CHAPTER XXVII.

Chapel at Bath--Bretby Hall--Mr. Townsend and Mr. Jesse--Mr. Romaine--Mr. Shrapnell--Mrs. Wordsworth--Letters from Mr. Romaine--Chapel opened at Bath--Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Townsend--Mr. Fletcher’s labours at Bath--Lord and Lady Glenorchy--Letter from Lady Glenorchy to Lady Huntingdon--Death of Lord and Lady Sutherland--Lady Huntingdon, the Wesleys, and Mr. Whitefield--Letter from Lady Huntingdon to Mr. Wesley--Horace Walpole--Lady Betty Cobbe--Nobility attend Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel--Letters from Mr. Whitefield to Mr. Powys--Mr. Stillingfleet--Mr. Venn and Sir Charles Hotham--Anecdotes of Mr. Venn--Mr. Andrews and the Bishop of Gloucester--Mr. Venn at Trevecca--Mr. Lee--Capt. Scott and Mr. Venn--Anecdotes of Captain Scott--Letter from Mr. Venn--Mr. Howel Davies--Anecdote--Dr. Haweis--Mr. Cradock Glascott--Letter from Mr. Fletcher.

In the year 1765 her Ladyship bought a piece of ground in the Vineyards at Bath, and erected there a house and the beautiful chapel which was destined to prove so great a blessing. While those buildings were in course of erection, her Ladyship accepted Lord Chesterfield’s offer of his house and chapel at Bretby Hall. Thither she went with Mr. Jesse, of West Bromwich. Mr. Romaine was prevented from accompanying, but promised to follow her Ladyship, and Mr. Townsend joined her on her arrival, which was towards the close of July in the year above named. These ministers preached alternately in the Hall chapel, which, on Mr. Whitefield’s arrival, was exchanged for the Park, so vast was the concourse, and Mr. Romanie’s auditors were hardly less numerous; but he refused to be a _field_-preacher, and the crowd heard only what they could gather from the pulpit.[256] Lady Huntingdon left Bretby for Bath, recalled by the indisposition of Mrs. Wordsworth.[257]

Soon after her arrival at Bath, Lady Huntingdon summoned the ministers who laboured for her, Messrs. Whitefield, Shirley, Romaine, Venn, Madan, and Townsend, to the opening of her chapel there.

Mr. Romaine was willing to attend the summons, but having been received in Yorkshire with the greatest attention by the clergy, who, on account of his greater “regularity,” opened to him pulpits which were closed against Mr. Whitefield; and, being then engaged with equal ardour and success at Oathall and Brighton, he preferred remaining there. “The Society (he says) most earnestly intreat you, if Mr. Madan should come down to Bath, that I may be suffered to stay here with them. Why should we both be there at the same time, to stand in one another’s way? Why should Bath have all, poor Brighton none?” This note is dated September 11, 1765. Mr. Madan was prevented from attending, and Lady Huntingdon wrote again to Mr. Romaine, who replied, under the date of October 1st, 1765, again denying her request--“I must openly tell you (he says) that my very heart and soul are now in this work; inasmuch that I have not minded going to Oathall wet to the skin, for the joy that was set before me.” Lady Huntingdon insisted no more, and Mr. Romaine was suffered to remain at Oathall.

On the 6th of October, 1765, the chapel was dedicated to God and the preaching of his everlasting Gospel. An immense crowd attended, and great numbers of the nobility, who had been specially invited by Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Whitefield preached in the morning, and the rector of Pewsey, the son of the celebrated Alderman Townsend, of London, in the evening.

“Could you have come (says Mr. Whitefield, in a letter to his friend, Robert Keene, Esq.), and have been present at the opening of the chapel, you would have been much pleased. The building is extremely plain, and yet equally grand. A most beautiful original! All was conducted with great solemnity. Though a wet day, the place was very full, and assuredly the Great Shepherd and Bishop of souls consecrated and made it holy ground by his presence.”

Mr. Whitefield preached but a few times, being obliged to return to London. Mr. Madan, however, arrived soon after he left Bath, and his ministry was attended with very considerable success. Thither, also, Mr. Romaine followed, and spent there many of his vacations, with great utility to the cause of God; for the Lord was pleased to make known, by him, the savour of his grace in every place. There, as at Brighton, he united in labour with that great apostle of the Lord, Mr. Whitefield, and though many are now so shy of mentioning his name, or owning their obligations to his diffusive zeal, Mr. Romaine honoured his character, gloried in his friendship, and cheerfully associated with him in his labours. They were, indeed, _par nobile fratrum_. In point of popular eloquence and commanding oratory, Mr. Whitefield was certainly his superior, as indeed he was to every other man of his day. He had arrows in his quiver which he alone knew how to sharpen; but in erudition and critical knowledge of the Scriptures Mr. Romaine far excelled him, and, indeed, most of his contemporaries.

Much about the same period Mr. Fletcher repaired to Bath, on a summons from Lady Huntingdon, and entered on the duties of his vocation with an extraordinary degree of earnestness and zeal. Instant in season and out of season, this man of God diligently performed the work of an evangelist, faithfully dispensing the word of life, according as every man had need: instructing the ignorant, reasoning with gainsayers, exhorting the immoral, rebuking the obstinate, and earnestly beseeching all to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold on the hope set before them in the Gospel of God our Saviour.

No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervent piety or more perfect charity; no Church has ever possessed a more apostolic minister. Being by this time fully acquainted with the English language, he generally trusted to his powers, and preached _ex tempore_, that mode of address so universal on the Continent, being much more consonant with the lively feelings and ready utterance of Mr. Fletcher than the reading of a pre-composed sermon, however important the subject, or well-arranged its materials. The deep attention he had paid to the recesses of his own heart enabled him to form no inadequate idea of the internal feelings of others. Hence he knew when to probe and when to heal--when to depress and when to encourage: and no person’s case was so perplexed or desperate, but he was in some measure prepared to explain and relieve it. A happy talent which he possessed of selecting, at a moment, the most appropriate passages of Scripture, clothed his words with a divine authority, and enabled him to speak as one who was conscious of his high credentials.

“There was an energy in his preaching (says Mr. Gilpin) that was irresistible. His subjects, his language, his gestures, the tone of his voice, and the turn of his countenance, all conspired to fix the attention and affect the heart. Without aiming at sublimity, he was truly sublime; and uncommonly eloquent without affecting the orator. He was wondrously skilled in adapting himself to the different capacities and conditions of his hearers. He could stoop to the illiterate, and rise with the learned: he had incontrovertible arguments for the sceptic, and powerful persuasions for the listless believer; he had sharp remonstrance for the obstinate, and strong consolation for the mourner. To hear him without admiration was impossible--without profit, improbable! The unthinking went from his presence under the influence of serious impressions, and the obdurate with kindled relentings.”

Such was the man whom Lady Huntingdon appointed to hold forth the word of life to the numerous auditories that thronged her chapel at Bath. His words were clothed with power, and entered the heart of many a sinner.

“Deep and awful (says her Ladyship) are the impressions made on every hand. Dear Mr. Fletcher’s preaching is truly apostolic--the divine blessing accompanies his word in a very remarkable manner. He is ever at his work, is amazingly followed, and singularly owned of God.”

In one of his pastoral letters to his flock at Madely, in reference to his labours at Bath, he says--

“By the help of Divine Providence and the assistance of your prayers I came safe here. I was, and am still, a good deal weighed down under the sense of my own insufficiency to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to poor dying souls. This place is the seat of Satan’s gaudy throne; the Lord hath, nevertheless, a few names here, who are not ashamed of him, and of whom he is not ashamed, both among the poor and among the rich. There are not many of the last, though blessed be God for any one; it is a great miracle if one camel pass through the eye of a needle: or, in other words, if one rich man enters into the kingdom of heaven. I have been sowing the seed the Lord hath given me both in Bath and Bristol, and I hope your prayers have not been lost upon me as a minister; for though I have not been enabled to discharge my office as I would, the Lord hath yet, in some measure, stood by me, and overruled my foolishness and helplessness. I am much supported by the thought that you bear me on your hearts, and when you come to the throne of grace ask a blessing for me in the name of Jesus, and that the Lord doth in no wise cast you out.”

Lord and Lady Glenorchy had but lately returned from the Continent, and at this time resided at Great Sugnal, a place at a short distance from Hawkestone, the celebrated seat of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart. At this time several of the younger branches of this family--Mr. Richard Hill, the Rev. Rowland Hill, Miss Hill, their eldest sister, and another sister, Elizabeth, who afterwards married Clement Tudway, Esq., member of Parliament for Wells--were of a decidedly pious character, and bore the reproach ordinarily connected with it, from the thoughtless, the formal, and the profligate. Lady Glenorchy visited this family, became intimate with it, revered and loved its members, and secretly wished that she were like them. Happily the time was at hand in which God fulfilled these desires of her heart.

Lady Glenorchy was not yet twenty-four, and Miss Hill was about her own age, or perhaps somewhat older. They had before been intimate--from this time they became bosom friends. The goodness of God was very evident in providing for Lady Glenorchy an adviser so well informed, so wise and prudent, so faithful and affectionate. In the summer of 1765 her Ladyship was seized with a dangerous putrid fever, and was confined to her bed for a considerable time. On her convalescence, by a singular circumstance in Providence, a train of serious thoughts and reasonings was produced, followed by convictions and purposes which ended in a complete renovation of heart and conduct. From that interesting moment, without hesitation or conferring with flesh and blood, she resolutely turned her back on the dissipated world, and without reserve devoted herself, and all that she could command and influence, to the service of Christ and the glory of God; and in this she invariably persisted to her latest breath.

In order to divert her mind from those serious subjects which occupied it, Lord Glenorchy was advised to leave the country, at an earlier season of the year than usual, for London and Bath, where every means were employed to induce her to return to the gaieties of the world. Her judgment and her conscience, however, were decidedly against it: and neither severity or art (both were put in practice) could divert her from her purpose. Just at this juncture her intimacy with Lady Huntingdon was of the most essential service to her. The excellent advice and heart-searching conversation of the Countess, united with the preaching of Mr. Madan, Mr. Romaine, and other ministers, contributed to establish and confirm her in the faith and hope of the Gospel. Lady Glenorchy’s future path of life lay through evil report and through good report; in the midst of deep adversity and high prosperity; of severe trials and strong temptations, both temporal and spiritual; but none of these things moved her from the steadfastness of her Christian profession. Although her road was often rough in the extreme, and her enemies cruel, strong, and numerous, yet on she went in her Christian course, never deviating to the right hand nor to the left, but ever pressing towards the mark for the prize of her high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Lady Glenorchy was destined to be the SELINA of Scotland. Lady Huntingdon was her model, although her biographer seems to have forgotten the fact. She derived great spiritual benefit, and caught her inspiration in the cause of God, from the example and the chaplains of the Countess. Dr. Thomas Snell Jones, who had received his education at Trevecca, was supplying the Tabernacle at Plymouth, having been sent thither by Lady Huntingdon, when first introduced to the notice of Lady Glenorchy, whose chaplain and biographer he eventually became. It is somewhat extraordinary that Dr. Jones should have made so little mention of his former noble patroness, to whom he was so deeply indebted, or of the long and very intimate connexion and correspondence that existed between these excellent women. Her Ladyship left Bath in the spring; and soon after her arrival in Edinburgh thus expressed her gratitude and thanks to Lady Huntingdon for the inestimable benefits she had reaped from her conversation and society:--

“My dear Madam--How shall I express the sense I have of your goodness?--it is impossible in words. But my comfort is, that the Lord knows the grateful thoughts of my heart, and he will amply reward you for the kindness you have shown a poor unworthy creature, whom blindness and ignorance render an object of pity. When you say your heart is attached to me, I tremble lest I should prove an additional cross to you in the end, and the pain I suffer in the apprehension of this is unspeakable. I hope the Lord permits it as a spur to me to be watchful, and to keep near to Him who alone is able to keep me from falling. _I can truly say, that, next to the favour of God, my utmost ambition is to be found worthy of the regard which your Ladyship is pleased to honour me with, and to be one of those who shall make up the crown of rejoicing for you in the day of our Lord._

“I am sorry to take up more of your precious time than is needful to express my gratitude for the obliging lines your Ladyship favoured me with; and will only add, that I ever am, with the greatest respect and affection, my dear and much-honoured Madam, your most obedient servant,

“W. GLENORCHY.”

Suffering under a depression of spirits by the untimely death of their eldest daughter, Lord and Lady Sutherland sought relief by change in the society and amusements of Bath, where they arrived shortly after Lady Glenorchy had departed for Scotland. Lady Sutherland was the only sister of Lady Glenorchy, who introduced her by letter to the notice and attention of Lady Huntingdon.

“Never (says her Ladyship) have I seen a more lovely couple--they may, indeed, with justice, be called the _Flower of Scotland_; and such amiability of disposition, so teachable, so mild! They have, indeed, been cast in Nature’s finest mould. Bowed down to the earth by grief, they are almost inconsolable for the loss of their daughter. The good Providence of God has, I hope, directed them to this place, in order to divert their attention from their recent loss, and lead them to the Fountain of living waters, from whence to draw all the consolation and comfort they stand in need of. May the word of the Lord be powerfully applied to their hearts in this season of trial! Dear Lady Glenorchy is extremely anxious on their account.”

At this critical moment Mr. Whitefield returned to Bath, and the youthful Earl and Countess of Sutherland were induced to attend his preaching.

“Last Friday evening (says he), and twice yesterday, I preached at Bath to very thronged and brilliant auditories. I am told it was a very high day. The glory of the Lord filled the house. To-morrow, God willing, I return thither again. Mr. Townsend is too ill to officiate. Lady Huntingdon is mounting on her high places.”

But one affliction rapidly succeeded another. Soon after their arrival, the Earl was attacked with a putrid fever, with which he struggled _fifty-four_ days, and then expired. The attentions of the Countess, who was devoted to her Lord, were so unremitting--having watched him in his chamber for _twenty-one_ nights and days without intermission or retiring to rest--that at last, overcome with fatigue, anxiety, and grief, she sunk, an unavailing victim to an amiable but excessive attachment, seventeen days before the death of her Lord. In this season of sorest anguish, Lady Huntingdon had several interviews with Lady Sutherland, and endeavoured to pour into her bleeding heart all the consolation and comfort which the religion of Jesus can impart. Prayer, both public and private, was incessantly offered up on their behalf. The best medical advice was of no avail.

“Everybody (says Lady Huntingdon) was interested about them, and I never saw such a universal concern at the death of any persons before. Many seem cut to the heart--others plunged into the deepest grief. It has been a most awful event, and has brought many to the chapel who had hitherto refused to enter it.”

Lady Sutherland was in her twenty-fifth year, and Lord Sutherland in his thirty-first. They left an infant daughter, Lady Elizabeth, who succeeded her father in the honours of Sutherland, and who, having married the late Marquis of Stafford, survived him and the Duchess-Countess Dowager of Sutherland, and died only a few months since.[258] Thus the venerable Countess of Huntingdon, and her celebrated chaplain, the apostolic Whitefield, ministered to her Grace’s suffering parents when she was an unconscious infant!

This melancholy event spread a general gloom over the gay inhabitants of Bath. Two sermons were preached on the occasion in Lady Huntingdon’s chapel, attended by almost all the nobility then in Bath, many of whom seemed to feel the awful Providence. A remarkable circumstance aggravated this bereavement to the family. Strange and unaccountable as the circumstance may appear, yet it is a fact of which there can be no doubt, that Lady Sutherland’s mother, Lady Alava, knew nothing of the death of her daughter for nearly three weeks after the event had taken place. The death of her daughter had been concealed from her, and only that of Lord Sutherland communicated. The way in which she at last became acquainted with it was in itself particularly singular and affecting. Whilst Lady Alava was hastening from Scotland to the assistance of her daughter, she happened to alight from her carriage at the door of an inn on the road to Bath, where she saw _two_ hearses standing. Upon enquiring whose remains they contained, she was told they were those of Lord and Lady Sutherland, on their way to Scotland for interment!

Soon after the death of the Earl and Countess of Sutherland, Lady Huntingdon left Bath and proceeded to Brighton, where she remained the principal part of the summer. About the same time Mr. Whitefield appears to have gone to Bath, where his health became so much impaired by his exertions, that he was obliged to retire to Cottam, near Bristol, for a few weeks. But his active spirit was not idle there.

“As my feverish heat continues (says he), and the weather is too wet to travel, I have complied with the advice of friends, and have commenced hot-well water-drinker twice a day. However, twice this week, at six in the morning, I have been enabled to call thirsty souls to come and drink of the water of life freely. To-morrow evening, God willing, the call is to be repeated. Good seasons at Bath. Good seasons here. Large auditories. Grace! Grace!”

Towards the end of August, Mr. Wesley, being in Bath, was invited, as usual, to preach in her Ladyship’s chapel. “Many (says he) were not a little surprised at seeing me in the Countess of Huntingdon’s chapel. The congregation was not only large, but serious, and I fully delivered my own soul.”

Hitherto, Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitefield had interchanged letters not very frequently, and they preached occasionally in each other’s pulpit: but there was no cordial intercourse--no hearty co-operation. Such a wound as had been made in their friendships always leaves a scar, however well, to outward appearance, it may have healed. Nevertheless, they did justice to each other’s intentions and virtues; and old feelings rose again, as from the dead, like the blossoming of spring flowers in autumn, which reminds us that the season of hope and of joy is gone. It is pleasant to observe that this tenderness increased as they advanced towards the decline of life. When Mr. Whitefield returned from America to England, for the last time, Mr. Wesley was struck with the change in his appearance. “He seemed (says he, in his Journal) to be an old man, being fairly worn out in his Master’s service, though he has hardly seen fifty years.” Mr. Whitefield, at this time, to use Mr. Wesley’s language, breathed nothing but peace and love. “Bigotry (says he) cannot stand before him, but hides its head wherever he comes.” On a summons from Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Wesley hastened from Yorkshire to meet Mr. Whitefield in London.

“And if no other good result from it (says Mr. Wesley) but our firm union with Mr. Whitefield, it is an abundant recompense for my labour. My brother and I conferred with him every day; and let the honourable men do what they please, we resolved, by the grace of God, to go on, hand in hand, through honour and dishonour.”

Mr. Wesley’s plan of union amongst the Evangelical clergymen in different parts of England, at that period not more than _forty_ in number, not having met with any cordial support, it was agreed, about this time, that Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Whitefield, Mr. John and Mr. Charles Wesley, should meet as frequently as convenient, and co-operate with each other in the general diffusion of divine truth. That this alliance had been entered into is certain; but we cannot concur with Southey in his “Life of Mr. Wesley,” imputing the non-fulfilment of it to what he is pleased to call the “bigotry and intolerance of Lady Huntingdon and a clique of Calvinistic clergy,” whom she had collected around her. Mr. Charles Wesley was of a different opinion. In a letter to Lady Huntingdon, written after the publication of the Minutes of Conference of 1770, and after Mr. John Wesley had preached Mr. Whitefield’s funeral sermon at the Tabernacle, he remarks:--

“_You_ remember a sort of quadruple alliance entered into three or four years ago, which _one of the parties never thought of from that day to this_. How soon is that alliance come to nothing! One is safely landed--another _removed to an immeasurable distance_--while yet we live, scarce one short year perhaps betwixt _us two_, let there be peace! I am very sensible that _my_ night cometh; my course is well nigh finished, and I pray and hope my work and life will end together. I expect to be in town the beginning of February, without my family. There and in all places let me find the benefit of your prayers, till I also arrive where the wicked cease from troubling--where the weary are at rest!”

That Mr. Wesley had entered into this alliance is further evident from the offer which he made to Lady Huntingdon, of supplying her chapel at Bath during his stay at Bristol. Her Ladyship’s reply to Mr. Wesley, expressing her gratitude for his kind offer, and his universal devotedness to the glory of their Divine Master and the souls redeemed by his blood, will be read with deep interest. Southey might have had access to this document, as it appeared in the twentieth volume of the _Methodist Magazine_, and it would have corrected one of the numerous blunders, false statements, and wilful misrepresentations with which his work everywhere abounds.

“September 14, 1766.

“My dear Sir--I am most highly obliged by your kind offer of serving the chapel at Bath during your stay at Bristol; I mean on Sundays. It is the most important time, being the height of the latter season, when the great of this world are only in the reach of the sound of the Gospel from that quarter. The mornings are their time--the evenings the inhabitants chiefly. _I do trust that this union which is commenced_ will be for the furtherance of our faith and mutual love to each other. It is for the interest of the best of causes that we should all be found, first, faithful to the Lord, and then to each other. I find something wanting, and that is, a meeting now and then agreed upon, that you, your brother, Mr. Whitefield, and I, should at times be glad regularly to communicate our observations upon the general state of the work. Light might follow, and would be a kind of guide to me, as I am connected with many.

“Universal and constant usefulness to all, is the important lesson. And when we are fully and wholly given up to the Lord, I am sure the heart can long for nothing so much as that our time, talents, life, soul, and spirit, may become upon earth a constant and living sacrifice. How I can be most so, that is the one object of my poor heart. Therefore, to have all the light that is possible, to see my way in this matter, is my prayer day and night; for worthy is the Lamb to receive all honour, and glory, and blessing.

“What you say of reproach, I hope never to be without, so that it be for obeying. I am honoured by every degree of contempt, while my heart has its faithful testimony before Him who can search it to the bottom, and knows that his glory and the good of souls is my one object upon earth. I shall turn coward, and disgrace you all, when I have any worse ground to stand upon; and I am sure my prayer will be answered, which has been made these seven-and-twenty years, that whenever his eye, which is as a flame of fire, sees any other end or purpose of my heart, he will remove my poor wretched being from this earth. But so vile, and foolish, and helpless as I am, he keeps my heart full of faith, that he never will leave me nor forsake me: having neither help nor hope, but that he will each moment prove the Lord--the Lord full of mercy and compassionate love, to such a poor worm. Pray, when you have leisure, let me hear from you, and believe me, most faithfully, your affectionate friend,

“S. HUNTINGDON.”

Lady Huntingdon’s chapel was at this time principally supplied by Mr. Madan and Mr. Townsend, and two Welsh clergymen of great notoriety, Mr. Howel Davies and Mr. Daniel Rowlands, with the occasional assistance of Mr. Whitefield, who generally preached once, and sometimes twice, a week, besides his stated labours at Clifton and Bristol. On Mr. Madan leaving Bath for Aldwincle, in Northamptonshire, whither he went to preach for Dr. Haweis, Mr. Romaine supplied his place during the months of October and November. Early in the month of October, Mr. Wesley arrived in Bath, and during his stay preached frequently in her Ladyship’s chapel. Being very popular at this time he was remarkably well attended, and his labours were not altogether in vain in the Lord. On Sunday, the 5th of October, at eight o’clock in the morning, he administered the sacrament, and at eleven preached on these words in the Gospel of the day--“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” “The word (says Mr. Wesley) was quick and powerful, and I trust many, even of the rich and great, felt themselves sinners before God.”

At this period Horace Walpole visited Bath. There was a sort of family connexion between the Walpoles and Lady Huntingdon;[259] and therefore, perhaps, Horace Walpole accompanied his friends, Lord and Lady Powys, to the chapel. Mr. Wesley was the preacher, but the chapel itself was attractive.

“They have (says he) boys and girls with charming voices that sing hymns in parts. The chapel is very neat, with _true_ Gothic windows. I was glad to see that luxury is creeping in upon them before persecution. They have very neat mahogany stands for branches, and brackets of the same, in taste. At the upper end is a broad _hautpas_ of four steps, advancing in the middle; at each end of the broadest part are two eagles, with red cushions, for the parson and clerk. Behind them rise three more steps, in the midst of which is a third eagle for a pulpit. Scarlet arm chairs to all three. On either hand a balcony for elect ladies. The rest of the congregation sit on forms. Behind the pit, in a dark niche, is a plain table within rails; so you see the throne is for the apostle. Wesley is a clean elderly man, fresh coloured, his hair smoothly combed, but with a little _soupçon_ of curl at the ends. Wondrous clever, but as evidently an actor as Garrick. He spoke his sermon, but so fast, and with so little accent, that I am sure he has often uttered it, for it was like a lesson. There were parts and eloquence in it; but towards the end he exalted his voice, and acted very vulgar enthusiasm.”[260]

There were several persons of distinction at this time in Bath, almost all of whom, according to Walpole, were constantly in the habit of attending divine service at Lady Huntingdon’s chapel. Indeed, he says, it was quite the rage amongst persons in high life to form parties to hear the different preachers who supplied the chapel. Amongst these he enumerates Lord Camden (then Lord High Chancellor of England), Lord Northington (Lord President of the Council), Earl Chatham and family, Lord Rockingham, Lady Malpas, Lord and Lady Powys, Lord and Lady Buchan and family, Miss Rich (sister to Lord Lyttleton), the Duke of Bedford and family, Mr. and Lady Lucy Trevor, &c.[261]

Early in the month of November we find Mr. Whitefield again at Bath. He and Mr. Romaine preached alternately at Lady Huntingdon’s chapel to very numerous and attentive auditories. “Bath air (says Mr. Whitefield) will never agree with me long. However, if good is done, all will be well. Sunday and last night were seasons of power. Some, we trust, were made willing.” During his stay at Bath his health was indifferent, but he went occasionally to Bristol, where he preached to very crowded congregations. On one occasion he administered the sacrament there, and used _eight_ bottles of wine. His popularity continued to increase at Bath, and many of the nobility who had not before heard him were now eager to attend his ministry.

“Such a numerous and brilliant assembly (says he) of the mighty and noble I never saw attend before at Bath. Everything is so promising that I am constrained to give notice of preaching next Sunday. I hope the Redeemer will give us a blessed Sabbath. I trust already the arm of the Lord hath been revealed. Congregations have been very large and very solemn. O what Bethels hath Jesus given to us! We were filled as with new wine.”

Receiving an invitation from Mr. Stillingfleet to visit Oxford, on his return to London, Mr. Whitefield resolved to go thither immediately--

“And have, therefore (says he), written to dear Mr. Jesse to stay two or three weeks at London. Mr. Howel Davies, who, they say, is expected here next week, may then officiate for that space of time at Bath, and, at Mr. Jesse’s leaving London, may go up to town. I beg Captain Joss may go through with the Tabernacle work, and stick to it with his whole heart.”

Mr. Whitefield was followed by Mr. Venn, one of the most powerful and successfully pious preachers of the time; but he was not only distinguished as a minister--as a companion he was the most agreeable man imaginable; he had a flow of conversation which never ceased to delight and edify; and, out of a store of anecdotes treasured up in his memory, produced a fund of entertainment as well as usefulness, which those who were his favoured companions seldom forgot.[262]

In his journey from Brighton to Bath, Mr. Venn paid a visit to his valued friend, Mr. Townsend, at Pewsey.

“That dear minister (says he) has a single eye and a warm heart. Three young students are in his house, in order to prepare for the ministry. Here I spoke the word of life to a small church-full, and to a large room-full afterwards; and, though the sphere of action in his parish is small, yet round about there are a great number of souls awakened, and some who know the Lord to be their God.”

In his letter to Miss Wheeler, niece to Lady Huntingdon, and one of the daughters of Lady Catherine Wheeler, Mr. Venn says--

“At Bath we heard Mr. Romaine, in the plain but elegant chapel of Lady Huntingdon. He was very well attended on the week-days, but on Sundays the chapel is crowded. My kind friend, Miss Gideon, I had both the pleasure and grief of seeing, with Mr. and Mrs. Romaine--the pleasure, because she triumphs in the blood of the cross, and is, indeed, an ornament to her Christian faith; but it was a grief to see her labouring under a complication of diseases, and one among these the dropsy, so that Dr. Moisey told me he apprehended there was great danger of her soon being called hence. Yet which of her friends can coolly wish her to stay?--as not only a most infirm, afflicted body prevents the full exercise of her mental powers, but even in our best estate of body here, how poor, how sinful is the soul! We cannot possibly be like Jesus till we see him as he is.”

Mr. Andrews[263] occasionally visited Bath, and united with those men of renown who in that day dared to be singular in the cause of Christ. He was very zealous in the discharge of his ministerial duties, but was incapacitated by ill-health from doing as much as many of his brethren. He frequently preached in other places, and was always delighted with the visits of Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley, and any other minister who proclaimed the name of that Saviour whom he loved.

When Lady Huntingdon was at Bath, Mr. Andrews preached very frequently at her Ladyship’s, and united with those cross-bearing labourers who aided her in the great work of spreading the everlasting Gospel. He went boldly to Christ without the camp, bearing his reproach. He was a faithful minister of the Church of England, but never ashamed of the brand of Methodism, or of those most liberally abused by a wicked world, and often most obnoxious to their own brethren. His work was his wages, and the souls of men redeemed his object.

Such conduct provoked the implacable enmity of the intolerant Warburton, then Bishop of Gloucester, who, like his neighbour, Lavington, Bishop of Exeter, was the inveterate enemy of all Methodists and Moravians. His Lordship informed Mr. Andrews that he had received several complaints of him, and, unless he had ample satisfaction, threatened to revoke his license by process in the spiritual court.

“I shall insist upon your constant residence in your parish, not so much for the good you are likely to do there, as to prevent the mischief you may do by rambling about in other places. Your Bishop and (though your fanatic conduct has almost made me ashamed to own it) your patron,[264]

“W. GLOUCESTER.”

