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
As we have before intimated the minister of the Chapel is Mr. Thomas
Haworth. During the first 18 years of his ministry he received 20s.
a week for his services; for three years afterwards he got 25s.;
during the last two he has had 30s. per week; and his temporal
consolation is involved in a sovereign and a half at present. Be is
54 years of age, has had very little education, believes in telling
the truth as far as he knows it, and cares for nobody. He has a
strongly intuitive mind; is full of human nature; is broad-faced,
very fat and thoroughly English in look: has a chin which is
neither of the nutmeg nor the cucumber order, but simply double;
weighs heavier than any other parson in Preston; couldn't run; gets
out of breath and pants when he goes up the pulpit stairs; has his
own ideas, and likes sticking to them, about everything; has neither
cunning nor deception in him; is rough but honest; is without polish
but full of common sense; would have been a good companion for Tim
Bobbin in his better moments, and for Sam Slick in his unctuous
periods; cares more for thoughts than grammar; likes to rush out in
a buster when the spell is upon him; can either shout you into fits
or whisper you to sleep--is, in a word, a virtuous and venerable
"caution." He is the right kind of man for humble, queer-thinking;
determined, sincerely-singular Christians; is just the sort of
person you should hear when the "blues" are on you; has much pathos,
much fire, much uncurbed virtue in him; is a sort of theological
Bailey's Dictionary--rough, ready, outspoken, unconventional, and
funny; is a second Gadsby in oddness, and force, and sincerity, but
lacks Gadsby's learning. Unlike the bulk of parsons, Mr. Haworth
does his own marketing. You may see him almost any Saturday in the
market, with a huge orthodox basket in his hand--a basket bulky, and
made not for show, but for holding things. He has no pride in him,
and thinks that a man shouldn't be ashamed of buying what he has to
eat, and needn't blush if he has to carry home what he wants to
digest. His sermons in both manner and matter are essentially
Haworthian. There is no gilt, no mock modesty in his style; there is
to vapid sentimentalism in the ideas he expounds. A broad, unshaven,
every-day Lancashire vigour pervades both; and what he can't make
out he guesses at. In the pulpit he seems earnest but uneasy--
honest, but fidgetty about his eyes, and legs. Watch him: he
preaches extemporaneously, but often peers up and winks, and often
looks down at his bible and squeezes his eyes. He has a great
predilection for turning to the left--that he apparently thinks is
the right side for small appeals of a special character; and when he
gets back again, for the purpose of either looking at his book or
sending out a new idea, he makes a short oscillating waddle--a
sharp, whimsical, wavy motion, as if he either wanted to get his
feet out of something or stir forward about half an inch. He pitches
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account