There are nearly 13,000 people in the "district" of this church.
What a difference time makes! At the beginning of the present
century the greater portion of the district was made up of fields;
whilst lanes, with hedges set each side, constituted what are now
some of its busiest streets. Volunteers and militiamen used to meet
for drill on a large piece of land in the very heart of the
locality; troops of charwomen formerly washed their clothes in water
pits hard by, and dried them on the green-sward adjoining; and
everything about wore a rural and primitive aspect. St. Paul's
Church is situated on a portion of land which, 50 years ago, was
fringed with trees and called "The Park;" and this accounts for the
name still given by many to the sacred edifice--namely "Park
Church." The sisters of the late J. Bairstow, Esq., kept a school at
one time on, or contiguous to, this park. A road, starting opposite
the Holy Lamb, in Church-street, and ending near the top of High-
street, formerly passed through "The Park." Years ago a ducking or
cucking stool was placed at the northern side of it, adjoining a
pit, and at the edge of the thoroughfare known as Meadow street.
This ducking stool was intended for the special benefit of vixens
and scolding wives. It consisted of a strong plank, at the end of
which was a chair, the centre working upon a pivot, and, after the
person to be punished had been duly secured, she was ducked into the
water. If this system were now in force, it would often be
patronised, for there are many lively termagants in the land, and
lots in Preston.
The first stone of St. Paul's Church was laid on Tuesday, 21st
October, 1823. Out of the million pounds granted by Parliament for
the erection of churches, some time prior to the date given,
Preston, through Dr. Lawe, who was then Bishop of Chester, got
12,500 pounds. It was originally intended to expend this sum in the
erection of one church--St. Peter's; but at the request of the Rev.
R. Carus Wilson, vicar of Preston, the money was divided, one half
going to St. Peter's, and the other to St. Paul's. Some people might
consider this like "robbing Peter to pay Paul," but it was better to
halve the money for the benefit of two districts, than give all of
it for the spiritual edification of one, and leave the other
destitute. The land forming the site of St. Paul's was given by
Samuel Pole Shawe, Esq. The full cost of the building was about
6,500 pounds. Around the edifice there is a very large iron-railed
grave yard, which is kept in pretty good order. St. Paul's is built
entirely of stone, in the early English style of architecture. It
has a rather elegant appearance; but it is defective in altitude has
a broad, flat, and somewhat bald-looking roof, and needs either a
good tower or spire to relieve and dignify it. In front there are
several pointed windows, a small circular hole above for birds'
nests, two doorways with a window between them, a central
surmounting gable, and a couple of feathery-headed perforated
turrets, one being used as a chimney, and the other as a belfry.
There is only a single bell at the church, and it is pulled
industriously on Sundays by a devoted youth, who takes his stand in
a boxed-off corner behind one of the doors. At the opposite end of
the church there are two turrets corresponding in height and form
with those is front. Two screens of red cloth are fixed just within
the entrance and, whilst giving a certain degree of selectness to
the place, they prevent people sitting near them from being blown
away or starved to death on very windy days when the doors happen to
be open.
The interior consists of a broad, ornamentally roofed nave (resting
upon twelve high narrow pillars of stone), and two aisles. The
pillars seriously obstruct the vision of those sitting at the sides;
indeed, in some places so detrimental are they that you can see
neither the reading-desk nor the pulpit. Above, there is a very
large gallery, set apart on the west for the organ and choir, and on
each side for general worshippers, school children, as a rule, being
in front, and requiring a good deal of watching during the services.
