In the third year of our stay in Swinton my sister's health began to cause us grave anxiety. The damp foggy atmosphere of Manchester increased the unfavourable symptoms to such an extent that the doctors urged the absolute necessity of removal to a sunnier climate. Under these circumstances the circuit authorities released Mr. Eccles from his engagement to remain six years and allowed him to leave at the end of the fourth year. Mr. Eccles accepted the invitation of the Guernsey (Channel Islands) circuit to become their minister.

On a glorious July day in 1907 we steamed into the harbour of St Peter Port. St Peter Port, the principal town in the island, is placed well; the land rises gently upwards from the sea showing the picturesque old town to great advantage, Almost at the highest point of this gradual ascent stood the Manse, our future home. "Sunrise" it is named, surely a fitting name for the last earthly home of one who always joyfully turned his face towards the sunlight, and by his radiant faith cheered many a gloomy soul, encouraging them as Stevenson puts it "to believe in the ultimate decency of things". Here it was that he was to spend the last five years of his life. Guernsey was wholly gracious in its dealings with my Father. The warm sunny climate suited his health, he had easy access to good libraries, he was able to accompany us in many delightful excursions to the numerous little bays and coves which make the island so charming a spot, and last but not least, the people are a warm hearted race and were able to appreciate him, and in many kindly ways helped to make his last days most cheery and bright. His friends of other days did not forget him and he formed new friendships which added to his quiet enjoyment of life.

In 1907 the late Sir William Hartley sent him a kindly letter and a copy of R. L. Stevenson's prayers. His letter of thanks reveals something of his nature:-

"Sunrise" Rouge Rue, Guernsey. C.O. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hartley, Permit me to thank you for the beautiful book containing prayers by Robert Louis Stevenson which you have sent me. The reading has been a blessing to me; I knew him through his books and have his "Merry Men" just waiting for my perusal. Many of them I have read since my retirement. I was also much impressed with his relations to the Rev. James Chalmers - Tamate. But this little book lets us see into the very springs of his life. Many know you mostly through your well-thought out and princely generosity, but others of us know that the Spirit of God has, because of your obedience to his call to temporal gifts of service, been visiting and will still more visit your hearts with deeper promptings. Since I have now entered into my 76th year you will, I am sure, not think me taking up too much of your time in writing you what is for me now a somewhat lengthy epistle. May you have as life steals on very much of that laughter and brightness of soul, that readiness to enter within the veil for still higher service when the Master's call comes! How often during the last six years have I felt how thin this veil between us and heaven is! With kind remembrances to you and your household, I am, Yours as ever, John Watson.

His friendship with Mr. Clement Gerrard, begun in Swinton, grew into something which he valued very much and which he would have been loth to lose. The difference in age was very great, on the one hand a young man hardly entered into manhood, and on the other hand, an old man drawing near to the end of his life; yet they had much in common, largely because my Father retained so much of the freshness of youth both in his spirit and in his outlook on life.

Mr. Gerrard has kept his letters and has kindly put them at my disposal. In reading them it is well to remember that they were written after a severe illness which, had he not had a wonderful constitution, would have utterly shattered his mental powers, and which did actually make sustained thought somewhat difficult. I omit parts which would have no general interest. The reader will discover that there are many references to books which he or Mr. Gerrard was reading.

