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 Jlcabex^ of ^leliciion 
 
 Edited by H. C. Beeching, M.A. 
 
 GEOKGE FOX
 
 S^eabex^ of ^leligion 
 
 Edited by H. C. Beechino, M.A. 
 Crown 8vo, cloth extra, u-ith portrait, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Under the above title Messrs. Methuen are publishing a series 
 of short biographies of the most prominent leaders of religious life 
 and thought. The following are ready — 
 
 CARDINAL NEWMAN 
 
 JOHN WESLEY 
 
 BISHOP WILBERFORCE 
 
 CHARLES SIMEON 
 
 CARDINAL MANNING 
 
 THOMAS CHALMERS 
 
 LANCELOT ANDREWES 
 
 WILLIAM LAUD 
 
 JOHN KEBLE 
 
 AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY 
 
 JOHN KNOX 
 
 JOHN HOWE 
 
 THOMAS KEN 
 
 GEORGE FOX 
 
 In Preparation 
 
 MARTIN LUTHER 
 THOMAS CRANMER 
 HUGH LATIMER 
 JOHN CALVIN 
 JOHN DONNE 
 JOSEPH BUTLER 
 FRANCOIS FENELON 
 ERNEST RENAN 
 C. H. SPURGEON 
 
 B. H. HxMon 
 J. H. Overton 
 G. W. Daniell 
 H. G. O. Mo^de 
 A. W. Button 
 Mrs. Oliphant 
 R. L. Ottley 
 W. H. Button 
 TV. Lock 
 
 E. L. Ctitts 
 Florence A. MacGunn 
 E. F. Barton 
 
 F. A. Clarke 
 Thomas Bodgkin 
 
 Owen Edwards 
 A. J. Mason 
 
 A. J. Carlyle 
 
 W. A. B. Coolidge 
 Augustus Jessopp 
 
 B. Bashdall 
 Viscount St. Gyres 
 Madame Darmesteter 
 J. Clifford 
 
 Other volumes will be announced in due coarse
 
 GEORGE FOX 
 
 F}-oin the Portrait by Sir I'eter Lely, in the /lossessioii of the Trustees of 
 S~ivartliiiu>re Collciie
 
 GEORGE FOX 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS HODGKIN, D.C.L. 
 
 METHUEN & CO. 
 
 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 1896
 
 THOMAS HODGKIN 
 AUTHOR OF THEODORIC 

 
 M 
 
 Ct 
 
 77^5" 
 
 CO 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Having been asked by my friend, the Editor of this 
 series, to write the life of George Fox, I have completed 
 the work to the best of my ability, though I am aware 
 of the disadvantage under which I labour in not having 
 for some years made that period a subject of special 
 study. 
 
 The reader will no doubt perceive that I am myself 
 a member of the Society of Friends, to which my 
 ^ ancestors have belonged since its first foundation by 
 George Fox ; but I trust that this fact has not caused 
 me to swerve from that absolute fidelity of portraiture 
 which ought to be the aim of every biographer. There 
 are some lines in the portrait which, out of love to 
 Fox's memory, I would gladly have omitted ; but 
 loyalty to " the Truth," which has ever been the watch- 
 word of the Society of Friends, forbade me to do so. 
 Only I may repeat a remark which has been often 
 made, that his faults (especially his polemic bitterness) 
 were, for the most part, faults characteristic of his age, 
 while his nobler qualities, his courage, his conscientious- 
 ness, and his intense love of truth, were emphatically his 
 own. 
 
 There is an interesting question, into which I have 
 
 335242
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 not had space to enter, how far Fox's system was 
 peculiar to himself, and how far it was borrowed from 
 other sects, especially the Baptists and Mennonites. 
 My own impression is that Fox was essentially an 
 original religious thinker, and that few men have ever 
 had less of the Eclectic character than he : but for a 
 careful statement of the other side of the question I 
 may refer my readers to a book frequently quoted in 
 the following pages, Barclay's Intur Life of the Religious 
 Societies of the Gommoniuealth. 
 
 It only remains to express my thanks to the following 
 gentlemen, who have helped me in various ways in the 
 composition of this little book — Prof. Gardiner, Mr. C. 
 J. Spence (the possessor of the original MS. of George 
 Fox's Journal), Messrs Jno. Fell, J. S. Rowntree, and 
 Alexr. Gordon. It will be seen that I am under many 
 obligations to Mrs. Webb's Fells of Stvarthmoor Hall, 
 which contains ^several letters of the Fell family and of 
 George Fox not elsewhere published. But, beyond 
 all other books, I have been helped by Prof. Masson's 
 Life of Milton, the most valuable work, as it seems to 
 me, which has been written, not only on the literary 
 but also on the religious history of England during the 
 central years of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Thos. Hodgkin.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION ... 
 II. BIRTHPLACE 
 
 III. EARLY LIFE 
 
 IV. fox's message ... 
 
 V. MISSIONARY JOURNEYS : MIDLAND COUNTIES AND 
 
 YORKSHIRE 
 
 VI. SWARTHMOOR HALL 
 
 VIL AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE ... 
 
 VIII. AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WHITEHALL . 
 
 IX. LAUNCESTON GAOL 
 
 X. IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 
 
 XI. THE END OF THE PROTECTORATE 
 
 XII. THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS : IMPRISONMENTS 
 AT LANCASTER AND SCARBEO" 
 
 XIII. MARRIAGE 
 
 XIV. VISIT TO AMERICA 
 XV. THE LAST IMPRISONMENT 
 
 XVr. CLOSING YEARS ... 
 XVII. CONCLUSION 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 8 
 15 
 33 
 
 45 
 63 
 79 
 102 
 115 
 141 
 157 
 
 170 
 204 
 222 
 238 
 245 
 273 
 281
 
 GEORGE EOX 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 " George Fox, the founder of Quakerism." That is 
 the formula which expresses, and will probably always 
 express, Fox's place in religious history. Yet of him, 
 even more emphatically than of the men who have 
 given their nam.es to great sections of the Christian 
 Church, Luther, Calvin, or Wesley, it may be con- 
 fidently affirmed that to found a new sect was the 
 furthest thing from his hopes and aspirations. A 
 religious reformer, at any rate one who desires to 
 Avork in harmony Avith the spirit of Christianity, 
 cannot have sectarian aims. He cannot be satisfied 
 with conquering one little province of the Christian 
 world, and labelling it with his own name. He must 
 believe that he is the bearer of a world-wide message, 
 adapted to all sorts and conditions of men, and that for 
 the whole Christian Church the only hope of health 
 and cleansing lies in the acceptance of that message. 
 Such was most emphatically the belief of George Fox,
 
 2 GEORGE FOX 
 
 and accordingly in studying his life it is necessary as 
 much as possible to dissever him in thought from the 
 quiet, respectable, unaggressive sect of which he was in 
 fact, though not in intention, the founder. 
 
 But a man who believes, as Fox believed, that he 
 has a Divine commission to testify against the errors 
 and corruptions of the religion which is professed by 
 those around him, will be the last man to do justice to 
 the germs of a holier and better life underlying every 
 corruption. He will have little or nothing of that 
 sympathetic, eclectic spirit which is perhaps the best 
 quality in the religious life of our generation, and 
 which enables us to deal fairly with schools of thought 
 to which intellectually we are utterly opposed. A man 
 of such intense convictions as dominated the soul of 
 the first Quaker is almost of necessity narrow, and very 
 narrow the reader will probably consider some of George 
 Fox's judgments. 
 
 Yet if we would understand this man's life in even 
 the least degree, if we are to look upon him as anything 
 more than a wrong-headed and troublesome disturber 
 of the public peace, — that is to say, if we would learn 
 anything of the results produced by his preaching, and 
 the secret of his power, — we must be willing, at least for 
 a time, to place ourselves at his point of view, and look 
 forth upon the Christian world as he, knowing scarce 
 any other book than the English Bible, and imbued 
 with the spirit of a Hosea or a Jeremiah, looked forth 
 ^ upon it. 
 
 It is difficult for us Englishmen of the nineteenth 
 century to throw ourselves back into the state of feeling 
 as to all religious matters which prevailed among our 
 forefathers at the time of the Civil War. We have
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 been always accustomed to the sight of many religious 
 denominations existing side by side, if not in love, at 
 any rate in peace. Round the great Established Church 
 of England revolve in their own orbits the Noncon- 
 formist Churches of Protestantism, while the old his- 
 toric Church of Rome has perfect freedom to worsljip 
 as she pleases, and to make proselytes as she can. 
 How utterly different was the state of things under 
 Elizabeth and James I, ; yes, and even when Charles I. 
 had been vanquished, and Puritanism had gained the 
 upper hand ! The popish " Recusants " were persecuted 
 with a ferocity Avhich is the disgrace of Protestantism, 
 and which is only explained, not justified, by the 
 cruelties which had marked the victorious march of the 
 Counter-Reformation in the Netherlands and Germany, 
 and by the disloyal and even murderous projects of 
 which some of the English Papists were guilty. 
 
 Within the Protestant camp, from the beginning of 
 Charles's reign, Episcopalian and Presbyterian were 
 contending, not for bare existence, not even for priority 
 of place and possession of old revenues, but for the 
 right absolutely to suppress the defeated party. Not 
 Laud himself was more intolerant of the " Calvinian " 
 lecturers than the adherents of the Solemn Leacrue and 
 Covenant were intolerant of every other form even of 
 Puritan discipline which squared not with their precise 
 notions of Presbyterian orthodoxy. In the minds of 
 some of the Independents, it is true, the great principle 
 of religious toleration had taken root, and had begun to 
 show itself above ground. Great leaders of the sect, 
 such as Roger Williams in America and Cromwell in 
 England, were sacrificing much of their populai'ity in 
 the attempt to persuade the bigots around them to
 
 4 GEORGE FOX 
 
 bear with other usages than their own ; but entire and 
 absolute religious toleration was still, in the middle of 
 the seventeenth century, a theory and a dream, as 
 much as is the reunion of all Christians in one Church 
 at the close of the nineteenth century. 
 
 In the years of Fox's childhood and boyhood the 
 Episcopal Church of England was ruling England with 
 absolute sway, and Archbishop Laud was everywhere 
 removing the altars to the eastern end of the churches, 
 insisting on the kneeling posture of communicants, and 
 on the worshippers bowing at the name of Jesus. Ere 
 Fox had completed his seventeenth year, the system of 
 " Thorough " in Church and State had broken down. 
 Strafford's head had fallen on Tower Hill, Laud was in 
 prison, and the immense latent strength of Puritanism 
 was about to manifest itself both on the battle-field and 
 in the Houses of Parliament. It is important to re- 
 member this fact. In the really formative years of Fox's 
 religious development, not Episcopacy, but Presby- 
 terianism was the dominant form of Church govern- 
 ment. Calvin's Institutes, not Hooker's Ecclesiastical 
 Polity, was the text-book of the clergy with whom he 
 was brought in contact. It was not high sacramental 
 teaching, nor discourses on Apostolical Succession, from 
 which this young man's soul revolted, but it was the 
 long sermons (reaching to eighteenthly and nineteenthly) 
 on abstruse points of doctrine, the almost equally long 
 and sermon-like prayers, the Calvinistic teaching of the 
 predestined and eternal misery of a large portion of the 
 human race, the superstitious reverence for every letter 
 in that collection of writings by holy men of old made 
 by the Jewish and Christian Churches, to which was 
 given the name of " the Word of God " ; the determina-
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 tion to keep the Lord's Day as if it had been a Jewish 
 Sabbath, fencing it round with the same awful sanctions 
 with which that day was encompassed in the legislation 
 of the Pentateuch : these and similar exaggerations of 
 what was then called the Puritan, and has since been 
 called the Evangelical, school, were what first called 
 forth the impassioned protest of the young shepherd of 
 Leicestershire. 
 
 In 16G0, when Fox had fully reached middle life, 
 and had been for twelve years a zealous missionary 
 preacher, came the restoration of kingship in England, 
 and the downfall of Puritan ascendency. Too soon 
 after this great event, which it was hoped would intro- 
 duce an era of religious peace and mutual toleration, 
 came that cruel and vindictive persecution of Noncon- 
 formity in the name of a perjured and profligate king, 
 which forms the darkest page in the history of the 
 Church of England, one which all who are zealous for 
 her good name would gladly obliterate from her annals. 
 This persecution fell heavily on the followers of Fox, 
 as on all the other Nonconformists : even more heavily 
 on the former by reason of their stern and unbending 
 disposition, than on the latter. The utter failure of the 
 Episcopalians, though armed with the whole power of 
 the State, to suppress or even to diminish the numbers 
 of these dauntless dissenters from the Established 
 Church, was undoubtedly a powerful factor in convincing 
 the nation of the necessity of that general toleration 
 which was the best result of the Revolution of 1G88, 
 But though during this quarter of a century Episcopalian 
 parsons and squires were the chief agents in the perse- 
 cution of Fox and his friends, it can hardly be said that 
 even then they were the chief objects of his religious
 
 6 GEORGE FOX 
 
 polemics. Still the Calvinistic teaching was that 
 against which he bore his most persistent protest, and 
 when his young disciple Barclay gave literary and 
 logical form to the new sect's teaching, his Ajjology 
 was a veiled attack upon the Westminster Confession, 
 the great manifesto of seventeenth-century Calvinism.^ 
 From this statement it must not be inferred that there 
 was any leaning in the mind of Fox and his friends 
 towards what is called Catholic teaching, whether 
 Anglican or Roman. All that was distinctively char- 
 acteristic of media)val Christianity was condemned by 
 them as belonging to " the dark night of apostacy," and 
 the attempts of the disciples of Laud to re-establish the 
 Anglican Church on a basis which should be Catholic, 
 but not Roman, were not indeed actively opposed) 
 because they were never understood by the early 
 Quakers, bred up as these men had been in a universally 
 ditfused atmosphere of Puritanism. 
 
 Lastly, there is one characteristic of early Quakerism 
 which must in fairness be noted, and which it shared 
 with every other religious party of the time. This is 
 the extreme bitterness with which they spoke of their 
 opponents, the absolute certainty which they felt that 
 they alone were in the right, and that all who differed 
 from them went wilfully astray. To most of the first 
 generation of Quakers, as to his Presbyterian opponents, 
 might Cromwell have addressed his well-known appeal, 
 " I beseech you, by the mercies of Jesus Christ, think it 
 
 ^ This relation of Barclay's Apology to the Westminster Con- 
 fession and the Shorter Catechism has not hitherto attracted 
 sufficient attention. Whoever compares the order of Barclay's 
 Propositions with that of the questions in the Shorter Catechism, 
 will, I think, have no doubt that the former document intention- 
 ally follows the latter.
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 possible that you may be mistaken." In this, as I have 
 said, they shared that " form and pressure of the times " 
 from which the most original thinkers cannot expect 
 wholly to escape. With us, it may be, the danger is of an 
 opposite kind. New horizons of thought have been 
 opened out to us. The universe presents itself to our 
 minds as an infinitely greater and more wonderful thing 
 than it was supposed to be by those eager combatants 
 of the seventeenth century. We are no longer so abso- 
 lutely sure that our little plummets have sounded its 
 awful depths, that we have mapped out all its vastness. 
 Hence comes doubt ; hence, it may be, sometimes too 
 languid a grasp of the truths which have been revealed 
 to us. But hence also comes mutual tolerance, and a 
 willingness to acknowledge that others who walk not 
 exactly in our paths may have their faces set towards 
 the Heavenly City ; and that is in itself a gain, perhaps 
 a gain which even outweighs the loss that has made it 
 possible.
 
 CHAPTEH 11 
 
 BIRTHPLACE 
 
 The little hamlet of Drayton-in-the-Clay (as George 
 Fox styles it in his Journal), or Fenny Drayton, as it 
 is now called by the inhabitants, might in the seven- 
 teenth century have been fitly described by either 
 name. It is situated on the western verge of Leicester- 
 shire, on a clay level, with the rising ground of Market 
 Bosworth on the east, and the pleasant hills of Ather- 
 stone on the west. The road which leads to it from 
 Bosworth is still called Fen Lane, and though the 
 country is now well drained, it is easy to see how two 
 hundred years ago the desolate waters of the Fens must 
 have lain, all the winter through, round about the little 
 hamlet. 
 
 Fenny Drayton lies about two miles to the east of 
 the main line of the London and North-Western 
 Railway between London and Liverpool. The Wat- 
 ling Street, of which the modern railway here, as so 
 often elsewhere, is the faithful companion, and which 
 forms the modern boundary between the counties of 
 Leicester and Warwick, comes yet nearer, within a 
 mile of Fenny Drayton, and the little village of Man- 
 cetter hard by represents a station which is named 
 
 8
 
 BIRTHPLACE 9 
 
 in the road-book of the Roman Empire.^ This is not 
 a mere matter of antiquarian interest, for in the seven- 
 teenth century the Roman roads were still the chief 
 available highways of the country. Along the Watling 
 Street doubtless passed in Fox's day the waggons which 
 carried the wool of the north of England up to the 
 markets of London. By the same route may have 
 ridden both Cavaliers and Roundheads towards the 
 battle-field of Marston Moor, and it was along the 
 same road undoubtedly that Henry of Richmond, a 
 century and a half before the time of Fox's boyhood, 
 came to pluck the crown of England from the head 
 of Richard III. The rising ground of Market Bos- 
 worth, as has been already said, is all but within sight 
 of Drayton, and George Fox, in his lonely wanderings 
 over the fields which surrounded his birthplace, must 
 have often passed the site of Henry's camp, perhaps 
 may have drunk sometimes at the well at which 
 Richard is said to have quenched his thirst ere he 
 rushed into the battle." 
 
 At the present day but little is left to show what 
 Drayton-in-the-Clay looked like two hundred years 
 ago. Uninteresting modern buildings, with shallow 
 windows and slated roofs, have replaced the picturesque, 
 deep-mullioned Jacobean houses, with their thatches of 
 straw, which George Fox must have looked on as a boy. 
 
 ^ Manduesedum, mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary. 
 
 - A more modern set of associations, but one which will interest 
 some readers, is connected with a recent novelist. The visitor to 
 Fenny Drayton finds himself in the heart of "George Eliot's 
 countTy." Marian Evans was born at Nuneaton, the capital of 
 this district; and the scenes oi Adam Beck, Janefs Kepentance, 
 Mr. Gilfil, and Amos Barton, are all to be found within a few 
 miles of George Fox's birthplace.
 
 10 GEORGE FOX 
 
 The house which tradition pointed out as his birthplace 
 has long since disappeared. One antique cottage which 
 stood near to it remained till a few years ago, and was 
 rapidly becoming a little local sanctuary; nay, it was 
 on the point of being transported to the other side of 
 the Atlantic by an enterprising American speculator, 
 and being re-erected as the home of the friend of the 
 founder of Pennsylvania, Apparently, however, in 
 the course of the negotiations the fictitious nature of 
 its claims was made manifest, the proposal was with- 
 drawn, the house tumbled down, and the last vestiges of 
 its fabric have recently disappeared. A little obelisk of 
 Quaker-like simplicity has been erected within a hundred 
 yards or so of the site of the original cottage, to keep 
 alive the memory of George Fox's birthplace. 
 
 In this utter modernization of the little hamlet, 
 we are driven by the irony of Fate to look for our 
 only links of connection with the past, in that build- 
 ing to which George Fox would only allow the 
 name of " steeple-house," and on which he would 
 never have expected his remotest disciples to gaze 
 with interest. 
 
 The church of Fenny Drayton is a building chiefly 
 in the late Decorated style, but possesses a rather 
 peculiar Norman doorway somewhat concealed by a 
 modern porch. It has two aisles and a chancel; and 
 the chief objects of interest which it contains are the 
 monuments of the Purefoy family, who were for more 
 than three centuries the territorial aristocracy of Dray- 
 ton. One of these monuments is in the northern aisle, 
 which was apparently a kind of chapel of the Purefoys, 
 with a private door leading out to their closely adjoin- 
 ing manor-house. The other, which lines the northern
 
 BIRTHPLACE 11 
 
 wall of the chancel, and of which probably only a part 
 is still remaining, Avas erected towards the end of the 
 sixteenth century by " Jocosa " (Joyce) Purefoy, Avho had 
 married her cousin Edward Purefoy of Shawleson, and 
 conveyed to him the lordship of her father's lands. In 
 two long and pompous inscriptions, written in Latin 
 hexameters, the stately lady, or rather the scholar who 
 did her bidding, celebrates the virtues of her deceased 
 husband, and describes how he kept inviolate the " pure 
 faith" from which his family derived their name, and 
 the courage with which some remote ancestor had de- 
 fended his lord on the field of battle with the broken 
 spear which was ever after the family's crest. Hundreds 
 of times during the long prelections of the minister of 
 Drayton must the boyish eyes of Fox have wandered 
 over these mysterious monuments. His education was 
 too imperfect to enable him to comprehend their mean- 
 ing; otherwise we might please ourselves with the 
 thought that he had determined to take for his own 
 the motto of the Squire's family, PURE FOY MA 10 YE ; 
 and we might recall the fact that the great militant 
 Quietist gazed so often in his boyhood on a line 
 fancifully adapted from Horace — 
 
 "Omne tulit puuctum qui miscixit arma quieti."^ 
 
 But this, we must admit, is but a caprice of the fancy. 
 The Purefoys of Drayton fell into difficulties in the 
 hard-drinking Hanoverian times, and the representa- 
 tive of the family towards the middle of the eighteenth 
 century obtained a private Act of Parliament enabling 
 him to alienate his estate. Only the funereal monu- 
 ments now remain to attest the family's former great- 
 
 ^ "He gains all hearts who blendeth war with rest,"
 
 12 GEORGE FOX 
 
 ness. The stately manor-house has vanished from the 
 earth, its site only marked by a slight inequality which 
 shows where the moat once guarded the house. 
 
 Altogether Fenny Drayton somewhat depresses the 
 visitor by the conviction which it forces upon him of 
 the obliterating power of only two centuries of time. 
 One great natural landmark remains in the quadran- 
 gular belt of solemn yew-trees which still surrounds 
 the parish church, and which probably look very 
 much as they did when Jocosa Purefoy reared her 
 monument. 
 
 " not for thee the glow, the bloom, 
 Who changest not in any gale, 
 Nor branding summer suns avail 
 To touch thy thousand years of gloom." 
 
 Even more than the squire, the parson of the parish 
 must have exercised a powerful influence on the boy- 
 hood of the future reformer. The living was in the 
 squire's gift, and George Purefoy, " Jocosa's " son, pre- 
 sented to it^ (probably somewhere about 1640) the 
 Reverend Nathaniel Stephens, M. A., who held it till the 
 year 1662. From the fact that Stephens belonged to the 
 Puritan party in the Church, we may probably infer 
 that his patron was of the same way of thinking, and 
 this conjecture is confirmed by our finding that his 
 cousin, William Purefoy of Caldecote, was a General in 
 the Parliamentary army, and a diligent member of the 
 Court by which Charles I. was sentenced to death. 
 Nathaniel Stephens was the son of a Wiltshire clergy- 
 man, was born in 1606, and received his education as 
 
 ^ Wood's statement that Stephens was intruded into the living 
 in 1643 in place of an ejected Episcopalian, is shown by Calamy 
 to be erroneous.
 
 BIRTHPLACE 13 
 
 a " batler " at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He seems to 
 have been a fair specimen of the Presbyterian divines 
 who came to the front during the ascendency of the 
 Long Parliament. A staunch defender of the right of 
 the clergy to tithes, and of the practice of infant 
 baptism, he fought long paper battles with the Inde- 
 pendents and Baptists on tliese questions. On the 
 other hand, he was great in Apocalyptic literature, 
 composing a Plain and Easy Calculation of the Name, 
 Marl', and Number of the Beast, and was a thorough 
 Calvinist in his teaching as to the utter depravity of 
 man, and in his defence of the doctrine of Election and 
 Reprobation by God's absolute decree. Any one who 
 takes the trouble to glance through his Vindicice 
 Fundamenti, or Threefold Defence of the Doctrine of 
 Original Sin, with its wearisome speculations as to 
 Adam's state before and after the fall, will easily under- 
 stand how little help a tired soul seeking for rest, and 
 longing to hear the voice of the Living God, would 
 derive from this self-satisfied scholastic divine. Thus 
 we shall find that " Priest Stephens " is spoken of with 
 little gratitude in George Fox's Journal, and as this is 
 practically the only rock which raises him ever so little 
 out of the waters of oblivion, he has received from 
 posterity somewhat harder measure than he deserves. 
 It is clear, indeed, that he failed to understand the nature 
 of " the questings and the guessings " of his strange 
 young parishioner; but there is small blame to him, 
 trained as he had been, for such a failure ; and after all, 
 the fact that he went forth from his pleasant rectory 
 on St. Bartholomew's Day in 1662, to spend the 
 remaining fifteen years of his life in obscurity as a 
 Nonconformist preacher at Stoke Golding, shows that
 
 14 GEORGE FOX 
 
 he was a true man, and willing to suffer for conscience' 
 sake. 
 
 After this brief sketch of George Fox's birthplace 
 we may proceed to the story of his early years. Our 
 chief authority here and everywhere must be his own 
 Journal, but as that book reaches to a thousand octavo 
 pages, it is obvious that only a few of its more striking 
 passages can be laid under contribution.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY LIFE 
 
 George Fox was born in July 1624.^ His parents 
 were persons in a humble station, but apparently not 
 in actual poverty, and they probably belonged to the 
 numerous class which conformed to the worship of the 
 national Church, while sympathizing with what was 
 beginning to be known as Puritanism. His own ac- 
 count of them is as follows : — 
 
 " My father's name was Christopher Fox : he was 
 by profession a weaver, an honest man ; and there was 
 a seed of God in him. The neighbours called him 
 Righteous Christer. My mother was an upright woman ; 
 her maiden name was Mary Lago, of the family of the 
 Lagos, and of the stock of the martyrs." 
 
 William Penn's statement is that " he was born of 
 honest and sufficient parents, who endeavoured to 
 bring him up, as they did the rest of their children, 
 in the way and worship of the nation : especially his 
 
 ^ Fox does not seem to have known the exact day of hia birth, 
 and unfortunately the blank cannot be filled up from the parish 
 registers, which have suffered denudation at the hands of a 
 sexton's wife in the last century, requiring paper for her jam- 
 pots. The present Rector of Fenny Draytun tells me, however, 
 that he has found the register of the baptism of George Fox's 
 sister Mary. 
 
 15
 
 16 GEORGE FOX 
 
 mother, who was a woman accomplished above most of 
 her degree in the place where she lived." 
 
 As to the time of Fox's birth, we note in passing 
 that it was in the year before the death of King James 
 I. The old king, who was in failing health, had 
 practically abandoned the direction of affairs to the 
 Prince of Wales and his brilliant, unstable friend the 
 Duke of Buckingham, who had just returned from that 
 foolish piece of knight-errantry, the journey to Spain. 
 When Fox was born, negotiations were proceeding for 
 Prince Charles's marriage to the daughter of Henry 
 IV. of France, that marriage which was one of the 
 links in the chain of events which drew on the Civil 
 War and the bloody tragedy of Whitehall. 
 
 However little a man may be affected by the acts 
 and thoughts of his contemporaries, it is always interest- 
 ing to observe who those contemporaries were. In the 
 year before Fox's birth, Blaise Pascal began his frail 
 but wonderful life. John Dryden (born 1631) and 
 John Locke (1632) were his juniors by seven and eight 
 years respectively ; and his birth-year placed him nearly 
 at the middle point between John Milton (1608) and 
 Sir Isaac Newton (1642). 
 
 Yet, as has been already hinted, the future Quaker 
 apostle dwelt mostly in a sphere apart, very little 
 influenced by the thoughts, philosophical, poetical, or 
 political, of the men of his stirring generation. The 
 Bible seems to have been his only literature, and it may 
 safely be said that Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, who 
 was separated from him by an interval of twenty-four 
 centuries, had infinitely more influence on his mind 
 than William Shakespeare, who died but eight years 
 before he came into the world.
 
 EARLY LIFE 17 
 
 So, too, for the political events of his time. Wliile 
 he was passing through his cliiklliood and boyhood, 
 the terrible Thirty Years' War was draining the life- 
 blood of Germany ; and Laud and Strafford by their 
 policy of Thorough Avere gradually alienating the 
 hearts of Englishmen from their king, and preparing 
 them to open " the purple testament of bleeding war." 
 The Civil War began when Fox was in the eighteenth 
 year of his age, and lasted till about the time when he 
 began his missionary journeys. Yet to all these events 
 he makes no allusion, and it may be doubted whether 
 even at the time they greatly moved him. The history 
 of his own soul, his struggles with the power of dark- 
 ness, his Teachings forth after the light and peace of 
 God, seem to have absorbed all his thoughts, and the 
 thunderstorms of war and revolution crashed round 
 him unheeded. 
 
 The childhood and youth of George Fox are thus 
 described by William Penn : — 
 
 " But from a child he appeared of another frame of 
 mind than the rest of his brethren : being more religious, 
 inward, still, solid and observing beyond his years, as 
 the answers he would give, and the questions he would 
 put upon occasion, manifested to the astonishment of 
 those that heard him, especially in divine things. 
 
 " His mother taking notice of his singular temper, 
 and the gravity, wisdom, and piety that very early 
 shined through him, refusing childish and vain sports 
 and company when very young, she was tender and 
 indulgent over him, so that from her he met with little 
 difficulty. As to his employment, he was brought up 
 in country business ; and as he took most delight in 
 sheep, so he was very skilful in them ; an employment 
 

 
 18 GEORGE FOX 
 
 that very well suited his mind in several respects, both 
 from its innocency and solitude; and was a just figure 
 of his after ministry and service." 
 
 His own account of this period of his life is given in 
 these words : — 
 
 " In my very young years I had a gravity and stayed- 
 ness of mind and spirit not usual in children ; insomuch 
 that when I saw old men carry themselves lightly and 
 wantonly towards each other, I had a dislike thereof 
 raised in my heart, and said within myself, ' If ever I 
 come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so 
 wanton.' 
 
 " When I came to eleven years of age, I knew pure- 
 ness and righteousness ; for while I was a child I was 
 taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught 
 me to be faithful in all things, and to act faithfully two 
 ways, viz. inwardly to God, and outwardly to man ; and 
 to keep to Yea and Nay in all things. For the Lord 
 showed me, that though the people of the world have 
 mouths full of deceit, and changeable words, yet I was 
 to keep to Yea and Nay in all things; and that my 
 words should be few and savoury, seasoned with grace ; 
 and that I might not eat and drink to make myself 
 wanton, but for health, using the creatures in their 
 service, as servants in their places, to the glory of Him 
 that hath created them ; they being in their covenant, 
 and I being brought into the covenant, and sanctified 
 by the Word which was in the beginning by which all 
 things are upheld ; wherein is unity with the creation. 
 
 " But people being strangers to the covenant of life 
 with God, they eat and drink to make themselves 
 wanton with the creatures, wasting them upon their 
 own lusts, and living in all filthiness, loving foul ways,
 
 EARLY LIFE 19 
 
 and devouring the creation ; and all this in the world, 
 in the pollutions thereof, without God ; therefore I was 
 to shun all such. 
 
 " Afterwards, as I grew up, my relations thought to 
 make me a priest, but others persuaded to the contrary : 
 whereupon I was put to a man that was a shoemaker 
 by trade, and that dealt in wool, and used grazing, and 
 sold cattle ; and a great deal went through my hands. 
 While I was with him, he was blessed ; but after I left 
 him he broke, and came to nothing. I never wronged 
 man or woman in all that time ; for the Lord's power 
 was with me, and over me to preserve me. While I 
 was in that service, I used in my dealings the word 
 Verily, and it was a common saying among the people 
 that knew me, ' If George says Verily, there is no 
 altering him.' When boys and rude people would laugh 
 at me, I let them alone, and went my way ; but people 
 had generally a love to me for my innocency and 
 honesty." 
 
 Fox's autobiography constantly reminds us of the 
 experiences of his contemporary John Bunyan, whether 
 as described in G^'ace Abounding, or as allegorized in 
 Pilgrims Progress ; and yet the relation between them 
 is more often one of contrast than of similarity. Thus 
 here his spiritual life does not begin with that intense 
 self-loathing, that agony in the thought of unforgiven 
 sin, which is the keynote of Bunyan's early experience. 
 Fox does not feel that he is born in the City of 
 Destruction, nor does he begin his journey with a 
 heavy burden on his back which will roll off at the 
 sight of the Cross ; yet all the same he is a pilgrim, 
 and a very ardent one, and he will have as little 
 sympathy with Vanity Fair, and will suffer as much
 
 20 GEORGE FOX 
 
 for his testimony against its wickedness as Bunyan's 
 Cliristian himself. " When I came towards nineteen 
 years of age," he continues, " being upon business at a 
 fair, one of my cousins, whose name was Bradford, a 
 professor,^ and having another professor with him, 
 came to me, and asked me to drink part of a jug of 
 beer with them; and I being thirsty, went in with 
 them, for I loved any that had a sense of good, or that 
 did seek after the Lord, When we had drunk a glass 
 apiece, they began to drink healths, and called for more 
 drink, agreeing together that he that would not drink 
 should pay all. I was grieved that any that made 
 profession of religion should do so. They grieved me 
 very much, having never had such a thing put to me 
 before by any sort of people, wherefore I rose up to go, 
 and putting my hand into my pocket I took out a 
 groat, and laid it upon the table before them, and said, 
 ' If it be so, I will leave you.' So I went away, and 
 when I had done what business I had to do, I returned 
 home, but did not go to bed that night, nor could I 
 sleep, but sometimes walked up and down, and some- 
 times prayed and cried to the Lord, who said unto me, 
 * Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, 
 and old people into the earth ; thou must forsake all, 
 both young and old, and keep out of all, 'and be a 
 stranger unto all.' " 
 
 Though not struggling under the burden of unforgiven 
 sin. Fox, in these years of dawning manhood, was made 
 miserable by the thought of the evil of the world around 
 him. Perhaps, notwithstanding the absence of all 
 allusion to political events, the miseries and distractions 
 
 * This word " professor," which is of frequent occurrence in Fox's 
 Jmirnal, may be taken as practically equivalent to Puritan.
 
 EARLY LIFE 21 
 
 of the great Civil War struck their own harshly jarring 
 note on the Divine harmony for which he longed. At 
 this, as well as some later periods of his career, his 
 words remind us of the utterances of a man of Avhom 
 he probably never heard — Girolamo Savonarola. At 
 the age of nineteen Savonarola was seeking solitude, 
 was composing his poem on the Ruin of the World, had 
 ever on his lips the Virgilian line — 
 
 " Heu ! fuge crudeles terras, fuge littus avarum ;" 
 
 and three years later his depression and despair drove 
 him into the cloister, his treatise De Contemptu Mundi 
 being the only legacy left to comfort his sorrowing 
 father for the wreck of the ambitious hopes which had 
 gathered round this favourite son. 
 
 To Fox the shelter of the convent was of course not 
 accessible, but he broke off his intercourse with his 
 family as completely as if he had turned monk. His 
 narrative proceeds — " Then at the command of God, on 
 the ninth day of the seventh month 1643, I left my 
 relations, and broke off all familiarity or fellowship with 
 old or young." For the next three or four years he seems 
 to have led a wanderinor life, movinsj about throusfh the 
 home counties, but spending several months at Barnet, 
 and afterwards in London. At Barnet, when he was walk- 
 ing solitary in Enfield Chace, the temptation to despair 
 came over him. He thought that his fear of desertion 
 by God might be a judgment upon him for leaving his 
 relations, but he was comforted in the thought that 
 even Christ was also tempted. The " great professors " 
 of London could not help him, nor yet could an uncle 
 of his who belonged to the Baptist community, though, 
 as he says, " they were tender then." He returned into
 
 92 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 Leicestershire, and his relations, fearing probably for 
 his reason, urged him to marrv, " but I told them I was 
 but a lad and must get wisdom. Others would have 
 had me into the auxihary band among the soldiery " 
 (we have now reached 1645, the year of the battle of 
 ^Naseby), " but I refused : and I was grieved that they 
 profifered such things to me being a tender youth. Then 
 I went to Coventry, where I took a chamber for a while 
 at a professor's house, till people began to be acquainted 
 with me; for there were many tender people in that 
 town." We are already making acquaintance with this 
 word " tender," which is a favourite expression of Fox's 
 throughout the Journal , denoting, not delicacv of the 
 physical frame, for he and his disciples endured hard- 
 ships which might break down the strongest constitu- 
 tion, but delicacy of spiritual perception, unwillingness 
 to be satisfied with the polemical theology of the 
 ordinary Puritan — a desire to get into communion with 
 the Spirit of the Eternal One, and to learn His will. 
 He returned to his native village, and now at length, if 
 not before, had some converse with the parson of his 
 parish, and with some of the neighbouring divines about 
 the state of his soul. To quote again from the Journal : 
 " The priest of Drayton, the town of my birth, whose 
 name was Nathaniel Stevens {sic), came often to me, 
 and I went often to him ; and another priest sometimes 
 came with him ; and they would give place to me to 
 hear me, and I would ask them questions, and reason 
 with them. And this priest Stevens asked me a 
 question, viz. Why Christ cried out upon the cross, 
 ' My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? 
 and why He said, ' If it be possible, let this cup pass 
 from Me ; yet not My will, but Thine be done ' ? I
 
 EARLY LIFE i3 
 
 told him that at that time the sins of all manlriivl 
 were upon Him, and their iniquities and transgresBioiis 
 with which He was wounded, which He was to bear, 
 and to be an offering for, as He was man, but He died 
 not, as He was God : and so, in that He died for aR 
 men, and tasted death for every man, He was an 
 offering for the sins of the whole world. This I sp:;ke, 
 being at that time in a measure sensible of Christ's 
 sufferings and what He went through. And the priest 
 said, ' It was a very good, full answer, and such a one 
 as he had not heard.' At that time he would applaud 
 and speak highly of me to others; and what I said in 
 discourse to him on the week-days, that he would preach 
 on the first-days, for which I did not like him. This 
 priest afterwards became my great persecutor. 
 
 "After this I went to another ancient priest at 
 Mancetter in Warwickshire, and reasoned with him 
 about the groimd of despair and temptations ; but he 
 was iornorant of mv con<lition : he bid me take 
 tobacco and sing psalms. Tobacco was a thing I did 
 not love, and psalms I was not in a state to sing; I 
 could not sing. Then he bid me come again, and he 
 would tell me many things : but when I came he was 
 angry and pettish, for my former words had displeased 
 him. He told my troubles, sorrows, and griefs to his 
 servants, so that it was got among the milk-lasses ; 
 which grieved me that I should open my mind to such 
 a one. I saw they were all miserable comforters, and 
 this brought my troubles more upon me. Then I 
 heard of a priest living about Tamworth, who was 
 accounted an experienced man, and I went seven miles 
 to him ; but I found him only like an empty, hollow 
 cask. I heard also of one called Dr. Cradc'ck, of
 
 24 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Coventry, and went to him ; I asked him the ground 
 of temptations and despair, and how troubles came to 
 be wrought in man ? He asked me. Who was Christ's 
 father and mother ? I told him, Mary was His mother, 
 and that He was supposed to be the son of Joseph, but 
 He was the son of God. Now as we were walking 
 together in his garden, the alley being narrow, I 
 chanced, in turning, to set my foot on the side of a bed, 
 at which the man was in a rage as if his house had 
 been on fire. Thus all our discourse was lost, and I 
 went away in sorrow, worse than I was when I came. 
 I thought them miserable comforters, and saw they 
 were all as nothing to me ; for they could not reach 
 my condition. After this I went to another, one 
 Macham, a priest in high account.^ He would needs 
 give me some physic, and I was to have been let 
 blood ; but they could not get one drop of blood from 
 me, either in arms or head (though they endeavoured 
 
 ^ " This Macham, a priest in high account," seems to have been 
 a man of George Fox's own age — John Machin (1624 — 1664), of 
 whom there is a long account in Calamy's Ejected Ministers. He 
 was born in 1624, educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and 
 ordained in 1644. HecametoAtherstone as lecturer in 1652. We 
 should be naturally disposed to connect the entry in the Journal 
 with this part of Machin' s career, as Atherstone is only a few miles 
 from Fenny Drayton ; but if so it must be mentioned by Fox 
 out of its chronological order. Machin went from Atherstone 
 into Cheshire in 1654. At the Restoration he held the living 
 of Whitley in that county, and was ejected from it on St, 
 Bartholomew's Day, " And hardly any one bore his ejectment 
 with less reflection upon superiors, or with more grief for so sad 
 a dispensation. The neighbouring gentry, convinced of his 
 integrity, and the peaceableness of his spirit, gave him no 
 molestation. Several of his old neighbours going to see him, he 
 dropped the words, ' Ah ! my friends ! I never lived since 
 I died,' His death happening soon after, viz, September 6, 1664, 
 made them conclude that being silenced broke his heart. He 
 was not above forty years of age,''
 
 EARLY LIFE 25 
 
 it), my body being, as it were, dried up with sorrows, 
 grief, and troubles, which were so great upon me that 
 I could have wished I had never been born, or that I 
 had been born blind, that I might never have seen 
 wickedness or vanity ; and deaf, that I might never 
 have heard vain and wicked words, or the Lord's name 
 blasphemed. When the time called Christmas came, 
 while others were feasting and sporting themselves, 
 I looked out poor widows from house to house, and 
 gave them some money. When I was invited to 
 marriages (as I sometimes was), I went to none at all, 
 but the next day, or soon after, I would go and visit 
 them ; and if they were poor, I gave them some money ; 
 for I had wherewith both to keep myself from being 
 chargeable to others, and to administer something to 
 the necessities of others." 
 
 In the year 1646 the spiritual conflict grows lighter, 
 and he seems to have a clearer perception of a distinct 
 Divine call to his own soul, making him independent 
 of such helpers as "priest Stevens" or Dr. Cradock. 
 He has, as he terms it, " great openings." 
 
 " As I was walking in a field on a first day [Sunday] 
 morning, the Lord opened unto me, that being bred 
 at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit or 
 qualify men to be ministers of Christ, and I wondered 
 at it, because it was the common belief of people. But 
 I saw it clearly as the Lord opened it to me, and was 
 satisfied, and admired the goodness of the Lord, who 
 had opened this thing unto me that morning." He 
 feels that this strikes at " priest Stevens's" ministry, and 
 to the great trouble of his relations he will no longer 
 go with them to hear the priest, but wanders through 
 the fields or the orchard alone with his Bible.
 
 26 GEORGE FOX 
 
 At another time it is " opened " to him, " That God, 
 who made the world, did not dwell in temples made 
 with hands." This seems to him a strange word, 
 because both priests and people used to call their 
 temples or churches dreadful places, holy ground, and 
 the temple of God. It is in consequence of this 
 "opening," and from a feeling that the word Church 
 denotes a spiritual reality, and should not be applied 
 to any building, that he from this time forward, with 
 scrupulous persistency, calls the edifices set apart for 
 public worship, not churches, but " steeple-houses." 
 
 All this new development, of course, brings him into 
 collision with his former friend and counsellor "priest 
 Stevens," who, while he is walking in the fields, comes 
 to the house of his relations to inquire after him, and 
 tells them that he is afraid of George for going after 
 new lights. " At this," he says, *' I smiled in myself, 
 knowing what the Lord had opened in me concerning 
 him and his brethren, but I told not my relations, who, 
 though they saw beyond the priests, yet they went to 
 hear them, and were grieved because I would not go 
 also. But I brought them Scriptures, and told them 
 there was an anointing within man to teach him, and 
 that the Lord would teach His people Himself." 
 
 After these " openings " about clergymen and churches 
 he tells us that he regarded the priests (the Presbyterian 
 clergy of the Church of England) less, and looked more 
 after " the Dissenting people." 
 
 " Among them I saw there was some tenderness ; and 
 many of them came afterwards to be convinced, for 
 they had some openings. But as I had forsaken the 
 priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those 
 called the most experienced people; for I saw there
 
 EATILY LIFE 27 
 
 was none among them all that could speak to my 
 condition. When all my hopes in them and in all men 
 were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, 
 nor could I tell what to do : then, O ! then I heard a 
 voice which said, ' Tliere is one, even Christ Jesus, that 
 can speak to thy condition ; ' and when I heard it, my 
 heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord let me see why 
 there was none upon the earth that could speak to my 
 condition, namely, that I might give Him all the glory ; 
 for all arc concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief, 
 as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre- 
 eminence, who enlightens, aud gives grace, faith, and 
 power. Thus when God doth work, who shall let it ? 
 and this I knew experimentally. My desires after the 
 Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of 
 God, and of Christ alone, without the help of any man, 
 book, or writing. For though I read the Scriptures, 
 that spoke of Christ and of God, yet I knew Him not, 
 but by revelation, as He who hath the key did open, 
 and as the Father of Life drew me to His Son by His 
 Spirit. Then the Lord gently led me along, and let 
 me see His love, which was endless and eternal, sur- 
 passing all the knowledge that men have in the natural 
 state, or can get by history or books ; and that love let 
 me see myself, as I was without Him. I was afraid of 
 all company, for I saw them perfectly where they were, 
 through the love of God, which let me see myself. I 
 had not fellowship with any people, priests, or pro- 
 fessors, or any sort of separated people, but with Christ, 
 who hath the key, and opened the door of Light and 
 Life unto me." 
 
 Another of his "openings" seems to have been in 
 antagonism to the narrowness of the religious teaching
 
 28 GEOKGE FOX 
 
 of the day, Reformers and Catholics alike practically 
 denying to one another the possibility of salvation. 
 
 "About the beginning of the year 1646, as I was 
 going to Coventry, and approaching towards the gate, a 
 consideration arose in me, how it was said, that ' all 
 Christians are believers, both Protestants and Papists ' ; 
 and the Lord opened to me that, if all were believers, 
 then they were all born of God, and passed from death 
 unto life ; and that none were true believers but such ; 
 and though others said they were believers, yet they 
 were not." 
 
 It is important to bear this saying of Fox's in mind, 
 for it strikes the keynote of much of his later teaching. 
 Harsh and intolerant as many of his utterances seem, 
 they are directed against insincerity and hypocrisy (real 
 or supposed), rather than against doctrinal views differ- 
 ing from his own. Toward the Roman Catholics 
 especially the attitude of Fox and his followers seems 
 always to have been more friendly than that of the 
 other Protestant sects, notwithstanding the hopeless 
 divergence of their religious teaching. It is thus not 
 altogether surprising that they were often accused of 
 being Papists in disguise : and even William Penn's 
 friendly response at a later day to the advances of 
 James II., and his willingness to accept toleration at 
 his hands, though not approved of by the majority of 
 his brethren, were not altogether inconsistent with this 
 earliest attitude of Quakerism. 
 
 Another point which may be noticed in this narrative 
 of Fox's early years, is his extraordinary silence as to 
 those who were most nearly connected with him by blood. 
 After those fev/ opening sentences in tlie Journal, we hear 
 nothing more about his parents; and the "relations"
 
 EARLY LIFE 29 
 
 who have been slightly alluded to in the extracts 
 already quoted, are mere shadowy forms to us, even the 
 degree of their relationship to the Avriter not being 
 stated. Something like this appears to have been the 
 mood of mind in which most of the early Friends 
 looked back upon their old homes, and on those who 
 had once inhabited them. They have themselves 
 passed through the Red Sea, and care not to ask or to 
 tell of what may have happened in the land of Egypt. 
 Thus it comes to pass that, with very few exceptions, 
 the pedigrees of modern Quaker families go up to the 
 middle of the seventeenth century and there stop. 
 There is generally full and precise information up to 
 the first member of the family who was a Quaker, and 
 beyond that all is a blank. 
 
 These years between 1643 and 1647 are evidently 
 the formative period of his spiritual character — years 
 undoubtedly of great sadness and struggle. " I cannot 
 declare," he says, " the misery I was in, it was so great 
 and heavy upon me ; " but the trial seems to have been 
 bravely borne, and we have no hint of any of those 
 suggestions of suicide which are so frequent in cases of 
 religious melancholia. In the history of most of the men 
 who have exercised a powerful influence on the souls of 
 their fellow-men, there has generally been a time of 
 depression like that through which Fox was now 
 passing. As the Apostle Paul says, '* Knowing there- 
 fore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men ; " and it 
 is perhaps necessary that those spirits which will be 
 broucrht often into fierce collision with " the rulers 
 of the darkness of this world," should have passed 
 through a time of mental strife and agony, which 
 makes all the mere bodily sufferings and hardships
 
 30 GEORGE FOX 
 
 that they will have afterwards to endure seem light 
 in comparison. 
 
 Nor was his sky all dark even in this time of trial. 
 As he could not declare the misery, so neither could he 
 set forth the mercies of God to him in all his misery. 
 He "sees the great love of God, and is filled with 
 admiration at the infiniteness of it " : when he returns 
 home after a solitary walk he is " wi'apped up in the 
 love of God, so that I could not but admire the great- 
 ness of His love." 
 
 " While I was in that condition, it was opened unto 
 me by the eternal light and power, and I therein 
 clearly saw ' that all was done, and to be done, in and 
 by Christ; and how He conquers and destroys this 
 tempter, the devil, and all his works, and is a-top of 
 him ; and that all these troubles were good for me, and 
 temptations for the trial of my faith, which Christ had 
 given me.' The Lord opened me, that I saw through 
 all these troubles and temptations; my living faith 
 was raised, that I saw all was done by Christ, the Life, 
 and my belief was in Him. When at any time my 
 condition was veiled, my secret belief was stayed firm, 
 and hope underneath held me, as an anchor in the 
 bottom of the sea, and anchored my immortal soul to 
 its Bishop, causing it to swim above the sea, the world, 
 where all the raging waves, foul weather, tempests and 
 temptations are. But oh ! then did I see my troubles, 
 trials, and temptations more clearly than ever I had 
 done. As the light appeared, all appeared that is out 
 of the light ; darkness, death, temptations, the un- 
 righteous, the ungodly, all was manifest and seen in 
 the light. After this, a pure fire appeared in me ; then 
 I saw how He sat as a refiner's fire, and as fullers' soap ;
 
 EARLY LIFE 31 
 
 then the spiritual discerning came into me, by which I 
 did discern my own thoughts, groans, and sighs; and 
 what it was that veiled mo, and what it was that 
 opened me. That which could not abide in the patience, 
 nor endure the fire, in the light I found it to be the 
 groans of the flesh, that could not give up to the will of 
 God, which had so veiled me, that I could not be 
 patient in all trials, troubles, and anguishes and per- 
 plexities ; could not give up self to die by the cross, the 
 power of God, that the living and quickened might 
 follow Him ; and that that which would cloud and veil 
 from the presence of Christ, that which the sword of 
 the Spirit cuts down, and which must die, might not be 
 kept alive." 
 
 While he is in this seething condition of soul, he is 
 tremulously sensitive to the spiritual phenomena of those 
 years of national excitement and unrest. He hears of a 
 woman in Lancashire that had fasted two-and-twenty 
 days, and he travels to see her ; " but when I came to 
 her I saw that she was under temptation. When I 
 had spoken to her what I had from the Lord, I left 
 her, her father being one high in profession. Passing 
 on, I went among the professors at Duckingfield and 
 Manchester, where I stayed awhile, and declared truth 
 among them. Tliere were some convinced, who received 
 the Lord's teaching, by which they were confirmed and 
 stood in the truth. But the professors were in a rage, 
 all pleading for sin and imperfection, and could not 
 endure to hear talk of perfection, and of a holy and 
 sinless life. But the Lord's power was over all ; though 
 they were chained under darkness and sin, which they 
 pleaded for, and quenched the tender thing in them." 
 
 On the whole, the spiritual history of these years
 
 32 GEORGE FOX 
 
 of struggle seems to be best described by some words 
 which come near their close. He has had shown to 
 him by the Lord " the natures of those things which 
 were hurtful without, [but] were [really] within in the 
 hearts and minds of wicked men : the natures of dogs, 
 swine, vipers, of Sodom and Egypt, Pharaoh, Cain, 
 Ishmael, Esau, etc," Then he goes on — 
 
 " I cried to the Lord, saying, ' Why should I be thus, 
 seeing I was never addicted to commit those evils ? ' 
 and the Lord answered, ' That it was needful I should 
 have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak 
 to all conditions ! ' and in this I saw the infinite love of 
 God. I saw also, that there was an ocean of darkness 
 and death ; but an infinite ocean of light and love, 
 which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that 
 also I saw the infinite love of God, and I had great 
 openings."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 fox's message 
 
 The spiritual conflicts described in the last chapter 
 having come to an end, external conflicts took their place. 
 The militant preacher replaces the solitary searcher after 
 truth. About the year 1648 Fox seems to have begun 
 that series of missionary journeys which, except for his 
 long intervals of imprisonment, may be said to have lasted 
 for the rest of his life. He went sometimes on foot, 
 sometimes on horseback, and though he occasionally 
 speaks of himself as sleeping under a haystack, he 
 does not appear to have ever lacked money for his 
 simple travelling expenses. How far his parents and 
 family sympathized with him in his work it is not easy 
 to ascertain, but at any rate they seem always to have 
 supplied him with what was needful for his main- 
 tenance. Of the personal appearance of the young 
 preacher at this time we do not hear much, but from 
 the words long afterwards applied to him by Ellwood 
 (" graceful he was in countenance, manly in personage "), 
 we may suppose that in his early manhood he was " a 
 personable man." His attire was simple, but what 
 seems most to have impressed the beholders was not 
 its shape but its material. " It is indeed true," says 
 the Quaker historian Sewel, " what a certain author, 
 
 33 D
 
 ^4 GEORGE FOX 
 
 viz. Gerard Croese, relates of him, that he was clothed 
 with leather ; but not, as the said author adds, because 
 he could not or would not forget his former leather- 
 work : but it was partly for the simplicity of that dress, 
 and also because such a clothing was strong, and needed 
 but little mending or repairing, which was commodious 
 for him who had no steady dwelling-place, and every- 
 where in his travelling about sought to live in a lonely 
 state." ^ Carlyle, in a well-known passage in Sartor 
 Resartus, indulges in a fine burst of rhapsodical de- 
 clamation over these leathern garments, but it does not 
 appear that Fox himself, or his contemporaries, con- 
 sidered that there was anything extraordinary in his 
 choosing skin rather than wool for the material of his 
 clothing. His only allusion to it I believe is contained 
 in one passage, in which he says, " The Lord's everlasting 
 power was over the world, and reached to the hearts of 
 people, and made both priests and professors tremble. 
 It shook the earthly and airy spirit in which they held 
 their profession of religion and worship, so that it was 
 a dreadful thing unto them when it was told them, 
 ' The man in leather breeches is come.' " 
 
 Let us consider what were the cardinal truths which 
 George Fox, setting forth on his missionary journeys, 
 believed himself commissioned to proclaim. 
 
 1. First and foremost the doctrine of the "Inward 
 Light." — " I saw that Christ died for all men, and was 
 a propitiation for all, and enlightened all men and 
 women with His divine and saving light, and that none 
 could be a true believer but who also believed in it. I 
 saw that the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, 
 has appeared to all men, and that the manifestation 
 
 1 Hist of Society of Friends, i. 33 (Ed. 1833).
 
 FOX'S MESSAGE 35 
 
 of the Spirit of God was given to every man to profit 
 withal. These things I did not see by the help of 
 man, nor by the letter, though they are written in the 
 letter, but I saw them in the light of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and by His immediate spirit and power, as did 
 the holy men of God by whom the Holy Scriptures 
 were written. . . . With and by this divine power and 
 Spirit of God, and the light of Jesus, I was to bring 
 people off from their own ways to Christ, the new and 
 living way : and from their churches which men had 
 made and gathered, to the Church in God, the general 
 assembly written in heaven, which Christ is the head 
 of. . . . And I was to bring people off from all the 
 world's religions, which are vain ; that they might 
 know the pure religion, might visit the fatherless, the 
 widows, and the strangers, and keep themselves from 
 the spots of the world. Then there would not be so 
 many beggars, the sight of whom often grieved my 
 heart, as it denoted so much hard-heartedness amongst 
 them that professed the name of Christ. I was to 
 bring them off from all the world's fellowships, and 
 prayings, and singings, which stood in forms without 
 power ; that their fellowship might be in the Holy 
 Ghost and in the Eternal Spirit of God; that they 
 might pray in the Holy Ghost, and sing in the SjDirit 
 and with the grace that comes by Jesus. . . . 
 
 " I was to bring people off from Jewish ceremonies 
 and from heathenish fables, and from men's inventions 
 and windy doctrines, by which they blew the people 
 about this way and the other way, from sect to sect ; 
 and [from] all their beggarly rudiments, with their 
 schools and colleges for making ministers of Christ, 
 who are indeed ministers of their own making, but not
 
 86 GEORGE FOX 
 
 of Christ's ; and from all their images and crosses, and 
 sprinkling of infants, with all their holy days (so 
 called), and all their vain traditions which they had 
 instituted since the apostles' days, which the Lord's 
 power was against ; in the dread and authority of 
 which, I was moved to declare against them all, and 
 against all that preached not freely, as being such as 
 had not received freely from Christ." ^ 
 
 It may be inferred from this and similar passages that 
 though the " Inward Light " is the main article of Fox's 
 preaching, many other things, the disuse of sacraments, 
 the abandonment of a liturgy, silent worship, unpaid 
 ministry, are all in his mind necessary consequences 
 of that doctrine. 
 
 2. Christian Perfection. — As has been said, the domi- 
 nant teaching in Fox's earlier years was Calvinist ; and 
 Calvinism, especially in the mouths of the " professors " 
 who had taken it up from worldly motives, had ever a 
 tendency to slide down into Antinomianism. Much of 
 Fox's preaching was directed against these doctrines, 
 against what he called " pleading for sin," and towards 
 the possibility of attaining a state of Christian perfection. 
 "While I was in prison," he says (at Derby), "divers 
 professors came to discourse with me, and I had a sense 
 before they spoke that they came to plead for sin and 
 imperfection. I asked them, 'Whether they were be- 
 lievers and had faith ? ' and they said, ' Yes,' I asked 
 them, ' In whom ? ' and they said, ' In Christ.' I 
 replied, * If ye are true believers in Christ, you are 
 passed from death unto life, and if passed from death, 
 then from sin that bringeth death. And if your faith 
 be true, it will give you victory over sin and the devil, 
 
 ' I. 37.
 
 FOX'S MESSAGE 37 
 
 purify your hearts and consciences (for the true faith 
 is held in a pure conscience), and bring you to please 
 God, and give you access to Him again.' But they could 
 not endure to hear of purity, and of victory over sin and 
 the devil ; for they said iuey could not believe that any 
 could be free from sin on this side the grave. I bid 
 them give over babbliug about the Scriptures, which were 
 holy men's words, whilst they pleaded for unholiness." ^ 
 
 But these discussions on the higher points of the 
 Christian life, and even the disuse of sacraments, might 
 possibly, in that age of unscttlement and debate, have 
 failed to brinor Fox and his friends into collision with 
 the ruling powers. The two points of practice which 
 perpetually brought them into conflict with the author- 
 ities, and which more than anything else caused them 
 to spend years of their lives in the detestable prisons 
 of seventeenth-century England, were their scruples 
 about oaths and " hat-worship." 
 
 3. Judicial swearing as well as profane sivearing, are 
 in Fox's vieiv forbidden by Christ. — As he expressed it 
 in a short paper which was meant to be handed to the 
 mao-istiates, " The world saith, ' Kiss the book,' but the 
 book saith, ' Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.' And the 
 Son saith, ' Swear not at all, but keep to Yea and Nay 
 in all your communications, for whatsoever is more than 
 this cometh of evil.' " ^ 
 
 Again in 1G65, when Fox was in prison at Scarbro', 
 Dr. Cradock came with a great company, and asked 
 him, " What he was in prison for ? " "I told him, ' for 
 obeying the command of Christ and the apostle in not 
 swearing. But if he, being both a doctor and a justice 
 of the peace, could convince me that after Christ and 
 
 1 I. 56. 2 I.. 521.
 
 38 GEORGE FOX 
 
 the apostle had forbidden swearing, they commanded 
 Christians to swear, then I would swear. Here was 
 the Bible/ I told him, ' he might if he could show me 
 any such command.' The Doctor quoted the text, 
 'Ye shall swear in truth and righteousness.' 'Ay, 
 it was written so in Jeremiah's time, but that was 
 many ages before Christ commanded not to swear 
 at all ; but where is it written so, since Christ forbade 
 all swearing ? I could bring as many instances for 
 swearing out of the Old Testament as thou, and it may 
 be more ; but of what force are they to prove swearing 
 lawful in the New Testament, since Christ and the 
 apostle had forbade it ? '" 
 
 The English State and the followers of George Fox 
 have long ago agreed to a compromise on this question 
 of the oath. While the Church of England and the 
 great majority of Englishmen hold in all good faith 
 that it was not oaths in a court of justice, but profane 
 swearing, which Jesus Christ meant to prohibit, they 
 recognize that the disciples of Fox in equal good faith 
 hold an opposite opinion, and that, like the " verily " of 
 the first Quaker, the simple affirmation of his followers 
 is a sufficient guarantee for truthful evidence. Thus 
 not only the Quakers, but all persons who profess to 
 have a conscientious objection to taking an oath, are 
 now relieved from that obligation. But in the seven- 
 teenth century oath-taking was the very corner-stone 
 of the Commonwealth. Who were those " recusants " 
 whose partial toleration formed such a constant bone of 
 contention between Charles and his Parliaments ? who 
 but the Roman Catholics, who refused to take the oaths 
 of Supremacy and Abjuration? The Solemn League 
 and Covenant, sworn to by the Parliaments of England
 
 FOX'S MESSAGE 39 
 
 and Scotland, was in the eyes of the devout Preshyterian 
 the pledge of all the future happiness of both countries. 
 And so on throughout the political life of England, 
 oaths were exacted and relied upon to a far greater 
 degree than at the present day. In such a state of 
 things George Fox and his friends, steadily and obstin- 
 ately refusing to take any oath at all, were bound to 
 come into collision with the authorities. The fanatical 
 Protestant suspected them of being crypto- Catholics, 
 the Parliament-man believed that they were plotting to 
 brin<T in Kins Charles, the justices of Charles II., when 
 he was at length seated on the throne, suspected them 
 of being old Cromwellians ; anything and everything 
 mio'ht be believed of men who would on no account 
 attest their loyalty by an oath. 
 
 4. Hat-iuorship, as the new teachers called it, was 
 an even more fatal rock of offence than judicial 
 swearing, especially as along with it went the use of 
 the singular number in addressing a single person. 
 
 " Moreover," says Fox, " when the Lord sent me forth 
 into the world, He forbade me to put off my hat to any, 
 high or low ; and I was required to say Thee and Thou 
 to all men and women, without any respect to rich or 
 poor, great or small. And as I travelled up and down, 
 I was not to bid people Good-morrow, or Good-evening, 
 neither might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one, 
 and this made the sects and professions to rage, . . . 
 Oh ! the rage that then was in the priests, magistrates, 
 professors, and people of all sorts; but especially in 
 priests and professors ! — for though Thou to a single 
 person was according to their own learning, their acci- 
 dence and grammar rules, and according to the Bible, 
 yet they could not bear to hear it ; and as to the hat-
 
 40 GEORGE FOX 
 
 honour, because I could not put off my hat to them, it 
 set them all in a rage. 
 
 " Oh ! the rage and scorn, the heat and fury that arose ! 
 Oh ! the blows, punchings, beatings, and imprisonments 
 that we underwent for not putting off our hats to men ! 
 For that soon tried all men's patience and sobriety what 
 it was. Some had their hats violently plucked off and 
 thrown away, so that they quite lost them. The bad 
 lano-uasfe and evil usage we received on this account 
 are hard to be expressed, besides the danger we were 
 sometimes in of losing our lives for this matter, and 
 that by the great professors of Christianity, who thereby 
 discovered that they were not true believers." 
 
 Fox's own reason for objecting to this " hat-honour " 
 is that " it was an honour below, which the Lord would 
 lay in the dust and stain — an honour which proud men 
 looked for who sought not the honour which came 
 from God only ; an honour invented by men in the fall, 
 and in the alienation from God, who were offended if 
 it were not given them, and yet they would be looked 
 upon as saints. Church members, and great Christians." 
 The reason generally alleged by the later Friends, that the 
 removal of the covering of the head is a sign of reverence 
 to God, which ought not to be rendered to any of His 
 creatures, seems to be an afterthought ; at least I do 
 not find it brought forward in Fox's Journal. 
 
 The whole matter certainly now seems to belong to 
 the category of the Infinitely Little ; but, as we well 
 know, it is even yet a point of honour with all judges 
 and magistrates that no one shall remain covered in 
 their presence. In pictures of the trial of King Charles 
 I., botli the royal prisoner and his judges are seen 
 asserting their dignity by wearing their hats, and the
 
 FOX'S MESSAGE 41 
 
 clerks of the court arc the only persons who are happily 
 free from the ugly incumbrance. Thus, while Fox's 
 scruple was without doubt a genuine one, and was 
 partly caused by the ceremonious bowings and scrapings 
 which were the fashion of his day, there was in this 
 scruple also a fruitful source of dispute with the magis- 
 trates before whom he was brought, some of whom 
 under the Commonwealth were probably men lately 
 raised to the bench, and on that account all the more 
 tenacious of their " brief authority." 
 
 5. Lastly, in this confessedly incomplete catalogue 
 of the characteristic points in George Fox's teaching 
 must come his great testimony/ against the laiofulncss of 
 war far Christian men. In this position he was equally 
 at variance with the 37th Article of Religion agreed 
 upon in the Convocation of the Clergy of the Church of 
 Ena;land,i and with the beliefs of that wonderful " New 
 Model " Puritan army, who, with the high praises of 
 God in their mouths, and with a two-edged sword in 
 their hands, had hewn down a monarchy that had 
 stood for eight centuries. 
 
 The Quaker " testimony against all war " has since 
 Fox's time been buttressed by all manner of arguments, 
 social, political, economical, to which he and most of 
 his immediate disciples were strangers. It will be well, 
 therefore, to quote a few sentences from his Journal, to 
 show how it shaped itself in the mind of its first apostle. 
 
 " Now the time of my commitment to the House of 
 Correction [in 1650] being very near out, and there 
 being many new soldiers raised, the commissioners would 
 have made me captain over them; and the soldiers 
 
 ^ " It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the 
 magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in the wars."
 
