Thomas Doddridge

“ From such a catastrophe the hand of God saved Philip Doddridge. In 1729 he was removed to Northampton, and from that period may be dated the consolidation of his character, and the commencement of a new and noble career. The anguish of spirit occasioned by parting with a much-loved people, and the solemn consciousness of entering on a more arduous sphere, both tended to make him thoughtful, and that thoughtfulness was deepened by a dangerous sickness. ”

“ On 29 May 1730 Doddridge wrote a proposal to Jane Jennings (mother of Mrs. Barbauld) , then in her sixteenth year (ib. iii. 20, corrected by Le Breton, p. 201) . Nothing came of this, and in the following August he began the addresses which ended in his singularly happy marriage with Mercy Maris.
Meantime Doddridge had left Kibworth. In October 1725 he had removed his residence to Market Harborough, where his friend, David Some, was minister. By arrangement, the friends entered into a kind of joint pastorate of the two congregations. ”

“ DODDRIDGE or DODERIDGE, Sir JOHN (1555–1628) , judge, son of Richard Doddridge, merchant, of Barnstaple, born in 1555, was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 16 Feb. 1576-7, entering the Middle Temple about the same time. He early became a member of the Society of Antiquaries, then lately founded (Archaeologia, i.; Hearne, Curious Discourses) . In 1602 and 1603 he delivered some lectures at New Inn on the law of advowsons. In Lent 1603 he discharged the duties of reader at his inn. ”

“ The letter [151] we have just quoted was written the year before Watts died; Hervey lived ten years longer, but died at the age of forty-seven. He forms one of a cluster of men singularly interesting to contemplate. With Doddridge, from their vicinity in the same county, he was on terms of the closest intimacy. He was a large scholar, a poet by natural temperament, and an intense lover of natural description. ”

“ Live while you live, the epicure would say, &c.,
are repeating the epigram which Philip Doddridge wrote, and which Samuel Johnson pronounced the happiest in our language. And if the "Rise and Progress" shall ever be superseded by a modern work, we can only wish its successor equal usefulness; however great its merits we can scarcely promise that it will keep as far ahead of all competitors for a hundred years as the original work has done. Had Doddridge lived a little longer, missionary movements would have been sooner originated by the British churches ”

“ Doddridge, indeed, has this striking remark—“That a Being who is said not to tempt any one, and even swears that he desires not the death of a sinner, should irresistibly determine millions to the commission of every sinful action of their lives, and then, with all the pomp and pageantry of a universal judgment, condemn them to eternal misery, on account of these actions, that hereby he may promote the happiness of others who are, or shall be, irresistibly determined to virtue, in the like manner, is of all incredible things to me the most incredible!” ”

“ Watts’ life was uniform; we can scarcely point to a period and say the man woke into life and being then and there; but Doddridge reached his period of interior life and labour when he became pastor and tutor at Northampton, and it would almost seem as if disappointment in love made a man of him.
The work accomplished by Doddridge in the academy of which he was tutor was enormous, and it exhibits the thoroughness of the training in the small unostentatious academy where the Dissenting ministers of that day gathered their stores of knowledge, and received their education for the ministry. ”

“ This was the damning circumstance, Tom. She was fond of mustard,—I had often remarked it; and just see, now, on what a trivial thing a man's happiness can hang. For I own to you, so long as I was strong in what I fancied to be her good graces, I could have fought the whole regiment of Blues; but when I thought to myself, "She doesn't care a brass farthing for you, Kenny Dodd; she may be laughing at you this minute over the ham sandwiches,"—I felt like a drowning man that had nothing to grapple on. Talk of unhappy and injured men, indeed! Wasn't I in that category myself? ”

“ Strawbridge, to whom he had given a bond for 10,000l. that he would marry no one else (Walpole, Letters, i. 216, 296; ix. 91) . Mrs. Dodington died about the end of 1756 (ib. iii. 54) . Dodington left no children, and upon his death Eastbury went to Lord Temple, with whom he was connected through his grandmother (see above) . All but one wing was pulled down in 1795 by Lord Temple (created Marquis of Buckingham in 1784) , who had vainly offered 200l. a year to any one who would live in it. Dodington left all his disposable property to a cousin, Thomas Wyndham of Hammersmith. ”

