Hurrell Froude: Memoranda and CommentsGuiney, Louise Imogen
History
Hurrell Froude: Memoranda and Comments
Guiney, Louise Imogen
Froude, Richard Hurrell, 1803-1836
Perhaps no apology need be made for dwelling on the impression left by
Hurrell Froude on the minds of his comrades, above all, on the mind of
his best-loved comrade, after he had passed away. This afterglow, this
‘trailing cloud of glory,’ is biographic comment indeed. He had lived
so detached a life that it is pleasant to associate him, at the last,
with the _schwärmerei_ of much tender common human sorrow, with sorrow
sure of his own immortal continued interest in all that he had worked
for in England: for it helps to show him less as an elf and a ‘kinless
loon,’ than as the Saint-errant which, through his thirty-two years,
he was.
The heavy blow of his mother’s unexpected death fell on Newman in May.
The association of this loss with the sharp foregoing one, and the
remembrance of Froude, whom he had known and lived with so happily
since they first became colleagues at Oriel, are palpable enough in
the brave sigh of that greatly religious soul, breathed in a letter to
Harriett Newman, dated June 21, 1836:
‘You have nothing to be uneasy at, so far as I am concerned. Thank
God, my spirits have not sunk, nor will they, I trust. I have been
full of work, and that keeps me generally free from dejection. If it
ever comes, it is never of long continuance, and is even not
unwelcome. I am speaking of dejection from solitude. I never feel so
near Heaven as then. Years ago, from 1822 to 1826, I used to be very
much by myself, and in anxieties of various kinds which were very
harassing. I then, on the whole, had no friend near me, no one to whom
I opened my mind fully, or who could sympathise with me. I am but
returning, at worst, to that state … and after all, this life is very
short, and it is a better thing to be pursuing what seems God’s Will
than to be looking after one’s own comfort. I am learning more than
hitherto to live in the presence of the dead: this is a gain which
strange faces cannot take away.’
Less than a year later, a similar strain comes like a music of triumph
over sorrow in such a letter to Frederic Rogers, on the death of his
sister, as none but Newman could write:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account