BX 5199 .L8 T73 1883 
 Trench, Maria. 
 Charles Lowder 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/charleslowderbioOOtren 
 
CHARLES LOWDER 
 
EXTRACTS FROM SOME OF THE PRESS NOTICES OF 
 PREVIOUS EDITIONS. 
 
 " Mr. Lowder's Life is the memorial, written with touching simplicity, of 
 no ordinary man." — Saturday Review. 
 
 "This is the record of a very noble life. . . . Our space will not permit 
 us to describe the numerous good works established by Mr. Lowder. Let it 
 suffice to say that by his self-sacrificing devotion he tamed, and to a large 
 extent civilized, one of the rudest and most lav/Iess and vicious districts in 
 the metropolis. Very striking and pathetic is the contrast between the 
 crowd of mourners who turned out to swell the procession which followed 
 him to the grave, and the crowds of yelling rioters who sought to e.\pel him 
 from the parish twenty years before." — Spectator. 
 
 "This biography will be read with interest as the history ol a struggle 
 and conflict amidst the vice and misery so prevalent in our large cities." — 
 Guardian. 
 
 " The book before us, containing a clear and straightforwai-d narrative of 
 his life and labours, is an eminently readal.le one, written with no little 
 literary skill, warmly appreciative, and yet with no such e.xtravagance of 
 indiscriminate praise as to e.xcite any doubts in the mind of a critical reader." 
 — Church Times. 
 
 "Every young Catholic who wishes to learn what the Revival was in its 
 infancy, should read this interesting biography. Every one wlio knew 
 Charles Lowder personally, or heard of his work, will be only too glad to 
 have a permanent record of the eventful epochs in the life of a devoted 
 parish priest." — Church Review. 
 
CHARLES LOWDER 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 "THE LIFE OF ST. TERESA" 
 
 " Et nos vincamus aliquid" 
 
 St. Augustine 
 
 NINTH EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., i, PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1883 
 
[The n£-'t:s of ti-anslatton a>iS of reproduction are reserved^ 
 
TO 
 
 THE REV. JAMES SKINNER, 
 
 IN GRATEFUL THOUGHT 
 OF 
 
 A STEADFAST BATTLE 
 FOR LAW AND CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 
 
( 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 * I CALL a man remarkable," Carlyle says, " who 
 becomes a true workman in this vineyard of the 
 Highest." If this be so, Charles Lowder was 
 certainly one of the most remarkable men among 
 those who have lately passed away. " His work 
 has made ' Lowder ' and ' St, Peter's, London 
 Docks,' household words in this our Western land," 
 were the words of Dean Stansbury, of New Jersey, 
 in a sermon preached soon after that work was 
 ended by death. It is hardly necessary to say that 
 his life has been written by the wish of his brother 
 and his sisters, without whose generous confidence 
 the task would have been an impossible one. To 
 his eldest sister, especially, the writer is indebted, 
 not only for all information as to his early life, but 
 for constant and kindest help while attempting to 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 carry out the wishes of his family. Their desire 
 that the book should be written (at the cost of a 
 sacrifice of private feeling) has been wholly from the 
 belief that, for the sake of others, it was well that 
 the story of his life should be told, although knowing 
 that he would himself have shrunk from it while still 
 amongst us. Had he ever contemplated such a 
 record being made, he would certainly have left 
 more material for the purpose ; but there is not, in 
 his letters or papers, the slightest token of their 
 having been written for anything but the immediate 
 purpose of the moment. His book, " Twenty-one 
 Years in St. George's Mission," now out of print, 
 was placed in the writer's hands by his brother, the 
 Rev. William Lowder, to be used as might seem 
 best ; but with the exception of the account of the 
 cholera in St. Peter's parish, only a very few short 
 extracts from it have been given. We are therefore 
 the more indebted to those who have most kindly, 
 and at considerable trouble to themselves, supplied 
 information, both in writing and in conversation, 
 without which this memoir could not have been 
 written. 
 
 While heartily thanking all who have thus 
 lightened the writer's task, it is impossible not to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 mention with especial gratitude the clergy and 
 Sisters of St. Peter's-in-the-East, the Rev. James 
 Skinner, Rev. H. Rowley, Rev. J. E. Swallow, Rev. 
 Bryan King, and last, but not least, the Rev. Robert 
 Linklater. To him, and to Mr, Skinner, both the 
 writer and readers of this memoir are most largely 
 indebted. For Charles Lowder's life was his work 
 in London ; and to the men who lived and worked 
 with him in London, the one as his leader, the other 
 under him, we must turn to hear the story of his 
 labours. 
 
 It may very probably seem to not a few that 
 too many details have been given in the following 
 pages, at least of Mr. Lowder's last days. But this 
 will be forgiven, if it be remembered that the book 
 is written, first of all, for his mourning parishioners 
 at St. Peter's-in-the-East. They long to follow his 
 last wanderings after his departure from England, 
 to hear his last words before he passed into the 
 silence which cannot be broken, and to stand by his 
 death-bed. 
 
 Whatever has been said, in the following pages, of 
 the fearful misery that almost touches the splendour 
 of West London is very far within the truth. What 
 are the words of John Martin, the poet schoolmaster, 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 who had been rescued from direst misery by the St. 
 Peter's clergy, and had himself drunk to the very 
 dregs the cup of want and suffering ? Here is a 
 passage from his note-book : 
 
 One who lives amidst the courts and alleys of a great city, 
 and sees the filth of human life that the very houses have in 
 them ; one who can see, as I just now saw, girls of twelve and 
 thirteen lost to all shame and decency, proceeding on their way to 
 infamy, and no hope of a friendly hand to stay them in their 
 downward path ; no hope, except perhaps for one or two who will 
 be as brands from the burning fire ; one who knows that, as rats 
 undermine a building, squalid crime is at work upon the very 
 foundations of morality and law, cannot, must not, till he has left 
 these scenes for peaceful nature, be an optimist. 
 
 I pass tlirough the filthy lanes, not in imagination, for I have 
 been through them bodily just now, and I see the most squalid 
 beastliness, oaths, quarrels, fights, drunkenness. |To know that 
 the image of God can fall below the level of the brutes is grief 
 enough. To know that that state is its highest joy ; to know that 
 life in all its circle of intellectual and bodily pleasure holds no 
 greater amusement or attraction, is enough to take the edge off all 
 joy. The dreadful, weird phase of uncivilization presented ever 
 to me makes me dejected — a dejection increased by my bodily 
 languor. What avails it that this is Christmas Eve ? What avails 
 it that Christ, the Divmely pure, was born as to-night, when I 
 know that there are thousands of souls that reject and despise the 
 hope of everlasting life, for the reason that they are not fit to live 
 now? At the best, the life of this people is very moumfuL 
 There is such an utter absence of any desire to achieve immor- 
 tality to be discovered in them. They pursue daily the same dull, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 never-thinking course of existence ; the only variation to which 
 they look forward being that of hard drinking. The children 
 grow up just in the same way ; at four years old they can " swear 
 like troopers," very often being taught by their parents to do so.* 
 
 These outspoken opinions are, as Mrs. Craik 
 has well said, " valuable both in themselves, and as 
 coming out of what is the usually silent class — silent 
 both because it is educated neither to think, nor to 
 express its thoughts. Emphatically one of the 
 people, born and living to the last amongst the 
 lowest class of the people — this man, with his rarely 
 clear brain and righteous heart, pure from first to 
 last, amidst surroundings absolutely unspeakable 
 in their vileness, John Martin has a right to be 
 heard, the more that his voice comes out of the 
 grave." 
 
 Surely he is right that the very foundations of 
 our national existence are being undermined. Let 
 any thoughtful person drive from our beautiful West 
 End parks, past the palaces of our Princes, to Ratcliff 
 Highway, and then say whether there do not exist, 
 among ourselves, the elements of a retribution more 
 terrible even than that of the French Revolution. 
 
 It was in the midst of such scenes that Charles 
 
 * " A Legacy," by the author of " John Halifax," p. 140. 
 
xii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Lowder lived and laboured to the last. There are 
 those whose time and talents are almost wholly 
 given to the important task of influencing the edu- 
 cated, the rich, and the great, and who feel that in 
 gaining one such, they benefit many poor. Their 
 work leads them into pleasant paths — to the fair 
 homes of England — amidst all the charm and grace 
 of the most perfect and intellectual social intercourse. 
 There is the pleasure, which it is impossible for any 
 man not to feel, of knowing that they influence those 
 upon whom the fate of kingdoms depends, and of 
 being mixed up with all that is most interesting in 
 the history of our own time. But the Vicar of St. 
 Peter's-in-the-East chose literally his Master's task, 
 — to preach the Gospel to the poor, and to bring 
 healing to their bodily ills. No marvel that one 
 who worked chiefly among the rich and noble of this 
 world should have been stirred by his example, and 
 that, seeing his calling, he should have exclaimed, 
 " I long to go and cast myself into that Mission." * 
 
 A leading champion has fallen in the battle ; but 
 if England had but three hundred men as good as 
 he, East London might yet be reclaimed and saved. 
 Will not some such men volunteer ? Why do they 
 * See p. 135. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xiii 
 
 not rather press forward to the high emprise, as they 
 gallantly do for foreign military service ? 
 
 " I fear more for the rich than for the most 
 degraded poor — more for Belgravia than for St. 
 Giles' ; for the more light there is, the more responsi- 
 bility." Words of mournful foreboding from one to 
 whom East London has been a subject of deep 
 anxiety for half a century, Dr. Pusey. Knowing 
 the horrors of those dark places and cruel habitations 
 of our land, he yet fears more for those who dwell 
 at ease, surrounded by outward refinement, beauty, 
 and culture. " For when He maketh inquisition for 
 blood He remembereth them, and forgetteth not the 
 complaint of the poor," 
 
 If there be anything which brings still more 
 sadness to the heart than the degradation of the 
 ignorant, it is surely the thought of those, called by 
 their own hearts, by education, and the needs of 
 others, to some noble purpose, who are yet content 
 to dream away their lives, — indifferent spectators of 
 the sorrows, sins, and wrongs of men, when they 
 might have been leaders in the battle against evil. 
 
 There is a field in East London for as noble and 
 knightly adventure as ever was achieved by Eng- 
 land's chivalry. Even as the hosts of Midian were 
 
xiv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of old delivered into the hand of the chosen three 
 hundred, so, even now, it may be, and our country 
 may yet be saved. The age of heroic deeds is not 
 gone by. Charles Lowder has shown us what may 
 be done. It cannot be but that a ready answer will 
 be given to the voice, as of a trumpet-call, from 
 his grave : Et nos vincaimt^s aliqiiid I — Let us, too, 
 conquer something." 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 There is one correction in this edition worth 
 noticing, that at page 348. It was Father Lowder 
 himself, not the doctor, who told Mr. Taylor that 
 he could not live till morning. Mr. Taylor who 
 has kindly sent the correction, says that he was 
 amazed and stunned by the tidings, but that Father 
 Lowder was perfectly composed. 
 
 A few very slight inaccuracies in this memoir 
 have been set right, but no other alteration worth 
 mentioning has been made, except the omission of 
 two or three words which the writer regrets should 
 have found place in the previous editions."'' 
 
 * The Rev. Robert Linklater has requested that mention 
 should be made in this preface of the interest now taken in East 
 London work by our public schools — one of the most encouraging 
 signs that Christian hearts are awakening to their responsibilities. 
 Four schools work or help in various parishes. Wellington College 
 
xvi PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 It is a sorrowful gratification to join with the 
 memory of Father Lowder that of his friend, at 
 whose suggestion and wish this book was written, 
 and who gained his rest but a few days after he 
 had seen the task accompHshed. Death oftentimes 
 leaves to the bereaved a mournful liberty ; and if 
 the story of St. Barnabas' from 1851 to 1856 were 
 now to be re-written, a far larger use could be 
 made of letters and papers which were in Mr. 
 Skinner's possession, since the writer was continually 
 shackled by his objection to that being published 
 which might seem to praise him. The Dedication, 
 made "without permission," was a distress to him. 
 His last dying effort was, indeed, to write of those 
 days at his beloved St. Barnabas',* but it was in 
 order to bring out all that the Church owes to his 
 and Father Lowder's friend, the Rev. Robert 
 Liddell. 
 
 If, as has been said in not unfriendly criticism, 
 
 and Radley have taken up St. Agatha's Mission in St Peter's, 
 London Docks ; there is a well-organized parish in Poplar — 
 church, schools, and three resident clergy — all due in the first 
 instance to the Winchester boys; and Eton has undertaken a 
 parish in Hackney. 
 
 * Letter to Rev. H. Montagu Villiers. Masters. 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. Xvii 
 
 there are two chapters in the following pages which 
 are more taken up with Mr. Skinner's actions than 
 with Father Lowder's, this indeed was necessary. 
 For of the latter there is hardly any record during 
 the five years he spent at St. Barnabas', working and 
 fighting heartily in the stronghold which he helped 
 to man. But the Senior Curate, acting in full 
 harmony with the assistant clergy, was naturally 
 their spokesman and leader. In the only letter of 
 his which has been given, he expresses their resolve 
 as one with his own, and asks counsel on their 
 behalf as well as for himself. The story of the 
 struggle at St. Barnabas', in which Father Lowder 
 took an earnest share, could have been told in no 
 other way, and to have omitted it would have been 
 to pass over a very important part of his life. 
 
 The two friends parted soon after that struggle 
 had been fought out — one, to wage a still harder 
 battle ; the other, in search of health to enable him 
 again to take part in the Church's work. 
 
 " But He Who portions out our good and ill 
 Willed an austerer glory should be his, 
 And nearer to the Cross than to the Crown." 
 
 The higher vocation, of suffering, was his in 
 
XViii PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 large measure. How pathetic was the lifelong 
 struggle of the brave, hopeful spirit, conscious of 
 power, and longing to work, only those who wit- 
 nessed it can tell. The sorrow of irreparable loss 
 is too recent in hearts that loved him to find expres- 
 sion ; but the thought of his exceeding gain, and 
 memories of his loving faith, patience, and courage, 
 mingle with those 
 
 " calm voices from the inner shrine, 
 That whisper peace, and say. Be still, Be stilL" 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 1820-1840, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Birth — Parents — Home at Bath — King's College, London — Tour in 
 
 Belgium — Oxford ... ... ... ... ... ... I 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 1840-1851. 
 
 University life — Failure of the Old Bath Bank — Heidelbe^ — Ordained 
 Deacon — Curacy of Street-cum-Walton — Missionary longings — New 
 Zealand scheme — Ordained Priest — Axbridge Workhouse— Curacy of 
 Tetbury — Family re-united — Offer of Port Natal ... ... ... 11 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 1851. 
 
 St. Barnabas', Pimlico — Letter to Mr, Skinner — Sunday at St. Bar- 
 nabas' — Departure from Tetbury — Curacy of St. Barnabas'— Battle 
 for law and liberty — Puritan riots — Ritual thirty years ago — 
 Bishop Blomfield's policy ... ... ... ... .,. 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 1852-1857. 
 
 Position of St. Barnabas' College — The Incumbent and Senior Curate — 
 Struggle for liberty of worship — Letter from Baron Alderson — 
 Work amongst the poor — Appeal to Church Courts — Lushington 
 Judgment — Court of Arches — Privy Council Judgment — Letters from 
 a Barrister — Letter from Mr. Liddell ... ... ... •••39 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 1854, 1855- 
 
 PACK 
 
 An " ovation " — Summons to police-court — Correspondence with Bishop 
 Blomfield — Suspension — Rouen and Yvetot — Reads St. Vincent de 
 Paul's Life — Return to St. Barnabas' — Letters from M. Labbe — 
 Letters to Mr. W. Lowder ... ... ... .„ „. 57 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 1856. 
 
 Changes at St. Barnabas' — Society of the Holy Cross — Parish of St. 
 George's-in-the-East — Rev. Bryan King — Mission begun in St. 
 George's — Letters to Mrs. Lovifder — Opposition and violence — 
 Calvert Street Mission House — Letters from Mr, King — Offer of 
 Headship of Mission — Letters to his parents — Position of the 
 Missioner — Incumbent's jurisdiction — Bishop's licence — Visit to 
 Frome — First Retreat for Clergy at Dr. Pusey's house — Departure 
 from St. Barnabas' — First days in Calvert Street ,.. ... ... 73 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Field of the Mission — Ratclifif Highway — Open wickedness — Sailors — 
 Extreme poverty — Dock labourers ... ... ... ... 102 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Outward bearing — Simplicity of character — Reserve — Perseverance — 
 Tenderness to the sick and lost — Courage and self-denial — Patience 
 and cheerfulness — Straightforward purpose — Love of children — 
 Reverence — Self-control ... ... ... ... ... 112 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 1856-1860. 
 
 First services in Calvert Street — Dedication of Iron Chapel — Visits to St. 
 Barnabas' — Sisterhood begun — Letter from Bishop Wilberforce — 
 Letter from Bishop of London — Legal opinion on questions of 
 Ritual — Letters to Bishop of London — Mr. Rowley — Atmosphere of 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xxi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Calvert Street — Secession of curates — Hard work — Refuge for Peni- 
 tents — Industrial School — Home at Hendon — His nurse's death — 
 Letters to his brother ... ... ... ... ... 131 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Mr. Mackonochie — Wellclose Square — Rule at Clergy House — Work 
 with individuals — Confession — Eucharistic worship — Instruction in 
 dogma — Results in the parish — Public services ... ... ... 156 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 1859, i860. 
 
 Bishop Blomfield's Charge in 1842 — Mr. Bryan King — State of St. 
 George's-in-the-East parish — Hostility to earnest work — Mr. Allen 
 elected Lecturer — Riots — Sir Richard Mayne's refusal — Rush to the 
 Mission Chapels — Danger to life — Rioters checked — Bishop of 
 London's letter in newspapers — Fresh riots — Police sent — Order 
 restored — Police withdrawn — Worse outrages— Lord Brougham's 
 speech — The Bishop's "Monitions" — Letter of "A Layman" — Letters 
 from Mr. Thomas Hughes — Departure of Mr. King — Mr. Hansard in 
 charge — Increased riots — Fresh " Monitions " — Mr. Hansard resigns 
 — Victory of the mob ... ... ... .,. ... 169 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 1 860-1 862. 
 
 Good out of evil — Letters of apology — Working Men's Institute — Hard 
 winter — Money needed — Letter from Mr. Rowley — Bedminster 
 Mission — Encouragements — Mr. Mackonochie goes to St, Alban's — 
 Lack of clergy — Holiday tour — Italy — Austrian Tyrol ,„ ... 188 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 1862. 
 
 Elementary dogmatic teaching — Catechizing — Child's burial — Swiss tour 
 — Chamounix — Zermatt — Bernese Oberland — Illness — Sent abroad — 
 Seelisberg — Rigi— St. Gervais — Courmayeur district — Col St. Theo- 
 dule — Return home — First stone of St. Peter's laid — Autumn tour — 
 Archbishop of Belgrade ... ... ... ... ••• I99 
 
xxil 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 1866. 
 
 Mr. Keble's funeral— Consecration of St. Peter's — Retreat at Cuddesdon ^'''^^ 
 — Cholera at St. Peter's — Work of the clergy and Sisters — Visit of 
 the Bishop of London — Convalescent Home — The people conquered 214 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 1866-1869. 
 
 York Congress — Holiday in Scotland — Secession of clergy at Wellclose 
 Square — Shattered health — Rest abroad — Hard living at home — 
 Letters to his mother — Return home — Way of the Cross — Efforts 
 of Church Association — Bishop Jackson — Temper of parishioners — 
 Prosecution quashed by Archbishop of Canterbury — New schools ... 229 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 1869. 
 
 Tour in the Tyrol — St. Agatha's Mission — St. Agatha's-in-the-Country — 
 Help from the rich — Night school — Clubs — Home at Reigate — Play- 
 ground for East London children ... ... ... ... 247 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 1870, 1871. 
 
 Illness of Mrs. Lowder — Visit to Barmouth — Letters from Wales — Ascent 
 of Cader Idris — Plymouth Mission — His mother's death — Letter to 
 parishioners — Letter to his father — Tour in Austrian Tyrol — Passion 
 Play — Ascent of Gross Glockner — The Dolomites ... ... 264 
 
 CHAPTER XVm. 
 1872, 1873. 
 
 Parish Mission — Illness of his sister — Tour in Ireland — Death of Mr. 
 Statham — Tour with Mr. Biscoe — Sunday at St. Peter's — Work with 
 the lads — Week-day work — District visiting — Terrors by night — 
 Country excursions— Inundations — Out-of-door preaching ... ... 2S0 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXlll 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 1874-1878. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Public Worship Regulation Bill — Broken health — Winter on the Riviera 
 — His sister's death— Rest at Chislehurst — Letter from a colonial 
 priest — Death of his father — Letter from Lord John Thynne — Letters 
 to Miss Lowder — Winter in Italy — Rome — Return to St. Peter's ... 299 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 1878-1880. 
 
 Paris — Reply to parishioners' address — Story of a convert — Letters to 
 him and to his widow — Peniarth — Last Report — Christmas tableaux 
 — Last day in England — Welcome home ,,, ... ... 316 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 1880. 
 
 Last Celebration at St. Peter's — Departure from England — Treves — The 
 Moselle — Heidelberg — Constance — Ober- Ammergau — Partenkirchen 
 — Wanderings in the Tyrol — Zell-am-See — Over the Riffel-Thor — 
 Ascent of Gross Venediger — Return to Zell — Illness — English friends 
 — Death — Letter from Maria Neumaier ... ... ... 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 1880. 
 
 The Poor at St. Peter's — The Sisters' journey — Working men's telegram 
 — Night before the burial — Reception of the remains — Chislehurst 
 churchyard — Scene on the Common — Burial — The grave — Sermon 
 by Rev. Hari-y Jones ... ... ... ... ... 355 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 1 820-1 840. 
 
 " Go, mark the matchless working of the Power 
 That shuts within the seed the future flower.'' 
 
 Amidst the many problems discussed in public and in 
 private there is one which, in some form or other, is con- 
 tinually brought forward by thoughtful Churchmen— " How 
 to gain the masses of our population to the Church ? " 
 
 Whether the practical results of such discussions have 
 been anything but meagre may be doubted, but it is 
 impossible to doubt the interest which the subject must 
 possess for any Christian heart to whom the facts of the 
 case have been brought home. 
 
 And therefore it may be well to record the life of one 
 who did not in mere words discuss the question of con- 
 verting our English heathen, but who solved it in action, 
 and who, passing from amongst us, has left a Christianized 
 population in the worst slums of London to be the living 
 answer to the question about which so much is said and 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 written. He speaks to us, but only through patient action ; 
 he has written for us, but his " epistle " is to be found in 
 the souls and bodies rescued from degradation, " seen and 
 known of all men." 
 
 Charles Fuge Lowder was born at 2, West Wing, 
 Lansdown Crescent, Bath, on June 22, 1820, and was 
 baptized the following month at the parish church of 
 Walcot. He was the firstborn child of his parents, Charles 
 and Susan Lowder. His grandfather, John Lowder, a 
 retired naval officer, had, some time about the middle of 
 the last century, bought a piece of ground on Lansdown 
 Hill, Bath. There he built a house, to which he brought 
 his family from Southampton. 
 
 This house, afterwards occupied by Mr. Beckford, the 
 eccentric author of "Vathek," was the first beginning of 
 Lansdown Crescent, then the highest inhabited part of the 
 city. Here John Lowder spent the remainder of his life, 
 and here he died in 18 10, leaving a widow (daughter of 
 Dr. Glass, a well-known Exeter physician) and several sons 
 and daughters. 
 
 The youngest of the family was Charles, the comfort 
 and delight of ^his widowed mother, whom he tended 
 with dutiful love and care during the eleven years of her 
 widowhood. Two 3'ears before her death he had married 
 Susan, second daughter of Robert Fuge, of Plymouth ; and 
 at the invitation of his great friend, Johnson Phillott 
 (brother-in-law to his wife), he made his house their home 
 until the birth of their firstborn child. 
 
 This child had indeed an inheritance of rare goodness, 
 as well as of personal comeliness. 
 
 I had opportunities of knowing his parents (\nites one who in 
 
CHARLES LOWDER'S PARENTS. 
 
 3 
 
 after years had indirectly some influence on the destinies of their 
 son), and I have never known any who, under heavy trials, so per- 
 fectly exemplified the difficult character of " patient in tribulation." 
 
 There are few afflictions really harder to be borne without 
 flinching in the face of our fellow-men, than the loss of wealth 
 and worldly position, even when it comes without leaving any 
 room for blame. Such an affliction befell Mr. and Mrs. Lowder 
 at a moment when they were in the high day of health and 
 vigorous usefulness, and in the full enjoyment of social popularity 
 in Bath ; but it remains v/ith me still, as an abiding lesson which 
 I shall never forget, how they both impressed me with their calm, 
 unruffled gentleness of temper, and the sweet dignity of their 
 resignation to the will of God. They were a remarkably " beauti- 
 ful" couple, in that true sense of "beauty" which bespeaks 
 nobility of character sanctified by grace, as well as in the ordinary 
 sense of physical form; and no one could spend an hour in their 
 company without feeling refreshed by intercourse with such good 
 and winning people. 
 
 Mr. Lowder was partner in the Old Bath Bank, and a 
 comparatively rich man ; and his unwearied exertions to 
 promote the welfare of others, especially of those whose 
 circumstances were less happy than his own, had won for 
 him in his native city the name of " the poor man's friend." 
 And not undeservedly, for to the poor hi-s thought, leisure, 
 and money were ungrudgingly devoted, and in all bene- 
 volent efforts he received sympathy and encouragement 
 from his wife. 
 
 Most good men have had good mothers, and have been 
 encompassed by their prayers, and it is touching to read, 
 in the light of her son's life, the daily prayer used by Mrs. 
 Lowder for the yet unborn infant : " Bless it, O God, in 
 mind as well as in body ; endue it with an understanding 
 
4 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 capable of knowing Thee, with a heart strongly bent to 
 fear Thee, and with all those holy and good dispositions 
 that may make it always pleasing in Thy sight. Make 
 me a joyful mother of a hopeful child, who may live to 
 be an instrument of Thy glory, and by serving Thee 
 faithfully and doing good in his generation may be received 
 into Thine everlasting kingdom." 
 
 Thus she prayed for her child, and truly God gave her 
 the petition which she asked of Him. 
 
 Before the birth of his eldest daughter, Mr. Lowdef 
 had made a home of his own at 9, West Wing, Lansdown 
 Crescent, and here his three elder daughters were born. 
 A fourth daughter was born in 1830; and in 1831 the 
 family was completed by the arrival of a son, William 
 Henry, who, coming after four girls, was welcomed by his 
 elder brother with infinite satisfaction. On hearing the 
 news, he insisted on the whole family marching in procession 
 into the courtyard, where he ordered them to clap their 
 hands in honour of the event. 
 
 Family affections seem to have had a more than 
 common hold on Charles Lowder, and to have been, 
 throughout his career, the softening influence of his life ; 
 and these affections were doubtless greatly fostered by 
 the circumstances of his boyhood, families of relations 
 both on his father's and mother's side being settled close 
 around his home, all living on the most loving terms with 
 each other, while a large circle of valued friends, many 
 with young families growing up, supplied abundance of 
 playfellows for the children. An old friend speaks of 
 Charles, in these early days, as a " most sweet, bright, and 
 courteous little fellow." 
 
EARLY TRAINING. 
 
 5 
 
 The careful moral and religious training given to their 
 children by such parents as Mr. and Mrs. Lowder need 
 hardly be mentioned ; but there was this special advantage 
 in their education, not so common then as now, that they 
 were trained in definite religious principles. Their father, 
 born in a time of Church laxity, and educated in a Moravian 
 school, had, early in life, studied the claims of the Church 
 of his baptism, and intelligently submitted himself to 
 them ; and, his wife being of one mind with himself, their 
 children were early imbued with fixed principles as to their 
 religious position and privileges. Nor did any day pass 
 without a Bible lesson from their mother, besides the too 
 often neglected rule that some portion of Holy Scripture 
 should daily be repeated by the children. 
 
 Charles was sent, at seven years old, to a day school 
 kept by the Rev. Harvey Marriott, and soon after to a 
 school kept by the Rev. Edward Simms in a farmhouse 
 lately built in the Park, then being laid out at Bath. 
 
 One of his first letters shows the little boy's interest 
 in politics, which became very keen in his youth and early 
 manhood. 
 
 Bath, Aug. 5, 1829. 
 
 My dear Mamma, 
 
 I went to Mr. Simms's on Monday. I like him very 
 well ; he wears his gown. We are to learn Caesar and Greek 
 Delectus, and to read Goldsmith's " History of Rome." O'Connell 
 is to sit in Parliament. 
 
 OtI:er letters show how eagerly the schoolboy read 
 nev/spapers, and with what interest he followed the passing 
 of the Emancipation Bill through Parliament, and the 
 exciting public events connected with it. Later on, his 
 
6 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 energies in this line had full scope during the exciting 
 election at Bath in 1838, when, after severe exertions made 
 by his father and other members of their committee, two 
 Conservative members were returned. Charles found very 
 congenial occupation in bringing up the voters, and ran 
 some risks, so great was the uproar on the occasion. 
 
 His bodily strength and activity kept pace with his 
 mental growth ; he was foremost in sports ; and his sister 
 recalls his " bright radiant face, as he marched out with his 
 schoolfellows, armed with wooden swords, to defend or 
 attack 'The Lion's Den,' in the pretty little village of 
 Charlecombe, near Bath." 
 
 After a few months at Bruton School, he passed, in 
 1835, to King's College School, London, of which Dr. Major 
 was then Head Master. When consulted after a time by 
 Mr. Lowder as to the advisability of preparing Charles for 
 a University education. Dr. Major wrote of " the steadi- 
 ness of character and fixedness of principle, based," he 
 adds, " I am convinced, upon a firmer foundation than 
 mere human strength, which will enable him to resist 
 successfully the temptations with which that career may 
 be beset." 
 
 There can be no doubt that his character had been 
 greatly strengthened by his confirmation, which had taken 
 place in October, 1836, just as he entered the senior depart- 
 ment of King's College ; and in after years he referred to 
 it as marking an important era in his spiritual life. 
 
 The honourable position which he won at his final 
 examination proves that he must have used his natural 
 abilities well and conscientiously while a student at King's 
 College. 
 
FIRST FOREIGN TOUR. 
 
 7 
 
 You will be happy to hear (Dr. Major wrote to his father) 
 that your son stands first in theological subjects, second in classics, 
 sixth in mathematics, second in German, and ranks among the 
 most distinguished in Professor Dale's department (English 
 literature). 
 
 He had the advantage, while in the College, of being 
 brought into contact with distinguished men, who suc- 
 ceeded each other as principals — Hugh Jannes Rose and 
 Dr. Lonsdale, afterwards the venerable Bishop of Lich- 
 field. 
 
 Charles left King's College in 1839, ^^^d was rewarded 
 for his steady perseverance while there by being allowed to 
 make his first acquaintance with the Continent. Very early 
 letters discover the passion that remained with him through 
 life, to be his greatest refreshment at intervals of hardest 
 work — the intense love for and enjoyment of fine scenery. 
 And now a little trip to Belgium, in the summer of 1839, 
 in company with his father and an old friend, was the first 
 of a long series of interesting and sometimes important 
 tours, ending with that which brought his whole earthly 
 pilgrimage to a close. 
 
 In February, 1840, he entered at Exeter College, 
 Oxford, of which Dr. Richards was then rector, and Mr. 
 William Sewell one of the tutors. In the previous year, 
 he had tried for a scholarship at University College, to 
 which the following letter refers : — 
 
 My dear Browne,* 
 
 It is due to you as well as to Mr. Lowder that I 
 should send you a few lines to say that he acquitted himself with 
 
 * Now Archdeacon of Bath, then Classical Professor at King's College, 
 London. 
 
8 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 great credit in the course of his examination for our scholarship, 
 though his competitors were too strong for him. He performed 
 most of his exercises in a manner which did him great credit. 
 We were so much pleased with his examination and his general 
 demeanour, that we offered to admit him and give him his rooms 
 next Easter if he wished to reside so early, and I should have 
 been very glad to have had him a member of this College. But 
 his destination was already fixed at Exeter. We were obliged to 
 you for sending us so good a candidate. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 F. C. Plumptre. 
 
 Charles Lowder came to Oxford when the Tractarian 
 movement vi^as in its very flower and vigorous freshness, 
 and was amongst those on whom it worked most power- 
 fully. The three great leaders were in the prime of their 
 labours and influence : Mr. Keble was Professor of Poetry, 
 Dr. Pusey was startling the University by his sermons and 
 incisive teaching of forgotten or overclouded truths, and the 
 hermit of Littlemore held spellbound and fascinated the 
 students who weekly thronged St. Mary's to hear from him 
 what he had learned and received himself in the silence 
 of prayer and study. Their teaching was no novelty to 
 Charles, but rather the strengthening and filling in of 
 outlines already familiar. 
 
 He mentions a sermon of Dr. Pusey 's on " The Duty 
 and Benefits of Fasting " as " containing much good advice 
 to those who were endeavouring for the first time to act up 
 to the principles which the Church has laid down for the 
 present season." 
 
 A few sentences may be given from another letter, as 
 anticipating the consistent practice of the future priest in 
 his after life : — 
 
NEWMAN'S SERMONS. 
 
 9 
 
 I heard a most excellent sermon yesterday from Newman ; the 
 text was from St. Jude, " These are spots in your feasts of charity." 
 " A danger of the present time," Newman said, " arose from what 
 might be called the luxury of religion." None could rejoice more 
 than the preacher himself at the increased regard to ecclesiastical 
 architecture, music, the ornamenting of our churches, etc., but 
 still it must be recollected that these required to be accompanied 
 by personal holi?tess, and that even the spirit of devotion might 
 become litde better than a luxurious pleasure, unless we maintained 
 a spirit of self-denial in it, to remind us that we are not to make 
 everything so much a gratification to ourselves, as a sacrifice to 
 God. 
 
 Mr. Lovi'der's consistent practice was, indeed, a meet 
 outcome of such instruction ; for his mind seems to have 
 seized upon and assimilated whatever bore on the necessity 
 for self-sacrifice as the only true and right result of more 
 than ordinary means of grace. 
 
 He writes of having been especially impressed by a 
 sermon of Archdeacon Manning, " On the Danger of Sinning 
 amid Religious Privileges ; " and another sermon of Man- 
 ning's * seems to have sunk very deeply into his heart and 
 memory. Indeed, his life was but the working out of its 
 concluding sentences : — 
 
 The Church asks not for yours only, but for you. This is the 
 return she would demand for your spiritual nurture here, that you 
 give VL^ yourselves ; it is your own selves that she requires. You 
 must expect to labour in season and out of season, trials, crosses, 
 disappointments, the opposition of enemies, the lukewarmness of 
 friends, slights and misconstructions, ingratitude and rebuke. But 
 all these are light things compared to that heavy load of responsi- 
 bility which every minister of God has laid upon him, viz. to 
 answer for the souls of his flock. Great, then, is the probation 
 * On St. John xviii. i6. 
 
10 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 here of those who would take upon them these sacred fimctions, 
 but great shall be the reward hereafter of all who, in meekness 
 and singleness of heart, aiming only at God's glory and the 
 salvation of souls, put their hand to the plough, and, with God's 
 grace resting on their endeavours, desire not to look back. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORDINATION AND FIRST CURACY. 
 1840-1851. 
 
 *' The end proves all, and that is still to come." 
 
 The first year of Charles Lowder's residence at Oxford 
 was marked by the publication of Tract XC, and the next 
 by the suspension of Dr. Pusey. 
 
 On the latter subject he writes to his father — 
 
 I think the present persecution of Dr. Pusey may all turn 
 out for the best, for even moderate men cannot deny the gross in- 
 justice of condemning him unheard. It is generally believed that 
 the Board could come to no collective judgment, for they differ 
 from one another in their views, and so the Vice-Chancellor has no 
 reason to give for his sentence. Wall has taken a very active 
 part, and I was talking to him yesterday about it, just after the 
 Vice had sent him an answer to the Requisition, viz. that he 
 could not assign any reasons. The sermon will be published to- 
 morrow, and so the heresy, if there is any, will spread hke wild- 
 fire. I heard it at Christ Church, but did not remark anything 
 objectionable, but of course I cannot be answerable for hearing 
 all that he said or understanding it. 
 
 Whilst thus interesting himself deeply in the movement 
 to the practical results of which amongst the heathen of 
 London he gave his life, Charles was diligently reading ; 
 
12 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 relaxing himself meanwhile by long walks, rowing, and the 
 society of friends. With his high spirits, popular manners, 
 and thorough enjoyment of innocent amusements, it was 
 indeed well that he had never lost sight of the serious 
 aspect of life and of its duties, and that he had early 
 desired to devote himself wholly to God's service as a 
 priest of His Church. For before half his Oxford career 
 had passed, a severe and searching trial befell him and his 
 family in the failure of the Old Bath Bank, in which his 
 father was a partner. Although it was caused by mis- 
 placed confidence in others, and not the slightest reflection 
 was cast on the integrity of any of the partners, yet the 
 fact remained that the bank had failed and that the means 
 of providing for their families were gone. 
 
 Universal sympathy was felt and abundantly expressed 
 at so unlooked-for a calamity. 
 
 All who know you (one friend wrote to Mr. Lowder) 
 grieve indeed that your generous confidence in others should 
 have been so deceived, whilst they justly exonerate yourselves from 
 blame. 
 
 If (says another) in. t'^.e hour of trial it be a consolation 
 to know that you possess the esteem, the love, and the confidence 
 of all to whom you are known, you have that consolation in the 
 highest degree. 
 
 Nor were the expressions of sympathy confined to 
 words ; most generous and delicate acts accompanied them. 
 An old family friend, who had been proved in joy and 
 sorrow and never found wanting, requested that he might 
 undertake the charge of enabling Charles to conclude his 
 University education, at the same time offering a home to 
 the whole family till future plans could be considered and 
 matured. 
 
FAMILY LETTERS. 
 
 13 
 
 Charles himself proved to be an apt scholar in learning 
 the lesson of courage and Christian patience afforded by 
 his parents' example. There is no trace in his letters at 
 the time of any irritating or crushing effect from this 
 reverse, but rather every token of the wise and religious 
 spirit in which he accepted it, consoling his parents, and 
 manifesting the desire which never left him of becoming 
 the support and mainstay of his famil}'. 
 
 I doubt not (he writes) that if we are spared to look back on 
 the trials which it is now our lot to go through, we may think 
 these the happiest, because the most instructive, days of our 
 life. . . . Although, from circumstances, we were not thrown 
 into pleasures and amusements whi^h would keep all sober 
 reflections from our minds, yet still there were many habits which 
 one quiet routine of duty would engender, not altogether consistent 
 with the feelings which a Christian should always keep uppermost 
 in his mind, viz. that he is but a stranger and a pilgrim upon 
 earth. ... I think therefore that we may learn to acknowledge 
 the wisdom of God, who, in this important period of our lives, 
 has taught us not to look here for a certain abiding-place. 
 
 Through the kindness of the friend who was main- 
 taining him at College, Charles spent the Long Vacation of 
 1842 with a reading party at Heidelberg ; denying himself, 
 in order to save travelling expenses in England, the 
 pleasure of seeing his family, who were then living at 
 Chudleigh, near Exeter. 
 
 His father writes to him — 
 
 Chudleigh, June 21, 1842. 
 It is fitting, my dearest Charles, that you should receive a 
 father's blessing on your birthday. May God bless and preserve 
 you, and keep you ever in holy living, and by His grace fit you 
 for holy dying whenever that solemn hour come upon you. May 
 
14 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 your intended travels be both agreeable and instructive, and may 
 the great object which you have in view in this excursion be 
 completely accomplished, viz. the attainment of honours in your 
 academical career, in order that you may more successfully 
 minister in God's Church, and thereby promote His glory on 
 earth and the temporal and eternal welfare of man. This is the 
 sincere prayer of 
 
 Your affectionate Father. 
 
 After three months' steady reading Charles returned to 
 Oxford, and from thence writes to his mother — 
 
 I now feel quite settled dowTi to work, for though there was 
 not a very long interval between leaving our books at Heidelberg 
 and taking them up again here, yet our journey home was a 
 break which I think we really required ; for a pretty steady 
 application for three months tells upon you, and really demands 
 a little rest. I look forward to my next break, though not -with 
 impatience, as there is something to be done before it, but with 
 the pleasant anticipation of seeing you all again, for I have never 
 been absent from you so long as from April to Christmas. Mr. 
 Willis has been up here, and I have been engaged in going about 
 with him. We walked over to Littlemore yesterday, as he wanted 
 to see Newman, who took us into the chapel. 
 
 At Easter, 1843, he took his degree, and, after most 
 despondent forebodings, he was not displeased to find his 
 name in the " classical list" am.ong the second-class men. 
 
 My rooms (he wrote) look out on the schools, so I could see 
 the men collecting as the time drew near for the list to come cut, 
 but I could not muster up courage enough to go and wait for it 
 myself. . . . When from the cheering and running off mth the 
 news, I saw that the list had come out, my heart began to beat 
 rather more quickly than usual, but at last, when I saw Powles 
 running towards my lodgings, I thought it must be all right, and 
 so it proved. 
 
DEACON'S ORDERS. 
 
 15 
 
 Of course (he adds), it is a great relief to my mind that I 
 have got some substantial proof that I have not wasted my time 
 up here, and that I have turned my reading to good account. 
 All our dons are well pleased, as we have one first and three 
 seconds from Exeter. 
 
 Later on, alluding to his appearance in the fourth class 
 for mathematics, he thus accounts for it : — 
 
 I hoped that I had succeeded in taking my name off alto- 
 gether, but having unfortunately done two questions, they must 
 needs give me a fourth, much to my disgust. 
 
 After obtaining so honourable a position in classics, he 
 was advised to try for a College Fellowship. 
 
 You may easily fancy (he writes) that I am quite sick of 
 examinations ; luckily, on the present occasion I do not feel 
 very anxious, except to acquit myself well in the eyes of the 
 College. I do not feel that I have any chance, as there are several 
 good men in for it. 
 
 The disappointment, consequently, was not severe when 
 he found that the present Lord Chief Justice (Lord 
 Coleridge) was the successful candidate. 
 
 Soon after taking his degree, he accepted the ofifer of a 
 title for deacon's orders from Lord John Thynne, Rector 
 of Walton-cum-Street, near Glastonbury, and Sub-Dean of 
 Westminster, who required his curate to be also tutor to 
 his three sons ; and on September 24, 1843, received 
 deacon's orders from the Bishop (Denison) of Salisbury 
 (ordaining for the infirm Bishop of Bath and Wells), and 
 at once began his duties at Walton. 
 
 In his first letter from thence to his father, he writes — 
 
 It was a great comfort to me, I assure you, in taking upon 
 myself the solemn vows which I have just done, to think that I 
 
i6 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 not only shared in the prayers of the Church in general with those 
 who were with me admitted to this office in the Church, but that 
 there were also many friends and families by whom I was more 
 especially called to mind, and commended to the guidance of 
 God's Holy Spirit. It required indeed such an assurance to 
 support me in the thought of the great responsibility which 
 particularly in the present state of the Church) is laid upon 
 the shoulders of its ministers, and I can only pray and desire the 
 prayers of others also, that the same Holy Spirit who has led me 
 to seek this office, may give me grace, in the words of St. Paul, 
 so to use that office that I may purchase to myself a good 
 degree. 
 
 In the same letter he describes his first entrance on his 
 pubHc clerical duties, which (on the first Sunday) consisted 
 in reading prayers and preaching and taking a funeral in 
 the evening. 
 
 Entering on his tutorial duties in his usual bright and 
 happy temper, he writes, after a little experience — 
 
 I am going on very pleasantly, and like my prospects much. 
 I had no idea I should feel so well disposed towards my tutoring, 
 but having nice boys to deal with makes a great difference. 
 
 His fellow-curate at Street was Mr. Merrinian, now the 
 venerable Bishop of Grahamstown, who was then preparing 
 himself for his devoted missionary labours in South Africa. 
 His example and conversation were contagious, and exer- 
 cised a life-long influence on the younger curate, whose 
 own distinct desire for mission work may be dated from 
 this time. This desire grew and strengthened with years, 
 and, as we shall see, caused him on more than one occasion 
 great searchings of heart before he could decide on his 
 path of duty. The zeal which he would so willingly 
 
NEW ZEALAND SCHEME. 
 
 17 
 
 have employed in foreign lands was, however, to be con- 
 centrated on the teeming thousands of his native land, 
 and the large sympathies of his heart were to find their 
 vent in the unattractive slums of the great Babylon of 
 England. 
 
 So earnestly, however, had he set his mind on missionary 
 labour that, after a few months at Walton, he proposed to 
 his family that they should all emigrate to New Zealand, 
 and work there as a Christian family for their maintenance, 
 while he should devote himself, under the noble Bishop of 
 that new diocese, to the spiritual duties of his calling. It 
 was (as Mr. Ernest Hawkins, the energetic Secretary to 
 the S.P.G., remarked in answer to the proposal) a novel 
 one. " I see no difficulty," he added, " but in the means of 
 support, though this is a serious one ; nevertheless I would 
 urge you not hastily to give up the plan, which seems a 
 most wise and Christian one." 
 
 The scheme was submitted to the Rev. J. H. Pinder, 
 then Principal of the Theological College at Wells, an 
 interested and valued friend, who gave it his approval ; and 
 Archdeacon Brymer of Bath wrote an introductory letter 
 to Bishop Selwyn, setting forth the qualifications of his 
 
 old friend Mr. Lowder, senior, either for educational or 
 
 agricultural duties in a new colony. 
 
 Some extracts from a long letter addressed to the old 
 
 family friend before mentioned, will best express Charles's 
 
 motives in proposing the scheme : — 
 
 I have now for some time felt a growing desire to engage 
 in missionary labours. The more I reflected on the subject, the 
 more I felt what a vast field of labour lay before us in Christian- 
 iz'Tig our colonial possessions — what need tliere was, not merely 
 
 c 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 of money and resources, but of labourers in the Lord's vineyard, 
 
 and that, however insufficient the present number of clergy in our 
 own country may appear, and really is, for the wants of the popu- 
 lation, yet that in the colonies, whose interests, both religious and 
 political, we are bound by all the ties of duty to protect, the 
 deficiency is most awful. With these views, I could not but 
 desire to offer my poor services in the great work. I feel that it 
 is the highest sphere of duty to which a clergyman can be called, 
 far from the temptations . to ease, luxury, and seeking for pre- 
 ferment which surround him in this country, and affording oppor- 
 tunity for the entire devotion of all his mental and physical 
 powers to the service of his Master. But entertaining as I did 
 most sincerely these feelings, which I cannot but think were 
 implanted in my mind by God's grace, I also reflected that I was 
 not, in the peculiar circumstances of my family, free to entertain 
 them. I remembered that I had a plain, straightforward duty 
 to them ; that, as long as I had it in my power, it v/ould be my 
 duty and happiness to share with them whatever means of support 
 the Almighty might see fit to afford me. It was not with me a 
 mere family affection, which it would perhaps have become me to 
 forget in the thought of the higher duty which I owed to God, 
 but whether I was not bound to turn my labours to the best 
 account in England, consistent with my ordination vows, in order 
 to afford them the jneans of support I felt the force of this 
 latter consideration, and therefore endeavoured to stifle my 
 missionary desires, which, I can assure you, was a source of great 
 pain and no little difficulty to me. The thought, however, at last 
 suggested itself that my father and the rest of my family might 
 be not unwilling to engage in similar labours according to their 
 several abilities, and I felt how much assistance they might afford 
 in carrying out the object I had so much at heart. I accordingly 
 proposed it to them ; my father and mother both consented, the 
 former entering into it most warmly, as well as Susan and Mary. 
 After due consideration, we determined to make an application to 
 the Secretary of the S.P.G., who encouraged our views and advised 
 
DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 19 
 
 US to make them known to the Bishop of New Zealand. This I 
 have done, and we now await the result of our application. 
 
 It can be easily understood that a scheme of this nature 
 did not commend itself to all members of the family, and 
 one especially, whose excellent judgment always carried 
 great weight, saw many practical and prudential objections 
 to its accomplishment. To him Charles writes — 
 
 Prospects must not be confounded with duties ; every one 
 has a right to give up his worldly expectations, provided he injures 
 no one but himself by so doing ; nor can I subscribe to the 
 principle which I have heard maintained, that those only who 
 have no prospects in England should go out as missionaries. May 
 we not be allowed — indeed, are we not called upon? — to make 
 sacrifices, and does it not increase confidence in the purity of our 
 motives to feel that we are not consulting private ends in the 
 course we adopt ? I cannot, then, but believe that, as far as I am 
 myself concerned, I have a perfect right to give up my own 
 worldly expectations, and I feel the highest pleasure in being able 
 to do so in behalf of so holy a cause. . . . The reasonable 
 prospect of making ourselves useful will, I doubt not, support us 
 through many trials, and if, by God's grace, we may be made the 
 instruments of turning others to salvation, what greater reward 
 can be desired ? It has proved sufficient to rouse the energies of 
 many before us who will be noble examples for our imitation, and 
 may we. not hope to follow in the same path ? Though I trust it 
 may please God to smooth the way for the accomplishment of 
 this object which we have so much at heart, of course it must 
 depend on the encouragement which the Bishop gives us whether 
 New Zealand be our destination. 
 
 Considering the amount of thought and anxiety which 
 this scheme must necessarily have occasioned to its origi- 
 nator, and this in addition to his constant daily work with 
 
20 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 pupils and parish, it is not surprising that the strain should 
 have told on mind and body. 
 
 After some months he writes that he is "feeh'ng un- 
 equal to his duties," and as the conclusion of his diaconate 
 is drawing near, and he cannot obtain a title for priest's 
 orders at Walton, he wishes to resign his duties there, and 
 take some temporary work till the expected answer from 
 the Bishop of New Zealand shall arrive. The result was 
 that he applied for, and obtained, the office of Chaplain 
 to the Axbridge Workhouse, the Bishop consenting, as a 
 favour, to accept the position as a title for priest's orders. 
 
 Although the connection between the young pastor and 
 his flock at Walton had been of such brief duration, he had 
 succeeded in winning much sincere affection, and the sever- 
 ance was not effected without painful emotions on both 
 sides. 
 
 I felt much (he writes) at leaving. I had doleful partings with 
 parishioners, and I trust I have left many who will pray for my 
 future welfare. 
 
 This hope was fully realized, for to the end of his life 
 his visits to Walton were heartily welcomed by all who 
 could remember the time when the young deacon began 
 his ministerial duties among them. In his first Rector, also, 
 and his family, he found true friends through life. Lord 
 John Thynne, writing seven years later about Charles's 
 application for work in London, says — 
 
 So far as I know, and can speak with certainty of any other 
 person, I believe Mr. C. F. Lowder to be a sound English Church- 
 man, and I have much respect for him. 
 
 And as late as June, i88i, the present Rector of Walton- 
 
PRIEST'S ORDERS. 
 
 21 
 
 cum-Street, Mr. Hickley, replies to an inquiry for any 
 traditions about his short career there — 
 
 There is no memorial of Father Lovvder's work at Street or 
 Walton. The old people here remembered him kindly, and he 
 used to visit them when he came to see us. I have only heard 
 one saying respecting him, that he used to say prayer in church by 
 himself on the week-day : no small thing for a young curate forty 
 years ago. From that acorn grew St Peter's, London Docks. 
 
 Before entering on his new duties, Charles received 
 priest's orders in Wells Cathedral (December 22, 1844), 
 Bishop Denison, of Salisbury, again acting for Bishop Law. 
 During the incapacity of this aged prelate, his son, Chan- 
 cellor Law, was acting as Commissary and residing at 
 Wells, and it devolved upon him to offer hospitality to 
 the candidates for Holy Orders who came to Wells. . But 
 from the circumstance that Mr. and Mrs. Lowder had 
 undertaken the charge of the Bishop in his infirmity, the 
 Chancellor had many other opportunities of seeing and 
 forming an opinion of their son. He writes, some time 
 after, of the "high promise" which Charles gave at the 
 time of his ordination, and expresses a desire that he 
 might " be placed in some position where his talents and 
 worth might be fully drawn out and exercised." 
 
 After his ordination, the young priest at once entered 
 heartily upon his new duties, which, though only meant to 
 be temporary, were diligently discharged. The improve- 
 ment of the workhouse schools was his special care. He 
 began the practice of public catechising, useful to old as 
 well as to young, and in all ways laboured to reach the 
 hearts of a class whose circumstances required much 
 patience and love. 
 
22 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 His resignation of the Axbridge Chaplaincy was 
 hastened by the death, in September, 184S, of Bishop Law, 
 which relieved Charles's parents from the charge, for 
 three years tenderly and assiduously fulfilled, of tending 
 his declining age ; and although Chancellor Law was most 
 anxious that the family should settle near him, yet it was 
 judged more desirable that the eldest son should now be 
 allowed to accomplish his wish of making a home for them 
 himself. 
 
 The Rev. John Frampton, Vicar of Tetbury, in the 
 diocese of Gloucester, was just then in want of a Senior 
 Curate. Charles Lowder accepted this curacy, and the old 
 Vicarage House became for the next five years the happy 
 home of the once more united family. He went up to 
 Oxford to take his M.A. degree, at the beginning of 1846, 
 and immediately afterwards took possession of his new 
 home. 
 
 Tetbury is an old-fashioned country town, with about 
 3000 inhabitants, perched on the tops of the Cotswolds, in 
 Gloucestershire, bare and bleak, with stone walls separating 
 the fields instead of hedges. It has a history dating back 
 to ancient British times, and the old names are still attached 
 to certain divisions of the town. The church (St. Mary's), 
 just opposite the Vicarage windows, is a large lantern-like 
 building, with the old tower and graceful spire of its pre- 
 decessor remaining. 
 
 In a letter dated January 16, 1846, the new curate 
 writes — 
 
 I slept in my own house for the first time yesterday, which 
 is an era in one's life, and to-day I managed a little visiting of the 
 sick, so I shaU get my hand in by degrees. 
 
PARISH WORK. 
 
 23 
 
 He did indeed " get his hand well in," not only in visit- 
 ing the sick — a duty ever most conscientiously and tenderly 
 fulfilled — but in all parts of the priestly office. Young and 
 old, rich and poor, felt his influence, and were stirred by his 
 zeal. His visits to the schools were regular and his teach- 
 ing systematic, and both teachers and scholars welcomed 
 him with pleasure. He took great pains in preparing the 
 young for Confirmation and Holy Communion, teaching 
 them both in classes and by individual intercourse. Many 
 were brought to the Sacraments who, from ignorance or 
 scruples, had been deterred. In one instance the family of 
 a leading tradesman were all admitted to Baptism at the 
 same time, through his teaching and influence. In the 
 public services one improvement followed another ; and 
 when a beautiful little chapel-of-ease (St. Saviour's) was built 
 by the Vicar, in 1848, daily matins and evensong were 
 introduced. 
 
 For several years the Senior Curate had as his coadjutor 
 an earnest priest, the Rev. T. L. Williams, now Rector of 
 Porthleven in Cornwall, who was like-minded with himself 
 in desiring to bring Church teaching and practice more and 
 more fully before the people ; and Tetbury people still look 
 back to this time as one of the brightest and most pro- 
 gressive in their recollection. He drew up for their use a 
 little book, which has been found useful elsewhere. " The 
 Penitent's Path" was intended to supersede a favourite 
 manual much in use, but whose teaching was the reverse of 
 orthodox. Accordingly, this is arranged as much as possible 
 on the same plan, while conveying sound Church teaching 
 
 Amongst those who, besides parishioners, look bacK 
 with pleasure and thankfulness to those Tetbury days, may 
 
24 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 be mentioned his sister's pupils, some of whom he prepared 
 for Confirmation. Others, too young at that time to be 
 thus specially brought under his spiritual influence, were 
 yet not too young to remember with gratitude his bright, 
 cheery ways with them, nor his playful kindness. 
 
 I remember so clearly about Tetbury (writes one of these), 
 and the first time I saw that beautiful, noble, kind face. He 
 was not only a perfect saint in his life, but he was so good to 
 little children, and full of kind playfulness towards them. I 
 remember how he used to amuse Carrie and me in that old 
 orchard ; and all the time he was leading a life of holiness quite 
 different to other men. 
 
 His love of children was a characteristic feature all his 
 life. As a lad at school, he used to print letters in large 
 type, that his little brother might have the pleasure of 
 reading them himself, and entered into all his childish 
 interests. Even babes were quiet and happy in his arms, 
 and at the infant schools the little ones flocked round 
 him while he played with them. In the school treats 
 and excursions he was ever the ruling spirit, full of joyous 
 life himself, and shedding brightness on all around. " God 
 made flowers and children," he would say, " to make the 
 world beautiful ; " and his love for both never cooled. To 
 the last he had a child's love for gathering flowers, but then 
 it was to send them to those who had seldom a chance of 
 seeing them grow in the fields. 
 
 No wonder that children were devoted to such a friend, 
 and that the most pathetic incident in that last sad, wonder- 
 ful scene was the grief of the little children who helped 
 to swell the sobbing multitude lining the streets of St. 
 Peter's parish on the funeral day. 
 
OFFER OF PORT NATAL. 
 
 25 
 
 Some time after the family had been fairly settled at 
 Tetbury, each member having taken up work in the parish 
 as well as at home, the expected answer arrived from the 
 Bishop of New Zealand. Circumstances had quite changed 
 since the application was first made, and even if this had 
 not been the case, the Bishop's answer as to financial pro- 
 spects (an important matter where so many were concerned) 
 was so discouraging, that no room was left for regret that a 
 settled home had meanwhile been provided in England. 
 Bishop Selwyn cordially thanked his correspondent for 
 his offer of help in that far-off diocese, but he felt himself 
 in duty bound frankly to set forth the very uncertain con- 
 dition of his own financial position, " being by no means 
 sure," he writes, "that I may not be obliged to betake 
 myself to the plough for the maintenance of myself and 
 my family." 
 
 Charles plainly saw that this particular scheme could 
 not be carried out, but his missionary zeal was by no means 
 abated ; and when, in the following year, an offer was made 
 to him by the Bishop of Cape Town to take the charge of 
 Port Natal — " a most spiritually destitute place, but a most 
 promising opening for missionary labours" — he felt it neces- 
 sary to consult a friend, who knew his circumstances and 
 who also knew by experience what mission work is, before 
 he could make up his mind to decline the offer. 
 
 If (he says) my parents were in prosperity, and consented 
 to my going, I should feel at liberty to do so ; but I fear very 
 much lest my own feelings on the subject should lead me to forget 
 positive duties at home, and it is therefore that I so much desire 
 the counsel of one who can look calmly upon it. You know that 
 I have long felt a great desire for missionary employment, and 
 
26 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 this, instead of diminishing, has become stronger and stronger : 
 and I have always hoped and prayed that if it were right for me 
 to undertake it, it would be providentially pointed out, and the 
 feeling has grown upon me that it would be. The present offer 
 was made quite without my seeking it, as I had no idea that 
 Merriman would mention me to the Bishop, and therefore I the 
 rather desire to be taught if this must be considered as a call. 
 
 As before, he yielded up his inclinations to the judg- 
 ment of those whom he considered better able than himself 
 to decide, and the post w^as declined. Looking back over 
 the history of the then infant colony, we can see how much 
 suffering he was spared in having escaped the episcopal 
 authority of Bishop Colenso. 
 
 The Bishop (Monk) of Gloucester at this time offered 
 him the living of St. James's, Gloucester, but on inquiring 
 he found that the position required a man of means to 
 keep the very excellent schools in an efficient manner ; 
 and besides this objection, there being no house for the 
 Incumbent, he felt obliged to decline it. 
 
 The great interest which he took in education led him 
 to seek, in 1849, the recently founded office of Government 
 Inspector of Schools ; but this he failed to obtain, in spite 
 of letters of high recommendation both from his Bishop 
 and Vicar, and he remained at Tetbury for two years more 
 before the call came which was to lead him to that wide 
 field of missionary work in " the largest heathen city in the 
 world, except in China," to which the rest of his life was to 
 be given. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRST LONDON CURACY. 
 1851. 
 
 "Meet is it changes should controul 
 Our being, — lest we rust at ease." 
 
 In after years, giving some account of his work, Charles 
 Lewder wrote : * — 
 
 There are a few personal matters, which the writer thinks it 
 well to mention here, as they may help to show how the mis- 
 sionary idea first grew in his mind. He remembers well, as 
 Curate of a countiy town in Gloucestershire in 1851, reading one 
 evening by the fireside the account of the farewell of the Incum- 
 bent of St. Paul's and St. Barnabas', the touching words which 
 he spoke, and the sad leave-taking of his much-loving flock. 
 The whole history was not to be read carelessly, or reflected 
 upon without many burning thoughts. Those v/hich arose in his 
 mind were of deep sorrow for the parish which had lost so de- 
 voted a priest, of prayer that his place might be supplied by pne 
 who would faithfully carry on his work, and of ardent longing that 
 if it were God's will he might be permitted to take a part, how- 
 ever humble, in aiding such an object. 
 
 He felt that, in his own parish, he had reached the end of his 
 tether; after nearly six years of parochial labour, he could not 
 
 * " Twenty-one Years in St. George's Mission." 
 
23 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 induce his Vicar to move further in advance, and St. Barnabas 
 offered a most inviting field for more congenial work. Here the 
 experiment of winning the poor to the Catholic faith by careful 
 teaching and services was being successfully tried, and proved the 
 soundness of the system which Mr. Bennett originated in that 
 parish, and which, by a remarkable Providence, was, in spite of 
 all opposition, maintained and perpetuated. 
 
 There was another who, at the very time these prayers 
 for St. Barnabas' filled Mr. Lowder's heart, was equally full 
 of desire and prayer for help in the same work : 
 
 *' To each unknown his brother's prayer." 
 
 It is just thirty years ago (he writes) when I was permitted to 
 share with Mr. R, Liddell the honour of introducing Lowder to 
 the diocese of London. In March, 185 1, Mr. Bennett had been 
 driven from his post, as he expressed it, by the Prime Minister 
 who had temporal authority, by the Bishop who Jiad spiritual 
 authority, and by the Times and the mob who had no authority ; 
 and Mr. Liddell, his successor, determining to live at S. Paul's, 
 committed the charge of St. Barnabas' to me. 
 
 A few months' experience of the difficulties, not to say dangers, 
 of the position convinced me that it would not be possible to 
 meet them without the opportunity (which Mr. Liddell's generosity 
 at once conceded) of choosing the men who would co-operate with 
 me in the work. 
 
 To an advertisement which Mr. Skinner accordingly 
 put out, he received, with many others, the following 
 answer : — 
 
 Highbury Park, St. Barnabas' Day, 1851. 
 
 Reverend Sir, 
 
 Having been away trom home, I only saw your ad- 
 vertisement in the Guardian yesterday, and I take the earliest 
 opportunity of placing myself in communication with you. 
 
LETTER TO MR. SKINNER. 
 
 29 
 
 I have been for nearly five years and a half the Senior Curate 
 of a country town of more than three thousand in population, 
 the chief pastoral duties of which, including preaching, parochial 
 visiting, the care of souls, etc., have devolved upon myself, aided 
 by another Curate, in consequence of the weak health of my 
 Vicar, who is, however, resident. During that time daily service, 
 the Holy Communion twice a month in the two churches, and 
 other services have been commenced or continued. I am par- 
 ticularly desirous of entering upon no other sphere of duty where 
 at least the same privileges are not offered to the parish, and I 
 should prefer an increase. . . . 
 
 My opinions are perhaps best expressed, as we must use terms 
 of distinction in these days, by the name of Anglo-Catholic, being 
 decidedly those of firm attachment to the Church of England, 
 with the earnest hope of being an humble instrument in bringing 
 her Catholic character more closely home to the hearts of her 
 members. ... 
 
 Although I have entered into this detail, yet I must now ex- 
 plain that I am only placing myself in communication with you, 
 without making a formal application for the curacy advertised ; as 
 I should only resign my present charge with the hope of entering 
 upon a more important and promising sphere of labour, and 
 should probably sacrifice pecuniary advantage in a change, my 
 present stipend being much larger than that of most Curates. 
 
 I should mention that my present curacy is that of Tetbury, 
 Gloucestershire ; my Vicar's name, the Rev. J. Frampton ; but as 
 I have not given him any notice of leaving, I should not wish him 
 written to before I had heard again from you as to the circum- 
 stances of your parish, and the probability of a wish on your part 
 to form an engagement. 
 
 I might, in that case, also refer you to a former Rector, 
 the Rev. Lord John Thynne, Sub-dean of Westminster, Arch- 
 deacons Brymer of Bath, and Thorpe of Bristol, and the Rev. 
 J. H. Finder, Principal of the Theological College, Wells. 
 
 I remain, reverend sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 C. F. LOWDER. 
 
30 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 In a letter to his sister, written June 19, he mentions 
 that he had answered an advertisement in the Guardian 
 (on St. Barnabas' Day), "not knowing that it referred to 
 St. Barnabas'," and that he received " a letter from Mr. 
 Skinner, the senior and responsible Curate of St. Barnabas'," 
 in reply. This letter was quickly followed by an interview, 
 as Mr. Lowder was in London, and it was arranged that 
 he should take part in the services at St. Barnabas' on the 
 following Sunday. 
 
 I remember, as if it were yesterday (Mr. Skinner writes), 
 the impression made upon me by his striking (even then) almost 
 hairless head and radiant face, with the bloom upon it which 
 bespeaks purity of soul. I felt at once — " Here is the very man 
 we want." The testimony of his work, from that day to this, is all 
 the evidence needed to prove that the rapidly formed impression 
 was true. 
 
 This impression was confirmed by letters from several 
 friends, notably from Lord John Thynne and from Mr. 
 Finder, Principal of the Theological College at Wells, who 
 wrote of his "having known Charles Lowder from boyhood," 
 and of his belief that, " under the guidance which he will 
 meet with, he will prove a valuable helper in parochial 
 work." His letter ends with the prayer, which was indeed 
 answered — 
 
 " May it please God to overrule your communication with hin-. 
 to the best interests of our Church, and to the usefulness of my 
 young friend." 
 
 It is impossible not to be struck, in looking over the 
 letters written about Mr. Lowder at this time, by the coji- 
 fidence with which he seems to have universally inspired 
 
LETTER FROM MR. FINDER. 
 
 31 
 
 those who knew him, and which is not common in the case 
 of a young man whose sympathies were all with a school 
 antagonistic to popular Protestantism, and even to safe 
 and easy-going Churchmanship. 
 
 Archdeacon Thorpe, of Bristol, writing to Mr. Skinner 
 to "welcome him with best wishes and earnest prayers 
 into his new and responsible position," mentions Charles 
 Lowder, and expresses his " strong conviction that he is 
 very particularly suited to the place proposed for him." 
 He adds — 
 
 I scarcely know on what grounds I can speak so decidedly. 
 I believe it is from what I knew of him before, and what I have 
 heard of him from many different quarters. 
 
 To Charles himself Mr. Pinder wrote — 
 
 Southsea, Hants, July 4, 1851. 
 
 My dear Charles, 
 
 I concluded from the letter addressed to me by Mr. 
 Skinner that the situation would probably be offered you, and it 
 gave me very great pleasure to add my testimony in your behalf. 
 Judging from the opinions expressed by him, I cannot imagine a 
 more desirable person to act with and under — one who would 
 not consider the essence of religion to be in a lighted candle or 
 a surplice, but one who, by bringing his people's minds to the 
 reverence and love of Christ's Church, or Christ in His Church, 
 will, no doubt, in due time find from them a ready co-operation in 
 all things tending to order in the service. 
 
 I greatly honour Mr. Bennett, but I would have yielded the 
 point to my Bishop. I may be wrong. 
 
 Pray let me hear what the plan of your mother and sisters is. 
 Knowing the intensely domestic character of your good father, I 
 can easily understand how great the trial of separation has been 
 to him, and I shall like to hear all their plans. I would humbly 
 
32 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 hope in God (referring to the Exeter Synod) that this new 
 symptom of hfe in our Church will stay the impatient spirits, 
 who have been looking to Rome for security, and make them 
 pause and learn yet to love their Church as she deserves. . . . 
 
 Believe me, ever yours very sincerely, 
 
 John H. Finder. 
 
 To his mother Charles writes — 
 
 London, St. John Baptist's Day, 1851. 
 ... It was a great comfort to me, while assisting in the 
 beautiful services of one of the most beautiful churches in England, 
 to think that I was joining in prayer on my birthday with those 
 who, I doubt not, were praying for me. I enjoyed above descrip- 
 tion the hearty and devotional character of the services, and took 
 part by singing the Litany in the morning, assisting at Holy Com- 
 munion, and saying part of the prayers afternoon and evening. 
 I have now just returned from preaching there, and I believe Mr. 
 Skinner and myself are mutually satisfied one with the other. It 
 quite rests now with the answer which I shall make after consult- 
 ing with you and my sisters, whether I have the privilege of joining 
 in the great work which is being carried on at St. Barnabas' or no. 
 
 His mother's choice was soon made. Neither she nor 
 any of hers could bear to stand in the way of the work 
 upon which her son's heart was set. They arranged to 
 live at Enfield ; Charles became one of the curates at 
 St. Barnabas', and went into residence at the college on 
 September 30, 185 1. 
 
 This is not a history of St. Barnabas' Church and 
 College, yet it is necessary to say a few words as to the 
 state of matters there while Mr. Lowder was on its staff, 
 since it was the school in which he learned to use those 
 weapons which he afterwards wielded with signal success 
 
RIOTS AT ST. BARNABAS'. 
 
 33 
 
 during his long battle with vice, ignorance, and misery in 
 the east of London, 
 
 It would be impossible to do this with any accuracy, 
 were it not for the kindness with which correspondence on 
 the subject has been placed at the writer's disposal, and 
 the information supplied by those who kept St. Barnabas', 
 through the burden and heat of those troublous days, as a 
 stronghold of faith and devotion. 
 
 In 1 85 1 (the then Senior Curate writes) St. Barnabas' was at 
 the head of the movement. The success of Mr. Bennett's work 
 in Belgravia, of which it was the fruit ; the cdat of its consecration 
 festival the year before; the noveUy of its constitution, administered 
 by a college of clergy and choristers living in community, with 
 multiplied services day by day; the free and open access to it 
 for rich and poor, the beauty and symmetry of its structure and 
 furniture, and the perfection of its music, had combined to make 
 it an object of public attraction, in a year, too, in whicli the first 
 " Great Exhibition " brought the world to London. 
 
 But among those who were drawn to it by mere curiosity and 
 love of excitement, there were many who came with avowed 
 feelings of hatred and hostility ; and during the whole of that 
 memorable year it was only held, as a beleaguered city is held, 
 by armed men, against the violence of enemies who battered at 
 the doors, shouted through the windows, hissed in the aisles, and 
 essayed to storm the chancel gates. 
 
 It is not without difficulty, at this present time of writing, 
 that I bring myself to believe that such experience of the Puritan 
 furor as fell to my lot in 185 1 could really be possible. 
 
 The moment of the papal aggression was the lucky occasion 
 for whicli some had been anxiously seeking to make a deadly 
 onslaught upon the restored propriety of our English public 
 worship. The butler of the Irvingite Apostle, Mr. Henry 
 Drummond, was the ringleader of the malcontents. And Lord 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Sliaftesbury unhappily contributed to the fray by announcing, at 
 an excited public meeting in the parish, that he would prefer 
 worshipping "with Lydia by the banks of the river side" to 
 joining in such services as ours, while another leader made pious 
 declaration of his conviction that our church had mistaken its 
 patron saint in choosing the Apostle Barnabas rather than the 
 robber Barabbas, to whom we more properly belonged. 
 
 No doubt the disturbance had reached its climax on Sundays, 
 November lo, 17, 24, 1850, when the poor and the timid were 
 actually driven by bodily terror from worshipping at St. Barnabas' 
 altogether, and the religious people of the district were so hom- 
 fied by the blasphemous cries of the mob, that they were fain to 
 keep within their houses. 
 
 But in 185 1, when Mr. Bennett had already been sacrificed and 
 cast out, as a " sop to Cerberus," the spirit of unreasoning Puri- 
 tanism was as unsatisfied as ever ; and the excited passions of the 
 multitude continued to be employed by interested people, all 
 through the spring and summer of that year, to make our position 
 as dangerous and difficult as it could be made. It was only by 
 keeping a large body of gentlemen — regular members of our flock 
 — on the roll of sworn special constables, that we were enabled 
 to preserve order during divine service ; and Sunday after Sunday 
 we had to post some chosen ones by the chancel gates, to prevent 
 the ringleaders from breaking into the sanctuary. 
 
 The notion of any place in the church being reserved as 
 specially sacred, much more of being barred off, for the special 
 accommodation of the clergy and other ministers, was abhorrent to 
 the general mind of those unruly people. It was a strange thing 
 to see how the spirit of disorder seized upon many persons, 
 apparently good and earnest in their way, and forced them into 
 the ranks of the rioters, as if only for disorder's sake ; even 
 clergymen were often amongst the most troublesome. The most 
 difficult thing was to persuade people to sit down when their 
 appointed seats were shown to them. Some loudly protested 
 against dividing the sexes ; others claimed a right to perambulate 
 
MALCONTENTS. 
 
 35 
 
 the church, to examine the painted windows, and criticize the 
 Latin legends which enriched the walls. 
 
 On one occasion a respectable Irish clergyman sought me 
 out in the vestry, and, in great anger, appealed to me against one 
 of the vergers, who, he said, had insulted him by imputing to him 
 " ignorance of the Greek alphabet." I begged him to tell me how 
 the Greek alphabet had anything to do with his refusal to be 
 seated during divine service, which was the verger's complaint 
 against him. 
 
 "Well, sir," he answered, "it was just this way : Being in London 
 for the Exhibition, I came to see St. Barnabas'; and if I had taken 
 a seat, I wouldn't have seen it a bit; so I just wanted to walk 
 round, through the crowd, and examine it at my ease. This 
 man here kept harrying me about taking a seat; and then I 
 said to him plainly, ' Are you not ashamed of yourselves to be 
 worshipping the Virgin Mary here? For there,' said I (pointing 
 to the keystone of the chancel arch) — ' aren't they the very letters, 
 V. M. ? ' ' No,' said he, * we are ashamed of nothing here ; but it's 
 you, and the like of you, that should be ashamed, not to know 
 the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet when you see 
 them.' Now, sir, I appeal to you, was that a right and respectful 
 thing for a menial to say to a Protestant clergyman like myself ? " 
 
 I acknowledged that it was not very respectful ; but begged 
 him to consider that it was true that the letters in question were 
 not V. M., but A and O, .and also that it was true that during 
 divine service a church is for worship, not for idle curiosity ; 
 and that had he taken a seat when asked to do so, the imputed 
 insult would never have happened. We thereupon shook hands, 
 expressed forgiveness all round, and the Irish clergjanan departed. 
 
 On another occasion, a man came into the vestry when I was 
 just beginning the choir prayers, in a state of frenzy, demanding 
 why he should be asked to sit apart from his wife, " contrary," he 
 declared, " to the laws of God and man and all decency." I tried 
 to explain that the church was built free for all to enter it who 
 willed to worship in it ; but that, of course, now, and in London 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 especially, we could give no possible security that all who are free 
 to enter are fit to enter, and therefore that a division of the 
 sexes, as far as it goes, was some protection to women, and, at any 
 rate, it was all that we could afford. I omitted some older and 
 better reasons for this separation ; but, for the respect due to his 
 wife, what I had said might suffice. The man went away pacified 
 and reconciled. 
 
 By this time, 1854, with the exception of the troubles arising 
 from Mr. Westerton's ambition to be the Protestant champion 
 of England as churchwarden of St. Paul's, and the persistently 
 aggressive theology of a certain colonel of militia, who assumed 
 to influence Bishop Blomfield, and to claim for the Church of 
 England the simplicity of but 0}ie Sacrament, we were able to 
 carry on our work in comparative peace. 
 
 But, it will be asked, what was the ritual which roused such a 
 storm and provoked such outrage at St. Barnabas' ? 
 
 It had reached the stage of daily choral worship, and the 
 simplest rule of reverence and order in carrying out its details. 
 
 Bishop Blomfield had stopped in great measure the choral 
 worship at St. Paul's, and he had ordered it to be stopped at St. 
 Barnabas'. I honestly tried to obey him, but my first attempt at 
 " saying " instead of " singing " the versicles was received by the 
 congregation with so loud and determined a burst of song iit 
 the responses, that I felt obliged to go to the Bishop, and to tell 
 him plainly that, if choral service was to be discontinued at 
 St. Barnabas', I must decline to have any responsibility for keeping 
 order there. The people were defermmed to assert and use the 
 liberty given in the Prayer-book. I told him so distinctly, and 
 the Bishop did not persevere. 
 
 The points of ritual to which we had attained, and which 
 roused such fury against us, were very simple : — 
 
 1. Procession of clergy and choristers from and to the vestry. 
 
 2. Obeisance towards the altar on entering and retiring from 
 the sanctuary. 
 
 3. The eastward position. 
 
BISHOP BLOMFIELD. 
 
 37 
 
 4. Coloured coverings proper for the season on the altar. 
 
 We had been compelled to yield one or two points upon 
 which Mr. Bennett had insisted, e.g. the invocation of the Blessed 
 Trinity with the sign of the cross before the sermon, and the 
 position eastward of Epistoler and Gospeller ; also to adopt the 
 black gown in the pulpit — for which, indeed, the Bishop was not 
 responsible — and to say the daily prayers in the midst of the 
 people, outside the chancel. 
 
 But Bishop Blomfield never treated these matters from a legal 
 or canonical standpoint ; he simply enforced his arbitrary will, 
 which was, no doubt, influenced by his well-known terror of a 
 London mob. When he was entreated to reconsider his order to 
 say the prayers outside the chancel, and it was pointed out to him 
 that the priest was less well both seen and heard there, than on 
 the higher platform inside, he replied, " But those poppy-heads 
 are in the way." I had the poppy-heads sawn off instantly, and so 
 got back to my stall. When he was respectfully called upon to 
 prescribe the collect, for which there is no rubrical authority, 
 which he ordered to be used in the pulpit before the sermon, and 
 asked to appoint the particular side of the polygonal pulpit at 
 which it should be said, he answered, "I have no power to do 
 either of these things, but if you don't say a collect, and don't say 
 it to the west, I will withdraw your licence." When asked to 
 give an example of our "excessive Ritualism," he instanced our 
 communicating the choristers before the people. 
 
 He allowed the procession of clergy into choir, for the daily 
 office, as a right thing; he forbade their proceeding to the 
 celebration, with the vessels in their hands, as intolerable. The 
 clergy might bow to the altar — indeed, "it would," he said, *'be 
 well for them to set an example, in this respect, to their con- 
 gregations," whom he thought "far too inobservant of outward 
 expressions of reverence ; " but they might not bow in reciting the 
 "Gloria Patri." 
 
 The question of the metal cross upon the re-table over the 
 altar was treated with singular violence. The Bishop ordered 
 
38 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the churchwardens to remove it : only one would obey him. 
 The other, refusing to allow the legality of the removal, instantly 
 replaced what his colleague had taken down. This unseemly 
 struggle between the churchwardens went on till, at the suggestion 
 of a distinguished counsel, the cross was nailed to the table, on the 
 supposition that its legality depended on its fixture ; the Bishop 
 meanwhile declaring, " If it costs me my see, I will have that 
 cross removed." The subsequent litigation proved how^wrong, 
 as to law, everybody was, including the Bishop, and that the cross, 
 in its original position, was as secure as it remains to-day. 
 
