot in home 
 politics, a Church Imperialist in the cause of 
 Missions, ever near his heart. Nothing gave him 
 greater or more constant pleasure than tiie letters 
 from his son in Madagascar and Mauritius, a 
 worker ailer his own heart. There was no doubt
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 235 
 
 at all about what he thought right for the Church 
 and for the State. In secular matters one of his 
 highest commendations of any of his friends was 
 " that he could be trusted to vote straight." Any 
 change in his own opinions or vote was to him 
 unthinkable. Before a contested election in the 
 City, when Mr. A. J. Balfour was standing, two 
 ladies called to canvass him. His account to his 
 family of the interview afterwards was : " Two 
 ladies called to-day to ask me to vote for Mr. 
 Balfour. I told them at once, quite certainly that of 
 course 1 should." The ladies afterwards canvassed 
 the masters of the choir school next door, one 
 of whom said he had not yet decided as to his 
 vote, to which one lady responded : " If you have 
 any doubt you had better go and talk to that old 
 Dean of yours ; there is no doubt whatever in his 
 mind." 
 
 In some ways parallel to his position in politics 
 was his attitude towards certain questions that 
 perturbed the Church. Thus the Dean's attitude 
 towards Biblical criticism was thoroughly conserva- 
 tive. His nephew, the Dean of Chichester, says : 
 " I was with him in his study when he was writing 
 what I think proved to be the very last sermon he 
 was ever destined to deliver, and I happened to cast 
 my eye over some of the pages of the manuscript. 
 It was intended for Advent Sunday, and he drew 
 a graphic picture of the way in which we should 
 all stand at last before the Judgment Seat of 
 Christ, going on to describe how we should all be 
 called upon to stand there one by one, and be 
 examined and judged on all the minutest and
 
 36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 perhaps most forgotten actions of our lives. On 
 my suggesting that this would be rather a long 
 ceremony, and, considering the millions of millions 
 of people who would have to he dealt with, could 
 not be concluded within any calculable time, he 
 said : * \Vell, I dare sny my theology is a little old- 
 fashioned, and I will alter the sentence to please 
 you ; but that is what I have been taught to 
 believe, and what I do believe.' ' He would 
 probably, if he had pursued the subject, have 
 said that the objection to his view was based upon 
 a human idea of time, and therefore irrelevant in 
 regard to the Day when "time shall be no more " 
 and to the action of Him to whom "a thousand 
 years are as one day." 
 
 In December 1891 he joined with a number of 
 well-known clergy, of varying opinions on other 
 subjects (including Dr. Randall, Bishop of Read- 
 ing, Dr. U. \V. Randall, afterwards Dean of 
 Chichester, Dr. Goulburn, sometime Dean of Nor- 
 wich, Dr. Clavell Ingrain, afterwards Dean of 
 Peterborough, Mr. Krnald Lane, afterwards Dean 
 of Rochester, Dr. Payne Smith, Dean of Canter- 
 bury, Dr. Butler, Dean of Lincoln, Dr. Spence, 
 Dean of Gloucester, Dr. Claughton, sometime 
 Bishop of Rochester and of St. Alban's, Bishop 
 Thicknesse, Chancellor Espin, Archdeacon Deni- 
 son, and Sir George Prevost), in issuing a declara- 
 tion on the Truth of Holy Scripture, in which 
 they stated their belief that the Holy Scriptures 
 " are inspired by the Holy Ghost ; that they are 
 what they profess to be; that they mean what 
 they say ; and that they declare incontrovertibly
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 237 
 
 the actual historical truth in all records, both of 
 past events and of the delivery of predictions to be 
 thereafter fulfilled," and their belief in them 
 " wholly independently of our own, or of any 
 human, approval of the probability or possibility 
 of their subject matter ; and wholly independently 
 of our own, or of any human and finite, compre- 
 hension thereof." 
 
 This deep reverence for Holy Scripture gave a 
 special character to his sermons. 
 
 He was not at all a great preacher, and probably 
 those sermons he preached in St. Paul's (where only 
 he wrote them instead of preaching extempore as 
 was his custom) were not his most successful ones. 
 Yet he made a deep impression on his hearers. 
 Only the other day a middle-aged man said he 
 should never forget and could tell still the text and 
 argument of a sermon Mr. Gregory preached at 
 Richmond when he was twelve or thirteen ; and a 
 clergyman wrote there was an old woman of eighty 
 in his village whom Mr. Gregory had prepared at 
 Bisley for Confirmation, and who often quoted the 
 text, and talked about some sermon of his, she had 
 heard him preach at such a time. Until he was 
 Dean he always took duty in a country parish 
 for part of his holiday. The church was always 
 filled to overflowing to hear him before he left. 
 Sometimes the service had to be held in the 
 churchyard. Quite simple and straight sermons 
 he gave, mostly these on the Church Catechism, 
 about which he always said people thought and 
 knew too little. All he said came straight from 
 his own heart and conscience, and what they were
 
 238 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 may be understood from a saying of his " If you 
 once do a thing that is wrong, knowing it to be 
 wrong, why then where are you ? " 
 
 As one might expect from his alert and ener- 
 getic mind, he was a ready as well as a very 
 earnest preacher. Once when he was staying with 
 liis dear and life-long friend, John Sharp, Vicar 
 of Horbury, the official preacher for a Festival 
 Service failed, and Gregory consented, just before 
 the service began, to take his place. Mr. Sharp 
 wrote afterwards to tell him his sermon had made 
 a great impression, and particularly that it should 
 have been preached under such circumstances. 
 One man had said: "No wonder he had gotten a 
 fine place and a gran' wage if he was able to go off 
 at a touch like that." The phrase was one that 
 must have delighted him. 
 
 Such gifts as Robert Gregory's could not long be 
 hid in London. His powers as a man of business, 
 his capacity for very hard work, his character as 
 an honest pious man, were soon widely recognised. 
 He had soon become known not only as a devoted 
 parish priest, but as a strenuous fighter for Church 
 Education. He was also known, perhaps less 
 accurately, as a defender of the "Ritualists." The 
 controversy with IJishop Jackson about the East- 
 ward position attracted everybody's attention. 
 And, says Mr. R. S. Gregory, it had a startling 
 effect on his fortunes, "and, as it turned out, a 
 most happy one. In those days there was no 
 suffragan at all in London, and one was to be 
 appointed. A body of laymen, Richard Foster, 
 Beresford Hope, Sir E. II. Currie, and others took
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 239 
 
 it up, and they went to the Bishop and offered 
 him an endowment fund of 10,000 for a suffragan, 
 if he would appoint my father first Bishop ; the 
 Bishop refused, saying that " Gregory would 
 be dear at the price." Prebendary Ingram at- 
 tempted to influence the Bishop too, but quite 
 in vain, so Walsham How was appointed. Had 
 he not refused, my father would never have been 
 Dean. He told me all this whilst matters were 
 in negotiation, before they were settled." 
 
 This was not the only attempt, it may be noted, 
 to lure him away from St. Paul's. The Bishopric 
 of Brechin, it is understood, might have been his at 
 the vacancy of the see in 1876, and the Bishopric 
 of Cape Town in 1874. Like Dr. Liddon, when 
 the Bishopric of Edinburgh was offered to him, 
 he saw that his work lay in London, and he 
 was wedded to St. Paul's. And there his work 
 year by year won fuller and more enthusiastic 
 recognition. 
 
