A WESLEY GARDEN
Kingswood has always had a special affection for John Wesley, ever since his great career as an open-air preacher began within her boundaries. Here twenty years later he had already 300 converts and his own chapel invariably crowded. Here he founded his simple school for the neglected children of the colliers; here, too, later on, he built the ' great school ' for the sons of his itinerant ministers in which he always hoped that he might spend his last days.
Even in his will, he never forgot Kingswood but bequeathed his books and furniture ' and whatever else belongs to me in the three houses at Kingswood ' for the use of those employed in teaching and maintaining the children there. In return, through the long years Wesley has been genuinely loved and honoured in many a humble home. His diary has been read and re-read. His portrait is still frequently to be found in the place of honour over the hearth; even the wood from his pear tree has been care-fully preserved. When the sycamore on Hanham Mount was blown down in a great storm, some of its timber was made into snuff-boxes and walking-sticks, destined to be placed amongst household treasures.
There are traditions of other Wesley relics such as a brown earthenware teapot, an early portrait on ivory, a supposed autograph and a bed quilt, held to be so valuable that pieces of it were dis- tributed among different members of a local family, one piece even reaching America. In such simple ways has Kingswood in the past given to the great reformer her loyalty and devotion, but in 1951 a still more lasting memorial was set up, the tall beacon on Hanham Mount with its steadfast glow; as Wesley himself said, in speaking of the near-by village of Mangotsfield where he preached in the main street; ' Light is sprung up even in this thick darkness.'
The fine bronze figure in Broadmead gives some idea of the dauntless little preacher whom his ' family ' loved. He is so small and apparently so frail, yet there is a spirit of strength about him that is unmistakable. Bright'eyed and alert, resolute and unafraid, he sits his horse. During his life time, on his Journeys towards Kingswood from Newbury, Devizes, Chippenham, Raglan or Bath, he might meet flooded rivers, roads deep in snow, a drunken audience, a hostile mob, poverty or illness but in the midst of all his adventures it was only occasionally that he would lay aside the book he was reading as he jogged along.
He was that rare combination, a man of resourceful action and a fine scholar. On his travels he would read books of every type, from Homer's ' Iliad ' to Dr. Hodge's ' Account of the Plague.' Sometimes he would read long poems such as Milton's ' Paradise Lost ' in order to choose passages for his little schoolboys to learn by heart. All books gave him a student's intense intellectual delight and Kingswood people are proud to think of his ' Christian Library,' those fifty volumes of extracts from books on divinity which were all dated from Kingswood School between 1749 and 1755.
He himself was a clear thinker and a writer of simple, lucid prose. His famous diary is packed with shrewd observations and pithy phrases. Here is one unforgettable local scene : 1740—Sunday, Dec. 21. 'At the Love Feast which we had in the evening at Bristol, 70 or 80 of our brethren from Kingswood were present, notwithstanding the heavy snow. We all walked back together, through the most violent storm which I ever remember. The snow was lying above knee'deep in many places but our hearts were warmed so that we went on rejoicing and praising God.'
The steadiness and simplicity of Wesley's writings are the outcome of a balanced and confident mind. His trenchant remarks that his followers at Kingswood were 'steady but not zealous ' and that ' it is impossible they should stand here long; they must go on or go back ' ring with simple truth. The same is true of his criticism of the scholars at Kingswood School, whose young minds were dulled by under-feeding and over-severity: ' They are all in good health, they behave well, they learn well but alas! two or three excepted, there is no life in them.'
Life—religious, intellectual and physical—was Wesley's greatest concern. It was to give health and vitality that he studied the flowers of the countryside so carefully and wrote about them in his book on ' Primitive Physic ' which was first printed in Narrow Wine Street, Bristol, in 1747. It is from this book that the Wesley Garden at the top of Hanham Mount was planned. It aims at growing as many as possible of the plants, named by Wesley as herbal cures, both for their intrinsic beauty and for the added interest that Wesley himself had once studied them.
The reason for this book of simple remedies, which was to be distributed by every itinerant preacher to all the ' societies,' lay in the fact that ' other books were too dear for poor men to buy and too hard for plain men to under- stand.' The medicines prescribed in them consisted of too many ingredients. ' One thing will cure most disorders as well as 20 put together. Then why are the other 19 added? Only to swell the apothecary's bill.' And although the book deals with physical ills, it is clear that to Wesley body and spirit were always one : ' The Love of God, by the unspeakable joy and perfect calm, serenity and tranquillity it gives the mind, becomes the most powerful of all the means of health and long life.'
The lists of flowers in its pages suggest the colour and fragrance of a cottage garden and the preacher's long journeys must often have been cheered by the lavender, peonies, Solomon's seal, foxgloves and bushes of rosemary which he so frequently mentions. Some of his ' cures ' are traditional, some he has tried on himself and these he names particularly, red roses for his failing eyesight, white roses for quinsy, wallflowers for ague, bay-leaves for a cough, or a decoction of watercresses ' to prevent lethargy.' For minor ailments he suggests poultices or infusions of herbs; rosemary for toothache, marjoram for headaches, thyme for the nerves, camomile, garlic, or saffron all for ague (a form of influenza), nettle juice for asthma, parsley for bruises, rue for sore lips, and dried elder-flowers for dim eyes.
He had boundless faith in his flower remedies for even the most terrible maladies and with surprising confidence he recommends onions for cholera, house-leeks for leprosy, ashes of trefoil for the bite of a mad dog, or marigold petals chewed daily as a prevention against plague. But ' where life is in immediate danger let everyone apply, without delay, to a physician that fears God'. From one that does not, be his fame ever so great, I should expect a curse rather than a blessing.' Wesley has a delightful choice, not only of medicines but of cosmetics : sage to prevent sunburn, box-leaves to make the hair grow, or alternatively onion juice and honey to prevent baldness, and brook-lime 'to fasten the teeth.' His powers of invention are endless; his wild flowers seem to glow in the Spring sunshine, as the country people gather celandines, daisies, primroses, pimpernel, violets and wood- sorrel from which to concoct their homely cures.
Not all Wesley's prescriptions, however, are derived from flowers. On occasion he will use forge-water from a smithy, cobwebs or puff-balls to stop bleeding, tar-water for old age or strong rum to be rubbed on rheumatic shoulders. Perhaps his most original idea is the placing of a live puppy on the stomach to relieve colic. Another cure, but one surely difficult of application, is for raging madness. ' Get the patient under a great waterfall as long as his strength will bear.' These simple remedies with their quaintness and queercharm may bring a smile to modern readers.
Yet behind the old' fashioned phrases lie two of the finest human qualities. First the wholehearted love of past traditions : ' Excellent herbs had our fathers of old Excellent herbs to ease their pain ' and then the gentle kindliness of the great man who prescribed them. There can be no words more characteristic of John Wesley than these : ' If you cannot relieve, do not grieve the poor. Give them soft words if nothing else. Let them be glad to come, even though they go empty away.
Put yourself in the place of every poor man and deal with him as you would God should deal with you.' It was in this spirit that Wesley served the poverty- stricken colliers of Kingswood and so won their hearts.
