It seems to us more likely that Bunyan, having been arrested not in the city, but in a country village, should have waited for his trial at the quarter sessions in the county jail; but the accompanying engraving of a ring,* believed, and with excellent show of reason, to have been Bunyan's, was found in the floor of the old prison on the bridge,

OR

when it was pulled down in 1811.

It might be that after his examination at the quarter sessions, he was committed to the city jail, having first been imprisoned in the county; be that as it may, there is nothing more touching in his whole history than when he says, referring to that

committal, before I went down to the justice I begged of God, that if I might do more good by being at liberty than in prison, that then I might be set at liberty, but if not, His will be done; for I was not altogether without hopes that my imprisonment might be an awakening to the saints in the country; therefore I could not tell which to choose; only I in that manner did commit the thing to God; and verily, at my

* This valuable relic is in the possession of the Dean of Manchester, from whom Captain Smyth, R. N., procured the impression, from which our engraving is taken; and we are kindly permitted to transcribe the Dean's own account of the ring :- As to the ring, the history of it is curious. The old prison in which Bunyan was confined for twelve years after his trial before Hale, stood upon the centre of Bedford Bridge, which was pulled down in 1811. A friend of mine, Dr. Abbot, was present day by day while the work of dilapidation was going on, and in the course of time, out of the floor of the old prison, the ring was dug up. Abbot bought it, and wore it until within a short time before his death, in 1817, when he took it off from his own finger, and placed it upon mine, charging me to keep it for his sake. Dr. Abbot never doubted its genuineness, nor does there appear to be any reason for doing so. The place where it was found was undoubtedly Bunyan's dwelling-place for many years. Persecuted as we may consider him to be, there can be no doubt that he was, in his own days and by his own party, looked upon as a victim of state persecution; and there is evidence to show that he was not unkindly treated, but, on the contrary, found his friends increasing as his sufferings were supposed to be undeserved. His imprisonment was probably not much unlike that of St. Paul at Rome, bating that he was kept within the prison walls; but there were no visiting justices in that day, and no doubt his friends and others had access to him; and it may be that the ring was given to him by some person of condition, as a token of regard. I am inclined to think this must have been its history, as the letters I. B. appear to have been inserted after the ring was made. They were punched in probably by Bunyan himself. Indeed the whole of the indents seem to have been made by punching; they are not cut in by any graving tool.'

return, I did meet my God sweetly in the prison again, comforting of me and satisfying of me, that it was HIS will and mind that I should be there.'

6

Three months of imprisonment followed, and then the clerk of the peace went to him by desire of the magistrates to see if he could be persuaded to obedience-which obedience' inferred relinquishing his calling as a preacher; this he refused to do; it is evident from this courtesy that Bunyan was then regarded with no common respect, even by his enemies. The coronation of Charles took place on the 22nd of April, 1661, shortly after this interview, and when the next assizes came, Bunyan's wife presented a petition to the judges that they would impartially take his case into consideration and that he might be heard, and threw a second petition into the coach to Judge Twisden. It is not difficult to imagine the trembling but eager hand of the devoted wife flinging this entreaty at the judge's feet, as he was preparing to descend from his carriage and proceed to the Swan Chamber,'-doubtless many in the crowd were filled with anxiety as to the result-and when glancing his eyes over the contents he told her that her husband was a convicted person, and could not be released unless he promised to preach no more, how must hope, strangled

by despair, have expired within her bosom as she turned her eyes towards

the prison, likely to become his tomb.

Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning; Elizabeth was so constituted as to be the worthy wife of the author of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' as well as the help-mate of John Bunyan, the tinker of Elstow; Sir Matthew Hale had expressed sympathy towards her, and the high sheriff (whose memory for this one act deserves a record more ennobling than his civic dignity) encouraged her to make another effort for her husband before the judges left town; accordingly with a bashed face and trembling heart,' she entered the Swan chamber' where the two judges and many magistrates and gentry of the county were in company together. We wish that one of those artists who immortalise noble deeds with a true and vigorous pencil, would think of this as a subject worthy to be recorded:

The quaint Swan chamber,' its open windows admitting a view of the jail on the bridge,* and the heavy waters which passed slowly beneath this 'bridge of sighs;' the contrast between Judge Twisden and Sir Matthew Hale, the varied grouping and expression of the Magistrates and gentry of the county.' The nonconformist's 'young wife, with a bashed face' and righteous purpose. † Let it not be thought irreverent to the memory of one of the unsullied glories of England, the Lady Rachel Russell, if we remember that Lady Rachel craved to be her husband's secretary, but that Bunyan's wife, lowly born, lowly bred, but of lofty heart, became her husband's advocate. She had previously been to London to petition the House of Lords in his behalf, and one, whom she called Lord Barkwood, had told her that they could do nothing, but that his releasement was committed to these next assizes, and the assizes having come she stood there to plead her husband's cause. The painter, as is his gift, could throw her soul into her face, and illustrate any one of her replies by that expression:

* Our cut, copied from an old drawing of the house, taken before its entire demolition at the end of the last century, exhibits its quaint characteristics. The bridge foot is to the spectator's right, the church tower behind is that of St. Mary's, also seen in our view of the jail, which would of course be seen from the bow-windows of the old inn in which the Judges met.