 42 GEORGE FOX 
 
 cried, they would have none but me. So the keeper of 
 the House of Correction was commanded to bring me 
 before the commissioners and soldiers in the market- 
 place ; and there they offered that preferment, as they 
 called it, asking me if I would not take up arms for the 
 Commonwealth against Charles Stuart ? I told them, I 
 knew from whence all wars did arise, even from the 
 lust, according to James's doctrine ; and that I lived in 
 the virtue of that life and power that took away the 
 occasion of all wars. But they courted me to accept of 
 their offer, and thought I did but compliment them. 
 But I told them I was come into the covenant of peace, 
 which was before wars and strifes were. They said 
 they offered it in love and kindness to me because of 
 my virtue ; and such-like flattering words they used. 
 But I told them, if that was their love and kindness, I 
 trampled it under my feet. Then their rage got up, 
 and they said, 'Take him away, gaoler, and put him 
 into the dungeon amongst the rogues and felons.' So I 
 was had away, and put into a lousy, stinking place, 
 without any bed, amongst thirty felons, where I was 
 kept almost half a year, unless it were at times ; for 
 they would sometimes let me walk in the garden, 
 
 having a belief that I would not go away 
 
 " Now the time of Worcester fight coming on [3rd 
 September, 1651], Justice Bennet sent the constables to 
 press me for a soldier, seeing I would not voluntarily 
 accept of a command. I told them I was brought off 
 from outward wars. They came down again to give me 
 
 press-money, but I would accept none After a 
 
 while the constables brought me before the commis- 
 sioners, who said I should go for a soldier, but I told 
 them I was dead to it. They said I was alive. I told
 
 FOX'S MERSAOE 43 
 
 them, where envy and hatred are there is confusion." 
 The end of the matter was that he was put in closer 
 confinement (he was ah'eady in prison at Derby wliile 
 these discussions were going on), and from his dungeon 
 wrote a letter to Colonel Barton (who was also a preacher), 
 and the rest that were concerned in his commitment, 
 reminding them of the words of Christ, " Love your 
 enemies, and do good to them that hate you, and pray 
 for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." 
 
 Again, three years later, when Fox had been arrested 
 and carried up to London by order of Colonel Hacker (the 
 regicide), he was otfcrcd his liberty on the condition (often 
 demanded from disturbers of the public peace) that he 
 would promise not to bear arms against the Government. 
 
 " After Captain Drury had lodged me at the Mer- 
 maid ^ he left me there, and went to give the Protector 
 an account of me. When he came to me again, he told 
 me the Protector required that I should promise not to 
 take up a carnal sword or weapon against him or the 
 Government, as it then was, and I should write it in 
 what words I saw good, and set my hand to it. I said 
 little in reply to Captain Drury. But the next morning 
 I was moved of the Lord to write a paper to the 
 Protector, Oliver Cromwell, wherein I did in the pre- 
 sence of the Lord God declare that I denied [i. e. con- 
 demned] the wearing or drawing of a carnal sword or 
 any other outward weapon against him or any man ; 
 and that I was set of God to stand a witness against all 
 ^dolence, and against the works of darkness ; and to 
 turn people from darkness to light, and to bring them 
 from the causes of war and of fighting to the peaceable 
 gospel, and from being evil-doers, which the magistrates' 
 ^ Over iigainst tlie Mews at Cliarhig Cross.
 
 44 GEORGE FOX 
 
 swords should be a terror to. When I liad written 
 what the Lord had given me to write, I set my name to 
 it, and gave it to Captain Drury to hand to Oliver 
 Cromwell, which he did." 
 
 Six years later (1659), when the premature Royalist 
 insurrection of Sir George Booth had alarmed the nation 
 (now no longer ruled by the mighty Protector), " some 
 foolish and rash spirits," says Fox, " that came some- 
 times among us, were ready to take up arras ; but I was 
 moved of the Lord to warn and forbid them, and they 
 were quiet. In the time of the Committee of Safety 
 (so called) we were invited by them to take up arms, 
 and great places and commands were offered some of 
 us, but we denied [refused] them all, and declared 
 against it both by word and Avriting, testifying that 
 our weapons and armour were not carnal but spiritual." 
 In order more effectually to warn his followers. Fox put 
 forth a paper, exhorting them to take heed to " keep out 
 of the powers of the earth, that run into wars and 
 fightings, which make not for peace, but destroy it; 
 such will not have the kingdom. . . . Let Friends keep 
 out of other men's matters, and keep in that which 
 answers the witness in them all, out of the man's part, 
 where they must expect wars and dishonour." 
 
 Thus Fox's " testimony against war," though grounded 
 on Scripture, especially on the well-known passage in 
 Christ's Sermon on the Mount, was related, like all the 
 other articles of his teaching, to his one central doctrine 
 of the Inward Light. Wars and tumults, bloodshed, 
 and the hot spirit of the duellist and the swashbuckler, 
 belonged to " the unstaid state," " the carnal part," " the 
 bustlings of the world," and prevented men from listen- 
 ing to " that which answers the witness in them all."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: MIDLAND COUNTIES AND 
 
 YORKSHIRE 
 
 The first four years of Fox's missionary life (1648 — 
 1651) were spent chiefly in the midland counties and 
 Yorkshire. For some time he seems to have especially 
 frequented the county of Nottingham, and he was 
 described as " late of Mansfield in the County of Not- 
 tingham," in the mittimus under which he was com- 
 mitted to prison on October 30, 1650. It was during 
 these early years of his preaching that some of his most 
 characteristic and best-remembered spiritual adventures 
 took place. 
 
 1. One of these showed a remarkable sympathy with 
 the doubts and perplexities of a much later age. 
 
 " After this I returned into Nottinghamshire agfain, 
 and went into the Vale of Beavor. As I went I 
 preached repentance to the people ; and there were 
 many convinced in the Vale of Beavor, in many towns ; 
 for I stayed some weeks amongst them. One morning, 
 as I was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, 
 and a temptation beset me ; but I sat still. And it was 
 said, ' All things come by nature ; ' and the elements 
 and the stars came over me, so that I was in a manner 
 quite clouded with it. But as I sat still and said 
 nothing, the people of the house perceived nothing. 
 
 45
 
 46 GEORGE FOX 
 
 And as I sat still under it, and let it alone, a living 
 hope arose in me, and a true voice which said, ' There 
 is a living God, who made all things.' And immedi- 
 ately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life 
 rose over it all ; my heart was glad, and I praised the 
 living God. After some time, I met with some people 
 who had a notion that there was no God, but that all 
 things came by nature. I had a great dispute with 
 them, and overturned them, and made some of them 
 confess that there is a living God. Then I saw that it 
 was good that I had gone through that exercise." 
 
 It is interesting to note that in this passage Fox 
 unconsciously anticipates the phraseology of one of our 
 latest writers on the problems of a theistic faith. The 
 temptation with which the Leicestershire shepherd was 
 wrestling, was a temptation to what is generally spoken 
 of as Materialism. Mr. Balfour, in his Foundations of 
 Religious Belief, prefers to use the word " Naturalism," 
 and that is just the phrase which expresses the proposi- 
 tion that suggested itself to the mind of George Fox, 
 and over which his spirit triumphed—" All things come 
 by nature." 
 
 This incident has suggested to the great Quaker poet 
 of America one of his best and deepest utterances — 
 
 " Still, as of old in Beavor's vale, 
 
 man of God ! our hope and faith 
 The elements and stars assail, 
 
 And the awed spirit holds its breath, 
 Blown over by a wind of death. 
 ***** 
 Strange god of Force, with fear, not love 
 
 Its trembling worshippers ! can prayers 
 Keach the shut ear of Fate, or move 
 Unpitying Energy to spare 1 
 What doth the cosmic vastuess care? 
 *****
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS : MIDLAND COUNTIES 47 
 
 I pray for failli. I long to trust, 
 I listen with my heart, and hear 
 
 A voice without a sound. Be just, 
 Be true, be merciful ; revere 
 The Word within thee. God is near. 
 
 ^fZ 3fS 'fC *ft 3/C 
 
 joy supreme ! I know the Voice, 
 Like none beside in earth or sea. 
 
 Yea, more. O soul of mine, rejoice 
 By all that He requires of me : 
 I know what God Himself must be," 
 
 Thus " the Word within thee " is to Whittier, as to the 
 founder of the society to which he belonged, the power- 
 ful voice which drowns that other dread suggestion of 
 the Sadducean intellect, " All things come by nature." 
 It is immediately after his record of this battle with 
 a spiritual foe, that Fox describes some of his strivings 
 after a much humbler aim, the promotion of social peace 
 and justice between man and man. 
 
 "At a certain time when I was at Mansfield there 
 was a sitting of the justices about hiring of servants, 
 and it was upon me from the Lord to go and speak to 
 the justices, that they should not oppress the servants 
 in their wages. So I walked towards the inn where 
 they sat, but finding a company of fiddlers there I did 
 not go in, but thought to come in the morning, when I 
 might have a more serious opportunity to discourse 
 with them, not thinking that a seasonable time. But 
 Avhen I came again in the morning they were gone, 
 and I was struck even blind that I could not see. I 
 inquired of the innkeeper where the justices were to 
 sit that day, and he told me at a town eight miles off. 
 My sight began to come to me again, and I went and 
 ran thitherward as fast as I could. When I was come 
 to the house where they were, and many servants with
 
 48 GEORGE FOX 
 
 them, I exhorted the justices not to oppress the servants 
 in their wages, but to do that which was right and just 
 to them, and I exliorted the servants to do their duties, 
 and serve honestly, etc. They all received my exhorta- 
 tion kindly, for I was moved of the Lord therein." 
 
 2, It was apparently in the year 1649 that Fox under- 
 went his first imprisonment, the place of his confine- 
 ment beiug Nottingham, and the cause a protest against 
 what seemed to him an undue exaltation of the Scrip- 
 tures. His own account of the matter is as follows : — 
 
 " Now as I went towards Nottingham on a first-day 
 in the morning, with Friends to a meeting there, when 
 I came on the top of a hill in sight of the town I espied 
 the great steeple-house, and the Lord said unto me, 
 ' Thou must go cry against yonder great idol, and 
 against the worshippers therein.' So I said nothing 
 of this to the Friends that were with me, but went on 
 with them to the meeting, where the mighty power 
 of the Lord was amongst us ; in which I left Friends 
 sitting in the meeting, and I went away to the steeple- 
 house. When I came there all the people looked like 
 fallow ground, and the priest (like a great lump of 
 earth) stood in his pulpit above. He took for his text 
 these words of Peter, ' We have also a more sure word 
 of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, 
 as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the 
 day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.' And 
 he told the people that this was the Scriptures, by 
 which they were to try all doctrines, religions, and 
 opinions. Now the Lord's power was so mighty upon 
 me, and so strong in me, that I could not hold, but was 
 made to cry out and say, ' Oh no, it is not the Scrip- 
 tures ; ' and I told them what it was, namely, the Holy
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: MIDLAND COUNTIES 49 
 
 Spirit by which the holy men of God gave forth the 
 Scriptures, whereby opinions, religions, and judgments 
 were to be tried, for it led into all truth, and so gave 
 the knowledge of all trutli. The Jews had the Scrip- 
 tures, and yet resisted the Holy Ghost, and rejected 
 Christ, the bright morning-star. They persecuted 
 Christ and His apostles, and took upon them to try 
 their doctrines by the Scriptures, but erred in judgment, 
 and did not try them aright, because they tried without 
 the Holy Ghost. As I spake thus amongst them, the 
 officers came and took me away, and put me into a 
 nasty, stinking prison, the smell whereof got so into my 
 nose and throat that it very much annoyed me. 
 
 "But that day the Lord's power sounded so in their 
 ears, that they were amazed at the voice, and could not 
 get it out of their ears for some time after, they were so 
 reached by the Lord's power in the steeple-house. At 
 night they took me before the mayor, aldermen, and 
 sheriffs of the town, and when I was broug-ht before 
 them, the mayor was in a peevish, fretful temper, but 
 the Lord's power allayed him. They examined me at 
 large, and I told them how the Lord had moved me to 
 come. After some discourse between them and me, 
 they sent me back to prison again, but some time after 
 the head sheriff, whose name was John Reckless, sent 
 for me to his house. When I came in his wife met me 
 in the hall and said, ' Salvation is come to our house.' 
 She took me by the hand, and was much wrought upon 
 by the power of the Lord God; and her husband, and 
 children, and servants were much changed, for the 
 power of the Lord wrought upon them. I lodged at 
 the sheriff's, and great meetings we had in his house. 
 Some persons of considerable condition in the world 
 
 B
 
 50 GEORGE FOX 
 
 came to them, and the Lord's power appeared eminently 
 amongst them. This sheriff sent for the other sheriff, 
 and for a woman they had had deahngs with in the 
 way of trade ; and he told her before the other sheriff 
 that they had wronged her in their dealings with her 
 (for the other sheriff and he were partners), and that 
 they ought to make her restitution. This he spoke 
 cheerfully, but the other sheriff denied it, and the 
 woman said that she knew nothing of it. But the 
 friendly sheriff said it was so, and that the other knew 
 it well enough ; and having discovered the matter, and 
 acknowledged the wrong done by them, he made resti- 
 tution to the woman, and exhorted the other sheriff to 
 do the like. The Lord's power was with this friendly 
 sheriff, and wrought a mighty change in him, and great 
 openings he had. The next market day, as he was 
 walking with me in the chamber in his slippers, he 
 said, ' I must go into the market, and preach repentance 
 to the people,' and accordingly he went into the market, 
 and into several streets, and preached repentance to the 
 people. Several others also in the town were moved to 
 speak to the mayor and magistrates, and to the people, 
 exhorting them to repent. Hereupon the magistrates 
 grew very angry, and sent for me from the sheriff's 
 house, and committed me to the common prison. When 
 the assize came on, there was one moved to come and 
 offer up himself for me, body for body ; yea, life also ; 
 but when I should have been brought before the judge, 
 the sheriff's man being somewhat long in fetching me 
 to the sessions-house, the judge was risen before I 
 came. At which I understood the judge was somewhat 
 offended, and said 'he would have admonished the 
 youth if he had been brought before him,' for I was
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: MIDLAND COUNTIES 51 
 
 then imprisoned by the name of a youth. So I was 
 returned to prison again, and put into the common gaol. 
 The Lord's power was great among Friends, but the 
 people began to be very rude, wherefore the governor 
 of the castle sent down soldiers and dispersed them, 
 and after that they were quiet. But both priests and 
 people were astonished at the wonderful power that 
 broke forth, and several of the priests were made tender, 
 and some did confess to the power of the Lord." 
 
 It may be remarked, as to the incident which led to 
 this imprisonment, that Fox does not appear to have 
 repeated the offence of actually interrupting a preacher 
 in his sermon. It would probably be generally admitted 
 now, even by those who have most sympathy with Fox's 
 teachings, that the preacher was right in interpreting 
 the passage before him (2 Peter i. 19) of the Scriptures 
 of the Old Testament. 
 
 3. How long the imprisonment at Nottingham lasted 
 we are not informed. The next imprisonment, at Derby, 
 lasted for almost a year, from October 30, IGoO, to the 
 beginning of winter 1651, Again it was his utterances 
 in the parish church which brought him into trouble. 
 He was walking in his chamber, and heard a bell ring, 
 which " struck at my life at the hearing of it ; so I asked 
 the woman of the house what the bell rang for ? She 
 said there was to be a great lecture there that day, and 
 many of the officers of the army, and priests, and 
 preachers were to be there, and a colonel that was a 
 preacher." This colonel, as we learn from a later 
 passage,^ was Colonel Barton, who sat three years later 
 as a member of the Second Council of the " Barebones " 
 Parliament.^ Altogether the assembly in the parish 
 ' I. 73. ^ See Massou's Xi/e of Milton, iv. 525.
 
 52 GEORGE FOX 
 
 church of Derby that day was as httle like an ordinary 
 Church of England congregation of the times either of 
 Elizabeth or Victoria as can well be imagined, and could 
 Archbishop Laud have been called from his grave in 
 Allballows, Barking, to witness that day's proceedings, 
 he would have had as little sympathy with the Puritan 
 lecturer or the preaching colonel as with the young man 
 in the leather breeches, whose strange, excited discourse 
 broke in upon their long-drawn expositions. 
 
 " Then was I moved of the Lord," he says, " to go up 
 to them ; and when they had done I spoke to them 
 what the Lord commanded me, and they were pretty 
 quiet. But there came an officer, and took me by the 
 hand, and said I must go before the magistrates, and 
 the other two that were with me. It was about the 
 first hour after noon that we came before them. They 
 asked me why we came thither ; I said, ' God moved us 
 to do so ; ' and I told them, ' God dwells not in temples 
 made with hands.' I told them also, all their preaching, 
 baptism, and sacrifices would never sanctify them ; and 
 bid them look unto Christ in them, and not unto men ; 
 for it is Christ that sanctifies. Then they ran into 
 many words ; but I told them they were not to dispute 
 of God and Christ, but to obey Him. The power of 
 God thundered amongst them, and they did fly like 
 chaff before it. They put me in and out of the room 
 often, hurrying me backward and forward; for they 
 were from the first hour till the ninth at night in 
 examining me. Sometimes they would tell me, in a 
 deriding manner, that I was taken up in raptures. At 
 last they asked me whether I was sanctified? I 
 answered : ' Yes ; for I was in the paradise of God.' Then 
 they asked me if I had no sin ? I answered, ' Christ,
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: MIDLAND COUNTIES 53 
 
 my Saviour, has taken away my sin, and in Him tliere 
 is no sin.' They asked, how we knew that Christ did 
 abide in us ? I said, ' By His Spirit that He has given us.' 
 They temptingly asked if any of us were Christ ? I 
 answered, ' Nay, we were nothing : Christ was all.' They 
 said, ' If a man steal, is it no sin ? ' I answered, ' All un- 
 righteousness is sin.' So when they had wearied 
 themselves in examining me, they committed me and 
 one other man to the House of Con-ection in Derby for 
 six months as blasphemers." 
 
 This committal took place no doubt under the Blas- 
 phemy Law passed by the two Houses of Parliament 
 in May 1648. According to the provisions of that 
 extraordinary Statute, Fox might have been con- 
 demned to suffer the pains of death, as in a case of 
 felony without benefit of clergy, for maintaining e.g. 
 that the Song of Solomon is not the Word of God. As 
 he was only committed to prison, not put to death, his 
 alleged blasphemy must have been one of the minor 
 transgressions against Presbyterian orthodoxy enumer- 
 ated in the second part of the Statute, such as the 
 assertion "that the baptizing of infants is unlawful," 
 " that the observation of the Lord' Day is not obligatory," 
 or " that the Church government by Presbytery is anti- 
 Christian and unlawful." Fox himself gives us no hint 
 in what his alleged blasphemy consisted, but in a 
 discussion between a dogmatic preaching colonel, and 
 an eager, mystical, and imperfectly educated shepherd- 
 prophet, it is easy to understand that propositions 
 might be affirmed or denied by the latter which would 
 bring him within the range of that wide-reaching 
 Statute. 
 
 At this point we must note that Gervase Bennet, J.P,,
 
 54 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 the magistrate who, along with Colonel Barton, signed 
 the mittimus for his committal to the House of Correc- 
 tion, was also the inventor of a word, which in the 
 course of two centuries and a half has had no small 
 currency among the English-speaking peoples. The 
 keeper of the prison, in a dream one night, saw the Day 
 of Judgment, "and I saw George there, and I was 
 afraid of him, because I had done him so much wrong, 
 and s23oken so much against him to the ministers and 
 professors, and to the justices, and in taverns and ale- 
 houses." In his distress of mind he came, like the 
 gaoler of Philippi, to implore his prisoner's pardon, and 
 next morning he went and told the justices (says the 
 Journal) " that he and his house had been plagued for 
 my sake, and one of the justices replied (as he reported 
 to me) that the plagues were on them too for keeping 
 me. This was justice Bennct of Derby, who was the 
 first that called us QUAKERS, because I bid them 
 tremble at the word of the Lord. This was in the 
 year 1650." 
 
 The name by which the little newly-formed Church 
 at first seems to have called itself was " Children of the 
 Light." Afterwards they chose the name which they 
 still use, "The Society of Friends," to which was 
 generally added, " in scorn called Quakers." 
 
 George Fox's imprisonment at Derby lasted, as I 
 have said, for about a year. It was strangely unlike 
 anything that takes place in the monotonous English 
 prisons of to-day. " Professors " came to discourse with 
 the prisoner, who, in words already quoted,^ upheld the 
 high standard of Christian perfection against what he 
 cahed their " pleading for sin." 
 
 ^ See p. 36.
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: MIDLAND COUNTIES 55 
 
 The magistrates gave leave that he should have 
 liberty to walk a mile. He asked to be shown the 
 extent of his one mile radius, and scrupulously adhered 
 to its limits, often taking opportunity in his perambula- 
 tions to preach in the market and the streets, warning 
 the people to repent of their wickedness, but always 
 returning conscientiously to his prison, to the no small 
 disappointment of his unwilling persecutors, who, as 
 the gaoler afterwards confessed, had granted this per- 
 mission in the hope that he would avail himself of it 
 to escape, and so ease them of their plague. " But I 
 told him I was not of that spirit." 
 
 Once while he was in this prison he Avas visited by a 
 trooper, who while sitting in church had heard God's 
 voice saying to him, "Dost thou not know that My 
 servant is in prison ? Go to him for direction." Fox's 
 discourse to this man relieved the burden on his soul. 
 " He began to have a good understanding in the Lord's 
 truth, and to be sensible of God's mercies." Soon he 
 " began to speak boldly in his quarters amongst the 
 soldiers and to others concerning truth (for the Scriptures 
 were very much opened to him), insomuch that he 
 said 'his colonel was as blind as Nebuchadnezzar, to 
 cast the servant of the Lord into prison.' Upon this 
 his colonel had a spite against him, and at Worcester 
 fight, the year after, when the two armies were l}'ing 
 near one another, two came out from the King's army 
 and challenged any two of the Parliament army to fight 
 with them ; his colonel made choice of him and another 
 to answer the challenge. And when in the encounter 
 his companion was slain, he drove both his enemies 
 within musket-shot of the town without firing a pistol 
 at them. This, when he returned, he told me with his
 
 56 GEORGE FOX 
 
 own mouth. But when the fight was over, he saw the 
 deceit and hypocrisy of the officers ; and being sensible 
 how wonderfully the Lord had preserved him, and 
 seeing also to the end of fighting, he laid down his 
 arms." 
 
 It was at " Worcester fight " (September 3, 1651) 
 that this young convert fought his duel, and the same 
 crisis in the fortunes of the Commonwealth suggested 
 to the Derby magistrates (as we have already seen) the 
 notable device of getting rid of their prisoner by 
 sending him to fight against Charles Stuart. This his 
 '' testimony against all fighting," as being out of the 
 Divine life, forbade him to do either as officer or private, 
 and his refusal seems to have doubled the length and 
 increased the severity of his confinement. 
 
 At length this strange struggle between the criminal 
 and his judges came to an end. The man whom they 
 had at first called a deceiver, a seducer, and a blasphemer, 
 they confessed to be an honest, virtuous man, and " at 
 length they were made to turn me out of jail about 
 the beginning of winter in the year 1651, after I had 
 been a prisoner in Derby almost a year, six months in 
 the House of Correction, and the rest of the time in the 
 common jail and dungeon." 
 
 4. The long imprisonment at Derby had perhaps 
 injured the mental as well as the bodily health of the 
 Quaker apostle, for it was shortly after his liberation that 
 an event occurred which has cast more doubt on the 
 perfect soundness of his intellect than any other incident 
 in his career. This is his celebrated denunciation of 
 " the bloody city of Lichfield," which shall be told in 
 his own words. 
 
 "As I was walking along with several Friends, I
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: MIDLAND COUNTIES 57 
 
 lifted up my head, and I saw three steeple-house spires, 
 and they struck at my life. I asked them what place 
 that was, and they said Lichfield, Immediately the 
 word of the Lord came to me that I must go thither. 
 Being come to the house we were going to, I wished 
 the Friends that were with me to walk into the house, 
 saying nothing to them whither I was to go. As soon 
 as they were gone I stepped away, and went by my 
 eye over hedge and ditch, till I came within a mile of 
 Lichfield, where, in a great field, there were shepherds 
 keeping their sheep. Then I was commanded by the 
 Lord to pull off my shoes, I stood still, for it was 
 winter, and the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. 
 So I put off my shoes, and left them with the shepherds, 
 and the poor shepherds trembled and were astonished. 
 Then I walked on about a mile, and as soon as I was 
 got within the city, the word of the Lord came to me 
 again, saying, ' Cry, Woe unto the bloody city of 
 Lichfield ! ' So I went up and down the streets crying 
 with a loud voice, ' Woe to the Uoody city of Lichfield ! ' 
 It being market day, I went into the market-place, and 
 to and fro in the several parts of it, and made stands, 
 crying as before, ' Woe to the bloody city of Zichjicld ! ' 
 And no one laid hands on me; but as I went thus 
 crying through the streets, there seemed to me to be 
 a channel of blood running down the streets, and the 
 market-place appeared like a pool of blood. When I 
 had declared what was upon me, and felt myself clear, 
 I went out of the town in peace ; and returning to the 
 shepherds, I gave them some money, and took my shoes 
 of them again. But the fire of the Lord was so in my 
 feet, and all over me, that I did not matter to put on 
 my shoes any more, and was at a stand whether I
 
 58 GE0RC4E FOX 
 
 should or not, till I felt freedom from the Lord so to 
 do ; and then after I had washed my feet I put on my 
 shoes again. After this a deep consideration came 
 upon me, why or for what reason I should be sent to 
 cry against that city, and call it the bloody city. For 
 though the Parliament had the minster one while, and 
 the King another, and much blood had been shed in 
 the town during the wars between them, yet that was 
 no more than had befallen other places. But afterwards 
 I came to understand that in the Emperor Diocletian's 
 time, a thousand Christians were martyred in Lichfield. 
 So I was to go, without my shoes, through the channel 
 of their blood, and into the pool of their blood in the 
 market-place, that I might raise up the memorial of 
 the blood of those martyrs which had been shed above 
 a thousand years before, and lay cold in their streets. 
 So the sense of this blood was upon me, and I 
 obeyed the word of the Lord. Ancient records testify 
 how many of the Christian Britons suffered there. 
 Much I could write of the sense I had of the blood 
 of the martyrs that hath been shed in this nation for 
 the name of Clnist, both under the ten persecutions 
 and since ; but I leave it to the Lord, and to His book, 
 out of which all shall be judged, for His book is a 
 most certain record, and His Spirit a true recorder." 
 Wc have in this passage a good illustration of the 
 way in which the utterances of the fervid prophet- 
 souled man, who knew no book but the Bible, were 
 worked over, and, so to speak, rationalized by the more 
 highly-instructed men, such as Penn and Ellwood, who 
 afterwards became his disciples. An age better versed 
 in the principles of historical criticism perceives that 
 the attempted explanation of this strange adventure,
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: YORKSHIRE r,9 
 
 drawn from the legendary story of a Diocletianic per- 
 secution, is no explanation at all. It would be of more 
 purpose — as we have already indicated some points of 
 resemblance between the career of Fox and that of 
 Savonarola — to recall the wonderful prediction which 
 the great Dominican, in the early days of his preaching, 
 uttered with fervid eloquence against the city of Brescia. 
 Only in that case there was a real fulfilment of the 
 prophecy when Gaston de Foix took Brescia, and made 
 rivers of blood to How down her streets. In the case of 
 " the bloody city of Lichfield," no such calamity attested 
 the truth of Fox's proj^hetic mission. A candid bio- 
 grapher must confess, that in that wild and terrible 
 time, when the blood of Englishmen had been shed by 
 their brothers on many a battle-field, when cities like 
 Lichfield had been taken and retaken by Cavalier and 
 Roundhead, and when the final tragedy of Whitehall 
 had thrown a spell of horror not only over England, but 
 over all Europe, the brain of Fox, perhaps weakened by 
 the rigours of a long imprisonment, perceived wrongly 
 the spiritual intimations which were conveyed to it, 
 and transferred to the future that sense of horror at 
 scenes of violence which really reached it from the 
 past. 
 
 In the year 1651 Fox's mission, hitherto confined to 
 the Midland counties, passed over into Yorkshire. It 
 was at this time, in the neighbourhood of Wakefield, 
 that he won over to his side a convert who was to be 
 first a powerful ally, then an uneasy rival, and finally a 
 damaging caricaturist of Quaker teaching, the fanatical 
 Cromwellian soldier James Naylor. 
 
 At Cranswick, in the East Riding, he was taken by 
 another Cromwellian soldier to call on a magistrate
 
 60 GEORGE FOX 
 
 whom he calls Justice Hothara, and who was probably 
 a relation of the Sir John Hotham whose refusal to 
 admit the King's troops within the citadel of Hull was 
 the beginning of the Civil War. This Justice Hotham, 
 who was " a tender maa, one that had some experience 
 of God's workings in his heart," took Fox with him 
 into his closet, " where, sitting together, he told me he 
 had known that principle [of the Inward Light] these 
 ten years, and was glad that the Lord did now publish 
 it abroad to the people. After a while there came a 
 priest " (no doubt a Puritan divine) " to visit him, with 
 whom also I had some discourse concerning Truth. But 
 his mouth was quickly stopped, for he was nothing but a 
 notionist, and not in possession of what he talked of." 
 
 So Fox moved about on his missionary journey 
 through the great county of York. He preached in 
 Beverley Minster, apparently with something more than 
 mere endurance on the part of the listeners, for a great 
 lady of the neighbourhood informed Justice Hotham 
 that " there came an angel or spirit into the church at 
 Beverley, and spoke the wonderful things of God, to the 
 astonishment of all that were there ; and when it had 
 done it passed away, and they did not know whence it 
 came nor whither it went, but it astonished all, both 
 priests, professors, and magistrates of the town." ^ 
 
 1 We have here an interesting little detail in the history of 
 costume. A certain Captain Pursloe accompanies George Fox to 
 church (instead of Justice Hotham, who is afraid that if he goes 
 with him he shall be obliged as a magistrate to commit him to 
 prison). " But he was glad," he said, " when Captain Pursloe 
 came up to go with me, yet neither of them was dressed, nor had 
 his band about his neck. It was a strange thing then to see a 
 man come into a steeple-house [church] without a band, yet Captain 
 Pursloe went in with me without his band ; the Lord's power 
 and truth had so affected him that he minded it not."
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS: YORKSHIRE CI 
 
 At York Miaster his reception was less favourable. 
 After the minister had ended his sermon, Fox told the 
 congregation that he had something from the Lord 
 God to speak to the priest and people, " Then say on 
 quickly," said a "professor" that was among them, for 
 it was frost and snow and very cold weather. When it 
 became plain to the audience that he had no new 
 doctrine to expound, but only to remind them that God 
 Almighty looked for fruits from among them, and that 
 mere words were no life-giving atmosphere for the soul, 
 either the cold of the great minster, or the unattractive 
 character of the message, made them impatient, and 
 they hurried him forth, and threw him down the steps, 
 but he arose unhurt, and went to his lodgings. " Several," 
 says Fox, " were convinced there, for the very groans 
 that arose from the weight and oppression that was 
 upon the Spirit of God in me would open people and 
 strike them, and make them confess that the groans 
 which broke forth through me did reach them : for my 
 life was burdened with their profession without posses- 
 sion, and words without fruit." 
 
 He passed on into Cleveland, and found there some 
 people who apparently had for a time professed doctrines 
 similar to his own, but who were then " all shattered 
 to pieces, and the heads of them turned Ranters." He 
 told them that this change had come over them because 
 they had not patiently waited upon God to feel His 
 power in their meetings. For want of this patient 
 waiting they had " spoken themselves dry : they had 
 spent their [spiritual] portions ; and not living in that 
 which they spoke of, they were now become dry. They 
 had some kind of meetings still, but they took tobacco 
 and drank ale in their meetings, and were grown light
 
 62 GEORGE FOX 
 
 and loose." The Ranter chiefs of the congresfation 
 seem to have resisted Fox's admonitions, but the rank 
 and file accepted his teaching with eagerness, and a 
 large meeting was set up in that place. 
 
 At another town in the same region, a leader of the 
 Ranters named Bushel came to a discussion with Fox, 
 which he opened in an unexpected manner. "He told 
 me he had had a vision of me, that I was sitting in a 
 great chair, and that he was to come and put off his 
 hat, and bow down to the ground before me : and he 
 did so, and many other flattering words he spoke. I 
 told him it was his own figure, and said unto him, 
 ' Repent, thou beast.' He said it was jealousy in me to 
 say so. Then I asked him the ground of jealousy, and 
 how it came to be bred in man, and the nature of a beast, 
 what made it, and how it Avas bred in man. For I saw 
 him directly in the nature of a beast : and therefore I 
 wished to know of him how that nature came to be bred 
 in him. ... So I stopped his mouth, and all his fellow 
 Ranters were silenced, for he was the head of them." 
 
 A little later, when Fox returned into this district, 
 and was cordially welcomed by his friends Captain 
 Pursloe and Justice Hotham, the latter said to him, " If 
 God had not raised up this principle of light and life 
 which you preach, the nation had been overcome with 
 Ranterism, and all the justices in the nation could not 
 have stopped it with all their laws, because (said he) 
 they would have said as we said, and done as we 
 commanded, and yet have kept their own principle 
 still. But this principle of truth (said he) overthrows 
 their principle and the root and ground thereof, and 
 therefore he was glad the Lord had raised up this 
 principle of life and truth."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 SWARTHMOOR HALL 
 
 In the summer of 1652, when Fox was just entering 
 upon the twenty-ninth year of his age, he paid his 
 memorable visit to the Fells of Swarthmoor. Like 
 Mohammed's flight to Medina, or Calvin's journey to 
 Geneva, this visit marked a crisis in the history of a 
 new religious movement. Hitherto the preaching of 
 the Quaker missionaries, though earnest and powerful, 
 had been perhaps of a somewhat sporadic kind, and 
 had not built up an organized and coherent body of 
 believers. Now, under the fostering care of a devout 
 and energetic woman, mistress of a hospitable country- 
 house, and surrounded by a little clan of children and 
 dependents, who Avere partakers of her enthusiasm, 
 Quakerism in the north of England grew to such a size 
 as seriously to alarm the " professors " of the other 
 churches and sects, and to give a cruel edge to their 
 efforts for its suppression. 
 
 The district of Furness, in which Swarthmoor Hall is 
 situated, is one of the most picturesque in England. 
 The hematite iron ore which lay concealed beneath its 
 surface in George Fox's days has within the last half- 
 century been abundantly worked, and the district, 
 which was purely agricultural and pastoral, has now a 
 
 63
 
 64 GEORGE FOX 
 
 large mining and manufacturing population. But 
 thouofh the blast furnaces of Barrow now vomit forth 
 their clouds of smoke to the sky, they do not avail to 
 greatly mar the beauty of the landscapes of Furness. 
 Still on a summer day the hills round Lancaster lie in 
 dreamy beauty on the other side of the wide-reaching 
 Morecarabe Bay ; and still the blue dome of Coniston 
 Old Man, and the ridge of Walney Scar, are seen from 
 the northern windows of Swarthmoor Hall rising into 
 a pure and smokeless sky. 
 
 Till the middle of the present century Furness was 
 still practically an island. The Coniston range shut it 
 out from Cumberland, the lake and mountains of 
 Windermere separated it from Westmoreland ; though 
 politically forming part of the county of Lancaster, it 
 had to be approached from that town by a long and 
 sometimes perilous journey, which could only be per- 
 formed at low water across the broad sands which made 
 the estuaries of two rivers, the Kent and the Leven.^ 
 
 In the Middle Ages, guides over these dangerous 
 sands were provided, and hospitality to strangers was 
 practised by the abbots of the two great monasteries 
 of Furness and Cartmel, who owned between them 
 nearly the whole of the peninsula. Now, of course, 
 
 1 See a valuable paper by Mr. John Fell (a collateral descend- 
 ant of Judge Fell) in Transactions of Cicmherland and Westmore- 
 land Archoiological Society, xi. 368. As he says, "With the 
 estuary of the Dudden to the north, and the watershed boundaries 
 between Cumberland and Westmoreland, Lonsdale north of the 
 sands may be described as an island, and its inhabitants, until 
 the railway connected it with the main body of the country, as 
 an insular people. Up to a comparatively recent date it may be 
 said that the same families had been settled in the district from 
 time immemorial. A stranger was promptly detected, and with- 
 out much ceremony made aware that he was regarded in the local 
 phraseology as an ' outcome.' "
 
 SWARTIIMOOR HALL 65 
 
 these great ecclesiastics had disappeared from the 
 scene, and the descendants of the men who had once 
 held land under them as their vassals were now 
 emerging into the position of landowners on their own 
 account. One of the largest of these landowners was 
 Thomas Fell, or as he is more often called Judge Fell, 
 who lived at Swarthmoor Hall, a comfortable country 
 house about three-quarters of a mile from Ulverston, 
 which was probably built by his father. Thomas Fell, 
 who was born about 1598, was descended from an old 
 Furness family of the kind just described, and he or 
 his immediate ancestors had invested largely in the 
 lands which had once belonged to the Abbey of Furness 
 and the Priory of Conishead. Having kept his terms 
 at Gray's Inn, and been called to the Bar, he espoused 
 the cause of the Parliament against the King at the 
 outbreak of the Civil War, and was successively ap- 
 pointed Justice of the Peace for Lancashire (1641), 
 Parliamentary Sequestrator of Forfeited Estates (1642), 
 and chief layman in the " classical presbytery," which 
 was to discharge duties similar to a bishop's in the 
 district of Furness (1646). In 1645, as one of the so- 
 called " Recruiters," he was chosen member of Parlia- 
 ment for his county, and (probably soon after) he was 
 appointed one of the Judges of Assize of the Chester 
 and North Wales Circuit. In 1652- he went the 
 Northern Circuit along with Bradshaw the regicide, 
 and three years later he succeeded that politician in the 
 high office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.^ 
 
 Altogether it is obvious that " Judge Fell " was a 
 man of high position both in his county and in the 
 
 ^ For these detaila I am indebted to Dr. Ileury Barber's 
 Furness and Carlmel Noli»i, p. 232.
 
 156 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Parliamentary party. He refused to be reckoned 
 among the adherents of Oliver Cromwell, and probably 
 exjsressed openly his disapproval of the dissolution of 
 the Long Parliament, but he seems to have remained 
 on friendly terms with the great Protector, who pre- 
 sented him on some occasion with a silver cup, which 
 was long preserved in the Judge's family. 
 
 It was not, however, the quiet, prosperous, moderate- 
 minded lawyer but his enthusiastic wife who made the 
 name of Swarthmoor famous in the religious history of 
 England, In 1632, twenty years before George Fox's 
 visit to Furness, the rising barrister Thomas Fell 
 married Margaret Askew, daughter of the owner of the 
 neighbouring estate of Marsh Grange, but also — a far 
 more significant fact — great-grand-daughter of Anne 
 Askew, whose fame yet survives as one of the noblest 
 and the most pathetically wronged of the Protestant 
 martyrs under Henry the Eighth. Something of the 
 spirit of her martyred ancestress survived in Margaret 
 Fell. Though she was not tried by the rack or the 
 fire of martyrdom, it was hers to suffer loss of worldly 
 goods, and to spend long years in loathsome dungeons. 
 During these years of imiDrisonment, the verses com- 
 posed by her great progenitor, when she too was lan- 
 guishing in Newgate prison, may often have recurred 
 to her memory : — 
 
 " Like as tlie armed knyglite 
 Appointed to tlie field, 
 With thys world will I tyghte, 
 Aud faythe shall be my shield. 
 
 Faythe in the fathers olde 
 Obtayned righteoysness,
 
 SWARTHMOOR HALL 67 
 
 Which makes me verye bolde, 
 To feare no worlde's distress. 
 
 Thou sayst, Lord, whoso knocke 
 
 To them wilt Thou attende : 
 Undo therefor tlie locke, 
 
 And Thy strong power sends. 
 
 On Thee my care I cast, 
 
 For all their cruel spyght 
 I set not by their hast, 
 
 For Thou art my delyght." 
 
 Margaret Fell, who was sixteen years younger than 
 her husband, was only eighteen when he brought her 
 as a bride to Swarthmoor Hall, She was now a middlc- 
 aofed woman of eight-and-thirty, the mother of six 
 daughters^ and one son, ranging from infancy up to 
 nineteen years of age. The house in which they lived 
 is still preserved, and though now only a farm-house, it 
 is in a good state of preservation, and is well worthy of 
 a visit, even independently of its special connection 
 with Quaker history; for, perhaps owing to the 
 reverence with which Fox's memory was regarded, it 
 has almost entirely escaped the effacing hand of the 
 modern builder, and remains a complete picture of an 
 English country house of three centuries ago. We 
 still see the tolerably spacious dining-hall in which 
 Fox's disciples used to assemble, the little justice -room 
 adjoining it, in which the Judge used to transact his 
 business, and where he would often sit with half- 
 opened door to hear the preaching which he would not 
 too manifestly countenance. Overhead is the bed- 
 room which tradition assigns to Fox as his guest- 
 
 * A seventh daughter, Rachel, from whom most oi Judge Fell's 
 living descendants sprang, was born in 1653.
 
 68 GEORGE FOX 
 
 chamber, and near it the Judge's bedroom, wainscotted, 
 and with beautifully carved wood- work. Between these 
 two rooms is a closet which might have been a secret 
 liidiug-place, and a window, formerly a door in the 
 outer wall of the house, where, as the legend says, Fox 
 used to stand and address the people from an elevation 
 of some twelve or thirteen feet, when the multitude was 
 too large to be assembled in the great hall. 
 
 We leave the house, and journeying for about half- 
 a-mile through fields and country lanes, we reach the 
 little meeting-house, which bears on its front the 
 inscription — 
 
 E DONO G. FOX 
 
 1688. 
 
 After the Quaker church had used Swarthmoor Hall 
 as its place of meeting for twenty-six years, its founder 
 bought a little piece of ground, and on it erected this 
 modest edifice, which he presented to " the Monthly 
 Meeting of Swarthmoor." The windows have been 
 unfortunately modernized, but in its high gallery (or 
 " loft ") the house still shows the primitive pattern of 
 the places of worship reared by the " Friends." The 
 most interesting relic in the place is the old black-letter 
 Bible presented to the meeting by George Fox, and 
 still bearing the links of the iron chain by which in 
 old time it was fastened to the reading-desk.'- 
 
 Such was Swarthmoor Hall in the summer of 1652, 
 when George Fox came to it in the course of his 
 
 ^ This Bible is a specimen of the edition of 1541, commonly 
 called the "Treacle" Bible, from the translation of Jeremiah 
 viii. 22 — " Is there no treacle [balm] in Gilead 1 is there no 
 pliysician there ?"
 
 SWARTIIMOOR HALL 09 
 
 missionary journey. He had been spending some weeks 
 in the dales of Yorksliire and Lancashire, regions now 
 filled with busy industries, then guiltless of a factory 
 chimney. He had with difficulty climbed the steep 
 and high hill of Pendle in Lancashire, and looking over 
 the intervening lands to the Irish Channel, had seen a 
 Pisgah-vision of " the places in which a great people 
 should be gathered." Journeying onwards to Wensley- 
 dale and Sedbergh, he had there a vision of " a great 
 people in white raiment coming to the Lord "; and 
 from thence passing into Westmoreland, he made con- 
 verts of two Puritan ministers, Francis Howgill and 
 John Audland, who became eminent preachers among 
 " the Children of Light." So through Kendal (which 
 was one day to be one of the great centres of Quakerism 
 in the north of England), Fox came into Furness, and 
 in process of time reached the hospitable shelter of 
 Swarthmoor Hall. The Hall was a well-known resting- 
 place for Puritan lecturers, who, as Margaret Fell says, 
 "often had prayers and religious exercises in our family. 
 This I hoped I did well in, but often feared I was short 
 of the right way ; and after this manner I was inquiring 
 and seeking about twenty years." 
 
 On the day of Fox's arrival, it happened that the 
 mistress of the Hall was absent, but ere long the clergy- 
 man of Ulvcrston, a certain Mr. Lampitt, appeared upon 
 the scene. Of him, as of " Priest Stevens " of Fenny 
 Drayton, we have two opposite, and in fact irreconcil- 
 able accounts. In Calamy's Ejected Ministers he appears 
 as " a warm and lively preacher in the region beyond 
 the sands, who lived obscurely (after his ejection on 
 St. Bartholomew's Day), and died in the year 1677." 
 In Fox's Jmirnal he figures as " a high notionist with
 
 70 GEORGE FOX 
 
 whom I Lad mucli reasoning, for he talked of high 
 notions and perfection, and thereby deceived the 
 people. He would have owned me, but I could not 
 own nor join with him, he was so full of filth." 
 
 A discussion followed, as to which one thing at least 
 is clear, that neither of the disputants understood what 
 the other was contending for. According to Fox, Lam- 
 pitt said " he was above John, and made as if he knew 
 all things." He confessed " he had been under a cross 
 in things, but now he could sing psalms and do any- 
 thing." Fox told him, " Now he could see a thief and 
 join hand in hand with him, but he could not preach 
 Moses nor the prophets, nor John nor Christ, except 
 he were in the same spirit that they were in." At 
 nidit Mrs. Fell returned, and was distressed to hear 
 from her children of the dispute between the guest 
 and Priest Lampitt, "because she was in profession 
 with him : but he hid his dirty actions from them. At 
 night," continues Fox, " we had much reasoning, and I 
 declared the truth to her and her family." 
 
 Next day Lampitt returned, and had another argu- 
 ment in the presence of Margaret Fell, "who then 
 clearly discerned the priest. A convincement of the 
 Lord's truth came upon her and her family." There 
 was one of the great Parliamentary fasts due about 
 this time, and a " lecture " {i. e. a sermon of some hours' 
 duration) was to be given in the parish church of 
 Ulverston. Mrs. Fell asked Fox to accompany her to 
 the church. He at first refused, preferring to wander 
 about in the fields, but afterwards, in obedience, as he 
 conceived, to a Divine command, he went into the 
 church, where it may be supposed the lecture was 
 ended, for the people were singing a hymn. To quote
 
 SWARTHMOOR TIALL 71 
 
 his own words, "When I came Lampitt was singing 
 with his people: but his spirit was so foul, and the 
 matter which they sang so unsuitable to their states, 
 that after they had done singing, I was moved of the 
 Lord to speak to him and the people." Having asked 
 and obtained leave to do so from the clergyman, Fox 
 stood up on a form and repeated the text, " He is not 
 a Jew that is one outwardly : neither is that circum- 
 cision which is outward in the flesh : but he is a Jew 
 which is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart." 
 He went on with his favourite theme — Christ the Light 
 of the world : the universality of this Light : an entreaty 
 to the congregation to come to it, that by its power they 
 might be gathered to God. As he spoke, the mistress 
 of Swarthmoor Hall stood up in the family pew wonder- 
 ing at his doctrine, for she had never heard anything 
 like it before. " The Scriptures," said Fox, " what 
 are they but the words of prophets, of Christ and His 
 apostles, uttered by men who enjoyed and possessed 
 this Light which they received from the Lord ? What 
 have you to do with the words of the Scriptures, unless 
 you come to the same Spirit which gave them forth ? 
 You open the Bible, and say, ' Christ saith this,' and the 
 ' apostles say that,' but what do you say yourselves ? 
 Art thou a child of the Light ? Hast thou walked in 
 the Light ? What thou sayest concerning God, does it 
 come to thee inwardly from Him ? " 
 
 " These questions," says Margaret Fell, " cut me to 
 the heart; and then I saw clearly we were all wrong. 
 So I sat down in my pew again, and cried bitterly; 
 and I cried in my spirit to the Lord, ' We are all 
 thieves : we are all thieves : we have taken the Scrip- 
 tures in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves.'"
 
 72 GEORGE FOX 
 
 The preacher meanwhile went on, and with something 
 of an old prophet's fervour denounced the false prophets 
 and priests and deceivers of the people. "The Lord 
 God," he said, "is come to teach His people by His 
 own Spirit, and to bring them off from all their old 
 ways, religions, churches, and worships : for all these 
 thino-s are but talkincj with other men's words, and 
 they are out of the Life and Spirit in which those men 
 dwelt by whom the Scriptures were given forth." 
 
 At this point of the discourse a Puritan magistrate 
 named Sawrey called out to the churchwarden, " Take 
 him away," but from the squire's pew was heard the 
 voice of Margaret Fell exclaiming, " Let him alone — 
 why may not he speak as well as any other ? " Either 
 in complaisance to his hospitable neighbour, or out of 
 a desire to give Fox a fair hearing, Lampitt gave his 
 voice on the same side, " Let him speak." Thus be- 
 tween one master and another the churchwarden went 
 backwards and forwards, often seizing hold of Fox's 
 arm, and then letting him go again. At length the 
 strange sermon was ended, and the people of Ulverston 
 dispersed to their homes, much meditating, we may be 
 sure, on the unusual scenes of that fast day.^ 
 
 In the evening Fox addressed the family in Swarth- 
 moor Hall. Mother and daughters, mistress and ser- 
 vants, seem to have been all convinced by his ministry, 
 and became lifelong adherents of the new principle of 
 the Inward Light. One at least of the servants^ be- 
 came afterwards a celebrated Quaker preacher; but 
 
 ^ I have tried to combine here the two narratives of George Fox 
 in the Journal, and Margaret Fox in her " Testimony,'' giving 
 the preference to the latter where the details of the story differ. 
 
 2 Thomas Salthouse.
 
 SWARTHMOOR HALL 73 
 
 the most interesting conversion was that of a young 
 lad named William Caton, then about seventeen years 
 old, who had been for three years in the Judge's family, 
 being entertained as bosom friend and companion of 
 George Fell, the heir of Swarthmoor. Ho had shared 
 the young squire's diversions, his hunting, fishing, and 
 shooting ; he had also shared with him the instructions 
 of a neighbouring clergyman, who was preparing the 
 lads for college, and afterwards had gone with him to 
 Hawkshead school. Now however that ho had been 
 so powerfully moved by the words of the Quaker 
 apostle, his views of life changed. Not only fishing 
 and shooting, but the composition of Latin verses were 
 burdensome to his spirit, " because he could not any 
 longer give his thoughts that liberty for invention 
 which others did : neither could he any longer give 
 the master of the school the compliment of his hat as 
 he was used to do," ^ He renounced the hope of a Uni- 
 versity education; remained for some little time at 
 Swarthmoor Hall as tutor and amanuensis to Mar2:aret 
 Fell; then went forth into England, Holland, and France 
 as a missionary of the new doctrines; suffered the whip- 
 pings, mob-beatings, and imprisonments which were 
 the portion of a Quaker preacher in those days, and 
 finally died at Amsterdam in 1665, in the thirtieth 
 year of his age. He was probably about the best 
 educated and most refined minister of the first gener- 
 ation of the Society of Friends. 
 
 Meantime, while these singular events were happen- 
 ing at Swarthmoor Hall, where was its master ? Judge 
 Fell was away upon the Welsh Circuit, and did not 
 return till about three weeks after Fox's visit. On his 
 
 ' Beyvel, History of Society of Friendny i. 279 (Edition 1833).
 
 74 GEORGE FOX 
 
 return journey, lie was met by several of the captains 
 of Cromwell's army, and the chief gentry of the county. 
 One can imagine them riding forth over the wide wet 
 sands to tell the Judge the news of his great disaster. 
 " Your wife and all your family are bewitched. They 
 are all seduced from the Christian religion: and unless 
 you can send away the men who have done this thing 
 the whole county will be undone." With clouded 
 brow, the usually good-tempered elderly man returned 
 to his home ; his poor wife feehng herself to be brought 
 into a grievous strait, " that she must either displease 
 her husband or offend God." Fox himself was not to 
 arrive in the house till evening. Two other ministers, 
 James Naylor and Richard Farnsworth, were brought in 
 to speak to the Judge, which they did " moderately and 
 nicely." He was at first greatly displeased with them, 
 but at last accepted their assurances that they came 
 only in love and good-will to his house. By this time 
 " he was pretty moderate and quiet," says his wife, " and 
 his dinner being ready he went to it, and I went in 
 and sat me down by him." " And while I was sitting 
 the power of the Lord seized upon me; and he was 
 struck with amazement, and knew not what to think, 
 but was quiet and still. And the children were all 
 quiet and still, and grown sober, and could not play 
 at their music that they were learning, and all these 
 things made him quiet and still." 
 
 In the evening Fox arrived, and the dreaded inter- 
 view passed off better than Margaret Fell had feared. 
 A Yorkshire magistrate named Robinson had spoken 
 highly in praise of George Fox to many Parliament- 
 men. Fell was relieved on finding that this was the 
 man who now stood before him. The good word of
 
 SWARTHMOOR HALL 75 
 
 "Justice Hotliam" also went for something, and in 
 the end, after Fox had spoken at some length in de- 
 fence of his new doctrine, Judge Fell quieted down 
 and ceased to demand the instant departure of him- 
 self and his friends. He never actually joined the 
 new sect; perhaps his official position made that seem 
 almost impossible. But he seems to have been more 
 than half convinced, and often said that he wished his 
 colleague (wlio seems to have been also his patron) 
 Judge Bradshaw could hear Fox's discourses. He 
 willingly acquiesced in the meeting of the Friends 
 being held in the dining-room of Swarthmoor Hall, 
 and as we have seen, according to the tradition, 
 often sat in his study with door ajar to hear the 
 ministers' sermons; but as a rule he rode off alone, 
 or accompanied only by his clerk and a groom, to the 
 parish church at Ulverston. Much did "Priest 
 Lampitt " and his friend " Justice Sawrey " chafe 
 at seeing the once well filled pew of Swarthmoor 
 Hall tenanted only by those three melancholy male 
 figures. 
 
 The effect, however, which Avas produced on at least 
 one unprejudiced observer by the sight of the family 
 at Swarthmoor Hall under the changed conditions of 
 their spiritual life, may be learned from the following 
 letter, written by a magistrate named Anthony Pearson, 
 who after joining in a prosecution of two of the Quaker 
 ministers for blasphemy, became himself a Friend, and 
 was one of the first to preach the new doctrines in the 
 city of London, The letter is believed to be addressed 
 to Colonel Benson, a brother magistrate, who had also 
 from an opponent become a staunch supporter of " the 
 Children of the Light " :—
 
 76 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 "Dear Friend, 
 
 " I have long professed to serve and worship 
 the true God, and as I thought, above many attained to 
 a high pitch in religion ; but now alas ! I find my work 
 will not abide the fire. My notions were swelling 
 vanities without power or life. What it was to love 
 enemies, to bless them that curse, to render good for 
 evil, to use the world as using it not, to lay down life 
 for the brethren, I never understood : what purity and 
 perfection meant I never tasted. All my religion was 
 but from the hearinof of the ear, the believing and 
 talking of a God and Christ in heaven ; or at a place 
 at a distance I knew not where. Oh ! how gracious 
 was the Lord to me in carrying me to Judge Fell's, to 
 see the wonders of His power and wisdom — a family 
 walking in the fear of the Lord, conversing daily with 
 Him, crucified to the world, and living only to God. I 
 was so confounded, that all my knowledge and wisdom 
 became as folly : my mouth was stopped, my conscience 
 convinced, the secrets of my heart were made manifest, 
 and the Lord was discovered to be near, whom I ignor- 
 antly worshipped. I could have talked of Christ, of 
 the saints and the hope of glory, but it was all a riddle 
 to me. 
 
 " Truly, dear friend, I must tell thee I have now lost 
 all my religion, and am in such distress, I have no hope 
 nor foundation left. My justification and assurance 
 have forsaken me, and I am even like a poor shattered 
 vessel tossed to and fro without a pilot or rudder — as 
 blind, dead, and helpless as thou canst imagine. 
 ****** 
 
 " What thou told me of George Fox I found true. 
 When thou seest him or James Naylor (they both
 
 SWARTHMOOR HALL 77 
 
 know my condition better than myself), move them (if 
 neither of them be drawn this way) to help me with 
 their counsel by letter. They are full of pity and com- 
 passion, and though I was their enemy, they are my 
 friends: and so is Francis Howgill, from whom I 
 received a letter full of tenderness and wholesome 
 advice.^ Oh ! how welcome would the faces of any of 
 them be to me. Truly I think I could scorn the world, 
 to have fellowship with them. But I find my heart is 
 full of deceit, and I exceedingly fear to be beguiled, as 
 I have been, and to be seduced into a form without 
 power, into a profession before I possess the truth : 
 which would but multiply my misery, and deprive me 
 both of God and the world. 
 
 " I am afraid lest the orders we made at Appleby 
 cause some to suffer, who speak from the mouth of 
 the Lord: I heartily wish they were suppressed or 
 recalled. 
 
 "I have seen at Judge Fell's, and have been in- 
 formed from that precious soul his consort, in some 
 measure what these things mean, which before I counted 
 the overflowings of giddy brains. Dear heart, pity and 
 pray for me : and let all obligations of former friendship 
 be discharged in well wishes to the soul of the old 
 family friend, that he may partake with them of 
 heavenly possessions." ^ 
 
 * Naylor and Howgill were the two ministers whom Pearson 
 had assisted in prosecuting for blasphemy. 
 
 2 I am indebted to Mrs. Webb's Fells of Sxvarthmoor Hall for 
 the reference to this letter, which is in the Swarthmoor collection 
 of MSS. at Devonshire House.
 
 78 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Whatever may be thought of some of George Fox's 
 utterances, it is clear from such letters as this that his 
 message was one which stirred the souls of men to their 
 very depths, calling forth in some enthusiastic and 
 eager acceptance, while it roused others to the bitterest 
 opposition.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 
 
 After the halcyon days which Fox and his compan- 
 ions spent under the hospitable roof of Swarthmoor 
 Hall, came beatings and buffetings, and the strange 
 and somewhat obscure episode of his trial for blasphemy 
 at Lancaster Quarter Sessions. 
 
 In August 1650, Parliament had passed an Act 
 called the Blasphemy Act, for the punishment of 
 atheistical, blasphemous, and execrable opinions. This 
 Act, says the historian of the Commonwealth,^ had 
 none of the inquisitorial character which attached to 
 the monstrous blasphemy ordinance of 1648. It meted 
 out six months' imprisonment for the first offence, and 
 banishment, with prohibition of return on pain of 
 death, for the second, and that in tAvo cases only — the 
 affirming that any human being was God, or a mani- 
 festation of God, and the affirming that acts of gross 
 immorality "were indifferent or even positively re- 
 ligious." The second clause was aimed at some of the 
 extreme party among the Ranters. It was apparently 
 iinder the first that George Fox was called to stand in 
 the dock at Lancaster Quarter Sessions. 
 
 * Gardiner, i. 395. 
 79
 
 80 GEORGE FOX 
 
 To us Europeans of the nineteenth century, it is 
 almost inconceivable that an Act of Parliament should 
 ever have seemed to be necessary in order to prevent 
 men from giving themselves out as manifestations of 
 the Godhead. The Creator seems so unimaginably 
 great, and man so miserably little, that to us the 
 serpent's voice, " Ye shall be as gods," whispers an un- 
 intelligible temptation. Yet even in our own day, in 
 Eastern lands, multitudes of men have been willing to 
 suffer imprisonment, confiscation of their goods, even 
 death itself, in testimony of their faith in a man of 
 holy life, whom they regarded as " the Gate of the 
 Godhead." ^ In England, in the seventeenth century, 
 there was not perhaps the Oriental willingness to accept 
 on slight proof the theory of an Incarnation, but in the 
 fervid, highly exalted state of men's minds, steeped in 
 Bible language and Bible imagery, there seems to have 
 been at least a disposition in some quarters to anticipate 
 the coming of a new Messiah. 
 
 Did George Fox for himself set up any such claim of 
 Messiahship ? It seems to me clear, that never, even 
 in his most exalted and enthusiastic moments, did he 
 use language which could fairly subject him to such a 
 charge. A mystic, it is true, if ever there was one, he 
 realized with startling vividness the nearness of Christ 
 to the human soul. The words, " Christ m you, the 
 hope of glory," were the keynote of all his teaching. 
 He thought (sometimes no doubt unjustly) that the 
 clergy of the day were preaching a dead, or at any rate 
 a far-off and shadowy Christ, a Christ outside the world 
 
 ^ See the very extraordinary Episode of the Bah, translated 
 from the Per.sian by luy friend Edward G. Browne. (Cambridge, 
 1891.)
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 81 
 
 of men and the human soul, and therefore he repeated 
 with what seemed to unsympathizing ears a monotonous 
 energy, " Christ is in you : the Word is very nigh thee, 
 in thy heart and in thy mouth." But in all these 
 utterances of his he was only in line with one of the 
 earliest Christian martyrs, with Ignatius, whose favourite 
 name for himself was Theophoros, the God-bearer. He 
 fell short, we may venture to say, of St. Francis, with 
 his vision of the divinely imprinted stigmata ; of St. 
 Theresa, with her amorous yearnings after the heavenly 
 spouse. He expressed in ruder and harsher language 
 some of the thoughts which have made the De Imitationc 
 Christi for more than four centuries the delight of 
 Christendom. 
 
 But though Fox's own record seems to be clear from 
 anything amounting to a claim to Messiahship, it is uot 
 so certain that his disciples, in the first fervour of their 
 conversion, were equally moderate in their language. 
 The two converted magistrates, Benson and Pearson, 
 even in protesting against his imprisonment for blas- 
 phemy, use such words as these — " Christ is now 
 preached in and among the saints, the same that ever 
 He was : and lecause His heavenly image is home icp in 
 this His faithful servant, therefore doth fallen man, 
 rulers, priests, and people, persecute him. Because he 
 lives up cnit of the fall, and testifies against the works 
 of the world that the deeds thereof are evil, he suffers 
 by you magistrates, not as an evil-doer." The words 
 here used are susceptible of an orthodox interpreta- 
 tion, but they would startle and alarm the ordinary 
 Presbyterian minister. 
 
 Moreover, it must in fairness be stated that there 
 exists among the Swarthmoor manuscripts a letter 
 
 a
 
 82 GEORGE FOX 
 
 addressed by the little family church at Swarthmoor 
 to Georoe Fox, in the first fervour of their conversion, 
 in which they use language so high-flown and rhapso- 
 dical, that it could not properly be addressed to any 
 but a Divine Saviour. It is not fair to charge Fox 
 himself with the responsibility for this paper, which he 
 may have utterly condemned; but the fact that it was 
 ever written shows what excited brains there were in 
 a quiet English country house in the year 1652, 
 
 Whatever the cause might be, and whether the 
 report were maliciously spread abroad by Lampitt 
 and Sawreyi or not, the belief was evidently widely 
 entertained in North Lancashire that George Fox was 
 a blasphemer. It is to this, doubtless, that we must 
 attribute the extraordinary violence of an attack which 
 was made upon him in Ulverston church. It was a 
 "lecture day," and there was a large congregation of 
 " professors, priests, and people." " I went up," says 
 he, " near to priest Lampitt, who was blustering on in 
 his preaching, and after the Lord had opened my mouth 
 to speak, John Sawrey the justice came to me and 
 said, ' If I would speak according to the Scriptures, I 
 should speak.' " There was a little altercation on this 
 point between the preacher and the magistrate, who in 
 the end commanded him to keep silence, and as Fox 
 still persisted, and was apparently heard by the audience 
 with favour, " Justice Sawrey (who was the first 
 stirrer up of cruel persecution in the North) incensed 
 them against me, and set them on to hale, beat, and 
 bruise me." Fox was knocked down, kicked, and 
 trampled upon; there was a scene of wild uproar in 
 the church, and some of the congregation fell over the 
 
 ' This ia George Fox's account of the matter.
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 83 
 
 forms in tlieir panic-stricken flight. At last Sawrey 
 succeeded in getting Fox out of the church, and given 
 in charge to the constables, who were ordered to whip 
 him and put him out of the town. Some of the 
 inhabitants who seemed disposed to take his part had 
 their heads broken, and the young squire of Swarth- 
 moor, who came running after the constables to see 
 what they would do with his mother's guest, was thrown 
 into a ditch amid the cries of " Knock the teeth out of 
 his head." 
 
 As for Fox, having been beaten till he fainted, he 
 lay for some time in a swamp, with the mob standing 
 round him. When his senses returned, he " stood up 
 again in the strengthening power of the Eternal God " ; 
 and stretching out Ids arms, said Avith a loud voice, 
 " Strike again ; here are my arms, my head, and my 
 cheeks." Hereupon a devout mason struck a blow 
 with all his might with his "walking rule-staff" on 
 the outstretched hand of the heretic. The blow was 
 so severe that both Fox and the bystanders thought at 
 first he had lost the use of his hand for ever. " But I 
 looked at it in the love of God (for I was in the love of 
 God to them all that had persecuted me), and after a 
 while the Lord's power sprung through me again, and 
 through my hand and arm, so that in a moment I 
 recovered strength in my hand and arm in the sight of 
 them all." 
 
 Several more scenes of the same kind followed, both 
 in the neighbourhood of Ulverston, and in the little 
 island of Walney, which skirts the western coast of 
 Furness. They were all evidently part, a lawless part, 
 of the campaign which had been commenced by the 
 Puritan ministers and ma^iistrates a'j;ainst Fox as a
 
 84 GEORGE FOX 
 
 blasphemer. Tlie legal side of the same campaign was 
 represented by proceedings taken to bring him to trial 
 at the Quarter Sessions at Lancaster, in October 1652. 
 A warrant was issued for his apprehension, but just at 
 this time Judge Fell, whose absence on circuit had 
 emboldened Fox's enemies to persecute him as they 
 had done, returned home. The warrant was not served, 
 and he, on the other hand, issued warrants for the 
 apprehension of some of the more atrocious rioters in 
 the Isle of Walney, He was willing to go further, 
 and asked Fox to give him an account of the whole 
 persecution, but he answered, " that those men could 
 do no otherwise in the spirit in which they were, and 
 that they manifested the fruits of their priest's ministry 
 and their profession and religion to be wrong. So he 
 told his wife that I made light of it, and that I spoke 
 of it as a man that had not been concerned : for indeed 
 the Lord's power healed me again." 
 
 When the time for the Quarter Sessions had arrived. 
 Fox, though the warrant had not been served upon 
 him, determined to attend at the court. The brave 
 and kindly Judge went with him, sorely perplexed in 
 his legal mind what line to take, for he had never 
 before had a charge of blasphemy brought before him. 
 Fox reminded him of the wise neutrality of Festus, when 
 Paul was brought before him on a similar charge, and 
 Judge Fell seems to have followed the precedent. 
 When they had reached the Lancaster Court House, 
 there were forty fervid ministers, who had "chosen a 
 Lancaster clergyman, named Marshall, to be their orator," 
 and had provided one young priest and two young 
 priest's sons to bear witness against Fox, and who had 
 previously made affidavit that he had spoken blasphemy.
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 86 
 
 The witnesses, however, entirely broke down, nor could 
 all the help rendered them by their orator Marshall, 
 sitting by and explaining their sayings for them, save 
 their credit. Each one relied in a helpless way on the 
 other, and at length the magistrates were obliged to 
 reprimand them for having solemnly made affidavit 
 that they heard certain blasphemous words which, as 
 it now appeared, they only reported on hearsay from 
 others. 
 
