I learned by chance the other day in the village that
a new chapel for the use of the Methodist congregation
of the parish was to be built on the little open green
immediately opposite the Vicarage gate, and that this
special spot of ground had been selected and given by
your lordship for this purpose. I do not at all know what
truth there may be in this,--except that Mr. Grimes, the
carpenter here, has received orders from your agent about
the work. It may probably be the case that the site has
been chosen by Mr. Packer, and not by your lordship. As no
real delay to the building can at this time of the year
arise from a short postponement of the beginning, I have
asked Mr. Grimes to desist till I shall have written to
you on the subject.
I can assure your lordship, in the first place, that no
clergyman of the Established Church in the kingdom can be
less unwilling than I am that they who dissent from my
teaching in the parish should have a commodious place of
worship. If land belonged to me in the place I would give
it myself for such a purpose; and were there no other
available site than that chosen, I would not for a moment
remonstrate against it. I had heard, with satisfaction,
from Mr. Puddleham himself that another spot was chosen
near the cross roads in the village, on which there is
more space, to which as I believe there is no objection,
and which would certainly be nearer than that now selected
to the majority of the congregation.
But of course it would not be for me to trouble your
lordship as to the ground on which a Methodist chapel
should be built, unless I had reason to show why the
site now chosen is objectionable. I do not for a moment
question your lordship's right to give the site. There is
something less than a quarter of an acre in the patch in
question; and though hitherto I have always regarded it
as belonging in some sort to the Vicarage,--as being a
part, as it were, of the entrance,--I feel convinced that
you, as landlord of the ground, would not entertain the
idea of bestowing it for any purpose without being sure
of your right to do so. I raise no question on this
point, believing that there is none to be raised; but I
respectfully submit to your lordship, whether such an
erection as that contemplated by you will not be a lasting
injury to the Vicarage of Bullhampton, and whether you
would wish to inflict a lasting and gratuitous injury
on the vicar of a parish, the greatest portion of which
belongs to yourself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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