3-053-693 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Bishop of Winchester, 1873. Engraving from a photograph by John Watkin. '...this eminent Prelate of the Church of England...was killed, on Saturday evening, by a fall from his horse while riding...over the Surrey Downs...His Lordship...was one of the most active and influential members of the highest ecclesiastical order in this kingdom...He was endowed by nature, above most other men of his age and country, with the great social talent of persuasive talking, whether in the pulpit, on the platform, in the House of Lords, or in ordinary conversation. As a courtier and diplomatist, in the fair and good sense of those names, it is scarcely too much to say that Dr. Samuel Wilberforce was among the ablest of his time; while his efforts as a preacher and a Parliamentary orator were nearly equal to those of highest renown. He was also distinguished by skill, tact, and diligence in administrative business, which added much to the usefulness of his clerical and episcopal labours, during a career of forty-five years since he took orders and office in the Established Church...he was not a "graceless zealot," or a bitter bigot...and his example rather tended to conciliate, than to alarm and overawe, the enemies of the Christian faith'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.