“ No man," says Dodd, "was better qualified to come off with reputation in a personal conference than Mr. Goodin. He was naturally bold and intrepid; had a strong voice, a ready utterance, and generally made choice of such topics, as afforded him matter to display his eloquence and make an easy conquest." The Revolution of 1688, obliged him to withdraw from the public advocacy of his religion, but did not prevent him from continuing assiduously to labour in the same sacred cause. He died in Audcliffe in Lancashire, in the year 1695. ”

“ Doddridge's friends; such as Dr. Clarke, his constant adviser and considerate friend, whose work on "The Promises" still holds its place in our religious literature; Gilbert West, whose catholic piety and elegant taste found in Doddridge a congenial friend; Dr. Watts, who so shortly preceded him to that better country, of which on earth they were among the brightest citizens; Bishop Warburton, who in a life-long correspondence with so mild a friend, carefully cushioned his formidable claws, and became the lion playing with the lamb ”

“ In expressing slowness of apprehension this actor surpassed all others. You could see the first dawn of an idea stealing slowly over his countenance, climbing up by little and little with a painful process, till it cleared up at last to the fulness of a twilight conception, its highest meridian. He seemed to keep back his intellect as some have the power to retard their pulsation.’ Dodd left at his death a collection of books, largely dramatic, which formed a nine days' sale at Sotheby's, and realised large prices. ”

“ In 1711 Dodwell caught cold in a walk from Shottesbrooke to London, and died on 7 June in that year. He was universally esteemed as a most pious and learned man; his views were those of a staunch Anglican churchman, equally removed from puritanism on the one side and Romanism on the other. Thomas Hearne, the antiquary, was brought up at Shottesbrooke partly under his instruction, and constantly refers in his ‘Diary’ to ‘the great Mr. Dodwell’ as an unimpeachable authority on all points of learning. ”

“ I own to you, Tom, I experienced a degree of satisfaction at thinking that even to the observant eyes of Morris himself,—old soldier as he was,—the Dodds had passed for brilliant and fashionable folk, in the fullest enjoyment of every gift of fortune; but as quickly a more honest and more manly impulse overcame this thought, and in a few words I told him that he was totally mistaken; that I was a poor, half-ruined Irish gentleman, with an indolent tenantry and an encumbered estate; that our means afforded no possible pretension to the style in which we lived, nor the society we mixed in ”

“ I know, therefore, how ineffectual would it be for Kenny Dodd to enter the lists against such odds, and it is only under the seal of secrecy that I dare to mutter them. The widows and the fatherless form a strong category in foreign travel; dark dresses and demure looks are very vagrant in their habits, and I am not going to oppose myself single-handed to such a united force. But to you, Tom Purceli, I may tell the truth in all confidence and security. ”

“ Prefixed to the Works is a reprint of Orton, with notes taken from Kippis. Orton's Letters to Dissenting Ministers, 1806, supply some interesting hints; but the real Doddridge was first unveiled in the Correspondence, 1829–31. Stanford's Philip Doddridge, 1880, is the best life at present, yet a better is desirable; Stanford has worked in valuable materials from unpublished sources, but his book needs revision. Use has been made above of Stoughton's Philip Doddridge ... ”

“ I have been turning over in my mind what you said about Dodsborough; and though I don't like the notion of giving a lease, still it's possible we might do it without much danger. "He is an Englishman," you say, "that has never lived in Ireland." Now, my notion is, Tom, that if he be as old as you say, it's too late for him to try. They're a mulish, obstinate, unbending kind of people, these English; and wherever you see them, they never conform to the habits of the people. ”

“ But she muttered under her breath, as she went slowly down to the basement,—
"Poor Mr. G's gettin' worse of late, he is. I don't see as he ever will feel settled now. It's amazin' puzzlin', it is."
Yes, it was puzzling. And nobody better understood and pitied the kingly soul's perplexity than the good woman. Even Jack, the coachman, though he knew a good deal, had but a faint idea of what the poor gentleman suffered.
On the day when we saw Donald and Dorothy perched on the sofa, Mr. Reed had been remarkably changeful, and they had been puzzled and grieved by his manner toward Dorothy. ”

