44 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
schoolmaster, who twice suffered imprisonment for his religious convictions. The poet s grandfather, Thomas Watts, sailed with Blake, and blew up his ship during the Dutch War in 1656, perishing along with her. The boy was taught Greek, Latin, and Hebrew by Mr. Pinhorn, Rector of All Saints, Southampton, and head master of the Grammar School. In 1690 he entered the Nonconformist Academy at Stoke Newington, kept by Rev. Thomas Rowe, who was also pastor of the Independent Church at Girdlers Hall. After about four years he returned home at the age of twenty, and spent two years in Southampton. Large part of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, published 1707-9, was written during these two years, and sung from manuscript at the Independent chapel. Behold the glories of the Lamb is said to have been his first effort. He complained to his father, one of the deacons at the meeting-house, of the jolting metre of the psalms sung and the dull hymns of William Barton, which long held the field because of the lack of good stuff, and was told somewhat sharply to produce something better. The result was seen next Sunday, when his first hymn was sung, with a little allusion to his reprover at the end
Prepare new honours for His name, And songs before unknown.
He was asked to write another hymn for the following week. For two years he produced a new one each Sunday. He was the first to understand the nature of the want in public worship, and led the way in providing for it. For six years he was tutor to Sir John Hartopp s son at Stoke Newington. He preached his first sermon when he was twenty- four, and in 1698 became assistant, and in 1702 pastor, of the famous Mark Lane Chapel, which Sir John Hartopp and other noted persons attended. His health soon began to fail, and in 1712 he became the guest of Sir Thomas Abney. In the Abney family he remained for thirty-six years, first at Theobalds, in Herts, a hunting lodge of James I, and then for thirteen years at Stoke Newington. Once when Lady Huntingdon called on him, he said, Madam, you have come to see me on a very remarkable day. This day thirty years I came hither to the house of my good friend, Sir Thomas, intending to spend but a week under his hospitable roof, and I have extended my visit to thirty odd years. Sir, said Lady Abney, what you term a long thirty years visit, I consider as the shortest visit my family ever received.
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