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THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MRS. SHEIUVOOD 
 
 AUTHOR OP "HENRY MILNER," " LADY OF THE MANOR," "STORIES 
 
 ON THE CHURCH CATECHISM," " LITTLE HENRY 
 
 AND HIS BEARER," &C. 
 
 ABRIDGED FOR THE 
 
 PRESBYTEKIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 JIIoaa m 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: ^7 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 NO. 265 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
7/? ^4-41 
 
 ^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 
 
 JAMES DUNLAP, Treas., 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY 
 
 JESPER HARDING & SON, 
 
 NO. 57 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The popularity of Mrs. Sherwood, as a wri- 
 ter of religious narratives, will naturally create 
 an interest in her biography. The great num- 
 ber of persons, old and young, who have been 
 charmed and instructed by her delineations of 
 character, and descriptions of English and 
 East Indian life, will be curious to know the 
 particulars of her own history. The gratifying 
 of this curiosity produces a rare example of 
 devoted christian usefulness, in more self-deny- 
 ing ways than authorship. It is for this reason 
 more especially, that this volume has. been 
 prepared for the Board of Publication, out of 
 the materials furnished in the large volume of 
 extracts from Mrs. Sherwood's journals, made 
 by her daughter Mrs. Sophia Kelly, and pub- 
 lished in London in 1854. 
 
 J. H. 
 Trenton, N. J. 
 
EXPLANATION OF HINDOSTANEE WORDS. 
 
 Ayah — Lady's maid. 
 Babalogue — Children, (little people.) 
 
 Bungalow — House with room on one floor and thatched roof. 
 Bazaar — Public market. 
 
 Compound — The ground immediately round a house. 
 C/terbuter — Mat. 
 Dhaye — Child's nurse. 
 Dawk — Post. 
 
 Fakeers — Religious beggars. 
 JmdiV.y — Fine muslin. 
 Nautch — A dance. 
 Pundit — A teacher. 
 Pice — Copper coin. 
 
 Palanquin — Covered vehicle borne on men's shoulders. 
 Suttee — Burning of widows. 
 Sais — Groom. 
 
 Serai — Place of rest for travellers. 
 Sepoy — Native soldier. 
 Tope — Clump of trees. 
 Tiffin — Lunch. 
 
 Tonjon — Open vehicle borne by men. 
 Yogces — Religious mendicants. 
 Walla— Man. 
 Moonshee — Teacher. 
 
 Punkah — Fan suspended from the ceiling. 
 (4) 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGB - 
 Birth. Education. Early exercise of imagination. Cov- 
 entry. 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Juvenile compositions. Training at home. Removal to 
 
 Kidderminster. " Hoc age." 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Abbey school at Reading. Roman Catholic influence. 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Arley Hall. "The Traditions." Return to Stanford. 
 " Margarita." Death of Mr. Butt. Bridgenorth Sab- 
 bath-school. Bath. 29 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Marriage. Removal to India. Battle at sea. Calcutta. 
 Dinapore. Birth of son. School. Berhampore. - 39 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Birth of Lucy. Death of Henry. Doctrine of deprav- 
 ity. "Infant Pilgrim." 9 46 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 Dinapore. Henry Martyn. David Corrie. Cawupore. 
 " Indian orphans." Death of Lucy. - 50 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Notices of Henry Martyn. 56 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Further notices of Henry Martyn. Voyage to Calcutta. 67 
 1* (5) 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. pagb. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Thomason. Rev. David Brown. Orphan asy- 
 lums. Return to Cawnpore. Family at Mirzapore. 74 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " Little Henry and his Bearer." Henry Martyn's congre- 
 gation. Abdool Musseeh. " Indian Pilgrim." - 82 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Henry Martyn's last Sabbath in Cawnpore. Schools of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood. " Stories on Church Cate- 
 chism." " Ayah and Lady." 90 
 
 CHAPTER XIH. 
 Meerut. " George Desmond." War.- - 103 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 Permunund. Berhampore. Calcutta. Serampore mis- 
 sionaries. Mr. May. Return to England. - - 117 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Worcester. Wick. Orphans. Visit to France. "Henry 
 Milner," and other books. Mrs. Fry. "Lady of the 
 
 Manor." - 126 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 The Regiment at Worcester. Hebrew "Types." Visit 
 to the Continent. M.Malan. " The Little Mom iere." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. 131 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Visit to Bridgenorth. Remnants of the old Sabbath- 
 school. 142 
 
 CHAPTER XVin. 
 Family changes. " Dictionary of Types." Death. - 147 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 
 MRS. SHERWOOD 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH — EDUCATION EARLY EXERCISE OF IMAGINATION COV- 
 ENTRY. 
 
 Mary Martha Butt, afterwards Mrs. Sher- 
 wood, was bora on the sixth day of May, 
 1775. Her father was a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, and at the time of her 
 birth, was rector or pastor of Stanford, in 
 Worcestershire. Both of her parents were 
 persons of the highest education and refine- 
 ment, and being possessed of abundant means, 
 their family enjoyed the best advantages of 
 comfort and improvement. At an advanced 
 period of her life, Mrs. Sherwood said, "Few 
 have travelled farther, or perhaps seen more 
 than I have, but yet, in its peculiar way, I 
 have never seen any region of the earth to be 
 compared with Stanford." The parsonage- 
 
 O) 
 
8 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 house commanded four distinct views of the 
 most beautiful landscapes, combining forests 
 and orchards, lawns and fields of grain, hills 
 and rivers, villages and country-seats. The 
 house was adorned with works of art, and in 
 every room were pictures, the subjects of 
 which were explained to the children until 
 they became familiar with many exciting 
 details of history and romance represented by 
 them. All that competence, taste, and natural 
 scenery and piety could contribute to make 
 childhood as happy and as safe as it ever can 
 be found in this life, appears to have surround- 
 ed the early years of the future Mrs. Sher- 
 wood. In addition to these circumstances, it 
 may be mentioned that she was blessed with 
 the most glowing health, and was remarked for 
 her fine personal appearance. 
 
 The child, who became the author of so 
 many volumes of useful tales, had naturally a 
 lively imagination, and this faculty must have 
 been encouraged by the position of her first 
 years as we have just described it. With 
 beautiful and romantic scenes in her view 
 every day, with music and painting to cheer 
 her in the house, with parents who were fond 
 of general literature, it is not to be wondered 
 at that the young girl began very early to 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 9 
 
 exercise her thoughts upon fanciful scenes. It 
 may help our younger readers to understand 
 the way in which the imagination is often 
 excited in childhood, and to see how much 
 danger there is in giving up the mind to such 
 waking dreams, if they will read what Mrs. 
 Sherwood says of herself at the time re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 " I was, from very early infancy, a creature 
 who had a peculiar world of images about 
 me; and the first exercise of my imagination 
 operated upon one set of fancies. My mother 
 used to sit much in her beautiful dressing-room, 
 and there she often played sweetly on her 
 guitar, and sung to it. Her voice sounded 
 through the hall, which was lofty; and I loved 
 to sit on the steps of the stairs and listen to 
 her singing. She had possessed a canary 
 bird when she first married, and it had died, 
 and she had preserved it, and put it into a 
 little coffin in an Indian cabinet in her dress- 
 ing-room. My first idea of death was from 
 this canary bird and this coffin; and as I had 
 no decided idea of time, as regarded its length, 
 I felt that this canary bird had lived, what 
 appeared to me, ages before, when my mother 
 had sung and played on her guitar before my 
 birth ; and I had numerous fancies about those 
 
10 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 remote ages, fancies I could not define nor 
 explain; but they possessed a spell over my 
 mind that had power to keep me quiet many 
 a half-hour as I sat by myself, dreamily pon- 
 dering on their strange enchantment. I had 
 also some very curious thoughts about an 
 echo, which answered our invocations in various 
 parts of the lovely grounds of Stanford. Echo 
 I fancied to be a beautiful winged boy, and I 
 longed to see him, though I knew it was in 
 vain to attempt to pursue him to his haunts ; 
 neither was echo the only unseen being who 
 filled my imagination." 
 
 By a proper use of imagination, young 
 persons may assist good thoughts. When they 
 behold any grand or beautiful objects in 
 nature, they may be reminded of greater and 
 more beautiful objects not to be seen by the 
 mortal eye. But they should be careful 
 against forming such ideas of spiritual and 
 heavenly things as are not consistent with the 
 teachings of the Scriptures. Mary Butt's 
 fancies about the canary bird and the echo 
 would only give her false opinions; and the 
 more she thought of them as real, the harder 
 it would be to give them up as things which 
 had no existence. But then the sight of hills 
 and mountains never failed, as she said, to 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 11 
 
 make her think of God, and of future glory, 
 and the world where the redeemed shall see 
 their Saviour. This kind of imagination, within 
 its proper bounds, helps the mind to under- 
 stand, and the heart to feel the fact of the 
 divine existence and the infinite character of 
 the divine attributes. The stories which are 
 read by or told to children, have a great effect 
 on their imagination, and this shows the 
 importance of those impressions which are so 
 commonly considered as of no consequence, 
 because made at so early an age. Mrs. Sher- 
 wood, for example, long after she was a grand- 
 mother, remembered books and their pictures 
 which she had seen when she was four years 
 old; and in one of her own books she has in- 
 troduced a story which she heard at that age 
 from the lips of her mother. One of the 
 pictures in her father's house was a represent- 
 ation of the martyrdom of Stephen, and 
 one of the earliest feelings which she had of 
 the character of the Lord Jesus as the friend 
 of man, was obtained from the view which 
 that picture gave of him as looking down from 
 heaven, upon the martyr. As these associa- 
 tions of childhood must be an interesting 
 subject to the young, and ought to be well 
 considered by those who have charge of their 
 
12 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 education, we will call Mrs. Sherwood to give 
 some more incidents of the earliest period to 
 which memory can reach. 
 
 "I remember walking with my brother and 
 nurse in a green lane, and feeding some little 
 birds in a hedge, and coming one day, and 
 finding the nest and birds gone, which was a 
 great grief to me. Whilst at Pipe Grange, I 
 recollect one evening being carried over some 
 lovely commons to an old farm-house, where 
 were many fragrant herbs and many sheep. 
 The irregular walls were covered with ivy, 
 and there was a garden, with yew trees cut in 
 grotesque forms, in front of the house. I was 
 not four years old at this time ; but such was 
 the impression made on my mind then by the 
 images of that evening that, years afterwards, 
 being in a cabin of an East Indiaman, with no 
 light and little air, being also under the influ- 
 ence of fever occasioned by long protracted 
 sickness, and my imagination being also assist- 
 ed, no doubt, by the bleatings of the unhappy 
 sheep on board, my sickly and inflamed fancy 
 carried me back to those breezy commons and 
 those unfettered days of infancy. I even 
 imagined that I was there again, bounding 
 with my brother over the little heaps of 
 mould with which those commons are scattered, 
 
LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 13 
 
 so extraordinary powerful were the images 
 that that evening impressed on my memory. 
 I once, about twelve years since, saw that old 
 farm-house again, and found that I had, 
 through all my wanderings, retained its per- 
 fect picture in my mind, even to its irregular 
 windows and shapeless chimneys. But who 
 shall decide how soon these images, or any 
 other images, may be fixed on the memory ? 
 Certainly I believe that they are so fixed, 
 often before there is a power imparted of 
 arranging them in their places, or of recalling 
 them in after life with any consistency." 
 
 "Who shall say how soon the infant gaze 
 goes forth to collect images, which are stored 
 up never to be effaced? My opinion is, that 
 a child with a lively imagination, who had 
 been removed from any particular and remark- 
 able scene at two years of age, and perhaps 
 under that age, would, on returning to it in 
 after-life, be sensible of a familiarity with the 
 scenery, which one who had never before 
 beheld it would not feel, — supposing the minds 
 of each to be alike. With respect to myself, I 
 have clear and accurate recollections before I 
 was four years of age, — recollections of things 
 which I can now describe ; but this I believe, 
 that there has ever been an unusual vivacity 
 2 
 
14 LIFE OF MES. SHERWOOD. 
 
 in my imagination, the impressions made 
 thereon being stronger than on nine-tenths of 
 the minds of my fellow creatures." 
 
 "In May, 1782, being then seven years old, 
 my mother took me and my sister and brother 
 to see her father at Coventry. This going to 
 Coventry was the second journey which I 
 remember to have taken ; and the impressions 
 then made upon my mind never were effaced, 
 but to this day are as fresh as ever. 
 
 " Some years before, modern taste, or rather 
 the bad taste of that day, had caused the 
 great window of St. Michael's Church in 
 Coventry to be repaired, and for this barbarous 
 purpose certain panes of painted glass, of ex- 
 ceedingly ancient date, had been thrown away 
 as mere rubbish. My father, being in Co- 
 ventry at the time, procured some pieces of 
 this ancient glass, and brought it to Stanford, 
 where he placed it in the Gothic window of his 
 cottage on the glebe. This place had once been 
 a mill, and, being situated on the declivity of 
 a hill, the stream which had once turned the 
 mill ran down the bank by its side. The 
 woods, in which I had spent so many years 
 of my infancy, flung their shades across the 
 stream, making a little Paradise of the upper 
 room of this old house, which my father called 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 15 
 
 his study. He adorned it with busts, and 
 filled the windows with the beautifully paint- 
 ed panes he had obtained at Coventry. To 
 this place my father often withdrew, to study 
 with his pupils. Any visitors who might be 
 at Stanford, and my mother and we children, 
 used often to go thither to drink tea with 
 him. 
 
 My recollections, therefore, of this window 
 must have been very early, yet I remember 
 the figure of Lady Godiva on horseback, with 
 other mounted figures in gaudy attire, and 
 various quaint devices, in those deep colours 
 which they say cannot now be imitated. There 
 can be no doubt but my father often used 
 these precious fragments whereon to build 
 historical lessons; for his mode of instruction 
 was never given by formal tasks and imposi- 
 tions, but by his own humorous and eloquent 
 comments on what was before him, and before 
 the eyes of his pupils. My ideas of the feu- 
 dal mode of life, of feudal habits, and of 
 feudal manners have always been closely con- 
 nected with these remnants of the ancient 
 window of St. Michael's, Coventry. Hence it 
 leaves no doubt in my mind, that the associa- 
 tion was formed through some explanation 
 given by my father on these windows; and 
 
16 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 probably these imperfect and broken remnants 
 inspired my father with that most exquisite 
 description ever written, of a window formed 
 of stained glass, which exists in his novel of 
 6 The Spanish Daughter. 7 This 1 think most 
 probable, as he wrote the early part of this 
 novel during the time in which he made the 
 room at the mill-house his study." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 JUVENILE COMPOSITIONS — TRAINING AT HOME — REMOVAL TO KIDDER- 
 MINSTER — " HOC AGE." 
 
 As might be expected from what we have 
 seen of the fanciful turn of the child's mind, 
 and the encouragement given to that turn by 
 the circumstances in which she was placed, 
 Mary began very early to make stories of her 
 own. This disposition and talent showed 
 itself in her sixth year, and continued to be 
 exercised all her life. Not having yet learned 
 to write, she used to carry a slate to her 
 mother, and get her to put down what had 
 come into her mind. Her ideas were much 
 enlarged by listening to the conversation of 
 her parents; and in this way she learned 
 more of foreign countries, and other times, 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 17 
 
 and great characters, than could have been 
 obtained from reading only. Her home educa- 
 tion was assisted at an early period of her 
 course, by her father's taking a few private 
 pupils into the family, on which account the 
 conversation of the household was, more than 
 before, occupied with useful subjects. 
 
 The discipline of Mr. Butt's family, though 
 of the most affectionate character, was strict. 
 
 In England, and in those days, children 
 were not allowed the familiarity and the 
 indulgence which they are too much accus- 
 tomed, especially in our country, to regard as 
 their right. They were required to listen to 
 conversation, without interrupting it. So far 
 from lounging in the presence of their parents, 
 they were only allowed, as an occasional 
 favour, to sit on chairs when they were in the 
 same apartment. Instead of the delicacies by 
 which the health and energy of children are 
 so often impaired, Mr. Butt's daughter had 
 the plainest food, such as dry bread and cold 
 milk. This diet is too much on the wrong 
 extreme ; and still more unnatural and unwise 
 was the means then taken, according to the 
 prevailing custom, of making the persons of 
 young girls straight and erect. This was 
 done by placing a light iron collar around the 
 
18 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD, 
 
 neck, attached to a backboard strapped over 
 the shoulders, and kept on from morning till 
 evening. Mary Butt wore this unpleasant 
 harness from her sixth to her thirteenth year, 
 at which age she had reached her full height, 
 which was above the common standard of 
 women. 
 
 Mary Butt's natural propensity to the writ- 
 ing of fiction was encouraged by her parents. 
 When about ten years old her father shut up 
 herself and her brother in his study, that each 
 might write a story; and this was continued 
 several days until their tasks were finished. 
 By the time she was about ten years of age, 
 we find her taking great delight in the narrat- 
 ing of stories, whether of what she had heard 
 and read, or of her own invention. In com- 
 mon conversation she was so much at a loss 
 for words that she was remarkably silent; but 
 her language was fluent enough when her 
 mind was excited by some foolish imagination 
 of fairies, enchanters, the deities of Greece 
 and Rome, and other fabulous beings. She 
 employed her pen also on these unprofitable 
 subjects; though her ambition in youth was 
 rather to be a heroine of romance than a cele- 
 brated authoress. 
 
 As her childhood advanced she became a 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 19 
 
 great reader. Besides the Latin and other 
 books required in her regular studies, she 
 eagerly used her father's library, and though 
 old romances had too large a share of her 
 reading, she did not neglect volumes of travels, 
 and other works suitable to an inquisitive and 
 ardent mind. 
 
 In 1784, her father was appointed one of 
 the chaplains of King George III. This 
 office required him to be present at the royal 
 palace in London every November, during 
 which month it was his duty to preach and 
 conduct religious services in the private chapel 
 of the king. Two volumes of the sermons 
 he preached at court were published in 1791. 
 In the year 1788, Mr. Butt was appointed 
 vicar of the town of Kidderminster, and it was 
 determined to exchange the lovely parsonage 
 and neighbourhood of the rural Stanford, for a 
 residence in a place chiefly renowned for its wor- 
 sted manufactures. In the history of religion, 
 indeed, it is celebrated for another reason, 
 Kidderminster being the parish where Richard 
 Baxter was settled in the year 1640, and 
 where he laboured with great success at inter- 
 vals for twenty years. Baxter was driven 
 from the pulpit of Kidderminster, because he 
 could not conscientiously conform to the 
 
20 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 Church of England. His parishioners were 
 of those called on this account Dissenters, who 
 after a time obtained the right of worshipping 
 according to their consciences. The influence 
 of the godly and learned Baxter in that town 
 did not cease with his removal from it, or 
 with his life; and to its continuance in new 
 generations may be attributed what Mrs. 
 Sherwood said of the inhabitants in her 
 father's time, "Certainly we found that the 
 Dissenting portion of the society was the best 
 educated." It was one of Baxter's cares to 
 attend to the instruction of the young, and to 
 encourage habits of reading among all classes, 
 so that he sets down among the helps to his 
 success in Kidderminster, that, as most of the 
 men were weavers, they could stand in their 
 looms, and set a book before them, to read 
 while they worked. 
 
 Mr. Butt paid great respect to the denomin- 
 ations in the town that did not belong to his 
 church, and his conduct must have served to 
 promote the unbigoted and evangelical dispo- 
 sition which afterwards showed itself in his 
 daughter. He carried this good spirit so far 
 that when a charity sermon was preached at 
 any of the other churches, he was accustomed 
 to attend in his gown as a clergyman, and 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 21 
 
 stand at the door as the people went out, 
 placing his daughter before him with one of 
 the plates used in receiving the money for the 
 benevolent object for which their contributions 
 had been asked. 
 
 Mary's education continued to be conducted 
 by her parents themselves. Among other 
 tasks required of her was a weekly composi- 
 tion on some subject selected by her father. 
 One morning, on going to him for her theme, 
 the only answer he gave to her request was, 
 " hoc age," which is the Latin for " do this." 
 She did not understand his meaning, and when 
 she asked for an explanation he would only 
 say, "No, go and make it out." She went 
 to her writing table, and wrote "hoc age" 
 at the top of her paper; and as she was 
 learning Latin, she was able to put the English 
 under it, " do this ;" but there she stopped, not 
 perceiving any sentiment or subject in those 
 two words. The time for showing her essay 
 came, but she had nothing ready but the 
 heading. " Very well," said her father, smiling, 
 " you will not forget ' hoc age' again, and let 
 it ev^er be in your mind as an admonition each 
 day of your life, to do that which is most 
 necessary at the moment. I wished you, my 
 child, to dwell long upon the words, and 
 
22 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 therefore I did not explain my meaning." 
 Many years afterwards, she made "hoc age" 
 the title of one of her smaller publications. 
 
 CHAPTER ill. 
 
 ABBEY SCHOOL AT READING — ROMAN CATHOLIC INFLUENCE. 
 
