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282 Old Memories of East-Bourne. [Chap. XX.
extreme instance, but in a more measured and Court-of-Justice tone I found the greatest hostility to prevail on the part of English parishes in Shropshire and Herefordshire, against being transferred to Montgomeryshire or Radnorshire, or vice versa, to facilitate their grouping for Local Government and County Council purposes.
The Economy of Time.
In 1886 I was staying at W-------- Vicarage,
Devonshire, and on the morning after my arrival, whilst in the Breakfast Room waiting for breakfast, my hostess, the daughter-in-law of a very distinguished Cabinet Minister belonging to that part of the world, having made the tea, produced an enormous unfinished woollen quilt, some 3 yards long, and proceeded with her knitting instead of giving me my breakfast. I suppose that disappointment and dismay may have been pictured on my face, because she said :—" I am only going to spend 5 minutes over this ; and what you see is the result of so many periods of 5 minutes each spread over 3 months." I think that was the time mentioned, or something like it. But no matter. The principle remains. What a deal of time is wasted by all of us for lack of thought, or it may be forethought! I made a calculation once whilst locked in for an unreasonable time at Sydenham Station, because the Station was under-staffed, that the aggregate time wasted by the passengers detained there against their wills amounted to between 2 and 3 hours—daylight working hours.
"Tick, Tick, Tick."
An English Bishop visiting a certain parish was invited by the vicar to test the reading powers of the children in the National School, so a boy was called up, let us say, to read some verses from the Parable of the Sower. This is the style in wThich he had been taught to read St. Mark, iv., 8 :—
" And other fell on good ground (tick) and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased (tick, tick) and |
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