3-078-285 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Father Mathew Centenary: Father Mathew, c1840s, (1890). The "Apostle of Temperance". '"I send you my Portrait: it is, I am informed, a faithful Likeness. I am, with the highest respect, your ever grateful and affectionate friend, Theobald Mathew"...there was nothing in the Father's personal appearance that suggested the man who was living a life superior to others - no clerical coat or hat: Mr. Mathew dressed like a gentleman of the time, in a frock-coat, hessian boots, and a tall top-hat. If anyone had suspected him of being a clergyman, it would have been difficult, until he bared his head, to say to what communion he belonged. Of medium height, of a complexion neither too florid nor too pallid, with features finely chiselled, blue eyes beaming softly but with great animation, an expression at once intelligent and benign, and ever breaking out into humorous smiles, Theobald Mathew fascinated everyone who had the pleasure of seeing him or hearing him talk. Such was the style of man who threw himself with all the ardour of his simple affectionate nature into the work of delivering his country from the fiend of drink'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.