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CHAPTER XII

PREBENDARY WEBB-PEPLOE, M.A.

Vicar of St Paul’s, Onslow Square.

QUARTER OF A CENTURY IN THE WEST END.

“Let us then be up and doing
    With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
    Learn to labour and to wait.”—Longfellow.

Recognition of Twenty-five Years Service At Cheltenham and Cambridge—Successful but Unfortunate Athlete—Decrease in Tithe and Poverty among the Clergy—Dearth of Clergy—Tendency of Modern Fashions—The Clergyman and Society—Possible Relations between Church and Nonconformity.

Both in London and the provinces Prebendary Webb-Peploe is well-known as one of the most notable preachers in the Church of England, and as a leader of Evangelical thought, prominently identified with the National Protestant Church Union. He is, in fact, to London and the South of England what the Venerable Archdeacon Taylor, D.D., is to Liverpool and the north, and the two men hold many views in common.

Little needs to be said in the narrative, except as regards the Prebendary's early life, because for the last quarter of a century he has been devotedly attached to St Paul's, Onslow Square, and about this much light is shed in the dialogue. Let it be