In some parts of the gallery seeing is quite as difficult as in the
sides beneath, owing to the intervening nave pillars. Efforts have
been made to rectify this evil, not by trying to pull down the
pillars, but by removing the pulpit, &c, so that all might have a
glance at it. The pulpit is situated on the south-eastern side, near
the chancel, and one Sunday it was brought into the centre of the
church; but it could be seen no better there than in its old
position, so it was carried back, and has remained unmolested ever
since. If it were put upon castors, and pushed slowly and with
becoming reverence up and down the church during sermon time, all
would get a view of its occupant; but we believe the warders have an
objection to pulpits on castors, so that there is no hope in this
respect. The reading-desk stands opposite the pulpit, and looks very
broad and diminutive. The chancel is plain. A large, neatly designed
stained glass window occupies the end. On each side there is a mural
monument--one being to the memory of Samuel Horrocks, Esq., Guild
Mayor in 1842, and son of S. Horrocks, Esq., of Lark-hill, who for
twenty-two years represented Preston in Parliament; and the other,
raised by public subscription, to the memory of the Rev. Joseph
Rigg, who was minister of St. Paul's for nineteen years, and who
died in 1847. The general fittings and arrangements of the church
indicate plainness of design, combined with medium strength and
thorough respectability. In no part of the building is there any
eccentric flourishing or artistic meandering. The roof, the walls,
and the base of the window niches, which have become blackened with
rain, need cleaning up; and some day, when money is plentiful, they
will no doubt be renovated. The seats are strong, broad, and regular
in shape. All of them, except one, are let, and it would speedily be
tenanted if more conveniently located. There is a pillar in it, and,
in order to get a proper view of the officiating minister, you must
stand up, lean forward, and glance with a rolling eye round the
corners of the obstruction--a thing which many of the more bashful
of our species would not like to do.
The church will accommodate about 1,200 persons, and the average
Sunday attendance may be calculated at 800. The gallery is
patronised extensively by the "million"; the ground floor pews are
occupied by more select and fashionable individuals. The great
majority of the worshippers sit above, and few vacant spaces can as
a rule be seen there. Down stairs the crush is less severe. The
congregation is a mixture of working and middle class people; the
former kind being preponderant. At the sides there are long narrow
ranges of free seats; but they are not often disturbed. On two
successive Sundays we gave them a passing look, and they appeared to
be almost deserted. A couple of little boys seated in the centre,
and engaged in the pleasing juvenile business of swinging their
legs, were the only occupants we saw on the right side during our
first inspection; and when we viewed the range on the other side,
the Sunday after, we could only catch tender glimpses of three
females, all very quiet, and each belonging the antique school of
life. "Where will you sit?" said a large-hearted young man, when we
made our second appearance. "There," was our reply, pointing at the
same time to a well-cushioned and genially sequestered seat at the
north-west corner, and we were ushered into it with becoming
decorum. In two minutes afterwards five women and a festive infant,
dressed in a drab cloak, and muffled all over to keep the cold out,
stopped at the pew door. We stepped out; three of the females, with
the baby, stepped in; the remainder went into the next pew; and
after condensing our nerve power, we settled down in the corner from
which we had been disturbed, quietly lifting one hand over the door
and latching it firmly at the same moment, our idea being than an
environment of five females, with a baby thrown into the bargain,
was quite enough for the remainder of the morning. After an inquiry
as to the christening arrangements at the church, for we fancied
this was a christening gathering, we got nearer the baby, and, in a
delicately sympathetic whisper said--"How old is it?" The maiden who
was holding it blushed, and laconically breathed out the words,
"Three months." We subsequently found out that the seat we were in
was the incumbent's, and that the blessed baby, whose lot we had
been contemplating with such interest, was his, too.
Six minutes before the commencement there were only nine persons in
the body of the church; but nearly 300 were congregated there when
the service began, whilst the gallery was well filled with
worshippers of all ages and sizes. All the responses here are
"congregational"--none of them being in any way intoned. We believe
that St. Paul's is the only Protestant church in Preston wherein
this system is observed. The effect, when compared with the plans of
intonation now so universal, is very singular; and it sometimes
sounds dull and monotonous--like a long, low, rumbling of irregular
voices, as if there were some quaint, oddly-humoured contention
going on in every pew. But the worshippers seem to like the system,
and as they have a perfect right to be their own judges, other
people must be silent on the subject. The music is not of an
extraordinary sort; it is plain, and very well joined in by the
congregation. But the choir, like many others, lacks weight and
symphony. Mrs. Myres, the wife of the incumbent, is a member of the
choir, and if all the other individuals in it had her musical
knowledge, an improvement would soon follow. The organ is a very
good one. It was given by the late T. Miller, Esq., and H. Miller,
Esq., and placed in the church in 1844. Recently it has been put in
first-rate condition, for organs, like the players of them, get
worse for wear, by T. H. and W. P. Miller, Esqrs. The organist knows
his work, and is able to perform it with ability.
