63. Cherry Fair.-June, 1778.

Among the great events at Olney (and it is still an event of some importance) was the annual fair held on St. Peter's Day (June 29th), and generally known as Cherry Fair. The market-place was of course covered with booths, stalls, shows, swayboats, and much besides, but this year there was an additional attraction -namely, a wild beast show. In those days fairs were patronized by all classes of society, and among the visitors to see the lion, which was the greatest of the sights, were Mrs. Unwin, Cowper, and Newton. "He was wonderfully tame," says Newton, " as familiar with his keeper and as docile and obedient as a spaniel; yet the man told me he had his surly fits, when they dare not touch him."

Newton was then still engaged upon his Olney Hymns, and he told his friend Bull-"I got a hymn out of this lion, which you shall see when you come to Olney if you please me" ("The lion, though by nature wild," ii. 93).

Says Cowper to Unwin, "A lion was imported here at the fair, seventy years of age, and was as tame as a goose. Your mother and I saw him embrace his keeper with his paws, and lick his face. Others saw him receive his head in his mouth, and restore it to

him again unhurt ;-a sight we chose not to be favoured with, but rather advised the honest man to discontinue the practice -a practice hardly reconcilable to prudence, unless he had a head to spare. The beast, however, was a very magnificent one, and much more royal in appearance than those I have seen in the Tower."

64. Cowper's Opinions concerning Men and Books.

Cowper having taken again to reading, his letters now furnish us with his opinions on men and books. He considered Gray "the only poet since Shakespeare entitled to the character of sublime." Previously Cowper had been prejudiced against him, but he could now write, "I once thought Swift's letters the best that could be written; but I like Gray's better. His humour, or his wit, or whatever it is to be called, is never illnatured or offensive, and yet I think equally poignant with the Dean's," which remarks, coming from a man generally admitted to be the best of English letterwriters, are not without value. The Abbé Raynal, in whose work Diderot had a finger, he admires "as a philosopher, as a writer, as a man of extraordinary intelligence." Dr. Johnson's "Lives of the Poets" gave him much pleasure, though he reckoned it a pity that so many mediocrities, and worse, had been admitted, and fell foul of the Doctor's treatment of his favourite Milton. This piece of criticism, seeing how largely Cowper was influenced by that poet, well deserves perusal. It is too long to be quoted here, but may be found in almost any collection of his letters, the date being October 31, 1779.

With Johnson's remarks on Dryden and Pope, Cowper agreed in the main. In respect to the latter he says, "With the unwearied application of a plodding Flemish painter, who draws a shrimp with the most minute exactness, he had all the genius of one of the first

masters. Never, I believe, were such talents and such drudgery united. But I admire Dryden most, who has succeeded by mere dint of genius, and in spite of a laziness and carelessness almost peculiar to himself." On Prior he considered the Doctor had been too severe. As for historians, he admired Robertson, but liked Hume better.

65. Cowper and Scott.

About 1778 Cowper made the acquaintance of the Rev. Thomas Scott, afterwards better known through his commentary and other works. Scott was at this time curate of Weston, and lived at the house (near the church) which commands a view of the whole village street, and which is generally known as Pear-tree House, from the fact that Mr. Higgins, its owner, would take no rent of Scott but a hamper of pears annually from a fine tree in the garden, for which a receipt was regularly sent. Thomas Scott, born in 1747, at Braytoft (Lincolnshire), was in some respects a remarkable character. The son of a small farmer, he was at the age of 16 apprenticed to a medical practitioner, under whom he behaved so ill as to bring about his dismissal. For nine years he now led the uncongenial life of a common farm labourer, not only being employed in the most laborious and dirty work, but suffering much harsh treatment from his father, who, though naturally indignant at his son's folly, carried his resentment too far. At length breaking from bondage Scott declared his intention of seeking ordination, for in his spare hours he had kept up the

Latin, Greek, and other studies of his youth. After considerable difficulty he succeeded in his desire, and in 1772 entered upon the first of his four curacies in North Bucks-namely, that of Stoke Goldington. He subsequently held the curacies of Ravenstone, Weston Underwood, and Olney, dwelling in the neighbourhood about thirteen years (1772-1785). During the early years of his ministry his religion was nothing but a sham. Moreover, as far as he understood such controversies, he was "nearly a Socinian and Pelagian, and wholly an Arminian." Meantime he studied very hard and performed his clerical duties after a fashion. But a great change was at hand. He was first led to reconsider his position by a sermon of John Newton's -the man whom he had for some time ridiculed, but it was an action of Newton's that brought the matter to a culminating point. The narrative shall be told in Scott's own words :

“In January, 1774, two of my parishioners, a man and his wife, lay at the point of death. I had heard of the circumstance; but, according to my general custom, not being sent for, I took no notice of it; till one evening, the woman being now dead and the man dying, I heard that my neighbour, Mr. Newton, had been several times to visit them. Immediately my conscience reproached me with being shamefully negligent in sitting at home, within a few doors of dying persons my general hearers, and never going to visit them. Directly, it occurred to me that, whatever contempt I might have for Mr. Newton's doctrines, I must acknowledge his practice to be more consistent with the ministerial. character than my own. He must have more zeal and

love for souls than I had, or he would not have walked so far to visit and supply my lack of care to those who, as far as I was concerned, might have been left to perish in their sins. This reflection affected me so much, that, without delay, and very earnestly, yea with tears, I besought the Lord to forgive my past neglect ; and I resolved thenceforward to be more attentive to my duty: which resolution, though at first formed in ignorant dependence on my own strength, I have, by Divine grace, been enabled hitherto to keep. I went immediately to visit the survivor; and the affecting sight of one person already dead, and another expiring in the same chamber, served more deeply to impress my serious convictions so that from that time I have constantly visited the sick of my parishes, as far as I have had opportunity, and have endeavoured, to the best of my knowledge, to perform that essential part of a parish minister's duty."

A tombstone, carved by James Andrews, the Olney sculptor, to the memory of this couple, stands in the churchyard of Weston Underwood, in the angle between the chancel and the south aisle. Upon it are represented two coffins on a trestle.

At Pear-tree House Scott wrote "The Force of Truth" (published 1779), his most important work, with the exception of the "Commentary." It was revised by Cowper, "and, as to style and externals, but not otherwise, considerably improved by his advice." By this time a friendship had sprung up, not only between Scott and Cowper, but also between Scott and Newton.