Cylchgronau Cymru

THE WELSH CALYINISTIC METHODIST RECORD. MAY, 1853. A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. R. BASSETT, VICAR OF COLWINSTONE, IN THE COUNTY OF GLAMORGAN. The subject of this memoir was born on the 7th day of November, 1777, at Siginstone, a small village, or hamlet, in the parish of Lantwit Major, in the county of Glamorgan. His parents were in a respectable position in society. His father lived upon his own patrimony, and was the occupier of a large farm in addition. The subject of this memoir was his second son. After some preliminary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, at a school in the old town of Lantwit Major, he was placed at an endowed Grammar School in the town of Cowbridge, then under the superintendence of the late Rev. Wm. Williams, D.D.—Young Bassett was very remarkable at school for moral habits, aptitude to learn, and diligence in study, so that he soon became a good classical scholar. He was always at the head of his class, and generally merited and received the approbation of his master on account of his quiet moral deportment and many other good qualities. He was the subject of early convictions as regards morality and respect for the ordi¬ nances of religion. It is understood that his mind was at a very early age strongly drawn into this direction by the following lines in the pious Cowper's poem on Alexander Selkirk,— " The sound of the Church-going Bell, These vallies and rocks never heard, Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Nor smiled when a Sabbath appeared." He was thus led to fall in with the Psalmist's train of thinking on this subject. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!" was a sentiment which was imprinted on his heart, and which the frivolities