26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [CHAP. iv. 



of two miles. Then came a wearying walk up the hill 

 until this became so steep that in the Churchyard there 

 were successive little arrangements of steps to help us up 

 the ascent. Within, it seems to me, that the clergyman 

 neither excused himself, nor us, anything that might have 

 lightened the strain, bodily and mental, to the younger 

 attendants. The creed of St. Athanasius was duly gone 

 through as well as the Litany, and addresses, which 

 nowadays are cut very short, came at full length. When, 

 after the return drive, we got safely home, I will not say but 

 that our spiritual state might have been better had our 

 bodily condition been less open to the unsettling influence 

 of a desire for a much-needed meal. 



One pleasure of the high days was having the fine 

 old hymns for Easter or Christmas, which no bad singing 

 can spoil, as a variety on Sternhold and Hopkins, but I still 

 bear in mind the absolute depression caused by that doleful 

 production, the hymn called " The Lamentation of a 

 Sinner." To this day it seems to me that it would be 

 better for such a composition to be omitted from our 

 service. 



Although it appears to be the correct thing for those who 

 have been before the public in later life to have reminis- 

 cences (or for their biographer to invent them), of their 

 precocious piety, I cannot remember that I was ever much 

 given that way. I think that I was as a child kept in steady 

 paths of proper behaviour, and amongst the items taught was 

 certainly scrupulous observance of the fifth commandment in 

 all its branches. Any deviation from truth was another point, 

 the wickedness of which was most sedulously inculcated ; 

 and I should say that from my earliest days I was thoroughly 

 well grounded in as much simple and necessary religious 

 information as my small head could carry. 



But I did not indulge in fine sentiments, felt or expressed, 

 and I think that my first absolute feeling on religious 

 matters was roused when in one of our spring visits to 

 London, I went regularly on Sunday morning with the 

 family to attend the service at the Vere Street Chapel, where 

 Mr. Scobell was then vicar, and some clergyman of high 

 standing occasionally preached. One thing that was very 

 charming to a girl who had not heard anything of the 

 kind before, was the hymn singing. The splendid hymn 

 " Thou art the way," imprinted itself on my mind, as 

 likewise a part of a sermon by Mr. Scobell, on the basis of 

 our trust in God. He enumerated various of the high 



