1883

Hardwicke’s letter to the Evening Standard (5 February) asking for support to defeat the Braithwaite and Buttermere railway Bill.

Edith exhibits three paintings at an exhibition in London (March).

Promoters of the Braithwaite and Buttermere Railway Bill withdraw their proposal (9 April).

At a meeting of the Wordsworth Society, Hardwicke proposes the formation of a permanent Lake District Defence Society (2 May).

Hardwicke receives his Master of Arts degree from Balliol College, Oxford (12 May).

Hardwicke inducted to the living at Crosthwaite (8 July) and takes up residence in Crosthwaite Vicarage (mid-August).

Ennerdale Railway Bill rejected by a Select Committee of Parliament (18 July).

The first Harvest Thanksgiving held at Crosthwaite under Hardwicke’s guidance (14 October).

1884

Alice Fletcher, Edith’s eldest sister, dies aged 39 (24 February) and is buried in Brathay churchyard (26 February).

Sees Tennyson for the first time when he visits the poet at Farringford, Isle of Wight (early Spring).

Second Ennerdale Railway Bill rejected by a Select Committee of Parliament (16 May).

Hardwicke appointed Acting Chaplain of the First Cumberland Rifles (July).

The Keswick School of Industrial Arts starts its first classes (October).

Reminiscences of Wordsworth among the Peasantry of Westmorland published in the Transactions of the Wordsworth Society.

1885

Application by Hardwicke for a faculty to make major alterations to St. Kentigern Church is opposed by a number of parishioners (February). Permission eventually given by the Consistory Court.

Hardwicke gives his first lecture on the Keswick School of Industrial Arts at a conference on ‘Education under Healthy Conditions’ in Manchester (April).

The first May Day Procession held at Crosthwaite under Hardwicke’s guidance. The Queen’s Proclamation included a directive to every subject to be kind and good to every animal (22 May).

Hardwicke, Edith and Noel holiday in Yorkshire staying at Appleby, Barnard Castle, Richmond, Thirsk and Pickering (24 August).

Publication of Christ for To-Day: International Sermons by Eminent Preachers of the Episcopal Church in England and America. Edited by Hardwicke (October).

Hardwicke is one of the signatories to a letter to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York calling for the need for ‘Church Reform’, including giving more roles to the laity and putting an end to Church patronage (December).

1886

A lecture on ‘Footpath Preservation’ given to the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society (22 March).

‘The Ideal Sunday School Teacher’ was the subject of a lecture given by Hardwicke in Wigan to an audience of teachers, ministers and school inspectors (25 March).

Keswick and District Footpaths Preservation Association formed (30 March).

Hardwicke writes to the London newspapers supporting the right of ‘pit-brow women’ in the Wigan collieries to continue working and argues against those who are trying to amend the Mines Regulation Bill to prevent women doing such work (April).

Keswick School of Industrial Arts hold their first annual exhibition in the town. (June).

Final meeting of the Wordsworth Society. Hardwicke proposes the setting up of a Memorial to the Lake Poets (7 July).

'Footpath Preservation: A National Need' published by Hardwicke in the Contemporary Review (September).

Hardwicke informs the Carlisle Diocesan Conference that the Clergy Pensions Institution, the establishment of which he has been a leading advocate, is now enrolling members (1 October).

Agreed that the proposed ‘Memorial to the Lake Poets’ should be in Keswick. It was to consist of a library and reading-room in which the works and MSS of the poets should be collected, together with pictures and other interesting relics (24 November).

---

 Next: 1887-1889

Hits: 884