lent old lady, who had originally immediately to inquire of Mr. been the companion and humble Watson, (who was at that time the friend of the eminently pious Lady tutor of my brother, and resident Betty Hastings, formerly well in our family,) if he knew whether known in a large and extensive the young lady was disengaged, neighbourhood in the West Riding and in consequence of Mr. Watof this county, for her numerous son's reply, Mr. Lindsey came to charities, and whose younger sis- Richmond; and on a second visit, ter, Lady Anne Hastings, was Mr. in the latter end of that summer," Lindsey's earliest patroness. He on the 29th of September, 1760, was on a visit at her house, where the marriage took place, Mrs. La my mother accidentally met him. having just completed her 20th He had read with great interest year. How little was it then some of the Archdeacon's cele foreseen that a sense of duty would brated publications, and finding at length compel Mr. Lindsey to my mother was acquainted with the make a sacrifice, which not only family, asked her many questions required his own utmost fortitude, respecting it; and she happened but the aid and assistance likewise incidentally to mention, among of such a coadjutor! other particulars, that Mrs. Black- They continued to reside in Dorburne had a daughter by a former setshire, until the death of my marriage of uncommon talents. father, three years afterwards; The thought immediately struck when Mr. Lindsey obtained an exMr. Lindsey, as he afterwards change of the living he then posTM told my mother, that a young sessed, for that of Catterick; not person so endowed and so edu. with any view to greater cmolu cated, would be a most desirable ment, but solely from the 'desite companion for life; he did not, of being nearer Richmond. however, at that time make any At Catterick, in the following acquaintance in the Archdeacon's year, I had the happiness of being family, but went soon after to re. first introduced to Mr. Lindsey.. side in Dorsetshire, on a living Residing with my mother at that given him by the late Lord Hunt. time in the neighbourhood, I was ington. He corresponded, after invited by my old friend to spend this, for some time, with the Rev. a few days with them, and never Daniel Watson, who was warmly can I forget the impression made patronised by the late Bishop upon my mind, by their conversa Law, and had afterwards the liv- tion, their plan of life, the habits ing of Middleton Tyas, in York. of self-denial it included, the great shire. Mr. Watson, in one of his objects they had constantly in view, letters, speaking of a visit he had and the admirable means they Jately made at Richmond, hap. adopted to secure the attainment pened to mention Miss Elsworth of them. This was probably the as possessing uncommon talents; more striking, from the circum and this little circumstance con- stance of my having been for some firming the prejudice in her favour time, after the death of my father, made upon his mind by the acci- in the family of some distant rela dental conversation already men- tions of my mother's, who lived tioned some years before, he wrote in great splendour, but whose cha.. racters were in every respect the of medical books and considerable very reverse of those I was now acuteness in the discrimination of contemplating. How often was disease; to the poor, therefore, Fnot ready in secret to exclaim, she was a skilful physician, not with the widowed daughter of Na- only supplying and preparing me omi, "Where ye live, there would dicines for their relief, but geneI live; your God shall be my rally administering them in person; God; where ye die, there would I and I remember, when frequently, die; and there also would I be witnessing as I did, her extraordi. buried." nary success, I was wont to ex. claim, "How should I exult if I had your knowledge and could thus apply it," she would calmly answer, "Exult, you would have no reason; do you not think that if it were the will of God these poor persons should recover, he could easily have employed other means of equal efficacy, without my fee. ble agency?" was In Mr. Lindsey were united the měst amiable temper, the most unaffected humility, thinking nothing of himself and his own various attainments; the most ardent piety, and unbounded generosity and benevolence: qualities which were rendered still more attractive by his having been early introduced, immediately on his leaving college, to the most cultivated and They established a sort of Sunhighly polished society of that day, day School; the children of the in the family of the Duke of So- poor, and some of the farmers' mersot; possessing as he did the servants were divided into classes, rare talent of extracting the pure and had such religious instruction gold without any mixture of the imparted to them, on the Sunday base alloy of pride, ambition, afternoon and evening, as self-indulgence, or the vain love deemed suitable to their respective of pomp and grandeur. A train ages and attainments, Mrs. L. takof adverse circumstances, together ing the younger, and Mr. L. the with his great generosity to an on- elder classes. They were rewardly sister, had deprived Mr. Lind. ed, according to their