Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wordsworth, Charles
WORDSWORTH, CHARLES (1806−1892), bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane, second son of Christopher Wordsworth (1774−1846) [q. v.], master of Trinity College, Cambridge, was nephew of William Wordsworth [q. v.], the poet, and elder brother of Christopher Wordsworth (1807−1885) [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln.
Charles was born at Lambeth on 22 Aug. 1806, his father then being chaplain to Archbishop Manners-Sutton. His mother died in 1815 at the age of thirty-three, and Mrs. Hoare, widow of the banker, Samuel Hoare of Hampstead, and his sister, did much to supply a mother's place. At Sevenoaks school, near his father's benefice of Sundridge, he began to show his taste for Latin verse and cricket. In 1820, when his brothers went to Winchester, Charles, having somewhat delicate health, was sent to the milder discipline of Harrow, whither his friend and neighbour Henry Edward (afterwards Cardinal) Manning was also sent. Other contemporaries were the two Merivales, Herman and Charles (dean of Ely), and the two Trenches, Francis and Richard (the archbishop of Dublin). Here this special tastes abundantly developed. Charles Merivale calls him ‘king of our cricket field’ (Autobiogr. p. 44), though his nervousness prevented him from scoring largely in set matches. His name must, however, always be associated with the history of the game. He played in the first regular Eton and Harrow match in 1822, in the first Winchester and Harrow match in 1825, and brought about the first Oxford and Cambridge match in 1827. He had also much to do with the first inter-university boatrace in 1828. He played tennis at Oxford, and was an excellent skater to a late period of his life. He did not take to golf, which he never played till he reached the age of eighty-four. He was brilliant as a classical scholar, and in writing Greek and Latin verses he became a poet. Latin-verse composition was his peculiar delight and solace to the end of his long life.
His Harrow successes were crowned by greater distinctions at Christ Church, Oxford, which he entered in 1825 as a commoner, Charles Thomas Longley [q. v.] (afterwards archbishop) and Thomas Vowler Short [q. v.] (afterwards bishop of St. Asaph) being his tutors. His Virgilian poem on Mexico, with which he won the chancellor's prize for Latin verse in 1827, is one of the best of its kind; it is printed in appendix to ‘Annals’, vol. i., with the Latin essay, which also gained him the chancellor's prize in 1831. It led to his obtaining a studentship in 1827 from Dean Smith. He took his degree (first-class classics) in the spring of 1830, and shortly afterwards gathered, in succession up to 1833, a brilliant company of private pupils, including James Hope (Hope-Scott), William Ewart Gladstone, Henry E. Manning, Francis Doyle, Walter Kerr Hamilton, Lord Lincoln (Duke of Newcastle), Thomas Dyke-Acland, Charles J. Canning (Lord Canning), and Francis L. Popham. In September 1831 he went with William Wordsworth and Dora, his uncle and cousin, on their last visit to Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford. From July 1833 to June 1834 he travelled as tutor to Lord Cantelupe in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, returning by Greifswald and Berlin, where he learnt something of German university education, and became more or less acquainted with Professors Schleiermacher, Neander, Böckh, Henning, Immanuel Bekker, and D. F. Strauss. He also visited Dresden and Leipzig. In the same summer he travelled in France with Roundell Palmer (afterwards Lord Selborne).
After Palmer's departure he met, in Paris, Charlotte, orphan daughter of the Rev. George Day of Earsham, near Bungay, to whom he became engaged to be married. On his return to Christ Church he was appointed to a public tutorship by Gaisford (dean in 1831), and was ordained deacon by Bishop Bagot of Oxford (21 Dec. 1834). He did not proceed to the priesthood until six years later (13 Dec. 1840).
Meanwhile, at midsummer 1835, he was elected second master of Winchester College. The mastership had never been held except by a Wykehamist. The office brought him an opportunity for the exercise of his special faculty of teaching and a valuable experience of management, involving the inner control of the ancient college and its seventy scholars. He enjoyed there not only the intimate friendship of Warden Barter, but close companionship with George Moberly [q. v.], the headmaster (afterwards bishop of Salisbury), and frequent intercourse with John Keble at Hursley. His marriage followed on 29 Dec. 1835 in Norwich Cathedral, and his married life was extremely happy. But Mrs. Wordsworth died after giving birth to her only child, a daughter (Charlotte Emmeline), 10 May 1839. The Latin distich which concludes his epitaph on her (in the antechapel of the college) has become famous:
I, nimium dilecta, vocat Deus; I, bona nostræ Pars animæ: mærens altera, disce sequi.
