4 NOVEMBER 1865, Page 3

Near Bedford there is said to reside a peer who

has a sort of oratory communicating with the village church, in which he prays morning and evening with the people, but the window of which he shuts down directly the sermon

begins, and devotes himself to his letters. English institu- tions always "grow," they say, one custom gradually over- lapping another till it supersedes it. Could we not so develope this noble Lord's private oratory that, in time, the many might be on the right side of the closing window, and only the few on the wrong ? It looks like the beginning of a wholesome general usage —for such churches. at least as our correspondent "A Country Layman " describes to-day.