Barchester Towers

by Anthony Trollope

  11 (p. 9). to sit in full ¡awn sleeves among the peers of the realm: A fixed number of Anglican bishops (see Chapter 3, note 7) are entitled to sit in the House of Lords. The sleeves of their robes are made of lawn, or fine linen.

  CHAPTER 2

  1 (p. 9). biography of Mr Harding: The subject of the previous, and first, Barsetshire novel. The Warden (1855), the plot of which Trollope here briefly recapitulates.

  2 (p. 9). precentor of the cathedral: Clergyman in charge of the singing of the choir.

  3 (p. 11). ‘Veritas’: ‘Truth’.

  4 (p. 11). Cassandra was not believed: One of the daughters of King Priam of Troy. Apollo gave her the power of prophecy, but when she refused to return his love he doomed her to be always disbelieved. In The Aeneid she tries in vain to warn the Trojans against the Wooden Horse.

  5 (p. 11). first threatenings of a huge war…the nation: The Crimean War, which broke out in March 1854.

  CHAPTER 3

  1 (p. 16). rarae aves: Rare birds.

  2 (p. 16). Dr Whately…Dr Hampden: Controversial figure on the liberal wing of the Church of England. Richard Whately (1787–1863) was a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford from 1811 to 1822, where he was one of an influential group of liberal Anglicans which included Thomas Arnold and Edward Copleston. A supporter of Catholic Emancipation and political reform, Whately became Archbishop of Dublin in 1831, and earned the dislike of Evangelicals and High Churchmen alike by his sympathy for reform of the Church of Ireland and conciliatory attritude to the Irish Catholics, shown in his support in 1845 for the Maynooth Grant (see below, note 6). Renn Dickson Hampden (1793–1868), also a Fellow of Oriel, was created Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford in 1836 by the then Whig Prime Minister. Lord Melbourne, with Whately’s support. His appointment was violently opposed by High Churchmen and Tractarians, led by Newman and Pusey, who considered the theological position set out in his 1832 Bampton Lectures to be heretical, and a declaration to this effect was made by the Oxford Convocation on 5 May 1836. There was another row when he was made Bishop of Hereford by Lord John Russell in 1847.

  3 (p. 17). Socinianism: The allegedly heretical doctrines of the Italian theologians Laelius Socinus (1525–62) and his nephew Faustus (1539–1604), who rejected the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. Their writings were influential in the rise of Unitarianism.

  4 (p. 17). national board: In 1831 the Whig government, acting on the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Irish Education (1824–7), announced plans to set up a Board of National Education in Ireland which would provide a predominantly secular system of education for children of every denomination, religious education to be handled separately by the different churches. In November a commission, composed of Catholics and Protestants and including Archbishop Whately (see note 2 above), was appointed to administer the new system, and it is presumably on this commission that Dr Proudie has sat.

  5 (p. 17). regium donum: Royal gift. Originally a royal grant to needy nonconformist ministers and their widows, and subsequently dispensed by the government from the consolidated fund, it was resented by better-off nonconformists as an anomaly which laid them open to taunts from Churchmen of receiving state funds. Pressure to abolish regium donum rose after the increase of the Maynooth Grant in 1845 (see note 6 below), which many nonconformists deplored, and after 1851 it was stopped.

  6 (p. 17). Maynooth grant: Maynooth College in Ireland was founded in 1795 to train students for the Roman Catholic priesthood, since at that time they were prevented from studying on the Continent by the Napoleonic Wars. Sir Robert Peel’s 1845 Act to increase the annual Maynooth grant from £9,000 to £27,000, and to make a capital grant of £30,000 – an essentially political move to placate the powerful Irish clergy – angered both nonconformists and many of his High Church supporters in the Tory party.

  7 (p. 17). would take his place in the House of Lords: Since 1847, when the see of Manchester was founded, there were more diocesan bishops than seats (26) allotted to them in the House of Lords. The number of seats was not increased with the creation of new sees, so Or Proudie has to wait his turn. The bench of bishops was composed of the two archbishops, the bishops of London, Winchester and Durham, and twenty-one others, in order of seniority irrespective of their sees.