Her death was followed (31 Dec. 1839) by that of his elder brother John. To Wordsworth and to Warden Barter (who began the sermons in chapel) the initiation of a new period in the religious life of our oldest public school was largely due. His efforts were directed chiefly to make the traditional system of the place real. He succeeded in instituting a set time for private prayer. The chapel service was much improved, partly by the efforts of John Pyke Hullah [q. v.], who came at Wordsworth's request to teach every college boy to sing, as the statutes required that they should be able to do. Owing to his decisive and yet persuasive method of teaching, his expectation of great results, his taste in scholarship, and his camaraderie in games, Wordsworth had probably a greater ability to draw boys out into a manly way of church religion than any schoolmaster of the period. He was orthodox but not narrow. He inherited from his father and his friends, such as Joshua Watson [q. v.] and Hugh James Rose [q. v.] the traditions of the old high-church Anglicanism, to which he added much of the zeal and hopefulness of the Oxford movement, while his quaker blood and connections gave him broader and more evangelical sympathies. His Winchester life and its aspirations and successes are reflected in several books. His churchmanship was developed to its highest point in a sermon on ‘Evangelical Repentance’ (1841; with large appendix, 1842), in which he advocated the restoration of public penance. His teaching to the boys is given in an excellent confirmation manual, first published under the title ‘Catechetical Questions’ (1842, 1844), and afterwards as ‘Catechesis’ (1849); in ‘Three Sermons on Communion in Prayer’ (1843); and in the two volumes of ‘Christian Boyhood at a Public School,’ which collected his chief addresses to them (1846). A privately printed address suggested a closer relation of individual confidence. His enthusiasm for the old foundation is expressed in ‘The College of St. Mary, Winton, near Winchester’ (1848), a miscellaneous illustrated volume of great interest to Wykehamists.
Wordsworth's greatest success in scholarship was the production of a ‘Greek Grammar’ (‘Græce Grammaticæ Rudimenta’), which for a long time was the grammar almost everywhere in use in England ; and its accidence, at any rate, is still widely used. The accidence was published in January 1839, and the syntax apparently in 1843. Among his scholastic methods was the learning of Latin prose (Cicero) by heart by every boy. His own most remarkable production was the translation of Roundell Palmer's ‘Lines on the Four Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Foundation of Winchester College’ (1843), done into Greek trochaics in 1846. Admirable translations into Latin verse of Ken's morning, evening, and midnight hymns, and Keble's morning and evening hymns, were also printed for his friends and pupils in 1845. At the beginning of 1846 Wordsworth resigned his post at Winchester, partly on account of his father's failing health (he died on 2 Feb. 1846). In the spring he preached a farewell sermon and edited the two volumes of ‘Christian Boyhood.’
Shortly afterwards he accepted the offer made by his old pupil Gladstone of the wardenship of the new episcopalian Trinity college then being founded in Scotland. The scheme for founding this college, which was to be a training college for ordination candidates and a public school for boys, was first broached by James Hope and Gladstone in 1841, and was encouraged by Dean Ramsay in Edinburgh. Much money was collected for it in England as well as among the Scottish gentry, and in September 1844 the site, at Glenalmond in Perthshire, was chosen, the gift of Mr. G. Patton. The buildings, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, were soon in progress, but it was not until 8 Sept. 1846 that the first stone of the chapel was laid by Sir John Gladstone. On 28 Oct. Wordsworth entered on a second marriage with Katharine Mary, eldest daughter of William Barter, rector of Burghclere, Hampshire, and niece of his friend the warden of Winchester. A few months were spent by the newly married pair in foreign travel, chiefly in Italy: and the new college was opened on 4 May 1847.
