. The origin and history of the Primitive Methodist Church . us on the stones of a largequarry. It was a Gwennap—WQ^lQf^ grand Cornishpreaching-place on a small scale. Our singing wasenthusiastic; and the exhilaration of that Chartist camp meeting was often spoken of afterwards. No^vand then, I preached Chartist sermons on NottinghamForest, where at that time there was another pulpitof rock; but it was seldom I had meetings there,though I liked the place, the open-air, and the people,who were proud of their unenclosed Forest—un-enclosed, now, no longer—but thickly built the poor Leices
. The origin and history of the Primitive Methodist Church . us on the stones of a largequarry. It was a Gwennap—WQ^lQf^ grand Cornishpreaching-place on a small scale. Our singing wasenthusiastic; and the exhilaration of that Chartist camp meeting was often spoken of afterwards. No^vand then, I preached Chartist sermons on NottinghamForest, where at that time there was another pulpitof rock; but it was seldom I had meetings there,though I liked the place, the open-air, and the people,who were proud of their unenclosed Forest—un-enclosed, now, no longer—but thickly built the poor Leicester stockingers had so little work, they used to crowd thestreet, around my shop door, early in the evenings ; and I had to devise some wayof occupying them. Sometimes I would deliver them a speech ; but more generally,on the fine evenings, we used to form a procession of four or five in a rank, andtroop through the streets . . chanting The Lion of Freedom, which began asfollows :— * The Life of Thomas Cooper, written by himself, 1872, pp. THOMAS COOPER. 336 PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHUECH. * The Lion of Freedom is come from his den;Well rally around him, again and again:Well crown him with laurel, our champion to be :OConnor the patriot: for sweet Liberty ! It will be seen from this that, under the leadership of Thomas Cooper, the Chartistmovement borrowed the tactics of the camp meeting Methodists. The procession thatswept the streets chanting The Lion of Freedom produced much excitement, whichWilliam Jefferson marked with anxious eye. Were the Primitives to be beaten on theirown ground and by methods which they had made peculiarly their own 1 Who wasFeargus OConnor that the streets should ring with his hymned praises? WilliamJefferson was much exercised in his mind at the look of things, butas he lay one morning mentally canvassing how best to stem and turnto account the prevailing excitement, a happy thoughtstruck him:—he would write a hymn in the same measurea
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