12 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR 



After leaving Lampeter, in 1908, he served as a 

 curate for four years at Holy Trinity, Oswestry, 

 and for a similar period at the parish church, 

 Bowden, Cheshire. My own last glimpses of 

 him were at this place. A holiday at the seaside, 

 spent largely in sea -fishing with rod and line, had 

 aroused afresh his old love of angling. All his 

 spare moments during his last winters here were 

 spent in contriving and making all kinds of 

 ingenious tackle for the sport. 



Now, as ever, he flung himself with all his 

 extraordinary energy into his new work, and 

 immediately made his power felt in the multi- 

 farious activities of a busy parish. In particular 

 he won recognition as a preacher ; but as a 

 writer his work was over. No time was available, 

 though he looked longingly forward to resuming 

 it, when, as he hoped, he should receive a country 

 living. 



That time appeared to have come when he was 

 appointed in 1916 to the living of Exmoor. He 

 entered on this with high hopes both of literary 

 and research work ; suddenly his health 

 mysteriously failed.* In January, 1917, he 



* Physically, Rees was of short, stocky build ; broad in the 

 body, and endowed with considerable muscular strength. Doubt- 

 less he had in early life made over-great drafts on his physical 

 and nervous energy ; but, in spite of occasional illness from his 

 Lampeter days onward, no organic disease was suspected. 



