room any longer. This was in anno 1641. Not, said he, that I dislike it, but approve of it. The times, I fear me, as you see, grow high and turbulent, and great may be the folly and madness of the people. (For he was then come from Boston' in Lincolnshire, where it was, said he, I was used but coarsely). It will be good for you, according to the rule of prudence (seeing whither the stream is turning) to take this away at this time, and from this place. I counsel as your friend only. And so with great affection to the family, and signifying what a loss, not only they had of such a guide, but the church of such a man as, he said, N. F. was ;— and so, with giving to all his benediction, he departed. And his advice was taken, and the old gentlewoman's table taken down out of the common parlour, whereinto indeed, not very long after, came men of another garb than the bishop, and of other minds 2.

1 "A great nursery of inconformity."-Laud's Troubles and Tryal, 531. "This labour our bishop undertook personally [Oct. 1641], to heal the maladies of brainsick distempers at Boston, Leicester, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hitchin, the last visitation that was held in either province to this day."Hacket, ii. 164.

...

2 "Here let the daughters of Gidding stay: and so they did. But nor they nor the rest staid many years after, in that godly repose. It was out of season to confine themselves to holy rest, when civil dissensions began to flame, and there was no rest in the land. . . . Religion and loyalty were such eye-sores, that all the Ferrars fled away, and dispersed, and

66. Let me add that some years before Dr. Hill, then parson of Tichmarsh', some four miles off, came in a coach with four horses, and another minister with him of a neighbour parish, whom he had taken up to come with him. For the lady that owned the coach, being come with him to that near town, would not then approach to Gidding, till Mr. Hill had first been there. He came with much civility, and having seen the church, which was then in its best array, and the house, and demanded

took joyfully the despoiling of their goods, Heb. x. 34. All that they had restored to the church, all that they had bestowed upon sacred comeliness, all that they had gathered for their own livelihood, and for alms, was seized upon as a lawful prey, taken from superstitious persons."-Hacket, ii. 53.

1 Thomas Hill compounded for the first-fruits of Tichmersh, 24 Jul. 1633 (Bridges's Northamptonshire, ii. 386), master of Trinity from 1645-1653, vicechancellor 1645 and 1646. There is a life of him in Clarke's Lives (1677), 230 seq., where he is said to have been master of Emmanuel before he was removed to Trinity, but his name does not appear as such in the Grad. Cantabr. nor in any of the college memorials (Bennet's Emman. Coll. Reg. MS. in the Coll. Library, i. 169), but he styles himself, says Bennet, late master in the title-page of one of his books. There are notices of him in the Life of Angier (1685), 9, Salter's Pref. to Whichcote's and Tuckney's Eight Letters, xxviii-xxxi, Lansd. MS. 985, art. 69, (his will) in Baker's MS. xxvi. 214, 215, Commons' Journals, v. 423, 430, Lords' Journals, ix. 660 b, 663 b, 664b, x. 129b, (all these entries relate to his appointment as master of Trinity), x. 160 b, (his petition about a revision of the statutes; other entries in the Commons' Journals relate to his sermons before the house), Wood's Fasti, i. 408, 409.

many questions and received satisfactory answers, as himself acknowledged, in all his demands, and asking the minister that came with him, one that knew Gidding full well, where were such and such things that he had been confidently told of and afterwards, upon a truth', to be so, but now he saw no such thing, nor sign of them? The minister made him answer, that there was never such things seen by any in Gidding church or house, but no other than his own eyes beheld at present. What, said he, can this be so as you say? Yea, replied he, it's most true, as I tell you. At which he awhile stood amazed, and turning to J. F. (for N. F. was dead), Sir, said he, I must confess I have heard very strange reports, and so confidently avouched for truth, that I gave, I see now, too much credit, and more than I ought to have done. But from this day forward it

shall teach me this lesson, not to give credit in the like kind while I live. I must needs say, not anything, but what may be well allowed, in your church: nor, by the answers you have made me to my questions, anything you do or practise, but is unblameable, though not so usual now-a-days, which, I see, makes all this noise and rumour abroad; and where I

1 Seems to mean, "Which he had heard asserted, and afterwards solemnly affirmed."

2 "We must not forget the house and chapel in Little Gidding (the inheritance of master Ferrar), which lately made a great noise all over England. [In the beginning of the long parliament. Fuller's note]. Here three numerous female

come, I shall do you right. And so excusing his boldness, being a stranger to us, he, with much seeming satisfaction, departed to the town again, where he left the lady. And I heard afterwards, he would say, that the family of Gidding were much wronged by scandalous reports. But these kinds of visits were ordinary at Gidding, not from hundreds, but thousands, it may be said: yet it was never known that any man or woman came there, that did not seem, before they went away, fully and clearly satisfied.

67. One day there was a worthy gentleman, that dwelt not far from Gidding, and very often came to visit N. F., and greatly delighted in his company and discourse (this was a wise and learned gentleman), was at dinner at an earl's' house, not far

families (all from one grandmother) lived together in a strict discipline of devotion. They rose at midnight to prayers; and other people most complained thereof, whose heads, I dare say, never ached for want of sleep. Sure I am, strangers by them were entertained, poor people were relieved, their children instructed to read, whilst their own needles were employed in learned and pious work, to bind Bibles; whereof one most exactly done was presented to king Charles. But their society was beheld by some as an embryo nunnery, suspecting that there was a pope Joan therein; which causeless cavil afterwards confuted itself, when all the younger of those virgins practised the precept of St. Paul, to marry, bear children, and guide their houses."-Worthies in Huntingdonshire.

1 Either the earl of Manchester's at Kimbolton, or the earl of Westmoreland's at Apethorp.

from Gidding, where was store of great company. In the end they fell upon discourse of Gidding. Every man being ignorant of the place (for they were never there), began to report one to the other what they had credibly heard of Gidding, and spake very boldly all untruths, as if they had known all to be as they said. Yet this gentleman sat and heard all, for so he was resolved to do; the lord thinking, because he held his tongue, all to be true: till one bolder than the rest did affirm, that they were so superstitious, that they had twelve several crosses in their chancel-window, to his knowledge, to which they bowed when they entered the church, and that his eyes had seen them, within so many days ago. This set them all afire. When the gentleman heard this, he could no longer forbear, and beginning to speak, the lord said, Let us, I pray you, hear what Mr. (and so called him by his name) can say. For, said he, I now remember, that he once long ago told me that he used to go thither. I pray, Sir, said the lord, let us now have upon your knowledge. My lord, said he, there is little

1

On this subject

1 Lenton too had heard of the crosses. see Morton's Defence of the innocencie of the three ceremonies, &c., part ii. ch. 2, (Of the sign of the cross in baptism), Prynne's Canterburies Doome, 204 seq., Dowsing's Journal. "Cur tanta sufflas proba in innocuam crucem? Non plus maligni dæmones Christi cruce Unquam fugari, quam tui socii solent." Herbert, Epigr. Apolog. x, 1-3. Dr. Cornelius Burgess was the barbarian who overthrew Paul's Cross, (Heylin, Cypr. Angl. 202). Cf. Grey on Hudibras, iii. 2. 314.