JOHN BUNYAN'S HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20454, 4 January 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

JOHN BUNYAN'S HOME.

LINKS WITH OLDEN TIMES.

DRIVING BACK THE DANES.

LANDMARKS OF HISTORY.

Few of those who visited Cardington recently to see RlOl in the air could have realised on what classic ground they stood, or recognised that hero was the parish in which John Bunyn.n was born, says an (English paper. Harrowden, ono of tho thrco hamlets of the parish, is that collection of houses at tho foot of tho hill—tho deno or valley along which runs tho brook on whoso banks was the cottage in which tho great dreamer first saw light, and where he lived before migrating to Elstow. Tlio brook some two miles further on joins the Ouso at WilHngton, whero there occurred tho great clash with tho Danes during their attack on Bedford. Here their incursions eastwards were stayed, and they wore driven back, never to return. Over this brook, between Cardington and Bedford, is a bridge built by Smeaton, the engineer who first established a lighthouse on the dangerous Eddystono rock.

In Cardington there lived, and also owned much of the land, John Howard, tho prison reformer. The world still recognises him as tho great pioneer social philanthropist, and ho himself died from tho prison fever, which ho had done so much to allay, when engaged in similar scrvico at Kherson, in Russia. Inventor of the Plough.

Few, again, would havo recognised as they passed through another hamlet—Cotton End—tho end of tho Cots—that this place had played a big part in agricultural history. It was hero that Samuel Laurence Taylor, the village smith, had his forge,, and made inventions that still have influence on tho world's agriculture.

Taylor invented what lias since been practically the universal horse plough. Another of his inventions was the zigzag, or diamond harrow frame, still in universal use. This ho invented in "Wi 1 - stead Church one summer afternoon when the (Ironings of Iho parson made him drowsy, and caused him to seo the dia-mond-paned windows askance, whereby lines of light; as it were, rained down all parallel and equidistant, no line following another, suggesting the application of the harrow.

With Taylor worked .T. Hart, who afterwards tcok Iho Cople forge, a mile from Cardington Church, and invented the sickle-lined, tip-over horse-rake, now as universal in its use as Taylor's plough, and the parent of the modern sickle-lined cultivator. He invented many other valuable implements and made steam cultivation possible. At the great trial organised by Mr. Smith, of Woolston, when the fate of tho cultivator wa:s to be decided, and when all the great engineers being present, it was found that the cultivator could not bo turned at tho end of tho field to make the return journey without being thrown over backwards, Hart demonstrated, after all the others had failed, that by using a turn-table wheel the matter was quite simple.

Real Works ol Art. Apart from the individual valuo of each implement, tho inventions of theso two men helped indirectly to provide tho wealth that enabled some of the present great engineering firms to develop their businesses. The direct cash results of tho inventions did not exceed £2O, as in both cases tho men were " jumped " of their duo reward.. Before' they could collect tho necessary £2OO for a patent others snatched them, and tho world has never known what great work they did. Cardington Church, said to be the fourth on the site, carries on its walls a rare Saxon sundial. It also contains good sculptures by Chantry and Bacon. At Wood End Cope, near by the parish boundary, Butler wrote " Hudibras. At the rectory at Willington, until a few years ago, lived the Rev. A. Orlebar, the original cambatant of the never-to-be-for-gotten fight at liugby. In the orchard at the Abbey at Warden, tho adjoining parish to the south, grew the pears from which were made the Warden pies, celebrated in the song, " I am a Friar of Orders Grey," sold in tho streets of Bedford.

Thus, apart from Bedford, and tho part it has played in history, those who journey to Cardington can find, within a small radius, attractions of many kinds which, its own modestv, it has not bruited abroad. There are still a few who retain the vernacular which Bunyan spoko and heard, but which, like other rich vernaculars, has all but disappeared.