208 
meeting with our best and dearest 
friends ought, perhaps, to have in- 
spired. During our brief sojourning in 
Wales the pure and elevated pleasure 
inseparably attached to the contempla- 
tion of all that is sublime and beautiful 
in nature had been gratified far beyond 
what we had anticipated, or even 
hoped for. Beautiful lakes, like sheets 
of liquid silver,lovely glens,and majestic 
mountains with their cloud capt sum- 
mits, valleys “ teeming with wild fer- 
tility,’ roaring cataracts, thundering 
in the solitudes, with wild woods, and 
broad deep rivers, are all to be found 
at the western extremity of our island ; 
and the genuine and hearty admirer of 
nature will revel in ecstasy amid the 
sublime scenery of Merionethshire. 
The man whose mind is imbued with 
sensibility will also experience abun- 
dant gratification from the inspection of 
the ruins of the proud buildings, once 
inhabited by men renowned in history 
for their ambition, their heroism, their 
pride, or their piety. 
The embattled towers, and castles, once 
the strength 
Of this rude country ; all by force of time 
Cast down from their foundations, and 
o’ergrown 
With thriftless weeds ; the mansions now of 
beasts, 
And solitary birds that shun mankind. 
Nor will the simple, but engaging 
manners of the natives fail to impress 
him with a favourable opinion of their 
secluded and contented condition. For 
our own parts, if was with no little re- 
gret that we quitted a country so in- 
teresting and beautiful; and should we 
hereafter find time for another summer 
excursion, we shall bend our steps to- 
wards Caernarvonshire in preference to 
a “ foreign shore.” 
——<j=———— 
“JOHN BUNYAN; DR. T. BARLOW, Bi- 
shop of Lincoln; ZOAR-STREET 
MEETING-HOUSE, and the celebraled 
THOMAS BRADBURY, Se. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AVING observed the congeries of 
errors under the title of “ Anec- 
dotes of JOHN BUNYAN, and his Meet- 
ing-house in Zoar-street,’ with the 
signature of W. H. Reid, in your Ma- 
gazine for December; it is expected 
those persons who prefer truth to error, 
will derive both interest and informa- 
tion by perusing this attempt to rectify 
the latter and display the former. 
The substance of Mr. Reid’s commu- 
Misrepresentations in Reid's Anecdotes of John Bunyan. 
jApril 4, 
nication had been anticipated in the 
Christian Observer for September, 
headed “ A Visit to Bunyan’s Meeting- 
house,’”? and subscribed “ An Old 
Friend with a New Face.” 
Your correspondent says, that from 
Bunyan’s life, prefixed to Heptinstall’s 
edition of the ‘* Pilgrim’s Progress,” it 
appears that this celebrated personage 
preached at a meeting-house in Zoar- 
street, Gravel-lane, near Bank-side; 
and in Manning and Bray’s History of 
Surrey, it appears that Dr. Barlow, 
bishop of Lincoln, provided this meet- 
ing-house for Bunyan to preach in; an 
instance of liberality ‘ in a bishop” 
which Mr. Reid, taking the matter as 
he found it, warmly applauds. The 
notions quoted by Mr. Reid, will not, 
however, bear the test of correct exa- 
mination. 
Bunyan never “ settled in London ;”* 
this is clear to almost every person who 
is but commonly read in his history. 
In the “ relation’? of Charles Doe, at 
the end of a folio volume, printed in 
1692, and entitled the Works of Mr. 
John Bunyan, he states him as preach- 
ing ‘‘one Lord’s-day at London, at a 
Town’s end meeting-house.”’? The sanae 
year was printed in 12mo, an account 
of the Life and Actions of Mr. Bunyan, 
from his cradle to his grave. ~The 
writer says, Bunyan “ preached several 
times about London, and particularly 
in the parish im Southwark, where he 
had an audience of about five hundred 
people.”” Besides these two, there is 
another contemporary and friend, whose 
tract is entitled, the “ Life and Death 
of Mr. John Bunyan,” This last was 
reprinted in 1817, by the Rev, J. Ivi- 
mey, but without the original date. 
From it we learn, that “it was his 
constant practice, when he had his li- 
berty, to come up once a year to Lon- 
don, and to preach in several places 
there; but more particularly in South- 
wark, near the Faulcon.”’ 
These extracts from the earliest 
known records, prove that it is only by 
inference Zoar-street meeting-house is 
said to have been Bunyan’s. Were 
precise information extant, it could 
scarcely have been overlooked by Mr. 
Wilson whiie compiling his voluminous 
and useful History of Dissenting 
Churches in London. That gentleman 
takes no notice of any connexion as 
above stated, but treating of Duke- 
street Park, Southwark, says, *“¢ This 
meeting-house belonged to a very an- 
cient society of general baptists. The 
former 
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