SIXTY YEARS IN SAME LIVING

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 April 1914, Page 7

SIXTY YEARS IN SAME LIVING

AMUSTXO RECOLLECTIONS OF A WATFORD VICAR. LONDON, February 21. A remarkable link between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries is provided bv the recent history of the living of St.* Mary's, Watford, where the Rev. Richard Lee' .Tames, following a predecessor who held the incumbency for over half a century, has himself reached his sixtieth vear as vicar, and, it may bo added, gives evidence of mental and physical vigor that fully explain the refus'al of his parishioners to hear of his resignation. m^ CAMBRIDGE WITHOUT NURSE- .. MAIDS. I In conversation, with a Daily News representative, Mr James, who keeps his eighty-sixth birthday to-day, ran back over half a dozen decades to his college nays in the later forties. Cambridge was a different place in those days, accesible only by coach, and—a curious contrast that has struck the vicar as he has gone back in later 'years—with no babies or nursemaids in the streets, because there were no married Fellows. Mr James has vivid recollections of the old town and gown rows, of which he wears an interesting relic on his finger. This is a massive signet ring, a family heirloom, which used to be in great demand ampng his undergraduate friends for use as a "knuckle-duster." . WATFORD PRIZE-FIGHTS. Watford itself has, of course, undergone many changes in the coarse of Mr •Tames' long incumbency. "It was" a busy little, country town." he said, "on Wailing Street,'-with'a number of inns, each the stopping place for one particular <tage coach. "About the beginning of rav time here they were cutting the Watford tunnel for th c railway, and a number of navvies were quartered here for many months. They were great boxers, and made a compact with the authorities that if they were allowed to box in the market place they would undertake to prevent any disorder elsewhere. ' Thc deal was struck, and the Watford prize-fights, for they were little else, . were famous for miles round." ... j A POSER, Mr James was examined before ordination by Archdeacon Jacob, father of the present Bishop, and recalls the question. "In the Bible is«a laugh always a iaugh?" "I realised." he said, "that there was a catch intended, and I answered after som™ reflection, 'Abraham's was a lancrh of faith, and Sarah's a lausrh of incredulity.' » replv which so pleased the examiner that all further catechism was forthwith waived." In such ponderous levity could the mid-Victorian mind find congenial relaxation. !