SONS OF THE PARSONAGE.
ITO TIIR EDITOR Op TOR "SPRCTATOR.'J
your review of Mr. Kebbel's " Tory Memories" in the Spectator of June 8th you certainly depart from your usual moderation of language, and must have given great pain to many "sons of the parsonage" of sixty years ago. You say, referring first to "all" the old-fashioned clergy, "that they were professionally more incompetent than any other class," and "these men were not above their people in morals or in piety, and, if the Church is not a mere social or political contrivance, were unfit for their place." As the septuagenarian son of an "old-fashioned" clergyman in Essex, a man devoted to his people, ready night or day to minister to their spiritual needs and bodily wants, a man beloved by all the poor for his constant unbounded care of their interests, never sparing himself, but facing the most dangerous diseases, even sitting at their bedside ministering to their needs when others feared to go near them, I protest against this unjust state.. ment. I could recount hundreds of instances of his self- sacrifice. The Bible and Prayer-book were his constant com- panions in his parish. Think, Sir, I beg you, how egregiously you have erred in so cruelly stigmatising as you have such men,—I say "such men," for I could tell of numbers of such living and doing noble work all round my old home. You speak of "hunting and shooting." My father did neither the one nor the other. But no one was more loved by the poor of his little parish, more respected all the country round, than Philip Honywood, who kept the beet pack of beagles in England; and can you name to me any parson of the new aesthetic doctrines and practices who is more adored in a little countryside, more loved by the poor of his own parish, than Jack Russell, of Devon, whose cheery, sweet-toned voice still rings in the ears of old Devon men and women P I ask you, Sir, to do these men justice, and admit that your reviewer is writing about things of which he personally is profoundly [We of course admit that there were a number of exceptions, —men devoted to doing God's work in the noblest spirit. Our reviewer was certainly not "profoundly ignorant," as is shown by the following statement which he has sent us
I am not by any means ignorant of the subject. I was a country curate in the ' fifties,' and saw the things about which I wrote. The average parson—I willingly allow exceptions—knew lees of his business and did less of his work than the average lawyer or doctor. What lawyer or doctor—to take a common case—could absent himself week after week from his place of business from Monday to Saturday ? I did not' speak of " hunting and shooting."' The words occur in a quotation. Mr. Hawkins should have read the review which moves him to wrath more carefully."
—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
