MR. PUDDLEHAM'S NEW CHAPEL.
[Illustration]
The Vicar devoted a week to the consideration of his grievance about
the chapel, and then did write to the Marquis. Indeed, there was no
time to be lost if he intended to do anything, as on the second day
after his interview with Mr. Grimes, Grimes himself, with two men to
assist him, began their measuring on the devoted spot, sticking in
little marks for the corners of the projected building, and turning
up a sod here and there. Mr. Grimes was a staunch Churchman; and
though in the way of business he was very glad to have the building
of a Methodist chapel,--or of a Pagan temple, if such might come in
his way,--yet, even though he possibly might give some offence to
the great man's shadow in Bullhampton, he was willing to postpone
his work for two or three days at the Vicar's request. "Grimes," the
Vicar said, "I'm not quite sure that I like this."
[Illustration: Site of Mr. Puddleham's new chapel.]
"Well, sir;--no, sir. I was thinking myself, sir, that maybe you
might take it unkind in the Marquis."
"I think I shall write to him. Perhaps you wouldn't mind giving over
for a day or two." Grimes yielded at once, and took his spade and
measurements away, although Mr. Puddleham fretted a good deal. Mr.
Puddleham had been much elated by the prospect of his new Bethel, and
had, it must be confessed, received into his mind an idea that it
would be a good thing to quarrel with the Vicar under the auspices of
the landlord. Fenwick's character had hitherto been too strong for
him, and he had been forced into parochial quiescence and religious
amity almost in spite of his conscience. He was a much older man than
Mr. Fenwick, having been for thirty years in the ministry, and he had
always previously enjoyed the privilege of being on bad terms with
the clergyman of the Establishment. It had been his glory to be a
poacher on another man's manor, to filch souls, as it were, out of
the keeping of a pastor of a higher grade than himself, to say severe
things of the short comings of an endowed clergyman, and to obtain
recognition of his position by the activity of his operations in the
guise of a blister. Our Vicar, understanding something of this, had,
with some malice towards the gentleman himself, determined to rob
Mr. Puddleham of his blistering powers. There is no doubt a certain
pleasure in poaching which does not belong to the licit following of
game; but a man can't poach if the right of shooting be accorded to
him. Mr. Puddleham had not been quite happy in his mind amidst the
ease and amiable relations which Mr. Fenwick enforced upon him, and
had long since begun to feel that a few cabbages and peaches did not
repay him for the loss of those pleasant and bitter things, which it
would have been his to say in his daily walks and from the pulpit of
his Salem, had he not been thus hampered, confined, and dominated.
Hitherto he had hardly gained a single soul from under Mr. Fenwick's
grasp,--had indeed on the balance lost his grasp on souls, and was
beginning to be aware that this was so because of the cabbages and
the peaches. He told himself that though he had not hankered after
these flesh-pots, that though he would have preferred to be without
the flesh-pots, he had submitted to them. He was painfully conscious
of the guile of this young man, who had, as it were, cheated him out
of that appropriate acerbity of religion, without which a proselyting
sect can hardly maintain its ground beneath the shadow of an endowed
and domineering Church. War was necessary to Mr. Puddleham. He had
come to be hardly anybody at all, because he was at peace with the
vicar of the parish in which he was established. His eyes had been
becoming gradually open to all this for years; and when he had been
present at the bitter quarrel between the Vicar and the Marquis,
he had at once told himself that now was his opportunity. He had
intended to express a clear opinion to Mr. Fenwick that he, Mr.
Fenwick, had been very wrong in speaking to the Marquis as he had
spoken, and as he was walking out of the farm-house he was preparing
some words as to the respect due to those in authority. It happened,
however, that at that moment the wind was taken out of his sails by
a strange comparison which the Vicar made to him between the sins
of them two, ministers of God as they were, and the sins of Carry
Brattle. Mr. Puddleham at the moment had been cowed and quelled. He
was not quite able to carry himself in the Vicar's presence as though
he were the Vicar's equal. But the desire for a quarrel remained,
and when it was suggested to him by Mr. Packer, the Marquis's man of
business, that the green opposite to the Vicarage gate would be a
convenient site for his chapel, and that the Marquis was ready to
double his before-proffered subscription, then he saw plainly that
the moment had come, and that it was fitting that he should gird up
his loins and return all future cabbages to the proud donor.
Mr. Puddleham had his eye keenly set on the scene of his future
ministration, and was aware of Grimes's default almost as soon as
that man with his myrmidons had left the ground. He at once went to
Grimes with heavy denunciations, with threats of the Marquis, and
with urgent explanation as to the necessity of instant work. But
Grimes was obdurate. The Vicar had asked him to leave the work for
a day or two, and of course he must do what the Vicar asked. If
he couldn't be allowed to do as much as that for the Vicar of the
parish, Bullhampton wouldn't be, in Mr. Grimes's opinion, any place
for anybody to live in. Mr. Puddleham argued the matter out, but he
argued in vain. Mr. Grimes declared that there was time enough, and
that he would have the work finished by the time fixed,--unless,
indeed, the Marquis should change his mind. Mr. Puddleham regarded
this as a most improbable supposition. "The Marquis doesn't change
his mind, Mr. Grimes," he said; and then he walked forth from Mr.
