MEMOIR 



and Warburton, in accordance with the terms of his 

 grandfather's will. In due course he went to Eton, 

 thence to Oxford, where he matriculated at Corpus 

 Christi College on 14th February 1823. As regards 

 his university career — ccetera desunt. Thereafter, 

 having made the grand tour in accordance with 

 what was still reckoned essential to complete the 

 education of a wealthy English gentleman, he settled 

 at Arley Hall. This had been originally a fine 

 example of the black and white timbered houses so 

 distinctive of Cheshire ; but in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century it was encased in a Georgian shell, 

 which displeased Warburton's fastidious sense of 

 beauty. He therefore began adapting it to his taste 

 until, in the course of years, it had been practically 

 rebuilt. Here he lived all his life, spending his time 

 and money on his ample estates, and seldom visiting 

 London. A staunch Tory in politics and a High 

 Churchman, as was his neighbour and intimate 

 friend, William Ewart Gladstone, in those days, he 

 took no very active part in politics, and might 

 have viewed with equanimity Gladstone's transition 

 through the successive phases of Tory, Peelite, 

 Radical, and Home Ruler, had he kept his hands off 

 the Irish Church ; but his action in attacking that 

 establishment was of such evil augury for more 

 cherished institutions nearer home, that the strain 

 proved almost fatal to the life-long friendship be- 

 tween these two men. Warburton, indeed, was of a 

 deeply religious nature, to which he gave literary 

 expression in many verses and hymns, and in a 

 collection of sonnets which has been privately printed, 

 xviii 



