Now! Then! The Liberal politician Viscount Morley attends morning service at York Minster

19 June 1892: The Liberal politician Viscount Morley attends morning service at York Minster

John Morley. 1917. Recollections, Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan. Get it:

Excerpt

Lovely music, but little edified by 40 minutes of sermon from the dean, who among many other naïvetés admitted that if he had had the ordering of things in this universe, he would have ordered them very differently. In a perfected universe deans would no doubt have had a better certainty of mitres [i.e. promotion to bishop]. When the service was over rain was pouring in torrents, so I paced up and down the nave for half an hour composing my address. Completed and dispatched that document to Newcastle by the evening mail: not well satisfied with it. It counts for little, however, as Mr Gladstone will be out one day this week and that will set our tune. Dined in the window of the coffee room, which frames one of the most glorious pictures in any town in England. As the grey evening mists slowly gathered round the great minster towers, they acquired the vastness, sublimity, pathos, and majesty of some high solitary mountain.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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With thanks to John Bibby, who pointed me to this (Bibby 2022).

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Original

York. Went to morning service at the Minster; lovely music, but little edified by 40 minutes of sermon from the dean, who among many other naïvetés admitted that if he had had the ordering of things in this universe, he would have ordered them very differently. In a perfected universe deans would no doubt have had a better certainty of mitres [i.e. promotion to bishop]. When the service was over rain was pouring in torrents, so I paced up and down the nave for half an hour composing my address. Completed and despatched that document to Newcastle by the evening mail: not well satisfied with it. It counts for little, however, as Mr. Gladstone will be out one day this week and that will set our tune. Dined in the window of the Coffee Room, which frames one of the most glorious pictures in any town in England. As the grey evening mists slowly gathered round the great Minster towers, they acquired the vastness, sublimity, pathos, and majesty of some high solitary mountain.

177 words.