The Isle of Wight Observer published on 3rd November 1888 tells of an amusing exchange between a Ventnor visitor and an enthusiastic member of the clergy.

THE LATEST FROM VENTNOR. – A curious story reaches us from Ventnor. A lady visitor was staying there, and on Sunday morning went to church. An elderly clergyman entered the pulpit, and took for his text the words “And Jairus’s daughter was sick.” He enlarged on the topic at such length that the lady was nearly as sick as the subject of the sketch. She concluded she would seek a more eloquent preacher, so in the evening went to a church at St. Lawrence. At the end of the first part of the service she settled herself down to listen to the sermon, when, to her dismay, the same eloquent divine entered the pulpit, and again enlarged on the subject of Jairus’s daughter’s sickness! The next morning the visitor was about to leave Ventnor, and while sitting in the waiting room at the station, who would walk in and take a seat beside her but the identical clergyman who had preached the previous day. With the object of starting the conversation, the gentleman remarked “I am a stranger here, Madam, but perhaps you can tell me who the knell went for this morning?” The temptation was too great; and the lady archly replied, “I don’t know, I am sure – unless it was Jairus’s daughter. She was very sick all day yesterday.”