Coming home one day and finding this visitor seated with his wife, Mr.Wesley went up to her, took her by the hand and very fairly handed her out.
It cost him his living: but the Marquis, being what is called a good fellow in the main, bore him no grudge; nay, rather liked his spirit, and afterwards showed himself a good friend to the amount of twenty guineas, to which the Marchioness (but this is more explicable) added five from her own purse.
By good fortune the living of Epworth fell vacant just then, and in accordance with some wish or promise of the late Queen Mary, to whom he had dedicated his _Life of Christ_, Mr.Wesley was presented to it, a decent preferment, worth about 200 pounds a year in the currency of those times.

But by this time his family was large; he was in debt; the fees to be paid before taking up the living ate farther into his credit; a larger house had to be maintained, with three acres of garden and farm-buildings; and his new parishioners hated his politics and made life as miserable for him as they could.
They were savage fighters, but they found their match.

In 1702 they set fire secretly to the parsonage-house, and burned down two-thirds of it.

In the winter of 1704 they destroyed a great part of his crop of flax.

This was the year of Blenheim, and upon news of the victory Mr.Wesley sat down to commemorate it in heroic verse.