At St. Paul's there is morning and evening service on a Sunday; and
every Wednesday evening there is a short service, but like the bulk
of mid-week devotional exercises it is not much cared for, only
about 150 joining it on the average. On the second Sunday in each
month there is an early sacrament at St. Paul's. At no other place
of worship in the town, that we know of, save Christ Church, is
there a similar sacramental arrangement. Since St. Paul's was
opened, there have been five incumbents at it. The first was the
Rev. Mr. Russell; then came the Rev. J. Rigg, who was a most
exemplary clergyman; next the Rev. S. F. Page, who was followed by
the Rev. J. Miller; the present incumbent being the Rev. W. M.
Myres, son of Mr. J. J. Myres, of Preston. Mr. Myres came to St.
Paul's at the beginning of 1867, and when he made his appearance
fidgetty and orthodox souls were in a state of mingled dudgeon and
trepidation as to what be would do. It was fancied that he was a
Ritualist--fond of floral devices and huge candles, with an
incipient itching for variegated millinery, beads, and crosses. But
his opponents, who numbered nearly two-thirds of the congregation,
screamed before they were bitten, and went into solemn paroxysms of
pious frothiness for nothing. Subsequent events have proved how
highly imaginative their views were. No church in the country has
less of Ritualism in it than St. Paul's. Its services are pre-
eminently plain; all those parts whereon the spirit of innovation
has settled so strongly in several churches during the past few
years are kept in their original simplicity; and in the general
proceedings nothing can be observed calculated to disturb the peace
of the most fastidious of show-disliking Churchmen.
Mr. Myres is about 30 years of age, is corporeally condensed, walks
as if he were in earnest and wanted to catch the train, has a mild,
obliging, half-diffident look, wears a light coloured beard and
moustache, each of which is blossoming very nicely; is sharp, yet
even-tempered; bland and genial, yet sincere; has keen powers of
observation, has a better descriptive than logical faculty, is not
very imaginative, cares more for prose than poetry, more for facts
than sallies of the fancy, more for gentle devotion, and quiet
persevering labour in his own locality than for virtuous welterings
and sacred acrobatism in other districts. He has endeavoured, since
coming to Preston, to mind his own business, and parsons often find
that a hard thing to accomplish. Polished in education, he is humble
and social in manner. He will never be an ecclesiastical show-man,
for his disposition is in the direction of general quietude and good
neighbourship. If he ever gets into a sacred disturbance the fault
will be through somebody else dragging him into it, and not because
he has courted it by natural choice. He is more cut out for sincere
labour, pleasantly and strenuously conducted, than for intellectual
generalship or lofty theological display. His brain may lack high
range and large creativeness; but he possesses qualities of heart
and spirit which mere brilliance cannot secure, and which simple
cerebral strength can never impart. We admire him for his
courteousness, his artless simplicity of nature, his earnest,
kindly-devotedness to duty, and his continual attention to
everything affecting the welfare of those he has to look after. Mr.
Myres is greatly respected by all in his district; he has transmuted
the olden ritualistic horror which prevailed in the district, into
one of love and reverence; and all his sheep have a genial and
affectionate bleat for him.
The Rev. C. G. Acworth, a learned young man, whose facial capillary
forces are coming gradually into play, and who seems to have the
entire Book of Common Prayer off by heart, is the curate of St.
