III.
Edward Ramsay left Somersetshire amidst the general regrets of his parishioners and neighbours, and entered on his Edinburgh career 1st January 1824. The journal which I am now using has not hitherto spoken much of the differing opinions of his brother clergymen, although there is sometimes a clergyman noted as "very low," and elsewhere, one branded as a "concealed Papist." But in Edinburgh--it is vain to conceal it--every profession must be broken into parties. He found Edinburgh, or rather I should say the Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, then theologically divided between the Evangelicals, headed by the Rev. Edward Craig and the old-fashioned Churchmen, the rather moral school, of which Mr. Alison was the distinguished ornament. Mr. Ramsay went to St. George's Chapel, York Place, as Mr. Shannon's curate, in the beginning of 1824, and remained doing that duty for two and a half years. He then went to St. Paul's, Carrubber's Close, where he laboured for a year.
In 1825 Ramsay "toiled on" with sermons and wrote a series on the Articles. "A great improvement," he says, "must have taken place in Edinburgh, for unquestionably the sermons I then got credit for we should all think little of now[9]." In 1826 he left Mr. Shannon's chapel, and took the single charge of the quaint old chapel of St. Paul's, Carrubber's Close. Amongst the events recorded of the year was the acquaintance he made by officiating at the funeral of Lady Scott, Sir Walter's wife. In 1827 he mentions a change, "a considerable move to me, which, under God, has been a good one." He closed with an offer of the curacy of St. John's, under Bishop Sandford, when he was thirty-seven years of age. In spring he was ill, and went to visit his old place and friends in Somerset.--"Interesting, very: received at my old curacy of Buckland with much joy, and on the whole enjoyed my visit." At Whitsunday 1827 he came home to enter on St. John's with Bishop Sandford, being thus half of 1827 in Carrubber's Close and half in St. John's. I was in Edinburgh then, and can well remember what general favour accompanied Mr. Ramsay in church and society. Perhaps he was not prepared for the vehemence of church dissensions among us. I do not think there was at that time so bitter war between churchmen of the same profession in England, but the Episcopal Church, of whatever section, had made great progress then in Scotland. Its fine liturgy, and more decorous ceremonial, had attracted some. Many of the heads of country families round Edinburgh have been educated in England, and many of them have married in England--both circumstances tending to keep up their attachment to the Episcopal Church; and in their houses the scholarly, accomplished, agreeable clergyman of the Episcopal Church was a welcome guest, as well as an adviser and influential friend.
In summer of 1827 the journal tells us his brother Marmaduke paid him a visit. "We read some Italian--I got a notion of Dante."
At the commencement of 1829 he enters in his journal--"This was a most important year indeed, the year of my marriage; and what event has been to me so joyful, so full of interesting recollections?" He tells that in the summer a visitor came to Scotland--a friend of Lady Dalhousie, and recommended by her to Lady Robert Kerr, at whose house they met. The lady was Isabella Cochrane, of the well-known Canadian family; writing in 1844 he says--"Fifteen years of close acquaintance with that lady have taught me the best commentary upon the Scripture declaration that a 'virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.' I need not say more than that I believe I owe mainly to her (under Providence) my comfort, success and position here. But let this suffice. None but myself can know my full obligations." Next year begins--"As 1829 gave me a wife, 1830 gave me a church, for on the 14th January Bishop Sandford died, and the whole charge was offered to me, which I undertook for three years without a curate--i.e. without a man-curate, for a most effective assistant I had in dearest Isabella, who wrote to my dictation many a weary hour."
Except a little parcel of letters touching the negotiation with Bishop Skinner, and the Aberdeen congregation in 1822, I find no letters of Ramsay till he wrote to one of the dear old friends at Frome announcing a visit with his wife.
Mr. RAMSAY to Miss STUART SHEPPARD, Fromefield,
Frome, Somerset.
7 Albany Court,
London, 9th June [1831].
My dear Stuart, I have been in such a whirl and such a turmoil since I came here that I have hardly had time to collect my scattered thoughts to write you a line. I have seen much and heard much, but shall not attempt to give you any account now, as I hope (please God) we shall meet ere long. Mrs. Ramsay's brother-in-law, the Bishop of Nova Scotia, is here--he preached the annual sermon for the anniversary meeting of the Charity Children in St. Paul's. I went as his chaplain, but of this more hereafter. He has been very urgent upon us to protract our stay here through all next week, but I have resisted his importunities, as I am really desirous of taking as much time as I can at Frome. We accordingly fix Tuesday for leaving London. We stay that day at Windsor with a friend, come to Winchester, Romsey, Salisbury, on Wednesday, and on Thursday the 16th, I hope to see you all in health and comfort. Dear Stuart, I shall be happy, really happy, to be amongst you once more. It is to me like coming home. Do not wait dinner or make any arrangements, because our hour of arrival is uncertain. We may be detained till the evening seeing sights. Mrs. E.B.R. eats nothing (literally), and I daresay your common dinner may furnish me with a meal. Mrs. Ramsay desires kindest love; she is not looking well, and I hope, after the racket here, she will improve upon Frome quiet. God bless you.--Your affectionate
E.B.R.
Marked--"First visit to F.F. with wife, June 9,1831."
Mr. RAMSAY to Miss STUART SHEPPARD, Fromefield.
Woburn, Friday night, 1st July [1831].
We are sure that our very dear friends at Fromefield will be interested in hearing of our progress and welfare, and as we have a few extra minutes this morning, we are determined to devote them to a party now living in the hearts of all the wanderers with whom they so lately and so grievously parted: the weather even sympathised on Tuesday evening, and all the comfort we had was in talking over individually the whole Fromefield concern. My brother, who is slow in making friends, and shy of strangers, softened into tender friendship under the influence of such kindness, and vows that if he had such friends he would travel annually from Edinburgh to see them. He has put one sprig of verbena from Stuart in one pocket, another sprig from Jane in another pocket, and a piece of painted glass from Elizabeth in another pocket. How lucky it is that his dress should be so abundantly supplied with the accommodation of so many receptacles for reminiscences! Our next grief after leaving you was the not seeing Cousin John! We were sadly disappointed. We did not get into Clifton till near ten; the rain would prevent his coming to meet us, and the next morning we very provokingly missed each other, though Mr. Ramsay consoled himself with writing a note. How much I hope and trust that we are all to meet next year! We were delighted with our drive from Chepstow to Ross--the Wye scenery is exquisitely beautiful; we exhausted ourselves and our epithets in exclamations, and the day seemed made for the magnificent view from the Wynd Cliff, and then we came to Tintern Abbey! How often we wished for our Chedder party--how often we talked over the pleasure we would have in admiring all this beauty with them, and how often, like spoiled children, we wondered why all this enjoyment should not have accompanied us to Monmouth! but good-night, my very dear friends--I shall leave the letter in better hands for finishing, I am so sleepy!!
[Mr. Ramsay]--We have seen many things of which the ingenious and very learned Dr. Woodward would say that they were "great ornaments to our ponds and ditches." But of this enough, and more than enough. Allow me to take this opportunity of expressing my satisfaction at finding how completely Mrs. E.B.R enters into the friendship which has so long existed between us, and at seeing how fully prepared she is to appreciate your kindness to myself and her; in short, to find that she loves you all now, as if she had known you as long as I have. May we never lose sight of these feelings! We saw Oxford to-day--a good thing, but in detail not equal to Cambridge--in general effect far superior. Gloster pleased me: the tower and cloisters surpassingly fine. People do not roar enough about the steeple of St. Mary's, Oxford--it is the finest in England, superior I think to that of Salisbury. Are you aware that there is a modern church at Oxford in the pure Norman style? My visit to Frome has given me (except in parting) unmixed satisfaction. I cannot say how much I have been gratified, and with what pleasure I look forward to a renewal. I must to bed, my eyes cannot discern the place to write in, and I am sleepy. Adieu, dearest friends, one and all at the Field of Frome, the Hill of Styles, the cottage of Keyford, etc. I rejoice to think that my good friend Kay is safe. Good-night! Woburn looks well--"a great ornament," etc.
Marked by Mrs. Clerk--"Written on their way from F.F.--first visit."
Mr. RAMSAY to Miss BYARD, Fromefield, Frome,
Somerset.
Edinburgh, Dec. 17, 1831,
My dearest Friend, They have told me that you are not well, and neither time nor distance can take away the feeling of regard and friendship with which I sympathise with all that occurs to you. I confess myself that I was some time since disposed to look on all things around me with an anxious aspect; but I am beginning to see in all events but a part of that dispensation which is so gloriously distinguished as the work of love, and I think that public calamity or private sorrow, sickness, pain, weariness and weakness, may all be translated into the same language, and may be arranged as synonyms of the same word. Yes! piety, goodness, the favour and approbation of God, are all marked out by sorrow and infirmity here. Why else did the blessed Jesus tabernacle here below--a man of sorrows? and why else was he acquainted with grief? It might make a Christian almost drink his cup of sickness and pain with greediness when he remembers that he is tasting the same cup as that of which his Lord drank, and he might hail with rapture the outstretched arm of death and suffering as about to place on his head the diadem of eternal glory. I am not to flatter you--you need it not, you ask it not; but, my friend, you must feel and know that you have been walking with God, walking humbly, doing good, neither trusting to false presumptions nor to your own merits. Christ has been your master, to Him you have looked, and, blessed be God! He will never, never forsake those who trust to Him,--those who are good to others for his sake,--those who seek redemption through Him. Where, O ye years that are past, have you gone? You have carried to the throne of grace many an act of contrition, many a devout prayer, many a good deed, many an offering of faith, from the friend to whom I now write. Bring back, ye moments that are to come and which shall be granted to her in this world, rich consolations, promises of pardon, assurances of favour, all spiritual blessings! Dear Miss Byard, may all these be yours in full abundance. May God the Father bless you, through the Eternal Spirit, for Christ's sake! This is the sincere and earnest prayer of your affectionate and faithful friend,
E.B.R.
In this I am joined by Isabella.
Marked--"It arrived just after her death."
In his journal Mr. Ramsay speaks of Bishop Sandford with a very grateful recollection. To him he owed his preferment, and a "more agreeable charge could not well be had." He characterises him as a man of elegant mind and accurate scholarship, of deep piety and sincere faith. I think it is with some regret that he adds, the "state of the Church is much changed since his episcopate."
His dear brother Marmaduke died in the summer of 1831, and the Dean, who is no exaggerator of his feelings, remarks--"This is one of the sorrows for which language is inadequate. Such a mind, such taste, abilities, and accomplishments!" Edward Ramsay felt that nothing could make up for the loss of his brother, but he had comfort in thinking how much his brother's mind had been wakened to religious inquiries. His simple notes in his journal are sometimes worth preserving. "July 6, 1833, was the finest day I ever remember." He passed it in the Highlands with Professor Forbes, Skenes, and other delightful friends. On the 28th he left for the Duke of Sutherland's funeral; afterwards he repaired to Leamington and Dr. Jephson, whose skill he soon found reason to admire. On leaving Leamington he thanks God that he has gained in health, and learnt also wisdom in regard to the "management of myself, and certainly in diet." It is not necessary to record the little tours with his wife, which now happened almost every season, either to Deeside or the Highlands or his old haunts in Somerset. On July 2, 1836, I find it recorded that he went with a party to hear Dr. Chalmers at the Dean Church, and returned all in great delight. He made a long journey that year to hear the great organ at Birmingham, and came home by many cathedrals, and yet "glad to get home."
In 1838 he notes, after a Highland journey, the "Synod was this year for altering the canons," He notes a "white-stone visit to the Stranges, Ross-end Castle, with the Bells. Alas! how many things and people are gone."
In 1839 "Lady Dalhousie, my admired friend, came to stay with us. She came January 19, and on the 22d died in the drawing-room in an instant! It was an awful visitation, and never to be forgotten."
