tails like Dutch mastiffs." Thus Cowper acted something like the irrepressible Cardinal de Retz, who avenged his captivity by writing an account of his gaoler.

The letter to Unwin, dated August 3, 1782, is signed with a specimen of the poet's own printing, thus :--

William Cowper.

Even the floods, however, could not altogether keep the friends separate. If Cowper was unable to go to Lady Austen, Lady Austen was not prevented from coming to him. "A flood, indeed, has sometimes parted us for many days; but though it has often been impossible for us, who never ride, to visit her, as soon as the water has become fordable by an ass she has mounted one and visited us."

An unexpected occurrence now brought the friends nearer together. Mr. Jones before the subsidence of the floods had occasion to go to London, and no sooner was he gone than Clifton Rectory, or the "chateau," as Cowper calls it, "being without a garrison, was besieged" during the night and broken into by thieves; and the frightened ladies, not daring to stay there alone, came to Olney, and took refuge with Mrs. Unwin. "Men furnished with firearms were put into the house, and the rascals, having intelligence of this circumstance, beat a retreat." Mrs., Jones and Miss Green returned to Clifton; but Lady Austen, who had not quite recovered from a recent indisposition, had been so scared and terrified that she resolved to remain with Mrs. Unwin until apartments could be prepared

for her at Olney Vicarage. This occurrence was subsequently turned to account, for it suggested, no doubt, the Rural Thief in "Task," IV., whose poverty results from idleness, and who prowls abroad for plunder,

that

"He may compensate for a day of sloth

By works of darkness and nocturnal wrong."

About this time was written the ballad of "The Distressed Travellers," which records how Cowper and Mary (Mrs. Unwin) attempted a journey on a muddy day to Clifton, and commences

"I sing of a journey to Clifton

We would have performed if we could."

89. The Woman in a Nun's Hood.-August, 1782.

Meantime the friendship between Cowper and Mr. Bull went on steadily strengthening. One of the advantages to Cowper of this friendship was a good supply of books which Bull sent from time to time by Dumville, the carrier. As he always smoked a particular kind of tobacco, "Orinoco," it was Mr. Bull's custom when he visited Cowper to bring his box with him. Leaving it one day at Cowper's, the poet returned it with some verses, "To the Rev. William Bull," in which, referring to the

Conversation," he says—

"Forgive the bard, if bard he be,
Who once too wantonly made free
To touch with a satiric wipe

That symbol of thy power, the pipe;"

passage

in

and which winds

up

with

"And so may smoke-inhaling Bull

Be always filling, never full."

After this the "oval box" seems to have made no more journeys to Olney; at any rate when Cowper ensconced himself in the summer-house it was Bull's custom to keep a supply of the Orinoco there.

Mr. Bull was sometimes accompanied to Orchard Side by his son "Tommy, the young Hebræan."

As was natural, Cowper took a friendly interest in Bull's various affairs, and several of his letters at this time relate to the idea of establishing at Newport an academy for the preparation of students for the ministry. Both Newton and Cowper believed that no one could be more fitted for such an undertaking than Bull, and the scheme gradually advanced to fulfilment.

Mr. Bull delighted in a study "some eighteen feet square, with an arched roof," entirely surrounded with volumes; possessing large old casement windows; and furnished with immense square chairs of fine Spanish mahogany. Over the mantle-tree hung a well-executed drawing in crayons of the celebrated quietist, Madame Guion, an author of whom Mr. Bull was a passionate admirer. It was obtained in the following way. Hearing that there was a picture of his favourite author in the house of a stranger, he rode twenty miles to see it, and the stranger politely insisted on his acceptance of it. Cowper tells Unwin that it is

a striking portrait, too characteristic not to be a strong resemblance, and, were it encompassed with a glory,

instead of being in a nun's hood, might pass for the face of an angel. Mr. Bull, who possessed Madame Guion's poems in three volumes, lent them to Cowper, whom they so much pleased that he looked out "a Liliputian paper book" which he happened

to have by him, and them.

set to work at

set to work at translating

Mr. Bull encouraged the poet in this work, and from the best of motives, but one cannot help thinking that the writings of Madame Guion were more calculated to cause Cowper to brood over his great trouble than to do him good. To a man like Cowper, for instance, the less he was led to muse on such subjects as "The Vicissitudes experienced in the Christian Life" the better. One verse of this poem runs as follows:

"My claim to life, though sought with earnest care,

No light within me or without me shows;

Once I had faith, but now in self-despair

Find my chief cordial and my best repose."

Here was Cowper's own case. It was like seeing one's face in a glass.

Cowper's account of a later visit to Mr. Bull is thus told in a letter to Newton (September 23, 1783):—

"Since you went we dined with Mr. Bull. I had sent him notice of our visit a week before, which, like a contemplative studious man as he is, he put in his pocket and forgot. When we arrived the parlour windows were shut, and the house had the appearance of being uninhabited. After waiting some time, however, the maid opened the door, and the master

presented himself. It is hardly worth while to observe so repeatedly that his garden seems a spot contrived only for the growth of melancholy, but being always affected by it in the same way, I cannot help it. He showed me a nook, in which he had placed a bench, and where he said he found it very refreshing to smoke his pipe and meditate. Here he sits with his back against one brick wall and his nose against another, which must, you know, be very refreshing and greatly assist meditation. He rejoices the more in this niche because it is an acquisition made at some expense, and with no small labour; several loads of earth were removed in order to make it, which loads of earth, had I the management of them, I should carry thither again, and fill up a place more fit in appearance to be a repository for the dead than the living. I would on no account put any man out of conceit with his innocent enjoyments, and therefore never tell him my thoughts upon this subject, but he is not seldom low-spirited, and I cannot but suspect that his situation helps to make him so."

Whatever Cowper thought, Bull was exceedingly attached to this favourite nook. It was overshadowed by a lilac tree. In his garden Mr. Bull had a circular walk, which was accurately measured that he might know how many times round it would make a mile. At one point near the garden gate stood a sun-dial, and at its side was a little ledge for holding bullets, which bullets Mr. Bull moved from one hollow to another at every round. This was his mode of taking exercise.