YEAR 1786
FROM the day of my settlement, I had resolved, in order to win the
affections of my people, and to promote unison among the heritors, to be
of as little expense to the parish as possible; but by this time the
manse had fallen into a sore state of decay—the doors were wormed on the
hinges—the casements of the windows chattered all the winter, like the
teeth of a person perishing with cold, so that we had no comfort in the
house; by which, at the urgent instigations of Mrs. Balwhidder, I was
obligated to represent our situation to the session. I would rather,
having so much saved money in the bank, paid the needful repairs myself,
than have done this, but she said it would be a rank injustice to our own
family; and her father, Mr. Kibbock, who was very long-headed, with more
than a common man’s portion of understanding, pointed out to me, that, as
my life was but in my lip, it would be a wrong thing towards whomsoever
was ordained to be my successor, to use the heritors to the custom of the
minister paying for the reparations of the manse, as it might happen he
might not be so well able to afford it as me. So in a manner, by their
persuasion, and the constraint of the justice of the case, I made a
report of the infirmities both of doors and windows, as well as of the
rotten state of the floors, which were constantly in want of cobbling.
Over and above all, I told them of the sarking of the roof, which was as
frush as a puddock-stool; insomuch, that in every blast some of the pins
lost their grip, and the slates came hurling off.
The heritors were accordingly convened, and, after some deliberation,
they proposed that the house should be seen to, and whitewashed and
painted; and I thought this might do, for I saw they were terrified at
the expense of a thorough repair; but when I went home and repeated to
Mrs. Balwhidder what had been said at the meeting, and my thankfulness at
getting the heritors’ consent to do so much, she was excessively angry,
and told me, that all the painting and whitewashing in the world would
avail nothing, for that the house was as a sepulchre full of rottenness;
and she sent for Mr. Kibbock, her father, to confer with him on the way
of getting the matter put to rights.
Mr. Kibbock came, and hearing of what had passed, pondered for some time,
and then said, “All was very right! the minister (meaning me) has just to
get tradesmen to look at the house, and write out their opinion of what
it needs. There will be plaster to mend; so, before painting, he will
get a plasterer. There will be a slater wanted; he has just to get a
slater’s estimate, and a wright’s, and so forth, and when all is done, he
will lay them before the session and the heritors, who, no doubt, will
direct the reparations to go forward.”
[Picture: The Roadman]
This was very pawkie, counselling, of Mr. Kibbock, and I did not see
through it at the time, but did as he recommended, and took all the
different estimates, when they came in, to the session. The elders
commended my prudence exceedingly for so doing, before going to work; and
one of them asked me what the amount of the whole would be, but I had not
cast it up. Some of the heritors thought that a hundred pounds would be
sufficient for the outlay; but judge of our consternation, when, in
counting up all the sums of the different estimates together, we found
them well on towards a thousand pounds. “Better big a new house at once,
than do this!” cried all the elders, by which I then perceived the
draughtiness of Mr. Kibbock’s advice. Accordingly, another meeting of
the heritors was summoned, and after a great deal of controversy, it was
agreed that a new manse should be erected; and, shortly after, we
contracted with Thomas Trowel, the mason to build one for six hundred
pounds, with all the requisite appurtenances, by which a clear gain was
saved to the parish, by the foresight of Mr. Kibbock, to the amount of
nearly four hundred pounds. But the heritors did not mean to have
allowed the sort of repair that his plan comprehended. He was, however,
a far forecasting man; the like of him for natural parts not being in our
country side; and nobody could get the whip-hand of him, either in a
bargain or an improvement, when he once was sensible of the advantage.
He was, indeed, a blessing to the shire, both by his example as a farmer,
and by his sound and discreet advice in the contentions of his
neighbours, being a man, as was a saying among the commonality, “wiser
than the law and the fifteen Lords of Edinburgh.”
The building of the new manse occasioned a heavy cess on the heritors,
which made them overly ready to pick holes in the coats of me and the
elders; so that, out of my forbearance and delicacy in time past, grew a
lordliness on their part, that was an ill return for the years that I had
endured no little inconveniency for their sake. It was not in my heart
or principles to harm the hair of a dog; but when I discerned the
austerity with which they were disposed to treat their minister, I
bethought me that, for the preservation of what was due to the
establishment and the upholding of the decent administration of religion,
I ought to set my face against the sordid intolerance by which they were
actuated. This notion I weighed well before divulging it to any person;
but when I had assured myself as to the rectitude thereof, I rode over
one day to Mr. Kibbock’s, and broke my mind to him about claiming out of
the teinds an augmentation of my stipend, not because I needed it, but in
case, after me, some bare and hungry gorbie of the Lord should be sent
upon the parish, in no such condition to plea with the heritors as I was.
Mr. Kibbock highly approved of my intent; and by his help, after much
tribulation, I got an augmentation both in glebe and income; and to mark
my reason for what I did, I took upon me to keep and clothe the wives and
orphans of the parish, who lost their breadwinners in the American war.
But for all that, the heritors spoke of me as an avaricious Jew, and made
the hard-won fruits of Mrs. Balwhidder’s great thrift and good management
a matter of reproach against me. Few of them would come to the church,
but stayed away, to the detriment of their own souls hereafter, in order,
as they thought, to punish me; so that, in the course of this year, there
was a visible decay of the sense of religion among the better orders of
the parish, and, as will be seen in the sequel, their evil example
infected the minds of many of the rising generation.
It was in this year that Mr. Cayenne bought the mailing of the Wheatrigs,
but did not begin to build his house till the following spring; for being
ill to please with a plan, he fell out with the builders, and on one
occasion got into such a passion with Mr. Trowel, the mason, that he
struck him a blow on the face, for which he was obligated to make
atonement. It was thought the matter would have been carried before the
Lords; but, by the mediation of Mr. Kibbock, with my helping hand, a
reconciliation was brought about, Mr. Cayenne indemnifying the mason with
a sum of money to say no more anent it; after which, he employed him to
build his house, a thing that no man could have thought possible, who
reflected on the enmity between them.