TOM HYNES. 189 



prisoners as had been tried at a recent assize. For this he was 

 tried at Devon port, and sentenced to three months grinding in 

 the Tread Mill. 



Tom next appeared on the stage of life as an itinerant preacher, 

 at Kingsbridge; self ordained and self endowed for the purpose. 

 As he was never able to collect a congregation sufficiently 

 numerous to afford him the means of building a chapel ; and as 

 he could not persuade any other preacher to lend his place of 

 » worship, pro tempore; he was fain to hold forth in the highways 

 and hedges. Tom states that, at such times, his plan of service 

 was a hymn, a prayer, a sermon, and a hymn in conclusion. If 

 the congregation appeared very devout, he usually paused in the 

 middle of his sermon, and sent round his hat for a collection. 

 If he perceived no symptoms of devotion, he concluded the 

 service abruptly, and went to some other place. It happened 

 one day that his congregation was much more numerous than 

 usual; (a fair held the day before had brought an influx of 

 visitors) the greatest attention was paid to Tom's discourse, and 

 the field in which he was sermonizing was crowded — he sent 

 round his hat as usual, and found his zeal becoming highly ani- 

 mated, as he perceived a vast number of half-pence dropped 

 into it: much to his astonishment when the hat was handed to 

 him, it contained but two pence half-penny — the remainder 

 having escaped through a hole in the crown, which had been 

 inflicted in a scuffle, on the preceding night, while Tom and the 

 keeper of a wild beast show were getting drunk. 



Tom's evil stars were always in the ascendant : he appeared 

 before his congregation drunk on three Sundays in succession, 

 and, instead of giving his auditors a sermon, narrated his experi- 

 ence in Bodmin and Exeter jails. This was a finishing stroke 

 for the preacher, he never could draw an assembly of hearers 

 together afterwards, and, in consequence, returned to his former 

 trade. Being quite out of cash, Tom contrived to get relief from 

 three different parishes, Ilarburton, Holberton, and Plymouth, 

 by representing himself as a parishioner : he tried to do the same 

 at West Allington, but the guardians of the poor were too clever 

 for him. He had however a sufficient sum to procure some 

 pamphlets, for selling one of which, containing a libel, he was 

 again sent to Exeter jail for eleven months. In a fortnight after 

 his release, Tom contrived to get sent back again for hawking 

 without a licence. The same tiling occurred twice afterwards ; 

 for nothing could persuade Tom, that it was wrong to sell 

 without a licence, when he could not afford to purchase one. 



After his sixth imprisonment in Exeter jail, Tom bid good 

 bye to Plymouth for a time, hoping to meet with better luck in 

 other places. lie was, nevertheless, doomed to disappointment, 

 for, during his peregrination, he found lodging within prison walls 

 at Falmouth, Penryn, Lostwithiel, Totnes, Barnstaple, and 



