[Gutenberg 4644] • The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green

The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green is a novel by Cuthbert M. Bede, a pseudonym of Edward Bradley (1827-1889). It covers the exploits of Mr Verdant Green a first year undergraduate at Oxford University. Different editions have varying titles, including Mr Verdant Green: Adventures of an Oxford Freshman. The same characters reappear in a sequel entitled Little Mr Bouncer and his friend Verdant Green. Background: The work was first published in three separate parts, in soft covers, by James Blackwood, during the 1850s (1853, 1854 and 1857). Notices in early copies of the book indicate that they were first intended for sale at railway stations, for reading whilst travelling. Bradley himself had attended University College, Durham (whence his pseudonym), graduating BA in 1848, but then went to Oxford for a year or so, studying to enter the church. Though Bradley's Verdant Green has become something of a cult book about Oxford, he had previously produced a series of pen and ink drawings entitled 'Ye freshmonne his adventures at University College, Durham'. He altered the setting on the advice of Mark Lemon at Punch. Drawings of 'Durham Student Life' survive in College Life published in Oxford, Cambridge and Durham in 1850. These drawings were much admired by masters like George Cruikshank and John Leech. Hippolyte Taine in his Notes sur l'Angleterre (1872) drew on Bradley's 'Oxford' book for his description of English university life. It seems not to be widely known that no fewer than nine chapters of Part III are devoted to Verdant Green's visit to Northumberland. On the way he passes through Darlington. 'After mentioning Durham Cathedral and Lord Durham's monument on Penshaw Hill, Verdant Green and his party then pass over Robert Stephenson's (recently completed) High Level Bridge at Newcastle. The location of 'Honeywood Hall' is not traced but the guests visit Warkworth, Alnwick, and Chillingham Castle to see the wild cattle. There is also a trip to Bamburgh and the Longstones light to talk to Grace Darling's father. Verdant eventually gets married here. Bradley clearly knew the area well and paints an attractive picture of the wild landscape and the pleasures of riding, al fresco meals and neighbourly contact, the warmer for being more difficult than in crowded Midland counties. Much amusement is had with local dialect and customs, but it is not condescending and the laugh is usually on Verdant Green.............. Edward Bradley (25 March 1827 - 12 December 1889) was an English clergyman and novelist. He was born in Kidderminster and educated at Durham University from which he took his pen name Cuthbert M. Bede, B.A. His most popular book was The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, on the experiences of an Oxford undergraduate. There was a sequel, Little Mr Bouncer and his friend Verdant Green. Tales of College Life (often bound with it), introduces the character of Mr Affable Canary. The celebrated illustrations to the Verdant Green books were the work of the author. Life: He was the second son of Thomas Bradley, surgeon of Kidderminster, who came of a somewhat ancient Worcestershire and clerical family. He was born on 25 March 1827. A brother, Thomas Waldron Bradley, was author of two novels, Grantley Grange (1874) and Nelly Hamilton (1875), while an uncle, William Bradley of Leamington, wrote Sketches of the Poor by a retired Guardian. After education at the Kidderminster grammar school, Bradley went up in 1845 to University College, Durham, where he was a Thorp and foundation scholar. He graduated B.A. in 1848, and took his licentiateship of theology in 1849. Not being of age to take orders, he appears to have stayed a year at Oxford, pursuing various studies, though he never matriculated, and while there he formed a lifelong friendship with John George Wood.............