256 Tyrrell Refused Catholic Burial l! 10 ^ 



a woman, the courage of a man. What she told me is this : Three 

 months ago there had been some question of Father Tyrrell's health 

 and he had seen a doctor, some kidney trouble, but the doctor thought 

 little of it. It was while he was staying at Clapham, nor did he think 

 much of it himself. He came back to Storrington for his summer 

 holiday at the end of last month. She thought him overworked, for 

 he was writing a final apologetic, added to his great daily correspond- 

 ence. It was not till a week after, that one day he complained of his 

 head, while at dinner, and rose to leave the table and, as I understand, 

 fell. Still, for a day, she did not recognize it as serious. ' I am 

 naturally of a sanguine disposition,' she said, ' and thought he would 

 recover. He complained of violent pains in the head, and could not 

 speak plainly, but I did not recognize it for what it was. Then he got 

 worse. I was with him for forty-eight hours without leaving him 

 before anyone came to help nurse him. He suffered terrible pain 

 continuously till he died.' Three doctors have since declared him to 

 have had Bright's disease and the stroke to have been a consequence, 

 the breaking of a blood vessel on the brain. She repeated to me what 

 there was in her ' Times ' letter about his having received the last 

 sacraments. ' I sent it,' she said, ' because I knew there would be all 

 sorts of stories told, and I thought it best to let the truth be known 

 at once.' She was pleased when I told her how wisely, in my opinion, 

 she had done. ' It was, perhaps, fortunate,' she said, ' that he could 

 not speak, as it spared him explanations, and enabled his friend Abbe 

 Bremond, to administer the sacraments and give him absolution, also 

 it will at least prevent any false account of his having at the last 

 moment made recantation of his opinions.' 



" She went on to speak of their difficulties since with Archbishop 

 Bourne, and she spoke strongly of the little moral courage existing in 

 the world, and how all were afraid of undertaking independent re- 

 sponsibility. The Prior of Storrington was anxious to be kind, but 

 he was without courage, and it seemed as though he would not dare 

 give a Catholic burial, although he had administered extreme unction. 

 I suggested that the Crawley monks might be more bold, and it is 

 settled that we are to apply to them if others fail. 



" 17th July. — The ' Times ' has the following: ' At Mulberry House, 

 Storrington, the Rev. George Tyrrell, aged 48, fortified by the rights of 

 the Church. R.I.P.' 



" Meynell arrived for the week-end. He has been to the Arch- 

 bishop's house in Westminster to discuss the case of Tyrrell's burial. 

 The Archbishop himself is away, having gone abroad to Rheims to 

 take part in the ceremonials connected with Joan of Arc's canonization, 

 but he saw Butt the coadjutor. He tells me Miss Petre's letter to the 

 ' Times ' has put them in a terrible fix. Bourne is himself much in 



