Voici, Monsieur, ce que le T. R. P. Général, m'écrit de sa maison de Rome le 10 Juin:
'Je désire bien que M. Hope sache combien j'ai été consolé à la bonne nouvelle.—Jamais je ne l'avois oublié—il m'avoit inspiré tant d'intérét!'
Pour ne point oublier non plus, je vous demande la permission de vous dire ici que le R. P. Provincial d'Angleterre a accueilli, avec le plus grand désir de vous satisfaire, la prière que vous avez bien voulu me communiquer, d'établir un de nos Pères chez vous en Écosse. Le P. Etheridge, provincial actuel, doit arriver demain à Londres.
Ce matin nous étions tous heureux près de cet autel. Bénissons le Seigneur de tant de grâces.
Veuillez agréer toutes mes tendres et profondes sympathies in Xto Jesu.
X. DE RAVIGNAN, S.J.
Londres: 16 Juin 1851.
The chapel at Selkirk, dedicated to Our Lady and St. Joseph, was a purchase of Mr. Hope-Scott's.
The mission of Kelso, where he built the Church of the Immaculate Conception, would furnish many instructive pages for a history of the re- settlement of the Catholic Church in those very desolate regions. A letter of the Rev. Patrick Taggart,[Footnote: Compare page 193 of this volume.] to Mr. Hope-Scott, dated Hawick, September 3, 1853, contains some details which, in connection with later events at Kelso, are full of interest. They show how deeply felt is the spiritual isolation of such localities, and how unexpectedly great is the number of Catholics often to be found in them, left to themselves. Father Taggart first speaks of the great kindness which he had received from Sir George and Lady Douglas, of Springwood Park, near Kelso, and then goes on to say:—
Lady Douglas is a genuine Catholic, just as a daughter of old Catholic Spain should be. Her sister is staying with her just now…. I think they do not like the idea of attending Divine service in a public hall. I told them that Father Cooke would be delighted to afford them any assistance in his power under present circumstances. I also told them that I thought that, if possible, a small church would be built at Kelso in the meantime; and that the time was not far distant when perhaps the Bishop would be able to give to Kelso a resident priest. This news so delighted them that they could not find words to express their joy…. I do not know of any part of this district that is at present more destitute of the ministrations of a priest than Kelso and its environs. The mission extends twenty miles north- east of Kelso—that is, forty miles from Galashiels and from Hawick; and there is not a village in that, I might almost say, immense tract of country that does not contain its ten and twenty poor Irish Catholics. I attended Kelso, once in the month, for nearly five years, and I am the first priest who offered up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at Kelso since the days of the so-called Reformation. I therefore know its geography and its wants….