One of the famous books of the last generation was that of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque.  If the Doctor had extended his journey as far as Maldon, in Essex, he would have been well rewarded for his pains.  Essex can boast of two towns set upon a hill.  One is Colchester, the other is Maldon; but as regards picturesqueness, Maldon bears away the palm.  Everywhere you have a fine view of the country—on one side the Chelmer reaching away to Chelmsford, on the other the Blackwater making its winding way to the German Ocean.  At one time this Blackwater was a source of trouble, as by means of it the Danes used to sail up, as it were, into the very bowels of the land, murdering, and plundering, and ravishing, and pillaging everywhere.  There is no fear of that now; it is a thing of the past.  Said a friend of mine the other day, as we stood admiring the peaceful prospect lying at our feet, “from my bedroom window I can see eight churches,” and, strict Noncon. as he is, I fancy the sight is pleasanter to him than that of Danish pirates landing from their ships to carry terror and devastation all over the land.  Maldon claims to be the oldest borough in Essex, and to have a history, if rather a dull one.  Up to the time of the last Reform Bill it returned two members, and as a matter of fact, the candidate who bribed most freely was the winning man.  p. 64Now-a-days it is only at an election that the passions of the people are aroused.  There is a rector who preaches in an ancient church, there is a Congregational chapel, which I am told is in a flourishing condition; there are Baptists and Wesleyans, and all work together pleasantly excepting when an election ensues.  Then the people are aroused, and bad passions come into play, and friends quarrel never to be friendly again, although the cynical observer might exclaim—

    Strange such difference there should be
    ’Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee.

There was a time when it was otherwise.  For instance, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we find the Maldon electors petitioning their representatives on their sufferings from Prelatic parsons.  “They are crueller,” so they affirm, “than the ostriches of the wilderness, and more unkind than the dragons.”  They ask to be relieved of the teaching of ungodly men such as have been “Popish priests, taylors, fletchers, serving-men, wheelwrights, and many of these alehouse haunters, dicers, quarrellers, whoremongers, and full of gross sins.”  Moved by this and similar appeals, the friends of the Puritans in the House of Commons endeavoured to obtain them some relief, but in vain—the Queen and her Bishops were of quite another way of thinking.  For taking their part the Maldon M.P. was committed to the Tower.  Matters became worse rather than better under James I., and it was not till the Civil War that a Commission was formed by Parliament for the purpose of investigating complaints against the existing ministry; and of that Commission Sir Henry Mildmay, M.P., for Maldon, was one.  Essex was full of Puritan divines.  One of these was Thomas Horrocks, the rector of Maldon, where, says Calamy, he was “a diligent and powerful preacher twelve years together, and was an instrument for converting many souls.”  After his ejectment he continued to preach, and was at length cast into the dungeon of the town, where he lay ten days.  A court being held in the town, he was accused of all sorts of crimes, and p. 65called by some of the aldermen heretic, schismatic, and traitor; and when he was pleading for himself, one of them rose from the bench and gave him a box on the ear, and beat off his satin cap.  At the time of the Revolution Mr. Joseph Billio came to Maldon to gather together under his ministry those whom Mr. Horrocks had prepared for separation.  On the site of the present meeting............