Wesley Corpus

To his Mother Date: COLEN, June 28, 1738. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1738) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR MOTHER, -- We left Amsterdam on Thursday evening last, and, coming to Utrecht in the morning, walked thence through a most pleasant and fruitful country to Beurn, a walled town belonging to the Prince of Orange. Hence on Saturday we went, partly by land, partly by water, to Nimwegen, the last town in Holland, strongly fortified with a triple wall and ditch; and having walked three or four hours through a double row of trees, which ran (mostly) through large cornfields, we took up our lodging an hour short of Cleves. Sunday, 25th, we made a short journey after our morning service, and, lying by the middle part of the day, in the evening came to a convenient lodging; only that, after the manner of the Lutherans, they were fiddling, singing, and dancing in the next room till we went to bed. The next day we found, by the crosses everywhere set up, we were got out of the Lutheran electorate, as well as by the convents, many of which were in every city and some in the country we passed through. Yesterday evening we came hither. It is the ugliest, dirtiest town I ever yet saw. There is neither form nor comeliness belonging to it. The great church itself is mere heaps upon heaps, -- a vast misshaped or rather no-shaped building, with no regularity or proportion within or without; many of the stones broken, the windows dusty and full of cobwebs, and the pavement less clean than that of many English stables. This afternoon we are to set out by water for Mentz, [Mayence.] forty-eight hours from hence, and eight hours only distant from Frankfort, where Count Zinzendorf now is.