 In the year 1790, Mr. Butt, having paid a 
 visit to his friend the celebrated scholar Dr. 
 Valpy, who was at the head of a classical school 
 in the town of Reading, was so much pleased 
 with a school for girls kept in the same place 
 by a French gentleman and his wife, an 
 English lady, that he determined to give his 
 daughter the advantages of it for a year. Here 
 she was a parlour boarder, and therefore not 
 placed under the same restraint as the young- 
 er pupils, and was left so much to take care 
 of herself in every respect except the studies 
 of the school, that she could only attribute it 
 to the watchfulness of a particular providence 
 that the system did not injure her character. 
 Her own carefulness in matters about which 
 young persons at boarding school are often 
 without proper feelings and principles, caused 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 23 
 
 the girls of a different disposition to avoid 
 saying in her presence what they knew she 
 would not countenance. This aversion to 
 everything that had the sound or appearance 
 of immorality she attributed rather to the 
 delicate sense of purity in which she had 
 been educated at home, than to the influence 
 of religion. But she always rejoiced that after 
 having been so trained to abhor every approach 
 to impropriety of conduct, she had at least 
 that protection against the evil examples 
 among which she was thrown at school. On 
 one occasion she was well nigh overcome by a 
 temptation. Finding in the school-room a 
 novel that was of a class she had heard her 
 parents condemn in the strongest terms, she 
 was induced to read a few pages. Suddenly 
 she became aware of the impropriety of doing 
 what she knew her parents would not allow, 
 and she laid down the book, saying, as she did 
 so, "God forgive me for my disobedience." 
 She supposed she was not noticed or over- 
 heard, but some of her schoolmates burst into 
 rude laughter, and one of the teachers ridi- 
 culed her by crying out that she was saying 
 her prayers. This conduct, on their part, 
 only showed more plainly how right and cour- 
 ageous her own principles were, and in what 
 
14 LIFE OF MRS. EttBWOOB. 
 
 dangerous associations her uncon- 
 
 placed her, when they sent bet from 
 : Fhe w : . .: ~ is -li jwh at 
 another time. when, accorii _ I hei 
 at home, she brought : hei : Ke U : 
 the 8 Ul All around h cc out in 
 
 imazen: i if the private reading 
 
 the Bcrq mething absurd or un- 
 
 rd ::. Ibis mD . » sh inge hen 
 
 it is added, that the master of the school and 
 some of the teache Bon 
 
 and the incident m saggest k American 
 parents one of the effects :bat may be ~ fe- 
 ed to follow the education : nt chil- 
 dren in :ir schools of Romanists. E 
 Mary B n£t felt this influe: _ upon her, 
 ; th . yiel ting to the is of the pi 
 she laid away her ft ble. The rules of the 
 
 ol, indeed, required morni: _ 
 
 read. I was done —nee of one 
 
 of the male : Eton 
 
 heard to whisper to the young lady reading 
 
 form of Make baste, make 
 
 haste.' 1 7 :her. in her table 
 
 col : n no other sub; 
 
 a plays and -.and anecdotes of 
 
 theatre : : he male instructors — a 
 
 lendant, too, of ti .ent theolog 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 25 
 
 Benedict Pictet, of Geneva — was a rationalist ; 
 and though the subject of his lessons should 
 naturally have led him to teach the founda- 
 tion of all true mental and moral science, 
 there never was the least reference to revealed 
 religion. While, therefore, the clergyman's 
 daughter acquired many literary accomplish- 
 ments during her year at Reading, it must be 
 esteemed a happy circumstance in her history 
 that at the end of that period she returned to 
 her home at Kidderminster; for by this time 
 she had to confess that whatever religious 
 thoughts she had indulged in her childhood 
 were almost wholly lost at the fashionable 
 boarding-school. 
 
 The summer after her return home she 
 spent with her younger sister Lucy at their 
 uncle's house at Trentham. There she began 
 to resume the forms, at least, of religious 
 habits, which had been broken off at school. 
 She also undertook to write down what she 
 could remember of the sermons she heard at 
 church. 
 
 But again the budding of a better life was 
 to be put back. Either her parents were not 
 aware of the true character "of the French 
 school, or they were disposed to overlook the 
 absence of moral influence in their high opinion 
 
26 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 of the literary merits of the course of instruc- 
 tion; but they must seem to us to have taken 
 a very inconsistent step when they determined 
 to send Mary Martha for another term to the 
 "Old Abbey" school at Reading, and their 
 other daughter Lucy with her. 
 
 The exposure of the sisters to irreligious 
 gayety, and the loss of every domestic and 
 sacred association of their home, could scarcely 
 have been more dangerous than it now became. 
 The horrors of the French Revolution were then 
 approaching to their most fearful height. It 
 was within a few weeks of the 21st of Janu- 
 ary, 1793 — the day on which Louis XVL, the 
 King of France, was beheaded. A large 
 number of persons who fled from Paris had 
 taken up their abode in Reading, and the 
 Abbey was surrounded by these. Many of 
 them w r ere infidels, or people of the most 
 worldly description. The school itself had 
 been much enlarged. Pictet was now the 
 principal instructor, and his study was the 
 favourite resort of the higher class of the 
 young ladies. A grand ball was about to take 
 place, and Mary and another, on account of 
 their being the tallest girls, were chosen to be 
 the leaders. A play was to be part of the 
 entertainment, and one of the characters was 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 27 
 
 assigned to her. Almost every night was 
 devoted to a rehearsal of the dance or the 
 play. All this took place, and, with dinners 
 and suppers, occupied the entire week of 
 Christmas. The excitement was followed by 
 the appearance of measles among the scholars. 
 Mary and Lucy were both attacked and 
 recovered, but one of their schoolmates died. 
 Even this did not put a stop to the worldly 
 career of the clergyman's daughters, nor open 
 their parents' eyes to the impropriety of per- 
 mitting them to remain from their home. The 
 school being broken up for a time, the mistress 
 of the establishment offered to take Mary 
 with her to spend a fortnight in London. Her 
 parents consented, and the holiday was spent 
 at dances, at the theatre, and in company. At 
 the house of one of her friends a child had 
 died ; it was the first corpse she had seen, and it 
 made a solemn impression on her at the 
 moment, but the same evening found her at a 
 ball. When she returned to Reading, the 
 number of French refugees was increased. 
 Many were lodged around the Abbey, and 
 some within the walls of the very school 
 buildings. Amongst them were several gentle- 
 men, married and single, who were always 
 about the house during the day, and frequent- 
 
28 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 ly came to supper with the family in the 
 evening. 
 
 Nor was this all. A Roman Catholic priest, 
 the Abbe Beauregard, laid a plot for the conver- 
 sion of Mary and another of the parlour 
 boarders to his religion. His manners were 
 of the most agreeable and respectful kind. 
 Under the pretext of teaching botany to the 
 two unsuspecting girls, he led them to walk 
 with him in the country, and artfully insinu- 
 ated his arguments for the Romish faith. He 
 at length gave to each of them a short prayer 
 to the Virgin, written on a card, entreating 
 them to use it. Mary's companion seemed 
 disposed to yield to the suggestion, but upon 
 endeavouring to persuade her to unite in the 
 idolatrous act, Mary had the firmness to 
 declare she never would consent. The char- 
 acter of an abbess was selected for her part 
 in a play that was to be performed by the 
 pupils, which she resisted, more, however, 
 from her distrust of her capacity to do it just- 
 ice, than from conscientious scruples. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ARLEY HALL — " THE TRADITIONS" RETURN TO STANFORD " MAR- 
 GARITA" DEATH OF MR. BUTT — BRIDGENORTH — SABBATH-SCHOOL 
 
 BATH. 
 
 The two sisters returned once more to 
 Kidderminster, and the improvement, as it 
 was considered, which was acknowledged to 
 have been made by them in refinement of 
 manners, by mingling in such polished society, 
 gave new cause to fear that Mary's vanity 
 might be still more dangerously flattered. She 
 was immediately invited to make a visit to 
 Arley Hall, the seat of one of her father's 
 former pupils, Mr. Annesley, who was now a 
 peer by the name of Viscount Valentia. 
 Among the guests was a German Princess, 
 driven from her territories by the spread of 
 the French Revolution. Here again Miss 
 Butt was moving among persons of high rank 
 and great accomplishments. From Arley she 
 went to Lichfield, where her elegant hostess 
 took every pains to have her well dressed, and 
 introduced into company. There she attended 
 numerous balls, and among them one given by 
 a gentleman who boasted that he would 
 assemble at it forty beauties. Every one 
 3* 
 
30 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 went in a dress representing some fanciful 
 character, and wore a mask, which was not to 
 be removed from the face until a certain hour 
 of the entertainment. Miss Butt was dressed 
 as a shepherdess, and was honoured by being 
 first asked by the gentleman who gave the 
 ball to dance with him. This distinction, 
 among so many beautiful ladies, greatly elated 
 her vanity. 
 
 We have given all these particulars, that 
 the ultimate triumph which divine grace se- 
 cured over a heart which the world and the 
 flesh seemed destined to make their captive, 
 may be more distinctly estimated, to the glory 
 of the power which can make old things pass 
 away, and all things become new. 
 
 However injudicious it may appear, Miss 
 Butt's father had impressed on her mind from 
 an early period his expectation that she would 
 one day accomplish something that would 
 show the world she possessed uncommon 
 talents. Her lively imagination must have 
 been perceived by his fond and sagacious 
 mind, and led him to anticipate a distinguished 
 career for her genius. Growing up with this 
 impression, she was scarcely seventeen before 
 she had made her first attempt at authorship. 
 The beginning of those productions of her 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 31 
 
 pen which now fill many volumes as the 
 Works of Mrs. Sherwood, was a tale entitled 
 " The Tradition." She did not let any one 
 know of her employment; but her father, 
 happening to see the manuscript, showed it to 
 others; and encouraged her to proceed in the 
 composition. Just as it was completed, a 
 friend of the family becoming bankrupt, it 
 was determined to publish "The Tradition" 
 for his benefit, and this being done by sub- 
 scription, the result was sufficient to enable 
 him to set up a school for his support. The 
 book appeared in 1794, when Miss Butt was 
 not yet nineteen. It is an evidence of the 
 effect of the associations of the Abbey school 
 upon her mind, while writing her first work, 
 that in her mature age she said of it, "As to 
 the religion, it is a sort of modification of 
 Popery, and nothing more or less." 
 
 About this time Mr. Butt resolved to put 
 the Kidderminster church in charge of a 
 curate, or assistant, and to return with his family 
 to their favourite abode at Stanford which was 
 still his parish. Here Miss Butt had the 
 advantage of access to the libraries of their 
 neighbours Lord Valentia and Sir Edward 
 Winnington, as well as that of her father. 
 She and her sister Lucy improved themselves 
 
32 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 in French composition by exchanging letters 
 once a week in that language. They assumed 
 imaginary characters and introduced stories 
 and anecdotes into their correspondence. The 
 only interruption of their cheerfulness at home 
 arose from the more quiet and seclusive dis- 
 position of their mother, who did not enter so 
 cordially, as the young ladies thought she 
 might well have done, into their lively, and 
 perhaps romantic conversations. Miss Butt 
 now began her second tale, "Margarita," most 
 of the winter scenes which it describes being 
 suggested by what she observed in the appear- 
 ances of nature at Stanford. She attempted 
 to depict the character of her father in the 
 part of one of the personages of the story 
 named the Canon Bernardo. Before it was 
 completed, her beloved parent was taken from 
 her, having been struck with palsy, of which 
 he died in the end of September, 1795. 
 
 This event gave a sudden interruption to 
 the happiness and prosperity of the family. 
 Miss Butt was not only strongly attached to 
 her father by filial affection, but greatly 
 admired his character and talents, and was 
 united with him in his literary tastes and pur- 
 suits. It now also became necessary to re- 
 linquish the parsonage of Stanford with all 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 33 
 
 its charms and happy associations, and most 
 unfortunately for the comfort of the family, 
 their new residence was in all respects the 
 reverse of that which they had left. It was 
 an old cheerless mansion in the town of Bridge- 
 north. 
 
 It might have been expected that these 
 calamitous changes would be the occasion of 
 leading such a sensible mind as that of Miss 
 Butt to the serious consideration of her own 
 spiritual condition. But great as her grief 
 was, she does not appear to have resorted to 
 the proper source either for consolation or 
 improvement. Indeed, her religious convic- 
 tions were so feeble at that time, that having 
 met, during a visit to Bath, with a young 
 gentleman of pleasing address, who was an 
 open infidel, she was beginning to listen to 
 his impious conversation without the strong 
 disgust such sentiments had awakened in her 
 mind when she heard them in the French 
 circles at the Arley school. Here, again, it 
 was a slight incident that providence made 
 use of to put the clergyman's daughter on her 
 guard. On going from Bath to Oxford, where 
 her brother Marten was a scholar of Christ 
 Church College, he presented her with a 
 small copy of the new Testament. The 
 
34 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 simple fact of the gift, under the circumstan- 
 ces, immediately aroused her to a sense of her 
 peril, and seemed to undo at once all the 
 mischief of the flattering and plausible unbe- 
 liever. With bitter weeping she thought of 
 that shame and horror her slightest encourage- 
 ment of sceptical opinions would cause to her 
 unsuspecting brother, and how her careless 
 conduct in this respect did wrong to the mem- 
 ory of her pious father. 
 
 Another small incident may be set down 
 among the plans by which the effectual power of 
 divine truth was at length to reach the heart of 
 this child of gayety. Life at Bridgenorth was 
 dull and inactive, for the want of company and 
 amusement. The Sabbath-days were particular- 
 ly tedious to Mary and Lucy, and for the sake 
 of having some occupation, they consented to 
 take charge of the Sabbath-school of the 
 parish church. This was in 1797 — being only 
 fifteen years after Mr. Raikes had begun the 
 system of Sabbath-schools for poor children in 
 Gloucester. Each of the sisters had a class 
 of thirty-five girls, and attended diligently 
 to them on week days as well as when they 
 were in school, or walked with them to church. 
 They marked every absentee, and were sure 
 to call at the houses of such during that week. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 35 
 
 They practised the greatest economy, that 
 they might have the more means to assist 
 their indigent pupils, and not only did their 
 own needlework, but were constantly sewing 
 for the children. At first their new occupa- 
 tion only amused them; they gradually be- 
 came interested in it, and had occasion at a 
 subsequent period to express their gratitude 
 to God for making their work not only useful 
 to others, but instrumental in the improvement 
 of their own souls. 
 
 In connection with other methods of doing 
 good to her pupils, Miss Butt wrote a tale 
 which she read to them by chapters as they 
 were finished. The particular object of the 
 story was to warn the elder girls of the school 
 against the immoral influence produced by 
 the presence of so many soldiers, as were 
 then to be found in every town of England. 
 Books for Sabbath-schools, or for the humbler 
 classes on the subject of moral and religious 
 duties, were then very rare, compared with 
 what we are accustomed to in our day, and 
 after "Susan Grey" had been read to the 
 Bridgenorth school, and was published in 
 1802, it became very popular, and has always 
 been one of the most favourite of Mrs. Sher- 
 wood's works with the public. 
 
36 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 From these times of active employment in 
 christian duty may be dated those convictions 
 of her need of a better religious state which 
 at length resulted in a kind of piety to which 
 she was yet a stranger. She had, indeed, 
 already written in her private journal "0 
 my God! others may love the world, but I 
 will follow thee ! others may follow the plea- 
 sures of this life, but I will be contented to 
 take up my cross and follow thee !" But at 
 this time, and long afterwards, she was making 
 her calculation on obtaining the favour of God 
 rather through her own good actions and 
 character, than by faith in the way of right- 
 eousness laid open in the gospel. The good 
 conduct which must be the fruit of evangelical 
 faith, she was in danger of making the substi- 
 tute of faith. 
 
 She persevered in her benevolent care for 
 the poor. During a hard winter Lucy and 
 she gave their mornings to making clothes 
 for the indigent, and the afternoons to visits 
 among them, carrying provisions bought with 
 the savings of their own economy. Mary 
 also wrote two tracts for distribution — "The 
 Potatoes," and " The Baker's Dream." That 
 her mind was becoming more drawn to the 
 necessity of holy principles, and self-discipline, 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 37 
 
 as well as charitable deeds, is discovered by 
 the rules she made for herself for a better use 
 of the means of piety and the escape of temp- 
 tation; such as these: "1. To rise as early as 
 I can awake. 2. To spend my time in prayer 
 till my mother is up. 3. To devote certain 
 hours to my mother. 4. To read my Bible 
 after breakfast. 5. Never to walk in the 
 streets but when sent by my mother, or when 
 any poor people require. 6. To go to church 
 every Wednesday and Friday. 7. Never to 
 indulge a worldly thought." Her conscience, 
 more than her heart, being in these resolutions, 
 they were not well kept, but they show how 
 her attention was awakening, and in what 
 direction she was looking. It may seem 
 strange, but it is feared it is no uncommon 
 fact in Christian families, that although Miss 
 Butt was the daughter of a clergyman, and in 
 the habit from her childhood of receiving 
 religious instruction in church and at home — a 
 teacher of a Sabbath-school — a writer of use- 
 ful books and tracts — she confessed that at 
 this time she was in such darkness in regard 
 to Christian doctrines, that there was not one 
 she could be said to comprehend. She knew 
 what the outward duties of Christianity are; 
 she felt her obligations to do good and to be 
 4 
 
38 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 good; but she had not as yet either known 
 or felt what was the natural condition of her 
 own heart, or the ground and method of the 
 change which it required, both as to its char- 
 acter and its relation to God. According to 
 her own perception of her case, "I had not 
 yet gone one step beyond the desire of estab- 
 lishing my own righteousness." But she was 
 finding all efforts in this direction to be full of 
 disappointment, increasing her discontent, and 
 causing her to seek more earnestly for the true 
 way. 
 
 In 1801, Mrs. Butt determined to remove 
 from Bridgenorth to Bath, and her daughters 
 found that the separation from their Sabbath- 
 school was the most painful part of the 
 change. Upon going, about this time, to 
 spend some months at Arley Hall, the seat of 
 Lord Valentia, where their cousin was residing 
 in his absence, and acting as the curate of the 
 parish, the young ladies opened a Sabbath- 
 school in the servants' room, the first that was 
 established in that parish. Miss Mary also 
 took into her entire charge at their home in 
 Bath a little half-coloured girl of six years old, 
 from the East Indies. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MARRIAGE REMOVAL TO INDIA — BATTLE AT SEA CALCUTTA*— 
 
 DLNAPORE BIRTH OF SON — SCHOOL BERHAMPORE 
 
 On the last day of June, 1803, Miss Butt 
 was married to her cousin Henry Sherwood. 
 They had met but seldom during their earlier 
 years, as Mr. Sherwood had lived with an 
 uncle in France, where he not only witnessed 
 the scenes of the great Revolution in the times 
 of Bonaparte, but had been in their perils. 
 Upon his reaching his twenty-first year he 
 entered the British army, and after remaining 
 five years in the West Indies, had returned to 
 England to obtain recruits for his regiment. 
 
 At the time of their marriage Mr. Sher- 
 wood was not only indifferent to religion, but 
 when his wife wished to induce him to unite 
 with her in the regular reading of the Scrip- 
 tures, she found, to her great pain, that he did 
 not fully believe in the truth of all parts of 
 the holy volume. He refused to participate 
 with her in this employment, until the birth 
 of their first child, when in his thankfulness 
 of joy he promised his wife that he would 
 read the Bible to her every day. They began 
 the daily perusal of it together when their 
 
40 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 child was five days old, and never omitted the 
 practice during the forty-seven years of their 
 married state. 
 
 Mr. Sherwood was Paymaster of his regi- 
 ment, and had the rank of captain. The regi- 
 ment was removed to several different points 
 while they remained in England, and Captain 
 Sherwood, accompanied by his wife and infant, 
 was obliged to attend them from place to 
 place, sometimes by land, sometimes by sea. 
 In the spring of 1805, the regiment was 
 ordered to India. This involved Mrs. Sher- 
 wood in a great trial; for her departure to 
 such a distant country would require her to 
 part not only from her mother and sister and 
 native land, but from her babe. The voyage, 
 and the climate of India, were considered as 
 too great a risk for the life of the child to be 
 exposed to, and the mother must surrender it 
 to the care of others. The child was not yet 
 a year old, and none but a mother can appre- 
 ciate the severity of the sacrifice that Mrs. 
 Sherwood felt herself bound to make. 
 
 At the close of April the regiment embarked 
 at Portsmouth in a fleet for India. The ship 
 in which captain and Mrs. Sherwood sailed 
 was " The Devonshire." The cabin allotted to 
 her was so small, dark, and uncomfortable that 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 41 
 
 it was misery to be in it, especially when sea- 
 sickness was added to the troubles; but Mrs. 
 Sherwood passed the voyage in reading and 
 sewing, and in teaching a soldier's boy to read, 
 wmo came to her every day after breakfast, 
 for that purpose. Not the least pleasant of 
 her daily employment was the hour of the 
 evening when her husband came down and read 
 the Bible to her. 
 
