While his lordship was gone to the rectory, Colonel Crop was occupied at the castle in preparing for his lordship’s journey, which was destined, in obedience to the commands of Lord Smatterton, to take place on the following morning. Now when Lord Spoonbill drew nigh to the rectory, he could not help recollecting that there had lived such a man as Dr Greendale, and he could not but call to mind the pure and virtuous character of that good man. There came again to the recollection of Lord Spoonbill, the kind and gently-spoken admonitions of that departed friend; and the feelings of his lordship were roused at the remembrance of the solemn scene which he had witnessed, when he saw that good man breathe his last. In these emotions there was enough to disturb his lordship in his pursuit, but not enough to divert him from it. It was generally allowed by every one who knew him that Mr Darnley, the rector of Neverden, was a very good and a conscientious man, and that as a parish priest he was most exemplary and active in the discharge of his duties. But there still was in his character a dryness, a hardness, a coldness, a distance, or a something, that rendered virtue not so amiable and contagious in him as in the late Doctor Greendale. Mr Darnley preached most unexceptionable sermons, sound in doctrine, honest in application, always suited to the times, and most admirably adapted to the capacity and comprehension of his hearers. He never talked learnedly in his pulpit to gratify the taste of the great man of his parish, to the neglect of the instruction of the poorer part of his audience. In that, to be sure, there was not much merit, for neither the literature nor the capacity of Sir George Aimwell was much above the level of the farmers and their labourers. In Doctor Greendale however there was something more than a merely unexceptionable style of preaching. It is true indeed, that in consequence of the peculiar employment in which so much of his life was spent, and the theological controversies to which so much of his attention was directed, he did occasionally introduce into the pulpit controversial and abstract discussions, which were not very intelligible even to himself. But then there was something so morally beautiful and kindly impressive in his whole manner, tone, and deportment, that his hearers used to observe that they always felt themselves the better for hearing him preach, though they could not always understand what he said, or divine the object of his arguments. And let no one despise this feeling; for if good impulses are given to the heart, why should we think slightingly and disrespectfully of the means?