that at Welford, in the year 1674, they met in a secluded part of the town, on the premises of Mr. Edmund Miles, where they fitted up a place of worship, which was the first Dissenting Meeting House there; but such were the activity and zeal of their enemies, that they thought it prudent to vary their places of meeting, and to set a guard against the inroads of their foes. They might have adopted the language of Nehemiah as their own: "We made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch day and night because of them." There was a house occupied by Mr. Charles Hanscomb, secluded in a narrow yard from the main street, and open to a field in the direction of Mr. Shuttlewood's house. Here the persecuted minister and his people often met, one of the number being appointed to watch, while the rest were engaged in worship; so that when the informers were seen to approach notice might be given to Mr. Shuttlewood and his hearers, who escaped by the window into the fields. Sometimes they met in the pastures which surrounded the house at Sulby, amidst the darkness and the damps of night. These were days of trial, when the reality of religious principle was tested and its power appeared. Mr. Shuttlewood was blest with a robust, vigorous constitution, yet was of a very tender spirit; and the death of one of his children so deeply pierced him as to bring on many bodily complaints, which he carried with him to his grave. His constitution was greatly injured by the sufferings he endured, and also by his preaching at unseasonable hours, and in unsuitable places; so that his health at length rapidly declined, and he died when on a visit to the Church at Creaton, March 17th, 1688, in the 58th year of his age. A humble stone was erected to his memory in the Churchyard, with this brief but honourable inscription:--"Multum dilectus, multum deflendus"--"Much beloved, much lamented". Now the flock at Welford were as sheep without a shepherd. They had not been formed into a regular Christian Church under the ministry of Mr. Shuttlewood; and for about ten years they were destitute of a pastor, or any stated ministrations of divine truth amongst them. Some of them, during this period, travelled as far as Bedworth, in Warwickshire, upwards of twenty miles, to hear Mr. Julius Saunders. Such was the love these servants of Christ had for the Gospel, that in the dark mornings of the winter season they travelled by the light of a lantern as far as Lutterworth, where they left it till their return in the evening, when it was again lighted to conduct them home. It appears that there were many in those days that would travel as far as their feet would carry them, rather than be entirely deprived of the ministry of the Gospel.