The following letter, written immediately after the calamity, is from the Marquis of Dalhousie, from various circumstances an object of great affection to the Dean, who consented to take charge of his daughters when he went as Governor-General to India, bestowing on them the care and anxious watchfulness which the young ladies returned with hearty affection:--
The MARQUIS OF DALHOUSIE to DEAN RAMSAY.
Dalhousie Castle, 25th January 1839.
My dear Mr. Ramsay--I have sent John in, partly because I am anxious that you should let me know how Mrs. Ramsay is to-day, and partly because I cannot rest till another evening without endeavouring to express to you some portion of the very, very deep gratitude which I feel for all your kindness--for the kindness of your every act and word, and--I am just as confident--of your every thought towards us all in this sad time. God knows how truly I feel it: and with that one expression I stop; for it makes me sick to think how slow and how coldly words come to clothe the feeling which I wish to convey to you. Believe only this, that to my own dying day I never can forget your goodness. Believe this too--that since it has pleased Almighty God that my poor mother's eyes should not he closed under my roof, and by my hand, I would not have wished any other place for her departure than among friends so kindly, loving, and so well loved.
God bless you and repay it to you, prays your ever grateful and affectionate friend,
DALHOUSIE.
Rev. E. B. Ramsay.
February 27, 1839.--"My uncle General Burnett died; another limb of the older generation gone; a good and kind man; a man of the world, and not a clever one. Latterly he showed a considerable desire to know more about religion. Went with J. Sandilands to be present at the formation of a branch of the Church Society at Glasgow--made a regular speech!" On September 4th he writes--"The first day of meeting of the general committee for business of the Scottish Episcopal Church Society. I gave a large dinner. Much have I worked for this society, and done better things than give dinners. By the by William Ramsay [his brother the admiral] made a capital speech." On March 5, 1841, it is noted, Bishop Walker died--"a good man. His mind cast in a limited mould of strong prejudices; but a fair man, strictly honest in all his ways. He was not fitted to unravel difficulties in his episcopate, and scarcely suited to these times. He had been a furious opponent of the old evangelicals. A constant and kind friend to me. May his memory be honoured. Bishop Terrot elected bishop. I am very grateful to think that in all this business I can look with satisfaction upon everything that has been done by me."
From this time Mr. Ramsay's thoughts were very much taken up with the Episcopal Church Society, and he records in his journal most of its meetings, and the English friends who came across the Borders to help them. He mentions also a Scotch Presbyterian churchman who became convinced of the apostolical authority of episcopacy--"an excellent man." Then a visit of Mr. ----, "an accomplished and able man, somewhat strong of the popish leaven." That was in 1842, and on the margin is written--"Gone over to the Church of Rome, 1845." He mentions also the "stupid business at Portobello and squabbles," and his going down to make peace. On September 4th we have some things which seemed important at their time--the Queen's visit to Scotland. He says, "It was a stirring subject for old Scotland." "This day, 4th Sept., I read prayers and preached before her Majesty, and also dined and sat near Prince Albert and the Queen. In the evening presented to the Queen and Prince Albert, and introduced to Sir Robert Peel." Then comes the cry--"All vanity of vanities!" At the end of this month the Bishop of London--"very agreeable"--was in Edinburgh, and the Dean accompanied him to Glenalmond, to see the proposed site for Trinity College. In 1843 he mentions the death of a friend, who, he feared, died an infidel: "However, I have no wish to proclaim his errors. To me he was ever kind and considerate. Let us leave judgment to Him who cannot err." In June of that year he paid a visit to England, spent Sunday at Leeds, and was much interested with Dr. Hook and his church. "I have considerable dubitation as to the expediency of making the services of our parish churches choral." He went on to London and Oxford, where it was long vacation, but he met with great kindness from the heads of University College and Exeter. "Magdalene is faultless."
After mentioning some visitors in March 1844, he writes--"Dickens's Christmas Carol really a treat, a thoroughly wholesome book." On the 8th April he was present at the lunch given to the children of the Episcopal poor in the Old Town. "This, I trust, is the commencement of a scheme to bring some actually poor into our church. I made a speech, and, to my astonishment, rather a good one." After a pretty long tour in the south of England he comes home in August 1844, and notes a letter from the Bishop of London, containing the offer of the Bishopric of New Brunswick, in a handsome and gratifying manner. "I think I was right to refuse. May God forgive me if it was an improper shrinking from duty." October 14, 1844: "I have now brought up this record of my life's transactions to the present time, and my purpose is, in future journalising, to take the leading points, to notice subjects only, painful, joyful, or difficult. All my thoughts since the offer of the New Brunswick mitre have confirmed the correctness of my judgment." October 17, 1844: "I am trying to repeat the experiment of last week, and write my sermon over again. I see clearly that in such work we cannot take too much pains: dinner at Lord Medwyn's to-day--very pleasant--rather an exception this to dinners: how dull the routine! October 22: succeeded in my resolution of rewriting the whole of my sermon, and found the advantage; in fact, nothing in the way of public speaking can be done without a thorough preparation. How high parties are running! It has a sad effect on my mind; but my refuge must be in keeping off controversy and adhering to edifying and practical subjects." In the same month he records the death of a dear friend, whom he visited on his deathbed. "Nothing," he says, "could be more satisfactory than his state of mind;" the Dean lost a kind Christian, attached and delightful friend. "I was glad to be able to answer his scruples and fears about being an object of Christ's mercy and pardon." December 11, 1844, he lost his mother--"simple-minded," he says, "as a child. Oh! what a break of the family circle! It seems as if the last link which bound us together were broken, and a point vanished round which we could always rally. I went with Lauderdale to see the poor remains, so attenuated, and yet the countenance like itself, still beautiful, and fine features." The funeral made the Dean very sad. She was followed to the grave by two sons, a son-in-law, two grandsons and distant cousins. Mr. Alison read the service, and she was buried beside her old friend of fifty years--poor Mrs. Macdonald.
1844: "Christmas day morning, Communion 78, in all 404; the church so full. I preached an old but a good sermon." He has a Christmas dinner of a few friends, but not much Christmas spirit, he says. In 1845, January 12, the journal notices--"I preached my liturgy sermon, and apparently with much success." Some of his congregation had spoken of it as worthy to be printed. He saw a good deal of company in his own house, whom I do not think it necessary to particularise, though they were generally of distinction for talent or rank, or both together. He heard C. Kemble read Henry VIII., which "I did much enjoy. Will. Shakspeare when most known is most admired." On 19th January he preached a sermon, but his note upon it is not like the last. "I liked it, but it did not seem to take as I had expected. Have been much meditating this week on many matters, Church especially: find myself unsettled, I fear, but I think I have the remedy, which is to keep my attention fixed rather on practical than on speculative points. We cannot agree on the one; on the other we may, and good men do." March 2, 1845: "I confess that the Romanising tendencies so openly avowed in the Church of England alarm me. The question occurs, Is not this a necessary, or at least a natural tendency of High Churchism?" Speaking of meetings of his Synod, he says "it is wretched work, which ended, indeed, in doing nothing." One member had spoken with much bitterness, which he says, "thank God, I do not feel." 3d April 1845: "We are in a nice mess about this Old Town business. Two different communion offices in one day in the same chapel. Is it possible that this could ever have been contemplated by the canon? I do fear the extreme and Romanising party, and they hurt us here. The Scotch office is supposed to identify us with them, and certainly the comments upon it make it speak a language very different from the English."
June 19.--"Left home in the 'Engineer' coach at seven, travelled through to London without stop, and arrived there at one o'clock: wonderful the shortening of this journey; went with a party to Handel's Athalia at Exeter Hall; tired, fagged, and sleepy as I was, I yet felt deeply the power of the mighty master in this his mighty work. Yes, Handel is the greatest musician the world ever saw."
July 18, 1845.--"Returned to London: did little more there: arrived in Edinburgh for Mr. Sandiland's marriage, a great stretch of friendship in me, for it has discomposed all our summer plans." On 15th August there is an entry too characteristic to be omitted:--"Have been thinking a great deal about the state of matters at present, and the sort of demeanour I should exhibit to the world. I should be very cautious--hardly give an opinion if conflicting statements, and certainly not gossip about them--certainly not speak harshly or severely of any. Keep my own course, work hard, and endeavour to conciliate; rather lean to high than low side." November 10, 1845: "at a meeting to hear Dr. Simpson, Mr. Macfarlane, and Norman Macleod give an account of their mission to North America: interesting. Macleod a real clever fellow."
26th November 1845.--"The consecration of Dalkeith Chapel: we went out and stayed the day; all good and well managed: Sermon preached by Rev. E. B. R: approved: three bishops, twenty clergy. It is really a fine thing for a man to have done; a beautiful chapel; hope it won't be extreme."
Dec. 2.--"Warden to College appointed; looks like business!"
Dec. 7.--"Heard astonishing news--William appointed to the 'Terrible, the largest steam man-of-war in the service--in the world."
Dec. 14, 1845.--"Sermon on Christ the True Light. Collection for Scottish Episcopal Church Society, £151."
15th March 1846.--"Sermon, 'Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?' Here a sad blank, for I have been very ill, and out of chapel two Sundays, and could not go to confirmation, and all sorts of horrors. I have communed a good deal with myself, and I have made up my mind to a conduct and demeanour in Church matters almost neutral. I positively will not again mix myself up in any way with party, or even take part. I will confine myself to St. John's and its duties. This is my line--hear what every one has to say, and keep a quiet, conciliatory, and even tenor. It is more striking the more I think of the different way in which different minds are affected by religious truth." ...
April 16.--"Synod meeting and Society. I took the moderate and conciliatory side. Did right this time."
April 29.--"Preached the Casuistry sermon. Mrs. R. made it A 20."
June 1.--"Busy preparing for journey;" he leaves home for his summer holiday "with rather less spirit and expectation of enjoyment than usual."
Mr. Ramsay was appointed Dean of the Diocese of Edinburgh by Bishop Terrot in 1846, after having previously declined, as we saw, the dignity of the Bishopric of New Brunswick, offered him by Sir Robert Peel. He afterwards refused the Bishopric of Glasgow in 1847, and the Coadjutor-Bishopric of Edinburgh in 1862.
And now is the beginning of constantly recurring complaints of depression--low spirits, a "cloud upon my spirits; headache, even pain and violent pain." He was disappointed at not getting to see the "Terrible;" was low and depressed. "Went to Bath. Delighted with Torquay; interested at Exeter; the service there the very best. Is cathedral service more than a solemn concert?" Then he went by Beaminster to see his nephew Alexander and his family. He stayed a short time at Crewkerne with his niece Mrs. Sparks. "Church a fine one: To Frome: This visit full of interest. How kind and good! The only drawback is parting. We spent a week at Frome, and did enjoy it much. Much kindness, heartiness I should say, intelligence, and real goodness. Changes I found, and saw how time had told on many a face and frame. My dear companion was much pleased and interested in our visit.... July 16.--Left Frome, and sorrowed at parting. Saw Sydney Herbert's gorgeous church at Wilton. Too much! With the exterior of Salisbury not at all disappointed; with the interior a little. Arrived at Farnborough by eight o'clock, and a most cordial welcome we had from all the inmates of its pretty rectory. Went back to London on Friday, and returned to Farnborough Saturday, and spent Sunday. July 19.--Was glad for Isabella to have an opportunity of seeing a Sunday in a country place in England. I preached twice, and we were interested. Aug. 4.--Came to York. Glorious! Chapter-house restored by Mr. Bell."
January 1, 1851.--"Having preached on Sunday last regarding improvement and good resolutions, I would now do the same for myself. I have made some resolutions in my own mind, chiefly regarding the control and regulation of temper, irritability, forbearance, more composed and calm temperament, order, diligence, dispatch of work, etc." On January 6th there is a Ragged School meeting--"a long and tiresome meeting; the Duke of A---- speaks well; Guthrie amusing; Fox Maule good; Candlish clever--very."
On his birthday in 1853 he writes: "I have just made two resolves--first, never to give way to temper, fret, ill-humour, party spirit, or prejudice; second, to work my best in what I may have still to do."
