Henry Charles Beeching

BEECHING, Henry Charles. b. London, 15 May 1859; d. Norwich, 25 February 1919. He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he first showed a talent for writing verse. He was ordained (deacon, 1882), serving a curacy at St Matthew’s, Mossley Hill, Liverpool (1882-85). He was rector of Yattendon, Berkshire (1885-1900), during which time he became closely associated with Robert Bridges* and the Yattendon Hymnal (he married Bridges’s niece, Mary Plow). He was renowned as an authority on the English poets, publishing many studies and anthologies of their work: they included Shakespeare, Herbert, Herrick, Vaughan, Crashaw, and Tennyson. During these years he...