Mr. Andrews acquainted the Bishop, by letter, in answer to the first charge, “that he had resided at least two years and nine months out of the three years that he had been in possession of the living;” and, in reply to the second, “that the Bishop had at Bath, in consideration of the smallness of the income and Mr. Andrews’s want of health, recommended it to him to officiate at Stinchcombe only once on a Sunday, and that, notwithstanding he had several times done double duty; that many other clergymen in the Bishop’s diocese, on much better livings, did not reside at all; and that he had refused a living of eighty pounds a year, and taken one of thirty-six pounds, merely on account of its requiring less duty.” But, as might have been anticipated, remonstrance with such a man as Warburton was in vain. Mr. Andrews was a Methodist; he had committed the unpardonable crime of preaching for Lady Huntingdon, and, without a divine legation, the Bishop was resolved to interdict his itinerancy.

“If I indulged you in giving your parish only one service on a Sunday, I hereby revoke that indulgence, and insist on your giving them full service.

“W. GLOUCESTER.”

The Bishop appears somewhat _amiable_ in his correspondence with Doddridge, and not a little faithful in exposing “the unclean beasts” in his own ark; but he could _persecute_, as well as _rail_. At length Lady Huntingdon interfered.

“Poor Andrews (says her Ladyship) is sadly used by his Bishop. I have written to his Lordship, hoping that my long and intimate acquaintance with him may induce him to relax a little of his severity; but I much fear, knowing his implacable enmity, so long indulged, and his most unreasonable hostility to dear Mr. Whitefield and myself, whom he sometimes treated most uncourteously.”

The reply of Warburton was laconic, and quite in character. It ran thus:--

“Madam--Mr. Andrews is under my jurisdiction, and I am resolved to keep him and his fanatic conduct within his own parish. I remain, Madam, your obedient servant,

“W. GLOUCESTER.”

The preceding year the Bishop of Gloucester had published “The Doctrine of Grace; or, the Office and Operation of the Holy Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of Fanaticism”--a work containing many shrewd and pertinent observations, and original lucky turns of thought, with a considerable portion of critical sagacity. This most “impudent man of the age,” through almost every part of his book, not only wantonly throws about the arrows and firebrands of scurrility, buffoonery, and personal abuse, but at the same time, on account of some unguarded expressions and indiscretions of a particular set of honest, though fallible men, takes occasion to wound, vilify, and totally deny the all-powerful operations of the Spirit of God, by which alone his Lordship, or any other man, can be sanctified and sealed to the day of eternal redemption. The work soon produced answers from Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley, one from Mr. Payne, Accountant-General to the Bank, and one from Mr. Andrews, entitled “The Scripture Doctrine of Grace, in an answer to a Treatise on the Doctrine of Grace, by William, Lord Bishop of Gloucester, so far as that important doctrine is considered.”

On leaving Bath, Mr. Venn preached at Bristol and Gloucester, and in the pulpit of Mr. Andrews; thence he passed on to Trevecca, “Happy Trevecca!” as he styles it, of which, and of Mr. Howel Harris, he gives the following account, in a letter to Miss Wheeler:--

“Howel Harris is the father of that settlement, and the founder. After labouring for fifteen years, more violently than any of the servants of Christ, in this revival, he was so hurt in body as to be confined to his own house for seven years. Upon the beginning of this confinement, first one and then another, whom the Lord had converted under his word, to the number of near a hundred, came and desired to live with him, and that they would work and get their bread. By this means, near one hundred and twenty, men, women, and children, from very distant parts of Wales, came and fixed their tents at Trevecca. We were there three days, and heard their experience, which they spoke in Welsh to Mr. Harris, and he interpreted to us. Of all the people I ever saw, this society seems to be the most advanced in grace. They speak as men and women who feel themselves every moment worthy of eternal punishment, and infinitely base; and yet, at the same time, have such certainty of salvation through the second Man, the Lord from heaven, as is indeed delightful to behold. My heart received a blessing from them and their pastor which will abide with me.”

Mr. Venn, being obliged to return to Huddersfield before the end of the month, could make but a short stay at Trevecca; but there, as in other places where the churches were not open to him, he hesitated not to proclaim the riches, the glory, and the grace of his Lord and Master.

“From Trevecca (says Mr. Venn, in his long letter to Lady Huntingdon) we came to Berwick, where, though we did not find you had yet made the Squire a preacher, yet both his consort and himself were much the better in their souls for the rummaging they went through at Brighthelmstone--not from the custom-house officers, but from one who is very zealous lest the revenue of Jesus should sustain damage, and that none should be deceived into a notion that their goods have the seal royal upon them, when it is no more than a counterfeit ticket. In a word, they are both, I trust, in earnest, seeking the face of the Lord, and to know the certainty of the words of truth. A few days after we got there, a Mr. Lee, a man of estate in Shropshire, came to pay his visit. He is, I do think, of all the persons I ever saw in my life, the very one that you would be made a blessing to. His understanding is clear and strong; his sight of human nature in its fall amazingly deep; his spirit bold and intrepid--only fearful of being deceived to take that for grace and faith which may not be so. He speaks of himself as yet a seeker; and I trust the Lord will give him to know his love, and his peace, and the power of his resurrection. We returned, with Mr. and Mr. Powys, the visit; and in his parlour I preached to _eighty people_. If your Ladyship comes into Shropshire, he will certainly seek an opportunity of being in your company; or, if he goes to Bath, you will see him there in the spring.”

To Miss Wheeler, Mr. Venn says, “Mr. Lee is a gentleman of fortune, about forty years of age, and a man of uncommon parts, with whom I was much delighted. Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley visited him whenever they were in Shropshire, and his house was usually open for the preaching of the Gospel. Mr. Wesley being in that part of the country in March, 1769, was invited by Mr. Lee to his house. “My horse being lame (says he), and part of the road very bad, I did not reach Mr. Lee’s, of Cotery, till noon. The house is delightfully situated in his park, at the top of a fruitful hill. His chaplain had just begun reading prayers; afterwards he desired me to give an exhortation.” In the month of August, the same year, Mr. Wesley was again in Shrewsbury, on his way to attend the anniversary of Lady Huntingdon’s College at Trevecca, and receiving invitations from Messrs. Powys and Lee, preached at Berwick and Cotery.

While Mr. Venn was at Berwick, Captain Scott, of whose conversion by Mr. Romaine we have spoken, had succeeded in obtaining an introduction to that honoured instrument of his conversion, who would not see him at Brighton, but at London kindly received and prayed with and for him. On Captain Scott taking leave, Mr. Romaine gave him a letter for Mr. Powys, of Berwick, in Shropshire, whither the Captain was proceeding. Leaving London in the Shrewsbury mail-coach, as soon as he had well adjusted himself, Captain Scott found, by the common observations which curiosity ever makes on the associates with whom we travel, that one of his companions was a Major, destined to Shrewsbury. Among other conversations which took place in the interval before they fell asleep, the Captain asked whether he knew any families there. He answered in the affirmative, and enumerated, among other families of his particular acquaintance, the Scotts. Captain Scott professed himself to have had formerly some acquaintance with this family, and begged to know such particulars as occurred respecting those members of it he had lately seen or heard of. After the mention of a variety of particulars, in which the Captain expected his own name to have occurred, but without being gratified, he asked if the Major had heard nothing of any other branches of the family. He replied, “Yes--there was one mad fellow, who many years ago went into the army; and, when he was there, turned Methodist, and went about preaching with the regiment.”

Captain Scott asked if he had shown any other mark of derangement besides those he had mentioned, which appeared to be of a religious kind. The Major replied, “he could not say, as he really knew very little about him.” The night drew on, and the parties slept and conversed at intervals till they arrived at Oxford, when they got out of the coach, and were ushered into a room, lighted by two large candles. The Captain immediately, taking one of the candles in each hand, walked, with a firm step, up to the Major, and bowing, said, “Give me leave, Sir, to introduce to you the mad Captain Scott.” The Major appeared overwhelmed with surprise and confusion. He seemed much hurt at what had passed, but Captain Scott, seeing his embarrassment, soon relieved him--assured him that he had not felt hurt at anything he had said; and, indeed, under the circumstances, could not be so; and only begged of him the favour, as he was then going to Shropshire, and would probably see many of his friends, to correct their mistaken apprehensions of his being deranged; for that he had travelled with him from London, and discovered (as Captain Scott hoped) no mark of a disordered mind.

Captain Scott observed to him that it was no uncommon thing for a man to be charged, by the unthinking part of mankind, with derangement, at the very time when he was beginning to be truly wise, and to live to better purpose than any part of his preceding life, particularly when he begins to reflect that he has an immortal and invaluable soul, and makes it his great concern to secure its eternal happiness. Captain Scott admitted that, when he went into the army, he had been a dissipated character, but that a great revolution in his sentiments and conduct had afterwards taken place; and he begged the indulgence of the Major briefly to state to him the nature of those views of religion which he had imbibed, that he might be enabled to judge whether they merited the severe reflections with which they had been charged. This gave him an opportunity of opening to him the plan of divine truth, as revealed in the Gospel; which was, no doubt, accompanied with Captain Scott’s earnest prayer for his conversion. The Major bowed assent to every thing advanced, and declared it very sober, very rational, very proper, &c., but whether any salutary effects were produced the Captain did not learn, never afterwards having the opportunity of another interview with his polite and candid friend.

After a few days spent amongst his family and friends, Captain Scott rode to Berwick, to deliver the letter which Mr. Romaine had entrusted to him. We have said that at that time Mr. Powys entertained Mr. Venn as a visitor in his house. One morning, soon after breakfast and family prayer, Mr. and Mrs. Powys and Mr. Venn were looking from the parlour window in front of the hall, and who should they see but Captain Scott, who was now bringing Mr. Romaine’s letter, enter upon the lawn, dressed in his uniform and riding his military horse. Mr. Powys recognized him at a distance, and said, “There is Captain Scott; what can he want here? I am determined not to see him if I can avoid it.” Upon this they all withdrew.

Captain Scott rode up and asked, “Is Mr. Powys at home?” The servant, uninstructed by his master to adopt the fashionable expedient of stating an untruth to avoid an inconvenience, informed him that he was. Mr. Powys was called, and received his visitor with an air of distant civility, thinking that his presence would be an interruption to the spiritual enjoyments of himself and friends; but after he had read Mr. Romaine’s letter, which he received with considerable agitation, giving an account of Captain Scott’s conversion, he caught him in his arms, embraced and rejoiced over him as over one raised from the dead. In this position, with an elevated voice, he cried out, “Mr. Venn! Mr. Venn! Mrs. Powys! Mrs. Powys! come, come here quickly! Here is Captain Scott, a convert to Christ! a new creature in Christ Jesus!” They both came, and being informed of the contents of Mr. Romaine’s letter, all three, in the joy of their hearts, embraced the penitent, and, in imitation of the angels in heaven, rejoiced over him who had been dead, but was alive again; who had been lost, but was found.

Of Manchester, where Mr. Venn next proceeded, he says--

“There is much life in Mr. Wesley’s society, and a great crowding to hear the word. And well for the nation it is so: since in the churches, at all the great towns we came to, there are no worshippers scarce of any sort to be found. Absolute profaneness begins visibly to reign. Formality and pharisaism is, and has been of late, so much besieged and battered down, that a crisis seems approaching. Real believers possessing the Holy Ghost, or open revilers of Christian faith, seem to be the two standards under which men will rank themselves. As to my own flock, I found them, at my return, well. The Lord is with us. Sinners are converted, souls are happy in Christ, and his pleasant odours diffuse their life-giving fragrance in the congregation.”

In the meanwhile the Rev. Howel Davies came to Bath, to supply her Ladyship’s chapel. He was one of her Ladyship’s oldest acquaintances in the principality; and, with the Rev. Daniel Rowlands, Rev. Peter Williams, Rev. William Williams, and other awakened clergymen, was eminently useful in the great revival of religion in Wales. He was educated by the apostolic Jones, rector of Llandowrer, in Carmarthenshire, who, when he received priest’s orders, gave notice to the whole congregation of it, and desired an interest in their prayers, that the Lord would bless him, and give him success in the ministry. The first church in which Mr. Davies was called to officiate was Llys-y-fran, in Pembrokeshire; but he was soon turned out, on account of his zeal and faithfulness in the cause of God and truth. He was a Boanerges, and mere formalists could not bear his faithful application of the truths of the Gospel to the heart and life. He was a burning and a shining light, and preached in four different places statedly, besides his daily labours in houses, barns, fields, commons, mountains, &c. He had upwards of two thousand communicants, and the church has been frequently emptied twice, to make room for the third congregation to partake of the Lord’s Supper! He would break through the form of words used upon these occasions, and would speak of Christ and his sufferings in a variety of Scripture expressions.[265]

It was about this period that the Rev. Dr. Haweis, rector of Aldwincle; the Rev. Cradock Glascott, afterwards vicar of Hatherleigh, in Devonshire; the Rev. William Jesse, perpetual curate and lecturer of West Bromwich, in Staffordshire; and the Rev. John Harmer, of Warrington, commenced preaching in the chapels of Lady Huntingdon, and wherever she required them to itinerate. In the early part of his ministry Mr. Jesse was an occasional preacher at Tottenham-court Chapel, and was held in good estimation by Mr. Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon. In 1771 this exemplary minister was situated in Lincolnshire. Mr. Venn, in a letter to Mrs. Ryland, says, “Mr. Jesse met me at Malton, and accompanied me as far as Hull: he is a very excellent man, and seems appointed to evangelize the _Wolds_, the inhabitants of which are dark almost as the Indians.” How highly Lady Huntingdon thought of him, her own words will best tell--“Dear, honest-hearted Jesse has my best wishes. He is a humble, devoted soul, and much in earnest in his Master’s work. Having ever found him faithful, I can in truth recommend him to your Lordship’s kind notice and patronage.” This was addressed to Lord Dartmouth, through whose interest he became curate and lecturer of West Bromwich. He also became rector of Dowles and Riblesford, in the county of Worcester, and chaplain to the Earl of Glasgow. Mr. Harmer was sent by her Ladyship to Brighton and Oathall; he also preached occasionally at Bath, but he was not a popular speaker. After some time, however, he thought proper to withdraw from all connexion with her Ladyship, and declined preaching in her chapels, without assigning any cause for such a step. This was the source of much vexation and disappointment to her Ladyship; and to this Mr. Fletcher alludes in the following letter, dated Morley, December 9, 1766:--

“I stayed in London just to receive your Ladyship’s letter, but not to see Mr. Glascott or Mr. Harmer. For some days the _latter_ had kept out of my way, nor did I know the reason. He told Jesse his design to decline serving the chapels of your Ladyship, but hid it from me. I had it from Jesse the day before I set out. So far as I could gather, he was fixed in his resolution; and whether his reasons were solid or only pretended ones, to his own Master he stands or falls, and by Him they will be tried. In the Gospel I had rather have nobody than an unwilling servant and a slave. Providence, I hope, designs you a son. Sarah waited long for Isaac. She saw the ingratitude of Hagar, and the pertness of Ishmael, before the true seed was given her. The believer does not make haste. It is a blessing that the cause is the Lord’s, and that the disposal of all affairs and all hearts is in his hands. If a sparrow falleth not to the ground without his leave, much less can a minister fall from an agreement without it. He will never suffer a disappointment to befall us, but to prevent a greater one, or to bring in a superior blessing. This we shall see in the end. In the meantime, I repeat it, we walk by faith.”

Mr. Harmer joined Mr. Wesley, and in the year 1780 was situated at Warrington; of his subsequent history little is known. The Rev. W. Buckingham, who held a curacy in Cornwall, preached for Lady Huntingdon on Mr. Harmer’s secession. Soon after he too joined Mr. Wesley, but in two years withdrew from the Methodists. “He had no sooner done this (says Mr. Wesley), than the Bishop rewarded him by turning him out of his curacy, which, had he continued to walk in Christian simplicity, he would probably have had to this day.” In 1781 he was residing in London, assisting Mr. Wesley as a curate, with Mr. Richardson; but at what period he terminated his course we have not been able to learn.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, STRAND, LONDON, PRINTER.

INDEX TO VOL. I.

Abney, Lady, 58 Sir Thomas and Lady, 201

Abraham, Old, at Oathall, 319

Akenside, Dr., 136

Aldwincle living and Mr. Kimpton, 413

Andrews, Mr., and Bishop of Gloucester, 480

Anecdote of Lord Bolingbroke and Dr. Church, 179 of Newton’s preaching at Leeds, 271 of Captain Scott, 317, 381, 484 of Conversion of an old Inn Keeper at Aldwincle Church, 420 of Dr. Doddridge on leaving Bath for Falmouth, 450 of George I. and Lady Chesterfield, 463 of Mr. Venn, 479, 486

Articles of Peace, 437

Ashby-place, Lady Huntingdon at, 119

Ayscough, Dr., Dean of Bristol, and Doddridge, 175

Baddelley, Mr., Letter of Whitefield to, 120

Baptists, General, 44

Bath, Earl of, impressed under Whitefield’s preaching, 465 the Countess’s Chapel at, 443, 467

Batty, the Messrs., account of, 247

Belcher, Governor, of New Jersey College, 140

Bell and Maxfield, Fletcher’s regard for, 321

Bennett, Mr., visits the Countess at Donnington Park, 45

Berridge and the Countess, 216 Letters to the Countess, 323, 336, 359, 386, 388 Extracts of Letters from, 358 and the Bees, 366 Character of, wit and labours, 367 and the Bishop, 369 Letter to, from Mr. Thornton, 371 ---- from, to Mr. Thornton, 373 Illness of, 381 Singular effects of the preaching of, 397

Bishops, Conduct of, 38 of London, Oxford, and Gloucester, 196 ---- Death of, 231 Seat of, in Bath Chapel, 477

Blair, Dr., 58

Bliss, Mr., impressed under Dr. Haweis, 391

Bowers, first lay preacher among the Methodists, 32

Bolingbroke, Lord, hears Whitefield, 90 Death of, 178

Bretby Hall, the Countess at, 466

Brethren, the United, 246

Brighton, Chapel re-opened, 378

Broughton, Rev., Bryan and Whitefield, 196

Browne, Rev. Moses, Chaplain to the Duke of Somerset, 127, 164

Buchan, Lady, 427

Buckingham, Duchess of, 27

Burder, Rev. George, and Romaine, 273

Burnet, Bishop, 39

Burnett, Rev. G., impressed under Mr. Walker of Truro, 276

Burr, President, of New Jersey College, 140

Cambridge, Progress of piety at, 421

Campbell, the Hon. Hume, 205

Carteret, Lord, Letter to the Countess, 67

Cavendish, Mrs., visits the Countess at Bath, 461

Cennick, Mr., 32, 198, 262

Chancellor, Lord High, found guilty of corruption, 6

Chapel of the Countess, at York, 310 at Brighton, 314, 390 at Lewes, 364 at Chichester, Petworth, Guildford and Basingstoke, 393 at Gloucester, Worcester, and Cheltenham, 440

Charges against the Countess, 424

Cheltenham, Whitefield, Madan, and Venn preached there, 429

Chesterfield, Lord, 90, 99, 115, 458 Lady, impressed under Whitefield, 462

Church, Dr., 179

Clanricardes, Pedigree of, 3

Clergy, awakened under the preaching of Whitefield and Wesley, 61

Coachman of George III., Anecdote of, 131

Cobb, Lady Betty, influence over the Bishops, 477

Colne, Vicar of, and Messrs. Grimshaw and Ingham, 259

Conference, First Methodist, 62 at Leeds, 267

Convict, the Countess’s exertions in behalf of a, 227

Conyers, Dr., commencement of Evangelical Ministry of, 277 Visitation Sermon displeases the Archbishop of York, 280 Letter from, to the Countess, 281

Cooper, Miss; Death of, 52

Cotton, Dr., and the Countess, 157

Cruttenden, Robert, Esq., Account of, 448

Darracott, Rev. R., Letter to, from the Countess, 114

Dartmouth, Lord, 276, 326, 429

Davies, Howell, 486

Deane, Mrs., Character of, 296

De Courcy, Mr., 381, 411

Delamotte and Charles Wesley, 243

Delitz, the Countess, 462

Derry, Bishop of, 33

Dodd, Dr., 401

Doddridge, Dr., Letter to, from the Countess, 64 Letter of, to Mr. Fawcett, 154 Ill health of, visits the Countess at Bath, 448, 449 embarks at Falmouth and lands at Lisbon, 451 his views when near death, 452 his peaceful dissolution, 452

Downes, Mr., Death of, in the pulpit, 63

Dream of a lady respecting Lady Huntingdon, 313

Earthquake in London, 128

Edwin, Mrs., 86

Edwin, Lady Charlotte, 175

Erasmus, Bishop of Arcadia, 331

Erskine, Dr., and Dr. Robertson, 184

Evangelical Magazine commenced, 214

Exeter, Bishop of, 95, 125

Extraordinary occurrence, 205

Fast, the public, 395

Ferrers, the, 4

Ferrers, Lord, tried--visited by the Countess--singular conduct--execution, 402, 409

Fletcher, Mr., introduced to the Countess by John Wesley, 231 Letter of, to Whitefield, 289 ---- to his Flock at Madeley, 469 Letters of, to Charles Wesley, 232, 235 ---- to the Countess, 234, 241, 295, 357, 487 preaches & celebrates the Communion at the Countess’s, 232 appointed vicar of Madeley, 234 visits Berridge, 236 Success of, in the Ministry, 237 and Mr. Venn preach at Everton, loud cries in the Congregation, 400 Labours of, at Bath, 468

Foote, the player, 208

Ford, Dr., 216

Fox, Mr. Charles, 210

Frankland, Lady Anne, 20

Galatin, Colonel and Mrs., 156

Gardiner, Colonel, 59 Marvellous Conversion of, 60 Death of, 66

Gardiner, Lady Frances, 410

Garrick and Dr. Stonehouse, 139

George II., 67

Gertrude, Lady, 456

Giardini, 229

Gibbon, Mrs. Hester, 147

Gibbons, Dr., 111

Gill, Dr., 113

Glascott, Mr., 310

Glenorchy, Lady, 411 Lord and Lady, 470 Lady, Letter from, to the Countess, 471

Gloucester, Bishop of, 18

Gloucestershire Association, 434

Godwyn, Rev. Charles, 423

Government, Liberal conduct of, to the Welsh Methodists, 110

Grafton, Duke of, 210

Graves, Mr., his Recantation and Letters, 48–51 encourages John Nelson, 255

Grenfield, Mrs., 453

Grimshaw, Mr., 252 Opinions of, 259 Account of, 267, 271, 286 Letter of, 284 and his friend Robertshaw, 286 Death of, 286

Gumley, Colonel, 94

Gwynne, Marmaduke, Esq., 110

Halifax, Lord, 210

Hammond, the Poet, 22

Handel, 229

Harris, Howel, 378

Hartley, Mr., 172

---- Dr., 450

Hastings, Lady Margaret, 14 George and Ferdinando (sons of the Countess), Death of, 62 Lady Frances, 84 ---- Anne, 122 ---- Betty, 248 Hon. Henry, Death of, 311 Lady Selina, Illness and death of, 331 Colonel George, 332

Haweis, Dr., 223 preaching at the Lock, 326 and the living of Aldwincle, 414 itinerates for the Countess, 487

Hertford, Countess of, Letter of, 197

Hervey, Mr., Letter of, to the Countess, 123 at Ashby with the Countess, 153 commences “Theron and Aspasio”, 187 method of preaching, 191 Letters to the Countess, 188, 189

Hill, Mr. Rowland, great popularity, 211 style of preaching, 212 great success at Tabernacle and Tottenham-court Chapels, 212 Ordination by the Bishop of Bath and Wells and first Sermon, 212

Hill, Sir Richard, 423

Hinchingbroke, Lady, 30

Horne, Dr., Bishop of Norwich, 423

Hotham, Lady Gertrude, 160, 454 Sir Charles, 375 ---- Marriage of, and death, 456, 457 Miss, Happy death of, 456 Lady, Death of, 456 Lady Gertrude, Happy death of, 457

HUNTINGDON Family, 7 Earl of, his family, 8 ---- his character, 17, 50 ---- visits Ledstone Hall, 254 ---- remarkable dream, and death, 74 ---- epitaph, 75 Young Lord, comes of age, tour to France, &c., 115 ---- his high appointments under George III., 458 ---- his Infidelity, interview with Grimshaw, and death, 459 Lady--her birth--early character--first religious impressions--grave of youth--piety--private prayer--fashionable life--marriage, 7–10 Letter from, to Charles Wesley, 41 ---- to John Wesley, 46 ---- of, respecting a penitent, 55 ---- respecting Mr. Harvey, 192 ---- to Dr. Doddridge, 64 ---- to Mr. Wesley, 71 ---- to Dr. Doddridge, 78–83, 102, 150 ---- to Mr. Venn, 225 ---- to Romaine, 305 ---- to Mr. Milner, 307 ---- to Mr. Wren, 309 ---- to Gabriel Harris, 443 ---- to Mr. Brewer, 438 ---- to Mr. Wesley, 475 and the Moravians, 201 Illness of, and recovery, 122 Letters of, to Lord Dartmouth and Mr. Madan, 417, 418 her first acquaintance with Mr. Fletcher--Letter of, concerning Mr. Fletcher--her request to him to preach to the French prisoners at Tunbridge, 231 liberates John Nelson from prison, by her influence, 258 visits Yorkshire, with Whitefield, 265 visits Aberford, with Romaine, 273 visits Yorkshire and Lancashire, with Romaine, Mr. Ingham, and Lady Margaret, 273 visits Yorkshire again, has frequent meetings with the pious Clergy there, 281 attends the 19th Conference at Leeds, with Messrs. Romaine, Madan, Venn, Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, 281 visits Aberford again--takes an excursion to Haworth, Fletcher and Townsend preach in the churchyard--visits Huddersfield, 290 Illness of, 290 and Mr. Venn, respecting Mr. Ingham’s state of mind, 301 sends students to Yorkshire, 303 Chapel of, at York, 310 ---- at Lewes, opened, enlarged, and re-opened, 364 ---- at Gloucester, Worcester, and Cheltenham, 441, 442 ---- at Bath, 443 exertions at Brighton, 312 sells her Jewels to build a Chapel at Brighton, 314 Gratitude of, respecting Mr. Romaine’s success at St. Anne’s, Blackfriars, 363 ---- at Chichester, Guildford, and Basingstoke, 393 Extracts from letters respecting the Fast, 395 visits Mr. Berridge, with Mr. Madan, 399 visits Earl Ferrers in prison--her exertions to save his life, 405 purchases the Advowson of Aldwincle, and writes to Mr. Thornton, 416 Charges against, respecting the six expelled Oxford Students, 424 Letter of, respecting them, 442 Illness of, greatly blest, 14 Schools of, 51 Anecdote of one of her workmen, 54 Death of the Sons of, 62 her attachment to the Church of England, 83

Huntingdon, Lady, Nobility meeting at her house, 108, 228 the Wesleys, and Whitefield, 474 the Nobility attend her Chapel at Bath, 477

Hurd, Dr., Bishop of Worcester, Anecdote of, 18

Hyatt, Mr. John, his settlement at Tabernacle, and Tottenham Chapel, 214

Incident, Singular, concerning Dr. Doddridge, 154

Ingham, Mr., 28, 242 Marriage of, to Lady Margaret Hastings, 248 leaves the Moravians, 263 chosen General Overseer, 269 Melancholy state of, 301 Lady Margaret, Illness and death of, 302

Inghamite Churches and Discipline, 269 Preachers, 270

Impostor, an, 114

Irvine, Lady, 297

Itinerants, 33

Jesse, Mr., Letter of, 363

Jews, the, 114

John, Lord St., attendant at the Countess’s, Death of, 97

Johnson, Dr., on Bolingbroke’s Works, 181

Johnson, Mr., the Murder of, by Lord Ferrers, 402

Jones, Mr., the death of, 54 of St. Saviour’s, the death of, 325 Thomas, 394

Joss, Captain, unites in the Ministry with Whitefield, 212

Keene, Mr., 213, 468

Kilmorey, Lady, 81

King, Elizabeth, 453

Knight, Mr. Joel Abraham, 214

---- Titus, 283

Larwood, Mr., 446

Law, Mr., 148, 223

Lee, Mr., 483

Levi, David, 114

Levinges, the, 6

Lewes, the Countess procures an opening for Messrs. Romaine, Madan, and Fletcher at, 363

Lewes, Chapel of the Countess at, opened and re-opened, 364

Lindsay, Theophilus, 459

Lisburne, Lord, 30

Long-Acre Chapel, 203

Lothian, Marquis of, 100

Luxborough, Lady, 181

Lyttleton, Lord, 150

---- Mr., 177

Madan, Mr. Martin, his family, conversion, ordination, &c., 165, 166, 323

Madan, Mr. Martin, opens the Chapel at Brighton, 314 and Dr. Haweis, Musical taste of, 364 Letter of the Countess to, 418 Reply of, 420 Letter of, to John Wesley, 433

Magistrates and John Nelson, 255

Mallet, Mr. David, and Bolingbroke’s Works, 181

Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of, 25

Mason, Mr. William, Letter of, to Dr. Free, 364

Maxfield, Mr., 32 and Bell, 321

Maxwell, Lady, 411

Methodists, the, 12, 31 the first Society of, 19 Welsh, Persecution of, 110 Societies, 195 Conference, 446

