PERSONAL 115 



questions. Occasionally he would cross swords 

 with him on some knotty point ; and in such cases, 

 if the destinies of countries hung upon the issue, 

 the matter in dispute could not have been carried 

 on with greater animation and more dogged deter- 

 mination than by these two. 



In all things, and especially in those that pertained 

 to his clerical work, he had a stern sense of duty. 

 His parochial visitations were made with scrupulous 

 regularity, and he kept a record of every visit he 

 paid, as well as of other details of work that he per- 

 formed in the parish, so that no part of it might be 

 omitted. Though never losing sight of the main 

 object of such visits, he delighted in discussing all 

 manner of topics with his parishioners ; he thus 

 knew his flock thoroughly, and although he went 

 in and out among them so much at all seasons, his 

 manner towards even the poorest was noticeable for 

 its extreme consideration and courtesy. 



Having spent nearly the whole of his clerical life 

 in Yorkshire, he understood the ways as well as the 

 speech of the people. The quaint Yorkshire words 

 and expressions that he daily heard, especially in the 

 earlier days of his clerical life, greatly interested him. 

 He delighted in a Yorkshire story, and could tell one 

 with good effect. He frequently alluded with enjoy- 

 ment to touches of the dialect which he had heard, 

 which would have been puzzling to a stranger, as 

 when he went to visit an old dame at Nafferton who 

 had seriously injured herself. Asking her one day 

 how the accident happened, she replied, " Ah wer 



