Olney, Buckinghamshire

“ We make none but the cheapest laces, and the price of them is fallen almost to nothing. Thanks are due to yourself likewise, and are hereby accordingly rendered, for waiving your claim in behalf of your own parishioners. You are always with them, and they are always, at least some of them, the better for your residence among them. Olney is a populous place, inhabited chiefly by the half-starved and the ragged of the earth, and it is not possible for our small party and small ability to extend their operations so far as to be much felt among such numbers. ”

“ His house and garden at Olney retain relics of the poet, and the house at Weston also remains. In the garden at Olney are his favourite seat and the house in which he kept his tame hares. John Newton, curate of Olney, had the assistance of Cowper in the production of the collection of Olney Hymns. The trade of Olney is principally agricultural; the town also shares in the manufacture of boots and shoes common to many places in the neighbouring county of Northampton. ”

“ Readers of "N. & Q." who can supply any information respecting the removal of the church and town, or any other particulars (in addition to those contained in Dr. Lipscomb's History of Bucks) concerning the parish of Olney, including the hamlet and manor of Warrington, and the now district parish of Weston-Underwood, will greatly oblige
W. P. Storer.
Olney, Bucks.
Album.—What was the origin, and where do we find the earliest notice of the kind of friendly {236}memorial book so well known among us as an album? ”

“ Accept none but men—of the very highest bravery. Let them know that they are chosen for the post of danger, which is the post of honour, and permit none to serve who does not so esteem it."
Olney saluted, and went at once to the main floor, which, for drilling purposes, was shared by four companies. He stood still until his eye fell on Johnny Fairfax—him he called aside.
"You can get the whole sixty right here if you want to," Johnny told him. "But if you want to distribute things——"
"I do," said Olney.
"Then I'd take Keith, Carter, that teamster McGlynn, and Salisbury." ”

“ The little man, however, has an independent fortune, and has nothing to do but to trundle himself away to some other place, where he may find hearers neither so nice nor so wise as we are at Olney.
Yours, my dear Sir,
With our united love,
W. C.
TO MRS. NEWTON. [101] Olney, Sept. 16, 1781.
A noble theme demands a noble verse,
In such I thank you for your fine oysters. ”

“ Olney, as it is now written, a small market town, for many years the residence of Cowper, known by its twenty-four-arched bridge, now no more, "of wearisome but needful length" spanning the Ouse—Olney, together with the fellow towns of Newport-Pagnel and Aylesbury, are much quoted by the authorities of the last century, though, as is too often the case in books of travels and statistics, one writer copies from another the information derived from a preceding author. ”

“ With admirable precision, Olney's men, obeying a series of commands, moved forward from the gun to form a hollow square around the carriages. Only the man with the burning slow match was left standing by the breech.
From the carriages then descended Coleman, Truett, Talbot Ward, Smiley, and two other men whom neither Nan nor Mrs. Sherwood recognized. Amid the dead silence they walked directly to the jail door, Olney's Sixty breaking the square and deploying close at their heels. A low colloquy through the wicket now took place. At length the door swung slowly open. The committee entered. ”

“ You say well, that there was a time when I was happy at Olney; and I am now as happy at Olney as I expect to be any where without the presence of God. Change of situation is with me no otherwise an object than as both Mrs. Unwin's health and mine may happen to be concerned in it. A fever of the slow and spirit-oppressing kind seems to belong to all, except the natives, who have dwelt in Olney many years; and the natives have putrid fevers. ”

“ The names and sentiments are of course fictitious; is anything known of their origin?
P. P.
Olney.—Can any correspondent state what is the signification of this name? The ancient spelling is Olnei or Olney, not Oulney, as it has sometimes been spelled of late years. The difficulty is not as to the termination ey, but as to the first syllable.
The parish church, which stands at the southern extremity of the town, on the banks of the Ouse, is entirely (modern alterations excepted) of the fourteenth century. There is not a trace of any earlier work. ”

