Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/113

 9B.x.Atro.9,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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McNeile was " tall, dignified, elegant in form, with a full head of hair, nearly white."

Samuel Wilberforce had just been made Archdeacon of Surrey. " He [was] very small in stature, and with an extremely youthful countenance ; and, dressed in the peculiar costume of an archdeacon, he engaged " Dr. Tyng's careful attention. He says :

"He is a man of increasing influence and very rising popularity, much sought for as a preacher ; and though he has been supposed to favour the new vanities of Oxford, as his brother Robert certainly does, he is understood of late to have very publicly and repeatedly declared his opposition to them."

Mr. Noel felt "the vast dangers" of the Oxford movement, and so did many. In fact, says Dr. Tyng, " the noxious influence of the Tractarian party seems now o well under- stood, and so generally acknowledged, that I hope we may be relieved from the necessity of speaking or writing much more about it." Hugh Stowell, addressing a meeting presided over by Lord Kenyon, made a punning allu- sion as follows : " I believe that the con- spiracy at Oxford has not its origin there ; I have no doubt that there is some wise man in the background, wise as a serpent, though not harmless as a dove."

Dr. Tyng was in London in May, 1842, and attended the May meetings, among them that of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He says of the Wesleyan ministers : " Truly I never saw a more robust and able-bodied company in my life." From all that he heard and saw he became convinced that there was " a real and perhaps a very rapid approach among the Wesleyans to entire reunion with the Church."

Family prayer was much cultivated. Dr. Tyng visited at Oxford "the good old Dr. Hill," vice-principal of St. Edmund's Hall :

" When the evening's conversation closed, which had been much enlivened by the vocal and instru- mental music of the ladies of the family, the Bibles and hymn-books were brought forward, and I was invited to lead them in their worship with prayer and exposition of the word. This is the uniform distinctive habit of pious families whom I met in England."

These extracts are taken from Dr. Tyng's letters to his Philadelphia parishioners, re- printed by Bagsters in 1847. Among other distinguished persons he met Lords Ashley, Bexley, Glenelg, Harrowby, and Teign mouth, Sir T. D. Acland, the Chevalier Bunsen, and about a score of bishops. I conclude with his remarks on the custom of drinking port and sherry. At the great religious anniversaries " it is the general custom to have decanters of wine in the Committee- rooms and on the jtable of the Secretary on the platform. I can hardly say what Societies were exceptions to this rule, or whether

any were. But the American clergyman must get habituated to this, for even in many of the vestry- rooms of the churches and chapels the sexton will offer him a glass of wine as a needful refreshment after preaching."

This practice, indeed, prevailed much later than 1842. EICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

PREMIERSHIPS OF THE VICTORIAN ERA. See 'Long Administrations' (9 th S. vi. 245, 310) for a controversy : " Lord Salisbury has now been Prime Minister longer than any other statesman since the passing of the Reform Bill." The following appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph dated Monday, 14 July, and may be given :

RECORD AS PREMIER.

It is worthy of note that Lord Salisbury has been at the head of the State longer than any other man

of our time and, confining ourselves to what we

usually speak of as " modern times," we find that Lord Salisbury easily- holds the record If the

Eremierships of the Victorian era in days be tabu- ited, and the length of Lord Salisbury's service be brought up to Friday last, the list stands thus :

Days.

Lord Salisbury 5,009

Lord Melbourne ...2,492

Sir Robert Peel 1,876

Lord John Russell.. 2,303 Lord Derby 1,32

Days.

Lord Aberdeen 774

Lord Palmerston ...3,434 Lord Beaconsfield... 2,528

Mr. Gladstone 4,498

Lord Rosebery 486

H. J. B.

"REAPERED." The use of machinery in agriculture is affecting the language of the country by the introduction of new and strange verbs. A man told me the other day that he should not mow his grass, but " reaper " it ; and Mr. Howells, in his recently published novel 'The Kentons,' speaks of a garden as having been well " lawn-mowered and garden-hosed." Mr. Howells ought to know better; but, for some perverse reason, he loves to set his readers' teeth on edge by an occasional ugly phrase of this sort.

AN OLD GLASGOW HOUSE. Near Glasgow Cathedral there is an ancient dwelling, variously known as " Black Land," " Provan's Lordship," and the "Stable-Green Port." This building has for long exercised archaeo- logists, who are not unanimous regarding the date of its erection, while agreed as to its very considerable age. An attractive theory, urged by a writer in the Glasgow Evening News of 25 July, assigns it to the fifteenth century, and makes it the residence of James IV. in his character of cathedral pre- bendary and of Mary, Queen of Scots, just before she removed Darnley to the Kirk o' Field. The latter contention is supported by