John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne

may be raging in the atmosphere; and such might be a description of his own course as regarded his f

curate of Hursley came to Farnham to be admitted to the priesthood, he was required, contrary to the usual custom with candidates, to state categorically his views upon the Holy Eucharist. He used the expressions of the Catechism, also those of Bishop Ridley, but was desired to use his own individual words; and when these were sent in, he was rejected, though they did not outrun the doctrine that had always be

ore of poems upon them and other little ones, especially the children of Dr. George Moberly, then headmaster of Winchester College (later bishop of Salisbury). These Mr. Keble thought of putting together for publication,

his incumbency had begun before he wrote: "We are stirring about our Church, and next spring I hope really to go to work; you must come and see the plans first, or else hereafter for ever hold your peace in respect of allegi

rrangement and publication of the Lyra Innocentium, to a certain degree on the lines of the Christian Year, so as to

r and into greater beauty, some deeper and showing that the soul had made further progress in these twenty year

ley atmosphere, on events connected w

unday in Lent" recalls, in the line on "the mimic rain on poplar leaves," the sounds made by a trembling aspen, whose leaves quivered all through the summer evenings, growing close to the hous

ainful impression connected with them. "Keep thou, dear boy, thine early vow," was fulfilled in him, as it was with George Herbert Moberly, the eldest son of Dr. Moberly, who, when a young child staying at the vicarage, was unconsciously the cause of the poems "Loneliness" and "Repeating the Creed," for Easter Sunday and Low Sunday. Frightened by unwonted solitude at bedtime, he asked to hear "something

ut a flower to Mr. Keble, which, for once in his life, he did not notice; and his self-reproach produced the thoughts of thankfulness. One of the gems of the Lyra, "Bereavement," was the thought that

from thy pl

hy homew

ts, by the

t so sh

ed cross upon the spire, and the girl sin

put my ste

Lord, for T

inspiring noble and gentle

rney with Sir William and Lady Heathcote. She afterwards became Mrs. Robert F. Wilson, and made her first wedded home at Ampfield; and there is ano

ng waters h

your thou

sacred sig

iving wa

ly advance by

stands guardi

ister being born, he hoped that her name would be Mary "because he liked the Virgin Mary." And when, only a few days later, his own mother was taken from him, he lay awake and silent, night after night. He, too, was one who fulfilled his early promise, till, as a young phys

ing the reserve; but most of them are beyond the reach of that danger in publicity; and I can only further mention that the village children e

his friend and fellow-worker. It came at a time when perhaps he was most fitted to bear it, when his brother i

Church of his fathers; and the thankfulness and exhilaration caused by the improvement in her health carried him the better over the first blow, though he w

other friends, the Christian Year had become much more profitable, and the Lyra also brough

esiology, so that architects who had made it their study were to be found. The design was committed to William Harrison, Esq., a relation of Archdeacon Harrison, a very old friend and contem

wood-work, and other fittings of the interior. For this ￡1200 was set aside, bu

the Rev. William Butler and Emma his wife, and the clergy and sisters of Wantage. Mr. Butler was then vicar of Wantage, later canon of Worcester and

cription on the base of the

i? Par

orum

o Hurs

Lavacrum Re

rem D.

is a

D.

iacones, Lect

SS. Petri

na fa

Wan

cut out on the under side of th

have in encaustic tiles t

hat they may have a right to the Tree of Lif

on which the

er and thirst after righteousn

he n

shall be comforted. Blessed are the

the h

n His beauty, they shall behold

the Rev. Charles Dyson, Rector of Dogmersfield, copied

St. Augustine as champions of the faith. On the corbels of the north porch, looking towards the hills of Winchester, are Bishops Andrewes and Ken on the outside; on the inside, Wyke

rote the architect; "perhaps it would suggest the idea of a

and the arrangement is such that it is nearly imp

the height to the ceiling, and in due time, in 1850, there ar

d in the really unique Church of Fairford, where he had grown up. The glass of these windows had been taken in a Flemish ship on the way to Spain by one John Tame, a Glouceste

ir William and Lady Heathcote, one by the Marchioness of Bath, and one by the Marchioness of Lothian. The designs were more or less suggested by Dyce and Copley Fielding, but the execution was carried out by Wailes, under the supervision of Butterfield. The whole work was an immense delight to Mr. Keble, and so anxious was he that the whole should be in keeping, that the east window was act

Instruction in Sacred History from Adam to the l

The windows along the north aisle each re

mple, Moses with the Tables of the Law, Solomon with the Model of the Temple.

s to represent the fixing and

iah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel,

connecting the Law with the Church, with

Virgin and St. John on each side, The Ag

John the Baptist as the nearest Martyrs to our Lord, bo

ion, with soldiers at the Sepulchre.

; under, St. Luke, the Disciples at Emmaus; und

uncil in Acts x. 6. At his side two successors of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, Phil. iv.

in the west window of the north aisle; and as a repentance window, St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalene in t

t the lines in the

re there the

ers glad

floor thei

from every

ice in e

he church was dark, and Mr. Keble wished to have the children mentio

plan fell through, and the only others actually given were the repentance window, representing St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalene, by Mr. Harr

k, was added to the ancient t

ath between the Park and the vicarage field. When all sat on forms without the shade of pews, example taught a lesson of reverent attitude to the congregation, who felt obliged to lay aside any bad habits which might have grown up out of sight, so as to be unconsciously prepared for the new church, where the very width of the open benches and the shape of their

cended to the elevation that he might set his hand to the work, and there said a thanksgiving for the completio

o unwell to be present. There was a great gathering-the two Judges, Coleridge and Patteson, and many other warm and affectionate friends;

which he spoke of the end of all things; and said the best fate that coul

de him dread exceedingly, and hold himself ready to act like the Non-jurors, or the Free Kirk men in Scotland, who had resig

rned, and much was effected of which he had only dreamt as some day possible. It

ingers on the

nt his faithf

nger's eye an

od of his old

und him memorie

ad seem'd for e

e'en as by som

es the passing

so sharp as now t

is parish turned to fill th