Samuel Wilberforce (1845-1870), translated to Winchester. This famous bishop was the third son of William Wilberforce, the great slave emancipator. At the early age of forty he was made bishop of Oxford, and he administered the diocese with wonderful ability for a quarter of a century, guiding it through the most difficult period, when the Tractarian storm was at its height, without offending either party. His extraordinary tact and charm enabled him to perform a valuable work for the Church by binding the various sections together at a time when party-feeling ran high. He was the most accomplished preacher in the English Church, one of the fore-most parliamentary orators of his day; "the most witty and genial of companions, he was the favourite of social life, and was equally irresistible in the drawing room or on the platform." As a theologian he was the inferior of his brother the Archdeacon; he wrote, however, several books, of which the best remembered are "Agathos" and "Rocky Island." He was killed by a fall from his horse when riding with Lord Granville in 1873.
John Fielder Mackarness (1870-1888) was recommended to the bishopric by Mr. Gladstone, having lost his seat in convocation through refusing to oppose the disestablishment of the Irish Church. He was a hard-working prelate of great courage and independence. When an attempt was made to force him to take proceedings against the rector of Clewer, he argued the case in person before the judges of the Queen's Bench, and at last won his case on appeal. On surrendering to the ecclesiastical commissioners the management of the Oxford bishopric estates, Dr. Mackarness paid them the sum of £1729, which he estimated that he had received in excess of his statutory income during the previous nine years. He had been made a fellow of Exeter College on taking his degree; he wrote several pamphlets, among them "A Plea for Toleration, in Answer to the 'No Popery' Cry, 1850." He resigned, owing to failing health, in 1888, and died in the next year.
William Stubbs, the present bishop, was translated from Chester in 1888, being already an Honorary Student of Christ Church. He is one of the leading historians of our time, and his Constitutional History has long been the standard work upon the subject.
Printed by Neill and Co., Ltd., Edinburgh.
FOOTNOTES
[!--Note--] 1 ([return])
S. Skeletons; B. Bones; P. Drain-pipe.
[!--Note--] 2 ([return])
Mr. Park Harrison has collected some very interesting drawings from various Anglo-Saxon MSS., which afford striking parallels to the ornament on these and other capitals in the church. A reproduction of the drawing here referred to, and of others equally important, will be found in his "Pre-Norman Date."