Memorials of George Elms Corns, D.D. Edited by M. Holroyd.
(Cambridge University Press.)—Dr. Corrie was an admirable specimen of the old-style "Head of a House," a species which, we should imagine, survives more at Cambridge than at the sister. University. He was tutor of Catharine Hall (as it was then called) for thirty-two years, and Master of Jesus College, by the appoint- ment of the Bishop of Ely, for thirty-six. He died, in full posses- sion of his faculties to the last, in his ninety-third year. It is hardly necessary to say that he was a Tory of the Tories, except so far as his Toryism was modified by his evangelical views in religion (a quite ideal Tory was bound to be "high and dry "). University reform he strongly disliked; from change, generally, he was constitutionally averse. But he was a very honourable and high-minded man, whom every one respected and many loved. And he did a great deal of good in his generation. Appointed to the living of Newton-in-the-Isle by the Bishop of Ely (l'urton), his friend and patron from the beginning of his career, he was not content to hold it as a valuable appendage to his mastership (itself, it is only fair to say, a very poor piece of preferment), but did his duty there with rigid conscientiousness, and was, indeed, a liberal benefactor to the parish. His letters and diaries, of which copious use has been made in this volume, show him a man of much practical wisdom. Nothing could be better than the advice which he gives to his correspondents on the various topics on which they were accustomed, it seems, to consult him. One strain in his character, which did something doubtless to make it attractive to many, was his love of sport. The success of the Jesus boat, which rose during his mastership to a very high place on the river, delighted him greatly. He sent for the crew, and expressed his pleasure, adding a few words of counsel which, we may hope and believe, found a molls tempu,s in those whom he addressed. When he was nearly ninety, he went to see the match between Cambridge and the Australians, and was highly gratified to witness the triumph of the University. The entries in the Diary relating to academical affairs are often interesting ; but they do not give anything that can be called good stories.
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