Vlll PRELIMINARY. 



my duty to him, and say, one more of his flock has 

 nearly got safe into the fold of the Great Shepherd/' 



I took my leave shortly afterwards, that I might 

 not, by my presence, impose any restraint upon him or 

 his girls ; and within a few hours afterwards I received 

 a message to say that he was no more. 



His remains were interred by the side of his wife 

 and children ; and the unusually large number of fol- 

 lowers and attendants at the grave gave a pleasing 

 evidence of the respect entertained for him. 



The savings of his prudent and laborious life had 

 been disposed of by gift some time before his decease ; 

 his papers were, by his particular desire, handed over 

 to me ; and it was by this means, and from a memor- 

 andum, that I learnt he had made a selection, and 

 placed them in your hands for publication, I am not 

 sure that he has chosen the best of his materials for 

 his little work ; and if it meets with a sufficient sale to 

 warrant my doing so, I may possibly be induced, at 

 a future time, to give some additional extracts from 

 the quantity of observations recorded by him. In 

 the passage where he describes his difficulties and 

 troubles from illness, the death of his child, &c., after 

 losing his situation at Birdwood, he hardly does him- 

 self justice, for his conduct was manly and unexcep- 

 tionable ; and he was so much in request as a jobbing 

 gardener, that my father, who never lost sight of him, 

 and was always wishing him back again, fully believed 

 he was doing well ; and I cannot easily forget his re- 

 lating to my mother how pained he had been with 

 Mrs. Gregory's recital of their sufferings, which he 



