as might be expected, made no acquaintances. Lady Throckmorton, however, the wife of Sir Robert Throckmorton, a man far advanced in years, was kind enough to favour him with the key of their pleasure grounds at Weston Underwood, a village a mile and a half distant. With her son John (afterwards Sir John) Cowper had been acquainted when a boy.

These early years at Olney were spent very happily. So far from being a recluse, Cowper, in company with Newton, visited all the country round. Now they are together at Northampton, now they are riding to Winslow; one day they walk to Lavendon Mill, on another occasion pastoral work calls them to Weston. As before observed, Mr. Maddock in his diary notices visits of Cowper and Newton to Kettering on August 27, 1768, March 29, 1769, and May 22, 1770. "On September 19" (1772), writes Newton in his pocketbook, "breakfasted at Yardley; spoke from Matt. v. 6; at Denton, from Phil. iv. 4. Mr. Cowper went with me, a pleasant walk both ways;" and entries like a pleasant walk with Mr. Cowper" are frequent in the record of Newton's pocket-book during this period. On these visits, too, Newton was sometimes accompanied by Mrs. Newton and Mrs. Unwin, as well as Cowper. The intercourse between the friends, indeed, became so close and affectionate, that, thanks to the right of way through Guinea Field, they "were seldom separate when at home and awake." Much of their time was spent in visiting the poor, ministering to the sick, and praying at the bedside of the dying.

་

In June, 1768, Cowper paid a visit to St. Albans,

where he doubtless saw again his "little physician," though the object of the visit was not to consult Dr. Cotton, but to apprentice Dick Coleman. The end of it was that the lad was fixed at Oundle. Referring to this trip, Cowper says (June 16, 1768), “I visited St. Albans about a fortnight since in person, and I visit it every day in thought. The recollection of what passed there, and the consequences that followed it, fill my mind continually." The vacancy he had. left at the " Collegium Insanorum" was by and by filled up by a near female relation, and Cowper was led to pray, "May the same hand which struck off my fetters, deliver her also out of the House of Bondage."

46. The Great House, and the Lines on "A Thunder Storm."

The exertions of John Newton at Olney were indefatigable. He threw his whole soul into the work to which he had been called, and his industry in every department of it, when we note his schools, his cottage lectures, his public services both in the town and villages, and his prayer-meetings, must command our admiration. In respect to the last, one of his most frequent resorts was the cottage of a certain Molly Mole, or, as he called it, "the Mole Hill"; and when the favoured Molly removed to another cottage, called by Newton "the new Mole Hill," the prayer-meetings followed her.

His exertions, too, had visible results; the accommodation at the church proving insufficient for the large

numbers who now regularly flocked to hear him, a large gallery had been erected and opened (July, 1765). But even then "there seemed no more room in the body of the church than before." Short days, uncertain weather, dirty roads-none of these made any sensible diminution in the assemblies; and the seriousness of his hearers gave Newton hope that his congregations did not come in vain. His powers

of endurance seem to have been exercised almost as much in his self-imposed tasks at Olney as they were on the shores of Guinea. "I have often been engaged," says he, "about six hours in speaking at church and at home, yet find myself in good case, little or nothing fatigued; but if there was occasion, I could readily go and preach again."

In that same year, too, which was two years previous to Cowper's arrival, Newton had commenced having services in what was called the "Great House, mansion, the property of Lord Dartmouth, that stood between the church and the mill.

This house being unoccupied, Newton got permission to make use of it, in the first instance for the meetings of the children, "where he could talk, preach, and reason with them in their own little way,' and afterwards for prayer-meetings.

It was his particular pleasure to get his friends when they visited Olney to take part in the services at the Great House. Berridge and Venn, Rowland Hill, Symonds of Bedford, Bull of Newport, and many other divines were inveigled hither and called upon to speak; nor was Cowper, when he arrived in Olney, exempted. Of the townspeople who took part in these