Through a friend at the Vatican, Tylee got a brief or rescript from the Pope, who was told that he went to preach in India, and commended him in the document, with some reference to the missionary labours of St. Francis Xavier in that country. The monsignore was immensely proud of this. "Haven't you seen my Papal Bull?" he would cry when India cropped up in conversation, as it generally did in his presence. The fact was that when in India the good man used to stay with a Commissioner or General commanding, and deliver one of his famous sermons in the station or garrison church, to a handful of British Catholics or Irish soldiers. He never learned a word of any native language, and did no more missionary work in India than if he had stayed at home in his Kensington villa. [6] The Dean, my host told me, whilst prowling about the crypt in semi-darkness once noticed one of the chapels lit up by a rosy gleam. The Chapter was promptly summoned, and the canon-sacrist interrogated as to how and why a votive red lamp had been suspended before an altar without decanal authority. The crypt verger was called in to explain the phenomenon. "Bless your heart, Mr. Dean," said the good man, "that ain't no red lamp you saw--only an old oil stove which I fished up and put in that chapel to try and dry up the damp a bit." [7] I suppose that there had been a Christian church on the site for thirteen centuries. On the day of my visit it was locked and barred--discouraging to pilgrims. [8] The converse of this story is that of the orthodox but sadly prosy preacher who was demonstrating at great length the certainty of his own immortality. "Yes, my brethren, the mighty mountains shall one day be cast into the sea, but I shall live on. Nay, the seas themselves, the vast oceans which cover the greater part of the earth, shall dry up; but not I--not I!" And the congregation really thought that he never would! [9] One more instance of Park repartee I must chronicle: the Radical politician shouting, "I want land reform--I want housing reform--I want education reform--I want----" and the disconcerting interruption, "Chloroform!" [10] His mother, though a Catholic like himself, was a devotee of "Father Ignatius," and lived at Llanthony. She travelled about everywhere with the visionary "Monk of the Church of England," acting as pew-opener, money-taker, and general mistress of the ceremonies at his lectures, and had published an extraordinary biography of him. [11] Have they ever been reprinted? I know not. Here they are:-- "Leave him alone: The death forgotten, and the truth unknown. Enough to know Whate'er he feared, he never feared a foe. Believe the best, O English hearts! and leave him to his rest."