Wesleyan Chapel

“ The above society comprised a great many members, and acted in conjunction with a large number of the resident gentry of the parish.
Justice Walk, which extends from Church Street to Lawrence Street, took its name from a magistrate who lived in it. An avenue of lime trees formerly adorned it, and, being kept in good order, it was a very agreeable footway for passengers. There is now in it a commodious Wesleyan Chapel, built in 1841. The exterior is plain and unpretending. The interior is neat, comfortable, and well ventilated. ”

“ The local Wesleyan chapel, greatly resembling a small barn, stands beside the village pond, and indeed, until recently stood in it, being supported above the water on posts. In that manner the tiny chapel was originally built in 1861, it being impossible to obtain land elsewhere for the purpose.
Now comes the park-wall of Woburn Abbey, skirting the road for two miles. And not merely a wall, but a hedge in front of it, as well. At such pains have their Graces of Bedford been to obtain additional seclusion in a country where you will scarcely ever meet one person in a mile. ”

“ In front are stone columns and pilasters nearly thirty feet high, surmounted by Corinthian caps, massive cornice, parapet, pediment, etc. It contains seats for about 500 persons. The old Wesleyan chapel is now used as a literary and social Institute, established in 1872. In 1847 the growth and prosperity of Lytham rendered it necessary that some form of local government should be adopted, and the inhabitants applied for and obtained an Improvement Act, by which the regulation of all public matters was placed in the hands of a board of commissioners elected from amongst the ratepayers. ”

“ Men and women “did up their gardens,” or found, for a variety of reasons, that they were forced to stay at home. In the evening they grew bolder, and strolled through the meadows. It is, however, only fair to respectable Cowfold to say that it knew nothing of these creatures, except by employing them on week-days.
With regard to the Wesleyan Chapel, nothing much need be said. Its creed was imported, and it had no roots in the town. The Church disliked it because it was Dissenting, and the Dissenters disliked it because it was half-Church, and, above all, Tory. ”

“ With the exception, however, of the grave of one poor fellow, whose death under amputation, rendered necessary from severe fractures, has been commemorated on a tombstone by his comrades, there exists no interesting epitaph. Besides this church, a room in the library is used, when required, as a Wesleyan Chapel; at which on Sundays there are regular preachers both morning and night—and on Tuesdays and Fridays about 100 of the Company’s servants attend extempore prayers by one of their brother artificers. ”

“ On Sunday morning I had a treat for which I was quite unprepared. The Rev. [121] Morley Punshon, head of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, came to B——e, to lecture on the “Life and Writings of Lord Macaulay.” On Sunday morning he preached in the open air, to accommodate the many who could not have found room in the Wesleyan Chapel. A little secluded dell, some distance from the main road, was thoroughly cleared of wood and underbrush, and rough benches were placed in profusion for seats. ”

“ Viewed in the aggregate, the congregation is of a middle class character both in regard to the colour of the hair and the clothes worn. There are some exceedingly poor people at the place, but the mass appear to be individuals not particularly hampered in making provision for their general meals. Lune-street chapel is the fashionable Wesleyan tabernacle of Preston; the better end of those whose minds have been touched, through either tradition or actual conviction, with the beauties of Methodism, frequent it. ”

“ A great work in the business of spreading Wesleyan Methodism has been done by the people and parsons of Lune-street chapel. We know of no place in the town whose religious influence has been more actively radiated. ”

“ THE NEW CONNEXION METHODIST CHAPEL, WOLVERHAMPTON STREET.
1829. This commodious Chapel was built and opened in 1829. The cost of the structure and land was £4100, and in 1866 the Chapel was considerably enlarged and beautified at an additional cost of £2094. Previous to the erection of this long-needed edifice, this section of the Wesleyan Congregation worshipped in a small Chapel in Chapel Street. This zealous body (of New Connexion Wesleyans) has largely increased of late years. They have also an excellent School in Rose Hill in connection with their tenets.
Died Nov. 24th, 1829, Mr. ”

