Part 15 (2/2)

The Michaelmas Market was shorn of its glory and its picturesque aspect by the transference of the cattle tryst to Falkirk in 1770. There was occasional bloodshed at these gatherings, the peace being with difficulty preserved by the authority of the Lord of Drummond, who collected the customs of the fairs of Crieff and Foulis. These customs amounted, in 1734, to nearly 600 Scots. The Lochaber axes carried by the guardians of the peace may still be seen in the armoury at Drummond Castle. This last shred of baronial supervision--the ghost of the ancient Stewards.h.i.+p--disappeared in 1831. But perhaps the most interesting memorial of the Crieff Michaelmas Tryst is a poem written by one of the Highland drovers, whose appearance moved the compa.s.sion of Macky, the tourist of 1723. His name is Robert Doun or Donn. He had left his heart behind him in his native glen, as people will do, drovers as well as others. There is a ring of genuine poetry in the verses in which he expresses his love-sickness--his desire to go upon the wings of the wind as it whistles northward, northward:--

”Easy is my bed--it is easy, But it is not to sleep that I incline.

The wind whistles northwards, northwards, And my thoughts move with it.

More pleasant were it to be with thee In the little glen of calves Than to be counting of droves In the enclosures of Crieff.”

Mention of the name of Robert Doun brings up recollections of another literary name--that of David Mallet, or Malloch, who is said to have been born in Crieff. He has the honour of being mentioned several times in Boswell's _Life of Johnson_. The latter had no great respect for him, though, perhaps, he did not mean all he said in his famous criticism of Lord Bolingbroke's philosophy, which Mallet published after the author's death. ”Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward--a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had no resolution to fire it off himself, but left half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotchman to fire it off after his death.”

It has been disputed whether Mallet, or Thomson of the ”Seasons,” wrote ”Rule Britannia.” I do not care to enter into it. After all, David Mallet was a lesser light in the literary firmament. It more concerns the literary honour of Crieff that John Cunningham, the historian of the Church of Scotland, did his life-work here; and that in the year 1793, Rachel Barlas, daughter of the Secession minister of Crieff, went to Comrie as wife of Samuel Gilfillan and became the mother of George Gilfillan, late of Dundee, a man of fine gifts and of glowing imagination--somewhat loosely controlled, who wrote much--too much; but unfortunately left nothing worthy of the reputation he had among his intimates.

[1] Vicars of Crieff at an earlier date were Bricius, who was a witness to the reconciliation of Earl Robert and Innocent, Abbot of Inchaffray, in the Church of Strogeth. The entry is--”_Bricio persona de Creffe, et Malisio filio ejus_,” showing that celibacy was not the universal clerical custom; and Nicholas, who in one charter, of date 1258, is called ”_Camerario Comitis_” (Malise); and in another, ”_Meo filio_,”

by ”_Malisius filius Gilberti quondam Comitis de Stratherne_.” Hence he was a cousin of the Malise to whom he was ”camerarius.”

APPENDIX

[Transcriber's notes:

Several entries in this appendix refer to page numbers elsewhere in this book. Those page numbers are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99. In the HTML version of this book, page numbers are placed in the left margin.

In a number of the date ranges below, blank s.p.a.ces represented missing dates. In this etext, to preserve formatting, missing dates are represented with question marks.]

ROLL OF MINISTERS WITHIN THE PRESBYTERY OF AUCHTERARDER FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE PRESENT TIME

By Rev. GEORGE D. MACNAUGHTAN, B.D., Ardoch

ARDOCH

(_Chapel opened for Wors.h.i.+p, 25th March, 1781._)

1781-1788--DAVID SIMPSON, tr. to Tulliallan.

1788-1792--GEORGE ERSKINE, tr. to Monzie.

1793-1802--GBORGE LOGAN, tr. to Eastwood.

1803-1812--LAURENCE MILLER, tr. to Abdie.

1813-1822--THOMAS YOUNG, tr. to Gask.

1823-1833--JOHN MACFARLANE, tr. to Collessie. Mr Macfarlane afterwards joined the Free Church; received degree of D.D., and died Free Church minister at Dalkeith in 1875.

1833-1839--ALEX. OSWALD LAIRD, tr. to Abbotshall. Afterwards joined Free Church; became minister of St. John's, Dundee; died in Crieff, 1891.

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