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Loughborough Rectory, Sept. 7, 1871. "MY DEAR MRS. ALFORD,-It seems a long time ago since you and your dear husband left Wymeswold, to embark on a London life, and encounter the labour and anxiety of the Quebec Chapel ministry. I wish that I could respond with greater fulness to your request that I would recall some of the incidents of his early career when we were neighbours; but the lives of both of us were then so much occupied with our parishes, and his with the addition of his Greek Testament labours, that we had little leisure for that occasional intercourse which was always to me most agreeable as well as instructive.

"When I first knew him he had just finished the restoration of his church, and was encountering the obloquy of having very High Church tendencies, under which reproach in those days every clergyman was likely to suffer who ventured to make up for a century of neglect which our predecessors had permitted of their sacred buildings. Wymeswold was one of the first churches in this part of the country which were brought under the hand of those skilful ecclesiastical architects who, until about thirty or forty years ago, were almost unknown in England. It must be that length of time ago that the restoration of Wymeswold church was taken in hand. I was in the church a few days ago, and could not but think of the discouragements and difficulties, both moral and pecuniary, which had to be surmounted before such a work (which, by-the-bye, has stood admirably) could have been completed. I never knew what portions of the expense were defrayed by local subscriptions, but it was always understood that it took Alford many years to recover from the sacrifices which his zeal and public spirit had impelled him to make. To him was left the satisfaction of having set in his own neighbourhood an example which has since been so extensively followed every where, that an unrestored church is now rather the exception than the rule. All honour to those who were the pioneers!

"The advantage of your husband's proximity to my parish I frequently found in his ready willingness to come over

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and help us' when we wanted an address to a working man's institute, or a lecture to a literary society, or a penny reading, on any subject which his varied accomplishments embraced. His readiness of speech and good humour made him a most valuable coadjutor on all such occasions; and he used to say, 'If I can once get a laugh out of them I shall do.' This he did effectually even in dry subjects such as acoustics, when I remember, after maintaining that every substance in nature was capable of emitting a musical sound, he added, with gravity, 'To be sure, you can't get much of a note out of a blanket.' One day, at a meeting on some educational matter, after we had all been lamenting in our solemn speeches the difficulty not only of teaching our school children, but of bringing them into any habit of subordination whatever, and keeping them from the most mischievous tricks, he refreshed our party by naively assuring us of the consolation which he had always felt in the old schoolmaster's apophthegm, 'After all, sir, boys is boys.'

He

"I need not tell you of the effect of his preaching. There is a common opinion, in which I do not agree, that a good plain sermon is equally acceptable to poor and rich, learned and unlearned. Those who so imagine have, perhaps, little idea of what is most grateful to the poor man's ear. delights in platitudes at which those who sit before him in soft raiment can scarcely repress a smile. Repetitions are dear to him, without which an idea does not make its way to his mind. Now, to a cultivated person nothing is more wearisome than to hear the same thought put over and over again into slightly different words; especially if those words be accompanied by a string of Scripture texts, to the applicability of which he has a most indulgent indifference.

"But if any man could make his sermons attractive and edifying to persons of very different acquirements, the late Dean had that power. At the same time, I think his sermons were more suited for the atmosphere of Quebec Chapel and Canterbury Cathedral than of Wymeswold Church. How, indeed, could it be otherwise with a mind overflowing with theological learning, of which some congregations would

perceive the proofs continually cropping out, and would thoroughly appreciate, while they would be entirely lost upon less educated people? One quality his sermons always possessed, suited alike to all hearers-the most impressive seriousness. His deep voice, his reverential manner, gave a solemnity to all he said, which could not but impress itself upon the congregation. You were not likely to indulge in any levity of thought when Alford was preaching; so thoroughly did he make you feel that the preacher was deeply conscious, and that his hearers ought to be, of the importance of the subject in which they were engaged, and the magnitude of the interests which it involved.

"Nothing, in fact, could be more striking than the contrast between the immovable seriousness of his demeanour when engaged in sacred duties, and his liveliness and elasticity when these duties were discharged. When our church at Loughborough was reopened he was one of the preachers, and immediately after the service was concluded some of my principal parishioners came to my house and asked me if I thought he would allow his sermon (which was an admirable one) to be printed. It had been extempore, and I knew he would not be able to recall it. But I desired them to speak to him about it. It was a weekday, and (must I confess the truth?) they found the distinguished preacher on the lawn in the midst of a large party of ladies, as earnestly engaged in a croquet game as if interests depended upon it as great as those which he had just so successfully advocated. Whatever he did he did with a will, and this, I think, was the great secret of his literary and ecclesiastical life.

"If it be said of him, as it has been, that in the course of his lifetime he passed through every phase of doctrine, or, at least, ecclesiastical opinion, it may be replied, so did the world. Until the last half-century all the earnest-minded of religious men held the opinions commonly known as Evangelical. In these, inherited from his father, he was no doubt brought up; nor did he ever, as I conceive, forsake the salient opinions held by that school. But he added to them other most important elements of Christian faith and

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worship, which the Low Church system had altogether ignored. But what was of more consequence, he hesitated not in later life to hold out the hand of Christian fellowship to the great bodies of Nonconformists, with whom it is for every reason desirable that we should endeavour to act for those numerous objects which we hold in common. Thus did the Dean manifest not only the tolerant spirit which becomes a Christian minister, but the far-sightedness which recognizes comprehensiveness as a first necessity of a National Church. Let not, then, that be considered inconsistent which was rather the natural development of thought both in theological and ecclesiastical subjects, and to which, indeed, he himself largely contributed.

"It is needless for me to say to you, my dear Mrs. Alford, with what affectionate esteem I shall ever regard your husband's memory. Your daughters, who have now made you a grandmother, were little girls when I first knew you all, and your house was a pattern of domestic happiness and duty, an example to your pretty village of what a clergyman's household ought to be.

"The pleasure which your subsequent visits have given sufficiently show in what esteem you are still held; and indeed I think some of his parishioners did not sufficiently appreciate your husband until they felt the loss they had sustained by his removal from them. He is now removed from us all, but let us indulge the hope and the belief that it is not for ever, and with that prayer for you, I will conclude. "Believe me, always your affectionate friend,

"HENRY FEARON."

CHAPTER VII.

1853-1857.

LONDON WORK-CRIMEAN WAR-TOUR TO THE PYRENEESCONTROVERSY ON THE SABBATH QUESTION-TOUR IN SCOTLAND REVISION OF PART OF THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT-APPOINTED TO THE DEANERY OF CANTERBURY.

W

E left Wymeswold on September 26, 1853. Our new home, 6, Upper Hamilton Terrace, St. John's Wood, was a semi-detached house, with a garden behind of sufficient size to afford us some recreation in the cultivation of our favourite flowers. The quietness of its situation was favourable to literary work, and the distance from Quebec Chapel (less than two miles) was not too great for a walk. Here we remained until our removal in June, 1857, to Canterbury.

His habit at this time was to rise about six in the morning, light his own fire in the study, and work there till one o'clock. I believe that an hour before breakfast was frequently assigned to the composition of sermons, and the rest of the morning to the Greek Testament; and in the afternoon he usually walked into town, visited the members of his congregation, went among the poor inhabitants of his district, though the care of them chiefly devolved on his curate, and occasionally attended committees, &c. If no engagement took him from home in the evening, and no unusual pressure of work compelled him to spend that time in his study, it was given to reading aloud to us.

Quebec Chapel is so called from the street in which it is

1, which was probably built about 1759, when the