WESLEY AND HIS
PfiEACflEfiS:Their Conquest
o! Britain

G. HOLDEN PIKE

"Y^LE'^IMUVEI^SIIinf-

Gift of
JAMES R. JOY
i9»?

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Their Conquest of Britain

THE aiVES WORTH LIVING'
SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
Illustrated. Crown Zvo, cloth extra^
gilt edges, ^s. 6d. per Volume.

I. Leaders of Men. By H. A. Page, Author of
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^. Wise Words and Loving Deeds. By E.
CoNDER Gray. Eighth Edition.'
3. Master Missionaries. By A. H. Japp, LL.D.
F.R.S.E. Sixth Edition.
4. Labour and Victory. By A. H. Japp, LL.D.
Third Edition.
5. Heroic Adventure. Illustrated. Third
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7. Good Men and True. By A. H. Japp, LL.D
Second Edition.
8. Famous Musical Composers. By Lydia
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9. Oliver Cromwell and his Times. By G.
HoLDEN Pike. With Eight Illustrations, in
eluding the Bristol Portrait as Frontispiece.

London: T. FISHER UNWIN

.ini[\ \\ |.>i,|.:v Ai J III: .vi.i: oi 60.
From II paiiitiii!.' liy Natbiii.iel ll.iut-, K..\.
(I'/m./.. (,,, i|-„i;,-, ,¦ ,(- I',,,. I;, ,,l?.)

FToiiUt^jiiccc.

WESLEY AND
HIS PREACHERS
Their Conquest of Britain
By G. HOLDEN PIKE
AUTHOR OF 'OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS TIMES '
'FROM SLAVE TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT' ETC.

LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN
PHILADELPHIA: J. B, LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1903

CONTENTS

CHAP. I, SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
II, THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS ,
III, SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
IV, TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS : THE ROADS
V, SOME PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE ,
VI, THE COMMON PEOPLE , , . ,
VII, THE UPPER CLASSES , . . .
VIII, PRISONS AND PRISONERS
IX, BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
X, IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER .
XI. WESLEY IN IRELAND , , . ,
XII, Wesley's chapel and its associations
XIII, QUAKERS IN LONDON AND ELSEWHERE

PAGE I

5774
94
124145172
196
225
244 266
299

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

JOHN WESLEY AT THE AGE OF SIXTY-THREE . Frontispiece
From a Painting by Nathaniel Hone, R.A., in the
National Portrait GaUery.

WESLEY S BIRTHPLACE AT EPWORTH
THE FOUNDERY, MOORFIELDS
SUSANNAH WESLEY ,
From a Painting by J. W. L. Forster.
KINGSWOOD SCHOOL
MR, BLACKWELL'S HOUSE, LEWISHAM

GEORGE WHITEFIELD
From a Painting by John Woolaston, in the National
Portrait Gallerj-.
DR, JAMES HAMILTON, REV, JOHN WESLEY, AND REV.
JOSEPH COLE . , . . .
As seen walking in Edinburgh, 1790.
THE BURNING OF NEWGATE, 1780
JOHN WESLEY , , . , ,
From a Portrait painted in 1789 by William Hamilton,
R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery.
WESLEY OPENING CITY ROAD CHAPEL, NOV. I, I778
THE ROOM IN WHICH WESLEY DIED

Facing page I
2157 74
94
„ 124

145 172
225
266 299

4? " -

WESLEY
AND HIS PREACHERS
CHAPTER I
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
WHILE passing along Bishopsgate Street on
a summer day in the first year of the
twentieth century, I saw with some regret that the
Wesleyan Centenary Hall and Mission House had
been taken down. The building was, during its
not very long life of sixty years, a notable land
mark, reminding everyone who looked upon it of
the mighty conquests which had been made in
Britain during the Great Revival of the eighteenth
century. The centenary of Methodism was worthy of
being commemorated ; but on June 28, 1903,
will occur the bi-centenary of the birth of John
Wesley himself, a man who, during his long
working life, earned the distinction of being the
most successful of open-air preachers, as well as a
veritable apostle of the British Isles. Such an
A I

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
evangelist seemed to be raised up to continue the
work which Puritanism in the preceding century
had left unfinished; for, in the reaction of general
ungodliness and ignorance, the Gospel seemed to
have become as obsolete even in the churches as
it was in the homes of the people. Even old-time
Christian customs had been so far forgotten that
when reintroduced they were regarded as innova
tions. Thus open-air preaching, which had been one
of the commonplaces of primitive times, came to
be regarded as ' disorderly ' ; but when the clergy
were indifferent, and their churches were generally
unfrequented by the main part of the people, earnest
open-air preachers were urgently needed. Although
born to be a leader of men, it was still characteristic
of Wesley that he could follow the lead of another
when any advantage was to be gained. His
temperament and education both tended to bias
him against open-air preaching; but the striking
success which had attended Whitefield's experiment
killed such prejudice as remained against this
method of offering the Gospel to the common
people. In his own department Wesley might rank as
the greatest evangelist of his time, although he
came behind Whitefield as an orator, while he was
not so good a poet as his brother Charles. He
was a scholar, however, and was no mean literary
critic ; but he may not have been what would now
be called a theologian. He was no doubt a close
observer of everyday life ; and quite understood
that in gaining a knowledge of human nature he
2

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
must begin with himself. When past his sixtieth
year he mentions some of his own characteristics
as things for which he is unable to account. Thus
a tune at first hearing, a poem at first reading, a
picture at first seeing, did not afford pleasure, as
was the case afterwards when the merits were more
fully realised. This applied ' in all the objects of
imagination,' but only to a certain point ; ' for when
I am too much acquainted, it is no longer pleasing.'
Nothing short of shrewd and constant observation
enabled one imperfectly to understand ' the machine
which we carry about with us.'
Wesley was pre-eminently a man of his times,
the eighteenth century ; but in style as a preacher
and writer he was in advance of that artificial age.
While he had sufiicient courage to regard ' Mr.
Pope ' as a true poet, he was no more captivated by
the artificial style and ' classic ' rhetoric of the time
than some other good writers. ' I do not admire
that florid way of writing,' he remarks, in regard to
one who wrote in the conventional style. ' Good
sense does not need to be so studiously adorned.
I love St. John's style as well as matter,' It
would have been well for themselves, and no small
gain to their hearers and readers, if other con
temporary divines had shown enough of common
sense to borrow their style from the Authorised
Version of the Bible rather than from poets who
were unacquainted with nature and rhetorical
essayists and historians. The condition of the
country was indeed low when in the early days of
the Revival the Scriptures would be spoken of as
3

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
a book which contained ' a good deal of morality
and good sense ' ; and when persons who supposed
themselves to be educated had not enough of
discernment to see that the Book was the most
perfect standard of the language which time would
ever give the nation. ' A noble earl ' even under
took to improve the translation ; and a prevailing
opinion was that this ' would meet with universal
approbation.' Hence we see that a great leader
in a new reformation, like Wesley, had to correct
popular follies as well as to call the people to
repentance. In this, as well as in regard to many
other of his characteristics, Wesley was far, indeed,
in advance of his time.
Too often long sermons have come from dull
preachers. Wesley was not disposed to prolong a
discourse unless something really needed to be
said ; and in that case he would venture to hold
on for an hour or more. In this, as well as in
numberless other instances, he showed that rare
tact in adapting his methods to circumstances
which may come of rare genius. To his keen eye
cranks, or mere eccentricities, did not pass for men
of original mettle. When he once heard of the
artless confession of ' a good man ' that he burned
his MSS, once in seven years because it would be
discreditable not to do better as he grew older,
Wesley was ingenuous enough to say that he had
found it otherwise. At the age of seventy-five he
was not conscious of capacity to work better than
he had done forty years previously. Through
wider reading he had more knowledge of history
4

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
and of natural philosophy, but there was no
addition to acquirements in divinity — ' Forty years
ago I knew and preached every Christian doctrine
which I preach now.' Realising that he was a
messenger to the multitude, he liked best to have
the common people for a following. Whenever
he associated with fashionable people — as, for
example, when he attended a concert which had
been arranged by his nephews — he felt so much
out of his element that he was glad to retire. His
great tact and readiness of speech enabled him to
adapt the tone of his message to the needs of any
place or of any class he visited.
It may be taken for granted that no evangelist,
either before or since Wesley's time, ever so
thoroughly traversed these three kingdoms to
become so well acquainted with the characteristics
of the different towns. How great was the con
trast between North and South. Some will re
member that in his early days, even C. H.
Spurgeon did not succeed with the people of the
far north. It was similar in the case of Wesley.
' I am not a preacher to the people of Edinburgh,'
he once remarked ; and some time later he added,
¦ I almost wonder at myself. I seldom speak any
where so roughly as in Scotland.'
Neither as a preacher nor as a worker would
Wesley have presumed to pose as a model to his
followers ; but at the same time there was not one
of his helpers who was competent to keep pace
with him. ' My study hours ' in Wesley's case
were over twelve hours a day ; and he mentioned
S

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the obvious fact — ' I cannot write longer in a day
without hurting my eyes.' It is so far reassuring
that such a worker put some restriction on his
powers of endurance. At the same time he had
a discerning eye to see where the shoe pinched
whenever any irregularity occurred. Thus 'long
and loud preaching ' meant early disablement, and
all were warned against habits which wore out the
strength without giving back any corresponding
advantages. His prescription for 'nervous dis
orders' — no supper save 'a little milk or water
gruel ' — might not be less effective now than it was
of old. One difficult thing was to maintain the
approved Methodist custom of preaching at 5 a,m,,
or an hour earlier on festival days ! Those who
lodged at headquarters in the City Road were
required to retire to bed at nine. There must be
no excuse for late rising !
One of Wesley's lovable characteristics was that
in controversy he never gave opponents cause to
complain of rough language or rudeness. Those
who opposed or wrote against him ranged from
gross and profane men of the street to bishops and
squires. At times he might have cause to com
plain even of some whom he would have been glad
to reckon among allies. Thus the outlook at
Grimsby in 1779 provoked him to say: 'Those
striplings who call themselves Lady Huntingdon's
preachers have greatly hindered the work of God,'
Then at Congleton, three years later : ' I found
the Calvinists were just breaking in and making
havoc of the flock.' What was regarded as lack
6

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
of brotherly love affected him more than grosser
things from the common enemy. A thoroughly
diabolical case occurred at Bridlington in 1779:
' A gentleman of the town had a favourite
daughter, whom he set up in a milliner's shop.
Some time after she had a concern for her soul,
and believed it to be her duty to enter into the
Society, Upon this her good father forbade her
his house ; demanding all the money he had laid
out ; and required her instantly to sell all her
goods in order to make the payment 1 '
It is no less suggestive than interesting to take
note of what Wesley thought about some of his
more eminent contemporaries. He refers to
Smollett as ' this frontless man, blind and bold,'
who stumbled on ' without the least shadow of
truth.' Baron Swedenborg was originally a man of
piety, of a strong understanding and most lively
imagination ; but through his mind being affected
by fever in middle age his later works were ' a
madman's dreams,' Although Wesley's methods
of working, his notions of things, and his literary
style were so different. Dr. Johnson was regarded
as a 'great man,' who in 1784 was 'sinking into
the grave by a gentle decay,' He may have had
some sympathy with the poet Shenstone, who,
disappointed with the world and his friends in it,
' died at forty-eight, probably of a broken heart,'
Pascal Paoli, who no doubt was a hero to all his
fellow members of the Literary Club, was 'the
modern Hannibal , . . probably the most accom
plished General that is now in the world,' Black-
7

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
burne. Archdeacon of Cleveland, had fathered
certain liberal opinions, and it was even thought
that he might accept the pastorate of a certain
great Nonconformist Church in London. Although
two years younger than Wesley, he was at eighty-
four ' blind, deaf, and lame ' with age. What was
still worse, ' he durst not ask me to preach in his
church " for fear somebody should be offended." '
Howard, as a philanthropist, was thought to be
' one of the greatest men in Europe ' ; one whom
the power of God alone could sustain in his
hazardous employment. Whitefield was also
one of those who wore out fast; for while
Wesley's powers were still undiminished. Lady
Huntingdon's chaplain 'seemed to be an old,
old man, being fairly worn out in his Master's
service, though he has hardly seen fifty years.'
Wesley was as little pleased with Jean Jacques
Rousseau's work on Education as the Archbishop
of Paris, who condemned it, or the French Parlia
ment, which ordered the book to be burned, e.g.
' Sure a more conceited coxcomb never saw the
sun. How amazingly full of himself. Whatever
he speaks he pronounces as an oracle,' Elsewhere
he reproves a Scottish divine for admiring one
who was 'shallow, but a supercilious infidel two
degrees below Voltaire,' But small hope was
harboured of convincing such by argument; and
hence 'that fine book,' Butler's Analogy, was apt
to fail in its mission — ' Freethinkers, so-called,
are seldom close thinkers. They will not be at
the pains of reading such a book as this.' His

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
reading over Dr. Erskine's work on Saving Faith
naturally suggested 'how marvellously small is
the difference between us,' Dr, Robertson's
Charles V. was regarded as dry and verbose,
and otherwise disappointing. ' It might as well
be called the History of Alexander the Great.'
The narratives of Captain Cook were supposed to
have hardly more of truth in them than Robinson
Crttsoe. If Lord Herbert of Cherbury was the
father of English Deism, he was also a wild
knight-errant, compared with whom ' Don Quixote
was a sober man.' Leibnitz was a poor writer,
'haughty, self-conceited, sour, impatient of con
tradiction,' Sterne's Sentimental fourney was ' not
sense . , . One fool makes many.' Swift's Letters
were rated at their true value — 'Was ever such
trash palmed upon the world under the name of
a great man?' Lord Chesterfield was 'a man
of much wit, middling sense, and some learning ' ;
but morally he was degraded, while he seemed
to be an unbeliever. While he was nothing
more than a minute philosopher, David Hume
was 'the most insolent despiser of truth and
virtue that ever appeared in the world.' Among
Nonconformists in those days, Dr, Richard Price
was a leading patriot ; but Wesley thought
that if they were adopted, his principles would
bring in a reign of anarchy. Rowland Hill lived
to regret the violent language he had used in
controversy. After reading a pamphlet by the
future pastor of Surrey Chapel, published in 1777,
Wesley said that, ' compared with him Mr. Toplady
9

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
himself is a very civil, fair-spoken gentleman.'
Wesley had a better opinion of David Garrick
than others of his contemporaries. Thus when
an anecdote became current to the effect that
David had thrown a copy of Wesley's Hymns
into the sea, Wesley refused to believe such a
report, and remarked : ' He (Garrick) knew my
brother well ; and he knew him to be not only far
superior in learning, but in poetry, to Mr, Thomson
and all his theatrical writers put together. None
of them can equal him, either in strong, nervous
sense, or purity and elegance of language. The
musical compositions of his sons are not more
excellent than the poetical ones of their father.'
In political sympathies Wesley's Diary shows
him to have been a strong Royalist, who regarded
with much favour each of the three Georges under
whom he lived, while his hereditary bias would be
in favour of the Stuarts, He believed Mary Queen
of Scots to have been an injured woman, but
judged more impartially of those who came after.
Thus James I, was 'a covetous and bloodthirsty
tyrant,' who in the Gowrie conspiracy was a
murderer and a robber. He believed that the
chief offence which cost Charles I. his head was
'his persecuting the real Christians,' At the
time of George ll,'s death, Wesley asked, ' When
will England have a better prince?' Some time
before the king passed away Wesley had seen
him in the House of Lords : ' His brow was much
furrowed with age, and quite clouded with care. . , ,
A blanket of ermine round his shoulders, so heavy
IO

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
and burdensome he could scarce move under it.
An huge heap of borrowed hair with a few plates of
gold and glittering stars upon his head ! ' Wesley
fully sympathised with the king and his ministers
in that disastrous war which resulted in the
loss of the American Colonies, He once heard
George III. speak from the throne in the House
of Lords : ' How agreeably was I surprised. He
pronounced every word with exact propriety. I
much doubt whether there be any other king in
Europe that is so just and natural a speaker.'
As compared with their head, however, the peers
were a degenerate race : ' I spent two or three
hours in the House of Lords, I had frequently
heard that this was the most venerable assembly
in Europe, But how was I disappointed ! What
is a lord but a sinner born to die ? '
In the best sense Wesley was an interested
sightseer, whether in London or during his travels
over the British Isles ; he was a close observer
of nature; he studied men and women. In
his old age he visited the Museum in Spring
Gardens, which contained models in wax of several
eighteenth-century monarchs. He speaks of these
like a shrewd reader of character. At that time
Frederick the Great of Prussia had only recently
died ; the explosion of the French Revolution was
only a few months ahead. Of Pope Clement XIV.
Wesley remarks, in his characteristic way, ' Strange
that such a man should be suffered to sit two years
in the Papal chair!' It was Clement who sup
pressed the Jesuits as a danger no longer to be
II

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
tolerated ; and since his death in 1775 he has
generally been regarded as one of the best of the
popes. Wesley naturally thought that such a man
*was too good for his office. As many supposed,
/ Clement died of poison ; and whether or no he
I fell a victim to Jesuitical intrigue, it was natural
1 that the popular inference should be that he
( really did do so. Of others, Wesley says :
¦ ' Sense and majesty appear in the King of
¦• Spain; dulness and sottishness in the King of
I France; infernal subtlety in the late King of
i Prussia (as well as in the skeleton Voltaire) ;
' calmness and humanity in the Emperor and King
i of Portugal ; exquisite stupidity in the Prince of
{ Orange ; and amazing coarseness, with everything
that is unamiable, in the Czarina.'
Many examples might be given of the interest
which Wesley showed in visiting ancient sites and
scenes, and of his correct realisation of their
peculiar features. He was also boldly outspoken
enough to say what he really thought even of the
greatest masters, not excepting Raphael. Thus,
while he was a great painter, the Italian artist
was but a poor designer ; so that after seeing ' the
celebrated cartoons,' Wesley remarked, ' O that
so fine a painter should be utterly devoid of
common sense.' What was meant was, that the
figures were not natural. As a home of the
Cecils, Hatfield House was a grand place, but with
the exception of the pictures the furniture was
nothing more than 'just such as I should expect in
a gentleman's house of five hundred a year,'
12

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
Wesley's mastery of Latin enabled him to
converse with foreign scholars whom he occasion
ally met. He had a keen eye for observing
national manners and customs in countries through
which he passed, £md he has something of Boswell's
charm in describing them. In 1786, at the age of
eighty-three, he travelled through Holland, and
refers to the mode of serving supper in a Christian
household at Haerlem : ' The manner was peculiar :
no tablecloth was used, but plates, with knives
and forks and napkins to each person, and fifteen
or sixteen small ones, on which were bread, butter,
cheese, slices of hung beef, cakes, pancakes, and
fruits of various kinds. To these were added
music upon an excellent organ, one of the sweetest
tones I ever heard.' Another word-picture con
cerning repasts relates to a dinner at the palace of
the Bishop of Exeter in 1782: 'I could not but
observe: i. The lovely situation of the palace,
covered with trees, and as rural a retreat and as
retired as if it was quite in the country. 2. The
plainness of the furniture, not costly or showy, but
just fit for a Christian Bishop. 3. The dinner,
sufficient, but not redundant ; plain and good, but
not delicate. 4. The propriety of the company —
five clergymen and four of the aldermen ; and,
5. The genuine unaffected courtesy of the Bishop,
who I hope will be a blessing to his whole
diocese.' Wesley is also quite as charmingly
communicative when describing how he dined with
the Bishop of Londonderry at Whitsuntide 1775 :
•The Bishop invited me to dinner, and told me,
13

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
" I know you do not love our hours, and will
therefore order dinner to be on table between
two and three o'clock." We had a piece of
boiled beef and an English pudding. This is
true good breeding. The Bishop is entirely easy
and unaffected in his whole behaviour, exemplary
in all parts of public worship and plenteous in
good works.'
Certain of Wesley's more distinguishing char
acteristics may be briefly mentioned. While he
belonged to a family which showed some musical
genius, he is found frequently disapproving of the
common methods of singing. He liked oratorios ;
and even thought that the performance of ' Ruth '
might 'possibly make an impression even upon
rich and honourable sinners.' He believed in the
reality of apparitions and witchcraft; he gives
what look like striking instances of supernatural
appearances, and in connection with the other he
says : ' I cannot give up to all the Deists in Great
Britain the existence of witchcraft till I give up
the credit of all history, sacred and profane.'
Modern readers will not be surprised that on
account of such another ingenuous statement in
regard to astronomy he was called to account in
'a warm letter 'in the London Magazine o{ iy6<,.
All strictures were as water on a duck's back,
however ; they produced no impression. ' I cannot
help it ' was his equally ingenuous reply. ' Nay,
the more I consider the more my doubts increase.
So that at present I doubt whether any man on
earth knows either the distance or magnitude, I
14

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
will not say of a fixed star, but of Saturn or
Jupiter ; yea, of the sun or moon,'
On the other hand, he had that unbounded faith
in the health-restoring powers of electricity which
the additional experience of more than a century
has not proved to have been well founded. To
Wesley electricity was nothing less than 'a
thousand medicines in one ' ; it was ' the most
efficacious medicine in nervous disorders of any
kind which has ever yet been discovered,' Still,
temperance was more than anything else conducive
to health. Merely to say that he was temperate
in all things might conceal the fact that he was
abstemious to a degree that might be called
fastidious, but which no doubt had much to do
with the perfect health he enjoyed right on to old
age. He would seem to reprove himself even
when he had kept on the safe side of self-indulg
ence. On leaving one household in which he was
made much of, he remarks : ' I can trust myself
about once a year in this warm sunshine ; but not
much oftener, or I should melt away.'
At sixty years of age he had outgrown his
hereditary High Church prejudices. He was hard-
driven, indeed, before he could be reconciled to the
practice of open-air preaching ; but so completely
had his views changed that he held that the
holding of divine service in a building was
sufficient consecration. 'This is the only con
secration of any church in Great Britain which is
necessary, or even lawful,' he said. ' It is true,
Archbishop Laud composed a form of consecration,
15

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
but it was never allowed, much less established, in
England. Let this be remembered by all who talk
so idly of preaching in unconsecrated places.' It
may be that Wesley held similar views twenty or
thirty years previously ; but when, being past
middle age, he still preached eight hundred sermons
a year, he cared little about the ecclesiastical
character of the building in which he ministered,
or whether he had a building at all. It seems to
have been characteristic of Wesley that preaching
twice a day, with extra duty on Sundays, had a
bracing effect upon him. It was otherwise with
Whitefield. The experience of both preachers
varied as they grew older. Instead of churches
being closed against them, there were more
invitations to preach than could be accepted. The
even temper of Wesley served him under all trials.
We see this on all occasions. The refusal to allow
of his preaching in Haworth Church was as keenly
felt as his being denied the Lord's Supper in his
father's parish of Epworth.
To this acute observer of human nature the
great variety of persons he met with not only
served to widen his own knowledge, but to show
to advantage his own characteristics. Thus at
Kirton in the Midlands, in 1780, a ' very serious
congregation ' still contained ' one, something like
a gentleman, with his hat on even at prayer,'
Then an outdoor service is disturbed by a noisy
drunkard ; but Wesley was too much of a
humorist not to be amused when the man's wife
' seized him by the collar, gave him two or three
16

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
hearty boxes on the ears, and dragged him away
like a calf.' His meekness and long-suffering
were perhaps more apparent than at any other
time when he was subjected to abuse in the street
from individual opponents. On the other hand,
gratitude was sometimes stimulated by more
cheering adventures. On one occasion ' a white-
headed old man,' encountered on the road in
Cornwall, in 1782, asked, 'Sir, do you not know
me ? ' ' No.' ' My father, my father, I am poor
John Trembath ! ' He had been converted ; he
had prospered ; he was happier than he had ever
before been in his life !
A very notable characteristic of Wesley was
seen in the sympathy he felt for all repentant
sinners. While this was well known and appreci
ated by large numbers of the more humble sort,
we find that others of a higher grade valued his
services and wished him to visit them. Both the
judicially murdered Dr. William Dodd, and Lord
George Gordon of the No Popery Riots, came in
for a share of attention. The former was found
to be in a most desirable frame of mind ; the
nobleman was well acquainted with Scripture,
while his apartment in the Tower was well-
furnished with other books.
Because Dr. Johnson's sight was too defective to
enable him to see a landscape, many affected
people may have thought it gave them a ' classical '
air to ignore the beauties of nature. It was quite
otherwise with Wesley, however ; neither in writing
nor speaking did he ever yield to the false taste of
B 17

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the age. Then, as regards nature, in his constant
travels how captivated he often was with a more
than usually picturesque spot ; but although he
would sometimes come to a place where he would
fain have stayed if earthly enjoyment had been
his object, his best-loved retreat was Lewisham,
although there were other quiet havens where he
was equally welcome. In his later years he found
a pleasantly situated house at Hinxworth in
Hertfordshire, where leading off from the garden
was 'a shady walk around the neighbouring
meadows.' The prince of English itinerant
preachers was wont to take notice of such desirable
retreats, and what he said of one he really thought
of many others : ' Gladly would I repose awhile
here. But repose is not for me in this world.' For
such a retreat as that of his friend's house at
Lewisham he would contract strong affection, so
that a final farewell would be quite a pathetic
experience. Thus, in regard to the place just
mentioned we find this record: 'We took one
more walk round the garden and meadow, which
he took so much pains to improve. Upwards of
forty years this has been my place of retirement,
when I could spare two or three days from
London.' One enviable characteristic was the ability to
remain undisturbed in all kinds of experience.
If he suffered loss through the death of friends or
in temporal things, he recognised the fact that all
things were ordered by God for the best. When
false reports were afloat, at times reflecting on his
i8

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
moral character, he could also preserve an even
temperament, because even his reputation was in
God's keeping. Thus it was commonly said that
Wesley received a large pension for having defended
the Government policy in the American War !
Wesley was able to correct the popular notion
that nightingales would not live in cages ; but it
would have been more satisfactory had he protested
against the cruelty of confining such songsters of
the open air in barred prisons. When, however,
any timely protest was made against certain usages
or bad customs, they were sure to be outspoken.
Thus, to Wesley, kneeling was the only allowable
attitude at prayer ; and after-service talk in church
was a habit to be condemned. To him Methodism
was the acme of Christian liberty; but when the
members prospered in the world, the dangers of
wealth had more terrors to their leader than the
trials of adversity. Want of faith in the medical
men of the time was also characteristic of Wesley ;
the failure of their modes of treatment were too
apparent not to be noticed. Still it was evident
that while he could correct mistakes or omissions
in some directions, he was himself too credulous in
others. In some so-called Medical Essays three
persons were mentioned who had been cured of
dropsy, and all by truly extraordinary means :
' One by drinking six quarts a day of cold water ;
the second by drinking two or three gallons of new
cider; the third by drinking a gallon or two of
small beer, and the same quantity of butter-milk ! '
One who believed in such a story might well ask,
19

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
' What are we doing in keeping dropsical persons
from small drink ? ' It was ' the same as keeping
persons in the small-pox from air.' In regard to
the treatment of the last-named disease, Wesley
showed more knowledge than the ordinary surgeon
of his day ; and in proof we need only quote one
of his adventures in January 1773: 'I called
where a child was dying of the small-pox, and
rescued her from death and doctors, who were
giving her saffron, etc., to drive them out ! Can
anyone be so ignorant still?' In another ease a
patient was advised not to take any more of the
prescribed medicine. In one case, in which no
medicine of any kind took effect, it was feared that
the patient had ' sinned a sin unto death ! '
The facts and incidents which have been referred
to in some measure show John Wesley as he was
by revealing his characteristics. We realise that
he was a man before his time in all things save
politics, otherwise, that emphatically he represents
the best side of life in the eighteenth century. As
an itinerant preacher of the Word, he may well rank
as a chief apostle of England ; for certainly no
other Englishman either before or after him has
done so extensive or comprehensive a work in
organising and carrying out a plan for carrying the
Gospel to the people of these three kingdoms.

20

CHAPTER II
THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
ALTHOUGH a few distinguished men, of
whom Wesley was the chief, were leaders
during the Revival of the eighteenth century, it
will, of course, always be borne in mind that the
general results would have fallen far short of what
they actually were if there had not been available
a band of earnest itinerant preachers. The en
thusiasm of these men, their Scripture knowledge,
and, above all, their supreme faith in the adequacy
of the Gospel to meet the needs of man and
of the times, enabled them to do service which
may be said to abide until this day, notwith
standing that the majority were, in a very literal
sense, what Wesley calls ' unlettered men,' They
were worthy of their leaders and of the cause ; and
brave as they were, they well knew that those
above them did not ask that perils and incon
venience should be risked which they were
themselves not willing to share. The rank and
file caught the spirit of their General,
In the good providence of God, obstacles to
the progress of the cause were one by one over-
21

"^f^U^ /t-*"«-

<H>,- .pyl-JS-'^^

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
come. At first field-preaching seemed to promise
to become a very serious difficulty ; but when once
well begun, objections disappeared like mist before
the morning sun. Then, at first, it did not seem
to be in accordance with Christian order to allow
unordained men to preach the Gospel ; and no
one knows what would have happened if the
humble preachers had asked Wesley's advice
instead of making a beginning on their own
account. On discovering what was taking place,
Wesley was somewhat disconcerted ; but provi
dentially, as it may well seem to us, at that time
he still had a mother who was able to give him
some sound advice on the subject. That sagacious
woman saw that a number of extra preachers
would be needed in connection with the great
movement which was going forward, and Wesley
soon saw that his mother was right. For him to
have persevered in his objections to the practice
of the travelling preachers would have been to
handicap himself in his great mission. It always
happens so in any great evangelical movement.
When the late C, H. Spurgeon commenced his
great work in London, he found that here and
there young men converts commenced to preach ;
and in order to control them, and to prevent
their running wild, he founded a college, Wesley
also realised that the preachers whom he once
feared might tend to promote confusion were
allies to whom the work would have to be largely
indebted. It hardly concerns us to decide the
question as to who was the first Methodist preacher
22

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
to take to the work at the outset of the Revival ;
but we may notice some of those who stand out
more prominently in a long and honourable
succession. Among these worthies, John Nelson, 1 707-1 774,
strikes one as being a man std genesis. A stone
mason by trade, he possessed great physical
strength, while in his unconverted state his evil
passions appear to have been correspondingly
strong. He was a Yorkshireman, who seemed to
be specially fitted to carry the Gospel to those of
his own order in the North. His conversion was
a long and painful process, reminding one of a
man who, after floundering for a time in the
Slough of Despond, at last got out only to fall in
again. He mentions ' my poor sin-sick soul ' in
a way which shows how much he suffered more
forcibly than any description. He sought relief
by going to church, or by going ' to hear Dissenters
of all denominations, but to no purpose.' He even
tried the Roman Catholics ; ' but was soon surfeited
with their way of worship.' He would even have
followed the Quakers, if by so doing he could
have ensured peace of mind. At last, when he
had ' tried all but the Jews,' he returned to the
Established Church, apparently thinking that he
must at least keep within Christian boundaries.
At that time Moorfields, just outside the City,
was becoming, as it were, one of the chief battle
fields of the Revival. When Whitefield came
there to dispute the ground with the enemy,
Nelson stood in the crowd, and listened to the
23

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
great orator ' as a man who could play well on an
instrument ' ; but though he grew in love with the
preacher, and would have knocked down anyone
who had ventured to molest him, he found no
relief He evidently lapsed into a highly nervous
state; he seemed to be maintaining an unequal
struggle with invisible foes by day, and when
sleep came to him at all by night, he would dream
that he was 'falling into some horrible place,' or
was actually fighting with the devil — ' I was like
a wandering bird cast out of the nest,'
Then the scene changes ; and this time it is not
Whitefield, but 'Mr. John Wesley' who comes
' to preach his first sermon in Moorfields,' and a
new day of promise seemed to dawn for John
Nelson, who vividly depicts the preacher : —
' As soon as he got upon the stand, he stroked
back his hair, and turned his face towards where
I stood, and I thought fixed his eyes upon me.
His countenance struck such an awful dread upon
me, before I heard him speak, that it made my
heart beat like the pendulum of a clock ; and
when he did speak, I thought his whole discourse
was aimed at me. When he had done, I said,
"This man can tell the secrets of my heart; he
hath not left me there ; for he hath showed the
remedy, even the blood of Jesus," '
But the great change did not occur there and
then; Nelson fell into gross sins, and still had
many sore conflicts. In regard to his yielding to
temptations to the grossest lewdness, he is a poor
contrast to many others under similar conditions.
24

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
Meanwhile Nelson's friends expressed their sorrow
at what had occurred ; and while some said they
' should be glad to knock Mr, Wesley's brains out '
for thus making divisions in families, others would
not hear him preach 'for fifty pounds' lest they
should also become infected. Nelson was well
satisfied that the Moorfields preacher understood
his case, however, although for lack of the know
ledge which all should possess, that in Christ God
is reconciling the world unto Himself, the process
of conversion was both tedious and distressing —
temptation by day and hideous dreams by night,
and on one occasion he seemed to see the Evil
One, ' in the shape of a red bull, running through
the people, as a beast runs through the standing
corn.' It seems to have been before he was settled in
the faith that Nelson had to proceed to Guildford
to do some work at the seat of Lord Onslow, which
occupied him during some months, and he then
encountered the Speaker, who held his post for
about a third of a century and retired in 1760 : —
' One day the Speaker of the House of Commons
came to visit my lord ; and taking a view of the
work, he asked me many questions about it, which
I answered as well as I could. He said : " This is
a^fine house, and a fine estate of land about it !
B>it what will it signify ? For a piece of land six
feet long and three broad, will fit me shortly."
He then fetched a deep sigh, went away, and
walked alone among the trees.'
When he returned to London, Nelson came in
25

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
contact with the Moravians, and, as was the case
with Wesley himself, his adventures with those
extreme sectarians were quite extraordinary. He
had formerly had some slight acquaintance with
certain individuals who even sought him out in
his London lodgings, and the poor preacher
artlessly thought that to have Christian friends
seek him out, through the love they bore to him,
' was the thing I longed for.' When he made
inquiry concerning his 'good friend Mr. Wesley,'
he was told that he was ' wandering in the dark,'
as ' a blind leader of the blind who preached law
and works,' This, and much more of an outrageous
kind, had the effect of driving Nelson to the
Scriptures for enlightenment and to prayer.
Being of great physical strength, and accustomed
to work as a stone-mason in different parts of the
country. Nelson was not greatly inconvenienced by
having to endure hardness as an itinerant preacher.
As an occasional companion on the road, he must
have had reminiscences of many adventures which
would have been good reading had he possessed
sufficient literary tact to tell of them. In the early
days of the Revival, when the conquest of Cornwall
was in progress, Nelson worked for a time near
Land's End, and he accompanied Wesley in
preaching excursions around St. Ives: —
'All that time Mr. Wesley and I lay on the
floor : he had my greatcoat for a pillow, and I had
Burkitt's Notes on the New Testament for mine.
After being here near three weeks, one morning
about three o'clock Mr, Wesley turned over, and,
26

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
finding me awake, clapped me on the side, saying,
" Brother Nelson, let us be of good cheer : I have
one whole side yet, for the skin is off but on one
side." We usually preached on the commons,
going from one common to another, and it was
but seldom anyone asked us to eat and drink.
One day we had been at St. Hilary Downs, and
Mr. Wesley had preached from Ezekiel's vision of
the dry bones, and there was a shaking among
the people as he preached. As we returned, Mr.
Wesley stopped his horse to pick the blackberries,
saying, " Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful
that there are plenty of blackberries; for this is
the best country I ever saw for getting a stomach,
but the worst I ever saw for getting food. Do the
people think we can live by preaching ? " I said,
" I know not what they may think ; but one asked
me to eat something as I came from St. Just,
when I ate heartily of barley bread and honey,"
He said, "You are well off: I had a thought of
begging a crust of bread of the woman where I
met the people of Morva, but forgot it till I had
got some distance from the house."'
The darkness of the people in those distant
villages seems in some cases to have been even
surpassed by the ignorance of their State-appointed
teachers. Thus, in one Cornish church, Nelson
heard a clergyman describe the Methodists as
' a people who hold that damnable Popish doctrine
of justification by faith ! '
From this it appears that even such unlettered
teachers as John Nelson — who was well versed in
27

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the Scriptures — were needed. One of the most
determined attempts to put an end to his preach
ing was the infamous conspiracy to press him for
service in the army. He died in 1774.
Christopher Hopper, 1 722-1 802, had more force
of mind than usually characterised the travelling
preachers. He also had more education ; for after
he had ' learned to read and write,' he showed the
ambition of a North Country man by striving to
' understand a little of the mathematics.' His first
schoolmaster was ' a man of piety and good under
standing,' who paid strict attention to the religious
training of his pupils. Eventually, however, as the
preacher tells us in his Autobiography, his ' beloved
master . . , made a most awful exit'
' , , . A few gentlemen, with fair words, persuaded
him to play a civil game at cards ; but afterwards
he fell into great distress of mind, and could not
properly attend his school, which was often left to
the care of his eldest son and me. The spring
following, after many sore conflicts, he sank into
deep despair, and then drowned himself.'
Although Hopper paid much attention to
religion in youth, the Anglican legalism of the day
seems to have had a strong hold of him. He was
' addicted to swear . . , when put out of humour ' ;
and ' to lie ' when gain could be made by it, while
he was also somewhat cruel to dumb creatures,
and 'very proud and prone to anger.' When, in
due time, he heard 'one, Wesley,' it seemed
as though his heart was touched ; but he tried
a stricter life until a genuine change enabled
28

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
him to understand the nature of true religion. He
was then much exercised as to whether or not he
should undertake the work of preaching. He soon
decided, and had a liking for the service; 'but
Satan did not like this work,' and so stirred up
enemies. As had been the case with Dr, Doddridge
some few years before, he was summoned before
the Spiritual Court to answer for assumed mal
practices, an illegal interference with his liberty
which was abhorrent to the King and his
Ministers, When this all ended satisfactorily, the preacher
• met with a trial of another kind,' which reminds
us that his class were commonly careful in the
matter of marriage. ' An agreeable young woman
, , . had laid fast hold ' of him ; but he would not
have married her if she had not ' found peace with
God.' A man of this mettle was ardently devoted to
his work ; and, as in Hopper's case, would even
give up a secular calling in order to infuse more of
enthusiasm into it. Doing this even showed some
heroism, and it might even involve strong tempta
tion. ' I well remember,' says Hopper, ' once on
the top of a cold mountain, in a violent storm of
snow, when the congealed flakes covered me with
a white mantle, Satan assaulted me, and pushed me
hard to return to my school, or some other business,
to procure bread.' At one time, as he tells us, ' I
saw nothing before me but beggary and great
afflictions.' Very small allowances were made for
meals on the road and for baiting the horse ; but
29

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
1 apart from this, the quarterly allowance for a
preacher and his wife was £s, los,, or £3 for a
^ngle man. It was quite natural that these Spartan
rktes preserved the preachers' ranks from hypo
critical pretenders.
In strength given them by God, such men as this
carried the Gospel message into out-of-the-way
places where nothing seemed to relieve the moral
darkness ; but where it has ever since burned
strong and clear. This is Hopper's delightfully
graphic description of 'the beginning of a good
work in Weardale ' : —
' It was in a storm of snow that we crossed the
quagmires and enormous mountains. When we
came into the Dales, we met with a very cold
reception. The enemy had barricaded the place,
and made his bulwarks strong. But the Lord
made way for His truth. He opened the heart of a
poor Scotch shepherd to receive us into his little
thatched cabin, where we lodged all night. The
next day I preached under the walls of an old
castle. A few children and two or three old women
attended, who looked hard at us. When I had
done, we followed them into their houses, and
talked freely to them in their own language about
the Kingdom of God, They heard, and obeyed
the Gospel, The next evening I had a large
congregation, who heard me with much attention
and received the word gladly. Some time after I
preached in private houses, alehouses, cock-pits,
or wherever I could find a door open. The fire then
spread from heart to heart, and God was glorified."
30

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
The hardships which these men endured upon
the road would not now willingly be endured by
any travelling preacher. Thus, in January 1780,
Hopper met with ' a perfect hurricane at Bacup ' ;
and amid ' mountains of snow ' he had to accept
shelter in a cottage ' with little fire and small
provisions,' In summer, life on the road was
diversified, daily experience at times consisting in
a contrast to all this — ' Thunder and lightning, one
tremendous clap after another, from ten o'clock
till one in the morning, as if the heavens and earth
had been in one flame.'
Having more scholarship, and being more of
what would now be called a gentleman than the
majority of his comrades, Hopper preached up and
down the three kingdoms for nearly half a century,
at times being in company with Wesley himself,
whom he styles ' a singular character.'
Thomas Mitchell, 1726-1785, was a man of very
ordinary abilities and of very defective education,
but he might have been called most emphatically a
good soldier of Jesus Christ. On one occasion
he had even had Dr. Priestley for a hearer, and
after the service the philosophic Unitarian re
marked to a friend, ' This man must do good, for
he aims at nothing else.' In his younger days
Mitchell benefited by the preaching of John
Nelson, but probably much more by the teaching
and advice of Grimshaw of Haworth. Mitchell
was in active service as a preacher during what
may be called the heroic period of the Methodist
Revival, At different times he suffered much from
31

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the ill-treatment of raging mobs, which were
encouraged by the clergy and others who were
supposed to exercise their authority in the interest
of law and order. As the doings of mobs, and
oftentimes the action of the magistrates themselves,
were quite contrary to law, Wesley at various
periods taught such opponents a salutary lesson in
the Court of King's Bench, On one occasion
Mitchell imitated the procedure of his leader in
this respect by having writs sent down for five
ringleaders of riot and outrage in Sussex, which
had the effect of so thoroughly unnerving those
cowardly miscreants, that the county became free
from such outrages so far as the preachers were
concerned, Peter Jaco, 1729-1781, describes himself as
being ' of a gay, lively disposition,' while a friend
adds, that 'he was remarkably comely in his
person.' Even in his unconverted state, Jaco was
quite a champion for fairplay ; and on one occa
sion he was known even to assist in fighting a mob
which threatened to molest Wesley. He had good
talents but uncertain health, so that he passed
away in middle age. It was at Wesley's request
that two or three years before his death, Jaco
wrote out an account of his life, and he shows
that the hardships he had to undergo were great,
while the difficulties in the way of success were
formidable, e.g. : —
' In some places the work was to begin ; and in
most places, being in its infancy, we had hardly
the necessaries of life; so that after preaching
32

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
three or four times a day, and riding thirty or forty
miles, I have often been thankful for a little clean
straw, with a canvas sheet to lie on. Very fre
quently we had also violent oppositions. At
Warrington I was struck so violently with a brick
on the breast, that the blood gushed out through
my mouth, nose, and ears. At Grampound I was
pressed for a soldier ; kept under a strong guard for
several days, without meat or drink but what I was
obliged to procure at a large expense ; and threat
ened to have my feet tied under the horse's belly,
while I was carried eight miles before the
commissioners : and though I was honourably
acquitted by them, yet it lost me a pretty large
sum of money, as well as much trouble.'
In John Haime, 17 10-1784, who also wrote his
Autobiography, we have quite a different kind of
character, whose adventures in life even extended
to the wars on the Continent. As a youth, in
business he seems to have lacked perseverance, to
have been changeable ; and his religious experience
in later years was somewhat akin to that of John
Bunyan ; at all events, his supposed adventures
with the devil very much resembled some of the
passages in Grace Abounding. Haime even ex
ceeded Bunyan in extravagance, and at one time
was no doubt in the borderland of credulity and
superstition, e.g. : —
' I was employed by a tanner, to go with his
carriage and fetch bark. As I was returning by
myself, I was violently tempted to blaspheme, yea,
and to hate God : at length, having a stick in my
c 33

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
hand, I threw it towards heaven against God, with
the utmost enmity. Immediately I saw in the
clear element a creature like a swan, but much
larger, part black, part brown. It flew at me, and
went just over my head. Then it went about forty
yards, lighted on the ground, and stood staring
upon me. This was in a clear day, about twelve
o'clock. I strove to pray but I could not. At
length God opened my mouth.'
Through such undesirable byways, in which, as
in a maze, for a time he lost his way, Haime pro
gressed into the full liberty of the Gospel. He
served under the Duke of Cumberland in the great
war on the Continent which broke out after the
fall of the peace-loving Sir Robert Walpole, As
an evangelist in the British army, Haime had
quite a large following, and though many would
have hindered him, the royal Duke favoured his
endeavours. In after years Wesley himself greatly
valued him,
Joseph Cownley, 1723-1792, was a man of whom
Wesley said, 'he is one of the best preachers in
England.' We are told that 'his learning was
confined, though his knowledge was extensive.
He had travelled history's enormous round ; and
there are few books on divinity in the English
language but what he had read.' As a preacher he
was successful in getting converts ; ' alternately he
was a son of thunder and of consolation,' His
biography is given in a somewhat stilted style, not
being, like so many of the others, 'written by
himself 34

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
Thomas Olivers, 172 5-1 799, ranks as one of the
poets of Methodism, the Welsh fire in his nature
naturally finding expression in English verse.
Some of his hymns survive in our ordinary hymn-
books. In early days he was subject ' to a great
variety of childish follies ' ; and he must have been
almost a phenomenal example of a vehement
profane swearer. No doubt Bunyan exaggerated
his own excesses in this respect ; but Olivers did
not do so : ' It is horrid to think how often I have
cursed the wind and the weather, the souls of
horses and cows, yea, the very heart's blood of
stones, trees, gates, and doors ! ' He was idle,
somewhat dissipated, so that in one instance he
went to bed for only one night out of sixteen.
Associated with those early days was this singular
anecdote : —
' For four or five years I was greatly entangled
with a farmer's daughter, whose sister was married
to Sir J. P  , When she died. Sir J, was almost
distracted. Presently, after her funeral, he pub
lished an Elegy on her of a thousand verses ! For
her sake he said —
"O that the fleecy care had been my lot.
Some lonely cottage on some verdant spot ! "
For some time he daily visited her in her vault,
and at last took her up, and kept her in his bed
chamber for several years ! '
After conversion, Olivers joined the Methodist
Society at Bradford in Wiltshire, and there met
with an adventure which he believed to be a vision
or revelation : — 35

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
'As I returned home, just as I came to the
bottom of the hill, at the entrance to the town, a
ray of light, resembling the shining of a star,
descended through a small opening in the heavens,
and instantaneously shone upon me. In that
instant my burden fell off, and I was so elevated,
that I felt as if I could literally fly away to heaven,'
Like some others who as preachers assisted
Wesley, Olivers spent a great proportion of his
life on horseback ; for he reckoned that one cob, for
which he paid five pounds, in course of twenty-five
years carried him a hundred thousand miles. For
some years Olivers served as a kind of sub-editor
at the Book-Room, but he was so ill-qualified for
this office, that eventually Wesley was 'obliged,
however unwillingly, to drop Mr, O  ,' The
errata became ' unsufferable,' as did the liberty he
took to insert pieces in the Magazine unknown to
his chief. Yet his hymns still live ; and he
survived to see his piece on the Last Judgment
— the music being of his own composing — run
through twenty editions. As a young man he had
small-pox ; and his description of the disease — his
case being of the most malignant type — is too
dreadful for quotation.
A native of Carlisle, Thomas Hanby, 1733-1797,
refers to himself as 'rough in my manners, un
tamed my mind.' Before he got into the light he
went through a strange and distressing experience ;
at one time trying to excel as a legalist, and at
another time spending 'much time praying in
the fields, woods, and barns,' On one occasion
36

