Untitled - Electric Scotland

534 I IFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvm.
distant relative, the small estate of Stonehouse, in the Isle
of Thanet.
"
This home," he writes,
"
was intended as a refuge from the
almost overwhelming work and anxieties of the diocese of London.
It had been an established and necessary rule that the Bishop
of London should escape from his labours and out of his diocese
for a considerable vacation every year ; without this alleviation,
no human constitution could stand the pressure of the constant
work. Hitherto we had wandered in our vacations from one
spot to another. It seemed better now, as an opportunity
presented itself, to secure a fixed vacation-home to which our
children and ourselves might always together turn, and where
we might all together carry on our home pursuits without the
interruption of seeking a new residence each season. \Ve had
no thought then in entering on 1868 that it was to be the last
year of our connection with the See of London, and that the
place in which we settled our private home was in the new
diocese to which I was so soon to be called." 1
Diary.
"STONEHOUSE, Sunday, \st Novr. (All Saints Day} 1868.-
Preached at Broadstairs. What events in so short a time !
Tuesday evening I learned from Mr. Hodgson how ill the Arch
bishop of Canterbury was, . . . and by \Vednesday (Oct. 28th)
at noon, the flags half-mast high and the tolling bells announced
to the Thanet part of his diocese that he had gone to his rest. . . .
"
STONEHOUSE, Sunday, $>th Nwr.
On Tuesday (Nov. 3) 1
attended the dear Archbishop s funeral at Addington, returning
here at night. A sad sight, that large family party following his
coffin to the little church. . . . To-day I preached at Ramsgate.
The newspapers
. Archbishopric.
all the turmoil.
and all letters full of speculations as to the
. . We are very quiet down here, away from
God will guide those who have to act for the
Church. . . . With the decease of the second Archbishop with
whom I have served on the Bench, I seem to enter on a third
stage of my Episcopate. Whether it be short or long, O Lord,
grant that it may be spent with a single eye to Thy glory
1 Catliarine and Cranfurd Tait t pp. 60, 61,
and to