Wordsworth began with fourteen boys, the first being the eighth Marquis of Lothian; two others were sons of Bishop Ewing of Argyll. The divinity students came about a year later. Notwithstanding the difficulties attaching to such joint education, Wordsworth made it a success, and was sore when the elder students were settled in Edinburgh in 1876. They were the warden's special charge as Pantonian professor, and his ‘Cursus Theologicus, drawn from Sermons,’ for their benefit, may be studied with advantage (Annals, App. ii. 217−23). The school discipline was naturally much based on that of Winchester (see the rules and prayers, ib. pp. 205−16). The prefectorial system was instituted and school games encouraged. Even a school for servitors was established (1848), somewhat after the older model. The chapel, which was in great part his over-generous gift to the college (consecrated on 1 May 1851), was the centre of the daily life. All wore surplices, and all were taught to sing. The success was great and real. The Scottish office for holy communion was used (by the bishops' desire) alternately with the English. ‘Three Sermons on Holy Communion as a Sacrament, Sacrifice, and Eucharist’ (1855), worthily embody the warden's teaching to his boys on this subject. The staff was strong and congenial. The volume of ‘Sermons preached at Trinity College’ (1854) gives not only seven of his own but eight by the editor— (Bishop) Alfred Barry, who joined the staff in 1849, and was sub-warden from 1850—and seven by other colleagues.
During his residence at Glenalmond the warden became gradually interested in Scottish church questions. Unfortunately his interest took largely the form of criticism of the actions of Patrick Torry, bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane, his diocesan, and of Gladstone, the leading member of the college council. Bishop Torry's ‘Prayer Book’ (1850) was the first book since 1637 purporting to be a complete and independent Scottish prayer-book, and it gave natural offence to many. Wordsworth censured it in seven letters to the ‘Guardian’ newspaper, and led the condemnation of it in the diocesan synod. His opposition to Gladstone was on the subject of the duty of church establishment, of which Wordsworth was always, as Gladstone had been, a staunch upholder. Wordsworth refused his vote to Gladstone, who became candidate for Oxford first in 1847, and in sermons and letters lost no opportunity of manifesting his opposition to Gladstone's views.
His leadership in regard to the Gorham case, however, united all parties in the diocese, and his frequent articles in the ‘Scottish Ecclesiastical Journal’ did credit to the church. Bishop Torry died on 3 Oct. 1852. Wordsworth was one of the seventeen presbyters with whom the election of a successor lay. He and Bishop Eden of Moray were nominated for the vacancy. The electors (excluding himself) were exactly divided, eight against eight. The decisive voice was in his hands, and he was persuaded, in accordance with precedent, to vote for himself, in order to counteract what he regarded as the dangerous policy of his opponents. Owing to some informality the process had to be repeated, his rival on the second occasion being Dr. T. G. Suther (afterwards bishop of Aberdeen). On appeal to the bishops of the Scottish church, Wordsworth's election was upheld. He retained his wardenship with the bishopric until 1854. He left seventy boys in the college, and reported that there had been on an average five divinity students.
Elected bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane on 30 Nov. 1853, Wordsworth was consecrated at St. Andrew's Church, Aberdeen, on 25 Jan. 1853. The principles on which he acted in this office were mainly three: (1) to prevent the capture of the Scottish episcopal church by a narrow party, especially by a party manned by Englishmen and controlled from England; (2) to convince Scotsmen of the value of episcopacy and episcopal ordinances; (3) to make some concessions to presbyterians by which they might be conciliated, the main principle of episcopacy being saved (Episcopate, pp. 37−9). He was a strong believer in the duty of establishment of religion where it was possible and in the synodal system. He held different opinions on the place of the laity in church synods at different times, but ended by advocating their presence and right to vote (ib. p. 194).