Methodism, Rise of, in Yorkshire, 242 in Scotland, 410

Milner, Mr., 267 Mr. Joseph, attends the Countess’s Preachers, and begins to preach the Gospel, 303

Ministers, the German, 115

Minor, The, publication of, 209

Mitchell, Mrs., 40

Mohegan Indians, 411

Moira, Countess of, 460

Montague, Lady Mary Wortley, 22

Moravians, the, 36, 453 and Charles Wesley, 41 Settlement of, at Fulneck, 250 Nobles, 262

More, Mrs. Hannah, 293

Moorfields, Preaching of Whitefield and Wesley in, 36, 199

Murray, Grace, marriage to Mr. Bennett, 45

Nash, Beau, 445

Nelson, John, 46, 251 Spirit of, encouraged by the Countess, 255, 256 imprisoned, 257 liberated through the influence of the Countess, 258

Newton, Rev. John, Anecdote related by, respecting Whitefield, 92 visits Yorkshire, 270 Letter of, to John Wesley, 270

Nimmo, Mr. and Lady Jane, 185 Lady Jane, Letter of, to the Countess, 186

Nobility, Scotch, 185

Nobility attend preaching at the Countess’s, 108, 228, 477

Northampton, Lord, 132

Oathall, 316

Occum, the Indian Preacher, 298, 411

Okeley, Mr. Francis, 244

Oliver, Dr., 450, 451

Oratorio, at the Lock Chapel, 364

Oxford, Lord, 29

Oxford, Students of, 421 Progress of piety among, 226 St. Edmund’s Hall, the expulsion of, 422

Penitent’s Death Bed, 55

Pentycross, Mr., 393

Perfection, Christian and sinless, 321, 329

Perronet, Vincent, 387

Piety, Progress of, at Cambridge, 421

Pitt, Mr., 210

Pope, the poet, 26, 444

Potter, Dr., Archbishop of Canterbury, 446

Powys, Mr. and Mrs., 375

Preaching, Lay, 32

Preachers, Lay, 60, 198 Mr. Wesley’s Defence of, 61 Welsh, 84, 198

Pretender, the, 65

Queensbury, Duchess of, 28

Religion, Revival of, in the Establishment and among the Methodists, 220

Riddell, Mr., Letter of, to the Countess, 303

Robinson, Miss, 29

Rogers, Mr., 244

Romaine, Mr., Family of, 130 Letters of, to the Countess, 323, 324, 327, 330, 362 ---- to Mrs. Medhurst, 302, 333 Great popularity of, 130 appointed Chaplain to the Countess, 132 Opinion of, respecting the Inghamite Churches, 273 preaches in Mr. Ingham’s Chapels, 273 at Haworth, preaches in the open air, 274 Wesley, Madan, Whitefield, &c. in Yorkshire, 281 Connexion of, with the Countess, 315 driven from the chapel of the Broadway, 326 and the Lectureship at St. Dunstan’s, 360 Lord Mansfield’s decision in favour of, 360 Influence of the Bishop of Peterborough for, 361 Election for St. Ann’s Blackfriars living on behalf of, 361 Probation Sermon; contest, canvassing and scrutiny, 361 Second Election on behalf of, 362 view of his preferment in a letter to the Countess, 363

Romaine, Mr., Suit in Chancery against, but decided in his favour, 362 preaches at Bristol and Cheltenham, 388 and Madan visit Everton, 398

Rowley, Mr., 310

Sandeman’s letters, 274

Scarborough, Lord, 20

Scawen, Mrs., 448

Scott, Captain, 299, 317 and Mr. Venn, 485

Secker, Archbishop, 19

Shent, Mr. William, 291

Shirley, Family of, &c., 1 Lady Fanny, 22, 115, 191, 444 Mr., 363

Shrapnell, 467

Shunamite, the London, 299

Shuter, Mr. Edward, the comedian, Anecdote of, 207

Simpson, Mr., Mr. Wesley’s opinion of, 47

Society at Fetter-lane, Separation of, 35

Soldiers, Christian, 93

Somerset, the Duchess of, 82 the Duke of, 127

Somerville, the Poet, 22

Southey, Dr., 18 Reflections of, on Berridge, and their refutation, 367

Steward, Mr., 193

Stillingfleet, Mr., 478

Stonehouse, Lady, 155 Dr., 170

Suffolk, Lady, 98

Sunderland, Lord, 258

Sutherland, Lord and Lady, Death of, 472

Tabernacle and Tottenham-court Chapels, History of, commencement, opening, &c., 196–206

Talbot, Rev. W., 381

Taylor, David, 43

Temples, the, 21

Thompson, Mr., 126

Thorne, Rev. Thomas, 393

Thornton, Mr., 280 ---- Letter of, to Berridge, 371

Thorold, Sir John, 77

Thorpe, Mr., mimics Whitefield, and is converted, 149

Toplady, Mr., 331, 390

Tottenham-court Chapel opened, 206

Townsend, Lady, 22

Townsend, Mr., sent to Edinburgh, 411

Townsend, Mr. and Mr. Jesse, 466 -- Whitefield, &c., 467

Trapp, Dr., 179

Trinder, Mr., 431

Tyler, Mr., 305 -- Labours of, at Hull, 306

Union among the Evangelical Clergy proposed, 409

Venn, Mr., begins to attract notice, 219 Acquaintance of, with Mr. Broughton, one of the original Methodists, 223 Illness of; accompanies Mr. Whitefield to Bristol; remains with the Countess at Clifton, 224 removes to Huddersfield, 276 Letters of, to the Countess, 282, 287, 336, 359, 430 publishes “The Complete Duty of Man”, 359 Letter of, 486 Irregularities of, 291 Defence of, 294 Whitefield and Fletcher, 375 and Fletcher preach at Everton, 398 at Trevecca, 482

Wales, Death of the Prince of, 173

Wall, Joseph, 313

Walpole, Horace, 465 at Bath, 477

Warburton, Dr., Bishop of Gloucester, 444

Wardrobe, Mr., 187

Watts, Dr., 58 Letter of, to Dr. Doddridge, 82 Anecdote of, 200

Wells, Mr. Samuel, 431

Wesley, Charles and Mr. Ingham, 28 ---- and the Moravians, 41 John, Opinion of, respecting Mr. Maxfield’s call to the Ministry, 34 ---- of, respecting Mr. Simpson, 47 preaching on his father’s tombstone, 57 defence of Lay-preaching, 60 and Whitefield, 118 and Whitefield, Breach between, 197 on sinless perfection, 329 preaching at Everton, 398 Letters of, to Lady Huntingdon, 398, 427 ---- to Lady Maxwell, 411 Interesting anecdote of, at Bath, interrupted in preaching by Beau Nash, 445

Wesley, John, Whitefield, and Lady Huntingdon, 474

Whitefield, the preaching of, 17 arrives in England, 89 Letters of, 88, 89 ---- to Mr. Baddeley, 119, 153 ---- to the Countess, 225, 311 Letter of, to Lady Townshend, 105 ---- to Lady Fanny Shirley, 116 ---- to Dr. Haweis, 226 ---- to Robert Keene, Esq., 468 ---- to Mr. Madan, 432 preaching of, Anecdote, 102 nobility hear him, 108 and Wesley, 118 Success of, at Rotherham, 148 at Ashby, 163 visits Scotland, 183 in London, 196 and Wesley, Breach between, 197 preaches in Moorfields on St. Bartholomew’s day, 199 the Will of, 216 returns to England, and writes to Mr. Ingham, 264 visits Yorkshire, preaches at Leeds, York, Bradford, Haworth, &c., 267 visits Yorkshire again, 291 First visit of, to Brighton, 314 Fletcher, Venn, and Sir C. Hotham, 375 Wesley, Maxfield, and others hold prayer meetings for the nation, 396

Wilks, Matthew, 213

Wills, Mr., 310

Wilson, Mr., 300

Wordsworth, Mrs., 467

Wren, Mr., 308

Wynn, Sir Watkin Williams, 109

York, Chapel of the Countess at, 308 Duke of, 400

Young, Dr., 21

Zinzendorff, Count, 244 visits the Countess, 454 ---- Yorkshire, 261

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Williams’s “Missionary Enterprizes.”

[2] Lady Dorothy Shirley took for her second husband, in 1634, William Stafford of Blatherwick, county of Northampton, Esq. The last male heir of this family was William Stafford, Esq., who died without issue. Of his two sisters, his co-heirs, the elder, Susannah, married in 1699, Henry O’Brien, Esq., son of Sir Donatus O’Brien, of Dromoland, in the county of Clare. The present representative of this family is Stafford O’Brien, Esq., of Blatherwycke Park, who married a daughter of the late excellent Lady Barham: the younger, Anne, became the wife of George Lord Carberry.

[3] She had a numerous family, and two of her five sons were successively Earls of Clanricarde; Richard, the eldest, left a daughter, Lady Dorothy, who married Alexander Pendarves, Esq., of Roscarron, in Cornwall; John, the second son, who succeeded to the title after the death of his brother Richard, without issue male, was the colonel of a regiment of foot in King James’s army, and created by that monarch, after his abdication, Baron de Burgh, of Bophin, an island adjacent to the county of Galway. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Aghrim, at the head of his regiment, brought to the castle of Dublin, and thence went to England, being outlawed and attained, and his estates forfeited, for his adherence to that king; but, in the first year of the reign of Queen Anne, an act of Parliament was passed for making provision for the Protestant children of Richard, Earl of Clanricarde, and John Lord Bophin, whereby he was acquitted of all treasons and attainders, himself and children restored to their blood and estate; and Montague, Earl of Abingdon, Robert Earl Ferrars (the grandfather of Lady Huntingdon), and Henry Thynne, Esq., afterwards Viscount Weymouth, his next (Protestant) relations, were appointed guardians to his sons, for the purpose of completing their education in the Protestant religion. One of these sons, Michael, who became tenth Earl, was great grandfather to the present Marquis of Clanricarde.

Ulick de Burgh, the fourth son of Lettice, Countess of Clanricarde, was created Viscount Galway. He was a nobleman of true courage, and endowed with many good qualities: he commanded a regiment of foot in King James’s army, and was killed at the battle of Aghrim, in the 22nd year of his age. As he died without issue, as well as the third and fifth sons of his mother, the title became extinct. Besides five sons, Lady Clanricarde had four daughters, two of whom died unmarried; Lady Margaret, the eldest, married, first, Bryan, Viscount Magennis, of Iveagh; and secondly, Thomas Butler, Esq., of Kilcash, in the county of Tipperary, where she died, his widow, July 19, 1744; Lady Honora, the second daughter, first married Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, who was killed at the battle of Landen, July 19, 1693; and secondly, in the chapel of the Castle of St. Germain’s, near Paris, in 1695, James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, Marshal, Duke, and Peer of France (eldest natural son of James II. by Lady Arabella Churchill, sister to John, Duke of Marlborough), one of the greatest Generals in Europe, who was killed at the siege of Philipsburgh, June 12, 1734, leaving issue by her (who died at Pezenas, a city of Languedoc, in 1698), James Francis Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, founder of the branch of the House of STUART, established in Spain. He was created by Philip V. Duke of Liria and Xercia, Grandee of Spain of the first Class, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, of St. Andrew, and St. Alexandro, and Chamberlain to the King of Spain. He married Catherine de Portugal-Columb, daughter and heir of the Duke of Veraguas, a Grandee of Spain, in whose right he bore that title. Having been sent Ambassador from Philip V. to his son Don Carlos, King of the two Sicilies, he died at Naples, June 1, 1738, aged forty-two years, leaving issue by his Duchess (who died in October, 1739), two sons and one daughter, viz.:--

James Fitz-James Stuart, Duke of Berwick, Liria, and de Veraguas, who had a son named Charles-Bernard-Paschal-Fitz-James, baptized July 5, 1751, and ennobled as Marquis of Jamaica.

Lord Peter Fitz-James, called in Spain Don Pedro, and created Marquis de Saint Leonard, in May, 1774, Lieutenant-General and Admiral of Spain. He married and left issue.

Donna-Maria, married to the Duke of Mirandola, Duke and Grandee of the first Class, whose widow she died at Madrid, November 11, 1750.

[4] See, in Nichol’s History of Leicestershire, a fac-simile of a letter from Charles II. to his widow; and a portrait of Sir Robert.

[5] See Chap. VI., where the epitaph will be found.

[6] There was a considerable alteration in his religious sentiments before his death, which took place August 30th, 1752. At the close of the long inscription on his monument, in Gloucester Cathedral, it is written: “Under the most acute pains of his last tedious illness, he possessed his soul in patience, and, with a firm trust in his Redeemer, calmly resigned his spirit to the Father of Mercies.” To that epitaph might have been added, as the most distinguishing honour of this Bishop’s life, that _he_ was the prelate who ordained the greatest, the most eloquent, and the most useful minister that any age since that of the Apostles had produced.

The venerable Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, being in the habit of preaching frequently, had observed a poor man remarkably attentive, and made him some little present. After a while he missed his humble auditor, and meeting him, said, “John, how is it that I do not see you in the aisle, as usual?” John, with some hesitation, replied, “My Lord, I hope you will not be offended, and I will tell you the truth. I went the other day to hear the Methodists, and I understand their plain words so much better, that I have attended them ever since.” The Bishop put his hand into his pocket and gave him a guinea, with words to this effect--“God bless you, and go where you can receive the greatest profit to your soul!” An instance of episcopal candour like this is well worth recording. We may be pardoned if we subjoin another.

Archbishop Secker, when laid on his couch with a broken thigh, was visited at Lambeth by Mr. Talbot, Vicar of St. Giles’s, Reading, who had lived in great intimacy with him, and received his preferment from him. “You will pray with me, Talbot?” said the Archbishop, during this interview. Mr. Talbot rose, and went to look for a Prayer Book. “That is not what I want now (said the dying prelate); kneel down by me, and pray for me in the way I know you are used to do.” With which command this zealous man of God readily complied, and prayed earnestly from his heart for his dying friend, whom he saw no more.

[7] Her Ladyship was daughter of Richard, first Earl of Scarborough, and became second wife to Frederick Frankland, Esq., Member of Parliament for Thirsk, in Yorkshire, a Commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland, and a Commissioner of the Excise in England, son of Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart., and nephew to the Earl of Fauconberg. For many years Lady Anne held the situation of Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess Anne, and to the Princesses Amelia and Caroline. Attracted by the fame of the first Methodists, who had been mentioned with high approbation by her friend, Lady Huntingdon, soon after her marriage, Lady Anne, with her sisters, the Lady Barbara Leigh and the Lady Henrietta Lumley, sometimes attended their ministry, and received much spiritual good. This excited the displeasure of Mr. Frankland to such a degree, that he treated her Ladyship with the utmost cruelty and unkindness. “Poor Lady Anne Frankland (says Lady Hertford,) is already parted from her husband, and, I think, without any one person giving her the least share of blame. It seems that he parted beds with her before she had been three weeks married, and on all occasions behaved towards her with the utmost cruelty. However, she made no complaint, till he insisted on her leaving the house, when she begged of him not to force her to do that, and told him, that provided he would allow her to have the sanction of being under his roof, she would submit to anything. His answer was, that if she continued there, he would either murder her or himself. She then applied to my Lord Scarborough, who spoke to her husband with great warmth. He did not lay any fault to her charge, but only declared that she was his aversion, and persisted in the resolution of forcing her to leave him, or killing her or himself. It is said, that he returns her fortune, allows her six hundred pounds a year, and has given her a thousand pounds to buy a house. His strange conduct towards her has been so contrary to his former character, that his friends rather ascribe it to madness than to his natural disposition.”

[8] His connexion with this lady arose from his father’s acquaintance with Lady Anne Wharton, who was co-heiress of Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, in Oxfordshire--a lady celebrated for her poetical talents by Burnet and by Waller, when poetry had been taught by Addison to aspire to the arms of nobility, though certainly without any extraordinary success.

[9] As the Doctor saw her gradually declining, he used frequently to walk backwards and forwards in a place called the King’s Garden, to find the most solitary spot where he might show his last token of affection, by leaving her remains as secure as possible from those savages who would have denied her Christian burial; for at that time, an Englishman in France was looked upon as an heretic, an infidel, or a devil. The under-gardener, being bribed, pointed out the most solitary place, dug the grave, and let him bury his beloved daughter. The man, through a private door, admitted the Doctor at midnight, bringing his daughter, wrapped in a sheet, upon his shoulder; he laid her in the hole, sat down, and shed a flood of tears over the remains of his dear Narcissa--

“With pious sacrilege a grave I stole.”

Mr. Temple married a second time a daughter of Sir John Bernard, then Lord Mayor of London. Dying in 1749, he left an only son, afterwards Viscount Palmerston, father of the present Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Temple have generally been considered as the Philander and Narcissa of the “Night Thoughts.”

[10] Anthony Hammond, Esq., a Commissioner of the Navy, and some time representative in Parliament for the county of Huntingdon, and also for the University of Cambridge, was very frequently at Lord Huntingdon’s at that period. With him was his son, James Hammond, the elegiac poet, whose fame and fortune were raised by the influence of Lady Huntingdon, and Lady Fanny Shirley, to whose hand it was believed he vainly aspired--to whom some of his elegies are supposed to be addressed. He died at Lord Cobham’s house, Stowe, while member for Truro, in Cornwall. This gentleman, the “silver-tongued” Hammond of Lord Bolingbroke, who had, says Lord Chesterfield, all the senses but common sense, was a relative of the Shirley family; he married the eldest daughter of Sir W. Clarges, Bart., whose family made a triple alliance with that of Lady Huntingdon by marriage. At the same time, Somervile, the author of the “Chace,” was introduced to Lady Huntingdon by the eccentric Lady Luxborough, the sister of Lord Bolingbroke.

[11] The three favourite ladies who accompanied the King from Hanover were Mademoiselle de Schulenberg, the Countess Plater, and Madam Kilmanseg; the first alone, whom he created Duchess of Kendal, was lodged in St. James’s Palace, and had such respect paid her as very much confirmed the rumour of a left-handed marriage. She was mother of Lady Chesterfield, and as she usually presided at the King’s evening parties, was on familiar terms with those who formed his society.

[12] She was the first who extolled the preaching of Mr. Whitefield, whom she alternately liked and disliked. Her Ladyship is the supposed original of _Lady Bellaston_ in “_Tom Jones_;” and _Lady Tempest_ in “_Pompey the Little_.” She was the mother of George, the first Marquis Townshend, and of the famous Charles Townshend.

[13] On her return from the continent, at Mr. Pope’s solicitation, Lady Mary fixed her summer residence at Twickenham; but it was not long before she had a bitter and lasting quarrel with that irritable bard; when having exhausted all the pleasures that England could afford, and disgusted perhaps at that alienation which the sarcasm of her wit had too often produced, she obtained her husband’s leave to pass the remainder of her days on the continent.

[14] Lord Hervey was father of the late excellent Lady Mary Fitzgerald, the friend and correspondent of Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Venn, and others alike celebrated.

[15] Lady Frances was one of the daughters of the Earl of Manchester, and had married Henry, the son and heir of the celebrated Dr. Robert Saunderson, Bishop of Lincoln.

[16] Alexander Pope, the poet.

[17] The calmness and heavenly peace which surrounded Lady Huntingdon were powerful enough to avoid the hurricanes of temper to which this singular woman was liable, to such a degree that she would punish even herself rather than forego her resentment. This is proved by the well-known story of her cutting off her own hair, only because it was esteemed her most beautiful feature in the eyes of her husband; on whom to revenge some supposed opposition to her sovereign will, she disfigured herself. The Duke was not irritated by this rash act, which the Duchess often related with characteristic candour, weeping always, as she wound up her story, with the remark, that after his death she found her treasured ringlets in the cabinet wherein he kept whatever he esteemed most precious.

It was her temper that involved her in law-suits with her own children. Her eldest grandson, Robert, Earl of Sunderland, died before he had forfeited her favour. Charles was no sooner elevated to his father’s dignity, than she openly quarrelled with, and in the Court of Chancery pleaded her own cause against him. She accused him of pawning one by one the diamonds in the famous baldric of the great Marlborough’s sword, and by extravagance gave point to the charge: yet John, her youngest grandson, who was no less profligate, retained her favour in the midst of his excesses. Her granddaughter, Lady Anne Egerton, was as proud as the Duchess herself, and no less fiery; on some quarrel between them, the Duchess of Marlborough had Lady Anne’s picture daubed with black, and over it this inscription--“She is much blacker within.” With her the ruling passion was strong even against death. About four years before her demise, the Duchess was attacked by a dangerous disease, and had lain a great while ill, without speaking: her physician, believing her case very bad, said, “She must be blistered, or she will die.” Her Grace, who had listened with attention, called out, “I won’t be blistered, and I won’t die!” She kept her word.

[18] The Duchess was avowedly the natural daughter of King James the Second; but supposed to be _really_ the daughter of Colonel Graham, an admirer of her mother, Lady Dorchester. This lady, who was the only daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, the celebrated wit, was mistress to the King, and had a pension of five thousand per annum on the Irish Establishment. She afterwards married the Earl of Portmore, and left two sons, one of whom succeeded to the title, and was grandfather to the present Earl. The Duchess was so proud of her birth, that she would never go to the Court of Versailles, because they would not give her the rank of Princess of the blood. She not only regulated the ceremony of her own burial, and dressed up the waxen figure of herself for Westminster Abbey, but had shown the same insensible pride on the death of her only son, the last Duke of Buckingham, dressing his figure, and sending messages to her friends, that if they had a mind to see him lie in state, she would carry them in conveniently by a back door. She sent to the old Duchess of Marlborough to borrow the triumphal car that had carried the Duke’s body. Old Sarah, as mad and as proud as herself, sent her word, “that it had carried my Lord Marlborough, and should never be profaned by any other corpse.” Proud Buckingham returned, “that she had spoken to the undertaker, and he had engaged to make a finer car for twenty pounds!”

[19] The conduct of her mother-in-law, the old Lady Sandwich, had left an indelible impression on her mind, which spread a gloom over her latter years. Lord Sandwich being confined, and denied access to by his eccentric Countess, was rendered so much a cipher, that all the duties of his station devolved upon Lord Hinchinbroke, who was an able, active, and spirited young man. His extraordinary mother, one of the daughters of the witty and repentant Earl of Rochester, partook of all the fire and vivacity of her father. She detested restraint herself, but put her Lord into “durance vile” in his own house. At his death she quitted England, too stupid, she said, for her, and resided at Paris, in habits of intimacy with the Duchess of Orleans, Mazarine, Madame de Berri, the Regent’s daughter, and also that beautiful octogenary, the Ninon de L’Enclos. Unhappily Lord Hinchinbroke died in the life-time of his weak but worthy father.

[20] Mrs. Mary Mitchell died at her house in Hart-street, Bloomsbury, December 18, 1773, and was interred in St. James’s Church, Clerkenwell, near the remains of her venerable father. On taking down the old Church, in September, 1778, the Bishop’s remains were unavoidably disturbed. His body was found in a leaden coffin, broken at the head, through which the skull and some hair were visible. The Bishop left three sons--William, Governor of New York and the Massachusetts; Gilbert, in holy orders, who took an active part on the side of Bishop Hoadley, in the Bangorian controversy; and Sir Thomas, who became one of the best lawyers of his time--Serjeant and Justice of the Common Pleas. He published the posthumous history of his father, and died in 1753.

[21] Miss Anne Cooper, who died a few months after.

[22] It is evident from the above, as well as from the preceding letter, that Mr. Wesley consulted Lady Huntingdon relative to his Journals, the manuscripts of which were submitted to her inspection, and that her Ladyship gave her opinion of them before they were published.

[23] Mr. Charles Wesley.

[24] In some of her Ladyship’s letters the name is given as above, but in others it is written Cowper.

[25] Lady Cox was one of the fruits of Mr. Whitefield’s ministry at Bath, and likewise derived much profit from the preaching and heart-searching conversation of the apostolic Griffith Jones, Rector of Llandower, in Carmarthenshire, and Mr. Thompson, Vicar of St. Ginney’s, in Cornwall, both of whom were often at Bath at this period.

[26] Her Ladyship once spoke to a workman who was repairing a garden wall, and pressed him to take some thought concerning eternity and the state of his soul. Some years afterwards she was speaking to another on the same subject, and said to him, “Thomas, I fear you never pray, nor look to Christ for salvation.” “Your Ladyship is mistaken (answered the man): I heard what passed between you and James at such a time, and the word you designed for him took effect on me.” “How did you hear it?” asked her Ladyship. “I heard it, (answered the man) on the other side of the garden, through a hole in the wall, and shall never forget the impression I received.”

[27] The very popular, but unequal, poem of “The Grave” was first printed in London in 1743; and soon after its appearance her Ladyship was presented with a copy by Dr. Watts, at the particular request of Mr. Blair, as an expression of high gratitude for the patronage she afforded him. The Doctor had experienced considerable difficulty in the publication of this little piece, and was at last compelled to cross his own inclination to please popular taste. “The booksellers can scarcely think (says Mr. Blair), considering how critical an age we live in, with respect to such kind of writings, that a person living three hundred miles from London could write so as to be acceptable to the fashionable and polite.”

[28] To whose pupil, Risdon Darracott, her Ladyship is named with eulogy in a letter from Mrs. Anne Dutton, written about this period.

[29] This gentleman held the living of Ripton Abbots, in Huntingdonshire, and appears to have possessed not only a highly Catholic spirit, but sound learning. Lady Huntingdon’s conversation was highly beneficial in leading him to clearer views of divine truth. Mr. Jones was afterwards presented to the Vicarage of Alconbury, which he resigned in a few years for a living in Bedfordshire. Whilst there he accepted the curacy of Welwyn from Dr. Young, the celebrated author of “Night Thoughts,” and continued there till the Doctor’s decease. He was killed by a fall from his horse.

[30] For the benefit of the Hospital at Northampton, or Northampton Infirmary.

[31] She was sole daughter of Lord Weymouth, and descended from Lady Frances Devereux, eldest daughter of Robert, Earl of Essex. Sir Robert and Lady Worsley were persons of great honour and integrity, and with Lady Carteret and the Countess Granville, mother to Lord Carteret, frequently attended the preaching of the first Methodists. Lady Worsley was aunt to the Duchess of Somerset, better known as the Countess of Hertford, celebrated for her patronage of literature and her own amiable genius.

[32] The epitaph, referred to at page 9, is as follows:--

“Here lie the remains of the Right Honourable Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Hastings, Hungerford, Botreaux, Moels, Newmark, and Molins. If his death deserved respect, his life deserved it more. If he derived his title from a long roll of illustrious ancestors, he reflected back on them superior honours. He ennobled nobility by virtue. He was of the first rank in both; good in every relation of natural duty and social life. The learning he acquired at school he improved at Oxford, under the care of that excellent person, the late Bishop of Gloucester.[33] Acquainted by his studies with the characters of past ages, he acquired by his travels a knowledge of the men and manners of his own: he visited France, Italy, and even Spain. After these excursions into other countries, he settled in his own. His own was dear to him. No man had juster notions of the true constitution of her government: no man had a more comprehensive view of her real interests, domestic and foreign. Capable of excelling in every form of public life, he chose to appear in none. His mind fraught with knowledge, his heart elevated with sentiments of unaffected patriotism, he looked down from higher ground on the low level of a futile and corrupt generation. Despairing to do national good, he mingled as little as his rank permitted in national affairs. Home is the refuge of a wise man’s life; home was the refuge of his. By his marriage with the Lady Selina Shirley, second daughter, and one of the co-heirs of Washington, Earl Ferrars, he secured to himself, in retreat, a scene of happiness he could not have found in the world; the uninterrupted joys of conjugal love, the never-failing comforts of cordial friendship. Every care was softened, every satisfaction heightened, every hour passed smoothly away, in the company of one who enjoyed a perpetual serenity of soul, that none but those can feel in this life who are prepared for greater bliss in the next. By her, this monument is erected to record the virtues of the deceased and the grief of the living. He was born November 12, 1696, and married the said Lady, June 3, 1728. By her he had four sons and three daughters, Francis,[34] the present Earl, born March 13, 1729; George, born March 29, 1730, who died of the small-pox, aged fourteen; Ferdinando, born January 23, 1732, who also died of the small-pox, aged eleven Elizabeth,[35] the eldest daughter, born March 23, 1731; Selina, born June, 1735, who died an infant; Selina, the third daughter, born December 3, 1737. The said Earl died of a fit of apoplexy, October 13, 1746, in the fiftieth year of his age.”

[33] Dr. Martin Benson, who had ordained Mr. Whitefield.

[34] Tenth and last Earl of that line.

[35] Afterwards Countess of Moira.

[36] He was one of the first members of the Methodist Society in Fetter-lane, and, with Sir John Phillips, of Picton Castle, also member of the same Society, very useful in aiding and encouraging the labours of Mr. Whitefield and the Wesleys. He was a correspondent of the celebrated Griffith Jones, whom he assisted in the establishment of his Welsh schools, and of Dr. Doddridge, and a letter from him to Mr. Wesley appears in an early volume of the “Methodist Magazine.” His death, which occurred in 1748, was a great loss to the early Methodists. He was twice married, and left five children. His family was one of the oldest in Lincolnshire, and had given “reeves” to that “shire” prior to the conquest. By his mother he was related to Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, whose eldest son married Lady Frances Montagu, daughter of the Earl of Manchester. We will conclude this long note with an extract from Sir John’s letter of condolence to Lady Huntingdon, dated “St. James’s-place, 14th Nov., 1746,” and signed “your affectionate and most faithful humble servant, John Thorold.”

