1840.] 



THE FIRE. 



23 



division of the Minster choir. I believe that from the very- 

 beginning of my acquaintance with Philip, I esteemed him one 

 of the children of light : I could see that he lived, or meant to 

 live, on a higher level than we — to follow duty and not inclina- 

 tion, really and steadily, from the first; while we intended, 

 some day, when we had finished our college course, or when 

 we got a congregation, or at some other 6 convenient season/ 

 to go in for duty and doing good. This difference, not asserted 

 at all by himself (unless that playing of Nemesis, to which I 

 alluded above, in any degree asserted it), but seen by us, has 

 made the deepest impression on my memory. In all our 

 lighter moments, our jokes and our nonsense, he was one of 

 us; but while, on the whole, a pure and harmless tone reigned 

 among us, so that any indelicacy of expression, unless lighted 

 up by unusual wit, was discouraged by general consent, with 

 Philip no wit or humour was sufficient to condone indecency. 



" I well remember his anxiety and pain at the second fire 

 of York Minster, May 20, 1840. He must, I think, have helped 

 when most of the students stood in the row of bucket-bearers 

 and handed along the water, which, unable to reach the roof and 

 towers, was usefully, if humbly, applied to quenching a bonfire 

 of burning beams which lay on the floor of the nave." 



The conflagration raged for about seven hours ; and at two, 

 and again at half-past three o'clock a.m., Philip wrote a graphic 

 description of it to "The Bristol Mercury." In a second letter, 

 he speaks of the apathy, laziness, and stupidity of the crowd ; 

 but says that many gentlemen exerted themselves to the utmost. 

 The great lantern tower checked the flames from reaching the 

 choir, care being taken to extinguish the burning fragments 

 which fell on it. About five a.m., it was ascertained that the 

 organ, with its great exposed wooden pipes, was uninjured ; and 

 Dr. Camidge "played 'God save the Queen' on the full organ, 

 in the midst of the smoking ruins. The effect of this was 

 grand in the extreme." Philip had picture-frames made from 

 the Minster oak saved from the burning. 



Before this event a sad stroke fell on his home. In the 

 summer of 1839 his father's health gave way, and he was 