Rouge Rue, Guernsey, C.O. October 25th 1908. My dear Clement, The following extract from Currie Martin's Commentary in the Century Bible will interest and encourage you to write letters:- "With the exception of personal intimacy there is probably no better way of knowing a man's real character and inmost dealings than through his letters. Conversation passes away, but letters abide. The most perfect letter writers are those who most closely approximate to their own style of speech. It is speech crystallized and refined." Again "The written word may lack somewhat in glow, but it gains in precision. It has not the sparkle of dialogue, but it has more continuity and conviction". The writer has in these words Paul specially in mind. "Passing from this to our own affairs, October 9th 1908 is the date of your last letter in which you say, "Wilhelm Meister is finished". The passage which suited your father is the very one I made use of in a missionary speech which I made on my return from 10 years' absence from home. This is it in extenso:-   "Keep not standing fixed and rooted, Briskly venture, briskly roam! Head and hand where'er you foot it, And stout heart are still at home, In each land the sun doth visit "We are gay what'er betide; To give space for wandering is it That the world was made so wide." I congratulate you on having mastered a really classical book. I have held, since I really began to think, that one of the best means of mental culture is to do this. What do you think of trying another work of supreme merit by a great Master? I mean Dante's "Divine Comedy" including the Inferno, Purgatorio, and the Paradiso. Gladstone placed it somewhere at the head of books, making it his favourite study. I have it as translated by Longfellow. It will suit your mind and deeply interest you. You mention several matters of interest in your last letter. Bert's entrance on his Medical course at Owen's. (author's footnote: Dr. Gerrard of Kasenga, South Central Africa.) It is the beginning of what will be, I am sure, a noble career of usefulness. The alterations in Manchester Road school and the taking up of a Gymnasium with enthusiasm are on the right lines. It is a Christian duty to provide in this way for your young people. You name "Frank Holmes". I have nothing but the most pleasurable remembrances of him. I am glad that he is doing so well. He was the monitor for the College on the week I became Principal. He gave me a real help at the start by what he requested for the Students. There is a paper of his on "Ruskin" in the last number of the Review. Please excuse this shabby ruled paper. It is, however, a great help to me - my right hand is so unsteady. Your answer will not be after my example, but in ampler form. My love to all and thanks for the kindness of you all to Nance, especially Winnie who had to keep her under discipline. She is now much improved in health. Yours as ever in true affection and confidence, John Watson.

"Sunrise" Rouge Rue, Guernsey. October 15th 1907. My dear Clement, Thanks for looking after Orr's book and sending it to Mr Swinden, and for the information you have sent me on local matters. There are many things to take part in, for which I should like to be in Manchester, and especially at Swinton, but seeing I cannot be in both places at one and the same time I prefer to escape the fogs of November, and to enjoy the grapes and other fruits of the earth which Guernsey yields so plentifully, Not that we have no rough weather here. There have been fogs on the sea and rough weather. We had last week a fearful gale, such as had not been witnessed for a couple of years, and on many days violent winds and heavy rain, Today we are having fine sunshine, which were you with us you would enjoy ......... It would be a pleasure to me to hear John Day Thompson when he visits Manchester Road. His preaching when I was at Blackpool helped me very much. The treatment which was meted out to him in connection with his Hartley Lecture was discreditable. I am glad, however, that he took it so manfully. We are still far from understanding what liberty of speech means and how much safer for a church it is to permit it as far as possible. I hope that after a time the lecture will be published ......

March 21st 1908. My dear Clement, My card was not a fair payment of my epistolary debt. Our folks having gone out for a ramble I have the house to myself, so I am moved in the spirit to write to you on a large sheet.   "How the subject theme may gang Let time and chance determine; It may turn out a song: (doubtful) It may turn out a sarmon" (more likely) This Saturday, March 21st, the first day of Spring, is with us perfect sunshine, trees flowering, buds bursting forth. I wonder what you are having. I get more and more in love with Guernsey. I feel so well on many days (I am really always in health) but some days I feel in such spirits, that were it not that the face which looks back to me from the looking glass is that of a fairly old man, I might imagine I had not attained to 75 years of life's experiences of human history. Carlyle is such a mass of research in "Frederick the Great" that I am giving him a rest - or myself. Imagine some six big volumes, crammed with learned, deep history. I am almost sticking in the third volume. The Librarian says there are six of them. As I have got through his father's history and all that went before in Prussian history when it was the electorate of Brandenberg, I am inclined to try something easier for a time. I wish that Dent and Company would bring it out in shilling volumes. Of course there would be a lot of them. Cromwell may be had in two or three volumes. I read it a good while ago. But enough of Carlyle you will say. Still he is a classic. Today I have stuck so far to the "Antiquary" and A. Trollope's "Barchester Towers" ..... Your letters are of interest to me. Not only do I have Manchester news but I esteem your friendship. Mr. McPhail will assure you that my interest in young men was not born yesterday. Age is not a matter of the almanack. It is a thing of thought and feeling."

