Memoirs

Mark Pattison's Memoirs, compiled during his last illness and published posthumously in 1885, recount the academic's fascinating, if difficult, life. Highly regarded for his learning, Pattison (1813-84) spent most of his adult life in Oxford, first as a student, then a tutor, and eventually, from 1861, as Rector of Lincoln College. He was a close associate of Newman and the Tractarians during the 1840s, though he later tended towards agnosticism. During the 1850s he made several visits to German universities, and developed an interest in early modern Protestant thought. He later edited works by Pope and Milton. Pattison's Memoirs paint a vivid though often bitter portrait of life in Victorian Oxford. They describe his incompetent tutors, his disillusionment with the Oxford Movement, and vicious academic rivalries. Pattison would not permit changes to 'soften' the impact, but his editor omitted certain passages that might 'wound the feelings of the living'.