CHAPTER VI.
TRIALS AND TROUBLES.
The Rector of Epworth was not remarkably popular in his own parish ; perhaps a very poor clergyman never is. He had great difficulty in repairing and rebuilding the part of his house that had been destroyed by fire ; and when his son John was about seven or eight months old Mr. Wesley suffered a fresh loss, as his crop of flax was set fire to and demolished under circumstances that looked very much like incendiarism. He was also involved in a controversy that caused a deal of ill-feeling and bad blood in consequence of a letter, or rather pamphlet, which he had written in his youth, before he removed from London to South Ormsby, after attending a meeting of the Calves Head Club, a body of violent political Dissenters. Very much disgusted, Wesley went home, and, while his heart was hot within him, wrote off a long letter, and, after writing it, went to bed about five in the morning. A friend probably his landlord, Robert Clavel, a bookseller and then Master of the Stationers' Company - came in while he slept, took possession of the MS., and, after reading, dissuaded Wesley from sending it to the person to
