Tasteful and elegant in its proportions,
it presented a picturesque and attractive appearance. There, once on
each Sunday, the service of the Church of England was read, together
with a brief discourse by a clergyman of that order.
Behind the chapel, and near the top of the hill, was a large stone
cottage surrounded by pretty grounds and with ample stable
conveniences. It was the Rectory.
The Chapel and Rectory had been built and the clergyman was sustained,
at a somewhat large cost, by the Establishment, for the purpose of
enlightening and Christianizing the population of the parish of ----.
Unfortunately, the incumbent was not the self-sacrificing person
needed to elevate such a community. Though ministering at the altar of
God, he had no true religious feeling, no disinterested love for men.
He was simply a man of the world, a _bon vivant_, a horse jockey and
sportsman, who consoled himself in the summer and autumn for his exile
in that barbarous region, by filling his house with provincial
friends, who helped him while away the time in fishing, hunting, and
racing. The winter months, he usually spent at Fredericton, and
during that interval no service was held in the chapel. Of late, the
few, who were in the habit of attending the formal worship there, had
forsaken it for the more animating services held in the Grove.
Not only the habitual church-goers, but the people of the parish at
large, began to feel the magnetizing influence, and were drawn towards
the same spot.
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