Alford Henry

Alford, Henry, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, a divine and poet, born in 1810. He took a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, and graduated five years later with high honours, obtaining a fellowship at Trinity in 1834. In the next year he received the vicarage of Wymeswold, Leicestershire. In 1835 he brought out two volumes of collected poems under the title of School of the Heart, and in 1841 he produced another volume of poetry, including his Abbot of Muchelvaye. In 1841 and 1842 he was Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge, and his discourses were published shortly afterwards. The first volume of his Greek Testament appeared in 1849, and added immensely to his reputation for erudite scholarship. In 1853 he accepted the incumbency of the Quebec chapel. In 1857 Lord Palmerston appointed him to the deanery of Canterbury, where he spent his remaining years. The last volume of the Greek Testament came out in 1861. The Queen's English, the Year of Praise, Letters from Abroad, and A Commentary on the Old Testament are amongst the most serious of his later productions. In The Year of Praise and The Children of the Lord's Prayer he returned once more to the poetical instincts of his early days, and in 1869 he joined his niece in writing a novel entitled Netherton-on-Sea. He died in 1871.