William Laud

“ But during the weeks that Ray had been growing in favor with his teachers and the majority of his schoolmates, there was one who steadily refused to like him. Edward Lawton at first treated Ray with a cool indifference, while he tried, by hard study, to keep the lead over him. Had he studied as conscientiously as Ray, and with the same desire to thoroughly master each lesson, he might easily have kept the supremacy he already held; for he was naturally a talented and gifted boy. But he cared nothing for knowledge in itself, and studied only for the honor of leading his class. ”

“ Greenough, a little impatiently, looking at Edward Lawton and not at Ray as he spoke, "it is strange, Ray, that you who are usually so careful in everything else should so often mislay, just at the moment of recitation, that which is most necessary to the success of your work. Possibly your paper may have dropped upon the floor, and some scholar has found it. If so, I trust he will be honorable enough to hand it to me before the close of school. If not, I see no other alternative: you must remain after school and perform the examples again." ”

“ In November 1630 he spoke strongly in the Star-chamber against Alexander Leighton (1568–1649) [q. v.] , and it is said that a common feeling against aggressive puritanism drew him on that occasion to contract an intimate friendship with Laud, which continued to his death (Leighton, Epitome, 1646) . ”

“ I pray you let me take you so far.”
“By no means,” said she, “our ways lie in different directions. I have a conductor, as you see. Will you inform him as to the way?”
I obeyed, and, further, bade the fellow look well to his mistress, and keep his eye on a certain captain, who might be at the place to which they went.
Then, as I assisted the maiden to mount her horse, I summoned up courage, cost what it would, to say:
“Sir William hath a guest whom you and I saw last at Finsbury Fields. I beseech you, maiden, let me go thither as your servant.” ”

“ As the confidential friend, factor, and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott, William Laidlaw has a claim to remembrance; the authorship of "Lucy's Flittin'" entitles him to rank among the minstrels of his country. His ancestors on the father's side were, for a course of centuries, substantial farmers in Tweedside, and his father, James Laidlaw, with his wife, Catherine Ballantyne, rented from the Earl of Traquair the pastoral farm of Blackhouse, in Yarrow. William, the eldest of a family of three sons, was born in November 1780. His education was latterly conducted at the Grammar School of Peebles. ”

“ How often had he gone up that bay to Afton! Just down around that point Edward Lawton had come on the night of the storm, and he had gone out to save him. How good God had been to Edward and himself! How gracious God had been to his loved ones! George and the girls were all serving Christ. The father had died trusting in the Saviour. Where were Tom and Dick? Nothing had been heard of them since they, four years before, had escaped from the county jail. Were they alive? Had God reached and saved them also? ”

“ The Fates had blundered and conspired against him; but he was not without hope that the daughter of some rich man, who might fall in love with him and his mustache, would redeem him from his slavery to an occupation he hated, and lift him up to the sphere where he belonged. Laud was "soaring after the infinite," and so he rather neglected the mundane and practical, and his employer did not consider him a very desirable clerk. ”

“ In 1638 certain letters written by him were found in the house of Bishop Williams at Buckden. In these letters an unnamed person was irreverently styled ‘the little urchin’ and ‘the little meddling hocus pocus.’ There can be no reasonable doubt that Laud was the person referred to. Williams and Osbaldeston were brought to trial in the Star-chamber on 14 Feb. ”

“ Wardwell, arose, and having congratulated the teachers upon the successful issue of the school year, called, "Ray Branford!"
Ray would hardly have been human had there not been some exultation in his heart, as he went forward to receive the silver medal, the highest honor of his class; but when he turned to retrace his steps to his seat, and saw Edward Lawton's bright, happy look, he felt he would have gladly surrendered it, were it possible, to the boy who once had hated, but now so loved him. ”

