Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
A COUNTRY RECTOR'S EASTER VISIT TO HIS RUSTIC PARISHIONERS .
BY A BROTHER . { C ' . nt . ' nuerl from page 2 ( 14 . ) ON I trotted my easy palfrey up the winding acclivity , leaving the moonlit Abbey and the peaceful vale of the Severn behind me . Upon attaining a pretty considerable elevation , the river assumes to the eye
of the traveller the appearance of four or five distinct streams running parallel to each other . This effect is produced by the very extraordinary meandering of the Severn at that particular part of its course ; and the delusion of the eye was very much heightened from the altitude of the situation at which I looked clown upon the plain below me , stretching out towards Shrewsbury , and the atmosphere being mystified by the exuding vapours of expiring day . A sharp canter brought us to
Sheinton , a rural hamlet on the Wenlock road from Shrewsbury ; a new parsonage-house on the left as you descend the hill , and the rustic fane on the right hand exalted upon a steep hillock , looking altogether very rural and pretty . A few minutes longer and I reached my duke domum for the night . Harley , the place of my tranquil abode for a few days during the holy festivals of Good Friday and Easter Day , is another of the many quiet , happy little villages with which this part of
Shropshire abounds . Its rectory is the Utopia of one ' s college daydreams . Its church is a church in structure and appearance ; not a stone barn , with a kind of pigeon-cot at one end for a belfry , and the interior the rude fittings of ox-stalls . No ; Harley church was evidently
erected when Wenlock Abbey flourished , and regard was had to the ecclesiastical character and architecture of God ' s house . The repairing and maintenance of the edifice , too , does not depend upon the selfinflated egotistical caprice and decision of some score of political praise-God bare-bones in vestry assembled ; but it possesses—sancta beata sit doni clonori , whoever it was—an endowment for that purpose . What a picture of contentment and cheerfulness , too , is the venerable
rector ! What godly regularity rules his house ! What refinement and elegance pervade the interior ! What good taste and propriety reign over every thing without ! At present , the worthy host and hostess were from home , and I was alone in this beautiful retreat of peace and calmness ; though , as the eloquent Cicero says , " Never less alone than when I am alone . " < > r , as our sacred Teacher and august Master , Christ , says , never alone whilst He and the Father are with us . To me this holday
y was elysium . My hours , too few , were passed in contemplation— -penitence , prayer and praise . Here I truly walked with God . I saw him in the glorious sun as he rose in his morning brightness above the hills which bounded the fertile valley to the east . 1 beheld him as he descended to the west over the lofty peak of Mount Caer-doc , in Wales . I saw him in the time-worn dial in the grey church turret from my chamber window , and I felt his penal sentence " dust thou art , and
unto dust shalt thou return , " in the plaintive chime which knelled the passing of the fleeting hour . Those thoughts were delicious ! ' 1 'hos ^ moments were exquisite ! von . I . 3 u
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
A COUNTRY RECTOR'S EASTER VISIT TO HIS RUSTIC PARISHIONERS .
BY A BROTHER . { C ' . nt . ' nuerl from page 2 ( 14 . ) ON I trotted my easy palfrey up the winding acclivity , leaving the moonlit Abbey and the peaceful vale of the Severn behind me . Upon attaining a pretty considerable elevation , the river assumes to the eye
of the traveller the appearance of four or five distinct streams running parallel to each other . This effect is produced by the very extraordinary meandering of the Severn at that particular part of its course ; and the delusion of the eye was very much heightened from the altitude of the situation at which I looked clown upon the plain below me , stretching out towards Shrewsbury , and the atmosphere being mystified by the exuding vapours of expiring day . A sharp canter brought us to
Sheinton , a rural hamlet on the Wenlock road from Shrewsbury ; a new parsonage-house on the left as you descend the hill , and the rustic fane on the right hand exalted upon a steep hillock , looking altogether very rural and pretty . A few minutes longer and I reached my duke domum for the night . Harley , the place of my tranquil abode for a few days during the holy festivals of Good Friday and Easter Day , is another of the many quiet , happy little villages with which this part of
Shropshire abounds . Its rectory is the Utopia of one ' s college daydreams . Its church is a church in structure and appearance ; not a stone barn , with a kind of pigeon-cot at one end for a belfry , and the interior the rude fittings of ox-stalls . No ; Harley church was evidently
erected when Wenlock Abbey flourished , and regard was had to the ecclesiastical character and architecture of God ' s house . The repairing and maintenance of the edifice , too , does not depend upon the selfinflated egotistical caprice and decision of some score of political praise-God bare-bones in vestry assembled ; but it possesses—sancta beata sit doni clonori , whoever it was—an endowment for that purpose . What a picture of contentment and cheerfulness , too , is the venerable
rector ! What godly regularity rules his house ! What refinement and elegance pervade the interior ! What good taste and propriety reign over every thing without ! At present , the worthy host and hostess were from home , and I was alone in this beautiful retreat of peace and calmness ; though , as the eloquent Cicero says , " Never less alone than when I am alone . " < > r , as our sacred Teacher and august Master , Christ , says , never alone whilst He and the Father are with us . To me this holday
y was elysium . My hours , too few , were passed in contemplation— -penitence , prayer and praise . Here I truly walked with God . I saw him in the glorious sun as he rose in his morning brightness above the hills which bounded the fertile valley to the east . 1 beheld him as he descended to the west over the lofty peak of Mount Caer-doc , in Wales . I saw him in the time-worn dial in the grey church turret from my chamber window , and I felt his penal sentence " dust thou art , and
unto dust shalt thou return , " in the plaintive chime which knelled the passing of the fleeting hour . Those thoughts were delicious ! ' 1 'hos ^ moments were exquisite ! von . I . 3 u