Page:Memoir of Edward Lord Bishop of Salisbury.djvu/14

10 attending them which formed a new era in the episcopate of Sarum.

At each of these consecrations the attendance of clergy as well as laity was very great, and the holy communion was invariably administered, and generally to large numbers of persons.

Sometimes at the close of the affecting service used in the consecration of churchyards, the Bishop would add a few words of grave but affectionate warning to the assembled people, words well calculated to leave an abiding impression upon those who heard them.

With each new church almost invariably sprung up a new school. In the extension and improvement of that material part of the spiritual training of the people, the holy rite of confirmation, the energy and devotion of the late Bishop were most conspicuous. Previously to the episcopate of Bishop Denison, Salisbury had been almost the only place to which the inhabitants of all South Wilts had been compelled to resort for confirmation; and those are yet living who remember the shocking and immoral results of conveying large numbers of both sexes considerable distances, who were often compelled to seek, not only refreshment, but a night's lodging on the road. Moreover, the Bishop's predecessors had held confirmations at uncertain intervals, and at a few particular and favoured places.

Bishop Denison determined to break through this