In the evening I preached at Berwick-upon- Tweed; Thurs­day, JUNE 1,[1] at Alnwick.

 

JUNE 1, Thursday

 

4 Prayed, I Pet. i. 18! tea, prayer, sermon, chaise; 9.30 Belford, tea; 10.30 chaise; 1Alnwick, on business; 2 dinner, on business, letters; 4 prayed, tea, letters; 6 I Thes. iv; 3; 7 society, letter, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 2

 

4 Prayed, Matt. xiii. 31! laid the foundation stone; 7 chaise, with Jenn[y] Sm[ith, his step-granddaughter]; 9.30 tea, chaise; 11.30 Morpe[th], Matt. xxv. 31; 1 dinner, chaise; 4 at W. Smi[th’s], tea, within; 6 Psa. lxxiv. 14! select society, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Fri. 2. - I was desired to lay the first stone of the preaching­ house there.[2] A very large congregation attending, we spent some time on the spot in solemn prayer and singing praise to God. About noon I preached in the town-hall at Morpeth; in the evening at Newcastle. How different is the spirit of this congregation to that of most of those I have seen lately!

 

Sun. 4 (being Whit-Sunday). -  I preached at eight to an amazing congregation at the Ballast Hills; but it was doubled by that at the Fell in the afternoon. But it was supposed that at the Garth Heads, in the evening, was as large as both together. On Monday and Tuesday the congregation was larger than I ever remember.

 

Saturday 3

 

4 Prayed, Matt. v. 6! within to some, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters, writ narrative; 12.45 at W. Sm[ith’s], writ narrative, dinner, conversed; 2 writ Conference; 4.15 prayed; 5 tea, conversed, prayer; 6 prayed, on business; 7 Mark vii. 37! Leezes, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Sunday 4

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 B[allast] Hills, tea, conversed, Matt. viii. 2! letters; 12 dinner, coach; 2.30 Jo. xiv. 21! coach, tea, conversed; 5 Gar[th] H[eads], Acts ii. 4! 6.30 lovefeast, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 5

 

4 Prayed, Mark ix. 23! letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters, within, to some; 1 dinner, within; 2.30 letters, prayed; 4.45 tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Acts xix. 2! Leezes; 7.30 walk, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 6

 

4 Prayed, Eph. ii. 8, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, visited some; 10 letters; 1 at brother Green’s, dinner, conversed, visited some; 3.30 prayed, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Gal. v. 22! the leaders; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wed. 7.[3]- At five we had a solemn parting. About noon I preached at North Shields, in a tent erected near the town, to a very numerous congregation.[4] In the evening I preached at Sunderland, About eleven on Thursday I preached in the church at Monkwearmouth on those words in the Second Lesson, ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’

 

Fri. 9. - I preached at Durham about eleven, and in the evening at Hartlepool. I preached in the town-hall, where many appeared to be very deeply affected, Surely the seed will spring up at last even here, where we seemed so long to be ploughing on the sand.

 

Sat, 10.-I went to Darlington.[5] Since I was here last, Mr. - died, and left many thousand pounds to an idle spendthrift, but not one groat to poor.

 

Wednesday 7

 

4 Prayed, I Pet. v. 10! on business, tea, conversed, prayer; 7.30 chaise; 10.30 Shields; 11 walk, on business; 12 Mark iii. 35! dinner; 1.30 S[outh] Shie[lds], society; 3 chaise; 4.30 Sund[er]l[and], on business, tea; 6 Jo. vii. 37! society, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 8

 

4 Prayed, Psa. cvi. 24! letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters, accounts; 10.30 prayers, Mark ix. 23! writ narrative; 1.15 dinner, conversed; 2.15 Journal, prayed, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Matt. xxi. 21! communion, supper, conversed, prayer; 10.