 On the other side was a considerable body of men 
 "of integrity and reputation in the country," who had 
 been present at the meeting in question, and who gave 
 evidence that the blasphemous words complained of 
 were never used. The charge was evidently about to 
 fail, and one of the magistrates, Colonel West, who 
 vigorously espoused Fox's cause, turned to him and 
 said, "George, if thou hast anything to say to the 
 people thou mayest declare it." Orator Marshall left 
 the building, and Lancaster Court House was turned 
 for the time into a Quakers' Meeting-house. From the 
 tenor of the discourse which followed, it is evident 
 that the charge of blasphemy must have chiefly rested 
 on some alleged attack on the authority of the Bible. 
 What Fox believed himself moved of the Lord to 
 declare was that " the Holy Scriptures were given forth 
 by the Spirit of God, and that all people must come to 
 the same Spirit, and have Him dwelling in their hearts : 
 since without Him they could have neither God nor 
 Christ, nor the Scriptures, nor have right fellowship 
 with one another." At this six ministers who stood 
 behind him broke out into a passion, and one of them 
 named Jackus declared that the Spirit and the letter 
 [of the Scriptures] were inseparable. Fox replied,
 
 86 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 " Then every one that hath the letter hath the Spirit, 
 and every one who buys a copy of the Bible buys the 
 Spirit with it." The falseness of the position taken up 
 by the extreme Bibliolaters was perceived by some 
 of the magistrates, and Judge Fell and Colonel West 
 "reproved them openly, telling them that according 
 to that position they might carry the Spirit in their 
 pockets as they did the Scriptures." On this the clergy 
 all left the Court House much exasperated against the 
 magistrates, and George Fox was discharged. 
 
 On the whole case, though we must be cautious in 
 forming conclusions from an ex parte statement, it 
 would seem that the proceedings at Lancaster resulted 
 in a triumphant vindication of George Fox from the 
 charge of blasphemy. This seems proved, not only by 
 his formal discharge, but by the fact that Colonel West 
 and Gervase Benson, both magistrates, Major Ripan, 
 Mayor of Lancaster, and several other men of good 
 social position and high religious character, dated their 
 " convincement " of the principles of Quakerism from 
 this day. It is not necessary to accuse the forty 
 Puritan ministers of having deliberately suborned false 
 witnesses against their enemy. Many of them, like 
 Lampitt, were sore at seeing their congregations drawn 
 away from them by these new and illiterate preachers. 
 There was much in the new style of preaching which 
 would have seemed " hard sayings " to any age, but 
 •which especially jarred on ears accustomed to the prim, 
 pedantic, text-splitting style of discourse dear to the 
 Puritan lecturer. In these circumstances, and with 
 their spirits all aflame with the clamour of the multi- 
 tude round them, it was easy to misunderstand the 
 somewhat rhapsodical utterances of Fox, and uninten-
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 87 
 
 tionally to exaggerate their strangeness. At any rate, 
 the opponents of the new doctrine were not minded 
 quietly to accept their defeat, which they no doubt 
 attributed to the preponderating influence of Judge 
 Fell. It was probably towards the end of 1652, or in 
 the early part of 1653, that there was presented "to 
 the Right Honourable the Council of State " [sitting 
 at Whitehall] " the humble petition of several Gentle- 
 men, Justices of Peace, Ministers of the Gospel, and 
 People within the County of Lancaster." This Petition 
 averred as follows : — • 
 
 " That George Fox and James Naylor are persons 
 disaffected to Religion and the wholesome Laws of this 
 Nation : and that since their coming into this County 
 they have broached Opinions tending to the destruction 
 of the relation of Subjects to their Magistrates, Wives 
 to their Husbands, Children to their Parents, Servants 
 to their Masters, Congregations to their Ministers, and 
 of a People to their God. And have drawn much 
 people after them : many whereof (men, women, and 
 little children) at their meetings are strangely wrought 
 upon in their bodies, and brought to fall, foam at the 
 mouth, roar and swell in their bellies. And that some 
 of them affirmed themselves to be equal with God, 
 contrary to the late Act, as hath been attested at a late 
 Quarter Sessions holden at Lancaster in October last 
 past : and since that time acknowledged before many 
 witnesses ; besides many other dangerous Opinions and 
 damnable Heresies, as appears by a Schedule hereunto 
 annexed, with the names of the witnesses subscribed." 
 
 The Schedule is to this effect : — 
 
 " 1. George professed and averred that he was equal 
 with God.
 
 88 GEORGE FOX 
 
 2. He professed himself to be the eternal Judge of 
 the world. 
 
 3. He said he was the Judge of the world. 
 
 4. He said he was the Christ, the Way, the Truth, 
 and the Life. 
 
 5. He said, Whosoever took a place of Scripture and 
 made a sermon of it and from it was a conjurer and 
 his preaching conjuration. 
 
 6. He said that the Scripture was carnal." 
 
 There were other charges of a similar kind brought 
 against James Milner, Leonard Fell, and Richard 
 Hubberthorn, which need not be quoted here, as our 
 business is with Fox alone.^ 
 
 It does not appear that any action was taken by 
 the Council of State in reply to this petition, but the 
 presentation of it led to a curious reply, to which we 
 are indebted for our knowledge of the petition itself. 
 This reply is entitled (according to the fashion of the 
 voluminous title-pages of that age) — 
 
 1 It is curious, however, to note the charge against Milner. 
 " He professeth himself to be God and Christ, and gives out 
 prophecies. 
 
 " 1. That the day of Judgment shall be the 15th day of 
 November [? 1653]. 
 
 2. That there shall never Judge sit at Lancaster again. 
 
 3. That he must ere long shake the foundations of the great 
 Synagogue, meaning the Parliament." 
 
 Milner, like Naylor, was evidently in a very excited state, and 
 broke away for a time from the fellowship of the Friends. 
 George Fox says {Journal, I. 158), "About this time [early in 
 1653] I was in a fast for about ten days, my spirit being greatly 
 exercised on truth's account : for James Milner and Richard 
 Myer went out into imaginations, and a company followed them. 
 This James Milner and some of his company had true openings 
 at first ; but getting into pride and exaltation of spirit, they ran 
 out from truth. I was moved of the Lord to go and show them 
 their outgoings, and they were brought to see their folly, and 
 condemned it, and came into the way of truth again."
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 89 
 
 " Saul's Errand to Damascus with his packet of 
 letters from the High priests against the disciples of 
 the Lord, or a faithful Transcript of a Petition contrived 
 by some persons in Lancashire who call themselves 
 Ministers of the Gospel, breathing out thrcatenings 
 and slaughters against a peaceable and godly people 
 there by them nicknamed Quakers, together with the 
 defence of the persons thereby traduced against the 
 slanderous and false suggestions of that Petition and 
 other untruths charged against them. Published to 
 no other end but to draw out the bowels of tender 
 compassion from all that love the poor, despised 
 servants of Jesus Christ, who have been the scorn of 
 carnal men in all ages." ^ 
 
 The pamphlet begins thus — 
 
 " Christian Reader : 
 
 " These are to let thee know that the only wise 
 God at this time hath so by His providence ordered it 
 in the north parts of Lancashire that many precious 
 Christians (and so for many years accounted before the 
 nickname Quakers was heard of) have for some time 
 past forborne to concorporate in Parochial Assemblies, 
 wherein they profess themselves to have gained little 
 of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And it is and hath 
 been put upon their hearts to meet often (and on the 
 Lord's Day constantly) at convenient places to seek the 
 Lord their Redeemer, and to worship Him in spirit and 
 in truth, and to speak of such things (leading to 
 mutual edification) as the good spirit of the Lord shall 
 
 ^ Then follow verses 10-13 of chapter V. of Matthew. "Lon- 
 don : printed for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread Eagle at 
 the West End of Pauls 1653.'' (Press mark in British Museum, 
 E. *iV-.)
 
 90 GEORGE FOX 
 
 teach them, demeaning themselves without any offence 
 given to any that truely fear the Lord." 
 
 After reciting the charges brought against Friends 
 in the Lancashire petition, the authors of the pamphlet 
 proceed to clear themselves from the charges of dis- 
 affection to the Government, and dissemination of 
 doctrines destructive of family peace. As for the 
 hysterical symptoms (as we should call them) said to 
 accompany their worship, the meetings of the People 
 of God are, say they, ever strange to the world. They 
 quote Acts x. 44, Daniel x. 9, Habakkuk iii. 16, 
 Isaiah Ixvi. 5, and Joel ii. 6, for the manifestation 
 of symptoms similar to those complained of in the 
 petition ; and say, " The Prophets and Ministers of God 
 who had all one spirit, according to measure, did all 
 encourage those that tremble," Of the specific charges 
 against Fox, the first four are all replied to by texts 
 from the New Testament, which speak of the mystical 
 union of Christ and His followers, the saints judging 
 the world, and so forth. As to the fifth charge, of 
 "conjuring from Scripture," the pamphlet replies — 
 
 " He that puts the Letter for the Light, when the 
 Letter says that Christ is the Light, he is blind ; and 
 they that say the Letter and the Spirit are inseparable, 
 when the Spirit saith the Letter is death and killeth, 
 and all that do study to raise a living thing out of a 
 dead, to raise the Spirit out of the Letter, are conjurers, 
 and draw points and reasons, and so speak a divination 
 of their own brain: they are conjurers and diviners, 
 and their teaching is from conjuration, which is not 
 spoken from the mouth of the Lord, and the Lord is 
 against all such ... for that doctrine doth not profit 
 at all, for it stands not in the counsel of God, but is a
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 91 
 
 doctrine of tlie devil, and draws people from God ; but 
 he that speaks from the mouth of the Lord turns people 
 from their wickedness." 
 
 The answer to the sixth charge, " The Scripture is 
 carnal," goes on similar lines. " The Letter killeth 
 but the Spirit giveth life. I witness that which is 
 Eternal and not Carnal. The Jews which had the 
 Letter persecuted Jesus Christ the Substance, and so 
 do you now which have the Letter and not the Substance. 
 There were ministers of the Letter theu, and ministers 
 of the Spirit : so are there now." 
 
 " All the plotting of the Priests is and ever was 
 against Christ when lie is made manifest, and the 
 Beast shall make Avar with the Saints and with the 
 Lamb, but the Lamb shall get the victory : praises, 
 praises be to our God for ever, for ever more," 
 
 The reader who has studied the history of sects or 
 churches will know how important it is to listen to 
 what is said by the opponents, as well as by the 
 advocates of the new doctrine. Would that we 
 possessed anything like as full a body of polemical 
 literature against the early Christians, as that which 
 the printing press has preserved for us, directed against 
 the early Quakers. It is wath this view that I have 
 ventured to make such copious extracts from Saul's 
 Errand to Damascus. 
 
 For some months after Fox's trial at Lancaster, he 
 travelled about through the north-western counties, 
 Cumberland, Westmoreland, North Lancashire, making 
 Svvarthmoor Hall his base of operations, to which he 
 returned, and from which he sent forth his written 
 denunciations against Lampitt, Sawrey, and others of 
 the " magistrates, priests, and professors," who had taken
 
 92 GEORGE FOX 
 
 part in the persecution of the Friends. It must have 
 been somewhere about April 10^ that he was sitting 
 at Swarthmoor, listening to Judge Fell and Gervase 
 Benson talking over politics. Their discourse naturally 
 turned on the Long Parliament, or the Rump as it was 
 irreverently styled — a body of which we must suppose 
 Judge Fell to have been still in theory a member, 
 though we always hear of him in Lancashire, not in 
 London. Then Fox, who believed he had an " opening 
 from the Lord," was moved to tell them that before 
 that day two weeks the Parliament should be dissolved, 
 and the Speaker plucked out of his chair. A fortnight 
 passed. Benson was again at Swarthmoor, and told 
 his friend that now he saw George was a true prophet, 
 for Oliver had broken up the Parliament. 
 
 A characteristic passage follows — " Now were great 
 threatenings given forth in Cumberland, that if ever I 
 came there again, they would take away my life. When 
 I heard it, I was drawn to go into Cumberland, and went 
 to the same parish from which those threatenings came, 
 but they had not power to touch me." He visited Bootle, 
 where he sustained his usual violent treatment from 
 the mob, his wrist being nearly broken from one rough 
 fellow's blow. In the afternoon he went to the church, 
 where the minister, a stranger from London, "gathered 
 up all the Scriptures he could think of that spoke of 
 false prophets and antichrists and deceivers, and threw 
 them upon us; but when he had done I re-collected 
 all those Scriptures, and brought them back upon him- 
 self. Then the people fell upon me in a rude manner ; 
 
 ^ Crom-well's dissolution of the Long Parliament took place on 
 April 20. News of that event could hardly reach Furness till 
 the 24th. Dating back a fortnight we get to April 10.
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 93 
 
 but the constable charged them to keep the peace, and 
 so made them quiet again. Then tlie priest began to 
 rage and said I must not speak there, I told him lie 
 had his hour-glass by which he preached, and he having 
 done, the time was free for me as well as for him, for 
 he was but a stranger there himself. So I opened the 
 Scriptures to them, and let them see that those 
 Scriptures that spoke of the false prophets and anti- 
 christs and deceivers described them and their genera- 
 tion, and not us, who were not guilty of such things." 
 
 At Cockermouth ho found a great company of people 
 
 gathered together in the churchyard to hear him. One 
 
 of his disciples, who had been sent forward to prepare 
 
 the way, was speaking under a yew-tree, which was so 
 
 full of peojile that Fox feared they would break it 
 
 down. He looked about for a place to stand upon to 
 
 speak to the people, " for they lay all up and down 
 
 like people at a leaguer," an expression which suggests 
 
 that Fox had looked upon some of the besieging armies 
 
 durino- the recent Civil War. As soon as Fox was 
 
 recognized, he was asked if he would go into the 
 
 church, an offer which he accepted, seeing no place in 
 
 the churchyard from which he could conveniently 
 
 address the people. Thereupon all the people rushed 
 
 in, filling the house and even the pulpit, so that he 
 
 had much ado to get in. As soon as the congregation 
 
 was settled, he stood upon a seat, and began a discourse 
 
 which lasted three hours. It will be worth while to 
 
 read his summary of this discourse, as from it Ave may 
 
 infer the purport of many similar ones. 
 
 " The Lord opened my mouth to declare His ever- 
 lasting truth and His everlasting day : and to lay open 
 all their teachers, their rudiments, traditions, and
 
 94 GEORGE FOX 
 
 inventions that they had been in, in the night of 
 apostacy since the apostles' days. I turned them to 
 Christ tlie true teacher, and to the true spiritual 
 worship : directing them where to find the Spirit and 
 truth, that they might worship God therein. I opened 
 Christ's parables unto them, and directed them to the 
 Spirit of God in themselves, that would open the 
 Scriptures unto them. And I showed them how all 
 might come to know their Saviour and sit under His 
 teaching, might come to be the heirs of the kingdom 
 of God, and know both the voice of God and of Christ, 
 by which they might discover all the false shepherds 
 and teachers they had been under, and be gathered to 
 the true shepherd, priest, bishop, and prophet, Christ 
 Jesus, whom God commanded all to hear. So when I 
 had largely declared the word of life unto them for 
 about three hours, I walked from amongst the people, 
 and they passed away very well satisfied." 
 
 It is evident that Fox's preaching was at this time a 
 great power in the north of England, and that the tide 
 of Quakerism was rising high, especially in Cumberland, 
 a county in which it has been calculated that something 
 like half the population became " Friends." I extract 
 one or two paragraphs from the Journal, in which he 
 describes the events of this time. 
 
 " Amongst the rest a professor followed me, praising 
 and commending me, but his words were like a thistle 
 to me. At last I turned about and bid him fear the 
 Lord, whereupon priest Larkham of Cockermouth (for 
 several priests were got together on the way who came 
 after the meeting was over) said to me, ' Sir, why do 
 you judge so ? You must not judge.' But I turned 
 to him and said, ' Friend, dost not thou discern an
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 95 
 
 exhortation from a judgment ? I admonished him to 
 fear God : and dost thou say I judge him ? ' So the 
 priest and I falling into discourse, I manifested him to 
 be among the false prophets and covetous hirelings. 
 And several people being moved to speak to him, he 
 and two others of the priests soon got away. . . . Many 
 hundreds were convinced that day, and received the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and His free teachins? with jrladness. 
 of whom some have died in the truth, and many stand 
 faithful witnesses thereof. The soldiers [twelve soldiers 
 and their wives who had come to Cockermouth from 
 Carlisle] were also convinced, and their wives, and 
 continued with me till First-day." 
 
 There was again a similar meetinj? at the neighbour- 
 ing village of Brigham. " A fine opportunity the Lord 
 gave mc to preach truth among the people, for about 
 three hours, and all was quiet. Many hundreds were 
 convinced : and some of them praised God, and said, 
 ' Now we have the first step to peace.' The preacher 
 also said privately to some of his hearers that I had 
 broken them and overthrown them." 
 
 Fox then passed on into a neighbouring village, 
 where he astonished the people by speaking sharply to 
 a woman and telling her that she was a witch, where- 
 upon she went out of the room. "Now I beingr a 
 stranger there, and knowing nothing of the woman out- 
 Avardly, the people wondered at it, and told me after- 
 wards that I had discovered a great thing, for all the 
 country looked upon her to be a witch." 
 
 " From Caldbeck we came to Carlisle, and the pastor 
 of the Baptists, with most of his hearers, came to me to 
 the abbey, where I had a meeting, and many of the 
 Baptists and of the soldiers were convinced. After the
 
 96 GEORGE FOX 
 
 meeting the pastor of the Baptists, a high notionist 
 aad a flashy man, came to me and asked me, ' What 
 must be damned ? ' I was moved immediately to tell 
 him, ' That which spoke in him was to be damned.' 
 This stopped his mouth, and the witness of God was 
 raised up in him. I opened to him the states of 
 election and reprobation, so that he said he never heard 
 the like in his life. He also came to be convinced." 
 
 Fox then went up to the Castle, where the soldiers, 
 assembled by beat of drum, heard 1dm give a discourse 
 such as that which John the Baptist gave to the 
 soldiers of Herod. Then to the market-cross, where in 
 spite of magistrates and magistrates' wives, the latter 
 of whom had threatened that if he came thither they 
 would pluck the hair off his head, he preached a sermon 
 to the people, telling them, " that the day of the Lord 
 was coming upon all their deceitful ways and doings, 
 and deceitful merchandize ; and that they should put 
 away all cozening and cheating, and keep to Yea and 
 Nay, and speak the truth one to another; so the truth 
 and the power of God was set over them," 
 
 On the next Sunday, Fox went to the church (prob- 
 ably the cathedral), and after the minister had ended 
 his sermon, preached one of his own which stirred the 
 enthusiasm of some, and the rage of others. There 
 was evidently a tumult in the church. " The magis- 
 trates' wives were in a rage and strove mightily to be 
 at me ; but the soldiers and friendly people stood thick 
 about me. At length the rude people of the city rose, 
 and came wth staves and stones into the steeple-house, 
 crying, 'Down with these round-headed rogues,' and 
 they threw stones, whereupon the governor sent a file 
 or two of musketeers into the steeple-house to appease
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 97 
 
 the tumult, and commanded all the other soldiers out. 
 So these soldiers took me by the hand in a friendly 
 manner, and said they would have me along with them. 
 When we came forth into the street, the city was in an 
 uproar, and the governor came down, and some of those 
 soldiers were put in prison for standing by me and for 
 me against the townspeople. A lieutenant that had 
 been convinced came and brought me to his house, 
 where there was a Baptists' meeting, and thither came 
 Friends also, and we had a very quiet meeting : they 
 heard the word of life gladly, and many received it." 
 
 At Carlisle, and probably in some other places, the 
 Baptists appear to have been more disposed to tolerate 
 Fox's preaching than either of the other two great 
 Puritan sects. He tells us expressly that the magis- 
 trates who took part in the following proceedings 
 against him, and probably also the magistrates' wives 
 who threatened to pluck the hair off his head, Avere 
 Independents and Presbyterians. 
 
 On the day after the uproar in the church, these 
 magistrates met together in the town-hall and granted 
 a warrant for Fox's apprehension on a charge of blas- 
 phemy. He tells us that many of the rude people 
 had sworn strange, false things against him, but gives 
 us no more precise information as to the nature of the 
 charge, and we must therefore fill up the outline for 
 ourselves by analogy from the similar proceedings at 
 Lancaster. 
 
 Under the magistrates' warrant, Fox was committed 
 to prison at Carlisle " as a blasphemer, a heretic, and 
 a seducer, though they could not justly charge any such 
 thing against me. The gaol at Carlisle had two gaolers, 
 an upper and an under, who looked like two great bear-
 
 98 GEORGE FOX 
 
 wards. Now when I was brought in, the upper gaoler 
 had me into a great chamber and told me I should 
 have Avhat I would in that room. But I told him he 
 should not expect any money from me, for I would 
 neither lie in any of his beds nor eat any of his victuals. 
 Then he put me into another room, where after a 
 while I got something to lie upon. There I lay till 
 the assizes came, and then all the talk was that I was 
 to be hanged. The high sheriff, whose name was Wilfred 
 Lawson,^ stirred them much up to take away my life, 
 and said he would guard me to my execution himself. 
 They were in a great rage, and set three musketeers 
 for a guard upon me, one at my chamber-door, another 
 at the stair's-foot, and a third at the street-door, and 
 they would let none come at me except one sometimes 
 to bring me necessary things. At night they would bring 
 up priests to me, sometimes as late as the tenth hour, 
 who were exceedingly rude and devilish. There was a 
 company of bitter Scotch priests, Presbyterians, made 
 up of envy and malice, who were not fit to speak of the 
 things of God, they were so foul-mouthed; but the 
 Lord by His power gave me dominion over them all, 
 and I let them see both their feints and their spirits. 
 Great ladies also (as they were called) came to see the 
 man that they said was to die. Now, while both the 
 judge, justices, and sheriff were contriving together 
 how they might put me to death, the Lord disappointed 
 their design by an unexpected way, for the judge's 
 clerk (as I was informed) started a question among 
 them which confounded all their counsels; so that after 
 that they had not power to call me before the judge." 
 
 1 A name well known at Carlisle in the latter part of the nine- 
 teenth century.
 
 AT LANCASTER AND CARLISLE 99 
 
 It is not very easy to understand the course of the 
 legal proceedings in Fox's case. It is plain that for 
 some reason the commitment on the grave charge of 
 blasphemy, a capital offence under the recent Act, was 
 bad, and that the judges of assize, on that ground, 
 refused to try the case. There must have been, how- 
 ever, some lighter charge, probably that of brawling in 
 church, which the local magistrates were compelled to 
 deal with, and on which he was detained in prison 
 apparently for some weeks. His friend and convert, 
 Anthony Pearson, who was himself a justice of the 
 peace, wrote a letter to the Judges of Assize complaining 
 that neither he nor Fox could get a sight of the infor- 
 mation preferred against him. " This is very hard ; 
 and that he should be so closely restrained that his 
 friends may not speak with him, I know no law nor 
 reason for. I do therefore claim for him a due and 
 lawful hearing, and that he may have a copy of his 
 charge, and freedom to answer for himself; and that 
 rather before you than to be left to the rulers of this 
 town, who are not competent judges of blasphemy, as 
 by their mittimus appears : who have committed him 
 upon an Act of Parliament, and mention words as 
 spoken by him at this examination which are not 
 within the Act, and which he utterly denies. The 
 words mentioned in the mittijnus he denies to have 
 spoken, and hath neither professed nor avowed 
 them." 
 
 Notwithstanding this letter, Fox says, the judges 
 were resolved not to suffer him to be brought before 
 them (that is, probably they decided that they had no 
 power to try the case), but, reviling and scofiing at him 
 behind his back, left him to the magistrates of the
 
 100 GEORGE FOX 
 
 town, giving them what encouragement they could to 
 exercise their cruelty upon him. 
 
 Whatever the precise form may have been, which 
 was taken by the legal process against him, the result 
 is certain. Fox was kept for a considerable time in the 
 dungeon of Carlisle, which seems to have been a bad 
 specimen even of the foul English prisons of that age. 
 The sanitary arrangements were detestable, vermin 
 swarmed, and men and women were crowded together 
 with little regard for decency. After the many attempts 
 of poets and ballad-writers to glorify the " bold moss- 
 trooping Scot," it is startling to hear the moss-troopers 
 classed with thieves and murderers, among the worst 
 occupants of the dungeon. The sight of these men 
 so impressed Fox, that in a letter which he wrote from 
 the dungeon to two magistrates who weie especially 
 busy in jDunishing Friends for the non-payment of 
 tithes, he says that the priests behaved " more like 
 moss-troopers than ministers of the gospel." The 
 gaoler was very cruel, and the under-gaoler used, with 
 a great cudgel, to beat the Friends who came to the 
 grating of the window to converse with their suffering 
 teacher, or Fox himself, when he carried his food to the 
 grating, and tried to take his meal in a less pestilential 
 air than he usually breathed. " One time," says Fox, 
 "he came in a great rage and beat me with a great 
 cudgel, though I was not at the grate at that time, and 
 as he beat me, he cried, ' Come out of the window,' 
 though I was then far enough from it. While he struck 
 me, I was made to sing in the Lord's power, and that 
 made him rage the more. Then he fetched a fiddler, 
 and brought him in where I was, and set him to play, 
 thinking to vex me thereby ; but while he played, I
 
 AT LANCASTETl AND CARLISLE 101 
 
 was moved in the everlasting power of tlie Lord to 
 sing, and my voice drowned the noise of the fiddle, and 
 struck and confounded them, and made them give over 
 fiddling and go their way." 
 
 While Fox was still in this dungeon, the rumour 
 that there was a young man in Carlisle gaol about to 
 die for religion reached Westminster, where the Little 
 Parliament, or to quote its more opprobrious name, 
 the "Barcbones" Parliament, was then sitting. This 
 assembly, which was one of the most revolutionary in 
 matters ecclesiastical that the countiy has ever seen, 
 decided to interfere, and prevent so great a scandal ; 
 and sent a letter to the sheriff and magistrates of 
 Carlisle, probably recommending caution and clemency. 
 As we have seen, the prosecution on the capital charge 
 had already broken down, but the letter from the High 
 Court of Parliament probably assisted the earnest en- 
 deavours of the Quaker magistrates Pearson and Benson 
 for the release of their wrongfully accused friend. Fox 
 was liberated, and Anthony Pearson, bringing the abuses 
 of the prison under the notice of the " governor," obtained 
 a vote of censure on the magistrates for allowing such 
 barbarities to be committed. The other gaolers were 
 required to find sureties for their good behaviour, and 
 the exceptionally cruel under-gaoler, who had beaten 
 Fox with the cudgel, was himself confined in the 
 dungeon " amongst the moss-troopers."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WHITEHALL 
 
 1654. After Fox was liberated from his imprison- 
 ment at Carlisle, he travelled through Yorkshire and 
 Lincolnshire, meeting with his usual strangely varied 
 tissue of adventures. In one place a company of 
 butchers, who had sworn that they would have his blood, 
 came to an open-air meeting, and stood yelling as if it 
 had been a bear-garden. But their threats of bodily 
 injury came to nothing, and when asked by their 
 neighbours why they had not killed him according to 
 their oath, they could only answer that he had so 
 bewitched them that they could not do it. Un- 
 doubtedly there was something in the very appearance 
 of this tall, grave, fearless man which laid a very power- 
 ful spell on meaner spirits. When he was at Carlisle, a 
 Baptist deacon, " an envious man," says Fox, finding the 
 Lord's power was over them, cried out for very anger, 
 " Whereupon I set my eyes upon him, and spoke sharply 
 to him in the power of the Lord : and he cried, ' Do not 
 pierce me so with thy eyes : keep thy eyes off me.' " 
 
 In Lincolnshire he held a meeting at which the 
 sheriff of the county, Robert Craven, was present. He 
 came with a large party of his friends to argue and 
 denounce, but he was struck by the power of Fox's 
 
 102
 
 AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WHITEHALL 103 
 
 preaching, became " convinced of the truth," and joined 
 the new Society. So did "she who was called the 
 Lady Montague," Sir Richard Wrey, and some other 
 members of the county aristocracy. 
 
 He passed on into his native county of Leicester, and 
 liad a great meeting, to which came many " Baptists, 
 Ranters, and other professors, who were very rude and 
 stirred up the rude people against us." " We sent to the 
 Ranters to come forth and try their God. Abundance 
 of them came, who were very rude, and sang and 
 whistled and danced : but the Lord's power so con- 
 founded them that many of them came to be convinced." 
 
 And now at length, after an absence of three years, 
 George Fox returned to his native jDlace, in order to 
 visit his relations. Not much family intercourse, how- 
 ever, seems to have been the result of this visit to 
 Fenny Drayton. At once his old antagonist, "Priest 
 Stephens," having obtained the help of another clergy- 
 man, challenged Fox to a discussion, the report of 
 which brought the whole countryside together. Fox 
 was for carrying on the discussion in the churchyard ; 
 the two clergymen insisted on his coming into the 
 church, averring that " Mr, Stephens could not bear 
 the cold." In the end the dispute was settled by their 
 adjourning to " a great hall," doubtless the old manor- 
 house of the Purefoys. The discussion turned that 
 day on the right of the clergy to tithes, evidently a 
 favourite subject with Stephens, and one upon which, 
 four years later, he wrote a ponderous treatise. The 
 debate ran on the well-known lines. Stephens no 
 doubt pleaded the Mosaic ordinance ; Fox appealed to 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, in proof that the tithe- 
 receiving priesthood was ended by Christ. There was
 
 104 GEORGE FOX 
 
 some disturbance among the andience, whom the two 
 clergymen, according to Fox, "stirred up to be vain 
 and rude." At last Stephens said, "Neighbours, this 
 is the business: George Fox is come to the light of 
 the sun, and now he thinks to put out my starlight." 
 Fox answered, " I would not quench the least measure 
 of God in any, much less put out his starlight, if it were 
 true starlight, light from the morning star. But I told 
 him if he had anything from Christ or God, he ought to 
 speak it freely, and not take tithes from the people for 
 preaching, seeing Christ commanded His ministers to 
 give freely as they had received freely. So I charged 
 him to preach no more for tithes or any hire." The 
 disturbance among the audience increased, and the con- 
 ference broke up, George Fox informing them that he 
 intended to be in the town on that day week. 
 
 The week was spent in meetings in the surrounding 
 country, and when it was over, Stephens, who under- 
 stood Fox's words as fixing an adjournment of the debate, 
 had given notice at a neighbouring market, that on such 
 a day there would be a debate between him and the 
 Quakers. Seven clergymen had come to help him, 
 and several hundreds of people were assembled to hear 
 the discussion. Fox, though he did not consider him- 
 self pledged to a resumption of the debate, had with 
 him a former clergyman named Taylor, the young 
 Quaker preacher James Parnell, and several other 
 Friends. He again refused to go into the church, but 
 apparently went to the top of a little mound in the 
 churchyard, and from thence spoke to the people. The 
 crowd again became disorderly, and the conference was 
 broken up into a number of little knots of people, in the 
 centre of each of which were to be found a clergyman
 
 AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WHITEHALL 105 
 
 cand a Friend disputing. At last one of the clergymen 
 brought his son to debate with Fox, but the young man, 
 getting the worst of the argument, called on his father 
 for help, and called in vain. Tired and thirsty with the 
 long, vain wrangle, the eight clergymen at length 
 adjourned to the parsonage for a drink, while Fox 
 shouted after them that he had never beaten so many 
 priests in argument before. At that some of the clergy 
 and their wives came round him, patted him on the 
 back, and said " fawningly," "What might he not have 
 been, if it had not been for the Quakers." 
 
 While the clergy were in the parsonage, the yokels 
 began their horseplay. Several lusty fellows took Fox 
 up in their arms, and bore him into the church porch, 
 intending to carry him into the church by force, but as 
 the door was locked, they fell down in a heap, having 
 him below them. He crept out from under them, and 
 went back to his vantage ground of the mound ; he 
 was carried thence, however, and placed on a footstool 
 under the wall of the church. By this time the clergy 
 had returned from the parsonage, and called out, " Come, 
 to argument, to argument." Fox began his argument 
 by declaring that they were not true shepherds, but 
 hirelings, such as Christ spoke of in the tenth chapter 
 of John. On this he was knocked off his perch, while 
 the eight clergymen stood each on his footstool under 
 the church wall. Now thoroughly aroused. Fox de- 
 clared that he " denied " those eight priests or teachers 
 that stood before him, and all the hireling teachers of 
 the world whatsoever; and then out of his retentive 
 memory he thundered forth the long roll of passages 
 from the Prophets, in which woe is denounced on the 
 false prophets, and from the Gospels, in which Christ
 
 106 GEORGE FOX 
 
 denounced a similar woe on the Scribes and Pharisees. 
 Then he went on to speak of his favourite theme, the 
 light of Jesus Christ in the heart, till at length one of 
 the audience cried out, " George, wilt thou never have 
 done ? " He answered that he would have done shortly, 
 and when he had soon made an end, clergy and people 
 all stood silent for a time, till at last one of the clergy- 
 men said that they would read the Scriptures he had 
 quoted. They began to read aloud the twenty-third 
 of Jeremiah, but Fox broke out into fresh objurgations, 
 and the meeting at last seems to have broken up in 
 confusion. At the end of it Stephens came, and 
 desired Fox with his father and brother to come aside 
 and speak with him in private. For some unexplained 
 reason Fox was very reluctant to do so, but the people 
 cried, " Go, George ; do, George, go aside with him ; " 
 and as Fox's father added his entreaties he went, not 
 wishing to seem disobedient to his parents. 
 
 The object of the private interview was that Stephens 
 might say, " Pray for me if I am out of the way, and I 
 will pray for you if you are out of the way. I will 
 give you a form of words for the purpose." The good 
 man, earnest if somewhat narrow, seems to have been 
 really anxious to find some common spiritual standing 
 ground with the young enthusiast, his parishioner. 
 We read with regret Fox's utterly unsympathetic and 
 self-confident answer, " It seems thou dost not know 
 whether thou art in the right way or not; but I know 
 that I am in the everlasting way, Christ Jesus, which 
 thou art out of." And then he raised a laugh against 
 Stephens by pointing out that he who objected to the 
 Book of Common Prayer was himself proposing to give 
 him a form of prayer, and so they parted, Fox announc-
 
 AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WTTTTEHALL 107 
 
 ing that he intended to be in tlic town again that 
 day week. " So the priests packed away, and many 
 people were convinced; for the Lord's power came over 
 all. Though they thought to have confounded truth 
 that day, many were convinced of it, and many that 
 were convinced before were by that day's work con- 
 firmed in the truth, and abode in it; and a great shake 
 it gave to the priests. My father, though he was a 
 hearer and follower of the priest, was so well satisfied, 
 that he struck his cane upon the ground and said, 
 ' Truly I see he that will but stand to the truth, it will 
 carry him out.'" This is, I believe, the last mention 
 that we have of "Righteous Clirister," who evidently 
 did not join the Society founded by his son, but who 
 remained staunch in his persuasion of the truth and 
 trustworthiness of his son's " Verily." 
 
 The third conference at Fenny Drayton, a meeting 
 " at my relations' house," seems to have been a failure. 
 Some soldiers were brought thither by the clergy, to 
 take down the names of the attendcrs, and to arrest 
 such as should not obey their command to disperse 
 and go home. When Fox's name was taken, his 
 relatives answered naturally enough, that as he was 
 at home already he could not go home ; and thus the 
 clumsy device (if it were ever really entertained) for 
 compassing Fox's imprisonment came to nought. 
 
 Soon, however, Fox was arrested and temporarily 
 imprisoned on an entirely different charge from that 
 which Stephens and his brother ministers would have 
 preferred against him. In the course of his journeyings 
 he came to Whetstone in Leicestershire, and there he 
 was about to hold a meeting which seems to have been 
 a kind of conference for the Friends of all the surround-
 
 108 GEORGE FOX 
 
 ins: district.! To this meeting came about seventeen 
 troopers of Colonel Hacker's regiment, some of the 
 very men probably who five years before had stood 
 round the scaffold at Whitehall, interposing between 
 the executioner of Charles I. and the crowd of London 
 citizens who thronged the street, murmuring at the 
 bloody deed.2 The troopers stopped the meeting, and 
 were about to arrest all the attenders, but George Fox 
 undertook to be answerable for the others, and while 
 arresting him they took his word for the appearance 
 of his friends. With one companion, Alexander Parker 
 of Bolton, Fox was taken into the presence of Colonel 
 Hacker, who sat surrounded by his major and captains. 
 The time was an unusually critical one — it was appar- 
 ently the summer of 1654. Oliver Cromwell had been 
 for about half-a-year Lord Protector of the Common- 
 wealth, and Gerard and Vowel's plot, the first of many 
 for his assassination, had either just been discovered, 
 or was known to be in agitation.^ Colonel Hacker and 
 his troopers had got it into their heads that this con- 
 ference of Friends at Whetstone, apparently so harmless 
 and peaceable, covered a design either to assassinate 
 Cromwell, or to bring in Charles 11.''^ The conversation 
 which the Colonel held with the accused failed alto- 
 
 1 " For there were several Friends come from various parts " 
 (I. 207). 
 
 2 The death-warrant of Charles I. proves that Colonel Hacker 
 and one of his associates in this work were only delegated to the 
 office of superintending the execution after at least two other 
 officers had refused it. (Gardiner, iv. 309.) 
 
 3 "At this time there was a rumour of a plot against Oliver 
 Cromwell " (I. 207). 
 
 * "I told them I had been formerly sent up a prisoner by- 
 Colonel Hacker from Leicester to London, under pretence that I 
 held meetings to plot to bring in King Charles " (L 534).
 
 AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WHITEHALL 109 
 
 gether to remove this impression. " Much reasoning," 
 says Fox, " I had with them about the light of Christ 
 which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the 
 world. Colonel Hacker asked whether it was not this 
 light of Christ that made Judas betray his Master, and 
 afterwards led him to hang himself. I told him, 'No; 
 that was the spirit of darkness, which hated Christ and 
 His Light.' Then Colonel Hacker said I might go 
 home and keep there, and not go abroad to meetings. 
 I told him, 'I was an innocent man free from plots, 
 and denied [disapproved of] all such work.' His son 
 Needham said, 'Father, this man hath reigned too 
 long; it is time to have him cut off.' I asked him, 
 'For what? What had I done? or whom had I 
 wronged from a child ? for I was bred and born in 
 that country, and who could accuse me of any evil 
 from a child ? ' " However, on his persistent refusal 
 to promise not to attend any more meetings, it was 
 decided that Fox should be sent up to London to the 
 Lord Protector, under the care of Captain Drury, one 
 of his life-guards. 
 
 In the early morning before he departed. Fox sought 
 an interview with Colonel Hacker, and was accordingly 
 admitted into his bedroom. The Colonel again tried 
 to persuade him to promise to hold no more meetings, 
 but he might as well have asked him to promise not 
 to eat or to breathe. " Then," said Hacker, " you must 
 go before the Protector." With that Fox kneeled down 
 by his bedside, and besought the Lord to forgive him, 
 for he was as Pilate, though he should wash his hands ; 
 and when the day of his misery and trial should come 
 upon him, he was then to remember what Fox had now 
 communicated to him. There came a day six years
 
 110 GEORGE FOX 
 
 after, when Hacker bitterly remembered these words 
 of his prisoner. 
 
 Often as Fox was asked on the journey, if he would 
 not go quietly home and hold no more meetings, he 
 always returned the same sturdy negative. At length 
 he and his escort reached London, and he was lodged 
 in the "Mermaid Inn"^ "over against the Mews at 
 Charing Cross." Captain Drury then went to the 
 Protector to report the arrival of his prisoner, and 
 returned with the demand which has been already 
 described, that Fox should give a written promise 
 not to take up the sword against the then existing 
 Government, 
 
 The Protector, when he received the paper contain- 
 ing Fox's declaration against all war, desired to see 
 the writer, of whom doubtless he had often heard by 
 the reports of his major-generals. After some time 
 Captain Drury brought Fox to the palace at White- 
 hall. He found the Protector in his bedroom, half- 
 dressed, being waited upon by a valet named Harvey, 
 who had himself for a short time joined the new Society 
 of Friends. On entering, Fox uttered in his deep and 
 thrilling voice his usual salutation, "Peace be to this 
 house," and then he proceeded to exhort the great 
 Protector to keep in the fear of God, that he might 
 be directed by the Divine wisdom, and order all things 
 under his hand to God's glory. Much conversation on 
 religious subjects followed, and in it Oliver evidently 
 showed a capacity for understanding the spiritual side 
 
 1 Not of course tlie Mermaid wliich was made famous by the 
 colloquies of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, That was in Bread 
 Street, Cheapside. It might be worth inquiry why the Mermaid 
 at this time was so popular as an inn sign.
 
 AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WHITEHALL 111 
 
 of Christianity which surprised his visitor.^ " Only," 
 said he, "you are too fond quarrelling with the 
 ministers." This charge, of course, Fox repelled, de- 
 claring in his usual maimer that he only followed the 
 example of prophets and apostles in denouncing " the 
 false prophets who preached for filthy lucre, and divined 
 for money, and who were covetous and greedy, and 
 could never have enough." While Fox spoke, Crom- 
 well said several times, "It is very good: it is the 
 truth." The conversation then turned on the Scrip- 
 tures, which Fox was accused of esteeming too lightly. 
 His answer was, " All Christendom (so called) possesses 
 the Scriptures, but lacks the power and spirit of the 
 men who gave forth the Scriptures; and this is the 
 reason why Christians are not in fellowship with the 
 Son, nor with the Father, nor with the Scriptures, nor 
 with one another." 
 
 Much more passed between these two men, each in 
 his different way sucb a notable product of seventeenth- 
 century England. Then the crowd of courtiers began 
 to flock into the great man's lev^e, and Fox turned to 
 go. As he turned, Cromwell caught him by the hand, 
 and with tears in his eyes said, " Come again to my 
 house, for if thou and I were but an hour a day to- 
 gether, we should be nearer one to the other. I wish 
 no more ill to thee than to my own soul." Said Fox, 
 " If thou didst, thou wouldest wrong thy own soul. 
 Only hearken to God's voice, stand in His counsel and 
 obey it; and that will keep thy heart from the hard- 
 ness which will otherwise overtake it." Cromwell 
 answered, " It is true." Fox left the presence-chamber, 
 
 1 " Much discourse I had with him about religion, wherein he 
 carried himself very moderately."
 
 112 GEORGE FOX 
 
 followed by Drury, who told him it was the Lord Pro- 
 tector's decision that he should be set at liberty, and 
 niisht o-o whither he would. Then he was brought 
 into a great hall (was it the Banqueting Chamber of 
 Inigo Jones ?), where the gentlemen of the new court 
 were to dine together; but as soon as Fox learned that 
 he was brought there that he might join them in the 
 repast, he stiffly refused, sending a message to the 
 Protector that he would not eat of his bread nor drink 
 of his drink, " Now," said Cromwell, on receiving this 
 message, "I see there is a people risen up that I can- 
 not win with gifts, honours, offices or places; but all 
 other sects and people I can." " It is not likely," said 
 Fox in reply, ''that we who have forsaken all that we 
 had, should look for such favours from him," 
 
 This was not Fox's last visit to Whitehall, though it 
 was for the time his last interview with the Protector. 
 He returned to the " Mermaid Inn," now a free man, 
 and went thence into the city, where he had many 
 " great and powerful meetings," attended by such dense 
 throngs of people that he found it difficult to make his 
 way into and out of the place of assembly. It is 
 probably to this date that we must refer the practical 
 foundation of the Quaker church in the capital city. 
 
 But after a time he went to Whitehall again, and 
 was " moved to declare the day of the Lord among them, 
 and that the Lord was come to teach His people Him- 
 self." The officers of the New Model army and the 
 gentlemen of the Protector's household seem to have 
 heard him for a time with patience, and some of them 
 with more than patience, for " there was a great con- 
 vincement in the Protector's house and family " ; but 
 no further opportunity of access to the Protector was
 
 AT FENNY DRAYTON AND WHITEHALL US 
 
 afiforded him, owing, as he says, to the rudeness of the 
 officers. Probably the real reason was the press of 
 State business, which would not admit of Cromwell's 
 listening to the lengthy discourses of his visitor, how- 
 ever in his heart he might be convinced of his earnest- 
 ness and spiritual insight. 
 
 During these visits to Whitehall, George Fox had 
 a curious encounter with one of Cromwell's chaplains, 
 or, to use his own description, " one of several priests 
 whom Oliver had about him. This was his news- 
 monger, an envious priest, and a light, scornful, chaffy 
 man." Would that Fox had given us some clearer 
 indication which of the well-known chaplains of the 
 Protector was labelled by him in this contemptuous 
 fashion. When Fox met this man, something in his 
 conversation seems to have aroused his suspicions, and 
 he bade him repent, an exhortation which so moved 
 the chaplain's wrath that he inserted in his newspaper 
 next week the following item of news — " George Fox 
 the Quaker has been to Whitehall, and bid a godly 
 minister there to repent." Certainly the minister, 
 whether godly or not, seems to have been a purveyor 
 of extremely trivial gossip, and one marvels that Fox 
 should have thought it worth while to bandy words 
 with him. The chaplain stated in his newspaper that 
 Fox wore silver buttons, "which was false, for they 
 were but alchemy." He also said that Fox "hung 
 ribands on people's arms, which made them follow him," 
 — the suggestion probably being that there was some 
 kind of enchantment in these ribands. There was a 
 great deal of discussion backwards and forwards as to 
 the originator of this idle tale ; and the chaplain 
 
 promised to insert George Fox's contradiction in his 
 
 I
 
 114 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 newspaper, but failed to keep his promise. From the 
 following sentence it appears that now, in the day of 
 Cromwell's uncontrolled power, it was the Independents, 
 rather than the Friends' old adversaries, the Presby- 
 terians, who were taking the lead in the repression of 
 Quakerism. "These priests, the newsmongers, were 
 of the Independent sect, like those of Leicester; but 
 the Lord's power came over all their lies, and swept 
 them away ; and many came to see the naughtiness of 
 these priests." 
 
 It was probably on account of the attitude thus 
 assumed by the Independent clergy that Cromwell, 
 though himself earnest for toleration, permitted the 
 persecution of Quakers to be carried on so fiercely, 
 that about three thousand of their number were im- 
 prisoned on one pretence or other between 1648 and 
 1660, and that thirty-two actually died in prison, "in 
 the time of the Commonwealth, and of Oliver and 
 Richard the Protectors."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 
 
 After the account of Fox's visit to the Protector 
 at Whitehall, he inserts in his Journal copies of several 
 "papers" which he felt himself called upon to write to 
 various "sorts and conditions of men"; "to all pro- 
 fessors of Christianity " ; "to such as follow the world's 
 fashions " ; " to the Pope and all kings and rulers in 
 Europe " ; " to the Triers " (a body of men appointed by 
 Cromwell to examine the holders of benefices) ; " to 
 those that made a scorn of trembling and quaking"; 
 " to churches gathered into outward forms upon the 
 earth " ; to the Protector, as to the trouble brought 
 upon Friends by the new oath of abjuration, and to 
 Friends themselves, exhorting them to be patient under 
 the new persecution that was coming upon them. 
 This last letter begins with the question, " Who is 
 moved by the power of the Lord to offer himself to 
 justice for his brother or sister that lies in prison, and 
 to 20 lie there in their stead, that his brother or sister 
 may come out of prison, and so offer his life for his 
 
 brother or sister ? " " As Christ hath laid down His 
 
 life for you, so lay down your lives for one another. Here 
 you may go over the heads of the persecutors and reach 
 
 the witness of God in all." 
 
 115
 
 116 GEORGE FOX 
 
 The time was at hand when Fox himself was again 
 to endure imprisonment, one of the longest and most 
 terrible of all that he had to undergo. 
 
 I pass rapidly over his journeyings in the eastern 
 and midland counties in the year 1655; his discussion 
 at Reading with the Ranters, " who pleaded that God 
 made the Devil " ; his sufferings from " the scholars at 
 Cambridge," who pulled his companion off his horse, 
 and "were so rude in the courts and in the streets, 
 that miners, colliers, and carters could never be ruder, 
 raging as much against the man who denounced the 
 trade of preaching, which they were there as apprentices 
 to learn, as ever Diana's craftsmen did against Paul." 
 Then came one more visit to his native place, Fenny 
 Drayton, where not a priest or " professor " appeared of 
 all the great company that had been gathered together 
 against him. He asked the reason, and was told that 
 the priest of the neighbouring Nuneaton was dead, 
 and that eight or nine of them were seeking to get 
 his benefice, flocking to the spoil as carrion crows to a 
 sheep's carcase. At Evesham a pair of high stocks^ 
 had been prepared expressly for him, but he would not 
 turn aside from his course, and seems to have passed 
 through the town without being confined in them. 
 At Tewkesbury, the " priest " came with a great rabble 
 of rude people to disturb his meeting, and when Fox 
 " turned the people to the Divine Light which Christ, 
 the heavenly and spiritual Man, enlightened them 
 withal, the priest began to rage against the Light and 
 denied it, for neither priest nor professor could endure 
 to hear the Light spoken of." At Warwick, he appealed 
 
 ^ In the MS. Journal they are thus described, "a pair of 
 stocks, a yard and a half high, with a trap-door to come to it."
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 117 
 
 in vain to the Protector's " Instrument of Government, 
 in wbicli liberty of conscience was granted." Notwith- 
 standing this, the rude multitude, encouraged, or at 
 least not hindered by " the bailitf of the town," stoned 
 him, and tried to unliorse him. He and his companions 
 had got clear of the town, when he told his friends 
 that " it was upon him from the Lord to go back into 
 it again ; if any of them felt anything upon him from 
 the Lord, he might follow him, and the rest that did 
 not might go on to " the next halting-place. One man, 
 Jolm Crook, turned and followed the dauntless preacher, 
 who " passed up through the market in the dreadful 
 power of God, declaring the word of life unto the 
 people, and showing them their unworthiness of the 
 name of Christians." " Some struck at me," he says, 
 " but the Lord's power was over them, and gave me 
 dominion over all." 
 
 These journeys in the Midlands having been ended, 
 and London again visited. Fox prepared to break 
 entirely new ground by a visit to the western counties 
 of England, in which apparently there had hitherto 
 been no Quaker-preaching of any importance. 
 
 Through Sussex and Hampshire he journeyed into 
 Dorsetshire, having for his companion Edward Pyot of 
 Bristol, and at Dorchester he went to an inn which 
 happened to be kept by a Baptist. He sent to ask 
 the Baptists of the town for leave to invite " the sober 
 people " to a meeting in their chapel, but they refused, 
 and accordingly an invitation was sent to them and all 
 who feared God to visit the Quaker missionaries at 
 the inn. " They were in a great rage, and their teacher 
 and many of them came up and slapped their Bibles 
 on the table. I asked them why they were so angry ;
 
 118 GEORGE FOX 
 
 were they angry with the Bible ? But they fell into 
 a discourse about their water-baptism." Fox asked 
 them if they could claim the same power which the 
 apostles had to convey the gift of the Holy Spirit by 
 the administration of baptism, and on their modestly 
 disclaiming this power, proceeded by a series of Socratic 
 questions to draw the conclusion, that as they had not 
 tlie Divine power which was bestowed on the apostles, 
 they were baptizing in the power of the Evil One, 
 Naturally the Baptists were much exasperated, and 
 shook off the dust of their feet against the two Quakers, 
 but many of the substantial citizens seem to have joined 
 them. At Weymouth, the result of a large assembly 
 which lasted for several hours was the establishment 
 of a regular meeting of Quakers in that town, partly 
 formed out of converted Ranters, "who came to own 
 the truth and to live very soberly." At the same 
 place Fox made another convert, whose name is not 
 disclosed, but whose disposition is amusingly portrayed 
 in the following paragraph : — 
 
 " There was a captain of horse in the town, who sent 
 to me, and would fain have had me to stay longer; 
 but I was not to stay. He and his man rode out of 
 town with me about seven miles, Edward Pyot also 
 being with me. This captain was the fattest, merriest 
 man, the most cheerful and the most given to laughter 
 that ever I met with; insomuch that I was several 
 times moved to speak in the dreadful power of the 
 Lord to him ; and yet it was become so customary to 
 him that he would presently laugh at anything he 
 saw. But I still admonished him to come to sobriety, 
 sincerity, and the fear of the Lord. We staid at an 
 inn that night, and in the morning I was moved to
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 119 
 
 speak to him again when he parted from iis. Next 
 time I saw him he told me, that when I spoke to him 
 at parting, the power of the Lord so struck him, that 
 before he got home he was serious enough, and had 
 discontinued his laughing. He afterwards was con- 
 vinced, and became a serious and good man, and died 
 in the truth." 
 
 At Kingsbridge, as there were many people drinking 
 in the inn where the travellers lodged, Fox went in 
 amongst them and preached them a sermon on the 
 inward Light. Some probably were impressed and 
 some amused by the unexpected utterance; but one 
 eflect it had upon all — it stopped the consumption 
 of liquor. " The innkeeper stood uneasy, seeing it 
 hindered his guests from drinking; and as soon as 
 the last words were out of my mouth, he snatched 
 up the candle and said, ' Come, here is a light for you 
 to go into your chamber.' Next morning, when he 
 was cool, I represented to him what an uncivil thing 
 it was for him to do so : then warning him of the day 
 of the Lord, we got ready and passed away." 
 
 At Plymouth they held a meeting in the house of 
 one of the numerous Carys of Devonshire. A certain 
 Elizabeth Trelawney, daughter of the Trelawney baronet 
 of the day, was there, and, being somewhat deaf, sat 
 near to George Fox. The sermon thus intently listened 
 to produced its usual effect. She was " convinced," and 
 when some "jangling Baptists" came into the room 
 after the meeting was over, she bore witness to her new 
 conviction of the Truth. At Plymouth, as at many of 
 the other places which have been named, the meetings 
 of the Friends, which were established at the time of 
 Fox's visit, still exist after the lapse of 240 years.
 
 120 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Fox now crossed over into Cornwall, but his visit 
 to that county, though it resulted in one of the longest 
 and most severe of his imprisonments, did not produce 
 anything like so large a crop of conversions to Quakerism 
 as rewarded his visits to Lancashire and Cumberland. 
 He himself accounts for this in some measure by saying 
 that he "could not obtain knowledge of any sober 
 people, through the badness of the innkeepers." This 
 remark helps us to understand his usual mode of 
 procedure on arriving at a strange place, which was 
 apparently to go to an inn kept by a Puritan landlord, 
 and use his host's local knowledge in order to gather 
 together an audience of "sober," that is spiritually- 
 minded people. Why this mode of procedure failed 
 him in Cornwall can be readily understood from the 
 history of the Civil War. Tlie westernmost county of 
 England, in which there is now, under the influence 
 of John Wesley and his successors, so strong a Non- 
 conformist element, was in the seventeenth century 
 enthusiastic for Church and King. Pendennis Castle 
 was one of the last strongholds on which the royal 
 banner was kept flying. Cornishmen, with their brother 
 Britons the Welshmen, still stood by Charles Stuart 
 when all Saxon England disowned him, and popular 
 legends still tell of a certain battle or skirmish which 
 was foufdit near Falmouth after the Civil War over all 
 the rest of England was ended, and before the news of 
 the pacification had reached that remote district.^ In 
 such an episcopally-minded and Royalist county the 
 
 1 This skirmish took place on a little grassy plain which yet 
 bears the name of " Fine and Brave," and according to local 
 tradition headless Cavaliers and Roundheads are believed still 
 to be seen galloping over it in the moonlight.
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 121 
 
 new teaching, which required a Puritan nidus to work in, 
 even while opposing Puritan dogmas, had little chance 
 of success, and though a few meetings were established, 
 there was no general ingathering to Quakerism. 
 
 There was, however, a determination on the part of 
 the authorities of the county to keep it clear of the 
 new sect, and when Fox reached Marazion (which seems 
 at that time to have had a corporation of its own), the 
 Mayor and Aldermen of the little town, acting in 
 conjunction with the Sheriff of the county, sent the 
 constables to summon Fox and Pyot before them. No 
 warrant for their apprehension had been issued, and 
 when Fox asked the constables to produce their warrant, 
 one of tliem pulled out his mace from under his cloak, 
 and said that was his warrant. However, no arrest 
 was made. Pyot went unconstrained to the Mayor 
 and Aldermen of Marazion, and preached them a 
 sermon, to Avhich they seem to have listened with 
 attention. 
 
 Possibly the three Friends (one W. Salt of London 
 now accompanied Fox and Pyot) might have ridden back 
 again through the county without molestation, but for 
 the zeal of a county magistrate and major in the army, 
 named Peter Ceely of St. Ives. According to a frequent 
 jjractice of his, Fox had written a short address, to 
 be sent to the seven parishes at the Land's End. 
 There was nothing in this address which any Christian 
 man could possibly object to. It merely set forth in 
 language unusually simple and clear Fox's great pro- 
 position, " Every one of you hath a light from Christ, 
 which lets you see you should not lie, nor do wrong to 
 any, nor swear, nor curse, nor take God's name in vain, 
 nor steal." But a copy of the paper was handed to a
 
 122 GEORGE FOX 
 
 mounted traveller whom the party met about three 
 miles from Marazion, who proved to be a servant of this 
 Major Ceely's. Riding forward, he delivered it to his 
 master at St. Ives, where the Friends were delayed for 
 a time, Pyot's horse having cast a shoe. While the 
 horse was being shod. Fox walked down to the shore, 
 and looked forth upon the Bristol Channel. When he 
 returned to his friends, he found all the little town in 
 an uproar, and a rude mob dragging off Pyot and Salt 
 before Major Ceely. "I followed them," says Fox, 
 " into the justice's house, though they did not lay hands 
 upon me. When we came in, the house was full of 
 rude people; whereupon I asked whether there were not 
 an officer among them to keep the people civil. Major 
 Ceely said he was a magistrate. I told him ' he should 
 show forth gravity and sobriety then, and use his 
 authority to keep people civil: for I never saw any 
 people ruder : the Indians were more like Christians 
 than they.' After a while, they brought forth the 
 paper aforesaid, and asked whether I would own it. 
 I said ' Yes.' Then he tendered the oath of abjuration 
 to us, whereupon I put my hand in my pocket and 
 drew forth the answer to it, which had been given to 
 the Protector. After I had given him that, he ex- 
 amined us severally, one by one. He had with him 
 a silly young priest, who asked us many frivolous 
 questions, and amongst the rest he desired to cut my 
 hair, which then was pretty long : but I was not ^ to 
 cut it, though many times many were offended at it. 
 I told them, ' I had no pride in it, and it was not of 
 my own putting on.'^ At length the justice put us 
 
 1 i. e. " I did not think it my duty to cut it." 
 
 2 Sewel, the historian of Quakerism, remarks on this—" It
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 123 
 
 under a guard of soldiers, who were hard and wild, like 
 the justice himself; nevertheless we warned the people 
 of the day of the Lord, and declared the truth to them. 
 The next day he sent us, guarded by a party of horse, 
 with swords and pistols, to Redruth." 
 
 From Redruth next day, notwithstanding the fact 
 that it was Sunday, the soldiers insisted on their 
 travelling forward a stage. They had preached to the 
 people in the morning amidst howls of rage ; it was 
 already afternoon of the short January day, and the 
 party had ten miles to ride. But Fox had, as he 
 believed, a message from the Lord, and insisted on 
 delivering it. "When we were got to the town's end 
 I was moved of the Lord to go back again to speak to 
 the old man of the house ; the soldiers drew out their 
 pistols and swore I should not go back. I heeded them 
 not, but rode back, and they rode after me. I cleared 
 myself [delivered my message] to the old man and the 
 people, and then returned with them and reproved 
 them for being so rude and violent. 
 
 "At night we were brought to a town called Smethick 
 then, but since Falmouth. It bcinsf the eveuino- of 
 the First-day [Sunday], there came to our inn the chief 
 constable of the place and many sober people, some 
 of whom began to inquire concerning us. We told 
 them we were prisoners for truth's sake, and much 
 
 happened also at other times that because of his long hair he 
 was spoken to, as I have seen myself ; but of this I am fully 
 persuaded, that he had not the least pride in it ; but it seems to 
 me not improbable that he, seeing some would make it a kind of 
 holiness to wear short hair, did the contrary to show that in some 
 tilings there was a Christian liberty, for which we ought not 
 to jud'^e one another." An interesting comment on the name 
 " Koundheads."
 
 124 GEORGE FOX 
 
 discourse we had with them concerning the things of 
 God. They were very sober and loving to us. Some 
 were convinced and stood faithful ever after." 
 
 The captain of the little party of soldiers who were 
 escorting the Friends was apparently a rough and 
 lawless man named Keat. They believed that it was 
 only the bolting of their door which prevented him 
 from making some attack upon them during the night. 
 In this they may have been mistaken, but it was 
 certain that next day a kinsman of Keat's, " a rude, 
 wicked man," was brought by him into their room, 
 while he himself stood outside. " This evil-minded 
 man walking huffing up and down the room, I bade 
 him fear the Lord ; whereupon he ran upon me, struck 
 me with both his hands, and placing his leg behind me, 
 would fain have thrown me down, but he could not, 
 for I stood stiff and still and let him strike. As I 
 looked towards the door, I saw Captain Keat look on 
 and see his kinsman thus beat and abuse me. Where- 
 upon I said, * Keat, dost thou allow this ? ' and he said 
 he did. ' Is this manly or civil,' said I, ' to have us 
 under a guard and put a man to abuse and beat us ? 
 Is this manly or civil or Christian ? ' " 
 
 The constables were sent for, the magistrate's warrant 
 was examined and proved to be an order to conduct the 
 prisoners safely to Captain Fox, governor of Pendennis 
 Castle, or, if he should not be at home, to convey them 
 to Launceston Gaol. The chief constable strongly 
 remonstrated against the rude and violent conduct of 
 the soldiers, and his remonstrances were backed by the 
 officers of the garrison of Pendennis. As the governor 
 was gone to Bodmin to meet Major Desborough, it was 
 decided that the Friends must be sent to Launceston,
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 125 
 
 but the chief constable at first positively refused to give 
 them in charge to their rough bullying escort. " If it cost 
 twenty shillings in charges to carry us up, they should 
 not have the warrant again. I showed the soldiers the 
 baseness of their carriage towards us ; and they walked 
 up and down the house, being pitifully blank and down." 
 Eventually, on the soldiers' entreaty and promise to be 
 more civil to their prisoners, the warrant was given 
 back to them, and the party started for Launceston. 
 On the road they met General Desborough, Crom- 
 well's brother-in-law, and one of the major-generals, 
 the satraps through whom, for a year and a lialf,^ the 
 Protector administered the government of England. 
 Desborough's satrapy included the six western counties 
 from Gloucestershire to Land's End, and the com- 
 prehensive powers of himself and his fellows gave them 
 jurisdiction over religion and morals, as well as over 
 more purely political questions.^ The great man was 
 apparently journeying westward, when the little troop 
 of Fox's escort met him. The captain of the troop 
 that rode before him recognized Fox — he had perhaps 
 made his acquaintance during the preacher's visit to 
 Whitehall — and said, " Oh, Mr. Fox, what do you here ? " 
 Fox replied, " I am a prisoner." " Alack," said the 
 captain, " for what ? " Fox told him he had been 
 arrested while he was travelling on his religious errand. 
 " Then," said he, " I will speak to my lord, and he will 
 
 » From June 1655 to February 1657. The proceedings which 
 We are now considering took place in January 1656. 
 
 2 In the intere.-^ting article on "Cromwell's Major-Generals'' in 
 the Enxjlish Historical Eevieio (x. 492), it is stated that Major- 
 General Butler lined a certain Mr. Barton £Q for saying " God 
 damn me," and protested that it should have been j£10, if the 
 culprit'3 horse would have fetched as much.
 
 126 GEORGE FOX 
 
 set you at liberty." He rode up to " my lord's " coach 
 aud explained the case to Desborough. Possibly if Fox 
 could have left the matter in the captain's hands he 
 might have had his liberty, but when he himself began 
 to tell the story of his wrongs, and touched upon his 
 doctrine, Desborough "began to speak against the 
 Light of Christ, for which," says Fox, "I reproved 
 him. Then he told the soldiers they might carry us to 
 Launceston ; for he could not stay to talk with us, lest 
 his horses should take cold." 
 
 At Bodmin, Captain Keat put Fox into a room where 
 stood a man with a naked rapier in his hand, and when 
 the captive remonstrated, answered, " pray hold your 
 tongue, for if you speak to this man we cannot all rule 
 him, he is so devilish ; " in other words, the man with 
 the rapier was a dangerous lunatic. Naturally Fox 
 comiDlained that such an apology did not mend matters, 
 and he at length succeeded in getting another room. 
 "In the evening we declared the truth to the people, 
 but they were hardened and dark people. The soldiers 
 also, notwithstanding their fair promises, were very rude 
 and wicked to us again, and sat up drinking and roar- 
 ing all night." It occurs to one that these roysterers 
 can hardly have been the precise, sanctimonious soldiers 
 of Cromwell's New Model army; possibly both they 
 and their captain may have been some of the disbanded 
 Cavalier troops taken into the service of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Next day the prisoners were brought to Launceston 
 and handed over to the care of the gaoler. Thus began 
 one of the longest and most terrible of Fox's many im- 
 prisonments, which lasted nearly eight months, from 
 the 22nd of January to the 13th of September 1G56.
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 127 
 
 For nine weeks winch intervened between the 
 commitment of the Friends to prison and their trial 
 at the Assizes they appear to have been fairly treated, 
 matters being smoothed by their each paying the 
 gaoler seven shillings a week for their board, and 
 seven shillings for the keep of their horses. Their 
 peculiar usage of addressing all persons with " Thou " 
 and "Thee," and their scruple about the removal 
 of the hat were, however, the subject of general remark, 
 and there were many speculations how this behaviour 
 would be tolerated by the great judge who would 
 come down from London to try them at the Assizes. 
 The general expectation seems to have been that he 
 would at once order them to be hung. 
 
 At length, somewhere about the 22nd of March, 
 the Assizes were held, and the long-expected judge 
 took his seat on the bench. He proved to be Chief 
 Justice Glyn, a man who, though not a Jefferies or 
 a Scroggs, has earned for himself a somewhat un- 
 favourable reputation as a time-server, and a politician 
 too keenly intent on selfish ends; a patriot in 1G40, 
 a noisy Presbyterian in 1646, a CromwelHan under 
 the Protectorate, and a Eoyalist as soon as General 
 Monk began to move for the Restoration of the Stuart 
 dynasty. In this trial, however, he does not appear 
 to have done anything unfitting to his high position. 
 
