“Mr [John Robert] Godley whom I remember as a boy at school thoroughly respected by all his schoolfellows, seems early in life to have been taught by the Tractarian movement at Oxford that the religion of a community should be its most important consideration…his letters have recently been published…and no volume of correspondence ever fell into my hands which left upon my mind a higher impression of the purity, piety, philanthropy, truth, and high-minded thoughtfulness of the writer…among modern statues, I know no head that stands better on its shoulders”.
written by world famous novelist Anthony Trollope (pictured) about John Robert Godley (the Founder of Canterbury) in 1872.
*text from ‘John Robert Godley of Canterbury’ by C.E. Carrington
*image courtesy of http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com*
