Lord Acton and his Circle
instrumental in building a new church at St John's and in bringing about a marked religious "revival" in the parish. In 1845 he threw up his living to enter the Catholic Church.
After his conversion he became for a time a tutor at Prior Park, near Bath, and whilst there, in 1846, he conceived the idea of starting the Rambler, and at once wrote to Father Newman for his advice. In reply Newman wrote the following letters:
"Maryvale, July 13, 1846.
"I have just returned from London, and find your letter. To save the post I write you a short answer to your inquiry.
"Such a magazine as you propose is very much wanted, and for many reasons Prior Park is the place for it. Your having a press is a sufficient reason, and there are others too.
" Nothing could please me more, and I am sure all of us, than to do what we could in the way of assistance, but I have one or two difficulties. One, which is not a great one, is that Mr Keon* has most kindly and earnestly pressed me to write for Dolman's Magazine. I have declined on the ground that I have never written in a literary publication, and certainly the tone and style is not such as I should like to take part in. This would be no reason against assisting you in a religious magazine, if it really were professedly religious, or at least, critical, philosophical, etc. I mean grave. Another
* Miles Gerald Keon, born in Tipperary 1821, died in Bermuda 1875. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, and became a distinguished journalist and a correspondent to some of the chief London newspapers. In April, 1846, he became for a few months editor of Dolman's Magazine.
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