BISHOP OF ELY 121 



off from all social commimication Avitli the trading 

 population. Xot being troubled Avith any cure of souls, 

 they thought it sufficient condescension in monthly turn 

 to consume the produce of their own land, and sought 

 no further knowledge of such people than the supply of 

 household necessaries required ; while the tradesmen 

 and others, being principally tenants of the Dean and 

 Chapter or the Bishop, could not aspire to any greater 

 notice from jDersons so distinguished, two or three of 

 whom reaped a princely revenue from the favours 

 bestowed "on them by their " Father in God." 



This very considerate prelate had, through a long 

 tenure of his diocese (the first in the kingdom for patron- 

 age), been enabled to provide for his sons and other 

 relatives ; and when the lease of office which we all hold 

 from one great Giver was about to expire, a large living 

 — the only similar one in his gift that he had not already 

 had in his power to bestoAv — becoming vacant — he 

 generously granted it to one of his own kin — then praised 

 God who had allowed him to do another act of justice to 

 his family before he died. 



By such a distinction the society of the inhabitants was 

 very much circumscribed ; and there being no resident 

 gentry in the neighbourhood, it was not all who had 

 o^Dportunities of cultivating the rules intended to enhance 

 the value of social and intellectual intercourse. It was 

 impossible for an observer to reside there without com- 

 parisons obtruding — that did not tend to exalt their good 

 breeding, extend their understanding, or swell the amount 

 of their hospitality. Indeed, where the accumulation of 

 wealth is the chief object, and a rigid economy in guarding 