The Rev. J. Scott, in his life of Bunyan, prefixed to the edition of the Pilgrim's Progress,' states that he was married in 1658 to his second wife, by whom he had no children. His family (four) were by the first wife; thus he had been only three years married at the time of the Restoration, and this accounts for his speaking of her as his young wife.

I am come to you,' she said,

and you give neither releasement nor relief;' and then appealing to Sir Matthew Hale, she complained that her husband was detained unlawfully in prison, for the indictment was false, and he was imprisoned before there were any proclamations against the meetings. One of the judges said he had been lawfully convicted, and thus aroused, she indignantly answered, It is false!' and then reasoned why, according to her belief. Will your husband leave preaching?' said Judge Twisden; if he will do so, then send for him.' 'My lord,' was her faithful reply, faithful to her God as to her husband; 'My lord, he DARES NOT LEAVE PREACHING AS LONG AS HE CAN SPEAK.'

And now either in the city jail on the bridge, or the county jail in the town, Bunyan was a fast prisoner, and although his jailer was his friend, and gave him opportunities of going forth, particularly at night, and meeting little bands of his own faith, beside the sluggish waters of the Ouse,—or in the thickness of dark shadowing trees,-or, farther away, in unsuspected dells, where the footsteps of the midnight congregation fell on the pliant moss, and the winking stars or pallid moon were silent witnesses to the outpourings of his prayers, and the torrent of his eloquence; sinking, as it did, into the hearts of his hearers-still he was in captivity; and in the day-time, his blind child sitting at his feet, he might be seen tagging the laces woven by his family, that they might sell them to buy bread. And here in his prison-house, his tenderness for his family was expressed in language so touching that few parents, we believe, could read it without tears.

It was most interesting to see the actual agreement entered into between Josias Ruffhead, brushmaker, and John Bunyan, brazier, by which Bunyan and his friends purchased a Barn,' with a piece of ground adjoining it, in the parishes of St. Paul and St. Cuthbert, or one of them, of Ruffhead, for 50l., in 1672. The present Minister believes that this 'barn' was the building for which the licence was granted, and which was afterwards permanently occupied by this Church as its place of meeting for many years. Mr. Jukes maintains his opinion that this barn' remained in its natural state until after it pleased God to remove Bunyan from the ministry.*

*The Rev. Mr. Jukes has published a very interesting little history of Bunyan's Church, compiled chiefly from the records of the old meeting. No lover of the Pilgrim's Progress' should be without it. Bunyan was called to the pastoral office October 21, 1671, during the eleventh

As no vestige of the old barn remained, but all external things were new, it was a great pleasure to hear from the worthy minister that a spirit of love, and peace, and charity, dwelt with the descendants of the ‘old meeting,' and that while firmly united together they are in harmony and friendship with the mother church;' which, dearly as we love the establishment, we confess, was at times much too severe in the punishments she awarded her truant children; and thus, not adhering to the principles of her Divine Originator, who decreed that even offences which numbered seventy times seven' should be forgiven, she provoked them both by harshness and neglect to forsake the shelter of the spire and the music of the church bell, and wander forth until new tabernacles sprang up in the wilderness of the world, not to be re-united to her until the great day when all minor distinctions shall be swept away, and all-sheltering beneath the broad banner of Christian faith—rejoice that there is but one fold and one shepherd.'

6

Again, heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning; it was pleasant to see the dark clouds passing as the morning dawned, and to turn our attention from the scenes of his trials to those of his triumphs. We sought the dwelling of the Baptist Interpreter,' to see the relics preserved in connexion with the old meeting.' It seemed as though we had passed through a storm and had just found a harbour of shelter, when we entered the cheerful parlour of Mr. Jukes, the far down successor of John Bunyan in the ministry, and saw upon his table a venerable volume and a small cabinet which were once in the possession of the author of the Pilgrim's Progress.' The volume was Bunyan's church-book,the cabinet was probably used for various purposes; it is not larger than what a lady would choose to keep ribands and gloves in. At all events, the fact of its having been HIS, sanctified it in our esteem; and next to the church-book, it is the relic we should most value. Mr. Jukes

year of his imprisonment. Captain Smyth has favoured us with the following interesting notices of the preacher and his Church in his time :-' He had a family by his first wife, one of whom died before him; but Fowitt Thomas Bunyan, rather a captious body, was admitted into the Congregation in 1673. Fowitt's children-Katherine and John-were entered in the same meeting, the daughter in 1692, the son in the year following. John is often mentioned in the records of the sect, one of the last entries being his mission to reprove Brother Steven White, in April 1718. Shortly afterwards the dynasty seems to have expired in him, for we trace no more Bunyans in the Bedford documents.'