Excerpt from The Ingoldsby Letters (1858-1878), In Reply to the Bishops in Convocation, the House of Lords and Elsewhere, on the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer, Vol. 1 The following notice of the Third Edition of the Letters appeared in the Church Standard, August 15, 1868: - It is not often that anonymous letters written to newspapers attract more than a passing notice. These, however, by "Ingoldsby" have not only been collected in two handsome volumes, but have reached a third edition. This unusual success is to be explained, in the first place, by the nature of the subjects treated; and in the next by the fact that their author is really so well known that he can, and does, repudiate the idea of writing from behind a mask. The topic is a Revision of the Liturgy; and the writer, the Rev. James Hildyard, Rector of Ingoldsby, Lincolnshire, is one of the most eminent scholars of the day, having obtained the highest classical honours at Cambridge; and who would, it is said, have been Master of Christ's College certainly, and probably a Bishop, if he had not shown, even in early life, that free spirit which breathes throughout his pages and makes them so refreshing. What he wants is a Royal Commission charged to inquire whether reforms are needed in the Book of Common Prayer: and it is evident that he looks for a settlement more truly comprehensive than that which, while it retained those who have expanded into Mackonochies and Littledales, nevertheless excluded those 2,000 Puritans whose wrongs and sufferings have been so eloquently recorded by Mr. Mountfield, of Newport. We have only to add that Mr. Hildyard has thrown his whole heart into the work; that he has brought to bear on his opponents innumerable and most apposite classical allusions and quotations, close arguments, keen irony, sharp wit, and caustic ridicule, showing himself more than a match for the Bishop of Oxford, and capable of breaking a lance with the mighty Bishop of St. David's. We had marked many passages deserving to be extracted, but, good as they are by themselves, they read so much better when joined with the context, that we resolved not to injure them by citation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.