In 1858 he became a prebendary of St Paul's, and in 1859 vicar of St John's, Paddington. In 1866, he was made Dean of Norwich, and in that office exercised a long and marked influence on church life. A strong Conservative and a churchman of traditional orthodoxy, he was a keen antagonist of higher criticism and of all forms of rationalism.[7]
His Thoughts on Personal Religion (1862) and The Pursuit of Holiness were well received; and he wrote John William Burgon, Late Dean of Chichester: A Biography, With Extracts from His Letters and Early Journals (two volumes; 1892) about his friend Dean Burgon, with whose doctrinal views he was substantially in agreement. He resigned the deanery in 1889, and died at Tunbridge Wells on 3 May 1897.[7] There is a memorial to him at Aynho.[8]