The service was very creditably conducted and well attended. It is unfortunate that the collections continue so small. The premises need attention: the choir is dark, and the walls need cleaning. It might be advisable to remove the 15th century stained glass from the East window and to substitute clear glass. If the walls were whitewashed (two coats) there would be less danger from germs. The health and comfort of the congregation should not be sacrificed to merely æsthetic considerations.
Remarks: I am to request that the Dean and Chapter will submit plans and estimates of the work recommended by their Lordships’ Inspector as soon as possible.
Eastchester Cathedral: Visited on Dec. 15 by Mr. Crankie Robinson.
The Dean and Chapter are to be congratulated on the completion of the restoration of this ancient fabric, and which has been carried out in a thoroughly catholic and conservative spirit, with the result of revealing to the present generation the work of Sigismund, first Abbot of Ostia. At the same time the later accretions, notably the lancet windows of the polygonal apse, and the late Perpendicular machicolations, have been reverently handled. The time at my disposal was insufficient to enable me to report fully on the preaching, reading, and singing, but the work seemed satisfactory on the whole. The crypt was very cold.
Remarks: The Dean and Chapter should seriously consider the advisability of warming all parts of the sacred edifice.
Such reports would be what my clerical friends call “distinctly helpful.” If there is any hesitation shown by the episcopal bench in taking it up, Baedeker might be appealed to. By degrees all important places of worship might be gathered in.
This, however, is visionary: I am concerned with the actual.
In framing the school reports “to be communicated to the managers,” we had several rough principles. The first was that a good school would do with a very few words: a bad school required many stripes. The second was that one should begin with the good points (if any), and thus proceed more gracefully to the bad points. But if the place were thoroughly bad, it was thought wise to begin and end with denunciation, sandwiching a few words of faint praise about the middle.
It was noticeable that a master liked to be prepared beforehand for a bad report. One man, of whom I knew something, complained bitterly that the Inspector “before leaving the room was as pleasant as you’d wish, and I thought everything was going well; but when I got the Report I couldn’t sit down for a week after it.” How graphic!
It happened from time to time that a school manager would be goaded into fury. At one time I expected this to occur twice, or it might be thrice, a year. It might almost certainly be predicted that the fight would rage round one adjective or one verb: though the word might be immaterial to the general argument.