REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD

Daniel Chapman's birth takes us back seventy-five years to the old Sheffield of 1799. He could not have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, for at 14 years of age you could any day see him with hands and face as black as a tinker's, at the stove-grate manufactory, Roscoe place. But although spending twelve hours every day at his employment, he found a little spare time for the pursuit of knowledge, which must have been in those days, and in those circumstances of obscurity, a pursuit under great difficulties. He obtained a little private instruction two evenings a week, and was soon pronounced by his teacher " one of the best grammarians in Sheffield." Having laid this good foundation, we find him in an evening, after the day's work is done, at one time with a Rev. Mr. Whiteley' a Unitarian minister; then with a Rev. Mr. Harrison, and subsequently with Rev. Thomas Smith, one of the Professors of Rotherham Independent College.

Trade becoming very depressed, his father-in-law (through whose self-denying kindness he had been assisted to the needful funds) said, " Thou must ' child, stop awhile, and then begin again; thou knows Rome was not built in a day." " True, father," replied the boy. " but they always kept on building, until it was finished." One evening, a gentleman was delivering a lecture in the Assembly Room, Norfolk street, and gave at the close an invitation for questions. Daniel Chapman, who was behind the audience in very humble attire, solicited the lecturer's opinion on a subject to which he had not referred. The lecturer stated that it belonged to one of the most abstruse mysteries of astronomy, and as he was unable to throw any light on it, requested the youth to give the audience the benefit of his own thoughts. These he clearly explained in a way which convinced his hearers that he was more than superficially conversant with the subject.

The late James Montgomery, the poet, was present on the occasion, and having sought out the obscure youth, there commenced a friendship which only terminated with death. Daniel Chapman had arrived at the age of 20 when he met in class with the Wesleyan community. The Rev. James Everett was at that time stationed in Sheffield, and met for the quarterly renewal of tickets the class of which Mr. Chapman was a member. This was on a week evening, and earlier than the usual time, so that the minister could do double duty the same evening. Daniel was therefore obliged to appear in his working dress, and face and hands bearing evidence of the nature of his employment. On being questioned in the usual way, he related his experience in language so much superior to what his apparent condition justified, that the preacher's godly jealousy was awakened, and he mingled caution against vanity and self-conceit with his counsels, and especially against indulgence in these, under such circumstances. On the following day, Daniel sent Mr. Everett a scholarly letter. Mr. Everett's surprise may be easily conjectured. He promptly waited upon Mr. Chapman, and mutual explanations and a good understanding ever afterwards resulted.

About this time we find that the Rev. Thomas Smith had introduced Mr. Chapman to Dr. Bennett, professor of theology in the Rotherham, College. That was an important link in the chain of events which led to his being sent to the Edinburgh University. On one frosty morning, about nine o'clock, Daniel knocked at the back door of the Rotherham. College. The servant observing his humble habiliments announced him as an Irish lad wanting to speak to her master. Mrs. Bennett came to know the lad's business, supposing he was asking charity. The reply was characteristic-" Please, Madam, be so kind as to present this note (Rev. Thomas Smith's) to Mr. Bennett." The result of that interview was that Dr. Bennett made Mr. Chapman an offer to become private tutor to his children. As, however, the pulpit was the goal of Mr. Chapman's ambition, the offer was declined, and a committee of clergymen, Independent ministers, and laymen (upon which Mr. Montgomery was very active) agreed that he should go to Edinburgh, and so be, left at perfect liberty to shape out his after course. In the University he rose to a first-class position, and carried of the prizes both in natural and moral philosophy, and also in Greek.

On leaving the University he became a Wesleyan minister of good note. His discourses were full of vigour and originality. He was emphatically an independent thinker. It is reported that he was taken publicly to task by one of his seniors at the Conference for the exuberance of his beard. Mr. Chapman's reply to the inquisition was a clear proof that they wore dealing with a true Sheffield blade, " If the growing of my beard maketh my weak brother to offend, let him take a pair of scissors and cut it off." His uniform kindness was a ruling trait of character: few houses that he visited but in them he was regarded with almost enthusiastic affection. Nor was his kindness circumscribed by the limit of his acquaintances. An incident that occurred in the streets is but one of many that might be mentioned. He overtook an aged woman who obtained her living by the selling of apples. Her too heavily-laden baskets and their contents were, by a simple accident, upset; immediately stepping off the pavement, he assisted with. the utmost alacrity in collecting the scattered fruit; nor was the old woman more delighted than he in seeing the apples restored to their proper place.