“ His school is over, and he is in Afton now. The letter came from there. He will be down on the five o'clock train to-night, and Edward and Daisy Lawton will come with him. All will remain over the picnic to-morrow. Ray agrees to make the speech, as he calls it, to the Sunday-school, and all three will help us with the singing; so we are all provided for in that direction. ”

“ Mr Laidlaw was a man of singular shrewdness and of a highly cultivated mind; he readily perceived his shepherd's aptitude for learning, and gave him the use of his library. But the poet's connexion with Blackhouse was especially valuable in enabling him to form the intimacy of Mr William Laidlaw, his master's son, the future factor and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott. ”

“ Luff had found out Laud’s deep-rooted fancy for the maiden, and, villain as he was, was proposing a deep-laid scheme for the destruction of the poor girl, who at that very time was undergoing a severe trial of her affection.
“I’ll tell you what, Laud, the thing is easily to be done. We have nothing to do but to run the cutter, at the beginning of our next voyage, into Harwich Harbour, at the fall of the evening, when the mists hide us from the shore; you and I can run up the Orwell in the gig, and soon carry off the prize. Once on board, and she is yours as long as you like.” ”

“ William Finnis protested against this, but a compromise was effected which arranged that Mr. Ladd was not to interfere in the matter; that Mr. Ladd was to efface himself, as it were, and on no account presume to come to the cycle-shop at Lewisham; but that Miss Ladd should be allowed to see to the removals, and to call once a week afterwards to visit Trafalgar, and to sing to that youth extraordinary nursery rhymes that always caused the infant to wreathe his little face into one comprehensive smile. ”

“ But the quick eye of Daisy Lawton had noticed his pale and excited face, and a glance at the skates as he tucked them under his arm told her the cause. She hurried from the schoolroom as quickly as he, and then ran breathlessly up the street.
With mingled feelings of indignation and sorrow, Ray walked slowly down the street. He was indignant that any one had dared to perpetrate so dastardly an act, and sorrowful that any one could find it in their heart to do him so great a wrong. ”

“ Des Maizeaux mentions the story that Hales assisted Laud in the second edition (1639) of his 'Conference' with Fisher. Laud certainly made him one of his chaplains, and obtained for him a canonry at Windsor, into which he was installed on 27 June 1639 (royal patent dated 23 May) . Clarendon says that Laud had difficulty in persuading him to accept this preferment; he would never take the cure of souls.
His tract on 'Schism' was not printed till 1642, when three editions appeared without his name, and apparently without his sanction. ”

“ They felt, as Ray related his experience, that he gave unmistakable evidence of the Spirit's work in his heart; and without the slightest hesitation they recommended him to the church as one worthy of a place in its membership. When this became known, the tongues of the gossips were again set in motion, and rumor soon had it that, at the preparatory service, opposition would be made to his reception. ”

“ Jonas, her face reddening with her zeal. “These cathedral luminaries have invariably lots of their own circle to provide for.”
[418]
“Do you not think it will seem hard on Mr. Lake?” I said to Miss Deveen, as we left the little widow, and walked on.
“I do, Johnny Ludlow. I do think he ought to have it; that in right and justice no one has so great a claim to it as he,” she impressively answered. “But, as Dr. Galliard says, ‘oughts’ go for nothing in Church patronage. William Lake is a good, earnest, intellectual man ”

“ With no intentional disparagement of Edward's abilities, permit me to say of Ray: His Christian purpose is one of the remarkable things about him. His talents, work, everything, appears to be subject to this Christian aim. He most strikingly illustrates in his daily life Paul's words: "God, whose I am and whom I serve." I feel that he, if spared, will make a power in the world.
In conclusion I can only add: If there are more boys in the Afton Graded School like the two you have sent us, we shall be more than glad to welcome them at Clinton Academy at any time. ”

