‘John Belfield, a Devonshire man … god-fathered me. Belfield’s special chum [1831] was William Froude, the engineer, brother of Anthony, and of Richard Hurrell Froude at that time Fellow of the College. The opening thus made for me through William Froude to Richard Hurrell’s acquaintance might have been of inestimable use to me, had I been capable of profiting by it. But I was too childish and ignorant even to apprehend what it was that was thus placed within my reach. I spent one evening in Richard Hurrell’s rooms, without
appreciating him myself, or appearing to him to be worth taking up.’
From ‘The Life of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford and Winchester.’ By his Son Reginald Wilberforce. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1888.
[From his Diary, March 17, 1838.]
‘Evening.—Read a little of Froude’s “Journals.” They are most instructive to me; will exceedingly discredit Church principles, and show an amazing want of Christianity, so far. They are Henry Martyn un-Christianised.’
From ‘Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman,’ edited by Anne Mozley. London: Longmans, 1890.
‘Hurrell Froude passed away so early in the work of the Movement, and could work so little for it, that his actual share in it needs to be sought out through contemporary records. Little as his pen did, short as his life was, those who can recall the time feel the influence of his mere presence to have been essential to the original impulse which set all going. They cannot imagine the start without his forwarding, impelling look and voice. His presence impressed persons as a spiritual, though living, influence. He stands distinct, apart, in the memory of those who can recall it, the more that years[393] do not dim the brightness and fire which became him so well in his office as inspirer.’
From ‘Catholicism, Roman and Anglican,’ by A. M. Fairbairn, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1899.
‘The Romanticist tendency … was the positive factor in Anglo-Catholicism…. This gave the creative impulse; it
was the spirit that quickened. The men in whom it took shape and found speech were three: Keble, Newman, Pusey. Perhaps we ought to name a fourth, Hurrell Froude: but he lives in Newman. He was the swiftest, most daring spirit of them all; his thought is hot, as it were, with the fever that shortened his days; his words are suffused as with a hectic flush; and we must judge him rather as one who moved men to achieve than by his own actual achievements.’