NOTES ON OLD BEl.PliR AND OLD BELPEK BOOKS. 1 3 



apologised for the fact that he had made a mistake, the pie, 

 which they had so much enjoyed as a pigeon pie, was not a 

 pigeon pie, but a rook pie. Upon hearing this, Mr. Jones 

 became greatly agitated, and declared that he could never eat 

 rook pie as it always made him ill, and he became at once so 

 sick and ill as to require the services of a medical man. The 

 story to be complete should conclude with the fact that the pie 

 was after all a pigeon pie. 



The Rev. D. P. Davies married a Miss Harrison, of Dufifield, 

 sister of the wife of Mr. David Evans. The fourth son of 

 Mr. David Evans, who resided in Market Street lane, and 

 described himself as a " Surgeon and Oculist," became Canon 

 Evans, of Durham, and Professor of Greek at that University. 

 He received his early education in the Vestry of the old Chapel, 

 at the hands of the Rev. Matthew Tunstall. Canon Evans, 

 whose recent death was greatly mourned, was full of gentle 

 humour and a possessor of marked individuality. On one 

 occasion whilst examining a class of boys, the Canon asked for 

 the character of George the Fourth. No response. He simplified 

 the question. Still no reply. At length a small boy at the 

 bottom of the class put up his hand, all eagerness, lest the 

 answer he knew so well might be taken from him. "Well, my little 

 man ! ' said the Canon, " what have you got to say about George 

 the Fourth." " Oh, please, sir, he was given to immor/ahty 

 and vice." " Right to a T," smiled the Canon ; " Go up." 



The Rev. D. P. Davies and the Rev. Evan Owen Jones, who 

 kept a boys' school at Dufifield, alternately occupied the pulpit 

 of the Unitarian Chapel in Belper. This form of religion found 

 its birth, in the town, in the year 1689, when John Taylor, of 

 Belper, obtained a license to have a Presbyterian service in his 

 dwelling house.* Thirty years afterwards a meeting house was 

 erected in Market Street Lane. The Unitarian Chapel at the 

 end of last century and the beginning of this formed a 

 prominent feature in the religious and social life of Belper. 



* "Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals," Vol. i., p. 367, Dr. Cox. 



