CLERICAL ATTENDANCE AT BALLS.

SIR,-Ever anxious to learn doctrinal and practical things alike of my superiors, and rarely wishing to proceed publicly on my own personal views, however I may deem them to be supported by scriptural precepts, without first taking the opinion of more eminent men in our venerable church, I humbly beg permission to ask-First, for your own opinion on the subject of clergymen attending at balls; secondly, for the opinion of Dr. Pusey; and, thirdly, for the opinions of any of your general readers. And I hope that these questions will be received as emanating from one who desires to have his mind informed and regulated by the deliberate opinions that may be pronounced.

As far as the writer of this letter can form an opinion, as gathered from the superior writings of antiquity and modern times, he is disposed to think that nightly dancing is not compatible with the serious walk and conversation of an ordained minister of Christ, nor can it be designated a salutary recreation. In Mr. Newman's Sermons—so firm and so original-he sees many passages inconsistent with a frivolous commerce with the world; as also in Bishop Sumner's writings; and Bishop Jebb, in the most direct language, forbade attendance in the ball-room. It is a fact that, at Cheltenham and Bath, clergymen do attend, often attired in a grotesque manner, at fancy-balls; and on my mentioning one, by name, to a clergyman in my neighbourhood, of great theological and literary research, and whose opinion ought to be decisive with me, he exclaimed, " Depend upon it, look at it in whatever light you may, that clergyman had not on a rag of the clerical character."

An able correspondent of the British Magazine some time ago shewed plainly, by citing the orders of various councils, that the wisdom of other ages was opposed to clerical sporting; and Bishop Mant has also clearly shewn its inexpediency in his "Clergyman's Obligations;" and I would wish that the voice of antiquity might also be heard as regards dancing &c., with due regard to the enervating tone, especially in a religious sense, of the modern ball-room. The classical reader will remember, as an extreme case, the scene that gave rise to the common proverb, ου φροντις Ιπποκλειδῃ, and that it is possible to come under the censure, ἀπορχησαν γε μην τον γαμον, I allude to this passage (in Herod., book vi. 129, Gaisford's edit.) because it will suggest an argument derived from a worldly source which may apply to balls.

With an earnest and respectful request to yourself, to Dr. Pusey, and to your readers in general, that answers may be obtained which may lead to a decision on the above point, and ready to succumb to the matured views of the earnest sons of our church in this matter of practical conduct, I am, Sir, your very obedient servant,

CLERICUS JUVENIS, M.A.*

The Editor is extremely sensible of the great honour done to him by the writer of this letter in requesting his (the Editor's) opinion on the subject of it, and will be very glad if the publication of the letter shall call forth that of the excellent and eminent person mentioned by name, or of others. He has himself several times inci

NOTICES AND REVIEWS.

Brief Memoirs of Nicholas Ferrar, M.A,, Founder of a Protestant Religious Establishment at Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire. Chiefly collected from a Narrative by the Right Rev. Dr. Turner, formerly Lord Bishop of Ely; and now edited, with additions, by the Rev. T. M. Macdonough, Vicar of Bovingdon. Second edition. London: James Nisbet & Co. 1837. pp. 220. THE illustrious Nicholas Ferrar was born on the 1st of February, 1592, and was admitted by baptism into the congregation of Christ's church on the 28th of the same month. He was the third son of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, a wealthy merchant, and of his wife, Mary, of whom Bishop Lindsell was accustomed to say, " he knew of no woman superior to her in eloquence, true judgment, or wisdom, and that few were equal to her in charity towards men, and in piety towards God." Ferrar's early proficiency was very remarkable. Before he was eight years old, he was placed at a school near Newbury, in Berkshire, under the superintendence of a Mr. Brooks. In his thirteenth year he was admitted as a pensioner at Clare Hall, Cambridge, of which society he became a fellow in 1610. His literary acquisitions and personal character were by this time so conspicuous, that Dr. Lindsell (afterwards Bishop of Peterborough and Hereford) was wont to exclaim, "May God keep him in his right mind! for if he should turn schismatic or heretic, he would make work for all the world; such a head! such power of argument! such a tongue! such a pen! such a memory withal he hath, with indefatigable pains, that all these joined together, I know not who would be able to contend with him!" After a residence of seven years at his alma mater, Ferrar was compelled, by severe attacks of the ague, to travel on the continent. He visited Germany, Italy, and Spain, and having met with several remarkable adventures and marvellous deliverances, he returned to England, and, in 1624, was elected a member of the House of Commons, where, observes his biographer, "he gained distinguished honour, and was appointed the principal manager to prosecute and bring to justice the great man and corrupt minister of that time," Cranfield, Earl of MidDisgusted, however, at the indecent triumph displayed on the fall of the lord treasurer, and sighing for rural peace, Ferrar availed himself of the first opportunity of retiring from public life. In 1625 he removed, with his aged mother, (and now only surviving parent,) to Little Gidding, an almost depopulated place, near Huntingdon; the manor-house (which had been purchased by Mrs. Ferrar the year before) and a cottage for the shepherds being the only habitations in the

