one occasion the church door having been closed against him, that great preacher addressed the multitudes that had assembled to hear him from a tombstone in Cheltenham churchyard. The scene, one never to be forgotten, has been described by Mr. Venn, one of the four Evangelical ministers present :-The preacher pouring forth a wonderful torrent of eloquence-Lord and Lady Dartmouth and the ministers at his side-the immense throng of people, some sobbing deeply, some weeping silently, a solemn concern appearing on the countenance of almost every one—the awful pause of a few seconds made by the preacher. "Oh with what eloquence," says Mr. Venn, "what energy, what melting tenderness, did Mr. Whitefield beseech sinners to be reconciled to God." In the evening the Sacrament was administered by Mr. Whitefield at his Lordship's residence, which the next day was thrown open for preaching. In the morning he addressed a prodigious congregation from the passage, and in the evening of the same day, exhausted as he was, preached again, standing upon a table near the front of the house. Lord Dartmouth, as we have said, on account of his Christian principles, had to encounter the misrepresentations and ridicule of many of his friends; and to the noble lord's isolation on this account Newton refers in a letter dated December 8, 1774. "The believer's call," he says, "is beautifully and forcibly set forth in Milton's character of Abdiel, at the end of the Fifth Book: 'Faithful found Among the faithless, faithful only he, His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal : Nor number, nor example, with him wrought To swerve from truth or change his constant mind, Methinks your Lordship's situation particularly resembles that in which the poet has placed Abdiel. You are not indeed called to serve God quite alone; but amongst those of your own rank, and with whom the station in which He has placed you necessitates you to converse, how few there are who can understand, second, or approve the principles upon which you act, or easily bear a conduct which must impress conviction or reflect dishonour upon themselves! But you are not alone. The Lord's people (many of whom you will not know till you meet them in glory) are helping you here with their prayers. His angels are commissioned to guard and guide your steps. Yea, the Lord Himself fixes His eye of mercy upon your private and public path, and is near you at your right hand, that you may not be moved! That He may comfort you with the light of His countenance and uphold you with the arm of His power is my frequent prayer." As we may see from the following letter, dated June 1773, Newton reckoned his various interviews with Lord Dartmouth among the greatest pleasures of his life. After stating his knowledge that it would be impracticable for his Lordship to visit Olney for some time to come, he goes on to say "I must content myself with the idea of the pleasure it would give me to sit with you half a day under my favourite great tree, and converse with you, not concerning the comparatively petty affairs of human government, but of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. How many delightful subjects would suggest themselves in a free and retired conversation! The excellency of our King, the permanency and glory of His kingdom, the beauty of His administration, the privileges of His subjects, the review of what He has done for us, and the prospect of what He has prepared for us in the future; and if while we were conversing He should be pleased to join us (as He did the disciples when walking to Emmaus), how would our hearts burn within us! But we cannot meet. All that is left for me is to use the liberty you allow me of offering a few hints upon these subjects by letter, not because you know them not, but because you love them." Many distinguished leaders of the Evangelical party besides those already named received great kindness from Lord Dartmouth. Romaine in 1764 (shortly before he was inducted to the living of St. Anne's, Blackfriars) was offered a living in the country; Powley (who married Miss Unwin) was in 1777, through the interest of his Lordship, presented by the King to the living of Dewsbury, in Yorkshire; Scott in 1780 obtained the curacy of Olney, and four years later, partly through his Lordship's influence, was made chaplain of the Lock Hospital. From what has been said, it will be seen that the motive power that brought Newton, Cowper, and Scott to Olney was the Earl of Dartmouth. He first appointed Newton to the curacy; and Cowper and Mrs. Unwin, solely because they had been used to evangelical preaching, and had heard of Newton's excellence, left Huntingdon and settled at Olney. His Lordship and Cowper were schoolfellows at Westminster, and sat side by side in the sixth form, and the former, when he visited