 Mr. R. S. Gregory gives a significant illustration 
 of the impression which the work at St. Paul's 
 had made by telling me of " a speech which Arch- 
 bishop Tait made on the subject of Cathedrals, at 
 which my father was present. In the course of 
 that speech the Archbishop said there was only 
 one Cathedral which had voluntarily, without ex- 
 ternal pressure, reformed itself, and that was St. 
 Paul's; then, turning to my father, who was 
 sitting just behind him, he said, * And you have 
 done it. ' " 
 
 St. Paul's and all its interests was for more than 
 fifty years his chief thought; and first of all in
 
 240 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 his mind was the worship of God within its walls. 
 How constantly he attended the services at the 
 Cathedral is shown by the following record : l 
 
 1897 . . 
 
 . . . 523 
 
 1905 . . . 
 
 . . 492 
 
 1898 . . 
 
 . . . 529 
 
 1906 . . . 
 
 . . 507 
 
 1899 . . 
 
 . . . 356 
 
 1907 . . . 
 
 . . 175 
 
 1900 . . 
 
 . . 502 
 
 1908 . . . 
 
 . . 79 
 
 1901 . . 
 
 . . . 454 
 
 1909 . . . 
 
 . . 244 
 
 1902 . . 
 
 . . 370 
 
 1910 . . . 
 
 . . 217 
 
 1 903 . . 
 
 . . . 483 
 
 1911 2 . . . 
 
 . . 21 
 
 1904 
 
 447 
 
 
 
 His nephew, in the paper already so often quoted, 
 tells a story which illustrates his perseverance in 
 attendance till the end. He says : " Within a very 
 short time of his death, when he was over ninety, 
 he wanted to go as usual to evensong at the Cathe- 
 dral, but when we got to the front door the rain 
 was coming down in a perfect waterspout. * You 
 can't go across in that,' I said. ' Oh, yes, I can.' 
 Hut it was so bad that I managed to dissuade him. 
 lie gave in with the remark, ' It won't hurt me, 
 but I should be sorry to take you out in it, if you 
 think you might catch cold.' The rain ceased as 
 suddenly as it began, when he at once made for the 
 Cathedral, and carried out his intention of attend- 
 
 1 From Mr. Ilrown, the head virger, and ostiariiu of the Convocation 
 of Canterbury, who was first brought to St. Paul's by Dean Mansel. 
 
 2 He resigned the Deanery on May 1. These figures apply only to 
 the statutory services (i.e. morning and evening prayer in the Choir). 
 For many years, in fact till he was made Dean, he and Mrs. Gregory 
 attended early matins daily, out of his residence months, first in the 
 N.W. ami then in the Crypt Chapel. Neither do the official attend- 
 ances take any account of the daily Celebrations. As Dean he always 
 celebrated on Saints' Days; also on Thursdays; and was of course 
 always present on Sundays, until his health failed.
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 241 
 
 ing the service, but I think that must have been 
 one of the very few occasions on which he was a 
 trifle late." To this he adds an illustrative anec- 
 dote : " When attending a service at the Cathedral, 
 at which he was due, the late Archbishop Temple, 
 when Bishop of London, arrived at two minutes 
 past the hour, and found the service in which he 
 was to take part already in full swing. When he 
 got back into the vestry he remonstrated at their 
 extra smartness ; but the Dean only replied, ' When 
 the clock strikes we begin.' And in telling the 
 story he was fond of adding that Temple was never 
 late again." 
 
 Such a record of attendance as the Dean's is 
 but one of the many proofs that he was indeed at 
 home at St. Paul's. He felt very keenly that the 
 work of a Cathedral, rightly done, was enough to 
 occupy any man. Archbishop Benson, in his book 
 The Cathedral, had set out the need of such 
 single-hearted devotion, and insisted that not only 
 should the " universal old perpetual or ' major resi- 
 dence' of two-thirds of the year at least," be re- 
 stored, but that the majores personae, Precentor, 
 Chancellor, Sub-Dean, Treasurer, or the like, with 
 the Archdeacon, should be the residentiaries, and 
 charged with the definite duties of their stalls, as 
 had indeed been the practice even in the eighteenth 
 century, " the Chancellor lecturing from time to 
 time, and the Precentor invariably ordering the 
 service." This was the view also of Mr. Gregory. 
 He knew that it was difficult, if not impossible, 
 to obtain a consistent policy in regard to the 
 functions of a Cathedral from those who were 
 
 Q
 
 242 ArTORIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 only occasionally resident, and he knew that those 
 who were compelled by their duties to reside and 
 to attend certain services, were not likely to do 
 more than was actually required of them if their 
 superior officers were content to give a minimum 
 of residence and worship. It took long to break 
 down the tradition of very partial residence even 
 at St. Paul's ; and the absences of Dr. Liddon and 
 Dr. Stubbs, while they were performing their 
 duties as professors at Cambridge and Oxford, 
 might indeed be regarded as having full authorisa- 
 tion from the canons of the Church. But long 
 before Dr. Gregory ceased to be Dean, the primary 
 obligation to the Cathedral Church was fully re- 
 cognised, and the four Canons of St. Paul's became 
 really resident, as such ministers of the Church 
 should be. It was the Dean who set the example. 
 He had, we have seen, 1 given up his benefice as 
 soon as it was possible to do so ; and he resided 
 at the Deanery every year all the year round, 
 except for a holiday in August. 
 
 It was, no doubt, the feeling which grew from 
 this, that, though born in the Midlands, he was a 
 thorough Londoner, which made him so popular, 
 and so influential in the City. He was in the 
 heart of London a leader in all good work; but 
 the Cathedral always held the first place. 
 
 Thus, he used to dine a great deal with the City 
 Companies, and enjoyed them, and had many warm 
 friends among them. Owing to his doing this, and 
 to his friendships there, several of the Companies 
 gave scholarships to the Cathedral choir-boys to 
 
 1 K IOC.
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 243 
 
 go on to other schools when their voices broke. 
 There is one a year for which they compete, and 
 it has been invaluable. " It was really entirely 
 owing to him and his influence with them," says 
 one who knows. Many boys have thus got 
 scholarships, and been helped by the St. Paul's 
 body (he did it largely himself) to go on to the 
 University, and have been ordained. He always 
 took a deep interest in the boys and their careers, 
 and rejoiced when they took Holy Orders. He 
 impressed on them, as well as everybody else 
 about the Cathedral, the guiding axiom of his 
 own time there. " Whatever happens, the Cathe- 
 dral must come first." 
 
 It was truly said at the time of his death that it 
 was a privilege to see him with the children of 
 St. Paul's, at the annual prize-giving at the Choir 
 School. " During the latest period of his life he 
 was seemingly at his best and happiest when 
 telling the children of the choir how great was 
 their privilege to belong to so noble a foundation. 
 Somehow, the great gap between their ages and 
 his seemed to disappear, and the words of kindly 
 counsel he gave them came not as with the 
 authority of the Dean but as though the speaker 
 had only been a little longer than they in the same 
 delightful service." 
 
 As an illustration of the care he took about all 
 matters connected with the Cathedral, one might 
 recall the pains he bestowed on the distribution of 
 tickets for the various special services for which 
 St. Paul's during the years he was there became 
 famous. They were not to him means of gratify-
 
 244 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 ing personal friends, but public privileges to be 
 distributed with care. He took special care for the 
 interests of busy people, clerks, nurses, type-writers, 
 colonists, visitors from a great distance, persons who 
 were kept at work till the last moment. 
 
 It was his invariable practice to inspect person- 
 ally anything he was called on to decide about, 
 and the invaluable Clerk of the Works, Mr. 
 Harding, never brought any detail about the 
 fabric of the Cathedral to his attention without 
 his saying, " Let's go and see it." He used to do 
 the same at Tillingham when he went down : every 
 farm and building, &c., about which any question 
 arose, he went to see himself. He often said : 
 " Though you may know nothing about it, if you 
 go yourself to see it, you always find your atten- 
 tion directed to any weak spot by the increased, 
 and often semi-apologetic explanations, and then it 
 is always worth while to listen and find out all you 
 can about it, and bear that particular spot in mind." 
 
