THE PULPIT FROM THE FIRST ST. THOMAS CHURCH, NEW LONDON

It would appear that the work finally got under way in the interval between the departure of Mr. Cox and the arrival of Mr. Newnham. The old church was moved to the nearby corner where two roads met, and it continued to be used for worship while the new building was rising. It is still remembered by Older members of the community when it served as a hall and a place to hold teas. Still later it was moved farther up in Ben Pillman’s field and became a barn. It was burned down years ago. The Old Communion Table, the high wine—glass pulpit (once provided with octagonal sounding board), and probably the pews, were retained in the new church. Most. of the work of construction was done in the summer and autumn of 1876, and the building was opened on a cold and stormy day, January 28, 1877, in the presence of a large congregation. The Reverend David Fitzgerald, Rector of St. Paul’s, preached the ser- mon. All debts being paid, Bishop Binney consecrated the new St. Thomas’s, May 29, 1877.

Mr. Newnharn held services in the parish churches at 10 a.m., 2.30 pm. and 5.30 p m., attended two Sunday Schools, cared for two horses. He wrote: “I am sure I shall be believed when I say that sometimes on Sunday evenings I have felt a little tired.” In 1877 he conducted a Bible Class at St. Thomas’s, also a communicants’ meeting. In St. Stephen’s he formed a Church of England Institute. In the outstations he held services in schoolhouses. He commented:

I have now had some little experience of the Canadian winter, and I must say that I enjoy the sleighing very much. I do not mind the cold. Although I have driven with the thermometer 12 below zero I have not suffered even from cold feet and hands. While I am writing this in my little study, ten feet square, the storm is raging without. The roads will be impassable tomorrow until the neigh- bours have been out with shovels and horses to break down the snow.

During their brief stay in New London a daughter, baptized 38