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Venables
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Venables

dral, and in 1867 precentor and canon-residentiary in the same cathedral body. Thenceforth Venables identified himself with Lincoln. He was full of love for the minster, was the ‘guardian angel’ of its library, and revelled in the antiquarian charm of the city, which inspired many occasional papers. Three ‘excellent little lectures on Lincoln’—one, ‘A Walk through the Minster,’ and two series of ‘Walks through the Streets of Lincoln’—are recommended to every tourist (Murray, Handbook to Lincolnshire, p. 26). An essay by him on Lincoln Cathedral was included in 1893 in a volume of ‘Our English Minsters,’ and printed separately in 1898. He edited in 1882 the fourth edition of Murray's ‘Handbook for Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire,’ and published in that year an ‘Historical Sketch of Bere Regis, Dorset.’

Venables died at the Precentory, Lincoln, on 5 March 1895. He married at St. Michael's Church, Highgate, on 8 Sept. 1847, Caroline Mary, daughter of Henry Tebbs, proctor of Doctors' Commons. She died the day after his own death, and both were buried on 9 March in the same grave in the cloisters of Lincoln minster. They had issue one son and six daughters.

Venables translated in 1864 Karl Wieseler's ‘Chronological Synopsis of the Four Gospels,’ which was included in 1877 in Bohn's ‘Theological Library,’ and he edited in 1869 a translation by his brother, G. H. Venables, of Bleek's ‘Introduction to the Old Testament,’ reproduced in 1875 in Bohn's ‘Ecclesiastical Library.’ For the Clarendon Press series he edited in 1879 Bunyan's ‘Pilgrim's Progress and Grace Abounding;’ his life of John Bunyan, admirable in tone, appeared in 1888 in the ‘Great Writers Series;’ and in 1883 he edited the ‘Private Devotions’ of Bishop Andrewes. He contributed an essay on the ‘Architecture of the Cathedrals of England considered Historically’ to Dean Howson's ‘Essays on Cathedrals;’ and he undertook, though he did not live to finish, a volume on the ‘Episcopal Palaces of England’ (it came out in 1895, the accounts of seven of the palaces being by Venables). Four addresses on ‘The Church of England’ delivered in Lincoln minster in September 1886 were published by him in that year, and he contributed largely to Smith's ‘Dictionary of the Bible,’ Smith's ‘Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,’ Smith's ‘Dictionary of Christian Biography,’ the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ Kitto's ‘Biblical Encyclopædia,’ and to this ‘Dictionary.’ He was also a frequent writer in the ‘Saturday Review,’ ‘Athenæum,’ ‘Guardian,’ and ‘Good Words.’

[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Robinson's Merchant Taylors' School, ii. 243; Athenæum, 9 March 1895, p. 319; Guardian, March 1895, pp. 401, 418, 451; Lincoln Gazette, 9 March; 1895; Hare's Memoirs of a Quiet Life, Suppl. pp. 247 sq.; information from Mr. E. E. Venables of 46 Onslow Square, S.W., and Rev. C. H. Prior of Pembroke College, Cambridge.]

W. P. C.

VENABLES, EDWARD FREDERICK (1818–1858), one of the heroes of the Indian mutiny, born on 5 May 1815, was the third son of Lazarus Jones Venables, barrister-at-law, of Liverpool and Woodhill, Shropshire, by Alice, daughter of Thomas Jolley of Liverpool. He early went to India as an indigo-planter, and at the time of the outbreak of the mutiny was settled near Azimghur in the North-West Provinces. After the rising of the 17th native infantry on 3 June 1857, he left Azimghur for Ghazipur. But some planters and clerks having been left behind, Venables and another planter, named M. P. Dunn, determined to rescue them. No help was afforded them by the commissioner of the division, and when they set out on the 16th they had only a few native mounted constables, given them by A. Ross, the magistrate at Ghazipur. To these, however, Venables was able to add some of the tenants on his own estates at Duri Ghat and a few refugees from surrounding villages. Having obtained the assistance from within the town of Ali Bakh, a native collector, Venables compelled the 13th irregular cavalry to abandon Azimghur and reoccupied it. On 10 July he took the offensive against the sepoys with seventy-five mounted constables, an old gun, and a loyal native regiment. He stormed the police-station and released his friends. When, however, on the 16th he attacked the rajputs of the Palwar clan at Koilsa, he was deserted by his sepoys and had to re-enter Azimghur. Two days later reinforcements reached him, but most of them he sent to Ghazipur. On the 20th he marched out again with the rest, and, though compelled to retire before superior forces, the retreat, in which Venables himself led the cavalry, was so masterly that the rebels very soon retired from before Azimghur. But on 29 July, under orders from Commissioner Tucker, it was once more evacuated, Venables retiring a second time to Ghazipur. But Azimghur having been in August occupied by the Nepaulese allies, Venables again took part in an advance on it. On 19 Sept., when the rebels were surprised at Mandori, he, though only a volunteer, commanded the cavalry, was first up to the first gun taken, and killed three men with his own