Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/413

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Clark
405
Clark

and by buying an anvil which he believed was the identical one upon which the black-smith accompanied his song. Thanks to Clark, this implement is still preserved as a relic of Handel. These antiquarian vagaries were not in themselves of any harm, but unfortunately Clark advocated them with an energy worthy of a better cause, and thus through him two utterly unfounded ideas were very generally accepted as true. Much more useful were Clark's endeavours to obtain for the singing men and choristers of cathedrals the ancient privileges of which in course of time they had been deprived. In 1841 he returned once more to the subject of John Bull, and issued a prospectus for the publication of all the extant works of the Elizabethan composer. This, however, does not seem to have been responded to by the public. In 1843 Clark published an arrangement of an organ or virginal 'Miserere of Bull's, to which he fitted words; this was performed at Christ Church, Newgate Street, on 3 Aug. 1843, before the king of Hanover. In 1847 Clark advocated the erection of a monument to Caxton; his letters on this subject to the 'Sunday Times' were republished in pamphlet form. In 1852 he printed a small essay on the derivation of the word 'madrigal.' Besides these works, Clark was the composer of a few anthems, &c. He died suddenly at the Litlington Tower, Westminster Abbey, on 5 Oct. 1856.

[Grove's Dict. of Music, vol. i.; Chapel Royal Cheque Book; Records of Royal Soc. of Musicians; Musical Gazette, 18 Oct. 1856; Appendix to Bemrose's Choir Chant Book; Brit. Mus. Cat. The history of the 'National Anthem' discussion is well treated in a series of articles by Mr. W. H. Cummings in the Musical Times for 1878.]

W. B. S.


CLARK, SAMUEL (1810–1875), educationalist, the youngest of ten children of Joseph and Fanny Clark, was born at Southampton on 19 May 1810. His father, a prosperous brush and basket maker of the town, was a member of the Society of Friends. Samuel was brought up a strict quaker. One of his earliest recollections was of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, who, on his visit to England in 1814, having expressed a wish to visit a good specimen of the English middle class, was introduced to the Clarks, and patted the boy's head. Clark was sent to a private school Southampton, but at the age of thirteen and a half his father took him away to his own business, in spite of his own and his mother's entreaties. Though business hours were from six a.m. to eight p.m., he found time for his books, and always kept some classical author open in his desk. His constitution was permanently weakened by the exertion, and during his whole life he was never free from dyspepsia. He became well read in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and German, and had a very full and accurate knowledge of geography and chemistry, and he also developed a power of lecturing on physical science. After taking measures to secure a competency for his parents and unmarried sisters, he went to London in 1836, and became a partner in the old-established publishing firm of Darton & Son, Holborn Hill, which thus became ‘Darton & Clark.’

During his residence in Southampton he formed a warm friendship with Frederick Denison Maurice, whose father was residing there. When he came to London, this friendship was pursued, Maurice having been just appointed chaplain of Guy's Hospital. He confided his religious difficulties to Maurice, who addressed to him the series of letters which were published in 1837 as ‘The Kingdom of Christ … in Letters to a Member of the Society of Friends.’ The same year Maurice baptised Clark at St. Thomas's Church, Southwark. This friendship continued through life.

In January 1839 Clark matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. His residence was interrupted by his business, which he still kept on in London, and he did not take his degree for seven years. While in residence he spent his evenings in literary work to defray his college expenses. For several years he edited ‘Peter Parley's Annual’ for his firm, and wrote some of the volumes, e.g. ‘Peter Parley's Tales of the Sun, Moon, and Stars.’ In 1843 he dissolved partnership with Darton, and went abroad with Mr. (afterwards Sir Edward) Strachey, visiting Italy and Greece. In 1846 he graduated, and the same year was ordained to the curacy of Heyford, Northamptonshire; but a few weeks afterwards was appointed, at Maurice's recommendation, vice-principal of St. Mark's Training College for Schoolmasters, of which Derwent Coleridge [q. v.] was principal. Lord John Russell's government on coming into power in 1846 drew up a scheme for the furtherance of national elementary instruction. Up to this time the prevailing theory of the clergy was that the national schoolmaster should be in deacon's orders, and there was a strong tone of ecclesiasticism in the training colleges. Clark disliked this, and entered heartily into the broader whig views. The curriculum of the college had been hitherto almost confined to Latin, mathematics, and ecclesiastical music. Clark was vice-principal of the college for four years, and during that time he completely revolutionised its methods. He was a