 I mention these details, and record the episcopal policy of 
 the time, in order to show the position under which Charles 
 Lowder began his apprenticeship to " Ritualism;" and to indicate 
 the whole amount of it in its most advanced stronghold, when the 
 persecution which we endured was such that, for a time at least, 
 the church and its ministers were in daily danger from the mob. 
 
 Since 1851 there have been all sorts of decisions by the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts and the Committee of Privy Council upon 
 ritual questions, many of them clean contradictory one of the 
 other, but all of them more or less elaborately argued. We have 
 had, moreover, the Public Worship Regulation Act, framed ex- 
 pressly to " put the Ritualists down." The danger is no longer to 
 life, but to liberty. Men are not threatened now with personal 
 violence by an infuriated people ; they are only sent to prison in 
 cold blood by three "aggrieved parishioners." Liberty of law is 
 made to yield to the tyranny of judgments. But the principles 
 which triumphed over Lord John Russell's "No Popery" mob at 
 St. Barnabas', and Publican Thompson's rabble at St. George's-in- 
 the-East, are more deeply set and more widely prevalent than 
 ever. The degrees of ritual practice vary according to the cir- 
 cumstances of each parish in which it is used ; but there are few 
 churches (not absolutely belonging to the Low Church school) in 
 which the measure of ritual, now, falls behind the St. Barnabas' 
 of 1851. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BATTLE AT ST. BARNABAS'. 
 
 1852-1857. 
 
 " The strength of resolute undivided souls 
 Who, owning law, obey it." 
 
 It is certainly not without interest and instruction, as bear- 
 ing on our own time, to recall the history of an " advanced " 
 Church thirty years ago, and to remember that there was 
 nothing in its ritual or arrangements which is not carried 
 out now, without comment or objection, in the most 
 "moderate" English Churches, and even amidst the Puri- 
 tanism prevailing in Ireland. 
 
 In order luUy to understand the difficult position in 
 which Charles Lowder learned the lessons which he after- 
 wards nobly put in practice, it is also necessary to say 
 that there were other obstacles, besides Bishop Blomfield's 
 policy, through which the clergy of St. Barnabas' had to 
 fight their way. There can be no doubt that in these, as 
 in other things, the future missioner in East London was 
 ■ gaining, by experience, some of the wisdom which made 
 him set great store upon those principles of internal dis- 
 cipline which cemented the work of the clergy engaged 
 with him into the unity of one mind. 
 
 The church and college were in a difficult and anoma- 
 
40 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 loLis position ; not independent as now, but legally a chapel- 
 of-ease to St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, served by curates, under 
 its Incumbent, while its whole constitution and raison d' etre 
 tended to force the clergy who ministered there into an 
 independent course of action. 
 
 This was not, perhaps, lessened by the difference in 
 character of the two noble-hearted men on whose leadership 
 matters chiefly depended : — the one gentle, in every sense 
 of the word, and generous to the core, with a keen prevision 
 of the disastrous consequences which imprudence might 
 bring, and a not unnatural dislil<e to being dragged through 
 the dirt by imprudences, or what he deemed such, of those 
 for whose acts he was responsible ; the other absolutely fear- 
 less, unless he may have been said to fear cowardice and 
 its consequences, referring everything to certain fixed prin- 
 ciples, and possessing, with warm sympathies and affection, 
 an unbending will in maintaining the legitimate issue of 
 those principles. 
 
 Both, remaining true and loving friends to the last, 
 have been spared to see the happy results of their work ; 
 but while desire for the glory of God and salvation of 
 souls ruled in both hearts, there were evidently secondary 
 considerations, different in each, which influenced their 
 respective lines of action. Loyalty to the Bishop who had 
 greatly trusted him, and committed a difficult post to his 
 keeping at a critical moment, governed Mr. Liddell's course ; 
 while the Senior Curate of St. Barnabas' was chiefly led by 
 loyalty to the congregation who, deprived of Mr. Bennett's 
 leadership, turned to him, and demanded from him that he 
 should guard that liberty in worship and devotion which 
 they were determined not to yield. 
 
LA W AND LIBERTY. 
 
 41 
 
 It was indeed well for those liberties, not only at St. 
 Barnabas', but throughout the whole Church, that in the 
 beginning of the battle which still lasts, the stronghold 
 most hotly attacked was held by one able to perceive that 
 the struggle was not for this or that detail, but for a prin- 
 ciple at stake — that the question was whether lawful liberty 
 or tyrannical coercion should prevail. He and his fellow- 
 workers also knew that to give up a multitude of small 
 things, each one of which might in itself be called trivial, 
 was to give up something considerable, which would per- 
 manently lower the whole standard of teaching and of 
 worship which they had found established, and which they 
 felt it right, if possible, to maintain. For indeed that out- 
 ward order was but the outcome of the people's devotion. 
 They were wise enough to remember that their congrega- 
 tion, being composed of men and women with faults and 
 weaknesses, were not angels, or even wholly saints ; and 
 that if everything outward, which either gave expression to 
 devotion or nourished it, were given up, grave consequences 
 would quickly follow. Souls would not only be chilled 
 and repressed, but the poor and ignorant, on whom warm 
 energies were expended, would fall away. 
 
 It was for their sake that by entreaty, argument, and per- 
 suasion, the Senior Curate struggled against the Incumbent's 
 original desire to assimilate the services at St. Barnabas' as 
 closely as possible to those at St. Paul's, a policy which 
 would have obscured the whole principle of freedom in 
 details, and made the young and vigorous daughter a 
 source of weakness, instead of strength, to the mother 
 church. 
 
 Knowing the practice which now prevails in the latter, 
 
42 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 it is certainly curious and instructive to find such prohi- 
 bitions issued to the Curate of St. Barnabas' as, e.g., on 
 March 9, 1852 :— 
 
 Let no flowers be placed on any occasion on the altar. 
 Let the celebrant stand, at \\\& commencement o{'Ci\Q,(Zox^im\xa\.o\\ 
 Service, at the north side of the table. 
 
 Let the Commandments be read distinctly, not chanted. 
 
 And so on, through twelve injunctions, the fulfilment of 
 which would greatly astonish the present congregation of 
 St. Paul's. 
 
 The position of affairs would have been still more 
 difficult, had it not been for the personal kindness and 
 generosity of Mr. Liddell, and the warm affection and 
 gratitude which he always expressed for the Curate of 
 St. Barnabas', even while feeling that he was responsible for 
 that church as much as for St. Paul's, and that he was 
 placed in a false position by seeming to maintain that of 
 which his own judgment disapproved. 
 
 At this distance of time there will be no breach of 
 confidence in giving the following letters, while the judg- 
 ment of so distinguished a layman as the late Baron 
 Alderson on the question at issue is interesting and 
 valuable. 
 
 St. Barnabas' Parsonage, Pimlico, July 4, 1854. 
 Dear Sir Edward Alderson, 
 
 Though a stranger to you personally, I feel a sure 
 hope that you will allow me to consult you in the present emer- 
 gency; for indeed it is an emergency of great gravity to the 
 Church in this parish and throughout England. I beg to be 
 allowed to say that I presume to write to you only because I 
 know how steadfastly your heart is bound up in the English 
 
LETTER TO BARON ALDERSON. 
 
 43 
 
 Church, and because I have the highest confidence in your learn- 
 ing and judgment. 
 
 The Incumbent of the parish (in which this church is a 
 chapelry), with, I am sure, the most loving sincerity, has seen fit 
 to yield up to the Bishop that liberty to adjust the internal affairs 
 of his own church which the law allows him. He thinks he has 
 only yielded certain specific points ; and this, for the present, may 
 be so : but I fear that what he has yielded is the principle of 
 freedom within the Church's law, and I cannot but apprehend 
 the very worst consequences from a sacrifice of which the Bishop 
 of London will be too ready to avail himself, for carrying out his 
 own private wishes and opinions. 
 
 As yet, the church of St. Paul's is the only one involved ; 
 but is it possible for the Incumbent to retain a position in one of 
 his churches which he has yielded in the other ? 
 
 The Bishop has threatened us with a visitation. How is he 
 to be met ? 
 
 I have begged Mr. Liddell to decide whether he is to be met 
 on the ground that changes may be made here simply because 
 he (the Bishop) wills it, or on the ground that no changes shall 
 be made from an existing state of things which is edifying 
 to the people and lawful in the Church. He has made no de- 
 cision ; I fear he is already committed to the former side of the 
 remative. 
 
 The body of clergy licensed here, for the work of this church 
 and district, have resolved to be the instruments of no change 
 ivhatever, and to take their stand upon the ground that their 
 people's spiritual interests ought not to be sacrificed by them ; that 
 if our worship here be indeed imlawful in the English Church, the 
 sooner it is put do\vn the better ; that if otherwise, they can be no 
 parties to such an act of tyranny and oppression. 
 
 Is this a course which we may take, and still act with loyalty 
 and fidelity to the English Church? If the Bishop holds a 
 visitation, may we request that it be by a solemn and formal court, 
 and that we ourselves may be heard by counsel 1 
 
44 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 There is another side of the case which, if you will allow me, 
 I would present to you. The necessary disadvantages which 
 belong to this church and "college," from its present consti- 
 tution, are very serious ; the Incumbent being, practically, non- 
 resident. I enclose a case for reference, which will show you 
 what I mean ; and from which I doubt not you will gather that 
 the perils from within, to a work like this, are at least not less 
 grave than the perils from without. 
 
 The Incumbent is strongly impressed with his own inability 
 to do justice to the two works (as I may now call them) of 
 St. Paul's and St. Barnabas'; and he feels that if the two could 
 be separated, neither would interfere with the prosperity of the 
 other. This, I may add, is, under present circumstances, the 
 opinion also of Mr. Bennett, and of others who are anxious to see 
 some way of saving our work here. But the possibilities of this 
 depend upon questions of law with which I am not acquainted. 
 Would you kindly consider them ? 
 
 I would only say, in conclusion, that I have no personal 
 motives whatever in submitting these matters to you. I cannot, 
 of course, disclaim the most keen and loving interest in this 
 church and district, but I do not seek for anything for myself; I 
 am anxious only for the stability of a work which is looked up to 
 from all corners of England, and for the strength and glory of our 
 own beloved Church. 
 
 Believe me, dear Sir Edward Alderson, 
 With the deepest respect. 
 
 Your most faithful servant in Christ, 
 
 James Skinner. 
 
 9, Park Crescent, July, 6, 1854. 
 
 Mv DEAR Sir, 
 
 I sympathize with you in your difficult position, which 
 seems to me to require a mixture of firmness with prudence rarely 
 found together, but which, I hope, will not be wanting in your 
 case. . . . 
 
 From my knowledge derived from an intimacy at school anil 
 
BARON ALDERSON'S REILY. 
 
 45 
 
 College,* I begged him f not to yield to the Bishoi^, but to 
 take his stand on the ecclesiastical law — tlie best for Mr. 
 
 Liddell, and for the Bishop also. The Bishop . . . 
 
 . . . will give up much protection by quitting the shelter of 
 the law. It is an easy answer to complainers, " the law allows 
 it." 
 
 But Mr. Liddell has the right of altering St. Barnabas' as well 
 as St. Paul's, and I don't see how you can prevent him. Yet 
 I deprecate your all refusing to act if he does so. Your re- 
 maining may prevent much evil, and I don't see, if it be known, 
 as it must be, that you disapprove, why you should not remain to 
 do as much good as you can. . . . 
 
 I deprecate your resolution against all change, though I believe 
 it would be wisest to make none. Nothing seems to me to be 
 more unadvisable than, at this time, to-separate St. Barnabas' and 
 St. Paul's. 
 
 You will have, in the present state of things, no security for 
 a proper appointment. I don't think Mr. Bennett's prudence so 
 great as his zeal in advising it. 
 
 I am at a loss to know what the Bishop means by a special 
 visitation. Pie will have enough to do if he undertakes such 
 matters throughout his diocese. If he does, I should certainly 
 put him, as far as the law will allow, at arm's length, and appear 
 by advocate at it ; but I don't believe that it will happen. 
 
 In the mean while I advise you in patience to possess your 
 souls. Sail with as little sail as you can conscientiously; the 
 
 * Bishop Blomfield was born in 17S6, and Baron Alderson in 1787 ; they 
 were at ICing Edward VI. 's School, Bury St. Edmund's, together from i8oi 
 to 1804, the Bishop having entered it, at eight years of age, in 1794, and the 
 Judge in 1801, having migrated thither from the Charterhouse ; they were at 
 Cambridge together from 1805 to 1809, as the Bishop entered at Trinity in 
 1804, and the Judge at the same College in 1805 (afterwarch migrating to 
 Caius); they took brilliant degrees, the lawyer, however, beating the ecclesiastic, 
 t'.ie latter in 1808 as Third Wrangler and First Chancellor's Medallist, the 
 former in 1809 as Senior Wrangler, First Smith's Prizeman, -and First Chan- 
 cellor's Medallist. They were both Fellows of their respective Colleges. 
 
 t Mr. Liddell. 
 
46 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 tempest will soon pass. People at present are making political 
 capital, as it is called, out of Romanizing Protestants, as they 
 call them. I have the greatest contempt for all such people and 
 their attempts ; but I fear lest some of my earnest-minded friends 
 should not be so quiet as I am. Sooth to say, Belgravia has 
 produced some extravagances of devotion. There has been a 
 good deal of gesticulation, very pardonable if it did not do so 
 much mischief to others. We suffered here, at St. Mary Mag- 
 dalene, from it when Dr. Pusey preached the other day. But 
 as we are quiet people we are recovering the effects. I wish 
 people not to feel one jot less, but to express it much less out- 
 wardly. This is what we ought to aim at, and if we can accomplish 
 it we shall keep all that is good, in spite of all the Westertons in 
 the world. 
 
 I have read the enclosed paper with, I own, some satisfaction 
 that you are not so strict in your discipline at this moment as yon 
 ought to be. I should not wish it permanently to be so, however. 
 For I agree with you that you want a head to govern. But don't 
 begin your repairs in the hurricane month. 
 
 If I can be of use I shall be glad, and shall be always ready to 
 talk it over with you. A short conversation is worth a quire of 
 writing; as, in conversation, I see and appreciate your difficulties, 
 which it is not so easy to do in a letter. 
 
 Very faithfully and truly yours, 
 
 E. M. Alderson. 
 
 To the Rev. J. Skinner. 
 
 A memorial had been presented to the Bishop, entreat- 
 ing him to reconsider such commands as v^ere contrary 
 to lawful liberty. Mr. Richard Cavendish* wrote to Mr. 
 Skinner : — 
 
 I have written to the churchwardens to append my name, but 
 for fear of any mistake I write also to you. . . , Words cannot 
 
 * Afterwards Lord Richard Cavendish, 
 
WORIC IN PIMLICO. 
 
 47 
 
 express my indignation, especially at the Bishop's conduct. It is 
 sad, too, with such a constant trial pressing upon you, to have all 
 the misery of this wretched struggle with the Bishop, to whom you 
 ought to be able to look for your principal support. It is most 
 needful that a stand should be made against the unlawful com- 
 mands of a Bishop, issued merely in the vain hope of " satisfying 
 a public " who will never be satisfied with anything short of the 
 abolition of all Catholic doctrine and worship in the English 
 Church. The notion of your having on any account to leave 
 St. Barnabas' fills me with dismay. I dare not think of it. May 
 God be merciful unto us ! 
 
 Throughout this struggle for liberty, Charles Lov/der 
 was, as will be seen from the foregoing letters, of one mind 
 with the Senior Curate, joining heartily in his efforts to 
 preserve what had been gained. In all that has been 
 related he shared by sympathy, counsel, and co-operation, 
 so that it forms part of the story of his life. Nor was it 
 an unimportant part. He was polishing his armour, never 
 on earth to lay it aside, for the hard and life-long battle 
 which was before him ; and learning, even through his own 
 or others' mistakes, lessons without which he would have 
 been lacking in much of the experience which he brought 
 to bear upon his future work. Of his life at this time 
 Mr. Skinner writes : — ■ 
 
 His whole heart was centred in work for the poor; his 
 districts lay in the slums to the west of Ebury Square, which are 
 now improved out of existence, and he had special charge oi 
 the day and night schools. In these two spheres of labour, he 
 devoted himself to the task of raising up the ignorant and vicious 
 and oppressed to a higher and truer conception of God and of 
 themselves. He learnt by experience how much a warm and 
 bright and beautiful ceremonial contributed to this end; and 
 
48 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 therefore he valued it, while, for its own sake, he cared little 
 about it. 
 
 No man had less of mere aesthetic sentiment about his re- 
 ligion. He was weak, rather than otherwise, in imaginative power ; 
 but he had considerable intellectual, specially logical, force, and 
 a strong will, combined with indomitable courage. His appre- 
 ciation of ritual, as the handmaid of devotion and the ex- 
 pression of faith, was from the conviction of his understanding 
 that it is a logical necessity of the case, as well as the fulfilment 
 of a natural law; that— given a human soul and body for the 
 instrument, the creeds of the Catholic Church for the subject, 
 and Almighty God for the Object of faith and worship — ritual is 
 the only process by which Christian homage can be outwardly 
 paid. As to the ritual of St. Peter's-in-the-East, men may well 
 be allowed to differ in their criticism. But in one thing all 
 must be agreed, that Charles Lowder knew what he was about 
 when he began it ; I mean that it was the result of principles 
 learnt at St. Barnabas', and of long and diligent experience among 
 the classes for whose souls he painfully watched, and for whom he 
 actually found it to be a stay. 
 
 If it be said of the long battle at St. Barnabas' in 
 which he took part, that it was a struggle for trivial details, 
 vmimportant to real work, the answer is that, besides the 
 principle of preserving liberty which was involved, each 
 detail was only trivial in the same sense in which the 
 colours of a regiment are in themselves unimportant — 
 a piece of embroidered silk, no weapon of war, and yet 
 so precious in their symbolism that a soldier counts blood 
 and life itself well lost to save them. Nay, the very 
 fierceness of the attack upon outward order and reverence 
 was the most striking acknowledgment of consciousness, 
 on the enemy's part, of their power and importance, — even 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL. 
 
 49 
 
 as the splendour of military ritual can never be witnessed 
 without forcing us to feel its influence, and the power 
 which it must possess, especially with the rough and un- 
 educated, to kindle enthusiasm and create unity of feeling 
 and of action. 
 
 Time, after all, brings relief to most difficulties, if only 
 they can patiently be borne ; and so, for St. Barnabas', 
 time and patience wrought out the solution of nearly all 
 that contest, of which a brief notice has been attempted 
 here, and of which the end may be as briefly told. In a 
 letter to the Times of July 13, 1854, the Senior Curate 
 wrote : — 
 
 God knows, sir, our work — our real vital work — here is 
 but hardly begun. There are yet a thousand strongholds of 
 Satan to be stormed, which may make the boldest heart tremble. 
 But who hinder us? AVho weaken our arms and baffle all our 
 efforts ? "A Belgravian " and such as he. We cannot build up 
 poor men's souls, and fight against such foes as these at the same 
 time. . . . The outcry has gone forth, " The worship of St. Bar- 
 nabas' is Popish." I deny it. The worship of St. Barnabas' is 
 the worship of the Church of England. We challenge this issue 
 in the courts of the Church of England, if any such there be. 
 If it is not the worship of the Church of England, the sooner 
 it is put down the better." 
 
 The distress of litigation, to which the questions in 
 dispute were at length referred, was enhanced by two 
 unfavourable decisions ; but it was not without compensa- 
 tion. The logical issues of the first — the Lushington judg- 
 ment — were plainly these : (i) That the reformed Church 
 of England is a new thing — the creation of the sixteenth 
 century, without continuity or dependence or affinity or 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 descent beyond three centuries. (2) That what the present 
 Prayer-book of the English Church has prescribed is a 
 virtual prohibition of everything else, ejiisdem generis, parit)) 
 and tradition having no value even as explanatory in 
 cases of doubt. (3) That the usages of the ancient Church 
 are absolutely repudiated. 
 
 The judgment was an attack upon the essence of the 
 Church of England in its character as a portion of the one 
 Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church ; it was an effort to 
 abolish that ceremonial worship of God which has ever 
 been the correlative of sacramental grace in the Catholic, 
 as previously in the Jewish Church. 
 
 The appeal to the Court of Arches, under Sir J. Dodson, 
 did little to remove the stigma. But the cause was sub- 
 mitted, on appeal, to the Committee of Privy Council, and 
 on ^March 21, 1857, it received such a different, because 
 fairer, construction as (if that Committee had but adhered 
 to its own sentence) might perhaps have satisfied the 
 Church, and finally settled those disputes as to ritual 
 and ceremonial which still continue to burn. 
 
 The use of the cross as an ornament of churches from 
 the earliest periods of Christianity was plainly confirmed ; 
 the credence table and the embroidered and coloured 
 cloths of the altar were pronounced lawful ; the use of 
 lights at the celebration of Holy Communion was not 
 disturbed ; and, generally, the construction of the word 
 " ornaments " in the much-canvassed rubric at the opening 
 of the Prayer-book was declared, after much consideration, 
 to apply and to be confined to those articles, the use of 
 which in the services and ministrations of the Church is 
 prescribed by the First Prayer-book of Edward VI. 
 
LA W AND RITUAL. 
 
 51 
 
 It is important to note here that it was under the 
 sanction of this first judgment of the Privy Council (what- 
 ever its worth may be) tliat Charles Lowder introduced 
 his " ritual " in the East of London ; and that he con- 
 scientiously felt it to be right for him to persevere in it, 
 as being the Church's law, in spite of the fact (which he 
 left them to reconcile with consistency) that the Lords of 
 the Council had changed their minds. 
 
 The following extracts from letters will give some 
 notion of the depth of feeling which these judgments 
 excited amongst the congregation of St. Barnabas' ; and 
 as they practically settled the troubles of the infancy 
 of that parish, they may interest many to whom the ex- 
 citement and anxiety of those days are only now matters 
 of history. 
 
 The two first are from an able Chancery barrister, of 
 condolence on the Lushington judgment, and of congratu- 
 lation on its reversal ; and the last is given, with Mr. 
 Liddell's kind permission, as containing the account of 
 the final peaceful settlement of affairs at St. Barnabas'. It 
 was written to his former coadjutor after broken health 
 had forced the latter to retire from his post, 
 
 ... I beg to offer you my most sincere sympathy on the event 
 of this day (December 5, 1855). Indeed, I can assure you that I 
 feel it myself, personally, quite a blow; though, of course, much 
 less so than you must, whose whole life has of late years been so 
 bound up with all that a godless worid is seeking to undo, and 
 who have with such labour brought St. Barnabas' to be a model 
 of a Christian sanctuary. 
 
 But pray be not discouraged. I am well aware how dis- 
 couraging and heart-sickening this day's proceedings must be to 
 
52 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 you, but you have still left the lasting encouragement of a congre- 
 gation of attached and grateful people. ... I grant the judg- 
 ment was an able one as a piece of reasoning from his premises, 
 but these I think sadly far from being those from which a judge 
 in such matters ought to start. . , . 
 
 I much dread, nevertheless, the effect of to-day's decision upon 
 the minds of many of the clergy, specially of those labouring in 
 humble imitation of St. Barnabas', of whom I know several, in 
 country districts, where they have not the sympathy and en- 
 couragement of kindred minds immediately to fall back upon. 
 Never do I remember to have read of any judicial decision which 
 has so avowedly inculcated sacrilege as this in the removal of 
 crosses ; or which will produce such incalculable mischief, espe- 
 cially in the minds of the ignorant, whom it will take years to 
 persuade (if ever they can be persuaded) of the valuelessness 
 (really) of doctrines stamped with legal authority. 
 
 But I hope and believe you will be sustained under this trial, 
 and abate not a jot of that steadfastness you have so invariably 
 shown. 
 
 Forgive all this from a layman ; but I cannot refrain from 
 speaking out, things have come to such a pass. 
 
 My other object in troubling you with this (after conveying 
 to you my heartfelt sympathy) is, in case (as I hope devoutly it 
 may) the decision is appealed from, to offer you my free and 
 willing professional services in helping forward the case in any 
 way in which I might be of use. . . . 
 
 March 24, 1857. 
 
 Though of course, through your friends, you have heard of 
 the glorious news of Saturday, I cannot help troubling you, mixed 
 up as I have been so much of late in the contest, with a few 
 additional remarks upon it. 
 
 I hope you are satisfied with it. I think we all ought to be. 
 I myself am overjoyed and filled with thankfulness for it — so 
 much more than we could have expected, looking at the constitu- 
 tion of the court, and the two adverse judgments to work against 
 
LETTER FROM MR. LIDDELL. 
 
 S3 
 
 I cannot, in fact, help recognizing God's especial providence in 
 thus " turning the hearts " of the most unlikely to so decided a 
 step in our favour as a reversal on three important particulars. 
 
 I believe also that the longer and more calmly we look into it, 
 the more reason for joy we shall discover in it. I can hardly yet 
 bring myself to realize its importantly beneficial ultimate effects, 
 and all disappointment at private losses should surely be merged 
 in the vindication of the principle at large for which we have been 
 contending. Mr. Liddell has again and again said he has been 
 fighting the Church's battle, and not a mere local battle. Well, he 
 has won the greater; can he not afford to give up the less ? He 
 has set free every clergyman, every architect in future to decorate 
 their churches with the " servilely imitative " and meretricious 
 ornaments" which we have heard so much about. And the 
 intense sophistry which Dr. Lushington has done his best to 
 circulate, and the groundless imputations he has charged you 
 with, have been scattered to the winds. . . . 
 
 It really was the greatest treat (merely intellectually con- 
 sidered) to hear each quicksand that wrecked us before, now 
 passed in safety — though it was in fear and trembling that one 
 listened to it. A more exciting scene I seldom remember. 
 
 Wilton Place, Wednesday in Easter Week, 1858. 
 
 Let me ask you still to rejoice with me that St. Barnabas' is, 
 with the blessing of God, going on so very prosperously. ... In 
 spite of all the obloquy from without, and many acknowledged 
 infirmities within, it has gone on, doing, as I believe, a great and 
 mighty work for God. And having my eye on yon, who worked 
 there so hard and above your strength, I may say to those who 
 succeeded you, while I wish most gratefully to appreciate their 
 exertions also — still I may say, " Other men laboured, and ye are 
 entered into their labours." 
 
 I think that judgment of the Committee of the Privy Council 
 broke the neck of the opposition here. We soon settled down 
 into a state of blessed quiet, interrupted now and then by a little 
 
54 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 trouble, but nothing to speak of; and the work has gone on 
 thriving progressively ever since. Whenever there is any discussion 
 before the Bishop of London, I find it so much easier to stand up 
 to him and tell him my own exact mind and determination, than I 
 did with the last Bishop, whom I had known intimately from a 
 child, and from whom it gave me the most intense pain to differ ; 
 though that latterly, as you know, was not seldom. He, towards 
 the end of his career, used to take one's opposition as a personal 
 msult ; whereas the present Bishop is very good-tempered, and 
 being no older than myself, and with no parochial experience, he 
 is easier to deal with, even though we may not agree. I stand, as 
 steadily as I can, upon the law of the Church, and he has had in 
 several arguments with me to end by knocking under, or letting 
 me alone, which is the same thing. You may have perhaps 
 heard that some time after the delivery of the judgment he visited 
 my churches, with a view, as he said at first, of exercising his discre- 
 tion as Ordinary upon the use of the altar-cloths, and next upon 
 the disposal of the stone altar after its removal. I had to tell him 
 tout bon7ieme7it that, as I was advised, he had no power what- 
 ever, either in the one instance or the other ; and he said he 
 would consider it, and wrote in a few days to say I was right. I 
 have had two or three cases of dispute between me and Westerton 
 brought before the Bishop, in all of which he has ended in giving 
 sentence in my favour. We had a great tussle, by the way, at first, 
 because he withheld White's licence unless I surrendered to him 
 the discretionary power which the law of the Church gives to an 
 Incumbent in reference to the details of divine service. But 
 there, again, he was so entirely in the wrong that in the end he 
 had to give way. 
 
 But enough of these matters. The blessing is that now we 
 are established and swimming in deep water, and each day only 
 strengthens our position. 
 
 This Lent was very devoutly kept, and I speak of course more 
 of St. Barnabas' than St. Paul's. The attendance throughout it 
 has been most remarkable, and on Easter Day the throngs of 
 
PEACEFUL CONCLUSION. 
 
 55 
 
 worshippers were such that the church was quite incapable of 
 containing them ; they stood out in the street, opposite the west 
 door, quite across to the opposite side of the road. There were 
 three celebrations — 6 a.ni., 159; 8 a.m., 137; 11 a.m., 187 ; total, 
 483.* I was there in the evening, and I never saw such a con- 
 gregation in my life, and so reverent and earnest ! . . . 
 
 We have jus-t got over our Easter Tuesday election of church- 
 wardens with unwonted quietness and brevity. Ten or twelve 
 minutes concluded the whole affair, mirahile didu. Westerton had, 
 and I believe with sincerity, expressed his wish and determination 
 to resign ; but his party could get no one else to stand. The in- 
 fluential people of the parish stand aloof, and so he was urged by 
 his party to stand again, and at last consented. I agree with you 
 that we really now need not care who is in the oflice, and it is 
 doubtless better that they should have their fling, to show at last 
 how little they can do or have done in obstructing the truth ; for 
 God in wonderful ways overrules human violence or party spirit 
 for the ultimate furtherance of His own work. Bad men seem 
 always on the point of prevailing, but somehow they don't. For 
 my part, as long as Churchmen are remiss about putting a worthy 
 man into this office, I am profoundly indifferent who fills it, and 
 would just as soon have Westerton as any one else, if not sooner, 
 for I have got to know his ways now. He cannot hinder one 
 morsel ot our real work, and the field of controversy about 
 externals is greatly narrowed by the recent judgment. . . , 
 
 In the mean time, thanks to God, we are carrying on our 
 services and regulations with increasing order and efficiency, and 
 agitation against us has burnt itself out, without having shaken us 
 from our steadfast position. . . . 
 
 I ought to tell you that, being most anxious to spare the devout 
 feelings of our people to the uttermost in the necessarily painful 
 matter of removing the stone altar, I took that responsibility 
 entirely upon myself. By Cundy's advice, and after a beautiful 
 simple design by him, I employed Myers, the great building con- 
 * Oa Easter Day, 1S81, there were 761 communicants at St, Barnabas'. 
 
56 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 tractor in Lambeth, to make a very massive one in carved oak, 
 on six pillars, of exactly the same dimensions as the original stone 
 one, so that all the vestments fitted, of course, perfectly. The 
 stone one was then most carefully taken down by first-rate work- 
 men. The beautiful slab was laid down on a level with the floor, 
 so as to form the basis on which the new altar had to stand, and was 
 thus secured /// situ as much as was possible under the circum- 
 stances. The rest of the structure was set up again in the crypt, 
 immediately under the altar, with a new slab of plain Portland 
 stone. So if at any future day that absurd prohibition of a stone 
 altar be repealed, then the whole thing is capable of being re- 
 stored as it originally was. . . . 
 
 Ever, my dear friend, yours most truly and affectionately, 
 
 Robert Liddell. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 VISIT TO YVETOT. 
 1854-1855. 
 
 "The strawberry grows undemeath the nettle." 
 
 We have broken the thread of our story in order to learn 
 briefly the issue of the contest at St. Barnabas', and must 
 return to the Easter of 1854, when Westerton was a candi- 
 date for the office of churchwarden at St. Paul's Knights- 
 bridge. 
 
 To the crypt at St. Barnabas' there is an underground 
 passage from the choristers' vestry, where the boys oc- 
 casionally lurked and larked. Among these was at this 
 time a cousin of Charles Lowder, a Christ's Hospital boy, 
 who was on a visit at the college. He was inflamed by the 
 sight of " Vote for Westerton " carried on a board by a man, 
 "sandwich -wise," through the streets near St. Barnabas'. 
 He and the other boys conceived a fierce desire to do 
 battle with the innocent bearer of the obnoxious placard, 
 and he entreated his cousin to allow them to throw some- 
 thing at the man. Charles bade him not throw dirt or 
 stones, but gave the boys sixpence to buy rotten eggs. They 
 were not slow in using them, carrying the war into Ebury 
 Street, and the bespattered " sandwich " complained to his 
 
58 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 employers, who speedily invoked the aid of the law against 
 the assailants. Charles was interrogated, and took all the 
 blame of inciting the boys to bedaub the inscription. 
 Before the police magistrate, he repeated publicly the 
 admission of indiscretion, and sorrow for it, which he 
 had already made privately, and the case was dismissed, 
 with more than acquiescence on the part of the prosecution. 
 
 He expressed nothing but deep regret and self-blame 
 for his thoughtless and wrong action, and, it need scarcely 
 be said, made liberal private compensation to the placard- 
 man; but, in the state of matters at St. Barnabas', his 
 fault was more than ordinarily full of mischievous conse- 
 quences, and of distress to his colleagues and superiors 
 The newspapers of course made large capital out of the 
 occurrence, proclaiming a Puseyite conspiracy to put dov/n 
 Protestant churchwardens by force. Bishop Blomfield 
 took the matter up, and the following letters will show how 
 he dealt with it. 
 
 The Bishop of London requests the Rev. C. F. Lowder to 
 call at London House to-morrow, at half-past ten o'clock. 
 London House, May 3, 1854. 
 
 London House, May 6, 1854. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I am sorry to be under the necessity of stating that I 
 consider it to be my imperative duty to mark my sense of the 
 scandal occasioned to the Church by your late indiscreet conduct. 
 
 I had at first thought it would be necessary to revoke your 
 licence ; but in consideration of your having made, though some- 
 what tardily, a public acknowledgment of your fault, I shall 
 content myself with suspending you from the exercise of your 
 functions, as Curate of St Barnabas', for the space of six weeks, 
 dating from this day. 
 
BISHOP BLOMFIELD'S LETTERS. 
 
 59 
 
 It is with extreme pain that I visit you even with this censure j 
 but my sense of duty to tlie Church will not allow me to do less. 
 
 In the way of pimishme7if, I am sure that your own feelings 
 will have been enough. I trust that you may be able to regain, 
 for yourself and for the Church, the ground which you have 
 lost. 
 
 I am, dear sir. 
 
 Your faithful servant. 
 The Rev. C. F. Lowder, C. J. London. 
 
 Lansdown House, Ryde, May 9, 1854. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have just received your lordship's letter, which I 
 found awaiting me here. I am most thankful to your lordship for 
 having so far listened to the kind intercessions of Mr. Liddell 
 : and Mr. Parke, of which I only to-day heard, as to mitigate the 
 term of suspension first intended. 
 
 But feeling, as I do most deeply, the sin of causing this 
 scandal to the Church, I am almost thankful to be allowed to 
 bear some ecclesiastical punishment at your lordship's hands. I 
 trust that, by God's blessing, it may be the means of effectually 
 quickening my endeavour, for the future, to labour more heartily 
 and patiently for Him against whom I have thus sinned. 
 
 If I failed to express to your lordship as earnestly as I felt 
 my sorrow for this transaction, I trust that your lordship will 
 ascribe it rather to the shock that my mind had sustained, than to 
 a wish of justifying my conduct.* 
 
 London House, May 10, 1854. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 
 which is in all respects what it ought to be : and I assure you 
 that what has happened, painful as it has been to me and to your 
 
 * The copy of this letter ends here. 
 
6o 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Other friends, will not alter my opinion of you, as a zealous and 
 conscientious Clergyman. 
 
 I am, my dear sir, 
 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 C. J. London'. 
 
 Mr. Bennett wrote to Charles : — 
 
 Frome-Selwood Vicarage, Somerset, May 8, 1854. 
 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 Take heart and be not dispirited. ... I do not see 
 that anything done by you in this matter, as far as I have heard 
 of it, involves one iota more than thoughtless indiscretion. . . . 
 It may be any one's turn next — my turn perhaps — to be over- 
 taken in a fault. I have no doubt I myself have done, or might 
 have done, a similar thing. You have acknowledged your mistake 
 and made atonement. We must pray for your peace and restora- 
 tion, and God will hear our prayers ; and after you have suffered a 
 while, all will be peace again. 
 
 Would you like to come here for a short time ? There is room 
 for you, and we shall all be glad to give you shelter. I who was 
 myself a refugee from dear St. Barnabas' am the fittest now to 
 shelter you. Come here then, and in this comparatively quiet 
 place seek peace, and God will give it. 
 
 Charles went to see his family at Enfield, and his 
 brother wrote : " I never saw any one look so broken- 
 hearted." The little episode of his " ovation," as Bishop 
 Blomfield playfully called it, was for long a sore subject 
 with him, and one of which he was heartily ashamed. It 
 led, however, to circumstances which influenced his whole 
 after life. 
 
 He went abroad during his six weeks' suspension, and 
 spent some days at the Petit Seminaire of Yvetdt, in the 
 
VISIT TO ROUEN. 
 
 61 
 
 diocese of Rouen, where he was hospitably entertained. 
 The superior, M. I'Abbe P. L. Labbe, had Hved much in 
 England when his father was an emigre, and took the more 
 interest in his English guest. Charles writes to his mother: — 
 
 Rouen, May 22, 1854. 
 ... I have been on the move since landing at Havre, and 
 Iiave not been able to sit down quietly to write before to-day, 
 i left Ryde on Wednesday morning for Southampton, took the 
 steamer for Havre about 2.30, p.m., and after a quick passage 
 arrived at one the next morning. I spent Thursday in Havre, and 
 tlie next morning started early on foot, sending my carpet-bag 
 by train. It was a very good day for walking, not too warm, and 
 I made a good use of it. Leaving Havre about 7.30, I got upon 
 the heights of Andelys, whence there is a very fine view of the 
 town and the Seine, and then continuing on the heights to the 
 cresting old church and remains of the Abbey of Graville. . . . 
 t Yvetot, a station on the Havre and Rouen railroad, I found 
 rny carpet-bag, and we both journeyed on to Rouen. After going 
 about hunting for lodgings, I at last fixed upon my present humble 
 aijode, a small room and a bed-room, for which I give ten francs 
 a week. ... I have an introduction to the Archbishop, but he 
 is unfortunately absent, confirming. I am, however, to be intro- 
 duced to him when he returns. Mr. also has given me an 
 
 introduction to a friend of his at Yvetot, whom I must try and 
 find out, as it is lonely knowing no one. 
 
 It is a great privation to be away from dear St. Barnabas' 
 during this festival season which is coming on ; however, I must 
 bear that patiently, as it is my own fault. The Rogation Days 
 are kept here by processions through the town, and I suppose 
 Ascension Day will be observed with great solemnity; but of 
 course, although one tries to enter into the spirit of the services, 
 it is not like one's own home. . . . 
 
 Yours very affectionately, 
 
 Charles. 
 
62 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Vernon, Department of Eure, May 27, 1854. 
 
 On Tuesday I went to Yvetot, a station on the Havre 
 and Rouen railway, and arrived at the Petit S^minaire, a large 
 school for boys, in the afternoon. I was received very kindly, 
 though M. Labbd, to whom I had introductions, did not return 
 till the evening. They begged me to sleep there, which I did, 
 and I hope to spend a part of next week quietly there, and so 
 see something more of the working of the French clergy and 
 their schools, 
 
 Thursday, of course, being the Feast of the Ascension, was 
 kept very solemnly, by immensely crowded churches. It is indeed 
 very striking to see the reverence and hearty devotion of the 
 people ; I wish we had anything like it in England. Friday, 
 I took a walk to Mont St. Catherine, which you may remember 
 — the beautiful hill above Rouen, where there is a most lovely 
 chapel, though the ornaments are not yet finished. ... It will be 
 much richer than St. Barnabas'. . . . 
 
 I hope to spend a quiet Sunday to-morrow. I wish I had 
 St. Barnabas' a little nearer. It is very trying to be so long with- 
 out Communion. 
 
 Yvetot, May 31, 1854. 
 ... I spent a very quiet Sunday at Yvetot, partaking, I hope, 
 in spirit, with my friends at St. Barnabas', in my own room, and 
 thoroughly enjoying afterwards a ramble and rest in a delightful 
 park near this, the Pare de Bigy, formerly belonging to Louis 
 Philippe, where I lay on the grass, and thoroughly enjoyed 
 myself 
 
 Vernon is very prettily situated on the Seine. I left on 
 INIonday morning and walked to Les Andelys, enjoying on my 
 way the views of the valley of the Seine, especially an old ruin, 
 on a most commanding height, called Chateau Gaillard, built by 
 Richard Coeur de Lion in a year. ... I slept on Monday at Le 
 Grand Andely, and walked thence yesterday to the Cote des Deux 
 Amants, called so from a very romantic lay, of a lover dying in 
 carrying his beloved up the hill. ... I walked on to Pont de 
 
SEMINARY AT YVETOT. 
 
 63 
 
 I'Arche, wliere I took the train, having completed a very good 
 day's work by twelve o'clock. I met M. Labbe in Rouen, and 
 we came on here together by the train, arriving about six o'clock. 
 I shall probably stay here over Whit Sunday, and then I shall 
 begin to think about returning. I should like very much to be 
 hack on St. Barnabas' Day; but perhaps, as I could not do any 
 duty till the Sunday after, it would be better not. I shall still 
 want a little more holiday, to make me perfectly strong, though I 
 now feel a great deal better, but still not able to encounter any 
 great anxiety. My friends here are very kind, and I have plenty 
 of French conversation, as well as time for quiet thought and 
 recreation. 
 
 Yvetdt, Whitsun Monday, 1854. 
 I have enjoyed my visit here very much, having received 
 
 1 very great kindness from all the clergy. It is a school for almost 
 all classes, on a strictly religious footing, under the Archbishop, 
 called the Petit S^minaire; the Grand Se'minaire at Rouen 
 being entirely for education for the priesthood. Here they are 
 admitted, rich and poor, paying what they can, from 10 to jC^2o 
 a year, but without any difference being made in their treatment. 
 There are about eighteen masters, all Priests, except a Deacon 
 or two. They live on the happiest terms mth the boys, 
 
 \ dining, sleeping, playing together, as one family. I have a good 
 deal of opportunity of studying their character, both in school 
 and out, and it is very interesting to see their well-disciplined 
 tone. 
 
 On Thursday I walked with an English boy to Jumieges, a 
 beautiful ruin, the nave Roman, the choir middle pointed, a great 
 deal of polychrome . remaining on the walls ; it was desecrated at 
 ' the Revolution. 
 
 Yesterday, though I missed grievously the Great Blessing, yet 
 I had a great deal to interest me; for a College Service it was 
 very impressive, from the number of Priests — seven officiating, to 
 represent the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. About one hundred 
 boys communicated at a Low Mass, said before High Afass. In the 
 
64 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 afternoon I attended Vespers and Compline at the parisli church, 
 between which one of the Professors here, a very nice man, 
 preached a very good sermon from Acts ii., on the sanctity of the 
 Church and her members. . . . 
 
 His enforced exile from the spiritual home, after which 
 he yearned, was to bring forth abundant fruit. For he 
 was at this time brought under the influence of one who, 
 though dead, had the greatest power over his future life, 
 suggesting to him fresh fields for conquest, and strengthen- 
 ing him for the emprise. 
 
 He seems to have taken up, in the library at Yvetot, the 
 "Life of St. Vincent de Paul," by M. Abelly ; and, after he 
 left it, M. Labbe writes to him : — 
 
 Yvetot, 9 Juin, 1S54. 
 
 MON CHER M. LoWDER, 
 
 Comme vous n'avez pas eu le temps d'achever chez 
 nous la lecture de la vie de S. Vincent de Paul, qui paraissait 
 vous interesser, je prends la liberie de vous I'envoyer, at vous prie 
 de la lire en m^moire de vos amis d'Yvetot, et encore plus en 
 me'moire du grand saint dont elle retrace les actions. . . . Pour 
 moi, cher Mr. Lowder, je me ferai un devoir de vous mettre 
 chaque jour dans mes prieres, afin que Dieu, qui vous a donne 
 une si grande droiture et humilite de coeur, acheve son ouvrage 
 en vous. 
 
 Croyez moi bien, 
 
 Tout votre, 
 
 P. L. Lapbe. 
 
 Long afterwards, Charles wrote of " the deep impres- 
 sion " made on his mind by " the sad condition of the 
 French Church and nation in the sixteenth century, and 
 the wonderful influence of the institutions founded by 
 
LIFE OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 
 
 65 
 
 St. Vincent in reforming abuses and rekindling the" zeal of 
 the priesthood." 
 
 The heart must be dull indeed (he said) which is not 
 stirred with emotion at the self-denial and energy with which the 
 saint gave himself to the work to which he was called. . . . The 
 deep wisdom which sought out the root of so much evil, in the 
 unspiritual lives of the clergy, and provided means for its redress 
 . . . was well calculated to impress those who seriously reflected 
 on the state of our own Church and people, and honestly sought 
 for some remedy. The spiritual condition of the masses of our 
 population, the appalling vices which prevail in our large towns, 
 and especially in the teeming districts of the metropolis, the 
 increasing tendency of the people to mass together, multiplying 
 and intensifying the evil, and the unsatisfactory character of the 
 attempts hitherto made to meet it, were enough to make men 
 gladly profit by the experience of those who had successfully 
 struggled against similar difficulties. 
 
 Thus, being dead, St. Vincent de Paul yet spoke to the 
 heart of an English clergyman and gave a new impulse 
 to his life. For Charles Lowdcr was not one to receive 
 vividly such impressions, without working them out to 
 any practical result. His life of labour in the schools and 
 district of St. Barnabas' might have satisfied most men 
 desiring work for the poor. Each of the assistant curates 
 had two rooms in the College, as it was then called, living 
 at a common table. They lived to minister in the ad- 
 joining church, and to serve the poor and ignorant ; but 
 there are traces in Charles's letters of his feeling even this 
 simple and devoted life too comfortable. A mingled cry 
 of suffering, agony, miserable laughter, mad blasphemy, 
 rang in his ears, and entered into his soul, — ^that cry which 
 
66 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 day and night goes up from the streets of East London, 
 but which most of us have neither ears to hear nor hearts 
 to consider. 
 
 He returned to St. Barnabas' at Whitsuntide, but the 
 thought of joining some kind of community of missionary- 
 priests had taken hold of his mind, and he was evidently 
 trying to collect information on the subject. M. Labbe 
 writes to him :— 
 
 Yvet6t, October 7, 1854. 
 
 j\IoN CHER Monsieur, 
 
 . . . Je regrette de ne pouvoir vous donner les ren- 
 seignements que vous desirez sur les Constitutions des Pretres de 
 la Mission ; je ne les ai jamais eues en ma possession, j'ignore 
 meme si elles sont du domaine public, et n'ayant aucune relation 
 chez les messieurs de S. Lazare, je ne puis pas meme etre ren- 
 seign^ sur ce point. Je ne suis pas surpris, mon cher monsieur, du 
 plaisir que vous avez trouve k la lecture de la vie de S. Vincent 
 de Paul. Apres les livres saints, je n'en connais aucun qui me 
 fasse une impression plus salutaire. On sent, en le lisant, un 
 desir ardent de lui ressembler, et il semble que cela ne soit pas 
 trop difficile. C'est ce que j'dprouvais encore la semaine dernih-c, 
 en entendant lire pendant le repas (nous etions re'unis tous les 
 pretres de la maison pour notre retraite annuelle) la partie qui 
 traite de ses vertus. Je voudrais, mon cher monsieur, que vous 
 fussiez si ^pris de S. Vincent de Paul que vous ne voulussiez pas 
 demeurer plus long-temps hors de I'Eglise qui a produit un si 
 grand saint. Vous avez du remarquer en lisant sa vie qu'il 
 accueillait avec grande cliaritd les Pretres Hibemois (comme on 
 disait alors) perse'cutes pour leur refus de se conformer \ I'Eglise 
 etablie d'Irlande, qui est soeur de la votre, et la seule dans le 
 monde en communion avec elle. Ne vous fachez pas de ce que 
 ie vous dis cela; mais je suis si triste de voir qu'un homme si 
 de'sireux de tout ce qui est bien, ait les yeux ferme's a la premiere 
 
LETTERS FROM M. LABBE. 
 
 67 
 
 de toutes les veritds catholiques, celle de Funite : — et unam 
 Ecclesiam. 
 
 Soyez assure que je ne vous oublirai point, et que personne ne 
 desire plus que moi votre bonheur en ce monde et en I'autre. 
 Je suis, avec une respectieuse affection, • 
 
 Votre devoue serviteur, 
 
 P. L. Labbe, Pr. 
 
 One great interest of Charles Lowder's life was his 
 younger brother, as the following letters will show : — 
 
 Ryde, September 4, 1854. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 You will be glad to hear that I saw Willy off on 
 Saturday, . . . but did not arrive till after the steam-tender had 
 taken her first trip, and Willy among her passengers, to the La 
 Plata. I was therefore obliged to wait for her last trip with the 
 mails, about 2 p.m. On reaching the La Plata in Southampton 
 Water I saw Willy on the look-out, though he had almost given 
 me up. I had about half an hour to spend with him, during which 
 we enjoyed our walk together on the noble deck, which extends 
 the whole length of the vessel. . . . He hopes to reo.ch St. Thomas's 
 in eleven or twelve days, and Barbadoes about the 21st. And 
 there seems every probability of their doing so with this splendid 
 weather. 
 
 St. Barnabas' College, October 14, 1854. 
 
 My dear Willy, 
 
 I am very much obliged for your note which )ou 
 wrote from St. Thomas's. . . . After leaving you on board — which 
 I was very glad I had the opportunity of doing, for I was able to 
 picture to myself better your life at sea, and I know what a comfort 
 it is on such occasions to have some friend to see you off — I 
 returned to Southampton, and arrived just in time to catch the 
 Ryde steamer. ... I hope you will give us as accurate accounts 
 of the climate and your arrangements at Barbadoes as you did of 
 
68 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 your voyage, as they will be very interesting. Give me some idea 
 of your school, and the various professors and masters, and of the 
 tone of the place. We have, of course, been kept in a state of 
 great excitement by the news from the Crimea. The landing 
 of the troops, as well as the preparations made for it, are so 
 graphically told in all the newspapers, that there is nothing left 
 for me to tell you. ... I fear the false rumour of the taking of 
 Sebastopol must have been brought out to you by the last mail ; 
 we are now expecting to hear of it in a day or two — the news will 
 probably arrive in time for this mail. You will see that Sir W. 
 Young was killed in the 23rd, which suffered more than any other 
 regiment; it must be a very heavy blow to his mother. His 
 brother is, I believe, out with the Artillery, which must make her 
 more anxious. I have not heard of the death of any one else 
 whom I know, but the loss in officers has been very great. . . . 
 We are going on quietly here, yet with a little trouble now and 
 
 then from our agitating friend, , who behaved very improperly 
 
 in church last Sunday, for which he had to apologize. I fear Deni- 
 son's trial must come on. I hope to send you a form of prayer 
 to be privately used on the subject, which you might give to any 
 who are really interested about it ; only it is not a subject to be 
 discussed too freely in your position. I trust the gambling pro- 
 pensities, which were so rife among your fellow-passengers, are not 
 indulged in to the same extent in the West Indies. At least you 
 will have the satisfaction of leading a collegiate life, which will 
 keep you from having to do with such people. I have no doubt 
 the hot weather has a bad effect in this way on many, enervating 
 their minds, and laying them more easily open to temptations. 
 
 We are just commencing a branch of the Guild of St. Alban 
 in this district ; I trust it may be of great service to us in binding 
 together, by a more religious tie, many young men who are 
 anxious to serve the Church according to their opportunities. . . . 
 With my sincere prayers for your health and spiritual welfare, 
 believe me, 
 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
LETTER TO WILLIAM LOWDER. 
 
 69 
 
 St. Barnabas' College, December i, 1854. 
 
 My dear Willy, 
 
 I have heard of you, though not from you, as your 
 letters have been constantly forwarded. I am sorry to find that 
 you have not yet become reconciled to the climate and annoy- 
 ances which you must of course expect. I trust, however, that 
 time, and the interest which I hope you will find in your new 
 duties, will enable you to bear patiently what might otherwise 
 seem unbearable. Make up your mind to it as a point of duty, 
 and then doubtless you will have more strength than you would 
 have supposed. 
 
 As to climate, just think of our soldiers at present in the 
 Crimea, and how much officers brought up delicately have to 
 endure, and that will be a great help ; I find it is so with myself 
 whenever I am tempted to complain. 
 
 The war gives us a gi-eat deal of anxiety just now, especially 
 when it seems that the weather is putting a stop to the siege 
 operations. They will have a hard time during the winter, and 
 there will be need of very large reinforcements to give reasonable 
 hopes of success. We expect a very trying winter in England, as 
 the war is raising the price of provisions, and there is very little 
 work going on. You will have heard that Lady Young has lost 
 ' both her sons, William at Alma, and the other from cholera at 
 Balaclava. It is quite wonderful how rapidly recruiting is going 
 on, so that the losses in the army will soon be made up, and 
 probably many new regiments raised from volunteers out of the 
 Militia. ... As to home news, I mean from St. Barnabas', I have 
 ' not much to tell you, as we are going on quietly. Skinner is away, 
 ■ spending the winter in Egypt ] he was last heard of from Alexan- 
 dria, after a very bad passage. There have been some heavy 
 : storms in the East lately, in one of which several transports were 
 : lost in the Black Sea — a sad loss to our troops in the Crimea, who 
 require every possible addition to their comfort. . . . 
 
 called a short time ago, but I was out of town at the 
 
 time, on a visit to Sir Frederick Ouseley at Langley. He is now 
 building a church and college at Tenbury in Worcestershire. The 
 
70 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Bishop of Hereford allows him to do almost all that he wishes, 
 and, amusing enough, hoped that he would have Gregorians, as 
 he said he had persuaded his son in his own church. Ouseley is 
 a great anti-Gregorian. . . . God bless you, and guard you in His 
 keeping, and enable you to do your duty in the state of life in 
 which He has placed you, is the sincere prayer of 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 C. F. L. 
 
 My DEAR Willy, ^°^^"Se, February i6, 1855. 
 
 I received your letter before the last mail went out, 
 but had no leisure to answer it as I could wish, and indeed now 
 you must excuse any want of clearness from the pressure of other 
 work. I feel very happy at the thought of your course having 
 been so far prosperous, and that you seem to have been led on 
 towards the attainment of the object for which you went out. I 
 quite sympathize with you in the difficulties which you feel under 
 the Bishop's roof; but I think, if with openness and straightforward- 
 ness you combine that modesty which becomes a young man in 
 stating his opinion on all points, especially doctrine, before a 
 Bishop, you need not compromise either your conscience or your 
 prospects. 
 
 With respect to your preparation for Holy Orders, the books 
 you mention will be very useful to you. You should certainly 
 read Hooker's fifth book, as most valuable on the ecclesiastical 
 system, sacraments and ceremonies. With respect to the Holy 
 Communion, the nearer you keep to the words of Holy Scripture 
 and the formularies, as well as of some of our soundest divines, 
 the better. Wilberforce's book has been most valuable, however 
 much we may lament his defection ; and if you found any account 
 of your belief you may be called upon to give, on our Lord's 
 own words, " This is My Body," " This is My Blood," not pre- 
 tending to explain how it is His Body or His Blood, either by 
 transubstantiation or consubstantiation, or any other substantia- 
 tion, but as being so " verily and indeed " in a supernatural 
 
WARNINGS AND ADVICE. 
 
 71 
 
 manner, beyond our comprehension, explaining that tlie spiritual 
 benefits accrue only to the faithful, whereas the ungodly receive 
 the Sacrament to their condemnation, I do not think your views 
 can justly be questioned. 
 
 But the less we attempt to dogmatize on the manner of 
 Presence, so long as we really believe it, or on that which the 
 ungodly receive, as Denison, I think the better, in the present state 
 of things. The truth is rather learnt through prayer and holiness 
 of life, and we must especially guard against the sacramental 
 system blinding us to our need of a heartfelt loving religion, or of 
 a change of heart towards God. The Sacraments are means 
 towards an end, and they are necessary to salvation, but we must 
 not rest on them as the end ; and there is the greatest danger lest 
 we should forget the need of personal holiness, either in our own 
 lives or in our teaching. 
 
 I fear there are many persons very reverent in outward be- 
 haviour, very constant in their attendance on the ordinances of 
 religion, frequent at Holy Communion and daily service, and 
 regular in private prayer, who yet have not that experience of 
 peace and comfort, and joy in believing, which we may hope and 
 trust for, because they do not seek Jesus Christ as the end and 
 object of their prayers, and strive after that love for Him which 
 can alone satisfy our souls. 
 
 I would therefore recommend your reading such books as 
 Thomas h. Kempis, or Sutton's " Meditations," and giving some 
 time daily, besides your morning and evening prayers, to prayer 
 and meditation, especially in reference to our ordination ; the 
 morning is always the best and quietest, and I should think 
 the warm climate which unfits you for violent exercise would 
 be favourable for quiet and contemplation. You need not doubt 
 being remembered in my prayers, that you may be guided by 
 God's Holy Spirit to an earnest and painful discharge of your 
 duties, and that if it pleases the Lord Jesus to call' you to the 
 ministry of His flock, you may be a good and loving shepherd of 
 the sheep for your own and their salvation. 
 
72 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 I saw Mr. Butterfield yesterday. He made particular enquiries 
 for you, and was very glad to hear that you were putting your 
 talents to a good account in the way of architecture, or rather 
 building ; he thought you would find it very useful in the colonj'. 
 He hoped very much to hear from you. 
 
 We are now in some anxiety in consequence of Westerton's 
 bringing an action in the Consistory Court to remove our altar, 
 credence, screen, etc., but I trust it will all be for the best, and 
 that this may be the means of settling the disputes on these 
 
 subjects We have some young members of the Guild of 
 
 St. Alban's who are working the night school and lending library, 
 and assisting us in other ways. I trust they will be a great help 
 to us in time ; it gives a definiteness and regularity to their work. 
 
 We have been suffering from a long and very severe frost ; it 
 was prophesied to last six weeks, and it will have been five weeks 
 to-morrow. The crowds on the ice have been very great, and a 
 captain in the Guards drove on a sledge the other da)'. 
 
 , about whom you must have heard as giving us so much 
 
 trouble, is in prison for fraud : he has been going on in a dread- 
 ful way, poor fellow ! I believe he is mad, but he has done a 
 great deal of mischief 
 
 And now, my dear Willy, I must bring my letter to a con- 
 clusion, and with every prayer for your future welfare, and that 
 God's blessing may attend your labours and studies, believe me, 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MISSION TO ST. GEORGE'S-IN-THE-EAST. 
 1856. 
 
 "Who, not content that former worth stand fast, 
 Looks forward, persevering to the last, 
 From well to better, daily self.surpast." 
 
 The time had now nearly come when Charles Lewder 
 was to realize that life of which he had so earnestly- 
 dreamed in his retirement at Yvetot. The ship of St. 
 .Barnabas' was finally gliding into smooth water; and the 
 brother priests who since 185 1 had together striven to 
 steer her through the storm, were called to leave her about 
 the same time. 
 
 By the end of 1856 the question of internal authority 
 was settled, though it was not the will of God that the 
 men who contended for it should continue to reap its fruits. 
 
 One thing we are all agreed upon (Mr. Liddell wrote in 
 October, 1856, to the Senior Curate), that it is headship and local 
 supervision which St. Barnabas' wants. It pains me most deeply 
 to add that I, more and more, fear this is what you cannot give 
 it, from the weak and broken state of your liealth, which it seems 
 to me must impose upon you entire absence, or preclude you, if 
 present, from leading and taking the labouring oar in the pastoral 
 
74 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 and miaisterial work. And this evil will not be mitigated by a 
 fifth or sixth man, even if we could supply them, because he 
 v.'ould be subordinate to, or equal with, the men already there; 
 whereas the admitted want is a man -with capacity to lead. 
 
 Influential friends, such as Bishop Wilberforce and 
 Dr. Pusey, had strongly advised Mr. Skinner to hold on 
 at his post, even if he could only give the help of a general 
 superintendence. But the imperative orders of his medical 
 advisers forced him at length to give up his home, and the 
 work to which for five years he had been devoted. " You 
 yourself," Mr. Liddell wrote, November 7, 1856, "know 
 how I had anticipated availing myself of your services at 
 St. Barnabas' ; but, disabled as you are by the Sovereign 
 Will of God, I must bow my head, and seek for another 
 coadjutor." 
 
 Of this time Charles Lowder wrote : — 
 
 Five years in St. Barnabas' only proved what might be done 
 among the poor in London, and gave time to reflect on how much 
 remained to be accomplished. 
 
 It was so ordered also, by God's good providence, that a 
 society of priests had lately been founded in London, called the 
 Society of the Holy Cross. Its objects are to defend and strengthen 
 the spiritual life of the clergy, to defend the faith of the Church, 
 and to carry on and aid ISIission work both at home and abroad. 
 The members of this society, meeting together as they did in 
 prayer and conference, were deeply impressed with the evils 
 existing in the Church, and saw also, in the remedies adopted by 
 St. Vincent de Paul, the hope of lessening them. They all felt 
 that the ordinary parochial equipment of a rector and curate, or 
 perhaps a solitary incumbent, provided for thousands of perish- 
 ing souls, was most sadly inadequate ; that, in the presence of 
 such utter destitution, it was simply childish to act as if the 
 
MR. KING'S invitation: 
 
 75 
 
 Church were recognized as the mother of the people. She must 
 assume a missionary character, and, by reHgious association and a 
 new adaptation of Catholic practice to the altered circumstances 
 of the nineteenth century and the peculiar wants of the English 
 character, endeavour, with fresh life and energy, to stem the 
 prevailing tide of sin and indifference. 
 
 Whilst this small society of earnest priests was thus 
 desirous of attempting some missionary enterprise in 
 addition to their own duties, there was in the East of 
 London a priest, the Rev. Bryan King, Rector of St. 
 George's, who, almost unaided, in nominal charge of thirty 
 thousand souls, had for a long time anxiously looked and 
 longed and prayed for help from others to make some 
 religious impression upon the masses of heathen souls 
 committed to his care. 
 
 I had been more than usually oppressed (he writes) by the 
 hopelessness of my position, the leader of a forlorn hope indeed, 
 during the Advent season of 1855, when, in the ensuing season 
 of Christmas, the Rector of the adjoining parish of St. Paul's, 
 Shadwell, conveyed to me the glitd tidings that a band of clergy 
 in the west of London were looking out for a suitable sphere for 
 the experiment of a preaching Mission, and that the Rev. F. H. 
 Murray, the Rector of Chislehurst, was in some way connected 
 with the clergy in question. 
 
 Upon this information, which had been derived from Mr. 
 Thomas Charrington, a resident of Chislehurst and the conductor 
 of an extensive business in Shadwell, I immediately wrote to 
 Mr. Murray, offering a warm welcome to such an agency in my 
 parish of St. George's East. 
 
 The Rector of Chislehurst was one of the first members 
 of the Society of the Holy Cross, and he had mentioned 
 
76 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 to Mr. Charrington, who was his churchwarden, his own and 
 his brethren's desire to find some sphere in which to bring 
 their plans for Mission work to the test of experience. 
 
 At first Httle more was contemplated than a preaching 
 Mission, for they all had their own parochial duties, and 
 could give but little time to anything else. St. George's-in- 
 the-East was to them a terra incognita, and one member of 
 the society was despatched on a voyage of discovery. 
 
 The result was that on the evening of Ash Wednesday, 
 1856, Charles Lowder and the Rev. Newton Smith went 
 to Mr. King's rectory, from whence, with two or three 
 members of the choir, they walked to a room in a court 
 leading out of Ratclifif Highway, which had been used by Mr. 
 King for a Sunday school. Here an old servant, who still 
 serves the Mission, rang a bell at the entrance to the court, 
 and a few v/ere gathered together. Her account of them 
 is that they were mostly, if not entirely, of the respectable 
 and religiously disposed sort, who already went to church 
 when they could. This went on for a fortnight, two clergy 
 going there three times a week. Among the first were the 
 Rev. G. Cosby White and the Rev. Francis Murray. 
 
 It does not appear that at this time Charles Lowder 
 contemplated taking charge of the Mission, or any more 
 prominent part than others in working it. The following 
 letters to his mother, written during Lent and Easter week 
 of 1856, contain mention of the undertaking, of which his 
 heart was evidently full, but none of any severance from 
 St. Barnabas' : — 
 
 St. Barnabas' College, February 25, 1856. 
 I write to let you know that I returned to St. Barnabas' on 
 Thursday night, having spent four happy days with a few other 
 
LETTER TO MRS. LOWDER. 
 
 77 
 
 clergy in quiet and retirement at Chislehurst. It gives one great 
 strength for one's duties at this season. . . . Our service at 5.30 
 is progressing ; we had more working-men yesterday. The Mission 
 at St. George's will, I hope, succeed in time. ... I hope you will 
 all say the third collect for Good Friday daily, for the success of 
 the Mission at St. George's-in-the-East. 
 
 St. Barnabas' College, Saturday morning, 1856. 
 You must not think because you did not hear from me on 
 j Saturday last that I had forgotten Mothering Sunday,* but the 
 1 truth was I was so busy preparing for the meetings, which I ha.ve 
 been holding daily, and sometimes twice a day, with the people of 
 my district, for prayer and singing and instruction, that I had not 
 time to get the cake, so I thought it had better be kept till the 
 i Octave, and sent it to-day. I trast you have received it ere this, 
 1 and will believe it is not a mere form, but a remembrance of the 
 love and duty which one who wishes he were a more loving and 
 dutiful son desires to offer to you. I trust the present may prove 
 I as sweet as the pleasure of sending it. 
 
 I have spent a very happy week in constant meetings with my 
 people, who seem to have appreciated the opportunity of spending 
 one week specially in religious duties. I have been speaking to 
 them of the Christian life, first in the heart, then in the Christian 
 family, then in the world, in doing good to their neighbours, in 
 church, in sickness and death ; and to-morrow I conclude with tlic 
 Christian in heaven. It has brought me in contact with many 
 I whom I had in vain striven to win before, and it has been very 
 I delightful to see how regular some have been in daily or even 
 more constant attendance. I trust it will help to prepare us all for 
 I Easter. . . . 
 
 We are making progress with the Mission, and are hoping to 
 plant two clergy there to take charge of it, and are preparing to 
 
 * Mid-Lent Sunday. There is a Devonshire custom that absent children 
 
 I should on this Sunday send a cake to their moth-er, a custom which Charles 
 Lewder seems always to have observed. 
 
78 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 collect funds. ... If I give up the Guardian will you be able 
 to send one to Willy? I should like to know before I settle 
 to do so. 
 
 March 26, 1856. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for your letter received this 
 morning, especially as I fear you wrote it amidst many other 
 occupations. I had wished to have written before, to say how 
 sincerely I have prayed that you might receive all spiritual 
 blessings at this happy season. I am glad you have enjoyed the 
 privilege of having its joy brought out in the services in Church, 
 for thus we can really rejoice together. We have had a very 
 delightful Easter, more so than any I have spent here before. The 
 greatest comfort of all was the large number of communicants ; 
 there were two hundred and seventy at the early Communion at 
 seven, a great number of them poor, and two hundred at midday. 
 It was a beautiful sight in the early morning, the procession chant- 
 ing the hundred and eighteenth Psalm up the aisle, and, as it 
 happened, we came to the nineteenth and twentieth verses as we 
 entered the chancel gates. The church was, of course, nicely 
 decorated with flowers. And then to find so many prepared, at so 
 early an hour, for Holy Communion was very comforting. It was 
 far more than a recompence for one's labours in preparing them 
 during Lent. I had seen about fifty or sixty of them privately, 
 one by one, during the last fortnight of Lent, besides hearing a 
 great many confessions. Our congregations during the rest of the 
 day were very large — in the evening more crowded than I had 
 ever seen before ; very many obliged to go away for want of room, 
 and persons standing close in all the aisles. I am happy to say I 
 have stood my work very well, and though, of course, feeling tired 
 now, yet after a little rest shall be able to get on for the confirma- 
 tion at the end of next month. 
 
 We have not succeeded in getting rid of Westerton. My love 
 to my sisters, and believe me, 
 
 Your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 Charles. 
 
EARLY MISSION WORl^. 
 
 P.S. — My love to Janey,* and tell her how sorry I am to hear 
 of her illness. 
 
 The Mission scheme had now been brought before 
 Bishop Blomfield, and Mr. King wrote in April to Charles 
 Lowder : — 
 
 I enclose you the very gratifying reply of Mr. Green to my 
 request. I think we might well append to our statement some- 
 thing to this effect : — 
 
 " The Bishop of the diocese has expressed his approval of the 
 above scheme, and has promised a contribution towards it for the 
 next five years, should it please God to spare his life so long." 
 
 My dear Mr. King, ^P"' 5. 1856. 
 
 The Bishop of London, to whom I have read the 
 paper respecting your proposed Home Mission, directs me to in- 
 form you that he approves of the scheme, and is ready, should 
 it please God to spare him, to contribute ;^io a year for five 
 years towards the carrying of it out. Praying God to prosper you, 
 I remain, yours veiy truly, 
 
 T. K. Green, 
 
 Chaplain. 
 
 The operations of the Mission were, after the first fort- 
 night, removed to one of the worst lanes in the parish. 
 Lower Well Alley,t near the Thames, in the cottage of a 
 poor woman whose husband was at sea. 
 
 * His old nurse, who for fifty years had lived with different members of 
 (lis family. She entered his father's service when Charles was an infant, and 
 remained until her death, a beloved family friend. When Mr. Lowder lost his 
 fortune she at once drew loo from her earnings in the savings' bank, and gave 
 it to Mrs. Lowder, not knowing if it would ever be returned. She refused to 
 leave them, though they could no longer give her wages, but worked as hard 
 as ever to the end for love of them. 
 
 t It is now the centre of the parish of St. Peter's, London Docks Mr. 
 
8o 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 She herself was just confined (Charles wrote), and unable 
 to take much part in our arrangements, or otherwise to secure 
 order than by expostulating with disturbers from the top of the 
 stairs. And disturbance certainly there was ; for as soon as the 
 hymn, which was sung in the alley, the better to collect a congre- 
 gation, was commenced, a violent opposition was displayed by 
 the Irish, who swarmed in the houses around, and on the first 
 evening interrupted and almost frustrated all attempts at preach- 
 ing by their clamour and violence. Many dangerous missiles were 
 thrown ; for as the court was paved, and so no loose stones came 
 to hand, they soon sacrificed a large beer pitcher, whose fragments 
 were hurled at our heads. An attempt also was made to catechize 
 us as to our acquaintance with the Latin of the Nicene Creed. 
 
 After about a fortnight of more or less energetic dis- 
 turbance, the missioners were left in peace by the Irish, 
 and the baptism of a sick child was among the first fruits 
 of their work. But the longer they worked, the more 
 they felt that little good result could be obtained from 
 desultory efforts, and that some regular and local agency 
 must be established. " Scarcely any impression," Mr. Bryan 
 King said, "seemed to be made upon the people, so that 
 one, if not more, of those clergy who had joined the work 
 at first, now gave up the attempt on account of its apparent 
 hopelessness. It was under these circumstances that a 
 member of my family said to Mr. Lowder, 'Oh, I hope 
 and trust, Mr. Lowder, that you will not be disheartened 
 and induced to give up the work,' when he replied, 'No, 
 you need not fear that ; it would take a great deal to 
 dishearten me.' " 
 
 King writes : "I was struck with the great improvement of the outward aspect 
 of this court as I walked through it on the day before Mr. Lowder's funeral 
 after landing at the Tunnel pier." 
 
THE MISSION HOUSE. 
 
 8i 
 
 In Calvert Street, a small street running out of Old 
 Gravel Lane, and about five minutes' walk from the river, 
 there is an old and tolerably large house, ugly beyond 
 description, but possessing the advantage of standing in 
 what was by courtesy called " a garden." The wall of this 
 enclosed space forms one side of the street, the house itself 
 being part of the wall. The line of the window-sills, which 
 have given way considerably, show how bad and insecure 
 are the foundations. There are two entrances to the house, 
 one at each end, reached by a steep little flight of steps, 
 and admittance is gained from the street by two grimy 
 doors in the blank wall. 
 
 This house was vacant at the time when the band of 
 missioners determined to offer to the Rector of the parish 
 the services of a curate to live amongst the poor, although 
 doubting whether they could raise £100 a year for the 
 purpose. The venture was made, a clergyman of some 
 experience in missionary work was chosen and approved 
 by the Rector, and the house in Calvert Street was secured 
 as his residence. It has been occupied by the Mission ever 
 since ; being now divided into two houses, one occupied by 
 the clergy of St. Peter's, the other by the Sisters. 
 
 Mr. King has kindly supplied some account of the 
 beginning of the Mission ; of this time he writes : — 
 
 The missionary priest was most zealous and devoted to his. 
 work, but he was young and somewhat erratic. His ecclesiastical 
 position was that of a Hcensed assistant curate of the parish 
 church ; that position, however, was little more than nominal. It 
 h'as neither practicable nor desirable that I should exercise more 
 than a very general control over a work which was of the nature 
 01 an experiment, and one in whicli I myself had had no experience ; 
 
82 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 and yet, in spite of this, I could not of course divest myself of all 
 responsibility, still less could I exonerate myself from all the 
 consequences of any acts of indiscretion which might be committed 
 by one who was in fact my own representative in all his ministerial 
 work. 
 
 And hence it was that I wrote to Mr. Lowder, representing to 
 him that the Mission had now assumed the character of a per- 
 manent work, and that it was essential that it should be placed under 
 a responsible head, to whose charge I might commit a conventional 
 district of my parish. 
 
 From all that I had seen and known of him, I had the most 
 implicit confidence not only in his self-denying zeal, but also in 
 his sobriety and discretion ; and I may with perfect truth assert 
 that never since he accepted my proposal did the conduct of the 
 St. George's Mission cost me a moment's anxiety, nor ever, so far 
 as I now remember, did any cause of difference or even of dis- 
 cussion arise between Mr. Lowder and myself respecting it. 
 
 Here are Mr. King's letters, asking Mr. Lowder to take 
 charge of the Mission : — 
 
 Rectory, St. George's East, Rogation Tuesday (April 29, 1856). 
 
 . . . Now, upon the commencement of our scheme (for I am 
 perfectly certain that we are only commencing), it is necessary 
 that we should fix the principle, and, so far, the precise system upon 
 which this Mission is to be based and carried on. 
 
 We begin, then, with two clergymen and two districts. It 
 seems to me to be quite out of the question that these two (and 
 the other six or eight to follow) should lodge each apart in his 
 own district. In this there is no provision for unity, co-operation, 
 sympathy, etc. But over and above this objection there is no 
 provision in it for the discharge of my responsibility through the 
 missionaries. By the ordinance of Christ Jesus in His Church, 
 the paramount cure of the souls of this parish is vested in my 
 (most unworthy) hands. And the ecclesiastical position of the 
 
MR. KING'S LETTER. 
 
 83 
 
 missionaries will be — assistant curates of the parish church ; nay 
 (as you are aware), I shall be amenable to the law for any 
 ecclesiastical offence into which any of them may fall. Our 
 system, then, must be based upon these fundamental principles of 
 the Church. 
 
 But then, when the missionaries are not living under the same 
 roof with me, I can only exercise a very general and indirect con- 
 trol. The necessity of the case seems to me to require that there 
 should be some clergyman intimately associated with myself in 
 the duties of the parish church, who yet should preside over the 
 Mission House, and exercise a general (though of course most 
 delicate) superintendence over the members of the Mission. Now, 
 two months ago I was unable (I now believe providentially) to fill 
 Mr. de Burgh's place at the parish church ; that place is yet 
 vacant (Mr. Richards being a temporary occupant of it). 
 
 Will yoic come and occupy this post, with the superintendence 
 of the Mission House ? 
 
 You seem to me to be the one 7nan wanted. You would have 
 in such a post the entire confidence both of myself and of the 
 members of the Mission, and you are the only man to whom I 
 can look, as Mr. NichoU is evidently not sufficiently robust for the 
 duties of my very large church. 
 
 You will see that the system which I suggest for our Mission is 
 no new and untried one ; it is precisely that which has worked so 
 well in all our colleges for centuries, where we have a general 
 Head, and a Vice or deputy living with the Fellows and 
 exercising superintendence. 
 
 Notivithstanding Mr. NichoU's views (and I had a short 
 talk with him on the subject last evening), I still think that 
 we could not do better than take the (comparatively) large house 
 which I spoke to you of before. It, and the one which adjoins it, 
 are the only houses in the whole district which could accom- 
 modate four or five clergymen. It is close to our present field of 
 labour, and it is a respectable house. I think we should do wrong 
 to take a house which did not admit of the expansion of our work 
 
84 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 in six or twelve months' time, and I know of no other house in 
 the neighbourhood which would admit of this. 
 
 Then we should very probably find that a commercial day 
 school for the sons of the small shopkeepers (Woodard's lower 
 middle class) would answer well in the house (twenty such boys 
 would cover the support of another priest to conduct the school). 
 This, I believe, would be as great a blessing as any branch of the 
 Mission, and would, by God's blessing, bring the parents to the 
 Mission services, and for this obviously a respectable house is 
 essential. 
 
 Then the house in question is let at a veiy moderate rent, the 
 rent being ^^35 per annum, and the taxes ;Q\2 in addition. If 
 we allow this house to pass out of our hands (it will be vacant 
 next quarter day), I fear we shall long have cause to regret it. 
 
 My general notion of the scheme for the Mission is this : 
 The two clergymen to hold preachings two or three evenings in 
 the week in different courts of their respective districts ; then, as 
 they gain some hold on the attendants, to say to them, "We 
 have morning and evening service, and Sunday evening service, 
 at the Mission House : will you come there when you can ? " then, 
 from that service, they will be prepared for the service and 
 sacraments of the Church. 
 
 We must try to begin upon sound principles, for, I doubt not, 
 our present two will soon become eight or ten missionaries. Pray 
 weigh well the above, and specially the part which concerns yourself. 
 
 Should you entertain the proposal, my path (under God's 
 mercy) will be cleared. 
 
 Believe uae, yours very sincerely, 
 
 Bryan King. 
 
 Rectory, St. George's East, May 2, 1856. 
 Will you kindly take with you to Titchfield, etc., to-morrow a 
 packet of some fifty of our circulars ? I wish to distribute them in 
 my chm-ch next Sunday, collecting alms for the Mission on Whit 
 Sunday. I shall not get more than or J^fi, but I think that 
 some of my people may become interested in the Mission. Mr. 
 
MEANS OF SUPPORT. 
 
 85 
 
 John Knight will give £^io per annum towards it (he already 
 gives me ;^25 per a/mum for curate's stipend). I enclose a 
 rough sketch of the lower part of my parish, containing nine 
 thousand souls, and well divisable into three missionary districts. 
 A modification of my former plan occurs to me thus : You come 
 and head the IMission as one of them, all the clergy of the 
 Mission officiating with me occasionally at the parish church (this 
 seems to be essential on other grounds) ; we shall then begin mth 
 three clergymen, instead of two, at the Mission. I shall be able to 
 dispense with a special brother curate with me at my church, 
 and to divert some £i,o or ;£6o per anmitn to the support of the 
 Mission, which now goes to my brother curate. I am sure you 
 will take my proposal into your serious consideration. I really do 
 not at all see my way to the establishment of this Mission in my 
 parish unless you can come and conduct it. 
 
 Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 Bryan King. 
 
 Rectory, St. George's, Friday afternoon. 
 ... At Mr. Hubbard's request I have just had an interview 
 with him. He thinks he knows of some two or three clergymen 
 who would like to join the Mission. I said that I should prefer 
 not adding to our staff for some few months, in order to feel our 
 way. 
 
 The ;^4o additional curate's grant was not made for the Mis- 
 sion, but for parish church, so Mr. Knight's contribution must 
 stand at the original ;^io, instead of the £,2^. Mr. Hubbard 
 seems much interested in the Mission. 
 
 To his parents Charles wrote on receiving Mr. King's 
 letters : — 
 
 My dear Father, ^^™^^^s' College, May 6, 1856; 
 
 "Will you read first the larger and then the smaller note 
 from Mr. King, enclosed, and then Mr. Bennett's letter ; and then 
 judge whether I can do otherwise than accept the call? 
 
86 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Altogether I feel that our connection with St. George's has 
 been very providential, and as I have in no way sought the ap- 
 pointment, so I cannot but think that the time is come when I 
 may have an opportunity of carrying out the work which I have 
 so long had at heart. I pray that it may be a good work for the 
 Church ; my desire is to make it a thoroughly Catholic one, a 
 life of poverty, and self-denial, and dedication to God's service, 
 and, if it may be, the revival of a really religious order for mis- 
 sionary work — men trained in holy living for the work of winning 
 souls. 
 
 Dr. Pusey and the other members of the Mission wish me 
 to go, and we have had already sufficient promise of support to 
 justify our commencement. We have about ;^i3o or ;^iSo, 
 mostly annual subscriptions, and Dr. Pusey has about ;^iSo or 
 p^i6o at his disposal, which he will give to it. And this is only 
 from the few we have asked. . . . 
 
 My duty to my mother and love to my sisters, and believe me, 
 Your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 P.S. — Please return the enclosed. Of course I shall have to 
 arrange the details somewhat differently. I shall stipulate for the 
 virtual, if not legal, freedom of the Mission. 
 
 St. Barnabas' College, May 15, 1856. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 ... I suppose rny father has told you of the subject 
 of my last letter to him, though you do not say anything about 
 it. Will you tell him that I am very much obliged to him for 
 his kind letter, and that it is a great comfort for me to think that, 
 if I am privileged to begin this great work at St. George's, I shall 
 go there with the full sanction of both my spiritual and natural 
 fathers. 
 
 I am now arranging with Mr. King the position of the Mission 
 clergy, and negotiating for a house. I will let you know as soon 
 as that is arranged. I shall hope to be at home in July, so as to 
 
NEGOTIATIONS. 
 
 87 
 
 get some rest before I begin the work. ... I am glad to hear 
 Janey is better ; my love to her. 
 
 Believe me, your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 The letters which follow from Mr. King evidently deal 
 with Mr. Lowder's stipulations for " the virtual, if not legal 
 freedom of the Mission," and are interesting as showing the 
 first tentative lines upon which the experiment was made.* 
 
 Rectoiy, St. George's East, May 14, 1856. 
 
 My dear Lowder, 
 
 I have not yet heard from Mr. Woodbridge, the land- 
 lord of our proposed house. My offertory last Sunday (including 
 £^ or from friends) amounted to ;Q\2 \2s. -^d. ; then I have 
 received information of a grant of ;^4o per annum from Mid- 
 summer, from the Additional Curates' Society, for the parisli 
 church. Very probably Mr. Hubbard has obtained this for the 
 Mission — at all events, I think I can appropriate it to that object; 
 then, as I resign Mr. Knight's contribution to a curate's stipend, 
 he allows me to transfer this ^£"25 per annum to the Mission (I 
 presume in lieu of his promised ;;^io per annum). Pray let me 
 have a list of our present donations and subscriptions, and I will 
 apply to my college for help. I should like to interest them in 
 the matter. We may well be thinking of a third member of the 
 Mission. Would NichoU join it? and has he health for it? If 
 he would, you, or rather we, should (d.v.) form a united and happy 
 family. 
 
 Upon the question of ecclesiastical districts I do not think 
 that I should hereafter object to them, provided that on the 
 formation the Bishop would or could withdraw from me my cure 
 of souls within such districts. My deep objection to the jiresent 
 arrangements of such districts is this, that without in the least 
 
 * The answers to these letters have been lost. 
 
88 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 absolving the parish priest in conscience from the responsibility of 
 their charge, they now only interpose obstacles in the way of his 
 discharge of such responsibilities. 
 
 I think, however, that you may implicitly rely upon my anxiety 
 to meet your wishes and those of the other clergymen who may 
 join us, in everything within my power, but I confess that I would 
 rather not anticipate future contingencies. If we begin this work, 
 simply trusting (and confident as we may be) that God will take 
 charge of us and it, shaping its direction for the best, then He 
 will certainly take charge of its success ; whereas if we forecast, 
 and are careful about the future, I fear we shall find our wisdom 
 to be foolishness. 
 
 Do not, dear Lowder, suppose that in so saying I am in the 
 least blaming yoii. I wish to confirm my own faith, and I am 
 certain that you will quite agree with this principle. 
 
 Rectory, St. George's East, May i6, 1856. 
 . . . Though I fear I cannot acquiesce in your theory as to 
 the position of the proposed Mission in this parish, I believe that 
 in practice we should be quite at one. 
 
 I am fully convinced of the necessity of the members of this 
 Mission being as free and unshackled as possible, i.e. as is com- 
 patible with their ecclesiastical position as assistant priests in the 
 parish, and for that reason I begged you to superintend it, because 
 I knew that, under your superintendence, any ordinary control or 
 interference on my part would be quite uncalled for. I should 
 be perfectly ready, when circumstances permitted it, to resign my 
 paramount cure of souls over the districts into the hands of the 
 Bishop, with a view to their formation mto distinct parishes. 
 
 But so far as I understand your theory, it is that the members 
 of each Mission should be at liberty to exercise their ministry in 
 a parish in entire ijidependence of the parish priest. Now, such a 
 position seems to me to be almost as schismatical (and much more 
 fatal to the unity of the Church in the parish) as is the position 
 of a Wesleyan or any other mission. The fundamental constitu- 
 
MR. KING'S RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 89 
 
 tion of the Church of Christ with reference to its parochial dis- 
 tribution is this : there cannot possibly be more than one priest of 
 the parish who, in the language of the Canonists, is the Persona 
 Ecdesia Farochialis, or Spo?isus Ecclesics Farochialis, any more 
 than there can be more than one Bishop of the diocese. In the 
 one case there may be suffragan Bishops, as in the other there 
 maybe assistant priests; but anything like independent jurisdic- 
 tion in either case is impossible, or absolutely fatal to the unity 
 of Christ in His Church. I cannot but feel strongly, then, that 
 if such Missions as we propose are to be employed at all in 
 the Church, they must be constituted in harmony with the paro- 
 chial systems, or rather mth the fundamental constitution of the 
 Church Universal, and not upon any scheme devised by you or 
 me. The paramount cure of the souls of the parishioners of 
 this parish, which I received on my knees from the Bishop of 
 this diocese at my institution, I cannot but regard as a spiritual 
 reality, and not as a mere legal fiction. It is, then, simply im- 
 possible for me (or indeed for any other parish priest) to divest 
 myself of my spiritual control (however remotely and rarely it 
 may be exercised) with respect to the districts to be occupied 
 by the members of the Mission. 
 
 But could I (independently of the question of duty and con- 
 science) debar myself from the exercise of such control? You 
 speak of building a chapel and having it licensed for divine 
 service at once. Well, for any u-regularities in the service of such 
 chapel both the Canon and the common law will hold me alone 
 to be responsible. Is it then reasonable that I should debar 
 myself from the possible exercise of that ecclesiastical control 
 which is essential to the discharge of such responsibility ? 
 
 And further, is it desirable? We contemplate eventually the 
 erection of several such chapels, and the addition of some six 
 or eight missionaries. Suppose, then, some one missionary to 
 commit grave irregularities in the celebration of service in such 
 chapels, or in the conduct of his Mission. I must, of course, in 
 such a case, protect myself and my parish from such irregularities ; 
 
90 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 but I should have no power to interfere, scarcely even by way of 
 remonstrance (and the head of the Mission would have no eccle- 
 siastical jurisdiction whatever). I should therefore be compelled 
 at once to adopt the extreme measure of requesting the Bishop 
 to issue an inhibition against such missionary, and to A^thdraw 
 his licence. I should scarcely consent to place either myself or 
 the members of the Mission in a position in which such a course 
 as this would be my only alternative. 
 
 It is, then, I think, absolutely essential that such Missions as 
 we contemplate should be constituted in entire harmony with the 
 fundamental ordinances of Christ in His Church, as those are fixed 
 by the Ca7ions of the Church Universal. If you think that such a 
 Mission could not efficiently be worked in connection with myself 
 as the parish priest, then of course you will seek for another 
 sphere ; if you have any doubts on this point, then you can try the 
 experiment (say, for three or six months) ; and that you may be 
 perfectly unshackled at the termination of such period, I will, if 
 you wish, take upon myself the responsibility of taking the house 
 in Calvert Street for the temporary purpose. Nay, further, as 
 we are beginning a very eventful experiment in the Church of 
 England, it is most important that we should begin upon a sound 
 and safe basis. 
 
 Both you and I may be deceived or biassed : you may regard 
 the Mission too exclusively from your point of view, as of course 
 I may from mine. Send then your letter and this to Dr. Pusey 
 for his counsel ; he, in Oxford, has the advantage of consulting 
 far better and wiser heads than yours or mine, learned Canonists 
 and earnest and experienced parish priests. 
 
 Beg him to draw up an experimental scheme or constitution 
 for the Mission, giving it as free and unshackled a position as is 
 compatible with my responsibilities, and I doubt not that such a 
 scheme will meet the wants of both of us. 
 
 Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 Bryan King. 
 
 P.S. — I do not advert now to the minor matters alluded to in 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE MISSION. 
 
 91 
 
 yours of Whit Tuesday, as e.g. your objection to the members of 
 the Mission discharging any stated duties in the parish church, 
 and your objection to undertake at present the charge of the 
 remotest district of the parish, because (however anxious I may 
 feel on this latter point) I shall of course be ready to defer to 
 your wishes in all such matters. — B. K. 
 
 Rectory, St. George's East, May 19. 
 . . . Collins spent yesterday with us, and from some talk 
 which I had with him as to the Mission, I think it possible I may 
 have misapprehended your meaning when I supposed you to 
 propose that I should absolutely give up the district to the Mission. 
 He thinks you wished only for the arrangement which is carried 
 out in Leeds under Dr. Hook, who says to a clergyman of a 
 chapei, " I give up this district to you (delegating to you my 
 charge over its people), but I must take it out of your hands 
 should you commit any grave irregularity." Now, should this be 
 your meaning, I presume there would be no difficulty about the 
 matter ; only to the latter part of the above proposition I should 
 much prefer the following understanding — indeed, I should in 
 every respect prefer saying — "I give up this part of my charge to 
 you, having entire confidence in you ; only let there be the fullest 
 confidence between us. So pray don't enter upon any new line 0/ 
 action without first apprising me of your intentions, and so 
 affording me an opportunity of consultation with you about it." 
 
 Collins thinks it would be better were you to give me at first 
 a written plan of your proposed scheme of working the Mission, 
 to prevent all future misunderstanding ; but as our plan is at 
 present utterly experimental, and must be modified almost from 
 day to day, this would hardly be practicable. And I confess I 
 do not like the thought of it, as it seems to imply distrust, of which 
 I feel not the slightest shadow, either with respect to him or 
 yourself 
 
 Rectory, St. George's East, May 21, 1856. 
 . , . There is no difficulty in the least about the assignment 
 of a conventional district wth the consent of the Bishop. This I 
 
92 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 have done for several years in the north-west portion of my parish, 
 but then, of course, such an arrangement is necessarily terminable 
 at any time, at the option either of myself or the clergyman in 
 charge. 
 
 I cannot possibly make such an assignment absolutely mitil I 
 be formally discharged from my legal and ecclesiastical responsi- 
 bilities in respect to such districts. However, it seems right upon 
 all accounts that we should apprise the Bishop now in the first 
 instance of our progress and prospects. I will therefore wnte at 
 once to Mr. Green, informing him of our present position, and 
 requesting him to consult the Bishop upon the question of the 
 assignment. 
 
 Rectory, St. George's East, May 27, 1856. 
 
 ... I have just heard from Mr. Blomfield, in answer to my 
 application to the Bishop through Mr. Green, who writes on the 
 subject as follows: — "His Lordship desires me to say that the 
 clergymen who are to act as missionaries in your parish will be 
 licensed as your assistant curates, and although it will be in your 
 power to give them any extent of pastoral charge which you may 
 think proper, they will still be amenable to your authority as mucli 
 as an assistant curate would be, for their position as missionaries 
 cannot affect your jurisdiction as Rector. While therefore you 
 may give them a great liberty of action, and more than you would 
 give to an assistant curate, you cannot resign a district absolutely 
 to their charge, so as to give up your right of interference in any 
 matter or at any time which might seem to you to require it. As 
 Rector you will, therefore, be responsible for their proceedings. 
 
 " The Bishop also desires me to say that if Mr. Lowder comes 
 to him, appointed by you, and with the usual testimonials, he will 
 be prepared to license him." 
 
 The above remarks upon the necessary present ecclesiastical 
 position of the Mission, in any parish, is, you will see, very much 
 as I anticipated. I have not a copy of my note to Mr. Green, but 
 if you would wish to see it, I dare say that Mr. Blomfield could lend 
 it you. I repeat that I do not anticipate the least practical difii- 
 
MISSION DISTRICTS. 
 
 93 
 
 culty between us. You would, of course, inform me of any new 
 line of action upon which you were about to enter before you com- 
 mitted vie to it, and with that limitation (which is essential to my 
 responsibilities in the case) you would be free in your action. 
 
 May 31, 1S56. 
 
 . . . You misapprehend the Bishop on the points of a con- 
 ventional district. I wrote to say that I proposed to assign one 
 to the members of the Mission, and he does not say a word 
 against it ; he only speaks of the position of the clergy in charge of 
 such conventional districts. Upon the principles of your scheme for 
 the Mission, of course, I quite agree ; as to the time for carrying 
 some of them out, and the Christian economy and reserve to be 
 observed (respecting some of them), of course that must be left 
 to the members of the Mission, and I tinist that they will always 
 be in the habit of the fullest and most fraternal consultation with 
 myself, upon all religious questions affecting the parish, whether 
 more directly relating to the parish church or the Mission. I need 
 but allude to two points of the scheme in question. 
 
 First, I fear that it will be no more legally practicable to use 
 the licensed chapel for other services than those of the Prayer- 
 book than it would in the case of a consecrated building. 
 
 Secondly, as to churchings and baptismal services, I much 
 doubt whether churchings or baptisms could be legally celebrated 
 in such chapel at all. 
 
 On the point of "fees" (I hate the word in connection with 
 religious services), I presume that you mean strictly ^^fces" and 
 do not mean that people should be taught that they can return 
 God thanks without making to Him thankoffcrings." The en- 
 closed, which I circulated some twelve years ago, will explain 
 what I mean. 
 
 The openness and simplicity with which Charles laid 
 his wishes before his parents proves his confidence in their 
 readiness to join with him in the offering of liis life, and 
 
94 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 in his choice of poverty and self-denial. He writes to 
 them without passion, without any enthusiastic expres- 
 sions, and without using arguments to support his wishes, 
 betraying unconsciously his knowledge of their greatness 
 of mind. One to whom the writer is most indebted for 
 information concerning " Father Lowder " writes thus of 
 his parents : — 
 
 It was my privilege to know these two charming persons 
 very well. They lived * and died at Frome, and I was one of the 
 curates of the parish church for four years. I see now the bent 
 figure of this dear and venerable old man, ]\Ir. Lowder's father, 
 climbing the hill to church, each morning, to be present at the 
 daily celebration. 
 
 I think he communicated every day. It was a picture that 
 always moved one's heart, to see him kneeling, in rapt prayer, in 
 the beautiful side-chapel of the parish church. Often his wife was 
 with him, whenever her health permitted, and one could not see a 
 more lovely old couple in all Christendom. 
 
 It used to delight me to walk with him in his garden, and 
 let him pour out all his heart in praises of his son. He was so 
 proud of " Charles," and it was a pride that one respected and 
 loved. 
 
 I never met a more gentle, unselfish, noble-hearted old man. 
 It was no wonder that our Mr. Lowder should be what he was, 
 the child of such God-fearing, saintly parents. 
 
 Their devoted daughters made a home for them at 
 Frome, taking pupils ; and Charles probably wished to 
 talk matters over with his own people at this crisis of 
 his life. In his sister Susan's journal there is the following 
 entry : — 
 
 * From 1854. 
 
FIRST RETREAT FOR CLERGY. 
 
 95 
 
 June 22, 1856. 
 
 Charles appeared unexpectedly at church_this morning.* 
 
 2Sth. 
 
 After service, Charles brought Dr. Pusey to see us, and asked 
 him to say something to our pupils. He spoke to us of the 
 doctrine contained in the sermon we had heard from Mr. Richards, 
 and gave us his blessing, 
 
 July 2. 
 
 We all, with Charles, went by train to Westbury, and there 
 clambered up to the " White Horse," by a very steep, slippery way, 
 where we enjoyed the fine views. 
 
 It may, perhaps, have been during this gathering of 
 clergy of Fromc-Selwood that it was determined to attempt 
 some sort of revival of Retreats for the clergy, and that 
 Dr. Pusey, with his wonted hospitality, offered his house 
 for the purpose. For the next letter from Charles to his 
 mother gives an account of the first beginning of what has 
 since then become an habitual practice with a large body 
 of the English clergy. 
 
 To know that it should have had its cradle in the home 
 of the venerable man to whom the Church owes largest 
 gratitude will be, in these his days of calm retirement, a 
 tender gratification and interest to many. 
 
 My dear Mother, ^^f"""*^' J'^'^ '^S6. 
 
 Writing from the Union to you reminds me very 
 much of thirteen or fourteen years ago, for though the room is a 
 new one, yet the associations are in many respects the same. . . . 
 
 * lie remained during the Festival of St. John Baptist, when the chancel 
 of Frome Church was opened. Amongst the preachers during the Octave 
 were Dr. Pusey, Rev. Upton Richards, Dr. Evans, and Dr. Woodford, now 
 Bishop of Ely. 
 
96 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 We have spent a very happy and, I trust, profitable Aveek at 
 Dr. Pusey's. There have been at one time and the other seven- 
 teen or eighteen clerg}'men present. We met together about half- 
 past six to prepare for Holy Communion, and say Prime, the first 
 Hour. Then we went to Holy Communion at St. Thomas's at 
 seven, remaining in church for prayer about half an hour after the 
 service ; then came back to say our Thanksgiving, and Terce ; 
 after that breakfast, at which a very beautiful book of meditations 
 for a Retreat like ours was read ; went to the Cathedral, or Mag- 
 dalen Chapel, at ten, and, on two days, after that to a chapel in 
 one of the cemeteries for private prayer ; then returned to Christ 
 Church for Sext, and then our conference : consulting together on 
 points of interest, such as conversion and confession, or on some 
 book of the Fathers. After that, dinner about two or three, when 
 there was also spiritual reading. 
 
 After dinner Nones and prayers at the Cathedral ; a walk 
 before tea, and after tea another conference and reading, and 
 Compline before bed. I have given you a full description, thinking 
 you and my father might be interested in what, I trust, has been 
 a very useful week for those engaged in it ; being an attempt to 
 revive a kind of Retreat for Clergy, that they might be able to give 
 more time to prayer and common consultation in quiet and away 
 from distraction. It has been an especial help to me before 
 entering upon the Mission. Dr. Pusey has entered very kindly 
 into it, and given us the greatest assistance, besides lodging and 
 boarding us all. 
 
 This account that I have given you is meant to be private, 
 so do not let it go out of the house. I am going to preach at 
 St. Thomas's to-mon'ow in the morning, and at Littleniore in the 
 afternoon, and shall leave by an early train on Monday morning, 
 and probably sleep at Mr. Knight's, York Place, St. George's 
 East, on Monday and Tuesday, getting off if I can early Wednes- 
 day morning. My duty to my father, and love to Aunt E., Rose, 
 and Willy. 
 
 Believe me, your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
NEW HOME IN CALVERT STREET. 
 
 97 
 
 It is certainly remarkable that the first attempt at a 
 Retreat for Clergy in the English Church should have 
 immediately preceded the first organized and real attack 
 upon the heathenism of London. 
 
 Mr. Lowder left St. Barnabas' on August 22, and took 
 up his abode at the Mission House in Calvert Street, in 
 the parish of St. George's-in-the-East. 
 
 It is not without its own interest and importance, at 
 this crisis, that among the last anxieties of Bishop Blom- 
 field's long and active life was the question of Charles 
 Lowder's licence to St. George's, which gave rise to the 
 following letters from the Rector of the parish 
 
 Felixstow, Ipswich, August 9, 1856. 
 
 My dear Brother, 
 
 I think that I can hardly ask the Bishop yet for a 
 licence, either for the clergyman or (on that account) for the 
 room. In consequence of some remarks of the Bishop in Mr. 
 Blomfield's letter to me of May last, respecting the importance 
 of great prudence and discretion on my part, as well as on the 
 part of the clergymen acting as missionaries • in my parish, I was 
 led to reply that I should not ask the Bishop to license any 
 clergyman for such duty, until he had the experience of at least 
 two months' work as a missionary. 
 
 Again, your form of licence will hardly do, I can hardly 
 undertake the payment of ;^8o per annum, and it does not seem 
 right that I should in terms undertake what I do not intend 
 personally to fulfil. We must settle the form of nomination with 
 the Bishop when the time comes. 
 
 Should you wish an immediate licence, of course I will wite 
 to Mr. Blomfield upon the subject, but I think it would be 
 better to waive this point at present, 
 
 P.S. — I am very glad to hear from St. George's of the suc- 
 cessful commencement of the Mission services by Collins. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 August 12, 1856. 
 
 ... I think that you have quite misunderstood me in the matter 
 of the Hcence ; I never distrusted your fitness for the Mission 
 in every way. I do not in the least object to nominate you to-day, 
 as indeed I fancied I had sufficiently indicated in my last note to 
 you, nor indeed do I object to nominate Collins. The simple 
 fact is this : In the letter to me in question, the Bishop was 
 evidently nervous and anxious about our experiment, warning 
 me about my responsibility, and desiring me to be very cautious, 
 etc. Well, he had behaved so kindly and generously at first in 
 giving us his confidence and countenance — he was suffering from 
 severe illness at the time — that I thought I could not do less than 
 attempt to tranquillize him and satisfy his apprehensions by replying 
 that, should he wish it, I would not nominate any clergyman to 
 the Mission until he had some couple of months' experience in 
 the work. I presume that this did satisfy him, and simply on this 
 ground I wished you (as I still do) to waive your wishes for 
 the present about your licence. At the same time, I repeat that 
 I shall be ready at once to apply to the Bishop for permission to 
 nominate you to the assistant curacy should you still wish it. I 
 assure you that I have not personally the shadow of a feeling on 
 this subject; it is to me a matter of indifference whether I nomi- 
 nate you now or two months hence ; but I am sure that you will 
 agree with me in thinking it right to consult the feelings and even 
 prejudices of our poor worn-out Bishop in such a matter. You 
 know that we have it under his hand that he will be ready to 
 license you on my nomination. Well, under such circumstances, 
 no successor of his (be he who he may) could hesitate a moment 
 to carry out that intention, when you had left your former cure 
 and entered upon your duties at St. George's in consequence of 
 such expressed intention of the then Bishop. 
 
 However, judge for yourself in the matter ; only pray do not 
 conceive that there is any distrust on my part. I shall be, I repeat, 
 perfectly ready and willing to do what you may wish. 
 
LICENCE FOR MISSIONERS. 
 
 99 
 
 August 1 6, 1856. 
 
 I did not inform you of the circumstances in question, be- 
 cause in the first place the Bishop's cautions, which gave rise 
 to my proposal, were intended solely for myself; and, secondly, it 
 seemed very undesirable that I should unnecessarily inform you 
 of a circumstance which might bear the appearance to you of the 
 Bishop's want of confidence in yourself ; and I may here say that 
 Dr. Pusey (who was informed by me of all the circumstances) 
 fu//y agreed with Jtie in this view. However, I much regret that I 
 should (however unintentionally) have caused you any pain or 
 annoyance. I write to-day to the Bishop (through Mr. Blomfield), 
 but I will not in the first instance say that you make his immediate 
 licence a condition of coming to St. George's, as he might con- 
 strue that as a kind of threat. I will merely at first say that 
 you arc naturally anxious that the thing should be settled before 
 his resignation, adding too my own request on the same ground. 
 I don't think that you will need any testimonials for this transfer 
 of your licence from one cure to another. 
 
 August 21, 1856. 
 
 The Rev. F. G. Blomfield informs me that "the Bishop is 
 prepared to license Mr. Lowder and Mr. Collins as your assistant 
 curates," through the Ai'chdeacon acting as his commissary ; but 
 in reply to my query as to the statement of stipend, he writes as 
 follows : — " The Bishop would not feel himself at liberty to alter 
 the usual form of nomination, which I enclose. The amount of 
 the stipend may be agreed upon between yourself and Mr. Lowder 
 and Mr. Collins, but in law you will be responsible for the pay- 
 ment of it, from whatever source the funds may be derived." 
 Now, I presume that if we mutually agree upon the stipend of 
 per annum each, and I pay you that sum quarterly, this will 
 meet the above requirement (for the present year, you can 
 return me out of the ;^io which I paid as my subscription 
 for this purpose) ; tliis arrangement comes within the letter of Mr. 
 
lOO 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Blomfield's direction, and I should think would be accepted by 
 Archdeacon Hale under the circumstances of the case. 
 
 The two letters which follow are the last from St. Bar- 
 nabas' and the first from Charles Lowder's new home to 
 his mother. 
 
 St. Barnabas' College, August i8, 1856. 
 
 My DEAR Mother, 
 
 You may suppose I am fully occupied, as I hope to 
 get down to St. George's on Wednesday, when my address will be 
 Mission House, Calvert Street, St. George's East. 
 
 Yesterday I took my leave of most of my flock, though I take 
 a last Communion with them on Sunday morning next. 
 
 I am going to send do\vn a small box of books which may be 
 useful to Willy, and some note-books ; if there are any which he 
 does not want and Annie does, she can have them. Some few 
 are yours ; the box is also yours. 
 
 I am busy paying farewell visits, which is not a happy occu- 
 pation. 
 
 Duty to my father, and love to all. 
 
 Believe me, your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 Mission House, Calvert Street, St. George's, August, 1856. 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I was very glad to receive your letter this morning. I 
 arrived here about five o'clock, and we had a service at eight, at 
 which, although a very wet day, there were a few people. We 
 hope to begin our temporary church very soon, although there arc 
 delays from the Metropolitan Board of Works, who have to approve 
 of every building before it is commenced. 
 
 I shall be glad to see Willy, who I suppose will make his 
 appearance here soon. We might give him a bed in a day or two, 
 but, you may suppose, we are all in the rough. This letter is the 
 
FAREWELL TO ST. BARNABAS'. 
 
 lor 
 
 first I have written in my own room, having only just got the table 
 in. You may tell Annie I have her scroll up behind me, over the 
 chimney-piece, and a picture of the Crucifixion and her drawing 
 of St. Laurence before me. It was, of course, very painful wish- 
 ing good-bye to all at St. Barnabas'; however, I got through it 
 better than I expected. I met the people of my district in the 
 school-room on Sunday afternoon, and I am going to receive 
 Holy Communion with them next Sunday at half-past seven. I 
 hope you will remember us at your eight o'clock Communion. 
 Wishing the school children good-bye tried me most. However, 
 it is not as if I was quite cut off. There seems a great work to be 
 done here, if God gives us grace and strength to do it. Duty 
 to my father, and love to all, 
 
 From your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 So, with single heart, he gave himself to the work to 
 which he was called. He had looked steadily, during his 
 missionary visits to East London, into the great gulf of 
 misery and sin ; and, no longer content to stand on its 
 edge, giving a helping hand here and there, he cast him- 
 self boldly into the midst of it, if by any means he might 
 save some. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FIELD OF THE MISSION. 
 
 *' Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds 
 Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 
 Abominable, unutterable." 
 
 When Charles Lowder gave his life to the Mission of St. 
 George's-in-the-East, he had reached the age of thirty-six, 
 a time of life when a man's character is no longer imma- 
 ture, although it can never cease to grow and to be modified, 
 in one direction or another, until the end. 
 
 What was the work for which, in the very prime of 
 manhood, he thus gave up everything else on earth And 
 what manner of man was he who chose this work, and 
 how did it re-act upon his own heart and outer bearing? 
 What is the image which he has left in the hearts of his 
 people } 
 
 It is difficult, nay impossible, to draw a truthful picture 
 of the field which he voluntarily chose as that of his life's 
 work. The shadows would be too black and unrelieved. 
 There is a long street within five minutes' walk of the Mis- 
 sion House where Charles lived. It has been said that — 
 
 A full volume would not suffice to exhibit the records of de- 
 bauchery and crime with which the history of but one street in 
 
RATCLIFF HIGHWAY. 
 
 103 
 
 the East of London is associated. That street is the RatcUfF 
 Highway.* Houses of call, dancing and concert rooms, brothels 
 and spirit shops, furnish a rendezvous for the lowest types of 
 humanity of almost every nation. 
 
 This Highway runs through the parish of St. George's-in-the- 
 East, from west to east. Foreign sailors from every country — 
 Greeks, Malays, Lascars, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, French, 
 Austrians — may be encountered everywhere; so that, with the 
 German sugar-bakers, the population is as mixed as any in the 
 world. 
 
 • 
 
 The street is laid out, as it were, for the reception, enter- 
 tainment, and amusement, tale quale, of sailors, and is filled 
 with boarding-houses, slop-shops, and all the attendants of 
 a seafaring population. Amongst them are two or three 
 collections of foreign animals and birds, Mr. Jamrach's 
 wild beasts and curiosities being the most famous. 
 
 But in what words is it possible to speak of the un- 
 happy beings who absolutely throng this street, lying in 
 wait for their prey 
 
 Alas, alas ! we are content that vice and misery should 
 be removed from our 'sight, as something which offends our 
 so-called refinement and culture. The streets of West 
 London are, as it were, swept clean of the outward hideous- 
 ness of sin. What would be at once put a stop to by the 
 police in any of our " respectable " thoroughfares is per- 
 mitted to go on unchecked within an hour's drive of Rotten 
 Row. We are careful to guard our high-born wives and 
 daughters from at least those outward scenes which might 
 shock their eyes and corrupt their morals ; but though we 
 talk sentiment about the brave tars of merry England, we 
 
 * Now called St. George's Street. 
 
104 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 do little or nothing to save them from ruin, in every sense, 
 when they return to our shores.* 
 
 St. George's-in-the-East forms a part of that eastern 
 London little known to dwellers in pleasanter quarters of 
 the metropolis. And yet, to quote Charles Lowder's own 
 account of those parts — 
 
 St. George's contains one of the main supplies of London's 
 wealth and commerce, as well as one of its most curious sights — 
 the London Docks. The extensive basins, in which may be seen 
 the largest ships of the world; the immense warehouses, which 
 contain the treasures of every quarter of the globe — wool, cotton, 
 tea, coffee, tobacco, skins, ivoiy ; the miles of vaults filled with 
 wines and spirits ; the thousands of persons employed — clerks, 
 custom officers, artisans, labourers, lightermen, and sailors — make 
 the Docks a world of itself, as well as a cosmopolitan rendezvous 
 and emporium. Those who merely catch a glimpse from a river 
 steamer of its forest of masts can have little idea of the busy 
 scenes which are daily to be witnessed within its high walls. 
 Here are vessels swarming with labourers lading and unlading; 
 pov/erful hydraulic cranes, lifting their tons ; gaugers measuring 
 and testing the wines and spirits ; porters shifting hogsheads ; 
 coopers hammering ; clerks busy entering the freights ;' the trim 
 American clippers, the fast tea-ships from China, or the Mediter- 
 
 * While these pages are passing through the press, a Mission House and 
 Restaurant for sailors has been opened at 42A, Dock Street, London Docks. ' 
 It is under the same admirable management which has already done so much 
 for working-men by opening Restaurants, where they are well and cheaply fed, 
 in different parts of London, notably in Harrow Road, off Edgeware Road, 
 and in Paternoster Row. The large and widespread missionary labours of 
 these Sisters in the worst parts of London, make us feel that they need nothing 
 but material support to enable them to reclaim thousands, and to found real 
 havens of refuge for sailors. Those whose hearts are touched with pity for 
 these men cannot do better than visit the establishment in Dock Street, and 
 judge for themselves. It is outside St. Peter's parish, in one of the worst 
 parts of Wapping. 
 
THE STREETS OF WAPPING. 
 
 105 
 
 ranean steamers, warped out of the river through the dock-gates 
 into the wide basins and taking up their berths. Then, of course, 
 this commerce brings a vast amount of traffic into our streets. 
 Waggons laden with merchandise — heavy casks of sugar or Avine, 
 bales of cotton or wool, tea-chests, bags of coffee— to be dispersed 
 throughout the metropolis, the country, and the world; huge 
 boilers, engines, or machinery to be shipped to the colonies or 
 foreign countries — all this life and animation give a special cha- 
 racter to our streets and thoroughfares. 
 
 Here, therefore, the sailors swarm, and here, in Mr. 
 Lowder's w^ords, " are to be seen the poor denizens of the 
 neighbouring brothels, flaunting their finery and their per- 
 sons, and plying their hateful trade by night and day. . . . 
 The recklessness of vice, the unblushing effrontery with 
 which it is carried on when the lowest of every country 
 combine to add their quota to the already overflowing 
 stock, can scarcely be conceived. The public-houses are 
 chiefly kept by foreigners, as are very many of the lodging- 
 houses, whilst most of them live upon the vices of the 
 sailors ; and publicans actually keep wretched girls in their 
 pay to entrap the poor sailor, who is soon stripped of his 
 all when he falls into their treacherous clutches. A staff of 
 prostitutes is, in fact, part of the stock-in-trade, and instances 
 could be adduced in which houses of ill fame have been 
 attached to the public-houses, or rented by their owners. 
 At one time the publican interest was so powerful in the 
 parish, that for years one at least of the churchwardens was 
 a publican. 
 
 ■" In the midst of such scenes of sin and misery the 
 children were brought up, the school of too many being the 
 streets, abounding in temptation, echoing with profane and 
 
io6 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 disgusting language, and forming a very atmosphere of 
 vice ; their examples at home a drunken father and 
 mother, with brothers and sisters already deep in sin ; and 
 abroad thieves and prostitutes a little older than them- 
 ' selves. Thus they were early taught to thieve, to swear, to 
 be bold and immoral in their manners and talk, and so to 
 fall in with sins which they beheld in others at the most 
 precocious age." 
 
 This was no exaggerated description of this parish, for 
 it had few redeeming features ; scarcely any residents of 
 education and respectability to foster a better spirit, unless 
 we except a few professional persons whose ties confined 
 them to the spot, nearly every person of this stamp 
 having given up his residence in the parish that his 
 children might not be contaminated by evil sights and 
 sounds. 
 
 Never can the writer lose the haunting memory of that 
 Highway — the evil faces of men, the poor lost women sitting 
 with uncovered heads in groups on door-steps, or walking 
 with sailors ; the sickening brutality, degradation, and open 
 vice with which the very air seemed thick. And ever, 
 within sound of this very murmur of hell, the daily cry 
 ascends from the altar of St. Peter's : " Thou that takest 
 away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us." 
 ' Ratcliff Highway is outside the bounds of St. Peter's 
 parish ; but we have been lately told that twenty years ago 
 that street represented the condition of a whole parish, in 
 which "all the elements of degradation — poverty and impro- 
 vidence, drunkenness and prostitution, robbery and violence, 
 ignorance and unbelief, were active — a whole parish in 
 which many of the most ' respectable ' found their interest 
 
DWELLINGS OF THE POOR. 
 
 107 
 
 in supporting vice, while the police were both unwilling and 
 afraid to interfere." 
 
 And the worst is that what is seen in the streets is the 
 least part of the wretchedness which exists. To know and 
 write of these things it is necessary to have lived amongst 
 them. No apology is necessary for long extracts from the 
 accounts most kindly supplied by one * who worked for 
 eleven years in those streets and lanes. He writes : — 
 
 The most graphic picture of the narrow courts and alleys, as 
 seen through the murky atmosphere of fog and dust, with all the 
 horrors of sight and sound and smell — scowling brutal faces of 
 men, degraded monsters of women ; poor little children half clad 
 except with dirt, with naked feet and dishevelled hair, playing in 
 the gutter, many of them stunted, half-witted, and deformed, and 
 all wan and sickly looking ; the air filled with the bruit of quarrels, 
 shameful words, and curses — no mere passing experience of such 
 outside features can give any adequate knowledge of the life that 
 is lived within, in the wretched hovels that go by the name of 
 home. 
 
 Thanks to the London Labourers' Duellings Society, many of 
 these houses are now much better cared for, at least in those parts 
 where the society has property, but at the time of which I write 
 I suppose that the average of the parish would give thirty souls 
 to each small house. 
 
 A whole family in each room : one room for day and night, 
 for living and dead, for all sexes and all ages. Think how hard 
 it is to teach children and grown-up people the respect and 
 reverence due to themselves as part of the Body of Christ, amidst 
 such surroundings of their daily life. How almost impossible it is 
 to train up the young in habits of decency and purity under such 
 degrading conditions. It half drives one mad to think what it is 
 in the sight of the purest Heaven — the mad riot and shameful 
 
 * Rev. Robert Linklater. 
 
io8 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 wickedness of souls that have been redeemed by the precious 
 Blood, who by the foulest sins desecrate their bodies which are 
 part of Christ, who day by day grieve the Holy Spirit of God and 
 drive Him from their hearts. 
 
 And these, the many of them, are sailors rescued from the 
 waves. Sons and husbands for whom have gone up from many 
 an English village, ay, and from homes throughout the world, 
 the earnest pleading of brave women's hearts. Men who through 
 the long night watches have paced tlie deck and thought of the 
 days gone by, the happy times when they were pure and innocent, 
 kneeling at their mothei^'s knees. Or who have seen God's 
 wonders in the deep, who have "cried unto the Lord in their 
 trouble," and were half persuaded for the rest of their saved lives 
 to "praise the Lord for His goodness, and declare the wonders 
 that He doeth for the children of men." And now, when to their 
 straining eyes appear the cliffs of dear old England, and when 
 v/ith grateful hearts they land, they are seized upon by harpies, 
 liers in wait for blood, who rob them of all their hard-earned 
 gains, and worse than rob them, spiritually murder them. 
 
 I have heard the most piteous stories of large sums of money 
 thus squandered in a day or two. And the mother or wife, v/ho 
 waits at home, has to starve. Ordinary people cannot believe 
 what fools sailors are. Now and then an exposure of the 
 " confidence trick " opens our eyes. Their very simpleness, which 
 makes them such easy dupes, shows how easily they could be led 
 to good, and is an appealing cry to us for protection and help. 
 
 I went down to Southampton, some little time ago, with a 
 sailor who had just been paid off. It had cost him five pounds to 
 get from Tower Hill to Waterloo Station. I asked him how he 
 could possibly have spent so much money. He said, "Well, I 
 wanted first to go to the shipping office, and I didn't know the 
 way, and you can't ask your way in London for nothing." I said, 
 " Why did you not take a cab ? " He answered, " So I did at last, 
 and that was the cheapest turn I had." The cabman had only 
 charged him sixteen shillings for the journey (about a two-shilling 
 
UNCERTAIN EARNINGS. 
 
 109 
 
 fare), and the poor sailor then felt he had to treat him, as he 
 couldn't charter him all the way to Southampton. 
 
 To return to St. Peter's-in the-East : let me try to describe a 
 visit to one of the dens which are the homes of our poor. Having 
 struggled up the narrow rickety stairs, and passed lower regions 
 peopled with men, women, and children, who open their doors in 
 curiosity to gaze at us, and thus reveal the hideous misery within, 
 we come to a garret where a poor woman lies dying on the floor, 
 huddled into a corner on a bag of straw, covered over for the sake 
 of warmth with all the rags which constitute the property of the 
 place. One is half stifled with the intolerable smell. At a glance 
 we take in the awful poverty, for literally there is not a stick of 
 furniture, save the crazy-looking table and one broken chair. The 
 children — well, I have seen them quite naked like savages. Per- 
 haps even in the depth of winter no fire in the grate. Of the 
 horrors of vermin one cannot speak. We are told, and we could 
 have guessed it from their faces, that they have not tasted food 
 that day. 
 
 God only in heaven knows the awful poverty and suffering 
 that beneath His pitying gaze is bravely borne by thousands and 
 thousands of our unhappy brothers and sisters in these daric 
 corners of our land. And in the place of which I speak only a 
 dock wall separates them from the food and produce of the world, 
 and, a little higher up the river, only a railing shuts them out 
 from the Royal Mint, where all the money of England is coined. 
 
 And I am speaking, not of lazy vagabonds, but of those who 
 either cannot get work, or are too ill to work. How the heart of 
 the missionary is stirred to give to these poor sufferers the " such 
 as I ha'.'e," the treasures and joy of heaven. What a cruel pity 
 it is that, having such a life of misery here, they should miss the 
 Life of Joy hereafter. 
 
 But it may be said, " Poor creatures ! what do we pay our 
 poor-rates for ? Why do they not go into the workhouse ? " Why 
 not, indeed ? I suppose because to go into the workhouse is to 
 give up for ever the battle of life, is the snapping of the last thin 
 
no 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 tliread of hope, the for ever drowning themselves, body and soul, 
 in the dark waters of pauperism. How can we marvel that these 
 poor creatures cHng so tenaciously to the dear life, that they suffer 
 any privation rather than break up their little home and sink for 
 ever the prospects of their children ? 
 
 The Guardians of the Poor so carefully fulfil their trust, which 
 they consider to be the keeping down of the rates, that the 
 respectable poor would rather die than enter their dreaded walls ; 
 and as now all outdoor relief is stopped, unless the charity of the 
 Church can help them, sickness and bad times to them mean 
 simply starvation and death. 
 
 The great industry of the Docks and river-side is lading and 
 unlading ships. The regular payment of such work is fivepence 
 an hour, making one pound a week, if lucky enough to be em- 
 ployed the whole week. For many days and weeks contrary 
 . winds may keep the ships down channel, and then there is nothing 
 to do. It is quite a common thing for men to be for weeks wth- 
 out work. And yet out of this precarious labour a man has to 
 pay his weekly rent, and clothe and feed himself and his family. 
 How can he put by anything ? 
 
 And as the arrival of ships is uncertain, so when they do come 
 it is in great numbers ; consequently extra hands have to be em- 
 ployed to unlade and get them ready for sea again, and thus more 
 men are required for these spurts of trade than can be regularly • 
 employed in ordinary times. If these considerations affect even 
 prosperous times, it may be imagined how the poor have suffered 
 during the months and months of commercial depression through 
 which England has lately passed. 
 
 I do not know any more pitiful sight in London than that 
 which can be seen any early week-day morning at the dock 
 entrances. Thousands of labourers waiting for work, and waiting 
 day after day in vain. The official whose duty it is to select the 
 men required has often told me that it has cut him to the heart to 
 see this surging mass of eager upturned faces struggling to get 
 near him, to have to meet their imploring eyes, and yet to be 
 
DOCK LABOURERS. 
 
 obliged to deny them and shake off their appealing glance and cry 
 back into their despairing hearts, knowing but too well what it all 
 means in the starvation and suffering of their homes. 
 
 What I have said can give but a faint notion of the atmosphere 
 of pain and want and sin which Mr. Lowder had to breathe for 
 twenty-three years. No wonder it broke do^vn his splendid health 
 and saddened his heart. Think what it is to have to live in the 
 midst of such suffering lives and to be unable to relieve them all. 
 Only those who have tried it know how living in such a depressing 
 place, and having constantly to grapple with the same difficulties, 
 the same hopeless puzzle of degraded life and multiplying degra- 
 dation, break down the stanchest heart. And Mr. Lowder's heart 
 when he assayed the work must have been stanch indeed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF THE MISSIONER. 
 
 " For of the soul the body form doth take, 
 For soul is form, and form doth the body make." 
 
 " Tell us what he was like," is a child's demand concerning 
 the hero of a story. And older children wish for a word- 
 painting of " Father Lowder's " outward appearance and 
 character. But the colours must be gathered, here and 
 there, from those who knew him well. 
 
 He was tall, rather slight than otherwise, but remarkably 
 well made, and with that grace and elasticity of movement 
 which marks strength and muscular power. His head was 
 singularly fine, bald in early manhood, and well set on his 
 shoulders, the organs which phrenologists assign to the 
 moral qualities being largely developed. His features were 
 regular and finely cut ; the calm steadfast grey eyes, keen 
 and fearless, shaded by somewhat large lids, could look 
 cold or tender, or light up with a merry roguish twinkle, as 
 occasion arose. The strongly moulded mouth and chin and 
 tightly closed lips gave evidence of a strong will ; but the 
 lips could relax into a very sweet smile, and of late years 
 this was their general expression, while the clear complexion 
 and fresh colour betokened health of body and of mind. 
 
POKTJiAIT OF CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 This is a j^icture of him in his prime, before oppressive 
 cares furrowed his brow, and ill-health and premature age 
 robbed him of his freshness. It was a thoroughly sculp- 
 turesque head, and was said to resemble a carved portrait 
 of Canning in St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. Dr. Wolff used 
 to say, " I love Lowder's face ; it is like one of the old 
 Passionists ; " and one of his curates said, "If the Father 
 were to get up into the pulpit and say nothing, you could 
 not help being the better for the sight." 
 
 His manner and address were dignified and courteous, 
 though as a rule he was silent and reserved, except when 
 out of harness, when he was full of spirits, and always 
 talked freely and made friends. He walked at a swinging 
 pace, and never allowed himself a moment more than neces- 
 sary to reach his proposed point. He was full of energy 
 in all manly exercises. " I can hardly believe," a friend 
 writes, "that it is only fifteen months since I put on his 
 skates for him. We went off one frosty morning to have 
 a quiet day on a pond in the country." 
 
 His " outward fairness was all the more fair because it 
 was but the ambassador of a most fair mind," but all who 
 write of him say that his character is one difficult to describe- 
 And yet there is the greater reason for attempting it, 
 because his letters reflect little of himself. 
 
 This is certainly, in part at least, owing to the absolute 
 want of self-consciousness which must have marked his 
 character to a very unusual degree. 
 
 His letters have been placed, jn great numbers, at 
 the writer's disposal, and rare indeed must it be to find a 
 collection written with such sincere simplicity, without the 
 faintest trace of self-consciousness, or of occupation with 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
114 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 self. They are !n one way the less interesting ; for people 
 with some self-consciousness cannot help expressing their 
 inner selves in their letters ; even excellent people are 
 more or less occupied with their own emotions, and, uncon- 
 sciously, their pen paints themselves.* 
 
 But really Charles Lowder seems never to have thought 
 about himself, certainly never contemplated himself. If he 
 ever passed through that " stage of piety " which F^ndlon 
 says niost good people traverse, the stage of self-introspec- 
 tion, there is no token of it in anything he has left. He 
 seems always to have been thinking of others, and, even in 
 his constant correspondence with the mother to whom he 
 was devoted, to have no need for ^panchcment about his own 
 feelings and wishes, simply because he was not thinking 
 about them. When he did feel anything touching himself 
 keenly, as his exile from St. Barnabas', he expresses it to 
 his mother, but in simplest and shortest words. There 
 is no dwelling on the subject, as if it were one which in- 
 terested him. Most people are interesting to themselves, 
 but it almost seems as if Mr. Lowder did not find himself 
 so ; what evidently occupied his mind, as far as earthly 
 interests went, were his own family, his work, and natural 
 scenery. 
 
 The more his letters are read the more they convey the 
 impression of one wholly truthful, wholly to be trusted, 
 without any inner folds — expressing far less than he felt, 
 far less than he was prepared to do. 
 
 Those nearest to him say that he was naturally excitable, 
 but was so deeply impressed with the danger and evils con- 
 nected with such a temperament, that the severe self-dis- 
 * Of this, Bishop Patteson's letters will recur to many as a striking instance. 
 
RESERVE OF CHARACTER. 
 
 cipline used to keep it under, gave an impression of coldness ; 
 so that to some he might appear a man of highest religious 
 character and principle, with a stern sense of duty, an iron 
 will, and a dogged perseverance in doing what he felt to be 
 right, but lacking tenderness or humanity. Certainly this 
 is the impression which he made upon some outside his 
 own family. One who lived and worked with him for many 
 years says that he thought he was " naturally a cold, stiff, 
 stern man ; and that it was the conquest of grace over 
 nature which so wonderfully softened him in later years." 
 But he goes on to say : — 
 
 Another friend of his, with whom I have discussed this point, 
 thinks that the tender heart was ahvays there, and that as his 
 natural strength decayed its warmth was manifested. 
 
 I do not know that these two views are necessarily antagonistic 
 — the one may look deeper beneath the surface than the other ; 
 but I am sure that my view is the more true one as regards very 
 many people who have known and respected Mr. Lowder through 
 long periods of his life. Much as they respected and admired him 
 they could not all at once get at his heart. But when they did 
 how rare and true and deep did they find his love. All the more 
 precious because such an unexpected find. 
 
 My own theoiy about this is that the desertion from which he 
 had suffered,* a stab to his inmost heart, had added to his natural 
 reserve, and chilled and kept back for a time the flow of genial 
 and confiding love. 
 
 The turning-point came in the death of his father and mother. 
 I know that Mr. Lowder came back from their death-beds quite 
 changed and softened. Indeed, he told some of the poor people 
 that he was afraid he had not before entered sufficiently into their 
 sorrows, but that now a new light had been let in upon his soul. 
 
 ♦ When three curates suddenly left him to join the Church of Rome. See 
 Chapter XV. 
 
CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 And he was a man who, when he changed, changed for ever. He 
 was as determined and persevering in this as in everything else. 
 He set about it in a mechanical and business-like sort of way, but 
 he succeeded. He became wonderfully gentle and kind before his 
 death. I have often been amused and edified in watching the 
 manifest effort it cost him to sustain the attempt : one could see 
 the workings, and nothing showed more the real goodness of the 
 man than this difficult conquest over natural reserve. 
 
 And my opinion is that this was all as it should have been. 
 Had Mr. Lowder been other than he was he would never have 
 done the v/ork he did. It wanted a stern, determined man to 
 make anything of the sort of people he had to do with. Gentle- 
 ness and tenderness would have been mistaken for weakness by 
 the poor enervated lives he had to cultivate and raise. His 
 firmness was like an anchor to their shifting, changing, easily dis- 
 couraged hearts. He shamed tliem into consistency and pluck 
 by his undaunted steadfastness. They saw this noble figure 
 stand like a lighthouse amidst overwhelming waves of desertion, 
 treachery, disappointment, , and rebuke, and they were abashed 
 that small trials of theii- own estate, and unworthy attractions of 
 sins they had abandoned, should undermine their determination 
 and sap their perseverance. They feared and admired him, and 
 I dare say his great example of stern duty-doing, sticking to his 
 purpose through thick and thin, had more effect on the savages 
 amongst whom we had to live, than if he had been tender and 
 soft. It really was a noble picture they looked upon, "a good 
 man struggling with adversity." 
 
 And if they quailed before his determined and rebuking eye, 
 yet they tasted the tenderness of his love and pity in their hour 
 of sickness or spiritual need. He never could have won the 
 intense love of his people if they had not found out that beneath 
 that cold exterior beat the warm true heart of the friend they 
 could trust, the priest they could revere. 
 
 It is quite the feature of their lasting regard for him, this 
 mixture of admiration for his courage and gratitude for his love. 
 
POWER OF INFLUENCE. 
 
 117 
 
 "Ah! the Father, he was a man and no mistake," is still said with 
 trembling lips, and looked from eyes beaming with tenderness and 
 pride. Nor do I believe there is a more united parish in all 
 Christendom than St. Peter's-in-the-East ; from the youngest choir- 
 boy to the oldest worker, all caught from Mr. Lowder that keen 
 interest in the work and sense of personal responsibility which was 
 his special characteristic. 
 
 One spirit animated all, churchwardens, school teachers, choir- 
 men, down to the youngest choir-boy. 
 
 I cannot bear to speak of ourselves, we the curates, who for 
 six years were unbroken in our ranks. His generosity to us, and 
 trust in us, are too sacred subjects to go beyond our own hearts. 
 But I ought to say that in a great measure the peace and quiet- 
 ness of St, Peter's parish was due to the generous and Christian 
 conduct of the Rectors of the various parishes which girt us in on 
 different sides — St. George's, Wapping, and Shadwell. It was in 
 their power to have made it otherwise, and it was really their 
 large-heartedness and nobleness of mind which guided them, for 
 they did not agree with us on theological questions. 
 
 I think they recognized the goodness of Mr. Lowder, and 
 respected the man, although they did not approve of his principles. 
 At any rate, the result was peace. 
 
 Another, who worked in the parish for some years, 
 writes : — 
 
 My first introduction to Mr. Lowder was at the Calvert Street 
 Mission House, where I went with the view of joining the Mission 
 as a schoolmaster, and of doing such other work as a layman might 
 properly perform. I cannot say that his manner was encouraging, 
 for he appeared to me to be a cold unsympathetic man naturally 
 and although I joined the Mission, I was afraid that I should find 
 it very difficult to live with him. I had reason for modifying this 
 impression afterwards, for he was far less unsympatlietic than he 
 seemed to be, and v/hen you understood him, and he understood 
 
nS 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 you, it was easy to work with him. Unfortunately, some did 
 not understand him, for he practised a reserve of speech and 
 manner which I know led more than one of his associates to 
 misunderstand him and to leave him. I did not wonder at it, 
 for during the whole time I was with him I cannot recollect 
 that I ever received a word of sympathetic encouragement from 
 him; he did his work, and shunned and shrank from anything 
 like unnecessary talk about it, and he expected others to do the 
 same. 
 
 " I am sorry you are going," said Mr. Lowder to me as I was 
 leaving, " for I think we have understood one another." 
 
 "I think we have," said I, and so we parted. But I felt sure 
 that while life lasted whatever feeling he may have entertained for 
 me would remain, and it was so. I saw it and felt it whenever I 
 met him in after years. And as time went on he appeared to me 
 more genial, his face irradiated with a smile when you met him, 
 and the expression was softer, even, at times, to sweetness. 
 
 One who perhaps knew him best of all says — 5 
 
 He had two different sides to his character ; the one he was 
 most known by, I suppose, was distant and stern. On the other 
 hand, he was gentle, kind, and tender; his sternness came often 
 quite as much from shyness (for he was very shy), and his distance 
 from great reserve, as from anything else. You should have seen 
 him with the sick and dying to know what he was. His whole face 
 softened, and the gentle tone of his voice, and the movement 
 even of his hands, as he touched the sick person, must have been 
 soothing. 
 
 I was sent for (another writes) to be with a woman dying 
 of typhus fever. She was a good woman. I saw she was just 
 passing away, so I sent for Mr. Lowder. He came at once, and 
 never shall I forget his tenderness. The sick woman was, to 
 use the poor people's expression, " dying hard " — quite deaf and 
 speechless. He fanned hei and bathed her lips, while I was 
 
TENDERNESS TO THE LOST. 
 
 119 
 
 attending to other things ; and he literally prayed her away, each 
 prayer fitting in as she was gradually passing on, and when at the 
 last I touched him, almost a burst of thanksgiving broke from 
 him, for she had indeed a wretched home. 
 
 One of the Sisters who worked for him in Calvert 
 Street told the writer how greatly she was struck by his 
 tenderness on one occasion. It was New Year's Eve, just 
 after the midnight service, and she had locked up the house 
 and gone to bed, when there was a ring at the gate. She 
 went down, and found Father Lowder waiting at the door 
 with a poor miserable woman whom he had saved from 
 throwing herself over the bridge, and whom he had brought 
 to the Sisters for shelter. It was a terrible sight, for the 
 poor creature was tearing, screaming, and throwing herself 
 about — a sight which few could look upon without their 
 faces expressing horror. But in the midst of their struggle 
 with the poor thing, the Sister said she could hardly help 
 staring at Mr. Lowder, for his face was absolutely shining 
 with love, compassion, and tenderness : there was nothing 
 else to be seen there ; it seemed, she said, as if fatherly pity 
 and yearning affection streamed down from his countenance 
 upon the poor lost one, as though he saw nothing but one 
 suffering and enslaved, felt nothing except longings to 
 comfort and to save her. "He came back again," the 
 Sister said, " the first thing in the morning to see after her, 
 and try and persuade her to something better." 
 
 No wonder that another should write : " I used long ago 
 to say to myself that if I were sunk in the depths of sin and 
 degradation, I should never fear him, or think that he would 
 turn from me,'* 
 
120 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 After his death one of his cousins wrote from Yoko- 
 hama : — 
 
 I never have forgotten and never shall forget the day when 
 first Cousin Charles came, and, singling me out from among my 
 eight hundred school-fellows, took my hand in his and made 
 himself my friend. That day, and the days I spent with him 
 at St. Barnabas' and subsequently at St. George's-in-the-East, are 
 among the few happy recollections of my school life. I loved 
 him, because I always felt that he loved and sympathized with me 
 though I was but a child. He never was angry with me, or 
 rebuked me, though I needed it often enough; but for that very 
 reason I dreaded to grieve him, and so was unconsciously led by 
 him. I feel that I owe more to him than to any one with whom I 
 was brought into contact in my early days, for he it was who first 
 implanted in my heart a manly spirit, by teaching me the true 
 courage of a good conscience. Thus has his influence been 
 carried to the very antipodes of his life's work. 
 
 How interested he used to be (another says) in all my little 
 silly affairs, ball-going, and nonsense of that sort, because it 
 interested me, I think the strongest point in his character, and 
 one not often met with, was his great " large-mindedness " — I do 
 not know how else to express it. I always think of him as one 
 ready and willing to "eat with publicans and sinners," and be 
 friends with them as well as with worldly people. Some good 
 men get on with worldly people, and like their society and that 
 of great people, but Mr. Lowder, without liking it or enjoying it 
 particularly, made himself one with all. What a simple, grand, 
 selfless nature it was ! his few faults all on the surface, and 
 altogether coming from his eager, buoyant nature. 
 
 It was this single-hearted simplicity which seems to 
 have most of all impressed good laymen who knew him 
 well. One of these, Mr. Charrington, who had been his 
 
PERSE VERANCE. 
 
 121 
 
 fcllow-student at King's College, and through whom, 
 eventually, he came to St. George's, says oi him— 
 
 He never turned about — always went straight before him. If 
 people opposed him he did not argue, but went on, turning 
 neither to right nor to left. He had all the odds against him 
 when he began his Mission, and I think one secret of his success 
 was his genial don/iomie and gentleness combined with perfect 
 courage. He knew what he meant to do, and went straight to 
 his point, I never heard him speak in a tone of complaint or 
 irritation ; he always made the best of things, although he must 
 have had very much more than falls to the lot of most of the 
 clergy of misrepresentation and obloquy to contend with. He 
 possessed immense moral courage, and when once he had de- 
 termined to undertake any particular work, he persevered un- 
 flinchingly, unless compelled to abandon it for want of sufficient 
 pecuniary support. How Mr. Lowder succeeded in maintaining 
 all the works of St. George's Mission (including the erection of 
 the beautiful church of St. Peter's and the schools) is almost 
 miraculous. Doubtless the incessant anxiety inseparable from 
 the work he had undertaken very materially weakened his con- 
 stitution, and shortened a life which, had it been passed in the 
 ease and natural charms of a country living, might have been 
 prolonged for many years. No one more thoroughly enjoyed the 
 beauties of Nature than Mr. Lowder. To him London had no 
 natural charms, and he was too glad when the opportunity pre- 
 sented itself to him of spending a portion of the last two or three 
 years of his active life in this place,* for which, and for its Rector 
 and inhabitants, he always felt a very sincere regard. 
 
 In Mr. Lowder the Sisters found a man they could work with, 
 and they have changed the whole character of the district where 
 they live. 
 
 Another layman, who knew him well, writes : — 
 
 * Qhislehuvst, 
 
122 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 It is now about thirty years since I first met Lowder. I was 
 then living at Stoke Newington, where the new district parish of 
 St. Matthias' had been formed, and we were intent upon building 
 a church. Mr. Brett, the founder of that work, drew round him, 
 at our anniversaries, many well-known Churchmen, and among 
 them, more than once, came Lowder. He was then a tall, 
 handsome young man, having the fearless eye and firmly set 
 mouth, the high spirit, combined with a genial sense of fun, that 
 we like to associate with our idea of the typical Englishman. 
 When, soon afterwards, we heard that he had left his West End 
 curacy, and had been sent to set up the banner of the Cross in 
 the most neglected quarter of the East of London, we felt that 
 he had many natural qualifications for the arduous task. He 
 attacked the strongholds of vice in Ratcliff Highway with the 
 same straightforward sense of duty and disregard of self with 
 which, had the weapon of his warfare been carnal, not spiritual, 
 he would have stormed an enemy's fortress. 
 
 One natural qualification, however, and that among the most 
 potent, he did not possess, and on that account, perhaps, the seal 
 of God's hand was the more clearly stamped upon his work. He 
 had no pretension to eloquence. He spoke earnestly, but often 
 with apparent difificulty. In the slow, discouraging process of 
 gaining the confidence of a people ignorant of religion and 
 suspicious of its ministers, he owed much to his transparent 
 sincerity, and to a bonhoinie which helped them to realize that, 
 in his mouth, the words " my brethren " were no mere con- 
 ventional form of address, but the expression of the love and 
 devotion of a life. 
 
 On the rare occasions when I was able to gain a few minutes 
 of his society in my own family circle, there was a delightful 
 geniality in his manner that made his little visits bright spots to 
 look upon ; and his affectionate interest in my wife, whom he had 
 known as a schoolgirl, and in our children, never flagged. 
 
 He v/as a very energetic worker. Frequently he would dash 
 into my office in the City, when abroad upon the never-ending 
 
PATIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
 
 123 
 
 labour of obtaining funds for his Mission works, write a few lines, 
 or in a few brief words give his message, and then depart as 
 rapidly as he came. I cannot remember one occasion on which 
 he was persuaded to remain for a few minutes' rest and refresh] 
 ment. And yet, withal, he never appeared despondent or im- 
 patient. It was always the same brave, cheerful countenance. 
 
 He used to make me feel ashamed by the cordial way in 
 which he always acknowledged my assistance, which was, in truth, 
 very trifling. It was almost entirely in connection with the ac- 
 counts of the income and expenditure of the Mission. These we 
 had to furnish annually, and sometimes it was a little difficult to 
 arrange them. I always had the most comfortable position his 
 rooms offered, and often he would place himself by my side in a 
 constrained attitude, and, with the perspiration standing on his 
 forehead, pore over the puzzling figures till we had reduced them 
 to order. This was very uncongenial work for him, and might 
 have been expected to bring out any latent pettiness of temper, 
 had such existed, but I can truly say that I never took leave of 
 him without feeling for him an increased love and veneration. 
 Of late years I noticed, with deep concern, that he suffered a 
 good deal from indigestion, and I think that he began to fear 
 lest his strength for the work, which still crowded upon him, 
 should fail him ; but his Master knew His faithful servant, and 
 spared him the sorrow of laying down his arms while life remained. 
 
 If one may so describe it (they are the words of another 
 friend), he had a way as it were of looking neither to the right nor 
 to the left, but straight on, with the one end always before him, 
 God's greater glory. I remember one anniversary six or seven 
 years ago j things were rather gloomy and funds very short : when 
 he was making his speech he said, " It makes no difference to 
 me whether I go away, or stay here and continue my work; I 
 merely wish to do God's will." This was no technical form of 
 speech with him, but the moving principle of his whole life in 
 small as well as great matters. 
 
124 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 He was always fair, and always a gentleman, and therefore 
 he was always respectfully listened to (another said, speaking cf 
 his attendance at public meetings). He entered enthusiastically 
 into all schemes for strengthening the Church, or promoting the 
 social happiness and welfare of the people, and he was keenly 
 interested in all the great questions of the day. He used to 
 hesitate a good deal in speaking, but his hesitation was v/ith a 
 purpose, for he brought out the right word in the proper place, 
 which cannot always be said of those who are more fluent. 
 
 One of his most marked qualities was his love for 
 children, and they were devoted to him. They never were 
 afraid of him, but always ran up to him whenever he 
 stopped in the street to speak to them, which he con- 
 stantly did. There was soon a little group round him, 
 and he used to gather the little ones inside his cloak. 
 The day before he left the parish for the last time, he was 
 playing with some tiny things in the street, and, wrapping 
 his cloak round them, he brought them into the Clergy 
 House, and gave each some strawberries which had been 
 sent to him, to their great delight. At such times, or when 
 he went away for his holiday, he threw off his cares and 
 was another man. A layman who helped him occasionally 
 says — 
 
 One day, during the Mission of 1874, I saw him come out of 
 church after Evensong. There were a number of children in the 
 church — not trim little country children with rosy faces, but the 
 poor little half-clad children of the London Docks, — and they came 
 crowding round him. Three or four took hold of the corners and 
 edge of his long cloak, and spread it out like a tent, while half a 
 dozen more crept underneath, laughing and shouting and struggling ; 
 and so he went down the street with all the rest at his heels, to the 
 utter amazement of two rather precise-looking country parsons who 
 
LOVE 01- TRAVEL. 
 
 125 
 
 had come to see what was going on at St. Peter's, and who stood 
 watching him and exclaiming, "Why, they're all round him !" 
 
 In the Guild of St. Katherlne, which was for the elder 
 girls, and of which he had the charge, he took the greatest 
 interest, drawing up their rules and the office which they 
 used once a month. He used to come to their meetings 
 and keep them all merry with odd dry jokes or amusing 
 stories. On their annual festival he spent the whole evening 
 with them, entering into all their amusements with almost 
 boyish freshness ; he was full of fun when once he threw 
 off his cares, and in teaching them how to get up charades 
 used to become almost as excited as they were. 
 ^ One of his curates who travelled with him wrote — 
 
 No one could say he really knew Father Lowder who had 
 merely seen him within his own parish. There he was indeed 
 "the Father," to whom every one looked up with mingled 
 reverence and love ; but to most, at least during the latter years 
 of his ministry, he Vi^as a man absorbed in his work and ascetic in 
 his habits, though underneath that apparent frigidity not a few had 
 learnt how warm was the heart that beat, and deep the power of 
 sympathy with the sorrows of others. Still it was necessary to 
 have seen him far away from the oppressing cares and anxieties 
 of his parish to discover what he was made of. 
 
 I had the pleasure of travelling for a month with him in the 
 summer of 1873. It was my first visit to the Continent, and 
 I found in him an excellent cicerone. 
 
 What struck me most in that tour was the complete change 
 ' which came over the man ; he was the high-spirited, light-hearted, 
 congenial companion, at one time fairly beating the guide by the 
 I pace he. walked (the man actually refused to go further with us), 
 or, as on that same day, after eight or nine hours' hard tramp, 
 and after having been wetted through and through by a terrific 
 
126 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 thunderstorm, running the whole way down the zigzag path 
 leading from the summit of the Brevent into Chamounix. Yet, 
 despite the unclerical garb he assumed in walking, consisting 
 of a white flannel suit and straw hat, no one would have doubted 
 what he was, and I felt not a little proud of being companion 
 to one who, wherever we went, attracted so much attention on 
 account of his noble, saintly face, and dignified, courteous manner. 
 
 " The Father " was certainly the bravest man I ever met j I 
 do not think he knew what fear was. He was passionately 
 fond of all athletic exercises, such as riding, rowing, and skating, 
 and above all of mountaineering, in which he frequently won 
 the admiration of his guides. This natural gift of courage 
 supported him in the tremendous difficulties of his work at the 
 Docks. The half-savage denizens of that part soon learnt to 
 respect a man whom they had seen stopping many a street fight, 
 or facing an infuriated mob, or ministering to the bodily and 
 spiritual wants of the victims to Asiatic cholera, sometimes 
 carrying the sufferers in his arms to the hospital. It was true 
 courage, and of the highest type, the spirit of the Christian 
 martyrs of old, which enabled him to live down the fanatical 
 opposition that raged against the introduction of Catholic truth 
 into their midst, and to stand firm when his own fellow-workers 
 more than once deserted him. He despised popularity, and 
 never shrank from anything he considered a duty for fear of man 
 on the one hand, or to secure good opinion on the other. An 
 old friend, in allusion to this, has instanced the calm way in which 
 he would say his office with uncovered head in a crowded railway 
 carriage, or " say grace " in some equally crowded dining-room in 
 the City. And yet, with all this, he took the lead, and men of all 
 grades in society naturally gave way to him, and were ready to 
 follow him, trusting to his intrepid spirit and undeviating rectitude 
 of purpose. 
 
 Among his own people he was king; he took the lead in 
 every work, and when not actually engaged in it — away, it might 
 be, on the Continent — it was felt that he overlooked and directed 
 
REVERENCE. 
 
 127 
 
 us all. The secret of his ascendency over his subordinate workers, 
 clerical and lay, was that we knew he never asked another to do 
 what he would not do himself, and that he never shrank from any 
 work because he knew that it was not exactly that in which he 
 shone. As an instance of this, I remember one Lent he showed 
 us an anonymous letter he had received from some one in Old 
 Gravel Lane, suggesting that the congregation would be better 
 pleased if he were to ask either of two of the assistant clergy, 
 whose names were mentioned, to preach the "Three Hours' 
 Agony " on Good Friday instead of himself. He said so humbly, 
 and without any expression of anger tov/ards the writer, " I know 
 I cannot preach as well as you, but I think it my duty to preach 
 on that day." In the same spirit he would always listen atten- 
 tively and humbly to the sermons and instructions of his young 
 curates, and hardly ever criticised what he had heard from them. 
 
 He never shrank, however, from administering a rebuke when 
 he thought it was required, and sometimes, as we thought, at in- 
 opportune times ; but I am sure it cost him real pain, and was 
 done from a stern sense of duty. It was no slight tribute to his 
 personal character that men would take such public rebukes 
 from him, which they would have resented keenly from any one 
 else. 
 
 In all religious ministrations he was intensely reverent ; 
 never rapid or hurried, a matter of great importance when 
 the congregation was chiefly composed of poor. They 
 often spoke of the difference between him and others in 
 this respect. "I never knew before how beautiful that 
 chapter is," one of his people said ; " when I went home I 
 read it for myself, but it was nothing the same, I wish the 
 Father would always read the lessons ; he makes the Bible 
 speak." The poor people used to say, " I don't like to come 
 in late to church when the Father is there, for even if his 
 back is turned I feel he knows it." He used to impress 
 
I2S 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 upon them to be very careful about their thanksgiving after 
 Holy Communion, and not to hurry out of church directly 
 the service was over. 
 
 One of his curates who worked with him to the end 
 has written the few notes of recollection which follow : — 
 
 His extreme reverence in prayer at all times was most re- 
 markable ; his attitude at such times, and especially when kneeling 
 down for his prayer before preaching, was in itself a sermon ; at 
 such times a very calm and sweet smile would play on his 
 features. A priest who saw him on the last Sunday that he spent 
 at St. Peter's, said to me that he had often observed this, but 
 never so strongly as on this last Sunday. I remember some 
 years since, when walking with him on Chislehurst Common, 
 he proposed our saying our office together : he was just as recol- 
 lected and devout then as if he were in church or in our oratory 
 at home. And this reverence was ever the same, however great 
 his fatigue, especially during the last year of his life. Shortly 
 before leaving England, when much wearied with a school 
 excursion, we said our Evensong and Compline together; in 
 spite of his fatigue, there was no lounging or want of the same 
 reverent posture which always so remarkably distinguished 
 him. 
 
 He was scarcely ever to be seen really vexed ; but I remember 
 once, in 1874, when there was a serious overflow of the Thames, 
 and he had been working up to his knees in water for some hours, 
 carrying the children out of school, we had got him some hot 
 brandy and water : he seemed really annoyed at what he thought 
 any fuss being made. But his care for others was as great as 
 his want of care for himself ; if he thought any of the clergy in 
 the house were ill, he was always the first to make them rest 
 
 To know him was indeed to love him ; and the viore you 
 knew of him the greater grew the love. The name of "the 
 Father " but expresses what he was to all, priests and people too. 
 He was always the same — stern, people often thought him, but 
 
SELF-CONTROL. 
 
 129 
 
 never so in reality, full of warm love and sympathy for and 
 with all. 
 
 He thoroughly hated all unreality, and " Ritualism," so-called, 
 was extremely distasteful to him ; he loved a grand ceremonial 
 because it was to him the outward expression of truths he held 
 most sacred, and a means of impressing them on the uneducated. 
 
 He never passed over any fault or mistake in those who 
 worked with him ; and would, perhaps weeks after, abruptly and 
 in the middle of the meal, ask why this or that was done or not 
 done, as the case might be, something he had noticed, but had 
 omitted to speak of at the time. He was so thoroughly just and 
 fair, that one could always receive in good part anything he might 
 say. He never shrank from speaking what he thought, whoever 
 the person might be whom he had to reprove. 
 
 This sketch of Charles Lowder's character may be 
 concluded in the following words of his only brother, and 
 of the friend under whom he first worked in London : — 
 
 In writing freely of my brother, I may say what I think others 
 have said elsewhere, that his natural gifts, tliough of a high order, 
 would not have won him the esteem or the success which he 
 attained. Though a sufficiently good classical scholar to take a 
 second class, his tastes were not literary. He talked comparatively 
 little, and was not great at general conversation, though he was 
 neither uninterested nor unacquainted with what was going on 
 around him. It was a real pleasure to him to be in ladies' society, 
 and no one was more courteous. In the early part of his clerical 
 career, which really began at Tetbury, his chief interest was shown 
 in the schools, and in the teaching of the elder boys, some of 
 whom turned out remarkably well. I do not think he had any 
 special taste for ritual as such ; it was to him a means of teaching 
 the great Catholic verities. It was an iron will, exercised first on 
 himself, and a constant control over himself in both word and 
 deed, which made him all that he was. Hence he had, to the 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 best of my belief, none of these sins which overtake young men 
 in their college days, either of extravagance or self-indulgence, or 
 worse, to trouble him with their remembrance. He was essentially 
 pure, upright, and conscientious, and also very simple and really 
 devout ; as a boy I noticed this. He erred in judging others, in 
 his early days at least, by his own standard, and thus appeared 
 often severe, brusque, abrupt, and wanting in sympathy. He was 
 too true to pay compliments, or even to appear to be giving praise. 
 Hence he often made people afraid of him, without cause. After 
 he solemnly gave himself up to his Mission work, he never looked 
 back. He chose poverty, misery, and unsightliness for his 
 sphere, and he only indulged his love for scenery in his holidays. 
 His choice made him a celibate ; it was, I believe, a real self-denial 
 *-o him, for he was not without those natural feelings which make a 
 man desire companionship, a home, and the pleasure of children. 
 But the secret of his life was the simplicity with which he obeyed 
 his Master's call : " Take up thy cross, and follow Me." 
 
 All who knew him intimately knew another thing about him — 
 that, while one secret of his influence over others was his almost 
 habitual joyousness, his solid piety was the secret of his joyous- 
 ness. "Out of the same vessel," as an ancient writer puts it, 
 "flowed forth oil and honey — the oil of goodness, the honey of 
 joy." With that writer, we cannot but admire the spiritual 
 warrior, how " from the rock of patience he drew forth, at one 
 and the same moment, honey and oil ; how his mercy towards 
 the vicious suffered no diminution from their vice, and his joy in 
 labouring for them lost nothing by his own suffering; nay, how 
 his mercy and his joy were alike increased — ex dolore deledatio, ex 
 passione compassio." This was eminently the case with Charles 
 Lowder. He was a workman who did his part, for God's glory, 
 and not for man's approval; and he did it promptly, bravely, 
 patiently, and humbly. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WORK IN THE MISSION DISTRICTS. 
 1856-1S60. 
 
 "To love and bear ; to hope till Hope creates 
 From its own wreck the thing it contemplates." 
 
 Soon after Charles Lowder had made his home in Calvert 
 Street, he was joined by two clergymen, Mr. Collins and 
 Mr. de Burgh, and by two laymen intending to take orders. 
 They lived, indeed, " in the rough " at first, and perhaps it 
 may be said that from this time Mr. Lowder never lived in 
 any other way. 
 
 There are just two rooms, one on either side of the 
 little entrance passage of the house in Calvert Street where 
 the clergy of St. Peter's still live ; one of these was Mr. 
 Lowder's sitting-room and library, the other the common 
 dining-room. Over these are two rooms occupied by two 
 curates, and on the third story two more, one a ciirate's 
 room, the other the Vicar's bedroom. It is hard to imagine 
 anything more homely, simple, and without ornament than 
 this Mission House. In 1856 the clergy also occupied what 
 is now the adjoining Sisters' house, and the first thing done 
 was to open a room in the latter, licensed by the Bishop, 
 for daily prayers and frequent preaching. " Here," Mr, 
 
(32 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Lowder wrote, " was gradually gathered a little congrega- 
 tion." 
 
 This room is now used as the Sisters' oratory, and on 
 the altar lies the little wooden crucifix which the priest 
 at Zell-am-See placed in Charles Lowder's hands after his 
 death, and gave to his sister. 
 
 A little choir of boys was formed ; the first choir boy, 
 who was caught in the street, tamed, taught, and brought 
 to Confirmation and Communion, is still living, with his wife 
 and children, in the parish. 
 
 But a larger place of worship was urgently needed, and 
 on the Thursday before Advent in 1856 a temporary iron 
 chapel, which had been built in the garden of the Mission 
 House, was dedicated, under the name of " the Chapel of 
 the Good Shepherd." Here, from the first, the daily 
 Eucharist was celebrated — on Sundays at eight and eleven, 
 on week-days at seven. The chapel was soon thronged, 
 and the band of communicants whom Mr. Lowder left at 
 St. Peter's began gradually to be formed as, one after 
 another, those whose hearts had been touched were care- 
 fully taught in classes held for Confirmation candidates, and 
 for instruction in the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 There seems to have been no excitement connected 
 with these conversions, but when once Mr. Lowder got 
 hold of a man, he did not let him go, and the work became 
 real and solid. Mr. Bryan King wrote of the "over- 
 whelming force " with which the issue of twenty-four years' 
 labour and trial was brought to his heart on the day of Mr. 
 Lowder's funeral, September 17, 1880. "I could only call 
 to mind," he added, " some five or six communicants of the 
 church as resident within the present parish of St. Peter 
 
VISITS TO ST. BARNABAS'. 
 
 on the formation of the Mission, whereas at present their 
 number is, I beHeve, about five hundred." 
 To his mother Charles Lowder wrote : — 
 
 Mission House, February 6, 1857. 
 I was obliged to be at St. Barnabas' again on Wednesday, and 
 in the evening I was presented with a most beautiful testimonial, 
 in the shape of a complete service of gilt Communion plate for 
 private celebrations, but large enough for our present use in the 
 chapel. The box itself forms an altar with a consecrated slab, 
 and super-altar with candlesticks and cross. Some of the pieces 
 are gifts of particular friends : the cruets are given by the poor ; 
 Mr. Liddell gave the chalice ; so that it forms a very interesting 
 memorial of my connection with St. Barnabas', and, as we shall 
 use it here, a connecting link between the two. When you come 
 up I shall like to show it you. Mr. Liddell's speech in presenting 
 it was so kind that I really felt completely overcome, and scarcely 
 knew what to say. The thaw commenced here yesterday, and of 
 course the streets are dreadfully dirty. It is of no use asking you 
 to be careful in walking out, for you seem to enjoy your tumbles, 
 but you may meet with one too many. 
 
