and livings.
We left the chapel, and ascending the great oaken staircase entered the
study. This is essentially a room for work. The book-shelves contain
some thousands of volumes--the only photo about the place is that of a
family group. In one corner of the room stands a tin box, in which are
three volumes of autographs, and the pages of these valuable volumes may
be gone through, and the autographs of nearly all the Archbishops and
Bishops of England for the last 200 years may be seen, including Juxon,
Bishop of London, who attended Charles I. on the scaffold. A book
containing photographs of the churches in the diocese reveals that
Bishop Longley--the first Bishop of Ripon--was of a distinctly practical
character. He started this ingenious index to the state of his churches.
As soon as any alteration is made in a place of worship it is
photographed. This shows the Bishop at a glance exactly how his churches
are progressing from an architectural point of view.

[Illustration: THE DRAWING-ROOM.

_From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry._]

The Bishop sat down, and it was whilst listening to much of the deepest
interest regarding his work that I noticed the Prelate more closely. He
is a trifle below the medium height, slightly whiskered, with iron-grey
hair curled all about his head and brow. His face is intensely kind, and
his every word and action suggestive of true and unaffected humility.
Indeed, it is this very humility that has prevented his work becoming
wider known. He is remarkably simple in his dress. Bishops, we know,
have opportunity of seeing the sad, and indeed the seamy side of
clerical life. If a man is a Bishop, he can still remain a brother. The
putting on of the lawn lessens not his love for, and interest in, the
young curate who only wears the linen surplice. He lives a quiet,
homely, simple life, though always hospitable to others. How could he do
otherwise, when he hears of cases like that of the poor cleric with a
wife and eight children, who, after preaching his Sunday sermon, returns
home to a meal of oatmeal gruel, and that meal would have been wanting
had not a kindly farmer given it to his shepherd?

The Bishop of Ripon has a diocese extending over a million acres and
numbering a million people. Between seventy and a hundred changes take
place every year. He travels much. He estimates he covers between 10,000
and 12,000 miles every year.

We spoke about preaching. On this subject the Bishop beli