A letter written on August 16th 1908 deals almost entirely, apart from a few remarks on the expected visits of the Revs. A. T. Guttery and A. Morton, with books.

...... "I must not forget that I am fast nearing my 76th birthday. But I am encouraged by the fact that there are great numbers of hale old people on this island. Turning to other matters of interest referred to in your letters. There is 1. As to literature "Wuthering Heights" is one of my favourites; but when I read it the first time my hair almost stood on end, so blood curdling and weird is the story. As to the subjects of authorship, the contention that the real author was C. Bronte is of the same order as that Bacon was the real author of Shakespeare's plays. ....... We may, however, dismiss that question and enjoy the novel since it is as you say "great and powerfully interesting". I shall give it another reading. Still Charlotte is after all the greatest of three wonderful sisters. You have read - have you? - her "Shirley" and "Jane Eyre". If not, read them as soon as you are able. The first of these gives one a good idea of a stirring time in English History of the 19th century. 2. I am still reading when I have time "Wilhelm Meister". I agree with you that "Wilhelm" is the figure of central interest. Then again this is another instance of a false view of the real situation. The true subject of study is "Goethe" himself, giving us under a literary veil a picture of himself. We must not forget that like Shakespeare, he is in literature one of the great men of the human race. "Wilhelm Meister" is Goethe whether the subordinate character is Werner, Sirlo or Philina, or any other male or female, valuable only in so far as they further this self portrayal ........

Rouge Rue. December 2nd. 1908. My dear Clement, By a letter from Stretford we learn that you are having dense fog, at any rate when Mrs Swinden wrote. There are seldom days on which we are without sunshine. Today we have it in brilliance. Manchester is for the young and strong a grand centre, for instance, for a lover of music and song. You enabled me to make out by imagination what you will think and feel when hearing the "Dream of Gerontius". Your letters are so constructed as to give me, in short space, a realistic concept or conception, of what you are doing and what is being done around you. Two of my teachers, in the Christian World and the "Primitive Methodist Leader" are J. B. and Dr. Peake respectively. Lest you have not noticed it yet I enclose the article "A Doctrine of Odours" by J. B. His papers should be read until they sink into you. They suggest so much. Now as to my reading of books - to mention the latest, "Forty Years in India" by Field Marshal General Roberts, in two large volumes. Most interesting to me, since I was contemporary with the Indian Mutiny and the Afghan War. "Egypt in Asia" a new book lent to me of entrancing interest, by one G. Cormack. It relates to pre-biblical times. Some parts are a revelation to me, especially in respect to the successive waves of Canaanite migrations to Syria and to what became Babylonia, and at a later time Assyria; the hordes that sent them out were mostly Arabian. The latest of these waves, perhaps, the Hebrew invasion, peopling the Southern part of Syria - a 7/6d book net. Then Dr Smith's Westminster New Testament on Matthew" 2/- nett. I read newspapers carefully, because in a few years hence, if I live, what I read will be past history. I am glad that books on historical or church struggles with which I kept myself acquainted when I was young or middle age consisted of events which gave rise to the struggles of to-day. You by so doing get the sense of historical continuity in the drama of life. But I still read books. Your reading is on the right lines. Bruce's books are beyond praise. Dr. Peake used to be a great admirer of Bruce. It was a treat to hear Dr. Bruce's lectures at the Oxford Summer School I attended. The two books you name are splendid. May I call your attention to what I think is the most helpful of all to a young preacher; you may have read it - "The Training of the Twelve". Be sure to study it. In literature "Lamb's Essays" are prime favourites. I need say nothing of Shakespeare. You ought to hear "Hamlet" or some other of Shakespeare's great plays by some great actors. I trust you do not think I am getting astray in my old age. The first time I heard "Hamlet" by Irving was an event in my life. The next time and only other time was by Forbes Robertson. You understand I have only seen the great plays. The habit of theatre going is not for us. But the stage has its work. Macready endeavoured to lift it. By the way, read out of "Heights" Library, "Macready's Reminiscences". You take it as you take Lamb as a literary work. Then tell me what you think of it ....... My paper is done. Regards to all. I seem to be getting two letters now for one. Never mind; I have all your letters. Somebody will incorporate them in your "Memoirs" some day it may be. Yours as ever, John Watson.

