THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2807, 12 February 1878, Page 3

THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.

(EttOSI THE SPOHTINO OAZETTE.)

I hear of sad scandals among tho clergy at Tonbridge Wells. la tho one case a High Churchman is tho culprit, and he has decamped; in the other a Low Churchman is the offender, and he Las gone raving mad. If there bo a 13ro:ul Church parson at that charming watering place how difficult ho must flnd it to refrain from a Pharisaical chuckle! At Bath, too, there has been a curious clerical scandal, bnt in this case it is ft Roman Catholic clergyman who is tho principal actor. A well-bred, gentlemanly stranger, who described himself as a member of the Benedictine Order on a visit to this country from California, contrived to worm himself into the confidence of an eminent Eoman Catholic priest there— assisted at the services^ enjoyed the worthy priest's hospitality, and finally bolted with £50 in notes and gold. A local newspaper winds up its report of the affair with this naive remark : —" At the railway station from which he departed he gave liberal presents to the officials and freely imbibed liquor." After this is it neexssary to inform anyone who has sturWed tho reports of the trial of the detectives that " No trace of the thief has yet been discovered." The story of this swindle reminds me of an incident which happened some years ago whilst I was staying in a Manx watering-place. A clergyman came over on a visit, and hearing that one of the resident clergy was short-handed, in consequence of the absence of his curate, offered to belp in the service on Sunday. The offer was accepted, and the stranger read the lessons and prayers. He was a man of striking appearance, and a remarkably fine reader. The following Sunday he offered to preach, and again the offer was accepted. The stranger proved to be as fine a preacher as he was reader. The congregation were enchanted with his eloquence. The vicar saw that no had got hold of a man of no ordinary ability, so he asked him to preach again. He did so, and again the congregation was enraptured. The fame of his eloquence spread, and the members of other congregations flocked to hear him/ Amongst the very last who were enticed from their own pastors by curidsity to hear the wonderful preacher was the fashionable tailor of the town. He went and heard, and was astonished by the eloquence of the stranger, but with his astonishment there was mingled a feeling that the sermon he had listened 'to was somehow familiar to him, as if he had heard it before, and not so very long ago. In rain he racked his brain to solve the problem. At Jast he gave it up. After dinner, as he was smoking the post-prandial weed, he took up a number of Good Words which was lying on the table. He turned over the leaves carelessly, then suddenly started. Could he believe his eyes ? Yes; there was no doubt, the mystery was solved, the sermon he had heard in the morning was word for word the same with one of Dr Guthrie's sermons printed in Good Words. He thought it strange, and resolved to make inquiries next day. But it was too late, the eloquent stranger left by the steamer on the following morning with his lodging-bill and a few others unpaid. Very soon it transpired that the admired preacher was not even a member of the "cloth," but simply a strolling actor who had played the part of parson with immense success for some weeks to crowded houses. It was a humiliating blow to the unhappy vicar whose pulpit the audacious histrionic had profaned, and to the curious church* goers who had forsaken their own pastors and flocked to listen to the stranger's enthralling oratory. And I rembember how shamefaced one congregation looked on the Sunday following the exposure, when their pastor, a grim High Churchman, preached to them a terribly ironical sermon from the text, " O, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?"- .... Turn we, then, to the more congenial field of social matters. To commence at the top of the tree, I have just been favoured with a private account of the recent revels at Balmoral. The description of the Eoyal ball to the servants, tenants, and gillies did not interest me, and will not, I am sure, interest my readers, so I will pass that by. But the celebration of Hallowe'en must have been striking and picturesque. There was a torchlight procession to the bonfire, in which (the procession, not the bonfire) nearly 400 persons- took part. Thd Queen's piper headed the array, and the Queen herself, the Princess of Wales';''"and- the Princess Beatrice, each bearing a torch, brought up the rear. When the huge pile of furze and faggots was reached the three Eoyal peraonages advanced and set fire to the mass, which soon kindled into a splendid blaze. A general breakdown, or Highland fling, was then danced round the flames to the screel of the pipes, but in this part of the performance Her Majesty, at any rate, did not join. Then came the masquerade procession bearing the witch, whose effigy commemorates Meg with the "cutty Bark" whose indignation at Tarn o'

Shanter's allusion to her attire cost his ~- mare her tail. The witch having been duly consigned to the flames, a dance upon the green ensued, and even the chill October night air failed * to damp the ardour of the dancers, who kept the sport up till " the wee sma' hour ayont the twalV And if you do not think that is a pretty picture of Eoyalty unbending I think you must be very hard to please.