The record-union., 1893-07-29


just as they were when they lodged the
true GENT of the lake district, Gray, Scott
and Wordsworth, Coleridge, DeQuincey
and Shelley, Southey, "Christopher
North" and Ruskin, Fitzgerald, Tenny-
son and DR.. Arnold, Harriet Martineau,
Charlotte Bronte and Mrs. Hemans, and
hosts OF others whose after-touch of brush
or pen has given all this lovely region
its most tender and imperishable charm
All this one may largely know before
coming, but only truly know and feel
when here, and that soft and gentle in
fiuence pervading all the fine old place,
which is largely of a later and different
growth than out of the spell put on the
town by the pens of the immortals, is
something one can almost comprehend
when sharing here its sunny actua lity.
Huddled closely as is the ancient town
along its single business thorough1are of
shops and inns, there is fine, brave face
OF modern fashioning even upon these
oldest babitations-a face of sunny well
come, one might say, frightened in count
less ways by pretty things and showings
OF modern luxury and use. The shadowy
old shops are CHEEKY from their neat
array OF London wares. The inns and
homes are prim and smart with flashing
brasses, rich curtainings and shining
varnlsh and paint. From street end to
end the long, crooked thoroughfare is
lovely In its groupings of color in lusci
GUS vegetables, fruits and flowers. While
leading out from this the lanes, courts
and broader streets of later days give
charming vlstas as one may find; mod
ern homes OF opulence, villas large and
ample, old habitations transformed to
new, and all set about in such wealth
of hedge, tree and flower as to tell a
CHEEKY, pleasant story OF Keswick folk
and town.
All these are things the travelled trav-
eler lnstinctively places by contrast at a
glance; but as | wandered up and down
The hne old street, seeking in vain for
place to lay my head during the night,
and at each inn or house of entertain
ment being met by the same commiser-
ating expressed word of Full o. tour
lsts," or Very last place taken by
'kes'lck movement folk" l could not
then quite understand the significance of
the 'kes'ick movement" or account for
kindliness of speech, gentleness of man
ner and tender hush that seemed to per-
wade all Keswick town, though every
street was filled with people. Indeed in
the halt-shadowy, stationery light which
came with the close of day, there was
such softness of football and such mod
ulation of activities and speech as seemed
to give the effect of throngs moving in a
dream.
The gay coach loads, announcing by
shrlll bugle notes and resounding horn
their return from a days outing in the
mountains, checked their vociterousness
as the town-edge was reached, and crept
quietly to the booking stations and inn
yards. The cyclists, shooting from the
nights on spheres of flash and speed, dis
mounted and walked to their lodgings
beside their cleaning wheels. The street
preachers. those windy religious black
guards OF summer evenings i'll all Eng
land towns, held the crowds around them
in respectable and subdued discourse:
and even those pansy- hooded wencEes of
the salvation Army, who are gathering
up the pennies of the poor in England at
the rate of nearly half million pounds
year, sounded their loud timbrels In
consonance with the pervading benig-
nant spell, and salaamed, pirouetted aud
ricocheted as though somewhat graceful in
grace. If it could be properly said of
ten thousand folk of all degree, to the
stranger keswick town seemed in
dreamful sort of purring ecstacy from be-
slowed, rather than anticipated. material
and spiritual content.
l noticed, too, as the evening advanced,
that at least half the folk upon the street
held in their hands folded slips of paper,
large folios like programmes, or tiny
bound copies of the Gospels, their pages
interspersed with pressed mountain
leaves ard flowers, or with ribbons, each
apparently at the place of some timely
text. Most of these folk gradually
changed the course of their various prom
enades to common direction. After a
time, partly from vagrant impulse, some-
thing from curious interest, largely be-
cause l knew not where else to go, and no
little from those emotions which are al
ways active in the wanderers breast from
something like homesick fervor for hu-
man companionship, even if every face
and form look haun oil I
followed the crowds through few squares
of the compact old town.
Just at its southern edge, where the
green sward dipped prettily to the water
way OF the romantic Greta stream, l at
last came with the latest comers to a huge
tent filled with, perhaps, five thousand
worShiperS, then engaged in prayer. |
crept into the place, secured an unoccu-
pied settle along the tent edge some dis
tance from the door, and StroVe with a
keenly awakened interest, to compre-
hend the exact significance of SO great
religious gathering in so remote a part of
England, and, with something like criti-
cal curiosity, to judge, if might, the real
spirit of an assemhlage composed, as could
be instantly discovered, of representa-
tives of widely divergent faiths and
creeds.
Straight opposite the entrance was a
broad, raised platform. Its central por-
ton was reserved for leaders and speak
ers, and large wing at either side was
filled with members of the choir. There
was naught else between the benches,
ranged arena-iike around the front and
ends, with their occupants, and the can
vas of the roof above. Plain to severity
was the place of this great convocation.
The services, purely of prayer and praise
in song, seemed equally free from the
many common articles for exciting ex-
infarnct ha
entire evening service a single ebullitlon
of those physical phenomena which often
attend certain conditions of religious
excitement. l never elsewhere heard
prayer in so softened tones. One might
almost Hken IL to barely audible aspi-
ration of spiritual longing for larger
peace through faith, rather than as in
many similar gatherings, startling ver-
bal argument with the Almighty for fail
ure In granting greater lung power. The
hymns were from collection called
Hymns of Conservation and Faith"
They spoke tenderly and devotedly those
two essentials to the perfect Christian life,
and those alone. 1t was as though an un-
broken and unutterable peace possessed
every one of those i've thousand souls.
From opening invocation to closing word
of blessing there was but one exalted,
peaceful strain sweetiy thrilling through
every human tone-"I am Thine and
Thou art miner' And then they went
away with calm or glowing faces into the
balmy summer night.
As the tent was being closed, not hav-
ing place to lay my head that night, | still
sat at the tent-edge on the old settle. A
half-dozen men and women came to me.
l attempted to explain that could not
secure lodging in keswick, though quite
able to pay my reckoning. They would
not hear me out. Their hearts were at
tuned to the spirit of the place and the
nrls Of thn IT, i