 Perhaps one may add to this another reminis- 
 cence of his daughter's she says : " Though he 
 was so earnestly anxious that everything connected 
 with the worship in St. Paul's should be done in 
 the most dignified and reverent way, he was him- 
 self curiously unobservant of details, and once at 
 an Ordination in the Cathedral, during the laying 
 on of 1 lands on the heads of the priests, he dis- 
 tracted Bishop Creighton by putting his wrong 
 hand forward, thus spoiling the effect of the semi- 
 circle. The Hishop bore it for a few minutes, and 
 then whispered to his Chaplain: * Will some one go 
 and turn the Dean round ? '
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 245 
 
 This mention of Bishop Creighton brings the 
 other Bishops of London to mind. 
 
 From the time of Bishop Jackson (who came, 
 as all good men did, to understand him as he 
 knew him better) his relations with the successive 
 Bishops of London were cordial, and something 
 more. Bishop Temple and he had a high regard 
 for each other; though they differed sometimes, 
 their rugged natures were essentially akin. When 
 the Bishop wished to live in the city to be near 
 the Cathedral, he did his best to further the plan, 
 and tried hard to find a suitable house. Greatly 
 did he admire Bishop Creighton, and their rela- 
 tions were of the happiest. If the Dean expressed 
 a wish for the recognition of some good work in 
 the diocese by the distinction of a prebendal stall 
 in the Cathedral, the Bishop, with something 
 more than the traditional courtesy which made 
 such a request of the Dean almost a right, was 
 cordial in his acceptance of the suggestion. A 
 letter from him which shows the Bishop's appre- 
 ciation of the Dean may be inserted here : 
 
 "FULHAM PALACE, Sept. 30, '99. 
 
 " MY DEAR DEAN, I was very sorry on my 
 return home to get your letter, and learn that 
 you had not been well. I cannot wonder that 
 at your age you are advised to abate somewhat 
 of the marvellous activity which you have been 
 enabled to carry on through so many years. It 
 is with very great regret that I accept your 
 resignation of the two offices you hold in con- 
 nection with the educational work in the Dio-
 
 ^46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 cese. The Diocesan Board is so connected with 
 yourself that I do not know how it carries on 
 without you. But 1 do not wish to trouble you 
 with regrets. I can only express the thankful- 
 ness which everyone feels for the work you have 
 done in the past, and I know that your counsel 
 will he available in times of emergency. 
 
 " 1 sincerely hope that you will return to London 
 refreshed and restored, and that greater quietness 
 and care may secure the needful relief. Yours 
 affectionately, M. LONDON." 
 
 He deeply mourned Dr. Creighton, who had 
 in a remarkable degree won his confidence and 
 esteem. 
 
 The Bishop who succeeded him had been a 
 friend of some years in the Chapter : to him, in 
 his Episcopal office, the old man delighted to 
 show the respect which is never more beautiful 
 than when it is paid by the aged to the young. 
 The elevation of the junior Canon to the 
 Bishopric gave the Dean sincere gratification, 
 and his kindly visits to him in later years always 
 gave the greatest pleasure. Frequently, when in 
 failing health, if it was sought to dissuade him 
 from going to the Cathedral at any time when the 
 Bishop would be present, he would say : " Oh yes, 
 I must go ; it's more respectful to the Bishop." 
 
 So the life went on in quiet beneficence and 
 devotion. The familiar figure grew bent, the 
 alert swift step became slow. Still the friends 
 surrounded him with affection, new ones as de- 
 voted as the old. How greatly he leaned on
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 247 
 
 one of those in later years is known to all who 
 know and love St. Paul's ; nor can they wonder 
 that when this companionship and support was 
 withdrawn he felt that the time had come for 
 himself to end his association with the Cathedral 
 they had served together. But if this friendship 
 was one on which he had specially relied, hardly 
 less close were the links which bound him to the 
 other Canons, to Canon Newbolt, the friend of 
 many years, and to the Archbishop of York, very 
 dear indeed among the friends of his old age. 
 
 Friends of earlier years have been mentioned 
 here and there in the record ; but there are many 
 more who might well be named. They were nearly 
 all persons with whom he had a common interest 
 or common work. If one is selected, it is certainly 
 in no disparagement to the rest. I tell of it as it 
 is told to me. 
 
 " Mr. Berdmore Compton, some time Rector of 
 St. Paul's, Covent Garden, was a friend of later 
 years. The Dean said himself that his own experi- 
 ence was quite contrary to the statement that no 
 one ever made a great friend over sixty as one 
 of the greatest friendships of his life was made 
 when he was over seventy. To the Dean's very 
 great pleasure, Bishop Temple made Mr. Compton 
 Prebendary of St. Paul's at his request, and it was 
 a delightful sight to see these two old men, both 
 with snow-white hair, within six months in age of 
 each other, going off to tea together at the Deanery 
 after evensong, at least once a week, perfectly 
 happy together ; or walking together round the 
 garden of Mr. Compton's house, Atherstone, deep in
 
 i>48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 conversation. Dr. Gregory's last visit outside his 
 own family was to Atherstone, in 1907, and when 
 he was so desperately ill in the following spring, 
 Mr. Berdmore Compton used to come to the 
 Deanery every day himself for two months to ask 
 how he was. He was a man of great charm of 
 manner and appearance, and much more of a scholar 
 than Robert Gregory, and though even, if possible, 
 more of a Conservative, he persuaded his brother 
 Tory to take a more favourable view of the Revised 
 Version than he was at all inclined to, for he had 
 regarded it as a needless innovation ; but after he 
 had been convinced how much more of the original 
 meaning was conveyed by it, he read it every day. 
 Mr. Compton used to say so delightfully : * People 
 always say : " You may count on me as long as 1 
 can agree with you." I don't care about friends if 
 they can only stick to you when you are right ; 
 anyone can do that. I want my friends to stick 
 to me when I am in the wrong.' His death, in 
 January 1909, was a great loss to the Dean." Such 
 is the memory that remains of their friendship. 
 
 His long life in the City, and keen interest in it, 
 made him very widely known and as deeply 
 respected. Men of all sorts and conditions came 
 to him and asked his advice, and (what is not so 
 common) acted on it. His son remembers a re- 
 markable instance. Once, when he was a Canon, a 
 City merchant came to see him and said : " Gregory, 
 I have just had a fortune of about 70,000 left me ; 
 I don't want it ; what shall I do with it ? " and then 
 he and his friend arranged how that large sum 
 should be given away.
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 249 
 
 He was no less trusted by statesmen in office, 
 whom he is known to have advised as to important 
 appointments : no less but more, if possible, by 
 clergy, and by no means those only of his own 
 " school of thought." A friend to whom he was 
 much attached, the late Archbishop of Cape Town, 
 consecrated in 1874, came to him, on the day of 
 the Consecration itself, in great distress because 
 he could not ascertain whether he was required to 
 take the oath of canonical obedience to Canterbury. 
 He was determined to stop the service rather than 
 do so, and not be consecrated. For him, too, there 
 was wise counsel. 
 