  8 (p. 18). brethren of Exeter and Oxford: The two most redoubtable contemporary champions of the conservative cause within the Church of England. Henry Philipotts (1778–1869) became in 1830 Bishop of Exeter, where his High Church views and resistance to political and ecclesiastical reform made him a controversial figure. His vigorous opposition to the 1832 Reform Bill led to a mob attack on his episcopal palace, and his refusal to institute the Rev. G. C. Gorham to the living of Brampford Speke, on account of the latter’s Low-Church views on baptism, is a cause célÈbre of Victorian church history. Samuel Wilberforce (1805–73), third son of William Wilberforce, was Bishop of Oxford from 1845 to 1869. A powerful speaker on issues of church and state, and a skilled diocesan administrator, ‘Soapy Sam’ (so called for his reputed evasiveness on tricky issues) combined High Church views with a practical and spiritual vigour in the conduct of his office which made him a much more effective and widely respected leader of his party than Phillpotts.

  9 (p. 18). the glories of Lambeth, or…Bishopsthorpe: Lambeth is the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishopthorpe (not Bishopsthorpe) of the Archbishop of York.

  10 (p. 18). hospitality…recommended to all bishops by St Paul: See 1 Timothy iii, 2: ‘A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality…’

  11 (p. 20). Neapolitans against their rulers: In 1848 there was a rebellion against King Ferdinand II of Naples.

  12 (p. 20). the seclusion of a Protestant nunnery: A reference to the Tractarian-inspired movement to establish Anglican sisterhoods, a highly controversial issue in the decade before Barchester Towers was published. See Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, Part I (1966), pp. 505–11.

  13 (p. 21). Argus: Hundred-eyed giant in Greek mythology.

  CHAPTER 4

  1 (p. 22). conflict in which his ancestor so distinguished himself: Trollope facetiously suggests that Obadiah Slope derives his name from Dr Slop, the man-midwife who delivers Tristram in Lawrence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759–67), and from Obadiah, the family servant, who is roundly abused by Dr Slop for tying knots in the strings of his instrument bag. In Hebrew Obadiah means ‘servant of the Lord’. Or Slop is a Roman Catholic, hence the mention of the Slope family changing its religion in the next sentence.

  2 (p. 22). sizar at Cambridge: A poor undergraduate in receipt of an allowance from his college, in return for which he had at one time (but not by Mr Slope’s day) to undertake certain duties subsequently performed by the college servants. Cambridge was the university of the Evangelical party, as Oxford of the High Church.

  3 (p. 24). Wesleyan-Methodists: Wesleyan-Methodism was the main tradition of Methodism stemming from John Wesley (1703–91). In the nineteenth century the Wesleyan-Methodists formed a separate com munion, distinct from both Church and Dissent, although many were in sympathy with the Evangelical wing of the Anglican Church, and welcomed its ascendancy in the 1850s.

  4 (p. 24). iniquities of the Puseyites: After E. B. Pusey (1800–82), who, by virtue of his position as Regius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church at Oxford, was seen by the outside world as the leader of the Oxford Movement, although John Henry Newman was its moving spirit. Known as Puseyites by the hostile, otherwise as Tractarians, they espoused the Anglo-Catholic doctrines set out by Newman, Pusey and others in the series of Tracts for the Times (1833–41 ), such as the Apostolic Succession, the need to restore church discipline and revive the ritual allowed for by the Anglican prayer-book, and renewed study of the Church Fathers. Although they claimed to be recalling Anglicans to the foundations of their faith, some of their beliefs and practices – in particular the revival of p
rivate confession and genuflexion, ornamentation of the altar, interest in celibacy, fasting and other forms of personal mortification – smacked of Roman Catholicism to many contemporaries.

  5 (p. 25). that one law given for Jewish observance: ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy’ (Exodus xx, 8).

  6 (p. 26). Queen’s supremacy in things spiritual: Deriving from the 1534 Act of Supremacy, by which Henry VIII and his successors became spiritual heads of the Church of England.

  7 (p. 27). Ernulfus: Bishop of Rochester 1114–24, author of a long and terrible curse, which Dr Slop pronounces on Obadiah in Tristram Shandy, III, 11.

  CHAPTER 5

  1 (p. 29). Venus to his juno: A reference to the ‘Judgement of Paris’ in classical mythology, when Paris, living as a shepherd on Mount Ida, was asked by Juno, Minerva and Venus to decide which of them should be awarded the golden apple for the most beautiful of the goddesses. Paris chose Venus, tempted by her offer of Helen of Troy.

  2 (p. 29). hebdomadal council: The 1854 Oxford University Reform Act (see Chapter 11, note 9) attempted to replace the old Hebdomadal Board, a meeting of the Oxford heads of colleges which supervised the running of the university, with an elected Hebdomadal Council on which the professors were more strongly represented. As a measure designed to reduce college and therefore clerical control of the university, this development would be likely to be distrusted by Archdeacon Grantly.

  3 (p.30). moreen: A heavy wool, or wool and cotton material, used in furnishing.

