| 508 October. We then met in council with our brethren and transacted such business as was brought before us.
About the middle of October, Elders Woodruff and Smith returned to London, and I remained in Manchester and Liverpool to assist in forwarding the printing of the Book of Mormon. Elder Young and myself took a short mission to Preston, Church Town, South Port, and also went into Wales to the town of Harden on the river Dee, where we preached twice and the people almost universally received our testimony. In this place the power of God was manifested in healing the sick and restoring one who was nearly blind to sight. A young man lying at the point of death was healed, and in a few days went forward and was baptized. A large Church has since been raised up in that place, and many of them are expected here this fall in company with Elder Burnam, one of the seventies.
We then returned to Manchester, Nov. 25; left that place in company with Elder Young, and visited the following places, viz: Macclesfield, Burslem, Stanley, Lain End, West Bramwich and Birmingham. Here are large Branches in each of the above named places. We traveled by Coach and Railway, and arrived in London on Monday Nov. 30, and found Elder Woodruff then in good health. Elder Smith had left there two or three weeks before our arrival on account of ill health, and gone to Saffordshire [Staffordshire ?] Potteries. Elder Woodruff, baptized 3 the day before our arrival, the only ones added in my absence. Elder Young continued with us eleven days. We preached three times on the Sabbath, and also two evenings in the week; the remainder of our time was spent in visiting the following places: St. James Park, where we had a view of Queen Victoria's Horse Guards well mounted upon black horses, also several hundred foot guard, and a band of music; the scene was the most splendid I ever beheld. From that we visited the Monument near London Bridge, erected in commemoration of the dreadful fire in that city, in the year 1666. We ascended 345 black marble steps which brought us 200 feet in the air, where we could overlook the city which to us appeared to be a little world. This monument is the largest in the world. We then went to St. Paul's Cathedral, and visited every part of it; went into the whispering gallery, then into the steple [steeple]. Elders Young, Woodruff and myself went into a brass ball which was on the top of the steeple 404 feet above the ground.-It will hold twelve men,; but from the ground appears but little larger than a man's head. We examined the Library which was very large and ancient. We also examined the bells and clockwork.-We went among the Tombs, and there saw more than fifty Monuments erected overt their most distinguished dead. We then visited the British Museum; Elder Woodruff and myself had previously spent considerable time there in examining Papyrus, Mummies, Sepulchres [Sepulchers], Marble Statutes, and many other antiquities too numerous to mention. We were highly gratified in viewing these relicks [relics] and considered our time profitably spent. We then visited the Tower of London; in a room 150 feet by 33, we saw arranged in regular and chronological order, no less that 22 Equestrian figures of the most celebrated Kings of England, accompanied by their favorite Lords, and men of rank; each one together with their horses in the armour [armor] of the respective periods in which they lived, and many in the identical suits in which they appeared while living.-There was deposited in the towers, 500,000 stand of arms, and cannon of various sizes; some of them measuring 18 or 19 feet in length; some were brass peices [pieces] very handsome and ancient. We also saw swords, spears, simetars [scimitars] and pistols, which appeard [appeared] to me to be without number. The canons were taken in their conquests of Nations. We then saw all the Crowns and Jewelry of all their eminent Kings and Queens deposited in a cell formerly used as a Prison and in which at one time were confined seven Bishops. We also saw the Block and Axe formerly used for beheading, and many other curiosities which I will not attempt to describe. We then went and viewed the Tunnel under the Thames, a description of which would be useless as it has been given on page 262 of the Times and Seasons. We visited Westminster Abbey and many other places, after which Elder Young left us. December 11. Brother Woodruff and myself continued to preach, and the work seemed to revive, and we baptized from 5 to 6 every week during our stay in that city.
On the 26th, in company with Brother Woodruff, Dr. Copeland and Lady, I went to see the Queen as she passed, going to
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