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
' while praying in a dark place ' he was ' greatly
terrified for fear I should see the devil.' In the
brief account he gives of himself, we see how the
evangelical teaching of Methodism would come
into direct conflict with the Arian and Socinian
wave which was then blighting the religious life of
the country, Hanby had a cousin who drew him
away from Methodism, and who attended the
ministry of a man after his own mind,
' The minister told my cousin, provided he would
form a religious society upon rational principles, he
would sometimes come himself. He accordingly
did, and in a little time we had a larger society
than the Methodists, of formal professors who
could play at cards, take their pleasures, and
conform to the world in almost everything,'
He eventually became one of those devoted men
who was content to live a life of distinguished
hardship for the Gospel's sake when he might have
enjoyed the luxuries of life by following his own
calling. He also suffered greatly from mobs, and
one of his many, almost tragic, adventures in 1754
was in the inn at Leek, in the Midlands, where
he had taken up his quarters : —
' I had ordered dinner ; but before it was ready, the
mob collected together in a large body, and beset
the inn. The landlord came to me in great
confusion, and entreated me to leave the place
immediately, or his house would be pulled down,
and I should be murdered, I was obliged to obey,
I mounted my horse in the yard, and rode through
the mob, amidst stones, dirt, etc., whilst they were
37

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
gathering in vast numbers from every part of the
town, crying, " Kill him ! Kill him ! " There was
from this time no access to Leek, till the chief men
of this mob died miserably ; and of the rest, some
went for soldiers, and all of them were dispersed,
except one man, who was alive some months ago,
in miserable circumstances,'
Described as a man of 'strong understanding,'
Alexander Mather, 1733-1800, was a native of
Brechin, N.B, As a child of twelve, in 1745, he
strayed from home into the ranks of the rebels who
had risen on behalf of the luckless adventurer
Charles Edward Stuart, who hoped to place on the
British throne his still more worthless father,
' James HI.' As the child's act was ' treason,'
however, he had to go into hiding, to avoid the
pains and penalties of the Government of George II,
In after days he migrated to London, and worked
at his trade of a baker, and endured hardness to a
degree not often equalled. ' My master was often
afraid I should kill myself,' he says ; ' and perhaps
his fears were not groundless.' After a hard day's
work he would ' run to preach at one or another
chapel,' Later the work of the night commenced.
Then he ' wrought hard all night and preached at
five the next morning, I ran back to draw the
bread at a quarter or half an hour past six ;
wrought hard in the bakehouse till eight ; then
hurried about with the bread till the afternoon, and
perhaps at night set off again.'
Eventually he devoted all of his time to preach
ing, and would have done so earlier had not the
38

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
stewards been ' unwilling to allow ' four shillings a
week to the wife while her husband was on the
road! As a native of Northumberland, William Hunter,
1 728-1 797, knew what it was to endure hardship
in youth. His father was a severe man, and among
those with whom he associated evangelical religion
was mere ' Methodism.' Thoughts of death were a
terror, and that may probably have inspired the
dream 'that Satan came to me and would have
me.' When he was affected on hearing one of the
preachers, some of his associates, who had more to
do with the alehouse than with religion, ' cursed
and swore bitterly at me.' He was too much of a
coward at first to be able to resist the enemy ; and
after again attending a Methodist service, he ' roared
for disquietness of heart.' The change now was so
genuine, that he was prompted to preach, and he
had much success in Barnard-Castle Circuit, and
the work so prospered that 'hardly anything of
the kind in England hath exceeded it, both with
regard to its swiftness and depth : the power of
God bore all down before it, and it seemed as if
God was about to convert the whole world,'
The youthful experience of Robert Roberts,
1 73 1 -1 799, affords a glimpse of the religious
condition of England in the reign of George II.,
when he remarks, ' Nor do I remember that I ever
heard one Gospel sermon till I was above twenty
years of age,' He showed courage, however,
such as can now hardly be properly appreciated,
e.g. :— 39

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
' At that time the Methodists were looked upon
as the worst of men, and the most horrible things
were laid to their charge that could be invented.
They were represented as hypocrites, blasphemers,
disturbers of the peace of families and of the nation ;
and to associate with them was said to be the way
to destroy body, soul, and substance. Others,
indeed, might curse and swear, get drunk, profane
the Sabbath, and starve their families, and yet be
in no danger of persecution or ill-treatment of any
kind ; but, on the contrary, were deemed innocent
creatures in comparison of the Methodists.'
When his heart was changed, even his nearest
kin turned against him ; they said ' it would be no
more sin to kill me than to kill a mad dog.' Yet
this man, who possessed a small estate, which
sufficed for the support of his large family, was one
of the bravest of volunteers : ' food and raiment
were all I could expect or ever desired as a
temporal reward.'
According to Wesley himself, Thomas Payne, a
native of Gloucestershire, 1741-1783, was 'a plain,
honest, zealous man ; fearing neither men nor
devils,' It was his privilege to have pious parents ;
but the good impressions of youth wore away, and
enlisting in the service of the East India Company,
he was sent to the island of St. Helena, He was
impressed by many things : he saw a shark bite a
man in two pieces ; ' others, getting drunk, rolled
down precipices,' while 'others fell into the sea,'
so that large numbers on the island ' did not live
out half their days.' His growing seriousness was
40

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
stimulated by what he may be excused for calling
an extraordinary occurrence : —
' One night, as I was standing sentinel at Mr.
M  ^'s door, I heard a dreadful rattling, as if
the house was all shaken to pieces, and tumbling
down about my ears. Looking towards it, I saw
an appearance, about the size of a six-weeks' calf,
lying at the door. It rose, came towards me,
looked me in the face, passed by, returned again,
and went to the door. The house shook as before,
and it disappeared, A few days after, our head
innkeeper, Mr. M  , told the officer of the
guard, that the same night Mrs, M  died, he,
with eight persons more sitting up, observed the
house shake exceedingly; that they were greatly
surprised, and carefully searched every room, but
to no purpose; that not long after there was a
second shaking, as violent as the former; that a
while after the house shook a third time ; and just
then Mrs, M  died,'
. His religious convictions returned, but for long
he was in the Slough of Despond, continually
having ' some dreadful dream presaging the wrath
to come,' Some laughed at him, and one fellow-
soldier, to provoke him, used an expression of an
unusually blasphemous kind, and judgment over
took him : —
' Immediately a horror fell upon him, and from
that hour he had no rest, day or night, till he made
an open confession to a magistrate that seven years
before he had murdered a soldier, whose apparition
followed him wherever he was.'
41

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
The man was condemned to death, but Payne
seems to have been instrumental in his conversion.
Payne's distress rather increased than otherwise.
He dreamed that he was on ' a frightful precipice,'
one being about to hurl him down, 'when I was
turned into a white dove, and flew up again.' The
man in the dream, however, corresponded to one
who afterwards bore false witness against him, so
that he was sent back to England, where he en
listed again. He did good work in the army, but,
his discharge being paid for, he afterwards served
as a local preacher in Ireland and elsewhere. He
was hardly more than a young man when he died.
Like the above soldier adventurer, Richard
Rodda, 1743-1815, supplied Wesley with some
account of himself Like some of his comrades,
he could tell of wonderful experiences in early
life at home. Thus, as an infant of four years,
' as I was lying on the ground, and looking up to
heaven, I thought I saw the form of a large tree.
While I gazed on it, something inwardly said, " This
is the tree of life," ' Soon after, his mother falling
into ' a deep consumption ' was so reduced in
strength that she ' could not walk across the room.'
The surgeons of the time were for most part a
source of danger rather than of benefit ; but ' she
was perfectly restored by making a hole in the
ground, and breathing into it for a quarter of an
hour every morning,'
In early life he was providentially saved from
drowning 'forty fathoms under ground,' as by a
miracle. Afterwards, being the victim of a
42

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
dangerous fever, he was supposed to be dead,
and he even thought himself that his 'soul had
actually left the body, and was mounting upwards
like a bird in the air,' He adds : 'I saw the
eternal Sun of Righteousness shining more
glorious than the sun in his meridian lustre.
Indeed, I had such views of God and glory
as I never had before or since,' He was im
pressed for the navy, but got off, many of his
neighbours who were shipped off being less for
tunate. Rodda did good itinerant work for nearly
a third of a century, and in the latter part of his
life laboured in London.
Thomas Walsh, a native of Limerick, 1730-1758,
passed away as quite a young man ; but besides
being a convert from Romanism, he was remark
able for that persevering application which enabled
him to read both the Old and the New Testaments
in their original tongues, while Irish and English
were to him as native languages. He ruined his
health by too close application.
' If his bones had been brass, and his flesh iron,
they must have yielded to the violence which his
life and labours offered to his constitution. He
enjoyed good health till about the nineteenth year
of his age, which was the year of his conversion to
God, But from the twentieth to the twenty-eighth,
which was the last year of his sojourning among
men, his life may be said to be no other than a
lingering death ; as he never was a whole day free
from pain or weakness.'
The life of John Pawson, 1737-1806, like so
43

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
many of the others, was written by himself, and
there is a concluding note by Dr. Adam Clarke.
The account is valuable, because we see something
of the everyday eighteenth-century life ' in a very
obscure village near Leeds,' while his parents were
strict church-people. ' My father maintained his
authority in his own house, and his word gave law
to his children,' he says ; adding, ' we had not the
Gospel preached in Thorner, and . , . I am of
opinion that there was not a single person in the
place who had any saving knowledge of God.'
The first time that young Pawson sat in a
Dissenting place of worship was at a Quaker
meeting, when he heard 'a woman speak for
more than an hour.' He was thoroughly aston
ished to find that those outside of the Established
Church were of such quiet behaviour, and of such
good morals. When, however, he showed signs of
being enlightened by the Methodists, his father,
who was a regular church-goer, could not have
been more distressed had his son turned libertine.
The influence of John influenced others, so that the
peace of the family was broken, and the youthful
offender was threatened with severe pains and
penalties. In due time all this trouble passed
away through the conversion of the father himself.
The following passage relates to the Gordon riots
in London in 1780: —
' The time was certainly awful, and it was truly
wonderful that no more mischief was done. They
might have been suppressed in the beginning with
the greatest ease, but were strangely suffered to
44

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
proceed in their bad work, with little or no in
terruption. The riots began on the Saturday night
were renewed on Sunday night, and continued till
Thursday, when the Government interposed, and
very soon restored peace to the City. I never
could learn that the Protestant Association had
any hand in this business ; but it was believed by
many that the Papists themselves were active
therein, ... on account of Mr. Wesley having pub
lished several letters against Popery at that time.
A more awful and distressing sight I never saw,
as we were surrounded with fire on every side ;
Clerkenwell Prison, Newgate, the Fleet, the King's
Bench Prison, together with many other buildings,
being all in flames at the same time,'
Born in 1720, and passing away in 1799,
Sampson Staniforth was a preacher for about half
a century, and he 'steadily walked with God for
nearly sixty years.' One of a family of thirteen,
he grew up without being properly educated, while
in his home he ' heard nothing about either religion
or morality,' In his youth he was a cause of great
trouble to his family by getting into bad company,
by gaming, drinking, and showing a disposition to
enlist in the army. In the Duke of Cumberland's
army he passed through much hard service and
privation on the Continent ; but, as is well known,
there were a number of ardent Methodist Christians
in the ranks, and, especially through coming in
contact with Mark Bond, Staniforth became a
convert. They both were in the battle of
Fontenoy. Staniforth says : ' All the day I was in
45

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
great spirits, and as composed in my mind as if I
had been hearing a sermon.' Bond's testimony
was similar : —
'He told me it had been a happy day to him.
He had received two musket-balls ; but one struck
him on the right thigh, and hit on two sevenpenny-
pieces that were in his pocket (they are of a
mixed metal about the size of half a crown); it
appeared to him as if he had received a blow with
a stick. The other struck him on his left-side
pocket, upon a clasped knife, and bent the blade
and loosened it in the handle. So that we may
well say, " Go and return secure from death, till
God command thee home," '
He came back to England at the time of the
rising under the Young Pretender in 1745 J but it
does not seem that he was ever actually engaged
with the rebels, and before he became one of
Wesley's preachers he returned to the Continent,
where he went through more dangerous adventures,
which he relates in his own graphic style. Like
some of the other preachers, the events of his life
are told in a letter which he addressed to Wesley
himself. ' Sampson in youth — like the unbroken steed —
With British soldiers, rank'd in flaming red.
To Flanders march'd to meet the Gallic foe : —
'Twas there the youth first learned himself to know.'
Thomas Lee, 1727- 1786, was regarded by Wesley
as a ' faithful brother, and a good old soldier of
Jesus Christ' His narrative is chiefly remarkable
first for his experience as a child, when he was so
46

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
tormented by fears of hell that he wished for
annihilation; and secondly for that fury of mob
persecution which he braved for a long period as
one of Grimshaw's preachers in Yorkshire, Some
of the rioters were brought up at the Assizes at
Newark, and had a lesson which cooled their
ardour, although parsons, squires, and even
jurymen in some instances, favoured them. Lee
died in harness. ' He preached twice the Sunday
before he died ; although he went to the preaching-
house on crutches, and sat all the time he
preached.' The life of John Prickard, 1 744-1 784, was
compartively short ; but in his native Wales, and
also in Ireland, he went through some good hard
service. He was successful in Ireland in checking
the robbery of wrecked vessels which was then
prevalent in certain coast districts, 'A great
deliverance,' which, he once experienced in
Radnorshire, shows what kind of adventures a
travelling preacher might meet with in mountainous
solitudes : —
' As I passed over the mountains beyond Pains
Castle, it snowed very hard. When the snow
ceased a thick mist came on, and soon after a
very dark night. In these circumstances I
expected nothing but to perish before the morning ;
as the snow had filled up all the roads, and as I
was afraid the fog would bewilder me. Going on,
I soon lost ray road, and found myself among a
number of turf-pits. In this situation I looked up
to God for direction. Presently I recollected that
47

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the wind was west when I came up the hill ; and
knowing that my course was near north, and that
there was a valley lying east and west, about two
miles to the northward, I resolved to shape my
course by keeping the wind upon my left cheek.
Being rather afraid lest the wind should change, I
looked up and left that to God. As I could not
see twice the length of my horse, I was in great
danger of falling into the turf-pits. Nevertheless,
I went on, trusting in God, and was kept happy
in my soul. Having travelled a long time in the
dark, I at last saw a star through the fog, and
judged that the valley was near ; and in a short
time I found it to be the case, to my very great
comfort, and, through the mercy of God, I entered
it, and so got safe to B. Griffith's about half-past
seven o'clock.'
The life of Jonathan Maskew extended from the
reign of Queen Anne far into that of George III,
He did good service in Yorkshire, and in Grim
shaw's district of Haworth. He was not an educated
man ; but his life-story would have been far more
interesting if he had written it himself, as was done
by so many of his comrades.
' Fate seemed to wind him up for seventy years,
Yet freely ran he on ten winters more ;
Till, like a clock worn out with eating time.
The wheels of weary life at last stood still'
Matthias Joyce, 1754-1814, 'was early in life
converted from the errors of Popery'; and after
meeting with more than his average share of acci
dents and wild adventures, such as running away
48

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
from his master in Dublin, who was a printer, he
developed into ' a wise, acceptable, and successful
preacher.' James Rogers, 1749- 1807, was also a native of
Yorkshire, and was acquainted with the Scriptures
from early childhood. A tolling bell, or any
reminder of death, would make him * very thought
ful.' Thunder and lightning greatly affected him,
and even inspired alarm, since ' it was God speaking
from the clouds ' ; and he ' would run to the door
to see Him come' to judge the world ! No wonder
that he actually dreamed of seeing the Day of
Judgment itself, when ' all the inhabitants of the
place,' who had been ' known to curse and swear
and get drunk,' were 'struck with inexpressible
consternation and horror.'
As a Methodist preacher, Rogers had his full
share of rough adventure; but he seems to have
willingly endured hardness. Some three or four
years after Dr. Johnson and Boswell made their
tour to the west coast of Scotland, James Rogers
resolved to visit the Isle of Bute, but, through a
dreadful storm coming on, he got thoroughly wet,
and the hardship he endured affected his health for
some time afterwards. His experience after land
ing is best told in his own words, and well shows
what a subordinate preacher of the Revival might
have to endure in the days of a century and a
quarter ago : —
' Having no clothes to shift me, I went straight to
the inn where I had slept before ; intending to go
immediately to bed, as my only resource to pre-
D 49

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
vent a fit of sickness ; but, to my great disappoint
ment, a gentleman's family, who had been detained
by the same storm, had possession of my lodgings.
In about two hours an old man, hearing of my
situation, came and gave me a kind invitation to his
little cottage, I gladly accepted his friendly offer ;
and hastening home with him, put off my wet
clothes ; but my bed being raised only about
twelve inches from a damp earthen floor, and there
being no fire, it was not quite so comfortable as my
condition then required, especially as the coverings
were not warm, being nearly worn out. The con
sequence was, in a few hours I found my throat
exceedingly inflamed, and a burning feverish heat
through my whole frame ; so that I had little hope
of ever seeing the mainland again. It was also im
practicable to send for any of my friends, because of
the weather : yet, blessed be God, I was not friend
less : for that Friend that sticketh closer than a
brother did not leave me, neither forsake me. He
who filleth the vast immensity of space with His
presence, can never be distant from those who hope
in His mercy ; nor can He fail to deliver them in
the time of need, . , , In a few days I was able to
go out again. But I was then hard put to it for
food ; and having nothing that I could relish, I
employed a poor woman to gather me a kind of
shell-fish, about half the size of cockles, which was
my chief support till I was able to return to the
mainland. After this, I remained some months in
Glasgow and Edinburgh ; but did not recover my
health for a long time.' SO

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
Another Yorkshireman was Thomas Taylor,
1738-1816, whose natural temper as a child was
' active, wild, and very mischievous,' so that he was
addicted to 'little wild pranks,' He lost his
parents early and fell into evil ways. After conver
sion he did good service in preaching throughout
the British Isles, while he bore his share of suffering
from hard living and persecution. A disaster
happened at Colne in 1776, which shows that even
then jerry builders were not unknown : —
' We had with much difficulty raised a fine large
chapel ; and, being completed, Mr, Wesley came to
open it Being much crowded, both above and
below, and the timber of the galleries not being
sufficiently strong, just when Mr, Wesley and I
got into the pulpit, before he began, all of a sudden
one of the galleries sunk down, and abundance of
people had legs, arms, or thighs broken. The
confusion, as may easily be imagined, was very
great ; and the cries of such as were maimed, and
such as were frightened, were truly piercing.
Many false reports were spread concerning this
awful adventure. Some said the whole chapel was
in danger, and therefore durst not come into it.
By one means or other, the work got a dreadful
stun, which I fear it will not recover very soon.'
Few of Wesley's preachers could show such
scholarship. He could read the Old Testament in
Hebrew, and the New in Greek, while he also knew
Latin, Speaking of the York Circuit early in the
reign of George III., he draws a sombre picture : —
' There is but little trade in any part of the
51

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Circuit ; and where there is little trade, there is
seldom much increase in religion. The people are
chiefly farmers, and in general in a state of great
bondage to their wealthy landlords, to whom they
are a kind of vassals, and in general dread them
more abundantly than they do their Maker : and
though some of them had got money upon their
farms, with a deal of care and hard labour, yet
there are others who are very hard set to live ; and
certainly, they are some of the greatest slaves in
England, for they labour hard, and live very
poorly,' Taylor laboured in the cause for between fifty
and sixty years,
John Furz, born in 1717, lived on until almost
the end of the century ; but the latter part of his
life was passed in second childhood. Then there
was Thomas Rankin, who died in 18 10, after fifty
years of earnest Christian profession. In the earlier
part of his course he led an adventurous life on the
sea. When in the present United States, in the
neighbourhood of Philadelphia, in 1775, he met with
John Brainerd, whose brother David, — ' the Apostle
to the Indians,' — some eighteen years previously,
had died in the thirtieth year of his age, at the
house of his friend and biographer Jonathan
Edwards. Still another Yorkshireman, George Storey,
1 738-1 8 1 8, also left an autobiography. He was a
precocious child, who in his fifth year could repeat
the Catechism ' before the minister in the church ' ;
and about a year later he 'had read the Bible
52

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
through several times,' He passed through a
remarkable experience. After his conversion in
1762, he preached about England, Scotland, and
Ireland for nearly thirty years. Soon after
Wesley's death he became Editor of the Magazine,
etc., and later. Superintendent of the printing office.
Although he was a native of Huddersfield,
William Black, 1760-1834, went with his father at
an early age to Nova Scotia, and such was the
value of his work, and the confidence he inspired,
that he became appointed Superintendent of the
Wesleyan Methodist Mission in British America.
He could read the Scriptures in their original
languages ; and ' he was justly regarded as the
father of Methodism in that portion of the British
Empire,' He once met with a man who ' appeared
evidently to be under the influence of an evil
spirit'; and when restored, the person himself held
this opinion. Black thus describes the case : —
' I know not how to describe his various gestures
and hideous noises. Sometimes he barked like a
dog; then again he would fly round the room,
jumping, stamping, and making the most dreadful
noises, imitating the Indian powwows, when they
invoke the infernal powers. He then roared and
screamed in my ears, and shouted in order to
drown my voice ; mingling with his shouts terms
of the most bitter disdain, and execrable blasphemy
against Jesus Christ, I found his design was, if
possible, to stop me from praying; thinking he
should then have power to seize me ; but I was
peculiarly helped to wrestle with the Lord, that He
S3

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
would either bind or cast out the evil one. I
continued praying until he became quiet as a
lamb, kneeled down by me, and began to pray.
He told me afterwards, that he was so strongly
possessed by the devil that he wished to tear out
my eyes or kill me ; but that after his hands came
to the bottom of my back, he could touch me no
more. Hence, we may learn the devil's malice,
the prevalence of prayer, and the worth and
necessity of our Bibles,'
John Valton, 1740- 1794, was of French descent;
and as a child he was taken to Boulogne to become
perfected in the French language, where he
' remained six months bowing to images of wood
and stone and wax, and imbibing the baneful
potions of idolatry and superstition.' His life was
not a very long one, but his biography is fully
given, being filled up with extracts from a
voluminous diary.
A native of Lincolnshire, George Shadford,
1 739-1 8 16, was a child of parents who were well
disposed towards religion. As a youth, he 'was
very prone to break the Sabbath,' while he wished
that the parson of the parish was dead ' because
he hindered our sports on the Lord's Day.' It
seemed that he was hardly made of the stuff of
which preachers are generally made : —
' I was fond of wrestling, running, leaping, foot
ball, dancing, and such-like sports ; and I gloried
in them, because I could excel most in the town
and parish. At the age of twenty I was so active,
that I seemed a compound of life and fire ; and I
54

THE EARLY ASSISTANT PREACHERS
had such a flow of animal spirits, that I was never
in my element but when employed in such kind
of sports,'
For a time his lot was cast in America, and
while there he also met with John Brainerd, and
' conversed about two hours very profitably about
his brother David, and the Indians he had the care
of.' He also narrates this adventure : —
' One day a friend took me to see a hermit in
the woods. After some difficulty we found his
hermitage, which was a little place like a hog-sty,
built of several pieces of wood, covered with bark
of trees ; and his bed consisted of dry leaves.
There was a narrow, beaten path, about twenty or
thirty yards in length, by the side of it, where he
frequently walked to meditate. If one offered him
food, he would take it ; but if money was offered
him, he would be very angry. If anything was
spoken to him which he did not like he broke out
into a violent passion. He had lived in this cell
seven cold winters; and after all his prayers,
counting his beads, and separating from the rest of
mankind, still corrupt nature was all alive within
him.' Another of his adventures affords a glimpse of
the country as it was on the eve of the War of
Independence, which was a result of the arro
gance and misgovernment of George III, and his
Ministers, 'The spirit of the people began now to be
agitated with regard to politics. They threatened
me with imprisonment when I prayed for the King ;
55

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
took me up and examined me, and pressed me to
take the test-oath to renounce him for ever. I
thought then I had done my work there, and set
out, after I had been a year and a half amongst
them, for Maryland. But it being in the depth of
winter, I was one night lost in the woods, when it
was very cold, and the snow a foot deep on the
ground. I could find no house, nor see any
traveller ; and I knew I must perish if I continued
there all night, I alighted from my horse, kneeled
down upon the snow, and prayed earnestly to God
to direct me. When I arose I believed I should
have something to direct me, I stood listening a
short space, and at last heard a dog barking at
some distance ; so I followed the sound, and after
some time found a house and plantation.'
These brief notices of the Wesleyan Methodist
preachers who assisted in the Revival of the
eighteenth century will tend to show that without
their organised efforts Wesley could not have done
what he did. There are several names which have
not been mentioned ; but such readers as desire
fuller acquaintance with these comparatively
humble pioneers in a great movement, cannot do
better than read for themselves the six volumes in
which their lives are contained. It was meet that
their names should be kept in remembrance ; and
their stories of life and adventure, which in so
many instances were written by themselves, are
both entertaining and instructive reading.

56

THE NK"' I'W Mil \> I' MS I I N'' ' ' I-

. WNMI «CM,EV (MdTUEK
\. i,. l'nKMi;i,\

Tn face pn<j,- .

CHAPTER III
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
THE great leaders of the evangelical movement
of the eighteenth century underwent a
gradual preparation for their work ; and had not
this been thus well ordered by Divine Providence,
the men who led the van in what we call the
Revival would not have been the apostles that
they were. In some cases the conversions of these
men may have seemed to come suddenly ; but
what is called conversion in their case may at
times have been but the last process of the grand
transformation. Was it not so in the cases of John
Wesley and C. H, Spurgeon ? The former once
refused to say that he was not in a state of grace
in days when he failed to see Gospel truth in its
fulness ; and very similar was the case of Spurgeon
before he entered the Colchester Primitive
Methodist Chapel, where he is popularly repre
sented as having been converted. Having passed
through the experience that they did, the preachers
to the common people were enabled to make due
allowance for the unsympathetic attitude of others
whom they had left far behind. Persons who were
57

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
wholly captivated by the world, or those who
merely gave an intellectual assent to the doctrines
of Christianity, were not able to understand the
true nature and meaning of the Revival.
In many instances these objectors were such as
Scripture classed with ' unreasonable men,' When,
at the outset of the great movement, Wesley found
that he was so commonly misunderstood and
misrepresented, he thought that if he had but a
few friends to set matters straight all would be
well ; but he found that when he and his people
came to be called Methodists as a term of reproach,
all argument was supposed to be at an end when
an objector remarked, ' I suppose you are a
Methodist too.' The country had so far receded
from the Puritan ideals of the preceding century,
that to be religious was the most ungenteel thing
of all in the world of fashion,
' Hence, on the one hand,' says Wesley, ' many
who knew what my conversation was, were afraid
to declare the truth, lest the same reproach should
fall upon them : and those few who broke through
this fear were soon disabled from declaring it with
effect by being immediately ranked with him they
defended. What impartial man, then, can refuse
to say, " It is permitted for thee to answer for
thyself,"' This he did in his Diary, The object
was to openly declare to the world what had been
done, and the way in which it had been effected.
The things which had come to pass were in a
sense unique; at all events, they were such as
neither they nor their fathers before them had
58

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
known. There had been no respect of persons,
Jews and Arians, Atheists and ' Pharisees ' had been
arrested in their course, and had been transformed.
Then the work bore evidence that human wisdom
had had nothing to do with it; the manner in
which the work had been done was no less strange
than the work itself. All needed to be told, and
Wesley resolved to tell it in plain English, so
that all might impartially judge of the matter for
themselves. But while others were prejudiced, and were also
victims of false reports, those who had been strictly
educated in the teaching and discipline of the
Established Church had also to overcome some
of their own personal prejudices. It was on the
last day of March 1739 that Wesley met White-
field at Bristol, and on the Sunday preceding, the
latter had introduced the then strange innovation
of preaching in the open air. ' I could scarce
reconcile myself at first to this strange way of
preaching in the fields, of which he (Whitefield)
set me an example on Sunday ; having been all
my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point
relating to decency and order, that I should have
thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had
not been done in a church.' He now saw, however,
that the Sermon on the Mount was ' one pretty
remarkable precedent of field-preaching,' On
Monday, April 2, Wesley himself preached for the
first time in the open-air ' from a little eminence '
outside of Bristol, and to a congregation of three
thousand persons, 59

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
It seems to be a remarkable fact, that Wesley
seemed to gain new strength in proportion as the
demands on his time and energy became more
pressing. Thus, on the last Sunday of April 1739 he
commenced his day's work by preaching ' to about
four thousand people,' after which he conducted a
service at Clifton for a minister who was ill ; ' and
thence returned to a little plain near Hannam
Mount, where about three thousand were present.'
After dinner there was another service at Clifton,
as well as a burial. From Clifton he went to
Rose Green, where he had about seven thousand
hearers,this being followed by a visit to a Society, and
a love-feast. ' O how God has renewed my strength,
who used ten years ago to be so faint and weary
with preaching twice in one day.'
Still, there were plenty of people to ask, ' How
can these things be ? ' They could not understand
sudden transformations, and even well-wishers
might prescribe caution, urging that results should
not be traced to Divine agency which might
possibly come of extravagance and excitement.
In answering one such objector, Wesley intended
to reply to many, and extraordinary as his words
may have seemed, they could not be gainsaid : —
' I will show you him that was a lion till then,
and is now a lamb ; him that was a drunkard, and
is now exemplarily sober; the whoremonger that
was, who now abhors the very garment spotted
by the flesh. These are my living arguments for
what I assert, viz,. That God does now, as afore
time, give remission of sins, and the gift of the
60

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
Holy Ghost, even to us, and to our children ; yea,
and that always suddenly, so far as I have known,
and often in dreams, or in the visions of God,'
These things greatly offended many who could
not only not understand them, but were moved to
show resentment. The crowds were often so great,
however, as to show that the common people
were thoroughly aroused. In June 1739 we find
Wesley and Whitefield together at Blackheath,
where there were over twelve thousand persons
assembled, Whitefield's commanding popularity
had sufficed to attract that throng ; but ' he a
little surprised me by desiring me to preach in
his stead,' says Wesley; and though 'nature
recoiled,' the task was undertaken, the preacher
selecting a favourite subject — 'Jesus Christ, who
of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanetification, and redemption.' As would happen
in those days, numbers of the upper classes were
present in their coaches, attracted by curiosity to
hear the famous orator, ' some of whom seemed to
attend, while others drove away their coaches from
so uncouth a preacher.'
What also strikes us is, that the work was not
characterised by any hard-and-fast conventional
methods. At times the preachers would follow
their own bent, the patience and attention of the
people giving them licence such as would hardly
be yielded in these days. Thus, we find that a
service at Cardiff was protracted in a way that
would not now be readily tolerated. As the
preacher says : ' My heart so enlarged I knew not
61

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
how to give over, so that we continued three hours.'
This would occur from time to time apparently
without discommoding the hearers. We find a
similar thing happening at Birstal some years
later, e.g. : ' I was constrained to continue my
discourse there near an hour longer than usual ;
God pouring out such a blessing, that I knew not
how to leave off.'
In that age, when the amenities of controversy
were not always understood or practised, it was
quite natural that differences of opinion, in regard
to theological teaching, should at times even
threaten to separate those who had lived on
terms of close friendship. At the outset of the
Revival, after Whitefield's return from Georgia,
Wesley became conscious of 'unkind behaviour'
on his part — a contrast to the closer friendship
which bound them together in later days. When
Whitefield had an opportunity to ' speak for him
self,' he used ' plainness of speech,' which seemed
intended to show that Arminians and Calvinists
had more points of disagreement than of agreement.
Whitefield even said that 'two different Gospels'
were being preached, and he meant not only to
have no fellowship with those who differed from
him, but openly to oppose them, ' Mr. Hall, who
went with me,' adds Wesley, ' put him in mind of
the promise he had made but a few days before,
that whatever his private opinion was, he would
never publicly preach against us. He said, that
promise was only an effect of human weakness
and he was now of another mind,' The two
62

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
systems of theology seemed to be irreconcilable ;
and it was too readily taken for granted that the
members of the two schools were necessarily so
far in opposition each to the other, that it was
impossible for peace to be maintained. About
the same time we find Wesley doing what he had
not done before, he preached a sermon 'directly
on Predestination ' at Kingswood School. About
the same time that he did this, we are hardly
surprised to find that Wesley also ' sharply reproved
many for their unfaithfulness to the grace of God,'
How changed were many of the choicest spirits of
the time, a generation later, when the Revival
itself had diffused more widely the principles of
love and unity which pervade the New Testament,
How closely knit together in the Lord's work were
these two great souls before death took the one,
while the other held on through another two
decades. By Whitefield's own followers, in 1770,
Wesley was accounted the most suitable person
to preach his late friend's funeral sermon, not only
at the chief centre in Tottenham Court Road, but
also at Greenwich Tabernacle. It was then that
the preacher was able to say: 'I trust God has
given a blow to that bigotry which has prevailed
for many years,'
The question might be asked. To what extent
did the Moravian Brethren — the Unitas Fratrum
— influence the Revival in its early stages?
After ' a long conversation with Peter Bohler ' in
the spring of 1 741, we find Wesley remarking, ' I
marvel how I refrain from joining these men. I
63

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
scarce ever see any of them but my heart burns
within me. I long to be with them ; and yet I
am kept from them,' A few days later, in writing
to his brother, the reason became plain ; the
Moravian 'general scheme is mystical, not
scriptural ; refined in every point above what is
written; immeasurably beyond the plain Gospel,'
Besides, they showed 'darkness and closeness in
their behaviour,' as well as ' guile in almost all
their words.' Conformity to the world and lack of
self-denial were also conspicuous. About twelve
years later, or in 1753, Wesley is found receiving
into his Society certain persons whom the Moravians
had excommunicated. From what these people
said, ' It appeared clear to a demonstration : i. That
their Elders usurped a more absolute authority
over the conscience than the Bishop of Rome
himself does : 2. That to gain and secure this,
they use a continued train of guile, fraud, and
falsehood of every kind : 3. That they scrape their
votaries to the bone as to their worldly substance,
leaving little to any, to some nothing, or less than
nothing: 4. That still, they are so infatuated as
to believe that theirs is the only true Church upon
earth.' At the outset, in regard to open-air preaching,
London showed similar temper to that of certain
provincial towns in which dangerous riots occurred.
In the afternoon of the first Sunday of May 1741,
Wesley addressed ' a vast multitude of people ' in
the open suburban area then known as Mary-
le-bone Fields. It is remarked, that 'the devil's
64

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
children fought valiantly for their master, that his
kingdom should not be destroyed. And many
stones fell on my right hand and on my left.
But when I began to examine them closely, what
reward they were to have for their labour, they
vanished away like smoke,' As regarded the
provinces, probably Wales showed the best spirit,
Pontypool, among towns, being especially notice
able. Of course, there were enemies there, but
they could make no headway. ' About noon we
came to Pontypool,' says Wesley (October 3,
1 741), 'A clergyman met me in the first street;
a few more found me out soon after, whose love
I did not find to be cooled at all by the bitter
adversaries who had been among them,'
It may generally be taken for granted that a work
is prosperous if it is sought to hinder it by false
reports. Probably no one was ever more subjected
to this kind of opposition than Wesley ; but no one
was ever less troubled about false reports, or such
as affected his reputation. At one time those
chiefly concerned might be accused of making ' a
good thing out of the Revival ' : at another time,
Wesley might be pointed at as a Jesuit, and con
sequently as a dangerous agent of the Pretender,
Whatever he might be, however, no man was less
likely to hang himself before his life-work was
complete. In and about Bristol in 1741, even this
tragic kind of report ' had been diligently spread
abroad,' until it was 'cordially believed in by
many.' During a service at Kingswood one
openly preferred the charge; but when a way
E 65

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
was opened for him to come forward and explain
himself, ' he ran away with all possible speed, not
so much as once looking behind him.'
From the first there were those who after joining
the Society left for eccentric or trivial reasons.
Some stayed away on account of distance, or want
of time ; others were afraid of falling into a fit, or
people were rude to them in the streets. Among
those who were actually excluded, one was for wife
beating and one for selling spirituous liquors.
In some cases the law-breakers themselves were
victims of the grosser kinds of opposition; and
when a rioter had a stone cut his hand, or felt blood
streaming down his face through being hit by a
sharp missile, he had no cause of complaint Of
course, the more diabolical form of opposition
came from those who caricatured religion on the
stage ; and this spirit of the enemy became mani
fest almost from the outset of the Revival. Foote,
who caricatured Whitefield more particularly, came
later, but others preceded that gifted but sorry
buffoon. In the fall of 1743 a farce was acted at
Newcastle 'for the benefit of Mr. Este,' and this
was called ' Trick upon Trick ; or, Methodism
Displayed,' The most commonplace form of opposition was
that of the mob threatening to maim or even
murder the preachers; but the most sensational
things even in connection with these were the
escapes of the itinerants. In some instances
injury was inflicted, but for the most part the
boldness, earnestness, and faith of the preachers

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
were a better protection to them than arms. Take
as an example what happened at Falmouth in July
1 745, when Wesley visited an invalid gentlewoman
in the town. No sooner was the visitor seated than
the vast crowd which besieged the house made noise
enough to have sufficed ' at the taking of a city by
storm.' The outer door was forced, and, finding
that nothing more than a wainscot-partition separ
ated him and the mob, Wesley ' immediately took
down a large looking - glass,' apparently more
anxious for the furniture than for himself ' But,
sir, is it not better for you to hide yourself — to get
into the closet ? ' asked a maid. ' No, it is best for
me to stand just where I am,' was the answer. He
faced the mob, as he always did, without signs of
fear ; and ere long the ringleaders were anxious to
hear him speak, declaring that no one should
hinder him. Probably no man ever more readily
made friends of mob-leaders ; so that the comical
phenomenon might sometimes be seen of a bluster
ing anti-Methodist suddenly changing his tone and
tactics — swearing that not a hair of the preacher's
head should be touched, for whose life-blood he
and his battalions had just before been clamouring.
It was not by means of such open enemies that
the work was chiefly hindered, however, but rather
by the bickerings and opposition of those who
stirred up disputes concerning doctrine and dis
cipline. When at Wednesbury, in the spring of
175 1, Wesley seems to have realised the loss which
had come from this cause, and to have been
correspondingly disappointed when he took stock
67

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
of what had been achieved in about twelve years.
There had been considerable failure through doubt
ful disputations on the part of Predestinarians, so
that many who had begun well went back into the
world, or elsewhere. He says : —
' While we carried our lives in our hands, none
of these came near ; the waves ran too high for
them ; but when all was calm, they poured in on
every side, and bereaved us of our children. Out
of these they formed one Society here, one at
Dudley, and another at Birmingham. Many,
indeed, though torn from us, would not stay
with them, but broke out into the wildest
enthusiasm. But still, they were all called
Methodists ; and so all their drunkenness and
blasphemies (not imputed to a believer) were
imputed to us.'
Apart from such trials and drawbacks, it would
almost seem that the work in general encountered
no opposition which did not in the end tend to
strengthen the faith of the leaders and their
preachers. At times this was brought about in a
most striking or providential manner, showing to a
demonstration that while man may propose one
thing, God disposes another, making that action
contribute to the advance of His Kingdom which
was intended to hinder its progress, A few miles
from Taunton is the village of Charlton, and in the
summer of 1754 Wesley preached there to a large
and interested congregation which had come from
far and near. In the earlier days of the Revival
neighbouring farmers had been so opposed to
68

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
evangelical teaching that they ' entered into a joint
engagement to turn all out of their service, and
give no work to any, who went to hear a Methodist
preacher,' It happened, however, that a ringleader
among these determined men soon afterwards
became ' convinced of the truth ' ; he was then as
anxious that the Methodist itinerants should hold
their services in his house as he was before
determined that they should not set foot in the
parish. Being thus encouraged or reassured,
' many of the other confederates came to hear,'
greatly to the satisfaction of such servants and
labourers who were glad to have their liberty
unrestricted. There were no more ardent pro
moters of the New Reformation than quondam
persecutors who had become changed into friends.
To Wesley himself everything connected with
the work in England was a matter for amazement,
as well as for admiration and devout gratitude. It
would seem that while travelling from Nottingham
to London at Midsummer 1755, he was occupied
on the road in thinking over what had happened ;
and on reaching the Foundery he gave expression
to his thoughts in a discourse on the Psalmist's
words — ' He hath not dealt so with any nation.'
The fire of the Revival had shown itself in Scot
land as well as across the sea in New England ;
but nowhere else had the Lord made bare His arm
'in so astonishing a manner as among us.' The
characteristics of the Revival which chiefly impressed
Wesley were the large numbers who had been
changed, the swiftness of the work, the depth and
69

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the clearness of it. At the date in question, the
work had gone on in England for eighteen years,
and there were no signs of any abatement of bless
ing. In some respects the case of England was
unique in showing that what had been done was
effected without any considerable help from man,
and even in the face of opposition of vast numbers
who called themselves Christian teachers. In Scot
land 'a considerable number' of the ministers
aided the movement ; in New England ' above an
hundred ' did so ; ' whereas in England there were
only two or three inconsiderable clergymen, with
a few young, raw, unlettered men : anc^ these
opposed by well-nigh all the clergy, as well as laity,
in the nation,' All this was convincing testimony
that God had not so wrought ' in any other nation,'
Under these conditions we need not wonder that
the leaders and their battalions of preachers had
their enthusiasm stimulated until the fire even
found its way among the common people, who in
many cheering instances would show themselves to
be superior to discouragement from rough weather
or persecution. The preachers were often called
upon to suffer from inclement weather, even in
months which are commonly associated with sun
shine and green foliage. After preaching at
Bingley at five in the morning of May 22, 1757,
Wesley set off for Haworth, and on the road
encountered ' a December storm ' ; but still found
a larger congregation than the church would
contain. ' I suppose we had near a thousand
communicants, and scarce a trifler among them,'
70

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
he says. ' In the afternoon, the church not con
taining more than a third of the people, I was
constrained to be in the churchyard. The rain
began as soon as I began to speak ; but they
regarded it not ; for God sent into their hearts
The former and the latter rain ;
The love of God and love of man.'
Of course the opposition to the work often
became very apparent in high places, and even
showed itself among the bishops, from whom some
kind of impartial moderation might have been
expected. What distinguished opportunities were
lost to their cause when the chief among the clergy
turned their back on the Revival ! In the spring of
1760 Wesley came in contact with one whose case
was ' very peculiar.' It was held that clergymen of
the Established Church should have a University
training ; but then, ' how many have a University
education, and yet no learning at all ? ' That was
no drawback with the worldly-wise bishops of that
day ; if their candidates were only ' good Church
men ' in the conventional sense, they were readily
admitted. Mr. N  just referred to, however, was
a man * of eminent learning as well as unblamable
behaviour ' ; but he could not ' be ordained because
he was not at the University ! ' This was character
ised as a farce to which no Christian bishop might
be expected to stoop to ; but there were then men
in high places in the Church of England who could
stoop to still lower things in order to thwart the
leaders of the Revival. As ' an episcopal buffoon '
71

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Lavington of Exeter had almost outdone the
Restoration ribaldry of South himself
We need not overlook the fact, that from time to
time there was some trouble with the preachers,
here and there one not turning out as had been
expected. In the case of a large number of men
whose united service extended over half a century,
this was of course inevitable ; and, on the whole,
Methodism has a record in connection with the
preachers of which we may well be proud as well
as thankful. Especially in the earlier days of the
Revival, these men suffered much from mob
violence, which often had the sympathy of the
clergy and their friends the magistrates ; but in
some instances, in which illegal penalties were
imposed, these men found that the law had no
mercy for them. The so-called ' Justices ' of
Hertfordshire and Kent presumed to take the law
into their own hands ; and, in the latter case, when
a fine was imposed upon a local preacher, as it was
alleged by authority of the Conventicle Act, ' it
cost him some hundred pounds for his pains,'
Thus, amid alternate sunshine and shadow, the
work proceeded. When Wesley set out on his
northern journey in March 1785, he had just six
years of life before him : and what he said concern
ing the general outlook at that time may well
conclude this section of our survey, e.g. : —
' I was now considering how strangely the
grain of mustard-seed, planted about fifty years
ago, has grown up. It has spread through all
Great Britain and Ireland ; the Isle of Wight, and
72

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK
the Isle of Man ; then to America, from the
Leeward Islands, through the whole Continent,
into Canada and Newfoundland. And the Societies ,
in all these parts, walk by one rule, knowing
religion is holy tempers ; and striving to worship
God, not in form only, but likewise " in spirit and
in truth." '

73

CHAPTER IV
TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS: THE ROADS
IN the eighteenth century all travellers were an
adventurous race, who were readily excused
by the public when found to be proud of their
adventures or achievements. Anyone who visited
the more distant parts of the Empire, and then
wrote an account for the information and enter
tainment of the people, after the manner of Defoe,
was regarded as a person of daring and enterprise,
his descriptions being read with no less wonder
than admiration. We have also to bear in mind,
that in a general way natural scenery was not so
admired as is the case to-day. The Highlands of
Scotland were looked upon with more terror and
dismay than admiration, for example; so that
scenes of grandeur would be referred to as ' horrid
mountains,' even by Wesley himself, who actually
had an eye for the beautiful. Although the great
preacher did not write a book of travels, his Diary
contains numberless references to places visited
during his long itinerancy ; and Wesley more
thoroughly explored the British Isles than any
other man with whom we are acquainted.
74

TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
Under almost any circumstances, travelling on
the Continent involved not only inconvenience but
much actual hardship, as may be gathered from
the accounts of various tourists. When in August
1739 Wesley and some companions 'came to
Dresden , . . the officer at the gate would not suffer
us to come in ; so that we were obliged to go on
to the next village.' At Leipzig, a day or two
later, they were kept waiting an hour, and even
then ' the King of Prussia's tall men (who kept the
gates) would not suffer Mr. Brown to come in,'
although arrangements for his doing so were after
wards made. On account of the slower rate of
movement, distances would naturally appear much
greater than they do to us. We hear of a letter
from Virginia being received in London 'two or
three months' after it was written. The ground
which an itinerant preacher would go over in
course of a year was very great, however. ' I
wanted a little rest,' writes Wesley on reaching
London from Everton, on August 7, 1759, 'having
rode in seven months above four - and - twenty
hundred miles.' When riding was so common, or
was, rather, the usual mode of travel, a horse would
now and then die on the road, but in the summer
of 1743 Wesley and a companion each lost his
horse in a mysterious way : —
' I set out from Newcastle with John Downes of
Horsley. We were four hours riding to Ferry Hill,
about twenty measured miles. After resting there
an hour, we rode softly on, and at two o'clock
came to Dariington. I thought my horse was not
75

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
well; he thought the same of his; though they
were both young and very well the day before.
We ordered the hostler to fetch a farrier, which he
did without delay ; but before the men could
determine what was the matter, both the horses
lay down and died.'
One of the greatest dangers of the road was
from robbers ; who, notwithstanding that the
gallows were kept pretty constantly at work, seem
to have had things pretty much their own way.
Did this entry of October 1 1, 1742, really represent
a special providence ? —
' I had designed to leave London ; but Mr.
Richards being taken ill, I put off my journey.
He was much better on Tuesday ; so I set out the
next morning; and before seven in the evening
reached the half-way house, four miles short of
Hungerford, I now found that it was well I did
not set out on Monday, in order to be at Bristol
on Tuesday night as usual. For all the travellers
who went that way on Tuesday were robbed. But
on Tuesday the road was clear; so that I came
safe to Kingswood in the afternoon, and in the
evening preached at Bristol,'
The dangers from vicious or careless horses
were also considerable ; and, on the average,
coaches were far more perilous than our modern
trains. The rough paving of the streets of London
made them awkward and dangerous for driving,
and we have this example of a street accident
which happened in February 1744: —
' In returning at night from Snowsfields, at the
76

TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
corner of Joyner-street, the coach, wherein five of
us were, was overturned ; but without anyone's
being hurt; although the shock was so great as
not only to dash the fore-windows in pieces, but
to break the axle-tree in two,'
The year just named brought with it a very
wintry spring, and Wesley was subjected to some
accidents and to hardships on the road. While
passing through Newbury on March ii, 'my
horse fell and threw me into a deep mire,' he says.
On going towards Launceston on April 2, the
Cornish hills 'were covered with snow as in the
depth of winter ' ; and the travellers arrived at
Trewint ' wet and weary enough, having been
battered by the rain and hail for some hours,'
In the early months of the year following all
travellers suffered great inconvenience, or even
hardship, from snowed-up roads. On February 22
' there was so much snow about Boroughbridge,
that we could go on but very slowly.' On the
following day the roads were ' abundantly worse ' ;
the snow was deeper, the causeways being in places
impassable ' because the hard frost succeeding the
thaw had made all the ground like glass.' While
the travellers had to walk, the horses fell down several
times. Turnpike roads were not yet known in that
part of England, so that Wesley and his companions
' were at a loss how to proceed ' until ' an honest
man of Newcastle ' conducted them into the town.
' Many a rough journey have I had before, but
one like this I never had,' said Wesley : ' between
wind, and hail, and rain, and ice, and snow, and

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
driving sleet, and piercing cold.' Quite as danger
ous, probably, was the excessive rain of the early
part of 1746, a year famous for having seen the last
battle on British ground. In the neighbourhood
of Stroud, 'the brooks were so swollen with the
late rain that the common roads were impassable ;
but our guide, knowing the country, carried us
round about through the fields, so that we escaped
the dangerous waters, and soon after sunset came
(wet and dirty enough) to Eversham,'
Some days later, and farther north, this rain
changed to snow, and there was not only a great
increase of cold but some likelihood of danger
through missing the road. On the edge of the
moors a countryman was asked which was the
way to Stafford. ' Sir, 'tis a thousand pound to a
penny that you do not come there to-day,' he
replied. ' Why, 'tis four long miles to the far side
of this common ; and in a clear day, I am not sure
to go right across it : and now all the roads are
covered with snow; and it snows so that you
cannot see before you.' Nothing daunted, how
ever, the travellers went straight forward, and
came to their destination.
Winter in spring was as common then as it is
now, especially in exceptional seasons. In the far
north the hills would be covered with snow as late
as the end of April. On April 25, 1770, 'three
young women, attempting to cross the mountain
to Blair, were swallowed up in the snow.'
Of course, in those old coaching days, the
adventures on the road were more numerous and
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TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
more romantic than aught that we associate with
our modern railway trains, June 175 1 appears
to have been a wet time, ' the waters greatly out
in the road' in the neighbourhood of Epworth,
and the bridge being hidden, the York Coach was
overturned into the river. ' Yet no passenger was
hurt, only dripping wet.' By the help of a guide
alone did Wesley and some others manage to
pass. On account of the bad roads of those days a
chaise would become ' set,' as country-people say,
and at times the crisis would be such as would
baffle the resources of the most seasoned traveller.
An example of this occurred in Cheshire towards
the end of March 1772. ' I preached at Nantwich
about noon,' says Wesley, ' and then dragged
through a miserable road till, within two or three
miles of Whitechurch, the chaise stuck fast, and
all our strength could not get it a yard farther.
So I took horse and rode to the town,'
Occasionally a coach would break down through
being overloaded. While on the way to Birming
ham, ' having six persons within and eight without,
the coach could not bear the burden but broke
down about three in the morning,' Then, ' having
pitched it together,' the party went on until another
coach was procured ; ' but in an hour or two this
broke also ; and one of the horses was so thoroughly
tired, that he could hardly get one foot before the
other.' But even worse mishaps than this might
befall a traveller in those old times. ' I went to
Norwich in the stage-coach,' remarks Wesley
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
(February 15, 1779), 'with two very disagreeable
companions, called a gentleman and a gentle
woman, but equally ignorant, insolent, lewd, and
profane.' In the early days of the Revival, some consider
able risk would be incurred when those who owned
a carriage were obliging enough to ask a Methodist
preacher to take a seat in it. When preaching in
the neighbourhood of Hull in 1752, ' many behaved
as if possessed by Molech.' Dangerous missiles
flew about, and when Wesley ' went to take coach '
the driver had retreated, but a lady offered a
seat in her own coach, ' She brought some incon
veniences on herself thereby,' it is added ; ' not
only as there were nine of us in the coach, three
on each side, and three in the middle ; but also as
the mob closely attended us, throwing in at the
windows (which we did not think it prudent to
shut) whatever came next to hand. But a large
gentlewoman who sat in my lap, screened me, so
that nothing came near me,'
Such missile-throwing was of course quite illegal,
and occasionally severe punishment would be dealt
out to rioters when cases were taken into court.
In 1750 Wesley describes what kind of adventures
could be experienced at Holyhead while waiting
for the boat for Dublin : —
' At seven in the evening, just as I was going
down to preach, I heard a huge noise, and took
knowledge of the rabble of gentlemen. They had
now strengthened themselves with drink and
numbers, and placed Captain Gr  (as they called
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TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
him) at their head. He soon burst open the out
ward and inner door, struck old Robert Griffith, our
landlord, several times, kicked his wife, and with
twenty full-mouthed oaths and curses, demanded
" Where is the Parson ? " Robert Griffith came up,
and desired me to go into another room, where he
locked me in.'
At length the most effective quietus for 'the
Captain,' was the pail of water with which ' Robert
Griffith's daughter ' greeted him, and ' covered him
from head to foot.' His behaviour under that treat
ment was characteristic of a coward, however —
'He cried as well as he could, "M — urder! Murder!"
and stood very still for some moments.' Soon, he
was anxious to get away, and was allowed to
depart. To ordinary people the main roads were always
dangerous in consequence of the numbers of high
way robbers who infested them ; but, as might have
been expected, Wesley went on his way quite un
molested. ' I have travelled all roads, by day and
by night, for these forty years,' he remarks in 1777,
'and never was interrupted yet.' Nevertheless,
the revelations he makes concerning dangers to
which travellers were exposed from robbers are
striking evidence of the extreme degeneracy of
the times. 'Just at this time (1777) there was a
combination among many of the post-chaise drivers
on the Bath-road, especially those that drove in
the night, to deliver their passengers into each
other's hands. One driver stopped at the spot
they had appointed, where another waited to attack
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the chaise. In consequence of this many were
robbed.' No roadside robber who knew him would ever
have robbed John Wesley, and on account of this
immunity from such adventures we look in vain in
Wesley's Diary for any realistic descriptions of
' gentlemen of the road ' ; but from the testimony of
others not so fortunate, we pretty well know what
they were like. In the Autobiography of Captain
R. W. Eastwick we have some references to the
northern suburbs of London, as they were in
Wesley's time : ' Eastwick explored the country
round about Edmonton, and especially such wild
places as Finchley, which was then a wooded waste
infested with footpads, or the hills about Highgate
and Hornsey.' He then enters into particulars
concerning one representative character : —
' Many desperate characters haunted these parts
with designs against travellers journeying to or
from London. I remember one whom I often saw,
a well-dressed man mounted on a fine grey horse,
and who frightened me with his grey and sombre
visage. Whenever he met me on the high-road, he
would ask me what coaches or chaises I had
observed passing, and question me and cross-
question me in a bullying way, and fix me with his
piercing black eyes until I felt inclined to call out
from fright. He had a wonderful way of appearing
suddenly, and without warning, by bounding into
the middle of the road with a leap when he was
least expected, and drawing his horse up on its
haunches, all done so quickly and quietly that he
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TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
seemed like a phantom horseman, and we used
among ourselves to call him the Grey Ghost.'
Of course this man got caught and hanged ; and
a visit to the gibbet of the robber who had ex
ercised so strange a fascination over him, so
affected Eastwick as a child that a long illness was
the consequence. Think of the degraded custom
of placing such gibbets on the highways with the
idea of checking crimqi Being placed in lonely
spots they naturally inspired superstitious terror,
and must have been a source of danger to numbers
of benighted travellers of nervous temperament.
The child Eastwick visited the gibbet of his quon
dam friend the Grey Ghost, e.g. : —
' It was the first time I had looked upon Death,
and a great quaking seized me. But presently I
recovered a little, and even drew closer to him, and
impelled by some hideous prompting, I caught
hold of one of his feet and gave him a jog ; where
upon the body began to swing slowly to and fro in
the air, and with the movement his head wagged
with a curious sort of jerk, and his eyes appeared to
open and shut, so that he seemed alive again.
And now I desired to run away, but found myself
unable to do so, being fixed fast there under the
evil glance of his eyes, as he winked at me, stand
ing just beneath him, and grinned. After a little
while I felt myself beginning to grin too, and then
a fit of laughter seized me which I could not control,
and I laughed, and laughed back at him, yet with
out any meaning in my laughter, until I fell down
from exhaustion.' 83

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
It may be said that this was an exceptional
case ; but there are many on whom the sight of one
they had known in life, thus hanging in chains
at a lonely roadside spot, would have produced
similar effects. It was a custom worthy only of
barbarous laws and of less civilised times. To
solitary travellers of a nervous temperament, it
must have been almost more trying to come
suddenly upon such a frightful object as the gibbet
above described than actually to confront a live
robber on the road.
Bad roads, dirty towns reeking with the miasma
of disease, poor inns and repellent private lodgings
were all more commonplace than could be the case
to-day. Very well remembered is Johnson's
remark to Boswell on his arrival at Edinburgh, ' I
smell you in the dark,' In 175 1 Wesley referred
to the Scottish capital as 'one of the dirtiest
cities I had ever seen, not excepting Colen in
Germany.' Of course all towns were a contrast
as regarded their ill-kept condition compared with
what they are to-day. The mishaps and un
certainties of the road also added to the
uncertainties of travel — pleasurable or otherwise,
as the case might be. The following relates to
Wesley's northern journey at Midsummer 1752 : —
' I had many little trials in this journey, of a
kind I had not known before. I had borrowed
a young, strong mare, when I set out from
Manchester. But she fell lame before I got to
Grimsby. I procured another, but was dismounted
again between Newcastle and Berwick, At my
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TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
return to Manchester, I took my own: but she
had lamed herself in the pasture, I thought,
nevertheless, to ride her four or five miles to-day ;
but she was gone out of the ground, and we could
hear nothing of her. However, I comforted
myself, that I had another at Manchester, which
I had lately bought. But when I came thither, I
found one had borrowed her too, and rode her
away to Chester.'
Then even in regard to lodgings this great
chief of the Methodist preachers met with ad
ventures which would not be to the taste of
modern travellers. The time is still Midsummer
1752:— ' I preached at six to an abundance of people
near Ewood ; and with an uncommon blessing.
Hence we rode to Todmorden, The minister was
slowly recovering from a violent fit of a palsy, with
which he was struck immediately after he had
been preaching a virulent sermon against the
Methodists. I preached on the side of a mountain,
to a large and earnest congregation, and then went
on to Mellar-barn. I preached at six in the town ;
and I suppose all the inhabitants, young and old,
were present. Nor have I seen so large a
congregation, so universally and deeply affected.
My lodging was not such as I should have chosen ;
but what Providence chooses is always good. My
bed was considerably under ground, serving
both for a bed - chamber and a cellar. The
closeness was more troublesome at first than the
coolness : but I let in a little fresh air, by breaking
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
a pane of paper (put by way of glass) in the
window ; and then slept sound till the morning.'
The inconveniences as well as the pleasures of
the road greatly varied, and differed in character
in widely separated parts of the country.
Travellers would at times arrive in a town where
all the inns were full ; and even when rooms might
be obtained at a private house, there might be
nothing to eat. In one instance ' there was nothing
to be bought in the town ; neither flesh, nor fish,
nor butter nor cheese,' But even in such an
extreme case perseverance conquers ; for ' at
length we procured some eggs and bread, and
were well contented.' In those days it was usually
reported south of the Border that the Scottish
inns were repellent; but in 1753 we find Wesley
giving more favourable testimony. At Dumfries
'as well as wherever we called in our whole
journey, we had not only everything we wanted,
but everything readily and in good order, and as
clean as I ever desire,' Now and then, however,
a well-furnished board and a good bed would have
the undesirable drawback of being excessively
dear. The inconveniences might even be increased
by difficulty in procuring conveyances during
severe wintry weather. All of these hardships fell
to Wesley's lot in the Norwich district early in
1765, 'It was noon before we could procure a
post-chaise. We then pushed on, though the snow
lay deep on the ground, to the great inn at
Hockerell, the dearest house I ever was at. So
fare it well.' 86

TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
Wesley was an interested observer of Nature,
and occasionally we have accounts of natural
phenomena for which our own experience hardly
enables us to account. At the end of May 1757
he was in the Whitehaven district of Cumberland,
and he gives this description of the outlook : —
' I was surprised to see, not only hedges and
shrubs without a green leaf upon them, but
abundance of trees likewise naked as in the depth
of winter. Upon inquiring, I found that some
time before, a violent wind had gone through all
those parts, which not only threw down chimneys,
walls and barns, and tore up trees by the roots,
but scorched every green thing it touched as with
fire, so that all the leaves immediately fell off, and
not only bushes and fruit-trees, but elms, oaks, and
firs, withered away to the very roots.'
Similar effects of an uncommon kind of wind
were to be seen in the Camborne district of
Cornwall in September of the year already named,
e.g. :—
' I observed more and more the effects of that
burning wind which was in these parts on Sunday,
the 28th of last month. It not only scorched all
the leaves of the trees, so as to bring mid-winter
upon them in two hours, but burned up all the
leaves of potatoes and cabbage, and every green
thing which it touched. What a mercy it did not
come a month sooner ! Then, it would have left
little work for the reapers,'
A chief inconvenience, or even terror, to travellers
in the eighteeenth century, was the ferry. While
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
moving about by railway in various parts of the
country, we may still here or there come to a
station which is named after one of these crossings,
which in their day were more or less dreaded even
by the adventurous. At the end of July 1764
Wesley was in South Wales, ' We returned
through heavy rain to Pembroke,' In a district
where ferries abounded a persistent downpour had
the natural effect of swelling the streams, or even
of turning large rivers into rushing torrents. After
leaving Pembroke, the travellers 'rode up and
down steep and stony mountains for about five
hours,' when on coming to Larn a ferry confronted
them. There, however, they were fortunate in
procuring ' a pretty ready passage,' and this sent
them forward in good spirits to Lansteffan, There
they met with adventures of a more alarming kind,
not in the stream itself, but in its approaches —
' We were in some danger of being swallowed up
in the mud before we could reach the water.'
When at length he reached Kidwelly, after being
seven hours in the saddle, Wesley was a wiser man
than when he set out ; for in the same time ' we
could have rode round by Carmarthen with more
ease both to man and beast.' It was meet, there
fore, that travellers should adopt their methods to
the circumstances of the situation. ' I have taken
my leave of these ferries,' remarks Wesley, and he
did so for sufficient reason : ' Considering we save
no time in crossing them (not even when we have
a ready passage), and so have all the trouble,
danger, and expense, clear gains. I wonder that
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TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
any man of common sense, who has once made
the experiment, should ever ride from Pembroke
to Swansea any other way than by Carmarthen.'
Far more perilous even than ferries at their
worst were certain wide stretches of sand on the
seashore, across which it was not safe to venture
without a guide who was well acquainted with the
dangerous spots. While he was a careful, he was
at all times a perfectly fearless traveller, who
observed proper precautions and then trusted in
God, On the last day of July ' an honest man of
Kidwelly told us there was no difficulty in riding
the sands ; so we rode on,' However honest the
man might be he had given very dangerous advice.
Ten minutes later a man came up who was
accustomed to act as guide ; ' and it was well he
did, or in all probability we had been swallowed
up.' Probably no more dangerous flat track of
ground was to be found in the British Isles. ' The
whole sands are at least ten miles over, with many
streams of quicksands intermixed ; ' but with a
competent guide the travellers were as safe as they
would have been on a high-road.
Just about two years later, or at Midsummer
1766, Wesley and his travelling companion Duncan
Wright were actually 'embogged' in the Solway
Firth district After a short halt at Dumfries the
travellers determined to push forward ' before the
sea was come in,' There was another inn which
they wished to reach, and on making inquiries,
they were directed to take what seemed to be a
straight road ; but in a few minutes ' Duncan
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Wright was embogged ' ; but because ' the horse
plunged on,' Duncan got through and climbed out
somewhat after the manner of Christian's escape
from the Slough of Despond, Wesley himself
was less fortunate, and presently his situation
became less heroic, ' I was inclined to turn back,'
he remarks ; ' but Duncan telling me I needed
only go a little to the left, I did so, and sank at
once to my horse's shoulders. He sprung up
twice, and twice sunk again, each time deeper than
before. At the third plunge he threw me on one
side, and we both made shift to scramble out I
was covered with fine, soft mud, from my feet to
the crown of my head ; yet, blessed be God, not
hurt at all,' It was not considered prudent to
attempt to cross for some time afterwards ; and
then, happily, ' an honest man ' again appeared on
the scene, who went some two miles out of his way
in order to act as guide. On coming to Skilburness,
Wesley and Duncan 'found a little clean house
and passed a comfortable night'
In the days of Wesley's itinerancy over the
British Isles short sea-crossings, which are now
effected by fast and comfortable passenger steamers,
were actually hazardous voyages. In the case of
the Isle of Wight, one who wished to cross from
Portsmouth had the choice of hiring a wherry or
making one among many other passengers on a
hoy. In October 1758 Wesley declined the
wherry because ' the watermen were so extravagant
in their demands.' It was not long before he had
cause to be thankful that he had done so ; ' for the
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TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
sea was so high, it would not have been easy for a
small boat to keep above water.' On landing, it
was found to be ' five little miles to Newport.'
The crossing from the Land's End to the Scilly
Isles was of course more formidable or dangerous
on account of the greater length of passage ; real
were the dangers of those seas where many brave
ships had met their fate, including some which
belonged to the British navy. In the early days
of his itinerancy Wesley had frequently expressed
the wish to preach in the Scilly Isles, ' if it were
but for one day.' When he was at the Land's End
in September 1743, three friends volunteered to
undertake the voyage if the Mayor's boat could be
procured, that being the best sailer. Accordingly,
Wesley and two friends ' with three men and a
pilot' set sail from St. Ives, The passage then
occupied the greater part of a day, and was trying
to the nerves of timid people. ' It seemed strange
to me to attempt going in a fisher-boat fifteen
leagues upon the main ocean,' says Wesley ;
'especially when the waves began to swell, and
hang over our heads.' On landing at St. Mary's
early in the afternoon, the visitors ' immediately
waited upon the Governor, with the usual present,
viz, a newspaper,' Although the poor islanders
had a minister who was not willing that Wesley
should preach in the church, they contrasted very
favourably with the mob at St. Ives, who would
violently oppose the fpreachers, 'roaring, and
striking those that stood in their way, as though
Legion himself possessed them.' On the return
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
voyage it was not reassuring to hear the pilot say
' we should have good luck if we reached the land,'
but all ended well.
Travelling by chair may have been considered
the most effeminate mode of locomotion ; for when
still weak from recent illness we find Wesley
yielding to a gentleman's offer to be carried in his
chair to Brentford. In a usual way, however, he was
always best accommodated when on horseback. On
a certain occasion, indeed, in 1777, when his heart
was ' much out of order,' he derived direct benefit
during a ride from York to Tadcaster : ' I borrowed
a horse ; but as he was none of the easiest, in
riding three miles I was so thoroughly electrified,
that the pain in my heart was quite cured.'
Although no man was ever more indebted to
fresh air than Dr, Johnson, he affected to believe
that neither fresh air nor exercise had anything to
do with good health. Even great men who talk
much are sure to say some things beside the mark,
and his most ardent admirers must admit that
Dr. Johnson talked more than his share of non
sense. According to his observation, people lived
as long in Pepper Alley as others did on Salisbury
Plain ! To Wesley, exercise and fresh air were
a panacea for many human ills, and without them
his favourite electricity might have been found
wanting. Just before he started on his western
journey in the summer of 175 1, he happened to
call on ' a gentleman in the City ' who was not only
' thin and pale,' but showed ' all the marks of an
approaching consumption.' Forthwith, the friend
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TRAVELLING AND TRAVELLERS
Weis asked if he did not think that a journey would
do him ' more good than a heap of medicines ? '
He thought that it might be so, and, accordingly,
he set out with Wesley for Cornwall,
Thus, we see that travelling in the eighteenth
century was more adventurous than it is in our
times. It was in a sense more romantic ; but those
who prefer comfort and swiftness will appreciate
the changes which have resulted in things being
as they are to-day.

93

CHAPTER V
SOME PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
IN those memorable days of what we may call a
second Reformation, when as a duty, year after
year, Wesley regularly made his tour of the country,
the difference between town and village life would
not be so great as it is at present. The reason is
obvious ; for many centres which are now great
and densely crowded towns, were then little more
than what we should now call large villages. The
heavy drawback of life in a great town at the
opening of the twentieth century is that the
country is too far off to be readily accessible ; but
in early Georgian days the trees and the fields
were not in any instance far away from the City's
boundaries. At the same time, a tourist who
travelled a hundred miles or so from the capital
may have found the contrast between London and
the country in some respects greater than it is to
ourselves. The towns generally, as well as places
at the seaside, which began to be more largely
visited, all had their own local manners and
customs, which of course added fresh entertain
ment to the visitors. In town and country alike,
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
there was less of hurry and excitement. Life
under such conditions had many compensations
which we do not possess; but, nevertheless, the
eighteenth century can hardly be regarded as the
golden age for home comfort and outdoor enjoy
ment. People had more leisure and did their work
more quietly. There existed what would be to us
formidable drawbacks, and the promises of Puritan
ism had not been realised. No social or political
seer could have descried the wonderful develop
ments of the future.
As regarded town and village life alike, as
contrasted with that of London, a chief character
istic was its seclusion, Wesley was always in
love with the country ; he took in the charms of
a fine landscape at a glance, and so differed from
his friend Dr. Johnson, who was too short-sighted
to see either pictures or natural scenery. It was
because the country thus became monotonous to
him that Johnson liked the outlook of Fleet Street
better than the finest view of the Scottish High
lands. The seclusion of country life was perfect ;
it must have offered great charm to genuine lovers
of unbroken quiet and retirement.
Each village or town community was more
completely isolated from the rest of the world
than can readily be realised. Through the badness
of roads, and the consequent difficulty of transit,
bread might be excessively dear in one county
and cheap in another ; and even after the forming
of canals, which were of great benefit in equalising
the supplies, prices would very considerably vary.
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Comparatively few persons travelled far from the
place of their nativity, for the reason that they
were unable to do so. The rich kept horses, or
they travelled by coach or post-chaise; the poor
walked, or, if they could afford the luxury, paid
for a place in a waggon to visit the county town,
which was to them the most distinguished place in
the world. Especially when viewed at a distance,
there is charm in the seclusion then characteristic
of such towns or villages ; but that charm comes
chiefly from the descriptions of old-time writers
who have referred to the subject. If we could
come to nearer acquaintance with it, however, the
lack of what are now commonplace advantages,
the low condition of the common people, as well
as a very much smaller middle-class than now
adds wealth to the country, would at once correct
our illusion. The ignorant lacked instructors ; the
cultivated might be found pining for companion
ship; and those who, like Dr. Johnson, valued
social enjoyment above everything else in life,
naturally thought that there was no hope for them
but to seek refuge in London.
Inns, as taverns or public-houses were then
commonly called, were quite a distinctive national
institution. In course of his constant travels
Wesley was of course compelled to make use of
roadside hostelries ; he could have better told one
which were the good inns, and which were more
indifferent, about the country than any other man
of his time. No man more ardently testified
against the abuse of a thing, however ; and the
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
drinking customs of the time tended toward abuse
in this direction even in the case of professing
Christian people, in a way which now would be
contrary to our ideas of propriety.
A case in point happened when Wesley was a
young man, and some few years prior to the
breaking out of that glorious Revival which we
associate with Methodism, At Bridlington in
Yorkshire there was a divine of superior scholar
ship who had turned Nonconformist after he had
received a University training for the Established
Church, By name George Braithwaite, this man
was a good preacher and able writer, and was,
besides, a genuine spiritually - minded man, who
was a long way ahead of his time as a social
reformer. As an observer of life and of popular
tendencies even in the church, he was led to
publish a small work — The Nation's Reproach, and
the Church s Grief ; or a Serious, Needful Word of
Advice to those who Needlessly Frequent Taverns, and
Public-houses, and often spend the Evenings There.
This custom was so general among all ranks of
people, that even a Christian pastorwho objected was
looked upon as a mere faddist ; and in this instance
such a furor was raised, that Braithwaite resigned
his pastorate, left that part of the country and
settled in London,
It is sometimes supposed that our peasants have
suffered rather than benefited by modern improve
ments. 'The good old times' are a reality to
many elderly people who do not realise that they
themselves have altered far more than the times.
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
In the earlier days of the Revival, Wesley gave
full attention to Eversham and its lovely valley
watered by the Avon ; but the enemy was so
strong, that in 1761 he 'found the poor shattered
Society sunk almost to nothing,' It was difficult
to make any impression on the people ; and on one
occasion, while preaching in the Town Hall, many
of the congregation walked to and fro, ' laughing
and talking as if they had been in Westminster
Abbey.' Years later the opposing mob had their
chief encouragement from a local magistrate ; but
in regard to dirt and stones, the peasants were less
violent than some others. The rich and beautiful
natural outlook was a sorry contrast indeed to the
poverty and degradation of the working classes.
No man was ever more disposed to make allowances
than Wesley; and he well knew that want and
squalor were the cause of many other evils. When
parents were hard -pinched there would be less
chance of any school being found for the children ;
and when there was unceasing worry about
temporal supplies, even the spiritual needs of the
soul might be also allowed to go to the wall.
Thus a gross and ignorant age is necessarily one
of suffering ; sanitation and the welfare of the poor
have something to do with Christianity.
The drawbacks to daily life in the Vale of
Eversham in the days of Wesley's prime were very
evident, and he would warmly sympathise with the
sufferers. Village bakers preferred for humble
folk to be in their debt in order that there should
be no restriction on short weight and poor quality.
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
It was not uncommon for a shilling loaf to be
found half a pound short weight ; and, besides, it
might be 'so badly manufactured that it was
almost impossible for any human being to eat it.'
It was believed that bakers and farmers combined
to raise wheat to an artificial value at the expense
of the poor. We can hardly wonder that some
years later there were complaints that the degraded
condition of the peasants was strengthening their
tendency to crime. The clergy are mentioned as
being spectators rather than actors in the cause of
reformation ; and their aid was asked in bringing
in a better state of things. We do not know to
what pass things might not have come had not the
Methodist Revival had the effect of improving the
outlook. Happily, there are more cheerful pictures of life,
especially as regards those who were not of the
peasant class. The American War not only
darkened the last quarter of the eighteenth
century, it caused a heavy rise in the price of the
necessaries of life. Nevertheless, it was possible
for persons of independent means to choose a place
of residence where supplies were much cheaper
than the average market value. Thus, one such
person wrote in 1783: 'I have been a great
traveller, and have occasionally visited many parts
of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but have never
met with any residence where a retired family
might make a small independent income go as far
as at Bridgnorth, and with so many advantages.'
It was also noticed that in the town mentioned
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
freedom from epidemical diseases was enjoyed even
when they were raging in the districts around. The
distance of one hundred and forty miles from London
made it too far for perishable supplies to be sent
thither. Pigeons were about a penny each ; farm
and garden produce was surprisingly cheap ; while
fish without stint could be had for nothing by
disciples of Walton who were addicted to ' the
contemplative man's recreation.' House rent was
excessively cheap ; and it must have been a
kind of golden age for those who needed domestic
servants. ' I knew an elderly gentlewoman here
lately,' writes our unknown informant just referred
to, ' who had a most handy and diligent servant-
maid, that lived with her several years, even to her
death, for fifty shillings per annum wages.'
The Bridgnorth resident does not enlighten us
concerning the poor ; but, without doubt, the truth
was that rich supplies and beautiful landscapes,
here as elsewhere, failed to contribute to the moral
and religious elevation. It is suggestive that
Wesley betrays some misgivings on account of his
people when they were found to ' increase in
goods.' The well - to - do too often took it for
granted that those beneath them must necessarily
be degraded. Instead of contributing in any way
to advance their true interests, the rich contented
themselves by giving their doles, which may prob
ably have done more harm than good. Some
would tell us that the times were more sociable
than our own, and that there was more hospitality ;
but the society, such as it was, would be very
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
select; in a sense, the proverb was verified, only
birds of a feather flew together. In and around
Bridgnorth, music was very generally cultivated,
and musical assemblies were common ; but it is
hardly likely that such reunions did anything to
break down the partition wall of social distinction.
It is shown that the Gospel flourished in some
measure in the town and surrounding villages ;
but by an ordinary man of the world religious
matters would be referred to in a way which is
not very reassuring. In a conventional way
religious services may be reckoned among popular
attractions ; but they are evidently minor ones
when put in the balance with plentiful supplies
and cheap markets. Still, church services are
mentioried as advantages not to be ignored,
especially by 'persons in the decline of life who
wish to be supported by the comforts of reli
gion.' Prospective residents are told of 'spacious
churches ' wherein prayer is ' daily performed
throughout the year,' sermons being preached
regularly on Sundays, The idea of 'performing
the Common Prayer' would hardly have been to
the taste of Wesley and leaders of the Revival as
being in keeping with the principles of the Reforma
tion ; but the phrase is still used by some prison
chaplains, and by others whose patois is merely
conventional. Then it is a symptom of apathy and
deadness when religion is supposed to be chiefly
suitable for those who are in the decline of life.
It was thought to be a drawback, that the clergy
should be so often drawn from the lower strata of
lOI

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
society ; and it is never a hopeful sign when social
prestige is rated higher than capacity for service.
Where would Wesley and his work have been if
he had been guided by such a principle ? But
while the Methodist leader confined himself to
scriptural methods, he was always a keen observer
of human nature, and one who was always in
terested in the characteristics or tendencies of the
times. The peasantry, the middle-class, genteel
people, the clergy, all had their separate aims, and
probably thought more of their welfare as a class
than of the prosperity of the country at large.
Thus, the country gentleman, as he lived at home
in those far-off times, seems to open to us the vista
of an obsolete world. One observer, writing in
1780, says: 'I never see a young heir fluttering
about town in the circle of gaiety without feeling
an emotion of compassion. In a few years, when
he comes to be supplanted in that circle by a
younger set, no resource remains for him but a
retreat to the country, where he must either pass
his days in listless inactivity or pursuits unworthy
of a rational being,' When compared with the
experience of Sir Roger de Coverley, as sketched
by Addison, this may appear to be a somewhat
prejudiced view ; but Sir Roger is an ideal, rather
than an actual, character. The conventional
countiy gentleman, as portrayed by one who
took notice of his ways in the time of Wesley,
^^'as an ennui-worvied and worrying being, whose
chief drawback in life was want of occupation to
keep him out of mischief; and who at the same
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
time went about as though the care of the country
side weighed upon him. It seemed to be his
special vocation to correct shortcomings in the
poor ; even the peccadilloes of peasant neighbours
would at times rouse his anger in an extraordinary
manner. ' From living in a narrow circle,' remarks
a contemporary observer of the country gentleman
as Wesley knew him, ' he had contracted a peculi
arity in his notions which sometimes amused from
its oddity ; and from conversing chiefly with per
sons rather of an inferior station to himself, he
had become as tenacious of his opinions as if they
had been self-evident truths, and as impatient
of contradiction as if to differ from him had been
a crime.' The kind of relationship which existed between
landowners and the classes beneath them is further
shown in the regrets which many expressed on
account of a loss of rustic simplicity, which, it was
alleged, had taken place. Such alleged deteriora
tion of manners doubtless chiefly existed in the
imaginations of elderly persons ; but there may
still have been some foundation for complaints
which were made concerning ill effects which
followed the adulteration of village life by the
dissipated manners of the capital. According to
certain conservative rustics who were very out
spoken in regard to rural grievances, good roads
and well-appointed coaches had brought about
many changes for the worse, 'When my Lord
and the Esquire and the Rector, left off keeping
Christmas at the old mansion, the country felt the
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
want of ancient hospitality and affability,' we find
one remarking : ' the sick poor man lost the foster
ing hand of his richer neighbour or master, and
the friendly advice of the worthy Justice, or pious
pastor. But when they brought down a suite who
imported the fashions of London, an insensible
change was wrought in the farmers' sons, and
communicated to the whole parish.' Girls were
demora,lised in common with their brothers, so
that Goldsmith's account of how the daughters
of Dr. Primrose were captivated by the follies of
fashion may not be over-coloured. Girls became
dissatisfied with the plainness of country life ; while
they hoped to relieve its monotony by imitating the
airs and dress of those who follow the fashion of
the town. Of course snares were laid for such
unknowing ones ; and of course, like unwary birds,
they fell into them. We thus, as it were, look into
those old times through the spectacles of elderly
persons who were then living ; but certain of the
tendencies complained of are common to every age.
It is seen that in those days, in common with our
own times, undesirable amusements were in antag
onism to true religion. Thus we find it stated,
that ' another grand source of the corruption
of the rustic mind is the introduction of theatres
into almost every market-town, either by authority
of Parliament or in defiance of it.' The ques
tion of the general tendency of stage-plays is too
large a one to be discussed here; it is enough
to give the testimonies of eye-witnesses as we find
them. In Christian circles theatres and lotteries
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
were regarded as working hand-in-hand together
for the lowering of the standard of public morality.
The low condition of life in villages and towns
alike, both morally and spiritually, is vividly shown
in the experience of Hannah More, who dis
tinguished herself as a philanthropist before such
efforts as she made among the poor became
fashionable. The details are too well known to
need being repeated ; but although Miss More was
not at first so evangelical as the Wesleys and their
preachers, her work was no doubt inspired by the
Revival which was sweeping through the British
Isles, The gross ignorance of the lower orders
was quite equalled by the intolerance of those who
were supposed to be their betters. Incredible as
some of the admissions of Hannah More may seem
to be, her adventures were similar to those of
others in the same field. It was remarked by
William Jay of Bath : ' The spiritual condition of
many of the villagers was deplorable, and the
people were perishing for lack of knowledge. No
one cared for their souls,' As a student. Jay had
been accustomed to visit the villages around
Marlborough. As teachers of the poor, he and others
were careful to avoid giving any occasion of offence ;
they abstained from preaching during church hours ,
after Wesley's example; and no services at all
were held in time of hay or wheat harvest. Not
withstanding such carefulness, however, some of
their rough adventures almost rivalled the experi
ences of Wesley and Whitefield in days when the
work of an evangelist meant Christian heroism.
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Still, in the main, they providentially escaped
through accepting a tutor's good advice not to rail
at others nor to assume that they alone were
preachers of the Gospel, ' Yet Mr. Winter's horse was
cruelly cropped and maimed at Ablington, where
he had preached on the Sabbath,' adds Mr, Jay;
and there were places, and not a few out of our
own Circuits, where, though there was little or
nothing exceptionable in the preaching, the carnal
mind showed itself, not only in secret malignity,
but in open outrage. The excitement of the
ignorant populace was commonly produced by the
clergyman, the squire, and some of the stupid and
intemperate farmers.'
The condition in general of the people of Olney,
where William Cowper passed several years during
the later part of Wesley's life, reveals some of the
best, as well as some of the worst, phases of town
and village life in the eighteenth century. The poet
remarks : ' Olney is a populous place, inhabited
chiefly by the half-starved and ragged of the earth,
and it is not possible for our small party and small
ability to extend their operations so far as to be
much felt among such numbers.' The staple trade
was the manufacture of cheap laces ; but the
work-people were in a poverty-stricken condition
consequent on a fall in prices. They were divided
into two very distinct classes whom the poet de
scribes : ' In this town, where the Gospel has been
preached so many years, where the people have
been favoured so long with laborious and con
scientious ministers, it is not an easy thing to find
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
those who make no profession of religion at all, and
are yet proper objects of charity. The profane are
so profane, so drunken, dissolute, and in every
respect worthless, that to make them partakers of
his bounty would be to abuse it,' This refers to
a grant of money which a Mr, Smith had sent
for the relief of the poor. It is pleasant to learn
that in spite of grinding poverty, industry and
honesty frequently characterised the same persons ;
but such was the condition of the people generally,
that 'the most watchful and unremitting labour'
barely sufficed to procure them bread. I am not
aware that Wesley ever preached at Olney ; but
in course of his constant travels he would become
acquainted with other similar instances of the
privations of the poor. As the parish church of
Olney was for so long served by a succession of
evangelical preachers, Wesley may have avoided
the town, thinking that other places more urgently
needed attention. Then residents like the poet
and Mrs. Unwin, as strong adherents of White-
field and the Calvinists, would show a somewhat
one-sided sympathy with the Methodist Revival.
Otherwise, Cowper's picture of how people lived is
a revelation of hardship and suffering on the one
hand, and a determination on the part of many to
lay hold of better and more enduring things than
anything earth could supply. No doubt that
Cowper himself was as contented in such a place
as he would have been elsewhere, although at
times he too felt the inconvenience of straitened
means. He preferred the quiet of provincial life
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
to the excitement and business of London, which
in his saner moments he actually abhorred.
Thus, in the life of Cowper we see some of the
best, as well as the more objectional, phases of
provincial life in the eighteenth century. We see
what were the charms of genteel prestige and
learned leisure before the era of modern progress
set in. We see also that, with about half its
present population, the country showed the exist
ence of poverty on a large scale ; while popular
disturbances at elections, and even at less harmless
functions, would reach a climax in riot which
sometimes seemed to be a symptom of revolution.
The little world of Olney showed many suggestive
contrasts. At one time our poet, having turned
glazier, needs a diamond before he can replace
the broken kitchen windows. He makes reference
to pine-plants, and also to tame pigeons which
were fed on the garden walk when he was in one
of his happiest moods. But who can realise what
an election riot was like in a provincial town in
those good old times ? During the Parliamentary
campaign of 1784, the opposing candidates adopted
the very desirable, but most unusual, resolution
that no public-houses should be open for the
giving of free refreshment to the common people.
The mere mention of such an innovation aroused
popular indignation to fever heat ; to put it in
practice naturally produced a dangerous riot.
The more we look into its characteristics, the
more clearly does the eighteenth century seem to
stand out as a period by itself, differing as greatly
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
from times which went before, as well as from
those which followed. Daily life seems to have
gone on in a more leisurely manner ; no one fore
saw the marvellous peaceful revolution which
science and industrial enterprise were about to
effect. It was a period of great opportunities,
many of which were never turned to account,
partly owing to the wave of Socinianism, which
had the effect of checking or deadening Christian
enterprise. While such things are serious draw
backs, the eighteenth century has interesting
features which are peculiarly its own.
At different times much has been said about
the amiable life and simple manners of George III.
and Queen Caroline. Wesley had a good opinion
even of George II. as a king; and accordingly
he would have a far greater reverence for his
successor, the personal character of the man him
self being so much higher. Being a Christian
man, he was farmer-like in build and habit; he
has even been supposed to have been typical of
John Bull, who represents the English nation. In
the early years of a very long reign, the good
King loved rural retirement ; and a contemporary
magazine sketch of royal life at Kew in the
summer of 1775 is one of the pleasantest things
to be met with in historical byways.
George HI, was then thirty-seven years of age.
The custom was for both King and Queen to rise
each morning at six o'clock, and for two hours
the time was considered to be especially their own.
At eight o'clock the Prince of Wales, then aged
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
thirteen, the Princess Royal, and some other
juveniles of the household, were 'brought from
their several houses to Kew House to breakfast
with their illustrious relatives.' An hour later,
' their younger children attend to lisp their good-
morrows,' it is added ; ' and whilst the five eldest
are closely applying to their task, their little ones
and their nurses pass the whole morning in
Richmond Gardens,'
The King and Queen made a pastime of seeing
their children dine; and occasionally the whole
family together made ' the delightful tour ' of the
extensive pleasure-grounds attached to the palace.
The hours of the afternoon were whiled away in
an equally pleasant manner; for while Queen
Caroline plied her needle, her royal husband read
to her ; the well-matched couple having thus shown
as charming a picture of domestic felicity as could
then have been found. The anonymous writer
adds : ' Topography is one of his favourite studies ;
he copies every capital chart, takes the models of
all the celebrated fortifications, knows the sound
ings of the chief harbours in Europe, and the
strong and weak side of most fortified towns. He
can name every ship in his navy, and he keeps
lists of the commanders.' It was seen, neverthe
less, that George 111,'s education had been neglected;
otherwise, more might have been expected of him
' in the arts of government,' Whether George
was conscious of educational deficiencies, is not
mentioned; but, if so, he was not willing that
others should suffer in a similar way ; for ' eight
no

PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
hours close application to the languages and the
liberal sciences ' was the young people's daily task.
In an age characterised by luxury and excess,
both in eating and drinking, Wesley, by precept
and example, gave his testimony in favour of
temperance in a very unmistakable way; but in
this respect his voice was that of one preaching
in the wilderness. A spare, plain diet, no dram-
drinking, and great moderation in beer and wine,
would have been Wesley's prescription ; and he
plainly perceived that one of the chief causes of
ill-health was excess in diet and its accompani
ments. As regarded the King, he was an exemplar
such as Wesley himself must have gratefully
approved ; for it was said that ' his Majesty feeds
chiefly on vegetables, and drinks little wine: the
Queen is what many private gentlemen would call
whimsically abstemious; for at a table covered
with dainties, she culls the plainest and simplest
dish, and seldom eats of more than two things at
a meal.' What pleased people still more, English
manufactures were encouraged at the palace ; and
tradesmen's bills were all regularly paid once a
quarter. There was a dark background to the
pleasant picture, however; for symptoms of the
King's insanity had already appeared, although the
people knew nothing of the matter.
The characteristics of daily life away from
London afforded many contrasts in different parts
of the United Kingdom ; and in remote corners
of Scotland and Ireland such contrasts may be
quite as remarkable now as was the case a century
III

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
and a half ago. As a traveller, Wesley was a
hero in his day ; and that distinction would have
been accorded him had he written more about
the scenes he had looked upon, and the adventurous
experiences he had passed through in his travels.
In the accounts of his travels, Defoe had already
revealed to Londoners what was practically an
unknown world — the outlook and daily life of the
provinces, Dr, Johnson's Scottish Tour was read
with similar wonder. After describing a Highland
hut, having a fire on its earth floor, and a hole in
the roof to carry off the smoke. Dr. Johnson adds :
' Such is the general structure of the houses in
which one of the nations of this opulent and
powerful island has been hitherto content to live.'
Still, Boswell shows that many in the country of
Loch Ness were content : ' I perceived a little hut,
with an old-looking woman at the door of it I
thought here might be a scene that would amuse
Dr. Johnson ; so I mentioned it to him. " Let's go
in,' said he. We dismounted, and we and our guides
entered the hut. It was a wretched little hovel of
earth only, I think, and for a window had only a
small hole, which was stopped with a piece of turf,
that was taken out occasionally to let in light. In
the middle of the room or space which we entered
was a fire of peat, the smoke going out at a hole
in the roof She had a pot upon it, with goat's
flesh boiling. There was at one end, under the
same roof, but divided by a kind of partition made
of wattles, a pen or fold in which we saw a good
many kids,' 112

PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
The woman asked her visitors to partake of re
freshment ; and it seems she walked four Scottish
miles to attend the kirk service. Her poverty and
daily hardship did not depress her heart ; and they
do not seem to have been an obstacle to progress
in the Christian life.
But both Addison and Goldsmith give us pictures
which are an insight into the rural life of their
time more charming than anything told by John
son, whose sight was too bad to allow of his seeing
nature or life to perfection. Who that has read
for a purpose at all is not familiar with their
descriptions? But of course the pictures of the
best side of country life either in the Spectator
or in the Vicar of Wakefield have to be taken
with a grain of salt. The notions of Dr. Primrose
concerning the world and the Church, appear to
have been in advance of those of others about
him ; while Sir Roger de Coverley is typical of
the best class of landlords of Queen Anne's reign.
He is 'a great lover of mankind,' whose tenants
grow rich, while his servants always look satisfied.
At the same time, servants who could idolise
their master could still be so superstitious that
at the time of Sir Roger's first coming to the
estate the supposed haunted mansion had to be
exorcised by the chaplain's sleeping successively
in the reputedly haunted rooms. Although Sir
Roger is represented as being a father in the village,
and professedly a great patron of religion, his
character is in measure made up of inconsistencies.
It is still fair to note, however, that those grosser
H 113

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
habits depicted by another hand were never
intended by Addison to make part of Sir Roger's
character at all. He favoured education ; and
he gave Bibles to boys and girls who answered
best at the catechisings. Despite the reformation
he is credited with having effected, we fail to
discover that he is more than a moral teacher;
and he is commended for the practice of preaching
other people's sermons ! The fact is that Sir
Roger is a type of the country squire who liked
better the fare which his own money provided
than the cut-and-dried platitudes which were then
characteristic of the average village pulpit. The
chaplain receives a present 'of all the good
sermons that have been printed in English ' ; but
only on the understanding that ' every Sunday he
would pronounce one of them in the pulpit,' On
a certain Saturday afternoon the squire is heard
asking ' Who preached to-morrow ? ' and the
chaplain replies, ' The Bishop of St Asaph in the
morning, and Dr, South in the afternoon,' sermons
from those preachers being selected for reading at
the services, Mr. Spectator then adds, concerning
the chaplain : ' He then showed us his list of
preachers for the whole year, when I saw with
pleasure, Archbishop TiUotson, Bishop Sanderson,
Doctor Barrow, Doctor Calamy, with several
living authors who have published discourses of
practical divinity.' Much of this so-called ' practical
divinity ' would not have been valued by Wesley,
and this would especially be the case with the
moral legalism of the Archbishop. In his blunt
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
outspokenness, Whitefield went even so far as to
say that TiUotson knew no more about the Gospel
than a Hottentot. Addison's idea was, however,
that if clergymen in the crowded ranks of medi
ocrity read discourses by good preachers in place
of 'laborious compositions of their own,' their
hearers would benefit no less than themselves.
He fails to see that indolent pastors, who give
out what has been prepared by others, become
still more incompetent and unprofitable. Still, a
village congregation fed as he suggests, would
have fared better than would otherwise have been
the case. While lacking evangelical sympathies,
Addison does not seem to have detected in what
pastoral deficiencies consisted. He interests us
while writing about the charms of Sunday,
maintaining that 'if keeping holy the seventh day
were only a human institution, it would have been
the best method that could have been thought of
for the civilising of mankind ' ; but his ideal
country-folk are not such as know themselves to
be sinners who need a Saviour. His ideal villagers
meet to join in the Common Prayer, to learn
what their duties are, to talk over the events of
the week beneath the shadow of the parish church,
'A country- fellow distinguishes himself as much
in the churchyard as a citizen does upon the
'Change,' Still, such country customs are as
common to-day as they were in the eighteenth
century, when Wesley set his face against them.
Wesley honestly thought that George II. was one
of the best of kings; but until the Methodist
US

