JOHN HOWARD, tSQ. 407 
He afterwards made the tour of Italy, and at his return settled at 
Brokenhiirst, a pleasant village in the New Forest, near Lymington 
in Hampshire, having, April 26, 1785, married a daughter of Edward 
Leeds, Esq. of Croxton, Cambridgshire, king’s sergeant. This lady died 
in 1765 in child-bed, of her only child, a son, who unfortunately be- 
came a lunatic. After her death Mr. Howard left Lymington, and 
purchased at estate at Cardington near Bedford. “While he lived 
here in retirement,” says Mr. Palmer in his funeral sermon, “ his 
neat but humble mansion was hospitable to a few select friends, but 
was never the scene of luxurious banqueting. Though polite to all, 
he neither sought nor admitted the company of the profligate, how- 
ever distinguished by rank or fortune. His charity had no bounds, 
except those of prudence ; and was not more commendable for the 
extent of it, than for the manner in which it was exercised. He 
gave not his bounty to countenance vice and idleness, but to encou- 
rage virtue and industry. He was singularly useful in furnishing 
employment for the labouring poor of both sexes, when a scarcity of 
work rendered their situation most compassionable. And at other 
times, though never inattentive to the tale of woe, he was not easily 
imposed upon by it, but made himself acquainted with the case. He 
had indeed a general acquaintance with the cases and characters 
around him, and made it his business to visit the abodes of affliction. 
In circumstances of bodily disorder, he often acted the part of a phy- 
sician as well as a friend. 
“ But his kindness was not confined to the bodies of his fellow-crea- 
tures ; it extended to their spiritual and immortal part. He used his 
advice, his admonitions, his influence, to discountenance immorality of 
all kinds, and to promote the knowledge and practice of religion. He 
provided for the instruction of poor children, by erecting and sup- 
porting schools. In short, he was an universal blessing to the village 
where he resided, in every part of which are to be seen the pleasing 
monuments of his magnificence and taste. His liberality also ex- 
tended to adjacent places, nor was it confined to persons of his own 
religious persuasion, but comprehended the necessitous and deserving 
of all parties : while he was particularly useful in serving the inte- 
rests of the Christian society to which he belonged. What won ler 
if such a man were universally beloved ? Was it possible he should 
have an enemy ? One, however, he had, and I never heard of more ; an 
idle and dissolute wretch^ who had often been reproached by him 
for his vices, formed the desperate resolution to murder him as he was 
going to public worship, which he almost always did on foot. But 
Providence remarkably interposed to preserve so valuable a life, by 
inclining him that morning to go on horseback a different road. 
“ But the sphere in which he had hitherto moved, was too narrow 
for his enlarged mind. Being appointed, in 1773, sheriff of Bedford- 
shire, this office brought the distress of the prisoners more immedi- 
ately under his notice. He personally visited the county jail, w'here 
he observed such abuses, and such scenes of calamity, as he had 
before no conception of. He inspected the prisons in some neigh- 
bouring counties, and finding in them equal room for complaint, he 
determined to visit the principal prisons in England. The farther fie 
