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ECHOES OF OLD LEEDS. 179<br />

* * * Iwent to thegreat church,and was shown to the<br />

minister's pew. Five clergymen were there, who a little<br />

confounded me bymaking me take placeof my elders and<br />

betters. They obliged me to help in administering the<br />

Sacrament. Iassisted with eight more ministers, for<br />

whom my soul was much drawn out in prayer, butI<br />

dreadedtheir favour more than the stones at Sheffield."<br />

Thechurch he founded at Leeds he experiencedconsiderabledifficultyinmanaging.<br />

Inalettertohis brother, 1758,<br />

he says: — " From time to timeIhave had more trouble<br />

with the town of Leeds than with all the societies in<br />

Yorkshire." The first Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was<br />

erected in Leeds in 1750. In 1754 Count Zinzendorf, a<br />

German gentleman,visited Pudseyon business connected<br />

with the Moravian settlement sounded here about that<br />

time, and which was completed about 1758.<br />

Besides these,Leeds was visitedduring the last century<br />

bythe philanthropist, Howard,in 1788, who,after visiting<br />

the Infirmary, the Workhouse, and the Prison, expressed<br />

himself pleased with the " two former."<br />

In the year 17 14 the Parish Church first had the advantagesof<br />

an organ.<br />

In 1715 Thoresby'sgreat work, " Ducatus Leodiensis,"<br />

was published. He was a great antiquarian collector,<br />

and the volume has anappendixdevotedto the description<br />

of his various collections. Three years later local literature<br />

took a great stride in the establishment of the Leeds<br />

Mercury, with its "freshest advices, Foreign and Domestick,"etc.<br />

TheLeedsIntelligencercommencedin 1754.<br />

In 1739 a remarkable frost took place at Leeds, the<br />

Aire being so frozen that a sheep was roasted wholeupon<br />

it on February the 22nd. At the timeof the breaking-up<br />

ofthe iceit was yet 15 inches in thickness. The following<br />

year was also remarkable for a great snowfall in May.<br />

This year proved oneof greatscarcity, but the next (1741)<br />

is mentioned as having " the most plentiful corn harvest<br />

ever known." Exactly the same was said of 1743. In<br />

June, 1772, hailstones the size of nutmegs descended in

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