CONFIRMATION AND COMMUNION. [To THE EDITOR OF TEl ..sratarkrott."] Sin,—Your
correspondent's letter hi last week's Spectator respecting the confirmation of John Evelyn recalls to me a passage in the fascinating Autobiography of Mrs. Alice Thornton (edited by the Surtees Society). This delightfully graphic lady was born in 1626 and died in 1707. She was throughout her life a strict and devoted Churchwoman, whose
brother suffered sequestration under the Commonwealth for appointing a rector of his own views to the family living. The following sentences seem to show that she, as well as her daughter's godmother, both devout communicants through life, had never received confirmation when they arrived at middle life :—
" My Lady Yorke about 23 of January, 1663-9, writt a very kind and compassionate letter. . . . She desires, now she is att Yorke, to have her god-daughter to be Confirmed by the Bishop, it being her duty to present her to him, and she had bin Confirmed herselfe. I returned her thankes for her caire of her god-daughter Alice [aged 16 and married] in her desire to have her Confirmed, and that I hoped Almighty God would please to give me leave to rem:we that holy ordinance myselfe, and then she shall have the benefit with me.'
There is no record that this intention was fulfilled.—I am,
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