 

Friday 9

 

4 Prayed, Isa. lvii. 1, 2, within to many, tea, prayer; 8.30 chaise; 10.30 Durham; 11 read narrative; 12 Lu. viii. 18! dinner, prayer; 2 chaise; 5 Hartlep[ool], tea, Ro. iii. 22; 7.45 prayed, sermon, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 10

 

4 Prayed, Heb. xiii. 22! Journal, within, tea, visited, prayer; 8.15 chaise;     10.15 at brother [-]; 11 chaise; 1 Darl [ing]ton, dinner, letters;     4.30 prayed, tea; 6 Psa. 1. 23! 7 letters, supper, within, prayer; 9.45.

 

O wise steward of the mammon of unrighteousness! How much better for him had he died a beggar!

 

Sun. 11. - I was obliged in the evening to preach abroad. Afterward we had a lovefeast, at which many plain people spoke the height and depth of Christian experience in the most plain and artless manner.

 

Mon. 12.-We found still, at Stockton, much fruit of Sister Brisco’s[6] labours among the children. I preached here at noon, and at Yarm in the evening.

 

Tues.13. - The preaching-house at Hutton Rudby was well filled at nine. When I came to Guisborough, where I had no thought of preaching, I found the congregation waiting; so I began without delay, and it was a time of love. We had a warm ride in the afternoon to Whitby, where it has pleased God fully to make up the removal of William Ripley,[7] who was for many years a burning and a shining light. In the evening the house was well filled with people, and with the power of God; and, after preaching four times, I was no more tired than when I rose in the morning.[8]

 

Sunday 11

 

4 Prayed, letters; 7 tea, conversed; 8 I Sam, xxi. 8, letter; 10 prayers, communion; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 sleep, Journal, prayed, tea; 5 I Jo. v. 7! lovefeast; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 12

 

4 Prayed, I Cor. x. 12, letters; 7 tea, conversed, prayer; 8.30 chaise; 11 Stockton, letter; 12 1 Tim. iv. 8; 1 dinner, in talk, prayer, visited, chaise; 4 Yarm, prayed, tea, conversed; 6 Matt. xxii. 39! com­munion, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 13

 

 4 Prayed, Heb. vi. I, chaise; 7.15 Potto, tea, conversed, prayer, chaise; 9 Hutton [Rudby], 2 Tim. ii. 5! chaise; 11.30 Guisbor[ough], Eze. xviii. 31, dinner; 1.15 chaise; 5.15 Whitby, tea, prayed; 6.3 

 

2 Cor. iii. 18! society; 8 supper, prayer; 10.

 

Thur. 15.-I found the work of God at Scarborough more lively than it had been for many years.

 

Fri. 16.-ln the evening I preached at Bridlington Quay to a numerous congregation.

 

Sat. 17.[9]-I found Mr. Parker[10] at Beverley, in a palace. The gentleman that owned it being gone abroad, it was let at a moderate rent. I preached here at twelve, about four at New­lands,[11] and at seven in Hull.

 

Sun. 18.-I was invited by the vicar[12] to preach in the High Church, one of the largest parish churches in England.[13]

 

Wednesday 14

 

4 Prayed, Isa. lvii. 1, 2! letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, visited some; 10 letters, walk; 1 dinner, prayer; 2 letters; 4 prayed, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 Rom. viii. 3, 4! lovefeast; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 15

 

4 Prayed, 2 Cor. v. I, etc., select society, tea, conversed; 8 chaise; 11.30 Scarbor[ough], read narrative; 1.30 dinner, conversed; 2.45 writ narrative; 4 prayed; 5 tea, conversed, prayed; 6 Matt. xxv. 31! society, supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 16

 

4 Prayed, writ sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, sermon; 10 writ narrative; 11 Heb. ii. 3! dinner, conversed, sleep; 1.30 walk, chaise; 4.30 Burl[ing]t[on] Key, on business, tea, conversed; 5.30 prayed; 6 Matt. ix. 5! 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 17

 

4 Prayed, Zech. iv. [-], tea; 7.45 chaise, Fingal; 9.15 Inn; 10 chaise; 11 Bev[erley], at Mr. Park[er’s], sermon; 12 dinner; 1 Matt. iv. 10! christened; 1.30 chaise, Newla[nds], Ep[h]. ii. 8, tea, chaise; 6 Gal. iv. 3! sermon, supper, prayer; 10.15.