“My fellow-sharer in the cup of sorrow, the painful task has been imposed upon us of consigning the remains of your tenderly affectionate husband, and my most faithful friend, to the bosom of our mother earth, ‘where the wicked cease to trouble, and where the weary are for ever at rest.’ You have been called upon, by this sad stroke, to entomb in the cold and silent grave one who has long been deeply entombed in your warm affectionate heart: but the words of the great apostle, ‘thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!’ will help to soothe your sorrows, and, in the midst of your mourning and distress, assist in drying up your tears. I sympathise with you, but sorrow not as one without hope. There is hope concerning our dear friend: I believe it is well with him. Your loss must be borne--he cannot come back to you. The event calls you to self-examination. May every divine support and comfort be abundantly administered to the disconsolate widow! and may every blessing rest upon your young and interesting family. Look to the Rock of Hope--the Fountain Head of power--that you may derive supplies of vigour to enable you to prosecute the work which God hath assuredly marked out for you upon the earth. The Captain of your salvation is Jesus Christ, who has promised you strength for every time of need. Awake! look up! and endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; and may you be made truly invincible in the cause of God and truth, only laying down your weapons when your dust shall return into the dust, and your spirit unto the God that gave it!”

[37] Lady Kilmorey.

[38] The Duchess of Somerset, a celebrated patroness of literature, of virtue, and religion.

[39] Several of the Edwin family were conspicuous in the early days of Methodism. John Edwin, Esq., the husband of the above-named Mrs. Edwin, held several offices under Government, and was a member of Parliament. Dr. Doddridge, in his Reflections on the opening of the year 1749, thus speaks of him:--“The accession of several valuable friends, to balance the loss of some few by death, is also to be gratefully remembered; particularly my Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Edwin, and Colonel Gumley.” His only daughter and heir, Miss Elizabeth Edwin, whom Horace Walpole complains of to his correspondent, Sir Horace Mann, as having turned Methodist, was the particular friend of the eccentric Lady Townshend, and married Charles Dalrymple, Esq., grandson of the Hon. Sir Hugh Dalrymple, brother of John, second Viscount Stair. (See a Note, post, page 89). Charles Edwin, Esq., M.P., the brother of Mr. Edwin, married Lady Charlotte Hamilton, one of the attendants of the Prince of Wales’s children. Their mother, Lady Catherine Edwin, was sister to the first Duke of Manchester, and to Anne, Countess of Suffolk. Sir Humphrey Edwin, Lord Mayor of London, was grandfather to Mr. Edwin; Mrs. Edwin’s family formed alliance with that of the Marquis of Westminster, and Lord St. John, of Bletsloe. She was eldest daughter of Sir Roger Bradshaigh, of Haigh, in the county of Lancaster, Bart., and M.P. On the failure of the male branch of this family, in 1787, the estate of Haigh devolved on Mrs. Edwin’s granddaughter, the Countess of Balcarres.

[40] See “Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1748.

[41] Mrs. Edwin was a woman of great rank, and her influence at Court, which exposed her more to the shafts of ridicule, and made her especially liable to the attacks of vanity, rendered her conversion the more remarkable. She was the fast friend of Lady Huntingdon, and a great favourite with Mr. Whitefield, who, in all his letters, warned her against the snares to which her condition led. “To see any one converted (he says) is a miracle; but to see a rich person, one of the mighty, one of the noble, converted, is a greater. May the Lord Jesus add more of your rank to his Church!” See the note at close of the last chapter, p. 87.

[42] As a proof of the power of Mr. Whitefield’s preaching, Mr. Newton mentioned, that an officer at Glasgow, who had heard him preach, laid a wager with another, that at a certain charity sermon, though he went with prejudice, he would be compelled to give something; the other, to make sure, laid all the money out of his pockets, but before he left the church he was glad to borrow some, and lose his bet. Mr. Newton mentioned another striking example of Mr. Whitefield’s persuasive oratory--his collecting at one sermon _six hundred pounds_ for the inhabitants of an obscure village in Germany that had been burnt down: no very interesting object, surely, for the public in London. However, after the sermon, Mr. Whitefield said, “We shall sing a hymn, during which those who do not choose to give their mite on this awful occasion may sneak off.” Not one stirred; he got down from the pulpit, and ordered all the doors to be shut but one, at which he held the plate himself, and collected the above sum; more than was ever done on a similar occasion. Mr. Newton related as a fact, that at the time of his greatest persecution, when obliged to preach in the streets, in one week he received no fewer than a thousand letters from persons distressed in their consciences by the energy of his preaching.

[43] The Bishop’s death put an end to the proceedings against Mr. Bateman, who, notwithstanding Southey’s eulogy, appears, from his warm altercation with Mr. Charles Wesley, to have been a very sincere friend to the Methodists.

[44] The Earl of Bath, who married the eldest of the three daughters of Colonel Gumley, introduced that gentleman to Lady Huntingdon; and at her house, through the preaching of Mr. Whitefield, and the heart-searching conversation of the Countess, who were God’s instruments in Colonel Gumley’s conversion, the Lord met him with the blessings of his grace. Mr. Whitefield kept up a correspondence with him when absent from London; for he was ever careful to keep alive the flame he had lit up in the heart of his hearers. In one of these letters to the Colonel, he says--“Good Lady Huntingdon has an extract of a letter from a soldier, which will please you: may the Lord Jesus add more to the Church of such converts.”

The sisters and co-heiresses of the Countess of Bath were Letitia, who married Lancelot Charles Lake, Esq., whose sons were, Warwick, a Commissioner of the Stamp Office, and Gerard, first Viscount Lake, a distinguished officer in the army; and Mary, who married Francis Colman, Esq., father of the elder and grandfather of the younger George Colman, both celebrated as dramatic writers.

[45] His Lordship was half-brother to Lord Bolingbroke, and had married the daughter of Sir Richard Furness, Bart., who was uncle to Lady Huntingdon by his marriage with Lady Anne Shirley, sister to Lady Fanny, and daughter of Robert, first Earl of Ferrars.

[46] Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, sister to the first Earl of Buckinghamshire, a few years after the death of Lord Suffolk, married the Hon. George Berkeley, a son of the second Earl Berkeley, whom she survived more than twenty years. She had been a widow only a short time, and had lately lost her only son, Lord Suffolk, when she was invited to Lady Huntingdon’s to hear Mr. Whitefield. She lived principally at Marble-hill, Twickenham, and was a well-known acquaintance of Pope, the poet, under the name of “Mrs. Howard.” She was in much favour with George II., an influence which is supposed to have contributed to the grant of her mother’s peerage. Having ingratiated herself into the favour of Queen Caroline, then Electoral Princess, she accompanied her to England, and became her bedchamber-woman. If we were to draw an estimate of the understanding and character of Lady Suffolk from the representations of Pope, Swift, and Gay, during the time of her favour, we might suppose that she possessed every accomplishment and good quality which were ever the lot of a woman. The real truth is, she was more remarkable for beauty than for understanding, and the passion which the King entertained for her was rather derived from chance, than from any combination of those transcendant qualities which Pope and Swift ascribed to their court-divinity. She lived to an advanced age, not dying till 1767. During her last illness Lady Huntingdon made some efforts to see her, but the mortified Lady Suffolk carried her resentment to the grave, and would never admit her Ladyship.

[47] Lord Chesterfield paid his court (according to those maxims and false pretensions to superior penetration which characterized him) to Lady Suffolk, and not to the Queen; and of those who acted thus the Queen never failed to oppose the rise: Lord Chesterfield is a remarkable instance. He had long coveted the post of Secretary of State, and an arrangement had been made in his favour: after an audience of the Queen, to which he had been introduced by Walpole, and thanking her for her concurrence, he had the imprudence to make a long visit to Lady Suffolk; the Queen was informed of the circumstance, and his appointment did not take place. At another time he had requested the Queen to speak to the King for some small favour; the Queen promised, but forgot it: a few days afterwards, recollecting her promise, she expressed regret at her forgetfulness, and added, she would certainly mention it that very day. Chesterfield replied, that her Majesty need not give herself that trouble, for Lady Suffolk had spoken to the King. The Queen made no reply, but on seeing the King, told him she had long promised to mention a trifling request to his Majesty, but it was needless, because Lord Chesterfield had just informed her that she had been anticipated by Lady Suffolk. The King, who always preserved great decorum with the Queen, and was very unwilling to have it supposed that the favourite interfered, was extremely displeased, both with Lord Chesterfield and Lady Suffolk; the consequence was, that in a short time her Ladyship went to Bath for her health, and returned no more to Court; Chesterfield was dismissed from his office, and never heard the reason until two years before his death, when he was informed by Lord Oxford, that his disgrace was owing to his having offended the Queen by paying court to Lady Suffolk.

[48] The loss of her youngest son, Lord Robert Ker, had so violent an effect upon the Marchioness of Lothian, as nearly to overturn her reason and ever after to leave a shade of melancholy upon her mind. He was a captain in the army, and killed at the battle of Culloden, in April, 1746. Her Ladyship was the bearer of a letter from her sister-in-law, Lady Mary Hamilton, to Lady Huntingdon, recommending Lady Lothian to the particular notice of the Countess. “Her affliction (says Lady Mary) seems to prey so deeply on her mind, that I am perpetually afraid of her losing her reason. I have done all in my power to rouse her from this state of dejection; and I think Mr. Whitefield’s ministry, when last in Edinburgh, was of signal service to her Ladyship. She is so much attached to your Ladyship, that I have the most sanguine hopes that the Lord will graciously bless your society and converse to her complete restoration. The Marquis is most painfully anxious for her recovery, and feels persuaded you will be the means, under God, of effecting a great change in her spirits. I think you will find his Lordship much increased in an experimental knowledge of divine things.”

[49] Lady Mary Hamilton was one of those persons in high life who attended the ministry of Mr. Whitefield when he visited Scotland, and was a leading character in the circles in Edinburgh. She was the youngest daughter of the Marquis of Lothian, and sister to William, third Marquis, the Countess of Home, Lady Cranstown, and Lady Ross. Her Ladyship’s mother was daughter of Archibald Campbell, the unfortunate Earl of Argyle, who was beheaded in 1685. She had married Alexander Hamilton, of Ballincrieff, member of Parliament for the county of Linlithgow, Postmaster-General of Scotland, and representative of the family of Innerwick. Mr. Hamilton was very partial to the preaching of Mr. Whitefield, and always received him at his house with every mark of polite attention. To the period of her death, in 1768, Lady Mary was the constant correspondent of Mr. Whitefield.

[50] Lady Townshend’s father, Edward Harrison, Esq., of Balls, in the county of Hertford, had formerly been Governor of Fort St. George, in the East Indies; she was sole heir to his immense fortune. Her eldest son, the first Marquis Townshend, who had served at the battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy, and Culloden, and also at the remarkable siege of Quebec, which town surrendered into his hands, as commander-in-chief, after the fatal death of Wolfe, became nearly allied to Lady Huntingdon by his marriage with Lady Charlotte Compton, only surviving issue of James, Earl of Northampton, by Elizabeth Shirley, who was in her own right Baroness Ferrars, of Chartley. Her second son, Charles Townshend, was celebrated for his brilliant talents, by which he distinguished himself in a most eminent degree, both in the Senate and Cabinet; perhaps there never arose, in any country, a man of more pointed and finished wit; and, where his passions were not concerned, of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment; but although a man of genius, he appears to have been rather more fit for literary than political attainments, and from the versatility of his political conduct he acquired the nick-name of “the weathercock.” He died in 1767, and his brother, the Marquis Townshend, survived him exactly forty years; both through life maintained a steady friendship for Lady Huntingdon, who outlived their eccentric mother only a few years.

[51] Apropos of Lady Townshend, we may here observe that Horace Walpole unwittingly bears testimony to the uniform consistency of Mr. Whitefield’s creed and character. When the peace-festival was celebrated at Ranelagh, some one in the clique of wits, most likely himself, was talking of the Methodists, and said, “Pray, Madam, is it true that Whitefield has _recanted_?” Lady Townshend replied, “O no; he has only _canted_.” Walpole thought this a happy hit, little dreaming it to be a compliment to a man who might have had preferment at the time, if he would have recanted even his clerical irregularities. In a letter from Bristol dated in the December of this year, Mr. Whitefield tells Lady Huntingdon, “the Bishop behaved respectfully when I was at sacrament at the cathedral, and my old tutor, one of the prebendaries, was very cordial when I waited upon him. I told him that my judgment was (I trusted) a little more ripened than it was some years ago, and that as fast as I found out my faults, I would be glad to acknowledge them. He said, the offence the governors of the Church had taken against me would lessen and wear off as I grew moderate. Blessed be God, I am pretty easy about that; so that I can act an honest part, _and be kept from trimming_, I will, through the Divine assistance, leave all consequences to Him who orders all things well.”

[52] Often styled “Saint Frances” by Walpole.

[53] Afterwards Lord Lyttleton.

[54] Afterwards Lord Melcombe.

[55] Daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough, and mother of Lady Cardigan.

[56] Created Baron Beaulieu in 1762, and Earl Beaulieu in 1784.

[57] Baron Hume, but the title became extinct at his death, in 1781.

[58] Member of the Privy Council, and First Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty.

[59] This excessive liberality on the part of Lady Huntingdon exposed her sometimes to the artifices of the designing, who failed not to prey upon her pious generosity. About the date of this letter great efforts were made on the Continent, assisted by the support of the charitable in England, to convert the Jews to Christianity. Two zealous students in the University of Halle, in Saxony, devoted themselves to this work of grace, travelling over Europe during several years; preaching, and raising funds for the maintenance of proselytes and catechumens, and for the publication of tracts, those messengers of mercy, which were dispersed in thousands, by Russian officers, a Swedish bishop, the Danish missionaries, and other zealous persons, wherever an individual of the Jewish nation was to be found. An account of these efforts was published in 1732, in a pamphlet of forty-eight pages, drawn up by Professor John Henry Collenberg, of Halle, which was reprinted in London in 1751, with a view to its distribution among Jews and Mohammedans, by English merchants trading to the East. Of the seed thus sown, good fruit was expected, but tares sprung up to destroy the wholesome grain and to deceive the hopes of the sower. Hypocrisy and apostasy marred the fair work of conversion, and the wicked pretender applied to his own use the contributions intended for the persecuted convert. In September 1749, Mr. Whitefield introduced to Lady Huntingdon two German ministers, who had laboured in this vineyard, and preached in the German chapel here with great power; but the time for the conversion of the Jews, that great triumph which is to crown the Christian verity, had not yet arrived. Her Ladyship, waiting for the fulness of time, failed not to pour in her mite towards the accomplishment of so pure a purpose. But these true ministers were followed by impostors, two of whom, a father and son, after having been several times baptized in various countries of Europe, came to repeat the profitable experiment in England. They found a liberal friend in Lady Huntingdon, whom they grossly deceived; and, as we learn from David Levi (see his work on the Prophecies, p. 114), persuaded her that they were not only proselytes to Christianity, but that they had also converted him (Levi), whose example was calculated to produce a powerful effect on his whole nation. Levi amuses himself with the credulity of the sufferers, from whom these impostors had obtained upwards of 1,800_l._ “Lady Huntingdon (he says) requested me to wait on her, whether for my conversion, or to be better informed concerning the imposture, I cannot tell, for her illness prevented the interview.”

[60] The residence of the Countess Delitz.

[61] Countess Delitz.

[62] Lady Gertrude Hotham.

[63] Lady Anne Hastings, in consequence of the constant attendance on, and anxiety for, Lady Huntingdon, suffered a serious but brief indisposition during the illness of the Countess.

[64] Dr. Doddridge, in his “Life of Colonel Gardiner,” alludes to Mr. Thompson when he says, ‘The conversion of Colonel Gardiner is not altogether singular. There is, at least, a second, whose story may be told whenever the Established Church shall lose one of its brightest living ornaments, and one of the most useful members which that, or perhaps any Christian communion, can boast.’ Remarking on this passage, the late Mr. Palmer, of Hackney, in his correspondence with Mr. Newton, has supposed Mr. Grimshaw was the clergyman referred to; but Mr. Davidson, who, in June, 1748, had the account from Dr. Doddridge’s own mouth, says it was Mr. Thompson. Mr. Hervey, during his residence at Bideford, was intimate with Mr. Thompson, to whose revisal were submitted his “Meditations and Reflections,” and the first volume of his “Meditations” was dedicated to Mr. Thompson’s eldest daughter. Mr. Thompson died in 1781, and his widow, a very pious and amiable woman, in 1786. (See some interesting particulars of his life in “Zion’s Trumpet,” a periodical published in 1800). His letter to Dr. Watts, printed in “Dr. Gibson’s Memoirs,” is well worth perusal, and a volume of his religious poems was published without his name, by the Rev. Samuel Furlong, of St. Roche. Mr. Thompson lost his sight several years before his death; and, although he had joined himself to a Church of the United Brethren, retained his living, and continued active and useful in his parish. He was a visitor and correspondent of the Countess, and a man of lively passions and of jocular discourse, and his poetical abilities were considerable. When Mr. Whitefield or Mr. Wesley visited Cornwall, he itinerated with them, and was made instrumental in the conversion of his neighbour, the Rev. W. Hill, of Tavistock.

[65] Before her formal introduction, however, the Countess had exchanged letters with her Grace, at the express request of the Rev. Moses Browne, who acted as the Duke’s chaplain, when his Grace did not himself officiate in that capacity; for he thought it not unbecoming his station as a peer of the realm to lead the prayers of his family. Mr. Browne was an eye-witness of the Duke’s singular worth, and had begun to taste his favours when he was taken to his eternal rest. “Had the Duke lived (observes Mr. Hervey), poor Browne would have met with the encouragement he deserves. He loved and fully intended to have served him.” A short poem, called “Percy Hill,” was written by Mr. Browne, at the request of the Duke and Duchess, but was not published till 1756, after the death of both.

[66] See a sermon preached before the University of Oxford, and at several other places, on occasion of the late earthquakes, by George Horne, M.A., Fellow of Magdalene College, afterwards Dean of Canterbury and Bishop of Norwich.

[67] Among them was the old Earl of Northampton, who well rebuked those who complained of the crowding in the church of God, by reminding them that they bore the greater crowd of a ball-room, an assembly, or a play-house, without the least complaint. “If (he said) the power to attract be imputed as matter of admiration to Garrick, why should it be urged as a crime against Romaine? Shall excellence be considered exceptionable only in divine things?”

[68] His Lordship’s youngest daughter, Lady Charlotte Compton, succeeded, on the termination of the abeyance, by the demise of her eldest sister, in 1749, as Baroness Ferrars, of Chartley, and carried that barony by marriage, in 1751, with George, first Marquis Townshend, to the family of Townshend, as also the Barony of Compton, on the demise of her father, in 1754. The Earl of Northampton died without issue male, October 3, 1754. His attention was called to the concerns of an eternal world by the preaching of Mr. Whitefield at the house of Lady Huntingdon.

[69] Dr. Stonhouse and Mr. Hartley.

[70] Some years after, a chapel in Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion was opened at Ashby, and supplied by clergymen and students from Trevecca. In the summer of 1784, Mr. Wills preached there to a very large congregation, on these words: “How can man be justified with God?” (Job xxv. 4). “It is very remarkable (says Mr. Wills), that so long ago as when dear Lady Huntingdon resided in this town, though it is one of the manors belonging to Lord Huntingdon’s family, nothing could exceed the enmity shown against the Gospel, and even personally to her Ladyship, on many occasions; but now this public opposition appears to be at an end--at least, I met with nothing of the kind.” The old chapel being very much out of repair and too small, a new one was erected, and opened in July, 1825, on which occasion Dr. Collyer preached morning and evening to respectable and numerous congregations.

[71] Dr. Stonhouse, afterwards so well known as the Rev. Sir James Stonhouse, Bart., Rector of Great and Little Cheveril, Wilts, had his education at Winchester School, and was afterwards of St. John’s College, Oxford. He had his medical education under Dr. Nicholls, the celebrated anatomist, and Professor of Anatomy, in Oxford. He was a Deist, and took great pains to instil his pernicious principles into the minds of his pupils. “Under him (said Dr. Stonhouse) I commenced infidel.” During the years that he remained in this awful state of delusion, he did all he could to subvert Christianity, and wrote a keen pamphlet against it; “for writing and spreading of which (says he), I humbly hope God has forgiven me, though I never can forgive myself.” His conversion to Christianity, and the various circumstances attending it, were such, that he was persuaded to write the history of his life, with many reflections on the several circumstances of it. He kept this by him for some years, altering and adding, as his recollection enabled him. He read it occasionally to some of his intimate friends, who highly approved of it; and it was his intention that it should have been printed soon after his death, not through vanity, but as a public acknowledgment of his heinous offences against God, and his hope of pardon through a crucified Redeemer. But on reading it to a person for whose judgment he had the highest regard, he gave the Doctor such valid reasons against the publication, that he burnt it soon after, lest an ill use should have been made of it after his decease. In a letter to a friend, speaking of this event, Dr. Doddridge expresses himself in the following manner: “One of the most signal instances in which God has ever honoured me is in the conversion of a physician in this town, who was once free in his manner of living, and a confirmed Deist. God made me the means of first bringing him to a conviction of the truth of Christianity, and at length of enlightening his mind with the true and saving knowledge of Christ, to which I bless God he has now attained. Good Mr. Hervey has been honoured as a fellow-labourer with me in this work. My book on the ‘Rise and Progress of Religion’ has been, I hope, honoured of God, as one great means of producing this blessed change.” A full account of Dr. Stonhouse, and the circumstances of his conversion from infidelity, may be found in--“Hervey’s Letters,” “Doddridge’s Letters,” and “Letters from Sir James Stonhouse to the Rev. Thomas Stedman, Vicar of St. Chad’s, Shrewsbury.” Mr. Hervey’s letters on his ordination, first as deacon, by the Bishop of Hereford, and then as priest, by the Bishop of Bristol; the letters of Mr. Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon; and the death of his wife (the eldest daughter of J. Neal, Esq., M.P. for Coventry), were among the things that led to his conversion.

[72] Mr. Hartley, Rector of Winwick.

[73] Dr. Stonhouse.

[74] Her Ladyship, for whom he preached at Northampton, Weston Favel, and at Ashby, and at whose house he often expounded, was plain and clear in her remonstrances. He acknowledges one of her Ladyship’s letters in these terms: “Many, many thanks, my dear Madam, for the judgment, discrimination, and fidelity you have displayed in the letter I have lately had the honour of receiving from your Ladyship. I humbly hope the glory of my Divine Master and the salvation of souls have been the ruling motives which induced me to seek to be a minister of the everlasting Gospel. Pray for me, my dear Madam, that I may be faithful unto death, and that some, by my instrumentality, may be turned from darkness to light. Allow me to express my heartfelt gratitude for the very faithful manner in which you have placed my various duties before me--duties high and honourable, but arduous indeed. May He that hath called me to the work, give me grace to continue faithful to the end! What holy and excellent examples have I in the exalted piety and ministerial fidelity of Doddridge, Hervey, Hartley, and the undaunted zeal of that great apostle, Mr. Whitefield. May I be a follower of them as they are followers of Christ! and whatever little differences may exist between us, may we all finally meet before the throne of God and the Lamb!”

[75] Dr. Stonhouse is said to have been one of the most correct and elegant preachers in the kingdom. When he entered into holy orders he took occasion to profit by his acquaintance with Garrick, to procure from him some valuable instructions in elocution. Being once engaged to read prayers and to preach at a church in the city, he prevailed upon Garrick to go with him. After the service, the British Roscius asked the Doctor what particular business he had to do when the duty was over. “None,” said the other. “I thought you had (said Garrick), on seeing you enter the reading-desk in such a hurry. Nothing (added he) can be more indecent than to see a clergyman set about sacred business as if he were a tradesman, and go into the church as if he wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.” He next asked the Doctor “what books he had in the desk before him?” “_Only_ the Bible and Prayer Book.” “_Only_ the Bible and Prayer Book (replied the player); why you tossed them backwards and forwards, and turned the leaves as carelessly, as if they were those of a day-book and ledger.” The Doctor was wise enough to see the force of these observations, and ever after avoided the faults they were designed to reprove.

[76] Jonathan Belcher, for many years Governor of Massachusetts and New Jersey. He succeeded Governor Burnet, eldest son of the celebrated Bishop Burnet. He was named William, after the Prince of Orange, who stood his godfather. At one period he possessed a considerable fortune, but it had been wrecked in the South Sea scheme, which reduced so many opulent families to indigence. After the loss of his fortune, he emigrated to America, and in process of time became Governor of New York and New Jersey. He was afterwards Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which post he held to the time of his death. When Mr. Whitefield was at Boston, in 1740, Governor Belcher treated him with the utmost respect and attention. He even followed him as far as Worcester, and requested him to continue his faithful instructions and pungent addresses to the conscience, desiring him _to spare neither ministers nor rulers_. This good man expressed the humblest sense of his own character, and the most exalted views of the rich, free, and glorious grace offered in the Gospel to sinners. His faith worked by love, and produced the genuine fruits of obedience. It exhibited itself in a life of piety and devotion, of meekness and humility, of justice, truth, and benevolence. He died August 31, 1747, aged 76 years. One of his sons studied law at the Temple in London, and gained some distinction at the bar in England. He was afterwards Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, and died at Halifax, March, 1776. Governor Belcher was succeeded by William Shirley, Esq., a relative of Lady Huntingdon’s, who was for a time commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, in which office he was succeeded by Major-General Abercrombie. Governor Shirley was also Governor of one of the Bahama Islands for a number of years. He died in 1771.

[77] Mr. Aaron Burr was educated at Yale College, in Connecticut, New England; and for his great abilities and well-approved piety, was unanimously chosen in, 1747, to succeed the Rev. Mr. Dickenson, the first President of New Jersey College, a man of learning, of distinguished talents, and much celebrated as a preacher. In the year 1754, Governor Burr accompanied Mr. Whitefield to Boston, having a high esteem for the character of that eloquent itinerant preacher, and greatly rejoiced in the success of his labours. After a life of usefulness and honour, devoted to his Master in heaven, he was called into the eternal world, September 24, 1757, in the midst of his days, being in the forty-third year of his age. At the approach of death, that Gospel which he had preached to others, and which discloses a crucified Redeemer, gave him support and consolation, and enabled him to triumph over the last enemy. He married a daughter of Dr. Jonathan Edwards, his successor to the Presidency of the College. She died the year after the death of her husband, leaving a son and a daughter.

[78] On the 11th of May, 1750, the Sessions began at the Old Bailey, and continued for some days, in which time a great number of malefactors were tried; and there was present in the court a great multitude of persons to hear the trial of Captain Clarke for killing Captain Innes, both officers in the Navy. It was generally supposed that the air was at first tainted from the bar, by some of the prisoners, then ill of the gaol distemper; and the poisonous quality of the atmosphere was considerably increased by the heat and closeness of the court, occasioned by the great number of persons penned up for the most part of the day, without breathing the free air, or receiving any refreshment. The Bench consisted of six persons, Sir Samuel Pennant, then Lord Mayor; Lord Chief Justice Lee; Sir Thomas Abney, Justice of the Common Pleas; Baron Clarke; and Sir Daniel Lambert, Alderman and M.P. for London, whereof four died, together with two or three of the counsel, one of the Under-Sheriffs, several of the Middlesex jury, and others present, to the amount of above forty in the whole. This event is noticed by Lady Huntingdon, in one of her letters, in which she laments the death of an intimate friend, Stanhope Otway, Esq., barrister-at-law, whose sudden decease was improved by Mr. Whitefield at Ashby, before a numerous congregation. A narrative of the awful circumstances connected with the Black Sessions at the Old Bailey was drawn up by Dr. Pringle, afterwards Sir John Pringle, son-in-law of Dr. Oliver, of Bath, the particular friend of Lady Huntingdon. (See Pringle’s “Observations on the Diseases of the Army.”)

[79] Mr. Barker had the reputation of being one of the most popular preachers in the metropolis amongst the Dissenters. He was a great favourite with Lady Huntingdon, whom he frequently visited when in London, and on some occasions expounded at her house. Few ministers lamented more the decay of evangelical truth amongst the Dissenters in London, and the open departure of many of his brethren from some of those doctrines which lie at the foundation of Christian hope. Through life he discovered an uniform and zealous attachment to the great doctrines of the Reformation, and heartily longed for the union of all real Christians, and the breaking down of the wall of separation between the Church of England and the Dissenters. Though firmly attached to the principles of Protestant Dissent, yet he had the interest of vital godliness more at heart; and he considered a lively evangelical mode of preaching, such as then chiefly prevailed amongst those denominated Methodists, as best adapted to extend its influence. In one of his letters to Lady Huntingdon he feelingly laments the decay of evangelical truth in the pulpits of many of the Dissenting churches in London. “Alas! (says he), the distinguished doctrines of the Gospel--Christ crucified, the only ground of hope for fallen man--salvation through his atoning blood--the sanctification by his eternal Spirit, are old-fashioned things now, seldom heard in our churches. A cold comfortless kind of preaching prevails almost everywhere; and reason, the great law of reason, and the eternal law of reason, is idolized and deified. But blessed be God for the revival that has taken place in another branch of the Church of Christ; the labours of the Methodists will, I hope, infuse new life into some of our dying churches, and be the means, under God, of spreading such a stream of light in England, that all the vain efforts of false doctrines and false philosophy can never darken. We are much indebted to the zeal and catholic charity which your Ladyship, Mr. Whitefield, and some others, have evinced. I am now in the decline of life, having attained more than seventy years. Assist me with your prayers, my dear Madam, that my few remaining years may be devoted to the interests of my Divine Master, and the spread of his kingdom amongst men.”