 England and France were at that time at 
 war with each other, and, of course, the fleet 
 with which Capt. Sherwood was sailing was 
 prepared for battle. After they had been 
 about three months at sea, an opportunity 
 occurred for exhibiting some of the terrors of 
 a conflict on the ocean. Three French ships 
 approached the British fleet, and two of them 
 began to fire. The Devonshire was one of 
 those nearest the enemy, and three shots 
 passed through its rigging. For the sake of 
 safety to them, and to have the vessel more 
 clear for action, all the women were placed in 
 the lower hold of the ship, which was con- 
 siderably below water mark. There were six 
 ladies of the families of the officers, nine 
 soldiers' wives, two or three female servants, 
 and four children. The place was almost 
 dark; the ladder by which they descended 
 
 4* 
 
42 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 into it was taken away to prevent their com- 
 ing up; and so they were left for several 
 hours, while the terrible noise of the cannon 
 and the confusion of the battle were going on 
 above them, and none knew what injury their 
 husbands might be receiving, or what might 
 be their own fate. The battle, however, 
 passed off without much loss of life, or inter- 
 ruption of the voyage, and on the 21st of 
 August the continent of India was in sight. 
 In a few days more Mrs. Sherwood found 
 herself safe on land, and in the midst of the 
 strange scenes of Asiatic life in the city of 
 Madras. After remaining ten days on shore 
 they again embarked in the Devonshire, for 
 Bengal, and upon reaching the river Hoogley, 
 Mrs. Sherwood immediately accompanied her 
 husband in a boat fifty miles up the river, and 
 arrived at the great city of Calcutta. They 
 had apartments given to them in Fort William, 
 the principal military station. Here they 
 remained four weeks, when the regiment was 
 ordered to Dinapore, a town on the Ganges, 
 which they reached in several days' journey 
 by boats. On the 25th of December, her son 
 Henry was born in that town. Mrs. Sher- 
 wood had been very much agitated by the 
 fear that her child would be born in some 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 43 
 
 part of India where there would be no clergy- 
 man to baptize it. Although she never ceased 
 to value this blessed birth-right privilege of 
 the children of believers, she afterwards saw 
 that, at this period of her Christian progress, 
 her views of the necessity of baptism were 
 superstitious rather than scriptural. As her 
 mind received the gospel more intelligently, 
 she abhorred the doctrine that baptism is 
 necessary for the salvation of the soul, or that 
 any outward rite is the means of regenerating 
 the fallen nature. She had the gratification, 
 however, of finding a clergyman on a visit to 
 the Dinapore station, and by him her infant 
 son was baptized. She showed how unserip- 
 tural her views of these subjects were at this 
 time, when some months after the child's 
 baptism, its Hindoo nurse took him to some 
 idolatrous service, and had a mark made upon 
 his forehead as a sign of the false religion. 
 Instead of treating this as of no consequence, 
 Mrs. Sherwood was greatly terrified and could 
 scarcely be persuaded that the infant would 
 not be safe unless baptized a second time. 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood, being an officer's wife, was 
 at liberty to spend her time as she pleased. 
 In the hot climate of India, most English la- 
 dies consider themselves justified in passing 
 
44 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 their days even without taking part in the 
 ordinary domestic duties to which they are 
 accustomed at home. It is usual in India to 
 employ so many servants, and the expense of 
 having them is so light, that the temptations 
 to indolence in a warm and luxurious country 
 are very strong. But Mrs. Sherwood felt a 
 religious obligation resting on her to be useful 
 in the land of ignorance and degradation, 
 where her lot was thrown. She saw that the 
 work in which she could accomplish most good 
 was the instruction of children, and so long as 
 she remained in India, she continued, on the 
 week-days as well as on the Lord's day, the 
 care of the young which she had first under- 
 taken in her Sabbath-school at home only as 
 an amusement. No sooner was she settled in 
 Dinapore than she began to collect the chil- 
 dren of the English soldiers and others, and 
 teach them at her own house. She soon had 
 more than forty pupils of this description, 
 refusing none who applied, not even when the 
 children were coloured. But after a few 
 months of this employment, she was obliged 
 to break up her school and make another 
 removal. The regiment was now to be taken 
 to Berhampore, three hundred miles further 
 up the Ganges. Here they arrived in July, 
 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 45 
 
 1806, and the school was again opened with 
 the same children of soldiers as in Dinapore, 
 and a number of others from a different 
 regiment. The only assistant Mrs. Sherwood 
 had was a sergeant, who was very useful in 
 keeping order. The school was open every 
 day but the Sabbath from eight o'clock till 
 twelve. Nothing in the new scenes of Indian 
 life was more trying to Mrs. Sherwood's feel- 
 ings than the comparative disregard of the 
 Lord's day, even among her own countrymen. 
 There would be a public service held in the 
 morning, but as soon as it was over, business 
 was transacted, and the day was usually closed 
 with a dinner-party. The only way by which 
 Mrs. Sherwood could obtain a quiet Sabbath 
 in her own apartments was by her husband's 
 absenting himself, so that there should be a 
 reason for turning away those who came to see 
 him on business. 
 
 But it should be here recorded, that not- 
 withstanding her zeal in teaching a daily 
 school, solely for the purpose of doing good, 
 and her anxiety to prevent a desecration of 
 the Sabbath and secure its sacred as well as 
 secular rest for herself, Mrs. Sherwood regard- 
 ed herself as at this time only in a half-awak- 
 ened state as it regarded true religion. She 
 
46 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 was still making more compliances with worldly 
 customs than she could reconcile with her 
 better feelings, and benevolent as her disposi- 
 tion and intention were in undertaking the 
 regimental school, she was doubtless sustained 
 in the laborious work by a belief that in such 
 self-denial there was something meritorious, 
 even in the sight of God. It was only gradu- 
 ally, and when experience had taught her 
 that her conscience was not yet at peace, and 
 that she had not found an undivided happiness 
 in the love of God, that she was led by the 
 Spirit of grace to the only true ground, 
 whether of duty or of blessedness, " the right- 
 eousness which is of God by faith." 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BIKTH OF LUCY — DEATH OF HENRY — DOCTRINE OF DEPRAVITY — 
 " INFANT PILGRIM." 
 
 Her life in India, both as to its amusements 
 and serious occupations, was one of great 
 delight to Mrs. Sherwood. From her relation- 
 ship to an officer of the army, she had access 
 to the highest ranks of society, and was .some- 
 times a guest even in the palaces of the Indian 
 princes. In March, 1807, another daughter 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 47 
 
 was added to her family, who received the 
 name of Lucy Martha. This event contributed 
 to increase her contentment in a foreign land, 
 and to reconcile her to the separation from her 
 eldest child left behind in England. But the 
 happiness was not to continue long unbroken. 
 Little Henry began to fail in his health; 
 and after lingering for some months died in 
 July. 
 
 It was during her anxieties for her sick 
 child (and probably in a degree owing to 
 the unusually strong sense of the need of 
 clear views of religious truth felt by a reflect- 
 ing person under such circumstances) that Mrs. 
 Sherwood attained the conviction of one of 
 the cardinal doctrines of the Bible, which she 
 had never yet understood or felt. Our read- 
 ers will be surprised to hear, that the doctrine 
 of which she confessed herself to be in total 
 ignorance up to this time, was that of human 
 depravity. Though taught in the articles of 
 faith of the church in which she and her chil- 
 dren had been baptized, she did not remember, 
 until her great trials came upon her, that such 
 an opinion was held, or knew what it meant. 
 What is still stranger, as she herself admitted, 
 she remained blind to this doctrine, though 
 reading the Bible every day. It was the 
 
48 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 chaplain at Berhampore who discovered this 
 deficiency in her religious knowledge, and con- 
 vinced her from the Scriptures of the original 
 hereditary guilt and depravity of human 
 nature. He put into her hands Dr. Owen's 
 great treatise " On Indwelling Sin," which she 
 read with eagerness. Her apprehension of 
 the facts as to the origin and extent of the 
 sinfulness and guilt of the race had the effect 
 upon her mind, which it always has when 
 experimentally received — it gave relief to her 
 anxieties, and direction to her inquiries. Not 
 that any enlightened person finds relief from 
 this source to the sense of responsibility, or is 
 quieted in his fears on the ground that he 
 cannot help what he inherits ; but as stated in 
 Mrs. Sherwood's account of the effect of the 
 truth in her own case — "I found immediate 
 comfort in the doctrine; it was the comfort 
 of one who, having long felt himself sick, 
 finds the nature of his disease and its remedy 
 laid open before him." Heretofore, her sense 
 of sin had been superficial, and she had con- 
 tinually wondered why her good works did 
 not appease her conscience, and make her 
 confirmed and settled in her religious experi- 
 ence. But the light of the Scripture revela- 
 tion plainly disclosed to her that nothing less 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 49 
 
 than a new or regenerated nature would furnish 
 the radical relief she needed, and that to 
 furnish this was one of the essential objects 
 of the mediation of Christ, and one of the 
 effects of receiving him by faith as the sole 
 meritorious ground of acceptance with God. 
 It was not until Mrs. Sherwood saw the 
 extent of the corruption of the heart, and the 
 utter helplessness of man to remove or diminish 
 it, that she began to appreciate the love of God 
 in Christ Jesus. 
 
 It was while residing at Berhampore that 
 Mrs. Sherwood began to write her popular 
 work, entitled " The Infant Pilgrim's Progress." 
 She had finished some chapters of it, when 
 she felt that she had left out a most important 
 part of the description of even an infant's 
 condition in the outset of life; so she began 
 the book again for the purpose of introducing 
 inbred or original sin as a companion of the 
 young pilgrims in all their wanderings. 
 
 About this time Captain Sherwood for the 
 first time introduced the reading of prayers 
 with his family every Lord's day, in addition 
 to the daily reading of the Bible with his 
 wife. His mind, as well as hers, was making 
 advance in the right way. 
 5 
 
50 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DINAPORE — HENRY MARTYN — DAVID CORRIE — CAWNPORE — " IN- 
 DIAN ORPHANS" DEATH OF LUCY. 
 
 In the month of September, 1807, Mr. 
 Sherwood was obliged to make another re- 
 moval still further up the Ganges, to Cawn- 
 pore. On their way they stopped a few days 
 at Dinapore, where they made their first ac- 
 quaintance with an English clergyman, whose 
 name is now familiarly known, and as gener- 
 ally honoured throughout the Christian church. 
 This was the Rev. Henry Martyn, who had 
 left England as a military chaplain to India in 
 August, 1805, and had taken up his residence 
 at Dinapore in November of the following . 
 year. Here he was laboriously employed in 
 translating the Scriptures into the languages 
 of Hindostan and Persia, in superintending 
 native schools, and in promoting the knowledge 
 of Christianity among all classes as he found 
 opportunity. At the time of our history Mr. 
 Martyn was not more than twenty-six years 
 of age, and was suffering from the ill health 
 from which he was not relieved until his 
 death at Tocat, in Turkey, in the year 1812. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood were introduced 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 51 
 
 to Mr. Martyn by a letter from Mr. Parson, 
 the chaplain of Berhampore, to whose evangel- 
 ical instruction they were so much indebted. 
 The interest which is still felt in the character 
 of Henry Martyn must make the details given 
 in Mrs. Sherwood's journal of their interviews 
 with him, one of the most engaging portions 
 of her own biography. She thus described 
 her first sight of him as he came to visit them 
 in their boat : 
 
 " He was dressed in white, and looked very 
 pale, which, however, was nothing singular in 
 India; his hair, a light brown, was raised 
 from his forehead, which was a remarkably 
 fine one. His features were not regular, but 
 the expression was so luminous, so intellect- 
 ual, so affectionate, so beaming with divine 
 charity, that no one could have looked at his 
 features, and thought of their shape or form; — 
 the out-beaming of his soul would absorb the 
 attention of every observer. There was a very 
 decided air, too, of the gentleman about Mr. 
 Martyn, and a perfection of manners which, 
 from his extreme attention to all minute civil- 
 ities, might seem almost inconsistent with the 
 general bent of his thoughts to the most serious 
 subjects. He was as remarkable for ease as 
 for cheerfulness, and in these particulars this 
 
52 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 journal does not give a graphic account of this 
 blessed child of God. I was much pleased at 
 the first sight of Mr. Martyn. I had heard much 
 of him from Mr. Parson ; but I had no anti- 
 cipation of his hereafter becoming so disting- 
 uished as he subsequently did. And if I anti- 
 cipated it little, he, I am sure, anticipated it 
 less ; for he was one of the humblest of men." 
 
 The next day- they visited Mr. Martyn's 
 residence, which they found destitute of almost 
 every comfort, but that which was produced 
 by his apartments being large and airy. Here 
 they enjoyed his method of conducting family 
 worship in the morning and evening. It began 
 with the singing of a hymn, followed by the 
 reading of Scripture with explanatory remarks, 
 and closed with an extemporaneous prayer. 
 The conversion of the people of India, and 
 the general extension of the kingdom of Christ 
 seemed to fill his thoughts, and overflowed in 
 all his conversations, whether in the house, or 
 in their evening walks. 
 
 The observation of this devoted missionary's 
 character, and the hearing of his instructive 
 conversation must have helped to elevate his 
 visiters' conception of practical Christianity, 
 and assisted in its development, through 
 divine grace, in their own hearts. They were, 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 53 
 
 however, separated for the present from this 
 happy influence, by being obliged to pursue 
 their voyage. 
 
 On their way from Dinapore they formed 
 their first acquaintance with another English 
 missionary whose name is associated with the 
 history of Martyn. This was the Rev. David 
 Corrie, then stationed as chaplain at Chunar, 
 afterwards archdeacon and then Bishop of the 
 Church of England at Madras. Mr. Corrie 
 spent three hours on the boat with our trav- 
 ellers, and left the impression on them of a 
 simple-hearted, holy Christian. They after- 
 wards acknowledged it as a special advantage 
 in the plan of the gracious providence that 
 was guiding them, in the way most favourable 
 to their spiritual benefit, that they were led to 
 the society of such men as Martyn, Corrie, 
 Parson, and other clergymen of their charac- 
 ter, rather than to that of a less devout and 
 devoted class of ministers. Their intimacy 
 with such Christians brought to their view 
 living illustrations of the reality and nature of 
 the only grade of piety which conforms to the 
 spirit of the doctrines and example of Christ, 
 and exhibits their transforming power on the 
 heart and conduct. "God in his infinite 
 mercy, though we knew it not, was beginning 
 
54 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 to lead us out from worldly society into that 
 of his chosen and most beloved children in 
 India. He hitherto hedged our way with 
 sharp thorns, but he was preparing the roses 
 which, after a little while, were to render the 
 few last years of our residence in the East as 
 happy as human beings can be in the present 
 state of existence." 
 
 As soon as they reached Cawnpore, Mrs. 
 Sherwood began her school with as much zeal 
 as if, instead of being an officer's wife, she had 
 gone out to India as a missionary. She gener- 
 ally taught four classes ; one composed of the 
 larger boys, another of the girls, and two 
 classes of the younger children. She adopted 
 an orphan child, named Annie, whose history 
 can be read at large in " The Indian Orphans," 
 in Mrs. Sherwood's works. This little girl 
 had been so drugged with ardent spirits by 
 those who had charge of her after her mother's 
 death, that she never recovered her good 
 health. This drugging of children with liquor 
 or opium, to save their mothers or nurses the 
 trouble of taking care of them when they are 
 restless, is no unusual thing in India; nor, we 
 fear, is it unknown in America. Hindoo 
 mothers are w T ell known to be most unnatural 
 in the treatment of their own children, espe- 
 
LIFE OF MBS. SHERWOOD. 55 
 
 ci ally the females; "but women of Christian 
 countries sometimes forget their humanity 
 when they fall among such examples. This 
 was shown in the case of another child whom 
 Mrs. Sherwood adopted, by the name of 
 Sarah. Her mother, who was an English 
 soldier's wife, had died, and the care of the 
 child had fallen upon another woman of the 
 same class, in consequence of a promise she 
 had made to the infant's mother on her death- 
 bed. Mrs. Sherwood heard that this foster 
 mother, having become tired of the burden, 
 was trying to starve the child by degrees. 
 Sending for her, she soon discovered the hor- 
 rible truth. The helpless, motherless infant 
 showed in its eager looks and emaciated frame, 
 the effects of famine. The woman pretended 
 it was the effect of illness, but Mrs. Sherwood 
 took the child from her, and by prudent feed- 
 ing it soon showed that its only disease was 
 hunger. 
 
 Not long after these events another sad 
 bereavement befel the Sherwoods. Their 
 daughter Lucy died of a few days' illness. 
 While she lay in her fever, her mother had 
 turned to Jeremiah's book of " Lamentations," 
 only expecting to find some expressions to 
 help her utter her anguish; but she found a 
 
56 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 better result upon reading there, the instruc- 
 tive, as well as consoling words — "for the 
 Lord will not cast off for ever; but though he 
 cause grief, yet will he have compassion 
 according to the multitude of his mercies : for 
 he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the 
 children of men." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NOTICES OF HENRY MAETYN. 
 
 In the spring of 1809, Mr. Martyn was 
 appointed by the East India Company to be 
 chaplain at Cawnpore; and this circumstance, 
 so welcome to the family from the attachment 
 they had formed for the devoted missionary, 
 proved a great spiritual benefit to them. He 
 travelled the distance from Dinapore — almost 
 four hundred miles — in a palanquin, and for 
 the last two days and nights, had no resting 
 place on the way; and upon reaching Mr. 
 Sherwood's door, he was so exhausted that he 
 fainted. Even in the bungalow, or house, 
 closely shut up from the sun, and with the 
 punkah, or machine for fanning a room, in 
 motion, the thermometer stood at 96°. But 
 
LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 57 
 
 in a few clays, Mr. Martyn was sufficiently 
 recovered to lie on a couch in the hall with 
 his books around him. Amongst these were 
 always to be found a Hebrew Bible and 
 a Greek New Testament. Mrs. Sherwood has 
 left an account of his employments during this 
 residence with them, that our readers would 
 not wish to have in any one's language but 
 her own. Our extracts will show that beloved 
 man as he appeared in the eyes of those who 
 were most intimate with him, and give particu- 
 lars that are not to be found in the memoirs 
 of his life that have been published. 
 
 " On the 30th of May, the Kev. Henry Mar- 
 tyn arrived at our bungalow. The former chap- 
 lain had proceeded to the presidency, and we 
 were so highly favoured as to have Mr. Martyn 
 appointed in his place. I am not aware whether 
 we expected him, but certainly not at the 
 time when he did appear. It was in the morn- 
 ing, the desert winds blowing like fire without, 
 when we suddenly heard the quick steps of 
 many bearers. Mr. Sherwood ran out to the 
 leeward of the house, and exclaimed, " Mr. 
 Martyn." The next moment I saw him lead- 
 ing in that excellent man, and saw our visitor 
 a moment afterwards fall down in a fainting fit. 
 He had travelled in a palanquin from Dinapore, 
 
58 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 and the first part of the way he moved only 
 by night. But between Cawnpore and Alla- 
 habad, being a hundred and thirty miles, there 
 is no resting place, and he was compelled for 
 two days and two nights to journey on in his 
 palanquin, exposed to the raging heat of a fiery 
 wind. He arrived, therefore, quite exhausted, 
 and actually under the influence of fever. 
 
 " In his fainting state, Mr. Martyn could not 
 have retired to the sleeping-room which we 
 caused to be prepared immediately for him, 
 because we had no means of cooling any sleep- 
 ing-room so thoroughly as we could the hall. 
 We, therefore, had a couch set for him in the 
 hall. There he was laid, and very ill he was 
 for a day or two. On the 2nd of June the hot 
 winds left us, and we had a close, suffocating 
 calm. Mr. Martyn could not lift his head from 
 the couch. 
 
 " Mr. Martyn, like myself at this time, was 
 often perplexed and dismayed at the workings 
 of his own heart, yet, perhaps, not discerning 
 a hundredth part of the depth of the depravity 
 of his own nature, the character of which is 
 summed up in Holy Writ in these two words 
 — "utterly unclean." He felt this the more 
 strongly, because he partook also of that new 
 nature " which sinneth not." It was in the 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 59 
 
 workings and actings of that nature that his 
 character shone so pre-eminently as it did amid 
 a dark and unbelieving society, such as was 
 ours then at Cawnpore. 
 
 64 In a very few days he had discerned the 
 sweet qualities of the orphan Annie, and had 
 so encouraged her to come about him that she 
 drew her chair, and her table, and her green 
 box to the vicinity of his couch. She showed 
 him her verses, and consulted him about the 
 adoption of more passages into the number of 
 her favourites. Annie had a particular delight 
 in all the pastoral views given in Scripture of 
 our Saviour and of his church ; and when Mr. 
 Martyn showed her this beautiful passage, 
 ' Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of 
 thine heritage which dwell solitarily in the wood 
 in the midst of Carmel,' (Micah vii. 14,) she 
 was as pleased with this passage as if she had 
 made some wonderful acquisition. 
 
 " When Mr. Martyn lost the worst symptoms 
 of his illness, he used to sing a great deal. He 
 had an uncommonly fine voice and fine ear; he 
 could sing many fine chaunts, and a vast 
 variety of hymns and psalms. He would in- 
 sist upon it that I should sing with him, and 
 he taught me many tunes, all of which were 
 afterwards brought into requisition; and when 
 
60 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 fatigued himself, he made me sit by his couch, 
 and practise these hymns. He would listen to 
 my singing, which was altogether very unscien- 
 tific, for hours together, and he was constantly 
 requiring me to go on even when I was tired. 
 The tunes he taught me, no doubt, reminded 
 him of England, and of scenes and friends no 
 longer seen. The more simple the style of 
 singing, the more it probably answered his 
 purpose. 
 
