The Warden, published in 1855, is the first book in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series of six novels. It was his fourth novel. At the age of fifty, the Reverend Septimus Harding is appointed precentor of Barchester Cathedral, a position that carries with it the wardenship of Hiram's Hospital. John Bold, a young physician with a small practice, turns his energies to reform. On investigation, he discovers that the will of John Hiram, the donor of the hospital, made no stipulation that would result in such a discrepancy as exists between the incomes of the warden and the steward and the incomes of the twelve residents. Bold decides that it is his duty to bring the discrepancy to light. He engages the interest of a newspaperman friend, Tom Towers, and the services of a solicitor named Finney, who explains the situation to the residents and encourages them to think in terms of an annual income of as much as one hundred pounds a year. Most of them sign a petition addressed to the bishop, asking that justice be done...