216 AN AMERICAN FARMER IX ENGLAND. 



he would be gratified if it would be agreeable for us to attend. 

 They had no distinct organization, but simply met as a company 

 of believers, to worship as they were prompted in the spirit. 

 They liked to have any one join with them, who loved Jesus 

 Christ, whatever his theoretical opinion might be. 



The next morning I breakfasted with this gentleman, and after- 

 wards attended the meeting of the brotherhood. It was held in 

 a plain "upper room," apparently designed for a school-room, 

 which was well filled with people, representing every class, ex- 

 cept the aristocratic, in the community, females being slightly 

 preponderant. The services were extremely simple much like 

 those of a Presbyterian prayer-meeting, with the addition of a 

 rather lengthy exhortation from one who, I was told, was, like 

 myself, a stranger to the most of those present, and concluded 

 with the administration of the communion. 



Nothing could be greater than the contrast of the place and its 

 furniture, and the style of the exercises, with what I had seen 

 and heard at the cathedral the previous Sunday ; yet I could not 

 but notice the marked resemblance between the simple solemnity 

 of manner and sincere unendeavoring tone of the gentleman who 

 conducted the ceremony of the communion, and that of his robed 

 and titled brother who performed the same duty within those 

 aweing walls. 



In the afternoon I went with one of "the brethren" to the 

 Union poor-house, which is a little out of the town. The inmates, 

 so far as I saw them, were nearly all aged persons, cripples, or 

 apparently half-witted, and it all appeared very much like a hos- 

 pital. The chilling neatness, bareness, order and precision, re- 

 minded me of the berth-deck of a man-of-war. Among the sick 

 was a young woman who had now for four days refused to take 

 food or to speak ; when broth was set before her in our presence, 

 she merely moaned and shook her head, closed her eyes and sank 