Paul's. He is a good reader, a steady, sententious, epigrammatic
preacher, and with a little more knowledge of the world ought to
make a clever and most useful minister. Something, which we do not
think exists in connection with any other Preston church for the
management of affairs, is established here. It is a "Church
Committee." It consists of the ministers, the churchwardens, and a
dozen members of the congregation. They discuss all sorts of matters
appertaining to the district, smooth down grievances when any are
nursed, and keep everything in good working order. The outside
machinery for mentally and religiously improving the district is
very extensive and varied. There are five day and Sunday schools
under the auspices of St. Paul's. They are situated in Pole and
Carlisle streets, and are under the guidance of four superintendents
and fifty-seven teachers. Mrs. Myres (wife of the incumbent), who is
a great favourite throughout the district, is one of the teachers.
The day or national schools are the largest in the town; they have
an average attendance of 934; and that in which boys are taught is
the only one of its kind in Preston which is self-supporting. The
average attendance of Sunday scholars is 800.
Night schools also form part of the educational programme, and they
are well attended. A mutual improvement class--the oldest in the
town--likewise exists in connection with St. Paul's. It was
established by the Rev. S. F. Page, and is conducted on principles
well calculated to regulate, illumine, and edify the youths who mar
and make empires at it. A temperance society, in which the Rev. Mr.
Acworth, who is a "Bright water for me" believer, has taken
praiseworthy interest, has furthermore got a footing in St. Paul's,
and beyond that there is a band of hope society in the district,
which does its share of work. Every Monday afternoon, a "Mother's
Meeting," conducted by Mrs. Myres, Mrs. Isherwood, Miss Wadsworth,
and the Bible woman, is held in a room of the Carlisle-street
school. The mothers are pretty lacteous and docile. In various parts
of the district, cottage lectures, conducted by the curate and a
number of energetic teachers, are held weekly. The district of St.
Paul's is great in missionary work. There are about four-and-twenty
collectors in the field here, and by the penny a week system they
raise sums which periodical efforts would never realise. By the way,
we ought to have said that there are a good many collections in St.
Paul's church--16 regular ones and 14 on the offertory principle--
every year. Those who consider it more blessed to give than receive
should be happy at St. Paul's. The sums collected at the church
range from about 12 to 50 pounds. The Irish Church Missionary
Society receives much of its Preston support from this district.
Lastly, we may remark that there is a good staff of tract
distributors, supervised by a ladies' committee, in connection with
St. Paul's. The distributors are chiefly young women belonging the
schools. Owing to the vastness of the district it is contemplated to
erect as early as possible a school chapel as an auxiliary of the
church. It will be built near the railway bridge in St. Paul's-road.
R. Newsham, Esq., has offered to give a handsome sum towards the
edifice, which is much needed. When opened a second curate will be
required, and towards the stipend of such gentleman, E. Hermon,
Esq., M.P., has offered to contribute liberally. The salary of the
incumbent is about 280 pounds per annum. The generality of the
officials connected with the church and schools have been long at
their posts--a proof of even action and good harmony; everything
seems to be progressing steadily in the district; and if St. Paul
himself had to give it a visit he would shake hands warmly with Mr.
Myres, the incumbent, praise Mrs. Myres and the baby, and throw up
his hat gleefully at the good work which is being done amongst the
people.
ST. MARY'S-STREET AND MARSH-END WESLEYAN CHAPELS, AND THE TABERNACLE
OF THE REVIVALISTS.
