"The truth is that Kyrle was a man of known
integrity and active benevolence, by whose
assiduity and interest the wealthy were
persuaded to contribute to his schemes. This
influence he obtained by an example of
liberality exerted to the utmost extent of his
power, and he was thus able to give more
than he actually had. The man who has
reduced his own wants to very few, and who
lives for others rather than for himself, will
find many to assist him in his fervid and
active benevolence. He may do much, even
when unassisted, but he will accomplish more
when he adds to his own example the necessary
offices of intervention and solicitation."

"When Pope," my coach-companion
continued, 'published his verses Mr. Kyrle's
grave in the chancel of the church at Ross was
then unmarked. He has mentioned the
circumstance."—Yes, I remember, I replied,—

      "And what? no monument, inscription, stone?
       His race, his form, his name almost unknown."

"True," said my companion," and let me add
a further particular from the same letter.—
' I was not sorry,' writes Pope, to the old
bookseller, ' that he had no monument, and
will put that circumstance into a note,
perhaps into the body of the poem itself,—
unless (mark the ingenuity of Pope) you
intreat the contrary in your own favour by
your zeal to erect one.' But Tonson had not the
zeal: yet he was very rich."

"I am unwilling," I observed with a smile,
—my mind running on some anecdotes of
Tonson's parsimony " to diminish the interest that
must always be felt in the name of Kyrle
—my only wish is to arrive at the truth.
Pope's commentators have been very unjust
to his memory. "Warton calls him the Howard
of his time, and Bowles the modern Chandos.
Now Kyrle's exertions were confined to a
petty village, while Howard's extended from
London, into the heart of Russia; and as for
ostentation—the ruling passion of the Duke
of Chandos—there seems to have been no
spark of that evil nature in the whole of
Kyrle's composition."

At this period of our conversation our
coachman joined in with, " You are talking
about the Man of Ross, ai'nt you? . . .
"Well, I can tell you something about him,
which people don't generally know, and when
they do know, don't generally believe. The
Man of Ross, sir,— was taken up as a
highwayman."—" Quite true, coachman," my
clerical friend observed. " The fact is first told
by Stephen Duck the thresher-poet. Pope's
friend, Spence, was curious about Kyrle, and
made some enquiries of the thresher, whose
letter in reply, states that Kyrle was a tall, thin
man, and went so plain in his dress that when
he worked in the fields with his own labourers,
(which he frequently did), he was not
distinguished from them by anything more than a
certain dignity in his air and countenance. He
kept two public days in a week—the market-
day and Sunday. On the former the neighbouring
gentlemen and farmers dined with him;
and, if they had any differences or disputes,
instead of going to law, they appealed to
the Man of Ross. His decision was generally
final. At these entertainments he did not
treat them with wines, but with cider and
good strong beer. On other occasions he
lived frugally. The circumstances under
which he was taken as a highwayman are now,
as far as I have inquired, wholly unknown.
Three persons went, it is said, each in a
coach and six to bail him. Such," continued
my acquaintance, " was the Man of Ross,—

       "His virtues walked their narrow round,
          Nor made a pause, nor left a void;
       And sure the Eternal Master found
          The single talent well employed."

"But I am near my journey's end. I live
under the shade of that spire (pointing to an
Early English spire embosomed in trees)—
that is my church—and, if you like a pleasant
country, a cheerful cider-cup, a well-aired
bed, and a game at backgammon, I shall be
glad to see you." With that he said good-bye,
slipped a shilling into the coachman's
hand, and disappeared, surrounded as he
went by the pleasant faces of many of his
parishioners.

The coachman told me, when he was still in
sight, that if I had a spare day or two on my
hands, I should do well to accept the vicar's
invitation. " He lives very comfortably, has
a kind-hearted wife, is liked by all around,
and has an extra horse in the stable for a
friend. I'd as soon go," was his summary
observation, " to his vicarage as to any house
in the whole of Herefordshire."

I have not as yet been able to make good
my intention of visiting the worthy vicar; but
shall certainly do so before another year is
over. I have heard from him with other
particulars about the Man of Ross, and with a
pressing invitation to accompany him in a
day's ramble to search for all that remains
of Haywood Forest, in Herefordshire,—the
original scene of Milton's Comus. " We dine,"
he says, " every week-day at two,—that is the
hour at which the Man of Ross dined,—and my
Sunday dinner is very often, too, like his, a
rump of beef, with vegetables from my own
garden."

NORTH AND SOUTH.
By the AUTHOR OF MARY BARTON.
Will be completed on the Twenty-Seventh of January,
in No. 253.

On the Third of February will be published,
price 5s. 6d., cloth boards,
THE TENTH VOLUME
OF
HOUSEHOLD WORDS.
Containing, from No. 230 to No. 253 (both inclusive), and
the Extra Christmas Number entitled THE SEVEN
POOR TRAVELLERS.