  4 (p. 31). the visible apron: Part of the bishop’s official dress and therefore, by extension, a symbol of his office. Bishop Proudie wears the apron for this morning visit to reinforce the authority of his position.

  5 (p. 31). ‘University Improvement Committee’: This seems to be a reference to the Royal Commission set up by Lord John Russell in 1850 to inquire into the condition of Oxford University, which reported in 1852 (see Chapter 11, note 9); but if so, it is inconsistent both with the broad internal chronology of Barchester Towers as a novel set in the early Palmerston period, and with the conversation between the bishop, the dean and the archdeacon at Mrs Proudie’s reception two months later in Chapter 11 (pp. 89–90), where it is to be assumed that the University Reform Act has already been passed. Such inconsistency may not greatly matter, and Trollope was certainly capable of it, but it is just possible that he may have had in mind the executive commission set up by the 1854 Act to implement its proposals, and which served from 1854 to 1858. This body was criticized at the time for its conservative composition, but it did have some liberal members, lay and clerical, and Or Proudie’s reputation for ecclesiastical flexibility would have made him a natural choice for such a delicate task.

  6 (p. 32). smart fly from the livery stables: A light, fast, one-horse carriage.

  7 (p. 33). Bradshaw. Bradshaw’s Railway Guide, the standard railway timetable of the Victorian period.

  8 (p. 35). ‘Neither thou…nor thy maid servant’: Mrs Proudie is quoting, with considerable impertinence, from the Ten Commandments: see Exodus xx, 10.

  9 (p. 36). the noble wrath of the archdeacon: A reference to the famous opening of Homer’s Iliad: ‘The wrath of Achilles is my theme…’ (Penguin translation).

  CHAPTER 6

  1 (p. 40). They all preached in their black gowns: Among the most controversial of ‘Puseyite practices’ (see Chapter 4, note 4) was the wearing of a white surplice in the pulpit, which was considered by some a Romanizing innovation and led to riots in Exeter in 1845.

  2 (p. 40). the science of intoning was unknown: ‘To recite in a singing voice’ (OED).

  3 (p. 40). the full power of convocation: An assembly of the clergy of each of the provinces of the Church of England, which since 1717 had been prevented from meeting to debate and pronounce on ecclesiastical matters. In the 1850s there was a successful campaign to revive the powers of Convocation, chiefly its right to meet and debate, which was led by the High Church party, who saw in Convocation an opportunity for the Church to speak with its own voice at a time when its independence seemed to be threatened by reforming legislation.

  4 (p. 40). longest frocks, and…highest-breasted silk waistcoasts: The long black frock coat, high silk waistcoat and narrow clerical collar was by this time the recognized dress of a High Churchman, as distinct from the cut-away tailcoat, white shirt and high collar of the Evangelical.

  5 (p. 40). real presence: The belief that the body and blood of Christ are actually rather than symbolically present in the Eucharist.

  6 (p. 41). brougham: A closed carriage driven by a single horse, named after Lord Brougham (1778–1868).

  7 (p. 42). carte du pays: Literally ‘map of the country’, or in modern parlance, ‘the lie of the land’.

  8 (p. 43). the chancellor, the canon responsible for regulating the readers and preachers in the cathedral, as well as fulfilling one or more of the roles of cathedral librarian, chapter secretary and superintendent of church schools.

  9 (p. 43). St Paul to Timothy: 2 Timothy ii, 15.

  10 (p. 44). high and dry church: See Introduction, p. xxiii.

  11 (p. 45). parvenu: Upstart

  12 (p. 46). the old man whom we Sindbads cannot shake off: In one of his voyages in The Arabian Nights Sindbad the Sailor is forced to carry an old man on his back, who turns out to be the Old man of the Sea.

  13 (p. 46). Hades: The land of the dead in Greek mythology, here used loosely as synonymous with hell.

  CHAPTER 7

  1 (p. 49). Gamaliel: St Paul’s spiritual teacher: see Acts xxii, 3.

  2 (p. 49). Wilkes was most fortunate as a lover: John Wilkes (1725–97) was a notorious rake and libertine who, despite great ugliness and a bad squint was very attractive to women.

  3 (p. 49). the loaves and fishes of the diocese of Barchester: Refers to the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand from five loaves and two fishes: ‘And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes’ (Mark vi, 43). So the lesser clergy of Barsetshire look to Mr Slope as a provider of clerical good things.

  4 (p. 49). Mr Quiverful: See Psalm 127, 4–5: ‘As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them…’

  5 (p. 51). latitudinarian ideas…conspicuous: Breadth of tolerance, implying here a culpable indifference to proper distinctions of creed and principle.