 Your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 From this time Mr. Lowder went every year to the feast 
 for rich and poor at St. Barnabas' on the dedication-day. A 
 friend who was always present said that it was most re- 
 markable to see how all faces beamed when he entered the 
 room, especially those of the poor, and how one shout of 
 welcome and applause greeted him. Hardly any other 
 name was cheered at that feast as his was, and just as 
 warmly after he had been absent for years as on his first 
 reappearance after leaving St. Barnabas'. " I can see him 
 now," his friend says, " catching up our tiny M on his 
 
134 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 shoulder, and carrying her round the room to make the 
 quite, after dinner was over, for the poor children in the 
 schools to have their day in the country. Mr. Lowder 
 always made this quite himself." 
 
 Women's help was of course needed, and this was given 
 at first by two ladies, who took lodgings in the districts, 
 where they taught a small school, and also visited the poor. 
 They tried to persuade mothers to bring their children to 
 be baptised ; but the ignorance of the people was so great 
 that they seemed to think that Baptism was something like 
 vaccination, and asked if it would hurt them. 
 
 In the spring of 1S57, Dr. Neale's sister offered her 
 services, and began to form a Sisterhood in connection 
 with the Mission. There was indeed much to cheer on 
 the brave Missioners. They had begun their work in the 
 south-east part of St. George's parish, in a district cut 
 off from the rest by the Docks, and, with part of Wapping 
 and Shadwell, forming an island.* About six months 
 later, a promising beginning of another Mission was 
 made in the western part of St. George's parish, at 
 Wellclose Square. Here a church, originally built for a 
 Danish congregation in 1696, became vacant ; and, being 
 admirably situated for Mission purposes, Mr. Lowder 
 determined to secure it for the Church of England. He 
 rented it from the trustees, and began services in it in 
 Lent, 1857. Soon after Easter, it was formally opened, when 
 the sermon was preached by the late Dean Stanley. Mr. 
 Lowder seems to have thought that this would eventually 
 form the head-quarters of the Mission. It fell out other- 
 wise, but at this time, just nine months after he had left St 
 
 * Now the parish of St. Peter's-in-the-East. 
 
LETTER FROM BISHOP WILBERFORCE. 
 
 Barnabas', there were four clergy working in the Mission^ 
 two at Wellclose Square, and two at Calvert Street. He 
 determined, to save the expense of two establishments, that 
 the clergy should all live in the Mission House which had 
 been taken in Wellclose Square ; so, abandoning his first 
 quarters in Calvert Street, he gave them up to the Sisters, 
 some of whom have remained there ever since. 
 
 It was just at this time that Bishop Wilberforce wrote 
 to Canon Butler ; — 
 
 I quite long to go and cast myself into that Mission ; ... if 
 only now we had a Bishop of London who would go and spend a 
 day or two in Wapping with those zealous men, what might we 
 not do ? * 
 
 To Mr. Lowder the Bishop wrote : — 
 
 The Athenceurn, May 21, 1857. 
 
 My dear Mr. Lowder, 
 
 I enclose you a letter from a young man of whom I 
 know nothing but that he has written to me stating that he is a 
 Roman Catholic, highly connected, but penniless, who longs to 
 enter our Church's Orders and work on Catholic grounds. 
 
 You will remember that I know nothing of him. But if you 
 can inquire (which I have no means of doing), a zealous work- 
 man seems to me too precious a thing to be lost. 
 
 I cannot write this without adding that I have received from 
 my dear friend, VV. Butler, a most deeply interesting account of his 
 visit to you. I beseech you, for Christ's sake, whilst you give all 
 possible liberty to this great movement with which you are so 
 identified, yet zealously to watch to keep it truly Church of 
 England. 
 
 If there is anything in which I can aid you, without in the 
 slightest degree interfering with the Bishop of London, call upon 
 
 * "Life of Bishop Wilberforce," vol. ii., p. 341. 
 
136 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 me for aid. Two things only occur to me — secret alms and secret 
 intercessions ; for the first, call on me when you want help ; for 
 the second, I will try to offer them for you ; for even though you 
 are not in my diocese, you may count on my hearty sympathy in 
 such a work as yours. 
 
 I am, ever very truly yours, 
 
 S. OXON. 
 
 Nothing could be kinder than the words with which 
 the new Bishop elect of London had welcomed and 
 sanctioned the missionary movement in the diocese to 
 which he had just been called, as his first letter to Mr. 
 Lewder will show : — 
 
 9, Plain Parade, Brighton, November 13, 1856. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Let me thank you for sending me the earnest expres- 
 sions expressive of the feelings with which you have undertaken 
 your difficult part in St. George's-in-the-East. 
 
 I sincerely trust that God may bless all earnest and single- 
 hearted efforts to spread the Gospel of His Son through the masses 
 of the metropolis. You certainly may rely on my readiness to 
 give what aid my guidance and advice afford. 
 
 I doubt not that God will so direct the zeal of those who seek 
 Him earnestly in prayer, as to save them from any dangerous 
 errors in doctrine or practice. 
 
 And though there may be many zealous men in the diocese to 
 which God has called me, from whom I must greatly differ, I still 
 trust that I may be a fellow-worker with all who love the Lord 
 Jesus Christ in sincerity. 
 
 Mr. King has communicated with me respecting the chapel to 
 be opened. I have put him in communication with Mr. Lee, of 
 Dean's Yard, and I hope all the legal difficulties may speedily be 
 arranged, when I shall be very glad to see the chapel secured as a 
 chapel-of-ease. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 A. C. London (Elect). 
 
DISPUTED RITUAL. 
 
 jp.S. — It seems to me that you are right not to defer the 
 commencement of your work in your new chapel longer than 
 absolutely necessary. My engagements with the candidates for 
 ordination, and with the sermons I have already undertaken to 
 preach, fill up my time till the close of this year. I hope to be 
 settled at 37, Lowndes Square, after the 23rd, my consecration. 
 On the 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th, I shall be occupied from eleven 
 to three with candidates for ordination, but I would gladly 
 arrange for an interview with you at any other time after my con- 
 secration, say on Monday, the 24th, at a quarter before eleven. I 
 should wish, if possible, that Mr. King and you should see me 
 together, and explain the connection of the Mission with the 
 parish church. I therefore name the day and hour when Mr. 
 King is to see me respecting the new chapel; but should you 
 prefer a longer interview, I shall keep myself disengaged on 
 Wednesday, the 26th, at three. 
 
 No one can fairly charge Charles Lowder with dis- 
 loyalty to that much-abused principle the " law." So 
 anxious was he to act honestly within, the limits of the 
 judgment of 1857, that he applied to Sir Frederick 
 Thesiger, Q.C., afterwards Lord Chelmsford, and to Dr. 
 Deane, Q.C., for an opinion as to how far the vestments 
 and lights were covered by it, before continuing to use 
 them. It is only necessary to give the conclusions of the 
 opinion which is published verbatim by Mr. Brooks on 
 " Disputed Ritual Ornaments and Usages," under sanction 
 of the E.C.U. 
 
 I. Upon the question of Dress, we are of opinion that the 
 present Prayer-book, taken in conjunction with the First Prayer- 
 book of Edward VI., sanctions the use of the Vestments worn by 
 Mr. Lowder in the ministration of Holy Communion, and that he 
 may, in executing the holy ministry, lawfully put on a white Alb 
 plain, with a vestment, and that such dress is according to the 
 
138 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, made and pub- 
 lished by authority of Pariiament. 
 
 2. On the whole, we are of opinion that two Lights on the 
 Communion Table are not forbidden by Law, and that Mr. 
 Lowder may continue the use of such Lights. But in this matter, 
 as well as in that of Dress, usage to the contrary has so long pre- 
 vailed, that we do not consider that he is liable to punishment or 
 censure for celebrating the Holy Communion without Lights. 
 
 (Signed) Frederick Thesiger. 
 
 J. Parker Deane. 
 
 Temple, May 23, 1857. 
 
 There were, however, those who were on the watch to 
 stir up difficulties, and in May, 1857, the Bishop wrote 
 to him, saying that representations had been made to him 
 concerning " dresses and ceremonies " used in the Mission 
 chapel and in the church at Wellclose Square ; and he 
 desired that no " dresses " except the ordinaiy surplice 
 should be worn at Holy Communion, that candles should 
 not be lighted unless the darkness required it, that no 
 " coverings " should be placed upon the altar except such 
 as he (the Bishop) personally approved of, that no cross 
 should be set upon the altar or " depicted on the wall 
 behind it," and that no processions should be made " with- 
 out the church or chapel." 
 
 The Bishop wrote that these instructions were not 
 grounded upon the law of the Church — indeed, he had but 
 lately officially concurred in the Knightsbridge judgment, 
 affirming the legality of vestments — but upon his fears 
 of " approximation to Romanism " and " mimicking of 
 Popery ; " and he expressed his opinion that " those foolish 
 ritual observances necessarily tend to confound our minis- 
 trations with those of Roman Catholic priests." 
 
LETTER TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON. 
 
 It is necessary to say thus much as to the Bishop's 
 action, in order to explain the following letters, which are 
 important, as giving Mr. Lowder's convictions in his own 
 words. The copies of the letters are in his own hand- 
 writing ; the first is undated, but the reference to Mr, King 
 proves that it was written about the same time as the 
 second letter. 
 
 . . . Mr. King informs me that your lordship has expressed 
 some doubt as to the legal obligation of the chasuble and altai 
 lights. I trust that we may be enabled to remove these doubts 
 when we next see your lordship. But without waiving this point, 
 I think we may claim some attention on the ground of expediency. 
 Here, my Lord, are a few clergy undertaking a work of acknow- 
 ledged importance, of vast difficulty, and requiring self-denial, 
 patience, faith, and hopefulness. They have been invited in a 
 very providential manner into a parish, of which before they knew 
 nothing, but where there is a wide and unoccupied field for their 
 labour, where they have the entire confidence and good will of 
 the Rector, who approves of their principles, and who would 
 not willingly give his sanction to the carrying out of any others. 
 Those principles I have already set before your lordship ; they 
 are the principles of the Catholic Church, as taught in the Creeds, 
 Liturgy, and ritual of the Church of England. Our system is a 
 consistent one, to preach the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ as the 
 Church has ever received it ; not only in our sermons, but in the 
 visible teaching of sacraments and ritual observances. To narrow 
 our liberty in carrying out this system, or to mutilate it in points 
 which to your lordship may seem unimportant, but which to us 
 are most important, is to weaken and abridge when we so much 
 need strength and elasticity — is to deprive those who have the 
 work to do of that spring and energy which result from con- 
 fidence in the truth and consistency of their teaching. 
 
 To put it even on a lower ground, the Church permits us these 
 
140 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 ceremonies and outward expressions of devotion; and we like them, 
 
 and find them a help to our own devotion and that of our people. 
 Is it too much to claim from your lordship and the world in 
 general that we should be allowed the comfort of them in a work 
 which requires us to give up other comforts, so that what we 
 willingly resign in our own houses we should enjoy in our 
 churches ? We adopt a system which we conscientiously believe 
 the Church gives us ; we adopt it as a whole ; why should we be 
 continually fretted by the denial of parts which, in our conscien- 
 tious opinion, are necessary to the unity of that system ? 
 
 Your lordship has received the charge of an immense diocese, 
 containing hundreds of thousands of unconverted souls. We, in 
 all humility, offer to do what God in His mercy may enable us for 
 a few thousand of these. We desire to do it as the Holy Spirit 
 leads us in the Church's way. We neither judge nor hinder others 
 who may be led to try some other way. We do not ask your 
 lordship to commit yourself to any principles of which you may 
 disapprove, but merely to permit an experiment, not forbidden by 
 the Church, to be carried out by those who have the heart to do 
 it. Surely, in such a diocese, in such a work, there is room for 
 us all without hindering one another. Evidently something more 
 elastic and energetic is wanting than the old parochial system ; 
 are we to fall back upon Wesleyanism, or on the Catholic teaching 
 of our Church ? 
 
 If your lordship fears lest such a system should lead to 
 Romanism, I can only say that I have had some experience of 
 these principles, having taught them as well as I knew for thir- 
 teen years, during which period I do not remember more than 
 two instances of persons belonging to the working classes being 
 induced to leave the Church of England for the Roman com- 
 munion : one was a young person who had been led to the 
 Oratory out of curiosity, and whom I succeeded in convincing of 
 her error ; another, a poor woman, who was induced by secondary 
 motives, but has so far acknowledged her fault as to leave her 
 children in the Church of England, and will probably soon return 
 
PLEA FOR TOLERANCE. 
 
 141 
 
 herself. No, my lord, I find that with all our ritual and dog- 
 matic teaching we have great difficulty in raising them to the 
 standard of good and consistent members of the Church of 
 England ; there is not much fear of their getting beyond that. 
 Protestantism is still very strong in England. That your lord- 
 ship may be guided by the Holy Spirit in encouraging rather than 
 checking a work undertaken in all sincerity for the glory of God 
 and the salvation of souls, is the sincere prayer of, etc. 
 
 Mission House, Calvert Street, Wapping, E., May 2, 1857. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Having understood from Mr. de Burgh that it is your 
 lordship's wish that the chasuble should not be worn in the 
 celebration of Holy Eucharist by the clergy of St. George's 
 Mission, I beg most respectfully to submit to your lordship that 
 we have always worn it here, since the opening of the Iron 
 Church, in entire conformity with your lordship's strict injunc- 
 tions to us, at our first interview, that we should obey the law. 
 The Privy Council, in the late judgment, having expressly laid 
 down that the rubric in the First Book of King Edward was the 
 rule for ornaments and dresses of the ministers, and since that 
 directs that, " At the time of the Holy Communion, the priest 
 that shall execute the holy ministry shall put upon him the vesture 
 appointed for that ministration, i.e. a white albe plain, with a vest- 
 ment or cope, and the assistant priests and deacons shall likewise 
 have upon them the vestures appointed for their ministry, i.e. 
 albes vrith tunicles," and since also the present rubric before 
 Morning Prayer directs " that such ornaments of the ministers at 
 all times of their ministration shall be retained and be in use," 
 I do not understand, my lord, what alternative is left for us. We 
 are simply obeying the law, a law directly binding upon our con- 
 sciences, and, moreover, involving a principle for which I am pre- 
 pared — and, thank God, not myself alone, but very many others 
 of the most earnest clergy in the Church of England, are prepared 
 also — to sacrifice everything, the honour and dignity of the 
 Blessed Sacrament of our dear Lord's Body and Blood. 
 
142 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 The Church of England has ruled that this holy service should 
 be distinguished from all others by the dress of the celebrant and 
 his assistant ministers. Can your lordship really desire those who 
 are conscientiously resolved so to distinguish it both by their teach- 
 ing and devotion, to break the law of the Church in this respect? 
 
 It is not, my lord, a question now of forcing changes of ritual 
 upon an unwilling congregation ; we have an entirely new congre- 
 gation to form, and I can truly say that I have never heard of a 
 single person in this district being offended by our wearing the 
 chasuble. On the contrary, our solemn celebrations of the Holy 
 Communion, especially at seasons like Christmas, New Year, and 
 Easter Eves, have made great impression on those who had never 
 thus felt Christ preached to them ; and we trace many conversions 
 from these occasions. 
 
 We are making a great venture for the salvation of souls ; 
 the only prospect of permanent success is, so far as I can under- 
 stand, in carrying out those principles which I submitted to your 
 lordship in my second letter — the setting forth, in all its fulness, 
 the love of Jesus Christ and His grace in the sacraments and 
 ordinances of His Church. I should have no heart myself to 
 work on any other principles, nor could I expect God's blessing 
 were I to attempt it. I believe that the measure of success 
 with which God has prospered us, has been entirely owing to 
 our faithful adherence to these principles in the spirit of love and 
 charity. I desire not to judge others , thank God I have never 
 interfered with any who were earnestly striving to win souls ; but 
 I do ask your lordship to extend to us that liberty in keeping 
 the Church's laws which the world claims for those who are con- 
 tinually breaking them. Some of us may err sometimes in excess 
 of devotion, but surely this is better than chilling neglect and 
 careless irreverence. I trust, my lord, that I have said nothing in 
 this letter inconsistent with that respect for your office and person 
 which is sincerely felt by 
 
 Your lordship's faithful servant, 
 
 C. F. LoWDER. 
 
 P.S. — I should perhaps mention to your lordship that I had 
 
PLAIN LIVING. ' 143 
 
 intended to leave London as early as I could next week for a 
 fortnight's rest, which I believe is necessary for me, but of course, 
 if yolr lordship wished it, I would delay my journey. 
 
 Ultimately no change was made in the manner of con- 
 ducting divine service at St. George's Mission. 
 
 Mr. Rowley, who was afterwards ordained, and went 
 with Bishop Mackenzie to Africa, had joined the Mission 
 in Calvert Street early in 1857, taking charge of a school 
 for boys in Old Gravel Lane, while the girls and infants 
 were taught by the Sisters. The story of those early days, 
 which he has been kind enough to supply, is too interesting 
 to be omitted. He writes : — 
 
 When I joined the Mission I did not expect to lead an easy 
 life, yet I had not thought that the domestic arrangements of the 
 Mission House would be so well calculated to make one endure hard- 
 ness. The furniture was scanty and of the plainest description, 
 and until I became used to it my bedstead was a trial to the flesh, 
 for the mattress was so thin that the iron laths were painfully 
 perceptible to the touch. But there was not a more luxurious 
 couch in the house. 
 
 The members of the Mission had their meals in common. There 
 was food enough, yet very little room was left, either in the quantity 
 or quality of it, for the practice of self-denial. Nevertheless days 
 of abstinence and fasting were not ignored. As time went on it 
 was found that a more generous diet was needed in order to main- 
 tain health and fitness for work, the physical atmospliere of the 
 Mission districts being most depressing. For instance, a large 
 soap and candle maker's establishment was just opposite to the 
 Mission House ; the dust-yard of the parish was close to it ; an 
 animal charcoal maker's premises were not far from it ; the water 
 of the Docks, which in the summer sometimes seemed to putrefy, 
 almost surrounded it; from the sewer gratings there came the 
 
144 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 most abominable of odours, foi, the district of Calvert Street being 
 below high-water mark, twice a day the debouchments of the 
 sewer were closed, and the smells from the houses were generally 
 most unsavoury. 
 
 But the place might have been a paradise of sweetness for 
 any manifestation of discomfort that Mr. Lowder made; yet, as 
 I afterwards discovered, his olfactory nerves were exceedingly 
 sensitive. 
 
 Just before I joined, the forces of the Mission had been 
 divided. The Rev. H. Collins, the Rev. Hubert de Burgh, and 
 a Mr. Flesher, a Cambridge man, who then intended to take 
 Holy Orders, had removed to a house in Wellclose Square, in 
 order that the services in the Danish Church, which had been 
 rented by the Mission, might be the more conveniently under- 
 taken, and the district nominally assigned to this church be the 
 more conveniently worked. With Mr. Lowder in the Calvert 
 Street house, there were the Rev. W. Burn ; Mr. H. Martin, who 
 also was staying at the Mission with the view of there passing the 
 time between the taking of his degi-ee and his ordination; Mr. 
 Drew, an elderly gentleman who acted as chief of the commis- 
 sariat, etc., and myself. 
 
 Between the clergy at Wellclose Square and at Calvert Street 
 there was at first a not infrequent interchange of duty, but gradually 
 it became apparent that a more serious division than that which was 
 made by dividing the forces was to be feared. Not one word on 
 this subject to my knowledge escaped Mr. Lowder's lips, but the 
 adherents of Messrs. Collins and De Burgh were not so reticent. 
 
 The Rev. H. Collins was a remarkable man, an enthusiast, 
 and able to excite enthusiasm, a sweet-dispositioned man, with 
 wnning ways and great readiness of speech. His very peculiari- 
 ties — and he had many — were attractive, for though with reference 
 to dress he sometimes set at nought all conventional ideas, he 
 did so with such simplicity that, even while tempted to laugh at 
 him, you were drawn more closely to him. He regarded the so- 
 called " religious life " as indispensably necessary to satisfactory 
 
COXGREGATIOIl IN CALVERT STREET. 
 
 work amongst the neglected people in the East of London ; but 
 in the cultivation of that life he sought the aid of the masters of 
 devotion in the Romish rather than in the English Church, and 
 his preaching and manner of life exhibited a similar tendency. 
 
 Mr. Lowder's appreciation of the value of the "religious life" 
 was, I am sure, as intense as that of Mr. Collins, and in his fer- 
 vent desire for the unity of Christendom I think he might have 
 been willing to make concessions to Rome which very few English 
 Churchmen would think desirable ; but he had no desire to leave 
 the communion of the English Church, and he held on his Avay 
 sturdily and steadily, working and praying, and hoping that by his 
 work and prayers some approach to that unity for which he longed 
 might be made. 
 
 I do not know this from any formal communication from him 
 to myself, but I gathered it from occasional observations of his, 
 and from the whole course of his life during the time I was 
 appointed with him. 
 
 The congregations in Calvert Street and at Wellclose Square 
 were hot large; that of the former was dra^vn from the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood, while that of the latter was mainly com- 
 posed of people, mostly young men and women, drawn from 
 other districts. Every effort was made, by means of outdoor 
 preaching on Sundays, frequent daily services, and personal invita- 
 tions, to get the people to come to church, but for a time it 
 seemed almost without effect. Now and then a poor soul borne 
 down by care, hard work, ill usage, or poverty, having been 
 touched by the kindness shown by the Sisters or other members of 
 the Mission, or pricked to the heart by what had been preached in 
 the streets, would slink into church ; but it was long before what 
 could be called a congregation was really formed in Calvert Street, 
 Mr. Lowder was not an eloquent man, though he never preached 
 written sermons, and for months after I joined the Mission the 
 substance of his sermons seemed to me to be ill calculated to 
 attract the kind of people amongst whom we lived. Self-sacrifice, 
 the giving up all for Christ, was his constant theme, and it was 
 
 L 
 
T46 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 treated in such a way that I was not surprised when a man who 
 sometimes attended our services said to me, " You men are very 
 good men, I dare say, but your goodness is not for such as we. 
 You make religion too hard. Why, you preach to me as though I 
 was all soul and no body, when I know and feel every day of my 
 life that I have got a body, and that it makes claims upon me 
 that I can't set aside." 
 
 His sermons were frequently more suitable for the dwellers 
 in the cloister than for the inhabitants of one of the most 
 degraded parts of London. It was his life, then and after- 
 wards to the day of his death, which influenced for good the 
 people about him. He lived amongst them, and he was ever 
 seeking their welfare. See him when they would, come to him 
 when they might, he was always the same, always before all things 
 desirous of leading them from the lower animal life in which they 
 lived to the higher life in Christ. They may have found it diffi- 
 cult to understand his sermons, and probably they were often 
 puzzled by the seeming impossibility of the life he set before 
 them, when they thought of the life which, as it would appear to 
 them, they were ordinarily compelled to live ; but he was a good 
 man, at all times and upon all occasions ready and willing to help 
 them and their children ; they could understand that, and in the 
 end they learnt to trust him and to love him. 
 
 Various circumstances combined to make it necessary that the 
 members of the Mission living in Calvert Street should remove to 
 the Wellclose Square Mission House. The Sisters had need of a 
 more convenient house than that in which they lived. Messrs. 
 Burn and Martin had left the Mission in order to work in the dis- 
 tricts connected with the parish church, and it was manifestly 
 desirable that there should not be in any sense a divided respon- 
 sibility — that the real head of the Mission should have the control 
 of it. This change, however, soon led to others, for Messrs. 
 Collins and De Burgh, finding it difficult to fall in with the new 
 arrangement, left the I^Iission, and some time afterwards were 
 received into the Roman Com.munion. 
 
FIRST SECESSION. 
 
 This was a severe trial to Mr. Lowder, but no word of com- 
 plaint escaped his lips. He rarely afterwards spoke of his former 
 colleagues ; and when he did so, it was never to their disparage- 
 ment : he seemed to be grateful to them that they showed so 
 much regard for the interests of the Mission as to allow a space of 
 time to intervene between their going away and their joining the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 The burden that their departure placed upon him was very 
 heavy. The daily services of two churches, besides much other 
 clerical work, had to be provided for, and for some time no 
 regular aid could be procured. The pecuniary affairs of the Mis- 
 sion suffered, and he was responsible for liabilities incurred in its 
 behalf. He bore up bravely for a long while, passing more time 
 than usual in the oratory in prayer ; but at last his strength failed 
 him, he became ill, — and at this critical juncture, when it seemed 
 that there was danger of the Mission being given up, the Rev. 
 R. M. Benson came to its aid, and did not leave it until Mr. 
 Lowder was restored to health and strength, and some regular 
 clerical help had been secured. 
 
 Then there came a period of hard work — very hard work, for 
 the Mission was much under-manned — during which the day and 
 Sunday schools were largely increased, the congregations were 
 enlarged, a refuge for fallen women was opened, night classes for 
 young men were established, and a greater hold upon the people 
 who had been brought under the influence of the Mission was 
 gained. 
 
 Mr. Lowder did not frequently visit the schools ; he reserved 
 himself for the religious instruction of the children by catechisings 
 in church. I did not think that he had a very happy manner 
 with children ; nevertheless, by constant hammering away at them, 
 he managed to make them acquainted with the first principles of 
 our holy religion. I was talking not long ago v/ith a man who as 
 a child attended the Mission schools at this period of which I am 
 writing, and he distinctly remembered the results of Mr. Lowder's 
 catechisings, and could repeat word for word, though not learned 
 
148 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 from a book, the formulce in which he was taught to utter Christian 
 truths. 
 
 Mr. Lowder recognized the fact that the absence of definite 
 religious teaching, the failure to build up our children in a clear 
 and definite knowledge of divine truth, was the main cause of the 
 sad diversity of opinion upon religion which prevails amongst us, 
 and also of that indifference to religion which is even more pre- 
 valent. The doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ, and the exten- 
 sion of t?ie Incarnation through the sacraments as a means of 
 union with Christ and as channels of grace, usually formed the 
 basis of his catechizings, and" indeed of his religious teaching 
 generally. But I do not remember a single instance where, in 
 enforcing this, he, as far as I was able to judge, went outside the 
 lines of the English Church. He kept within the covers of the 
 Prayer-book, though he left nothing therein unused, if I except 
 the Articles, concerning which, considering the material he had to 
 deal with, he was judiciously silent. 
 
 His teaching was never controversial. He expressed the truth 
 as he had received it, as though there was not and could not be 
 any other view of it than his own, but he assailed no one. In 
 this he was consistent with himself, for I cannot recollect any 
 instance of his speaking against any person, or against any view 
 of religion with which he did not sympathize. I confess that 
 I should have had more sympathy with him myself had he shown 
 less reticence in these respects, yet I have not unfrequently had 
 reason to be thankful for the example he thus set me. 
 
 His clerical coadjutors after Messrs. Collins and De Burgh had 
 left him were the Rev. C. Anderson and the Rev. J. W. Temple, 
 who remained at the Mission until just before the Rev. A. H. 
 Mackonochie joined it. With the accession of the latter gentleman 
 there came what might be called a revival. He took charge of 
 the Wellclose Square district, and soon gathered around him a set 
 of enthusiastic men and women. Mr. Lowder's exertions were 
 mostly confined to the Calvert Street district, where his life and 
 work were beginning to tell for good in many wnys. 
 
THE RIOTS. 
 
 149 
 
 Soon after Mr. Mackonochie joined the Mission the riots at the 
 parish church began. I do not think that it can be said that any 
 one connected with the Mission was responsible for these riots. 
 A certain amount of antagonism existed in the minds of some of 
 the inhabitants against the Mission, but it would never have 
 manifested itself in violence and indecent attempts to interfere 
 with the services of the Church. But though the missionaries did 
 not provoke these unmanly disturbances, they were affected by 
 them. The Mission chapels were sometimes invaded ; the Mission 
 House was once attacked ; both Mr. Lowder and Mr. Mackonochie 
 were required by the Bishop of London to officiate at the parish 
 church, and were consequently exposed to the assaults of the 
 mob. But I don't know that Mr. I.owder on any occasion lost 
 his equanimity. He was summoned before the magistrate and 
 fined for shutting the vestry door of the parish church upon a 
 man who, having no right to be there, insisted upon trying to force 
 his way in ; but he made no comment upon this beyond mention- 
 ing the fact, which he did with a smile at the incongruity of his 
 being fined for protecting God's house, while it seemed impossible 
 to get any one punished for desecrating it. 
 
 In any other part of London I do not think that these riots 
 would have been tolerated for a month, but St. George's-in-the- 
 East is removed from the quiet thoroughfares of the metropolis ; 
 violence and disorder were chronic there, and months were allowed 
 to pass before the authorities showed themselves to be in earnest 
 in putting them down. I am sure, however, that the great majority 
 of those who Sunday after Sunday congregated at St. George's 
 Church for the purpose of creating a disturbance, were not parish- 
 ioners of St. George's ; they came from other parts of London. 
 
 Of the parishioners who made themselves conspicuous in 
 fostering and carrying out the disgraceful scenes in the church, it 
 would be absurd to suppose that they were urged thereto by a zeal 
 for religion. One of the most conspicuous of them (I believe that 
 he was the original " aggrieved parishioner ") was fined at the 
 ^liddlesex Sessions for keeping houses of ill-fame, and the rest 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 were not famous for their purity or their piety. The character of 
 some of these men was thus set forth by a young man who 
 attended the night school in the Calvert Street district : " It's all 
 a question of beer, sir, and what else they can get. We know 
 them. They are blackguards like ourselves here. Religion ain't 
 anything more to them than it is to us. They gets paid for what 
 they do, and they do it like they'd do any other job." 
 
 Upon the whole, the riots aided rather than injured the Mission, 
 for at their close I believe Mr. Lowder was more popular in the 
 parish than he had ever been before, and it is certain that they 
 won for it in other parts of the country many friends. 
 
 Very soon after the Sisters had begun their vv^ork, they 
 had taken a fev/ penitents into their house in Calvert Street; 
 but it w^as soon found to be both too small for the numbers 
 collected in it, and too near their old associations. The 
 work vi^as one of absorbing interest to Mr. Low^der, and in 
 June, 1858, he took a house at Sutton, in Surrey, having 
 room for about eighteen penitents, vv^ho were tended by the 
 Sisters, their head-quarters still remaining in Calvert Street. 
 He felt that the connection of the Refuge with a particular 
 district gave it a special importance, as auxiliary to the 
 Mission, by helping to foster a public feeling against the 
 prevailing sin of those parts ; as the inmates were nearly 
 all girls from the district, the Highway, or neighbouring 
 streets, who, either through the Sisters' intervention or the 
 effects of open-air preaching, were drawn to ask for assist- 
 ance. 
 
 Some of these were gathered in through a sermon, 
 preached in the open air, on the occasion of a girl having 
 committed suicide by throwing herself into the Docks ; 
 others by a similar sermon after a murder, originating in a 
 
PEi'JITENTS. 
 
 quarrel between two men about a poor girl. A ci owd was 
 always collected at such times, a large proportion being 
 sailors and other men. It became a great refreshment to 
 Mr. Lowder, after leaving the sad scenes of Ratcliff High- 
 way, to go to the Home at Sutton, and to see the rescued 
 ones employed usefully in the laundry and kitchen, or, in 
 their time for recreation, in the garden, enjoying country 
 sights and sounds which some had never known, and but 
 few since the days of innocent childhood. Better still, as 
 he himself wrote at this tim.e, it was his joy " to join with 
 them in their prayers and hymns, in their little oratory, 
 where their hearts seemed indeed to unite with their voices ; 
 or to look at the attentive faces, and very often streaming 
 eyes, with which they listened to assurances of a Saviour's 
 mercy, and calls to repentance and faith in a Saviour's 
 blood." 
 
 But his work with them was one of extreme difficulty : 
 they had been used to such brutal treatment from the 
 ■sailors and thieves who were their former companions, that 
 it was long before they could bear i-estraint or curb the 
 violent tempers long indulged ; while the dreadful atmo- 
 sphere of their former homes, the oaths and blasphemies 
 which formed their conversation, had blunted their feelings, 
 and tended to harden them in sin. " It is scarcely 
 possible," he said at that time, "to describe the violent 
 outbursts of passion with v/hich the Sisters have had to 
 contend, or the frantic rage into which the poor girls at 
 first lashed themselves at some trivial remark." 
 
 All this made him the more earnestly desire to use 
 measures of prevention in the case of innocent girls under 
 his care. At this time, two years after the opening of the 
 
152 
 
 CHARLES LOV/DER. 
 
 Mission, between three and four hundred children were 
 being educated in his schools ; and thus a way was opened 
 for a very humble beginning of an Industrial School for 
 girls, under the Sisters in Calvert Street. The work had 
 been forced upon them by the necessities of the case, for, 
 as Mr. Lowder wrote soon after the school had begun — 
 
 How could the clergy or Sisters go out on their daily visits 
 among the poor without meeting with very many pressing cases ? 
 Young girls, perhaps still in the school, or just out of it, living in 
 the greatest peril with a drunken father who might at any moment 
 cast his child adrift; an idle, unfeeling stepmother, who would 
 send her out to nurse a child she could scarce carry, and be a 
 drudge in a house to a large family ; and if she came home worn 
 out, or was sent away because it was too much for her, would 
 tell her, " Then you may get your living on the streets." Some, 
 already in workships, factories, and even dust-yards, where they 
 shrank from the contamination to which they were exposed, 
 gladly sought a shelter under the wing of a loving and religious 
 house. Some were admitted for their very importunit)', because 
 they prayed so earnestly to be saved from the danger and 
 wretchedness by which they were surrounded at home. One, 
 whose temper often made it difficult to keep her, would say that 
 if she were sent out she was sure to be tempted on to the streets. 
 Another had lost her mother, and, during her father's absence at 
 work, would get the meals for her brothers, who were thieves 
 themselves, and would bring home their companions with them. 
 A third was in danger of temptation from her own father, from 
 whom her mother was separated. Others had been starving at 
 home, or were driven from home by aunts or other relations who 
 had undertaken to keep them, and must have gone to the work- 
 house if we had not admitted them. 
 
 There was no room for an organized Industrial School 
 in Calvert Street ; and, after many difficulties, buildings at 
 
HOME AT HENDON. 
 
 153 
 
 Hendon, originally almshouses, were taken, and there a 
 school was formed for girls rescued early from the tempta- 
 tions around them, and was called St. Stephen's Home. 
 It stood on a high and healthy spot, three miles beyond 
 Hampstead, and thither also the penitents were removed, 
 as their numbers had now outgrown the Sutton house. 
 
 The day of the dedication of the Hendon Home was 
 one of great joy to Mr. Lowder. The old buildings had 
 been fitted up as laundry, kitchen, and nursery ; while the 
 newer part was devoted to a chapel, chaplain's rooms, 
 Sisters' rooms, and dormitories for penitents. It was dedi- 
 cated on June 21, i86o, a procession being formed in the 
 courtyard and passing through the building to the chapel, 
 while prayers were offered in each part of it for God's 
 blessing on the Home. The sermon, of which Mr. Lowder 
 wrote as " very impressive and eloquent," was preached by 
 the then Dean of Westminster, now Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 Early in January, 1859, Charles Lowder went to Fromc, 
 to attend the sick bed of his old nurse, who had been 
 rather a second mother to him than a servant. It was the 
 first time that death had visited his home circle, and he felt 
 it keenly. Writing on January nth, his sister says — 
 
 She had been suffering for some weeks from a complaint in her 
 foot, which proved to be mortification. At ten p.m. Charles cele- 
 brated Holy Communion in her bedroom — Janey perfectly sensible, 
 
 though much exhausted. None of us went to bed ; but R , 
 
 K , and I watched by her to the end. About 1.15 a change 
 
 came over her ; all were summoned, and while Charles was offer- 
 ing the commendatory prayer, the spirit quietly departed, and the 
 poor wasted house of clay was all that remained to us of our dear, 
 faithful old nurse, the loved watcher and guardian of our babyhood 
 
154 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 and childhood, the friend of our riper years, to whom we all went 
 with all our concerns, sure of sympathy and interest. The weary 
 old pilgrim of threescore years and fourteen is gone to her rest. 
 We cannot grudge her ; but we weep for our loss — a blank which 
 none other can supply. 
 
 It is difficult to say whether the existence of such 
 unusual relations between masters and servants are more 
 honourable to the former or to the latter. 
 
 The two following letters were written to the brother 
 whose career Charles had watched with loving anxiety, on 
 his ordination (Trinity Sunday, 1859), when he received his 
 title from the late Rev. Thomas Keble, Vicar of Bisley ; 
 and on his receiving priest's orders a year later. 
 
 Sutton, June 9, 1859. 
 
 My dear Willy, 
 
 I fear you will think that 1 have been very neglectful 
 in not writing to you after your ordination, but I did not know for 
 certain that you were ordained, until I saw the lists in the Titnes on 
 Wednesday, and since then I have not been able to write much. 
 However, I hope you will accept my most sincere wishes that 
 God's blessing may abundantly rest upon your ministerial life, and 
 that you may have a full supply of those gifts and graces which 
 may make your ministry profitable, both to yourself and others. 
 You have indeed taken Holy Orders at a time when it needs great 
 searching of heart and faithful courage, for these are days when 
 those who will do their duty fearlessly must expect much tribula- 
 tion. We are cut off from the world, so far as its pleasures and 
 honours are concerned, though our very duties bring us into close 
 contact with it. May we learn to despise its vanity, even while in 
 love we seek to convert it to God. 
 
 I trust you will have much happiness in your work at Bisley, 
 such happiness at least as may be good in encouraging you to go 
 forward as a good champion of the Cross. I shall be glad when 
 
LETTER TO REV. IV. LOWDER. 
 
 you have time to send me a few lines about your work, and be 
 assured that you will never be forgotten in the prayers of 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 Mission House, Wellclose Square, E., June 3, i860. 
 My dear Willy, 
 
 I ought to have written to you last week or before, to 
 assure you of my prayers and good wishes at your ordination. I 
 have indeed prayed that you may be a faithful priest — none but 
 priests can know what an awful burden the priesthood is ; and as 
 you come to learn what the priest's responsibilities are for each 
 individual soul with which he is brought into contact in confession 
 and spiritual intercourse, as well as his solemn duties in offering 
 the Blessed Sacrifice — which I am sure I never realized (imper- 
 fectly as I do) until I began to approach it daily — then you will 
 indeed feel how much you need all the prayers that can be offered 
 for you. And yet the graces of the priesthood are very wonder- 
 ful, for how otherwise could we be saved ? That the great High 
 Priest may abundantly bless you from above with the manifold 
 gifts of His Holy Spirit, is the sincere prayer of 
 
 Yoiurs most affectionately in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 C. F. LoWDER. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE LINES OF THE BATTLE. 
 
 " Here and there you may meet with those who recall you at once from the 
 accessories to the essence of our existence ; ivho instead of spelling its little, 
 syllables, interpret its great meaning ; who do its work, not from a menial 
 point within it, but from a lordly position beyond it, and rather pasi through 
 the present than are imprisoned in it." 
 
 At the time when Mr. Lowder was left single-handed, 
 through the defection of Mr. Collins and Mr. de Burgh, 
 Mr. Mackonochie, then curate at Wantage, went with a 
 friend to see the Mission. This was in November, 1857. 
 He had no thought then of doing more than seeing a work 
 which interested him ; but he was so much moved by the 
 sight of the brave, lonely soldier, that he offered to come 
 and help him as soon as he could ; and in November of 
 the following year he took up his abode at the Mission 
 House in Wellclose Square. He had a heart which stirred 
 at the trumpet's summons, and it is impossible to tell what 
 the blessing of his presence for the next four years was 
 to Mr. Lowder. No one, probably, could have been of the 
 same help and comfort to him at this time. 
 
 They lived together in Wellclose Square, though Mr. 
 Lowder's chief work was in Calvert Street district. It will 
 
RULE AT THE CLERGY HOUSE. 
 
 be seen, from his letter to his father when asked to head 
 the Mission, that his first thought was to try and form a 
 "religious" (in the technical sense) brotherhood, with the 
 hope that this organization might extend to other parts of 
 London where hard missionary work was needed. But it 
 was ruled otherwise ; circumstances did not lead in the 
 direction he had aimed at, and in the end little more was 
 attempted than a Parochial Clergy House. Probably his 
 strength lay rather in that direct missionary work among 
 the lost souls of heathen London, in which he became 
 of renown, than in the formation and ruling of a society 
 of men. 
 
 He says himself that "the amount of active duty re- 
 quired of the clergy was a bar to the adoption of a stricter 
 or more monastic rule." But a rule they had, and one 
 which left little time for anything but prayer and hard 
 v/ork. Here is his own sketch of the daily life in the 
 Clergy House in Wcllclose Square : — 
 
 The first bell for rising was rung at 6.30; we said Prime in the 
 oratory at 7 ; Matins was said at St. Peter's and St. Saviour's at 
 7.30; the celebration of the Holy Eucharist followed. After 
 breakfast, followed by Terce, the clergy and teachers went to their 
 respective work — some in school, some in the study or district. 
 Sext was said at 12.45, immediately before dinner, when the 
 household were again assembled ; and on Fridays and fast days 
 some book, such as the " Lives of the Saints " or Ecclesiastical 
 History, was read at table. After dinner, rest, letters, visiting, or 
 school work, as the case might be, and then tea at 5.30 p.m. 
 After tea, choir practice, classes, reading, or visiting again until 
 Evensong at 8 p.m. After service the clergy were often engaged 
 in classes, hearing confessions, or attending to special cases. 
 Supper at 9.15, followed by Compline, when those who had 
 
158 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 finished tlieir work retired to their rooms. It was desired that all 
 should be in bed at ii p.m., when the gas was put out; but, of 
 course, in the case of the clergy, much of whose work was late in 
 the evening with those who could not come to them at any other 
 time, it was impossible absolutely to observe this rule. In an 
 active community the rules of the house must yield to the neces- 
 sities of spiritual duties. 
 
 This kind of rule went on to the end. Once, for a short 
 time, the clergy were somewhat separated — indeed, one of 
 them was a married man — but from 1872 all were united 
 in a Clergy House. Mr. Lewder laid much store by this 
 arrangement ; he had dreamed of it, though on more 
 monastic lines, at St. Barnabas', where the way of life was 
 not poor or strict enough to satisfy him. He writes of 
 having "great reason to be thankful for the blessings of 
 such a community-life for himself," and of " believing that 
 his brethren equally felt the advantages of being linked 
 together in all the details of their daily life, especially in 
 prayer and constant intercourse." 
 
 If the outer details and circumstances of the Mission 
 are somewhat minutely described, it must be remembered 
 that Mr. Lowder's life was really his work, and that more 
 than common interest belongs to it in the eyes of all who 
 would fain join the battle against ignorance and vice. 
 And for this reason : because, as even those who were far 
 from agreeing entirely with him acknowledged, his Mission, 
 was the first which made any real impression upon the 
 heathenism of the worst parts of London. 
 
 It is therefore worth asking, what were the lines upon 
 which he worked, not only as to outer organization, but 
 also as to inner principles ? 
 
WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS. 
 
 He has told us himself that, in order to lay a sure 
 foundation for the missionary work of the Church at home, 
 " it must be built up, stone upon stone, like a breakwater, 
 where a vast amount of labour is spent on that which will 
 never appear till the judgment day, and where, after these 
 stones have been carefully laid, they must be strongly 
 cemented together until they can be left to buffet against 
 the angry storms and waves of the ocean." 
 
 Words of truth and soberness, as well as of eloquence, 
 were spoken in the early days of Father Lowder's work : — 
 
 Although the Church throws herself upon the masses, she 
 deals with each individual soul as if it alone were entitled to all 
 her love. Never, while the Church has comprehended her mission, 
 has she affected to win souls by general measures which ignore the 
 needs of each. The soul of man is not a mere part of a machine, 
 which moves because you set the ma.chine in motion. It is a 
 living force, a centre of undying life. . . . Open your metropolitan 
 cathedral on Sunday, and fill its aisles with multitudes, who listen 
 if they do not pray. It is well ; but what if the seed lie upon the 
 surface, when there is none at hand to cover it with soil, and, ere 
 Monday morning comes, the fowls of the air devour it? . . . The 
 Good Shepherd calleth His sheep by name. Individualizing work 
 is a matter not of taste, but of necessity. A religion which does 
 not attempt this may succeed in adding to the stores of the under- 
 standing ; it can never win the heart. It may cover the wounds 
 of society ; it can never bind and heal. . . . The St. George's 
 dergy live in the centre of a dense population ; they are always 
 on the spot. They are there ready to make the most of every 
 opening, and to guard against each threatening of danger. They 
 are surrounding themselves with services, schools, reformatories. 
 They are winning penitents and gathering in communicants. 
 Their object is not only to diffuse an influence, but in the name 
 and in the strength of Christ to save. Around them are those 
 
i6o 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 who have been saved — saved from lies, and prayerlessness, and lust, 
 and despair, and hell. Such, of course, may fall away and be lost, 
 as may any Christian on this side the grave. But, as it is, God 
 "has called them to this state of salvation" by the entreaties, and 
 toils, and sacraments of the St. George's missionaiy clergy. He 
 will call others.* 
 
 Father Lowder did not feel that his object was gained 
 "merely,"' as he said, "in bringing people to church, or 
 in inducing large numbers to make some outward pro- 
 fession of religion without a real change of heart and life." 
 We have seen how he warned his younger brother of 
 the danger of allowing even diligent use of sacraments to 
 take the place of this vital change. Still less did he believe 
 in the regenerating power of attempts to brighten the 
 surface of society by plans of social rcci-eation, by lectures, 
 concerts, or tea-meetings, while the festering sore is left 
 untouched ; although fully acknowledging the value of 
 such things in their proper place, and gladly using them. 
 
 He described what he strove to effect — " to bring home 
 to consciences the guilt and heinousness of all sin in God's 
 sight ; the love of God, making sin what it is, and alone 
 giving hopes of pardon through the precious Blood of Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 " We believed," he said, " that though it were a much 
 more difficult work to win souls to Christ in the sorrowful 
 ways of true repentance, and in the fruits of penitential 
 discipline — to build them up and train them in the v.hole 
 faith of the Catholic Church, and in the duties of the 
 Christian life; yet that thus only were we fulfilling oui 
 special obligations as missionary priests of the Church — 
 
 ♦ Sermon by Rev, II. P. Liddon, D.D. 
 
COiVFESSIOiV. 
 
 i6i 
 
 thus only were we feeding our flock in the rich pastures of 
 their Christian inheritance — and thus only enabling them 
 to contend against the manifold trials and persecutions 
 amidst which they lived, to be a witness for the faith in 
 a wicked and perverse generation, and thus to be truly 
 missionaries themselves in bringing other souls to Christ." 
 
 He spoke openly, and with no bated breath, to those 
 who were awakened and troubled, of confession and abso- 
 lution ; not as a dangerous remedy to be used in extreme 
 cases, but as freely offered to all requiring more comfort 
 and counsel than they could find without it. He spoke 
 of it in the spirit of that Canon of the Irish Church, now 
 swept away by those who rose up against her ancient faith, 
 saying, "Let us root out the remembrance of it from off 
 the earth." * 
 
 " I wonder," one of Mr. Lowder's former fellow-workers 
 says, "how people who object to confession would deal with 
 the sort of cases which form the principal part of Mission 
 work in East London and places of the same kind. With- 
 out confession they would be working entirely in the dark ; 
 without confession these poor straying souls would not have 
 perfect assurance of forgiveness — would not realize that the 
 
 * Addition to the 19th Canon made by the Irish Convocation of 1634 : — 
 "And the minister of every parish shall, the afternoon before the said ad- 
 ministration, give warning by the tolling of a bell, or otherwise, to the intent 
 that if any have any scruple of conscience or desire the special ministry of 
 reconciliation he may afford it to those who need it. And to this end the 
 people are often to be exhorted to enter into a special examination of the state 
 of their own souls ; and that finding themselves either extreme dull or much 
 troubled in mind, they do resort unto God's ministers to receive from them as 
 well advice and counsel for the quickening of their dead hearts and the sub- 
 duing of those corruptions to which they have been subject, as the benefit of 
 absolution likewise, for the quieting of their conscience by the power of the 
 keys which Christ hath committed to His ministers for that purpose." 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 past is really wiped out, and that the future is clear before 
 them. I have still ringing in my heart the cry of two poor 
 labouring lads who had just made their first confession, and 
 who came to me, their hearts bursting with joy too great to 
 bear: 'Ah, sir, if we could die now!' I could tell the 
 most wonderful stories of changed and rescued lives of lads 
 and men who have been brought by God's grace to seek 
 His pardon in the ministry of reconciliation." 
 
 But chiefest, and above all, before souls converted and 
 rescued, the Holy Communion was set forth both as the 
 great act of worship and the great means of spiritual 
 grace. It is best to give in his own words his belief and 
 practice on this awful subject. 
 
 If it be asked, as it is by some, why the Holy Communion is 
 made the great central act of worship, the answer is that it is the 
 one great service ordained by Jesus Christ Himself — " This do ; " 
 — the Liturgy of the Church ; that it is a commemorative sacrifice, 
 the great means of showing forth that which it most concerns us 
 to show forth as the means of our salvation, the Death of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; that it is the communion or com- 
 munication of the inestimable blessings which are derived from 
 the Incarnation, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of 
 our Blessed Lord. 
 
 Nothing could exceed his. care lest souls committed to 
 him should approach this Blessed Sacrament unworthily. 
 For this reason, amongst others, he valued confession, as 
 helping the poor to perform that duty of self-examination 
 enjoined in the Prayer-book, but of which the difficulty, 
 even intellectually, is so enormous to the uneducated.- 
 He has left on record his belief that he would have been 
 unfaithful, alike to his vows and to those under his care, 
 
SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION. 
 
 163 
 
 had he ever allowed any outward opposition to wrest from 
 his hands this most powerful weapon against the enemy 
 of souls. The careful preparation of his candidates for 
 Confirmation, both young and old, also gave occasion for 
 close spiritual intercourse and for individual instruction. 
 The classes for Confirmation generally went on for three 
 or four months every year, and communicant classes for 
 the greater part of the year. 
 
 The value of instruction to individual souls, as com- 
 pared to that given in sermons, has been likened to 
 the different results attained by throwing a bucketful of 
 water from one side of a wall over empty vessels set in a 
 row on the other side, and by pouring water into the 
 same vessels one by one. In the one case, some drops of 
 water would probably find their way into the vessels ; in 
 the other they would be filled to the brim. Certainly 
 Father Lowder's flock were fed on the latter principle, as 
 we may learn from the following words of one who stood 
 by his side in the battle-field, as to his manner of waging 
 war, and the result : — 
 
 It was surely a great act of faith in the Almighty power of 
 the Holy Ghost, ever present in the Church, and ever young, 
 that in jDlanning his campaign against this region of darkness and 
 heathenness, " this common sewer of all the realm," Mr. Lowder 
 should elect to fight with the old Church weapons, and operate 
 on the old Church lines. The spiritual victory of St. Peter's is 
 a witness to the power of the old foith and ancient ritual of the 
 Church of Christ to reach the hardest and most abandoned hearts, 
 and win them back to purity and the love of God. 
 
 All that I have said of the condition of things in East London 
 generally, and tlie neighbourhood of Ratclifl Highway in par- 
 
<:harles lowder. 
 
 ticular, is of vaiue, not so much to excite sympatliy with Mr. 
 Lowder and help Churchmen to understand his life-sacrifice, as to 
 try to paint the circumstances of human life with which, in the 
 lowest depths of infamy and mire of bestial habits, the Almighty 
 power of grace has grappled, and lifted up into the sacred associ- 
 ations of the Body of Christ. It is, indeed, most wonderful, this 
 manifestation of the Presence of God in the Church, this proof 
 of the Church's power of reaching and elevating souls lost in sin 
 whenever her true teaching is faithfully put fortii, and her spiritual 
 powers fearlessly made use of. 
 
 Now that the experiment has been tried upon the very dregs 
 of our national life, and is acknowledged even by enemies to be 
 an astonishing success, it is easy enough to say that it is only 
 what one ought to have expected. But we must never forget 
 that it was Mr. Lowder who first had the faith and courage, and 
 love of souls, to stake his life on the realities of those principles 
 which we now accept. Others had preached before the love of 
 the Cmcified Lord and the sinless Humanity of Christ. Mr. 
 Lowder brought this within the hope and reach of the most 
 straying sin-stained soul. He made them feel that they could be 
 taken up from their sin, and all the fearful surroundings of their 
 spiritual darkness, into that same pure Body of Christ, by means 
 of the sacraments which Christ has left to His Ciiurch ; that the 
 Church is the Body of Christ, and that God the Holy Ghost dwells 
 in the Church, and that He operates by means of those organs 
 of the Body which Christ had ordained — bishops, priests, and 
 deacons — in their exercise of the spiritual powers He had left 
 them, and their administration of the sacraments He had ordained. 
 
 And triis is what I can bear faithful witness to as the experience 
 of my eleven years' work amongst them, that the people of St. 
 Peter's do believe that when their children are baptized they are 
 "regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ's Church," and 
 that therefore, being made part of Jesus Christ, they are bound to 
 follow His holy example and live His life, in union with Him by 
 prayer and meditation and reading God's Word and receiving 
 
RESULT OF TEACHING. 
 
 Holy Communion. They believe that the Bishop does give them 
 the Holy Ghost in Confirmation by the laying on of hands. They 
 believe that our Lord has "left power to His Church to absolve all 
 sinners who truly repent and believe in Him." And so, when 
 they cannot quiet their own conscience, they go to the priest and 
 open their grief, that they may receive absolution. They believe 
 that the Blessed Sacrament is a sacrament — is not only bread and 
 wine, but that there are two parts, and that the invisible part is 
 the " Body and Blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken 
 and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." 
 
 And what has been the result of all this teaching and holy 
 discipline ? Not only that open professional sin has been swept 
 away from the streets of St. Peter's — that there is not one known 
 house of ill fame in the whole parish, when within a quarter of a 
 mile streets are peopled with these poor outcasts ; but also that 
 the communicants of St. Peter's have been lifted above their 
 suffering life into joy and peace. They are able to accept 
 the sorrows of life as incentives for clinging nearer to the heart 
 of God ; they can rejoice in tribulations, because thus they are 
 more like the " Man of Sorrows." They have learnt and proved 
 that it is the most blessed privilege of our union with Christ to 
 bear the Cross with Him, and sympathize in all the suffeiings of 
 His Body for His Church's sake. And in consequence they are 
 the most united congregation I have ever met with. They really 
 do feel that they are "members one of another," and are bound 
 together in the Body of Christ by the love of God the Holy 
 Ghost. It is an astonishing exception to the usual London con- 
 gregation in the real family life which characterizes it. 
 
 We therefore owe to Mr. Lowder's memory a deep debt of 
 gratitude, in that he has proved the power and life of the Church 
 of England, and its ability to reach and reclaim the lost lives that 
 lie hidden in our slums. Dissent has never been able to touch this 
 class of life. Especially as Churchmen are we grateful to him in 
 that he has done it by the simple preaching of the great truths of 
 the Incarnation, and the use of the means of grace which flow from it. 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 It is a marvellous fact that now, as in old time, the faithful 
 declaration of the highest truths of our religion, and the common- 
 sense application of the powers entrusted to the Church — by which 
 not only are souls told to " come to Jesus," but also told where to 
 find Him, namely, in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and 
 Blood ; not only told that the Blood of Christ cleanseth from all 
 sin, but also that by the command of Christ the pardon of that 
 Precious Blood is applied to the penitent soul in absolution — • 
 should have raised up, from most unhopeful materials, this stanch 
 and noble army of communicants, five hundred strong, rescued 
 from slavery, and restored to their lost heritage. It is a fact 
 which demands the attention of all who care for missionary work. 
 
 Let me tell one story, of which the hero is a little child nine 
 years old, just to show the missionary spirit which animates even 
 our children, and how their young hearts beat with the love of 
 God. This child, one of my St. Agatha's choir-boys, was very 
 ill, and had to be taken to the London Hospital. The ward of a 
 large hospital is not a cheerful place for a young homesick affec- 
 tionate child, and yet this brave little fellow found work to do. 
 He made friends with the men, and when the Bishop of Bedford 
 came to preach in the chapel, he collected a band of eight big men 
 and marched them off to the service. They would not have gone 
 but for this child ; their hearts had been touched by his prayers 
 and his pretty innocent ways. They called him " our little 
 master." One day, he was telling his mother of the number of 
 deaths there had been in the ward since he arrived. His mother 
 said, " My dear, you ought to pray for them when they are dying." 
 He answered, " Mother, I always do." 
 
 As with doctrine, so with ritual. Mr. Lowder determined to 
 model the services of St. Peter's on the old Church lines, in the 
 true spirit of the Prayer-book. 
 
 He had virgin soil to work upon. He had this advantage, that 
 his people did not know what the inside of a church was like. 
 There were no Puritan prejudices to consider. Hence it was but 
 the instinct of a true Churchman and Christian to make the great 
 
RITUAL. 
 
 167 
 
 service of the Holy Eucharist the central act of worship on the 
 Lord's Day. To his poor people, whose minds had not been 
 warped by [controversial bitterness, it would seem the natural 
 fulfilment of our Lord's command : " Do this in remembrance of 
 Me." Therefore, with all that could make the service bright and 
 beautiful, the Holy Eucharist was solemnly offered every Sunday 
 and holy day. 
 
 I suppose there is not a more beautiful service in London or 
 England than the High Celebration at St. Peter's, London Docks. 
 And it is entirely a labour of love, a religious service, on the part 
 of those who form the choir and who assist at the altar. Besides 
 the ennobling feeling thus engendered by a service offered willingly 
 and not for money, the reverence and solemnity of the whole sacred 
 act has had a surprising influence for good on the lives and tone 
 of mind of those who take part in it. Indeed, this is the practical 
 value of such a service, apart from its aspect towards God as our 
 " bounden duty," that it raises the hearts of the poor out of the 
 miseries of their earthly lot into the majesty and peace of heaven. 
 The beauty and the brightness of the services, the glorious music, 
 the solemn dignity of the ritual, all these contrast with the 
 squalidness and nakedness of their homes, and make the church 
 to them the very house of God, the gate of heaven. 
 
 They have told me so more pathetically than I can hope to 
 write it. 
 
 And it must be remembered that at the time Mr. Lowder 
 inaugurated this order of service, there was no doubt that he was 
 acting' strictly within the liberties of the Church of England — nay, 
 according to the express ordering of the rubric. The Privy Council 
 had given judgment in the case of Westerton v. Liddell, that 
 the ornaments of the church and njinisters as used in the second 
 year of King Edward VI. were sanctioned by the first rubric of 
 the Prayer-book. It had not then been attempted to invert the 
 plain meaning of words. It was not surprising that the new 
 wisdom of the Court of Final Appeal, in its contradictory judgments 
 of later years, made no difference in the order of service at St. 
 
168 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 Peter's. The people had grown to love and value their beautiful 
 services, and Mr. Lowder's principles did not urge him to attach 
 any special weight to the decisions of a secular court which had 
 usurped the spiritual jurisdiction of the Church, 
 
 It will be seen that in later years his action in this matter was 
 not allowed to remain unchallenged by the Church Association. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 RIOTS AT ST. GEORGE'S-IN-THE-EAST. 
 
 1859-1860. 
 
 " Loco d' ogni luce mute 
 Che mugghia, come fa mar per tempesta, 
 Sc da contrari venti e combattuto ; 
 La bufera infernal, che mai non resta, 
 Mena gli spirti con la sua rapina, 
 Voltando e percotendo li molesta." 
 
 It was fortunate that during 1859 ^^'^^ i860 Mr. Lowder 
 had a fellow-soldier by his side, the Rev. Alexander H. 
 Mackonochie, who, like himself, did not know what fear 
 was, and who cared nothing at all for mob violence or 
 mob law. For at this time they had to work through 
 the riots at St. George's-in-the-East, once infamously 
 notorious, but which have scarcely been heard of by the 
 younger amongst us. 
 
 It so happened that Mr. Bryan King entered upon 
 the charge of his parish just after a celebrated Charge 
 by Bishop Blomfield, in 1842, in which he strongly urged 
 upon his clergy obedience to several very plain directions 
 in the Book of Common Prayer. Probably, and fortunately, 
 neither he nor his hearers in the least anticipated the 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 opposition which this obedience would provoke ; an oppo- 
 sition which seems to us almost incredible, since it was 
 directed against practices about which no one would now 
 think of raising any question. 
 
 Mr. King was amongst those who carried out the 
 directions of that Charge, beginning to do so on entering 
 upon his cure. He had succeeded to a regime of terrible 
 neglect ; his predecessor had only appeared once in the 
 parish church during the seven preceding years, and had 
 only one curate. It can easily be believed that this system 
 was well pleasing to such a population as the parish con- 
 tained ; that no riots disturbed the peaceful slumbers of 
 their Rector ; and also that the first tokens of an active 
 ministry roused opposition amongst those whose wretched 
 interests it was sure sooner or later to invade. They 
 found a fit representative in one of the churchwardens, 
 Mr. Liquorish, who kept a public-house in the parish. 
 However, after a time the hostility seemed to die away, 
 and as Mr, King said, " I was permitted in comparative 
 peace to pursue my almost hopeless work in the midst of 
 this dreary wilderness of human souls." 
 
 Fifteen years passed in this cheerless peace. Then 
 came the Missions, attacking the very strongholds of 
 Satan, and bringing new strength to the mother church. 
 In 1859 six clergy at least were labouring in the parish, 
 besides a large staff of lay assistants ; fifty-four services 
 were held weekly in place of the four per week which 
 Mr. King had found established, and six hundred children 
 were under instruction in the six schools which had been 
 set on foot. 
 
 No wonder that the cry arose that Mr. King had 
 
ST. GEORGES PARISH. 
 
 171 
 
 " alienated " his parishioners. There is a letter to Lord 
 Brougham, published as a pamphlet at this time, by one 
 signing himself "an Englishman," in which he makes an 
 eloquent appeal to justice and common sense on behalf of 
 clergy whom he says he neither knew nor had ever spoken 
 to. " Alienation, indeed ! " he indignantly exclaims, "what 
 more convincing evidence of the depth and reality of the 
 work now being carried on at St. George's than the ran- 
 corous hostility which it has encountered from the advo- 
 cates and doers of Satan's work in that benighted parish } 
 The parishioners were quiet enough so long as the one 
 curate with his four services a week essayed feebly to 
 arrest the overwhelming tide of vice and crime ; but, 
 now that the Rector of St. George's has directed a more 
 powerful armament against the stronghold of sin, its 
 defenders cry out like Demetrius of Ephesus, for their 
 'craft' is in danger. But the alienation in this case 
 means the severance of the tacit alliance between the 
 Church and sin — her clergy and the tempters to sin — the 
 rending and repudiation of that unnatural amity which 
 v/as the growth of long years of neglect and unfaithfulness." 
 
 The result of this neglect may be imagined from one 
 fact. The East London Association, formed for the sup- 
 pression of at least outward vice, caused a careful survey 
 to be made of a considerable section of the population, 
 contained within a parallelogram of four sti'eets within 
 which St. George's Church is situated. This section was 
 found to contain 733 houses, of which 40 were public- 
 houses and beer-shops, and 154 were houses of ill fame. 
 It was not wonderful that amid such a state of things 
 should be found the elements of fierce opposition to any 
 
172 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 form of religious earnestness, and of readiness to make 
 the church a scene of outrage and blasphemy. The marvel 
 is that for ten months a lawless mob was allowed to do 
 this with perfect impunity, and, as official documents show, 
 with too much, on the part of many in authority, which 
 appeared to be a source rather of encouragement than of 
 repression to the rioters. 
 
 The members of the vestry of St. George's were elected 
 by the inhabitants of the whole parish, and it is enough to 
 say that more than one were owners of a large number of 
 houses used for evil purposes, while several were notorious 
 for the moral scandals which they had occasioned. Upon 
 this vestry devolved the duty of electing a lecturer at the 
 parish church. In December, 1858, they elected the Rev. 
 Hugh Allen, who was remarkable for the extravagance of 
 his Puritan tenets. He had lately been elected lecturer of 
 the parish church of Stepney, but the Rector had suc- 
 ceeded in excluding him by interposing his veto against 
 his being licensed by the Bishop. Mr. King attempted 
 the like course, and, on its failure, appealed to the Bishop 
 against the licence, on the ground of circumstances which, 
 four years previously, had induced Mr. Allen to resign 
 his lectureship at St. Luke's, Old Street. The Bishop, 
 however, did not again communicate with Mr. King, and 
 licensed Mr. Allen on May 17, 1859. 
 
 His entrance upon his office gave the occasion , for the 
 breaking forth of the long smouldering fire. The vestry 
 were well aware of the victory they had gained, and of 
 Mr. Allen's violent antagonism to the teaching and worship 
 carried out in the parish church. He entered it, amidst 
 shouts of " Bravo, Allen ! " from the mob, on May 22nd, 
 
MR. ALLEN'S LECTURES. 
 
 1/3 
 
 insisting on superseding the ordinary service. The Act 
 under which he was appointed* enjoined that "the 
 lecturer should be admitted by the Rector, to have the 
 use of the pulpit from time to time," but Mr. Allen ap- 
 parently claimed the right of using it whenever he was so 
 disposed. He entered the pulpit, triumphantly brandishing 
 the Bishop's licence in his hand, and was greeted with 
 shouts of applause. He had a band of devoted and noisy 
 adherents, who filled the church with uproar, and, elated 
 by their success, invaded it on the next Sunday, during the 
 usual service, the clamour and violence reaching such a 
 pitch that the clergy and choir were with difficulty extri- 
 cated from the mob by the police. This was the beginning 
 of the riots which for ten months, more or less, made a 
 Christian church a disgrace to England — the vilest of the 
 vile, the very scum of the most degraded parts of London, 
 men, women and boys, going there for " a lark," and rioting 
 almost unchecked by the law. 
 
 The Bishop now " earnestly recommended " Mr. Allen 
 not to attempt to preach in the church until his rights 
 and Mr. King's should be respectively decided by law. 
 The Court of Queen's Bench, to which the vestry had 
 appealed, decided that Mr. Allen's act on May 22nd was 
 an " intrusion," and recommended that he should be 
 allowed to have a service of his own after the usual 
 Sunday afternoon service. However, Mr. King yielded 
 to his wishes, and allowed the lecturer's sei'vices to precede 
 his own. The consequence was that two or three hundred 
 of Mr. Allen's congregation remained in the church, 
 taking possession of the choir stalls in order to prevent 
 * 2 Geo. II. c. 30. 
 
174 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 Mr. King from officiating, and he was persuaded by the 
 churchwarden to give up the attempt. 
 
 The battle had now fairly begun, and the mob regularly 
 attended the ordinary Sunday afternoon services, invading 
 the stalls, shouting, hissing, and yelling. On August 14th 
 the cry was raised, " Let us attack the choir boys." They 
 had taken refuge in the baptistry, and the door was held 
 by force against the mob by a few friends of order. One 
 of these was prosecuted by the publican churchwarden for 
 having struck the hat of one of the assaulters, the vestry 
 paying the expenses of the prosecution. 
 
 In the middle of August, both Mr. King and his curate 
 broke down, their health giving way, and they left St. 
 George's for a time, when the whole burden of the parish 
 fell upon the Mission clergy, chiefly upon Mr. Lowder 
 and Mr. Mackonochie. The riots continued unabated, the 
 churchwardens never giving a single offender into custody. 
 On one occasion Mr. Mackonochie Vvas assaulted by the 
 mob, and was with difficulty rescued by the police. 
 
 It is impossible to read without shame for the authorities 
 concerned, the documentary evidence as to the history of 
 these riots.* The Chief Commissioner of Police, to whom 
 application was made for protection, simply replied, " The 
 law does not authorize the employment of the police inside 
 the Church of St. George's-in-the-East, as you request." 
 In another letter to Mr. King he wrote : — • 
 
 I have seen this morning one of the churchwardens of the 
 
 * It is to be found in the " Copy of all Correspondence that has taken 
 place between the Clergy, Churchwardens, and Inhabitants of St. George s-in- 
 ike-East, with the Home Office and the Police Authorities, relative to the 
 Disturbances in the Parish Church. Ordered, by the House of Commons, io 
 be printed, 8 February, i860." 
 
MR. LOWDER ATTACKED. 
 
 parish, who stated, in his own and his colleague's opinion, that 
 tlie introduction of the police on duty in the church is calculated 
 to excite persons who may attend the church, and in case of 
 collision disastrous consequences may ensue ; and that it would 
 be better to apply for assistance, when absolutely required, in 
 the event of the commission of any legal offence of which the 
 police can take cognizance. 
 
 The church and congregation were thus given over 
 to the pleasure of a howling and blaspheming mob ; and 
 the police authorities and the Home Secretary having been 
 in vain appealed to for sufficient protection by the clergy in 
 charge, the church was closed by an order from the Bishop 
 to the churchwardens on September 25th. 
 
 The immediate consequence was a rush to the Mission 
 chapels by the rioters, who gathered more than a thousand 
 strong in Wellclose Square, attempting to break into the 
 church, and seriously threatening the Mission Houses. On 
 September 25th Mr. Lowder's life was in danger from their 
 violence, as, baffled by the effectual measures which liad 
 been taken to barricade the gates, they turned their rage 
 against him, and attacked him when he left the church, 
 trying to seize and throw him over the bridge. His friends 
 made a cordon at the entrance to the bridge, and held it 
 against the mob until he reached the Mission House by a 
 back entrance. 
 
 But the rioters were at length met with a strong firm 
 hand. The congregation were admitted to the church only 
 by tickets, and on the following Sunday, October 2nd, some 
 of them succeeded in forcing their way through the crowd, 
 and the service was carried on without actual interruption. 
 "No one," Mr, Lowder wrote, "could easily forget the 
 
176 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 sense of awe created by the solemn stillness within the 
 church, contrasted with the noisy hum of voices indis- 
 tinctly heard without." 
 
 Writing to his father, he says — 
 
 I ought to have written before to acknowledge the receipt of 
 the parcel, which arrived quite safely, but my time has been en- 
 tirely taken up, and this week very unpleasantly, as the rioters 
 from St. George's came down to Wellclose Square in the evening. 
 I hope to prevent any disturbance in the Mission Church next 
 Saturday by admitting our congregation by tickets, and I hope 
 we have caught a ringleader, against whom we shall apply for a 
 summons to morrow. Mackonochie is gone for his holiday, so I 
 am by myself 
 
 A few days later he wrote : — 
 
 Sunday, October 2, 1859. 
 ... I send you these few lines by the morning post, to say 
 that all has gone off quietly to-day. We had no disturbance of 
 the services; there was a large crowd in the evening, but the police 
 kept them in perfect order, and the ringleaders have been alarmed 
 by our proceedings against them. My father will, I dare say, like 
 to read a letter of mine in the Times of Saturday. We are in 
 much better spirits, and hope that the rioters have received a 
 check. 
 
 October 3, 1859. 
 
 I hope you received a letter yesterday afternoon which I sent 
 by the day mail. . . . 
 
 It was a great mercy to get over the Sunday so well. The 
 police acted very well, for the first time all through the rows ; I 
 wrote to one of the commissioners myself, and he sent down 
 satisfactory orders. The prosecutions in the police court and 
 the magistrate's declaration have also been of great service in 
 j,larming the ringleaders ; but, above all, the many prayers which 
 have been sent up to the throne of grace have produced this 
 
LETTER FROM THE BISHOP. 
 
 177 
 
 happy result. I came out of church by myself, and walked through 
 the lane which the police made in the crowd, and could only hear 
 a few boys hissing. Our services were without the least inter- 
 ruption, thanks to our tickets, which have annoyed the disturbers 
 amazingly. I trust that this check may do something for the 
 production of peace when the parish church is opened. The 
 Rector is come home, but I fear that we have much to go through 
 as regards the parish church before the parish is quiet again. 
 However, I do not think they will dare to do much against the 
 Mission, and what has been done is all tending for good in 
 drawing sympathy at home and abroad. We had several de- 
 fenders yesterday, amongst others Thomas Hughes, the author 
 of "Tom Brown's School Days." It is quite a comfort to see 
 a Monday paper without any account of alarming riots in St. 
 George's. 
 
 Both Mr. Lowder's anticipations were fulfilled ; after a 
 Sunday or two there was no more trouble at the Mission 
 chapels, and the services were carried on from that time 
 without interruption. But a long, weary battle was still 
 to be fought at the parish church, of which the practical 
 burden fell chiefly on the Mission clergy. The vestry had 
 applied to the Bishop to interfere with the long-established 
 mode of worship at St. George's, especially choral service 
 and the Eucharistic vestments, which had been presented 
 by the congregation, and used for two years, many mem- 
 bers having pressed the use of them upon the Rector. The 
 legality of the latter had been but lately affirmed in the 
 Knightsbridge judgment, and the Bishop of London had 
 expressed his official concurrence with that judgment. 
 
 Unhappily, as it seems, for peace, a letter appeared from 
 the Bishop in the newspapers, dated September 5, 1859, in 
 answer to the vestry, in which he characterized the use of 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the vestments as "this childish mummery of antiquated 
 garments," and assured the vestry that though, in conse- 
 quence of the legal decision in their favour, he would not 
 appeal to a court of law upon the question, yet at the 
 same time he would not hesitate to deprive of his licence 
 any assistant curate who should use them, who had not 
 the legal protection enjoyed by an Incumbent. The vestry 
 met, and enlarged their demands, requiring nothing short 
 of a return to the exact way of performing the services 
 vhen Mr. King became Rector, seventeen years before. 
 
 Ultimately, Mr. King consented to be bound by the 
 Bishop's decision as to the two points of the hour of the 
 lecturer's service, and the vestments, "so long," he wrote, 
 "as the parish did not disturb me in any of the other 
 matters complained of ; but that if they took an adverse 
 course in these respects, I should consider myself at liberty 
 to, and should, repudiate the decision as to the lecturer and 
 the vestments." * 
 
 The Bishop decided both points in favour of the dis- 
 turbers, and the church was reopened under this arrange- 
 ment on Sunday, November 6th. It is needless to say that 
 the concessions made were but as fuel to the flame ; and, 
 even before the sermon, the morning prayers were more 
 seriously interrupted than they had ever been before. 
 
 Writing of the impression received by him " from those 
 who, on the part of the Government, are charged with the 
 preservation of peace," the Bishop expresses his belief at 
 this time that " the chief cause of remaining irritation and 
 disturbance is the practice of turning round in the pulpit 
 with the back to the congregation after the sermon," He 
 * Extract from the record of the Arbitration of the Bishop's legal secretary. 
 
LULL IN THE RIOTS. 
 
 179 
 
 desired Mr. Lowder and Mr. Mackonochie " to drop the 
 practice alluded to." Those who were really acquainted 
 with the lives and interests of the people who promoted 
 the rio^s, could not but know that the practice of turning 
 eastward at the ascription of glory to God had no more to 
 do with the offence taken than that of turning eastward at 
 the Creed ; and that every attempt to remove supposed 
 causes of irritation was followed by a fiercer outbreak of 
 blasphemy and passion. The Bishop was requested to 
 come and preach in the church, but he declined ; however, 
 he seconded Mr. King's renewed appeal to the Home 
 Secretary for the attendance of police within the church ; 
 and, on November lOth, Sir Richard Mayne, who had 
 refused his request in June, wrote to acquaint him " that a 
 sufficient number of police shall be sent (to St. George's 
 Church in the East) on Sunday next, to maintain order." 
 This first real attempt on the part of the authorities to 
 enforce order was successful ; attempts at interruption 
 gradually became less serious, and by Christmas Day had 
 almost entirely ceased. 
 
 On December 24th Sir Richard Mayne wrote to Mr. 
 King : " I have to acquaint you that after next Sunday, 
 the 25th instant, the police can no longer be employed 
 inside the church of St. George's-in-the-East." No reason 
 was given for this measure, but Sir Richard added that all 
 the accounts he received of the sentiments and motives of 
 those who took part in opposing the mode of performing 
 divine service at St. George's induced him to beheve that 
 an alteration in some matters of merely ceremonial obser- 
 vances would allay the lamentable excitement. He was 
 in vain entreated to withdraw the police gradually, and 
 
i8o 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 assured that a sudden withdrawal would be certain to pro- 
 voke a recurrence of the outrages, especially as Mr. Allen 
 was to officiate for the last time in the church on January 
 1st, i860, when a strong demonstration from his followers 
 was to be expected. The police were withdrawn, and the 
 field was left open to the rioters. 
 
 They took advantage of it, and from this time the riots 
 became worse and worse, until, by the middle of February, 
 they had reached their climax. The whole service was 
 interrupted by hissing, whistling, and shouting ; songs were 
 roared out during the sermon and lessons, and cushions, 
 hassocks, and books were hurled at the altar and its furni- 
 ture ; while the clergy were spat upon, hustled, and kicked 
 within the church, and only protected from greater out- 
 rages by the efforts of sixty or eighty gentlemen from 
 different parts of London, who, unasked, came to the 
 rescue. 
 
 Mr. Lowder wrote long afterwards of a little self-elected 
 guardian to the Mission clergy at this time : — 
 
 During the riots in the parish church, when the Mission clergy 
 assisted the Rector in his time of need, and were themselves in 
 considerable danger from the mob, while returning from the 
 church to the Mission House, we generally found on our way 
 home a little girl from the school, trotting close by our side, as 
 though to protect us from the violence of the people, who were 
 pressing and shouting around us. She would take up her position 
 near the church, and often wait a long time until we appeared ; 
 and if we did not recognize her before, we soon heard a little 
 voice by our side, addressing us by name to show that she was 
 near. This child, a wild little thing, living in an unfavourable 
 atmosphere at home, was afterwards taken into St. Stephen's 
 Home and sent out to service, and is now married. 
 
VIOLENCE AND SACRILEGE. 
 
 l8l 
 
 At length public feeling was aroused ; and the Home 
 Secretary was appealed to in newspapers, by several mem- 
 bers of Parliament, and by a deputation, fifty London 
 incumbents and about a hundred other clergymen of every 
 shade of opinion joining in the memorial. On February 
 6th, and 7th, Lord Brougham rose in the House of Lords 
 and spoke on the subject. Two passages from his speech 
 may be given : — 
 
 I beg to have it distinctly understood that the question of 
 putting down this disgraceful nuisance has nothing whatever to do 
 with the supposed errors out of which these disturbances have 
 arisen. Be the clergyman ever so much in the wrong (and I do 
 not say that he is in the wrong), this does not furnish an atom of 
 excuse, or even of extenuation, for such scandalous exhibitions. 
 I can only repeat the expressions of disgust at those proceedings 
 which I uttered on a former evening, and my conviction that, 
 whatever may be the merits of the question, whether as to dogma 
 or discipline, it is not to be settled by the outrages of a riotous mob. 
 
