The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-30 00:00:00

Charles Henry Cooper, of Cambridge.

The following earnest and affectionate tribute to
the memory of Mr. Cooper is from the hand of John
E. B. Mayor, of St. John's College, who writes thus
of the departed scholar :
Charles Henry Cooper, F.S.A., was born at Great Mar-
low, Bucks, 20th March, 1808, and died at Cambridge, 21st
March, 1866.
When our fellow-townsmen, of all parties, are lamenting
the death of our town's chief ornament, you will perhaps
allow me, who for 13 years maintained an unbroken lite-
rary intercourse with him, to say 6 word respecting the
greatness of our loss.
All who had the privilege of knowing Mr. Cooper must
have admired his intelligence, his ready memory, his rare
familiarity with English history, topography, and biogra-
phy, his wide range of reading, his large and statesman-li°
view of persons and events. No one could see that clear
eye and open brow without feeling that he was in the pre-
sence of no common man. But his intellectual endowments
were Mr. Cooper's least merit. I have never known a man
of letters more single-minded, modest, and unselfish ;
self scrupulous even to excess in confessing the smallest
obligation, always ready to communicAte to others, he wa°
indifferent whether his services were acknowledged or
merely used ; the best years of his life were devoted to ill"
vestigating our academic history, though few of those for
whom he toiled appreciated his work, and many ignoraulli
regarded him as an enemy ; they might have learned that
he loved to identify himself with the university, rejoicing
when he could add a new name to our list of worthies ;
was because he clung with fond reverence to our "Sparta'
whose every stone spoke to him of struggles and sacrifices
and noble memories, that ho adorned it as no gownsman
has done.
The man who dwelt so continually amidst the wine and
good of all ages could not fail to catch somewhat of their
spirit ; those who knew him best, knew that reverence for
holy things was natural to him ; cheerful and frank as 1114
conversation was, and without taint of cant, it never bor.:
dared on licentiousness or profanity. The clergy testify that
his blameless life, not less than his direct support, uPhslAd
the national church in the town. One of them reraarice',
but a few days before his death, " it was strange to see how
attentive he was in church ;" for indeed, whatever he did'
he did with all his heart.
The patience which carried him through his snlit3ll7,,
studies guarded him from the worst incidents of Pnb'i-
strife. Far too busy to nurse malice, he would, on quitting
the courts or hustings, quietly resume his researches, as 011.06
whose home lay above the atmosphere of faction•
habitual temper was singularly even and serene, under
whatever provocation or suffering ; nor should it be for::
gotten that his great knowledge was acquired in defiallu:
of bodily infirmities, which made visits to his chose
haunts, the university registry and library,
a daily set o'
penance. 000
He might have taken for his motto Chaucer's descrip
of the scholar:—
" And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach ;"
for he was far too genuine a student to fret under ert'd
cism, as I, to him in antiquarian studies but a tiro, Pr°V:i..
day by day through long years. His judgments were
formly gentle ; patient and thorough in collecting and
,0,
s
ing evidence, he was judicial in the candour of his 511
ming up. Compare his account of Cranmer with tllOO
~
given by writers far less conversant with the facts, fl3".tb
and Macaulay ; I well remember his saying
he
began
tilted
a strong prejudice against the archbishop, which In

away under the light of testimony. t
The void which Mr. Cooper has left behind himcam—„a °
be filled. Cambridge never had, nor will have,do
clerk so entirely master of its archives, or more devote t°
'
its interests; no town in England has three such recto&
boast as the " Memorials of Cambridge,,, ,c Annals of Cara-
bridge," and " Athena° Cantabrigienses." The last ti°2
are unfinished, and who shall bend the bow of 111y5.5e3ta
A prentice hand may bring more minute seholarshiP
the task; but the terseness, the fairness, the legal slant
the steady industry, the quickness, the sure memory', t'"
commanding survey and firm grasp, of the master, svm°
rival ? Compared with Wood, Baker, and Cole, he c°r° 60
nearest to Baker. The prejudices so winning in WOO tl,
childish in Colo, warped Mr. Cooper's judgment as lit
e aine
as that of the nonjuring " Collegii Divi Johaunis
ejectus :" most works of research published during tbe r'9
15 years have. been largely indebted to Mr. Cooper,
°leir
Kennet, Strype, Hearne, and their compeers, ewe half o/
reputation to Baker. The Gentleman's Magazine, IV°tesc!
Soeietie!:
Queries, the London and Cambridge Antiquarian
and other serials and institutions, have lost their most al_
duous and valued contributor. Alma Mater has for
o
who did her 'tN ork, under great discouragement, better tba__,
any of her sons could have done it. The university' librs",
has lost its most constant student, to whom it owes
m its
gifts, and countless suggestions for the improvement lost
catalogues and the supply of its wants. We have al
l
perhaps the most perfect example of unflagging need
which Cambridge has seen during this century. thae
not be a prophet to foretell that 200 years henca•
oth
r
Cooper's works will be more often cited than any
Cambridge booke of our time.