 As the years went on, the old friends were joined 
 or succeeded, by new ones in St. Paul's as else- 
 where. Reminiscences from those who served 
 with him and tinder him would be gladly given, 
 and every one would be of value. Something has 
 been seen to suggest how close was his friendship 
 with Church, and Liddon, and Stubbs, and Light- 
 foot. With the Canons of later days there came 
 also a touch of deep respect, which grew into rever- 
 ence. From the Bishop of London, the Archbishop 
 of York, Canon Newbolt, down to Canon Alexan- 
 der, the last new member of the Chapter while he 
 was Dean, testimonies of affection could be drawn 
 freely ; but what they would have said may be 
 summed up in what was written by Dr. H. S. 
 Holland, who during his last years was always at 
 his right hand to spare him labour. In The Com- 
 monwealth of September 1911, he wrote the me- 
 morial of the Dean's long service, which by his 
 kindness is now reprinted here :
 
 250 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 - The venerable figure, bowed under the white 
 hair, moving with helping hands to and fro through 
 the Cathedral to which he had given his life and 
 love, had won for Robert Gregory a romantic 
 interest in these later years. All London watched 
 him pass in and out : and he laid hold of the public 
 imagination : and men saw in him the whole story 
 of the long years upgathered and embodied. There 
 he goes, with his white hair the man who had 
 seen Byron's funeral pass through Nottingham to 
 Newark : who remembered the fly-sheets telling 
 of the battle of Navarino : who had rowed out in 
 a boat to meet the first steamer coming back over 
 the Atlantic from America. How often he had 
 ridden up by coach from Liverpool to London ! 
 And, then, he had heard Newman's last sermon in 
 Littlemore on the ' Parting of Friends,' and re- 
 membered the loud sobbing of Pusey and Tom 
 Morris, while the voice of the preacher went on 
 unmoved, until, in silence, he shook oft' his hood 
 and left it on the rail, as he stepped down from 
 the pulpit. 
 
 "So he could recall : and, then, had he not for 
 forty years and more been the strong stay of St. 
 Paul's, seeing it through out of its piteous shame 
 and neglect into its present crowded glory ? Was 
 it not lie who had given himself night and day to 
 the work of liberating it, and cleansing it, and 
 clearing it, and decorating it, and filling it full 
 with the splendour of worship? Everyone who 
 helped him had passed away ; but still he is there, 
 faithful to his charge, part of the very building 
 itself, punctual at its prayers, clinging to his place
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 251 
 
 in the choir, following the Lessons with absorbed 
 expectant attention as if he could not guess what 
 was coming, untiring in his devotion to the interests 
 of the great Church, resolutely lying on his left 
 side in bed (in spite of warnings against the risk 
 by the doctors) that he might better hear at night 
 the clock and bells of St. Paul's. 
 
 " So he gained a unique hold over the heart of 
 London : until, at his death, there almost seemed 
 a danger of the world forgetting the others who 
 had shared his task. Liddon and Church were 
 mentioned as if they were merely accidental con- 
 tributors to the good result. No one would have 
 repudiated such a claim to pre-eminence more 
 earnestly and vehemently than the late Dean him- 
 self. He knew, with perfectly honest and straight- 
 forward intelligence, what he could do, and what 
 he had to leave to others. And he was ready 
 always to trust others to do their own part, which 
 was not his. Thus there were departments of the 
 Cathedral life which he was delighted to see ful- 
 filled by those who were specially fitted for them. 
 Liddon's wonderful gifts he thoroughly appreci- 
 ated. And not only did Liddon, by his preaching, 
 fill dome and transept and choir, but, also, in the 
 reorganisation of the Worship, and of the use 
 to which the Cathedral was put, his skill and 
 knowledge and enthusiasm were invaluable. He 
 set the key in which things were to be done. 
 He determined the tone and quality and order 
 of all the Liturgical development. He fixed the 
 limits of what could be attempted. He imagined 
 the general scheme. He brought to the Cathedral
 
 252 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 the sense of beauty, passion, and romance. He 
 made it a place of fascination, and gave it a 
 spiritual ideal. 
 
 " Again, it was Liddon who brought up Stainer 
 from Oxford, to whom we owe the entire setting 
 of our worship in the spiritual key and temper 
 which is our great inheritance to-day. He built 
 up the choir itself, and the voluntary organisa- 
 tions that undertakes the Evening and Special 
 Services. Liddon, again, planted Barff at the 
 Choir School, by whose steady resolution the 
 School became the nursery of the pure and high 
 tradition which is the inner secret of all the beauty 
 ot Worship offered at the central Shrine. 
 
 " And, then, behind, at our centre, was the fine 
 and masterful presence of Dean Church. He it 
 was who gave to the Cathedral intellectual distinc- 
 tion and value. The world of men could not think 
 cheaply of us, so long as he was our Chief. There 
 was not a man of worth in English Society and 
 Literature who did not appreciate Richard Church. 
 He was recognised as the * finest flower of the 
 Anglican tradition.' He stood in the first rank. 
 He won, for all this revival of ours, the respect in 
 which it was held. He was a pledge of its worth 
 to the people who count. And more and more he 
 became the secret central spiritual authority to 
 which men sought in hours of doubt. He sat as 
 a moral arbiter : his verdict became our common 
 law : he set the standard : he determined values. 
 \Ve were felt to possess, at our heart, a power of 
 wisdom, of courage, of unworldly intuition, of 
 counsel, and ghostly strength. Nothing could be
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 253 
 
 done in St. Paul's that had not in view the fine 
 and delicate scales in which the Dean would put 
 it to the test. And, at anxious hours of emergency, 
 we were trusted and tolerated because of the 
 honour of our Dean. I do not think it is possible 
 to exaggerate the significance of his personal pre- 
 sence, as our Head, even though its influence was 
 often felt rather than heard, and though its actual 
 working was as much in secret as was possible. 
 He was a vital asset through all the years of 
 revival, which steadily grew in importance and in 
 effect. We had a conscience in our midst which 
 we were compelled to regard. No one could afford 
 to live in the company of Richard Church, and 
 not be careful how to answer for his conduct. No 
 one could be near him without being aware of a 
 heightened worth in living. So through love, and 
 through the fear that belongs to love, he made St. 
 Paul's what it was. He was unique. There was 
 no one like him. 
 
 " The dear old man who has now gone from the 
 scene of his labours would wish all this to be re- 
 called. He himself, by his strenuous activity, 
 made their action possible. He had seen that 
 the whole possibility rested on Finance, and that 
 the first necessity of all lay in a bargain with 
 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. He had con- 
 trived his financial scheme, and had whirled Dean 
 Mansel into incompetent activity, before Church 
 or Liddon had appeared on the scene. 
 
 " So Gregory was effectively instrumental in pro- 
 viding the opportunities which others could use : 
 and in securing the resources which were available
 
 254 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 for others to apply. His driving powers were 
 immense, in this way. It was never better seen 
 than in the work of decorating the Cathedral. 
 There was a pleasant irony, which he himself 
 enjoyed, in the fact that he should have been 
 called to supervise a matter so entirely outside 
 his natural bent and skill. It was a foreign subject 
 to him. It was great fun to see his wonder why 
 we could not make up our minds the moment that 
 the artist's proposals were plainly put before us. 
 ' Now, then,' he would cry impatiently, * I 
 suppose you are ready to vote ; what shall it 
 be ? ' We, poor things, were struggling to 
 estimate those tentative, elusive, intangible im- 
 pressions, which a work of art evokes. We 
 wanted to go aside for half an hour alone, to 
 collect our dim, inarticulate, hesitating judgment : 
 to suffer the impressions to sink. Voting on the 
 spot was horrible to us. But, after all, he was 
 right. \Vc were hopelessly inadequate, for all our 
 pains. And the best thing that we could do was 
 to do what he did, i.e., trust our chosen artist, and 
 go ahead. So it was done: and he got it along. 
 We made many mistakes, but not more than we 
 should have made anyhow. And there is a great 
 power in a total outsider, who sees what has got 
 to be done and does it. William Richmond liked 
 him better than he liked any of us, and would 
 prefer him greatly to any of us who made faint 
 claims to be heard on artistic matters. 
 