Grimes's house with much offence.
By this time all Bullhampton knew of the quarrel,--knew of it,
although Mr. Fenwick had been so very careful to guard himself from
any quarrelling at all. He had not spoken a word in anger on the
subject to anyone but his wife; and in making his request to Grimes
had done so with hypocritical good humour. But, nevertheless, he was
aware that the parish was becoming hot about it; and when he sat down
to write his letter to the Marquis he was almost minded to give up
the idea of writing, to return to Grimes, and to allow the measuring
and sod-turning to be continued. Why should a place of worship
opposite to his gate be considered by him as an injury? Why should
the psalm-singing of Christian brethren hurt his ears as he walked
about his garden? And if, through the infirmity of his nature, his
eyes and his ears were hurt, what was that to the great purport for
which he had been sent into the parish? Was he not about to create
enmity by his opposition; and was it not his special duty to foster
love and goodwill among his people? After all he, within his own
Vicarage grounds, had all that it was intended that he should
possess; and that he held very firmly. Poor Mr. Puddleham had no such
firm holding; and why should he quarrel with Mr. Puddleham because
that ill-paid preacher sought to strengthen the ground on which his
Salem stood?
As he paused, however, to think of all this, there came upon him the
conviction that in this thing that was to be done the Marquis was
determined to punish him personally, and he could not resist the
temptation of fighting the Marquis. And then, if he succumbed easily
in this matter, would it not follow almost as a matter of course that
the battle against him would be carried on elsewhere? If he yielded
now, resolving to ignore altogether any idea of his own comfort or
his own taste, would he thereby maintain that tranquillity in his
parish which he thought so desirable? He had already seen that in Mr.
Puddleham's manner to himself which made him sure that Mr. Puddleham
was ambitious to be a sword in the right hand of the Marquis.
Personally the Vicar was himself pugnacious. Few men, perhaps, were
more so. If there must be a fight let them come on, and he would do
his best. Turning the matter thus backwards and forwards in his mind,
he came at last to the conclusion that there must be a fight, and
consequently he wrote the following letter to the Marquis;--
Bullhampton Vicarage, January 3, 186--.
MY LORD MARQUIS,
I learned by chance the other day in the village that
a new chapel for the use of the Methodist congregation
of the parish was to be built on the little open green
immediately opposite the Vicarage gate, and that this
special spot of ground had been selected and given by
your lordship for this purpose. I do not at all know what
truth there may be in this,--except that Mr. Grimes, the
carpenter here, has received orders from your agent about
the work. It may probably be the case that the site has
been chosen by Mr. Packer, and not by your lordship. As no
real delay to the building can at this time of the year
arise from a short postponement of the beginning, I have
asked Mr. Grimes to desist till I shall have written to
you on the subject.
I can assure your lordship, in the first place, that no
clergyman of the Established Church in the kingdom can be
less unwilling than I am that they who dissent from my
teaching in the parish should have a commodious place of
worship. If land belonged to me in the place I would give
it myself for such a purpose; and were there no other
available site than that chosen, I would not for a moment
remonstrate against it. I had heard, with satisfaction,
from Mr. Puddleham himself that another spot was chosen
near the cross roads in the village, on which there is
more space, to which as I believe there is no objection,
and which would certainly be nearer than that now selected
to the majority of the congregation.
But of course it would not be for me to trouble your
lordship as to the ground on which a Methodist chapel
should be built, unless I had reason to show why the
site now chosen is objectionable. I do not for a moment
question your lordship's right to give the site. There is
something less than a quarter of an acre in the patch in
question; and though hitherto I have always regarded it
as belonging in some sort to the Vicarage,--as being a
part, as it were, of the entrance,--I feel convinced that
you, as landlord of the ground, would not entertain the
idea of bestowing it for any purpose without being sure
of your right to do so. I raise no question on this
point, believing that there is none to be raised; but I
respectfully submit to your lordship, whether such an
erection as that contemplated by you will not be a lasting
injury to the Vicarage of Bullhampton, and whether you
would wish to inflict a lasting and gratuitous injury
on the vicar of a parish, the greatest portion of which
belongs to yourself.
No doubt life will be very possible to me and my wife, and
to succeeding vicars and their wives, with a red-brick
chapel built as a kind of watch-tower over the Vicarage
gate. So would life be possible at Turnover Park with
a similar edifice immediately before your lordship's
hall-door. Knowing very well that the reasonable wants of
the Methodists cannot make such a building on such a spot
necessary, you no doubt would not consent to it; and I now
venture to ask you to put a stop to this building here for
the same reason. Were there no other site in the parish
equally commodious I would not say a word.
