Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/94

82 were utterly unknown, and in one of the wildest districts in England, whose inhabitants were a terror to the neighbourhood.

Well might Mr. Wilberforce compare these two brave ladies to Spenser's "Britomart," all unknowing that they were wont, among themselves, to term him "the Red Cross Knight." In addition to moral difficulties, the state of the roads—or no roads—was dreadful when, in the end of September 1789, five or six weeks after the consultation at Cowslip Green, Hannah and Patty started on a reconnoitring expedition in a chaise. Patty kept a journal which has since been published under the title of Mendip Annals. At a place called Cross they halted to make inquiries from a rabbit-catcher how the land lay. He was a Quaker, and a pious man; and his eyes filled with tears of joy at the hope that something was to be done for Cheddar. "You will have much difficulty," he said, "but let not the enemy tempt you to go back, and God bless the work."

He told them nothing could be done without the concurrence of a rich farmer ten miles beyond, so on they plodded, through shocking roads, to his house, arriving half starved. He was hospitable enough as to food, but when they unfolded their business he was very much shocked, declaring that religion would be the ruin of agriculture, and had done nothing but mischief ever since it had been brought in by the