result was that they were cheered and animated by his presence and his active interest in their welfare, as well as warned and consoled by his instructions. When he looked into the schools, it was not merely to glance round the classes, or to ask a few formal questions, to see that all was in order, but he had something to say to each individual scholar, of encouragement or rebuke. In his rides round the parish the children used to run out of the houses to catch the wonted smile, or gesture, or call, of the Rector as he passed, or to claim the cakes and gingerbread that he brought with him for those whose hands and faces were clean; and the poor cottagers long afterwards described how their hearts beat with delight as they heard the short quick trampling of his horse's feet as he went galloping up their lanes, and the sound of his voice as he called out to them before he reached the house to come out

and speak to

"When he

him, or hold his pony as he went in. entered a sick chamber he never failed to express the joy which neatness and order gave him, or to reprove where he found it otherwise." Whatever was to be done in the parish for their good, they were sure to find in him an active supporter. "He took so much trouble," they said, "in whatever he did-never sparing himself for whatever he took in hand." The Rectory became the "home" of the parish. He sold daily at his house, to the honest and industrious poor, blanketing, clothing, &c., at a cheaper rate than the cost price (a practice then much less frequent in country parishes than at present). In the winter evenings he lent out books to read; and generally for anything that was

wanted, whether in the way of advice or relief, his house was the constant resort of all who were in difficulty. He established weekly cottage-lectures at different points in the parish for the old and infirm who were unable to walk to church.

In the hope of producing an effect upon those who were less likely to be impressed by the usual ministrations of the Church, he used from time to time to issue printed or lithographed addresses to his parishioners on Observance of the Sabbath, on Prayer, on Sickness, on Confirmation. In the public-houses, with the same view, he caused large placards to be framed, containing a few short and simple exhortations to a sober and religious life, such as might arrest the attention of the passer-by; and on the walls and public places of the parish he had similar papers posted up, denouncing in strong language (what was a crying sin of the country population of Cheshire) the vice of drunkenness. To repress this great evil he spared no personal sacrifice. "Whenever," such was the homely expression of the people, "whenever there was a drunken fight down at the village, and he knew of it, he would always come out to stop it-there was such a spirit in him." On one of these occasions tidings were brought to him of a riotous crowd which had assembled to witness a desperate prize-fight, adjourned to the outskirts of his parish, and which the respectable inhabitants were unable to disperse. "The whole field" (so one of the humbler neighbours represented it) "was filled, and all the trees "round about-when in about a quarter of an hour I "saw the Rector coming up the road on his little black

"horse as quick as lightning, and I trembled for fear

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they should harm him. He rode into the field and just looked quick round (as if he thought the same) to "see who there was that would be on his side. But it was " not needed--he rode into the midst of the crowd, and "in one moment it was all over; there was a great "calm; the blows stopped; it was as if they would all "have wished to cover themselves up in the earth-all "from the trees they dropped down directly"said a word, and all went away humbled." The next day he sent for the two men, not to scold them, but to speak to them, and sent them each away with a Bible. The effect on the neighbourhood was very great, and put a stop to the practice, which had been for some time past prevalent in the adjacent districts.

no one

To analyze the actual effects of his ministrations on the people would be difficult, the more so as there were other influences for good, especially from the resident family at Alderley Park, whose benevolent attention to the wants and interests of their dependents powerfully contributed, in the parish, to produce a more kindly feeling and sustain a better standard of conduct than was usual at that time in agricultural populations. The general result was what might have been expected. Dissent was all but extinguished. The church was filled, the communicants many. To the better disposed of the parishioners he was, as they expressed it, "their father and leader in everything that was good." Even when they differed from him, they would say, "As the Rector says it, we must not go against him."

The parochial occupations which have been described necessarily engaged him for a large portion of every day; but to an active mind, and with the advantage of a methodical system, there was still much leisure left for other employments. The want of a regular classical education, as well as the peculiar turn of his own mind, indisposed him to purely literary studies, of which the nicer subtleties, whether in scholarship, metaphysics, or theology, were on every account distasteful to him. In Church history, indeed, and the kindred branches of knowledge to which his calling directed him, his information was for the most part varied and extensive. Of the Scriptures he was at all times a careful student. But the contrast of the elaborate systems of later divinity with the simplicity and freedom of the Bible was a topic to which he constantly recurred: and, though giving a full practical assent to the creed and worship of the Church of England, he never could endure minute controversies relating to the details of its doctrines and ceremonies. It was not till a later period of his life that the full effects of this tendency, whether produced by temperament or education, were clearly manifested; but it deserves remark thus early as having conduced to foster and determine in great measure his taste for physical science. The exhibition of Divine power and goodness in the natural world seemed to him so much more direct and simple than amidst the perplexities and confusion of the moral world, that he always regarded it as one of the purest sources of intellectual and religious instruction; and always studied and encouraged it as a natural part of a clergyman's duty, and

as conducive, when it could be followed up, to the welfare of his flock also. "The perversions of men," he used to say, "would have made an infidel of me, but for the counteracting impressions of Divine Providence in the works of nature." Of all the branches of science, natural history was that to which he was most inclined. His quick eye enabled him readily to observe, and his methodical habits accurately to register, the phenomena of the animal creation; and thus to acquire, without interfering with any graver pursuits, a very considerable knowledge of ornithology, entomology, and mineralogy. Ornithology in particular became his favourite study, and it was a constant source of amusement and interest to him in his parish walks and rides to notice the flight and habits of birds, to collect remarkable specimens of their organization, and to gather from his parishioners stories of any peculiarities which they had themselves noticed. The result of these observations he embodied, in 1836, in two small volumes, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and entitled 'A Familiar History of Birds, their Nature, Habits, and Instincts.'

Besides these more immediate interests, he was active in carrying out in larger spheres the same views as those which he pursued within the limits of his own parish. Any schemes of practical utility which won his attention in the neighbourhood, or within the circle of his influence or acquaintance, were sure of his cooperation and support; and the novelty of their appearance, which repelled others, had for him a natural attraction. Infant Schools, Temperance Societies,

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