 

Sunday 18

 

4 Prayed, sermon, letters; 8 tea, conversed, letters; 10.15 prayer, Lu. xvi. 31! letter, dinner, conversed; 2 sleep, prayed; 3 prayers, Isa. Iv. 6! lovefeast, chaise; 8.30 Beverle[y]; 9 supper, prayer; 10.

 

I preached on the Gospel for the day-the story of Dives and Lazarus. Being invited to preach in the afternoon, the church was, if possible, more crowded than before; and I pressed home the prophet’s words, ‘Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near.’ Who would have ex­pected a few years since to see me preaching in the High Church at Hull? I had appointed to preach at Swinefleet, so I went as far as Beverley this evening, and on Monday the 19th set out early, but, being vehemently importuned to go round by Malton,[14] I did so, and preached there at nine. Thence I hastened to pocklington, and, finding the people ready, stepped out of the chaise and preached without delay. We reached Swinefleet between six and seven, having gone, in all, seventy-six miles. A numerous congregation was assembled under the shade of tall trees. Sufficient for this day was the labour thereof; but still I was no more tired than when I rose in the morning.

 

Tues. 20.[15]- I preached in Crowle at noon, and in the evening at Epworth.

 

Wed. 21.-I preached at Scatter at nine, and at one in Brigg, in an open part of the town. All were still as night, the very boys and girls standing as quiet as their parents. Indeed, it seemed that the hearts of all were as melting wax before the Lord. In the evening, the people flocking together on every side, I was constrained to preach in the market-place at Grimsby, where everyone behaved well, except the Calvinist preacher.

 

Monday 19

 

3.30 Tea, conversed; 4 chaise; 8.30 Malton, Jo. iv. 24! chaise; 1     Pockli[ng]t[on], dinner; 2 chaise; 5 boat; 5.30 chaise; 6.30 Swin[e]f[lee]t, tea; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 20

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 chaise; 10.45 Crowle, letters; 12 dinner, M[att]. xxii. 39, society; 3 chaise; 4.30 Epw[orth], tea, conversed, letter; 7 Mark iii. 35; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 21

 

3.30 Prayed, tea; 4.15 chaise; 7 Scotter, letters, tea; 8.30 I Cor. x. 12! within! 9.30 chaise; 12 Brig[g], dinner; 1 lsa. lix. I! 2.15, chaise; 5.15 Grimsby, tea; 6 I Pet. ii. 24! society, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thur. 22.-ln the evening I preached at Louth. I never saw this people affected before.

 

Fri. 23.-At nine I preached at Tealby, where many of the people felt that God was with them in an uncommon manner.

 

Having now given a second reading to Fingal, rendered into heroic verse, I was thoroughly convinced it is one of the finest epic poems in the English language.[16] Many of the lines are worthy of Mr. Pope; many of the incidents are deeply pathetic; and the character of Fingal exceeds any in Homer, yea, and Virgil too. No such speech comes out of his mouth as­ -

 

Sum pius Aeneas, fama super aethera notus[17]:

 

No such thing in his conduct as the whole affair of Dido is in the Trojan hero. Meantime, who is Ewen Cameron? Is it not Dr. Blair? And is not one great part of this publication to aggrandize the character of the old Highlanders, as brave, hos­pitable, generous men?

 

In the evening I preached to a large congregation at Gains­borough, in Sir Nevil [George] Hickman’s yard. But Sir Nevil is no more, and has left no son; so the very name of that ancient family is lost! And how changed is the house since I was young, and good Sir Willoughby Hickman[18] lived here!

