Around the city - thoughts on Exeter’s Past 1

Rougemont Castle by Rev’d Paul Collings

Psalm 18:2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

There stands the castle of red stone,

On Isca’s mound, whilst years have flown;

If it could speak, what would it say

To those who pass it’s walls today?

What history would it now tell,

What tragedies, what joys befell

The passing crowds through many years;

I wonder, would its walls shed tears.

Wars, disputes and troubles rife,

With battles, fears and human strife

Have all played out upon it’s stage,

From distant years  down to this age.

And yet  from those historic walls

John Wesley preached, to crowd in awe,

Of happiness when sins erased, 

Forgiveness and new life is raised.

Would, Lord, that I today could share

Such gospel truth and show your care,

For those in need of lasting grace,

That they in truth would see your face. 

“From church I went to the (Rougemont) castle, where were gathered together (as some imagined) half the grown persons in the city. It was an awful sight. So vast a congregation in that solemn amphitheater! And all silent and still while I explained at large and enforced that glorious truth, “Happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” [see Ps. 31:1]” John Wesley’s Journal on visiting Exeter