 The little town of Launceston was crowded with the 
 country folks, who had come from far and near to 
 gaze upon these strange beings who were going to defy 
 the great Chief Justice ; and the soldiers and javelin- 
 men who guarded them had some difficulty in making 
 a way for them through the crowd. At length, how- 
 ever, they pushed their way in, and the judge, lifting
 
 128 GEORGE FOX 
 
 up his eyes, saw a group of austere, plainly clad men 
 standing in the dock, with their broad hats overshadow- 
 ing their faces, pale with nine weeks of prison air. 
 But the scene must be described in Fox's own words. 
 
 " When we were brought into the court, we stood 
 some time with our hats on, and all was quiet, and 
 I was moved to say, ' Peace be amongst you ! ' Judge 
 Glyn, a Welshman, then Chief Justice of England, 
 said to the gaoler, 'What be these you have brought 
 here into the court ? ' ' Prisoners, my Lord ! ' said he. 
 ' Why do you not put off your hats ? ' said the judge 
 to us. We said nothing. ' Put off your hats,' said the 
 judge again. Still we said nothing. Then said the 
 judge, ' The court commands you to put off your hats.' 
 Then I spoke and said, ' When did ever any magistrate, 
 king, or judge, from Moses to Daniel, command any to 
 put off their hats when they came before them in their 
 courts, either amongst the Jews, the people of God, or 
 amongst the heathen ? ^ and if the law of England 
 doth command any such thing, show me that law, 
 either written or printed.' Then the judge grew very 
 angry and said, ' I do not carry my law books on my 
 back.' ' But,' said I, ' tell me where it is printed in any 
 statute book, that I may read it.' Then said the judge, 
 ' Take him away, prevaricator ! I'll /er/fc him.' So 
 they took us away and put us among the thieves. 
 Presently after he calls to the gaoler, ' Bring them up 
 again.' ' Come,' said he, ' when had they hats from 
 
 1 A quaint little illustration of the way in which Fox, who 
 was accused of undervaluing the Scripture, had absorbed it into 
 the very tissue of his mind; so that for him the proceedings of 
 an English Court of Justice in the seventeenth century were 
 to be modelled on the customs of an Oriental people two 
 thousand years before that date.
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 129 
 
 Moses to Daniel ? Come, answer me. I have you fast 
 now/ said he. I replied, 'Thou mayest read in the 
 third of Daniel that the three children were cast into 
 the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar's command, with 
 their coats, their hose, and their hats on.' ^ This 
 plain instance stopped him, so that, not having any- 
 thing else to say to the point, he cried again, ' Take 
 them away, gaoler.' " 
 
 In the afternoon the prisoners were again brought 
 up, and after there had been some discussion about 
 a " paper against swearing," which Fox, shocked at 
 the proceedings of the court, had handed to the grand 
 and petty juries, and which tlie judge pronounced to 
 be of a seditious character, the old question of the 
 hats came up again. " Then they let fall that subject ; 
 and the judge fell upon us about our hats again, 
 bidding the gaoler take them ofif, which he did, and 
 gave them to 2is ; and we put them on again. Then 
 we asked the judge and the justices what we had 
 lain in prison for these nine weeks, seeing they now 
 objected nothing to us but about our hats ; and as 
 for putting off our hats, I told them that was the 
 honour which God would lay in the dust, though 
 they made so much to do about it : the honour which 
 is of men, and which men seek one of another, and 
 is the mark of unbelievers. . . Then the judge began 
 to make a great speech, how he represented the Lord 
 
 * Curiously enougli, the word here translated " hats " (Car- 
 balathon) is now believed to be more properly translated 
 " mantles." It is strange that Fox, with his intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the Bible, should not have perceived the real point 
 at issue between oriental and occidental customs, that among 
 the Jews, as with so many other Eastern nations, it was not by 
 uncovering the head, but by " loosing the shoes from off the 
 feet," that reverence was shown to a superior power. 
 
 K
 
 130 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Protector's person, who had made him Lord Chief 
 Justice of England, and sent him to come that circuit," 
 and so forth. 
 
 Some modus vivendi as to the hat question must have 
 been obtained between the court and the prisoners, for 
 we next find Fox pointing out the errors in his indict- 
 ment, and insisting on the production of the mittimus 
 under which he had been committed to prison. This 
 had been given forth by Major Ceely of St. Ives, the 
 fussy magistrate to whose servant Fox's letter to the 
 seven Land's End parishes had been handed. This 
 Major Ceely must, one would think, have been either 
 insane, or an outrageous liar ; for he now, sitting beside 
 the Chief Justice, said to him — " May it please you, 
 my lord, this man [pointing to Fox] went aside with 
 me, and told me how serviceable I might be for his 
 design ; that he could raise 40,000 men at an hour's 
 warning, and involve the nation in blood, and so bring 
 in King Charles." It was not difficult to prove the 
 falsity of such a preposterous accusation as this, and, 
 as Fox says, "the judge saw clearly that instead of 
 ensnaring me, he had ensnared himself." Not satisfied, 
 however, with this rebuff. Major Ceely rose again and 
 said — "If it please you, my lord, to hear me: this man 
 struck me, and gave me such a blow as I never had in 
 my life." Challenged by Fox to say where and when, 
 he answered that it was in the Castle green, and that 
 Captain Bradden was standing by and saw the blow. 
 Bradden, however, seems to have shown by a shrug of 
 his shoulders his opinion of the absurdity of the charge, 
 and the judge, who evidently saw that Ceely was a 
 witness on whose evidence no reliance could be placed, 
 went no further into the matter. According to Fox,
 
 LAUNCESTOX GAOL 131 
 
 " the judge, finding those snares would not hold, cried, 
 ' Take him away, gaoler,' and then when we were 
 taken away, he fined us twenty marks apiece for not 
 putting off our hats, and to be kept in prison till we 
 paid it; so ho sent us back to the gaol." 
 
 In other words, the charge on which the Friends had 
 been originally arrested fell to the ground, but for 
 " contempt of court" they were each fined £13 Gs. 8cl, 
 with imprisonment till the fine was paid, A severe 
 sentence certainly, but, considering the sensitiveness of 
 an English court of law on the subject of disrespect to 
 its presiding officer, and considering also the novelty 
 of the objection to remove the hat, and the small 
 experience which judges had yet had of the adamantine 
 nature of a Quaker scruple, not a sentence which 
 reflects any serious discredit on the character of the 
 Chief Justice. 
 
 The wildly absurd charge which Ceely had in the 
 second instance brought against Fox was explained by 
 Captain Bradden, who with seven or eight magistrates 
 called that evening at the prison, and told the Friends 
 that neither the judge, nor any one in court, believed 
 Major Ceely 's accusation about a conspiracy, though 
 Bradden believed that if he could have found another 
 witness, Ceely would have pressed for a capital con- 
 viction. Then Fox asked him why he had remained 
 silent when the Major vouched him as a witness for 
 the striking of a blow. " Why," said he, " when Major 
 Ceely and I came by you, as you were walking on the 
 Castle green [the courtyard of the prison], he put off his 
 hat to you, and said, ' How do you do, Mr. Fox — your 
 servant, sir ! ' Then you said to him, ' Major Ceely, 
 take heed of hypocrisy, and of a rotten heart ; for
 
 132 GEORGE FOX 
 
 when came I to be thy master, and thou my servant ? 
 Do servants use to cast their masters into prison ? ' 
 This was the great blow he meant you gave him." 
 
 The sentence passed on Fox and his friends, it will 
 be remembered, was not primarily one of imprisonment, 
 but fine, and imprisonment till the fine should be paid. 
 There is no reason to suppose that they could not have 
 paid £13 apiece ; in fact, the price of their horses 
 alone would probably have been nearly sufficient for 
 the purpose. But there was now to be a demonstration 
 of the fact, often proved in after years, that the Quaker 
 would rather undergo any amount of imprisonment 
 than satisfy what he conceived to be an unjust demand. 
 It was in many cases a living death that he thus 
 confronted, for the prisons of England in that century 
 were horrible beyond description; still, when the 
 Quaker had made up his mind that a certain claim was 
 unrighteous, he would rather suffer anything than pay 
 it; and this invincible resolution of his had no small 
 share in bringing about the victorious issue of the 
 battle which was to be waged for liberty of thought 
 during the following half-century. 
 
 Now that the Assizes were over, and the Friends 
 were evidently in for a long term of imprisonment, 
 they decided to send their horses away, and no longer 
 to pay the gaoler his fourteen shillings apiece for the 
 horses' bait and the riders' board. This exasperated 
 the gaoler, who as well as the under-gaoler, and the 
 wives of both men, were all notorious bad characters, 
 bearing the mark of the branding-iron for theft and 
 other crimes. The gaol itself and the lands round it 
 belonged to a Baptist preaching Colonel named Bennet, 
 and the appointment to the office of gaoler was in his
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 133 
 
 gift. The gaoler, in his rage at being baulked of his 
 gains, thrust Fox and his friends into a horrible 
 dungeon called Doomsdale, the especial receptacle of 
 condemned murderers and witches, and said to be 
 haunted by their unquiet spirits. Of the spirits Fox 
 had no fear. " I told them," he says, " that if all the 
 spirits and devils in hell were there I was over them in 
 the power of God, and feared no such thing ; for Christ, 
 our priest, would sanctify the walls and house to us ; 
 He who bruised the head of the devil." But the 
 material discomforts, or I should rather say, the horrors 
 of Doomsdale could not be so lightly passed over, and 
 the description which Fox gives of them in his 
 Journal} a description which would sicken my readers 
 if I dared to quote it, shows us that at that time, after 
 England had been for a thousand years a Christian 
 country, her unhappy prisoners were treated with a 
 barbarity which could hardly be surpassed at this day 
 even in the awful pest-houses of Morocco.^ In reading 
 this and similar narratives one feels a thrill of indig- 
 nation at the divines and statesmen of all sects and 
 schools, who were wrangling over Episcopacy, Presby- 
 terianism, Independency, the eastward position of the 
 altar, and the jus divinum of synods and presbyteries, 
 while the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, 
 and truth were so dismally neglected. The members 
 of the Society founded by Fox may reflect with some 
 
 > I. 282. 
 
 2 Fox's Journals supply many vivid illustrations of Macaulay's 
 words, " the prisons were hells on earth, seminaries of every 
 crime and every disease. At the assizes the lean and yellow 
 culprits brought with them from their cells to the dock an 
 atmosphere ot stench and pestilence, which sometimes avenged 
 them signally on bench, bar, and jury" [the well-known "gaol- 
 fever"]. {History of England, Cap. III. ad finem.)
 
 134 GEORGE FOX 
 
 satisfaction, that it was a paintly woman, the daughter 
 of a Quaker family, who first carried the torch of 
 Christian civilization into the hellish darkness of 
 Newgate,^ 
 
 At the present day the grim fortress of Launceston 
 Castle has none but pleasant associations for the in- 
 habitants of the little Cornish town. Leased from 
 the Crown by a public-spirited nobleman who has 
 generously handed it over to the public, its round 
 shell-keep rises over a terraced garden planted with 
 noble evergreens, and below this garden is a fine level 
 playground for the school children, which was formerly 
 the courtyard of the Castle. At the north-eastern end 
 of this is a ruined gateway containing a little roofless 
 chamber about twelve feet square, which rightly or 
 wrongly is identified by local tradition with the horrible 
 Doomsdale of Fox's Journal. 
 
 In this place, foul with indescribable nastiness, the 
 prisoners, whom the gaoler called " hatchet-faced dogs," 
 were kept for many days before he would allow them 
 to clean it, and fed like dogs through a grating. Once 
 a girl brought them a little meat, but he arrested her 
 for house-breaking, sued her in the town court, and 
 put her to so much trouble that none of the other 
 inhabitants, though kindly disposed, durst bring them 
 water or victuals. However, before long the quarter 
 sessions at Bodmin were held, and a statement of the 
 hardships inflicted on the prisoners, drawn up and 
 presented to the magistrates, brought down an order 
 " that Doomsdale door should be opened, and that the 
 prisoners should be allowed to cleanse it and to buy 
 
 ^ John Howard's work, noble as it was, seems to have been 
 more efficacious on the Continent than in England itself.
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 13?) 
 
 their meat in the town." A petition was also sent to 
 the Protector, setting forth the whole history of their 
 arrest and imprisonment, and this was replied to by an 
 order to Captain Fox, governor of Pendennis Castle, to 
 inquire into the grievances complained of Captain 
 Fox, whom his namesake speaks of rather slightingly 
 as " a light, chaffy man," seems in this case to have 
 done his duty faithfully. The abusive soldiers, who 
 had formed the escort party, their commander Captain 
 Keat, and his evil-minded kinsman who had struck 
 Fox in the inn, and tried to throw him, were all 
 severely reprimanded. There were many of the county 
 magnates staying at that time at Pendennis, and they 
 told the bullying kinsman that if the Quaker chose to 
 change his principle, and take the extremity of the law 
 against him, he would probably recover sound damages 
 for the assault. 
 
 It would seem that after these petitions, and the 
 replies to them, the treatment of the prisoners was 
 somewhat improved, and they were taken out of Dooms- 
 dale. All sorts of people came to visit them — Friends, 
 officers in the army, private soldiers, " professors," and 
 other prisoners — and the encounters between Fox and 
 his visitors were sometimes amusing, sometimes alarm- 
 ing. One Colonel Rouse, a justice of the peace, came 
 one day to see the Friends, bringing a great company 
 with him. " He was as full of words and talk," says 
 Fox, " as ever I heard any man in my life, so that there 
 was no speaking to him." At length, tired of the vain 
 attempt to get in a word edgeways. Fox asked him 
 whether he had ever been at school, and knew what 
 belonged to questions and answers. " At school," said 
 he; "yes." "At school," said the soldiers who were
 
 136 GEORGE FOX 
 
 among his followers; "doth he say so to our colonel 
 that is a scholar ? " Then said Fox, " If he be so [a 
 scholar] let him be still, and receive answers to what he 
 hath said." "Then I was moved to speak the word of 
 life to him in God's dreadful power, which came so 
 over him that he could not open his mouth ; his face 
 swelled and was red like a turkey ; his lips moved,, 
 and he mumbled something, but the people thought 
 he would have fallen down. I stepped to him, and 
 he said he was never so in his life before; for the 
 Lord's power stopped the evil power in him : so that he 
 was almost choked. This man was ever after very 
 loving to Friends, and not so full of airy words to us, 
 though he was full of pride, but the Lord's power came 
 over him and the rest that were with him." 
 
 A half-drunken soldier came in to see the prisoners, 
 and when one of the Friends was "exhorting him to 
 sobriety," he began to draw his sword. Quite un- 
 daunted, Fox stepped up to him, and told him what a 
 cowardly thing it was to draw a sword on an unarmed 
 man, and a prisoner, that he was not fit to be trusted 
 with such a weapon, and that some men in their place 
 would have taken his sword from him and broken it to 
 pieces. The tipsy fellow had sense enough left to be 
 ashamed, and reeled out of the room. 
 
 Drunkenness seems to have been the order of the 
 day in Launceston Castle. One night, at eleven o'clock, 
 the gaoler came half drunk to Fox, and told him he 
 had now got a man to dispute with him. Something 
 about the gaoler's manner made Fox suspicious, and 
 that night he spent not in his own chamber, but sleep- 
 ing on the grass courtyard of the Castle, Still next 
 day the gaoler maundered on about the dispute or debate
 
 LAUNCESTON GAOL 137 
 
 that was to be held, and the man who was to conduct 
 it. At Icnc^th it turned out that the debater was none 
 other than a man who had been committed to prison 
 as a rogue and a vagabond, for deceiving people by- 
 conjuring trick?, and that his method of argument was 
 with a big clasp-knife. Being called out of his chamber 
 Fox stepped to the top of the stairs, and saw the 
 gaoler's wife standing on the stairs, and the conjurer 
 at the bottom of them, holding his hand behind his 
 back, and in a great rage. He asked him, " Man, what 
 hast thou in thy hand behind thy back ? Pluck thy 
 hand before thee : let us see thy hand, and what thou 
 hast in it." Out came the naked knife, but ere he 
 could do any mischief with it, the gaoler's wife, to 
 whom Fox complained of the meditated outrage, seems 
 to have interfered and prevented further mischief.^ 
 Certainly the English prisons of the seventeenth 
 century, with all their hideousness, must have been 
 more amusing places to be imprisoned in than the 
 monotonous penitentiaries of the nineteenth. 
 
 All this time the Friends were busily engaged in 
 writing letters and pamphlets setting forth their views, 
 and showing the injustice of their imprisonment. One 
 such document, drawn up by Edward Pyot, who was 
 probably the man of best education among them, was 
 addressed to Chief Justice Glyn.- As it occupies 
 thirteen closely printed octavo pages, it is safe to say 
 that the busy judge never read it. More effectual was 
 the action of a certain Friend named Humphrey 
 Norton,^ who went to the Protector and offered himself 
 
 ' Fox's account of this adventure is rather obscure, and it is 
 not easy to understand the gaoler's or the conjurer's motives. 
 ^ Dated fourteenth of fifth month [July] 1656. 
 ^ His name is given in the MS. Journal.
 
 138 GEORGE FOX 
 
 " body for body to lie in Doomsdale, if need were, in 
 Fox's stead." Cromwell was struck by the loyal 
 devotion which Fox had inspired, and turning to his 
 Privy Council said, " Which of you would do so much 
 for me if I were in the same condition ? " It was 
 of course decided that the law would not allow of such 
 a substitution, but from this time Cromwell was 
 evidently determined to put an end to Fox's imprison- 
 ment. Another impulse in the same direction was 
 given by the words of Hugh Peters, fervidest of Puritans, 
 staunchest and j oiliest of army chaplains,^ who shrewdly 
 told his master Cromwell that they could do George 
 Fox no greater service for the spreading of his principles 
 in Cornwall than to keep him shut up in Launceston 
 Castle. 
 
 The result of these varied agencies was that an order 
 came down to Major-General Desborough for the liber- 
 ation of the Quaker prisoners in Launceston Gaol. 
 Desborough endeavoured to exact a promise that they 
 would go home and preach no more, but this, though 
 they told him that their mission in Cornwall was 
 accomplished, they steadfastly refused to give. Waiving 
 this point at last, he had then to meet the remonstrances 
 of Colonel Bennet, the Puritan lessee of the gaol, the 
 master of the drunken and felonious gaoler, who 
 required payment of the gaoler's fees. There was a 
 wiangle over this question between the Colonel and 
 the prisoners, but they declared " they would give no 
 fees, for they were innocent sufferers, and how could they 
 expect fees from men who had suffered so long wrong- 
 fully?" In the end the Quaker obstinacy triumphed, 
 
 1 See Gardiner, History of the Civil War, ii. 326, for a Ufa-like 
 portrait of Hugh Peters.
 
 LAUNCI':STON GAOL 139 
 
 and Bennet (who had probably received a hint from 
 the Major-General that he would not be supported in 
 his claim) let the prisoners go on September 13, 1656. 
 
 To complete the story of Launceston Gaol it should 
 be mentioned, that in the year after Fox's imprisonment 
 the wicked gaoler lost his place, and was himself thrown 
 into prison. While there he begged for alms from the 
 Friends, who during Fox's imprisonment had been 
 irathered into a congregation at Launceston, and event- 
 
 O (DO 
 
 ually he was actually shut up himself in the horrible 
 Doomsdale, chained, beaten, and told by his successor to 
 " remember the good men whom he had wickedly 
 Avithout any cause cast into that nasty dungeon." He 
 died in prison, and his wife and family came to want. 
 
 The fine castle-yard at Launceston, which is now, as 
 has been said, a playground for the school-boys, was 
 in Fox's time a bowling-green. Thither came the 
 great ]\Iajor-Gcneral Desborough to play the game 
 which had been so dear to the imprisoned king, and 
 thither came the magnates of the county and the 
 citizens of Launceston to play likewise. We note 
 with some regret that Fox thought himself called upon 
 to protest against this innocent and healthful amuse- 
 ment. He put forth one of his favourite "papers," 
 befrinniuo- " The word of the Lord to all you vain and 
 idle-minded people who are lovers of sports, pleasures, 
 foolish exercises and recreations, as you call them. 
 Consider your ways: what it is you are doing. Was 
 this the end of your creation ? Did God make all 
 things for you, and you to serve your lusts and 
 pleasures?" and so forth. 
 
 One cannot help feeling that here the Puritan 
 atmosphere in which Fox had grown to manhood
 
 140 GEORGE FOX 
 
 clouded his spiritual perception. To have distinguished 
 between recreations healthful and harmful had been 
 well, but to condemn, as he virtually does in this paper, 
 all recreation as contrary to the will of God, shows 
 that he had need of further " openings " as to the 
 place of wisely chosen recreation in the Divine 
 economy.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 
 
 After Fox's liberation from Launceston Gaol, he 
 journeyed in a leisurely manner through Cornwall and 
 Devonshire to Bristol. At Exeter he went to see 
 James Naylor, once his loved and trusted companion, 
 now in prison on account of the extravagant proceedings 
 of himself and some of his female followers in the west 
 of England. Fox's own account of the interview is as 
 follows : — 
 
 "From thence we came to Exeter, where many 
 Friends were in prison, and amongst the rest James 
 Naylor. For a little before we were set at liberty 
 James had run out into imaginations, and a company 
 with him, which raised up a great darkness in the 
 nation. He came to Bristol, and made a disturbance 
 there, and from thence he was coming to Launceston to 
 see me, but was stopped by the way and imprisoned at 
 Exeter. . . . The night we came to Exeter I spoke 
 with James Naylor, for I saw he was out and wrong, 
 and so was his company. Next day being First-day, 
 we went to visit the prisoners, and had a meeting with 
 them in the prison ; but James Naylor and some of 
 them could not stay the meeting. . . . The next day 
 I spoke to James Naylor again, and he slighted what I 
 
 141
 
 142 GEORGE FOX 
 
 said, and was dark and much out ; yet he would have 
 come and kissed me. But I said, ' since he had turned 
 against the power of God I could not receive his show 
 of kindness.' The Lord moved me to slight him, and 
 to set the power of God over him." 
 
 Shortly after this Naylor was liberated and went to 
 Bristol, where the maddest scene in the whole tragedy 
 was enacted — a male votary leading Naylor's horse bare- 
 headed, while the females spread their handkerchiefs 
 before him, and shouted " Hosannah ! " a manifest and 
 audacious parody of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. 
 Had such an event happened in our day, the chief 
 actors would have been kindly taken care of in the 
 nearest county asylum, and would probably in a few 
 months have come out cured. Puritanism, itself so 
 dour and dark, had no such compassion for the fevered 
 brains of those whom it regarded as wilful blasphemers. 
 Cromwell's second Parliament met on September 17, 
 1656, and one of its first employments was with the 
 case of James Naylor, upon whom it passed that 
 atrocious sentence, which in the eyes of posterity has 
 caused the folly of the fanatic to be well-nigh forgotten 
 in the thought of the bigot cruelty of his judges. To 
 be pilloried for two hours, to be whipped by the hang- 
 man through the streets from Westminster to the Old 
 Exchange in the City, to be pilloried again two days 
 after for two hours, to have his tongue bored through 
 with a hot iron, and to be branded in the forehead 
 with the letter B, to be again flogged through the 
 streets of Bristol, and then to be committed to prison 
 with solitary confinement and hard labour during the 
 pleasure of Parliament — such was the sentence which 
 these men imagined that tliey honoured Christ by
 
 TN WALES AND SCOTLAND 143 
 
 inflicting on His crazy imitator. We are rejoiced to 
 find that the cruel severity of the sentence shocked 
 many even of the Puritan party, and that Cromwell 
 showed his utter disapproval of the action of Parliament, 
 though he did not feel strong enough to come to an 
 open rupture with that body.^ 
 
 The one bright point in the whole dreary business 
 is the fact that in the long hours of his solitary con- 
 finement, Naylor recovered spiritual sanity, and in deep 
 contrition of soul retracted the claim to a kind of 
 Messiahship which the extravagance of his followers 
 had led him to set up. 
 
 It is the opinion of some of the most careful students of 
 Quaker literature, that this business of Naylor's exercised 
 a certain sobering influence on Fox himself. Pie per- 
 haps saw that the doctrine of the Inward Light, which 
 was the very life of life to his own soul, needed to be 
 cautiously stated and kept always in its due relation 
 to the life and words of the historic Christ, if it was 
 not to work a kind of spiritual intoxication, such as it 
 had produced in Naylor and the mad women who sang 
 their hosannahs round him. It seems to me that in 
 Fox's conflicts with the authorities after this time, we do 
 not hear those charges of blasphemy advanced against 
 him which were common in his earlier career. Probably 
 too the very necessity of defending his doctrine against 
 the disputants who attacked it had given a certain 
 definiteness and coherence to those utterances, which 
 were at first only a wild and mournful cry after the 
 
 1 The dates are October 31, 1656, Committee of tlie House of 
 Commons on Naylor's case ; December 16, 1656, dejisiou as to 
 his punishment ; December 18, 27, 1656, sentence executed in 
 London; some time afterwards at Bristdl; SL-ptember 8, 1659, 
 Naylor released from prison by order of tho Rump Parliament.
 
 144 GEORGE FOX 
 
 livincr God. He himself tells us that one of his hearers, 
 who had listened to him in his earlier days, remarked 
 the change which had of late come over his ministry. 
 Fox's comment is, " the change was in himself;" but it 
 seems probable that there was also a real growth, an 
 increased power and lucidity in the preacher. 
 
 The year 1656, which we have now reached, was a 
 fruitful one for the new Society. Many thousands had 
 nowjoined it, and there were seldom fewer than one 
 thousand in prison at the same time, " some for non- 
 payment of tithes, some for speaking in the churches, 
 some for refusing to swear, and some for not putting off 
 their hats." All this, it must be remembered, was 
 under the Commonwealth, and under the rule of a 
 man who undoubtedly desired to give as much liberty 
 to religious dissidents as public opinion would allow. 
 
 It was about this time that Fox had his second inter- 
 view with the great Protector. It happened that when 
 the Friends were entering London on their return from 
 their long western journey, as they came near Hyde 
 Park they saw a great concourse of people, and in the 
 heart of the throng the Lord Protector riding in his 
 coach. Fox spurred his steed and rode up to the 
 carriage. The life-guards who were riding alongside 
 of it were jostling him away, when Cromwell looked 
 forth and said, " Let him come." So he rode alongside 
 as far as the entrance into St. James's Park, discoursing 
 of Cromwell's own spiritual state, of the sufferings of 
 Friends in the prisons of the Commonwealth, and the 
 contrast between all this persecution for matters of 
 religion and the spirit of Christ and His apostles. At 
 parting, Cromwell desired him to visit him at White- 
 hall, and when he returned to his palace, he told one of
 
 IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 146 
 
 his wife's maida, a Quakeress named Mary Saunders, 
 that he had good news for her — " George Fox was come 
 back to London, and had ridden with him from Hyde 
 Park to St. James's." 
 
 Shortly after, Fox went with his friend Pyot to call 
 on the Protector at Whitehall. The great Independent 
 John Owen, at this time Dean of Christ Church, and 
 Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, was closeted with 
 the Protector, and one can see that his presence was 
 not conducive to that open heart-to-heart intercourse 
 which there had once been between the two men. Fox 
 spoke about the Light of Christ. Cromwell got into 
 a theological discussion, whether there were anything 
 more in this than the natural light of conscience. Fox, 
 feeling the Divine ajjlatus strong upon him, urged 
 Cromwell repeatedly, and with strong emotion, " to lay 
 down his crown at the feet of Jesus." Cromwell was 
 in an unsympathetic vein, came and sat upon a high 
 table by Fox's side, and said in a light, joking way, " I 
 will be as high as you are." "Thus he continued 
 speaking against the Light of Christ Jesus, and went 
 away in a light manner. But the Lord's power came 
 over him, so that when he came to his wife and other 
 company, he said, ' I never parted so from them before,' 
 for he was judged in himself." 
 
 After this interview Fox made a circuit through the 
 home counties, as well as the northern shires of Lincoln 
 and York; he had a large meeting near the battle- 
 field of Edgehill, and he experienced the rudeness of 
 the scholars at Oxford. In these travels he was en- 
 deavouring to fulfil a commission which, as he felt, 
 was entrusted to him while he Avas still cooped up in 
 Launceston Gaol. The first promulgation of his doctrines
 
 146 GEORGE FOX 
 
 in most parts of England was now accomplished — " the 
 truth was now spread, and finely planted in most 
 places," and his present business was "to answer and 
 remove out of the minds of people some objections 
 which the envious priests and professors had raised 
 and spread abroad concerning us. For what Christ 
 said of false prophets and anti-christs coming in the 
 last days, they applied to us, and said ' We were they.' " 
 Probably we may trace in this passage also some evidence 
 of the effect produced on Fox's own mind by James 
 Naylor's claim to Messiahship, 
 
 In the next year (1657) Fox broke new ground by 
 making visitations to Wales and Scotland. Wales 
 resembled Cornwall in the strength of its Royalism, 
 as it was to resemble it a century later in the fervour 
 of its Methodism. Apparently, however, Fox's preaching 
 in the Principality was more successful than it had 
 been in Cornwall.^ He was accompanied by a Welsh- 
 man, named John-ap-John, who could speak the Cymric 
 tongue, evidently a fervid and fearless man, and one who, 
 strange to say, surpassed even Fox himself in his power 
 of arousing the opposition of " priests " and magistrates. 
 At several towns we hear of ap-John as being thrown 
 into prison, while Fox is still at liberty, but he appears 
 to have been generally liberated after confinement for 
 a day or two. At Brecknock, John-ap-John preached 
 to the people in the streets, no doubt using the Welsh 
 language. Fox went forth for one of his usual meditative 
 walks in the fields, and when he returned found the 
 whole town in an uproar. His room in the inn was 
 
 1 The small number of Friends now to be found in Wales is, I 
 believe, to be accounted for by the very large migrations thence 
 to Pennsylvania. It had a considerable Quaker population at 
 the close of the seventeenth century.
 
 f 
 
 IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 147 
 
 full of people, all talkinj:,' Welsh, but who at bis request 
 spoke in English, and much discourse they had together. 
 At nightfall, the magistrates — so Fox believed — gathered 
 a multitude of people together in the streets, and bade 
 them shout, making such a noise as Fox had never 
 before heard. The wild clamour continued for two 
 hours, and reminded Fox of the similar scene enacted 
 by Diana's craftsmen at Ephesus. Probably the fact 
 that many of the people were shouting in Welsh made 
 the noise seem to Fox more meaningless than it really 
 was. He was a true Englishman, and evidently had 
 an instinctive feeling that English was the proper 
 languajie for a reasonable being to use. 
 
 Thus at Dolgelly, wdien John-ap- John's street preach- 
 ing had gathered a multitude round him, he says, " there 
 being two Independent priests in the town, they came 
 out and discoursed with him together. I went up to 
 them, and finding them speaking in Welsh I asked 
 them, ' What was the subject they spoke upon, and 
 why were they not more moderate, and spake not one 
 by one? For the things of God,' I told them, 'were 
 weighty, and they should speak of them Avith fear and 
 reverence.' Then I desired them to speak in English, 
 that I might discourse with them, and they did so." 
 The discussion turned on the nature of the " light 
 within," which the Independents, like Cromwell their 
 chief, declared to be "a created, natural-made light," 
 while Fox maintained it to be heavenly, divine, and 
 God-enkindled. 
 
 At Tenby, Fox had a curious argument with an 
 official whom he calls the governor, and who had, as 
 usual, thrown John-ap-John into prison. 
 
 " Why had he done this ? " Fox asked.
 
 148 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Governor. " For standing with his hat on in church." 
 
 G. F. " Had not the priest two caps on his head, a 
 black one and a white one ? Cut off the brims of the 
 hat, and then my friend would have but one ; and the 
 brims of the hat are but to defend him from the 
 weather." 
 
 Governor. " These are frivolous things." 
 
 G. F. " Why then dost thou cast my friend into 
 prison for such frivolous things?" 
 
 Governor. " Do you own Election and Eeprobation ? " 
 
 G. F. " Yes ; and thou art in the Reprobation," 
 
 Governor (in a rage). " I will send you to prison till 
 you prove it." 
 
 G. F. " I will prove it quickly, if thou wilt confess 
 truth. Are not wrath, fury, rage, and persecution marks 
 of reprobation? Did Christ and His disciples ever 
 persecute or imprison any ? " 
 
 " Then," says Fox, " the governor fairly confessed 
 that he had too much wrath, haste, and passion in him. 
 I told him Esau was up in him, the first birth, not 
 Jacob, the second birth. The Lord's power so reached 
 and came over him that he confessed to truth ; and the 
 other justice came and shook me kindly by the hand. 
 
 "As I was passing away, I was moved to speak to 
 the governor again, and he invited me to dine with 
 him, and set my friend at liberty. I went back to the 
 other justice's house, and after some time the mayor 
 and his wife, and the justice and his wife, and divers 
 other Friends of the town went about half-a-mile with 
 us to the water-side, and there, when we parted from 
 them, I was moved of the Lord to kneel down with 
 them and pray to tlie Lord to preserve them. So 
 after I had recommended them to the Lord Jesus
 
 IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 149 
 
 Christ tlieir Saviour and free teacher, we passed away 
 in the Lord's power, and the Lord had the glory. A 
 meeting continues in that town to this day." 
 
 Fox's opinion of the moral condition of the inhabitants 
 of the Principality was generally somewhat unfavour- 
 able. The people of Haverfordwest, he says, "were 
 a kind of Independents, but it was a wicked town and 
 false. We bade the innkeeper give our horses a peck 
 of oats ; and no sooner had we turned our backs than 
 the oats were stolen from our horses." Again at 
 another great town (the name of which he seems to 
 have forgotten) — "In that inn also I turned but my 
 back to the man that was giving oats to my horse, and 
 looking round again, I observed he was filling his 
 pockets Avith the provender. A wicked, thievish people, 
 to rob the poor dumb creature of his food, I would 
 rather they had robbed me." 
 
 The scene at the Straits of Menai brings vividly 
 before us the change which has been wrought in that 
 region by the genius of Telford and Stephenson. It 
 need not be said that there was then no bridge across 
 the stormy straits. " Next day being market-day, we 
 were to cross a great water, and not far from the place 
 where we were to take boat, many of the market people 
 drew to us, amongst whom we had good service for the 
 Lord, declaring the word of Hfe and everlasting truth 
 unto them. . , . After the Lord's truth had been 
 declared unto them in the power of God, and Christ 
 the free teacher set over all hireling teachers, I bid 
 John-ap-John get his horse into the boat, which was 
 then ready. But there having got into it a company 
 of wild gentlemen, as they called them, whom we found 
 very rude, and far from gentleness, they with others
 
 150 GEORGE FOX 
 
 kept his horse out of the boat. I rode to the boat's 
 side and spoke to them, showing them what unmanly 
 and unchristian conduct it was; and told them they 
 showed an unworthy spirit below Christianity or hu- 
 manity. As I spoke, I leaped my horse into the boat 
 amongst them, thinking John's horse would have followed 
 when he had seen mine go in before him ; but the 
 water being deep, John could not get his horse into 
 the boat. Wherefore I leaped out again on horseback 
 into the water, and stayed with John on that side till 
 the boat returned. There we tarried from eleven in 
 the forenoon to two in the afternoon before the boat 
 came to fetch us; and then we had forty-two miles to 
 ride that evening ; and when we had paid for our 
 passage we had but one groat left between us in 
 money." 
 
 How the difficulty as to their short supply of cash 
 was surmounted Fox does not inform us. The passage 
 above quoted, and several other slight indications of 
 the same kind, make one think that Fox, who had 
 been a country-bred lad, was a skilful and fearless 
 horseman. The word " unmanly " is a favourite word 
 with him when he is denouncing cowardice or cruelty, 
 and everything about him seems to show that with 
 all his almost fastidious conscientiousness he was no 
 tender and unpractical recluse, but a full-blooded, 
 courageous, manly man. 
 
 I have room for only one more anecdote about this 
 Welsh journey, and it relates to the ridiculous prejudice 
 about his long hair. It was at Wrexham that " one 
 called a lady" sent for him. She kept a domestic 
 chaplain, or as Fox says "a preacher," in her house; 
 but he found both great lady and preacher " very light
 
 IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 151 
 
 and airy, too light to receive the weighty things of 
 God." In her lightness she carne and asked Fox if 
 she should cut his hair, but received instead a grave 
 admonition to cut down her own corruptions by the 
 sword of the Spirit of God. So the Friends passed 
 away from the house ; but Fox heard afterwards that 
 "she boasted in her frothy mind that she had come 
 behind him and cut off the curl of his hair, but she 
 spoke falsely." 
 
 Thus ended the Wesh journey. " Very weary we 
 were with travelling so 'hard up and down in Wales: 
 and in many places we found it difficult to get meat 
 either for our horses or ourselves." 
 
 More than ever welcome, after these rough and hard 
 journeyings, must have been the repose of hospitable 
 Swarthmoor, whither the travellers directed their steps, 
 riding through Cheshire and Lancashire, and over the 
 sands into Furness. 
 
 After enjoying a few months' respite from travel, 
 George Fox, who " had for some time felt drawings 
 on his spirit to go into Scotland," crossed the border 
 and entered that country. He had with him a friend 
 named Robert Widders, whom he describes as "a 
 thundering man against hypocrisy, deceit, and the 
 rottenness of the priests." His first interview in Scot- 
 land was with an unnamed nobleman, and is described 
 by him in the following words : — 
 
 " The first night we came into Scotland, we lodged 
 at an inn. The innkeeper told us an Earl lived about 
 a quarter of a mile off who had a desire to see me, 
 and had left word at his house that if ever I came 
 into Scotland he should send him word. He told us 
 there were three drawbridges to his house, and that
 
 152 GEORGE FOX 
 
 it would be nine o'clock before the third bridge was 
 drawn. Finding we had time in the evening we 
 walked to his house. He received us very lovingly, 
 and said he would have gone with us on our journey, 
 but he was previously engaged to go to a funeral. 
 After we had spent some time with him, we parted 
 very friendly and returned to our inn." It would be 
 interesting to discover who was this friendly nobleman. 
 Was it forgetfulness, or a desire not to expose him to 
 persecution, which prevented Fox from mentioning his 
 
 name ? ^ 
 
 Scotland in 1657, held down under the stern rule 
 of Cromwell, outwardly peaceable, but sore at heart, 
 clinging more tightly than ever to its Calvinistic 
 creed and its Presbyterian discipline, was no favour- 
 able ground for the reception of Fox's anti-Calvinistic 
 teaching. Almost immediately on entering the country 
 he became engaged in a dispute with the ministers on 
 the central doctrine of Calvinism. "Now," as he 
 says, "the priests had frightened the people with the 
 doctrine of election and reprobation, telling them that 
 God had ordained the greatest part of men and women 
 for hell, and that, let them pray or preach or sing, 
 or do what they could, it was all to no purpose if they 
 were ordained for hell ; that God had a certain number 
 elected for heaven, let them do what they would, as 
 David, an adulterer, and Paul, a persecutor, yet elected 
 vessels for heaven. So the fault was not at all in the 
 creature less or more, but God had ordained it so." 
 Against this terrible doctrine Fox protested with all 
 
 ' From the geographical indications I am disposed to suggest 
 Caerlaverock Castle, the abode of the Earl of Nithsdale, as the 
 scene of this interview.
 
 IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 153 
 
 the energy of his soul, pleading the world-wide character 
 of Christ's commission, " Go preach the gospel to all 
 nations" : which is the gospel of salvation. "He would 
 not have sent them into all nations to preach the 
 doctrine of salvation, if the greater part of men had 
 been ordained for hell ; " pleading also the benefits of 
 Christ's death as a propitiation for the sins of the whole 
 world ; and his own favourite text, " That was the true 
 light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into 
 the world." 
 
 The tidings of Fox's arrival, and the fear that he 
 would " spoil " their hearers, as they heard that he 
 had " spoiled all the honest men and women in England 
 already," roused the Scottish ministers to strenuous 
 opposition. According to Fox, they drew up a number 
 of curses, which were to be read aloud in all the 
 churches, and to which the people were to thunder 
 out their " Amens," after the manner of the Israelites 
 on Mount Ebal. 
 
 The first was, " Cursed is he that saith ' Every man 
 hath a light within him sufficient to lead him into 
 salvation ' ; and let all the people say Amen." 
 
 The second, " Cursed is he that saith ' Faith is without 
 sin' [no doubt an allusion to Fox's teaching about 
 perfection] ; and let all the people say Amen." 
 
 The third, " Cursed is he that denieth the Sabbath 
 day ; and let all the people say Amen." 
 
 Fox dryly remarks on the last sentence, " In this last 
 they make the people curse themselves : for on the 
 Sabbath day (which is the seventh day of the week, 
 which the Jews kept by the command of God to them) 
 they kept markets and fairs, and so brought the curse 
 upon their own heads."
 
 154 GEORGE FOX 
 
 After visiting several other places in the south of 
 Scotland, Fox came to Edinburgh and preached there. 
 Many officers of the army, which was stationed at 
 Leith, came with their wives to hear him, and were 
 convinced by his words. A cry for protection against 
 the new doctrines, and especially against the announce- 
 ment that the Gospel ought to be preached without 
 charge, went up to the Protector's Council in London 
 from the clergy in Edinburgh. The result was an order 
 that he should appear before "his Highness's Council 
 in Edinburgh." He obeyed the summons; the door- 
 keeper took off his hat, and hung it up, and he went 
 in and stood before the Council. " When I had stood 
 awhile," he says, "and they had said nothing to me, 
 I was moved of the Lord to say, ' Peace be amongst 
 you ; wait in the fear of God, that ye may receive His 
 wisdom from above, by which all things were made and 
 created; that by it ye may all be ordered, and may 
 order all things under your hands to God's glory.' " 
 
 The Council questioned him as to the reason of his 
 visit to Scotland, and he answered, " that he had come 
 to visit the seed of God which had long lain under 
 corruption, and that all in that nation that professed 
 the Scriptures might come to the light. Spirit, and 
 power that they were in who gave them forth." The 
 result of the interview was an order that Fox should 
 " depart the nation of Scotland by that day sen-night," 
 Evidently the Protector's Council, while checking the 
 persecuting tendencies of the Presbyterian clergy, were 
 anxious not to have the precarious peace of Scotland 
 disturbed by the preaching of English " sectaries." 
 
 Fox, however, stayed on in Scotland, and told his 
 frieuds that he should stay, though the Council issued
 
 IN WALES AND SCOTLAND 165 
 
 a cart-load of warrants against him. He left Edinburgh, 
 however, and travelled up and down through the Low- 
 lands, having some strange adventures — with robbers 
 lurkino- behind bushes, whom his bold address daunted 
 — w^ith Highlanders " who were so devilish that they 
 ran at us with pitchforks, and had like to have spoiled 
 us and our horses " — with some Baptists, " vain janglers 
 and disputers," who being vanquished in argument 
 went and informed the governor of the town. He 
 sent a whole company of soldiers to march Fox and 
 his three companions out of the place. "As they 
 guarded us out of the town, James Lancaster [one 
 of the three] was moved to sing with a melodious 
 sound in the power of God; and I was moved to 
 proclaim the day of the Lord, and to preach the 
 everlasting gospel to the people. For they generally 
 came forth, so that the streets were filled with them ; 
 and the soldiers were so ashamed that they said, ' they 
 would rather have gone to Jamaica than have guarded 
 us so.' But we were put into a boat with our horses, 
 carried over the water, and then left. The Baptists 
 who were the cause of our being put out of this town 
 were themselves not long after turned out of the army ; 
 and he that was then governor was discarded also when 
 the King came in." 
 
 Lastly, before leaving Scotland, Fox determined to 
 return to Edinburgh, where he knew that there were 
 warrants out for his apprehension. He and his friend 
 Robert Widders, passing two sentries, rode up the 
 street to the market-place, by the main guard, out at 
 the gate, by the third sentry, and so clear out at the 
 suburbs. "Now I saw and felt," he says, "that we 
 had rode as it were against the cannon's mouth or the
 
 156 GEORGE FOX 
 
 sword's point; but the Lord's power and immediate 
 hand carried us over the heads of them all." The next 
 day being Sunday, he re-entered the city and had " a 
 glorious meeting at which many officers and soldiers 
 were present." Thence to Dunbar (still trembling at 
 the recollection of another Englishman, who seven 
 years before had refused to depart from the nation of 
 Scotland when summoned to do so by the Committee 
 of Estates), and here Fox had a meeting in the 
 churchyard, while the minister was giving an orthodox 
 " lecture " in the church. " Friends were so full, and 
 their voices so high in the power of God, that the 
 priest could do little in the steeple-house, but came 
 quickly out again, stood awhile, and then went his way." 
 "This," Fox says, "was the last meeting I had in 
 Scotland. The truth and the power of God was set over 
 that nation .... There is since a great increase, 
 and great there will be in Scotland. For when first I 
 set my horse's feet upon Scottish ground, I felt the seed 
 of God to sparkle about me like innumerable sparks of 
 fire. Not but that there is abundance of thick, cloddy 
 earth of hypocrisy and falseness above, and a briery, 
 brambly nature which is to be burned up with God's 
 Word, and ploughed up with His spiritual plough, before 
 God's seed brings forth heavenly and spiritual fruit to 
 His glory. But the husbandman is to wait in 
 patience." ^ 
 
 ^ The reader may be interested in comparing these words of 
 Fox with the opinions of Cromwell and an unnamed officer of his 
 army on the moral condition of Scotland, as given in Carlyle's 
 Cromwell, Letter cxLix., and Gardiner's History of the Common- 
 wealth, i, 379.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE END OF THE PROTECTORATE 
 
 The three years following Fox's return from Scotlantt 
 (1657-1659) were years of strange, exciting, and per- 
 plexing events in the political world, of which we get 
 litful glances in the pages of his Journal. He himself, 
 except for an interval of some weeks, during which he 
 was laid by with sickness at Reading, was engaged in 
 his usual work, travelling up and down the country, 
 holding religious discussions, addressing meetings of 
 his followers, and putting forth "papers" on various 
 subjects on which he was moved to exhort his fellow- 
 countrymen. 
 
 (1) Of the discussions, one of the most interesting 
 was that which he held with a Jesuit who was in the 
 train of the Spanish Ambassador. The discussion, 
 which was the result of a challenge from the Jesuit 
 took place in the town mansion of the Earl of New^port, 
 not far from St. Martin's Lane. The challenger at first 
 proposed to meet twelve of the wisest and most learned 
 men among the Quakers ; then he came down to six ; 
 then he sent word that there must be but three, on 
 which, as Fox slyly says, " We hastened what we could, 
 lest, after all his great boast, he should put it quite off 
 at last." There were some of the usual arguments 
 
 157
 
 158 ^ GEORGE FOX 
 
 about transubstantiation, materialist replies to a 
 materialist theory. " Seeing the bread is immortal 
 aud divine ... let a meeting be appointed between 
 some of them (whom the Pope and his cardinals should 
 appoint) and some of us ; and let a bottle of wine and 
 a loaf of bread be brought and divided, each into two 
 parts, and let them consecrate which of these parts 
 they would. And then set the consecrated and the 
 unconsecrated bread and wine in a safe place, with a 
 sure watch upon it, and let trial thus be made : whether 
 the consecrated bread and wine would not lose its 
 goodness, and the bread grow dry and mouldy, and the 
 wine turn dead and sour, as well and as soon as that 
 which was unconsecrated." 
 
 A more interesting part of the discussion was that 
 which turned on the relative authority of the Scriptures 
 and tradition. It might have been thought that Fox, 
 who had so often argued against the undue exaltation 
 of the Scriptures as the sole guide of life, would here 
 have been at a disadvantage, but he defended the 
 Protestant position not unsuccessfully. The Jesuit 
 distinguished between " the written word," or the 
 Scriptures, and " the unwritten word, those things that 
 the apostles spake by word of mouth, and which are 
 those traditions that we practise." 
 
 " Scripture proof of this ? " asked Fox. " Read II. 
 Thessalonians ii, 5," said the Jesuit, " When I was 
 with you I told you these things." " That is," said he 
 [in effect, doubtless, not in so many words], " I told you 
 of nunneries and monasteries, and of putting to death 
 for religion, and of praying by beads and to images, 
 and all the rest of the practices of the Church of Rome, 
 which was the unwritten word of the apostles, which
 
 THE END OF THE PROTECTORATE 159 
 
 they told them, and have since been continued down 
 by tradition unto these times." Fox had not much 
 difficulty in disposing of such an argument as this. 
 He desired his opponent to read that Scripture again, 
 and see how the apostle there alluded not to any such 
 portentous deposit of doctrine outside of the written 
 word, " but to the coming of the Man of Sin, the son 
 of perdition." Fox did not himself press home, as a 
 Puritan divine would have done, the identification of 
 the Man of Sin with the Pope, but undoubtedly the 
 Jesuit understood the significant allusion. Of course 
 neither party in the slightest degree convinced the 
 other, but Fox's comment on the whole is, " Thus we 
 parted, and his subtilty was comprehended by sim- 
 plicity." 
 
 (2) The most important of the meetings to which I 
 have referred, was one held at Luton ^ in Bedfordshire, 
 and was a gathering of the members of the new sect 
 from all parts of the country. This was called a 
 " General Yearly Meeting," and was either the first or 
 one of the first of a series of Quaker Parliaments, which 
 have since been held without interruption for nearly 
 two centuries and a half.- " The meeting lasted three 
 
 ^ " At John Crook's house," which we learn from a previous 
 entry in the Journal (I. 225) was at Luton. 
 
 2 From a very early date in the history of the Society these 
 annual synods have been held in London, first at Gracechurch 
 St., and of later times at a large meeting-house in Bishopsgate, 
 called Devonshire House. There is one assembly of men, and 
 another of women (the latter of more recent institution than the 
 former), and the numbers vary from two or three hundred to 
 something like two thousand. There is a system of representation, 
 but others besides the regularly appointed representatives are 
 allowed to take ])art in the proceedings. The presiding officer 
 is called the Clerk, and is elected annually, but generally holds 
 office for some years. No expressions of applause or disapproba-
 
 160 GEORGE FOX 
 
 days, and many Friends from most parts of the nation 
 came to it, so that the inns and towns around were 
 filled. And although," Fox continues, " there was some 
 disturbance by rude people that had run out from 
 truth, yet the Lord's power came over all, and a 
 glorious meeting it was." Fox delivered two long and 
 impressive, though not argumentative sermons, one of 
 which seems to have been intended for those among 
 the hearers who were yet unconvinced of his principles, 
 while the other was addressed to his professed followers, 
 and contained many valuable hints as to the regulation 
 of the ministry (all, of course, voluntary and unpaid), 
 which was beginning to be exercised abundantly in all 
 the meetings of the new Society. " Take heed of many 
 words." "That which cometh from the [Divine] life, 
 and is received from God, reaches to the life, and settles 
 others in the life, for the work is not now as it was at 
 first ; the work now is to settle and stay in the life." 
 " The ministers who travel must for their own particular 
 growth dwell in the life, which doth open, and that 
 will keep down that which would boast." " The 
 minister should first know his own spirit, and then he 
 may know others." " Keep down, keep low, that 
 nothing may reign in you but life itself." "Friends 
 must have patience [with disputers], must wait in 
 patience in the cool life, and he who is in this hath the 
 tasting of the Lamb's power and authority." " There- 
 fore all Friends keep cool and quiet in the power of 
 
 tion are allowed, and there is no voting, strictly so called. Speakers 
 deliver short statements of their opinions on one side or another, 
 and the Clerk, in deciding on the sense of the meeting, is allowed, 
 and indeed expected to pay some regard to the maxim, "Sen- 
 tentiae ponderantur non nuraerantur." Practically one hardly 
 ever hears of these decisions being called in question.
 
 THE END OF THE PROTECTORATE 161 
 
 the Lord God, and all that is contrary will be subjected ; 
 the Lamb hath the victory through the [Heavenly] 
 Seed, through the patience [of the saints]." With 
 many such words of cheer and counsel Fox addressed 
 the first Quaker Convocation. 
 
 (3) Of the " papers" published by Fox at this time, 
 one of the most interesting is that addressed to the 
 wreckers in Cornwall. Like almost all that proceeded 
 from his pen, it has no graces of style, but it is full of 
 that zeal for righteousness, for righteous doing as distinct 
 from pious talking, which is characteristic of all George 
 Fox's utterances, and which certainly had something to 
 do with the opposition which he encountered. 
 
 Fox's own account of the practices against which he 
 protested is as follows : — " While I was in Cornwall " 
 [this was on his second visit to the county, in 1659] 
 "there were great shipwrecks about the Land's End. 
 Now it was the custom of that country, that at such a 
 time both rich and poor went out to get as much of 
 the wreck as they could, not caring to save the people's 
 lives ; and in some places they call shipwrecks ' God's 
 grace.' ^ These things troubled me : it grieved my 
 spirit to hear of such unchristian actions, considering 
 how far they were below the heathen at Melita, who 
 received Paul, made him a fire, and were courteous 
 towards him, and them that had suffered shipwreck with 
 him. Wherefore I was moved to write a paper and 
 send it to all the parishes, priests, and magistrates, to 
 reprove them for such greedy actions, and to warn and 
 exhort them that, if they would assist to save people's 
 
 1 The fouler charge against the Cornishmen, that they actually- 
 caused sliipwrecks by displaying false lights on the sliore, and so 
 forth, is not noticed by Fox, and may probably be set down as a 
 myth of later times. 
 
 M
 
 162 GEORGE FOX 
 
 lives, and preserve their ships and goods, they should 
 use diHoence therein ; and consider if it had been their 
 own condition, they would judge it hard if they should 
 be upon a wreck, and people should strive to get what 
 they could from them and not regard their lives." One 
 feels that there is in these words the germ of those 
 noble institutions the Life-boat and the Life-saving 
 Brigade, which are among the best contributions that 
 the nineteenth century has made to the practical 
 exposition of Christianity. 
 
 At the close of the paper is a postscript addressed 
 more especially to Friends, exhorting them to "keep 
 out of the ravenous world's spirit which leads to 
 destroy, and which is out of the wisdom of God. 
 When ships are wrecked, do not run to destroy and 
 make havoc of ship and goods with the world, but to 
 save the men and the goods for them, and so deny 
 yourselves and do unto them as ye would that they 
 should do unto you." 
 
 While Fox was thus moving up and down the 
 country, and working according to his light for the 
 extension of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Common- 
 wealth, which, as the Puritan hoped, was to have been 
 the earthly realization of that heavenly state, was 
 falling asunder into ruin, and another kingdom of a 
 very diflferent kind was being set up once more in 
 England. 
 
 I will collect here the notices, few but interesting, 
 which we find in Fox's Journal of the events which 
 led up to the Restoration. 
 
 Proposed Kingship of Cromwell. " There was also 
 a rumour about this time" (April — May 1657) "of 
 making Cromwell king : whereupon I was moved to
 
 THE END OF THE PROTECTORATE 1H3 
 
 go to him, and warned him against it and of divers 
 dangers, which if he did not avoid he would brines a 
 shame and ruin upon himself and his posterity. He 
 seemed to take well what I said to him, and thanked 
 me : yet afterwards I was moved to write to him more 
 fully concerning that matter." 
 
 Sickness of Lady Claypolc. The story of Oliver's love 
 for this, his favourite daughter, and of his grief for her 
 death, which happened so shortly before his own, is 
 well known. Elizabeth Claypole was his sixth child, 
 and was born in 1629. She was tlierefore five years 
 younger than Fox. She was married when about 
 seventeen to John Claypole, a Northamptonshire 
 gentleman, Avhom his father-in-law made first a baronet 
 and then a lord, whence his wife's title of Lady Claypolc. 
 For many months apparently, in 1658, she lay sick, 
 stricken by a lingering and fatal malady. Fox says — 
 " About this time the Lady Claypole, so called, was sick 
 and much troubled in mind, and could receive no 
 comfort from any that came to her : which when I 
 heard of I was moved to write to her the followino- 
 letter." The letter, which is shorter than many of 
 its kind, as befitted the delicate state of the receiver, 
 is loving and tender, but contains no very strikino- 
 thoughts. Apparently the strident voice of the enthu- 
 siastic preacher is softened, till the speaker himself can 
 hardly recognize it, by the silence of the sick-room. 
 He exhorts the dying lady to be still and cool in her 
 own mind and spirit from her own thoughts, desires, 
 and imaginations, and to be staid in the principle of 
 God within her, that it may raise her mind up to God, 
 whom she will find to be a God at hand, and a very 
 present help in time of trouble. The letter ends, " So
 
 164 GEORGE FOX 
 
 in the name and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, God 
 Almighty strengthen thee. G. F." 
 
 "When the foregoing paper," he continues, "was 
 read to Lady Claypole, she said it stayed her mind for 
 the present. Afterwards many Friends got copies of 
 it, both in England and Ireland, and read it to people 
 that were troubled in mind, and it was made useful 
 for the settling of the minds of several." 
 
 Cromwell's last days. The death of Lady Claypole 
 happened on August 6. A fortnight later ^ Fox, 
 after describing a short detention which he and two 
 of his companions suffered at the hands of two of 
 Colonel Hacker's troopers, and their speedy liberation, 
 continues : — 
 
 " The same day, taking boat, I went to Kingston, 
 and thence to Hampton Court to speak with the 
 Protector about the sutterings of Friends. I met him 
 riding into Hampton Court Park, and before I came to 
 him, as he rode at the head of his life-guard, I saw and 
 felt a waft of death go forth against him ; and when I 
 came to him, he looked like a dead man. After I had 
 laid the sufferings of Friends before him, and had 
 warned him according as I was moved to speak to him, 
 he bade me come to his house. So I returned to 
 Kingston, and next day went to Hampton Court to 
 speak further with him. But when I came he was sick, 
 and Harvey, who was one that waited on him [groom 
 of the bedchamber], told me the doctors were not 
 willing that I should speak with him. So I passed 
 
 1 Friday the twentieth of August 1658 is the date assigned by 
 Carlyle to this interview. He says justly enough, " George dates 
 nothing, and his facts everywhere lie round him like the leather 
 parings of his old shop, but we judge it may have been " the day 
 mentioned above.
 
 THE END OF THE PROTECTORATE 165 
 
 away and never saw him more." It was a fortnight 
 after this interview, on the well-known date, the 3rd of 
 September, the anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester, 
 that the spirit of that noble and much calumniated 
 Enorjishman went forth from the world. 
 
 Anarchy after Cromwell's death. That ineffectual 
 cipher of a sovereign, Richard Cromwell, makes as 
 little impression on the pages of Fox's Journal as 
 elsewhere in history. Fox himself, as I have said, 
 was laid up for several weeks with sore sickness at 
 Reading. His countenance was altered ; he looked 
 poor and thin, and was tempted to think that the 
 plagues of God were upon him. Soon, however, he 
 recovered his health and vigorous appearance, and 
 returned to London, where, as he says — 
 
 " Now there was a great pudder (agitation) made about 
 the image or effigy of Oliver Cromwell lying in state : 
 men standing and sounding with trumpets over his image 
 after he was dead. At this my spirit was greatly 
 grieved, and the Lord I feared was highly offended." ^ 
 He wrote a short paper of protest against this pageant, 
 and told the authorities that " the sober people in 
 these nations stood amazed at their doings, and were 
 ashamed, as if they would bring in Popery." 
 
 As he truly says, at this time " there was great con- 
 fusion and distraction amongst the people, and powers 
 were plucking each other to pieces." He addressed 
 an earnest warning to his followers to "keep out of 
 all the bustlings in the world, to meddle not with the 
 
 ^ Cromwell's effigy, robed iu purple, was taken to Westrainster 
 Abbey on the twenty-third of November, seventy-four days after 
 his death. His embalmed body had been buried tliere a short 
 time before. Fox's return to London must therefore have taken 
 place not later than the close of November.
 
 166 GEORGE f OX 
 
 powers of the earth, but mind the Kingdom, the way 
 of peace." I have already^ quoted the passage in 
 which Fox describes the agitation consequent on Sir 
 George Booth's premature Royalist outbreak (August 
 1659), and the exhortations which he then addressed 
 to his followers warning them against taking part in 
 such commotions. So, apart from all the " bustlings of 
 the world," Fox moves about his appointed sphere of 
 labour, visits Norwich, where he has a hot dispute with 
 a clergyman named Townsend ; visits Cornwall, where, 
 as we saw, he writes a paper against the wreckers; 
 visits Tewkesbury and Worcester, and groans over the 
 excesses which accompanied the General Election (April 
 1660). "In all my time," he says, "I never saw the 
 like drunkenness as in the towns, for they had been 
 choosing Parliament-men. At Worcester, the Lord's 
 truth was set over all, people were finely settled 
 therein, and Friends praised the Lord ; nay I saw the 
 very earth rejoiced. Yet great fears and troubles were 
 in many people, and a looking for the King's coming 
 in, and all things being altered. They would ask me 
 what I thought of times and things. I told them the 
 Lord's power was over all, and His light shone over 
 all ; that fear would take hold only on the hypocrites, 
 such as had not been faithful to God, and on our 
 persecutors." 
 
 About General Monh, the adroit actor in the trans- 
 formation-scene from Republic to Monarchy, Fox had 
 written these words, describing the impression produced 
 upon him by the General during his own visit to Scotland 
 (1657) — " And I saw General Monk that he was as a 
 man that bowed under O. P., and had a covering over 
 
 1 p. 44.
 
 THE END UE THE PKOTECTORATE 167 
 
 him ; and take away that covering and then he was the 
 man as he was before [Royalist], as he did fulfil it in 
 a few years after," ^ 
 
 After all, the great event of May 29, 1660, the cele- 
 brated Oak Apple Day, when Charles II. recovered 
 the throne of his forefathers, passes absolutely unnoticed 
 in Fox's Journcd. It is only at the time of his next 
 conflict with the authorities, which happened at Lan- 
 caster, that we find he is accused, in the mittimus which 
 commits him to prison, of being "a disturber of the 
 peace of the nation, and an enemy to the King," and 
 then we know that the Restoration is accomplished 
 and that " the King enjoys his own again," 
 
 Posthumous insults to the Protectm\ Not the worst, but 
 one of the most contemptible actions of the triumphant 
 Royalism was the ghoul-like vengeance wreaked on the 
 bodies of the dead hero and his companions. On Janu- 
 ary 30,1661 (the twelfth anniversary of King Charles's 
 execution), the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Brad- 
 shaw, which had been dug up out of their graves at 
 Westminster, were drawn in sledges to Tyburn, hung 
 there till sunset, and were then beheaded. The " loath- 
 some trunks," says the Royalist scribe, " were thrown 
 into a deep hole under the gallows, and the three heads 
 were set up by the hangman on poles on the top of 
 Westminster Hall," The ghastly sight awoke strange 
 memories in the mind of Fox, who in connection 
 therewith gives us a singular story (unknown, I be- 
 lieve, to any other author), of Oliver's vows on the eve 
 of the battle of Dunbar. 
 
 1 This passage, which is in the MS. Journal, was omitted in 
 the printed copies. Probably Ellwood thought it inexpedient to 
 publish it.
 
 168 GEORGE FOX 
 
 "Though 0. C. at Dunbar fight had promised to 
 the Lord, that if He gave him the victory over his 
 enemies he would take away tithes, etc., or else let 
 him be rolled into his grave with infamy; but when 
 the Lord had given him victory, and he came to be 
 chief, he confirmed the former laws, that if people 
 did not set forth their tithe they should pay treble, 
 and this to be executed by two Justices of Peace in 
 the country, upon the oath of two witnesses. But 
 when the King came in they took him up and hanged 
 him, and buried him under Tyburn, where he was 
 rolled into his grave with infamy. And when I saw 
 him hanging, then I saw his word justly come upon 
 him." 1 
 
 On a review of all the notices of Cromwell's actions 
 contained in the Journal, one feels that Fox hardly did 
 justice to his character, and especially to his genuine 
 desire for toleration all round, except to the Roman 
 Catholics. Fox seems to have thought that the Pro- 
 tector had only to say the word, and all the doors of 
 the prisons wherein Friends were confined would fly 
 open. But, autocrat as Cromwell was, he ruled only 
 by the favour of the army and the Independent party, 
 
 1 This interesting passage is to be fonnd in the MS. Journal, 
 a little after the account of Fox's release from Lancaster Gaol, 
 but is omitted from all the printed editions. Probably Ellwood 
 and his co-editors thought that it bore too hardly on Cromwell's 
 memory. It comes in just before the sentence, " And there being 
 about seven hundred Friends in prison." Vol. I. p. 490 (ed. 1892). 
 The expression about " being rolled into the grave with infamy " 
 occurs in the celebrated speech addressed to Oliver's first Parlia- 
 ment, September 12, 1654. Fox was probably mistaken in 
 connegling it in any way with the abolition of tithes. The 
 alternative in Cromwell's speech was " the wilful throwing away 
 of this Government so owned of God"; in other words, his abdi- 
 cation of the Protectorate.
 
 THE END OF THE PROTECTORATE 169 
 
 and though these were in the main disposed to toler- 
 ation, there was always in their eyes a fringe of eccen- 
 tric and heterodox sects outside the circle of respectable 
 Christianity, wliich it was not wise or safe to tolerate. 
 Did the Quakers belong to this zone of intolerable 
 sectaries or no? Cromwell himself, and the more 
 enlightened of his counsellors, probably thought that 
 they did not, but there was many an enthusiastic 
 trooper in his army who thought that they did, and 
 who would have held that great occasion was given to 
 the enemy to blaspheme by announcing that no Quaker 
 was to be molested for preaching the Inward Light, or 
 refusing the oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth. 
 All this limited Cromwell's power to assist a body of 
 men whom he probably thought hot-headed and quarrel- 
 some, but whom he perceived to have a grasp of some 
 spiritual truths, the promulgation of which could not 
 but be of benefit to the nation. Fox, however, who 
 saw the persecution, did not perceive the restraining 
 hand held over it by the Protector. 
 
