minister’s household being alone exchanged for those of a baronet. From the title and dedication of another sermon by the same Divine, “Self-dedication discoursed in the anniversary thanksgiving of a person of honour for a great deliverance,”--namely, the preservation from death by a fall from a horse of “John, Earl of Kildare, Baron of Ophalia, first of his order in the kingdom of Ireland,”--we gather that it was a Puritan practice to celebrate distinguished family mercies by annual religious solemnities. Two sermons by the same writer on the words, “Yield yourselves unto God,” are inscribed “To the much-honoured Bartholomew Soame, Esq., of Thurlow, and Susanna his pious consort;” with the notice, that one day in the previous summer the author preached the sermons under their roof.[335] The circumstance shows, that sometimes elaborate addresses, fitted for public audiences, were carefully prepared for a small number of persons, such as could be accommodated within the entrance-hall, or in one of the apartments of a country gentleman’s house. In some Nonconformist families, as was quite natural, romantic incidents occurred. Major-General Lambert, who figured prominently in connection with Cromwell, and who was kept a prisoner in the days of Charles II., had a son very unlike himself as it regards religion. This gentleman became acquainted with the widow of Charles Nowel of Merely--a lady who was of the family of Lister, of Arnoldsbiggen. The union with her first husband had been a runaway match, contracted in a covered walk within her father’s grounds; after which the bridegroom fell into the water, and was drowned, in returning home with the license of marriage in his pocket, so that he and she never met again. Young Lambert married this ill-fated maiden-widow; and then it turned out that the tastes of the couple were utterly unlike--he much addicted to pleasure, she against it; he going to church at Kirkby, Malham-dale, she walking every Sunday to the Dissenting meeting-house at Winterburn. His father, the Major-General, wrote a letter, rebuking him for his extravagance; and his wife invited Mr. Frankland, the Nonconformist pastor, to come and preach in Craven, with a view to his benefit; this the gay sportsman at first opposed. But a change came over him; he himself invited Oliver Heywood to be his guest, and showed him his pictures--“he being an exact limner:” one would hope he also became a penitent Christian. Lambert was seized with palsy in January, 1676, about which time his mother died in Plymouth Castle.[336]