The Annals of the Parish | Page 5

was as if I was passing away, and to be no more-- verily, it was the
reward of my ministry--a faithful account of which, year by year, I now
sit down, in the evening of my days, to make up, to the end that I may
bear witness to the work of a beneficent Providence, even in the narrow
sphere of my parish, and the concerns of that flock of which it was His
most gracious pleasure to make me the unworthy shepherd.
CHAPTER I
YEAR 1760

The Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and sixty, was
remarkable for three things in the parish of Dalmailing.--First and
foremost, there was my placing; then the coming of Mrs Malcolm with
her five children to settle among us; and next, my marriage upon my
own cousin, Miss Betty Lanshaw, by which the account of this year
naturally divides itself into three heads or portions.
First, of the placing.--It was a great affair; for I was put in by the patron,
and the people knew nothing whatsoever of me, and their hearts were
stirred into strife on the occasion, and they did all that lay within the
compass of their power to keep me out, insomuch, that there was
obliged to be a guard of soldiers to protect the presbytery; and it was a
thing that made my heart grieve when I heard the drum beating and the
fife playing as we were going to the kirk. The people were really mad
and vicious, and flung dirt upon us as we passed, and reviled us all, and
held out the finger of scorn at me; but I endured it with a resigned spirit,
compassionating their wilfulness and blindness. Poor old Mr Kilfuddy
of the Braehill got such a clash of glar on the side of his face, that his
eye was almost extinguished.
When we got to the kirk door, it was found to be nailed up, so as by no
possibility to be opened. The sergeant of the soldiers wanted to break it,

but I was afraid that the heritors would grudge and complain of the
expense of a new door, and I supplicated him to let it be as it was: we
were, therefore, obligated to go in by a window, and the crowd
followed us in the most unreverent manner, making the Lord's house
like an inn on a fair day, with their grievous yellyhooing. During the
time of the psalm and the sermon, they behaved themselves better, but
when the induction came on, their clamour was dreadful; and Thomas
Thorl, the weaver, a pious zealot in that time, he got up and protested,
and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door
into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief
and a robber." And I thought I would have a hard and sore time of it
with such an outstrapolous people. Mr Given, that was then the
minister of Lugton, was a jocose man, and would have his joke even at
a solemnity. When the laying of the hands upon me was adoing, he
could not get near enough to put on his, but he stretched out his staff
and touched my head, and said, to the great diversion of the rest, "This
will do well enough, timber to timber;" but it was an unfriendly saying
of Mr Given, considering the time and the place, and the temper of my
people.
After the ceremony, we then got out at the window, and it was a heavy
day to me; but we went to the manse, and there we had an excellent
dinner, which Mrs Watts of the new inns of Irville {2} prepared at my
request, and sent her chaise-driver to serve, for he was likewise her
waiter, she having then but one chaise, and that no often called for.
But, although my people received me in this unruly manner, I was
resolved to cultivate civility among them, and therefore, the very next
morning I began a round of visitations; but, oh! it was a steep brae that
I had to climb, and it needed a stout heart. For I found the doors in
some places barred against me; in others, the bairns, when they saw me
coming, ran crying to their mothers, "Here's the feckless Mess-John!"
and then, when I went into the houses, their parents wouldna ask me to
sit down, but with a scornful way, said, "Honest man, what's your
pleasure here?" Nevertheless, I walked about from door to door like a
dejected beggar, till I got the almous deed of a civil reception--and who
would have thought it?-- from no less a person than the same Thomas

Thorl that was so bitter against me