Wesley Corpus

Sat. 10.--We rode to Kilkenny, one of the pleasantest and the most ancient cities in the kingdom; and not inferior to any at all in wickedness, or in hatred to this way. I was therefore glad of a permission to preach in the Town-Hall; where a 100 REv. J. wesLEY’s [July, 1762. small, serious company attended in the evening. Sunday, 11. I went to the cathedral; one of the best-built which I have seen in Ireland. The pillars are all of black marble; but the late Bishop ordered them to be white-washed! Indeed, marble is so plentiful near this town, that the very streets are paved with it. At six in the evening I began preaching in the old Bowling green, near the Castle. Abundance of people, Protestants and Papists, gathered from all parts. They were very still during the former part of the sermon; then the Papists ran together, set up a shout, and would have gone further, but they were restrained, they knew not how. I turned to them, and said, “Be silent; or be gone!” Their moise ceased, and we heard them no more: So I resumed, and went on with my discourse, and concluded without interruption. When I came out of the Green, they gathered again, and gnashed upon me with their teeth: One cried out, “O what is Kilkenny come to !” But they could go no farther. Only two or three large stones were thrown; but none was hurt, save he that threw them: For, as he was going to throw again, one seized him by the neck, and gave him a kick and a cuff, which spoiled his diversion. Mon. 12.--I went to Dunmore-Cave, three or four miles from Kilkenny. It is full as remarkable as Poole's Hole, or any other in the Peak. The opening is round, parallel to the horizon, and seventy or eighty yards across. In the midst of this, there is a kind of arch, twenty or thirty feet high By this you enter into the first cave, nearly round, and forty or fifty feet in diameter. It is encompassed with spar stones, just like those on the sides of Poole's Hole. On one side of the cave is a narrow passage, which goes under the rock two or three hundred yards; on the other, an hollow, which no one has ever been able to find an end of.