73 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



that, on some occasions, when it has been his inten- 

 tion to preach a sermon, which, to use his own words, 

 he feared might ' liit him hard,' he has been prepared 

 with another, ' in case the Squire should be in church.' 



" There is another story of the Chaplain, which, 

 though it has been before recorded, yet it was not 

 placed to his credit, but to him alone it is due. About 

 five years back, he applied to his Diocesan to give 

 him a living, and the Bishop promised him the first 

 that was vacant. Having a pretty private fortune of 

 his own, and not aspiring to a mitre, the Chaplain took 

 the liberty of requesting that his Lordship would not 

 send him into the Welsh mountains, but give him an 

 English living. The Bishop, knowing him to be a 

 thoroughbred Welshman (and, indeed, no one would 

 take him for a half-bred one), demanded of him his 

 reasons for such a request. ' Why, my Lord,' said 

 the Chaplain, ' my wife does not speak Welsh.' — 

 ' Your wife, sir,' said his Diocesan, ' what has your 

 wife to do with it ? She does not preach, does she ? ' 

 — ' No, my Lord,' said the Chaplain, ' but she lectures /' 

 The Bishop, as may be expected, took all this in good 

 part, and the Chaplain was soon afterwards exalted to 

 a living in the wildest part of the Welsh mountains. 



" No man was ever more free from guile than the 



