a rough woodcut on the title-page, came by thousands from the printer’s hands.  In the first year no less than two millions were sold.  Amongst the tracts were The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, Black Giles the Poacher, History of Mr. Fantom, The Two Shoemakers, History of Tom White the Postilion, The Strait Gate and the Broad Way; and amongst the ballads Turning the Carpet, King Dionysius and Squire Damocles, The Honest Miller of Gloucestershire, The Gin-Shop, or A Peep into a Prison.

It would be difficult to over-estimate both the direct and secondary value of the Cheap Repository Tracts.  Their beneficial influence must have been incalculable; and for this reason they should be placed amongst the greatest and best work of Hannah More’s useful life.

By 1798 Miss More had withdrawn almost entirely from London society, contenting herself with a yearly visit of two months, which she divided between Mrs. Garrick, Bishop Porteus, Lord Teignmouth, and one or two others.  Her schools occupied the best part of her time; but frequent attacks of illness often interfered with her duties.

In 1799 her active pen was at work again.  Her third ethical publication, Strictures on Female Education, came out, forming yet another counterblast to the corrupt systems in vogue amongst the wealthy classes.

It would have been marvellous had Miss More escaped persecution in her work amongst rural populations.  Combating prejudices, introducing unheard-of innovations, adopting plans which rumour stated were deeply tainted with Methodism (and therefore bad, according to clerical and general opinion in those days), she had to encounter at last a pitiless storm of hostility.  This violent and prolonged attack, whilst it showed to what infamous lengths the tongues of slander, envy, and bigotry could go in attempting to destroy a noble woman’s reputation, tested to the utmost Hannah More’s fine qualities of Christian forbearance and courage.

V.

BARLEY WOOD, CLOSING YEAES AND DEATH.

In 1802 Miss More removed from Cowslip Green to a house which she had built at Barley Wood, about a mile distant.  Soon afterwards her sisters, having disposed of their house at Bath, came to live with her.  For the next twenty years, or more, friends from all parts sought her society, and strangers of all ages and of all ranks came for advice, sympathy, and help.  Her immense correspondence occupied a very large portion of her time.  There was scarcely a person at all prominent in the religious world who was not brought into association with her.