arose, and he cultivated amongst the members those qualities which make such meetings useful. He remained a member of this Association until his death; even last June he was very reluctant to surrender his annual custom of receiving the Association at his own house.[1]
But Mr. Thornton's activities were not confined to his clerical duties only. He was also an energetic public servant, doing excellent work as a member of the Newton Abbot Board of Guardians and of the Rural District Council, to which he was appointed in 1885, and held office till 1913, when age compelled him to lead a less strenuous life.
He had very pronounced and strong views on political questions and matters of principle, and often he wailed the laxity of modern ideas thereon, as well as the general want of depth and solidity shown by the younger generation in various matters which, to him, were of such momentous importance. He held the Deceased Wife's Sister's Act in the greatest horror, as also the modern Civil Divorce Laws, and wrote many powerful leaflets and articles on these subjects and on others of the same nature, the Religious Education question especially appealing to him.
As a scholar, too, and a man of considerable literary powers, he was well known, as is shown by the numerous articles and papers which he contributed to various literary, historical and scientific publications, including the Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, and to the Transactions and Proceedings of several learned and other Societies. But his chief works are his two volumes of Reminiscences of a West Country Clergyman, published in 1897 and 1899 respectively—his magnum opus; Countrymen in Council (1901); Notes on North Bovey and Neighbourhood; and many other papers of a like nature, and Short Devonshire Stories (1915), which last he prepared for the press as recently as September, 1915. He leaves besides a large number of MSS. on various subjects, which afford delightful reading and testify to his great abilities and wide range of knowledge.
Mr. Thornton was also an active member of both the Devonshire Association and of the Teign Naturalists' Field
- ↑ I am indebted to the Rev. Preb. Percival Jackson for this account of the Rev. W. H. Thornton's connection with the Clerical Society.
