The Environs of Bath. 



of infinite jest and excellent fancy." He was presented to 

 the living by Mr. Skrine in 1748, and subsequently purchased 

 the advowson. He held the living 56 years without one 

 month's absence from his ministerial duties. His literary 

 fame rests principally on his work " The Spiritual Quixote," 

 an imitation of Cervantes, intended to employ the force Of 

 satire against what he considered an unwarrantable intrusion 

 by the laity into the priestly functions, and as a protest 

 against the religious excitement which AVesley and Whitfield 

 and their immediate followers had aroused, and which, in 

 the opinion of Graves and of most the old-fashioned church- 

 men of the day, was a very great danger. It was composed 

 in consequence of an invasion of his own spiritual dominions, 

 by a journeyman shoemaker from Bradford-on-Avon, who 

 held a conventicle in an old house in the village, and 

 measured swords with the rector in a dialectic combat. 

 " The law being on the side of the parson, the shoemaker 

 beat a retreat, but expressed his desire to preach there for 

 half a year, that it might be seen which would convert most 

 drunkards and sinners of every description." 



One of his pupils, Henry Skrine, of Warleigh, in his book 

 on " The Rivers of Great Britain," thus speaks of Claverton 

 and its Rector : — " About midway in the ascent overlooking 

 Warleigh and the river the pleasing village of Claverton seems 

 to hang suspended, where its large Gothic mansion renowned 

 in the civil war, and its little church, with the pyramidical tomb 

 of the late much esteemed Mr. Allen, are striking objects. 

 Neither is its Parsonage less pleasing; the little grounds of which 

 arelaid out in a truly classic taste by the Rev. Mr. Graves, the 

 friend and literary rival of Shenstone, where that worthy vete- 

 ran closes the placid evening of his days in the retirement he 

 has happily embellished, deservedly beloved and respected." 



