enclosure. The moon was in meridian splendour above our
heads.

We left the carriage to the care of a servant, who was
to prepare a bed in it for Mrs. B. and me, and entered the
inner circle. The first glance reminded me of Vauxhall,
from the effect of the lights among the trees, and the moving
crowd below them; but the second showed a scene totally
unlike any thing I had ever witnessed. Four high frames,
constructed in the form of altars, were placed at the four
corners of the enclosure; on these were supported layers
of earth and sod, on which burned immense fires of blaz-
ing pine-wood. On one side a rude platform was erected
to accommodate the preachers, fifteen of whom attended
this meeting, and with very short intervals for necessary
refreshment and private devotion, preached in rotation,
day and night, from Tuesday to Saturday.

When we arrived, the preachers were silent; but we
heard issuing from nearly every tent mingled sounds of
praying, preaching, singing, and lamentation. The cur-
tains in front of each tent were dropped, and the faint light
that gleamed through the white drapery, backed as it was
by the dark forest, had a beautiful and mysterious effect,
that set the imagination at work; and had the sounds which
vibrated around us been less discordant, harsh, and un-
natural, I should have enjoyed it; but listening at the cor-
ner of a tent, which poured forth more than its proportion
of clamour, in a few moments chased every feeling derived
from imagination, and furnished realities that could neither
be mistaken nor forgotten.

Great numbers of persons were walking about the
ground, who appeared like ourselves to be present only as
spectators; some of these very unceremoniously contrived to
raise the drapery of this tent, at one corner, so as to afford
us a perfect view of the interior.

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