He had yet to learn the strength, of the Scotch prejudice against bishops; perhaps to learn that the more shadowy the grounds of dispute, so much the more keenly are ecclesiastical squabbles fought.
Worthy Bishop Skinner would have been glad to have Ramsay a fellow-labourer in his city upon whatever conditions.

Yet he could not contradict his younger friend's honest and temperate adherence to his principles and to Episcopacy.

The correspondence all round, which I have before me, is quite decorous; but after Ramsay had stated his objection, and that it was insuperable, the managers wrote to him, 1st October 1822, that "a unanimous election would follow if he accepted the situation under the present establishment." It would have been easy to divide the congregation, but this did not suit Ramsay's feelings or nature, and he courteously bowed to the decision of the managers, and returned to Frome, where his income from both curacies was L100 a year,--a poverty the more irksome to a man of culture and refined tastes.
Not long after (still, I think in 1823), the Journal records--"Mrs.
Forbes, my aunt, had just come into her accession of fortune, and presented me with L5000.

A man may live many days in this world, and not meet the like gift in a like kindly spirit[5]." Of the year 1823 the Journal remarks very severe winter.

"Marmaduke and Edwin with me at the Pear-tree[6]; a delightful tour in South Wales with the Sheppards and other friends most agreeable and good-humoured,--botany, sketching, talk, and fun.