“ He was firmly convinced that things were not going well in the rural parishes, and he was righteously indignant at the condition of the labourer's cottage, and the growing tendency to deprive him of all chance of rising to a higher level, and evil aggravated by the abolition of small farms. He realized also the dullness of village life, the grinding monotony, and the impossibility of escape, though perhaps he was too prone to assume that these burdens would be as heavy to his neighbours as to himself. ”

“ Jessopp and his people came to cross purposes. He lost his temper sometimes, and wrote about his neighbours in terms which some of them resented. Numbers of the Nineteenth Century travelled down to Scarning, and when certain local celebrities recognized their portraits, made to dance with stage antics for the amusement of the rector's town friends, and understood that he, worst crime of all, was getting handsomely paid for conducting the show, the feud waxed bitter. ”

“ He certainly did his best to brighten village life; he was quite free from clerical bigotry, and candidly admits that the stuffy little Ranter's chapel is too often the only place where the religious emotions of the rural poor can be stirred and the yearnings of the soul satisfied. ”