There is a great deal more of the journal, but one or two additional extracts will show sufficiently the nature of the man, his devotion to his sacred duty, his gentleness, and love of peace. The High Churchman may think him unduly careless about forms and ceremonies; but, loving him very well, I yet wish to represent the Dean as he really was. Above all things full of charity, loving religion as he understood the religion of the Gospel, and not much concerned, not really deeply concerned, about the shape and dress in which it presented itself. He held, however, that the Protestant Episcopal Church, as established in England, as disestablished in Scotland, for he never would separate them, was in all its belongings the most desirable, its service the most decent.
1858 was a sad year for the Dean. Mrs. Ramsay had been very ill, and sinking in strength and spirit visibly, till, on the 23d July the afflicted husband makes this entry:--"It pleased God to visit me with the deep and terrible affliction of taking away my friend, companion, and adviser of twenty-nine years." It was a heavy blow, and for a time it seemed to paralyse the Dean. This journal, never regular, becomes from this time quite broken.
Looking back from this point, which to the Dean seemed the end of happiness, he could acknowledge how duty supplied the place of pleasure. He was grateful also for many mercies. In one respect he was singularly fortunate. His Bishop and he, I may say during all the time he served in St. John's, were cordially of the same way of thinking. Bishop Terrot was indeed a very different man from himself, but in the relations of Bishop and Dean they were very happy. The Dean wrote a little memoir of Bishop Terrot, which he published in the Scottish Guardian (May 15, 1872), where he prints the remarkable letter from the Bishop to himself, answering the question why he declined communion with Mr. Drummond, and ending with the sentence--"These are matters of ecclesiastical police which each local church has a right to manage in its own way, subject to the law of the Catholic Church, i.e. the Bible." The Dean then bore testimony that he had always found his Bishop an interesting companion, a kind friend, a faithful and judicious adviser, and he speaks highly, and surely not too highly, of his great intellectual powers, as well as of his moral qualities. I am myself a very hearty admirer of Bishop Terrot, and I think it not out of place to add something to our knowledge of him, by printing a few letters which concern him and his family.
COLONEL TERROT to DEAN RAMSAY.--Without date, but of the year 1872.
Very Rev. and dear Sir--There is one little incorrect deduction in your kind memoir, or at least a deduction which may be made from what you say of my father deriving his intellect from his mother---that my grandfather was inferior in such respects. From deep feeling and devotion to his memory, my grandmother never spoke of her husband to us, but from others I have heard that he was a bright, handsome and talented young man, who, with the very imperfect education given at that time to officers in the army, and employed in active service in America at the age of fourteen, was yet distinguished for ability, especially in mathematics and engineering matters, so that he was employed by those in command of the siege, and was actually riding with the engineer who was in charge of the sieging operations when a cannon-ball struck and killed him. He was in an English infantry regiment, and not in the Indian service, except that the regiment was serving in India at the time. He met my grandmother in the ship which took them to India. She was going to a maternal uncle, Colonel Hughes, who was considerably displeased on her announcing at Madras that she was engaged to a poor young officer who had offered to her during the voyage. But the young couple being determined, he gave his consent, and continued kind to his niece, and my father was born in his house, and at his father's request called Hughes after him. My grandfather was twenty-five and his bride eighteen at their marriage, and she was a widow before she was twenty, from which time till she died at eighty-five she was a widow indeed, making her son the chief object of her life, living in and for him.
His uncle William, whom he succeeded at Haddington, was never married, and was exceedingly attached to my father. He was a singular man; in his early days very gay and handsome, and living in some matters, I know not what, so incorrectly, that on offering himself for holy orders, the then Bishop of Durham wrote to him mentioning something he had heard, and telling him if it was true he was not fitly prepared for taking orders. My uncle acknowledged the accusation as far as it was true, and thanked the Bishop for his letter, and abstained from coming forward at that time, but took the admonition so to heart that it led to an entire conversion of heart and life. He then came forward in a very different state to receive ordination, and was through his whole life a most zealous and devoted man, a friend of Milner and Wilberforce. An old lady, Mrs. Logan of Seafield, told me that once when Mrs. Siddons was acting, uncle William walked twenty miles to see her and persuade her not to go, and, whether by arguments or eloquence, he succeeded. Though kind and gentle he was a strong Calvinist, and by his zeal and energy in preaching such doctrines, injured himself in a worldly point of view. He was always poor, and often gave away all the little he had, and lived from hand to mouth. He was very much admired and beloved by ladies, which perhaps prevented his marrying. He was very happy and useful among the sailors, and died at his sister's, Mrs. Jackson, at Woolwich. She, as Elizabeth Terrot, had been a beauty, and was to the last a fine, happy, spirited, contented and joking old lady, very fond of my father, to whom she left all she had. She was bright, unselfish and amusing, even on her deathbed incapable of despondency or gloom.
Excuse my troubling you with these details; and believe me to be truly grateful for your graceful tribute to our dear father. I send a few lines for your private eye, written by my sister Mary, expressing what she felt on last seeing him, and it expresses, too, exactly what I felt that last Good Friday as he sat in that chair in which he had so long suffered. I never saw him there again, With deep respect, gratefully yours,
S.A. TERROT.
LINES by MISS MARY TERROT, now MRS. MALCOLM.
I.
Sad, silent, broken down, longing for rest,
His noble head bent meekly on his breast,
Bent to the bitter storm that o'er it swept;
I looked my last, and surely, then I thought,
Surely the conflict's o'er, the battle's fought;
To see him thus, the Saviour might have wept.
II.
His rest was near--his everlasting rest;
No more I saw him weary and oppressed.
There in the majesty of death he lay
For ever comforted: I could not weep;
He slept, dear father! his last blessed sleep,
Bright in the dawn of the eternal day.
III.
And thou, whose hand his, groping, sought at last,
The faithful hand that he might hold it fast!
Once more, when parting on the eternal shore,
It may be, when thy heart and hand shall fail,
Entering the shadows of death's awful vale
His hand shall grasp thine, groping then no more.
DEAN STANLEY to DEAN RAMSAY.
My dear Dean--Many thanks for your very interesting memoir of Bishop Terrot. His remark about humdrum and humbug is worthy of the best days of Sydney Smith, and so is a hit about table-turning[10]. I once heard him preach, and still remember with pleasure the unexpected delight it gave to my dear mother and myself. We did not know in the least what was coming, either from the man or the text, and it was excellent.--Yours sincerely,
A.P. STANLEY.
Deanery, Westminster, 1872.
Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.
Hawarden, May 26, 1872
My dear Friend--I have read with much interest your graceful and kindly memoir of Bishop Terrot, which you were so good as to send me.
He had always appeared to me as a very real and notable, and therefore interesting man, though for some reason not apparent a man manqué, a man who ought to have been more notable than he was. I quite understand and follow you in placing him with, or rather in the class of, Whately and Paley, but he fell short of the robust activity of the first, and of that wonderful clearness of the other, which is actual brightness.
Your account of the question of Lordship is to me new and interesting. I have never called the Scottish Bishops by that title. I should be content to follow the stream, but then we must deal equally, and there is the case of the Anglo-Roman bishop to meet, especially now that the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill has been repealed; but only on Friday I addressed one of the very best among them "Right Rev. Bishop M----."
You will, I am sure, allow me the license of private judgment in the two expositions about the church in p. 5. You praise both, but the second the more highly. To me the first seems excellent, and the second, strange to say, wanting in his usual clearness and consecutiveness. For having in head (1) most truly said that Christ "instituted a society and revealed a doctrine," he then proceeds as if he had quite forgotten the first half of the proposition, and conceived of the society only as (so to speak) embedded in the doctrine. Also, I complain of his depriving you of the character of [Greek: iegeus], which indeed I am rather inclined to claim for myself, as "He hath made us kings and priests" ([Greek: hiegeis]).
I hope you are gradually maturing the idea of your promised summer expedition to the south, and that before long I shall hear from you on the subject of it.
Will you remember me kindly to Miss Cochrane, and believe me, ever affectionately yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
The Dean was greatly affected by a terrible calamity, which happened in his house in Ainslie Place, where, in June of 1866, his niece Lucy Cochrane, one of his family, was burnt to death; out of many letters of condolence which he received at the time, I have only space to insert three--one from the Rev. Dr. Hannah, then head of Glenalmond College, an accomplished scholar, to whom our Dean was much attached, and upon whom he drew very freely in any questions of more recondite scholarship, another from the Rev. D.T.K. Drummond, and the third from the Premier:--
Rev. Dr. J. HANNAH to DEAN RAMSAY.
Trinity College, Glenalmond, N.B.
June 15, 1866.
Dear Mr. Dean--I must write one line, though I know you will be overwhelmed with letters, to say how deeply distressed and shocked we are at the news in this morning's paper, and how profoundly we sympathize with you under this fearful affliction. I thought instantly of Mr. Keble's lovely poem in the Lyra Innocentium:--
And it applies closely, I am sure, in the consolations it suggests; that"Sweet maiden, for so calm a life,
Too bitter seemed thine end."has prepared for her a garland in Heaven,"He who willed her tender frame
Should rear the martyr's robe of flame,"But if blessed for her, it will be a sore trial for the survivors. We feel so keenly for her poor sisters, who seem to have to bear the brunt of so many sorrows. May God support them and you! So prays in hearty sympathy, yours ever sincerely,"Tinged faintly with such golden light
As crowns His martyr train."
"Sweet maiden, for so calm a life,
Too bitter seemed thine end."
"He who willed her tender frame
Should rear the martyr's robe of flame,"
"Tinged faintly with such golden light
As crowns His martyr train."
J. HANNAH.
Rev. D.T.K. DRUMMOND to DEAN RAMSAY.
St. Fillans, Crieff, 16th June.
My dear Friend--This morning's paper brought us the sad, sad intelligence of the frightful calamity which has befallen your household.
My heart aches when I think of the overwhelming sorrow this great affliction must bring to your kind and loving heart. Long friendship and unbroken esteem must be my apology for intruding on you at this early stage of your bereavement. I cannot but express my deep and heart-felt sympathy with you in it, and my earnest prayer that God the Holy Spirit may sanctify and comfort by his own grace and presence all on whom this great sorrow has fallen.
In the expression of this sympathy my dear wife cordially unites with yours most affectionately and truly,
D.T.K. DRUMMOND.
Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.
11 Carlton H. Terrace,
June 16, 1866.
My dear Dean Ramsay--I cannot refrain from writing to you a word of sympathy under the grievous calamity with which your peaceful and united household has in the providence of God been visited. I have only heard of it in a very partial account to-day; but I deeply lament alike the extinction of a young and promising life, the loss your affectionate heart has sustained, and the circumstances of horror with which it has been accompanied. I need not say how this concern extends to your brother the Admiral also. I shall hope to hear of you through some common friend. I cannot ask you to write, but beg you to believe me always affectionately yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
Very few of the Dean's own letters have been preserved, but the following will show him as a correspondent:--
DEAN RAMSAY to Dr. ALEXANDER.
23 Ainslie Place, Feb. 3, 1865
Dear Dr. Lindsay Alexander--I am not aware of having an undue predominance of modesty in my nature, but really I have been surprised, I may truly say much amazed, at the dedication of the volume which I received this evening. Need I add that, on more calmly considering the matter, I am deeply gratified. From Dr. Lindsay Alexander such a compliment can be no ordinary gratification. "Laudari a laudatis" has always been a distinction coveted by those who value the opinion of the wise and good.
I thank you most cordially for the delicacy with which you refer to the "most stedfast adherence to conviction" of one who has long been convinced that no differences in matter of polity or forms of worship ought to violate that "unity of spirit," or sever that "bond of peace," in which we should ever seek to join all those whom we believe sincerely to hold the truth as it is in Jesus.--I am always, with sincere regard, yours truly and obliged,
E.B. RAMSAY.
DEAN RAMSAY to Mrs. CLERK, Kingston Deverell.
23 Ainslie Place,
Edinburgh, March 14, 1865.
