THE BEISTOL PERIOD 95 



But he was busy in other ways, as shown by the following 

 extract from a letter to his mother, dated 24th April, 

 1887: 



" You evidently think that I have been lodging in a den of 

 bishops and such loose characters. Well, the actual fact is that 

 I was asked to give an address on help to Univ. Colleges from 

 Government at a meeting at Oxford last Thursday, to an assembly 

 for promoting University Extension Lectures ; i.e. lectures in 

 all the bigger towns in England on History, Pol. Economy, etc., 

 etc. So Jowett asked me to stay with him at Balliol on Wed- 

 nesday night and Thursday. So thither I went on Wednesday 

 and met who do you think ? Terrible nobs. Imprimis, the 

 Marquis of E-ipon, who was late Viceroy of India, and who, I 

 daresay you remember, was objected to on the score of his being 

 a Roman Catholic. He is a pursy little man very badly dressed, 

 with a single eyeglass and a fussy manner ; none of the hauteur 

 of the ' ancienne noblesse ' about him, but very chatty and affable. 

 Next, the Lord Bishop of London, ' t Lond.' as he signs his name. 1 

 He is rather a slow, black-a-vised man in apron and gaiters, but 

 bless you, I am so used to Bishops now that they swarm about 

 me that I pay no attention to their peculiar garb. The prelate's 

 wife is like Mrs. Dods and the Bishop not unlike Marcus, 2 but 

 not so pleasant looking. Then, as if a Catholic peer and an Angli- 

 can Bishop were not hotch-potchy enough, we had a real Jew, a 

 Mr. Mocatta, who spoke feelingly of ' my people ' and their amis 

 and needs. Minor lights were a Durham Canon and Canoness 

 and a school inspector. My object, duty and pleasure was 

 to convince these people that immediate help was needed 

 for University Colleges, which I am glad to say I did. On 



1 The Rev. Frederick Temple, previously headmaster of Rugby and 

 afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 



2 Minister in the Free Church of Scotland and afterwards Free Church 

 Professor of New Testament Theology, Edinburgh. 



