teaching, then considered the last refuge of the destitute; the boy who could draw was articled to an architect in the nearest big town; some went up to London and became clerks; here and there one or two, greatly daring, disappeared altogether beyond the seas. [Illustration: DRAWING-ROOM AT ST. JAMES’S PALACE, 1861--THE LAST ATTENDED BY THE PRINCE CONSORT] As for the girls, they stayed at home. Their place was at home, they knew nothing solid in the way of book learning; but, like the London girls, they were accomplished. They could play a little and sing a little, they could do all kinds of fine work, they made all the family pies and cakes, they could distil, they could pickle and preserve, they could make and mend. They stayed at home; out of three or four, one remained unmarried. For her stretched along the road on the west of the town a row of tiny villas, each with its pretty little garden in front full of flowers--dahlias, peonies, geraniums--and the garden behind with its vegetables and its fruit trees. The unmarried one lived here, alone but not lonely. She it was who made most of the society of the place. Sometimes, when there was not enough money, she remained living with the eldest brother--a responsibility which he was never known to refuse. Religion played a great part in their lives. Most of the girls were “serious”: they attended a Thursday evening sermon, which proved it; they read books about election and the elect, which they applied serenely to other people. They were taught that all the people--outside, in the street--in the world were destined to endless torments: all but a very few, including themselves. They believed it, or said they did; and the words never caused them a shudder, a gleam of pity, a thought of remonstrance. That is what they called believing the doctrine. [Illustration: _Photo by H. N. King_ LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT] The Church in 1837 is venerable, but tottering. Within there are high pews, long pews, square pews, pews with a fireplace, pews in the chancel; the organ is in the west gallery where the choir sits. In the middle there is a “three-decker” _i.e._ a pulpit, a reading-desk, and a clerk’s desk, one above the other. The original east window has been destroyed and is replaced by a modern thing. The charity children sit round the altar rails. The once open roof is squared down and plastered over, half the windows are bricked up, one aisle has been pulled down and rebuilt in brick. [Illustration: _Photo by H. N. King_ STATUE OF QUEEN AND PRINCE CONSORT AT WINDSOR] [Illustration: _Photo by Valentine_ THE ALBERT MEMORIAL, LONDON]