AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
27
All that is left of St. John's Church is an empty shell, the two houses and the church being destroyed in air raids.
Toward the latter part of the eighteenth century, an attempt was made to make Bermondsey a fashionable
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watering place. In 1770 a chalybeate spring was discovered near Grange Road, which fact is still perpetuated in the
name Spa Road, but there is nothing salubrious about that neighbourhood now.
OF THE STOCK OF DEVON
The apostle could write of himself `Of the stock of Israel' but I am a Gentile and only allude to Paul's reference
to his forefathers as a heading, for we must leave the birthplace of the present writer, to get some inkling of his
forbears. Unlike Israel, I can only go back four generations. The apostle knew who were his `fathers', but the
average Gentile can trace his ancestry back no further than a few generations. My father's people were Exeter folk,
and I can go back as far as my father's grandfather, but have never pursued the matter further. My name `Welch' is
a variant of the spelling `Welsh' but apart from the fact that Devonshire is near to Wales, I have no evidence that
any of my forefathers hailed from the Principality. The word `Welch' was used by the Saxon invaders of this island
as a label for the inhabitants of Britain and meant a `foreigner'. It seems fitting, that one who was to be used in
making known the exceeding riches of His grace to those who were by nature `strangers
and foreigners' should himself bear a name meaning `foreigner'. It may be that it is quite accidental - but then so
might have been the naming of Saul of Tarsus by the Gentile name `Paul', but it is significant nevertheless. While
my forefathers for several generations at least were Devonshire folk, I myself was born in London. My great-
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Chalybeate spring = mineral water impregnated with iron salts.