After Mark had been a year at the Theological College he received a
letter from the Bishop:
High Thorpe Castle.
Sept. 21, '04.
Dear Lidderdale,
I have heard from Canon Havelock that he considers you are ready to
be ordained at Advent, having satisfactorily passed the Cambridge
Preliminary Theological Examination. If therefore you succeed in
passing my examination early in November, I am willing to ordain
you on December 18. It will be necessary of course for you to
obtain a title, and I have just heard from Mr. Shuter, the Vicar of
St. Luke's, Galton, that he is anxious to make arrangements for a
curate. You had better make an appointment, and if I hear
favourably from him I will licence you for his church. It has
always been the rule in this diocese that non-graduate candidates
for Holy Orders should spend at least two years over their
theological studies, but I am not disposed to enforce this rule in
your case.
Yours very truly,
Aylmer Silton.
This expression of fatherly interest made Mark anxious to show his
appreciation of it, and whatever he had thought of St. Luke's, Galton,
or of its incumbent he would have done his best to secure the title
merely to please the Bishop.
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