Birmingham and Highbury 
Society, who, in 
his endeavors to 
convert the people 
of Birmingham to 
his way of think¬ 
ing, went through 
many a vicissitude. 
Owing to his per¬ 
severance and a 
faith which ac¬ 
knowledged no 
di scouragement, 
his followers daily 
increased in num¬ 
ber, until Birming¬ 
ham became the 
head of a circuit 
embracing the 
whole county, and 
in August, 1787 , a 
second chapel was 
built. Wesley 
was then over 
eighty years of 
age, but he en¬ 
gaged the coach 
that ran between Manchester and Birmingham, and packed 
it with thirteen Methodist preachers, who started on their 
journey at midnight, and after various mishaps, reached 
their destination at seven the following evening. This 
indefatigable old man then stepped from the coach into the 
pulpit to address his waiting congregation, and at five next 
morning was on his way to preach at Gloucester. 
It is interesting to learn how political leaders estimated 
Birmingham, even at that time, and we find that when a 
bill was brought before the House of Commons asking a 
license for the “New Street Theatre,” it was ably de¬ 
fended by Burke. The famous actress, Mrs. Siddons, 
was then beginning her career; and it was in this theatre 
that her acting first drew the attention of those critics who 
foresaw her brilliant future, and engaged her services for 
the metropolis in which she reigned ever after, going 
from one triumph to another. 
Travel in those days was accomplished by means of 
stage-coaches, and Mr. Gladstone complained bitterly of 
the miseries attendant upon the trip from Liverpool to 
London. “The coach inns,” he says, “were so bad. The 
times of stopping chosen with reference to anything rather 
than the comfort of the passengers. I have repeatedly been 
turned out of the Liverpool coach, the ‘Aurora’ I think, at 
four o’clock on a winter’s morning, sometimes in frost or 
snow, and offered breakfast, for which this was the only 
time allowed, while the luggage was charged upon a barrow. 
Behind this barrow we mournfully trudged along the streets 
to the other hotel,—‘Castle,’ or ‘Albion,’ or ‘ Hen and 
Chickens,’ from which the sister coach was to start for the 
South. Such was in those days the measure of comfort 
deemed necessary for travelers. ” 
THE HOUSE EROM THE TERRACED LAWN—HIGHBURY 
MR. CHAMBERLAIN S WALK ON THE TI'RRACE 
77 