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Revival set in, the reign was quite unfavourable to
religion. Nevertheless, many charming cases of
pastoral diligence and of rural simplicity were
brought to light, all being welcome revelations of
eighteenth-century life.
In the early part of the second half of the
century, accounts were written to show the extreme
poverty of the clergy in many remote villages. Some
useful pastors, who set a good example in their own
family, no less than in their parishes, seem to have
no more to live upon than agricultural labourers,
A curiosity in its way is a contemporary letter
of an anonymous writer which was said to be
authentic : —
' Going into a clergyman's house I found him
sitting at a long square table such as is commonly
used in this (north) country by the lower class of
people, dressed in a coarse blue smock, trimmed
with black horn buttons ; a checked shirt, a
leathern strap about his neck for a stock, a coarse
apron, and a pair of great heavy wooden-soled
shoes, plated with iron to preserve them, what we
call clogs in these parts, with a child upon his
knee eating his breakfast,' The slender stipend
was supplemented by a small grant from Queen
Anne's Bounty, and he worked at wool-spinning
when he should have been in his study. There
was a numerous family as well as an ailing wife,
and both the latter and her husband charmed
visitors by good-humoured contentment, common
sense, and ingenuity. Another friend who visited
this clergyman added : ' His family, not excepting
1x6

PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
himself, is clothed with stuff of his own manu
facture ; and if I add that necessity has put him
upon working out of the fleece, even to the making
them up into wearing apparel, it is but what I have
been credibly told. . . . Yet notwithstanding the
narrowness of Mr. W.'s circumstances, I don't
apprehend that his family want the common
necessaries of life ; but what will not the fear of
want put a man upon doing ? ' The good man
contrived so to manage his affairs that he rather
saved a little instead of lapsing into debt ; and
being a model of Christian contentment, he never
troubled himself about preferment All of his
parishioners were satisfied with him, while the
incumbent himself was fondly attached to his flock.
One said of him : ' The plainness of his dress, the
sanctity of his manners, the simplicity of his
doctrine, and the vehemence of his expression, have
a sort of resemblance to the pure practice of
primitive Christianity,' Having been thus dis
covered and written about, the poor clergyman
no doubt attracted for a time much popular
attention. We have to remember, however, that
the necessaries of life were then much cheaper
than they are now ; and that his Lenten fare was
probably quite as good as that of Wesley and
many of the Methodist preachers.
Personally, the poor clergyman had no complaint
to make in regard to the hardness of his lot. On
the contrary, his confession was : ' I am situated
greatly to my satisfaction with regard to the con
duct of my auditory, who not only live in the
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
happy ignorance of the follies and vices of the age,
but in mutual peace and goodwill with one another,
and are seemingly, and I hope really too, good
Christians,' Being the youngest of twelve children,
and born of obscure parents, he never inherited any
money of his own, but his wife's dowry of forty
pounds was turned to good account Hence, he
added : ' Though my income has been but small,
and my family large, yet by a providential blessing
upon my diligent endeavours, the kindness of
friends, and a cheap country to live in, we have
always had the necessaries of life,' Under such
conditions as these, there might be some romance
in everyday eighteenth-century village life.
At the time in question there were many
customs connected with the seasons which were
naturally much more thought about when a village
or town was more of a separate community than is
the case at present, the majority of the unlettered
inhabitants then being less dependent on the out
side world. May-Day, Midsummer, Michaelmas,
Christmas, would each in turn have observances
somewhat different from the popular fashion nowa
days. When the means of locomotion were slow
and uncertain, there were numbers of people who
contracted a passionate love of country ways. The
strains in the distance of 'the merrie ploughboy,'
' the mower singing blithe,' or, what was still more
effective, ' the plaintive ditty of a milkmaid,' were
more acceptable than the most finished perform
ances of musical art An elderly person is found
looking back on 'the pure delights of that
n8

PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
enchanting period when the heart was always open
to mirth and joy.' The reference is to days spent
at a rectory homestead in the middle of the
eighteenth century. It was plainly seen then, as
now, that loneliness steals over humanity when age
comes on, unless there is the possession of a better
hope. Wealth and fame are no substitutes, as those
find to their cost who lay up treasure on earth alone.
Many an able and successful man has realised that
he has been living in a fool's paradise.
The question. How did the rich and poor keep
Christmastide in those days of quieter life, and of
less pressure from the business competition ? is an
interesting one ; but the references to the festive
season are so few and far between, that we are led
to infer that it was hardly so much thought of as is
the case at present. To Wesley, Christmas, like all
other seasons, was one to be improved. He does
not seem to have aimed at being in any one
particular place to ' keep ' Christmas, as would be
the case with the majority of people in the present
day, and he would hardly have thought of turning
the day into the conventional holiday. On Christ
mas-Eve 1759 he made one of a party at Everton,
Mr. Berridge, in whose house the assembly was,
being gone to preach before the University of
Cambridge, The hard day's work which followed
may be taken as a typical Christmas-Day in
Wesley's working life. In the morning he was ' a
little afraid ' that his strength would fail ; but
having finished morning service 'before two,' he
had ' time to breathe ' before it was time to begin
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
again. The season appears to have been a con
venient time for taking to the road for Bristol.
We have, otherwise, some charming pictures,
written by those who were then young, of how
Christmas was observed in the middle of the
eighteenth century ; and although imagination may
have helped to colour their portrayals, they are not
on that account less interesting. Those who refer
to their early days would have us believe that those
times were characterised by greater simplicity than
the days of fashion and of vain-glory which followed.
One anonymous writer, as the son of a clergy
man, gives a glimpse of life in an English rectory
as it was in or about the year 1760. He depicts
' the good rector seated by his own fireside, where
every English subject is a sovereign . . . smoking
his evening pipe, or playing at piquet with his
eldest daughter: the younger children running
every minute to the door to listen to the little
half-frozen songsters, and take in a supply of
berried holly for the windows ; the mistress of the
family, with exemplary notability, superintending
the preparations in the kitchen for the next day's
festivity, and bringing in a foretaste in a little
silver saucepan that was always used for niceties,'
This was no doubt the reminiscence of an old man
who contrasted the freshness of youth with the
withered leaves of age. He was looking forward
to being reunited with the inmates of the rectory
in the mansions of the Father's house, where
any further anguish of separation would be un
known, 120

PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
In the middle of the eighteenth century, what
are now large market-towns were then no more
than considerable villages ; and many of these had
customs of their own which were more or less curi
ous. Thus, the local customs of one part of York
shire were both interesting and picturesque. On
the eve of All Saints, the women made something
' for every one in the family, so this is generally
called Cake-night,' remarks a contemporary writer ;
' and on Christmas-Eve, the grocers send each of
their customers a pound, or half a pound, of
currants and raisins to make a Christmas pudding.
The chandlers also send large mold candles, and
the coopers logs of wood, generally called Yule-
clogs, which are always used on Christmas-Eve;
but should it be so large as not to be all burnt
that night, which is frequently the case, the remains
is kept till old Christmas-Eve. And on Christmas-
Day the singing boys come into the church with
large baskets full of red apples, with a sprig of
rosemary stuck in each, which they present to all
the congregation, and generally have a return
made them of twopence, fourpence, or sixpence,
according to the quality of the lady or gentleman,'
In all parts of the country there were found such
local customs, peculiar to their own district ; but,
for the most part, these would die a natural death
with changing times. Some were too childish not
to become obsolete in the light of modern innova
tions ; not a few were too superstitious to survive
the warm breath of the Revival. London and the
country are now too nearly related; as regards
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
time, they are brought too near together by
telegraphs and express trains for such provincial
old-time manners not to become obsolete.
As regards the manner of observing Christmas,
our forefathers had notions of their own ; but in the
case of the majority of people, a sense of what
was right and wrong did not agree with our
present-day notions. The times were coarser ; the
laws were harsher; human life was, as it were,
cheaper ; so that, as a whole, society was living on
a lower plane. Amid such surroundings, persons
of deep piety, of high Christian aims, were more
conspicuous than such people are now. Though
Whitefield never had to look far for examples to
prove the notions he held concerning the degrada
tion of human nature, the outlook was brightening ;
the Methodist Reformation was carrying hope into
every part of the land. Wesley and his pioneer
preachers were giving out their Gospel message
in towns and villages alike.
Taken as a whole, the eighteenth century was
a more hard and barren time for the poor than
our own day. Outwardly picturesque as the
villages might be, their charm did not extend to
the inside of the cottages. Few among the
peasants could read ; and those who could do so
had no literature provided for them in any con
siderable quantity beyond the trivial, or often
pernicious, wares which itinerant chapmen offered.
A wide gulf indeed separated the genteel from the
lower classes. Working and uneducated people
were allowed to go their own way without any
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PHASES OF TOWN AND VILLAGE LIFE
check beyond what the law provided. Those were
certainly not the good old times.
Because distance lends enchantment to the view,
there may seem to be a certain charm associated
with the quietness of village life, as it then existed,
and free as it was from much of the hurry and
business pressure to which too many are now
subject. Nevertheless, such daily life in those
distant days was never quite what it appears to us.
If it was possible for us to take a railway journey
back into the middle of the eighteenth century,
we should doubtless be greatly interested, pro
vided we had return tickets ; otherwise, the village
or provincial town of a century ago would be
little better than a prison-house. We should
probably soon grow weary even of the things
which now charm us most ; secluded gardens and
the romantic countryside would not continually
satisfy when ennui suggested the need of change.
Thus, while at all times we may becomingly show
interest in the days which have gone before, let
us never show ourselves to be so lacking in judg
ment as to suppose that those old times were
comparable to our own, as regards those things
which we chiefly prize as rational and accountable
beings. In the early days of the ninth decade of
the century, when Wesley passed from the scenes
of earth to pass into the full glory of the beatific
vision, he had sowed the seed in the British Isles
which in our times would yield an abundant harvest.
He is one of those blessed ones whose works follow,
and who being dead yet speaketh,
123

CHAPTER VI
THE COMMON PEOPLE
THERE is much interest attached to the sub
ject of the condition of the common people
in the latter half of the eighteenth century, forty
years of which represent the main part of Wesley's
working life. As no census was taken, there were
various guesses in regard to the actual numter of
the population, and we find Dr, Price quoted as
saying that the number of persons in England was
probably under five millions. This would be under
the mark, for the census of 1801 showed the popula
tion of England to be between eight and nine
iriillions. In regard to the expenses of living we find that
there was quite a phenomenal all-round rise during
the last quarter of the century. Not only did the
necessaries of life in general become very much
dearer, taxation became so heavy that a very large
proportion of even a small income had to be
surrendered for taxes. With large numbers the
times were hard ; and among certain Methodists
severe notions were entertained of the duty of
living hard so as to have more to give away. One
124

FroDi ;i iPiiiutiuu T'y Juhn Woul;i:^tijn.

To face nagv 124

THE COMMON PEOPLE
of Wesley's correspondents in 1767 remarked, that
' Methodists that do not fulfil all righteousness will
have the hottest place in the lake of fire.' This
man, who was also a worker, severely realised that
he would have to give a full account of his steward
ship. ' I have about forty-seven pounds a year,'
he says. ' As to my disbursements, for apparel, I
buy the most lasting, and, in general, the plainest
I can. I buy no furniture but what is necessary
and cheap. I make my own fire, and get my own
breakfast and supper, I pay sixpence to one of
our friends for my dinner. I drink herb-tea, and
thereby save at least a shilling a week. I seldom
drink tea in an afternoon, but sup at six on bread
and cheese, with milk and water; so I save at
least eightpence by dropping tea in the after
noon.' The total cost of living in this way, for a
single man, was under eleven shillings a week, ' so
that I have near twenty pounds to return to God
in the poor.' At the same time he honestly thought
that the people needed to be well looked after:
' I think the poor themselves ought to be ques
tioned with regard to drinking tea and beer. For
I cannot think it right for them to indulge them
selves in those things which I refrain from to help
them.' That severe want was at times widespread
even among Wesley's own followers we have ample
proof In the great frost of 1740 we find that he
made collections for the poor at Bristol. At another
time he would remind the congregation that some
of their friends ' had not needful food ; many were
destitute of convenient clothing; many were out
125

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
of business, and that without their own fault ; and
many were sick and ready to perish.' Right on into
Wesley's old age, the winter custom of giving bread
and coals to the poor was maintained. When he
had passed his eightieth year, he walked through
London to collect two hundred pounds for the poor
of the Society who even wanted clothes. He even
made himself ill by walking ankle-deep through
melting snow. Now and then we have a momen
tary glimpse of the condition of the poor in days
when there were few to visit or to care for them.
In February 1753 we find Wesley employed in
visiting such : ' I found some in their cells under
ground ; others in their garrets, half-starved with
cold and hunger, added to weakness and pain.
But I found not one of them unemployed who
was able to crawl about the room. So wickedly,
devilishly false is that common objection, " They
are poor only because they are idle,'" In June
1757 he also made a collection for the poor at
Newcastle, ' many of whom can very hardly support
life in the present scarcity.' We find that even
warm - hearted Christian people would feel the
pinch of poverty to an extreme degree, being
without necessary food and fire in trying winter
weather. At one time a third part of the people,
even in London and Westminster, wanted employ
ment and could not obtain it ; but after the accession
of George III., or in the later seventies of the
eighteenth century, the outlook improved. ' I did
not . . . find one in ten out of business ; nay, scarce
one in twenty, even in Spitalfields,'
126

THE COMMON PEOPLE
Wesley was not only the greatest itinerant
preacher who ever stood up to proclaim the Gospel
in England, he may be said to have been one of
those pioneers who in London and elsewhere, in
the eighteenth century, anticipated the work of
the Ragged School Union of a hundred years later.
Any man who has the genuine ragged - school
instinct never despairs of anyone ; he has supreme
faith that Divine grace can frustrate all the devices
of the devil. The lower he found the people, the
greater was Wesley's sympathy for them, and the
more ardent his desire to raise them from the mire
in which they were grovelling. Take the instance
of ' a little village called Placey, about ten measured
miles north of Newcastle,' in 1743. This was a
collier village, and the inhabitants might have
claimed that they had beaten the record for excess
in all manner of riot and wickedness : ' Their
grand assembly used to be on the Lord's Day ; on
which men, women, and children met together to
dance, fight, curse and swear, and play at chuck,
ball, span - farthing, or whatever came next to
hand.' On Good Friday 1743, accompanied by a
friend, he set out for Placey : ' The north wind,
being unusually high, drove the sleet in our face,
which froze as it fell, and cased us over presently ;'
and hence, ' when we came to Placey, we could very
hardly stand,' Such discomforts counted for little,
however ; for to give the Word of life in such a
place was like sowing good seed on fertile virgin
soil. Both in the morning and afternoon they
gathered together for the open - air service, and
127

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
listened to the Gospel message ' in spite of the wind
and snow.' John Wesley lived long enough to see
many transformation-scenes which represented the
full rich harvest which came after such effective
sowing times as this. Thus, at one time, when
four large factories for spinning and weaving were
put up at Epworth, in which a large number of
women, boys, and girls were employed, ' the vi^hole
conversation of these was profane and loose to the
last degree.' Then, through some of the number
' stumbling in at the prayer-meeting,' a change for
the better set in which went on until there was
complete reformation. Religion took deep root
in three of the factories ; and instead of there being
profane or obscene talk, ' no trifling word was heard
among them.' Perhaps it would hardly be possible
for us to realise the uncivilised condition of the
common people in those days. Thus the inhab
itants of Faversham, in 1738, 'were indeed more
savage in their behaviour than the wildest Indians
I have yet met with.' It was observed, at that
time, that on the Continent there was more decency
in behaviour, though the common herd might
practically be quite as bad at heart ; ' so that I
believe the glory of sporting with sacred things is
peculiar to the English nation.'
Through being utterly neglected, children of the
reign of George 11. naturally grew up into men
and women of this character. In Wesley's
experience the colliers of Kingswood, near Bristol,
came to be regarded as typical English savages of
the more extreme kind ; but in the early spring of
128

THE COMMON PEOPLE
1743, it was found that there was a 'very Kings-
wood of the north ' — a collier hamlet not far from
Newcastle — 'Twenty or thirty wild children ran
around us, as soon as we came, staring as in
amaze. They could not properly be said to be
either clothed or naked. One of the largest (a girl
about fifteen) had a piece of a ragged, dirty blanket,
some way hung about her, and a kind of cap on
her head, of the same cloth and colour.' Like his
Divine Master, Wesley was moved with compassion
when he looked upon such subjects and realised
their need ; and, what seems strange, he was hardly
more eager to speak with them about their highest
interests than they were to hear. As regarded the
people of Kingswood proper, they were ' so ignorant
of the things of God that they seemed but one
remove from the beasts that perish.' When the
Great Revival began its wonderful course in the
early part of the reign of George II,, there were
wise people who thought that the Gospel would
be too severely tested if offered to the colliers of
Kingswood, It was preached there, however, and
with the result that the place showed a reformation
which was one of the most striking moral trans
formation-scenes of the eighteenth century. But,
practically, there were other places which were
quite as bad as Kingswood had been at its worst.
Thus, in 1739, Newport was 'the most insensible,
ill-behaved people I have ever seen in Wales.' It
was plainly seen that all this was the natural
outcome of popular ignorance, the people being as
ignorant of the Gospel ' as any Creek or Cherikee.'
I 129

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
While some were willing, or even eager, to hear the
good news, others were disposed to offer violent
opposition, Reading being one of the towns where
' the zealous mob was so enraged, they were ready
to tear the house down.' Windsor and Wednesbury
also became notorious for their anti -preaching
mobs ; but on one occasion a mob from the former
place came in collision with another mob from
Burnham, each counteracting the action of the
other so far as the Methodists were concerned.
The royal town is found still maintaining its
opposition in 1747 ; but hired iconoclasts are not
always in earnest In the year just named, a
company of bargemen were on their way to
demolish the Windsor preaching-house; but on
being met and invited to attend the service, they
actually did so, and threw their clubs away. To
anyone who did not believe in a special providence,
this would appear to be unaccountable. At times
Wesley's influence over a raging mob was so
wonderful as to prove to a demonstration that the
Divine presence went with him. On entering
Rochdale on October 18, 1749, ' we found the streets
lined on both sides with multitudes of people,
shouting, cursing, blaspheming, and gnashing upon
us with their teeth,' They were soon calmed
down, however; and, going on their way, the
preacher and his companions ' came to Bolton
about five in the evening,' to discover that 'the
lions at Rochdale were as lambs in comparison'
with those in this town. There was an indescribable
uproar, but Wesley's usual method was at once
130

THE COMMON PEOPLE
effective. After walking into the midst of the
crowd, ' I called for a chair. The winds were
hushed and all was calm and still.' In after years
Wesley gave a very different picture of Bolton.
In the eighteenth century the Press-gang, as an
institution for supplying men for the Royal Navy,
was allowed to flourish unchecked. The custom
is said to have been recognised in the Middle Ages,
but, soon after it assembled, the Long Parliament
declared the practice to be illegal. Wesley took
this view of the matter, and, loyal as he was, did
not hesitate to denounce what he regarded as cruel
oppression. In July 1739 he was on one occasion
preaching near Bath to some three thousand
persons on 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' The
Revival was then just opening, ' We had a fair
opportunity of showing all men what manner of
spirit we were of; for in the middle of the sermon
the Press-gang came, and seized on one of the
hearers,' In the days of George IL, when Walpole
was Prime Minister, an occurrence like this would
be quite a commonplace affair, but it was none
the less an illegal outrage, ' Ye learned in the
law,' said Wesley, 'what becomes of Magna
Charta, and of English liberty and prosperity?
Are not these mere sounds, while, on any pretence,
there is such a thing as a press-gang suffered in the
land?' To us of this later age, who are accustomed to
an easier mode of life, the preachers and their
followers of the times of the Revival must appear
to have been of a more hardy race. It seems that
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
they were not afraid of open-air preaching in all
kinds of weather, and their people stood by them in
a way which would not be the case to-day. One
day in July, 1739, Wesley preached twice at
Gloucester: in the morning he had five thousand
hearers ; but because ' it rained violently at five in
the evening,' the congregation was reduced to three
thousand, who, however, were well rewarded for
patient endurance of discomfort. The weather
appears even to have suggested a seasonable topic
— ' I expounded that glorious theme of Ezekiel of
the resurrection of the dry bones.'
Preachers and hearers who could thus stand
unmoved while the elements were against them,
were not likely to be defeated by little things
or inconveniences which arose from hardships
coming from the opposition of the rabble. During
a Sunday service at Charles Square, Hoxton, in
the summer of 1741, an ox was brought up in hope
of getting up a scene of wild disorder. The poor
animal was wiser than his tormentors, however;
for instead of dispersing the meeting, 'he ran
round and round, one way and the other, and at
length broke through the midst of them clear
away, leaving us calmly rejoicing and praising
God,' To procure a furious animal to serve their
purpose was a favourite device of a hired rabble
during Wesley's earlier experience. A few weeks
after the incident just related, he was asked to
conduct a service at ' a little green spot ' near the
town of Pensford ; but hardly had he commenced
when the hired rabble 'came furiously upon us,'
132

THE COMMON PEOPLE
accompanied by a bull which was expected to do
more in the way of scattering the congregation
than a thousand men could have done. As in the
case of the bull which had already been baited,
this one was of another mind, ' He stirred no
more than a log of wood,' The rabble had come
down so low, that, had they been disposed to learn,
the very animals might have taught them better
manners. In this case the enemy so far succeeded
that at length preacher and table came down
together, but ' some of our friends caught me in
their arms, and carried me right away on their
shoulders.' A little farther afield the service was
continued without interruption. This violent or
vehement opposition to the Gospel was quite
natural on the part of ignorant and degraded
people. On this account there was nothing
surprising in it ; what was really astonishing was
the conquest which would be made of one, and
then of another, among the stoutest of the enemy's
forces. At the conclusion of a service at
Hemmington, in June 1741, one of Wesley's
followers was actually 'a little offended' at so
respectable a man being approached by 'a vile
fellow, notorious all over the country for cursing,
swearing, and drunkenness, though he was now
grey-headed, being near fourscore years of age,'
Of course such subjects were of the very kind
whom Wesley desired to reach; and the aged
sinner in question came forward to say that he
had never heard the like in all his life, and to
express the wish that the Gospel might come
133

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
home even to his poor soul — ' He then burst
into tears, so that he could speak no more.' Some
of those who opposed the progress of the work
came to a sorry end, and some strange things
might be told concerning them. A ringleader
hanged himself at Bristol in 1740.
The leaders were not often disappointed in their
converts, some of whom turned out to be very
remarkable characters indeed, as may be seen in
the published biographies of many of the preachers.
Others with whom Wesley came in contact showed
many traits of character which were more or less
interesting. Thus at Neath, in 1746, ' I found
twelve young men whom I could almost envy.
They lived together in one house, and continually
gave away whatever they earned above the
necessaries.' They were Calvinists, but they
disliked controversy, and gladly welcomed into
their midst others who differed from them in
doctrine. A contrast to these was ' a lively man,
who is just married in the ninety-second year of
his age,' and met with at Athlone in 1752. He
was a quondam military officer who had served in
King William's and Queen Anne's wars, and he
was still able to work in his garden during some
hours every day. Then cases would be visited in
which the consolations of religion under the most
trying circumstances were powerfully manifested.
Thus, in September 1740, ' I visited a poor woman,
who, lying ill between her two sick children,
without either physic, or food convenient for her,
was mightily praising God her Saviour, and
134

THE COMMON PEOPLE
testifying, as often as she could speak, her desire
to be dissolved and to be with Christ.' While
constantly coming in contact with the sick and the
suffering, Wesley appears in a sense to have
believed in faith-healing, and, as he himself thought,
he practised it. On one occasion, when preaching
near Bristol, this note was handed up to him : ' A
person whom God has visited with a fever, and
has wonderfully preserved seven days in a hay
mow, without any sustenance but a little water out
of a ditch, desires to return God thanks.' This
person committed himself to the Lord's care, either
to live or die, fell asleep and awoke refreshed and
cured. Another is mentioned who was 'in
grievous pain both of body and mind.' Prayer
was offered for her, and then her friends went
away — ' But her pain was gone ; her soul being
in full peace, and her body also so strengthened
that she immediately rose, and the next day went
abroad.' Such patients were more to be envied
than some others who got into the hands of
ignorant empirics, such as too often practised as
surgeons in those days. There was one youth
who, being under conviction of sin, was treated for
insanity, his very life being almost ' blooded ' and
blistered out of him. Being as ' mad ' as he had
been before, and scarce able to stand on account
of the weakness to which his physicians had reduced
him, there was hope for him at once when the
services of such medical advisers were dispensed
with. Far more perilous than disease were the
ordinary run of doctors in the eighteenth century.
135

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
We find that in the days of George II. the
British army was generally in a low state of moral
degradation, while at times when on active service,
as prisoners of war, the men would lack the
common necessaries of life. It is well known
that among the common rank and file who served
in the Continental wars, there were Methodists
whose piety won for them a fame which survives
to this day; and to whom Wesley frequently
alludes. On the other hand, we see what ordinary
soldiers were like in connection with a visit which
Wesley paid to Newport in the Isle of Wight in
October 1758 : ' The neighbouring camp had
filled the town with soldiers, the most abandoned
wretches whom I ever saw. Their whole glorying
was in cursing, swearing, drunkenness and lewd
ness.' Such characters seem even to show an
unfavourable contrast to the French prisoners
of war who were then in the country. When in
Cornwall, Wesley would have French prisoners
in his congregation. At other times, he would
make collections among his own people in order
to supply their pressing needs, especially in the way
of clothes. In September 1757 a number of men
who had been prisoners of war in France were
landed. Some of these, while on their homeward
way, passed through Redruth 'in a most forlorn
condition.' The French prisoners appear to have
been moved with compassion by a sight of the
misery of those whom they might have regarded
as belonging to ' the enemy.' The French ' gave
them food, clothes, or money, and told them,
136

THE COMMON PEOPLE
" We wish we could do more ; but we have little
for ourselves here." Some who had only two
shirts gave a naked Englishman one. A French
boy, meeting an English boy who was half-naked,
took hold of him, and stopped him, cried over
him a while, and then pulled off his own coat
and put it upon him.'
There are good as well as unfavourable reports
of the army and of the militia ; and, as might be
expected, the men differed in character, being greatly
influenced by the conduct of their officers. In July
1758 Wesley preached in the market-place at
Richmond, in Yorkshire : ' The Yorkshire Militia
were all there, just returned from their exercise;
and a more rude rabble-rout I never saw ; without
sense, decency, or good manners.' On the other
hand, the Durham Militia presented a grateful
contrast to all this; for when, just afterwards,
Wesley was at Barnard-Castle, the commanding
officer ordered that exercise should be suspended
so that the men might attend the service ' Ac
cordingly, we had a little army of officers as well
as soldiers ; and all behaved well. A large number
of them were present at five in the morning. I
have not found so deep and lively a work in any
other part of the kingdom as runs through the
whole Circuit, particularly in the vales that wind
between these horrid mountains.' The allusion
to the hills may remind us that wild and pictur
esque scenery was not taken so much account
of in the eighteenth century as is the case to-day.
Both Johnson and Boswell preferred the outlook
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
of Fleet Street to a Highland landscape ; and there
was another trustworthy representative of prevailing
taste who preferred the fumes of flambeaux outside
a theatre to the aroma of a June hayfield !
According to one well-known writer and
observer of human nature, the eighteenth century
was the comfortable time for enjoying everyday
life in all of its varied phases. There were fewer
people ; there was less hurry ; and for those who
liked rural seclusion, the facilities for enjoying
it were many and complete. During one of his
'little journeys' undertaken in the autumn of 1766,
Wesley was led to think ' on the huge encomiums
which have been for many ages bestowed on a
country life ' ; and he came to the conclusion that
actual experience contradicted the prevailing
notion : ' See that little house, under the wood
by the river-side ! There is rural life in perfection.
How happy then is the farmer that lives there ! '
What contributed to his felicity is then mentioned
in detail — rising with the sun, looking after pigs
and cows, ploughmen, sowers and haymakers, at
different seasons, and dining on ' beans well greased
with fat bacon ; nay, and cabbage too ! ' The
conclusion arrived at was that country farmers
did not enjoy their imaginary privileges, ' In
general, their life is supremely dull ; and it is
usually unhappy too. For of all people in the
kingdom, they are most discontented ; seldom
satisfied either with God or man,' Nevertheless,
genius of a surprising kind would occasionally
appear in the farmhouse, A farmer's daughter
138

THE COMMON PEOPLE
named Whateley wrote good poems, and with proper
advantages Wesley thought she might have be
come chief of English female poets. He thought
that, in general, gentlemen's servants of the time
were even more unpromising than the farmers.
Thus, after preaching at Wycombe in August 1767,
' I saw but three or four that seemed unaffected ;
and those, I suppose, were footmen ; a race of men
who are commonly lost to all sense of shame as
well as of good and evil.'
Wesley had a keen eye for detecting anything
which seemed to be uncommon either in nature
or in human life. At Birmingham, in 1768, he had
an auditor who was born soon after the Restoration,
being one hundred and six years old, ' He can
still walk to the preaching, and retains his senses
and understanding.' Contrast this with what the
veteran preacher once witnessed at Oldham, the
main street being ' lined with little children ; and
such children as I never saw till now,' They were
even demonstrative in their affection ; they ' ran
round me and before me;' and finally 'a whole
troop, boys and girls, closed me in, and would
not be content till I shook each of them by the
hand.' In the great evangelist's later age, the very
old and the very young rivalled one another in
showing their affection for such a friend.
In connection with Trevecca in 1767, where the
Countess of Huntingdon's College — afterwards
removed to Cheshunt — was soon afterwards founded,
we have this affecting account of how a poor
servant-maid spent the last day of her life on
139

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
earth: As dairy-maid, she 'was beloved by all
the family. She was loving to everyone, never
angry, never out of humour. That morning she
was much happier, and had a fuller manifestation
of the love of God than ever. As she was coming
through the entry, a lad met her with a gun in
his hand, which he did not know was charged.
He presented it and said, " Nanny, I will shoot you."
The gun went off and shot her through the heart.
She fell on her face, and without any struggle or
groan immediately expired.'
In the early days ,of the Revival there were
those who would have had people to believe that
Wesley was little, if anything, better than an agent
of the Jesuits. It appears that, when conducting
their open-air services in Moorfields, the preachers
would be assailed with cries of ' Popery ! Popery ! '
There was good reason for raising such an outcry if
the opponents of Romanism had only gone to the
right place to select the actual offenders. In 1741
there was a Romish preacher who conducted services
three times a week at the West End of London,
and succeeded in making many proselytes. Why
did not the anti-Romanists go thither? 'Plainly,
because they have no mind to fight at all ; but to
show their valour without an opponent. And they
well know they may defy Popery at the Foundery
without any danger of contradiction.' As the
Revival proceeded and showed more and more
of an all-round success, the fanatics, of whom Mr.
Worldly-Wiseman might have been accounted the
apostle, showed that violent opposition could be
140

THE COMMON PEOPLE
more or less varied. Thus at Hornby, in 1757,
'the zealous landlord turned all the Methodists
out of their houses,' But even this drastic action
proved quite ineffective ; ' for they built some
little houses at the end of the town, in which
forty or fifty of them live together,' Probably
London did not so greatly distinguish itself in the
way of hostility to the Gospel as certain of the
provincial towns to which allusion has been made.
At Long Lane, in 1742, however, the enemy
showed his teeth in a very unmistakable manner,
' They not only made all possible noise, but
violently thrust many persons to and fro, struck
others, and broke down part of the house.' When
they became still more violent with stones, Wesley
ordered the arrest of a ringleader, and the man
had to appear at the Sessions. The most
wonderful outcome of such a riot was when
certain of the leaders were stricken to the heart
to become converts. In this instance a man and
a woman, who had been degraded characters of
the most terrible kind, were gathered into the
Christian Church,
As time went on, Wesley thought that it was his
duty to assist poor members of the Society by
loans of money, as well as by small gifts in the
way of relief. This led to a first collection being
made in 1746 'towards a lending stock for the
poor.' No more than £1 was lent at once, and
this modest capital had to be repaid in instal
ments of about eighteenpence a week. Nothing
more emphatically testifies to the hard lot of a
141

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
main part of the people than the record of this
Fund in the days of George II. Starting with a
capital of ;^30, i6s., as many as two hundred and
fifteen persons received loans in the course of
about a year and a half Certain of the humble
borrowers rose to good positions as tradespeople,
and such would nowadays strike one as being
remarkable examples of thrift, honesty, and per
severance. We need not wonder that the enter
prise was heartily encouraged by persons outside
of the Methodist Society — ' Dr. W., hearing of
this design, sent a guinea towards it ; as did an
eminent Deist the next morning.'
The truth is, that the poverty to which many
Christian people were reduced was very severe,
for what might have been seen ' in Bethnal Green
hamlet' in 1777 very closely corresponded with
what might be witnessed there to-day. ' Many of
them I found in such poverty as few can conceive
without seeing it,' remarks Wesley. On the next
day he went on a round elsewhere, when the
cases of want which he met with were still more
distressing, and exceeded what had been witnessed
even ' in the prison of Newgate,' In one room a
man ' was just creeping out of his sick-bed to his
ragged wife and three little children ; who were more
than half naked, and the very picture of famine,
when one bringing in a loaf of bread, they all ran,
seized upon it, and tore it in pieces in an instant'
As the Wesleyan Methodist Society made very
considerable progress in Cornwall, reference to the
Wreckers,who still flourished there in Wesley's time,
142

THE COMMON PEOPLE
must not be omitted. If one wanted to depict
the most savage degradation into which human
nature has ever sunk, we should need only to
borrow from the annals of these Wreckers who
have infested our own and the coast of other
countries. Of course this diabolical practice, as
well as that of bringing in ' uncustomed goods ' by
smugglers, was severely proscribed. Individuals
or communities had to set their faces against these
practices or they were not eligible for membership
in the Methodist Societies. The practice itself
continued until comparatively recent times how
ever ; so that when Wesley, in 1776, made inquiries
concerning Wreckers and wrecking in Cornwall, he
learned that the practice prevailed ' as much as
ever ; only the Methodists will have nothing to do
with it.' During the preceding spring a vessel
had been wrecked there, when 'the tinners
presently seized on all the goods ; and even
broke in pieces a new coach which was on board
and carried every scrap of it away,' It was held
that such outrages were preventable ; and that if
the laws 'were strictly executed upon the next
plunderers,' such an example would ensure that
the next wreck would be left unmolested. There
was even a milder prescription which would
certainly cure the disease : Let employers ' only
agree together to discharge any tinner or labourer
that is concerned in the plundering of a wreck, and
advertise his name.' In that case, ' neither tinner
nor labourer will any more be concerned in that
bad work.' 143

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
From the examples given, it should not be
inferred that the common people were actually any
worse in a moral and religious sense than those
above them. It becomes sufficiently clear that
the poor were in great measure what those in
higher social station made them. In numbers of
instances the mob was actually hired to frustrate
the efforts of those who sought to raise them
from the most terrible degradation. There were
magistrates who sought to evade the law, and
juries who would not convict. There were also
many clergymen who not only refused to advance
the cause of the Revival, but who encouraged the
lower orders in those outrages which were no more
allowed by the law of the land than they were by
the Christian religion. The truth is, that the case
of the common people in the eighteenth century
was similar to what it is to-day — those who made
up the crowd were in the main what their surround
ings made them. Scholars may be better than
their schoolmasters, but it is not often found to be
the case.

144

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CHAPTER VII
THE UPPER CLASSES
ALTHOUGH he was a scholar and a gentle
man, Wesley was, more than anything else,
an apostle to the common people ; he seemed to
be more in his element when giving his message
to the vulgar crowd than when mixing with great
and famous personages into whose company he
was occasionally thrown. This was simply because
his one aim was to get his message accepted, and
the lower orders were found to be much more
accessible than the upper. His education and
good breeding enabled him to maintain an easy
manner in any aristocratic society ; but a great
gulf separated that world from the one which made
up Wesley's constituency. When the Methodist
Revival commenced, things had come to such a
pass in the Established Church, that it was rather
fashionable than otherwise not to be a believer
in Christianity. There seem to have been certain
clergymen who in private even boasted of their
infidelity. Practically, Puritanism went out of fashion at
the Revolution of 1688; and although in the age
K 145

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
that followed, Matthew Henry, ' chief among the
mighty,' and ' the greatest of commentators,' as he
has been called, composed his immortal work, the
time was one of religious deterioration. Although
the early years of the reign of George IL, when the
Methodist Revival first broke out, are said to have
been the most prosperous time that the nation had
ever known.
Because the King still represented the Protestant
Succession, which was destined to be once more
challenged by the rising under the Young Pretender,
on behalf of his father, ' James III.,' he was popular
with all who were not Jacobites or Romanists.
Wesley was Protestant patriot enough even to
admire the ' flighty vapouring little king ' ; and he
was not in a situation to know what Carlyle knew
to be the truth, a century later, in regard to
Queen Caroline — ' Seldom had foolish husband so
wise a wife.' George was a man of his time, a
German at a time when that meant full licence to
a monarch for the most shameless living. If we
take such men as Sir Robert Walpole, Chesterfield,
and Lord Hervey, as representative of what is
called high society, what do we find ? The first,
as a statesman, served the country with advantage
because his policy was for peace ; but he was as
profligate in private life as he was unprincipled in
a political sense. Chesterfield, who came to a
miserable old age, wrote a book of advice to his
son, which from that day to this has been a curse
to all young men who have accepted its teaching.
The deistical and effeminate Hervey — Pope's,
146

THE UPPER CLASSES
'Lord Fanny' — belonged to a family whose mem
bers appear to have cut short their lives by excess.
He married Mary Lepell, the chief of three beauties
who added attraction to the Court of George I.
Hervey succeeded his elder brother — whose life
was cut short by profligacy, and who was said by
Lady Mary Montagu to be the father of Horace
Walpole ; but he himself showed the symptoms of
old age and died at forty-seven. He painted his
face to conceal its deadly ghastliness, according to
one report ; and at last sought to prolong life by a
diet of asses' milk and one apple a week. Yet he
could engage in the most bitter literary quarrels ;
while he fought a duel with Pulteney, the chief of
the political party who plotted for the overthrow
of Walpole. What was Methodism to such ad
venturers as these but a craze to be ignored rather
than tolerated? Lord Hervey, the jovial, loose-
living and foul - mouthed Sir Robert Walpole, as
well as the polished cynic, Horace Walpole, were
men of their time, whose lives and sympathies
seemed to reflect bad times and a degenerate
world. In following Wesley through his extraordinary
career, he is found to have been more than any
thing else a preacher to the common people ; but
while he may not have felt himself to be at home
as it were among those who thronged the haunts
of fashion, he still realised that his mission was to
all classes. One of his most singular adventures
at the outset of the Methodist Revival, was coming
in contact with Beau Nash, who was then Master
147

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
of the Ceremonies at Bath, that town then being a
great centre of fashionable frivolity.
Bath had become popular as a health resort
after the memorable visit of Queen Anne at the
beginning of her reign ; and also because several
physicians referred to the efficacy of the waters in
certain disorders. Until this time, gambling and
its attendant evils had chiefly been confined to
London ; but when Bath grew in favour, the
fashionable crowd craved for the amusements
which they had left behind in the Metropolis ; so
that when Nash, with his genius for organising, had
brought some order out of chaos, they found all
the accommodation which they required. In his
Life of Beau Nash, Oliver Goldsmith thus describes
what the city of Bath was like just two hundred
years ago : —
' The lodgings for visitors were paltry though
expensive; the dining-rooms and other chambers
were floored with boards, coloured brown with soot
and small-beer to hide the dirt; the walls were
covered with unpainted wainscot ; the furniture cor
responded with the meanness of the architecture ;
a few oak chairs, a small looking-glass, with a
fender and tongs, composed the magnificence of
these temporary habitations. The city was in
itself mean and contemptible ; no elegant buildings,
no open streets nor uniform squares. The pump-
house was without any director; the chairmen
permitted no gentlemen or ladies to walk home by
night without insulting them ; and to add to all
this, one of the greatest physicians of his age con-
148

THE UPPER CLASSES
ceived a design of ruining the city by writing
against the efficacy of the waters.'
An acquaintance with Bath and its daily round
of dissipation in those times seems indispensable
to aid us in understanding the period. By general
consent Beau Nash was allowed to reign as Master
of the Ceremonies; and having some genius for
organisation, he pleased the frivolous votaries of
fashion who there sought to diversify the cares or
monotony of daily life. The city swarmed with
gaming adventurers, and until late in the reign of
George I. the licence allowed by the law favoured
their fleecing their victims almost at will. The
arch-gamester was Beau Nash himself, who de
pended on such nefarious gains to maintain a
pseudo-state little short of ludicrous. As Gold
smith tells us, ' his equipage was sumptuous, and
he usually travelled to Tunbridge in a post-chariot
and six greys, with outriders, footmen, French-
horns, and every other appendage of expensive
parade.' Bath and Tunbridge were such centres
of gaming that, as Goldsmith also tells us, ' men of
that infamous profession from every part of the
kingdom, and even other parts of Europe, flocked
here to feed on the ruins of each other's fortune.'
Beau Nash showed that he was possessed of a
far more generous heart than many of the un
principled adventurers who were content to grow
rich at any hazard, and without troubling them
selves about the misery they caused to others. He
warned the young and inexperienced of lurking
dangers, and desperate players of the ruin which
149

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
was certainly close on their heels unless they
checked their infatuation. To spare a friend, he
would even forego an advantage which was within
his grasp.
At the same time both Nash and the fashionable
throng who professed to acknowledge his authority,
knew well that when their action and principles
were contrasted with the teaching of Wesley, they
stood condemned before the world, and even by
conscience, if that was not already seared as with a
hot iron. In June 1739 the Revival was beginning
to get a firm hold of the country, but already
Wesley may have fully realised that the service in
which he had embarked was to be attended with
some danger. On the fourth of the]month, at Bristol,
' many came to me and earnestly advised me not
to preach abroad in the afternoon,' he says, 'be
cause there was a combination of several persons
who threatened terrible things,' Such a threat did
not intimidate Wesley ; on the contrary, he could
not have obtained a more effective advertisement.
There was an addition to the congregation of a
thousand, and mainly consisting of ' the better sort
of people, so-called,'
Quite naturally, the contagion spread ; and as
Wesley was expected in the city to preach in the
open air, ' there was great expectation at Bath of
what a noted man was to do.' This was Beau Nash,
who, as everyone knows who has read Wesley's
Diary, duly appeared on the scene, and objected to
the service as being illegal, and to the preaching as
talk which frightened people 'out of their wits.'
150

THE UPPER CLASSES
Nash showed far better manners than many of the
squires and clergy whom Wesley was destined to
meet with, for he would never have descended to
violence. As it was, he was no match for Wesley ;
and when one called out, ' Sir, leave him to me ;
let an old woman answer him,' the so-called King
of Bath ' replied not a word, but walked away.'
Among the highborn women who lived and
worked to give both character and prestige to
Methodism in its early days, we have to include
Mary Bosanquet, who eventually, after she was
turned of forty, became the wife of Fletcher of
Madeley. Born in 1739, just after the outbreak of
the Revival, Mary appears to have been converted
in childhood, but quite contrary to the wishes of her
parents, who were too wealthy, as well as too com
pletely captivated with the luxury and gaiety of
fashionable life, to allow of their wishing to come
into contact with the Methodists, Her parents
probably took her to Bath before death compelled
Beau Nash to surrender his rule ; but the heavenly
fire which had been kindled in her heart could not
be extinguished. We all know how, as a child.
Lord Shaftesbury owed the kindling of his
religious life to the instrumentality of a Christian
servant in the ancestral home ; and we find that
a Methodist domestic, who did not hide her light
under a bushel, found her way into the household of
the Bosanquets, Having a small fortune in her own
right, Mary Bosanquet founded an orphanage at
Leytonstone, her native place, which was afterwards
removed to Yorkshire. Her work and character were
151

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
evidently a refreshment to Wesley whenever he
thought of them. In some directions Mary
Bosanquet may have favoured innovations which
many would not altogether sanction ; such, for
example, as that of women preaching or exhort
ing in the church ; but if good was actually done
who would undertake to affirm that the practice
was not owned of God ? It is still true, ' By their
fruits ye shall know them ; ' and when, as in this
case, we have a woman who in one year has been
known to spend less than a sovereign on dress, and
not far short of ;^200 on the poor, we can judge of
her mettle.
One of the last letters Wesley ever wrote had
reference to this matter of women preaching. Miss
A, Cambridge, of Bandon, in Ireland, was one who
rivalled the men Methodist preachers in earnest
ness, but her addresses were spoken of as being
irregular, and she appealed to Wesley himself for a
decision. ' I would have you give as little offence
as possible,' was the reply ; ' and therefore I
would advise you not to speak where a preacher is
speaking at the same time, lest you should draw
away his hearers. Also, avoid the first appearance
of pride or magnifying yourself.' If books were
needed. Miss Cambridge was to make known her
wants, for her adviser had her happiness ' much at
heart ' ; and he asked Miss Cambridge to pray for
him during the short time he would remain on
earth. Hardly more than a month from this time
and Wesley was in the Promised Land,
Some years after the adventure with Beau Nash
152

THE UPPER CLASSES
at Bath, Wesley was once more preaching in the
gay city, when ' some of the rich and great were
present,' on which account it seemed to be the
more necessary to the evangelist to use ' all plain
ness of speech.' Knowing so well what human
nature is, we can quite understand how offensive
it would appear to have the vulgar unwashed
crowd placed on an equality with educated people
proud of their superfine ways. On this occasion
it was shown ' that all men were by nature children
of wrath, that their natural tempers were corrupt,
and that a natural man had no more faith than a
devil.' At this stage Lord  , who until then
had ' stayed very patiently,' rose hastily and walked
away, remarking, ' 'Tis hot ! 'Tis very hot ! '
Others stayed longer, however, and desired to hear
more. ' One of them, a noted infidel, hung over
the next seat in an attitude not to be described ;
and when he went, left half a guinea with Mary
Naylor for the use of the poor.' Thus the pressing
need was the same among all classes; and the
Gospel asserted its power with the rich as well as
with the poor. Perhaps, however, the mere per
versity of human nature was occasionally more
manifest among the rich when a parent would
actually dread the conversion of a child, regarding
that as a calamity which would be contrary to
fashion ! The father of Mary Bosanquet was of
this mind ; and, before her marriage, he once
pleaded with his daughter, almost in a pathetic
manner, not to make any effort to make either of
her brothers what she called a Christian! The
153

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
following adventure, which befell Wesley about ten
days after the scene at Bath already mentioned,
very faithfully reflects the condition and sentiments
of the upper classes in the middle of the reign of
George il. : —
' I met a gentleman in the streets, cursing and
swearing in so dreadful a manner that I could not
but stop him. He soon grew calmer ; told me he
must treat me with a glass of wine ; and that he
would come and hear me, only he was afraid I
should say something against fighting of cocks ! '
A few weeks later Wesley was attracted to
Cowbridge, and the people in general appeared to
be as anxious to hear as he was to preach. So
much had already been said against the Methodists,
that not a few of the impartial inhabitants were
anxious to know the rights of the case. This was
not to be, however; for 'one or two wretches
called gentlemen' were not willing that there
should be anything like an impartial judgment.
They 'continued shouting, cursing, blaspheming,
and throwing showers of stones almost without
intermission,' until the congregation had to be
dismissed. The opposition encountered in Cornwall during
the memorable summer of 1745, when people were
excited about the invasion of the Young Pretender,
was also fomented by the county gentry. In such
a case they were obliged, as they thought, to
charge the preachers with such an offence as would
convince the vulgar that the opposition was
reasonable, and was in the interest of the public
154

