The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-04 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Stit,—Your journal of the 13th ult, has just fallen
into my hands by accident. I inn happy to read in it
an account of the defeat of the attempt made by the
Rev. Edward South Thurlow, Rector of Houghton-le-
Spring, in the county of Durham, to tax hip parishioners
by means of a Church-rate.
We have heard occasionally in our town of this rich
pluralist, for the parish of Estyn, or Queen's Hope,
one of the places which has the misfortune to have him
for a Rector, is only about six miles distant from this
place. You mention that this Rev. Divine was about
to migrate to the south ; he may have winced his flight
to Norwich Cathedral, of which he is a Pret'bcedary, but
he has not been seen in these parts, for his visits to this
neighbourhood are rare indeed. This gentleman had
the good fortune to be born the nephew of the late Lord
Chancellor Thurlow, of " pious and immortal memory,"
and one of the happy consequences to him was that,
about fitly years ago, he obtained, with o:her valuable
preferments, the Rectory of Estyn, or Queen's Hope,
in the county of Flint. Of course he visited his flack I
for the purpose of do.ng what is commonly called
" reading himself in," and I have learnt on inquiry he
visited them again about four years afterwards, but he
Itas never visited them once during the last forty six
'This absence had been often remarked upon by
persons in this neighbourhood, and it was supposed he
might have lost the power of moving himself; buts, Sir, I
have bad the good fortune to see him. At the last
contested election for the county of Flint, I saw a
" man of God," of more than usual rotundity,
making his way through the crowd to the polling
booth, supported on one side by an attorney, and
on the other by a farmer of the tithes of the neigh-
bourhood. He gave his name the Rev. Edward South
Thurlow, Rector of Estyn, or queen's Hope. I need
scarcely add that although for forty years he had never
visited his flock, he came then to record his vote for the
Tory candidate, Sir Stephen Glynne. His long ab-
sence may be, in part, accounted for when I mention
that there had been no contested election for the
county of Flint for eighty years previous, and so long
as his attorney and tithe-farmer were punctual in the
performance of their duties, he could have felt no wish
to visit Flintshire till his diocesan made a call upon
him to give his vote in support of our glorious Con-
stitution in Church and State. And a glorious Church
it has indeed been to the. Rev. Edward South Thilricw.
No wonder that at the last election the flag
of ,the
Tory candidate was seen hoisted above the cross on the
steeple of his church of Houghton-le-Spring. No
wonder that the flag of the Tory candidate, for whom
the Rev. Edward South Thurlow cime to vote, was
seen on the steeple of a parish church not far from this •
town. No wonder that all our Tory parsons should be
eager to show their attachment to a Church which has
such rewards to give to her priests.
In this parish we have continued to pay Church-rates,
because the parish church, which is a remarkably beau-
tiful structure, built in the time of Henry the Seventh,
has required considerable repairs. The opponents of
Church-rates could at any time, with a little exertion,
out-vote the other party. This our Vicar is aware of,
and is particularly anxious that nothing should be done
to excite an opposition to Church-rates. A ludicrous
instance of his anxiety on this point occurred not very
long ago. The parishioners determined that they would
adopt some modern clllection of Nal= and Hymns,
instead of the antiquated book so long in use. The
Vicar was requested to select that Collection which he
most approved. He found, after examining many vo-
lumes, that the Collection published by Messrs. J. R.
and C. Childs, of Bungay, was the best, but he stated
to a friend there was an objection in using a book which
bore the name of a person who had made himself so
conspicuous in his opposition to the Church. He
suggested that the difficulty might be obviated by
printing a new title page, and adding at the end of the
book two or three hymns, which might bear the name
of the Wrexham printer. The parishioners were sup-
plied with a large number of copies—on the last page
of each may be S3Ol the imprint, " Printed by T.
Painter, Wrexham," but if the curious should turn to
the last leaf but two, he will see the much-dreaded
name of Childs, of Bungay !! What a shallow pate
it must have been which produced such a device!
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
WILLIAM WHACKBOY.
Wrexham, October 1, 1839.

yearF.