children for engulphing or baptismal purposes; but they care little
for its use when the teens have been trotted through. It may be
right enough for the physical and religious comfort of babes and
sucklings; but its virtues recede in the ratio of development. There
are, however, some sections of men and women in the town who,
symbolically at least, have a high regard for water at any time
after the years of sense and reason have been reached.

These are the Baptists. There are four or five chapels set apart for
their improvement in Preston, and the smartest of these is in
Fishergate. In Leeming-street it was in the chrysalis state; in
Fishergate the butterfly epoch has been reached. A dull, forlorn
looking edifice, afterwards taken advantage of by the Episcopalian
party, and now cleared off to make way for St. Saviour's church,
once formed the sacred asylum of a portion of the Baptists; but a
desire for better accomodation, combined with a wish for more
fashionable quarters, induced a change. The dove was repeatedly sent
out, and dry land was finally found for the Baptists in Fishergate.
In 1858 a chapel was erected upon the spot, and thus far it has
steadfastly maintained its position. It is a handsome building,
creditable to both the architect and the congregation, and if its
tower were less top heavy, it would, in its way, be quite superb. We
never look at that solemn tower head without being reminded of some
immense quadrangular pepper castor, fit for a place in the kitchen
of the Titans. In every other respect the building is arranged
smartly; if anything it is too ornamental, and in making a general
survey one is nearly afraid of meeting with Panathenaic frieze work.
On the principle that you can't have the services of a good piper
without paying proportionately dear for them, so you can't obtain a
handsome chapel except by confronting a long bill. The elysium of