Note 513 — SEVEN MONTHS IN ENGLAND.

Charles Square, Hoxton, was a favourite preaching place of the first Methodists. The following, taken from the New Weekly Miscellany, pretends to describe one of these preaching scenes: "When the teacher ascends the place appointed for him, he uses all the gestures of a mountebank, or posture-master. His constant hearers are frequently about two thousand,—all of them the scum of the people, and consisting of near ten women to one man. Of the rest of the people, some are coming only to look on, and satisfy their curiosity; and others are going off as soon as their curiosity is satisfied. Some are laughing, others swearing; some are selling gin, and others ballads. Some take the opportunity of vending the printed controversies between Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley; others are in a maze to see religion brought into such contempt and ridicule by men in gowns. The houses of the gentlemen living in the Square are filled with their acquaintances, from the city, as though they had come to see bears or monkeys. One of the gentlemen said, he would get a French horn, for his diversion during the time of these preaching performances. The story took air, and near a hundred of the gang stood before his house, as if they intended to assault it; while the preacher, in his gown, looked at the gentleman, and said, 'You unbeliever! you are certainly damned!'"