London; and, as I had not money sufficient to bear the expenses of both to town, I left her all the money I could spare, and took a place on the outside of the stage coach, and the second day arrived at the metropolis, in August 1773, with two shillings and sixpence in my pocket; and recollecting the address of an old townsman, who was also a spiritual brother,

"Whose hair in greasy locks hung down,
As strait as candles from the crown,
To shade the borders of his face,
Whose outward signs of inward grace
Were only visible in spiteful

Grimaces, very stern and frightful.”

BUTLER'S Posth. Works.

This holy brother was also a journeyman shoemaker, who had arrived at the summit of his expectations, being able to keep a house over his head, (as he chose to express himself,) that is, by letting nearly the whole of it out in lodgings, he was enabled to pay the rent. This house was in White-cross street, which I found out the morning after my arrival, where I procured a lodging, and Mr Heath, in Fore street, supplied me with plenty of work.

"I laugh'd then and whistled, and sang too most sweet, Saying, just to a hair I've made both ends meet.

Derry-down."

I am, dear friend, yours.

LETTER XIX.

"I'll travel no more-I'll try a London audienceWho knows but I may get an engagement ?"

WILD OATS.

"When superstition (bane of manly virtues !) Strikes root within the soul, it overruns

And kills the power of reason."

DEAR FRIEND,

PHILLIP'S Duke of Gloucester.

Ar this time I was as visionary and superstitious as ever I had been at any preceeding period, for although I had read some sensible books, and had thereby acquired a few rational ideas, yet, having had a methodistical wife for near three years, and my keeping methodistical company, together with the gloomy notions which in spite of reason and philosophy I had imbibed during the frequent, long, and indeed almost constant illness of my wife, the consequence was, that those few rational or liberal ideas which I had before treasured up, were at my coming to London in a dormant state, or borne down by the torrent of enthusiastic whims, and fanatical chimeras.

"Oh! what a reasonless machine Can superstition make the reas'ner man!"

MALLET'S Mahomet.

So that as soon as I procured a lodging and work, my next enquiry was for Mr Wesley's gospel-shops : and on producing my class and band tickets from Taunton I was put into a class, and a week or two after admitted into a band.

But it was several weeks before I could firmly re

solve to continue in London; as I really was struck with horror for the fate of it, more particularly on Sundays, as I found so few went to church, and so many were walking and riding about for pleasure, and the lower class getting drunk, quarrelling, fighting, working, buying, selling, &c. I had seen so much of the same kind in Bristol, that I often wondered how God permitted it to stand; but London I found infinitely worse, and seriously trembled for fear the measure of iniquity was quite full, and that every hour would be its last. However, I at length concluded, that if London was a second Sodom, I was a second Lot; and these comfortable ideas reconciled me to the thoughts of living in it.

"I said, it was a wretched place,
Unfit for any child of grace;
Tis ripe for judgment: Satan's seat,
The sink of sin, and hell complete ;
In ev'ry street of trulls a troop,

And ev'ry cook-maid wears a hoop."

SOMERVILLE.

And some of Mr Wesley's people gave me great comfort by assuring me, that "the Lord had much people in this city:" which I soon discovered to be true, as I got acquainted with many of those righteous, chosen saints, who modestly arrogate to themselves that they are the peculiar favourites of heaven, and consequently that any place they reside in must be safe!

In a month I saved money sufficient to bring up my wife, and she had a tolerable state of health; of my master I obtained some stuff-shoes for her to bind, and nearly as much as she could do. Having now plenty of work and higher wages, we were tolerably easy in our circumstances, more so than ever we had been, so that we soon procured a few clothes. My wife had all her life before done very well with a superfine broad cloth cloak, but now I prevailed on her

to have one of silk.

Until this winter I had never found out that I wanted a great coat, but now I made that important discovery.

"A winter garment now demands your care,

To guard the body from the inclement air;
Soft be the inward vest, the outward strong,

And large to wrap you warm, down reaching long.”
COOKE'S Hesiod.

My landlord shewed me one made of a coarse kind of Bath-coating, which he purchased new at a shop in Rosemary lane, for ten shillings and sixpence ; so that the next half-guinea I had to spare, away I went to Rosemary lane, and (to my great surprise,) was hauled into a shop by a fellow who was walking up and down before the door of a slopseller, where I was soon fitted with a great-coat of the same sort as that of my landlord. I asked the price; but how great was my astonishment, when the honest shopman told me, that he was so taken with my clean, honest, industrious looks, that he would let me have it cheaper than he would his own brother, so in one word he would oblige me with it for five-andtwenty shillings, which was the very money that it cost him. On hearing this I crossed the shop in a trice, in order to set off home again, but the door had a fastening to it beyond my comprehension, nor would the good man let me out before I had made him an offer. I told him I had so little money about me that I could not offer anything, and again desired that he would let me out. But he persisted, and at last I told him that my landlord had informed me that he had purchased such another coat for ten shillings and sixpence; on which he began to give himself airs, and assured me that, however some people came by their goods, for his part, he always paid for his. I heartily wished myself out of the shop, but in vain, as he seemed determined not to part with me until I had made some offer. I then

told him that I had but ten shillings and sixpence, and of course could not offer him any more than I had got. I now expected more abuse from him, but instead of that the patient good man told me, that as he perhaps might get something by me another time, I should have the coat for my half-guinea, although it was worth more than double the money. About the end of November I received an account of the death of my grandfather.

"The good old gentleman expir'd,
And decently to heav'n retir'd."

I was also informed that he had left a will in favour of my grandmother-in-law's relations, who became possessed of all his effects, except a small freehold estate, which he left to my youngest brother, because he happened to be called George, (which was the name of my grandfather,) and ten pounds a-piece to each of his other grand-children.

So totally unacquainted was I with the modes of transacting business, that I could not point out any method of having my ten pounds sent up to London, at least, no mode that the executor of the will would approve of; it being such a prodigious sum, that the greatest caution was used on both sides; so that it cost me about half the money in going down for it and in returning to town again. This was in extremely hard frosty weather, (I think some time in December,) and being on the outside of a stagecoach, I was so very cold, that when I came to the inn where the passengers dined, I went directly to the fire, which struck the cold inward, so that I had but a very narrow escape from instant death. This happened in going down. In returning back to town I had other misfortunes to encounter. The cold weather still continuing, I thought the basket warmer than the roof, and about six miles from Salisbury