understanding how a person with such sentiments can reconcile it to himself to continue a member of a society founded and conducted on principles from which he differs so widely,’ Thirlwall addressed a circular letter to the fellows, asking each of them to send him ‘a private explicit and unreserved declaration’ on this point. All desired to retain him, but all did not acquit him of rashness; and a few did not condemn the master's action.
Not long after these events—in November 1834—Lord Brougham offered him the valuable living of Kirby Underdale in Yorkshire. He accepted without hesitation, and went into residence in July 1835. He had had little experience of parochial work, but he proved himself both energetic and successful in this new field (Letters, &c., p. 133).
It was at Kirby Underdale that Thirlwall completed his ‘History of Greece,’ originally published in the ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia’ of Dr. Dionysius Lardner [q. v.] This work entailed prodigious labour. At Cambridge, where the first volume was written, he used to work all day until half-past three o'clock, when he left his rooms for a rapid walk before dinner, then served in hall at four; and in Yorkshire he is said to have passed sixteen hours of the twenty-four in his study. The first volume appeared in 1835 and the eighth and last in 1844. By a curious coincidence he and George Grote [q. v.], his friend and schoolfellow, were writing on the same subject at the same time unknown to each other. On the appearance of Grote's first two volumes in 1846 Thirlwall welcomed them with generous praise (Letters, p. 194), and when the publication of the fourth volume in 1847 enabled him to form a maturer judgment, he told the author that he rejoiced to think that his own performance would, ‘for all highest purposes, be so superseded’ (Personal Life of Grote, p. 173). Grote in the preface to his work bore testimony to Thirlwall's learning, sagacity, and candour. Portions of Thirlwall's history were translated into German by Leonhard Schmitz in 1840, and into French by A. Joanne in 1852.
In 1840 Lord Melbourne offered the bishopric of St. David's to Thirlwall. He had read his translation of Schleiermacher, and formed so high an opinion of the author that he had tried, but without success, to send him to Norwich in 1837. He was anxious, however, that no bishop appointed by him should be suspected of heterodoxy, and had therefore consulted Archbishop Howley before making the offer, which was accepted at a personal interview. Notwithstanding Melbourne's precaution, the appointment caused some outcry (Letters, &c., p. xiii).
Thirlwall brought to the larger sphere of work as a bishop the thoroughness which had made him successful as a parish clergyman. Within a year he read prayers and preached in Welsh. He visited every part of his large and at that time little known diocese; inspected the condition of schools and churches; and by personal liberality augmented the income of small livings. It has been computed that he spent 40,000l. while bishop on charities of various kinds. After a quarter of a century of steady effort he could point to the restoration of 183 churches; to thirty parishes where new or restored churches were then in progress; to many new parsonages, and to a large increase of education (Charges, ii. 90–100). Yet he was not personally popular. His clergy, while they acknowledged his merits, and felt his intellectual superiority, failed to understand him; and though he did his best to receive them hospitably, and to enter into their wants and wishes, persisted in regarding him as a cold and critical alien. Gradually, therefore, his intercourse with them became limited to the archdeacons and to the few who knew how to value his friendship.
The solitude of Abergwli—the village near Carmarthen where the bishops of St. David's reside—suited Thirlwall exactly. There he could enjoy the sights and sounds of the country; the society of his birds, horses, dogs, and cats; and, above all, his books in all languages and on all subjects. The ‘Letters to a Friend’ (1881) show that in literature his taste was universal, his appetite insatiable. He rarely quitted ‘Chaos,’ as he called his library, unless compelled by business.
But he took a lively interest in the events of the day, and in all questions affecting not merely his own diocese, but the church at large. On such he elaborated his decision unbiassed by considerations of party, of his own order, or of public opinion. His seclusion from such influences gives a special value to his eleven triennial charges, which are, in fact, an epitome of the history of the church of England during his episcopate, narrated by a man of judicial mind, without passion or prejudice, and fearless in the expression of his views. At periods of great excitement he often took the unpopular side. He supported the grant to Maynooth (1845); the abolition of the civil disabilities of the Jews (1848); and the disestablishment of the Irish church (1869). On these occasions he spoke in the House of Lords, of which he
