The Cambuslang Wark
On the other hand, Meek is rather distrustful of any suggestion of ‘enthusiasm’ in religion. He realises he is on contentious territory so he affects to tell the whole story of the "Cambuslang Wark" (Cambuslang Work) of 1742 with due dispassion. At the top of the gorge, near the kirk, is a ‘natural amphitheatre on the green side of the ravine’ where the Methodist preacher George Whitefield came to preach in the open. This was part of the Great Awakening, or Revival, affecting the whole of the UK and stretching to the colonies in North America.
As Dr Meek's successor (and son-in-law) Dr Robertson describes it in the Second Statistical Account. It occurred from the 15th of February until the 15th of August 1742 under the ministry of the Rev Mr Mcculloch ‘when in an encampment of tents on the hillside, Whitefield, at the head of a band of clergy, held day after day a festival, which might be called awful, but scarcely solemn, among a multitude calculated by contemporary writers, to amount to 30,000 people.’ Dr Robertson had inherited his father-in-law’s suspicion of ‘enthusiasm’. A centenary event was held on the 14th of August 1842 attracting from 10,000 to 20,000 participants.
Read more about this topic: History Of Cambuslang