When we got there we were agreeably surprised to find dear John Yeardley, who had walked this morning fifteen miles to meet us.

The meeting was large of Friends, and it proved a time of renewed visitation unto many who were afar off, and of encouragement to those who were nigh.

I had a very long testimony to bear therein, from Matt.xxii.12.John Yeardley had a short but very acceptable time next, from Esther iv.14.Afterwards I was concerned in prayer.
Elizabeth Yeardley speaks of this visit in one of her letters:-- J.Y.went to Lancaster, though the day was unfavorable.

He trudged on foot to meet Joseph Wood, and got in good time for the meeting, fifteen miles distant, and returned home the same evening.

J.W.was very much favored all the time he was in those parts; he really appears endowed with astonishing powers.
The same letter affords a glimpse of the social position, which John and Elizabeth Yeardley occupied at Bentham:-- We are very quiet, have kind neighbors, a very pleasant habitation, and little society, plenty of books both of the religious and amusing kind, and leisure to meditate on the one thing needful, which is to fit us for that place to which we are fast hastening:-- "For who the longest lease enjoy Have told us with a sigh, That to be born seems little more Than to begin to die." (13_th of Seventh Month_, 1818.) John Yeardley, no less than his wife, found in Bentham a seasonable retreat from the harassing cares of the world.