[80] There were mingled with the theological students educated by Dr. Doddridge, besides the Earl of Drummond, twelve gentlemen of fortune, not intended for the liberal professions; and of those who were, it appears that five entered the law. Three others were elected members of Parliament. Of the theological pupils, six conformed to the Established Church, while the great body remained Dissenters. Of these many were distinguished for their piety and learning, and others for their heterodoxy. The names of Darracott, Fawcett, and Taylor, of Ashworth, and Kippis, will naturally present themselves to the mind of the reader.

[81] The Rev. Richard Denny, the last surviving pupil of the excellent Doddridge. He was forty years pastor of the Independent Church and congregation at Long Buckby, in Northamptonshire, and was distinguished for his unfeigned regard to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity--for devotion, warm and fervent to the last--and for the exemplary conduct and useful labour of a life protracted to the age of nearly ninety. He was introduced by Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Whitefield to the notice of Dr. Doddridge, who most kindly and cordially received him under his care and tuition in 1747. During his severe indisposition, whilst a student at Nottingham, Lady Huntingdon paid him every mark of attention, and as soon as he was well enough to move abroad invited him to Ashby for the recovery of his health. He died at Long Buckby, April 14, 1813.

[82] Mrs. Gibbon’s annual income was nearly 1,000_l._; Mrs. Hutcheson’s about 2,000_l._ per annum; and their bounty was bestowed upon the poor of an extensive circle. Mr. Law died April 9, 1761, at the advanced age of seventy-five, and his remains were placed in a new tomb, built by Mrs. Gibbon, in the church at King’s Cliffe. Having long survived their spiritual guide and faithful companion, Mrs. Hutcheson died in January, 1781, aged ninety-one, and her remains were placed, by her particular desire, _at the feet of Mr. Law_, in a new tomb. Mrs. Gibbon followed her old friends and companions in June, 1790, aged eighty-six, and was buried with Mr. Law. Her property she gave by will to her nephew, the historian, who long expected it, but not without fears that his aunt would leave it to the friends and purposes to which she had devoted her life.

[83] It was at one of these convivial resorts that Mr. Thorpe and three of his associates, to enliven the company, undertook to mimic Mr. Whitefield. The proposition was highly gratifying to all parties present, and a wager agreed upon to inspire each individual with a desire of excelling in this impious attempt. That their jovial auditors might adjudge the prize to the most adroit performer, it was concluded that each should open the Bible and hold forth from the first text that should present itself to the eye. Accordingly three in their turn mounted the table, and entertained their wicked companions at the expense of everything sacred. When they had exhausted their little stock of buffoonery, it devolved on Mr. Thorpe to close this very irreverent scene. Much elevated, and confident of success, he exclaimed, as he ascended the table, “I shall beat you all!” But O, the stupendous depths of divine mercy! when the Bible was handed to him it opened at that remarkable passage, Luke xiii. 3--“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” No sooner had he uttered these words than his mind was affected in a very extraordinary manner. The sharpest pangs of conviction now seized him, and conscience denounced tremendous vengeance upon his soul. In a moment he was favoured with a clear view of his subject, and divided his discourse more like a divine who had been accustomed to speak on portions of Scripture, than like one who never so much as thought on religious topics, except for the purpose of ridicule. He found no deficiency of matter, no want of utterance, and he has frequently declared, “If ever I preached in my life by the assistance of the Spirit of God, it was at that time.” The impression made upon his mind by the subject had such an effect on his manner, that the most ignorant and profane could not but perceive that what he had spoken was with the greatest sincerity. The unexpected solemnity and pertinacity of his address, instead of entertaining the company, first spread a visible depression, and afterwards a sullen gloom, upon every countenance. This sudden change in the complexion of his associates did not a little conduce to increase the convictions of his own bosom. No individual appeared disposed to interrupt him; but, on the contrary, their attention was deeply engaged with the pointedness of his remarks; yea, many of his sentences, as he often related, made, to his apprehension, his own hair stand erect!

When he left the table not a syllable was uttered concerning the wager, but a profound silence pervaded the company. Mr. Thorpe immediately withdrew, without taking the least notice of any person present, and returned home, with very painful reflections, and in the deepest distress imaginable. Happily for him, this was his last Bacchanalian revel. His impressions were manifestly genuine; and from that period the connexion between him and his former companions was entirely dissolved. Thus by a sovereign and almost unexampled act of divine grace, in a place where, and at a time when, it was least expected, “the prey was taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered!”

[84] We insert the inscription, written as it is with evident sincerity:--

“To the Right Honourable the Countess of Huntingdon, that eminent example of the Christian candour here recommended, and of every other virtue and grace which can inspire, support, and adorn it--the AUTHOR, finding himself (after repeated attempts) incapable of writing any dedication, under the restraints which her humility, amidst its utmost indulgence, has prescribed him, or to mention any excellence which would not seem an encomium on her, has chosen thus most respectfully to inscribe this Discourse; entreating that his farther silence in this connexion may be interpreted by her LADYSHIP, and by every READER, as the most sensible and painful proof he can give of the deference, veneration, and grateful affection with which he is her Ladyship’s most obliged and obedient humble servant.”

[85] Afterwards Lady Stonhouse, the only child and heir of Thomas Ekins, Esq., of Chester-on-the-Water, in Northamptonshire, a justice of the peace, and a most religious man. His funeral sermon was preached at Wellingborough, by Dr. Doddridge, and afterwards transcribed from the Doctor’s _short_ hand copy, in _long_ hand, by a son of Dr. Johnstone, a worthy physician at Worcester; the text is Heb. xi. 26. “Her father (says Dr. Stonhouse) was a Christian of the first magnitude, who left Dr. Doddridge sole guardian to his child. The Doctor died before I married her, which I did not do till after she was of age, and in full possession of her property. Dr. Doddridge’s account of her estate and expenses was so very just, that he really did not do himself justice. In consideration of which, we made his widow a handsome present, as a satisfaction for his undercharges.” Lady Stonhouse died at the Hot Wells, Bristol, December 10, 1778, aged fifty-five. A plain but elegant monument was erected to her memory in the Wells chapel, with an epitaph written by Mrs. Hannah More. She left two sons, John, in the civil service of the East India Company at Bengal, father of the present Bart., Sir John Brooke Stonhouse; Timothy, in holy orders, Vicar of Sunningwell, county of Berks, who took the surname and arms of Vigor, and married Miss Huntingford, niece of the Bishop of Hereford; and a daughter, Clarissa, wife of Henry Tripp Vigor, Esq. The first wife of Sir James Stonhouse was Anne Neale, as already stated, one of the maids of honour to Caroline, Queen of George II., by whom he had issue Sir Thomas Stonhouse, the thirteenth Baronet, who died unmarried, and Sarah, who married her cousin, George Vansittart, Esq., of Bisham Abbey, M.P. for the county of Berks in several Parliaments, by whom she had three sons and three daughters. Mr. Vansittart was uncle to the present Lord Bexley. The Rev. Sir James Stonhouse survived Lady Stonhouse but a few years. He died December 8, 1792, aged eighty, and was buried in the Wells chapel, in the same grave with his beloved wife.

[86] The famed poet, William Cowper, Esq., who had been long under Dr. Cotton’s care, at St. Alban’s, was very partial to this work. In one of his letters we find the following words: “Marshall lies on my table, and is an old acquaintance of mine. I have both read him and heard him read with pleasure and edification; the doctrines he maintains are, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ, the very life of my soul, and the soul of all my happiness. I think Marshall one of the best writers, and the most spiritual expositor of the Scriptures I ever read: I admire the strength of his argument and the clearness of his reasoning upon the parts of our holy religion which are least understood (even by real Christians), as a master-piece of the kind.”

Dr. Cotton is said to have studied under Boerhaave, the most celebrated professor of physic of the early part of the eighteenth century, at Leyden, where he took his Doctor’s degree. He was very assiduous in his attentions to Dr. Young, author of “Night Thoughts,” whom he attended in his last illness. His works, which are chiefly on medical subjects, were collected and published in two volumes, in 1791. He died August 2, 1788.

[87] A marked testimony to the poetic talents of Dr. Watts was shown him by this gentleman, who, in order to excite emulation, and procure for his work productions of real genius, proposed to give certain rewards to his poetical correspondents, and wrote to the Doctor, requesting him to decide upon their respective merits. His natural modesty revolted at the idea of becoming a literary judge; but on being pressed, he gave his opinion with so much candour and judicious discrimination, that all parties expressed their gratitude, and cheerfully acquiesced in his decision. It was this circumstance which first introduced Mr. Browne to the notice of Dr. Watts, who, during the remainder of his life, took a kind and almost parental interest in all his concerns. The extensive learning and poetical abilities, the exemplary piety, the active benevolence, and steady friendship of that excellent man and bright ornament of the Christian Church, were not less the subjects of delightful conversation in the privacy of Mr. Browne’s life, than they have been the theme of just eulogium to an impartial posterity.

[88] Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, the celebrated prelate who gave rise to the Bangorian controversy.

[89] Lady Fanny was very active in her endeavours to procure pecuniary assistance for Mr. Browne. She had applied to the Duchess of Somerset and Dr. Stephen Hales, physician to the Prince of Wales, who, at her request, had presented Mr. Hervey’s works to the Princess, by whom they were received in a very obliging manner. Dr. Hales was a philosopher and divine, and is said to have been a man of great science, humility, and piety. He was successively presented to the livings of Teddington, Middlesex; Portlock, Somersetshire; and Farringdon, in Hampshire. After the death of the Prince of Wales, the Princess Dowager made him clerk of her closet, and after his death, in 1761, erected a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

[90] Then one of the Lords of the Admiralty. He was nephew of Lady Gertrude Hotham, and afterwards became Lord Mendip.

[91] The Rev. Dr. Samuel Clark, compiler of the “Promises,” to whom Dr. Doddridge was under very particular obligations in the course of his educational studies.

[92] She was the third daughter of Theophilus, seventh Earl of Huntingdon, by his (second) marriage with Frances, daughter of Francis Leveson Fowler, of Harnage Grange, in the county of Salop, Esq., and relict of Thomas, sixth Viscount Kilmorey. There was a double connexion between those families; Lord Kilmorey, the nephew of Lady Frances Hastings, having married Lady Mary Shirley, the youngest sister of Lady Huntingdon.

[93] Amongst the early friends and associates of the Ladies Hastings were the daughters of the Marquis of Lothian. Their mother was a Campbell, sister to the first Duke of Argyle. Lady Mary Kerr, the youngest daughter, married Alexander Hamilton, Esq., of Ballincrieff, member of Parliament for the county of Linlithgow, Postmaster-General of Scotland, and representative of the family of Innerwick. Lady Mary’s intimacy with the Ladies Hastings soon brought her into contact with Mr. Whitefield and the Messrs. Wesley, and under the preaching of those men of God she was led to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus. For many years she was the intimate friend and correspondent of Mr. Whitefield; and in the collection of letters published by his executors, several will be found addressed to Lady Mary Hamilton, whose mother, we have it on Mr. Whitefield’s authority, set her the example of piety; she died in 1740. The Marquis of Lothian, the brother of Lady Mary, was also a correspondent of Mr. Whitefield, and, as we have before stated (see page 91), was one of his hearers at the house of Lady Huntingdon. Lady Mary died Nov. 17, 1768, leaving no surviving issue.

[94] In the library of Cheshunt College is a volume of “The Seasons,” presented by Thomson himself to Lady Huntingdon, with an autograph inscription.

[95] His Royal Highness had some claims to consideration on the score of literary talents. See Park’s edition of Lord Orford’s Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 171.

[96] Lady Charlotte was a daughter of James, Duke of Hamilton, who was unfortunately killed in a duel by his brother-in-law, Lord Mohun. She married Charles Edwin, of Dunraven, in Glamorganshire, Esq., M.P. for that county, who died at Kensington, June 29, 1756. Lady Charlotte was one of the ladies of the bedchamber to Augusta, Princess of Wales; and died at London, Feb. 1, 1777, in her 74th year, without issue, leaving a huge fortune, chiefly to the Duke of Hamilton. Lady Charlotte, some years after the circumstance related above, became very intimate with Lady Huntingdon, and a constant attendant on the ministry of Mr. Whitefield and those faithful men who preached for her Ladyship. The misfortunes of her sister, Lady Susan Keck, and the conduct of her sister-in-law, the notorious Lady Vane, had a powerful effect in leading her to think with deep seriousness on the great concerns of an eternal world. Frequent mention is made of Lady Charlotte in the Diary of the celebrated Bubb Doddington, afterwards Lord Melcombe.

[97] His late Majesty George III.

[98] Several of the family of Sir Thomas Lyttleton had much of the external appearance of religion; and it is hoped that some of them possessed the life and power of divine truth in their own souls. Of the Duchess of Bridgewater little is known. Her Grace occasionally attended Mr. Whitefield’s preaching at Lady Huntingdon’s, and sometimes corresponded with her Ladyship, as did also several members of the family, all of whom retained a high respect and esteem for a character of such exalted excellence. Lady Lyttleton, who had been one of the Maids of Honour to Queen Anne, was a daughter of Sir Richard Temple, of Stow; her eldest sister married Dr. Richard West, Prebendary of Winchester, and was mother of Gilbert West, Esq., a poet, and well known for his “Observations on the Resurrection.”

[99] He was affected with a cancer in the cheek-bone, for which he was treated by W. Cheselden, Esq., head surgeon of St. Thomas’s and Chelsea Hospitals; but renouncing the aid of this accomplished surgeon, and employing a quack, the philosophic infidel died most miserably.

[100] The Rev. Martin Madan, in his “Comments on the Thirty-nine Articles,” relates the following curious anecdote of Lord Bolingbroke and Dr. Church, on the authority of Lady Huntingdon, to whom it was communicated by his Lordship himself. Lord Bolingbroke was one day sitting in his house at Battersea, reading Calvin’s “Institutes,” when he received a morning visit from Dr. Church. After the usual salutations, he asked the Doctor if he could guess what the book was which then lay before him; “and which (says Lord Bolingbroke) I have been studying?” “No, really, my Lord, I cannot,” quoth the Doctor. “It is Calvin’s ‘Institutes’ (said Lord Bolingbroke); what do you think of these matters?” Doctor: “Oh! my Lord, we don’t think about such antiquated stuff; we teach the plain doctrines of virtue and morality, and have long laid aside those abstruse points about grace.” “Look you, Doctor (said Lord Bolingbroke), you know I don’t believe the Bible to be a divine revelation; but they who do can never defend it on any principles but the doctrine of grace. To say the truth, I have at times been almost persuaded to believe it upon this view of things; and there is one argument which has gone very far with me in behalf of its authenticity, which is, that the belief in it exists upon earth, even when committed to the care of such as you, who pretend to believe it, and yet deny the only principles on which it is defensible.”

[101] Lady Luxborough was the only daughter of the Viscount St. John, and half-sister to Lord Bolingbroke. His brother John, who succeeded as second Viscount St. John, had married a daughter of Lady Anne Furness, the aunt of Lady Huntingdon, and left three sons and three daughters, one of whom married Lord Bagot. Her Ladyship was very intimate with the unfortunate Lord Ferrers, who had married her bosom friend, one of the sisters of Sir William Meredith. The ill conduct of her only daughter, who was divorced from her husband and afterwards married the Hon. W. Child, raised a storm, not only in her own family, but in the world, and drew forth letters of condolence from the Duchess of Somerset and Lady Huntingdon. The latter she thanked very politely for her sympathy, but styles the letter of the Duchess a “kind of sermon,” and spares her correspondent, Mr. Shenstone, the labour of perusing so “serious an epistle.” Lady Luxborough died in 1756. “Unhappy woman! (says Lady Huntingdon) how insensible has she been to the many alarming calls of Providence which she has received from time to time. Such repeated deaths in her family, the awful end of her brother, Lord Bolingbroke, made no impression on her; and she left this world, as she had always lived, intoxicated with the vanity of her numerous accomplishments and literary acquirements.” Yet her letters to Shenstone, published after his death, 1763, although pleasing and flattering to the poet, made a weak impression on the public.

[102] This anecdote shows that the interest taken in this important subject was far from being confined to the vulgar, and that, even in the Universities, it was not contemplated with indifference.

[103] James Nimmo, Esq., Receiver-General of Excise, was a man of piety, and connected with some of the first families in the Scottish peerage. His mother, the Hon. Mary Erskine, was a daughter of Henry, Lord Cardross, and a near relation to Dr. John Erskine, minister of the old Greyfriars’ Church of Edinburgh; and one of his sisters married his cousin, David Erskine, Esq., son of the Hon. Captain William Erskine, Deputy-Governor of Blackness Castle. Mr. Nimmo married, in 1743, Lady Jane Hume, third daughter of the Earl of Marchmont, by a daughter and heiress of Sir George Campbell, of Gressnock, in Ayrshire. She was chiefly brought up by her able, prudent, warm-hearted, and affectionate aunt, Lady Grizel Baillie, of Jerviswood, whose conduct and character, as portrayed in Rose’s “Observations on Fox,” it is impossible to contemplate without admiration. Soon after her marriage she became a correspondent of Lady Huntingdon’s, and maintained an intimate friendship with her till her death, in 1770, in the 62nd year of her age. Her Ladyship was sister to the Hon. Hume Campbell, an eminent counsellor in London, Solicitor to the Prince of Wales, and Lord Clerk Register of Scotland. Her eldest brother, Hugh, fourth Earl of Marchmont, became eminent for learning and brilliancy of genius. The estimation in which his Lordship was held by his contemporaries may be judged of by his close and intimate friendship with Lord Cobham (who gave his bust a place in the Temple of Worthies, at Stow) and Sir William Wyndham, and by the mention of him in Pope’s well-known inscription in his grotto at Twickenham--

“There the bright flame was shot through Marchmont’s soul!”

He was one of the executors of Pope, also of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who left him a legacy of 2,500_l._, as such. With Lady Huntingdon, Lord Marchmont and Mr. Hume Campbell lived on very intimate terms, and the latter often aided her by his excellent advice. Lady Jane was distinguished by a sound and cultivated understanding; by genuine and unostentatious piety, guided by great good sense and discernment; by uniform mildness and equality of temper; and by those habitually cheerful and affectionate manners which commanded the esteem and respect of the society in which she lived, and were the perpetual delight of her own family. Her eldest sister, Lady Anne, married Sir William Purvis, Bart., whose grandson assumed, on inheriting the estate of his maternal ancestors, the additional surname of “Hume Campbell,” and is the present representative of that family; the Hon. Alexander Hume Campbell and Lord Marchmont having died without surviving male issue.

[104] At one period, when Mr. Wesley was at Newcastle, he rode to Hexham, at the pressing request of Mr. Wardrobe and others. He preached at the market-place to a multitude of people, who stared at him, but behaved very quietly. Mr. Wardrobe preached in the Methodist Chapel, at Newcastle, in 1755, to the no small amazement and displeasure of some of his zealous countrymen. He died in 1786, and a very interesting account of his death has been preserved in a letter from Mr. Adams, of Falkirk, to Dr. Gillies, of Glasgow.

[105] Besides several single sermons, and the volume mentioned by Mr. Hervey, Mr. Hartley published a treatise on the Millennium, under the title of “Paradise Restored.” (one vol. 8vo.) He became an admirer of the Baron Swedenborg, and translated several of his works.

[106] Mr. Hervey’s work occurs in Mr. Bohn’s “Catalogue of the Library of the late Rev. and learned Dr. Samuel Parr,” with the following remarkable note attached to the volume--“This book was the delight of Dr. Parr when a boy, and, for some time, was the model on which he endeavoured to form a style.”

[107] The above was written by Mr. Joseph Smith, some time a preacher in Mr. Whitefield’s connexion, and addressed to the late Mr. Edwards, of Whitechapel, Leeds.

[108] He was himself a successful preacher, both at Lady Huntingdon’s house, before the nobility, and to a very opposite auditory on Garlick-hill, where he was stationed for some time. Among his converts was Mrs. Kent, of Edmonton, a venerable sister, aged 104.

[109] The trustees of the colony of Georgia made him rector of Savannah, and granted him 500 acres of land, whereon to erect an Orphan-house. To endow this institution he sought friends in England.

[110] The Bishop, who was a correspondent of Dr. Watts, and who remonstrated kindly with Mr. John and Mr. Charles Wesley, when complaints were made to him against them, often expressed his zeal for the interest of religion, as well among the Dissenters as within the Church. His dislike to masquerades offended the Court and stopped his preferment. He died in 1748. His daughter married Dr. Tyrwhitt, residentiary of St. Paul’s, Canon of Windsor, Archdeacon of London, and Rector of St. James’s--a pluralist indeed! This gentleman had a son, Mr. Tyrwhitt, who resigned a fellowship at Cambridge, and all his bright prospects, rather than subscribe to the Articles of the Church of England; he was one of the Feathers’ Tavern Divines, who, under the pretence of relief from subscription, set forth an opposition to the doctrine of the Trinity.

[111] The Rev. Bryan Broughton, in reply to a demand made on him to deny his pulpit, said, “Through Mr. Whitefield’s influence I obtained the living of St. Helen’s, and if he insists upon it he shall have my pulpit.” Mr. Whitefield did insist, and Mr. Broughton lost his lectureship.

[112] Both the Bishop of London and Dr. Trapp were answered by Mr. Whitefield, whose pamphlets were purchased with the greatest avidity. His portrait was multiplied by various competitors; and his journals were eagerly contended for by rival publishers. The Bishop, in a personal interview, charged the “Journals” with enthusiasm. Mr. Whitefield replied that they were written for himself and private friends, and were published without his consent.

[113] _The Societies for the Reformation of Manners_, which had been the soul of the Establishment, and had assisted Mr. Whitefield in various plans of great utility, now turned against him, and the new societies were founded with a view to something more than the Reformation of Manners. “Societies” and “congregations” became nearly synonymous terms.

[114] Henry, third Viscount Lonsdale, was a great patriot, and had been one of the Lords of the Bedchamber, Constable of the Tower, Lord Privy Seal, and Custos Rotulorum for Westmoreland. His Lordship was very intimate with Lady Huntingdon, and used to attend the preaching at her house. He died March 12, 1753.

[115] Among these “others” were William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, youngest son of George II., and his brother Frederick, Prince of Wales; Charles, third Duke of Bolton, who had been thirty-eight years married to the Lady Anne Vaughan, daughter and sole heir to the Earl of Carbery, but from some unaccountable cause never lived with her, and who was afterwards married to the well-known actress, Mrs. Lavinia Beswick: [two of his illegitimate issue were clergymen--one rector of Itchen, Hants, and the other rector of Stoke, near Alresford, Hants;]--the celebrated Lord Hervey, who was so lashed by Pope, possessed, however, more than ordinary abilities, and much classical erudition; and who, for his political abilities, was raised to the post of Lord Privy Seal: [three of his Lordship’s sons were successively Earls of Bristol, and his second daughter, the excellent Lady Mary Fitzgerald, the correspondent of Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Wesley, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Venn, &c.;]--Lord Sidney Beauclerk, fifth son of the Duke of St. Alban’s, styled by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, “Worthless Sidney,” notorious for hunting after the fortunes of the old and childless; Lady Betty Germain, in her old age, was only dissuaded from marrying him by the Duke of Dorset and her relations: he failed in obtaining the fortune of Sir Thomas Reeve, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, but succeeded in inducing Mr. Topham, of Windsor, to leave his estate to him; he married a Miss Norris, and left a son, Topham Beauclerk, whose letters and other literary efforts are well known, and who married Lady Diana Spencer, sister to the Duke of Marlborough.

[116] See the “Diary and Correspondence” of Dr. Doddridge. The letter of Nathaniel Neale, Esq., whose father was the historian of the Puritans, deserves particular attention, for the severity and bitterness of its style. The Christian simplicity and gentle firmness displayed in the Doctor’s able and manly defence of himself and his pupils from the aspersions of their assailants, reflect the highest honour on his character.

[117] One one occasion, Dr. Doddridge being in London, he was invited, with Lady Huntingdon, to dine at Stoke Newington, at the house of Lady Abney, with whom Watts was resident. Lady Frances Gardiner, Dr. Gifford, Dr. Gibbons, the Rev. Samuel Price, Watts’s colleague, and Dr. Langford, pastor of the church at the Weigh House, were present. Lady Abney having mentioned the influence which appeared to attend the preaching of Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield, Dr. Watts said, it is a blessing of incalculable value that such men should have been raised up as ambassadors of Christ, to make known the great salvation to the minds of men. Lady Huntingdon instanced several remarkable effects of their powerful preaching, and the Doctor (Watts) added, “Such, my Lady, are the fruits that will ever follow the faithful proclamation of divine mercy; the Lord our God will crown his message with success, and give it an abundant entrance into the hearts of men.” At parting he took the Countess most affectionately by the hand, pronounced a paternal benediction, and concluded with a memorable remark on his approaching dissolution:--“I bless God (he said) that I can lie down to sleep in comfort, no way solicitous whether I awake in this world or another.”

When on his death-bed, Dr. Watts was visited by Mr. Whitefield, to whom he described himself as a “waiting servant of Christ.” Mr. Whitefield assisted in raising him to receive some medicine, and would doubtless have prolonged his visit could he have foreseen that his venerable friend was then within half an hour of glory.

The Doctor died at Stoke Newington, in the house of Lady Abney. “You have arrived on an extraordinary day (said he to Lady Huntingdon, on one of her visits), for on this day thirty years I came to the house of my good friend Sir Thomas Abney, intending to spend but a single week under his friendly roof, and I have extended my visit to the length of thirty years.” “I consider your visit, my dear Sir (said Lady Abney), as the shortest my family ever received.” “A coalition like this (says Dr. Johnson), a state in which the notions of patronage and dependence were overpowered by the perception of reciprocal benefits, deserves a particular memorial.”

Sir Thomas Abney was Lord Mayor of London, but his dignities did not seduce his heart from the duties of the unfashionable religion he had chosen; on the very day of his inauguration he left the mayoralty feast to read prayers in his own family. He died eight years after Watts had accepted a home in his house (on the 6th Feb. 1722). Lady Abney died one year after Watts (Jan. 12, 1750). Watts was resident in this hospitable mansion thirty-six years.

[118] Mr. Barnard was one of Mr. Whitefield’s early converts, and began his ministry among the Independent Dissenters. Afterwards, becoming acquainted with Mr. Sandeman, Mr. Pike, and others, he embraced the Sandemanian principles, was ordained an elder in their societies, and became an eloquent preacher. He died in 1805.

[119] Afterwards Bishop of Rochester--a man very celebrated in his day as a scholar and politician, and a determined opposer of Methodism.

[120] Mr. Hume (who took the name of Campbell, from his mother, daughter of Sir John Campbell, of Cessnock, Ayr) was brother of Lady Huntingdon’s friend, Lady Jane Nimmo. He was an eminent counsellor, solicitor to the Princess of Wales, Lord Clerk Registrar of Scotland, M.P. for Berwick in several Parliaments, an occasional hearer of Mr. Whitefield, and a liberal contributor to the Tottenham-court Chapel. He died at London, July 18, 1761.

[121] Robert, Earl of Holdernesse, chosen one of his Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, July 12, 1751, in which office he was associated with Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, and William Pitt, the celebrated Earl of Chatham.

[122] One of the threats against the life of Whitefield was contained in an anonymous letter, which the writer or his accomplices contrived to lay upon the cushion of his pulpit.

[123] Mr. Whitefield continued to preach occasionally at Long-acre Chapel, after his chapel in Tottenham-court-road was opened. In the year 1780 it was again used, and for many years the late Rev. Henry Forster was the licensed minister, in connexion with the late Rev. Richard Cecil; on whose removal to St. John’s, Bedford-row, Mr. Forster was associated with Mr. Cuthbert and Mr. Watkins, afterwards rector of St. Swithin, London-stone. In 1806 the Rev. John King became associated with Mr. Watkins in the pastoral services of Long-acre Chapel. To him succeeded the late Rev. Mr. Howells, who continued his useful ministry there till his death.

[124] Once a celebrated lawyer, but afterwards minister of the Lock Chapel, brother of the late Bishop of Peterborough, and cousin to Cowper, the poet.

