Editing Reginald Heber (section)

==Early life==
===Background and childhood===
[[File:Drayton Road, Hodnet - geograph.org.uk - 1441690.jpg|thumb|left|Hodnet in Shropshire, where Heber spent his early years]]
The surname "Heber" probably derives from "Haybergh", a hill in the [[Craven District|Craven]] district of [[Yorkshire]], where the family originated. The Hebers held the [[Lord of the Manor|lordship of the manor]] of [[Marton, East Riding of Yorkshire|Marton]], and were granted a [[coat of arms]] during the reign of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]].<ref name= M9>Montefiore, pp. 9–10</ref> Richard Heber was the son of Thomas Heber and Elizabeth Atherton,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K1kBAAAAQAAJ&dq=Descendants+of+Elizabeth+Atherton+of+Hodnet&pg=PA546|title=A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies|author=Sir John Bernard Burke|year=1838}}</ref> the granddaughter of [[Richard Atherton]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ny_-DwAAQBAJ&q=richard+atherton+liverpool+mp&pg=PA441|title=The Story of Warrington: The Athens of the North|year=2020|author=Cooke, Bill|publisher=Troubador Publishing Limited |isbn=9781838596255}}</ref>

In 1752 Richard Heber received the manor and estate of [[Hodnet Hall]] in Shropshire as a bequest from a cousin of his wife. This included [[advowson|patronage]] of the parish of [[Hodnet, Shropshire|Hodnet]]. On Richard Heber's death in 1766 his brother Reginald, who was co-rector of the parish of [[Malpas, Cheshire|Malpas]] in Cheshire, inherited the Shropshire estate and additionally became rector of Hodnet.<ref>Hughes, p. 7</ref> His first marriage, to Mary Baylie, produced a son, [[Richard Heber]], who became a noted book collector and [[Member of Parliament#United Kingdom|Member of Parliament]] for [[Oxford University (UK Parliament constituency)|Oxford University]].<ref name= Sherbo>{{cite ODNB|last= Sherbo|first= Arthur|title= Heber, Richard (1774–83)|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12854|date= May 2005|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/12854|access-date= 28 June 2012}} {{subscription required}}</ref> His second marriage to Mary Allanson, after Mary Baylie's death, produced two further sons, the elder, born at Malpas on 21 April 1783, being named Reginald after his father.<ref name= M9/>

At the age of eight the younger Reginald began five years at the local grammar school at [[Whitchurch, Shropshire|Whitchurch]]. In 1796 he was sent to Bristow's, a small private school in [[Neasden]] a few miles north of Central London. This provided intensive learning for around a dozen boys, preparing them for eventual entry to Oxford or Cambridge.<ref name= ODNB>{{cite ODNB|last= Laird|first= Michael|title= Heber, Reginald (1783–1826)|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12853|year= 2004|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/12853|access-date= 28 June 2012}} {{subscription required}}</ref> At Bristow's he met John Thornton, who became a lifelong friend,<ref>Hughes, pp. 10–11</ref> sharing an interest in church history and beliefs; a lengthy letter from Heber to Thornton is described by Heber's biographer Arthur Montefiore as worthy of a learned theologian.<ref>Montefiore, pp. 15–16.</ref> In October 1800 Heber entered [[Brasenose College, Oxford]];<ref>Montefiore, p. 16 (Hughes, p. 12, gives the date as November 1799).</ref> Thornton's decision to go to Cambridge was a matter for Heber's regret.<ref name= Hughes12>Hughes, pp. 12–13.</ref>

===Oxford===
[[File:Brasenose College from the High Street.jpg|thumb|[[Brasenose College, Oxford]] (modern photograph)]]

There were family connections with Brasenose, Heber's brother Richard being a [[Fellow#Academia|fellow]] at the time and his father was a former fellow. The head of the college was [[William Cleaver]], a friend of Reginald Senior and frequent visitor to Hodnet Hall. In his first year, Heber won the University Prize for Latin Verse,<ref>Montefiore, pp. 16–18.</ref> and began to develop local repute as a [[Romantic poetry|Romantic poet]]. In 1803 he entered a long poem, "[[Palestine (poem)|Palestine]]", for the [[Newdigate Prize]].<ref name= M19/> He had been helped in composing it by [[Walter Scott]], a family friend, before Scott's years of fame.<ref name= Hughes12/> The poem was enthusiastically received when Heber declaimed it at that year's [[Encaenia]] ceremony.<ref name= M19>Montefiore, p. 19 (Hughes, p. 13, wrongly states that the poem was entered for the [[Seatonian Prize]], Cambridge's equivalent to the Newdigate).</ref> It was later published and set to music by [[William Crotch]]<ref name= ODNB/> (who had been professor of music at Oxford since 1797),<ref>{{cite ODNB|last= Olleson|first= Philip|title= Crotch, William (1775–1847)|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6810|year= 2004|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/6810|access-date= 29 June 2012}} {{subscription required}}</ref> and translated into Welsh by W. Owen Pughe in 1822.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9fCFcc8Hgz4C can arobryn Heber, etc''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205133558/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9fCFcc8Hgz4C&printsec=frontcover |date=5 December 2022 }}, E. Williams, London 1822</ref> Montefiore, in 1902, described it as "the most successful and popular piece of religious verse of the first half of the [19th] century".<ref name= M19/> Heber's later biographer Derrick Hughes finds its contemporary acclaim puzzling: "It is not a good, not even a mediocre poem; it is leaden".<ref>Hughes, p. 14.</ref>

