Little Gidding and its inmates in the Time of King Charles I. / with an account of the Harmonies

by John Edward Acland

The meeting between Nicholas Ferrar and his mother, who was now 73 years old, is so characteristic that it must be related. Within three or four days of his arrival, and before the necessary repairs had been carried out, Mrs. Ferrar rides to Gidding from her daughter’s home, no great distance off. Nicholas Ferrar meets her outside the manor house, and kneeling on the ground, asks and receives her blessing. He then entreats her to enter his dwelling and repose herself after the journey.

“Not so,” she says; “yonder I see the church, let us first go there and give thanks to God.”

She is told she cannot even get inside the door, for there had been no time as yet to clear out the hay which was in it. But she persists in her resolve, and thrusting herself in a little way, she kneels and prays. Then sending for the workmen employed in the house, the hay is flung out of the windows, and the church is cleansed as well as might be for the present, and till this is done she will not set foot in her new home.

The following year, 1626, Nicholas Ferrar returned to London for a short while to dispose of his house and bid good-bye to his friends. He now was able to carry out a resolution, which it is believed he had made long before, and was ordained Deacon by Dr. Laud, the future Archbishop of Canterbury. Many people imagined that this was to enable him to seek ecclesiastical preferments, and several valuable livings were soon offered to him; but his sole object was that he might have the necessary authority to carry on the spiritual work of his own home, and thus be of greater use to his family.

He had doubtless by now worked out the general plan of life, and put his house and the church into proper order. Certain glebe lands and tithes which had been alienated from their

rightful owners were restored; and to prove the honesty of his purpose he even pulled down a very large dovecote upon the premises, which contained a great number of pigeons. The reason for this was that all his property was laid out as pasture, and therefore the pigeons fed on his neighbours’ corn-fields. In the place of the dovecote he made a school-house, and permission was given to the people of the towns and villages within reach to send their children to be instructed under his supervision, and without payment or expense. For this purpose he provided three resident masters; one was to teach English to the poor children and Latin to his nephews and nieces, another superintended the writing and arithmetic, while the third was for instruction in the theory and practice of music.

There was also especial inducement held out to all children of the neighbourhood to learn the Psalms by heart. Each one was given a Psalter, and had to go to Gidding on Sunday mornings to repeat his portion learnt during the week. There were sometimes more than a hundred children, and they were given a penny for each Psalm learnt, and a dinner served in the great hall.

It will be as well now to describe in detail the “particular and more punctual actions of each day in the week,” which we get with great exactness from the records left us by John Ferrar. To begin with Sunday—early rising was encouraged on this day, as throughout the week, namely, five o’clock in winter and four o’clock in summer. The younger children first assembled in the great hall, where was always a good warm fire in the winter. Here they found Nicholas Ferrar awaiting them, to whom they repeated such chapters or Psalms as they had been given to learn. After this they returned to their rooms to make themselves “more comely in their best attires.” Breakfast, and private reading or conversation in their own rooms, went on till nine o’clock, when the bell called them together again. They all met in the great hall, and, having sung a hymn, proceeded in decent order to the church.

The three schoolmasters led the way, wearing their black gowns, the youths (also in gowns) following two and two, John Ferrar and Mr. Collett came next, and then Nicholas Ferrar leading his aged mother; immediately behind her came Mrs. Collett and the daughters, and the procession closed with all the servants.

Each as they came into church made a low obeisance, and took up their allotted places; Nicholas Ferrar, in surplice and hood, saying the service. This over, the “Psalm children” went to the manor house and repeated their Psalms.