Pattison

Pattison, Mark (1813-84), was the son of the rector of Hauxwell, near Richmond, in Yorkshire. He matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, in 1832, and was elected to a fellowship at Lincoln College in 1839. At this period he belonged to the advanced wing of the Tractarian part}', and showed his theological bent by twice gaining the Denyer prize (1841-42). He translated for Pusey's Library of the Fathers, and followed Newman on his retirement to Littlemore, but "did not share in the crash of 1845." In his reaction from the Oxford Movement he was drawn as forcibly towards latitudinarian views as he had previously been in the opposite direction, and his life henceforward is a history of ever-widening efforts after intellectual culture. His work at Oxford was retarded for ten years by his failure to obtain the rectorship of his college in 1851, but after his election in 1861 he again devoted himself to university reform. He also took a-deep interest in education generally, and acted on the Duke of Newcastle's Commission of Inquiry into Elementary Education, publishing a Report (on Germany) in 1859. His books, few in number, are remarkable alike for their deep erudition, earnest thought, and vigorous style, the best known being Isaac Casanbon (1875) and Milton (1879), in the "English Men of Letters" Series. His Memoirs are an interesting autobiographv. His sister, Dorothy Wtndham Pattison (" Sister Dora") (1832-78), became widely known and loved in the Black Country during the thirteen years (1865-78) she laboured as hospital nurse at Walsall.