The Reverend Charles Wordsworth, M.A. (22 August 1806 – 5 December 1892) was bishop of Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. He was a classical scholar, and taught at a public schools

Public School (UK)

A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...

 in England and Scotland. He was a rower

Rowing (sport)

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

, cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er and athlete and he instigated both the University cricket match in 1826 and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in 1829.

Early life and education

Wordsworth was born in Lambeth

Lambeth

Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...

, the son of the Rev. Dr. Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth (Trinity)

Christopher Wordsworth , was an English divine and scholar.Born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, he was the youngest brother of the poet William Wordsworth, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1798.Twelve years later he received the degree of DD...

 and a nephew of the poet William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....

. His father was a divine and scholar. He was educated at Harrow

Harrow School

Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

 where his friends included Charles Merivale

Charles Merivale

The Very Reverend Charles Merivale was an English historian and churchman, for many years dean of Ely Cathedral...

 and Richard Chenevix Trench

Richard Chenevix Trench

Richard Chenevix Trench was an Anglican archbishop and poet.-Life:He was born at Dublin, in Ireland, son of the Dublin writer Melesina Trench, his elder brother was Francis Chenevix Trench. He went to school at Harrow, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1829. In 1830 he visited Spain...

. He was in the Harrow cricket eleven for the first regular matches

Eton v Harrow

The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School. It one of the longest-running annual cricket fixtures in the world. It is the last annual school cricket match played at Lord's Cricket Ground...

 with Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 (1822) and Winchester (1825), He then went to Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

 where he won the Chancellor's Latin verse at Oxford in 1827, and the Latin essay in 1831, and took a first-class in classics

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

. Through his continued contact with Merivale at Cambridge University, he is credited with bringing about the first Oxford and Cambridge match

The University Match (cricket)

The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club...

 in 1827, in which he captained Oxford and took seven wickets. Again with Merivale and his Cambridge contacts he instigated the first university boat race

The Boat Race

The event generally known as "The Boat Race" is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights each spring on the River Thames in London. It takes place generally on the last Saturday of March or the first...

 in 1829. He played cricket in the Varsity match in 1829 and rowed in the winning Oxford crew in the Boat Race. In 1869 Wordsworth responded to Dr J Morgan, who was investigating the health effects of rowing.

The subject upon which you have written to me is one in which I naturally take a more than common interest. Not only was I one of the Oxford Crew in the first Inter-University Boat-Race in 1829, but the Race was entirely set up by me, owing to the fact that though I was myself at Christ Church, Oxford, my home was at Cambridge (my father being Master of
Trinity), and I had a large acquaintance there, and some-times (especially in Easter vacations) was invited to pull in one of their boats, e. g. that of St John's, in which were the now Bishops, Selwyn and Tyrrell, and Charles Merivale the historian, all now vigorous and flourishing. I may also mention, as bearing upon your enquiry, that as soon as my father heard that I had been chosen one of the Oxford Eight, and was practising for the Race, he wrote me an earnest letter, in which he desired me not to row any more, simply from anxiety lest my health should suffer. Though I was always much given to athletic exercises, even before I went to Harrow (where I was one of the Eleven in the first Matches against Eton, for four years, 1822 — 1825), my constitution was in some respects rather a delicate one. When I received his letter I went at once to my physician, told him the difficulty in which I was placed, begged him to examine my state of health, and got his authority to assure my father that so far as he could judge, rowing had not cjone me any harm. By this my father was satisfied, and I was allowed to go on. The Race itself, which was at Henley (two miles up stream), certainly did me no harm, though at the time I was incommoded by the change to an unusual diet, — under- done beefsteaks, porter, dry bread, no butter, no tea, no vegetables. After the Race, which was on Wednesday or Tuesday (I think), I was able to play cricket, as one of the Eleven also, against Cambridge on the following Friday. The match was at Oxford. We were victorious on both occasions.

Teaching career

From 1830 to 1833 Wordsworth was teaching and had as pupils a number of men, including William Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...

 and Cardinal Manning. He then travelled abroad during 1833–1834, and after a year as tutor at Christ Church (1834–1835) was appointed second master at Winchester College

Winchester College

Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...

. He had previously taken holy orders, though he only became priest in 1840, and he had a strong religious influence with the boys.

In 1839 he brought out his Greek Grammar, which had a great success. In 1846, however, he resigned; and then accepted the wardenship of Trinity College

Glenalmond College

Glenalmond College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, for children aged between 12 and 18 years. It is situated on the River Almond near the village of Methven, about west of the city of Perth. The school's motto is Floreat Glenalmond...

, Glenalmond

Glenalmond

Glenalmond or Glen Almond is a glen which stretches for several miles to the west of the city of Perth in Perth and Kinross, Scotland and down which the River Almond flows. The upper half of the glen runs through mountainous country and is virtually uninhabited whilst the lower, easterly section...

, the new Scottish Episcopal public school and divinity college, where he remained from 1847 to 1854, having great educational success in all respects; though his views on Scottish Church questions brought him into opposition at some important points to WE Gladstone.

Ecclesiastical career

In 1852 Wordsworth was elected Bishop of Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, and was consecrated in Aberdeen early next year. He was a strong supporter of the establishment, but conciliatory towards the Free churches, and this brought him into a good deal of controversy. He was a voluminous writer, and was one of the company of revisers of the New Testament (1870–1881), among whom he displayed a conservative tendency.

In continuing his letter to Morgan, Wordworth described his activities in 1869.

For myself, I am now in my 63rd year, yet my constitution is not seriously impaired, as you may conclude when I mention that I still am able to skate, to play at cricket occasionally with my sons, and that last year I rowed with them upon the Tay

River Tay

The River Tay is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in the United Kingdom. The Tay originates in western Scotland on the slopes of Ben Lui , then flows easterly across the Highlands, through Loch Dochhart, Loch Lubhair and Loch Tay, then continues east through Strathtay , in...

, a distance of eight miles, as stroke of a Four-oar? Nor when I think of others whom I knew as a young man at both Universities, can I remember any instance of injury being done to the health which could fairly be set down to the exercise of rowing as then practised. It is true we used to be told, even in those days, that no man in a Racing-Boat could expect to live to the age of thirty.

Personal life

Wordsworth was twice married, first in 1835 to Charlotte Day (d. 1839), and secondly in 1846 to Katherine Mary Barter (d. 1897). He had thirteen children altogether. He was the older brother of Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth was an English bishop and man of letters.-Life:Wordsworth was born in London, the youngest son of the Rev. Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, Master of Trinity and a nephew of the poet William Wordsworth...

, Bishop of Lincoln

Bishop of Lincoln

The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...

.

See his Annals of my Early Life (1891), and Annals of My Life, edited by W Earl Hodgson (1893); also The Episcopate of Charles Wordsworth, by his nephew John Wordsworth

John Wordsworth

The Right Reverend John Wordsworth was an English prelate. He was born at Harrow on the Hill, to the Reverend Christopher Wordsworth, nephew of the poet William Wordsworth...

, Bishop of Salisbury

Bishop of Salisbury

The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset...

(1899).