afterwards Lord Winmarleigh, who up to the close of his long and useful life retained his affection for the Magdalen undergraduate of sixty years before, and delighted in the renewal of ancient ties, while a friend of more recent standing was Bishop Jacobson of Chester, with whom during the later years of the Lancashire life Mr. Durnford was brought into close relations in connection with the Chester Training College.

But it must not be supposed that Church work, either in the parish or in the diocese, absorbed the whole of Mr. Durnford's energies. In a parish like Middleton, where there were few resident gentry and no resident squire, the Rector perforce took a leading place, and was the guiding and controlling spirit in matters relating to the well-being of the town and district. On the Bench of Magistrates he never would consent to serve, thinking it better that the clergy should not be concerned with the administration of justice; but he was for years on the Board of Guardians, an office involving much disagreeable work in a Union which was both populous and large in extent, and among a people to whom the new Poor Law was so distasteful that the workhouse was always called in popular phrase the 'Bastile,' with some strange reference to the French prison, though the word had long ceased to have any meaning to those who used it. A still more important piece of secular work first engaged his attention in 1861, and till the close of his connection with Middleton took up no small part of his time.

From a mere village ruled by the Hall,' Middleton had developed into a large manufacturing town, factories had everywhere sprung up, and, though trade had suffered a temporary eclipse in the terrible years of the American Civil War, there were clear indications of that prosperity which was afterwards to advance by leaps and bounds.' Under these circumstances it was obviously necessary that the town should organise itself for local self-government, and that a proper authority should control such questions as roads, gas, drainage, and the like. Writing in 1861 to the Rev. George Hales, the Rector says:

'The busy heads of Middleton have framed a local Act, and last week I was in London to advise with lawyers and consult with M.P.s and generally forward the matter. To-morrow I have again to go up to appear before the committee. There is no

great or formidable opposition, but there is also no leading person to manage our business, hence the necessity of my coming forward rather out of my proper line. We might rub on without the Act, but as the movement is started it is best to direct it.'

The Act was in due course passed, and until his appointment to the see of Chichester Mr. Durnford was the Chairman of the New Commissioners. His reasons for accepting the position were fully explained in his last speech at Middleton.

'I feel that during my long residence here I may have given what some people may have thought too much time and too much labour to the material

interests of the place-I mean as Chairman of the Improvement Committee, or as Chairman of the Local Authority and other kindred offices. Certainly I did take a considerable amount of interest in business not directly connected with my high office, but not, on the other hand, opposed to it, because I believe that to advance the material interests of the people is as much the clergyman's duty as it is to watch over their spiritual welfare. I am sure that cleanliness is next to godliness, and am satisfied that without proper drainage, proper paving, water and light, cleanliness is a matter of impossibility. I know from sad experience what ravages fever used to commit in this district, and how even slight disorders were increased and engendered by the neglected drainage. drainage. All this as a clergyman I know, having to visit sick people, and many dying from typhus fever, family after family. Tracing the cause, I know perfectly well that it arose from the entire want of all the appliances for the promotion of health. That being the case, I think it was impossible as a Christian man that I should fold my arms or put my hands into my pockets, not to bring out money, but to keep them there. I say it was impossible to sit by and not give a helping hand to the material improvement of the place.

'That is my defence, and I hope I did not neglect what I freely confess are the higher duties to which I was more particularly bound, in common with all the clergy, in watching over the spiritual instruction and interests of the people. Now in these matters I have been greatly associated with all classes of men in this place, with the working men as with the middle classes, because the Local Board

of Surveyors consisted of a mixture of both these classes. I may say that in the Bill which was prepared I did provide that the working man should be represented as well as his richer neighbour, because I thought that the working man had a fair claim to such representation, and it was expressly provided for in the drawing up of the Bill. I have a belief in the integrity and in the ability of the working population of Lancashire, of Manchester, and of Middleton; inasmuch as the industry of the latter place is of a very high and refined characterthe silk industry-it tends to elevate their minds above the mere mechanical nature of the employments that prevail in this district generally. Now that you have well-drained streets, well-paved streets, well-lighted streets, you will not think that I stepped beyond my duties in endeavouring, in conjunction with many others, to promote these appliances which were so necessary to the health of the population.'

Twenty years afterwards, on one of his visits to his old Lancashire home, an address was presented to the Bishop of Chichester by the Mayor and Corporation of the newly incorporated borough of Middleton in recognition of the great advantages which had accrued to the town from the Bishop's connection with it as Chairman of the Commissioners.

Among these multifarious occupations, both ecclesiastical and secular, to which must be added the education of his two sons until they went to a public school, it might be supposed that Mr. Durnford had

not much time for social enjoyments, and indeed of society in the ordinary sense of the word there was but little at Middleton. But he was a man who did not allow himself to be crushed or unduly absorbed by his work; his mind was so active, his intellect so fresh, that he was incapable of being dull, and he had interests and amusements simple enough, but sufficient to prevent the disease of overwork telling on him, as it does on so many who allow themselves little or no recreation. Chief among those interests was gardening. A love of flowers and an extraordinary practical knowledge of botany had been one of the many advantages which had come from his country life as a boy, and the present writer remembers how, under the stress of a great and recent sorrow, the Bishop, then over eighty years of age, told him how great a consolation and resource the love of a garden had been to him through his whole life. The Rectory at Middleton, an old house spoilt by mean alterations, was surrounded by a large garden containing some fine beech trees, now rapidly succumbing to the influence of smoke and noxious vapours. Here the Rector exercised his favourite pursuit, and his two trusty gardeners, John Lawson and James Fitton, under his never-ceasing supervision grew with some success such flowers and fruits as the sandy soil and the wet and unkindly climate of South Lancashire allowed. In the annual Horticultural Show, and, later, in the Agricultural Show then held in the Rectory Field, he always took the greatest interest. Only second to his love