Recollections of a Spinster Aunt Author:Spinster aunt General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1908 Original Publisher: W. Heinemann Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can se... more »lect from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV CONCERNING CHURCHES [the following letter is not dated, but it seems to possess sufficient internal evidence of having been written between 1856 and 1860 to another cousin, one Ann, who was living, by the direction upon the envelope, in the neighbourhood of Frome, Somerset. -- Ed.] Dear ' Sister Ann,' here am I coming with an amusing tale, or rather a chapter in the ecclesiastical history of the 19th Century. The Scene of my adventure -- the Church of St. Martin-in-the- Fields, Westminster; time, the Holy Season of Lent; Day of the Week, Wednesday, Midday. Office, the Litany. Placing myself, one of the necessary two or three in the Free Seats in the middle aisle, so as not to be imprisoned in the high pew of respectability, I caused much trouble to the mind of the white-capped pew opener, who came from her seat in the vestibule by the stove, her headgear somewhat awry, expressly to open the door of a pew, and motion me by the wave of her hand, to enter the same. Parson and clerkhad arrived at our wishful deliverance ' from pride and vain glory,' so I shook my head in negative fashion and remained on my knees. Then whispered she : ' We don't like to see the likes o' you in the free seats.' Naturally I suddenly became almost as petrified as the marble slabs upon the walls. And this reminds me of another experience. A short time ago I went to the consecration of Colonial Bishops in the Abbey. I dare say you read all about it except a particular part of the Abbey ritual. After the Offertory, there was a great stampede, but as I wished to stay to the end of th...« less