A Last Letter

Archbishop John Bede Polding
a photograph of the early 1870s.

On 7th March 1877, ailing on his death bed at the old Sacred Heart Presbytery, Darlinghurst, Archbishop Polding dictated a letter to Pope Pius IX.  He was well enough to be able to sign the letter, the text of which follows.

Most Holy Father,

After 42 years' episcopal ministry in the Australian missions, I have come to the end of my life able to say to Your Holiness : "I have finished my course : I have kept the faith."

Most Holy Father, exhausted as I am by years and labours, it but remains for me to go down into the grave and to expect from the mercy of the Lord forgiveness of my faults and life eternal, through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ.  To obtain this with greater ease and security, I humbly devote myself to our Holy Religion which, at my departure hence, will accompany me with those spiritual consolations that God can grant to His chosen ones.  In the meantime, I request Your Holiness to give me that Special Blessing.

I remain for the rest of my life,

Your most humble and devoted servant

JOHN BEDE POLDING O.S.B.

Archbishop of Sydney.

On 16th March, the old Archbishop passed from this life to his Eternal Reward.  It is wonderful and moving to read this letter, indicating so clearly the piety and spiritual priorities of our pioneering Australian bishop.

AMDG

Pope Pius IX
A rare photograph of an informal gathering in Rome around 1870.

NOTES

This letter was quoted in an article written by the late Sister Mary Xavier Compton, S.G.S., which appeared in the Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society vol. 8, part 1 (1985). 

A Priest's Plea : re-posted

Thomas Townshend, Viscount Sydney
Engraving of a contemporary portrait.
Image : National Library of Australia.

In 1786, the Government of British Prime Minister William Pitt ("The Younger") gave into the hands of the Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, the Baron Sydney of Chislehurst, responsibility for arranging the establishment of a Penal Colony in Botany Bay (also referred to as New South Wales).  This has been described in the previous post.  It was Lord Sydney who chose Captain Arthur Phillip of the Royal Navy to be the first Governor of the colony. When Governor Phillip made his settlement, he named the place Sydney Cove, in honour of Lord Sydney. 

In 1787, whilst the Fleet was being assembled at Portsmouth to commence its voyage to New South Wales, a Catholic priest wrote a heartfelt letter to Lord Sydney.  We are pleased to reproduce this important document in full.  Further details of the priest, Father Thomas Walsh, have been rather hard to find, but we must assume that he had access to the prisoners intended to be transported and indeed had some form of ministry to them.  Father Walsh had no illusions about the type of persons these convicts were, but his moving letter displays a zeal for their reformation.  He wished to help them to become devout Catholics and, consequently, better citizens.

No precise date or address seems to have been noted on the letter, which is found in Cardinal Moran's History of the Catholic Church in Australasia (1895). 

My Lord,

You have been apprised of the desire which two clergymen of the Catholic perfuasion have to instruct the convicts, who are of their faith and who are destined for Botany Bay. I beg leave to inform your Lordship of my sentiments concerning this requeft.  There are not lefs, probably, than 300 [convicts]; ignorant you may imagine, of every principle of duty to God and man.  The number is great, and consequently constitutes an object of consequence to every man who has the happinefs of his neighbours at heart.  That the Catholics of this country are not only inoffensive of principles, but that they are zealously attached to the constitution of it, I may presume, is well known to your Lordship.  For my part, who am one of those clergymen who wish to take care of the convicts of my perfuasion, I beg to acquaint your Lordship that if I be so happy [sic "fortunate"] as to be permitted to go, I truft [that] my endeavours to bring these unhappy people to a proper sense of their duty as subjects and citizens, may be attended with some salutary consequence. They earnestly desire some Catholic clergyman may go with them, and I truft to the known humanity of the Government that a requeft which seems to promise some hopes of their reformation will be not be denied. It is well known that these people will not pay the attention to other ministers which they will to their own. Perhaps, also, the presence of their priefts may be of great use to make them readily obey every order of their Governors, and I have no doubt our conduct will meet the approbation of them.

I sincerely pity those poor people, not so much for the disagreeable situation into which they have brought themselves, as for the mifdemeanours which have made them deserving of it. They may, I truft, if their ignorance be removed, and their obligations as men and Christians be forcibly inculcated [in]to them, that this may be a means under Providence of their becoming useful to themselves, and perhaps afterwards to their country.

