In modern history, Hadleigh may claim to have made its mark. It was there that the Oxford movement commenced, when in 1833 the Rev. James Rose, the rector, assembled at the parsonage (the present handsome building evidently has been built since then) the men who were to become famous as Tractarians. They had met there to consider how to save the Church. Lord Grey had bidden the Bishops to put their houses in order—ten Irish Bishoprics had been suppressed—a mob at Bristol had burnt the Bishop’s palace. The Church seemed powerless and effete. The friends who met at the Hadleigh Rectory resolved to commence the Oxford Tracts. Mr. Rose was the person of most authority. As Dean Church writes: “As far as could be seen at the time, he was the most accomplished divine and teacher in the English Church. He was a really learned man. He had intellect and energy, and literary skill to use his learning. He was a man of singularly elevated and religious character; he had something of the eye and temper of a statesman.” “The Oxford movement owed to him,” again writes Dean Church, “not only its first impulse, but all that was best and most hopeful in it, and when it lost him it lost its wisest and ablest guide and inspirer.” He and Mr. Palmer, and Mr. A. Perceval, formed, as it were, the right wing of the little council. Their Oxford allies were Mr. Froude, Mr. Keble, and Mr. Newman. From this meeting resulted the _Tracts for the Times_, and the agitation connected with them. Now that the tumult of the strife is over, it is evident that they gave new life to the Church; that they saved it—for a time. The world of art also is indebted to Hadleigh. It was the birthplace of Thomas Woolner, the great sculptor. “There is” wrote a critic in _The Century_, “no living artist, whose work a man of letters approaches with more instructive interest than that of Mr. Woolner, himself, almost as eminent as a poet as a sculptor. His place in literature as the author of _My Beautiful Lady_, and _Pygmalion_, has long been decided, and needs no re-illustration. But after all the profession of Mr. Woolner’s life has been sculpture. Thomas Woolner, was born at Hadleigh, on the 17th December, 1825. At the age of thirteen he began life as the pupil of Mr. Behmes, sculptor in ordinary to the Queen. There may be persons living at Hadleigh, who remember the boy sculptor, and who could possibly give interesting facts respecting his early proclivities.” Alas, Hadleigh seems to have preserved no memory of him whatever. A lady resident in the town writes me, “I have heard that my grandfather, of Shelley Hall, once lent money to Thomas Woolner’s father. I have asked several of the inhabitants if they remember Thomas Woolner, but I have not been successful in getting information at present.” IV. A GRAND MEDIÆVAL TOWN.