Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP JOHN B. GOUGH.
ing arrived in London, to pursue his studies as an artist,
and being lonely in that great city, called on us. I met
him at the door, and bade him welcome; for some time
he was an inmate of our family there. We formed a
strong attachment to him then, which has increased year
by year, and he is now one of our most intimate and
valued friends—always welcome; he is “one of us.”
I continued the next year in England till February
20th, when we went to Glasgow for a farewell; then to
Ireland for eighteen days; back to England, giving fare¬
well addresses, and visiting friends till the last meeting
in London, on Wednesday, August 8th, when we left for
Liverpool, giving the last lecture in Great Britain in Con¬
cert Hall, on the 10th, and embarking on the steamer
Arabia, for home, on the 11th of August, 1860.
I wish particularly to allude to the last meeting in
London. Several American friends were present, among
them Rev. Dr. Cheever, and Hon. Ichabod Washburn
of Worcester. Those who had signed the pledge in
Exeter Hall had subscribed for a Bible, to be presented
on the last evening I should lecture there. I had spoken
ninety-five times in that hall, and on the ninety-sixth and
last, the Bible was presented.
It was one of the largest audiences I had met there.
It was very exciting to me, and I was more nearly over¬
come than I remember ever to have been on any other
occasion. My dear friend, George Cruikshank, presided;
Judge Payne, of the Court of Quarter Sessions, was ap¬
pointed to present the Bible; my first English friends,
true, tried, and faithful, were there;—dear Tweedie,
Campbell, Hewlett, the brothers John and Joseph Taylor,
Spriggs, Hugh Owen,—with many others from the Lon¬
don societies, and from the provinces.
When the Bible was presented, I rose to reply, and no