[125] Tottenham-court Chapel, when first erected, was a double brick building, seventy feet square within the walls. Twelve almshouses and a chapel-house were added in 1758. But the chapel being too small for the accommodation of those who wished to attend, an octangular front was added to it in the winter of 1759–60. The lease granted by General George Fitzroy to Mr. Whitefield having expired in 1828, the chapel was closed until 1830, when the trustees purchased the freehold of it for _fourteen thousand_ pounds, and laid out about _six thousand_ more in repairs. It was re-opened October 27, 1831. The Rev. William Jay preached in the morning from Rev. xxi. 22; and the Rev. J. Parsons in the evening, from Jer. ix. 3. The chapel at present is a handsome building--the exterior coated with stucco and ornamented with pilasters having a boldly projecting moulding. The interior is neat and in good taste, the cupola being supported by twelve columns. The present pulpit is the same as that in which Mr. Whitefield preached. The length is one hundred and twenty-seven feet, the breadth seventy, and the height of the summit of the dome one hundred and fourteen feet. It will accommodate from three to four thousand persons, and very many of the seats are free. The voice of the preacher may be distinctly heard in every part of the building. Among the monumental tablets are memorials of Whitefield, Toplady, and Joss. And in the mausoleum are deposited the remains of several clergymen and Dissenting ministers.

[126] Foote was a native of Truro, in Cornwall, and in early life the school-fellow and companion of the late Dr. Haweis. His father was a justice of the peace, and his mother the sister of Sir John Dinely Goodere, who was murdered by his brother, Captain Goodere, in 1741. He had a most amazing talent for imitating, even to the very voice, those he intended to take off. For this species of amusement he had several actions brought against him, and was cast in heavy damages. One of his biographers tells us, that “very pressing embarrassments in his affairs compelled him to bring out his comedy of _The Minor_, in 1760, to ridicule Methodism, which, though successful, gave great offence, and was at last suppressed.” His talent for ridicule ultimately proved his destruction. In 1776 he drew a character of the celebrated Duchess of Kingston, then much talked of, who had influence enough to hinder his play from being represented. He then threatened to publish, and endeavoured to extort a considerable sum of money from the Duchess. The affair ripened at length into a legal charge, and the shock he received from this disgraceful exposure is believed to have had a fatal effect upon him. After a life of great vicissitude and irregularity, he died at Dover, in 1777.

[127] Her Grace, of whom there is such frequent mention in the Letters of Junius, was a daughter of Lord Ravensworth, and after the dissolution of her marriage, was united to the Earl of Upper Ossory, by whom she had two daughters, Lady Anne and Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick. Lady Ossory died in 1804.

[128] Whilst in America at this time, Mr. Whitefield was presented with a portrait of himself, done by a painter at New York. He sent it to England by the Philadelphia packet, directed to Mr. Keene, and in the letter which accompanied it he says:--“The painter who gave it me having now the ague and fever, and living a hundred miles off, I must get you to have the drapery finished, and then, if judged proper, let it be put up in the Tabernacle parlour.”

[129] Mr. Matthias Peter Dupont, from the first opening of Spa-fields Chapel as a place of worship, was one of its managers. He was also a principal means of introducing the Gospel to Enfield and its neighbourhood, and of erecting a chapel in the Chase-side; and was one of the original trustees appointed by Lady Huntingdon for her College. He died at his house in Canonbury-lane, Islington, November 2, 1816, three weeks before his old and intimate friend, Mrs. Peckwell. He was in his seventieth year.

[130] Haweis’s “Church History.”

[131] We grieve to say, that this encomium must be qualified, as it respects the language of this great man, at one time of his life at least.--ED.

[132] Now Attingham-house, a handsome modern mansion, on the right of the Wellington-road to Shrewsbury, at the confluence of the Tern and the Severn.

[133] One day Mr. Hill informed him that the living at Dunham, in Cheshire, then vacant, was at his service. “The parish (he continued) is small, the duty light, the income good (400_l._ per annum), and it is situated in a fine healthy sporting country.” After thanking Mr. Hill most cordially for his kindness, Mr. Fletcher added, “Alas! sir, Dunham will not suit me; there is too much money, and too little labour.” “Few clergymen make such objections (said Mr. Hill); it is a pity to decline such a living, as I do not know that I can find you another. What shall we do? Would you like Madely?” “That, sir, would be the very place for me.” “My object, Mr. Fletcher, is to make you comfortable in your own way. If you prefer Madely, I shall find no difficulty in persuading Chambers, the present vicar, to exchange it for Dunham, which is worth more than twice as much.” In this way he became vicar of Madely, with which he was so perfectly satisfied, that he never after sought any other honour or preferment.

[134] The elder of these pupils, the sons of Mr. Hill, died on coming of age; the younger became M.P. for Shrewsbury, afterwards for Shropshire, and at length took his seat in the House of Peers, as Baron Berwick, of Attingham-house.

[135] The family of the Delamottes, of Blendon, in Kent, were all converted by Mr. Ingham; and his son, William, a student at Cambridge, was the means of introducing to the University that zealous preacher, Mr. Lawrence Batty, of Catherine Hall, and his brother, who all became Mr. Ingham’s assistants in Yorkshire.

[136] It was by the advice of the Count and the Rev. Peter Boehler, of the University of Jena, that Mr. Ingham visited Germany. They both came to England in 1737, on business connected with the affairs of the Brotherhood in Georgia.

[137] _Mr. Lawrence Batty_ is said to have been an extremely eloquent preacher; but from intense study and violent exertion became weakened in his intellects. He was taken to London by his brother Christopher, for medical advice, and remained there some time. Some years after his return to Yorkshire he took a fever and died.

_Mr. William Batty_, the eldest brother, a popular preacher among the Inghamites. In 1760, he was ordained pastor of the church of Wheatley, in conjunction with the Rev. John Green, who afterwards removed to Nottingham, and became pastor of a congregation there in the same Connexion. His labours were entirely gratuitous, as his paternal inheritance was ample. In the year 1786 he was seized with fainting fits, and was ordered by medical men to desist from preaching; but this he refused. He died suddenly, without a sigh or a groan, December 12, 1787, aged 72.

_Mr. Christopher Batty_ died at Kendal, in the county of Westmoreland, on the 19th of April, 1797, aged 82, and was buried in the ground adjoining the chapel, where there is a monument erected to his memory.

Alice, wife of the Rev. Christopher Batty, died March 29, 1794, aged 66. They had two sons, Giles, who died November 29, 1797, aged 32, and Christopher, who was bred to the profession of a surgeon, and died January 25, 1803, aged 40; also two daughters, Jane, wife of Mr. William Knipe, of Kirkland, died February 9, 1802, aged 45; and Alice, wife of Mr. John Brockbank, of Kendal, who died May 15, 1801.

The three brothers possessed considerable poetical talents, and some of their hymns are amongst the best and most poetical now in use. Mr. Christopher Batty composed the _first_ hymn used among the Inghamites, soon after his conversion. It begins--

“Sweet was the hour, the minute sweet,” &c.

At an early period of this Connexion, a hymn-book was printed at Leeds, chiefly composed by the Messrs. Batty; from whence several hymns in the Tabernacle and Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion are taken. That well-known missionary hymn--

“Captain of thine enlisted host,” &c.

was composed by one of the Battys; also the following, which are to be found in many collections, with several others in general use:--

“What object’s this which meets my eyes,” &c.

or, as it is altered in another edition, commencing thus--

“From Salem’s gate, advancing slow, What object meets my eyes! What means this majesty of wo? What mean these mingled cries?” &c.

“Beloved Saviour, faithful Friend,” &c. “O, my Lord! I’ve often mused,” &c. “Saviour, canst thou love a traitor?” &c. “O Lord, how great’s the favour,” &c. “I wait the visits of thy grace,” &c. “How blest are they whose feet have found,” &c. “How shall I speak my Saviour’s worth?” &c. “Strangers and sojourners below,” &c. “Encouraged by the word of grace,” &c. “The God of Salvation, Jehovah by name,” &c. “Compassionate Bridegroom, my Shepherd and Friend,” &c. “O Jesu, my God, come make thine abode,” &c. “O Jesus, my Saviour, I fain would embrace,” &c. “Sinner, attend! attend, I pray,” &c. “See Jesus, our Deliv’rer great,” &c. “Nothing in this world I want,” &c. “The God whose smiles we court,” &c.

[138] _Tatler_, No. 42, dated July 16, 1709.

[139] The half-brother and predecessor of Theophilus, husband of the Countess.

[140] Lady Betty bequeathed large sums of money for charitable purposes, and devised lands of considerable value to the Provost and Scholars of Queen’s College, Oxford, for the interest of twelve Northern Schools. In the “Historical Character” of her Ladyship, by the Rev. Thomas Bernard, Master of the Free School in Leeds, dedicated to Francis, Lord Hastings, then a youth at Westminster School (eldest son of Lady Huntingdon), there is a list of the lands given by Lady Betty in mortmain, and vested in trustees, for the maintenance of perpetual charities.

[141] See Memoirs of Mr. Grimshaw, by the Rev. J. Newton.

[142] The Wesleyans, therefore, err in claiming Mr. Grimshaw as exclusively connected with Mr. Wesley. Mr. Ingham had the priority; and as to his faith, if the doctrine which ascribes the whole of a sinner’s salvation, from the first dawn of light to the first motion of spiritual life in the heart, to its full accomplishment in victory over the last enemy, be Calvinism, we have his confession, sent to Mr. Romaine, to prove that Mr. Grimshaw was a Calvinist. Mr. Ingham had established seventy societies before he was invited by Mr. Wesley, and Mr. Grimshaw had preached at Haworth before either of the Wesleys reached Yorkshire.

[143] “It caused a sore temptation to arise in me (said John) to think that an ignorant, wicked man should thus torment me, and I able to tie his head and heels together. I found an old man’s bone in me; but the Lord lifted up a standard when anger was coming on like a cloud, else I should have wrung his neck to the ground, and set my foot upon him.”

[144] She was a Miss Titchborne, niece to Lord Farrand. Her sister married Daniel Pulteney, a statesman of some eminence, grandfather of the late Countess of Bath, and cousin to William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, of whom frequent mention is made in this work.

[145] This wretched enemy to all serious religion was educated at Douay, in France, for orders in the Church of Rome; but, upon his recantation, was noticed by Archbishop Potter, and by him recommended to the Vicar of Whalley, who appointed him Vicar of Colne. He was neither devoid of parts nor literature, but childishly ignorant of common life, and shamefully inattentive to his duty, which he frequently abandoned, for weeks together, to such accidental assistance as the parish could procure. On one occasion he is said to have read the funeral service more than twenty times in a single night over the dead that had been interred in his absence. With these glaring imperfections in his own character, he sought to distinguish himself by a riotous opposition to the Methodists. He was a notorious drunkard, and drank himself first into a gaol, and then into his grave. He was interred in his own church, April 29, 1751. It is reported and believed in the neighbourhood of Colne, that Mr. White, when on his dying bed, sent for Mr. Grimshaw, expressed his concern for having opposed him, being fully convinced of the impropriety of his former conduct, and begged the assistance of his instructions and prayers. See History of Whalley, part ii. 139, &c., by the Rev. T. D. Whitaker.

[146] This name he owed to his adoption (confirmed by an imperial diploma) by the Baron de Watteville.

[147] It was customary at these times to read the prayers in the church; they then went into the churchyard, and, upon a scaffold erected for that purpose, addressed listening thousands, who seemed to hear as for eternity. Having finished the discourse, they returned into the church, and administered the Lord’s Supper to as many as the church would contain; when these had received they withdrew, and the church filled again, and this was repeated until all had communicated. A succession of sermons were preached at short intervals, interspersed with appropriate hymns, and the people returned to their houses grateful and rejoicing in the love of the Lord.

[148] See page 149. Mr. Thorpe, after his conversion, joined the Wesleyans, and Mr. Wesley wisely stationed him at Rotherham. He afterwards withdrew from the Methodists and became the pastor of an Independent congregation. His son, the Rev. W. Thorpe, was minister of the Castle-green, at Bristol.

[149] “I lay under the scaffold (said the Rev. Dr. Fawcett, then a boy, but afterwards a distinguished preacher), and it appeared as if all his words were addressed to me, and as if he had known my most secret thoughts from ten years of age.” “As long as life remains (he would say) I shall remember both the text and the sermon.”

[150] Mr. Graves, the vicar of Clapham, Yorkshire, was now visited by Mr. Ingham; and now it was that Mr. Milner, incumbent of Chipping, near Bolton, in Lancashire, put his lips to the Gospel trumpet and proclaimed the truth in Yorkshire. “Mr. Graves (says he, in a letter to Mr. Wesley) is convinced of the truth, and preaches it with power, not only in church but also from house to house; but he has had much opposition from the Moravians on the one side, and the profane scoffers on the other.” He then goes on to deplore Mr. Ingham’s “entanglement” with the “still brethren,” and earnestly recommends to Mr. Wesley to conciliate Mr. Ingham, “who (he says), with all respect for you, thinks you have not done justice to Count Zinzendorff.” It was now, too, that the Rev. John Bennet, of Chinley, in Derbyshire, separated from Mr. Wesley, and a portion of his congregation taking part with him, a chapel was raised for him at Bolton, and the congregation organized on the plan of an Independent Church. Here he continued ministering until his death, in 1750. He was married, in the presence of Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield, at Newcastle, in 1749, to the celebrated Grace Murray, whose memoirs were published in 1804, by her son, the pastor of a Dissenting congregation in London.

[151] While he was absent, Mr. C. Wesley, who had been employed in York, not only in preaching, but of attending persons of learning and character, who were desirous of stating their objections to the doctrines and economy of the Methodists, and to hear his answers, went to Aberford. “I had the happiness (says he) of finding Lady Margaret Ingham at home, and their son, Ignatius. She informed me that Mr. Ingham’s circuit takes in about four hundred miles; that he has six fellow-labourers and several thousand persons in his societies, most of them converted. I rejoiced in his success. Ignatius would hardly be satisfied at my preaching.”

[152] On one of his excursions into Yorkshire, being at Leeds, Mr. Newton was requested by the Rev. Mr. Edwards to preach for him at White Chapel. He met a party of religious friends at Mr. Edwards’s house, which adjoined the chapel, and took his tea (of which he was remarkably fond) with them. When the hour of preaching approached, Mr. Edwards intimated to him that if he was desirous to retire before the service (as was then customary with most serious ministers) there was a room for his reception; but Mr. Newton declined this, saying he was so well pleased with his company, that he was unwilling to leave it; and added, “I am prepared.” At the appointed time the service commenced, and after prayer Mr. Newton read his text, which was, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” He began fluently; but in a few minutes he lost all recollection of his plan; was confused, stopped, and desired Mr. Edwards to come up and finish the service. Mr. Edwards urged him to proceed; but Mr. Newton left the pulpit, which Mr. Edwards ascended, and concluded with an address to the audience on the importance of the Spirit’s agency to help our infirmities. Such was the confusion occasioned by the young preacher’s failure, that for some time after he could not see two or three persons standing together in the street without suspecting that he himself must be the subject of their conversation. From this mortification, doubtless, he learned the important lesson, to put his trust not in his memory or preparation, but in the Lord alone. See some admirable “Thoughts on the Snares and Difficulties attending the Ministry of the Gospel”--Omicron’s Letters--Letter V.

[153] It was customary for those who desired to be admitted into Church fellowship to declare their experience publicly; when any difference of opinion took place about the reception of any member, it was referred to the lot; and all other matters, where unanimity could not be obtained, were likewise decided by lot. Elders were ordained by the holding up of hands.

[154] The Rev. G. Burnett was early impressed with a deep sense of divine things by Mr. Walker, of Truro. On his ordination he became curate to the Rev. Mr. Rawlings, of Padstow, whence he came to Yorkshire, and remained there two years. He then resided about half that time in Kent, and by the presentation of Dr. Leigh was ultimately seated at the vicarage of Elland, in Yorkshire. In this parish he spent his large fortune in works of charity, and his exertions in acts of grace, until, after a life of indefatigable labour, he gave up the ghost, in the 59th year of his age, July 8, 1793.

[155] After such insults, the Doctor, instead of spending the afternoon with his reverend brethren, dined with a party of friends at another inn. His brother-in-law, the well-known Mr. Thornton, of Clapham, was of this number, who, while sitting by him, slipped the sermon from his pocket, and printed and dispersed it about the country. This was the only production of the Doctor’s that ever appeared from the press.

[156] Mr. Knight’s ministry was blessed; his congregation continually increasing, it soon became necessary to erect a gallery as large as the building would admit, then a larger and more commodious house became rather desirable than attainable. At length, however, it was cordially set about, and a very spacious and elegant structure completed, which was opened in May, 1772. Here he exercised his public ministrations to very large congregations, till it pleased the Lord to incapacitate him for public service; and, to use his own expression, to reduce him from a _working_ to a _waiting_ servant. Mr. Knight was released from the burden of the flesh, and removed to a better and indissoluble mansion, March 2, 1793. In 1766 he published a volume of sermons, an elegy on Mr. Whitefield’s death, and a few single sermons and pamphlets.

[157] A dear old friend of his, Mr. Jeremiah Robertshaw, called to see him. When they parted, Mr. Grimshaw took hold of his hand and said, “The Lord bless you, Jerry; I will pray for you as long as I live; and if there be such a thing as praying in heaven, I will pray for you there also.” His last words were, “HERE GOES AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT!” Mr. Robertshaw was one of the first race of Methodist preachers: he travelled twenty-six years with an unblameable character, and died at Bradford, in February, 1788.

[158] At his own desire, his remains were brought to Ewood, the farm-house, in the parish of Halifax, where his son resided, and from thence they were followed to Luddenden chapel, near Halifax, by great numbers, who, with intermingled sighs and tears, sang, at his dying request, all the way from the house to the chapel. They lie near the communion-table, without any monumental record, except his name, &c., on the stone which covers his grave. Mr. Venn preached his funeral sermon, in the churchyard at Luddenden, the church itself not being sufficiently large to hold the congregation; and the next day (being Sunday) at Haworth, to a numerous and deeply-affected assembly, many of whom came from a great distance to testify their respect and veneration for their departed minister. This sermon was afterwards published, and contains the earliest and most authentic account of him. Mr. Romaine also preached a sermon on the occasion of his death ten days after his decease, at St. Dunstan’s in the West, London, from Phil. i. 21--“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Both Mr. Venn and Mr. Romaine fixed upon a text which had been peculiarly precious to him, and of which his life had been a bright illustration.”

[159] One time, after Shent had been preaching in Mr. Grimshaw’s kitchen, that good man fell down before the humble itinerant, saying, “I am not worthy to stand in your presence.” Shent suffered many hardships, and was pressed for a soldier, but was set at liberty through the interest of Lady Huntingdon, who frequently called him the “_guileless Israelite_.”

[160] Notwithstanding this direct assertion, we are greatly mistaken if this pious lady did not often attend the preaching of the Rev. W. Jay, and occasionally receive at his hands the Lord’s Supper!

[161] James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington.

[162] Afterwards Sir Richard Hill, Bart.

[163] Lady Irvine is said to have been a woman of great excellence, and at one period of her life much impressed with divine things. To her intercourse with Lady Huntingdon was attributed that clear and comprehensive view of the plan of redemption which she attained; and the influence of the great truths of the Gospel in all the relations of life shone conspicuous. Her Ladyship survived Lord Irvine nearly thirty years, and died at Temple Newson, November 20, 1807, in the 74th year of her age, much regretted. She outlived the death of her dear old friend and relative, Mrs. Deane, about nine months. Her charities were as extensive as her rank was elevated; and by her death the poor of the surrounding villages lost a munificent benefactress. Lord Irvine dying without male issue, the title became extinct, after it had been possessed by nine individuals in the period of one hundred and seventeen years, making the small average of thirteen years to each. Lady Irvine was the grandmother of the present Marquis of Hertford, to whom descended a great portion of the estates of the Ingram family.

Mrs. Deane lived near nine years of that period when even a “man’s _strength_ is labour and sorrow.” She was, however, no worse than usual till the morning of February 3rd, 1807, and then the springs of life began to ebb in death. She repeated often that morning--

“Christ in me--my hope of glory, Christ in me--my God of love.”

She seemed to have a presentiment of her approaching change, breathing out for some time, “Dear Jesus, be with me to my journey’s end, _which I believe will not be long_.” On being asked if she wanted anything, she answered--

“None but Christ for me; No music like thy charming name, Nor half so sweet can be.”

About three hours before her dissolution, as if gazing on celestial glories and listening to angelic praises, completely victorious over the last enemy, she cried out, “Glory! glory! glory!--Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! to God and the Lamb for ever, and ever, and ever!” The powers of language never failed, and she gradually sunk into the arms of death, falling asleep in Jesus, the 4th of February, aged 88 years and nine months.

[164] Dr. Isaac Milner, Dean of Carlisle, Master of Queen’s College, Cambridge, and Vice-Chancellor of the University.

[165] If Mr. Venn, of Holloway, Islington, had been acquainted with this true history of the gradual change wrought in the mind of Mr. Milner, he would not have asserted, as we find he has done, in the Life of his grandfather, that “Mr. Milner was one of those evangelical labourers who derived their view of the truth directly from the word of God, who were independent of the Methodists, and nearly contemporaneous with them, and whose labours had an immediate and remarkable influence upon the clergy of the Church of England.” This is not the only error Mr. Venn commits in the long list of names prefixed to his grandfather’s correspondence. It would be easy to prove that the light which then fell upon the Church was poured through the channel of Methodism.

[166] Mr. Wren’s original scene of duty was in Wales, and it was because his health appeared to have sunk beneath his labours there that her Ladyship recommended a tour in England. “Now, Wren (says the Countess), I charge you to be faithful, and to deliver a faithful message in all the congregations.” “My Lady (said Wren), they will not bear it.” She rejoined “I will stand by you.” His tour was marked by the seal of utility, especially at Oxford and at Grimsby, where, being overtaken by a shower of rain, he took shelter in a wayside house, in which many labourers had assembled to take refuge from the rain. Hearing them swear, he went out of the parlour to them, and upon the promise of giving them half-a-crown, obtained their attention while he read two sermons to them, and spoke urgently as to the state of their souls. On his return, he found that two of these men had, by his means, been awakened to a due sense of their eternal interests. He was invited to remain at York, which Lady Huntingdon not approving, he withdrew from the Connexion of his noble patroness in the year 1780. On the 4th August, 1784, in his 34th year, he fell asleep in the Lord. He died at Scarborough, but was buried at York, in the chapel which Mr. Batty built, and where he, too, was interred.

In his doctrine, Mr. Wren was strictly Calvinistic. His manner of preaching was warm and fervid, and but that his voice was sometimes pitched too loudly, he might have been called an orator of nature’s making. Seeing the people inattentive to one of his unprepared discourses, he hastily descended from the pulpit, and walking rapidly towards that part of the congregation that betrayed neglect, addressed them with the Spirit and with power, and the Lord blessed the word. In Wales, hearing of the reputed efficacy of St. Govin’s well in the cure of bodily diseases, he resolved to carry thither his medicines for the bruised spirit. The Welsh Bethsaida stands at the foot of immense rocks, quite open to the sea, and far from any town. Multitudes assembled in so strange a scene whom he addressed from the words, “Rocks, fall on us,” &c. (Rev. vi. 16, 17). One man, who had opposed the dedication of a place of worship, was convinced, and immediately appropriated the place to its purpose.

[167] A respectable surgeon, with whom Mr, Wren resided till his marriage.

[168] Among his then congregation was the late Mr. Tuppen, predecessor of Mr. Jay, at Bath. He was brought up by a pious mother in strict observance of the externals of religion; but at eighteen years of age, when he first heard Mr. Whitefield, he was ignorant of its essentials. He attended from curiosity, ready to stone this second Stephen, or to hold the clothes of those who did; but the words, “Turn ye, turn ye,” were not lost upon him, but became the means of grace to his soul.

Another convert gained on this spot was Mr. Edward Gadsby, who was now first called from darkness to light: during his after life he realized the venerable Newton’s picture of a true saint; and when he died, on the 9th April, 1785, the Rev. Cradock Glasscott preached at Lady Huntingdon’s a powerful sermon, from the words--“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.”

[169] The following account of her Ladyship’s jewels sold for this purpose was found amongst the papers of a lady who had resided a considerable time with her, and was well acquainted with her concerns:--

Two 15 x drops £400 0 0 Twenty-eight 13 x 2 90 0 0 Thirty-seven pearls, at 4_l._ 15_s._ each 175 15 0 Seed pearls 10 0 0 Gold box 23 0 0 ---------- £698 15 0

[170] Sir Anthony Shirley, the original proprietor of Oathall, was one of the gallant adventurers who went to annoy the Spaniards in their settlements in the West Indies. He afterwards travelled to Persia, and returned to England in the quality of Ambassador from the Sophi, when he published an account of his travels. The Emperor of Germany raised him to the dignity of a Count, and the King of Spain made him Admiral of the Levant Sea. He died in Spain. A spirit of adventure ran through the family of the Shirleys. Sir Anthony had two brothers, who were noted adventurers. Sir Francis, the elder brother, was unfortunate. Sir Robert was introduced to the Persian Court by his brother, Sir Anthony, and was also sent Ambassador from the Sophi to the Court of England. According to some accounts, he married a near relation of the Sophi of Persia; according to others, a Circassian. Lady Shirley was confirmed in England, to whom the Queen stood godmother and Prince Henry godfather. Her portrait was painted by Vandyck, from which a print was taken, that is now very scarce.

William Shirley, of Oathall, emigrated to America, and was Governor of the province of Massachusetts Bay and of the Bahama Islands. He visited England in 1760, where he remained some years, but returned to America, where he died in 1771. His only surviving son was Governor of the Leeward Islands, a Major-General in the army. He was created a Baronet in 1786. His son was named Sir William Warden Shirley, on whose death, in 1815, the title became extinct.

[171] The apostolic Griffith Jones, rector of Llandowrer, in Carmarthenshire.

[172] The worthy doctor was not without his singularities. He would never preach in any pulpit but his own, not even when nominated expressly by his diocesan to preach in another church, and it was very rarely that his most intimate friends could engage him to lead in family worship at their homes. A continual hurry and flutter of spirits, to which he was unaccountably subject, thus contracted his usefulness. The sight even of a stranger in his church would disconcert him, especially if he thought him a minister. He used to say to Mr. Thornton, “If you expect any blessing under my ministry, I beg you will not bring so many black coats with you.”

[173] The ninth Earl. Theophilus, the eleventh Earl, was the eldest brother of Colonel Hastings; he was the godson of the ninth Earl, and educated by him. He took orders, and obtained the family livings of Great and Little Beke, Osgathorp, and Belton. He was twice married, but died without issue. His first wife, Miss Pratt, died soon after her marriage. His second wife was Betsy Warner, a domestic of Donnington Park, with whom having had some dalliance in his youth, and having promised her marriage as soon as he should get the living of Beke, was reminded of his promise thirty years after it was made. Astonished, but not ashamed of his early choice, he enquired into her character, and finding that clear, he kept his promise. He himself published, in his own village church, the bans between the Rev. Theophilus Hastings and Betsy Warner. “My name (exclaimed the lady from an adjoining pew) is Elizabeth!” And they were married accordingly. He had never legally claimed the title, which, however, he had personally assumed, and to which he had an undoubted right. He died in 1804, in the 76th year of his age.

[174] Mr. Hudson was brother to one of Mr. Venn’s most valued and faithful friends and correspondents, who married, in 1768, the Rev. John Ryland, then curate of Huddersfield, and afterwards successively minister of St. Mary’s, Birmingham, and rector of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. See some letters to Miss Hudson, on the death of her brother, in Mr. Venn’s Life and Correspondence.

[175] Rev. George Dyer, then resident minister at Tottenham Chapel, and lecturer of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.

[176] Rev. John Green, formerly curate of Thurnscoe, in Yorkshire.

[177] Messrs. Madan and Haweis.

[178] Mr. Romaine.

[179] Dr. Venn’s son, Edward Venn, Esq., married his cousin, Charlotte Mary, eldest daughter of William James Gambier, Esq., of the family of Lord Gambier.

[180] One of the first lay preachers--one of the first who visited Ireland, and was included in the memorable presentation of the grand jury of Cork, in 1749. He afterwards obtained Episcopal ordination, and was for some years minister of Magdalene Hospital. Here, however, the governors forbade his preaching after his own manner, and constrained him to read from time to time a sermon of Archbishop Tillotson. When he became a lecturer of Whitechapel his ministry was more popular and useful, and he often preached at Brighton, Oathall, Everton, &c., with success.

[181] The predecessor of Mr. Romaine was Dr. Terrick, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough: he held two lectureships in the same church--one a common parish lectureship, supported by voluntary contribution--the other founded and endowed by Dr. White, for the use of Benchers of the Temple. Mr. Romaine had been elected to both, but Lord Mansfield’s decision deprived him of the parish lectureship, while it confirmed him in that of Dr. White.

[182] His allusion to this complaint, and the admirable answer to it in his probation sermon, we think it right to extract:--“Some have intimated that it was from pride that I would not go about the parish from house to house, canvassing for votes; but truly it was another motive. I could not see how this could promote the glory of God. How can it be for the honour of Jesus, that his ministers, who have renounced fame, and riches, and ease, should be most anxious and earnest in the pursuit of those very things which they have renounced? Surely this would be getting into a worldly spirit, as much as the spirit of parliamenteering. And as this method of canvassing cannot be for Jesus’ sake, so neither is it for our honour: it is far beneath our function. Nor is it for your profit. What good is it to your souls? what compliment to your understandings? what advantage to you, in any shape, to be directed and applied to by every person with whom you have any connexion, or on whom you have any dependence? Is not this depriving you of the freedom of your choice? Determined by these motives, when my friends, of their own accord, put me up as a candidate, to whom I have to this hour made no application, directly or indirectly, I left you to yourselves. If you choose me, I desire to be your servant for Jesus’ sake; and if you do not, the will of the Lord be done.”

