Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/55



College. Green was elected (1854), but was too young to come into residence at once. At that time Jesus was almost entirely a Welsh college, and its undergraduates were scarcely known outside its walls. Green had gained a scholarship, and his tutor was content his guardian was dead, and he had no home, and not a single adviser. He went to college friendless, and he continued as an undergraduate to live a solitary life. He was not understood by the authorities of his college, who could not sympathise with his preference for Matthew Paris over the classics. The study of modern history had not at that time taken root in Oxford, and Green did not make much use of such teaching as there was. He lived much by himself, wandering about among the antiquities of Oxford and its neighbourhood, recalling for himself the memories of the past, and exercising his imagination in combining them. He ended his academic career in 1859 without distinction, and without any training save such as had come to him from the place itself. Already as an undergraduate he had found out his subject, and had devised a method. A series of papers which he contributed to the 'Oxford Chronicle' on 'Oxford in the Eighteenth Century' showed the same power of historical imagination which marked his later work. After taking his degree Green left Oxford for a clerical life. He was ordained deacon in 1860, and went as a curate to St. Barnabas, King Square, Goswell Road, London. In 1863 he was put in sole charge of the parish of Holy Trinity, Hoxton, and in 1866 was appointed by Bishop Tait incumbent of St. Philip's, Stepney. As a clergyman Green worked hard and successfully. His quickness, readiness, good sense, kindliness, and humour made him personally popular. He preached extempore, but took the utmost pains with the composition of his sermons, which were clear, forcible, and thoughtful, yet adapted to those whom he addressed. His opinions in politics and theology had gradually become those of a pronounced liberal, and he could speak to his people with sympathy and fervour. He threw himself ardently into all plans which could promote their social well-being, and he was unsparing of himself. A paper on Edward Denison the younger [q. v.] in his 'Stray Studies' gives some insight into his clerical life.

While he worked hard as a clergyman, he also continued to find some time for study. Such money as he could possibly spare he spent on books, and such time as he could save he spent in the British Museum. Whenever he needed a holiday he devoted it to archæological excursions to various parts of England. He began to be known to some historical students, Mr. E. A. Freeman, Mr. James Bryce, and Mr. Stubbs, now (1890) bishop of Oxford. In 1862 he began to contribute articles, light sketches of social subjects, admirable studies of historic towns which he had visited, historical reviews, short critical essays on historical questions, to the 'Saturday Review.' But his head was full of plans for a book, and the subject which chiefly attracted him was the period of the Angevin kings. He read the chronicles, and read largely historical literature of every kind, working out for himself points that interested him. To him English towns had an individual life which he delighted to trace in its details, and his quick eye for local features enabled him to read history in every landscape. His intellectual activity was enormous, and his knowledge always had an immediate application to actual life and its political and social problems. The strain of these manifold occupations told upon Green's health, which had never been robust. His lungs were affected, and he had to abandon clerical work in 1869, and confine himself to the congenial duty of librarian at Lambeth. Moreover, his views on theological questions had become more decidedly liberal, and he no longer felt that he had a calling for clerical life. From this time forward he had to be very careful of his health, and his winters were generally spent in the Riviera. The consciousness of uncertain health prompted him to gather his knowledge together into a clear and popular form. He projected his 'Short History of the English People,' and worked at it with patient energy. It was twice rewritten, and was only published at last owing to the urgent advice of his friends. This book, which appeared at the end of 1874, fused together the materials for English history, and presented them with a fulness and a unity which had never been attempted before. Its object was to lay hold of the great features of social development, and show the progress of popular life. What Macaulay had done for a period of English history, Green did for it as a whole. From a mass of scattered details he constructed a series of pictures which were full of life. Subjects which before had been treated independently—constitutional history, social history, literary history, economic history, and the like—were all brought together by his method, and were made to contribute their share in filling up the record of the progress of the nation; and he was the first to show how important an element in history the study of the 'geography' of towns might be made. The writer's profound admiration for the conception of liberty which Englishmen had worked out