Dr. Inge ceased on Tuesday to be Dean Inge, but
I shall be surprised if he is not pretty. frequently referred to in the old style for some time to come. I believe that under the new Cathedral Statutes, which are not yet law, the honorific title of Dean or Dean Emeritus may be conferred on clergy who have resigned that office. But as things are it is correct to speak of Dean Inge no longer. I believe that Dr. Inge himself marked his resignatiOn punctually by shedding his decanal trappings on Tuesday. What determines the adoption of the title Dean as a prefix in common usage I have never understood. It has been applied, so far as I can remember, in the present generation to no one except Dean Inge himself. Earlier there were, of course, Dean Farrar, Dean Stanley, and many others. The usage, I suppose, is a kind of sub- conscious tribute to a distinguished man. There seems to be no other tradition or convention to explain it.
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