  6 (P. 53). some new Sion or Bethesda: Common names at the time for nonconformist chapels.

  CHAPTER 8

  1 (p. 58). Whig commissioners: The Charitable Trusts Act of 1853 set up a new board of Charity Commissioners with powers to administer more equitably the funds of ancient charities like Hiram’s Hospital.

  CHAPTER 9

  1 (p. 63). bon vivant: One fond of good living.

  2 (p. 63). far niente: Idleness.

  3 (p. 67). Grecian bandeaux: The signora’s hair is presumably arranged in the then fashionable style of Grecian plaiting.

  4 (p. 6 7). bright as Lucifer’s: Literally the ‘bringer of light’ in Latin, Lucifer was the leader of the rebel angels in heaven and is usually identified with Satan.

  5 (p. 67). basilisk: A mythological serpent which could kill with a breath or a look.

  6 (p. 68). the worst of the Caesars sprang: Nero (ad 37–68), who as Emperor of Rome (ad 54–68) was notorious for his cruelty and depravity.

  7 (p. 70). Sidonia: The shadowy, Byronic Jewish financier, partly based on the Rothschild family, who figures in Disraeli’s novels Coningsby (1844) and Tancred (1847).

  8 (p. 70). no heaps of gold as large as lions: In Tancred Sidonia provides the young nobleman hero with a letter of credit to a Jerusalem merchant ‘If the youth who bears this require advances, let him have as much gold as would make the right-hand lion on the first step of the throne of Solomon the king; and if he want more, let him have as much as would form the lion that is on the left…’ (Book II, Chapter 16).

  9 (p. 70). Carrara: A town in No
rthern Italy famous for its marble.

  10 (p. 71). mauvaise honte: False shame, hence bashfulness,

  CHAPTER 10

  1 (p. 78). Marsala: A dessert wine from Marsala, in Sicily.

  2 (p. 79). Begum of Oude: Queen-Mother of the kingdom of Oudh in India, annexed by the British in 1856. David Skilton points out that she came to England in August 1856 to claim increased compensation for the annexation.

  3 (p. 79). Queen Pomara of the Western Isles: Pomare IV, who became Queen of Tahiti on the death of her brother in 1827, and reigned until her death in 1877.

  CHAPTER 11

  1 (p. 83). pretty nearly the same figure. A reference to the work of the Ecclesiastical Commission: see Chapter 1, note 10.

  2 (p. 85). wrath of Juno when her beauty was despised: See Chapter 5, note 1.

  3 (p.85). scrap of dramatic poetry…the occasion: Mrs Proudie may be recalling Hamlet, I, iv, 84: ‘Unhand me, gentlemen…’

  4 (p. 87). Tiberius: Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar Augustus (42 bc-ad 37) was Emperor of Rome ad 14–37.

  5 (p. 87). last of the Visigoths: Roderic, who reigned 710–11 and was the subject of Southey’s poem Roderick the Last of the Goths (1814).

  6 (p. 87). last of the Mohicans: Title of a novel (1826) by J. Fenimore Cooper.

  7 (p. 89). fortiter in re…suaviter in modo: Resolute in deed, gentle in manner.

  8 (p. 89). omnium gatherum: Quasi-Latin phrase meaning a miscellaneous gathering of people.

  9 (p. 89). hard upon you at Oxford: At the heart of the prolonged debate about Oxford University reform in the 1830s and 1840s was the control which the colleges, and through them the Church of England, exercised over teaching and examination, and the conviction of reformers that academic standards could only be raised (and almost everyone agreed that this was necessary) by widening the curriculum and conditions of entry, strengthening the professoriate, and opening closed fellowships to competition – proposals which, at a time when college fellows had to be clergymen of the Established Church, were seen to be dangerously secularizing by High Churchmen like Dr Grantly. The issue came to a head when the Royal Commission of inquiry into Oxford University, set up by Lord John Russell in 1850, reported in 1852 and recommended many of the changes which reformers had urged: the revival of Congregation and extension of its powers, to provide a more democratic form of internal government; the replacement of the old Hebdomadal Board of college heads by a new Hebdomadal Council, on which professors would have a decisive say; improved status for the professors, giving them power over studies and examinations and therefore the authority to encourage the development of those subjects, such as History, Law, and the Natural Sciences, in which existing provision was weak or non-existent; the opening of fellowships to competition and the abandonment of the clerical requirement; the extension of the university’s facilities to poorer students; and, most controversial of all, the suppression of redundant fellowships, the money saved to be diverted from the colleges to the maintenance of lecturers and professors.