 " Wliat's done we partly may complete, 
 We know not what's resisted."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 
 
 IMPRISONMENTS AT LANCASTER AND SCARBRO' 
 
 The reign of the Saints was over, and the reign of the 
 Sinners had begun. No more would be heard the psalm 
 chanted by thousands of manly voices on the eve of 
 desperate battle. Such old-world sounds as these were 
 to be replaced by the rattle of the dice-box and the 
 light laugh of the courtesan, for " our most religious and 
 gracious king," Charles Stuart the younger, had set up 
 his harem in Whitehall, where lately Cromwell had 
 dictated his letters to Milton, and his commands to 
 Europe. Before returning to claim his father's throne, 
 Charles II. had published the celebrated " Declaration " 
 from Breda, in which he promised to grant " liberty of 
 conscience, so that no man should be disquieted or 
 called in question for differences of opinion in matters 
 of religion which did not concern the peace of the 
 kingdom, and to consent to such Acts of Parliament as 
 should be offered him for confirming that indulgence." 
 How Charles kept this promise all the world knows. 
 Except when Mary was kindling the fires of Smithfield, 
 or when Elizabeth was waging her most ruthless war 
 against the adherents of the old faith, there is perhaps 
 
 170
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 171 
 
 no period of English history in which the rights of 
 conscience were more atrociously invaded, or men and 
 women more tyrannically "called in question for 
 differences of opinion in matters of religion which did 
 not concern the peace of the kingdom," than during the 
 reign of Charles II. Three laws which disgraced the 
 English statute book in this reign stand out in bad 
 pre-eminence as the most conspicuous violations of the 
 virtual compact between the returning King and his 
 subjects. 
 
 1. The Act of Uniformity (May 19, 16G2), by which 
 all clergymen were compelled to declare their unfeigned 
 assent and consent to all and everything contained in 
 the Book of Common Prayer, on pain of forfeiting all 
 their " spiritual promotions." In obedience to this Act, as 
 every one knows, about two thousand Puritan ministers 
 were ejected from their parsonages on St. Bartholomew's 
 Day (August 24, 1662), and had to begin the world 
 anew, without even the slender provision of one-fifth of 
 their late incomes which had been left to the Anglican 
 clergy by the Long Parliament when they were ejected 
 for refusing to take the Covenant. 
 
 2. The Conventicle Act (May 17, 1664), which is thus 
 described in the words of its promoters — " The first 
 offence of being in a Conventicle or meeting of more 
 than five persons in addition to members of a family for 
 any religious purpose not in conformity with the Church 
 of England, we have made punishable only with a small 
 fine of £5, or three months' imprisonment, and £10 
 for a peer. The second oftence with £10, or six 
 months' imprisonment, and £20 for a peer. But for 
 the third offence — the party convicted shall be trans- 
 ported [for seven years] to some of youi Majesty's
 
 172 GEORGE FOX 
 
 foreign plantatious, unless he redeem himself by laying 
 down £100." 
 
 3. The Five Mile Act (October 31, 1665) is perhaps 
 the meanest and most spiteful of all the persecuting 
 edicts that ever received the sanction of an EngHsh 
 sovereign. As the ministers ejected on St. Bartholo- 
 mew's Day still continued to earn a subsistence, 
 however scanty, by turning school-master in their old 
 aoe, it was enacted that no Nonconformist ex-minister 
 or teacher, of what denomination soever, who had not 
 taken the oath of passive obedience, should, " unless only 
 in passing upon the road," come within five miles of any 
 city or town corporate, or borough sending members to 
 Parliament, or within the same distance of any parish or 
 place where he had formerly preached or taught, under 
 a penalty of £40 for every offence. And what was this 
 oath of passive obedience ? Not only to the effect that it 
 is not lawful upon any pretence whatever to take arms 
 ao-ainst the King, but that the swearer would not at any 
 time endeavour any alteration of government in Church or 
 State. Almost all the Nonconformist ministers felt that 
 they could not conscientiously make any such promise. 
 
 Of these three miserable Acts, the first and the last, 
 as they affected primarily the beneficed clergymen of 
 the Puritan party, did not greatly concern the Quakers.^ 
 
 ^ In fact, George Fox's reflections on the religious revolution of 
 St. Bartholomew's Day are almost like Isaiah's song of triumph 
 over Babylon. " There was a secret hand in bringing this day 
 [the Restoration] upon that hypocritical generation of professors, 
 who being got into power, grew proud and haughty and cruel 
 beyond others, and persecuted the people of God without pity. 
 (I. 501.) I was moved to write to them [the fallen Puritans, who 
 said ' it was all on account of us ' ]. Did we ever resist them 1 
 Did we not give them our backs to beat, and our cheeks to pull 
 off the hair, and our faces to spit on 1 Had not their priests that 
 prompted them on to such work, pulled them with themselves
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKEHS 173 
 
 The second (the Conventicle Act) was the chief battle- 
 ground on which the State came forth to fight them, 
 and on which they eventually beat the State. Some of 
 the other Nonconformists endeavoured by a harmless 
 artifice to evade this cruel law. When they came to 
 their meetings they would have "candles and tobacco- 
 pipes, flagons of drink, cold meat and bread and cheese 
 upon the table," and so when the officers of justice 
 entered the room, it would be no religious conventicle, 
 but a social party of jovial Englishmen that was going 
 forward.^ But the Quaker would stoop to no such 
 artifice. And his worship, from its very simplicity and 
 
 into the ditch ? Why then would they say ' It was all on account 
 of us,' when it was owing to themselves and their priests, their 
 blind prophets, that followed their own spirits, and could foresee 
 nothing of these times and things that were coming upon them, 
 which we had long forewarned tliem of, as Jeremiah and Christ 
 had forewarned Jerusalem ? They had thought to weary us out 
 and undo us, but they undid themselves." (I. 502.) "Many warn- 
 ings of many sorts were Friends moved .... to give to that 
 generation, which they not only rejected, but abused Friends, 
 ciilling us giddy-headed Quakers ; but God brought His judg- 
 ments upon those persecuting priests and magistrates. For when 
 the King came in, most of them were turned out of their places 
 and benefices [St. Bartholomew's Day], and the spoilers were 
 spoiled, and then we could ask them, 'Who were the giddy heads 
 now ? ' Then many confessed we had been true prophets to the 
 nation, and said, ' Had we cried against some priests only, they 
 should have liked us then, but crying against all made them 
 dislike us.' JBut now they .saw those priests which were then 
 looked upon to be the best were as bad as the rest. For indeed 
 some of those that were counted the most eminent were the 
 bitterest, and the g^eate^^t stirrers up of the magistrates to perse- 
 cution ; and it was a judgment upon them to be denied the free 
 liberty of their consciences when the King came in, because when 
 they were uppermost, they would not luxve liberty of conscience 
 granted to others." (I. 504.) 
 
 ^ See the description of these Presbyterian oijapne in Fox's 
 Journal, II. 86.
 
 174 GEORGE FOX 
 
 apparent baldness, was peculiarly hard to extirpate. 
 There was no chalice, or Geneva gown, or hour-glass, or 
 Bible, the removal of which would spoil the service. 
 Professor Masson has well described the perplexity of 
 the persecutors when brought face to face with " a 
 Quaker's meeting, where men and women were wor- 
 shipping with their hearts, and without implements, in 
 silence as well as by speech. You may break in upon 
 them, hoot at them, roar at them, drag them about; 
 the meeting, if it is of any size, essentially still goes on 
 till all the component individuals are murdered. Throw 
 them out at the door in twos and threes, and they but 
 re-enter at the window, and quietly resume their places. 
 Pull their meeting-house down, and they re-assemble 
 next day most punctually amid the broken walls and 
 rafters. Shovel sand or earth down upon them, and 
 there they still sit, a sight to see, musing immovably 
 among the rubbish. This is no description from fancy. 
 It was the actual practice of the Quakers all over the 
 country. They held their meetings regularly, persever- 
 ingly, and without the least concealment, keeping the 
 doors of their meeting-houses purposely open, that all 
 might enter, informers, constables, or soldiers, and do 
 whatever they chose. In fact, the Quakers behaved 
 magnificently. By their peculiar method of open viola- 
 tion of the law, and passive resistance only, they rendered 
 a service to the common cause of all the Nonconformist 
 sects, which has never been sufficiently acknowledged. 
 The authorities had begun to fear them as a kind of 
 supernatural folk, and knew not what to do with them 
 but cram them into gaols, and let them lie there. In 
 fact the gaols in these days were less places of punish- 
 ment for criminals, than receptacles for a great proper-
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 175 
 
 tion of what was bravest and most excellent in the 
 manhood and womanhood of England."^ 
 
 In addition to these three Acts, which were aimed at 
 all who dissented from the worship of the Church of 
 England, one was passed (May 2, 1662) which was 
 specially directed against the Quakers, By this Act, 
 Avhich became law two years before the general Conven- 
 ticle Act, it was provided that all Quakers, or other 
 persons refusing to take an oath required by law, or 
 maintaining the unlawfulness of oaths; and particularly 
 all Quakers meeting for worship to the number of 
 five or more, should be fined £5 for the first offence, 
 and £10 for the second, with an alternative of three 
 or six months' hard labour, and for the third offence 
 should be banished to the Plantations. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding all this oppression and 
 tyranny, notwithstanding these scandalous violations 
 of the promises which Charles II. had made at Breda, 
 the hearts of his Quaker subjects still clung strangely 
 to the restored King. This was partly because they 
 believed, and rightly believed, that his own heart 
 was not in the work of persecution. But beside this, 
 there was the personal charm of the King's manner, 
 the fascination which, good-for-nothing fellow that he 
 was, he managed to throw over all who came in contact 
 with him. Fox seems to have felt this charm, and to 
 have been to some extent blinded by it. It is im- 
 possible to read the Journal without feeling that 
 Charles II. receives much more favourable measure 
 from the writer than Oliver Cromwell ; and it is with 
 a feeling of something like amusement that we find 
 
 ^ Massou's jLt/e o/ Ju\iM Milton aitd Hisioi-y of his Tirtie, vi. 
 387-8.
 
 176 GEOKGE FOX 
 
 George Fox writing to the King on his accession, not 
 only to exhort him to exercise mercy and forgiveness 
 towards his enemies (an admirable piece of advice), but 
 also "to warn him to restrain the profaneness and 
 looseness that had got up in the nation on his return." 
 Charles II. restraining any exhibition of profaneness 
 and looseness would indeed have been an instance of 
 " the devil rebuking sin." 
 
 But on a review of the whole position of the Quakers 
 at the time of the Restoration, and observing the 
 persistent bitterness of their tone towards the promi- 
 nent members of the old Calvinistic, Puritan party, one 
 is brought to the conclusion that it required only a 
 very little gentleness and reasonable consideration for 
 their scruples, to have made of the new Society a real 
 bulwark of the Stuart throne. They would have been 
 not Royalists only, but (like William Penn) Jacobites 
 also, if they had had any chance of developing their 
 strong germs of loyal sentiment towards the throne. 
 Members of the Church of England they could never 
 have been, but they would have been the most amicable 
 of dissenters from her communion, if they had not 
 been harried with Conventicle Acts and penalties of 
 Praemunire. Only the blind fury of the Cavalier 
 squire and the Episcopalian parson turned these 
 peaceable and loyal-hearted people into Hanoverian 
 Whigs and " political dissenters." 
 
 Of this most unnecessary and ill-advised persecution, 
 from men in whom he might reasonably have hoped to 
 find friends, Fox was to have an early experience. It 
 was probably in the very same month of May (1660), 
 in which Charles II. entered London in triumph, that 
 Fox once more sought the shelter of hospitable Swarth-
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 177 
 
 moor. The kiudly master of the house had died 
 nearly two years previously,^ but his widow and her 
 daughters were ready to give him whom they regarded 
 as their spiritual father a loving welcome. Before he 
 had been there many days, the chief constable and 
 three petty constables tramped into the house with 
 a warrant from Major Porter, Justice of the Peace and 
 Mayor of Lancaster, for George Fox's apprehension. 
 They marched him off to Ulverston, and deposited him 
 for the night in the constable's house. There they sat, 
 fifteen or sixteen rude, loud-talking men, keeping close 
 watch upon their prisoner, and refusing to allow him 
 any communication with his numerous friends in Ulvers- 
 ton, some of whom w^ould gladly have brought him 
 provisions for the night. So superstitious were these 
 Lancasliire peasants that some of the guard went and 
 sat in the chimney-corner to prevent Fox flying away 
 up the chimney ! They bragged to one another about 
 the capture they had effected, as if it had been an 
 exploit of great bravery. "I did not think," said 
 Constable Ashburnham, "that a thousand men could 
 have taken this man prisoner." " Ah ! " said Constable 
 Mount, a very wicked man, " I would have served 
 Judge Fell himself so, if he had been alive, and I had 
 had a warrant to take him." Evidently these braggart 
 constables were the men who would stick oak-leaves in 
 their hats and cry, "Down with the Roundheads and 
 the Rump." 
 
 Next morning at six. Fox, who was to be dragged off 
 to a neighbouring justice, was putting on his boots and 
 spurs, but the rough constables pulled off the spurs, 
 picked his pocket of a knife, put him on another horse 
 
 1 Judge Fell died October 8, 1658. 
 
 K
 
 178 GEORGE FOX 
 
 than his own, and set off, attended by many horsemen 
 and a rabble of followers. About a quarter of a mile 
 from Ulverston, some Friends with the Swarthmoor 
 ladies in their company came forth to meet them. The 
 stupid horsemen gathered round him in mad rage and 
 fury, crying out, " Will they rescue him ? will they 
 rescue him ? " Upon this Fox said, " Here is my hair ; 
 here is my back ; here are my cheeks ; strike me ! " 
 With these words their anger was a little assuaged. 
 Then they brought a little horse, and clumsily lifting 
 Fox, set him upon it behind the saddle, with nothing 
 to hold on by, and led the horse by the halter. When 
 they had got some distance out of the town, says Fox, 
 " they beat the little horse, and made him kick and 
 gallop; whereupon I slipped off him, and told them 
 ' They should not abuse the creature.' They were 
 much enraged at my getting off, and took me by 
 the legs and feet and set me upon the same horse 
 behind the saddle again, and so led it about two miles 
 till they came to a great water. By this time my own 
 horse was come to us, and the water being deep, and 
 their little horse scarce able to carry me through, they 
 let me get upon my own, through the persuasion of 
 some of their own company, leading him through the 
 water. One wicked fellow kneeled down, and lifting 
 up his hands, blessed God that I was taken. When I 
 was come over the sands, I told them I heard I had 
 liberty to choose what justice I would go before ; but 
 Mount and the other constables cried, ' No, I should 
 not.' Then they led me to Lancaster, about fourteen 
 miles, and a great triumph they thought to have had ; 
 but as they led me I was moved to sing praises unto 
 the Lord in His triumphing power over all."
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 179 
 
 When Fox was come to Lancaster, the spirits of the 
 people being, as he says, " mightily up," in other words 
 much excited, he stood and looked earnestly upon them, 
 and they cried, " Look at his eyes ! " This is one of 
 many indications that there was something peculiarly 
 piercing and even awful in the glance of Fox's eyes 
 when he was in one of his high-wrought moods. 
 
 To tell the story of Fox's examination before " Justice 
 Porter" would be to repeat much of what has been 
 already said as to previous examinations. Enough that 
 he was committed to prison, and put in the " Dark 
 House " in Lancaster Castle, a miserable dunseon 
 evidently, but not so liorribly filthy as Doomsdale at 
 Launceston. The head-gaoler seems to have been a 
 reasonable man, but the under-gaoler was rude and 
 cruel, and often would let him have no food but such 
 as could be pushed in to him under the door. 
 
 However, Fox's imprisonment this time was not so 
 long as on some previous occasions, lasting as it did 
 only twenty weeks, from June 3 to October 25, 1660; 
 and these twenty weeks included a journey up to 
 London to plead for himself in the Court of King's 
 Bench. Two causes combined to produce this com- 
 paratively early liberation — the courage of Margaret 
 Fell, and the cowardice of "Justice Porter." The 
 brave lady of Swarthmoor put forth a spirited protest 
 " to all magistrates, concerning the wrongful taking up 
 and imprisoning of George Fox at Lancaster." And 
 not only so, but she went up to London in company 
 with a Friend named Ann Curtis of Reading, whose 
 father, when Sheriff of Bristol, had been hung before 
 his own door for engaging in a Royalist conspiracy.^ 
 
 * The person here alluded to was no doubt Robert Yeamans,
 
 180 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Such intercession as this the newly-returned King could 
 not disregard, and he ordered the issue of a Avrit of 
 habeas corpus, which resulted in George Fox's before- 
 mentioned journey to London, and ap])earance before 
 the Court of King's Bench, True, " Justice Porter " 
 went also, with no little bounce and swagger, to 
 London, declaring " that he would meet Mistress Fell 
 in the gap." But when he got there he met some old 
 Cavaliers whose houses he had plundered when he was 
 a zealous Parliamentarian, and heard from them some 
 disagreeable truths. Fox himself also wrote him a 
 letter, in which he reminded him of stout words which 
 he had used in old times against those that favoured the 
 King, declaring that he would leave them neither dog 
 nor cat if they did not bring him provision to Lancaster 
 Castle. He asked him also, " Whoso great buck's horns 
 those were that were in his house, and where he had 
 both them and the wainscot from, that he ceiled his 
 house withal ? Had he them not from Hornby Castle ? " 
 These allusions were too painful to a man who was 
 only too anxious to obey the Apostolic precept about 
 " forgetting the things that were behind." He quickly 
 had enough of the Court, and returned into the 
 country. 
 
 It was during this interval of Fox's detention in 
 London that he witnessed the disgusting sight of the 
 burning of the disentombed bodies of the dead regicides. 
 The trial of the living regicides was still going forward, 
 and when Fox was taken to the judge's chambers for 
 an examination into his case. Sir Thomas Mallet, who 
 
 Sheriflf of Bristol in 1641-2, who in 1643 was hung opposite to 
 his house in Wine Street for conspiring to deliver up the city to 
 Prince Rupert.
 
 THK STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 181 
 
 was the judge chosen, was putting on his red gown iu 
 order to go into court and sit on the trial of some of 
 these men. He was " very peevish and froward " — 
 perhaps, though a staunch Royalist, he did not hke 
 the work on Avhich he was engaged — and told Fox he 
 might come another time. Eventually the trial took 
 place before (1) the Chief Justice Sir Robert Foster, a 
 harsh, narrow, black-letter lawyer, who had taken an 
 active part in the disgraceful trial of Sir Harry Vane ; 
 (2) Judge Twisden, a learned lawyer and honest man, 
 but extremely passionate ; and (3) the above-mentioned 
 Judge Mallet. The trial was a pretty fair one, though 
 Judge Twisden lost his temper, and tried to scold Fox, 
 as a year later he scolded John Bunyan ; but Fox 
 appealed, not unsuccessfully, to Foster and Mallet for 
 protection. The critical point of the trial was the 
 appearance of a Gentleman of the Bedchamber named 
 Marsh, who signified to the judges the King's pleasure 
 " that Fox should be set at liberty, seeing no accuser 
 came up against him." By this time apparently Major 
 Porter had returned crestfallen to his house at Lan- 
 caster. Accordingly Sir Thomas Mallet drew up an 
 order for the prisoner's release, and on October 25, 
 1660, Fox was once more a free man. 
 
 Tlic foolish outbreak of Venner and the Fifth 
 Monarchy men (January 6, 1661) seems to have been 
 a particularly feeble and frantic aifair, one by which 
 no strons: jrovernment need have been troubled for an 
 hour; yet it was made, most unjustly, a pretext for 
 practically revoking all the promises of toleration con- 
 tained in the King's Declaration from Breda. Fox 
 himself was in London on the memorable Sunday 
 night when this mad rush of the Fifth Monarchy men
 
 182 GEORGE FOX 
 
 set all Loudon in an uproar. He heard tlie midnight 
 cry, " Arm ! arm ! " and went with early morning 
 through Whitehall to Pall Mall, where there was a 
 meeting of Friends, and near which he had, it seems, 
 a temporary lodging. He stayed here several days, 
 often molested by the soldiers, who were bursting 
 roughly into the houses of the citizens searching for 
 arms. Probably he would have been again committed 
 to prison, or cut down by the sword of some hot-headed 
 trooper, had not the friendly courtier, whom he calls 
 "Esquire ]\Iarsh," actually come and taken up his 
 quarters in Fox's lodging in order to protect him, and 
 obtained his liberation when the soldiers took him into 
 temporary arrest. 
 
 Though Fox was earnest in his appeals to Friends 
 not to get mixed up in the movements of the Fifth 
 Monarchy fanatics, and addressed paper after paper to 
 the Government to assure it of the absolute peace- 
 ableness of his followers, this outbreak was made the 
 pretext for a raid of exceptional severity upon the 
 Quakers. One such paper, addressed to the King, 
 probably early in 1662, gives us some much-desired 
 statistics as to the extent of the persecution. The 
 results are these. " Under the changeable powers 
 before thee " (as Fox styles the Commonwealth and the 
 Protectorate), 3173 Friends had been arrested and 
 imprisoned. Of these 32 had died in prison, 73 were 
 still in confinement under process issued in the name 
 of the Commonwealth, the rest had been liberated 
 before or at the Restoration. But that was the account 
 of a persecution spreading over something like ten 
 years (1650 — 1660). Now in the space of less than 
 two years from King Charles's accession there had
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 183 
 
 been imprisoned in his name, and by those who 
 thought to ingratiate themselves with him, 3068 
 persons. " Besides this, our meetings are daily broken 
 up by men with clubs and arms, though we meet 
 peaceably according to the practice of" God's people in 
 the primitive times, and our friends are thrown into 
 waters and trod upon, till the very blood gushes out 
 of them, the number of which abuses can hardly be 
 uttered." 
 
 The appeal to Charles II. was not altogether in vain. 
 Though his was certainly not one of the "tender con- 
 sciences" about which so much was said, he probably 
 felt both the shame and the impolicy of flagrantly 
 violating the compact made at Breda. Moreover, being 
 himself a Roman Catholic at heart, he was conscious 
 of a certain languid desire to obtain for his oppressed 
 brother Romanists that little measure of toleration 
 which, as he knew, could only be obtained by jumbling 
 up their case with that of the Protestant Noncon- 
 formists. Accordingly, on December 26, 1662, he put 
 forth a Declaration, in which, reminding himself of his 
 promises from Breda, he " renewed to his subjects con- 
 cerned in those promises of indulgence, the assurance 
 that he would make it his especial care, without 
 invading the freedom of Parliament, to incline their 
 wisdom to join with him in making some Act for the 
 relief of those, who living peaceably did not conform 
 to the Church of England, through scruple or tender- 
 ness of misguided conscience." Unfortunately the 
 religious rancour of the Cavalier Parliament, whose 
 members in the abused name of the Christian religion 
 were indulging all those passions of hatred and revenge 
 which Christ came to banish from the earth, would not
 
 184 GEORGE FOX 
 
 allow the King to frame any effectual Toleration Act, 
 but it Avas something that the weight of his name 
 should thus be thrown on the side of mercy. It is 
 probably not a mere coincidence that Fox's imprison- 
 ment (the sixth of the series), which took place at 
 Leicester this year, was of exceptionally short duration. 
 It was severe enough while it lasted, for the gaoler was 
 " a very wicked, cruel man," but some little mitigation 
 was obtained by appealing to the avarice of his wife, 
 who though lame, and almost confined to her chair, 
 was undoubted master, and " would beat her husband 
 with her crutch " when he came within her read), if he 
 did not do as she would have him. However, when the 
 case came on for trial, it was clearly proved that no 
 offence even against the Conventicle Act had at the 
 time specified in the indictment been committed by 
 Fox and his friends, and they were liberated without 
 the usual device of requiring them to take the oaths of 
 allegiance and supremacy. 
 
 But the days of fairness and moderation were soon 
 over, Charles was too indolent, or too much hampered 
 by his own extravagance, to make any sustained effort 
 on behalf of toleration. George Fox's next imprison- 
 ment was the longest, though not perhaps the most 
 cruel of any, and lasted for nearly three years, from 
 the beginning of 1664 to near the end of 1666. The 
 chief actors in this persecution were no doubtful 
 Royalists (such as Justice Porter), but two staunch 
 Westmoreland Cavaliers, Colonel Kirkby of Kirkby 
 Hall, and his cousin Daniel Fleming (afterwards Sir 
 Daniel Fleming) of Rydal Hall. 
 
 In this instance we have the opportunity, so rarely 
 granted us, of hearing both sides of the question, of
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 185 
 
 knowing what both persecutors and persecuted thought 
 of one another. This opportunity is afforded us by the 
 publication of an unusually rich collection of manu- 
 scripts belonging to the Fleming family.^ Here we 
 see Daniel Fleming of Rydal, one of a numerous band 
 of cousins, Curwens, Lawsons, and so on, to which 
 Colonel Kirkby also belongs. All these Cumberland 
 and Westmoreland squires are jubilant over the King's 
 return, but they rejoice with trembling. They are 
 perpetually hearing of plots and rebellions ; Colonel 
 Lambert is said to have escaped from prison, and to 
 be marching from Scotland with 30,000 men; the 
 "fanatics," as they call all the Puritan Nonconformists, 
 are astir ; till the fanatics are suppressed there will be 
 no peaceable enjoyment of their estates by the West- 
 moreland lakes for squires loyal to Church and King. 
 And with these alarms, as we can now see, the name 
 of the Quaker sect was honestly, but most ignorantly 
 connected. Thus, if these rural magistrates were, as 
 they certainly seem to have been, both cruel and un- 
 just in their magisterial proceedings against the Friends, 
 their conduct is to be accounted for not merely by 
 religious bigotry and arrogant Episcopalian scorn of 
 Puritan sectaries, but also by that fruitful parent of 
 cruelty, fear. 
 
 Among these persecuting squires we find with regret 
 Daniel Fleming of Rydal taking the lead. That name, 
 Rydal, brings to our minds Wordsworthian calm and 
 repose, and a remembrance of the soothing ministra- 
 tions of Nature. Yet from Rydal Hall, in the years 
 immediately following the Restoration, went forth 
 
 ^ Historical Manuscripts Commission : Twelfth Report. Ap- 
 pendix, Part vii.
 
 186 GEORGE FOX 
 
 many a warrant that broke up the happiness of an 
 honest dalesman's home, sending the father or the 
 mother of the family to endure the foulness of a pesti- 
 lential prison, for no crime but that of worshipping 
 God according to their conscience. " Oh, fye, Justice 
 Fleming," was the remonstrance of William Wilson of 
 Stangend, " that ever this report should be sounded in 
 our ears, that within thy liberties such plundering 
 should be amongst thy neighbours. We never had the 
 like in our parish since the Scots was amongst us, nor 
 never expected that our own justices should have made 
 such work, as set men on robbing and spoiling true 
 men's goods, who dare not spoil themselves, nor do 
 any hurt to any man."^ 
 
 George Fox also wrote to him, " Oh Justice Fleming, 
 dost thou not hear the cry of the widows and the cry 
 of the fatherless, who were made so through perse- 
 cution ? . . . One more is dead whom thou sent to 
 prison, having left five children, both fatherless and 
 motherless. , . . Again, Justice Fleming, consider, 
 when John Stubbs was before thee, having a wife and 
 four small children, and little to live on but what they 
 honestly got by their own diligence, as soon as he 
 appeared thou criedst out, ' Put the oath to that man.' 
 And when he confessed that he was but a poor man 
 thou hadst no regard, but cast away pity, not hearing 
 what he would say. . . . Consider also thy poor neigh- 
 bour William Wilson' [the writer of the previous letter], 
 ' who was known to all the parish and neighbours to be 
 an industrious man, and careful to maintain his wife 
 and children, yet had little but what he had got with 
 his hands in diligence and travels to supply himself. 
 
 1 Fleming MSS. 580.
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 187 
 
 How should his wife maintain her children, when thou 
 hast cast her husband into prison, and thereby made 
 him incapable of working for them ? " 
 
 To all such appeals no doubt the Justice would have 
 answered, that these poor people should have thought 
 about wife and children before venturing to break the 
 Act of 1662 against Quakers' meetings. It is true that 
 the right to " obey God rather than men " was once 
 claimed by some Galilean fishermen, but it was out- 
 rageous that it should be asked for by the dalesmen of 
 Westmoreland. 
 
 What adds to our regret in having to leave the lord 
 of Rydal pilloried as a tyrant and persecutor is, that he 
 was evidently a man of some little culture, an antiquary 
 in his way, a friend of Sir William Dugdale's, and a 
 buyer of his books.^ But he had made up his mind 
 that the " rabble of fanaticks " who met at Mrs. Fell's 
 house must be suppressed. He looked upon the Quakers 
 as " vermin," and when he and his brother squires were 
 once in full cry after their prey, they showed more of 
 the ardour of the huntsman than of the patient impar- 
 tiality of the judge. 
 
 Thus then it was that towards the end of 1663 the 
 squirearchy of Cumberland and Westmoreland began 
 to bestir themselves for the more effectual suppression 
 of the Quaker teachers. In this work Fleming was 
 the most active. In his report to Sir Henry Bennet,- 
 the Secretary of State, be said, " it was necessary to 
 spurr on the majestrates of Kendal to the good work of 
 
 * It is amusing to find Daniel Fleming's two sisters Frances 
 and Bridget writing to him (February 21, 1662) to thank him 
 for making choice of them for his valentines, and to ask him for 
 some account of " Don Qizxote and Sankca Pankca." Fleming 
 MSS. 477.) - Afterwards Lord Arlington.
 
 188 GEORGE FOX 
 
 the prosecution of the Quakers." ^ At Quarter Sessions 
 at Kendal he offered a reward of £5 to any one who 
 would apprehend George Fox; and so great was his 
 zeal, that his cousin and fellow-persecutor Kirkby said 
 that there was not such a man as Justice Fleming in 
 all those parts ; his whole time was taken up with the 
 Quakers; he had holed the Fox and staid his Ham- 
 brough Quaker from travelling.^ 
 
 Yet outwardly Colonel Kirkby still preserved some 
 appearance of civility to the Friends. On some rumour 
 of warrants being issued for his apprehension Fox, as 
 his manner was, determined to march into the lion's 
 den, and started off for a five-miles walk to Kirkby 
 Hall. He found the Hall full of the Flemings and 
 others of the cousinry, who had come to take leave of 
 the Colonel (as they might now take leave of one going 
 to India) on the eve of his departure to take his seat 
 in Parliament. For some time Fox sat in the parlour 
 among the uncongenial squires, but they said little to 
 him nor he much to them. When the Colonel entered. 
 Fox said that, having heard of Kirkby's desire to arrest 
 him, he had come to visit him and hear what he had to 
 say against him. Said Kirkby before all the company, 
 "As I am a gentleman I have nothing against you. 
 But Mistress Fell must not keep great meetings at 
 her house, for they meet contrary to the Act." Fox 
 aroued that the Act was meant for turbulent and 
 seditious persons, not for those who met at Margaret 
 Fell's bouse, the Colonel's own neighbours, whom he 
 well knew to be peaceable people. Kirkby repeated 
 that he had nothing against Fox, and shook him by the 
 
 1 Fleming MSS. 601. 
 ^ Ibid. 580. I cannot explain the last allusion.
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 189 
 
 hand at parting ; he then went up to Westminster to 
 take his place in the Cavalier Parliament. 
 
 Scarcely had Kirkby departed when a private meeting 
 of Justices and DeiDuty-Lieutenants was held at Justice 
 Preston's house, Holker Hall, to concert measures for 
 the suppression of the Quakers. A warrant was issued, 
 and an officer came with sword and pistols to arrest 
 Fox. He had been on the point of leaving that part 
 of England for a time, but fearing that the brunt of 
 the persecution would fall upon his followers if he were 
 absent, he did not avail himself of an opportunity to 
 escape, bat went with the officer to Holker Hall, and 
 his faithful ally Margaret Fell accompanied him. 
 
 When they were brought into the justice-room, they 
 found Justices Preston and Rawliuson, both members 
 of the Fleming kinship,^ besides many more, unknown 
 to Fox. It was rather a strange thing that among 
 these magistrates who were going to put the strict 
 letter of the law in force against a Protestant Noncon- 
 formist, there was a certain Sir George Middleton, who 
 as a Papist and a recusant was the object of laws almost 
 as fierce and as intolerant as those that were aimed 
 against the Quakers. The examination turned chiefly 
 on " the plot," that is apparently the so-called insur- 
 rection of Farnley Wood in Yorkshire, which broke 
 out, or rather which made a feeble puff of smoke, in 
 the autumn of 1663, and which was so futile and so 
 obviously doomed to failure that many persons believed 
 it to have been no genuine plot at all, but a " trepan," 
 as it was called, prepared by the agents 'provocateurs of 
 the Duke of Buckingham. However, against this plot, 
 whatever was its reality, Fox had put forth one of his 
 1 See Fleming MSS. 3143, 3144, and p. 380.
 
 190 GEORGE FOX 
 
 "papers," urging his followers to have nothing to do 
 with any such revolutionary proceedings, but the 
 magistrates were not ashamed to use the monstrous 
 argument that he must have had a guilty know- 
 ledge of the plot, otherwise be could not have written 
 against it. 
 
 The evidence, however, was beginning to prove in- 
 sufficient, and then the ready expedient of tendering 
 the oath was resorted to. Middleton, who had already 
 had an altercation with Fox, in which he had got the 
 worst of it, cried out, "Bring the book, and put the 
 oaths of allegiance and supremacy to him." The oaths 
 were those which he himself, as a Papist, had refused 
 to take and which were meant for him, and not for the 
 Puritan sectaries. It certainly must have required a 
 good deal of modest assurance on the part of a magis- 
 trate, himself a recusant, to press that argument 
 against his enemy. Fox was ready with the inevitable 
 tu quoque; some of Middleton's brother magistrates 
 seem to have felt the iniquity of the proceeding, and 
 eventually, instead of making out the mittimus and 
 sending him at once to Lancaster Gaol, they ordered 
 Fox to appear at the next Quarter Sessions at Lancaster, 
 and meanwhile he was allowed to return quietly with 
 Marsfaret Fell to Swarthmoor. 
 
 During the short respite thus obtained, of course the 
 meetings at Swarthmoor went on as of old. One day 
 (probably a Sunday) Colonel Kirkby, having returned 
 from Westminster, appeared with the constables at his 
 heels. He walked in to where the Friends were sitting 
 in silence, and " How now, Mr. Fox ! " he cried ; " you 
 have a fine company here." " Yes," said Fox, " we 
 meet to wait upon the Lord." Kirkby then began to
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 191 
 
 take down the names of Friends, and if any did not 
 readily tell him their names, he committed them into 
 the constables' hands, and declared that they should go 
 to prison. The constables were unwilling to take them 
 without a warrant, upon which the fuming magistrate 
 " threatened to set the constables also by the heels, but 
 the men knew the law better than their master, and 
 one of them told him, he could keep them so long as 
 they were in his presence, but after he was gone he 
 could not keep them without a warrant." 
 
 Now began a tedious and evidently much bungled 
 judicial campaign against Fox, in which the faithful 
 Margaret was also included. The Quarter Sessions at 
 Lancaster, January 11, 1664, the Assizes at the same 
 city in March and August of the same year, and in 
 March 1665, were successive stages of the affair. During 
 all this time Fox was kept in durance at Lancaster 
 Castle, for Fleming, Rawlinson, and the other Justices 
 at the Quarter Sessions, had committed him to prison 
 for not taking the prescribed oaths, thus purposely 
 laying the foundation for the much more serious pro- 
 cedure which was to be put in operation before the 
 Judges of Assize. 
 
 This procedure was none other than the invocation 
 of the terrible penalty of Praemunire on George Fox, 
 and on Margaret Fell likewise. This penalty, at first 
 attached by Plantagenet kings to ecclesiastics who were 
 trying to override the royal prerogative by appeals to 
 Rome, caused the offender " to be out of the king's 
 protection, to be attached in his body, to lose his lands, 
 tenements, and chattels." After the Reformation this 
 old penalty was sharpened up and applied with remorse- 
 less severity to all adherents of the old religion who
 
 192 GEORGE FOX 
 
 should receive or publish bulls from Rome, bring in or 
 receive to wear an Agnus Dei, or send relief to a Jesuit 
 beyond sea. By a statute passed in the third year of 
 James I., in the first spasm of terror caused by the 
 discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, it was enacted that 
 if any person above eighteen, being not noble, should 
 refuse the oath of allegiance ^ when tendered by a 
 bishop or by the Justices of the Peace at their Quarter 
 Sessions, such person should be liable to the penalties 
 of a Praemunire^ and these penalties as explained and 
 expanded by the black-letter lawyers amounted to 
 confiscation of all property real and personal, to loss 
 of the king's protection, and to perpetual imprisonment 
 during the king's pleasure. 
 
 Now, with malicious ingenuity, the lawyers and 
 magistrates of the Restoration discovered that this 
 dreaded penalty of Praemunire, invented and perfected 
 solely as a weapon of defence against the wide-reaching 
 arm of Rome, might be used to rid themselves of a 
 much humbler enemy, the troublesome and disrespectful 
 Quaker. It was true that he was utterly at variance 
 with the men against whom all that array of statutes 
 had been aimed ; true that if he might only have sub- 
 stituted a solemn promise for an oath, he would have 
 promised, and have kept as true allegiance to the re- 
 stored King as the most devout preacher of Divine Right 
 could desire. Still the Act said—" If any person not 
 noble, and above eighteen, shall refuse the oath of 
 allegiance." The Quakers would refuse that and every 
 other oath. Therefore they could be deprived of every 
 penny of their property, and shut up in prison for the 
 
 1 The oath of supremacy is not mentioned in this statute. 
 » See Gardiner, Ristory of England, i. 288 (Ed. 1883).
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 193 
 
 rest of their natural lives, if the King would only consent 
 so to prolong their captivity. And all this was done 
 in the name of religion. " Shall the throne of iniquity 
 have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief 
 by a law ? " 
 
 The judges who came on the Northern Circuit at 
 the three before-nientionetl Assizes, were Twisden and 
 Turner, and by one or other of these Fox was suc- 
 cessively tried. We have already seen something of 
 Judge Twisden's little infirmities of temper, and there 
 was an amusing illustration of these in the trial at the 
 March Assizes of 1664. When the judge pressed him 
 to swear, Fox pleaded the King's Declaration from 
 Breda, in which he said that no man should be called 
 in question for matters of religion so long as he lived 
 peaceably. " If thou ownest the King," said Fox, 
 " why dost thou call me into question, and put me upon 
 taking an oath, which is a matter of relijjion, seeing: 
 neither thou nor any one else can charge me with 
 unpeaceable living ? " " Upon this he was moved, and 
 looking angrily at me said, ' Sirrah ! will you swear ? ' 
 I told him I was none of his sirrahs ; I was a Christian ; 
 and for him, an old man and a judge, to sit there and 
 give nicknames to his prisoners, it did not become 
 either his grey hairs or his office. ' Well,' said he, ' I 
 am a Christian too.' ' Then do Christian works,' said I. 
 ' Sirrah ! ' said he, ' thou thinkest to frijxhten me with 
 thy words.' Then catching himself and looking aside, 
 he said, ' Hark, I am using the word [sirrah] again,' 
 and so checked himself. I said, ' I spoke to thee in 
 love ; for that language did not become thee, a judge. 
 Thou oughtest to instruct a prisoner in the law, if he 
 
 were ignorant and out of the way.' 'And I speak in 
 
 o
 
 194 GEORGE FOX 
 
 love to thee too,' he said, ' But,' said I, ' love gives 
 110 nicknames.' Then he roused himself and said, ' I 
 will not be afraid of thee, George Fox ; thou speakest 
 so loud, thy voice drowns mine and the court's ; I must 
 call for three or four criers to drown thy voice ; thou 
 hast good lungs.' ' I am a prisoner here,' said I, ' for 
 the Lord Jesus Christ's sake ; for His sake do I suffer, 
 for Him do I stand this day ; and if my voice were five 
 times louder, I should lift it up and sound it for Christ's 
 sake, for whose cause I stand this day before your 
 judgement-seat in obedience to Christ, who commands 
 not to swear; before whose judgement-seat you must 
 all be brought, and must give an account.' " The 
 judge, in answer to Fox's repeated attempts to draw 
 him into a discussion as to the meaning of Christ's 
 command not to swear, answered that he was a servant 
 of the King, sent there not to dispute with any one, 
 but to put the laws in execution, insisted on tendering 
 the oa,th of allegiance to Fox, and on his refusal to 
 take it ordered him off to prison, to be kept till the 
 next Assizes. Margaret Fell's case was dealt with in a 
 similar manner. 
 
 In the interval between this and his next appearance 
 in court, Fox employed part of the long leisure of the 
 prison in writing a paper to all judges and other 
 magistrates who professed themselves to be Christians, 
 arguing against the custom then far too prevalent, 
 of addressing abusive language from the bench to the 
 prisoners in the dock. According to his usual practice, 
 he draws all his arguments from the Bible. Joshua 
 said to the offending Achan, not " Sirrah ! you rascal, 
 knave, and rogue ! " but, " My son : give glory to the 
 God of Israel." " Even Nebuchadnezzar called Shadrach,
 
 THE STUARTS AND THP] QUAKERS 195 
 
 Meshach, and Abetlnego by their names, not adding any 
 opprobrious epithets ; and shamefully as Paul and Silas 
 were entreated at Philippi, at least they were called 
 ' men/ anil not ' sirralis, rogues, and knaves ' by tlie 
 magistrates." 
 
 The clerk of the magistrates at Lancaster must have 
 done his work with disgraceful carelessness, for Fox 
 was able at the August Assizes to point out several 
 blunders as to dates and the like, both in his and in 
 ^Margaret Fell's indictments, but apparently these ad- 
 mitted errors only procured the delay of his sentence 
 till the next Assizes, which -were held on March 16, 
 1665. The indictment, according to Fox's account, 
 was still but a bungled business, but the judge carried 
 matters through with a high hand ; the undoubted fact 
 that the prisonei^s had refused the oath of allegiance 
 was proved to the satisfaction of the jury, and both 
 George Fox and Mars^jaret Fell received the sentence 
 of Praemunire with all its terrible consequences, out- 
 lawry, confiscation, j^erpetual imprisonment. According 
 to Fox's statement, he was not even present when 
 sentence was passed upon him, much less asked in 
 the usual form what he had to urge in mitigation of 
 the penalty, the object being to stop his mouth and 
 prevent him from pointing out any more flaws in the 
 indictment. 
 
 For the fourteen months which had already elapsed 
 since Fox's committal to prison, he had been confined 
 in Lancaster Castle. At first his imprisonment was 
 not a very close one, but after the Assizes of August 
 1664, in which he exposed the blunders of the magis- 
 trates who were persecuting him, Colonel Kirkby, he 
 says, " gave orders to the gaoler to keep me close, and
 
 196 GEORGE FOX 
 
 suffer no flesh alive to come at me, for I was not fit to 
 be discoursed with by men. Then I was put into a 
 tower, where the smoke of the other prisoners came up 
 so thick that I could hardly see the candle when it 
 burned ; and I being locked under three locks, the 
 under-gaoler, when the smoke was great, would hardly 
 be persuaded to come up to unlock one of the upper- 
 most doors, for fear of the smoke, so that I was almost 
 smothered. Besides, it rained in upon my bed, and 
 many times when I went to stop out the rain in the 
 cold winter season, my shirt was wet through with the 
 rain that came in ujDon me while I was labouring to 
 stop it out. And the place being high, and open to 
 the wind, sometimes as fast as I stopped it, the wind 
 blew it out again. In this manner did I lie all that 
 long, cold winter till the next assize ; in which time I 
 was so starved with cold and rain, that my body was 
 greatly swelled, and my limbs much benumbed." 
 
 In April 1665, Colonel Kirkby and his confederate 
 Justices decided that Fox's continued detention at 
 Lancaster was doing them harm, and worked hard to 
 get him removed to some distant place, so that he 
 might be forgotten, and sympathy with him might 
 die out in Lancashire. They talked about getting him 
 sent "beyond sea," but eventually, six weeks after the 
 sentence of l^raemunire had been passed, they obtained 
 an order from the King and Council for his removal 
 from Lancaster to Scarbro'. He was so weak with 
 lying for so many months in that cold, wet, and smoky 
 prison, that he could hardly stand. However, the 
 sheriff's officers dragged him out of prison, not telling 
 him whither they were taking him. "They hurried 
 me away," he says, " about fourteen miles to Bentham,
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 197 
 
 though I was so very weak I was hardly able to sit 
 on horseback ; and my clothes smelt so of smoke that 
 they were loathesonie to myself. Tlie wicked gaoler, 
 one Hunter, a young fellow, would come behind and 
 give the horse a lash with his whip, and make him 
 skip and leap, so that I being weak had difficulty to 
 sit him ; and then he would come and look me in the 
 face and say, ' How do you, Mr. Fox ? ' I told him it 
 was not civil in him to do so. The Lord cut him ofif 
 soon after." 
 
 At York the treatment of the prisoner was somewhat 
 improved. Lord Frescheville (a lo3'aI Cavalier who 
 had just received his patent of peerage from Charles 
 II.) commanded the cavalry stationed there, "and was 
 very civil and loving." " I gave him," says Fox, " an 
 account of my imprisonment, and declared many things 
 to him relating to truth. Tliey kept me at York two 
 days, and then the marshal and four or five soldiers 
 were bent to convey mc to Scarbro' Carstle. Indeed 
 these were very civil men, and carried tliemselves 
 civilly and lovingly to me. When we were come to 
 Scarbro' they had me to an inn, and gave notice to 
 the governor, who sent six soldiers to be my guard 
 that night." Such extraordinary precautions seem to 
 show that, absurd as the suggestion sounds, the author- 
 ities really looked upon Fox as a somewhat dangerous 
 conspirator, and believed in the possibility of an attempt 
 at rescue. Weak as he was at this time, and subject to 
 fainting fits, he was put into a room in the Castle which 
 was open to the rain, and the chimney of which was 
 always smoking. The governor. Sir J. Crossland, came 
 one day to see his prisoner, and as Fox knew him to be 
 a Roman Catholic, he told him that it was his Purgatory
 
 198 GEORGE FOX 
 
 to which he had been consigned. The prisoner spent 
 fifty shillings out of his own pocket in order to make 
 the room somewhat tolerable, and then they removed 
 him to another worse room without a fire-place, and 
 much exposed to the weather. " Being," as he says, 
 " to the seaside, and lying much open, the wind drove 
 in the rain forcibly so that the water came over my 
 bed and ran about the room, that I was fain to skim 
 it up with a platter. And when my clothes were wet 
 I had no fire to dry, so that my body was benumbed 
 with cold, and my fingers swelled, that one was grown 
 as big as two." Besides all these hardships he seems 
 to have been left for some time without food, and had 
 to pay a woman to bring him some necessaries out of 
 the town, who when she came back was forced to run 
 the gauntlet of the soldiers trying to snatch the food 
 out of her hand. At last he had to hire a soldier to 
 bring liim his provisions, which were truly anchorite's 
 fare. A three-penny loaf Avould last him for three 
 weeks or even longer, and his drink was for the most 
 part water with wormwood steeped in it. Once in the 
 bitter winter weather, having taken a violent cold, he 
 sent out for a little " elecampane beer." ^ The soldiers 
 heard of it, and by way of a practical joke, feigned 
 a message for Fox to go and wait upon the deputy- 
 governor, and in his absence drank up his cordial. 
 "When I came back," he says, "one of the soldiers 
 came to me in a jeer, and asked me for some strong 
 beer. I told him they had played their pretty trick ; 
 and so I took no further notice of it," Assuredly, when 
 we compare the prison discipline of the Stuart period 
 
 ^ "Elecampane," says the Imperial Dictionary, "is an aromatic 
 bitter, and was formerly regarded as an expectorant.''
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 109 
 
 ■\vitli tlie prison discipline of the Victorian age we shall 
 not be Leiiipted to say, '' The iormer days were b< tter 
 than these." It was felt as a great grievance by Fox 
 that the governor would not allow tlie Friends of 
 Scarbro' to visit him; and with his usual habit of quot- 
 ing a Biblical precedent for everything, he reminded 
 the authorities of what was done in the case of St. Paul 
 at Rome, how the heathen rulers of that day allowed 
 him, though in prison, to see his friends, and to preach 
 Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding 
 him. " So you that go under the name of Christians 
 are worse in this respect than those heathen were." 
 
 Though the Friends were not permitted to visit their 
 apostle, all other sorts and conditions of men were 
 allowed to come and gaze at one whom the governor 
 seems to have looked upon as an interesting specimen 
 added to his collection. Lord Falconbridge (or Faucon- 
 berg), the Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding, and 
 in hi^rh favour with Charles IL, notwithstanding his 
 marriafre with Cromwell's daughter; old Lord Fairfax's 
 widow, and other members of the Yorkshire aristocracy, 
 came thus at various times to gaze or to dispute. There 
 came a Presbyterian physician, Avho argued against the 
 universality of the Light of Christ ; and there came 
 also Papists — once in great numbers — to argue about 
 the infallibility of the Pope,^ and Christ's descent into 
 Hades. But the most interesting of these interviews, 
 as it seems to me, and one to which sufficient attention 
 lias not yet been called, was one which he had with 
 a certain Doctor of Divinity named Cradock, who called 
 
 ^ In this cliscuppion Fox qnoted the case of Pope ^rarcellinus, 
 ■who is alleged to liave fallen away under tlie stress of Diocletian's 
 persecution.
 
 200 GEORGE FOX 
 
 upon him together with three other clergymen, the 
 governor and his wife, and some other distinguished 
 visitors. After the cause of Fox's imprisonment had 
 been stated, and the usual arguments about swearing 
 had been exchanged, " ' Why,' said Fox, ' dost thou 
 excommunicate my friends ? ' (for he had excommuni- 
 cated abundance both in Yorkshire and Lancashire). 
 He said, ' For not coming to church.' ' Why,' said I, 
 'ye left us above twenty years ago, when we were but 
 young lads and lassies, to the Presbyterians, Independ- 
 ents, and Baptists, many of whom made spoil of our 
 goods, and persecuted us, because we would not follow 
 them. Nor we, being but young, knew little then of 
 your principles; and if ye had intended to keep the 
 old men that did know them, tu )0u and y^nir principles 
 alive, that we might have known them, ye should eitlier 
 not have fled from us as ye did, or ye should have sent 
 us your epistles, collects, homilies, and evening songs, 
 for Paul wrote epistles to the saints, though he was in 
 prison. But they and we might have turned Turks 
 or Jews for any collects, homilies, or epistles we had 
 from you all this while. And now thou hast excom- 
 municated us, both young and old, and so have others 
 of you done ; that is, ye have put us out of your church 
 before you have got us into it, and before ye have 
 brought us to know your principles.' " 
 
 In these words Fox concisely sums up the whole 
 early history of Quakerism, fighting as it did with 
 Calvinism, with Puritanism, with much that the Anglican 
 spirit was also opposed to, but getting no help, no 
 guidance or counselling words, from the dismayed and 
 silenced Anglican clergy. St. Dominic and men of 
 that mould might bo said to have earned the hateful
 
 THE STUARTS AND THE QUAKERS 201 
 
 right to persecute others by the courage with which 
 they bore persecution when their enemies had the 
 upper hand. Even so with tlie Roman Catholics under 
 Elizabeth, and with the Scottish Covenanters under 
 Charles II., but not so with the timid Church which 
 lay so low during the years of Puritan ascendency from 
 1640 to 166U. 
 
 The liberty thus given to the prisoner to converse 
 with those who differed from his religious views, and 
 who probably expected easily to vanquish him in argu- 
 ment, did not extend to his brethren in the faith, as 
 to whom he says he was " as a man buried alive." 
 Rumours of an unpleasant kind as to the probable 
 termination of his case filtered through into his prison 
 cell. The officers of the garrison oiten threatened "that 
 he should be hanged over the wall," and the deputy- 
 governor once informed him that he was being kept 
 there as a kind of hostage — " the King knowing I had 
 a great interest in the people, had sent me thither, that 
 if there should be any stirriiig in the nation, they should 
 hang me over the wall to keep the nation down." All 
 which shows the utter ignorance of the Government as 
 to the true character of the Quaker movement. What- 
 ever the faults of the early Friends might be, insurrection 
 and armed resistance to the Government were thin£[3 
 that for them never came within the region of the 
 possible, and no rebellion against the Stuart King 
 would have been either retarded or promoted for a 
 day by either the imprisonment of their founder or 
 by " hanging him over the wall." There was a wedding 
 at the house of a neighbouring Papist, and during the 
 merry-making that followed, there was much pleasant 
 discourse of the speedy execution of the prisoner in
 
 202 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 the Castle. Either the wedding guests, in the lightness 
 of their heart, came to taunt Fox with what they had 
 heard, or in some other way the news was conveyed 
 to him. Brave at heart for all his worn-out body, he 
 replied — " If this be what ye desire, and if it be per- 
 mitted you by the Lord, I am ready. I have never 
 feared death or sufferings in my life, but have been well 
 known for an innocent and peaceable man, free from all 
 stirrings and plottings, and seeking the good of all men." 
 After a time Governor Crossland, having got into 
 trouble himself over a mismanaged privateer of his that 
 had made some illegal captures, was softened in spirit, 
 and showed a kindlier bearing towards his patient 
 prisoner. The ever faithful " Esquire Marsh," who said 
 " he would go a hundred miles barefoot for George Fox's 
 freedom," exerted his influence at Court on his behalf, 
 and presented a petition, drawm up by some London 
 Friends, setting forth the sufferings already endured by 
 their founder. In the end, Charles II. was persuaded 
 of the peaceable character of the prisoner at Scarbro', 
 or rather probably was persuaded to take the trouble 
 to gfive five minutes' attention to his case. An order 
 was signed stating that the King was certainly informed 
 that George Fox was a man principled against plotting 
 and fighting, and ready at all times to discover plots 
 rather than to make them, and signifying thereupon 
 the royal pleasure that he should be released from his 
 imprisonment. The order was brought down to Scar- 
 bro' by a zealous Quaker minister, named John White- 
 head, who had been one of the most active in procuring it, 
 and on September 1, 1666, Fox obtained his discharge. 
 He had been deprived of liberty since January 11, 
 1664, three years all but three months.
 
 THP: STUARTS AND TIIR QT^AKKRS 203 
 
 After his release he wislied to make Governor Cross- 
 land a present for the civility and kindness he had lately 
 showed him, but the governor refused to receive it, 
 saying that he would gladly do anything that he could 
 for him and his friends. Ever after, when the mavor 
 of Scarbro' sent up to him for soldiers to break up the 
 meetings of Friends, if he appeared to comply, he 
 privately gave his soldiers a charge not to meddle, and 
 this friendly attitude he retained till his dying day.^ 
 Much also was the bearing of the officers and soldiers 
 of the garrison changed from what it had been at first. 
 When George Fox's name was mentioned in their 
 presence, they would often say, " He is as stiff as a 
 tree, and as pure as a bell, for we could never move 
 him. 
 
 ^ Wlien Fox visited Scaibro' three years after his liberation, 
 Sir Jordan Crossland sent liim a message, "Surely yon will not he 
 8o unkind as not to come and see me and my wife." Fox accor<1ingly, 
 after his meeting with Friends, went up to the Castle and had a 
 coiu-teous and even loving reception from his former gaoler.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 While Fox had been shut up in prison great and 
 terrible events had been branding themselves on the 
 page of English history. In 16G5 had begun the dis- 
 astrous war with Holland, but far more calamitous was 
 the Great Plague ol London, which began in the early 
 part of 1G65, and which was at its height from April to 
 October of that year, or during the first six months of 
 Fox's imprisonment at Scarbro'. 
 
 And now, on September 2, 1665, the very day 
 after his release, broke oat the memorable Fire of 
 London, which lasted for five days, and destroyed 
 thirteen thousand houses. On the last day of the fire, 
 " Justice " Fleming's brother Alexander, who was living 
 in London, wrote as follows from the Pied Lion in Grub 
 Street, to his brother at Rydal — " The fire is almost 
 quenched. The houses are laid so flat to the ground, 
 that the City looks just like our [Westmoreland] fells, 
 for tliere is nothing to see but heaps of stones. You 
 may stand where Cheapside was and see the Thames." ^ 
 
 Of this calamity Fox deemed that he had received a 
 Divine warning when he was a prisoner at Lancaster. 
 " As I was walking in my chamber," he says, " with my 
 
 ^ Fleming MSS. 41-2. 
 204
 
 MARRIAGE 205 
 
 eye to the Lord, I saw the angel of the Lord, with a 
 slitterinir drawn sword stretched southward, as thoujrli 
 the court liad been all on fire. Not long after, the 
 wars broke out with Holland, the sickness broke forth, 
 and afterwards the fire of London : so the Lord's sword 
 was drawn indeed." Soon after his release, Fox visited 
 London, and walked for awhile among the ruins, 
 " taking good notice of them, and beheld the city lying 
 according as the word of the Lord had come to mc 
 concerning it several years before." 
 
 For Fox personally those three years of prison hard- 
 ship had evidently been one of the turning-points in 
 his life. He was but forty-two years old when he obtained 
 his release, but we can see that he came forth an old and 
 broken man, having left his youth behind him in the 
 gloomy fortresses to which he had been confined. " I 
 was weak," he says, " with lying almost three years in 
 cruel and hard imprisonments ; my joints and my body 
 were so stiff and benumbed that I could hardly get on 
 my horse or bend my joints; nor could I well bear to 
 be near the fire or to eat warm meat, I had been kept 
 so long from it." He still travelled frequently about 
 the country; nay, as Ave shall see, America and Germany 
 were to be the scenes of some of his future labours; 
 but the manly frame was bowed, the once expert and 
 active horseman was for some time only able with 
 great difficulty to mount on horseback, and there were 
 evidently some long spaces in his life when he was 
 altogether laid by through sickness. 
 
 But the years of imprisonment had not been all 
 wasted. He had evidently, in the dungeon vaults of 
 Lancaster and Scarbro', been meditating deeply on the 
 necessities and the dangers of the new Society which
 
 206 georgp: fox 
 
 ho had founded. He saw that some tighter bond of 
 discipline than had yet prevailed must be introduced, 
 or the Quaker churches scattered over the land would 
 slide downward into " the anarchy of the Ranters." 
 There was a necessity also, in view of the many hot- 
 headed and excitable persons who had joined the 
 Society, of some organ which could say with distinct 
 and authoritative voice, " These are, and these are not 
 acts and words of which we as a Society are willing to 
 bear the responsibility." For this purpose, led as he 
 believed by the Divine Spirit of wisdom and truth, 
 he framed that scheme of church government which 
 has lasted for two hundred and thirty years in the 
 Society of Friends. This consists of Yearly, Quarterly, 
 and Monthly Meetings, with some smaller organizations 
 which need not be noticed here. The Yearly Meeting, 
 to which allusion has already been made, is the par- 
 liament or convocation of the whole kingdom; the 
 Quarterly Meeting is virtually the synod of the county; 
 the Monthly Meeting is the vestry of the parish or of 
 a cluster of neighbouring parishes. The respective 
 rights and duties of these various bodies were carefully 
 defined ; and the system as a whole, blending as it did 
 congregational liberty with national unity, showed a 
 practical sagacity which has been attested by its suc- 
 cessful working for more than two centuries. Probably 
 Fox may have been assisted in the working out of his 
 scheme by some of the educated and thoughtful men 
 who had by this time joined the new Society, but the 
 main idea seems to have been clearly his own; and 
 the really statesmanhke qualities which he showed, 
 both in its original conception and in securing its 
 establishment among all the widely-scattered com-
 
 MARRIAGE 207 
 
 munities of the Quakers, are the best refutation of the 
 absurd statement of a recent historian, that " there 
 was uo reason for phicing liim morally or intellectually 
 above Ludovick Muggleton or Joanna Southcote." 
 
 For the next few years after his release from prison, 
 Fox was chiefly employed in journeying through 
 England, Wales, and Ireland, confirming liis followers 
 in their faith, and everywhere persuading them to 
 adopt the new organization. His life from this point 
 onward became more and more identified with the 
 history of Quakerism ; and from various causes (partly 
 that premature advent of old age to which I have 
 alluded) it yields less of individual interest to the 
 biographer than its earlier chapters. But we notice 
 with interest some of the indications afforded by this 
 part of the Journal, of the increasing number of 
 thoughtful and influential men who, notwithstandnig 
 the bitter persecution to which it was subjected, came 
 out boldly and joined the new Society. Isaac Penning- 
 ton and Thomas Ell wood had been for some years 
 Quakers; 1 Robert Barclay, a lad of nineteen, in 1667 
 was girding himself up to write his great "Apology"; 
 and William Penu, the courtier and the friend of the 
 Duke of York, in 1668 finally cast in his lot with the 
 despised and harassed Quakers. But besides these 
 well-known instances, we meet in the pages of the 
 Journal with an "ex-sheriff of Lincoln," "Walter 
 Jenkins, who had been a Justice of the Peace in Mon- 
 mouthshire," and a Friend who had been sheriff of 
 Nottingham about the year 1649, and had had George 
 Fox for his prisoner. All these, besides several other 
 
 ^ Their conversion to Quakerism was in the years 1658 and 
 IGGO respectively.
 
 208 GEORGE FOX 
 
 magistrates, and some clergymen, had joined the new- 
 Society. 
 
 In this connection, and as an evidence that Fox, 
 notwithstanding his own very imperfect education, did 
 not despise culture, we note that in 1667, when he was 
 hard at work establishing Monthly Meetings, he also 
 laboured at " the setting up of a school at Walthara for 
 teaching boys," and a girls' school at Shacklewell, "for 
 instructing them in whatsoever things were civil and 
 useful in the creation." 
 
 In one of his many visits to London, Fox called on 
 his old friend and protector the courtier whom he calls 
 " Esquire Marsh." He happened to be at dinner with 
 several aristocratic guests, and asked Fox to join the 
 party. The shy Quaker declined, but joined in the 
 conversation though not in the repast. There was " a 
 great Papist " there, with whom he had an argument 
 about Baptism, Purgatory, and persecution for religion. 
 " What is it that brings salvation in your Church ? " 
 said Fox. "Good works," said the great Papist. " Not 
 so," answered the Quaker ; " the grace of God, which 
 bringeth salvation, teaches to deny ungodliness and 
 worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and 
 godly. So it is not the good works, nor the good life 
 that brings salvation, but the grace." " What ! " said 
 the Papist, "doth this grace that brings salvation 
 appear unto all men ? " " ' Yes,' said I. ' Then,' said 
 he, ' I deny that.' I replied, ' All that deny that are 
 sect-makers, and are not in the universal faith, grace, 
 and truth which the apostles were in.' " A good deal 
 more discussion followed, in which happily neither of 
 the parties seems to have lost his temper. At the end, 
 " Oh !" said Esquire Marsh to the Papist, "you do not
 
 MARRIAGE 2C9 
 
 know tliis maa; if he would but come to church now 
 and then he would be a brave man." 
 
 After a time Fox went aside into another room to 
 speak with "Esquire Marsh," who as a Middlesex 
 magistrate in high repute, had often to deal with 
 Quaker recusants. "How," said Marsh, "am I to 
 distinguish between you and the Independents, Baptists, 
 and Fifth Alonarchy men, who also say they cannot 
 swear, and refuse the oatli of allegiance ? " " Very 
 easily," said Fox. " All the members of those sects will 
 swear readily enough if their cows or horses have 
 been stolen, whereas our people will not swear even to 
 get their private wrongs righted. In fact, it has 
 happened that a Quaker, from whom two beasts had 
 been stolen, appeared in court, refused to swear in his 
 own matter, had the oaths of allegiance and supremacy 
 tendered to him, and was ' praemunired ' and cast into 
 prison, while the thief went free." " The judge who so 
 decided," said Marsh, "was a wicked man." In many 
 cases, after this conversation, " Justice Marsh " was able 
 to interpose to prevent Friends from being "praemun- 
 ired," and when he could not avoid sending them to 
 prison, he sent them for a few hours, or for one night. 
 '•' At length," says Fox, '•' he went to the King and told 
 him he had sent some of us to prison contrary to his 
 conscience, and he could do so no more. Wherefore 
 he removed his family from Lirnehouse, where he lived, 
 and took lodgings near St. James's Park. He told 
 the King that if he would be pleased to give liberty 
 of conscience, that would quiet and settle all, for then 
 none would have any pretence to be uneasy. And 
 indeed he was a very serviceable man to Truth and 
 Friends in his day."
 
 2l0 GEORGE FOX 
 
 On October 18, 1669, three years after Fox's liber- 
 ation from Scnrbro' Castle, came an event to 
 which those who knew him had been for some time 
 looking forward — his marriage to Margaret, widow of 
 Thomas Fell. As we have seen, the good old Judge 
 
 had died in November 1658, a few 'months after the 
 great Protector. "Happy in the opportunity of his 
 death," he had not lived to see the ruin brought upon 
 the cause of Puritanism and the Parliament which he 
 loved, nor the indisjnities offered to the remains of his 
 old friend and patron Bradshaw, whose death followed 
 his own after nearly a year's interval (October 31, 1659). 
 We have also seen how bravely the widowed mistress 
 of Swarthmoor Hall had held on her way, opening her 
 house for the reception of travelling Friends, placing 
 its large hall at their disposal for their weekly meetings, 
 (despising the Act by which their thus assembling them- 
 selves together was forbidden under heavy penalties,) 
 frowned upon and conspired against by the bigoted 
 Cavalier squires of Kydal and Kirkby, and at last, to- 
 gether with George Fox, deprived of property and liberty 
 loy the infamous sentence oi Praeriiunire. This sentence 
 Avas passed in March 1665, when she had already been 
 fourteen months in prison, owing to the blunders in 
 the indictment, and the necessity of adjourning the 
 trial through three assizes. Strangely enough, though 
 the head and front of Margaret Fell's offending was the 
 support which she had given to George Fox, she was 
 not liberated from Lancaster in September 1666, when 
 he walked forth from Scarbro' Castle. In the year 
 1667, we read in the Journal — " To this meeting in 
 Lancashire Margaret Fell, being a prisoner, got liberty 
 to come, and went with me to Jane Milner's in Cheshire,
 
 MAKRIAGE 211 
 
 where we parted." Apparently she returned to prison 
 soon afterwards, for in a letter written to her in May 
 16G8 by Thomas Salthouse (formerly steward at 
 Swarthmoor), the writer says, " Doctor Lower hath 
 improved his interest of late with some lords of the 
 Royal Society to plead with the King on thy behalf 
 for liberty, but Pharaoh's heart is so hard." ^ 
 
 However, soon after this (June 1668) she was re- 
 leased, on what terms we know not, but it is clear from 
 subsequent events that the Praemunire still hung over 
 her, and that she was liable to be re-committed to 
 prison at any time. This first spell of imprisonment 
 had lasted four and a half years (January 1664 — June 
 1668). 
 
 Having obtained her liberty, the noble-hearted 
 woman, after a short visit to her home (still hers, for 
 tlie King seems to have interfered to prevent the 
 sentence of confiscation from being carried into effect), 
 spent her first year of freedom in visiting the prisons 
 throughout England, and doing all that lay in her 
 power to alleviate the sufferings of the Friends confined 
 therein. In this interval she also visited her youngest 
 daughter Rachel, who was a pupil at that school at 
 Sliacklewell which we have seen established by George 
 Fox. After her circuit of the prisons was ended, she 
 paid a visit to her third daughter Isabel, who five years 
 previously had married William Yeamans of Bristol. 
 This son-in-law of Margaret Fell's was son of that ex- 
 sheriff of Bristol who, as Ave have already said, was 
 hung before his own door in 1G43, for endeavouring to 
 betray the city to Prince Rupert. The remembrance 
 of this display of premature Royalism was probably 
 » Quoted by Mrs. Webb, Fells of Sxmrthmoor Hall, p. 245.
 
