[vii] It would be very interesting to trace the precise period when the late culpable neglect of Church discipline (more especially in observing the duty of daily prayer in churches) began to be generally prevalent. It would seem to be soon after, and not before, the year 1720. The author has now lying before him a daily journal kept by a collateral ancestor, who was curate of Garstang Church-Town, an agricultural district of this county, in the years 1723–4–5, from which it appears that, even in that retired district, prayers were then said in the church on all Wednesdays and Fridays, and all Saints’ days and Holydays throughout the year. The labour of a curate then, (for the vicar was non-resident,) was such as is seldom surpassed even by the often almost intolerable toils of the present day. The following is a specimen of the journal referred to:—

“April, 1723.

“12. Good Friday. Read prayers, Mr. Hayward [the vicar] preached, and we administered the sacrament to 236 communicants. After dinner I went into Claughton [two miles off] to visit the sick.

“13. Mr. Hayward read prayers; I went into the parish, and administered the sacrament at three private houses to sick and aged people.

“14. Easter Day. I read prayers. Mr. Hayward preached; and we administered the sacrament to 285 communicants. Afternoon: Mr. Hayward read prayers, and I preached; and then went to visit a sick child.”

The reader will be struck with the large attendance at the communion. We have had sad fallings-off since the year 1723!

I cannot resist making one or two other extracts, showing the general character of this curious little journal of the Rev. Thomas Parkinson:—

“February, 1722.

“1. Went to Street to visit Mrs. Salome, and administered the sacrament to her. She is 103 years old, yet very perfect in memory, sight, and hearing to admiration.

“April, 1723.

“30. Studied hard yesterday in the afternoon and this morning, and finished the 103rd sermon. At night I preached it for T. Raby, of Tarnaker, at St. Michael’s. His son paid me 10s. Mr. Crombleholm, the vicar there, came from London whilst I was there, who, in conjunction with three more, had bought Rawcliff Demain and Tenants, paying to the Board £11,260. It cost them near £1000 more in hush-money, as they call it.

“October, 1723.

“18. In the morning I went to visit William Grayston, who seemed very penitent after an ill-spent life. I pray God forgive him.

“October, 1723.

“28. In the morning I went to see W. Grayston, who had been perverted by a Romish priest in his sickness, but, by the blessing of God, I restored him to the Church, and administered the communion to him after he had begged pardon. He gave me then £1. 18s. 6d. to distribute, in way of restitution, to some he had unjustly injured.

“Nov. 2. Studied all the morning, and finished the 110th. Afternoon: I went to see W. Grayston and old Mrs. Salome.”

P.S. I ought to add that the number of attendants at the communion, above stated, was by no means unusual; for besides the communicants being, on ordinary Sundays, at least one hundred, I find the following entries in his next year’s Diary:—

“April, 1724.

“3. Good Friday. I preached. Mr. Hayward, [who seems always to have attended on these occasions,] read prayers, and consecrated. We had a vast number of communicants, more than have been usually seen.

“4. Mr. Hayward read prayers. I went into the parish to visit sick and impotent people; that is, such as cou’d not come to church.

“5. Easter-day. I preached in the forenoon. Mr. Hayward read prayers, and consecrated. We had a great many communicants at those three days of sacrament. [Palm Sunday was one.] At church we had about 656 communicants, and I administered to about 60 impotent people in the parish. I read prayers afternoon, and Mr. Hayward preached.”

[xii] The following is Mr. Newton’s own account of the state of his late parish in the hands of his successor, and that successor such a man as Mr. Scott. The narrative is a melancholy one.

“I was very cordially received at Olney; the heats and animosities which prevailed when I was there last, seemed in a great measure subsided. There are, however, many who have left the Church, and hear among the Dissenters; but I hope they have not left the Lord. Mr. Scott has some, and some of the best, who are affectionately attached to him. Mr. Scott is a good and upright man, and a good preacher, but different ministers have different ways. He met with great prejudices, and some very improper treatment, upon his first coming to Olney. He found several professors who had more leaves than fruit, more talk than grace; his spirit was rather hurt by what he saw amiss, and by what he felt. By what I can learn from those who love him best, he is very favourable and zealous in reproving what is wrong; but an unfavourable impression he has received, that the people at large do not like him, gives a sort of edge to his preaching which is not so well suited to conciliate them. The best of the Olney people are an afflicted people, and have been led through great inward conflicts and spiritual distresses, and for want of some experience of the like kind, he cannot so well hit their cases,nor sympathize with them so tenderly as might be wished. He has the best intentions, but his natural temper is rather positive, than gentle and yielding. I was, perhaps, faulty in the other extreme; but they had been so long used to me, that a different mode of treatment does not so well suit them.”—Southey’s Life of Cowper, vol. ii. p. 46.

Here the different success of the two consecutive incumbents is made to turn entirely upon preaching, and that preaching entirely on difference of temper. Would that they had both sought uniformity of preaching, and of temper too, in their Prayer Book![xxxix] Mr. Walker’s charity being of that kind which “seeketh not her own,” he would rather forego his rights than distrain for dues which the parties liable refused to pay as a point of conscience.[52] An “Old Man” is a heap of stones, of which many are erected on the highest points of the loftiest mountains in the North of England.[78] Pearls are or used to be found in the shell-fish in the river Irt, on the west coast of Cumberland. It is much to be feared that there are very few now left.[85] There is a tradition that this is one of the families which claim to wear a hat in the presence of Royalty.[89] The Packington family.[91] The history of Martha will remind some readers (though the facts are very different) of that of Mary Robinson, commonly called “The Beauty of Buttermere,” who was betrayed into a marriage by the notorious Hadfield, under the feigned name of Colonel Hope. Hadfield was a man of good birth and education, and was afterwards hanged for forgery. Mary died not long since, the mother of a large family, in a good old age, a subject of notoriety and curiosity to her dying day. Yet Robert Walker loved his dead Martha quite as much as his living Mary!