ed, and was able to carry his master on many a future errand of
mercy. Meanwhile, however, the travellers availed themselves of Mr
Cunningham's hospitality, and remained for two days more at his place,
near Dunbar. In the evening Mr Hill conducted family worship, and after
the supplications for the family, domestics, and friends, added a
fervent prayer for the restoration of the valuable animal which had
carried him so many thousands of miles, preaching the everlasting gospel
to his fellow-sinners. Mr Cunningham, who was remarkable for the staid
and orderly, if not stiff, demeanour, which characterised the
anti-burghers, was not only surprised but grieved, and even scandalised,
at what he deemed so great an impropriety. He remonstrated with his
guest. But Mr Hill stoutly defended his conduct by an appeal to
Scripture, and the superintending watchfulness of Him without whom a
sparrow falls not to the ground. He persisted in his prayer during the
two days he continued at Dunbar, and, although he left the horse, in a
hopeless state, to follow in charge of his servant by easy stages, he
continued his prayer, night and morning, till one day, at an inn in
Yorkshire, while the two travellers were sitting at breakfast, they
heard a horse and chaise trot briskly into the yard, and, looking out,
saw that Mr Hill's servant had arrived, bringing up the horse perfectly
restored. Mr Hill did not fail to return thanks, and begged his
fellow-traveller to consider whether the minuteness of his prayers had
deserved the censure which had been directed against them.

A SAYING OF ROWLAND HILL'S.

Rowland Hill rode a great deal, and exercise preserved him in vigorous
health. On one occasion, when asked by a medical friend, who was
commenting on his invariably good health, what physician and apothecary
he employed, he replied, "My physician has always been a _horse_, and my
apothecary an _ass_!"[224]

HOLCROFT ON THE HORSE.

Thomas Holcroft, the novelist and play-writer, when a lad, was a stable
boy to a trainer of running horses. In his memoirs he has written a good
deal about the habits of the race-horse. He says of them:--"I soon
learned that the safehold for sitting steady was to keep the knee and
the calf of the leg strongly pressed against the sides of the animal
that endeavours to unhorse you; and as little accidents afford frequent
occasions to remind the boys of this rule, it becomes so rooted in the
memory of the intelligent