JOHN DAY. 
421 
nance, ever made more absolute sacrifices to the most imperious mas- 
ters, than did this lady, whose independence had been secured. She 
is even said to have died broken-hearted for his loss, about two years 
after his departure. 
The whole of their residence at Anningsley, however, was not passed 
in inflicting or tolerating caprice. Some of Mr. Day’s experiments 
were of a more praiseworthy kind. His neighbours of the lowest 
class, being as rough and as wild as the commons on which they 
dwelt, he tried if by mutual attrition he could not polish ; and 
though the event fell short of his expectation, he was not wholly un- 
successful. Many of the peasants he took to work on his farm, and 
in his selection of them it was always his object to accommodate those 
who could not find employment elsewhere, until they could meet with 
some fresh job : but so fond were they of their new' master, that 
they wanted frequently to be reminded that their stay was only tem- 
porary. During the winter season they were so numerous, that it 
was scarcely in the power of a farm of more than two hundred acres, 
of a family on the spot, and of the contiguous neighbourhood, to raise 
for them a shadow of employment from day to day. Mr. Day, when- 
ever he walked out, usually conversed with them in the fields, and 
questioned them concerning their families. To most of them, in their 
turn, he sent blankets, corn, and butcher’s meat. He gave advice 
and medicine it) the sick, and occasionally brought them into his 
kitchen, to have their meals for a few’ weeks among the servants. Once 
or twice he took them into his service in the house, on the sole ac- 
count of their bad health, a circumstance which by many would have 
been deemed ample cause for dismission. Mrs, Day aided the bene- 
volent exertions of her husband by employing the neighbouring poor 
in knitting stockings, which were occasionally distributed amongst the 
labourers. 
Mr. Day’s modes and habits of life were such as the monotony of 
a rural retirement naturally brings upon a man of ingenuity and lite- 
rary taste. To his farm be gave personal attention, from the fond- 
ness which he had for agriculture, and from its being a source to 
him of health and amusement. It was an additional pleasure to him, 
that hence was derived employment for the poor. He had so high 
an opinion of the salutary effects of taking exercise on horseback, 
that he erected a riding-house, for the purpose of using that exercise 
in the roughest weather. Though he commonly resided in the coun- 
try during the whole of the wdnter season, and was fond of shooting 
as an art, he for many years totally abstained from field-sports, ap- 
prehending them to be cruel; but at last, from the same motive of 
humanity, he resumed the gun. 
He rose about eight, and walked out in his grounds soon after 
breakfast, but much of the morning, and still more of the afternoon, 
were usually spent at his studies, or in literary conversations when 
he was visited by bis friends. At length, Mr. Day, who suffered no 
species of control to interfere with what he fancied or undertook, 
fell a victim to a part of his own system. He thought highly of the 
gratitude, generosity, and sensibility of horses ; and that whenever 
they w'ere disobedient, unruly, or vicious, it was owing to previous 
