into a
large property by and by. Was there not an elder brother? Yes but there would be
so much that Theobald would probably get something very considerable. Of course
they would give dinner parties. And Mrs. Pontifex, what a charming woman she
was; she was certainly good looking; not exactly pretty perhaps, but then she
had such a sweet smile and her manner was so bright and winning. She was so
devoted too to her husband and her husband to her; they really did come up to
one's ideas of what lovers used to be in days of old; it was rare to meet with
such a pair in these degenerate times; it was quite beautiful etc., etc. Such
were the comments of the neighbours on the new arrivals.
    As for Theobald's own parishioners, the farmers were civil and the labourers
and their wives obsequious. There was a little dissent, the legacy of a careless
predecessor, but as Mrs. Theobald said proudly, »I think Theobald may be trusted
to deal with that.« The church was then an interesting specimen of late Norman
with some early English additions. It was what in these days would be called in
a very bad state of repair, but forty or fifty years ago few churches were in
good repair; if there is one feature more characteristic of the present
generation than another it is that it has been a great restorer of churches.
    Horace preached church restoration in his ode,
 
Delicta majorum immeritus lues,
Romane, donec templa refeceris
Aedesque labentes deorum et
Foeda nigro simulacra fumo.
 
Nothing went right with Rome for long together after the Augustan age, but
whether it was because she did restore the temples or because she did not
restore them I know not. They certainly went all wrong after Constantine's time,
and yet Rome is still a city of some importance.
    I may say here that before Theobald had been many years at Battersby he
found scope for useful work in the rebuilding of Battersby church, which he
carried out at considerable cost, towards which he subscribed liberally himself.
He was his own architect, and this saved expence; but architecture was not very
well understood about the year 1834, when Theobald commenced operations, and the
result is not as satisfactory as it would have been if he waited a few years
longer.
    Every man's work whether it be literature, or music, or pictures, or
architecture, or anything else is always a portrait of himself, and the more he
tries to conceal himself the more clearly will his character appear in spite of
him. I may very likely be