 "As soon as Mr. Martyn could in any way 
 exert himself, he made acquaintance with some 
 of the pious men of the regiment; (the same 
 poor men whom I have mentioned before, who 
 used to meet in ravines, in huts, in woods, and 
 in every wild and secret place they could find, 
 to read, and pray, and sing;) and he invited 
 them to come to him in our house, Mr. Sher- 
 wood making no objection. The time first 
 fixed was an evening after parade, and in con- 
 sequence they all appeared at the appointed 
 hour, each carrying their mora, (a low seat,) 
 and their books tied up in pocket-handkerchiefs. 
 In this very unmilitary fashion they were all 
 met in a body by some officers. It was with 
 some difficulty that Mr. Sherwood could divert 
 the storm of displeasure which had well nigh 
 burst upon them on the occasion. Had they 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 61 
 
 been all found intoxicated and fighting, they 
 would have created less anger from those who 
 loved not religion. 
 
 " We did not join the party, but we heard them 
 singing and praying, and the sound was very 
 sweet. Mr. Martyn then promised them that 
 when he had got a house he would set aside a 
 room for them, where they might come every 
 evening, adding he would meet them himself 
 twice in the week. It may as well be remarked 
 here as in another place, that as soon as every 
 convenience for the assembly of these persons 
 was provided, and when these assemblies were 
 sanctioned by our ever kind Colonel Mawby, 
 and all difficulties, in short, overcome, many 
 who had been the most zealous under perse- 
 cution fell quite away, and never returned. 
 How can we account for these things ? Many, 
 however, remained steadfast under evil report 
 as well as good report, and died as they had 
 lived in simple and pure faith. 
 
 " I must not omit in this place another anec- 
 dote of Mr. Martyn, which amused us much at 
 the time after we had recovered the alarm at- 
 tending it. The salary of a chaplain is large, 
 and Mr. Martyn had not drawn his for so long 
 a time, that the sum amounted perhaps to some 
 hundreds. He was to receive it from the col- 
 6 
 
62 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 lector at Cawnpore. Accordingly, he one morn- 
 ing sent a note for the amount, confiding the 
 note to the care of a common cooley, a porter 
 of low caste, generally a very poor man. This 
 man went otf, unknown to Mr. Sherwood and 
 myself, early in the morning. The day passed, 
 the evening came, and no cooley arrived. At 
 length Mr. Martyn said in a quiet voice to us, 
 " The cooley does not come with my money. 
 I was thinking this morning how rich I should 
 be ; and, now, I should not wonder in the least 
 if he has run off, and taken my treasure with 
 him." "What!" we exclaimed, "surely you 
 have not sent a common cooley for your pay?" 
 "I have," he replied. Of course we could not 
 expect that it would ever arrive safe; for it 
 would be paid in silver, and delivered to the 
 man in cotton bags. Soon afterwards, how- 
 ever, it did arrive, a circumstance at which we 
 all greatly marvelled. Immediately after this 
 Mr. Martyn went out, and, being persuaded by 
 some black man, he bought one of the most 
 undesirable houses, to all appearance, which he 
 could have chosen. This house afterwards 
 proved to be, in many respects, singularly con- 
 venient, as we shall show by-and-by. On the 
 29 th of May, Mr. Martyn left us to go to his 
 own house: and after he was gone I fell into a 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 63 
 
 state of uneasiness and dissatisfaction with my- 
 self; for I was then experiencing a deeply 
 strong sense of my own depravity, not yet 
 having reached to such Bible knowledge as 
 might lead me to the conviction that this de- 
 pravity, which I bewailed so incessantly, must 
 remain in antagonism with the work of the 
 Spirit, until the carnal nature shall be put off 
 in the moment of death. Mr. Martyns house 
 was a bungalow situate between the Sepoy 
 Parade and the Artilleiy Barracks, but behind 
 that range of principal bungalows which face 
 the Parade. The approach to the dwelling 
 was called the Compound, along an avenue 
 of palm trees and aloes. A more stiff, funereal 
 avenue can hardly be imagined. At the end 
 of this avenue were two bungalows, connected 
 by a long passage. These bungalows were 
 low, and the rooms small. The garden was 
 prettily laid out with flowering shrubs and 
 tall trees; in the centre was a wide space, 
 which at some seasons was green, and a cher- 
 buter, or raised platform of chunam, of great 
 extent, was placed in the middle of this space. 
 A vast number and variety of huts and sheds 
 formed one boundary of the Compound; these 
 were concealed by the shrubs. But who would 
 venture to give any account of the hetero- 
 
64 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 geneous population which occupied these build- 
 ings ? For, besides the usual complement of 
 servants found in and about the houses of per- 
 sons of a certain rank in India, we must add 
 to Mr. Martyn's household a multitude of Pun- 
 dits, Moonshees, schoolmasters, and poor nom- 
 inal Christians, who hung about him because 
 there was no other to give them a handful of 
 rice for their daily maintenance; and most 
 strange was the murmur which proceeded at 
 times from this ill-assorted and discordant 
 multitude. Mr. Martyn occupied the largest 
 of the two bungalows. He had given up the 
 least to the wife of Sabat, that wild man of 
 the desert, whose extraordinary history has 
 made so much noise in the Christian world. 
 Mr. Martyn had come up dawk (post) from 
 Dinapore; Sabat with all the household and 
 goods had arrived in boats. 
 
 "It was a burning evening in June, when 
 after sun-set I accompanied Mr. Sherwood to 
 Mr. Martyn's bungalow, and saw for the first 
 time its avenue of palms and aloes. We were 
 conducted to the cherbuter, where the company 
 was already assembled, among which there 
 was no lady but myself. This cherbuter was 
 many feet square, and chairs were set for the 
 guests; and a more heterogeneous assembly 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 65 
 
 surely had not often met, and seldom, I believe, 
 were more languages in requisition in so small 
 a party. Besides Mr. Martyn and ourselves, 
 there was no one present who could speak 
 English. But let me introduce each individ- 
 ual separately; and first, Sabat. The only 
 languages which he was able to speak were 
 Persian, Arabic, and a very little bad Hin- 
 dostanee ; but what was wanting in the words 
 of this man was more than made up by the 
 loudness with which he uttered them, for he 
 had a voice like rolling thunder. 
 
 " The second of Mr. Martyn's guests, whom I 
 must introduce as being not a whit behind 
 Sabat in his own opinion of himself, was the 
 Padre Julius Caesar, an Italian monk of the 
 order of the Jesuits, a worthy disciple of Igna- 
 tius Loyola. He spoke French fluently, but his 
 native language was Italian. His conversation 
 with Mr. Martyn was carried on partly in Lat- 
 in and partly in Italian. A third guest was a 
 learned native of India, in his full and hand- 
 some Hindostanee costume; and a fourth, a 
 little, thin, copper-coloured, half-caste Bengalee 
 gentleman, in white nankeen, who spoke only 
 Bengalee. Mr. Sherwood made a fifth, in his 
 scarlet and gold uniform ; myself, the only lady, 
 was the sixth ; and add our host, Mr. Martyn, 
 
66 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 in his clerical black silk coat, and there is our 
 party. Most assuredly I never listened to 
 such a confusion of tongues before or since. 
 Such a noisy, perplexing Babel can scarcely 
 be imagined. Every one who had acquired 
 his views of politeness in Eastern society was 
 shouting at the top of his voice, as if he had 
 lost his fellow in a wood; and no less than 
 seven languages were in constant request, viz., 
 English, French, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Hin- 
 dostanee, Bengalee, and Latin. 
 
 " From the time Mr. Martyn left our house 
 he was in the constant habit of supping with 
 us two or three times a week, and he used to 
 come on horseback, with the sais running by 
 his side. He sat his horse as if he were not 
 quite aware that he was on horseback, and he 
 generally wore his coat as if it were falling 
 from his shoulders. When he dismounted, 
 his favourite place was in the verandah, with 
 a book, till we came in from our airing. And 
 when we returned, many a sweet and long dis- 
 course we had, whilst waiting for our dinner 
 or supper. Mr. Martyn often looked up to 
 the starry heavens, and spoke of those glorious 
 worlds of which we know so little now, but of 
 which we hope to know so much hereafter." 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 67 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FURTHER NOTICES OP HENRY MARTYN — VOYAGE TO CALCUTTA. 
 
 In the month of September, 1809, Mr. 
 Martyn baptized Lucy, the infant of Mrs. 
 Sherwood, born the preceding month. The 
 service was not performed, as it too often 
 is, as if an empty ceremony ; but so solemnly 
 that the mother never forgot it. It was then 
 just a year since her other child Lucy had 
 been taken from her by death; and fearing 
 that it was impossible to preserve her chil- 
 dren's health, or to hope for their living long 
 in the climate of India, Mrs. Sherwood had 
 resolved to take them to her friends in 
 England, even though she should herself re- 
 turn to her husband. The last week of their 
 stay in Cawnpore they spent at Mr. Martyn's 
 house, going every night to sleep in the boat 
 in which they were to sail to Calcutta. Here 
 we must copy Mrs. Sherwood's own account 
 of the missionary in his home and daily occu- 
 pations. 
 
 " I still remember the time we spent at Mr. 
 Martyn's bungalow with deep interest. In 
 the mornings we all used to set out together, 
 children and servants, to go up from the river 
 
68 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 to the house, whilst the dew yet lay upon the 
 grass; for it was the beginning of the cold 
 season, and the many aromatic flowers of that 
 southern climate shed their perfume in the 
 air. Having arrived at the bungalow, the 
 children and their servants went to the apart- 
 ments appointed them, and I went into the 
 hall to breakfast. There were always one or 
 more strangers (gentlemen) present. We sang 
 a hymn, and Mr. Martyn read and prayed be- 
 fore breakfast, and we often sat long at break- 
 fast. The persons who visited Mr. Martyn, 
 with few exceptions, were religious persons, 
 and the conversation was generally upon re- 
 ligious subjects, the conversion of the heathen 
 being constantly the topic of discourse. Many 
 letters were at this time passing between the 
 different religious leaders (if such an expres- 
 sion may be permitted me) throughout all 
 India: the Rev. David Brown, of Calcutta, 
 being, as it were, set in the centre of the bat- 
 tle, whilst others occupied the front, and were 
 as pioneers, breaking up the new ground. Mr. 
 Brown again and again suggested new plans 
 of work, and there were then not a few who 
 were eager to execute them, full of confidence 
 that wonders were to be wrought, and the 
 whole earth converted, according to the words 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 69 
 
 of Mi\ Martyn's favourite hymn, which is a 
 paraphrase of the 72nd Psalm by Dr. Watts : — 
 
 1 Jesus snail reign where'er the sun 
 Does his successive journeys run ; 
 His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
 Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 
 
 1 The saints shall flourish in his days, 
 Dress'd in the robes of joy and praise ; 
 Peace, like a river from his throne, 
 Shall flow to nations yet unknown.' 
 
 "As I said before, little was spoken of at Mr. 
 Martyn's table but of various plans for ad- 
 vancing the triumphs of Christianity. Among 
 the plans adopted, Mr. Martyn had, first at 
 Dinapore and then at Cawnpore, established 
 one or two schools for children of the natives 
 of the lower caste. His plan was to hire a 
 native schoolmaster, generally a Mussulmaun, 
 to appoint him a place, and to pay him an anna 
 a head for each boy whom he could induce to 
 attend school. These boys the master was to 
 teach to write and read. It was Mr. Martyn's 
 great aim, and, indeed, the sole end of his ex- 
 ertions, to get Christian books into the school. 
 As no mention was ever made of proselytism, 
 there was never any difficulty found in intro- 
 ducing even portions of the Scripture itself, 
 
70 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 more especially portions of the Old Testament, 
 to the attention of the children. The books 
 of Moses are always very acceptable to a 
 Mussulmaun, and Genesis is particularly inter- 
 esting to the Hindoos. Mr. Martyn's first 
 school at Cawnpore was located in a long shed, 
 which was on the side of the cavalry lines. 
 It was the first school of the kind I ever saw. 
 The master sat at one end, like a tailor, on 
 the dusty floor; and along under the shed sat 
 the scholars, a pack of little urchins, with no 
 other clothes on, than a skull cap and a piece 
 of cloth round the loins. These little ones 
 squatted, like their master, in the sand. They 
 had wooden imitations of slates in their hands, 
 on which having first written their lessons 
 with chalk, they recited them, being sure to 
 raise their voices on the approach of any Eur- 
 opean or native of note. Now Cawnpore is 
 about one of the most dusty places in the world. 
 The Sepoy lines are the most dusty part of 
 Cawnpore ; and as the little urchins are always 
 well greased, either with cocoa-nut oil or, in 
 failure thereof, with rancid mustard oil, when- 
 ever there was the slightest breath of air they 
 always looked as if they had been powdered all 
 over with brown powder. But what did this 
 signify ? they would have been equally dusty 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 71 
 
 in their own huts. In these schools they were 
 in the way of getting a few ideas ; at all events, 
 they often got so far as to be able to copy a 
 verse on their wooden slates. Afterwards 
 they committed to memory what they had 
 written. Who that has ever heard it can for- 
 get the sounds of the various notes with which 
 these little people intonated their " Aleph Zub- 
 bur ah — Zair a — Paiche oh," as they waved 
 backwards and forwards in their recitations? 
 Or who can forget the vacant self-importance 
 of the schoolmaster, who was generally a long- 
 bearded, dry old man, who had no other means 
 of proving his superiority over the scholars 
 but making more noise than even they could 
 do? Such a scene, indeed, could not be for- 
 gotten; but would it not require great faith 
 to expect anything green to spring from a soil 
 so dry ? But this faith was not wanting to the 
 Christians then in India. 
 
 " Bibles at that period were most scarce and 
 valuable in India ; Annie and Sally were there- 
 fore much pleased when Mr. Martyn gave 
 each of them a copy. His kindness to these 
 little ones was always remarkable ; he was 
 never more at his ease than when they were 
 hanging about him. On Sabbath, 22nd Octo- 
 ber, we received the Lord's Supper from Mr. 
 
72 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 Martyn; about fourteen of the devout men of 
 the 53d being present, and Francis, the eldest 
 of my scholars in the regiment." 
 
 Leaving Cawnpore, the family proceeded on 
 their voyage down the Ganges, stopping at 
 some of the principal towns that lie on its 
 banks, though not often leaving their boat. 
 At Chunar, the benevolent and excellent Mr. 
 Corrie visited them. Mrs. Sherwood had the 
 highest esteem for the personal character of 
 this clergyman, and pronounced him, in his 
 peculiar path of missionary employment^ which 
 was different from that of Mr. Martyn's, as 
 probably the most useful man of the Church 
 of England that had then ever laboured in 
 India. It was with Mr. Corrie and his sister 
 that Mrs. Sherwood designed leaving the two 
 orphan children, Lucy and Sally, during her 
 expected absence in England ; and they cheer- 
 fully undertook the responsible charge. 
 
 On the 28th of November the boat reached 
 Calcutta. They found four ships on the point 
 of sailing for England, in one of which Mrs. 
 Sherwood with her infant and nurse would 
 have taken passage, when suddenly the nurse 
 refused to accompany her. This unexpected 
 interruption of her plan led Mrs. Sherwood to 
 reflect more seriously than she had heretofore 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 73 
 
 done, whether it was her duty to leave India 
 and separate herself so long from her husband, 
 especially as in doing so she would be acting 
 in opposition to his wishes. They agreed to 
 consult two of the best physicians of Cal- 
 cutta as to the necessity of taking their child 
 to a colder climate. Both of the physicians 
 declared that she might be safely retained in 
 India for some years at least, and Mrs. Sher- 
 wood joyfully assented to this decision as an 
 indication of her duty. She felt the incident, 
 too, as a providential reproof for allowing her 
 tenderness as a mother to go beyond her 
 obligations as a wife, and in reviewing the 
 circumstance long afterwards, she used these 
 strong expressions : — 
 
 "0 my God! my Father! and my Friend! 
 How can I sufficiently thank thee, Lord! 
 for thy goodness to me in this instance ; for 
 thine infinite kindness in thus removing the 
 film from my eyes, and showing me the way 
 I should go, ere yet I had taken that step 
 which was so decidedly against my duty! 
 Oh ! who can tell what might have been the 
 consequences had I been permitted to go, fol- 
 lowing my own devices, until I had made full 
 shipwreck of all our domestic happiness ! Oh ! 
 let me warn all wives to consider what I have 
 here said." 
 
74 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 EEV. MR. THOMASON REV. DAVID BROWN ORPHAN ASYLUMS 
 
 RETURN TO CAWNPORE — FAMILY AT MIRZAPORE. 
 
 The idea of leaving India being thus aban- 
 doned, Mrs. Sherwood immediately prepared to 
 return with her husband to his post at Cawn- 
 pore. The few days they waited at Calcutta 
 they spent at the residence of the Rev. 
 Thomas T. Thomason, who had come from 
 England in the capacity of a chaplain of the East 
 India Company, in the year 1808. She was 
 much gratified with the attention which Mr. 
 Thomason gave to the instruction of the chil- 
 dren, one or other of whose parents was a Euro- 
 pean. Once every week he collected these in 
 his church and examined them on religious 
 subjects. On the occasion on which Mrs. 
 Sherwood was present, he was examining this 
 young audience on the sermon of the previous 
 Sabbath. He was preaching a series of dis- 
 courses on obedience to parents, and, according 
 to his custom, had provided the children with 
 the principal heads of the last sermon in the 
 form of questions and answers, printed for 
 their use. At this time, too, they saw for 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 75 
 
 the first and only time another well known 
 English minister — the Rev. David Brown, in 
 whose church now stands the honourable in- 
 scription to his memory : — 
 
 "To the poor the gospel was preached 
 in this church by the Rev. David Brown, 
 during a period of twenty-five years." 
 
 It was to the wife of Mr. Thomason, and 
 during this unexpected visit, that Mrs. Sher- 
 wood opened her heart as to the condition of 
 the orphan children of poor Europeans. This 
 conference interested both her and Mr. Thom- 
 ason so deeply in the behalf of the neglected 
 children, that what seemed so untoward an 
 event and loss of time, as this long voyage 
 down the Ganges and back, proved to be the 
 origin of what was afterwards so liberally 
 done for establishing an institution for this 
 description of orphans. For it was in conse- 
 quence of this disappointment that Annie, one 
 of the orphans in Mrs. Sherwood's care, was 
 afterwards taken to Calcutta by Miss Corrie. 
 The child became known to Lady Loudon, a 
 person of high rank and influence, who was 
 thus led to inquire into the state of the 
 motherless white girls living in the military 
 barracks. The information she gained from 
 Mrs. Thomason, Mrs. Sherwood and others, 
 
76 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 induced her to establish an asylum in Calcutta 
 fur white orphan girls, in addition to two 
 establishments already in existence, for other 
 classes of orphans. 
 
 On the 18th of December, they were on 
 their river voyage once more. In two weeks 
 they met a boat in which, to their great sur- 
 prise, they found the lady who had taken 
 charge of the orphan Sally. The lady was on 
 her way to Calcutta in very ill health ; and to 
 the joy both of the little girl and Mrs. Sher- 
 wood, it was determined that she should at 
 once return to her care. Seven weeks later 
 they reached Mr. Corrie's house at Chunar, 
 where they expected to take up their other 
 adopted orphan — Annie; but Mr. Corrie and 
 his sister had become so much attached to the 
 child, that Mrs. Sherwood consented to leave 
 her with her. 
 
 It may entertain and instruct our youthful 
 readers to have some information of the man- 
 ner in which children of a different class from 
 those of poor orphans, are treated in India. 
 We will therefore introduce here the descrip- 
 tion which Mrs. Sherwood gave of the life of 
 the children of a wealthy Indian family at 
 Mirzapore, at whose house they halted soon 
 after leaving Chunar. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERAVOOD. 77 
 
 " Though we slept in our boat, I could not 
 leave the children there, and, therefore, we 
 brought them up, and located little Miss Lucy 
 and her attendants in the nursery of our 
 friend, who had, besides two or three children 
 at school in England, one daughter, Miss 
 Louisa, whom we had seen before, and three 
 very little ones. These children had the whole 
 of a wing of the large house devoted to them- 
 selves and their attendants ; for each child had 
 two or more servants to itself, not counting 
 the washerman, sweepers, bullock drivers, 
 silver-stick bearers, cooks, &c, &c, which that 
 portion of the house needed. Over all these 
 was a large, tall, consequential, superbly 
 dressed, high salaried, white woman, probably 
 some sergeant's widow, who sat in state, and 
 gave her orders. Under this person was an 
 Ayah, or head nurse, a black woman, who 
 had lived long with the lady of the mansion, 
 and who no doubt felt the yoke of the white 
 woman anything but easy. The civilian's 
 lady herself, who was a very gentle, timid 
 person, seemed to be in some awe of the mis- 
 tress paramount of her nursery. 1 can fancy 
 I see this tyrant now, in her smart head-tire, 
 seated in her elbow chair, issuing her com- 
 mands in Anglo-Hindostanee, and scarcely 
 
78 LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 condescending to bow to her lady's visitors. 
 But there were three babies, as near to each 
 other in age as possible, and this was to me a 
 sight of the deepest interest, for the children 
 looked well, and the little one was so fat that 
 they had put rows of pearls about her little 
 neck to prevent the creases occasioned by the 
 plumpness from galling. 
 
