The Rector of Burston, Reverend Charles Tucker Eland, was appointed to
the living about a month after the Higdons took charge of the Council
School. His stipend is £495 per annum, with rectory house, and
fifty-four acres of glebe land producing £86 yearly (according to
Crockford). The village numbers 315 souls, three of whom, according to
latest information, attended service upon a recent Sunday. Under these
circumstances one may sympathise with his desire to annex a congregation.
Higdon was cautioned, I suppose, in a friendly (half-joke-real-earnest)
manner. He is very much opposed, however, to private property in
Sundays.
The Reverend Charles suggested that it might be prejudicial to the
school, etc., if the teacher stayed away.
Kings in the past have threatened dire penalties for non-attendance at
church, but when people attend church simply because the schoolmistress,
the wealthy farmer, or the large employer puts in an appearance, then
they show little respect or love for Divine teaching. Attendance should
be a matter of choice, not compulsion.
Timothy Sparks, who later attained world-wide celebrity by using his real
name, Charles Dickens, issued a quaint little book upon this subject,
entitled “Sunday under Three Heads.”
Robert Kett, Norfolk rebel, suggested in 1549 “that all bondmen should be
made free, for God made all free with his precious blood-shedding.” I
presume he meant that this might also apply to Council School teachers.
He likewise suggested “that someone should be appointed in every parish
to teach poor men’s children catechism and the primer; that enclosing of
common lands should be put a stop to; and that priests and vicars who
were unable to preach and set forth the word of God should be removed
from their benefices.”
What a pulpit emptying ordinance this last clause is!
It cost Kett dear. The Earl of Warwick instructed an army of German
mercenaries to pursue him; 3,500 of his Norfolk followers were cut down,
and he was hanged as a rebel for his presumption.
A rebel is a person who comes on earth before the people are intelligent
enough to understand him. None but a rebel ever had Saviour carved on
his tomb. Had he suggested that vicars should live up to their teachings
we would have classed him as an Impossiblist, of course.
The keeping of Sunday will always be a matter of controversy until we in
England also “Remember the week-day to keep it holy.”
Now, let us move on to the petty persecutions and puny pretexts for
dismissal vouchsafed to Mr. and Mrs. Higdon after more than three years’
service and twelve years in the county.
The Reverend Charles Tucker Eland, to give him his full title, parted in
the middle, departed this Burston village life for a short holiday in
Switzerland.
A clergyman’s holiday has two good points. It gives both him and his
congregation a well-earned rest. Whilst the Reverend School Manager was
away in Switzerland, an epidemic of whooping cough had the audacity to
enter the village.
Mrs. Higdon, the schoolmistress, at once sent over to another reverend
school manager, the Reverend Millard (Rector of Shimpling and
vice-chairman of the local Managers’ Committee), and he, after
consultation, decided to close the Council School for one week. _He_
signed the notices, and made entry in the log to that effect.
When the Rector of Burston arrived back from Mount Pilatus another
meeting of the school managers was held.
This Managers’ Committee informed Mrs. Higdon, through the chairman
(Reverend C. T. Eland this time) “that the committee took a very serious
view of her having closed the school _without_ permission, but,” added
the Reverend Pulpiteer, no doubt in an outburst of holiday extravagance,
“the managers will now let the matter drop.”