Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/39

Rh is 863,970 acres, and the population, roughly speaking, a million.”

“Your Cathedral is one of the most ancient in the country, is it not?”

“Yes,” was his lordship's prompt response, and, to show the changes which it has undergone, he straightway fetched from an adjacent apartment a series of interesting sketches representing the Cathedral first in a state of ruin, then with a church built within the original foundations, and, in the third place, the fully-restored Cathedral. “The Bishopric of Llandaff,” he proceeded, “is the oldest of all the Welsh Bishoprics, founded, as I have said, early in the sixth century. When I came into the Diocese, eighteen years ago, I found a terrible lack of church accommodation. My first work was to set on foot a fund, which was given the name of the Bishop of Llandaff's Fund, for the purpose of erecting inexpensive churches in the midst of the great coal populations, and for assisting in the provision of stipends for additional curates. I asked for £50,000, which sum has now been obtained.”

“But is it not a fact that your predecessor, Bishop Ollivant, raised large sums in the interest of the Church?”

The Bishop assented. “When Bishop Ollivant came into the Diocese, in 1849, one of his first works was to set on foot the Llandaff Church Extension Society, the object of which was similar