dentally given his opinion on the matter in the Magazine. If Clericus Juvenis will look at the note on Dr. Elrington's letter (in the last page but one), he will see why his request is not further complied with on this occasion, and an opinion formally given. Whichever way it went, it would be quite sure to call forth remark, and entail the necessity of reply; and the Editor has no wish at all to worry his readers by directing their attention to himself in a fresh matter. But can it really be true that there are clergymen who exhibit themselves in fancy-dresses at balls?-ED.

parish. On his mother's arrival at this sequestered scene, Ferrar entreated her to enter his rude house, and repose herself after her journey. "Not so, my son," she replied; "not so: yonder I see the church; thither let us go, to give God thanks that he has brought me to this good place, and restored to me my son." The church had been sacrilegiously and profanely turned into a barn by the former proprietor of Gidding, and was now full of hay; "but Mrs. Ferrar had in her devotion a spark of that fire which warmed the breast of Monica the mother of St. Augustine, of whom her son affirms, that if a dragon had stood between her and the altar, he verily believed she would have stepped through him to advance thither.' So this devout matron persisted in her ardent resolution, and, thrusting herself into the church a little way, she kneeled, and prayed and wept there for some time; then coming forth, she charged her son to send instantly for all the workinen about the house, which were many, and commanded them to fling out all the hay at the church window, and to clean it as well as they could for the present. She was obeyed; and she saw all this done before she would stir, or set her foot within the door of her future abode. Such was this matron's zeal for the Lord's house, such was her love for the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwelleth.'" This admirable lady was not merely satisfied with the decent appearance of the church of God, she would have it also adorned. She ordered the walls to be wainscoted, and the floor neatly boarded. She adorned the communion table with carpets of blue silk, embroidered with gold. She covered the floor upon which the altar was raised with sky-coloured silk, the benches round the chancel with blue taffeta, and all the rest, we are told, "was suitable and very noble; but these were ornaments only for Sundays and holidays. There were carpets of tapestry and green cloth for the week-days; there was a font set up, and a great eagle of brass, to hold a fair large Bible." Mrs. Ferrar thought it no mark of" spiritual religion" to refuse to worship the Lord in the "outward beauty of holiness." Early on Trinity Sunday, in the year 1626, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, Ferrar was ordained deacon in Henry the Seventh's chapel, by Laud. His "godly fear" deterred him from advancing to the sacerdotal office. Towards evening he returned to his mother, and said, that "he would separate himself to serve God in his holy callingnamely, to be a Levite himself in his own house, and to make his own relations, who were many, his cure of souls;" adding, "that he had that day received episcopal authority to do so." after his ordination, Ferrar was pressed by a nobleman to accept a living of 3007. a-year; another courted him to take a presentation of 400l. a-year. He refused both these offers, and, "bidding a long farewell to the great and busy world, he, with his mother and family, returned to Little Gidding." Presently after his arrival he built a handsome school-house, where not only the children of his own household, but also those of the adjoining parishes, had liberty to He assigned to all his female relations, according to their ages and conditions, "chambers, closets, gardens, and walks of pleasure; he fitted up convenient accommodations for the schoolmasters and

