Eaton,  was  also  the  minister  at  the  old  Presbyterian
chapel.  He  was  a  man  who  combined  learning  with
considerable  discrimination,  and  he  did  not  fail  to
discover  in  his  young  pupil  the  germs  of  that  great-
ness which  afterwards  became  so  evident  to  all  the
world.  "  If,"  said  he,  "  that  lad  should  Uve  to  be  a
man,  and  an  opportunity  be  given  for  the  exertion  of
his  talents,  few  names  will  be  greater  than  his."

During  young  Clive's  residence  in  Knutsford,  he
spent  many  half-holidays  at  Sandlebridge  Farm  ;   and


84  MRS.   GASKELL

it  is  said  that  he  proved  his  subsequent  capabiHties
by  daring  exploits,  amusing  himself  and  alarming  his
relatives  by  jumping  from  one  stone  ball  on  the  gate-
post to  the  other.  Another  Knutsford  tradition  tells
of  a  feud  between  Dr.  Eaton's  scholars  and  a  miller
in  the  neighbourhood.  These  mischievous  school-
boys attempted  to  build  a  dam  across  the  little  stream
that  supplied  the  mill ;  but  failing  to  form  a  founda-
tion, young  Give  lay  across  the  brook  and  with  his
own  body  made  a  coffer  dam,  against  which  the
bank  of  sods  might  rest ;  the  work  was  completed,
and  the  brook  stopped  in  its  course  ;  only  for  a  short
time,  indeed,  yet  long  enough  to  satisfy  their  wish  for
a  schoolboy  freak.
These  stories  coincide  with  the  one  told  of  Give
when  living  at  Market  Drayton  in  1740,  when  he
alarmed  the  inhabitants  by  climbing  a  high  steeple,
in  order  to  extract  a  stone  from  the  mouth  of  a  gar-
goyle. Mrs.  Gaskell  makes  use  of  this  incident  in  the
story  about  Uriah  Hanbury  and  Monsieur  de  Crequy
in  My  Lady  Ludlow.
