ALFRED

See also:

• ALFRED AINGER (1837–1904)

AINGER (1837–1904)  , English divine and man of letters, was born in London on the 9th of February 1837, the on of an architect . He was educated at King's College, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 186o to a curacy at Alrewas, near Rugeley . There he remained until 1864, when he became an assistant master at the Sheffield Collegiate School . His connexion with the Temple church, in London, began in 1866, when he was appointed reader; and in 1894 he succeeded Dr Vaughan as master . In 1887 he was presented to a canonry in Bristol cathedral, and he was chaplainin-ordinary to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII . He died on the 8th of February 1904 . Canon Ainger's gentle wit and humour, his generosity and lovable disposition, endeared him to a wide circle . In literature his name is chiefly associated with his sympathetic appreciation of Charles Lamb and Thomas Hood . His works include: Charles Lamb (1882) and Crabbe (1903) in the " English Men of Letters " series; editions of Lamb's Essays of Ella (1883) and of his Letters (1888; 2nd ed., 1904), of the Poems (1897) of Thomas Hood, with a biographical introduction; The Life and Works of Charles Lamb (12 vols.,1899–1900); articles on Tennyson and Du Maurier in the Dictionary of National Biography; The Gospel and Human Life (1904), sermons; Lectures and Essays (2 vols., 1905), edited by the Rev . H . C . Beeching .

See also Edith Sichel, The Life and Letters of Canon Ainger (1906) .