WARMINSTER COMMON.

SHEWING

THE STEPS BY WHICH IT HAS ADVANCED

FROM ITS

FORMER STATE OF NOTORIOUS VICE, IGNORANCE,
AND POVERTY,

TO ITS

PRESENT STATE OF MORAL AND SOCIAL
IMPROVEMENT.

"Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.'

"And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I
answered, O Lord GoD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy
upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
Lord."-EZEKIEL XXXVii. 3, 4.

"So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them,
and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army."-
verse 10.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

AN ACCOUNT, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, OF NUMEROUS
AND IMPORTANT CURES PERFORMED BY THAT

PREFACE.

For many years, I have had an impression on my mind that it would be an interesting work, if some one would write "A History of Warminster Common,”heretofore a place of no ordinary celebrity, as it respects its gross ignorance, and deep moral degradation. As there is now no one living that is competent to do this, even in an imperfect way, but myself, and as my season also for labouring in the vineyard must soon end, I have therefore ventured on the work. When I first suggested the idea to our Sunday-school teachers, and others, my esteemed helpers in the Lord's blessed work, there was in a moment such a simultaneous burst of sacred joy, manifested, especially among the dear children, that I could not help concluding that "the thing proceeded from the Lord;" and, notwithstanding my numerous other avocations, it was all but completed in about four months,-my memory, aided by written docu