The following anecdotes were told by the late Bishop of Chichester, as
having occurred to himself.
AT the annual examination of the Charity Schools, around the city of
Chichester, he was seated in the front row of the school room, together
with his daughters, and the family of the noble house of Richmond, when
the Bishop kindly took part in the examination, and put several
questions. To one boy, he said, "We have all sinned and come short of
the glory of God. Now, does that passage mean that _every one_ of us has
sinned?" The boy hesitated--but upon a repetition of the question, the
lad replied, "Every one except your Lordship, and the company sitting on
the front form." The same Bishop, at one of his Confirmations, saw a
school girl inclined to be inattentive and troublesome; he therefore
held up his finger as a warning. These children, being accustomed to
_signs_ from their teachers, of which they were expected to declare the
meaning, did not suppose that the elevation of the Bishop's finger, was
an exception to their general rule of reply to such tokens, they
therefore all arose together, and from the middle of the Church
exclaimed in an exulting tone, "_perpendicular_," to the astonishment
and consternation of the better inclined, and to the amusement, we fear,
of not a few of the congregation.