Besides endeavouring to provide a minister for Charleston, Whitefield was requested to render another service; for which he had no adaptation. His friend Hervey, who was writing “Theron and Aspasio,” sent him some of the manuscripts for his revision, at the same time promising him £30 for the purchase of a negro slave! Whitefield replied:―― “_June 9, 1752._ “I have read your manuscripts; but for me to play the critic on them, would be like holding up a candle to the sun. I think to call your intended purchase _Weston_, and shall take care to remind him by whose means he was brought under the everlasting gospel.” Having employed about a month in London, Whitefield, in the third week of June, set out for Portsmouth; and thence to Bath, where he spent about three weeks with the Countess of Huntingdon, and preached every evening to great numbers of the nobility. Here also he became acquainted with Mrs. Grinfield, a lady of high position, who attended on Queen Caroline. “The Court,” says Whitefield, “rings of her; and, if she stands, I trust she will make a glorious martyr for her blessed Lord.”[306] Four days were employed at Bristol, where he preached nine times. He writes:―― “Very near as many as attended at Moorfields came out every evening to hear the word. I have reason to believe much good was done. Old times seemed to be revived again. The last evening, it rained a little, but few moved. I was wet, and contracted a cold and hoarseness; but I trust preaching will cure me. This is my grand catholicon.” On July 17, Whitefield went to Wales, where he spent a fortnight, preached twenty times, and travelled about three hundred miles. Though Whitefield had resigned his office of moderator of the Calvinistic Methodists, and though he had often declared his determination not to form a sect, he still, occasionally, attended “Associations.” Howell Harris had recently seceded from his old friends, and, in the month of April of this selfsame year, had laid the foundation of his unique establishment at Trevecca. The schism had thrown affairs into great confusion; and, perhaps, this was the reason why Whitefield attended conferences, of which, strictly speaking, he was not a member. In a letter, dated “Bristol, August 1, 1752,” he writes:―― “In my way hither, we held an Association. There were present about nine clergy, and near forty other labourers. I trust all of them are born of God, and desirous to promote His glory, and His people’s good. All was harmony and love.”