He was not a little remarkable for the singularity of his appearance. His clothes hung loosely about his person, as if they were made for a much larger man. His white cravat was folded in a roll and tie so loosely as to rest on his bosom, exposing the whole of the throat. His hat sloped backwards at a very unusual angle. His warm cloak, always worn except in very hot weather, was. thrown in a slovenly manner over his shoulders. His gait was measured and slow, and seemed incapable of being quickened. His by-the-way remarks and conversational replies were often very remarkable. In one of the circuits where he laboured he was obliged to decline 'an invitation to preach in a London chapel-; and he was thereupon visited by two ladies, who had gone in the hope of prevailing on him to consent. After much fruitless entreaty, one of them said playfully but earnestly, ' Mr. Chapman, I am determined not to leave your house until you promise to oblige us." The reply was instantaneous, " Madam, you do me infinite honour; for you will abide with me always." It is commonly reported of Lira that once he went to a small village to preach, for which journey he took a hired conveyance. On pulling up at the destination, where the horse was to be housed, seeing the ostler's boy coming towards him, the following scene transpired. Mr. Chapman " Extricate this quadruped from the vehicle, stabulate him apportion him an adequate supply of nutritious aliment, when the solar orb shall again illumine the eastern horizon I will reward your hospitality by the needful pecuniary advantage." Boy all this time, with eyes fixed and mouth open --- preciptates himself into the, presence of his employer, with the exclamation, " Eh, Mester, there's a Frenchman wants you." The kindliness of his nature extended itself also to the lower creation. He would never himself put any living thing to death. The writer was informed the other day by a Wesleyan minister who followed him in one of his circuits, that for some weeks after he arrived at the Chapel house, a colony of cats would come every Thursday mewing to the door for something to eat. On making inquiries about this queer phenomenon, he was informed that Mr. Chapman had been in the habit of feeding them regularly for some time, on that day of the week.

The studied politeness which he manifested on all occasions was shown just as much to the poor beggar who came to the door as to the visitor who came in his carriage. He was often laughed at on this account; but in him it had all the force of a deeply-rooted principle. He used to say-" All men are naturally equal in the sight of God; and as God is no respecter of persons I must not be." This noteworthy life of our fellow-townsman came to its close on the loth November, 1857. The event which gave a decidedly beneficial character to his after life-Mr. Chapman was accustomed to relate thus: " It was the death of my father. 1 well remember the scene. My father died in the midst of a terrific storm of thunder and lightning; and every time the artillery of heaven exploded with a tremendous crash, which made all round the bed shudder, my dying father, like an immortal spirit winging its flight to heaven on pinions of fire, exclaimed 'Glory be to God."

Another writer says:-My first knowledge of Daniel Chapman was hearing of his going to purchase Latin and Greek books at the shop of Mr. Pearce, the bookseller in Gibraltar street. He was often a visitor at that large dep6t of learned lore, and nothing seemed to affrord him more pleasure than to be allowed, for hours logether, to take down and examine the contents of the different shelves. He always, came in his working dress, and almost as black as a sweep. The highfiown language and correct pronunciation made use of by this swarthy son of the workshop roused the bookseller's wonderment to the highest pitch, and he began to cast glances into the future as to the probabilities of this young man's ultimate destiny.

The next time Daniel's name attracted my attention was when he came like a flaming star from the north-i.e., as a distinguished student from the Metropolitan University of Scotland. At this time he was announced to preach in Carver street Chapel, and my curiosity had been too keenly awakened in bygone days not to attend; the more so, indeed, as the young man from Roscoe place came forth in the new attire of a minister of the gospel, with the laurels of a university student. Long before the usual time the chapel was crowded to excess-not even standing room. The clock struck six at that moment the door behind the pulpit opened, ati the' Rev. Daniel Chapman was at once the object of every eye. The stillness was awful. To him the audience must either have been appaling in the extreme, or else highly stimulating; but this would depend on the susceptibility of his mental calibre, and the preparation he felt for meeting the requiremments of so trying an occasion. His appearance at this time was nervous bilious; head, somewhat small but compact ; hair, black; forehead, rather narrow but high; the coronal regions well developed; the organs of the inferior sentiments ~being small, they would not have force enough to give to the Intellect high emotional and thrilling power.

