to a poor traveller
and his wife, a seaman who had lost his hand, a captain who had lost
all his goods by wreck, and a poor disbanded soldier. Also, four
shillings given to two "poore soldiers which came from Silly." It has
generally been understood that Scillonians object to their name being
spelt in this manner; yet we have a later entry of expense "examining
the Silly Soldiers." One is tempted to quote much further from these
alluring records, and they certainly assist us considerably in
understanding the old-time ways of living, as we ramble about the
tortuous byways, nooks and corners of St. Ives. In the letter the
accounts are strictly local; in the spirit they may be taken as
typical of almost any West Country town of that date, and they have
the frequent touch of humanity that relieves bare figures from
monotony.

In connection with the flourishing condition of Methodism at St. Ives,
it is important to remember that John Wesley paid the town as many as
twenty-seven visits, beginning in 1743 and ending in 1789. There was
already a society of his followers here when he began his visits, but
they were very unpopular with the majority of the townsfolk, who
accused them of sympathy with the Pope and the Jacobites. Wesley's own
reception was very mixed; he received some countenance and a good deal
of mob violence. Not only the vicar and curate of St. Ives were
against him, but he had a still more formidable opponent in Dr.
Borlase, the antiquarian vicar of Ludgvan. When a parishioner tried to
persuade Borlase that Wesley's preaching was doing good, he exclaimed,
"Get along; you are a parcel of mad, crazy-headed fellows." Yet two
years after his first visit Wesley was able to describe St. Ives as
"the most still and honourable post (so are the times changed) which
we have in Cornwall." But when he paid his fifth visit, in 1750, it is
clear that opposition had not died out. He tells us that: "Having
first sent to the mayor to inquire if it would be offensive to him, I
preached in the evening not far from the market-place. There was a
vast concourse of people, very few of the adult inhabitants of the
town being wanting. I had gone through two-thirds of my discourse, to
which the whole audience was deeply attentive, when Mr. S. sent his
man to ride his horse to and fro through the midst of the
congregation. Some of the chief men in the town bade me go on, and
said no man should hinder me, but I judged it better to retir