Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
resident clergyman in the manner his station and character demand . To this source , undoubtedly , may be traced the great evils which nonresidence , in most cases , has produced in the interests and parochial influence of the church . Much , thank God ! has been done to redress these evils by the late and previous governments ; but much still remains to be accomplished , and that might be effected in a truly patriotic and Christian spirit of generosity by the great landed
projrrietors , and lay-impropriators , if they would take immediate steps to erect neat parsonage-houses , and such augmentation of endowment , wherever the want of such subsidies are found to make the legal exemption of non-residence of the incumbent . This short preface to my visit is both due to my reader and my own conscience . It must be evident , from the title , that I am a nonresident ; but I do assure him 1 am an unwilling one , and that my
non-residence is entirely owing to the two causes wliich 1 have stated , as the obstacle to the earnest wishes of many of the clergy who are situated somewhat similar to myself . The country to the west of AVolverhampton is remarkably fine ; and after ascending the steep hill which conducts you from the pretty village of Tettenhall , you begin , on a clear day , to obtain a peep of the famous Shropshire mountain called the AVrekin . I believe its Saxon etymology
is AVre-ken , a lofty or conspicuous place ; but I remember a more facetious derivation of its name , given to me by the waiter at the Lion Inn , the first time I ever visited Shrewsbury . Traveller like , at breakfast the first morning after my arrival there , 1 asked him why it was first called AVrey-kin ; the coachman had pronounced it to me as if
spelt with a y , giving it a broad vulgar accent ; his answer was , " he supposed it was because all the rakings of the county were scraped up in a large heap there . " After that , ye antiquarians , go—hide your diminished heads ! Your occupation is superseded—yon varlet of the hostel outwits you all in suppositions . A learned Brother has oft amused me with some of his extraordinary antiquarian denouements , particularly with respect to the number of Adam ' s Lodge , and the
probability of Masonry existing among the stars ; but that does not beat some curious assertions 1 once read in a work called " Salopia Antiqua , " e . g ., that from the top of the Clay-hills , lying about twenty miles to the south of AVolverhampton , somebody had affirmed that he had seen through a powerful telescope Liverpool , and even the ships sailing up and down the Mersey ! and further , the veritable writer of the aforesaid Hntiqua—himself a brother clergymanM A & c—deposes
, ., . , that in grubbing about the ruined walls of the old Roman city of AVroxeter , near Shrewsbury , he discovered a skeleton , the thigh bone of which was a yard long , and there was a tooth—a foot long ! I presume , in nautical phrase , this is what the sailors call " spinning a yarn . " After such ocular demonstration , I think the evidence of " tradition" admissible in the case of all old bones called relics , which are held to the faithful devotees of the Pope ' s toeBut with such
up . digressions I shall never finish my visit . The road to Shiffnal , my first stage , is charmingly diversified with hill and dale , broad cultivated lands , substantial farm-houses , country seats , with here and there a grey church turret adorning the pastoral scenery . The scientific Lord Wrottesley has erected , on a part of his estate within view of the high road , an observatory . At Shiffnal ,. being holiday time , the diligence
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
resident clergyman in the manner his station and character demand . To this source , undoubtedly , may be traced the great evils which nonresidence , in most cases , has produced in the interests and parochial influence of the church . Much , thank God ! has been done to redress these evils by the late and previous governments ; but much still remains to be accomplished , and that might be effected in a truly patriotic and Christian spirit of generosity by the great landed
projrrietors , and lay-impropriators , if they would take immediate steps to erect neat parsonage-houses , and such augmentation of endowment , wherever the want of such subsidies are found to make the legal exemption of non-residence of the incumbent . This short preface to my visit is both due to my reader and my own conscience . It must be evident , from the title , that I am a nonresident ; but I do assure him 1 am an unwilling one , and that my
non-residence is entirely owing to the two causes wliich 1 have stated , as the obstacle to the earnest wishes of many of the clergy who are situated somewhat similar to myself . The country to the west of AVolverhampton is remarkably fine ; and after ascending the steep hill which conducts you from the pretty village of Tettenhall , you begin , on a clear day , to obtain a peep of the famous Shropshire mountain called the AVrekin . I believe its Saxon etymology
is AVre-ken , a lofty or conspicuous place ; but I remember a more facetious derivation of its name , given to me by the waiter at the Lion Inn , the first time I ever visited Shrewsbury . Traveller like , at breakfast the first morning after my arrival there , 1 asked him why it was first called AVrey-kin ; the coachman had pronounced it to me as if
spelt with a y , giving it a broad vulgar accent ; his answer was , " he supposed it was because all the rakings of the county were scraped up in a large heap there . " After that , ye antiquarians , go—hide your diminished heads ! Your occupation is superseded—yon varlet of the hostel outwits you all in suppositions . A learned Brother has oft amused me with some of his extraordinary antiquarian denouements , particularly with respect to the number of Adam ' s Lodge , and the
probability of Masonry existing among the stars ; but that does not beat some curious assertions 1 once read in a work called " Salopia Antiqua , " e . g ., that from the top of the Clay-hills , lying about twenty miles to the south of AVolverhampton , somebody had affirmed that he had seen through a powerful telescope Liverpool , and even the ships sailing up and down the Mersey ! and further , the veritable writer of the aforesaid Hntiqua—himself a brother clergymanM A & c—deposes
, ., . , that in grubbing about the ruined walls of the old Roman city of AVroxeter , near Shrewsbury , he discovered a skeleton , the thigh bone of which was a yard long , and there was a tooth—a foot long ! I presume , in nautical phrase , this is what the sailors call " spinning a yarn . " After such ocular demonstration , I think the evidence of " tradition" admissible in the case of all old bones called relics , which are held to the faithful devotees of the Pope ' s toeBut with such
up . digressions I shall never finish my visit . The road to Shiffnal , my first stage , is charmingly diversified with hill and dale , broad cultivated lands , substantial farm-houses , country seats , with here and there a grey church turret adorning the pastoral scenery . The scientific Lord Wrottesley has erected , on a part of his estate within view of the high road , an observatory . At Shiffnal ,. being holiday time , the diligence