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Updated: June 3, 2025
He was holding The Blackstable Times in front of the fire. It had come in that evening damp from the press, and the Vicar always aired it for ten minutes before he began to read. "What passage is that?" he asked. "Why, this about if you have faith you can remove mountains." "If it says so in the Bible it is so, Philip," said Mrs. Carey gently, taking up the plate-basket.
He still looked upon Christianity as a degrading bondage that must be cast away at any cost; it was connected subconsciously in his mind with the dreary services in the cathedral at Tercanbury, and the long hours of boredom in the cold church at Blackstable; and the morality of which Athelny spoke was to him no more than a part of the religion which a halting intelligence preserved, when it had laid aside the beliefs which alone made it reasonable.
The only man who had a bathroom in Blackstable was Mr. Wilson, and it was thought ostentatious of him. Mary Ann had her bath in the kitchen on Monday night, because she liked to begin the week clean. Uncle William could not have his on Saturday, because he had a heavy day before him and he was always a little tired after a bath, so he had it on Friday. Mrs.
Barker of Roxley Farm, over by Blackstable Church, and I used to go and stay there often when I was a girl. Isn't that a funny thing now?" She looked at him with a new interest, and a brightness came into her faded eyes. She asked him whether he knew Ferne.
He thought of the collects and epistles which he had been made to learn by heart, and the long services at the Cathedral through which he had sat when every limb itched with the desire for movement; and he remembered those walks at night through muddy roads to the parish church at Blackstable, and the coldness of that bleak building; he sat with his feet like ice, his fingers numb and heavy, and all around was the sickly odour of pomatum.
They were generally dressed in black, for in Philip's early years at Blackstable homespuns had not reached East Anglia, and the ladies of the clergy did not favour colours. Their hair was done very untidily, and they smelt aggressively of starched linen. They considered the feminine graces unbecoming and looked the same whether they were old or young. They bore their religion arrogantly.
He heard that his father's extravagance was really criminal, and it was a mercy that Providence had seen fit to take his dear mother to itself: she had no more idea of money than a child. When Philip had been a week at Blackstable an incident happened which seemed to irritate his uncle very much.
It was a pretty village about ten miles across country from Blackstable, and the Vicar had come over sometimes to Blackstable for the harvest thanksgiving. She mentioned names of various farmers in the neighbourhood.
There was a new man at Blackstable he had been settled there for ten years, but they still looked upon him as an interloper and he was said to be very clever; but he had not much practice among the better people, because no one really knew anything about him. "Oh, he's as well as can be expected," said Dr. Wigram in answer to Philip's inquiry. "Has he got anything seriously the matter with him?"
"I hope you'll be able to stay with your uncle a while," he said. "I don't think he ought to be left alone just yet." "I haven't made any plans," answered Philip. "If he wants me I shall be very pleased to stay." By way of cheering the bereaved husband the churchwarden during dinner talked of a recent fire at Blackstable which had partly destroyed the Wesleyan chapel.
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