is not all persons who can afford, if I may so say, to make such a sacrifice, and to rest their preaching solely upon its truth and authority, and unfortunately the attempt is not always successful. I like to hear an eloquent, and a brilliant sermon, and I can admire the ingenuity with which a talented preacher addresses himself to the feeling of his audience; nay, I have no doubt that in very many cases it is necessary to use such ingenuity to get at the recesses of the human heart; but I do love to hear the teacher use plainness, as one in authority, and especially do I like this in the heads of our church. Hoc antem hactenus, I know not whether either you or I are called upon to discuss such matters.

However this may be, I must tell you of another treat which I have had here, and that I am sure you will duly estimate. From information received from a friend, I was led to attend service at St. Mary church, two miles from Torquay, and there I had the very great pleasure of hearing our own excellent Bishop Coleridge preach.

That I heard an excellent sermon delivered in the most impressive manner, every Barbadian will, I am sure, readily believe without my affirming it. Some allowance may possibly be made for our natural feelings of respect and regard for an individual who has earned them from us by a course of useful exertion, of firm but courteous deportment, and ultimately by the visible moral improvement of his diocese, but I am convinced that the merest stranger must admire the dignified and impressive manner of our worthy

bishop, whilst delivering his truly valuable and authoritative admonitions and exhortations from the pulpit. Alas, that we should be about to lose the spiritual superintendance of such a man! We may and ought to be sincerely thankful that we have enjoyed such an advantage for so long a time, and I think that the admirable condition of our island in point of church accommodation may be looked upon in after years (not to detract from the merits of the inhabitants) as a monument of his care and zeal in the cause of religion. After the destruction of our churches by the hurricane of 1830 we should, no doubt, have exerted ourselves to rebuild them, but I doubt whether our efforts would have been so very successful without the fostering care of our good bishop.

Mary Church is the living of Mr. Coleridge, cousin of our bishop, who is usually a visitant there when in England.

The good people of Torquay are particularly well off for spiritual instruction. Besides the parish church of Tor, (which, to say truth, sadly wants the renovation which has been long promised it), there is a large chapel of ease, and a large proprietary chapel belonging to the establishment, and there are, I believe, chapels belonging to each of the recognised bodies of Dissenters, excepting Quakers and Socinians. Then, besides all these, there are meetings of various denominations, but little, if at all, known elsewhere. In fact, the multiplicity of these chapels and meeting-houses put me forcibly in mind of what

is related to have occurred at an assemblage of Scotch ministers, where, before proceeding to business, the worthy reverend gentlemen fell into a train of lamentation over the sad state of the world, something after the following fashion. "Eh, sirs! bet they're awfu' times, these we hae fa'en upon! Mercy guide us! wearisome and difficult it is for the puir ministers o' the kirk to keep their flocks thegither, and sorrowfu' it is to see the divisions and the sceesms whilk hae crept in upon us! Ay, sirs, maybe ye wadna hae thocht it, but posetively there's Arianee-m sprung up in the midst o' my ain paarish. It's a faac, sirs, mair's the pity, not to say the shame."

"Ah, weel, reverend father," said another of the divines, "ye're no singular in your troobles, we hae gotten Antinomianeesm in our paarish."

"Troth, sirs," chimed in a third, "ye hae na gotten the worst on't; nae, nae, sirs, look at my puir paarish. What for, think ye, is't that I hae laboured and preached these forty years? Why joost to see Soceenianeesm rear its head before my vary een"

66

Eh, sirs!' rang out a full chorus, "Soceenianeesm! Gude guid us! what next?"

"'Deed, reverend father, ye may weel say that," observed a young minister, who had hitherto been silent, "but ye'll hardly guess it. Bad eneugh are the eesms ye hae mentioned, but we hae gotten a waur eesm than a' they in my paarish."

66

Hoot, man," exclaimed more than one voice, "it's not poseible! waur nor Soceenianeesm, it's no poseible."

"'Deed bet it is though, reverend fathers."

66

ye?"

Weel, than

ye maun hae gotten Deeism amongst

"Waur nor that, reverend father."

"Waur nor Deeism! then it's joost Atheeism." "'Deed no, reverend father, it's no Atheeism." "Ye're daft, lad! div' ken what ye mean yoursell?" "'Deed do I that, father," said the young man with a terrible writhing of the shoulders; "I ken that to my cost. We hae a' gotten the rheumateesm!"

307

LETTER X.

As I said before, the neighbourhood of Torquay abounds in pretty drives; it would be difficult to find a prettier than that to Teignmouth, which runs along the coast in such a manner as to give the passenger the fullest benefit of variety: at one time presenting a fine prospect of a rich inland country, and at another delighting the eye with the most lovely peeps of the sea between the green sides of the numerous little valleys which open to the southward. In one of these valleys, or coombes as they are called, I was noticing a particularly picturesque little village, when my friend told me that a certain degree of interest was attached to the spot from an incident which occurred there many years ago, or rather a series of incidents, constituting a little romance.

The lower orders of people in Devonshire, it seems, were once famed for credulity and superstition, and perhaps some tinges of the same still remain. At the time to which my friend's little history refers they were in full vigour, and in no locality did they