They returned home through the midland counties, visiting most of the meetings in Oxfordshire, and in the parts adjacent; which they had been unable to do the previous year in returning from the West.

It was comforting to us, John Yeardley says, to be with Friends in Oxfordshire, whom we had so long thought of.  Many of their meetings are small; but there are a few individuals among them precious and improving characters, who, I believe, are under the preparing hand for greater usefulness in the Lord’s church.  With these we were often dipped into near union of spirit, which sometimes caused the divine life to rise among us to the refreshing of our spirits.

In the Sixth Month they again left home, being minded to see how the churches fared in the eastern part of Yorkshire.  The point which most interested them in this tour was Scarborough, where they were attracted both by the town itself and by the little society of Friends.  “It felt to us,” says J.Y., “very much like a home.  We lodged at Elizabeth Rowntree’s, a sweet resting-place.” (7 mo. 4.)

At the same time that they reported to their Monthly Meeting the attention they had paid to this service, they received its sanction to undertake a journey in Wales.

It is truly humbling to us, writes John Yeardley, in describing this occasion, thus to have to expose ourselves, poor and weak as we are; but the cause is not our own, but is in the hands of our great Lord and Master.  May he help us! (7 mo. 19.)

They left home on the 7th of the Eighth Month, and spent the 11th at Coalbrookdale, in the company of Barnard Dickinson and his wife.  From thence Samuel Hughes accompanied them as guide into Wales, and continued with them a week.

He proved, says J.Y., a most efficient helper in this wild country, knowing the roads well, and he was kind and attentive to us and our horse.  The stages are long and hilly, and we are often obliged to go many miles round the mountains to make our way from one place to another.  The road to Pales is over the moors; we scarcely saw a house for miles, except here and there a little cot, on a plot of ground obtained as a grant to encourage industry.  These little dwellings were generally surrounded by a few acres of well-cultivated land enclosed from the moor.  It is much to be regretted that the plan of cottage culture is not more generally promoted; wherever I see it practised I view it with pleasure, as tending to increase the comforts of the poor.

On the 19th they attended the Half-year’s Meeting at Swansea.  A Committee of the Yearly Meeting was present.  Elizabeth Dudley was also there, with a certificate for religious service; and she and John and Martha Yeardley, finding that the errand on which they were come was the same, resolved to join company and travel together through South and North Wales.  They were accompanied throughout the journey by Robert and Jane Eaton of Bryn-y-Mor.