betook himself as often and for as long as his parliamentary, commercial, and other engagements would allow. He grew very fond of the place, took a moderately active part in the duties of a magistrate, of the Board of Guardians, and other

In the Grounds at Greenlands.

county business. To record all his kind and helpful acts during the score of years he lived at Greenlands would take a long time, and would, moreover, be the kind of catalogue which he, of all men, would most have disliked to see in

A.D. 1884.]

ST MARY'S CHURCH,

PORTSEA.

251

the hands of others. Never was there any one more concerned in deluding his left hand as to the doings of his right, of which no better illustration could be found than the part he took in the building of St Mary's Church at Portsea. The history of his connection with that enterprise affords a sample of his method of patient preliminary inquiry, his dislike of publicity, and his princely liberality when he had satisfied himself that there was good occasion for it.

Admiral Codrington, the husband of Mr Smith's stepdaughter, held an appointment at Portsmouth in 1884. Smith heard from Mrs Codrington of the project formed by Canon Jacob, vicar of Portsea, to reconstruct or rebuild the parish church, and the description which she gave of the locality—a large parish of 26,000 inhabitants, mainly of the industrial order—at once enlisted his sympathy in the scheme. He made the acquaintance of Canon Jacob, and at once gave him a subscription of £500. In doing so, Smith expressed himself to Canon Jacob to the following effect: "I am ready to help you further, but I am anxious that in doing so I should not interfere with local effort nor diminish the local sources of supply. If I am satisfied that your own people are doing their utmost to provide for what is necessary in the parish, you may rely on me to help you to make it a fine church. Let me know whenever you are in want of funds, but do not let my name appear." After that understanding had been thoroughly established between them, Canon Jacob had no reason to complain of the conditions. He and Smith became warm friends, but their interviews were conducted under clandestine precautions. So anxious was Smith to preserve the mystery which shrouded the "friend" whose cheques were mentioned so frequently in the subscription-lists, that when he called. on Canon Jacob he would not even ring the door-bell, but walked straight into the vicar's study. From first to last

his donations to the building fund amounted to £29,000, out of a total expenditure of £42,000.

The secret was well kept, and Canon Jacob and Mr Smith had many a laugh over incidents in connection with it. One evening Smith walked into the vicar's library shortly after he had sent him a cheque for £15,000. Said he

"I saw Ryder this morning, and he said to me, 'I hear Jacob has received a promise of £15,000 for his building fund from some rich fellow. Now I don't want to discourage him, but I don't think it would be safe for him to act on it, unless good security is given him, and so I have told him.' I told Ryder," Smith went on, "that I had heard the same thing, and given Jacob exactly the same advice."

Smith frequently visited the building during its progress, and derived much pleasure from the work. The church, which was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, is a fine example of the perpendicular style-a form of Gothic which, though it does not satisfy the sense of most architectural critics, has at least this distinction, that it is exclusively English, being the form through which ecclesiastical architecture descended in our country when, on the Continent and even in Scotland, it assumed the Flamboyant manner. When the building was finished, Canon Jacob went over it with Smith.

"I am simply delighted," said the latter. "I don't know enough about architecture to criticise, but I am thoroughly pleased with what has been done."

During the intercourse which this building brought about between them, Canon Jacob had many opportunities of becoming acquainted with Smith's view of charity in general, and the precautions he observed before contribut

1 Admiral Sir A. P. Ryder.

HIS METHOD IN GIVING.

ing to any scheme.

253

When he was satisfied as to the object aimed at and the means of attaining it, he used to give with

no sparing hand, and largely in directions which never were and never will be known.

With one philanthropic scheme which made much stir

during his later years-General Booth's-he would have nothing to do. The excitement and vehemence of the Salvation Army were foreign to all his religious instincts, and, as a business man, he would not be induced to contribute to a fund in the absence of good security that it should be rightly administered.

The accomplishment of some of the chief improvements in the neighbourhood of Greenlands was rendered possible by means of Smith's liberal assistance. In the secluded village of Hambleden, though it is not actually on the property that was his, his name will long be affectionately remembered. Nestling deep in a narrow green valley opening from the Thames, it is just one of those immemorial little communities where life slips uneventfully from generation to generation, not without its patient tragedy, yet undisturbed by noisy crime-with quiet enjoyment of such comforts as may be gathered in modest homes, but without much splendour of expectation on the narrow horizon which bounds it.

Happily the incumbent whom Smith found at Hambleden when he became a parishioner, the late Rev. W. H. Ridley, honorary canon of Christ Church, was not only an able and zealous pastor, but one with whom he was able to work hand in hand in intimate friendship; and by acting. in concert with him and the lord of the manor, and, after Mr Ridley's death in 1882, with his successor the Rev. C. M. Wetherall, he was able to assist in many changes and improvements, both in the church and its surroundings. People cling passionately to the plot of ground where, as in Hambleden, they have been accustomed to lay their dead since the days of the Heptarchy, where

"Beneath these rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."