a clergyman in Cumberland. This lady occupied in Simeon's regard a place second only to that of Mrs. Dornford. To her he wrote that he should never lose the brotherly feelings with which her society and example had inspired him.
Among the cures which Simeon with his saintly benevolence undertook, was that of three contiguous villages a few miles out of Cambridge, named — Stapleford, Great Shelford and Little Shelford. Thomas Thomason took up his abode at Little Shelford, in a well-wooded spot, and invited Simeon to resort thither in summer time for change and quiet after the work in Cambridge. Fortunately he has left a brief, but concise description of the place: —
'A very pleasant spot, where there are two bridges — close to that is our mansion, with walks extending down to the river — a more beautiful place I never saw; it is the garden of Cambridgeshire. Simeon's room is on the ground floor which opens into the pleasure garden, where he can walk privately. One door of his room opens into my study.'
The house still stands, and can be identified, but its grounds exceed in beauty even the description given by Thomas Thomason. The plain of the river Cam lying to the south of Cambridge, though nowadays well cultivated, is bare and naked to a degree very unusual in England. In the midst of this plain, there is a very slight depression causing the Cam to form branches which rejoin the main stream as it were with loops. There is thus a 'meeting of the waters,' accounting for the two bridges. Former proprietors
