stribution of the parish
gifts; and, being a lawyer it was not considered by the churchwardens, a
blacksmith and a builder, safe to refuse his kind and generous
assistance. He involved the parish in a law-suit once, in a question
relating to the duty to repair the parish pump; and since that time
everyone knew better than to ignore Mr. Prigg. I have heard that the
money spent in that action would have repaired all the parish pumps in
England for a century, but have no means of ascertaining the truth of
this statement.

Mr. Prigg was a man whose merits were not appreciated by the local
gentry, who never asked him to dinner. Virtue is thus sometimes
ill-rewarded in this world. And Mrs. Prigg's virtue had also been
equally ignored when she had sought, almost with tears, to obtain tickets
for the County Ball.

Mr. Prigg was about sixty years old, methodical in his habits,
punctilious in his dress, polite in his demeanour, and precise in his
language. He wore a high collar of such remarkable stiffness that his
shoulders had to turn with his head whenever it was necessary to alter
his position. This gave an appearance of respectability to the head, not
to be acquired by any other means. It was, indeed, the most respectable
head I ever saw either in the flesh or in marble.

Mr. Prigg had descended from the well-known family of Prigg, and he
prided himself on the circumstance. How often was he seen in the little
churchyard of Yokelton of a Sunday morning, both before and after
service, pointing with family pride to the tombstone of a relative which
bore this beautiful and touching inscription:--

HERE
LIE THE ASHES OF
MR. JOHN PRIGG,
OF SMITH STREET, BRISTOL,
ORIGINALLY OF DUCK GREEN, YOKELTON,
WHO UNDER PECULIAR DISADVANTAGES
WHICH TO COMMON MINDS
WOULD HAVE BEEN A BAR TO ANY EXERTIONS
RAISED HIMSELF FROM ALL OBSCURE SITUATIONS
OF BIRTH AND FORTUNE
BY HIS OWN INDUSTRY AND FRUGALITY
TO THE ENJOYMENT OF A _MODERATE COMPETENCY_.
HE ATTAINED A PECULIAR EXCELLENCE
IN PENMANSHIP AND DRAWING
WITHOUT THE INSTRUCTIONS OF A MASTER,
AND TO EMINENCE IN ARITHMETIC,