 " The old Dean was very proud indeed of the 
 decorations, and thoroughly satisfied. It was 
 certainly a wonderful thing to have been allowed
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 255 
 
 to bring about the decoration of the entire choir 
 and aisles with all their appointments. It was to 
 him, too, that the Cathedral owes the electric 
 lighting, which was given through the generosity 
 of his good friend, Mr. Pierpont Morgan. No 
 wonder that he loved to the last to wander in and 
 out of the Cathedral, which bore the impress of his 
 devotion to it from floor to ceiling. His work 
 looked back at him and spoke to him, as he saw 
 the crowds pour in and out, and heard the organ- 
 music thunder round the walls, and knew that the 
 great Church was now made for ever a house for 
 the worship and the glory of God. And, as he 
 wandered in and out, with his work behind him, 
 a strange gentleness stole over his old vehement 
 energy : and a quiet fell upon him, and a passive 
 calm, such as we had never seen in the rough 
 strenuous days of labour. Very gently he resigned 
 his task to others. He had been Treasurer through- 
 out, and loved it, and revelled in its figures and 
 books. When I succeeded to the office, I thought 
 that he would never be able to keep his hands off 
 the old job especially as he had a most kindly con- 
 tempt, I felt sure, for my financial capacities. Yet 
 never once did he try to put in a finger : never 
 once did he touch it again : and all that I did was 
 accepted with cordial acquiescence, and with ready 
 joy in things going right. 
 
 " It was an immense surprise to us this power 
 of total surrender in one who could not, in younger 
 days, set limits to his urgent activities. So old age 
 brought to him new gifts. He was changed and 
 mellowed. Peace and tenderness and resignation
 
 256 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 did their quiet and beautiful work upon him, until 
 the long day ended. He had done : he could go 
 home. The discipline of life had been attained. 
 After that lie was absorbed in the interest of the 
 unseen world. He would not attend to those who 
 talked to him. ' I am very much interested,' he 
 explained, while he seemed to be speaking to old 
 friends, and said, ' Quite so ! Quite so ! ' several 
 times. Even then the strong body almost re- 
 fused to die. Only, after a long unconsciousness, 
 it consented to the death that had been so often 
 postponed. 
 
 "He has left a memory which gathered in force 
 and richness to the very end. The Cathedral that 
 lie served so faithfully will never forget him." 
 
 To this Dr. Holland has now added some further 
 notes of reminiscence : " I think that the wonder 
 that I felt in the Dean, in his later years, was the 
 standing proof that he offered of the entirely super- 
 ficial character of all outward environment in affect- 
 ing character. Just think of the change that he 
 had seen in his life come over the face of the earth ! 
 Never had there been such an entire revolution 
 within the memory of man. Up to his youth, the 
 pace of the world, for instance, had been deter- 
 mined, from the very beginning, by the pace of 
 the horse. No news could travel faster than a 
 horse could go, nor could any communications be 
 made faster than a horse could carry them. We 
 all know that when Sir Robert Peel posted home 
 from Rome, as hard as he could go, at the sum- 
 mons of his Sovereign, to undertake a Cabinet, he 
 travelled from Rome to London in just the same
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 257 
 
 time as Julius Caesar would have done it. I always 
 think that the funniest illustration of the old state 
 of things is given by the Flight to Varennes. Here 
 is an enormous berlin, which appears to mean a 
 carriage about the size of the dome of St. Paul's, 
 which gets some six hours' start from Paris, and 
 is at once entirely lost. All the resources of 
 civilisation cannot discover where it is. Paris is 
 powerless; news is sought in all directions, and 
 quite in vain ; the enormous thing lumbers on, 
 and positively gets within twelve miles of the 
 frontier, when it is at last discovered and arrested 
 by the frantic gallop of Drouet all through the 
 night. Now, conceive passing from that kind 
 of situation to the picture of Dr. Crippen, the 
 murderer, himself flying across the Atlantic at 
 20 knots an hour, and all America and Europe 
 knowing, through Marconi wires, of every motion 
 that he is making ; and detectives aware of the 
 very minute at which to wait for him at the far 
 side ; while he alone, the unhappy man, is ignorant 
 of what everybody knows about him. We have 
 learnt to live by wire and telephone, and the news 
 of the whole round earth is on our breakfast-table 
 with the sausages every morning ; and railways 
 and steam have made all places one ; and the whole 
 of humanity's work has been speeded up to the 
 level of this miraculous change, and all life has had 
 to be re-estimated in view of the pace at which it 
 could be done. Yet there sat the old Dean, the 
 very same man that he was when none of these 
 things were, in all that mattered in character and 
 in life. An immense change had swept over him 
 
 R
 
 258 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 and yet left him wholly untouched. That which 
 he was to you as a friend and a brother, was exactly 
 the man to whom all these external matters did 
 not matter in the least. He took them all and 
 worked with them all easily enough, and his great 
 zeal for practical efficiency made him keen to use 
 every opportunity to the full, so he did not hold 
 back in the past and refuse to take advantage of 
 the new. Far from it ; he was thoroughly in it, 
 as far as the machinery of life went, and enjoyed 
 all the advantages that it brought him. I think 
 there were only two subjects in which the warfare 
 of his middle life had served to imprison him in 
 a past situation. He had fought the School Board 
 and its whole type of education, and he had dis- 
 liked and resisted the formation of the London 
 County Council, and he never got away quite from 
 the temper of these earlier positions. Nothing 
 could induce him to accept and understand the 
 educational policy which had become quite in- 
 evitable, of working with the School Board and 
 accepting their function. He would have held 
 us back in a disastrous policy of intransigence. 
 Here he was stuck, and he could not get on. 
 And, again, it was difficult to get him to see 
 how great a fact the London County Council had 
 become, and all the vital things that it was doing 
 for the life of London. But on most matters he 
 was very ready to see what was up, and to fall in 
 with all the opportunities given him. 
 
 "In the management of the Cathedral he relied 
 on the perfect security of order. Everything must 
 be in time, and exactly to the right time, and there
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 259 
 
 must be no lapses and irregularities. I remember 
 once his standing on the west steps, and saying 
 rather solemnly to me, ' Remember, Holland, when 
 I am gone, that the secret of a place like this 
 lies in punctuality.' And it is wonderful what 
 punctuality means in the life of a Cathedral. 
 Everybody knew that as the clock struck, there 
 would be the Dean ready. And the sense of this 
 braces the temper of a whole establishment ; it 
 gives a sense of importance even to little things ; 
 they are felt to be worth doing, and worth doing 
 well, if the Dean takes care to be in time for them. 
 The moment punctuality declines, there is a fall 
 of moral temperature all round, and the touch of 
 neglect and indifference creeps over things. All 
 this was very characteristic of him. He could not 
 understand anything coming in the way of an 
 engagement in Cathedral. He had a way of tell- 
 ing the choirmen that nothing but death could 
 be accepted as an excuse for being late. This 
 may have been worked rather hardly in his mid- 
 career when he was in his full vigour and control, 
 but he remembered the old miseries of negligence 
 too vividly not to be very suspicious of any sign of 
 slackness. 
 