“ Saviour. ‘He was,’ says Wood, ‘a most exact latinist and Grecian, was well skilled in the Hebrew and Arabic, was a thorough pac'd mathematician, was excellently well read in the fathers and councils, a most curious critic, a politician, statesman, and what not.’ He was much valued by Laud, who would have advanced him to high place had he not preferred a student's life. He wrote much, but, owing to a severe habit of self-criticism, destroyed nearly all he wrote. Besides the preface to the statutes he was the author of a Latin poem in the ‘Bodleiomnema,’ Oxford, 1613. ”

“ In two years the whole pleasant life breaks up before our eyes, never to be restored. Laud's death showed him that as his chaplain, he was in a dangerous position. Besides, the event itself was a frightful shock to him. He left his lodging in college, and went for a quarter of a year in utter secrecy to a private house at Eton, next door to the old Christopher Inn, the house of Mrs. ”

“ Please don't object to my beginning this morning."
"You try yourself all winter to get as far as you have, and then upset the bowl like this?" cried mother.
"Softly, mummy, softly!" said Laddie. "What am I to do? I've definitely decided on my work. I see land and life, as you and father taught me, in range and in perspective far more than you've got from it. You had a first hand wrestle. The land I covet has been greatly improved already. I can do what I choose with it, making no more strenuous effort than plowing; and I am proud to say that I LOVE to plow. I like my feet in the soil. ”

“ This was right, but in my heart I also knew that if Laddie had asked me, I would be shivering on top of that cordwood on a hot August day, when it was wrong. On the whole, I thought it would be more honest to leave God out of it, and take the risk myself. That made me think of the Crusaders, and the little gold trinket in father's chest till. There were four shells on it and each one stood for a trip on foot or horseback to the Holy City when you had to fight almost every step of the way. ”

“ Two spirited members of this literary conclave were Alexander Laidlaw, a shepherd, and afterwards tenant of Bowerhope, on the border of St Mary's Lake, and the poet's elder brother, William, a man of superior talent. Both these individuals subsequently acquired considerable distinction as intelligent contributors to the agricultural journals. For some years, William Hogg had rented the sheep-farm of Ettrick-house, and afforded [Pg 8] shelter and support to his aged and indigent parents. ”

“ But I am glad to say there were but a few of this class; and even they, before a great while, were forced to respect Ray. They found he was as good a scholar as he was bell ringer and sweeper. They found he could row a boat, or bat a ball, as well as he could recite. They found him manly and gentlemanly at all times. It suddenly dawned upon their minds that any necessary and useful employment is respectable. It was Ray who taught them that truth. He dignified the most menial work he was called to perform. He did it by putting Christian principle into his work. ”

“ Looking Forward to a Fight. Some truth was there in the report that had reached Rob Wilde, of the King being chased out of London. Though not literally chased, after his display in the House of Commons, ludicrous as unconstitutional, he found the metropolis too hot for him. Moreover, there was a whisper about impeaching the Queen; and this arch intrigante, notwithstanding her high notions of Royal right, was now in a fit of Royal trembles. Strafford had lost his head, Laud was in prison, likely to lose his; how knew she but that those bloodthirsty islanders might bring her own under the axe? ”

“ What was it old Ladd had once called him? A lucky cove! Old Ladd was right, too! Luck had always seemed on his side. He might have gone on at the old game, perhaps, and never have been caught. One seldom heard of anyone who practised the fine arts of crime and came out scatheless at the end, but it seemed conceivable that this might have happened over and over again; careful men might have made bagfuls of money at the work and then retired, taking gorgeous public-houses for a hobby in the autumn of their days. That would be something like a career. ”

“ Such views are to-day quite generally adopted by the more civilized portions of the Protestant world; but it is needless to say that they were not the views of the seventeenth century, in Massachusetts or elsewhere. For declaring such opinions as these on the continent of Europe, anywhere except in Holland, a man like Williams would in that age have run great risk of being burned at the stake. In England, under the energetic misgovernment of Laud, he would very likely have had to stand in the pillory with his ears cropped, or perhaps, like Bunyan and Baxter, would have been sent to jail. ”