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scholars, and placed his own lodging so centrally in the house, that he could hear everything, and attend to the preservation of good order." The habit of the young women was a black stuff, and always the same. They made their needles and their scissors serve the altar and the poor. They were "fine surgeons." None of them were fastidious about dressing, with their own hands, the wounds of the poor; and, together with helps and comforts for the body, these young ladies, of whom there were upwards of nine, were able and ready to administer good counsels, with prayers and spiritual comforts, to their patients for their souls' health. On the Sunday, Mr. Ferrar's family rose, as on other days, at five o'clock in winter, and four in summer; Mrs. F. herself would be up at five! After private prayer in their own chambers, they repaired to a spacious apartment, where their pastor was their leader in all their morning and evening devotional exercises. To him the young people repeated the chapters and psalms they had committed to memory, which usually lasted till about seven o'clock. At nine, the household reassembled in the great chamber, where a hymn was sung, the organ accompanying their voices. They then proceeded, by a covered way, from the house to the church, in order, two and two, according to their ages and conditions; the three schoolmasters in gowns, leading the way; the youths, in black gowns, following: then appeared Mr. Ferrar, leading his aged and venerable mother, his two brothers going before her, and all the children after her. The servants closed the procession. The masters took their places in the chancel; the boys kneeled on the upper steps ascending into the chancel; the women sat by themselves (as was the custom in the ancient church); the reading-desk and pulpit stood opposite to each other, and were of equal height. The family and household of Gidding Hall being thus arranged, Mr. Ferrar, habited in his surplice and hood, then stepped into the reading-desk, and officiated at divine service. After returning home, his elder nieces, and some others deputed to that office, sat in a gallery, if it were summer time, or, if it were winter, in their large room with a fire, where the children repeated to them the psalms they had learned out of the book the week before. These children were of the neighbouring parishes, to whom notice was given, that such of them as would take the pains to learn the psalms by heart, and come on Sunday morning to repeat them, at Gidding, should have, each of them, a Psalter bestowed on them, a penny, and their Sunday dinner into the bargain. The consequences of their Sunday tuition were not confined to themselves. A mighty change was wrought in the whole neighbourhood, and this one devout family is said to have brought again the golden age of the church, as it is described by St. Jerome, when "every ploughman and every day-labourer refreshed himself at his toil by singing the psalms, and knew the time of the day, without the sun, by the progress he had made in his Psalter." At half-past ten the minister of the next parish came with his own people, to preach there. The bell rang again to church, and the whole family, with the psalm's-children, as they were called, met him, and having taken their places, Mr. Ferrar went up to the chancel, and, at the communion-table, read the second service; which, being

ended, and a psalm sung, their neighbouring minister preached. They returned to the house in the same order in which they came from it. At dinner, the children stood; and all the household standing in the great dining-room, a hymn was sung by them, the organ playing. While they were eating, one of the family, whose turn it was, read a chapter in the Bible. After dinner, all had liberty to go whither they pleased; some to the gardens and orchards, others to their chambers and closets. About two o'clock they repaired together for evening service to Steeple Gidding church, about a mile from the manor-house. On their return, the children went into the great chamber, and repeated all the psalms which they had learned and said in several portions during the week. At six, they came into the great parlour. The organ then began to play, and they to sing their anthem, whilst the refreshment was putting on the table. After grace, one read a chapter, and then another read a story out of the Book of Martyrs, or some part of sacred history. In summer time, after supper, most of them recreated themselves by walking; in winter, those who preferred it retired to their own apartments, or joined the elder people, who commonly entertained each other and the young with some useful discourse. At eight o'clock they were summoned to the oratory, where their devotional exercises again commenced by singing an anthem; then followed the evening family prayer; after which they separated for the night. On the first Sunday of the month, and on the great solemn festivals, they celebrated the commemorative sacrifice of the eucharist, without fail; and on these high days the servants that feasted with them in the church were not thought unworthy to eat in the parlour with them.

On week-days this little community rose as early, at least, as on Sundays; after their private devotions, they came into the great chamber before mentioned, where the younger nephews and nieces repeated to Mr. Ferrar himself some of the psalms or chapters they had learned that week. At six, the company that had the charge began the psalms appointed to that hour, for each hour of the day had a certain proportion of psalms allotted to be said in it by some part or division of the family, and they all knew their order and time of attendance: so that "the whole Psalter was duly and devoutly said over by them, verse by verse, interchangeably, within the compass of the twenty-four hours!" The gospels were all said over in every month. A short hymn also was sung each hour, the organ playing to it. After the offices for both six and ten o'clock, they attended prayers at church, where the litany, by permission of the bishop of the diocese, was said every day in the week. During dinner, interesting and instructive books were read aloud by the youths in turn. Mr. Ferrar revived the practice of keeping vigils. The vigil commenced at nine, and continued till one in the morning. The two of either sex who watched together said, reverently and distinctly, all the Psalms of David which they had not repeated in the ordinary course during the day, one of them reciting one verse of the psalm, and the other saying the following verse, by way of response. Mr. Ferrar always rose at one, and, VOL. XIII.-Feb. 1838.

Z