Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn

Arthur Penrhyn (1815-1881), dean of Westminster. He was educated at Rugby. He is the trembling little chap described in Tom Brown at Rugby, who, despite the jeers of his rougher companions, knelt in the long dormitory and said his prayers as his mother had taught him to do. He was a favorite pupil of the master of the school, and when Dr. Arnold died, Stanley, by common consent, prepared the Life and Letters of that famous man. At Oxford he carried off honors and, at graduation, he won a scholarship that gave him an independent income for a few years. He visited Greece with his own notion of travel. He never wanted to visit a place till he had read up its history and "when once I have seen a remarkable sight," said he, "I do not care to see it again. The second sight of Prague quite revolted me, and though I saw Marathon on a rainy day I refused three or four opportunities of seeing it again. On the first sight of scenes of this sort a whole new world opens before me; floods of thought come in, which are indelible, and there is nothing new in a second visit." Returning to England he became an Oxford tutor. As secretary of a university commission, he was influential in introducing reforms, among others one abolishing some of the theological tests that barred many young men from financial and scholastic favors.

In 1851 he was appointed canon of Canterbury, a most desirable position. "What advice have you to give a canon of Canterbury?" he wrote Carlyle, and quick came the answer, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might." It is said he delighted to show visitors through the cathedral and relate the history of each spot. He described the death of Thomas a Becket most vividly. His Memorials of Canterbury are delightful reading. Among other privileges of this period was a visit to Palestine and Egypt, including a trip up the Nile. He returned so full of new scenes that he closed an urgent invitation to Max Muller for an immediate visit with these words, "I consider I was never so well worth a visit."

Returning from a trip to Russia soon after, where he was gathering material for a volume on the Greek church, he wrote: "I have been deeply interested in Norway and Sweden, more in St. Petersburg, most of all in Moscow. Russia fully answered my expectation, in the flood of light which I derived from my sight of those two great cities. If you wish to bring out the dramatic effect of Russian history, it could not be better done than by a contrast between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The great eastern nation striving to become western, or, rather, the nation half eastern, half western, dragged against its will by one gigantic genius, literally dragged by the heels and kicked by the boots of the giant Peter into contact with the European world."

From Canterbury Stanley returned to Oxford as regius professor of ecclesiastical history. He introduced his course of lectures with a characteristic quotation from Bunyan, a famous dissenter. In 1863 he was made dean of Westminster. He spent the last days of a busy life writing sermons, receiving visitors, and writing books, including the Memorials of Westminster. His duties as dean were particularly acceptable. Every foot of Westminster Abbey was holy ground to him. Stanley, it is safe to say, was one of the most widely beloved men England has produced. Intelligent and progressive, but not aggressive, Dean Stanley made for piety, liberality of view, and learning. His remains lie in the Abbey in the chapel of Henry VII.

See Arnold; Westminster Abbey