A public ceremony of baptism in the open air was such a novel event in England at that time, when religious innovations were so rare, that seven or eight thousand persons assembled on the banks of the river to witness the scene. It is said that this was the first time baptism by immersion was ever thus administered in England, though at a later period several sects of Baptists arose who immersed openly in the rivers and for the remission of sins. Such scenes were picturesque, and some of the "new lights" seem to have delighted in them for their religious sensation, just as the Methodists did in their camp meetings. The first woman whose name is recorded in the list of the baptized of the Mormon Church in England is Sister Ann Elizabeth Walmesley; and her case presents the first miracle of the Church in foreign lands. Here is the incident as related by Heber C. Kimball: "I had visited Thomas Walmesley, whose wife was sick of the consumption, and had been so for several years. She was reduced to skin and bone--a mere skeleton--and was given up by the doctors to die. I preached the gospel to her, and promised her in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that if she would believe, repent and be baptized, she should be healed of her sickness. She was carried to the water, and after her baptism began to mend, and at her confirmation she was blessed and her disease rebuked, when she immediately recovered, and in less than one week after, she was attending to her household duties." This incident will be the more interesting to the reader from the fact that to-day (forty years after the miracle) Sister Walmesley is living at Bloomington, Bear Lake Valley, Oneida county, Idaho. Next came quite an evangelical episode, introducing, with a touch of romance, Miss Jennetta Richards. This young lady was the daughter of a minister, of the independent order, who resided at Walkerfold, about fifteen miles from Preston. She was not only personally interesting and intelligent, but, from the influence she possessed over her father and his congregation, coupled with the fact that the most classical of the apostles "fell in love" with her, she appears to have been a maiden of considerable character. She was a proper person to be the heroine of the British mission, and her conversion was very important in its results, as will be seen in the following incidents, related by Heber: