English fiction -- 19th century; Walker, Robert, 1710-1802
He loved old customs and usages, and in some instances stuck to them to
his own loss; for, having had a sum of money lodged in the hands of a
neighbouring tradesman, when long course of time had raised the rate of
interest, and more was offered, he refused to accept it; an act not
difficult to one, who, while he was drawing seventeen pounds a year from
his curacy, declined, as we have seen, to add the profits of another
small benefice to his own, lest he should be suspected of cupidity.—From
this vice he was utterly free; he made no charge for teaching school;
such as could afford to pay, gave him what they pleased. When very
young, having kept a diary of his expenses, however trifling, the large
amount, at the end of the year, surprised him; and from that time the
rule of his life was to be economical, not avaricious. At his decease he
left behind him no less a sum than £2000; and such a sense of his various
excellencies was prevalent in the country, that the epithet of WONDERFUL
is to this day attached to his name.
There is in the above sketch something so extraordinary as to require
further explanatory details.—And to begin with his industry; eight hours
in each day, during five days in the week, and half of Saturday, except
when the labours of husbandry were urgent, he was occupied in teaching.
His seat was within the rails of the altar; the communion-table was his
desk; and, like Shenstone’s schoolmistress, the master employed himself
at the spinning-wheel, while the children were repeating their lessons by
his side. Every evening, after school hours, if not more profitably
engaged, he continued the same kind of labour, exchanging, for the
benefit of exercise, the small wheel, at which he had sate, for the large
one on which wool is spun, the spinner stepping to and fro. Thus was the
wheel constantly in readiness to prevent the waste of a moment’s time.
Nor was his industry with the pen, when occasion called for it, less
eager. Intrusted with extensive management of public and private
affairs, he acted, in his rustic neighbourhood, as scrivener, writing out
petitions, deeds of conveyance, wills, covenants, etc., with pecuniary
gain to himself, and to the great benefit of his employers. These
labours (at all times considerable) at one period of the year, viz.
between Christmas and Candlemas, when money transactions are settled in
this country, were often so intense, that he passed great part of the
night, and sometimes whole nights, at his desk. His garden also was
tilled by his own hand; he had a right of pasturage upon the mountains
for a few sheep and a couple of cows, which required his attendance: with
this pastoral occupation, he joined the labours of husbandry upon a small
scale, renting two or three acres in addition to his own less than one
acre of glebe; and the humblest drudgery which the cultivation of these
fields required was performed by himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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