148 THE LAND'S END 



that it is not one an Englishman can look on as a 

 very serious matter. 



I was one day discussing the Sunday observance 

 question with an English clergyman whose parish lies 

 on the Cornish coast, and related the following incident 

 to him. I was lodging with an intelligent and well-to- 

 do artisan and his wife in a Somerset village when one 

 Sunday morning, the weather being very fine, my 

 host, finding that I was not going to church, asked me 

 if I would take a walk with him as he wished to show 

 me some nice spots in the neighbouring woods and 

 copses where he was accustomed to go. The woods 

 were certainly very beautiful, with green open spaces 

 and a fine stream where we watched the trout and 

 saw a kingfisher flash by. We said it was not a bad 

 place to spend a Sunday morning in and then fell into 

 a long talk about Sunday observance, and the fact 

 that village people, the men especially, had lost the 

 habit of going to church but had discovered no way 

 of spending the day pleasantly or profitably. I 

 thought that outdoor games ought to be encouraged 

 as it was plainly beneficial both to mind and body and 

 saved them from tedium and the temptations to drink 

 and smoke more than was good for them. I thought 

 too that when the parson of the parish took this line 

 the effect was entirely good ; it taught them to look 

 on him as more human and one of themselves and 

 capable of putting himself in their place. 



My companion looked grave and shook his head 

 at this, and when I told him that I knew clergymen 

 who were as good men as could be found in the land 



