Wesley Corpus

borough, in Sir Nevil Hickman’s yard. But Sir Nevil is no more, and has left no son; so the very name of that ancient family is lost ! And how changed is the house since I was young, and good Sir Willoughby Hickman lived here ! One of the towers is said to have been built in the reign of King Stephen, above six hundred years ago. But it matters not; yet a little while, and the earth itself, with all the works of it, will be burned up. Sat. 24.--I preached at New Inn; afterwards at Newark,+ one of the most elegant towns in England; and in the evening at Retford, on, “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” Sun. 25.--I preached at Misterton. I was grieved to see so small a congregation at Haxey church. It was not so when Mr. Harle lived here. O what a curse in this poor land are pluralities and non-residence | But these are evils that God alone can cure. About one I preached at Overthorpe, where the spreading trees sheltered both me and the congregation. But we had a * The following is Warton's translation of this quotation from Virgil:-- The good AEneas am I call'd ; my fame, And brave exploits, have reach'd the starry frame.--EDIT. 336 REv. J. WESLEY’s Journ AL. [June, 1786. far larger at Epworth, between four and five in the afternoon. Surely God will visit this place yet again, and lift up them that are fallen.- Mon. 26.--I read Prayers and preached in Owstone church, thoroughly filled with attentive hearers; and again at nine in the morning. Tuesday, 27. At one in the afternoon I preached at Belton. While I was preaching, three little children, the eldest six years old, the youngest two and a half, whom their mother had left at dinner, straggled out, and got to the side of a well, which was near the house. The youngest, leaning over, fell in : The others striving to pull it out, the board gave way; in consequence of which, they all fell in together. The young one fell under the bucket, and stirred no more; the others held for a while by the side of the well, and then sunk into the water, where it was supposed they lay half an hour.