38 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



sweeping each the floor of his room, and performing his 

 ablutions at a sink at the end of the gallery. 



For Sundays there were three places of religious 

 assembly : firstly, the Roman Catholic chapel, attended by 

 the great mass of the working population, as also by Mrs. 

 Elson and her daughters ; secondly, the Established Church, 

 a small edifice ministered to by the Rev. John Burt, who 

 came over for the purpose from his own parish of Harbour 

 Grace, of which he was the incumbent ; and, thirdly, the 

 Methodist chapel, which rivalled the Catholic chapel in the 

 number of its attendants. Mr. Elson was a Freethinker, 

 and attended no religious service. On the first Sunday 

 afternoon at Carbonear, Philip Gosse, feeling much at a loss 

 for occupation, went boldly into the parlour and asked 

 Mr. Elson to lend him a book. He was very kind, entered 

 into conversation with the lad regarding recent literature, 

 and lent him at once two works which were still fresh to the 

 world of readers, The Fortunes of Nigel and the first series 

 of the collected Essays of Elia. As at home in England, 

 so even in Newfoundland, in that fortunate age for authors, 

 there was a book-club in every town of any consequence. 

 Of the Carbonear book-club Mr. Elson was the president 

 and librarian, and the books were kept in a closet to which 

 the clerks, most of whom were members of the club, had 

 free access at breakfast-time and on Sundays. New books 

 were bought but once a year, when a solemn meeting of 

 members was held in the parlour, and the purchase of 

 volumes was voted. The choice was mainly left to Mr. 

 Elson himself. Of course there was the usual large pro- 

 portion of novels, of which Gosse became a great devourer. 

 Most of Scott's, Bulwer's, Cooper's, Gait's, and the O'Hara 

 series were to be found at Carbonear within a year of their 

 publication in London. Biography, poetry, travels, and 

 even science were very fairly represented, and the basis of 