“ The whole of the schools are very well attended.
The late Rev. H. Blunt, M.A., was the first Incumbent, and when he resigned the Rev. Richard Burgess, B.D., the present Rector of the Church, succeeded him. Trinity Church, from its consecration in 1830, has always been very numerously attended.
In the Church are several tablets, amongst them is one to the memory of the Rev. H. Blunt.
SLOANE TERRACE WESLEYAN CHAPEL.
This Chapel was built in 1811. It is a neat and substantial edifice. The galleries extend round three sides of the interior, and the whole will accommodate about 1200 persons. ”

“ George the Martyr, Borough, of “Little Dorrit” fame, where the churchyard is a public garden. Close by this, also on the north side of the lane, there used to be a Baptist Chapel in Sheer’s Alley, with a burial-ground. Wilmott’s Buildings occupy the site. Very little beyond is Collier’s Rents. Here is a chapel which used to belong to the Baptists, but is now in the hands of the Congregational Union. Its dreary little graveyard is on the north side, behind a high wall. A little further on, and opposite, is Southwark Chapel (Wesleyan) , built in 1808. ”

“ It has no gallery, and will accommodate on the ground-floor 200 persons, the congregation as a rule reaching to about half the number. About twenty sittings only are held as free, although many more must generally be so used. There are between fifty and sixty Church members meeting in class. Prior to 1861, when the Bayswater Wesleyan Circuit was formed, this chapel was ministerially supplied from Hammersmith circuit, and from the Theological Institution, Richmond. ”

“ Behind the pulpit there is a circular niche for the members of the choir, who, aided and abetted in musical matters by a pretty good harmonium, acquit themselves respectably.
The congregation, as hinted, is more “fashionable” than that at Wesley Chapel: it is more select, has more pride in it, sighs more gently, moans less audibly, turns up its eyes more delicately, hardly ever gets into a “religious spree,” and is inclined to think that piety should be genteel as well as vital. The members here number 280. Immediately adjoining the chapel there is good school accomodation ”

“ I received far more pleasure, however, from a visit to the celebrated round church, which has been lately restored, and whose name, St. Sepulchre, refers it to the era of the Crusades. But how shall I speak of King’s College Chapel? I was not so fortunate as to see it filled with its white-robed scholars, but its own self was sight enough. “Such awful perspective”—indeed! Such tints from such windows—such carvings—such a roof! It springs and spreads above you, light as the spider’s web, and yet it is all massive stone, and its construction is an architectural miracle. ”

“ Calvert Street Chapel, built by the Wesleyans in 1811. Since the recent disruption in that body, it has been held by the Reformers, or United Methodist Free Church; as is also the case with New City Chapel, in Crook’s Place.
St. Peter’s Chapel (Lady’s Lane) , held by the Conference Wesleyans, was built in 1824.
The Primitive Methodists have chapels in Heigham (St. Benedict’s Road) , Lakenham (St. Catherine’s Plain) , Cowgate Street, and New Catton. ”

“ The Wesleyans had their chapel behind the High Street, and the Baptists in Silver Street Kensington Gravel Pits. This church now worships as Westbourne Grove Chapel.
Old Silver Street chapel would hold about 200 people, it had one gallery in front of the pulpit, and behind the pulpit sliding doors opened on to the Sunday School Room. On great occasions the minister could have a congregation both in front and behind him. ”

“ At the top of the great staircase that ascends from the entrance of the Audience Chamber there was recently “unearthed,” or unwalled, the main doorway to the chapel above. This had been built over so completely by the military that its presence was for years unsuspected. It has suffered much damage, but what remains gives indication of the rich beauty it once possessed. The Chapel has no pillars, being one great nave, its vault springing from engaged clustered columns, that run up the walls between the windows. The capitals of these columns are the only carving in this vast airy hall. ”