Guernsey. December 31st 08. Your letter arrived this morning - the morning of my 76th birthday. I am thankful that it finds me in health, in the exercise of all my faculties and in the full enjoyment of all life, more especially of the friendships of life. Jane Austen's "Emma" is just what I like, with some actors who appeal to my risible susceptibilities. "What do you say about old Mr. Woodhouse, the Eltons, Miss Bates, with her chatter? You should read all her five works, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Persuasion" - indeed the whole of them. Tell me in your next letter what you think of Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Collins in "Pride and Prejudice". Elizabeth is my favourite in this novel. The immortal Jane takes one out of the worry of modern life, shutting one up with some of the best of the middle class people of the early part of the century. Then as you say the art is perfect, the language choice, the humour delicate but biting. I am pleased with your literary estimates ..... What a dreadful calamity that of Messina is! I have passed through the Straits, when my family and I were coming from Australia. We had Messina in Sicily on our left and Reggio in Italy on our right, with Etna behind us. On one side is the fabled Charybdis, on the other the dogs of Scylla. In the Odyssey you have a description of the voyage after the siege of Troy, of Ulysses passing through these straits. The whole region has a fiery look. After leaving Etna you come to Stromboli, a small island which is always volcanic; then you come to Naples and Vesuvius. The "Daily News" remarks on the strange fact that people rebuild and resume again their old life, yet, it says in explanation, that they could not find more fertile and genial regions. In India as many, perhaps, die in one year by famine, and in South Africa people are called to bear all kinds of physical evils, from droughts, locusts etc. The day of these countries is yet to come. Our earth is after all still young. It will solidify in those volcanic regions, and in Africa etc. it will become more habitable through the hand of man, and the appliances of science. Well I must cease these prosings. God's ways in Providence are beyond our reach but love is supreme in His universe. "God's in His heaven, All's right with the world". I an reading with much profit J. D. Thompson's Hartley Lecture. I was so delighted with what I was reading on Sunday morning on Paul's appropriation of Greek ideas that I, on the spur of the moment, sent him a card expressing my sense of the great service he had rendered to the cause of truth. Of course I did not mean agreement with every detail of his work, but my admiration of the main lines of his argument, its essential trend of thought. Your remarks on Jane Austen's "Emma" are excellent. Regarding it as a work of art and given the presence in a book, of thought, is not its perfect art the secret of its literary immortality? Is it not, without mentioning the great masters of literature, the reason of, say, Oliver Goldsmith's abiding charm? Many a book of profound thought survives only on the secondhand bookstall while others are immortal by reason of their perfect form. Much of G. Eliot's will go out of existence, save two or three of her earliest works, but Jane Austen will be read, I opine, with as much delight a century hence as we have in reading her now. As to the substance of her books, if the only appeal to you is made by the amusing character of Emma you are far from grasping what you have read. Go on reading her. Immerse yourself in "Pride and Prejudice" and "Persuasion" and then tell me what you think. This is, as you say, a practical age, but it is also the age of the millionaire and the sweater, and if you read deeply you will find that they (the characters in her books) did something in her times. Mr. Knightly's farm did not suffer. His brother was a successful business man in London. Mr. Weston had made a competency in business. You admire only Mr. Knightly. But I find in Mrs. Weston and others, and in Emma herself, much that gives me pleasure. I could say much more. "Marcus Aurelius" was a great stoic, of noble character. I only know him from history in a very general way. That is a grand idea of his you give approximating to Christian truth. Kindest regards, J. Watson.

