One gentleman told us he was the
first bishop to reside at the palace, all former bishops having resided
at Eccleshall, a town twenty-six miles away. Before coming to Lichfield
he had been twenty-two years in New Zealand, being the first bishop of
that colony. He died seven years after our visit, and had a great
funeral, at which Mr. W.E. Gladstone, who described Selwyn as "a noble
man," was one of the pall-bearers. The poet Browning's words were often
applied to Bishop Selwyn:
We that have loved him so, followed and honour'd him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,
Caught his clear accents, learnt his great language,
Made him our pattern to live and to die.
There were several old houses in Lichfield of more than local interest,
one of which, called the Priest's House, was the birthplace in 1617 of
Elias Ashmole, Windsor Herald to King Charles II, and founder of the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. When we got into the town, or city, we found
that, although St. Chad was the patron saint of the cathedral, there was
also a patron saint of Lichfield itself, for it was Johnson here,
Johnson there, and Johnson everywhere, so we must needs go and see the
house where the great Doctor was born in 1709.
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