ton Road, or, as it was then termed, Dagnell Street or Dag Lane. Samuel Teedon was an egotistical and inordinately vain, but simple-minded and fervently religious, man. Just such a man in respect to his religious views as was not infrequently the product of the Evangelical school. The fervent preaching of Newton and like men with which this neighbourhoodperhaps more than any other in England—then abounded had had the effect of making his religion a good deal more to him than a mere name. He wrestled with God in prayer, and he believed that he was especially favoured of Heaven. People at the present day may sneer at the poor schoolmaster of Olney. That an egotistical pedagogue, who had but indifferent health, who was bamboozled by the people in authority in the town, who with all his industry was scarcely able to keep himself from starving, who bought his copybooks half a dozen at a time for fear of running heavily into debt, who in spite of this precaution dreaded his stationer's bill only less than he did the arrival of rent day ;-that a man who was so situated should imagine himself a peculiar favourite of Heaven may excite in some minds nothing but ridicule. But unjustly so, for Samuel Teedon, with all his eccentricities, had in his composition a considerable amount of wisdom. Every man, no matter how poor, is specially favoured of Heaven, provided he believes so, and lives up to his lights. With this belief of Teedon's, then, we have little fault to find; but another belief that took hold of him, and that increased as years went on, must be regarded differently. This, however, must be dealt with in a subsequent chapter. It was owing to John Newton,

probably, that Cowper became acquainted with this singular character-a character that was subsequently to exert such an extraordinary influence over his life. At any rate, Newton seems always to have greatly interested himself in Teedon, who is first alluded to by Cowper in the letter to Newton of February 25, 1781. Cowper says: "He that tells a long story should take care that it be not made a long story by his manner of telling it. His expression should be natural, and his method clear; the incidents should be interrupted by very few reflections, and parentheses should be entirely discarded. I do not know that poor Mr. Teedon guides himself in the affair of story-telling by any one of these rules, or by any rule indeed that I ever heard of. He has just left us after a long visit, the greatest part of which he spent in the narration of a certain detail of facts that might have been compressed into a much smaller compass, and my attention to which has wearied and worn out all my spirits. You know how scrupulously nice he is in the choice of his expression; an exactness that soon becomes very inconvenient both to speaker and hearer, where there is not a great variety to choose out of."

Teedon is also alluded to as a visitor on November 27, 1781; and on February 7, 1785, Cowper gives us the following most amusing specimen of the schoolmaster's manner: "Mr. Teedon, who favours us now and then with his company in an evening as usual, was not long since discoursing with that eloquence which is so peculiar to himself, on the many providential interpositions that had taken place in his favour. He had wished for many things,' he said, 'which, at the time

when he formed these wishes, seemed distant and improbable, some of them indeed impossible. Among other wishes that he had indulged, one was that he might be connected with men of genius and ability— and, in my connection with this worthy gentleman,' said he, turning to me, that wish, I am sure, is amply gratified.' You may suppose that I felt the sweat gush out upon my forehead when I heard this speech; and you do you will not be at all mistaken. So much was I delighted with the delicacy of that incense."

if

From these extracts it will be seen that Cowper at first regarded Teedon as somewhat of a bore, though a decidedly amusing one; and it is quite certain that when he wrote the passages in "Conversation" about the teller of long-winded stories and the reciter of prodigies and complaints, he had Teedon in his eye. (See also to Newton, December 31, 1781.) At the same time, from the very first there was something in Teedon that both Cowper and Mrs. Unwin liked. They pitied and often relieved his poverty; and as for his weaknesses-his vanity and obtrusiveness-they good-naturedly got what amusement they could out of them, and passed them over.

About this time the religious part of the community were much exercised on the subject of Sunday-schools, which had lately been inaugurated by Mr. Robert Raikes, and were now becoming general. The honour of establishing a Sunday-school at Olney belongs to the Rev. Thomas Scott, and Cowper thus refers to it (September 24, 1785): "Mr. Scott called upon us yesterday; he is much inclined to set up a Sunday-school, if he can raise a fund for the purpose. Mr. Jones has

had one some time at Clifton, and Mr. Unwin writes me word that he has been thinking of nothing else, day and night, for a fortnight. It is a wholesome measure that seems to bid fair to be pretty generally adopted, and, for the good effects that it promises, deserves well to be so. I know not, indeed, while the spread of the gospel continues so limited as it is, how a reformation of manners in the lower class of mankind can be brought to pass; or by what other means the utter abolition of all principle among them, moral as well as religious, can possibly be prevented. Heathenish parents can only bring up heathenish children; an assertion nowhere oftener or more clearly illustrated than at Olney; where children, seven years of age, infest the streets every evening with curses and with songs, to which it would be unseemly to give their proper epithet. Such urchins as these could not be so diabolically accomplished, unless by the connivance of their parents. It is well, indeed, if, in some instances, their parents be not themselves their instructors. Judging by their proficiency, one can hardly suppose any other. It is therefore doubtless an act of the greatest charity to snatch them out of such hands, before the inveteracy of the evil shall have made it desperate. Mr. Teedon, I should imagine, will be employed as a teacher, should this expedient be carried into effect. I know not at least that we have any other person among us so well qualified for the service. He is indisputably a Christian man, and miserably poor, whose revenues need improvement, as much as any children in the world can possibly need instruction."

It

may be noted that in the early days of Sundayschools the teachers were paid.

109. Various other Olney Folk.-May, 1785.

Previous biographers of Cowper have erred in ignoring Cowper's relations with his humbler neighbours at Olney. They have said much about his works, much about the history of poetry, much about his better-to-do contemporaries and his critics; but they seem to have lost sight of the fact that Cowper was a man as well as a poet. He continually took a keen interest in the little world around him-the little world of Olney. And not only so, but the very best passages in his poems are those descriptive of the simple folk amongst whom he dwelt. When Cowper takes upon himself to describe the Millennium his flight is by no means a satisfactory one; when he attacks Frederick the Great and other "royal mastiffs" he is apt to be dull; when he lunges at Thelyphthora he makes himself look foolish, and even his descriptions of cucumber-rearing, skilled as he was in that occupation, are only very mediocre reading. When, however, he touches upon the joys and sorrows of those about him, his verse has something of the divine fire. "Crazy Kate" and the "Lacemaker" are brilliants of the first water. "The Postboy," "The Woodman and his Dog," and "The Thresher" are second only to them; while as for the figures in his letters, “Mr. Ashburner," the Herculean draper; wrong-headed Nathan Sample, thirsty Geary Ball, poor Jenny Raban, James Andrews (my " Michael Angelo"), Tom Freeman the gingerbread baker, Wilson the barber, "the junior son of Molly Boswell," and a whole host besides, are they not as cleverly cut and as