[183] The letter from which this extract is made is dated Ipswich, May 8, 1765. The Rev. David Edwards was originally fixed at St. Neot’s, near Everton and Golling, where he became the friend and correspondent of Mr. Berridge and Mr. Venn. He went to Ipswich, and remained there till 1791, and died at Walton-under-Edge, 1795.

[184] Rev. G. Dyer, lecturer of St. George the Martyr.

[185] A traveller passing through the town saw, as he approached the market-place, a great concourse of people in bitter lamentation; some wringing their hands, others in a state of distraction, the tears running down their cheeks, and with all the evidences of an agony of distress. Enquiring into the cause of their affliction, the traveller learned with surprise that they were mourning over the irreparable loss they were about to sustain in the removal of their minister. Many of them declared that they would lay themselves along the road, and if he was determined to leave them, his carriage should drive over them.

[186] Thomas Powys, Esq., of Berwick, in Shropshire, was a gentleman of large fortune and of high connexions; he became very conspicuous about this period, in conjunction with Sir Richard Hill and Mr. Lee, of Cotery, in the same county for zeal in the cause of God and truth.

Mrs. Powys was daughter of ---- Poole, Esq., of Radbourne, in the county of Derby. After the death of her husband (in 1775), she became (September 23, 1776) the second wife of Sir Rowland Hill, of Hawkestone, Bart. She died in 1790. The present representative of Lady Hill’s family is Sacheverel Chandos Pole, Esq., of Radbourne; whose daughter, Elizabeth Mary, married the present Lord Byron.

[187] Mr. Venn, Mr. Ryland, Dr. Conyers, and Mr. Powley, vicar of Dewsbury.

[188] It was not unusual with her Ladyship to anticipate the public prayers of her chaplains, by her own private intercessions for the congregation. Before the officiating minister entered upon the performance of his duty, it was her custom, knowing the awful responsibility of his situation, and the inestimable value of immortal souls, to request the Great Master of assemblies to furnish him with a subject adapted to the conditions of the people; at the same time earnestly soliciting for the preacher, wisdom, utterance, power, and fidelity; and for the hearers a serious frame, an unprejudiced mind, and a retentive heart. Whilst he was employed in proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation, she was engaged in pouring out her soul to the Great Shepherd and Bishop of souls to bless his own word; pleading that last great promise of her crucified Lord, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” And when the service of the sanctuary had ceased, she withdrew to her closet, and earnestly implored the benediction of the Spirit to accompany the labours of his servants, that many might be led to the knowledge of his grace and faith in Him. From year to year sinners were converted from the error of their ways, and believers were built up in their most holy faith; while she appeared among them as a happy mother rejoicing in their prosperity, and blessed in the blessings of her spiritual children. Thus the seed, which she had so often watered with her tears, and followed with her prayers, produced at length a plenteous harvest of immortal souls, redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

[189] He was the eldest son of Major-General Talbot, and grandson to the Bishop of Durham, and nephew of Lord Chancellor Talbot, and had just been presented to this living by the Lord Chancellor Bathurst.

[190] Lady Huntingdon, with that boundless generosity of heart which she possessed, wrote to this worthy man by return of post, enclosing a bank post bill for the supply of his temporal necessities. It was said by Captain Scott that her Ladyship was so generous and bountiful that she did actually give to every one who asked her, until her stock being exhausted, she was destitute. At length it became really necessary to conceal cases from her. On one occasion the Captain, with some other ministers, having a case presented to them, and believing that the good Countess would give, though she could ill afford to do so, resolved not to acquaint her with it. By some means, however, her Ladyship heard of the case, and likewise of the combination of the ministers to conceal it, with which conduct she was exceedingly grieved; and the moment she saw Captain Scott, said she could not have thought it of him. She burst into tears and exclaimed, “I have never taken anything ill at your hands before; but this I think is very unkind!” She then gave a hundred pounds to the case.

[191] Rev. Charles Wesley.

[192] Rev. John Wesley.

[193] Rev. G. Whitefield.

[194] The reader will form his own opinion on the propriety of such appeals to the _Sortes Biblicæ_. There is perhaps something too Delphic and oracular in the form for Christian practice.

[195] Mr Toplady’s style is said to have been admirably suited for the pulpit. His hearers were not puzzled with hard words. His references were in general short; and when they were long, the members were so constructed and arranged as to create no obscurity. There was at the same time a vivacity and animation in his manner which riveted the attention of his hearers.

[196] Through the greater part of his life this good man was the subject of considerable weakness of body. This circumstance, in addition to his lameness, confined him much to his parish, where he constantly and faithfully performed the important duties of his function, till he was absolutely incapacitated by disease. He had occasionally preached for Lady Huntingdon at Bath; and with the hope of dispelling his nervous disorders, which were sometimes wrought up to a high pitch, she prevailed on him to take a journey to Brighton, where he preached the pure Gospel with the seriousness and earnestness of a man who had a deep conviction of its truth and value. He was a native of Oxford, and descended from a respectable family there. His father was Professor of Astronomy in the University. He was intimate with the Duke of Marlborough, and, being at Blenheim on one occasion, he was asked by the Duke to recommend a tutor for his son. The doctor at the moment cast his eye on a young Oxonian strolling in the park. He knew and recommended him. The tutor was received, and so much pleased the Duke that all his influence was exerted for his elevation, and he lived to be Archbishop of Canterbury.

[197] An eye-witness described the church at Everton as crowded with persons, from all the country round; “the windows being filled, within and without, and even the outside of the pulpit, to the very top, so that Mr. Berridge seemed almost stilled; yet feeble and sickly as he is, he was continually strengthened and his voice, for the most part, distinguishable in the midst of all the outcries.”

[198] On the 13th of July, Mr. Romaine and Mr. Madan went, with Mr. Berridge and Mr. Hicks, to Tablow, in Cambridgeshire. Great numbers, feeling the arrows of conviction, fell to the ground, some of whom seemed dead, and others in the agonies of death; the violence of their bodily convulsions exceeding all description. There was also a great crying and agonizing in prayer, mixed with deep and deadly groans on every side.

At Harlston, Mr. Berridge was greatly fatigued and dejected, and said, “I am now so weak, I must leave off field-preaching.” Nevertheless, he cast himself on the Lord, and preached with amazing energy to upwards of three thousand hearers. At Stapleford, where he had been curate for five or six years, at Grandchester, at Driplow, Orwell, and other places, the like effects followed. At Everton, the next Sunday, about two hundred persons, chiefly men, cried aloud for mercy; but many more were affected, perhaps as deeply, though in a calmer way.

On these extraordinary manifestations Mr. Ralph Erskine observes:--“What influence sudden and sharp awakenings may have upon the body I pretend not to explain. But I make no question Satan, so far as he gets power, may exert himself on such occasions, partly to hinder the good work in the persons who are thus touched with sharp arrows of conviction, and partly to disparage the work of God, as if it tended to lead the people to distraction.”

[199] Lord Hertford, at the head of the Governors, with white staves, met the Prince at the door, and conducted his Royal Highness into the chapel, where, before the altar, was an arm-chair for him, with a blue damask cushion, and a footstool of black cloth. Lady Huntingdon, Lord and Lady Dartmouth, Lady Fanny Shirley, Lady Gertrude Hotham, Lady Chesterfield, Lady Selina Hastings, and several persons of distinction, occupied forms near his Royal Highness.

[200] At the moment of the Prince’s departure, some nobleman observed to Lord Hertford that he thought the sermon savoured a good deal of Methodism. His Lordship was about to reply, when the Prince, who had overheard the remark, turned hastily round, and said, “Your Lordship must be fastidious indeed; I thought the discourse excellent; and well adapted to this most useful institution--a sentiment in which my Lady Huntingdon, I am most happy to say, most cordially coincides with me. Her Ladyship, I suspect, is much better versed in theology than either of us.” The astonished noble bowed, and the Prince withdrew. It should be noticed, that Dr. Dodd was at this time considered decidedly evangelical in his preaching, and there have been instances of persons called under his ministry to a saving acquaintance of divine things. This was some years before his awful fall.

[201] Page, a robber of extraordinary courage and singular adventures and escapes, had stopped Lord Ferrers. His Lordship pulled out a pistol, but while he held it, trembled violently. The robber laughed and took the weapon out of his hand, quietly observing, “I know, my Lord, you always carry more than one pistol about you, let’s have the rest.” At the trial Page pleaded that his Lordship was excommunicated, and could not give evidence. He was consequently acquitted.

[202] Mr. Johnson had been taken into the family of Lord Ferrers in his youth, and was then his Lordship’s land-steward. Hoping, probably, that he should have sufficient influence over him to have procured some deviation from his trust in his Lordship’s favour, he soon found that Mr. Johnson would not oblige him at the expense of his honesty. From that time he conceived an implacable resentment against him; and it is easy to conceive that every opposition to the will of a man so haughty, impetuous, and irascible, would produce the most disastrous effects. Mr. Johnson lived at the house belonging to the farm which he held under his Lordship, called Lount, about half a mile distant from Stanton.

[203] From this period, till he was arrested, Lord Ferrers continued to drink porter, and in proportion as it took effect, his passions became more tumultuous. Having shot the steward at three o’clock in the afternoon, he persecuted him till one in the morning, threatening to murder him, and attempting to tear off his bandages. The last time he went to him he pulled him by the wig, calling him villain; and it was with great difficulty that Miss Johnson and those about her father could prevent his Lordship from striking him. The poor man was so terrified by his outrageous conduct, that Dr. Kirkland at length succeeded in removing him in the middle of the night to his own house, where he languished till the next morning; and when the Earl heard the poor creature was dead, he said he gloried in having killed him.

[204] “His brothers (says Horace Walpole) were brought to his trial to prove lunacy against their own blood. One of them (Mr. Shirley) is a clergyman, suspended by the Bishop of London for being a Methodist.”

[205] “Many Peers (says Horace Walpole) were absent. Lord Foley and Lord Jersey attended only the first day; and Lord Huntingdon, and my nephew, Lord Orford (in compliment to his mother, as related to the prisoner), withdrew without voting. But never was a criminal more literally tried by his Peers; for the three persons who interested themselves most in the examination were at least as mad as he--Lord Ravenscroft, Lord Talbot, and Lord Fortescue. Indeed, the first was almost frantic. The seats of the Peeresses were not nearly full. Lady Coventry was there, I sat next but one to her, and would not have thought she had been ill; yet they are positive she has but a few weeks to live. Lady Augusta was in the same gallery; the Duke of York and his young brothers were in the Prince of Wales’s box, who was not there, no more than the Princess, Princess Emily, nor the Duke. It was an agreeable humanity in the Duke of York, who would not take his seat in the House before the trial, that he might not vote on it. There are so many young Peers, that the show was fine even in that respect. The Duke of Richmond was the finest figure; the Duke of Marlborough, with the best countenance in the world, looked clumsy in his robes; he had new ones, having given away his father’s. There were others not at all so indifferent about the antiquity of theirs. Lord Huntingdon’s, Lord Abervagenny’s, and Lord Castlehaven’s, scarcely hung on their backs; the two former, they pretend, were used at the trial of the Queen of Scots.”

Horace Walpole, in this note, refers to the mother of his nephew: she was Margaret, Countess Dowager of Orford, who had married the uncle of Lord Ferrers, the Hon. Sewallis Shirley, Comptroller of the Household to Queen Charlotte, and M.P. for Brackley and Callington. The Lady Coventry, to whose illness he refers, died on the 1st of October in the same year. (See Mason’s elegy on this celebrated beauty in his poems). She was the eldest daughter of John Gunning, Esq., and sister to the Duchess of Argyle. Lady Coventry left two daughters, who were both married, and, strange to say, both divorced on the ground of ill conduct.

[206] The Earl wanted much to see his mistress: my Lord Cornwallis consulted Lady Huntingdon whether he should permit it. “Oh! by no means (said the Countess); it would be letting him die in adultery.” He resolved not to take leave of his children, four girls, but on the scaffold, and then to read to them a very bitter paper he had drawn up against the Meredith family, and on the House of Lords, for their first interference in separating him from Lady Ferrers. This Lady Huntingdon, with her usual good sense, persuaded him to drop, and having brought his children to him, he took a cold farewell of them the day before. He had written two letters during the week to Lord Cornwallis on some of these requests: they were cool and rational, and concluded with desiring him not to mind the requests of his family in his behalf, which he considered extremely absurd.

[207] First went a large body of constables for the county of Middlesex, preceded by one of the high constables--a party of horse grenadiers and a party of foot--then Mr. Sheriff Errington in his chariot and six, the horses dressed with ribbons--next Lord Ferrers, in his own landau and six, escorted by parties of horse and foot--Mr. Sheriff Vaillant’s chariot, followed with the under-sheriff, Mr. Nicols--a mourning coach and six, with some of his Lordship’s friends--and a hearse and six, which was provided for the conveyance of the corpse from the place of execution to Surgeons’ Hall.

[208] “This extraordinary history of Lord Ferrers is closed (says Horace Walpole to George Montague): he was executed yesterday. Madness, that in other countries is disorder, is here a systematic character: it does not hinder people from forming a plan of conduct, and from even dying agreeably to it. You remember how the last Ratcliffe died with the utmost propriety; so did this horrid lunatic, coolly and sensibly. His own and his wife’s relations had asserted that he would tremble at last. No such thing; he shamed heroes. With all his madness, he was not mad enough to be struck with Lady Huntingdon’s sermons. The Methodists have nothing to brag of his conversion, though Whitefield prayed for him and preached about him. I have not heard that Lady Fanny dabbled with his soul.”

[209] Widow of Henry Hastings, Esq., and mother of the Rev. Theophilus Henry Hastings, _de jure_ 11th Earl of Huntingdon, and Colonel George Hastings, father of Hans Francis, the late Earl.

[210] That is, that some should remain regular, others irregular; some either of the two, and some again neither one nor the other.

[211] The remainder of this letter is like that addressed to the Evangelical clergy before alluded to, and which is so well known that we do not think it necessary to insert it at length.

[212] Sir Walter Scott, then a youth, heard him; but he remarks that Wesley was too colloquial for Sawney.

[213] Samson Occum, whom Lady Huntingdon considered one of the most interesting and extraordinary characters of her time, was born at Mohegan, near Norwich, Connecticut, about the year 1723. His parents, like other Indians, led a wandering life, depending chiefly upon hunting and fishing for subsistence. Not one then cultivated the land, and all dwelt in wigwams. None of them could read. During the religious excitement in America, about the year 1740, Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Gilbert Tennant, and several other ministers, visited these Mohegan Indians, after which many of them used to repair to the neighbouring churches. Occum, at this period, became the subject of religious impressions, and was soon desirous of becoming the teacher of his tribe. In a year or two he learned to read the Bible. At the age of nineteen he went to the Indian school of Dr. Wheeloch, of Lebanon, and remained with him four years. He afterwards kept a school amongst the Indians for ten or eleven years; and was eventually ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery, in 1759, after which he became very zealous in preaching amongst the scattered remnants of the Mohegan Indians.

[214] After his return to America he sometimes resided at Mohegan, and was often employed in missionary labours amongst distant Indians. In the latter years of his life he resided at New Stockbridge, near Brotherton, where he had collected a numerous congregation of the Mohegan root. He died in July, 1792. An excellent portrait of him was given in one of the early volumes of the _Evangelical Magazine_. He published a sermon preached at the execution of an Indian, in 1772. His sister, who was regarded as a pious woman, died at Mohegan, in June, 1830, aged 97. Samson Occum and his sister were descended, by their mother, from Uncas, chief of the Mohegans. The family have declined in power with the decay of the tribe. Isaiah Uncas attended Dr. Wheeloch’s school. About the year 1800, Noah and John Uncas were living: but the name is now extinct at Mohegan. The royal burial ground is not at Mohegan, but at Norwich city, a short distance from the falls of the Yantic. A few months after the death of Occum’s sister a _Sunday-school_ was opened at her house, where three or four generations of her descendants lived; and this commencement of benevolent efforts for the remnant of a once powerful tribe has led to the erection of a commodious place of worship, and the establishment of a teacher among these Indians.

[215] “There are less than a hundred Mohegans (says a late American writer), including those of mixed blood, now remaining. The French and revolutionary wars, and, above all, the use of spirituous liquors, have nearly exterminated the tribe. However, there is now reason to hope for amendment. They retain of their large territory 2,700 acres of good land, and have several houses, which they rent to white men. They have now schools and a preacher. If they renounce strong drink and cultivate their remaining land diligently, and especially if the power of religion should ever be felt among them, they will become a respectable and happy community.”

[216] We have already adverted to the expulsion of Dr. Haweis from Oxford, and we ought now to state that it was through the absurd authority of Hume, Bishop of that See, in whose eyes it was a crime to attract a great auditory, and be blessed in the conversion of many. His Grace of Canterbury (Seeker), of whom Dr. Haweis begged a fair investigation of his case, offering for inspection three hundred of his sermons, and courting enquiry into his life and actions, coldly said--“Sir, whether _you gave_ the offence, or _they took_ it, I shall not take it upon myself to determine.” In this way was Dr. Haweis deprived of his curacy without redress; yet he had influence, and was of a good family, long resident in Cornwall, and well known as Haweis of St. Coose. His mother, Miss Bridgeman Willyams, was the only daughter of John Willyams, Esq., of Carmanton, by the youngest daughter and co-heir of Colonel Humphrey Noy, whose father was attorney-general to Charles I. Her mother was a sister of the last Baron Sandys, of the Vine, on whose death, without issue, the title fell into abeyance among his sisters. Mr. Willyams (the father of Mrs. Haweis), of St. Coose, was conspicuous for his active and zealous adherence to the Stuarts, and suffered much persecution for his attachment to that unfortunate house. He was deprived, during the reign of William and Mary, of his commission of the peace, but was restored soon after the accession of Anne. When the old mansion was taken down, some ninety years ago, a fine picture of James II. was found curiously concealed in the roof. This valuable Jacobite relic is now at Carmanton.

Hester, the eldest sister of the Lord Sandys above referred to, was granddaughter and heiress of Lady Sandys, daughter of Edmund Brydges, second Lord Chandos. She was the great grandmother of Dr. Haweis, and her direct descendant is Davies Giddy, Esq. (now Davies Gilbert, F. R. S.), late M.P. for Bodmin, who is co-heir to the Barony of Sandys, of the Vine, in Hampshire.

John Oliver Willyams, a cousin of Dr. Haweis, married Charlotte, daughter of Chauncey Townsend, Esq., M.P. for London, sister to Mrs. Biddulph, whose son, Mr. Biddulph, is minister of St. James’s, Bristol. Another of his cousins became the wife of Lord James O’Brien, brother to the Marquis of Thomond. She died at Clifton, of consumption, leaving no child.

[217] However severe might be her Ladyship’s opinion of this transaction at the moment, she had always entertained a high opinion of the piety and moral worth of Dr. Haweis: he became one of her preachers, then her chaplain, and he was appointed in her will one of the chief managers of her chapels.

[218] The publication of these narratives produced two pamphlets from Mr. Brewer--the first entitled, “An Exact Copy of an Epistolary Correspondence between the Rev. Mr. Madan and the Rev. Samuel Brewer, concerning the living of Aldwincle; before the publication of either Mr. Kimpton’s or Mr. Madan’s narratives; with a design and desire of gratifying the public, answerable to their repeated demands on that unpleasant subject.” The second was published soon after, and entitled, “A Supplement; or the Second Part of an Epistolary Correspondence relative to the living of Aldwincle; containing several important letters, now forced to be made public to vindicate injured character and to undeceive the friends of religion.” From which publications it appears that Mr. Brewer thought with Mr. Kimpton on the subject. Captain Alexander Clunie, a hearer of Mr. Brewer’s, and his friend Mr. West, exerted themselves with great zeal to prevent these contradictory publications, and to reconcile Mr. Madan and Mr. Brewer without either appearing in print. “Mr. Madan (says Captain Clunie) told me he did not mind 1,000_l._ if Kimpton had a claim upon him; but to give one penny as hush-money was what he neither could nor would consent to.” Mr. Mays, one of Mr. Kimpton’s friends, published a pamphlet which Mr. Madan’s advisers thought libellous; and Mr. Madan’s brother, William Hale, Esq., of Kingswald, the candidate for Hertford, advised a prosecution.

[219] This letter enclosed a copy of an advertisement, which her Ladyship wished Messrs. Madan and Haweis to sign and insert in the papers of the day. The following is a copy. It was drawn up by the Countess herself:--“As the public have received much offence by our mutual transactions in the affair of the living of Aldwincle, we take this method of informing them that we are assured that Mr. Kimpton is honourably satisfied by the purchase of the advowson, unknown to us or our friends, and an end put to any further altercation on this subject; so we are desirous of saying that anything which might appear in our conduct contrary to the spirit of Christianity, through the weakness and various temptations attending this severe attack upon the honour and honesty belonging to Christian ministers, we think ourselves bound, from the grief occasioned to the religious world through our mistakes, or the willing prejudices of others against our characters, as ministers of Christ, to give every future proof which (notwithstanding so many unfortunate and various difficulties) shall in the issue convince even our worst enemies we have no meaning but to be found faithful messengers of peace, by the dispensation of that Gospel which renders this submission the consistent as well as genuine fruits of it.”

[220] Among his converts was an old innkeeper, who, having been a good customer to his own barrel, had carbuncled his nose into the sign of his calling. He was from nature and interest averse to the Methodists, and could not see what all the world, in his part, had to run after at Aldwincle church. Being fond of music, however, and hearing that the singing was admirable, he contrived, at the next feast-day, to go six miles, avoid a drinking party, and squeeze himself into a pew somewhat too narrow for his portly person, where he listened with delight to the hymns, but stopped his ears to the prayer. Heated and fatigued, he closed his eyes too, till a fly stinging his nose, he took his hands from the side of his head to punish the intruder; just then the preacher, in a voice that sounded like thunder, gave out the text--“He that hath ears to hear let him hear!” The impression was irresistible; his hand no longer covered his organs of hearing; a new sense was awakened within; it was the beginning of days to him. No more swearing, no more drunkenness, but prayer and hearing occupied his time, and he died after eighteen years walking with God, rejoicing in hope, and blessing the instrument of his conversion.

[221] Mr. Jones _was_ originally a hair-dresser, and a letter was produced among the evidence on this occasion, in which the writer stated that Mr. Jones had made a very good periwig for him only two years before. The fact was, however, that he had left the business at seventeen years of age, four years before he went to College. He had resided some time with Mr. Newton, then curate of Olney, and under his instruction made considerable progress in acquiring a knowledge, grammatical and critical, of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures. His moral character was unimpeached even by his accusers, and the charges against him were chiefly that he had been brought up to a trade, and had been guilty of praying, singing hymns, and expounding the Scriptures in private houses. After his expulsion he was much noticed by Lady Huntingdon, was ordained, became curate of Clifton, near Birmingham, married the sister of Cowper’s friend, the Lady Austin, and died rather suddenly several years ago.

Mr. Kay was of respectable family, and an excellent scholar. He was bible clerk at St. Edmund’s, and had an exhibition, paid by the Ironmongers’ Company.

Mr. Grove had been admitted in 1767, and was twenty-one years of age. He was expelled for barn preaching, a new crime, of which, however, there was no proof. In a petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury he acknowledged that his zeal had led him into certain irregularities, but he was not aware that they violated any statute. The Chancellor consented to his re-admission, but the Vice-Chancellor and his assessors refused, even after he had declared his willingness to make submission for irregularity.

Mr. Matthews was charged with having been instructed by Mr. Fletcher, a declared Methodist, of associating with known Methodists, and of attending illicit conventicles. He was afterwards received into Lady Huntingdon’s College, at Trevecca.

Mr. Middleton was accused of preaching at Cheveley, in Berkshire, not being in orders. This occurred three years before he entered the University, for which “daring impiety,” as Mr. Durrell called it, he was expelled by those who looked over a charge of blasphemy against Mr. Welling, on the ground that he was in drink when the blasphemy was uttered. But Mr. Middleton was further charged with having refused ordination from the Bishop of Hereford, and attaching himself to Mr. Haweis, who had boasted that he could get him into orders. Erasmus Middleton was, perhaps, the most distinguished of those persecuted students. He was supported at Cambridge by Fuller, the banker, a Dissenter, and ordained in Ireland by the Bishop of Down. In Scotland he married a branch of the ducal family of Gordon. In London he was curate to Romaine and Cadogan, and there he wrote his “Biographia Evangelica.” In his old age he was presented, by the Fuller family, with the living of Turvey, in Bedfordshire.

The accusations Mr. Shipman had to sustain were similar, and equally unfounded. He was, after his expulsion, admitted to the College of Trevecca.

The morality, then, of the students was not impugned. They were arraigned and expelled because they met together at Mrs. Durbridge’s, to read and expound the Scriptures, sing hymns, and pray extempore. This was construed into “attending an illicit conventicle;” but surely the words of the canon, of the University statute, and of the preamble to the Act of Parliament, plainly define a conventicle to be a meeting contrary to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, or dangerous to the public peace; whereas the writing at Oxford were of persons whose attachment to the doctrines of the Church, attendance upon her worship, and subscription to all her Articles were manifest and undeniable. Very similar were the charges of associating with Stillingfleet, Fletcher, Haweis, Venn, Newton, and other excellent persons. But the chief cause of the displeasure of their judges was the doctrine of these pious men. At that time their tenets were considered hostile to the Church to which they belonged; but time has done them justice, and the Church of England is daily adding to the number of her zealous and active ministers men who consider their doctrines not at variance with her Liturgy and Articles, and who, without any infringement of her rules, are preaching salvation through faith alone, and whose works are an answer to those who insinuate that they lay no stress upon them as evidences of their belief.

[222] As early as the year 1757, her Ladyship engaged Mr. Madan to itinerate through several parts of the kingdom, and preach, whenever an opportunity offered, that Gospel which bringeth life and immortality to light. Through Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Buckinghamshire, he was accompanied by Mr. Romaine; and on their arrival in Warwickshire they were joined by Mr. Talbot, then vicar of Kineton, in that county, from whence they proceeded through Worcestershire into Gloucestershire.

[223] He had just been admitted into orders, and shortly afterwards served us curate to Mr. Hervey, at Weston Favel.

[224] Articles intended to be proposed, mentioned in the foregoing letter:--

_The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever._ (Isaiah xxxii. 17).

Proposals of peace and union for the most universal spread of the Gospel in the Connexion of the Rev. Mr. Rowlands, Mr. Hogg, and Lady Huntingdon.

I. The Gloucestershire Connexion to deliver up to the Welsh Association all light, power, or influence in Haverfordwest, or elsewhere in Wales, held by them: thus having no preference.

II. That each Connexion take their own private cares and expenses upon themselves; and that those ministers that have been found most faithful to the Lord, and have been owned by him in each Connexion, shall by the other Connexions ever be accounted worthy of double honour, and be universally received by the several Connexions, when applied to for their services.

III. When any minister or ministers are wanted, a letter to be wrote to the immediate Connexion to which they belong, requesting their assistance, and for what time, that the most general help to the whole may be considered, and thus best and most universally served.

IV. No minister or principal in any of the Connexions to interfere in any other than their own, that no divisions may arise, and that, if such are known, it ought to be mutually agreed by all to discard such an one, and that all possible care be taken to prevent perplexities to the people, and that mutual love and unwearied diligence alike be expected, having this one point only in view, viz., the enlargement of our precious Lord’s kingdom, by the call of perishing souls all over England and Wales.

V. In order that this may be best effected, four general meetings in the year will be needful. To each of these a deputation, agreed upon, should be sent of six chosen out of each Connexion, to represent the bodies to which they belong, and to give in such particulars as they may want to communicate, and what mutual help from any quarter they may be best assisted by. These meetings to be at Mr. Rowlands’ Association, the College anniversary, the Gloucestershire Association, and another in London once a year, to have a full account of the last year’s success, and to agree upon the future steps for each Connexion unitedly to follow the ensuing year.

_Memorandum._--These hints are given for the benefit of the Gloucester Connexion, upon a supposition they act separately from the Tabernacle and other Connexions; otherwise Lady Huntingdon could not think of appearing to interfere with them, or in the smallest degree to divide friends, having no other meaning than those already mentioned, and to show by this her readiness to serve and comply with the wishes of Mr. Hogg, Mr. Vines, and Mr. Butler, as her own and Mr. Whitefield’s old friends.

If the first article respecting Haverfordwest is not complied with, the whole will drop.

[225] In the year 1807, an appeal was made to the liberality of the religious world in behalf of a chapel intended to be erected at Cheltenham, wherein the Gospel should be plainly preached, and the mode of worship should, as much as possible, meet the prejudices of all Christians, without invading the rights of conscience. The service was to be conducted on the plan of Lady Huntingdon’s chapels; the Liturgy to be read, and the pulpit open to ministers of various denominations who embraced orthodox principles, and whose characters were unblemished, till the congregation that might be gathered should fix upon a settled minister of sound piety and approved and suitable talents.

