passing visitation. I preached on the words, "Truly, as the Lord liveth, there is but a step betwixt me and death;" and the vacant places seemed to second the appeal I could but make. May the Spirit seal it on their hearts! And then I was off to Irishtown , and there from the words, "The time of my departure is at hand," again enforced the immediate demand for faith and holiness to be ready for it. Devotion to duty was uppermost in William Meek 's mind: Thursday, August 9, 1860. The Prince of Wales arrives in Town today, and almost everyone is gone to witness his advent, as I suppose I might have done; but, instead of this, I was all day among the poor people at , and read tracts and Scripture and feasted on dry bread and tea without sugar; and then went to Irishtown Church, and preached to a small congregation, where, at any rate, we prayed for " Albert Edward Prince of Wales , and all the Royal Family ." So, while I have lost sight of the Prince, I have thought of the promise: "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is far off." But if he failed to go to Charlottetown on the great day of the Prince's arrival, Mr. Meek was one of the ten signers of an address of welcome given to His Royal Highness by the clergy of the Established Church. Often he recalled to mind the Church stalwarts whom he had heard in his younger days in London,— Josiah Pratt , Daniel Wilson , Edward Bickersteth , Gerard Noel . He well remembered Bow Church and Bow Bells. Sometimes he longed for a London curacy where things would be a little easier than on " at night," and sometimes he compared the London of his youth with New London , unfavourably for the latter it must be confessed. Once he likened the New London community to the biblical Valley of Dry Bones, and on another occasion he preached a pointed sermon on the text, "As he drew nigh he beheld the city and wept over it." But he met with encouragement as well as reverses. On February 21, 1856, the Females of the St . Thomas congregation presented him with a silk gown, and an address of appreciation signed by Mrs. Mary Cousins and Mrs. Ann Pidgeon . The address and reply were printed in Haszard's Gazette , March 1, 1856. Again, friends in Jersey sent a silver Communion Set and new hangings. The box lay long unclaimed at Halifax, but eventually it arrived. By reason of the Jersey gift the people were encouraged to build a Communion Rail and to paint the chancel furnishings. They also built a stone dyke around the churchyard. This was accomplished by setting up two separated rows of stone, broad at the base and tapering towards the top, and then filling in earth between the stone rows. Dykes of this kind were expensive to build, but they were permanent, and there could be no dispute about their location. Posts and wire could be added if desired. The St . Thomas dyke stood for a century and was removed only in 1958. 24