George Walter Prothero

“ Always working as much for others as for himself, always slow to generalise, and apt to be led on from one field of research to another, he now found the obstacles to publication insurmountable. The superintendence of a great public institution occupied much of his time ; attacks of illness not unfrequently disabled him ; and towards the end of his life he took a larger part in the general affairs of the university. ”

“ He never attempts to point a moral, holding that sufficient praise and blame are implied in a clear and cool exposure of actions and results. Even in the case of a Borgia we are shown how the degenerate standard and the average conditions of the day must be taken into account in judging the delinquent. The faults and blunders of the best are shrewdly detected and impartially, if tenderly, exposed. The whole treatment of the 'tragedy' of Savonarola and his conflict with Alexander VI is an admirable example of Creighton's method. ”

“ A believer in character as the most potent of social forces, he found in the motives and actions of the men with whom he dealt the main causes of great eveats, rather than in uncontrollable circumstances or inexorable laws of social development. ”

“ In November 1856 Bradshaw became an assistant in the university library. He seems to have hoped that his appointment would afford him opportunities and leave him time for study ; but in this he was disappointed, and in June 1858 he resigned. He remained, however, at Cambridge, and employed his now too abundant leisure in mastering the earlier contents of the library. In order to retain his services for the university, a special post was created for him. The manuscripts — of which a catalogue was then in course of publication — were in disorder, and the early printed books were scattered. ”

“ Findlay had a cultivated taste for art, and, as a member of the board of manufactures, took a prominent part in the direction of the Scottish National Gallery, to the collections of which he contributed with great generosity. To many learned, charitable, or useful institutions he gave not only money but time. He was secretary for six years to the Society of 'Antiquaries. He took part in the movement for opening the university of Edinburgh to female students, and was president of the association for the medical education of women. ”

“ There is an unerring sense of proportion, an admirable flair for the true causes of events, a searching insight into motives, combined with great caution in attributing them, a full appreciation of conditions as limiting action, with due acknowledgment of the capacity of character to override conditions. ”

“ A certain love of paradox, a shrewdness which some mistook for cynicism, a notable lack of unction, and occasional lapses into flippancy as a protest against cant or a refuge from boredom, sometimes conveyed a wrong impression, concealing the natural kindliness, the wide sympathy, the deep inner seriousness of a man who was more highly appreciated the more fully he was known. ”

“ Creighton, is destined for the palace at Peterborough.
Few men engaged in administrative work have so tempered and enlarged their minds by historical study ; few have adopted more frankly or more effectively, in dealing with practical questions in church and state, the historical point of view. Few historians, on the other hand, have brought to bear on their literary work a mind more statesmanlike, more sagacious, more devoid of prejudice. ”

“ He did not, however, support the proposal to grant the B.A. degree to women; still less was he in favour of conferring upon them the political franchise. While a fellow of Emmanuel he took a full share in the general life of the college, dining frequently in hall, preaching in chapel, and attending college meetings. He did not take a very active part either in college or in university business, but he became a prominent figure in Cambridge society, and brought a wholesome intellectual stir into every company in which he found himself. ”

“ During the summer months he was also in the habit of receiving two or three young men into his house as private pupils, to read for university degrees.
So many and such varied occupations would have absorbed the energies of most men ; but such was Creighton's capacity for economising time and disregarding interruptions that he was able, during his residence at Embleton, to accomplish in addition a great deal of literary work. ”

“ A wholesome scepticism pervades the work, as of a man who has had frequent occasion to note the inaccuracy of contemporary reports, and who knows that a chronicler is not to be implicitly trusted because he is an ambassador, nor to be hastily condemned because he is a friar. ”

“ After attaining the captaincy of the school he became a scholar of King's College, Cambridge, early in 1850. His undergraduate life was uneventful. He studied in a desultory manner, spent much of his time in the university library, read Wordsworth and Keble, Tennyson and Kingsley with avidity, discussed literature and theology, and made many friends, among them E. W. Benson, F. J. A. Hort, H. M. Butler, H. R. Luard, B. F. Westcott, and George Williams. The college was then confined to Eton men, but most of Bradshaw's friends were outside its walls. ”

“ During the period of Findlay's connection with the 'Scotsman' the influence and circulation of the paper were enormously enhanced, and its proprietor became a rich man. But he lived unostentatiously, and regarded his wealth chiefly as a means of benefiting his fellow-citizens. He did not approve of posthumous benevolence, but spent large sums on public objects during his lifetime. At the cost of more than 70,000l. he presented to the nation the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, a fine building, which was opened on 15 July 1889 ”

“ The discovery (1858) of a large number of Celtic 'glosses' in a manuscript of Juvencus was the first of many similar finds which placed the study of the early Celtic languages on a new basis. In 1862 Bradshaw rediscovered the Vaudois manuscripts, which had been brought to England by Samuel Morland, Cromwell's envoy to the court of Savoy, and, having been deposited in the university library, had been lost to view for nearly two centuries. ”

“ Though by no means universal in his friendships, he possessed an unequalled capacity for making, and keeping friends, especially among younger men ; and in every generation of undergraduates some two or three became attached to him for life. ”

“ The politics of the 'Scotsman' have always been liberal, but in the home rule controversy of 1886 it took, and has since adhered to, a strong unionist line. The adoption of this attitude by the leading Scottish paper was a political event of no small import. ”

“ Nor did he altogether give up his literary pursuits, though his work during this period was mainly confined to the reissue of sermons and addresses, and the writing of prefaces or introductions to volumes composed by others. Perhaps the most notable publication of this period was 'The Story of some English Shires,' a collection of papers previously published in the 'Leisure Hour,' on sixteen English counties through which he had travelled, mostly on foot. The strain of such an active and absorbing life told eventually upon a constitution rather nervous and wiry than robust. ”

“ His domestic life was of the happiest, and he left a family of three sons and four daughters. Creighton was a D.D. of Oxford and Cambridge ; hon. LL.D. of Glasgow and Harvard ; hon. D.C.L. of Oxford and Durham ; hon. Litt.D. of Dublin. He was a corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and of the American Church History Society, and a fellow of the Societa Romana di Storia Patria. ”

“ He was also (from 1877) chairman of the school attendance committee, and (from 1879) rural dean of Alnwick, in which town he frequently gave lectures on historical or literary subjects. When the diocese of Newcastle was founded (in 1881) he took a prominent part in its organisation, and became (in 1882) examining chaplain to Bishop Wilberforce. In 1883 he was made an honorary canon of Newcastle. Meanwhile he kept up his connection with Oxford by examining for the historical school (1875-6 and 1883-4) ; and he was select preacher at St. Mary's for several years. ”

“ He made it his business to become thoroughly acquainted with his diocese, and especially with its most important parts, the populous towns of Leicester and Northampton, in which he resided for some weeks every year. In these busy industrial and commercial communities, in which the nonconformist element is very powerful, his wide sympathies and quick intelligence, combined with liberal views and a large religious tolerance, made him deservedly popular. In his earlier years Creighton had been a follower of Gladstone, and in the general election of 1880 he supported the candidature of Mr. ”