 

Thursday 22

 

4 Prayed, read Journal; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, Journal, letter; 11 2 Tim. iii. 5! dinner, visited some; 2.15 chaise, Loubro [Ludborough], tea, conversed, prayer, chaise; 5 Lou[th], tea, prayed, sermon; 6.30 Acts, xvii. 30! society! supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 23

 

4 Prayed, Acts xxii. 16! chaise; 8.15 Tealby, at J[-] Kersh[aw], tea, within; 9 Lu. xii. IS! 10.15 chaise; 12 dinner, sermon; 2 chaise; 3.45 Gainsbor[ough].

 

One of the towers is said to have been built in the reign of King Stephen, above six hundred years ago. But it matters not; yet a little while and the earth itself, with all the works of it, will be burned up.

 

Sat. 24.-I preached at New Inn[19]; afterwards at Newark,[20] one of the most elegant towns in England; and in the evening at Retford, on ‘I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.’[21]

 

Sun. 25.-I preached at Misterton. I was grieved to see so small a congregation at Haxey church. It was not so when Mr. Hoole[22] lived here. Oh what a curse in this poor land are pluralities and non-residence![23] But these are evils that God alone can cure.

 

About one I preached at Upperthorpe, where the spreading trees sheltered both me and the congregation.

 

Saturday 24

 

4 Sermon, prayed; 5.30 chaise; 8 Newton[-on-Trent], tea, Psa. xc. 12, chaise, Newark, within, dinner; 1 Ecc. ix. 10  12.45 chaise, Tux[fo]rd ; 4 tea; 4.30 chaise; 6.15 Ret[ford], sermon, prayed; Rev. xx. 12! supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Sunday 25

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 5.30 chaise, Misterton; 8 2 Cor. v. 19! chaise, sermon; 10.30 prayers, writ; 1 dinner, conversed, Lu. viii. 3, etc., chaise, Epworth, tea, prayed; 3.30 Matt. xxii. 4! lovefeast, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30,

 

­But we had a far larger at Epworth, between four and five in the afternoon. Surely God will visit this place yet again, and lift up them that are fallen.

 

Mon. 26.-I read prayers and preached in Owston church,[24] thoroughly filled with attentive hearers, and again at nine in the morning.

 

Tues. 27.-At one in the afternoon I preached at Belton. While I was preaching, three little children, the eldest six years old, the youngest two and a half, whom their mother had left at dinner, straggled out, and got to the side of a well which was near the house. The youngest, leaning over, fell in. The others striving to pull it out, the board gave way; in consequence of which they all fell in together. The young one fell under the bucket, and stirred no more; the others held for a while by the side of the well, and then sunk into the water, where it was sup­posed they lay half an hour. On coming to tell me, I advised immediately to rub them with salt, and to breathe strongly into their mouths. They did so, but the young one was past help; the others in two or three hours were as well as ever.

 

Wed. 28.-I entered into the eighty-third year of my age. I am a wonder to myself.

 

Monday 26

 

4 Prayed, Luke ix. 62, sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, sermon; 12 chaise, Owston, supper; 1 dinner, conversed; 2 sermon; 3 walk, conversed! tea, conversed, prayed; 5.50 read prayers, Prov. iii. 17! 7.30 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 27

 

4 Prayed, letters; 7 tea, conversed, prayer, read narrative; 9 prayers, I Sam. xxi. 8, prayer, chaise; 12 Belton, dinner, I Ro. viii. 3, 4, letters; 4.30 tea, conversed, prayer, chaise, walk; 6.15 prayed; 7 Mic. ii. 10, visited, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 28

 

4 Prayed, I. Thes. v. I9! sermon; 7.30 tea, conversed, prayer, visited; 9 sermon; 12.30 garden; 1 dinner, conversed, sermon; 3.30 prayed; 4 visited some, tea, conversed; 6 prayed; 6.30 I Cor. vi. 20! 

