clesiastical-looking place of worship in London; and the observances
of the Parish Church at Hickleton--their country home near
Doncaster--were not calculated to inspire a delight in the beauty
of holiness. However, when quite a boy, Charles Wood, who had been
confirmed at Eton by Bishop Wilberforce, found his way to St. Barnabas,
Pimlico, then newly opened, and fell much under the influence of
Mr. Bennett at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, and Mr. Richards, at All
Saints', Margaret Street. At Oxford he became acquainted with Dr.
Pusey and the young and inspiring Liddon, and frequented the services
at Merton College Chapel, where Liddon used often to officiate. By
1863 his religious opinions must have been definitely shaped; for
in that year his old tutor, William Johnson, when paying a visit
to Hickleton, writes as follows:

"He told me of Mr. Liddon, the saintly and learned preacher; of
the devout worshippers at All Saints', whose black nails show they
are artisans; of the society formed to pray daily for the restoration
of Christian unity."

And again:

"His father and mother seem to gather virtue and sweetness from
looking at him and talking to him, though they fight hard against
his unpractical and exploded Church views, and think his zeal
misdirected.... And all the while his mother's face gets brighter
and kinder because she is looking at him. Happy are the parents
who, when they have reached that time of life in which the world is
getting too strong and virtue is a thing of routine, are quickened
by the bold, restless zeal of their sons and daughters, and so
renew their youth."

In 1866 he was induced by his friend Mr. Lane-Fox, afterwards Chancellor
of the Primrose League, to join the English Church Union.

"At that time," he writes, "I was much concerned with the affairs
of the House of Charity in Soho and the Newport Market Refuge.
1866 was the cholera year, and I recollect coming straight back
from Lorne's[*] coming of age to London, where I saw Dr. Pusey,
with the result that I set to work to help Miss Sellon with her
temporary hospital in Commercial Street, Whitechapel."

[Footnote *: Afterwards Duke of Argyll.]

In this connexion it is proper to recall the devoted services which
he rendered to the House of Mercy at Horbury, near Wakefield; and
those who know what religious prejudice was in rural districts
forty years ago will realize the value of the support accorded to
an institution struggling agai