Untitled - Electric Scotland

1852-56] RESTORATION OF CATHEDRAL 179
universal testimony to have been something strangely
attractive not to their parents only, but even to the least
emotional of guests or strangers in the group of little
daughters who made music and sunshine in the old
Deanery.
At the same time it may be doubted whether either
the Dean or Mrs. Tait ever thoroughly enjoyed their
Carlisle life. To a mind like his, which at all times found
its pleasure rather in the action and intercourse of life than
in close study or retirement, Carlisle presented a very
marked contrast to either Rugby or Oxford. Had he
anticipated after his Rugby illness that his health would
ever again be what it soon became, it is probable that
he would have declined the Deanery. But once there
he set himself with determination to face the task before
him. A few extracts, taken almost at random from the
diaries and letters of those years, will perhaps give a
truer picture than even the reminiscences of friends can
furnish.
Diary.
"Saturday Evening, $\st August 1850. To-day
is the meet
ing of Rugby. Seeing Shairp pass in the express, I have thought
much of that dear place. O, my God, grant a blessing on it, and
on all who labour in it. How strange it seems to be sitting here
while so many are hurrying up there. The place that knew me
knows me no more. . . . Chalmers Life, which I have been read
ing to-night, reminded me forcibly of the great and holy work that
lies upon me here. Arnold s, which I have also been reading, re
calls how little I was able to do at Rugby as he did it. But,
without greater vigour than for the last two years I have possessed,
I could not have hoped to improve the system there, and there
fore I must think that my work there was better ended. Certainly
in this place, if God give me grace, and I work in the spirit of
prayer, I am able to do what has not been done before. Lord,
strengthen me for this great work. This Cathedral has never neon
what it ought to be. At Rugby I came to a system which had