Written of Whitefield as he began to preach in the fields (quoted in the Divine Dramatist):

Anglican Weekly Miscellany. On May 5 [1739], the paper reported the ominous news of an “extraordinary Itinerant, who lately made a Progress into the Western Parts of England, and some parts of Wales, where, from Tomb-stones, and Market crosses, on Commons and mountains, he preached to vast numbers of ignorant People, and, since his Return, in a wide Place near a Building which would suit him better. This is a method quite as new with us, as it is irregular and illegal.”

I wonder if they understood the irony:

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Matt5.1