# The Warden — Character guide

> Key figures in The Warden by Anthony Trollope.

- [Mr. Harding](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/mr_harding.md): Mr. Harding presides over Hiram's Hospital, a quiet almshouse where twelve old bedesmen live on a charitable endowment, and he is beloved for his kindness and his cello. When a young reformer publicly questions whether h
- [John Bold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/john_bold.md): John Bold is a town councillor and self-appointed scourge of abuses, convinced he has a special mission to right wrongs and hurl anathemas at time-honoured practices. He grew up playing on Mr. Harding's lawn and is quiet
- [Eleanor Harding](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/eleanor_harding.md): Eleanor Harding is the warden's younger daughter, living within the cathedral close and moving between her father's household and her sister's grander one at Plumstead. She loves John Bold but cannot defend him against h
- [Dr. Grantly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/dr_grantly.md): Dr. Grantly is the archdeacon of Barchester, married to the warden's elder daughter, and a man of commanding dignity who unbends only within the clerical bed-curtains at Plumstead Episcopi. He regards John Bold as a fire
- [Tom Towers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/tom_towers.md): Tom Towers is the unseen hand behind The Jupiter, the great London paper whose leader columns can make or break a reputation without ever signing a name. He moves through the world with the serene confidence of a man who
- [Mr. Bunce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/mr_bunce.md): Mr. Bunce is one of the twelve old men of Hiram's Hospital, a figure of rough dignity among the bedesmen and the warden's most steadfast ally. When Bold's agitation stirs the hospital and a petition begins to circulate, 
- [Mary Bold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/mary_bold.md): Mary Bold moves through Barchester as her brother's steadying companion and Eleanor's closest confidante, the kind of woman whom casual acquaintances overlook and intimate friends love more the longer they know her. When
- [Abel Handy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/abel_handy.md): Abel Handy is one of the twelve old pensioners whose grievances against Mr. Harding become the fuel for John Bold's reforming zeal. Where the other bedesmen mutter, Handy presses, turning private discontent into public c
- [Sir Abraham Haphazard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/sir_abraham_haphazard.md): Sir Abraham Haphazard rises from an apothecary's son to the brink of the lord chancellorship on sheer talent, and his chambers are where Barchester's ecclesiastical quarrel goes to be sharpened into law. He is all intell
- [John Hiram](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/hiram.md): The medieval founder of Hiram's Hospital, whose will is central to the dispute.
- [Job Skulpit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/skulpit.md): A weak-willed bedesman who wavers between supporting Handy and the warden.
- [Mrs. Grantly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/mrs_grantly.md): Mr. Harding's elder daughter and the archdeacon's wife, who supports her father.
- [Mr. Chadwick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/mr_chadwick.md): The bishop's steward who manages the hospital's financial affairs.
- [Mr. Sentiment](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/mr_sentiment.md): A popular novelist who writes a story attacking the hospital system.
- [Mr. Finney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/finney.md): A local attorney who represents the bedesmen in their legal claim.
- [Samuel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/samuel.md): A young bedesman's son who appears briefly at the hospital.
- [Susan Harding](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/susan_harding.md): Mr. Harding's younger daughter who lives with him at the hospital.
- [Bishop of Barchester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters/bishop_of_barchester.md): The elderly bishop who presides over the diocese and hospital.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_warden_se/characters