Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/180

Rh the new rooms that had been built for it, and to enlarge the mission-room to hold 400. By the middle of November, 1882, this room was crowded, nearly 500 people attending every Sunday evening, the people sitting all up the aisles, and a number standing. I had a plan made for enlarging this room, but the difficulties in the way of doing so were very great, because it stood in close proximity to the new day-school, and any enlargement would take away the light from the windows of the school. The day-school itself was also crowded, and I was in great doubt as to what was the proper thing to do under the circumstances. The mission-room was heated by hot-air flues passing under the aisles; and after service on the 26th November, 1882, when the room had been terribly over-crowded and exceedingly hot, a fire broke out in the night, and the whole building was burned to the ground.

A policeman who passed on his rounds at midnight stated that he saw no signs of fire; but about three o'clock in the morning, the driver of one of the Cornish pumping-engines, looking out of the window of his engine-house, saw the mission-room alight from end to end. The alarm was immediately given, but the fire had already a complete hold of the room. All the seats and the roof were of pitch-pine, and in less than an hour the roof fell in and the room was destroyed. All the books and the American organ were destroyed with it.

I had already leased three acres of land, closely