Never shall I forget the manner, intonation, and beautiful enunciation with which he uttered the words, " The first hymn on the paper" not to mention the exquisite style in which the hymn itself was read, so different from what we had been accustomed to hear. The time for prayer arrived. It was a splendid invocation to the Deity. He ranged through the universe, making planets and suns the mere footsteps to the throne of Godlightning, the gleam of his eye; thunder, the voice of his displeasure; and Christ, the all-in-all for humanity's rederaption. The service went on; the time for the sermon arrived; the book opened, and the text read was, " On his thigh and on his vestments shall be written-King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." The utterance of these words was transcendently exquisite, and an uncommon oration was delivered. In one part of a burst of eloquence, in which he quoted, for effect, his text in Greek, an old woman, roused to the top of her wonderment and the acme of her piety by these uncommon sounds, unconsciously exclaimed, "Glory! Hallelujah!" Daniel having, by his classical stratagem, put the crowning stone on the good lady's emotion.

For a time Daniel Chapman was very popular with the Wesleyans; his style, ornate language, and other pecularities drew overflowing congregations. Of his mental capacities verbal memory was the salient characteristic. Every other power was made the most of by the tenacity of his memory for words. Without this aid many of his faculties would have had only a sort of common-place manifestation. He had the power-whether naturally or acquired it is hard to say-of investing thoughts at the spur of the moment in language at once verbose, rotund, or singularly unique. It almost amounted to a natural aptitude to express thoughts in ornate language. This kind of style sounds grand, startles for a time, but at length ceases to have its attractionfreven on the public ear. As for committing it to the press, thinking it good English composition, nothing could be further from the standard of excellence. The writer was a student at the University of Edinburgh two or three years after Daniel Chapman left it. Although four years a student at the same alma mater, he never heard Daniel Chapman's name mentioned till within two months of his final graauation. Conversing one evening with the celebrated Professor Wilson (the Christopher North of Blackwood) on Sheffield, her poets and her scholars, Montgomery, Elliott, and Bailey having been on the tapis, he suddenly turned the subject and said, "By the bye, did you know a person called Daniel Chapman, who came from your town. He attended my moral philosophy class for a session. He was a man of some genius, but was sorely disappointed at not carrying off the moral philosophy gold medal; but his style of composition was peculiar and inflated; and as there were better men against whom he had to contend, he failed necessarily in what he aimed at. I was very sorry: he was an amiable man; but I have a duty to perform, and the best men alone carry off the highest honours. At that time," continued the Professor, "it was my custom to meet the students on the Saturday morning to hear them read the most brilliant passages of their prize essays. On one of these occasions I called upon Mr. Daniel Chapman to read his essay, or portions of it. What with the gravity of his manner, the peculiar stifiness of his utterance, and the grandiloquent language in which the essay was couched, it was not long before the whole class was convulsed with laughter - and laughed too, for I could not help it. never had so much difficulty in restoring the students to order; and, in fact, this could not he done, till I had called up another student to read hie essay."

Notwithstanding all this, Daniel Chapman was a remark. able man, and for him to do what he did redounded to his infinite credit. To be able to throw aside the Sheffield slang, and attain the polish and perfection that he did, shows a power of pemyerance truly Demosthenic. His enunciation, in spite of what the Scotch students might think, was highly nervous, and consequentty exquisitely distinct, and his pronuziciation of words, on the whole, beautiful in the extreme. The manner of his sounding the vowel I, and all words containing it, in any syllable, was worthy of all imitation, for it fell upon the ear with a peculiar fascination. With" little more of the anime in his composition-that which gifes the motive power to all the faculties-Daniel Chapman might have become the impassioned orator, and, at will, have " Ruled the fierce Democrapy." As it was, the impression he produced on all audiences was of no ordinary character.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF MR. HENRY PICKFORD.