“ In 1763 he obtained a prebend at Brecon, and in the same year he was appointed one of the king’s chaplains,—soon after which the education of Philip Stanhope, afterwards earl of Chesterfield, was committed to his care. In 1768 he had a fashionable congregation and was held in high esteem, but indiscreet ambition led to his ruin. On the living of St George’s, Hanover Square, becoming vacant in 1774, Mrs Dodd wrote an anonymous letter to the wife of the lord chancellor, offering three thousand guineas if, by her assistance, Dodd were promoted to the benefice. ”

“ Before me sat Doddridge Knapp, the King of the Street, the man for whom above all others in the world I felt loathing and fear.
Doddridge Knapp finished signing his name to a paper on his desk before he looked up.
“Come in and sit down,” he said. The voice was alert and businesslike—the voice of a man accustomed to command. But I could find no trace of feeling in it, nothing that could tell me of the hatred or desperate purpose that should inspire such a tragedy as I had witnessed, or warn me of danger to come. ”

“ The absurdity I could laugh at, but there were some things in the matter not to be treated lightly. With my name at Ems they had no possible concern. Ems was in Nassau, not Baden. What could have persuaded my wife to call herself Dodd M'Carthy? We were always Dodd; we never had any other name. I could n't explain this, nor even give it a coloring; but I grew angry, Tom, vexed and irritated by the pestering impertinence of this pumping scoundrel. ”

“ Edward Dodd has told me he loves you. He is a fine noble fellow; you shall marry him: I wish it. Now, for his sake, summon all your resolution, and make up your mind to live. Why, at your age, it needs but to say, 'I will live, I will, I will;' and when all the prospect is so smiling, when love awaits you at the altar, and on every side! If you could leave your poor doting father, do not leave your lover: and here he is with his mother crying for you. ”

“ Foreground, and principal figure, Dodd père, seated Marius-like amidst the ruins, cravat in one hand, turban of a spoiled countess inadvertently grasped in the other; countenance strongly marked with intense perplexity, a kind of universal doubt of everything; prevailing impression of the figure, power, but power weakened by incredulity.
Middle distance, Mary Anne Dodd, dishevelled and weeping, gracefully draped, and the attitude well chosen. ”

“ Anything else would be downright tyranny and oppression, Tom,—as a mere momentary consideration of the matter will show you. At all events, let us get the money, for I 'd like to contest the point with these fellows; and if ever there was a man heart and soul determined to break down any antiquated barrier of cruelty or domination, it is your friend Kenny Dodd! As to that printed paper, with its twenty-seven queries, it is positive balderdash from beginning to end. ”

“ Dodington is now largely, and not undeservedly forgotten. His dinners and his dresses, his poems and his pamphlets, his plays and his passions—the wind has carried them all away. If Pope had not nicknamed him Bubo, if Foote had not caricatured him in "The Patron," if Churchill had not lampooned him in "The Rosciad," he would scarcely have earned in his own day the notoriety which the publication of his "Diary" had in a manner preserved to later days. If he was hardly worth a corner in the Whartons' picture-gallery he was certainly scarcely deserving of the attention of Browning. ”

“ The water pouring in from the northern sluice was forcing the tillers violently against the southern sluice gates.
"If them boys," said Tom Blake in an overwrought voice, "lets them tillers go round, it's all up with my pair o' boats. Lemme do it, you——" The rest of the sentence was mercifully lost in the thump with which Thomas's feet bounded on the Ashlade's cabin-top. He made Liz fast to the circular foot of iron chimney projecting from the boards; then, jumping back to the land, he said, more in sorrow than in anger: "Lazy little brats! an' they've 'ad their tea, too." ”

“ Lydia looked up when Donald and Dorothy entered, with a "Sakes! You've not been fretting again, Miss Dorry?"
"No—not exactly fretting, Liddy; that is, not very much. We just came down to—to— Give me an apple?"
"Steady! St-e-a-dy!" cried Liddy, as after her hearty "help yourselves," the brother and sister made a simultaneous dash at the pan on her ample lap, playfully contesting for the largest. "One would think you were starving."
"So we are, Liddy," said Dorothy, biting her apple as she spoke; "we are starving for a story." ”