’Until the sickness of his wife, a few months previous to her death, his health and spirits and faculties were unimpaired.  But this misfortune gave him such a shock, that his constitution gradually decayed.  His senses, except sight, still preserved their powers.  He never preached with steadiness after his wife’s death.  His voice faltered:  he always looked at the seat she had used.  He could not pass her tomb without tears.  He became, when alone, sad and melancholy, though still among his friends kind and good-humoured.  He went to bed about twelve o’clock the night before his death.  As his custom was, he went, tottering and leaning upon his daughter’s arm, to examine the heavens, and meditate a few moments in the open air.  “How clear the moon shines to-night!” He said these words, sighed, and laid down.  At six next morning he was found a corpse.  Many a tear, and many a heavy heart, and many a grateful blessing followed him to the grave.’

Having mentioned in this narrative the vale of Loweswater as a place where Mr. Walker taught school, I will add a few memoranda from its parish register, respecting a person apparently of desires as moderate, with whom he must have been intimate during his residence there.

    ’Let him that would, ascend the tottering seat
    Of courtly grandeur, and become as great
    As are his mounting wishes; but for me,
    Let sweet repose and rest my portion be.

    HENRY FOREST, Curate,’

    ’Honour, the idol which the most adore,
    Receives no homage from my knee;
    Content in privacy I value more
    Than all uneasy dignity.’

     ‘Henry Forest came to Loweswater, 1708, being 25 years of age.’

’This curacy was twice augmented by Queen Anne’s Bounty.  The first payment, with great difficulty, was paid to Mr. John Curwen of London, on the 9th of May, 1724, deposited by me, Henry Forest, Curate of Loweswater.  Ye said 9th of May, ye said Mr. Curwen went to the office, and saw my name registered there, &c.  This, by the Providence of God, came by lot to this poor place.

     Haec testor H. Forest.’

In another place he records, that the sycamore trees were planted in the churchyard in 1710.

He died in 1741, having been curate thirty-four years.  It is not improbable that H. Forest was the gentleman who assisted Robert Walker in his classical studies at Loweswater.

To this parish register is prefixed a motto, of which the following verses are a part: 

    ’Invigilate viri, tacito nam tempora gressu
    Diffugiunt, nulloque sono convertitur annus;
    Utendum est aetate, cito pede praeterit ajtas.’

323. Milton.

    ‘We feel that we are greater than we know.’ [Sonnet XXXIV. l. 14.]
    ‘And feel that I am happier than I know.’  MILTON.

The allusion to the Greek Poet will be obvious to the classical reader.