my Scout, and his hungry family, to whom I have given fourteen lbs. of roast beef, two bottles of wine, and 2/for beer.

My reading now goes on very well, but I had much difficulty in breaking myself into it. Shake all my friends heartily by the hand for me, and tell them how much I regret I cannot be among them.

May all the happiness which I know you will wish me be redoubled on yourself. This I hope and earnestly pray for; that whatever be our calamities, whatever our vicissitudes, no sorrow may be aggravated, no cheer embittered, by deriving its source in any improper conduct of your dutiful and affectionate son,

J. E. N. MOLESWORTH.

In the following May, three months later, another letter went to the mother, this time from his guardian, Mr. Philips :

May 17, 1811.

MY DEAR MADAM,-I had the pleasure to forward you by this day's post a letter from your son, and as it came under cover to me with one from him announcing that he had passed the ordeal of examination, I cannot doubt but that it was for the purpose of conveying this welcome intelligence to you, his dear parent.

Give me leave to congratulate you on the accomplishment of this important event; it would be difficult to form an idea of the anxious moments he has passed, agitated with hopes and fears; but for my part, I was never in doubt of his success. To him it was certainly an awful crisis.

I shall take the liberty to give you young Wilder's account, from his letter received this morning. You know I am sincere and that just praise is not flattery. Wilder says: 'It is with the greatest pleasure I write to inform you that Mr. Molesworth to-day has been examined and has passed his examination much to his credit. I was in the schools the whole time, and heard him applauded by the masters. He is himself going to write to you by this night's post.'

Shortly afterwards he was ordained to the curacy of Millbrook, a small village near Southampton, with a stipend of £60 a year, which he enjoyed for sixteen years.

Before he took Holy Orders, he was but little disposed

to study; but being invested with the sacred office of the ministry, impressed with the importance of his duties, and the charge of the parish entrusted to his care (for his Rector was non-resident), he began a course of life in accordance with his station in the Church, and with a deep sense of the heavy obligations which lay on God's clergy.

MILLBROOK

IN 1815 he married Harriet, the sister of William Alexander Mackinnon, M.P., chief of the Clan Mackinnon, and also sister of Wellington's favoured general, Dan Mackinnon, of the Coldstream Guards, the heroic defender of Hougomont at the battle of Waterloo.

The issue of this marriage was six sons and three daughters, the youngest son being born shortly before he left Millbrook.

Millbrook, with its adjoining hamlet of Redbridge, was a long, straggling parish, containing from two to three thousand inhabitants, so scattered that one only realised a small, quiet village; so quiet that when, owing to some needful repairs to the Millbrook home, Mr. Molesworth had to walk to church from his temporary lodgings at Redbridge, a distance of two miles, his cat would follow him, like a dog, all the way, waiting in the churchyard until he was ready to

return.

His elder children's first recollection of sorrow was the death of this favourite cat.

He converted an old dairy, or wash-house, in the garden into a study, where, when not engaged in parochial duties, he worked early and late, striving to add to his small income, which was very limited for the needs of an increasing family, by means of his pen.

In those days holidays were more limited, and the Millbrook curate had only one fortnight in sixteen years; yet these sixteen years marked one of the happiest periods of Dr. Molesworth's life. He had found his wife at Millbrook; there they had been married, and there all his nine children had been born. There, also, a strong mutual attachment had arisen between pastor and people.

The people of Millbrook and the district, when he left, sent an address to the Bishop of Winchester, deploring the