Dearest Stuart--I take great blame and sorrow to myself for having left your kind letter to me on my birthday so long unanswered. It was indeed a charming letter, and how it took me back to the days of "Auld lang Syne!" They were happy days, and good days, and the savour of them is pleasant. Do you know (you don't know) next Christmas day is forty-two years since I left Frome, and forty-nine years since I went to Frome? Well! they were enjoyable days, and rational days, and kind-hearted days. What jokes we used to have! O dear! How many are gone whom we loved and honoured! I often think of my appearing at Frome, falling like a stranger from the clouds, and finding myself taken to all your hearts, and made like one of yourselves. Do you know Mrs. Watkins is alive and clever, and that I constantly correspond with her? You recollect little Mary Watkins at Berkely. She is now a grandmother and has three or four grandchildren!--ay, time passes on. It does. I have had a favoured course in Scotland; I have been thirty-seven years in St. John's, and met only with kindness and respect. I have done much for my church, and that is acknowledged by every one. My Catechism is in a tenth edition--my Scottish Book in an eleventh; 3000 copies were sold the first week of the cheap or people's edition. I meet with much attention from all denominations. A very able man here, Dr. Lindsay Alexander, an Indpendent, has just dedicated a book (a good one) to Dean Ramsay, with a flattering dedication. But I don't expect to hold on much longer. I feel changed, and at times not equal to much exertion. It was a terrible change for me to lose my companion of twenty-nine years, and I have never, of course, recovered that loss. It is a great point for a person like me to have three nieces, quite devoted to care of me and to make me happy: cheerful, animated, and intelligent, pretty also--one of them an excellent musician, and organist to our amateur choir for week days in the chapel. By the by we have a glorious organ. How I have gone on about my miserable self--quite egotistical. "If I may be allowed the language" (the late Capt. Balne). But I thought you would like it. Good-bye. Love to Malcolm Kenmore. When do your boys come? Your ever loving and affectionate old friend,
E.B. RAMSAY.
DEAN RAMSAY to Mrs. CLERK.
23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, 12th Feb. 1868.
Many thanks for writing about our beloved Bessie, my very dear Stuart. She is indeed much endeared to all the friends, and I am a friend of more than 50 years! God's will be done. We have come to that age when we must know our time is becoming very uncertain.
There is only one thing, dearest Stuart, that I can say--my best wishes, best affections, best prayers, are with her who now lies on a sick bed. She has not to begin the inquiry into the love and support of a gracious Redeemer. She may say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth."
May God be merciful and gracious to support you all on this deeply interesting occasion, is the earnest prayer of your affectionate old friend,
E.B. RAMSAY.
DEAN RAMSAY to Mrs. CLEKK.
23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, 3d June 1870.
My dear Stuart--I had such a kind letter from you some time ago, about visiting you, and I did not answer it--wrong, very! and I am sorry I put it off. Should I come to England this summer I should look on it as a last visit, and would make an effort to see old Frome again. Do you know it is fifty-four years since I first appeared at Rodden!
I preach still, and my voice and articulation don't fail; but otherwise I am changed, and walk I cannot at all. St. John's goes on as usual--nice people, many, and all are very kind. We have lately had the interior renewed, and some changes in the arrangement, which are great improvement. It is much admired, "a great ornament to our ponds and ditches,"--Dr. Woodward. However, dear Stuart, I have not yet said distinctly enough what I meant to say at the beginning--that should I come south I would make an effort to come to K. Deverell.
Miss Walker has left fully £200,000 to our church. I am at present (as Dean) the only Episcopal trustee, with four official trustees--all Presbyterians.
The Bishops seem the most go-ahead people in the church just now. New sectioning and revision of Scripture, translation, all come from them: both of much importance. I wish they could get rid of the so-called Athanasian Creed. I cannot bear it. Nothing on earth could ever induce me to repeat the first part and the last part. Love to yourself, husband, and all yours.--Your affectionate
E.B. RAMSAY.
DEAN STANLEY to DEAN RAMSAY.
Broomhall, Dunfermline,
7th August 1870.
My dear and venerable Brother Dean--It was very ungrateful of me not to have thanked you before for your most kind vindication of my act in Westminster Abbey. I had read your letter with the greatest pleasure, and must now thank you for letting me have a separate copy of it. I certainly have no reason to be dissatisfied with my defenders. All the bishops who have spoken on the subject (with the single exception of the Bishop of Winchester) have approved the step--so I believe have a vast majority of English churchmen.
How any one could expect that I should make a distinction between confirmed and unconfirmed communicants, which would render any administration in the abbey impossible, or that I should distinguish between the different shades of orthodoxy in the different nonconformist communions, I cannot conceive. I am sure that I acted as a good churchman. I humbly hope that I acted as He who first instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper would have wished.
You are very kind to have taken so much interest in my essays, and what you say of the Athanasian Creed is deeply instructive. You will be glad to hear--what will become public in a few days--that of the 29 Royal Commissioners, 18 at least--including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of St. David's and Carlisle and the two Regius Professors of Divinity--have declared themselves against continuing the use of it.
I found your note here when we arrived last night to assist at the coming of age of young Lord Elgin. We were obliged to pass rapidly through Edinburgh, in order to reach this by nightfall. In case I am able to come over this week to Edinburgh, should I find you at home, and at what hour?
It would probably be on Thursday that I could most easily come.--Yours sincerely,
A.P. STANLEY.
DEAN RAMSAY to Rev. MALCOLM CLERK,
Kingston Deverell, Warminster, Wilts.
23 Ainslie Place, Edin., Sept. 5 [1872].
My dear Malcolm Clerk--Many thanks for your remarks touching the Athanasian Creed. I agree quite, and am satisfied we gain nothing by retaining it, and lose much. You ask if I could help to get facsimiles; I am not likely--not in my line I fear. Should anything turn up I will look after it. One of the propositions to which unlimited faith must be given, is drawn from an analogy, which expresses the most obscure of all questions in physics--i.e. the union of mind and matter, the what constitutes one mortal being--all very well to use in explanation or illustration, but as a positive article of faith in itself, monstrous. Then the Filioque to be insisted on as eternal death to deny!
People hold such views. A writer in the Guardian (Mr. Poyntz) maintains that God looks with more favour upon a man living in SIN than upon one who has seceded ever so small from orthodoxy. Something must be done, were it only to stop the perpetual, as we call it in Scottish phrase, blethering!
I am always glad to hear of your boys. My love to Stuart, and same to thyself.--Thine affectionate fourscore old friend,
E.B. RAMSAY.
I am preparing a twenty-second edition of Reminiscences. Who would have thought it? No man.
I have not hitherto made any mention of the Dean's most popular book, the Reminiscences. I cannot write but with respect of a work in which he was very much interested, and where he showed his knowledge of his countrymen so well. As a critic, I must say that his style is peculiarly unepigrammatic; and yet what collector of epigrams or epigrammatic stories has ever done what the Dean has done for Scotland? It seems as if the wilful excluding of point was acceptable, otherwise how to explain the popularity of that book? All over the world, wherever Scotch men and Scotch language have made their way--and that embraces wide regions--the stories of the Reminiscences, and Dean Ramsay's name as its author, are known and loved as much as the most popular author of this generation. In accounting for the marvellous success of the little book, it should not be forgotten that the anecdotes are not only true to nature, but actually true, and that the author loved enthusiastically Scotland, and everything Scotch. But while there were so many things to endear it to the peasantry of Scotland, it was not admired by them alone. I insert a few letters to show what impression it made on those whom one would expect to find critical, if not jealous. Dickens, the king of story-tellers; Dr. Guthrie, the most picturesque of preachers; Bishop Wordsworth, Dean Stanley, themselves masters of style--how eagerly they received the simple stories of Scotland told without ornament.
BISHOP WORDSWORTH to DEAN RAMSAY.
The Feu House, Perth, January 12, 1872.
My dear Dean--Your kind, welcome and most elegant present reached me yesterday--in bed; to which, and to my sofa, I have been confined for some days by a severe attack of brow ague; and being thus disabled for more serious employment, I allowed my thoughts to run upon the lines which you will find over leaf. Please to accept them as being well intended; though (like many other good intentions) I am afraid they give only too true evidence of the source from which they come--viz., disordered head.--Yours very sincerely,
C. WORDSWORTH,
Bp. of St. Andrews.
Ad virum venerabilem, optimum, dilectissimum, EDVARDUM
B. RAMSAY, S.T.P., Edinburgi Decanum, accepto
ejus libro cui titulus Reminiscences, etc.; vicesimum
jam lautiusque et amplius edito.
Editio accessit vicesima! plaudite quiequid
Scotia festivi fert lepidique ferax!
Non vixit frustra qui frontem utcunque severam,
Noverit innocuis explicuisse jocis:
Non frustra vixit qui tot monumenta priorum
Salsa pia vetuit sedulitate mori:
Non frustra vixit qui quali nos sit amore
Vivendum, exemplo præcipiensque docet:
Nec merces te indigna manet: juvenesque senesque
Gaudebunt nomen concelebrare tuum;
Condiet appositum dum fercula nostra salinum,
Præbebitque suas mensa secunda nuces;
Dum stantis rhedæ aurigam tua pagina fallet,
Contentum in sella tædia longa pati!
Quid, quod et ipsa sibi devinctum Scotia nutrix
Te perget gremio grata fovere senem;
Officiumque pium simili pietate rependens,
Sæcula nulla sinet non[11] meminisse Tui.
The TRANSLATION is from the pen of DEAN STANLEY:--
Hail, Twentieth Edition! From Orkney to Tweed,
Let the wits of all Scotland come running to read.
Not in vain hath he lived, who by innocent mirth
Hath lightened the frowns and the furrows of earth:
Not in vain hath he lived, who will never let die
The humours of good times for ever gone by:
Not in vain hath he lived, who hath laboured to give
In himself the best proof how by love we may live.
Rejoice, our dear Dean, thy reward to behold
In united rejoicing of young and of old;
Remembered, so long as our boards shall not lack
A bright grain of salt or a hard nut to crack;
So long as the cabman aloft on his seat,
Broods deep o'er thy page as he waits in the street!
Yea, Scotland herself, with affectionate care,
Shall nurse an old age so beloved and so rare;
And still gratefully seek in her heart to enshrine
One more Reminiscence, and that shall be Thine.
From the DEAN of WESTMINSTER.
The Deanery, Westminster,
February 3, 1872.
My dear elder (I cannot say eldest so long as the Dean of Winchester lives) Brother--I am very glad that you are pleased with my attempt to render into English the Bishop's beautiful Latinity....
Accept our best wishes for many happy returns of the day just past.--Yours sincerely,
A.P. STANLEY.
On the publication of the Twentieth Edition of the Reminiscences, Professor Blackie addressed to the Dean the following sonnets:--
I.
Hail! wreathed in smiles, thou genial book! and hail
Who wove thy web of bright and various hue,
The wise old man, who gleaned the social tale
And thoughtful jest and roguish whim, that grew
Freely on Scotland's soil when Scotland knew
To be herself, nor lusted to assume
Smooth English ways--that they might live and bloom
With freshness, ever old and ever new
In human hearts. Thrice happy he who knows
With sportive light the cloudy thought to clear,
And round his head the playful halo throws
That plucks the terror from the front severe:
Such grace was thine, and such thy gracious part,
Thou wise old Scottish man of large and loving heart.
II.
The twentieth edition! I have looked
Long for my second--but it not appears;
Yet not the less I joy that thou hast brooked
Rich fruit of fair fame, and of mellow years,
Thou wise old man, within whose saintly veins
No drop of gall infects life's genial tide,
Whose many-chambered human heart contains
No room for hatred and no home for pride.
Happy who give with stretch of equal love
This hand to Heaven and that to lowly earth,
Wise there to worship with great souls above
As here to sport with children in their mirth;
Who own one God with kindly-reverent eyes
In flowers that prink the earth, and stars that gem the skies.
JOHN STUART BLACKIE.
CHARLES DICKENS to DEAN RAMSAY.