proficiency, sey of his paternal patrimony. At with Testaments, Bibles, Prayer that time, therefore, they had little Books, Pilgrim's Progress, the Life more than the produce of the liv. of God in the Soul of Man, and ing, about 300l. per ann. with the many other religious books, wholly addition of a comfortable house at the expence of their patron and and garden, in a chearful airy patroness. But these were not the situation, without rent or taxes. only instances of their bounty. Here then, the strict economy of Not a case of individual distress both, and the extraordinary ta- occurred which they did not enlents of my friend in her domestic deavour to alleviate, if they could arrangements, were qualities of not wholly relieve. Will it be infirst importance. During the re- quired, how charities so extensive maining nine years that they con- could be accomplished with retinued at Catterick, I was their sources so extremely limited? I frequent and highly privileged vi- would reply, that the habitual sitor Mrs. Lindsey had an apo- self-denial of the shepherd of the thecary's shop; a good assortment flock, who desired nothing for himself but the simplest fare, aided ty and judgment peculiarly her own, he said to her, that one thing only had disturbed his mind, the delinquency, as he deemed it, of continuing to minister in a church so far removed from gos. pel simplicity-" Then relinquish it," was her noble reply; our wants are not many, and, in some way or other, the providence of God will enable us to supply them." At that time or soon after, the resolution of retiring from the church was taken, although it was not put in execution till nearly two years after, owing to some peculiar circumstances, which this is not the place to detail. They continued, however, to make gradual preparation, but not by di minishing their usual charities, or withholding other acts of kindness, by their keeping very early hours, seeing little company, and the admirable family arrangements of Mrs. L. whose two dom stics, (one man and one maid,) moved as it were by clock-work; aided further by her own personal activity and domestic knowledge, not only supplied the power of doing all this, but the house, the garden, the adjoining premises and church yard, which my father had previously planted with ornamental trees, and adorned with wood. bines, laburnums, roses and jessamines, were kept with such per fect neatness that the whole ap. pearance was that of cheerfulness and comfort, approaching somewhat to taste and elegance. The late Mr. Mason, so highly appreciated as a poet, and who had been in which their whole income was an intimate college companion of usually expended; so far other. Mr. Lindsey's, on making them a wise, indeed, tha during the last visit was much struck with this, year, the small-pox having been and was disposed to celebrate my very fatal in that district, they infriend as a perfect model for the curred the additional expence of wife of a country clergyman. inoculating all the children of the poor in their own large village, and in the neighbouring hamlets, most of whom Mrs. Lindsey attended in person, and with so much success, that she did not lose a single patient. But this was not the field, admirable as were her labours in it, where the singular talents of Mrs. Lindsey, and her strict adherence to principle, were most conspicuous. Far from ever urging her exemplary husband to accept of the splen. did offers of great church prefer. men', which were made to him from time to time by the Northumberland and Huntington families, one of which offers in particular, would have led immediately to an Irish bishoprick, she entered fully into the views which compelled his refusal: and when, on bis recovery from a violent rheumatic fever, in which must not, however, omit saying, he had continued twenty successive nights without sleep, and in which she had nursed him with an activi I shall not here attempt to detail the various results of this magnanimous resolution, the effect of an elevation of mind so exceedingly uncommon, more especially as I hope the time is not distant when the whole transaction, together with its important conse quences, will be presented to the public by a much abler pen. I that every necessary preparation for the intended sale of furniture, plate and china, to defray the ex pence of their removal and to sup. Catterick, they spent one night ply the means of present subsis with my mother and myself at Betence, to which their own very dale, where we then lived, and I small private property was quite accompanied them the following unequal, (being merely the inte. morning to Wakefield, where we rest of four or five hundred pounds spent a day or two with the late settled upon Mrs Lindsey,) was most excellent Mr. Turner, at that made by herself with the greatest time minister there; and so much alacrity and cheerfulness. I was had the tone of my mind been at Catterick when Mr. Lindsey raised by witnessing their magna. preached his farewell sermon from nimity and courage, that it was Acts xx. 32. and an equally af- not till I saw them drive away in fecting scene I never witnessed. I the chaise which was to convey remained there till within a few them on