There was no episcopal residence, and the bishop, after leaving Glenalmond, moved from place to place before settling down finally at Perth, first at Pitcullen Bank (Easter 1856 to 1858), and then at the Feu House (1858 to October 1876). He was thus brought into close connection with the cathedral of St. Ninian, a venture supported chiefly by two gentlemen who had little or no connection with the diocese (Lord Forbes and G. F. Boyle, afterwards earl of Glasgow), and manned chiefly by high-churchmen from England. He felt it a costly experiment for a poorly endowed diocese, but in many respects he sympathised with it. His wise treatment of its affairs in his first synods conciliated his opponents. But when he came to reside permanently in Perth, and tried to make St. Ninians his own church, a fundamental divergence between himself and Provost Fortescue and Precentor Humble showed itself. Unfortunately the eucharistic controversy was introduced in an acute form into Scotland by Alexander Penrose Forbes [q. v.], bishop of Brechin, in his ‘primary charge,’ delivered in 1857. Not only was high doctrine taught, but it was taught ex cathedra, and with rigorous logic, as necessary truth, and scant regard was shown for the traditional teaching of the Scottish church, which on the whole was that of a Presence of ‘virtue and efficacy.’ Agitation followed, and the storm was further intensified by the publication, in January 1858, of ‘Six Sermons on the Doctrine of the Most Holy Eucharist’ by the Rev. P. Cheyne, of St. John's, Aberdeen; Cheyne went further than Forbes, and put the same kind of doctrines in a more provocative and more nearly Roman form. In the result Forbes's charge was censured in a ‘pastoral letter,’ drafted by Wordsworth (27 May 1858), in which all the six remaining bishops concurred. This was followed by the suspension of Cheyne by the bishop of Aberdeen (5 Aug.) and by the issue of Wordsworth's very valuable ‘Notes to assist towards a right Judgment on the Eucharistic Controversy’ (4to, September 1858), with ‘Supplement’ dated Advent. These ‘Notes’ were never published, but circulated privately, especially among the clergy. He took part in the subsequent proceedings which issued in the declaration by the bishops that Cheyne was no longer a clergyman of the episcopal church (9 Nov. 1859). On 3 Oct. 1859 proceedings were formally instituted against Bishop Forbes. The same year saw an open breach between Wordsworth and the cathedral clergy. The points at issue were the attempt to reopen the cathedral school, the ‘cathedral declaration’ on the Eucharist, and certain ritual matters, such as celebration with one communicant only. He left the cathedral, and did not return to it except to perform some necessary episcopal acts, such as confirmation, for more than twelve years (1859−1872). He did his best, however, to stave off proceedings in Bishop Forbes's case, and published anonymously some ‘Proposals for Peace.’ The trial took place in February and March 1860, and Wordsworth delivered an ‘opinion’ which had previously been approved by George Forbes, the bishop's brother. The court unanimously censured and admonished Bishop Forbes, but with the least possible severity. Cheyne later on tendered some explanations, and was restored in 1863. Wordsworth's attitude in the controversy was one of reserve, working for united action, and refraining from public demonstrations on his own part. But he set himself most strenuously to form a thorough and correct judgment on it. He criticised Forbes's and Cheyne's teaching not not only as unauthorised but as disturbing the proportions of the faith. His collections of authorities, especially Anglican and Scottish, are of permanent importance.
The restoration of peace and the simultaneous revival experienced by the episcopal and presbyterian communions gave an opening for that reunion work which Wordsworth had deeply at heart. His powerful synodal and other addresses in these years brought the question well forward, and at one time an important conference was in prospect. His most popular contribution was a sermon on ‘Euodias and Syntyche,’ preached in 1867 (published 1869). Wordsworth attempted to use the opportunities of changes in popular education by suggesting that episcopalians and presbyterians might unite to some extent in a common catechism, but little came of the suggestion at the time. After the Lambeth conference of 1867 he suspended his efforts for fifteen years. His part in that conference was generally on the side of Bishop Robert Gray [q. v.] of Cape Town, but tempered with a fear of disestablishment principles.
The foundation of a school chapel at Perth in 1866, of which the bishop was practically incumbent, was a relief to him in his disappointments as to the cathedral. An important and successful conference of clergy and laity was also held at Perth in 1868, and the bishop had hopes of getting the question of the admission of laymen to church synods sympathetically treated by the general synod. By the friendly generosity of Bishop W. K. Hamilton a sum of some 200l. a year was added to his income from 1866 to 1871, when he obtained a fellowship at Winchester, a matter of great comfort to him. But, with these exceptions, the years that remained at Perth were a period of depression. Provost Fortescue resigned in 1871, and in his place the bishop appointed John Burton, who soon came under the influence of Precentor Humble. The struggles of 1859 were repeated in 1872 over the 'Perth Nunnery' and alleged breaches of faith in regard to ritual. The charge of this year led to an indictment of the bishop by Humble before the episcopal synod, which was unanimously dismissed, 27 March 1873. After various negotiations with the chapter, the bishop in April 1874 announced his intention of resigning. But he took no steps to make it effective. He then established a sort of modus vivendi with Burton, but he was never easy in his relations with the chapter as long as he remained at Perth. Humble's death, on 7 Feb. 1876, removed the chief actor in these disputes.
