Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/127

 the archbishop of York called upon Smith to attend personally to his parish. No clergyman had resided for 150 years, and the parsonage-house was a ‘hovel,’ worth 50l. at the highest estimate. Smith had either to exchange his living or to build with the help of Queen Anne's bounty. He took his family to Heslington, two miles from York, in June 1809. He could thence perform his duties at Foston, and try to arrange for an exchange. As an exchange could not be effected, he resolved to build in 1813, though the archbishop ultimately excused him, and finally moved into his new house in March 1814. The exile from London was painful, and Smith's biographers appear to think that he was somehow hardly treated. He took his position, however, cheerfully, and settled down to a country life.

Smith was his own architect, and built a comfortable parsonage-house and good farm buildings. He bought an ‘ancient green chariot,’ which he christened the ‘Immortal,’ to be drawn by his carthorses; had his furniture made by the village carpenter; caught up a girl ‘made like a milestone,’ christened her ‘Bunch,’ and appointed her butler. He made her repeat a quaint catechism, defining her various faults. Her real name was Annie Kay, and she nursed him in his last illness. His servants never left him except from death or marriage. He learnt farming, and wrote an amusing account of his first experiments to the ‘Farmers' Journal’ (given in Constable and his Correspondents, iii. 131 n.). He bred horses, though he could seldom ride without a fall. He was full of quaint devices; directed his labourers with the help of a telescope and a speaking-trumpet; and invented a ‘universal scratcher’ for his cattle. He became a magistrate, got up Blackstone, and was famous for making up quarrels and treating poachers gently. He had attended medical lectures at Edinburgh, and by his presence of mind had saved the lives of more than one person in emergencies. He now set up a dispensary and became village doctor. He helped the poor by providing them with gardens at a nominal rent, still called ‘Sydney's Orchards’ (, p. 184). He was on the friendliest terms with the farmers, whom he had to dinner, and learnt, in Johnson's phrase, to ‘talk of runts.’ He studied Rumford to discover the best modes of providing cheap food for the poor, and his ingenious shrewdness recalls Franklin, whom he specially admired (, ii. 136). Smith found time for a good deal of reading, laying out systematic plans for keeping up his classics as well as reading miscellaneous literature. He was writing French exercises in the last year of his life (, Diaries, vii. 370). He had to work in the midst of his family. He was devoted to children, lived with his own on the most intimate terms, and delighted them with his stories. Smith's retirement and comparative poverty cut him off from much social intercourse; but he occasionally made trips to London or Edinburgh, or received old friends on their travels. He became specially intimate with Lord Grey, to whom he paid an annual visit at Howick, and with the fifth and sixth earls of Carlisle, whose seat, Castle Howard, is four miles from Foston. His position was improved by the death of his father's sister in 1820, who left him a fortune of 400l. a year. The Duke of Devonshire, at Lord Carlisle's request, soon afterwards gave him the living of Londesborough, to be held till his nephew (a son of Lord Carlisle) should be of age to take it. Smith kept a curate, visiting the parish, which is within a drive, two or three times a year. He now, for the first time, was at his ease. Anxiety about money matters had hitherto been a frequent cause of depression (, i. 254). His opinions or other causes had excluded him from preferment. In the spring of 1825 meetings of the clergy of Cleveland and Yorkshire were held to protest against catholic emancipation. Smith attended both, and made his first political speeches. He proposed a petition in favour of emancipation, which received only two other signatures, and at the second meeting was in a minority of one. The change of ministry in 1827 improved his chances. After Canning's death he wrote to a friend in power, stating his claims (, i. 258). At last, in January 1828, Lord Lyndhurst, the chancellor, though a political opponent, gave him a prebend at Bristol, from private friendship. Smith confessed frankly his delight on at last finding the spell broken which had prevented his preferment. He confessed with equal frankness that he was ‘the happier’ every guinea he gained (, i. 273). He gave up writing in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ as not becoming to a dignitary. He offended the corporation of Bristol by preaching in favour of catholic emancipation; and a sermon on 5 Nov. 1828 induced them to give up for many years their custom of celebrating the day by a state visit to the cathedral. He now exchanged Foston for Combe-Florey, Somerset, six miles from Taunton, to which he moved in 1829. He brought his old servants, while he could now for the first time