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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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GEORGE WHELER (1650 - 1723) Wheler was born in Holland, during the exile of his parents for their loyalty to Charles II. He travelled in Italy and France 1672-75, and in Greece and the Levant 1675-76, collecting plants, coins, classical manuscripts and antique marbles. He published Journey into Greece in 1682, the year in which he was knighted. In 1684, Sir George became a canon at Durham, and was rector of Houghton-le-Spring from 1709 until his death. Sir George wrote The Protestant Monastery where the keeping of canonical hours, vigils and fasts was advocated and the gathering of the family three times a day for prayer. He regulated his own family according to these rules, but Surtees (q.v.) remarks that 'his religion, though austere in regard to himself, never rendered him harsh or severe in his judgment of others.' Other incumbents of the same parish exhibited the same sweetness of nature. Henry Bagshaw (1632-1709) had 'the greatest inclination to gardening plants and flowers which began from my infancy in coats'. Wheler's successor, Thomas Secker (1693 - 1768) became Archbishop of Canterbury.
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