But he had ever been respected as a clergyman, since his old friend Mr.Arabin, the dean of Barchester, had given him the small incumbency which he now held.

Though moody, unhappy, and disappointed, he was a hard-working, conscientious pastor among the poor people with whom his lot was cast; for in the parish of Hogglestock there resided only a few farmers higher in degree than field labourers, brickmakers, and such like.

Mr.Crawley had now passed some ten years of his life at Hogglestock; and during those years he had worked very hard to do his duty, struggling to teach the people around him perhaps too much of the mystery, but something also of the comfort, of religion.

That he had become popular in his parish cannot be said of him.

He was not a man to make himself popular in any position.