 " The vigour with which he would act in his 
 prime was amazing. It used to fall rather vio- 
 lently on our poor architect of those days, who 
 had a wavering manner and a tendency to inde- 
 cision. It certainly was too much for the un- 
 happy man who overthrew the Chalice at the 
 Good Friday Celebration in St. Dunstan's Chapel. 
 By the time I reached the man, there was no
 
 260 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 portion of his person which was not already occu- 
 pied by somebody ; and Gregory was seated firmly 
 about his head, holding his face against the floor, 
 and tightening his clutch whenever the poor man 
 found space enough to get his mouth clear, and to 
 whisper * Bless you my brothers.' This was the 
 parallel to the famous scene when he shoved his 
 pocket-handkerchief down the throat of the other 
 madman at Evensong one Easter Eve ; but that 
 scene I did not witness. The pace at which 
 Gregory got off his surplice while running to catch 
 the man was what especially struck awe in the 
 beholders. He never ceased, to the end, to 
 rejoice in the memory of his swift and decisive 
 action as a Curate at Bisley, when a Church 
 Restoration was on, and a certain farmer would 
 not resign his pew, only to find out, one bright 
 morning, that Gregory had cut it down in the 
 night. He associated this incident ever after with 
 the verse in the Psalms for the 21st Evening, 
 which recorded how ' Then stood up Phinecs and 
 prayed ; and so the plague ceased.' 1 The connec- 
 tion, I gathered, lay in the character of the prayer 
 of Phinehas. It took the form, it may be remem- 
 bered, of running two people through with one 
 stroke of his spear. This 'effectual and fervent' 
 form of prayer commended itself to the Dean, 
 who felt that he too had prayed when he took an 
 axe and whacked at the offending pew. Anyhow, 
 
 1 These words were actually running in liis head, he said, all the 
 time that his work of pious destruction was going forward. The 
 Dean's own account, however (above, pp. 38-39), does not quite bear 
 out Dr. Holland'- description.
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 261 
 
 on every 21st Evening you might have heard a 
 low inward chuckle, at the memory of the conster- 
 nation at Bisley, when it woke up in the morning 
 and beheld the ruins. 
 
 " He was overwhelmed with gratitude to God for 
 having put him in the very post in all the earth 
 which he most desired. He was very humble 
 over this, but very happy. Everything in the 
 place appealed to him, and brought out all the 
 best that was in him. He was indeed no expert 
 in Ritual, nor ever cared much about the art of 
 Worship, but he knew that Worship in the Cathe- 
 dral ought to be carried through at the highest 
 level of perfection which it was in our power to 
 reach, and he was glad enough to use the skill of 
 others so as to ensure this result He loved the 
 fact that the beauty of Worship was there ; but 
 very often his honest old parochial heart instinc- 
 tively looked for results that were inconsistent 
 with the stately services of a Cathedral, and he 
 never, for instance, could help rejoicing, as a 
 parish priest rejoices, over the enormous number 
 of communicants on High Days, even though that 
 broke up the unity of the main Celebration. 
 
 " I have spoken of the hold that Bisley had upon 
 his memories. He never ceased to look upon 
 himself as Tom Keble's man. He told me once 
 that in all critical decisions he tried to act in the 
 way that Tom Keble would have approved. There 
 lay his moral standard. This loyalty of his gave 
 me a deeper impression of the little Bisley group 
 than one gains from the records of the time. They 
 belonged to a strict and rigid school. They were
 
 262 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 a little doubtful even of John Keble himself, who 
 was liable to be touched by the influence of the 
 brilliant and perilous Newman. They were very 
 fierce against Romanisers, and cut dead all who 
 went over. They were tough Tories. But then 
 they had the deep serious sincerity which belonged 
 to the whole moment, and this it was which left 
 its profound impress on Gregory. It was real 
 religion which he got hold of at Bisley. He knew 
 its inner secrets. He did not often speak of such 
 things. He was busy with practical affairs, and 
 bustling politics, and all the pre-occupations of a 
 managing man. But it would be a surprise to 
 those who saw only in him the ardent ecclesiasti- 
 cal politician to feel the warmth and the tender- 
 ness that came into his voice as he preached, or as 
 he celebrated. There was felt at once to be some- 
 thing deeper at work than he, at first sight, sug- 
 gested. He spoke as one who had been inside the 
 mystery, and had known by living experience the 
 secret of Jesus." 
 
 After this record from one who was so great 
 a support to his later years there is little indeed 
 to add. Time went on and took toll of those who 
 had loved him best. On March 19, 1904, the de- 
 voted wife who had shared the last years of work 
 and happiness, passed to her rest. Still he worked 
 on, cared for by his children and helped by the 
 generous assistance of those about him. New 
 friends were made chiefly through the Cathedral, 
 such as Mr. Pierpont Morgan, whose generosity 
 in providing St. Paul's with electric light delighted 
 him.
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 263 
 
 Here is a letter which illustrates the grateful 
 affection with which he was regarded by the 
 Canons : 
 
 " December 21st, 1908. 
 
 "My DEAII CHIEF, 1 hope that the clang of 
 the Bells told you of the joy of the old Dome, 
 and of all those who nestle under its shelter, at 
 the triumph of to-day. You have given forty 
 years to the service of the Dome : the Western 
 Tower might well shake all over with the burst- 
 ing news. It is a wonderful fact. And you 
 have ever given your very best, and you have 
 thought, and cared, and striven, and prayed for 
 the great Cathedral night and day through all 
 the long years. 
 
 " And you love it at the close more than ever. 
 And you have put the force and the hope into 
 its work which looked so impossible when you 
 crept in by the glimmer of the solitary candle. 
 And now we have only to keep going what you 
 have started, and all will be well. 
 
 " God bless you for it, and may He give you 
 comfort and patience in the latter days, as you 
 sit in your place and give thanks for all the great 
 mercies which these forty years have brought to 
 you ! I wish I could have touched your hand 
 to-day. 
 
 " But heart touches heart : that is enough." 
 
 The affection that many felt for him was often 
 gathered up in kind words from those who could 
 give them as representative of the whole country. 
 So Queen Victoria, and King Edward, and many
 
 264 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 members of the Royal family often showed in 
 gracious kindness ; and on his last birthday he 
 was deeply touched (as soon as his humility had 
 grasped what was the meaning of the signature 
 "George May" to an indistinctly written telegram) 
 by a message from the King and Queen. 
 
 His interests outside London gradually dimin- 
 ished, but lie had the closest affection and friend- 
 ship with his nephew, Julius Hannah, on whose 
 unfailing care and attention he leant very greatly 
 in his later years, and took a deep interest in all 
 he was trying to do for his Cathedral at Chichester. 
 
 As the new century went on, his venerable 
 figure, leaning on his daughter's arm, or helped 
 over the crossing by a kindly policeman, became 
 one of the famous sights of London, and his face, 
 now pale and set in a wealth of long white hair 
 seemed so a Roman Catholic said to the writer 
 of these words to set the whole tone to the 
 Cathedral services, and teach all present to pray. 
 
 His great strength again and again brought him 
 back (when, as all who were with him knew, he 
 would not so have chosen) from the edge of the 
 grave. He longed to die as still the servant of 
 St. Paul's, but he came to see that this was not 
 to be, and on February 18, 1911, he wrote to the 
 Prime Minister, a letter, to which the answer, so 
 happily and generously recording his great service 
 to the nation, is here printed by Mr. Asquith's 
 permission. 
 
 "10 DOWNING STREET, Felmtary 22, 1911. 
 
