By the Rev. J. E. JTackson. 303 
Thomas Ken. This solitary fact gives at once complexion to the 
whole. If George Hooper, Francis Turner, (afterwards bishops,) 
and the chosen few of their college set, are known in English 
Church history as highly accomplished, resolute, simple-minded 
men; it is but natural to conclude that Mr. Thynne resembled 
them. He and Ken had gone up to Oxford about the year 1656; 
Ken probably, as poor students were wont to do, on foot; the other, 
it may be presumed, by some more aristocratic mode of conveyance. 
They found Oxford in a state of disorder. This sounds strange to 
modern ears, but it was the new reign of liberty of conscience. 
The Book of Common Prayer forbidden, Cromwell Chancellor, Dr. 
Owen the Vice-Chancellor, (a dignitary usually looked upon as the 
model of propriety,) “ walking about like a young scholar, with his 
hair powdered, snake-bone band-strings,” (whatever were they ?) 
“ with very large tassels, a huge set of ribbons pointed at his knees, 
Spanish leather boots with lawn tops, and his hat mostly cocked!” 
The Proctor, the very guardian of decorum, “was a boisterous 
fellow at cudgelling and foot-ball playing.’ I mention these things 
not for their own sake, but merely to enable you to conclude what 
the general state of affairs must have been, in the midst of which 
religious principle and sobriety of mind were left to find such 
nourishment as they could. No wonder that good men were amazed, 
and spake of these things one to another. 
It does not appear what degree of intimacy was kept up between 
Ken and Thynne after leaving college. Interruptions even of 
closest friendship are not uncommon at a time of life when the 
paths of duty lead in different directions. Ken’s professional occu- 
pations called him to Essex, Winchester, or the Isle of Wight. 
He was for some time a traveller in Italy; then became fixed as a 
chaplain to the Court in Holland; and in the very year in which 
Mr. Thynne unexpectedly succeeded to Longleat (1682), Ken was 
tossing about on the Morocco Seas as chaplain to the Tangiers fleet. 
In 1683 he was appointed to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells. 
I need not recite at any length particulars from a biography now 
so well known through the labours of many admirers. It will be 
enough merely to remind you, and is in more immediate connexion 
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