During this period the bishop published his book 'On Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible' (1864; 3rd edit. 1880), which has a permanent place in literature. In 1866 his Greek grammar was adopted by the headmasters of England. In 1870 he became one of the company of New Testament revisers, and worked hard at that great task; but before it was completed (in 1881) he expressed his reasons for differing from the action of the majority, who, he thought, made far too many changes. In 1872 he published an important volume on 'Outlines of the Christian Ministry,' which was supplemented in 1879 by 'Remarks on Dr. Lightfoot's Essay.'
In October 1876 Wordsworth left Perth for St. Andrews. He first resided at The Hall (hitherto a hall for episcopalian students attending the university), which he called Bishop's Hall or Bishopshall; it is now St. Leonard's girls' school. Afterwards (1887) he removed to a smaller house on the Scores, which he called Kilrymont, the old name of St. Andrews. St. Andrews brought him opportunities of again influencing young men, and introduced him into the congenial literary society formed by the professors of the university. Most of these were presbyterians, and this revived his hopefulness in reunion work. The new efforts may be dated from his sermon at the consecration of Edinburgh Cathedral (30 Oct. 1879). In the spring of 1884 the bishop received the honorary degree of D.D., both at St. Andrews and Edinburgh, and began a practice of occasionally preaching in presbyterian churches in connection with academic functions, especially in the college church at St. Andrews, where he preached about once a year till 1888. In May 1884 he published an article in the 'Scottish Church Review' entitled 'Union or Separation,' which contained the following proposal: 'Can a reconciliation between presbyterians and ourselves be effected upon the understanding that the adoption of the threefold ministry is eventually to be accepted as the basis of our agreement, the existing generation of presbyterian clergy being left free to receive episcopal ordination or not, at their own option; and that in the meantime we are to work together with mutual respect and with no unkind or unbrotherly disparagement of each other's position?'
The alarm excited by this proposal led to his being denied his proper place at the Seabury commemoration at Aberdeen in October, for which he prepared and printed a valuable address. His charge of September 1885, 'The Case of Non-episcopal Ordination fairly considered,' is in the same line. The fullest and most logical expression of the scheme is given in a letter to Archbishop Benson in preparation for the Lambeth conference, dated 24 May 1888, and entitled 'Ecclesiastical Union between England and Scotland.' This is his most important publication on the subject. The committee of the conference, under the presidency of Bishop Barry, then metropolitan of Sydney, went further than was deemed expedient by the conference or even by Wordsworth. He did not press his proposal further.
On 18 April 1889 he preached the commemoration sermon before the university of Edinburgh, under the title 'A Threefold Rule of Christian Duty needful for these Times.'
Relations with his own cathedral began to improve after the move to St. Andrews, and from 1882 onwards he held his synods again there. In 1885 Provost Burton died, and the Rev. V. L. Rorison of Forfar accepted the offer of his position. The cathedral now became a thoroughly diocesan institution. From 1886 to 1890 some 8,000 l. was spent upon it, and the new nave was consecrated by the bishop on 7 Aug. 1890. The chapter-house, to which his library has been given by his sons, will be specially his memorial. In the same year the bishop appointed the provost of St. Ninians dean, and the Rev. A. S. Aglen, incumbent of Alyth, archdeacon—a new title in the Scottish church. A severe illness followed in the winter of 1890−1, but he delivered one more important charge, that on Old Testament criticism, in October 1891, and saw the appearance and rapid success of the first volume of his autobiographical ‘Annals’ of which a second edition was called for in the month of its publication (October 1891). His charge of 1892 was delivered in his absence by the dean. The last month of his life was cheered by the foundation of the ‘Scottish Church Society’ by his friend Dr. Milligan. He died at St. Andrews on 6 Dec. 1892, and was buried in the cathedral yard. On the memorial tablet, after the dates, follow these words, drawn up by himself: ‘Remembering the prayer of his Divine Lord and Master | for the unity of His Church on earth, | He prayed continually and laboured earnestly | that a way may be found, in God's good time, | For the reunion of the Episcopalian and Presbyterian bodies | without the sacrifice of Catholic principle | or Scriptural Truth.’
