A book for a Victorian Christmas £7.99

  

 

 

 

HOW THE VICAR

CAME AND WENT

Victorian Clerical Errors: A Collection

By Tom Hughes

 

Available NOW and exclusively through Amazon.co.uk 

 

 

The vast majority of Victorian vicars, rectors and curates - not to mention the loftier prebendaries, deans and canons - led blameless lives of devoted service to their congregations whether in crowded cities or the most remote corners of the island. They were kind and true to their wives. In their quiet hours, they busied themselves with their bees, books and bells. At their passing, they were much lamented; a few were even worthy of a memorial window.

This little volume, however, recounts the stories of 30 clergymen, accused - and sometimes falsely accused - of crimes and failings, large and small. The headline, "A Clergyman in the Dock," never failed to sell newspapers. “It is wonderful the interest that is taken in the peccadilloes and sins of the cloth and were it the custom to charge admission into our law courts, on such occasions, I am satisfied that the prices might be doubled when a clergyman is the defendant.”

Table of Contents:

• HOW THE VICAR CAME AND WENT
• THE GREAT GLOUCESTERSHIRE HEN CASE
• CHARLES DARWIN AND THE CURATE
• “I MET A VICAR SPRUCE AND GAY”
• A TUTOR OF YOUR BASTARDS
• A HAMPTON COURT SCANDAL
• A CLERGYMAN WANTING IN “ORDINARY HUMANITY”
• THE VICAR AND HIS HOUSEMAID
• AN EXTREMELY HEART-RENDING CASE OF SEDUCTION
• OUR MARRIAGE HAS BEEN A MISTAKE
• VILE MACHINATIONS
• OPIUM WASHED DOWN WITH WINE
• A BIT DESPOTIC
• A CRUEL AND HEARTLESS VILLAIN
• SO SQUALID A SCANDAL
• AN OUTRAGE TO SOCIETY
• A CLERGYMAN’S WAYWARD FOOT
• THE PRODIGAL FATHER
• A BESIEGED CLERGYMAN
• THE BLACKEST CRIMINAL I HAVE EVER SEEN
• IN A VICARAGE FOR “IMMORAL PURPOSES”
• NO PEACE IN FYFIELD
• A CURATE IN THE FOOTLIGHTS
• THE PARSON’S LADY FRIEND
• THE TORMARTON MENAGERIE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Hughes is (to his knowledge) not related to the Rev. Thomas Hughes, the bigamous Victorian clergyman denounced from the bench as the “blackest criminal” of the day. The story of the Rev. Mr. Hughes and the other clerics in this book have been culled from an unrivalled database of clerical scandals and sensations.

Contact: victorianga@aol.com

The collection includes stories from Birmingham, £££Brentford, Bristol, Cheltenham, Derby, Downe, Ealing, Eastleach Martin, Fyfield, Germansweek, Hampton-in-Arden, Hereford, Leeds, Manchester, Semer, Slough, Syde, West Haddon, Wilmington, and, of course, London.

Previously published:

Blame it on the Devon Vicar (Halsgrove 2008); Blame it on the Norfolk Vicar (Halsgrove 2008)

Clerical Errors, A Victorian Series - Vol. 1 (Amazon, 2016); Vol. 2 (Amazon, 2017)