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Rh sake of those "nearest and dearest to him" many privations, which made subsequent affluence more welcome. To improve his preaching he had studied elocution from Sheridan, the father of Richard Brinsley, though he thought that his tutor could not " exemplify his own very good rules." While in this suburban village, for such it then was, his lectures from the pulpit were described as " spirited and fervent, and his manners not less striking. His behaviour appeared quite frank and sociable, and indeed he is generally esteemed by his parishioners." Evidently he was acquiring in Essex the gifts and qualities which were fated to give him distinction in the wider circles of the metropolis. From 1776, when the notorious doctor Dodd was appointed to the united rectories of Hockliffe and Chalgrave in Bedfordshire, Warner seems to have done occasional duty at the former parish, and he was residing there in the summer of 1779. When he took up his abode at Hockliffe, George Selwyn sent a kindly description of his character to Lord Ossory, which that peer "found true in all particulars."

Warner's knowledge of Spanish led to his translating for the booksellers one of the leading romances in that language. This was the "history of the famous preacher Friar Gerund de Campazas," the composition of which was declared in the dedication to be the work of Francisco Lobon de Salazar, the name of the parish priest of St. Peter, at Villagarcia. It was in reality written in that town by his friend, Father Jose Francisco de Isla, a Jesuit who, after the expulsion of his order from Spain was exiled to Bologna, and died there in 1781 at the age of 78. This satire was directed against the popular style of preaching, which aimed at attracting the attention of the congregation at the outset through the quotation of a proverb, a popular jest or some pot-house witticism. From the first this romance was eagerly devoured, and the sobriquet of Friar Gerund was at once given to