“No,” answered Mr. Martyn. “I will fetch you my poncho, and you can try it on.” The poncho was brought: it was a dark blue one, and the vicar was delighted with it. There was no trouble in putting it on. It suited his fancy amazingly; and next time he went to Bideford he bought a yellowish-brown blanket, and had a hole cut in the middle, through which to thrust his head.
“I wouldn’t wear your livery, Martyn,” said he, “nor your political colours, so I have got a yellow poncho.”
Those who knew him well can picture to themselves the sly twinkle in his eye as he informed his credulous visitor that he was invested in the habit of St. Padarn and St. Teilo.
After a few years at Morwenstow in a hired house, the vicar set to work to build himself a vicarage near the church. He chose a spot where he saw lambs take shelter from storm; not so much because he thought the spot a “lew” one (that is, a sheltered one), as from the fancy that the refuge of the lambs should typify the vicarage, the sheltering-place of his flock.
Whilst he was building it Mr. Daniel King came over to see him, and was shown the house in course of erection. Mr. Daniel King and Mr. Hawker were not very cordial friends.
“Ha!” said Mr. King, “you know the proverb—‘Fools build houses for wise men to live in.’”
“Yes,” answered the vicar promptly; “and I know another—‘Wise men make proverbs, and fools quote them.’”
He had the chimneys of the vicarage built to resemble the towers of churches with which he had had to do: one was like Tamerton, another like Magdalen Hall, a third resembled Wellcombe, a fourth Morwenstow.
When Archdeacon, afterwards Bishop, Wilberforce came into the neighbourhood to advocate the cause of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he met Mr. Hawker.
“Look here,” said Archdeacon Wilberforce, “I have to speak at the meeting at Stratton to-night, and I am told that there is a certain Mr. Knight[[*]] who will be on the platform, and is a wearyful speaker. I have not much time to spare. Is it possible by a hint to reduce him to reasonable limits?”