Poems, which was favourably received, and was followed in 1838 by Sabbation, Honor Neale, and other Poems, and in 1842 by Poems from Eastern Sources. These volumes revealed the author as the most gifted of the immediate disciples of Wordsworth, with a warmer colouring and more pronounced ecclesiastical sympathies than the master, and strong affinities to Tennyson, Keble and Monckton Milnes. In 1841 he resigned his living to become curate to Samuel Wilberforce, then rector of Alverstoke, and upon Wilberforce's promotion to the deanery of Westminster in 1845 he was presented to the rectory of Itchenstoke. In 1845 and 1846 he preached the Hulsean lecture, and in the former year was made examining chaplain to Wilberforce, now bishop of Oxford. He was shortly afterwards appointed to a theological chair at King's College, London. In 1851 he established his fame as a philologist by The Study of Words, originally delivered as lectures to the pupils of the Diocesan Training School, Winchester. His purpose, as stated by himself, was to show that in words, even taken singly, "there are boundless stores of moral and historic truth, and no less of passion and imagination laid up"—a truth enforced by a number of most apposite illustrations. It was followed by two little volumes of similar character—English Past and Present (1855) and A Select Glossary of English Words (1859). All have gone through numerous editions and have contributed much to promote the historical study of the English tongue. Another great service to English philology was rendered by his paper, read before the Philological Society, "On some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries" (1857), which gave the first impulse to the great Oxford New English Dictionary. His advocacy of a revised translation of the New Testament (1858) aided to promote another great national undertaking. In 1856 he published a valuable essay on Calderon,with a translation of a portion of Life is a Dream in the original metre. In 1841 he had published his Notes on the Parables, and in 1846 his Notes on the Miracles, popular works which are treasuries of erudite and acute illustration.
In 1856 Trench was raised to the deanery of Westminster, probably the position which suited him best. Here he instituted evening nave services. In January 1864 he was advanced to the more dignified but less congenial post of archbishop of Dublin. A. P. Stanley had been named, but rejected by the Irish Church, and, according to Bishop Wilberforce's correspondence, Trench's appointment was favoured neither by the prime minister nor the lord-lieutenant. It was, moreover, unpopular in Ireland, and a blow to English literature; yet the course of events soon proved it to have been most fortunate. Trench could do nothing to prevent the disestablishment of the Irish Church, though he resisted with dignity. But, when the disestablished communion had to be reconstituted under the greatest difficulties, it was found of the highest importance that the occupant of his position should be a man of a liberal and genial spirit. This was the work of the remainder of Trench's life; it exposed him at times to considerable misconstruction and obloquy, but he came to be appreciated, and, when in November 1884 he resigned his arch-bishopric from infirmity, clergy and laity unanimously recorded their sense of his "wisdom, learning, diligence, and munificence." He had found time for Lectures on Medieval Church History (1878); his poetical works were rearranged and collected in two volumes (last edition, 1885). He died in London, after a lingering illness, on the 28th of March 1886.
See his Letters and Memorials (2 vols., 1886).
TRENCHARD, SIR JOHN (1640-1695), English politician, belonged to an old Dorset family, his father being Thomas Trenchard (1615-1671), of Wolverton, and his grandfather Sir Thomas Trenchard (1.582-1657), also of Wolverton, who was knighted by James I. in 1613. Born at Lytchett Matravers, near Poole, on the 30th of March 1640, and educated at
New College, Oxford, John Trenchard entered parliament as member for Taunton in 1679, and associated himself with those who proposed to exclude the duke of York from the throne. He attended some of the meetings held by these malcontents and was possibly concerned in the Rye House plot; at all events he was arrested in July 1683, but no
definite evidence was brought against him and he was released. When Monmouth landed in the west of England in June 1685 Trenchard fled from England, but was pardoned through the good offices of William Penn and returned home two years later. Again he entered parliament, but he took no active part in the Revolution of 1688, although he managed to secure the good will of William III. He was knighted by the king and made chief justice of Chester, and in 1692 he was appointed a secretary of
state. He and the government incurred much ridicule through their failure to prove the existence of a great Jacobite plot in Lancashire and Cheshire in which they had been led to believe. Sir John died on the 27th of April 1695. His wife was Philippa (d. 1743), daughter of George Speke (d. 1690) of White Lackington, Somerset.
Another member of the Trenchard family was the writer, John Trenchard (1662-1723), erroneously referred to by Macaulay as a son of Sir John Trenchard. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Trenchard inherited considerable wealth and was thus able to devote the greater part of his life to writing on political subjects, his point of view being that of a Whig and an opponent of the High Church party. His chief works are A Short History of Standing Armies in England (1698 and 1731) and The Natural History of Superstition (1709). With Thomas Gordon (d. 1750) he produced a weekly periodical, The Independent Whig, and with the same colleague he wrote a number of letters to the London Journal and to the British Journal under the pseudonym of Cato. These letters were published in four volumes in 1724 and the collection has often been reprinted. Trenchard died on the 17th of December 1723.
TRENCHER (M. Eng. trenchour, trenchere, &c., O. Fr. trencheoir trenchoier, a place on which to cut up food, from trencher, mod. trancher, to cut, probably from Lat. truncare, lop, cut off, or from transecare, to cut across), a platter, being a flat piece of wood, in its earliest form square, later circular, on which food was carved or cut up and served. These wooden "trenchers" took the place of earlier ones which were thick slices of coarse bread; these, after being soaked with the gravy and juices from the meat and
other food were eaten or thrown to the alms basket for the poor. The wooden trencher went out of use on the introduction of pottery and later of porcelain plates. At Winchester College, the old square beechwood trenchers are still in use. The potters of the 18th century made earthenware plates very flat and with a shallow rim; these were known as "trencher plates." "Trencher salt-cellars" were the small salts placed near each person for use, as opposed to the ornamental "standing" salts.
For "trench," a ditch, and "entrenchment," see Fortification and Siegecraft.
TRENCK, FRANZ, Freiherr von der (1711-1749), Austrian soldier, was born on the 1st of January 1711, of a military family. Educated by the Jesuits at Oedenburg, he entered the Imperial army in 1728 but resigned in disgrace three years later. He then married and lived on his estates for some years. Upon the death of his wife in 1737 he offered to raise an irregular corps of "Pandours" for service against the Turks, but this offer was refused and he then entered the Russian army. But after serving against the Turks for a short time as captain and major of cavalry he was accused of bad conduct, brutality and disobedience and condemned to death, the sentence being commuted by Field Marschal Miinnich to degradation and imprisonment. After a time he returned to Austria, where his father was governor of a small fortress, but there too he came into conflict with every one and actually " took sanctuary " in a convent in Vienna. But Prince Charles of Lorraine, interesting himself in this strange man, obtained for him an amnesty and a commission in a corps of irregulars. In this command, besides his usual truculence and robber manners, he displayed conspicuous personal bravery, and in spite of the general dislike into which his vices brought him his services were so valuable that he was promoted lieutenant-colonel (1743) and colonel (1744). But at the battle of Soor he and his irregulars plundered when they should have been fighting and Trenck was accused (probably falsely) of having allowed the king of Prussia himself to escape. After a time he