their doubtful pilgrimage, days of their final departure, and that I felt the full pressure of the a letter now in my possession from Mrs. L. written during that inter. val, dated Sunday evening, part of which I shall transcribe, will give the most accurate idea of the state of mind in which she per. formed her part of their arduous duty. "This day is over, and my husband's presence made me as happy as I can be among this sorrowing people. Surely these impressions which arise from affec tion and gratitude cannot all die, and wholly miss of their first and best destination, the Author of all good. O that they may know and love him, through his poor creatures, and have his favour for ever! John's grief," (their man servant) like Mr. B's. was native, but stronger as his ties were: eight years in dulgence and the habits consequent to be destroyed, or nearly so by removing to new scenes; and on such an occasion where no little resentments which so commonly cause removals and reconcile the mind to other places, stepped in to abate the sorrow. I am persuaded he will often be your visitor to inquire about loss I was about to suffer. In After they took up their abode in London, Mrs. Lindsey did not relinquish her former habits of great activity and extensive usefulAmong their numerous cir. She is perfectly stupified with grief. I cle of friends, acquaintance, or have said and done all I can to reconcile other connections, there was not her. We had no letter to day but from Mr. Mason; I imagine all our more dis- a sick couch that she did not visit, tant friends suppose we are gone. Two or a sorrowing family to whom she days more will accomplish this painful did not endeavour to administer removal, and send us into the wide world consolation and advice; and so again: but if the great Governor do but eminent were her services in this go with us, we shall have nothing to way, possessing as she did, the fear." singular talent of always suggesting us. Poor M. T. how she saddened me! ness. After finally bidding adieu to VOL. VII. ness and to call in the medical aid, of her brother, Dr. Blackburne, who had generally a long string of her poor pensioners upon his list. "that the blessing Need I add, of those who were ready to perish came upon them," and that the tears of the orphan and widow will long bedew their hallowed grave. I do not know that Mrs. Lindsey ever wrote any thing beyond the keeping up for many years a very numerous and extensive correspondence. the best means of attaining the de- were also constant and daily besired end, and of going directly to nefactors, and, if labouring under the point most effectual to promote disease, and that Mrs. Lindsey it, that her influence, under cir. was unable to visit them herself, cumstances in themselves wholly she was wont to bespeak the kindadverse to her possessing it, was universal and truly astonishing. The first great work in which she engaged, was planning Essex Chapel, and the house of the mi. nister adjoining; daily superintending the various workmen em. ployed in the building, and con triving how to make the most of the small allotted space; and I be lieve it will be admitted that there are few professional architects who could more completely have succeeded in their object. For some She particularly years after they first went to Lon. don, they had a small lodging in excelled in the use of terms most Featherstone buildings, Holborn, appropriate to express her mean. without a servant, and were under ing; in the discrimination and the necessity of exerting the most acuteness of her remarks; in seizrigid economy. At length, how ing upon the prominent traits in ever, when the worship in Essex the character she meant to delineStreet was established; when, af. ate, or in the event she designed ter some years, an uncle of Mrs. to relate, and above all, in the Lindsey's had left them for their art of condensing her subject. joint lives, a considerable income; Her sketches, like those of a masand eventually, when several of ter, were real portraits. It was Mr. Lindsey's friends who ad- her particular wish in many inmired and loved him, had stances that her letters should be bequeathed him considerable destroyed, and therefore I do not legacies; as they never expended think myself at liberty to give much upon themselves, or materi- more than an extract or two from ally altered their mode of living, the very few I have remaining, by they were enabled once more to way of specimen and as serving to extend pecuniary relief in various justify the character I have given ways, to numbers of persons on a of them above. very extensive scale; and to gratify their benevolence still further by forwarding every charitable or useful undertaking;-such more especially as had a tendency to promote the great cause of scriptural truth, and holiness of life and conversation. To the surrounding poor they Speaking of a particular friend of their's whose faculties had been deranged by a stroke of apoplexy, she says, "What a thousand embarrassments beset our worthy old fr ends by the calamitous state of the r brother and all his complicated afairs! Not one thing can they do, or receive a penny of his, without taking out a statute of lunacy, and |