26 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



priest at all times more than enough to do, but 

 the state of Church feeling in most of the Yorkshire 

 wold villages during the first half of the present 

 century was at a low ebb. Nafferton, it would 

 seem, was no exception to the rule. The work 

 that lay before him when he took up his abode 

 here, which he did on the very first day he was 

 able after presentation, would have daunted the 

 courage of many less sanguine and hopeful men 

 than the new vicar, but he always carried a good 

 heart with him, and had the happy faculty of 

 looking on the bright side of things ; this, indeed, 

 he had almost to a fault, but he used to say that 

 he considered such a frame of mind and tempera- 

 ment a far greater blessing even than good health. 

 Such a stimulus proved of special value to him 

 during his residence at Nafferton, where he had 

 from the outset many difficulties to fight against, 

 and not a little opposition to confront. 



The value of the living was very small ^170 a 

 year gross at most while the net yearly income 

 was but 40. The Vicarage house was miserably 

 poor and insufficient. The place itself was long 

 considered as one of the strongholds of Dissent, and 

 contained four meeting-houses for three different 

 religious bodies. The church at Nafferton was a 

 large one, and presented some interesting features, 

 but the internal arrangements when first Mr. Morris 

 went there were unsuitable, not to say deplorable. 

 Huge box-like pews filled the nave and blocked 

 up the entrance to the chancel. The old "three- 