 

        con­versed; 8.15 supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

It is now twelve years since I have felt any such sensation as weariness. I am never tired (such is the goodness of God!), either with writing, preaching, or travelling. One natural cause undoubtedly is my continual exercise and change of air. How the latter contributes to health. I know not, but certainly it does.

 

This morning, Abigail Pilsworth, aged fourteen, was born into the world of spirits. I talked with her the evening before, and found her ready for the Bridegroom. A few hours after she quietly fell asleep. When we went into the room where her remains lay, we were surprised. A more beautiful corpse I never saw. We all sung:

 

Ah, lovely appearance of death!

 

                What sight upon earth is so fair? 

 

           Not all the gay pageants that breathe 

 

                 Can with a dead body compare![25]

 

All the company were in tears; and in all, except her mother, who sorrowed (but not as one without hope), they were tears of joy. '0 Death, where is thy sting? '

 

LONDON, Jan. 20, 1789.

 

PART OF THE TWENTY-FIRST

 

THE JOURNAL

 

FROM JUNE 29,1786, TO OCTOBER 24,1790

 

The last portion of Wesley’s Journal was not printed till after his death. At the end of the First Edition is a note: ‘There are unavoidable chasms in this Journal, owing to some parts being mislaid; and it is probable that many of the proper names of persons and places are not properly spelt, as the whole if the manuscript was so ill-written as to be scarcely legible.’

 

His first words, ‘I took a cheerful leave of my affectionate friends at Epworth, leaving them much more alive than I found them,’ were written on the day after his eighty-third birthday, which he had spent in his birthplace- ‘a wonder to myself.’ It was twelve years since he had known what it was to be weary. Writing, preaching, travelling, he was never tired. The next birthday was brightened by a con­versation with John Howard, ‘one if the greatest men of Europe.’ In 1788 he has to make some confession if in­firmity, though even now he does not ‘feel any such thing as weariness, either in travelling or preaching.’ In 1789 he is weaker, and on his last birthday (June 28, 1790) he has to record that the previous August his sight grew suddenly dim and his strength forsook him. He had no pain, but ‘nature is exhausted, and, humanly speaking, will sink more and more, till­ -

 

            The weary wheels if life stand still at last.’

 

Charles Wesley had passed on, and so had most if the lovely ‘company.’ But if the old evangelist’s strength was fading, his zeal and devotion knew no abatement. Wherever he went he left people, as he did at Epworth, ‘more alive’ than he found them. He was surrounded by the affection and veneration not only of his own people, but of a crowd of lovers and admirers, who hailed his visits with delight and drank in the patriarch’s message. His constant prayer was, ‘Lord, let me not live to be useless!’ and this last Journal shows how marvellously the prayer was answered.

 

THE JOURNAL[26]

 

From June 29, 1786, to October 24, 1790

 

1786. JUNE 29, Thur.-I took a cheerful leave of my affectionate friends at Epworth,[27] leaving them much more alive than I found them. About one I preached at Thorne, now one of the liveliest places in the circuit, to a numerous congregation, and in the evening at Doncaster. I know not that ever I saw this preaching-house filled before; and many of them seemed to feel as well as hear. It may be some will bring forth fruit with patience.

 

Fri. 30.-I turned aside to Barnsley,[28] formerly famous for all manner of wickedness.

 

Thursday 29

 

4 Prayed, I Cor. xv. 58, letters; 7.30 tea, conversed, prayer, on business; 9 chaise, visited; 10.45 Thorn[e], letter, dinner, conversed; I Col. i. 10! chaise; 4.15 Doncas[te]r; 5 within, tea, conversed; 6 prayer; 6.30 Jo. iv. 24! supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 30

 

4 Prayed, Journal; 7 tea, conversed; 8 lsa. lix. i. 2! chaise; 12 Barnsley, dinner; 1.30 Heb. ix. 27!; 2.45 chaise; 5 Rotherham, tea, conversed; 6 Matt. viii. 13! society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

 They were then ready to tear any Methodist preacher in pieces. Now not a dog wagged his tongue. I preached near the market-place to a very large congregation; and I believe the word sunk into many hearts; they seemed to drink in every word. Surely God will have a people in this place.