 212 GEORGE POX 
 
 some iirotectioii to William Yeamans and all his circle 
 of friends at Bristol. 
 
 It was during this visit (October 27, 1669) that 
 the long friendship of George Fox and Margaret Fell 
 ripened into matrimony. The bride was nine years 
 older than the bridegroom, she being in the fifty-fifth 
 year of her age, and he in the forty-sixth of his ; but 
 though she, as well as he, had now had sad experience 
 of a seventeenth-century prison, one may conjecture 
 from such slight indications as are afforded us, that in 
 mind, manner, and appearance she was the younger of 
 the two. 
 
 But such an important event in Fox's life as his 
 marriage must be told in his own words, though the 
 extract is a rather long one. 
 
 " After this meeting in Gloucestershire was over, we 
 travelled till we came to Bristol; where I met with 
 Margaret Fell, who was come to visit her daughter 
 Yeamans.^ I had seen from the Lord a considerable 
 time before, that I should take Margaret Fell to be my 
 wife. And when I first mentioned it to her, she felt 
 the answer of life from God thereunto. But though 
 the Lord had opened this thing to me, yet I had not 
 received a command from the Lord for the accom- 
 plishing of it then. AVherefore I let the thing rest, 
 and went on in the work and service of the Lord as 
 before, according as He led me, travelling up and down 
 in this nation and through Ireland. But now, being 
 at Bristol, and finding Margaret Fell there, it opened 
 in me from the Lord that the thing should be accom- 
 plished. After we had discoursed the matter together, 
 I told her, 'if she also was satisfied with the accom- 
 * Yeomans in the Journal.
 
 MARRIAGE 213 
 
 plishing of it now, she should first send for her 
 children/ which she did. When the rest of her 
 daughters were come, I asked both them and her 
 8ons-in-hi\v ' if they had anytliing against it or for 
 it,' and they all severally expressed their satisfaction 
 therein. Then I asked Margaret ' if she had fulfilled 
 and performed her husband's will to her children.' She 
 replied, 'The children knew that.' Whereupon I asked 
 them ' whether, if their mother married, they should 
 not lose by it.' And I asked Margaret ' whether she 
 had done anything in lieu of it, which might answer it 
 to the children.' The children said ' she had answered 
 it to them, and desired nie to speak no more of it.' I 
 told them I was plain, and would have all things done 
 plainly, for I sought not any outward advantage to 
 myself. So after I had thus acquainted the children 
 with it, our intention of marringe was laid before 
 Friends, both privately and publicly, to their full satis- 
 faction, many of whom gave testimony thereunto that 
 it was of God. Afterwards, a meeting being appointed 
 for the accomplishing thereof in the meeting-house of 
 Broad Mead in Bristol, we took each other, the Lord 
 joining us together in the lionourable marriage state 
 in the Everlasting Covenant, and immortal Seed of Life. 
 In the sense whereof, living and Aveighty testimonies 
 were borne thereunto by Friends, in the movings of 
 the heavenly power which united us together. There 
 was a certificate relating both to the proceedings and 
 the marriage openly read and signed by the relations, 
 and by most of the ancient Friends of that city, besides 
 many others from divers parts of this nation." 
 
 Though expressed in somewhat archaic language, 
 the preceding extract describes the manner in which
 
 214 GEORGE FOX 
 
 marriages have been solemnized by members of the 
 Society of Friends for nearly two centuries and a half. 
 Rejecting all sacraments, they have of course not called 
 marriage a sacrament, but they have always insisted 
 strongly on the religious character of the covenant 
 plighted (as the old phrase ran) "in the fear of the 
 Lord and in the presence of this assembly." But they 
 have contended with equal zeal that the presence of 
 no priest or minister is necessary to hallow the union, 
 which, like all the other acts of Quaker worship, is 
 believed to be hallowed by the unseen but spirit-felt 
 presence of Christ. 
 
 One point for which Fox had especially laboured 
 in settling the discipline of the new Society had been 
 "tliat widows should make provision for their first 
 husband's children before they married again," in order 
 "that all things might be kept pure and clean, and be 
 done in righteousness to the glory of God." It was 
 in accordaiice theref<jre with his own principle that 
 he made such anxious inquiry of Margaret Fell's 
 daughters and sons-in-law whether they were satisfied 
 that their pecuniary interests were not neglected in 
 their mother's second marriage. In point of fact it 
 seems that Judge Fell had provided for this con- 
 tingency, devising the Swarthmoor proi)erty, in the 
 event of his widow's re-marriage, to his seven daughters, 
 whom he constituted his residuary legatees. 
 
 Thus there was probably no real conflict of interests 
 between George Fox and his wife's daughters. But 
 beyond that, there seems to Lave been unclouded 
 love and confidence between him and all the female 
 part of the family. All the six surviving daughters 
 and their husbands published after his death a
 
 MARRIAGE 215 
 
 "Testimony" on his behalf, beginning, "Ncitlier days 
 nor length of time with us can wear out the memory 
 of our dear and honoured father, George Fox, whom 
 the Lord hath taken to Himself." Even more con- 
 vincing, perhaps, are the endorsements put by their 
 remoter descendants on the letters which they cherished 
 with pious care. " My dear and honoured grand- 
 mother's affectionate letter to my dear and honoured 
 grandfather Fox," is one of such endorsements, and 
 there are many others similarly expressed. 
 
 Unhappily, the only son of the late Judge, George 
 Fell, did not look so favourably on his mother's second 
 marriage. He had kept his terms in London as a 
 barrister and was now a Lancashire squire, thirty- 
 three years of age, a magistrate and a commissioner 
 of militia, somewhat incapable, somewhat extravagant, 
 and married apparently to an extravagant wife. To 
 him his mother's re-marriage brought no accession of 
 income, and one can easily understand that the social 
 disparagement of such a kinship with the homely 
 shepherd of Leicestershire would be keenly felt by the 
 young magistrate when he met Kirkby, Fleming, and 
 others of the magisterial cousinry at Quarter Sessions 
 or Militia dinners. He brought vexatious and appar- 
 ently unfounded claims against his mother for some of 
 her dealings with the Swarthmoor estate ; and there 
 is too much reason to believe that he approved, if he 
 did not actually originate the action of the Justices 
 in renewing Margaret Fell's suspended sentence of 
 imprisonment. In a letter written by George Fo? 
 to his wife on March 23, 1669, he says — 
 
 " Dear Heart, to whom is my love. Thou mayest 
 Jiave some trials, but keep in wisdom and patience.
 
 216 GEORGE FOX 
 
 There liatli been a great noise about thy son, George 
 Fell, as having orders to send thee to Westchester and 
 me to Jersey, which I have been desirous should get 
 as little as may be out among Friends for Truth's sake. 
 I am informed he hath been with Kirkby, Monk, and 
 such-like persons ; and I understand his intent is to 
 have Swarthmoor, and that he saith thou lost thy 
 right [thereto] by building before being mariied, [and 
 also that thou] cannot have thy third of Marsh Grange 
 and the Mills, they being customary estate ; and that 
 it cost him £40 to get a warrant to save that estate, 
 which he might have taken. The agreement thou 
 made with him, he says, signifies nothing, thou being 
 a prisoner. . . Now if thou should make anotlier 
 agreement in another name [Fox instead of Fell] it 
 may beget another trouble worse than the former. 
 But of this thou canst inform thyself also, and let all 
 things be done in peace and quietness, and in the 
 power that binds. Do not look at, but keep over 
 all unnaturalness from him, if any such thing should 
 appear ; keep in that which was and is, and will be. 
 If he hath defamed thee at Court, thou should come 
 up some time and clear it, that such things may be 
 emptied out of their minds; and then come over all 
 his orders, (?) if he have any orders, but I think he 
 hath none. But however it be, keep over them all 
 in the power of God that doth bind, for that must work 
 through all things. 
 
 "No word but my love to thee, Susan, Rachel, and 
 the little ones, and Leonard and Mary Fell, and all 
 be quiet and keep to the testimony. 
 
 "G. F."i 
 
 ^ Fells of iSwartlimoor Hall, p. 256.
 
 MARRIAGE 217 
 
 The intrigues for Margaret Fox's imprisoiuncnt 
 were but too successful. It was not a difficult matter 
 for any one who had a spite against the Quaker non- 
 juror to get him or her lodged in prison. George Fox, 
 who had parted from his wife a week after the marriage, 
 " betaking ourselves," as he says, " to our several 
 services," wrote to her early in 1670, appointing a 
 mectinsT with her in Leicestershire : but instead of 
 mcetinir with her, he heard she was haled out of her 
 house to Lancaster prison again, by an order obtained 
 from the King and Council to fetch her back to prison 
 upon the old Praeinunire, though she had been dis- 
 charged from that imprisonment by their order the 
 year before. The old persecutor. Colonel Kirkby, was 
 the informer, and some at least of the Fell family 
 believed that George Fell had been privy to the 
 scheme. 
 
 The second imprisonment of Margaret Fox lasted 
 about a year (March 1G70— April 1671). Two of her 
 daughters went at once to petition the King on her 
 behalf, and actually obtained his order for her release, 
 but when they took it down iuto Lancashire, Colonel 
 Kirkby and his brother magistrates, by some device 
 which is not very clearly explained, contrived to treat 
 it as of no validity. The matter had to sleep for a 
 time, for 1670 was a bad year for Nonconformists. 
 Archbishop Sheldon was in his most persecuting humour, 
 and the Conventicle Act had just been renewed with 
 heavier penalties than ever on offenders against it. In 
 fact, this seems to have furnished the magistrates with 
 a plea for disregarding the King's order. 
 
 However, at last, in April 1671, the desired deliver- 
 ance came. As Fox says, " Now the persecution a
 
 218 GEORGE FOX 
 
 little ceasing, I was moved to speak to Martha Fisher 
 and another Friend to go to the King about my wife's 
 liberty. They went in faith and in the Lord's power, 
 who gave them favour with the King, so that he granted 
 a discharge under the broad seal, to clear both her 
 and her estate, after she had been ten years ^ a prisoner 
 and praemunired ; the like whereof was scarcely to be 
 heard of in England." 
 
 According to a letter from Margaret Fox to her 
 son-in-law Rous, we learn that "the two women 
 Friends took the grant out of the Attorney-General's 
 office, and he gave them his fee, which should have 
 been five pounds, and his clerk took but twenty 
 shillings, whereas his fee was forty. Yesterday they 
 went with it to the King, who signed it in the Council, 
 and Arlington also signed it, but would take no fees, 
 whereas his fees would have been £12 or £20. Neither 
 would Williamson's man take anything, saying that 
 if any religion be true it is ours. To-morrow it is to 
 pass the signet, and on Sixth-day [Friday] the privy 
 seal, and afterwards the broad seal, which may be done 
 on any day. The power of the Lord hath bound their 
 hearts wonderfully. Blessed bo His name for ever."^ 
 So ended the last imprisonment of the late mistress of 
 Swarthmoor. 
 
 ^ Sic: it should have been seven, or more strictly five and 
 a half. 
 
 ^ Fells of Swarthmoor Hall, p. 272.
 
 MARRIAGE 219 
 
 NOTE 
 
 MARGARET FELLS DESCENDANTS 
 
 As it is only through these step-children of his that 
 George Fox is in any way linked with succeeding 
 generations/ it may be worth while to give a brief 
 account of them here. Moreover, some of the sons-in- 
 law were men who themselves played an important 
 part in the early history of Quakerism. 
 
 George Fell, the undutiful son, died not many years 
 after his mother's second marriage. His son sold most 
 of the family property to a representative of the female 
 line. His crrandson married William Penn's jjrand- 
 
 o try 
 
 daughter, but no other connection with Quakerism was 
 kept up by this, the direct line of the Fells of Swarth- 
 moor Hall, and it seems to have died out near the 
 close of last century. 
 
 Margaret, the oldest of the seven daughters, married 
 a Quaker named John Rous, a West Indian merchant 
 in good circumstances, who resided in London, and 
 whose influence, as he was a man of some importance 
 in the Cit}^, was often suf^cessfully exercised on behalf 
 of his imprisoned friends nnd relatives. When George 
 Fox undertook the long journey to the West Indies 
 and the American continent, which will be described in 
 the next chapter, his son-in-law Jt)lm Rous was his 
 zealous and most helpful companion. 
 
 Isabel, the third daughter, married, as has been said, 
 
 * The various families of Fox, who now form one of the most 
 numerous and influential Quaker clans, are clescendeil from 
 Francis Fox of St. Germans in Cornwall, and have not the 
 remotest connection with the founder of Quakerism.
 
 220 GEORGE FOX 
 
 William Yeamans of Bristol, the son of the suspended 
 sheriff, and it was at her house that the marriage of 
 George Fox and Margaret Fell was finally settled. 
 
 Sarah, the fourth daughter, married William Meade, 
 who became a minister in the Society of Friends. His 
 name is one of historic importance, as he was fellow- 
 defendant with William Penn in that celebrated trial 
 at the Old Bailey (August 29, 1670), which became a 
 leading case in the law relating to juries. He was a 
 landowner of some importance in the county of Essex. 
 His son Nathaniel severed his connection with Quaker- 
 ism, became a Serjcant-at-law, was knighted, and died 
 apparently without issue in 1760. 
 
 Mary, the fifth daughter, married Thomas Lower, 
 who was perhaps the most helpful, personally, to George 
 Fox of all his wife's sons-in-laAv. He was brother to tlio 
 celebrated Richard Lower, M.D., an early Fellow of the 
 Royal Society, and his influence with some of the 
 aristocratic patrons of that society was, as we have seen, 
 successfully exerted to obtain Margaret Fell's first release 
 from imprisonment. Thomas Lower was the owner of 
 a good property in Cornwall, and Avas one of those 
 Cornishmen who were converted to Quakerism by what 
 they saw and heard of George Fox's demeanour during 
 his cruel imprisonment in Launceston Castle. His 
 first wife was that " Elizabeth Trelawney, a baronet's 
 daughter," whom we have before heard of as convinced 
 by Fox's preaching at Plymouth. Six years after her 
 death Thomas Lower married Mary Fell. His mother- 
 in-law that was to be seems to have at first frowned 
 upon his courtship, but must afterwards have repented 
 of her opposition, for, as has been said, there was no 
 more brave or patient helper of what was called " the
 
 MAimiAGli: 221 
 
 cause of Truth" than Thomas Lower. He shared 
 George Fox's last imprisonmeat in Worcester Gaol. 
 
 Rachel, the youngest daughter, who was only five 
 years old at her father's death, married Daniel Abraham, 
 the son of a merchant at Manchester who had joined 
 the Society of Friends. He bought Swarthmoor Hall 
 of his nephew Squire George's son, about 1690, and 
 it remained in his family for sixty years. Most of the 
 descendants of Margaret Fell who are still members of 
 the Society, Thirnbecks, Graces, Thorps, Shackletons, 
 etc., are derived from this branch of the family, -vvhich 
 has contributed of recent times one "clerk" and two 
 " assistant clerks," or in other words one Speaker and 
 two Deputy- Speakers, to the Quaker Parliament.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA 
 
 The year 1670, in Avhich Margaret Fell's second 
 imprisonment took place, was, as has been said, one of 
 grievous oppression for Nonconformists generally. The 
 bigoted Cavalier Parliament passed, contrary to the 
 King's wishes, a new and sharper Conventicle Act, by 
 which any meeting for worship otherwise than according 
 to the practice of the Church of England, at which 
 more than four persons should be present, was declared 
 to be an illegal conventicle. Every adult attender at 
 such a meeting was liable to a fine of five shillings for 
 the first offence, and ten shillings for the second, while 
 the preachers thereat were to be fined £20 and £40 
 respectively. In every case one-third of the fines was 
 to go to the informer — an admirable expedient for the 
 manufacture of scoundrels — magistrates and constables 
 were empowered to break open doors, and deputy- 
 lieutenants and militia ofiicers were to use horse and foot 
 for the dispersion of the illegal assemblies. A strange 
 fulfilment certainly of His Majesty's gracious Declaration 
 from Breda for the relief of tender consciences. In 
 justice to the King it must be repeated that all this 
 blind bigotry was the Parliament's work, not his, and 
 that he only acquiesced in it because the expensive 
 
 222
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA 223 
 
 revelries of Whitehall made him depeudent ou Parlia- 
 ment for money. 
 
 The storm of renewed persecution fell upon the 
 Quaker Society at the beginning of 1G71. Fox 
 considers that it was caused by the riotous conduct of a 
 certain John Fox, a Presbyterian minister who tried by 
 force to retain possession of a village church in Wiltshire, 
 where he had been allowed to preach. He asserts that 
 this John Fox was often mistaken for himself (so that 
 people were accustomed to say that George Fox had 
 changed from a Quaker to a Presbyterian), and that 
 this confusion caused it to be supposed that the 
 Friends were resorting to force in order to redress 
 their grievances. This explanation may be true as far 
 as it goes, but it seems clear from the Parliamentary 
 history of the times that other and larger causes were 
 at work to produce the fierce Conventicle Act of 1670. 
 
 At any rate Fox was not going to hide his head from 
 tlie storm which was bursting on his followers. On the 
 first Sunday after the Act came in force, he went to 
 Gracechurch Street, where, as he says, "I expected the 
 storm was most likely to begin." The street was full of 
 people, and soldiers were guarding the entrances, but 
 he contrived to get in, if not to the meeting-house itself, 
 to the court in front of it, where another Friend was 
 then preaching to the people. As soon as he had 
 finished, Fox stood up and preached on the text, " Saul, 
 Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? " After he had spoken 
 for some time there came the expected constable with 
 a guard of soldiers, and the informer, who hoped to 
 reap a good harvest of fines from the Quaker preachers. 
 Fox, with two other Friends, was marched off first to 
 the Royal Exchange, and then towards Moorfields, the
 
 224 GEORGE FOX 
 
 mob jeering at the constable and this armed guard, and 
 saying, "Your prisoners will not run away." On the 
 road the informer got into conversation with one of 
 the company, and said, " It will never be a good world 
 till all peeple come to the good old religion that was 
 two hundred years ago/' Hereupon George Fox turned 
 sharply round, "Art thou a Papist? What, a Papist 
 informer ? Two hundred years ago there was no religion 
 but that of the Papists." The man saw that he had 
 betrayed himself, and when they came to the Lord 
 Mayor's room tried to back out of the case, and refused 
 to give his own name. With difficulty he persuaded 
 the porter to let him out of the house, and when he 
 came into the street, the people gave a ringing shout, 
 " A Papist informer ! a Papist informer ! " By Fox's 
 desire, the constable and soldiers were sent out to 
 protect the hunted huntsman, which they did, not 
 without difficulty. He was led into a house in a side 
 alley, changed his periwig, and got away unknown. 
 
 This ludicrous incident caused the collapse of the 
 case. The Lord Mayor gave the Friends a little fatherly 
 advice on obedience to the Act, asking them why 
 they could not be satisfied to meet together no more 
 than four at a time, since Christ had promised His 
 blessing even to the two or the three ; but Fox not 
 unfairly urged the precedent of the twelve apostles and 
 the seventy disciples, whose meetings Avould certainly 
 have been rendered unlawful by the Conventicle Act, and 
 who would as certainly have disobeyed it. He was soon 
 set at liberty, and when his companions asked him 
 whither he would go, he answered, "To Gracechurch 
 Street meeting, if it be not yet over." Practically, 
 however, when they reached the meeting-house, they
 
 VISIT TO A^I ERICA 225 
 
 found the meeting at an end ; so tliey went into the 
 house of a Friend, and sent out messengers to inquire 
 how the other meetings in the City had passed oft'. 
 " I understood," he says, " that at some of the meeting- 
 places Friends were kept out ; at others they were 
 taken, but set at liberty again a few days after. A 
 glorious time it was, for the Lord's power came over all, 
 and His everlasting truth got renown. For as fast as 
 some that were speaking were taken down, others were 
 moved of the Lord to stand up and speak, to the 
 admiration of the people ; and the more because many 
 Baptists and other sectaries left their public meetings, 
 and came to see how the Quakers would stand. As for 
 the informer aforesaid, he was so frightened, that there 
 durst hardly any informer appear publicly again in 
 London for some time after. But the Mayor, whose 
 name was Samuel Starling, though he carried himself 
 smoothly towards us, proved afterwards a very great 
 persecutor of our Friends, many of whom he cast into 
 prison, as may be seen in the trials of W. Penn, W. 
 Meade and others, at the Old Bailey, this year." This 
 was that celebrated trial to which allusion has already 
 been made, as a leading case on the liberty of the 
 subject, and the rights and duties of jurors. 
 
 Through all this year, 1670, the persecution raged 
 without abatement, especially in London. Colonel 
 Kirkby, Fox's old adversary, was forward in the cruel 
 work, going about with a squad of foot-soldiers to break 
 up meetings and drag away the preachers to prison, 
 and always asking if Fox were present, but asking in 
 vain. For in fact, during all the winter months, Fox 
 was laid up at a Friend's house at Stratford, with a 
 strange sickness, the result doubtless of his old hard-
 
 226 GEORGE FOX 
 
 ships in prison. He became blind and deaf, and believed 
 that he was reduced to that condition " as a sign to 
 such as would not see and would not hear the truth." 
 It was generally expected that his sickness would 
 be fatal, and in fact the rumour of his death got abroad 
 both in London and the country; but he had a per- 
 suasion that his work was not yet ended. First a little 
 glimmering of sight came back to him ; then he grew 
 strong enough to be moved to Enfield, where he spent 
 the rest of the winter ; and at last, about April, he was 
 again preaching in the meeting-house at Gracechurch 
 Street, where he says, "though I was yet but weak, the 
 Lord's power upheld, and enabled me to declare His 
 eternal word of life." 
 
 And now, in the spring of 1671, his wife being liber- 
 ated from prison, the reader expects to hear of their 
 having a few quiet years together at peaceful Swarth- 
 moor. Not so. After giving the account of her liber- 
 ation quoted in the previous chapter, he continues — 
 " I sent down the discharge forthwith by a Friend ; by 
 whom also I wrote to her, informing her how to get it 
 delivered to the Justices, and acquainting her that it 
 was upon me from the Lord, to go beyond the seas to 
 visit America ; and therefore desired her to hasten to 
 London as soon as she could conveniently after she had 
 obtained her liberty, because the ship was then fitting 
 out for the voyage." She obeyed his directions, joined 
 him at her son-in-law Rous's house at Kincfston, and 
 on the 12th of August, 1671, went down with him to 
 Gravesend, to see him oft" for America on board the 
 "yacht" Industry. There was a large party of Friends 
 on board, ten men preachers, including John Rous, 
 besides Fox, and two women, but there does not seem
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA 227 
 
 to have been even a suggestion that IMargarct Fox 
 should accompany the husband from whom she had 
 been so strangely parted since their marriage. 
 
 The ship in which the Friends sailed was " counted 
 a very swift sailer," but was very leaky, and kept both 
 sailors and passengers working at the pumps night and 
 day. " One day they observed that in two hours' time 
 she sucked in sixteen inches of water at the well," One 
 is often reminded, in reading the account of seventeenth- 
 century voyages, how much the regulations and the in- 
 spection insisted upon by the fraternity of under-writers, 
 have since then raised the standard of sea-worthiness 
 in ships, and added to the safety of human life. 
 
 There were not only perils of waters, but also perils 
 from sea-robbers to be encountered. A " Sallee man- 
 of-war," or in other words a Barbary pirate, chased the 
 Lidustry for several days. In his distress and anxiety, 
 the master invited George Fox into his cabin, and was 
 comforted and enheartened by his passenger's strong 
 conviction that "the Lord's Hfe and power was placed 
 between us and the ship that pursued us." After the 
 peril was past, and the pursuer had disappeared, he and 
 some of his sailors tried to persuade the passengers that 
 it was not a Turkish pirate that had chased them, but 
 a merchantman going to the Canaries ; but on landing 
 at Barbadoes they found that she had been a " Sallee 
 rover " after all. 
 
 Though not suflering, like most of the other passen- 
 gers, from sea-sickness, George Fox, whose constitution, 
 as I have said, was thoroughly broken down, suffered 
 both on the voyage and for some weeks after landing 
 at B.irbadoes, from a severe illness, which, from his 
 description of it, looks like a protracted spell of rheu-
 
 228 GEORGE FOX 
 
 matic fever. Happily he was not now in bis chilly 
 prison at Scarbro', but in the house of one of the 
 chief merchants of the island, Thomas Rous, himself a 
 Friend, and father of John Rous, Fox's son-in-law 
 and companion. In these circumstances it may be 
 supposed that his bodily comforts were well attended to. 
 Though unable to travel about much, he used his pen 
 freely, and addressed several meetings of Friends "held 
 for his convenience at the house of his host. The object 
 of this journey both to the West Indies and to the 
 American continent was not so much to gather in fresh 
 converts, as to impress upon those who had already in 
 large numbers joined the Society, the duty of living holy 
 and righteous lives, and bringing no discredit on their 
 new profession. Like a modern missionary to the dwel- 
 lers by the Ganges, " he had to warn Friends against 
 allowing their children to marry too young, as at thirteen 
 and fourteen years of age, showing them the incon- 
 venience thereof, and the inconveniences and hurts that 
 attend such childish marriages." " I admonished them," 
 he says, " to purge the floor thoroughly, to sweep their 
 houses very clean, that nothing might remain that would 
 defile, and to take care that nothing be spoken out of 
 their meetings to the blemishing or defaming one of 
 anotlier." The registration of marriages, births, and 
 burials, the provision of convenient burying-places for 
 Friends, and the right appropriation of legacies for 
 charitable purposes, were also carefully provided for by 
 this thoroughly practical apostle of the new community. 
 His language as to slavery is so interesting, in view of 
 the later " testimony " of his followers against all slavery, 
 that it is worth quoting in full. "Then as to their 
 blacks or negroes, I desired them to endeavour to train
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA 229 
 
 them up in the fcnr of God, those that were bought, and 
 those born in their families, that all might come to the 
 knowledge of the Lord ; that so with Joshua, every 
 member of a family might say, ' As for me and my house, 
 we will serve the Lord.' I desired them also that they 
 would cause their overseers to deal mildly and gently 
 with their negroes, and not use cruelty towards them as 
 the manner of some hath been and is ; and that after 
 certain years of servitude they would make them free." 
 
 It was during his stay in this island that Fox, with 
 the help of his friends, in answer to some calumnious 
 misrepresentations of their doctrines, drew up a paper — 
 " For the Governor of Barbadoes with his Council and 
 Assembly, and all others in power, both civil and mili- 
 tary, in this Island, from the people called Quakers." 
 This paper has attracted a good deal of attention from 
 the fact that it is the nearest approach to a formal 
 creed that the Society has ever promulgated. It has 
 been often reprinted, and is much too long for insertion 
 here ; but three important sentences may be quoted. 
 After professing belief in the only wise, omnipotent, 
 and everlasting God, it continues — " And we own and 
 believe in Jesus Christ, His beloved and only begotten 
 Son, in whom He is well pleased, who was conceived by 
 the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary ; in whom 
 we have redemption through His blood, even the for- 
 giveness of sins; who is the express image of the 
 Invisible God, the first-born of every creature, by whom 
 were all things created that are in heaven and that are 
 in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones 
 or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were 
 created bv Him. And we do own and believe that He 
 was made a sacrifice for sin, who knew no sin, neither
 
 2:i0 GEORGE FOX 
 
 was guile found in His mouth ; that He was crucified 
 for us in the flesh, without the gates of Jerusalem ; 
 and that He was buried, and rose again the tliird day 
 by the power of the Father, for our justification ; and 
 that He ascended up into heaven, and now sitteth at 
 the right hand of God. This Jesus, who was the 
 foundation of the holy prophets and apostles, is our 
 foundation ; and we believe that there is no other 
 foundation to be laid than that which is laid, even 
 Christ Jesus : who tasted death for every man, shed 
 His blood for all men, and is the propitiation for our 
 sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the 
 whole world; according as John the Baptist testified 
 of Him when he said, ' Behold the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sin of the world.' " 
 
 Towards the end of this interesting document, the 
 Friends repel " another slander which had been cast 
 upon them, that they taught the negroes to rebel." 
 This is, they say, " a thing we utterly abhor in our 
 hearts : the Lord knows it, who is the searcher of all 
 hearts, and knows all things, and can testify for us that 
 this is a most abominable untruth. For that which we 
 have spoken to them is to exhort and admonish them 
 to be sober and to fear God, to love their masters and 
 mistresses and to be faithful and diligent in their masters' 
 service and business, and then their masters and over- 
 seers would love them and deal gently and kindly with 
 them ; also that they should not beat their wives, nor 
 the wives their husbands, neither should the men have 
 many wives ; that they should not steal or be drunk, 
 should not commit adultery or fornication, should not 
 curse, swear, lie or give bad words to one another or to 
 any one else ; for there is something in them that tells
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA 231 
 
 them they should not practise these or any other 
 evils." 
 
 Early in the new year (1G72), Fox and four of his 
 friends set sail for Jamaica, which they reached after a 
 week's voyage. They travelled up and down through 
 this island, Oliver CromAvell's great addition to " England 
 beyond the sea," and Fox came to the conclusion that 
 it was "a brave country, thougli the people in it were, 
 many of them, debauched and wicked." While they 
 were there, the venerable Elizabeth Hooton, one of the 
 little band of missionaries, died. " She was well the 
 day before she died, and departed in peace, like a lamb, 
 bearing testimony to truth at her departure." 
 
 On March 8, 1672, they set sail for the American 
 continent. Contrary winds so delayed them, that they 
 were a week sailing backward and forward before they 
 could lose sight of land. Then came great storms as 
 they crossed the Gulf of Florida, and it was not till six 
 or seven weeks after their leaving Jamaica that they 
 finally cast anchor in the Patuxent river, in the province 
 of Maryland, on the western side of the bay of Chesa- 
 peake. By far the greater number of the Friends Avho 
 had found their way to America by the time of George 
 Fox's visit, were settled either in i\[aryland or in Rhode 
 Island, the natural consequence of the large measure of 
 religious toleration which those two colonies almost 
 alone among the American settlements at this time 
 enjoyed. In Maryland religious freedom was the result 
 of the peculiar position of the founder and proprietor 
 of the colony, Lord Baltimore, who, himself a Roman 
 Catholic, could only obtain for " Holy Church within 
 this province the enjoyment of all her rights and 
 liberties," by guaranteeing " to all free Christian in-
 
 232 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 habitants the enjoyment of all such rights and liberties 
 as any natural born subject of England ought to enjoy 
 in the realm of England." ^ In other words, the Papist 
 in Maryland in 1689 had obtained for the extreme Pro- 
 testant that toleration which the Papist King James 
 ir. granted him in England for a short space in 1G87. 
 
 In Rhode Island the toleration conceded to the 
 Friends was due to the wise counsels of that noble 
 man, who more than any other deserves to be called 
 the Apostle of Toleration, Eoger Williams. Williams 
 hated the doctrines of Quakerism, and was willing to 
 debate against them with all the energy of his fiery 
 Welsh nature, but to jiersecute them, or to expel them 
 from that asylum of free thought, the province of 
 Rhode Island, he steadily refused. Thus in those 
 terrible years 1659 — 1661, when Massachusetts, under 
 the guidance of the gloomy bigot, John Endicott, Avas 
 staining her hands indelibly by tlie blood of the four 
 Quaker Martyrs,- Friends had been left unmolested in 
 Rhode Island. Some of George Fox's happiest memories 
 were connected with his visit to his followers in this 
 brave little colony, a visit which he thus describes — 
 " This meeting lasted six days, the first four days being 
 general public meetings for worship, to which abundance 
 of other people came ; for they having no priest in the 
 island, and so no restriction to any particular way of 
 worship, and both the governor and deputy-governor, 
 with several justices of the peace, daily frequenting the 
 meetings, this so encouraged the people that they flocked 
 in from all parts of the island. Very good service we 
 
 ^ See Gardiner, History of England, viii. 180—181 (Ed. 1884). 
 
 2 William Robinson, Marmaduke Robinson, Mary Dyer, and 
 William Leddra, all hung at Boston for no other offence but 
 simply venturing to set foot within the colony.
 
 VISIT TO A^yiERICA 233 
 
 had amougst them, and truth had a good reception. I 
 have rarely ohserved people in the state wherein they 
 stood, hear with more attention, diligence, and affection 
 than they generally did, during the four days together, 
 which also was taken notice of by other Friends." 
 
 Rhode Island was the only New England colony 
 visited by Fox. Massachusetts, though no longer 
 actually putting Quaker intruders to death, still barred 
 her doors against them, as also did Connecticut, though 
 with somewhat less fierceness of attitude. No one who 
 has studied Fox's character attentively will suppose 
 that it was want of courage which prevented his visit- 
 ing those colonies. His work on this mission was not 
 so much that of extending, as of " confirming the 
 churches," and apparently in 1G72 there were no 
 Quaker churches to confirm in the large colonies of 
 New England. 
 
 His time in America was tliercfore chiefly taken up 
 in the above-mentioned visit to Ilhode Island, in labours 
 among: the Friends scattered in considerable numbers 
 along the eastern and western shores of the Chesapeake 
 Bay in the colony of Maryland, in a visit to Virginia, 
 " where things were mucli out of order," and in a short 
 incursion into North Carolina. All these journeys 
 involved the endurance of many hardships. Between 
 Maryland and New England the journey had to be 
 made by land, through "the wilderness country since 
 called New Jersey, not then iidiabited by English," so 
 that they often travelled a whole day together without 
 seeing man or woman, house or dwelling-place. In 
 the course of this double journey to and fro across New 
 Jersey, Fox and his companions may have pnssed almost 
 within sight of the woods on the other side of the river
 
 234 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Delaware, which were one day to give place to the mighty 
 " Quaker City " of Philadelphia. 
 
 Such entries as this are of frequent occurrence in 
 the Journal — " Our boat being open, the water splashed 
 often in and sometimes over us, so that we were com- 
 pletely wet. Being got to land, we made a fire in the 
 woods to warm and dry us, and there we lay all night, 
 the wolves howling about us." " On the 27th [of 
 January] we had a very precious meeting in a tobacco- 
 house, and next day returned to James Preston's, about 
 eighteen miles distant. When we came there we found 
 his house was burnt to the ground the night before, 
 through the carelessness of a servant ; so we lay three 
 nights on the ground by the fire, the weather being 
 cold." "On the 12th of the month [February] we set 
 forward in our boat, and travelling by night, ran aground 
 in a creek near Manokin river. There we were fain 
 to stay till morning, when the tide came and lifted her 
 off. In the meantime, sitting in an open boat, and the 
 weather being bitterly cold, some of us had like to 
 have lost the use of our hands, they were so frozen 
 and benumbed with cold." All these hardships, so 
 unlike the experience of most men who now set forth 
 on a preaching tour, were endured by a man now in 
 full middle life, who was prematurely aged by the 
 rigours of his many imprisonments, and who seems to 
 have had rheumatic fever, or something like it, always 
 hanging about him. 
 
 Fox's interest was evidently much aroused by the 
 aboriginal inhabitants of North America. To him, 
 who believed that a certain measure of the Divine 
 Light was vouchsafed to every reasonable human being 
 who was born into the world, and who preached, in some
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA 235 
 
 respects, a more universal gospel tlian any of his con- 
 temporaries, the North American Indians were naturally 
 an interesting field for inquiry, and for evangelistic 
 labour. Not, however, that he was by any means the 
 first to conceive the idea of preaching Christianity to 
 the Indians, for Thomas Mayhew had begun tliat 
 difficult work nearly thirty years before Fox landed in 
 America, and John Elliot had been prosecuting it since 
 164G with considerable success.^ Still, considering the 
 comparatively short time that Fox spent in America, 
 his references to the Indians are numerous and valuable. 
 When he was in North Carolina, he had a friendly 
 reception from the Governor and his wife, but a doctor 
 who was at the Government House insisted on con- 
 troversy. " And truly," says Fox, " his opposing us 
 was of good service, giving occasion for the opening of 
 many things to the people concei-ning the light and 
 Spirit of God, which he denied to be in every one, 
 and affirmed that it was not in the Indians. Whereupon 
 I called an Indian to us, and asked him, ' Whether or 
 not, when he lied or did wrong to any one, there was 
 not something in him that reproved him for it?' He 
 said, ' There was such a thing in him that did so reprove 
 him, and he was ashamed when he had done wrong or 
 spoken wrong.' So we shamed the doctor before the 
 Governor and the people, insomuch that the poor man 
 ran out so far that at lenirth he would not own the 
 Scriptures." 
 
 At one of his earliest meetings on the eastern shore 
 
 of Maryland, Fox felt himself called to invite " the 
 
 Indian Emjieror and his kings " to attend the meeting. 
 
 The Emperor came punctually ; his kings, who were 
 
 ^ See Fiske'B Beginnht^s of New En<jlandy 201—204.
 
 236 GEORGE FOX 
 
 further off, could not reach it in time, " yet they 
 came afterwards with their cockarooses." " I had," he 
 says, " in the evening two good opportunities with 
 them ; they heard the word of the Lord willingly, and 
 confessed to it. What I spoke to them, I desired them 
 to speak to their people, and let them know that God 
 was raising up His tabernacle of witness in their 
 wilderness country, and was setting up His standard 
 and glorious ensign of righteousness. They carried 
 themselves very courteously and lovingly, and inquired 
 ' where the next meeting would be, and they would 
 come to it ' ; yet they said they ' had had a great debate 
 with their council about their coming before they came 
 now.' " So too in the wilderness that was afterwards 
 New Jersey, on Long Island, in the colony of Delaware, 
 in Virginia, Fox on several occasions met the Red- 
 skinned huntsmen, sometimes an " Emperor " again, 
 sometimes a priest or " Pawaw," always no doubt 
 very dimly comprehending what the leather-garmented 
 rnedicine-man from over the big water wished to convey 
 to them, but always behaving with stately courtesy to 
 the stranger, and " sitting soberly " among the white 
 men till the end of the meeting. Perhaps in some 
 instances there was more comprehension of the Quaker 
 apostle's message than these words would imply. At 
 James Preston's house on the Patuxent river (that 
 house the burning of which some months afterwards 
 caused the travellers to bivouac for three nigrhts in the 
 open air), "there came to us," says Fox, "an Indian 
 King with his brother, to whom I spoke, and found 
 they understood what I spoke of." 
 
 At length Fox felt his American mission ended. On 
 May 21, 1G73, he and his friends set sail for England.
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA 237 
 
 They had for some clays foul weather and contrary 
 winds, and it was not till May 31 that they got past 
 the capes of Virginia and out into the open sea. From 
 that time onwards, however, they had favourable, though 
 tempestuous winds, " the waves rising like mountains, 
 so that the master and sailors wondered at it, and said 
 they never saw the like before." On June 28 they 
 reached Bristol, havingr been absent from Enirland 
 rather more than a year and ten months.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE LAST IMPRISONMENT 
 
 Having landed at Shirehampton, Fox was rejoined 
 at Bristol by his wife, who came thither with two of 
 her daughters, and her son-in-law Thomas Lower, and 
 was also met by William Penn and several other 
 Friends from different parts of the country. A great 
 fair was held at Bristol apparently in September, and 
 in connection therewith Fox, unmolested notwithstand- 
 ing the Conventicle Act, held many " glorious and 
 powerful meetings," at one of which he preached a 
 sermon on the " Three Estates and Three Teachers," 
 of which he gives us an abstract. The first estate is 
 that of Adam and Eve in Paradise, and their teacher, 
 God. The second estate is that of the Fall, and is 
 caused by the teaching of the Serpent. The third 
 estate is the dispensation of Life and Power, under the 
 teaching of Christ Jesus, " the true gospel-teacher, 
 who bruises the head of the Serpent, the false teacher, 
 and the head of all false teachers and of all false 
 religions, false ways, false worships, and false churches." 
 After some journeyings in the southern counties, 
 and a visit with his wife to her son-in-law John Rous 
 at Kingston-on-Thames, Fox spent several weeks in 
 
 London, where he had many controversies with the 
 
 238
 
 THE LAST IMPRISONMENT 239 
 
 Baptists and Socinians, and " with some old apostates, 
 grown very rude, who had printed many books against 
 the Friends." 
 
 After some time they started, a little family party, 
 on the journey from London to Swarthmoor. The 
 party consisted of George Fox and his wife, her 
 youngest and still unmarried daughter Rachel, and 
 Thomas Lower, the Cornish son-in-law, who was going 
 down to Swarthmoor to fetch his wife and child from 
 thence. They halted by the way at William Penn's 
 house at Rickmansworth (in fact it was here that 
 Lower joined them), and then passed on through 
 Oxfordshire, into Worcestershire. Fox had received a 
 message that his mother, now probably an old woman 
 of eighty, was on her deathbed, an<l longed to see him 
 before she died. He therefore intended to part company 
 from his wife in Warwickshire, accomplish this visit to 
 old Mary Fox at Fenny Drayton, and return to London 
 for a time. But the separation of husband and wife 
 came sooner tiian was intended, and the farewells of 
 mother and son were never said. After a large meeting 
 held in a barn at Armscott, near Stratford-on-Avon, 
 a magistrate named Parker, and a clergyman named 
 Hains, came to the farmer's house where they were 
 sitting, and apprehended Fox and Lower. The parson 
 and squire had intended to be present at the meeting, 
 in order to give personal testimony to its illegal holding, 
 but as Parker's baby had been baptized that morning 
 they had sat a little too long over their wiue at the 
 christening-festival, and so had missed their opportunity. 
 This defect of testimony seems to have tainted with 
 irregularity most of their subsequent proceedings. 
 However, there was little doubt that the meeting in
 
 240 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Armscott barn was a defiance of the Conventicle Act. 
 Parker made out what Fox calls "a strange sort of 
 viitiimus," and sent him and Lower to prison, while 
 Margaret Fox and her daughters were suffered to 
 proceed on their homeward journey, under the escort 
 of a Friend, a merchant from Bristol, who, as Fox said, 
 "seemed to have met us providentially to assist my 
 wife and her daughter in their journey homewards, 
 when by our imprisonment they were deprived of our 
 company and help." 
 
 George Fox had had some foreshadowings in his soul 
 of the coming trouble, to which he alludes in the 
 following letter to his wife, written from Worcester 
 Gaol, as soon as he thought she would have reached 
 her home. 
 
 " Dear Heart, 
 
 " Thou seemedst to be a little grieved when I 
 was speaking of prisons, and when I was taken : be 
 content with the will of the Lord God. For when I 
 was at John Rous's at Kingston I had a sight of my 
 being taken prisoner, and when I was at Bray Dolly's 
 in Oxfordshire [the night before the arrest], I saw I 
 was taken, and I saw I had a suffering to undergo. 
 But the Lord's power is over all ; blessed be His holy 
 name for ever. 
 
 " G. F." 
 
 The imprisonment in Worcester Gaol, thus begun, 
 lasted, in a fashion, for fourteen months (December 
 17, 1673— February 12, 1675), but it had many inter- 
 ruptions, and it was not nearly so severe as any of 
 his previous incarcerations. Thomas Lower, who had
 
 THE LAST IMPRISONMENT 241 
 
 influential friends at Court, might have been set at 
 liherty after a few weeks if he wuuld have accepted 
 freedom for himself alone. Writing to his wife on 
 "the 7th of 11th month 1G73" (January 7, 1G74), he 
 says — " I have received several letters from London from 
 my brother [Dr. Lower, the King's physician] touching 
 my liberty, and a letter from the King's bedchamber 
 man [Henry Savile] to the Lord Windsor [Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Worcestershire], his brother[-in-law], but 
 since it only relates to my particular enlargement, I 
 have kept it by me unsent. I thought it might pre- 
 judice and hinder my father's enlargement if I accepted 
 of it ; for I prize his liberty more than my own, and so 
 have written to my brother if he cannot obtain both 
 our discharges, not to labour any farther for mine." ^ 
 
 There were long and tedious proceedings, both at 
 Quarter Sessions and Assizes, of which George Fox 
 does not give a very clear account, and with which it 
 is not necessary to weary the reader. It seems pretty 
 clear that for lack of evidence there was no case against 
 the prisoners under the Conventicle Act; that they 
 ought to have been discharged ; and that there was a 
 strong party among the magistrates in favour of their 
 liberation ; but that Parker, egged on by a clergyman 
 named Crowder, pressed for imprisonment, and accom- 
 plished his purpose by the easy injustice of tendering 
 the oaths and insisting on the penalty of Praemunire. 
 This clergyman, Dr. Crowder, furnished an amusing 
 instance of the proverbial ill-fortune of listeners. After 
 one of Fox's appearances before the magistrates. Lower 
 remained behind, and in the course of some conversation 
 
 1 From the Shackleton MSS. quoted in iha Fells of SiLxirthmoor 
 Hall, p. 287. 
 
 R
 
 242 GEORGE FOX 
 
 with the magistrates, who were evidently anxious to 
 avoid taking harsh measures with the brother of the 
 King's physician, Justice Parker said to him, " Do you 
 think, Mr. Lower, that I had not cause to send your 
 father and you to prison, when you had so great a 
 meeting that the parson of the parish comphiined to 
 me that he has lost the greatest part of his parishioners, 
 so that when he comes among them he has scarcely 
 any auditors left ? " "I have heard," replied Thomas 
 Lower, " that the priest of tliat parish comes so seldom 
 to visit his flock (but once, it may be, or twice in a 
 year, to gather up his tithes) that it was but charity in 
 my father to visit so forlorn and forsaken a flock ; and 
 therefore thou hadst no cause to send my father to 
 prison for visiting them or for teaching, instructing, 
 and directing them to Christ, their true teacher; seeing 
 they had so little comfort or benefit from their pre- 
 tended pastor, who comes among them only to seek his 
 gain from his quarter." " Upon this the Justices fell 
 a-laughing, for it seems Dr. Crowder (who was the 
 priest they spoke of) was then in the room, sitting 
 among them, though Thomas Lower did not know 
 him ; and he had the wit to hold his tongue, and not 
 undertake to vindicate himself in a matter so notoiiously 
 known to be true." 
 
 It is evident that Fox, in this imprisonment, was 
 on better terms with his keepers, and probably better 
 treated by them than either at Launceston or Lancaster. 
 He walked to and fro between gaol and court-house 
 imguarded, or nominally guarded by a little boy of 
 eleven years old. When the magistrates resolved to 
 let him out on bail, the gaoler's son offered to be bound 
 for him. After an earnest appeal to the principles of
 
 THE LAST IMPRISONMENT 243 
 
 Christianity made at one of the Quarter Sessions, " the 
 people were fjeneraUy tender, as if they had been in a 
 meeting." Nevertheless it all ended in the infanious 
 sentence of Praemunire, for refusal of the oath of 
 allegiance, though Fox tendered in lieu of the oath a 
 paper in which he went furtlier than many Conservative 
 politicians would like to follow him to-day, in acknow- 
 ledging the Divinely ordained kingship of Charles 11.^ 
 The Court, as we liave seen, was favourably disposed 
 towards Fox at this time, and he was offered his release 
 by way of pardon from the crown, but he steadfastly 
 refused to accept any such way of escape, looking upon 
 it as not agreeable to the innocency of his cause. The 
 end of the whole matter was that Fox was brought up 
 to London by the under-sheriff on February 8, 1G75. 
 His case came on before Chief Justice Hale and three 
 puisne judges at the King's Bench. The errors in the 
 indictment (which seem to have been many, and to 
 siiow that a bungler had been at work here as well as 
 in the magistrates' court at Lancaster) were pointed out 
 and insisted on by Mr. Corbet, George Fox's counsel, 
 but he also raised the important objection, " that they 
 could not imprison any man upon a Praemunire." 
 
 * This paper, wliich any reasonable Christian Government 
 should surely have ghuUy accepted as an equivalent for the oath 
 of allegiance, began tlui.s : — 
 
 " This I do in the truth and in tlie presence of God declare, 
 that King Charles the Second is lawful King of this realm and 
 all other liis dominions ; that he was brought in and set up King 
 over this realm by tlie power of God ; and I have nothing but 
 goodwill to him and all his subjects, and desire his prosperity and 
 eternal good." The last sentence is — 
 
 " I dare not take an oath because it is forbidden by Christ and 
 the apo.stle, but if I break my Yea or Nay, let me suffer the 
 same penalty as they that break their oaths. 
 
 "George Fox.''
 
 244 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Some of Fox's enemies wanted the Chief Justice to 
 put the oath to him once more, urging that he was a 
 dangerous man to be at liberty, but that noble judge 
 answered, " he had indeed heard some such reports, 
 but he had also heard many more good reports of him ; " 
 and thus, largely no doubt through Hale's influence, 
 Fox regained his freedom, as he triumphantly says, 
 " without receiving any pardon, or coming under any 
 obligation or engagement at all." " Counsellor Corbet, 
 who pleaded for me, obtained great fame by it, for 
 many of the lawyers came to him and told him he had 
 brought that to light which had not been known before, 
 as to the not imprisoning upon a Praemunire; and 
 after the trial a judge said to him, * You have attained 
 a great deal of honour by pleading George Fox's cause 
 so in court.' " ^ 
 
 * My friend W. C. Braithwaite, of Lincoln's Inn, whom I have 
 consulted as to this trial, writes to me — 
 
 " I can find no case in the books respecting the Praermmire of 
 George Fox in 1674. On looking carefully at the passage in the 
 Journal, it is evident that there was no decision on the point 
 raised by Counsellor Corbet. He raised the question with 
 sufficient force to cause the judges to adjourn the case for further 
 argument. But ' the next day they chose rather to let this plea 
 fall, and begin with the errors of the indictment.' It was on these 
 errors that the indictment was quashed ; and it is to be noticed 
 that tlie praise given to Corbet was for raising the question so 
 forcibly, and not for having actually obtained a decision upon it."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CLOSING YEARS 
 
 The fifteen remaining years of George Fox's life 
 must be sketched in this, as in all his other biographies, 
 much more briefly than those which have preceded 
 them. From this point onward there is somewhat of 
 a change in the character of the Jmtrnal, which be- 
 comes much more of a mere register of documents 
 issued by Fox, and has few of the characteristic and 
 almost humorous touches which give life to its earlier 
 pages. Nor are indications wanting that in mind as 
 well as in body George Fox was a prematurely aged 
 man. His devotion to the cause of spiritual religion, 
 which he believed himself called to promote, is as 
 intense as ever, his zeal in its service, as far as his 
 bodily infirmities will allow him to display it, is un- 
 abated, but there is not so much freshness of idea as 
 aforetime, and there are several instances of the tend- 
 ency of old age to re-issue its old thought-currency. 
 
 Yet for the future life and permanence of the Society 
 which he had almost unwittingl}' founded, these years 
 of calm reflective old age were probably quite as impor- 
 tant as the more picturesque and adventurous years of 
 his early apostolate. For questions had now arisen in 
 that Society, similar to those which had agitated the 
 
 245
 
 246 GEORGE FOX 
 
 ■wider religous world of the English nation, and on the 
 solution of these questions (ultimately effected by the 
 personal authority and influence of George Fox him- 
 self) the very existence of the Society probably de- 
 pended. 
 
 Quakerism had been at the outset essentially in- 
 dividual in its character. George Fox's own individual 
 musings and meditations when he was wandering over 
 the fields of Leicestershire had given the impulse to 
 the new movement. He had appealed to what he 
 called the Inward Light, or the voice of the Divine 
 Spirit in the hearts of his hearers, and on those facts 
 of their own individual consciousness, rather than on 
 any external Church authority, he had based his re- 
 ligious teaching. For some years the "Children of 
 Light," as they at first called themselves, had existed 
 and had multiplied, possessing none but the very 
 slightest formal bond of union, or system of Church 
 government. Then the disorders which had arisen 
 under this system of unchecked Individualism having 
 convinced Fox of the necessity of a change, he had, 
 as we have seen, with much real statesmanship, as well 
 as with invincible patience, succeeded in establishing 
 what were called " Meetings for discipline " ; first Yearly 
 Meetings (in 1658), then Quarterly Meetings (from 
 1660 onwards), and lastly Monthly Meetings (from 
 1666 to 1660). By all these meetings the principle 
 of absolute Individualism, the claim of each member 
 to do what was right in his or her own eyes, was 
 checked and bounded, and the right of the Church to 
 arrange for the orderly holding of meetings for worship, 
 the maintenance of the poor, the decorous celebration 
 of marriages, the registration of births and deaths, even
 
 CLOSING YEARS 247 
 
 to some extent to control the business relations of the 
 members to one another, was recognized and enforced. 
 It seems also (though this is a point which has been 
 often lost sight of) that some pecuniary provision was 
 made by the new Church for the maintenance of those 
 travelling preachers who were too poor to support them- 
 selves.^ 
 
 Against all this machinery of Church government, 
 and to a certain extent against the authority of Fox 
 himself, as chief adviser of the body which had been 
 called into existence by his teaching, there was, about 
 1675, a formidable movement of revolt. It was not 
 quite the first time that a discordant note had been 
 sounded in the new community. There had been, as 
 we have seen (about 1656), a tendency to set up the 
 authority of the strange enthusiast James Naylur 
 against that of his chief. Then (about IGGl), a certain 
 John Perrot, who had gone to Rome to convert the 
 Pope, and had spent some time in the prisons of the 
 Inquisition, started on his return a crusade against the 
 practice of uncovering the head in public prayer, thus 
 caricaturing Fox's own " testimony " against taking off 
 the hat to his fellow-men.^ But this schism soon died 
 away. Perrot left the Society of Friends, Avent to 
 America, and " fell into manifest sensualities and works 
 of the flesh, for he not only wore gaudy apparel, but 
 also a sword, and being got into some place in the 
 Government, he became a severe exactor of oaths, 
 
 1 All these points are well brought out in Barclay's Inner Life 
 of Relvjious Societies of the Commonwealth, chajiters x^■iii. and xix. 
 
 * Sewi'l, the Quaker historian, says of Perrot, "as one error 
 proceeds from another, so he made another extravagant step, and 
 let his beard grow ; in which he was followed by some." {Hid. 
 of Society of FrieiicU;, xi. 315. Ed. 1833.)
 
 248 GEORGE FOX 
 
 whereas before he had professed that for conscience' 
 sake he could not swear." ^ 
 
 The schism, however, which now (about the year 
 1675) threatened the disruption of the Society, and 
 which is known by the name of Wilkinson and Story's 
 Separation, was a much less fantastic, and therefore 
 much more formidable affair than Perrot's hat and 
 beard vagaries. The two men who headed it, John 
 Wilkinson and John Story, were eminent preachers 
 among the Friends, and had probably often worked 
 side by side with Fox himself.^ But they insisted, 
 like the Independents, on the right of each congrega- 
 tion to transact its own affairs uncontrolled by any 
 central body. " They regarded with great jealousy 
 the Central Yearly Meeting of London, which they 
 compared to a High Court of Judicature, and declared 
 it would become a New Rome in time. They made 
 use of the principle which Perrot had enunciated, 
 'that the fellowship of the Spirit did not stand in 
 outward forms,' against the form of Church govern- 
 ment established by Fox. When asked, ' Ought not 
 Christian Churches to deny ' (or excommunicate) ' for 
 breach of fundamental articles ? ' they answered, that 
 if such articles were against the Light of Christ in 
 individual consciences, was not the requiring of sub- 
 mission an infringement of Christian liberty ? If 
 these outward forms were to be obeyed at a moment 
 when the Spirit of God did not move an individual 
 
 ^ Sewel, Hist, of Society of Friends, ii. 315. 
 
 2 John AVilkinson is erroneously identified by Barclay (Religious 
 Societies of the Commomvealth, p. 441) with the clergyman of 
 Broughton who turned Quaker (Fox's Journal, I. 393), and who, 
 as is there mentioned, died in 1675.
 
 CLOSING YEARS 249 
 
 to obey, how was ' New Light ' agaiu to break forth 
 to God's glory ? " ^ 
 
 Moreover, the Separatists objected to that law of 
 the Society by which all its members were required 
 to abstain from payment of tithes on pain of disown- 
 ment, saying that each individual should be left to 
 act according to the dictates of his own conscience. 
 Herein they seem to have borne a useful testimony 
 against what has always been the besetting sin of 
 Quakerism, a disposition to insist that if nine members 
 feel a conscientious scruple against doing a certain 
 thing, the tenth member shall feel it likewise. 
 
 But when it came to defending the practice of 
 fleeing in time of persecution, and discontinuing the 
 usual meetings of Friends in order to escape the cruel 
 provisions of the Conventicle Act, one can see that the 
 very existence of the new Society, and it might almost 
 be said the cause of religious freedom in England, were 
 at stake, and that with all their bold words on behalf 
 of Individualism, these opposers of all Church authority 
 in the new community would, if victorious, soon have 
 had neither community nor individuals left. In fact, 
 Wilkinson and Story, though there are some things 
 in their teaching which look like the legitimate out- 
 come of Quaker doctrines, were at heart more nearly 
 akin to the "Seekers" or the "Ranters" than to tlie 
 Friends, and probably had their cause triumphed over 
 the steady opposition of Fox and his chief supporters, 
 the Quakers would have faded away into the same 
 limbo of for<i:otten religions in which both " Seekers " 
 and "Ranters" now lie entombed, 
 
 ' I have borrowed some sentences here from Barclay's Inner 
 Life, etc., p. 465.
 
 250 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 The literary part of the controversy against the new 
 schismatics was left chiefly to Robert Barclay and 
 Thomas Elhvood, the friend of Milton. The former 
 wrote a short treatise on The Anarch]/ of the Ranters ; 
 and the latter, in a work which he believed to be a 
 poem, and which he entitled Rogero Mastix, chastised 
 the yet more prosaic verses in which a certain William 
 Rogers of Bristol had championed the cause of Wilkinson 
 and Story. 
 
 Eventually the schism was ended by the apparent 
 victory of the party in favour of Fox's Church organiz- 
 ation, but it is the opinion of a careful inquirer ^ that 
 the views of the defeated party were in some measure 
 adopted by the Society at large, and that the Quietism 
 which prevailed among Friends throughout the eighteenth 
 century, was in a certain sense the result of the Separatist 
 movement of 1675. 
 
 It is the life of Fox, not the history of Quakerism, 
 with which we are here concerned, but so much as this 
 it seemed necessary to say, in order to explain many 
 Images of his Journal, and the chief occupation of his 
 closing years. Such passages as this are of frequent 
 occurence — 
 
 " I wrote answers to divers papers concerning the 
 running out of some who had opposed the order of 
 the gospel, and had stirred up much strife and contention 
 in Westmoreland," 
 
 "Some that professed truth, and had made a great 
 show therein, being gone from the simplicity of the 
 gospel into jangling, division, and a spirit of separation, 
 endeavoured to discourage Friends, especially the '.vomen,"^ 
 
 ^ Barclay, Inner Life, p. 472. 
 
 ^ For some reason, which is not very clear, the women's meeting*
 
 CLOSING YEARS 251 
 
 from their godly care and watchfulness in the church 
 over one another in the truth ; opposing their meetings, 
 which in the power of the Lord were set up for that 
 end and service." 
 
 At Bristol (1C77), " Many sweet and precious meetings 
 we had ; many Friends being there from several parts 
 of the nation, some on account of trade, and some in 
 the service of truth. Great was the love and unity 
 of Friends that abode faithful in the truth, though 
 some who were gone out of the holy unity and were 
 run into strife, division, and enmity, were rude and 
 abusive, and behaved themselves in a very unchristian 
 manner towards me. But the Lord's power was over 
 all ; by which being preserved in heavenly patience 
 which can bear injuries for His Name's sake, I felt 
 dominion therein over the rough, rude, and unruly 
 spirits, and left them to the Lord, who knew my 
 innocency, and would plead my cause. The more 
 these laboured to reproach and vilify me, the more did 
 the love of Friends that were sensible and upright- 
 hearted abound towards me, and some that had been 
 betrayed by the adversaries, seeing their envy and rude 
 behaviour, broke off from them, who have cause to bless 
 the Lord for their deliverance." 
 
 Owing to Fox's broken health, there were sometimes 
 now considerable pauses in his hitherto incessant 
 journeyiugs. At two separate intervals he spent about 
 four years restfuUy at Swarthmoor,^ perhaps the happiest 
 
 fur business were the subject of especial opposition from the 
 Separatists. 
 
 ^ The first time, 1675 6, of which Marparet Fox says, "This 
 was the first time that he came to Swartlimoor after we were 
 married, and he stayed there much of two years." The second 
 time, 1679-80, of which she says, " lie came into the North to
 
 252 GEORGE FOX 
 
 part of his life, though hurried over in the Journal 
 ahnost as though he were ashamed of having allowed 
 himself so long a rest by the wayside. 
 
 When Fox first appeared in the old Lancashire 
 manor-house after his liberation from Worcester, he re- 
 ceived a visit from his former oppressor, Colonel Kirkby, 
 who came to bid him welcome into the country, and 
 " carried himself to all appearance very lovingly." True, 
 he afterwards sent a message by the Ulverston con- 
 stables that there must be no more meetings at Swarth- 
 moor, and if there were such they had orders to break 
 them up. But on the very next Sunday the Friends 
 had "a very precious meeting," quite undisturbed by 
 the constables, and so they continued ever after. In 
 fact, as far as can be discerned from Fox's Journal, 
 the Conventicle Act, though still enforced spasmodically 
 in London, had become little more than a dead letter 
 in the north of England, the persecution of Friends, 
 which was still bitter, being generally for non-payment 
 of tithes, or on the easy ground of their refusal to take 
 an oath, which enabled the magistrates to proceed 
 against them as "Papist recusants." 
 
 Another of Fox's old antagonists was the Rev. 
 William Lampitt, formerly the " Established " minister 
 of Ulverston, but since St. Bartholomew's Day an 
 ejected minister. A good man, we may surely believe, 
 perhaps correctly described by Calamy as " a warm and 
 lively preacher " ; certainly one whose sacrifices for 
 conscience' sake entitled him to more respectful notice 
 than is contained in the following sentences from Fox's 
 
 Swarthmoor again, and stayed this time near two years ; and then 
 he grew weakly, being troubled with pains and aches, having had 
 many sore and long travels, beatings, and hard imprisonments."
 
 CLOSING YEARS 263 
 
 Journal — "In 1G7G/ while I was at Swarthmoor, died 
 William Lainpitt, the old priest of Ulverston, which 
 parish Swarthmoor is in. He was an old deceiver, a 
 perverter of the right way of the Lord, and a persecutor 
 of the people of God. Much contest I had with him 
 when I first came into those parts. He had been an 
 old false prophet; for in 1652 he prophesied (and said 
 he Avould wage his life upon it) that the Quakers would 
 all vanish and come to nought within half a year, but 
 he came to nought himself. For he continued in this 
 lying and false accusing of God's people till a little 
 before he died, and then he cried for a little rest. To 
 one of his hearers that came to visit him before he 
 died, he said, ' I have been a preacher a long time, and 
 thought I had lived well ; but I did not think it had 
 been so hard a thing to die.' " 
 
 During these long periods of quiescence at Swarth- 
 moor, Fox was busy with his pen, writing epistles to the 
 Yearly Meeting, and " a book of the types and figures 
 of Christ with their significations," collecting the papers 
 which he had addressed to Oliver and Richard Crom- 
 well, and to Charles II., providing materials for a future 
 history of Quakerism, and so on. In company w^ith 
 his friend and fellow-traveller in America, John Burn- 
 yeat, he answered what he calls " a very envious and 
 wicked book which Roger WiUiams, a priest of New 
 England (or some colony thereabout), had written against 
 truth and Friends." The envious and wicked book 
 was no doubt Williams's George Fox digged out of his 
 Burroxces, published at Boston in 1G76. This probably 
 seemed to Fox a very unscrupulous attack, and one 
 
 » Calamy says, "he lived obscurely [after his ejection] and 
 dv'd Anno 1677."
 
 254 GEORGE FOX 
 
 that absolutely required a reply ; but he can hardly 
 have been aware how much the cause of religious 
 freedom owed to Roger Williams and his colony of 
 Rhode Island ; otherwise he would have spoken more 
 respectfully of his antagonist. 
 
 In 1677, Fox paid a short visit ^ to the Continent, 
 in company with William Penn, Robert Barclay, George 
 Keith,^ and some others. His wife was not of the 
 party, but was represented by her third daughter Isa- 
 bel. The chief object of the travellers seems to have 
 been to visit the Friends in Holland, where there were 
 by this time a pretty large number of adherents to the 
 new Society. Holland must have been now only just 
 beginning to recover froin the terrible strain of that 
 great five years' war with Louis XIV., in which she had 
 been brought to the brink of ruin, and had been only 
 saved by the valour of young William of Orange, and 
 by the desperate expedient of opening the dykes, and 
 laying the country under water. We have, however, 
 no allusion in the Journal to these excitinor events, 
 except that when the travellers drew near the frontier 
 of East Friesland, " there came many officers rushing 
 into the boat, and being somewhat in drink they were 
 very rude. I spoke to them " (says Fox), '* exhorting 
 them to fear the Lord and beware of Solomon's vanities. 
 They were boisterous fellows, yet somewhat more civil 
 afterwards." We have also an address from Fox's pen 
 " to the ambassadors who were met to treat for Peace 
 at the city of Nimeguen in the States dominions." The 
 address is chiefly about the wickedness of war, and its 
 inconsistency with the spirit of the Gospel. " Is it not 
 
 1 Ju]y 25 to October 23. 
 
 2 lu later life a great opponent of Quakerisin.
 
 CLOSING YEARS 255 
 
 a sad thing," lie says, "for Christians to be biting and 
 consuming one another in the sight of the Turks, 
 Tartars, Jews, and Heathens, when they should love 
 one another and do unto all men as they would have 
 them do unto them ? Such devouring work as this 
 will open the mouth of Jews and Turks, Tartars and 
 Heathens, to blaspheme the name of Christ, and cause 
 them to speak evil of Christianity, for them to see how 
 the unity of the Spirit is broken among such as profess 
 Christ and Christ's peace." Certainly the diplomacy 
 of Christian Europe did not shine in the negotiations 
 of Nimeguen. The great personages charged with the 
 conclusion of the treaty entered that town in February 
 1676 (more than a year before Fox's visit to Holland), 
 and it was not till August 1678 that they concluded 
 what Macaulay has well styled "the hollow and un- 
 satisfactory treaty by which the distractions of Europe 
 were for a time suspended." 
 