 The Home Secretary at last gave orders that the police 
 were again to attend at the church. Instead, however, 
 of being dispersed amongst the congregation as at first, 
 a force of sixty was marched into the church with such 
 display as increased irritation, and, notwithstanding the 
 Rector's remonstrances, during the morning service, which 
 had not been interrupted for some Sundays. There they 
 remained, inactive witnesses of disgraceful scenes. On 
 February 26th and March 4th, the mob took possession of 
 the choir stalls, pelted and defaced the altar hangings 
 with orange-peel and bread and butter, and threw down 
 the altar cross. On the following Saturday, the Bishop 
 sent an informal monition to the churchwardens to remove 
 
I82 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the choir stalls, the altar hangings, and the altar cross. 
 His directions were forwarded at so late an hour on Satur- 
 day night that it was impossible for the Rector to obtain 
 legal advice. The churchwardens gladly carried out the 
 injunctions, and all the special objects of the rioters' hate 
 were swept away. 
 
 It was not likely that they would pause in their career 
 of easy victory. The clergy, deprived of their stalls, had 
 retreated to seats placed within the altar rails, as the only 
 place left free for them ; but the mob soon invaded the 
 altar itself, taking possession of the seats of the clergy and 
 choristers. On the following Saturday, May 19th, an order 
 arrived from the Bishop desiring the churchwardens to 
 remove the forms which had been placed within the altar 
 rails for the clergy, to hinder them from walking into 
 church in procession, and to place them wherever they, 
 the churchwardens, might choose. 
 
 The English Church Union became alarmed at the 
 consequences involved in the question of the legality of 
 these monitions from the Bishop, not through his court, but 
 sent as a/^rj6';/^2/ act. The question appeared to them to 
 be — Were the services and ritual of the church in each 
 parish to be subject henceforward to the decision of the 
 lawful tribunals of the Church, or to the wishes and com- 
 mands of any individual Bishop The executive of the 
 Church Union resolved to take the opinion of several of 
 the most eminent legal authorities on such questions, as to 
 the lawfulness of the several orders made by the Bishop 
 for changes in St. George's Church. A consultation was 
 held upon this point by Dr. Phillimore, with Messrs. J. D. 
 Coleridge, Prideaux, and Stephens. They unanimously 
 
LETTER FROM LAYMAN." 
 
 183 
 
 expressed their conviction that the so-called " monitions " 
 were " not worth the paper upon which they were written." 
 
 The mob continued to use their opportunities. The 
 story of the riots may be concluded in the words of " A 
 Layman" in the letter to Lord Brougham already mentioned, 
 written in April, i860 : — 
 
 Nearly every point assailed has been (unwisely I think) 
 surrendered for the sake of peace. . . . And what has been the 
 result ? Why, that the state of things is as bad, if not worse than 
 ever it was. A pretty close attendant at the services at St. 
 George's for some months, I will venture to say that the scene of 
 riot and blasphemy on Sunday, the 8th of the present month, has 
 never, on more than one or two occasions, been equalled, certainly 
 never surpassed. There were the same execrations, hisses, and 
 laughter, the same bursts of groans and howlings, the same stamp- 
 mg of feet and slamming of doors, the same hustling of the clergy 
 and maltreadng of helpless litde choir-boys, the same blasphemies, 
 the same profanity, the same cowardliness, the same brutality 
 as ever. I can find no words which more thoroughly express 
 my sense of the horrors I witnessed than the language of the 
 reports which appeared in the daily journals (all of then^ anti- 
 Tractarian) on the following day. " It was left for last night," 
 they say, " to witness a series of the most diabolical outrages ever 
 perpetrated in any church. The conduct of the mob was perfectly 
 fiendish." . , . The most violent outbreaks usually occur during 
 the reading of the scripture lessons, the recital of the Creed, the 
 chanting the "Gloria" or the "Prayer for Bishops and Clergy." . . . 
 
 , . . These riots are not a question for argument, for concession, 
 for temporizing . they are a scandal to be put down, an infraction 
 of law and order to be suppressed by the strong hand, i?nmediately 
 and at any cost In a word, my lord, not another Sunday should 
 be permitted to witness these awful scenes of blasphemy and 
 sacrilege. They should be suppressed next Sunday; not by 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 draughting into the church a large body of poHce, to be silent 
 witnesses of the outrages, but by giving them instructions to take 
 every individual rioter — the whole congregation if they come 
 within that categorj- — into custody; and means should be taken 
 to compel the magistrates, for once in their lives, to administer 
 strict justice instead of paternal counsels, as is usually the case 
 Avith persons charged with rioting at this church. Leniency is a 
 fatal mistake in matters of this kind. I have seen and known 
 enough of the riots and the rioters to be enabled to register my 
 solemn conviction that there is scarcely a particle of religious feel- 
 ing involved in the matter. 
 
 ... Is a consecrated church to be profaned by scenes of riot 
 and blasphemy and violence which would not be tolerated for a 
 moment in a Roman Catholic church, in a Dissenting chapel, 
 in a theatre, a concert-room, a casino, or in IMr, Churchwarden 
 Thompson's public-house at the corner of Cannon Street ? . . . I 
 believe that if the majesty of the law had been vindicated in one 
 solitary case — if a single rioter had been punished with a short 
 imprisonment and hard labour — anything to stam.p the crime of 
 sacrilege with judicial reprobation — the Sunday services at St. 
 George's would not be, as they now ai^e, a weekly scandal. . . . 
 No language which I can employ could convey a stronger censure 
 upon each and all of them — the Home Secretary, the Chief Com- 
 missioner of Police, and the magistrates — than the single fact that, 
 up to the very day at which I write, these atrocious scandals, far 
 from being suppressed, are reiterated every Sunday under circum- 
 stances of increased atrocity. 
 
 On INIonday, February 6th, the day after the most awful riot 
 I ever beheld in my life ... Sir Cornewall Lewis deprecates the 
 use by ^Ir. F. Byng of the terra " outrages " as being applicable 
 to these proceedings. . . . Ever)' act of the Bishop of London, 
 since his first intervention, has resulted in a triumph for the rioters 
 over the Rector of St. George's. . . . And the magistrates. . . . 
 Out of the dozens of cases which have been brought before them, 
 they have not punished a single rioter with imprisonment. 
 
LETTER FROM AIR. HUGHES. 
 
 185 
 
 T have shown that for many months the house of God has 
 been desecrated by the most appalhng outrages, that His conse- 
 crated servants have been refused that protection from personal 
 violence which they have a right to demand as citizens, and that 
 they have been absolutely surrendered to the mercies ot a perse- 
 cuting mob. I have shown that they have vainly appealed to the 
 law of the land, that they have been denied all redress, that they 
 are deserted by the authorities, and that their own Bishop has — 
 well, my lord, that their own Bishop is not on tlieir side in the 
 matter. In a word, my lord, I trust I have shown that there is 
 now no earthly tribunal open to them but that to which I con- 
 fidently appeal — the public opinion of the country, its justice, and 
 its common sense. 
 
 In June Mr. Lowder received the following letters from 
 the author of " Tom Brown's School Days " : — 
 
 3, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, June 7, 1S60. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I venture to apply to you to know if anything can be 
 usefully done to bring about a better state of things in St. George's 
 Church in this fashion. 
 
 Arthur Stanley was up last week, and has got the sanction of 
 the Bishop to the plan, if it can be carried out. 
 
 Hansard (who is, I think, known to you by name) is now 
 without a cure. He it was who sent me and others to St. George's 
 last autumn. He sympathizes with you all heartily, and is in 
 favour of good music and church decoration ; in fact, for a clergy- 
 man who is not professedly a High Churchman, I know no one 
 who more lionestly appreciates and respects that section of the 
 Church, and the work they are doing. 
 
 If Mr. Bryan King would not object to take a year's rest, the 
 Bishop will sanction it, and Hansard would take the cure for 
 the year. We have carte blanche as to funds, so that Mr. King 
 would not be put to any expense whatever, and would receive his 
 
CHARLES I.OIVDER. 
 
 full stipend (though I am aware that this would not weigh much 
 with him). I do conscientiously believe that no better plan could 
 be hit upon for getting rid of this scandal ; and in the course of 
 the year I am sure that we could so an-ange and organize matters 
 that Mr. Bryan King on his return should be able to take up his 
 ministry again, without any recurrence of these disgraceful riots. 
 I am sure that you would all like Hansard, and be able to work 
 well with him, and that he is just the man to deal with this state 
 of things. Can you help us ? I do think that if Mr. Bryan King 
 would see and talk with Hansard, they would arrange everything 
 satisfactorily as to what should be done. I should add that this 
 is no plan of the Bishop, though he has approved of it if it can be 
 managed. I do not think that he has acted well in this matter, 
 and would have nothing to do with a plan coming from him, 
 though I am glad to have got his approval for this, which I do 
 believe to be the very best course to be taken just now. Please 
 let me hear from you soon. 
 
 Ever yours most truly, 
 
 Thomas Hughes. 
 
 3, Old Square, June 9, i860. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Thanks for your kind note. 
 
 Hansard is unluckily out of town for Sunday, having gone 
 down by special invitation to preach in his old country parish. I 
 will try to bring him down to see you early in the week. You 
 may rely upon it that I would take no part in any plan which 
 I did not think a good one from your point of view. I most 
 heartily respect and sympathize with you, and your work down 
 there is a noble one, and it is a most painful thing to me as a 
 churchman to see it interrupted in this way. I have worked with 
 Hansard in London for many years, and do not know his equal 
 for dealing with the roughest part of a London population, while 
 he makes no secret of his respect and liking for the High Church 
 party, though neither he nor I can be said exactly to belong to it. 
 
VICTORY OF THE MOB. 
 
 I do think, please God, if Mr. Bryan King can make up his mind 
 to take a year's rest, that all may be now set right. 
 
 Believe me to remain, most truly yours, 
 
 Thomas Hughes. 
 
 The arrangement proposed by Mr. Hughes was carried 
 out. Mr. King left the country on July 25, i860, and 
 Mr. Hansard took charge of his parish. The services of 
 the church were, before Mr. King's departure, exactly the 
 same as those in English cathedrals, except that hymns 
 were sung instead of anthems. Still the riots rather in- 
 creased than abated, and, on November 14th, the Bishop 
 wrote to Mr. King recommending that surplices for the 
 choir should be given up, the Psalms read instead of 
 chanted, the black gown worn in the pulpit, etc. Mr. King 
 was abroad, but answered the Bishop's letter on November 
 23rd, refusing to sanction these changes in his church. 
 On November 22nd, however, the Bishop had sent a fresh 
 " monition " to Mr. Hansard, requiring him to yield up for 
 demolition and abolition all that had been demanded. On 
 November 24th, Mr. Hansard refused to violate the engage- 
 ment into which he had entered with Mr. King as to the 
 'mode of conducting the service, and wrote to the latter 
 mforming him that he resigned his charge, and that the 
 Bishop's chaplain would take the, duties of the following 
 day. The struggle was over, a memorable instance of the 
 victory of mob law. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 REST FROM TROUBLES, AND LARGER WORK. 
 
 1 860-1 862. 
 
 "To strength and counsel joined 
 Think nothing hard, much less to be despaired." 
 
 It is a relief to turn from the miserable story of the 
 St. George's riots. But Mr. Lowder believed that, on the 
 whole, they had " tended to consolidate and establish " his 
 work. " The very dregs of the people," he said, " were 
 taught to think about religion. Many were brought to 
 church through the unhappy notoriety which he had 
 gained ; and some who came to scoff remained to worship. 
 Mr. Mackonochie's valuable assistance at St. Saviour's was 
 bearing good fruit. The conversion of many souls in 
 the way of true repentance, the increase of communicants, 
 adults and children brought to Baptism and Confirmation, 
 the better organization and instruction of the schools, and 
 the careful administration of the charities of St. Saviour's, 
 all bore witness to the zeal and power with which his 
 missionary labours were carried on." 
 
 A friend to the Mission wrote to Mr. Lowder about this 
 time (the letter is undated) : — 
 
LETTERS OF APOLOGY. 
 
 " I have doubled my subscription this year, as I fear the late 
 disturbances may have put you to additional expense, and, per- 
 haps, done you some damage. How far you are involved with 
 Mr. King in the introduction of unusual vestments, in the celebra- 
 tion of the Holy Communion, etc., I do not know, but I should not 
 wish it to be supposed that I at all sympathize with such matters 
 because I give your Mission some little support. Let me say, 
 however, that though we may differ on this point, yet I most 
 thoroughly venerate that spirit which, working in you and your 
 fellow-curates, lias enabled you to labour with such self-denial 
 in the desperate haunts of sin which surround you, and I am sure 
 that your present trial, if borne to the end as you have hitherto 
 borne it, cannot but strengthen your cause. Continue to look 
 with a patient and pitying eye on the miserable men who trouble 
 you, for is not the Church somewhat to blame that she has allowed 
 such to grow up within her borders ? " 
 
 The following letters are too interesting (as showing the 
 change of feeling towards Mr. King), and too honourable 
 to the writer, to be withheld, although, for obvious reasons, 
 names are omitted : — 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 As you were in charge of the Mission works at 
 Michaelmas, 1861, and no doubt heard somewhat of the matters 
 alluded to in the enclosed correspondence, I think it only due to 
 send you a copy, and further to tender an apology to you and the 
 other clergy for everything said by me which in any way reflected 
 on you and them. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 Rev. C. F. Lowder. . 
 
 [copy.] 
 
 Very Rev. and dear Sir,* 
 
 I beheve you were present at St. George's-in-the-East 
 on the morning when the service was conducted and the sermon 
 * This letter is addressed to a well-known dignitary of the Church. 
 
190 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 preached by me. I have no doubt you were pained and grieved 
 by many of the expressions and statements I then made use of. 
 I now write to express to you my deep regret for having uttered 
 many of the said things, more especially those which condemned, 
 or appeared to condemn, the conduct and motives of the Rector of 
 the parish. I have since been led to see that much (I do not say 
 all) of what I then spoke against is the truth and power of God. 
 Will you pardon me if I request that, should you have mentioned 
 to Mr. King what then happened, you will also lay before him 
 this my retractation and apology. I ought in justice to myself to 
 add : i. That I write this not at any one's request, or even sug- 
 gestion. 2. I by no means say that I ex ammo assent and con- 
 sent to all that was done during and before the time of the riots 
 by the Rector and clergy of the parish ; but I do feel the greatest 
 respect for what I now believe to have been their integrity and 
 singleness of heart, and I very much regret my ever having been 
 guilty of so ungentlemanly an act (to say the least) of opposition 
 to a clergyman in his own church. I remain, dear sir, with much 
 respect, 
 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I lose no time in acknowledging the receipt of your 
 letter of December 22nd, and thanking you for the very frank 
 confession which it contains. You are right in believing that I 
 
 was at St. George's-in-the-East on . My reason for attending 
 
 the service was this: I Avas going to see the Bishop of London 
 the next day, in order to talk over with him the future arrange- 
 ments of the church, and discuss the possibility of the Rector's 
 return. I could not help saying to the Bishop that all healing of 
 the troubles of the parish seemed impossible while the Rector's 
 absence appeared to be used for the purpose of keeping ill feeling 
 alive in tiie parish. I do not deny that I was pained by what 
 I heard from you in the morning, and as much and more so by 
 what I heard from Mr. in the evening. I will gladly avail 
 
GOOD FROM EVIL. 
 
 myself of your permission to communicate to the Rector what you 
 have said to me, in fact, it is only justice to yourself that I should 
 do so. May God bless you in your work. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 When, some years afterwards, Mr. King preached in the 
 parish at one of the anniversaries, he was greeted outside 
 the church with a round of hearty cheers, many pressing 
 forward to seize his hands and to assure him of the change 
 in their feelings towards him. There were also several 
 instances of men who had joined the scoffers at St. 
 George's, but whose very profanity had been the means 
 of their being brought to a better mind, and who became 
 choristers in other churches, or assisted priests in Mission 
 work. And three, at least, of those young men who came 
 from other parishes to protect the clergy from the mob 
 "were induced," as Mr. King wrote long afterwards, "to 
 give up their situations in commercial houses in order to 
 seek admission into Holy Orders, from the conviction that 
 the cause which excited such deadly hostility from the 
 profane was one above all demanding the devotion of the 
 servants and soldiers of Christ Jesus." 
 
 Another fruit of the riots was the Working Men's 
 Institute. A gentleman, previously quite unknown to the 
 clergy, had come to St. George's at the worst to offer 
 .' is help in preserving order, and was so deeply impressed 
 ;th the need of all kinds of agencies for taking hold of the 
 working classes, that he originated an Institute for their 
 benefit. It was begun in Februaiy, i860, in the Mission 
 House in Wellclose Square, the clergy having removed to 
 another house, but was so soon thronged by members that 
 
192 
 
 CHARLES LOVVDER. 
 
 it was necessary to obtain larger and better rooms. The 
 new institution was opened with an address by the late 
 Rev. F, D. Maurice, on October 22, i860, and within a 
 month was joined by 180 members. It included first and 
 second class reading-rooms, and a youth's club, where daily 
 papers, periodicals, chess, and other games were provided, 
 as well as a good circulating library. Besides this, classes 
 were held for those who wished to profit by them in 
 singing, French, and drawing, as well as for more ele- 
 mentary teaching, with the generous help of some of the 
 excellent teachers connected with the Working Men's 
 College in Great Ormond Street. Lectures were given 
 once or twice a month by friends to the Mission — the 
 present Archbishop of Dublin, Dean Stanley, Thomas 
 Hughes, and others. During one year more than four 
 hundred members were admitted, and the Institute -did a 
 good work for some years. It was removed, when the 
 work in Wellclose Square was perforce abandoned, to a 
 house in Old Gravel Lane, opposite St. Peter's Church, 
 where it still exists, though somewhat changed in character, 
 being less a literary than a dining club, where cheap and 
 good meals are provided for working men and their 
 families. 
 
 In July, i860, Mr. Lowder had the refreshment of "a 
 very delightful trip of three weeks to the Channel Islands " 
 with his two sisters ; and on January 20, 1861, he was at 
 Frome, where the whole family assembled to celebrate his 
 beloved mother's birthday. 
 
 It was a winter of great distress, and he made an appeal 
 in the newspapers. More than ;^200 was sent to him while 
 he was at Frome, which was carefully dispensed by the 
 
SCHOOLS NEEDED. 
 
 clergy in food and clothes. Their intimate knowledge of 
 the district, of course, enabled them to do this far more 
 satisfactorily than it could have been done by any other 
 agency ; still it added to the work, which was beginning to 
 press heavily upon the Mission clergy and to tell upon their 
 health. There were only two priests and a deacon at this 
 time for the daily and frequent services in two Mission 
 chapels, besides all the pastoral work and secular business 
 which fell upon them. 
 
 Mr. Lowder felt that, their work having been consoli- 
 dated, it was high time to form the two Mission districts 
 into ecclesiastical districts, each with its own incumbent. 
 This was the more necessary on account of the uncertainty 
 of his tenure as curate, especially under the circumstances 
 of the parish church. He therefore secured a site close to 
 Calvert Street, in Old Gravel Lane, about a minute's walk 
 from the old iron chapel. On this site now stands the 
 stately church of St. Peter's-in-the-East. 
 
 Seven hundred children were taught in the schools at 
 this time ; the Government inspectors reported that the 
 children were " very fairly instructed," but that " new 
 premises ought to be provided," and that there was 
 "want of appliances for teaching." Mr. Lowder's desire 
 was to build a church and use the iron chapel as a school- 
 room, " but," he wrote, " we cannot build or make improve- 
 ments, or get better appliances for teaching, without larger 
 means." And from this time especially, as fresh work 
 opened out, money anxieties and difficulties added heavily 
 to that weight which he patiently bore during the twenty 
 years that were to pass before he gained his rest. He had 
 doubted in 1856 whether ^100 a year could be raised to 
 
 O 
 
194 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 support one missionaiy curate, and now, in i86i, the 
 expenses of the Mission were between ;;^3000 and ;^"4000 a 
 year. 
 
 He himself, it need scarcely be said, continued to live in 
 simplest poverty. A lay friend, who occasionally went to 
 the Mission House to help him in business matters, said 
 to the writer, " When I saw his bedroom I said to myself, 
 'Any gentleman who is content to live in this way must be 
 in earnest.' The curates' rooms were far better." 
 
 The following letter from Mr. Rowley shows that Mr. 
 Lowder must have written to him with much anxiety 
 about this time of the want of means for carrying on 
 the Mission : — 
 
 Mpames Village, Manganja Land, Central Africa, March lo, 1862. 
 My dear Mr. Lowder, 
 
 Thank you much for your letters. This is the third 
 time I have tried to get off an answer. Once our brethren carry- 
 ing them were plundered of all — letters lost ; another time they 
 went to the bottom of the Shire, through canoe upsetting ; and 
 now there is but an hour or so to rest during a long and hurried 
 march to ^Tite my answer. 
 
 I sympathize deeply with you in your trouble in carrying on 
 the Mission for want of adequate funds. If the work has partly 
 to be given up in consequence, the Mission has done well. It has 
 provoked other good works — think of that. I wish I had time to 
 write more largely ; attribute it only to the right cause. Do not 
 think it want of will or affection. ]\Iy love to all. May God bless 
 you all ; I think of you daily. We are much tried just now ; our 
 Bishop is dead, and we are shut up in the land. 
 
 Ever most truly and affectionately yours, 
 
 H. Rowley. 
 
 Will you give my kindest and most respectful remembrances 
 to your father ? 
 
MISSION AT BEDMINSTER. 
 
 In Lent, 1862, he went to Bedminster to conduct the 
 first parochial Mission in the Enghsh Church. His lack of 
 eloquence makes his success in Mission work the more re- 
 markable. It may have been, as the layman just mentioned 
 said, " The people had heard others call them ' brethren ' 
 from the pulpit, but they never saw any one else become 
 really their brother, living amongst them, in poverty, and 
 wholly at their call and service. He was indeed their ser- 
 vant, as he was the servant of Christ." 
 
 Some of his Mission tracts are, however, written with 
 remarkable strength and telling directness ; they seem to 
 come straight from a full heart, a soul intensely realizing 
 the verities of which he wrote, striking home to souls over 
 whom he yearned. 
 
 The Bishop of the diocese opened the Bedminster 
 Mission by preaching the first sermon on Ash Wednesday, 
 and for the ten following days there were constant Mission 
 services, including lectures to two hundred colliers in the 
 schoolroom, and ending with a midnight visit made by the 
 Vicar of Bedminster and Mr. Lowder to a neighbouring 
 coal-mine. They were accompanied by the wife of the 
 Vicar and by Miss Lowder, who wrote the following 
 account of the expedition. After describing their descent, 
 she says : — 
 
 We came to a large open space which they said was the stable ; 
 it was now empty, and here it was proposed that Charles should 
 preach to the men. This being arranged, some of the colliers set 
 off to assemble all in the pit, while we continued our journey. 
 One of the colliers explained to us how they worked : they lie nearly 
 flat on the ground, and with their axe dig out from the bottom up- 
 wards, so that the upper part gives way, and large masses of coal 
 
196 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 fall off ; or as the collier explained it, " when the legs are cut off, 
 the body tumbles." When we returned to the stable, we found a 
 goodly company of colliers, some standing upright, some leaning 
 against the black wall, while most had seated themselves in rows 
 one behind the other. The effects of light and shade cast by 
 their numerous lights was very striking. The service began with 
 the hymn " Rock of Ages ; " it seemed well known to all of them, 
 and they joined in it most heartily. Then they all seated them- 
 selves again, and listened most attentively to the sermon. Chai^les 
 spoke to them of the rock on which they were seated ; of the rock 
 over them and all around them; of the Creator of that rock, 
 even God, "WTio made all things. They could not tell, he said, 
 how long this rock had been buried imder the earth ; yet there 
 was a Rock before it — the Rock of Ages — the Rock that was cleft 
 for us, even Jesus Christ, Who was before all things, and by Whom 
 all things were made. He told them what He had done for us in 
 His Incarnation and Passion, and then spoke of what sin was — 
 a fresh insult to Him, — of repentance, and a judgment to come. 
 He talked to them of the Hartley Pit accident, and of what those 
 men would have given for a longer time. " Would you not like 
 to see that tin flask," he said, "which bears so simple an inscrip- 
 tion, perhaps scratched on it at the very moment when the full 
 danger of his situation burst upon the WTiter : ' Mercy, O God ! ' ? " 
 Then we all knelt down, and said the Lord's Prayer. The Vicar 
 spoke to them afterwards, telling them of a plan he had formed 
 for their benefit : that he wished to have a room for them, open 
 every evening, where they might go and read the papers, and have 
 tea and coffee, and where lectures, both instructive and amusing, 
 would be given. He told them that his great wish was to serve 
 them in sickness and in health, but that he would much rather 
 serve them in health, for then when sickness came they would 
 know each other the better. He said he had been called but a 
 day or two before to the bedside of a sick man, whom he asked 
 concerning his soul's health ; but the man could not answer him. 
 He then told him to say the Lord's Prayer after him: but the 
 
IFAAT OF CLERGY. 
 
 197 
 
 sick man was unable to do it. He tried again, asking him to 
 say only, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" the man said 
 " God," and could say no more. 
 
 A deep impression was made upon many at Bedminster, 
 and the Vicar, Mr. Eland, writing some time after, said that 
 he looked back upon the Lent Mission with entire satis- 
 faction. 
 
 This year of 1862 was in many ways a bright and 
 encouraging one to Mr. Lowder ; the strain of troubles at 
 the parish church was over. His little pamphlet, " Five 
 Years at St. George's,'' I^^d drawn attention and interest to 
 the Mission, and a heavy debt which had hampered the 
 funds was, at Easter, finally extinguished. He was full of 
 schemes for buying the Danish Church in Wellclose Square, 
 which was offered for ;^2000, of raising an endowment, 
 building schools, and forming the district into a separate 
 parish. This scheme, which was never to be realized, 
 he seems to have thought easier to accomplish than that 
 which came to pass — the formation of the parish of St. 
 Peter's in the Calvert Street district. 
 
 He was the more anxious to establish the work in both 
 districts on a definite ecclesiastical system, because it was 
 suffering severely from lack of sufficient clergy. Mr. Mac- 
 konochie had been called, this year, to the charge of St. 
 Alban's, and Mr. Lowder lost in him one whose place 
 could never be entirely filled. He was now left alone to 
 carry on the work once allotted to three priests, with only 
 the help of two deacons, having lost the Chaplain of the 
 House of Mercy at Hendon ; and he writes of himself at 
 this time as " trying to hold his ground till relief comes," 
 
198 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 In the end of August he took a much-needed holiday 
 among the Swiss mountains, and crossed the St. Bernard, 
 visiting Milan, Turin, Verona, and Como, returning by 
 Trent and Meran, Innspruck, Salzburg, and Munich. It 
 was his first visit to the Austrian Tyrol, where his last days 
 were to be spent. 
 
 I feel all the better for my holiday (he wrote to his mother 
 from Bruges on September 15th), and hope to get on with my work 
 when I return, as I shall have plenty to do. I fear I shall be the 
 only priest, though there are two deacons. One of them, I think, 
 will be a great help, though he has only determined to remain till 
 Christmas. This will probably be the last of my long letters, as 
 I shall not have much time for writing, and I quite dread the sight 
 of a month's correspondence which I shall find on my return. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FOREIGN TOURS, 
 1862. 
 
 " O there is sweetness in the mountain air, 
 And life that bloated ease can never hope to share," 
 
 On the first Thursday in Advent, 1862, the "Confraternity 
 of the Blessed Sacrament," of which Mr. Lewder was one 
 of the founders, was inaugurated. 
 
 Of other works in his Mission he could write in 1863 that 
 " the great bond of these associations is the Holy Eucha- 
 rist," "forming more and more the life of the Mission." The 
 communicants steadily increased, and on some festivals 
 tliere were choral celebrations for the schools, interspersed 
 with hymns sung by the children, to whom this service 
 became full of brightness and heartiness. 
 
 Mr. Lowder used to be asked sometimes by those ex- 
 perienced in education, how it was that children and young 
 people in his schools seemed to grasp and carry away with 
 them the faith, far more than those in more advanced 
 schools. His answer was that he thought it was the result 
 of the effort made in the Mission schools to lay a deep and 
 sound foundation of elementary dogmatic teaching. The 
 first principles of the Creed were impressed over and over 
 
200 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 again in the catechisings in church, -which were addressed 
 to all, even to the youngest. He found that this teaching, 
 coming with authority and the associations of the services, 
 was very effectual in impressing sound Christian doctrine. 
 
 The children themselves did not agree with Mr. Rowley, 
 that ]\Ir. Lowder had not a happy way with them. It was 
 a great offence if one of the curates took the catechising, 
 and one little girl, remarkable for expressing her feelings, 
 used to say aloud on such occasions, " There now, it 'tairii 
 Mr. Lowder ; 'tis a shame." One of the infant school- 
 mistresses writes : — 
 
 I was working down there from i860 to 1870, ten of the very 
 happiest years of my life, and I will speak as I ever then found 
 him. I could go on for ever speaking of his love for little 
 children. He was rarely seen alone in the streets; generally he had 
 a train of tiny children after him. Many is the time I really 
 wished him further off, when I was very busy with a lesson, or 
 pla}"time was "just up;" for as soon as he appeared diere was 
 nothing but fun. He used to take the skipping-ropes out of their 
 hands and say, "Come, you can't skip. I'll show you how; look at 
 me," and g^a^•ely skip away amidst peals of laughter ; then burst 
 out and laugh till he looked at his watch, then : " Oh, hush ! or 
 we shall be put in the comer," and off he would run. 
 
 Eut the catechising — how I wish others could do the same — he 
 riveted the children's attention. I never heard any one catechise 
 as he did. 
 
 Children's funerals were made the occasion of teaching 
 and comfort to their parents, everything connected with 
 them being made bright and beautiful. A little child, early 
 in 1863, was going home just after the Litany and cate- 
 chising in church, when she stayed to play with a school- 
 
CHILD'S FUNERAL. 
 
 201 
 
 fellow, and slipping from the kerb, fell under the wheel of 
 a coal-waggon, which crushed her head and killed her on 
 the spot. Mr. Lowder came up a moment after, took 
 charge of the little body, and then went to break the 
 tidings to her mother, sending for a Sister to comfort and 
 support her. He had the little coffin reverently laid out in 
 the school-room, where the parents visited it, and on the 
 funeral day there was a choral celebration in the Chapel 
 of the Good Shepherd, the funeral service being sung at 
 eleven. Nor did he leave his little one till she was laid 
 at rest ; twenty-five of the clergy and choir, with three 
 hundred school-children, bore her to the Tower Hamlets 
 Cemetery, a violet pall, with its cross and crown of snow- 
 drops, covering the coffin, the bier carried by girls from 
 the Industrial Home, while many hymns were sung during 
 the procession and at the grave. The great delight of the 
 child had been, on coming from school, to sing the hymns 
 and repeat the Creed she had learnt, and to try to teach 
 them to a tiny brother. And now the mother began to 
 prepare for her own Confirmation and first Communion. 
 
 Thus the foundations of the spiritual temple were care- 
 fully laid, stone by stone, before those of the material 
 structure had been begun ; and Mr. Lowder could feel that 
 as soon as ever the church he hoped to build was conse- 
 -crated, he could transfer to it a congregation already trained 
 to value its blessings. 
 
 The following letters to his mother were written in Lent, 
 1863, and during a short autumn holiday: — 
 
 Mission House, Wcllclose Square, E., March 7> 1S63. 
 ... I am now simply alone until Palm Sunday or Easter ; 
 depending upon what help I can get, with Lent services and work, 
 
202 
 
 CHARLES LO WDER. 
 
 and sixty or seventy to prepare for Confirmation, besides, of 
 course, looking forward to Easter Communions, but I am happy 
 to say I have been remarkably well since the beginning of Lent, 
 having had no indigestion for three weeks, and feeling well up to 
 my work. We are very poor just now, but depending, I hope, 
 upon our good God, who has never yet failed us. I am reading a 
 very interesting life of the Cur^ d'Ars, which is very encouraging. 
 To-day we are fortunately out of the bustle, but I expect we shall 
 have some of the Danish royal family at the Danish service on 
 Mid-Lent Sunday, when we shall have to pay them some atten- 
 tion, which, being a Sunday, we can do. 
 
 Interlaken, August 22, 1863. 
 ... I am ashamed to find that though my intentions were 
 good, they have been so badly carried out, and that it is now a 
 fortnight since I wrote to you, but the truth is we have been 
 moving about so much and taking so much exercise, that I have 
 had little time besides except for eating and sleeping. I left 
 Chamounix with Powles and his wife on Monday morning, my 
 travelling friend not being well and riding to Martigny. We 
 were only together for an ascent of about an hour and a half to 
 Montanvert, where you get upon the Mer de Glace. Here I was 
 again fortunate in meeting a party going upon the same expe- 
 dition as myself to the Jardin, and they kindly allowed me to 
 accompany them. They turned out to be Captain Fowke, the 
 architect of the late Exhibition Building, alias the Brompton 
 Boilers, Dr. Lyon Playfair, and a friend. Our walk was over a 
 rather difficult moraine (as the loose earth and stones which the 
 glaciers throw up are called) ; then over the Mer de Glace, an 
 immense glacier from Mont Blanc, very interesting to me as my 
 first expedition upon a glacier ; then up a steep and rocky path 
 over an intervening mountain, and then across another glacier, 
 the Glacier de Tacul. The interest of this expedition is that it 
 takes you into the very heart of Mont Blanc, among very wild and 
 arctic scenery, ice and rocks and snow on every side. It took 
 
ZERMATT. 
 
 203 
 
 me about nine or ten hours from Monfcanvert, spending about an 
 hour at the Jardin, which is a sort of oasis of verdure in the 
 midst of the ice. I slept at Montanvert that night, started off at 
 6.30 the next morning, again crossed the Mer de Glace, and 
 on by a passage called the Mauvais Pas — steps cut in a perpen 
 dicular rock, though now made safe enough by a cord ; and on 
 to Martigny, by a very beautiful pass called the Tete Noire, which 
 carried me through some splendid mountain and valley scenery, 
 and at last by a very long and steep descent upon Martigny. 
 There I again met my friend, who was now quite ready for work, 
 and we started the next morning for SieiTe in the valley of the 
 Rhone. Thence we started on foot for a mountain expedition, 
 first into the Valley of Ananviers, sleeping at a little village in the 
 mountains, called St. Luc. The next morning we started before 
 six, up a very beautiful mountain called Bella Tola, whence we 
 had a magnificent view ; they say you can see two hundred peaks 
 which are very clear, Monte Rosa, Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, and 
 many other giant peaks covered with snow. We descended by 
 the Pas du Boeuf, a wild pass, and our guide not knowing his 
 way, we had a very difficult and fatiguing walk, skirting the sides 
 of the mountain and crossing snow, into the Valley of Tournant, 
 where we again slept in a little inn. Off again the next morning 
 early into the mountains, and by a fine pass into the valley of 
 the Visp. The next day, Saturday, we got to Zermatt, a short 
 walk of about five hours, but, after all our walking before, and in 
 the sun, rather fatiguing. Zermatt is beautifully situated just 
 under the Matterhorn or Mont Cervin, a very rugged peak, rising 
 abruptly and majestically like the ridge of a house. It has never 
 yet been ascended, as the top is a sheer precipice, and it 
 never can be ascended until steps are cut in it. We were very 
 glad that Sunday brought us a day's rest ; unfortunately it did 
 not bring me my Sunday clothes, as my bag did not arrive until 
 Sunday evening, when I did not care about it. We met the 
 Bishop of Oxford at Zermatt, and he preached and celebrated. 
 Monday we started about five, and ascended a steep mountain, 
 
204 
 
 CHARLES LOV/DER. 
 
 the Riffel, getting our breakfast at the top and continuing cut 
 walk afterwards to the Corner Grat and Corner glaciers, where 
 .beautiful views of Monte Rosa are obtained. . . . Other parties^ 
 came into the little inn in a severe thunderstorm, drenched, 
 some from one expedition and some from another. It was alto- 
 gether an amusing scene . . . ladies drenched, others disputing 
 about beds, of which there were far from enough to accommodate 
 the party, so some had to make up their minds to a shake-down 
 in the salon. . . . Then the party was so large that many could 
 not find places in the only sitting-room ; then a part sat round, 
 looking on while the rest took their meal, we in our own turns 
 making room for their tea. . . . Next morning we started about 
 live, and took our breakfast at Zermatt. On our way down we met 
 a man who missed his way up in the evening and was obliged to 
 sleep in the wood. After breakfast we started for Visp, along the 
 same valley by which we reached Zermatt, but from St. Nicholas 
 to Visp was new to us. We reached Visp about 7 p.m., and took 
 the diligence about 10.15 to Brieg. Next day (Wednesday), we 
 drove to Visch, and ascended the Eggischorn as far as the 
 hotel, but were not able to get farther that evening, and the next 
 day there was such a severe snowstorm that we were obliged to 
 make our way through it down into the valley, where it was 
 pretty clear. We then walked on through the Rhone Valley by a 
 very picturesque road to Oberwald, and thence attempted to find 
 our way to the hotel of the Rhone glacier. We had quite lost 
 our way in the dark and rainy evening in the wood, when we 
 fortunately hit upon a hut full of workmen engaged in making a 
 new road. They were a very joicturesque party, though very like 
 brigands. However, one of them kindly guided us into the 
 right path, and after another hour's toilsome ascent in the dark, 
 and fearing we might still miss our path and find ourselves among 
 the snows of the mountain, we hit upon the cheering lights of the 
 hotel, where I was glad to find a bed and get into it. The next 
 morning, Friday, we started with two companions . . . over the 
 Grimsel Pass. The snow was falling very heavily (this on August 
 
GRIMSEL PASS. 
 
 205 
 
 2ist) and the path was quite covered, and, more than that, our 
 guide was obliged to avoid it, as it was deeper than in other 
 parts. We ascended with some difficulty, but when near the top, 
 came to a dangerous slope so covered with snow that the guide 
 thought of turning back ; indeed, he probably would have done so, 
 had not a party of Germans with another guide come up, and the 
 two guides set to work to make a path for us in the snow up to 
 their middles. They also told us to beware of an avalanche, 
 which was already forming over our path ; indeed, one had 
 slipped under us. In the midst of this, the wind blew off my 
 hat, and as I called to my friend to stop it, he thought I was 
 warning him of the avalanche, and so nearly fell dowTi in his 
 hurry to escape. Luckily I recovered it, as it would not have 
 been at all pleasant to brave the storm on the other side without 
 my hat, for it was very severe and cold. However, we got to the 
 Hospice safely, and having taken breath for half an hour, pro- 
 ceeded through the snow, which became softer and softer as we 
 descended. Below, we saw some very beautiful falls, which the 
 rain and melted snow improved, and got on through almost con- 
 tinuous rain to Reichenbach near Meiringen, after a long and 
 tiresome day's journey. A warm bath was veiy acceptable and 
 succeeded in keeping off cold. Yesterday we drove down to Brienz, 
 and came on by the steamer to Interlaken, where we are very 
 much delighted to have quiet rooms in the old monastery, which 
 is made a sort of dcpendance of our hotel, a nice garden, and 
 a beautiful view of the Jungfrau, the great charm of Interlaken. 
 It is certainly a very enjoyable place, and I could gladly stay here 
 some time, but I want to see a little more of the beautiful 
 mountains of the Oberland. . . . This last fortnight has been 
 very enjoyable, as we have seen a good deal of the mountains of 
 Switzerland as well as the valleys, and met with sufficient ad- 
 ventures to keep us amused. I am glad to get a day's rest to-day 
 (Sunday), and we had an early Communion here, at which the 
 Bishop of Oxford celebrated. It is delightful to write this letter 
 in sight of one of the most beautiful mountains in Switzerland, 
 
2o6 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER 
 
 I am afraid the service this evening, for which the bell is going, 
 will prevent me from seeing the sun set upon it. 
 
 Want of clerical help began to tell seriously on his 
 health, and in the spring of 1864 he became so ill that 
 the usual festival in April \vas omitted, and he went 
 abroad early in June, accompanied by his sister Susan. Of 
 this journey she wrote — 
 
 I had a delightful tour with Charles, and made my first 
 acquaintance with Switzerland. He was far from well, so at first, 
 instead of rushing about, we spent a fortnight at Seelisberg, above 
 the Lake of Uri, and enjoyed it immensely. Charles is a delightful 
 travelling companion, arranges all for you without fuss, and is 
 always a welcome addition to a party, full of spirit, genial, 
 amusing, and unselfish, thoroughly enjoying the fresh air and 
 bright sun, and gathering flowers with as much pleasure as a 
 child. 
 
 To his mother he writes of " enjoying amazingly sitting 
 out in the woods" and bathing. A few days later he says — 
 
 I found myself the first out in the morning (at the Righi), 
 as from the window of my bedroom I saw the stars beginning to 
 pale, and the clouds in the east catching a lighter tint by degrees. 
 
 After the sound of the horn, the whole company of young 
 and old turned out, and the sight was certainly worth the labour. 
 A heavy bank of clouds floated just over the tops of the 
 mountains, leaving, however, the summit exposed; heavy mists 
 hung over the lakes below, and the whole circle of the horizon 
 was traced with snowy peaks, catching the sun's earliest rays ; and 
 then at last the sun itself appeared gradually from behind a high 
 mountain peak. I remember some finer effects in a sunrise from 
 Cader Idris, but of course nothing like so grand a prospect of 
 lake and mountain scenery. 
 
MOUNTAIN WANDERINGS. 
 
 207 
 
 ... I feel quite set up by the change, and Mrs. — — said 
 she never saw me looking so well ; I hope I shall be able to 
 get on well through the winter, till I can get down to Frome. I 
 should like very much to have been able to have spent a few 
 days now at Frome, but I suppose I must relieve Kane, who is 
 not very strong, and will want some rest himself I have brought 
 you home an inkstand of Swiss carving, which I thought very 
 spirited, and I intend it as a present to the house, thinking it 
 would be more acceptable than a number of smaller presents to 
 each of the party. I hope you will all like it as an ornament for 
 the .Ira wing-room. I will send it down the first opportunity. . . . 
 
 His sister returned home in about a month, and he 
 travelled about for a time, going by St. Gervais and Servoz 
 to Sixt. From thence he wrote— 
 
 We started about 4.30 a.m., following a new and pleasant 
 route from Sixt to Chamounix for half an hour to the Chalets des 
 Fonds, where Mr. Wills has built himself a beautiful chalet, on 
 the top of a gorge overlooking a lonely valley, which he calls "The 
 Eagle's Nest." Thence we struck up a very steep path for about 
 an hour, and sat down for our luncheon at 8 a.m. We then started 
 again, and worked up another stiff slope of half an hour on 
 slippery turf; thence we soon got on to the shaly debris of the 
 mountain, and for two hours were working up very steep sides of 
 shale and snow, until we reached the summit, which is quite 
 covered with snow. The view was magnificent, for though rather 
 hazy towards Geneva, we saw the whole of Mont Blanc range 
 beautifully, tracing the range by the Weisshorn down to the Mat- 
 terhorn and Monte Rosa, with the surrounding mountains, and 
 again, further east, the Jungfrau and all our old friends of the 
 Bernese Alps, of which I had lost sight since we left the Col de 
 Balme. We made our descent pretty rapidly, and got down to 
 Sixt by 4.30 p.m., having been out twelve hours, including two or 
 three hours' rest. It was certainly the finest ascent I had ever 
 
208 
 
 CFtARLES LOIVDER 
 
 made. On Saturday we started back to St. Gervais by the Lac 
 de Gers, a steep ascent of half an hour ; there is a bit of shady 
 forest and plain towards the lake, which we ought to have passed, 
 but were misdirected ; then up again for twenty minutes, skirting 
 the sides of a ridge, partly on one side and then on another ; and 
 then, commencing our descent, we came down on a very nice httle 
 bit of water, where I had the most charming bathe I have had 
 at all ; still descending gradually over pleasant turfy slopes, till 
 we came to a Col overlooking the Geneva road, near Maglan. 
 Thence our descent was very steep, by a coal-mine cut into the 
 sides of the rocks ; then by a shady bit, with abundance of straw- 
 berries and a few raspberries, and some beautiful sweet-smelling 
 pink cyclamens, which brought us down .to the Geneva road at 
 Bellegarde. 
 
 He returned to St. Gervais, from whence he writes to 
 his sister on August 8th : — 
 
 I found Captain and his wife very pleasant friends, and 
 
 am sorry to leave them behind here. 
 
 I gave them three services on Sunday ; we had fourteen or 
 fifteen communicants at nine, and twenty-seven or thirty at the 
 morning service at eleven. We sang " Jerusalem the Golden," 
 
 in spite of Lady , who said she hated it, and wanted " Rock 
 
 of Ages "to " Rousseau's Dream." Our hymns went off very well, 
 but we could not manage any chanting. I preached in the morn- 
 ing, but did not feel up to a sermon in the afternoon ; it was so 
 hot that I was melting. My aristocratic congregation expressed 
 themselves much obliged for the services I had given them, and I 
 was quite sorry to leave them without any priest on Sunday. At 
 our two offertories we collected thirty francs for the poor of the 
 parish, the amount of which I shall take to the cure to-day. 
 
 I feel very well again, and hope to enjoy my present trip 
 very much. 
 
 J 
 
COL sr. THEODULE. 
 
 209 
 
 On the afternoon of August 8th he started with a young 
 companion on a tour in the Courmayeur district, and went 
 from thence to Aosta. 
 
 I was particularly pleased with the cloisters of the Collegiate 
 Church (at Aosta), and with the capitals of the piers, most quaintly 
 carved, as far as I could examine it, with early Scripture history 
 subjects — the history of Jacob, such as his meeting with Esau, 
 and wrestling with the angel. The flocks and herds and camels 
 were very good, but quaint. There were also carvings of the 
 Prophets, with some remarkable verse from their prophecy. The 
 carvings of the stalls were also good ; over each an article of the 
 Creed, alternating with a text on the subject of the article. The 
 Val d' Aosta, in approaching it from Courmayeur, though beautiful 
 and dotted with the ruins of feudal castles, is not so striking as 
 the descent from Mont St. Bernard. We drove on through the 
 valley to Chatillon, remarkably situated over a deep gorge. Next 
 morning we went up the Val Tournanche, a very delightful walk to 
 Breuil. It was quite a beautiful specimen of a Swiss-Italian valley. 
 Our walk lay in the shade, by the side of a mountain torrent, 
 noble mountains of Savoy behind us, and after about two hours 
 the Matterhom in our front, its cold summit rising above the 
 mountains in the foreground. The Matterhom is a very grand 
 and rugged mountain, its highest peak as yet inaccessible, though 
 many attempts have been made upon it. 
 
 We got to Breuil about 2 p.m., and I spent part of the evening 
 enjoying the glorious view of the mountain over us, and seeing 
 the avalanches which came down from its sides. It was quite 
 cold, from the height at which we were "and our nearness to the 
 glacier and snow, so that in the evening a good party assembled 
 very happily round the fire. The next day we started about 5.30 
 for the Col St. Thdodule ; we reached the snow about 6.30, and 
 the top of the Col in an hour after. The ascent was very easy, as 
 the snow was hard, but the view from the top is grand. You find 
 a hut at the -top, inhabited by a man, who is called the " Man of 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the Mountain,"- and it is said to be the highest inhabited dwelHng 
 in Switzerland. He provides hot wine or water ; of course the 
 snow and height make it very cold. We stayed here about twenty 
 minutes, and then commenced our descent, still on the glacier, 
 which was well covered with hard snow and with few crevasses, 
 so that we got on very easily for an hour or two, till quite the last 
 part, which began to be a litde soft, as it was now nearly lo a.m. 
 You have a view of Monte Rosa and the whole chain connected with 
 it. In the descent Monte Rosa seems comparatively low, from the 
 height from which you see it and your nearness to it, but it is at 
 all times a grand view. After getting off the ice, and a short rest, 
 we commenced our descent upon Zermatt, which we reached about 
 11.45, having crossed from Breuil in six hours and twenty minutes, 
 a good passage. 
 
 From Zermatt he made the ascent of the Weisshorn, 
 coming down upon Macugnaga and the Val Anzasca, and 
 so to Stresa, returning, after some wanderings amongst 
 the Italian lakes, by the St. Gothard Pass, and home 
 through Strasbourg and Rheims. 
 
 On St. Peter's Day, 1865, the first stone of the church 
 in Old Gravel Lane was laid, ;^'4000 having been promised 
 or given. The foundations of any building in this locality 
 are extremely expensive, as the upper surface of the ground 
 rests upon a bog, and the whole district is subject to 
 inundations from the river.* Mr. Lowder writes at the 
 time, of being obliged for want of funds to raise a tem- 
 porary west front, leaving the building of the tower and 
 spire for the future, as well as that of the schools and 
 Clergy House, which, he says, "we may hope will soon 
 
 * It is necessary to lay the foundations of the Clergy House, which it is 
 hoped may soon be begun, upon piles. 
 
MISSION BUILDINGS. 
 
 21 1 
 
 follow; " adding, " Then a block of ecclesiastical buildings 
 would be handed down to our successors as a lasting 
 memorial of the Mission work here commenced." 
 
 Alas ! he was never to see the completion of what he 
 hoped to leave ready for those who came after him. May 
 we not hope that, now, hearts may be stirred to finish his 
 material work, in memory of him who gave all he had — the 
 treasures which silver and gold cannot purchase He 
 wrote himself in 1864 : — 
 
 Is it too much in the present day, when the very spire of the 
 church will rise amidst the crowded masts of our shipping and 
 the gigantic warehouses which bear witness to the vastness of 
 our commercial wealth, to trust that those to whom much of 
 this wealth has been intrusted may be aroused, by the generous 
 examples of those who have already promised large contributions, 
 to complete what has been so auspiciously begun ? . . . Having 
 been enabled, by God's grace, to stand our ground for nine years, 
 amid the many difficulties which have surrounded us in this pecu- 
 liarly trying parish; having turned what at one time seemed a 
 defeat of Catholic faith and practice in the parish church into their 
 virtual triumph, because never have they been so firmly fixed as 
 at present ; having seen the principles on which this Mission was 
 founded now recognized, and more or less adopted and success- 
 fully carried out, in no less than seventeen neighbouring parishes 
 or Mission districts of the East of London, we surely may claim 
 the sympathy and support of all members of the Church in carry- 
 ing out this work to the conclusion which we have long desired, 
 and which now seems nearer than ever to its fulfilment. 
 
 Still he was often cheered by generous gifts to the 
 Mission ; and a note written at this time mentions a 
 thoughtful kindness towards himself : — 
 
213 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Mission House, Wellclose Square, E., July 6, 1865. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 Yesterday I received, through Mr. Liddell, ;^ioo from 
 an anonymous benefactor for my own personal use. I have often 
 wished that I could do something for you and my mother, which 
 I did not feel justified in doing out of the Mission funds. I can, 
 however, use this as I please. I hope, therefore, that you will 
 allow me to send;^5o for the use of yourself and my mother as 
 you may like best to use it. 
 
 In the autumn of 1865 he travelled with Dr. Littledale 
 and Mr, Nicholson, visiting Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Bel- 
 grade, Venice, and Rome. From Belgrade he wrote : — 
 
 Immediately on our arrival, we set out to pay our respects to 
 the Archbishop of Belgrade. Strange to say, we were directed 
 to the German evangelical missionary, who kindly came out and 
 took us to the palace, and acted as our interpreter. The Arch- 
 bishop not speaking German or French, we had a long interview 
 with him, delivering our letters of introduction from the Bishop of 
 London, and Littledale brought some books from Dr. Neale and 
 himself. We then asked him to admit us to communion, as 
 Denton had been admitted at the monastery of Studentza lately. 
 He said, however, that this had been done by mistake, and that 
 the priest who admitted him did so without authority of his 
 Bishop, and that, though a desire for intercommunion had been 
 expressed, it was yet too early to sanction such an outward seal to 
 it as this. We then asked if we might be allowed to celebrate 
 after our own rite in a Greek church, but that was also refused j 
 so eventually we gained permission to celebrate in a portion of 
 his chapel, which we accordingly did on Sunday morning. Little- 
 dale sung the Litany, and afterwards I celebrated, with L. as 
 deacon and Nicholson as sub-deacon, making it as choral as we 
 could, and using incense which the priest present supplied. 
 The Archbishop was not there himself, but an archhuandrite 
 
BELGRADE. 
 
 213 
 
 provided us with all necessaries, such as paten, and chalice, and 
 veils, and bread, etc., and some other priests were present during 
 a portion of the time in the chapel. After our own service, we 
 were taken into the cathedral, where the Liturgy was that for a 
 liigh festival, as they are keeping the Feast of the Assumption, 
 their calculation, being twelve days behind ours. The service 
 vvas in Sclavonian, so I could not understand it; but the cere- 
 monies are more elaborate and numerous by far than a Roman 
 High jMass. The singing was not very pleasing, being without 
 any instrumental accompaniment. After the Liturgy, a good many 
 communicated, even children ; but this was not so reverential as 
 with us, as they merely came up to the gates of the Iconostasis — 
 a large screen, highly ornamented, which divides the nave and 
 choir from the sanctuary — and received both species standing from 
 a spoon which the priest put in their mouth, the deacon wiping 
 their mouths afterwards with a napkin. The Iconostasis, I should 
 say, is beautifully painted, and has many pictures of our Blessed 
 Lord and St. Mary on it. There are also Eicons, or framed 
 pictures, placed before it, which they kiss, and during the service 
 many were engaged in kissing an Eicon in the church, while the 
 priest crossed their foreheads. We were then taken into the 
 Bishop's palace, where first a little cup of citron preserve was 
 handed to us, and then a small cup of coffee. 
 
 He took a longer holiday than usual this autumn, re- 
 maining abroad for two months, and returned to his work 
 in the Calvert Street district early in October. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ST. PETER'S CHURCH — THE CHOLERA IN EAST LONDON. 
 
 iS66. • 
 
 By objects, which might force the soul to abate 
 Her feeling, rendered more compassionate." 
 
 " I WAS in Oxford last week (Charles Lowder wrote, March 
 15, 1866), and got on pretty well with promises of help 
 and collections in various colleges. The Vice-Chancellor 
 was very kind." 
 
 April 14, 1866. 
 
 Our church is getting on nicely, but we shall have to stop 
 the works soon unless we get some more money, otherwise it 
 might be consecrated in the summer. I was very glad to be at 
 Mr. Keble's funeral, as it was a day not to be forgotten, nor a 
 scene either, to see Dr. Pusey at the grave of one he and we all 
 loved so much. 
 
 St. Peter's Church was sufficiently completed to be con- 
 secrated on June 30th of this year ; but first, on St. John 
 Baptist's Day, a farewell service was held in the iron 
 chapel, endeared to the whole congregation as the place 
 where most of them had received their first religious im- 
 pressions, and where they had been taught and fed for ten 
 years. Some of them said, with tears in their eyes, that 
 
CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S. 
 
 215 
 
 even after the consecration they could never quite feel the 
 same for St. Peter's as for their first spiritual home, the 
 Chapel of the Good Shepherd. 
 
 The day of consecration was, of course, a festive one 
 in the whole district. Old Gravel Lane was decked with 
 streamers and gay with flags, and the school-children lined 
 the way as the clergy received the Bishop at the school- 
 room, in which he robed, and then followed the long 
 procession, chanting the Ve)ii Creator up the nave into the 
 chancel. In Mr. Lowder's words — 
 
 It was a day ever to be remembered in the history of the 
 Mission, whether for the fulfilment of long-indulged anticipations 
 in the sight of a duly consecrated church, the beauty and solemn 
 character of St. Peter's, the full attendance of clergy and friends, 
 or, above all, for the hearty sympathy of the Bishop in the work 
 of the Mission, and the warm applause which his encouraging 
 words elicited from the large gathering of friends (about three 
 hundred) at the luncheon. 
 
 The Bishop said in his speech that none could think of 
 the self-denying labours of the Sisters without taking shame 
 to themselves in their comparative ease and luxury. In 
 the afternoon there was a flower-show in the school-room, 
 opened by the late Lord Lyttelton, with prizes for plants, 
 and a hearty Evensong in the newly dedicated church. 
 The festival was kept up through the Octave, friends 
 coming to preach each day, amongst others Canon Butler. 
 
 A district had been assigned to the church by the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission, taken out of the parish of St. 
 George's and St. Paul's, Sliadwell. Mr. Lowder, having 
 been nominated by the trustees, was licensed as Perpetual 
 
2l6 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 Curate, and, on the resignation of tlie Rector of St. George's, 
 became first Vicar of the new parish of St. Peter's-in-the- 
 East. He described the church himself at this time as — 
 
 in the style of the later First Pointed Gothic, being faced externally 
 with yellow stock bricks, relieved with stone dressings, and in- 
 ternally with red bricks, having bands and patterns of black bricks. 
 The columns of the main arches are of blue Pennant stone. 
 The plan consists of a lofty nave, sixty-eight feet by twenty- 
 seven feet, with clerestory lights. It is at present four bays in 
 length ; the three western have north and south aisles ten feet 
 \vide. The west walls are temporary, with provision for an 
 extension, and for a north-west tower and slated spire. Eastward 
 of the nave are transepts, north and south, connected with it by 
 lofty arches piercing the clerestory. The chancel is thirty-five 
 feet long by twenty-two feet wide, with two trefoiled windows 
 in the east end, surmounted by a shafted wheel window about 
 seventeen feet in diameter. 
 
 On the south side of the chancel is a chapel much 
 beloved by the people, called after the iron church, the 
 Chapel of the Good Shepherd. It is thirty-five feet long 
 by sixteen feet. Here the daily Eucharist is celebrated. 
 
 The Octave services after the consecration of St. Peter's 
 were scarcely over, when the first alarm arose of the 
 approach of cholera. The clergy and Sisters had just 
 begun to look forward to a little rest after the necessarily 
 hard work and anxiety of preparing for the consecration, 
 but now everything had to be put aside, and the Mission 
 forces were obliged to gird themselves hastily for the hand- 
 to-hand struggle of the next few weeks against deadly 
 disease and death. A slight case occurred on July i6th, 
 from which the patient recovered, so that Mr. Lowder saw 
 
CHOLERA. 
 
 217 
 
 no necessity for giving up attending a Retreat for clergy 
 at Cuddesdon ; " little anticipating," as he wrote soon after, 
 " for what scenes he was really preparing himself by those 
 quiet meditations in the Bishop's Chapel." 
 
 He had no sooner reached home than he heard that one 
 of the communicants of St, Peter's had died very suddenly 
 the day before, and he was at once in the thick of a most 
 fearful visitation, and of all the horrors which it involved 
 in such a district as theirs. The night of his return he was 
 called to the London Hospital by one of his men, who, 
 with his wife, had lately been confirmed and received 
 his first Communion. She had gone to the hospital that 
 morning for medicine, was advised to remain, and grew 
 rapidly worse. But Mr. Lowder's own words will best tell 
 the story of this cholera time : — 
 
 When we arrived at the cholera ward we found her in severe 
 paroxysms of cramp and sickness, and yet in the intervals of pain 
 very thankful for such spiritual ministrations and prayers as we 
 were able to afford her. Though tenderly nursed, she grew 
 weaker, fell into collapse, and died early in the morning. But it 
 was not merely this case which opened our eyes to the power 
 of the visitation ; the ward was full of cholera patients suffering 
 terribly from the first fresh energy of the awful scourge. \Vlien 
 once it was known that a clergyman was in the ward, one request 
 after another was made to him to minister to some distressing case. 
 Men, a few hours before hale and hearty, lay struck down for 
 death; women, young and old, groaning piteously in the agony 
 of their cramps. On one bed lay a nurse, whose mother and 
 children lived in St. Saviour's district, and who had been attacked 
 while on duty in the hospital, and died in a few days. Others 
 were sailors just returned from sea ; some Germans, either sailors 
 or labourers in the sugar-bakeries, or their wives ; another was a 
 Jewess, who, alas ! could receive no Christian comfort. 
 
218 
 
 CHARLES LOWDEk. 
 
 In ordinary circumstances it was not for a stranger to minister 
 indiscriminately to the sick in the hospital, for whom a chaplain 
 is provided; therefore the first course was to inquire for our 
 own parishioners, or at the most for those of St. George's parish. 
 
 But now it was impossible to continue this distinction. For 
 ministering to one sufferer we were immediately appealed to by a 
 neighbour, or a nurse or friend in his behalf; and thus Sunday 
 morning overtook us in the midst of scenes little realized by those 
 who were enjoying their rest and sleep at a distance in health and 
 safety. 
 
 At first, before the disease fell so heavily upon the Mission 
 districts, the Mission clergy were glad to offer the Chaplain of the 
 London Hospital what little help they coujd, overburdened as he 
 was by this distressing addition to his ordinarily excessive labours ; 
 and very interesting indeed were many of the hours, especially 
 in the night, spent in these cholera wards, when hearts were 
 opened and tears shed, and, we may hope, repentance accepted 
 from those who had been too little touched in the time of health 
 and strength. But the overpowering calls of our own district 
 soon made it impossible to withdraw any time from our immediate 
 charge. 
 
 It can be no wonder that in such districts as ours, where there 
 is at all times so much poverty and distress ; where the drainage 
 was as yet untouched by the improvements made in other parts ; 
 where our poor are so crowded from want of house-room (an evil, 
 alas ! increasing instead of diminishing) ; where the alleys are so 
 close, and the sanitary arrangements very defective (for where 
 landlords can always get tenants it is very difficult to induce them 
 to lay out money on improvements) ; where, during the hottest 
 part of the season, we had fermenting amongst us a large manure 
 manufactory, in which was collected, in a very mountain of 
 impurity, hundreds of tons of the very refuse of the streets, the 
 stinking sweepings of the market, rotten fish, oranges, etc., to be 
 mixed up and then carted off to barges in the river, — it can, I sa}', 
 be no wonder that when the cholera once broke out amongst us 
 
PLAGUE-STRICKEN DISTRICTS. 2ig 
 
 it should have proved most fatal ; in fact, that the death-rate, in 
 proportion to the population, should have been higher than in any 
 other part of London. . . . From a close court situated in the 
 district, a woman had been removed to the workhouse infirmary 
 for her confinement, leaving at home her husband and six 
 children. The youngest, a little boy, sickened, and though her 
 husband did his best as a nurse, yet he fretted over the care of a 
 large shiftless family (for they were Irish) and himself fell ill. The 
 little boy died, and one Sunday evening, after service, we were 
 called to see the father, that he might be removed to the cholera 
 ward. In a wretched room upstairs the poor fellow lay on a bed, 
 unable to help himself, and almost too ill to allow others to do 
 so, the children clinging to him, and crying at his being taken 
 from them. With difficulty he was supported through the court 
 to the stretcher-bed ; while another child, who was also suffering, 
 was taken with him to the temporary hospital. Thus the poor 
 man lay in agony on the next bed to his child and died. The 
 wife, hearing that he was in the infirmary, but not knowing that 
 he was dead, resolved to come out of the workhouse, though still 
 weak after her confinement, in which she had lost her baby. No 
 inducements would prevail to keep her, though it was naturally 
 feared that in her state of health the return to an infected house 
 would be dangerous to herself, and it was desired to take her 
 children out of it into the workhouse. While the medical man 
 was drawing up a certificate, which might have the effect of retain- 
 ing her, she made her escape, and was soon home, surrounded 
 by her children and a large assembly of neighbours. The only 
 resource was to induce her to leave this house for another, which, 
 after an interval of two or three days, was done ; and though two 
 more of her children were taken ill, with a girl who was helping 
 to wash for her, yet they eventually recovered, and the rest 
 escaped. 
 
 The disease, however, had laid hold upon the court. Another 
 man, a strong hearty fellow, died ; two of his sons were taken ill, 
 one very seriously, and his daughter was attacked so violently that 
 
220 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 it was necessary to remove her to the cholera ward. A young 
 man next door followed, and while he was being got ready his 
 wife felt so ill that, rather than leave her husband, she determined 
 to go also, and both lay for a long time dangerously ill, the 
 husband, indeed, at death's door. These, however, recovered, 
 and were afterwards sent down to Seaford, where they regained 
 their health, and returned to their homes and work. Others were 
 dangerously ill in the same court ; one an unbaptized man, who 
 professed infidel opinions even on his death-bed, though after- 
 wards, through argument and prayer, he appeared to give them 
 up; yet, like so many sick-bed impressions, his better feehngs 
 seem to have passed away, and he has returned to drunken habits. 
 
 Among the many sad scenes of this time, one of the saddest 
 was that of a poor woman whose child was just taken ill, and laid 
 on a little bed on some chairs in a wretched room at the top of 
 the house. She nursed the child as long as she could, and then 
 fell ill herself, lying in the agony of the cramps on the floor with 
 scarce anything to cover her, entreating the nurse, who had been 
 sent by the Sisters for the child, to ease her pain by rubbing her 
 legs, while the husband in his affliction was pacing up and down 
 the room, or getting away from the sad scene into the street, until 
 the ambulance-bed came from the workhouse to remove her to 
 the cholera ward, where she died, the child not long surviving. 
 
 The cholera wards of which we have spoken were the casual 
 wards of the workhouse, temporarily adapted by the guardians, in 
 obedience to the Orders in Council, for cholera patients. They 
 were not, indeed, all that could be desired, and yet the best pro- 
 vision that could be extemporized under the circumstances. There 
 were two large wards — one for men, another for women — and a 
 smaller one, afterwards used for convalescents. Hither the sick 
 were brought from all parts of the parish ; all who could not be 
 well tended at home, or where there was danger in close houses 
 and large families of the disease spreading, were received at once, 
 day and night. Happily the workhouse authorities, in the immi- 
 nent urgency of the circumstances, having had sad experience of 
 
THE SISTERS. 
 
 221 
 
 the inefficiency of pauper nurses, themselves applied to the Sisters 
 of St. John's Home for Nursing Sisters, who were at once sent 
 down, and devoted themselves most lovingly to the poor sufferers 
 enti-usted to them. It was indeed quite touching to witness the 
 tenderness and yet fearlessness with which each Sister in turn 
 gave herself to this work. One Sister, with a trained nurse and 
 others specially employed for that purpose, was always in the 
 hospital, taking the day and night duty by turns. 
 
 The patients were no sooner brought in than they were at 
 once attended to, their beds prepared, and all that loving ministry 
 could do was certainly done for them. It was sad to see how 
 little even this could avail for their recovery ; medical remedies, 
 the most assiduous nursing and care, were all baffled by the viru- 
 lence of the disease ; one remedy after another, one system of 
 treatment after another, one theory after another, was tried, but 
 without any apparent effect. Still the Sister's love and perse- 
 verance never failed •. and though there were days and nights of 
 most trying discouragement, when one body after another was 
 carried out to the dead-house, only that its place might be taken 
 by another living yet already doomed sufferer ; when we used to 
 look round in the morning and see bed after bed filled with fresh 
 patients, knowing too well that the former tenant was in a rough 
 coffin, — though the Sister who was throwing herself heart and soul 
 into this work of mercy, was often tempted in the silence and 
 loneliness of her night watch to sit down and cry over the sad 
 scene which lay before her, yet bravely and nobly she bore up, 
 and never left her post as long as her presence was needed. 
 
 There was something very touching, too, in the early morning 
 Communion at St. Peter's — when we all felt our great need of 
 Divine help, the clergy for their spiritual work, the Sisters for their 
 bodily and yet also spiritual ministries ; when our own Sisters 
 were preparing for- their labours in the district, not knowing what 
 the day would bring forth, — to see their little band at the altar 
 joined by the Sister of St. John's, who had been taking lier night 
 duty in the cholera ward close by, under the very "shadow of 
 
222 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 St. Peter," her very dress tainted by the smell of the disinfectant 
 used in the hospital, — bringing their sorrows, and the sorrows of 
 their suffering charges, to lay them at their Saviour's feet, and ask 
 for grace and mercy for themselves and them. It was a touching 
 thought to feel at that moment how safely we were all gathered 
 together under those loving wings ; how mercifully we were being 
 fed with that Bread of Life which could best sustain us ; how the 
 Precious Blood which touched our lips was cleansing us and 
 them, and the Communion which was knitting us together in the 
 bundle of life was joinmg us closely to Him Whom we could 
 thus recognize as walking with us in the midst of this fiery 
 furnace, so that not even the smell of fire passed on us, not one 
 among ourselves was touched by the power of the plague. . . . 
 
 In the morning, when the clergy, after the services in St. 
 Peter's, were going forth to their daily rounds, while some would 
 take the pressing or dangerous cases which remained from the day 
 before, another would find out from the relieving officer's list at 
 the workhouse, and the Sisters' list at the Mission House, the 
 new cases which needed attention. We had also some laymen 
 engaged in a house-to-house visitation — one with a special view to 
 the sanitary state of the houses, that deficient drainage or water 
 supply upstairs and nuisances might be reported at once to the 
 parochial officer ; the others attending chiefly to cases of urgent 
 distress, that the funds, which were so liberally contributed at 
 this time, might be well and judiciously dispensed. But with 
 every effort to organize our staff and systematize our work (and 
 certainly most thankful we have been that this heavy visitation 
 found our community of clergy and lay helpers, as well as our 
 Sisterhood, thus prepared), it was difficult to cope with the strain 
 and pressure of the need. The suddenness of the attack, the 
 awful rapidity with which it spread, and the speedy issue of each 
 seizure, requiring immediate attention both for spiritual and phy- 
 sical relief, continually baffied our most earnest endeavours to 
 provide it. We were continually impressed with the great truth 
 that all was in God's hands ; that we were but instruments to be 
 
MINISTRATIONS IN SICKNESS. 
 
 223 
 
 used as He might choose ; that our spiritual ministrations were of 
 no avail without His l^lessing. It seemed as if all had to be done 
 in a moment. For the soul, it was required that the very first 
 moments of illness should be seized and improved in fulfilling the 
 whole work of the priest — exhortation, prayer, self-examination, 
 confession, absolution, comfort ; preparation for the last struggle 
 must be now or never ; collapse so soon followed the first symp- 
 toms that there was not a moment to lose. And yet for the body 
 these moments were also most precious. Medical attention, the 
 best preventive measures, violent friction, hot applications, the 
 most careful watching and nursing, were demanded at the very 
 moment when we should have been glad to have kept the patient 
 perfectly quiet for the preparation of his soul for death. Then, 
 alas ! the perpetual vomiting made the reception of the Blessed 
 Viaticum in the great majority of cases physically impossible, so 
 that all that could be done was to exhort to a spiritual Commu- 
 nion, and, most frequently, shortly after it to com.mend the soul 
 into the hands of a merciful God and Saviour. 
 
 By the end of August the plague had lessened. One 
 of Mr. Lowder's sisters had come to stay with the Sisters 
 and help them. She wrote on August 1 8th :— 
 
 I am glad to say the cholera seems much less than it was. 
 My district is in Wapplng. I carry little bottles of camphor and 
 give them where they are wanted. We are all very well here, and 
 everybody very busy, but we are not at all a melancholy party, 
 everybody in very good spirits. I generally see Charles some 
 time every day, and he is quite well. Sister Louisa has had, and 
 still has, a great many cases in her district; she visits all the 
 morning, and sits in the hall in the afternoon to give relief to all 
 who come, several dozen of small bottles of camphor before her. 
 The bell goes incessantly, and some one sits in the hall all day 
 long till quite late in the evening. They give good dinners away 
 daily, of meat and rice, to those who are half starved to keep oft 
 
224 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the cholera, and besides this, beef tea, wine, and all sorts of things 
 to the sick. Boxes of clothes are coming in almost every day, but 
 the demand is so great for them that I dare say they \vill soon go. 
 I think there are about fifty children in the house to be clothed. 
 The Bishop of London is going to preach to-morrow evening at 
 St. Peter's, and many of those who have recovered are going to 
 return thanks for their recovery. 
 
 The Bishop had kindly written to Mr. Lowder, inquiring 
 about his own health and the state of the district ; adding, 
 " You will not fail to command my services if I can be of 
 any use." Mr. Lowder replied that a visit from him and 
 a sermon in the church which stood in the midst of the 
 infected district would be most useful. The Bishop granted 
 his wish, and came to- St. Peter's with Mrs. Tait on Sunday, 
 August 19th. He first visited the workhouse cholera wards 
 close to the church, speaking a few kind words to the 
 patients, praying for them and the parish, and giving them 
 his blessing ; then, after a visit to the Wapping Cholera 
 Hospital, and the Sisterhood in Calvert Street, he went 
 to the church, where a congregation of nine hundred had 
 assembled. The service consisted of hymns and the 
 Litany, with a sermon from the Bishop. It was a great 
 gratification to Mr. Lowder that, so soon after the con- 
 secration of St. Peter's, his Bishop should come into the 
 district, and prove his value for the blessings which it 
 brought to the district. 
 
 The public, too, had given him all the help that money 
 could give. As his district was one of the first attacked, 
 a letter written by him in the Times was amongst the first 
 which appeared asking for help, and within a week ;^iooo 
 had been sent to him. Two thousand pounds had been sent 
 
CONVALESCENT HOME, 
 
 225 
 
 before long, so that the clergy and Sisters were able to meet 
 all the wants which pressed upon them. Medicines, nurses, 
 food, and blankets were dispensed largely night and day ; 
 families weakened by insufficient food, and others specially 
 open to attacks of the disease, were fed and strengthened 
 by warm, wholesome dinners, daily sent from the Sisters' 
 kitchen ; comforts of every kind were supplied to the 
 sick and dying, and yet there was a surplus left from the 
 generous gifts sent to St. Peter's. It was given for the 
 support of a Convalescent Home, which Mr. Lowder had 
 opened at Seaford for the cholera patients. Of this Home 
 he wrote at the time : — • 
 
 Two well-situated houses were found at Seaford, in Sussex, 
 commanding a fine view of the sea, and open to the fresh air and 
 beautiful neighbourhood of the Downs. The houses were no 
 sooner secured than the Mother Superior, with one of the Sisters, 
 arranged the furniture ; and though empty on the Tuesday, they 
 were ready to receive the guests on the Friday of the same week. 
 A. party of nearly thirty, including some children and orphans, 
 arrived on that afternoon, and were soon tempted out on tlie 
 beach and cliffs. The thorough enjoyment of those who had 
 never seen the sea before, at their release from their close and 
 pestilential homes, and the happy exchange of them for the pure 
 and healthy climate, was an exhilarating spectacle. The party 
 consisted of a coalheaver, a dustman and his wife and child, a 
 labourer in a bone charcoal manufactory, a boy whose young 
 sister died and who himself worked at a soap manufactory, with 
 other men and women, some of whom had been amongst our 
 worst cases, but by God's mercy had recovered. All settled down 
 in their places ; those who were well enough assisted in the work 
 of the house very cheerfully, and soon found out the neighbouring 
 attractions by sea and land. 
 
 On the first Sunday, after attending the early celebration of 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the Holy Eucharist at the parish church, we were told that seme 
 inhabitants were alarmed at the idea of convalescents from cholera 
 coming to church, though every precaution had been taken to 
 prevent infection. Every one had a bath and an entire change 
 of clothes the last thing before leaving London, and everything in 
 the house was new, so there was no ground for alarm, though it 
 was naturally excited. In consequence it was proposed, being a 
 fine morning, to have an open-air service, which was joyfully 
 agreed to ; and priest and congregation, men, women, and children, 
 betook themselves to a lovely spot on the cliffs, under an old 
 Roman encampment, commanding a rare view of the sea and 
 coast towards Beachy Head on one side, and Brighton on the other. 
 Here we sang Matins, the men on one side, and the women and 
 girls on the other, while the Gospel of the day, " Consider the 
 lilies of the field," naturally furnished a most appropriate text. It 
 was a delightful service, to which even that noble philanthropist, 
 who said he would "rather worship with Lydia by the river side 
 than in the rich shrine of St. Barnabas'," could hardly have ob- 
 jected; and yet even to this retired spot we were tracked by a 
 jealous Protestant distributor of anti-ritual and anti-sacramental 
 tracts. 
 
 The service over, our party, with the exception of a few of the 
 weaker ones, made their way to the flagstaff, whence a more 
 extensive view was obtained ; and then all returned happily to 
 dinner. In the evening our church quarantine was taken off; and 
 though occasionally a few expressions of fear were heard in the 
 town, yet it was found that there was no real danger to be appre- 
 hended from the cholera convalescents. The sea-air, bathing, walks, 
 and excursions over the cliffs and into the neighbouring country 
 soon made a wonderful change in the appearance and strength 
 of our patients, until at last a party of the men were able to 
 accompUsh a walk of nine miles along the cliffs from Eastbourne, 
 whither they had been taken by railway. In the evening they 
 assembled in their sitting-room, and related their several adventures 
 during the day, read or listened to some amusing or instructive 
 
THE PEOPLE CONQUERED. 
 
 227 
 
 reading from others, and joined in the games provided for the.m 
 Before supper they met for prayer in the little oratory, when a 
 short service was held, with a few words of instruction. 
 
 The greater portion of the first party, being restored to health 
 in the course of three weeks or a month, returned home, and was 
 succeeded by a fresh detachment, and thus we were enabled to ex- 
 tend the benefits of our Home to seventy or eighty convalescents. 
 
 The cholera visitation marked an important era in the 
 history of the Mission. For it broke down the last barriers 
 remaining between " Father Lowder," as he was henceforth 
 universally called, and the confidence of his people. " We 
 had never any trouble after the cholera," was said to the 
 writer by one of the Sisters who has worked at St. Peter's 
 for twenty-one years. Mr. Linklater, who joined the Mis- 
 sion in 1869, gives the following account of the impression 
 made : — 
 
 It would require a whole book to tell all the brave acts of 
 heroism and self-sacrifice of Mr. Lowder and the Sisters. The 
 poor people have never forgotten the lesson they learnt during 
 this fearful time. Hearts that had hardened themselves against 
 the Gospel message in health were crushed with shame and 
 sorrow when, in the agonies of sickness, they experienced the 
 tenderness and love of true Christian charity. The dens of 
 poverty and vice seemed more grim and ghastly to those who 
 witnessed the solemn ministrations of grace amidst their horrible 
 surroundings. Walls that had for years resounded with the blas- 
 phemies of seemingly hopeless reprobates now echoed with the 
 sobs and prayers of hearts touched with penitence. Night and 
 day the clergy and Sisters toiled as hearts can only toil that toil 
 for the love of God. The sights and smells they had to endure 
 are past all telling. As usual the public were most generous, and 
 money came plentifully in. A Convalescent Home for the patients 
 
228 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 was opened at Seaford, and to this day people in the parish talk of 
 the kindness they there experienced, and the good there received. 
 In a word, such a bond of confidence and love was created between 
 Mr. Lowder and his people, that even in the severe strain of the 
 secession period it held good, and against all the false accusations 
 and malicious triumphs of the enemy they stuck true to the man 
 whose truth and constancy they had proved in their great hour of 
 need. 
 
 It was a time which also did much to break down 
 popular and official prejudices against the work of Sister- 
 hoods in the English Church. Seven communities of 
 Sisters worked in the East of London during the preva- 
 lence of cholera, in hospitals or districts. One of the 
 doctors at the London Hospital expressed his opinion 
 " that the presence of the All Saints' Sisters in that hospital 
 was, under God, the means of allaying a panic among the 
 nurses, which, if not checked in time, might have dis- 
 organized the whole discipline of the hospital." 
 
