File NLW MS 12877C. - Letters from Arthur Penrhyn Stanley,

Twenty-two holograph letters, some incomplete, 1838-1840, from A[rthur] P[enrhyn] Stanley [aft. dean of Westminster] from Alderley Park [co. Chester ], [London], Norwich, and Oxford, to C[harles] J[ohn] Vaughan [aft. dean of Llandaff] at Trin[ity] College, Cambridge, Leicester, [London], and Southend (the writer's health and general movements from place to place, his prospects of a fellowship at Oxford and his eventual election [at University College], the writing of [University prize] essays, a family visit to Alderley Park, a decision 'to put Newmanism on the shelf for a space', visits to the House of Lords and speeches heard there, an introduction in the House of Lords to [Henry Phillpotts], bishop of Exeter, an inclination to join the Athenaeum Club, attendance at lectures by [Thomas] Carlyle and [? the Reverend Thomas] Chalmers, references to [Thomas] Arnold [headmaster of Rugby school], comments on Sedgwick [? the Reverend Adam Sedgwick, canon of Norwich Cathedral, 1834-1873], Mr. Wodehouse [?the Reverend Charles Nourse Wodehouse, prebendary of Norwich Cathedral, 1817- ], 'Milne or Mills . . . the Apostle and M.P.' [? Richard Monckton Milnes, aft. 1st baron Houghton], '[Joseph] Wolff, the Missionary', and Lord Melbourne, an article on George IV and Queen Caroline in the Edinborough (sic) [Review, vol. LXVII, pp. 1-80] and an article on Plato in the Quarterly [Review, vol. LXI, pp. 462-506], views on the Whig ministry as opposed to the Tories and Radicals, the scene at the coronation [of Queen Victoria] in Westminster Abbey and impressions made by the ceremony, a comparison of the views held by [John Henry] Newman and [Thomas] Arnold with regard to certain Christian doctrines, the incident relating to the subscription by the writer's father [Edward Stanley, bishop of Norwich, 1837-1849] to a volume of sermons by [the Reverend William] Turner, Unitarian [minister of Newcastle upon Tyne], class lists and awards of scholarships at Oxford, the results of elections [to four fellowships at Balliol College, Oxford], Arnold's 'savage phrases about Newmanism . . . that it was mumbo jumbo buffoonery . . .', news that recipient was 10th Senior Optime, competition between recipient and [George William, 6th baron] Lyttleton [for University prizes] at Cambridge, references to colleagues (1838); the writer's ordination [as deacon] by the bishop of Oxford [December 1839], references to his doubts [concerning the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian creed] in connection with the subscription oath required at ordination and his dialogue with [Charles Carr Clerke], archdeacon [of Oxford], on the subject prior to ordination, his clerical activities at Norwich in the immediate post-ordination period, doubts as to his future attitudes 'whether I shall be . . . an obedient priest and so far happy follower in the train of Newmanism, or . . . a great agitator', the postponement of the presentation to the House of Lords by [Richard] Whately [archbishop of Dublin] of a petition for alterations in the liturgy, a draft petition to the Lords (copy enclosed), narrower in scope and relating to the subscription oath only, drawn up by the writer in the meantime, the writer's eventual signing of the Whately petition, the debate on the petition in the House of Lords (1840)).