At least, this I sincerely wish. Nor do I think I can ever be as happy elsewhere as in the place of their destination, employed in using my endeavours to bring them out of the wretched state of depravity into which they have fallen. I entreat, therefore, most humbly, that this our request may be granted. These poor people will blefs and thank you. I shall take care they they be not forgetful of their obligations to the Governor and Lord Sydney.

I have the honour of subscribing myself,
Your Lordship’s most humble servant,

THOMAS WALSHE, prieft.

PS My Lord. - We are not so presumptuous as to wish support from the Government; we offer our voluntary services. We hope, however, not to offend in entreating for our pafsage.

NOTES:

This post, re-published from November 2018, is the second part in our serial on the foundational years of Catholicism in Australia.

AMDG. 

Catholics and the First Fleet : Re-posted

The famous painting of 1937 by the artist Algernon Talmage
depicting the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove on
26th January 1788.
Image : The State Library of NSW

Every Australian knows about the First Fleet, but how it came about is a tale both interesting and awful.  White settlement in Australia was not primarily about colonising new lands for immigrants, nor to extend English geo-political influence in the Asia-Pacific region, but rather because of the need for the British government to find a solution to the over-crowding of its gaols.  English historians Alan Brooke and David Brandon help us look beyond that fact :

In order to safeguard wealth and property, [English] governments from the 16th to the 19th centuries produced a penal code which, at first glance, was of fearsome severity.  The classes that dominated Parliament used the criminal law and the creation of more and more capital offences to support a redefining of property and the purposes of government.

Brooke and Brandon Bound for Botany Bay, 2005, p.15

Throughout England but especially in London, crime rates increased when ordinary citizens had to turn to petty theft to alleviate extreme poverty. From the beginning of the 18th century, such theft was dealt with the greatest severity in a succession of new laws.  London was a violent melting-pot, awash with vagabonds, villains and organisers of crime, who readily took advantage of the poor to expand their criminal activity.  New laws pertaining to larceny, increasingly comprehensive, sought to bring expanding waves of crime under control.  Although intended to deter crime by the severity of punishment, Justice was also flexible and even merciful in 18th century England.

Contemporary illustration below deck on an 18th century prison hulk.
The convicts transported in the First Fleet would have been confined
in conditions similar to this, except that the height of these below deck cells
would have been significantly lower.
Image : National Library of Australia.

The prisons of England were unable to contain all the felons sent to them and alternative arrangements had to be found.  The settlement of North America provided the British Government with great opportunities to send its unwelcome convicts, and transportation to the Americans colonies continued, on and off, for a century. This came to an abrupt end in 1776, however, when these Colonies collectively declared their independence from Britain, and with the ensuing American Revolutionary War.  These are the years immediately prior to the First Fleet.


In 1770, Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy, in a voyage of exploration on behalf of the British Government, chartered the East coast of Australia and most of New Zealand. Of especial interest was the discovery of a coastal inlet which became known as Botany Bay, because of the wide variety of native flora found there. The name "Botany Bay" became synonymous with Australia, even though the greater continent had been known as New Holland since Dutch voyages of discovery more than a century before Captain Cook. It was also regularly referred to as New South Wales.


With some reluctance and having rejected alternatives, the Government of Prime Minister William Pitt determined in 1786 that it was expedient to establish a Penal Colony for England's felons on the far-side of the world - in Botany Bay - and ordered the preparation of a transportation Fleet by the British Home Office, the Treasury and the Royal Navy. Eleven ships comprised this First Fleet, transporting 750 convicts (more than 75% being male) to Botany Bay. They ranged from hardened and violent criminals to foolish but otherwise respectable first-offenders; but they all had fallen foul of the law. Life aboard these ships was harsh for convicts, but not significantly worse than they had experienced in English gaols and the prison hulks, the floating penitentiaries, formerly battleships of the Royal Navy. The First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth on 13th May 1787.


The practice of Religion played little part in the lives of those Transportees, except for the formalities of Divine Service required to be carried out by the Government. Aboard were adherents of the Church of England, as well various Protestant Non-Conformists, Jews and - especially of interest to readers of this blog, a significant number of Catholics : perhaps as many as 25% of the Fleet's total. An application in 1787 by Father Thomas Walsh, to provide for the spiritual needs of those Catholics by sailing with the Fleet to Australia was ignored. A young clergyman of the Church of England, the Reverend Richard Johnson, had been appointed in October 1786 to join the expedition as Chaplain. We shall discuss Mr Johnson more in a forthcoming post.

