BEDE

bede, cuthbert, the pen-name of edward bradley (1827-1889), english author, who was born at kidderminster on the 25th of march 1827. he entered university college, durham, in 1845, and later studied at oxford, where he made the acquaintance of j.g. wood, the naturalist. he took holy orders, and eventually became rector of stretton in rutlandshire. here he gained a reputation as a humorist and numbered among his friends cruikshank, frank smedley, mark lemon and albert smith. he wrote for various magazines and, in the pages of the _illustrated london news_, introduced the double acrostic. he is chiefly known as the author of _the adventures of mr verdant green, an oxford freshman_ (1853), which he also illustrated and of which a third part appeared in 1856. several well-known oxford characters of the time are depicted in its pages, such as dr plumptre the vice-chancellor, dr bliss the registrar, and the waiter at the mitre. the book abounds in innocent fun. in 1883 he was given the living of lenton, or lavington, lincolnshire, where he died on the 12th of december 1889.