On the 5th of July, 1808, the foundation of this chapel was laid by the Rev. Rowland Hill, who addressed a very numerous assembly of about three thousand, in an energetic and appropriate speech; after which the Rev. John Brown, then minister of Lady Huntingdon’s chapel at Ebley, in Gloucestershire, concluded with prayer. On the 2nd of August, 1809, the chapel, being entirely finished, was opened for public worship by Mr. Hill, who preached in the morning, and Mr. Jay, of Bath, in the evening, to very crowded congregations. A variety of ministers supplied the chapel till the year 1813, when Mr. Brown, the present gifted and respectable minister, commenced his pastoral charge.

In 1816, Robert Capper, Esq., having taken up his residence at Cheltenham, built, at his own expense, a very handsome and commodious place of worship, called “Portland Chapel,” which, in the year 1819, he vested in the present trustees of Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion. This neat and convenient chapel was opened for public worship on Sunday, June 27th, 1819, by the Rev. James Sherman, now minister of Surrey Chapel, who preached both morning and evening. Portland Chapel was supplied by various ministers in the Connexion till the Rev. Elias Parry, who had his education at Cheshunt College, was appointed minister. On his removal to London, as minister of Northampton Tabernacle, the chapel was supplied by the Rev. J. L. Wake, who continues to be the minister.

Mr. Biddulph, when residing at Henwick Hill, within a mile of Cheltenham, opened his house morning and evening for family prayer; the faithful few who profited by this followed him to Tibberton church, and when he went away from Worcester (1767), assembled in a garret of Mr. Skinner’s warehouse. There Sir Richard Hill and his venerable brother, the late Rev. Rowland Hill, often preached. A few years ago, the latter, while passing with the present minister through the street in which the old building stood, immediately recognized it, and said, in a way peculiar to himself, “Why this is the place, is it not, where we used to preach at Mr. Skinner’s? Yes, in Mr. Skinner’s _garret_!”

[226] As “a Methodist,” in the usual acceptation of the word--that is, as applied, by the world indiscriminately to religious persons.

[227] See Nichols’s “Literary Anecdotes.”

[228] We have already noticed (see page 22) the intimacy of Lady Huntingdon with Lord Bolingbroke; and from her frequent visits to Twickenham, where her aunt, Lady Fanny Shirley, then resided [229], her early acquaintance with Pope may be inferred.

[229] Lady Fanny Shirley, the aunt of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, had a house at Twickenham, very near the residence of Pope. Lady Fanny was a reigning beauty of the Court of George I. Pope’s lines--

“Yes I beheld th’ Athenian Queen Descend, in all her sober charms,”

were addressed to her in return for “a standish and two pens.” Lord Chesterfield’s verses, commencing

“So the first man from Paradise was driven,”

were also written in celebration of Lady Fanny Shirley. To her were addressed Hervey’s “Theron and Aspasia,” and his observations on Bolingbroke’s “Use and Study of History.” Here it was that Lady Huntingdon became intimate with the celebrated men of the day. The house, which was left by Lady Fanny to her brother, the Hon. G. Shirley, of Eatington Park, Warwickshire, is now one of the residences of the present representative of that branch of the Shirley family, Evelyn John Shirley, Esq., M.P. for South Warwickshire.

[230] When Mr. John Wesley was preaching at Bath, some time before the coming of Charles, Beau Nash entered the room, and approaching the preacher, demanded by what authority he was acting. Mr. Wesley answered, “By that of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the present Archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid his hands upon me and said--‘_Take thou authority to preach the Gospel!_’” Nash then affirmed that he was acting contrary to law. “Besides (said he), your preaching frightens people out of their wits.” “Sir (replied Mr. Wesley), did you ever hear me preach?” “No,” said the Master of the Ceremonies. “How, then, can you judge of what you never heard?” “By common report,” replied Nash. “Sir (said Mr. Wesley), is not your name Nash? I dare not judge of you by common report.” Nash, finding himself a very different person in the meeting-house from what he was in the pump-room, thought it best to withdraw.

Nash sometimes conversed with Lady Huntingdon on religious subjects, and was once prevailed on to hear Mr. Whitefield at her house. Beau Nash was congratulated on his conversion by his gay associates, who failed not to rally him on his turning Methodist. Verses were written on her Ladyship and Mr. Nash, which were fastened to the walls of the pump-room and assembly-room; and printed notices were circulated in every direction, one of which was shown to the writer, many years ago, by Dr. Haweis, stating that “the Countess of Huntingdon, attended by some saintly sister, purposed preaching at the pump-room the following morning, and that Mr. Nash, henceforth to be known as the _Rev. Richard Nash_,” was expected to preach in the evening at the assembly-room. It was hoped that the audience would be numerous, as a collection was intended for the late Master of the Ceremonies, who was retiring from office. This profane raillery never discomposed the Countess, but gave great offence to Mr. Nash; and no inducement could ever after prevail upon him to go to Lady Huntingdon’s house.

This man of pleasure died as he lived--a monument of irreligion, folly, and vice, in the year 1761, aged 87! He dreaded the approach of death more than the generality of mankind; and sought refuge in some fancied devotion while it threatened him. Though a complete libertine in practice, none trembled more than he did. To embitter his hopes, he found himself at last abandoned by the great, whom he had long endeavoured to flatter and to serve, and was obliged to fly for protection to those of humbler station, whom he had once affected to despise. The corporation of Bath allowed him a scanty pittance, which saved this miserable trifler from starvation in his last days.

[231] Mr. Larwood withdrew from Mr. Wesley’s Connexion about the year 1753, at which time four others left the itinerant plan, and established Independent congregations in different parts of the kingdom. Mr. Larwood took an old Presbyterian chapel in the borough of Southwark, called Zoar, where he continued to preach till God called him hence, by a fever, in November, 1756.

[232] Of this gentleman, so distinguished for his zeal and imprudences during the early struggles of Methodism, an ample account will be found in the history of the Tabernacle at Norwich.

[233] Of this zealous itinerant, Mr. Wesley says, “He was an old labourer, worn out in the service of his Master.” He finished his course at Clones, in Ireland, in the year 1777.

[234] Herbert Jenkins joined Mr. Wesley’s society in 1743, and itinerated for some years in that Connexion, with great zeal and success. He afterwards joined Mr. Whitefield, and laboured in conjunction with Mr. Cennick, Mr. Adams, Mr. Godwin, &c., in the Tabernacle Connexion. He preached frequently for Mr. Kinsman, at Plymouth, by whom he was highly esteemed. He also laboured much in Wales; but when or where he finished his course we have not been able to learn.

[235] Mr. Richards afterwards left Mr. Wesley’s society, and obtained episcopal ordination through the interest of Lady Huntingdon. Mr. Meyrick, who preached more frequently than the others at her Ladyship’s residence, was a native of Cornwall, and brought up and educated for the law. He was remarkably zealous in propagating divine truth, and endured great persecutions in various parts of the kingdom. Having obtained episcopal ordination, through the intervention of Lady Huntingdon, he became curate of a small chapel in the parish of Halifax, in Yorkshire. A short time before his death he was made afternoon lecturer of the parish church of Halifax; and there he ended his days about the year 1770. Mr. Moss resided for some time with her Ladyship, who had a very sincere friendship for him, and showed him many acts of kindness. He was afterwards ordained by the Bishop of London, as a missionary for the Island of Providence, one of the Bahama Islands, in the West Indies, where he preached the Gospel for several years, in company with Mr. Tizzard, his fellow-labourer.

[236] Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge, edited by the Rev. Thomas Stedman, vicar of St. Chad’s, Shrewsbury.

[237] Belsham’s “Life of Lindsay.”

[238] Afterwards the Rev. Sir James Stonhouse, Bart., rector of Great and Little Cheveril, Wiltshire, the friend and correspondent of Lady Huntingdon, Whitefield, &c.

[239] Mrs. Scawen was the only daughter of Lord James Russell, fifth son of William, first Duke of Bedford, and niece of the celebrated Lady Rachel Russell, whose piety, virtue, and congenial affection have immortalized her memory. Mrs. Scawen was introduced to the notice of Lady Huntingdon by Dr. Doddridge, at a season of parental bereavement, when, in almost hopeless anguish, she was lamenting the loss of a child. The consolatory letters of Lady Huntingdon and of Dr. Doddridge were of singular service in leading her to more correct views of God, and the designs of Providence, in his afflicting dispensations.

[240] This gentleman was the very particular friend of Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Whitefield, and Mr. Hervey. He was nephew to the Rev. Robert Bragge, minister of an Independent congregation in Lime-street, London. He was educated for, and called to the ministry, and preached frequently in his uncle’s pulpit. Finding, however, that his conscience would not permit him to believe the truths which he from time to time delivered from the pulpit, he had the honesty to desist from preaching, and, in process of time, was chosen the Lord Mayor’s Common Hunt, a place of considerable profit. He possessed a large fortune, a considerable portion of which he lost in the South-Sea Bubble. In the fifty-second year of his age the Lord was pleased to pluck him as a firebrand out of the burning, under the powerful ministry of Mr. Cennick; in what manner he himself informs us, in the narrative of his experience, delivered before Mr. Richardson’s church, at the time of his being admitted a member, June 4, 1743, and afterwards published, with a recommendation by Mr. Whitefield. He survived his conversion upwards of twenty years, and during that time bore a noble testimony to the truth and power of religion. He died happily, June 23, 1763, aged seventy-three. When writing to Mr. Keene, Mr. Whitefield speaks thus of his death:--“Mr. Cruttenden, I find, is gone. God be praised that he went off so comfortably! May our expiring hour be like his.”--_See Whitefield’s Letters, Brown’s Life of Hervey, and Porter’s Sermon on the Death of Mr. Cruttenden._

[241] This gentleman was the son of the Rev. Dr. Neale, who, as a historian, has obtained considerable celebrity. His son, Mr. Nathaniel Neale, was an eminent attorney and secretary to the Million Bank. His mother was a sister of the learned Dr. Nathaniel Lardner. He was also secretary of Coward’s trustees, and wrote some insolent letters to Dr. Doddridge, on account of his liberality towards the Methodists.

[242] Pope’s introducing Warburton to Mr. Allen led to his marriage with Miss Gertrude Tucker. The splendid seat of Mr. Allen, Prior Park, immediately became the residence, and afterwards the property, of Warburton.

[243] Dr. Hartley was a man of genius, and had a wide acquaintance with books, and a mind active and adventurous, eager to pursue knowledge, and attentive to retain it; always investigating, always aspiring; and therefore not easily silenced by the violence and arrogance of Warburton. He received his academical education at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of A.M., being intended for the Church, but having some scruples about subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles, turned his attention to the study of physic. He settled for some time in London, from whence he removed to Bath, where he practised with great reputation till his death, August 28, 1757, leaving two sons and a daughter.--_See Hartley’s Life, by his son, who was M.P. for Hull, 1766._

[244] This eminent physician, so celebrated in his day, had long resided at Bath, where he had great practice, and acquired a large fortune. Although he had long been intimate with Lady Huntingdon and Dr. Stonehouse, after his conversion to Christianity, yet he remained a most inveterate infidel till a short time before his death. In his last illness the arrows of conviction stuck fast in him. Lady Huntingdon said she never saw a person more thoroughly humbled, distressed, and broken in heart. Visiting him a few days before he died, he lamented not only his own past infidelity, but the zeal and success with which he had endeavoured to infect the minds of others. “O that I could undo the mischief I have done! I was more ardent (said he) to poison people with the principles of irreligion and unbelief, than almost any Christian can be to spread the doctrines of Christ!” “Cheer up! (answered Lady Huntingdon). Jesus, the great sacrifice for sin, atoned for the sins of the second table as well as for those of the first.” “God (replied he) certainly can, but I fear he never will, pardon such a wretch as I.” “You may fear it at present (rejoined her Ladyship), but you and I shall most certainly meet each other in heaven.” The Doctor then said, “O woman! great is thy faith! my faith cannot believe that I shall ever be there.”

Soon after, the Lord lifted up the light of his countenance upon Dr. Oliver’s soul, and he lay the rest of his time triumphing and praising God for the free grace he had bestowed upon him.

Dr. Oliver’s second daughter, Charlotte, married Sir John Pringle, Bart., a celebrated physician, philosopher, and president of the Royal Society. He favoured the public with many useful works, some of which are translated into several of the European languages. On the accession of George III., Sir John Pringle was appointed physician to the Queen’s household. For many years he constantly attended Lady Huntingdon, and entertained a high veneration for her Ladyship. He died, greatly beloved and respected, Jan. 18, 1782.

[245] Aunt of the late General Grinfield and the Rev. Thomas Grinfield, of Kensington, who espoused Anne, daughter of Joseph Forster, Esq., youngest son of Colonel John Forster, of the island of Jamaica, who afterwards assumed the surname of Barham.

[246] But Mrs. Grinfield continued her intimacy with Lady Huntingdon and her friendship for Mr. Whitefield, and when the Tabernacle-house at Bristol was without a servant, she lent her own, Mrs. Elizabeth King, for that purpose. This respectable woman afterwards kept the Tabernacle-house in London, and found at last shelter in the house of the Rev. Dr. Winter, enjoying a pension for her services, and blessed with the means of grace as long as she could use them.

[247] Mrs. Bevan was a daughter and co-heiress of Mr. Vaughan, of Derllysg, in the parish of Merthyr, Carmarthenshire, and received her first serious impressions under the apostolic ministry of Griffith Jones, rector of Llandowvor. She was very handsome, sensible, and accomplished. Her husband, Arthur Bevan, Esq., of Langharne, was rector of the county-borough of Carmarthen, and for fourteen years its representative in Parliament; his public conduct was at once dignified and endearing, and he died March 6, 1745, aged 56, beloved and lamented. To Mr. Jones, Mrs. Bevan was ever grateful and affectionate, attended his ministry at Llandowvor and Llandilo, powerfully assisted his efforts in establishing that blessing to the poor of the principality, the Welsh Circulating Charity-schools; and at last, in 1761, it was in her house at Langharne that he died, and at her own expense she erected a monument to his memory in the parish church he had so faithfully served. For twenty years after his death she continued his schools, and in her will left 10,000_l._ to perpetuate their good effects. The executrix, Lady Stepney, disputed the legacy, and it was thrown into Chancery, whence, in 1808, it came, increased to a vast sum, and was applied to the purposes willed by the testatrix. At every visit of Mr. Whitefield to Bath he preached in Mrs. Bevan’s house, and at the period of which we speak the Earls of Chesterfield and Huntingdon, and Mrs. Stanhope, were among the distinguished auditory. Mrs. Bevan’s elegant and accomplished manners attracted Lord Chesterfield’s attention, and having studied the Deistical writers of the age, she was enabled to give all her eminent ability and clearness to the discussion of the topics he was fond of introducing. She easily and solidly refuted his plausible objections to revealed religion. “Lord Chesterfield’s inclination to subvert Christianity (she writes to Lady Huntingdon) has involved me in many inconsistencies. A greater proof of his prejudices and his being reduced to the last distress in point of argument is his general clamours and invectives against _all_ historical evidence, as absolutely uncertain; and it is not so much the corruptions of Christianity that his Lordship finds fault with, as with the Christian revelation itself, which he does not scruple to represent as the product of enthusiasm or imposture. Yet, at other times, he will agree with me, that never were there any facts that had clearer and more convincing evidence attending them than the extraordinary and miraculous facts whereby the divine original and authority of the Christian revelation was attested and confirmed. This strange fluctuation of opinion I can account for only on this ground--that the incontrovertible and undeniable evidence of these facts has overcome the notions and prejudices with which his mind has been so strongly prepossessed; and it is this shaking of the Babel of unbelief that fills me with hope that the Great Dispenser of spiritual benefits will, of his free grace and mercy, reveal to his Lordship’s mind the grand and harmonious system of revealed truth, the several parts of which are like so many links of a beautiful chain, one part answering to another, and all concurring to exhibit an admirable plan, in which the wisdom, the grace and goodness, and the righteousness of God most eminently shine forth. Your Ladyship’s great intimacy with and friendship for Lord Chesterfield has induced me to be thus minute in what related to him. Of Lord Huntingdon I have not had much opportunity of forming an opinion; but I hear from good Lady Gertrude, that Sir Charles and his Lordship are inseparable, and have long and animated discussions on the most interesting topics. He has called frequently on Mrs. Grinfield, with whom he seems much pleased. Your Ladyship is well assured she will not lose a favourable opportunity of speaking a word in season.”

[248] At the moment of Miss Hotham’s triumphant departure, Mr. Whitefield was at Portsmouth, and, as soon as he received the intelligence, he wrote an affecting letter to Lady Gertrude. On his return to town he preached a funeral sermon at the Tabernacle on the death of Miss Hotham, to an overflowing and deeply-affected congregation; and, having heard from Lady Huntingdon of the Christian fortitude with which Lady Gertrude supported her deprivation, he wrote a kind and consoling letter to the bereaved mother, who was greatly comforted by religious resignation and the sympathies of tender friends.

[249] See, in the second volume of Mr. Whitefield’s Letters, a narrative of his last interview with Miss Hotham, addressed to Lady Elizabeth Hastings, afterwards Countess of Moira, the eldest daughter of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon.

[250] This interesting account of the death of the good and pious Lady Gertrude Hotham the writer received from the lips of Lady Maxwell, of Edinburgh, one well acquainted with the leading worthies mentioned in these memoirs. The reader is referred to a letter from Mr. Venn to Mrs. Ryland, Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Venn’s friend and correspondent, wife of the Rev. John Ryland, formerly curate of Huddersfield, and afterwards minister of St. Mary’s, Birmingham, and rector of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, who died in 1822.

[251] We have elsewhere adverted to Mr. Lindsay. His mother had lived many years in the family of Frances, Countess-Dowager of Huntingdon. The Earl was his godfather, and gave him the name of Theophilus. By the kindness of Lady Betty and Lady Anne Hastings, he was placed at the Free Grammar School at Leeds, under the Rev. Mr. Barnard (the biographer of Lady Betty), and his vacations were spent at the house of his noble patrons. With them, too, his mother and only sister continued to find a shelter after the death of his father. The mother died in 1747, and over her remains was erected a stone, on which we read, that “while a child she had been the playfellow, and when a widow the friend, of Lady Anne Hastings, who erected that monument to her memory, and was a sincere and affectionate mourner for her death.” The Rev. Theophilus Lindsay was appointed by Lord Huntingdon to the living of Piddletown, in Dorsetshire, which he exchanged for the vicarage of Catterick. Afterwards he seceded from the Established Church, and the personal intercourse with his noble patron was suspended. Yet in 1786, when he visited Trevecca, the Countess gave orders that all attention should he shown him, and received himself and wife “most graciously, as usual,” as he himself has recorded. _Much and earnest conversation passed between the Lady Selina and Mr. Lindsay on the subject of the Earl, her son._ Mr. Lindsay hinted, that possibly the state of future punishment might be only a process of severe discipline, and that the greatest sinners might ultimately find mercy. These words sank deep into her heart. “Some good, I hope, is done (says Mr. Lindsay), where much is intended by this praiseworthy lady, who has _for full forty years_ devoted her fortune, time, and labour to promote what she believes to be the truth.”

[252] A Danish Count, brother to the ambassador, who was a constant attendant on Mr. Whitefield’s preaching at Lady Huntingdon’s.

[253] Her Ladyship sent for Mr. Rowland Hill, but Lord Chesterfield refused to see him. After his Lordship’s death this reverend gentleman became chaplain to Lady Chesterfield; and she, like Lady Huntingdon, used to open her splendid mansion for the preaching of the Gospel.

[254] Lord Chesterfield’s character is too well known to require much comment.

[255] The Countess of Bath was one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Colonel Gumley, so frequently mentioned in these memoirs. Horace Walpole, writing to George Montague, says--“Gumley, whom you know, has grown Methodist. His wit is at its wit’s end. Whitefield preaches continually at Lady Huntingdon’s, at Chelsea. Lord Chesterfield, Lord Bath, Lady Townsend, Lady Thanet, and others, have been to hear him; nor shall I wonder if, next winter, he is run after instead of Garrick!”

[256] The letters of Mr. Romaine to Mrs. Medhurst, of Kippax, published by her brother-in-law, the Rev. Thomas Wills, refer to this period and to his preaching at Derby, both at the great church and at St. Werburgh’s. “Fifteen pulpits (he says) were open, and showers of grace came down; but Mrs. Wordsworth was taken ill and obliged to go to Bath, and this broke up the party.” The late Zachary Shrapnell (a man of great piety, and the intimate friend of Lady Huntingdon) was then at the Park. In his rambles he met with a poor cottager, whose account of her own conversion, by Mr. Romaine, produced a very powerful impression on his mind. “Some time ago (she said) there was a famous man down in this country, called Mr. Romaine; he preached some miles off, and many of the neighbours went to hear him, so I thought I would go too. Accordingly away I trudged; and he had no sooner begun his discourse, but it seemed all directed to me: he opened the depravity of my heart and nature, convinced my conscience of the awful condition in which I had been living, showed me the wages of sin which was due to me, the truth of which I felt in my own soul. He then spoke of the fulness and glory of Christ, described his sufferings and passion, and the design of them, displayed the riches of his grace to the miserable and the desperate, and invited them to embrace it and be blessed. Sir, you cannot think the instantaneous and wonderful effect it had upon me. I was convinced of sin, justified by faith, and came home rejoicing; and from that day to this have never lost the sweet savour of the truths I then embraced. How I should long to hear the gentleman! Do you know him? I think they said he came from London.” Mr. Shrapnell, who was himself a convert of Romaine, was proportionately affected by this singular proof of God’s grace to him and Lady Huntingdon, and of his blessing on their endeavours. Mr. Shrapnell was the father of Major-General Henry Shrapnell, and Miss Rachael Shrapnell, who married the Rev. Thomas Tregenna Biddulph, minister of St. James’s, Bristol. The Rev. Thomas Shrapnell Biddulph, eldest son of the last-named, is a prebendary of Brecon, and a magistrate of the counties of Carmarthen and Pembroke. He married a daughter of the Rev. James Stillingfleet, prebendary of Worcester, the intimate friend of Lady Huntingdon.

[257] Relict of John Wordsworth, Esq., of the Isle of Thanet, to whom she was united in 1758. She was sister to Mr. Townsend, rector of Pewsey, in Wiltshire, was a woman of talent, and for many years the intimate friend and correspondent of Mr. Romaine. In January, 1771, she became the wife of Dr. Haweis, rector of Aldwincle. She was a good Hebraist, and the _Clavis Hebraica_ of Julius Bates was Mr. Romaine’s present to her at her wedding.

[258] The Duchess-Countess of Sutherland died in London, in February, 1839. Her remains were conveyed (in a steam-boat) to Aberdeen, to be deposited in the vault of her ancestors.

[259] Margaret Rolle, a great Devonshire heiress, the wife of Robert Lord Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford, separated from her husband and quarrelled violently with his whole family. On the death of Lord Orford she married the Hon. Sewallis Shirley, uncle to Lady Huntingdon, from whom she also separated in 1754. She affected, at times, great friendship for Lady Huntingdon, and often attended her chapels and the preaching at her house. She was a woman of very singular character, and considered half mad; this last quality she communicated to her unfortunate son, George, third Earl of Orford, the nephew of Horace Walpole. In 1751 she succeeded, in her own right, to the baronies of Clinton and Say, on the death of Hugh, Earl Clinton. She died at Pisa, in Italy, in 1781, and was buried at Leghorn.

[260] There was something else which Walpole did not know of--a seat for Bishops. It was often occupied too! The witty and eccentric Lady Betty Cobbe, daughter-in-law of Dr. Charles Cobbe, Archbishop of Dublin, was cousin-german to Lady Huntingdon. Her influence was extensive, and frequently exerted in bringing Bishops to the chapel, whom she always contrived to _smuggle_ into the _curtained seats_ immediataly inside the door, where they heard without undergoing the dreadful disgrace of being seen in such a place. This seat Lady Betty facetiously termed “_Nicodemus’s corner!_”

[261] Amongst the number of the great and honourable who at that period frequented her Ladyship’s chapel was to be found Dr. William Barnard, formerly Dean of Rochester, but at that time Bishop of Derry, a man advanced in years, and one who professed a friendship for those who were stigmatized with the name of Methodist. It was at the recommendation of Mr. Wesley that his Lordship ordained Mr. Maxwell, the _first_ Methodist lay-preacher. Increasing infirmities obliged his Lordship to reside at Bath, where he had frequent opportunities of enjoying the society of Lady Huntingdon, to whom he was introduced by Lady Betty Cobbe. The Bishop frequently accompanied Lady Betty to hear the Methodists unseen, and was always very friendly towards the ministers who supplied the chapel. On one occasion Mr. Wesley says--“In the evening I left London, and reached Bath on Tuesday, in the afternoon, time enough to wait on that memorable man, the Bishop of Londonderry. After spending an agreeable and profitable hour with him, my brother read prayers, and I preached in Lady Huntingdon’s chapel. I know not when I have seen a more serious, a more deeply attentive congregation. Is it possible? Can the Gospel have place where Satan’s throne is?”

[262] One proof of his cheerfulness may take the form of an anecdote:--Passing through Towcester, in one of his preaching excursions for Lady Huntingdon, he asked the innkeeper where he put up, it being Saturday morning, who was the vicar, and, as he should stay the next day, whether he would be glad of assistance? “Oh! yes (said the landlord), I dare say, Sir, he will be glad to have his duty done.” “Then carry my compliments, and say a clergyman out of Yorkshire is passing, and will stay to-morrow at the inn, and is ready to read or preach for him, if he needs assistance.” Away went the innkeeper, with what he thought welcome intelligence, to the parson. “Gladly (said the vicar); but what sort of a man is the Yorkshire clergyman? There are Methodist vagrants you know--eh!” The innkeeper laughed, shook his head, and replied, “Ah! Sir, only look at his face and nose, and you will see he is not one of that sort.” In truth, a rubicundity of face and rotundity of form gave Mr. Venn no very Methodistical appearance. “Well (said the vicar), let him come to me in the morning, and then I will see whether I like him to preach or pray.” The landlord returned with the message, and the next morning Mr. Venn waited on his reverend brother. “Sir (says he, after the first bows), you are from Yorkshire?” “I am.” “Will you drink a dram this morning?” “I have no objection.” The bottle came from the closet, and Mr. Venn took a sip. His character was now decided. “Sir, you will preach for me this morning?” “With pleasure.” Robed and ready, they parted to the church, and Mr. Venn to the pulpit. There, his Bible no sooner opened, than the congregation stared, and the vicar hid his face in the surplice. The energetic truth awakened up an attention to which that congregation had been little accustomed. The vicar was done, and left Mr. Venn to retire to his inn alone. A very similar incident occurred during this visit to Bath, and is given in Mr. Venn’s Life, by his grandson. The anecdote we have just related is given verbatim from the mouth of Dr. Haweis.

[263] The Rev. John Andrews was originally of St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford, where he took the degree of LL.B. He resided in America for some years, but was obliged to return to England on account of the bad state of his health. The Archbishop of Canterbury offered him, on his coming over, a living of eighty pounds a year; but, alarmed at the laborious duties of the parish, he requested the Archbishop to give him the living of Stinchcombe, of thirty-six pounds a year, in the diocese of Gloucester, and in the Bishop’s patronage. The see of Gloucester was at that time vacant, and his Grace asked the living of the Lord Chancellor, who presented it to Mr. Andrews. In the parish of Mr. Andrews lived a Mrs. Brown, who used to exhort the people every Sunday evening in the parsonage-house, and, according to high authority, with very great power.

[264] Although the living was given to Mr. Andrews by the Lord Chancellor before Warburton was appointed to the see of Gloucester, yet he calls himself his _patron_!

[265] As he was walking early on a Lord’s-day to preach, he was accosted on the road by a clergyman on horseback, who was on the same errand, but from a different motive. The latter gentleman was complaining that the drudgery of his profession was unprofitable, for he never could get above half-a-guinea for preaching. The honest Welshman replied, that he preached for a crown. The hireling retorted and said, “You are a disgrace to the cloth.” “Perhaps (said Mr. Davies) I shall be held in greater disgrace, in your estimation, when I inform you that I am now going nine miles to preach, and have but sevenpence in my pocket to bear my expenses out and in, and do not expect the poor pittance remitted that I am now in possession of. But I look forward for that _crown of glory_ which my Lord and Saviour will freely bestow upon me, when he makes his appearance before an assembled world.” In the same way Mr. Venn, in one of his excursions to preach for the Countess of Huntingdon, while riding on the road, fell in company with a person who had the appearance of a clergyman. After riding together for some time, conversing on different subjects, the stranger, looking in his face, said, “Sir, I think you are on the wrong side of fifty?” “On the wrong side of fifty! (answered Mr. Venn)--no, Sir, I am on the right side of fifty.” “Surely (the clergyman replied) you must be turned of fifty?” “Yes, Sir (added Mr. Venn), but I am on the right side of fifty, for I am nearer my crown of glory!” This unexpected explanation damped the conversation on the part of the stranger, whilst it strikingly evinced the happy state of Mr. Venn’s mind.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.

3. Italics are shown as _xxx_.