 Still, however ready and efficient was the help of both 
 Sisters and doctors, it was to "the Father" that his people 
 turned chiefly, with absolute and childlike trust, even for 
 their bodily needs. He was frequently first sent for ; his 
 influence was invoked to induce the sick to go into hospital, 
 and more than once his own arms carried sick children 
 through the streets, wrapped in a blanket, to give them into 
 the Sisters' charge in the cholera ward. His devotion to 
 them was never forgotten by his poor stricken flock ; he 
 had won "the golden tribute of a people's love," and he 
 kept it to the end. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 TRIALS FROM WITHIN. 
 1S66-1869. 
 
 " God doth not need 
 Either man's work or His own gifts ; who best 
 Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best." 
 
 After the strain of the cholera time was over, Mr, 
 Lowder took a short hoHday. He wrote from Ahie on 
 October 18, 1866 
 
 I have been moving about for nearly three weeks, not quite 
 idly. I came up from Seaford to spend Michaelmas Day in 
 London, and left this afternoon for Sheffield, where I preached 
 twice at St. Luke's on Sunday, having also preached at another 
 church, St. Jude's, in the evening of Michaelmas Day I made 
 my way to Lincoln on this day, where I was delighted with the 
 Cathedral. Chancellor Massingberd kindly entertained me at 
 luncheon. 
 
 He attended the York Congress, and assisted at 1 
 Mission in his brother's parish at Wolverhampton before 
 returning home. 
 
 The year 1867 was one of peace and comparative rest, 
 since he had now much more clerical help. Mr. Akers had 
 joined the Mission in 1865, and was in charge at Wellclose 
 
230 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Square. It was a severe winter, and on January 2nd 
 Mr. Lowder writes from Hendon : — 
 
 Here I am so snowed in that I could not get off to marry an 
 unfortunate couple, who chose an unfortunate day. This morning, 
 in jumping out of bed in the dark, I came with my bare feet into 
 a snowdrift which had formed under the door to about five inches, 
 and is now trying to form again. 
 
 At Easter he wrote to his mother :~ 
 
 INIany thanks for your letters. I have been so engaged lately 
 that I have had no time for answering. I was sorry not to write 
 to you on Mid-Lent Sunday, but I am glad you liked the volumes 
 of Moultrie's poems. We have had a very happy Easter — far more 
 communicants than I at all anticipated ; i8o at St. Peter's at the 
 two early celebrations, and two at midday, and veiy good con- 
 gregations. The altar was beautiful — a new frontal worked by the 
 Sisters, and vestments for the clergy given by the communicants. 
 There were eighty communicants at St. Saviour's, making altogether 
 260 against 160 last year. I hope my father is better. I did not 
 like his feeble writing in his last letter. All Easter happiness to 
 you all. 
 
 Your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Chart.es. 
 
 Father Lowder's annual holiday was taken this year in 
 Scotland, touring amongst the lakes, with a week's quiet 
 and rest at Cumbrae College, a visit which he greatly 
 enjoyed, as well as his trip afterwards to Stafi'a and 
 lona. 
 
 He returned in Septemiber to five months of hopeful 
 and happy work ; for his long-cherished desire of forming a 
 separate district round Wellclose Square seemed near its 
 
SECESSIONS TO ROME. 
 
 231 
 
 fulfilment. Mr. Akers, the curate in charge of the dis- 
 trict, possessed good means, and had offered a contri- 
 bution of ;^4000 for building a church. If a site could 
 have been procured earlier, this sum would have been 
 secured. But now, in February, 1868, a crushing blow 
 fell upon the Mission and upon its devoted chief The 
 details will be best told in the narrative supplied by 
 Mr. Linklater :— 
 
 The good bark of St. Peter's had been duly launched on 
 her voyage, with many prayers, much interest of kind friends, 
 and careful observation of the outside world to watch her 
 seaworthiness. For a time all went on well. Mr. Lowder was 
 backed up by a staff of four zealous curates, and the parish 
 was thoroughly worked, the services were well attended, and a 
 great many parishioners were prepared for Confirmation and Holy 
 Communion. 
 
 Then, at the very height of prosperity, came a blow that well- 
 nigh wrecked the ship. Three of the curates deserted and joined 
 the Church of Rome. The secession took place before Easter, 
 1868. 
 
 I have before me an account of this unhappy event, written by 
 a gentleman who was living with the curates at that time in the 
 Mission House at Wellclose Square. 
 
 In the case of two at least out of the three, a mine was sprung 
 upon Mr. Lowder with a suddenness which in ordinary transac- 
 tions between man and man could not be too strongly condemned. 
 One (Mr. Wyndham) was supposed to have gone to Kensington 
 to visit a sick relative ; he did not return to the midday dinner, 
 and in the afternoon it was known that he had been "received." 
 Mr. Akers v.'as absent preacJiing in Kent. On liis return (Friday, 
 February 15), he heard of the step taken by Mr. Wyndham, 
 resigned his curacy the same evening, and was received into the 
 
2j2 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 Koaiaii Communion on the following Tuesday. Mr. Lowder at 
 once sent for Mr. Shapcote, who was away on his holiday, to 
 return immediately to the desolate parish. IMr. Akers went down 
 to Worthing to meet him on his way up from Plymouth, and they 
 went straight to Farm Street, where Mr. Shapcote was received 
 into the Roman Communion. 
 
 All this happened in the inside of a week, not only without 
 any notice, but soon after the people had been agreeably sur- 
 prised by a sermon preached in the church in Wellclose Square, 
 by Mr. Akers, in which they were told that they ought to be 
 grateful to God that they were members of the Church of 
 England, and could read theii Bibles without fear of the 
 Inquisition, and that our age and Church contrasted favourably 
 with that of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The blow was indeed a most ten-ible one for the Mission. It 
 nearly killed Mr. Lowder. He had to go away for a time, and 
 Father Benson, Superior of the Cowley Fathers, with Mr. Statham, 
 vTOrked the parish for him. A half, and the most important half, 
 of the St. George's Mission district was lost ; for Mr. Akers had 
 arranged to build a new church in Wellclose Square, of which he 
 was to have been the Vicar, and now it passed into other hands, 
 and the people were shaken in their confidence — not that any of 
 them, or very few, followed the seceders, although Mr. Akers came 
 back into the neighbourhood. 
 
 But it will be said, how came Mr. Lowder to have such 
 curates ? To answer this I have to acknowledge what I consider 
 to be his greatest defect, almost his only one. He was wanting 
 in the power of discriminating character. He was so trans- 
 parently simple and true himself that he expected to find others 
 as sincere and real. 
 
 It was not the first time he had been so betrayed. Ten years 
 before a similar blow had fallen on the Mission. At that time tlie 
 party in the Mission House in Wellclose Square consisted of four 
 persons, two priests and two laymen, of whom I was the youngest. 
 A scare took place, and I was the only one left. 
 
LETTER FROM MR. BENNETT. 
 
 Mr. Lowder's letter to "the Friends and Subscribers of St. 
 George's Mission," dated "All Saints', 1868," has the most 
 melancholy ring about it. He never cared to show his deepest 
 feeling either in speaking or writing, and consequently to those 
 who did not know him he may have sometimes appeared stiff ; but 
 in this particular letter, in which he speaks of his broken health 
 (and it must have been broken to make him say so), he continually 
 harps upon the sad blow this secession was to the work, and the 
 disappointment it was to him to have to give up the Wellclose 
 Square district. 
 
 I believe he never forgot it to his dying day, and that it was 
 written on his heart. 
 
 There are no letters of Mr. Lowder's about this 
 trouble. He seems to have been too overwhelmed to be 
 capable of writing. Letters of sympathy poured in, and, 
 far better, offers of real help, as the following letter will 
 show : — 
 
 28, Hans Place, February 21, 1868. 
 
 My DEAR LOWDER, 
 
 To assure you of my sympathy in this most distressing 
 trouble which it has pleased God to send upon you would be 
 nothing. 
 
 I want to know if I can be of any service to you in act. 
 
 I must go back to Frome to-night, and settle matters for Ash 
 Wednesday and Lent. But I could come up to you after Wed- 
 nesday. I could remain with you and assist you in your labours 
 through Lent — I mean reside with you and take what share of work 
 you could allot me. 
 
 Perhaps one of a certain age, and one who has been tried 
 might be a guarantee to the people, the Bishop, and the Church, 
 that we are, though sorely wounded, yet able to continue on our 
 ground, trusting to Him Who alone can give us deliverance. 
 
234 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 I am therefore at your service after Ash Wednesday, and may 
 God comfort and direct you. 
 
 Yours affectionately in our blessed Lord, 
 Wm. J. E. Bennett. 
 
 Mr. Bennett's generous offer was accepted, and on 
 February 29 he went to Wellclose Square, working at 
 the Mission for three weeks of Lent. But Mr. Lowder's 
 health was so much shattered by the grief of losing those 
 he had greatly trusted, that he was obliged to go away 
 for four months to recruit his strength, accompanied by 
 one of his sisters. 
 
 They went by Antwerp and Cologne to his old quarters 
 at Seelisberg, and after a time over the Spliigen to Bellagio 
 and Chiavenna, returning by St. Moritz and Meran. His 
 sister wrote on June i6th : — 
 
 Charles feels the heat very much, and it makes him weak. 
 He is better, I hope, but his digestion is far from strong, and he 
 is very careful of what he eats. We had some nice fresh trout 
 for dinner yesterday, which he enjoyed, and it was a change. 
 
 This is the first notice of that kind of suffering which 
 for the rest of his life was to be a continual trouble and 
 drawback to his power of working. He had overtaxed 
 even his strength by carelessness as to food, as may easily 
 be imagined from the following account by Mr. Linklater 
 of the Mission House commissariat : — 
 
 In the days when I first knew St. Peter's, the Clergy House 
 dinners were proverbial. Mr. Lowder literally never noticed what 
 he ate. His whole life had been one of the most ascetic self-denial ; 
 in consequence at last he utterly ruined his excellent digestion. 
 To us poor weaker ones, certain dinners meant sick headaches 
 
M/SS/OJ\r HOUSE COMMISSARIAT. 
 
 and agonies untold. Any one was good enough to be our cook ; 
 and — I shudder as I think of all we suffered in this respect. On 
 one occasion I sent down my cup of cocoa to the cook with my 
 compliments, and the remark that cockroaches were not the 
 necessary ingi-edients of cocoa. The good woman thought I was 
 very dainty, and I believe said as much, but took occasion to search 
 the boiler, from which, and not from the kettle, she had drawn the 
 water, and recovered more than one hundred specimens of the 
 Blatta orientalis / 
 
 We managed our domestic arrangements at the Clergy House 
 on the club-house principle, dividing the total cost each month 
 and paying each our several share. Sometimes Mr. Lowder was 
 caterer, and sometimes one of the curates. He would treat us to 
 poultry on great occasions, and I am afraid he must have been 
 well known in Leadenhall Market amongst those dealers in 
 antiquities, for he always brought back the toughest and most 
 ancient hen he could pick out. But it never ruffled his temper, 
 and he would go to the same stall, time after time, with the most 
 forgiving trust and simplicity. I am not sure that he ever noticed 
 it, and I am quite sure we dared not call his attention to it. 
 
 On one occasion I had charge of the home department, and as 
 I had just returned from a delightful holiday with some friends in 
 Normandy, entirely set up in health, I proposed to my assenting 
 brother curates to introduce the French mode of living, which had 
 been such a sovereign cure to me. So that instead of dinner at 
 one and tea at five, we had dejeuner at one and diner at five. 
 ]\Ir. Lowder returned some days after the new order of things had 
 been inaugurated, and was therefore unconscious of the change. 
 It was near his tea time, which was our dinner. He evidently had 
 a good appetite, and was looking forward to his cup of tea. We 
 stole furtive glances at him when instead of the teapot came in 
 the soup tureen. He said nothing, but helped us, expecting that 
 the nexi arrival would be the teapot, etc. ; but no, the roti came 
 next. Then the threatening storm burst upon us; the ministry 
 was dissolved, I was degraded from my place in the home 
 
236 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 department, and we went back to the old conservative state of 
 meals and hours. 
 
 And, Avriting this, I see more clearly than ever before how much 
 of the comforts of life Mr. Lowder gave up for the sake of work 
 — if it be not absurd to speak of comforts in connection with one 
 who lived in such a place, and who never indulged himself, but 
 endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It was a 
 necessity that he should have a quiet home to rest in after the 
 fatigues of work, and yet he gave up his Vicarage to a pack of 
 curates, and allowed the place to be overrun by the lads and men 
 who came to our Confirmation or communicants' classes. At one 
 time even the choir used to practise in the dining-room. Ah well ! 
 in ccelo quies. 
 
 I am sure, now, that he suffered greatly from all this, and yet 
 he bore it all without a murmur of complaint. 
 
 He writes to his mother from St. Moritz in July :— 
 
 I think I am getting on. The worst is I cannot walk much. 
 I am hoping, however, to get a horse. The advantage of the 
 place is that there are so many easy walks and places within easy 
 distance to which you can drive, Samaden, Pontresina, Silva 
 Plana, etc. 
 
 August 7. 
 
 I think of leaving this and starting for the Finstermiinz, where 
 I hope I may meet the Mother Superior and Miss Oldham ; if so, 
 I may go with them a little way towards Meran, and then branch 
 off to the Stelvio. I want to hear how things are going on at 
 home, and if satisfied, I may get on to Salzburg and Styria. . . . 
 I think the air and waters here have done me good, and it has 
 been a great thing to escape hitherto the heat which has been so 
 intense everywhere. . . . 
 
 Meran, August 19. 
 
 Yesterday, Tuesday, I started with two Englishmen from 
 Bonnio to walk over the whole of the Stelvio Pass. It is a very 
 
OPEN-AIR PREACHING. 
 
 grand undertaking, the highest carriage pass in Europe. . . . We 
 unfortunately had a bad day for the view, and so did not see 
 the Oetler and its glaciers well, though what we saw was extremely 
 grand. ... I hope to be at Ischl, Austria, about the 26th, and 
 to meet the Mother Superior. I am anxious to see her because 
 I now feel nearly well enough to come home, and unless she 
 strongly advises me not to do so, I think of bending my steps 
 homewards. However, I should feel more satisfied in trusting to 
 some judgment besides my own. 
 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 He returned to his work on October 17, "after a four 
 months' absence," his sister wrote, " looking better than we 
 have seen him for years." 
 
 Out-of-door preaching had always been used as a 
 Mission agency by Father Lowder, especially if any fatal 
 accident happened, when handbills were quickly printed 
 and dispersed, announcing a sermon in the open air. On 
 one occasion two men were killed in a sewer near Calvert 
 Street by foul air. On the Sunday after, notice having 
 been given of a sermon, a large number of people was 
 collected. The congregation was too large for the spot 
 itself where the accident took place ; and so, after singing 
 some hymns through the streets, the Dies L-ce, and a 
 portion of the Litany, the sermon was preached just out- 
 side the Mission chapel, and a number followed into the 
 chapel afterwards and joined in prayer. 
 
 Sermons in the open air had often been given on Good 
 Friday, and in 1869 the first "Way of the Cross" was 
 sung and preached through the streets in St. Peter's parish. 
 A full account of it was published in the Times, " with a 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 leading article commenting on the folly of such an at- 
 tempt, and conjecturing that the author of it must have 
 been driven to despair by not being able to induce his 
 parishioners to enter the church." 
 
 The following account of the scene and of the service 
 appeared in the Guardian:-^ 
 
 Shortly after the conclusion of the Three Hours, the writer 
 turned his steps towards the east end of the town, where the 
 stations of the Cross were to be preached by Mr. Lewder, 
 of St. Peter's, London Docks. Leaving behind the Tower of 
 London, standing out against the dull grey sky, with its memories 
 of past days, when its now quiet courtyard was full of life 
 and bustle, we passed on through the narrow streets leading 
 to the Docks, amid many a strange sight of half-clad women 
 and rough seamen, an occasional swarthy negro looking up from 
 the sunken doorway of one of the low and ill-kept boarding- 
 houses with which the place abounds. Reaching the Dock wall, 
 and passing over one of its bridges, we turned down Old Gravel 
 Lane ; and here a new and unwonted stir was visible among the 
 people, caused, as it proved, by the starting of the procession 
 from the church. Headed by a stalwart cross-bearer, came 
 forth the choir of St. Peter's in their cassocks, followed by the 
 clergy in cassocks, cloaks and birettas, singing Faber's hymn, 
 " O come and mourn with me," and followed by a company 
 consisting partly of clergymen and friends from a distance, and 
 partly of the inhabitants of the district. On reaching Worcester 
 Street the Vicar removed his cloak and biretta, and standing on 
 a chair proceeded to address the people on the first station, the 
 choir first singing the words, " Is it nothing to you, all ye that 
 pass by?" which were repeated at each station. In touching 
 words did the preacher tell his hearers of the causes that had 
 brought that dear Child of Bethlehem, that dear Son on whom 
 the Spirit of God had descended like a dove, as a prisoner before 
 
IFAY OF THE CROSS. 
 
 239 
 
 the judgment seat ; and earnestly did he remind them of their 
 need of prepai-ation for His second coming. "Then," he said, 
 " we shall be condemned unless we now judge ourselves, and lay 
 our sins in true confession before Him. Oh, come then to-day 
 and make your peace, or at least resolve that you will never more 
 say the unclean word or do the unclean deed which keeps 
 you from Him." Another hymn, "Jesus, Refuge of the weary," 
 was then sung until the procession reached the school-house, 
 where the second station, " Jesus receiving the Cross," was kept. 
 Telling them of what the reception of that Cross involved, the 
 preacher pointed to the causes why the Saviour not only received 
 it, but received it willingly, and showed how in their daily lives, in 
 their afflictions at home and among their friends, and in their own 
 hearts, they were to follow in His steps. Speaking of the power 
 of the Cross, he pointed with striking effect to the figure of the 
 Good Shepherd in a niche over the schools, and begged his 
 hearers never to pass it without looking up and remembering that 
 the Cross of Christ is the true Shepherd's crook, which leads and 
 guides us from earth to heaven. Then the procession advanced 
 again, gathering strength as it went, young and old alike falling in, 
 and striving with evident anxiety to walk near the "Father" and 
 the " brothers," as we heard an old man affectionately describe 
 the clergy. And as they sang the hymns, all lifting their hats at 
 the oft-repeated mention of the Holy Name, the scene became 
 more intensely striking. The windows of the houses, many of 
 which were garnished with the plants whose growth has been 
 encouraged by prizes at the flower shows, forming one of the 
 numerous social agencies of the Mission, were filled with people, 
 while some were to be seen on the roofs endeavouring to gain a 
 good view of the strange sight. The next halt was near the Dock 
 gate, where a fine merchantman, with flag flying at her masthead, 
 was lying to, thus forming an effective background to the picture. 
 On the third station, "Jesus falls beneath the weight of His 
 Cross," the preacher showed that it was as God made man that 
 the Saviour thus fell, in order to tell poor suffering men and 
 
240 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 women that He knows how to feel for them. An earnest exhor- 
 tation never to omit morning or evening prayer followed. At 
 five o'clock, opposite the church of St. John of Wapping, the 
 fourth station, " Simon of Cyrene compelled to bear the Cross," 
 formed the subject of an address on the marvellous power which 
 a voluntary submission to the Cross exerts over our lives. The 
 fifth station was kept in Old Gravel Lane, which had been again 
 reached in the lengthened circuit, and here " the Women of 
 Jerusalem mourning for Jesus " suggested some touching remarks 
 on the tender kindness of the Saviour, as He bade them " Weep 
 not for Me." A few words on the right use of Good Friday were 
 connected with an invitation to join in the service shortly to be 
 held in the church, which has always been found an important 
 means of deepening the effect of this open-air preaching. And 
 now the rain began to fall, the bitterly cold east wind blowing 
 harder up the narrow street, but apparently having little power 
 over the preacher, who still stood bravely bareheaded on his stool. 
 A more suitable spot, a square plot of vacant ground called the 
 Ruins, was chosen for the sixth station, "Jesus stripped of His 
 Garments," conveying lessons which, it need scarcely be said, were 
 peculiarly applicable in such a district, where many a half-dressed 
 woman and child was listening intently. "There will be no 
 clothes in the kingdom of heaven," said Mr. Lowder, who, like a 
 second Wesley, appealed to his hearers to dress the soul rather 
 than the body, and never to be absent from church because of 
 shabby clothes. The seventh station, " Jesus nailed to the Cross," 
 led to a pointed warning to those who hit the angry blow or say 
 the angry word, to remember that they were hurting their Saviour 
 by every such act. The next station was kept in that portion of 
 the parish which has been the scene of the loving labours of the 
 Rev. R. Linklater, and here consequently many additions were 
 made to the already vast procession. The eighth station, at 
 Wapping Wall, " Jesus dies on the Cross," was the subject of an 
 eloquent address on the loving and forgiving spirit of the Saviour. 
 At the ninth station. "Jesus taken down from the Cross," the 
 
CIIURCIf ASSOCIATIO.V. 
 
 241 
 
 preaclier drew a graphic picture of the sorrowing mother receiving 
 the Body of her Son, and pleaded with the people to emulate her 
 love. The long stage before the last station was occupied by tlie 
 singing of three hymns, " Soul of Jesus," " Rock of Ages," and 
 " O Paradise," the last of which is so well known to all in 
 St. Peter's parish, that it was heartily taken up even by the poor 
 little ones, who literally swarmed round the procession. After a 
 most impassioned address on the tenth station, " Jesus laid in the 
 Grave," exhorting all to prepare their hearts to receive Him in His 
 risen glory on Easter Day, the Vicar concluded by inviting his 
 hearers to church, and by wishing all "a happy Easter." Many 
 of the poor people entered the church for Evensong, and listened 
 attentively to Mr. Linklater's sermon, which is always looked for 
 as Good Friday comes round at St. Peter's. The service of 
 Tenebrce followed immediately after Evensong. 
 
 The Church Association tried in vain for eight months 
 during this year to discover and utilize an " aggrieved 
 parishioner." Possibly the insurmountable difficulty of the 
 attempt may have been enhanced by the dangers to which 
 the aggrieved one would have been exposed. It would not 
 have been an enviable office amongst people who plainly said 
 that any folk who came down there to worry " the Father " 
 would be thrown into the river by the men, and have their 
 eyes scratched out by the women. " Let them come on, 
 we're ready for them," a sturdy farrier was heard to say, 
 baring a formidable arm. " I took my pattens to church," 
 an old woman said to the Sisters, "and kept them in my 
 •lap, ready to heave at them, if they came near him." 
 
 Mr. Linklater gives the following account of the 
 matter : — 
 
 Many an attempt was made by the Church Association to 
 attack such an important stronghold, but with no success. Their 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 agents had been down frequently to stir up strife and try to get 
 some of the parishioners to lend their names to the proceedings 
 against Mr. Lowder. But for a long time it seemed hopeless. It 
 was commonly said in the parish that money was offered for the 
 accommodation. At last three persons, none of whom ever at- 
 tended the church, and two of whom were Dissenters, one being a 
 preacher in the next parish, were pressed into the service. Mr. ; 
 Lowder told me, shortly before his death, with the most charming 
 glee, that he had made friends with the two persons who were 
 most bitter enemies in this matter. 
 
 Bishop Jackson came to the see of London in 1869, and 
 one of the first communications of the kind which he made 
 to his clergy was received by Mr. Lowder (February 9), on 
 the subject of the decision of the Committee of Privy Council 
 in the case of Mr. Mackonochie. " I infer," wrote the 
 Bishop, " from the newspapers, which however may be 
 mistaken, that you feel conscientious difficulties in com- 
 plying with it." He invited him to an interview, and 
 expressed his own great repugnance to dealing in such 
 matters with his clergy, especially those whose worth and 
 earnestness he had learnt to respect, merely as their 
 ordinary, and not rather as their fellow labourer, and, if 
 they would allow him, their adviser. Ten days later, how- 
 ever, Mr. Lowder received a formal copy of the monition 
 served on Mr. Mackonochie, with a kind expression of the 
 Bishop's appreciation of the difficulties which had withheld 
 him hitherto from acting in accordance with it, but with an 
 express " request, as ordinary, that henceforth the services 
 of his church shall be conducted in accordance with the 
 ruling of the court." 
 
 On July 6, 1869, Bishop Jackson wrote to Mr. Lowder : 
 
AN AGGRIEVED PARISHIONER, 
 
 243 
 
 "At last I have received a formal complaint from a 
 parishioner, and an application from him to institute legal 
 proceedings." He expressed his willingness to issue a 
 monition if he could receive the least hope of its being 
 complied with. "But if not," the Bishop continued, "it 
 would be only adding needlessly to the expense ; and it will 
 be better to proceed at once.under the Clergy Discipline Act." 
 
 It was soon made plain to the Bishop that' this 
 "parishioner" had no locus standi to enable him justly to 
 make complaints. And no fresh " presentment " seems to 
 have been found possible till January 8, 1878, when the 
 Bishop announces one, at the instance of "three parishioners," 
 accompanied by testimonials as to their character. He 
 explains that, on this occasion, in 1869, the petition is not 
 as on the last for the commencement of legal proceedings, 
 but for the exercise of his own " episcopal and fatherly 
 influence." 
 
 Mr. Lowder was accordingly invited to a conference at 
 London House ; but being at the time abroad and very 
 much out of health, the consideration of the case was post- 
 poned. He wrote to consult Mr. Prideaux, and received the 
 following answer : — 
 
 4, Brick Court, Temple, July 10, 1869. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, 
 
 I am very sorry to find that you have been singled out as 
 one of the victims of the Puritan prosecutions. I think the fact that 
 the complainant is a non-communicating schismatic would justify the 
 Bishop in refusing to allow him to promote his office. But if the 
 Bishop thinks fit to allow him to do so, I am afraid it could not be 
 successfully contended that he has not legal standing. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 C. G. Prideaux. 
 
244 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 The result may be told in Mr. Linklater's words. 
 
 Two spies of the Church Association appeared one day in the 
 front seats and began taking notes, and I am sorry to say that our 
 churchwarden, who is a most respected lighterman, walked up 
 quietly to these gentlemen and whispered, " If you go on with 
 this 'ere, there's half a dozen men behind you will crack your 
 heads." The note-books were put up at once. 
 
 It was most wong of him, and I told him so afterwards. But 
 you cannot get these working-men to be as gentle as lambs all in 
 a minute. 
 
 I could not have believed, if I had not myself been in the 
 thick of it, the extraordinary interest the working-men took in the 
 Hatcham riots — the intense sympathy they had for Mr. Tooth. 
 To be sure, they were on the spot and knew the whole history of 
 the agitation, that the Deptford roughs were regularly hired every 
 Sunday for their dirty job. Of their own kind thought, and 
 without reward, a strong band used to go every Sunday morning 
 to protect Mr. Tooth. One great strong giant said, " Oh dear ! I 
 hope nobody won't strike me, for I've had no sleep all night, and 
 I'm afraid I'd hurt him." But they behaved splendidly, with 
 firmness and self-control. 
 
 A visit from the Deptford mob to St. Peter's had been 
 threatened, to avenge the protection given by our people to 
 Mr. Tooth. There was the greatest excitement in our parish, 
 and each Sunday the church was crammed with our own men, 
 determined to protect the sanctity of the house of God. The 
 rioters never dared to come. 
 
 On one of the saints' days an agitator appeared at the 
 children's service, and when it was over he shouted out in church, 
 "What would Ridley think of this?" The children were inuch 
 astonished, and did not understand the allusion, so after church 
 they followed the gentleman up the street, singing, " I'm old Bob 
 Ridley O," the only Ridley they had ever heard of. He never 
 came again. 
 
PROSECUTION CRUSHED. 
 
 245 
 
 I must tell just one story, which illustrates Mr. Lowder's 
 temper of mind. When the Bishop of London wrote to him, 
 summoning him to appear and answer the charges of the aggrieved, 
 I wrote to the Bishop telhng him that Mr. Lowder was in Italy, 
 unwell, and that it would be a pity to disturb his holiday for the 
 sake of such a trifling matter. The Bishop had written as though 
 our parish was distracted by these ritual innovations. I begged 
 to assure his lordship that we were in perfect peace and un- 
 animity, which he might learn from the fact that the Church 
 Association had been unable to get another aggrieved parishioner 
 in the place of the one who for a time had withdrawn. The 
 Bishop very kindly answered that the matter might stand over 
 until Mr. Lowder's return. As I had sent on to Mr. Lowder the 
 Bishop's summons the day I had received it, I was afraid that 
 he would start on his return home before a letter could reach 
 him, and so I determined to telegraph, thinking it was an act of 
 charity to put him out of his misery as soon as possible. In a 
 few days Mr. Lowder's answer came. I thought, as I broke the 
 seal, "Now he will praise my management of the affair, and 
 thank me for my telegram." But, on the contrary, it was quite a 
 sharp little note, saying, " Don't do that again. Your telegram 
 arrived in the middle of the night and disturbed the whole house. 
 A letter would have done quite well." I was so amused at his 
 coolness, and a little bit annoyed, that I had halt a mind to go 
 on telegraphing in the same way, and at the sam.e hour, every 
 night for a week. 
 
 Nothing came of the prosecution after all; it was transferred to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the Bishop of London had a 
 remote interest in St. Peter's, being eventually patron, and the 
 Archbishop had the courage to quash it. 
 
 The dark storm-clouds of the Romanizing troubles cleared 
 away ; the gale had spent its fury, and we had breathing time to 
 clear away the wreck and repair the damage. I say " we," for it 
 was my privilege to join the Mission at this juncture, in 1869. 
 There were 206 communicants on Easter Day, 1869, as against 
 
246 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 180 in 1868. In 1880 there were 400 communicants at Easter, 
 and the names on the communicant roll numbered 500. These 
 were all won by tlie hardest labour from the parish and congre- 
 gation : when Mr. Lowder first began the Mission, there were not 
 half A dozen communicants in the whole parish of St. Peter's. 
 The "Twelve Days' Mission" of 1869 helped onward the influence 
 of the church. 
 
 Up to this time, 1869, there had not been any proper school 
 buildings in the parish. The boys' school was held in Mr. John 
 Knight's schoolroom in Old Gravel Lane — a convenient locality, 
 but the room too small for the number of boys we had — and the 
 girls were taught in the Iron Mission Room in Calvert Street. Mr. 
 Lowder had constantly asked for money to enable him to build 
 suitable school premises, and now the crisis had come. Unless 
 the application for a grant were made to the Privy Council at once 
 (1870), it would be too late.- Spurred on by the emergency, he 
 made a vigorous effort to collect the ;;^39oo required for the 
 buildings and fittings. He was so far successful that in 1871 the 
 foundation stone was laid by Lord Powis, and in the next year 
 large and convenient premises, capable of holding six hundred 
 children, were opened for the use of the parish. 
 
 These are dry details, which will be hardly interesting to the 
 general reader, but they are of the utmost moment to the people 
 of St Peter's, and they are part of the usefulness of Mr. Lowder's 
 work. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ST. AGATHA'S MISSION. 
 1869. 
 
 " Ragged children with bare feet, 
 Whom the angels, in white raiment, 
 Know the names of, to repeat, 
 When they come on you for payment." 
 
 In the summer of 1869 Mr. Lowder returned for a short 
 time to the Tyrol, whither his heart seemed ahvays drawn. 
 From Landeck he wrote : " It was deh'ghtful to get back 
 into the mountain air of the Tyrol. To-day we are getting 
 on into the Oetzthal, and shall probably stay a little among 
 the mountains and make some glacier excursions, and so 
 on to Innspruck." Soon after he made with much enjoy- 
 ment an expedition over the Hoch Joch, coming down 
 upon a place called Unsere Liebe Frau. A German in- 
 scription on a house in the Oetzthal took his fancy, and he 
 translated it thus : — 
 
 " The angels from their thrones on high 
 Look down on us with wondering eye ; 
 That where we are but passing guests 
 We build such strong and solid nests : 
 
248 
 
 CHARLES LOV/DER. 
 
 But where we think to dwell for aye 
 We scarce take heed a stone to lay. " * 
 
 A new Mission room was this year opened in the Shad- 
 well part of the parish, through the efforts of Mr. Linklater, 
 who began the work when chaplain to Mr. Peter Hoare, at 
 Beckenham. The night-school for men and lads which was 
 carried on there was at once filled by about a hundred of 
 the very roughest of that rough district. It was the begin- 
 ning of " St. Agatha's Mission," which has now been incor- 
 porated with the parochial work of St. Peter's. 
 
 Of the "Twelve Days' Mission" in Advent Father 
 Lowder said, " It bore sensible fruit, though from the 
 sim.ple fact that Mission work had been so long carried on 
 in the district, the attempt was not accompanied with the 
 same excitement as that produced by its novelty in other 
 parishes." 
 
 The increasing number of the Sisters obliged them, early 
 in 1870, to form a mother house at Walworth, as they had 
 failed in obtaining a site for building in St. Peter's parish. 
 Three Sisters were left in the old house in Calvert Street 
 to work in the district, but the House of Mercy at Hendon 
 was given up, and the inmates removed to Walworth. One 
 of the Sisters says, " Father Lowder was very tender and 
 gentle to the girls at the House of Mercy at Hendon, and 
 when that was given up he felt it terribly." 
 
 ©it Snjeln in ben ■Simmetrcie^ 
 ffievnjunicrn ftc^) at(e ju gteii^; 
 JDag toir I;ier bauen .5iu«;r fcfi 
 Sn tern ftiir fmb mir fcftntc ®4jJ; 
 Unb too toir foUen etoig fein 
 SPoct 6au(n toic gar tpenig biein, 
 
WANT OF FUNDS. 
 
 249 
 
 His work seems, as it went on, to have become more 
 concentrated and entirely parochial, partly from the want 
 of funds to enable him to branch out in other directions. 
 He writes at this time of being "surrounded by an amount 
 of destitution and sickness with which it seems hopeless to 
 contend." Begging was his hardest work. On this subject 
 Mr, Linklater writes : — 
 
 I cannot tell how greatly crippled and disheartened he was 
 at the difficulty, the impossibility, of getting the necessary funds to 
 carry on the schools and parish work. 
 
 It was quite distressing to see how this black care sat upon 
 him and crushed his spirits. It was a small matter that some- 
 times he could not pay the curates, but it became a very painful 
 difficulty that he often was not able to pay even the school 
 teachers. 
 
 But dark periods of money trouble only served as contrast to 
 the light which sometimes came. For instance, one year Mr. 
 Lowder received a cheque for ;^5oo from a clergj'man at Win- 
 chester, to enable him to clear off the liabilities of the Mission. 
 Yet on the whole his life was saddened by the increasing 
 difficulty in raising the necessary supplies, and this when money 
 was most wanted, and when all the agencies he had so painfully 
 planted were beginning to bring forth abundant fruit. 
 
 At one time he felt this so much that he seriously contemplated 
 resigning the living. It Avas only at the urgent remonstrance of 
 his curates that he yielded, and again submitted his stout shoulders 
 and brave heart to the continual and overwhelming burden. 
 And yet, with all these money troubles, I am sure that his heart 
 rejoiced at the wonderful prosperity of the work, and the blessing 
 of God as manifested in the changed lives of the people. 
 
 It is a great comfort to think that before he was taken from us, 
 he knew that the ship was manned with a crew that he could 
 trust, and who could trust him. 
 
250 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 No account of Father Lowder's work would be com- 
 plete without the story of St. Agatha's Mission. But here 
 again we must turn to ?.Ir. Linklater, its founder, for 
 information, and let him tell, in his own words, the stoiy of 
 its origin, which he has been kind enough to write for this 
 memoir : — 
 
 Some eleven or twelve years ago (in 1869), I was an idle 
 man, living in the kindest and pleasantest society, my only duty 
 being to say the Daily Office of the Church in the loveliest litde 
 private chapel in England, and having no cure of souls except the 
 members of my patron's household and the people who lived at 
 the different lodges of the park. Besides, I had charge of some 
 twelve boys who formed our choir. But as these lived in a sepa- 
 rate Choir Home, under the care of a schoolmaster and matron, 
 the duties thus imposed on me were of the lightest 
 
 There are few sweeter spots in England than the wild romantic 
 park in v,-hich the Chapel of Saint Agatha stands. The ever- 
 changing glory of the woods ] the weird mysterious silence of the 
 lake, the then tangled wilderness of trees and underwood aban- 
 doned to nature's skill ; and the deeply touching story of the 
 stricken life that sheltered in tliis old-world home — all these, and 
 ten thousand other charms of nature and of life, made one's 
 existence an unbroken round of ease and pleasure. 
 
 But while one had strength and the heart for work, and with 
 so much doing and still to be done for God, it was impossible to 
 live such an easy Ufe within sound of the battle's din, and almost 
 within hearing of the roar of our great London. 
 
 It was my kind patron who suggested that instead of resigning 
 my chaplaincy, as I intended, I should add to it voluntary ^Mission 
 work in some poor East End parish. 
 
 Alas ! my lips are closed with regard to these kind friends, 
 whose priest and Levite for many years I was. It is a pit)% for it 
 would illustrate the wonderful power of our Church of England 
 amidst all grades and classes of our national life ; the value set 
 
. ST. AGATHA'S-IN-THE-COUNTRY, 25 1 
 
 upon her ministrations in the hour of need ; the penetrating influ- 
 ences of the rehgious revival in our land, which has reached 
 every rank and age and disposition. 
 
 One little picture I must be allowed to paint. We had con- 
 siderable difficulty in getting permission from the Rector of the 
 parish for celebrations of the Holy Communion in the chapel. 
 The parish was then the stronghold of the strictest Puritanism, 
 and, consistently enough, the Rector flatly refused to grant his 
 licence for our service. In our strait we appealed to the Arch- 
 bishop, and his Grace kindly appointed an interview to hear our 
 stoiy. My patron drove up to Lambeth by himself; I had to 
 meet him there with his son, who picked me up in town. This 
 son, my kindest and most generous friend, had two great passions 
 — horses and the Church ; and, to use a Yankee phrase, he ran 
 them both. To the Puritans of our locality this seemed incon- 
 gruous. Knowing, as I knew, that he had the kindest, truest 
 heart that ever beat, there seemed to me no inconsistency be- 
 tween his coachman's coat when tooling his four-in-hand, and his 
 surplice when singing reverently in the choir. Both were true 
 and real. Certainly it brought to one's care a class of life which 
 has been greatly neglected by the ministrations of the Church, 
 grooms and stable-helpers, and which consequently is not much 
 conversant in Church affairs. Thus his new head groom, in look- 
 ing over the chapel, which was then not finished, noticed the 
 raised dais for the altar before the altar was placed, and, saluting 
 with raised finger, inquired, " The family pew, sir ? " But it is a 
 great thing to get an English gentleman of these tastes to take a 
 real living interest in the services of the Church, and to have his 
 hearty co-operation in all efforts to help and encourage his servants 
 to do their duty in their state of life. 
 
 But I must get on to the interview. I had to meet my friend 
 at Tattersall's, and I noticed that he had not changed his dress, 
 for he still donned the coachman's coat. I thought this was 
 hardly the costume for an ecclesiastical audience in an Arch- 
 bishop's palace, but it wasn't my business to speak. The Arch- 
 
2 $2 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 bishop, I could see, was much impressed with his visitors. He 
 kept his eyes intently fixed on the handsome, spiritualized, sorrow- 
 stricken face of the father. He, dear old man, was away in heart 
 and memory to the days when he was a boy at school, for he had 
 seen in the ante-room a bureau exactly like those used in his time 
 at Westminster. However, we got to business. The son did 
 most of the talking, the old father's face lighting up with love and 
 interest as he began to speak. The Archbishop summed up, " I 
 understand that you want my licence for your chapel." Yes, we 
 assured his Grace. " With the consent of the Rector of the 
 parish," continued the Archbishop — at this our hopes fell — " if you 
 can get it " — still no light — " without it if you cannot." " Precisely 
 so, your Grace," was our delighted answer. 
 
 And now in that parish, where alone, for three years and more, 
 we upheld the standard of the Church's ritual and taught the 
 Church's faith, there are three churches, besides the chapel, where 
 there is a daily celebration and where the Eucharistic vestments 
 are worn. 
 
 Before the chapel was built, my patron used to drive up each 
 day to town, twelve miles, starting at five o'clock in the morning, 
 to be present at the daily celebration in a City church. It was 
 the only comfort of his life, nay, the only power of living, in his 
 sorrow and bereavement, thus to shelter in the love of Jesus. 
 
 At first, because he dressed so carelessly, the people at this 
 church took him for a pious beggar, and the verger used to pass 
 him over when he collected the alms. But the Vicar rebuked the 
 verger, saying that even poor men had their mite to give ; so the 
 next time he took the bag to our friend, and seeing him put in a 
 bit of paper had the curiosity to look at it before presenting the 
 bag to the priest. It was a bank note for a large amount. 
 
 These were the friends who suggested the idea of St. Agatha's 
 Mission, who encouraged me and helped me in every way through 
 the work. 
 
 And also many of the residents, who gradually found their 
 way to the chapel services and worshipped at its altar, gave both 
 
ST. AGATnA'S MJSSION. 
 
 253 
 
 money and personal aid most liberally. Even those who were not 
 able to sympathize with Catholic teaching and ritual felt that they 
 could cordially co-operate with Mission work in the slums of 
 London. Thus did not only our chapel services become more 
 real by having this outcome of practical charity, but also the faith 
 itself was recommended to those whose hearts were at first shut 
 against it, and many of their prejudices in time were swept 
 away. 
 
 I offered my services and the possibilities of St. Agatha's 
 Mission to Mr. Lowder, and he gladly welcomed me. I had 
 had some previous experience of the parish, some ten or eleven 
 years before, having lived a year in the Mission House before 
 I was ordained. Then my principal work was to organize a night 
 school — in such a neighbourhood the most ungrateful, exhaust- 
 ing, killing work that one can do. I must ever remember the 
 first night. We had hired an old house in a convenient street. 
 As there was no gas in the house we had to improvise lights by 
 sticking tallow candles in the desks. It took all my strength to 
 keep out the tide of young men who tried to swarm in after the 
 room was full. At last the door was closed. There were a large 
 number in the school, young men of about twenty years of age, 
 and they worked away pretty well during the time of instruction ; 
 but as soon as the command was given, " Close your books," as if 
 by a preconcerted signal all the " dips " were blown out, and in 
 the helpless darkness whack they came at my devoted head, at 
 every possible angle and from every corner of the room. 
 
 The next night I was on the alert, and caught the ringleader in 
 the very act of giving the signaL I boxed his ears as hard as I 
 could. He coolly began to take off his coat and necktie, and 
 some of my friends hallooed, " Mind what you're at, sir ; that's 
 
 Bill , the Wapping Pet." I had got hold of a prizefighter. 
 
 I answered, " I don't care who he is if he comes here he must 
 behave himself." Luckily my man took it good naturedly and 
 did not hit me. He could have smashed me to atoms if he had 
 chosen. There is a great deal of genuine good nature amongst 
 
254 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 these fellows, if they know that you are trying to do them good, 
 and if you are not afraid to look them straight in the face. 
 
 Another duty was to catch the very ingenious rascals who 
 disturbed our services in the Iron Church by roUing stones down 
 the roof. They found out that this made a noise like thunder 
 inside. I caught one fellow in the very act and shook him heartily. 
 I fancy he was a costermonger, for he jerked out as well as his 
 breath would let him, " What do you shake me for as if I was 'a 
 cauliflower ! " 
 
 And now, after so many years, the world had so turned round 
 that I found myself at my old work again, and in the same old 
 place. This time we were able to start with greater pretensions. 
 We rented a large warehouse, and my dear friend the Rev. Sydney 
 Brooke Lobb became our partner and counsellor. A large staff 
 of gentlemen came with me each night from the country, who 
 used to be escorted down the Wapping Street by an admiring 
 crowd of lads shouting " Halloo, teacher ! " I don't know what 
 these friends thought of Wapping, and of the dark mvsteries of 
 the streets, for they never saw them in daylight. We used to 
 cross the river in the ferry (this was before the Tunnel Railway 
 was made), shooting out into the dark tide, seeing the awful 
 "port and starboard" lights of steamers glaring upon us; hear the 
 gruff roaring of the pilots and look-out men, with a sense that 
 the fierce tide was bearing us down and down — Charles Dickens 
 only knew where ; and at last hear the keel grate on the gravel 
 shore as we touched land, and jumping out, tendered our penny to 
 poor one-legged Jack. I treated my friends well, for I introduced 
 them 10 a greater delicacy than Sybarite e'er dreamt of — roast 
 potato " all hot," eaten in the street with pepper and salt 
 
 The night school from the first became a great success. It 
 seemed born in full vigour. The very first night we had forty or 
 fifty stalwart fellows, and soon the average number of one hundred 
 was reached. ... I really have never seen such a sight in my 
 life as this large number of young men gathered from the streets, 
 hard at work all the evening, as quiet and orderly as possible ; 
 
NIGHT SCHOOL. 
 
 some learning their letters; others, with distended tongiie and 
 with sprawling arms, going through tlie travail of a "copy,'' 
 and now and then some extraordinary genius turning up — as, 
 for instance, one young man who set himself a copy, Maxima 
 debetur pueris revereiiiia, which, when I asked hirn if he understood 
 it, he translated word by word, and who, when I was fascinating 
 my class with an account of the battle of Pultowa, showed himself 
 quite intimately acquainted with every detail and consequence of 
 it. I at once raised him to the rank of teacher, at some trifling 
 payment each night. 
 
 The every night scene was varied now and then by some 
 striking incident. One night, in the middle of school-time, a 
 knock came to the door ; and having opened it, there stood 
 revealed the ominous figures of two policemen. I went to 
 them to learn their pleasure ; they had come after one of my pro- 
 mising pupils. When I expostulated with them for choosing such 
 a time and occasion, they said it was their only chance. The 
 lad baffled pursuit during daytime ; but his thirst for knowledge 
 was so great, that he ran the risk of capture, because he could 
 not resist the attraction of the night school. The charge was 
 that, being very hungry, he had stolen a piece of meat. I went 
 back to my boys to consult as to what was to be done. There 
 was no escape (the chimneys were out of the question, and the 
 river barred egress on the other side), so I advised the poor lad to 
 give himself up, I never can forget the unnatural hush of the 
 large, excited crowd of boys, the stilled silence of their suspended 
 breaths, whilst he was making up his mind ; then with a stage- 
 struck air he posed himself in the middle of the room, and said, 
 " Comrades, farewell ! " 
 
 Another night we had an internal commotion. A huge, 
 cowardly, hulking, savage lad had made himself particularly ob- 
 jectionable for many nights, both to myself and to the general 
 mass of boys. I had to threaten condign punishment. The 
 monster could have pitched me out of the window; but un- 
 expected success was at hand. One night a new face appeared, a 
 
256 
 
 CHAkLES LOWDER. 
 
 quiet, mild young man, who retired into a corner of the room, 
 appHed himself diligently and, as I thought, with absorbed attention 
 to the business of the school. He was only biding his time. My 
 friend the bully began his tricks, when the new-comer sprang like 
 a lion over the desk, and gave him one ! two ! before he knew 
 where he was. At once space was cleared for a fight. I did not 
 choose to interfere till I thought the bully had had enough, and 
 then I separated them. It was the reformation of that young man. 
 He wiped the blood off his bruised face, and sat down like a lamb 
 to his copy-book. Out of pity to the vanquished, I paid him 
 some attention, when bye-and-bye he said, " Did you see, sir, how 
 that fellow struck me ? " 
 
 On Tuesday and Thursday evenings we had a Bible class — 
 by which name is not to be understood a nice orderly assembly of 
 quiet, decent men, sitting all round with Bibles in their hands, 
 and looking out their references. No ; my Bible class was a surging 
 mob of noisy and blaspheming roughs, whom one had to quell by 
 psychic force, as one would quell wild beasts by a commanding 
 eye. Yet this great roomful could often be held entranced and 
 in rapt astonishment, especially when they were told of their 
 mysterious, unknown benefactors. I remember trying to represent 
 to them a picture that at the time was thrilling in my heart : a 
 little child, daughter of a wealthy house, stealing down the stair- 
 case into the hall to give me her tiny savings, saying, " These are 
 for the poor Wappers." I had to go on my knee to stoop and kiss 
 her little hand. 
 
 In teaching them, the ordinary style of sermon — text, heads, 
 and application — would not go down at all. I may shock my 
 readers if I confess that I once preached on such a text as this : 
 " If you want to spend a happy day, go to Rosherville Gardens." 
 They were all ears to this, and I don't know that one could have 
 chosen a more touching subject than that ceaseless, never-satisfied 
 craving of the heart for happiness, if only for one day, which 
 yearning can find rest alone in the heart of Jesus. The night 
 school is a very heavy drag upon energies and health. It 
 
SERMONS IN WArriNG. 
 
 would be labour enougli even were the lads as quiet as lambs and 
 eager for instruction ; but it is fifty times worse when you have 
 first of all to coax them to come in, then when inside to keep 
 them in order, and to teach them, when perhaps all the time the 
 opposition party outside are heaving bricks and paving-stones at 
 the door, or chaffing their friends inside by shrieking the funniest 
 things through the. keyhole. 
 
 But yet I must be grateful to the night school ; for our real 
 Mission work has resulted from it. First of all, it brought us into 
 close quarters Avith the most difficult portion of our population, the 
 young lads and men ; and it is always a good thing to have 
 dealings with men, even if no immediate result follow. But one 
 night, noticing that they were interested in some scripture prints 
 I had placed about the room, which they were trying to explain 
 to one another — it occurred to me to offer to explain these 
 pictures one by one after night school. The thing took most 
 wonderfully. The whole school stayed behind, and arranged 
 themselves on the seats and desks tier above tier, I Avith my 
 picture standing in the midst. If anything could inspire a man to 
 be really eloquent, and to shake and grasp living hearts, it would 
 be such a scene — the eager, entranced, upturned faces, the tear 
 starting unbidden when the crisis came of some touching story of 
 Joseph, of David, or of our Lord ; the suspended breathing ; the 
 sigh of relief when all came right ; the united cry of " Oh, please 
 go on ! " when we had finished for the night. 
 
 The history of our special Sunday evening service is full of 
 most important lessons. At first we merely tried a class sitting 
 round the fire. It was a motley group, all young faces — at least, all 
 under twenty years of age — and all lads, no girls — such a gang of 
 roughs ! Well, for months they resisted ; the blasphemy and 
 misbehaviour were enough to break one's heart.' 
 
 We never dared to venture on a prayer, and often had to stop 
 the hymn, because they were only mocking God. In rebuking 
 them I used to tell them how different it might be ; and once, to 
 encourage them, I gave vent to what I then thought was an im- 
 
2S8 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 possible fancy. I described a reverent service, the psalms and 
 hymns sung, and they themselves the choristers. The idea took. 
 They began to prepare ; a choir class was formed, the conduct of 
 the lads improved every week, and you could see In their faces 
 that their lives were different ; and actually, after some six months' 
 training, and being sure that the improvement was real, on one 
 St. Agatha's Day we inaugurated the new order of things. One 
 friend gave a piece of carpet, another a curtain, and so we arranged 
 the end of our room to look something like a church ; cassocks 
 and surplices were made, and a reverent choir offered a really 
 hearty service of praise to God. By-and-by a cheap harmonium 
 was furnished, and choral Sunday Evensong has from that time 
 been the established thing. 
 
 St. Agatha's has always been fortunate in its teachers. Under 
 the present devoted mistress, Miss Pitt, one hundred per cent, of 
 the children have passed the Government inspection these last two 
 years. Not only is she thus efficient in secular work, but she enters 
 heart and soul into the missionary spirit of the place, and words 
 are inadequate to tell all that a really faithful servant of Christ 
 can do in such a neighbourhood to advance our Master's cause. 
 
 As year after year we prospered, so we had to enlarge, and 
 alter, and finally rebuild our premises. At last it became neces- 
 sary to build a new school chapel as well. Mr. Richard Foster, 
 who is at the bottom of nearly all church extension in East London, 
 literally drove us to this. Without his encouragement and help 
 we never would have attempted such a venture, and just at the 
 proper moment the boys of Winchester College gave us ^^41 
 towards this purpose. 
 
 At this time I had given up my chaplaincy, and had settled 
 down as one of the resident staff of St. Peter's parish. But my 
 old friends' interest in St. Agatha's did not flag. My patron's little 
 daughter Agatha, who is also my godchild, laid the foundation 
 stone of the new buildings, and she was supported by a bevy of 
 children, the representatives of the many houses who had supplied 
 us for so many years with the sinews of war. 
 
SCHOOL-CHAPEL. 
 
 259 
 
 I don't think any set of buildings can be better used, or more 
 got out of them, than these of St. Agatha. They are occupied 
 morning, noon, and night. 
 
 First of all, in the daytime, there is the regular day school 
 with a babies' creche in the old school. On Monday afternoons 
 two ladies, who used to attend the services of St Agatha's-in-the- 
 country, hold a crowded mothers' meeting in St. Agatha's-in-the- 
 town. I am afraid to say how many mothers attend (nearly all 
 with babies), for fear of being accused of exaggerating. I know I 
 have been with them in their country excursions, and have been 
 fairly crushed with the responsibility. On two days in the week 
 some other friends come from the West End and shed a few hours' 
 sunshine on our murky courts. In good truth many a home of 
 sorrow, many a sick bed, has been brightened by the kind words 
 and kindly looks of these gentle ministrants. The most ungrateful 
 and the most useful work they have attempted is to try and win 
 the confidence and love of the big girls, and gradually get them 
 away from our dreadful streets to decent service. God will reveal 
 one day the good that has thus been done. 
 
 In the evening the men fill the new schoolroom, smoking, 
 reading, playing bagatelle (there are two good tables) or skittles, 
 or racing in the running ground outside. On Monday evenings 
 the St Agatha's Benefit Society meets to transact business. This 
 is a sick club, managed entirely by the men themselves. On 
 Wednesday evenings the desks are cleared, and the neighbours 
 pour in for the weekly concert, which once a month resolves itself 
 into a ball (I wish my readers could see how correctly and plea- 
 santly the guests behave). The drum and fife band practises twice 
 a week j the stringed instrument band also twice a week. In the 
 winter there are all sorts of things going on — theatricals, nigger 
 entertainments, anything to keep them out of the public-houses and 
 out of the streets. 
 
 In the old buildings night school is held three nights a week. 
 One year we presented sixty-two lads at the Government examina- 
 tion, another fifty, and so on. This means that so many completed 
 
26o 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the forty nights' attendance during the winter ; and to get this 
 number perhaps Ave had two hundred on the books. After the 
 school is over, and on the other nights, the lads use the rooms for 
 club purposes until ten o'clock at night; of course under the 
 superintendence of a regular paid officer, who is known as the 
 " chucker out." No boys' club in East London can possibly exist 
 without such a functionary. I tried to do without him once, and 
 put the lads on their honour, but I suppose the moral strain 
 destroyed all the fun, for they insisted on his restoration. 
 Monarchy, absolute monarchy, is the only real paternal govern- 
 ment after all. 
 
 It tires one only to think of the life — boiling, mad-hot, overflowing 
 life — that is exhibited in this lads' club ; some of them performing 
 daring feats on the trapeze, turning somersaults backward, 
 playing single-stick, boxing with the gloves, playing bagatelle, and 
 upstairs the quiet ones either playing bagatelle or dominoes, or 
 discussing the politics of the neighbourhood. We used to have 
 a famous boating club, but the accidents were so frequent and so 
 serious that I was glad to dissolve it. In the summer the lads 
 play cricket either in the playground or in Victoria Park (which is 
 more than two miles away). A cricket madness has seized them, 
 and their club is called the " Wellington," out of compliment to 
 the boys of Wellington College, who support the club and the fife 
 and drum band. 
 
 I am of course giving a picture of the state of things now that 
 the clubs have gone through years of discipline, and things are in 
 full swing. Those who have had to do with these sort of things 
 will know something of the disappointments, rebelHons, discourage- 
 ments, ingratitude, and failures that have to be patiently borne 
 with and triumphed over before a constitution can be settled 
 
 Perseverance is really the secret of success in such work, of 
 course under the blessing of God. " It's dogged that does it." 
 On Sunday evenings, and on Thursday evenings, there is service 
 in St. Agatha's Chapel— hearty encouraging service. The stringed 
 band accompany the psalms and hymns. Miss Pitt plays the 
 
CLUBS. 
 
 organ, which .was presented by one of the daughters of my 
 patron. 
 
 It is a hard thing in writing such an account as this to steer 
 clear of names. The individuals, even if nameless, must be 
 dragged in to give a true colour to the scene. For instance, it 
 would be quite impossible to write a true account of St. Agatha's, 
 without introducing the person of one gentleman in particular, 
 a son-in-law of my patron, who has been our most stanch and 
 generous supporter throughout, not only by his large subscrip- 
 tions and gifts to the Mission, but by his personal interest and 
 presence at committee meetings, night school suppers, and other 
 occasions. 
 
 And then how am I to express the obligations we are under to 
 the many gentlemen who have helped on the work of teaching in 
 the night school and managing the club ? It could best be done 
 by detailing some of the results of their labours , but space will 
 not permit. I must give one case — a lad who came to us, not 
 even knowing his letters. He worked away, and got on in his 
 business, until from earning three shillings a week he has risen to 
 twenty-four ; and he saves up his money (after helping the old 
 folk at home) in order to take little holiday trips, sometimes in 
 England, sometimes on the Continent. Last year he went to 
 Paris ; this year he has gone up the Rhine. If that is not 
 "raising the masses," I don't know what is; and I have only 
 spoken of the material improvement which is the least part of his 
 cultivation and progress. I should like to pay a passing tribute 
 of affection and respect to the conscientious and talented master 
 who for so long a time conducted the St. Agatha's Day School, 
 the late John Martin. Mrs. Craik has written his life in her 
 charming book "A Legacy," and has given us some of his 
 writings. It is for me to bear grateful witness to the wonderful 
 influence for good he exerted on his pupils, the results of which 
 can never be effaced. 
 
 Surely life is a mystery, and especially the sort of life that 
 settles itself in such muddy holes and corners, wiicn from the 
 
262 
 
 CHARLES LOVVDER. 
 
 seeming refuse can be dredged such a brilliant intelligence as this 
 gifted youth. 
 
 My opinion is that the best way of working a large East End 
 parish is in this way, by opening Mission rooms and clubs in 
 suitable localities, to get at the poor, teach them the Christian 
 faith, and gradually lead them on to the altar of the parish 
 church. 
 
 Two other branches of St. Agatha's Mission in conclusion 
 must be spoken of— the Convalescent Home and the playground. 
 
 I was opening my letters one morning when out of one of 
 them tumbled a cheque for ^looo. Liberal friends had already 
 formed within me the habit of receiving large sums of money 
 with an even heart, but I confess this took away my breath. It 
 was but the first instalment of a sum of ;^20oo which the late 
 Mrs. Walter Morton gave for the purpose of founding a Con- 
 valescent Home for the poor of our parish. This Home has 
 been in good working order for more than three years, and has 
 been the greatest possible blessing to the poor. It is at Reigate 
 in Surrey, and is under the effective management of Miss Challen, 
 the honorary lady superintendent, who makes herself the per- 
 sonal friend and comforter of the invalids who are put under 
 her care- Dr. Walter Smith is the honorary physician, and he 
 spares neither time nor trouble to benefit his patients. Funds are 
 desperately needed to complete the endowment, and thus per- 
 petuate this noble work. 
 
 The playground was a more cold-blooded venture. A large 
 plot of ground in our parish was to be sold for building purposes. 
 It is not often that spare ground is to be had in the heart of 
 London, and this was only vacant because the houses had been 
 pulled down by the East London Railway. I thought it would be 
 a good thing to secure it as a playground for the poor little children 
 who have no place to play in, and who are hunted by the police if 
 they play in the streets. The editor of the Standard inserted my 
 appeal, and added kind words of recommendation ; Punch also 
 took up the cause, and the money came in fast and furious — so 
 
PLAY-GROUND. 
 
 263 
 
 fast that in a month's time I had to cry, " Hold ! enough ! " Mr. 
 Robert Loder, M.P., had offered to make up the deficiency. 
 
 The freehold was purchased and a wall built round it at a 
 cost of about ;^i3oo. We had a grand opening. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Loder came down to perform the ceremony, and many other 
 subscribers were present. The gift to the children has been the 
 greatest boon. 
 
 I have finished. I shall be more than repaid if what I have 
 tried to say stirs up the heart of any reader to do something to 
 help the work of Christ in East London. Many young curates 
 in West End or suburban parishes have no poor to visit. Would 
 it not be a grand thing for themselves, and for their congregations, 
 were they during the week to meet our Lord in the person of His 
 poor in this spiritual Galilee? The Bishop of Bedford could find 
 them work to do. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OLER-AMMERGAU AND THE AUSTRIAN TYROL. 
 1870, 1871. 
 
 " Some vague emotion of delight 
 In gazing up an Alpine height, 
 Some yearning toward the lamps of night." 
 
 In 1870 Mrs. Lowder's health began to fail. It was 
 but the beginning of the end, and the first warning of a 
 bereavement which was deeply felt by Father Lowder 
 during the rest of his life. All the tenderest feelings of 
 a heart most constant in its affections had twined them- 
 selves around the mother who well deserved her son's love 
 and duty. In July she was well enough to receive her 
 youngest son and his bride on their wedding visit. 
 " Whilst they were with us," her daughter wrote, " she was 
 very bright and cheerful, and able to enjoy their society. 
 After that her complaint showed dropsical symptoms. In 
 October the doctor said nothing could be done except by 
 way of alleviation. My mother was always patient and 
 cheerful, and full of thankfulness." The following extracts 
 from letters are almost all addressed to her ; the first 
 being written on his fiftieth birthday : — 
 
 Rectory, Chislehurst, June 23, 1870. 
 .... I came over here yesterday for a day in fresh air, but I 
 go back this evening. It makes one feel very old to have passed 
 
TOUR IN WALES. 
 
 255 
 
 one's fiftieth birthday, but I have great reason to be thankful for 
 the many mercies and blessings I have had, and not the least of 
 them is the gift of good parents. ... I hope to meet Murray and 
 some of his party at Ober-Ammergau, and probably Murray will 
 do some walking with me and Body. 
 
 He gave up this hoped-for excursion, however, and paid 
 a visit instead to his friend, IMr. Wynne of Peniarth. 
 
 Aberamfra House, Barmouth, August 15, 1870. 
 
 My DEAR Mother, 
 
 As I know you will be glad to hear of my progress, I 
 take the earliest opportunity of writing. I had a pleasant ride to 
 Shrewsbury, getting a good sight of Ludlow Church and Castle, 
 which must command a very fine view from its high situation. 
 The country between Ludlow and Shrewsbury is also well worth 
 seeing ; there are some high ranges of hills immediately over the 
 line. I met Mr. "Wynne at Shrewsbury station, and we went on 
 together to Chirk, about an hour's travelling from Shrewsbury. 
 Lord Dungannon met us at the station, and we went with him to 
 Brynkinalt, a very beautiful place about a mile from the station. 
 Then we lunched, and then started for Valle Crucis Abbey on his 
 car. We drove through the Vale of Llangollen to Llangollen and 
 Valle Crucis. There was a large party of the Archaeological 
 Institute there; and as Lord Dungannon and Mr. Wynne have been 
 chiefly concerned in clearing out the abbey, we saw it to great 
 advantage. It was also a lovely afternoon, and this added to the 
 charm of the scenery, which is very beautiful, the abbey being 
 situated in the most romantic part of the Vale of Llangollen. 
 There is a great deal of the church remaining, and in very good 
 order. The west end is especially beautiful from a small rose 
 window over the three lights. There are some remains of monu- 
 ments of about the twelfth or thirteenth century, which have been 
 put together. The abbey buildings, consisting of the abbot's 
 house and what is supposed to be the refectory and dormitories, 
 are also standing, and there is a very ancient Saxon cross of about 
 
266 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the eighth or ninth century in a field near. I met Miss Lloyd 
 of Rhagate, near Corwen, whom I have known for some time, and 
 who has asked Mr. Wynne and myself to stay at Rhagate, which 
 perhaps I may do on my way back, if I do not go by way of 
 Monmouthshire. Mr. F. Baker and Mr. Scarth were also among 
 the Archjeological party. We returned to a late dinner, enjoying 
 the rich sunset among the hills, and slept at Brynkinalt, which is 
 a very fine house, well situated in a large and wooded park, in 
 which I managed to take a short walk after breakfast yesterday. 
 We also took a stroll in the grounds of Chirk Castle before the 
 train started, and then met the coach at Llangollen Road Station, 
 and had a beautiful drive through Llangollen, Corwen, and Bala, 
 to Dolgelly, where Mr. Wynne's carriage met us, and brought us 
 to Barmouth about eight. The day was very fine, though the 
 highest peak of Cader Idris was tipped part of the time by mist. 
 As Mr. Wynne knew every place and everybody, the drive was the 
 more agreeable. To-day we are going to Harlech Castle, and as 
 the weather is very fine I think we shall enjoy it. I got a bathe 
 before breakfast among the rocks just under the house, and feel 
 all the better for the sea air already. I am writing now with a 
 fine view of the sea before me. My love to uncle and aunt, 
 and believe me, 
 
 Your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 Aberamfra House, Barmouth, August i6, 1870. 
 
 My dear Annie, 
 
 The letter which I wrote yesterday to my mother will, 
 I conclude, be sent to you, and give you an account of my journey 
 hither from Hereford on Monday, and a very delightful excursion 
 to Valle Crucis. I was not able to give any description of the 
 pleasant place at which I was staying, for I had not time before 
 the post to explore its beauties. The house is situated over the 
 river Mather or Mawr, which runs into the sea at Barmouth, but 
 commanding a beautiful view of the sea looking south-west. Yes- 
 terday we saw the extreme point of Cardigan Bay, and, we 
 
HARLECH CASTLE. 
 
 267 
 
 thought, St. David's Head from the road just under the house. 
 The house itself is nothing particular, being only a large lodging- 
 house improved and enlarged. It does not belong to Mr. Wynne; 
 his own place is the other side of the river, called Peniarth, not 
 far from the foot of Cader Idris, near Towyn, but it is now under- 
 going repair. But the grounds behind the house are most lovely, 
 consisting of large woods and plantations, covering the slope of 
 the hill and descending almost to the water's edge; the walks 
 winding up the sides, with views every now and then of Cader and 
 its different peaks, and the other hills around it, until you come 
 out at the top on some fine rugged rocks, which I have not yet 
 explored, but which, I believe, command some lovely scenery. 
 The flower and kitchen gardens are pretty enclosed spots among 
 the woods, sheltered by the hills, so that altogether it is one of the 
 most charming places of the kind I know. Yesterday we drove to 
 Harlech Castle, about ten miles. The day was lovely ; the Bay of 
 Cardigan to the south, the Carnarvonshire hills to the north, with 
 the Isle of Bardsey at the extreme point perfectly clear ; Snowdon 
 towering above the surrounding mountains, alternately misty and 
 clear, the thin snowy drifts of cloud hiding one moment its highest 
 peak, and then lifting off, and forming a bank of darker clouds 
 above ; beautiful wooded hills forming the sides of the bay up to 
 Portmadoc, which divided us from the mountains. The castle, a 
 fine specimen of a large and very strong Norman fortification, in 
 good preservation, stands upon a high inland rock, separated by 
 some salt marshes from the sea, which seems once, though not 
 since the building of the castle, to have washed its foot There 
 are two round towers at the extremities, connected by a high cur- 
 tained wall and battlements. The remains of the large hall to the 
 west, looking out on the sea, of the chapel, north-west of the main 
 building looking into the court, are well preserved. There is a 
 beautiful view from the battlements, which we enjoyed thoroughly 
 from the brightness of the day, and perhaps also the more from 
 some excitement in climbing up dangerous places to obtain it. 
 The road from here to Harlech by the line of coast has every- 
 
268 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 where a fine prosiDect seaward, and in some places, besides the 
 mountains, some wooded glens inland. 
 
 Yesterday we walked to a new house which Mr. Jelf, formerly 
 tutor of Christ Church, has built, with a splendid view of the river 
 and mountains beyond. To-day we have had a pleasant expedi- 
 tion to a house of Sir H. Bunbury, on the other side of the river ; 
 we rowed there and back, had a long walk among the woods and 
 shore, and a bathe. To-morrow we hope to accomplish Cader 
 Idris. Sunday I am to preach at the church, and we have in view 
 an expedition to Bardsey Island, off the coast of Carnarvonshire. 
 On Wednesday we shall probably go to Mr. Lloyd's at Rhagate, 
 near Corwen, and spend a couple of days, which will bring me so 
 far on my way back to London by Shrewsbury and Birmingham. 
 I suppose my mother returns to-day. I had hoped to have heard 
 from her, but conclude she had no time before she left Hereford. 
 Give my duty to my father and her, and love to all tJie rest of the 
 party. I feel all the better for the sea air and bathing, which I 
 enjoy every day, to-day twice. 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 Barmouth, August 20, 1S70. 
 
 My dear Mother, 
 
 I hope you received the letter which I sent on 
 Wednesday to Hereford, giving you an account of my arrival 
 here. On Friday we took a boat up the river to a very pretty 
 place of a Sir Henry Bunbury, under the mountains and sur- 
 rounded by very beautiful woods, returning by the shore. In the 
 evening a sudden plan was formed of ascending Cader to see the 
 sunrise, so at midnight Mr. Wynne, another gentleman, and 
 myself, with a guide, started on our expedition. We crossed in a 
 boat to the other side of the river, having to be carried some way 
 on the boatman's shoulders to the dry sand ; then we had a 
 difficult walk through a bog, and then began to ascend. At first 
 the walking was pretty easy through the lanes in a wood ; then we 
 struck into a road for a little way, but soon after crossing a field 
 
ASCENT OF CADER IDRIS. 
 
 269 
 
 or two, began a very tough pull up the side of the mountain, 
 which nearly finished one of the party. However, we had a capital 
 guide and a very fine night, rather too warm. After this ascent 
 of about a mile, we struck off by the side of the mountain over 
 some more even ground. It was then pretty light, and we almost 
 feared we should be late on the top ; however, we rested to take 
 some refreshment at a spring about a mile from the top, and then 
 hastened on, and reached the summit at about twenty minutes to 
 five. The rosy tinge was already on some of the clouds, and in 
 about a quarter of an hour we caught sight of the top of the ball 
 of fire bursting through the clouds ; this gradually rose, melting 
 the clouds into the most lovely ruby and golden colours ; and at 
 last we saw the whole circle above the clouds, and the tops of the 
 hills first, and at last the valleys at our feet, began to receive its 
 light and glow in the morning brightness. It was altogether a 
 glorious prospect, to see the hills, which the day before were 
 towering above us, now far below ; to catch the distant mountains, 
 Snowdon and its surrounding hills, on one side, Phnhmmon to 
 the south-east, the sea to the south, Barmouth north, and then 
 the beautiful valleys immediately below, was a rich reward for our 
 exertions. I never saw anything like it before. A sunrise at sea is 
 very grand, but you lose the hills and valleys which we saw 
 glowing in the early rays. We remained at the top for about an 
 hour and a half, and had some refreshment for the inner man in 
 a little hut on the top, and about half-past six we started on the 
 descent, and reached home about half-past nine. I took a good 
 bath, made myself comfortable, and got breakfast, and then rested 
 in an armchair for two or three hours, took a walk in the after- 
 noon to an interesting old church on the sands, and we were none 
 of us sorry when bed-time came. 
 
 St. Peter's Vicarage, September 13, 1870. 
 I got home last Saturday, feeling much better for my holiday, 
 though it has not been the same change as that anticipated in the 
 Tyrol. You have no doubt heard of me at Alvanley, where I was 
 
270 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 very glad to see 'Willy so happily settled ; for though it would not 
 suit my idea while I have health and strength, yet I think he may 
 find much to interest him in his parish, and he and Janie seem 
 \-ery happy together. I spent a day with an old friend at 
 Tarporley, after leaving them, and then took the opportunity of a 
 Retreat at Stoke, in Shropshire, where some friends of mine have 
 commenced the Society of the Holy Spirit The house is 
 delightfully situated and wonderfully adapted for a brotherhood, 
 and the work they contemplate, I think, promises to do great good. 
 The few quiet days there have, I hope, braced me spiritually for 
 my work, as my holiday did bodily. 
 
 In November Father Lowder preached a Mission at 
 Plymouth and Devonport. He took the greater interest 
 in it, because Plymouth was his mother's native place. 
 He writes to her on November 25 : "I was very tired after 
 all the work at Plymouth, but feel better now, and think 
 we have every reason to be thankful for the ]\Iission. The 
 clergy were very thankful for it." 
 
 Years after, a Plymouth gentleman spoke of the lastinq^ 
 effects it had produced upon many. Of Father Lowder 
 he says : — 
 
 I first saw him, I think, in November, 1870, when he came 
 down to a Mission here in Plymouth. The Mission was held in 
 five churches in Plymouth and Devonport. Most of the arrange- 
 ments were made by him, and he invited most of the missioners. 
 He conducted the Mission himself at St. Peter's Church, where 
 the Rev. G. R. Prynne is Vicar. I was working as a lay helper at 
 another church at some distance, and so did not see much of him 
 during the Mission, but at its close a guild was formed for men, 
 with simple rules, which was called the Society of the Good 
 Shepherd. I think he suggested the name, and I know he took 
 great interest in its formation and I saw him frequently about it 
 
PLYMOUTH MISSION. 
 
 271 
 
 and afterwards he often asked me about its progress. What struck 
 me then and often afterwards was the way in which he took 
 apparently a special interest in whatever he was at the time at- 
 tending to. He had a number of cares and anxieties at the 
 time, I know, and many things to think about, but he gave his 
 attention as fully to the formation of this guild as if he had 
 nothing else in the world to care about. I noticed this often 
 when I was with him in the Clergy House at London Docks. 
 He would come in from the parish and sit down in his study, and 
 talk with his whole mind given to the subject, and then, when 
 called out, as he constantly was, to see some poor or rich persons, 
 he would immediately give them his entire attention, and return 
 to resume the conversation as if it had never been interrupted. I 
 think it was this and his sweet serenity of temper that made the 
 children so fond of him. 
 
 On the last night of the Mission most striking and joyous 
 services were held at the different churches, at which a renewal 
 of baptismal vows took place. . . . The fervour and determination 
 with which the various questions were answered by both men and 
 women augured well for the future loyalty to the crucified Lord of 
 many a soul who had paid allegiance for so long to the Prince 
 of Darkness. . . . Many who had never entered God's house 
 since their childhood were to be seen, night after night, joining 
 with all their hearts in the prayers and hymns, and listening 
 intently to the earnest words of the missioner. 
 
 Father Lewder became very ill after his work at 
 Plymouth — it was thought to be from blood-poisoning — 
 and did not recover for some time. His father was also 
 very ill at this time, and his beloved mother's end was 
 plainly drawing near. He writes to her on December 
 14, 1870 : — 
 
 I fear you must suff'er a good deal in the night, but you 
 remember One who came to His disciples by night, walking upon 
 
272 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 the sea, and I doubt not He is with you, comforting and sup- 
 porting j-ou. It is a great blessing to think how Uttle serious 
 illness you have had, and I pray sincerely that you may be spared 
 a lingering illness, but all is in God's hands, and He will direct 
 ever}'thing best. West has just lost his mother,* who was a great 
 friend of mine at St. Barnabas', and one of my district visitors. 
 She had only a month's illness. I had a note from him yesterday, 
 in reply to one of sympathy I sent him, and he spoke of the 
 comfort they had in knowing how long she had been watching. 
 He mentioned you very kindly in the note. You may be sure 
 you have a great many praying for you. I am looking forward 
 very anxiously to spend one more birthday with you ; the rest is 
 known to God . . . 
 
 To his sister he writes : — 
 
 Vigil of St. Thomas, 1870. 
 I will tell you my engagements and then put myself in your 
 hands. All the rest of this week I shall be engaged hearing 
 the confessions for Christmas ; next week we have our children's 
 treats and the communicants' supper, the latter on Wednesday, 
 St. John's Day. Of course I should be sorry to be away New 
 Year's Eve, or New Year's Day, or indeed Epiphany, if I can 
 avoid it ; but still I depend upon your writing or telegraphing to 
 me at once, in case of need. ... I hope my mother received my 
 note the other day; she need not doubt that she has many 
 prayers to support hef . I asked Mackonochie to-day to remember 
 her . . . and he is now a confessor for the faith. She will, I am 
 sure, have the prayers of all our people here ; and tell her my 
 sincere prayer is that she may have abundant consolations of the 
 Holy Spirit, and that she may rest calmly and sweetly in the arms 
 of Jesus. Tell her I will come at any moment she wishes. 
 
 On Christmas Eve Mrs. Lowder's -weakness and suffer- 
 ing became so great that a telegram was sent to her son at 
 
 ♦ Lady Maria West. 
 
NEW YEAR'S LETTER. 
 
 273 
 
 St. Peter's. He received it in the vestry wliile preparing 
 to celebrate on Cliristmas morning. He celebrated at six, 
 and then travelled down at once to Frome. When his 
 mother heard he was come, his sister writes, " her face 
 beamed with joy." 
 
 Ten days of great suffering followed, Mrs. Lowder being 
 unable to stay long in bed or in the same position. Two 
 of her children sat on each side of her chair, and she 
 rested her head on one or the other as she could. 
 
 There was a radiant beauty in her face (her daughter wrote), 
 and it was a beautiful picture when Charles was supporting her, 
 and her head was on his shoulder. . . . Charles has been an inex- 
 pressible comfort to us all ; I do not know how we should have got 
 through it without him. The devotion and tenderness of mother 
 and son was touching, and she valued greatly the nightly prayers 
 and blessings from her two sons. It is not every mother who could 
 have such spiritual aid as she was afforded, and almost to the last 
 she was sensible and joined in the prayers. The last words we 
 heard were, " Lord Jesus, release me." My father is very weak 
 and shaken. . . . Charles' kindness and tenderness to him and to 
 us all is most refreshing. 
 
 On New Year's Eve Father Lowder sent the following 
 letter to his people at St. Peter's ; his mother had noticed 
 the bells ringing out the old year, and said, "I wish a 
 happy New Year to those who are left in it." 
 
 My dear Brethren and Sisters in Jesus Christ, 
 
 You may be sure that it is a great source of sorrow and 
 regret to me that I am not able to join to-night in your New Year's 
 Eve service, and to speak to you as usual of the warnings of the 
 past and the hopes of the coming year. It is the first time during 
 fourteen years that this privilege has been denied to me, and now 
 it is only the duty of comforting a dying mother in her last hours 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 that keeps me from you. When, however, a parent needs my 
 presence in her last great need, to whose lessons and example of 
 holiness I owe so much, whose prayers and encouragement have 
 sustained me during many trials, especially in my work amongst 
 you, and whose calmness and resignation in these hours of her 
 own suffering are a source of edification to all who are permitted 
 to witness them, I am sure that you will allow that I am rightly 
 absent from St Peter's this evening. . . . 
 
 Standing, as I do at this moment, in the presence of one so 
 dear, whose span of life is nearly closed, I can the more urgently 
 impress upon you the duty of remembering how short your own life 
 is, and the necessity of preparing for that time when God may see 
 fit to call you. May He grant that the same assurance of His 
 abiding love, the same consolation of the Holy Spirit, the sam.e 
 absolution of the priest, the same Blessed Sacrament of His Body 
 and Blood, may sustain us in our last moments in the valley of the 
 shadow of death ! 
 
