Remembering this, I lifted Mr.Goodge's knocker, and presently found myself in conversation with that gentleman.
Whether unordained piety has a natural tendency to become greasy of aspect, and whether, among the many miracles vouchsafed to the amiable and really great Wesley, he received for his disciples of all time to come the gift of a miraculous straightness and lankiness of hair, I know not; but I do know that every Methodist parson I have had the honour to know has been of one pattern, and that Mr.Goodge is no exception to the rule.
I am bound to record that I found him a very civil person, quite willing to afford me any help in his power, and far more practical and business-like than the rector of Dewsdale.
It seems that the gift of tongues descended on the Goodges during the lifetime of John Wesley himself, and during the earlier part of that teacher's career.

It was a Goodge who preached in the draper's warehouse, and it was the edifying discourse of a Goodge which developed the piety of Miss Rebecca Caulfield, afterwards Mrs.Haygarth.
"That Goodge was my great-uncle," said the courteous Jonah, "and there was no one in Ullerton better acquainted with Rebecca Caulfield.

I've heard my grandmother talk of her many a time.

She used to send him poultry and garden-stuff from her house at Dewsdale, and at his instigation she contributed handsomely to the erection of the chapel in which it is my privilege to preach." I felt that I had struck upon a vein of gold.

Here was a sharp-witted, middle-aged man--not an ancient mariner, or a meandering imbecile--who could remember the talk of a grandmother who had known Matthew Haygarth's wife.