unheard-of community. The Communion was to be open to all believers, without any restriction as to name or sect. Waterbaptism was to be left to the conviction of the individual; they were to love each other equally, whether they advocated baptism in infancy, or in riper years-whether they believed in either sprinkling or immersion. The Rev. John Gifford maintained that the only thing essential to church-fellowship was "UNION with CHRIST; this is the foundation of all saints' communion, and not any judgment about externals." These, then, were the principles upon which this church was formed, and such is the constitution of the church at the present day.

"Holy Mr. Gifford" the Evangelist of Bunyan's dream, died on the 21st of September, 1656.

He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Burton, who, like Mr. Gifford, was a baptist; but he died in June or July, 1660.

In October, 1663, the Rev. Samuel Fenn and the Rev. Benjamin Whiteman, both of whom were members of the church, and of the baptist denomination were ordained joint pastors.

In the year 1672, JOHN BUNYAN, brazier, and his friends, purchased a dilapidated BARN, with a piece of ground adjoining it, somewhere near the site of the present chapel, of Josias Ruffhead, for £50. This Barn, it is believed was the building for which the license was granted, and which was afterwards permanently occupied by this church as its place of meeting until the "Old Meeting" was erected; it was in fact the real "Bunyan Meeting." It is said to have been licensed (on the 9th of May, 1672), to be a place for the use of such as did not conform to the Church of England, who were of the persuasion commonly called Congregational; license was also given on the same day to "John Bunyon" to be a teacher of the congregation allowed to worship in that place, or in any other, licensed according to the Royal Declaration. And these, it is supposed, were the very first instances in which such licenses had been given to any Dissenter from the Established Church, in this country.

According to the stone situated in the porch of the present building, immediately opposite the large entrance, Whiteman, the colleague of Samuel Fenn, died in 1671. John Bunyan was appointed to occupy his place on the 21st October, in that year. This immortal man was born at Elstow, a neat little village about a mile distant from Bedford, in the "It is re1628. year

corded " says a recent writer, "and believed by a great many persons, and clung to by some few, with argumentative tenacity, that the cottage in which John Bunyan was born is still in existence. We visited the reputed spot, and took particular pains to ascertain the fact. A plot of ground of about two acres was pointed out to us on which some cottages once stood, in one of which he was born; but the precise spot on which that particular cottage stood is unknown. Doubtless, a house in which he resided in ripe manhood, is confounded with the one in which he was born, and thus the credulous visitor is imposed upon.” Hare, the author of a Memoir of John Bunyan, tells us that "the old cottage in which Bunyan first drew breath, was demolished some years ago."

Bunyan gives many particulars of his history and experience in his "Grace Abounding," and, as these facts are best told in his own plain and powerful language, we shall use his own words as much as possible.

"

"My descent " he tells us was of a low, inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families in the land;" certainly a tinker, and many of late have stated that they think it not improbable that he was of gipsy blood.

Johnson informs us that tinkers were so called "(from tink), because their way of proclaiming their trade is to beat a kettle, or because in their work they make a tinkling noise."

From Shakspeare we learn that a tinker is a mender of old brass or metal ware; a solderer and mender of old pots, pans, kettles, &c.

That Bunyan was a tinker there can be no doubt, for we have abundant evidence of that fact, as will be seen from the following pages. But the great question with which we have to deal, is this-Is it probable that Bunyan and his parents were gipsies? Before answering that question it will be advisable to see who the gipsies were or are, and why they were so called.

Gipsies (sometimes spelt Gypsies) is a corruption of Egyptian. On referring to the "Penny Cyclopædia" we find that Gipsies "is the name given in England to a wandering race of people who are found scattered over many countries in Europe, whither they migrated from the East about the beginning of the fifteenth century." Pasquier in his "Recherches Historiques,"

says "that they first appeared in l'aris in the character of penitents, or pilgrims, in August, 1427, in a troop of more than 100, under some chiefs who styled themselves Counts, and that they presented themselves as Christians driven out of Egypt by the Mussulmans. They obtained permission to remain in the kingdom; other troups followed, and they wandered about in all directions, unmolested for many years, committing petty depredations, and their women assuming the calling of fortune-tellers. In 1660, an ordinance of the states of Orleans enjoined all impostors and vagabonds styled Bohemians,' or Egyptians,' to quit the kingdom under pain of the galleys. The name of Bohemians given to them by the French, may be owing to the circumstance of some of them having come to France from Bohemia, for they are mentioned as having appeared in various parts of Germany previous to their entering France; others derive the word from Boëm,' an old French word signifying a sorcerer. (Moreri, art. Bohemiens; and Ducange's Glossary,' art. Egyptiaci.) The Germans gave them the name of 'Zigeuner,' or wanderers; the Dutch called them 'Heiden,' or heathens; the Danes and Swedes Tartars.' In Italy they are called Zingari;' in Turkey and the Levant Tchingenes;' in Spain they are called 'Gitanos;' in Hungary and Transylvania, where they are very numerous, they are called 'Pharaoh Nepek,' or, Pharaoh's people.' The notion of their being Egyptians is probably derived from the circumstance that many of them came immediately from Egypt into Europe, but it seems proved that they are not originally from that country, their appearance, manners, and language being totally different from those of either the Copts or Fellahs. There are many gipsies now in Egypt, but they are looked upon as strangers, as indeed they are everywhere else."

6

It is now generally believed that the gipsies migrated originally from India at the time of the great Mohammedan invasion of Timur Beg; that in their own country they belonged to one of the lowest castes, which resemble them in their appearance, habits, and especially in their fondness for carrion and other unclean food. Pottinger in his " Travels," saw some tribes resembling them in Beloochistan. There is a tribe near the mouths of the Indus called Tchinganes.

The gipsies, in their language, call themselves Sind; and