Mr. Pontifex was a carpenter by trade; he was also at one time
parish clerk; when I remember him, however, he had so far risen in
life as to be no longer compelled to work with his own hands. In his
earlier days he had taught himself to draw. I do not say he drew well,
but it was surprising he should draw as well as he did. My father, who
took the living of Paleham about the year 1797, became possessed of
a good many of old Mr. Pontifex's drawings, which were always of local
subjects, and so unaffectedly painstaking that they might have
passed for the work of some good early master. I remember them as
hanging up framed and glazed in the study at the Rectory, and
tinted, as all else in the room was tinted, with the green reflected
from the fringe of ivy leaves that grew around the windows. I wonder
how they will actually cease and come to an end as drawings, and
into what new phases of being they will then enter.
Not content with being an artist, Mr. Pontifex must needs also be
a musician. He built the organ in the church with his own hands, and
made a smaller one which he kept in his own house. He could play as
much as he could draw, not very well according to professional
standards, but much better than could have been expected.
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