February 20.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
313 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M W 
FEBRUARY 20—26, 1851. 
Weather neae London i 
N 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of 
Year. 
1) l) 
1 Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R.&S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
20 Tb 
Field Crickets open their holes. 
30.143 — 29.Q0Q 
51—30 
s.w. 
0.20 
7 a- 7 
21 a. 5 
11 
18 
19 
14 
2 
51 
21.F 
Sun’s declinat., 10° 40's. 
30.165 — 30.138 
50—44 
s.w. 
5 
23 
morn. 
20 
13 
56 
52 
22 S 
Viper seen. 
30.316 — 30.254 
51—28 
N.W. 
3 
25 
0 
32 
G 
13 
48 
53 
23 Sun 
Sexagesima Sunday. 
30.305—30.236 
56—32 
w. 
— 
1 
26 
1 
42 
22 
13 
40 
54 
24 M 
St. Matthew. Us. Cams, b., 1774. 
30.289 —30.275 
42—33 
s.w. 
— 
VI 
28 
2a.46 
23 
13 
31 
55 
25 To 
Frogs croak. 
30.366 — 30.349 
48—36 
K. 
_ 
57 
30 
3 
46 
24 
13 
22 
56 
26 VV 
1 Violet flowers. 
30.3/4 — 30.328 
50—30 
S.W. 
— 
55 
32 
4 
38 
25 
13 
12 
57 
On the 27 th of February, 1737, was preached one of the most able 
sermons ever delivered from an English pulpit ; and wc gladly avail 
ourselves of the date as a timely introduction to our readers of the author 
and preacher of that sermon—the Reverend Walter Harte. That 
sermon has for its text, Ye believe in God , believe also in me (John xiv. 1), 
and its theme is imparted by its title: “The Union and Harmony of 
Reason, Morality, and Revealed Religion.” It was a most seasonable 
wielding of the spiritual sword at a time when Deism was uprearing a 
bold front; and its efficiency is acknowledged by the fact, that it passed 
through five editions in twelve months. It was preached before the 
University of Oxford, by Mr. Harte, who was then vice-principal of St. 
Mary’s Hall. Meritorious as is that admirable sermon, it would not 
entitle him to a notice here, if he had not done good service to the cul¬ 
tivators of the soil; but, as he possesses that merit also, we may sketch 
such scanty particulars as we have been able to gather together con¬ 
cerning him. 
He appears to have been born somewhere between Hungerford and 
Newbury, in Berkshire, and, perhaps, in the village of Kintbury, about 
the year 1707- Our reason for this conclusion is founded on this passage 
in his History of Gustavus Adolphus. Speaking of the mansion built by 
Lord Craven at Hamsted-Marshall, in that vicinity, he says—“ It was a 
piece of architecture in the true taste of the reign of Charles I., and cost 
Lord Craven (though he never lived to finish the design) about .# 60 , 000 . 
The author (Mr. Harte), when a child , was a spectator of its destruction 
by fire, in the year 1718 , or thereabouts. It was not built by Inigo 
Jones, but by Gerbier, a German architect then in vogue.” 
Mr. Harte’s father was a clergyman of the Church of England, but 
deprived of his preferments in 1691 , for conscientiously opposing the 
doctrines then prevailing. Among those preferments was a prebendary 
of Wells; and it redounds to his honour, as well as to that of three 
successive Bishops of the see (Drs. Kidder, Hooper, and Wynne), that 
they contrived to let him have the emoluments of the prebendary down 
to the time of his death, in 1735. That he deserved such favour we are 
at once ready to believe, since we know that he was one of the few who 
fearlessly did their duty in endeavouring to mitigate the fury of that 
judicial butcher, Judge Jefferies. When this barbarian came to Taunton 
assizes in 1685, to wreak vengeance on the supporters of Monmouth’s 
rebellion, Mr. Harte was rector of St. Mary Magdalene in that town, and 
he waited privately upon Jefferies, to remonstrate against his severities. 
The judge listened to him calmly, and let the white spot be blazoned 
on his black life, that, though he had never seen Mr. Harte previously, 
he had him advanced, in a short time, to a prebendal stall of Bristol. 
