By the Rev. Chr. Wordsivorth, M.A. 105 



apprenticed Mary to the "carnal " butcher. The poor child was 

 sickly, and, though she was born after the Kesto ration, she lived 

 at a time when Marlborough was still largely under the intluence 

 of the party who when in power, had passed in 1657 an Act against 

 "vainly and prophanely walking" — they had proposed to add "or 

 sitting " — on the Lord's Day, and would have added these words, 

 had it not been for Major-Gen. Whalley instancing the hardships 

 of the stuffy houses in the rock at Nottingham, where the poor folk 

 were forced to sit outside their cabins.^ While that act had been 

 in force the parents or employers of any child or servant, under 

 14 years of age, so offending, would have been liable to be fined by 

 the Mayor, unless they could prove that they did " in the presence 

 of the Churchwardens, Overseers for the Poor, or other Officer, 

 or one of them, give or cause to be given unto suclie childe or 

 servant so offending, due correction." (Cromwell's Ordinances, 

 folio, 1657, pp. 12, 13). For the better olscrvation of the Lord's Day. 

 His bell-ringing — one of the forbidden practices — had preyed upon 

 John Bunyan's conscience ; so likewise, a few years later, did her 

 walks upon the Common or in the Forest constitute for Mary 

 Hurll her ideal of sin. Apparently the other sights which im- 

 pressed her girlish fancy were the huge pair of scales which were 

 suspended in the Town Hall or Market-house (the upright post 

 whereof now stands in Dr. Maurice's hall) , and the deep dark pit, 

 or well, in her master's cellar, a common feature in old Marlborough 

 houses. Such sights fed her dreams, and by these her conscience 

 was awakened. 



Mary Hurll's narrative begins as follows, after the title-page 

 already quoted : — 



[p. 3.] An Account of the Conversion, &c. 



It may be inquir'd what parents I come of ; as to that I can give but 

 little account. I hope they were such as fear'd the Lord. It pleased God 

 to remove them early from me, it being when I was about eight years old. 

 My mother died [in April 1670] a year before my father [Simon Hurle, a 

 glover]. My being a sickly weakly Child, was one Reason why I was not 

 put to School to learn to read in their Time. 



' On the ordinance for the Better Observation of the Lord's Day, and the 

 houses in Nottingham, see T. Burton's Parliamentary Diary, i. 295 ; ii. 264-5. 



