Part 7

A curate at Witney in 1888 called upon a parishioner for the first time, and found him at home. The man received him with the utmost coolness, proceeded to take down a bust of Disraeli from a shelf, placed it on the table before the curate, and said, "Now, sir, be you for 'im, or be you for t' other un?" This was to determine whether to be friendly or not.

The late Mr. William Lyttelton, Rector of Hagley, told me one day that he had just met an old lady who stammered very badly. She told Mr. Lyttelton that she had just lost a cousin, and, being distressed, had sent for her clergyman to console her. "And what d-d-do you th-think the man d-d-d-d-did, Mr. Lyttelton?" she said. "I'm sure I don't know," he replied. "Why, he read me all ab-b-bout D-d-david and B-b-b-bathsheba! A very g-g-good man, you know, Mr. Lyttelton, b-b-but not j-j-judicious!"

A friend of mine, an Archdeacon, at a dinner of professors at Göttingen, sat by Wieseler, who descanted on the excellence of the English Church, and was especially charmed with what he heard of bishops sinking their personality and becoming known only by the name of their sees. He himself had learnt more from one of them than from any foreign writer: he referred to the great Thomas Carlyle.

The present Vicar of Almondbury went to a barber's shop in Chatham to have his hair cut at the time that he was curate there. The artist asked him if he had known his son at Oxford, and explained that he had meant him for his own profession, but he hadn't the brains for it, so he sent him into the Church.

=Transcriber's Notes:= hyphenation, spelling and grammar have been preserved as in the original Page 9, foun among others ==> found among others Page 51, trying to the congregration ==> trying to the congregation Page 67, Answer: Because they didn't ==> Answer: "Because they didn't Page 58, To this she answered == To this she answered, Page 82, you wont deceive ==> you won't deceive Page 87, the same. ==> the same." Page 89, 'Weel, I must say ==> "Weel, I must say Page 125, said, ""I've lost ==> said, "I've lost Page 142, young ladies at at Oxford ==> young ladies at Oxford Page 143, D-d-d avid ==> D-d-david