THE GRAVE OF MANNING'S WIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11538, 24 November 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GRAVE OF MANNING'S WIFE.

Some interesting passages in the early life of Cardinal Manning are recalled by a writer in the October Sunday Strand. We are told that to the end of his life Manning had flowers sent to him every spring and summer from a little village in Sussex, East Lavington by name. Why (asks the writer) should the great cardinal receive flowers from this little place? The answer lies in the fact that from the early summer of 1833 to the end of 1850 he was rector of the parish, and that for four of those years (1833-1837) he enjoyed a married life there so perfectly happy that from the day his wife died down to that upon which he himself folded his hands and closed his eyes for the last time on earth, he could never even trust himself to breath her name to a living soul.» Mrs. Manning was Caroline, the third of the four daughters of the Rev. John Sargent. One of her sisters was the wife of the Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, afterwards the wellknown bishop. In the families of the Sargents and the Wilberforces the traditions of the four years of Manning's married happiness have been tenderly preserved : — " His girl wife went everywhere with him, and helped him in all the work of a parish that contained many poor and struggling folk ; and to her, Saturday after Saturday, he was wont to read over the sermons he had prepared for the morrow. And when, in the full tide of natural happiness, the wasted hand of consumption beckoned her from his side, the widowed husband would steal up the quiet lane to her grave and sit beside it, pencil and paper in hand, composing his discourse in the shadow of the church and of the trees." The late Mr. George Richmond, R.A., once told that he found Manning seated by the graveside of his wife, composing his sermons. This grave is neglected to-day. It is almost, the writer says, the only one in the little churchyard that has neither stone nor cross upon it, and its turf is fast mouldering away: — It was Manning's wish that it should be so. Late in life he told his friend and biographer, the late Mr. Edmund Purcell, that he had neceived a letter from the churchwardens announcing that the grave was falling into decay, and asking for his instructions as to putting it and keeping it in order. His reply was: 'It is best so. Let it be. Time effaces all things.' But he was mistaken. Time has not effaced, nor will it efface, the memory of that brief idyll." The house at Lavington, which was Manning's home, is now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. R. G. Wilberforce - and their family. It was Mrs. Wilberforce who, in his old age, sent the cardinal day by day flowers from Lavington..