But it was after all in no earthly walks or haunts of men that he found the prototypes of his immortal pictures. They are idealised experiences, and from the Wicket gate to the Land of Beulah they all represent what he had seen and felt only in his soul.* No doubt the people are in many cases less abstract. A very remarkable edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, published some years ago by an artist of rare promise, since deceased, portrayed the personages of the allegory in the very guise in which Bunyan must often have met their originals up and down in Bedfordshire. Such faces may be seen to-day. We ourselves thought we saw Mr. Honesty, in a brown coat, looking at some bullocks in the Bedford market-place. Ignorance tried to entice us into a theological discussion at the little country-side inn where we rested for the night: the next morning, as we passed along, Mercy was knitting at a farmhouse door, while young Mr. Brisk, driving by in his gig, made her an elaborate bow, of which we were glad to see she took the slightest possible notice.
* The impression made upon a passing traveller through
Bunyan's Country is well expressed in some verses entitled
Bedford is now at least rich in memorials of its illustrious citizen and prisoner for conscience' sake. The Bunyan Statue, presented by the Duke of Bedford, was erected in 1874, and is one of the noblest and most characteristic out-of-door monuments in England. It has indeed been suggested that Bunyan might more appropriately have been represented in the attitude of writing than in that of preaching; but it should be remembered that the latter was the work he chose and loved, and that his greatest works were penned during the period of enforced silence. It is therefore with a fine appropriateness that he is represented as standing, as if in the presence of some vast congregation, the Bible in his hand, his eyes uplifted to heaven, while upon the pedestal are carved his own words, expressive of his own highest ideal.
"THROUGH BEDFORDSHIRE BY RAIL.
"Far behind we leave the clangour of the smoky northern town;
Now' we hurry through a country all brown-green and sweet grey-brown:
Landscapes gently undulating where light shadows softly pass,
Quiet rivers silent flowing through the rarely-trodden grass.
Here and there a few sheep grazing 'neath the hedgerow poplars tall.
Here and there a brown-thatched homestead or a rustic cottage small;
As we rush on road or iron through the fields on either hand,
In the autumn twilight gravely smiles John Bunyan's land.
More than all the fells and mountains we have passed upon our way,
More than e'en that giant city we shall greet ere close of day,
Touches us the tender beauty, soft, harmonious, simple, quaint,
Of these fields and winding bye-lanes where yet linger, sweet and faint,
Echoes of long-vanished ages, rustic homes one might have seen
In the old days when John Bunyan played at cat on Elstow Green,
Meadows still as when he wandered seeking God; while on each hand,
Gravely smiling in the twilight, lay John Bunyan's land.
Tender as the closing music of the Mighty Dreamer's lay,
Lies the country gently round us, all brown-green and soft brown-grey.
Tender are our thoughts towards it, as we ponder o'er the book
That has travelled through the wide world from this homely, rural nook.
Tenderly we name John Bunyan, martyr, poet, hero, saint,
Faithful pastor, strong and loving, like his Bedford, simple, quaint.
Ah! the happy tears half blind us as we gaze on either hand
O'er the gravely smiling beauty of John Bunyan's land."—Lizzie Aldridge.
[Original Size]
No visitor to Bedford will neglect the rapidly accumulating Bunyan Museum, comprising not only some simple relics of his lifetime, as his staff, jug, and the like, with books bearing his autograph—his priceless Bible and Foxes Martyrs—but the various editions of his works, and in particular a collection of the illustrations of the Pilgrim's Progress, from the first rude designs to the latest products of artistic skill. These are stored with reverent care, in connexion with the place of worship occupied by the Christian Church to which he ministered, and now known as Bunyan Meeting. To this edifice, likewise, a pair of massive bronze gates have been contributed by the Duke of Bedford, with panels illustrative of scenes from the allegory.