Guernsey. Feb. 28th. 1909 My dear Clement, We have had for the last two days a covering of snow, a very unusual thing on this island, as Victor Hugo notes in his "Toilers of the Sea" ..... I have been doing a good deal of reading, but public events are at present so full of interest that the newspapers take up most of my morning ..... I was reading this morning what he (J. D. Thompson) says on some phenomena John evidently refers to in the book of Revelation (pages 146 to 153 Hartley Lecture entitled "The Doctrine of Immortality" by J. D. Thompson), illustrating the two passages, "there shall be no night there" and "there shall be no more sea". I was much struck by the sonnet by Blanco White which he quoted. Take these words:-   "Who would have thought such darkness Lay concealed within thy beams O Sun !" and then the question:-   "Why do we then shun death with anxious strife! If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life?" Death will be for us a glorious unveiling of grander skies than earth can show. I heard the substance of his (J. D. T 's) remarks on "There shall be no more sea" from himself at Blackpool. He said then "What would Blackpool be without the sea?". Much more may we ask, "What would Guernsey be without the environing sea?". It is encouraging for us as good Primitive Methodists to find that we have such men as J. D. T. and more especially Dr. Peake, whose fine papers in the "Leader" and his book on "Christianity, its Nature and Truth" are so excellent. I trust both Mr. Thompson and Dr. Peake will give us many more books and that our people will read them. Our church will be richer when we get a literature of our own ..... I am, I am glad to say in very good health. The cold weather invigorates me; the rest are fairly well. Yours as ever, John Watson.

Although my Father did not attach undue importance to the fact of death, viewing it as "a covered way which opens into light", the passing of friends always moved him deeply and he showed the keenest sympathy for those bereft of loved ones.

March 30th 1909. ........... The gloomy matters to which you refer - the Stanley Explosion and Mr. Hind's death - stir one's soul deeply. As Editor of the Review I used to have frequent communications with him. He, Ritson, and I, all come from neighbouring valleys. He was a man of a fine nature. Nothing was grander than the way in which, though having every motive for desiring a longer life, he accepted the summons to leave this world. Well, this life cannot be all - it is not all. Our Lord has abolished death and brought immortality into the region of light ........ I must close as I am getting weary. Yours, as ever, John Watson.

The passage I give from the next letter recalls many happy evenings. One of my earliest recollections springs up into new life and I recall how I revelled in the reading of "She", sitting cosily snuggled up to my Father, and pleading vehemently with him to continue reading when he thought I was becoming too excited for one of my tender years. Then later he read the "Odyssey" and the "Iliad". I can imagine I can still hear his fine voice rolling out the openings lines of the "Iliad":-

"Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess, sing!"

My Mother often accused my Father of dearly loving the description of a fight !

April 16th 1909 ......... You have chosen well to read Thackeray and Browning. I need not speak of the last, but the first is one of the greatest, if not the greatest of Victorian novelists. When abroad I used to read him to my wife. In this way we went though all his best books, "Pendennis" with Costigan and his daughter are excellent. The best of his is "Esmond" and then "Vanity Fair". Thackeray used to make me now laugh and then almost cry. There is such a wonderful alternation of the comic and tragic. Dickens and he were both great, but I cannot but think that Thackeray will outlast his great compeer in the estimation of those who are able to judge. But why compare them? Both picture life inimitably - the one the life of the poor and neglected, the other the foibles, vanities and virtues of the middle class. Many things that Dickens caricatured, for instance, imprisonment for debt, have been done away, largely through him. You have characterised Thackeray most accurately. Try "Esmond", unless you have read it. It has like Scott a background of English history ......... I am done, both paper and strength, but I keep within safe bounds. With much loving regard, Yours as ever, John Watson.

