The Old Church Clock. By the Rev. R. Parkinson. Edited
by John Evans. (Abel Heywood and Son, Manchester.)—After an interval of twenty-seven years, we have a new edition of a book which achieved in its day considerable popularity. The Old Church Clock is a tale of a very simple kind, in which the son of a Cumber- land "statesman," whom circumstances have removed to Manchester, tells the story of his early days. Its interest lies in its pictures of manners—pictures which the writer, himself a native of the Lake district, drew from his own knowledge—and in its portraits, taken from the life. The chief of these is Robert Walker, the " Wonderful," of whose life at Seathwaite Wordsworth has left the well-known account in the Notes to the "Sonnets on the River Duddon." Joshua King, President of Queen's College, Cambridge, and Joshua Brookes, chap- lain of the " Old Church," Manchester (known to many readers from Mr. Linnaeus Banks's " Manchester Man "), also appear in these pages. But the story is only the nucleus of an interesting body of mis- cellaneous information which the editor has collected. First we have a memoir of the author, which will be read with interest by many who knew him, both at Manchester and at St. Bees. Then there is Wordsworth's account of "The Wonderful Walker," supplemented by a very interesting description of his life, by a descendant, from which we gather many additional particulars. There is also an account of his family, a race which seems likely to be as numerous and as hopeful as that of Jonadab the son of Rechab. Curious notes about men and places abound. It is a remarkable fact that Robert Walker and his successor, Edward Tyson, held the living of Seathwaite for a period of a hundred and nioeteen years. But this is far surpassed by the following :—" James Horrocks, of Bradshaw Chapel, was one hundred years old on March 25th, 1844 ; his father was born in 1657, and was eighty-six when James was born." In the church-
yard of Broughton there aro inscriptions to "Jane Walker, died 1791, aged 101," and " T. Walker, died 1748, aged 101." A story of the Rev. Joshua Brookes is worth relating :—" Wending his way, with customary measured step, along Deanscate, he overtook a sturdy raffian—a Manchester type of Bill Sykes—with a dog, round whose neck was a cord, which the brute in breeches was tugging at so vio- lently that the dog was well-nigh strangled. Equal to the emergency, Joshua pulled out his knife, and released the poor animal from his torturer by cutting the cord. Whereupon, with a volley of abuse, the ruffian turned upon Joshua, and asked him, What's thee done that for?' Upon which Joshua replied, ' Hold thy noise, neon; if it had been thy neck, I wouldn't have cut the cord.' "
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