to London in a day. His distractions, intellectual, emotional, and athletic, made him regard the regular course of study as a painful drudgery. He read classics with W. H. Bateson [q. v.], afterwards master of St. John's, during his first and third years, but could not be induced to work hard till his last six months. He then by great effort succeeded in obtaining the last place in the first class of the classical tripos of 1842. He was a ‘senior optime’ in the previous mathematical tripos. He had by this time decided to take orders, and in July 1842 was ordained by the Bishop of Winchester to the curacy of Eversley, Hampshire. Eversley is on the borders of Windsor Forest, a wild heather-covered country, with a then neglected population of ‘broom squires’ and deerstealers, and with a considerable infusion of gipsies. Kingsley disliked the Oxford school, which to him represented sacerdotalism, asceticism, and Manichæism, and was eagerly reading Maurice's ‘Kingdom of Christ.’ Carlyle and Arnold were also among his prophets. He soon became popular by hard work in his parish and genuine sympathy with the poor, but lived a secluded life, with little society beyond that of a few friends in the Military College at Sandhurst. A year's interruption in the correspondence with his future wife implies a cause for depression. In September 1843, however, he obtained through one of her relations, Lord Sidney Godolphin Osborne, a promise of a living from Lord Portman, and was advised to apply in the meantime for the curacy of Pimperne, near Blandford. The curacy was promised, and the correspondence was renewed. Early in 1844 he married. The living of Eversley fell vacant at the time, and the parishioners were anxious that he should succeed to it. In May 1844 he was accordingly presented to it by Sir John Cope, the patron, and settled there as rector soon afterwards.
Heavy dilapidations and arrears of poor-rate fell upon the new incumbent; the house was unwholesome, and much drainage was required. The church was empty; no grown-up labourers in the parish could read or write, and everything was in a state of neglect. Kingsley set to work vigorously, and in time successfully, to remedy this state of things. His only recreation was an occasional day's fishing, and sometimes a day with the hounds on an old horse ‘picked up cheap for parson's work.’ In 1844 he made acquaintance with Maurice, to whom he had written for advice upon some of his difficulties. Maurice soon became a revered friend, whom he delighted to call his ‘master.’ In 1845 he was appointed a canon of Middleham by Dean Wood, father of an old college friend, a post which was merely honorary, though historically interesting.
In 1842, just after taking his degree, he had begun to write the life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. He finally changed his original prose into a drama, which was accepted, after some refusals from publishers, by Messrs. Parker, and appeared at the beginning of 1848 with a preface by Maurice. The book excited interest both in Oxford and in Germany. It was much admired by Bunsen, and a review by Conington, though not very favourable, led to a friendship with the critic. While showing high poetical promise, and indeed containing some of his best work, it is also an exposition of his sentiments upon the social and religious movements of the day. Though expressing sympathy with mediæval life, it is a characteristic protest against the ascetic theories which, as he thought, tended to degrade the doctrine of the marriage bond. The events of 1848 led to a more direct utterance. His admiration for Maurice brought about a close association with the group who, with Maurice for leader, were attempting to give a Christian direction to the socialist movement then becoming conspicuous. Among others he came to know A. P. Stanley, Mr. Froude, Mr. Ludlow, and especially Mr. Thomas Hughes, afterwards his most intimate friend. He was appointed professor of English literature in Queen's College, Harley Street, just founded, with Maurice as president, and gave a course of weekly lectures, though ill-health forced him to give up the post a year later. His work at Eversley prevented him from taking so active a part as some of his friends, but he heartily sympathised with their aims, and was a trusted adviser in their schemes for promoting co-operation and ‘Christian socialism.’ His literary gifts were especially valuable, and his writings were marked by a fervid and genuine enthusiasm on behalf of the poor. He contributed papers to the ‘Politics for the People,’ of which the first number (of seventeen published) appeared on 6 May 1848. He took the signature ‘Parson Lot,’ on account of a discussion with his friends, in which, being in a minority of one, he had said that he felt like Lot, ‘when he seemed as one that mocked to his sons-in-law.’ Under the same name he published a pamphlet called ‘Cheap Clothes and Nasty’ in 1850, and a good many contributions to the ‘Christian Socialist: a Journal of Association,’ which appeared from 2 Nov. 1850 to 28 June 1851. The pamphlet was reprinted with ‘Alton Locke’ and a preface by Mr. Thomas Hughes in 1881. He produced his
