SOLD ALSO BY RIVINGTONS, LONDON; CRUTTWELL,-BINNS, MP Eedson Lumb : TO THE RIGHT REVEREND JOHN FISHER, D. D. F.R. & A. S. Lord Bishop of Salisbury, CHANCELLOR OF THE ORDER OF THE GARTER, &c. &c. THESE MEMOIRS ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY HIS LORDSHIP'S MOST OBEDIENT AND MUCH OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT, STEPHEN HYDE CASSAN. vid. Burke's Stist. of the Commoners Vol.i.p.650. Vicarage, Mere, Wilts, March 15, 1824. PREFACE. In the following rough and disjointed compilation it will be seen that style has been wholly neglected. I have sought no other praise than that of Industry and Fidelity; for my object has not been to produce an amusing volume, but a correct and authentic record of the persons of whom it treats. Over many of the Sarum Prelates, modern no less than ancient, Oblivion seems to have cast her deepest shades. To rescue them from their undeserved obscurity, and to concentrate their widely dispersed notices, has been my humble, and I trust, not altogether useless endeavour. It frequently happens that persons hitherto considered insignificant prove to have been so only because little known. On such, then, has been bestowed the greater research and more ample illustration; while I have considered it less necessary to give copious details of those Prelates, who, by their conspicuous connection with the political and literary history of our country, are already universally known and largely recorded by the pen of Biography; the memoirs of the latter therefore will appear in a compressed form, and references to other works will be made for the filling up of the outline. The extensive range taken by Bishop Godwin necessarily precluded his treating at large of the individual Prelates of any specific See. The same apology may be offered for the scantiness of the additional materials brought to light by his Annotator and Continuator, the Rev. Dr. Richardson. Many of their articles, confined to a very few lines, I i |