grounding in elementary subjects. My next teacher was an old Bluecoat schoolboy, and although I did not think much of his teaching at the time, when at thirteen years of age I went to London I found myself fully able to hold my own amongst my new schoolfellows.

"As a lad I never was much at games, and I taught myself chemistry, making many simple experiments. In after years botany had a charm for me, and I followed it simply for the pleasure of the pursuit. For many years botany has served the place of athletics, and draws me out of myself. In the search for interesting specimens one has to climb and walk pretty freely, and this is a good substitute for constitutional exercise . .

"My real intellectual awakening came when I went to Glasgow University, during the three years I studied there from about my seventeenth year. This awakening came, not so much along the line I was studying as in collateral subjects. In the Latin class the passages from English literature given me to translate really impressed me more than the Latin books we read. Then logic and metaphysics added their quickening power; whilst outside the classwork I had intercourse with University men who became well known-Professor Nichol; J. M. Ross, who edited the 'Globe Encyclopædia'; and James Brown, of Paisley, the author of 'The Scottish Probationer,' &c. There was great literary and intellectual activity in this circle, and it stimulated my own love of literature.

"When I was seventeen I went for four months in the summer from Glasgow University to act as tutor in a Highland family. A great change in my life was wrought, and led to my giving myself to the ministry. Some humble, religious people with whom I came into contact left a very powerful impression on me. I can recall a Highland 'shieling,' where there was no fireplace; the

A.M.

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smoke curled up from a hole in the roof, the rafters were black with soot, and there was only a box to sit down on. The people were Scotch Baptists, and I resorted to them as one in need of spiritual help. My early belief in Congregational principles was invigorated by my experience there, when I found the blessedness of religious intercourse with those simple shepherd folk.

"One incident about this time I sometimes recall. Being fond of swimming, one day I tried to swim across a lake. This was quite within my powers, but I had omitted to notice a strong breeze that had arisen, and failing to regulate my breathing, I was in danger of being drowned. I fully expected, from what I had read, that the history of my life would flash upon me, and that I should have terrible agitation of spirit. It was not so, however. Only two things came into my mind as I was expecting to sink, one was that the people would have to search my box to find out the address of my father and mother, the other was the thought of what my mother would feel when she got the intelligence of my death.

"Later on I went to Hackney College and graduated at London University. I then found that the irregular method of education I had acquired was not without some value. The independent judgment I was able to exercise was advantageous in many ways. From my tutor at Hackney, the Rev. John Watson, I learned the value of habitual use of the dictionary and books of reference. There was not a man in the house who made so much use of dictionaries, English as well as Hebrew, as the Principal of the college. From him I learned my love of dictionaries. If I were to be shut up for one month, and could have only one book, I think I should choose a dictionary, either Johnson, Liddell and Scott, or Facciolati for Latin. My course, even in college, was to a large extent solitary and

independent. In a very real sense I have been my own. schoolmaster, and I have both the advantages and the disadvantages of the method to the present day."*

One episode which belongs to these days shows that already Mackennal had the tenderness which often goes with a reserved exterior. Among the private papers which came to be examined after his death there was a child's slate with a drawing on it, and a small gold heart with some hair in it. None of his children knew the story of the slate or could explain its presence among private and important papers; but enquiry from Mrs. Chambers, of Leicester-Mackennal's elder sister-brought to light the following pretty story. When the family lived in London and Mackennal was at Hackney, there lived next door a child, Nellie Daleman, aged about five years. There was a sweetness and a charm about the child which both families recognised as something unusual even for an age when all children are interesting. Nellie chose as her friend, Alexander Mackennal. When he appeared in the garden Nellie was soon seen waiting anxiously for an invitation to join him. She wanted nothing more than to be allowed to walk beside him and hold his hand while he talked of matters which could have no meaning for her. This unequal friendship was broken by an attack of scarlet fever which soon wore out the delicate frame of Mackennal's little friend. On the last day of her life he went to see her, and she died with the smile on her face that followed him as he left her room. The slate was Nellie Daleman's, the drawing the last thing her childish fingers had done, and it was her hair which the trinket contained. They were gifts from the child's mother to Mackennal, and kept for him something of the aroma of a loved childhood for a lifetime during which he never spoke of the incident in his own home. * Published in the Sunday Companion.

CHAPTER II

BURTON-ON-TRENT, 1858-1861

"Remember all

He spoke among you, and the man who spoke,
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
Nor paltered with Eternal God for power."

IN 1858 Mackennal was invited to undertake the pastorate of the Congregational Church at Burton-onTrent, and in May of that year he settled there. The Congregational ministry gave him the sphere which he required. He was of the massive order of men, growing at first on different sides of his character unequally, with powers not of the showy and captivating kind, which required time and freedom to develop. He was original but not brilliant, profound rather than captivating, and wanted from his human environment sympathy and patience rather than stimulus or constraint. The chief interest of his life lies in its continual inward development and its constant unfolding of fresh and often unsuspected spiritual resources.

Of Burton-on-Trent there is not much to be said, except that it was his first pastorate. A first pastorate is always something of an experiment and much of an experience, and in Burton Mackennal learned as much as he taught. The religious atmosphere of Burton, strongly evangelical and low church, was not favourable to a robust type of Free Church life, and its outlook on moral and public questions was naturally affected by the staple trade

of the town. The vast overpowering breweries, which are such a striking feature in the appearance of the town, are not less dulling and dominant as a factor in its moral and religious life.

The Congregational Church is a Gothic building in a good position, and was at that time the principal Nonconformist church in the town. It was attended by some whose religious views did not extend beyond a horizon strictly, perhaps narrowly, orthodox and evangelical. Mackennal, on the other hand, was under the spell of Frederick Denison Maurice, and to some his breadth of outlook and interest appeared to be a dangerous innovation, but as long as he was in Burton they remained personally loyal to him. A section of these people afterwards left the Congregational Church and formed the nucleus of a Presbyterian Church in Burton, and by way of counteracting the Maurician tendencies of the young Congregationalist, they invited-by a singular irony-his most intimate college friend, Joseph Corbett, of Glasgow, to be their minister. The invitation was not accepted, and the friends were spared a situation which had elements of strain. Dr. Corbett writes:

"Mackennal had just left Burton when I was called there. Those who had started the Presbyterian Church in the town had, most of them, belonged to his congregation. The leaders among them professed themselves dissatisfied with what they regarded as his departure from the evangelical standpoint as they understood it, and they conceived there was need in Burton for preaching more in line with their conception of things. They thought, particularly, that he was not 'sound' on the question of the Atonement; they believed he was a disciple of Maurice, and in those days that was sufficient proof of heresy.

"This was the origin of the Presbyterian cause in Burton, and I was the first called to the pastorate of the church, the supposition being that, hailing from Presbyterian Scotland, my teaching would be more 'orthodox' and less dangerous. However, I did not accept the