His own parish of Houghton, which included within it fourteen villages, however was the chief scene of his labours. It yielded him an ample income, far }loughton was then, as now, one of the richest benefices in the north. lie was himself a bachelor. In hospitality he was like what is said or fabled of the primitive bishops. Every fortnight, we are told, forty bushels of corn, twenty bushels of malt and a whole ox, were consumed in his house, besides ample supplies of provisions of many other kinds. A good portion of this hospitable provision was no doubt consumed by his parishioners, it being his custom, having "a large and wide parish and a great multitude of people, to keep a table for them every Sunday from Michaelmas to Easter." But the rectory-house was also open to all travellers, and so great was the reverence which surrounded the master, that his liberality was rarely abused; even the most wicked being awed by it.
His skill in according differences was scarcely lees famed than his hospitality and his preaching; and when to this we add that his benevolence took the wise direction of providing instruction for the young, and that he was assiduous in his attention to the sick and to the poor, we have touched upon all the points which can be prominent in the life of a good pastor. His zeal for education was manifested
at once in the education of the poor children in his parish in homely learning, and in patronising promising youth in their studies in the universities. Of these, his scholars, "he kept full four-and-twenty in his own house, the greater number being poor men's sons, upon whom he bestowed meat, drink, and cloth, and education in learning; " and out of these scholars, and from the grammar-school which be founded, we are told that "ho supplied the Church of England with great store of learned men." Of his scholars he always maintained at his own expense at least six at the universities, and when they had com pleted their studies charged himself with the care of their settlement. Bishop Carleton, who wrote his life, was one of these scholars. Bernard Gilpin was sometimes called the Father of the Poor, as well as the Apostle of the North.