THE UPPER CLASSES
safety. Hence it was seriously reported that
Wesley's main object was to advance the cause of
the Pretender! What did it all mean when a
company of men on horseback representing those
in authority, and even the Justices sitting at
Helstone, were in readiness to arrest the chief
offender ? Wesley boldly confronted them ; and
then, after some talk, one of the gentlemen rode
some distance, and ventured to offer an explana
tion : ' Sir, I will tell you the ground of this. All
the gentlemen of these parts say that you have
been a long time in France and Spain, and are
now sent hither by the Pretender ; and that these
Societies are to join him ! ' What could a loyal
evangelist say to such a charge as that? A false
charge never disturbed Wesley ; and on this
occasion he retired into a friend's house to find
that ' the sleep of a labouring man is sweet,' His
reply to the friend who had volunteered the in
formation, however, was characteristic : ' Nay,
surely, " all the gentlemen in these parts " will not
be against their own consciences.'
The fifth decade of the eighteenth century was
a terrible time for excessive drinking. This
example of a genteel victim in London belongs
to the year 1747 : —
' I called upon poor Mr. C, who once largely
tasted of the good word and the powers of the
world to come, I found him very loving, and very
drunk ; as he commonly is, day and night But I
could fix nothing upon him. " He may fall foully,
but not finally," ' 155

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Liberal as they were with their representations
of what were the alleged follies of Methodism, the
educated opponents of the preachers were generally
discomfited when a few unwelcome revelations
were made about their own history. We have
seen how readily an ancient dame could at once
put Beau Nash hors de combat by her timely
remarks ; and similar instances would occur. At
Grimsby, early in 1747, 'a very large audience'
was annoyed by 'a young gentleman and his
companions,' until ' a poor woman ' related ' a few
passages of his life,' and so turned the laugh upon
him until there was nothing to be done but to
hasten away. Although the Gospel really made
its conquests among such people, they were some
what few and far between, and were regarded as
marvels. Thus, referring to Redruth in the
summer of 1747, Wesley remarks : ' There are now
scarce any in the town but gentlemen who are not
convinced of the truth.' What strikes a modem
observer as being singular, is a certain contrast
which Wesley draws between the English and the
Irish people, and one which shows the latter to
advantage. Of a service in the neighbourhood of
Tyrrel's Pass in 1748 we are told: 'Many of the
neighbouring gentlemen were present, but none
mocked. That is not the custom here,' it is added ;
• all attend to what is spoken in the name of God ;
they do not understand the making sport with
sacred things ; so that whether they approve or no,
they behave with seriousness.'
The early Methodists believed in the judgments
156

THE UPPER CLASSES
of God ; Wesley did so perhaps more ardently
than the majority of his. followers. Just before
Christmas 1748, when Old Christmas-Day had
not been superseded by the New Style, something
happened at Wandsworth which would tend to
confirm the prevalent belief The rabble in that
southern suburb had such strong objections to
Methodist preaching, that they threw dirt and
stones at those who engaged in the practice,
'abusing both men and woman in the grossest
manner,' When complaint was made to a resident
magistrate, it seemed as though the right thing
would be done. It so happened, however, that
' Mr, C. walked over to his house, and spoke so
much in favour of the rioters that they were all
discharged.' This was only one example of how
a man, whose duty it was to enforce the law and
keep the peace, could still be brought round 'to
encourage a merciless rabble in outraging the
innocent,' In this instance the affair was not
destined to end at this stage, however ; for ' a few
days after, Mr. C, walking over the same field,
dropped down and spoke no more ! ' Probably
there was not a Methodist in the land, who had
been subjected to the assaults of the enemy, but
what would have put down such an occurrence as
this to the finger of God.
In the course of his life and travels, probably
Wesley was entertained in a greater number of
fine houses than any other itinerant preacher who
ever lived. His remarks about them are always to
the purpose, and his general sentiments regarding
157

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
them closely correspond with those which John
Foster would have expressed under similar circum
stances —
' Must I leave thee, Paradise ? Then leave
These happy shades, and mansions fit for gods?'
Although there was little of suburban villadom,
as we are familiar with it, in the eighteenth century,
the country-houses of well-to-do people were then
sufficiently attractive to make their possessors
content with earth, and to be content not to leave
it. The master of such an establishment would
seem to have had more leisure to perfect every
thing than is possible in these more fast-moving
times. In the summer of 1759 Wesley 'dined at
Mr. B.'s in Epsom, whose house and gardens lie in
what was once a chalk-pit' He adds, 'It is the
most elegant spot I ever saw with my eyes ;
everything, within doors and without, being
finished in the most exquisite taste.'
A paradise on a larger scale was Hagley Park,
then supposed to be 'inferior to few, if any, in
England ' ; but to take a proper view of its attrac
tions needed half a day, and such sight-seeing
was never allowed to interfere with engagements.
After all, Wesley's chief surprise came when he
visited Shenstone's wonderful little domain of the
Leasowes, at Hales Owen, Worcestershire, some
years after the poet's death — Horace Walpole's
' Water-gruel-bard.' We have to remember that
people came from far and neaP' to see Shenstone's
extraordinary achievements in landscape gardening;
158

THE UPPER CLASSES
and what he did in this department is said to have
brought him more fame than his poems. The
drawback was that the fortune lavished on the
gardening impoverished the gardener, who, mean
while, was ' living in hopes of great preferment
grounded on the hopes of many rich and great
friends. But nothing was performed, till he died
at forty-eight ; probably of a broken heart ! ' This
is what Wesley says in reference to his visit to the
Leasowes : —
' I never was so surprised. I have seen nothing
in all England to be compared with it. It is
beautiful and elegant all over. There is nothing
grand, nothing costly ; no temples, so-called ; no
statues (except two or three, which had better
have been spared); but such walks, such shades, such
hills and dales, such lawns, such artless cascades,
such waving woods, with water intermixed, as ex
ceed all imagination ! On the upper side from the
openings of a shady walk is a most beautiful and
extensive prospect And all this is comprised in
the compass of three miles ! I doubt if it be
exceeded by anything in Europe,'
One more noble owner of a beautiful garden
may be mentioned, Wesley's friend Lady Arabella
Denny, whose residence was at Lisaniskea, four
miles out of Dublin. Lady Denny was a philan
thropist before the age of philanthropy; and the
kindness she extended to foundling children
prompted the authorities of Dublin to bestow
upon her the freedom of the City. By founding
the Magdalene Asylum in the Irish capital, she
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
was also the first in Ireland to engage in that
department of service. Her ladyship was about
four years younger than Wesley, who, after looking
over the grounds at Lisaniskea in the spring of
1783, remarked: 'It cannot be long before this
excellent lady will remove to a nobler paradise.'
Although Lady Denny outlived her friend, one
entered into rest within a few months of the passing
away of the other. Wesley thought the house and
grounds to be one of the pleasantest spots in the
Emerald Isle. 'The garden is everything in
miniature. On one side is a grove, with serpentine
walks ; on the other a little meadow and a green
house, with a study (which she calls her chapel)
hanging over the sea. Between there is a broad
walk, leading down almost to the edge of the
water ; along which runs two narrow walks, com
manding the quays, one above the other.'
In the Annual Register for 1760 there is an
account of a meeting of the Governors of the
Dublin Workhouse, at which the Earl of Lanes-
borough presided, when a vote of thanks was
accorded to Lady Arabella Denny ' for the
continuance of her kind and most useful atten
tion to the foundling children.' Grateful acknow
ledgment had also to be made ' particularly for a
clock lately put up in the nursery at her ladyship's
expense.' This clock was of an uncommon kind,
and it bore this inscription : —
' For the benefit of infants protected by this
hospital, Lady Arabella Denny presents this clock,
to mark, that as children reared by the spoon must
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THE UPPER CLASSES
have but a small quantity of food at a time, it must
be offered frequently ; for which purpose this clock
strikes every twenty minutes, at which notice all the
infants that are not asleep must be discreetly fed.'
Wesley had a keen eye for oddities, and a
curiosity in the way of horticulture which attracted
some attention in 1782 must not be overlooked:—
' I saw such a garden at Oxford as I believe all
England cannot parallel. It is three-square ; and,
I conjecture, contains about an acre of ground. It
is filled with fruit-trees of various sorts, and all
excellent in their kinds. But it is odd beyond all
description ; superlatively whimsical. The owner
has crowded together pictures, statues, urns,
antiques of various kinds. For all which why
should not Mr, Badcock's name , , . be consigned
to posterity ? '
That might be the home of peace and happiness,
the retreat of one who found consolation in eccen
tricity. Apart from such instances, the contrasts of
despair and misery, even among those who occupied
high social positions, were as manifest in the eight-
teenth century as they are to-day. After preaching
at Wincanton, in December 1765, Wesley made
this note : ' Riding homeward, we saw the pond
in which a great man, a few weeks since, put an
end to a wretched life. And is death more
welcome than life, even to a man that wallows in
gold and silver ? '
Then, some time afterwards, an extraordinary
love-tragedy occurred in connection with the
household of the Perronets at Shoreham.
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Miss B,, who seems to have been a niece of Miss
Perronet, was engaged to be married to a Mr, H,
He had been intimately acquainted with her for
some years, ' By immense assiduity, and innumer
able professions of the tenderest affection, he, by
slow degrees gained hers. The time of marriage
was fixed ; the ring was bought ; the wedding
clothes were sent to her,' He called more than
once shortly before the wedding-day, and showed
his affection to be as ardent as ever. Finally,
almost on the eve of the day fixed for the wedding,
he called again, ' sat down very carelessly on a
chair, and told her with great composure that he
did not love her at all, and therefore could not
think of marrying her.' He talked in this strain
for some time, and then walked off. In less than
a week after this interview, ' one of the ventricles
of her heart burst ; so she literally died of a broken
heart.' If such an adventure had been introduced
into fiction would not the author have been accused
of unnaturalness or exaggeration ?
One noble penitent, who became a widow before
she was out of her teens, soon after the accession
of George III., and joined the Methodist Society,
was Lady Maxwell. She founded a school for
poor children at Edinburgh, and provided an
endowment, so that after her death, in 1810,
the work could still be carried on. Wesley wrote
some charming and characteristic letters to this
noble convert, who remained steadfast for over
forty years, e.g. : — ¦
' There is no danger of your tiring me, I do not
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THE UPPER CLASSES
often write so long letters as this, but when I write
to you, I am full of matter, I seem to see you just
before me, — a poor, feeble, helpless creature, just
upon the point of salvation ; upright of heart (in a
measure), full of real desires for God, and emerging
into light,'
Early in June 1767 Lady Maxwell was unwell,
and Wesley wrote to her from Ireland : —
' My belief is that a journey to England might
be of great service to your health ; and it is not
improbable you might receive much benefit from
the water of the hot wells near Bristol. In August
I hope to be at Bristol ; and again in the latter
end of September. My chaise and horses are at
Bristol, which you would oblige me much if you
would please to use as your own during your stay
there; for you should, if possible, ride out daily.
My wife, who is at Newcastle, will be exceeding
glad to wait upon you there ; and, if you choose to
rest a few days, I should be glad if you would make
use of the Orphan House. You would be pleased
with the Miss Dales, and they with you. You and
they have drank into one Spirit. Miss Peggy is
one of the holiest young women that I have any
knowledge of You will be so kind as to let me
know when you expect to be at Newcastle, and
possibly I may meet you there,'
Some years after Wesley had found a steadfast
friend in Lady Maxwell, he became acquainted
with Lady Wilhelmina Glenorchy, Although each
of these high-born ladies belonged to a school of
theology different from the other, they were bound
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
together in bonds of closest personal sympathy.
There can be no doubt that from the first Lady
Glenorchy, of whom a biography was published,
looked at Wesley through the spectacles of
Calvinistic prejudice; and the wonder is that she
should have appointed a Methodist like Lady
Maxwell to act as her executor, as well as manager
of her chapels both in England and Scotland. Dr.
Webster of the Tolbooth Church and Wesley met
at Lady Glenorchy's house, and after talking about
' God's decrees, predestination, and the saints'
perseverance,' her ladyship followed the Scottish
divine. ' Nevertheless, I hope Mr. Wesley is a
child of God,' she wrote, ' He has been an
instrument of saving souls ; as such I honour him,
and will countenance his preachers, I have heard
him preach thrice; and should have been better
pleased had he preached more of Christ and less
of himself,' The favour extended to the Methodist
preachers was of brief duration. At Midsummer
1 77 1 she had dismissed the preachers, partly
because she disagreed with their teaching; but
mainly because the Scottish ' Gospel preachers '
would not appear in a pulpit the use of which was
allowed to the Arminians !
We are not to suppose that Wesley was
particularly pleased when the members of the
Society ' increased in goods ' in a degree that was
likely to stimulate their love of the world. As
was to be expected, many grew rich, and, as was
also inevitable, some of those striking turns of
fortune also occurred which shows that real life has
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THE UPPER CLASSES
oftentimes more of romance in it than fiction. In
a concise paragraph Wesley tells us of something
which happened in 1783, which forcibly illustrates
this fact : —
' I buried the remains of Captain Cheesement,
one who, some years since, from a plentiful fortune,
was by a train of losses utterly ruined ; but two or
three friends enabling him to begin trade again,
the tide turned ; he prospered greatly, and riches
flowed in on every side. A few years ago he
married one equally agreeable in her person and
temper. So what had he to do but enjoy himself?
Accordingly, he left off business, took a large
handsome house, and furnished it in a most elegant
manner, A little while after, showing his rooms
to a friend, he said, " All this will give small com
fort in a dying hour." A few days after, he was
taken with a fever. I saw him twice. He was
sensible, but could not speak. In spite of all
means, he grew worse and worse, and in about
twelve days died. So within a few days we lost two
of our richest, and two of our holiest, members, —
Sarah Clay, and good old George Hufilet, who had
been for many years a burning and a shining light.
He lay fourteen weeks praising God continually,
and had then a triumphant entrance into His
Kingdom,' At Bridlington, a short time afterwards, a curious
case came to light of a wealthy lady, who had
lived as a gay butterfly of fashion, suddenly
changing into a Pharisaic precisian. 'She ran
from east to west,' it is said, or, as we should say,
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
from west to east ; ' she parted with all her clothes,
dressed like a servant, and scarce allowed herself
the necessaries of life.' All the while, nobody
could persuade her that she was ' going too far,'
It was needful that God should teach her that
obvious truth. Such a case as this was of course
not so distressing as some of those reverses of
fortune which from time to time came under
Wesley's notice. As the law was in the eighteenth
century, imprisonment for debt meant a good deal
more of hardship than one might be disposed
to think. Thus, in one instance, Wesley found
' a gentlewoman who used to keep her coach, shut
up with her four children in a dark dirty room,
without almost any of the necessaries of life,' That
was a sample case of women's sufferings when
their husbands were imprisoned for debt.
While Wesley thus had a good deal of genial
intercourse with the upper classes, the outlook, as
a whole, was more forbidding than is the case
to-day, Irreligion or indifference is no doubt
painfully common in high life at the present time ;
but generally we do not find the excess and
degradation which were too characteristic of
aristocratic life a century and a half ago. When
he was eighty-five years old, Wesley was surprised
to hear 'that it is now the custom, in all good
company, to give obscene healths, even though
clergymen be present ; one of whom, lately refusing
to drink such a health, was put out of the room ;
and one of the forwardest, in this worthy company,
was a bishop's steward.' It was no wonder that at
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THE UPPER CLASSES
times Wesley was disposed to become sarcastic,
and realised, perhaps with some bitterness, that
while his message reached the poor, he too often
missed the so-called great and noble. Preaching
in Salop in March 1790, he was 'much ashamed'
of his audience, — ' The moment I had done speak
ing, I suppose fifty of them were talking all at
once ; and no wonder, they had neither sense nor
good manners ; for they were all gentlefolks,' At
times, however, there came a pleasant surprise,
when genteel people showed the good qualities of
peasants, an instance having occurred at Bath in
1789, Says Wesley, 'Here we have the rich and
honourable in abundance; and yet abundance of
them came even in a stormy night, and seemed as
attentive as colliers ! ' The reforming influences
of Methodism had evidently began to reach what
Spurgeon once called ' the scum at the top.'
The brothers Wesley were among those who
were afflicted by the tragedy in which Lawrence
Earl Ferrers was the chief actor, when in a fury of
passion, to which he was subject, he murdered
Johnson his land-steward in January 1760, The
Earl was the last nobleman in England to die the
death of a felon. On May 5, when the execution
took place at Tyburn, Wesley was preaching at
Belfast ; and while in Ireland he received a note
from the Hon. the Rev, Walter Shirley, acknow
ledging the sympathy shown to him, as well as the
prayers offered on his behalf. The Shirleys were
closely related to the Countess of Huntingdon,
The Earl was confined for over two months in the
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Tower. On the day of his death he proceeded to
Tyburn in his own carriage drawn by six horses,
the crowds being so dense that the horses could
move only at a snail's pace. During this progress,
he is said to have worn his wedding clothes, and to
have chewed tobacco. ' I have reason to bless God
for the humbling lessons He has taught me through
these. His awful visitations,' wrote Walter Shirley
to Wesley, and then added : ' O sir, is there much
danger now that I should pride myself upon my
family ? '
One of the most unmistakable symptoms of the
utter degradation of the people, and the bias
against religion of the upper classes, was seen in
the success of the indecent and blasphemous
comedies of Samuel Foote, who drew crowded
houses while acting his own pieces, which, how
ever, are too foul for quotation. Was it a re
tributive providence when Foote himself was
falsely charged by an enemy with an infamous
crime? He was acquitted, but the affair is
supposed to have hastened his end. It is certainly
depressing to think of Methodist preachers being
caricatured on the stage at a time when they were
working night and day to rescue the people from
superstition and degradation.
In political matters, generally, Wesley seems to
have sided with the King, so anxious was he for
good order and the English Constitution to be
preserved. He went against Wilkes not only
because he would naturally be repelled by the
notorious profligate character of that outlaw, but
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THE UPPER CLASSES
because he thought that the principles advocated
would lead to revolution. We have no more
admiration for Wilkes as a man than Wesley had
himself; but the political principles advocated in
that era of mismanagement and corruption won
the sympathy of people who did not very closely
look at the character of the would-be reformers,
Wesley's idea was that a complete success of the
movement represented by Wilkes would mean the
rule of the mob, or the rise of a dictator similar to
Cromwell. He had also misgivings of this kind in regard to
the influence of 'Junius.' It has even been said
that Wesley offered his services to the Government
in the way of answering the indictments of the
anonymous writer whose letters agitated the public
mind in an unparalleled manner. Wesley pro
posed to write a political pamphlet for the
Government, and he is reported to have remarked,
' I will show the difference between rhetoric and
logic' In the arena of politics, the great
Methodist preacher might have been unequally
matched against the mysterious 'Junius,' whose
surpassing abilities he may possibly have un
derrated. What would Wesley have said con
cerning the identity of ' Junius ' had he lived in our
day? We can hardly think that he would have
been absurd enough to recognise 'Junius' in Sir
Philip Francis, who seems to have played at being
' Junius ' ! I once knew a lady, who, in her earlier
years, was acquainted with an old nobleman who
professed actually to know who ' Junius ' was ; and
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
he would become almost convulsed with laughter
when the suggestion was made that Francis was
the man who had worn the mask.
In taking account of Wesley's intercourse with
the upper classes, we may conclude with a word
concerning his friends and foes among the bishops.
That he had many warm sympathisers among
those who are supposed to be fathers in the Church,
is well known, but there were some enemies.
Among the latter we have to make mention of
' an episcopal buffoon,' as Tyerman calls him,
Lavington of Exeter. Read in the light of to-day,
the wild violence and scurrility of this contemptible
time-server, or wolf in sheep's clothing, needed no
answer; it would have been in unison with the
bishop's character, had he possessed genius equal
to the task, if he had written indecent plays for
poor Foote, who ridiculed and mimicked Methodists
on the stage. In one instance, Wesley undertook
to reply to the western libeller and lampooner,
and addressing him personally, has these re
marks : —
' I am persuaded, every candid man, who rightly
weighs what has been said, with any degree of
attention, will clearly see, not only, that no one of
those arguments is of any real force at all, but
that you do not believe them yourself; you do not
believe the conclusion which you pretend to prove ;
only you keep close to your laudable resolution of
throwing as much dirt as possible,'
Lavington showed all the worst phases of the
lowest example of an eighteenth-century bishop;
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THE UPPER CLASSES
and we cannot suppose that such a man ever
properly understood the Gospel, He seems to
have been a liar, lampooner, and libeller all in one ;
but even in coming in contact with such a man as
this — one who was false to his profession — the
noble traits of Wesley's character were brought out.
In all his controversies he never did or said any
thing which tarnished the Christian profession.

171

CHAPTER VIII
PRISONS AND PRISONERS
EXCEPT to duly appointed or privileged
visitors who visit them for philanthropic
purposes, the common gaols of the country at the
present time are not easily accessible to merely
inquisitive people. Some years ago, with an order
from the late Sir William M'Arthur, then the
Lord Mayor, I made the tour of Newgate, and
was much interested. With the exception of two
sentenced murderers, each of whom occupied a
' condemned ' cell, the great City prison was empty,
however. As the building, which had been used
for centuries as a place of confinement and of
punishment, was then already given up by the
authorities, the sombre memories of former days,
which were suggested at every step, were perhaps
more vivid than they would have been had the
prisoners and their keepers all been in the build
ing. The rows of busts of executed murderers,
the apparatus of the hangman, the arrangements
for the passing out of the condemned when the
gallows were in the street, and much more besides,
all produced an impression of prison life in the
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PRISONS AND PRISONERS
nineteenth century, which in any case could never
be effaced.
But when we go over a great modern prison,
and note all its appointments, as well as its
extreme cleanliness, we have to bear well in mind,
that such things were not associated with a gaol
in Wesley's early days. The prisons with which
that great friend of the common people was
familiar, were those which John Howard so
ardently wished to see reformed, and which he
greatly helped to improve. In general, the gaols
of the country were nurseries of crime, while at
the same time they were centres of physical con
tagion. We know how in the preceding century
the judges, the lawyers, and the juries risked their
lives through the contagion which the wretched
prisoners brought into court at the assizes ; and
although epidemics of plague had ceased to break
out in England, the moral and physical condition
of the prisons in Wesley's time was practically
very much what it had been in the days of his
grandfather Dr, Annesley. In his visitation of
the prisons, Wesley displayed all the heroism of
one who carried his life in his hand while discharg
ing his duty. He does not appear to have suffered
any inconvenience, but others may have given
their very lives to the service. Take this little
life -history as told by Wesley himself at the
opening of the year 1 770 : —
' One informed me that Mrs. Kitely, at Lambeth,
not expected to live many hours, had a great
desire to see me before she died. I went as quick
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
as possible ; but when I came she seemed senseless,
as well as speechless. I regarded not this, but
spoke to her immediately ; and immediately both
her understanding and her speech returned, to
testify an hope full of immortality. Having had
her desire, she fell asleep two days before her
husband, " a perfect pattern of true womanhood,"
A good wife, a good parent, a good mistress ; and
"her works shall praise her in the gates," How
suitable was her death to her life ! After many
years spent in doing good, she redeemed a poor
friendless youth out of prison, took the gaol-dis
temper and died,'
In the early days of the Revival, Wesley came
in contact with certain offenders, who, as hypo
crites, returned evil for good. A young man who
was sentenced to death in 1740 had been enticed
into crime by a fellow-worker, and the two helped
themselves to money which belonged to the build
ing-fund of the school at Kingswood. When 'he
was reprieved for six weeks,' and afterwards ' was
ordered for transportation,' his wronged employer
knew not 'whether to rejoice or grieve'; for
hanging was almost to be preferred to a living
death. While Gwillam Snode was thus taken
beyond the seas, Ramsey, the man who had caused
him to fall, went on his way, but was actually
hanged about two years later. Being 'destitute
and in distress,' he applied for relief and was
employed as a clerk. There were many suspicions
concerning both this man and his companion, but
as nothing could be proved against them, ' they
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PRISONS AND PRISONERS
quietly returned to London.' There their sin
found them out, however, one being transported,
the other wishing to make a penitent confession,
as his comrade had done, to his much-injured
friend, ' But the hour was past : I could not now
be permitted to see or speak with him,' Wesley
remarks, ' So that he who before would not receive
the word of God from my mouth, now desired what
he could not obtain,'
The authorities did not always look with favour
on the designs of the prison visitors. Well-mean
ing men, who, as Churchmen, supposed themselves
to be all that was desirable, do not seem to
have quite understood what kind of persons the
enthusiastic Methodist preachers were. Thus,
when at Newgate in Bristol in 1740, the Ordinary
' with much vehemence told me he was sorry I
should turn Dissenter from the Church of England,'
Of course the answer was, ' I do not know it ' ; at
which the chaplain ' seemed a little surprised,' In
some cases there was a flat refusal to allow such
intruders to enter the prisons at all, or after coming
for a time further admission was denied to them,
A soldier, under sentence of death, was visited at
Bristol, but when he gave evidence of change of
heart, Wesley had a presentiment that something
was about to happen, ' Do not expect to see me
any more,' he said, ' He who has now begun a
good work in your soul, will, I doubt not, preserve
you to the end. But I believe Satan will separate
us for a season,' This proved to be the case. The
chief officer ordered that ' neither Mr, Wesley nor
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
any of his people should be admitted ; for they
were all Atheists.' In consequence of certain
sermons which numbers of clergymen were not
ashamed to preach, there may have been people
who believed that Methodists were enemies of the
faith ; but even such were not greater fools than
those who sought to hinder the Revival by raising
the cry of 'No Popery.' In London, in 1742, 'all
the turnkeys, as well as the keeper, were so
good Christians they abhorred the name of a
Methodist.' While their keepers were thus stout opponents
of the work, the prisoners themselves were of
another mind, however. In 1742 Wesley visited
a murderer in Newgate ' afflicted both in body and
soul ' ; and while this malefactor was exhorted to
repent, ' the rest of the felons flocked round, to
whom I spoke strong words concerning the Friend
of sinners, which they received with as great signs
of amazement as if it had been a voice from
heaven.' Then, when he went down into the
common room, he had such a congregation as was
in after years addressed by Elizabeth Fry. Still
they gathered round him to hang on his words with
eager interest, while he showed that God was not
willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.
Another of Wesley's helpers in this service, and
who may be said to have laid down her life for the
sake of the guilty and the suffering, was Sarah
Peters, who appears to have caught a malignant
fever in Newgate, and of which she died after she
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PRISONS AND PRISONERS
had 'praised God for ten days in the fires,' in
November 1748. After observing her conduct for
a number of years, Wesley says : ' I never saw
her, upon the most trying occasions, in any
degree ruffled or discomposed, but she was always
loving, always happy.' In the early part of
October, she and another went to Newgate to
visit a number of malefactors condemned to death,
' although some would have dissuaded them from
it because the gaol-distemper raged much among
the prisoners.' One of those awaiting the gallows
was John Lancaster, remarkable on account of his
striking conversion while in Newgate. After
leaving the dissolute rioting of Bartholomew Fair
some time after midnight, he went to rob the
Foundery Chapel, but, such was the respect
which Wesley commanded even from such
characters, that ' I trembled and shook, and made
so great a noise that I thought all the family must
be dead.' Sarah Peters made great efforts to
obtain a reprieve, which, however, did not succeed.
In the meantime she constantly 'visited all that
were condemned in their cells,' exhorting them
and praying with them. One named Thompson,
'quite an ignorant man,' became wonderfully
transformed. John Roberts was ' utterly careless
and sullen ' ; but ere long ' his countenance changed,'
because ' the burden of sin was gone.' For days
before he was hanged, William Gardiner was
confined to his bed with malignant fever, but he
found pardon. When she knew of her doom,
Sarah Cunningham ' fell raving mad,', but when
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
reason returned she found pardon. The night
before the morning that a number would be
executed, Sarah Peters sought admission to
Newgate at ten o'clock, but was not admitted
until six on the following morning. Many of the
condemned spent the night in praise and prayer,
their behaviour being so uncommon that 'the
officers stood like men affrighted.' Sarah Peters
did not survive many days these prisoners whom
she had been instrumental in benefiting. She
fell a victim to deadly fever. It was not un
common for malefactors, who were prostrated by
this distemper, to be carried from their bed to the
gallows! It seems to be a fact, that at the time
when the outbreak of the Revival was manifest at
several centres in the British Isles simultaneously,
the gaols became singular on account of the
conversions which took place in them. Forty
years later, when Howard was at work among
them, the condition of the prisons was of a more
ordinary kind, so that when Wesley was pre
vailed on to preach a ' condemned sermon ' at
Bristol in 1 781, he did so ' with little hope of doing
good.' It may be, that the prisons of the country
continued to be at their worst during the former
half of the eighteenth century ; and what they had
been in their darkest days may be inferred from
what Wesley says about the reformation which
had taken place at Bristol in 1761 : —
' Of all the seats of woe on this side hell, few, I
suppose, exceed or even equal Newgate. If any
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PRISONS AND PRISONERS
region of horror could exceed it a few years ago,
Newgate in Bristol did ; so great was the filth, the
stench, the misery and wickedness, which shocked
all who had a spark of humanity left. How was
I surprised then, when I was there a few weeks
ago! I, Every part of it, above stairs and below,
even the pit, wherein the felons are confined at
night, is as clean and sweet as a gentleman's
house ; it being now a rule that every prisoner
wash and clean his apartment thoroughly twice a
week, 2, Here is no fighting or brawling. If any
thinks himself ill-used, the cause is immediately
referred to the keeper, who hears the contending
parties face to face, and decides the affair at once.
3. The usual grounds of quarrelling are removed.
For it is very rarely that one wrongs or cheats
another, as being sure, if anything of this kind is
discovered, to be committed to a closer confine
ment, 4. Here is no drunkenness suffered, however
advantageous it might be to the keeper, as well as
the tapster.'
The immorality characteristic of former days
was checked, ' the women prisoners being narrowly
observed and kept separate from the men ' ; while
the disgraceful custom of admitting women of the
town was not allowed. Men were found working,
each at his trade, and Sunday was well observed.
The prison thus wore a new face ; nothing offended
either the eye or the ear. Unhappily, however,
all this was not evidence of a general reformation ;
all came from the action of one man, Wesley
prayed that the Lord might remember him, and
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
asked if no one would follow his example. No
wonder that Wesley found more than usual
satisfaction in giving attention to such a prison
as this. When at Bristol some months later he
' was desired by the condemned prisoners to give
them one sermon more,' Among the prisoners
was Patrick Ward, who ' was one-and-twenty years
of age, and had scarce ever had a serious thought
till he shot the man who went to take away his
gun,' This youth went through a strange
experience, until, on the day of his execution, ' his
whole deportment breathed a peace and joy
beyond all utterance.'
At that time one need not have gone far to find
a sad contrast to the Bristol Newgate among the
gaols of the country. Thus, the Marshalsea in
Southwark was ' a nursery of all manner of
wickedness, ... A picture of hell upon earth,'
It has also to be remembered that many of the
prisoners found in them represented cases of
oppression. No one realised more intensely than
Wesley the injustice of certain laws and the over
reaching ways of contemporary lawyers. When
at York in the summer of 1761, he visited 'a poor
prisoner in the Castle,' who for 'running some
brandy . . . worth near four pounds,' was declared
to be ' indebted to his Majesty .£^577 and
upwards,' This was a fraud or a cheat far more
serious than the original offence. Says Wesley :
' I had formerly occasion to take notice of an
hideous monster, called a Chancery Bill ; I now
saw the fellow to it, called a Declaration.' The
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PRISONS AND PRISONERS
prisoner had given up smuggling to take to an
honest calling; and the indictment was a lying
representation more calculated to encourage crime
than to check it. 'Where is the mercy of thus
grinding the face of the poor ? ' asks Wesley, ' thus
sucking the blood of a poor, beggared prisoner?
Would not this be execrable villany, if the paper
and writing together were only sixpence a sheet,
when they have stripped him already of his little
all, and not left him fourteen groats in the world ? '
In those days, when death was the penalty for
stealing sixpence, the hangman was kept so fully
employed that one might have expected that all
the hardened criminals in the kingdom would in
time have been cut off. Thus, on Christmas-Day
1784, there w^ere forty-seven prisoners in Newgate
under sentence of death ; and ' a few days after
twenty of them died at once, five of whom died in
peace.' On one occasion in 1756, a missive,
among 'one or two remarkable letters' which
Wesley had put into his hands, was from a person
who expressed gratitude to God—' It pleased Him
not to cut off my son in his sins. He gave him
time to repent ; and not only so, but a heart to
repent.' At a time when the Revival was sweeping
through the country with irresistible force, the
heavenly fire touched this man's heart while he
was confined in York Castle. ' His peace increased
daily, till on Saturday, the day he was to die, he
came out of the condemned-room, clothed in his
shroud, and went into the cart As he went on,
the cheerfulness and composure of his countenance
181

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
were amazing to all the spectators,' With his last
words he praised free Sovereign grace and called
on the Lord Jesus to receive his soul.
From time to time some more or less sensational
cases in connection with crime and Newgate would
come to light, and while doing what he could as
a Gospel minister to benefit the prisoners, Wesley
was always interested in such narratives. When
at Barnet in November 1772, he heard two
remarkable stories, both of which were given as
truth, A Mr, Samuel Savage, a man of large
property, dreamed that while walking through a
churchyard he saw a tombstone bearing his own
name, and he died on the day which had been
notified. The other matter related to a girl who
was at school within two miles of her father's
house. She dreamed that she was on the church-
tower, when a man came and threw her down, but
she was not much hurt until he threw her down
again. Some time after she set out in the early
morning to walk to her home : —
' At the entrance of a little wood she stopped, and
doubted whether she should not go round instead
of through it. But, knowing no reason, she went
straight through till she came to the other side.
Just as she was going over the stile, a man pulled
her back by the hair. She immediately knew it was
the same man whom she had seen in her dream.
She fell on her knees and begged him, " For
God's sake do not hurt me any more," He
put his hands round her neck, and then
squeezed her so that she instantly lost her
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PRISONS AND PRISONERS
senses. He then stripped her, carried her a
little way, and then threw her into a ditch,'
She was found in a speechless state, and covered
with blood, by one of her father's servants, the
assailant being soon after apprehended, ' He had
all her clothes with him in a bag, which he said
he found. It was three months before she was
able to go abroad. He was arraigned at the
assizes. She knew him perfectly, and swore to the
man. He was condemned, and soon after executed.'
In the summer of 1759 a soldier of the King's
Guard was sentenced to death at Berlin for
desertion and theft, the man being 'a wretch
abandoned to all manner of wickedness.' He
was visited by a Christian friend, and though he
was at first unconcerned, his heart was at length
touched by the heavenly fire, and he became a
genuine convert. An astonishing effect was pro
duced by the repeated application of that text :
' This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepta
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners.' In the near prospect of the gallows ' his
peace, triumph, and joy increased every hour,'
On his way to the place of execution his ex
pressions of confident faith were no less remarkable ;
but just when all expected that the fatal moment
had arrived, ' Colonel H, called out " Pardon ! " '
The soldier confessed that it was ' like a ball shot
through his body,' The friend who had visited
this poor soldier was now fearful lest he should
relapse into his former state, but he stood fast in
the faith. 183

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
In the fall of 1759 Wesley's attention was
attracted to the sufferings of the French prisoners
of war, and the action he took seems to have led
to something like a general reformation in their
condition. At Knowle, near Bristol, there were
about eleven hundred of these unfortunate captives
who were ' without anything to lie on but a little
dirty straw, or anything to cover them but a few
thin foul rags, either by day or night, so that they
died like rotten sheep.' Being ' much affected,'
Wesley preached from those words in Exodus:
' Thou shalt not oppress a stranger ; for ye know
the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers
in the land of Egypt' A sum of £2^ was
collected, with which ' we bought linen and woollen
cloth, which were made up into shirts, waistcoats,
and breeches,' The Bristol Corporation then sent
supplies for the French prisoners, while friends in
London and other parts of the kingdom followed
the example.
From time to time in that less sensitive age,
there were subjects hanged whose tender age
should have saved them from the gallows. Now
and then the humane feelings of Judges and Counsel
would find expression, and this notable instance
is told by Wesley as having occurred at the
Assizes at Worcester in 1775 : —
' A boy being beaten by his master, ran away,
and wandering about till he was half-starved was
then allowed to lie in the hay-loft of an inn. In
the night he stole into the room where two
gentlemen lay (probably not very sober), and,
184

PRISONS AND PRISONERS
without waking them, picked the money out of
both their pockets ; though their breeches lay under
their head. In the morning, having confessed
the fact, he was committed to gaol. He made no
defence; so one of the Counsellors rose up, and
said, " My lord, as there is none to plead for this
poor boy, I will do it myself" He did so, and
then added, " My lord, it may be this bad boy
may make a good man. And I humbly conceive
it might be best to send him back to his master.
I will give him a guinea towards his expenses,"
"And I will give him another," said the Judge,
Which he did, with a mild and serious reproof
So he was sent back, full of good resolutions.'
What such a boy might have become if he had
not been checked in time may be inferred from
one of Wesley's own adventures. On August 21,
1779, he was at Coventry: 'I took coach for
London. I was nobly attended ; behind the coach
were ten convicted felons, loudly blaspheming and
rattling their chains ; by my side sat a man with
a loaded blunderbuss, and another upon the coach.'
It does not appear that drastic laws tended to
lessen crime.
Next to John Howard, Silas Told, 1711-1779,
may be regarded as the prison visitor of the
eighteenth century of whom we know most In
a note ' To the Reader ' prefixed to Told's Auto
biography, Wesley remarks that he was ' a man of
good understanding, although not much indebted
to education,' In his life are many remarkable
instances of Divine Providence, some of which are
185

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
of an extraordinary kind. He came of a good
family, however, although a large amount of
property was lost through the action of a criminal
housekeeper. This woman served Silas's grand
father, ' an eminent physician at London,' at a time
when such practitioners were a far greater peril to
sufferers than actual disease. At a suitable age,
Silas was ' admitted into the hospital of Edward
Colston, Esq., on St. Augustine's Back, near the
quay at Bristol : a school, I dare venture to say,
that cannot be surpassed by any throughout Great
Britain for piety and Christian discipline.' Told
relates that Colston' commenced his distinguished
philanthropic career by showing uncommon liber
ality in the way of relieving unhappy prisoners at
Bristol. In after years this may have inspired
Silas to become himself a prison visitor of the
most heroic kind in connection with the Methodist
Revival. He makes this reference to the bene
factor to whom he was indebted for such education
as he received : —
' He was the son of Edward Colston, a journey
man soap-boiler, whose wages did not exceed ten
shillings per week. He had ten children then
living, of whom Edward was the eldest, who, when
he had arrived at an age fit to be put an apprentice,
was bound to a Virginia captain, about the time
that the colonists were transported to North
America, This proved his first rise, as his be
haviour and humble readiness to obey his superiors
moved many of the merchants, who first settled
there, to make Edward the cabin - boy many
1 86

PRISONS AND PRISONERS
presents ; insomuch that before his ship departed
from America for England he had acquired the
sum of fifty pounds ; and being of an exceeding
liberal disposition, on his arrival at Bristol he
hastened with the fifty pounds and dispersed
every farthing thereof to the prisoners in Newgate.
Shortly after he sailed again to Virginia, where,
through the kind providence of God, he gathered
among his former friends twice the money of the
preceding voyage, and disposed of the whole after
the same manner.'
During the early part of his life, Silas Told went
through an adventurous experience on the sea ;
and after giving this up for service on land, he
accepted a schoolmaster's place at Staplefoot-
Tauney, Essex, where he found the curate in
private to be no better than a professed infidel.
He gave up the company of this man ; he was
obliged soon after to give up the tutorship, and to
take a situation in London, Although in early
life he had been subject to religious impressions,
he had lapsed into indifference and even profanity ;
so that when he was first introduced to Wesley
and the people at the Foundery, at the very outset
of the Revival in 1740, he thought that the 'whole
fraternity was .a mixture of false prophets and
hypocrites,' His first sight of Wesley was at an
early morning service, when ' a whisper ran through
the congregation, " Here he comes ! here he comes !" '
At that time no one had been accustomed more
to despise the person and work of Wesley. Who
was he? He might be 'some farmer's son, who,
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
not able to support himself, was making a penny
in this low manner,' That service very effectively
broke down all opposition, however; and Told
became not only a devoted Methodist, but the
first schoolmaster at the Foundery at a salary of
ten shillings a week. On one occasion Wesley
preached from the words ' I was sick and in prison,
and ye visited Me not,' While listening to this
discourse. Told says, ' I was sensible of my negli
gence; , . . I was filled with horror of mind beyond
expression.' He first visited Newgate in the fall
of 1748, and attended Lancaster and seven others
in the cart to Tyburn ; but ' not without much
shame, because I perceived the greater part of the
populace considered me as one of the sufferers,'
Had Told been chaplain of Newgate he could
hardly have given the prisoners more attention, or
have been more successful in his efforts. He
actually joined between thirty and forty of the
debtors ' as a regular Society,' As time went on, the
devoted man found the work increase on his hands.
He says ; ' I preached in every prison, as well as
in many workhouses, in and about London ; and
frequently travelled to almost every town within
twelve miles of the Metropolis.' While he thus
strove to comfort and benefit others, however, he
himself suffered for some time, like Bunyan, from
the slavish bondage of fear. After the labours of
the day, he would often take a solitary walk in
the neighbouring Hoxton-Fields ' till nine, ten, and
eleven o'clock, roaring for the very disquietude of
my soul.' 188

PRISONS AND PRISONERS
After the work in Newgate and elsewhere had
continued for over twenty years. Told still realised
that the service was ' so disagreeable a task to
flesh and blood,' as to render prayer for wisdom
and fortitude constantly necessary. The keepers,
the Ordinary, and even the prisoners themselves,
were of those who opposed : ' The Ordinary con
stantly, on Sunday morning, stationed himself a
few yards from Newgate, for the space of two
hours and more, to obstruct my entrance.' Turn
keys were also ordered not to allow the Methodist
to enter; but notwithstanding, he managed by
some means to preach to the debtors. The Ordi
nary at one time succeeded in preventing the
visitor from entering the debtors' side; but the
work would then seem to flourish more among the
felons, Non-Christian clerics could not stay the
Revival in its irresistible course.
Told's method was to allow himself to be locked
in the cell with each prisoner successively that he
visited. There would at times be quite a pro
cession of carts from Newgate to Tyburn, and in
one of these the Methodist visitor would be found.
Executions were a chief part of the business of
Newgate in those days, but between these he
'frequently preached and exhorted among the
felons and debtors; and constantly visiting the
sick in all parts of the prison.'
Certain offenders with whom Silas Told was
concerned forfeited their lives through one of those
freaks in which persons of fashion and of social
position have frequently shown themselves too apt
189

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
to indulge. The case of Whalley, Morgan, Brett,
and Dupree excited unwonted interest, because
each was a gentleman of position, and the crime
for which they were sentenced to death can hardly
be regarded as more than a drunken freak after
a convivial meeting. The father of Brett was ' an
eminent divine in Dublin,' Whalley was a man of
fortune, as was also Dupree, while Morgan was a
naval officer in the British fleet. Silas Told thus
describes how they fell into trouble : —
' They all agreed upon a party of pleasure at the
election of a member for Chelmsford in Essex ;
and after they had glutted themselves with im
moderate eating and drinking, they consented to
divert themselves by going out upon the road,
and robbing the first person they should meet,
A farmer chanced to pass, whom they attacked
and robbed of all his money. The farmer having
met with assistance, pursued them into Chelmsford,
where they were secured and removed to London,
Here they were cast, received sentence of death,
and ordered for execution,'
The case of Morgan, the naval officer, became
of more romantic interest, because after being
condemned he was visited by a daughter of
the Duke of Hamilton, to whom he was engaged
to be married. This young lady not only
visited her lover in prison, she daily pleaded
with the King for his life. For long George in.
turned a deaf ear to her entreaties, but at last he
yielded on condition that the officer should not
know of the reprieve until he arrived at the place
190

PRISONS AND PRISONERS
of execution. Told was at Tyburn when the
reprieve arrived, but seeing a man missing in the
cart, and seeing him fall to the ground through
fainting away at the news of his respite, it was
thought to be an attempt at rescue. When visited
in Newgate some time later he had not recovered.
A very serious impression was made on the officer's
mind, but it seemed to wear off through association
with a debtor named Barrett, who, with another,
was soon after hanged for forgery, Barrett was a
cheat as well as a forger ; for ' his creditors, having
suspicion that he had some effects concealed in
Newgate, obtained an order to search it, and
found to the amount of ;£^5000 in bank-notes cut in
halves.' The cases which most tried the nerves of Silas
Told were those of persons who were innocent of
the crimes for which they suffered. There was a
Judge named Dennison who won an unhappy
notoriety in trying charges of this character, and
whose gift in browbeating guiltless prisoners must
have been hardly inferior to that of Jeffreys in
the century before. It was Dennison who tried
Coleman, a brewer's clerk, who was hanged 'for
the supposed abuse of a young woman ' ; and then
followed the judicial murder of Mary Edmonson
for the supposed murder of her aunt. About three
years after his death, ' Mr. Coleman's innocence
was brought to light ; the carman who drove him
to the place of execution having been proved to
be the man, and that by his own confession : he
was therefore tried, condemned, and executed ;
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
and one, Mr. Delagourd, who was found perjured
in Coleman's case, was sentenced to stand in the
pillory, opposite St. George's Church, in the
Borough. Afterwards he, with two others who
were concerned in the taking away Mr. Coleman's
life, were transported,'
If possible, the case of the pious and modest young
woman, Mary Edmonson, was even still more in
famous. She was condemned ' upon mere circum
stances, as no positive evidence against her could
be produced.' Notwithstanding, Judge Dennison
acted his part in the most genuine Jeffreys-like
style. The poor prisoner ' suffered very severe
and rigorous treatment,' When she asserted her
innocence, this so-called Justice still laid ' the
murder to her charge, calling her a notorious vile
wretch, assuring her that she would be damned
if she denied the fact, as matters were evident'
The man who was believed to be the murderer was
long afterwards committed to Newgate on his own
confession of the crime; but on his denial of it
at his trial, the same precious Judge Dennison
acquitted him. ' However, he soon went on the
highway, and committed a robbery for which he
was tried, cast, and condemned ; but . . . Judge
Dennison, to prevent clamours, got him a reprieve
for transportation,'
One of his most notable converts was Harris,
' the flying highwayman,' who on one occasion
behaved so violently in the chapel at Newgate
that ' the Ordinary was affrighted and ran away.'
He subsequently became quite changed.
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PRISONS AND PRISONERS
When unjust laws had harsh judges for their
administrators no one could tell to what lengths
judicial cruelty might go. One of the more
touching cases of legal murder in those bad times,
was that of ' one Anderson, a poor labouring man,
whose character until now was unimpeachable,
touching his industry, sobriety, and honesty.' He
was a loving husband and father; but becoming
the victim of a harsh creditor, he 'was totally
destitute of money, clothes, and a spot where to
lay their heads.' Being without work, one
morning, Anderson said to his wife : ' My dear,
I have a strong inclination to go down upon the
quays : it may be the Lord will provide for me a
loaf of bread, or some employment, whereby we
may sustain ourselves a little longer, or else we
shall perish with hunger.' Hardly knowing what
he did, he met two women in Hoxton-Fields, and
asking if they had money, he took sixpence from
them. For this, his first offence, Anderson was
tried, condemned, and hanged. Referring to his
many years experience among prisoners in New
gate, Silas Told says : ' I have not seen such meet,
loving, and tender spirits as appeared in the
countenance and deportment of this poor man
and his wife. Indeed, they were naturally inclined
to few words ; but the woman frequently seating
herself by her husband's side, and throwing her
arms round his neck, they would shed floods of tears
to mitigate the anguish which overwhelmed their
united hearts; but it is impossible to do justice
to their exquisite sensibility and tender affection,'
N 193

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
He gives accounts of several who were con
demned for forgery, persons of considerable station
in the world. One of these was named Powell,
and Told sat with him in the coach on the way to
Tyburn, ' and afterwards went to the other male
factors, who were conveyed in carts.' One of the
more noteworthy examples was a youth named
Slocomb, ' who was executed for defrauding his
father of ;^300 in the stock of the South Sea
House.' The youth might have escaped the
gallows ; but, come what would, the worthless
father refused to bear the loss. Thus Slocomb
was condemned, and then, as Told remarks, ' the
lump of adamant, his father, then retired to the
country, nor would he after that see or hear from
his son ; neither did he once write to him, nor give
him any kind of advice, or remit him any relief,
notwithstanding he lay a long time under sentence,
before he was ordered for execution.' He was an
amiable youth, and seems to have benefited by
Told's attentions. Thus went on this succession
of judicial murders until, with the execution of
Thomas Maynard, on the last day of 1829, the
iniquity of hanging for forgeiy came to an end.
The last case to which Silas Told refers, the
particulars of which he gives at length, is that of
Mrs. Brownrigg, who was hanged in 1767 for what
was held to be the murder of her maid-servant,
Mary Clifford. This woman appears to have been
a Christian backslider, and though her beating the
girl cannot be defended, it is evident that murder
was never intended. Told visited her repeatedly
194

PRISONS AND PRISONERS
in Newgate, he accompanied her in the cart to
Tyburn, and he believed that as a penitent she
was saved. We have some vivid glimpses which
enable us in some measure to realise what an
eighteenth-century street scene was like during
the progress of any notorious offender from the Old
Bailey to Tyburn. ' I may say with the greatest
truth,' remarks Told, ' nothing could have equalled
them but the spirits let loose from the infernal pit ;
and, to be brief, this was the spirit of the wicked
multitude all the way to the place of execution.'
This comprehensive work, carried on in Newgate
and elsewhere, shows how the Revival entered
places where it would seem converts were least
likely to be found. The devotion which the
visitors showed in the service was characteristic of
early Methodism, Silas Told died in December
1779, but the work to which he had put his hand,
and in course of which he had so greatly dis
tinguished himself, was destined still to go on.
Not very long before John Wesley had re
organised the Christian Community, a mission
founded by the Huguenots soon after their settle
ment in this country in the seventeenth century,
and which still continues to carry on service of this
character in workhouses and hospitals.