 An interesting event in Fox's journey to Holland 
 was the visit paid by George Keith's wife and Fox's 
 step-daughter Isabel Yeamans to the Princess Elizabeth. 
 This lady was a daughter of Frederick, Elector Palatine 
 (the "Winter King" of Bohemia), and our Princess 
 Elizabeth. Like her brothers and sisters, she had 
 experienced strange reverses of fortune, and she showed 
 much of that originality of character which — perhaps 
 on account of those very reverses — the members of this 
 family generally displayed. 
 
 There was Charles Louis, the eldest son, who well- 
 nigh broke his mother's heart by his selfishness and 
 ingratitude; there were Rupert and Maurice, those 
 Paladins of the Civil War, whose lives had such 
 diil'eient endings, Rupert the chemist and the inventor
 
 256 GEORGE FOX 
 
 spending his old age at the Court of Charles II., while 
 Maurice, still young, and flying westwards before the 
 victorious Blake, sank out of sight in the waters of the 
 Antilles, Youngest of the band was the handsome 
 and sprightly Sophia, who had now been for some 
 twenty years married to Ernest Augustus, Elector of 
 Hanover; who, dying at eighty-four, only missed by 
 two mouths being proclaimed Queen of England, and 
 who was in fact the ancestress of all our royal Georges, 
 and of our present Queen Victoria. Twelve years 
 older than the Electress Sophia, and utterly unlike her 
 in disposition, was the calm and unworldly Elizabeth, 
 who, after refusing some brilliant offers of marriage, 
 spent her middle or later life as Protestant Abbess of 
 Herford, a position which, as the convent had been 
 long ago sequestered, brought with it no religious 
 obliofations, but gave the holder an income and some 
 little territorial jurisdiction. She had come before 
 this time under the influence of that interesting, but 
 not altogether satisfactory enthusiast, Jean Labadie — 
 a Jesuit who turned Protestant and something more — 
 and his teaching, which has been described as " something 
 like a French Quakerism, but with ingredients from 
 older Anabaptism," 1 had prepared her to listen with 
 favour to the words of Fox and his disciples. She had 
 been already visited by Penn and Barclay, and had 
 addressed to the latter an epistle from which the 
 following is an extract. 
 
 " Your memory is dear to me, so are your lives, and 
 your exhortations very necessary. I confess myself 
 still spiritually very poor and naked ; all my happiness 
 is that I do know I am so, and whatsoever I have 
 
 1 Masson, Life of Milton, v. 595.
 
 CLOSING YEARS 257 
 
 seemed or studied heretofore is but as dust in com- 
 parison to the true knowledge of Christ. I confess 
 also my infidelity to this light, by suffering myself 
 to be conducted by a false politique light; now that 
 I have sometimes a small glimpse of the True Light 
 I do not attend to it as I should, being drawn away 
 by the works of my calling, which must be done. 
 Like your swift English hounds, I often overrun my 
 scent, being called back when it is too late. Let not 
 this make you less earnest in your prayers for me ; 
 you see I need them. Your letters will be always 
 welcome to me, so shall your friends if any please to 
 visit me. 
 
 "I should admire God's providence if my brother 
 [Prince Rupert] could be a means of releasing your 
 father,^ and the forty more prisoners in Scotland. Having 
 promised to do his best, I know he will perform it ; he 
 has always been true to his word ; and you shall find 
 me by the grace of God a true friend. 
 
 " Elizabeth." 2 
 
 Following up the invitation contained in this letter, 
 the two Quaker ladies, Mrs. Yeamans and Mrs. Keith, 
 with a Dutch woman-Friend to act as interpreter, 
 went to visit the Princess in her home at Herford in 
 Westphalia, takiug with them a long letter from George 
 Fox, which began as follows — 
 
 " Princess Elizabeth, 
 
 " I have heard of thy tenderness towards the 
 Lord and His holy truth, by some Friends that have 
 
 ^ Colonel David Barclay, once an ofBcer in the army of 
 Gustavus Adolphus, at this time a Quaker, and imprisoned in 
 the Tolbooth of Aberdeen. 
 
 ■ Quoted in the FdU of l:hmrth'>iioor llall, pp. 302-3. 
 
 8
 
 258 GEORGE FOX 
 
 visited thee, and also by some of thy letters which I 
 have seen. It is indeed a great thing for a person 
 of thy quality to have such a tender mind after the 
 Lord and His precious truth, seeing so many are 
 swallowed up with voluptuousness and the pleasures of 
 this world ; yet all make an outward profession of God 
 and Christ one way or other, but without any deep 
 inward sense and feeUug of Him." When we remember 
 that the Princess was first cousin to Charles 11., and 
 that most of her kindred were more or less hanoers- 
 on to the pleasure-loving Court at Whitehall, the hint 
 about " voluptuousness " is seen to be singularly 
 appropriate, and in truth, the contrast between that 
 Court and the old Abbey of Herford must have been 
 about as striking as any that Europe could exhibit. 
 
 The Princess sent the following reply to Fox's letter — 
 
 "Dear Friend, 
 
 "I cannot but have a tender love to those 
 that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to whom it is 
 given, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer 
 for Him ; therefore your letter and your friends' visit 
 have been both very welcome to me. I shall follow 
 their and your counsel as far as God will aflford me 
 light and unction, remaining still your loving friend, 
 
 "Elizabeth. 
 
 " Herford,'the 80th of August, 1677." 
 
 Soon afterwards Penn and Barclay paid their second 
 visit to Herford, and were received with even more 
 cordiality than on their first. The royal Abbess of 
 Herford seems indeed to have become virtually a
 
 CLOSING YEARS 259 
 
 Friend, and during the few remaining years of her 
 life (she died in 1680) she kept up a pretty fre- 
 quent correspondence with the leading members of 
 the Society, exerting what influence she could with 
 her relatives at Whitehall on behalf especially of 
 the Scottish Friends who were suffering imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Fox's Continental journey extended to North Germany 
 as well as Holland. He visited Emden, Oldenburg 
 (" lately a great and famous place, but then burnt down, 
 and but few houses left standing in it"), Bremen, 
 Hamburg, and penetrated some way into " the Duke 
 of Holstein's country." The whole visit occupied 
 him three months (July 25 to October 23, 1677), 
 and it was repeated on a smaller scale seven years 
 afterwards (June 4 to July 17, 1684). He occasion- 
 ally had an argument with a Calvinist divine, or a 
 Baptist teacher, but his visit was chiefly directed 
 to those who were already Friends, and it may be 
 suggested that the necessity of speaking through an 
 interpreter, and the impossibility of exchanging quick 
 theological repartee with the travellers by the wayside, 
 somewhat cramped his energies, and prevented him 
 from undertaking a wider and longer campaign. 
 
 At this time there was a considerable number of 
 adherents to the new Society in many parts of Central 
 Europe. There was also a tolerably large congregation 
 of Friends at Dantzic, who were cruelly oppressed by 
 the Lutheran magistrates of that city. Their sufferings 
 lay very heavy on Fox's heart, and he several times 
 addressed long letters, both to their nominal sovereign, 
 John III., King of Poland, and to the city magistrates, 
 pleading for some respite to the persecuted and im-
 
 260 GEORGE FOX 
 
 prisoned Quakers, The Quakers in Holland seem to 
 have been largely drawn from the very similar body of 
 the Mennonites, and this chiefly under the preacliing 
 of William Caton, that young Swarthmoor convert of 
 George Fox's, of whom some description has been given 
 in an earlier chapter.^ 
 
 It is interesting to note that in the interval between 
 Fox's two visits to the Continent, one of the most 
 celebrated Meunonite teachers entirely changed his 
 attitude towards Quakerism, and from an opponent 
 became a supporter of the new teaching. This was 
 Dr. Galenus Abrahams, a Mennonite with some 
 tendency towards Socinianism. At Fox's first visit 
 there was a five hours' discussion between this man 
 and Fox, assisted by Penn. Abrahams maintained a 
 favourite thesis of the English " Seekers," " that 
 there was no Christian Church ministry or commission 
 Apostolical now in the world." One might have 
 thought that this was an argument to be held rather 
 against a stout champion of Apostolical Succession than 
 against a theological free-lance such as Fox; but he 
 also contended — and here we see how his doctrine 
 would cut at the root of Fox's ministry — " that nobody 
 now-a-days could be accepted as a messenger of God, 
 unless he confirmed the same by miracles." The 
 discussion was not a very satisfactory one, having all 
 to be conducted through an interpreter, but it seems 
 to have been generally considered that the Quakers 
 had the best of it. The greatest share of the argument 
 on their side was taken by William Penn. George Fox, 
 as we are told by the Quaker historian Sewel (himself 
 a friend and former disciple of Abrahams), " spake also 
 
 1 See p. 73.
 
 CLOSING YEARS 261 
 
 somethinfjj to the matter, but he, being somewhat short- 
 breathed, went several times away, which some were 
 ready to impute to a passionate temper; but I well 
 know that herein they wronged him." But evidently 
 Abrahams thought that his opponent was too fierce, 
 and shrank, as others had done before him, from the 
 still undiramed lustre of those flashing eyes. " He was 
 then," says Fox, speaking of the earlier visit and the 
 disputation which was held between them — "he was 
 then very high and shy, so that he would not let me 
 touch him nor look upon him by his good-will, but bid 
 me ' keep my eyes off him, for/ he said, ' they pierced 
 him.' But now he was verv lovincj and tender, and 
 confessed in some measure to Truth. His wife also 
 and daughters were tender and kind, and we parted 
 from them very lovingly." ^ 
 
 After Fox's return from his first Continental journey 
 (1677), with the exception of one year (1G79), spent in 
 retirement at Swarthmoor, he passed most of his time 
 in London and its suburbs, sometimes making short 
 excursions into the home counties. It is not very 
 clear where he abode when actually in London, but the 
 hospitable shelter of Kingston-on-Thames, where dwelt 
 his son-in-law, the West Indian merchant, John Rous, 
 with his wife Margaret (daughter of Margaret Fox), 
 was ever ready to receive him when pining for the 
 fresh air of the country. His relation to this worthy 
 couple, as to all his wife's daughters and their hus- 
 bands, seems to have been most friendly and cordial, 
 nor is there ever a sign of a welcome out-stayed at 
 
 ^ For some account of Galenus Abraliains, consult, besides 
 G. F.'s Journal, Sewel's History of Friends, iv. 26 ; and Barclay's 
 Rdigtovs Societies of the (hmmonivealth, pi>. 174, 251.
 
 262 GEORGE FOX 
 
 their hospitable houses. In 1683, he records a 
 special visit of a week paid to Kingston, the occasion 
 being that " my son Rous's daughter Margaret lay 
 very sick and had a desire to see me." The young 
 grand-daughter, like her ancestress, felt the power of 
 goodness in the preacher of the Inward Light, and 
 longed to clasp his hand if she was about to fare forth 
 into the Unknown.^ 
 
 One reason why these latter years of Fox's life were 
 for the most part spent in London and its neighbour- 
 hood was that his presence there was still needed, in 
 order to counteract the efforts of the Separatists Wilk- 
 inson and Story, allusions to whom are frequent in this 
 part of the Journal. Another was, that from the year 
 1681 onwards, after the defeat of the Exclusion Bill and 
 the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, there was a 
 spasm of fresh and fierce persecution against Friends 
 under the Conventicle Act, which had been perhaps 
 growing somewhat rusty under the Whiggish 
 Parliaments of 1679 and 1681. The pages of the 
 Journal give us a vivid picture of the scenes enacted 
 under this monstrous statute. 
 
 " One First-day it was upon me to go to Devonshire 
 House meeting in the afternoon, and because I had 
 heard Friends were kept out there that morning I went 
 sooner, and got into the yard before the soldiers came 
 to guard the passages; but the constables were there 
 
 1 The young Margaret did not die at this time. Perhaps it 
 would have been better for her if she had, for there were storms 
 of some kind or other in her after-life. In her father's will, dated 
 October 20, 1692, there is a bequest of ten pounds only "unto my 
 daughter Margaret, who hath several ways disobliged me," with 
 power to her mother to appoint her a further sum of ^500" if 
 after my decease she shall by her obedient and dutiful carriage 
 oblige " her said mother. Fdls of Swarthmoor Hall, p. 390.
 
 CLOSING YEARS 263 
 
 before me and stood in the doorway with their staves. 
 I asked thein to let me go in ; they said, they could not 
 nor durst not, for they were commanded the contrary, 
 and were sorry for it, I told them I would not press 
 upon them. So I stood by, and they were very civil. I 
 stood till I was weary, and then one gave me a stool to 
 sit down on, and after a while the power of the Lord 
 began to spring up among Friends, and one began to 
 speak. The constables soon forbade him, and said he 
 should not speak, and he not stopping, they began to be 
 wroth. But I gently laid my hand upon one of the 
 constables, and wished him to let him alone. The 
 constable did so, and was quiet, and the man did not 
 speak long." 
 
 Fox himself then rose and spoke, telling the intruders 
 that they need not come with swords and staves against 
 them, for they Avere a peaceable people, not met to plot 
 against the Government, but to worship God under the 
 spiritual presidency of Christ. His short sermon ended, 
 he knelt down to pray. "The power of the Lord," 
 continues Fox, "was over all The people, the con- 
 stables, and the soldiers all put off their hats. When 
 the meeting was ended and the Friends began to pass 
 away, the chief constable put off his hat, and desired 
 the Lord to bless us: for the power of the Lord was 
 over him and the people and kept them under." 
 
 Another Sunday, Fox goes to the meeting at Grace- 
 church Street, and finds three constables there keeping 
 the Friends out, and accordingly they meet in the court- 
 yard. After some time of silence, Fox stands up to 
 preach. After he has spoken some time, one of the 
 constables comes and takes him by the hand, telling him 
 he must come down. " Be patient," says Fox, and con-
 
 264 GEORGE FOX 
 
 tinues his sermon ; but after a little while the constable 
 pulls him down, and marches him off into the meeting- 
 house. " Are you not weary of this work ? " asks Fox ; 
 and one of them answers, " Indeed we are." 
 
 If space allowed, several other passages of this kind 
 could be quoted, most of which show both magistrates 
 and police heartily ashamed of the foolish and tyrannical 
 acts which the wisdom of Parliament had ordered them 
 to perform. In reading page after page of this legalized 
 lawlessness, one feels it to be a marvel that the English 
 people should now possess that character which is in 
 truth theirs, of a law-abiding people. 
 
 When the sky is a little lightened it is from an 
 unexpected quarter. These last two years of the reign 
 of James II., which the constitutional historian sees 
 to have been full of peril to the civil, and eventually to 
 the religious liberties of England, were nevertheless to 
 the cruelly harried Nonconformists years of surcease of 
 pain and recovery of freedom. The Kjng's Declaration 
 of Indulgence, publised on April 4, 16^, expressed 
 sentiments which, had there been no sinister design 
 lurkinof behind them, would have done honour to Milton 
 or Locke. " It is, and hath been of long time, our 
 constant sense and opinion that conscience ought not 
 to be constrained, nor people forced in matters of 
 religion. It has ever been directly contrary to our 
 inclination, as we think it is to the interest of Govern- 
 ment, which it destroys by spoiling trades, depopulating 
 countries, and discouraging strangers ; and finally, it has 
 never obtained the end for which it was employed. 
 And in this we are the more confirmed by the reflections 
 we have made upon the conduct of the last four reigns; 
 for after all the frequent and pressing endeavours that
 
 CLOSING YEARS 265 
 
 Avere used in each of them to reduce this kingdom to 
 an exact conformity in religion, it is visible the success 
 has not answered the design, and the difficulty is 
 invincible." These Avords are true, whoever uttered 
 them, and the Declaration of Indulgence, however un- 
 constitutional, marked a victory won for the cause of 
 Toleration, which no efforts of ecclesiastical bigotry 
 have ever been able thoroughly to reverse. 
 
 In the early part of 1686, a year before the Declara- 
 tion of Indulirence, there had been some relaxation of 
 the severities practised upon Friends. Fox writes thus 
 in the Jourmd — " I came back to London in the First 
 Month (March), 1686, and set myself with all diligence 
 to look after Friends' sufferings, from which we had 
 now some hope of getting relief The sessions came 
 on in the Second Month (April), at Hicks's Hall, where 
 many Friends had appeals to be tried ; with whom I 
 was from day to day, to advise and see that no oppor- 
 tunity were slipped, nor advantage lost, and they 
 generally succeeded well. Soon after also, the King 
 was pleased, upon our often laying our sufferings before 
 him, to give order for the releasing of all prisoners for 
 conscience' sake that were in his power to discharge, 
 whereby the prison-doors were opened, and many 
 hundreds of Friends, some of whom had been long in 
 prison, were set at liberty. Some of them, who had 
 for many years been restrained in bonds, came now up 
 to the Yearly Meeting, which was in the Third Montii 
 (May) this year. This caused great joy to Friends, to 
 see our ancient, faithful brethren again at liberty in the 
 Lord's work, after their long confinement. And indeed a 
 ])recious meeting we had, the refreshing presence of the 
 Lord appearing plentifully with us and amongst us."
 
 266 GEOEGE FOX 
 
 It was soon observed that the liberty granted to 
 Nonconformists was shared (most justly according to 
 our present views) by the Roman Catholics. "As it 
 was a time of general liberty," says Fox, " the Papists 
 appeared more open in their worship than formerly; 
 and many unsettled people going to view them at it, a 
 great talk there was of their praying to saints and by 
 beads, etc., whereupon I wrote a short paper concerning 
 prayer." The paper begins — 
 
 " Christ Jesus, when He taught His disciples to pray, 
 said unto them, ' When ye pray, say, Our Father which 
 art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, etc' Christ 
 doth not say that they should pray to Mary the mother 
 of Christ ; nor doth He say that they should pray to 
 angels or to saints that are dead. Christ did not teach 
 them to pray to the dead, nor for the dead ; neither 
 did Christ or His apostles teach the believers to pray 
 by beads, nor to sing by outward organs, but the 
 apostle said he would sing and pray by the Spirit, 
 for the Spirit itself maketh intercession,' and the 
 Lord that searcheth the heart knoweth the mind of 
 the spirit." 
 
 Next year (May 1687), the Declaration of Indulgence 
 having been issued, the result of the general toleration 
 and liberty now granted was seen in a very large 
 attendance of the Yearly Meeting. At the close of it. 
 Fox addressed a very wise "Word of counsel and 
 caution to Friends to walk circumspectly in this time 
 of liberty." The Lord having been pleased to incline 
 the King's heart towards them, to open the prison- 
 doors and to stop the spoilers of their goods, he had 
 an anxious desire " that none of them might abuse this 
 liberty nor the mercies of the Lord, but prize them, for
 
 CLOSING YEARS 207 
 
 there is great danger in time of liberty, of getting up 
 into ease, looseness, and false liberty. And now," he 
 continued, " seeing that ye have not the outward per- 
 secutors to war with in sufferings, with the spiritual 
 weapons keep down that which would not be subject 
 to Christ, that He, the Holy One, may reign in your 
 hearts, that your lives, conversations, and words may 
 preach righteousness and truth, that ye all may show 
 forth good ensamplcs of true believers in Christ, in 
 virtue and holiness, answering that which may be 
 known of God in all people, that ye are the sons and 
 daughters of God." 
 
 And now the time was drawing on for the great 
 Revolution of 1688, the last cataclysm that has befallen 
 the English State, The reader shall see just how much 
 and how little mark it makes in Fox's Journal, and 
 shall conjecture for himself what his secret feelings 
 may have been concerning it. 
 
 (September 1688.) " I had not been long in London 
 before a great weight came upon me, and the Lord 
 gave me a sight of the great bustles and troubles, 
 revolution and change, which soon after came to pass. 
 In the sense whereof, and in the movings of the Spirit 
 of the Lord, I wrote a general Epistle to Friends, to 
 forewarn them of the approaching storm, that they 
 might all retire to the Lord, in whom safety is. . . . 
 About this time great exercise and weight came upon 
 me (as had usually done before the great revolutions 
 and changes of government), and my strength departed 
 from me : so that I reeled and was ready to fall as 1 
 went along the streets. At length I could not go 
 abroad at all, I was so weak for some time, till I felt 
 the power of the Lord to spring over all, and had
 
 268 GEOl^GE FOX 
 
 received an assumnce from Him that He would preserve 
 His faithful people to Himself through all" 
 
 (March 5, 1689: the "Glorious Revolution" already 
 accomplished : William HI. at Whitehall, and James 
 II. at St. Germains.) " It was now a time of much 
 talk, and people busied their minds and spent their 
 time too much in hearing and telling news. To show 
 them the vanity thereof, and to draw them from it, I 
 wrote the following lines : — ' In the low region, in the 
 airy life, all news is uncertain ; there nothing is stable ; 
 but in the higher region, in the Kingdom of Christ, 
 there all things are stable and sure, and the news 
 always good and certain. For Christ, who hath all 
 power in heaven and earth given unto Him, rules in 
 the kingdoms of men. . . . His power is certain and 
 changes not, by which He removes the mountains and 
 hills, and shakes the heavens and the earth. Leaky, 
 dishonourable vessels, the hills and mountains, and the 
 old heavens and the earth, are all to be shaken and 
 removed and broken to pieces, though they do not see 
 it nor him that doeth it; but His elect and faithful 
 both see it and know Him and His power, that cannot 
 be shaken, and which changeth not. 
 
 " About the middle of the first month (March), 1689, 
 I went to London, the Parliament then sitting, and 
 engaged about the bill for Indulgence. Though I was 
 weak in body and not well able to stir about, yet so great 
 a concern was upon my spirit on behalf of Truth and 
 Friends, that I attended continually for many days, 
 with other Friends, at the Parliament house, labouring 
 with the members that the thing might be done com- 
 prehensively and effectually." 
 
 The end of Fox's long labours " for the cause of
 
 CLOSING YEARS 269 
 
 Truth " was now approachiug. Through these later 
 years, as has been said, his old energy had greatly 
 abated, and he had seldom travelled more than twenty 
 miles from London. Swarthmoor Hall was out of the 
 question for him, with his enfeebled frame, racked by 
 rheumatism and neuralgia, and actually it was his wife, 
 though ten years older than he, and now seventy-six 
 years of age, who made the long journey up from 
 Lancashire in order to accomplish their last meeting. 
 Their contemporaries, like modern readers, were evi- 
 dently surprised that this faithful couple, strongly 
 attached, as they certainly were, to one another, should 
 have been willing to spend so much of their life 
 apart. We will hear Margaret Fox's account of this 
 last meeting, an account which bears somewhat of the 
 character of an Apologia for their long separation. 
 
 " Though the Lord had provided an outward habit- 
 ation for him [by his marriage], yet he was not willing 
 to stay at it, because it was so remote and far from 
 London, where his service most lay. And my concern 
 for God and His holy eternal truth was then in the 
 North, where God had placed and set me, and likewise 
 for the ordering and governing of my children and 
 family : so that we were very willing, both of us, to live 
 apart for some years on God's account, and His truth's 
 service, and to deny ourselves of that comfort which we 
 might have had in being together, for the sake and 
 service of the Lord and His truth. And if any took 
 occasion, or judged hard of us because of that, the Lord 
 will judge them : for we were innocent. And for my 
 own part, I was willing to take many long journeys, for 
 taking away all occasion of evil thoughts ; and though 
 I lived two hundred miles from London, yet have I
 
 270 GEORGE FOX 
 
 been nine times there upon the Lord and His truth's 
 account; and of all the times that I was in London, 
 this last was most comfortable, that the Lord was 
 pleased to give me strength and ability to travel that 
 great journey, being seventy-six years of age, to see my 
 dear husband, who was better in his health and 
 strength than many times I had seen him before. I 
 look upon it that the Lord's special hand was in it that 
 I should go then, for he lived but about half-a-year 
 after I left him, which makes me admire the wisdom 
 and goodness of God in ordering my journey at that 
 time." 
 
 The last years and months of George Fox's Hfe were 
 busily occupied in writing Epistles to the Friends in 
 various stations, to Friends in Barbadoes and America, 
 to the persecuted congregation at Dantzic, to the magis- 
 trates of that city, and so forth. These documents suffer 
 from that tendency to diffuseness which was characteristic 
 both of the author and the age, and though they are 
 full of beautiful Christian feeling, it cannot be said that 
 the expositions of Scripture in which they abound are 
 particularly luminous or helpful. But there are many 
 grains of gold in the mass, expressions which come 
 straight from the heart of the writer, and help one to 
 understand the power which his spoken discourses had 
 on the hearts of his hearers. In one of the years of 
 persecution (1685) he comforted his suffering Friends, 
 by speaking to them of Christ, " in whom the promises 
 are Yea and Amen ; who is the First and the Last, the 
 Becfinninsf and the Ending — the Eternal Rest. So 
 keep and walk in Christ, your rest, every one that hath 
 received Him." 
 
 Into that Eternal Rest the struggling, toiling soul
 
 CLOSING YEARS 271 
 
 was now to enter. On January 10, 1691, he wrote a 
 letter to the Friends in Ireland, who had been suffering 
 from the Civil War between James and William, wacred 
 ill that country. The next day (Sunday) he went to 
 the Friends' meetincj at Gracechurch Street ; no need 
 now to meet in the courtyard, nor fear of constables 
 coming to arrest the preacher. There he preached a 
 long and powerful sermon, and the meeting ended, he 
 went to the house of a Friend named Henry Goldney, in 
 White Hart Court, near the meeting-house. "Some 
 Friends going with him thither, he told them he 
 thought he felt the cold strike to his heart as he came 
 out of the meeting; 'yet,' he added, 'I am glad I was 
 here. Now I am clear ; I am fully clear.* " 
 
 He still complained of cold, " and his strength sensibly 
 decaying, he was soon obliged to go into bed, where he 
 lay in much contentment and peace, and very sensible 
 to the last." " Divers Friends came to visit him in his 
 illness, to some of whom he said, ' All is well : the Seed 
 of God reigns over all, and over death itself. And 
 though I am weak in body, yet the power of God is 
 over all, and the Seed reigns over all disorderly spirits.' " 
 
 " Thus lying in a heavenly frame of mind, his spirit 
 wholly exercised towards the Lord, he grew weaker in 
 his natural strength, and on the third day of the week 
 [Tuesday], between the hours of nine and ten in the 
 evening, he quietly departed this life in peace, and 
 sweetly fell asleep in the Lord, whose blessed truth he 
 had livingly and powerfully preached in the meeting 
 but two days before." 
 
 On the day appointed for the interment of George 
 Fox, a very great concourse of Friends assembled at 
 Gracechurch Street Meeting-house about noon. After
 
 272 GEORGE FOX 
 
 a solemn meeting, which lasted about two hours, the 
 body was boroe by Friends, accompanied by very great 
 numbers, to the Friends' burial-ground near Bunliill 
 Fields, " where after a solemn waiting upon the Lord, 
 and several living testimonies borne, recommending the 
 company to the guidance and protection of that Divine 
 Spirit and power by which this holy man of God had 
 been raised up, furnished, supported, and preserved to 
 the end of his day, his body was committed to the 
 earth ; but his memorial shall remain and be everlast- 
 ingly blessed among the righteous."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 We have heard Fox's friends tell in their own simple 
 language the story of his death and burial. From 
 the doges dedicated to his memory by his widow, 
 his six step-daughters and their husbands, his friends 
 William Penn and Thomas Ellwood, I will extract a 
 few sentences which may help us to imagine the man 
 as he appeared to his contemporaries. 
 
 Margaret Fox. — " It hath pleased Almighty God to 
 take away my dear husband out of this evil, trouble- 
 some world, who was not a man thereof, being chosen 
 out of it ; who had his life and being in another region, 
 and whose testimony was against the world, that the 
 deeds thereof were evil, and therefore the world hated 
 him 
 
 " And now he hath finished his course and his testi- 
 mony and is entered into his eternal rest and fehcity. 
 I trust in the same powerful God that His holy arm 
 and power will carry me through, whatever He hath 
 yet for me to do ; and that He will be my strength and 
 support and the bearer-up of my heart unto the end 
 and in the end. For I know His faithfulness and 
 goodness and I have experience of His love, to whom 
 be glory and powerful dominion for ever. Amen."^ 
 
 * Margaret Fox survived her second husband nearly twelve 
 years, and died at Swarthmoor in her eighty-eighth year. 
 
 273 T
 
 274 GEORGE FOX 
 
 The six daughters and their husbands. — " Neither days 
 nor length of time with us can wear out the memory 
 of our dear and honoured father, George Fox, whom 
 the Lord hath taken to Himself .... Though of no 
 great literature nor seeming much learned, as to the 
 outward (being hid from the wisdom of this world), yet 
 he had the tongue of the learned and could speak a 
 word in due season to the conditions and capacities 
 of most, especially to them that were weary and 
 wanted soul's rest, being deep in the divine mysteries 
 of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 " And the word of life and salvation through him 
 reached unto many souls, whereby many were convinced 
 of their great duty of inward retiring to wait upon God ; 
 and as they became diligent in the performance of 
 that service, were also raised up to be preachers of the 
 same everlasting gospel of peace and glad tidings to 
 others; who are as seals to his ministry both in this 
 and other matters, and may possibly give a more full 
 account thereof. Howbeit we, knowing his unwearied 
 diligence, not sparing, but spending himself in the 
 work and service whereunto he was chosen and called 
 of God, could not but give this short testimony of his 
 faithfulness therein, and likewise of his tender love 
 and care towards us ; who, as a tender father to his 
 children, (in which capacity we stood, being so related 
 to him,) never failed to give us his wholesome counsel 
 and advice." 
 
 William Fenn (himself, it is to be remembered, a 
 courtier and something of a scholar). — " He was a man 
 that God endued with a clear and wonderful depth, a 
 discerner of others' spirits and very much a master of 
 his own. And though the side of his understanding
 
 CONCLUSION 275 
 
 which lay next to the world, and especially the ex- 
 pression of it, might sound uncouth and unfashionable 
 to nice ears, his matter was nevertheless very profound, 
 and would not only bear to be often considered, but the 
 more it was so, the more weighty and instructive it 
 appeared. And as abruptly and brokenly as sometimes 
 his sentences would fall from him about divine things, 
 it is Avell known they were often as texts to many fairer 
 declarations. And indeed it showed beyond all con- 
 tradiction that God sent him ; that no art or part had 
 any share in the matter or manner of his ministry, 
 and that so many great, excellent, and necessary truths 
 as he came forth to preach to mankind had there- 
 fore nothinsf of man's wit or wisdom to recommend 
 them; so that as to man he was an original, being 
 no man's copy. 
 
 "He had an extraordinary gift in opening the 
 Scriptures. He would go to the marrow of things 
 and show the mind, harmony, and fulfilling of them, 
 with much plainness and to great comfort and edifi- 
 cation. 
 
 " But above all he excelled in prayer. The inwardness 
 and weight of his spirit, the reverence and solemnity 
 of his address and behaviour, and the fewness and 
 fulness of his words have often struck even strangers 
 with admiration, as they used to reach others with 
 consolation. The most awful, living, reverent frame 
 I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his in prayer. 
 And truly it was a testimony he knew [more] and 
 lived nearer to the Lord than other men : for they 
 that know Him most will see most reason to approach 
 Him with reverence and fear. 
 
 " He was of an innocent life, no busy-body nor self-
 
 276 GEORGE FOX 
 
 seeker, neither touchy nor critical : what fell from him 
 was very inoffensive if not very edifying.^ So meek, 
 contented, modest, easy, steady, tender, it was a pleasure 
 to be in his company. He exercised no authority but 
 over evil, and that everywhere and in all; but with 
 love, compassion, and long-suffering. A most merciful 
 man, as ready to forgive as unapt to give or take an 
 offence. Thousands can truly say he was of an ex- 
 cellent spirit and savour among them, and because 
 thereof the most excellent spirits loved him with an 
 unfeigned and unfading love. . . . And truly I must 
 say that though God had visibly clothed him with 
 a divine presence and authority, and indeed his very 
 presence expressed a religious majesty, yet he never 
 abused it, but held his place in the Church of God 
 with great meekness and a most engaging humility and 
 moderation. ... I write my knowledge and not report, 
 and my witness is true, having been with him for weeks 
 and months together on occasions, and those of the nearest 
 and most exercising nature, and that by night and by 
 day, by sea and by land, in this and in foreign countries ; 
 and I can say I never saw him out of his place or not 
 a match for every service or occasion. For in all things 
 he acquitted himself like a man, yea, a strong man, 
 a new and heavenly-minded man, a divine and a 
 naturalist, and all of God Almighty's making. I have 
 been surprised at his questions and answers in natural 
 things : that whilst he was ignorant of useless and 
 sophistical science, he had in him the foundation of 
 useful and commendable knowledge and cherished it, 
 everywhere. Civil, beyond all forms of breeding, in 
 
 ^ This looks like dispraise. I imagine that Penn means, "even 
 when it was not very edifying."
 
 CONCLUSION 277 
 
 his behaviour ; very temperate, eating Uttle and sleeping 
 less, though a bulky person. 
 
 "Thus he lived and sojourned among us; and as he 
 lived so he died : feeling the same eternal power that 
 had raised and preserved him, in his last moments. 
 So full of assurance was he that he triumphed over 
 death, and so even in his spirit to the last, as if death 
 were hardly worth notice or a mention." 
 
 Lastly, we may take a few words from Tliomas 
 Elhcood, the friend of Milton, the suggester of Paradise 
 Eegained, and the editor of George Fox's Jmornal. 
 
 "I knew him not till the year 1G61 ; from that time 
 to the time of his death I knew him well, conversed 
 with him often, observed him much, loved him dearly 
 and honoured him truly; and upon good experience 
 I can say, he was indeed a heavenly-minded man, 
 zealous for the name of the Lord, and preferred the 
 honour of God before all things. He was valiant for 
 the truth, bold in asserting it, patient in suffering for 
 it, unwearied in labouring in it, steady in his testimony 
 to it, immovable as a rock. Deep he was in Divine 
 knowledge, clear in opening heavenly mysteries, plain 
 and powerful in preaching, fervent in prayer. He 
 was richly endued with heavenly wisdom, quiet in 
 discerning, sound in judgment, able and ready in 
 giving, discreet in keeping counsel ; a lover of right- 
 eousness, an encourager of virtue, justice, temperance, 
 meekness, purity, chastity, modesty, humility, charity, 
 and self-denial in all, both by word and example. 
 Graceful he was in countenance, manly in personage, 
 grave in gesture, courteous in conversation, weighty 
 in communication, instructive in discourse, free from 
 atfectation in speech or carriage, a severe reprover of
 
 278 GEORGE FOX 
 
 hard and obstinate sinners ; a mild and gentle admo- 
 nisher of such as were tender and sensible of their 
 i'ailings; not apt to resent personal wrongs, easy to 
 forgive injuries ; but zealously earnest, where the 
 honour of God, the prosperity of truth, the peace of 
 the Church were concerned. Very tender, com- 
 passionate, and pitiful he was to all that were under 
 any sort of affliction ; full of brotherly love, full of 
 fatherly care, for indeed the care of the churches of 
 Christ was daily upon him, the prosperity and peace 
 whereof he studiously sought." 
 
 I have thought it better to give these descriptions of 
 Fox with some fulness, lest in condensing I should in 
 any way alter the proportions of the picture. They 
 of course are the work of loving friends and admir- 
 inof followers, and are to be taken with all needful 
 allowances on that score. But even so, I think it will 
 be admitted that we have here the portrait not only of 
 a strong, but of a lovable man. That keen and piercing 
 eye of his was not always sparkling with indignation 
 against hypocritical "professors" — it could also shed 
 tears of sympathy with the sorrowful, and there was 
 something in his face which little children loved. 
 
 To sum up in fewest possible words the impression 
 made by his words and works upon one who studies them 
 across the level of two centuries: he was a man of 
 lion-like courage and adamantine strength of will, 
 absolutely truthful, devoted to the fulfilment of what 
 he believed to be his God-appointed mission, and with- 
 out any of those side-long looks at worldly promotion 
 and aggrandizement which many sincere leaders of 
 Church parties have cast at intervals of their journey. 
 The chief defect in Fox's character will perhaps be
 
 CONCLUSION 279 
 
 best described in the Avords of Carlyle—" Cromwell 
 found George Fox'g enormous sacred self-confidence 
 none of the least of his attainments." It is to be re- 
 membered that Fox preached the doctrine of Christian 
 perfection as a thing of possible attainment in this life ; 
 nor is he any the less welcome as a teacher because he 
 does not indulge in that cant of exaggerated self-con- 
 demnation which was one of the signs of degenerating 
 Puritanism. Still it is difficult for a reader of the 
 Journal not to feel that Fox is too confident of the 
 absolute Tightness of his own conduct, and the utter 
 wickedness of all who oppose him. This is of course 
 the usual note of the Prophet, and one of the things 
 whereby he is most distinguished from the Philosopher, 
 at least the true Philosopher. It is the spirit of Hosea 
 rather than of Marcus Aurclius, and, paradoxical as it 
 may sound, if Fox's education had been such as to give 
 him a little less of the teaching of the Minor Prophets, 
 and a little more — he probably had none — of the teach- 
 ing of the best of the Greek philosophers, the result 
 miffht have been a fuller manifestation of " the meek- 
 ness and gentleness of Christ." 
 
 But the beauties or the blemishes of the man's indi- 
 vidual character are not after all the chief point for 
 consideration by the student of his career. He believed, 
 and his whole life was moulded by the belief, that he 
 had a message from God to deliver to mankind. The 
 important question is, whether this was in any sense 
 true, or whether it was a mere delusion. Different 
 readers of this little book will no doubt answer that 
 question differently. To some the question will seem 
 to be negatived beforehand by the simple fact that 
 Fox received no commission to preach from those
 
 280 GEORGE FOX 
 
 whom they regard as the successors of the Apostles, 
 Others, perhaps a more numerous class, will consider 
 that the mistakes and failings, the eccentricities, per- 
 haps the symptoms of mental excitement which occa- 
 sionally showed themselves in the earlier parts of his 
 career, equally remove the question from the zone of 
 rational discussion. But if we admit the existence 
 of any Divine revelation whatever, it may be worth 
 while to ask ourselves — and the question has a much 
 wider reach than to the individual instance now before 
 us — "Through what manner of men has the Being 
 whom we must believe to be All-wise, as well as 
 Almighty, generally spoken to mankind ? Speaking 
 now of the servants, not of the Son, have they as a 
 rule been men fallible or infallible ? " We know that 
 Stephen in his dying speech made a strange blunder as 
 to the burial-place of Jacob, that Peter at Antioch was 
 guilty of base compliance with the Judaizing party : 
 yet do we not in spite of these errors, intellectual and 
 moral, rightly regard them as message-bearers from the 
 Most High ?
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abraham, Daniel ami Rachel, 
 
 221 
 Abrahams, Galenus, 260-261 
 America, visit to, 226-237 
 Ap-John, John, 146-150 
 Arlington, Lord, 218 
 Ashburnham, Constable, 177 
 Askew, Anne, 66 
 Audland, Jolin, 69 
 
 Baltimore, Lord, 231 
 Baptists, 21, 103, 119, 239 
 Barbadoes, Address to Governor 
 
 of 229 230 
 Barclay, Robert, 6, 207, 250, 254, 
 
 256, 258 
 Barebones Parliament, 51, 101 
 Barton, Colonel, 43, 51 
 Bennet, Sir Henry (Lord Arling- 
 ton), 187 
 Bennet, Col. (Launceston), 132, 
 
 138, 139 
 Bennet, Justice (of Derby), 42, 53 
 Benson, CoL Gervase, 75, 81, 86, 
 
 92, 101 
 Bible, authority of, 85, 111, 158 
 Blasphemy Act (1650), 79 
 Blasphemy Ordinance (1648), 53 
 Booth, Sir George, 166 
 Bradden, Captain, 130-132 
 Bradshaw, President, 75, 167, 210 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 189 
 Bunyan, John, 19, ISl 
 Burnyeat, John, 253 
 Bush.'l (a TtanterV 62 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 279 
 
 Gary (of Devonshire), 119 
 Caton, WilUam, 73, 260 
 Ceely, Peter, 121, 130-132 
 Charles II., 167, 170, 175, 176, 
 
 183 
 "Children of the Light," 54, 
 
 246 
 Claypole, Lady, 163 
 Conventicle Act, 171, 217, 222, 
 
 238, 241, 249, 252, 262 
 Corbet (barrister), 243, 244 
 Cornwall, Fox's visit to, 120-127 
 Cradock, Dr. (of Coventry), 23, 24 
 Cradock, Dr. (Episcopalian), 199, 
 
 200 
 Craven, Robert (Sheriff of Lin- 
 colnshire), 102 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 43, 108-114, 
 
 117, 137, 144, 145, 154, 162- 
 
 165, 167-169 
 Cromwell, Richard, 165 
 Crook, John, 117, 159 
 Crosland, Sir Jordan, 197, 202, 
 
 203 
 Crowder, Dr., 241, 242 
 Curtis, Ann, 179 
 
 Daniel, book of, hats mentioned 
 
 in, 128, 129 
 Dautzic, Quakers at, 259, 270 
 Declaration of Indulgence, 264- 
 
 266 
 Desborough, Major-General, 124- 
 
 126, 138, 139 
 Dolly Bray, 240 
 " Donmsdale " in Launceston 
 
 Gaol, 133-139
 
 282 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Drayton. Hce Fenny Drayton 
 Drury, Captain, 43, 109, 110, 
 
 112 
 Dugdale, Sir William, 187 
 
 Elecampane beer, 198 
 Elizabeth, Princess (Palatine), 
 
 255-259 
 Ellwood, Thomas, 33, 58, 167, 
 
 168, 207, 250, 277, 278 
 Endicott, John, 232 
 
 Fairfax, Lady, 199 
 
 Falconbridge (or Fauconberg), 
 Lord, 199 
 
 Fanisworth, Rev. Richard, 74 
 
 Fell, George, 73, 83, 215, 217, 
 219, 221 
 
 Fell, Judge (Thomas), 65, 74, 75, 
 86, 92, 177, 214 
 
 Fell, Leonard 88 
 
 Fell, Margaret (afterwards Mar- 
 garet Fox), 66-74, 179, 180, 
 188-190, 194-196, 210-221, 226, 
 239, 240, 251, 269, 270, 273 
 
 Fell family, 211, 219-221, 274 
 
 Fenny Drayton, 9-14, 103-107, 
 116 
 
 Fire of London, Great, 204 
 
 Five Mile Act, 172 
 
 Fleming, Sir Daniel, 184-191, 
 204 
 
 Foster, Sir Robert (Chief Justice), 
 181 
 
 Fox, Captain, 124, 135 
 
 Fox, Christopher, 15, 107 
 
 Fox, George, parentage, 15; birth- 
 place, 9-14; "leather breeches," 
 33 ; message, 34-44. Imprison- 
 ment at Nottingham, 48-51 ; at 
 Derby,51-56;atCarlisle,97-101; 
 at Launceston, 126-139 ; at Lan- 
 caster, 179-181 ; at Leicester, 
 184 ; at Lancaster and Scarbro', 
 191-203; at Worcester, 240-244. 
 "Alchemy" buttons, 113 ; long 
 hair, 122, 150 ; attitude to- 
 wards Cromwell, 168; reflec- 
 tions on St. Bartholomew's 
 Day, 172 ; marriage, 210-214 ; 
 visit to America, 226-237 ; to 
 
 Holland and Germany, 254- 
 261 ; death and funeral, 271, 
 272 ; character of, 273-280 
 
 Fox, John (Presbyterian minis- 
 ter), 223 
 
 Fox, Mary, 15, 239 
 
 Frescheville, Lord, 197 
 
 Glyn, Chief Justice, 127-131 
 Goldney, Henry, 271 
 
 Hacker, Colonel, 43, 108-110, 164 
 Hains (clergyman), 239 
 Hale, Chief Justice, 243, 244 
 Harvey (valet of Oliver Cromwell), 
 
 110, 164 
 " Hat-worship," 39-41, 128-131 
 Holland, visit to, 254-259 
 Hooton, Elizabeth, 231 
 Hotham, Justice, 60, 62, 75 
 Howgill, Francis, 69, 77 
 Hubberthorn, Richard, 88 
 Hunter (gaoler), 197 
 
 Independents, 114, 147 
 
 Indians, North American, 234- 
 
 236 
 Ireland, 271 
 Ireton, 167 
 
 Jackus (Lancashire clergyman), 
 
 85 
 Jamaica, 155, 231 
 .Tames II., 264-268 
 Jenkins, Walter, 207 
 Jesuit, discussion with, 157-159 
 John III., King of Poland. 259 
 
 Keat, Captain, 124, 126, 135 
 Keith, George, 254 
 
 Mrs 257 
 Kirkby, Colonel, 184, 188, 189, 
 190, 195, 196, 217, 225, 252 
 
 Labadie, Jean, 256 
 
 Lambert, Colonel, 185 
 
 Lampitt, Rev. William, 69-75, 
 82, 252, 253 
 
 Larkham (clergyman of Cocker- 
 mouth), 94 
 
 Lawson, Wilfred, 98
 
 INDEX 
 
 283 
 
 Lichfield, "the bloodv city of," 
 
 57-58 
 "Light Within," 34-37, 119, 
 
 126, 145, 147, 234-235, 246- 
 
 249 
 Lower, Dr., F.R.S., 211, 220, 
 
 241 
 Lower, Thomas, 220, 221, 238, 
 
 239-244 
 
 Macham (or Machin), Rev. J., 24 
 
 Major-Generals, Cromwell'-s, 125 
 
 Mallet, Sir Thomas, 180, 181 
 
 Maicelliniis, I'ope, 199 
 
 Marshall (clergj'man of Lancas- 
 ter), 84, 85 
 
 Marsh, " E-squire," 181, 182, 202, 
 208, 209 
 
 Maryland, visit to, 231-235 
 
 Meade, William, 220, 225 
 
 Mennonites, 260 
 
 Middleton, Sir George, 189, 190 
 
 Milner, James, 88 
 ,, Jane, 210 
 
 Monk, General, 166 
 
 Montague, Lady, 103 
 
 Moss-troopers, 100 
 
 Mount, Constable, 178 
 
 Myer, Richard, 88 
 
 Naturalism, 46 
 
 Naylor, Jas. 59, 74, 76, 87, 88, 
 
 141-144, 247 
 Negro slavery, 228, 229, 230, 231 
 Newport, Earl of, 157 
 Nimeguen, Peace of, 255 
 Nithsdale, Earl of, 152 
 Norton, Humphrey, 137 
 
 Oaths, forbidden to Christians, 37- 
 
 39 
 Oaths, substitute for, tendered by 
 
 Fox, 243 
 Owen, Dr. John, 145 
 
 Parker (magistrate), 239-242 
 Parker, Alexander, 108 
 Parnell, James, 104 
 Pearson, Anthony, 75-78, 81, 99, 
 
 101 
 Penn, William, 15, 17, 207, 219, 
 
 220, 225, 238, 239, 254, 256, 
 
 258, 260, 274-277 
 Pennington, Isaac, 207 
 Perfection, Cliristian, 36 
 Perrot, John, 247 
 Peters, Hugh, 138 
 Porter, Major, 177, 179, 181 
 Praemunire, penalty of, 191, 192, 
 
 243, 244 
 Preston, James, 234, 236 
 Prisons, English, 133 
 Purefoy.s, of Drayton, 10-12 
 Pursloe, Captain, 60, 62 
 Pyot, Edward, 117-139, 145 
 
 Quakers (first use of the name), 54 
 Actofl662 against, 175; 
 numbers of, imprisoned, 1650- 
 1662, 182 ; Fox's scheme of 
 Church government for, 206, 
 246 ; schism of Wilkinson and 
 Story, 246-250 
 
 Ranters, 62, 79, 103, 116, 249, 250 
 
 Eawlinson (magistrate), 191 
 
 Reckless, John, 49 
 
 Revolution of 1688, 267, 268 
 
 Rhode Island, 232, 233 
 
 Ripan, Major (Mayor of Lan- 
 caster), 86 
 
 Robinson (Yorkshire magistrate), 
 74 
 
 Rogers, William, 250 
 
 Roman Catholics, 28, 158, 208, 266 
 
 "Roundheads," 123 
 
 Rous, John, 218, 219, 226, 228, 
 238, 261, 262 
 
 Rous, Margaret, 262 
 
 Rouse, Colonel, 135 
 
 Rump Parliament, dissolution of, 
 92 
 
 Rupert, Prince, 255, 257 
 
 Salt, W., 121-140 
 Salthouse, Thomas, 72, 211 
 " Saul's errand to Damascus," 89 
 Saunders, Mary, 145 
 Savile, Henry, 241 
 Savonarola, 21, 59 
 Sa^v^ey (magistrate of Ulverston), 
 72, 75, 82
 
 284 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Scotland, George Fox's visit to, 
 151-156 
 
 Sewel (Quaker historian), 33, 122, 
 247, 260 
 
 Sheldon, Archbishop, 217 
 
 Socinians, 239, 260 
 
 Starling, Samuel (Lord Mayor), 
 224-225 
 
 Stephens (or Stevens), Rev. Na- 
 thaniel, 12-14, 22-23, 103-107 
 
 Story, John, 248-250, 262 
 
 Stubbs, John, 186 
 
 Swavthmoor Hall, 63-08, 151, 221, 
 251-253, 261 
 
 Swarthraoor Meeting-house, 68 
 
 Taylor (clergyman, convert to 
 Quakerism), 104 
 
 Tithes, proposed abolition of, 168 
 
 Townsend (clergyman of Nor- 
 wich), 166 
 
 Trelawney, Elizabeth, 119, 220 
 
 Triers, the, 115 
 
 Turner, Judge, 193 
 
 Twisden, Judge, 181, 193 
 
 Uniformity, Act of, 171 
 
 Venner (Fifth Monarchy man), 
 ISl 
 
 Wales, Fox's visit to, 146-151 
 War, unlawful for Christians, 41- 
 
 44 
 West, Colonel, 86 
 Whitehead, John, 202 
 Whittier, J. G., 46, 47 
 Widders, Robert, 151, 155 
 AVilkinson, John, 248-250, 262 
 Williams, Roger, 232, 253 
 Wilson, William, 186 
 Windsor, Lord, 241 
 Worcester, battle of, 55, 56 
 Wreckers, Cornish, 161 
 Wrey, Sir Richard, 103 
 
 Yearly Meeting of Friends, 159 
 160 
 
 Yeamans, Isabel, 211, 255, 257 
 Robert, 179, 180, 211 
 William, 211, 220 
 
 >> 
 
 Richard Clo.y d: Sons, Limited, London Js Bungay.
 
 A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS 
 
 AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF 
 
 METIIUEN AND COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS : LONDON 
 
 36 ESSEX STREET 
 
 W.C. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FORTHCOMING BOOKS, . 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 POETRY, 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 ENGLISH CLASSICS, 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, . 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 HISTORY, ... 
 
 
 
 »3 
 
 BIOGRAPHY, 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 GENERAL LITERATURE, 
 
 
 
 I? 
 
 SCIENCE, .... 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 THEOLOGY AND l-HILOSOPHY, . 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 LEADERS OF RELIGION, 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 FICTION, 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, . 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SF.RIES, 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 CLASSICAL TRANSLATIONS, . 
 
 
 
 36 
 
 EDUCATIONAL BOOKS, 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 MAY 1896
 
 May 1896. 
 
 Messrs. Methuen's 
 
 ANNOUNCEMENTS 
 
 Poetry and Belles Lettres 
 
 LANG AND CRAIGIE 
 THE POEMS OF ROBERT BURNS. Edited by Andrew 
 Lang and W. A. Craigie. With Portrait. Detny Svo. 
 Also 50 copies on hand-made paper. Demy 8vo. 21s. net. 
 This edition will contain a carefully collated Text, numerous Notes, critical and 
 
 textual, a critical and biographical Introduction, and a Glossary. 
 The publishers hope that it will be the most complete and handsome edition ever 
 issued at the price. 
 
 W. M. DIXON 
 
 A PRIMER OF TENNYSON. By W. M. DiXON, M.A., 
 
 Professor of English Literature at Mason College. Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6cl. 
 
 This book consists of (i) a succinct but complete biography of Lord Tennyson; 
 (2) an account of the volumes published by him in chronological order, dealing with 
 the more important poems separately ; (3) a concise criticism of Tennyson in his 
 various aspects as lyrist, dramatist, and representative poet of his day; (4) a 
 bibliography. Such a complete book on such a subject, and at such a moderate 
 price, should find a host of readers. 
 
 W. A. CRAIGIE 
 A PRIMER OF BURNS. By W. A. Craigie. Cr.Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 This book is planned on a method similar to the ' Primer of Tennyson.' It has also a 
 glossary. It will be issued in time for the Burns Centenary.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's Announcements 
 
 English Classics 
 
 THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS. By Samuel 
 Johnson, LL.D. With an Introduction by John IlEi'iiUUN 
 Millar, and a Portrait. 3 vols. Crown Zvo^ buckram. 105. bJ. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S POEMS. Edited by GEORGE Wvndham, 
 M. P. Cro^un 8w. 3^. 6i/. 
 
 Theology and Philosophy 
 
 E. C. S. GIBSON 
 
 THE XXXIX. ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENG- 
 LAND. Edited with an Introduction by E. C. S. Gibson, M.A., 
 Vicar of Leeds, late Principal of Wells Theological College, hi 
 two volumes. Detny Svo. ys. 6d. each. Vol. I. 
 
 This is the first volume of a treatise on the xxxix. Articles, and contains the Intro- 
 duction and Articles i.-viiL 
 
 R. L. OTTLEY 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. By R. L. 
 
 OriLEY, M.A., late fellow of Magdalen College, Oxon., Principal 
 of Pusey House. In two volumes. Demy Svo. 1 5^. 
 
 This is the first volume of a book intended to be an aid in the study of the doctrine 
 of the Incarnation. It deals with the leading points in the history of the doctrine, 
 its content, and its relation to other truths of Christian faith. 
 
 L. T. HOBHOUSE 
 
 THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. By L. T. HOBHOUSE, 
 
 Fellow and Tutor of Corpus College, Oxford. Demy Svo. 21s. 
 
 'The Theory of Knowledge" deals with some of the fundamental problems of 
 Metaphysics and Logic, by treating them in connection with one another. 
 Part i. begins with the elementary conditions of knowledge such as Sensation 
 and Memory, and passes on to Judgment. Part il. deals with Inference in 
 general, and Induction in particular. Part hi. deals with the structural concep- 
 tions of Knowledge, such as Matter, Substance, and Personality. The m-in 
 purpose of the book is constructive, but it is also critical, and various objections 
 are considered and met.
 
 4 Messrs. Methuen's Announcements 
 
 W. H. FAIRBROTHER 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF T. H. GREEN. By W. H. Fair- 
 brother, M.A., Lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford. Crown Svo. 
 y. 6(f. 
 
 This volume is expository, not critical, and is intended for senior students at the 
 Universities, and others, as a statement of Green's teaching and an introduction 
 to the study of Idealist Philosophy. 
 
 F. W. BUSSELL 
 THE SCHOOL OF PLATO : its Origin and Revival under 
 the Roman Empire. By F. W. Bussell, M.A., Fellow and Tutor 
 of Brasenose College, Oxford. Demy Svo. Two volumes, los. 6d. 
 each. Vol. I. 
 In these volumes the author has attempted to reach the central doctrines of Ancient 
 Philosophy, or the place of man in created things, and his relation to the outer 
 world of Nature or Society, and to the Divine Being. The first volume com- 
 prises a survey of the entire period of a thousand years, and examines the 
 cardinal notions of the Hellenic, Hellenistic, and Roman ages from this particular 
 point of view. 
 
 History and Biography 
 
 BADEN POWELL 
 
 THE DOWNFALL OF PREMPEH. By Major Baden- 
 Powell. With Illustrations by the Author. Demy 8vo. los. 6d. 
 
 Major Baden Powell was in command of the native levies during the Ashanti Expedi- 
 tion, and he supplies a very interesting and amusing diary of events. 
 
 EDWARD GIBBON 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 By Edward Gibbon. A New Edition, edited with Notes, 
 Appendices, and Maps by J. B. BuRV, M.A., Fellow of Trinity 
 College, Dublin. In Seveyi Volumes. Demy Svo, gilt top. %s. 6d. 
 each. Crotvn ?>vo. 6s. each. Vol. I. 
 
 The time seems to have arrived for a new edition of Gibbon's great work— furnished 
 with such notes and appendices as may bring it up to the standard of recent his- 
 torical research. Edited by a scholar who has made this period his special study, 
 and issued in a convenient form and at a moderate price, this edition should fill 
 an obvious void. The volumes will be issued at intervals of a few months.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's Annoucements 
 
 F. W. JOYCE 
 
 THE LIFE OF SIR FREDERICK GORE OUSELEY. By 
 F. W. Joyce, M.A. With Portraits and Illustrations. Crown Sz/o. 
 Ts. 6d. 
 
 This book will be iiueresting to a large number of readers who care to read the Life 
 of a man who laboured much for the Church, and especially for the improvement 
 of ecclesiastical music. 
 
 CAPTAIN HINDE 
 
 THE FALL OF THE CONGO ARABS. By Sidney L. 
 IIi.NDE. With Portraits, Illustrations, and Plans. Demy 8vo. 
 125. 6cf. 
 
 This volume de.ils with the recent Belgian Expedition to the Upper Congo, which 
 developed into a war between the State forces and the Arab slave-raiders in 
 Central Africa. Two white men only returned alive from the three years' war — 
 Commandant Dhanis and the writer of this book, Captain Hinde. During the 
 greater part of the time spent by_ Captain Hinde in the Congo he was amongst 
 cannibalraces in little-known regions, and, owing to the peculiar circumstances 
 of his position, was enabled to see a side of native history shown to few Europeans. 
 The war terminated in the complete defeat of the Arabs, seventy thousand of 
 whom perished during the struggle. 
 
 General Literature 
 
 L. WHIBLEY 
 
 GREEK OLIGARCHIES: THEIR ORGANISATION AND 
 CHARACTER. By L. Whibley, M.A., Fellow of Pembroke 
 College, Cambridge. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 This book is a study of the Oligarchic Constitutions of Greece, treated histori- 
 cally and from the point of view of political philosophy. 
 
 C. H. PEARSON 
 
 ESSAYS AND CRITICAL REVIEWS. By C. H. Pearson, 
 M.A., Author of ' National Life and Character.' Edited, with a 
 Biographical Sketch, by H. A. Strong, M.A., LL.D. With a 
 Portrait. Demy Svo. lOs. dd. 
 
 This volume contains the best critical work of Professor Pearson, whose remarkable 
 book on ' National Life and Character' created intcr«e interest.
 
 6 Messrs. Methuen's Announcements 
 
 W. CUNNINGHAM 
 
 MODERN CIVILISATION IN SOME OF ITS ECONOMIC 
 ASPECTS. By W. Cunningham, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. Crown %vo. 2s. 6d. [Social Questions Series. 
 
 A book on economics treated from the standpoint of morality. 
 
 F. W. THEOBALD 
 
 INSECT LIFE. By F. W. Theobald, M.A. Illustrated. 
 Crown %vo. 2s. 6d. [ Univ. Extension Series. 
 
 Classical Translations 
 
 CICERO— De Natura Deorum. Translated by F. Brooks, 
 M.A Cro'vn 2>vo, buckram, y. 6d, 
 
 Fiction 
 
 THE NOVELS OF MARIE CORELLI 
 
 FIRST COMPLETE AND UNIFORM EDITION 
 
 Large crown Zvo. 6s. 
 
 Messrs. Methuen beg to announce that they will in May commence the 
 publication of a New and Uniform Edition of Marie Corelli's Romances. 
 This Edition will be revised by the Author, and will contain new Prefaces. 
 The volumes will be issued at short intervals in the following order : — 
 
 I. A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS. 2. VENDETTA 
 
 3. THELMA. 4. ARDATH. 
 
 5. THE SOUL OF LILITH. 6. WORMWOOD. 
 
 7. BARABBAS. 8. THE SORROWS OF SATAN. 
 
 BARING GOULD 
 
 THE BROOM-SQUIRE. By S. Baring Gould. Author of 
 'Mehalah,' 'Noemi,' etc. Illustrated by Frank Dadd. Crown 
 Svo. 6s. 
 
 The scene of this romance is laid on the Surrey hills, and the date is that of the famous 
 Hindhead murder in 1786.
 
 Messrs. Metiiui':n's ANNOU^'CEMENTS 7 
 
 GILBERT PARKER 
 
 THE SEATS OF THE MIGHTY. By Gilbert Parker, 
 Author of 'When Valmond came to Pontiac,' 'Pierre and his 
 People,' etc. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 A Romance of the Anglo- French War of 1759. 
 
 EMILY LAWLESS 
 
 HURRISH. By the Honble. Emily Lawless, Author of 
 ' Maelcho,' 'Grania,' etc. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 A reissue of Miss Lawless" most popular novel, uniform with ' Maelcho.' 
 
 MRS. OLIPHANT 
 
 THE TWO MARYS. By MRS. OLirHANT. Croian Zvo. 6s. 
 
 MRS. WALFORD 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO THE TITLE. By Mrs. Walford, 
 Author of ' Mr. Smith,' etc. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 JOHN DAVIDSON 
 
 MRS. ARMSTRONG'S AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 By John Davidson, Author of Ballads and Songs," etc. Crown 
 Svo, 6s. 
 A collection of stories. 
 
 J. BLOUNDELLE BURTON 
 
 IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY. By J. Bloundelle 
 Burton, Author of ' The Desert Ship,' etc. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 A historical romance. 
 
 HENRY JOHNSTON 
 
 DR. CONGALTON'S LEGACY. By HENRY JOHNSTON, 
 Author of ' Kilniallie,' etc. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 A story of Scottish life. 
 
 J. H. FINDLATER 
 
 THE GREEN GRAVES OF BALGOWRIE. By Jane H. 
 FiNDLATER. Croivn Svo. 6s. 
 A story of Scotland.
 
 8 Messrs. Methuen's Announcements 
 
 J. L. PATON 
 A HOME IN INVERESK. By J. L. Paton. Crown Zvo. 6s. 
 
 A story of Scotland and British Columbia. 
 
 M. A. OWEN 
 
 THE DAUGHTER OF ALOUETTE. By Mary A. Owen. 
 Cro'vn Svo. 6s. 
 A story of life among the American Indians. 
 
 RONALD ROSS 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF STORM. By Ronald Ross, Author of 
 ' The Child of Ocean. ' Crown Svo. 6s. 
 A romance of the Sea. 
 
 J. A. BARRY 
 
 TALES OF THE SEA. By J. A. Barry. Author of ' Steve 
 Brown's Bunyip.' Crcwn Sz'O. 6s. 
 
 H. A. MORRAH 
 A SERIOUS COMEDY. By H. A. MORRAH. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 \
 
 A LIST OF 
 
 Messrs. Methuen's 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 Poetry 
 
 Rudyard Kipling. BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS ; And 
 Other Verses. By Rudyard Kipling. Ninth Edition. Crown 
 Svo. 6s. 
 
 Mr. Kipling's verse is strong, vivid, full of character. . . . Unmistakable genius 
 rings in eveiy line.' — Times. 
 
 'The disreputable lingo of Cockayne is henceforth justified before the world ; for a 
 man of genius has taken it in hand, and has shown, beyond all cavilling, that in 
 its way it also is a medium for literature. You are grateful, and you say to 
 yourself, half in envy and half in admiration : " Here is a book \ here, or one is a 
 Dutchman, is one of the books of the year." ' — National Ofiserz'er. 
 
 '"Barrack-Room Ballads" contains some of the best work that Mr. Kipling has 
 ever done, which is saying a good deal. " Fuzzy-Wuzzy," " Gunga Din," and 
 "Tommy," are, in our opinion, altogether superior to anything of the kind that 
 English literature has hitherto produced.' — Atheiufuni. 
 
 'The ballads teem with imagination, they palpitate with emotion. We read them 
 with laughter and tears ; the metres throb in our pulses, the cunningly ordered 
 words tingle with life; and if this be not poetry, what is?' — Pall Matt Gazette. 
 
 Henley. LYRA HEROICA: An Anthology selected from the 
 best Enghsh Verse of the l6lh, ijlh, iSlh, and 19th Centuries. By 
 William Ernest Henley. Cro-tm 8vo. Biukram., gilt top. 6j. 
 
 Mr. Henley has brought to the task of selection an instinct alike fur poetry and for 
 chivalry which seems to us quite wonderfully, and even unerringly, right.' — 
 Guardian. 
 
 A 2
 
 10 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 "Q." THE GOLDEN POMP : A Procession of English Lyrics 
 from Surrey to Shirley, arranged by A. T. Quiller Couch. Crown 
 8<"0. Buckram. (>s. 
 
 'A delightful volume : a really golden ^^Vam^."''— Spectator. 
 
 ' Of the many anthologies of "old rhyme" recently_ made, Mr. Couch's seems the 
 richest in its materials, and the most artistic in its arrangement. Mr. Couch s 
 notes are admirable; and Messrs. Methuen are to be congratulated on the format 
 of the sumptuous volume.' — Realm. 
 
 " Q." GREEN BAYS : Verses and Parodies. By " Q.," Author 
 of ' Dead Man's Rock,' etc. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. y. 6d. 
 ' The verses display a rare and versatile gift of parody, great command of metre, and 
 a very pretty turn of humour.' — Times. 
 
 H. C. Beeching. LYRA SACRA : An Anthology of Sacred Veise. 
 Edited by H. C. Beeching, M.A. Crown 8vo. Buckram, gilt 
 
 top. 6s. 
 ' An .-inthology of high excellence.'— /I //ie»<pww. ^ 
 
 ' A charming selection, which maintains a lofty standard of excellence. —Times. 
 
 Yeats. AN ANTHOLOGY OF IRISH VERSE. Edited by 
 
 W. B. Yeats. Crown 8vo. y. 6d. 
 
 ' An attractive and catholic selection.' — Times. 
 
 ' It is edited by the most original and most accomplished of modern Irish poets, and 
 against his editing but a single objection can be brought, namely, that it excludes 
 from the collection his own delicate lyrics.' — Saturday Rcvie^v. 
 
 Mackay. A SONG OF THE SEA : My Lady of Dreams, 
 AND OTHER POEMS. By Eric Mackay, Author of ' The Love 
 Letters of a Violinist.' Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo, gilt top. ^s. 
 
 ' Everywhere Mr. Mackay displays himself the master of a style marked by all the 
 ch.-iracteristics of the best rhetoric. He has a keen sense of rhythm and of general 
 balance; his verse is excellently sonorous.'— -G/oiiltf. 
 
 • Throughout the book the poetic workmanship is fine.' — Scotsman. 
 
 Ibsen. BRAND. A Drama by Henrik Ibsen. Translated by 
 William Wilson. Second Edition. Crown Svo. y. 6d. 
 
 'The greatest world-poem of the nineteenth century next to "Faust." It is in 
 the same set with "Agamemnon," with "Lear," with the literature that we now 
 instinctively regard as high and \\o\y.'— Daily Chronicle. 
 
