XXX LIFE OF WALTOIC. 



him a Translation of certain of the Psalms into English metre. Vide 

 Lord Bacon's H'orkt, 4to. Vol. III. page 163. 



In this Life, occasion is taken by the author to introduce an Ac- 

 count of an intimate friend of Herbert, Mr. Nicholas Farrar, and of a 

 religious establishment in his house, little less than monastic : from 

 which, and some scattered memoirs concerning it, the following ac- 

 count is compiled. 



This singularly eminent person was the son of a wealthy East-India 

 merchant, and was born in London, in the year 1591. At the age of 

 six years, for the signs of a pious disposition observed in him, he was 

 called St. Nicholas. > From school he was, in his thirteenth year, sent 

 to Cambridge ; and after some time spent there, was elected a fellow 

 of Clare-Hall. About the age of twenty-six, he betook himself to 

 travel; and, visiting France, Italy, Spain, and the Low Countries, 

 obtained a perfect knowledge of all the languages spoken in the 

 western parts of Christendom ; as also of the principles and reasons of 

 religion, and manner of worship therein. In these his travels, he re- 

 sisted the persuasions of many who tempted him to join in communion 

 with the church of Rome; and remained stedfast in his obedience to 

 the church of England. Upon his return home, he, by the death of 

 his father, became enabled to buy land at Little Gidding, near Hunt- 

 ingdon, to the value of 500/. a-year;* where was a manor-house, and 

 a hall, to which the parish-church or chapel adjoined : here he set- 

 tled. And his father having been intimate with Sir Walter Raleigh, 

 Sir John Hawkins, and Sir Francis Drake, and other famous naviga- 

 torsy he was, in 1824, by means of some lords in the Virginia com- 

 pany, chosen a member of the house of commons ; in which capacity 

 he distinguished himself by his eloquence and activity : but having, in 

 a short trial of a public life, experienced the folly and vanity of worldly 

 pursuits, he took a resolution to abandon them : and, first, he made 

 suit to his diocesan, that his mother and he might be permitted to re- 

 store the titles of the rectory which had been impropriated ; and ac- 

 cordingly the church was endowed therewith; which was no sooner 

 done, than he, with the rest of the family, entered into a course of 

 mortification, devotion, and charity. The Society consisted of himself, 

 a very aged mother, four nieces, and other kindred; and servants: 

 and amounted in number to about thirty, exclusive of the neigh- 

 bouring clergy, who frequently resorted thither, and tor a week toge- 

 ther would join with, and assist, and ease them in their watch ings and 

 devotions. And this was their regimen : 



The season of Lent, the Ember weeks, Fridays, and the Vigils of 

 Saxntt, they observed strictly ; exercising abstinence and prayer. 



Mr. Farrar himself, who had been admitted to deacon's orders, 

 took upon him to be pastor of this little flock ; and accordingly, 



(1) St. \irfwlas was Bishop of Myra in Lycia, and famous lor his early 

 piety, which, as the Romish legendaries telJ us, he manifested, by forbear- 

 ing to tuck on Wednesdays and Fridays. 



(!) This is a mistake of Walton's, and is corrected in a Collection of 

 Papers relating to the PROTESTANT NUNNKRY of Little Guiding, at the end 

 of Ca4i Yiitdicia, edit. Hearne. The mother in her widowhood, about the 

 year 16*3, and not the son made the purchase. Among these papers, arc 

 sundry curious conversations of the young women. 



