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the firs £ rudiments of physical knowledge . * His will provioes 1000 dollars a-year for the establishment of a professorship on those departments of Natural Philosophy which are connected with the improvements of social life . He has also made the University residuary legatee to his whole estate , subject only to certain life annuities .
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Islington , Sir . August 4 , 1820 . HAVING passed a month at Tunbridge Wells , I beg leave to transmit you an account of the state of religion in that celebrated wateringplace . There is a Chapel of Ease , supplied for hearly these forty years
past by the Rev . Martin Benson , a clergyman of talents and respectability . There are also two Methodist Chapels ; one belonging to John Wesley , and the other to Lady Huntingdon . These are all the places of worship at the Wells ; for , alas ! there is an utter extinction of the three legitimate classes of Protestant Dissenters .
The Presbyterian Chapel , a capacious structure , is still to be seen on Mount Sion , shut up and in a dilapidated condition . One of its two pillars , sustaining a portico at the entrance ,
has given way , whilst the other , tottering beneath the weight , exhibits a melancholy relic of Presbyterian lukewarmness and degeneracy ! In the time of the Rev . William Johnston , ( a
truly respectable teacher of youth , ) the chapel was well filled . Among its attendants were some of the nobility and gentry frequenting the Wells . The Duke of Leeds was an occasional auditor . Since the decease of Mr
Johnston , tjie Rev . Mr . Hampton officiated there , and latterly the Rev . Mr . Oough ; but the doors of this venerable temple are now closed ; the building has fallen into decay , and will ere long sink into an unsightly mass of ruins ! Mr . Johnston lies interred in Spaldhurst church-yard , the parish church belonging to the Wells . Thither I
* Count Rumford , then about 16 years 2 fr- » attended the Lectures of Professor Wmthrop , in H&rtVd DmVersft ^ , in I' / O . His e ^ riy Attachment to experi-^ ta 1 Philosophy is &fceiiiplified by the « € t , that he constantly walked from woourn to Cambridge , a distance of nine rales , % q mmd , thtg 6 hectntes .
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made a pilgrimage , and copied th £ following inscription from off his tomb ,: . " Here are deposited the remains of the Rev ~ William Johnston , A . M ., twenty-four years Pastor of the Dissenting Congregation , Mount Sion ,
Tunbridge Wells . His character , distinguished by learning , piety , benevolence and usefulness , will cause his death to be long lamented by his family , his flock , and his numerous friends . He departed this life in the believing
hope of a better , March 2 nd , 1776 , in the 62 nd year of his age . " The wellknown lines of Horace , Quis desiderio sit pndor 9 &c . conclude the just tribute of regard to the good man ' s memory . Upon inquiry at the Wells , I found that a very respectable
Presbyterian gentleman , residing at Clapton , is the only surviving Trustee of the Chapel , so that there may be yet a possibility of its restoration . The Independents , a flourishing portion of Protestant Dissenters , had also
a chapel at the Wells , but it has for some time past been sold and converted into lodgings , under the appellation of Sydenham House I The General Baptists likewise have had their Meeting-house ( formerly frequented by William Whiston when at the Wells )
recently demolished , and on its site is erected a range of small cottages ! The adjoining burying-ground remains , with many head-stones , witnessing the prosperity of former days , all gone down to the dust . Here lies intombed
their last pastor , the venerable and truly Christian Joseph Haines , who died about seven years ago , in the 82 nd year of his age . He presided over his little flock for upwards of half a century . His predecessors were Matthias Copper and Richard Hugget . Of the former , I have heard that honest
Whist on , when meeting him at the Wells , said , in the presence of the then Bishop of London , •* This is , my Lord , an archbishop on true apostolical principles ; " alluding to his being
a messenger as well as elder of the General Baptist Churches . Twenty years ago , I Called on Mr . Haines , passed an hour in his company , « fcnd well recollect his primitive appearance . Instructive was his convwsatfoii . He
told a tale of other tittup Full of anecdote , be was comniiimcative on all subjects . A resident from his ear-
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Dr . Evans 4 n the State of Religion at Tun&ridge Well * . 509
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v ° fc . xv . 3 u
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1820, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2492/page/9/
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