I have the honour to be,
Your lordship's most obedient servant,
FRANCIS FENWICK.
Lord Trowbridge, when he received this letter,--when he had only
partially read it, and had not at all digested it, was disposed to
yield the point. He was a silly man, thinking much too highly of his
own position, believing himself entitled to unlimited deference from
all those who in any way came within the rays of his magnificence,
and easily made angry by opposition; but he was not naturally prone
to inflict evil, and did in some degree recognise it as a duty
attached to his splendour that he should be beneficent to the
inferiors with whom he was connected. Great as was his wrath against
the present Vicar of Bullhampton, and thoroughly as he conceived it
to be expedient that so evil-minded a pastor should be driven out of
the parish, nevertheless he felt some scruple at taking a step which
would be injurious to the parish vicar, let the parish vicar be who
he might. Packer was the sinner who had originated the new plan for
punishing Mr. Fenwick,--Packer, with the assistance of Mr. Puddleham;
and the Marquis, though he had in some sort authorised the plan, had
in truth thought very little about it. When the Vicar spoke of the
lasting injury to the Vicarage, and when Lord Trowbridge remembered
that he owned two thousand and two acres within the parish,--as Mr.
Puddleham had told him,--he began to think that the chapel had better
be built elsewhere. The Vicar was a pestilent man to whom punishment
was due, but the punishment should be made to attach itself to the
man, rather than to the man's office. So was working the Marquis's
mind, till the Marquis came upon that horrid passage in the Vicar's
letter, in which it was suggested that the building of a Methodist
chapel in his own park, immediately in front of his own august
hall-door might under certain circumstances be expedient. The remark
was almost as pernicious and unpardonable as that which had been
made about his lordship's daughters. It was manifest to him that the
Vicar intended to declare that marquises were no more than other
people,--and that the declaration was made and insisted on with the
determination of insulting him. Had this apostate priest been capable
of feeling any proper appreciation of his own position and that
of the Marquis, he would have said nothing of Turnover Park. When
the Marquis had read the letter a second time and had digested it
he perceived that its whole tenour was bad, that the writer was
evil-minded, and that no request made by him should be granted. Even
though the obnoxious chapel should have to be pulled down for the
benefit of another vicar, it should be put up for the punishment of
this vicar. A man who wants to have a favour done for him, can hardly
hope to be successful if he asks for the favour with insolence. So
the heart of the Marquis was hardened, and he was strengthened to do
that which misbecame him both as a gentleman and a landlord.
He did not answer the letter for some time; but he saw Packer, saw
his head agent, and got out the map of the property. The map of
the property was not very clear in the matter, but he remembered
the space well, and convinced himself that no other place in all
Bullhampton could be so appropriate for a Methodist chapel. At the
end of a week he caused a reply to be written to Mr. Fenwick. He
would not demean himself by writing with his own hand, but he gave
his orders to the head agent. The head agent merely informed the
Vicar that it was considered that the spot of ground in question was
the most appropriate in the village for the purpose in hand.
Mrs. Fenwick when she heard the reply burst out into tears. She was a
woman by no means over devoted to things of this world, who thought
much of her duties and did them, who would have sacrificed anything
for her husband and children, who had learned the fact that both
little troubles and great, if borne with patience, may be borne with
ease; but she did think much of her house, was proud of her garden,
and rejoiced in the external prettiness of her surroundings. It was
gall to her that this hideous building should be so placed as to
destroy the comeliness of that side of her abode. "We shall hear
their singing and ranting whenever we open our front windows," she
said.
"Then we won't open them," said the Vicar.
"We can't help ourselves. Just see what it will be whenever we go in
and out. We might just as well have it inside the house at once."
"You speak as though Mr. Puddleham were always in his pulpit."
"They're always doing something,--and then the building will be there
whether it's open or shut. It will alter the parish altogether, and I
really think it will be better that you should get an exchange."
"And run away from my enemy?"
"It would be running away from an intolerable nuisance."
"I won't do that," said the Vicar. "If there were no other reason for
staying, I won't put it in the power of the Marquis of Trowbridge
to say that he has turned me out of my parish, and so punished me
because I have not submitted myself to him. I have not sought the
quarrel. He has been overbearing and insolent, and now is meanly
desirous to injure me because I will not suffer his insolence. No
doubt, placed as he is, he can do much; but he cannot turn me out of
Bullhampton."
"What is the good of staying, Frank, if we are to be made wretched?"
"We won't be made wretched. What! be wretched because there is an
ugly building opposite to your outside gate? It is almost wicked to
say so. I don't like it. I like the doing of the thing less even than
the thing itself. If it can be stopped, I will stop it. If it could
be prevented by any amount of fighting, I should think myself right
to fight in such a cause. If I can see my way to doing anything to
oppose the Marquis, it shall be done. But I won't run away." Mrs.
Fenwick said nothing more on the subject at that moment, but she felt
that the glory and joy of the Vicarage were gone from it.