YEAR 1765
AS there was little in the last year that concerned the parish, but only
myself, so in this the like fortune continued; and saving a rise in the
price of barley, occasioned, as was thought, by the establishment of a
house for brewing whisky in a neighbouring parish, it could not be said
that my people were exposed to the mutations and influences of the stars,
which ruled in the seasons of Ann. Dom. 1765. In the winter there was a
dearth of fuel, such as has not been since; for when the spring loosened
the bonds of the ice, three new coal-heughs were shanked in the Douray
moor, and ever since there has been a great plenty of that necessary
article. Truly, it is very wonderful to see how things come round. When
the talk was about the shanking of their heughs, and a paper to get folk
to take shares in them, was carried through the circumjacent parishes, it
was thought a gowk’s errand; but no sooner was the coal reached, but up
sprung such a traffic, that it was a godsend to the parish, and the
opening of a trade and commerce, that has, to use an old byword, brought
gold in gowpins amang us. From that time my stipend has been on the
regular increase, and therefore I think that the incoming of the heritors
must have been in like manner augmented.
Soon after this, the time was drawing near for my second marriage. I had
placed my affections, with due consideration, on Miss Lizy Kibbock, the
well brought-up daughter of Mr. Joseph Kibbock of the Gorbyholm, who was
the first that made a speculation in the farming way in Ayrshire, and
whose cheese were of such an excellent quality, that they have, under the
name of Delap-cheese, spread far and wide over the civilized world. Miss
Lizy and me were married on the 29th day of April, with some
inconvenience to both sides, on account of the dread that we had of being
married in May; for it is said—
“Of the marriages in May,
The bairns die of a decay.”
However, married we were, and we hired the Irville chaise, and with Miss
Jenny her sister, and Becky Cairns her niece, who sat on a portmanty at
our feet, we went on a pleasure jaunt to Glasgow, where we bought a
miracle of useful things for the manse, that neither the first Mrs.
Balwhidder nor me ever thought of; but the second Mrs. Balwhidder that
was, had a geni for management, and it was extraordinary what she could
go through. Well may I speak of her with commendations; for she was the
bee that made my honey, although at first things did not go so clear with
us. For she found the manse rookit and herrit, and there was such a
supply of plenishing of all sort wanted, that I thought myself ruined and
undone by her care and industry. There was such a buying of wool to make
blankets, with a booming of the meikle wheel to spin the same, and such
birring of the little wheel for sheets and napery, that the manse was for
many a day like an organ kist. Then we had milk cows, and the calves to
bring up, and a kirning of butter, and a making of cheese; in short, I
was almost by myself with the jangle and din, which prevented me from
writing a book as I had proposed, and I for a time thought of the
peaceful and kindly nature of the first Mrs. Balwhidder with a sigh; but
the outcoming was soon manifest. The second Mrs. Balwhidder sent her
butter on the market-days to Irville, and her cheese from time to time to
Glasgow, to Mrs. Firlot, that kept the huxtry in the Saltmarket; and they
were both so well made, that our dairy was just a coining of money,
insomuch that, after the first year, we had the whole tot of my stipend
to put untouched into the bank.
But I must say, that although we were thus making siller like sclate
stones, I was not satisfied in my own mind that I had got the manse
merely to be a factory of butter and cheese, and to breed up veal calves
for the slaughter; so I spoke to the second Mrs. Balwhidder, and pointed
out to her what I thought the error of our way; but she had been so
ingrained with the profitable management of cows and grumphies in her
father’s house, that she could not desist, at the which I was greatly
grieved. By-and-by, however, I began to discern that there was something
as good in her example, as the giving of alms to the poor folk; for all
the wives of the parish were stirred up by it into a wonderful thrift,
and nothing was heard of in every house, but of quiltings and wabs to
weave; insomuch that, before many years came round, there was not a
better stocked parish, with blankets and napery, than mine was, within
the bounds of Scotland.
It was about the Michaelmas of this year that Mrs. Malcolm opened her
shop, which she did chiefly on the advice of Mrs. Balwhidder, who said it
was far better to allow a little profit on the different haberdasheries
that might be wanted, than to send to the neighbouring towns an end’s
errand on purpose for them, none of the lasses that were so sent ever
thinking of making less than a day’s play on every such occasion. In a
word, it is not to be told how the second Mrs. Balwhidder, my wife,
showed the value of flying time, even to the concerns of this world, and
was the mean of giving a life and energy to the housewifery of the
parish, that has made many a one beek his shins in comfort, that would
otherwise have had but a cold coal to blow at. Indeed, Mr. Kibbock, her
father, was a man beyond the common, and had an insight of things, by
which he was enabled to draw profit and advantage, where others could
only see risk and detriment. He planted mounts of fir-trees on the bleak
and barren tops of the hills of his farm, the which everybody, and I
among the rest, considered as a thrashing of the water and raising of
bells. But as his rack ran his trees grew, and the plantations supplied
him with stabs to make _stake and rice_ between his fields, which soon
gave them a trig and orderly appearance, such as had never before been
seen in the west country; and his example has, in this matter, been so
followed, that I have heard travellers say, who have been in foreign
countries, that the shire of Ayr, for its bonny round green plantings on
the tops of the hills, is above comparison either with Italy or
Switzerland, where the hills are, as it were, in a state of nature.
Upon the whole, this was a busy year in the parish, and the seeds of many
great improvements were laid. The king’s road, the which then ran
through the Vennel, was mended; but it was not till some years after, as
I shall record by-and-by, that the trust-road, as it was called, was
made, the which had the effect of turning the town inside out.
Before I conclude, it is proper to mention that the kirk-bell, which had
to this time, from time immemorial, hung on an ash-tree, was one stormy
night cast down by the breaking of the branch, which was the cause of the
heritors agreeing to build the steeple. The clock was a mortification to
the parish from the Lady Breadland, when she died some years after.