also a considerable element of actual history. The
heroine, Dinah Morris, is, in some slight particulars at least, sketched
from Elizabeth Evans, an aunt of George Eliot's. Elizabeth Evans was born
at Newbold, Lincolnshire, in 1776. [Footnote: This subject has been fully
worked out in a book published by Blackwood, "George Eliot in Derbyshire: a
volume of gossip about passages in the novels of George Eliot," by Guy
Roslyn. Reprinted from London Society, with alterations and additions, and
an introduction by George Barnett Smith. Its statements are mainly based on
a small book published in London in 1859, by Talbot & Co., entitled "Seth
Bede, the Methody: his Life and Labors." Guy Roslyn is a pseudonym for
Joshua Hatton.] She was a beautiful woman when young, with soft gray eyes
and a fine face, and had a very simple and gentle manner. She was a
Methodist preacher, lived at Wirksworth, Derbyshire, and preached wherever
an opportunity occurred. When it was forbidden that women should preach,
she continued to exhort in the cottages, and to visit the poor and the sick
in their homes. She married Samuel Evans, who was born in Boston, and was a
carpenter. He had a brother William, who was a joiner and builder. Their
father was a village carpenter and undertaker, honest and respectable, but
who took to drink in his later years. He was at an ale-house very late one
night, and the next morning was found dead in a brook near his house.
Samuel became a Methodist and a preacher, but was teased about it by his
brother, who criticised his blunders in prayer and preaching. He was gentle
and very considerate at home, and was greatly attached to his brother,
though they could not agree in matters of religion. While they were
partners in business they prospered, but Samuel did not succeed when by
himself. Samuel and Elizabeth were married at St. Mary's Church,
Nottingham. In company with a Miss Richards, Elizabeth attended, in 1801 or
1802, a Mary Voce who had poisoned her child. They visited her in jail, and
were with her when she was hung in Nottingham. Elizabeth wrote an account
of her own life, especially of her conversion and her early work in the
ministry. Concerning the execution of Mary Voce, she gives this account:
"At seven o'clock [on the morning of the execution] we all knelt down in
prayer, and at ten minutes before eight o'clock the Lord in mercy spoke
peace to her soul. She cried out, 'Oh, how happy I am! the Lord has
pardon