Thank you, Jack. I didn't connect the name!

There were several attempts to "cure" the problems of pluralism, and in the 1780's it really did look like it might happen. But then the French Rev. and Napoleon intervened, the country went into Emergency mode, and all kinds of reform-type things were put on hold for thirty years.

And just in case I have lulled anyone into thinking that I'm a bit starry-eyed about the goodness of Parsons in general, I'd like to take this opportunity to tell the story of a real Pluralism abuser- someone who didn't have the plea of poverty to fall back on. The connection to JA is temporal and geographical only- although I am sure she was aware of this one, I don't know if anyone in her circle was directly affected.

About fifty Pemberlians will recognise the buildings in the the arial photo above. The big, square house with attatched cottages is Old Alresford Place, a large rectory built at the end of the seventeenth century as a home for the parson of the combined parish of New and Old Alresford. You can see his church in the foreground, and, behind the church, the "big house" of the local Squire. Please note that the parsonage and the Big House are separated "only by a lane", just like Hunsford and Rosings! (and no, I'm not suggesting that it is Hunsford- such arrangements were fairly common.)

In 1790-something, the owners of the big house were the Rodney family- of naval fame, as some of you will be aware. The new rector was one Francis North, and he was quite a character. He was given the living by the Bishop of Winchester, who just happened to be his father, and it brought him in £1400 per annum, plus tithes. Not content with that, he sought -and got- another living in Southampton, worth about £1200.

Like Mr Austen, he kept a carriage, only Revd North's had a livery on it, because he inherited an Earldom as well. When he drove through the streets of Alresford, a footman ran before him, calling on the local populace to cheer and bow and scrape in front of the Rev. They probably were fairly willing to, because he did spend a vast amount of cash on re-modelling the inside to the Rectory, and probably employed locals to do it. Rev. Francis wasn't very energetic as a parson- he employed three curates, at the legal minimum of fifty pounds a year, to do his donkey-work, but he did, apparently give good sermons!

Later in life, he acquired another living- the Wardenship of a place called St Cross, near Winchester. In previous times St Cross was, and now is again, a monastery and Boy's school. What it was in Francis's time I'm not absolutely sure. However, Rev Francis caused a scandal when he was accused by the diocese with "abusing" the accounts of St Cross. After a lot of kerfuffle, and headlines in papers, he did eventually pay back the money and resign his wardenship. The case became one of the inspirations for Anthony Trollope's The Warden, and so Rev Francis North has become an example of those clerics whose abuses have given all 18th century clergymen a bad name.