Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/315

 PREBENDARY WEBB-PEPLOE, M.A. 271

during the last quarter of a century, Prebendary Webb-Peploe ? &quot;

&quot; Well, I am not aware that there is anything very special to speak of the work, under God, has been much the same as in a good many other parishes. You ought to know that my faithful workers are engaged in two distinct spheres, namely, the parish proper, and two districts affiliated from poor Chelsea parishes, and this I consider a most happy arrangement, for to my mind it is essential to all spiritual development, among

the well-to-do, that they should have a field of labour found for them ; unless that is done they are apt to become merely fashionable so-called worshippers, who attend Church without any definite results. There must be a field for their spiritual energy, or it decreases very rapidly. When I came here I found not only that the church had been built under peculiar conditions, but that the parish had been conducted on lines which to us of the last quarter of a century would appear, at any rate, unusual. The church had been built in 1860 by Sir Charles Freake, for the Rev. Capel Molyneux, in the midst of houses which Sir Charles (then Mr) was running up as a speculation. When he asked Mr Molyneux what he wanted as to the style of church, he replied characteristically for him, I want a great preaching box that is my desire, and there was built for him as ugly a church as could be imagined, with seats for 1800 people. Although

�� �