88 THE DIARY OF EDWARD BAGSHAW. 



Jan. igf/t. " Sent a Box to Hal with a dozen shirts in it to go by y e Baker 

 to Sheffield. My wife sent Hals master 4 Tongues and 4 Pots of Potted 

 Beef as a small present. P d y e Baker for carrying y e Box to Sheffield 



yan. 20th. " I received a Parcel from Ned, at Leeds, with a letter in it, it was 

 a blue China Cotton Gown for his Mamma." 

 The pages of this book end with a few early entries of the year 

 1750, and though the Revd. Edward Bagshaw continued his 

 services as Vicar of Castleton for nearly twenty years longer, we 

 know nothing further of his life, except what can be learnt from 

 the inscription still extant to his memory within the church of 

 Castleton : — 



"The Reverend Edward Bagshaw, A.M., the worthy vicar of this place 



46 years, died 12th April, 1769, aged 79. A man whose chief delight 



was in the service of his Master ; a sound scholar, a lender and affectionate 



husband, a kind and indulgent parent, a lover of peace and quietness, 



who is gone to that place where he now enjoys the due reward of all his 



labours. Near him lies Margaret, his wife, and several of his children." 



The expression of this epitaph, "sound scholar," reminds us 



that in his Journal are numerous entries (especially on the fly 



leaves) of books lent from his private library to parishioners and 



other friends. Amongst them are specified : — Grotii Opera, 



Reading's life of Christ (2 vols), Nelson on the Sacrament, 



Parson's Christian Directory, Ainsworth on y e Pentateuch, 



Wilkins' Natural Religion, The Whole Duty of Man, British 



Magazine, and Scott's Christian Life (5 vols). 



The extremity of poverty, which caused him in 1748 to sell his 

 plate at Manchester for ^20 15s. 6d. to discharge a pressing 

 debt, also compelled Edward Bagshaw to part with some of his 

 library ; and we are therefore able to appreciate all the more the 

 generosity with which he placed the remainder at the service of 

 others. 



The perusal of these disjointed extracts, pertaining to the 

 accounts and the daily life of the family of Edward Bagshaw, will 

 probably suggest to not a few minds the similarity of the position 

 of the fortuneless Vicar of Castleton and the Vicar of Wakefield 

 immortalised by Oliver Goldsmith. Some striking parallels 

 between the Vicar of real life and the Vicar of fiction might be 



