The subject was George May Coleridge, vicar of the parish, the poet's nephew, who had been cut off in the prime of life while Froude acted as his curate.

The sermon itself is not remarkable, except for being written in unusually good English.

The doctrine is strictly orthodox, and the simple life of a good clergyman devoted to his people is described with much tenderness of feeling.
This sermon, of which he gave a copy to John Duke Coleridge, the future Lord Chief Justice of England, was Froude's first experiment in authorship, and it was at least harmless.

As much cannot be said for the second, two anonymous stories, called Shadows of the Clouds and The Lieutenant's Daughter.

The Lieutenant's Daughter has been long and deservedly forgotten.