CHAP. XIII. TRANSLATION OF DR. SHUTE BARRINGTON TO THE SEE MR. BURGESS RESIGNS THE TUTOR OF DURHAM. SHIP OF CORPUS. -A PREBENDAL STALL GIVEN HIM AND SUBSEQUENTLY THE LIVING OF AT DURHAM WINSTON. HIS STYLE OF LIFE THERE. 1791 to 1795. UPON the death of Dr. Thurlow, Bishop of Durham, in 1791, Dr. Shute Barrington was translated to the vacant see. This event naturally produced a great change in the plans and professional avocations of Mr. Burgess. The duties attached to the office of Bishop's chaplain in a diocese so remote and important, being incompatible with those of Tutor of Corpus, he prepared to bid adieu to Oxford. In quitting the scene of his early literary triumphs, endeared to him also by so many ties of friendship, and by such varied and interesting associations, a heart even less susceptible than his would naturally have been agitated by conflicting emotions. Not only a separation from friends, but from the libraries, and other learned advantages of the University, were painfully felt by one so wedded to study and contemplation. But the bright star of his patron's favour and friendship summoned him away; and above all, the guidance and disposition of that gracious Providence which had opened to him, step by step, and by means unlooked for and unexpected, the path of usefulness and honour, and which was preparing him for extended services and further advancement. A conscientious desire to promote men of learning and piety formed one of the distinguishing features in the character of Bishop Barrington; and it was his happiness, in the great majority of instances in which he disposed of his extensive patronage, to find that he had not been deceived in his estimate of character. Never had he more reason to indulge this pleasant reflection than in one of the earliest of his acts of this description after his translation. In the course of the year 1794, he gave the first stall which became at his disposal to his excellent Chaplain, and before the close of the same year changed it for another more valuable. In addition to learned and professional eminence, attained by a path every step in which had been honourable to his character, Mr. Burgess now found himself in possession of a lucrative piece of preferment, and in a post of honour and usefulness in the church. The mutual feelings of the Bishop and Chaplain are most pleasingly developed in the following letter: Mongewell, Dec. 5. 1794. It may be matter of doubt, my dear Burgess, whether you derive more pleasure from your pre ferment, or I from having bestowed it. The thanks of both are due to a gracious Providence: from me, that it has given me the power of rewarding distinguished and unassuming merit from you, that you have been the object of my choice. You have obtained the comforts which flow from ease and independence: I, those which result from the consciousness of having acted right; from the credit of my appointment; and from the friendship which this connection has produced between us, and which I value among the happy circumstances of my life. Be that life long or short, may I, during the remainder of it, never forget, that patronage is a trust to be rendered subservient to the great interests of religion and learning. As this will probably find you within forty-six miles of this place, I wish you to be informed that I do not mean to stir from hence till after Christmasday, when the meeting of Parliament will compel me to remove. Believe me, with the truest regard, Your affectionate Friend, S. D. For three years Mr. Burgess assiduously discharged the various duties which devolved upon him as Bishop's Chaplain, and Prebendary; and, according to ordinary estimate, few situations in the Church could have been more enviable. He was surrounded with the luxuries attendant on high station, without its cares and responsibility. He had continual access to agreeable and literary society, and such was his patron's Christian benignity and politeness, that he was free from all painful feelings of dependence. So simple and primitive, however, were his tastes, and such was his love of learned leisure, that he often sighed in secret for a state of life more congenial to these predilections. He was actuated, also, by motives still more elevated. The religious principle had been silently deepening in his mind, and he felt anxious to employ his talents for the promotion of the glory of God and the salvation of souls, in the active discharge of pastoral and parochial duties. In prosecution of this, the favourite bent of his wishes, and the highest point of his ambition, he requested his kind friend the Bishop to bestow upon him the living of Haughton, then vacant, and to permit him to relinquish his stall and the chaplaincy. "You shall have it," replied his Lordship, in his courteous manner; "but you must now, in your turn, do me a favour. You must give it me back again; you shall have a living, but it must be one which will not dissolve our connection, nor sever you from Durham.” "He accordingly gave me," added my venerable friend, (whose very words I nearly quote,) "in 1795, the sweet and delightful living of Winston; so delightful, that the Editor of the Beauties of England and Wales expresses his surprise that an incumbent once in possession should ever quit it for any situation under the sun. Arthur Young says it is worth going a thousand miles to see; and Mr. Frederic Vane, Lord Darlington's brother, used to call it the Northern Tivoli. The landscapes which it commands are absolutely enchanting. You have Raby Castle; you have richly wooded acclivities, a fine bridge over the Tees, the hills of Cleveland! Such a combination of beauty is rarely found centered in any one place." Nearly in these words did Bishop Burgess, in his 80th year, recur, with almost youthful enthusiasm, to these scenes, in which he had spent many of the happiest hours of his life. He there found a retreat from the round of company, and the frequent calls of public duty, which had hitherto absorbed the greatest portion of his time. But the Bishop added still further to his happiness by releasing him from his more onerous duties, those incident to the station of domestic chaplain, and restricting them, in a great degree, to the office of examining candidates for orders. For this service he was peculiarly fitted by his learning and piety; and he could not but feel that he who, in addition to active parochial labours, faithfully discharges the important functions of such an office, occupies a very useful and honourable situation in the church of Christ. Winston was only ten, miles from Auckland Castle, where Mr. Burgess was a frequent and a cherished inmate. The feelings of the Bishop towards him have been already described as next to paternal, and what had recently |