“ The house is old but convenient, and when you are got within the little paddock it stands on, you would believe yourself an hundred miles from London, which I think a great addition to its beauty.” Moses Brown wrote a poem upon it, the Duke and Duchess having appointed him their laureate for the nonce; but though written by their command, it was not published till after the death of both, and was then inscribed to her daughter, at that time Countess of Northumberland. If Olney had not a far greater poet to boast of, it might perhaps have boasted of Moses Brown. ”

“ It has in my eyes (and I doubt not it will have the same in yours) strong marks of providential interposition. A female friend, and one who bids fair to prove herself worthy of the appellation, comes recommended by a variety of considerations to such a place as Olney. Since Mr. Newton went, and till this lady came, there was not in the kingdom a retirement more absolutely such than ours. ”

“ The solitude, or rather the duality, of our condition at Olney seems drawing to a conclusion. You have not forgot perhaps that the building we inhabit consists of two mansions. And, because you have only seen the inside of that part of it which is in our occupation, I therefore inform you that the other end of it is by far the most superb, as well as the most commodious. Lady Austen has seen it, has set her heart upon it, is going to fit it up and furnish it, and, if she can get rid of the remaining two years of the lease of her London house, will probably enter upon it in a twelvemonth. ”

“ Yours, my dear friend,
W. C.
TO THE REV. WILLIAM UNWIN. Olney, July 3, 1786.
My dear William,—After a long silence I begin again. A day given to my friends is a day taken from Homer; but to such an interruption now and then occurring I have no objection. Lady Hesketh is, as you observe, arrived, and has been with us near a fortnight. She pleases every body, and is pleased, in her turn, with every thing she finds at Olney, is always cheerful and sweet-tempered, and knows no pleasure equal to that of communicating pleasure to us and to all around her. ”

“ Advancing out of Olney-street, we are at once on an open ascent on the highway. At a [Pg 452] mile's distance before us lies Weston and its woods, its little church tower overlooking the valley of the Ouse. Behind us lies Olney, its tall church spire rising nobly into the sky; and close beneath it the Ouse emerges into sight, sweeping round the water-mills which figure in the poet's works, and then goes in several different streams, as he says, lazily along a fine stretch of green meadows, in which the scenes of "The Dog and Water-lily," and "The Poplar Field" occur. ”

“ Its use along the Cascade Range generally meant huckleberries . The U. S . Geographic Board has adopted this form of spelling. OLENE , Klamath County . Steel says this name is an Indian word meaning eddy place , or place of drift , and that it was applied by Captain 0. C . Applegate in 1885. The original location of the post office was up Lost River from the present site . OLNEY , Clatsop County . Cyrus Olney was a native of Ohio . He was appointed supreme justice of Oregon Territory in 1853 , and re signed in 1857. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1857. ”

“ These are pleasing memorials, for we believe that the cottages of the poor will ever be found to be the best school for the improvement of the heart. After the removal of Mr. Newton to London, and the departure of Lady Austen, Olney had no particular attractions for Cowper; and Lady Hesketh was happy in promoting the project, which had occurred to him, of removing with Mrs. Unwin to the near and picturesque village of Weston—a scene highly favourable to his health and amusement. ”

“ The stanzas ' On the Fire at Olney, 1777, ' contain incidental glimpses into the dark and fearful condition (spiritually considered) in which Christian society exists, even in places where the Gospel is most faithfully preached, and where it seems to bring forth much fruit. They show us in what a perilous state of unpreparedness the majority of our fellow-creatures every night lie down to sleep,— though liable to be awakened at any hour, by a cry of fire, by the shock of an earthquake, or by the last trumpet itself, for aught they can foresee. ”