 

They were then ready to tear any Methodist preacher in pieces. Now not a dog wagged his tongue. I preached near the market-place to a very large congregation; and I believe the word sunk into many hearts; they seemed to drink in every word. Surely God will have a people in this place.

---

 

[1] He wrote to Samuel Mitchell. Set new ed. Wesley Letters.

 

[2] The first place in Alnwick occupied by the Methodists was a room on the north side of Market Street. They then removed to two rooms in Bondgate about 1750. See below, p. 391, for Wesley’s opinion of the new building. This was the second Methodist chapel. The first stood on the site of the present Court-house. The building referred to in the text is still standing. James Everett, who was born here, was grandson of James Bowmaker, who built the chapel. See Stamp’s Orphan House, 

 

p. 139, and, for full details, W.H.S. vol. vii. pp. 63-9 and 88-96-a long and most illuminating account.

 

[3]On June 8 he wrote from Sunderland to ‘My dear Kitty’ (new ed. Wesley Letters).

 

[4] A battle between rival site, in which both sides appealed to Wesley, was raging at the time of this visit. The rights and wrongs of the dispute are expounded at great length in a pamphlet, A New Portrait of Methodism (1815), published by Edward Coates, one of the parties to the dispute. See also W.H.S. vol. iv. pp. 223-30; and below, p. 393.

 

[5] For the origin of Methodism in Darlington, Wesley’s early visits, and its connexion with Yarm and other Methodist centres, see the Rev, George Jackson’s Wes. Meth. in the Darlington Circuit, and the Rev. Henry Bett’s article in Meth. Rec. Aug. 16, 1906.

 

[6] She was the wife of the preacher, Thomas Brisco. See above, vol. vi. p. 514.

 

[7]  See above, vol. vi. p. 517; W.H.S. vol. iv. pp. 127-32, and vi. pp. 37-42.

 

[8]               

 

On June 14 he wrote from Whitby to Henry Brooke one of his long, care­fully stated pleas for the Methodist position in relation to the English Church. See new ed. Wesley Letters.

 

[9] He wrote from Epworth to Jasper Winscom. See new ed. Wesley Letters.

 

[10] See above, vol. vi. p. 281; also a notice in W. M. Mag. 1830, pp. 577-80.

 

[11] General Perronet Thompson (his father, the Methodist M.P. for Hull, presided at the inaugural Missionary Meeting in Leeds), who died in 1869, distinctly remembered Wesley preaching on the grass-plot of Mr. Terry’s house at Newlands, probably on the occasion of this visit.

 

[12]The Rev Thomas Clark, D.D., was vicar (1784-97).

 

[13]Holy Trinity Church, dating from early in the fourteenth century, is 279 ft. in length and 96 ft. in its greatest breadth. As a non-collegiate church, its only formidable rivals are those at Coventry and Great Yarmouth.

 

[14] See below, June 19, 1788, and June 21, 1790.

 

  [15] He wrote to Miss S. Cooke (Works, vol. xiii. p. 126).

 

[16] See above, vol. vi. p. 507.

 

[17] Wesley constructs one perfect hexameter out of two of Virgil's:

 

‘Sum pius Aeneas, [raptos qui ex hoste

 

penates

 

Classe veho mecum,] fama super aethera

 

Notus.’

 

‘Pious Aeneas am I, who am carrying with me in my fleet my household gods rescued from the foe, known by report high up in heaven’ (W.H.S. vol. v. p. 90).

 

[18] He died Oct. 28, 1720, and was succeeded by the fifth but only surviving son, Sir Nevil, who died in June 1733, and was succeeded by his second but eldest surviving son, Sir Nevil George. The Hall was once the palace of John of Gaunt. After the Hickmans left it the building was converted into small tene­ments. See above, vol. iv. p. 345; W.H.S. vol. vi. p. 68.

