[229] Dr. Byrom's "Private Journal and Literary Remains," vol. ii., pp. 246, 249.
[230] It is, to say the least, surprising that the congregations at Cirencester and at Painswick should each number three thousand people. Even in 1801, the entire population of the former place was only 4130; and of the latter, 3150. Assuming Whitefield's figures to be correct, there must have been great gatherings of people from the surrounding neighbourhoods.
[231] Dr. Stebbing's sermon will be noticed hereafter.
[232] The Presbytery of the new Dissenting sect.
[233] "Life and Diary of Rev. Ralph Erskine."
[234] "Life and Diary of Rev. Ralph Erskine."
[235] Whitefield estimated his last Sunday's congregation at "about twenty thousand." It is only fair to say, that Whitefield's estimates might be too high. In the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1739, there appeared a letter, signed "Thoninonca," stating that the writer was present when Whitefield preached in Moorfields on July 29, and that, before the audience was dismissed, he "made several marks where the outermost of them stood; and, the next morning, he found the distance of the farthest mark from the rostrum to be thirty-two yards, and that of the nearest to it twenty-eight." He then calculates "the space taken up by the standing congregation to be 2827 yards;" and adds, "in a square yard, nine persons may easily stand, and therefore 2827 square yards must contain 25,443 people." To this the editor appended a note: "Soldiers, in close order, stand but four in a square yard, at which rule, the circle will contain but 11,338."
[236] Let me here correct an error in the first and second editions of "The Life and Times of Wesley." It is there stated that Whitefield made only two collections for Kingswood School, namely, one at Bristol on July 13th, and the other at Moorfields on July 29th. To these, however, must be added the following. Collections, on July 22, at Moorfields, £24 17s., and at Kennington Common, £15 15s. 6d. And besides the one already mentioned as being made at Moorfields on July 29, another, on the same day at Kennington Common, amounting to £20, and another of nearly £15, at Blackheath, on August 12.
[237] Date, July 23.
[238] " July 24.