 " I must now proceed to some description 
 of Miss Louisa, the eldest daughter then in 
 India of our friends, who, at that time, might 
 have been about six or seven. She was tall 
 of her age, very brown, and very pale. She 
 had been entirely reared in India, and was 
 accustomed, from her earliest infancy, to be 
 attended by a multitude of servants, whom 
 she despised thoroughly as being black, 
 although, no doubt, she preferred their soci- 
 ety to her own country people, as they 
 ministered, with much flattery and servil- 
 ity, to her wants. Wherever she had moved 
 during these first years of her life, she had 
 been followed by her Ayah, and probably by 
 one or two bearers, and she was perfectly 
 aware that if she got into any mischief they 
 would be blamed, and not herself. In the 
 meantime, except in the article of food, every 
 desire, and every caprice, and every want had 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 79 
 
 been indulged to satiety. No one who has 
 not seen it could imagine the profusion of toys 
 which are scattered about an Indian house 
 wherever the Babalogue (children people) are 
 permitted to range. There may be seen — fine 
 polished and painted toys from Benares, in 
 which all the household utensils of the coun- 
 try, the fruits, and even the animals, are 
 represented, the last most ludicrously incor- 
 rect. Toys in painted clay from Morshedabad 
 and Calcutta, representing figures of gods and 
 godesses, with horses, camels, elephants, pea- 
 cocks, and parrots, and now and then a Tope 
 Walla, or hat wearer, as they call the English, 
 in full regimentals and cocked hat, seated on 
 an ill-formed, clumsy thing, meant for a horse. 
 Then add to these, English, French, and Dutch 
 toys, which generally lie pell-mell in every 
 corner where the listless, toy-satiated child 
 may have thrown or kicked them. 
 
 " The quantity of inner and outer garments 
 worn by a little girl in England would render 
 it extremely fatiguing to change the dress so 
 often as our little ladies are required to do in 
 India. Miss Louisa's attire consisted of a 
 single garment, a frock body without sleeves, 
 attached to a pair of trousers, with rather a 
 short, full skirt gathered into the body with 
 
80 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 the trousers, so as to form one whole, the 
 whole being ruffled with the finest jindelly, 
 a cloth which is not unlike cambric, every 
 ruffle being plaited in the most delicate man- 
 ner. These ruffles are doubled and trebled on 
 the top of the arm, forming there a substitute 
 for a sleeve, and the same is done around the 
 ankle, answering the purpose almost of a 
 stocking, or at least concealing its absence. 
 Fine coloured kid shoes ought to have complet- 
 ed this attire, but it most often happened that 
 these were kicked away among the rejected 
 toys. 
 
 " How many times in the day the dress of 
 Miss Louisa was renewed, who shall say ? It, 
 however, depended much upon the accidents 
 which might happen to it, but four times was 
 the usual arrangement, which was once before 
 breakfast, once after, once again before tiffin, 
 [lunch,] and once again for the evening air- 
 ing. The child, being now nearly seven years 
 old, was permitted to move about the house 
 independently of her Ayah ; thus, she Avas 
 sometimes in the hall, sometimes in the ver- 
 andah, sometimes in one room, sometimes in 
 another. In an Indian house in the hot season 
 no inner door is ever shut, and curtains only 
 are hung in the doorways, so that this little 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 81 
 
 wild one was in and out and everywhere just 
 as it hit her fancy. She had never been 
 taught even to know her letters ; and she had 
 never been kept to any task ; she was a com- 
 plete slave of idleness, restlessness, and ennui. 
 6 It is time for Louisa to go to England/ was 
 quietly remarked by the parents, and no one 
 present controverted the point. As to little 
 Sally, she seemed perfectly terrified by this 
 child, and kept close by me. The lady of the 
 house, it should be told, suffered as much as 
 any European who yet lived, could do, from 
 the influence of the climate. She had not 
 bodily strength to control either children or 
 servants ; she seemed to have lost all motive 
 of action, all power of exertion. She had few 
 books, and scarcely ever heard any news of 
 her own people, of whom she saw scarce one in 
 a year, and apparently she took little interest 
 in the natives. Hers was, indeed, but a com- 
 mon picture, which might represent hundreds 
 of her country people in the same situation. 
 There is no solitude like the solitude of a civi- 
 lian's lady in a retired situation in India." 
 
82 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " LITTLE HENRY AND HIS BEARER" HENRY MARTYN's CONGREGA- 
 TIONS — ABDOOL MUSSEEH — " INDIAN PILGRIM." 
 
 It was not till three weeks after leaving 
 Mirzapore that our travellers at length found 
 themselves at their proper home in Cawnpore. 
 Among the first to welcome them was Henry 
 Martyn. He was then looking very ill, and 
 often complained of what he called a fire burn- 
 ing in his heart. 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood having procured a Dhaye, 
 or native nurse, for her infant child, felt great 
 sympathy for the nurse's own infant which 
 the mother had to give to another woman to 
 take care of. It was while her mind was 
 wrought by such incidents to reflect on the 
 condition of the poor people of the country, 
 that she began to write her celebrated story, 
 entitled "Little Henry and his Bearer." 
 
 She was stimulated in attempting something 
 for the improvement of the various classes 
 around her, by witnessing the self-denying 
 exertions in which Mr. Martyn was so con- 
 stantly employed. From the earliest period 
 of his arrival in Cawnpore, he had been 
 accustomed to collect all the pious British 
 
LIFE OF MIIS. SHERWOOD. 83 
 
 soldiers, and conduct worship with them. He 
 had a school of native boys taught under his 
 direction. But his hardest and least en- 
 couraging labour was that which he bestowed 
 on certain classes of Mahommedan and Hin- 
 doo persons, who, under pretence of being 
 greatly devoted to their own false religions, 
 were the vilest and most vicious characters in 
 the country. By offering a small piece of 
 money to such of these as would come to 
 the enclosure around his house on Sabbath 
 evenings, he collected crowds of the most 
 miserable and frightful objects. Most of them 
 were of that class of pretended saints, who in 
 order to deceive the people with an idea of 
 their holiness, keep themselves in the most 
 filthy state, and distort themselves so as to 
 disgust or frighten the beholders. It is such 
 as these who have so often been described in 
 books on India as allowing their hair and nails 
 to grow without cutting or cleaning; standing 
 in one position until their limbs become 
 shrivelled ; holding their hands clenched until 
 the finger nails grew through the palms. As 
 many as five hundred of these wretched beings 
 would be assembled at one time in Mr. Mar- 
 tyn's garden, and in the midst of them he 
 would seat himself, and endeavour to give 
 
84 LIFE OF MRS. HHERWOOD. 
 
 them instruction out of the Bible. He per- 
 severed in his efforts to break up their super- 
 stitions and vices, notwithstanding he was 
 often interrupted with their hideous noises, 
 blasphemies and threatenings. It was at one 
 of these singular meetings that Mr. Martyn's 
 discourse was overheard by some young Mus- 
 sulmauns who were drinking and smoking in 
 an adjoining garden. Out of curiosity they 
 came into the enclosure where they could hear 
 what was said, and it was one of these who, 
 having his mind now first awakened to inquire 
 into the truth of Christianity, became an 
 humble disciple and a zealous missionary of 
 Christ to his countrymen. His family name 
 was Sheikh Saleh; but upon being baptized, 
 he took the name by which he is best known, 
 of Abdool Musseeh, meaning u servant of 
 Christ." Mrs. Sherwood says : — 
 
 "We often went on the Sabbath evenings, 
 to hear the addresses of Mr. Martyn to the 
 assembly of mendicants, and we generally 
 stood behind him on the cherbuter. On these 
 occasions we had to make our way through a 
 dense crowd, with a temperature often rising 
 above 92, whilst the sun poured its burning 
 rays upon us through a lurid haze of dust. 
 Frightful were the objects which usually met 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 85 
 
 our eyes in this crowd; so many monstrous 
 and diseased limbs, and hideous faces, were 
 displayed before us, and pushed forward for 
 our inspection, that I have often made my 
 way to the cherbuter with my eyes shut, 
 whilst Mr. Sherwood led me. On reaching 
 the platform I was surrounded by our own 
 people, and yet, even there, I scarcely dared to 
 look about me. I still imagine that I hear the 
 calm, distinct, and musical tones of Henry 
 Martyn, as he stood raised above the people, 
 endeavouring, by showing the purity of the 
 divine law, to convince the unbelievers that 
 by their works they were all condemned; and 
 that this w r as the case of every man of the 
 offspring of Adam, and they therefore needed 
 a Saviour who was both willing and able to 
 redeem them. From time to time low mur- 
 murs and curses would arise in the distance, 
 and then roll forward, till they became so 
 loud as to drown the voice of this pious one, 
 generally concluding with hissing and fierce 
 cries. But when the storm passed away, 
 again might he be heard going on where he 
 had left off, in the same calm, steadfast tone, 
 as if he were incapable of irritation from inter- 
 ruption. 
 
 "Mr. Martyn himself assisted in giving 
 
 8 
 
86 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 each person his pice after the address was 
 concluded; and when he withdrew to his 
 bungalow I have seen him drop, almost faint- 
 ing, on a sofa, for he had, as he often said, 
 even at that time, a slow inflammation burning 
 in his chest, and one which he knew must 
 eventually terminate his existence. In conse- 
 quence of this, he was usually in much pain 
 after any exertion of speaking." 
 
 It was a pleasanter association than this 
 which the officer's family had with the mis- 
 sionaries in their more domestic meetings. 
 "Few," says Mrs. Sherwood: — 
 
 "Few were the evenings which we did not 
 spend with Mr. Martyn and Mr. Corrie, and 
 twice in the week we all went together to Mr. 
 Martyn's domain, the children not being omit- 
 ted. First we went to the church bungalow, 
 where we had service, and afterwards to his 
 house. One or other of these excellent men 
 usually expounded to us. Our party consisted 
 of some young officers, who were almost 
 always with us, a few poor, pious soldiers, 
 some orphans of the barracks, and a number 
 of our former pupils. We always sang two 
 or three hymns from the Calcutta collection, 
 and sat at one end of the place of worship, 
 the other and larger end not being finished, 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 87 
 
 and of course not open. After the service, as 
 I said,, we went to the bungalow, and had 
 supper, and generally concluded with another 
 hymn. Mr. Marty n's principal favourite hymns 
 were 'The God of Abraham's praise,' and 
 6 O'er the gloomy hills of darkness.' I re- 
 member to this hour the spirit of hope and 
 of joy with which we were wont to join in 
 these words: — 
 
 ' O'er the gloomy hills of darkness 
 
 Look, my soul, with hope and praise, 
 
 All the promises do travail 
 With a glorious day of grace ; 
 
 Blessed jubilee, 
 
 Let thy glorious morning dawn. 
 
 1 Let the Indian, let the negro, 
 
 Let the rude barbarian see 
 That divine and glorious conquest 
 
 Once obtained on Calvary ; 
 Let the gospel 
 Loud resound from pole to pole.' 
 
 " Oh, what glorious feelings have we enjoyed 
 when, Mr. Martyn leading the hymn, we all 
 broke forth in one delightful chorus ! On such 
 occasions all languor was forgotten, and every 
 heart glowed with holy hope." 
 
 " We spent some hours every morning, dur- 
 ing the early part of the month of September, 
 
88 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 in taking short voyages on the river; for 
 Mr. Sherwood, Mr. Martyn, and Mr. Come 
 hired a pinnace, and we furnished it with a sofa 
 and a few chairs and tables. The children 
 went with us, and their attendants. Mr. 
 Martyn sent a quantity of books, and used to 
 take possession of the sofa, with all his books 
 about him. He was often studying Hebrew, 
 and had huge lexicons lying by him. The 
 nurses sat on the floor in the inner room, and 
 the rest of us in the outer. Well do I remem- 
 ber some of the manoeuvres of little Lucy at 
 that time, who had just acquired the power of 
 moving about independently of a guiding hand ; 
 by this independence she always used to make 
 her way to Mr. Martyn when he was by any 
 means approachable. On one occasion I re- 
 member seeing the little one, with her grave 
 yet placid countenance, her silken hair, and 
 shoeless feet, step out of the inner room of 
 the pinnace with a little mora, which she set 
 by Mr. Martyn's couch, then, mounting on it, 
 she got upon the sofa, which was low, and next 
 seated herself on his huge lexicon. He would 
 not suffer her to be disturbed, though he 
 required his book every instant. Soon, how- 
 ever, weary of this seat, she moved to Mr. 
 Martyn's knee, and there she remained, now 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 89 
 
 and then taking his book from him, and pre- 
 tending to read; but he would not have her 
 removed, for, as he said, she had taken her 
 position with him, and she was on no account 
 to be sent from him. Little Annie, in the 
 mean time, as Miss Corrie used to say of her, 
 had more than she could do, in all the various 
 exigencies of these voyages, to take care of her- 
 self, and keep herself safe and blameless, neat 
 and clean; a pretty anxiety ever manifested 
 itself on her small face lest we should be over- 
 set, or some one should tumble out of the win- 
 dow. But, oh ! how dear in their different ways 
 were all these little ones to Mr. Corrie ; climb- 
 ing about him, leaning upon him, and laughing 
 at all his innocent jests. Sweet, most sweet, 
 is the remembrance of those excursions on the 
 Ganges, and such must they continue ever, till 
 memory's power shall pass away." 
 
 During this happy intimacy, it was deter- 
 mined to undertake the preparation of a work 
 in the language of Hindostan, on the plan of 
 the "Pilgrim's Progress." It was found that 
 a translation of Bunyan's book would not be 
 understood by a people whose ideas were so 
 different. It was therefore agreed that Mrs. 
 Sherwood should write an Indian Pilgrim's 
 Progress, and that Mr. Martyn and Mr. Corrie 
 8* 
 
90 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 would assist her with advice and corrections, 
 so as to make it as suitable as possible to the 
 taste and comprehension of the natives. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 HENRY MARTYN'S LAST SABBATH IN CAWNPORE — SCHOOLS OF MR. 
 
 AND MRS. SHERWOOD — " STORIES ON CHURCH CATECHISM" 
 
 "AYAH AND LADY." 
 
 In the month of October, 1810, the little 
 company of Christians at Cawnpore had to 
 part with Henry Martyn. His health had 
 become so frail that the only hope of restora- 
 tion was in his making a visit to England. 
 But he determined first to travel to Persia, 
 with a view to making more perfect his trans- 
 lation of the New Testament into the language 
 of that country. As Mr. Martyn did not 
 live to see his friends either in England or 
 India, after his departure from the country at 
 this time, it is pleasant to have an account of 
 his last Sabbath at Cawnpore, as written by 
 one who spent it in his company. Mrs. Sher- 
 wood thus describes it: — 
 
 " On the Sabbath before Mr. Martyn left, the 
 church was opened, and the bell sounded for 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 91 
 
 the first time over this land of darkness. The 
 church was crowded, and there was the band 
 of our regiment to lead the singing and the 
 chaunting. Sergeant Clarke had been appoint- 
 ed as clerk; and there he sat under the desk 
 in due form, in his red coat, and went through 
 his duty with all due correctness. The Rev. 
 Daniel Corrie read prayers, and Mr. Martyn 
 preached. That was a day never to be for- 
 gotten. Those only who have been for some 
 years in a place where there never has been 
 public worship can have any idea of the fearful 
 effect of its absence, especially among the mass 
 of the people. Every prescribed form of pub- 
 lic worship certainly has a tendency to become 
 nothing more than a form, yet even a form 
 may awaken reflection, and any state is better 
 than that of perfect deadness. From his first 
 arrival at the station, Mr. Martyn had been 
 labouring to effect the purpose which he then 
 saw completed ; namely, the opening of a place 
 of worship. He was permitted to see it, to ad- 
 dress the congregation once, and then he was 
 summoned to depart. 
 
 " Alas ! he was known to be, even then, in a 
 most dangerous state of health, either burnt 
 within by slow inflammation, which gave a flush 
 to his cheek, or pale as death from weakness 
 and lassitude. 
 
92 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 " On this occasion the bright glow prevailed 
 — a brilliant light shone from his eyes — he was 
 filled with hope and joy ; he saw the dawn of 
 better things, he thought, at Cawnpore, and 
 most eloquent, earnest, and affectionate was 
 his address to the congregation. Our usual 
 party accompanied him back to his bungalow, 
 where, being arrived, he sank, as was often 
 his way, nearly fainting, on a sofa in the hall. 
 Soon, however, he revived a little, and called 
 us all about him to sing. It was then that we 
 sang to him that sweet hymn which thus 
 begins : — 
 
 ' God, our help in ages past, 
 Our hope for years to come, 
 Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
 And our eternal home.' 
 
 " We all dined early together, and then re- 
 turned with our little ones to enjoy some rest 
 and quiet ; but when the sun began to descend 
 to the horizon we again went over to Mr. Mar- 
 tyn's bungalow, to hear his last address to the 
 Fakeers. It was one of those sickly, hazy, 
 burning evenings, which I have before de- 
 scribed, and the scene was precisely such a one 
 as I have recounted above. Mr. Martyn near- 
 ly fainted again after this effort, and when he 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 got to his house, with his friends about him, 
 he told us that he was afraid he had not been 
 the means of doing the smallest good to any 
 one of the strange people whom he had thus 
 so often addressed. He did not even then 
 know of the impression he had been enabled to 
 make, on one of these occasions, on Sheik 
 Saleh. On the Monday our beloved friend 
 went to* his boats, which lay at the Ghaut, 
 nearest the bungalow; but in the cool of the 
 evening, however, whilst Miss Corrie and my- 
 self were taking the air in our tonjons, he came 
 after us on horseback. There was a gentle 
 sadness in his aspect as he accompanied me 
 home ; and Miss Corrie came also. Once again 
 we all supped together, and united in one last 
 hymn. We were all low, very, very low; we 
 could never expect to behold again that face 
 which we then saw — to hear again that voice, 
 or to be again elevated and instructed by that 
 conversation. It was impossible to hope that 
 he would survive the fatigue of such a journey 
 as he meditated. Often and often, when think- 
 ing of him, have these verses, so frequently 
 sung by him, come to my mind : — 
 
 1 E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream 
 Thy flowing wounds supply, 
 Redeeming love has been my theme, 
 And shall be till I die. 
 
94 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, 
 
 I'll sing thy power to save, 
 When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue 
 
 Is silent in the grave.' 
 
 " The parting moment, when that holy man 
 arose to leave us, blessing our little children, 
 and blessing us, was deeply sad; we never 
 expected to see him more, and we never did." 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood continued to exert* herself 
 in the particular department of benevolence 
 which, at the same time, seemed to require the 
 greatest attention and suited her taste and 
 means. This was the care of the many ne- 
 glected and helpless children, principally of 
 English parentage, which were to be found at 
 every military station. After Mr. Martyn's 
 departure, she found in the Rev. Mr. Corrie 
 and his sister ready helpers in all her plans. 
 The children of the officers and common 
 soldiers were gathered into schools, and taught 
 every day in separate apartments for boys and 
 girls. A small house was taken, in which 
 several motherless girls were settled under the 
 care of a soldier's wife. Captain Sherwood 
 partook of his wife's spirit, and appropriated a 
 room for the use of any young soldiers who 
 wished to improve themselves in reading and 
 writing, and employed one or two of the most 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 95 
 
 capable religious men to attend and give 
 instruction. All these scholars of different 
 ages met together every morning before going 
 to their several apartments, and began the 
 day with a hymn and prayer and a portion 
 of Scripture, in the way of family worship. 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood continued to employ her 
 pen in the good cause. Having finished the 
 "Indian Pilgrim," she began another of those 
 works which, though at first designed for her 
 school in India, have become known and 
 popular in the English and American world. 
 This was her "Stories on the Church Cate- 
 chism." 
 
 Wherever education, and especially that 
 which is conducted on religious principles, is 
 introduced, its advantages will soon be seen, 
 and no other inducement will be needed 
 among wise observers to make them desirous 
 of extending its benefits. Mrs. Sherwood's 
 schools were soon appreciated. She says : — 
 
 "I must here mention a set of children, two 
 or three of whom I particularly remember, who 
 came under my care at this time. They were 
 the half-caste children of European officers and 
 black women; their mothers lived about the 
 cantonments, supported by the European gen- 
 tlemen. Many of them were well supplied 
 
96 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 with mone}^ keeping their servants, and prob- 
 ably possessing a bullock-coach, in which they 
 sat like tailors on a board. Children of this 
 description of families are usually sent to Cal- 
 cutta or to Europe for education, but if not, 
 they are left by the father to reside with the 
 mother, and have no means whatever of ed- 
 ucation, growing up too often in total ignorance 
 of all that is right, being initiated in vice from 
 their tenderest infancy. When our school be- 
 gan to be talked of in Cawnpore, some of these 
 poor mothers became anxious to profit by it. 
 and sent their children. In several instances, 
 they appeared before our bungalow in their 
 bullock-coach, without ceremony or previous 
 warning, accompanied probably by some old 
 Ayah, and merely saying in broken English, 
 "They were come to learn." To turn such 
 petitioners back again would have been quite 
 out of the question with a christian, for I felt 
 true pity for them, so we always took them in, 
 and did what we could for them. 
 
