it was made to flicker merely under a bushel Placed in an out of the way situation, in an unsightly recess, and exposed to the fury of southern gales, intensified by the contracted space in its front, the church has been from its earliest career in an unfortunate predicament. The cliff in its rear would crumble to its base, the long flight of steps to its entrance would prove tedious to invalids, and the contracted strong currents of wind would continue to inconvenience female worshippers. By degrees, however these difficulties, if not entirely surmounted, were considerably modified; yet, other difficulties arose and misfortunes multiplied. It might require a volume to recount the thousand
incidents of trouble, annoyance, inconvenience, acrimony, recrimination, sacrilege, alteration and change to which the church and its associations of pastors organists schools &c. have been subjected; and we shall, therefore wisely abstain from entering upon such a task. We may say, however, that there are few, if any, places of worship that in the space of thirty three years have undergone so many and varied vicissitudes as the church of St. Leonards-on-sea.
Its revenue appears never to have been sufficient to meet the requirements; and had it not been for the private wealth of the several clergymen into whose hands the incumbency has successively passed, we do not see how the establishment could well have sustained even its present dignity. But then, the private wealth, so called, while it has been, perhaps, a blessing to our poor, has given its possessor a position sufficiently independent to be, at least in some cases, distasteful to our rich. Hence, it may be that our clergymen from Leslie to Tilson-Marsh, have failed in their ministrations to unite in the bonds of christian fellowship the bulk of the St. Leonards community. And yet -judging from one's own observations during a period of twenty-four years - there appears to have been no lack on energy on either side to accomplish the desired end; and one is therefore forced to the conclusion that either the said energy has been mispent in regretable(sic) antagonisms, or that the persistent statement of an unfortunate church has really some foundation in fact.
Let us go a little farther. Some six months back, as is pretty well known, the then incumbent, Mr. W.N. Tilson-Marsh, after unsuccessful attempts to secure the sympathy and earnest co-operation of the parishioners, and with impaired health to boot, sought in the usual clerical channels for a surrogate. It was not long before a gentleman offered himself for the situation and the required stipulations entered into. The principal point in these stipulations - if our information is correct was that the new incumbent or surrogate was to pay £250 as rent of the church for one year, and if at the end of the year a continuance could be agreed upon, the annual payment was to be increased to £300. But, not to trouble our readers -