The son, who is our theme, was educated at Marlborough School, and 
St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he took his degree of Master of Arts, in 
the January of 1730. Very early in life he fortunately became acquainted 
with Pope, who aided him by correcting his poems, and Harte duly 
related the obligation. Thus he acknowleged, that these two first lines 
of his Essay on Reason are altogether from the pen of Pope:— 
“ From Time’s vast length, eternal and unknown, 
Essence of God, co-eval Reason shone.” 
Through the same great poet he was introduced to others still more 
powerful in patronage; and he thus warmly versified the utterance of 
his gratitude : — 
“ My first, my latest, bread I owe to thee : 
Thou and thy friends preserv’d thy Muse and me : 
By proxy, from a gen’rous kindred spread, 
Thy Craggs’s bounty fell upon my head : 
Thy Mordaunt’s kindness did my youth engage, 
And thy own Chesterfield protects my age.” 
The two last acknowledgments refer to his having obtained a tutorship, 
whilst young, in the family of Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough ; and to 
his late in life, 1751. being promoted to a canonry of Windsor, through 
the interest of the Earl of Chesterfield, of whose son, also, he was for 
some j^ears the tutor. He was, likewise, vicar of St. Austle and St. 
Blaze, in Cornwall. Dr. Johnson related of him, that when his History 
of Gustavus Adolphus was on the eve of publication, he left London to 
avoid the showers of praise with which he expected to be visited. It is, 
beyond doubt, a very able book, but it met with little kindness ; and he 
was ashamed to return, when he found how ill it was received. It was 
unlucky, said Dr. Johnson, in coming out on the same day with Robert¬ 
son’s History of Scotland. Lord Chesterfield justly characterized its 
style, by observing, that it is full of “ Latinisms, Gallicisms, Germanisms, 
and all isms except Anglicisms.” His publisher, Hawkins, had objected 
to its uncouth phraseology ; but Harte refused to alter them, replying, 
“ George, that’s what we call writing.” However, the public called it 
by another name ; and in the second edition he corrected and softened 
his expressions. He died at Bath in the June ©f 1 7/4. A contemporary 
has furnished concernihg him these anecdotes :— 
“Harte and Hawkins passed a week with me in the country; and, 
talking of moduses, Harte related, that a miller applied to him for an 
abatement. He replied, ‘ With all my heart; ’ but added, ‘ take notice, 
such alteration will break the modus, and I shall then have a right to full 
tythe.’ Many clergymen would not act with such generous disinterested¬ 
ness. He was a man of very liberal principles. I have many letters 
from him (one I regret having lost), in which he communicates, in pa¬ 
thetic terms, that he and his pupil Stanhope were detained by illness at 
a town in Carniola till their money was spent, when Mendez, a Jew 
merchant of London, who was travelling in that country, hearing that 
two gentlemen from England were in distress, he went many miles out 
of his way to visit them, and supply their wants. I remember W. H. 
extols his humane kindness, and says he was preferable to many soi- 
disant Chretiens. At Rome, his landlord offered to introduce him to a 
lady of pleasure. On his replying, that the English clergy held inter¬ 
course with such females unbecoming, the landlord told him, in Italy 
such practices were so common, that cardinals were not ashamed to look 
out of the window to see a procession, with their arms round their mistress’s 
neck. W. Harte was one of Dr. Samuel Johnson’s earliest admirers. 
His life of Richard Savage was published in 1744 ; soon after which, 
Harte, dining with Cave at John’s Gate, took occasion to speak very 
handsomely of the work, which was anonymous. Cave told Harte, when 
they next met, that he had made a man very happy the other day at his 
house, by the enconiums he bestowed on the author of Savage’s Life. 
‘ How could that be,* says Harte; ‘none were present but you and I.’ 