 *A.G." VERSES TO ORDER. By"A. G." Cr.^vo. is.bd. 
 net. 
 
 A mall volume of verse by a writer whose initials are well known to Oxford men. 
 A capital specimen of light academic poetry. These verses are very bright and 
 engaging, easy and sufficiently witty.'— 5'^. James's Gazette. 
 
 Hosken. VERSES BY THE WAY. By J. D. Hosken. 
 
 Crown Svo. $s.
 
 Messrs. Metiiuen's List ii 
 
 Gale. CRICKET SONGS. By Norman Gale. Crown Svo. 
 
 Linen, 2s. 6d. 
 ' Simple, manly, and humorous. Every cricketer should buy the book." — lyestminsier 
 
 Gazette. 
 ' Cricket has never known such a singer.' — Cricket. 
 
 Langbridge. BALLADS OF THE BRAVE : Poems of Chivalry, 
 
 Enterprise, Courage, and Constancy, from the Earliest Times to the 
 
 Present Day. Edited, with Notes, by Rev. F. Lan-gbridge. 
 
 Crown Svo. Btickravi. 3^. 6(/. School Edition. 2s. dd. 
 
 'A very happy conception happily carried out. These "Ballads of the Brave" are 
 intended to suit the real tastes of boys, and will suit the taste of the great majority." 
 —Spectator. ' The book is full of splendid ihinss.'—WorU- 
 
 English Classics 
 
 Edited by W. E. Henley. 
 
 Messrs. Methucn are publishing, under this title, some of the masterpieces of the 
 English tongue, which, while well within the reach of the average buyer, shall be 
 at once an ornament to the shelf of him that owns, and a delight to the eye of 
 him that reads. 
 
 ' This new edition of a great classic might make an honourable appearance in any 
 library in the world. Printed by Constable on laid paper, bound in most artistic 
 and restful-looking fig-green buckram, with a frontispiece portrait, the book might 
 well be issued at three times its present price.' — /ri's/i Independent. 
 Very dainty volumes are these; the paper, type, and light-green binding are all 
 very agreeable to the ej-e. Simplex tniinditiis is the phrase that might be applied 
 to them.' — Globe. 
 
 'The volumes are strongly bound in green buckram, are of a convenient size, and 
 ple.-xsant to look upon, so that whether on the shelf, or on the table, or in the hand 
 the possessor is thoroughly content with ihcm.' —Guardian. 
 
 'The paper, type, and binding of this edition are in excellent taste, and leave 
 nothing to be desired by lovers of literature.' — Standard. 
 
 ' Two handsome and finely-printed volumes, light to hold, pleasing to look at, easy 
 to read.' — National Ol/sert^cr. 
 
 THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY. 
 By Lawrence Sterne. With an Introduction by Charles 
 Whibley, and a Portrait. 2 vols. Js. 
 
 THE COMEDIES OF WILLIAM CONGREVE. With 
 an Introduction by G. S. Street, and a Portrait. 2 vols. Js. 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA OF ISPAHAN 
 By James Morier. With an Introduction by E. G. Browne, M.A., 
 and a Portrait. 2 vols. "js.
 
 12 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 the lives of donne, wotton, hooker, her- 
 BERT, AND SANDERSON. By Izaak Walton. With an 
 Introduction by Vernon Blackburn, and a Portrait. 31. 6d. 
 
 THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS. By Samuel 
 Johnson, LL.D. With an Introduction by J. H. Millar, and a 
 Portrait. 3 vols. 10s, dd. 
 
 Illustrated Books 
 
 Jane Barlow. THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND MICE, 
 translated by Jane Barlow, Author of 'Irish Idylls,' and pictared 
 by F. D. Bedford. Stnall /^to. 6s. net. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES retold by S. 
 Baring Gould. With numerous illustrations and initial letters by 
 Arthur J. GasKIN. Second Edition. Crown ?>vo. Buckram. 6s. 
 
 grandfathers.' 
 
 the stories that are commonly regarded as merely " old fashioned." As to the form 
 of the book, and the printing, which is by Messrs. Constable, it were difficult to 
 commend overmuch. — Saturday Revieiv. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. OLD ENGLISH FAIRY TALES. Col- 
 lected and edited by S. Baring Gould. With Numerous Illustra- 
 tions by F. D. Bedford. Second Edition. Crown 2>vo. Buckram. 6s. 
 
 This volume consists of some of the old English stories which have been lost to sight, 
 and they are fully illustrated by Mr. Bedford. 
 
 ' Nineteen stories which will probably be new to everybody, who is not an antiquarian 
 or a bibliographer. A book in which children will revel.' — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 ' Of the fairy tales, first place must be given to the collection of " Old English Fairy 
 Tales" of Mr. S. Baring Gould, in introducing which the author expresses his 
 surprise that no collection had before been attempted and adapted to the_ reading 
 of children of the old delightful English folk-tales and traditionary stories. He 
 has gone to the most ancient sources, and presents to young readers in this 
 volume a series of seventeen, told in his own way, and illustrated by F. D. Bed- 
 ford. We can conceive of no more charming gift-book for children than this 
 volume.'— /"</// Mall Gazette. 
 
 ' The only collection of really old English fairy tales that we have.' — IFoMan. 
 
 'A charming volume, which children will be sure to appreciate. The stories have 
 been selected with great ingenuity from various old ballads and folk-tales, and, 
 having been somewhat altered and readjusted, now stand forth, clothed in Mr. 
 Baring-Gould's delightful English, to enchant youthful readers. All the tales 
 are cood.' — Guardian.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 13 
 
 S. Baring Gould. A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND 
 KIIVMES. Edited by S. Baring GouLD, and Illustrated by the 
 Students of the Birmingham Art School. Buckram, gilt top. 
 Crown 8zv. 6s. 
 
 ' The volume is very complete in its way, as it contains nursery songs to the number 
 of 77, game-rhymes, and jingles. To the student we commend the sensible intro- 
 duction, and the explanatorj' notes. The volume is superbly printed on soft, 
 thick paper, which it is a pleasure to touch ; and the borders and pictures are, as 
 we have said, among the very best specimens we have seen of the Gaskin school.' 
 — Biriiiini^ham Gazette. 
 
 ' One of the most artistic Christmas books of the season. Every page is surrounded 
 by a quaint design, and the illustrations are in the same spirit. The collection 
 itself is admirably done, and provides a prodigious wealth of the rhymes genera- 
 tions of English people have learned in tender years. A more charming volume 
 of its kind has not been issued this season.' — Record. 
 
 ' A perfect treasure.' — Black and White. 
 
 ' The collection of nursery rhymes is, since it has been made by Mt. Baring Gould, 
 very complete, and among the game-rhymes we have found several quite new 
 ones. The notes are just what is wanted.' — Bookman. 
 
 H. C. Beeching. A BOOK OF CHRISTMAS VERSE. Edited 
 by II. C. Bkechi.ng, M.A., and Illustrated by Walter Crank. 
 Crown ?>vo. ^s. 
 
 A collection of the best verse inspired by the birth of Christ from the Middle Ages 
 to the present day. Mr. Walter Crane has designed several illustrations and the 
 cover. A distinction of the book is the large number of poems it contains by 
 modern authors, a few of which are here printed for the first time. 
 
 '"A Book of Christmas Verse," selected by so good a judge of poetry as Mr. 
 Beeching, and picturesquely illustrated by Mr. Crane, is likely to prove a popular 
 Christmas book, more especially as it is printed by Messrs. Constable, with their 
 usual excellence of typography.' — Athencenin. 
 
 ' A very pleasing anthology, well arranged and well edited.' — Manchester Guardian. 
 
 ' .\ beautiful anthology-.' — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 '.\n anthology which, from its unity of aim and high poetic excellence, has a better 
 right to exist than most of its fellows.' — Guardian. 
 
 ' As well-chosen and complete a collection as we have seen.' — Spectator, 
 
 History 
 
 Flinders Petrie. A HISTORY OF EGYPT, from the 
 Earliest Times to the Present Day. Edited by W. M. 
 Flinders Pktrie D.C. L., LL.D., Professor of Egjptology at 
 University College. Fidly llhistrated. In Six Volumes. Cioivn 
 Zi>o. 6j. each. 
 Vol. I. Prehistoric to Eighteenth Dynasty. \V. M. F. 
 Petrie. Second Edition. 
 'A historj- written in the spirit of scientific precision so worthily represented by Dr. 
 Petrie and his school cannot but promote sound and accurate study, and 
 supply a vacant place in the English literature of Eg>"ptology.' — Tivtes.
 
 14 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Flinders Petrie. EGYPTIAN TALES. Edited by W. M. 
 
 Flinders Petrie. Illustrated by Tristram Ellis, In Two 
 
 Volumes, Crown 2>vo. 35. bd. each. 
 
 'A valuable addition to the literature of comparative folk-lore. The drawings are 
 really illustrations in the literal sense of the word.' — Globe. 
 
 ' It has a scientific value to the student of history and z.x<^7e.o\o^.'— Scotsman. 
 
 'Invaluable as a picture of life in Palestine and Egypt." — Daily News. 
 
 Flinders Petrie. EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART. By 
 W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L. With 120 Illustrations. Crown 
 Svo. 3 J. 6d. 
 
 ' Professor Flinders Petrie is not only a profound Egyptologist, but an accomplished 
 student of comparative archaeology. In these lectures, delivered at the Royal 
 Institution, he displays both qualifications with rare skill in elucidating the 
 development of decorative art in Egypt, and in tracing its influence on the 
 art of other countries. Few experts can speak with higher authority and wider 
 knowledge than the Professor himself, and in any case his treatment of his sub- 
 ject is full of learning and insight.' — Times. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. THE TRAGEDY OF THE C^SARS. 
 
 The Emperors of the Julian and Claudian Lines. With numerous 
 Illustrations from Busts, Gems, Cameos, etc. By S. Baring Gould, 
 Author of 'Mehalah,' etc. Third Editioti. Royal Zvo. \^s. 
 
 ' A most splendid and fascinating book on a subject of undying interest. The great 
 feature of the book is the use the author has made of the existing portraits of the 
 Caesars, and the admirable critical subtlety he has exhibited in dealing with this 
 line of research. It is brilliantly written, and the illustrations are supplied on a 
 scale of profuse magnificence.'- — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 ' The volumes will in no sense disappoint the general reader. Indeed, in their way, 
 there is nothing in any sense so good in English. . . . Mr. Baring Gould has 
 presented his narrative in such away as not to make one dull page.' — AthencEum. 
 
 Clark. THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD : Their History and 
 their Traditions. By Members of the University. Edited by A. 
 Clark, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College, ^vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 'A work which will certainly be appealed to for many years as the standard book on 
 the Colleges of Oxford.' — Athen<Etini. 
 
 Perrens. THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE FROM 1434 
 TO 1492. By F. T. Perrens. Translated by Hannah Lynch. 
 ^vo. I2s. 6d. 
 
 A history of Florence under the domination of Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo de 
 
 Medicis. 
 ' This is a standard book by an honest and intelligent historian, who has deserved 
 
 well of all who are interested in Italian history.' — Manchester Guardian.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 15 
 
 E. L. S. Horsburgh. THE CAMPAIGN OF WATERLOO. 
 By E. L. S. Horsburgh, B.A. IVitk Platis. Crown %vo. 51. 
 
 A brilliant essay— simple, sound, and thorough.'— Z>a»V^ Chronicle. 
 
 ' A study, the most concise, the most lucid, the most critical that has been produced." 
 — Birminghatn Mercury, 
 
 'A careful and precise study, a fair and impartial criticism, and an eminently read- 
 able book.' — Admiralty ami Horse Guards Gazette. 
 
 George. BATTLES OF ENGLISH HISTORY. By II. B. 
 George, M.A., Fellow of New College, O.xford. IVtth numerous 
 Plans. Scxond Edition, Crown 2>vo. bs. 
 
 • Mr. George has undertaken a very useful task— that of making milit-iry affairs in- 
 telligible and instructive to non-military readers — and has executed it with laud- 
 able intelligence and industrj', and with a large measure of success.'— 7V;w.f. 
 
 'This book is almost a revelation ; and we heartily congratulate the author on his 
 work and on the prospect of the reward he has well deserved for so much con- 
 scientious and sustained labour.' — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 Browning. A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDIAEVAL ITALY 
 A.D. 1 250- 1 530. By Oscar Browning, Fellow and Tutor of King's 
 College, Cambridge. Second Edition. In Two Volumes. Crown 
 Svo. 5 J. each. 
 
 Vol. I. 1250-1409. — Guelphs and Ghibellines. 
 
 Vol. II. 1 409- 1 530. —The Age of the Condottieri. 
 
 A vivid picture of mediaeval Italy.' — Standard. 
 
 ' Mr. Browning is to be congratulated on the production of a work of immense 
 labour and learning.' — ll'cstminsicr Gazette. 
 
 O'Grady. THE STORY OF IRELAND. By Standish 
 O'Grady, Author of ' Finn and his Companions.' Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d, 
 'Most delightful, most stimulating. Its racy humour, its original imaginings, 
 
 make it one of the freshest, breeziest \'o\ames.'— Methodist Times. 
 A survey at once graphic, acute, and quaintly written.' — Times. 
 
 Biography 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson. VAI LI MA LETTERS. By Robert 
 Louis Stevenson. With an Etched Portrait by William Strang, 
 and other Illustrations. Second Edition. Crown Svo. Buckram, 
 ys. 6d. 
 
 Also 125 copies on hand-made paper. Demy %vo. z^s. net. 
 ' The book is, on the one hand, a new revelation of a most lovable personality, and, 
 on the other, it abounds in pass.iges of the most charming prose — personal, de- 
 scriptive, humorous, or all three ; e-xquisite vignettes of Samoan scenery, passages 
 of joy in recovered health, to be followed— alas, too soon— by depression, physical 
 and mental ; little revelations of literary secrets, such as of the origin of "David 
 Balfour," or of the scheme of the books not yet published ; amusing stories about 
 the household, and altogether a picture of a character and surroundings that have 
 never before been brought together since Britons took to writing books and 
 travelling across the seas. The Vailima Letters are rich in all the varieties of that 
 charm which have secured for Stevenson the afTcction of many others besides 
 "journalists, fellow-novelists, and boys."' — The Times. ^ 
 ' Few publications have in our time been more eagerly awaited than these " Vailima
 
 i6 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Letters," giving the first fruits of the correspondence of Robert LouisStevenson. 
 
 But, high as the tide of expectation has run, no reader can possibly be disappointed 
 
 in the result.' — Si. James's Gazette. 
 ' For the student of English literature these letters indeed are a treasure. They 
 
 are more like " .Scott's Journal " in kind than any other literary autobiography.' 
 
 — National Obsewcr. 
 ' One of the most noteworthy and most charming of the volumes of letters that have 
 
 appeared in our time or in our language.' — Scotsman. 
 ' Eagerly as we awaited this volume, It has proved a gift exceeding all our hopes— a 
 
 gift, I think, almost priceless. It unites in the rarest manner the value of a 
 
 familiar correspondence with the value of an intimate journal.' — A. T. Q. C, in 
 
 Speaker. 
 
 Collingwood. THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN. By W. G. 
 
 COLLINGWOOD, M.A., Editor of Mr. Ruskin's Poems. With 
 
 numerous Portraits, and 1 3 Drawings by Mr. Ruskin. Second 
 
 Editioti. 2 vols. Svo. 325. 
 ' No more magnificent volumes have been published for a long time. . . .'—Times. 
 ' It is long since we have had a biography with such delights of substance and of 
 
 form. Such a book is a pleasure for the day, and a joy for ewe:t.'— Daily 
 
 Chronicle. 
 ' A noble monument of a noble subject. One of the most beautiful books about one 
 
 of the noblest lives of our century.' — Glasgow Herald. 
 
 Waldstein. JOHN RUSKIN : a Study. By Ch.\rles Wald- 
 STEIN, j\I.A., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. With a Photo- 
 gravure Portrait after Professor Hp:rkomer. Post %vo. $s. 
 
 'A thoughtful, impartial, well-written criticism of Ruskin's teaching, intended to 
 separate what the author regards as valuable and permanentfrom what is transient 
 and erroneous in the great master's writing.' — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 W. H. Hutton. THE LIFE OF SIR THOMAS MORE. By 
 W. H. Hutton, M.A., Author of ' William Laud.' JVith Portraits. 
 Crown Svo. $s. 
 
 ' Mr. Wm. Holden Hutton has in a neat volume of less than 300 pages, told 
 the story of the life of More, and he has placed it in such a well-painted 
 setting of the times in which he lived, and so accompanied it by brief outlines 
 of his principal writings, that the book lays good claim to high rank amon^ 
 our biographies. The work, it may be said, is excellently, even lovingly, written.' 
 — Scotsman. 
 
 ' An excellent monograph.' — Times. 
 
 ' A most complete presentation.' — Daily Chyoniclc. 
 
 Kaufmann. CHARLES KINGSLEY. By M. Kaufmann, 
 
 M.A. Crown Svo. Buckram. 5 J. 
 A biography of Kingsley, especially dealing with his achievements in social reform. 
 ' The author has certainly gone about his work with conscientiousness and industry.'— 
 
 Sheffield Daily Telegraph.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 17 
 
 Robbins. THE EARLY LIFE OF WILLIAM EWART 
 GLADSTONE. By A. F. Robbins. With Portraits. Crown 
 
 ^vo. 6s. 
 'Considerable labour and much skill of presentation have not been unworthily 
 expeniledon this interesting v/oik.'—Ti/ues. 
 
 Clark Russell. THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COL- 
 
 LIXGWOOD. By W. Ci.ark Russell, Aulhor of 'The Wreck 
 
 of the Grosvenor.' With Illustrations by F. Brangwyn. Second 
 
 Edition. Cro'tun Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in the hands of 
 every boy in the country.' — St. James's Gazette. 
 
 ' A really good book.' — Saturday Review. 
 
 Southey. ENGLISH SEAMEN (Howard, Clifford, Hawkins, 
 Drake, Cavendish). By ROBERT Southey. Edited, with an 
 Introduction, by David IIannay. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 ' xVdmirablc and well-told stories of our naval history.'— ^1 riiiy and Navy Gazette. 
 ' A brave, inspiriting "hooV.'— Black and White. 
 'The work of a master of style, and delightful all through.'— ZPaj/y Chronicle. 
 
 General Literature 
 
 S. Baring Gould. OLD COUNTRY LIFE. By S. Baring 
 Gould, Author of 'Mehalah,' etc. With Sixty-seven Illustrations 
 by W. Parkinson, F. D. Bedford, and F. Masey. Large 
 Crown %vo, cloth super extra, top edge gilt, \os. 6d. Fifth and 
 Cheaper Edition. 6s. 
 ' " Old Country Life," as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life and move- 
 ment, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book to be 
 published throughout the year. Sound, hearty, and English to thecore.'— /Ki)r/rf. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE 
 EVENTS. By S. Baking Gould, Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. 
 Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 ' A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delightful 
 reading. ' — Times. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. FREAKS OF FANATICISM. By S. Baring 
 Goui.D, Author of 'Mehalah,' etc. Third Edition. CrownSvo. 6s. 
 ' Mr. Baring Gould has a keen eye for colour and effect, and the subjects he has 
 chosen give ample scope to his descriptive and analytic faculties. A perlectly 
 fascinating book.' — Scottish Leader. 
 
 A3
 
 i8 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 S. Baring Gould. A GARLAND OF COUNTRY SONG : 
 English Folk Songs with their Traditional Melodies. Collected and 
 arranged by S. Baring Goulu and H. Fleetwood Sheppard. 
 Detny i,to. ()S 
 
 S. Baring Gould. SONGS OF THE WEST: Traditional 
 Ballads and Songs of the West of England, with their Traditional 
 Melodies. Collected by S. Baring Gould, M.A., and H. Fleet- 
 wood Sheppard, M. A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 Parts 
 (containing 25 Songs each), Parts /., //., ///., 3^. each. Part 
 IV. t 5 J. In one Vol., French morocco, 155. 
 'A rich collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic fancy.'— 5'ai'z^r^aj' Review. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE 
 
 EVENTS. Fourth Edition. Crown %vo. 65. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. STRANGE SURVIVALS AND SUPER- 
 STITIONS. With Illustrations. By S. Baring Gould. Crown 
 %vo. Second Edition, bs. 
 
 We have read INIr. Baring Gould's hook from beginningtoend. It is full of quaint 
 and various information, and there is not a dull page in it.' — Notes and Queries. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. THE DESERTS OF SOUTHERN 
 
 FRANCE. By S. Baring. Gould, With numerous Illustrations 
 by F. D. Bedford, S. Hutton, etc. 2 vols. Demy 8vo. 325. 
 
 This book is the first serious attempt to describe the great barren tableland that 
 extends to the south of Limousin in the Department of Aveyron, Lot, etc., a 
 country of dolomite cliffs, and caiions, and subterranean rivers. The region is 
 full of prehistoric and historic interest, relics of cave-dwellers, of mediseval 
 robbers, and of the English domination and the Hundred Years' War. 
 
 'His two richly-illustrated volumes are full of matter of interest to the geologist, 
 the archaeologist, and the student of history and manners.' — Scotsman. 
 
 ' It deals with its subject in a manner which rarely fails to arrest attention. — Times. 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC AD- 
 DRESSES OF THE RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. 
 Edited by A. W. Hutton, M.A., and H. J. Cohen, M.A. With 
 Portraits. 2>vo. Vols. IX. and X. 1 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 Henley and Whibley. A BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE. 
 
 Collected by W. E. Henley and Charles Whiuley. Cr. Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' A unique volume of extracts — an art gallery of early prose.' — Birminsham Post. 
 
 An admirable companion to Mr. Henley's "Lyra llcroicz.."'— Saturday Review. 
 'Quite delightful. The choice made has been excellent, and the volume has been 
 most admirably printed by Messrs. Constable. A greater treat for those not well 
 acquainted with pre-Restoralion prose could not be Imagxrvid.'— A ihenauiit.
 
 Messrs. Metiiuen's List 19 
 
 Wells. OXFORD AND OXFORD LIFE. By Members of 
 the University. Edited by J. Wells, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of 
 Wadham College. Crown Svo. y. 6c/. 
 This work contains an account of life at Oxford — intellectual, social, and religious — 
 a careful estimate of necessary expenses, a review of recent changes, a statement 
 of the present position of the University, and chapters on Women's Education, 
 aids to study, and University Extension. 
 • We congratulate Mr. Wells on the production of a readable and intelligent account 
 of Oxford as it is at the present time, written by persons wlio are possessed of a 
 close acquaintance with the system and life of the University.'— /I ///^Wi^ww/. 
 
 W. B. Worsfold. SOUTH AFRICA : Its History and its Future. 
 By W. Basil Worsfold, M.A. IFii/i a Map. Crown %vo. 6s. 
 
 ' An intensely interesting book.' — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 ' A monumental work compressed into a very moderate compass. The early history 
 of the colony, its agricultural resources, literature, and gold and diamond mines 
 arc all clearly described, besides the main features of recent Kaffir and IJoer 
 campaigns ; nor (to bring his record quite up to date) does the author fail to devote 
 a chapter to Mr. Cecil Rhodes, the Chartered Company, and the Boer Conven- 
 tion of 1884. Additional information from sources not usually accessible is to be 
 found in the notes at the end of the book, as well as a historical summary, a 
 statistical appendix, and other matters of special interest at the present moment.' 
 — World. 
 
 Ouida. VIEWS AND OPINIONS. By Ouida. Crown Zvo. 
 
 Second Edition. 6s. 
 
 ' Ouida is outspoken, and the reader of this book will not have a dull moment. The 
 book is full of variety, and sparkles with entertaining matter.' — Speaker. 
 
 J. S. Shedlock. THE PIANOFORTE SONATA : Its Origin 
 
 and Development. By J. S. Shedlock. Crown Svo. 55. 
 
 ' This work should be in the possession of every musician and amateur, for it not 
 only embodies a concise and lucid history ot the origin ofoneof the most im- 
 portant forms of musical composition, but, by reason of the painstaking research 
 and accuracy of the author's statements, it is a very valuable work for reference.' 
 — .4 i/ienaurn. 
 
 Bowden. THE EXAMPLE OF BUDDHA: Being Quota- 
 tions from Buddhist Literature for each Day in the Year. Compiled 
 by E. RL Bowden. With Preface by Sir Edwin Arnold. T/n'rd 
 Edition, \6ino, 2s. 6d. 
 
 BushiU. PROFIT SHARING AND THE LABOUR QUES- 
 TION. By T. W. BusHlLL, a Profit Sharing Employer. Crown 
 
 ?>V0. 2S. 6d. 
 
 John Beever. PRACTICAL FLY-FISHING, Foundefl on 
 Nature, by John Beever, late of the Thwaite House, Coniston. A 
 New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author by W. G. Collingwood, 
 M.A. CrozvnSvo. 2>^. 6d. 
 A little book on Fly-Fishing by an old friend of Mr. Ruskin.
 
 20 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Science 
 
 Freudenreich. DAIRY BACTERIOLOGY. A Short Manual 
 for the Use of Sludcnts. By Dr. Ed. von Freudenreich. 
 Translated from the German by J. R. AiNSWORTH Davis, B.A., 
 F. C. P. Croron "ivo. 2s. 6il 
 
 Chalmers Mitchell. OUTLINES OF BIOLOGY. By P. 
 
 Chalmers Mitchell, M.A., F.Z.S. Fully Illustrated. Crown 
 
 %vo. 6s. 
 
 A text-book designed to cover the new Schedule issued by the Royal College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons. 
 
 Massee. A MONOGRAPH OF THE MYXOGASTRES. By 
 
 George Massee. With 12 Coloured Plates. Royal ?>vo. \Zs.net. 
 'A work much in advance of any book in the language treating of this group of 
 organisms. It is indispensable to every student of the Myxogastres. The 
 coloured plates deserve high praise for their accuracy and execution." — Nature. 
 
 Theology and Philosophy 
 
 Driver. SERMONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. By S. R. Driver, D.D., Canon of 
 Christ Church, Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of 
 Oxford. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 'A welcome companion to the author's famous 'Introduction.' No man can read these 
 discourses without feeling that Dr. Driver is fully alive to the deeper teaching of 
 the Old Testament.' — Guardian. 
 
 Cheyne. FOUNDERS OF OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM : 
 
 Biographical, Descriptive, and Critical Studies. By T. K. Cheyne, 
 D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at 
 Oxford. Large crown 8vo. Js, 6d. 
 
 This important book is a historical sketch of O. T. Criticism in the form of biographi- 
 cal studies from the days of Eichhorn to those of Driver and Robertson Smith. 
 It is the only book of its kind in English. 
 
 ' A very learned and instructive work.' — Times. 
 
 Prior. CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Edited by C. H. Prior, 
 ]\L A., Fellow and Tutor of Pembroke College. Croiun Svo. 6s. 
 
 A volume of sermons preached before the University of Cambridge by various 
 preachers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Westcott. 
 
 ' A representative collection. Bishop Westcott's is a noble sermon.' — Gtiardian. 
 
 Beeching. SERMONS TO SCHOOLBOYS. By H. C. 
 
 Beeching, M.A., Rector of Yattendon, Berks. With a Preface by 
 Canon ScOTT Holland. Crown 2>vo. 2s. 6d. 
 Seven sermons preached before the boys of Bradfield College.
 
 Messrs. Metiiuen's List 21 
 
 Layard. RELIGION IN BOYHOOD. Notes on the Reli- 
 gious Training of Boys. With a Preface by J. K. Illingworth. 
 By E. B. Layaud, M.A. iSmo. is. 
 
 C. J. Shebbeare. THE GREEK THEORY OF THE STATE 
 AND THE NONCONFORMIST CONSCIENCE: a Socialistic 
 Defence of some Ancient Institutions. By Charles John Sheb- 
 beare, B. A., Christ Church, Oxford. C>vwnSo-o. 2s. 61/. 
 
 F. S. Granger. THE WORSHIP OF THE ROMANS. By 
 F. S. Granger, M.A., Litt.D., rrofcssor of I'liilosophy at Univer- 
 sity College, Nottingham. Crown 8w. 6s. 
 
 The author has atteiiipteil to delineate that group of beliefs which stood in close con- 
 nection with the Roman religion, and among the subjects treated are Dreams, 
 Nature Worship, Roman Magic, Divination, Holy Places, Victims, etc. Thus 
 the book is, apart from its immediate subject, a contribution to folk-lore and com- 
 parative psychology. 
 
 ' A scholarly analysis of the religious ceremonies,beliefs, and superstitions of ancient 
 Rome, conducted in the new instructive light of comparative anthropology." — 
 Times. 
 
 ' This is an analytical and critical work which will assist the student of Romish 
 history to understand the factors which went to build up the remarkable charac- 
 teristics of the old Romans especially in matters appertaining to religion.' — 
 Oxford Revieiu. 
 
 2Dct]otional 25oofe0» 
 
 With Full-page Illustrations. Fcap. Zvo. Biickravi. 3^-. 6d. 
 Padded morocco, <,s. 
 
 THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. By Thomas a Kempis. 
 \Yith an Introduction by Dean Farrar. Illustrated by C. M. 
 Gere, and printed in black and red. 
 
 'Amongst all the innumerable English editions of the "Imitation," there can have 
 been few which were prettier than this one, printed in strong and handsome type 
 by Messrs. Constable, with all the glory of red initials, and the comfort of buckram 
 binding." — Gl.%sg<rM Herald. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By John Keble. With an Intro- 
 duction and Notes by W. Lock, M.A., Sub-Warden of Kcble College, 
 Ireland Professor at O.xford, Author of the ' Life of John Keble.' 
 Illustrated by R. Anning Bell. 
 
 ' The present edition is annotated with all the care and iasight to be expected from 
 Mr. Lock. The progress and circumstances of its composition are detailed in the 
 Introduction. Tliere is in an interesting Appendix on the mss. of the " Christian 
 Year,'" and another giving the order in which the poems were written. A " Short 
 Analysis of the Thought" is prefixed to each, and any diflSculty in the text is ex- 
 plained in a note, ^^'hcn we add to all this that the book is printed in clear, 
 black type on excellent paper, and bound in dull red buckram, we shall have said 
 enough to vindicate its claim to a place among the prettiest gift-books of tlie 
 season." — Guardian. 
 
 ' The most acceptable edition of this ever popular work with which we are ac- 
 qainted.' — Globe. 
 
 'An edition which should be recognised as the best extant. . . . The edition is one 
 which John Hepry Newman and the late Dean Church would have handled with 
 meet and affectionate remembrance." — Birmingham Post.
 
 3/6 
 
 22 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Leaders of Religion 
 
 Edited by H. C. BEECHING, M.A, IVith Portraits, crown %vo. 
 
 A series of short biographies of the most prominent leaders 
 of religious life and thought of all ages and countries. 
 
 The following are ready— 
 CARDINAL NEWMAN, By R. H. Hutton. 
 JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. Overton, M.A, 
 BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By G. W, Dx\niel, M.A. 
 CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. Hutton, M.A. 
 CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. Moule, M.A. 
 JOHN KEBLE. By Walter Lock, M.A. 
 THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. Oliphant. 
 LANCELOT ANDREWES. By R. L. Ottley, M.A. 
 AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. By E. L. Cutts, D.D 
 WILLIAM LAUD. By W. H. Hutton, M.A. 
 JOHN KNOX. By F. M'Cunn. 
 JOHN HOWE. By R. F. HORTON, D.D. 
 
 Other volumes will be announced in due course. 
 
 Fiction 
 
 SIX SHILLING NOVELS 
 
 Marie Corelli. BARABBAS : A DREAM OF THE WORLD'S 
 
 TRAGEDY. By Marie Coreli.i, Author of ' A Romance of Two 
 
 Worlds ' 'Vendetta,' etc. Twenty-first Editio7i. Crown %vo. 6s. 
 
 ' The tender reverence of the treatment and the imaginative beauty of the writing 
 have reconciled us to the daring of the conceptiun, and the conviction is forced on 
 us that even so exalted a suljject cannot be made too familiar to us, provided it be 
 presented in the true spirit of Christian faith. The amplifications of the Scripture 
 narrative are often conceived with high poetic insight, and this "Dream of the 
 World's Tragedy" is, despite some trifling incongruities, a lofty and not inade- 
 quate paraphrase of the supreme climax of the inspired narrative.'— Z'7<W/» 
 Kevi'ew, 
 
 Marie Corelli. THE SORROWS OF SATAN. By Marie 
 
 Corelli. Crown Svo. 2.0th Edition. 6s. 
 
 ' There is in Marie Corelli's work a spark of the Divine. Her genius is neither common 
 nor unclean. She has a far-reaching and gorgeous imagination ; she feels the 
 beautiful intensely, and desires it. She believes in God and in good ; she hopes 
 for the kindest and the best ; she is dowered with "the scorn of scorn, the hate 
 of hate the love of love." There is to be discerned in her work that sense of the
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 23 
 
 unseen which is the glad but solemn prerogative of the pure in heart. Again, 
 she is a keen observer, a powerful, fearless, caustic satirist ; she makes an effec- 
 tive protest, and enforces a grave warning against llie follies and shams and vices 
 of the age.'— Report of a sermon delivered on 'The Sorrows of Satan,' by the 
 Rev. A. R. Hakkison, Vicar, in Tcttenhall Church, Wolverhampton, on Sunday, 
 November \i. — Midland Evening Nexvs. 
 
 'A very powerful piece of work. . . . The conception is magnificent, and is likely 
 to win an abiding place within the memory of man. . . . The author has immense 
 command of language, and a limitless audacity. . . . This interesting and re- 
 markable romance will live long after much of the ephemeral literature of the day 
 is forgotten. ... A literarj- phenomenon . . . novel, and even sublime.' — W. T. 
 Stead in the Review of Rezicws. 
 
 Anthony Hope. THE GOD IN THE CAR. Bv Anthony 
 IIorK, Author of ' A Change of Air, ' etc. Seventh Edition. Crown 
 %vo, ds. 
 
 ' A very remarkable book, deserving of critical analysis impossible within our limit ; 
 brilliant, but not superficial ; well considered, but not elaborated ; constructed 
 with the proverbial art that conceals, but yet allows itself to be enjoyed by readers 
 to whom fine literary method is a keen pleasure; true without cynicism, subtle 
 without affectation, humorous without strain, witty without offence, inevitably 
 sad, with an unmorose simplicity.'— T/te IVorld. 
 
 Anthony Hope. A CHANGE OF AIR. By Anthony Hope, 
 Author of ' The Prisoner of Zenda,' etc. Third Edition. Crown 
 8vo. 6s. 
 'A graceful, vivacious comedy, true to human nature. The characters are traced 
 with a masterly hand.' — Titties. 
 
 Anthony Hope. A MAN OF MARK. By Anthony Hope, 
 Author of 'The Prisoner of Zenda,' 'The God in the Car,' etc. 
 Third Edition. Crown Zvo. ds. 
 
 ' Of all Mr. Hope's books, " A Man of Mark " is the one which best compares with 
 " The Prisoner of Zenda." The two romances are unmistakably the work of the 
 same writer, and he possesses a style of narrative peculiarly seductive, piquant, 
 comprehensive, and — his own.' — Xational Observer. 
 
 Anthony Hope. THE CHRONICLES OF COUNT ANTONIO. 
 
 By Anthony Hope, Author of ' The Prisoner of Zenda,' ' The God 
 
 in the Car,' etc. Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 'It is a perfectly enchanting story of love and chivalry, and pure romance. The 
 outlawed Count is the most constant, desperate, and withal modest and tender of 
 lovers, a peerless gentleman, an intrepid fighter, a very faithful friend, and a most 
 magnanimous foe. In short, he is an altogether admirable, lovable, and delight- 
 ful hero. There Is not a word in the volume that can give offence to the most 
 fastidious taste of man or woman, and there Is not, either, a dull paragraph in it. 
 The book is everywhere instinct with the most exhilarating spirit of adventure, 
 and delicately perfumed with the sentiment of all he.oic and honourable deeds of 
 history and romance.' — Guardian.
 
 24 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Conan Doyle. ROUND THE RED LAMP. By A. Conan 
 Doyle, Author of ' The White Company,' ' The Adventures of 
 Sherlock Holmes,' etc. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 ' The book is, indeed, composed of leaves from life, and is far and away the best view 
 that has been vouchsafed us behind the scenes of the consulting-room. It is very 
 superior to " The Diary of a late Physician. " ' — Illustrated London News. 
 
 Stanley Weyman. UNDER THE RED ROBE. By Stanley 
 Weyman, Author of ' A Gentleman of France.' With Twelve Illus- 
 trations by R. Caton Woodville. Eighth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 'A book of which we have read every word for the sheer pleasure of reading, and 
 which we put down with a pang that we cannot forget it all and start again.' — 
 IVestiniKstcr Gazette. 
 
 ' Every one who reads books at .ill must read this thrilling romance, from_ the first 
 page of which to the last the breathless reader is haled along. An inspiration of 
 ' manliness and courage.' — Daily Chronicle. _ 
 
 ' A delightful tale of chivalry and adventure, vivid and dramatic, with a wholesome 
 modesty and reverence for the highest.' — Globe. 
 
 Mrs. Clifford. A FLASH OF SUMMER. By Mrs. W. K. 
 Clifford, Author of ' Aunt Anne,' etc. Second Edition. Crown 
 ?>vo. 6s. 
 
 ' The story is a very sad and a very beautiful one, exquisitely told, and enrichedvvith 
 many subtle touches of wise and tender insight. Mrs. Clififord's gentle heroine is 
 a most lovable creature, contrasting very refreshingly with the heroine of latter- 
 day fiction. The minor characters are vividly realised. " A Flash of Summer' 
 is altogether an admirable piece of work, wrought with strength and simplicity. 
 It will, undoubtedly, add to its author's reputation — already high — in the ranks 
 of novelists.' — Sfcakcr. 
 
 ' We must congratulate Mrs. Clifford upon a very successful and interesting story, 
 told throughout with finish and a delicate sense of proportion, qualities which, 
 indeed, have always distinguished the best work of this very able writer.' — 
 Manchester Guardia7i. 
 
 Emily Lawless. MAELCHO : a Sixteenth Century Romance. 
 By the Hon. Emily Lawless, Author of 'Crania,' 'Hurrish,' etc. 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ' A really great book.' — Spectator. 
 
 ' There is no keener pleasure in life than the recognition of genius. Good work is 
 commoner than it used to be, but the best is as rare as ever. All the more 
 gladly, therefore, do we welcome in " Maelcho " a piece of work of the first order, 
 which we do not hesitate to describe as one of the most remarkable literary 
 achievements of this generation. Miss Lawless is possessed of the very essence 
 of historical genius.' — Manchester Guardian. 
 
 E. F. Benson. DODO : A DETAIL OF THE DAY. By E. F. 
 
 Benson. Sixteenth Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s. 
 
 ' A delightfully witty sketch of society.' — Spectator. 
 ' A perpetual feast of epigram and paradox.' — Speaker. 
 ' By a writer of quite e.vceptional ;ibility.' — Athenceum. 
 ' Brilliantly wuU^n.'—lf^orld.
 
 Messrs. Metiiuen's List 25 
 
 E. F. Benson. THE RUBICON. By E. F. Benson, Author of 
 ' Dodo.' Fifth Edition. Crown ^vo. 6j. 
 
 ' Well written, stimulating, unconventional, and, in a word, characteristic. ' — 
 
 lUrmiiighaiH Post. 
 ' An exccptioii.il achievement ; a notable advance on his previous work.' — National 
 
 Obsei-vcr. 
 
 M. M. Dowie. GALLIA. By Menie Muriel Dowie, Author 
 of 'A Girl in the Carpathians.' lliird Edition. Crown Zi'o. 6j. 
 
 'The style is generally admirable, the dialogue not seldom brilliant, the situations 
 surprising in their freshness and originality, while the subsidiary as well as the 
 principal characters live and move, and the story itself is readable from title-page 
 to colophon.' — Satufitay Reviczv. 
 
 ' A very notable book ; a very sympathetically, at times delightfully written book. 
 — Daily Graphic. 
 
 MR. BARING GOULD'S NOVELS 
 
 'To say that a book is by the author of " Mehalah" is to imply that it contz^ins a 
 story cast on strong lines, containing; dramatic possibilities, vivid and sympathetic 
 descriptions of Nature, and a wealth of ingenious imagery.' — Speaker. 
 ' That whatever Mr. Baring Gould writes is well worth reading, is a conclusion that 
 may be verjr generally accepted. His views of life are fresh and vigorous, his 
 language pointed and characteristic, the incidents of which he makes use are 
 striking and ori^jinal, his characters are life-like, and though somewhat excep- 
 tional people, are drawn and coloured with artistic force. Add to this that his 
 descriptions of scenes and scenery are painted with the loving eyes and skilled 
 hands of a master of his art, that he is always fresh and never dull, and under 
 such conditions it is no wonder that readers have gained confidence both in his 
 power of amusing and satisfying them, and that year by ye.Tr his popularity 
 widens.' — Cotirt Circular. 
 
 Baring Gould. URITH : A Story of Dartmoor. By S. Baring 
 Gould. Third Edition. CrounZvo. 6s. 
 
 'The author is at his best.' — Times. 
 
 ' He has nearly reached the high water-mark of " Mehalah." ' — National Ohserrer. 
 
 Baring Gould. IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA: A Tale of 
 
 the Cornish Coast. By S. Baring Gould. Fifth Edition. 6s. 
 'One of the best imagined and most enthralling stories the author has produced.' 
 — Saturday Rez'ie~.v. 
 
 Baring Gould. MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. 
 
 By S. Baring Gould. Fourth Edition. 6s. 
 
 ' A novel of vigorous humour and sustained power.' — Graphic. 
 ' The swing of the narrative is splendid.' — Susse.t Daily A'aos. 
 
 Baring Gould. CHEAP JACK ZITA. By S. B.^ring Could. 
 
 Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' A powerful drama of human passion." — U'estiitinster Gazrtte. 
 'A story worthy the author.' — National Obsttvtr.
 
 26 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 S. Baring Gould. THE QUEEN OF LOVE. By S. Baring 
 Gould. Fourth Edition. Crown %vo. ds. 
 
 The scenery is admirable, and the dramatic incidents are most Striking.' — Glaz^ow 
 
 Herald. 
 Strong, interesting, and clever.' — Westminster Gazette. 
 ' You cannot put it down until you have finished it." — Punch. 
 
 ' Can be heartily recommended to all who care for cleanly, energetic, and interesting 
 fiction.' — Sussex Daily News. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. KITTY ALONE. By S. Baring Gould, 
 
 Author of 'Mehalah,' 'Cheap Jack Zita,' etc. Fourth Editioji. 
 
 Crown %vo. bs. 
 
 ' A strong and original story, teeming with graphic description, stirring incident, 
 
 and, above all, with vivid and enthralling human interest.' — Daily Telegraph. 
 'Brisk, clever, keen, healthy, humorous, and interesting.' — National Observer, 
 ' Full of quaint and delightful studies of character.' — Bristol Mercury. 
 
 S. Baring Gould. NOEMI : A Romance of the Cave-Dwellers. 
 By S. Baring Gould. Illustrated by R. Caton Woodville. 
 Third Editio7t. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ' " Noemi " is as excellent a tale of fighting and adventure as one may wish to meet. 
 
 All the characters that interfere in this exciting tale are marked with properties 
 
 of their own. The narrative also runs clear and sharp as the Loire itself.' — 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette. 
 ' Mr. Baring Gould's powerful story is full of the strong lights and shadows and 
 
 vivid colouring to which he has accustomed us.' — Standard. 
 
 Mrs. Oliphant. SIR ROBERTS FORTUNE. By Mrs. 
 Oliphant. Crown ?)V0. 6s. 
 
 ' Full of her own peculiar charm of style and simple, subtle character-painting comes 
 her new gift, the delightful story before us. The scene mostly lies in the moors, 
 and at the touch of the authoress a Scotch moor becomes a living thing, strong, 
 tender, beautiful, and changeful. The book will take rank among the best of 
 Mrs. Oliphant's good stories.'— Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 W.RNorris. MATTHEW AUSTIN, By W. E. Norris, Author 
 of ' Mademoiselle de Mersac,' etc. Fourth Edition. CrownZvo. 6s. 
 
 ' "Matthew Austin " may safely be pronounced one of the most intellectually satis- 
 factory and morally bracing novels of the current year.' — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 W. E. Norris. HIS GRACE. By W. E. Norris, Author of 
 ' Mademoiselle de Mersac. ' Third Edition, Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 Mr. Norris has drawn a really fine character in the Duke of Hurstbourne, at once 
 unconventional and very true to the conventionalities of life, weak and strong in 
 a breath, capable of inane follies and heroic decisions, yet not so definitely por- 
 trayed as to relieve a reader of the necessity of study on his own behalf.' — 
 A then<zum.
 
 Messrs. Metiiuen's List 27 
 
 W. E. Norris. THE DESPOTIC LADY AND OTHERS. 
 
 By W. E. Norris, Author of 'Mademoiselle de Meisac' Crown 
 
 Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' A budget of good fiction of which no one will tire.'— Scofsman. 
 ' An extremely entertaining volume— the sprightlicst of holiday companions.' — 
 Daily Teks^raph. 
 
 Gilbert Parker. PIERRE AND HIS PEOPLE. By Gilbert 
 
 I'ARKER. Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' Stories happily conceived and finely executed. There is strength and genius in Mr. 
 Parker's style.' — Daily Tctisrapli. 
 
 Gilbert Parker. MRS. FALCHION. By Gilbert Parker, 
 
 Auihur of ' Pierre and His People.' Second Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' A splendid study of character.' — A thetiwuiii. 
 
 ' But little behind anything that has been done by any writer of our time.' — Pall 
 
 Mall Gazette. 
 ' A very striking and admirable novel.' — Si. Jatness Gazette. 
 
 Gilbert Parker. THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. By 
 
 GiLUEKT Parker. Cron'n Svo. 6s. 
 
 ■ The plot is original and one difficult to work out ; but Mr. Parker has done it with 
 great skill and delicacy. The reader who is not interested in this original, fresh, 
 and well-told tale must be a dull person indeed.' — Daily Chronicle. 
 ' A strong and successful piece of workmanship. The portrait of Lali, strong, 
 dignified, and pure, is exceptionally well drawn.' — Manchester Guardian. 
 
 Gilbert Parker. THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD. By Gilbert 
 Parker. Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' Ever>'body with a soul for romance will thoroughly enjoy "The Trail of the 
 Sword." ' — St. James's Gazette. 
 
 ' A rousing and dramatic tale. A book like this, in which swords flash, great sur- 
 prises are undertaken, and daring deeds done, in which men and women live and 
 love in the old straightforward passionate way, is a joy inexpressible to the re- 
 viewer, brain-weary of the domestic tragedies and psychological puzzles of every- 
 day fiction ; and we cannot but believe that to the reader it will bring refreshment 
 as welcome and as keen.' — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 Gilbert Parker. WHEN VALMOND CAME TO PONTIAC : 
 The Story of a Lost Napoleon. By Gilbert Parker. Third 
 Edition. Crown Svo. 6s, 
 
 ' Here we find romance — real, breathing, living romance, but it runs flush with our 
 own times, level with our own feelings. Not here can we complain of lack of 
 inevitableness or homogeneity. The character of Valmond is drawn unerringly ; 
 his career, brief as it is, is placed before us as convincingly as history itself. The 
 book must be read, we may say rc-rcad, for any one thoroughly to appreciate 
 Mr. Parker's delicate touch and innate sympathy with humanity.' — J'all Mall 
 Gazette. 
 
 'The one work of genius which 1895 has a.s yet produced.' — New Age.
 
 28 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Gilbert Parker. AN ADVENTURER OF THE NORTH: 
 The Last Adventures of ' Pretty Pierre.' By Gilbert Parker. 
 Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' The present book is full of fine and moving stories of the great North, and it will 
 add to Mr. Parker's already high reputation.' — Glasgow Herald. 
 
 ' The new book is very romantic and very entertaining — full of that peculiarly 
 elegant spirit of adventure which is so characteristic of Mr. Parker, and of that 
 poetic thrill which has given him warmer, if less numerous, admirers than even 
 his romantic story-telling gift has don^.'— Sketch. 
 
 H. G. Wells. THE STOLEN BACILLUS, and other Stories. 
 
 By II, G. Wells, Author of 'The Time Machine.' Croivn 
 
 ?>vo. 6s. 
 
 ' The ordinary reader of fiction may be glad to know that these stories are eminently 
 readable from one cover to the other, but they are more than that ; they are the 
 impressions of a very striking imagination, which it would seem, has a great de:il 
 within its reach.' — Saturday Review. 
 
 Arthur Morrison. TALES OF MEAN STREETS. By Arthur 
 Morrison. Third Edition. Crown 2,vo. 6s. 
 
 ' Told with consummate art and extraordinary detail. He tells a plain, unvarnished 
 tale, and the very truth of it makes for beauty. In the true humanity of the book 
 lies its justification, the permanence of its interest, and its indubitable triumph.' — 
 A tliemeum. 
 
 ' A great book. The author's method is amazingly effective, and produces a thrilling 
 sense of reality. The writer lays upon us a master hand. The book is simply 
 appalling and irresistible in its interest. It is humorous also ; without humour 
 it would not make the mark it is certain to make.' — World. 
 
 J. Maclaren Cobban. THE KING OF ANDAMAN : A 
 Saviour of Society. By J. Maclaren Cobban, Author of ' The 
 Red Sultan,' etc. Second Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' An unquestionably interesting book. It would not surprise us if it turns out to be 
 the most interesting novel of the season, for it contains one character, at least, 
 who has in him the root of immortality, and the book itself is ever exhaling the 
 sweet savour of the unexpected. . . . Plot is forgotten and incident fades, and 
 only the really human endures, and throughout this book there stands out in bold 
 and beautiful relief its high-souled and chivalric protagonist, James the Master 
 of Hutcheon, the King of Andaman h'lmstU.'— Pall Mall Gazette. 
 A most original and refreshing story. The supreme charm of the book lies in the 
 genial humour with which the central character is conceived. James Hutcheon 
 is a personage whom it is good to know and impossible to forget. He is beautiful 
 withinand without, v/hichever way we take him.' — Spectator. 
 
 '"The King of Andaman " has transcended our rosiest expectations. If only for 
 the brilliant portraits of 'the Maister,' and his false friend Fergus O'Rhea, the 
 book deserves to be read and remembered. The sketches of the Chartist move- 
 ment are wonderfully vivid and engrossing, while the whole episode of James 
 Hutcheon's fantastic yet noble scheme is handled with wonderful spirit and 
 sympathy. "The King of Andaman," in short, is a book which does credit not 
 less to the heart than the head of its author.' — Athenceuin. 
 
 ' The fact that Her Majesty the Queen has been pleased to gracefully express to the 
 author of " The King of Andaman" her interest in his work will doubtiess find 
 for it many readers.'— Vanity I'air.
 
 Messrs. Metiiuen's List 29 
 
 Julian Corbett. A BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS. By 
 
 Julian Corbett, Author of * For God and Gold,' ' Kophetua 
 
 Xlllth.j'etc. Cr<Kun^vo. 6s. 
 
 ' In this stirring story Mr. Julian Corbett has clone excellent work, welcome alike 
 for its dibtiiictly literary llavour, and for the wholesome tone which pervades it. 
 Mr. Corbett writes with immense spirit, and the book is a thoroughly enjoyable 
 one in all respects. The salt of the ocean is in it, and the right heroic ring re- 
 sounds through its gallant adventures, in which pirates, smugglers, sailors, and 
 refugees are mingled in picturesque confusion, with the din of battle and the soft 
 strains of love harmoniously cl.-ishing an accompaniment. We trust th.it Mr. 
 Corbett will soon give us another taste of his qualities in a novel as exciting, as 
 dramatic, and as robustly human, as " A Business in Great Waters." '—Sptaker. 
 
 C. Phillips Woolley. THE QUEENSBERRY CUP. A Tale 
 of Adventure. By Clive raii.Lii'S Woolley, Author of ' Snap,' 
 Editor of ' Big Game Shooting.' Illustrated. Crown %vo. 6j. 
 
 This is a story of amateur pugilism and chivalrous adventure, written by an author 
 whose books on sport are well known. 
 
 'A book which will delight boys: a book which upholds the healthy schoolboy code 
 
 of morality.' — Scotsinait. 
 ' A brilliant book. Dick St. Clair, of Caithness, is an almost ideal character— a com- 
 bination of the mediaeval knight and the modern pugilist.'— W^;«/Va//y and Norse- 
 guards Gazette. 
 
 ' If all heroes of boy's books were as truly heroic as Dick St. Clair, the winner of the 
 Queensberry Cup, we sliould have nothing to complain of in literature specially 
 written for boys.' — Educational Revieiv. 
 
 Robert Barr. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS. By Robert 
 Barr, Author of ' From Whose Bourne,' etc. Third Edition. 
 
 Cro'vn 8z'(?. 6s. 
 ' A book which has abundantly satisfied us by its capital humour.'— Daily Chronicle. 
 ' Mr. Barr has achieved a triumph whereof he has every reason to be proud. —Fall 
 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 L. Daintrey. THE KING OF ALBERIA. A Romance ot 
 the Balkans. By Laura Daintrey. Crown Zvo. ds. 
 
 • Miss Daintrey seems to have an intimate acquaintance with the people and politics 
 of the Balkan countries in which the scene of her lively and picturesque romance 
 is laid. On almost every page we find clever touches of local colour which dif- 
 ferentiate her book unmistakably from the ordinary novel of commerce. The 
 story is briskly told, and well conceived.'— C/ajg-^wf Herald. 
 
 Mrs. Pinsent. CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD. By Ellen 
 F. Pinsent, Author of 'Jenny's Case.' Crown 2>vo. 6s. 
 ' Mrs. Pinsent's new novel has plenty of vigour, variety, and good writing. There 
 are certainty of purpose, strength of touch, and clearness oi\\&\on.'—Athcnauiit. 
 
 Clark Russell. MY DANISH SWEETHEART. By W. 
 Clark Russell, Author of 'The Wreck of the Grosvenor,' etc 
 Illustrated. Third Edition. Crown 2,vo. 6s.
 
 30 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 G. Manville Fenn. AN ELECTRIC SPARK. By G. Manville 
 Fenn, Author of ' The Vicar's Wife,' ' A Double Knot,' etc. Second 
 £dition. Crozvii Svc. 6s, 
 'A simple and wholesome story.' — Blanches ter Guardian. 
 
 Pryce. TIME AND THE WOMAN. By Richard Pryce, 
 
 Author of ' Miss Maxwell's Affections,' 'The Quiet Mrs. Fleming,' 
 etc. Second Edition. Croivn Zz'O. 6s. 
 ' Mr. Prj'ce's work recalls the style of Octave Feuillet, by its clearness, conciseness, 
 its literary reserve.' — At/ie>ia:zim. 
 
 Mrs. Watson. THIS MAN'S DOMINION. By the Author 
 of ' A High Little World.' Second Ediiio7i. Crown Zvo. 6s. 
 
 Marriott Watson. DIOGENES OF LONDON and other 
 Sketches. By II. B. Marriott Watson, Author of * The Web 
 of the Spider.' Crown 8vo. Bteciram. 6s. 
 ' By all those who delight in the uses of words, who rate the exercise of prose above 
 the exercise of verse, who rejoice in all proofs of its delicacy and its strength, who 
 believe that English prose is chief among the moulds of thought, by these 
 Mr. Marriott Watson's book will be welcomed.' — National Ubserver. 
 
 Gilchrist. THE STONE DRAGON. By Murray Gilchrist. 
 
 Crown %vo. Btickrani. 6s. 
 
 'The author's faults are atoned for by certain positive and admirable merits. The 
 romances have not their counterpart in modern literature, and to read them is a 
 unique experience.' — National Observer. 
 
 THREE-AND-SIXPENNY NOVELS 
 
 Edna Lyall. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. By 
 
 Edna Lyall, Author of ' Donovan,' etc. Foiiy-Jirst Thousand. 
 Crown Svo. y. 6d. 
 
 Baring Gould. ARM I NELL : A Social Romance. By S. 
 Baring Gould. JVew Edition. Crown Zvo. 35. 6d. 
 
 Baring Gould. MARGERY OF QUETHER, and other Stories. 
 By S. Baking Gould. Crown Svo. 35. 6d. 
 
 Baring Gould. JACQUETTA, and other Stories. By S. Baring 
 Gould. Crown Zvo. 35. 6d. 
 
 Miss Benson. SUBJECT TO VANITY. By Margaret 
 
 Benson. With numerous Illustrations. Second Edition. Crown 
 
 %vo. 35. 6d, 
 ' A charming little book about household pets by a daughter of the Archbishop of 
 
 Canterbury.' — Speaker. 
 ' A delightful collection of studies of animal nature. It is very seldom that we get 
 
 anything so perfect in its kind. . . . The illustrations are clever, and the whole 
 
 book a singularly delightful one.' — Guardian,
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 31 
 
 Mary Gaunt. THE MOVING FINGER: Chapters from the 
 
 Romance of Australian Life. By Mary Gaunt, Author of ' Daves 
 
 Sweetheart.' Crown %vo. 3^. f>d. 
 ' Rich in local colour, and replete with vigorous character sketches. They strike us 
 
 as true to the life.' — Times. 
 ' Unmistak.ibly powerful. Tragedies in the bush and riot in the settlement are 
 
 portrayed Tor us \n vivid colour and vigorous outline." — Vyestminsler Gazette. 
 
 Gray. ELSA. A Novel. By E. M'Queen Gr.\y. Crown Zvo. 
 y. ed. 
 
 J. H. Pearce. JACO TRELOAR. By J. H. Pe.\rce, Author of 
 'Esther Pentreath.' Nciv Edition. Crown Svo. y.6d. 
 The Spectator' speaks of Mr. Pearce ?^^' a^uriterof exceptional powcr'\ the 'Daily 
 Telegraph' calls the book ' poxverful and picturesqxte ' ; the ' Birmingham Post' 
 asserts that it is 'a novel of hish quality.' 
 
 X. L. AUT DIABOLUS AUT NIHIL, and Other Stories. 
 By X. L. Second Edition. Crown ?>vo. 3^. dd. 
 
 ' Distinctly original and in the highest degree imaginative. The conception is almost 
 as lofty as Milton's.' — Spectator. 
 
 'Original to a degree of originality that may be called primitive — a kind of passion- 
 ate directness that absolutely absorbs us.' — Saturday Review. 
 
 ' Of powerful interest. There is something st.irtlingly original in the treatment of the 
 themes. The terrible realism leaves no doubt of the author's power.' — Atlunceum. 
 
 O'Grady. THE COMING OF CUCULAIN. A Romance of 
 the Heroic Ap;e of Ireland. By Standish O'Grady, Author of 
 * Finn and his Companions.' Illustrated. Croivn Zvo. y. 6d. 
 
 ' The suggestions of mystery, the rapid and exciting action, are superb poetic effects.' 
 — Speaker. 
 
 ' For light and colour it resembles nothing so much as a Swiss dawn.' — Manchester 
 Guardian. 
 
 Angus Evan Abbott. THE GODS GIVE MY DONKEY 
 WINGS. By Angus Evan Abbott. Crown ?,vo. '^s. 6d. 
 
 ' What a relief to turn to a book like " The Gods give my Donkey Wings." There is 
 nothing but praise for this delightful storj-— excepting, perhaps, that it is too short, 
 and demands a sequel. Mr. Angus Evan Abbot is not set down as the rnaker of 
 other books; but assuredly there in no trace of the 'prentice hand in this. It is 
 the work of an artist from first to last. The quaint vernacular, so easily sustained, 
 the originality of the plot, the deft unravelling of ihemysterj-, the hurnour, the 
 exquisite setting, the person.-ility of the packman-biographer, the vivid and 
 differentiated personalities that make the storj', and the distant kinship to other 
 writers, should give Mr. Abbot his rank at once, and make his next book eagerly 
 awaited. One cannot imagine this writer deteriorating, and it is difEcult to guess 
 how he can improve. He seems to have crystalised once for all ; and there is no 
 flaw in the crystal.' — Vanity Fair. 
 
 Fenn. THE STAR GAZERS. By G. Manville Fenn, 
 Author of ' Eli's Children,' etc. New Edition. Cr. Svo. 35. 6d. 
 
 ' A stirring romance.' — IVestem Mornin;: Nnvs. 
 
 'Told with all the dramatic power for which Mr. Fenn is conspicuous." — T.rad/ord 
 Observer.
 
 32 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Dickinson. A VICAR'S WIFE. By Evelyn Dickinson. 
 
 Crown ?>vo. ji. 6d, 
 
 Prowse. THE POISON OF ASPS. By R. Orton Prowse. 
 Crown Siu. 3^. 6d. 
 
 R. Pryce. THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By R. Pryce. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 2^. 6d. 
 
 Lynn Linton. THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVID- 
 SON, Christian and Communist. By E. Lynn LiNTON. Eleventh 
 Edition. Post 8vo. is. 
 
 HALF-CROWN NOVELS 
 
 A Series 0/ Novels by popular Authors 
 
 2/6 
 
 J 
 
 1. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 
 2. DISENCHANTMENT. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 MR. BUTLER'S WARD. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 
 4. HOVENDEN, V.C. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 
 5. ELI'S CHILDREN. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 6. A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 7. DISARMED. By M. Betham Edwards. 
 
 8. A LOST ILLUSION. By Leslie Keith. 
 
 9. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. Clark Russell. 
 
 10. IN TENT AND BUNGALOW. By the Author of ' Indian 
 
 Idylls.' 
 
 11. MY STEWARDSHIP. By E. M'Queen Gray. 
 
 12. A REVEREND GENTLEMAN. By J. M. Cobban. 
 
 13. A DEPLORABLE AFFAIR. By W. E. NORRIS. 
 
 14. JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. NORRIS. 
 
 15. A CAVALIER'S LADYE. By Mrs. Dicker. 
 
 16. JIM B. 
 
 Books for Boys and Girls 
 
 A Series of Books by well-kno-wn Authors, well illustrated. 
 Crotvn %vo. 
 
 3)6 
 
 THE ICELANDER'S SWORD. By S. Baring Gould. 
 TWO LITTLE CHILDREN AND CHING. By Edith 
 
 E. CUTHELL. 
 
 TODDLEBEN'S HERO. By M. M. Blake. 
 4. ONLY A GUARD ROOM DOG. By Edith E. Cuthell. 
 
 J
 
 Messrs. Mkthukn's List 33 
 
 5. THE DOCTOR OF THE JULIET. By Harry Colling- 
 
 \VOOI>. 
 
 6. MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By W. Clark 
 
 Russell. 
 
 7. SYD BELTON : Or, The Boy who would not go to Sea. 
 
 By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 3/6 
 
 The Peacock Library 
 
 A Series of Books for Girls by well-known Authors, 
 handsomely bound in blue and silver, and well illustrated. 
 Crown ^vo. 
 
 1. A PIN'CH OF EXPERIENCE. By L. B. Walford. 
 
 2. THE RED GRANGE. By Mrs. MOLESWORTH. 
 
 3. THE SECRET OF MADAME DE MONLUC. By the 
 
 Author of ' Mdle Mori.' 
 4 DUMPS. By Mrs. Parr, Author of 'Adam and Eve.' 
 
 5. OUT OF THE FASHION. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 6. A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 7. HEPSY GIPSY. By L. T. Meade. 2^-. 6d. 
 
 8. THE HONOURABLE MISS. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 9. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By Mrs. Leith Adams. 
 
 University Extension Series 
 
 A series of books on historical, literary, and scientific subjects, suitable 
 for extension students and home-reading circles. Each volume is com- 
 plete in itself, and the subjects are treated by competent writers in a 
 broad and philosophic spirit. 
 
 Edited by J. E. SYMES, M.A., 
 
 Principal of University College, Nottingham. 
 
 Crown Zvo. Price {with some exceptions) 2s. 6d. 
 
 The following volumes are ready : — 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By H. de 
 B. GiBBiNS, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon., Cobden 
 Prizeman. Fourth Edition. With Maps and Plans. 3-f. 
 
 'A compact and clear story of our industrial development. A study of this concise 
 but luminous book cannot fail to give the reader a clear insight into the principal 
 phenomena of our industrial history. The editor and publishers are to be congrat- 
 ulated on this first volume of their venture, and we shall look with expectant 
 interest f.ir the succeeding volumes of the series.'— University Extension Journal.
 
 34 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 a history of english political economy. by 
 
 L. L. Price, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon. Second Edition. 
 
 PROBLEMS OF POVERTY : An Inquiry into the Industrial 
 Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. Hobson, M.A. Second Edition. 
 
 VICTORIAN POETS. By A. Sharp. 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By J. E. Symes, M.A. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY. By F. S. Granger, M.A., Lecturer in Philo- 
 sophy at University College, Nottingham. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE : Lower Forms. By 
 
 G. Massee, Kew Gardens. With Illustrations. 
 
 AIR AND WATER. Professor V. B. Lewes, M.A. Illustrated. 
 
 THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. By C. W. 
 KiMMlNS, M.A. Camb. Illustrated. 
 
 THE MECHANICS OF DAILY LIFE. By V. P. Sells, M.A. 
 
 Illustrated. 
 
 ENGLISH SOCIAL REFORMERS. H. de B. Gibbins, M.A. 
 
 ENGLISH TRADE AND FINANCE IN THE SEVEN- 
 TEENTH CENTURY. By W. A. S. Hewins, B.A. 
 
 THE CHEMISTRY OF FIRE. The Elementary Principles of 
 Chemistry. By M. M. Pattison Muir, M.A. Illustrated. 
 
 A TEXT-BOOK OF AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. By M. C. 
 
 Potter, M.A., F.L.S. Illustrated, -^s. 6d. 
 
 THE VAULT OF HEAVEN. A Popular Introduction to 
 Astronomy. By R. A. Gregory. With numerous Illustrations. 
 
 METEOROLOGY. The Elements of Weather and Climate. 
 By H. N. Dickson, F.R.S.E., F.R. Met. Soc. Illustrated. 
 
 A MANUAL OF ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. By George 
 J. BURCH, M.A. With numerous Illustrations. 35. 
 
 THE EARTH. An Introduction to Physiography. By Evan 
 Small, M.A. Illustrated. 
 
 INSECT LIFE. By F. W. Theobald, M.A. Illustrated. 
 
 ENGLISH POETRY FROM BLAKE TO BROWNING. By 
 W. M. Dixon, M.A. 
 
 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT. By E Jenks, M.A., 
 Professor of Law at University College, Liverpool.
 
 Messrs. Metiiuen's List 35 
 
 Social Questions of To-day 
 
 Edited by H. de B. GIBBINS, M.A. 
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