Page:Sketch of the old round church.djvu/5

354 life forms a most interesting and impressive link with the past, serving to remind us that "in the midst of life we are in death." In this quiet spot more serious thoughts naturally obtrude themselves, and we are for the moment transported "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife." In this connection it is worthy of note that the church-yard of Stoke Park, the seat of John Penn, Jr., near Windsor, in England, is the scene of Gray's immortal elegy, and the poet is there buried.

The "Old Round Church" had forty-two high-backed pews, similar to those in churches of that period, besides a gallery. Those in the two front rows were square, as well as high-backed, and were specially attractive, according to childish notions, since they offered more opportunity for play of a quiet order. For evening service, or whenever necessary, the church was lighted by candles held in tin sconces arranged as side-lights along the wall, and in cold weather the church was heated by stoves. The sexton performed his office for both Trinity and the First Presbyterian Church. His occupation is given in the 1815 directory as grave-digger, which lugubrious employment, as was customary, he combined with his duties as sexton. The parish being poor and struggling, it was the custom to send the rector's surplices to the houses of the different members of the congregation to be washed. One time he came to my informant's mother's on this errand, and the children gathering about him to hear what he had to say, for he was quite a character, she heard her mother ask him how he did, to which the little old Irishman replied, "Och! dull times, dear; I've not put a spade in the ground for I can't tell you whin." Such was his efficiency in this line that the proverbial query used to be, who would bury this son of Erin when he had buried everybody else.

The Rev. John Taylor was the first rector of Trinity Church. He came to Pittsburgh in 1797, and labored here for more than twenty years. He was familiarly and affectionately known as Father Taylor, and by the children as Pappy Taylor. Prior to the building of the "Old Round