Gad's Hill Place, Higham, by Rochester, Kent,
Tuesday, 29th May 1866.
My dear Sir--I am but now in the receipt of your kind letter, and its accompanying book. If I had returned home sooner, I should sooner have thanked you for both.
I cannot adequately express to you the gratification I have derived from your assurance that I have given you pleasure. In describing yourself as a stranger of whom I know nothing, you do me wrong however. The book I am now proud to possess as a mark of your goodwill and remembrance has for some time been too well known to me to admit of the possibility of my regarding its writer in any other light than as a friend in the spirit; while the writer of the introductory page marked viii. in the edition of last year[12] had commanded my highest respect as a public benefactor and a brave soul.
I thank you, my dear Sir, most cordially, and I shall always prize the words you have inscribed in this delightful volume, very, very highly.--Yours faithfully and obliged,
CHARLES DICKENS.
Dr. GUTHRIE to DEAN RAMSAY.
1 Salisbury Road,
30th October 1872.
My dear Mr. Dean--My honoured and beloved friend, I have received many sweet, tender, and Christian letters touching my late serious illness, but among them all none I value more, or almost so much, as your own.
May the Lord bless you for the solace and happiness it gave to me and mine! How perfect the harmony in our views as to the petty distinctions around which--sad and shame to think of it--such fierce controversies have raged! I thank God that I, like yourself, have never attached much importance to these externals, and have had the fortune to be regarded as rather loose on such matters. We have just, by God's grace, anticipated the views and aspects they present on a deathbed.
I must tell you how you helped us to pass many a weary, restless hour. After the Bible had been read to me in a low monotone--when I was seeking sleep and could not find it--a volume of my published sermons was tried, and sometimes very successfully, as a soporific. I was familiar with them, and yet they presented as much novelty as to divert my mind from my troubles. And what if this failed? then came the Reminiscences to entertain me, and while away the long hours when all hope of getting sleep's sweet oblivion was given up!
So your book was one of my many mercies. But oh, how great in such a time the unspeakable mercy of a full, free, present salvation! In Wesley's wordsI have had a bit of a back-throw, but if you could come between three and four on Friday, I would rejoice to see you.--Ever yours, with the greatest esteem,"I the chief of sinners am,
But Jesus died for me."
"I the chief of sinners am,
But Jesus died for me."
THOMAS GUTHRIE.
Miss STIRLING GRAHAM to DEAN RAMSAY.
Duntrune, 8th January 1872.
My dear Mr. Dean--I thank you very much for the gift of your new edition of "Scottish Reminiscences," and most especially for the last few pages on Christian union and liberality, which I have read with delight.
I beg also to thank you for the flattering and acceptable testimonial you have bestowed on myself.--Your most respectful and grateful friend,
CLEMENTINA STIRLING GRAHAM.
Rev. Dr. HANNA to DEAN RAMSAY.
16 Magdala Crescent, 11th January 1872.
Dear Dean Ramsay--I have been touched exceedingly by your kindness in sending me a copy of the twentieth edition of the Reminiscences.
It was a happy thought of Mr. Douglas to present it to the public in such a handsome form--the one in which it will take its place in every good library in the country.
I am especially delighted with the last twenty pages of this edition. Very few had such a right to speak about the strange commotion created by the act of the two English Bishops, and the manner in which they tried to lay the storm, and still fewer could have done it with such effect.
One fruit of your work is sure to abide. As long as Scotland lasts, your name will "be associated with gentle and happy Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character."
Mrs. Hanna joins me in affectionate regard.--With highest respect and esteem, I ever am, yours very truly,
WM. HANNA.
DEAN RAMSAY to Rev. Dr. L. ALEXANDER.
23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh.
January 29, 1872.
My clear Dr. Alexander--Since I had the pleasure of your most agreeable visit, and its accompanying conversation, I have been very unwell and hardly left the house. You mentioned the reference made by Dean Stanley (?) to the story of the semi-idiot boy and his receiving the communion with such heart-felt reality. I forgot to mention that, summer before last, two American gentlemen were announced, who talked very pleasantly before I found who they were--one a Baptist minister at Boston, and the other a professor in a college. I did not know why they had called at all until the minister let on that he did not like to be in Edinburgh without waiting upon the author of Reminiscences, as the book had much interested him in Scottish life, language and character, before he had been a visitor on the Scottish shores. "But chiefly," he added, "I wished to tell you that the day before I sailed I preached in a large store to above two thousand people; that from your book I had to them brought forward the anecdote of the simpleton lad's deep feeling in seeing the 'pretty man' in the communion, and of his being found dead next morning." To which he added, in strong American tones, "I pledge myself to you, sir, there was not a dry eye in the whole assembly."
It is a feature of modern times how anecdotes, sayings, expressions, etc., pass amongst the human race. I have received from Sir Thomas Biddulph an expression of the Queen's pleasure at finding pure Scottish anecdotes have been so popular in England. How fond she is of Scotland!--With much esteem, I am very truly yours,
E.B. RAMSAY.
The Dean was an enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Chalmers, and on the evening of March 4, 1849, he read a memoir of the life and labours of Chalmers at a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. That memoir, although it had been to a great extent anticipated by Rev. Dr. Hanna's fine and copious memoir of his father-in-law, was printed in the Society Transactions, and afterwards went through several editions when issued in a separate volume.
LORD MEDWTN to DEAN RAMSAY.
Ainslie Place, Thursday morning
My dear Mr. Ramsay--I beg to thank you most truly for your very acceptable gift so kindly sent to me yesterday evening. I had heard with the greatest satisfaction of the admirable sketch you had read to the Royal Society of the public character of the latest of our Scottish worthies--a very remarkable man in many respects; one whose name must ever stand in the foremost rank of Christian philanthropists; all whose great and various talents and acquirements being devoted with untiring energy to the one great object--the temporal and eternal benefit of mankind. What I also greatly admired about him was that all the great adulation he met with never affected his simple-mindedness; his humility was remarkable. There was the same absence of conceit or assumption of any kind which also greatly distinguished his great cotemporary, our friend Walter Scott; in truth, both were too far elevated above other men to seek any adventitious distinction. I wish our country could show more men like Chalmers to hold up to imitation, or if too exalted to be imitated, yet still to be proud of; and that they were fortunate enough to have admirers such as you, capable of recording their worth in an éloge, such as the public has the satisfaction of receiving at your hands. Again I beg to thank you for your kind remembrance of me on the present occasion.--Believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly,
J.H. FORBES.
Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.
4 S. Charlotte Street, Tuesday, 6th March.
My dear Sir--I cannot deny myself the pleasure of expressing to you the deep interest and delight with which I listened to your discourse last night, so worthy, in every view, of the subject, the occasion, and the audience. And while I thank you most sincerely for so cordial and genial a tribute to the memory of the greatest of modern Scotsmen, I venture to express my hope that we may be favoured with an earlier and wider publication of it than the Transactions of the Royal Society will afford.--Pray excuse this intrusion, and believe me, yours very truly,
ROB. S. CANDLISH.
Dean Ramsay.
I will indulge myself only with one phrase from the Dean's memoir of Dr. Chalmers:--"Chalmers's greatest delight was to contrive plans and schemes for raising degraded human nature in the scale of moral living. The favourite object of his contemplation was human nature attaining the highest perfection of which it is capable, and especially as that perfection was manifested in saintly individuals, in characters of great acquirements, adorned with the graces of Christian piety. His greatest sorrow was to contemplate masses of mankind hopelessly bound to vice and misery by chains of passion, ignorance, and prejudice. As no one more firmly believed in the power of Christianity to regenerate a fallen race, as faith and experience both conspired to assure him that the only effectual deliverance for the sinful and degraded was to be wrought by Christian education, and by the active agency of Christian instruction penetrating into the haunts of vice and the abodes of misery, these acquisitions he strove to secure for all his beloved countrymen; for these he laboured, and for these he was willing to spend and to be spent."
That high yet just character not only shows Dean Ramsay's appreciation of Chalmers, but seems to show that he had already set him up as the model which he himself was to follow. At any rate, he attempted to stir up the public mind to give some worthy testimonial to the greatest of modern Scotsmen. A few letters connected with this subject I have put together. I did not think it necessary to collect more, since the object has been attained under difficulties of time and distance which might have quelled a less enthusiastic admirer. It is pleasant to notice the general consent with which we agree that no one else was so fitted to recommend the Chalmers memorial as Dean Ramsay.
It was to do honour to my own little book that I ventured, without asking leave, to print the few lines which follow, from the great French writer, the high minister of State, the patron of historical letters for half-a-century in France, the Protestant Guizot.
M. GUIZOT to the DEAN.
Paris, ce 7 Février 1870,
10 Rue Billault.
Sir--Je m'associerai avec un vrai et sérieux plaisir à l'érection d'une statue en l'honneur du Dr. Chalmers. Il n'y a point de théologien ni de moraliste Chrétien à qui je porte une plus haute estime. Sur quelques unes des grandes questions qu' il a traitées, je ne partage pas ses opinions; mais j'honore et j'admire l'élévation, la vigueur de sa pensé, et la beauté morale de son génie. Je vous prie, Monsieur, de me compter parmi les hommes qui se féliciteront de pouvoir lui rendre un solennel hommage, et je vous remercie d'avoir pensé à moi dans ce dessein.
Reçevez l'assurance de mes sentiments les plus distingués.
GUIZOT.
Mr. E.B. Ramsay, Dean, etc.,
23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, North Britain.
Some of Mr. Gladstone's letters, already printed, show that they were not the beginning of the correspondence between him and the Dean. The accident which made them acquainted will be mentioned afterwards (p. lxxxi.)
Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.
Hawarden Castle, Chester, Jan. 3, 1870.
My dear Dean Ramsay--I send you my rather shabby contribution of £10 to the Chalmers' Memorial. I wish it were more, but I am rather specially pressed at this time; and I think I refused Robert Bruce altogether not long ago.
I quite understand the feeling of the Scotch aristocracy, but I should have thought Lothian would be apart from, as well as above it.
But the number of subscriptions is the main thing, and very many they ought to be if Scotland is Scotland still. He was one of Nature's nobles. It is impossible even to dream that a base or unworthy thought ever found harbour for a moment in his mind.
Is it not extraordinary to see this rain of Bishoprics upon my head? Nor (I think) is it over; the next twelvemonth (wherever I may be at the end of it) will, I think, probably produce three more.
Bishop Temple is a fine fellow, and I hope all will now go well. For Manchester (this is secret) I hope to have Mr. Fraser of Clifton--a very notable man, in the first rank of knowledge and experience on the question of education. Many pressed him for Salisbury.
I can truly say that every Bishop who has been appointed has been chosen simply as the best man to be had.
Ah! when will you spend that month here, which I shall never cease to long for?--Ever affectionately yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
Rev. Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.
52 Melville Street, 7th Dec. 1870.
Dear Dean Ramsay--I should have acknowledged yours of the 1st sooner. I cannot say that I regret the conclusion to which you have come, though. I would have done my best to help on the larger movement.... I very willingly acquiesce in the wisdom of your resolution to accept the position, for it is one which you may well accept with satisfaction and thankfulness. You have accomplished what I doubt if any other man could have even ventured to propose, at so late a period after Dr. Chalmers' death. It will be a historical fact, made palpable to succeeding ages, that you have wiped off a discredit from Scotland's church and nation, by securing a suitable memorial of one of her most distinguished sons, in the most conspicuous position the Metropolis could assign to it. It will be for us of the Free Church to recognise in our archives the high compliment paid to our illustrious leader and chief in the great movement of the Disruption by one of other ecclesiastical convictions and leanings. But we must always do that under the feeling that it is not in that character that you know Chalmers; but in the far broader aspect in which you have so happily celebrated him as a Christian philanthropist, a patriot, and a divine.
I conclude with earnest congratulations on the complete success, as I regard it, of your generous proposal; and I am yours very truly,
ROB. S. CANDLISH.
Rev. Dr. DUFF to DEAN RAMSAY.
