go out with them. It was here that he formed a very close and intimate
companionship with my sister Maggie, and came to rely much on her tender
sympathy and wise advice. He never returned to the Eton Mission.




IX

KEMSING AND MIRFIELD


The change proved very beneficial to Hugh; but it was then, with
returning health and leisure for reflection, that he began to consider
the whole question of Anglicanism and Catholicism. He describes some of
the little experiences which turned his mind in this direction. He
became aware of the isolation and what he calls the "provincialism" of
the Anglican Church. He saw many kinds of churches and varieties of
worship. He went on through the Holy Land, and at Jerusalem celebrated
the Communion in the Chapel of Abraham; at Damascus he heard with a sort
of horror of the submission of Father Maturin to Rome. In all this his
scheme of a religious community revived. The ceremonial was to be
Caroline. "We were to wear no eucharistic vestments, but full surplices
and black scarves, and were to do nothing in particular."

When he returned, he went as curate to Kemsing, a village in Kent. It
was decided that for the sake of his health his work must be light. The
Rector, Mr. Skarratt, was a wealthy man; he had restored the church
beautifully, and had organised a very dignified and careful musical
service. Hugh lived with him at the vicarage, a big, comfortable house,