and George Borrow, at its
grammar-school, fitted himself for the romance of his future life. In a
city thus given to thought were required, in the pulpit, men of superior
power--especially in the Dissenting pulpit; for, while the clergyman of
the Establishment can say "Hear the Church!" his Dissenting brother can
only say "Hear me!" and that he must say to people, the condition of
whose existence is free thought.

At Norwich, Mr. Kinghorn, it was considered, was equal to his post, and
held it long. He gathered around him a congregation rich and
intelligent. He instilled into their minds the strictest principles of
Baptism. To their communion-table none were to be admitted--no matter
how pure their creed, how consistent their life, how Christian their
heart--unless they had been the subject of water immersion. It seems
strange that men should ever have quarrelled about such trifling matters;
and yet to their heaven Mr. Kinghorn and his flock would admit none but
the totally baptised. (If sectarians had their own way, what a place
this world would be!) But, in time, Mr. Kinghorn obeyed the common law
and died, and the church had to seek out a successor.

After several ministers had preached on probation, the choice fell upon
the Rev. William Brock--then, I believe, a student fresh from the Baptist
College at Stepney. The choice was a happy one. The cause prospered,
the church increased, the place was enlarged, and still the pews were
full. It was considered a great treat to hear Mr. Brock. Of course the
female sex fluttered round the new pastor. Of course the gentlemen
fluttered round them. An air of taste pervaded the chapel. It was
called "the fashionable watering-place."

But this was not to last for ever: a time was coming when the pastor
would be removed. Amongst the great railway contractors, one of them, it
seems, was a Baptist, and an M.P. Sir M. Peto--for it is he to whom I
allude--became M.P. for Norwich, and bought an estate in the
neighbourhood. This naturally led to his connection with Mr. Brock, and
this connection led to Mr. Brock's removal to London. In the immediate
neighbourhood of the baronet's residence, Russell Square, there was no
popular Baptist preacher. To go every Sunday to Devonshire Square, where
the _elite_ of the Baptists did congregate, was a long and dreary ride.
It were far better that the mountain should come to Mahomet than that
Mahomet should go to the mountain. S