Jinthony Trollope 



pared to go to any lengths to preserve the Constitution in 

 Church and State, and especially the emoluments and pro- 

 perty of the Establishment. ' He did not believe in the 

 Gospel with more assurance than he did in the sacred justice 

 of all Ecclesiastical revenues.' In ' The Warden ' his antagonist 

 is John Bold the Reformer, who was rash enough to insti- 

 tute an inquiry into the income of Hiram's hospital, and in 

 '' Bar Chester Towers ' he wins a pitched battle against Mrs. 

 Proudie, the Whig wife of the Whig Bishop, and her occa- 

 sional ally, the odious Low Church Radical in the person 

 of the Rev. Obadiah Slope, the Bishop's Chaplain. Mrs. 

 Proudie was prepared to make use of Mr. Slope provided 

 he kept his place, and was docile and obedient. But as soon 

 as he ' got his head out ' and actually had the presumption 

 to apply for the Deanery of Barchester, the Whig lady turned 

 upon him. ' Mrs. Proudie considered herself in politics a 

 pure Whig. All her family belonged to the Whig Party. 

 Now, among all ranks of Englishmen and Englishwomen . . . 

 no one is so hostile to lowly-born pretenders to high station 

 as the pure Whig.' * Dean of Barchester,' shrieked the 

 Bishopess. ' I suppose he '11 be looking for a bishopric some 

 of these days — a man that hardly knows who his own father 

 was ; a man whom I found without bread to his mouth, 

 or a coat to his back ! Dean of Barchester indeed ! I '11 

 dean him.' 



All this is not quite relevant to the Sport of our Ancestors, 

 but no student of Trollope can think of him without recall- 

 ing the character - drawing in * Barchester Towers^ which 



245 



