is-I remember poor Mr. Laxington used to tell some famous story about its giving a cold and curing a cold—he was a merry man, was my poor husband -it's given me colds enough-but I never could hear that it cured any-but that was my husband's joke-however, as I was saying, Mrs. Warren told Dixon that to her certain knowledge nobody had been so much followed as Mr. George is-crowds come to hear him: they want him to have a Wednesday evening lecture, but that, I suppose, is too much to ask; and I believe Mr. Morley has some objections to it. Not but that I think Wednesday evening lectures are very good things-Mr. Jupp has one on Thursdays-the day don't matter-but I think something of a sermon in the week is very desirable; I know Mr. Morley has prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays, and talks of having them oftener: but then, you know, that's not the same thing quite; the prayers are all very well to begin with, and I am sure I value them very much, and admire them exceedingly, and all that, for no one is more of a Churchwoman than I am-only one wants something more than prayers-one can pray at home well enough. Indeed, to my mind, prayers twice a week is quite enough; Mr. Jupp was reading to me the other day some remarks in the Record, which he takes in, on that matter; and by the bye, Lady Morley, what an excellent paper that Record is— there's so much depth in what it says-and then its accounts are always so thoroughly to be depended

on-that's the great thing one wants in a newspaper: and, considering they say the editor's a Dissenter, it's not so very much opposed to the Church- I am sure it always speaks well of it—and then, you know, it always protests so decidedly against Puseyism and Popery-well, but the Record says, that it's by no means desirable to have prayers even twice a week -but to have them more than that, it says, is " mark of the Beast"-so clever, isn't it? You know it always means Puseyism by the Beast. So I hope Mr. Morley will be contented with what he does now in that way."

a

'Well," Sir John would reply, "leaving the merits of the Record out of the question, I do not set much value on ministerial popularity as a criterion of ministerial usefulness at any time-much less at the beginning of a clergyman's career. If you bring me the same report ten years, ay, or ten months hence, I shall think more of it: now, the novelty has as much to do with it as anything else."

And Sir John was right. The parish of Studham was one which had, on account of the frequent change of ministers, been long in a very unsettled condition. It might have been one of the most delightful cures in England, could a sufficient number of clergymen have been engaged in its charge, and some of the outlying hamlets been formed into separate parishes. As it was, its size rendered it a burden far above the strength of any one priest, or indeed two. The town lay prettily enough in a valley; high-wooded hills

sheltered it on three sides, and the river wound through the meadow on the fourth. Beyond and among the recesses of these hills lay the hamlets : the church, a cross building with a low central tower and spire, was situated, as is often the case, at the very edge of the town; by it was the parsonage, a red brick erection of the last century: the high street, with the market house at one end and the bridge at the other, was as gay as those of such towns generally are there were one or two milliners "from London ;" one or two doctors, with bright brass plates over their doors; two lawyers, patronized respectively by Tories and Radicals; grocers, and ironmongers, and bakers; and a large timber wharf (for the river was navigable) close to the bridge. Beyond, standing back among some poplars, were some almshouses, founded in the seventeenth century, a plain row of brick buildings, with their chapel in the middle; where, by the way, the original daily service yet lingered in the shape of morning prayers, read by the master, a layman.

Mr. Thomason, the last Rector before Mr. Fortescue, had been of the Evangelical school, and having held the parish for thirty years, had, of course, brought over many to his own views. There was a Bible Society, a Jews' Society, and a Church Missionary Society: there were meetings among the Sunday school teachers for reading and prayers; and a Thursday evening lecture had been established. Mr. Fortescue held no particular views: he kept up

the institutions of his predecessor when they gave him no trouble; if they did, as in the case of the week-day lecture, he discontinued them. What the effect in the minds of Mr. Thomason's admirers might have been, it is impossible to tell: Mr. Fortescue only held the living for a year, at the expiration of which time, he was presented to one far superior in emolument to Studham, and in which the labour and duty were far less. Almost his last act was the desecration of the church as above related; and against this the Evangelical party, it is but fair to say, protested loudly.

It seemed necessary to give these details, because they will explain the proceedings of some of the party to which we have alluded, as having been fostered by Mr. Thomason, when the course of our narrative leads us to relate them.

Shortly after the last mentioned visit of Mrs. Laxington to Teynton Park, the following letter appeared in the Record, under the title of

"Sir,

SPREAD OF PUSEYISM.

"Perhaps you will allow me a few lines in the columns of your widely spread and invaluable journal, evidently raised up, at the present time, to be the bulwark of our Zion; to expose the means by which a young Tractarian minister has lately endeavoured to thrust the mummeries of another gospel' on a parish hitherto noted for the evangelical fervour

Mr.

of its inhabitants. To many of your readers Studham must be a place of deep interest, as the scene of the labours of the late Mr. Thomason: but the blighting breath of Puseyism has come over the paradise; and we may well tremble for the result. M- a young man fresh from college, and puffed up, I too much fear, with honours obtained there, is discountenancing those institutions which it was the joy of Mr. Thomason to have set up: the Bible Society, in particular, has incurred his deadliest hatred; he not only refused to be present at its last anniversary, but warned his parishioners against its evil tendency! The Wednesday evening lecture, once so crowded and useful, he has refused to re-establish. Instead of it, he has introduced the barren mockery of a daily service, which hardly any one attends; he lengthens the already protracted prayers by the addition of that for the Church Militant; he turns, O profane mockery! towards the Communion Table during the recital of the Creed, as if the God of the east were not also the GoD of the west, or would favourably regard these superstitious observances of will-worship! His sermons are, of course, filled with the doctrines of his party: the Church, the merits of Saints, the intercession of Mary, are the staple of his discourses; but of that grand truth which is the epitome of the Bible, the rock on which the Established Church is founded, the cause for which our martyred reformers laid down their livesjustification by faith alone, without good works-he