A little while after that I took
up a London paper, and I saw it stated: 'The Bishop of Wakefield has
joined the anti-moustache brigade, and we believe he has the sympathy of
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.' I waited a little longer, for I
felt sure something more would come, and then I took up another paper
and found that an exceedingly respected Prebendary of St Paul's in
London had been uttering remarks, either in public or to the
reporters--I don't know which--in which he held up the Bishop of
Wakefield as being one of those foolish people who had largely exceeded
their episcopal powers. I was given a very round lecture upon the
contrast of my conduct with that of my predecessor, who would never have
thought of issuing such a foolish order to the curates to shave their
moustaches. The curates were recommended to do nothing of the kind, but
a fear was expressed that a large number of them would probably comply
with the demand. Still that was not quite the end of the legend; I had
of course a great deal of private correspondence arising out of this
newspaper paragraph, but only the other day I heard--I have not seen
it--that a cartoon has appeared in a London paper in which the Bishop of
Wakefield is represented with a drawn razor in his hand in full cry
after a Wakefield curate with a moustache.
Pages:
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129