The Grange, 29th June.
Very Rev. and dear Sir--Many thanks for your kind note with its enclosures.
From my sad experience in such matters, I am not at all surprised at the meagre number of replies to your printed circular.
When I first learnt from the newspaper of the meeting held in your house, and of Dr. Guthrie's proposal, I had a strong impression that the latter was on far too extensive a scale--but remained silent, being only anxious, in a quiet way, to do what I could in promoting the general design.
Having had much to do during the last forty years with the raising of funds for all manner of objects, in different lands, I have come to know something of men's tempers and dispositions in such cases, and under peculiar circumstances and conditions. I therefore never expected the £20,000 scheme to succeed; unless, indeed, it were headed by a dozen or so at £1000, or at least £500 each--a liberality not to be expected for such an object at this time of day.
Your present plan, therefore, I think a wise one--viz., to constitute yourselves into "a statue committee," for the successful carrying out of your own original and very practicable design,--handing over any surplus funds which may remain to any other committee or body willing to prosecute the larger professorship or lectureship scheme.--I remain, very Rev. and dear Sir, yours very sincerely,
ALEXANDER DUFF.
I am indebted for the following letters to the Rev. Dr. Lindsay Alexander. If I wrote only for Scotsmen, it would be unnecessary to speak of Dr. Alexander as holding a place which he seems to me, ignorant as I am of Church disputes, to owe to his own high personal merit, and the independence which makes him free to think and to write as scarcely any clergyman fettered with the supposed claims of sect or denomination feels himself at liberty to do. As our Dean got older we find him drawing more kindly to those whose Christianity was shown in other guise than in sectarian precision with some spice of persecution.
23 Ainslie Place, Feb. 28, 1866.
I have found, as others have, the "Biblical Commentary" a very useful companion in sermon-writing. It gives you the Scripture parallel passages bodily, and saves the trouble of turning backwards and forwards to find the marginal references and to examine their relevancy. The work is published by Bagster, and he generally, I believe, gets his work pretty well done, and, so far as I can judge, it is judiciously selected, generally at least.
Now, dear Dr. Alexander, if you would accept of the copy of this work which I have sent, and accept it from me, and if it should prove a useful companion in your homiletical labours, I should feel much gratified. Perhaps it may be a remembrance amongst your books, when years have passed away, of one in his grave who had a sincere regard for you, and who now signs himself, yours very faithfully,
E.B. RAMSAY.
23 Ainslie Place, Jan. 11, 1866.
My dear Dr. Alexander--You will not suppose me to be an advocate for the donkeyism of vestment ritual. But I wish you not to have unfavourable impressions as regard our concern with such matters. We have a canon declaratory on vestments, asserting the ordinary surplice, gown, hood, and stole. It is stupidly worded, but the meaning is obvious. I was vexed from your experience to hear of such foolish proceedings at Bridge of Allan, contrary to canon and to common sense.... The green part of the dress which caused your wonder, naturally enough, is not a freak of new vestments, but is a foolish way which the Glenalmond students have adopted of wearing the hood, which our Bishops (not without diversity of opinion) had granted for those who had been educated at our College. It is a hood lined with green (Scottish thistle colour), and they have a way of wearing it in a manner which brings the coloured part in front. Pray, pray, don't think of answering this; it is merely to correct an unfavourable impression in one whose favourable opinion I much desiderate. I cannot tell you the pleasure I had in your visit on Tuesday.--With sincere regard, yours always,
E.B. RAMSAY.
23 Ainslie Place, June 8, 1866.
Dear Dr. Alexander--I forgot to mention a circumstance connected with my story of to-day. I have had a communicant thereanent with Dr. Robert Lee. The good Dr., although fond of introducing Episcopalian practices, which cause great indignation amongst some of his brethren, does not wish it to be understood that he has the least tendency to become an Episcopalian himself. In short, he hinted to me himself that were such an idea to become prevalent it would materially weaken his influence with many followers. "It is to improve my own church, not to join yours," were his words, or to that effect. In carrying out this idea he has a hit in his "Reformation of the Church of Scotland" against Episcopalians, and in the first edition he brings up Dean Ramsay and the unfortunate statement he had made, as a melancholy proof how hopeless were even the most specious of the Scottish Episcopal Church on the subject of toleration. I told him that so far as that statement went it proved nothing, that it had been wrung from me in an unguarded moment, and that I had for fourteen years borne unequivocal testimony to views which were opposite to that statement. He received the explanation most kindly, and offered to do anything I wished, but we both at length agreed that the best plan would be simply to omit it in the second edition, which was preparing and has since come out. It was omitted.
I am, dear Dr. Alexander, with true regard, ever yours most sincerely,
E.B. RAMSAY.
23 Ainslie Place, August 26, 1867.
Dear Dr. Alexander--I have lately returned to Edinburgh, having paid a visit to my own country on Deeside. On Saturday I drove down to Musselburgh, and had an express object in calling upon you to ask how you were. But I found I had been wrong directed to Pinkie Burn, and that to accomplish my visit, I must have made a détour which would have detained me too long. I had an engagement waiting me, and I found my strength pretty well exhausted. I wish, however, to notify my intention of a visit. I have had a very severe illness since we met, and have not regained my former position, and do not think I ever shall. I was very, very close upon the gate we must all pass, and I believe a few hours longer of the fever's continuance would have closed the scene. I don't think I dread to meet death. I have so largely experienced the goodness of God through (now) a long life, and I feel so deeply, and I trust so humbly, the power of his grace and mercy in Christ, that, I can calmly contemplate the approach of the last hour. But I confess I do shrink from encountering an undefined period of bodily and mental imbecility; of being helpless, useless, a burden. I have been so distressed to see all this come upon our bishop, Dr. Terrot; the once clear, acute, sharp, and ready man. Oh, it is to my mind the most terrible affliction of our poor nature. I have known lately an unusual number of such cases before me, and I hope I am not unreasonably apprehensive as to what may come. I hope your family all are well, and that you are fully up to your work in all its forms.--I am, believe me, with much regard, very sincerely yours,
E.B. RAMSAY.
Without date.
My dear Dr. Alexander--I feel deeply obliged by your kind gift to Bishop Whipple. His simple heart will be gratified much. I am so vexed at having mislaid two letters from him. I should have liked you to see and to know the bishop by seeing and reading them. They are models of simple, loving, Christian feeling. He went to Minnesota as to a new rough state just added to the United States. He took five clergymen. He has now above thirty and a college (for which he asked the books). He is beloved by all, and loves all. The Red Indians worship him. He is so considerate of them. They suffer from bad teeth, and on some occasions he has drawn 150 teeth before a prayer-meeting in the woods, from Indians who were suffering pain....
I will take care Bishop Whipple shall know of your goodness. I am so vexed I can't find his letters.
23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh,
November 26, 1871.
Dear Dr. Alexander--You will be sorry to hear that my brother, Sir William, is very ill. This morning we had given up all idea of his rallying, but since that he has shown symptoms of a more favourable character. His state is still a very precarious one, and I fear much we must make up our minds to lose him. God's will be done! We are sure he is prepared for his change. He has long been a sincere believer in the great work and offices of the Lord Jesus, and he has followed up his profession of belief by liberal and judicious expenditure on benevolent objects.
I have heard of your being in London at the Revision, and you may probably be there now. But when you return to Edinburgh, the Admiral would be most glad to see you when able to call in Ainslie Place. Sir William is three years younger than I, but he has had a more trying life. His death (should such be God's will) must be a great blank for me. But for me it cannot be a long one.--Hoping you are well, I am, with much regard, most sincerely yours,
E.B. RAMSAY.
Very soon after the date of this letter Admiral William Ramsay died, who had lived with his brother the Dean in the most affectionate friendship for many years. Their duties and interests were identical. William Ramsay was known as the promoter of every scheme of benevolence in Edinburgh.
Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.
Hawarden, December 7, 1871.
My dear Dean Ramsay--It is with much grief that we have seen the announcement of the heavy loss you have sustained in the death of your brother. It was a beautiful union, which is now for the time dissolved. One has been taken, and the other left. The stronger frame has been broken, the weaker one still abides the buffetings of the sea of life. And I feel a very strong conviction, even at this sad moment, and with your advancing age, that the balance of your mind and character will remain unshaken through your habitual and entire acceptance of the will of God. I write then only to express my sincere regard for the dead, strong sympathy with the living. Such as it is, and knowing it to be pure, I offer it; would it were more worthy, and would that I, let me rather say--for my wife enters into all these feelings--that we were able in any way at this especial time to minister to your comfort.
I fear the stroke must have come rather suddenly, but no dispensation could, I think, in the sense really dangerous, be sudden to you.
Accept, my dear Dean, our affectionate wishes, and be assured we enter into the many prayers which will ascend on your behalf. Your devoted niece will sorely feel this, but it will be to her a new incentive in the performance of those loving duties to which she has so willingly devoted her heart and mind.--Believe me always your affectionate friend,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
Rev. D.T.K. DRUMMOND to DEAN RAMSAY.
Montpelier, Thursday.
My dear Friend--I did not like to intrude on you in the very freshness of your home sorrow. But you know how much I loved and respected your brother, and how truly and heartily I sympathise with you. There were few in Edinburgh so much beloved as Sir William, and it will be long indeed ere the memory of his goodness shall pass away. Such men in the quiet, private, and unassuming walk, are often much more missed and more extensively lamented than men who have been more in the eye of the public, and during their life have had much of public observation and favour. It is trying for us who are far on in the pilgrimage to see one and another of our brothers and sisters pass away before us. I have seen ten go before me, and am the only one left; and yet it seems as if the old feeling of their leaving us is being exchanged for the brighter and happier consciousness that they are coming to meet us, or at least that the gathering band are BEFORE us, and looking our way, expecting the time when we too shall pass through the veil, leaning on the arm of the Beloved. I earnestly pray, my dear friend, for the Master's loving help and comfort to you from henceforth even for ever.
I cannot close this without, in a sentence, expressing my very great delight in reading your words regarding brotherly intercommunion among members of Churches who hold the same Truth, love the same Lord, and are bound to the same "better land." I do rejoice with all my heart that you have given utterance to the sentiments so carefully and admirably expressed by you. I go heart and soul with you in the large and liberal and Christ-like spirit of the views you propound; and feel with you that all such brotherly esteem and hearty and candid co-operation only makes me love my own church better, because such love is unmixed with the exclusiveness which sees nothing good save in the Communion to which we ourselves belong.
Thank you most heartily for what you have written.--Ever very affectionately yours,
D.T.K. DRUMMOND.
When the Ramsays were under the necessity of selling most of their property in the Mearns, the purchaser of Fasque was Mr. Gladstone, not yet a baronet; and, what does not always happen, the families of the buyer and the seller continued good friends, and Sir John, the great merchant, by his advice and perhaps other help, assisted some of the young Ramsays, who had still to push their way to fortune. I believe William, afterwards Admiral, was guided by him in the investment and management of a little money, which prospered, notwithstanding his innumerable bounties to the poor. The Dean also was obliged to Sir John Gladstone, but only for kindness and hospitalities.
On the Ramsays going to London in the summer of 1845, the journal records what nice rooms they had, and how happy they were at Mr. Gladstone's, where they saw a good deal of their host--"a man who at eighty-one possesses the bodily and mental vigour of the prime of life." The Dean was struck with the old man's abilities. "Mr. Gladstone would have been successful in any undertaking or any pursuits--a man fitted to grapple with the highest subjects."
From that period much intercourse took place between the Premier and our Dean. There are mutual visits between Hawarden and Edinburgh, and I find a good deal of correspondence between them; at least I find the letters on one side. The Dean preserved Mr. Gladstone's letters, but the counterparts are probably not preserved. One-sided as they are, the little packet in my hand, of letters from the great Statesman to the rural clergyman is not without interest. The correspondence has been friendly, frank and confidential, the writers often differing in immaterial things, but showing the same liberality in "Church and State;" so that we are not surprised to find, when the time came, that of the friends, the churchman approved of Irish disestablishment as heartily as the layman who was its author.
Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.
10 Downing Street, Whitehall,
Jan. 20, 1869.
My dear Dean Ramsay--I need not tell you I am no fit judge of your brother's claims, but I shall send your letter privately to the First Lord, who, I am sure, will give it an impartial and friendly consideration.
Pray remember me to the Admiral, and be assured it will give me sincere pleasure if your wish on his behalf can be gratified.
I write from Hawarden, but almost en route for London, and the arduous work before us.
My mind is cheerful, and even sanguine about it.
I wish I had some chance or hope of seeing you, and I remain affectionately yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
The Bishop of Salisbury has been for days at the point of death. He is decidedly better, but cannot recover. Let him have a place in your prayers.
Windsor Castle, June 24, 1871.
My dear Dean Ramsay--The attraction of the Scott Centenary to Edinburgh is strong, and your affectionate invitation makes it stronger still. I do not despair of being free, and if free, I mean to use my freedom, so as to profit by both. At the same time the delays and obstructions to business have been so formidable that I must not as yet presume to forecast the time when I may be able to escape from London, and therefore I fear I must draw upon your indulgence to allow me some delay. The session may last far into August, but the stars may be more propitious.
We are all grumbling at an unusually cold year, and the progress of vegetation seems to be suspended, but I trust no serious harm is yet done; as Louis Napoleon said, tout peut se retablir.
It would indeed be delightful could I negotiate for a right to bring you back with me on coming southwards.
So glad to hear a good account of your health and appearance from our Lord Advocate; a clever chiel, is he not?--Ever affectionately yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
My wife sends her kind love.
10 Downing Street, Whitehall,
July 25, 1871.
My dear Friend--From day to day my hopes of attending the Scott Centenary have been declining, and I regret much to say that they are now virtually dead. The extraordinary obstructions which have been offered to public business during the present session have now, as you will see, brought us to such a pass that some suggest an adjournment from August to some period in the autumn, to enable us to get through what we have in hand. Whether we do this, or whether we finish off at once, it is now, I fear, practically certain that there is no chance of my being free to leave town at the time of the Centenary.
We paid Tennyson a visit from last Saturday to Tuesday. He is a sincere and ardent admirer of Scott, and heartily wishes well to anything which is likely to keep him before the minds of the on-coming generation.
His Sussex abode is beautiful, 600 feet above the sea, with a splendid view. He seems to be very happy in his family.
With regard to the Emperor of Brazil, I think any application made to him would come best from those officially connected with the celebration. At any rate, I fear it would be obtrusive on my part to mix in it, as I have no special relation with him, though he has made a most pleasing impression on me.
I now expect to go to Balmoral in the middle of September, and should much wish to know whether I might visit you on my way north or south.--Always affectionately yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
10 Downing Street, Whitehall,
August 8, 1871.
My dear Dean Ramsay--Do what you like with the inclosed. It is written at the last moment, and because you asked for it, by a man who was nine hours in the House yesterday, and has to be there nine to-day, besides a fair share of a day's work outside it to boot.
I hope you received a subscription from Royal Bounty which I sent for Archibald's family. I can give five pounds myself also.--Ever your affectionate friend,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
11 Carlton House Terrace, S.W.,
August 8, 1871.
My dear Dean Ramsay---I wish I could convey to you adequately the regret with which I find myself cut off from any possibility of joining in the tribute to be paid to-morrow to the memory of the first among the sons of Scotland. He was the idol of my boyhood, and though I well know that my admiration is worth little, it has never varied.
In his case the feeling is towards the man as much as towards his works. Did we not possess a line from his pen, his life would stand as a true epic.
I will not say I think him as strong in his modern politics as in some other points, but I find my general estimate of the great and heroic whole affected only in the slightest degree by this point of qualified misgiving.
If he is out of fashion with some parts of some classes, it is their misfortune, not his. He is above fluctuations of time, for his place is in the Band of the Immortals.
The end of my letter shall be better worth your having than the beginning. A fortnight ago I visited Tennyson, and found him possessed with all the sentiments about Scott which your celebration is meant to foster.--I remain in haste, affectionately yours.
W.E. GLADSTONE.
Hawarden Castle, Chester,
January 12, 1872.
My dear Dean Ramsay--I was at once obliged, gratified, and comforted by your letter. This has been a great storm, but it has not rooted you up, and He whom you live to serve, evidently has yet more service for you to do. Those remaining in the world cannot be wife or brother to you, but how many there are who would if they could, and who will be all they can!
The testimonies you send me are full of touching interest.
My wife has received to-day the beautiful present of the new edition of your book. She will enjoy it immensely. I hope to send you, when I get to London, a little work called the "Mirror of Monks." Let not the title alarm you. It is in the manner of à Kempis, and is original, as well as excellent and lofty. I have had much Scotch reading. The "Life of Dr. Lee;" Macdonald's "Love, Law, and Theology;" last, not least, Lady Nairne. I am equally struck with her life, and her singularly beautiful songs, and this though she was Tory and Puritan; I am opposed to both. Her character brings into view a problem common to all times, but also I suppose special to this. I take it that if there is a religious body upon earth that fully and absolutely deserves the character of schismatical, it is your Drummond secession. Yet not only is this noble and holy woman in it, but even my own narrow experience has supplied me with other types of singular excellence and elevation within its pale; and the considerations hereby suggested are of immensely wide application.
I trust that your Walker Cathedral will be thoroughly good, and that your Bishop's book is prospering.
You will be glad to hear that the solemn thanksgiving at St. Paul's may be regarded as decided on, to my great satisfaction.
If you will let me have particulars of any case such as you describe, I will most readily see what can be done; and now farewell, my dear friend.--Always affectionately yours,
W.E. GLADSTONE.
If not quite so popular as some of the Dean's other correspondents, he whose letter I bring forward here stood as high as any man in the estimation of the better and most thinking classes of Scotsmen.
Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, though no clergyman, had his mind more constantly full of divine thoughts than most priests; though no technical scholar perhaps, he kept up his Greek to read Plato, and did not think that his enjoyment of the works of high reach in classical times unfitted him for Bible studies, which were the chief object of his existence.
THOMAS ERSKINE to DEAN RAMSAY.
127 George Street, 19th Oct. 1869.
Dear Dean--I return you many thanks for that kind letter. Neither you nor I can now be far from death--that commonest of all events, and yet the most unknown. The majority of those with whom you and I have been acquainted, have passed through it, but their experience does not help us except by calling us to prepare for it. One man indeed--the Head and Lord of men--has risen from the dead, thereby declaring death overcome, and inviting us all to share in his victory. And yet we feel that the victory over death cannot deliver us from fear, unless there be also a victory over that which makes death terrible--a victory over him that hath the power of death, that is the devil, or prince and principle of sin. And our Lord has achieved this also, for he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; but this sacrifice can only really profit us when it is reproduced in us--when we, as branches of the true Vine, live by the sap of the root, which sap is filial trust, the only principle which can sacrifice self, because the only principle which can enable us to commit ourselves unreservedly into the hands of God for guidance and for disposal. We are thus put right by trust, justified or put right by faith in the loving fatherly righteous purpose of God towards us.
Dear George Dundas's death has taken from me my chief social support in Edinburgh. I was fourteen years his senior, but I had known and loved him from his childhood. Our mothers were sisters, and thus we had the same family ties and traditions. I think of him now in connection with that verse, "to those who by patient continuance in well-doing," etc.
And now farewell. Let us seek to live by the faith of the Son of God--his filial trust I suppose, which I so much need.--Ever truly and gratefully yours,
T. ERSKINE.
The three following letters hardly help on the story of the Dean's life, but I could not pass them when they came into my hands.
The writer is Adam Sedgwick, the well-known Cambridge Professor and Philosopher. In another capacity he was still better known. He was tutor and vice-master of Trinity, and in his time an outside stranger of any education, even a half-educated Scot, dropping into Cambridge society, found a reception to be remembered. Take for choice one of their peculiar festivals--Trinity Sunday comes to my mind--the stranger partook of the splendid feast in that princely hall of Trinity, where the massive college plate was arrayed and the old college customs of welcome used, not from affectation, but kindly reverence. When the dinner was over, the large party of Doctors and Fellows, with hundreds of the noble youth of England, all in surplice, moved to the chapel, all joining with reverence in the august service of the church, and later, they and their guests, or as many as could be held, crossed to the Combination Room, where Sedgwick filled the chair, and led the conversation, not to glorify himself, not to display his own powers, which were great, but to let his guests know among whom they were placed--philosophers, first men of science, first scholars, leaders in all kinds of learning, meeting in a noble equality, proud to meet under his presidency--that I take to be the highest triumph of civilised hospitality. At the time of these letters the philosopher is old, but vigorous in mind, and even gay at the age of eighty-eight.
The death of Bishop Terrot called forth the following letter from the venerable Professor:--
PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to the Rev. Mr. MALCOLM.
Trinity College, Cambridge, May 1, 1872.
Dear Mr. Malcolm--I had been previously informed of the death of my dear old friend, the Bishop of Edinburgh, but I am very grateful to you for thinking so kindly of me, and for communicating particulars about which I was not acquainted previously. Accept my expressions of true-hearted sympathy, and pray impart them to the surviving members of dear Bishop Terrot's family. He was an old, an honoured and beloved friend; God laid upon his old age an unusual load of the labours and sorrows of humanity, but they are over now, and he has reached his haven of shelter from external sorrow and his true and enduring home of joy and peace, in the presence of his Maker and Redeemer. I am very infirm, and am affected by an internal malady, which, through the past winter, has confined me to my college rooms, but I have to thank my Maker for thousands of little comforts to mind and body, by which I am hourly surrounded, and for His long-suffering in extending my probation till I have entered on my 88th year. My eyes are dim-sighted and irritable, so that I generally dictate my letters; now, however, I am using my own pen to express my thanks to you, in this time of your sorrow for the loss of one so nearly and dearly connected with your clerical life. My memory is not much shaken, except in recalling names not very familiar to me, and I think (with the painful exception I have alluded to) that my constitutional health is sound. When my friends call upon me, my deafness generally compels me to use an ear-trumpet, and I yesterday took it to our college walks, to try if I could catch the notes of the singing birds, which were piping all round me. But, alas! I could not hear the notes of the singing birds, though I did catch the harsher and louder notes of the rooks, which have their nests in some college grounds.
May the remaining years of your life be cheered and animated by good abiding Christian hope.--I remain very faithfully yours,
ADAM SEDGWICK.
PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to DEAN RAMSAY.
Trinity College, Cambridge,
29th May 1872.
My dear Dean--I this morning received your kind presentation copy of your Reminiscences, which I shall highly value for its own sake, and as your gift. I read little now because my eyes are both dim-sighted and very irritable; but your book will just suit me, as it is not a continuous tale, but a succession of tales, each of which is perfect in itself, and I hope to read it bit by bit without worrying my enfeebled powers of sight.
I meant to have thanked you in an autograph, but there has been a sudden change in the atmosphere, which is dark, heavy and wet, and when there is a defect of light I am almost constrained to dictate my letters to my factotum.
I am delighted, too, with the single sheet containing verses addressed to yourself. The first copy by Bishop Wordsworth appears to me quite admirable from the beauty and simplicity of his Latin; and the other copies are good in their way.
I dare say you have seen the short verses he wrote on the death of his first wife. They are of Roman brevity and of exquisite tenderness.
One of the very pleasant days of my life was spent in a visit to the small country living of Mr. Dawes of Downing, afterwards Dean of Hereford. Your late brother was one of the happy party. We returned together to Cambridge at a rattling pace, and I am not sure that I ever saw his face afterwards, for very soon he had a bilious attack which induced him to seek health in his native country, and, alas! he sought it in vain, for he sickened and died, to the deep sorrow of all his friends.--I remain, my dear Dean, very truly and gratefully yours,
A. SEDGWICK.
PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to Rev. Mr. MALCOLM.