195

CHAPTER IX
BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
THE best - remembered apparition of the
eighteenth century was the Cock Lane
Ghost, and that was an imposture, although it was
an imposition of an ingenious and interesting
kind, Mr, and Mrs. William Parsons and their
daughter were the agents, and the sensation they
caused seems to have been brought about by a
ventriloquist. They were eventually sentenced
to imprisonment, while Parsons himself was sub
jected to the additional penalty of the pillory.
What strikes one is the remarkable fact that the
offenders had the sympathy of the public, e.g. : —
' The father appearing to be out of his mind at
the time he was to stand in the pillory, the
execution of that part of the sentence was deferred
to another day, when, as well as on the other days
of his standing there, the populace took so much
compassion of him, that, instead of using him ill,
they made a handsome collection for him.'
It will be evident to everyone that the times
were so different from our own, that the people
seemed to be naturally more credulous. They
196

BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
were probably less so, however, than was the case
in the seventeenth century, when even a writea like
Bunyan seemed capable of believing anything in
the way of the supernatural if it only tended to
illustrate a point he was enforcing.
That Wesley was a firm believer in supernatural
appearances everybody knows who has read his
Diary ; but in going so far as he did in this direction
he probably believed no more than many of his
followers at the present day. Here, again, the
times of the beginning of the Revival were so
different from our own, that we can hardly put
ourselves in the place of those who were then
living. The phenomena at the services were such,
that not to have believed in people being possessed
with evil spirits would have been regarded by
Wesley as showing want of faith. When at Oxford
in December 1738, he met with a case which would
confirm him in his settled belief: ' At St. Thomas's
was a young woman, raving mad, screaming and
tormenting herself continually. I had a strong
desire to speak to her. The moment I began she
was still. The tears ran down her cheeks all the
time I was telling her, " Jesus of Nazareth is able
and willing to deliver you." O where is faith
upon earth?'
It was just about this time that he directs
attention to the subject of dreams. I believe it
was no less a philosopher than Dr. Watts who was
not disposed to give too much attention to dreams,
and at the same time would not utterly neglect
them. Was there not a man who, while taking
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
down a certain building, dreamed that a stone in a
certain part fell and killed him ; and who, through
not heeding the advice to avoid going beneath that
stone, was eventually killed by it ?
Referring to November 19, 1738, when he was at
Oxford, Wesley says : ' On Monday night I was
greatly troubled in dreams ; and about eleven
o'clock waked in an unaccountable consternation,
without being able to sleep again,' This would
have been particularly mysterious had it not been
for what followed. It turned out that one who was
to have been Wesley's pupil, entered a porter's
lodge where a number of persons were sitting, and
presented a pistol, as if in sport, first at one and
then at another. ' He then attempted twice or
thrice to shoot himself; but it would not go off.
Upon his laying it down, one took it up and blew
out the priming. He was very angry, went and
got fresh prime, came in again, sat down, beat the
flint with his key, and about twelve, pulling off his
hat and wig, said he would die like a gentleman,
and shot himself through the head.'
It is evident that the phenomena seen at the
meetings of the early days of the eighteenth-
century Revival were no ordinary outcome of
excitement or sensation. Wesley himself regarded
them as direct evidence of the working of the Spirit
of God, although there may have been counterfeits
wrought by the powers of evil. As was quite
natural, medical men had their interest excited ;
and during the manifestations at Bristol in 1738,
there was an observant physician ' who was much
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BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
afraid there might be fraud or imposture in the
case.' When, however, he saw for himself what
took place at the Bristol Newgate during a service
attended by the prisoners, ' he could hardly believe
his own eyes and ears.' A certain woman was
greatly affected ; and, determined not to be im
posed upon, ' he went and stood close to her, and
observed every symptom, till great drops of sweat
ran down her face, and all her bones shook. He
then knew not what to think, being clearly con
vinced it was not fraud, nor yet any natural
disorder. But when both her soul and body
were healed in a moment, he acknowledged the
finger of God,'
These cases were not confined to the meetings ;
and an interesting fact in connection with them is,
that some of the more remarkable instances were
those of outsiders who had spoken of the mani
festations as being mere delusions of the devil.
There was at Bristol a weaver of this character,
one who was ' zealous for the Church, and against
Dissenters of every denomination.' This man, on
hearing of people's ' strange fits,' went to see for
himself, and was more emphatic than ever in
denouncing all as an imposture. Soon after,
Wesley heard that this weaver ' was fallen raving
mad.' In his own house, while reading, 'he
changed colour, fell off his chair, and began
screaming terribly, and beating himself against
the ground.' Among those who went to the
house was Wesley himself, who found the weaver
on the floor, while a room full of people looked on
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in wonder. He roared, beat himself against the
ground, and while his breast heaved 'as in the
pangs of death,' there were ' great drops of sweat
trickling down his face.' Wesley concludes his
account by saying, ' we all betook ourselves to
prayer. His pangs ceased, and both his body
and soul were set at liberty'
But whatever might happen, there were still
people who thought that all might be explained
away. 'These were purely natural effects; the
people fainted only because of the heat and close
ness of the rooms.' There were others who were
' sure it was all a cheat : they might help it if they
would.' Then it was triumphantly asked, why the
phenomena did not occur in the light of the sun,
and not alone ' in their private Societies.' Then
it happened that similar things happened in the
open air before thousands of beholders — ' One, and
another, and another, was struck to the earth ;
exceedingly trembling at the presence of his
power.' Some little time later, during a service
among the sailors of Wapping, there were some
who ' exceedingly trembled and quaked ' ; and in
some cases they showed such strength in their
convulsions that ' four or five persons could not
hold one of them.' More remarkable than the
physical symptoms were the moral or spiritual
transformations which followed.
For some time even Whitefield was incredulous ;
he thought that there were "gross misrepresenta
tions of matters of fact' On the next day,
however, while Whitefield himself was preaching
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at Baptist Mills, near Bristol, similar things oc
curred. ' Four persons sank down close to him,
almost in the same moment,' The symptoms were
similar to those already described, although there
may not have been two cases quite alike. Thus,
one woman lay ' furiously gnashing with her teeth,'
and several persons with difficulty held her, ' especi
ally when the name of Jesus was named,' In one
instance, when a question was asked, it was as if a
demon in possession answered !
What Wesley calls ' a spirit of laughter ' was still
more extraordinary ; and it would have been quite
incredible to him if he had not, years before, when
a student at Oxford, passed through similar ex
perience. ' Part of Sunday my brother and I then
used to spend in walking in the meadows and sing
ing psalms,' he says, ' But one day, just as we were
beginning to sing, he burst out into a loud laughter.
I asked him if he was distracted, and began to
be very angry, and presently after to laugh as loud
as he. Nor could we possibly refrain, though we
were ready to tear ourselves in pieces, but we were
forced to go home without singing another line.'
There were cases that occurred at times which
puzzled the best physicians. Of one of these we
find Wesley remarking, 'the plain case is, she is
tormented by an evil spirit following her day and
night' Another afflicted in a similar way confessed,
' I have applied to physicians, and taken all sorts
of medicines, but am never the better.' ' No, nor
ever will,' said Wesley, ' till a better Physician than
these bruises Satan under her feet' The great
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Methodist leader differed from some of his contem
poraries in not being afraid of an evil spirit. In one
instance a minister who was asked to visit a woman
took alarm at her distorted countenance, and at ' her
roaring in so strange a manner,' that he made his
escape while he was safe, exclaiming, ' It is the
devil ! ' Wesley took this to be ' some unphil-
osophical minister ' ; for had it been otherwise, he
would have said, ' Stark mad ! Send her to
Bedlam ! ' There was, indeed, one inmate of
Bedlam, who 'was in a moment struck raving
mad ' while speaking against Wesley and his
brother before the Society at Kingswood.
When bodily health also came with the salvation
of the soul, Wesley does not seem to have doubted
that such might be the case, A lady whose son
had long been ill ' of a wasting distemper ' called
on him to say that when he was in ' an agony of
prayer' God revealed Himself, and he became
pardoned and cured at the same time.
In matters pertaining to witchcraft, Wesley was
more credulous than will be the case with many
who read his accounts. Of a woman who confessed
to having been delivered from such diabolical
influences in 1746, he says, 'I scarce ever heard
such a preacher before,' though he confesses that
what she said was an 'odd account' It was at
Lanzufried in Wales : —
' Near seven years since she affronted one of
her neighbours, who thereupon went to Francis
Morgan (a man famous in those parts), and gave
him fourteen shillings to do his worst to her ; that
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BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
the next night as soon as she was in bed, there
was a sudden storm of thunder, lightning, and rain,
in the midst of which she felt all her flesh shudder,
and knew the devil was close to her ; that at the
same time a horse she had in the stable below,
which used to be as quiet as a lamb, leaped to and
fro, and tore in such a manner that she was forced
to turn him out ; that a tree which grew at the
end of the house was torn up by the roots ; that
from henceforth she had no rest day or night,
being not only in fear and horror of mind, but
in the utmost torment of body, feeling as if her
flesh was tearing off with burning pinchers ; that
till this day, she had never had any respite or ease ;
but now she knew God had delivered her, and
she believed He would still deliver her body and
soul, and bruise Satan under her feet'
In 1753 a very curious case occurred of a man's
preaching in his sleep, the sermon being divided
into well-arranged divisions, and a clergyman
who was supposed to come into the meeting to
interrupt it was spoken to and argued with ; and
after thedisorder was overand the service concluded,
each was apparently shaken by the hand, with
' good-night,' etc. As the sleeper knew nothingof all
this in themorning, Wesley asks. By what principles
of philosophy can such things be accounted for ?
Wesley was quite as interested in narratives
of wonders and of supernatural appearances
as his friend Dr. Johnson ; but although we
regard him as a somewhat credulous man,
we are not to suppose that he believed every-
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thing that was told him. In the year 1754,
a letter from Cornwall appeared in a London
paper relating to an appearance in the sky. Being
at St, Just in the year following, Wesley met ' the
two persons who occasioned that letter,' and found
both James and Thomas to be ' sensible men and
no Methodists.' While interested in the story, he
thought that time alone could show the meaning
' if it was real,' e.g. : —
' In July was twelvemonth, they both said, as
they were walking from St. Just church-town
towards Saucreet, Thomas, happening to look up,
cried out, "James, look, look! What is that in
the sky ? " The first appearance, as James ex
pressed it, was, three large columns of horsemen,
swiftly pressing on from south-west to north-east ;
a broad streak of sky being between each column.
Sometimes they seemed to run thick together;
then to thin their ranks. Afterward they saw a
large fleet of three-mast ships,in full sail towards the
Lizard Point. This continued above a quarter of an
hour : then, all disappearing, they went on their way.'
The only rational explanation of such a
phenomenon is that there are ' pictures ' in the
sky just as there are in the fire; and while all are
equally interesting, no one save a very credulous
person indeed would attach such ' meaning ' to
them as may have been the case with James and
Thomas. About the same time, John Pearce
mentioned a remarkable occurrence which has to
be recognised as a rare providence : —
' While he lived at Helstone, as their class was
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BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
meeting one evening, one of them cried, with an
uncommon tone, " We will not stay here ; we will
go to " such an house, which was in quite a
different part of the town. They all rose im
mediately, and went ; though neither they nor
she knew why. Presently, after they were gone,
a spark fell into a barrel of gunpowder, which was
in the next room, and blew up the house. So
did God preserve those who trusted in Him, and
prevent the blasphemy of the multitude,'
Now and then we come upon accounts more
weird in their details, which Wesley would appear
to have accepted as genuine, and which may well
prompt modern readers to exclaim, with Shake
speare, ' There are more things in heaven and earth
than are dreamt of in your philosophy,' Mrs.
B  , who in 1756 was the wife of a silversmith
at Cork, and ' a person of piety and veracity,' had
in youth been ' addressed by way of marriage '
by a young man named Mercier, an officer in the
army. Things were purchased for the wedding ;
and it was while preparations for that event were
in progress that the bride-elect passed through
the experience as related to Wesley : —
' One night, my sister Molly and I being asleep
in our bed, I was awakened by the sudden opening
of the side curtain, and, starting up, saw Mr,
Mercier standing by the bedside. He was wrapped
up in a loose sheet, and had a napkin, folded like
a nightcap, on his head. He looked at me very
earnestly, and lifting up the napkin which much
shaded his face, showed me the left side of his
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
head, all bloody and covered with his brains.
The room, meantime, was quite light. My terror
was excessive, which was still increased by his
stooping over the bed and embracing me in his
arms. My cries alarmed the whole family, who
came crowding into the room. Upon their
entrance he gently withdrew his arms, and ascended
as it were through the ceiling. I continued for
some time in strong fits. When I could speak,
I told them what I had seen. One of them, a day
or two after, going to the post-master for letters,
found him reading the newspapers, in which was
an account that Cornet Mercier, going into
Christ Church belfry in Dublin, just after the
bells had been ringing, and standing under the
bells, one of them, which was turned bottom
upwards, suddenly turning again, struck one side
of his head, and killed him on the spot. On
further inquiry we found he was struck on the
left side of his head.'
It was in 1757, when he was in the neighbour
hood of Newcastle, that persons 'who were eye
and ear witnesses' told Wesley of a very grue
some thing which had happened in that locality.
The son of a certain man married without his
father's consent, and this so enraged the father
that ' he wished his right arm might burn off,
if ever he gave or left him sixpence.' The man
died and left the estate to the son, as if nothing
had happened, however. Before burial the corpse
was found to be internally on fire. Wesley thus
concludes the story : — 206

BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
'His right arm was nearly burnt off; his head
so burnt that the brains appeared ; and a smoke
came out of the crown of his head like the steam
of boiling water. When they cast water upon his
body, it hissed, just as if cast on red-hot iron.
Yet the sheet which was upon him was not singed ;
but that under him, with the pillow-bier and pillow,
and the plank on which he lay, were all burned,
and looked as black as charcoal.'
If possible, still greater marvels were to come !
The funeral was at Abchester Church; but after
the nailing down of the coffin-lid ' a noise of burn
ing and crackling was heard therein.' The grave
was near the steeple ; but no sooner were the
people assembled than 'the steeple was observed
to shake. The people hastened away ; and it was
well they did, for presently part of the steeple fell :
so that had they stayed two minutes longer they
must have been crushed in pieces,'
It was still about the same time, or in 1757, that
'a surprising thing' happened near Misterton,
On a certain market-day, a woman who lived with
her sister at Stockwith said, ' I do not think to go
to market to-day, for I dreamed I was drowned in
riding across one of the drains on Haxey-Car.' She
was soon laughed out of this, and went to market
with several companions; and at a place 'where
the water was scarce a yard deep slipped off her
horse.' It is added, ' Several looked on, but none
once thought of pulling her out till she was past
recovery,' In a similar case of dreaming of drown
ing, it was a woman who dreamed that her
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
husband had gone out of his depth, and before
he went to his work she drew from him a promise
that he would not go into the water. A friend
persuaded him, however, and he lost his life.
' One might naturally enquire, What became of
John Hanson ? ' says Wesley. ' As soon as his
partner sank, he swam from him to the other side,
put on his clothes, and went straight home.'
Wesley was strongly impressed with the way in
which divers savage opposers of the work were cut
off in the midst of their days. Being in the
neighbourhood of Sheffield in the summer of 1757,
he said, ' How quiet is this country now since the
persecutors are no more seen.' There was one
amazon who swore that she would wash her hands
in the heart's blood of the next preacher who
came ; but before such an evangelist appeared she
was in her grave. Then there was 'a stout
healthy man,' who said that there would be
' nothing but praying and preaching after May-
Day ' ; but he undertook to ' make noise enough
to stop it,' Before May-Day he was buried. A
certain nobleman's servant was quite as bitter and
threatening; he 'told many lies purposely to
make mischief; but before long he was drowned
in one of his master's fish-ponds. To the early
Methodists and their leader, these were something
more than mere natural occurrences; they were
only to be explained as special providences.
There are some things of considerable interest
as narratives or anecdotes, or as illustrative of the
tendencies of the times, but which even a credulous
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BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
reader of the twentieth century may be excused for
accepting cum grano salis. When in Ireland at
Midsummer 1758, Wesley conversed with a woman
named Shea, of Athlone, 'concerning a strange
account ' which was then being talked about As
a convert to evangelical doctrine, the woman was at
first opposed by her father, besides being taken in
hand by the priest, but at length she was allowed
to go her own way. The story of her conversion
must be given in her own words : —
' When I was ten years old, the preaching began
at Athlone. I liked and often heard it, though my
parents were zealous Papists, till they removed into
the country. I then grew as zealous as them, and
was zealous in reading the Popish prayers, till I
was about thirteen ; when, taking the Mass Book
one day, to read my prayers, I could not see one
word. I continued blind, just able to discern light
from darkness, but not to read, or to do any work ;
till, after three months, casting my eye on a New
Testament, I could read clearly. I said to myself,
" I won't read this Protestant Book ; I will read
my own book." Accordingly, I opened the Mass
Book, but could not see one word ; it appeared all
dark and black. I made the trial thrice over,
holding the Mass Book in one hand, and the
Testament in the other : I could not see anything
in the Mass Book, but could read the Testament as
well as ever. On this, I threw away the Mass
Book, fully resolved to meddle with it no more.'
Second sight was one of the things which excited
the interest even of educated persons. Wesley
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would give an instance, but he was not sufficiently
credulous to accept all the details without question.
' They that can believe this, may believe a man's
getting into a bottle,' he remarks, after giving one
account which a lad ' about fourteen years old '
gave as a piece of his own experience, A man
had been missing for about three weeks, and one
interested in the affair had desired that a boy might
be brought to him. This is young Rushford's
story as given to Wesley at Bramley, in July
1761 : —
' He put me into a bed, with a looking-glass in
my hand, and covered me all over. Then he
asked me whom I had a mind to see ; and I said,
" My mother." I presently saw her with a lock of
wool in her hand, standing just in the place, and
the clothes she was in, as she told me afterwards.
Then he told me look again for the man that was
missing, who was one of our neighbours. And I
looked and saw him riding towards Idle, but he
was very drunk ; and he stopped at the alehouse
and drank two pints more, and he pulled out a
guinea to change. Two men stood by, a big man
and a little man ; and they went on before him, and
got two hedgestakes ; and when he came up on
Windle-Common, at the top of the hill, they pulled
him off his horse, and killed him, and threw him
into a coal-pit. And I saw it all as plain as if I
was close to them. And if I saw the men, I
should know them again.'
It seems that Wesley and some of his preachers
looked with favour on the doctrine of faith-healing.
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BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
In 1 761 there was a young woman in London who
was afflicted with sores which might have been
regarded as an incurable disease. The doctors of
the day were a greater danger than any curable
complaint ; and considering that she ' was let blood
many times, and took hemlock thrice a day,' the
wonder is that she survived. One of the preachers
asked, ' Have you faith to be healed ? '
' I said, " Yes." He prayed for me, and in a
moment all my pain was gone. But the next day
I felt a little pain again ; I clapped my hands on
my breasts, and cried out, " Lord, if Thou wilt.
Thou canst make me whole," It was gone, and
from that hour I have had no pain, no soreness,
no lumps, or swelling ; both my breasts were
perfectly well, and have been so ever since.'
Wesley shows that three plain facts are stated,
and asks, ' Which of these can with any modesty
be denied?' About this time Wesley tells us of
rain being stopped at an open-air service — ' I am
persuaded in answer to the prayer of faith.'
Among the superstitions which had to be
discountenanced was an occcisional prophecy to
the effect that the world would come to an end on
a certain day, and this was believed by a number
of alarmed and credulous people. In the early
part of 1763, eis we are told in the Annual Register
for that year, ' one Bell, a corporal in the Life
Guards, was taken up for preaching in an unlicensed
meeting-house, and taking upon him to discover
to people the state of their consciences, and even
foretell the end of the world, to the great terror of
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his weak and illiterate audience.' A few days later
we find Wesley preaching at Spitalfields on the
text, ' Prepare to meet thy God,' when, as he says,
' I largely showed the utter absurdity of the sup
position that the world was to end that night. But
notwithstanding all I could say, many were afraid
to go to bed, and some wandered about in the
fields, being persuaded that if the world did not
end, at least London would be swallowed up by
an earthquake, I went to bed at my usual time,
and was fast asleep about ten o'clock,'
The times which succeeded the first outbreak of
the Revival were often in certain localities char
acterised by remarkable symptoms of religious
excitement, and this was occasionally of a kind
which had to be regretted. Thus in 1763 the
antics of certain persons while singing ' a verse of
a hymn ' are found to have made ' a great noise in
Wales,' When a meeting was over a favourite
verse would be given out, and this would be sung
' over and over with all their might, perhaps above
thirty, yea, forty times.' Their extravagant action
then became more or less alarming : ' The bodies
of two or three, sometimes ten or twelve, are
violently agitated ; and they leap up and down, in
all manner of postures, frequently for hours
together.' Wesley thought that such were ' honest,
upright men,' who had the love of God in their
hearts, and yet were victims of 'the devices of
Satan,' who thus sought to bring ' discredit on the
work of God.'
From time to time accounts were received from
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BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
the preachers of cases which were understood to
show symptoms of demoniacal possession. In the
fall of 1763 Wesley received ' a very strange account
from a man of sense as well as integrity ' relating
to a woman who at times would fall ' into such a
fit as was dreadful to look at.' A physician who
attended said the case was ' partly natural, partly
diabolical.' It was typical of other instances which
were said to have been cured by the prayers of the
faithful. At the height of her paroxysm ' Satan
raged vehemently. He caused her to roar in an
uncommon manner ; then to shriek, so that it went
through our heads ; then to bark like a dog. Then
her face was distorted to an amazing degree, her
mouth being drawn from ear to ear, and her eyes
turned opposite ways, and starting as if they would
start out of her head,'
While taking notice of such phenomena, Wesley
had a keen eye to detect impostures, while still
showing interest in them. Thus, in middle-age he
read the Life of Lilly the Astrologer, and finding
that Lilly believed in himself, he says, ' Was ever
man so deluded?' More remarkable than such
illusions, however, was the fact that educated people
extended to him their patronage or lived in terror
of his powers. The Dean of Westminster sanctioned
a search for treasure being made in the cloister at
the Abbey ; and may have been as disappointed as
Lilly and his labourers when demons raised a
storm at midnight to stop the operations. At one
time or another, even the Government seem to
have supposed that Lilly — who sided with the
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Parliament during the civil wars — was in posses
sion of Republican secrets, or that he knew some
thing about the causes of the Fire of London !
But while Wesley could thus detect imposture
and public credulity, modern readers will probably
think that he was himself at times sometimes too
credulous. At all events, 'the particulars of a
remarkable occurrence ' which took place in 1763
are not of a commonplace kind, e.g. : —
'On Friday, August 19, a gentleman, who was
at Lisbon during the great earthquake, walking
with his friend near Brighthelmstone, in Sussex,
and looking south-west towards the sea, cried out,
" God grant the wind may rise ; otherwise we shall
have an earthquake quickly. Just so the clouds
whirled to and fro, and so the sky looked, that
day at Lisbon." Presently the wind did rise, and
brought an impetuous storm of rain and large hail.
Some of the hailstones were larger than hen-eggs.
It moved in a line about four miles broad, making
strange havoc as it passed quite over the land, till
it fell into the river, not far from Sheerness. And
wherever it passed it left a hot sulphurous steam,
such as almost suffocated those it reached.'
Of course an uncommon kind of storm may have
occurred ; but the point is that an earthquake was
averted by the visitation ! In some cases Wesley
found it hard to draw the line between what was
natural andwhat was preternatural. A Welshparish
near Brecon became notorious for a strange dis
temper which broke out among the people in 1764,
where it had also shown itself about a generation
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earlier. Those affected were ' chiefly girls and a few
grown persons,' The symptoms were as follow : —
' They begin with an involuntary shaking of the
hands and feet. Then their lips are convulsed ;
next their tongue, which seems to cleave to the roof
of their mouth. Then the eyes are set, staring
terribly, and the whole face variously distorted.
Presently they start up, and jump ten, fifteen, or
twenty times together straight upward, two, three
or more feet from the ground. Then they start
forward, and run with amazing swiftness, two, three,
or five hundred yards. Frequently they run up,
like a cat, to the top of an house, and jump on the
ridge of it, as on the ground. But wherever they
are, they never fall, or miss their footing at all.'
Becoming worn out, they fell as dead ; but on
coming to themselves they were able to tell when
the affection would again overtake them. Such
things were not only regarded as a misfortune in
themselves, it was somewhat discreditable to be
affected by them. At all events we find it
remarked, ' those who have the second sight count
it a great misfortune.' The appearance of a person
to a well-known friend was sometimes taken to be
an intimation of death.
In 1766 — a year which has become memorable
by the publication of the Vicar of Wakefield —
there was living at Colne a young woman who
over twenty years before, while lying in bed, used
to see 'persons walking up and down the room.'
She herself gave Wesley this account : —
' They all used to come very near the bed, and look
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upon me, but say nothing. Some of them looked
very sad, and some looked very cheerful ; some
seemed pleased, others very angry; and these
frayed me sore ; especially a man and a woman of
our own parish, who seemed fighting, and died
soon after. None of them spoke to me but a lad
about sixteen, who, a week before, died of the
smallpox. I said to him, " You are dead ! How
did you get out of the other place?" He said,
" Easily enough." I said, " Nay, I think if I was
there, I should not get out so easily." He looked
exceeding angry, I was frighted, and began to
pray, and he vanished away. If it was ever so
dark when any of them appeared, there was light
all around them. This continued until I was
sixteen or seventeen; but it frighted me more
and more ; and I was troubled because people
talked about me ; and many told me I was a
witch. This made me cry earnestly to God to
take it away from me. In a week or two it was
all at an end ; and I have seen nothing since.'
' One of the strangest accounts ' Wesley ever
met with was told him by a woman at Sunderland
in 1768 ; and he asked, ' What pretence have I to
deny well-attested facts because I cannot compre
hend them ? ' When he remarks that ' most of the
men of learning in Europe have given up all
accounts of witches and apparitions, as mere old
wives' fables,' Wesley frankly adds, ' I am sorry for
it'; for it means nothing less than a 'violent
compliment ' paid by those who believe the Bible
to unbelievers. Even still stronger language is
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used when it is said emphatically, ' the giving up
witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible,' Why
should ' this weapon be wrested out of our hands ? '
The young woman referred to had many
adventures to tell of, and the following is one of
them : —
' When I was between twelve and thirteen, my
uncle had a lodger who was a very wicked man.
One night I was sitting in my chamber, about
half-hour after ten, having by accident put out my
candle, when he came in, all over in a flame. I
cried out, " William, why do you come in so to
fright me ? " He said nothing, but went away. I
went after him into his room, but found he was
fast asleep in bed. A day or two after he fell ill,
and within the week died in raging despair.'
She had seen plenty of other strange sights, and
had heard confused noises. One unearthly being
whom she had encountered was ' a young man
dressed in purple.' Another was a relative whom,
as she said, ' I saw in the field coming swiftly
towards me.' Her uncle died ; but when the
young woman was overtaken by illness, he came
to visit her ' about eleven at night,' when ' he sat
down on the bedside,' She added : ' He came
every night after, at the same time, and stayed till
cock-crowing, I was exceeding glad, and kept
my eyes fixed upon him all the time he stayed. If
I wanted drink or anything, though I did not
speak or stir, he fetched it, and set it on the chair
by the bedside.' Although at times unable to
speak she felt no fear. Then 'every morning
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
when he went away, he waved his hand to me, and
I heard delightful music, as if many persons were
singing together,' The last appearance of this
spiritual visitant was in some respects still more
remarkable : —
. . . ' He was not in his usual dress ; he had on
a white robe, which reached down to his feet. He
looked quite pleased. About one, there stood by
him a person in white, taller than him, and exceed
ing beautiful. He came with the singing of many
voices, and continued till near cock -crowing. Then
my uncle smiled, and waved his hand towards me
twice or thrice. They went away with inexpressibly
sweet music, and I saw him no more.'
The several cases of apparitions, seen by this
woman, are annotated by Wesley in that interesting
way which seem to show that he accepted the
whole relation as trustworthy. One passage
particularly relates to a God-fearing seaman who
died at sea. The time during the three hours
ending with two o'clock was when he appeared,
and he came several times. On the occasion of
his first appearance, ' I heard one walking in my
room ; and every step sounded as if he was
stepping in water,' The young woman added :
' He came, whatever company I was in ; at church,
in the preaching-house, at my class ; and was only
just before me, changing his posture as I changed
mine. When I sat, he sat; when I kneeled, he
kneeled ; when I stood, he stood likewise. I would
fain have spoke to him, but I could not ; when I
tried, my heart sank within me.' As this went on
218

BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
for over two months, the woman ' pined away, not
daring to tell anyone.' At length the apparition
came 'without any music, and looked exceeding
sad.' He drew the bed-curtains violently, and
looked wistfully, 'as one quite distressed.' At
length he said : ' Betsy, God forgive you for keeping
me so long from my rest. Have you forgot what
you promised before I went to sea, — to look to my
children if I was drowned ? You must stand to
your word, as I cannot rest.' The two children of
this man died in childhood, and he is said to have
appeared before the death of each. On one
memorable occasion this is what happened : —
' I asked him one or two questions, which he
immediately answered ; but added, " I wish you
had not called me back ; for now I must take
something from you." He paused a little and said,
" I think you can best part with the hearing of your
left ear," He laid his hand upon it, and in the
instant it was as deaf as a stone ; and it was
several years before I recovered the least hearing
of it The cock crowed as he went out of the door,
and then the music ceased,'
The woman's experience was very varied, and
even still more startling, when the apparition
belonged to the battalions of evil instead of to the
world of the redeemed.
When he was in the North in 1770, Wesley gave
an opinion on a matter on which he was never
accustomed to speak of in an equivocal way. A
young woman at Halifax suffered from ' coldness
at her feet ' and convulsions ; and when asked
219

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
about the disorder, a physician said that formerly
it would have been called witchcraft. Why should
it not still be called that ? asked Wesley : —
' Because the infidels have hooted witchcraft out
of the world ; and the complaisant Christians, in
large numbers, have joined with them in the cry.
I do not so much wonder at this, — that many of
these should herein talk like infidels. But I have
sometimes been inclined to wonder at the pert,
saucy, indecent manner wherein some of those
trample upon men far wiser than themselves ; at
their speaking so dogmatically against what not
only the whole world, heathen and Christian,
believed in past ages, but thousands, learned as
well as unlearned, firmly believe at this day. I
instance in Dr. Smollett and Mr. Guthrie, whose
manner of speaking concerning witchcraft must be
extremely offensive to every sensible man who
cannot give up his Bible.'
When occurrences of a startling supernatural
character happened, Wesley required that they
should be confirmed by trustworthy witnesses.
The following came from ' a young man of good
sense, and an unblamable character.' As the youth
and his comrades ' all feared God,' Wesley listened
to the story, and thought that ' the matter deserved
a further examination,' e.g. : —
' Near two years ago — i.e. in 1770 — Martin S 
and William J  saw in a dream, two or three
times repeated to each of them, a person who told
them there was a large treasure hid in such a spot,
three miles from Norwich, consisting of money and
220

BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
plate, buried in a chest between six and eight feet
deep. They did not much regard this, till each
of them, when they were broad awake, saw an
elderly man and woman standing by their bedside,
who told them the same thing, and bade them go
and dig it up between eight and twelve at night.
Soon after they went ; but, being afraid, took a
third man with them. They began digging, at
eight, and after they had dug six feet they saw
the top of a coffer or chest. But presently it sank
down into the earth ; and there appeared over the
place a large globe of bright fire, which, after some
time, rose higher and higher, till it was quite out
of sight. Not long after the man and woman
appeared again, and said, "You spoiled all by
bringing that man with you." From this time
both they and Sarah and Mary J  , who live in
the same house with them, have heard several
times in a week delightful music for a quarter of
an hour at a time. They often hear it before
those persons appear; often when they do not
appear,' Wesley was particularly asked whether such
appearances were those of good or evil spirits ;
' but I could not resolve them.' In one instance a
man fell into a pit over seventy feet deep in the
dark. On the second night of his being there he
dreamed that his dead wife came and 'greatly
comforted him,' On the following morning a
hunting party was out, when ' an hare started up
just before the hounds, and was gone; no man
could tell how.' While searching for the hare, a
221

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
man heard a voice below, and the captive was
saved. Now and then houses were supposed to be
haunted. Early in 1783 we find that Wesley
' drank tea at Mr. A.'s in the Maze Pond, South
wark,' and the master as well as his wife 'were
determined to quit the house as soon as possible,
by reason of strange noises,' These occurred at
all times, but chiefly at night ; and it was as though
' all the tables and chairs had been thrown up and
down.' A romantic thing happened in connection with
the Rebellion of 1745-46, when the Young Pre
tender, Charles Edward, was at the head of the
rising on behalf of his father, who claimed the
crown of Great Britain as James iii. A certain
man who adventured his all for the Stuarts was
taken, he was tried for his life at Carlisle and con
demned. His wife told this little story : —
' The evening before he was to die, sitting and
musing in her chair, she fell fast asleep. She
dreamed one came to her and said, " Go to such a
part of the wall, and among the loose stones you
will find a key, which you must carry to your
husband." She waked ; but, thinking it a common
dream, paid no attention to it Presently she fell
asleep again and dreamed the very same dream.
She started up, put on her cloak and hat, and went
to that part of the wall, and among the loose stones
found a key. Having with some difficulty procured
admission into the gaol, she gave this to her
husband. It opened the door of his cell, as well
222

BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL
as the lock of the prison door. So at midnight he
escaped for life,'
Wesley quite believed that the powers of evil
showed their manifestations in various ways. He
had experienced many interruptions while preach
ing, but something which occurred at Bristol in
1788 was almost unique. The house was full, the
subject was slavery — ' God shall enlarge Japhet.'
' About the middle of the discourse, while there
was on every side attention still as night, a
vehement noise arose, none could tell why, and
shot like lightning through the whole congregation.
The terror and confusion were inexpressible. You
might have imagined it was a city taken by storm.
The people rushed upon each other with the
utmost violence ; the benches were broke in pieces ;
and nine-tenths of the congregation appeared to
be struck with the same panic. In about six
minutes the storm ceased almost as suddenly as
it rose ; and, all being calm, I went on without the
least interruption.'
To Wesley this was all owing to some pre
ternatural influence — ' Satan fought lest his king
dom should be delivered up,'
We might ask, was that age more credulous
than our own, and was there more superstition?
There was more ignorance, and that is the mother
of all sorts of credulity and superstition in any age,
our own not excepted. From his earliest days
Wesley had been familiar with what he regarded
as supernatural manifestations in the parsonage at
Epworth, which have never been explained away.
223

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
It may also be noted that a large number of
educated people of our own times believed in
such manifestations quite as ardently as Wesley.
We therefore give the narratives as we find them,
and leave all who read them to draw their own
conclusions.

224

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(Kioto hy Walkn- ,t Cod:creU

Tu Jii,:r ,m.]t 3.-5.

CHAPTER X
IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
IT is generally supposed that Whitefield won
greater success in Scotland than Wesley;
but although the representative of Calvinistic
doctrine may have been accorded a heartier wel
come than the Arminian, the latter certainly left
more to show for his work. In his day Dr,
Adam Clarke was of opinion that, so far as
Scotland was concerned, Methodism had no foot
hold in the country outside of Edinburgh and
Glasgow that repaid for the time and money
expended upon it. As a rule, however, English
preachers and evangelists do not, at least at first,
command popularity with Scottish hearers. It
was so with C, H, Spurgeon in his early ex
perience, although in after days that great preacher
was a great favourite in the northern kingdom ;
and his published sermons still command a multi
tude of readers there. As regards Scotland,
Wesley did much for the country, though far
short of what he desired. Mr, Tyerman is far less
of a pessimist than the commentator, ' In Eng
land, Wesley and his assistants found the masses
p 225

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
ignorant,' he says ; ' in Scotland, they had to battle
with a partially enlightened prejudice. In Eng
land, the great body of the people were without
a creed ; in Scotland, the people were creed-
ridden. In England, the itinerant plan was not
objected to; in Scotland, it had always been a
bugbear.' Wesley had no doubt more sympathy
with the Scots on account of their different sur
roundings and national prejudices than Dr. Johnson
ever showed; but he quite as freely spoke his
sentiments. He always felt that he was in a
strange country, but not in an enemy's land ; and
that making progress was more uphill work than
was the case south of the Border. He anticipated
Dr. Johnson in noticing the lack of trees.
If he had not properly estimated the difficulties
which had to be surmounted, and had not made
due allowance for harder temperament and a
Presbyterian education, he would not have done
half that he did. Wesley had a great knowledge
of human nature, and he knew which was a Scots
man's most vulnerable side. What may almost be
taken as his manifesto to the nation, was given
at Dundee in the early days of the wet June of
1766. He arrived in the town on the 2nd of the
month, drenched with rain, but, through the clouds
passing away, he was soon able to gather a congre
gation in the open air. Some days later, after
a number of services had been held, he 'took
occasion to repeat most of the plausible objections
which had been made to us in Scotland.' If any
man could win such people by means of that
226

IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
guile which is another name for common sense,
that man was Wesley. We give his own summary
of what he said, and do not wonder that 'all
seemed to be thoroughly satisfied.' This is the
summary : —
' I love plain-dealing. Do not you ? I will use
it now. Bear with me. I hang out no false
colours ; but show you all I am, all I intend, all
I do. I am a member of the Church of England :
but I love good men of every Church. My ground
is the Bible. Yea, I am a Bible-bigot. I follow
it in all things, both great and small. Therefore
I always use a short private prayer when I attend
the public service of God. Do not you ? Why do
you not ? Is not this according to the Bible ? I
stand whenever I sing the praise of God in public.
Does not the Bible give you plain precedents for
this ? I always kneel before the Lord my Maker,
when I pray in public. I generally, in public, use
the Lord's Prayer, because Christ has taught me
when I pray to say,  , I advise every preacher
connected with me, whether in England or Scot
land, herein to tread in my steps,'
A love of natural scenery was not fashionable
in the eighteenth century ; but having eyes to see,
Wesley found relief or refreshment from looking
upon the works of the Creator. It may indeed be
questioned whether any man of his time knew so
much about the British Isles from actual travel,
so that what he said about sites and scenes which
remain practically unaltered, is worthy of being
taken notice of by modern tourists. Arthur's Seat,
227

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
with the ancient royal palace of Holyrood below,
and not far from what had been the camping-
ground of the Young Pretender a few years previ
ously, just before the battle of Prestonpans, seems
to have been a chief attraction of Edinburgh. As
the height of Arthur's Seat is 822 feet, it is amusing
to find it characterised as ' a small, rocky eminence,
six or seven yards across, on the top of an ex
ceeding high mountain, not far from Edinburgh.'
The last attempt to restore the Stuarts to the
throne of the two kingdoms was then of recent
occurrence ; and a flicker of the ancient splendour
of the Scottish Court had shown itself when Charles
Edward Stuart and his infatuated followers as
sembled at Holyrood, Wesley was old enough
to remember, during his days at the Charterhouse,
the rising on behalf of the Pretender before the
younger adventurer was born. He would re
member, too, how in after years, before the
Jacobites had lost hope, one and then another, such
as Ormond, Bolingbroke, and Atterbury — a patron
of Wesley's brother Samuel — had escaped to
France. There was nothing of the Jacobite about
Wesley; for he evidently regarded the reigning
House as being representative of the Protestant Suc
cession, and he prayed fervently for King George.
Wesley had to realise that the Scots were a
people difficult to reach ; but the love he bore to
them was that of a man who loved the nation and
wished to do the people good. Still, he was made
to feel that north of Newcastle was difficult ground
for an evangelist to work ; and even while pass-
228

IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
ing through the Border parishes there occurred
symptoms of the still more difficult service on
before. Thus, we find it said of one place, ' but
very few seemed to understand anything of the
matter,' At Alnwick the Castle was being en
larged, while the gardens were turned into a
paradise ; but the Duke ' must leave all these and
die like a common man,' At Berwick the faces of
the hearers showed that they were interested, and
this suggested the question, ' Is God again visiting
this poor barren place?' Still referring to this
district, Wesley says, ' I spoke as plain as I possibly
could ; but very few appeared to be at all affected.
It seems to be with them, as with most in the
North ; they know everything and feel nothing.' At
Prestonpans ' forty or fifty crept together ; but they
were mere stocks and stones ; no more concerned
than if I had talked Greek.' The best side of all this
was, that the Revival altered the aspect of things for
the better in Scotland, just as it had done in England.
We may note that Wesley's opinion of the Scots
differed somewhat from that of Whitefield ; for,
being a Calvinist, the latter commanded at the
outset greater prestige. In the earliest days of the
Methodist Revival we find Whitefield made much
of by Church leaders in Scotland. Seats for two
thousand hearers, ' which are to be covered with
shades and let out to the best advantage,' were
provided. The modest sum of a halfpenny was
made for the accommodation of a seat during one
of Whitefield's open-air sermons. Great crowds
were attracted ; and the English preacher assisted
229

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
at an outdoor celebration of the Lord's Supper to
a vast assembly. The awaking was such that
before sunrise on a Midsummer morning people
anxious to hear the evangelist might be seen
assembling. Thus Whitefield judged of what he
saw when the Spirit of God was visibly at work ;
years later, when Wesley travelled up and down
Scotland, the surroundings were different, and
Moderatism was again strong. Hence when, in
1766, Wesley visited the General Assembly of the
Scottish Church, he came out and jotted down
this entry in his Journal : ' I am very far from
being of Mr. Whitefield's mind, who greatly
commends the solemnity of this meeting. I have
seen few less solemn : I am extremely shocked at
the behaviour of many of the members. Had any
preacher behaved so at our Conference he would
have had no more place among us.' In 1766 a
minister named Jardin dropped down dead in the
General Assembly while the proceedings were
going on ; and the event was ' improved ' by ' a
thundering sermon in the new Kirk,' to which
Wesley listened. What he saw and heard while
at Edinburgh and elsewhere was the cause of his
speaking ' exceeding plain ' generally when in Scot
land. This was thought to be urgently needed ;
for he added that a great part of the people ' hear
much, know everything, and feel nothing.' It was
noticed that the Scottish preachers gave discourses
containing much of the truth ; but no more likely to
awaken dead souls than a performance at a theatre.
It was supposed that the introduction of new
230

IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
methods would produce a favourable effect; but
the Scots were evidently too conservative to
readily take to innovations. Persons who really
had sympathy with religion, and wished well to
the Revival, were not sanguine that the English
methods would ever really answer with the Scottish
people ; others, who were content with Moderatism,
descended to abuse and libel, as though they had
learned to adopt the views of unconverted English
clergymen. Lying descriptions of the Foundery
in London became current; it was pictured as a
kind of factory where runaway servant girls and
lads who were not good for much were assembled
in a way detrimental to the morals of both. In
their enthusiasm the Wesleys were judged to be
more guilty than Whitefield, because they had had
more education. Their ways and their teaching
were better fitted for Dissenting conventicles than
for Presbyterian churches, the forms of which they
despised, ' Let them carry their spirit of delusion
among their brethren the Quakers,' said the Scots
Magazine. ' Let them preach up their election and
reprobation doctrines among the Calvinists ; and
their solifidian tenets among the Antinomians.
Let not such bold movers of sedition, and ring
leaders of the rabble, to the disgrace of their order,
be regularly admitted into those pulpits which they
have taken with multitude and with tumult, or, as
ignominiously, by stealth.'
Wesley evidently thought that the Scots were
too much disposed to take extreme views, and
sometimes to express them in too strong a manner,
231

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Knox is, of course, the typical Scottish Reformer ;
but Wesley seems to have regarded him as having
been far removed from the meekness and charity
which add force to any great movement. Apologists
for Knox have excused him as a rough spirit for
rough times ; but Wesley would not have allowed
that violent treatment was ever necessary. Wesley's
notion about such things was emphatic : ' The
work of God does not, cannot, need the work of the
devil to forward it. And a calm even spirit goes
through rough work far better than a furious one.
Although, therefore, God did use, at the time of
the Reformation, some sour, over-bearing, passionate
men, yet He did not use them because they were
such, but notwithstanding they were so. And
there is no doubt He would have used them much
more had they been of an humbler and milder spirit.'
Wesley might not see all things as the Scottish
people saw them ; but he no doubt advanced in
popular favour in proportion as he became more
fully understood. As he passes through the
country he jots down things which show what
entertaining books of travel adventure he could
have produced had that been the object in view.
Thus, on a certain day at the end of April 1761,
' we came to Solway Firth ' ; and on hearing that it
was not possible to cross the water, Wesley
naturally 'resolved to try,' and, as he expected,
' got over well.' Having conquered that difficulty,
there were more interesting adventures on before.
' Having lost ourselves but twice or thrice in one
of the most difficult roads I ever saw, we came to
232

IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
Moffat in the evening.' The town was then quite
insignificant as compared with its present size,
which represents a century's growth of a place
which has since become famous for its mineral
and sulphurous waters, and which we of to-day
associate with ' Ossian,' Macpherson, and Burns.
The natural waters were known in Wesley's day ;
but, as he stayed only one night, there was little
time for looking round. On the following morning
the evangelist and his attendant ' rode partly over
the mountains, partly with mountains on either hand,
between which was a clear winding river, and about
four in the afternoon reached Edinburgh.' The
weather being extremely cold for the season, he
preached within doors, when ' some of the reputable
hearers cried out in amaze. Why, this is sound
doctrine ! '
Going onward, Wesley, who seems always to
have shown more courage than the ferrymen
whose service he needed, had further difficulties
with the boatmen, who said that the wind was too
high to attempt to cross to Dundee. Going on to
Aberdeen, a profound impression appears to have
been made. When a message was sent to ' the
Principal and Regent to desire leave to preach in
the College - close,' this was not only readily
given, the itinerant preacher was invited to avoid
the rain by using the Hall. On the Sunday
following a vast assembly was addressed in the
College-close, and twenty members were added to
the Society — ' Fair blossoms ! But how many of
these will bring forth fruit ? '
233

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
The work was continued at five o'clock on the
Monday morning; but having some leisure at
noon, Wesley ' took a walk to the King's College
in old Aberdeen,' a building having ' three sides of
a square, handsomely built, not unlike Queen's
College in Oxford.' In the Hall were found ' a
large party of ladies with several gentlemen,' who
for some time ' looked and spoke to one another ' ;
and then one of the sterner sex came near to
explain that they were unable to hear on the
previous evening on account of the crowd, but
would Mr. Wesley speak to them there and then ?
Of course he complied, and the Word was with
power — ' It fell as dew on the tender grass,' The
professors of Marischal College were very friendly ;
and in his own house the Principal showed ' no
stiffness at all, but the easy good-breeding of a
man of sense and learning,' Wesley's fame had
preceded him ; ' the eagerness of the people made
them ready to trample each other under foot,'
The Principal and the professors were supposed to
be among the audience. As he loved fresh air,
Wesley ' set all the windows open ; but the Hall,
notwithstanding, was as hot as a bagnio.' Nothing
could exceed the cordiality of his reception at
Aberdeen when George Hi. was in his youth ; and
Wesley gratefully remarks : ' I have scarce seen
such a set of ministers in any town of Great
Britain and Ireland.' Still going north, he next
halted at Sir Archibald Grant's mansion, near
Monymusk, the borderland of the Highlands. Is
not this a delightful picture of the country life
234

IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
of a Scottish gentleman in the sixties of the
eighteenth century? —
' It lies in a fruitful and pleasant valley, much
of which is owing to Sir Archibald's improvements,
who has ploughed up abundance of waste ground
and planted some millions of trees. His stately old
house is surrounded by gardens and rows of trees,
with a clear river on one side. And about a mile
from his house he has laid out a small valley into
walks and. gardens, on one side of which the river
runs. On each side rises a steep mountain ; one
rocky and bare, the other covered with trees, row
above row, to the very top,'
At the service in the church, the pews were
nearly all occupied, and an anthem was as well
sung as might have been the case in any English
cathedral. In places likely and otherwise, the
Word seems to have gone forth with good effect ;
and, when applied, the Gospel which Wesley
preached was as well suited to the Scots as to
the English or Irish.
Sir Archibald Grant seems to have handsomely
entertained Wesley whenever the opportunity
occurred, and he appears also to have been a
man whom the Methodist leader held in high
esteem. Speaking of Sir Archibald three years
later than the visit just referred to, he says : —
' I have seldom seen a more agreeable place.
The house is an old castle, which stands on a little
hill, with a delightful prospect all four ways ; and
the hospitable master has left nothing undone to
make it more agreeable. He showed me all his
235

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
improvements, which are very considerable in
every branch of husbandry. In his garden many
things were more forward than at Aberdeen, yea,
or Newcastle. And how is it that none but one
Highland gentleman has discovered that we have
a tree in Britain, as easily raised as an ash, the
wood of which is just as fine a red as mahogany,
namely, the laburnum ? I defy any mahogany to
exceed the chairs which he has lately made of
this,' Wesley had a keen eye to detect natural advan
tages; and he was always delighted when, with
the fear of God in their hearts, the people turned
them to best account. Then, after bidding adieu
to Sir Archibald Grant at or about Midsummer
1764, to pass through 'the pleasant and fertile
county of Murray to Elgin,' the novelty and
extreme charm of the scene must have distracted
such a reading traveller as the Methodist leader
from his book, ' I never suspected before that
there was any such country as this near an hundred
and fifty miles beyond Edinburgh,' he remarked ;
' a country which is supposed to have generally six
weeks more sunshine in a year than any part of
Great Britain,'
Coming to Elgin and its picturesque surround
ings, the remains of the mediaeval Cathedral were
striking evidence of the grandeur to which the
church attained in the most corrupt ecclesiastical
age, Wesley refers to the ruins as those of 'a
noble Cathedral ; the largest that I remember to
have seen in the kingdom.' From the limestone
236

IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
and sandstone rocks, which since those days have
ceased to be worked, material was to come for the
construction of the present London Bridge. With
what mingled emotion of pain and curiosity would
such a Churchman as Wesley look upon ruins
which had such a tragic history as those of Elgin
Cathedral. The stately structure, which rose early
in the thirteenth century, was destroyed by fire
and rebuilt before that century closed. ' The Wolf
of Badenoch ' again fired and shattered the church
in 1390; and after twenty -five years had been
spent in repairing this damage, it was destined to
be unroofed at the time of the Reformation ; and
still later, to be greatly injured by the Covenanters.
Posterity might have gained much that would have
been valued in these days if such an adviser as
Wesley could have sat at the Council Board of
the sixteenth-century Scottish Reformers.
Passing on through Keith and Strathbogie, a
chief thing to note was the improvement which
was coming over the scene through the develop
ment of the linen manufacture. Here is a word-
picture of life in the far North in 1764 : —
' All the country from Fochabers to Strathbogie
has little houses scattered up and down ; and not
only the valleys, but the mountains themselves, are
improved with the utmost care. There want only
more trees to make them more pleasant than most
of the mountains in England. The whole family
at our inn, eleven or twelve in number, gladly
joined with us in prayer at night Indeed, so they
did at every inn where we lodged ; for among all
237

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the sins they have imported from England, the
Scots have not yet learned, at least, not the common
people, to scoff at sacred things.'
A somewhat graphic description of the Lord's
Supper celebration at Kinghorn would, at that
time, be read with curiosity as a sketch of the
religious manners and customs of a far-off country.
Wesley was no doubt as interested as he knew his
readers would be, but he still says, with character
istic ingenuousness, ' I did not admire the manner
of administration.' There were tables in the aisles,
each of which accommodated between thirty and
forty persons. ' How much more simple, as well
as more solemn, is the service of the Church of
England ! '
While the outlying districts of Old Scotland were
so lovely in those days, what was Edinburgh, the
capital of the country, like in those far distant
times ? On one occasion, after riding one hundred
and thirty miles in two May days, Wesley came to
Edinburgh. On the Sunday following he designed
to preach in the open air near the Infirmary; 'but
some of the managers would not suffer it, so that
I preached in our room, morning and evening,
even to the rich and honourable.'
On the following day he ' took leave of Edin
burgh for the present.' There seems to be no
doubt that the reception and entertainment
accorded had evidently been so much to his liking,
that he was hoping to renew his acquaintance with
the Scots on another occasion. We are interested
in the allusions to the Scottish capital and its
238

IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
condition during the early years of the reign of
George in. The contrast between the then
condition of any British town, and its condition
now, is speaking evidence of the great progress
which has been made in those things which
contribute to health and enjoyment of life, e.g: —
' The situation of the city on a hill shelving
down on both sides, as well as to the east, with the
stately castle upon a craggy rock on the west, is
inexpressibly fine. And the main street, so broad
and finely paved, with the lofty houses on either
hand (many of them seven or eight storeys high),
is far beyond any in Great Britain. But how can
it be suffered that all manner of filth should still
be thrown even into the street continually ?
Where are the Magistracy, the Gentry, the
Nobility of the land ? Have they no concern for
the honour of their nation ? How long shall the
capital city of Scotland, yea, and the chief street
of it, stink worse than a common sewer ? Will no
lover of his country, or of decency and common
sense, find a remedy for this ? '
Twelve years afterwards, James Boswell, who
was a resident at Edinburgh, welcomed Dr,
Johnson to the Scottish capital, and the doctor's
remark to his host on alighting from the coach
quite agreed with Wesley's description of the
state of the High Street, In the year 1779
Boswell's mania for becoming acquainted with all
kinds of famous people prompted him to call at
Wesley's lodging at Edinburgh with a letter of
introduction from Dr. Johnson, when he was ' very
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
politely received.' The talk was of a ghost said to
have appeared at Newcastle ; but the evidence for
which Johnson thought to be insufficient. In that
case the famous satellite of the lexicographer very
naturally came away also unconvinced ; but many
will say that Wesley himself was too credulous in
regard to alleged supernatural appearances.
His reference to Holyrood shows that Wesley
took a more lenient view of Mary Stuart's character
than some of our modern historians : —
' Holyrood House, at the entrance of Edinburgh,
the ancient palace of the Scottish kings, is a noble
structure, , , , One side of it is a picture-gallery,
wherein are pictures of all the Scottish kings, and
an original one of the celebrated Queen Mary: It
is scarce possible for any who looks at this to
think her such a monster as some have painted her ;
nor indeed for any who considers the circumstances
of her death, equal to that of an ancient martyr,'
We find Wesley venturing to preach at a five-
o'clock morning service at Musselburgh. Thence
he rode on to Haddington, where the famous, or
even wonderful, John Brown was then stationed ;
and one would like to have seen some account of a
meeting between two such men as the Founder of
Methodism and the quondam Scottish peasant,
who, besides his knowledge of Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew, knew nine modern languages. At the
time of Wesley's visit the weather was wet, but
instead of turning into the church he 'preached
between nine and ten in Provost Dickson's parlour.'
As he travelled southward towards the Border
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IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
country, one or two things happened deserving of
notice. On May 14 he preached on the Bowling-
Green at Berwick-on-Tweed, and in the evening at
Alnwick. Being urged to give the people at
Warksworth a sermon also, he consented, and
adds : ' A post-chaise came for me to the door ; in
which I found one waiting for me whom, in the
bloom of youth, mere anguish of soul had brought
to the gates of death.' Suitable counsel was given ;
and ' she did feel the next day something she
could not comprehend, and knew not what to call
it,' Wesley then remarks : ' Ah ! thou child of
affliction, of sorrow and pain, hath Jesus found
thee out also. And He is able to find and bring
back thy husband, as far as he has wandered out
of the way,'
In addition to the remains of what may have
been an exceedingly fine old castle, we have a
reference to what is supposed to have been a
hermitage : —
' On the other side, towards the bottom of a
steep hill covered with wood, is an ancient chapel,
with several apartments adjoining to it, hewn in
the solid rock. The windows, the pillars, the
communion-table, and several other parts are
entire. But where are the inhabitants ? Gathered
to their fathers ; some of them, I hope, in Abraham's
bosom, till rocks and rivers and mountains flee
away, and the dead, small and great, stand before
God.' Going forward, he never despaired of his
message ; but still, halting at Alemouth, he calls
Q 241

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
it ' a poor barren place,' A company of soldiers,
on their way to the war in Germany, were addressed
in the market-place at Alnwick, when it was hoped
that they would put their Christian armour on.
Like all who live to extreme old age, Wesley
lived to see many of the friends of earlier days
pass away. This was the case in Scotland as
elsewhere. During repeated visits he was greatly
encouraged by his experience at Inverness, where
the town ministers accorded him the warmest of
welcomes and granted him the use of the High
Kirk, 'Were it only for this day, I should not
have regretted the riding an hundred miles,' he
once remarked. Then he added : ' Observe the
remarkable behaviour of the whole congregation
after service. Neither man, woman, nor child
spoke one word all the way down the main street.
Indeed, the seriousness of the people is the less
surprising when it is considered that for at least
an hundred years this town has had such a
succession of pious ministers as very few in Great
Britain have known,' He considered Inverness to
be the fourth town in Scotland in regard to size ;
and ' the people in general speak very good
English.' Many years later, or in June 1789, he found that
Inverness presented quite an altered outlook, and
one that was in all respects more discouraging.
The good pastors, Mackenzie and Eraser, had
gone to rest, ' The three present ministers are of
another kind ; so that I have no more place in the
Kirk ; and the wind and rain would not permit me
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IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE BORDER
to preach on the Green, Being now informed
(which I did not suspect before) that the town was
uncommonly given to drunkenness, I used the
utmost plainness of speech ; and I believe not
without effect.'
It is noteworthy that Wesley spent part of the
last summer of his life in Scotland ; but unhappily
part of the MS. of the Diary relating to that time
has been lost. He returned to Aberdeen on June
25. 'I took a solemn farewell of a crowded
audience,' he says. 'If I should be permitted to
see them again, well ; if not, I have delivered my
own soul.' Hardly more than eight months later,
he also had entered into the rest he had for so long
anticipated with thrilling joy.
No doubt memories of Wesley in Scotland are
still dear to many Scottish hearts. His love for the
country and the people prompted him to preach
the Gospel there ; and hence to the Scottish people,
as well as to others in the British Isles, he being
dead yet speaketh.

243

CHAPTER XI
WESLEY IN IRELAND
IN our account of the characteristics of the
man John Wesley himself, many things not
touched upon might have been mentioned, all
of which would have served to bring out in bolder
relief his idiosyncrasies. Thus, for example, he
harboured no more admiration for lawyers and
their ways than he did for the surgeons of his
day and their empirical practices. Referring to
Liverpool, he wrote in 1766: ' I looked over the
wonderful Deed which was lately made here : On
which I observed, i. It takes up three large skins
of parchment, and could not cost less than six
guineas ; whereas our own Deed, transcribed by a
friend, would not have cost six shillings, 2. It
was verbose beyond all sense and reason ; and
withal so ambiguously worded, that one pass. 9;e
only might find matter for a suit of ten or twelve
years in Chancery,' Even in the eighteenth
century, a physician might be found to condemn
the most moderate use of intoxicants; but as
opposed to such total abstinence, Wesley speaks
of wine as ' one of the noblest cordials in nature.'
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IN IRELAND
He thought it to be even dangerous for elderly
people to give up the moderate use of stimulants
to take to water-drinking. He saw the evil of
excess, and by all means he discouraged the use
of ardent spirits, which became a great curse in
the time of George II, Perhaps nothing so vividly
depicts contemporary drinking customs as some of
Hogarth's pictures; and while looking at these,
we realise that the Revival was indeed a temperance
reformation. But in this chapter the aim will be to give facts
and incidents connected with Wesley's work in
Ireland, thus showing the social and religious
condition of the Irish people in the eighteenth
century. In the year 1749 George Berkeley, Bishop of
Cloyne, the first philosophical writer of his time,
published his Woi'd to the Wise, the aim being to
urge the Roman Catholic clergy to stimulate the
peasants of Ireland to greater industry. The good
Bishop thought that he detected in the Irish
common people ' a remarkable antipathy to labour,'
and to this cause he put down the ills from
which they suffered, ' No country is better quali
fied to furnish the necessaries of life, and yet
no people are worse provided,' he says ; and then
he thus depicts the ordinary peasant class as they
were one hundred and fifty years ago : —
' The house of an Irish peasant is the cave of
poverty ; within you see a pot and a little straw ;
without a heap of children tumbling on the dunghill.
Their fields and gardens are a lively counterpart
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
of Solomon's description in the Proverbs : " I went
(saith the wise king) by the field of the slothful,
and by the vineyard of the man void of under
standing ; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns,
and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the
stone wall thereof was broken down." In every
road the ragged ensigns of poverty are displayed ;
you often meet caravans of poor, whole families in
a drove, without clothes to cover, or bread to feed
them ; both which might be easily procured by
moderate labour. They are encouraged in this
vagabond life by the miserable hospitality they
meet with in every cottage, whose inhabitants
expect the same kind reception in their turn when
they become beggars themselves ; beggary being
the last refuge of these improvident creatures.'
He draws a graphic picture of the dirty habits
of the people, the reference being to the southern
part of the country more especially. ' Our poor
Irish are wedded to dirt upon principle,' It is
added, ' Such is their laziness, that rather than
work they will cherish a distemper. This I know
to be true, having seen more than one instance
wherein the second nature so far prevailed over the
first, that sloth was preferred to health.' These
extracts are merely given to show how the most
famous Irish bishop of his time viewed this matter,
his pamphlet being written for philanthropic
purposes. It may be added, however, that the
Roman Catholic clergy recognised the justness
of Berkeley's views, and promised to follow his
directions. ' In every page it contains a proof of
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IN IRELAND
the author's extensive charity,' it was remarked in
a letter from the Dublin clergy ; ' his views are
only towards the public good,'
In one of his Irish tours, in June 1765, Wesley
took shelter from rain in a cabin in the neighbour
hood of Newmarket, and found that the inmates
represented four generations, ' They seemed much
frighted,' he remarks; 'but one of our company,
who spoke Irish, soon took away their fears. We
then sang a hymn and went to prayer. They
gaped and stared abundantly ; and when we went
away, after giving them a small piece of money,
followed us with a thousand blessings.' The sight
of such a cabin might have reminded the travellers
that at that time the population of Ireland was
increasing at an alarming rate, which portended
famine and disaster. The population was then
well under three million; but forty years later,
or in the opening of the nineteenth century,
the total was not far short of five and a half
millions. In regard to the ancient history of the country,
Wesley did not believe that the people were
civilised until they came under the influence of the
English — ' Much less that Ireland was, in the
seventh or eighth century, the grand seat of
learning ; that it had many famous colleges, in
one of which only, Armagh, there were seven
thousand students. All this, with St. Patrick's
converting thirty thousand at one sermon, I rank
with the history of Bel and the Dragon.'
In many respects the observations of Wesley
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
closely correspond with those of Berkeley;
especially do they do so in regard to the condition
of certain Charter Schools. Take that at Castlebar
as he found it in 1773 — ' No gate to the courtyard,
a large chasm in the wall, heaps of rubbish before
the house-door, broken windows in abundance ; the
whole a picture of slothfulness, nastiness, and
desolation ! I did not dream there were any
inhabitants, till, the next day, I saw about forty
boys and girls walking from church.' The scholars
were apparently out for exercise without either
master or mistress in attendance, and their tattered,
dirty, or generally unkempt condition was altogether
in keeping with the aspect of their schoolhouse as
described. The Charter School at Ballinrobe was
conducted on similar lines, ' I went thither about
five in the afternoon,' remarks Wesley, ' but found
no master or mistress. Seven or eight boys, and
nine or ten girls (the rest being rambling abroad),
dirty and ragged enough, were left to the care of a
girl half a head taller than the rest. She led us
through the house.' For some fifteen boys there
were three beds, and for nineteen girls five beds ;
the schoolroom itself, corresponding to this limited
accommodation, being ' not much bigger than a
small closet' A veritable hedge school was almost
to be preferred to this ; but what hope could be
entertained of a peasantry who were not better
housed than uncivilised savages ? During one of
his earliest visits to Ireland, Wesley was struck
with the savage-like outlook of the common mode
of life : ' For no light can come into the earth or
24S

IN IRELAND
straw-built cavern, on the master and his cattle,
but at one hole ; which is both window, chimney,
and door,'
What will strike readers in general as one of the
most remarkable letters ever addressed by a great
Christian leader to one of his subordinates, was
sent by Wesley to Hugh Saunderson in 1769,
when the latter was engaged in service in the
Armagh district. The preacher was to ' avoid all
laziness, sloth, indolence.' Then the preacher was
to 'avoid all nastiness, dirt, slovenliness,' etc.
Under the third head it was found necessary to
say, ' Whatever clothes you wear, let them be whole :
no rents, no tatters, no rags,' It was even necessary
to add, ' Clean yourself of lice,' ' Cure yourselves
and your family of the itch.' Both tobacco and
snuff were proscribed ; and, as dram-drinking was
so general in Ireland, spirits were to be refused.
As regarded snuff: ' I suppose no other nation in
Europe is in such vile bondage to this silly, nasty,
dirty custom as the Irish are,' remarked Wesley ;
'but let the Christians be in this bondage no
longer.' In regard to the county towns of Ireland,
Wesley's idea was that they were altogether
remarkable for the reason that half a dozen,
including Donegal, would not have matched
Islington in point of size. Then he asks the ques
tion, ' Is not this owing in part to the fickleness
of the nation, who seldom like anything long, and
are so continually seeking new habitations, as well as
new fashions, and new trifles of every kind ? ' He
249

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
was not at all in love with the language, thinking
that many of its characteristics made it intolerably
difficult to an Englishman.
He gives many particulars relating to the county
towns, and in 1760 he seems to have had a vision
of what might have been when he took notice of
three colonies of Germans in the Limerick district.
' I suppose three such towns are scarce to be found
again in England or Ireland,' he says. ' There is
no cursing or swearing, no Sabbath-breaking, no
drunkenness, no alehouse in any of them.' The
contrast to the squalor and misery of the mud-cabin
on a potato - plot swarming with children was
altogether striking. So, indeed, was the contrast
between North and South in 1756: 'No sooner did
we enter Ulster than we observed the difference.
The ground was cultivated just as in England ; and
the cottages not only neat, but with doors,
chimneys, and windows.' This seems to tally with
the picture drawn by Bishop Berkeley.
As he passed through the country during
successive tours, Wesley closely observed the
characteristics of many of the towns at which he
halted. Glenarm, a small seaport and watering-
place, County Antrim, one hundred and thirty-seven
miles from Dublin, was a place in which Methodist
preaching began in 'an uncommon manner.' A
travelling preacher named John Smith, who died
soon after, overtook a young lady travelling with
a servant, learned that though the town was a
wicked place there was one good man there —
William Hunter. Smith was emboldened to ride
250

IN IRELAND
straight to the house of the latter, and found one
of the man's daughters engaged in the house.
' Betty, take my horse to an inn,' said the preacher,
' and tell everyone you meet, A gentleman at our
house has good news to tell you at seven o'clock.'
The result was a full congregation, and during
nine days Smith preached eighteen sermons to
people who apparently had ears to hear. Although
he had but threepence. Smith still asked what he
had to pay, and then found that a friend had
discharged his debt, and would continue to do so
if he stayed for a month longer. The Gospel
could not fail to make progress in the country
when there were evangelists of this mettle to make
it known. Perhaps the way in which Wesley lived down
opposition was more apparent in Ireland than else
where, while in his old age Cork distinguished
itself in this respect more than any other Irish town.
On a certain morning in May 1787 'a gentleman
invited me to breakfast with my old antagonist
Father O'Leary,' and Wesley was pleasingly dis
appointed to find that this priest was not ' the stiff
queer man that I expected,' The behaviour of the
Mayor, ' an upright, sensible man,' was also such as
became a magistrate who was ' diligently employed
from morning to night in doing all the good he
can,' It had been the custom for the Corporation
to have two entertainments in each year, which
cost ;£'ioo in each instance, but through the influ
ence of the Mayor this money came to be used for
the relief of indigent freemen and their wives and
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
families. He also undertook other service of a
philanthropic kind, so that Wesley naturally asked
when English mayors would copy such an example,
' He led me through the Mayoralty-House, — a very
noble and beautiful structure. The dining-room
and the ball-room are magnificent, and shame the
Mansion-House in London by their situation;
commanding the whole river, the fruitful hills on
every side, and the meadows running between
them.' There was at that time in Cork a House
of Industry wherein nearly two hundred were
lodged, the master being 'a pious man, and a
member of our Society.'
In 1765 the people of Derry were found to be
strangely honest. ' None scruples to leave his house
open all day, and the door only on the latch at
night. Such a thing as theft is scarce heard of at
Derry ; no one has the least suspicion of it' There
was one considerable drawback to this otherwise
enviable state of things — 'The inhabitants never
suspect themselves to be sinners.' His further ex
perience must have made it almost seem to Wesley
that honesty was a feature of the Irish character
in a greater degree than was the case elsewhere.
Thus, he left a guinea on a bookseller's counter at
Dublin, and had the money returned to him ; but
he would hardly have expected such a thing to
have happened either in London or Bristol. In
our day, however, neither our metropolis nor the
western city would, in this respect, be behind the
Irish capital.
The Moravian settlements in Ireland presented
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IN IRELAND
quite a sunny contrast to the low condition of the
common people ; but whether on the Continent or
in the British Isles, the Moravians were quite
phenomenal as regarded their marvellous lack of
hospitality. Wesley thought that this was alto
gether reprehensible. On one occasion, when far
from home, he called on an old friend, whom he
had not seen for over forty years, and was not
asked to take any refreshment, ' Is not this a
shameful way ? ' it is asked. ' Is it not a way that a
Jew, a Mahometan, yea, an honest heathen, would
be ashamed of?'
Of course the degrading effects of Romanism
and priestcraft in the eighteenth century were
similar to what they are at the present time. In
the earlier days of his preaching in Ireland, when
he was himself not more than somewhat over forty
years of age, Wesley found that to the people in
general the Gospel was 'strange news to them.'
' I would fain be with you, but I dare not,' very
frankly remarked one ingenuous man, who no doubt
represented a multitude of others ; ' for now I have
all my sins forgiven for four shillings a year ; and
this could not be in your Church.' Nevertheless it
seemed to be true that persons of all ages, ' except
a few of the great vulgar,' were glad to hear the
Gospel. Even a Roman Catholic priest would,
on receiving a book, say ' God bless you, earnestly
repeated twice or thrice.' In some respects the
Roman Catholics were in a more hopeful condition
than others who professed to be more enlightened.
' O what a harvest might be in Ireland,' said Wesley
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
in 1 7 50, did not the poor Protestants hate Christianity
worse than either Popery or Heathenism,' The
fact is, however, that in the course of his long life
Wesley was favoured to see some striking re
formations. Even Cork, where he had been
treated with such distinguished honour, had shown
a very different temper about forty years previ
ously, when a miscreant named Butler, being
favoured by the Mayor, headed the mob, and
committed the most abominable outrages. The
whole was encouraged by an unprincipled, or even
criminal. Grand Jury, who in their presentment
characterised Charles Wesley and other preachers
as persons of ill-fame and common vagabonds.
Nor was a Grand Jury of this mettle by any means
peculiar to Cork. In 1773 similar things happened
at Enniskillen : ' Therefore it is to these honour
able gentlemen I am obliged for all the insults and
outrage I met with,' said Wesley ; ' but, meantime,
where is liberty, civil or religous ? '
He was drawn towards the common people more
than he was towards those above them. 'The
poor in Ireland in general are well behaved : All
the ill-breeding is among the well-dressed people.'
It may be feared that this remark retains some
of its truth at the present day. From time to time
Wesley continued to note this characteristic of the
Irish. ' I was much surprised,' he once remarked
after preaching in the court-house at Clonmell;
' I know not when I have seen so well-dressed and
ill-behaved a congregation ; but I was told it was
the way they behaved at church. Pity then that
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IN IRELAND
they do not turn Papists.' The common people
would behave well in the open air, even with ' the
rain pouring down all the time.'
The state of the roads tried the patience as well
as the nerves of adventurous travellers in a greater
degree than might be the case at present. The
route to Newry in 1787 is characterised as horrible.
It was wonderful that anyone could ' prefer the
Irish roads to the English,' Whether for horses,
carriages, or travellers, there was nothing to come
up to English roads made of good gravel. As for
the Irish highways, ' the huge unbroken stones,
of which they are generally made, are enough to
break any carriage to pieces.' A more luxurious,
even ' a most elegant way of travelling,' in the
Green Isle a hundred and twenty years ago, was
by canal-boat. On the way to Prosperous from
Dublin in 1785, Wesley preached on board to
quite an interesting congregation, and found the
mode of transit ' little inferior to that of the tract-
skuits in Holland.'
A vein of genial wit and humour seems to be
common to the Irish temperament, and this trait
in the national character may partly account for
modes of life common among all classes. As has
already been shown, a philanthropic itinerant like
Wesley was painfully struck with the squalid and
poverty - stricken condition of the peasants ; but
there were phases of life still more marvellous
pertaining to the classes above them. Thus, after
' the hottest day I ever felt in Ireland , . . I was
desired to see the house of an eminent scholar
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
near the town.' Wesley was then (1758) at
Lurgan, and he goes on to describe with his usual
graphic force the establishment of the eccentric
savant : —
' The door into the yard we found nailed up ; but
we got in at a gap which was stopped with thorns.
I took the house, at first, for a very old barn, but
was assured that he had built it within five years ;
not indeed by any old, vulgar model, but purely to
his own taste. The walls were part mud, part
brick, part stone, and part bones and wood. There
were four windows, but no glass in any, lest the
pure air should be kept out. The house had two
storeys, but no staircase and no door. Into the
upper floor we went by a ladder, through one of the
lower windows into the lower floor, which was about
four foot high. This floor had three rooms ; — one
three-square, the second had five sides, the third I
know not how many. I give a particular descrip
tion of this wonderful edifice to illustrate that great
truth : There is no folly too great even for a
man of sense, if he resolve to follow his own
imagination ! '
While such an instance was depressing, it would
occasionally occur in connection with those stately
ancestral homes which are usually considered to
be a chief attraction of any country. Lord
Donegal had ranked as one of the most wealthy
of Irish peers, and he had a magnificent seat,
•surrounded by large and elegant gardens,' at
Carrick. His only son was an idiot, however, and
the next heir cared nothing about the place — ' So
256

IN IRELAND
the roof of the house is fallen in, and the horses
and sheep which feed in the gardens make wild
work with the parterres and curious trees which
the old lord so carefully planted.' Now and then
the great itinerant evangelist would receive an
invitation to partake of refreshment, or to lodge at
some such great house ; but while he never failed
to appreciate such attention, he realised that his
mission was chiefly to the poor. Among his more
distinguished adventures after he had lived down
opposition, was to dine with distinguished persons
whose houses he had to pass on the road ; and
those who thus entertained the leader and his
preachers indeed represented all sorts and con
ditions of men. Many delightful passages in his
Diary thus reveal to us Wesley in the sunshine of
generous hospitality — a cheery contrast to some
of his harder experiences.
Of course anything in the way of luxury would
be accepted by the preachers as a pleasant sur
prise ; all expected to fare hard in a general way
as regarded actual travelling, as well as in lodging
and diet, Wesley himself never expected or
wished to fare better than his preachers. Thus,
at Terryhugan a room had been expressly put up
for the accommodation of the preachers, and in
1758 this is described as being ' three yards long,
two-and-a-quarter broad, and six foot high. The
walls, floor, and ceiling are mud ; and we had a
clean chaff bed.' In addressing the people, he had
a rock behind and the grass in front on which the
congregation sat. ' Thence we retired to our hut,
R 257

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
and found it true. Under a lowly roof a poor man
may have more real enjoyment of life than even
monarchs and their friends,' In the case of all
preachers, from Wesley himself downwards, travel
ling in those days was always a very chequered
experience. To be *wet through from head to
foot' on arrival at a town was no uncommon
experience, but when persons are acclimatised
to such adventures they suffer no inconvenience.
Many things which are mentioned in a more or
less vivid way afford insight into the everyday
social life of the country. Thus a soldier showing
a fancy for a cane carried by a civilian whom he
met in the street, snatches it from the man's hand,
and on the outrage being resented the soldier is
reinforced by several of his armed comrades, who
maltreat the people. Then the following shows
how the custom of duelling was maintained in and
about Limerick at Midsummer 1758 : —
' On Sunday evening last two officers were
playing at dice, when they quarrelled about a
lewd woman. This occasioned a challenge from
Mr. I., which the other would fain have declined.
But he would not be denied ; and was so bent upon
it that he would not go to bed. About three in
the morning they went out with their seconds to
the island, Mr. B. proposed firing at twelve yards'
distance ; but Mr. I. said, " No, no ; six is enough."
So they kissed one another (poor farce), and before
they were five paces asunder both fired at the same
instant. The ball went into Mr. I,'s breast, who
turned round twice or thrice and fell. He was
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IN IRELAND
carried home, made his will, and about three in the
afternoon died like a man of honour ! '
Wesley was a keen observer of what he under
stood to be the judgments of the Lord, On one
occasion a gentleman who was visiting at a mansion
in County Clare, ' finding they were going to family
prayers, ran away in all haste, swearing he would
have none of their swaddling prayers,' A few days
later he was overtaken by illness, one physician
after another was summoned, but they could only
say, ' He is a dead man.' He soon after died in
despair. When we find Wesley, at the opening of the
reign of George III,, referring to Ireland as having
been 'always so thinly inhabited,' he shows that
he had no adequate notion of the rapidity with
which the population was then advancing. He
sums up the things which had told against them,
however, such as murder not being a capital offence,
their having no benefit from English law, the
injustice of the English rule, and long-continued
civil war. Then ' when they were multiplied
during a peace of forty years, from 1600 to 1641,
the general massacre, with the ensuing war, again
thinned their numbers ; not so few as a million of
men, women, and children being destroyed in four
years' time,' He thus took the most sombre view
of rebellion, for which Cromwell exacted severest
penalties. He apparently had no idea other than
that the population was still diminishing; for he
found that large numbers were leaving the country
through lack of employment, the gentry showing
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
a strong disposition to turn arable land into
pasture, and so to throw large numbers out of
employment. Connaught was supposed not to
have half as many inhabitants as had been found
there eighty years before.
An account of a rare adventure, or any example
of exceptional ingenuity, at once attracted Wesley's
attention, and his habit of relating such things
help to make his Diary one of the most interesting
things of the kind in existence. In his early Irish
tours he became acquainted with a watchmaker at
Lurgan named Miller, who had partly worked out
a piece of mechanism ' the like of which all allowed
was not to be seen in Europe,' A case, having a
curtain in front, contained ' the figure of an old
man,' a clock being on the opposite side of the
room. When the clock struck the old man drew
aside the curtain, stepped forward, turned his head
'as if looking round on the company,' and then
spoke of another hour being gone. The figure
awakened so much curiosity that the inventor ' was
in danger of being ruined,' through neglecting
business while attending to visitors. The busy
inventor worked the speaking figure merely as
recreation ; but more than ten years later Wesley
found that Miller hoped to produce a second figure,
' which would not only speak, but sing hymns
alternately with an articulate voice.' Wesley seems
to have become impatient when he thought of
such a master genius being able only to devote
leisure hours to such service — ' How amazing is it
that no man of fortune enables him to give all his
260

IN IRELAND
time to the work,' What lasting benefit might not
such a man have conferred on his country had he
given attention to medicine instead of mechanics.
We find that in the last century in Ireland, fashion
had about as much to do with medicine as with
clothes. As an amateur doctor, Wesley was of
more real service to suffering patients than all the
professionals they might be able to summon. When
he asked them concerning the remedies already
used, he generally found that they had most con
scientiously followed the fashion, — ' Now the grand
fashionable medicine for twenty diseases (who
would imagine it?) is mercury sublimate! Why
is it not an halter, or a pistol ? They would cure a
little more speedily,'
A tragic adventure which happened in connec
tion with a soldier, showed to what a low state of
degradation some had fallen who were raised above
the peasantry. There was a poor woman whose
rent lagged behind until she owed what was to
her the formidable sum of ;£'i4. When by much
painful effort she contrived to carry half of this
sum to the landlord, the man would not take
anything less than the full amount ; but neverthe
less he ' detained her in talk till evening.' Having
a car, she then set out on the return journey.
Before reaching home, a weary soldier was taken
up; and when the house was reached, this man
begged to be allowed to sit by the fire until morn
ing, the nearest town being some miles away.
'She told him she durst not suffer it, as hers
was a lone house, and there was none in it but
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
herself and her girl: But at last she agreed that
he should lie in the girl's bed, and she and the girl
would lie together. At midnight two men who
had blackened their faces broke into the house
and demanded her money. She said, " Then let
me go into the next room and fetch it." Going in,
she said to the soldier, "You have requited me
well for my kindness by bringing your comrades
to rob my house." He asked, " Where are they ? "
She said, " In the next room." He started up and
ran thither. The men ran away with all speed.
He fired after them, and shot one dead ; who, being
examined, appeared to be her landlord ! So that
a soldier was sent to protect an innocent woman
and punish a hardened villain,'
In the days of the Georges the practices of so-
called forestallers in the markets awakened much
popular resentment, and forestalling was an offence
at common law. In the fifties of the eighteenth
century the county of Sligo was ' the best peopled
that I have seen in the kingdom.' The villages
were less than a mile apart, and the fertile
country was cultivated even to the hilltops. Still,
James's Town, once an important place, was ' now
an heap of ruins.' Passing on through Carrick
and Boyle, it was found that ' the mob had been
in motion all day,' but ' their business was only
with the forestallers of the market, who had bought
up all the corn far and near to starve the poor,
and load a Dutch ship which lay at the quay,'
Under such irritating conditions the behaviour of
Irishmen was better than that of their English
262

IN IRELAND
neighbours would have been. The corn was
brought into the market, it was there ' sold for the
owners at the common price,' all being done with
'calmness and composure,' no one being either
threatened or hurt.
Perhaps the most effective thing to have brought
about a halt in these revolutionary proceedings
would have been a sermon by Wesley in the open
air; for at Clara, a few days later, the great
evangelist found that it was market-day ; but ' the
poor people eagerly flocked from the market ; and
there was no buying or selling till I concluded.'
This willingness of the peasantry to hear the
Gospel was always cheering ; but the spirits of the
itinerant would be damped by signs of decline or
of actual ruin. Thus, after preaching at Aghrim
in April 1775, Wesley went to see the seat of Lord
Eyre, being greeted by an inscription over the
door, 'Welcome to the house of liberty.' The
house was found to have once been a noble place.
' The staircase is grand ; and so are two or three of
the rooms. In the rest of the house, as well as in
the ruinous outhouses, gardens, and fishponds, the
owner seemed to say to every beholder, " All this
profiteth me nothing," ' Elsewhere he comes to a
castle having what had once been enchanting
gardens, a former owner who had taken great
delight in them having procured rare trees from
all parts of the country. It was very characteristic
of the Ireland of that day when those who came
after were of a different temperament — ' So all is
now swiftly running to ruin.' 263

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Still more interesting — being still eminently
characteristic of the people — was the Parliament
House at Dublin in the last days of its being used
for legislative purposes, or about three years before
Wesley's death : —
' The House of Lords far exceeds that at West
minster ; and the Lord-Lieutenant's throne as far
exceeds that miserable throne (so-called) of the
King in the English House of Lords. The House
of Commons is a noble room indeed. It is an
octagon, wainscoted round with Irish oak, which
shames all mahogany, and galleried all round for
the convenience of the ladies. The Speaker's chair
is far more grand than the throne of the Lord-
Lieutenant. But what surprised me above all
were the kitchens of the House, and the large
apparatus for good eating. Tables were placed
from one end of a large hall to the other ; which
it seems, while the Parliament sits, are daily
covered with meat at four or five o'clock, for
the accommodation of the members. Alas, poor
Ireland ! Who shall teach thy very senators
wisdom ? '
The sea- passage between the two countries was
then a far more formidable thing than is the case
at present; and when all depended on the wind
there would be much uncertainty whether a vessel
would weigh anchor or not. The sea -passage
alone would occupy close upon twenty-four hours.
Even when the date for putting off had come, a
captain would be found 'in no haste to sail.' It
required even more equanimity of temper when on
264

IN IRELAND
getting ready and going down to the quay 'no
captain appeared either this day or the next.' A
captain would send hasty messages for passengers
to be in readiness ; but unless the wind was quite
in his favour soon cooled down. Thus, as early as
the reign of George II., we find that Wesley learned
certain rules which he put down for those who
travelled between England and Ireland : ' Never
pay till you set sail. Go not on board till the
captain goes on board. Send not your baggage
on board till you go yourself
Thus in those days, as is still the case in our own
times, Ireland was a country of contrasts, but was
then oppressed by unjust laws which have long
since been replaced by good ones. In itself the
country is a land of beauty and of great resources.
In Wesley's day many of the disadvantages from
which the Irish suffered came from without ; they
now come from within, or chiefly from the people
themselves.