 "I particularly recollect some of these half- 
 caste children who came to me in the way I 
 have just spoken of at Cawnpore ; and amongst 
 the rest were two sisters about thirteen and 
 fourteen, tall, slender, and, though dark, very 
 delicate girls in form and feature. They wore 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 97 
 
 white muslin frocks and coloured red shoes, 
 with golden ear-rings and cornelian necklaces. 
 Their hair, which was glossy black, was neatly 
 braided, and partly knotted at the top of the 
 head. They spoke a sort of broken, clipped 
 English ; they had fine teeth and eyes. They 
 knew not a single letter, and could do nothing 
 but mark on fine canvass. They were very 
 civil and well behaved externally, but so pro- 
 foundly ignorant that they had perhaps never 
 heard the name of Christ. These, and many 
 such as these, are the daughters of Europeans, 
 of Englishmen and English gentlemen. I shall 
 only say that, with one sort and another, how- 
 ever, I had an immense school at Cawnpore, 
 and I had only Sergeant Clarke to assist me ; 
 and for several days in every month, - 1 was 
 even deprived of him. 
 
 "As I classed the children, and kept the 
 girls in one room and the boys in another, it 
 was quite beyond all possibility to attend to 
 both. So I arranged, that Mrs. Parker should 
 sit with the girls and keep them to their sew- 
 ing, whilst I was with the boys, and thus I 
 was greatly relieved." 
 
 In July, 1811, another daughter was added 
 to Mrs. Sherwood's family. She received the 
 name of Emily. Her oldest child, it will be 
 
 9 
 
98 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 remembered, was with her grandmother in 
 England; two children had died in India, and 
 Lucy and Emily were the only ones with 
 their mother. In a few months her cares were 
 still further increased by the removal of their 
 chaplain and friend, Mr. Corrie, to Agra. He 
 committed his Hindostanee schools to the 
 oversight of the captain and his wife, so far 
 that once every day the native master who 
 taught them was required to bring the scholars 
 to let Mrs. Sherwood see their writing and 
 hear them recite. She also engaged to over- 
 see the clothing and general condition of sev- 
 eral boys for whom Mr. Corrie provided. 
 How readily both she and her husband under- 
 took any work of benevolence which provi- 
 dence put in their way, may be seen from such 
 instances as the following: — 
 
 " It was about this tin\e that we took, as a 
 new intimate into our family, the fine boy my 
 sister had commenced instructing at Canter- 
 bury, [in England.] Mr. Sherwood saw him 
 lounging at a tent door, his mother being 
 within; he was the only boy of that age who 
 had not been put on the strength of the regi- 
 ment. 'John,' said Mr. Sherwood, 'will }'ou 
 come with me ?' And then addressing his 
 mother, who was now married again, ' Mrs. H., 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 99 
 
 shall I take your son?' he said. 'Yes, sir/ 
 she answered, 'gladly any where with you, sir/ 
 The boy stepped into Mr. Sherwood's gig, and 
 it might be said that his whole future history 
 turned on that small circumstance. 
 
 " Mr. Sherwood brought him to me in the 
 upper bungalow, saying, 'I have brought you 
 a present; will you have it?' 'Of course/ 
 was my reply, and soon the boy was established 
 as one of our family, and soon I set him to 
 study Hindostanee, and he became a great help 
 to me in the school, and God blessed this 
 adoption in a remarkable manner. There are 
 no means, however small and humble, which 
 in the hands of God may not be blessed to the 
 production of incalculable good, whereas all 
 human exertions, when not so blessed, end 
 only in disappointment." 
 
 Mr. Sherwood had become so much interest- 
 ed for the religious character of the natives 
 in the place, that when Mr. Corrie's removal 
 would have broken up a service he had been 
 in the habit of holding for the humblest class 
 of persons, he undertook to keep up the 
 meetings himself every Sabbath and Wednes- 
 day. His wife was still more venturesome; 
 for Mrs. Hawkins, one of her pious friends, 
 having suggested the possibility of reviving 
 
100 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 such meetings as Mr. Martyn had been ac- 
 customed to hold with the most wretched 
 and superstitious Mussulmauns and Hindoos, 
 they agreed to attempt it, and to employ an 
 old man named Bartholomew to read and 
 speak to them. This person is described in 
 the "Indian Pilgrim" as the man found in the 
 Serai by Goonah Purist. Mrs. Sherwood's 
 words can best tell the manner of the experi- 
 ment and its result. 
 
 " The small house, in which we had located 
 our little establishment of orphans in the church 
 compound, stood on a raised platform, and on 
 that was placed Bartholomew to address the 
 beggars. Thither Mrs. Hawkins and myself 
 repaired, and took our seats beside him. On 
 that memorable Sabbath evening in May, we 
 were making an attempt to keep up what Mr. 
 Martyn had done. Scarcely, however, were we 
 seated, when, behold, there poured into the 
 space before us, not only all the Yogees, Fa- 
 keers, and rogues of that description which the 
 neighbourhood might afford, but the king of 
 the beggars himself, wearing his peculiar badge, 
 by which he was known immediately to the 
 few native servants who were with us. These 
 persons did not approach with the humble, 
 crouching air of beggars, but with such strong 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. . 101 
 
 indications of defiance and insult that Mrs. 
 Hawkins, who was a person of very quick feel- 
 ings of all kinds, rushed into the small house 
 near the door of which we were standing, 
 leaving me to appease the strange mob, which 
 was prepared for any violence of tongue, for 
 already they had saluted us with groans and 
 hisses. 
 
 " I was frightened, but I dealt out the pice 
 [coin] which Mrs. Hawkins had brought in, 
 and the men went out of the compound in 
 straggling parties, though not without bestow- 
 ing a few of their blessings of the wrong kind 
 upon us, under the idea that we were wishing 
 to bribe them to give up those superstitions 
 upon which they lived. There is no language, 
 probably, on earth so redundant in curses as 
 the Hindostanee, and it was often very happy 
 for me that I did not understand the low words 
 in common use in that language. Of course we 
 never dared renew our attempts at converting 
 the Fakeers, as they had come for the money 
 and nothing else, and for this, no doubt, they 
 would come again and again, without permit- 
 ting old Bartholomew to utter a word that 
 could be heard." 
 
 This miserable class of the inhabitants of 
 India is fully described in the stories written 
 
102 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 by Mrs. Sherwood at this time under the title 
 of "The Ayah and Lady;" many of them in- 
 deed are real histories. 
 
 "Another proposition of dear Mrs. Hawk- 
 4 ins' at this period proved more successful than 
 our affair with the Fakeers ; and this was the 
 collecting of all the servants of both families 
 in our large hall every morning, and engaging 
 the very intelligent Moonshee who had been 
 lately occupied with the translations to read 
 aloud a chapter of the Old Testament in Hin- 
 dostanee. Well do I remember the first morn- 
 ing we made our attempt; I was not almost, 
 but entirely frightened. We mustered all the 
 w T hite people we could, and all the Christians. 
 The Moonshee stood with his book, — there 
 was the delay of a moment or two, and then 
 the native servants came pouring in from both 
 houses. The Moonshee then began to read 
 aloud, slowly and clearly, the first and second 
 chapters of Genesis. The Hindoos and Mus- 
 sulmauns were all attention. When the read- 
 ing ceased, some said, 'The words are good, 
 very good; we will hear more;' and they all 
 walked quietly out, whilst the Christians pres- 
 ent, white and black, in deep thankfulness 
 knelt down to prayer. 
 
 " We never found the smallest difficulty in 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 103 
 
 carrying on this plan, for the native servants 
 all came willingly and regularly." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MEERUT— " GEORGE DESMOND 
 
 In the fall of the year, 1812, the regiment 
 was ordered to proceed to Meerut, a few days' 
 journey from Cawnpore. No sooner were 
 they settled in their new abode than provision 
 for religious worship, and for the instruction 
 of the children was resumed, as earnestly as 
 if it was part of the official business of the 
 paymaster's wife. In the school, Mrs. Sher- 
 wood was relieved by the appointment of a 
 schoolmaster to teach the children of the 
 regiment, but it was necessary to establish 
 under her own inspection a school for the 
 natives. 
 
 "For some days," she says, "the natives in 
 the bazaar only laughed at those we sent to 
 inquire for children, saying, 'that their chil- 
 dren knew more Hindostanee than we could 
 teach them.' At length a native came to the 
 door to sell thread, and he saw one of our 
 children with a Hindostanee book in her hand, 
 
104 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 on which he said that he could read himself. 
 We gave him a little volume called ' Scripture 
 Characters,' and he promised to read it. We 
 inquired if he could hire us a schoolmaster, 
 and the next day he sent us an old grey- 
 bearded pedagogue, with thirteen boys; and 
 we agreed to give the old man four rupees a 
 month, and two annas a head for each boy he 
 could collect. We appointed him a room in 
 the stable for his school, and ordered him to 
 come at eleven every day for the boys to 
 repeat their lessons ; and during the month of 
 December the average number kept up to 
 eleven. Few of these boys could tell a single 
 letter when they came. We had nineteen on 
 our books at the end of the month ; they were 
 chiefly of low grade, few of them had a jacket, 
 and they were all smeared with oil, and smelt 
 of garlick. 
 
 "Twice a day our native school was par- 
 aded in the verandah, and in the morning, with 
 the assistance of the Moonshee and John, I 
 examined what had been done during the last 
 day, and marked the progress in the books. 
 In the afternoon they passed along the veran- 
 dah, announcing their presence by the repeti- 
 tion of the ten commandments in Hindos- 
 tanee. They stood in a row opposite my 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 105 
 
 dressing window, all repeating together; after 
 which they were taken back to their school- 
 house at the master shaking his cane. Upon 
 their departure, my dear Mrs. Mawby made 
 her appearance, and we generally took our 
 airing together. Our house was the only 
 depository of the Scriptures in that part of 
 India. We had been the first to bring the 
 strawberry-plant up the country ; but we were 
 far more highly blest in being permitted to 
 bring the translated and printed word of God, 
 before all others, into the province of Delhi." 
 "As we were much cramped for room, Mr. 
 Sherwood caused a small building to be erect- 
 ed amongst fragrant flowers, approached by 
 a shadowy grape terrace walk. This he fitted 
 up with benches and wall shades, and it 
 became our only place of worship. Our 
 chaplain, Mr. Parson, came generally twice or 
 three times a week to perform the service to 
 the white people, and it was attended by as 
 many of all degrees as could crowd into it. We 
 had also the Christian service conducted in 
 Hindostanee in it. It was used for the regi- 
 mental school, and after evening parade it was 
 at the service of the religious men of the 
 regiment, who often met there. Never shall 
 I forget the sweet feelings which we had 
 
106 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 when the sound of their simple hymns used 
 to reach us within the bungalow, as we sat 
 with our doors open. 
 
 "In our Hindostanee service, which was 
 performed by Mr. Sherwood, we used the 
 Liturgy of our church, translated under the 
 inspection of Mr. Corrie, together with some 
 hymns which were adapted to some of the old 
 and simple melodies of the country by Mrs. 
 Hawkins. Instead of a sermon, portions of 
 the Bible were read, and our own orphans and 
 myself were clerks, choristers, and all officials 
 needful. Our first congregations consisted of 
 eight black women. One especially of our 
 girls, Mary Parsons, had a remarkably fine 
 voice, my own and Mr. Sherwood's were both 
 good and powerful, and another orphan, Sarah, 
 showed a decided talent for music; thus we 
 were quite able to manage the musical depart- 
 ment of our services." 
 
 " The history of George Desmond," which 
 was the next work which Mrs. Sherwood 
 wrote, was suggested by her witnessing what 
 is called a Nautch, an exhibition of singing, 
 dancing, and playing on instruments by young 
 girls trained to it as a business. These per- 
 sons are of very depraved characters, and 
 exercise a ruinous influence over the European 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 107 
 
 youth who fall into their company. To expose 
 this danger, and warn the . families of her 
 countrymen against it, was the great object 
 of this half fictitious and half actual nar- 
 rative. 
 
 It was at Meerut tidings came to the Sher- 
 woods of the death of Henry Martyn, which 
 took place at Tocat, on the borders of Turkey, 
 on the 16th of October, 1812. The name 
 of this beloved friend was given to the son 
 of Mrs. Sherwood, who was born in July, 1813. 
 
 The hearts of this devoted family were 
 greatly rejoiced by evidence that their evan- 
 gelical occupations were not without fruit. In 
 January, 1814, they had the happiness of 
 witnessing the baptism of several converts at 
 Meerut. 
 
 " Numbers of Europeans from different quar- 
 ters of the station attended. The little chapel 
 was crowded to overflowing, and most affecting 
 indeed was the sight. Few persons could re- 
 strain their tears, when Mr. Corrie extended 
 his hand to raise the silver curls which clus- 
 tered upon the brow of Monghool Dass, one of 
 the most sincere of the converts. 
 
 " After the reception of these natives into 
 the visible Church, we sang together these 
 words : — 
 
108 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 ' Proclaim, saith Christ, my wondrous grace 
 
 To all the sons of men ; 
 He that believes and is baptized 
 
 Salvation shall obtain.' 
 
 " How delightfully passed that Sabbath ! — 
 how sweet was our private intercourse with 
 Mr. Come ! He brought our children many 
 Hindostanee hymns, set to ancient Oriental 
 melodies, which they were to sing at the Hin- 
 doo services, and we all together sang a hymn, 
 which I find in my journal designated by this 
 title :— 
 
 " WE HAVE SEEN HIS STAR IN THE EAST. 
 
 ' In Britain's laud of light my miud 
 To Jesus and his love was blind, 
 Till, wandering midst the heathen far, 
 Lo in the east I saw his star. 
 
 ' Oh, should my steps, which distant roam, 
 Attain once more my native home, 
 Better than India's wealth by far, 
 I'll speak the worth of Bethlehem's star.' 
 
 " There is little merit in the composition of 
 this hymn ; but it had a peculiar interest for 
 us at that time, and the sentiment which it 
 professes must ever retain its interest. These, 
 his friends and companions of many happy 
 days, never saw Mr. Come again in India, in 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 109 
 
 his own especial province, where he was most 
 happy, most blessed, and most at home. Lan- 
 guor and disease soon after this seized on Mrs. 
 Corrie, and Mr. Come himself became so dis- 
 ordered by the burning seasons of the higher 
 provinces, that he was compelled to give up 
 Agra and proceed to England for a while." 
 
 The house of the Sherwoods was ever open 
 as a refuge for the poor orphan and other 
 friendless children. Cases like the following 
 frequently occurred: 
 
 "It was in the end of the Spring that one 
 day Sally, on returning home, told me that she 
 had seen a white baby in a hut in the Bazaar. 
 I sent to inquire about it, and found that there 
 was a white infant, an orphan, who had been 
 left by some English soldiers, not ours, with 
 an old black woman in a hut. His name was 
 Edward Kitchen, and when I went to see him 
 he was about a year and a half old, and such 
 a skeleton I had hardly ever beheld. We 
 called him Suktee, which signifies dry, for he 
 was mere bones. I got him into the compound 
 where I provided him with a wet-nurse. He 
 was brought to the bungalow every day, and 
 we saw that he was washed, fed, and had clean 
 clothes ; we took care of him as long as we 
 were at Meerut, and before I left India I got 
 
 10 
 
110 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 him sent to the orphan-school at Madras, under 
 the protection of a pious chaplain there, and I 
 have heard that he is doing well. 
 
 "At the same time that we discovered 
 Suktee, I was told other stories which made 
 my heart ache, but for which I had no rem- 
 edy. It was not an uncommon occurrence 
 to find the orphan children of natives left to 
 perish of hunger in the streets of the village, 
 whilst the inhabitants looked on with total 
 apathy. One little girl had lately died in 
 this way in our own regimental bazaar. 
 
 "Who can describe, or even imagine, the 
 cruelties which prevail in the dark corners of 
 the earth ? It is in the small details of life 
 that the natural depravity makes itself appar- 
 ent, for even the believer — though God in 
 mercy restrains him from gross offences in 
 most instances — is still left sufficiently to him- 
 self to understand what he might be without 
 restraining grace." 
 
 "I could not endure to witness the suffer- 
 ings of the child whom I have mentioned 
 before as little Mary Parsons. Her cries, 
 when beaten, reached even to the bungalow, 
 and I could not bear to hear them. But what 
 made me most angry was, that she' was sent 
 many times on most days to the barracks. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. Ill 
 
 Her father was miserable about her. He had 
 bought her a little arm-chair of Sessoo wood, 
 and one evening she came weeping to me, and 
 saying, 'Oh! ma'am, give me a corner of your 
 house, where I may put my chair and sit all 
 day.' I could not bear this; my mind was 
 made up. I got permission from Mr. Sher- 
 wood, and we adopted the child. How thank- 
 fully did her father fetch her box from the 
 lodge ! how happy was the rescued child !" 
 
 In the month of October, 1814, the regi- 
 ment was again ordered to take up its march. 
 The object was to punish a tribe in the Him- 
 alayan mountains which had been invading 
 and robbing the plains in their neighbourhood. 
 On this occasion the women and children of 
 the regiment were to remain at Meerut, till 
 the men should return from the war. Mrs. 
 Sherwood describes the separation as a very 
 trying one to those who had been so long 
 mingling together in religious services, and in 
 all the pleasant intercourse of a Christian 
 society, where the difference in the grades of 
 life were lost sight of, in the consciousness* of 
 the common bond of faith that united them to 
 one another in Christ. She thus wrote : — 
 
 u The Sunday before the march was an 
 affecting day in every English house in the 
 
112 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 station, and on some accounts particularly so 
 to me. Mr. Leonard, a judge's writer, a 
 friend of Mr. Bowley's, from the city, officiated 
 at the Hindostanee service, and undertook it 
 during Mr. Sherwood's absence. At the ten 
 o'clock service, there were few present except 
 the usual religious society. After the service, 
 Mr. Sherwood spoke to them in the kindest 
 and most affecting manner, pressing upon 
 them a continued attention to their religious 
 duties in the camp, giving them each a little 
 work, which he thought particularly suitable 
 to their state, and promising them the use of 
 his tent for their evening meetings. We 
 could not part on this occasion without tears. 
 Two years before, these pious men had given 
 me a 'Rippon's Hymn Book,' with all their 
 names inscribed on the first page. 
 
 " Underneath they had written this verse — 
 
 ' Oh, that you may, with steady, even pace, 
 Pass forward till you gain that heavenly place 
 Where you and we, we hope, at last shall meet, 
 And sit like Mary at the Saviour's feet ! 
 There shall we in his glorious presence shine — 
 Oh, may this happy lot be yours and mine !' 
 
 " These were the same good men who, when 
 we first came to India, met in the jungles and 
 ravines to pray and read their Bibles; the 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 113 
 
 same who had attended in Mr. Martyn's and 
 Mr. Corrie's house ; the same who had met in 
 our little chapel at Meerut for many of the 
 last months; and the same to whom Mr. Sher- 
 wood promised the use of his tent, which 
 proved to many of them their last earthly 
 meeting-house. 
 
 "It was rather a remarkable circumstance 
 that several of these soldiers, especially Abra- 
 ham Hays, though they had already gone 
 through many campaigns, were fully persuaded 
 that they should never return from this. In 
 consequence of this presentiment, they brought 
 me their watches, tea-spoons, and other valu- 
 ables, begging me to take care of them for 
 those they loved." 
 
 From a letter which Mrs. Sherwood wrote 
 to her mother in England, when her husband 
 had been absent more than two months, the 
 following extracts are taken to show what 
 were some of her employments and trials in 
 his absence: 
 
 "'Dear Henry, from w T hom I often hear, is 
 well, and I hope doing good wherever he 
 goes. His tent is a place of worship to all 
 devoutly disposed. He is happy in the 
 acquaintance of a pious young officer of the 
 name of Tomkins, whose father lives near 
 10* 
 
114 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 Bromyard. As to myself, I am at Meerut, 
 and have much upon my hands, having three 
 dear babes of my own, the two orphans, and 
 Henry's nurse's child in the house, besides the 
 care of two infants, whose nurses I have to 
 overlook. 1 have also an English and a 
 Hindostanee school to see to, the latter daily, 
 besides giving attention to the Hindostanee 
 service, which, without care, would have 
 dropped through on Mr. Sherwood's going to 
 the camp; but, by the express ordination of 
 providence, it has suddenly revived, and be- 
 come more flourishing than ever. 
 
 " < The Almighty has kept me in great peace 
 of mind amidst all these employments, and 
 amongst many alarms attendant upon being 
 situated near the seat of war. I have given 
 much of my time since the regiment went, to 
 the education of my children, and 1 have 
 brought them amazingly forward during these 
 two months. Sarah, one of my orphans, can 
 read Hindostanee with much facility, so as to 
 be able to perform the clerk's part in the Hin- 
 dostanee service. Having an opportunity, I 
 am getting her taught to read Persian, and 
 also to read the old Sanscrit character. I 
 write questions from the Bible for my mother- 
 less girls, and make them bring me the 
 
LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 115 
 
 answers neatly written in English, and I find 
 that this exercise greatly sharpens their under- 
 standings. Mary Parsons, the eldest, begins 
 to be very useful amongst the children, and 
 can carry keys and take care of clothes, so 
 that already she pays me somewhat for my 
 trouble. 
 
