1864 327 that she and I on reaching the bank rolled off the horse's back and were lodged in a gorse-bush ; in the third place I returned home with my " ducks," especially in the rear, speckled with blood drops, where the spines had pricked me, and the trousers seemed to be of rose-bud figured cretonne. When I was a boy, the labourers came to church in clean white smocks, beautifully goffered at the collar. Now they attend divine worship in broad-cloth, whereas I can afford only serge. When I was a boy, a squire drove about in his carriage and pair, with silver-mounted armorial bearings on the harness, and a coat of arms on the panels of the vehicle, and he had coachman and footman in livery on the box. Then, a farmer was regarded as a warm man if he possessed a tax-cart in which to drive to market. Now, not a carriage and pair is to be seen, and squires and farmers alike travel the roads in motor-cars, unadorned. When I was a boy, the pretty milkmaids with their glittering cans went into the field or to the stable to drain the cows, and sang ballads as they pulled with two hands as though ringing a pair of bells. Now, not a milkmaid exists. The men have to do the milking whilst the maids are strumming on pianos. When I was a boy, every village goody and maiden dropped a curtsy to squire and squiress and to the parson, ay, and kissed his or her hand. Now a nod and jerk of the chin to one side suffices to show recognition. When I was a boy, a bishop was regarded with profound awe, and, in fact, he himself considered pomposity to be an essential and distinguishing mark between him and the inferior clergy from the prebendaries down to the base and crawling curate. I entertained the idea, as a boy that, for clergy about to be promoted to thrones and stalls, a preliminary drill in the chapterhouse was de rigueur. In a word, I thought that this structure was to the cathedral what a riding school was to the cavalry barrack. Who the drill-sergeant was, whether the Chancellor or the Archdeacon, I could not ascertain. I had strange fancies at that time. I believed that the brass eagle from which the lessons were read, at the stroke of midnight flew three tim<*s round the interior of the cathedral. I know better now. So also I know now that I was in error as to the preliminary drill imposed on all candidates for high preferment.
