5. John's in the Wilderness,

OR

TRUE STORIES

OF

A COUNTRY PARISH.

LONDON:

MASTERS & CO., ALDERSGATE STREET.

BRISTOL: J. RIDLER, HIGH STREET,

1857.

249.4.93.

TO THE MEMORY OF

MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER,

ARD WALKER, ESQ.,

OF

GROVE HOUSE, HUNSLET, AND PARK PLACE, LEEDS;

WHO, LIVING, WAS KNOWN AMONGST US

BY DEEDS, NOT WORDS;

THIS LITTLE VOLUME

IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED.

HE SHALL ENTER INTO PEACE; THEY SHALL REST IN THEIR BEDS, EACH ONE WALKING IN HIS UPRIGHTNESS.

PREFACE.

We have all, at times, felt very uncomfortable from being in the presence of one to whom we did not like to speak, because we had not been "introduced." Yet I do not think that English people would be generally willing, in continental fashion, to dispense with the ceremony of introduction. And this induces me to write a few words of preface to this little book. For a preface stands in the position of a third person, in presenting a book to that terrible personality, the wide, wide world. I am not the author of this volume; and therefore, gentle reader, do not fear that parental affection renders me blind to its defects, but put implicit confidence in everything I say. Now, S. John's I know well, and, by sad experience, the moral wilderness in which it stands: and,