[Charles John Vaughan, Headmaster of Harrow School and Dean of Llandaff.] Autograph Letter Signed to W. S. De Winton, giving an analysis of the state of affairs regarding ‘Church Reform’.

Despite Vaughan’s final protestations, a fine analysis of the competing forces around the drive for reform of the Church of England. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is from the papers of the recipient, Wilfred Seymour De Winton (c.1856-1929) of Haverfordwest. 4pp, 12mo. On bifolium with mourning border. Signed ‘C. J. Vaughan’. Thirty-six lines of text. Begins ‘Dear Mr. de Winton, / I am interested by your letter. You put forcibly the iniquity of the scheme, & I feel that applying it thus to one locality gives a much better idea of it to ignorant people than a more general description of its bearing upon the country at large.’ In Vaughan’s opinion it is too late ‘to introduce such a Church Reform as will pacify enemies, and must, in order to do so, alienate outrage friends’. The four points raised by De Winton ‘would be wormwood to the kind of Church people who live in these parts - and the last of them is Disestablishment at once’. He continues forcibly: ‘Those who are bent upon destruction will not give ear to reformation, and those who are keen for conservation will not surrender the very thing they are fighting for.’ His view, as De Winton will perceive, is that there is ‘not much hope. If the present onslaught can be staved off, and I trust it yet will be, then the Church must indeed set itself to such self-mending as she can get her champions to consent to’. He ends by apologising for ‘a really inadequate answer’.