By the Rev. Ghr. Wordstoorth, M.A. 365 



original Gennaii, " Blaettcr au% devi Tagehuche des armcn Ffarr- 

 Vikars von Wiltshire," extending not simply from a vague 

 " Monday " to the Sunday night following, as the reprint states, but 

 for a whole month, from "December 15, 1764, to January 16, 1765." 



Those dates, it will be oljserved, are two years earlier than the 

 publication of the Curate's week, but they do not accord witli the 

 almanac. A few days have no record, but the " Vicar " is stated 

 on December 26th to have preached a sermon in four different 

 Churches on the day (presumably a Sunday), and the preceding 

 (Christmas) day, obviously a Saturday. He preached again a New 

 Year's Sermon on January 1st. Nothing is said about the 2nd 

 (which would naturally be a Sunday) ; but he preaches his farewell 

 sermon (when " Mr. Curate Thompson " — or der Herr A^ikar 

 Blechiny in the German — comes to supersede him) on Jan. 8th. 

 Now December 26th fell on a Sunday, not in 1764, but in 1763. 

 And similarly January 8tli would fall on Sunday in 1764, not in 

 1765, as in the German. 



The author of this longer romance was J. Heinrich Daniel 

 Zschokke (1771 — 1848), of Magdeburgh, wlio became National 

 Prefect of the Canton of Basle. His collected works extend to 

 forty volumes, consisting of a history of Switzerland, romances, 

 and other compositions in prose and verse. His devotional 

 meditations were translated into English, by the desire of Queen 

 Victoria, after the deatli of tlie Prince Consort. Zschokke was 

 born after the appearance of the Vicar of Wakefield ; but, like 

 many German-speaking folk, he took delight in Goldsmith's ro- 

 mance. 1 have not been able to ascertain the date of Zschokke's 

 P/arr-Vikar con Wiltshire, but it appears in vol. xv. of a collected 

 pocket edition of some of his works in 1825, printed at Aarau.' 

 He acknowledges that his story is founded upon tlie week's Journal 

 of a Wiltshire Curate, which he supposed to have been published 

 before the Vicar of Wakefield, as to the date of which he was 

 misinformed. The Curate had a wife living, but Zschokke's Vicar 



' Biitish Museum, 1334, a 8. The Blatter aus Jem TagehucJie occupy 

 pp. 276—340, in t. 15 (1825). In the fourth edition of Zschokke's collected 

 works in German, 120, 1838, this tale is contained in vol. viii. 



