March 20, 1874. ] 



JOtJBNAti OP aOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE QAUbfcSliB. 



257 



woodland in which it stands. The church, the oldest part (thoy 

 Fay) Saxon, another part thirteenth century, patchwork as it j 

 now is, retains on tho whole a quaint and pleasant rusticity." | 



In the churchyard stood the largest Maple tree, in fact I think : 

 the only Maple tree I ever saw. It is here portraited, but not 

 from my pencil. Its stem at 4 feet from the ground was more 

 than 6 feet in circumference ; to its topmost twig must have 

 been 40 feet, and the diameter of the circle shaded by its 

 branches as much. I did not know the name of tho parish, 

 but beneath the boughs of the Maple was an oblong altar tomb 

 thus inscribed : " In a quiet mansion beneath this stone, secure 

 from the altlictions, and still more dangerous enjoyments of 

 life, lye the remains of WilUam (lilpin, sometime vicar of this 

 parish, together with the remains of Margaret, his wife. After 

 living above fifty years in happy imion, they hope to be raised 

 in (iod's good time, through the atonement of a blessed 

 liedeemer for their repented transgressions, to a state of joyful 

 immortality ; there it will be a new joy to meet several of their 

 good neighbours who lye scattered in these sacred precincts 

 around them. He died April 5th, 1804, at the age of eighty. 

 She died April 14th, 1807, at tho age of eighty-two." This 

 revealed to me my 

 whereabouts — I 

 was in the church- 

 yard of Boldrc, 

 and by the side 

 of the remains of 

 him whose " Fo- 

 rest Scenery," and 

 tours in search of 

 the picturesque 

 were so much ad- 

 mired, and are 

 still-used tenants 

 of our book- 

 shelves. 



Ho was " a lineal 

 descendant of l!er- 

 nard Gilpin, called 

 ' The Apostle of 

 the North,' born 

 in 1724 at Scaleby 

 Castle, near Car- 

 lisle, the house of 

 his grandfather, ' a 

 counsellor of note,' 

 whose eldest son, 

 being a bad mana- 

 ger, ran into debt, 

 and was at last ob- 

 liged to sell the 

 family place. He 

 entered Queen's 

 College, Oxford, 



January 1740 (N.S.) ; obtained his Bachelor degree in 1744; 

 was ordained 174fi, and made curate of Irthington. He became 

 an M.A. 1748. In 175'2, age twenty-nine, he was principal 

 assistant at the school of the Rev. Daniel Sanxay, Cheam, 

 Surrey, who in a year retired in Gilpin's favour. He now 

 married. His own account, dated thirty years later, is simple 

 and pleasing :-- 



" When my uncle was in possession of Scaleby Castle, before 

 his affairs went wr'oug, he took a little niece, a fatherless child, 

 to bring up. He had no children of his own, and his wife and j 

 he considered her as such, nor were any father or mother fonder 

 of any of their own children than they were of her. She used 

 often to be at Carlisle to play with her cousins, and her cousins 

 were as often at Scaleby to play with her. She was a pretty , 

 little girl ; and everybody said she was a very good little girl. 

 In short, one of her cousins, though only a schoolboy, took a 

 particular fancy to her. He soon after made his father and 

 mother his confidants ; and they were far from discouraging 

 him. They probably thought (as I do now) that early attach- 

 ments, though not favourable to ambition and worldly schemes, 

 are far from being unfavourable to virtue ; and my father, 

 good man (which alone would endear his memory to me), 

 painted her picture and sent it me to Oxford ; though the poor 

 girl herself was then ignorant of the occasion. In process of 

 time, however, the plot began to open. The two cousins be- 

 came acquainted with each other's sentiments ; and though 

 (as neither of them had anything to depend on but themselves) 

 it was several years before the drama was concluded by a 



marriage, yet at length this step was thought prudent by all 

 their friends ; and they have now (1791j lived together about 

 thirty years, without having been almost as many days 

 separated. No marriage could be more happy. All their 

 schemes succeeded ; and they are now, in their old age, in 

 affluent circumstances, and have six fine grandchildren to bear 

 their name after them. They have often said to each other 

 they never knew what could be called an affliction ; and only 

 have to hope that God will bo pleased to work with them by 

 felicity, as He often does with others by calamity.' 



" In his school he seems to have been a sort of minor 

 Arnold ; took great pains with the morals and religion of his 

 pupils, had a constitutional code, and in certain cases tried a 

 culprit by a jury of his fellows, ' bound by honour.' ' I never 

 knew,' he says, ' an improper verdict given.' Two daughters 

 were born to him, who died young, and two sons, of whom the 

 elder went to America, married, and grew rich, settling at 

 Philadelphia. The second bon, another William, went into 

 the Church, and succeeded his father as master of Cheam 

 School in 1777. The father, fifty-four years old by this time, 

 had kept the school for tweuty-five vears, and now retired 



withabout£10,000 

 saved. His many 

 excellent qualities, 

 both as man and 

 teacher, made 



many of his old 

 pupils friends of 

 his for life, and 

 one of these. 

 Colonel Mitford, 

 author of the ' His- 

 tory of Greece,' 

 now presented him 

 to the vicarage of 

 Boldre. He had 

 thus altogether an 

 income of perhaps 

 £700 a-year. In 

 his large parish, 

 fifteen to eighteen 

 miles in circuit, 

 Mr. Gilpin went 

 about actively, 

 visiting the poor 

 cottagers and help- 

 ing them as well 

 as he knew how. 

 As a preacher he 

 had an impressive 

 earnestness and 

 simplicity ; and it 

 is related that ho 

 once compelled a 

 certain rich married farmer to give up a mistress whom he 

 kept, to the general scandal, and, moreover, to appear in 

 church, led in by the two churchwardens, and to repeat after 

 the curate a paper of confession and contrition, after which 

 the vicar preached a grave appropriate sermon. Mr. Gilpin 

 was large-built and rather corpulent, with a good voice and 

 dignified presence, fit for a head master, fit for a vicar. His 

 face, somewhat fat, with a roundish bald head (I have seen 

 his likeness in crayons, hanging in Walhampton Park, a house 

 which he often frequented), chiefly expresses a grave and 

 cheerful benevolence, spiced with some hint of mental alacrity. 

 " After being released from the school he indulged his love 

 of scenery and sketching by making frequent tours, generally, 

 or perhaps always, accompanied by his wife, in some of the 

 most beautiful parts of England and Scotland, a very un- 

 common kind of amusement in those days ; and produced in 

 succession the already-alluded-to publications. 



" His life at homo was simple, pure, and economical ; ho 

 seldom dined out. ' I never was fond,' he says, ' of eating 

 and drinking ; but, from habit, I have now taken a thorough 

 dislike to them both, and never dine pleasantly but on my own 

 bit of mutton, and a draught of small beer after it (for I never 

 drink wine), and so the job is over.' 



" His delight was to stroll after breakfast into the grove be- 

 hind his vicarage, note-book in hand ; to improve his little 

 grounds and garden ; to visit in turn his parishioners, rich 

 and poor, especially the latter (not forgetting their bodily 

 wants) ; to address kind words of greeting, inquiry, admonitioii , 



ISiiLI'liE MAPLE. 