"When shall we three meet again?" We can't tell--don't care about
knowing; you have met now; and keep quiet, if possible, whilst being
vivisected. There are worse companions, so shake hands, and sigh for
universal bliss. We shall use the dissecting knife with a kindly
sharpness. The first of the places named is situated in St. Mary's-
street, opposite a very high wall, which we believe is intended to
prevent men from scaling it, and is closely associated with the
arrangements of the House of Correction. One hundred yards off, it
looks like a high, modernised, seaside hotel; fifty yards off, it
seems like a well-arranged gentleman's residence, in the wrong
place; two yards off, it indicates its own mission, and clearly
shows that something embracing both education and religion is
carried on within it. It is a large, well-built, quadrangular
building, with two round-headed ranges of windows in front, and a
good roof above, surmounted with an iron rail, put up apparently for
imaginary purposes. Nobody has yet got over that rail so far as we
have heard; and if the job is ever attempted, nothing will be found
on the other side worth carrying home. The foundation stone of this
building--it is really a school chapel--was laid on Good Friday,
1866, and the place was opened in the same year. The place cost
2,500 pounds, and it is nearly out of debt. Internally, it is full
of rooms. On the ground floor there are nine apartments--all well
disposed, appropriately fit up, and set apart for general scholastic
and class purposes. On week days, some of them are used as school-
rooms, the average attendance of pupils, who are carefully looked
after, being about 120; and on Sundays they are devoted to "class"
business. In a large room above, children are also taught on
Sundays: the general attendance on those days throughout the place
being about 450. This school-chapel owes its existence to the cotton
famine. During that trying period, when people had nothing else to
do but think, live on 2s. a week, and grow good, Messrs. Wilding and
Strachan generously opened a room connected with their mill in New
Hall-lane, for secular and religious instruction. It was attended
mainly by those belonging the Wesleyan persuasion; in time it became
too little; and the result was the erection of a school-chapel in
St. Mary's-street. We have never seen a better arranged nor a more
commodious place of its kind than this. Its class, and ordinary
scholastic departments we have alluded to. Let us now proceed above-
-into the room used for worship. You can reach it from either the
northern or the southern side, but from neither can you make headway
without ascending a strong, winding series of steps, which must be
trying and troublesome to heavy and asthmatic subjects, if any of
that sort ever show themselves at the building. The room is large,
lofty, clean, and airy, and will hold about 400 persons. Just within
each doorway there is a box, intended for contributions on behalf of
"sick and needy scholars." But both have been put too near the side;
they often catch people's clothes, on entering, and as everybody is
not disposed to stop and exercise the organ of benevolence, whilst
the remainder wish to be judicious about the business and save their
dresses, it has been decided to shift them inwards a little. From
the centre of the ceiling, gas burners, in star-shaped clusters, are
suspended, and when the taps are on they give good lights.
The congregation, which is generally constituted of working-class
people, numbers about 350. The people attending this place are a
quiet, devoted lot, with patches of pride and self-glorification
here and there about them, but, on the whole, kindly-looking and
sincere. Some of them are close-minded and intensely orthodox; but
the majority are wide-awake, and won't pray for fair weather until
it has given over raining. The members of the choir sit on the
eastern side, and if not so refined and punctillious in their
musical performances, they are at least pretty strong-lunged and
earnest. They are located near the wall. The harmonium-player enjoys
a closer proximity to it. He manipulates with fair skill, has a
clock right above him, and ought, therefore, to keep "good time." If
he doesn't, then let the clock be condemned as a deceiver and
incumberer of the wall. The pulpit is a broad, neatly-arranged
affair--fixed upon a platform at the southern end, and environed
with rails of blue and gold colour. Just within, and on its
immediate left, there is a small paper nailed up with four nails,
and containing, is written English, these words, as a reminder for
each preacher during his "supplications"--"Pray for God's ancient
people of Israel." "Does this mean the Jews?" said we to an elderly
man near us, whilst we were scrutinizing with a plaintive eye, the
pulpit, and he replied, "Bleeve it does." That, we thought, was a
bad speculation for a chapel containing two subscription boxes for
"sick and needy scholars." The man who wrote out that exhortation in
the interests of Petticoat-lane men and their kindred, and the
patriot who drove with a fierce virtue the four nails into it
didn't, we are afraid, know clearly how much it costs to convert a
genuine Jew, else more caution would have been exercised by each of
them. A Jew's eye is a costly thing; but a Jew's conversion is much
more expensive; you can't get at the thing fairly for less than
10,000 pounds; and as five good Wesleyan Chapels could be built, in
ordinary districts, for that sum, we advise Wesleyans to go in for
chapels and not for Jews.
If the pulpit had not been a broad and accommodating one, in St.
