James Fraser Second Bishop of Manchester a memoir By THOMAS HUGHES PART I. He who would understand England must understand her Church, for that is half of the whole matter.- Carlyle'S Journal, Froude's Life vol. ii. p. 73. LIFE OF BISHOP FRASER. PART I. CHAPTER I. There are who ask not if thine eye Be on them ! who in love and truth, Where no misgiving is, rely Upon the genial sense of youth : Glad hearts, without reproach or blot, Who do thy work and know it not. Wordsworth, Ode to Duty, EARLY YEARS. BRIDGENORTH AND SHREWSBURY SCHOOLS, LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD. 1818- 184O. James FrasER was born on the i8th of August 18 18, at 18 18 Oaklands House in the parish of Prestbury, a Gloucestershire to village nestling under the Cotsvvolds. His father, a cadet of 2 the Frasers of Durris, in Forfarshire, had gone to India when very young and been successful as a merchant. He was thus able to return home, and settle, at a comparatively early age. He married a daughter of Mr. John Willim, a leading Solicitor at Bilston, Staffordshire, and James was the eldest of their seven children, the others being five boys and one girl. For several years after his early childhood he spent most of his time at his grandfather's at Bilston, where he soon began to show the ability which marked him all his life. His early B LIFE OF BrSHOP ERASER, p.rt i. 1818 lessons gave him no trouble. - James seems always to be * whistling about the house, his aunt said to a friend ; and when I ask him if it is not time to begin his lessons, his answer is always the same, * Oh, I finished them long ago.' - In 1824, when he was six years old, his parents moved to S, Baring Crescent, Heavitree, near Exeter ; for the educa- tional and economical advantages of that neighbourhood, and to be near old Indian friends of his father settled in that western city. Here James was sent to his first school, at Mount Radford (another neighbouring suburb of Exeter). There I remained till I was fourteen. The Rev. C. R. Roper was my master, and an excellent one he was. So the Bishop of Manchester wrote forty years later, with his usual kindliness, of one who may have been a good teacher but was scarcely fit for his post in other respects. One day, for instance, the boy had his head buried in his desk during school hours, after the manner of boys, with the heavy lid hanging over him. The head master, passing along, tilted it, and let it fall on the boy's head, happily with no worse result than a bad headache. While at Mount Radford, Mr. Willim, his grandfather, writes of him to his mother (1825) : Your pleasing accounts of all the dear children, and particularly the progress dear James is making in his learning, are most gratifying to us. That boy is a blessing to us all, and some day will be our pride and boast ; at least I fully anticipate this. His father died in 1832, when he was fourteen. Like other successful Indians, used to a busy life, and finding unemployed leisure unendurable, James Eraser the elder embarked the greater part of his property in iron mines, and other proper- ties, which his experience did not enable him to manage suc- cessfully. The consequence was, that his widow found herself comparatively poor, with six sons to bring up. She lived on at Heavitree, but both she herself and the boys now spent much time with her own family at Bewdley in Stafibrdshire, where ciTAP. I. BRIDGENORTH SCHOOL. her brother, John Willim, was now estabh'shed as a Solicitor. 1832 Under his advice James was sent to Bridgenorth School, of which Dr. Rowley was then head master. The two years he spent there were quiet and profitable, owing mainly to the ability of the doctor, but in part to the stimulating society of several school-fellows equally able with himself These were, the present Lord Lingen, Osborne Gordon, and Pulling, all afterwards with himself highly distinguished at Oxford, where Lord Lingen became Ireland scholar and a Fellow of Trinity, Osborne Gordon censor and tutor of Christ Church, and Pulling, Fellow of Brasenose. At Bridgenorth he got the nickname of * peach* from his blooming complexion. He left with his school-fellows the impression of a good and good- humoured boy, whose career was likely to be distinguished. The esteem in which Dr. Rowley held him appears by the following extract from the doctor's letter to his mother, dated May 1 2th, 1834, on his removal to Shrewsbury : I am happy to say that your son is giving me very great satisfaction. I deeply regret his removal. Perhaps the master of a classical school IS exposed to no severer mortification than that of seeing one of his most promising pupils removed to another school when he expects to reap the just reward of his past exertions and solicitude. But I have no reason to complain, and I confess the reason you give for placing your son under Dr. Butler is, without reference to the high merits of that excellent master, a most satisfactory one. I hope James will always continue to regard me as his sincere friend, and will visit me whenever he feels disposed to do so. Allow me in conclusion to say that if you find any difficulty in completing his education I should be most happy at any time to resume the task, without any other remuneration than the pleasure I should derive from instructing a youth for whom 1 have a high regard. Forty-four years later, in the Autumn of i Zj% Fraser preached the sermon at St. Leonard's Church, on the occasion of connecting the doctor's name with a painted window put 6 LIFE OF BISHOP FRASER, part i. 1830 up in the Church by his old scholars. Dr. Rowley, writes Lord Lingen, eighty years old, but still vigorous, was present, and so were many of his scholars, including several, like the Bishop and myself, whose standing fell in the last lustrum of a half century. The Bishop referred to his own widowed mother, and to Dr. Rowley's consideration for her at the time when he first came to the school, and generally recalled in his best manner the old gentleman's many claims on the affection and gratitude of his scholars. Then, recovering himself from mere eulogium, *but Dr. Rowley,' he added, *was a passionate man,' and made us all smile at this completion of the portrait in the presence of the subject of it, and of so many who could appreciate how true it was in no bad sense. The turn of mind which dictated this passage, a mixture of simplicity and absolute sincerity, and of a disposition to see the funny at the same time as the serious side of things, characterizes his episcopal charges, each of which he sent me as they were published, and I have always thought them the most exact reflex I ever met with of a writer in his writings. Readers will excuse this anticipatory digression for the valuable light which they will find it throws on the character of our subject. His own early letters, many of which have been preserved, are those of a bright, docile, vigorous boy, but not otherwise remarkable. One specimen will be enough, to his mother, temporarily absent from their Heavitree home, having left Aunt Lucy, her sister, in charge. September ()th, 1830 - What do you think I want the kennel for } why, it is for a dog - I think you were not a good guesser to think a rabbit, for rabbits are always kept in hutches, not in kennels - Mr. Adams presented it to me on my birthday. We have named it Rover, and it is just three months old to-morrow. Aunt Lucy, John, Edward and I went out to pick mushrooms yesterday afternoon, it being a CHAP. I. LIFE A T HE A VITREE. 7 half-holiday, and took the dog out with us. We picked none 1830 however, but had a most delightful walk as far as Salmon Pool. We set out- at half-past three, and came home at six. Aunt Lucy has made some raised veal pies which are very nice. I am staying at home to-day having a bad cold, and have taken some calomel. Our school is going on very well - we have ninety-three boys, of whom forty are boarders. As we were at the Salmon Pool we met the Bishop (Philpotts) walking alone, and Edward, when we first saw him at a distance, said, * Look at that funny old man with an apron on,' and, upon his coming nearer, ran up and came staring in his face. Aunt Lucy had met him at Colonel Macdonald*s. Now I have finished my letter and am going to play with my little dog, as John and Edward are gone to school. Mr. Tucker thinks it is a mongrel, but I say he is very much mistaken. The letters of this period, of which this is a fair specimen, leave the impression that the writer was young of his age. Undoubtedly this was so in some respects, and remained so all his life ; but, on the other hand, in many ways his character was already mature while he was still a young boy. The desire to spare and help his mother in every way, above all in the care and training of his younger brothers, was the cause of this, and developed his remarkable instinct for management and business.