 But a happy and peaceful death is the crown and completion 
 of a holy life ; such calmness and submission to God's will are 
 not to be attained in a moment, but are God's gifts, most precious 
 gifts to those who have cultivated them in their time of probation. 
 May the solemn thoughts which press upon us now help us in such 
 resolutions for the coming year, so as to lead us all to seek more 
 earnestly for that grace which can at once enable us both to live 
 and die in the presence of God, and in the love of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 I ask your prayers that He who loved His own that abide in 
 this world, may love her unto the end, and that we who survive 
 may be comforted and blessed in this our earthly pilgrimage, and 
 in our day be found watching. I wish you all a truly '•' happy New 
 Year," and I pray that the blessing of the Holy Trinity, Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost, may rest abundantly upon the clergy, the 
 Sisters, the faithful, the children, and the whole parish of St Peter's. 
 Yours affectionately in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 C. F. LOWDER. 
 
 Frome, New Year's Eve, 1870. 
 
DEATH OF MRS. LOWDER. 
 
 Mrs. Lowder entered into rest on January 4, 1871 ; her 
 eldest son remained at Frome for her funeral, and returned 
 to his work on the 12th. One who knew him best in his 
 h'fe of labour said, "He never seemed the same after his 
 mother's death." To his father he writes : — 
 
 St. Teter's, January 20, 1871. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 You must not think, because I did not write to you 
 yesterday, that I was not thinking much about you and my 
 dear mother, but I felt I was really doing my duty better in 
 fulfilling your wishes than in staying at home. 
 
 First and best, I have been celebrating the Holy Eucharist for 
 my dear mother's soul ; and many of our communicants, to whom 
 I mentioned it in the class last night, assisted at the blessed 
 sacrifice and joined with me. 
 
 It is indeed a continual growing comfort to feel thus able to 
 hold communion with her in her happy state of rest and peace, 
 and to be permitted to do that here which may bring light and 
 refreshment to her dwelling in paradise. 
 
 I cannot help thinking how happy you are in being able thus 
 to realize her happiness, and to know how much better it is for you 
 that she is gone first, where you may so soon meet her again, never 
 more to be separated. Ever since my communion on the day 
 after her death, I have been able to think and speak of her 
 without any breaking down, for it seems selfish to mourn for her 
 great happiness. 
 
 I know it is more difficult for you, for you have not the same 
 active work to distract your mind, but I thank God that you have 
 been so wonderfully supported, and I pray that the same merciful 
 Arm will be with you still. 
 
 And now, my dear father, let me wish you many happy returns 
 of the 23rd. I pray sincerely that God may long spare you to uSf 
 and that we may be able to comfort your widowed old age. 
 
 I wish I was more able to do so, and that I could offer yots 
 
276 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 a home here, but that is an idle thought at present. Be sure it 
 will be your children's great comfort to see you happy, and I 
 ti^ust that when we must lose you, we may have the truest 
 assurance of being all re-united in a better world. » 
 
 Your dutiful and affectionate son, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 In August of this year Father Lowder went abroad with 
 Mr. Body, going over the battlefields of the Franco-German 
 war, and from Metz to the Tyrol. The following letter 
 contains his first impressions of the " Passions-Spiel " : — 
 
 Ober-Ammergau, August 14, 1871. 
 It is very diiiicult for me to write just after coming from the 
 Passion Play, for it is like coming out of a Retreat, with one's 
 feelings worked up to the very highest pitch, and so very difficult 
 to return to one's ordinary state. I will therefore defer saying 
 anything more about it now than that I was more than delighted ; 
 indeed, it far succeeded my anticipations, and I trust I shall 
 always be better for having witnessed it. 
 
 From Ober-Ammergau he went over much of the 
 country where he spent his last days ; first to Innspruck 
 by Partenkirchen, and then to Hofgarten and Krimmel, 
 where he writes of "greatly enjoying the waterfalls, which 
 are considered the finest in Europe." From thence lie 
 wrote : — 
 
 We descended upon a curious old chapel and our resting- 
 place for the night. It was a very poor inn, of the roughest and 
 most peculiar character, whence we were quite ready to start at 
 6.30, making our way over some steep glaciers and some splendid 
 mountain scenery of a very wild description to Preyratten. We 
 sent Body with two guides by a rather easier road for part of the 
 way, meeting again in the course of an hour or two. The flowers 
 
ASCENT OF rilE GROSS GLOCKNER. 
 
 277 
 
 as we descended, were mostly lovely. At Preyratten Parker and 
 myself had thought of ascending the Gross Venediger, a very 
 beautiful snow mountain; but the weather was not propitious, so, 
 after waiting till the afternoon we walked on to Windisch Matrei. 
 
 Father Lowder never forgot his wish of ascending the 
 Gross Venediger ; it was his having missed it this year 
 that made him so bent upon accomplishing it in 1880 that 
 he attempted it when unfit for the fatigue. He writes to 
 his sister : — 
 
 Heiligenblut, August 27, 187 1. 
 We found a capital inn at Windisch Matrei, but left it about 
 10.30 for a beautiful mountain walk to Kals, where we arrived 
 about three, having come in view of the great object of my am- 
 bition, i.e. the Gross Glockner. It is a splendid mountain, not 
 quite so high as the Orteler, yet next to that the highest in 
 Austria. We got our dinner at Kals, arranged with guides for 
 Parker and myself, as well as for Body, who went the next day by 
 the ordinary route to Heiligenblut. P. and I had three guides, and 
 about 5 p.m. we started for our night's quarters, some huts about 
 four or five hours' walk up the mountain. ... As a good remedy 
 for my weakness of ankles, which I have found very efficacious, I 
 bathed them in a snow bath, making a hole in the snow, and 
 covering them over as long as I could bear it. 
 
 Then follows an account of the ascent : — 
 
 Near the summit we had to be drawn up a great part of the 
 way by the guides. At every stage we caught sight of the tints of 
 the horizon deepening and lighting up the range of mountains 
 which lay at our feet, and giving us a foretaste of the glorious 
 view which awaited us. We reached the summit at six, when the 
 sun was already above the horizon, and displaying clearly the 
 most distant peaks. It was indeed a sight never to be forgotten. 
 
2/8 
 
 CHARLES LOVVDER. 
 
 One neighbouring range, the Gross Venediger, lay in all its snow- 
 white beauty close beneath us; others at great distances. The 
 Adamello, the Bemina, the Orteler, grand ranges in themselves, 
 all clear and distinct. We could not have had a more glorious 
 view. 
 
 From Heiligenblut he writes : — 
 
 We have enjoyed ourselves much in this beautiful place, and 
 the more that our room is in full view of the Gross Glockner, so 
 that we can watch all the various lights and shadows on the peak. 
 Strictly speaking, there are two peaks : one, the higher, which is 
 black and jagged ; the other, the lower, covered with snow. This 
 stands in front of the higher one in our view, and the two seem 
 but one peak. It is the passage between the two peaks which 
 constitutes the chief difficulty of the ascent, as there is a very 
 narrow ridge between them 
 
 A delightful time of wandering among the Glockner 
 glaciers followed, in company with Mr. Body and Mr. 
 Parker. Father Lowder wrote a glowing account of ascend- 
 ing three peaks in one day, the Barenkopf, the Glockerin, 
 and the Wiesbachhorn, all over eleven thousand feet 
 high. 
 
 The ascents and descents were very steep, almost entirely on 
 snow. We had very good guides, but without our ice crampons 
 and the ropes we could not have done it. In descending each 
 step had to be dug in carefully, but the views repaid our labours, 
 for they gave us a beautiful idea of the extent of the snow and ice 
 regions around the Glockner, one peak rising close to the other, 
 and glacier meeting glacier. ... It was a hard day's work, for we 
 did not get off the ice till 4 p.m., having been thirteen hours on 
 snow without taking off our crampons except for the last hour, 
 and being roped all day. We returned to the hut about 5 p.m. 
 
THE DOLOMITES. 
 
 279 
 
 and were very glad to get some tea and an hour or more rest 
 before we started back for Heiligenblut, ... Of course I feel 
 rather tired to-day, but I shall get a rest till Monday, when we are 
 off to Cortina. 
 
 The last part of his holiday, until the middle of Sep- 
 tember, was spent in wanderings among the Dolomite 
 mountains — " the grandest, the most fantastic, and yet 
 most awful forms." Descending into the Grodner Thai, he 
 writes, " we were overtaken by a grand thunderstorm. 
 At one point there was a double rainbow, spanning the 
 mountains and descending on one side to some fir slopes, 
 which was the grandest sight of its kind I ever sa-.v." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE MISSIONER'S DAILY LIFE. 
 
 1872, 1873. 
 
 " To keep unsteady Nature to her Law, 
 And the low world in measured motion draw 
 After the heavenly tune which none can hear 
 Of human mould, with gross unpurged ear. " 
 
 The chief events of Father Lowder's Mission in 1872 were 
 the opening of the new school buildings by the Bishop in 
 January; a. parish Mission held before Lent by the Rev. 
 R. A. J. Suckling and the Rev. A. W. Mills; and the 
 opening of a little hostel in Calvert Street for old people 
 who had no other refuge but the workhouse. 
 
 The following reminiscences of the parish Mission are 
 from a layman who took part in it : — 
 
 I remember one night we went out with the choir to sing 
 hymns in procession and preach at the corners of the streets, 
 before the eight o'clock Mission service. I was walking next to 
 one of the choirmen. We went through one street, I do not 
 know its name. There were a good many people standing about 
 on the pavement and looking out of the windows, but we passed 
 through singing without any disturbance. When we got through, 
 the choirman said to me, " If we had attempted that ten years 
 ago, we should half of us have had our heads broken, and as 
 likely as not some of us would have been killed." . . . One 
 
ILLNESS OF HIS SISTER. 
 
 281 
 
 night, when the service was nearly over, I went in, and seeing a 
 very rough looking working-man in his working-clothes, just as he 
 had come from his late work, sitting on a bench near the door, 
 I went and sat beside him, intending to try to get him to come 
 to the after meeting in the room opposite, where Mr. Mills was 
 to give an address, thinking that we might try to convert him. 
 But when the sermon was over, to my astonishment my friend 
 dropped down on his knees on the floor beside me, and began 
 to sing the Litany in a style which showed me it was not the 
 first time he had sung it. I had a talk with him afterwards, and 
 found he was a regular communicant at the church, and was soon 
 satisfied that I was much more likely to learn from him than to 
 teach him. 
 
 His sister K , who possessed much of his own mis- 
 sionary spirit, had a slight paralytic seizure on April 10. 
 She had overtaxed her strength, which she thought equal to 
 any exertion. The fatigue of nursing during her mother's 
 illness had told on her, combined with the wear of daily 
 teaching ; but, besides her home duties, she spent time 
 and strengtli on the rough factory girls at Frome, over 
 whom she had a wonderful influence, teaching them both 
 on Sundays and week days, preparing them for Confirma- 
 tion, and working in the district. 
 
 Her brother writes to her on hearing of her illness : — 
 
 St. Teter's Vicarage, April 17, 1872. 
 
 I am very sorry indeed to hear of the serious attack which you 
 have had, but I sincerely hope that by God's help you may recover 
 from it and get strong again. You must, however, take entire 
 rest of mind and body, which I hope you will be able to do. 
 
 Such an attack must be a warning to us all, for I quite feel I 
 might be taken in the same way. Let us pray together that we 
 may be ready whenever and however v, e may be summoned, and 
 if we have done our work, though we must be sensible how imper- 
 
282 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 fectly, yet done our poor best, we need not fear if we are found in 
 Him. 
 
 I ought to have written before to have thanked you for your 
 Easter letter, but I have not yet recovered from my work in Lent, 
 and must try to get a week's rest. 
 
 Yesterday and the day before I was engaged on a committee 
 for six or seven hours at a stretch. 
 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 He spent part of his August holiday at Tenby with 
 this sister, and made a short visit with his sister Mary to 
 the Lakes of Killarney and Glengariff, going and returning 
 by Milford Haven and Cork. They took charge of a little 
 stranger girl on their return journey, and Miss Lowder 
 writes of Charles' tender care for the child, who was very 
 ill ; nursing her, and attending to her in every way, until he 
 gave her up to her friends. 
 
 In the end of 1872 Father Lowder had the sorrow of 
 losing, after a sharp, sudden illness, his faithful friend and 
 curate, the Rev. F. K. Statham. He had worked at St. 
 Peter's for five years, and was the only one who had stood 
 firm when, in 1868, the other curates had Romanized. His 
 place was filled by the Rev. J, W. Biscoe, though not for 
 long, as in the end of 1873 the latter joined the Evangelist 
 Fathers at Cowley, and left England for the Bombay 
 Mission. In the summer of 1873 Mr. Biscoe was Father 
 Lowder's companion during a tour in the Chamounix dis- 
 trict and at the Italian lakes. On his way home in Sep- 
 tember Father Lowder attended the Old Catholic Congress. 
 " I was much interested," he wrote to his sister, " by all I saw 
 and heard, though not in all things favourably impressed " 
 
SUNDAY AT ST. PETER'S. 
 
 283 
 
 " St. George's Mission " had now, as we have seen, grown 
 into St. Peter's parish. Father Lowder's letters are dated, 
 for the last ten years of his life, from " St. Peter's Vicarage." 
 But the " Vicarage " was the only necessary parochial insti- 
 tution which had been neglected. It was, and still remains, 
 the old Mission House in Calvert Street, taken by Mr. King 
 in 1856. 
 
 What his daily life was henceforth will best be gathered 
 from Mr. Linklater's graphic narrative : — 
 
 Let us take a Sunday first. The first celebration is at seven 
 o'clock. A number of communicants, principally men, will be found 
 kneeling reverently in the little side chapel. The solemnity of the 
 service ; the silent grandeur of the church, as on a dark winter's 
 morning its beautiful proportions seem magnified in the uncertain 
 glimmer of the altar tapers ; the little group of worshippers kneel- 
 ing, with quickened hearts, before the Lord ; the reverent gestures 
 of the priest, pleading before God the merits of the all-atoning 
 sacrifice of Christ, were the more touching when we knew that all 
 around, for miles and miles, poor degraded souls were sleeping off 
 the debauchery of sin. 
 
 There is a second celebration at eight, which Mr. Lowder 
 generally took, and at which the body of the church is fairly filled, 
 and a third at nine. The clergy then get some breakfast, and at a 
 quarter past ten Matins is sung. The High Celebration follows 
 immediately after Matins, at eleven o'clock. 
 
 This is the great service of the day, and the people come pour- 
 ing in. When clergy complain that they can't get congregations 
 in East London churches, I answer, let them give the people 
 something to come for, and have faith in our Lord's promise, even 
 in its secondary sense : " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
 all men unto Me." The people come to St. Peter's, not because 
 the ritual is beautiful and the singing most soul-stirring, but that 
 they may assist in the great priestly act of the Church, the " lifting 
 
284 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 up " of Christ to the Father, the " showing forth His death" until 
 He comes. 
 
 I shall not attempt any description of the majestic beauty of 
 this service. I really do not think there is a more beautiful or 
 more reverent service in Christendom. The charm to me has 
 always been that it is real. The boys are our own boys, the men 
 are our own men ; they all come for love, and not for money. It 
 always stirred my heart to look down the ranks of noble and 
 serious-faced men who sing before the Lord in the choir of St. 
 Peter's. We knew that the words came really from their hearts, 
 and that their daily lives were in harmony with their sacred office. 
 It makes all the difference in the spiritual life of a parish when the 
 choir, who stand nearest the Lord's altar-throne, and speak to Him 
 the devotions of the congregation, are worthy to be the body- 
 guard of Christ, and are as pure in heart as the white surplice they 
 assume. 
 
 Mr. Lowder was a thorough Church of England man. He 
 was not a Ritualist at all in the modern sense of the word, after 
 the gushing, effeminate, sentimental manner of young shop-boys, 
 or those who simply ape the ways of Rome. He had glorious 
 ritual in his church because he thought the service of God could 
 not be too magnifical. He considered that it was as much his duty 
 as parish priest to put before the eyes of his people the pattern o\ 
 the worship in Heaven, as it was his duty to preach the Gospel. 
 He felt that he had no more right to alter the features of the 
 heavenly worship, as represented in the earthly service, than he 
 had to alter the faith once delivered to the saints. He understood 
 that those features are made known to us by our Lord's com- 
 mand, " Do this," by the revelation of heavenly worship to St. 
 John, and by the testimony of the unbroken custom of the Christian 
 Church. In a word, he believed that the Holy Eucharist is the 
 divinely appointed act of worship which we are commanded to do 
 on earth as it is done by our High Priest in heaven, pleading 
 before God the merits of the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ. 
 
 And in bringing back the Holy Eucharist to its lost position, 
 
CLASS FOR LADS. 
 
 285 
 
 * as the fount and centre of all the Church's worship, and in restoring 
 . the old Christian mode of celebrating the most holy mysteries, 
 Mr. Lowder, as I have said before, was acting within the then 
 acknowledged liberties of the Church of England, and according 
 to the express order of the Prayer-book, as at that time interpreted 
 even bv the Privy Council. 
 
 After the midday service we, the clergy, have an hour's rest for 
 dinner. Not always an hour's rest, for very often in the spring- 
 time one or other of us (mostly one) has to rush off with Con- 
 firmation candidates to the particular church in London where, on 
 that Sunday, the Confirmation is held. Then, as we are still sitting 
 at the table, a rush and scampering of feet is heard up the steps, 
 the hall door is burst open, and the noisy tide passes (as they think 
 quietly) into the room on the floor above. This is the big lads' 
 Sunday class, and the race is to get the most comfortable seats 
 either side of the fire. 
 
 It was my privilege and happiness to teach them, and the class 
 was held in my room — one's only room for day and night — which 
 I had made as pretty and attractive as possible with pictures and 
 books and curiosities. A friend had given me a pair of splendid 
 Indian idols, which I stuck up in suitable positions, and which, to 
 my mind, were quite in keeping with the other oddities gathered 
 from all corners of the world. But these idols produced a painful 
 impression on my lads' minds ; the first time they saw them they 
 asked me straight out if I had changed my reUgion. 
 
 I found I had to be on the spot as soon almost as the first 
 arrival, for although they were as honest as daylight, and I could 
 trust them with any valuables, yet they developed an unexpected 
 taste for medicine. My physic-bottles and pill-boxes were 
 emptied. At last I made them share and share alike, and as they 
 sat in a great circle with opened mouths, I had the pleasure of 
 shying my poor pills down their throats one by one. I never 
 heard that they were the better or the worse for them. This 
 taste for medicine is not general in the parish, for I came 
 across a man who had never taken physic in his life. Once he 
 
286 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 was very ill and near to die, and, urged by anxious friends, had 
 actually consulted a doctor. But when it came to swallowing the 
 stuff his heart failed him, so he made his wife take it (that it 
 shouldn't be wasted), and he recovered. 
 
 It was really the most delightful and encouraging work to teach 
 this class of big lads. Their ages ran from fourteen to twenty-two. 
 The result of religious teaching and humanizing influence could 
 almost be seen week by week. Very often a dear friend of Mr. 
 Lowder's and mine, an Arab prince, the Hneal descendant of 
 Mahomet, and the first of his race to be a Christian, used to be 
 present at this instruction. He excited the deepest interest in the 
 boys. Their knowledge of modern dynasties was vague, and they 
 generally spoke of him as the "young Z^'emperor," but if they 
 fancied that I was deficient in the respect and consideration due 
 to him they used to be very angry and lecture me most seriously 
 afterwards. 
 
 Well, it was a lovely sight, these poor boys and the rich 
 Eastern, all kneeling humbly, side by side, saying the collect 
 of the Holy Spirit, " Prevent us, O Lord." 
 
 During lesson time my boys were most orderly and serious. 
 It was my compact with them that if they were good and attentive 
 at lessons I would afterwards tell them a story, or show them 
 pictures ; the bribe was hardly necessary, for I never had a more 
 interesting or appreciative audience. Having once seen the 
 lighting up of the soul in their rapt gaze and expressive faces, 
 it makes one rather exacting in addressing indifferent or matter-of- 
 fact congregations elsewhere. 
 
 Ah ! those were dear and happy times. It made up for all the 
 trials of one's life and the dreary disappointing work around, to 
 feel the glow of these generous young hearts, as they sheltered 
 round one and supported one by their enthusiastic love. The boys 
 used to call my room their "haven," and often through the week 
 have they counted the hours till Sunday should come round again. 
 
 The story-telling was very exacting work, and required careful 
 preparation. Old stories had to be hunted out and furnished with 
 
GUILD MEETINGS. 
 
 287 
 
 a new dress. The story had to be told, not read. They were de- 
 lighted with my version of " Les Miserables," especially with the 
 character of the grand old Bishop. They got perfectly frantic, I 
 remember, as I dilated on the confused mind of the poor peasant, 
 who was so much like the convict that he was taken for him, and 
 who could only reiterate over and over again his name and small 
 possessions as a proof of his identity. They begged and implored 
 me to stop : " Oh, do stop, sir ; I feel just like that." But I was 
 most astonished at what I considered a daring experiment, the 
 reading to them " Sintram." It made the most wonderful im- 
 pression on them. They wrought it into their own lives. They 
 called the different localities of the parish by the names in the 
 book. They literally hungered for the next week's portion. I 
 believe that nothing I have ever read or said to them has affected 
 them so lastingly as this. 
 
 I must be forgiven for speaking so much of my own share of 
 the work. It seems easier in this way to describe what an East 
 End Sunday class is like. The same sort of thing was going on in 
 many other classes at the same time. These other classes were, 
 however, held in the school ; mine was held in the Clergy House 
 to save the pride of these "young men." 
 
 At half-past three we all troop off to church for the public 
 catechizing. It is a glorious sight to see St. Peter's crammed with 
 children, the girls on one side, the boys on the other — wonderfully 
 interesting and intelligent children, even the smallest dots looking 
 up with a beaming trusting smile as Mr. Lowder, or the clergy, or 
 the teachers pass by. Mr. Lowder always catechized, and often 
 elicited most original answers. On great festivals the children 
 marched in procession round the church, singing hymns; each 
 school headed with its banner. 
 
 After this service the various guild meetings are held — either 
 the Guild of the Holy Child for lads, or the Guild of St Katherine 
 for young women, or the Guild of St. Agatha's, one section of 
 which assembled every Sunday. 
 
 At half-past five we got some tea, six of the choir-boys by 
 
288 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 turns honouring us with their presence. They, poor children, 
 consider this to be a great treat, and after tea they have a romp in 
 the room or in the yard. 
 
 At half-past six the Mission service at St. Agatha's began, and 
 at seven Evensong is sung at St. Peter's. The church is generally 
 quite full at this hour, sometimes literally crammed. The service 
 is very bright and hearty, and all the fittings of the chancel and 
 sanctuary are good and beautiful, and give an air of comfort 
 and dignity, which is not the least important lesson for the poor 
 people to take back to their squalid homes. Mr. Lowder always 
 preached at this service. It was very beautiful to see this large 
 congregation listening most intently to his teaching. 
 
 After service there was very often a Bible class, for which the 
 greater part of the congregation stayed behind. Sometimes we 
 gave them no chance to get away, but the class was begun as soon 
 as the service was over, and thus we were able to drive well honi'j 
 different lessons of Christian faith or practice. Last summer, 
 after service, we had outdoor preaching in the children's pla) - 
 ground, which was given to the parish by Mr. Robert Loder and 
 the readers of the Standard newspaper at a cost of ;^i3oo. 
 
 And now my readers will say, " Well, at any rate the day's 
 work is done at last ! " No, we have not done yet. Up in my 
 room there is another gang of great big fellows — quite a different 
 class — keeping the fire warm, as they say, and they expect me to 
 speak to them as freshly as if one were only beginning the day 
 and had not been talking almost incessantly since 7 a.m. The 
 compliment of their coming, and the great opportunity it is, 
 enables one to dash away, and when it is getting on to eleven I 
 tell them that really I am sorry to disturb them, but I must point 
 out a curious architectural feature of my room which they have not 
 noticed — the door, and at once they depart. The sofa is then 
 turned into a bed, and all things made shipshape for the night. 
 
 Now, just consider what wear and tear on body and mind sucli 
 high-pressure work as this is, and how it must have told on 
 Mr. Lowder after twenty-three years of it. He was fairly worn out. 
 
IVEEK-DAY WORK. 
 
 2S9 
 
 P'or a long time he had to live in the country, only coming up for 
 Sundays and special days. He was on the stretch from seven in 
 the morning until ten at night, and had to put as much heart into 
 the last half-hour's work as at the start. Indeed, he could not help 
 it, it was so real and exciting. And week-day work was harder 
 and later than even Sunday. 
 
 The atmosphere also was most trying. One got up in the 
 morning more tired than when one went to bed. The normal 
 condition of the air during the winter months was pea-soup fog. 
 The same constant gloom and depression crushed down gradually 
 the most buoyant spirits. At least, I only knev/ one person who 
 was able to rise, Mark Tapley like, superior to it. In front of 
 our house, on the other side of the street, was a large candle and 
 soap factory, and if the air didn't blow that way it blew the other, 
 and brought to us the sickening odours of burnt bones from the 
 charcoal factory lower down. Behind us was a large marine store 
 yard, principally convenient for airing salvage goods, and also for 
 airing the foulest language. I have had to expostulate with the 
 men from my window. 
 
 I can see Mr. Lowder in his room below, sitting wearily, in 
 the midst of all these discomforts and vexations, waiting and 
 waiting for the end. I have often been startled with this look of 
 waiting, weary waiting, on his face, when I have entered his room 
 to speak to him. 
 
 It will not be necessary to go very much into the details of a 
 week-day's work. The services began a quarter of an hour earlier 
 than on Sunday. The first celebration was at 6.45, Matins at 
 7.30, the second celebration at 8. We, the clergy, then had 
 breakfast, and at half-past nine were all distributed in the various 
 schools. Mr. Lowder was most particular about school-work ; and 
 our presence at prayers, and regular religious instruction after- 
 wards, helped very much to promote punctuality of attendance, 
 and to give a high tone to the children. I used to enjoy my class 
 very much — the first class of the boys' school, bright charming 
 little boys, grateful for our care, and so affectionate, 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 After morning school we tried to get a couple of hours for 
 private reading. But this was most difficult to manage, for people 
 used to call all through the morning for all sorts of things. I 
 fancy Mr. Lowder stuck to this quiet time better than any of us. 
 But that is not saying much, for in the exciting times in which he 
 lived, if there was not some special distraction in the parish, he 
 found it often in the duties of the various religious societies of 
 which he was an active member. 
 
 At one o'clock we dined. In winter time we used to give 
 dinners to about 150 poor children two or three times a week. 
 A number of gentlemen in the West End subscribed amongst 
 themselves for this most useful charity, and many parishes in the 
 east of London are each winter the recipients of their bounty. 
 It was indeed a touching sight, these poor children, many of 
 them so barely clad, some of them shoeless,|and looking, oh, so 
 hungiy, ranged at long tables in our iron schoolroom, Father 
 Lowder carrying in great cans of steaming stew, and going from 
 seat to seat, with his grand beaming benevolent face, helping the 
 little ones. 
 
 The afternoon was spent in visiting. Of late years Mr. 
 Lowder's health was so shattered that he did not take a regular 
 district, and we suspect and hope that he often had a quiet nap 
 after dinner, reserving himself for evening work, which in all such 
 neighbourhoods is of most importance. 
 
 District visiting is dreadful work until one's blood gets hot 
 It requires an immense effort to make the start, and with a heart 
 heavy with responsibility one knocks at the first door. But the 
 work is so important and so real, that soon one is entirely 
 absorbed by it. It is astonishing how much can be done by good, 
 honest, thorough visiting. As it is the fashion nowadays amongst 
 a certain clique of the younger clergy to disparage visiting, and to 
 say that the people must come to them, and that the priest's place 
 is in the church and not in the parish, I am the more anxious to 
 give my testimony as to the value of house-to-house visiting in 
 such a district as St. Peter's. Our work was entirely done by 
 
TERRORS BY NIGHT. 
 
 291 
 
 visiting. We made friends with the people in their own homes, 
 and thus got them to attend the services of the Church : if we 
 had worked on the other principle, St. George's Mission might just 
 as well have remained at the West End. I have no patience with 
 those who make a ridiculous theory the cloak for their own in- 
 competence or laziness. Our Blessed Lord chose not angels, but 
 men as His ministers, in spite of their imperfections and unworthi- 
 ness, that by means of human sympathy men might win an entrance 
 into sinners' hearts for the Divine love. Besides, His own example 
 is our best pattern in all true missionary work. 
 
 There was no difficulty in effecting an entrance into houses — 
 the people were only too glad to see us. Indeed, the complaint 
 was the other way ; and I have been seriously taken to task, to 
 my face, for having been negligent in this respect. I answered 
 my complainant, " Well, if you don't like it, go and live in 
 
 Mr. 's district " (one of my brother curates) ; " he'll call upon 
 
 you three times a day." The woman answered she thought that 
 would be too much, and she'd stay where she was. 
 
 We had thus an opportunity of getting at the people one by 
 one. I am sure that we have wrestled with them, and pleaded 
 a thousand times more eloquently, thus in their ruined dens and 
 heart to heart, than ever one could speak to a congregation in 
 church. An afternoon's visiting was no idle work, and we came 
 back at half-past five, thoroughly exhausted. But now the day 
 begins. After our hurried tea the Confirmation classes arrive. 
 These are held all the year round : many of our candidates have 
 been for years under careful training. As soon as the classes are 
 over we disperse either to the night school in winter time, or to the 
 men's club, or to the stringed-band practice, or to the lads' club, or 
 to the drum and fife band practice, or to the countless other duties 
 which crowd in upon us. 
 
 Evensong is sung at St. Peter's at eight, and afterwards we 
 have classes again in our respective rooms until past ten at night. 
 
 To bed, but not, alas ! to sleep. Terrors by night disturb the 
 broken slumbers of the weary priest. Sometimes he is able to 
 
292 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 catch these terrors and sometimes not. And when at last he is 
 faUing wearily to rest, all chance of sleep is banished by the 
 horrible yells and shrieks of gangs of tipsy revellers who "won't go 
 home till morning." The public-houses are closing, and a popula- 
 tion of drunken madmen and mad women turn our streets into 
 Pandemonium, 
 
 About a third of the population of St. Peter's parish are Irish, 
 over whom we have no control. There is no mistaking the brogue 
 one hears in these midnight revels. It is astonishing that these 
 people cannot either smother their grievances in their own breast, 
 or, if they must quarrel, quarrel within doors. But no ! the first 
 impulse is to rush out into the street, and awaken all theechoes of 
 the night with the most passionate invectives, the fiercest denunci- 
 ations of the MTong. Where they get the variety of epithets from, 
 the selections of abuse, is a wonder. They can go on for hours. 
 I fell asleep one night in the midst of an angry woman's declamation 
 in a court near our house, leaving her mistress of the night : I 
 awoke in a couple of hours, and she was still as fresh and loud 
 and eloquent as ever. 
 
 I once had the satisfaction of quieting one of these viragoes. 
 I went up to her through the crowd, and quietly asked her why 
 she was content to amuse these people and not charge them any- 
 thing. She answered, " I am not amusing them." " Yes," I 
 answered, " you are : just look at their faces." It was lovely to 
 see her look of astonishment when her eye swept the crowd, and 
 she saw a broad grin on all their faces. She was crushed, and 
 went away quietly. 
 
 But I did this once too often. I went up to a woman in my 
 district who was haranguing a crowd from her doorstep : I need 
 not say she was Irish. I begged her to go indoors. She struck 
 me as hard as she could all down my face. I was so astonished 
 that I did not know what to do : I had never been struck before 
 in all the many fights I had stopped ; besides, what could one do 
 to a woman ? So I stayed there, and she struck me again. Then 
 some of my own people dragged me away. The next morning I 
 
SUMMER EXCURSIONS. 
 
 293 
 
 was going to communicate a sick person in that same street, when 
 a man passed me who had seen the fracas, and taking his pipe 
 out of his mouth he scanned my face and said, " Why, you haven't 
 got a black eye, after all." 
 
 I have interwoven the curates' work in this account of Mr. 
 Lowder's ordinary daily duty, because it was really part of his. 
 He organized all, and took an interest in everybody and every- 
 thing. And never had curates a more indulgent or trusting Vicar, 
 and never had Vicar (although I say it who shouldn't) a more 
 loyal and hard-working set of curates than the four who, for many 
 a year, formed the staff at St. Peter's, London Docks. 
 
 There are many picturesque groupings in which we might 
 portray him, especially in his dealings with the young. I have 
 often seen him rowing " stroke " to a crew of rough lads in a boat 
 that at one time belonged to the St. Agatha's Mission. And from 
 all parts of the river, as we went upwards on the flood, would be 
 heard across the tide, " Hulloa, Father Lowder." Not chaff, but 
 good-natured, honest greeting. Or I have seen his tall figure in 
 the playground, stormed by wee children, who were clustering 
 round him for skipping-ropes or balls. 
 
 But Father Lowder was greatest at an " excursion," and the 
 untiring activity, unfailing good temper, and buoyant heart which 
 sustained him through the day were wonderful. Excursions are 
 delightful things for the children and the poor people whose 
 one annual holiday it is ; but an excursion is no joke to those 
 who have to manage the details and arrangements of it — trains, 
 food, weather, and counting. I have heard of a large school 
 in Belgium where they counted the boys before bathing them 
 in the sea, and they counted them when they came out, and there 
 were only fotir missing. It was a far more serious matter to lose 
 children, as we always did on these excursions, for we had to face 
 the angry mothers on our return home. Their first cry when we 
 emerge from the Tunnel Station is, " How many missing ? " and if 
 we truthfully say three, or whatever number it may be, the number 
 becomes thirty before it is passed half up the street. Just think 
 
294 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 what it is to run the gauntlet of a population of angry mothers 
 under such circumstances. All the return we get for our hard 
 day's work and anxious labour is that we are looked upon as kid- 
 napping and blood-thirsty monsters. It may be as well to state 
 that the missing children generally turn up the next day. The 
 little rascals lose themselves on purpose. Home is so awful to 
 them and the streets so glum, that when they see the free woods, 
 and the lovely wild flowers, and the green fields, their little hearts 
 break out with an intense impulse and longing for freedom to run 
 away and away, anywhere but back to the smells and horrors and 
 unkindness of home. 
 
 In the summer time, as a reward for good conduct, I used to 
 take them to Greenwich Park on the Saturday holiday now and 
 then — a day of the purest joy and fairy enchantment to these 
 poor children. The river steamboat takes us to Greenwich in half 
 an hour, and the children's fare is only twopence. The great 
 attraction of the picnic is the presence of my big St. Bernard dog, 
 whom they have known from puppyhood, and who knows and 
 loves them well. Bernard is wild with delight at the thought of 
 a scamper on the green grass. It takes six or eight boys to hold 
 his chain, and even these he whisks down the street and round 
 corners at an alarming rate. He is well known on the steamboat 
 pier, and greets the officials in a patronizing way, with proud dis- 
 tended tail and out-lapping tongue, marching about majestically, 
 showing off his beautiful white breast. If the up-river boat comes 
 first, it is as much as we can do to prevent him taking his passage 
 in her. At last he is persuaded, and in due time our boat is 
 discovered skimming round the bend of the river. The boys rush 
 on board, headed of course by Bernard. Having arrived at 
 GreenAvich, we make straight for the park, and settle down to 
 games. Bernard likes races best, although he takes interest in 
 football, having just stopped a football match and demoralized the 
 combatants — young naval cadets — by bounding after their ball, 
 scurrying it up and down, and daring anybody to take it from him. 
 
 Greenwich Hill is a famous place for races \ the boys once 
 
CHILDREN'S SPORTS. 
 
 29s 
 
 started must go right down to the bottom, whether they like it or 
 no. The difficulty is to find a winning-post. On one occasion I 
 pressed into this service, without consulting him, an elderly gentle- 
 man with an umbrella who happened to be passing at the bottom 
 of the hill. It was some time before he became aware of his 
 interest in the event. But when at last he awoke to the fact that 
 this human avalanche was making for him as fast as their little feet 
 could carry them, and found that he could not dodge them, he 
 turned at bay, and, brandishing his umbrella, prepared to receive 
 cavalry. It was no use : the prize was the first who touched him, 
 and touch him they did. I don't know what version of the affair 
 he gave to his family afterwards, but I am afraid he did not see 
 the joke, and I took care not to go near enough to him to explain it. 
 
 The clergy used to divide the labour of the expeditions. Some- 
 times Mr. Lowder took the first class of the girls' school to Victoria 
 Park, or to Southwark Park, and spent a " good time " with them, 
 amusing them with all sorts of games in which he joined. Some- 
 times the other cleigy took the choir-boys or guilds. But of 
 course the occasions were rare, and were understood to be 
 rewards for good conduct. I am quite sure that these little 
 outings did great good in enabling us to win the confidence and 
 love of the children, and also in giving them a few hours' pure 
 enjoyment, and healthy exercise, and fresh air. Now that we 
 have our playground these excursions are no longer necessary. 
 
 The passengers on the steamboat used to look with astonish- 
 ment at the poor little toes peeping out of the broken boots, and 
 the ragged garments in which many of these merry-hearted children 
 are arrayed. 
 
 The girls, too, we sometimes treated. I remember a poor 
 child exclaiming, " Lawks, Sarah, here's a flower just the colour of 
 my Sunday ribbon." 
 
 Mr. Lowder was also great at a " feed " — the annual gathering 
 of our poor communicants, or a parish " tea." It was beautiful to 
 see him going round the tables, with his pleasant smile and kindly 
 greeting cheering up the poorest hearts who form the rank and 
 
296 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 file of our Church miUtant, and who in their different vocations in 
 life bear the real brunt of the attack. 
 
 Like other low-lying districts on the banks of the Thames, 
 our parish was liable to be inundated whenever the tide of the 
 river exceeded its usual height. This was a terrible calamity for 
 the poor people. Sometimes at the dead of night the cry would 
 be heard, " The tide is rising," and the poor things had to move 
 their children and household stuff into some neighbour's room 
 upstairs as soon as possible. On one occasion the people suffered 
 so much that a public subscription was opened for them at the 
 Mansion House. I was the almoner for my own district, and I 
 took great pains in going round to each house to see with my own 
 eyes the damage done by the water. I then asked each proprietor 
 to name the sum at which he computed the loss. Poor things ! 
 they were most moderate — to be sure, they had nothing much to 
 spoil — but five shillings and seven and sixpence were about the 
 sums claimed. Now I thought by this means, and taking their 
 own estimate, I had effectually barred any chance of a row, even 
 in the Irish quarters ; but when I distributed the relief there was 
 quite a " ruction " — they were all discontented. I said to one of 
 the complainers, " My good v»'oman, you only asked for five 
 shillings, and I have given you what you asked for." "Well," 
 she answered, "when I said five shillings I didn't know that 
 Mrs. Mullooney, next door, was going to claim ' sivin and six.' " 
 
 Since I wrote tliis there has been another serious flood, and the 
 curates had to wade through the water to take food to the school 
 children, who were imprisoned by the tide in the schools all day. 
 
 I will finish my necessarily imperfect sketch of Father Lowder's 
 work by giving a short account of certain special services which 
 characterize St. Peter's — the " Way of the Cross " on Good 
 Friday, the Rogation procession on Rogation Tuesday, and the 
 midnight service on New Year's Eve. 
 
 The Rogation procession was purely a devotional service. 
 There was no attempt made to gather a congregation, and there 
 were no addresses. It was just a gi-and solemn act of prayer 
 
OPEN AIR SERVICES. 
 
 297 
 
 through the streets of the parish, supplicating God's blessing on 
 the people and the industries of the place. 
 
 We left the church at five in the morning, the choir and clergy 
 in surplices, the communicants and children following behind, and 
 then sang as we marched along first the Church Litany, and then 
 suitable hymns and litanies. The white-robed procession wending 
 its way through the narrow streets was a striking sight to see, the 
 bright banners standing out in bold contrast against the quaint 
 smoke-stained gables of the houses, and the plaintive strains of the 
 Litany, now swelling, now dying away, as we passed along. The 
 windows were peopled here and there with occupants in the 
 oddest deshabille. At certain points suitable prayers were said — 
 for instance, on the Dock Bridge, where we prayed God to bless 
 the shipping and sailors. The service ended with the Celebration 
 in church. 
 
 The Good Friday procession went over the same ground, but 
 was of an entirely different character. Here there were no sur- 
 plices or banners, and the distinct motive was to gain the attention 
 of the people, and bring before them the story of the Cross, and 
 in any way — by pictures, by hymns, by earnest appeals — to gain the 
 hearts of those for whom Christ died, and to reach those who 
 never came to church. 
 
 To look at that pale earnest face of Father Lewder was in 
 itself a powerful appeal. Year after year they had heard his 
 invitation, and year after year they had seen him age, until on the 
 last Good Friday we went round the parish they saw him a broken 
 down old man — but still young in heart, young in his love to 
 Jesus, young in the intense vigour of his pathetic appeal. 
 
 One can hardly believe that hearts could resist such faithful 
 waiting love as his. Ah, they resisted a higher Love, and it all 
 flashed upon them when too late — when his dead body waited 
 on that same bridge where he had so often spoken, and the long 
 line of clergy and choristers conducted him for the last time, a 
 lifeless corpse, to his church through the weeping crowds of 
 mourning poor. 
 
298 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 The fatigue of this outdoor preaching was very great, and yet 
 Mr. Lowder had only just finished preaching for three hours in 
 church when he started for the streets. He had also been present 
 at the earlier services in church, and taken part in them. He 
 never could be persuaded to save himself. 
 
 I may say for the sake of those who wish to try this experiment 
 that we used some large coloured lithographs which we procured 
 at Tattersall's in Southampton Row. 
 
 On the last night of each old year a special effort was made to 
 gain those who hitherto had resisted every attempt to convert 
 them. The service began at eleven, and consisted of prayers, 
 hymns, and a stirring sermon. The people then knelt down, and 
 Mr. Lowder read aloud questions for self-examination, and recited 
 various acts of contrition and prayers for pardon. Just before 
 midnight, a solemn silence was preserved ; not a sound could be 
 heard but the beating of the clock as it measured out the last few 
 moments of the dying year. At midnight the bell was tolled, and 
 then the people all sang the hymn for New Year's Day. After a 
 short sermon, the service closed with the Te Deum. 
 
 I feel that my account has drifted into a narrative of Mr. 
 Lowder's work, and is not sufficiently a picture of Mr. Lowder's 
 self But that is just the character of the man. He was retiring 
 and modest, and lived only for his work. Therefore it is his best 
 praise and monument that he is known by his work. 
 
 His life, as it was his, he lived for God. His real history is 
 contained in his long private prayers, severe fasts, hard self 
 denying life, and in the conflicts of soul, 'when alone, deserted, 
 and betrayed, he wrestled -in bitterest agony of prayer with God, 
 Who thus was hardening His soldier for continued warfare to the 
 end, and preparing him for the grace of final perseverance. 
 
 But this, which is his true history, is written only in the Book 
 of Life. We knew very little of his deepest feelings — we could 
 only see the shine upon his face which told that he had been in 
 the Mount with God. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 REST FROM WORK. 
 
 1874-1878. 
 
 " Qui sarai tu poco tempo silvano, 
 E sarai meco, senza fine, cive 
 Di quella Roma onde Cristo e Romano." 
 
 There is little to record of Father Lowder's work from 
 this time, for in the eyes of men it was the same, year after 
 year. 
 
 If the stories of souls could be told — of the rough men 
 who from enemies became his stanchest friends — there 
 would be abundance of variety and interest, but for obvious 
 reasons this cannot be done. " I have been very tired, 
 and unable to get through more than necessary work," 
 is his own account to his father on January 2, 1874. 
 
 He took part, of course, in the general London Mission 
 of that year ; Mr. Suckling coming a second time to St. 
 Peter's, with Mr. Charles Gray as his colleague. 
 
 Much of Father Lowder's thoughts were taken up at 
 this time with the sister who was slowly fading away, and 
 in the midst of pressing work he wrote long letters of 
 plans and arrangements for her comfort, and for moving 
 her with as little fatigue as possible from Folkestone to 
 
300 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 her home at Fromc. To his father he wrote on Whitsun 
 Eve : — 
 
 We have been kept at work by the Archbishop's Bill. On 
 Tuesday I went with a deputation from the English Church Union 
 to Lambeth, and we tried to make some impression on the Arch- 
 bishop, but I do not know that we succeeded ; however, he listened 
 very patiently to us. Lords Devon, Nelson, Glasgow, and L., 
 C. L. Wood, Shaw Stewart, Majendie, with Carter, Medd, Butler, 
 White, and myself, were the deputation. We also had a meeting 
 at St.-Alban's and All Saint's. 
 
 In August he went to Switzerland with Mr. Body and 
 Mr. Gray, attempting less in the way of mountaineering 
 than in any previons excursions, but keeping to quiet 
 wanderings in the Bernese Oberland. He parted with 
 his companions in about a fortnight, and made his way 
 alone to St. Moritz. He wrote from thence : — 
 
 I am enjoying the perfect rest and quiet here, with little temp- 
 tation to exert myself, as I feel my walking is over. It is rather 
 lonely by myself, but I have plenty to amuse myself with in the 
 way of reading, and so I hope to come home fresh. ... I have 
 heard nothing from St. Peter's, so I hope all has been going 
 on well ; but I dread plunging into all my work, not knowing what 
 is before me. 
 
 He returned in the middle of September, but by 
 January, 1875, was so broken in health that he was forced 
 to give in, and to go abroad again, making his way slowly 
 to Cannes, lingering at Dijon, Clermont, and Lyons. At 
 Clermont he could not resist attempting an ascent in snow. 
 
 It was a lovely morning, but frosty, so I drove out to the foot 
 of the Puy de Dome, and made an attempt to get to the top, but 
 
REST AT CANNES. 
 
 301 
 
 though I nearly succeeded, I was stopped by the snow and ice, and 
 having no one with me, I was obliged to give in ; in flict, if I had 
 not been somewhat used to snow mountains, I could not have 
 gone so far, as it required a rope, and I had only an umbrella. 
 However, I had a beautiful view, and though I had no gun, carried 
 home a red partridge, which I found in the snow quite fresh. 
 . . . It is something new to me to travel in winter abroad, and, 
 among other things, I am learning to manage wood fires. ... I 
 got to Orange before 2 p.m., and was very glad I stopped there, 
 as I enjoyed my first sight of the Roman remains of the Alidi, 
 amongst which I have been quite revelling this last week. 
 
 Hotel du Square Brougham, Cannes, February 7, 1875. 
 
 . . . This is a beautiful spot, and I hope I may be able to stay, 
 but it is very full, and the room I am now in I shall be obliged to 
 leave to-morrow. I hope I may get another room in this house, as 
 it is quiet and in a good situation away from the town. 
 
 Though I have enjoyed my tour so much in the new objects of 
 interest I have seen, yet I am very glad to get thus far, with the 
 hope of being quiet for a little before I go on to Rome. I enjoyed 
 amazingly to-day sitting out on the beach with the quiet ripple of 
 the tideless Mediterranean, which I can now hear from my window. 
 I wish Katey could be transported here, for I think the climate 
 would give her new life. I can well understand how those who 
 have once enjoyed a winter on this coast are tempted to come 
 back. 
 
 Le Trayas pr^s de Cannes, February 13, 1875. 
 
 My dear Katey, 
 
 You will all be surprised at my address and at the 
 paper on which I am writing, but I am waiting for a train in a 
 station near Cannes, and as I have some time to wait I will em- 
 ploy myself in writing a letter to you. I have been thinking a 
 great deal about you lately, and whether Cannes would suit 
 you. . . . 
 
 To-day I have been to the top of one of the Esterel Mountains. 
 
302 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 I intended to have walked back to Cannes, but I lost my way 
 coming down, and so have come back to the station that I may 
 return by the train. ... I shall probably stay a week longer, and 
 then go on to Nice and Mentone and so to Rome. I hear Eland 
 has been here, but I missed him. We are a very quiet party in 
 our pension — a clergyman named Woodhouse is here with his wife 
 and niece, a Scotch lady and her daughter, and a few others. I 
 hope Annie and Mary will be able to read this writing, but you 
 must understand this is a little station on the seashore about six 
 or seven miles from Cannes, perched by itself without a house 
 near it, except one or two where the employes live. I am 
 writing at the stationmaster's desk; in fact, they have made 
 me a little coffee, and I am in charge of the booking-office 
 while they are gone to supper, so I hope I have made a good use 
 of my time. . . . Skinner and Mrs. Skinner are here in a pension 
 close by. I called upon them to-day. 
 
 In March he went on by the Cornice to Genoa, spending 
 a few days at the villages on the way, and sending a large 
 box of palms from Bordighera to St. Peter's. He reached 
 Rome by Holy Week — the first that he had spent away 
 from his people since the Mission began. Here, on Easter 
 Day, he received a telegram telling him that his sister had 
 passed away on Easter Eve. He set out at once, and 
 travelled three days and nights without stopping, arriving, 
 his eldest sister's journal notes, on April i, "very much 
 knocked up and looking very ill." He celebrated early 
 next morning, the day of the funeral. There are two or 
 three entries in his sister's journal mentioning him at this 
 time : — 
 
 St. Mark's Day, 1875. 
 Charles preached from the Epistle : " He gave some Apostles 
 ... for the perfecting of the saints." 
 
FAILING HEALTH. 
 
 " That is the object of all God's work for us. We are to set 
 forth Christ's likeness in the world — are we doing it ? " 
 
 April 29. 
 
 Charles left us. Now our loss raa,kes itself more truly felt. 
 
 May S 
 
 Charles went to a lodging at Chislehurst — too unwell to con- 
 tinue at St. Peter's. 
 
 He had written to his father on April 30, " I have got 
 through the Synod very well, and feel able to do my work, 
 if I take it quietly." But in a few days he broke down, and 
 was unable to return to live at St. Peter's for many months. 
 Mr. Linklater says that 
 
 Even in the days of tolerable health he made a rule of sleeping 
 out in the country one night in the week. The smells and vitiated 
 atmosphere of his home were so poisonous, and the surroundings 
 of his life so depressing, that a night in the fresh pure country air 
 was a seventh-day need. 
 
 And what Mr. Lowder ordered for himself he ordered for his 
 curates. Indeed, he went so far, at one time, as to provide a 
 special room for them at Chislehurst. But I was the only obedient 
 disciple. The others were too enamoured of their work to tear 
 themselves away ; they stuck to the ship morning, noon, and night, 
 and so the plan fell through. This weekly run into the country 
 served to prove how many sincere friends Mr. Lowder had who 
 were always glad to receive him, and in how many pleasant 
 country houses there was a "prophet's chamber" always ready for 
 him. 
 
 But, alas ! the time came when the one holiday became the one 
 working day in the week. For a long time he was so broken 
 in health that it was as much as he could do to drag through the 
 duties of the Sunday. During this long period he lived at Chisle- 
 hurst, which was of easy access, and the fine bracing air of which 
 
304 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 place suited him. It was a great comfort to him to have thus 
 proof positive that he had so thoroughly established his work 
 that it went on as easily and regularly in his absence as in his 
 presence. 
 
 And thus he was able the more contentedly to obey the doctors 
 and go abroad for several months in after years. 
 
 The spring of 1876 found him again in London. 
 
 St. Peter's Vicarage, March 7, 1876. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 ... I have been at St. Peter's for the last ten days, and 
 of course full of Lent work. I hope I shall be able to get on 
 pretty well. The East End is in excitement just now, as the 
 Queen is, I suppose, at this moment in the London Hospital. 
 The other clergy are gone to see her, as we had very good places 
 offered to us, but I am keeping house quietly. I hear the pre- 
 parations in Whitechapel are very grand. 
 
 I, Florence Villas, Chislehurst, Whitsun Tuesday, 1876. 
 
 '. . . \ will try to get over to Wilmington to-morrow. I was too 
 tired to-day, as yesterday was spent in entertaining the choir 
 over here. We had our head-quarters on the common, and we had 
 a beautiful and very successful day. This is my first day of entire 
 rest since I left Frome, as I was obliged to be in London every 
 day last week, though I slept here several nights. I like my 
 lodgings very much, and I have a spare room for the other clergy^ 
 all of whom have now been over to see me in turn. On Wednes- 
 day we had a large tea-meeting, at which they presented me with a 
 very kindly expressed testimonial of congratulation at my return 
 and sympathy with our bereavement, and ;^20, which I am goin;^ 
 to devote to something in the church. . , . 
 
 I find plenty of friends here ; so with the clergy coming over 
 from St. Peter's I am far from dull. The people here are very 
 pleasant and sociable, and my chief difficulty is to cut out my time 
 for visiting them. 
 
LETTER FROM THE COLONIES. 
 
 In December he wrote : — 
 
 We are making exchanges with Chislehurst this Advent; the 
 clergy here are preaching for us, and I am preaching here on 
 Thursdays. 
 
 'The following letter from a clergyman in the Colonics 
 may be given as a specimen of many others of the same 
 kind which he received : — 
 
 July 5, 1875. 
 
 Dear Father Lowder, 
 
 I experienced a very pleasant surprise last week in the 
 receipt of your " Letter to the Bishop of London on Sacramental 
 Confession," endorsed with the author's kind regards. I don't 
 know how you heard of my whereabouts, unless through our 
 good Bishop, or my friend Mr. Lamborne of Bermondsey, who 
 was to send me a copy. It brought back the remembrance of 
 old times most vividly, when I used to make pilgrimages from 
 Kensington to Calvert Street, and took my part in the St. 
 George's riots ! It is not likely that you remember my coming to 
 you to make my first confession, and your putting me off for a 
 week, doubtless to test my sincerity. Now, suppose you had 
 contented yourself with giving me a little good advice, instead of 
 giving me absolution, what would have been the consequence? 
 Why, instead of being as I am (though so utterly unworthy) a 
 priest of God, pronouncing His absolution to others, I might 
 have been absorbed in the world or in some sect. I have never 
 forgotten you, dear Father, through all these years : your latest 
 photograph and the Scupoli* you gave me are before me now. I 
 should have witten to you, only that you told me when taking leave 
 that, owing to your large correspondence, I need not expect an 
 answer to a letter. I was not offended at this, but thought myself 
 of too little consequence to occupy your attention. 
 
 How strangely events come about. Who would have thought 
 
 * "The Spiritual Combat," by Scupoli. 
 
 X 
 
CirARLES LOWDER. 
 
 that the poor youth that heard you address the children one 
 Good Friday at St. Barnabas', and who was afterwards advised by 
 Mr. Crickmay to go over to the London Docks and encourage the 
 Church there, should proceed to St. Augustine's and sail for the 
 Colonies, there to proclaim the same blessed truths and propagate 
 the Catholic faith. But so it has been ordained in God's good 
 providence. 
 
 I have now fifteen churches under my care, all more or less 
 adapted for decent ritual. Our new church of St. Peter at this 
 place is very beautiful. The Bishop will consecrate it, if he is 
 spared to return in safety. As we have no stained glass, I have 
 decorated the walls with pictures of our Saviour, the Blessed 
 Virgin, St. Peter, and St. John Baptist, besides a large crucifixion 
 over the reredos. We have a surpliced choir of white, black, and 
 mulatto men and boys, so you see we are following in the steps 
 of our advanced friends at home as far as we can. If you see 
 our Bishop again he will tell you about my worL The Church 
 Times keeps me au fait to the various movements at home ; they 
 are of great interest to us, as the wave of progress reaches even 
 to this distant diocese, and we reproduce in our humble way the 
 grand ritual of the Church in England. 
 
 The following letter shows that by Easter Father 
 Lowder had returned to his Calvert Street home. 
 
 St. Peter's Vicarage, London Docks, E., Easter Eve, 1876. 
 
 My dearest Father, 
 
 I write a few lines to v/ish you and my sisters all 
 Easter blessings. I cannot but think of the cloud over our Easter 
 joy last year; indeed, I have more than thought, for I spoke of it 
 in my last address at the stations yesterday, on our Blessed Lord 
 being laid in the grave. R.I. P. with our other loved ones, who 
 are keepings a happier Easter in Paradise. May we be ready for 
 our call. I am thankful to say that I have not felt so tired as 
 usual after my Good Friday, which, on the whole, passed off very 
 
BULGARIAN SCHEME. 
 
 quietly, though the snow in the morning and the cold weather 
 kept away many. 
 
 Most of the summer of 1876 was spent by Father 
 Lewder at Chislehurst, where he Hved in the Rectory, 
 taking Mr. Murray's duty in his absence. He wrote to 
 his sister on August 31th : — 
 
 I am afraid the Murrays will not be home till the end of next 
 week, but I shall be glad now to be free. If I could do any good 
 to the poor Servians or Bulgarians, I would gladly go out and help 
 them ; perhaps I might by organizing a detachment of Sisters and 
 nurses. 
 
 A little later than this, he made every arrangement to 
 go to the seat of vt^ar, and went to East Grinstead with 
 Lady Strangford's sister, to organize a band of Sisters who 
 had promised to accompany him. But a telegram from 
 Lady Strangford, saying that the religious prejudices of the 
 Turks would be aroused by the Sisters' dress, prevented 
 the plan from being carried out; and, on November 12th, 
 he wrote to his sister from Brighton ; — 
 
 It was well for me that the Bulgarian scheme fell through, as 
 I did not feel up to it. Dr. Drury prescribed for my complaint, 
 and has given me some advice afterwards, but we did not go very 
 deeply into it. He is a very clever homoeopath. I am obliged to 
 be very quiet at present. 
 
 He had felt deeply the death of his venerable father, to 
 whom he had been summoned on September 5th, and who 
 passed away on the 9th, at the age of eighty-seven. The 
 harvest festival at St. Mary's, Fromefield, was on the 
 1 2th, the eve of his funeral, and harmonized well with 
 
308 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 his children's feelings, for their father was indeed as a 
 shock of wheat fully ripe gathered into the heavenly- 
 garner. The parents and the sister now slept in the same 
 grave. There is a little notice of their next Christmas 
 meeting in his eldest sister's journal : — 
 
 Christmas Day, 1876. 
 Dined with Charles in his room at the Clergy House, an event 
 which we cannot remember since we left Tetburj'. Drank tea 
 with the Sisters, Charles joining us there, to their supreme delight. 
 
 A letter from the old friend who had given him a title 
 for Holy Orders, Lord John Thynne, gave him much 
 pleasure this Christmas. 
 
 Haynes Park, Bedford. 
 
 Dear Lowder, 
 
 In spite of seventy-eight years now completed, I am 
 graciously permitted again to send you a little Christmas offering 
 in behalf of your persevering and successful good works. I was 
 pleased to hear of your visiting Arthur at Kilkhampton, where I 
 hope he is doing some good, with encouragement 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 J. T. 
 
 P.S. — After writing as above, I received Report of St George's 
 Mission, pointing out the more wants, the more hopes, and the 
 further extension of your good designs ; so I took out my cheque of 
 ;^io and put an o to it, for it is probable I may never again be 
 permitted to strengthen the power of good deeds by my much- 
 valued friend C. F. L., for whom my affection is unabated and my 
 respect increased yearly. J. T. 
 
 December 20, 1876. 
 
 His sisters went abroad early in 1 877 ; he had now 
 been working for twenty-one yeai's in East London, and 
 felt that he might take a long holiday, and devote himself 
 
VISIT TO FROME. 
 
 for a time to cheerinjr and helping them. He did not, 
 however, join them until the autumn ; and the following 
 extracts are from letters written to them before leaving 
 England : — 
 
 Frome, Feast of St. John Baptist, 1877. 
 
 My dear Annie, 
 
 Many thanks to you and Mary for your kind letters, 
 which, though a day late, were none the less acceptable, for as I 
 came into Frome I felt very dreary and desolate, considering that 
 it was the first time I had come here for twenty-five years without 
 having any of you to welcome me. Your letters helped to make 
 up a httle for that which can never be replaced, the love of my 
 dear father and mother whenever I came home. The Vicar had 
 been kind enough to let me celebrate at 6.30, and you may be 
 sure I did not forget the departed ones ; indeed, my heart has been 
 very full all day, and I was afraid once or twice of breaking down. 
 While making my thanksgiving in the Lady Chapel, they were 
 ringing a lovely peal, and the bells seemed like voices from heaven, 
 saying, " Come home." I was able to finish (my thanksgiving), 
 kneeling quietly at the grave while they were singing the Kyrie. 
 I am sleeping at Mr. Penny's, and he and his wife are very 
 attentive. Miss Maddox has made some beautiful wreaths (for 
 the grave). 
 
 The gentians * are very lovely in colour, but have not come 
 out much ; the other white flowers have revived very well. . . . 
 The weather is lovely ; there were a great many communicants and 
 a large congregation at Matins. I preached on Nehemiah vi. 15. 
 I was in Oxfordshire on June 3rd ; St. Barnabas', Pimlico, on the 
 eve of St. Barnabas, Lincolnshire the nth, Bedford on the 19th, 
 and have been much taken up with the unpleasant agitation about 
 S. S. C. and a book written by Mr. Chambers (who was warden of 
 the House of Charity), and dedicated it to us, but intended only 
 for priests. One was stolen, and they have extracted a number 
 
 * Sent by his sisters from Champeri. 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 of questions from it, and represented that we ask them constantly 
 in hearing confessions. There was a discussion in the House of 
 Lords and questions in the House of Commons. The Bisliops 
 behaved shamefully. We were abused by name. We are going to 
 some of them this week. I go back to-morrow. I expect my 
 book out this week ; I will send you one. . . . 
 
 I went to Chislehurst last Monday, and was in charming 
 quarters with Parker the curate, in a new house built for him. 
 Murray came back from the Holy Land the day I arrived. I hope 
 to enjoy some more quiet here after our festival on Monday. 
 Randall preached a fine sermon last night to a crowded congre- 
 gation. ... I go back to London at two, as I have a communicant 
 class on Tuesday, and three meetings unfortunately, so that I 
 cannot get back to Chislehurst till Tuesday night, and then I 
 must be at St Peter's every day this week, so that I envy your 
 quiet at Champ^ri. I hope to call and see the old house.* 
 
 10.15 — This letter has been written by fits and starts. I 
 have just had the comfort of kneeling in my father's and mother's 
 old place ; so though I do go back to London with a full heart, 
 and with a great deal of very serious anxiety, for our conference 
 with the Bishop is very serious, yet altogether it has been a great 
 comfort being here. I have felt so much in the company of the 
 departed that it has been refreshing. My best love to you both, 
 and believe me, 
 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 St. Peter's Vicarage, September 18, 1877. 
 ... I hope to Start about the 12th, with one of Lord Nelson's 
 sons as my companion. He will stay with us in Florence and 
 Rome. My idea is to go over the Simplon, as it is almost the 
 only pass that I do not know, and so down to Baveno. I think 
 your best plan would be to go on to Milan when you are tired of 
 Annecy, and take a lodging for a fortnight there, and then meet 
 me at Baveno. . . . 
 
 * Ken House, where the family had lived for many years. 
 
DARTMOOR. 
 
 I sliall be very gKid to get off, for I am getting very tired, and 
 tliough I have been away from home a good deal, I have not had 
 a continued rest, and the year has been a very trying and anxious 
 one. I do not know tliat I am quite safe yet from persecution, 
 but I hope it will be so. I went to Exeter on September 3, 
 preached at St. Sidwell's, and spent the next day at Exmouth and 
 Powderham. It was my first visit to Exmouth since we were 
 there together in 1823 or 1824. Charles Wood, who married Lady 
 Agnes Courtenay, is staying at Powderham, and asked me over 
 to stay with them, but I was only able to lunch and spend the 
 afternoon, which I enjoyed much, as it was a lovely day and the 
 views from the tower and the grounds beautiful. C. W, drove 
 me to Exeter, and I had to speak at a meeting in the evening. 
 The next day I went to a village near Okehampton, where John 
 Knight and all his family were staying in a very lovely spot. 
 They had hired the rectory of an old Exeter friend of mine, 
 Archer. I slept there, and they drove me the next day to. 
 Dartmoor. I walked four or five miles to Princetown and saw 
 the prison. I was there met by some friends, the Scobells, who 
 drove me to Meavy. We had a beautiful view towards Plymouth, 
 looking down upon the Tamar and seeing the breakwater. On 
 the Friday I came home. I was very glad of the opportunity of 
 seeing so much of Dartmoor. I am going next week to Ciren- 
 cester on my way to Wakefield to preach for Chadwick. Last 
 week we had our synod of S. S. C, which lasted two whole days, 
 from 9 a.m. till after 7 p.m. It was very well attended, and I 
 am thankful it went off so well. Body was up and Boddington. 
 
 ... I should like much to see Annecy for St. Francis' sake, 
 but I shall prefer getting more directly to the lakes. I wish, if 
 you see anybody who knows, you would ask v/hether there is 
 likely to be too much snow on the Simplon in the middle of 
 October to prevent walking over, as I should prefer to walk if it is 
 practicable. . . . 
 
 Yours very affectionately, 
 
 Charles. 
 
312 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 His sister gives a few particulars of his time abroad : — 
 
 In October Charles came (with young Nelson) to the Italian 
 lakes, walked over the Simplon, and joined us at Baveno. He 
 had much wished to show us the Italian lakes, and made 
 several beautiful excursions with him. 
 
 He was with us for six weeks at Florence, and then we went 
 on with him to Rome for six weeks. During our stay the King 
 died suddenly, and by Charles's help we saw the lying in state. 
 
 He enjoyed taking long walks into the country about Rome. 
 He used to sally forth with some lunch and his bag strapped to 
 his shoulder, to search for marbles, of which he had a credence 
 table made. Another great pleasure was picking flowers in the 
 grounds of the surrounding villas — ^^especially, I remember, at the 
 Pamfili Doria. 
 
 He met many friends, and enjoyed sociable evenings with the 
 .Bishop of Bombay and Bishop Tozer, Dr. Nevins of the 
 American Church, and other clergy. 
 
 From Rome we went to Castellamare, to a pension where, as we 
 afterwards heard, his arrival was dreaded, but it was amusing to 
 see how his brightness and geniality won his opponents. One 
 evening he proposed that the company should be amused by 
 certain gentlemen telling tales, and he led the way with a very 
 humorous and curious story which he had heard in Cornwall^ 
 and which had tickled his fancy extremely. 
 
 Charles had intended to spend a month with us at Cas- 
 tellamare, but in consequence of the Pope's death he returned to 
 Rome, and through the interest of Cardinal Manning, who was 
 always very civil to him, he was admitted to the Sixtine Chapel 
 for some of the funeral services. We remained at Castellamare, and 
 did not see him again till we returned to England. 
 
 He returned home before the Easter of 1878. Mr. 
 Linklater writes : — 
 
 It was this year when he only came back in time for Passion- 
 
JOURNEY TO ENGLAND. 
 
 tide, that he appropriated to the curates the Easter offering, which 
 of course had before been ahvays the Vicar's own. 
 
 I mention it to show how liberal and generous he was ■ in 
 money matters, and as the offertory generally came to about ;^4o 
 (a wonderful sum for so poor a parish, and most eloquently 
 testifying to the value the people set upon the Church's work), a 
 fourth share of that sum (there were four curates) was a consider- 
 able addition to our net income of jQ^o. 
 
 To his sister he wrote on his homeward journey, and 
 after his return to England : — 
 
 Rome, February 18, 1878. 
 We started for Rome at six and reached it just before ten, but, 
 alas ! too late for the lying in state or entombment. Yesterday, 
 however, with gi-eat difficulty, I got into the Sixtine Chapel for the 
 last of the requiem Masses, which was very impressive. The 
 Dies Ira was very touching. The choir, so long dispersed, were 
 together again. An immense catafalque in the centre, with the 
 Cardinals all present, ambassadors, Swiss guards, soldiers. All 
 present in mourning, and the panegyric preached by a Cardinal. 
 I afterwards saw the cells in which they are to be shut up to-day. 
 The Mass of the Holy Spirit is, I suppose, just over in the Paoline 
 Chapel, but it was quite private. This evening, if the rooms are 
 ready, they will be shut up for the conclave, and then we shall be 
 all on the qui vive to know the result. . . . 
 
 Cannes, Third Sunday in Lent, 1878. 
 . . . We spent two or three hours in Genoa, and came on late 
 to Bordighera. I got my palms, which I hope to bring home with 
 me, and arrived here about 4 p.m. Skinner is here, and I am 
 just going to call upon him, and the Elands I have seen, who are 
 also on their way to England. 
 
 July 3- 
 
 I am very glad that you have enjoyed yourselves so much 
 and seen so many objects of interest. I was wiili Body at Cor- 
 
314 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 tina some years ago (1871), but we approached it from the other 
 side, and did not remain there even to sleep, but went over the 
 Tre Sassi to Andraz, and then to St. Marco and Ulrich for the 
 Brenner Hne. If you go to HeiHgenblut, remember me to Anton 
 Granogger ; he will remember my giving him a pair of mackintosh 
 leggings. He went up with me and Parker to the Barenkopf, the 
 Glockerei, and the Windelbachhorn in one day's long excursion in 
 1 87 1. Parker and I went up the Gross Glockner before with 
 Kals guides. Anton is a very good fellow ; I send you a photo- 
 graph which you may give him if you go, only perhaps he will not 
 recognize me in a cassock, as I then wore a white flannel suit ; but 
 he would remember the year in which the Hoffman memorial was 
 put up at the Johanneshohe. . . . 
 
 The case arrived from Rome on the eve of St. Peter's Day, 
 quite safe, and very handsome ; it is much admired.* 
 
 . . . The Bishop of Bombay preached last night, and seemed 
 well. I hope Dr. Medley, the Bishop of Fredericton, will come to 
 us to-morrow. I do not think they will be able to do anything in 
 Mackonochie's case for a long time, perhaps a year or two, as it 
 will very likely go to the House of Lords, so that all prosecution 
 will be stopped in the mean while. 
 
 . . . We had Lords Nelson, Glasgow, and Forbes here. . . . 
 
 I am going to wi-ite to the Lainsons about an excursion t at 
 the end of this month. 
 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 P.S. Mackonochie has won his appeal. I hope we shall be 
 quiet for the present. 
 
 Things are going on quite quietly in the parish. I hear 
 nothing more of any attempt at prosecution. In fact, after the 
 quietus which has been given to Lord Penzance, I do not think 
 we shall have much persecution anywhere, though they seem to be 
 attacking Mr. Dale. 
 
 * This was a credence table made of pieces of marble he picked up in 
 Rome and the neighbourhood. 
 
 t Of five hundred school children. 
 
FOREIGN BISHOPS AT SI. PETER'S. 315 
 
 St. Peter's Vicarage, July 26, 1878. 
 
 I wa.s at East Grinstead on Tuesday, and a very storm of 
 thunder and lightning began while we were dining in the tent. 
 It cut the speeches short, beating through the canvas, and the 
 lightning killed a man not far from the convent. Otherwise we 
 had a nice day and a large gathering. . . . On my return from 
 E. G., I stopped at Mr. Lainson's at Reigate to arrange about our 
 school excursion there next Wednesday. The Lainsons have a 
 beautiful place there, with very large grounds, so that if we have 
 a fine day we shall enjoy ourselves much, I hope. Pickance took 
 me over on Wednesday to an English Church Union meeting in 
 a very pretty village near Godstone. I stayed a few days at the 
 Randells', who are pretty well. The country is looking lovely; 
 the early rains made everything so green, and now the bright sun 
 has ripened the crops very rapidly. 
 
 ... I was in the House of Lords the other night to hear 
 Lord Beaconsfield's great speech on the Berlin Treaty, and I hope 
 to be in the House of Commons next Monday for the debate on 
 the question of the Treaty and the Convention. It was a very 
 fine sight in the House of Lords — the Princess of Wales and 
 many of the royal family, the House full, and the galleries 
 crowded. I will send you the Guardian with the account of it. 
 
 . . . We have had some of the American and Colonial 
 Bishops with us during the Lambeth Conference. The Bishop of 
 Fredericton, a very nice old man, Dr. Medley, preached during 
 the festival, and the Bishop of Bombay gave us a very interesting 
 account of work in India The Bishop of Albany, a son of old 
 Bishop Doane, and Bishop Schereschewsky, a Pole, now a mis- 
 sionary Bishop in China . . . also preached for us, and Lord Beau- 
 champ brought down the Bishop of Missouri ; and the Bishop of 
 Colorado, who was staying with the Dean of St. Paul's, came last 
 Saturday. Some of them are very good Churchmen, and take 
 great interest in the progress of things in England. 
 
 Your very affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 LAST DAYS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 1878-1880,] 
 
 " \Vhat are we set on earth for ? Say to toil, 
 Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines, 
 For all the heat o' the day — till it declines 
 Ajid Death's mild curfew shall from work assoil." 
 
 In October, 1878, Father Lowder paid a visit to the Paris 
 Exhibition, and spent three weeks with his sisters at 
 Follcestone. 
 
 He walked with them one day to Caesar's Camp, and 
 when not far from the summit ran to the top, to show them 
 how Httle the steep ascent tried him. But he shrank from 
 society, and seemed exhausted if he had to talk much or 
 listen to conversation. An attempt had been made, while 
 he was abroad, to get up an attack on St. Peter's. A few 
 extracts from his reply to an address of his parishioners, 
 expressing their confidence in him, are worth recording : — 
 
 Of the nearly seventeen hundred names attached to the 
 memorial, I find that more than three hundred are communicants, 
 between fifteen and sixteen hundred are parishioners, while of 
 those not actually living within the bounds of the parish, the great 
 majority are very near neighbours — either in Wapping or other 
 parts of the parish of St. George's — and the others are communi- 
 cants who come from a somewhat greater distance. 
 
REPLY TO lARISHIONERS. 317 
 
 An anonymous writer, calling himself a Wapping Protestant, 
 was kind enough to warn the Bishop against the memorial, and 
 complain that many who signed it did not belong to the church. 
 Now, though I am sorry that there are any in the parish who do 
 not come to church — and they well know that I would do any- 
 thing to bring them to it — yet I must say I derived a great deal of 
 pleasure from seeing the names of many who do not come to 
 church attached to the address. Because were I to feel that only 
 those who are communicants or regular attendants at church were 
 influenced by the work of the clergy. Sisters, or teachers, I 
 should be very much disappointed ; for then I should feel that we 
 had failed in our duty to a large number of our parishioners. But 
 I am encouraged by the thought that there are a great many who 
 — though from various reasons, such as want of clothes, idle or 
 bad habits, they do not come, or only come irregularly, to church, 
 yet do not refuse the visits of the clergy and Sisters who strive 
 to teach them — are thankful that they have a church where they 
 may come whenever they will, that there are schools for their 
 children, and who are influenced by the good example of neigh- 
 bours who do value their church privileges ; who, moreover, are 
 convinced that the clergy are their true friefids, and who know 
 that in the day of sickness and the dying hour they can rely on 
 their aiding them with their prayers, instructions, consolations, and 
 warnings. And both those who come to church and those who do 
 not are able to see how unjustifiable are the attacks of those who 
 now put themselves forward as aggrieved parishioners, and how 
 unfit they are to represent the feeling of sincere and consistent 
 Churchmen in the parish. ... 
 
 Now, I do not wish to attack or interfere with others. I am 
 content to go on quietly and steadily doing my duty to God and 
 to you, if they will kindly leave me alone. If I must go to prison 
 for doing this duty and trying my best to save your souls, I shall 
 give no trouble to the policeman, but go quietly, like my friend Mr. 
 Tooth; but I had rather stay at my post in St. Peter's, and minister 
 to you there, and in your own house when you need my visits. 
 
3i8 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 But maintain the laws of the Church I will, for I vowed to do this 
 when I was ordained thirty-five years ago, before the Privy Council 
 or Lord Penzance had ever tampered with the Church's rubrics. 
 
 But the main object of this address is to impress upon you, 
 my friends, the great duty of showing by your lives that you really 
 value these Church privileges. That is, after all, the best answei 
 to these complaints — the witness of our own lives and those of our 
 people. Let those of you who are already communicants consider 
 this festival a call to dedicate yourselves more strictly to God's 
 service. Prepare to make a good communion, resolving to serve 
 God more faithfully than ever. If you have been careless or 
 lukewarm in your religious duties, remember that you are not 
 only doing harm to your own souls, but also to the souls of others, 
 who make your careless lives an excuse for going on themselves 
 carelessly and without religion. 
 
 And to you who are not communicants, and some of whom, 
 perhaps, seldom come to church, let me say this, that though 
 I thank you very sincerely for your kind feelings to me in signing 
 the address, yet I should be far more thankful — oh, how thankful to 
 Almighty God ! — if I might see you henceforth giving yourselves 
 heartily and entirely to His service, loving the Church and religion 
 yourselves, and bringing up your children to love God and their 
 religious duties. Then I should indeed feel that this persecution 
 was blessed to us. I wtduW willingly go to prison — nay, even if it 
 were needed to death itself — if I believed it were to lead to your 
 salvation and sanctificatioa 
 
 June 22, 1878. 
 
 The real warm interest shown by Father Lowder to 
 each individual parishioner with whom he had to do must 
 have been one chief reason for the enthusiastic loyalty 
 which they felt for him. In a letter to his parishioners he 
 tells the story of one family, and it may well find its place 
 here, as it is the only written record of his work in indi- 
 vidual cases which he has left. 
 
STOKY OF AN EMIGRANT. 
 
 Benjamin was brought up as an agricultural labourer in 
 
 Essex , he came up to London and worked as a carman, and then 
 at coal work on the river. He married, but had little thought of 
 God or of his soul, and lived the rough ungodly life of those with 
 whom he worked and associated, drinking, swearing, and neglect- 
 ing religion. Nay, so opposed was he to its duties, that he 
 endeavoured to prevent his wife from attending the services in the 
 Mission Chapel of the Good Shepherd; used such threats and 
 actual violence towards her, when she persisted, that she was in 
 bodily fear, even when kneeling at her prayers in the chapel. On 
 one occasion he refused to allow me to visit her while ill and 
 desiring my ministrations. This continued for many years, until, 
 during the cholera of 1866, it pleased God to bring him low. He 
 caught the disease, and while lying ill in his bed accepted the 
 services of one of the Sisters. Her loving attention softened him, 
 and by her persuasion he allowed me to visit him. Then, being 
 sent with his wife, also recovering from cholera, to the Conva- 
 lescent Home at Seaford, and moved by the care bestowed upon 
 his body and soul by the chaplain and Sisters, he yielded to God's 
 gi-ace, repented truly of the past, and resolved, by His help, to 
 lead a new life. He was prepared for Confirmation, and confirmed 
 by Bishop Jenner in St. Peter's Church, which had been conse- 
 crated the year before, just before the outbreak of cholera, and 
 then became a communicant. From this time he was most stead- 
 fast and regular in his duties, living happily at home, setting 
 a good example to his children, as well as to his neighbours, of 
 an honest and religious life. He was in the confraternity of 
 St. Peter's, an active and useful member of the Church of Eng- 
 land Working-Men's Society, and frequently assisted his fellow 
 members in their defence of the clergy at St. James', Hatcham, 
 was appointed a sidesman of St. Peter's Church, and, as you well 
 know, was a bright example of what a hard-working man, albeit of 
 the rough material of the working-men around us, might and 
 should be in his religious life and duties. In all this he was 
 helped by a good and loving wife, whose devout character, as well 
 
320 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 1 
 
 as industrious and tidy habits, tended to make his home happy 
 and comfortable. They had three sons, the two eldest Ci whom 
 were confirmed and became communicants, and the eklest was 
 married, with one child. 
 
