A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE Bosworth and Lutterworth, the number of celebrations varied from six to eight in a year, but the usual number was three or four. As the century went on, the week-day services were gradually dropped, until they became the exception rather than the rule. Nichols has preserved for us some very interesting portraits of Leicester- shire divines of the eighteenth century, many of them drawn from personal observation. A few of them should be noticed here, if only to show what changes may be wrought in less than a hundred years. There is probably no period of Church history in which we feel less at home than that of the Georges. Strangely far away from our own day and the modern standard of clerical life are such men as Nathaniel Heyrick, rector of Loddington 1737 67, 'perhaps better fitted for this world than any other state'; an excellent whist player, who played for larger sums ' than is usual in his way of life,' a wit and pleasant companion at dinner, acquainted with the best of the county, and ' with such only would be acquainted.' 27S James Hitchcock ofBitteswell (1762-89), 'a literal bookworm'; ' never known to apply his great erudition ... to the glory of God, nor the improvement of his fellow creatures,' m was probably an unusual type even in his own day ; now he is almost impossible. Neither public opinion nor the activity of our modern bishops could now endure such a man as William Wragge, vicar of Frisby- on-the-Wreak 176989, who openly boasted that he would marry any who presented themselves, and lived for thirty years mainly on the fees offered him by runaway couples. He was at last brought to trial, and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years for marrying a man and woman without banns or licence ; and left his church in miserable condition, the floor, the pulpit, the pews and all the furniture in ' shameful neglect and filth.' m These are extreme cases ; but there are other types less unpleasing, which have now become almost as rare, such as Dr. Taylor, rector of Market Bosworth in 1740, 'in size, figure, countenance, and manner like a hearty English squire with the parson super-induced ' ; a justice of the peace, and deeply interested in cattle breeding. 278 Or Dr. Heathcote, rector successively of St. Margaret's, Leicester, of Barkby, and Sileby, from 1765 to 1795, but a stranger to Leicestershire nearly all the time ; a frequenter of coffee-houses, a lover of epigrams and bons mots, and something of a politician too. ' Con- tented and resigned, I enjoy myself reasonably well,' he wrote to Nichols, when a happy conjunction of preferments seemed to ensure him a comfortable old age. 377 There are many men alive who remember pluralists of the type of the rector of South Croxton, Philip Hacket ; a man who did his work energeti- cally and conscientiously according to his lights ; m riding from parish to 71 It was Cole the antiquary who summed him up as perhaps better fitted for this world than any other ; though he speaks charitably and regretfully of him and willingly undertakes to pray for the repose of his soul ; Nichoh, Lew. ii, 1 1 27, and Appendix. 74 Ibid . iv, 47. It is not surprising to hear that his church was deserted, and those of his parishioners who were devout became dissenters. 75 Nichols, Leic. iii, 262. He was allowed to banish himself, instead of being actually transported, in consideration of his age and infirmity. 76 Ibid, iv, 514. ' Ibid, iii, 425-8. His own frankly egoistic account of his life is printed in full. 78 Including the repair of the steeple of South Croxton, by menaces and other influential means' brought to bear upon his parishioners ; ibid, ii, 263. 392