Illustration from Captain Watkin Tench's
Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay (1789)
Image : National Library of Australia.

Historians debate whether there were particular criteria in the selection of those to be transported to Botany Bay.  It seems clear, however, that the British Government took this opportunity to create a system for ridding itself of those deemed undesirable : hardened criminals, the unskilled (as we would understand the term today), the rebellious, anti-Establishment protestants and papists (a Protestant term derogatory of Catholics) etc.

The archivist and historian James Hugh Donohoe has written :

The Catholic Church in Australia began on the River Thames in London in 1787 when some members of the First Fleet were first embarked ...  95 Irish-named convicts came in the First Fleet.  Another five came as family members, 19 as ships’ crew and 29 as marines.  …  Only 170 of the 800 Catholic convicts on the First and Second Fleets had Irish surnames : a total of 20%. … Of those likely Catholics identified by their Irish or generally Catholic surnames, most were convicted in courts located in coastal western or southern England.

JH Donohoe The Catholics of New South Wales 1788 - 1820, 1988, pp.1 - 4

A contemporary illustration of Sydney Cove in the months following the
arrival of the First Fleet.
Image : National Library of Australia.

It is a myth that the first Catholics in Australia were all Irish and convict and transported to Australia as political prisoners. Mr Donohoe's research reveals that the earliest Catholics in Australia - before 1791 - were largely English, or Irish resident in England. Most of these were convicts, but some were not.  No provision was made by the British Government for these Catholics.  We can only surmise, in the absence of evidence, that for those earliest Catholics, the practice of their religion was a private matter and some comfort amidst the harsh life of the new penal colony. 

A following post will discuss the practice of Religion in the early years of the NSW colony.

AMDG

NOTES :

This article was previously published on this blog in 2019.  It is re-published as the first chapter in our serial on the foundation of the Catholicism on this continent.

Captain James Cook

Captain James Cook

At this time, when we commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the discovery of the East coast of Australia by Captain James Cook, the following letter, which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1863, is of interest.  It was written by the priest in charge at that time of Saint Patrick's, Church Hill, Father John McEncroe.  Father McEncroe had arrived in the colony of NSW in the year 1832, the year before the incident described in this letter :

St. Patrick's [Church Hill], Sydney, April 24, 1863.

My dear Dr. Douglass,—As you are taking an active and praiseworthy part towards celebrating the
landing of Captain Cook in Botany Bay, the following account of a conversation that myself and the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, now Bishop of Birmingham, had upwards of thirty years ago, with the son of one of the Botany tribe, may be interesting, who witnessed the arrival of the great and successful navigator, Captain James Cook, in 1770.

About the year 1833, one of the Botany tribe was killed by one of the Port Stephen tribe, inside the
Domain wall, just opposite St. Mary's [church]. Dr Ullathorne and myself were the two first to come to the scene of the murder; the body was soon after removed into an outhouse near St. Mary's, and an inquest was there held on the deceased native of the Botany tribe. I had several conversations with one of the aborigines, who said he was a brother to the murdered man; he was intelligent, and spoke English well, and appeared to be then about forty years of age.  I asked him, in the presence of Dr. Ullathorne, if he had any recollection of the landing of 'Cook' in Botany Bay ; he said "No", for he was not then born, but that he recollected well what his father told him about it, and I felt as curious to know his account as he seemed favourably inclined to give.

I then remarked, "What did your father and the Botany tribe think about Cook's ship and its crew?"
He said they thought at first that it was a big bird that came into the bay, and they saw something like
opossums running up and down about the legs and wings of the bird; but on viewing them closer they
thought them to be people something like themselves.  They kept away, however, for a few days, without coming near the people who came from the ship to the land, although these people made several signs to the natives, who were lurking about the bushes, to come near them.  At last it was agreed that two of the tribe would go down and meet the newcomers ; but they were directed by the women particularly, when going down to the water, not to eat or drink anything that the strangers may give them for fear of being poisoned. 

