Wesley at Sevenoaks

Monday, October 16.--I went to Tunbridge Wells and preached to a serious congregation on Revelation 22:12. Tuesday, 17. I came back to Sevenoaks and in the afternoon walked over to the Duke of Dorset's seat. The park is the pleasantest I ever saw; the trees are so elegantly disposed. The house, which is at least two hundred years old, is immensely large. It consists of two squares, considerably bigger than the two quadrangles in Lincoln College. I believe we were shown above thirty rooms, beside the hall, the chapels, and three galleries.

The pictures are innumerable; I think, four times as many as in the castle of Blenheim. Into one of the galleries opens the king's bedchamber, ornamented above all the rest. The bed-curtains are cloth-of-gold and so richly wrought that it requires some strength to draw them. The tables, the chairs, the frames of the looking-glasses, are all plated over with silver. The tapestry, representing the whole history of Nebuchadnezzar, is as fresh as if newly woven. But the bed-curtains are exceedingly dirty, and look more like copper than gold. The silver on the tables, chairs, and glass, looks as dull as lead. And, to complete all, King Nebuchadnezzar among the beasts, together with his eagle's claws, has a large crown upon his head and is clothed in scarlet and gold.