Algar, Mr. John
Sheppard, and some friends of the neighbouring gentlemen and clergy. In
these conversations books were read and criticised, theological and
other subjects, including some politics, were discussed. Ramsay was
quizzed for Whiggish tendencies. The mistress of the house usually
joined and set them right in politics, for she had been brought up in
Plymouth during the French war, and had learned the old-fashioned Tory
doctrine, and to think any other politics sinful. But all those high
subjects of politics and religion were discussed with fitting respect;
for that society--young and old--had a deep sense of religion, and the
parents encouraged the younger members to visit and instruct the workmen
and their families who were employed in the large cloth manufactories of
the Sheppards; so that it came to pass that every man, woman, and child
was taught or helped to teach others, for in those days very few of the
working-people, at least in that part of England, could read at all. A
lending library was attached to the mills. A large Sunday school was
formed, chiefly for the children of the workpeople, and additional
services were undertaken by the curate--a second sermon on Sundays
besides one on Thursday evenings, where the families of the
neighbourhood attended, and as many of the servants as could be spared.
There, be sure, was no big talk on the primary obligation of orthodoxy,
no attempts to proselytise.
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