CHAPTER XVII--WHEN WILT THOU ARISE OUT OF THY SLEEP? YET A LITTLE
SLEEP
The Reverend John Broad was minister of Tanner's Lane Chapel, or,
more properly, Meeting-house, a three gabled building, with the date
1688 upon it, which stood in a short street leading out of North
Street. Why it was called Tanner's Lane nobody knew; for not in the
memory of man had any tanner carried on his trade there. There was
nothing of any consequence in it but the meeting-house, and when
people said Tanner's Lane this was what they meant. There were about
seven hundred and fifty sittings in it, and on Sundays it was
tolerably full, for it was attended by large numbers of people from
the surrounding villages, who came in gigs and carts, and brought
their dinners with them, which they ate in the vestry. It was, in
fact, the centre of the Dissenting activity for a whole district. It
had small affiliated meeting-houses in places like Sheepgate,
Hackston Green, and Bull's Cross, in which service was held on Sunday
evening by the deacons of Tanner's Lane, or by some of the young men
whom Mr. Broad prepared to be missionaries. For a great many years
the congregation had apparently undergone no change in character; but
the uniformity was only apparent.
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