334 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
increase of itinerant preachers, attracted the notice of the General Assembly,
and, in the ‘‘ Pastoral Admonition” of next year, occasion was taken to warn
the people against such irregularities. This awakened a spirit of retaliation on
the part of Mr. Hill, who, in the month of *June 1799, made a second journey to
Scotland, apparently for no other purpose than to preach down the Assembly.’
On his arrival in Edinburgh he commenced “A Series of Letters” on the
subject, addressed to the Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home, which
he continued to issue during his tour through the principal towns of the north
-Dundee, Montrose, Aberdeen, Huntly, etc.’ He also visited Glasgow at
this time, where he assisted the Rev. Greville Ewing in opening the
Tabernacle in Jamaica Street. The crowd was very great, and during the
afternoon service an alarm was given that part of the building was giving way.
The people immediately rushed towards the doors and windows to get out, in
consequence of which several persons had their arms and legs broken. Fortunately
no lives were lost, and when the alarm subsided Mr. Ewing finished
the service.
After a lapse of twenty-five years, Mr. Rowland Hill paid a third and last
visit to Scotland in 1824, being then in his 80th year. He was induced to
undertake this long journey in aid of the London missions. He came to
Edinburgh by sea, and was kindly received at the house of the Rev. John
Aikman, in whose chapel he preached the following Sabbath, as well as in
the meeting-house of the Rev. Dr. Peddie. In the course of his stay, which
scarcely extended to a week, he also preached in the Tabernacle of his old
friend Mr. Haldane, and in the Recession Church, Broughton Place. From
Edinburgh he went to Glasgow, in which city he was received with enthusiasm.
From thence he proceeded to Paisley, and next to Greenock, where he continued
several days making short excursions on the mater. He then sailed by
one of the steam vessels for Liverpool ; and after preaching there, and at Manchester,
he arrived at his summer residence of Wotton, greatly delighted with
his Scottish tour, as well as pleased with his success, having made collections
to the amount of sixteen hundred pounds.
Such is a brief sketch of the Reverend gentleman’s visits to Scotland. To
all our readers his name is at least familiar ; and many anecdotes respecting him
are current throughout the country, His life, by the Rev. Edwin Sidney,
London, 1835, must also be pretty extensively known. This work, although
not strictly impartial, and displaying too much twisting and straining on the
question of Church Establishments, is nevertheless got up in an amusing style,
1 After his return to London, he waa asked one day why he called one of his carriage horses
Order and the other Decorum. “Because,” Raid the facetious preacher, “in Scotland they accuse
me of riding on the back of all order and decorum.”
Mr. Hill’s letters were afterwards printed in the form of a pamphlet, and entitled, “A Series
of Letters, occasioned by the late Pastoral Admonition of the Church of Scotland, as also their
attempts to suppresa the establishment of Sabbath Schools, addressed to the Society for Propagating
the Gospel at Home. By Rowland Hill, A.M.” Edinburgh, printed by J. Ritchie, 1799.