Cave replied, ‘ You might observe 1 sent a plate of victuals behind the 
screen. There skulked the biographer, one Johnson, whose dress was so 
shabby that he durst not make his appearance. He overheard our con¬ 
versation ; and your applauding his performance delighted him exceed¬ 
ingly.’ ” 
We have left, for a concluding notice, the work which claims for him 
our notice. It was published in 1764 , and a second edition in 17/0, 
entitled, Essays on Husbandry ; and, without any reservation, we 
can assure our readers that it is one of the most able and most 
amusing works that issued from the press during the last century. 
A former possessor of the copy in our library has written, with per¬ 
fect truth, on one of its blank leaves—“These essays are not so well 
known as they deserve. The title implies a book upon a very confined 
subject; but Mr. Harte has very skiltully interwoven a numerous stock 
of general politics and national economy, with well-written anecdotes of 
the authors who have written on husbandry.” Mr. Harte’s objects in 
writing those essays are thus told, in his own words—words steeped in 
truth, and the first sentence of which should be written on the door-posts 
of every farm-house in the British Isles:— “It is my opinion, that 
AGRICULTURE IS, AND EVER WILL BE, IN AN IMPROVABLE STATE; 
and I had two principal intentions in writing these essays.— First , to 
exhort the inhabitants of my native country to carry on and maintain 
that superiority in husbandry which they have hitherto possessed without 
a rival; and, secondly , to try if it were possible to enrich the poor, 
honest, industrious husbandman.” No writer has ever discussed his 
subject more successfully. He shows, “ that a single uncultivated acre 
is a real physical evil in any state ; ” he argues, “ that a nation diligently 
employed may be compared to a piece of tapestry work, where a certain 
texture of threads and union of colours, imperceptibly interwoven and 
blended together, represent agriculture, trade, commerce, and the me¬ 
chanic arts. In mixing and harmonising these consists the great skill 
of the workman. Though trade, commercial arts, and husbandry should 
be all encouraged and supported by wise governments with scrupulous 
attention, yet the scale may be allowed to preponderate in favour of 
agriculture, but in so slight a degree, as only to be perceived by a few 
persons of most discerning judgment; for the people employed in manu¬ 
factures, artizanship, &c., are starved in times unprosperous to their 
business, if they are not supplied with the common necessaries of life by 
the generous industry of the cultivator ; nay, even in more prosperous 
times, care must be taken to supply our fellow citizens with food con¬ 
venient, and that food at a moderate price, for fear of being under-sold 
in the works of our labour by other nations.” After this sound dictate 
of reason, which epitomizes all the arguments of modern political econo¬ 
mists, Mr. Harte proceeds to point out the progress of the cultivation of 
the soil, and its encouragement by the wise of all nations, from the time 
of King Uzziah, “ who built towers in the desert, and digged many 
wells ; for he had much cattle, both in the low country and in the plains ; 
husbandmen, also, and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel, 
for he loved husbandry” (2 Citron. xxvi. 10 ). He points out, that the 
labourer must not be oppressed, nor neglected ; for “ the great and good 
cannot help recollecting, that to them they owe not only their bread, but 
the delicacies of their table, their wines, fruit, and vegetables, their 
raiment, the fire that warms them, the tapers which yield them light, the 
softness on which they sleep, the magnificence of the equipage whieli 
draws them, and a part of the medicine which gives them ease.” Mr. 
Harte then proceeds to suggest the means whereby the cultivation of the 
soil may be improved,—by judicious experiments, by improving the 
fodder of cattle, by the increase of manures, by more frequent hoeing, 
by drilling, by draining, by spade husbandry, by imitating the Flemish 
husbandry, by introducing sheep from Spain, to improve our wool; by 
inclosing waste lands, because “the poor man, who is monarch of but 
one inclosed acre, will receive from it more profit than from his share of 
many acres in common with others ; ” and the culture of hemp and flax 
in Ireland. Finally, he warns landlords from the injustice of raising 
their rents in proportion to the improvements efFected by the tenants. 
Such treatment, says Mr. Harte, gave birth to this old proverb: — 
“ He that liavocks may sit; 
He that improves must flit.” 
Or, in other words, the tenant that racks the land may continue ; but he 
that improves the estate must pay an advanced rent, or be obliged to quit, 
No. CXXV. Vol. V. 