Several of the people from the ship went to meet the two natives, and showed every sign of friendship towards them ; one offered a jacket to the natives, which one of them put on, but when he found himself so cramped in it he threw it off ; another gave them a piece of bread or biscuit, which the native chewed and threw out of his mouth, and said it was like sawdust ; then they showed them a tomahawk and cut down some of the bushes with it ; the two natives were delighted with this, as it would help them very much in cutting down wood to make gunyahs and spears.  One of the sailors then put something into a vessel and drank it off, and wanted the natives to take some of the drink,
but they refused for fear of being poisoned ; he then offered them the tomahawk if they would drink ; they were very anxious to get it, but they were afraid of going against the gins' [native women] advice, to eat or drink nothing the strangers would give them. 

Archdeacon McEncroe

They then consulted what they had best do to get the tomahawk, and they said that, as the drink did not kill the stranger who took it, it was not likely to kill them, and they made signs to the sailor to put more drink into the vessel and drink some of it himself, and they would take the rest ; and then they considered that the drink would not kill them if it did not kill the stranger first. The sailor did as they directed, he took some of the drink, was quite merry, and gave them the tomahawk, upon which one of them took some of the drink out of the vessel, and he had hardly done so, when he thought he was burning alive, and cried out to his companion, in his own language, "fire in eyes, fire in nose, and fire all over," and ran off to throw himself into the water to quench the fire.  I could not help being amused by the expressive and energetic way in which the poor native of Botany conveyed this part of his narrative ; and when I seemed to express any doubt or surprise at his statements, he observed "I don't tell you this from myself, but it is what I heard from my father and others of the Botany tribe about the landing of Cook in this country."

Trusting that this traditionary native account of Cook's landing may be of some little interest in connexion with the proposed commemoration of the 28th April, I submit it to you for your acceptance, and publication if you think fit,

And remain, my dear Dr. Douglass,
Yours faithfully,

J. McENCROE.

To :  H. G. Douglass, Esq., M.D.

P.S. On a future occasion I may give some account of the interment of the native killed in the Domain by one of the Port Stephen blacks, together with a request made to me by the man who gave the above account to beg of the Governor not to hang the man who killed his brother, but to give him up to the Botany tribe to kill him in their own way.
J. McE.

NOTE

Father McEncroe's letter appeared on page 5 of The Sydney Morning Herald of Monday, 27th April 1863.

AMDG

Denied the Sacraments

The present affliction of our world as a result of which millions have no access to the Sacraments of the Church might not seem so grievous when put into the context of such deprivations in our history.

Consider, for example, the situations of those Catholics who came to live in Australia as a part of white settlement after 1788. For thirty years, those Catholics - mainly convicts - lived their lives without having the benefit of the Sacraments, excepting Baptism and Matrimony. For quite brief periods between 1800 and 1820, the limited ministrations of Catholic priests alleviated this deprivation from the lifeblood of the Church.

Sydney Cove (Circular Quay) as sketched following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.
Image : State Library of NSW.

And even after 1820 until almost 1830, there was but one priest on the mainland tending to the spiritual needs of those Catholics living in the settlements on the East coast of Australia.

Over the next several weeks on this blog, we will outline the beginnings of Catholic life in Australia - to the extent that historical records allow it.  It is a mixed story of piety and laxity, missionary fervour and negligence, wisdom and ignorance, remarkable courage and fallen weakness. Outstanding people emerged which figure in this history, whilst much of the story of those years remains unrecorded and forgotten.

Please continue to follow the story here at In Diebus illis.

Archbishop Polding writes on war

On this Anzac Day, we are pleased to post this letter which Archbishop Polding wrote to the Faithful of the Archdiocese of Sydney in 1856, noting and asking them to give thanks for the conclusion of the Crimean War.  Although few residents of Australia would ever have seen the Crimea, nevertheless a volunteer force of cavalry, artillery and infantry was formed in and around Sydney and travelled to the Crimea to fight as part of the British Army.  The Crimean War would largely be forgotten now, except for two things : the famous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava; and the heroic work of the English nurse Florence Nightingale "The Lady with the Lamp".  The Archbishop makes reference to the nurses working with Florence Nightingale in the following letter.

Officers and men of Her Majesty's 13th Light Dragoons.
These men were some of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Photographed in 1855 at Balaklava by Roger Fenton.

