Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
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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