[Illustration]

By half past ten the congregation had assembled within the Church; and
every side-chapel (I think about twelve in number) began to be filled by
the penitent flocks: each bringing, or hiring, a rush-bottomed chair--with
which the churches are pretty liberally furnished, and of which the _Tarif_
(or terms of hire) is pasted upon the walls. There were, I am quite sure,
full eighteen women to one man: which may in part be accounted for, by the
almost uniform absence of a third of the male population occupied in the
fisheries. I think there could not have been fewer than two thousand souls
present. But what struck me as the most ludicrously solemn thing I had ever
beheld, was a huge tall figure, dressed like a drum-major, with a large
cocked hat and three white plumes, (the only covered male figure in the
congregation,) a broad white sash upon a complete suit of red, including
red stockings;--representing what in our country is called a _Beadle_. He
was a sturdy, grim-looking fellow; bearing an halberd in his right hand,
which he wielded with a sort of pompous swing, infusing terror into the
young, and commanding the admiration of the old. I must not, however, omit
to inform you, that half the service was scarcely performed when the
preacher mounted a pulpit, with a black cap on, and read a short sermon
from a printed book. I shall long have a distinct recollection of the
figure and attitude of the _Verger_ who attended the preacher. He followed
him to the pulpit, fastened the door, became stationary, and rested his
left arm over the railings of the stairs. Anon, he took out his snuff-box
with his right hand, and regaled himself with a pinch of snuff in the most
joyous and comfortably-abstracted manner imaginable. There he remained till
the conclusion of the discourse; not one word of which seemed to afford him
half the satisfaction as did the contents of his snuff-box.