Olney, made a point of calling on the poet. They had previously corresponded, and Cowper makes mention of Cook's Voyages and other books which his Lordship at various times had been kind enough to lend him. Newton's income at Olney was small, only £60 a year, but as soon as his worth became known, his patron was ever ready to help him. We have noticed that his Lordship rebuilt the Vicarage, and that he allowed Newton the use of the Great House at Olney for prayer-meetings and lectures; it should also be mentioned that we frequently read of his sending considerable sums of money for distribution among the poor and needy of the town; nor do we doubt that, had not Mr. Thornton's munificence made pecuniary aid quite unnecessary, the noble Earl would have as readily assisted Newton himself in the same way that he did so many other excellent, though impecunious, ministers of the Gospel. Lord Dartmouth died in the year 1801. Of his public career we have spoken at some length; in private life it will only be necessary to say that he gained the affection of all about him; that "he bore the character of a good husband, a good father, and a kind master," and that it was his daily endeavour to put into practice the precepts of the Lord Jesus Christ. X. THE THREefold corD, OR LADY AUSTEN AT OLNEY. "Now, Sister Anne, the guitar you must take, THE humorous poem of the "Distressed Travellers," addressed to Lady Austen, who was to "set it, and sing it, and make it a song," consists mainly of an imaginary dialogue between the poet himself and Mrs. Unwin, whom he represents as sticking in the mud, sinking in a hole, slipping and sliding on the grass, and wading through a flood, as they toil through the wet and difficult fields between Olney and the neighbouring village of Clifton Reynes. But the poet made many other journeys. to Clifton amid more agreeable circumstances; and one at least, though unsung, was an event of no little importance in his life, a journey (though a walk of but little over a mile can scarcely be so called) accomplished when the fields, and even the streams, were aglow with summer flowers, and when if he did not pay his customary tributes to the beauties of nature, it must have been because his attention was entirely absorbed by the fascinating conversation of his new companion. Looking out at one of his parlour windows a few days previously—it was in July 1781-he had seen two ladies enter the draper's shop on the opposite side of the way, one of whom he recognised as Mrs. Jones, wife of the curate of Clifton, the "Martha, ev'n against her will, Perched on the top of yonder hill " a lady with whom both he and Mrs. Unwin were already intimate. Having been much struck with the appearance of the stranger, and discovering upon inquiry that she was the sister of Mrs. Jones, he got Mrs. Unwin to invite the ladies to tea; but upon their arrival, in acceptance of the invitation, the poet, who had since repented of his boldness, could not at first muster sufficient courage to join the little party. But, having at length forced himself into their company, he found Lady Austen such a vivacious and sympathetic companion that he speedily lost all shyness, with which in her presence he seems never afterwards to have been troubled. In his own words, she was "a lively, agreeable woman, who had seen much of the world, and accounted it a great simpleton, as it is-one who laughed and made laugh, and could keep up a conversation without seeming to labour at it." In the evening he escorted the ladies home, and a few days after, with Mrs. Unwin, returned the visit. Although the walk from Olney to Clifton is not described in connective verse, like that at Weston by the Peasant's Nest and the Alcove, its beauties and principal features are frequently alluded to both in his poems and letters. The path leads first through level meadows intersected by narrow arms of the river, and about half-way to Clifton, a few yards beyond the main stream, takes us past the pleasant spot where stood the picturesque old water-mill to which Cowper alludes in "The Winter Morning Walk "("Task," V.). The current is spoken of as stealing silently and unperceived beneath its sheet of ice and snow, but at the mill it bursts asunder its icy shackles, and "Scornful of a check, it leaps The mill-dam, dashes on the restless wheel, That in its fall the liquid sheet throws wide." The music of its familiar clack and splashing waters has long ceased; even the mill itself, with all its appurtenances, has disappeared; but the site is still very beautiful, especially in summer time, when the shallow streams that surround it are yellow with irises, and bristle with reeds, and rushes, and waxlike umbels of butomus. A few years ago a tall poplar hereabouts having been blown down, the upturned earth revealed a number of flat stones |