 

[19] It is suggested that this is an error for Newton-[on-Trent]. See Diary.

 

[20] The Rev. Peard Dickinson met Wesley by appointment here, ‘at Mr. Weaver’s, a respectable member of his Society.’ At this interview Wesley arranged that Dickinson should go to London to take the place of the Rev. John Richardson (Life of Peard Dickinson, pp. 55-6).

 

[21] Methodism was introduced into Retford in 1776 by John Macfarlan, a navvy employed in making the Retford and Chesterfield Canal. In 1779 Wesley paid the town a visit (unmentioned in the Journal). At the close of the ser­vice recorded above Macfarlan promised Wesley to build a chapel for the little society. With some friendly assistance a building was erected in Rosemary Lane in 1788, which still stands as a corn store. Macfarlan lived till 1824, and helped to lay the foundation-stone of a new chapel in 1823. Wesley’s visit recorded above is commemorated by a stone tablet on a wall of a house in West Retford belonging to the Trinity Hospital, which reads as follows:

 

      In the orchard on this site, on the evening ­of June 24, A.D. 1786, a sermon was preached by the      

 

      Rev. John Wesley, M.A., Priest and founder of the order of Methodist Preachers, from the text, ‘I  

 

      saw the Dead, small and great, stand before God.’

 

See W.M. Church Record, 1901, p. 192; Short History of Retford Methodism, 1913.

 

[22] In earlier editions the name, by an obvious misprint, was given as ‘Harle’ (W.H.S. vols. iv. p. 247, and v. p. 205; above, vol. i. p. 468). The Rev. Joseph Hoole was vicar of Haxey from 1712.

 

[23] The allusion, probably, is to Dr. Spencer Madan, youngest brother of Martin Madan. . . . He held the living of Haxey from 1762 until his elevation to the see of Bristol in 1792; adding to it for some years the rectory of West Halton, Lincs., and afterwards the sine­cure rectory of Ashley, Berks (W.H.S. vol. v. p. 205).

 

[24] He was entertained by Mr. Jarvis.

 

[25]From one of C. Wesley’s Funeral. Hymns: see Osborn’s Wesley Poetry, vol. vi. p. 193. It was Hymn 48 in the 1830 Hymn-book, but was omitted from the edition of 1875. For a full note on this once favourite hymn see W.H.S. vol. v. p. 221.

 

[26] Wesley’s twenty-first Journal was written by himself, but evidently was not the copy which he intended

 

for the press. It was printed in 1791, after his decease, by J. Paramore, North Green, Worship Street; and 

 

sold by G. Whitfield, New Chapel, City Road; and ‘at the Methodist Preaching-houses in Town  and 

 

Country. ‘See Green's Wesley Bibliog. No. 415.

 

[27] The chapel had been recently enlarged and improved.

 

[28] Here there was no chapel until 1793. Three years before a man attempted the murder of Henry Longden, 

 

running up him while preaching, and aiming a deadly blow. Jeremiah Cocker, while preaching in the 

 

market-place, was pulled down, dragged through the streets, pelted with rotten eggs, and at the

 

Rotherham Sessions was refused the protection to which his licence entitled him. For other details of the 

 

relentless persecution which prevailed in Barnsley until within a few months of Wesley’s visit see 

 

Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol.iii. p. 474. Tyerman quotes Longden’s Life and certain MSS. which were 

 

then the in his possession. James Oddie, writing to Wesley in 1760, refers to the opposi­tion then 

 

Prevailing. Local tradition says that on this occasion Wesley preached from the Mountain-block of the 

 

Old White Bear Inn. The first meeting room was in a house in Eastgate. Wesley lodged on this occasion 

 

with the grandparents of the late J. Hudson Taylor, whose name will always be fragrant in the story of 

 

China Inland Mission.