LEA HURST, _Sept._ [1841]. We are very anxious to hear, dearest Miss Clarke, how you are going on, and how Mrs. Clarke is, some day when you are able to write. We are just returned from the Leeds Consecration, and a more curious or interesting sight I never saw. Imagine a procession of 400 clergymen, all in their white robes, with scarfs of blue and black and fur and even scarlet, so that I thought some of them were cardinals, headed by the Archbishop of York,[31] the Bishop of Ripon, &c., and most curious of all the Bishop of _New Jersey_ to whom Dr. Hook (who is,--you know, perhaps,--the _Puseyite_ vicar of Leeds) had written to ask him to come over from America, expressly to preach the consecration sermon. Imagine all this procession, entering the church, repeating the 24th Ps.--and then filling the space before the altar and the Transept--and _all_ responding aloud through the service, so that the roll and echo of their responses through the Transept, without being able to see _them_, was the most striking thing I ever heard. It was quite a gathering-place for Puseyites from all parts of England. Papa heard them debating, whether they should have lighted candles before the Altar, but they decided no, because the Bishop of Ripon would not like it--however they had them in the evening and the next morning when he was gone--and Dr. Hook has the regular Catholic jerk in making the genuflexion every time he approaches the altar. The church is a most magnificent one, and every one has contributed their best to it, with a true Catholic spirit; one gave the beautiful painted window, another the Correggio for the Altar piece, the Queen Dowager the Altar-cloth, another the bells, &c., &c. Dr. Hook gives a service every morning and evening at 1/2 p. 7, and the Sacrament every Sunday; and the aisle is all occupied by _open_ seats. During the consecration I wished to have been a clergyman, but when Mrs. Gaskell[32] (whom I was with, she is a good Tory and half a Puseyite and withal the most general favourite and generally _lenient_ person in England)--when she and I came down afterwards for the Sacrament, I could not help looking in the faces of the clergymen, for the impression I expected to see, as they walked down the aisle, and wandered about, (this immense crowd) after the Sacrament--and oh! I was woefully disappointed--they looked so stupid; and I could not help thinking, If you had been Catholics, you would all have been on your knees during the service, without minding your fine gowns and the cold stones. [31] Edward Vernon Harcourt. [32] _Née_ Brandreth (not Mrs. Gaskell, the authoress).