“To rub his cassock’s draggled tail,
Or reach his hat from off the nail,
Or seek the key to draw the ale,
When damsel haps to steal it;
To burn his pipe, or mend his clothes,
Or nicely darn his russet hose,
For comfort of his aged toes,
So fine they cannot feel it.”
The outlay upon taking the new living amounted to £50—just one-fourth of the annual income of the living. It was a practice for parish officers to compel people to lighten parochial burdens by taking, as apprentices, the children of paupers; and one of these unfortunates was actually palmed on the Epworth Incumbent, who said he supposed he must teach the boy “to beat rhyme.” These items are worth mentioning as illustrations of the times, and in this case they are interesting in connection with the early life of the founder of Methodism and the master of English psalmody. The two boys played in the rectory garden; and from their parents derived some of the power and peculiarity of their mature life. The parents, it is curious to remember, differed on the Jacobite question; and a story is told to the effect that Wesley, observing that his wife did not pray for William, and hearing her declare she could regard him only as Prince of Orange, told her, in sorrowing words, “If that be the case, you and I must part; for if we have two Kings, we must have two beds.” It is added that he took horse and rode to London; and being “Convocation man” for the diocese of Lincoln, resided in the Metropolis a whole year without corresponding with his family. The anecdote perhaps has in it much of exaggeration, and it has been questioned of late more than once, yet one would think there must be some truth in it, since it rests on the authority of John Wesley.[418] At that time a mean-looking parsonage was the rule, not the exception: and even in the parish of Kensington, though honoured by the presence of Royalty, the vicarage is described as having been of a very humble character, with lattice windows. A large proportion of the livings were very poor, some as low as £14 or £15 per annum.[419] Wesley’s first income was £30 a year from a curacy in London; and if so small a sum was paid in the Metropolis, what must it have been in some of the provinces! The pitiful condition of clergymen under Charles II. could have undergone no great improvement under William III. Of course in places of importance, if clerical incomes happened to reach a large amount, a handsome rectory or vicarage might be found, of which a few, built in Sir Christopher Wren’s time, with more regard to convenience than taste, still remain. Of nearly the same date, deaneries and prebendal houses still linger amongst us—and long may they linger—snugly ensconced amidst pleasant gardens, in those most pleasant of all English precincts—our cathedral closes—so green and quiet, solemn and quaint.
CONDITION OF THE CLERGY.