Dearly Beloved Children in Jesus Christ,

A mighty war has ceased! We have to speak to you of these good tidings. You have already heard and welcomed them – the most joyful news of restored peace. Already, from every worthy heart, the spontaneous outburst of gladness and gratitude has gone forth in congratulations to your fellow men, in thanksgiving before the throne of God. A mighty war, unexampled for its costliness in blood and in treasure, has come to an end. May it have accomplished what is the only legitimate end of war : the security of peace! At this distance from Europe, we have been spared the horrid spectacles of murderous contest; few of us have had to don the sad garb of mourning for the loss of friends and dear relations crushed to death in the miserable strife; but yet, in that United Kingdom which is our common fatherland, to which we still attach the endearing name of home and in the fair realm of noble France, how many hearths lie desolate! How many victims have been sacrificed! And with these sufferings, with these bereavements, we have been constrained to sympathy by the ordinary feelings of humanity, by the charity of the common heart of Christendom. 

Florence Nightingale c. 1858

It is most true, that in the midst of great griefs springs up great consolations; this is God’s gift of compensation by which He deduces good from the dreariest evil. If we have witnessed carnage and mortal agony, we have also been called to honour the greatness of self-devotion and the heavenly endurance of charity. Young men – young solders – who may have taken up their profession, it is like enough, with very inadequate thoughts about it, have been ripened by the stern exigencies of their service, into the deliberate martyrs of duty. Death-beds have been painful and sad enough; and yet, have they not been tended and lightened during this war by the assiduity of the priests of God, whose profession of self-sacrifice was gloriously realised? And by the gentle courage of those heroic women who, some of them marked and honoured in their generation (and many more un-noted in their work, and therefore the more like their Lord), passed from sufferer to sufferer in the busy offices of Christian pity and love? Thank God for these bright and grand spectacles, and thank God also that the necessity of them is over. May we be the men of good will from whose hearts and lives in this renewed peace on earth shall ascend glory to God in the highest.

But, Dearly Beloved, these natural emotions, allowable and even laudable, are simply the occasion which, we trust, will awaken graver thoughts in your minds. … War is the teacher which impresses on the minds of nations, faith in the presence of God. The discipline of our individual lives trains us in the conviction that God is the last end of our respective souls and the collective sufferings of warfare prove to nations that their final cause is not to be sought in any temporal object. Let us then now accept this lesson of Providence. If men in truth desire the salvation of their souls and peace upon earth, consider whether unrestrained indulgence in the sensuous comforts of peace, and the hard-hearted insensibility to the sufferings of fellow-men, which is its unfailing attendant; whether security and pride as the fancied architects of their own fortunes; whether their all-absorbing care for the temporal, and their little anxiety for the spiritual; whether their self-glorification in national prospects, and their few thoughts for the Church of Christ throughout the world, may not have been the last drops in that brimming cup of iniquity which the Almighty Lord of Heaven and Earth has been punishing by war. And if the same causes are at work amongst us, may not similar effects follow? 

The Village of Balaklava with the British Fleet at anchor in the harbour.
Photographed in 1855 by Roger Fenton.

But thank God the war is over … It is over and it is well, if we learn His lesson.  Bearing it in mind, rejoice, Dearly Beloved, but rejoice in the Lord always; let your gladness be tempered by a reverential filial fear.  Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts.  He is merciful, but He is also holy, and holiness cannot forever spare the impenitent.  May the blessing of our dearest Lord, the Father of the world to come and the Prince of Peace, abide with you forever. Amen.

+John Bede Polding DD 
Archbishop of Sydney.

NOTES

1. Extracts from Archbishop Polding's Pastoral Letter commemorating the conclusion of the Crimean War as contained in the anthology The Eye of Faith. The Eye of Faith was printed by the Lowden Publishing Co., Kilmore Victoria in 1977.  

2. The Crimean War, which was waged in various theatres between 1853 and 1856, resulted in the deaths of a quarter-of-a-million soldiers. An alliance of British, French and Ottoman forces was arrayed against Russia over its attempt to enlarge its Empire and take control of the Black Sea.  A good summary of this bloody conflict can be read here. 

3. An extraordinary collection of photographs taken in 1855 at the Crimea by the English solicitor-turned-photographer Roger Fenton may be consulted at this website.


AMDG

1820 - 2020 bi - centenary

In the midst of tribulations that have spanned several months here in Australia, in this year of 2020 we commemorate a most important bi-centenary : the arrival of the first Government-appointed Catholic Chaplains to the Colony of New South Wales.  These were Father John Joseph Therry and Father Philip Connolly, both Irishmen.

