Page:An Old English Home and Its Dependencies.djvu/123

Rh of sea-sickness, came over the right reverend father, and he feared that in another turn his knees would be level with the edge of the pulpit. He became giddy. By this time the incumbent of the church had discovered what was in process, and precipitated himself into the vestry, threw himself on the crank, and worked it backwards with a vigour truly admirable, but with the result that he spun the bishop round in reverse order to that in which he had gone up, as he let him down to a suitable level. As I heard the story, I learned that on this occasion the eloquence of Samuel Wilberforce deserted him. How far the tale is true, I am not in a position to say. I tell the tale as it was current at the time. A certain fluent pulpit orator, a great luminary in his theological school, had a spring contrivance at the back of his pulpit, into which he could throw himself, and in which he could sway his body from side to side. The trumpet mouths in connection with