MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 157 



extended scale, by taking in scholars of all kinds, 

 from their A, B, C's, to the classics. In this, his 

 task must have been of the most arduous descrip- 

 tion, which he got through without any usher or 

 assistant. His assiduity must have attracted the 

 notice of the late Thomas Charles Bigge, Esq., of 

 Benton, the lay rector, for he added some land to 

 the glebe, by way of bettering his condition. Little 

 as this farm was, as to its magnitude, it enabled 

 him, by his good management and unceasing 

 industry, to show himself a good farmer, and he 

 was not a little vain on being complimented on 

 this score. As a clergyman, he was not one of 

 the fittest for that very important office ; but this 

 was chiefly owing to his defective voice, which 

 was so low and raucous, that his hearers could not 

 so well profit by his sensible discourses. In 

 another way I mean as a village lawyer he 

 stood pre-eminent. His pen was ever ready at the 

 service of his parishioners, and whatever dispute 

 arose amongst them there was never any objection 

 to leave the matter to the decision of Mr. Gregson ; 

 and I have often heard it asserted that there was 

 not one lawsuit in the parish while he was minister 

 there. He set out in life on this poor curacy, upon 

 a system of great economy, and perhaps, like other 

 frugal people, it grew upon him till he was accused 

 of " nearness ;" but, be this as it may, he accumu- 

 lated, after a life of great good management, a sum 

 of about nine hundred pounds. If his pen was ever 

 ready to serve his parishioners, so, on certain 

 occasions was his purse ; for he eyed with great 

 attention the situation of such of his neighbours as 

 were industrious ; and, when he found these were 

 struggling under untoward circumstances, or unfor- 



