40 Jeth'o Tidl : his Life, Times, and Teaching. 
and local historian — namely, the burial-place of Jethro TuU, the eminent ex- 
perimentalist in agriculture. Jethro TuU was buried at Basildon, as Tivill 
be seen from the following extract from the parish register : — " Jethro TuU 
gentleman of the parish of Shalburne in the county of Berks was buried 
March ye 9th 1740. Mem.' — This Jethro Tull Esquire was the author of 
a valuable book on agriculture, entitled Horse Husbandry. — Geo : Bellas, 
Rector." 
So Tull was bom at Basildon, and buried there. That place, 
situated on a beautiful reach of the river Thames, is eight miles 
north-west from Reading, and consequently a long distance — 
twenty miles as the crow flies — from Prosperous and Shalbourne. 
He must have expressed a yearning desire, after his troubled 
day on earth, to rest near the peaceful scenes of his infancy and 
early youth. 
The world goes up, and the world goes down, 
And the sunshine follows the rain. 
The world of Queen Victoria is not that of King George II. 
of pious memory. Yet some things remain to us of the old 
days ; for example, the Tullian system remains and universally 
prevails. The old church of St. Bartholomew at Basildon dates 
from King Edward II. ; its flint and stone dressings, defying 
time, are in outline sharp as ever ; the fine old yew-trees in the 
old churchyard may flourish for ages ; within the western tower 
of brick, with its pinnacles, the four ancient bells are now as 
they were long, long before Tull's rejoicing mother, unheedful ot 
future greatness, bore her infant Jethro to be made an heir of 
everlasting salvation ; and the old bells ring out now as they 
rang when the old church finally received Jethro Tull in its 
quiet shade ; then the old peal rang out once and again its 
remorseless toll — brave old bells — 
Peal out evermore — 
Peal as ye pealed of yore. ♦! 
Brave old bells, on each Sabbath day ; 
In sunshine and gladness, 
Through clouds and through sadness, 
Bridal and burial have passed away. 
Tell us life's pleasures with death are still rifo 
Tell us that Death ever leadeth to Life ; 
Life is our labour and Death is our rest, 
If happy the Living the Dead are the blest. 
Cathcart. 
• Mr. Bellas was, at the time of Tail's burial, vicar of Basildon, and 
rector of the neighbouring parish of Yattendon. 
