OLD PORTLAND. 247 



Methodism in Portland ; but there was a small Society of 

 twenty members here in 1720,* and Charles Wesby preached 

 on the Island, indoors and out-of-doors, on several after- 

 noons and evenings in Juns, 1746. There is a small Georgian 

 house still standing in which he preached ; it bears the 

 inscription " John Stevens, 1734," and has been converted 

 into two cottages numbered 15 and 17, Straits, opposite 

 the Jacobean Free School (now a Reading Room). The 

 text of one of Wesley's sermons after Sunday evening service 

 was " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? " Another, 

 at Southwell, was taken from the Nunc Dimittis. One 

 of his hymns is headed, " Written before preaching at 

 Portland : " 



Come, O Thou all-victorious Lord ! 



Thy power to us make known ; 

 Strike with the hammer of Thy Word, 



And break these hearts of stone. 



The early Portland Methodists did not sever their con- 

 nection with the crumbling old S. Andrew's Church, the 

 parish church of their forefathers, and some of them took a 

 prominent part in the building of the " new church " of 

 S. George. Charles Wesley's visit to Portland seems to 

 have given a real and much-needed stimulus to the whole 

 of the religious life of the Island. 



XIV. A pastoral scene at Southwell. 



This view was taken near the site of the modern church 

 of S. Andrew, generally known as the " Avalanche Church." 

 Some of the famous Portland small sheep, which were bred 

 in thousands and now in hundreds on the Island, will be 



*See Methodism in Portland, by Robert Pearce (3, Easton Square, 

 Portland). This book, price 2s. Pd., also contains three chapters on 

 the early history of the Church of England in Portland, with some old 

 and interesting illustrations. It deserves to be known more widely. 



