Scenes of Clerical Life Large Print

Shepperton Church was a very different-looking building five-and-twenty yearsago. To be sure, its substantial stone tower looks at you through its intelligent eye, the clock, with the friendly expression of former days; but in everything else whatchanges! Now there is a wide span of slated roof flanking the old steeple; thewindows are tall and symmetrical; the outer doors are resplendent with oakgraining, the inner doors reverentially noiseless with a garment of red baize; andthe walls, you are convinced, no lichen will ever again effect a settlement on-theyare smooth and innutrient as the summit of the Rev. Amos Barton's head, after tenyears of baldness and supererogatory soap. Pass through the baize doors and youwill see the nave filled with well-shaped benches, understood to be free seats; whilein certain eligible corners, less directly under the fire of the clergyman's eye, thereare pews reserved for the Shepperton gentility. Ample galleries are supported oniron pillars, and in one of them stands the crowning glory, the very clasp or aigretteof Shepperton church-adornment-namely, an organ, not very much out of repair, on which a collector of small rents, differentiated by the force of circumstancesinto an organist, will accompany the alacrity of your departure after the blessing, bya sacred minuet or an easy 'Gloria