Mrs. Rowe's Devout Exercises of the Heart, in Meditation and Soliloquoy, Prayer and Praise; turned into blank verse, by the Rev. Edward Smyth.

Bookseller Notes

Rowe's exercises were first published in 1738, and frequently reprinted thereafter (including a second and third edition in the same year as the first). The date of this rare re-writing (apparently the only edition) is from ESTC, which gives holdings in the BL, St Andrews, and Union Theological Seminary only. Smyth's own dates are given there as 'fl. 1776-1818', but he seems to be identifiable with the Methodist preacher (1749-1825), a nephew of the Archbishop of Dublin, formerly curate of Ballyculter in Co. Down (but expelled for his Methodism). Smyth knew John Wesley, who referred to him in his letters as 'an alarming preacher' and 'indeed, a son of thunder' - it is not entirely surprising that Smyth was also ejected from his later Methodist post.