With the entry of Angela's great picture "The Coming of Christ" into
London, where it became at once the centre of admiration, contention
and general discussion, one of the most singular "religious"
marriage ceremonies ever known, took place in a dreary out-lying
district of the metropolis, where none but the poorest of the poor
dwell, working from dawn till night for the merest pittance which
scarcely pays them for food and lodging. It was one of Aubrey
Leigh's "centres," and to serve his needs for a church he had
purchased a large wooden structure previously used for the storing
of damaged mechanical appliances, such as worn-out locomotives, old
railway carriages, and every kind of lumber that could possibly
accumulate anywhere in a dock or an engine yard. The building held
from three to four thousand people closely packed, and when Leigh
had secured it for his own, he was as jubilant over his possession
as if the whole continent of Europe had subscribed to build him a
cathedral. He had the roof mended and made rainproof, and the ground
planked over to make a decent flooring,--then he had it painted
inside a dark oak colour, and furnished it with rows of benches. At
the upper end a raised platform was erected, and in the centre of
that platform stood a simple Cross of roughly carved dark wood, some
twelve or fifteen feet in height.
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