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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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the incumbency , of his old master , the Rev . John Farrer , * who was for a short t ^ me Rector of Sunderlawd , but finding the situation much too burdensome and bustling to agree with his former habits , contracted in the satisfactory exercise of Iiis useful
profession of 9 , schoolmaster in a retired village , embraced the opportunity of exchanging it for one more congenial , which was presented to him by the preferment , in the summer of 1795 , of
the celebrated Dr . Paley , to the Rectory of Bishop Wearmouth . Of this eminent person Mr . Meadley , ' as one of his parishioners , naturally sought the acquaintance ; and was treated by him with all the frank and easy
affability for which he was so conspicuous , and which was so well calculated to secure the warm attachment of one yvho so earnestly thirsted after knowledge of every kind , and who was so
qualified from his own stores , particularly from the absolute accuracy of facts and dates , which his prodigious memory had enabled him to acquire , to repay some part , at least , of the benefit which he himself received . He
himself relates , that , on his return from his various continental expeditions , he always underwent a very close examination from his Rector on the particulars which he had observed . And here it may be proper to observe , that his family is in possession of very minute and interesting manuscript accounts of his . different voyages .
On the lamented death of Dr . Paley in 1805 , Mr . Meadley naturally felt extremely anxious that some authentic aud accurate memoir should be given to the world of so eminent a person : and this the rather , as he justly observes , because while , in many instances , " the man is often
very unlike the author , in the case of Dr . Paley , the author is only a more grave and dign ^ j | ed exhibition of the man ; and those who knew him personally enjoy more vividly , on that very account , every quaintness of phrase and shrewd ness of remark that occurs in his writing . " But it was not till after waiting thre ^ years , and
, .- f , . i 1 , ' * An interesting : Memoir of this ^ excellent man was , published after his death , by his nephew , the Rev . John Farnpr , of St . ' Clement . Eustcheap , . London .
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in the mean time urging several of those who had been his earlier and more intimate friends , and some who , from affinity as well as friendship ,
might have been expected to undertake the task , that he at length formed the resolution of becoming himself the biographer of his respected pastor . When he had once undertaken
it , he spared neither time nor labour nor expense in collecting materials , and in doing this formed many personal intimacies with those who had been the fellow . students or pupils of Paley , or who were otherwise enabled to give him useful information . These were the source of much satisfaction
to him during the whole of his remaining life * Among these may be mentioned the present Bishop of Chester , Dr . Brown ^ the late Master of Christ ' s , Dr . Ord ^ Mr . Stoddartof
Ashford , Mr . Hall of Grantham , Mr . Tate of Richmond , Dr . Chatles Symmons , » Mrs . Jebb , and Dr . Disney . To the last-mentioned gentleman , he owed his introduction to several
eminent Unitariair divines , particularly Mr . Jervis , late of Leedy . And he might , probably , be led by this circumstance more carefully to study , and more decidedly to embrace the heretical side in this controversy ; though he had been , previously , by no means uninterested in it ..
The first draft of the Memoirs of Paley is said to have been written in a style so much too florid , that the judicious friend who favoured him with the JLetter ( signed Q . V . ) with which the work concludes , told him plainly that ' « it was in vain to correct , he must re-write the whole : " " which . must re-write the whole 5 which
, with equal candour , good-humour and patient industry , he immediately did : and he appears to have effectually profited by his friend ' s advice . The work itself , as before the public , is remarkable for the unaffected simplicity of its style , which also
distinguishes his subsequent writings ; as well as also for the modesty of the Author , who never obtrudes himself upon his readers as the friend of the deceased , or as a party in any of the
conversations which he reports . Of the good . opinion of the public a aufB cient prtiof is , thatit yqvy soon galled for a new edition ; in \ yhiclv indeed , the Ai * th « aif does occasionally appear ,
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Memoir of the late Mr . G . W . Meadley . 13 > 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1819, page 139, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1770/page/3/
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