 "' You can form no idea, my beloved mother, 
 of the spirit which is required in the manage- 
 ment of a family in India, particularly when 
 the master is not at home, or rather gone out 
 in dangerous warfare. The natives have no 
 respect for females. Four or five men walk 
 into the parlour, and quarrel all together before 
 your face, using the lowest and most abusive 
 language, and trying in the night to frighten you 
 with cries of alarm of thieves and fire. The 
 night after Henry went away, one of the men 
 appointed as a guard or watchman came to my 
 window, close to my bed's head, setting up a 
 great howl and firing off a gun, exclaiming at 
 the same time in Hindostanee, " Come, come, 
 ye thieves, come, come, and I will destroy 
 you; I will cut you down; there they are, 
 there the}' run." I thought of "Don Quix- 
 ote" and the flock of sheep to which he called 
 out so manfully, and could not help laughing, 
 because I knew the men's tricks; but Mary 
 
116 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 and Sally and Lucy, who were in another 
 room, were terribly scared. Some ladies in 
 the station, who had not been so long in the 
 country as myself, were almost frightened into 
 fits by the alarming ways of these watchmen. 
 I own that they have made my heart beat a 
 little when they cry " Fire ;" but of late they 
 have kept themselves quieter, and the officer 
 left here has been so kind as to let me have an 
 invalid soldier of the regiment to sleep in the 
 house, which has set all things to rights. 
 
 "'The hooping-cough is so prevalent just 
 round us that I have resolved to move, and 
 go into a small house which Mr. Parson, our 
 chaplain, possesses within the walls of his 
 grounds, where 1 hope to remain quiet, please 
 God, till Mr. Sherwood's return, of which I 
 have as yet no distinct hope; but thank God 
 he is well, in the camp among the hills, and 
 not only well but doing good, I trust. He 
 goes about among the natives with the other 
 officer, Mr. Tomkins, and distributes the Bible 
 in their language. He performs divine service 
 in his tent on Sabbaths and Wednesdays, and 
 is perhaps the first person who ever uttered 
 the words of God in the Indian Caucasus, or 
 carried the Holy Bible there in the language 
 of the natives. Are not these sweet and con- 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 117 
 
 soling circumstances amid all the fears and 
 agitations of this life?'" 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PERMUNUND BERHAMPORE — CALCUTTA SERAMPORE MISSION- 
 ARIES — MR. MAY — RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 One Sabbath morning, during the absence 
 of the regiment, the congregation had as- 
 sembled at the little chapel at Meerut, but 
 illness prevented the chaplain from coming to 
 conduct the services. Mrs. Sherwood, on 
 whom devolved all such cares, was in great 
 perplexity as to what was to be done, when 
 she saw two well dressed natives approaching. 
 They told her they had been sent by Mr. 
 Chamberlayne, a Baptist missionary; one of 
 them, whose name was Permunund, said that 
 he had been converted to Christianity under 
 the instruction of Mr. Chamberlayne, and had 
 been in the habit of assisting him in public 
 worship. He added that when he felt that 
 his infant children, as well as himself, should 
 be baptized, Mr. Chamberlayne advised him 
 to consult Christians of some other church 
 than his own, which did not admit infants to 
 baptism. The Baptist missionary at the same 
 
118 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 time recommended him to find out Mrs. Sher- 
 wood, probably having become acquainted 
 with her character and opinions from reading 
 her works. This advice had brought Per- 
 munund and his companion to Meerut. Upon 
 this introduction, Mrs. Sherwood asked the 
 stranger to conduct the services for the wait- 
 ing congregation; and under her direction as 
 to the mode of using the Liturgy of the 
 Church of England, he read it in the Hin- 
 dostanee version. When he had gone accur- 
 ately through all the other parts of the ser- 
 vice, he expounded a chapter of the New 
 Testament, in a very appropriate manner. The 
 appearance of this person seemed in every 
 way so providential, that Mrs. Sherwood 
 engaged him at once to remain for a few 
 months to perform the service in the chapel, 
 overlook the native schoolmaster, and instruct 
 the children. He very soon opened a room 
 in the old part of Meerut for reading and 
 expounding the Scriptures. Having a fine 
 voice, he took great pains to instruct the 
 English children in singing Hindostanee hymns, 
 and adapted many old Indian airs to the 
 hymns he found in use. 
 
 Captain Sherwood did not return from the 
 campaign until February, 1815, and then only 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHErvWOOD. 119 
 
 for a visit. His wife suffered less from anxiety 
 during his absence than most of the female 
 relatives of the officers and soldiers who were 
 left behind, because being paymaster his duties 
 did. not expose him so much to the dangers of 
 battle. Several hundred of the regiment 
 returned no more, having fallen in the battles 
 which had to be fought before the object of 
 their service was secured. Soon after his 
 return a daughter was added to his family — 
 making the third child they had with them in 
 India. 
 
 In a few months the regiment was ordered 
 to Berhampore. The mode of travelling for 
 the officers' family was very different from 
 what we are accustomed to. " Our intention 
 was to make the first move in the night, 
 and our line of march was thus arranged: 
 Mr. Sherwood leading the way on horseback, 
 myself and baby in the first palanquin, my 
 little bo}^ and his nurse in the second, my 
 little girls and their attendants in a bullock- 
 coach belonging to a friend, and the foster 
 brother of my son, with his nurse in attendance, 
 in a second bullock-coach ; and, lastly, a one- 
 horse carriage, also borrowed, containing the 
 orphans we had adopted; six modes of con- 
 veyance in all, added to which we had seven- 
 
120 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 teen Coolies, carrying provisions and clothes in 
 baskets slung on bamboos." 
 
 In this manner, after several days' journey, 
 the party reached Berhampore. But here new 
 orders were received requiring the regiment 
 to proceed to Calcutta, and there to embark 
 for Madras. Mr. Sherwood, however, now 
 asked permission to take two years' respite from 
 his duties and make a visit to England. This 
 being granted, he proceeded with his family to 
 Calcutta and engaged their passage for Liver- 
 pool. Two of their orphan children were to ac- 
 company them. While waiting for the sailing of 
 the vessel, they became acquainted with Mr. 
 Marshman, and one of the young Careys, so 
 well known in the history of the missions in 
 India, and also with Mr. May, who is remem- 
 bered from his visit to the United States, as 
 well as during his residence in Calcutta, for 
 his peculiar success in interesting children in 
 religious truth. They also visited the Bap- 
 tist Mission at Serampore, and saw Dr. 
 Carey, Mr. Ward, and their fellow-labourers, 
 in the midst of those active operations which 
 have placed their names, and that of the 
 Serampore institution, in so honourable a place. 
 The following extracts from Mrs. Sherwood's 
 autobiography will be interesting. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 121 
 
 " My Lucy's late Dhaye, who had come to 
 Calcutta with her lady, the niece of Lady 
 Loudon, came to see her child. Poor Piaree, 
 how tender was the meeting, between her and 
 her nursling; how dearly did Lucy love her 
 nurse; how earnestly did she strive in after 
 years, by saving her pocket money, to effect 
 means by which her beloved Piaree might be 
 taught the truth ; how often did she pray for 
 her, that they might meet in glory; how many 
 were the little tokens of affection sent to her ! 
 And when, my Lucy was no more, I found 
 amongst her papers, prayers for this poor 
 creature, and a letter and presents to be sent 
 to her. 
 
 "It was in consequence of the strong affec- 
 tion of my Lucy for Piaree that I was induced 
 to write the little tale of 'Lucy and her 
 Dhaye,' which is, in many points, true." 
 
 "Aldeen is on the banks of the Ganges, 
 about fourteen miles above Calcutta, within a 
 short walk of the Baptist Missionary Establish- 
 ment at Serampore. It is a puckah house, 
 situated in extensive grounds, ornamented by 
 various beautiful trees, amongst which two 
 towering palms form a marked feature. 
 
 " In the grounds of Aldeen, itself now be- 
 longing to the estate, is an ancient pagoda, 
 11 
 
122 LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 which, having probably suffered some imagi- 
 nary pollution, was forsaken. The Rev. David 
 Brown, of holy memory, obtained possession 
 of it, repaired and beautified it, fitting it up 
 with glass-doors, and making it his study; 
 and, from the extraordinary thickness of the 
 walls, it proved cooler than could have been 
 expected. Behind it there was a long stone 
 terrace walk, of ancient construction. Mr. 
 Brown cleaned this, and adorned it on each 
 side with flowering shrubs; there he used to 
 walk, and meditate, and pray. Near to the 
 entrance of this pagoda is an immense Brah- 
 minee fig tree, under the cool arcades of which 
 our children used to play, as Mr. Brown's 
 children had done before them, tying the 
 drooping branches together, and forming swings. 
 In that pagoda, and on the terrace behind, Mr. 
 Brown for many years offered up his prayers 
 for a blessing on the Indian Church. There 
 he was accustomed to converse with the holy 
 and heavenly Henry Martyn and the no less 
 holy Daniel Corrie; men whose memories must 
 be ever dear to those who love the Lord. This 
 good man saw his prayers answered in the 
 very place in which he made his petitions. 
 The Baptist Missionary Establishment was 
 within a quarter of an hour's walk higher up 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 123 
 
 the river, and on the same side of Aldeen; it 
 was like a bee-hive of busy people, for there 
 were many buildings belonging to the establish- 
 ment, several dwelling-houses, a chapel, a 
 school for native boys, and schools for boys 
 and girls of higher degree, and printing offices, 
 in which were types for twenty languages, a 
 paper manufactory, and innumerable small 
 dwellings for Christian disciples." 
 
 " I sat by Mr. Ward, who talked much with 
 me. The scene was a curious one, so strange 
 a variety of people. I brought most of the 
 children with me. After tea Mr. Marshman 
 took us into his garden, in which he much de- 
 lighted. He had lately received some plants 
 from England in a box of soil, and he must 
 needs set each child on the box, that they might 
 say they had been on English ground. After 
 our walk every one repaired to service in the 
 chapel. 
 
 " Dr. Carey was a fine old gentleman, fond 
 of botany and ornithology. He had a beauti- 
 ful aviary, where his birds dwelt in all the 
 luxury of Indian queens, though, like them, 
 deprived of liberty. We left our little chuck- 
 oor under his care, and we went with the 
 children to take leave of the bird. The same 
 evening Mr. Sherwood heard Mr. Ward pffaeh 
 
124 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 to the workmen in the printing house; but he 
 did not understand the language, which was 
 different from what he had learnt. The mission- 
 aries tell us that they have baptized eight 
 hundred persons since they arrived in India. 
 The number is great when it is considered 
 that they entered almost upon unbroken ground, 
 and they never baptize children. Mr. Marsh- 
 man had then one hundred native scholars at 
 Serampore. In the chapel, Dr. Carey propound- 
 ed a text, and Mr. Ward preached upon it. 
 The congregation was English, or so called, 
 for many were present who never had, and 
 probably never would see England. The preach- 
 er dwelt particularly on the providence of God, 
 and touched upon the good which he supposed 
 had arisen from the French revolution in 
 separating good from evil, which is no doubt 
 the effect of all convulsions in the political 
 world. 
 
 " Mr. Marshman next took up the discourse, 
 and showed how much good had been produced 
 to the overthrow of the long established system 
 of polytheism, by the irruption of the northern 
 hordes in the dark ages. 
 
 " This evening, whilst walking in the grounds 
 at Aldeen, we heard the noise of horns, and 
 drufns, and tinkling cvmbals ; we did not think 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 125 
 
 much of them, as they were very usual sounds 
 to us. Presently we saw a smoke and flames 
 rising above the trees beyond the domain, and, 
 at the same time, several of the missionaries 
 came rushing along the Aldeen grounds toward 
 the fire. ' A Suttee ! a Suttee !' [the burning 
 of a widow with the dead body of her husband] 
 they cried, as they ran by; 'we fear we are 
 too late.' As the little ones caught and under- 
 stood the words, they ran too, Lucy at their 
 head, as if they would stop this work of fiends. 
 The fire continued to blaze, and the infernal 
 music to fill the air. Presently those who had 
 ran came back ; the work of death was con- 
 cluded before they could reach the place. Our 
 little ones cried bitterly. It was an awful and 
 affecting circumstance." 
 
 Provision was made, through Mr. Thomason 
 and other friends, for the orphans whom Mrs. 
 Sherwood could not take with her on the 
 voyage. The orphan asylums and schools at 
 Calcutta furnished excellent homes for the 
 children for whom she had done so much. 
 Mr. Sherwood and his household at length 
 embarked, and they arrived in England in the 
 summer of 1816 ; having made a journey of 
 seventeen thousand miles from Meerut. 
 11* 
 
126 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WORCESTER — WICK ORPHANS VISIT TO FRANCE " HENRY MIL- 
 
 NER" AND OTHER BOOKS MRS. FRY " LADY OF THE MANOR." 
 
 Upon her return from India, Mrs. Sherwood 
 found her mother and her daughter living at 
 Worcester. Our readers will be curious to 
 know, from her own description, how the three 
 met after so long a separation, and what new 
 arrangements were made for their future life, 
 after they determined that it was not their 
 duty to return to India. But she says : — 
 
 " I cannot attempt to describe in words the 
 effect of seeing my beloved child again, the 
 intense interest of the meeting, and the 
 strangeness of finding myself the mother of 
 an almost grown-up girl. I could scarcely 
 realize the idea that the daughter now before 
 me was the infant Mary I had left. The shy- 
 ness, and yet strong affection, the curiosity, 
 and yet fear of our feelings, made up some- 
 thing more than pleasure, something too much 
 for human nature; but I despair of express- 
 ing it. 
 
 "Alas ! when I saw my own beloved mother, 
 I learnt that death had set its icy hand upon 
 her. She was much and fearfully changed, 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 127 
 
 for she had every external appearance of 
 extreme decrepitude. The next week we 
 arranged our plans for some months to come, 
 taking lodgings for awhile in one of the sub- 
 urbs of the city of Worcester. I felt I could 
 never leave my parent again as soon as I knew 
 her situation, and she seemed to rest in the 
 persuasion I never would." 
 
 Her mother did not long survive Mrs. Sher- 
 wood's return. After her decease, they took 
 up their residence at a place called Wick, 
 between Worcester and Malvern. Several 
 friends had urged Mr. Sherwood to prepare 
 for the ministry, and he actually began to 
 study the Scriptures in the original; but 
 probably on account of his age, and the habits 
 of a military life, he did not prosecute the 
 matter further. Neither he nor his wife, how- 
 ever, ceased to occupy themselves usefully as 
 they had opportunity. For a time Mrs. Sher- 
 wood had private pupils, besides the orphan 
 children and her own, whom she instructed. 
 
 " Behold us," she says, " domesticated in this 
 lovely place, Mr. Sherwood and myself, our 
 five children, Mary, or, as we now called her, 
 Henrietta, Lucy, Emily, Henry, and Sophia, 
 our two Indian orphans, Mary and Sally, and 
 the motherless Elize. My mother's young 
 
128 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 attendant and her old housekeeper were left 
 to our protection and support, which they 
 deserved for their fidelity to our lamented 
 parent. 
 
 " These, with two indoor servants and our 
 pupils, made up our rather large party for a 
 few months. As soon as we had settled our- 
 selves, Captain Sherwood began a little Sab- 
 bath-school; and our young ones had a few 
 poor children to teach on a Sunday in one of 
 the cottages, which belonged to the estate, at 
 the bottom of our orchard at Wick." 
 
 Upon the death of her brother, she took his 
 four sons into her family; and a son of her 
 own was added to her charge, who was bap- 
 tized by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, afterwards 
 the excellent Bishop of the Church of Eng- 
 land in Calcutta. This child died in his 
 infancy, and about the same time one of the 
 children from India was removed by death. 
 But it was not long before she received under 
 her care two daughters of her former friends, 
 the Rev. David Brown and his wife, of Cal- 
 cutta, who had been left orphans. 
 
 A visit to a manufactory in Worcester, which 
 Mrs. Sherwood made in company with Mr. 
 Wilberforce, was the origin of her tale entitled 
 " The China Manufactory." And having made 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 129 
 
 a journey to France, it was her observations 
 at the celebrated cemetery in Paris which led 
 to the writing of her three little works, "Pere 
 la Cfcaise/'^The Infant's Grave/' and "The 
 Blessed Family." From the instructive stories 
 she was in the habit of telling her young 
 household in the dusk of the evening, came 
 another of her celebrated books, the title of 
 which is, "The History of Henry Milner, a 
 little boy who was not brought up according 
 to the fashions of this world." To this book 
 she afterwards added, " The History of John 
 Marten, a sequel to Henry Milner." Her 
 "History of the Fairchild Family" was "in- 
 tended to show the importance and effects of 
 a religious education." Mrs. Fry, the philan- 
 thropist, being on a visit to Worcester, the 
 two benevolent ladies found much that was 
 congenial in their characters. Mrs. Sherwood 
 says : — 
 
 "We went first to a public breakfast, and 
 afterwards to the gaol. In the drive to the 
 prison, Mrs. Fry kindly selected me for her 
 companion in the carriage. As we drove along 
 our subject of discourse was, the danger of 
 celebrity, for females especially, and she at 
 once and candidly confessed that she was in 
 a situation of greater temptation than myself, 
 
130 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 though, as she kindly said, a known personage, 
 as her acts and deeds brought her so much 
 into public. On arriving at the gaol, there 
 was an immense crowd to meet her, and many 
 of the principal county magistrates to hand 
 her out and conduct her through the courts 
 and offices. She was a fine, composed, ma- 
 jestic woman, and it was most interesting to 
 hear her address, which she gave from the 
 chapel, in the preacher's place, a clergyman 
 of the Church of England standing on each 
 side of her." 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood's largest work, "The Lady 
 of the Manor," was in progress of publica- 
 tion at this time. The avowed object of this 
 work, which extends to several volumes, was 
 to prepare young persons to make intelligently 
 and sincerely the religious profession made in 
 the English and other churches, in what is 
 called Confirmation; and furnishes explana- 
 tions of the great doctrines and duties of 
 Christianity, in the author's favourite method 
 of stories and conversations. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 131 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE REGIMENT AT WORCESTER — HEBREW " TYPES" VISIT TO 
 
 THE CONTINENT — M- MALAN — "THE LITTLE MOMIERE" — SIR 
 WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 Some years after their retirement in the 
 country, the regiment with which Captain 
 Sherwood had been so long connected, hap- 
 pened to be stationed in the neighbourhood of 
 Worcester. This gave occasion for an inter- 
 resting scene which is thus described. 
 
 "It was when my three elder daughters 
 were just advancing to womanhood, that we 
 had an invitation from Major M'Caskill to 
 visit our beloved 53rd regiment, then stationed 
 at Weedon Barracks, and we took these our 
 daughters with us. We found our friends 
 residing in large and elegant quarters in the 
 same building as the colonel, and we were 
 most warmly welcomed and hospitably enter- 
 tained. What a strange revulsion, what a 
 violent flood of old feelings burst upon my 
 mind ! the past, as it appertained to my Indian 
 life, seeming to roll itself into one with the 
 present. 
 
 "On the Friday, in passing through the 
 hall, I found it half filled with officers and as 
 
132 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 many as eight members of the band, ah wait- 
 ing to see me. The youths stood together, 
 and as I went up to them they gathered round 
 me and formed a circle, their eyes sparkling 
 with pleasure. They were all full grown, 
 tall, military men, finely drawn up, and well 
 acquainted with what was due from themselves 
 to me. 
 
 "For an instant I knew not one of them, 
 but soon I recognized in them the babes I had 
 nursed, and dressed, and lulled to sleep, and 
 the boys I had taught whilst yet scarce able 
 to lisp their letters. The finest, or at least 
 one of the finest among them, for they one 
 and all looked well, came forward and told me 
 who he was, ' William Coleman.' Then came 
 Flitchcroft, who had been one of my particular 
 nurselings; Elliot, who had the same especial 
 claim on my regard ; Roberts and Ross, Hart- 
 ley and Botheroyd, and not one of these had 
 even one parent. 
 
 "I cannot say what I felt, but I own I was 
 relieved when the meeting was over, and I 
 could retire to pray and weep for my orphan 
 boys. Our first introduction was in the far 
 off East, our second in England, and once 
 more we shall be united, through our blessed 
 Redeemer, in glory, where together we shall 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 133 
 
 join in one eternal strain of praise. Such a 
 minute is worth many, many petty annoyan- 
 ces. How gratified was I to hear the most 
 favourable account of these boys, and that 
 they did credit to the very great care that had 
 been bestowed upon them!" 
 
 Among the pursuits of the happy house- 
 hold at Wick was their united study of the 
 Hebrew language. Mrs. Sherwood had formed 
 the opinion that there was to be found in the 
 original language of the Old Testament, such 
 a correspondence between the words used by 
 the sacred writers in their types or figures, as 
 would amount to a distinct prophetical lan- 
 guage. She designed to study these terms till 
 a complete typical dictionary could be formed. 
 As this was a laborious work, she trained her 
 daughter to assist her in it, and her husband 
 entered into the plan with so much interest 
 that he gave ten years' labour in compiling 
 a Hebrew and English Concordance for the 
 assistance of his studious family. 
 
 After time had diminished her household 
 cares, by the growing up of her daughters and 
 adopted orphans, and by discontinuing to 
 receive pupils into her house, Mrs. Sherwood 
 accompanied her husband and younger chil- 
 dren on a visit to the continent of Europe. 
 
 12 
 
134 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 This was in the year 1831 — 2. Her inter- 
 views with M. Malan at Geneva were greatly 
 blessed to the enlightening of her views in 
 some points of doctrine, in regard to which she 
 had been in the habit of writing and thinking 
 with obscurity. 
 