265

CHAPTER XII
WESLEY'S CHAPEL AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS
WHEN, in the good providence of God, the
time had come for the dawn of the Great
Revival in the late thirties of the eighteenth
century, the more than twenty years term of
office of Sir Robert Walpole was drawing to a
close ; the fall was near of the peace Minister,
who with all his faults and vices seems to have
better understood the interests of his country than
was the case with other politicians of that day.
London was then of smaller extent than our
modern Glasgow. The present Mansion House
was in course of erection, and hitherto the site
had been ornamented with trees, and had been
something of a fruit market and a recreation-
ground combined. As regards London in general,
many of the great suburban parishes were villages,
the main part of what is now the East End was
fields or gardens; and at least one fashionable
quarter at the West End was a farm. That part
of Moorfields where Wesley's first meeting-house,
the Foundery, was situated, Mr. Tyerman describes
as ' what would nowadays be called a park, laid
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WESLEY'S CHAPEL
out in grass-plots, intersected by broad gravel-
walks, and the favourite resort of citizens seeking
exercise and recreation.' Beneath the trees was a
favourite promenade of the citizens; while there
were booths where fancy articles and refreshments
were sold. London was already considered to be
too big for the national welfare ; and vice, luxury,
and extravagance seem to have been common to
all classes. Religion seemed to be at the lowest
ebb; and it was indeed when things were appar
ently at the worst — the darkest hour before the
dawn — that the Revival broke out in several places
in Great Britain and America.
Wesley's attention had been attracted to Moor
fields, where he had conducted outdoor services.
It happened that there had been standing on the
ground, in a semi-ruinous state, for about a quarter
of a century, a building called the Foundery, that
being the place where the Government had cast
many of their large guns which did service in the
wars of the early part of the eighteenth century.
Cannon, taken by the Duke of Marlborough during
the war with France, were taken to this old build
ing, where about two years after the death of Queen
Anne, or in 1716, it was determined to recast them.
It was then customary to admit a number of the
public to witness such an operation as this, and
on the occasion referred to an unusually large
assembly were present. From an account of what
took place we borrow this passage : —
' Many of the nobility, and several general
officers, were present, for whose accommodation
267

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
temporary galleries had been erected near the
furnaces. Among the company then drawn to
gether was Andrew Schalch, an intelligent young
man, a native of Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, who
was travelling for improvement. He was at the
Foundery at an early hour, and having been
permitted minutely to inspect the works, detected
some humidity in the moulds, and immediately
perceived the danger likely to arise from the pour
ing into them of hot metal in such a condition.
Schalch communicated his fears to Colonel Arm
strong, the Surveyor - General of the Ordnance,
explained his reasons for believing that an ex
plosion would take place, and strongly urged him
and the rest of the company to withdraw from the
Foundery before the casting of the metal.'
It was soon seen that this advice was not given
without good reason. The explosion predicted
took place; the roof of the building was blown
off; several persons were killed, and a number
were hurt. Schalch was advertised for, and the
knowledge he had shown led to his being appointed
Master Founder to the Board of Ordnance, a post
he held for sixty years, during which period no
accident occurred. As it was not thought advis
able to continue such dangerous operations so near
to the City, a new Foundery was put up near
Woolwich ; and thus, when churches were so
often closed against them, the dilapidated build
ing became one of the homes of Religion in
London, The ruinous building was now utilised as the
268

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
headquarters of what had come to be called
Methodism. The Foundery stood on the east
side of Windmill Street, not far from the present
Wesley's Chapel. According to Mr. Tyerman,
' There were two front doors, one leading to the
chapel, and the other to the preachers' house,
school, and band-room, A bell was hung in a plain
belfry, and was rung every morning a little before
five o'clock for early service, and every evening at
nine for family worship, as well as at sundry other
times. The chapel, which would accommodate
some fifteen hundred people, was without pews ;
but on the ground floor, immediately before the
pulpit, were about a dozen seats with back rails,
appropriated to female worshippers. Under the
front gallery were the free seats for women, and
under the side galleries the free seats for men.
The front gallery was used exclusively by females,
and the side gallery by males.' Wesley held that
it was in accordance with primitive custom for the
sexes to sit apart ; and he took care that all the
benches, whether for rich or poor, should be alike,
all alike being available for the first comers.
Adjoining the chapel was a room capable of seating
three hundred people, and here assembled the
bands, classes, and those who came to the morning
service at five o'clock. The day-school was also
conducted in this room, and there books were
sold. Quite aloft, or 'high up in the air,' were
Wesley's own apartments; and soon after the
building was acquired, his mother died there.
Attached was a house for servants and preachers,
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
A coach-house, stable, and walled garden, all
bordering on the fields, gave to the place a semi-
rural appearance. Mr. G. J. Stevenson tells us
that ' the old Foundery pulpit is preserved in the
Wesleyan College at Richmond, and is used by
the students every week ; . . , the Foundery bell
is, we believe, used at the school at Friars Mount,
which belongs to Mr. Davis of Whitechapel ; . . .
the old chandelier is now in use in the Wesleyan
Chapel at Bowes in Yorkshire; and some of the
old seats are preserved in the basement of City
Road Chapel' Writing in the early seventies of
the nineteenth century, that devoted Methodist
just quoted makes the still more remarkable state
ment : ' There are still living those who remember
some of the first worshippers at the Foundery,
and from their oral testimony we learn that for
some time the Wesleys conducted the five o'clock
morning service in a roofless building.' At first
the outlook was quite a rural one; but at the
opening of the reign of George III., builders ap
peared on the scene ; and while Finsbury Square
and some other streets were in course of construc
tion, in the dark of early morning, or on winter
nights, visitors to the Foundery made their way
with lanterns over what was at times hardly better
than a Slough of Despond,
The still partially dilapidated Foundery, after
being forsaken and avoided for so many years,
seemed all at once to have become popular ; but
while the common people were attracted, there
were those who scowled and murmured as though
270

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
the place had been a disorderly conventicle. When
he was first attracted, even Silas Told did not at
once have prejudice overcome ; for what he knew
to the contrary, Wesley might be some kind of
impostor, or a Romanist in disguise. Others,
who had their arrogance stimulated by opponents,
were more confident that the preaching could be
suppressed by legal means. Late in the spring
of 1740 the news flew through London that 'the
Foundery was lately presented at Hicks's Hall
for a seditious assembly,' It happened in this
instance that the magistrate. Sir John Gunson, was
favourable to the cause ; but had it been otherwise,
the King, despite his moral character, was repre
sentative of the Protestant Succession, and as such
would not tolerate persecution for conscience' sake.
In its earliest days the two preachers who were
the master attraction at the Foundery were the
brothers Wesley, and their varied adventures in
the pulpit were very characteristic of the times.
The early morning service must have been very
attractive when such large congregations were
attracted. This seems to have commenced with
prayer and singing, followed by what was then
considered a brief sermon, all being concluded as
it had begun. ' The place was rough, and the
people poor ; but the service was simple, scriptural,
beautiful,' we find it remarked. The pulpit 'of
rough deal boards ' was a contrast to ' the elaborate
pulpits of the Established Church,' but it gave
forth no uncertain sound. Now and then 'the
sons of Belial blasphemed ' ; but usually, under the
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
power of the Word, they would become ' quiet as
lambs,' On one occasion men who seem to have
been the heroes of a mob forced their way into
the meeting 'and began to speak great, swelling
words ' ; but in this case also, when used by John
Wesley, ' the hammer of the Word brake the rock
in pieces.' Then ' a smuggler rushed in and cursed
vehemently,' with the satisfactory result that he
was 'cured of smuggling,' The times were ap
parently far worse than these things showed ; but
what must have been the power of the Revival
when some hundreds of ardent listeners to the
Gospel message could be gathered in a ruinous old
house at five o'clock in the morning?
The Revival had not very long pursued its
course when Susanna Wesley, still remembered
as a kind of incomparable woman, entered into
rest at the age of seventy-three. When Wesley
heard of his mother's illness he was at Bristol, and
leaving that city on Sunday, July 1 8, he reached
London on the Tuesday following, Mrs. Wesley
was found to be on the border of the eternal
country without doubt or fear. Her elder son
gives this account of a visit he paid her on Friday,
July 23 :—
'About three in the afternoon I went to my
mother, and found her change was near. I sat
down on the bedside. She was in her last conflict ;
unable to speak, but I believe quite sensible. Her
look was calm and serene, and her eyes fixed
upward, while we commended her soul to God.
From |,three to four the silver cord was loosing,
272

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
and the wheel breaking at the cistern ; and then,
without any struggle, or sigh, or groan, the soul
was set at liberty. We stood round the bed and
fulfilled her last request, uttered a little before
she lost her speech: "Children, as soon as I am
released, sing a psalm of praise to God," '
The funeral took place in Bunhill Fields burial-
ground, which is now just opposite the gates of
Wesley's Chapel : —
'Sun, August I, — Almost an innumerable com
pany of people being gathered together, about
five in the afternoon, I committed to the earth the
body of my mother, to sleep with her fathers.
The portion of Scripture from which I afterwards
spoke was, " I saw a great white throne, and him
that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away ; and there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God ; and the books were opened :
and the dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books, according to
their works." It was one of the most solemn
assemblies I ever saw, or expect to see on this
side eternity.'
In course of time the quondam Foundery
became a haven of hope for the poor, and not
alone for those who were members of the Methodist
Society. Thus, under date of December 4, 1746,
Wesley writes : ' I mentioned to the Society
my design of giving physic to the poor. About
thirty came the next day, and in three weeks
about three hundred. This we continued for
S 273

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
several years, till, the number of patients still
increasing, the expense was greater than we could
bear: meantime, through the blessing of God,
many who had been ill for months or years were
restored to perfect health.' All this is wonderfully
suggestive of the writer being far in advance of
the medical science of his time. Here and there
a practitioner such as Abercrombie might rise
head and shoulders above his fellows and combat
disease in a rational manner, but numbers of
the ordinary surgeons not only did no good, they
must have committed considerable havoc among
their people, who must indeed have well won the
distinction of being called ' patients.' The
Wesleyan leader was shrewd enough to notice
that they did no good ; in the course of his visi
tation of the sick, he could not but observe that
they fostered or encouraged the disease which
they were paid to cure.
Then, while Wesley was a rigid economist, he
encouraged thrift among the poor by helping them
to help themselves. He knew nothing of that
Gospel of mere ' getting on ' which has been so
persistently preached in our own time ; and which,
if attention be given to that alone, must in the end
turn out one of the most bitter of disappointments.
On Sunday, January 17, 1748, Wesley writes : —
' I made a public collection towards the lending-
stock for the poor. Our rule is, to lend only
twenty shillings at once, which is repaid weekly
within three months, I began this about a year
and a half ago: Thirty pounds sixteen shillings
274

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
were then collected ; and out of this no less than
two hundred and fifty-five persons have been
relieved in eighteen months, Dr, W  , hearing
of this design, sent a guinea towards it; as did
an eminent Deist the next morning,'
It was quite natural in that age, when people
were apt to look distrustingly on any innovation,
that a man who favoured such novelties should
attract attention. The goodness of the tree was
proved by its fruits, however. ' I do not know
that any one patient has yet died under my hands,'
Wesley was able to say. It was necessary for him
to defend himself in the newspapers, and even in
a letter to Seeker, Archbishop of Canterbury. As
was inevitable, success led to the enterprise being
extended, A dispensary such as had done so
much for the poor at the Foundery was opened
at Bristol.
One little institution attached to the Foundery
was a poorhouse, which at one time sheltered nine
widows, a blind woman, and two children. There
were, besides, the servants, and several preachers,
all of whom fared alike. ' I myself, as well as the
other preachers who are in town, diet with the
poor, on the same food and at the same table,'
says Wesley : ' And we rejoice herein,' he adds,
'as a comfortable earnest of our eating bread
together in our Father's kingdom.'
A young woman who sometimes appeared at
the Foundery was Grace, the widow of Alexander
Murray, and afterwards of John Bennet, an active
preacher and helper of the Methodist Revival,
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
but afterwards he 'was wholly set against Mr.
Wesley, and against the whole Methodist doctrine
and discipline.' When a widow for the second
time, Grace was still a comparatively young woman,
but was one of very varied experience. The
Murray family into which she first married was
Scottish, but had become reduced in the world
through being mixed up with the rebellion on
behalf of the Pretender in 1715. For a time
her first husband was violently opposed to
evangelical religion, but was otherwise minded
when he died. As a very attractive widow of
twenty-six, Grace returned to her parents' home
at Newcastle. Afterward she removed to Wesley's
Orphan House, where, in addition to other duties,
she attended to various invalided preachers who
there found a temporary home. On one occasion
she nursed Wesley himself during an illness, and
on his recovery he asked her to become his wife.
' This is too great a blessing for me,' she said ;
' I can't tell how to believe it. This is all I could
have wished for under heaven ! ' Unhappily for
herself and for her lover, Grace was fickle-minded,
and what might have proved a happier alliance
for Wesley, and also for the young widow her
self, was destined never to come to pass. It is
true that Charles Wesley and other prominent
members of the Society were opposed to the
marriage ; but there can be no doubt that Wesley
himself was bitterly disappointed, and regarded
the affair as one of the greatest trials of his life.
Grace was a coquette who, if she had two lovers,
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WESLEY'S CHAPEL
favoured one and then encouraged the other. At
length, in the presence of Charles Wesley and
Whitefield, the young widow was married to
Bennet on October 3, 1749, Henry Moore,
in his Life of Wesley, shows how severe the trial
was, and this was the more so because Grace's
service among the Societies had been so extensive
and so greatly blessed. A verse or two from
Wesley's ' Reflections upon Past Providences,'
written just after Grace's marriage, best show
how deeply he was wounded : —
' I saw her run with winged speed.
In works of faith and labouring love ;
I saw her glorious toil succeed,
And showers of blessing from above
Crowning her warm, effectual prayer.
And glorified my God in her.
Companions now in weal and woe
No power on earth could us divide ;
Nor summer's heat nor winter's snow
Could tear my partner from my side ;
Nor toil, nor weariness, nor pain,
Nor horrors of the angry main.
Oft — though as yet the nuptial tie
Was not — clasping her hand in mine,
"What force," she said, "beneath the sky.
Can our well-knit souls disjoin?
With thee I'd go to India's coast.
To worlds in distant oceans lost ! "
Such was the friend than life more dear,
Whom in one luckless baleful hour,
— For ever mentioned with a tear ! —
The tempter's unresisted power
— O the unutterable smart —
Tore from my inward bleeding heart !
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
In his ample biography of Wesley, Tyerman
somewhat disparages this woman's character ; but
in any case Wesley never forgot her. In 1788,
in company with Henry Moore, he called on
Mrs. Grace Bennet, on hearing that she ' wished to
see him.' Moore thus describes the interview : —
'Mr. Wesley, with evident feeling, resolved to
visit her : and the next morning he took me with
him to Colebrooke-row, where her son then resided.
The meeting was affecting; but Mr. Wesley pre
served more than his usual self-possession. It
was easy to see, notwithstanding the many years
which had intervened, that both in sweetness of
spirit, and in person and manners, she was a fit
subject for the tender regrets expressed in those
verses which I have presented to the reader. The
interview did not continue long, and I do not
remember that I ever heard Mr, Wesley mention
her name afterwards,'
A very remarkable time in the history of the
Foundery was the early part of the year 1750,
when London was visited by two somewhat severe
shocks of earthquake. On the first occasion, ' the
panic-stricken inhabitants rushed into the streets,
fearing to be buried beneath the ruins of their
tottering houses.' The second shock, a month
later, was more severe than the first It appears
that Charles Wesley was just beginning to preach
when the shock occurred, and 'it shook the
Foundery so violently that we all expected it to
fall on our heads,' The preacher changed his text
for ' Therefore will we not fear though the earth
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WESLEY'S CHAPEL
be removed, and the hills be carried into the
midst of the sea, for the Lord of hosts is with us :
the God of Jacob is our refuge,' The sermon was
made effective by the extreme terror of the people.
A good deal of damage was done, as well might
be the case when ' the earth moved westward, then
east, then westward again, through all London and
Westminster.' It was evidently a very unnerving
phenomenon ; for the motion was ' strong and
jarring,' which was ' attended with a rumbling noise
like that of thunder,' What really happened, how
ever, was nothing like so alarming as the frenzy
of popular excitement when a common soldier,
who may have been mad, gave out that far worse
things were at hand. If the Day of Judgment had
actually been coming on, the terror of the populace,
who fled into the country, or encamped for the
night in the parks, could hardly have been more
acute. One good effect was that the preachers
of the Revival had crowded congregations. The
scene at the Foundery was similar to what took
place elsewhere; for Charles Wesley, who was
the preacher, says : ' Many came all night, knocking
at the Foundery door, begging admittance for
God's sake.'
It was but a few weeks after this almost tragic
time that Wesley had a fall on London Bridge,
when he severely sprained his leg. The thorough
fare across the Thames was then a street with
houses on both sides ; while at either end the
heads of traitors on spikes would be exhibited.
Until now London Bridge had been the only
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
means of crossing the river except by ferry ; but
at that date Westminster Bridge had been opened
only a few weeks previously. Wesley's accident
happened on February lo, 175 1 ; and thus when
he conducted the service at the Foundery on
Sunday the 17th, he 'preached kneeling,' and did
so on some other occasions. He was suffering
from the effects of this accident when he contracted
his unhappy marriage with Mrs. Vazeille, the
disastrous consequences of which Charles Wesley
seems to have been able to foresee.
When, in 1753, Wesley was overtaken by illness,
and fears were seriously entertained that his life
might be cut short, the fervent prayers which were
offered for his restoration were such as might
remind us of the continuous prayer-meetings
which were held on behalf of C. H, Spurgeon
during his last illness. Another historical scene
of the times of the Great Revival, in connection
with the Foundery, took place on February 16,
1759) 3- public fast-day in prospect of what it was
feared might be a French invasion, Wesley, who
was ever ready to take advantage of any public
occurrence to advance his cause, was in good form,
so that he got through quite an ordinary day's
work. Thus, at five a,m. he preached at Wands
worth ; at nine o'clock, and again at three, he
conducted similar services at Spitalfields ; and
finally at half-past eight in the evening he had a
full service at the Foundery, Lady Huntingdon
being among the audience. 'All the ministers
prayed in turn,' remarks Charles Wesley. ' It was
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WESLEY'S CHAPEL
a most blessed time of refreshment. My brother
preached, and won all our hearts, I never liked
him better, and was never more united to him
since his unhappy marriage.'
A very sad kind of double tragedy happened at
the Foundery in 1773, just at the time that Dr.
Johnson and Boswell were on their Highland tour —
' Poor Samuel Francks,' or, as the younger Wesley
calls him, ' faithful Sam Francks,' was overtaken
by a fit of insanity and hanged himself Wesley
refers to ' the sudden death of my book-keeper ' ;
and printing and publishing books was then such
a hazardous business that the concern was found
to be ;£^900 in debt, A few days later, Matthews,
the master of the day-school, also committed
suicide. During the phenomenal frost which set in on
Christmas night 1762, and continued for over a
month, we find that the Foundery was a centre
for the distribution of the necessaries of life to
numbers of people in distress. It was a most
remarkable time, the Thames being frozen over
at Richmond, while below London Bridge huge
blocks of ice floated up and down with the tide,
while higher up a fair was held on the surface
of the river. Many fires occurred, the streets
swarmed with beggars, numbers of people were
frozen to death; while seabirds, driven by stress
of weather from their native haunts, appeared even
in the streets of London. A paragraph in Lloyd's
Evening Post of January 26, notified : ' Great
numbers of poor people had pease pottage and
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
barley broth given them at the Foundery at the
expense of Mr, Wesley ; and a collection was made
at the same place of worship for further supplying
the necessities of the destitute, at which upwards
of a hundred pounds was contributed,'
The monthly Magazine of the Wesleyan
Methodist denomination was started at or about
the time of the opening of the building now known
as Wesley's Chapel, The old building continued
to be held in possession during some years ; Wesley
and his preachers were still lodged there ; but the
place became so dilapidated that a tenant who
rented part of the premises paid less than a
shilling a week for the privilege. According to the
late Mr. G. J, Stevenson, 'The Rev, James Creighton
slept at the Foundery during the night of November
lo, 1785, " whilst the rain was pouring through the
roof, and burst down a part of the ceiling of the
chamber." He further describes the building as
" This tottering fabric with its mouldering walls." '
No account of the Foundery would be complete
without mention of John Downes, one of the early
Methodist preachers, whose mind was thought by
Wesley to be equal to Sir Isaac Newton's. On
November 5, 1774, he went to West Street Chapel
to preach, but when attempting to pray, his voice
failed, and he was carried home to die. Like
many others who gave their time to the work, he
was extremely poor, so that the people who made
up the congregation at the Foundery paid for his
funeral. When he passed away, the whole of his
personality amounted to sixpence; but in those
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WESLEY'S CHAPEL
days the wages of Wesley himself were no more
than what might be given to a day-labourer, and
were far less than those of an artisan.
Even so late as nearly a hundred years after the
Revolution, it had been the custom for all places
of worship not strictly belonging to the Established
Church to be put up in side streets ; or if a site
was obtained in a leading thoroughfare the main
building would be hidden by smaller ones being
erected in front. The City authorities, from whom
Wesley obtained his site, actually stipulated that
the main building should be hidden from the
public gaze by smaller houses being put up in
front ; and the privilege of having the front open
was only conceded by some advantage, not in the
agreement, being given back in return.
Writing in April 1777, Wesley says in his
Diary: 'Monday 21 was the day for laying the
foundation of the new chapel. The rain befriended
us much, by keeping away thousands who purposed
to be there. But there were still such multitudes
that it was with great difficulty I got through
them to lay the first stone. Upon this was a
plate of brass (covered with another stone) on
which was engraved, " This was laid by Mr. John
Wesley on April 21, 1777," Probably this will be
seen no more by any human eye ; but will remain
there till the earth and the works thereof are
burned up. The sun breaking out, I snatched the
opportunity of preaching to many thousands in
Moorfields, All were still as night, while I
showed how the Son of God was manifested to
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
destroy the works of the devil,' This was a fitting
text ; for at that time there were persons who
were bold enough to deny that any special work
for God had been done in England during the
period we call the Great Revival. Gibson, Bishop
of London, had done so. The building of the
chapel was the greatest undertaking of the kind
he had ever engaged in, and while the work was
in progress he had to spend more time in London.
He was not above holding his hat for a collection
at a countryside open-air service. Just about a
a week before Christmas 1777, 'sundry saws,
planes, and other carpenters' tools' belonging to
the workmen were stolen, and ten guineas reward
was offered for information concerning the thieves.
The chapel was opened on Sunday, November i,
1778. On August 8, 1779, Wesley slept for the
last time at the Foundery, and just two months
later he lodged for the first time at the new house
close by the chapel.
The great building seems to have been pro
videntially preserved from fire just when it was
completed. In the small hours of morning, on
December 30, 1780, Wesley awoke before his time,
and noticed that a bright light shone into the
room, — a large timber-yard close by had its stocks
alight, and the appearance was that in all prob
ability the new chapel would presently become
fuel for the flames. Without panic, however,
Wesley called his friends around him for prayer.
' Then going out, we found the fire about one
hundred yards off, and had broke out while the
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WESLEY'S CHAPEL
wind was south. But a sailor cried out, " Avast !
Avast ! The wind is turned in a moment ! " So
it did, to the west, while we were at prayer, and so
drove the flames from us. We then thankfully
returned ; and I rested well the residue of the
night. In all human probability, the chapel was
spared from harm in answer to the prayers of the
Lord's people.'
The work continued to prosper in a remarkable
way, and Wesley's continued popularity was
shown by the fact, that when over eighty years of
age, he could command a congregation at the new
chapel at four o'clock on a winter morning. The
London preachers, or the main part of them,
lodged in the house which Wesley himself
occupied. On one occasion he was much
disconcerted, on coming down in the early
morning, to find that no preacher to take the
service was out of bed. He forthwith ordered
that all should retire to rest at nine in the evening,
so that there should be no excuse for late rising !
The most stirring event which took place in
connection with the chapel in 1788, was the death
of Charles Wesley towards the end of March.
How different those times were to our own is seen
in the straitened circumstances of so eminent a
preacher and writer, and whose sons both inherited
the family genius which led them on to distinction.
As was the case with Wesley himself, the income
of Charles was only ;^6o a year; and when this
greatest of Methodist hymn -writers died, his
family did not possess money enough to pay for
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
the funeral. Notwithstanding his poverty, how
ever, Charles Wesley lived in a large house close
to the old parish church of Marylebone, in the
graveyard of which he was buried. His house
belonged to the widow of Colonel Gumley, a
convert, and her spiritual father was allowed the
use of the mansion rent free. Friends at the
chapel collected sufficient to pay for the funeral.
His last act seems to have been the writing of a
hymn which has this verse —
' Oh that the jo)^ul hour was come.
Which calls Thy ready servant home ;
Unites me to the Church above.
Where angels chant the song of love ;
And saints eternally proclaim
The glories of the heavenly Lamb,'
Just before starting on his last errand of mercy
to the Continent, John Howard, the prison
philanthropist, called at the chapel house; but
Wesley was then on his way to Ireland. They
were close friends, and in death they were
separated only by about thirteen months. Wesley
died at the chapel house in March 1791. The
last letter he wrote was to Wilberforce, commend
ing his efforts on behalf of the negroes. His
funeral sermon was preached in the chapel by his
favourite physician Dr, Whitehead.
The death of Wesley, in March 1791, would
seem to have come somewhat unexpectedly; for
a short time before he was expecting to set out
on his usual journey to the North. Fearing that
accident might occur through unmanageable crowds
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WESLEY'S CHAPEL
if the funeral took place in the middle of the day,
the interment was arranged for the early hours of
morning, and, according to the strict directions of
the departed, six poor men carried his remains to
the grave. There was a great crowd nevertheless ;
but Wesley's wishes were observed as far as was
practicable, — ' I particularly desire there may be
no hearse, no coach, no escutcheon, no pomp,
except the tears of those that loved me, and are
following me to Abraham's bosom.'
November 29, 181 5, was a red-letter day in the
history of the chapel ; for the Duke of Kent, the
father of Queen Victoria, was present at the
morning service, and the Duke's chaplain. Dr.
W. B. Collyer, preached the sermon. The Lord
Mayor and other persons of note were present.
It was a time when amateur attempts at education
were exciting popular interest, education being a
matter in which the Duke of Kent was specially
interested, when Bell and Lancaster were national
heroes. Some time after a collection was made in
the chapel on behalf of those who suffered through
the Battle of Waterloo, In 1820 the first annual
breakfast of the London preachers and their
families took place at the chapel.
When the popular preacher Walter Griffith died
in 1825, it was resolved to pay the greatest possible
mark of respect to his remains by placing the
coffin in Wesley's tomb, with seven others ; and
that being all that the space would hold, all were
rearranged, Wesley's remains were enclosed in an
oaken case and the vault permanently sealed.
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
In the early part of the last century the Wesleyan
preachers were often entertained at the house of
the Holloway family, near the bridge in the City
Road, and there ' the seraphic Dr. Coke,' who sold
his estates to give the money to the missionary
cause, for some time had a home. The late Mr.
G. J. Stevenson, in his work on City Road Chapel,
remarks : ' Thomas Holloway, the engraver, told
the Rev. John Scott on one of his visits to their
house, that he had been daily at Hampton Court
for twenty-one years, engraving the cartoons, and
that he had seen new beauties in these pictures
constantly to the last.'
On one of the last days of his life — Monday,
February 21, 1791 — Wesley, being on the road to
Twickenham to dine with a friend, called on Lady
Mary Fitzgerald, when he ' conversed and prayed
most sweetly.' Both in regard to social position
and Christian attainments this lady belonged to
the aristocracy of Methodism. Born in 1725, she
died, at the age of ninety, in 18 15, through her
clothing taking fire. After her conversion she
devoted a large part of her income to the general
cause. Her remains lie in the graveyard of
Wesley's Chapel.
Joseph Butterworth, M.P,, born in 1770, the law
bookseller of Fleet Street, was brother-in-law of
Dr, Adam Clarke, and he was the original publisher
of that worthy's Commentary on the Bible, As a
young man, in 1796, Butterworth became converted
under the preaching of Adam Clarke, As the
eminent bookseller lived at his place of business,
288

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
the house became a centre of Methodist influence
and hospitality. At different times he sat in the
old Houseof Commons as representative successively
of his native city of Coventry and of Dover. In
Coventry the elder Butterworth was a Noncon
formist preacher. He was an enthusiastic supporter
of the missionary cause; and for a considerable
time he conducted a young men's class at Wesley's
Chapel, which met at seven o'clock on Sunday
mornings. Another hospitable table in Wesley's time and
in succeeding years, was that of the Hovatts —
father and son — who were undertakers in Bishops-
gate, their house being nearly opposite the church.
Mr. Hovatt was genial and generous; his wife,
who ' had a fine commanding person,' was a model
English hostess. At breakfast, dinner, and supper
she was continually entertaining the preachers ;
and men whose stipend was only £16 a year
knew how to enjoy themselves at her well-furnished
board. John Hovatt, sen., was one of those who
had attended at the Foundery; but nearly forty
years after Wesley's death, preachers and their
friends were constantly meeting at the Hovatts'
home. Wesleyan preachers were then humble
folk ; and after partaking of the liberally provided
repast, they would often carry away with them a
parcel containing 'a sumptuous breakfast' for
the following morning; 'or a bottle of wine
was supplied to assist in restoring exhausted
nature.' There appear to have been several booksellers
X 289

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
who were associated with Wesley's Chapel from
time to time, and among these was William
Baynes, who died at the age of seventy-two in
1832. The first twenty years of his life were
spent on his father's farm in Yorkshire ; but he
came to London and engaged himself to a
wholesale draper in 1780. Even thus early he
was more interested in the book trade than he
was in woollen goods, so that out of business
hours he examined the stocks of dealers and
purchased such books as enabled him to commence
business on his own account in Long Lane, whence
he afterwards removed to Paternoster Row, He
became a member of the congregation at Wesley's
Chapel, and in all that he did, whether in business
or in private life, he acted in accordance with the
covenant with God which he had drawn up in
early life. Baynes and Dr. Adam Clarke were
friends, they were of the same age, and died in
the same year, and the doctor and commentator
once testified : ' Baynes knows a book or a
curiosity at a glance, without being acquainted
with its exact character, and I have rarely ever
found him deceived in his estimate of what he
judged to be intrinsically good ; his tact serves as
well as laborious knowledge, and makes him what
he is, the best old bookseller in London,' The
once well-known Wesleyan preacher, Thomas
Jackson, characterised Baynes as one of the most
eminent members of his profession in England.
He once presided at a Sunday-school distribution
of prizes ; but on learning that all the scholars had
290

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
creditably conducted themselves, he sent a book
as a prize to every child.
Among the preachers with whom Wesley was
most intimately acquainted, few, if any, held a
higher place in his affections than Henry Moore,
who was of the same family as Tom Moore the
poet. The chief aim of Moore in writing his
biography of Wesley, of which we are told tens
of thousands were circulated, was to correct the
misrepresentations of Southey. When he came
to London, at the age of nineteen, in 1770, he was
at first captivated by the fast life of the town ; but
seems to have soon found good under the preaching
of Charles Wesley. As a travelling preacher in
his native country, Moore appears to have suffered
great privations. He was a man of high attain
ments and of great decision of character. In one
Conference one member remarked, ' A little child
might lead Henry Moore with a silken cord ' ; but
another very aptly added, ' Yes, if Brother Moore
was willing to go.' His memory took him far back
into the reign of George II. , and he saw six or
seven years of the reign of Queen Victoria ; and
when he was past ninety years of age, he was
still found preaching in Wesley's Chapel. He
must surely have been the last of the preachers
who remembered his great leader as a personal
friend and co-worker, for Moore survived him
between fifty and sixty years.
In looking over the names of those who have
been associated with Wesley's Chapel, we come
across some who ranked as distinguished .printers
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
of the Wesleyan Connexion. Thus, John Spurgeon
printed The Watchman newspaper during twenty
years, and he also founded more than one Benefit
Building Society. He died in 1871, having retired
from business about ten years previously. Then
James Nichols, who was about six years of age
when Wesley died, came to be called ' the learned
printer of Hoxton Square.' Such educational
advantages as he possessed in youth were mainly
such as he secured for himself At the age of eight
he appears to have been working for his own living
at Holbeck; but that did not prevent his study
ing for improvement," and afterwards he attended
for a time at Leeds Grammar School. As a young
man he was a competent tutor ; but he preferred
to give attention to printing, and commenced in
that business at Leeds. When, soon afterwards,
he removed his business to London, he was
appointed chief printer to the Wesleyan Con
nexion ; and the sons of many of the preachers
are said to have learned printing at James Nichols'
establishment. As a scholar and a gentleman he
enjoyed the intimate friendship of many leading
Wesleyan divines. The late Mr. G, J, Stevenson,
who knew him well, tells us that ' his learning was
manifested partly in the two chief works which he
published, Calvinism and Arminianism Compared,
and The Works of fames Arminius, with an Account
of the Synod of Dort, etc, ; and also in the careful
and accurate manner in which all his printing was
done. He edited a number of important works
for Mr. Tegg, all of which testify to his judgment,
292

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
care, and scholarship. His knowledge of modern
sacred literature led to his twice receiving overtures
to enter the ministry of the Church of England,
but his deep humility led to his declining those
offers,' John Stubbs and Elizabeth his sister were both
strong and interesting characters who were old
enough to remember the brothers Wesley, The
former was a goldsmith and jeweller at 241 High
Holborn ; his sister, being a woman of enterprise
and of great decision of character, made her mark
in the commercial world. Born at Prees in Shrop
shire, in the latter part of the reign of George IL,
she came to London on her own account as a
young woman, and established the business of a
colour and varnish manufacturer in Little Queen
Street. Elizabeth was twice married, but survived
both of her husbands. As a commercial woman
her experience was probably unique; and while
she amassed a large fortune by her own efforts, her
open-handed liberality was an example to all
wealthy Christian people who came after her.
She died April 17, 1833, at the age of seventy-
seven, when this notice of Mrs. Ives and her
character and work appeared in the Times: —
'Possessed of a masculine understanding and
almost Herculean strength, united with the most
unremitting assiduity and perseverance, Mrs. Ives
established the business purely by her own exertions.
For upwards of thirty years she regularly took her
journeys through the greater part of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, and was thus well known
293

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
by the commercial travellers of that day. During
the same period, when at home, she invariably
superintended and assisted in the manufacturing
department. Her hours of business generally
commenced at four o'clock throughout the year,
continued to a late period, occasionally the whole
night. The result was the realisation of a con
siderable fortune, much of which during her life
time was devoted to and expended on the numerous
branches of her family (having no children of her
own though twice married), to whom and their
welfare she was attached with a devotedness rarely
witnessed.' It was as a Christian woman of open-handed
benevolence to all that needed help that came
beneath her notice, however, that Elizabeth Ives
was long remembered by London Methodists.
Her remains lie in the graveyard of Wesley's
Chapel, but she was for long a member of the
congregation at Great Queen Street. She was a
chief contributor to the building fund of that chapel,
and when the building was opened she paid down
;£^ioo in order that one seat might be retained for
herself for life. Mr. G, J, Stevenson was acquainted
with a quondam commercial traveller, who in
former days had travelled in company with Mrs,
Elizabeth Ives; and he had known her realise a
profit of ;^iooo during one journey on varnish
alone. From first to last Mrs. Ives gave large
sums to her poor relatives. On one occasion she
would hand to a needy one a bag containing fifty
spade guineas to enliven the Christmas season ; at
294

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
another time she would give all she had in her
pocket to a poor person who was hard pressed.
Notwithstanding such generosity, the fortune of
Mrs, Ives amounted to £80,000 when she retired
from business at the age of seventy and purchased
Lampton Hall, near Hounslow, as a place of
residence. There she put up a chapel to accom
modate three hundred persons, and presented it to
the Wesleyan Connexion. Quite a large number
of her own poor relatives were not only clothed,
they were daily fed at her well-furnished table.
' Methodist preachers were always welcome to her
hospitality, and not a few of them realised how
blessed it was to receive in cases of sickness, bereave
ment, or difficulty,' remarks Mr. Stevenson. ' To
a case of urgent need she has been known to take
her purse and empty the entire contents into the
hands of the suppliant. She cherished a high
regard for the means of grace ; and when the hour
for weekday evening service came, she would start
off at once, leave her business, and in a few minutes
be in her pew at Great Queen Street.' The family
connections of Elizabeth Ives seem to have been
not only numerous but somewhat grasping and
quarrelsome, so that after her death a main part
of her property was squandered in Chancery law
costs. The law expenses so far exceeded the sums
in dispute, that in one case a bequest of ;^4000
cost ;£^7000 to secure it. The case was so notorious,
that Lord Brougham passed a Bill to prevent such
vexatious litigation in the future. John Stubbs,
the Holborn goldsmith, often joined with his sister
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Elizabeth Ives in her charitable enterprises ; and
both were doubtless stimulated in their zeal for the
Methodist cause by remembering that their mother
was one of the earliest to be attracted by Wesley's
services at the Foundery.
Among the poets whose remains found a last
resting-place in the graveyard of Wesley's Chapel
we have to reckon John Bakewell, who died at the
age of ninety-eight in 1819, and author of the
hymn, ' Hail, thou once despised Jesus ' ; and
Thomas Olivers, who in 1772 wrote his hymn,
'The God of Abraham praise,' in Bakewell's
house. As a timber merchant and builder, who had his
place of business in Castle Street, City Road,
Samuel Tooth, in company with some others, had
the contract for building the new chapel. We find
it remarked by a competent authority that ' all
subsequent examinations of the building have only
proved the excellence of the material, and the
soundness of the entire structure,' this being the
more creditable because a roof of such width un
supported by pillars had never before been con
structed in this country. But while Samuel Tooth
was an enthusiastic Methodist, a man of tact in
business, and of commanding presence, he was an
eccentric man. Two trees grew in his timber-yard,
and these he cut down ; and with their wood was
made one coffin for himself and one for his wife.
For a lengthened period the daughters of this
couple conducted a high-class boarding-school for
girls at Stamford Hill. 296

WESLEY'S CHAPEL
Another and scholarly noteworthy bookseller in
London of a century ago was the Scotsman, John
Bruce, who died at the age of seventy-one in 1823.
He was old enough to have know Wesley in the
latter years of that great man's life ; and he attended
at the Foundery in its last days. His catholicity-
was shown by his circle of friends including Dr.
Hawker of Plymouth. He loved to undertake
pioneer work for the Church in needy neighbour
hoods ; while he was so far in advance of his time
that he endeavoured to found a literary society for
young men. Mr. G. J. Stevenson tells us : ' Mr.
Bruce resided a few doors from City Road Chapel,
and his house was open to Methodist preachers
day and night, and the freedom to come and go,
as suited their own comfort and convenience, was
a privilege most of the London preachers availed
themselves of for thirty years, especially as there
was a comfortable study and a good theological
library always ready for their use, and an unpre
tentious hospitality which made them always feel
at home.'
Dr. Jabez Bunting, who died at Midsummer
1858 at the age of seventy-nine, was one of the
most eminent Wesleyan preachers of his day ; and
in connection with the Missionary Society, the Theo
logical Institute, and the Conference, he seems to
have held an unusual number of official situations.
He preached the Gospel for nearly sixty years.
One of his chief friends, whom he influenced in
youth, was Richard Watson, the copyright of whose
books were purchased by the Connexion for ;£'2000.
297

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Bunting and Watson together did much to raise
the tone of the Magazine, as well as all of the
publications of the Book-Room. That business,
founded by Wesley, is now a large denominational
concern, which sends its Christian publications
throughout the country and to the very ends of
the earth.

298

riii; KiiiiM IN » II II II w i.~i.i ^ in i i

7" /acr jiarjc

CHAPTER XIII
QUAKERS IN LONDON AND ELSEWHERE
FROM time to time, while on his travels,
Wesley came in contact with members of
the Society of Friends ; and though he never
favoured their sentiments, his acquaintance with
some of these was greatly valued. He makes
interesting references to them such as affords
another insight into eighteenth-century life. It
even appears to us as though the subject of the
Friends and their ' Meetings ' in London was then
invested with greater interest than can be the case
in our times, became so many of their stations in
the metropolis remained intact as they had come
down from the heroic Puritan period. If we
supplement Wesley's Diary with information
contained in such a work as Messrs. Beck & Ball's
London Friends' Meetings, we shall obtain a
tolerably clear idea of the general outlook one
hundred and fifty years ago.
The old meeting-houses of London and the near
suburbs have, in many instances, left traces of their
sites in streets and courts which are named
after them. Take, for example, Quaker Street,
299

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
Spitalfields, so called after a meeting which once
existed there, and which, being old enough to have
been damaged by the Great Storm of 1703, had
seen its best days, and was passing out of use in
the early forties of the eighteenth century when
Wesley was already earnestly engaged in itinerant
service. The chief centre of all, Devonshire
House, Bishopsgate, has of course a still more
interesting history. The stately mansion of
Devonshire House, with its spacious grounds,
stood there. Its richly carved pillars, chimney-
pieces, and curiously wainscoted rooms, showed
that the place was a princely residence in days
when Queen Elizabeth is said to have been a
visitor. Friends had rented two or three of the
spacious rooms after their meeting at Bull and
Mouth had been destroyed in the Great Fire. In
the early years of the Methodist Revival, consider
able alterations were made, and from that time to
this, the ' Meeting ' has grown into the present
extensive establishment. There was also the Peel
Meeting, situated near the ancient St. John's Gate
at Clerkenwell — a quaint kind of place having many
interesting memories. There were ' Meetings ' in
Southwark, as well as in the more near and distant
suburbs. Thus, we shall not visit the severely
plain but still pre-eminently attractive Quaker
Meeting at Winchmore Hill without being re
minded that the remains of Dr. Fothergill — to
whose skilful treatment Wesley was so greatly
indebted at the time of his serious breakdown in
1753 — have lain there since 1780. In his day, this
300

QUAKERS IN LONDON
Quaker physician was the chief of his profession in
London, his practice at one time being worth
£7000 a year. In his treatment of disease, Dr.
Fothergill was a welcome contrast to the danger
ous empirics who too often represented the medical
science of his day. He also inherited certain
seventeenth-century eccentricities ; so that on one
occasion, I believe, he walked along the Edinburgh
High Street, his shoulders naked to the waist, to
warn the people that God's vengeance would over
take them. The prescription he gave to Wesley,
when he seemed to be recovering from the illness
already referred to, was characteristic, and shows
much of common-sense discernment, e.g. : ' Dr.
Fothergill told me plain I must not stay in town a
day longer ; adding, " If anything does thee good, it
must be the country air, with rest, asses' milk, and
riding daily,"' Thus we see that, on certain
occasions, Wesley came into direct contact
with Friends, and had good reason to esteem
them. When he began his great work of itinerant
preaching, Wesley met representative Quakers,
and though he did not like disputations, he was
always ready to converse with them in a friendly
manner. One of his earliest adventures in this
department occurred when he was on the road in
the North, in March 1738: 'Being faint in the
evening, I called at Altringham, and there lit
upon a Quaker, well skilled in, and therefore (as I
soon found) sufficiently fond of, controversy.
After an hour spent therein (perhaps not in vain),
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WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
I advised him to dispute as little as possible ; but
rather follow after holiness, and walk humbly with
his God,'
Certain Quakers may have been among the
first to question the genuineness of the Methodist
Revival ; and more especially, they looked with
suspicion on the striking and mysterious phe
nomena which characterised its early days. We
cannot wonder at people wishing to test in an
unmistakable manner the genuineness of what they
saw and heard ; but we need not be surprised that
some, who had apparently made up their minds
not to be convinced, had, at last, the truth
impressed upon them in a way which added
interest or new terror to the situation.
A Quaker and a physician were among the
observers who were chiefly interested at Newgate
in Bristol while Wesley was preaching on a May
day in 1739. 'We understood that many were
offended at the cries of those on whom the power
of God came,' says Wesley. In that gaol, which
in those days seldom wanted its complement of
prisoners, many 'broke out into strong cries and
tears.' The physician could 'hardly believe his
own eyes and ears ' ; but on going near to continue
the investigation, he at once became convinced
that there was no fraud. Nevertheless, the woman
affected showed very acute symptoms ; ' great
drops of sweat ran down her face, and all her
bones shook,' and while not refusing to ac
knowledge supernatural agency, he was puzzled.
It was not fraud; it was not disease; but what
302

QUAKERS IN LONDON
was the cause? Then came the climax; 'when
both her soul and body were healed in a moment,
he acknowledged the finger of God.'
Immediately afterwards, or on May-Day 1739,
' many were offended again, and, indeed, much
more than before,' This time, the preaching was
not at the Bristol Newgate, but at a more ordinary
place not far away. Wesley well understood the
character or meaning of the manifestations; he
was awed, but not troubled, when his ' voice could
scarce be heard ' above the groanings of those who
were affected. According to his custom, Wesley
asked that those who were struggling for peace
and liberty might be set free. The answer came
according to their faith : ' Many of those who had
been long in darkness, saw the dawn of a great
light' It so happened, however, that a Quaker who
stood in the crowd 'was not a little displeased'
at what he confidently believed to be 'the dis
simulation of those creatures.' He even showed
his contempt of their behaviour by ' biting his lips
and knitting his brows.' Presently, however, this
observant Quaker, himself 'dropped down as
thunder-struck.' He so far showed the more acute
symptoms, that his agony was ' terrible to behold.'
Prayer was made for him also, the result being that
he found the peace of God, and then cried aloud so
that all might hear, ' Now I know thou art a
prophet of the Lord ! '
The way in which Wesley came into contact
with Friends in different parts of the country from
303

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
time to time, had the effect of bringing out his own
characteristic sentiments ; while at the same time
we see what kind of sentiments prevailed among
the disciples of George Fox in the time of the
Georges. Some weeks after the incident at Bristol
just mentioned, Wesley met with this adventure
at Blackheath : —
' I had much talk with one who is called a
Quaker; but he could not receive my saying. I
was too strict for him, and talked of such perfection
as he could not think necessary ; being persuaded
there was no harm in costly apparel, provided it
was plain and grave ; nor in putting scarlet or
gold upon our houses, so it were not upon our
clothes.' When Wesley returned to Bristol during that
same summer of 1 739, he asked ' a serious Quaker '
why he absented himself from the preaching
services which he had been accustomed to attend.
The reply was that such services were not prompted
by the Spirit of God. Wesley and his people had
' fixed times of preaching beforehand ' ; but accord
ing to Scripture they ought to do nothing unless
' moved thereto by the Holy Ghost.' Wesley held
that he was doing what Scripture commanded as
he had opportunity. The other maintained that
this was to regard the 'letter that killeth.' Of
course neither was convinced, and Wesley hoped
that he should continue so to regard the
matter. There were those who even by false or dis
honest means endeavoured to foment wordy
304

QUAKERS IN LONDON
combats between Wesley and the Quakers. There
was a young Quaker at Bristol named Chandler,
who was accustomed to speak at Friends' Meetings,
but who was unknown to Wesley even by sight.
There were those, however, as he tells us, who had
been ' at the pains of carrying him, as from me, a
formal challenge to dispute ; and had afterwards
told him that I had declared, in the open Society,
I challenged Joseph Chandler to dispute, and he
promised to come and broke his word.' ' This
honest Quaker,' as Wesley calls him, scented the
conspiracy ; and all ' vanished into air ' when he
sent to ask ' if these things were so.' It was
thought that ' many idle tales ' would fare likewise
if others acted in a similar manner.
In the early days of the Revival, Cornish Friends
appear to have accorded Wesley a very warm
welcome into the far south of England. In some
respects this was opportune ; for at that time
excessive hospitality does not seem to have been
offered to strangers in that county. On a certain
day, when Wesley was gathering blackberries along
a hedgeside to appease hunger, he remarked to a
friend that Cornwall was one of the best counties
in England to give an appetite, but one of the
worst in which to find anyone to offer a
meal. In due time friendly Quakers were found who
would do so, however. While Wesley was riding
through the village of Sticklepath, one stopped him
and asked shortly, ' Is not thy name John Wesley ? '
Some others then came up, and the unanimous
u 30s

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
invitation was for the itinerant preacher to stop
there. ' I did so,' it is added ; ' and before we had
spoken many words our souls took acquaintance
with each other. I found they were called Quakers ;
but that did not hurt me ; seeing the love of God
was in their hearts.' He had thus made some
considerable progress in liberality ; for only a few
years previously it would have 'hurt' him much
to find that his hospitable entertainers were not of
the Church of England.
Of course it was to be expected that, in common
with other evangelical denominations, Quakers
would benefit from the refreshing influences of the
Methodist Revival. We even meet with an instance
of one who had had the place and privileges of a
believer — which had been surrendered through
inconsistency — fully restored through the instru
mentality of John Nelson, the preaching mason.
Towards the end of February 1746, when snow lay
deep on the ground, Wesley addressed ' a whole
company of Quakers' at Skircoat Green, not far
from Halifax. ' The good man of the house,' who
was old enough to remember the reign of Charles
II., was formerly a minister among his own people ;
' but from fear of man he desisted.' In the reign
of Queen Anne — which was not a favourable
time for the growth of religion, notwithstanding
the splendour of its achievements in literature — he
gave up his work, ' and so quenched the Spirit ' ;
and lived ' in darkness for near forty years.' He
went to hear John Nelson, who, on that occasion,
spoke of ' the love of God in Christ,' in his own
306

QUAKERS IN LONDON
forcible way, the result being, so far as the octo
genarian Quaker was concerned, that ' light again
sprung up in his soul,'
It was altogether a contrast to such a case as the
above, when a once zealous Methodist became a
still more zealous Quaker, and so showed an
enthusiasm which bordered on fanaticism, A
striking instance of this kind came under Wesley's
notice in the year 1753,
On September 10 he preached to malefactors
in the Bristol Newgate ; but found that he ' could
make little impression upon them,' He adds : ' I
then took horse for Paulton, where I called on
Stephen Plummer, once of our Society, but now
a zealous Quaker,' This quondam Methodist
welcomed his friend with great cordiality, and
accompanied him to the service, where, however,
things did not turn out quite as might have been
expected. ' Being straitened for time, I concluded
sooner than usual,' remarks Wesley ; ' but as soon
as I had done, Stephen began.' The Quaker was
not at any loss for words, so that he seemed to be
no nearer coming to an end after he had held on
for half an hour than when he began. As time
was precious, his chief auditor ' rose up to go
away,' and noticing this, the Quaker's sister tried
to prevail upon her brother to bring his address to
a close. These womanly endeavours were so far
unsuccessful, however, that her brother ' flew into
a violent rage, and roared louder and louder.' It
became evident that in such an extreme case
unusual means would have to be adopted ; but
307

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
there did not seem to be any ready way out of
the difficulty until, seeing just what was wanted,
' an honest man took him in his arms and gently
carried him away,' Such timely action was more
effective than argument ' What a wise providence
was it that this poor young man turned Quaker
some years before he ran mad,' said Wesley, ' So
the honour of turning his brain now rests upon
them, which otherwise must have fallen upon the
Methodists.' When Wesley was in Ireland, in the summer of
1765, he happened to meet with the Journal of
William Edmundson, 'the gifted preacher,' as we
find him called, but who was characterised by the
American, Roger Williams, as 'nothing but a
bundle of ignorance and bolster ousness,' one who
' would speak first and all.' Wesley's service was
at Edinderry, which seems to be in the neighbour
hood of Tyrrel's Pass. Many Quakers lived round
about, and as it happened to be the time of their
General Meeting, a larger number than usual were
encountered — ' many of all sorts.' This reference
is made to the preacher just mentioned, and it may
be remembered that he was one in a party who
crossed to America with George Fox in the time
of Charles II. : —
' I met here with the Journal of William
Edmundson, one of their preachers in the last
century. If the original equalled the picture
(which I see no reason to doubt) what an
amiable man was this ! His opinions I leave ;
but what a spirit was here ! What faith, love,
308

QUAKERS IN LONDON
gentleness, long-suffering ! Could mistake send
such a man as this to hell? Not so. I am so
far from believing this, that I scruple not to say,
"Let my soul be with the soul of William
Edmundson."' In Sunderland, a few months
later, and after conducting two services in
Monkwearmouth Church, Wesley says : ' I spent
an agreeable hour at a Quaker's, a man of
large substance. His spirit put me in mind of
Thomas Keene. May thy last end be like his.' ,
Wesley's friendly intercourse with the Quakers
was maintained throughout his life. In July 1774,
he was at Leek in Staffordshire, and immediately
on his arrival he had one of those pleasant surprises
which added interest to his itinerancy. ' I could
not imagine who the Quaker should be that had
sent me word he expected me to dinner,' he says ;
'and was agreeably surprised to find that it was
my old friend, Joshua Strongman of Mount Mellick,
in Ireland, whom I had not seen for many years.
I found he was the same man still ; of the same
open, friendly, amiable temper : and everything
about him was not costly or fine, but surprisingly
neat and elegant.' It appears to have rained during
dinner ; but the sky brightened, and after the repast
'it seemed the whole town, rich and poor, were
gathered together,' while the preacher explained
the text, ' God is a Spirit, and they that worship
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.'
But while he thus was drawn towards individuals,
and admired them on account of the Christian
spirit which they showed towards himself and his
309

WESLEY AND HIS PREACHERS
work, we should make a great mistake if we
supposed that Wesley did not set his face against
the teaching of the Friends. In the early days of
the Revival he found that some were being capti
vated by what he calls ' that solemn trifle,' Barclay's
Apology. Wesley held that silent meetings were
never heard of in the Christian Church until the
Friends favoured them, or at least made them pos
sible. In a letter to Archbishop Seeker, quoted
by Tyerman, Wesley uses still stronger language :
' Between me and the Quakers there is a great gulf
fixed. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's
Supper keep us at a wide distance from each other.'
In some instances there might be secession or
threatened secession, but such breaches were soon
healed. One notable example was that of John
Hilton, who after more than a dozen years of good
service as a Methodist preacher, turned Quaker,
and published a pamphlet in defence of Barclay's
Apology. Hilton was a man of some talent ; but,
as the case with all of their new converts, his new
associates ' kept him silent for a long time, to his
great mortification ' ; but, as Dr. Moore adds, ' it
was the very thing he needed, it was good medicine
to heal his sickness.'
Among the curiosities connected with the
Methodist Revival are many things which Wesley
wrote concerning Quakerism and the Friends.

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