3-017-103 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Whitefield Preaching in Moorfields" A.D. 1742, by E. Crowe, in the exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1865. Engraving of a painting. 'To the title...the artist appends the following quotation from Philip's "Life and Times of Whitefield": The merry-andrew - attended by others, who complained that they had taken many pounds less that day on account of my preaching - got up upon a man's shoulders; and, advancing, attempted to slash me with a long, heavy whip several times, but always, with the violence of his motion, tumbled down...Others, having got a large pole for their standard, advanced from the opposite side with steady and formidable steps; but just as they approached us they quarrelled amongst themselves, threw down their staff, and went their way...My pockets were full of notes from persons brought under concern. Boys and girls who were fond of sitting round me while I preached handed me these people's notes, though often pelted with eggs, dirt, &c., and they never once gave way"...nothing defeats itself, sooner or later - as, indeed, this picture tends to show us - so surely as persecution on account of opinion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.