I have before me a reprint (Blackwell, Sheffield, 1829) of _The Holy Life
of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker, late Wife of A. Walker, D.D., Rector of Fyfield,
in Essex_, originally published by her husband in 1690. It is a beautiful
record of that sweet, simple, and earnest piety which characterised many of
the professors of religion in the seventeenth century. It is not, however,
the general character of the book, however excellent, but an incidental
allusion in the first section of it, that suggests this communication. The
good woman above named, and who was born in London in 1623, says, in her
Diary:
"My dear father was John Sadler, a very eminent citizen. He was born at
Stratford-upon-Avon, where his ancestors lived. My grandfather had a
good estate in and about the town. He was of a free and noble spirit,
which somewhat outreached his estate, but was not given to any
debauchery that I ever heard of. My father's mother was a very wise,
pious, and good woman, and lived and died a good Christian. My father
had no brother, but three sisters who were all eminently wise and good
women, especially his youngest sister."
It is, I confess, very agreeable to me, amidst the interest of association
created by the world-wide fame of the "Swan of Avon," to record this
pleasing tribute to the character of the _genius loci_ at so interesting a
period. In a passage on a subsequent page, Mrs. Walker, referring to some
spiritual troubles, says:
"My father's sister, my dear aunt Quiney, a gracious good woman, taking
notice of my dejected spirit, she waylaid me in my coming home from the
morning exercise then in our parish."
This was in London: but it is impossible to have read attentively some of
the minuter memorials of Shakspeare (_e.g._ Hunter's, Halliwell's, &c.)
without recognising in "Aunt Quiney" a collateral relationship to the
immortal bard himself. I am not aware that any Shakspearian reader of the
"NOTES AND QUERIES" will feel the slightest interest in this remote branch
of a genealogical tree, which seems to have borne "diverse manner of
fruits;" but assuredly the better portion of those who most justly admire
its exuberance of dramatic yield, will not disparage their taste should
they equally relish the evangelical flavour of its "holier products,"
exemplified in the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Walker.