In 1895 Bishop Cheshire, for the first time in the history of the Diocese, issued to the clergy "Visitation Articles," as called for by a canon of the church. After employing them for a year he found they were useful and "calculated to make the visitations of the Bishop of more real value to the Clergy and to the people. The Bishop has for so long a time ceased to exert any real influence or control in the ordinary life and work of the parish in all parts of the United States, that the assertion of that authority, which in theory our Bishops are supposed to possess, is perhaps impracticable at present."[39] He thought that if the bishop would make himself acquainted with the affairs of each congregation during his visitation, it would strengthen the influence of the episcopate, and would go far towards the "breaking up of our present congregational parochialism." One of Bishop Cheshire's customs which endeared him to his people was that of calling upon the members of a congregation during his visitation. Of this practice he once remarked: "People like the attention and it makes Bishop and people feel nearer together, but in most cases they do not want very long visits."[40] The Bishop's keen understanding of human nature was one of his most notable qualities. Bishop Cheshire thought that southern bishops had a great deal to be thankful for, particularly that in the South "as much as anywhere in the world, I believe, the Bishop may still be in some real and personal sense, the pastor of his flock, can live in familiar and confidential relations with his people." He deplored the tendency, which seemed to be growing in some quarters, of making the bishop simply an administrator of ecclesiastical affairs. While Bishop Cheshire was in no sense a ritualist, or what is commonly known as high church, he believed in a strict adherence to the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer. He had a great reverence and admiration for the services of the Prayer Book, and consequently little patience with those clergymen who attempted to alter their order or length. He was not a dogmatic formalist, but was thoroughly convinced that the canons and rubrics of the church should be obeyed and not disregarded by those individuals who might take exception to them.