Adjoining the chancel there are four of those mystic places called confessionals.  The other evening we were in every one of them, viewed them round from head to foot, asked a priest who was with us the meaning of everything visible, and left without noticing in any of them anything to particularly fret at.  “Confession is good for the soul,” we are told; and by all means let those who honestly believe in it “go the entire figure” without molestation or insult.  Every morning, on week days, there is mass in the church at seven, half-past seven, and eight o’clock; every Friday evening there is benediction; and on Sundays a great business is done—­at eight, nine, ten, and eleven, in the forenoon, at three in the afternoon, and at half-past six in the evening, there are masses, combined more or less with other ceremonies.  The “proper services” are understood to be at eleven and half-past six.  The nine and ten o’clock masses are by far the best attended; partly because they appear to be more convenient than the others, and partly because the work is cut comparatively short at them.  Human nature, as a rule, can’t stand a very long fire of anything, doesn’t like to have even too much goodness pushed upon it for too long a time, believes in a very short and very sweet thing.  It may have to pay more for it, as it has at the ten o’clock mass on a Sunday, at St. Ignatius’s—­for the price of seats at that time is just double what it is at any other; only the work is got through sharply, and that is something to be thankful for.  School children have the best seats allotted to them at the mass just named, and the wealthiest man in the place occupying the most convenient seat in it has to beat a mild retreat and take his hat with him when they appear.  The more fashionable, and solemnly-balanced Catholics attend the services at eleven and half-past six.  They are made of respectable metal which will stand a good deal of calm hammering, and absorb a considerable quantity of virtuous moisture.  At this, as at all other Catholic chapels, the usual aqueous and genuflecting movements are made; and they are all done very devotedly.  More water, we think, is spilled at the entrance, than is necessary; and we would recommend the observance of a quiet, even, calm dip—­not too long as if the hand were going into molasses, nor too fleetingly as if it had got hold of a piece of hot iron by mistake.

At ten and three on Sundays the music is sung by a number of girls, occupying one of the small galleries, wherein there is an organ which is played by a nun.  The singing is sweet, and the nun gets through her work pleasantly.  The Catholic soldiers stationed at Fulwood Barracks make St. Ignatius’s their place of devotional resort.  They attend the nine o’clock Sunday morning mass, and muster sometimes as many as 200.  One of the finest sights in the church is that which the guilds of the place periodically make.  On the first Sunday in every month the girls’ and women’s guilds, numbering about