me unrestrained. As the Quaker spoke of giving up the world and its
pleasures, hisses, groans, beating of sticks, and cries of 'Down, down!'
burst from every quarter. Then the lady I have described arose with
dignity, and slowly passing through the crowd, where a passage was
involuntarily opened to her, she went up to the speaker, and thanked
her, in her own name and in that of all present, for the faithfulness
with which she had borne testimony to the truth. The lady added, 'I am
not of your persuasion, nor has it been my belief that our sex are
generally deputed to be public teachers; but God who gives the rule can
make the exception, and He has indeed put it in the hearts of all His
children to honour and venerate fidelity to His commission. Again I
gratefully thank you.' Side by side with the Quaker she walked to the
door of the Pump Room, and then resumed her seat. This lady was the
celebrated Countess of Huntingdon." [1]

[Footnote 1: _Autobiography of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck_, vol. 1. pp.
89, 90.]

VII.

THE COLLEGE AT TREVECCA AND CHESHUNT.

So rapidly did places of worship multiply under the Countess's fostering
care, that very shortly after the opening of the Vineyards at Bath, the
question of supplying preachers for their pulpits became so pressing
that finally the scheme of founding a college for the training of
suitable preachers took definite shape. Lady Huntingdon had already
contributed liberally to Western College, Plymouth, Brecon College, and
Dr. Doddridge's Academy at Northampton. She held much consultation with
her most trusted advisers, Whitefield, Wesley, Venn, Romaine, and
others. All were favourable except Berridge, who, although "the most
dubious man in the world about his own judgment," yet wrote, "Will not
Jesus choose, and teach, and send forth His ministering servants now, as
He did the disciples aforetime; and glean them up when, and where, and
how He pleaseth? The world says no, because they are strangers to a
Divine commission and a Divine teaching. And what if these asses blunder
about the Master's meaning for a time, and mistake it often, as they did
formerly? No great harm will ensue, provided they are kept from paper
and ink, or from a white wall and charcoal."

In 1768 Lady Huntingdon fixed upon an old mansion at Trevecca in
Brecknockshire, as the home of the new experiment. Her relations with
Welsh evangelistic work had long been close and helpful, and by means of
Ho