The Warden

The Warden is a novel by English writer Anthony Trollope, published in 1862. This is the first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series followed by Barchester Towers. The Warden touches on Mr. Septimus Harding, the meek, elderly warden of Hiram's hospital and regent of Barchester Cathedral in the fictional county of Barsetshire. Hiram Hospital is an almshouse maintained by a medieval charitable bequest of the Diocese of Barchester. The income maintains the almshouse itself, maintains its twelve servants, and, in addition, provides comfortable housing and living for its caretaker. Mr. Harding was appointed to this office through the patronage of his old friend, the Bishop of Barchester, who is also the father of Archdeacon Grantly, to whom Harding's eldest daughter, Susan, is married. The warden, who lives with his remaining child, the unmarried youngest daughter Eleanor, performs his duties conscientiously. Trollope's account appears to have been inspired by the 1849 investigations of the Rev. Henry Holloway, an ecclesiastical reformer and vicar of the Church of the Holy Faith, Winchester, into the finances of the Hospital of the Holy Cross, Winchester, and the income generated by the head of the institution, Francis North, 5th Earl of Guildford.