Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/16

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
How
2
Howard

the deepest sympathy with his work. He secured pulpits and drawing-room meetings in the rich west end to help the poor east, and awakened an interest in the subject in rich watering-places like Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, and Eastbourne, and also in the public schools and universities. Being recognised as a spiritual force, he attracted all spiritually minded people round him, and especially the clergy and laity in his own diocese. He received his clergy daily at Clapton, visited them at their own homes, and spent every available Sunday with one or other of them. But perhaps the work he loved best was that among children. There was no title that he valued more than that of 'The Children's Bishop,' which was popularly accorded him, and no one of his compositions which he wrote with greater zest than his volume of sermons to children.

The bishop's wife, who had taken a large share in the London work, died on 28 Aug. 1887, and the loss doubtless affected Walsham How's decision when in 1888 he accepted the offer of the new bishopric of Wakefield. He soon became as great a power in the north as he had been in the south. He met, perhaps, with more troubles in his new sphere than in his old, but his earnestness, tact, and geniality soon enabled him to overcome them, and his death, which took place during his August holiday in the west of Ireland on 10 Aug. 1897, was as much regretted in Yorkshire as in London. He was buried at Whittington, and the enlargement of Wakefield Cathedral was decided upon as a fitting memorial to him. He left a family of five sons and one daughter. An excellent portrait of him was painted by Mr. H. L. Norris for Wadham College in 1887, shortly before his death, and there is also one painted by Edward Taylor and presented to him by the clergy of St. Asaph diocese in 1879.

How was a keen fisherman and an accomplished botanist, and a most popular writer, both in prose and verse. His writings include 'Plain Words,' four series of admirable short sermons, the first of which appeared in 1869, and is now in its forty-eighth edition; several other volumes of 'Sermons,' published at various times; a 'Commentary on the Four Gospels' for S.P.C.K., begun in 1863 and finished in 1868, which has had a sale of 223,000; 'Pastor in Parochiâ' (1868, 5th ed. 1872) and 'Pastoral Work' (1883), which have also had a very large sale; 'Manual for the Holy Communion,' S.P.C.K., 1868, of which 657,000 copies have been sold; 'Daily Family Prayers' (1852, 4th ed. 1872), which are very widely used. In 1854 he published, in conjunction with the Rev. T. B. Morrell, a compilation of 'Psalms and Hymns;' he was one of the original compilers of 'Church Hymns,' brought out by S.P.C.K. in 1871, and Mrs. Carey Brock's 'Children's Hymn Book' (1881) was published under his revision. His own original hymns are very popular. His last was the hymn for Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, written at the request of the Prince of Wales in 1897, not many weeks before his death. He also wrote some good sonnets and poems on miscellaneous subjects.

[Memoir of Bishop Walsham How, by his son, F. D. How; Bishop How's own writings; Gardiner's Reg. Wadham Coll. ii. 400; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Crockford's Clerical Directory; private information and personal knowledge.]

HOWARD, EDWARD HENRY (1829– 1892), cardinal, born at Nottingham on 13 Feb. 1829, was eldest son of Edward Gyles Howard (grandson of the twelfth Duke of Norfolk), by his marriage with Frances Anne, eldest daughter of George Robert Heneage of Hainton Hall, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Oscott, and afterwards continued his studies at Edinburgh. In his youth he served the queen as an officer in the 2nd life guards, but he afterwards studied theology, was ordained priest by Cardinal Wiseman in the English College at Rome on 8 Dec. 1854, and attached himself to the service of Pius IX. He learned Arabic, Coptic, Hindustani, and Russian, and became an accomplished linguist. For about a year he was employed in India in connection with a mission to put an end to the Goa schism, and the rest of his ecclesiastical career was spent in Italy. His graceful and dignified bearing was familiar to frequenters of St. Peter's, in which basilica he held the office of archpriest's vicar. He was consecrated archbishop of Neocæsaria in partibus infidelium in 1872, and made coadjutor bishop of Frascati, an office which he retained for only a few weeks. He was created a cardinal-priest by Pius IX on 12 March 1877, the titular church assigned to him being that of St. John and St. Paul on the Coslian Hill. As protector of the English College in Rome to which he afterwards bequeathed his magnificent library he took possession of that institution on 24 March 1878. In December 1881 he was nominated archpriest of the basilica of St. Peter, and in that capacity he also became prefect of the congregation which has the care of the edifice itself. In the spring of 1884 he was raised by Leo XIII to the dignity of cardinal bishop, and trans-