On 12th November, 1895, Edward
Stuart Talbot was enthroned as his successor in the See of Rochester,
and at once took up his abode at Kennington, where he will continue to
live at this easy centre of communication between him and his people
now that he is Bishop of Southwark.

It will be seen from the accompanying map that the new diocese has
been made to include the whole of the county of London south of the
Thames, and the Archdeaconry of Kingston, thus reducing the area of
Rochester to about half its previous size and relieving it of its
most thickly crowded portion.

The population of the diocese of Rochester at the census of 1901 was
2,254,947. The population of the Southwark Diocese at the present time
is roughly estimated at 2,000,000, rather more than less. It consists
of 294 parishes, ministered to by 687 licensed clergy, or about one to
every 3,000 people, except in South London, where the proportion is
about one to every 4,000.

Bounded on the north by the Thames, on the east, south, and west by
the dioceses of Canterbury, Chichester, and Winchester respectively,
the space enclosed presents an irregular figure varying from some
three miles in breadth, in its central portion, to about thirteen
along its southern frontier, and about twenty in its widest part
towards the north. Its greatest length in a straight line from London
Bridge to Felbridge is about twenty-five miles. Geographically the map
suggests a couple of small continents joined together by a sort of
isthmus in the middle, where the breadth is narrowed by the sweeping
bays, or inlets, formed by the encroaching dioceses on the right and
left.

By Letters Patent, dated 17th May, 1905, Dr. Edward Stuart Talbot,
previously Bishop of Rochester, was appointed to the newly-founded See
of Southwark. For its better organisation he lost no time in applying
to the Crown for the appointment of two Suffragan Bishops, suggesting
one for Woolwich, as a place of great national importance and a centre
of vigorous municipal and industrial life; the other for Kingston, as
representing the ancient and rural side of the diocese. By the
approval of His Majesty the appointments were made in the same month,
viz.: the Rev. John Cox Leeke, Hon. Canon of Rochester Cathedral and
Rural Dean of Woolwich, to be Bishop Suffragan of Woolwich; and the
Rev. Cecil Hook, Vicar of All Saints', Leamington, and Hon. Canon of
Worcester Cathedral, to be Bishop Suffragan of Kingston-on-