Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/109

Rh "We had a gentleman with us who, being rather personally fearful, left us to pursue our own devices, which we did by calling and haranguing every separate family. We were in our usual luck as regards personal civility, which we received even from the worst of these creatures, some welcoming us to Botany Bay, others to Little Hell, as they themselves shockingly called it."

Gradually the work extended over an area of fifteen miles, and finally of twenty-eight, so that the summer Sundays of Hannah and Patty were like those of a modern Colonial clergyman during the thirty most active years of their lives. They generally rode, on account of the bad roads, to one or other of their villages in regular rotation to assist in the teaching, keep everything up to the mark, and go with the children to church, where such of the clergy as had been stirred by their efforts catechised the children. Sometimes they slept in the village and assisted at the evening meeting of the elders for instruction. There was one place, indeed, where this could not be kept up for want of someone who could read!

In July was held what was called the Mendip Feast, when a dinner of beef and plum pudding was given to the children from all the schools. Here is a description of one of these occasions:—

"The clergy of most of the parishes attended and led the procession. A baud of rustic music, a tribute