Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/73

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Paget
63
Paget

characteristic handwriting; and it took some time for the people to feel that they knew him intimately, though his pastoral earnestness was keenly appreciated by humble folk in the rural villages. Early in 1903 he declined Mr. Balfour's offer of the see of Winchester. In 1904, by royal warrant dated 23 April, he became a member of the royal commission on ecclesiastical discipline, and signed its report on 21 June 1906. He was one of the three out of fourteen members who attended at each of the 118 sittings, and he exhibited 'a genius for fairness towards hostile witnesses' (The Times, 3 July 1906) and a remarkable gift for fusing opinions in the drafting of the report. His attitude to prevailing excesses in ritual was shown in the charge which he began to deliver to his diocese on 8 Oct. 1906, and by the action which he took against the Rev. Oliver Partridge Henly, vicar of Wolverton St. Mary, in respect of 'reservation' and 'benediction.' The case was taken to the court of arches (The Times, 20 and 21 July 1909); the vicar, who was deprived, obtained employment in another diocese, and afterwards joined the Roman church. Paget sought to provide for a sub-division of the diocese. For this purpose he made a vain endeavour to dispose of Cuddesdon Palace. In July 1910 he showed his active zeal for the wider work of the church by becoming chairman of the Archbishops' Western Canada fund.

To his intimate friends, and in particular to Archbishop Davidson, he was not only a wise counsellor but a delightful companion. He had a cultivated sense of beauty in nature, in music, and in words, and his tall, willowy figure and impressive, courtly bearing made him notable in any assembly. He was attacked by serious illness in the summer of 1910, and seemed to recover; but he died of a sudden recurrence of the malady in a nursing home in London on 2 Aug. 1911. He was interred in his wife's grave in the little burying ground to the south of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. He married on 28 March 1883 Helen Beatrice, eldest daughter of Richard William Church, dean of St. Paul's. Paget's career was permanently saddened by his wife's death at the deanery on 22 Nov. 1900, aged forty-two. She left four sons and two daughters; one of the latter, wife of the Rev. John Macleod Campbell Crum, predeceased Paget in 1910.

There is a portrait by Orchardson at Christ Church, and a memorial fund is being raised (November 1912) to provide a portrait for Cuddesdon Palace and an exhibition with a view to clerical service abroad, to be held at an English university. A cartoon portrait by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1894.

As a theological scholar Paget is to be remembered chiefly for his 'Introduction to the Fifth Book of Hooker's Treatise of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity' (1899; 2nd edit. 1907); for his 'Lux Mundi' essay mentioned above; and for a masterly essay on acedia or accidie, written at Christ Church in 1890 (reprinted separately, in 1912), and published with a collection of sermons entitled 'The Spirit of Discipline' in 1891 (7th edit. 1896). He also published 'Faculties and Difficulties for Belief and Disbelief (1887; 3rd edit. 1894); and two other collections of sermons, entitled respectively 'Studies in Christian Character' (1895) and 'The Redemption of War' (1900).

[Memoir of Paget by Stephen Paget and the Rev. J. M. C. Crum, 1912; The Times, 3 Aug. 1911; Guardian, and Church Times, Aug. 1911; Crockford, 1911; Canon H. S. Holland in Commonwealth (brilliant character-sketch), Sept. 1911; Oxford Diocesan Mag., Sept. 1911; Stephen Paget, Memoirs and Letters of Sir James Paget, 1903; private information.]

E. H. P.


PAGET, SIDNEY EDWARD (1860–1908), painter and illustrator, born on 4 Oct. 1860 at 60 Pentonville Road, London, N., was fourth son of Robert Paget, vestry clerk from 1856 to 1892 of Clerkenwell, by his wife Martha Clarke. At the Cowper Street school, London, Paget received his early education, and passing thence to Heatherley's school of art, entered the Royal Academy schools in 1881, where he was preceded by his brothers, Henry Marriott and Walter Stanley, both well-known artists and illustrators. At the Academy schools, among other prizes, he won in the Armitage competition second place in 1885, and first place and medal in 1886 for his 'Balaam blessing the Children of Israel.' Between 1879 and 1905 Paget contributed to the Royal Academy exhibitions eighteen miscellaneous paintings, of which nine were portraits. The best-known of his pictures, 'Lancelot and Elaine,' exhibited in 1891, was presented to the Bristol Art Gallery by Lord Winterstoke. In 1901 Paget exhibited a whole-length portrait of the donor, then Sir William Henry Wills, which is now at Mill Hill school, while a study is in the possession of Miss J. Stancomb-Wills. Among other portraits painted by him were Dr. Weymouth (R.A. 1887), headmaster