21 JUNE 1902, Page 24

DR. GRANVILLE.

The Life of the lion. and Very Reverend Dennis Granville. By the Rev. Roger Granville. (Pollard and Co., Exeter.)—We cannot. but think that much of this volume might have been omitted with advantage. The controversy between Bishop Cosiu and Dr. Granville, his impecunious son-in-law, is anything but edifying. It is enough, if not too much (as materials for tho his- torian), to have printed it once ; to reprint it seems wholly super- fluous. On the other hand, there are many interesting things in the book. Dr. Granville's regulations for his household show us a curious picture of rigorous discipline, from which even the strictest rule of to-day has fallen far. Five in winter and four in summer was the hour for rising; fasting and abstinence were enforced by the cogent method of cutting off meals; all games, Scc., were to be locked up from Thursday night to Monday morning. Dr. Granville was an advanced High Churchman (he practised con- fession and was a nonjuror), and what he says about the French Protestants is, in view of this, peculiarly worth considering. He acknowledges their claim to be a true Church of Christ, and strongly enjoins communicating in their places of worship. Dr. Granville was promoted to the Deanery of Durham in 1684. Here, again, we get a good deal of reading that is curious rather than edifying. Lord Crewe, then Bishop, was anxious to induce Gran- ville to take the Mastership of Sherburne, and leave the Deanery to Crewe's nephew. He was not successful. Granville obtained the Deanery, and kept his other preferments,—he was a pluralist, possibly a little more shameless than the average ecclesiastic of the time. These preferments must have amounted to more than £2,000 per annum, equal to about £6,000 in purchasing power. He had the grace, however, to give up all for principle's sake. His financial history is discreditable in the extreme; but this sacrifice weighs heavily on the other side.