Lytham Hall

Lytham Hall in Lancashire claims to be the finest Georgian house in the county, an accolade trumpeted several times on its publicity. The boast is certainly not without merit. It was built on the site of a Benedictine priory (the cloister of which may have been preserved in its rear courtyard, below), and a Jacobean mansion, the outbuildings of which still sit behind the later, eighteenth-century pile. This neo-Palladian style is beautifully symmetrical, bedecked with elegant, straight lines and neat, regulated angles, with decoration concentrating in the centre and lower floors. If it does not quite depict modesty and sobriety, it does bespeak neatness and grace.

I am one of those people who are only ever doing one of two things: making mess or clearing mess. I wish I could be better disciplined, clearing up as I went along, washing dishes and utensils during the cooking process, or vacuuming daily to prevent a build-up of bits on the carpet. John Whittier wrote the following words back in 1872 which we still sing:

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

I imagine that he was suitably disciplined and tidy, well organised, punctual and prepared. Regarding young men on Crete did the Apostle write:

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. (Titus 2:6-8)

Let us share the gospel with out lips, but also with our sober, well-ordered and regulated lifestyles.