66. The Publication of the Olney Hymns. -February, 1779. The In February, 1779, eight years after their commencement, were issued the Olney Hymns. title-page was as follows: OLNEY HYMNS. IN THREE BOOKS. Book I.-On Select Texts of Scripture. Cantabitis, Arcades, inquit, Montibus haec vestris; soli cantare periti Arcades. O mihi tum quam molliter ossa quiescant, Rev. xiv. 3. VIRG., Ecl. x. 31. 2 Cor. vi. 10. The quotation from Virgil is thus rendered by Dryden "But you, Arcadian swains, shall sing my grief, How light would lie the turf upon my breast, Revelation xiv. 3 begins, "And they sung as it were a new song," and 2 Corinthians vi. 10, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." This volume, which is dated February 15, 1779, evidently owed its publication to Mr. Thornton, for Newton, in a letter to that gentleman dated February 13, 1779, submits the choice of the printer to him, though he recommended his old friend, Joseph Johnson, of St. Paul's Churchyard, who had printed his Narrative and volume of sermons. Mr. Thornton took a thousand copies for distribution, and the volume had a considerable sale. It had, however, some opposition. Mr. Romaine, whom we have already referred to as a leading Evangelical divine, took the trouble to publish a book on the subject of Psalmody, in which he strongly censured modern hymn-writers. He said that whatever comfort people might think they received from the singing of hymns was wholly imaginary. Newton himself did not feel hurt by this censure, but he was afraid that it would hurt many well-meaning people, who looked upon Romaine as next door to infallible. The Olney Hymns were 348 in all, Cowper having written 68 (which were marked with a C.), and Newton 280. The two chief motives for writing them were, as Newton says in his preface, "a desire to promote the faith and comfort of sincere Christians, and secondly, to raise a monument to perpetuate the remembrance of an intimate and endeared friendship." Of the hymns by Cowper we have already spoken (§ 51). Among those by Newton, the best are "Safely through another week," "Come, my soul, thy suit prepare, Begone, unbelief," and "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds!" 67. At Gayhurst.-September, 1779. In September, 1779, Cowper made his first visit to Gayhurst, the beautiful and ancient mansion of Mr. George Wrighte. "Your mother and I," he tells Mr. Unwin (September 21), "last week made a trip in a postchaise to Gayhurst, the seat of Mr. Wrighte, about four miles off. He understood that I did not much affect strange faces, and sent over his servant on purpose to inform me that he was going into Leicestershire, and that if I chose to see the gardens I might gratify myself without danger of seeing the proprietor. I accepted the invitation, and was delighted with all I found there. The situation is happy, the gardens elegantly disposed, the hothouse in the most flourishing state, and the orange trees the most captivating creatures of the kind I ever saw. A man, in short, had need have the talents of Cox or Langford, the auctioneers, to do the whole scene justice." Gayhurst, indeed—or, to use its old name, Gotehurst -at which henceforward Cowper found himself an occasional visitor, was, and still is, a lovely spot, well meriting its beautiful derivation of Goddeshurst-none other than the hurst, or forest, of God. Built in three distinct periods, Gayhurst House offers to the antiquary much of interest. The oldest portion, or Early Tudor house, was erected in 1500 by a member of the family of Neville. It has a huge chimney shaft, and abounds in narrow passages, thick walls, quaintly-formed and unexpected roofs and gables, and curiously contrived gutters. Its ghost-for of course it had a ghost-appears to have been laid before Cowper put in his appearance; at any rate he does not mention it. Each of the many gables forms a room, and odd little rooms they are, with their small, strongly mul |