Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in PrestonAtticus
History
Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in Preston
Atticus
Preston (Lancashire, England) -- Church history
The church will accommodate about 1,200 persons, and the average
Sunday attendance may be calculated at 800. The gallery is
patronised extensively by the "million"; the ground floor pews are
occupied by more select and fashionable individuals. The great
majority of the worshippers sit above, and few vacant spaces can as
a rule be seen there. Down stairs the crush is less severe. The
congregation is a mixture of working and middle class people; the
former kind being preponderant. At the sides there are long narrow
ranges of free seats; but they are not often disturbed. On two
successive Sundays we gave them a passing look, and they appeared to
be almost deserted. A couple of little boys seated in the centre,
and engaged in the pleasing juvenile business of swinging their
legs, were the only occupants we saw on the right side during our
first inspection; and when we viewed the range on the other side,
the Sunday after, we could only catch tender glimpses of three
females, all very quiet, and each belonging the antique school of
life. "Where will you sit?" said a large-hearted young man, when we
made our second appearance. "There," was our reply, pointing at the
same time to a well-cushioned and genially sequestered seat at the
north-west corner, and we were ushered into it with becoming
decorum. In two minutes afterwards five women and a festive infant,
dressed in a drab cloak, and muffled all over to keep the cold out,
stopped at the pew door. We stepped out; three of the females, with
the baby, stepped in; the remainder went into the next pew; and
after condensing our nerve power, we settled down in the corner from
which we had been disturbed, quietly lifting one hand over the door
and latching it firmly at the same moment, our idea being than an
environment of five females, with a baby thrown into the bargain,
was quite enough for the remainder of the morning. After an inquiry
as to the christening arrangements at the church, for we fancied
this was a christening gathering, we got nearer the baby, and, in a
delicately sympathetic whisper said--"How old is it?" The maiden who
was holding it blushed, and laconically breathed out the words,
"Three months." We subsequently found out that the seat we were in
was the incumbent's, and that the blessed baby, whose lot we had
been contemplating with such interest, was his, too.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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