ented as a parting gift. He afterwards settled at Ross, and
lived to an advanced age, dying November 11, 1724. He was described as
"nearly six feet high, strong and lusty made, jolly and ruddy in the
face, with a large nose." His claim to immortality, which has made his
name a household word in England, cannot better be described than by
quoting some of Pope's lines:

"Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry brow?
From the dry soil who bade the waters flow?...
Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows?
Whose seats the weary traveller repose?
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?
'The Man of Ross,' each lisping babe replies.
Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread!
The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread:
He feeds yon almshouse, neat, but void of state,
Where age and want sit smiling at the gate:
Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blest,
The young who labor, and the old who rest.
Is any sick? The Man of Ross relieves.
Prescribes, attends, the med'cine makes and gives.
Is there a variance? Enter but his door.
Balked are the courts and contest is no more....
Thrice happy man! enabled to pursue
What all so wish, but want the power to do!
Oh say what sums that generous hand supply,
What mines to swell that boundless charity?
Of debts and taxes, wife and children, clear.
That man possessed--five hundred pounds a year!"

[Illustration: MARKET PLACE, ROSS.]

[Illustration: ROSS CHURCH.]

[Illustration: THE TREES IN ROSS CHURCH.]

It is not often that a man can do so much to benefit his townsfolk out
of the modest income of $2500 a year; and not only Pope, but Coleridge
also, has found this a theme for verse. The house in which the "Man of
Ross" lived is on the left-hand side of the market-place, and still
stands, though much changed. It is now a drug-store and a dwelling. The
floors and panelling of several of the chambers are of oak, while a
quaint opening leads to a narrow corridor and into a small room, which
tradition says was his bedroom, where he endured his last and only
illness, and died. The bedroom looks out upon his garden, divided like
the house, one-half being converted into a bowling-green. The
surrounding walls are overrun with vines and bordered by pear trees. On
the other side of the market-place is the town-hall, standing on an
eminence and facing the principal street, which comes up from the
river-bank. This hall is somewhat di