Hurd

Hurd, RICHARD, English prelate and writer, named the 'Beauty of Holiness' on account of his comeliness and piety, was born at Congreve, in Staffordshire, January 13, 1720, and studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow in 1742. In 1749 appeared his first notable production, Commentary on Horace's Ars Poetica. In connection with this work Gibbon wrote of the author, 'I know few writers more deserving of the great but prostituted name of critic; but, like many critics, he is better qualified to instruct than to execute.' In 1750, on the recommendation of Warburton, of whom he was a life-long friend and admirer, and whose Works he edited in 1788, he was appointed one of the Whitehall preachers. He afterwards (1774) became Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, but exchanged this see for Worcester in 1781; in 1783 he declined the archbishopric of Canterbury. He died May 28, 1808. His principal works are Dissertations on Poetry, &c. (1755-57); Dialogues on Sincerity, Retirement, the Golden Age of Elizabeth, and the Constitution of the English Government (1759), his most popular book; Letters on Chivalry and Romance (1762); Dialogues on the Uses of Foreign Travel (1764); and An Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies concerning the Christian Church (1772). See Hurd's Works (8 vols. 1811) and Memoirs by Kilvert (1860).