Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 23 - Canon La Trobe
Canon La Trobe.— Rev. John Antes La Trobe, M.A., was the second son of Rev. Charles Ignatius La Trobe (see chapters xx. and xxvii.). He early appeared before the public as an excellent and effective preacher; he was in 1832 Curate of St. Peter’s, Hereford, and preached, on the 30th December, a Funeral Sermon on his rector, Rev. Henry Gipps, LL.B., which was published in 1833. His first publication had been on Sacred Music, a subject with which a hereditary taste had rendered him familiar; it was entitled, “The Music of the Church considered in its Various Branches, Congregational and Choral,” London, 1831. He was also a sacred poet of some eminence; his first essay in that field was anonymous; it was a small 4to volume, illustrated with pretty landscape engravings, entitled, “The Solace of Song: Short Poems suggested by Scenes visited on a Continental Tour in Italy,” London, 1837. It is a Biblical itinerary in verse. As a specimen, I quote a few lines from the piece on the bronze statue of St. Peter in St. Peter’s, Rome, which he contrasts with the living Apostle “weeping bitterly” — “the humbled saint” changed into “a brazen god”:—
Bitter the tears! now let them freely flow,
For evil was the hand that placed him there.
How would he weep to serve the nation’s woe
By claiming homage in God’s House of Prayer!
How weep, to see his form, from realms above,
Stand ’twixt his fellow-men and Jesu’s look of love!
His name next appeared in a large 4to volume, entitled, “Scripture Illustrations: being a Series of Engravings on steel and wood, illustrative of the Geography and Topography of the Bible, and demonstrating the Truth of the Scriptures from the Face of Nature and the remains of the Works of Man, with illustrations and remarks,” London, 1838. The engravings had been selected by the publisher from works of acknowledged worth and fidelity; and the letterpress was supplied by Mr. La Trobe, who is styled Sunday Evening Lecturer of Melton-Mowbray and Chaplain to Lord Mountsandford. About the year 1840 he became Incumbent of St. Thomas’s, Kendal. In 1850 he published a volume, entitled “Sacred Lays and Lyrics,” dedicated to the poet, James Montgomery, who acknowledged him as a brother in that field. In 1851 he edited his late father’s “Letters to my Children.” In 1861 he had, owing to failing strength, to cease pulpit work. In the autumn of 1863 he made an endeavour to preach again, but after the delivery of four discourses, he felt that the endeavour was useless. These Discourses were printed, and it appears from the title-page that he was at that date an honorary Canon of Carlisle. Canon La Trobe resigned the incumbency of St. Thomas’s, Kendal, on 30th June 1865, and spent the remainder of his life in Gloucester, in which city he died in November 1878.
A beautiful Memorial Pulpit has been erected in his church at Kendal; it is of Caen stone and marble, and bears the following inscription:—
To the Glory of God, and in Loving Memory of the Rev. J. A. La Trobe, M.A., Hon. Canon of Carlisle, Preacher of the Everlasting Gospel in this Church for 25 Years.
Erected mdccclxxxii.