Rev. William Bruce Knight.

Description

The Dean of Llandaff was born at Fairlinch, in Devonshire, on Christmas-day, 1785. At a very early age he was removed, with the rest of his family, to Llanblethian, near Cowbridge, and was thus enabled to gain that familiar knowledge of the Welsh language which can only be acquired in childhood.

His education was commenced under Dr. Williams, at Cowbridge, was the continued at Sherborne School, in Dorsetshire, and completed at Exeter College, Oxford. He was ordained at the usual age, and officiated for a short time at Llaniltern Chapel, in the parish of St. Fagans. The interval between his ordination and the presentation, by Sir John Aubrey, to the Rectory of Llantrithyd in 1815, was diligently employed in laying in a vast and well-digested store of theological learning, in mastering the original language of the Old Testament, and in a profound and accurate study, of the intricacies of Welsh grammar and literature with what future profit to the Diocese and honour to himself, we need not say.

In 1817, on the death of the Rev. Dr. Hunt, he was presented by the Trustees of C. R. M. Talbot, Esq., to the Perpetual Curacy of Margam, and to the Consolidated of Llandough and St. Mary Church. here he passed nearly all the remainder of his life, and here he most eminently displayed those Pastoral virtues on which we shall hereafter have occasion to dwell.

As a Preacher, his first and most rare merit was the admirable adaption of his subject and language to the capacity and feelings of his audience. No painful train of subtle reasoning, no rhapsodical flights of religious fervour, wearied or distracted their attention; but argument and exhortation were so blended, and so relieved each other, that the mind was fortified while the heart was stirred, and he had ceased to speak long before his hearers were weary of listening.

The Dean was interred on Thursday last, the 14th inst. under the centre of the Altar of “Our Lady's Chapel,” Llandaff Cathedral, to the restoration of which he mainly contributed, and very near the monument of his predecessor and namesake, off “William de Brews,” or Bruce Bishop of Llandaff in the 13th century. The perfect effigies of the Bishop, with is the Crozier in his hand, was accidentally discovered when the stalls of the old Chapel were removed in process of its restoration.

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