 A brother of , who had emigrated to Natal when V\e was 
 
 quite a boy, had for some years invited him to come out, and at 
 last, having had opportunities of consulting Bishop Macrorie and 
 Dean Green when they were in England, he resolved to do so. 
 Accordingly, in October of last year, after a solemn farewell 
 service, at which a large body of communicants were present, and 
 communicating together, the family started on their voyage, and 
 arrived, after a good deal of bad weather, in Durban, the beginning 
 of November. They made their first communion in Durban, 
 where they were delayed some time waiting for his brother's 
 waggon to take them to Pieter-Maritzburg. They arrived there 
 towards the end of November, and on the 27th, having with great 
 difficulty secured a small cottage, he commenced working, but the 
 climate was too much for him, and he was only able to continue 
 his work for ten days. In a letter to me, written on the 8th 
 of December, the first day that he gave up work, he complained of 
 the heat and his consequent illness, but \vrote with all love and 
 affection to those whom he had left behind at St. Peter's. He 
 tried to work again the next day, but was so ill that he was forced 
 to give up and go home; and from that day, though tenderly 
 nursed and cared for both in body and soul, he never got better. 
 He received most kind visits from Canon Deedes, of St. Saviour's 
 Cathedral, for whose loving ministrations, both to him and his son 
 Benjamin (who soon followed his father to the grave), we have 
 reason to be most thankful. Though this care was abundantly 
 blessed to his soul, yet his body gradually sank under the painful 
 disease. His mind, when sometimes wandering, returned to St. 
 Peter's, and he often asked to see one of the clergy, and was 
 unhappy that this wish could not be gratified, fancying he was at 
 home. But his end was approaching. He made his last com- 
 munion on Christmas Eve, at the hands of the same priest who 
 
THE EMIGRANTS WIDOW, 
 
 32t 
 
 had given him his first communion on landing in Durban, and 
 who happened to be at Pieter-Maritzburg at the time. On St. 
 John's Day he died very happily and peacefully, and was buried 
 on the 29th. 
 
 But the poor widow's sorrows were not over. She had to 
 resign not only her husband but her best-loved son ; the son who 
 had been her greatest comfort in England, the steadiest and most 
 religious ; who had most closely followed his father's example in 
 his love for the Church, where he had served as a banner-bearer 
 in the processions. It was to him that his father in his dying 
 moments had committed the care of his widow, and now he was 
 taken ill of dysentery also on the 3rd of January, and on the 9th 
 was so ill that he was obliged to be removed to the hospital. 
 There he lay for three weeks, nursed by his mother as well as the 
 native attendants, and receiving the ministrations of the Church 
 from Canon Deedes. His mother's account of the memory of his 
 last moments, which she has tenderly treasured, was very touching. 
 He could not believe that he was so near death until he learnt it 
 from the priest, and then with great calmness and resignation he 
 made his last confession and submitted himself to God's will. 
 This was at night, and he desired to receive communion in the 
 morning, but it was not so to be, as it pleased God to take his 
 soul before the morning. Happily he had communicated tw© 
 days previously. 
 
 Thus it pleased God to deprive the poor widow of husband 
 and son, whose bodies she has left behind her in a distant colony, 
 and yet with the comfort that the lessons which both carried away 
 with them from home had borne good fruit, and that their souls 
 were resting in peace. It happened most fortunately for her that 
 a lady from Durban, returning with a child to England, engaged 
 her as a nurse, and the captain taking her youngest son as a 
 steward's boy, they returned in the same ship and arrived safely 
 in England. This lad has just been confirmed and made his first 
 communion, and I trust will follow in his father's steps. 
 
 I have given this sketch because I hope it may help to en- 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 courage many of you, especially men living in the midst of so 
 many trials and temptations, to see such fruits of God's grace in 
 one of themselves, and the real comfort and stay which the 
 blessings of religion and Church afford to those who are tried in 
 the afflictions of this world. It proves also what I said at first, 
 that the faithful who are taken from us are not a loss but a gi-eat 
 gain, for they, by God's loving care, are brought safe home ; they 
 are the ripe grain safely gathered into the heavenly garner. They 
 are, moreover, as seals which it pleases Almighty God to set upon 
 our work, assuring us that it is real and true and acceptable to 
 Him. 
 
 The following letters to the emigrant and to his widow 
 make us understand something of the affection which 
 Father Lowder was able to inspire. There are few things 
 that the poor value more than letters ; they know what is 
 the truth, that a busy man must really care for them if he 
 spends time in writing to them. 
 
 St. Peter's Vicarage, London Docks, January ii, X879. 
 My dear , 
 
 I was very glad to receive your letter of December 8 yester- 
 day. We had been much interested in the accounts we got from 
 Algoa Bay, but were not sure until your last arrived what address 
 would find you. I am sorry you have not yet found more suitable 
 employment, but hope that you will soon be able to better yourself 
 and that the boys will like their situations. No doubt the war 
 must increase the price of provisions, but I hope by this time it 
 is over, and that you will have peace and quiet. We have been 
 going on very quietly here. The aggi-ieved parishioners presented 
 me to the Archbishop, but things are so unsettled now in the 
 ecclesiastical courts, that the Archbishop decided not to proceed ; 
 so it is put off, at least for some time. We have spent a happy 
 Christmas, though the weather has been, and is, very severe, and 
 we are expecting to have the Thames frozen over soon. ^Vc 
 
LE TTER FROM FA THER L 0 WDER. 323 
 
 had a good many communicants at Christmas, and, on the Sunday 
 after. Father Biscoe got up some tableaux or living representations 
 of the Nativity, in which many took part, with carols sung at each 
 representation. The communicants' supper took place last 
 Tuesday, and we had nearly two hundred at supper, with carols, 
 songs, and speeches, as in former years. I am sorry to say Mr. 
 Mabbitt is very ill ; I do not think he can last long, as he eats very 
 little, and is very low. 
 
 I will send you an almanack or two, and see that you 
 have the Church Times, and I will also send you one of our 
 last Reports, in which you will see I have mentioned you and 
 your family. You do not say anything about your wife or Agnes ; 
 I hope they are bearing the climate well. Give my kind regards 
 to them, and say I hope they will keep their spirits up well, and 
 comfort you and the boys when you get down-hearted about 
 things. I am glad you are near the church, and have the oppor- 
 tunity of going, for that will be the most likely to give you real 
 happiness in a strange country, and remind you that we are all 
 one in the communion of saints, however distant we may be 
 in body one from another. I am glad also you know better than 
 to mind what the Wesleyans say to you. You have had to go 
 through these sort of taunts before, and you have had grace to 
 bear them, and so you will now find that good will come out of 
 all this trouble. Keep steadfast to your communions, and tell 
 the boys I hope they will do so too, and that George will be 
 confirmed, lor he wants the grace of God's Holy Spirit to keep 
 him firm against temptation. It would be very good to have 
 family prayers every night, to bind you all together. I will give 
 your messages to all your friends, and I am sure, when I tell them, 
 they will all return your kind remembrance of them. May God 
 bless you all, and keep you in His holy faith and fear, and give 
 you the blessings of a new year. 
 
 Yours very truly in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 C. F. LOWDEB, 
 
324 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 St. Peter's Vicarage, London Docks, E., February 6, 1879. 
 
 My dear Daughter in Jesus Christ, 
 
 You may be quite sure that we have all felt most 
 deeply for you in your trouble, and that I have grieved not less 
 than others, for after our long acquaintance, or rather, I should 
 say, friendship for you and your dear husband for so many years, 
 it is very sad to think that you should be left a widow in a foreign 
 country, under such trying circumstances. I can understand, 
 from his letter to me, that he was too much exposed to the heat, 
 and that he suffered from it in the new climate. You will before 
 this have received the letter I wote to him in answer to his. The 
 great comfort to us here is that he was so well prepared for his 
 end, and that he had all the blessings and consolations of the 
 Church to support him in his last hours. And what a comfort for 
 you all to hear this, and that he valued the privileges which were 
 offered him, and did not forget the instructions which he had 
 received at St. Peter's. I am indeed grieved to think that I shall 
 never see him again in this world, and yet the prospect of a 
 happier meeting hereafter is quite sufficient to soften, if not to 
 crush this grief. He is now amongst those ripe fruits of the 
 harvest here, which it has pleased God should be already gathered 
 in His garner. I am very glad that Canon Deedes was able to 
 minister to him, as I knew him in Oxford, and hope that you will 
 give him my kind regards, and say how thankful I am to him for 
 his kindness. And now about yourself Ben in his letter says 
 that you think of coming home, and of course it is very natural 
 that you should wish to do so ; but do not be in a hurry, but ask 
 the advice of Mr. Deedes and of the Bishop and Dean. We are 
 making inquiries here, whether you can have some help on your 
 voyage home, and I hope before the next mail I shall hear 
 whether anything can be done in that way ; and I hope that we 
 shall hear from you soon, as to what your friends in Natal advise 
 should be done. If there is no very pressing hurry, from the 
 circumstances out in Natal, it would be better for you to give us 
 time to see what help we can get you for your voyage. It seems 
 
VISIT TO TENIA RTir. 
 
 remarkable that the news of your husband's death should have 
 arrived on the day that Mr. Mabbitt died, and now I am writing 
 this letter just before the funeral. He is to be buried in the same 
 cemetery with his wife, and you remember going with us to 
 Beckenham in April last. You did not then think how soon you 
 would be a widow, but who will be next? We have just finished 
 the service in church, and are going over directly to Beckenham. 
 All here send their love, and pray sincerely that you may be 
 comforted and strengthened in your affliction. My love to Joe 
 and Agnes and the little one. Tell Agnes to be brave and of 
 good courage, and a comfort to you. My love also to Ben and 
 George, and I trust that God may sanctify their loss to them, and 
 that they may all be watchful and ready. 
 
 Yours very truly in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 C. F. LOWDER. 
 
 He had taken a house for his sisters at Chislehurst 
 from Midsummer, 1879; and here he generally slept one 
 or two nights in each week, taking tender care for their 
 comfort and welfare. He went for his holiday to his 
 friend Mr. Wynne, who kindly asked his brother and 
 sister-in-law to meet him. From Wales he wrote to his 
 sister : — 
 
 Peniarth, August 28,1879. 
 . . . Willie and I have had a very pleasant week together, 
 though a great deal of rain has fallen, and the floods have done 
 much damage in the valley, yet we have enjoyed some lovely days 
 and made some pleasant excursions. The house here has been 
 full, and we have had a pleasant party. They are now dispersing. 
 Willie went to Barmouth yesterday to meet Jane and little Willie, 
 and to find lodgings for them. I shall probably spend a day or 
 two with them next week and come home by Chester. 
 
326 
 
 CHARLES LQWDER. 
 
 September nth. 
 
 I left Bethgelert on Monday and made an attempt on Snowdon, 
 but after missing my way and getting at last into the right path, 
 I was driven back by a hurricane which might have whirled me 
 over a precipice if I had persevered. The rain came down in 
 the latter part of the day and through the night in a deluge, so 
 that the river at Capel Curig was swollen to a torrent and inun- 
 dated the fields. It was a piteous sight to see the people up to 
 their knees trying to save some of their hay. I got on to 
 Penmanmawr, and called on the Bowens and slept at the hotel. 
 ... I go to Tarporley to-morrow, and expect to be at St. Peter's 
 on Monday. I may come to you on Tuesday evening if I can. 
 
 His last " Report of St. George's Mission," dated 
 November, 1879, is written brightly and cheerfully. He 
 had been pleased by a few words in the " Dictionary of 
 London," written by Mr. Dickens (son of the novelist), 
 recommending his readers to pay a visit to St. Peter's 
 Church, where, he says, " you will find in full work an 
 agency which, if the people of the neighbourhood are to be 
 believed, has had, in the marvellous transformation which 
 has taken place, a more potent influence even than police or 
 Parliament combined." 
 
 But, Father Lowder wrote, " it is very difficult for those 
 who are engaged in a spiritual work like our own to 
 measure its real advance. Physical improvements, cleaner 
 streets and houses, healthier children, or even such out- 
 ward improvement as is shown in a quieter and more 
 orderly neighbourhood, we can more readily perceive. . . . 
 
 " Our work has gone on steadily and happily during the 
 past year. Storms which threatened have apparently 
 blown over ; aggrieved parishioners have made little or no 
 sign, and we may hope for continued peace." 
 
LAST SCHOOL EXCURSION. 
 
 The encouragement which above all cheered him was 
 the Bishop of Bedford's first visit to St. Peter's, on No- 
 vember 5, 1879. He first went to St. Agatha's night 
 school, which was filled upstairs and downstairs. There 
 he addressed the boys, and gave them his blessing. Then 
 he went to the men's meeting at the Iron School, where 
 between two or three hundred men were present ; and no- 
 where in London could he have received a more enthusiastic 
 welcome. 
 
 All through the winter and spring Father Lowder con- 
 tinued his habit of coming once or twice a week to sleep 
 at Chislehurst. He was better than he had been five years 
 before, but his sisters say that he looked very worn and 
 weary — that he used to take a book or paper and fall 
 asleep in his chair. He spent Christmas Day with them, 
 coming to Chislehurst after the services at St. Peter's, 
 His sister's journal notes : — 
 
 January 2, 1880. 
 
 Went to St. Peter's to see the tableaux of Bethlehem and 
 Nazareth, only open to communicants. The idea is from the 
 Passion Play. Scenery and tableaux very good, only too cramped 
 for room. Charles represented the aged Simeon holding the 
 Infant, a character which suited him admirably. 
 
 One day of Mr. Lowder's last week in England, July 29, 
 1880, was spent in an excursion with the children of his flock 
 to Walthamstow. There were nineteen large vans, crammed 
 inside and outside, and " the Father " gave himself up to 
 the children's pleasure, lying on his back on the grass when 
 he had done all he could to amuse them, with little ones 
 clustering about him, jumping over him and nestling in 
 his arms. I often think of it," says one who was there, 
 
328 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 " and can see him now, as I did on our return, sitting 
 opposite to me in the van, bright and happy, though after 
 a long wearisome day, a httle child on each knee, and the 
 children singing — 
 
 ' We all love Father Lowder, 
 Because he is so good, 
 Because he is so kind,' 
 
 until the noise became so deafening that he appealed to 
 me to stop the singing." 
 
 When they arrived at St. Peter's, they found the streets 
 illuminated and decked as for a triumphal procession, 
 banners flying, and the windows bright with coloured lights. 
 A dense mass of people filled the streets, cheering and 
 shouting, the parish band meeting the vans and playing 
 before them. Every one who had not gone to Waltham- 
 stow was in the streets, and a line was with difficulty 
 cleared to allow of the children passing through. Nothing 
 of the kind had ever been done before, though the school 
 excursion was an annual event. 
 
 It was the last time Father Lowder entered his parish 
 alive : six short weeks passed, and then the hearse con- 
 taining his lifeless body passed slowly through those same 
 streets and the same crowd, silent now, bringing back to 
 them their Father and best friend. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 LAST JOURNEY. 
 iSSo. 
 
 " Patria splendida, terraque floiida, libera splnis, 
 Danda fidelibus est ibi civibus, hie peregrinis." 
 
 On August 2nd Father Lowder celebrated as usual at 
 St. Peter's. He continued at work in his library until 
 about twenty minutes before he started for the Continent. 
 Then he ran upstairs, hastily packed, and left for the last 
 time the house to which he had come, twenty-four years 
 before, to begin the work which now was over. He met 
 his sister Rose and a friend next day at the station at 
 Brussels, and went on with them to Treves, where he chose 
 the Maison Rouge to go to, as the oldest hotel in the town — 
 a quaint, weird-looking house. Early on the 4th they went 
 down the IMoscUe to Coblentz. Miss Lowder wrote to her 
 sister : — 
 
 Heidelberg, August 5th. 
 We had a most delicious day, and we all thoroughly enjoyed 
 ourselves, just gliding down the river and looking at lovely 
 scenery. ... At Coblentz we landed and had some distance to 
 walk to the hotel, but Charles took as much luggage as he could 
 carry and walked on in front, going so quickly that we found it 
 difficult to keep up with him, the day's rest and quiet had so 
 
330 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 refreshed him. ... I went early this morning to the Cathedral at 
 Coblentz, and met Charles there. The service was a children's 
 Mass, and he was much taken by the hymns and Litany that they 
 sang. As we returned together, he said, " I should like to get 
 that music for the children at St. Peter's," and passing a book- 
 seller's shop, we went in and found a copy of the Litany with the 
 music, which he bought 
 
 After breakfast we started for Burgen-briick, and on the boat 
 he amused me with stories of the different castles we passed, and 
 was bright and cheerful, getting amusement out of every little 
 incident that occurred. We reached this place at nine this even- 
 ing. Charles manages all for us, and I do not know what we shall 
 
 do when he leaves us. Mrs. B is delighted, and thinks him 
 
 a most capital manager, and we have no fuss or worry. Francis B. 
 seems quite taken with Charles, and looks up to him with the 
 greatest reverence. He is a particularly nice, gentlemanUke boy. 
 , . . Charles much enjoyed the Moselle, and I think he is looking 
 a little better and less tired. 
 
 From Heidelberg they went to Strasbourg, and next 
 day, the 7th, to Constance. Of these last days with her 
 brother Miss Lowder says — 
 
 We passed through part of the Black Forest. Charles was espe- 
 cially delighted with the scenery, which he had not seen before, 
 and many times in the journey expressed his admiration. He 
 was, however, very weary, I think, and once, on turning from the 
 window, I was particularly struck, and indeed shocked, at his 
 appearance. He was asleep, and looked so white and worn out 
 that for the first time I felt anxious about him. He always 
 managed to be bright and cheerful when in company with others, 
 and one forgot sometimes that he certainly looked much paler 
 and more worn than formerly. Before we reached Constance 
 he had shaken off his weariness, and was as bright and energetic 
 as ever. 
 
LAST COMMUNION. 
 
 August 8 {Sunday). We had delightful rooms at Constance, 
 overlooking the lake ; mine, I think, was the largest, and in it 
 Charles celebrated the Holy Communion at eight, using the holy 
 vessels he had brought with him in a little Communion case. 
 Francis B. and I were the only ones present. I little thought 
 then that it was the last time he would ever celebrate on earth. 
 But so it was ; for though he hoped to have done so at Ober- 
 Ammergau the following Sunday, it could not be arranged, and 
 the portmanteau containing the vessels he gave into my charge, 
 and, through a mistake at the railway station at Munich, it never 
 reached him again. 
 
 After breakfast we strolled out in different directions, but on 
 my return I found Charles in his room, and he said Matins with 
 me. The evening was cool and pleasant, and we took a walk by 
 the lake; some few people we passed, and among them a mother 
 and some children. One, a pretty little girl about four years old, on 
 seeing Charles, ran up to him, and putting her hand in his, walked 
 with him a little way in the most confiding manner. 
 
 The lad who, with his mother, was travelling with the 
 Lowders said afterwards that he had been impressed by 
 Father Lewder putting a stop to some disparaging remarks 
 on a brother clergyman of a different way of thinking from 
 himself, saying, " He cares for his poor," and by his 
 different manner in speaking of another, professedly a 
 High Churchman, who neglected them. " Once I asked 
 
 him," young B added, " if he were not very lonely at 
 
 St. Peter's, and why he had not a child to live with him 
 or pets. He replied that the main inducement to be a 
 celibate was the being able to devote one's self without 
 distraction to God, and at the same time smiled and told 
 me of the head of a confraternity who adopted a girl, and 
 when she grew up, to the consternation of the brotherhood, 
 
332 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 married her ! He had never in his life had a pet, until a 
 few weeks before our journey, when a friend gave him 
 a little dog." 
 
 To his elder sister Father Lowder wrote : — 
 
 Zell-am-See, Austria, August 22 (Sunday). 
 . . . You know of our meeting at Brussels, our pleasant 
 day on the Moselle, and visit to Heidelberg, and how much we 
 enjoyed the Black Forest line of railway which brought us to 
 Constance. ... I parted with Rose on Monday on the quay, as 
 we took different boats, she and her friends to Schaffhausen, 
 I to Bregenz. On board my boat I fell in with a Mr. M'Caul, 
 the Rector of St. Magnus (by London Bridge), and a young 
 Ryder, and as we were all going to explore the Bregenzer Wald, 
 we joined forces, took a carriage a little way out of Bregenz, and 
 then commenced our walk. Though it rained part of the way, we 
 had a very fine walk, and saw a most lovely sunset over the Lake 
 of Constance. We slept at a country inn; walked for nine or 
 ten hours the next day (Tuesday, loth), to a high village, the 
 Shroscken, with splendid mountain views, marred by the clouds and 
 mists. We started in rain the next morning (Wednesday, nth); 
 but it soon cleared, and we enjoyed the afternoon very much, 
 coming down upon a beautiful village of Mittelberg, which re- 
 minded us of the situation of Cortina, and in the evening drove 
 to Obertsdorf, a young girl of nineteen being our excellent 
 charioteer. 
 
 Obertsdorf is the principal town of the Bregenzer Wald, which 
 is an interesting country, mountains, rivers, and forests very 
 Tyrolese, and the inhabitants well to do, in large comfortable 
 houses — the young women very pretty, fair, and delicate. Here 
 I met Mr. Carter and his two daughters, and left my companions 
 in order to make for Ober-Ammergau. 
 
 On the Thursday I started with a guide over the mountains, 
 had a beautiful walk over a high and difficult pass on which I was 
 roped and pulled up, getting down about five into the Led Thai. 
 
PASSION-PLA V. 
 
 333 
 
 I .^.tarted early the next morning, and got to Reuth about ten in 
 pcLiring rain. Took another carriage on with a German (from 
 Treves), and arrived at Ober-Ammergau soon after Rose ; found 
 they had just secured rooms, and so we met again. She has told 
 you of our enjoyment of the Passion Play. I suppose it is diffi- 
 cult to feel the second time what one felt at first, but I quite 
 enjoyed it this time, though disposed to be more critical than at 
 first. 
 
 He talked afterwards of the chronological sequence of 
 some of the scenes ; and in particular of the transposition 
 of the Entry into Jerusalem with the Supper at Bethany, 
 the former being chosen on account of the dramatic effect 
 for the first scene of the play. 
 
 Here his companion-sister writes : — 
 
 August QtVl. 
 
 There had been a great uncertainty about our rooms at Ober- 
 Ammergau, and when Mrs. B., R, and I arrived there in pouring 
 rain on Friday afternoon, we found that all the rooms at Sebastian 
 Zwinck's were already engaged, and we were in some doubt what 
 to do. Fortunately Mr. Sylvester, with whom we had travelled 
 from Munich, was most kind, and managed to find two rooms near, 
 which we thankfully engaged, and were just settling in, when, to 
 our great relief, Charles arrived. Our accommodation was primi- 
 tive, but everything was clean, and the people very civil and 
 attentive. One room was to serve as a bedroom for the gentle- 
 men and sitting-room for all ; while a room above, to which the 
 only means of access was a ladder and trap-door, was the sleeping- 
 room for Mrs. B. and myself We were fortunate in securing 
 these, for many arrived on Saturday, and had the greatest difficulty 
 in finding any rooms disengaged. 
 
 August 14. The day was very wet, but we managed to get 
 out, and went with Charles to the theatre to settle about our places. 
 Then we went to Joseph Maier's house, and Charles, who had 
 
CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 lodged there in 187 1, had a talk with the wife and children, aijid 
 begged them all to write their names on a note he had received 
 from Maier. The eldest little girl, he said, he remembered as 
 an angel in one of the tableaux. They all seemed pleased to see 
 and talk with him, and before leaving he asked Maier to write his 
 name on a photograph I had bought of him in his character of 
 the Christ. He met many friends at Ober-Ammergau, amongst 
 others a Dr. Wood, and his sister-in-law, Miss Moorsom, who 
 knew him very well. 
 
 August 15. This was the day on which I first saw the Passion 
 Play. We did not get seats together, so I did not meet Charles 
 till our midday meal. Afterwards, in talking over what we had 
 seen, he remarked that the impression made on him was not quite 
 the same as at the first time ; then he felt as if he had been at a 
 Retreat, now he was more disposed to be critical ; but nevertheless 
 he was much pleased and quite satisfied. When all was over his first 
 feeling was to go at once to the church, and there I found him, 
 and returned with him to our lodgings. After dinner he said the 
 mental strain had been so great that he must take a walk to 
 refresh himself, and we started together, first trying to find Dr. 
 Wood's lodgings, which, after much difficulty, we succeeded in 
 doing. Dr. Wood and Miss Moorsom joined us, and we walked 
 through the village and down the road. It became so dark and 
 dirty that I wished to return, but Charles said, " No, we must go a 
 little further ; " so after Dr. Wood had left us, we three went on, 
 skirting some fields at the foot of a remarkable hill, which gives a 
 peculiar character to the scenery around the village. Charles v/as 
 very bright and amusing, joking about our late walk, and saying 
 that perhaps we should meet the King of Bavaria, who always 
 takes his walks at night. 
 
 As we returned he found a glow-worm, which he fastened on 
 his hat as a lantern to guide us home. 
 
 That night Mr. Swallow called to settle with Charles about a 
 walking tour they wished to make on leaving Ober-Ammergau, 
 and then we had accounts to settle, so that it was late before v/e 
 
PARTENKIRCHEN. 
 
 335 
 
 got to bed, and as we were to start early the next morning, we had 
 to rise betimes. 
 
 By some mistake the carriage we had ordered never came foi 
 us, so Charles had to go into the village to see whether another 
 could be procured. He stood at the door of the chalet waving 
 his hand to us as we drove off, and this was my last sight of him. 
 
 He left Ober-Ammergau with Mr. Swallow at 3 p.m. 
 on Monday, and walked to Partenkirchen. It was a very 
 hot day, and at Ettal he spent some little time in devotion 
 in the cool monastery church, then descended the hill 
 and bathed in the Loisach, which runs at its foot, after 
 plunging through some marshy ground to find a secluded 
 corner. At most of the hotels at Partenkirchen they found 
 all beds engaged by letter or telegram for returning pilgrims 
 from Ammergau, but at last secured a comfortable room 
 opposite the beautifully restored church, in a dcpendance of 
 the Hotel zum Rassen. 
 
 Next morning, August 17th, they started on an expedi- 
 tion to the Schlachten Alp, of which Mr. Swallow gives 
 the following account : — 
 
 Our guide, a fine well-built fellov\^, had been wounded in 
 the foot at Bazeilles, and knew Karl Hoffman well ; upon which 
 ensued much interesting conversation on the fortunes of the \yar, 
 and later, on the king and his \i\m'(mg-scJiloss, the goal of our 
 expedition. Not far from this we turned aside to a rude chalet, 
 where lived for the summer among their cattle a farmer, his wife, 
 and two bright Httle children. With the latter we made friends as 
 V, c frugally feasted on a bowl of creaming milk apiece and schwarzcs 
 i lod. The little boy Franzl, as he trudged about with Father 
 Lowder's stick, was complimented on being a true bergsteiger, 
 while the little girl was at first nervous, clinging to her mother, 
 v, ho told us how they kept up their health in the warm weather 
 
335 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 on the mountain side, and attended to their lessons in the village 
 in winter. Along the road we talked a little of parish matters, the 
 friendliness of all the neighbouring clergy, with one exception, 
 whom his Rector, Mr. Harry Jones, promptly dismissed in 
 consequence ; of the presently forthcoming paper at the Church 
 Congress by the Bishop of Bedford, who had at first shrunk back 
 from St. Peter's, in fear that if he came then to open the Mission, 
 he would be held responsible for all that might be said and done, 
 but afterwards, on being shown that this need not be, or that, as a 
 logical consequence, he could not venture to enter the majority of 
 the churches in the diocese, had given most kind assistance, 
 holding at St. Peter's a special Confirmation. At last we reached 
 a curtained royal summer-house on the edge of a small plateau, 
 from which in the sunshine we had a glorious view — the Wetter- 
 stein range close on our left, and in front the Schneeferner and 
 Zugspitze, with the Rainthal and its highly coloured lakelest, the 
 Blanc Gumpen, between. Here we stayed for a couple of hours. 
 Father Lowder retiring for his meditation, and then returning to 
 enjoy the varying view as the clouds changed from peak to peak, 
 or lifted entirely just before we came away. We gathered here 
 our first Alpine roses. At last we reached the Partnachklamm, 
 which we crossed and re-crossed by a couple of bridges, between 
 which we met Jakob Rutz, whom we had seen on Sunday crowned, 
 in a scarlet robe, as Choragus at Ammergau. A friend of Father 
 LcH'der's had lodged with him, and so he was ready, when 
 accosted, to tell us how glad he was to rest and refresh himself 
 with a holiday among changed scenes after all his exertions of 
 voice and memoiy. The Klamm itself is very grand, as the 
 frothing stream hurries, hundreds of feet beneath the bridge, 
 through its narrow rock-hewn channel, with precipitous cliffs 
 reaching to the pinewood far above. At the hotel we found 
 Rumsey ready to join us at Evensong and supper. 
 
 The three friends left Partenkirchen after church and 
 breakfast on Wednesday morning, August i8th, in an 
 
AUSTRIAN TYROL. 
 
 337 
 
 eh!s.po.iincy driven by the wife of the owner. She gave 
 them much information about her family life, and was in 
 return greatly complimented by Father Lowder on her 
 powers as kutcheriii. She was very anxious when they 
 arrived at the end of the Walchensee that the party should 
 make the rest of the journey by water, in order to spare 
 her horse ; but as it was raining, she was held inexorably 
 to her bargain to take them to the village of Walchen. 
 
 Here they slept, breakfasting next morning on 
 delicate forellen from the lake, and crossed by water to 
 Urfeld, at the north end, walking from thence to the 
 Kcchelsee, and amusing themselves by deciphering the old 
 German inscriptions on tablets beside the road, which bore 
 records of the troubled history of the district in earlier 
 times. They crossed the lake to Kochel, and partly drove, 
 partly walked to Tolz, where they slept. Next day, Friday, 
 20th, they crossed " Iser, rolling rapidly," and went by 
 train to Schaftlach, where Father Lowder and Mr. Rumsey 
 left the railroad to walk to Gmiind. They spent most of 
 the day on the Tegernsee, and took the diligence through 
 Wildbad-Kreuth to their night's quarters at Achenkirch. 
 
 On Saturday they made an early start (at 4.30 a.m.), 
 reaching Jenbach to breakfast, and then going to Worgl by 
 rail. Here Father Lowder hoped to take up the luggage 
 which he had entrusted to his sister to be sent from Munich 
 to Worgl, but, finding nothing, he made a weary and 
 fruitless excursion to Kufstein and back, and followed Mr 
 Rumsey by the last train to Zell-am-See, thoroughly tired 
 out. He could not celebrate next morning, as his Com- 
 munion case was in his portmanteau, and although after 
 church he rested quietly, the effects of his over fatigue 
 
338 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 on the previous day began to be apparent. On Monday 
 morning he was so unwell that he had to leave the village 
 church before the service was ended, and was unable to 
 stay with his friends till Matins, which he tried to say 
 with them, were finished. He spent the rest of Monda}', 
 on which he was to have started for the Gross Venediger, 
 in his room, oppressed by a dyspeptic attack. He had 
 written to his sister the day before.* On Tuesday he was 
 better, but still unfit to travel, 
 
 "During our stay at the Krone," Mr. Swallow wrote, 
 "we were treated with great courtesy, and supplied with 
 English papers by fellow travellers — the loan of the Tablet 
 in particular — any salutes we received from villagers here 
 or elsewhere being jocosely passed on by the Father as 
 intended for my special benefit. He declared that any 
 sacerdotal pretension on his own part was discounted by 
 the grey suit and Panama hat which he wore, whilst 
 Rumsey's beard quite spoilt the effect of his clothes." 
 
 On Wednesday, 25 th, Father Lowder was quite bright 
 again, ran off to the chemist's to get lint and ointment for 
 a footsore companion, and declared himself fit to move on. 
 They set out with two guides, taking the route up the 
 Kapruner-Thal. Mr, Swallow gives the following account 
 of the expedition : — 
 
 Passing through Kaprun, as we lunched at a wayside inn 
 further up the valley, we found two German travellers, who gave 
 us good hopes of a successful ascent next day. The two indefati- 
 gable bathers took an opportunity for a plunge in the rapid 
 stream. 
 
 We had left all our baggage, except what was absolutely neces- 
 * Sec p. 333. 
 
THE KAPRUNER-THAL. 
 
 339 
 
 sary, at the Krone. The rest was shouldered by our guides, whoin, 
 as the valley grew narrower and the road more steep, we left 
 further and further behind. Beside the stream we saw quantities 
 of timber, which is dra\TO down over the ice in winter (so we were 
 told), and not far from the road was a fine waterfall which has 
 gradually worn away a deep passage through the rock. After 
 some hours we came upon our quarters for the night, the Rainer- 
 hiitte. We made a hearty meal on such meat as was to be had, 
 and then took a short rest lying on our beds. The air, at about 
 five thousand feet, was rather keen, and we put on our macin- 
 toshes. After our rest, I found " the Father " on a little eminence 
 not far off, hoping (in vain) for a sight of the rose-coloured tints 
 of the setting sun upon one of the snowy peaks. Two-thirds of 
 our bedroom were filled by five beds, placed close side by side, 
 cut off from one another by a curtain. Two wash-stands in the 
 remaining third and two small window-sills completed its furni- 
 ture. Arriving first, we had the choice of beds, the other two 
 being filled by German travellers, a third, who came late in the 
 evening, putting up with inferior accommodation upstairs. We 
 turned in at nine, to prepare for an early start in the morning. 
 
 August 26, Thursday. Up at 3 a.m. Making a hurried break- 
 fast, we set out at 3.45, our guides leading us on at a very rapid pace, 
 in the hope of catching up the other party, which was better led, 
 and had started a quarter of an hour earlier. Lighted by the now 
 faint rays of the moon, we made our way over a rough and stony 
 steep, till we saw them in the distance, and overtaking them, passed 
 together by the Mooserboden, and soon our feet touched for the 
 first time a moraine at the foot of the Karlinger Glacier. Pre- 
 sently, as we ascended, the rays of the rising sun tinged with rose 
 colour the snow on the heights to our right ; and in the purple 
 distance, miles away, but just as if it formed a sheer banner at the 
 foot of the valley, the Watzmann stood out in striking clearness as 
 we looked back. A light refreshment followed during a brief halt, 
 and still climbing upward we soon struck the snow, to find to our 
 dismay that our guides had left their ropes behind, and had 
 
340 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 nothing but a short piece of cord, by which we were tied to- 
 gether at a distance of less than two yards. The cord, instead of 
 being secured to our waists, was only long enough to be passed 
 once round the upper part of our left arms, in a running noose, 
 which, on the only occasion wlien a footing was difficult, grew 
 tighter till it threatened to cut the muscle in half. The other 
 party were better supplied, and in their wake we followed, more 
 slowly, it is true, because we were obliged to proceed with greater 
 caution over dangerous portions of the route. Fortunately these 
 were few — a couple of narrow bridges over a crevasse, and in 
 descending, where there was no bridge even of snow, an opening 
 over which we had to jump one by one, aided by our guide's 
 strong " stock." Our guides were trusting to the example of the 
 one belonging to the other party, who was a splendid specimen of 
 humanity qua animal, and knew his business far better than ours. 
 To keep up with him our leader maintained a rapid pace, to 
 which at first we were able to respond ; but as the heavy work in 
 the snow told on his sixty years. Father Lowder was obliged to 
 ask to be eased. The coldness of the air had told upon him, and 
 almost taken away his appetite, so that he was physically weaker 
 fiom this cause. After a climb of some hours we reached through 
 the Riffel-Thor our highest point (almost ten thousand feet), where 
 we waited more than half an hour to take food, and turn to 
 account the splendid view of a grand mountain panorama, the 
 main features of which were, of course, the Gross Glockner and its 
 companions close at hand. The Father now was able to eat with 
 somewhat better appetite, but on the descent was still conscious 
 of failing powers in want of precision in striking amid the deep 
 snow the exact footprints of those who had gone before. At 
 length we left the snow, and over glacier and moraine trudged 
 on till tlie Hofmannshiitte was in sight, at the foot of a slope, 
 where we were able to gather edelweiss. We reached the hut 
 about 2 p.m., and then the others rested, while I went on with 
 t'ie guides to order dinner for four o'clock at the Neues Glockner- 
 haus, built for the use of mountaineers by the Austrian Alpine 
 
OVER THE RIFFEL-THOR. 
 
 Club. The situation of tlie house, opposite the Gross Glockner, 
 the Father's " old love," and on the edge of the Pasterzen Glacier, 
 is unequalled ; its accommodation supplies every necessary com- 
 fort in most cleanly fashion, and the food, even without hunger- 
 sauce or the keen air, would be found appetizing at any altitude. 
 We had some amusement in the delight of one of our friends at 
 sleeping more than six thousand feet above the level of the sea ; 
 and found entries in the visitors' book, interesting or entertaining, 
 one of which, MTitten by an old friend, the Father determined to 
 criticise in an expostulatory postcard. As may be imagined, after 
 our long day's work we went " early to bed." 
 
 Of this expedition Mr. Lowdcr's other companion, Mr. 
 Rumsey says : — 
 
 The walk of Thursday, 26th, was with much fatigue to Father 
 Lowder. We started, I think, about 4 a.m., and walked fast at 
 first, as our guides were not up to much, and were anxious to 
 overtake two parties who started a quarter of an hour before us. 
 Father Lowder felt this fast walking, and spoke of it as inju- 
 dicious in the guides. When we came to the snow (perhaps about 
 7 a.m.), it appeared that our guides had forgotten their rope, and 
 had borrowed a short and poor bit of box-cord from a place at 
 which we had lunched on Wednesday. This negligence added to 
 our fatigue by forcing us to be tied so close together as almost 
 to tread on one another's heels. We kept up with the two other 
 parties (six people in all) until we reached the top of the pass 
 (about eleven o'clock ?). Father Lowder here spoke of feeling 
 painfully the rarity of the air, and henceforward we walked very 
 slowly, allowing the others to go away much faster. At about 
 three o'clock we reached a hut at which four of our late com- 
 panions were already preparing to make a night, previous to 
 some other ascent next day (two having pushed on). Here 
 we were only one hour from our destination, so Mr. Swallow 
 pushed on with one guide to secure beds for us, while Father 
 
342 
 
 CHARLES LOWBER. 
 
 Lowder and I and the other guide waited for an hour or two's 
 rest. 
 
 On Friday, while I walked with Swallow, who was leaving us 
 to return to England, Father Lowder walked down to Heiligenblut, 
 about three miles, and back. He had not been able to eat well 
 on Thursday's walk, nor since ; but on Saturday he and I went 
 out for a stroll, and he much enjoyed a cold chicken we took 
 with us, and seemed much better. 
 
 He wrote to his sister on Friday : — 
 
 Neues Glocknerliaus, Heiligenblut, August 27. 
 
 My dear Mary, 
 
 You know my present standpoint two hours above 
 Heiligenblut, which we reached yesterday. When I wrote from 
 Zell-am-See on Sunday, I told Annie that I would tell you how I 
 got to Zell-am-See. I left Ammergau with Swallow, a curate of 
 Clewer, and walked to Partenkirchen. We had a beautiful wallc 
 the next day to the Schlachten Alp, where there is a chalet of the 
 King of Bavaria, with a splendid view of the Wetterstein range. 
 We were joined by Rumsey, Rector of Burnham, Berks, and 
 drove to the Walchensee. Slept there, and next day by lake and 
 road, boating, walking, driving, on by the Kochelsee to Tolz ; slept 
 there. By train to Schaftlach ; walked to the Tegernsee, where we 
 had two storms, one a gi-and thunderstorm while rowing on the 
 lake. Then by Stellwagen to Wilbad-Kreut, and Postwagen to 
 Achenkirch, slept there; up at 4 a.m. By Achensee in another 
 storm to Jenbach, and so on to Worgl ; but not finding the port- 
 manteau I had sent by Rose to Munich to forward, I went to 
 Kufstein, but no portmanteau. Rumsey went to Zell-am-See ; I 
 followed by a later train. Swallow rejoined us on Sunday. I was 
 not well, so did not start till Wednesday. Had a fine walk to the 
 Rainerhiitte in the Kapruner-Thal. Started at 3.45 a.m. over the 
 Riffel-Thor, and a great deal of difficult snow to the Hoffmans- 
 hiitte right through the heart of the Glockner Gruppe, making up 
 the connection of an excursion I made in 1871, of which I found 
 
LAST EDELWEIS. 
 
 343 
 
 the record in the book of the Hoffmanshiitte. We have had 
 some storms on our way, but nothing to hurt or drive us back. I 
 fear I may have lost my portmanteau with money, ;^i6 or ;^i7, 
 and other things— the small Communion case, etc. Swallow 
 leaves us here, and takes this to Zell-am-See (Krone) Thursday 
 or Friday. I am here with a very small allowance of clothes, as 
 they are in my portmanteau; only socks to change, so I doubt 
 about getting far. I have had very pleasant companions ; Rumsey 
 and I remain together for another week. 
 
 I send this at once with all good wishes and prayers for your 
 birthday. I have not been down to Heiligenblut for letters, and 
 am going down soon. . . . 
 
 Yours very aftectionately, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 P.S. — I am very well after very hard work yesterday. Edel- 
 weis I picked at Hoffmannshiitte. 
 
 He was now in the very heart of the country which he 
 had long loved well, and was about to accomplish the most 
 cherished project of this his last tour. It was evident to 
 his companions that " the mountains themselves, and any- 
 thing connected with them, had grown to be very close to 
 his heart. From Oberstdorf until this last ascent had 
 become an accomplished fact, they formed a constant topic 
 of conversation. At one time he would recur to the past, 
 and detail his experiences of 'Ein und Siebenzig,' the 
 ascent of the Gross Glockner, the climbing of * drei 
 Spitzen in Einem Tag ' (the three peaks being the Baren- 
 kopf, Glockerin, and Gross Wiesbachhorn) — a feat which 
 sometimes was recounted amid the raised eyebrows and 
 doubting looks of some of our less venturesome guides ; 
 his connection with the inauguration of the Hofmannshiitte 
 and memorial of Karl Hofmann, a Bavarian soldier- 
 
344 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 mouutainecr, whom he had himself known, and who ha-.' 
 fallen at Sedan in 1870, and the courtesy of Herr Stiidl 
 upon that occasion." 
 
 Mr. Rumsey notes that when, at Ober-Ammergau, he 
 and Father Lowder planned to get some walking together 
 in the Tyrol, " he specially had in view an ascent of the 
 Gross Venediger from the first." Mr. Rumsey adds : — 
 
 On S?tyrday I walked with Father Lowder on the Upper 
 Pfandl Gletscher, and in the evening we walked down to Heiligen- 
 blut. Our accommodation at Heiligenblut for Sunday was very 
 rough, but Father Lowder enjoyed the place, and the church, and 
 a procession of all the villagers. It was a wet afternoon, and 
 a party in the house drinking were rather noisy. It was very 
 striking to hear them suddenly sing the Angelus, and then continue 
 their revelry. 
 
 On Monday (August 30) we were to have walked only to 
 Kals, and the following day to Windisch Matrei, but it was owing 
 to my evident anxiety to push on that Father Lowder took so 
 long a walk, and then felt unequal to much exertion on Tuesday. 
 
 They walked to Windisch Matrei in bad weather on 
 Monday, and on Tuesday Father Lowder rested, in prepa- 
 ration for the ascent next day. He wrote a note to his 
 brother, the last in his own handwriting received by any of 
 his family : — 
 
 Windisch Matrei, Austria, August 31. 
 
 My dear Willie, 
 
 I only got your letter of the 21st yesterday, just as I 
 was leaving Heiligenblut for a nine hours' walk over here. I take 
 advantage of a day's rest to write the enclosed, which you can 
 forward if in time to do any good. Love to Janie. I hope to be 
 home on September 13. 
 
 (No signature.) 
 
THE GROSS VENEDIGER. 
 
 345 
 
 He enclosed letters to three Charterhouse governors. 
 
 Father Lowder and Mr. Rumsey made part of the 
 ascent towards the Gross Venediger on Wednesday, Sep- 
 tember I, with one guide, taking luncheon at the Tauern- 
 haus, passing through Gschloss and sleeping at the Prager 
 Hutte. "He seemed to be very comfortable on that walk," 
 Mr. Rumsey said, "and to enjoy it very much. We 
 bathed about midday (as we often did) in a clear stream." 
 They started next morning at 2 a.m., and Mr. Rumsey 
 notes that Father Lowder "seemed very well during the 
 ascent, and walked briskly and strongly, and with great 
 enjoyment of the morning." 
 
 Before sunrise he was on the summit, gazing upon the 
 wonderful panoramic view which for nine years he had 
 longed to see : — 
 
 " One crowded hour of glorious life," 
 
 to him who was about to enter into the fulness of life and 
 beauty. Mr. Rumsey writes that " the ascent was in perfect 
 weather ; a sharp frost, and the snow beautifully hard. 
 And the view from the summit was perfect ; the clouds all 
 below in the valleys, but the peaks clear in every direction. 
 We could not stay more than twenty minutes, because of 
 the cold." 
 
 After they had gone down a little way, Mr. Rumsey 
 proposed that they should go back, and look once more 
 at the view from the summit. But Father Lowder said, 
 " No, it is a Krfj/^a iq an* — I can never forget it." They 
 reached the hut at 8 a.m., slept there for an hour, and then 
 walked to Gschloss on the way to Mittersill, bathing, and 
 saying their English matin office in a little chapel. 
 
 * " A possession for ever." 
 
3^6 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 Mr. Rumsey was obliged to push on that day to 
 Mittersill, another seven hours' walk ; he persuaded Father 
 Lowder not to attempt to accompany him, on account 
 of the fatigue, and about half a mile from Tauernhaus 
 the friends parted, the guide going on with Mr. Rumsey 
 and carrying Father Lowder's bag, out of which he took 
 bare necessaries for one night. He decided to sleep at 
 Tauernhaus, a tolerable inn where they had dined on 
 Wednesday, and two Austrians, with whom they had 
 made the ascent, were also to sleep there that night, and 
 come on with him to Mittersill next day. Mr. Rumsey 
 afterwards wrote to his sister : — 
 
 I felt quite comfortable about him, having persuaded him to 
 take the walk comfortably the next day instead of hurrying on 
 with me. He spoke several times of getting thin with walking, 
 and said that when I was obliged to go, he should go to some 
 place with a good table d'lwte and feed up before his return. He 
 was enthusiastically fond of that neighbourhood, and we were 
 taking a course through it which brought him to some of his 
 favourite places, yet in new combinations, so as generally to get 
 over new gi-ound. I quite hoped he had got over his illness, 
 and would, after a little rest, return home refreshed and strength- 
 ened. 
 
 Of the next few days we know nothing. He must 
 have gone to Mittersill and slept there on Friday, Sep- 
 tember 3, as he took up his bag and umbrella, which Mr. 
 Rumsey had left there. The visitors' book at the Hotel 
 Krone shows that he arrived at Zell-am-See on September 
 4, — the head waiter said, in heavy rain. Zell-am-See is 
 four hours' drive from Mittersill, and two coaches run daily 
 between them. The hotel being full, he was sent to thf 
 
\ 
 
 ILLA^ESS. 
 
 347 
 
 di'pendance close by, a little chalet. They said at the hotel 
 that on Sunday he came in for his meals and seemed well. 
 On Monday he remained in his room, and he never left 
 it ; he sent for the village doctor, who came again on 
 Tuesday. Then the doctor became ill, and on Wednesday 
 another doctor came, who told him to keep in bed, and 
 sent for a nurse. About 2 p.m., Mr. and Mrs, Ffoulkes 
 Taylor and their two daughters arrived from Salzburg, 
 intending to stay only one night at Zell. They spent the 
 afternoon on the lake and in sight-seeing, and their seven 
 o'clock meal was being prepared, when the head waiter 
 said he had a favour to ask of Mr. Taylor : would he go to 
 the chalet d^pendance and see an English clergyman, who 
 was ill there, and wanted a letter written for him ? Mr. 
 Taylor immediately went to him, and he introduced him- 
 self as an English clergyman, named Lowder. " Oh, Father 
 Lowder," Mr. Taylor replied. "I have heard you preach 
 at Folkestone, and I know your sister Rose." He did not 
 think from appearances that there was much the matter 
 except a chill, as Mr. Lowder chatted cheerfully about his 
 ascent of the Venediger, and the great enjoyment he had 
 had. After a short visit, Mr. Taylor said he would go back 
 to the hotel for tea, and return afterwards. Between eight 
 and nine he came back to the chalet, and wrote from 
 Father Lowder's dictation the following letter : — 
 
 Hotel Krone, Zell-am-See, September 8, i88o. 
 
 My dear Annie, 
 
 I am sorry to have to write by another hand, but I 
 have been laid up for a few days by a severe attack of colic, brought 
 on by overstrain in mountaineering, and especially by ascending 
 the Gross Venediger on Thursday. I have had to call in a doctor, 
 
348 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 and I hope I have got some relief, but I shall not be able to get 
 home by the "time I had hoped, and may have to stay in Munich 
 to look after my lost portmanteau, which may be stolen. I shall 
 be at Belle Vue, Munich, but the rest must depend on my getting 
 up some strength. Please to write to Mr. Wainwright and say 
 how it is that I shall not be able to get to St. Peter's when I 
 expected. I will write myself as soon as I am able. Mr. Ffoulkes 
 Taylor, a friend of Rose's, is kind enough to write this note. 
 With best love to all, 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 Charles. 
 
 On his return to the hotel Mr. Taylor looked grave, 
 and told his family they must not leave Zell as soon as 
 they had intended. He had left the nurse in attendance, 
 desiring her to send for him if he should be wanted. Be- 
 tween 12 and I a.m. he was called up, and told that Mr. 
 Lowder was worse and wished to see him. He went at 
 once, taking his daughter with him, as he could not speak 
 German. Outside the room they found the doctor and 
 the priest, who had been sent for by the nurse, but had 
 not as yet been in the sick room. Mr. Taylor went in 
 alone to Father Lowder. The inflammation had increased, 
 and he told Mr. Taylor that the doctor thought he could not 
 live till morning. He was perfectly calm and composed ; 
 at his request telegrams were sent to his brother and 
 to his sister : " Charles Lowder is sick ; come at once." 
 Mr, Taylor then assisted him to put his signature to 
 some papers of importance, which he told him where 
 to find, and these he gave, with his watch and money, 
 into Mr. Taylor's care. Then he dictated the following 
 words : — 
 
LAST WISHES. 
 
 349 
 
 " I leave all my books to my brother, tlie Rev. W. H, 
 Lowder. 
 
 " The little money I have, to my sisters. 
 
 " If in consecrated ground, here I wish to be buried ; if 
 not, at Chislehurst. 
 
 " I send my blessing to the Sisters and clergy in my 
 parish." 
 
 Mr. Taylor took the papers and valuables at once to 
 the hotel to be locked up, and his daughter took his place 
 by Father Lowder. She asked him if he would like to see 
 the priest, who was waiting outside, and as he consented, 
 she brought in the priest. He went up to the bed and 
 shook hands with Father Lowder ; the nurse left the room. 
 Miss Taylor has related what passed in the following 
 words : — 
 
 The priest, a simple but kind man, asked me if he could be 
 of use to confess him. I replied, "That I cannot say; he is a 
 Catholic, but not a Roman Catholic." The priest did not seem 
 to know what to do, and tried to explain : "Does he believe in 
 the Pope? " " No," I replied, " not as you believe in him." Mr. 
 Lowder had expressed a wish to be buried here, if in consecrated 
 ground, so I asked the priest ; but he said it was impossible, as he 
 was not a Roman Catholic. Mr. Lowder being willing to see 
 the priest, I went in with him- to interpret (if need be), at my 
 father's wish. He seemed quite able to speak, and in German 
 said he was an Anglican priest, and asked if he could have the 
 blessed Sacrament administered to him. This was not possible. 
 Then Mr. Lowder asked the priest if he would give him his 
 blessing. The priest put on a stole, and said something in Latin 
 which I failed to follow. He then asked Mr. Lowder if he should 
 come in the morning, which was acquiesced in, and as he went 
 out Mr. Lowder turned to me and said in a clear voice, " You are 
 
350 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 witness that I die in the faith of the Anghcan Church, for they 
 may say that I died a Roman CathoHc ; " and I answered, " I 
 am." My father then returned, and I mentioned this incident to 
 him. 
 
 Father Lowder then thanked Mr. and Miss Taylor for 
 coming, and shook hands with them. This was his fare- 
 well ; after this he spoke no more to them, except to 
 mention the prayers and psalms that he wished for. Miss 
 Taylor asked him if he would like any reading or prayers, 
 and he asked for the Penitential Psalms. Mr. Taylor 
 began to read, but as his voice seemed to be too loud for 
 the sick man's nerves, he gave the book to his daughter, 
 and she read the remainder, Father Lowder telling her the 
 number of each. He then wished for the " Prayer for a 
 Happy Death," and a Confession of Sin from the " Vade 
 Mecum." She knelt down, the nurse, who was weeping, 
 holding the candle for her, and read the prayers, Father 
 Lowder joining in the Lord's Prayer. The pain seemed to 
 increase, and he asked for the Commendatory Prayer ; 
 they brought him fresh medicine just then, which he took, 
 and then asked again for the prayer, saying " Amen " 
 distinctly at its conclusion. "After that," Miss Taylor 
 said, " he turned his face to the wall, and apparently left 
 this world and its cares, and held communion with his 
 God." He became so quiet that Mr, and Miss Taylor 
 thought he was going to sleep, and left him in charge of 
 the nurse, telling her to call them if there was any change 
 for the worse. 
 
 They were summoned at half-past four in the morning, 
 as he was much worse, and had been restless. When they 
 arrived, he was sinking fast, but in perfect peace and rest 
 
DEATH. 
 
 The pain was gone, but mortification had begun, and at 
 'ive in the morning of September 9, the anniversary of his 
 father's death, he passed away, — so gently, that ]\Iiss Taylor 
 could not believe that all was over, and begged a servant 
 who was in the room to bring a looking-glass. But no 
 dimness passed over it — the spirit had returned to God. 
 
 " The peasants belonging to the chalet were round the 
 bed," Miss Taylor said, " reverently waiting and praying, 
 and one of them sprinkled the bed with holy water." 
 When the English friends returned, they found flowers all 
 around him, a cross of asters on his breast, and a crucifix, 
 which the priest had sent, in his hands — "his face," they 
 said, " like one of the paintings of the saints of old." 
 
 The master of the hotel and all the servants had been 
 kind and thoughtful, and the peasant nurse had been full 
 of real tenderness. Her letter,* written some months after- 
 wards to Father Lowder's sisters, is too beautiful and 
 touching to be withheld from those for whom this record is 
 chiefly written — his friends and mourning parishioners at 
 St. Peter's-in-the-East. 
 
 My dear Friends, 
 
 I can no longer keep silence, for the thanks I owe you 
 press heavily, though sweetly, on my heart. My dear friends, I 
 thank you a thousand times for all your love and friendliness ; j^ou 
 can never be forgotten by me. I can never think of you and of 
 your departed brother, and of the sorrow which pressed so heavily 
 on you in the past year, without many tears. 
 
 Yes, my dear sisters and brother in Christ, when I think over 
 all the severe pain which your brother suffered, and his invincible 
 patience, my heart breaks. I thank God that He so ordered it 
 
 * Written in German patois. 
 
352 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 that I should have the honour of nursing so good a priest in his 
 last sickness. When I was summoned to him, what joy it was for 
 me to hear that he was a priest. I was at the time in church at 
 my devotions. I quickly rose up and went to your brother. The 
 doctor was then in the room with him ; he gave his patient into 
 my care, and told me how I ought to nurse him. The sick gen- 
 tleman looked quite imploringly at me. I can well imagine the 
 struggle there must have been in his heart, to feel himself sur- 
 rounded by strangers, in a strange land. What a hard trial it was 
 for him ! I could only weep and pray for him, and offer his great 
 sufferings to God. I spared no trouble, and he expressed his 
 thankfulness to me, the greatest proof that he was satisfied with 
 my services. But all was in vain ! he became worse hour by 
 hour ; he had already the presentiment that he was going to die. 
 Oh, how my heart trembled when I saw that all was in vain ! 
 
 It was about eleven o'clock at night that your brother asked 
 me, "Is the doctor gone to bed?" I said, "Yes, sir; shall I call 
 him?" He answered, "Yes." I went for him directly, and he 
 came quickly. Oh, what were my feelings when your brother 
 asked the doctor, " What do you think, doctor ? Do you really 
 think there is any more hope ? / think not. I think it will not 
 last much longer. I must die." 
 
 The doctor spoke encouragingly, and tried another prescrip- 
 tion, but all was in vain. About twelve o'clock he sent for the 
 English ; they arranged everything, and then they prayed, and 
 your brother himself directed them what to pray. 
 
 I did for him all I saw he wished. I wiped from his brow the 
 sweat of death, which now covered his face like dew, so that 
 henceforth, O beloved in Christ, I could do nothing else than 
 weep, so deeply did I feel, as I saw him with trembling hands 
 signing his name, and the tears falling down over his face. Oh, 
 how hard it is to die amongst strangers ! 
 
 He often held me with both hands from the greatness of the 
 pain, for he had very great difficulty in breathing. The English 
 then went back to bed. 
 
MARIA NEUMAIER'S LETTER. 
 
 353 
 
 When I was again alone with him your brother took nothing 
 but a little water. It was four in the morning, and the Angelus 
 bell sounded loud in that room, and the sick man clasped his 
 hands over his head and gave a deep sigh. Suddenly he turned 
 himself towards me as though he would take hold of me ; bowed 
 his head ; uttered a loud exclamation, and became unconscious. 
 Then began the death struggle, which your brother victoriously 
 sustained, and then gently fell asleep, and so went up to that 
 place where there is no more grief or tears, to receive his eternal 
 reward. Oh, my never-to-be-forgotten friends, I was convinced 
 that your brother was a good man, for he asked me to place the 
 crucifix at the foot of the bed, that he might see it better. Oh, 
 what joy for me ! I prayed to the Mother of God that she would 
 aid him in the last conflict, for she is ever the Mother of the dying. 
 
 And after he had departed, I washed him and closed his 
 mouth and eyes ; and then we dressed him and laid him on the 
 bed, and I decked him with fresh flowers, and I could not restrain 
 my tears, so grieved I was that he should die in a foreign land. I 
 could not leave him without sorrow, for your brother had so 
 endeared himself to me during his last illness. God ordered it all. 
 
 My dear friends, I have a great favour to ask you, if it is 
 possible. I ask for a photograph of your departed brother, or, if 
 you have not one of him, I ask for one of yourself or of your 
 sisters. Who knows if we may yet see each other once more? 
 I am often in spirit in England, in the midst of you. Oh, what 
 pleasure if you will send me a remembrance. Since your depar- 
 ture from Zell I have heard nothing of you. I thought you must 
 either have quite forgotten me, which I cannot be offended at, 
 or you have no suitable memento, which may easily be. I hope, 
 however, to receive one from your kindness, when you have one, 
 which would be dear to me all my life; therefore I pray you to 
 send me something, if it is possible. I beg you earnestly to send 
 me at least an answer quickly. And if you wish, I will send 
 another photograph with my hat on, which I shall be much pleased 
 to do. 
 
 2 A 
 
354 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER, 
 
 Meanwhile I kiss your hand for your great kindness, and 
 remain, 
 
 Your grateful and indebted friend, 
 
 Maria Neumaier, 
 Sick nurse to your brother at Zell-am-See, 
 
 There is at Salzburg a convent of the Sisters of Charity, 
 and they have a branch house at Zell-am-See. Here, until 
 his bereaved ones could arrive, the Sisters received into 
 their care all that was mortal of Charles Lowder. He had 
 chosen hardness and toil as his portion in life, and had 
 fought on, faint, yet pursuing ; for He whom he loved and 
 followed is a Man of war. Now, at last, he slept in peace, 
 reverently watched by the daughters of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, the saint whose example had kindled in him that 
 ardour for the battle which burned steadily and brightly to 
 the end. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 BURIAL. 
 1880. 
 
 "Why march ye forth with hymn and chant, 
 Ye veteran soldiers jubilant, 
 As though ye went to lay to rest 
 Some warrior that had done his best ? " 
 
 They said, who knew the truth, that when the tidings from 
 Zell-am-See reached St. Peter's-in-the-East, and spread 
 through court and alley, there were stricken hearts, in 
 homes so poor and wretched that they might be thought 
 beyond the sympathies of life, crouching over the few 
 embers in the grate, too crushed to speak, almost too 
 crushed to think, but trying to take in the meaning of the 
 words, " Father Lowder's dead." 
 
 The telegram, sent at midnight on Wednesday, reached 
 Chislehurst about eight on Thursday morning, September 9. 
 The sisters left England by the first boat after receiving 
 it, travelled three days and two nights without stopping, 
 and arrived at Zell at nine on Saturday night. From 
 Mr. Taylor they learned that their brother had departed 
 before the telegram had reached them. He took them 
 to the convent of the Sisters of Charity, where in a 
 mortuary room, with an altar in a recess at one end, the 
 
356 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 closed coffin lay. Mr. Taylor had caused a piece of glass 
 to be inserted in the lid. Close to this room were the 
 schoolrooms of children taught by the Sisters, beauti- 
 fully clean, and nicely fitted up. " The view over the lake 
 was lovely from the windows," his sister said, "and we 
 thought how pleased he would have been to see the chil- 
 dren so well cared for." A large wreath of flowers and a 
 cross of edelweis had been placed on the coffin ; they were 
 brought to England and laid on the grave. 
 
 When it was rumoured in the parish that the remains 
 would probably be interred in Austria, on account of the 
 great expense of bringing them to England, the St. Peter's 
 branch of the Church of England Working-Men's Society 
 met, and at once subscribed ;^'30, telegraphing to guarantee 
 all further expenses, and to entreat that nothing might 
 prevent the body of " the Father " from being brought 
 home. 
 
 The strain and distress of the parishioners at St. Peter's, 
 and especially of the clergy and Sisters, were greatly 
 increased by the extreme difficulty of arranging for the 
 funeral, as there was no time for anything but telegrams 
 between London and Zell, while hundreds of inquiries 
 were coming in from those, in all parts of England, 
 who wished to attend. At length Friday, September 17, 
 was fixed upon, as it was hoped that the precious burden 
 would arrive on Thursday night. It was to lie all night in 
 the little oratory of the Sisters' house, the first room where 
 he had gathered a few together in the early days of the 
 Calvert Street Mission. But at the last moment, late on 
 Thursday night, a telegram arrived from the mourners at 
 Zell, putting the funeral off till the following Tuesday, 
 
NIGHT BEFORE THE BURIAL. 
 
 357 
 
 as they feared that the body could not arrive even on 
 Friday. 
 
 It was impossible now to put off the great numbers of 
 country clergy who were to arrive next morning ; besides 
 the poor people, at great personal sacrifice and loss, had 
 arranged for a holiday, that they might follow their Vicar 
 to the grave. 
 
 His brother had arrived at Zell on Monday, and was 
 now returning to England ; his sisters were also on their 
 way home, but no one knew where they were. So it was 
 determined not to alter arrangements already made. The 
 church was kept open all night, the clergy and people 
 remaining there till near midnight : they had hoped once 
 more to sing Evensong with all that remained of Father 
 Lowder in the midst. The first celebi'ation was at 3 a.m., 
 and many more followed, hundreds of the people communi- 
 cating. " It was the most solemn sight I ever saw," one 
 said who spent the night at St. Peter's, "the crowds of 
 people in the street that night waiting for news : all poor 
 people, with blanched faces, and the sorrow of their, 
 hearts speaking through their eyes ; so quiet and resigned, 
 and not murmuring at this cruel delay, and more cruel 
 suspense ; just hanging about in groups as people do 
 when struck down by a common sorrow. So the night 
 passed, and in the morning we had a telegram from the 
 railway people to say that the coffin would arrive at 
 Holborn Viaduct early that morning." 
 
 Even this could not have been managed, but for the 
 afTectionate devotion of Mr. Robert Hunt, of the Working- 
 Men's Society, who went to Queenborough on Thursday 
 evening, and spent the night in efforts to arrange that the 
 
358 
 
 CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 body should, if it arrived, be sent by the earliest train on 
 Friday. Orders had been given that it should be for- 
 warded by a later train, and it was with the greatest diffi- 
 culty that Mr. Hunt obtained a reversal of the order. He 
 waited at Queenborough till the vessel came in, and re- 
 ceived the sacred charge. It had left Zell on the previous 
 Tuesday, under the care of a trustworthy German. 
 
 At the Holborn Viaduct Station it was met by one 
 of the curates of St. Peter's, and two of the Sisters, bring- 
 ing a pall and flowers, which they laid over the coffin in 
 the hearse, and then followed it to Old Gravel Lane. 
 There, at the point where St. Peter's parish begins, it was 
 received by a solemn procession from the church — his own 
 sister, who had been prevented by illness from going to 
 Zell, with the Sisters of Mercy, and a great white throng of 
 choristers and clergy, led by the cross, passing up the lane 
 through the crowds of weeping people to the dock-bridge, 
 which bounds the parish. Once, during the St. George's 
 riots, his friends had made a line across this bridge, and 
 held it against the mob who had hunted him down 
 threatening to throw him into the docks ; and now, in the 
 streets where he had been pelted and ill-treated, the police 
 were obliged to keep a line amidst the crowds of weeping 
 men who pressed forwards to see and touch the pall be- 
 neath which their benefactor slept. The pall-bearers were : — 
 
 Rev. F. Benson. Rev. G. Cosby White. 
 
 Rev. H. D. Nihil!. Rev. Bryan King. 
 
 Rev. A. H. Mackonochie. Rev. Brenchley Kingsford. 
 
 Rev. Harry Jones. Rev. R. A. J. Suckling. 
 
 "Nearly twenty-five years ago," Mr. King writes, "I 
 
CELEBRATION AT ST. PETER'S. 
 
 359 
 
 received Mr. Lowder, and introduced him into his district 
 amidst all but universal distrust and obloquy ; on his 
 funeral day it fell upon me as a pall-bearer to meet his 
 body at the boundary of his parish, and to conduct it to 
 the church between dense crowds of his people, all intently 
 gazing upon his remains with feelings of deep emotion, 
 many giving utterance to that emotion by unrestrained 
 tears." 
 
 The coffin was lifted from the hearse and carried by 
 some of the working-men on the bier to St. Peter's Church, 
 followed by the mourners and the immense procession, 
 chanting the funeral sentences, and Psalms xxiv., xxvii., 
 xxxix., and xc. Admittance to the church was by ticket, 
 but every seat had already long been filled. The altar 
 and chancel were vested in white; Father Lowder's stall 
 was covered with white linen, on which his surplice and 
 stole were laid. When the bier was placed in the chancel, 
 it was soon covered with offerings of flowers, handed to the 
 Sisters, while the prayer of the introit arose : " Grant him 
 eternal rest, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him." 
 Then followed the celebration, with a sermon by the Rev. 
 William Cleaver, and the Dies Ires as a sequence. At its 
 close the Sisters took up the flowers from the coffin, and 
 the procession formed once more, and passed out at the 
 western door, singing " Jerusalem, my happy home," and 
 slowly up to Wapping Bridge, amidst the dense crowd, still 
 singing the hymn. At the bridge, the procession ^divided 
 and lined each side of the road, while the hearse, in which 
 the coffin had once more been placed, passed slowly 
 through the ranks on the road to Chislehurst, followed by 
 the carriage containing Father Lowder's sister and cousin. 
 
360 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 A train to carry six hundred had been engaged for the 
 communicants of St. Peter's, but hundreds besides these 
 set off for Chislehurst, those who were too poor to pay for 
 a ticket on foot. Long before the hearse arrived the 
 church at Chislehurst was crammed, and hundreds were 
 waiting in the churchyard. The scene on Chislehurst 
 Common, when the trains of mourners had arrived from 
 London, was wonderful ; the men of Wapping and Shad- 
 well, whom none will credit with extravagant religious 
 weakness, gathered to manifest their gratitude and affection 
 for the heroic priest who had laboured so long among 
 them. It v>'as computed that at least three thousand were 
 present, including about two hundred clergy. 
 
 After a very long delay, the choir of St. Peter's were 
 seen coming from the school-house, where they had vested, 
 across the common to the church, preceding the body, 
 with the same pall-bearers as before, mourners, Sisters, 
 and four or five hundred of the congregation, members of 
 various guilds, chanting the Litany of the Dead. They 
 were met at the lych-gate by the choir and clergy of 
 Chislehurst, and the choirs joined and led the way into 
 church, singing, " Brief life is here our portion." During 
 the hymn, as the cofhn was brought into the chancel, the 
 deep unspeakable grief of the people who had lost so good 
 a shepherd broke out in uncontrollable sobs and tears 
 from both men and women. 
 
 Once more the procession formed, singing " Light's 
 abode, celestial Salem," on the way to the last resting-place, 
 which is on the north side of the church, exactly on a line 
 with the chancel. The sun was just setting, at the close of 
 a lovely day, as the coffin, covered with flowers, was lowered 
 
" REQUIEM ^TERNAM." 
 
 361 
 
 into the moss-lined grave, the choirs singing, "Brother, 
 now thy toils are over." Slowly and tearfully the multi- 
 tude of men, women, and children passed round while the 
 Rector of Chislehurst stood by the grave, to take a last 
 look at the resting-place of him they loved. 
 
 No such funeral, it was truly said, has been seen in 
 England in modern times. Thanksgiving and the voice of 
 melody in the streets of East London on a working-day, 
 the whole populace turning out, the church adorned in 
 white and beautiful with flowers — all symbolized, not the 
 sorrow of those without hope, but the last and best genuine 
 earthly reward of a good man. But of all grand points in 
 that funeral, certainly the most beautiful and touching was 
 the little children, fringing the crowd, and weeping as if 
 their hearts would break. 
 
 So, " with large tears of sorrow and of joy " he was 
 borne, a victor, to his rest. " Of joy " — for though ten years 
 were still lacking to make up the threescore and ten, his 
 work might have filled the fourscore, if measured by the 
 ordinary scale of good men's labour. And they who loved 
 him best, remembering the bright promise of his boyhood 
 and youth, and the worn weary face of later years, could 
 not mourn that the patient, faithful soldier should now 
 wear the crown, and hear his Master's gracious call; "Enter 
 thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 There is no need to ask the way to Father Lowder's 
 grave in Chislehurst churchyard ; for a path leads to it, worn 
 in the turf by many feet, and, while the grass is green round 
 other graves, it is quite trodden away for a broad space 
 
362 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 round the stone kerb which encloses his resting-place. And 
 though the mark which he has left upon the memories of 
 all who knew him, even of those who least agreed with his 
 opinions, is not likely to be soon effaced, the words spoken 
 about him from the pulpit, on the Sunday after his funeral, 
 by the Rev. Harry Jones, Rector of St. George's-in-the-East, 
 will not be thought unwelcome here : — 
 
 On divers occasions in the course of my ministry I have been 
 asked to preach what is called a funeral sermon. No such request 
 has been made to me now. But if I were to let this Sunday pass 
 without speaking to you of one who has been so prominently 
 known in St. George's as Mr. Lowder, I should not be doing what 
 you expect, and what certainly I desire. It is easy to speak of 
 him. In divers cases where a clergyman' is asked to say some- 
 thing from the pulpit about one who is dead, he is embarrassed 
 by the thought that, if he did, he would be obliged to introduce 
 his name to the congregation, and tell them something about him, 
 before he ventured on such remarks as he could make. That is 
 needless now. I have no excuses to offer for the bringing in of 
 personal allusions and details, which, however familiar to the 
 friends of the dead man, and pathetic when told, have neverthe- 
 less to be told. 
 
 Mr. Lowder has been in these parts for the long period of 
 twenty-four years. You know the man and his communication- 
 He is now, certainly, in all your minds. . . . Sometimes when a 
 preacher ventures on so delicate a business as a funeral sermon 
 he has a latent and uncomfortable consciousness that, however 
 amiable, useful, and conspicuous the departed may have been, the 
 remembrance of him does not quite fit in with the mystic and 
 spiritual thoughts which press upon us when we reflect that one 
 whom we have known in this world has passed into another. It 
 is possible to deliver an heroic oration over a grave, and yet evade 
 allusion to that side of human character which shows an interest 
 in the unseen. But now, in speaking about him who is gone, no 
 
SERMON BY REV. H. JONES. 
 
 such suspicion of incongruity presents itself. His memory suits 
 the atmosphere of the house of God. He led this life with the 
 thought of another ever in his mind. The mention of him meets 
 the most sacred moods of the soul. He was marked by con- 
 tinuous personal holiness. Those who knew and loved him best 
 will be able to talk freely of him, as if death did not sharply break 
 the real course of his hfe. . . . 
 
 Again, when we call to our mind him of whom I now speak, 
 we see something beside or along with personal holiness. We 
 see marks of a character which cheers honest souls wherever they 
 may be found, and which is highly prized in man himself, whoever 
 he may be ; whether among the ministers or hearers of the Word, 
 whether among the priests or the people. He showed marks of 
 a character which we value in Churchman or Nonconformist, in 
 Protestant and Papist, in Christian or in Jew. 
 
 Mr. Lowder was perfectly fair. Whether he agreed with you 
 or not, he never descended to any stratagem. I have, in my 
 time, come across such a thing as ecclesiastical diplomacy, 
 whereby one opponent has sought to steal a march or spring 
 a mine upon another. But he always flew his colours. There 
 was no smack of theological cunning about him. He ever meant 
 what he said, and said what he meant. This enabled him 
 always to take a personally hearty tone with all. His heartiness 
 was not forced. It was not tainted with a suspicion on the part 
 of those who witnessed it, that he was affecting an air of cheery 
 proselytism. No after-taste of pious guile ever spoilt the flavour of 
 any communications with this man. All felt that he was open 
 and fair. 
 
 With this he combined an equally natural kindliness of tone 
 towards and about all from whom he differed, or who spoke evil 
 of him. I never heard him say a bitter word, even when he 
 might have had an excuse for being sore. Though keenly suscep- 
 tible, he was enabled to keep his temper in trying positions, and 
 always carry himself as a Christian and a gentleman. He and I 
 failed to look at some of the questions which exercise the Church 
 
CHARLES LOIVDER. 
 
 in the same light, and often found ourselves, so to speak, in 
 different lobbies at gatherings of the clergy and others. We 
 agreed to differ, not, I hope, ever in radical desire to promote the 
 righteousness of God and the well-being of man, but in the way of 
 looking at and using some of the great facts of Christianity. In- 
 deed, there would be something questionable in the thought of 
 perfect accord in opinions among men here. Individuality is one 
 of our most precious possessions. He prized his and I prized 
 mine. But we were always good friends, and I ever found him 
 keeping good faith in controversy, and willing to think the best of 
 those from whom he differed, and, be it added, those from whom 
 he suffered most He had, moreover, that wholesome sense of 
 humour, even under the most provoking conditions, without which 
 this world and Church would be unbearable. 
 
 It was not, however, for these things alone that he will be 
 long remembered here. He was simply fearless. I do not now 
 refer to theological matters, in which he certainly had the 
 courage of his convictions, but to other things which test the 
 mettle of the man. He showed the grit of true courage in times 
 of special social difficulty and distress. Many of you can re- 
 member how he carried himself when the cholera came, . . . 
 There are people who, as we say, rise to the occasion in great 
 emergencies, and yet are unable to endure the dull, continuous 
 tug of toilsome ordinary difficulties. It was not so with Mr, 
 Lowder. Pie not only came to the front and stood to his guns 
 when the enemy Disease suddenly opened fire on the whole 
 parish, but throughout a long period of labour and trial he stayed 
 at his post, and did its daily wearisome work, I am not going to 
 speak ill of the surroundings of Sl Peter's, where so many toil 
 honestly to win their bread and do their duty throughout their 
 lives. And yet it has never been so singled out as to be called a 
 social paradise. But while divers of his brethren in the ministry 
 moved from place to place, Mr. Lowder held to St, Peter's. . . . 
 Any one during the last twenty-four years who came to St. Peter's, 
 would have found Mr. Lowder on his thwart in the old boat, 
 with the oar in his hand. And it was a heavy oar to pulL 
 
GRIEF OF THE POOR. 
 
 365 
 
 Still, there he was. There he lived, there he worked, and we 
 might almost say, there he died ; for his arm was stretched out 
 ready for the oar again when he was called out of this nave of 
 Christ,"and left the waves of a troublesome world. He held to his 
 work, though — without incurring the least reproach — he might have 
 found abundant occupation in some other place where the harness 
 was not so heavy, and the circumstances of life were less ex- 
 haustive. . . . Much of his work was wearisomely common- 
 place and heavily uphill. Yet it was eminently missionary work 
 which he did. It needed, and had spent on it, the genuine fire 
 of a holy life, and it has made a mark upon St. Peter's which those 
 who can remember what it once was, know full well. 
 
 . . . Moreover, the work in which our neighbour was en- 
 gaged so long was done in a never-failing kindly spirit towards 
 the neediest, roughest, or most sensitive of those amongst whom 
 he lived. He did not do it doggedly, but heartily. There are 
 people who hold to their posts with a sort of grim tenacity which 
 is more striking than amiable. They grind steadily through their 
 business without professing any love for it Their work has to 
 be done, and it is done. Much is to be said in praise of this 
 dogged determination, but Mr. Lowder seemed to me to preserve 
 a remarkable elasticity and heartiness in the discharge of what he 
 set himself to do. He never lost his kindly interest for bodies 
 and souls of men within or without the circles of those around 
 him. I need not say he was beloved among the poor amongst 
 whom he administered, and to whom, however ignorant of eccle- 
 siastical nomenclature, he was always Father Lowder, ready to 
 help them in their affliction. They mourn for him with sorrow 
 deeply sincere, for they well know what a loving friend they have 
 lost in him. Those present last Friday, when the body was 
 brought to St. Peter's, on its way to Chislehurst, will never forget 
 that day. It is well to see crowds respectful; it is rather un- 
 common to see so many men, women, and children in tears. 
 Such a sight speaks not only for him who was mourned, 
 but for those who mourned for him. They must have carried 
 
366 
 
 CHARLES LOWDER. 
 
 away in their hearts some better sense of self-sacrificing personal 
 holiness. Twenty years ago he entered soixiC of those very streets 
 among the jeers of such as lived there. He has now left them 
 amid their sobs — they laughed when he came, and wept when he 
 left us. They did not sorrow as m.en without hope, for they felt 
 he was taken away by God to be with Him for ever. 
 
 One word in conclusion, from the friend under whom 
 Father Lowder first worked in London : — 
 
 " He has gone to his rest, and to the reward promised 
 to the winner of souls. What a reward it will be we may 
 imagine from St. Gregory's aphorism, that 'it is a greater 
 miracle to convert a soul by the preaching of the Word 
 and the consolations of prayer, than to raise a body from 
 the dead.' " 
 
 AT ZELL-AM-SEE. 
 {From a Sketch by Rev. WiUhim Lowder. 
 
I'RINTKl) BY 
 WILLIAM CLOWtS AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND BECCI RS.