Abbeychurch St. Mary's was a respectable old town, situated at the foot of St.
Austin's Hill, a large green mound of chalk, named from an establishment of
Augustine Friars, whose monastery (now converted into alms-houses) and noble
old church were the pride of the county. Abbeychurch had been a quiet dull
place, scarcely more than a large village, until the days of railroads, when the
sober inhabitants, and especially the Vicar and his family, were startled by the
news that the line of the new Baysmouth railway was marked out so as to pass
exactly through the centre of the court round which the alms-houses were built.
Happily, however, the difficulty of gaining possession of the property required for
this course, proved too great even for the railway company, and they changed
the line, cutting their way through the opposite side of St. Austin's Hill, and
spoiling three or four water-meadows by the river. Soon after the completion of
this work, the town was further improved, by the erection of various rows of smart
houses, which arose on the slope of the hill, once the airy and healthy play-place
of the rising generation of Abbeychurch, and the best spot for flying kites in all
the neighbourhood. London tradesmen were tempted to retire to 'the beautiful
and venerable town of Abbeychurch;' the houses were quickly filled, one street
after another was built, till the population of the town was more than doubled. A
deficiency in church accommodation was soon felt, for the old church had before
been but just sufficient for the inhabitants. Various proposals were made--to fill
up the arches with galleries, and to choke the centre aisle with narrow pews; but
all were equally distasteful to Mr. Woodbourne, who, placing some benches in
the aisle for the temporary accommodation of his new parishioners, made every
effort to raise funds to build and endow an additional church. He succeeded, as
we have heard; and it was the tall white spire of the now Church of St. Austin's,
which greeted Anne Merton's delighted eyes, as on the 27th of August, she, with
her father and mother, came to the top of a long hill, about five miles from
Abbeychurch. What that sight was to her, only those who have shared in the joys
of church-building can know. She had many a time built the church in her fancy;
she knew from drawing and description nearly every window, every buttress,
every cornice; she had heard by letter of every step in the progress of the
building; but now, that narrow white point, in the greyish green of the distance,
shewed her, for the first time, what really was the work of her father--yes, of her
father, for without him that spire would never have been there; with the best
intentions, Mr. Woodbourne could not have accomplished more than a solid well-
proportioned building, with capabilities of embellishment. It was not till they had
nearly reached the town, that her thoughts turned to the pleasure of seeing her
cousins, or even of meeting her brother, whom she expected to find at the
Vicarage, on his return from Scotland, where he had been spending the last six
weeks.