The death of Reginald Senior in February 1804 left the living of [[St Luke's Church, Hodnet|parish of St Luke, Hodnet]] vacant, and may have prompted Heber's decision to seek ordination, though he delayed it for some years.<ref>Hughes, p. 15.</ref> In his degree examinations he did honourably rather than brilliantly; Montefiore quotes a contemporary view that Heber's main contribution to university life was in fields outside formal academic success, particularly as a thinker, a poet and an orator: "Reginald Heber was a star whose lustre was as steady as it was clear."<ref>Montefiore, p. 21.</ref> He took his [[bachelor's degree]] in the summer of 1804 and was elected to a fellowship of [[All Souls College, Oxford]]. He also won the university's Bachelor's Prize for an English prose essay.<ref>Hughes, p. 16.</ref>

===European journey===
Heber and Thornton had planned to follow their graduation with a [[Grand Tour]] of Europe. However, in 1804  the [[Napoleonic Wars]] made much of Europe inaccessible, and so they delayed their departure until the summer of 1805  and took a route through Sweden, Norway and Finland to Russia, instead of the usual journey through France and Italy.<ref>Montefiore, pp. 22–24</ref><ref>Hughes, pp. 19–20</ref> In July 1805, they sailed for [[Gothenburg]] in Sweden, then travelled northward by stage coach, via [[Vänern]] and [[Uddevalla]], to [[Oslo|Kristiania]] (Oslo) in Norway.<ref>Montefiore, pp. 25–29</ref> After a short stay there, they moved through the wild [[Dovre Region]] to [[Trondheim]], where they observed the practice of [[skiing]] for the first time (Heber referred to it as "skating").<ref>Heber and Heber Vol. I, pp. 72–73</ref><ref>Montefiore, pp. 30–33</ref>

They then turned south-east, re-entered Sweden and travelled through [[Uppsala]] to [[Stockholm]]. Towards the end of September they crossed the [[Gulf of Bothnia]] to [[Turku|Åbo]] (Turku), site of Europe's most northerly university, in the part of Finland then under Swedish rule.<ref>Montefiore, pp. 38–40</ref> They proceeded eastwards and reached [[St Petersburg]] at the end of October.<ref>Montefiore, pp. 42–43</ref> They spent two months in the city; through influential British Embassy contacts they visited places generally closed to the public, including [[Alexander I of Russia|Tsar Alexander]]'s private quarters in the [[Winter Palace]].<ref>Montefiore, pp. 49–50</ref> They experienced Muslim worship at first hand as the city's large Muslim population observed [[Ramadan]]; Heber described the crowds gathered for prayer in an improvised mosque as "the most decent and attentive congregation [he] had seen since leaving England."<ref>Hughes, p. 25</ref>

[[File:Reginaldheberbis00bric 0060.jpg|thumb|left|A depiction of the Kremlin in Moscow]]

Heber and Thornton had meant to remain in St Petersburg until after the New Year, then if possible return home through Germany. This was thwarted by Napoleon's victory at [[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]] on 2 December 1805 and the treaties that followed.<ref>Montefiore, pp. 43 and 47</ref> Instead they extended their stay in Russia, leaving St Petersburg on 31 December 1805 by sledge for the 500-mile journey to Moscow, where they arrived on 3 January.<ref>Montefiore, pp. 50–54</ref>  They found it a hospitable city—in a letter home Heber refers to it as an "overgrown village"<ref>Heber and Heber Vol I, p. 150</ref>—and they made friends with many of its leading citizens and clergy. They left by stage coach on 13 March, heading south towards the [[Crimea]] and the [[Black Sea]].<ref>Montefiore, pp. 56–61</ref> This took them through the [[Cossacks|Cossack]] country of the [[Don River (Russia)|Don River Basin]]. Heber sent home a vivid account of the night celebrations for Easter at [[Novocherkassk|Novo Tcherkask]], the Cossack capital: "The soft plaintive chaunt of the choir, and their sudden change at the moment of daybreak to the full chorus of 'Christ is risen' were altogether what a poet or a painter would have studied with delight".<ref>Heber and Heber Vol. I, p. 244</ref>

In the Crimea, Heber observed the manners and practices of the region's large Muslim community. He expressed pleasure at being greeted with the oriental ''salaam''.<ref>Heber and Heber Vol. I, p. 267</ref> The course of the war in Europe had meanwhile shifted to allow Heber and Thornton to pass through Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany to the port of [[Hamburg]],<ref name= M78/> by way of Austerlitz, where they heard accounts of the recent battle. While making sketches of the scene, Heber was briefly mistaken for a French spy by local farmers.<ref>Hughes, p. 30</ref> At Hamburg the two travellers boarded Lord Morpeth's private yacht and sailed for England, arriving at [[Great Yarmouth]] on 14 October 1806.<ref name= M78>Montefiore, pp. 78–82</ref>