262 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



saved money enough to take a small farm, and by 

 degrees, with great industry and perseverance, added 

 to his farm till he became the tenant of 300 acres, and 

 the owner himself of 100 more acres, besides of several 

 cottages. He brought up a large family of sons, and 

 placed them into farms, dying, a few years since, a 

 well-to-do man. He could neither read nor write; and 

 one New Year's Day he brought me his banker's pass- 

 book — at the time money had been very dear, up 

 to 10 or 12 per cent. — and told me how handsomely his 

 bankers had behaved to him, as they had that day made 

 him a present of three five-pound notes for having kept 

 a good balance in their hands. I looked at his pass- 

 book, and found the average balance through the year 

 had been nearly £1200 ! No wonder his banker could 

 afford to give him ^15. He was churchwarden of his 

 parish, and had a serious quarrel with the parish clerk, a 

 drunken fellow, and I advised him to write to the Arch- 

 deacon of Buckingham and get the clerk dismissed. 

 " That'll never do" said Johnny, " for he's the only man 

 in parish as can read the sarvice." 



Archdeacon of Buckingham ! He lived at Shanklin 

 in the Isle of Wight, and was only to be seen in 

 Buckinghamshire once in two or three years. At one of 

 these parochial visitations, few and far between, he went 

 into a certain church and was shown round by the 

 sexton, the rector being from home at the time. On 

 entering the churchyard he found about half of it dug 

 up and planted with potatoes, and the Archdeacon, much 

 horrified, exclaimed, " What, what ! Potatoes, potatoes ! 

 This is very wrong, very wrong indeed ! " " Yes, sir," 