“ Fine painting, and God the artist. Mrs. Unwin has something to say in the cover. I leave her therefore to make her own courtesy, and only add that I am yours and Mrs. Newton's
Affectionate
W. C.
TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON. [277] Olney, June 4, 1785.
My dear Friend,—Mr. Greatheed had your letter the day after we received it. [278] He is a well-bred, agreeable young man, and one whose eyes have been opened, I doubt not, for the benefit of others, as well as for his own. He preached at Olney a day or two ago, and I have reason to think with acceptance and success. ”

“ He was also interested in the bees in the old-fashioned garden at the back of the house, where one may still see the little rustic summer-house in which John Gilpin and some of the Task were written. The house now contains a Cowper museum, and visitors thus have an opportunity of seeing the parlour and other rooms, besides many other interesting objects connected with the poet. His great friend at Olney was the Rev. John Newton. They were constantly together in their walks, in their homes, and at church, and both wrote a number of hymns. ”

“ If you are really serious in desiring to work out the end you have in view about Olney, you must bring Leith Pierrepont to terms as quickly as you can. There is absolutely nothing that will do it like feeling that you need a protector. In spite of the crime that he has committed, he is really a great prude himself, or poses as one, which is quite the same thing. He will not like to have the woman whom he wishes to make his wife playing poker, and it will bring him around more quickly than anything. ”

“ This they do not wish, for to plain people things not of earth are unwelcome; and besides, the Terrible Old Man often recalls what Olney said about a knock that the lone dweller feared, and a shape seen black and inquisitive against the mist through those queer translucent windows of leaded bull's-eyes. ”

“ The result was that Spurgeon never went to College. At Cambridge, on the anniversary of the Sunday-school Union in 1853, Spurgeon, then nineteen, was asked to make an address. Mr. Gould, a Baptist deacon, liked the address so much, that he spoke of it to Mr. [Pg 341] Thomas Olney, one of the deacons in New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, which had been one of the largest and richest of the Baptist churches in London. Mr. Gould thought the Waterbeach youth might put new life into the deteriorating church.
Spurgeon was invited to London to preach a sermon in December, 1853. ”

“ The wild ass, as it roams over the plains of Asia, or is seen in the Zoological gardens along with the gracefully-shaped and prettily-striped zebra, must be admired by every one.
Collins and the Old Donkey of Odell, Cowper's Messenger at Olney.
In July 1823, William Collins, R.A., visited Turvey, in Bedfordshire. His son remarks—"Besides the attractions presented to the pencil by the natural beauties of this [Pg 278] neighbourhood, its vicinity to Olney, the favourite residence of the poet Cowper, gave it, to all lovers of poetry, a local and peculiar charm. ”

“ Great Bridge idlers had much to say of Curwen's town house in Olney Court; not so much the fine new one built in 1761, when the man must have been nearly a century old but the first low gambrel-roofed one with the windowless attic and shingled sides whose timbers he took the peculiar precaution of burning after its demolition. ”

“ The crowd melted slowly. Soon were left only the inscrutable jail, the gun still pointed at its door, the rigid ranks of Olney's Sixty, who had evidently been left on guard, and a few stragglers.
Suddenly she turned and walked away. Mrs. Sherwood followed her as rapidly as she could, but did not succeed in catching up with her. At the corner below the Keiths' house she stopped, watched until Nan had gained her own dooryard, then turned toward home, a smile sketching her lips, a light in her eyes. ”

“ A few light and agreeable poems, two hymns written at Huntingdon, with about sixty others composed at Olney, are almost the only known poetical productions of his pen between the years 1749 and 1782, at which last period he committed his volume of poems in rhyme to the press. There are examples in the physical world, of mountains reposing in coldness and quietness for ages ”

“ TO THE REV. WILLIAM UNWIN. Olney, June 5, 1781.
My dear Friend,—If the old adage be true, that "he gives twice who gives speedily," it is equally true that he who not only uses expedition in giving, but gives more than was asked, gives thrice at least. Such is the style in which Mr. —— confers a favour. He has not only sent me franks to Johnson, but, under another cover, has added six to you. These last, for aught that appears by your letter, he threw in of his own mere bounty. ”