Introduction

Biography

Richard was the son of auc­tion­eer John Lit­tle­dale.

He at­tend­ed Bec­tive House Sem­in­ary, and Tri­ni­ty Col­lege, Dub­lin. In 1852 he be­came a Uni­ver­si­ty Scho­lar; in 1854, he was first class in Clas­sics and gold me­dal­ist. In 1856, he won the Berk­e­ley gold me­dal for Greek, and oth­er awards.

He gra­du­at­ed BA, 1855; MA, 1858; LLD, 1862; and DCL at Ox­ford, 1862.

He took Ho­ly Or­ders in 1856, and served as cur­ate at St. Mat­thew’s Thorpe Ham­let, Nor­wich (1856–57), and at St. Mary the Vir­gin, So­ho, Lon­don (1857–61).

In 1861, he re­tired due to ill health, and de­vot­ed him­self to li­te­ra­ture. He pub­lished about 50 ti­tles, co­ver­ing sub­jects in theo­lo­gy, his­to­ry, li­tur­gy, and hym­no­lo­gy.

Works

• Application of Co­lour to the De­co­ra­tion of Church­es, 1857
• Catholic Ri­tu­al in the Church of Eng­land, 1861
• Religious Com­mu­ni­ties of Wo­men in the Ear­ly Church, 1862
• Offices of the Ho­ly East­ern Church, in the Orig­in­al Greek, 1863
• Carols for Chris­tmas and Oth­er Sea­sons, 1863
• The Al­tar Ma­nu­al, 1863–77
• The Priest’s Pray­er Book, with hymns, 1864
• The Peo­ple’s Hym­nal, 1867
• The Child­ren’s Bread. A Com­mun­ion Of­fice for the Young, with hymns, 1868
• Primitive Li­tur­gies and Trans­la­tions, with John Neale, 1868–69
• Continuation of John Neale’s Com­ment­a­ry on the Psalms, 1868–74
• Commentary on the Song of Songs, 1869
• Children at Cal­va­ry: Be­ing the Sta­tions of the Cross in Metre for Sing­ing, 1872
• The Chris­tian Pass­ov­er, 1873
• The Pe­trine Claims, 1878–84
• Plain Rea­sons Against Join­ing the Church of Rome, 1880
• Short His­to­ry of the Coun­cil of Trent, and se­ver­al ar­ti­cles in the En­cy­clo­pe­dia Bri­tan­ni­ca, 1882–88

Littledale’s works in verse in­clude trans­la­tions from Dan­ish, Swed­ish, Greek, La­tin, Syr­i­ac, Ger­man, and Ita­li­an.