Wesley Corpus

The manner was particular: No table-cloth was used, but plates, with knives and forks, and napkins, to each person, and fifteen or sixteen small ones; on which were bread, butter, cheese, slices of hung beef, cakes, pancakes, and fruit of various kinds. To these were added music upon an excellent organ, one of the sweetest tones I ever heard. Sat. 19.--We took a walk in Haerlem wood. So delightful a place I scarce ever saw before. I judged it to be about a mile broad, and two or three miles, deep. This is divided into almost innumerable walks, some broad and some narrow, but diversified in a wonderful manner, and skirted with elegant houses on both sides. In the afternoon we returned to Amsterdam. In the evening Mr. Shranten, a bookseller, (whose daughter had come with us in the boat to Amsterdam,) an Elder of the Holland's church, invited us to supper, and desired me to expound a portion of Scripture, which I did with liberty of spirit. Afterward Mr. Brackenbury repeated to them in French the substance of what I had said. Sun. 20.--I expected to have preached in the English church, as I did before ; but some of the Elders were unwilling : So I attended there as a hearer; and I heard as miserable a sermon as most I have heard in my life. It might have been preached either among Jews, Turks, or Heathens, without offending them at all. In the afternoon I expounded, to a company of serious Christians, our Lord’s account of building our house upon a rock. Jonathan Ferguson interpreted sentence by sentence; and God applied it to the hearts of the hearers. Mon. 21.-I spent an hour with great satisfaction at Mr. Noltanu's country-house. Such a couple as him and his wife, I never saw since I left London; and both their children appeared to be worthy of their parents, both as to person, understanding, and temper. Aug. 1786.] JOURNAL. 347 Tues. 22.-I spent great part of the day at Mr. Wankennel’s country-house, having agreed with him to give me a private room to write in, before and after dinner. At ten, a very sensible Clergyman came in, with whom I conversed very largely, as he talked elegant Latin, and exceeding fluently, beyond any I have lately seen on the Continent.