 " We met M. Malan at his garden-gate ; he 
 received us with a smile of beaming kindness, 
 and addressed us in English, which he spoke 
 exceedingly well. He took us into a parlour, 
 which was hung with an arras of landscapes in 
 oil colours, wrought by his own hands ; for he 
 is highly skilled in painting and music. When 
 we were seated, after a while he told me that 
 he knew me well by name ; and he told me 
 also that he objected to a passage in my 6 Church 
 Catechism Stories,' in which I had asserted 
 6 that Christ, instead of acting according to 
 the will of the Father, had, as it were, by in- 
 terposing himself between the Father and the 
 sinner, compelled him to have mercy. 7 How 
 kindly, and yet how decidedly, did this enlight- 
 ened Christian point out my error, proving to 
 me that our Saviour is the exponent of his 
 Father's love, not the procuring cause of it; 
 for what saith the Witness — 'God so loved 
 the world, that he himself gave us his Son for 
 our salvation.' I recalled to mind that once 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 135 
 
 before I had been told that my views of the 
 Father were very defective, and I prayed that, 
 if I were blind as to the truth, my eyes might 
 be opened. 
 
 "M. Malan was scripturally grounded in 
 his views of the perfection of the divine work, 
 as it regarded the elect, and of the perfect and 
 entire safety of those individuals who are 
 adopted into the body of Christ, and of the 
 total impossibility of their ever being suffered 
 finally to fall away, and hence of the absolute 
 duty of entertaining the doctrine of assurance. 
 On this point, that is, in showing the fulness 
 of Christ as regards his own chosen ones, and 
 the perfect confidence such should place in 
 him, M. Malan 'worked hard to instruct my 
 young ones, and what he said was blessed not 
 only to them but to me." 
 
 " In measure, as I see the non-conditionality 
 of salvation to the child of God — a non-con- 
 ditionality wholly built upon the fulfilment of 
 all conditions by the second Adam, Christ, 
 there is a cessation in my feelings, of what in 
 former years had almost filled them. I find 
 no longer any references to those weary and 
 fruitless searchings for any good in myself, 
 which are recorded in my old journals as ac- 
 cruing day after day, and year after year, 
 
136 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 almost from my youth, till I was far advanced 
 in middle age, with occasional strong expres- 
 sions of hopelessness because I found it not, 
 or sometimes those of self-satisfaction when 
 any flatterer told me that I had found what I 
 was searching for. But when I was blessed 
 by clearer views of the work of the Saviour, 
 and of the demerits of man — which views 
 were first conveyed to my mind with clearness 
 through the ministry of M. Malan — all these 
 expressions of self-seeking, harassing fears and 
 doubts, suddenly disappeared from my diary. 
 Though I know that human agency unassisted 
 can do nothing, yet I must ever believe and 
 say that M. Malan was, by the divine blessing, 
 made decidedly useful to me, and also to my 
 dear daughters ; and to this hour such as are 
 left with me on earth will bear witness to the 
 same." 
 
 It may be stated in this place, that it was at 
 one time boasted by the Universalists of the 
 United States that Mrs. Sherwood held their 
 opinions. On this supposition, some persons 
 of that denomination sent her a present of a 
 large parcel of their books, splendidly bound. 
 It is due to her memory to insert what she 
 wrote respecting these volumes and the source 
 from which they came. 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 137 
 
 " The books were from a numerous party in 
 America, called the 6 Universalis ts,' from which 
 I disclaim all connection, as I believe their 
 doctrines, as far as I know them, are a denial 
 of the Holy Scriptures, as they say that the 
 mercy of God is bestowed upon man without 
 the ransom being obtained by Christ. These 
 persons, in their journals, have declared me, 
 and also my daughter Sophia, members of 
 their body; but we wrote at once to disclaim 
 it, though I have reason to think our letters 
 were never published. The works sent, though 
 finely got up, were hateful to us from their 
 sentiments; and Dr. Streeten closed the par- 
 cel up again, and forwarded them to a gentle- 
 man in Bristol who had dealings in America, 
 who promised to return them from whence 
 they came ; and so it was done. It was for 
 the purpose of declaring that my whole trust 
 and confidence are on the righteousness of my 
 Divine Saviour that I then set to work to 
 write a statement of my belief, which I did in 
 the story of Evelyn, in the third volume of 
 6 The Fairchild Family.' " 
 
 At the suggestion of some Christian ladies 
 
 in Geneva, "The Little Momiere" was written 
 
 to explain some singular customs of that 
 
 country, and especially to exhibit the religious 
 
 12* 
 
138 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 disadvantages under which some classes of the 
 children were labouring. From Switzerland 
 the travellers proceeded to Italy, and spent 
 the winter in the city of Nice. They then 
 crossed to Holland, and took a steamboat from 
 Rotterdam for their home. This voyage was 
 memorable from the fact that as a passenger 
 in the same vessel with them was Sir Walter 
 Scott, who was then sinking into the condition 
 of mental imbecility which continued until his 
 death. Mrs. Sherwood gives a notice of his 
 case, which is calculated to give the most 
 solemn impressions of the truth that the 
 reason, and all the powers by which man must 
 understand and act upon the claims of his 
 Maker and Redeemer may cease long before 
 death; and therefore, that among the risks 
 which they are incurring who neglect the 
 proper preparation for eternity, is the loss, not 
 only of life, but of the faculties by which the 
 gospel doctrines are embraced and followed. 
 
 " Sir Walter Scott was returning with his 
 son and daughter from Naples, where he had 
 received such honours as are only paid usually 
 to crowned heads. They had given a mas- 
 querade, to which he was invited, in which all 
 the characters were personifications of his own 
 heroes and heroines. The cup of adulation 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 139 
 
 had been tendered to him, filled to the brim 
 and running over. Report said that he had 
 been taken ill at Nimeguen on the Rhine, and 
 the conducteur of the vessel, which had brought 
 us to Rotterdam, had been up and down again, 
 and had brought down his party now. When 
 we were on our way to the steamer that was 
 to take us to ' The Batavier,' we first saw Sir 
 Walter. On the beach was a wooden pier; the 
 packet was drawn up close to this pier, whereon 
 was the barouche in which lay the invalid, 
 from which they had taken the horses, and 
 boards had been placed, so as it could be 
 wheeled on deck without disturbing the sufferer. 
 The hood of the carriage was up behind, and 
 the front open. A bed had been spread in it, on 
 which lay Sir Walter ; his fine head, that head 
 aforetime the seat of high conceptions and 
 glorious imaginings, being covered by a black 
 velvet cap. 
 
 " What were our thoughts, and those of all 
 who possessed feeling and reflecting minds on 
 board the packet, as we stood looking on the 
 helpless inmate of that carriage ! Is this, then, 
 the end of that fine mind, whose imagination 
 and powers have for the last twenty years 
 employed and charmed the attention, I may 
 say, of thousands of the human race, ay, and 
 
140 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 of its most intellectual members ? Oh, how 
 should this solemn example of the perishable 
 nature of all earthly endowments lead one, and 
 those especially in the decline of life, to inquire, 
 How have I employed the gifts which the Al- 
 mighty has thought fit to bestow upon us ? 
 
 "When the carriage was placed on board, 
 there was a solemn silence for some minutes. 
 The gayest, the most thoughtless amongst us, 
 seemed struck with awe ; and I really think 
 we should have felt less, if an actual corpse 
 had been brought before us on its bier. 
 
 "On a nearer view, we all thought that we 
 should have recognized the face from the many 
 portraits which have made the world familiar 
 with the features ; but, alas ! the light which 
 even those inanimate representations conveyed, 
 where was it now ? That dire disease, which 
 was soon to bring him to the tomb, left only 
 the outline of what that face had once been; 
 whilst the dark plaster, fixed over where 
 leeches had lately drawn the blood from the 
 temples, contrasted sadly with the general 
 paleness. 
 
 "He seemed to lie awhile in total uncon- 
 sciousness, his eyelids falling heavily ; but at 
 length he raised them, and spoke to a very 
 attentive servant who was ever near him ; but 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 141 
 
 still there was no animation in those eyes ; — 
 there was no play in those pale features, but 
 a stiffness and rigidity, which gave no hope 
 of more than a very temporary recovery. One 
 anecdote will show to what an extent the ill- 
 ness then afflicted him. A sudden squall 
 coming on, the umbrella, which had been 
 placed to protect him from the gusts of wind 
 or spray, was suddenly blown into the sea and 
 floated away out of our sight ; but of this he 
 appeared not aware, nor did he seem to feel 
 the inconvenience that resulted, though it took 
 some minutes to provide another. 
 
 " The fatigue of the moving, it seems, how- 
 ever, distressed Sir Walter; and when he was 
 lifted from his carriage, and borne in a chair 
 to his cabin in ' The Batavier,' it was said he 
 was ill again; and a Russian physician on 
 board was applied to, who administered with 
 success for a time a soporific draught. On 
 awaking, he called for pen and ink; and it is 
 in vain for me to try to paint my feelings, 
 when it was asked of me to give up the imple- 
 ments I was using at the moment, for the 
 benefit of the eminent invalid. It was a high 
 gratification to be able to meet his wishes." 
 
 It was in June, 1832, that the party returned 
 to their home in Wick. They resumed their 
 
142 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 task upon the dictionary of Scriptural types — 
 a work which occupied part of Mrs. Sherwood's 
 time for the remainder of her life. 
 
 CHAPTER XYII 
 
 VISIT TO BRIDGENORTH — REMNANTS OF THE OLD SABBATH-SCHOOL. 
 
 To persons advancing in life, one of the 
 most interesting and solemn employments is 
 to look back to their younger and more active 
 days, and meditate upon the changes which 
 time has produced. It is a motive to spend 
 life usefully and well, that if we are permit- 
 ted to reach such an age, we may not have 
 the remorse of knowing that it has been 
 wasted in selfishness. The Sabbath-school 
 teacher may well think, as he surveys the 
 children under his care through successive 
 years, "What will they be when they are men 
 and women? What effect will my instructions 
 have upon them ?" It is their future condition 
 and character, even more than the benefit of 
 the passing day, that should impress teachers, 
 parents, and all who have an opportunity of 
 influencing the young, with the solemn respon- 
 sibility of improving every opportunity of 
 doing them good. 
 
LIFE OP MRS. SHERWOOD. 143 
 
 We have seen how impressed Mrs. Sherwood 
 was on meeting, in the camp near Worcester, 
 the young men whom she had taught as boys 
 in India. But a more striking example of 
 the effect of time was witnessed by her, when 
 she visited, in 1833, the village of Bridgenorth 
 where she and her sister had taught a Sab- 
 bath-school in 1797 — thirty-six years before. 
 We must insert here her own account of this 
 visit, not only for its interest as a narrative, 
 but for the useful suggestions it must furnish 
 to all classes of our readers, and especially to 
 those connected, whether as teachers, or learn- 
 ers, with Sabbath-schools. 
 
 "It was in March, the year following our 
 return from the Continent, that I went to visit 
 my brother at Bridgenorth, where a circum- 
 stance happened that I shall now relate. I 
 have mentioned, in the early part of my diary, 
 that my sister and myself had a Sunday- 
 school in our youthful days at Bridgenorth, 
 and now it so fell out, that one evening, 
 whilst staying at my brother's, I was called to 
 speak to a poor woman, called Elizabeth 
 Hughes, formerly one of our old scholars. In 
 truth, she had been under my sister's tuition, 
 not mine; but she remembered me with affec- 
 tion, and came to see me. I engaged her to 
 
144 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 take the management of a tea party, in some 
 house, in which she* was to invite all my own 
 and my sister's old pupils who could be found. 
 March 24th was the day fixed for this meet- 
 ing, and my kind sister-in-law, Mrs. Butt, had 
 some large cakes made; and provided with 
 these, properly conveyed before us as signs of 
 our approach, she guided me to Mrs. Hughes' 
 house, which is in a row on a ledge of the 
 rock on which the town stands, at the entrance 
 of that elegant place called 'the Cartway/ 
 Mrs. Butt went with me to the door, and 
 witnessed the meeting; for the company had 
 already arrived. Be it remembered that those 
 I then met had all been in the freshest bloom 
 of childhood and youth when I had seen them 
 last, and as bright and sparkling girls I had 
 remembered them all. But I confess I re- 
 ceived a shock when I found myself encom- 
 passed by a number of elderly, nay, in some 
 instances, really old-looking women. I was 
 thrown aback, touched with some sad reflec- 
 tions, from which I did not immediately re- 
 cover. But if the officers had difficulty to 
 restrain their feelings when they saw my 
 meeting with those fine young men of the 
 band in the hall at Weedon, youths whom I 
 had nursed and fed in their orphan infancy, 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 145 
 
 this meeting with these poor women was quite 
 too much for Mrs. Butt, who turned away 
 weeping, though not in sorrow. My hands 
 were caught and kissed, whilst every eye ran 
 down with tears. I could not let it so pass, 
 and I kissed them all; though for me to recog- 
 nize the individuals present was impossible, 
 and I did not pretend to do it. 
 
 "At length we were seated, I with my 
 pupils about me, though some of these, having 
 lived lives of hardship, unquestionably ap- 
 peared older than I did; for age had then 
 dealt gently by me, and I looked, as many 
 told me, much younger than I really was. 
 My first questions, when we were all placed, 
 was to ask 'who was who?' and, as the 
 answers were given, I tried to discern the 
 resemblance of the persons then presented to 
 me to the fair girls recorded in my memory, 
 and eminently fair some at least had been. 
 There were only eight present, all that could 
 be found from our once large school. 
 
 " The scene was most affecting. We spoke 
 of days long past, and of former trials inci- 
 dent to youth, in which the Almighty had led 
 us on through dangerous paths, and in much 
 darkness, into that glorious light, in which, 
 as far as I could ascertain, most of us were 
 then standing through infinite mercy. 
 
 13 ° n 
 
146 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 " Elizabeth Hughes told me, that after my 
 sister and myself had left Briclgenorth, never 
 to live there again, the girls of the first classes 
 had often gone, on a Sunday evening, to a 
 round hill, which may be seen on the right 
 from the castle, and there prayed for us, and 
 prayed that they might never forget the things 
 which we had taught them. 
 
 "She told me, too, that often when at 
 Malta she had looked toward the east, and 
 thought of me and prayed for me. Oh ! how 
 does piety ennoble the lowest individual ; how 
 does it bestow an elegance of mind in the 
 most unpromising conditions ! But, I ask, in 
 what consisted the power of the instructions 
 which we gave those young people? In 
 reply, I should say that the strength of the 
 impression which our instructions made was 
 owing, with the divine favour, to the hold 
 which we were enabled to take on the affec- 
 tions of the children. The love of us, inferior 
 as it was, became a law to them in a very 
 decided sense; for, as the poor women told 
 me, all agreeing in the same tale, it was a 
 constant habit amongst them, after we were 
 gone, when called to trial, to say, 'We must 
 not do so and so, because it would grieve our 
 ladies.' 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 147 
 
 "If, then, the love with which one human 
 being is able to inspire another is so superior 
 in its efficacy to any legal motive, how much 
 more is that love which is divinely inspired 
 predominant, and efficacious in producing good 
 feelings and acts of moral righteousness? Is 
 not love, even between man and man, the ful- 
 filment of the law? 
 
 " The scene that evening was most affecting ; 
 we sang many hymns, which I have ever 
 loved, in strains which, awakened now, have 
 power to carry me back to years long gone 
 by. We spoke, too, of pleasures past; of 
 delights that had left no thorns on the brow, 
 or in the heart. At seven o'clock we parted, 
 assuredly never more to meet again on earth." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FAMILY CHANGES — " DICTIONARY OF TYPES" — DEATH. 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood's advancing age witnessed 
 the usual vicissitudes of life. Her daughter 
 Emily died in childhood. Her daughter Lucy 
 died in the first year of her marriage. Her 
 eldest daughter was the wife of a clergyman 
 in Staffordshire. Her only son was married, 
 and also became a clergyman. Her youngest 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 daughter Sophia was married to Dr. Streeten, 
 and after his death to Dr. Kelly. After the 
 death of Lucy, Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood left 
 Wick, and removed nearer Worcester, where 
 Dr. and Mrs. Streeten resided with them. At 
 the age of seventy-four, she pronounced her- 
 self a very happy woman, having many 
 domestic blessings still continued to her, and 
 her faculties so little impaired by time that 
 she could read the smallest type and write 
 four or five hours a day. At this time she 
 would express her thankfulness to God by 
 singing the tunes and hymns she had learned 
 in India, chiefly from Henry Martyn. She 
 numbered among her special mercies that 
 the life of her husband was continued, and 
 the last record she made in her journal was 
 (under the date of 23d of January, 1847) 
 the quotation from Isaiah, " Thou wilt keep 
 him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on 
 thee." 
 
 The power of the faith thus expressed was 
 soon tried. In April, 1848, Mr. Sherwood 
 had a severe attack of illness which made him 
 an invalid for the rest of his days. In April, 
 1849, his son-in-law Dr. Streeten died. Upon 
 this event, the united family removed to 
 Twickenham, near Richmond, in Surrey, 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 149 
 
 where Mr. Sherwood terminated a long and 
 suffering illness in December, of the same 
 year. Mrs. Sherwood's daughter Mrs. Street- 
 en, afterwards Mrs. Kelly, speaks as follows 
 of the manner in which her mother bore the 
 bereavement of her companion of forty -seven 
 years : 
 
 " She was grateful for our consolation, happy 
 in our attentions ; and when my beloved aunt 
 was called home, we had the gratification of 
 knowing that my mother's mind was happier 
 and more at rest. She could now sing to her- 
 self my father's favourite hymns, and read in 
 his Bible from the very place where she had 
 left off reading to him aloud. Generally, I 
 may say, she was cheerful, but, alas ! at other 
 times she was very often depressed and timid, 
 and we used to find it almost impossible to 
 bring her back to a tranquil state of mind. I 
 remember well one night when I slept with 
 her in town she was very restless; she had 
 been the day before to Doctors' Commons, to 
 prove my father's will, and no doubt had been 
 much distressed by it. And in the night she 
 told me that she was happy and content about 
 her departed friends, whom she was assured 
 she should find again in Him who is all in all; 
 that she rejoiced even in her widowed state, 
 
 13* 
 
150 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 and could thank God to think that her beloved 
 husband had gone first, and that he had not 
 been the left one, as she was. Even for her 
 elder children she was satisfied ; but she had 
 one heavy care she could not endure, the 
 thought of leaving me, her youngest child, to 
 mourn her loss, and but for this she w T as ready 
 to depart and be with Christ." 
 
 She persevered in her study of the Scrip- 
 ture types, until March, 1851, when her great 
 task was finished by the completion of the 
 first draught of the " Type Dictionary." This 
 employment cheered her old age, and diverted 
 her mind from dwelling too painfully on her be- 
 reavements. In a letter written during this 
 period she remarked : — 
 
 " When I am sad, I find such lovely things 
 concealed under the figures of natural things, 
 that I am ready to w r eep for very joy ; they 
 are like violets hidden under dark leaves, or 
 precious stones buried in the rock. These 
 divine mysteries, when opened out, show more 
 of the fragrance and splendour of the beloved 
 Lord, than aught which Scripture presents to 
 the outward observation even of the most at- 
 tentive, yet it is only as through a glass very, 
 very darkly, that the most humble and perse- 
 vering student can discern any of these mys- 
 
LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 151 
 
 teries. Of one thing, however, I am more and 
 more assured, that the deeper w 7 e are enabled 
 to look into Scripture, the more we discern of 
 the love of the Saviour, and the more readily 
 and cheerfully commit the interests connect- 
 ed with our departed ones to his gentle 
 hand. All those we lament had their weak- 
 nesses aud infirmities when on earth, but He 
 w r ho redeemed them never changes; with him 
 is no spot or stain of sin. He has said, <I 
 come not to condemn, but to save the world/ 
 Very sweet thoughts are sometimes vouchsafed 
 to me, and when I take a pen in hand, per- 
 haps I sometimes become tedious in recording 
 them." 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood was now in her seventy 
 sixth year; but her mental activity did not 
 cease. Her last employment of a literary kind 
 was in making a dozen penny books, illus- 
 trating as many prints. But her strength was 
 gradually failing, and on the 24th of Septem- 
 ber, 1851, she was released from the body. 
 The last intelligible words which she was heard 
 to utter, were, " Remember this, my children, 
 that God is love : He that dwelleth in love 
 dwelleth in God, and God in him." 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood's writings fill sixteen volumes 
 printed in the smallest type ; and bej^ond all 
 
152 LIFE OF MRS. SHERWOOD. 
 
 the praise that they deserve for the talents 
 they exhibit, and for the interest which their 
 narratives have awakened in such multitudes 
 of readers in various languages, is to be 
 placed the fact that their aim is to promote 
 the knowledge and practice of true religion. 
 It was more directly for the benefit of the 
 young that her mind was kept in such activity 
 for so many }^ears ; and it was to this class of 
 her fellow-creatures that she devoted most of 
 her benevolent care as a teacher, and her 
 charity as a philanthropist, both in England 
 and India. 
 
 Yet Mrs. Sherwood had the cares of a wife 
 and mother resting upon her; and for many 
 of her most active years she was living in a 
 climate where there is everything to tempt 
 one to consult one's ease, and where, as an 
 officer's wife, she could have obtained every 
 indulgence of this kind she could have reason- 
 ably desired. Her example, under these cir- 
 cumstances, in devoting herself to good works 
 with a zeal seldom witnessed excepting in 
 those who consecrate themselves wholly to a 
 missionary life, ought to arrest the attention 
 of Christian men and women, who suppose 
 they cannot, or ought not to, undertake the 
 more active duties of religion as one of the 
 constant occupations of life. 
 
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