Surely no other town in the kingdom has hitherto been treated so unfairly as Olney. Almost every person who has written on Cowper has given it a bad name! Here is a specimen of the way we are spoken of, and I take it from the 'Introductory Memoir" of an excellent and well-known work, the Globe Edition of Cowper (first published, I believe, in 1870, but my own copy bears the date 1879), though I could easily point to a dozen other books containing similar and equally erroneous statements about Olney : : "It is not an attractive town, and the staple occupations of its inhabitants, and the whole neighbourhood, lace-making and straw-plaiting, were, and still are, very prejudicial to health, wealth, and godliness." Whether Olney is attractive or not, the reader that is unacquainted with the town will be able to judge for himself when he gets to the end of this work; but it is very certain that its staple occupations are not, and have not been for many years, either lace-making or straw-plaiting. Moreover, to represent Olney at the present day, as it has so often been represented, as unhealthy, poverty-stricken, and wicked, is giving a wrong impression of the town. In the first place, it is one of the healthiest towns in the kingdom, one proof being that just before Christmas 1884 no fewer than thirty of its inhabitants were over 80 years of age; in the second, it is quite as wealthy as a town of some 2300 inhabitants can reasonably be expected to be; and in the third, although as regards religion there is ample room for improvement, we are decidedly in this respect in advance of very many other towns,-but it would be astounding indeed if the labours of Newton, Scott, Sutcliff, Gauntlett, and other laborious and self-sacrificing divines all counted for nothing, and Olney were a byword for its depravity. As a matter of fact, whatever Olney may have been in Cowper's time, it is now a quiet, industrious, respectable, and progressive place. Many of the inhabitants are engaged in the shoe-trade. What though it sometimes appears desolate! A short time ago a visitor, after facetiously observing that "You might fire a cannon down the street all day, without injuring even a cat,” inquired of a shoemaker, the only person to be seen, where the people were. "Where they ought to be," was the prompt answer, "all at work, sir!" Never again let it be imputed to us as a fault that our street is often empty! In conclusion, and this is to me the most agreeable part of the preface, I beg to offer warmest thanks to those ladies and gentlemen who have so generously assisted in this undertaking; whether by permitting me to go over their mansions, houses, and grounds; by lending books and engravings; or by furnishing information in other ways. To the kindness of J. W. Carlile, Esq., of Gayhurst, I have already referred. My particular thanks are also due to Rev. J. P. Langley, M.A., Olney Vicarage; Dr. Macaulay of the Leisure Hour; Rev. J. Allen, B.A., Olney; Rev. J. Tarver, M.A., Filgrave Rectory; J. Garrard, Esq.; Rev. W. Sutthery, M.A., Clifton Rectory; and Rev. G. W. Wilkinson, Wainsgate. COWPER SCHOOL, OLNEY, May 1, 1886. |