Page:The poetical works of William Cowper (IA poeticalworksof00cowp).pdf/41

Rh quiet and thoughtful face, strongly attracted the notice of a young man who had just returned home after graduating at Cambridge. He wished to call on Mr. Cowper, but his mother was against it, having heard that the stranger did not care for company. However, he addressed him one morning after church, and was cordially met. They took a walk together, were mutually delighted, and Cowper invited him to tea that afternoon. The new acquaintance was named William Cawthorne Unwin.

His father, the Rev. Morley Unwin, had some years before been master of the Free School at Huntingdon, but in 1742 had received the college living of Grim- ston, in Norfolk. On this appointment he had married Mary Cawthorne (much younger than himself), the pretty, clever daughter of a draper at Ely. Their I son was baptized at Grimston, March 15, 1744. But Mrs. Unwin did not like Grimston, and persuaded her husband to become non-resident. He returned with his two children (for they had now also a daughter) to Huntingdon, where he took pupils. Cowper, writing to Hill, describes this family, into which he was now introduced, as "the most agreeable people imaginable, quite sociable, and free from the ceremonious civility of country gentlefolks. The old gentleman is a man of learning and sense, and as simple as Parson Adams." He tells Lady Hesketh that he has just come from a two hours' walk with Mrs. U., and that "the conversation has done him more good than an audience of the first prince in Europe." He finds that they "have one faith, and have been baptized with the same baptism," and "gives God thanks, who has brought him into the society of Christians."

The intimacy increased, and Cowper found himself there constantly. In a few weeks (Nov. 1765) a pupil left Mr. Unwin. Cowper then begged to be taken as their lodger, and they gladly consented. The first agreement was that he should pay them eighty guineas a year; but when his means threatened to fall short, she offered to take half this sum. The following extract from a letter to his cousin, Mrs. Cowper, describes their manner of life together:—

"I am obliged to you for the interest you take in my welfare, and for your inquiring so particularly after the manner in which my time passes here. As to amusements, I mean what the world calls such, we have none—the place indeed swarms with them; and cards and dancing are the professed business of almost all the gentle inhabitants of Huntingdon. We refuse to take part in them, or to be accessaries