ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY parish on a Sunday 'like a flying curate on Newmarket plain,' as he himself relates, and scarcely missing any duty in seven and twenty years. He would preach three times a day on Sunday, and take no solid food until the evening, when he could ' eat like a trooper and sleep well upon it.' This is truly an ' instance of perseverance and patient industry that perhaps deserves to be recorded,' to use his own words ; so also does the fact that at seventy years of age he was still at his post, and had never had a day's illness. 279 Amongst all these we may surely believe that there were always a few who lived quiet uneventful lives of a more priestly type. We may fancy it of one John Thomlinson, rector of Glenfield 1722-61, who spent much time and money on the beautifying of his church, and left for himself an epitaph which raises him above the level of his generation ; ' Canonice vixit sed nequaquam perfecte ; ideo paenitenter abscessit. Misereatur Deus.' X8 We know it as a certainty, without any stretch of imagination in John Bold, curate of Stoney Stanton 1702-51. In the portrait of this humble saint drawn by one of his successors there are many traits which remind us of the Cure d'Ars. In the simplicity with which from the very first he set aside all thought of preferment, and devoted himself to the service of a little country parish at 30 a year, in the unobtrusive asceticism and piety of his daily life, in the faithfulness with which he taught and visited his people, we recognize one of those hidden saints who may be found here and there, even in the most sordid and selfish ages of the world. Not many men even when the standard of priestly life is high would be content to board for fifty years at a farmhouse, with but a single private room to sleep in, and never a fireside of their own ; to read and write and prepare their sermons by the common hearth of the family all through the cold weather. 281 Yet this was the kind of life John Bold was willing to live from the beginning of his ministry to its end ; passing in and out amongst his people, always neat and always cheerful ; known as the parish priest by his bands and the ' large decent gown folded over and bound by a sash ' which he would never exchange for any other habit ; a living illustration of his own deep conviction that religion is indeed the most delightful of employments. 283 His people required no sensational sermons or elaborate musical services to bring them to church or show them their duty. 283 It was said that during the greater part of his ministry there was no felonious act committed in Stoney Stanton, and labouring men would leave the plough in the field on Saturday afternoon to come and hear his weekly exposition of the Catechism. His later years were a little troubled indeed by the talk of new lay preachers and un- authorized prayer-meetings ; and he bequeathed a portion of his little 179 Nichols, Leic. iii, 237. He served for many years Dalby, Gaddesby, and Keyham in this way. >sa Ibid, iv, 614. 181 It may be that many curates of the period lived in no better style ; but this one turned necessity into choice, and herein lies his claim to sanctity. For instance, his ordinary diet of one solid meal at midday, with a little water or milk gruel at night and morning, was no doubt sufficient for health, but he was a true ascetic in his quiet refusal to vary it ; we are told that he declined all invitations to dine with his well-to-do parishioners, and any little delicacies sent him were given away at once to the poor. w * Religion the most Delightful Employment was the title he gave to a little book of devotion compiled in his leisure moments. 133 The services in his time were mattins and evensong on Sundays, holy days, Wednesdays, and Fridays, all the year, and daily in Lent. Holy Communion was but four times a year. i 393 So
