STEPHEN HALES 123 



priest. He made his female parishioners do public 

 penance when he thought they deserved it. He did 

 much for the fabric of the church. "In 1754^ he 

 helped the parish to a decent water supply and 

 characteristically records in the parish register 

 that the outflow was such as to fill a two-quart 

 vessel in 'three swings of a pendulum beating 

 seconds, which pendulum was 39+^ inches long 

 from the suspending nail to the middle of the 

 plumbet or bob.' " Under the tower he helped 

 to build (which now serves as a porch) Stephen 

 Hales is biuied, and the stone which covers his 

 body is being worn away by the feet of the faithful. 

 By the piety of a few botanists a mural tablet, on 

 which the epitaph is restored, has been placed 

 near the grave. 



Horace Walpole called Hales "a poor, good, 

 primitive creature" and Pope* (who was his 

 neighbour) said, "I shall be very glad to see Dr. 

 Hales, and always love to see him, he is so worthy 

 and good a man." Peter CoUinson writes of "his 

 constant serenity and cheerfulness of mind" ; it is 

 also recorded that "he could look even upon wicked 

 men, and those who did him unkind offices, without 

 any emotion of particular indignation ; not from 

 want of discernment or sensibility, but he used 

 to consider them only like those experiments 

 which, upon trial, he found could never be applied 

 to any useful purpose, and which he therefore 

 calmly and dispassionately laid aside." 



» Dia. Nat. Biog. 



* With a certain idleness Pope reduces him to plain Parson 

 Hale, for the sake of a rtayme in the EpistU to Martha Blount, i.igS. 



