It is true that
he did not like the Abbey, as it was still called, of which the
associations and architectural beauty made no appeal to him, and
thought often with affection of the lodging-house-like abode in which
he had dwelt in his southern seaport town amid the Victorian
surroundings that were suited to his Victorian nature. The glorious
church, too, irritated him, partly because it was so glorious, and
notwithstanding all that the Reformation had done to mar it, so
suggestive of papistical practice and errors, and partly because the
congregation was so scanty in that great expanse of nave and aisle, to
say nothing of the chancel and sundry chapels, that they looked like a
few wandering sheep left by themselves in a vast and almost emptied
fold. Nor was this strange, seeing that the total population of the
parish was but one hundred and forty-seven souls.

Of his squire and patron he saw but little. Occasionally Mr. Blake
attended church and as lay-rector was accommodated in an ugly oak box
in the chancel, where his big body and florid countenance reminded
Godfrey of Farmer Johnson's prize polled ox in its stall. These state
visits were not however very frequent and depended largely upon the
guests who were staying for the week-end at the Hall. If Mr. Blake
discovered that these gentlemen were religiously inclined, he went to
church. If otherwise, and this was more common, acting on his principle
of being all things to all men, he stopped away.

Personally he did not bother his head about the matter which, in
secret, he looked upon as one of the ramifications of the great edifice
of British cant. The vast majority of people in his view went to
church, not because they believed in anything or wished for instruction
or spiritual consolation, but because it looked respectable, which was
exactly why he did so himself. Even then nearly always he sat alone in
the oak box, his visitors generally preferring to occupy the pew in the
nave which was frequented by Lady Jane and Isobel.

Nor did the two often meet socially since their natures were
antipathetic. In the bosom of his family Mr. Blake would refer to Mr.
Knight as the "little parson rat," while in his bosom Mr. Knight would
think of Mr. Blake as "that bull of Bashan." Further, after some
troubles had arisen about a question of tithe, also about the upkeep of
the chancel, Blake discovered that beneath his meek exterior the
clergyman had a strong will and very clea