He had been brought up at the Queen street Chapel, and was a member of Mr. Boden's church, and, for some time, his thoughts had been directed towards the work of the Christian ministry amongst the Independents. Certain circumstances, however, at length occurred that led him to examine the principles and formularies of the Established Church, and having by this means arrived at certain definite views and convictions, he joined that communion under the ministry of the late Rev. Thomas Best, M.A., at St. James's Church. He was thus lead to make the acquaintance of the Rev. T. D. Atkinson, at that time the esteemed incumbent of St. Philips. From the pen of that gentleman a short notice appeared, which, as a document written at the time, furnishes a clearer and more authentic account by a competent judge of his literary attainments than could now have been supplied from memory. The following is an extract:

    " This young man, though moving in the inferior walks of life, had, by persevering industry and diligence, attained to a considerable knowledge of various languages. The writer of this article well recollects the pleasing surprise which was created in his mind somc two years since by the following circumstance, which lead him to make further inquiries respecting him, and ever after to feel a lively interest about his progress and future prospects. Mr. Pickford happened to call upon him. Amongst other inquiries one was made whether he had ever read any of the Greek dramatic writers ? He replied in the negative; but wishing to ascertain his proficiency in the reading of Greek, a request was made that he would recite a few lines from Sophocles, which was lying on the table. He did so; not only correctly as it regarded the reading, but, after a little attention, rendered the passage into English in a manner very creditable to him. This circumstance is mentioned to show that the mind of this young man was of no ordinary kind, when, without friends, almost without assistance of any sort, and certainly without any regular or efficient education, in the midst too of a laborious daily occupation, he could attain to such a proficiency. He had acquired considerable knowledge of, the Latin language. The writer has now in his possession many of his translations from various authors, several books of Juvenal, the whole of Persius, &c. To Hebrew and to several of the Oriental languages he had paid much attention. Professor Lee (of Cambridge University), who had seen some of his translations, pronounced that they did him much credit. French, Italian, German, Spanish, also obtained a share of his attention. Under such circumstances a proposition was made, and through the kindness of friends. nearIy brought to a sueccessful conclusion, that he ~ should be sent to the Univorsity bf Cambridge, and put in a way of honourably distinguishing himself by the fair exercise of. those talents which God had bestowed upoil him."

One of the papers above referred to by Mr. Atkiwon as having been sent to Professor Lee, consisted of a translation into one of the Oriental languages of a well-known personification of one of the four Seasons, I think " Spring," by Mrs. Barbauld.

Henry Picklord was of a very amiable and cheerful disposition. Indeed, his exuberance of spirits, united with great fluency of speech, was apt, at seasons, to explode in uncontrollable fits of mirth, fun, and laughter. Some persons wore inclined to regard such outbursts as indicative and proof of real habitual levity of mind. Such an opinion would certainly be a great mistake. Such occasions were simply the outward manifestation of one of Nature's kindly gifts. In fact it acted as a safety-valve.

In July, 1830, seeing that his bodily and mental powers were kept at too great and constant a strain, I persuaded him, and he actually made arrangements, to accompany me to the Western coast, in order to enjoy what at the time he very much needed, an entire relaxation for some weeks.. Unfortunately for him the saw trade, which had been dull, became brisk. His employers, therefore, pressed him very hard and earnestly to do all the work he possibly could; and he, being anxious to get all the money he was able in prospect of the University, instead of going with me to the sea-side and inhaling the invigorating breezes of the ocean, stayed at home and exerted himself to the utmost; in one instance working all night, during a season of remarkably hot weather. He ere long found that he had to pay the penalty which physical laws exact on all, without distinction, who disregard or infringe them. That great exertion did him an irreparable injury, having eventually the effect of developing a latent tendency to consumption, so that from that time he only lived a year. Although during the succeeding months there were the usual alternations of hope and fear, cloud and sunshine, yet his earthly expectations were in reality blasted. His medical advisers were Dr. (afterwards Sir Arnold) Knight, and the late Mr. Wilson Overend; but from the first they gave to his parents but slender hopes as to his recovery.

It was my privilege to visit him during the whole course of his illness. He died in July, 1831, about 25 years of age. Amidst the eager and successful pursuit of literature he had not, neglected the "one thing needful"~." He was a young, intelligent, and sincere Christian, and purposed devoting his talents and his life to the service of his Lord and Master. Relying on Divine mercy through the atonement and intercession of Christ, his end was peace. Respecting him nothing can be more appropriate than the lines of Mrs. Hemans;