THE MISSION OF CANON GIRDLESTONE. 237 



and listened to the excellent sermons delivered by the Canon 

 in the well-filled building. The singing was led by an 

 admirably trained choir, Mrs. Girdlestone being the 

 organist. In company with Canon Girdlestone, we also 

 visited the successful and well-attended Sunday school 

 connected with the church. The day schools, we learnt, 

 were equally flourishing ; and notwithstanding the great 

 demands made upon the vicar's time by the maintenance 

 of his system of peasant migration, he found the oppor- 

 tunity aided materially in this, as in all his good work, 

 by the ladies of his family to encourage attendance and 

 stimulate the progress of education by adopting the plan 

 of obtaining situations for the most deserving of the pupils 

 in his schools. Later in the same month of June 1872, 

 which was the period of our visit to him, Canon Girdlestone 

 and his family took their departure from the scene of their 

 energetic and benevolent work, and went to reside at Olveston 

 in Gloucestershire ; and whilst the peasants of Halberton 

 and the country round were deprived, by his retirement 

 from amongst them, of the presence of an earnest and 

 courageous friend in the worthy and excellent clergyman who 

 had stood by them for so long a time, the kind, gentle, 

 and generous ministrations of the ladies of the vicar's 

 family who were ever active in good work, in all times of 

 sickness and need were missed from many a humble 

 home." 



In a subsequent chapter " Canon Girdlestone's Justifica- 

 tion " will be shown the beneficent mark which this 

 practical missioner had made upon perhaps the most pitiful 

 class of humble toilers in the British Islands. 



