wledge of all the
languages spoken in the Western parts of our Christian world; and
understood well the principles of their Religion, and of their manner,
and the reasons of their worship. In this his travel he met with many
persuasions to come into a communion with that church which calls
itself Catholic: but he returned from his travels as he went, eminent
for his obedience to his mother, the Church of England. In his absence
from England, Mr. Farrer's father--who was a merchant--allowed him a
liberal maintenance; and, not long after his return into England, Mr.
Farrer had, by the death of his father, or an elder brother, or both,
an estate left him, that enabled him to purchase land to the value of
four or five hundred pounds a year; the greatest part of which land
was at Little Gidden, four or six miles from Huntingdon, and about
eighteen from Cambridge; which place he chose for the privacy of it,
and for the Hall, which had the Parish-Church or Chapel, belonging
and adjoining near to it; for Mr. Farrer, having seen the manners and
vanities of the world, and found them to be, as Mr. Herbert says, "a
nothing between two dishes," did so contemn it, that he resolved to
spend the remainder of his life in mortifications, and in devotion,
and charity, and to be always prepared for death. And his life was
spent thus:

[Sidenote: Life there]

He and his family, which were like a little College, and about thirty
in number, did most of them keep Lent and all Ember-weeks strictly,
both in fasting and using all those mortifications and prayers that
the Church hath appointed to be then used; and he and they did the
like constantly on Fridays, and on the Vigils or Eves appointed to
be fasted before the Saints' days: and this frugality and abstinence
turned to the relief of the poor: but this was but a part of his
charity; none but God and he knew the rest.

[Sidenote: The daily round]

This family, which I have said to be in number about thirty, were a
part of them his kindred, and the rest chosen to be of a temper fit
to be moulded into a devout life; and all of them were for their
dispositions serviceable, and quiet, and humble, and free from
scandal. Having thus fitted himself for his family, he did, about the
year 1630, betake himself to a constant and methodical service of God;
and it was in this manner:--He, being accompanied with most of his
family, did himself use to read the common prayers--for he was a
Deacon--eve