ers of the club, save when the ladies
cheered us with their presence. As a Scotchman he had a good share of
the dry humour of his nation. But chiefly did he shine when the brethren
met. Foremost of the party were Sloper of Beccles, who had talked on
things spiritual with Mrs. Siddons, Crisp of Lowestoft, Blaikie of
Bungay, Longley of Southwold, and others, who discussed theology and
metaphysics all the evening, till their heads were as cloudy as the
tobacco-impregnated room in which they sat. At all these gatherings
Alexander Creak of Yarmouth was a principal figure; a fine, tall, stately
man, minister of a congregation supposed to be of a very superior class.
One of his sons, I believe, still lives in Norfolk. As to the rest they
have left only their memories, and those are growing dimmer and fainter
every year.

At that time amongst the brethren who occasionally dawned upon our
benighted village were Mayhew of Walpole, good old Mr. Dennant of
Halesworth (of whom I chiefly remember that he was a bit of a poet, and
that he was the author of a couplet which delighted me as a boy--and
delights me still--"Awhile ago when I was nought, and neither body, soul
nor thought"), and Mr. Ward of Stowmarket, who was supposed to be a very
learned man indeed, and Mr. Hickman of Denton, whose library bespoke an
erudition rare in those times. Most of them had sons. Few of them,
however, became distinguished in after life; few of them, indeed,
followed their fathers' steps as ministers. One of the Creaks did, and
became a tutor, I think, at Spring Hill College, Birmingham; but the fact
is few of them were trained for contest and success in the world. As
regards myself, I own I was led to think a great deal more of the next
world than of this. We had too much religion. God made man to rule the
world and conquer it, to fight a temporal as well as spiritual battle, to
be diligent in business, whilst at the same time fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord. What I chiefly remember was that I was to try and be
good, though at the same time it was awfully impressed upon me that of
myself I could think no good thought nor do one good thing; that I was
born utterly depraved, and that if I were ever saved--a fact I rather
doubted--it was because my salvation had been decreed in the councils of
heaven before the world was. Naturally my religion was of fear rather
than of love. It seems to me that lads thus trained, as far as my
experien