Father John Joseph Therry, Apostle of Australia
circa 1815.

The name of Father Therry (pronounced Terry) is still known to Australian Catholics.  If any one person could be said to be the Church's first Apostle in Australia, it was Father Therry.  When the settlement of Australia was almost entirely confined to what is now New South Wales, Father Therry travelled to all areas of settlement, ministering to Catholics and others who sought the consolation of Religion.

It was Father Therry also, who founded the first Catholic church in Sydney, which came to be Bishop Polding's Cathedral in 1835.

Over the next several months, we will be outlining the history of the Catholicism in Australia from the founding of the colony in 1788 to the arrival of Bishop Polding in 1835.  There are some interesting tales to be told.

We will describe the construction of our first churches, in particular old Saint Mary's Cathedral, which celebrates its own bi-centenary next year, 2021.

AMDG

NOTES

The miniature watercolour of Father Therry was painted in about the year 1815 and is in the possession of the Archdiocese of Sydney.  Before the clergyman's collar which is more familiar to us, ministers of Religion (and other gentlemen, for that matter) commonly wore an ordinary shirt with an unstarched standing collar.  Around this was wrapped a long white cravat, usually tied in a bow.  This ornament frequently concealed the entire neck of the wearer.  In this miniature, Father Therry is shewn wearing such an ornament.

A prayer written by Archbishop Polding

A prayer of Archbishop John Bede Polding concluding his Lenten Pastoral Letter for the year 1851:

O Saviour of the World! 
Sanctify our fast by infusing into our souls a hatred of sin, 
and a sincere desire to amend our lives.  
Alas, what is our fast when compared with thine - 
what our sufferings when we consider what thou hast suffered, 
what we ought to suffer in atonement for our crimes!  

Be pleased to sanctify our fast by uniting it to thine.  
May we endeavour to supply our immeasurable deficiencies 
by a strict vigilance over our senses, by an abstinence from lawful enjoyments, 
by assiduity and fervour in prayer.  

And if there be those amongst us, to whom thou foreseest, 
this Lent will be the last season of Grace granted in thy goodness to them; 
be pleased to touch their hearts with thy most powerful graces, 
that they may be converted and live.  

Grant that we may also pass this holy time 
that with joyful hearts we may worthily receive, 
in commemoration of thy Glorious Resurrection, 
the Sacrament of thy love and our pledge of life everlasting.

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the love of the Father, 
and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen.

Archbishop Polding photographed in Melbourne, 1869.
Image : The State Library of Victoria
Digitally enhanced by the Saint Bede Studio

AMDG

NOTES

The Eye of Faith was printed by the Lowden Publishing Co., Kilmore Victoria in 1977.  The editors were Gregory Haines, Sister Mary Gregory Foster and Frank Brophy.  Special contribution to the volume were made by Professor Timothy Suttor and James Cardinal Freeman.

Looking from the other direction c 1888

Image : State Library of NSW.

This photograph, taken either from the campanile of the Sydney Town Hall (or possibly the adjacent Saint Andrew's Cathedral) shews progress on the construction of Saint Mary's Cathedral in 1888.  It is the view from the opposite direction to the photograph in our previous post.

In the middle ground, is Hyde Park; in the background, Sydney Harbour.

On the right side is depicted the remaining facade of the old Saint Mary's which had been destroyed by fire in 1865.  This structure faced College Street.  The bulk of the present Cathedral is adjacent to it.

By 1888, the construction of the sanctuary, Crossing and two bays of the nave had reached to the height of the aisles : clearly shewn here, punctuated with windows.  The masonry of the two transept Rose Windows had also been completed by this time, although not glazed.  On the left, the newly-completed Northern gable is shewn with timber members extending from it.  This was the beginning work on the line of the roof extending along the full length of the building.  A temporary roof - completed in the early 1880s - is shewn, which also ran along the full length of the building.  As the clerestory and permanent roof were constructed, this temporary roof was removed.  The temporary roof also served as a platform for the builders to continue upper-level construction.

Not visible in this photograph are the completed sacristies.

Since 1882, the interior of Saint Mary's had been in a fit state for the purposes of the Sacred Liturgy, although in an incomplete state.

AMDG