Trinity College, Cambridge,
January 18, 1873.
My dear Mr. Malcolm--The infirmity of my sight compels me to dictate this letter to one who often writes for me. Such a bright day as this, and while the sun is shining, I could see the traces of my pen upon a sheet of paper; but the act of writing greatly fatigues me, and I dictate nearly all my letters.
I very much value your melancholy memorial of my late dear and honoured friend, the late Bishop Terrot. Though the photo represents our late friend the bishop with his features shrouded in the cold fixity of death, yet it does bring back the original to the memory of those who knew him well, and I am greatly obliged to you for this memorial of one who has gone from our sight for ever, so far as this world is concerned. It was very kind of you to remember the photo.
I did not know Bishop Cotterell intimately, but I have met him many times, and I think you very happy in obtaining the services of a man of such experience, talent, and zeal, in the good cause of Christian truth.
I am now a very feeble, infirm, old man, toiling in the last quarter of my 88th year. I ought to be thankful that my mind, though feeble, remains entire: my memory is often defective, but I have been enabled, though with great labour to myself, and with many interruptions, to dictate a preface to a catalogue published by the university of the older fossils of our collection. They have kindly printed and given to me some extra copies of my preface, one of which I will forward to you by the book-post.
I know it can have no interest to you, excepting, perhaps, a few paragraphs in the conclusion of only two or three pages.--I remain, my dear Mr. Malcolm, very faithfully and gratefully yours,
A. SEDGWICK.
I have printed already more than one letter from the Rev. D.T.K. Drummond, from admiration of their intrinsic merit, and because I wish here to collect proofs that no diversity of Church rites or Church policy could separate our Dean from brethren whom he regarded perhaps as erroneous, but recognised as teaching and leading by the same principles of freedom, which he himself revered and followed.
Rev. D.T.K. DRUMMOND to DEAN RAMSAY.
Montpelier, Saturday.
My dear Friend--Very many thanks for your most touching note, and for the extract from your book you so kindly sent me. The more I look into it the more I like it, and thank God for the testimony you so unequivocally and fearlessly hear to the unity of the True Church of Christ of any age, however much the great army he made up of various sections, of diverse uniforms, and with special duties to perform.....
Again thanking you very warmly, and earnestly praying for all the precious consolations of the Great Head of the Church to be largely vouchsafed to you, believe me to be always most affectionately yours,
D. T. K. DRUMMOND.
The subject of the following letter cannot be overlooked by a biographer of Dean Ramsay:--
Rev. Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.
52 Melville Street, 18th March 1872.
My dear Dean Ramsay--I have just read with most profound thankfulness and admiration your noble Christian letter in this day's Scotsman. I cannot deny myself the gratification of expressing my feelings to you in this feeble acknowledgment. You have done a signal service to the cause of our Blessed Lord and common Master. I am too infirm to write more fully all that is in my heart. You will pardon all defects, and believe me, yours very truly,
ROB. S. CANDLISH.
The letter referred to by the distinguished divine arose out of what is known in the Scottish Episcopal Church as the cause celèbre of the Bishop of Glasgow against the Bishop of Argyll.
The Rev. Dr. Caird, of the University of Glasgow, having invited the Bishop of Argyll to preach to a mixed Episcopalian and Presbyterian congregation, using his Church's liturgy, from the University pulpit of Glasgow, the Bishop of Glasgow interposed to prevent it.
The interference of the Bishop of Glasgow with his brother prelate of Argyll called forth a letter from Dean Ramsay, which appeared in the Scottish Guardian on 15th March 1872, and in the Scotsman three days later. In it the Dean in fact asserts a religious sympathy towards those who differ from him, comprehensive enough to include all his Protestant countrymen.
"In an address to the Bishop of Glasgow, signed by sixty-two clergymen, it is stated that the service contemplated in the chapel of the University of Glasgow would be a 'lax proceeding, and fraught with great injury to the highest interests of the Church,' Accordingly the Bishop of Glasgow prohibited the service, to guard the Church from complicity in a measure which he considered subversive of her position in this country.' In other words," says Dean Ramsay, "we are called upon to believe that, as members of the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is our bounden duty to withhold every appearance of any religious sympathy with our Presbyterian fellow-countrymen and fellow-Christians. I now solemnly declare for myself that, had I come to the conclusion that such was the teaching of our Church, and such the views to which I was bound--viz. that her object was thus to sever man from man, and to maintain that the service proposed at Glasgow was really 'fraught with great injury to the highest interests of my Church,' because it would promote union and peace--the sun should not again set till I had given up all official connection with a Church of which the foundations and the principles would be so different from the landmarks and leading manifestations of our holy faith itself. Were the principles and conduct laid down in this address and in the answer to it fairly carried out, I cannot see any other result than the members of our Church considering the whole of Scotland which is external to our communion as a land of infidels, with whom we can have no spiritual connection, and whom, indeed, we could hardly recognise as a Christian people."
The Dean's letter is chiefly remarkable as showing that age had not frozen his charity. It called forth many letters like that of Dr. Candlish, and one from the little Somersetshire society which he loved so well.
JOHN SHEPPARD, Esq., Frome, to DEAN RAMSAY.
The Cottage, Frome, 21st March 1872.
Very dear and reverend Sir--I have to thank you for the Scottish Guardian which you have kindly sent me. I regret the divisions which appear to have arisen in your church. Whatever comes from your pen has special interest for me; and I am glad to see it (as it always has been) pleading the cause of Christian charity. It appears to me that the welfare of your church would have been promoted by acceding to the invitation,
I think I have mentioned to you that we had lately a visit from good Archdeacon Sandford, which we much enjoyed. We learn with sorrow that since attendance at the Convocation and a stay at Lambeth Palace, he has been suffering great weakness and exhaustion, and been confined to his bed for a month. He is now slowly recovering; but we fear his exertions have been beyond his strength, and that his life must be very precarious.
I hope your health is not more seriously impaired; but we must be looking more and more, dear sir, towards the home which pain and strife cannot enter.
My beloved Susan is very zealous as the animals' friend, and birds of many sorts welcome and solicit her as their patroness. She desires to be most kindly remembered to you, with, my dear Dean, your attached old friend,
JOHN SHEPPARD.
P.S.--Susan instructs me to say for her that, "since reading your letter to the Guardian, she loves you more than ever, if possible." My words are cool in comparison with hers; and this is a curious message for an ancient husband to convey.
She thinks we have not thanked you for the Bishop's Latin verses and the translations of them. If we have not, it is not because our "reminiscences" of you are faint or few.
I wish to preserve a note of a dear old friend of my own, whose talents, perhaps I might say whose genius, was only shrouded by his modesty. I know that the Dean felt how gratifying it was to find among his congregation men of such accomplishment, such scholarship, as George Moir and George Dundas, and it is something to show that they responded very heartily to that feeling.
GEORGE MOIR to DEAN RAMSAY.
Monday morning, 14 Charlotte Square.
My dear Dean--My condition renders it frequently impossible to attend church, from the difficulty I have in remaining for any length of time. But I have been able to be present the last two Sundays, and I cannot refrain from saying with how much pleasure I listened yesterday to your discourse on charity. It was not unworthy of the beautiful passage which formed its ground-work; clear, consecutive, eloquent, and with a moral application of which I wish we may all avail ourselves.
Long may you continue to advise and instruct those who are to come after me.
I was delighted to see you looking so well, and to notice the look of vigour with which the discourse was delivered. Believe me ever most truly yours,
GEO. MOIR.
In 1866 the Dean had delivered two lectures upon "Preachers and Preaching," but which were afterwards published in a volume called Pulpit Table-Talk. That is the subject of the following letter from a great master of the art:--
Dr. GUTHRIE to DEAN RAMSAY.
Inchgrundle, Tarfside, by Brechin,
31st August 1868.
My dear Mr. Dean--Your Pulpit Table-Talk has been sent here to gratify, delight, and edify me. A most entertaining book; and full of wise and admirable sentiments. All ministers and preachers should read and digest it. Age seems to have no more dulling effect on you than it had on Sir David Brewster, who retained, after he had turned the threescore and ten, all the greenery, foliage, and flowers of youth--presenting at once the freshness of Spring, and the flowers of Summer, and the precious fruits of Autumn.
May your bow long abide in strength! and the evening of your days be calm and peaceful, bright with the sure and certain hope of that better world, where, I hope, we shall meet to be for ever with the Lord! With the greatest respect and affectionate regards, yours ever,
THOMAS GUTHRIE.
I cannot fix the date of the following anecdote, nor does the date much matter:--Some years ago a child, the son of the U.P. minister of Dunblane, was so dangerously ill, that a neighbouring lady, the wife of the Episcopal clergyman, who was much interested in the little boy, asked her husband if it might be permitted to beg the prayers of the congregation for his recovery. The clergyman readily assented; and when the facts came to the knowledge of Dean Ramsay, and that it was a suggestion of a dear friend of his, he sent the lady a copy of his Reminiscences, with a letter to her husband, in which he says--"I was greatly charmed with your account of prayers offered up for poor little Blair. Tell your Mary I love her more than ever. It has quite affected me, her proposing it." The husband is the Rev. Mr. Malcolm; the lady his wife, daughter of the Dean's dear friend, Bishop Terrot.
But the end was approaching. In December 1872 it was noticed with sorrow that for the first time since the commencement of the Church Society (1838), of which Ramsay was really the founder, the Dean was absent from the annual meeting of the general committee. Soon it became known that his illness was more than a mere passing attack. During its continuance the deepest interest was manifested in every quarter. Each day, and "almost from hour to hour, the latest tidings were eagerly sought for. In many churches and in many families besides those of our communion, prayers were offered for his recovery. And when at last it became known that he had indeed passed away from this life, it was felt that we had lost not only a venerable Father of the Church, but one whose name, familiar as a household word, was always associated with kindly loving thoughts and deeds--one who was deservedly welcome wherever he went, and whose influence was always towards peace and goodwill." The Rev. Mr. Montgomery, our present Dean of Edinburgh, whose words I quote, truly says that "he was a Churchman by conviction, but was ever ready to meet, and, where occasion offered, to act with others upon the basis of a common humanity and common Christianity."
FOOTNOTES:
[9] The margin seems to show that this page of the journal was not written till 1843.
[10] The Bishop said that the two impediments to profitable or amusing conversation were humdrum and humbug.
On another occasion, the Bishop having expressed his doubt of the truth of spirit-rapping, table-turning, etc., and being pressed with the appeal, "Surely you must admit these are indications of Satanic agency," quietly answered, "It may be so, but it must be a mark of Satan being in a state of dotage!"
[11] Alluditur ad titulum libri Reminiscences, etc.
[12] Here is the passage referred to by Mr. Dickens:--"There are persons who do not sympathise with my great desire to preserve and to disseminate these specimens of Scottish humour; indeed, I have reasons to suspect that some have been disposed to consider the time and attention which I have given to the subject as ill-bestowed, or at any rate, as somewhat unsuitable to one of my advanced age and sacred profession. If any persons do really think so, all I can say is, I do not agree with them. National peculiarities must ever form an interesting and improving study, inasmuch as it is a study of human nature; and the anecdotes of this volume all tend to illustrate features of the Scottish mind, which, as moral and religious traits of character, are deeply interesting. I am convinced that every one, whether clergyman or layman, who contributes to the innocent enjoyment of human life, has joined in a good work, inasmuch as he has diminished the inducement to vicious indulgence. God knows there is enough of sin and of sorrow in the world to make sad the heart of every Christian man. No one, I think, need be ashamed of his endeavours to cheer the darker hours of his fellow-travellers' steps through life, or to beguile the hearts of the weary and the heavy laden, if only for a time, into cheerful and amusing trains of thought. So far as my experience of life goes, I have never found that the cause of morality and religion was promoted by sternly checking the tendencies of our nature to relaxation and amusement. If mankind be too ready to enter upon pleasures which are dangerous or questionable, it is the part of wisdom and of prudence to supply them with sources of interest, the enjoyment of which are innocent and permissible."