Mary's-street Chapel, we should have been inclined to think that the
parson might have had a "walk round." There is just space enough in
front of the pulpit for a medium-sized gentleman to pass between it
and the front rails. In a moment of high dudgeon, a thin preacher
with a passion for "action" might easily flank off and traverse it
frontally; but an easy-minded individual would find plenty of room
in the pulpit, and if he did not, presuming he were stout, he would
have to "crush" considerably in order to accomplish a full circular
route. Beyond and in the immediate front of the pulpit rails there
is a circular seat. This we fancied, during our inspection, was the
"penitent form"--it seemed close and handy during a season of stern
excitement and warm eruption; but in a moment we were told it was
for "sacrament people," who patronise it in turns, on particular
Sundays. Two services are conducted on Sundays here by regular and
itinerent preachers; the former coming from Lune-street Chapel, and
the latter being furnished out of the general lay body. Nearly every
night throughout the week, class meetings, &c., are held in the
building, and they are conducted with much rapture and peacefulness.
How the Jew-converting business gets on we cannot tell--badly, we
imagine; but in respect to the ordinary operations of the place they
are successful and promise to be still more so. A chapel whose
members branched off from this place has been established at Walton.
About 12 months ago it was opened. A cottage situated on the road
side leading to the church constitutes the walhallah of Methodism
there, and the support accorded to it is increasing. We have no more
to say as to the St. Mary's-street mission. We hope it will go on
and agreeably grapple with the people in its own district whatever
may become of the Jews.
A mile and a half distant, on the other side of the town, and
quietly resting amongst the desolate premises once occupied by the
Preston Ship Building Company, at the Marsh End, there is a small
preaching place, wherein the Scriptures are expounded and the
doctrines of John Wesley duly inculcated. About two and a half years
ago a couple of cottages in this locality were "thrown into one,"
and arranged so as to moderately accommodate those caring about
religion, and willing to have it in a "good old Methodist" style.
There was considerable briskness of trade hereabouts at that time,
ships were made in the adjoining yards, the bubble of speculation
was being strongly blown, large numbers of strong-armed men, caring
more for ale in gallon jugs than either virtue in tracts or piety in
sermons, resided in the district, the population was rapidly
increasing, a new section of the town's suburbs was being strongly
developed, and there being drinking houses, skittle grounds, and
other accompaniments of a progressive age visible, it was considered
prudent to mix up a small Wesleyan preaching room and school with
the general confraternity of institutions in the locality. At the
beginning of this year, owing to the insufficient accomodation of
the premises, a portion of the pattern room of the Ship Building
Company, which in the meantime had resolved its organisation into
thin air and evaporated, was secured, and arranged in a homely
fashion for the required business. After passing through a small
door in the centre of a large one, leading to the shipyard, then
turning to the right, then mounting 18 steep awkward steps, and then
turning again to the right, you arrive at the place.
The moment we saw it we knew it. It was in this very room where
grand champagne luncheons used to be given after ship launches, and
where dancing and genteel carousing followed. The last time we had
business at this place we saw twenty-three gentlemen alcoholically
merry in it, six Town Councillors helpless yet boisterous in it,
thirty couples of ladies and gentlemen dancing in it, four waiters
smuggling half-used bottles of champagne rapidly down their throats
in it, an ex-Mayor with his hat, thrown right back, looking awfully
jolly, and superintending the proceedings, in it, and in an
adjoining room, now used for vestry purposes, three ladies in silk
velvet, wine-freighted, and just able to see, blowing up everybody
because their bonnets were lost. The place where all this "fou and
unco happy" work was transacted is now the school chapel of the
Wesleyans. The room wherein the congregation meet is bare, plain,
and primitive-looking, with an open roof, whitewashed all round, and
boarded off from a workshop at the southern end. Its "furniture"
consists of eleven forms, three stoves, a pulpit with no back, and a
chair. A strip of wood is placed across a window at the rear of the
chair, which is used by the officiating parson, and this wood
prevents him from breaking the glass if he should happen to throw
his head back sharply. On one side of the room there are 19 hat
hooks, and on the other 24. There are seats in the place for about
100. The members number about 20, and the average congregation,
entirely working people, and of homely, orderly character, will
range from 80 to 100. The room is connected with the Wesley circuit;
every Sunday there are two services in it; a meeting for religious
purposes is held each Thursday night; and the preaching is done by
"locals" and "regulars." The singing is neither good, nor bad, nor
indifferent; but a mixture of the whole three qualities. It is
accompanied by a small harmonium, played by a young lady in
moderately tasteful style. The services are simple and hearty, and
whilst there may be a little plaintive noisiness now and then in
them--a few penitent flutterings--they are generally, and
remembering the complexion of the congregation, respectably
conducted.