 " MY DEAR MR. DEAN, I have to acknowledge 
 the receipt of your letter of the 18th inst., in
 
 which you intimate your intention of resigning 
 the Deanery of St. Paul's as from May 1st next. 
 Great as the sacrifice must be for you to sever 
 your official connection with a Cathedral whose 
 interests you have served with such conspicuous 
 and unparalleled success, I quite realise the 
 wisdom of your decision in the circumstances, 
 and I am convinced that no man has ever relin- 
 quished a high office with more certainty than 
 yourself that he has deserved and won the respect 
 and gratitude of all who have at heart not only 
 the interests of St. Paul's, but of the whole Church 
 of England. I can speak as to this with some 
 personal knowledge, as I was familiar with the 
 services at St. Paul's before the improvements of 
 which you were the author. I note your desire to 
 continue living in the Deanery after your retire- 
 ment, and I consider it eminently natural and 
 proper, and in selecting your successor I shall 
 stipulate that he accepts this condition. I trust 
 that in your retirement you may be blessed with 
 the enjoyment of good health. Believe me, yours 
 very faithfully, H. H. ASQUITH." 
 
 And so the long story comes to an ending. 
 One of those friends most closely associated with 
 him at St. Paul's wrote to him on the day of his 
 resignation words which most happily expressed 
 the meaning of those years of work : "My heart 
 goes out to you to-day, and to the Cathedral, as I 
 think of the long and wonderful chapter in the 
 Story of the Dome that is being closed. As your 
 dear white head is withdrawn from the familiar
 
 stall, the end has come to what after all can never 
 end. No, indeed, the work of the life of the last 
 forty years in St. Paul's is too strong to pass away. 
 You have given to them a force that will endure 
 against all change. This will be your undying 
 comfort. A standard has been fixed of what 
 St. Paul's should mean to the world, and from 
 that standard it can never afford to drop. It will 
 not fail you now. It will prove its gratitude to 
 you by enduring when you are gone from it." 
 
 The last months went quickly. On May 1, 
 1911, his resignation took effect. "It was 
 arranged," said T/te Times, "that his continued 
 occupation of the official residence should be 
 reckoned as a considerable part of the pension to 
 which he was so amply entitled, with the result 
 that he continued for some time to attend service 
 in the choir as of old. His steps went a little 
 more heavily and he sat in a different stall, but 
 there was no other change that an ordinary ob- 
 server could note." But he well knew that the 
 end was near. He lived to extend a warm wel- 
 come to his successor. Again let his nephew 
 speak : " Beautiful, indeed, was his eventide, and 
 the testimony of his closing years. When you 
 asked him how he was, the constant answer came, 
 ' Pretty well for a worn-out, old man.' And 
 worn-out at last he undoubtedly was, and very 
 tired, but very patient, too. No complaint ever 
 passed his lips. For years he was ready and 
 longing to go, but he waited with the most touch- 
 ing patience till at last the summons came." 
 
 In July he began more visibly to fail. A short
 
 Photo: Rat-raft 
 
 DEAN GREGORY ON HIS NINETIETH BIRTHDAY
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 267 
 
 illness ended on August 2, 1911, when in the early 
 morning he passed peacefully away. On Saturday, 
 August 5, he was buried in his own Cathedral 
 church. 
 
 The love that he had won from the poor all 
 those years at Lambeth followed him to the end. 
 It was one of the working men who had known 
 him so long who wrote down this incident on the 
 day of his funeral : " I was leaving St. Paul's at 
 12 noon on Saturday 5th, when an incident took 
 place I shall never forget. A mob of holiday- 
 makers came in, one of whom was a minister, who 
 asked the employees of St. Paul's (8 or 9 putting 
 the place in order under the dome) what had just 
 taken place. One of them answered with deep 
 respect that they were sorry to say they had just 
 buried the Dean, one of the dearest old chaps that 
 ever lived, and his mates said Amen ! The minister 
 said, ' What, Gregory ! I knew him ; ' and with 
 that he got his flock together upon that spot under 
 the dome, took a little book from his pocket, and 
 they had a little prayer together." 
 
 Next day, Canon Newbolt, preaching from the 
 pulpit at St. Paul's, said words which may well 
 sum up the story of his life : 
 
 " Robert Gregory has been honoured to-day by 
 a chorus of generous approbation from those 
 writers in the Press, who, seeing his work and 
 knowing his worth, have agreed to honour a life of 
 genuine consistency, which never turned aside to 
 avoid blame, nor trimmed to catch the popular 
 breeze ; the life of one who lived, as has been said 
 of a great man before him, 'in an atmosphere
 
 268 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 where the reproaches of men could not reach, and 
 the praises of men might not presume to follow.' 
 
 " To pursue this task to-day were easy, but for 
 the reasons which I have given would be superflu- 
 ous. The world has recognised his commanding 
 qualities, and has not been slow to declare its 
 appreciation ; and there are other reasons still 
 which seem to forbid a panegyric. He himself, 
 if he were here, would push away with the genuine 
 disgust of an honest man anything which might 
 savour of flattery ; and further, in the pulpit of a 
 church, the preacher must always feel that he is 
 speaking before an audience which is not of this 
 world. A great cloud of witnesses surrounds us 
 now, reaching far beyond the walls of this Cathe- 
 dral. There they sit tier upon tier, in a vanishing 
 glory of distance, 'those who did bear rule in 
 their kingdoms, men renowned for their power, 
 giving counsel by their understanding, and declar- 
 ing prophecies ; those who were honoured in their 
 generation, and who were the glory of their times ; 
 those who have left a name behind them, and those 
 who have no memorial.' 
 
 " After all, it is for us to do the work, but the 
 crown of that work belongs to God. 
 
 "It was said by his friends to one who was 
 passing away after an active life of fruitful benevo- 
 lence, ' You are going now to receive the reward 
 for all the good deeds you have done.' But he 
 corrected them, and said, * I am going to receive 
 the mercy of Almighty God.' Let us leave our 
 dear brother unencumbered by our feeble praises. 
 Let us ask God to accept and perfect all that he
 
 IN THE MEMORY OF HIS FRIENDS 269 
 
 has tried to do for His honour and glory, to 
 pardon what has been done amiss, to correct what 
 is imperfect, and to strengthen what yet remains 
 to be done, and to grant him his true dismissal 
 and his full release from the trials and troubles of 
 this sinful world, in the land where no thief 
 approacheth, neither moth corrupteth, in the 
 many mansions of the Father's home."
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BY DR. GREGORY 
 
 " A Plea on behalf of Small Parishes." London, 1849. 
 
 " What is the Spiritual Condition of our Metropolis, and 
 Who is Responsible?"" Sermon, 1860. 
 
 " Do our National Schools provide Education for all whom 
 they ought to Train ? " 1865. 
 
 "Praise." Sermon, 1865. 
 
 "The Difficulties and the Organisation of a Poor Metro- 
 politan Parish." Two lectures, 1866. 
 
 " Sermons on the Poorer Classes of London, preached before 
 the University of Oxford." 1869. 
 
 [H. (i. and H. P. L.] "The Purchas Judgment. Letter to 
 the Bishop of London by the two Senior Canons of 
 St. Paul's Cathedral." (Two editions.) 1871. 
 
 " Are we Better than our Fathers ? " Four lectures, 1872. 
 
 " The Church's Need of More Workers." Sermon, 1876. 
 
 " The Position of the Priest ordered by the Rubrics in the 
 Communion Service, interpreted by themselves." 1876. 
 
 ' The Need of More Clergymen to make Church Work more 
 Efficient. 1 " Sermon, 1884. 
 
 " Elementary Education in England." 1895. 
 
 270
 
 INDEX 
 
 ADMINISTRATION of the Holy Com- 
 munion, method of (1847), 
 40-1 
 
 Asquith's, Rt. Hon. H. H., letter to 
 Gregory, 264 
 
 BENEFICES, poor, in the gift of St. 
 
