H.M.I.: Some Passages in the Life of One of H.M. Inspectors of SchoolsSneyd-Kynnersley, E. M. (Edmund McKenzie)
History
H.M.I.: Some Passages in the Life of One of H.M. Inspectors of Schools
Sneyd-Kynnersley, E. M. (Edmund McKenzie)
Education -- Great Britain; School management and organization -- Great Britain
“Llanfochyn is becoming famous,” said the Squire; “it was in that
parish that a very remarkable sermon was preached one week-night
in July. The orator was a local preacher in Zion Chapel, and the
congregation were farm labourers, male and female. After some short
preliminary exercises, he began:
“‘Well, my friends, you have all been busy in the hay to-day, and
instead of a sermon let us take some of the principal Bible characters,
and see what we know of them. There was Moses: what shall we say of
Moses? He was man for meekness. And then there was h’m, h’m, Samson:
Samson slew a thousand men with the jawbone of a lion: was it lion?
Yes, I think: well, he was man for strength. Then there was Samuel ...
and David ... and Solomon: Solomon had 300 wives, and h’m, h’m: he was
man for marriage. And there was Jonah: was three days and three nights
in the belly of a whale: what shall we say of Jonah? _He was man for
fish._ And now, &c., &c.’”
I thanked the Squire warmly, for he had told the story well. But, as he
truly remarked, the song wants singing; write it down on paper and it
is nought. There was a short lull in the conversation while we ate, and
chewed the cud of the Llanfochyn sermon. I turned to my neighbour, the
Druid: “Have you been long at Llanfair, Mr. Morgan?” I asked, hoping to
draw him out.
“Thirty years: ever since I was ordained. I went there as curate at
first, and my rector never came near the place. I was only a deacon,
of course, and the first Sunday in every month I would go down to
Rhosfawr, and John Evans, Rhosfawr, would take my service, while I took
his. And the first Sunday I was there, we began, as usual in those
days, with the Morning Hymn, and the choir in the chancel sang it, and
then we went on reading; but I was quicker than John Evans, being a
young man, and when we got to _Te Deum_ there was no singing. I looked
about, and there was no choir, and I heard the clerk say (in Welsh,
you know) to a lad, ‘Go down to the ‘Red Lion,’ and tell them that the
little chap they have got from Llanfair has read so quick that they
must come back and sing _Te Deum_.’ And it seemed that there was a door
at the back of the chancel, and every Sunday the men would go out after
the hymn, and stop at the ‘Red Lion’ till it was time to sing again.
But I was too quick for them whatever. I could give John Evans (he
added modestly) down to ‘Pontius Pilate,’ and beat him.”
This anecdote was evidently an old favourite with the party, and it was
duly honoured.
“Had any trouble with Richard Jones, Ty’n-y-felin, lately, Druid?”
asked Harry, I think, to draw him out once more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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