July 27, 1875

Connop Thirlwall (January 11, 1797 to July 27, 1875) was an English bishop and historian. Thirlwall's 8 volume History of Greece (1845-1844) has been cited as an example of a new kind of critical writing. His great delight was metaphysical speculation, we read.

Connop Thirlwall was the third son of Rev. T. Thirlwall; the Thirlwalls were an old border family, connected at one time with the family owning Thirlwall castle in Northumberland. Letter writing was a part of the cultural imagination which has disappeared and may soon be forgotten. The letter for a Victorian intellectual was a means of drawing a picture, conveying one's life events, and one's opinions--letter writing was the substance of mental life.

After his death Thirlwall's papers were published in three volumes. The third of this set was dated 1878,, and titled

Remains Literary and Theological of Connop Thirlwall, Late Lord Bishop of St. Davids.

The title page continues:

edited by

J. J. Stewart Perowne

Canon Of Llandaff; Hulsean Professor Of Divinity, Cambridge; And Honorary Chaplain To The Queen

VOL. III.

ESSAYS—SPEECHES—SERMONS, Etc.

Much of this set was material already published elsewhere, and the two other volumes of this publication are of more professional interest to his colleagues, I think.

Then J. J. Stewart Perowne, with some help, published, Letters literary and theological of Connop Thirlwall (1881). The letters preserve this vignette of the bishop:

His cat, a great tabby, usually joined the company. She was a privileged creature, and would assert her privileges, jumping upon the Bishop's shoulder when he was reading, and even playing tricks audaciously with the paper knife.

Letters to a friend (1883) preserves more of his letters and was the editing work of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. Here we learn Bishop Thirlwall wrote:
I prefer a really good tabby to all Angolas, and to everything else but a tortoise-shell, which, in its perfection, is the rarest of all.