"It's a regular bird nest, and you'll never get to it, unless you
ask the neighbouring folk," said a friend to us whilst talking about
the Revivalists' tabernacle. To the bottom of Pitt-street we then
went, and seeing two or three females and a man dart out of a dim-
looking passage beneath one of the side arches of the railway bridge
there, we concluded that we were near the "nest." Having sauntered
about for a few moments, and assured ourselves that this was really
the place we were in search of, we went to the arch, walked six or
seven yards forward, looked up a dark, tortuous, narrow passage on
the right, and entered it. In the centre of the passage there was a
hole, through which you could see telegraph wires and the sky, on
one side a grim crevice running narrowly to the top of the railway
bridge, and ahead a shadowy opening like the front of an underground
store, with a wooden partition, in the centre of which was a small
square of glass. Theseus, who got through the Labyrinth, would have
been puzzled with this mystic passage. We never saw such a time-worn
and dumfounding road to any place, and if those who patronise it
regularly had done their best to discover the essence of dinginess
and intractibility, they could not have hit upon a better spot than
this. A warm air wave, similar to that you expect on entering a
bakehouse, met us just when we had passed the wooden partition. In
the centre of the room there was a stove, almost red-hot. This
apartment, which was filled with small forms, was, we ascertained, a
Sunday-school. At the bottom end there were some narrow steps,
leading through a large hole into a room above--the "chapel." A fat
man could never get up these steps, and a tall one would injure his
head if he did not stoop very considerably in ascending them.
The chapel is about five yards wide, 15 yards long, very low on one
side, and moderately high on the other. It is plain, ricketty, and
whitewashed. The side wall of the railway bridge forms one end of
it. On the northern side, there is a door fastened up with a piece
of wood in the form of a large loadstone. This door leads to the top
of a pig-stye. The "chapel" will hold about 70. When we visited it,
the congregation consisted of 35 children of a very uneasy sort, 11
men, and five women. Every now and then railway goods trains kept
passing, and what with the whistling of the engines, the shaking
caused by the waggons, the barking of a dog in a yard behind, the
grunting of a pig in a stye three yards off, and the noise of the 35
children before us, we had a very refreshing time of it. The
congregation--a poor one--consists of a remnant of the Revivalists
who were in Preston last year, and it has a kind of nominal
connection with the Orchard United Methodists. The building we have
described was formerly a weaving shop or rubbish store. Its present
tenants have occupied it about twelve months. They are an earnest
body, seem obliging to strangers, are not as fiery and wild as some
of their class, and might do better in the town if they had a better
room. They have no fixed minister. The preacher we heard was a
stranger. He pulled off his coat just before beginning his
discourse. After a few introductory remarks, in the course of which
he said he had been troubled with stomach ache for six hours on the
previous day, and that just before his last visit to Preston he had
an attack of illness in the very same place, a lengthy allusion was
made to his past history. He said that he had been "a villain, a
gambler, a drunkard, and a Sabbath breaker"--we expected hearing him
say, as many of his class do, that he had often abused his mother,
thrashed his wife, and punished his children, but he did not utter a
word on the subject. The remainder of his discourse was less
personal and more orthodox. At the close we descended the steps
carefully, groped our way out quietly, and left, wondering how ever
we had got to such a place at all, and how those worshipping in it
could afford to Sabbatically pen themselves up in such a mysterious,
ramshackle shanty.