1849-1850.] CHANGES IN HIS HOME, 117 



deck, sometimes wet to the skin, and, as soon as the sun 

 had dried me, wet again. I only wished it had been a day 

 instead of two hours." 



These journal letters were written in a very lively style : 

 the two first of them are signed, "Everybody's friend and 

 brother;" but his sensitive nature never allowed him much 

 peace. On the first Sunday after his return, he records : " Was 

 very much affected, and obliged to sit down and weep while 

 they sang." 



The coming winter was as busy as usual. " I am getting," 

 he says, "into very comfortable writing order; and though 

 I am doing nothing great, and attracting no particular notice, 

 yet I hope that I am doing my duties better than at many 

 former times — at any rate, with more peacefulness and calmness, 

 though with more sense of humility. This has resulted from 

 Port Royal as much as anything. I shall ask Mrs. Schimmel- 

 penninck if she will let me print an abridgment, as her work 

 is out of print." It was six years before this was accomplished ; 

 but the doctrine of self-abnegation, which the saints of Port 

 Royal practised, was sinking deep into his heart. He began 

 a cottage service this winter, and held the Sunday evening 

 service in the large school-room instead of the dilapidated 

 chapel, which was then difficult of access in dark nights. Here 

 he felt more at ease in a course of familiar lectures on 

 " Customs " — Customs of Hospitality, of Smoking, of Drinking, 

 and Theatrical Amusements. Notwithstanding his facility as 

 a speaker, he carefully wrote these discourses. He also 

 preached on " The true idea of a Christian Church," and on 

 " Church membership," which he wished to revive. 



In the summer of 1850, he went to Bristol to marry his 

 sister Susan to his friend and fellow-labourer, Mr. Robert 

 Gaskell. He had to make new plans for his new home, and 

 he resolved to receive two or three young friends of the 

 working-class, who should pay him what their board would 

 otherwise cost them. He and they took their meals together 

 in the pleasant kitchen with his housekeeper (the first was 

 the mother of one of his inmates). With his strong domestic 



