In 1721, Charles was admitted a Scholar of St. Peter's College, Westmin ster; and in 1726 he was elected to Christ College, Oxford. During the second year of his residence he was awakened to a most serious and earnest desire of being truly religious. This was during the time that his brother John was residing at Epworth as his father's Curate. He then began to observe an exact method in his studies, and in his attendance on the duties of religion, persuading two or three young men to join him. The exact method which he observed in spending his time, and regulating his conduct, gained him the name of Methodist. Hence it appears that Mr. Charles Wesley was the first Methodist, and laid the foundation of that little society, at Oxford, which afterwards made so much noise in the world; but it does not appear that any regular meetings were held, or that the members had extended their views beyond their own religious improvement, until Mr. John Wesley left his Curacy, and came to reside wholly at Oxford, in November, 1729.

Mr. Charles Wesley proceeded Master of Arts in the usual course, and thought of spending all his days at Oxford as a tutor: but in 1735, his brother John prevailed upon him to accompany him to Georgia, and he went out as Secretary to Mr. Oglethorpe.

After their return to England, Charles zealously co-operated with his brother John in the cause of Methodism, and their joint proceedings constitute the history of that religious community; and as his life is not at all connec ted with the Isle of Axholme, I need not relate any further particulars. He married Miss Sarah Gwynne, by whom he had two sons and three daughters. He died March 27th, 1788, aged 79 years.

Mr. Charles Wesley," says Dr. Whitehead, "was of a lively disposition, of great frankness and integrity, and generous and steady in his friendships. His love of simplicity, and utter abhorrence of hypocrisy, and even of affec

tation

took the name of Wesley, or Wellesley, in consequence, was the first Earl of Mornington, grandfather of Marquis Wellesley, and the Duke of Wellington. I have been informed, on good authority,

that this is an erroneous statement.

tation in professors of religion, made him sometimes appear severe on those who assumed a consequence on account of their experience, or were pert or forward in talking of themselves and others. In conversation he was pleasing, instructive, and cheerful; and his observations were often seasoned with wit and humour: his religion was genuine and unaffected. As a minister he was familiarly acquainted with every part of divinity; and his mind was furnished with an uncommon knowledge of the sacred scriptures. He had a remarkable talent of expressing the most important truths with energy and simplicity: and his discourses were sometimes truly apostolic, forcing conviction on the hearers in spite of the most determined opposition."

The manner of his preaching is thus described by one whom curiosity and a religious temper led to hear him in a field, near London. "I found him," says this person, "standing on a table board, in an erect posture, with his hands and eyes lifted up to heaven in prayer; he prayed with uncommon fervour, fluency, and variety of proper expressions. He then preached about an hour, in such a manner as I scarce ever heard any man preach: though I have heard many a finer sermon, I never heard any man discover such evident signs of a vehement desire, or labour so earnestly to convince his hearers that they were all by nature in a sinful, lost, and undone state. He shewed how great a change a faith in Christ would produce in the whole man, and that every man who is in Christ, that is who believes in him unto salvation, is a new creature. Nor did he fail to press how ineffectual their faith would be to justify them unless it wrought by love, purified their hearts, and was productive of good works. With uncommon fervour he acquitted himself as an ambassador of Christ, beseeching them in his name, and praying them in his stead to be reconciled to God. And although he used no notes, nor had any thing in his hand but a bible, yet he delivered his thoughts in a rich, copious variety of expression, and with so much propriety, that I could not observe any thing incoherent or inanimate through the whole performance*."

With

*This person, whose name was Joseph Williams, was a dissenter of Kidderminster, and having been accustomed to a dry and formal manner of preaching, he was more impressed by the eloquence of one whose mind was enriched by cultivation as well as heated with devotion.

With reference to hymnology, he was a poet of very considerable talents. The hymns used in the religious services of the Methodists were composed principally by him; and most other collections are indebted to his compositions for some of their principal excellences.

OWSTON.

HE parish of Owston forms the south-west part of the Isle of Axholme. It extends along the bank of the river Trent, from Heckdyke Lane end, in the County of Nottingham, to the parish of Althorpe, a distance of nine miles. It adjoins the parishes of Haxey on the west, and Epworth on the north; and contains the hamlet of Gunthorpe, the villages of West Kinnard Ferry and Owston, and the township of West Butterwick, with the hamlet of Kelfield. The entry for this place in Doomsday Book is as follows." In Owston, Guede had four carucates of land to be taxed. Land to four ploughs. Geoffrey has there one plough and nine villaines, six bordars with three ploughs, and three fisheries of three shillings, and six acres of meadow. Wood and pasture one mile long and one broad. Value in King Edward's time £6. now thirty shillings. Tallaged at 10s.

The

The surface of the ground in this parish is lowest about half a mile or rather less from the bank of the river. The land then rises with a gradual ascent until we come to Mawe Hill, in the lordship of High Melwood, which is one of the highest elevations in the Isle, and from which Lincoln Minster may be distinctly seen, at the distance of thirty miles. The soil next the river is in most places very rich and fertile, but changes on the higher grounds to a strong clay. Most of the low grounds in this parish have been improved by the progress of warping.

Near the place where the land begins to rise above the level of the Trent at high water, during spring tides, and which forms to the south-east the commencement of the higher grounds, stood the now ruined Castle of Kinnard. "There was a castelle," says Leland, " at the southe side of the Church garth of Oxtun, whereof no peace now standith. The dike and the hill

where the arx stood yet be seene. It sume time called Kinnard."

As there is no mention in Doomsday Book of an Aula or Castellum at this place, we may infer that it was one of those castles erected soon after the conquest by the Chief Lord of the Fee, and by building which the Saxons were so cruelly oppressed; for we find that, at so early a period as the twentieth of Henry the Second, A. D. 1172, it was in a dilapidated condition, is said to have been long time ruinous, and was repaired at that time by Roger de Mowbray, as before mentioned in the biographical notice of that person. It never was rebuilt after the destruction which it suffered in the following year, together with all Mowbray's other castles: for it was the policy of Henry, in order to promote the better administration of justice in his dominions, to prevent the erection of such places; and he left no fortress standing, when it fell into his hands, the owner of which he had cause to suspect. The site is a small eminence, containing about three acres of ground, which was surrounded completely by the outward wall. When we enter this area we perceive a mound or conical tumulus of raised earth, which measures within the ditch 270 paces, and which still retains its ancient form as when the arx or keep of the castle was standing. The moat in one place is as plain to be seen as when it was first made, the sides being quite steep as

if

if newly cut, though the accumulation of earthy matter, during so many centuries, has taken considerably from the depth. There are remains, though in a less defined manner, of both an inner and an outer ditch on the west. On the north the outer ditch occupied the space of the present high road, and the inner one may still be seen beneath the churchyard wall. A pond, now used for watering horses, shews where the outer ditch was on the east; but modern improvements have entirely destroyed all traces of the inner one in that direction; on the south it is again visible exactly where those improvements end.