He
held, however, that the Protestant Episcopal Church, as established in
England, as disestablished in Scotland, for he never would separate
them, was in all its belongings the most desirable, its service the
most decent.
1858 was a sad year for the Dean. Mrs. Ramsay had been very ill, and
sinking in strength and spirit visibly, till, on the 23d July the
afflicted husband makes this entry:--"It pleased God to visit me with
the deep and terrible affliction of taking away my friend, companion,
and adviser of twenty-nine years." It was a heavy blow, and for a time
it seemed to paralyse the Dean. This journal, never regular, becomes
from this time quite broken.
Looking back from this point, which to the Dean seemed the end of
happiness, he could acknowledge how duty supplied the place of pleasure.
He was grateful also for many mercies. In one respect he was singularly
fortunate. His Bishop and he, I may say during all the time he served in
St. John's, were cordially of the same way of thinking. Bishop Terrot
was indeed a very different man from himself, but in the relations of
Bishop and Dean they were very happy. The Dean wrote a little memoir of
Bishop Terrot, which he published in the _Scottish Guardian_ (May 15,
1872), where he prints the remarkable letter from the Bishop to himself,
answering the question why he declined communion with Mr. Drummond, and
ending with the sentence--"These are matters of _ecclesiastical police_
which each local church has a right to manage in its own way, subject to
the law of the Catholic Church, i.
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