Let  the  reader  realize  this  scene,  and  connect  with  it  the  fact
that  he  had  been  that  day  working  at  the  mansion  of  a  gentle-
man who  afterwards,  most  probably  witli  an  utter  unconscious-
ness that  Mr.  Jay  had  ever  been  in  his  employment,  passed  upon
him  as  just  and  elegant  an  eulogy  as  perhaps  ever  was  passed
upon  him  ;  and  frankly  recorded  the  fact  that  he  had  been  him-
self a  learner  from  the  eloquent  piety  and  wisdom  of  William
Jay.  In  proof  of  this  we  present  the  following  interesting
statement,  which  appeared  in  the  Bath  Herald  immediately  after
Mr.  Beckford's  decease  : —

"  The  Christian  Contemplated  had  been  perused  Avith  much
interest  by  Mr.  Beckford,  as  appears  from  his  numerous  notes,
written  on  its  leaves;  and  from  which  the  follo\^•ing  is  extracted  :
'  This  man's  mind  is  no  petty  reservoir  supplied  him  by  laborious


LET.   Iir.]  MR.   BECKFORD  AND   FONTHILL  ABBEY.  25

pumpings — it  is  a  clear,  transparent  spring,  flowing  so  freely  as
to  impress  the  idea  of  its  being  inexhaustible.  In  many  of  these
pages  the  stream  of  eloquence  is  so  full,  so  rapid,  that  we  are
fairly  borne  down  and  laid  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  the  preacher,
whose  arguments  in  these  moments  appear  as  if  they  could  not
be  controverted,  and  we  must  yield  to  them.  The  voice  which
calls  us  to  look  into  ourselves,  and  prepare  for  judgment,  is  too
piercing,  too  powerful,  to  be  resisted;  and  we  attempt,  for
worldly  and  sensaal  considerations,  to  shut  our  ears  in  vain.'

"Beckford  told  me  that  Jay  of  Bath,  whom  he  had  gone  to
hear  incog.,  was  one  of  the  finest  preachers  he  had  ever  heard,
and  showed  me  his  sermons;  and,  curiously  enough,  he  had  a
correspondence  with  Jay  about  the  bad  poetry,  both  in  the
church  and  among  the  dissenters,  as  exhibited  in  the  hymns  and
psalm  versions  which  they  used." — Closing  Scenes,  Second  Series.
