next. Be that as it may, he wandered absent-mindedly down the steps after the wedding ceremony, and, falling, broke his

arm.

Before leaving the subject of the Atkinsons' connection with old St. John's, mention should be made of the curious custom made possible in this church by the elder Colonel Theodore's legacy for doling out a portion of bread each Sunday to the poor of the parish. Even in this twentieth century, twelve loaves of bread, known as "the dole," are thus given away every Sunday after the morning service. This bread is placed always on the baptismal font, at the right of the chancel, and covered with "a fair linen napkin," from which place the Reverend Henry E. Hovey, present rector of St. John's, distributes it.

This font is probably the very oldest object in the building. It is made of por

phyritic marble of a dull brownish gray, finely veined. It was taken by Colonel John Mason from the French in 1758, at the capture of Senegal, and is undoubtedly African. The tradition is that it had been taken by the French from some heathen temple, and was very old at the time of its capture. Colonel Mason's daughters presented it to Queen's Chapel in 1761. Only in one other church of this country, and that an old parish in Virginia, is the ancient custom of doling out a portion of bread each Sunday to the poor of the parish still kept up. From the income of Colonel Atkinson's bequest about $6,000 has already been expended for this charity, and the original fund remains unimpaired.

One other story of romantic interest is connected with this old parish. This, as recorded by Mr. Brewster, runs:

"Nicholas Rousselet was a man of good

exterior, and when dressed in the official consular costume, which he wore on public days, a person to attract attention. Of his first acquaintance with Miss Moffatt we have no account, but tradition says that it was in the Episcopal church during service hour that the most important crisis in the courtship transpired.

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Sitting with her in her father's pew, Mr. Rousselet handed Miss Katherine the Bible, in which he had marked in the first verse of the second epistle of St. John, the words, 'Unto the elect lady,' and the fifth verse entire,' And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.' Miss Katherine, fully comprehending the appeal, turned down a leaf in the first chapter of Ruth, beginning with verse sixteen, Whither thou goest, I

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will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people will be my people, and thy God, my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee from me.""

During Washington's famous visit to New Hampshire, in 1789, just after his inauguration, he went to service at the old Queen's Chapel Parish, now St. John's, and in his diary for that day, November 1, 1789, he wrote: "Attended by the President of the State (General Sullivan), Mr. Langdon, and the marshal, I went in the forenoon to the Episcopal Church under the incumbency of Mr. Ogden."

Tradition tells us that the President was arrayed on this occasion in an elegant complete suit of black velvet, with brilliant buckles. He occupied the old governor's pew, which was framed in red

plush curtains, with a heavy wooden canopy over it, bearing the royal arms. In this pew were the two chairs given the parish by Queen Caroline, in whose honour the chapel had been named, and who had presented the parish at the same time with a Bible, prayer-books, and silver service for the communion-table, which last bears the royal arms and is in use at the present day. Trinity Church, New York, and Trinity in Boston were other parishes similarly remembered by gifts of communion silver at this time.

One of these Queen chairs was occupied that Sunday in November, 1789, by the very man who was most responsible for the overthrow of England's power in the New World. And when, less than a score of years afterward, the Chapel was burned (1806), and only one of the two original chairs in the governor's pew remained, tra