June 29th 1909. ........... Your indulgence in criticism is inevitable from the fact that you think it is not wrong unless you become cynical and unkind in your expression of your critical findings. We must have regard to the feelings of those who are the subjects of our judgements. You are wrong in supposing I do not criticise. My critical faculty is at work every time I listen to a sermon. I sometimes perceive that the plan is wrong or the treatment inadequate. More frequently I am gratified by what I hear. I sometimes speak kindly to a local preacher when he has touched my head or heart beneficially. As to pointing out what I thought would be an improvement, it depends on who the preacher is, whether young or old. But every man should express his criticisms, kindly and wisely, or he comes to be looked upon as assuming or cynical. So much for criticism. I an inter alia reading "Extracts from the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry from 1783 to 1852". The volumes are large, taking a lot of reading; am only in the first volume. But my interest in it is growing. Her sister, also quite a young girl, travelled a great deal in Italy, Switzerland and France, in parts of Switzerland where our people are purposing to visit. Their father accompanied them. The book is of interest because well written and giving light on contemporary events ..... For many old books Candie library is of great service. Anent your estimate of Dr Forsyth you seem to have exemplified the idea of criticism very truly. I heard him twice, the first time at Nottingham during our conference there. He was preaching a missionary sermon in the Congregational Church; I was delighted with his deeply intellectual, yet most spiritual presentation of his topic. The impression remained with me. He is not, however, a preacher who possesses the qualities of a Jowett, capable of influencing all kinds of hearers; or a Campbell Morgan, though I have not heard the last myself, but he is a powerful all-round preacher. I suppose, Dr Forsyth requires a measure of both intellect and heart in his hearers. I say again I am much obliged for your criticism, and that you will do well to show it both in writing and conversation in the same style, in order to influence others for good, which should ever be our aim. Some critics pounce only on the preacher's or lecturer's weaknesses and faults as a gadfly on a sore place. Verily such men have their reward. With the measure they mete to others they have it meted to them again.

August 31st. 1909. ........ Your second letter concerning your tour on the Continent has given me the more joy because I have read so much about that town, Zurich, in the history of the Swiss Reformation by D'aubigné; was not Zwingli connected with Zurich? And then our people have just returned from Switzerland. To use their own words they were overwhelmed with the grandeur of what they saw ..... Such travel is an education. I wish I could go but it is too late. Nevertheless I have seen the growing nations of the South - South Africa and Australia - which are likely to play their part in the world, and have reason to be contented.

September 19th 1909. Your interesting letter giving me the concluding part of your Swiss tour would have been answered sooner, were it not that penmanship is so difficult to me. I am delighted with your letters. Referring to Zurich and Zwingli, I may say that one of the first papers I attempted to render into English in the "Ambassador", as the "Review" was then called, was on the great Swiss Reformer. He had more evangelical views than Luther, unfortunately he used the civil sword to maintain his principles, and he perished by the sword. In D'aubigné's history of the Reformation I made acquaintance with the men of the German as well as with those of the Swiss Reformation when I was quite young.

In July 1910 my marriage with the Rev. R. Cowie took place, our first circuit being Malmesbury with its fifteen churches! In the following September my father spent a few weeks with us and came again the following year. It had been his intention to stay a few months with us in 1911, but unfortunately (for us) Malmesbury did not suit him as well as Guernsey. In 1912 his health was becoming more uncertain, though his brave spirit was still bright and serene.

February 18th 1912. Coming to my health, I usually get a few hours of sleep, but lie awake for a good many hours. However, last night for the first time for a long time, I got eight hours' continuous sleep. ........... Leaving myself, of whom enough, let me say that we are going steadily on in church work. During last week there have been very fine revival meetings at Trochett, reports of which I get from our folks.

We have now come to the last letter of this series. It was written on July 16th 1912, and is partly a letter of congratulation on Mr. Gerrard's engagement.

Rouge Rue. Your engagement not only pleases me, that is too feeble a term, but overjoys me. You have attained now the stature of complete manhood, and are accepting its responsibility as such .... Before your letter came I had written a card. Among other things I advised you to be sure and read "The Philosophy of Change" by Bergson. You or Bert may have it. It is with J. B. in the "Christian World", the "Nation" (of which I read almost every item), and all in the "Saturday Westminster Gazette", my main reading, though by no means all. As for Bergson I must take him, on account of the weakness of the physical structure of my brain, in small doses. Now at the risk of being regarded as prolix and vain, I have given you some report of my mental doings. But I could add that I keep Jesus and His glory in the foreground, so that I can say of Him as Count Zinzendorf said long ago, "I have but one love and that is Thyself." So in the highest sense you, who have just chosen your love, I am sure can and do also say.