Wordsworth left his own communion in a much higher position in public opinion than when he first came to the country, and this change was largely due to his courage, persistent energy, and ability. The diocese developed considerably during the forty years' episcopate. The number of incumbencies increased from sixteen to twenty-six, and new churches or chapels were built in at least twenty-six places. The parsonagehouses increased from two (Dunblane and Kirriemuir) to twenty, including the provost's house at Perth.
Wordsworth was tall and handsome, with a strong and prepossessing countenance, set off by brown curly hair and brightened by a winning smile. He had a taste and a talent for friendship, and numbered among his firmest friends Bishops W. K. Hamilton and T. L. Claughton, and Roundell Palmer, lord Selborne. In disposition he was generous, and free in expense. He was very accurate and orderly, even in trifles, and expected others to be so. His character, as well as his experience as a teacher, made him critical, and he could be occasionally severe, and he was therefore sometimes misjudged. He was on the one side impulsive and eager, on the other sensitive, and subject to fits of depression; but on the whole he was sanguine and resolute, and gifted with much perseverance and consistency. His religious faith was serene and rational, while he had little sympathy for the philosophical and mysterious aspects of religion. He never preached without book, and took great pains with his sermons, which were admirably delivered.
Of the bishop's publications his two small books, a ‘Discourse on the Scottish Reformation’ (1861) and a ‘Discourse on Scottish Church History’ (1881), are both valuable for the earlier periods of their subject. His own life in Scotland is recorded in the two volumes of ‘Public Appeals on behalf of Christian Unity’ (1886), containing his chief writings and addresses on the subject of ecclesiastical polity, especially as regards Scotland, from 1854 to 1885. They are connected by useful summaries and introductions which are indispensable for the history of the period. He published also a commentary on ‘Ecclesiasticus’ in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge edition of the ‘Apocrypha’ (1880−1), and a ‘Life of Bishop Hall,’ prefixed to the edition of his ‘Contemplations’ issued by the same society in 1872. His edition or twelve of Shakespeare's ‘Historical Plays’ (1883, 3 vols.) deserves to be better known. During the evening of his life at St. Andrews he indulged his taste in Latin verse in a way that rendered his residence there more delightful to his friends. The effect of some of them was heightened by a partnership with Dean Stanley, which began with a translation by the latter of some spirited hexameter lines to Dean Ramsay (1872), and attained its highest point in the version of congratulatory elegiacs to Lord Beaconsfield after the Berlin congress (1878), which Lord Beaconsfield compared (somewhat inaptly) to the partnership of Beaumont and Fletcher. In 1880 he published translations of Keble's hymns relating to the clerical office, reprinting with them, the versions of Ken and Keble published at Winchester in 1845. In 1890 he produced a remarkable tour de force, the whole body of prayer-book collects in Latin elegiacs, the solace of many weary hours of sickness.
The titles of numerous other valuable papers are detailed in the bibliography at the end of the ‘Episcopate,’ among which may be named ‘Papal Aggression in the East’ (1856); various publications on the Scottish communion office and on the eastward position of the celebrant; a Shakespearian sermon, ‘Man's Excellency a Cause of Praise and Thankfulness to God’ (1864); ‘St. Chrysostom as an Orator’ (1884); ‘Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism’ (1885); and ‘Pindar and Athletics Ancient and Modern: an Address to St. Andrews Students’ (1888).
The bishop had twelve children by his second marriage, five sons and seven daughters, of whom three sons and five daughters still survive. His widow died on 23 April 1897.
An engraving from a portrait drawn by G. Richmond about 1840 hangs in the headmaster's house at Winchester. A threequarter-length portrait, painted in oils by G. Horsburgh of Edinburgh in 1893, belongs to Mr. W. B. Wordsworth. A portrait, painted in 1882 by H. T. Munns, and a photograph, dated 1889, were engraved by W. L. Colls for ‘The Episcopate of Charles Wordsworth,’ London, 1899.
[Full materials for Wordsworth's life are contained in Annals of my Early Life (1806−1846), published by himself in 1891; Annals of my Life (1847−56), ed. by W. Earl Hodgson, 1893; and The Episcopate of Charles Wordsworth (1853−92), London, 1899, a memoir, with some materials for forming a judgment on the great questions in the discussion of which he was concerned, by John Wordsworth, bishop of Salisbury, writer of this article. The last is preceded by a sketch of the earlier years, and has a bibliography (pp. 366−85.)]