 Paul's, 223 
 
 Benson, Archbishop, 1G2, 232 
 Biblical criticism, Gregory's atti- 
 tude towards, 235-6, 248 
 Bisley, curacy at, 33-6, 261-2 
 Blomlield, Bishop, 160, 182 
 Bodley, Mr. G. F., R.A., 207-8, 218 
 Burgess, Mr. , architect of !St. Paul's, 
 205-6 
 
 CANONS, Minor, of St. Paul's, 202-3 
 Cathedral, ideal of, 159, 161-3, 178, 
 184-5, 191, 241-2 
 
 St. Paul's, condition of, 157- 
 
 60, 164-5, 182, 186 
 reforms at, 192-211 
 
 testimony to Gregory's 
 
 work at, 239, 263, 265, 
 
 266 
 
 Chapter House, St. Paul's, 213 
 Charities, Lambeth local, 64 
 
 parochial, of the City of Lon- 
 
 don, 122-4 
 Choir, St. Paul's, reform of, 168- 
 
 73, 192-4 
 Church, Dean, 95, 116, 163, 182, 216- 
 
 17 2523 
 
 City Parochial Trust, 124-5 
 Clarke, Canon Erskine, 149 
 Compton, Prebendary Berdmore, 
 
 247-8 
 
 Confession, 84 
 
 Contagious Diseases Acts, 121-2 
 Convocation, 90, 104 
 Creighton, Bishop, 244-6 
 
 DAILY services, 33, 181, 240 
 Dalton, Rev. C. B., 61, 53, 74 
 Decoration of St. Paul's, 175-6, 205- 
 9, 217-18, 220-1, 229-31, 254 
 
 Dixon, Rev. R. W., 74 
 Doane, Bishop, 233-4 
 
 EASTWARD position, 35, 107-10, 239 
 Ecclesiastical Insurance Company, 
 
 125-7 
 Education, elementary, in 1870, 129- 
 
 41 ; in 1891-7, 151-4 
 Education, Elementary, in England, 
 
 written in 1895, 154 
 Employment in Lambeth, 59-61 
 Essay, Denyer prize, 42 
 
 FINANCE of St. Paul's, 187-90, 222 
 
 GLADSTONE, Rt. Hon. W. E., 40, 
 
 77-82, 129 
 
 - Rev. Stephen, 82-5 
 Goulburn, Dean, 46, 163, 236 
 Gregory, Bishop (son), 76, 234 
 
 Juliana (sister), 50 
 
 - Dean Robert Career, Chrono- 
 
 logical sequence of : birth, 1 ; 
 boyhood, 24 ; becomes a 
 Churchman, 5 ; in business, 
 8-9 ; decides to become a 
 clergyman, 10-11 ; at Oxford, 
 16, 19-20, 21-8 ; ordination, 
 32-3 ; Curate of Bisley, 33-6, 
 261-2 ; marriage, 39 ; Curate 
 of Panton and Wragby, 
 40-2 ; Curate of Lambeth, 
 51-4 ; Incumbent of St. Mary 
 the Less, Lambeth, 54 ; mar- 
 riage, 155 ; on Ritual Com- 
 mission, 86 ; Proctor in Con- 
 vocation, 90 ; Canon of St. 
 Paul's, 128, 156 ; Treasurer of 
 the National Society, 128 ; 
 initiates reforms at St. Paul's, 
 167-81, 192-211, 226-8; re- 
 signs St. Mary's, 166 ; on 
 Education Commission, 145- 
 6 ; Dean of St. Paul's, 216- 
 25, 229-34 ; last years, 246, 
 250-1, 255-8 ; resignation, 
 247, 264 ; death, 267 
 
 271
 
 272 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT GREGORY 
 
 HALE, Archdeacon, 157, 176, 213 
 
 Hamilton, Bishop, 161-2 
 
 Hannah, Archdeacon (brother-in- 
 law), 10, 16,20-1,45 
 - Dean (nephew), paper on " The 
 lighter side of a great Church- 
 man's character " quoted, 
 :j, -15-6, 49, 54, 73, 89, 235-6, 
 240 
 
 Hardy, lit. Hon. Gathorne, 80-1, 151 
 
 High Schools for Girls, Church, 127 
 
 Holland, Dr. H. S., appreciation of 
 Gregory, 249-62, 263, 265-6 
 
 Housing of the poor, 47-9 
 
 Hughes, Thomas, 76-7 
 
 JACKSON, Bishop, 110, 113, 115, 132, 
 
 170, 176, 238-9,245 
 Jubilee service, 221 
 
 KKBLE, Thomas, 33-5, 36, 39, 108, 
 261 
 
 LIDDON, Canon, 108-15, 161, 162, 
 176-7, 182, 197, 215-6, 220, 
 227,242, 251-2 
 
 Liverpool, 8-11 
 
 MANNING, Cardinal, 145 
 Hansel, Dean, 165, 171, 174, 179-81 
 Melville, Canon, 115, 166, 176 
 Memorial Service for the Duke of 
 
 Clarence, 219 
 
 Men, attempts to help young, 197-8 
 Minor Canons of St. Paul's, 202 
 
 NATIONAL Society, 75, 128, 134, 
 136-7, 149-50 
 
 Newbolt, Canon, 247, 249 ; apprecia- 
 tion of Gregory, 267-9 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, 1 7-19, 24, 26, 28- 
 31, 250 
 
 Nottingham, 1-9, 11, 12-16, 40-1, 48 
 
 OAKUIDOE, 33 
 Orphanage at Lambeth, 66 
 Outrages in St. Paul's, 212, 260 
 
 PANTON, 40-7, 49 
 
 Parishes, Poor, Association for As- 
 sisting, 62-4 
 
 Parishes, Small, A Plea in Behalf of, 
 
 42-5 
 
 Preacher, Gregory as a, 237-8 
 Prebendaries of St. Paul's, 211 
 Pusey, Dr., 18, 27-31, 109 
 
 RESCUE work, 71-2 
 Richmond, Sir W. B., 218, 254 
 Royal Commissions, 86-89, 120-3, 
 145-6 
 
 SCHOLARSHIPS, choristers', 242 
 School Board, 130-1, 138, 140-4, 
 
 148, 150, 153, 258 
 Schools, Parish, 34, 42, 55-6, 67-8, 
 
 69-70 
 
 Art, 55-9, 66 
 School Guardian, 147-9 
 Services at St. Paul's, 165, 199-201, 
 
 219, 221, 224-5, 240 
 Socialists at St. Paul's, 214 
 Society, Additional Curates, 74-5 
 for the Propagation of the 
 
 Gospel, 74-6 
 Soup kitchen, 68 
 Staff for repairs at St. Paul's, 204 
 Stubbs, Bishop, 232, 242, 249 
 Supervision of work, 83-4, 226-7, 
 
 244, 258-9 
 
 TAIT, Archbishop, 239 
 
 Temple, Archbishop, 160, 241, 245, 
 
 247 
 Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's, 
 
 182-3, 204 
 
 Tooth, Rev. Arthur, 74 
 Twining, Miss Louisa, 70, 71 
 
 VAUXHALL, St. Peter's, 65-6 
 Vicars-Choral of St. Paul's, 203 
 Virgere of St. Paul's, 195-6 
 
 WALES, service at time of Disestab- 
 lishment Bill for, 219 
 
 Williams, Isaac, 37-9, 44, 260 
 
 Workhouse, Lambeth, 70-1 
 
 Working Men's Club, 68-9 
 
 Working men, Gregory's influence 
 upon, 267 
 
 Wragby, 40-2 
 
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