Mr. Verdant Green Married and Done for (1857). By

Part III of The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green. Arguably a cult college classic; not the least of it's charms being the excellent illustrations by the author-a contributor to Punch (magazine), among others, and highly regarded as an illustrator by such contemporaries as George Cruikshank.... 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. For a year or so he worked in the clergy schools at Kidderminster. In 1850, he was ordained by the bishop of Ely (Turton) to the curacy of Glatton-with-Holme, Huntingdonshire. He remained there over four years, during which he described for the Illustrated London News the extensive work of draining Whittlesey Mere, then being carried out by William Wells of Holmewood. In 1857, Bradley was appointed vicar of Bobbington in Staffordshire. From 1859 to 1871, he was rector of Denton-with-Caldecote, Huntingdonshire. In 1871, he became rector of Stretton, Rutland, where he carried through a much-needed restoration of the church, at a cost of nearly £2,000. To raise the funds he gave lectures in the midland towns, and was much in demand as an authority upon Modern Humourists, Wit and Humour, and Light Literature. Bradley was a friend and associate of George Cruikshank, Frank Smedley, Mark Lemon, and Albert Smith (for whose serials, The Month, The Man in the Moon, and The Town and Country Miscellany, he began to write about 1850). He generally wrote for the press under the pseudonym of Cuthbert Bede, the names of the two patron saints of Durham. His one marked literary success was obtained in 1853, when he produced The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman. With numerous illustrations designed and drawn on the wood by the author. Bradley had the greatest difficulty in finding a publisher, but part i. was eventually issued by Nathaniel Cooke of the Strand as one of his shilling Books for the Rail in October 1853. Part ii. appeared in 1854, and part iii. in 1856. The three parts were then bound in one volume, of which one hundred thousand copies had been sold by 1870; subsequently the book was issued in a sixpenny form, and the sale was more than doubled. The total amount that Bradley received for his work was £350. The three original parts are now scarce, and fetched over five guineas in 1890.................