25 July 1774 – 31 July 1774

I went to Madeley and in the evening preached under a sycamore tree, in Madeley Wood, to a large congregation, a good part of them colliers, who drank in every word. Surely never were places more alike than Madeley Wood, Gateshead Fell, and Kingswood.

The church could not contain the congregations either morning or afternoon; but in the evening I preached to a still larger congregation at Broseley, equally attentive. I now learned the particulars of a remarkable story, which I had heard imperfectly before: Sometime since, one of the colliers here, coming home at night, dropped into a coalpit twenty-four yards deep. He called aloud for help, but none heard all that night and all the following day. The second night, being weak and faint, he fell asleep and dreamed that his wife, who had been sometime dead, came to him and greatly comforted him. In the morning, a gentleman going a-hunting, a hare started up just before the hounds, ran straight to the mouth of the pit, and was gone; no man could tell how. The hunters searched all around the pit till they heard a voice from the bottom. They quickly procured proper help and drew up the man unhurt.