"They had their lodges in the wilderness,
And built them cells along the shadowy sea;
And there they dwelt with angels like a dream,
And filled the field of the evangelists
With thoughts as sweet as flowers."

He used to give most thrilling and grand descriptions of the storms of
the Atlantic, which broke upon the rocky coast with gigantic force, and
tell thrilling stories of shipwrecks; how he saved the lives of some of
the sailors, and how he recovered the bodies of others he could not
save. Then in the churchyard he would show you--there, a broken boat
turned over the resting-place of some; here, two oars set up crosswise
over several others; and in another part the figure-head of a ship, to
mark the spot where the body of a captain was buried.

The Vicarage house was as original as himself. Over the door was
inscribed--

"A house, a glebe, a pound a day;
A pleasant place to watch and pray.
Be true to Church, be kind to poor,
O minister, for evermore!"

The interior was furnished with old-fashioned heavy furniture and the
outside was conspicuous for its remarkable chimneys, which were finished
off as models of the towers of churches where he had served. The kitchen
chimney, which was oblong, perplexed him very much, till (as he said) "I
bethought me of my mother's tomb; and there it is, in its exact shape
and dimensions!"