Mr. Hoare then got up and said that he entirely disagreed with the chairman; proceeding in a very vigorous speech to show the horrors of a foreign invasion, and the duty of every true Englishman to defend his country, he concluded by declaring that he hoped the first invader who landed on the shores of Kent might be shot by a Tunbridge Wells Volunteer! The speaker was well supported by the Rev. B. F. Smith, then Vicar of Rusthall (now Archdeacon of Maidstone). A well-known medical man in the town then got up and said: “I came to the meeting in a doubtful state of mind, and though my courage failed under the depressing remarks of the chairman, it has now completely revived under the bold leadership of Captain Hoare and Lieutenant Smith!” The motion was carried by acclamation. * * * * * The following anecdote has reference to the extraordinary influence which he wielded over the town of Tunbridge Wells at large. His strong religious character may be said to have moulded the place. Two gentlemen were conversing at Sevenoaks Station, just before the train left the platform. One was heard to say to the other, “How is it that you have no theatre at Tunbridge Wells? A large town like that should have a theatre.” “Oh,” responded his companion, “it would never pay. Tunbridge Wells is too religious a place for a theatre.” * * * * * Yet this man, when he came first as Vicar of Holy Trinity, met with much discouragement. The District Visitors came in a body and tendered their resignations, and the first remarks which he overheard about his sermons as he passed a group of parishioners at night on his way home from church were, “Oh, what a dreary sermon!” “Yes, and _I_ thought it would never end!” It is hard for us now to believe this possible, and still harder perhaps to remember that even in late years, after all his services, two of the Evangelical newspapers used to write suspiciously of him,—one sneering at “the three Canons” Ryle, Garbett, and Hoare as “Neo-Evangelicals”; the other in a flaring leader actually calling him and the writer of these lines (who was proud to be in such company) “traitors to the Church of England”! Both these journals are now in different hands, but it is a humiliating thought that one who had done so much for Evangelical truth should have been thus treated by those who professed to aid its progress. It has often been noticed that a lofty mountain seems nothing very remarkable when you stand at its base, but as the traveller departs and it recedes from sight, it towers above the lesser peaks and almost seems to stand alone. So the character of a truly great man, although valued, cannot be measured during his life; it is as the years pass by that we see how much higher he was than all his fellows. CHAPTER XVII _PROMOTION_