"Wells, H G - Soul Of A Bishop" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wells H G)

been a black country. Its people were dour uncandid individuals,
who slanted their heads and knitted their brows to look at you.
Occasionally one saw woods brown and blistered by the gases from
chemical works. Here and there remained old rectories, closely
reminiscent of the dear old home at Otteringham, jostled and
elbowed and overshadowed by horrible iron cylinders belching
smoke and flame. The fine old abbey church of Princhester, which
was the cathedral of the new diocese, looked when first he saw it
like a lady Abbess who had taken to drink and slept in a coal
truck. She minced apologetically upon the market-place; the
parvenu Town Hall patronized and protected her as if she were a
poor relation....

The old aristocracy of the countryside was unpicturesquely
decayed. The branch of the Walshinghams, Lady Ella's cousins, who
lived near Pringle, was poor, proud and ignoble. And extremely
unpopular. The rich people of the country were self-made and
inclined to nonconformity, the working-people were not strictly
speaking a "poor," they were highly paid, badly housed, and
deeply resentful. They went in vast droves to football matches,
and did not care a rap if it rained. The prevailing wind was
sarcastic. To come here from London was to come from atmospheric
blue-greys to ashen-greys, from smoke and soft smut to grime and
black grimness.

The bishop had been charmed by the historical associations of
Princhester when first the see was put before his mind. His
realization of his diocese was a profound shock.

Only one hint had he had of what was coming. He had met during
his season of congratulations Lord Gatling dining unusually at
the Athenaeum. Lord Gatling and he did not talk frequently, but
on this occasion the great racing peer came over to him. "You
will feel like a cherub in a stokehole," Lord Gatling had
said....

"They used to heave lumps of slag at old Hood's gaiters," said
Lord Gatling.

"In London a bishop's a lord and a lark and nobody minds him,"
said Lord Gatling, "but Princhester is different. It isn't used
to bishops.... Well,--I hope you'll get to like 'em."

(3)


Trouble began with a fearful row about the position of the
bishop's palace. Hood had always evaded this question, and a
number of strong-willed self-made men of wealth and influence,
full of local patriotism and that competitive spirit which has