as possible in less populous places also.[979] In London there was little to complain of.  Although Puritan opinion had been unfavourable to daily services—­Baxter having gone so far as to say, that ’it must needs be a sinful impediment against other duties to say common prayer twice a day’[980]—­the old feeling as to the propriety of daily worship was by no means so thoroughly impaired as it soon came to be.  Conscientious Church people in towns would generally have acknowledged that it was a duty, wherever there was no real impediment.  Paterson’s account of the London churches shows that, in 1714, a large proportion of them were open morning and evening for common prayer.  He notes, however, with an expression of great regret, that the number of worshippers was visibly falling off, and that in some cases evening service was being wholly discontinued in consequence of the paucity of attendance.[981] In the popular writings of Queen Anne’s time constant allusion may be found to the early six-o’clock matins.  It must be acknowledged, however, that the daily services were sometimes attended for other purposes than those of devotion.  Steele, in a paper in the ’Guardian,’[982] in which he highly commends the practice of daily morning prayers, says that ’going to six-o’clock service, upon admonition of the morning bell, he found when he got there many poor souls who had really come to pray.  But presently, after the confession, in came pretty young ladies in mobs, popping in here and there about the church, clattering the pew doors behind them, and squatting into whispers behind their fans.’  Before long ’there was a great deal of good company come in.’  A few did, indeed, seem to take pleasure in the worship; but many seemed to make it a task rather than a voluntary act, and some employed themselves only in gossip or flirtation.  He remarks, towards the close of the paper, that later hours were becoming more in vogue than the early service.

The duty of daily public worship was, as might be expected, chiefly insisted upon by the High Churchmen of the period.  Thus we find Robert Nelson urging it.  There were very few men of business, he said, who might not ’certainly so contrive their affairs as frequently to dedicate half an hour in four-and-twenty to the public service of God.’[983] Dodwell’s biographer speaks of the great attention he paid to the daily prayers of the Church.[984] Bull introduced at Brecknock daily prayers, instead of their only being on Wednesdays and Fridays; and at Carmarthen morning and evening daily prayers, whereas there had been only morning prayers before.  In 1712 these were kept up and well frequented.[985] Archbishop Sharp admonished his town clergy to maintain them regularly.[986] Whiston, while he was yet incumbent of Lowestoft, used at daily matins and vespers an abridgment of the prayers approved by Bishop Lloyd.[987] The custom was, however, by no means confined to High Churchmen.  Thoresby, while he was yet more than