“ But what is this white conventicle-looking edifice which crowns its heights? Surely it is the refuge of some Mormon congregation—the temple, perchance, of some pagan fanaticism? Nay verily, good sirs,—assuage your indignation, for this is a Church of your own communion, a sort of Chapel of Ease to the parish of St. John. The architect was “abroad” when this building was designed; for one less becoming the outward character of a Church it is impossible to conceive. It is dedicated to St. Paul, and was opened for divine worship in 1830. ”

“ It has been recently restored and re-built in an uninteresting style,—the exterior is bare to ugliness, the interior so painted that the six old Roman columns which support the choir are overwhelmed by the banality of their surroundings. The plateau on which the chapel is built is now almost bare; olive-trees grow to its edges and there is no trace of the Seminary that was once so full of active life. ”

“ The Come-Outer chapel was as bare inside, almost, as it was without. Bare wooden walls, a beamed ceiling, a raised platform at one end with a table and chairs and the melodeon upon it, rows of wooden settees for the congregation—that was all. As the minister entered, the worshipers were standing up to sing. Three or four sputtering oil lamps but dimly illumined the place and made recognition uncertain.
The second verse of the hymn was just beginning as Ellery came in. Most of the forty or more grown people in the chapel were too busy wrestling with the tune to turn and look at him. ”

“ The trumpet’s cry had passed unheard by those within the chapel: the rush of many feet had merged into the vaster clamour of the storm. A pikestaff smote the chapel door. The rusty latch clashed, the door swung in on its sea-rotted hinges, the arch of gloom was filled with hissing torches, smoke, and the gleaming bodies of armed men. Joan the Abbess started to her feet, stood with her back to the altar, her crucifix upraised. The nuns and novices, some standing, some crouching on their knees, huddled back towards her like fledgelings beneath a mother’s wing. ”

“ The retro-choir itself narrowly escaped sharing its fate, but was fortunately spared, and the tomb of Bishop Andrewes was removed to its present position immediately behind the high altar. The true Lady Chapel being destroyed, the dedication seems to have been popularly transferred to the structure so closely associated with it, and most people concerned are now very unwilling to part with the familiar name. ”

“ It now stands once more in all its glory, as a perfect gem of architecture and one of the most elegant Lady Chapels in Christendom.
“Ye Chappell of oure Ladye” at Waltham Abbey is said to be one of the richest specimens of mediæval architecture in Essex. The building has been greatly defaced since the suppression of chantries, but still bears traces of its original glory. “The Lady Chapel,” says the late Professor Freeman, “must have been a most beautiful specimen of its style, but few ancient structures have been more sedulously disfigured.” ”

“ If we take first the North Transept, there will be found at the southern end, against the side wall of the choir, and between the two great tower-piers, the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, a small compartment which contains some interesting and still distinct mural paintings on the roof and walls, representing scenes of the Passion, etc. The most striking is a large head and bust of Christ on the easternmost division of the vaulting. One hand holds the Gospels, with the inscription Salus Populi Ego Sum. ”

“ Besides this walk on the old ramparts, the Convent of the Sisters of Saint Paul was attractive by reason of its quiet and cleanliness. Down silent passages the backs of the good women might be seen crossed by the triangular fold of linen, and the click could be heard of their heavy black rosaries on links of copper, as they rattled on their skirts against the hanging bunch of keys. Their chapel was redolent of Louis XIV., at once childish and pompous, too much bedizened with gold, and the floor too shiny with wax ”

“ There are chapels in Brittany and elsewhere built over pagan monoliths; indeed no new faith can ever do more than superimpose itself upon an older one, and statements about the wise and tender treatment of the old nature worship by the Church are euphemisms for the bald fact that Christianity, finding it impracticable to wean the heathen from their obdurate beliefs, made the best of the situation by decreeing its feasts to coincide with pre-existing festivals.
Fig. 3.—Section of the Dolmen Chapel of the Seven Sleepers near Plouaret. ”