ELIZABETH BUNYAN, of a good-tempered, affectionate disposition. His wife was a timid, delicate, young woman, loving and tender, her chief characteristic being her heart-felt devotion to her husband and his helpless little ones. They were respected and beloved by all their neigh- bours, as a truly religious, exemplary couple. No broad acres, or haughty mansion, or train of servi- tors, had honest John Bunyan ; he was but a poor travelling tinker, unlearned, rigidly plain in his manners and dress, and with nothing but the hard labours of his hands to preserve himself and his family from starvation. He wrought early and late with cheerfulness ; while his wife kept their home neat and tidy. At the risk of being tedious, it will be necessary to glance back on John Bunyan's past history, in order to render clear the motives and conduct of his wife, Elizabeth. He was born in this village of Elstow, in 1628, just twelve years after the death of Shakespeare. His father had been a tinker, at that period an hereditary class, which was held in no high estimation, for they were commonly gipsy- like vagrants and pilferers. Bunyan's father, how- ever, was sufficiently respectable to have a fixed residence ; and entertaining a laudable desire to make his boy a more creditable member of society than his companions, he had sent him to a village school, where the rudiments of education-reading and writing-were taught. When John Bunyan was about seventeen, all 6
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